Jeremiah:7

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* The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD : * "Stand in the gate of the LORD 's house , and proclaim there this word , and say , Hear the word of the LORD , all you men of Judah who enter these gates to worship the LORD . * Thus says the LORD of hosts , the God of Israel , Amend your ways and your doings , and I will let you dwell in this place . * Do not trust in these deceptive words : `This is the temple of the LORD , the temple of the LORD , the temple of the LORD .' * "For if you truly amend your ways and your doings , if you truly execute justice one with another , * if you do not oppress the alien , the fatherless or the widow , or shed innocent blood in this place , and if you do not go after other gods to your own hurt , * then I will let you dwell in this place , in the land that I gave of old to your fathers for ever . * "Behold , you trust in deceptive words to no avail . * Will you steal , murder , commit adultery , swear falsely , burn incense to Ba 'al , and go after other gods that you have not known , * and then come and stand before me in this house , which is called by my name , and say , `We are delivered !'--only to go on doing all these abominations ? * Has this house , which is called by my name , become a den of robbers in your eyes ? Behold , I myself have seen it , says the LORD . * Go now to my place that was in Shiloh , where I made my name dwell at first , and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people Israel . * And now , because you have done all these things , says the LORD , and when I spoke to you persistently you did not listen , and when I called you , you did not answer , * therefore I will do to the house which is called by my name , and in which you trust , and to the place which I gave to you and to your fathers , as I did to Shiloh . * And I will cast you out of my sight , as I cast out all your kinsmen , all the offspring of E 'phraim . * "As for you , do not pray for this people , or lift up cry or prayer for them , and do not intercede with me , for I do not hear you . * Do you not see what they are doing in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem ? * The children gather wood , the fathers kindle fire , and the women knead dough , to make cakes for the queen of heaven ; and they pour out drink offerings to other gods , to provoke me to anger . * Is it I whom they provoke ? says the LORD . Is it not themselves , to their own confusion ? * Therefore thus says the Lord GOD : Behold , my anger and my wrath will be poured out on this place , upon man and beast , upon the trees of the field and the fruit of the ground ; it will burn and not be quenched ." * Thus says the LORD of hosts , the God of Israel : "Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices , and eat the flesh . * For in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt , I did not speak to your fathers or command them concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices . * But this command I gave them , `Obey my voice , and I will be your God , and you shall be my people ; and walk in all the way that I command you , that it may be well with you .' * But they did not obey or incline their ear , but walked in their own counsels and the stubbornness of their evil hearts , and went backward and not forward . * From the day that your fathers came out of the land of Egypt to this day , I have persistently sent all my servants the prophets to them , day after day ; * yet they did not listen to me , or incline their ear , but stiffened their neck . They did worse than their fathers . * "So you shall speak all these words to them , but they will not listen to you . You shall call to them , but they will not answer you . * And you shall say to them , `This is the nation that did not obey the voice of the LORD their God , and did not accept discipline ; truth has perished ; it is cut off from their lips . * Cut off your hair and cast it away ; raise a lamentation on the bare heights , for the LORD has rejected and forsaken the generation of his wrath .' * "For the sons of Judah have done evil in my sight , says the LORD ; they have set their abominations in the house which is called by my name , to defile it . * And they have built the high place of Topheth , which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom , to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire ; which I did not command , nor did it come into my mind . * Therefore , behold , the days are coming , says the LORD , when it will no more be called Topheth , or the valley of the son of Hinnom , but the valley of Slaughter : for they will bury in Topheth , because there is no room elsewhere . * And the dead bodies of this people will be food for the birds of the air , and for the beasts of the earth ; and none will frighten them away . * And I will make to cease from the cities of Judah and from the streets of Jerusalem the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness , the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride ; for the land shall become a waste .

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