Jeremiah 7

All 34 verses in the Clear Bible Translation. Tap a verse to compare the KJV and read what it means.

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  1. 1This is the message that came to Jeremiah from the LORD:
  2. 2"Go stand at the gate of the LORD's temple and announce this message: 'Listen to the word of the LORD, all you people of Judah who come through these gates to worship the LORD.'
  3. 3The LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, says: "Change your ways and your actions, and I will let you go on living in this place.
  4. 4Do not trust in deceptive words, saying, 'The temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD are these.'
  5. 5If you truly change your ways and your actions — if you deal fairly with one another,
  6. 6if you stop exploiting foreigners, orphans, and widows, if you stop shedding innocent blood in this place, and if you stop chasing after other gods to your own ruin —
  7. 7then I will let you go on living in this place, in the land I gave to your ancestors forever and ever.
  8. 8But look at you — you're trusting in lies that do you no good at all.
  9. 9Will you really steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, burn incense to Baal, and run after gods you've never even known,
  10. 10and then come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, 'We are delivered to do all these abominations?'
  11. 11Has this house that bears my name become a den of robbers to you? I've been watching — I've seen it all," declares the LORD.
  12. 12Go now to the place in Shiloh where I first set my name, and see what I did to it because of the wickedness of my people Israel.
  13. 13Now, because you have done all these things," says the LORD, "and I spoke to you, getting up early and speaking, but you wouldn't listen, and I called out to you but you wouldn't answer —
  14. 14I will do to this house that bears my name, this place you trust in, this land I gave to you and your ancestors, exactly what I did to Shiloh.
  15. 15I will throw you out of my presence, just as I threw out all your relatives, all the descendants of Ephraim.
  16. 16So do not pray for these people, do not cry out or offer prayers for them, and do not make intercession to me, for I will not listen to you.
  17. 17Don't you see what they're doing in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem?
  18. 18The children gather firewood, the fathers light the fire, and the women knead dough to make cakes for the queen of heaven. They pour out drink offerings to other gods just to make me angry.
  19. 19Do they provoke me to anger? says the LORD. Do they not provoke themselves to the shame of their own faces?
  20. 20So the Lord GOD says: "Watch — my anger and my fury will be poured out on this place, on people and animals alike, on the trees in the fields and the crops in the ground. It will burn and nothing will put it out."
  21. 21The LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, says: "Go ahead — pile your burnt offerings on top of your other sacrifices and eat the meat yourselves.
  22. 22When I brought your ancestors out of Egypt, I didn't say a word to them about burnt offerings or sacrifices.
  23. 23What I did command them was this: 'Listen to my voice, and I will be your God, and you will be my people. Walk in every path I lay out for you, so that things will go well for you.'
  24. 24But they refused to listen. They wouldn't pay attention. Instead, they followed their own plans and the stubbornness of their evil hearts. They went backward, not forward.
  25. 25From the day your ancestors left Egypt until today, I have sent you all my servants the prophets, rising early each day to send them.
  26. 26But they wouldn't listen to me or pay attention. They stiffened their necks and acted even worse than their ancestors did.
  27. 27"You will tell them all of this, but they won't listen to you. You will call out to them, but they won't answer.
  28. 28So say to them: 'This is a nation that refuses to obey the LORD their God and won't accept correction. Truth has died — it has vanished from their lips.'"
  29. 29Cut off your hair, Jerusalem, and throw it away. Mourn on the hilltops, for the LORD has rejected and abandoned the generation under his anger.
  30. 30The people of Judah have done evil in my sight," says the LORD. "They have set their abominations in the house that bears my name, polluting it.
  31. 31They have built the high places of Tophet, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and daughters in the fire; something I did not command, nor did it enter my heart.
  32. 32So the days are coming," declares the LORD, "when it will no longer be called Topheth or the valley of the son of Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter — because they will bury the dead in Topheth until there's no room left.
  33. 33The corpses of this people will become food for the birds of the sky and the wild animals, and no one will be there to scare them away.
  34. 34I will silence the sounds of joy and celebration in the towns of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem — no more laughter, no more wedding songs of brides and grooms. The land will become a wasteland."