Jeremiah 7

NEW JERUSALEM	CATHOLIC PUBLIC DOMAIN
1 The word that came to Jeremiah from Yahweh, saying,	1 The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying:
2 'Stand at the gate of the Temple of Yahweh and there proclaim this message. Say, "Listen to the word ofYahweh, al you of Judah who come in by these gates to worship Yahweh.	2 “Stand at the gate to the house of the Lord, and preach this word there, and say: Listen to the word of the Lord, all you of Judah who enter through these gates to adore the Lord.
3 Yahweh Sabaoth, the God of Israel, says this: Amend your behaviour and your actions and I will let youstay in this place.	3 Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Make your ways and your intentions good, and I will live with you in this place.
4 Do not put your faith in delusive words, such as: This is Yahweh's sanctuary, Yahweh's sanctuary,Yahweh's sanctuary!	4 Do not choose to trust in lying words, saying: ‘This is the temple of the Lord! The temple of the Lord! The temple of the Lord!’
5 But if you really amend your behaviour and your actions, if you real y treat one another fairly,	5 For if you direct your ways and your intentions well, if you exercise judgment between a man and his neighbor,
6 if you do not exploit the stranger, the orphan and the widow, if you do not shed innocent blood in thisplace and if you do not fol ow other gods, to your own ruin,	6 if you do not act with deceit toward the new arrival, the orphan, and the widow, and if you do not pour out innocent blood in this place, and if you do not walk after strange gods, which is to your own harm,
7 then I shall let you stay in this place, in the country I gave for ever to your ancestors of old.	7 then I will live with you in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers from the beginning and even forever.
8 Look, you are putting your faith in delusive, worthless words!	8 Behold, you trust in false words, which will not benefit you,
9 Steal, would you, murder, commit adultery, perjure yourselves, burn incense to Baal, follow other godsof whom you know nothing? -	9 so as to steal, to murder, to commit adultery, to swear falsely, to offer libations to Baal, and to go after strange gods, which you do not know.
10 and then come and stand before me in this Temple that bears my name, saying: Now we are safe to goon doing al these loathsome things!	10 And you arrived and stood before me in this house, where my name is invoked, and you said: ‘We have been freed because we carried out all these abominations.’
11 Do you look on this Temple that bears my name as a den of bandits? I, at any rate, can see straight,Yahweh declares.	11 So then, has this house, where my name has been invoked, become a den of robbers in your eyes? It is I, I am, I have seen, says the Lord.
12 "Now go to the place which used to be mine at Shiloh, where I once gave my name a home; see what Ihave done to it because of the wickedness of my people Israel!	12 Go to my place in Shiloh, where my name has lived from the beginning, and see what I did to it because of the wickedness of my people Israel.
13 And now, since you have done al these things, Yahweh declares, and refused to listen when I spokeso urgently, so persistently, or to answer when I cal ed you,	13 And now, because you have done all these works, says the Lord, and because I have spoken to you from your morning rising, and because I was speaking, but you were not listening, and because I have called you, but you have not responded:
14 I shal treat this Temple that bears my name, and in which you put your heart, the place that I gave youand your ancestors, just as I treated Shiloh,	14 I will do to this house, in which my name is invoked, and in which you have confidence, even to this place which I gave to you and to your fathers, just as I have done to Shiloh.
15 and I shal drive you out of my sight, as I did al your kinsfolk, the whole race of Ephraim."	15 And I will cast you away from my face, just as I have cast away all your brothers, the entire offspring of Ephraim.
16 'You, for your part, must not intercede for this people, nor raise either plea or prayer on their behalf; donot plead with me, for I wil not listen to you.	16 Therefore, you should not pray for this people, nor take up praise and supplication on their behalf. And you should not stand in opposition to me. For then I will not heed you.
17 Can you not see what they are doing in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem?	17 Have you not seen what they are doing in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem?
18 The children collect the wood, the fathers light the fire, the women knead the dough, to make cakes forthe Queen of Heaven; and, to spite me, they pour libations to alien gods.	18 The sons gather the wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the wives spread the grease, so as to make cakes to the queen of heaven and to offer libations to strange gods, and so as to provoke me to anger.
19 Is it real y me they spite, Yahweh demands, is it not in fact themselves, to their own confusion?	19 But are they provoking me to anger, says the Lord? Are they not provoking themselves, to the confusion of their own faces?”
