| Berean Study Bible | NET Bible |
| 1This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying, | 1The LORD said to Jeremiah: |
| 2“Stand in the gate of the house of the LORD and proclaim this message: Hear the word of the LORD, all you people of Judah who enter through these gates to worship the LORD. | 2"Stand in the gate of the LORD's temple and proclaim this message: 'Listen, all you people of Judah who have passed through these gates to worship the LORD. Hear what the LORD has to say. |
| 3Thus says the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel: Correct your ways and deeds, and I will let you live in this place. | 3The LORD God of Israel who rules over all says: Change the way you have been living and do what is right. If you do, I will allow you to continue to live in this land. |
| 4Do not trust in deceptive words, chanting: ‘This is the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD.’ | 4Stop putting your confidence in the false belief that says, "We are safe! The temple of the LORD is here! The temple of the LORD is here! The temple of the LORD is here!" |
| 5For if you really correct your ways and deeds, if you act justly toward one another, | 5You must change the way you have been living and do what is right. You must treat one another fairly. |
| 6if you no longer oppress the foreigner and the fatherless and the widow, and if you no longer shed innocent blood in this place or follow other gods to your own harm, | 6Stop oppressing foreigners who live in your land, children who have lost their fathers, and women who have lost their husbands. Stop killing innocent people in this land. Stop paying allegiance to other gods. That will only bring about your ruin. |
| 7then I will let you live in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers forever and ever. | 7If you stop doing these things, I will allow you to continue to live in this land which I gave to your ancestors as a lasting possession. |
| 8But look, you keep trusting in deceptive words to no avail. | 8"'But just look at you! You are putting your confidence in a false belief that will not deliver you. |
| 9Will you steal and murder, commit adultery and perjury, burn incense to Baal, and follow other gods that you have not known, | 9You steal. You murder. You commit adultery. You lie when you swear on oath. You sacrifice to the god Baal. You pay allegiance to other gods whom you have not previously known. |
| 10and then come and stand before Me in this house, which bears My Name, and say, ‘We are delivered, so we can continue with all these abominations’? | 10Then you come and stand in my presence in this temple I have claimed as my own and say, "We are safe!" You think you are so safe that you go on doing all those hateful sins! |
| 11Has this house, which bears My Name, become a den of robbers in your sight? Yes, I too have seen it, declares the LORD. | 11Do you think this temple I have claimed as my own is to be a hideout for robbers? You had better take note! I have seen for myself what you have done! says the LORD. |
| 12But 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. | 12So, go to the place in Shiloh where I allowed myself to be worshiped in the early days. See what I did to it because of the wicked things my people Israel did. |
| 13And now, because you have done all these things, declares the LORD, and because I have spoken to you again and again but you would not listen, and I have called to you but you would not answer, | 13You also have done all these things, says the LORD, and I have spoken to you over and over again. But you have not listened! You have refused to respond when I called you to repent! |
| 14therefore what I did to Shiloh I will now do to the house that bears My Name, the house in which you trust, the place that I gave to you and your fathers. | 14So I will destroy this temple which I have claimed as my own, this temple that you are trusting to protect you. I will destroy this place that I gave to you and your ancestors, just like I destroyed Shiloh. |
| 15And I will cast you out of My presence, just as I have cast out all your brothers, all the descendants of Ephraim. | 15And I will drive you out of my sight just like I drove out your relatives, the people of Israel.'" |
| 16As for you, do not pray for these people, do not offer a plea or petition on their behalf, and do not beg Me, for I will not listen to you. | 16Then the LORD said, "As for you, Jeremiah, do not pray for these people! Do not cry out to me or petition me on their behalf! Do not plead with me to save them, because I will not listen to you. |
| 17Do you not see what they are doing in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? | 17Do you see what they are doing in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? |
| 18The sons gather wood, the fathers light the fire, and the women knead the dough to make cakes for the Queen of Heaven; they pour out drink offerings to other gods to provoke Me to anger. | 18Children are gathering firewood, fathers are building fires with it, and women are mixing dough to bake cakes to offer to the goddess they call the Queen of Heaven. They are also pouring out drink offerings to other gods. They seem to do all this just to trouble me. |
| 19But am I the One they are provoking? declares the LORD. Is it not themselves they spite, to their own shame? | 19But I am not really the one being troubled!" says the LORD. "Rather they are bringing trouble on themselves to their own shame! |
