Jeremiah 7 - Christian Standard Bible (CSB)

False Trust in the Temple

7 This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: ² “Stand in the gate of the house of the Lord^(A) and there call out this word: ‘Hear the word of the Lord, all you people of Judah who enter through these gates to worship the Lord.

³ “‘This is what the Lord of Armies, the God of Israel, says: Correct your ways and your actions,^(B) and I will allow you to live in this place. ⁴ Do not trust deceitful words, chanting, “This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord.” ⁵ Instead, if you really correct your ways and your actions, if you act justly toward one another,^{[a](C) 6} if you no longer oppress the resident alien, the fatherless, and the widow^(D) and no longer shed innocent blood in this place or follow other gods, bringing harm on yourselves, ⁷ I will allow you to live in this place, the land I gave to your ancestors^(E) long ago and forever. ⁸ But look, you keep trusting in deceitful words that cannot help.

⁹ “‘Do you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, burn incense to Baal, and follow other gods that you have not known?^{(F) 10} Then do you come and stand before me in this house^(G) that bears my name and say, “We are rescued, so we can continue doing all these detestable acts”? ¹¹ Has this house, which bears my name, become a den of robbers^(H) in your view? Yes, I too have seen it.^(I)

This is the Lord’s declaration.

Shiloh as a Warning

¹² “‘But return to my place that was at Shiloh, where I made my name dwell at first.^(J) See what I did to it because of the evil of my people Israel. ¹³ Now, because you have done all these things—this is the Lord’s declaration—and because I have spoken to you time and time again^[b] but you wouldn’t listen,^(K) and I have called to you, but you wouldn’t answer,^{(L) 14} what I did to Shiloh I will do to the house that bears my name,^(M) the house in which you trust, the place that I gave you and your ancestors. ¹⁵ I will banish you from my presence, just as I banished all of your brothers, all the descendants of Ephraim.’^(N)

Do Not Pray for Judah

¹⁶ “As for you, do not pray for these people.^(O) Do not offer a cry or a prayer on their behalf, and do not beg me,^(P) for I will not listen to you.^{(Q) 17} Don’t you see how they behave in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? ¹⁸ The sons gather wood, the fathers light the fire, and the women knead dough to make cakes for the queen of heaven,^[c](R) and they pour out drink offerings to other gods so that they provoke me to anger. ¹⁹ But are they really provoking me?” ^(S) This is the Lord’s declaration. “Isn’t it they themselves being provoked to disgrace?”

²⁰ Therefore, this is what the Lord God says: “Look, my anger—my burning wrath—is about to be poured out on this place,^(T) on people and animals, on the tree of the field, and on the produce of the land. My wrath will burn and not be quenched.”^(U)

Obedience over Sacrifice

²¹ This is what the Lord of Armies, the God of Israel, says: “Add your burnt offerings to your other sacrifices, and eat the meat yourselves,^{(V) 22} for when I brought your ancestors out of the land of Egypt, I did not speak with them^(W) or command them concerning burnt offering and sacrifice. ²³ However, I did give them this command: ‘Obey me, and then I will be your God, and you will be my people. Follow every way I command you so that it may go well with you.’^{(X) 24} Yet they didn’t listen or pay attention^(Y) but followed their own advice and their own stubborn, evil heart. They went backward and not forward.^{(Z) 25} Since the day your ancestors came out of the land of Egypt until today, I have sent all my servants the prophets^(AA) to you time and time again.^{[d](AB) 26} However, my people wouldn’t listen to me or pay attention but became obstinate;^(AC) they did more evil than their ancestors.^(AD)

A Lament for Disobedient Judah

²⁷ “When you speak all these things to them, they will not listen to you. When you call to them, they will not answer you. ²⁸ Therefore, declare to them, ‘This is the nation that would not listen to the Lord their God and would not accept discipline. Truth^[e] has perished—it has disappeared from their mouths. ²⁹ Cut off the hair of your sacred vow^[f](AE) and throw it away. Raise up a dirge on the barren heights,^(AF) for the Lord has rejected and abandoned the generation under his wrath.’^(AG)

³⁰ “For the Judeans have done what is evil in my sight.” This is the Lord’s declaration. “They have set up their abhorrent things^(AH) in the house that bears my name in order to defile it.^{(AI) 31} They have built the high places of Topheth^[g](AJ) in Ben Hinnom Valley^[h](AK) in order to burn their sons and daughters in the fire,^(AL) a thing I did not command; I never entertained the thought.

