Jeremiah 7:1-29

False Religion Worthless

1 This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD:
2 “Stand at the gate of the LORD’s house and there proclaim this message: “ ‘Hear the word of the LORD, all you people of Judah who come through these gates to worship the LORD.
3 This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Reform your ways and your actions, and I will let you live in this place.
4 Do not trust in deceptive words and say, “This is the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD!”
5 If you really change your ways and your actions and deal with each other justly,
6 if you do not oppress the foreigner, the fatherless or the widow and do not shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not follow other gods to your own harm,
7 then I will let you live in this place, in the land I gave your ancestors for ever and ever.
8 But look, you are trusting in deceptive words that are worthless.
9 “ ‘Will you steal and murder, commit adultery and perjury,[a] burn incense to Baal and follow other gods you have not known,
10 and then come and stand before me in this house, which bears my Name, and say, “We are safe”—safe to do all these detestable things?
11 Has this house, which bears my Name, become a den of robbers to you? But I have been watching! declares the LORD.
12 “ ‘Go now to the place in Shiloh where I first made a dwelling for my Name, and see what I did to it because of the wickedness of my people Israel.
13 While you were doing all these things, declares the LORD, I spoke to you again and again, but you did not listen; I called you, but you did not answer.
14 Therefore, what I did to Shiloh I will now do to the house that bears my Name, the temple you trust in, the place I gave to you and your ancestors.
15 I will thrust you from my presence, just as I did all your fellow Israelites, the people of Ephraim.’
16 “So do not pray for this people nor offer any plea or petition for them; do not plead with me, for I will not listen to you.
17 Do you not see what they are doing in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem?
18 The children gather wood, the fathers light the fire, and the women knead the dough and make cakes to offer to the Queen of Heaven. They pour out drink offerings to other gods to arouse my anger.
19 But am I the one they are provoking? declares the LORD. Are they not rather harming themselves, to their own shame?
20 “ ‘Therefore this is what the Sovereign LORD says: My anger and my wrath will be poured out on this place—on man and beast, on the trees of the field and on the crops of your land—and it will burn and not be quenched.
21 “ ‘This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Go ahead, add your burnt offerings to your other sacrifices and eat the meat yourselves!
22 For when I brought your ancestors out of Egypt and spoke to them, I did not just give them commands about burnt offerings and sacrifices,
23 but I gave them this command: Obey me, and I will be your God and you will be my people. Walk in obedience to all I command you, that it may go well with you.
24 But they did not listen or pay attention; instead, they followed the stubborn inclinations of their evil hearts. They went backward and not forward.
25 From the time your ancestors left Egypt until now, day after day, again and again I sent you my servants the prophets.
26 But they did not listen to me or pay attention. They were stiff-necked and did more evil than their ancestors.’
27 “When you tell them all this, they will not listen to you; when you call to them, they will not answer.
28 Therefore say to them, ‘This is the nation that has not obeyed the LORD its God or responded to correction. Truth has perished; it has vanished from their lips.
29 “ ‘Cut off your hair and throw it away; take up a lament on the barren heights, for the LORD has rejected and abandoned this generation that is under his wrath.

