Jeremiah 7

1The word that came from Yahweh to Jeremiah, saying,

2Stand at the gate of Yahweh's house and proclaim this word there, saying, "Hear Yahweh's word, all you of Judah who enter these gates to worship Yahweh."

3Thus says Yahweh of hosts, God of Israel: Reform your ways and your deeds, and I will let you dwell in this place.

4Do not put your trust in words of falsehood, saying, 'Yahweh's temple, Yahweh's temple, Yahweh's temple—these!'

5For if you truly improve your ways and your deeds, if you truly carry out justice between a man and his neighbor,

6Do not oppress the sojourner, the orphan, and the widow, do not shed innocent blood in this place, nor walk after other gods to your harm.

7I will settle you in this place, in the land that I gave your fathers from everlasting even to everlasting.

8See, you rely on false words that do you no good.

9Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, burn incense to Baal, and follow other gods whom you have not known?

10You come and stand before me in this house that bears my name and say, "We have been delivered," in order to do all these abominations?

11Has this house, on which my name is called, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, even I have seen it, says Yahweh.

12Go now to my place in Shiloh, where I caused my name to dwell there at first, and see what I did to it because of the evil of my people Israel.

13Now, because you have done all these deeds, declares Yahweh, I spoke to you, rising early and speaking, but you did not listen; and I called you, but you did not answer.

14I will do to the house called by my name, in which you trust, and to the place I gave you and your fathers, as I did to Shiloh.

15I will hurl you from my presence, as I have hurled out all your kinsmen, even the whole offspring of Ephraim.

16You, do not pray for this people, neither raise a cry or prayer for them, nor intercede with me; for I will not hear you.

17Don't you see what they are doing in the cities of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem?

18The sons gather wood, the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead dough to fashion cakes for the queen of heaven and pour drink offerings to other gods, so as to anger me.

19Do they anger me? says Yahweh. Do they not anger themselves, to the shame of their faces?

20Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: See, my anger and my fury will pour down on this place, on humankind and on animals, on trees of the field and on produce of the soil; it will burn and will not go out.

21Thus says Yahweh of hosts, God of Israel: Add your burnt offerings upon your sacrifices, and eat flesh.

22For I did not speak to your fathers, nor command them on the day I brought them out from the land of Egypt concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices.

23But this is what I commanded them: Hear my voice, and I will be your God, and you will be my people; walk every path I command you, so that you prosper.

24But they did not hear or incline their ear, but walked in their counsels and in the obstinacy of their wicked heart, and went backward, not forward.

25From the day your fathers came out from the land of Egypt to this day, I have sent all my servants the prophets to you, rising early day by day and sending them.

26Yet they did not listen to me or bend their ear, but stiffened their neck and acted worse than their fathers.

27You shall speak all these words to them, but they will not listen to you; you shall call to them, but they will not answer you.

28You shall tell them: This is the nation that has not listened to the voice of Yahweh their God, nor accepted discipline; faithfulness has perished and been cut off from their mouth.

29Cut off your consecrated hair and throw it away; raise a lament on the bare heights, for Yahweh has rejected and forsaken the generation of his wrath.

30For the sons of Judah have done evil in my sight, declares Yahweh: they have set their abominations in the house on which my name is called, to defile it.

31They have built high places of Tophet, which lies in the valley of Ben Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire—which I never commanded, nor did it enter my heart.

32Therefore behold, days are coming, declares Yahweh, when it will no longer be called Tophet, nor the valley of Ben-Hinnom, but rather the valley of slaughter, for they will bury in Tophet until no place remains.

33The carcasses of this people will become food for the birds of the sky and the beasts of the earth, and none will frighten them away.

34I will silence from the cities of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem the sound of joy, the sound of gladness, the sound of the bridegroom, and the sound of the bride, for the land will become a desolation.