Jeremiah 7-10

American Standard Version

7 The word that came to Jeremiah from Jehovah, saying, ² Stand in the gate of Jehovah’s house, and proclaim there this word, and say, Hear the word of Jehovah, all ye of Judah, that enter in at these gates to worship Jehovah. ³ Thus saith Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place. ⁴ Trust ye not in lying words, saying, The temple of Jehovah, the temple of Jehovah, the temple of Jehovah, are these. ⁵ For if ye thoroughly amend your ways and your doings; if ye thoroughly execute justice between a man and his neighbor; ⁶ if ye oppress not the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, and shed not innocent blood in this place, neither walk after other gods to your own hurt: ⁷ then will I cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers, from of old even for evermore.

⁸ Behold, ye trust in lying words, that cannot profit. ⁹ Will ye steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense unto Baal, and walk after other gods that ye have not known, ¹⁰ and come and stand before me in this house, ^[a]which is called by my name, and say, We are delivered; that ye may do all these abominations? ¹¹ Is this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, I, even I, have seen it, saith Jehovah.

¹² But go ye now unto my place which was in Shiloh, where I caused my name to dwell at the first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people Israel. ¹³ And now, because ye have done all these works, saith Jehovah, and I spake unto you, rising up early and speaking, but ye heard not; and I called you, but ye answered not: ¹⁴ therefore will I do unto the house which is called by my name, wherein ye trust, and unto the place which I gave to you and to your fathers, as I did to Shiloh. ¹⁵ And I will cast you out of my sight, as I have cast out all your brethren, even the whole seed of Ephraim.

¹⁶ Therefore pray not thou for this people, neither lift up cry nor prayer for them, neither make intercession to me; for I will not hear thee. ¹⁷ Seest thou not what they do in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? ¹⁸ The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead the dough, to make cakes to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink-offerings unto other gods, that they may provoke me to anger. ¹⁹ Do they provoke me to anger? saith Jehovah; do they not provoke themselves, to the confusion of their own faces? ²⁰ Therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Behold, mine anger and my wrath shall be poured out upon this place, upon man, and upon beast, and upon the trees of the field, and upon the fruit of the ground; and it shall burn, and shall not be quenched.

²¹ Thus saith Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel: Add your burnt-offerings unto your sacrifices, and eat ye flesh. ²² For I spake not unto your fathers, nor commanded them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt-offerings or sacrifices: ²³ but this thing I commanded them, saying, Hearken unto my voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be my people; and walk ye in all the way that I command you, that it may be well with you. ²⁴ But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear, but walked in their own counsels and in the stubbornness of their evil heart, and ^[b]went backward, and not forward. ²⁵ Since the day that your fathers came forth out of the land of Egypt unto this day, I have sent unto you all my servants the prophets, daily rising up early and sending them: ²⁶ yet they hearkened not unto me, nor inclined their ear, but made their neck stiff: they did worse than their fathers.

²⁷ And thou shalt speak all these words unto them; but they will not hearken to thee: thou shalt also call unto them; but they will not answer thee. ²⁸ And thou shalt say unto them, This is the nation that hath not hearkened to the voice of Jehovah their God, nor received ^[c]instruction: ^[d]truth is perished, and is cut off from their mouth.

²⁹ Cut off ^[e]thy hair, O Jerusalem, and cast it away, and take up a lamentation on the bare heights; for Jehovah hath rejected and forsaken the generation of his wrath. ³⁰ For the children of Judah have done that which is evil in my sight, saith Jehovah: they have set their abominations in the house which is called by my name, to defile it. ³¹ And they have built the high places of Topheth, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire; which I commanded not, neither came it into my ^[f]mind. ³² Therefore, behold, the days come, saith Jehovah, that it shall no more be called Topheth, nor The valley of the son of Hinnom, but The valley of Slaughter: for they shall bury in Topheth, ^[g]till there be no place to bury. ³³ And the dead bodies of this people shall be food for the birds of the heavens, and for the beasts of the earth; and none shall frighten them away. ³⁴ Then will I cause to cease from the cities of Judah, and from the streets of Jerusalem, the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride; for the land shall become a waste.

8 At that time, saith Jehovah, they shall bring out the bones of the kings of Judah, and the bones of his princes, and the bones of the priests, and the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, out of their graves; ² and they shall spread them before the sun, and the moon, and all the host of heaven, which they have loved, and which they have served, and after which they have walked, and which they have sought, and which they have worshipped: they shall not be gathered, nor be buried, they shall be for dung upon the face of the earth. ³ And death shall be chosen rather than life by all the residue that remain of this evil family, that remain in all the places whither I have driven them, saith Jehovah of hosts.

