Jeremiah 7 — Septuagint (LXX)

The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD:

Stand at the gate of the LORD's house and proclaim this message there. Say: Hear the word of the LORD, all of Judah who enter through these gates to worship the LORD.

This is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: Reform your ways and your deeds, and I will let you continue to dwell in this place.

For if you truly reform your ways and your deeds — if you truly practice justice between one person and another,

if you do not oppress the foreigner, the orphan, or the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place, and do not follow other gods to your own harm —

then I will let you dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your ancestors from age to age.

Look — you are trusting in deceptive words that accomplish nothing.

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

and then come and stand before me in this house that bears my name, and say, 'We are safe!' — only to go on doing all these abominations?

Has this house that bears my name become a den of criminals in your eyes? I too have seen it, declares the LORD.

Go now to my place at Shiloh, where I first made my name dwell, and see what I did to it because of the wickedness of my people Israel.

And now, because you have done all these things, declares the LORD — and though I spoke to you persistently, you did not listen, and though I called you, you did not answer —

I will do to this house that bears my name — the one you are trusting in — and to the place I gave to you and your ancestors, what I did to Shiloh.

I will throw you out of my presence, just as I threw out all your kinsmen — all the descendants of Ephraim.

As for you — do not pray for this people. Do not lift up cry or prayer on their behalf, and do not plead with me, for I will not listen to you.

Do you not see what they are doing in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem?

The children gather wood, the fathers light the fire, and the women knead dough to make cakes for the Queen of Heaven, and they pour out drink offerings to other gods — provoking me to anger.

Is it me they are provoking? declares the LORD. Is it not rather themselves, to their own shame?

Therefore, this is what the Lord GOD says: My anger and my wrath will be poured out on this place — on human and animal, on the trees of the field and the fruit of the ground. It will burn and will not be quenched.

This is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: Add your burnt offerings to your other sacrifices and eat the meat yourselves!

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

Rather, this is what I commanded them: Obey my voice, and I will be your God and you will be my people. Walk in every way that I command you, so that it may go well for you.

But they did not listen or incline their ear. They walked according to the schemes and stubbornness of their evil heart, and went backward, not forward.

From the day your ancestors came out of the land of Egypt until this very day, I have sent to you all my servants the prophets — sending them persistently, day after day.

But they did not listen to me or incline their ear. They stiffened their neck and did worse than their ancestors.

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

Then say to them: This is the nation that did not obey the voice of the LORD their God and refused correction. Faithfulness has perished — it has been cut off from their lips.

Cut off your hair and throw it away! Raise a lament on the barren heights, for the LORD has rejected and abandoned the generation that provoked his wrath.

For the people of Judah have done what is evil in my sight, declares the LORD. They have placed their detestable idols in the house that bears my name, defiling it.

They have built the high places of Topheth in the Valley of Ben-Hinnom to burn their sons and daughters in the fire — something I never commanded, and which never entered my mind.

Therefore, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when it will no longer be called Topheth or the Valley of Ben-Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter. They will bury the dead in Topheth until there is no more room.

The corpses of this people will become food for the birds of the sky and the beasts of the earth, and no one will drive them away.

I will silence in the cities of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem the sound of joy and the sound of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, for the land will become a wasteland.