20 So, Lord Yahweh says this, "My anger, my wrath wil be poured down on this place, on man and beast,on the trees of the countryside and the fruits of the soil; it wil burn, and not be quenched."	20 Therefore, thus says the Lord God: “Behold, my fury and my indignation is kindled against this place, over men and over beasts, and over the trees of the countryside and over the fruits of the land, and it will burn and not be extinguished.”
21 'Yahweh Sabaoth, the God of Israel, says this, "Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices and eat allthe meat.	21 Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: “Add your holocausts to your sacrifices, and eat the flesh.
22 For when I brought your ancestors out of Egypt, I said nothing to them, gave them no orders, aboutburnt offerings or sacrifices.	22 For concerning the matter of holocausts and sacrifices, I did not speak with your fathers, and I did not instruct them, in the day when I led them away from the land of Egypt.
23 My one command to them was this: Listen to my voice, then I wil be your God and you shal be mypeople. In everything, fol ow the way that I mark out for you, and you shal prosper.	23 But on this matter I did instruct them, saying: Listen to my voice, and I will be your God, and you will be my people. And walk in the entire way that I have commanded you, so that it may be well with you.
24 But they did not listen, they did not pay attention; they followed their own devices, their own stubbornand wicked inclinations, and got worse rather than better.	24 But they did not listen, nor did they incline their ear. Instead, they walked by their own will and in the depravity of their own wicked heart. And so, they went backward, and not forward,
25 From the day your ancestors left Egypt until today, I have sent you al my servants the prophets,persistently sending them day after day.	25 from the day when their fathers went forth from the land of Egypt, even to this day. And I have sent all my servants, the prophets, to you, throughout the day, rising at first light and sending them.
26 But they have not listened to me, have not paid attention; they have deliberately resisted, behavingworse than their ancestors.	26 But they have not listened to me, nor have they inclined their ear. Instead, they have stiffened their neck, and they have behaved worse than their fathers did.
27 So you will tel them al this, but they wil not listen to you; you wil cal them, but they wil not answeryou."	27 And so, you will speak to them all these words, but they will not listen to you. And you will call to them, but they will not respond to you.
28 Then you are to say to them, "This is the nation that wil neither listen to the voice of Yahweh its Godnor take correction. Sincerity is no more, it has vanished from their mouths.	28 And you will say to them: This is the nation that has not listened to the voice of the Lord their God, nor accepted discipline. Faith has perished and been taken away from their mouth.
29 "Cut off your tresses, throw them away! On the bare heights raise a dirge, for Yahweh has rejected,has abandoned, a brood that enrages him!"	29 Cut off your hair, and cast it away. And take up a lamentation on high. For the Lord has cast aside and abandoned this generation of his fury.
30 'Yes, the people of Judah have done what displeases me, Yahweh declares. They have set up theirHorrors in the Temple that bears my name, to defile it,	30 For the sons of Judah have done evil in my eyes, says the Lord. They have stationed their abominations in the house where my name is invoked, so that they may defile it.
31 and have built the high places of Topheth in the Valley of Ben-Hinnom, to burn their sons anddaughters: a thing I never ordered, that had never entered my thoughts.	31 And they have built the exalted places of Topheth, which is in the Valley of the son of Hinnom, so that they may burn their sons and their daughters with fire, something I neither instructed, nor thought in my heart.
32 So now the days are coming, Yahweh declares, when people will no longer say Topheth or Val ey ofBen-Hinnom, but Valley of Slaughter. Topheth wil become a burial ground, for lack of other space;	32 For this reason, behold, the days will arrive, says the Lord, when it will no longer be called Topheth, nor the Valley of the son of Hinnom, but instead the Valley of Slaughter. Yet they will bury in Topheth, because there will be no other place.
33 the corpses of this people will be food for the birds of the sky and the animals of earth, and there will beno one to drive them off.	33 And the corpses of this people will be food for the birds of the air and for the wild beasts of the land, and there will be no one to drive them away.
34 I shal silence the shouts of rejoicing and mirth and the voices of bridegroom and bride, in the towns ofJudah and the streets of Jerusalem, for the country will be reduced to desert.'	34 And from the cities of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem, I will cause the cessation of the voice of gladness and the voice of rejoicing, the voice of the groom and the voice of the bride. For the land will be in utter desolation.”