| 20Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: Behold, My anger and My fury will be poured out on this place, on man and beast, on the trees of the field and the produce of the land, and it will burn and not be extinguished. | 20So," the Lord GOD says, "my raging fury will be poured out on this land. It will be poured out on human beings and animals, on trees and crops. And it will burn like a fire which cannot be extinguished." |
| 21This is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: Add your burnt offerings to your other sacrifices and eat the meat yourselves! | 21The LORD said to the people of Judah, "The LORD God of Israel who rules over all says: 'You might as well go ahead and add the meat of your burnt offerings to that of the other sacrifices and eat it, too! |
| 22For when I brought your fathers out of the land of Egypt, I did not merely command them about burnt offerings and sacrifices, | 22Consider this: When I spoke to your ancestors after I brought them out of Egypt, I did not merely give them commands about burnt offerings and sacrifices. |
| 23but this is what I commanded them: Obey Me, and I will be your God, and you will be My people. You must walk in all the ways I have commanded you, so that it may go well with you. | 23I also explicitly commanded them: "Obey me. If you do, I will be your God and you will be my people. Live exactly the way I tell you and things will go well with you." |
| 24Yet they did not listen or incline their ear, but they followed the stubborn inclinations of their own evil hearts. They went backward and not forward. | 24But they did not listen to me or pay any attention to me. They followed the stubborn inclinations of their own wicked hearts. They acted worse and worse instead of better. |
| 25From the day your fathers came out of the land of Egypt until this day, I have sent you all My servants the prophets again and again. | 25From the time your ancestors departed the land of Egypt until now, I sent my servants the prophets to you again and again, day after day. |
| 26Yet they would not listen to Me or incline their ear, but they stiffened their necks and did more evil than their fathers. | 26But your ancestors did not listen to me nor pay attention to me. They became obstinate and were more wicked than even their own forefathers.'" |
| 27When you tell them all these things, they will not listen to you. When you call to them, they will not answer. | 27Then the LORD said to me, "When you tell them all this, they will not listen to you. When you call out to them, they will not respond to you. |
| 28Therefore you must say to them, ‘This is the nation that would not listen to the voice of the LORD their God and would not receive correction. Truth has perished; it has disappeared from their lips. | 28So tell them: 'This is a nation that has not obeyed the LORD their God and has not accepted correction. Faithfulness is nowhere to be found in it. These people do not even profess it anymore. |
| 29Cut off your hair and throw it away. Raise up a lamentation on the barren heights, for the LORD has rejected and forsaken the generation of His wrath.’ | 29So, mourn, you people of this nation. Cut off your hair and throw it away. Sing a song of mourning on the hilltops. For the LORD has decided to reject and forsake this generation that has provoked his wrath!'" |
| 30For the people of Judah have done evil in My sight, declares the LORD. They have set up their abominations in the house that bears My Name, and so have defiled it. | 30The LORD says, "I have rejected them because the people of Judah have done what I consider evil. They have set up their disgusting idols in the temple which I have claimed for my own and have defiled it. |
| 31They have built the high places of Topheth in the Valley of Hinnom so they could burn their sons and daughters in the fire—something I never commanded, nor did it even enter My mind. | 31They have also built places of worship in a place called Topheth in the Valley of Ben Hinnom so that they can sacrifice their sons and daughters by fire. That is something I never commanded them to do! Indeed, it never even entered my mind to command such a thing! |
| 32So behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when this place will no longer be called Topheth and the Valley of Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter. For they will bury the dead in Topheth until there is no more room. | 32So, watch out!" says the LORD. "The time will soon come when people will no longer call those places Topheth or the Valley of Ben Hinnom. But they will call that valley the Valley of Slaughter and they will bury so many people in Topheth they will run out of room. |
| 33The corpses of this people will become food for the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth, and there will be no one to scare them away. | 33Then the dead bodies of these people will be left on the ground for the birds and wild animals to eat. There will not be any survivors to scare them away. |
| 34I will remove from the cities of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem the sounds of joy and gladness and the voices of the bride and bridegroom, for the land will become a wasteland.” | 34I will put an end to the sounds of joy and gladness, or the glad celebration of brides and grooms throughout the towns of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem. For the whole land will become a desolate wasteland." |
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