Jeremiah 7
7The Message from GOD to Jeremiah:H1697H3414H3068H5592"Stand in the gate of GOD's Temple and preach this Message. "Say, 'Listen, all you people of Judah who come through these gates to worship GOD.H5975H8179H3068H1004H7121H1697H559H8085H1697H3068H3063H935H8179H7812H30683GOD-of-the-Angel-Armies, Israel's God, has this to say to you: "'Clean up your act—the way you live, the things you do—so I can make my home with you in this place.H559H3068H6635H430H3478H3190H1870H4611H7931H47254Don't for a minute believe the lies being spoken here—"This is GOD's Temple, GOD's Temple, GOD's Temple!"H982H8267H1697H559H1964H3068H1964H3068H1964H30685Total nonsense! Only if you clean up your act (the way you live, the things you do), only if you do a total spring cleaning on the way you live and treat your neighbors,H3190H3190H1870H4611H6213H6213H4941H376H74536only if you quit exploiting the street people and orphans and widows, no longer taking advantage of innocent people on this very site and no longer destroying your souls by using this Temple as a front for other gods—H6231H1616H3490H490H8210H5355H1818H4725H3212H310H312H430H74517only then will I move into your neighborhood. Only then will this country I gave your ancestors be my permanent home, my Temple.H7931H4725H776H5414H1H5704H5769H57698"'Get smart! Your leaders are handing you a pack of lies, and you're swallowing them!H982H8267H1697H32769Use your heads! Do you think you can rob and murder, have sex with the neighborhood wives, tell lies nonstop, worship the local gods, and buy every novel religious commodity on the market—H1589H7523H5003H7650H8267H6999H1168H1980H310H312H430H304510and then march into this Temple, set apart for my worship, and say, "We're safe!" thinking that the place itself gives you a license to go on with all this outrageous sacrilege?H935H5975H6440H1004H7121H8034H559H5337H6213H844111A cave full of criminals! Do you think you can turn this Temple, set apart for my worship, into something like that? Well, think again. I've got eyes in my head. I can see what's going on.'" GOD's Decree!H1004H7121H8034H4631H6530H5869H7200H5002H306812"'Take a trip down to the place that was once in Shiloh, where I met my people in the early days. Take a look at those ruins, what I did to it because of the evil ways of my people Israel.H3212H4725H7887H7931H8034H7223H7200H6213H6440H7451H5971H347813"'So now, because of the way you have lived and failed to listen, even though time and again I took you aside and talked seriously with you, and because you refused to change when I called you to repent,H6213H4639H5002H3068H1696H7925H1696H8085H7121H603014I'm going to do to this Temple, set aside for my worship, this place you think is going to keep you safe no matter what, this place I gave as a gift to your ancestors and you, the same as I did to Shiloh.H6213H1004H7121H8034H982H4725H5414H1H6213H788715And as for you, I'm going to get rid of you, the same as I got rid of those old relatives of yours around Shiloh, your fellow Israelites in that former kingdom to the north.'H7993H6440H7993H251H2233H66916"And you, Jeremiah, don't waste your time praying for this people. Don't offer to make petitions or intercessions. Don't bother me with them. I'm not listening.H6419H5971H5375H7440H8605H1157H6293H808517Can't you see what they're doing in all the villages of Judah and in the Jerusalem streets?H7200H6213H5892H3063H2351H338918Why, they've got the children gathering wood while the fathers build fires and the mothers make bread to be offered to 'the Queen of Heaven'! And as if that weren't bad enough, they go around pouring out libations to any other gods they come across, just to hurt me.H1121H3950H6086H1H1197H784H802H3888H1217H6213H3561H4446H8064H5258H5262H312H430H370719"But is it me they're hurting?" GOD's Decree! "Aren't they just hurting themselves? Exposing themselves shamefully? Making themselves ridiculous?H3707H5002H3068H1322H644020"Here's what the Master GOD has to say: 'My white-hot anger is about to descend on this country and everything in it—people and animals, trees in the field and vegetables in the garden—a raging wildfire that no one can put out.'H559H136H3069H639H2534H5413H4725H120H929H6086H7704H6529H127H1197H351821"The Message from GOD-of-the-Angel-Armies, Israel's God: 'Go ahead! Put your burnt offerings with all your other sacrificial offerings and make a good meal for yourselves. I sure don't want them!H559H3068H6635H430H3478H5595H5930H2077H398H132022When I delivered your ancestors out of Egypt, I never said anything to them about wanting burnt offerings and sacrifices as such.H1696H1H6680H3117H3318H776H4714H1697H5930H207723But I did say this, commanded this: "Obey me. Do what I say and I will be your God and you will be my people. Live the way I tell you. Do what I command so that your lives will go well."H1697H6680H559H8085H6963H430H5971H1980H1870H6680H319024"'But do you think they listened? Not a word of it. They did just what they wanted to do, indulged any and every evil whim and got worse day by day.H8085H5186H241H3212H4156H8307H7451H3820H268H644025From the time your ancestors left the land of Egypt until now, I've supplied a steady stream of my servants the prophets,H3117H1H3318H776H4714H3117H7971H5650H5030H3117H7925H797126but do you think the people listened? Not once. Stubborn as mules and worse than their ancestors!'H8085H5186H241H7185H6203H7489H127"Tell them all this, but don't expect them to listen. Call out to them, but don't expect an answer.H1696H1697H8085H7121H603028Tell them, 'You are the nation that wouldn't obey GOD, that refused all discipline. Truth has disappeared. There's not a trace of it left in your mouths.H559H1471H8085H6963H3068H430H3947H4148H530H6H3772H631029"'So shave your heads. Go bald to the hills and lament, For GOD has rejected and left this generation that has made him so angry.'H1494H5145H7993H5375H7015H8205H3068H3988H5203H1755H567830"The people of Judah have lived evil lives while I've stood by and watched." GOD's Decree. "In deliberate insult to me, they've set up their obscene god-images in the very Temple that was built to honor me.H1121H3063H6213H7451H5869H5002H3068H7760H8251H1004H7121H8034H293031They've constructed Topheth altars for burning babies in prominent places all through the valley of Ben-hinnom, altars for burning their sons and daughters alive in the fire—a shocking perversion of all that I am and all I command.H1129H1116H8612H1516H1121H2011H8313H1121H1323H784H6680H5927H382032"But soon, very soon"—GOD's Decree!—"the names Topheth and Ben-hinnom will no longer be used. They'll call the place what it is: Murder Meadow. Corpses will be stacked up in Topheth because there's no room left to bury them!H3117H935H5002H3068H559H8612H1516H1121H2011H1516H2028H6912H8612H369H472533Corpses abandoned in the open air, fed on by crows and coyotes, who have the run of the place.H5038H5971H3978H5775H8064H929H776H272934And I'll empty both smiles and laughter from the villages of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem. No wedding songs, no holiday sounds. Dead silence.H7673H5892H3063H2351H3389H6963H8342H6963H8057H6963H2860H6963H3618H776H2723
Columbus, OH
