Jeremiah 7
Evil in the Land
The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: 2 a“Stand in the gate of the Lord’s house, and proclaim there this word, and say, Hear the word of the Lord, all you men of Judah who enter these gates to worship the Lord. 3 Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: aAmend your ways and your deeds, and I will let you dwell in this place. 4 aDo not trust in these deceptive words: ‘This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord.’
5 “For if you truly aamend your ways and your deeds, if you truly bexecute justice one with another, 6 if you ado not oppress the sojourner, the fatherless, or the widow, bor shed innocent blood in this place, cand if you do not go after other gods to your own harm, 7 athen I will let you dwell in this place, bin the land that I gave of old to your fathers forever.
8 “Behold, you trust in deceptive words to no avail. 9 aWill you steal, murder, commit adultery, bswear falsely, cmake offerings to Baal, dand go after other gods that you have not known, 10 and then come and stand before me in this house, awhich is called by my name, and say, ‘We are delivered!’—only to go on doing all these abominations? 11 aHas this house, bwhich is called by my name, cbecome a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, I myself have seen it, declares the Lord. 12 Go now to amy place that was in Shiloh, bwhere I made my name dwell at first, and csee what I did to it because of the evil of my people Israel. 13 And now, because you have done all these things, declares the Lord, and awhen I spoke to you persistently you did not listen, and bwhen I called you, you did not answer, 14 therefore I will do to athe house bthat is called by my name, and in which you trust, and to the place that I gave to you and to your fathers, cas I did to Shiloh. 15 aAnd I will cast you out of my sight, bas I cast out all your kinsmen, all the offspring of cEphraim.
16 “As for you, ado not pray for this people, or lift up a cry or prayer for them, and do not intercede with me, for I will not hear you. 17 Do you not see what they are doing in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? 18 The children gather wood, the fathers kindle fire, aand the women knead dough, to bmake cakes for cthe queen of heaven. And dthey pour out drink offerings to other gods, eto provoke me to anger. 19 aIs it I whom they provoke? declares the Lord. Is it not themselves, bto their own shame? 20 Therefore thus says the Lord God: Behold, amy anger and my wrath will be poured out on this place, upon man and beast, upon the trees of the field and the fruit of the ground; bit will burn and not be quenched.”
21 Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: a“Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices, and eat the flesh. 22 For in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, I did not speak to your fathers or command them aconcerning burnt offerings and sacrifices. 23 But this command I gave them: a‘Obey my voice, and bI will be your God, and you shall be my people. cAnd walk in all the way that I command you, dthat it may be well with you.’ 24 aBut they did not obey or incline their ear, bbut walked in their own counsels and cthe stubbornness of their evil hearts, and dwent backward and not forward. 25 From the day that your fathers came out of the land of Egypt to this day, aI have persistently sent all my servants the prophets to them, day after day. 26 aYet they did not listen to me or incline their ear, bbut stiffened their neck. cThey did worse than their fathers.
27 a“So you shall speak all these words to them, but they will not listen to you. bYou shall call to them, but they will not answer you. 28 And you shall say to them, ‘This is the nation that did not obey the voice of the Lord their God, and did not accept discipline; atruth has perished; it is cut off from their lips.
29 a“‘Cut off your hair and cast it away;
raise a lamentation on bthe bare heights,
for the Lord has rejected and forsaken
the generation of his wrath.’
The Valley of Slaughter
30 “For the sons of Judah have done evil in my sight, declares the Lord. They have set atheir detestable things in the house bthat is called by my name, to adefile it. 31 And they have built the high places of aTopheth, which is in bthe Valley of the Son of Hinnom, cto burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, dwhich I did not command, nor did it come into my mind. 32 aTherefore, behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when it will no more be called bTopheth, or cthe Valley of the Son of Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter; dfor they will bury in Topheth, because there is no room elsewhere. 33 aAnd the dead bodies of this people will be food for the birds of the air, and for the beasts of the earth, band none will frighten them away. 34 aAnd I will silence in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, bfor the land shall become a waste. The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway,
a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. ESV Text Edition: 2025.