The Complete Jewish Bible CJB
The Bible in Basic English BBE
1 This word came to Yirmeyahu from ADONAI:
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The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying,
2 "Stand at the gate of the house of ADONAI and proclaim this word: 'Listen to the word of ADONAI, all you from Y'hudah who enter these gates to worship ADONAI!
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Take your place in the doorway of the Lord's house, and give out this word there, and say, Give ear to the word of the Lord, all you of Judah who come inside these doors to give worship to the Lord.
3 Here is what ADONAI-Tzva'ot, the God of Isra'el, says: "Improve your ways and actions, and I will let you stay in this place.
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The Lord of armies, the God of Israel, says, Let your ways and your doings be changed for the better and I will let you go on living in this place.
4 Don't rely on that deceitful slogan, 'The temple of ADONAI, the temple of ADONAI - these [buildings] are the temple of ADONAI.'
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Put no faith in false words, saying, The Temple of the Lord, the Temple of the Lord, the Temple of the Lord, are these.
5 No, but if you really improve your ways and actions; if you really administer justice between people;
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For if your ways and your doings are truly changed for the better; if you truly give right decisions between a man and his neighbour;
6 if you stop oppressing foreigners, orphans and widows; if you stop shedding innocent blood in this place; and if you stop following other gods, to your own harm;
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If you are not cruel to the man from a strange country, and to the child without a father, and to the widow, and do not put the upright to death in this place, or go after other gods, causing damage to yourselves:
7 then I will let you stay in this place, in the land I gave to your ancestors forever and ever.
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Then I will let you go on living in this place, in the land which I gave to your fathers in the past and for ever.
8 Look! You are relying on deceitful words that can't do you any good.
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See, you put your faith in false words which are of no profit.
9 First you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, offer to Ba'al and go after other gods that you haven't known.
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Will you take the goods of others, put men to death, and be untrue to your wives, and take false oaths, and have perfumes burned to the Baal, and go after other gods which are strange to you;
10 Then you come and stand before me in this house that bears my name and say, 'We are saved' - so that you can go on doing these abominations!
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And come and take your place before me in this house, which is named by my name, and say, We have been made safe; so that you may do all these disgusting things?
11 Do you regard this house, which bears my name, as a cave for bandits? I can see for myself what's going on," says ADONAI.
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Has this house, which is named by my name, become a hole of thieves to you? Truly I, even I, have seen it, says the Lord.
12 "Go to the place in Shiloh that used to be mine, that used to bear my name, and see what I did to it because of the wickedness of my people Isra'el.
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But go now to my place which was in Shiloh, where I put my name at first, and see what I did to it because of the evil-doing of my people Israel.
13 I spoke to you again and again, but you wouldn't listen. I called you, but you wouldn't answer. Now," says ADONAI, "because you have done all these things,
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And now, because you have done all these works, says the Lord, and I sent my word to you, getting up early and sending, but you did not give ear; and my voice came to you, but you gave no answer:
14 I will do to the house that bears my name, on which you rely, and to the place I gave you and your ancestors, what I did to Shiloh;
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For this reason I will do to the house which is named by my name, and in which you have put your faith, and to the place which I gave to you and to your fathers, as I have done to Shiloh.
15 and I will drive you out of my presence, just as I drove out all your kinsmen, all the descendants of Efrayim."'
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And I will send you away from before my face, as I have sent away all your brothers, even all the seed of Ephraim.
16 "So you, [Yirmeyahu,] don't pray for this people! Don't cry, pray or intercede on their behalf with me; because I won't listen to you.
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And as for you (Jeremiah), make no prayers for this people, send up no cry or prayer for them, make no request for them to me: for I will not give ear.
17 Don't you see what they are doing in the cities of Y'hudah and in the streets of Yerushalayim?
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Do you not see what they are doing in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem?
18 The children gather the wood, the fathers light the fire, and the women knead the dough to make cakes for the queen of heaven; and, just to provoke me, they pour out drink offerings to other gods!
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The children go for wood, the fathers get the fire burning, the women are working the paste to make cakes for the queen of heaven, and drink offerings are drained out to other gods, moving me to wrath.
19 Are they really provoking me," asks ADONAI, "or are they provoking themselves, to their own ruin?"
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Are they moving me to wrath? says the Lord; are they not moving themselves to their shame?
