Jeremiah 7:1-34

This is the message that YAHWEH gave to Jeremiah. “Go stand at the gate of YAHWEH’s house and proclaim this word: ‘Hear this word from YAHWEH, all you people of Judah who come through these gates to worship him. Here’s what the God of Israel, YAHWEH, Commander of Angel Armies, says: Change your ways and start living right, and I will let you dwell in this land. Don’t fool yourselves by trusting the deceptive words, saying: “The temple of YAHWEH is here, the temple of YAHWEH is here, the temple of YAHWEH is here, so we are safe.” For if you truly change your ways and start living right, if you deal justly with one another, if you don’t mistreat the foreigner, the orphan, and the widow, if you don’t shed innocent blood in this land, if you stop your self-destructive ways of chasing after other gods, then I will let you dwell in this place, here in the land that I gave to your forefathers for all time. “ ‘Look, you keep putting your trust in worthless lies. You think you can steal and murder, commit adultery and perjury, burn incense to Baal, and go after other gods that you have not known, and then come and stand in my presence? You think you can come into this house called by my name and say, “We are safe!”—only to keep doing all these disgusting things? Do you really consider this house that bears my name to be a robbers’ den? I know everything that you have been doing! I, YAHWEH, have spoken. “ ‘Just go to the place where my sanctuary once stood in Shiloh, where I first made a dwelling place for my name. And when you see its rubble, understand what I did in response to the wickedness of the people of Israel. Even while you were doing these things, I, YAHWEH, spoke to you over and over and called to you, but you would neither listen nor answer me. So I will do to this temple what I did before in Shiloh. You have put your trust in this temple, which bears my name, but I will destroy this very sanctuary that I gave to you and your ancestors. And I will cast you away from my presence as I cast away all your brothers, all the descendants of Ephraim.’ ” “Jeremiah, do not pray for these people, do not lift up a cry or a prayer for them, and do not intercede with me, for I will not hear you. Don’t you see what they’re doing in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? The children gather wood, the fathers kindle the fire, and the wives knead dough to make ritual cakes for the goddess Ishtar, known as the Queen of Heaven. They also pour out drink offerings to other gods to defy me. Yet, I am not the one they are hurting, says YAHWEH; they are hurting themselves to their own shame. Therefore, listen to the words of the Lord YAHWEH: ‘My anger and my wrath will be poured out in this place, on the people and the animals, on the trees and on the crops; my anger will burn as a fire that no one can put out.’ “This is what YAHWEH, God of Israel, Commander of Angel Armies says: ‘You might as well eat all your burnt offerings yourselves. For when I led your ancestors out of Egypt, I did not command them to bring me burnt offerings and sacrifices. Rather, I commanded them: “Listen to my voice, and I will be your God, and you will be my people. Live your lives according to what I command you that all may go well with you.” But they did not listen or obey. They followed their own stubborn plans of their evil hearts. They disrespected me and went backward, not forward. From the day that I led your ancestors out of Egypt until now, I have persistently sent you my servants the prophets, but my people did not listen to me or obey; rather, they stubbornly did more evil than their fathers.’ “And when you tell them all this, they will not hear you. You will call to them, but they won’t respond to you. Then you will say to them: ‘You are the nation that refused to listen to the voice of your God, YAHWEH. Truth has perished and disappeared from their lips, for they did not accept YAHWEH’s correction.’ ” “People of Jerusalem, cut off your long hair and throw it away, and raise your song of mourning on the hilltops, for YAHWEH has rejected and abandoned the generation of his fury. For YAHWEH says: ‘The people of Judah have done what is evil before my eyes. They have defiled the house that bears my name by placing their detestable idols inside it. And in the Hinnom Valley, they have built shrines of Topheth to sacrifice their sons and daughters in the fire—something I never commanded, nor did it ever enter my thoughts. Therefore, the time is coming, says YAHWEH, when it will not be known as Topheth or the Hinnom Valley but the Valley of Slaughter, for people will bury their dead in Topheth until no room is left. Their corpses will be food for the birds and wild animals with no one to frighten them away. I will silence the sounds of mirth and gladness from the cities of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem, the happy sounds of wedding feasts—the voice of the bride and bridegroom, for the land will become a wasteland.’ ”