Cross References 79

  • 1. Jeremiah 17:19
  • 2. Jeremiah 18:11; Jeremiah 26:13; Jeremiah 35:15
  • 3. ver 7
  • 4. S Job 15:31
  • 5. ver 8; Jeremiah 28:15; Micah 3:11
  • 6. ver 3; Jeremiah 18:11; Jeremiah 26:13; Jeremiah 35:15
  • 7. S Exodus 22:22; S Leviticus 25:17; S Isaiah 1:17; Jeremiah 22:3
  • 8. S Jeremiah 5:28; Ezekiel 22:7
  • 9. S 2 Kings 21:16; Jeremiah 2:34; Jeremiah 19:4; Jeremiah 22:3
  • 10. S Exodus 20:3; S Deuteronomy 8:19
  • 11. S Deuteronomy 4:40
  • 12. S Joshua 1:6
  • 13. S Job 15:31
  • 14. S ver 4
  • 15. Exodus 20:15
  • 16. Exodus 20:13
  • 17. Exodus 20:14; S Numbers 25:1
  • 18. Exodus 20:16; S Leviticus 19:12; Zechariah 8:17; Malachi 3:5
  • 19. S Isaiah 1:13
  • 20. Jeremiah 11:13,17; Jeremiah 32:29
  • 21. S Exodus 20:3; Hosea 2:13
  • 22. S Isaiah 48:1
  • 23. ver 30; 2 Kings 21:4-5; Jeremiah 23:11; Jeremiah 32:34; Ezekiel 23:38-39
  • 24. Ezekiel 33:25
  • 25. Isaiah 56:7
  • 26. Matthew 21:13*; Mark 11:17*; Luke 19:46*
  • 27. Genesis 31:50; Judges 11:10; Jeremiah 29:23; Jeremiah 42:5
  • 28. S Joshua 18:1; S 1 Samuel 2:32
  • 29. S Exodus 40:2; S Joshua 18:10
  • 30. Daniel 9:18
  • 31. S 1Sa 4:10-11,22; Psalms 78:60-64
  • 32. Psalms 71:17; Isaiah 48:17; Jeremiah 32:33
  • 33. S 2 Chronicles 36:15
  • 34. S ver 26; S Isaiah 65:12
  • 35. S Proverbs 1:24
  • 36. Jeremiah 35:17
  • 37. S Judges 18:31; S 1 Samuel 2:32
  • 38. S 1 Kings 9:7
  • 39. ver 4; Ezekiel 24:21
  • 40. S Genesis 4:14; S Exodus 33:15; S 2 Kings 17:20; Jeremiah 23:39
  • 41. S Psalms 78:67
  • 42. S Exodus 32:10; Deuteronomy 9:14; Jeremiah 15:1
  • 43. S Numbers 23:19
  • 44. Jeremiah 44:17-19
  • 45. S Isaiah 57:6; Jeremiah 19:13
  • 46. S Deuteronomy 31:17; S 1 Kings 14:9
  • 47. Deuteronomy 32:21; Jeremiah 44:3
  • 48. S Job 7:20; Jeremiah 9:19; Jeremiah 20:11; Jeremiah 22:22
  • 49. S Isaiah 30:15
  • 50. S Job 40:11; Jeremiah 42:18; Lamentations 2:3-5
  • 51. Jeremiah 6:11-12; Lamentations 4:11
  • 52. S Isaiah 1:31; Jeremiah 11:16; Jeremiah 13:14; Jeremiah 15:6,14; Jeremiah 17:4,27; Ezekiel 20:47-48
  • 53. Isaiah 1:11; S Jeremiah 6:20; Amos 5:21-22
  • 54. S 1 Samuel 2:12-17; Hosea 8:13
  • 55. Isaiah 43:23
  • 56. S 1 Samuel 15:22; Psalms 51:16; Hosea 6:6
  • 57. 1 John 3:23
  • 58. S Exodus 19:5
  • 59. S Leviticus 26:12; S Isaiah 51:16
  • 60. S 1 Kings 8:36; S Psalms 119:3
  • 61. Exodus 15:26; S Deuteronomy 5:33
  • 62. S Jeremiah 6:10
  • 63. Psalms 81:11-12; Jeremiah 11:8; Jeremiah 17:23; Jeremiah 34:14
  • 64. S Jeremiah 3:17
  • 65. S Jeremiah 2:19; Ezekiel 37:23
  • 66. S 2 Chronicles 36:15
  • 67. S Isaiah 20:3
  • 68. S Numbers 11:29; Jeremiah 25:4; Jeremiah 35:15
  • 69. ver 13,24; S 2 Chronicles 36:16; Psalms 81:11; Jeremiah 13:11; Jeremiah 22:21; Jeremiah 25:3; Jeremiah 35:15; Ezekiel 20:8,21
  • 70. S Exodus 32:9; Acts 7:51
  • 71. Jeremiah 16:12; Malachi 3:7; Luke 11:47
  • 72. Ezekiel 2:7
  • 73. ver 13; Ezekiel 3:7; Zechariah 7:13
  • 74. S Isaiah 65:12
  • 75. S Leviticus 26:23; Zephaniah 3:7
  • 76. S Psalms 15:2; S Isaiah 59:15
  • 77. S Leviticus 21:5; S Job 1:20; Isaiah 15:2; Micah 1:16
  • 78. S Jeremiah 4:8; S Ezekiel 19:1
  • 79. S Jeremiah 6:30; Jeremiah 12:7; Hosea 11:8; Micah 5:3

Footnotes 1

  • [a]. Or "and swear by false gods"
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