⁴ Moreover thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith Jehovah: Shall men fall, and not rise up again? Shall one turn away, and not return? ⁵ Why then is this people of Jerusalem slidden back by a perpetual backsliding? they hold fast deceit, they refuse to return. ⁶ I hearkened and heard, but they spake not aright: no man repenteth him of his wickedness, saying, What have I done? every one ^[h]turneth to his course, as a horse that rusheth headlong in the battle. ⁷ Yea, the stork in the heavens knoweth her appointed times; and the turtle-dove and the swallow and the crane observe the time of their coming; but my people know not the law of Jehovah.

⁸ How do ye say, We are wise, and the law of Jehovah is with us? But, behold, the false pen of the scribes hath ^[i]wrought falsely. ⁹ The wise men are put to shame, they are dismayed and taken: lo, they have rejected the word of Jehovah; and what manner of wisdom is in them? ¹⁰ Therefore will I give their wives unto others, and their fields to them that shall possess them: for every one from the least even unto the greatest is given to covetousness; from the prophet even unto the priest every one dealeth falsely. ¹¹ And they have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace. ¹² Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore shall they fall among them that fall; in the time of their visitation they shall be cast down, saith Jehovah. ¹³ I will utterly consume them, saith Jehovah: there shall be no grapes on the vine, nor figs on the fig-tree, and the leaf shall fade; and ^[j]the things that I have given them shall pass away from them.

¹⁴ Why do we sit still? assemble yourselves, and let us enter into the fortified cities, and let us ^[k]be silent there; for Jehovah our God hath ^[l]put us to silence, and given us water of ^[m]gall to drink, because we have sinned against Jehovah. ¹⁵ We looked for peace, but no good came; and for a time of healing, and, behold, dismay! ¹⁶ The snorting of his horses is heard from Dan: at the sound of the neighing of his strong ones the whole land trembleth; for they are come, and have devoured the land and all that is in it; the city and those that dwell therein. ¹⁷ For, behold, I will send serpents, adders, among you, which will not be charmed; and they shall bite you, saith Jehovah.

¹⁸ Oh that I could comfort myself against sorrow! my heart is faint within me. ¹⁹ Behold, the voice of the cry of the daughter of my people ^[n]from a land that is very far off: Is not Jehovah in Zion? is not her King in her? Why have they provoked me to anger with their graven images, and with foreign vanities? ²⁰ The harvest is past, the ^[o]summer is ended, and we are not saved. ²¹ For the hurt of the daughter of my people am I hurt: I mourn; dismay hath taken hold on me. ²² Is there no balm in Gilead? is there no physician there? why then is not the ^[p]health of the daughter of my people ^[q]recovered?

9 Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people! ^2 [r]Oh that I had in the wilderness a lodging-place of wayfaring men; that I might leave my people, and go from them! for they are all adulterers, an assembly of treacherous men. ³ And they bend their tongue, as it were their bow, for falsehood; and they are grown strong in the land, but not for ^[s]truth: for they proceed from evil to evil, and they know not me, saith Jehovah. ⁴ Take ye heed every one of his neighbor, and trust ye not in any brother; for every brother will utterly supplant, and every neighbor will go about with slanders. ⁵ And they will ^[t]deceive every one his neighbor, and will not speak the truth: they have taught their tongue to speak lies; they weary themselves to commit iniquity. ⁶ Thy habitation is in the midst of deceit; through deceit they refuse to know me, saith Jehovah.

⁷ Therefore thus saith Jehovah of hosts, Behold, I will melt them, and try them; for how else should I do, because of the daughter of my people? ⁸ Their tongue is a deadly arrow; it speaketh deceit: one speaketh peaceably to his neighbor with his mouth, but in his heart he layeth wait for him. ⁹ Shall I not visit them for these things? saith Jehovah; shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?

¹⁰ For the mountains will I take up a weeping and wailing, and for the pastures of the wilderness a lamentation, because they are burned up, so that none passeth through; neither can men hear the voice of the cattle; both the birds of the heavens and the beasts are fled, they are gone. ¹¹ And I will make Jerusalem heaps, a dwelling-place of jackals; and I will make the cities of Judah a desolation, without inhabitant. ¹² Who is the wise man, that may understand this? and who is he to whom the mouth of Jehovah hath spoken, that he may declare it? wherefore is the land perished and burned up like a wilderness, so that none passeth through? ¹³ And Jehovah saith, Because they have forsaken my law which I set before them, and have not obeyed my voice, neither walked therein, ¹⁴ but have walked after the stubbornness of their own heart, and after the Baalim, which their fathers taught them; ¹⁵ therefore thus saith Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, Behold, I will feed them, even this people, with wormwood, and give them water of ^[u]gall to drink. ¹⁶ I will scatter them also among the nations, whom neither they nor their fathers have known; and I will send the sword after them, till I have consumed them.

