Jeremiah 7:1-34 NIV
False Religion Worthless
1This is
the Word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord:
2“Stand
at the gate of the Lord’s house and
there proclaim this message:
“ ‘Hear the Word of the Lord, all you people of Judah who
come through these gates to worship the Lord.
3This is
what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel,
says:
“Reform your ways and your
actions, and I will let you live in this place. 4Do not
trust in deceptive words and say, “This is the Temple of the Lord, the Temple of the Lord, The temple of the Lord!” 5If you
really change your ways and your actions and deal with each other justly, 6if you
do not oppress the foreigner, the fatherless or the widow and do not shed
innocent blood in this place, and if you do not follow other gods to your own
harm, 7then I
will let you live in this place, in the land I gave your ancestors for ever and
ever. 8But
look, you are trusting in deceptive words that are worthless.
9“ ‘Will
you steal and murder, commit adultery and perjury,a burn incense to Baal and follow other gods
you have not known, 10and
then come and stand before Me in this house, which bears My Name, and say, “We
are safe”—safe to do all these detestable things?
11 Has this House, which bears My Name, become a
den of robbers to you? But I have been watching!
declares the Lord.
12“ ‘Go
now to the place in Shiloh where I first made a Dwelling for My Name, and see
what I did to it because of the wickedness of My people Israel. 13While
you were doing all these things, declares the Lord, I spoke to
you again and again, but you did not listen; I called you, but you did not
answer. 14Therefore,
what I did to Shiloh I will now do to the house that bears My Name, the Temple
you trust in, the place I gave to you and your ancestors. 15I will
thrust you from My presence, just as I did all your fellow Israelites, the
people of Ephraim.’
16“So do
not pray for this people nor offer any plea or petition for them; do not plead
with Me, for I will not listen to you. 17Do you
not see what they are doing in the towns of Judah and in the streets of
Jerusalem?
18 The
children gather wood, the fathers light the fire, and the women knead the dough
and make cakes to offer to the Queen
of Heaven. They pour out drink offerings to other gods to arouse My Anger. 19But am
I the One they are provoking? declares the Lord. Are they
not rather harming themselves, to their own shame?
20“ ‘Therefore
this is what the Sovereign Lord says: My Anger and My Wrath will be
poured out on this place—on man and beast, on the trees of the field and on the
crops of your land—and it will burn and not be quenched.
21“ ‘This
is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Go
ahead, add your burnt offerings to your other sacrifices and eat the meat
yourselves! 22For
when I brought your ancestors out of Egypt and spoke to them, I did not just
give them commands about burnt offerings and sacrifices, 23but I
gave them this command: Obey Me, and I will be your God and you will be My
people. Walk in obedience to all I command you, that it may go well with you. 24But
they did not listen or pay attention; instead, they followed the stubborn
inclinations of their evil hearts. They went backward and not forward. 25From
the time your ancestors left Egypt until now, day after day, again and again I
sent you My servants the prophets. 26But
they did not listen to Me or pay attention. They were stiff-necked and did more
evil than their ancestors.’
27“When
you tell them all this, they will not listen to you; when you call to them,
they will not answer. 28Therefore
say to them, ‘This is the nation that has not obeyed the Lord its God or responded to correction.
Truth has perished; it has vanished from their lips.
29“ ‘Cut
off your hair and throw it away; take up a lament on the barren heights, for
the Lord has rejected and abandoned this
generation that is under His Wrath.
The Valley of Slaughter
30“ ‘The
people of Judah have done evil in My Eyes, declares the Lord. They have set up their detestable
idols in the House that bears My Name and have defiled it. 31They
have built the high places of Topheth in the Valley of Ben Hinnom to burn their
sons and daughters in the fire—something I did not command, nor did it enter My
Mind. 32So
beware, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when
people will no longer call it Topheth or the Valley of Ben Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter, for they
will bury the dead in Topheth until there is no more room. 33Then
the carcasses of this people will become food for the birds and the wild
animals, and there will be no one to frighten them away. 34I will
bring an end to the sounds of joy and gladness and to the voices of bride and
bridegroom in the towns of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem, for the land
will become desolate.
Here begins another
section of prophecy, ending with the ninth chapter. It opens with exhorting to reformation
of life, without which the confidence of the Jews in their Temple is declared
vain, Jeremiah 7:1-11.
God bids them to take warning from the fate of their brethren the Israelites,
who had been carried away captive on account of their sins without any regard
to that sacred place, Shiloh, where the Ark of God once resided, Jeremiah 7:12-15.
The iniquities of
Judah are so great in the sight of God that the prophet is commanded not to
intercede for the people, Jeremiah 7:16;
the more especially as they persisted in provoking God by their idolatrous
practices, Jeremiah 7:17-20.
The Jewish sacrifices, if not accompanied with obedience to the moral law, are
of no avail, Jeremiah 7:21-24.
Notwithstanding the
numerous messages of mercy from the time of the exodus, the people revolted
more and more; and have added to their other sins this horrible evil, the
setting up of their abominations in the Temple of Jehovah; or, in other words,
they have encumbered the Mosaic economy, which shadowed forth the glorious
truths of Christianity, with a heterogeneous admixture of the idolatrous,
impure, and cruel rites of heathenism; consequently, the whole land shall be
utterly desolated, Jeremiah 7:25-34.
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