20 Therefore, here is what Adonai ELOHIM says: "My anger and fury will be poured out on this place, on men, animals, trees in the fields and produce growing from the ground; and it will burn without being quenched."
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So this is what the Lord God has said: See, my wrath and my passion will be let loose on this place, on man and beast, and on the trees of the field, and on the produce of the earth; it will be burning and will not be put out.
21 Thus says ADONAI-Tzva'ot, the God of Isra'el: "You may as well eat the meat of your burnt offerings along with that of your sacrifices.
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These are the words of the Lord of armies, the God of Israel: Put your burned offerings with your offerings of beasts, and take flesh for your food.
22 For I didn't speak to your ancestors or give them orders concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices when I brought them out of the land of Egypt.
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For I said nothing to your fathers, and gave them no orders, on the day when I took them out of Egypt, about burned offerings or offerings of beasts:
23 Rather, what I did order them was this: 'Pay attention to what I say. Then I will be your God, and you will be my people. In everything, live according to the way that I order you, so that things will go well for you.'
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But this was the order I gave them, saying, Give ear to my voice, and I will be your God, and you will be my people: go in all the way ordered by me, so that all may be well for you.
24 But they neither listened nor paid attention, but lived according to their own plans, in the stubbornness of their evil hearts, thus going backward and not forward.
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But they took no note and did not give ear, but were guided by the thoughts and the pride of their evil hearts, going back and not forward.
25 You have done this from the day your ancestors came out of Egypt until today. Even though I sent you all my servants the prophets, sending them time after time,
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From the day when your fathers came out of Egypt till this day, I have sent my servants the prophets to you, getting up early every day and sending them:
26 they would not listen or pay attention to me, but stiffened their necks; they did worse than their ancestors.
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But still they took no note and would not give ear, but they made their necks stiff, doing worse than their fathers.
27 So tell them all this; but they won't listen to you; likewise, call to them; but they won't answer you.
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And you are to say all these words to them, but they will not give ear to you: you will send out your voice to them, but they will give no answer.
28 Therefore, say to them, 'This is the nation that has not listened to the voice of ADONAI their God. They won't take correction; faithfulness has perished; it has vanished from their mouths.
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And you are to say to them, This is the nation which has not given ear to the voice of their God, or taken his teaching to heart: good faith is dead and is cut off from their mouths.
29 Cut off your hair, and throw it away, take up a lament on the bare hills, for ADONAI has rejected and abandoned the generation that rouses his anger.'
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Let your hair be cut off, O Jerusalem, and let it go, and let a song of grief go up on the open hilltops; for the Lord is turned away from the generation of his wrath and has given them up.
30 "For the people of Y'hudah have done what is evil from my perspective," says ADONAI; "they have set up their detestable things in the house which bears my name, to defile it.
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For the children of Judah have done what is evil in my eyes, says the Lord: they have put their disgusting images in the house which is named by my name, making it unclean.
31 They have built the high places of Tofet in the Ben-Hinnom Valley, to burn their sons and daughters in the fire, something I never ordered; in fact, such a thing never even entered my mind!
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And they have put up the high place of Topheth in the valley of the son of Hinnom, burning their sons and their daughters there in the fire; a thing which was not ordered by me and never came into my mind.
32 Therefore, the days are coming," says ADONAI, "when it will no longer be called either Tofet or the Ben-Hinnom Valley, but the Valley of Slaughter - they will put the dead in Tofet, because there will be no space left [anywhere else].
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For this cause, the days are coming, says the Lord, when it will no longer be named Topheth, or, The valley of the son of Hinnom, but, The valley of Death: for they will put the dead into the earth in Topheth till there is no more room.
33 The corpses of this people will become food for the birds in the air and the wild animals; no one will frighten them away.
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And the bodies of this people will be food for the birds of heaven and for the beasts of the earth; and there will be no one to send them away.
34 Then in the cities of Y'hudah and the streets of Yerushalayim I will silence the sounds of joy and gladness and the voices of bridegroom and bride; because the land will be reduced to ruins.
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And in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, I will put an end to the laughing voices, the voice of joy and the voice of the newly-married man and the voice of the bride: for the land will become a waste.
Complete Jewish Bible Copyright 1998 by David H. Stern. Published by Jewish New Testament Publications, Inc. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
The Bible in Basic English is in the public domain.