¹⁷ Thus saith Jehovah of hosts, Consider ye, and call for the mourning women, that they may come; and send for the skilful women, that they may come: ¹⁸ and let them make haste, and take up a wailing for us, that our eyes may run down with tears, and our eyelids gush out with waters. ¹⁹ For a voice of wailing is heard out of Zion, How are we ruined! we are greatly confounded, because we have forsaken the land, because ^[v]they have cast down our dwellings. ²⁰ Yet hear the word of Jehovah, O ye women, and let your ear receive the word of his mouth; and teach your daughters wailing, and every one her neighbor lamentation. ²¹ For death is come up into our windows, it is entered into our palaces; to cut off the children from without, and the young men from the streets. ²² Speak, Thus saith Jehovah, The dead bodies of men shall fall as dung upon the open field, and as the handful after the harvestman; and none shall gather them.

²³ Thus saith Jehovah, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches; ²⁴ but let him that glorieth glory in this, that he hath understanding, and knoweth me, that I am Jehovah who exerciseth lovingkindness, justice, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith Jehovah.

²⁵ Behold, the days come, saith Jehovah, that I will punish all them that are circumcised in their uncircumcision: ²⁶ Egypt, and Judah, and Edom, and the children of Ammon, and Moab, and all that have the corners of their hair cut off, that dwell in the wilderness; for all the nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in heart.

10 Hear ye the word which Jehovah speaketh unto you, O house of Israel: ² thus saith Jehovah, Learn not the way of the nations, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the nations are dismayed at them. ³ For the ^[w]customs of the peoples are vanity; for ^[x]one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman with the axe. ⁴ They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not. ⁵ They are like a ^[y]palm-tree, of turned work, and speak not: they must needs be borne, because they cannot go. Be not afraid of them; for they cannot do evil, neither is it in them to do good.

⁶ There is none like unto thee, O Jehovah; thou art great, and thy name is great in might. ⁷ Who should not fear thee, O King of the nations? for ^[z]to thee doth it appertain; forasmuch as among all the wise men of the nations, and in all their royal estate, there is none like unto thee. ⁸ But they are ^[aa]together brutish and foolish: ^[ab]the instruction of idols! it is but a stock. ⁹ There is silver beaten into plates, which is brought from Tarshish, and gold from Uphaz, the work of the artificer and of the hands of the goldsmith; blue and purple for their clothing; they are all the work of skilful men. ¹⁰ But Jehovah is ^[ac]the true God; he is the living God, and an everlasting King: at his wrath the earth trembleth, and the nations are not able to abide his indignation.

^11 [ad]Thus shall ye say unto them, The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth, ^[ae]these shall perish from the earth, and from under the heavens.

¹² He hath made the earth by his power, he hath established the world by his wisdom, and by his understanding hath he stretched out the heavens. ^13 [af]When he uttereth his voice, there is a tumult of waters in the heavens, and he causeth the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth; he maketh lightnings for the rain, and bringeth forth the wind out of his treasuries. ¹⁴ Every man ^[ag]is become brutish and is without knowledge; every goldsmith is put to shame by his graven image; for his molten image is falsehood, and there is no breath in them. ¹⁵ They are vanity, a work of ^[ah]delusion: in the time of their visitation they shall perish. ¹⁶ The portion of Jacob is not like these; for he is the former of all things; and Israel is the tribe of his inheritance: Jehovah of hosts is his name.

¹⁷ Gather up ^[ai]thy wares out of the land, ^[aj]O thou that abidest in the siege. ¹⁸ For thus saith Jehovah, Behold, I will sling out the inhabitants of the land at this time, and will distress them, that they may ^[ak]feel it.

¹⁹ Woe is me because of my hurt! my wound is grievous: but I said, Truly this is my ^[al]grief, and I must bear it. ²⁰ My tent is destroyed, and all my cords are broken: my children are gone forth from me, and they are not: there is none to spread my tent any more, and to set up my curtains. ²¹ For the shepherds are become brutish, and have not inquired of Jehovah: therefore they have not ^[am]prospered, and all their flocks are scattered. ²² The voice of tidings, behold, it cometh, and a great commotion out of the north country, to make the cities of Judah a desolation, a dwelling-place of jackals.

²³ O Jehovah, I know that the way of man is not in himself; it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps. ²⁴ O Jehovah, correct me, but in ^[an]measure; not in thine anger, lest thou ^[ao]bring me to nothing. ²⁵ Pour out thy wrath upon the nations that know thee not, and upon the families that call not on thy name; for they have devoured Jacob, yea, they have devoured him and consumed him, and have laid waste his ^[ap]habitation.