³² “Therefore, look, the days are coming”^(AM)—the Lord’s declaration—“when this place will no longer be called Topheth and Ben Hinnom Valley, but Slaughter Valley.^(AN) Topheth will become a cemetery,^[i] because there will be no other burial place. ³³ The corpses of these people will become food for the birds of the sky and for the wild animals of the land, with no one to scare them away.^{(AO) 34} I will remove from the cities of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem the sound of joy and gladness and the voices of the groom and the bride,^(AP) for the land will become a desolate waste.^(AQ)

Footnotes

1. 7:5 Lit justly between a man and his neighbor
2. 7:13 Lit you rising early and speaking
3. 7:18 = a pagan goddess
4. 7:25 Lit you, each day rising early and sending
5. 7:28 Or Faithfulness
6. 7:29 Lit off your consecration
7. 7:31 Lit of the fireplace
8. 7:31 A valley south of Jerusalem
9. 7:32 Lit They will bury in Topheth

Cross references

1. 7:2 : Jr 26:2
2. 7:3 : Jr 4:18; 18:11; 26:13
3. 7:5 : Jr 22:3
4. 7:6 : Dt 19:10,13; 21:8–9; 2Kg 21:16; 24:4; Jr 22:3,17; 26:15; Mt 27:4
5. 7:7 : Gn 12:7; Jos 1:2; Jr 30:3
6. 7:9 : Ex 20:3–17; Lv 19:11–12; Dt 5:7–21; Ezk 18:5–9,14–18; 22:6–12; Hs 4:2
7. 7:10 : Jr 32:34
8. 7:11 : Is 56:7; Mt 21:13; Mk 11:17; Lk 19:46
9. 7:11 : Ps 33:13–15; Ezk 8:12; Am 9:1–4
10. 7:12 : Dt 12:11; 14:23; 16:6,11
11. 7:13 : Jr 7:25; 11:7; 25:3; 26:5; 29:19; 32:33; 35:14–15; 44:4
12. 7:13 : Pr 1:24; Is 65:12
13. 7:14 : Dt 12:5; 1Kg 9:7; Mk 13:2
14. 7:15 : Dt 29:28; 2Kg 17
15. 7:16 : Jr 11:14; 14:11–12; 15:1
16. 7:16 : Gn 23:8; Ru 1:16; Jr 27:18
17. 7:16 : Ex 32:11–13,20–34; Jr 14:11; 15:1
18. 7:18 : Jr 44:17–19,25
19. 7:19 : Jb 35:6
20. 7:20 : Jr 42:18; Lm 4:11
21. 7:20 : Nah 1:6
22. 7:21 : Dt 12:4–28; Ps 50:13; Hs 8:13
23. 7:22 : Hs 6:6
24. 7:23 : Dt 5:33
25. 7:24 : Ps 81:11
26. 7:24 : Jr 15:6
27. 7:25 : 2Kg 9:7; 17:13; Jr 26:5; 29:19; 35:15; 44:4; Ezk 38:17; Zch 1:6
28. 7:25 : 2Ch 36:15–16; Jr 25:4
29. 7:26 : Ex 32:9; Dt 9:6,13; 2Kg 17:14; Jr 17:23; 19:15
30. 7:26 : 1Kg 16:25; 2Kg 21:11
31. 7:29 : Nm 6:1–8
32. 7:29 : Jr 3:2,21
33. 7:29 : Is 2:6
34. 7:30 : Jr 4:1; 16:18; 32:34
35. 7:30 : 2Kg 23:24
36. 7:31 : 2Kg 23:10; Jr 19:6,11–14
37. 7:31 : Jos 15:8; Jr 19:5; 32:35
38. 7:31 : Lv 18:21; Dt 12:31; 2Kg 17:17,31; 2Ch 28:3; Jr 19:5; Ezk 16:21; 20:31; 23:25,37,47
39. 7:32 : Jr 16:14; 19:6; 23:5; 48:12; 49:2; 51:47,52
40. 7:32 : Jr 19:6
41. 7:33 : Dt 28:26; Ps 79:2; Jr 16:4; 19:7; 34:20; Ezk 29:5
42. 7:34 : Jr 16:9; 25:10; 33:11
43. 7:34 : Lv 26:31,33; Is 64:11; Jr 25:9,11,18; 27:17; 44:2,6,22