Jeremiah 7 - Easy To Read Version

¹ This is the Lord’s message to Jeremiah:

² Jeremiah, stand at the gate of the Lord’s house. Preach this message at the gate:

³ The Lord is the God of the people of Israel. This is what the Lord All-Powerful says: ‘Change your lives and do good things. If you do this, I will let you live in this place. {\cf2\super [51]}

⁴ Don’t trust the lies that some people say. They say, “This is the temple {\cf2\super [52]} of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord {\cf2\super [53]} !”

⁵ If you change your lives and do good things, I will let you live in this place. You must be fair to each other.

⁶ You must be fair to strangers. You must do the right things for widows and orphans. {\cf2\super [54]} Don’t kill innocent people! Don’t follow other gods! Why? Because they will ruin your lives.

⁷ If you obey me, I will let you live in this place. I gave this land to your ancestors {\cf2\super [55]} for them to keep forever.

⁸ “‘But you are trusting lies. And those lies are worthless.

⁹ Will you steal and murder? Will you do the sin of adultery {\cf2\super [56]} ? Will you falsely accuse other people? Will you worship the false god Baal {\cf2\super [57]} and follow other gods that you have not known?

¹⁰ If you do those sins, do you think that you can stand before me in this house that is called by my name? Do you think you can stand before me and say, “We are safe,” just so you can do all these terrible things?

¹¹ This temple {\cf2\super [58]} is called by my name! Is this temple nothing more to you than a hideout for robbers? I have been watching you.’” This message is from the Lord.

¹² “You people of Judah, go now to the town of Shiloh. Go to the place where I first made a house for my name. The people of Israel also did evil things. Go and see what I did to that place because of the evil things they did. {\cf2\super [59]}

¹³ You people of Israel were doing all these evil things”—This message is from the Lord!—“I spoke to you again and again, but you refused to listen to me. I called to you, but you did not answer.

¹⁴ So I will destroy the house called by my name in Jerusalem. I will destroy that temple {\cf2\super [60]} like I destroyed Shiloh. And that house in Jerusalem that is called by my name is the temple that you trust in. I gave that place to you and to your ancestors.

¹⁵ I will throw you away from me just like I threw away all your brothers from Ephraim. {\cf2\super [61]}

¹⁶ “As for you, Jeremiah, don’t pray for these people of Judah. Don’t beg for them or pray for them. Don’t beg for me to help them. I will not listen to your prayer for them.

¹⁷ I know you see what those people are doing in the towns of Judah. You can see what they are doing in the streets of the city of Jerusalem.

¹⁸ This is what the people of Judah are doing: The children gather wood. The fathers use the wood to make a fire. The women make the dough and make cakes of bread to offer to the Queen of Heaven. {\cf2\super [62]} Those people of Judah pour out drink offerings to worship other gods. They do this to make me angry.

¹⁹ But I am not the one the people of Judah are really hurting.” This message is from the Lord. “They are only hurting themselves. They are bringing shame on themselves.”

²⁰ So the Lord says this: “I will show my anger against this place. I will punish people and animals. I will punish the trees in the field and the crops that grow in the ground. My anger will be like a hot fire—and no person will be able to stop it.”

²¹ The Lord All-Powerful, the God of Israel, says these things: “Go and offer as many burnt offerings and sacrifices as you want. Eat the meat of those sacrifices yourselves.

²² I brought your ancestors {\cf2\super [63]} out of Egypt. I spoke to them, but I did not give them any commands about burnt offerings and sacrifices.

²³ I only gave them this command: ‘Obey me and I will be your God, and you will be my people. Do all that I command, and good things will happen to you.

²⁴ “But your ancestors {\cf2\super [64]} did not listen to me. They did not pay attention to me. They were stubborn and did the things they wanted to do. They did not become good. They became even more evil—they went backward, not forward.

²⁵ From the day that your ancestors left Egypt to this day, I have sent my servants to you. My servants are the prophets. I sent them to you again and again.

²⁶ But your ancestors did not listen to me. They did not pay attention to me. They were very stubborn and did evil worse than their fathers.

²⁷ “Jeremiah, you will tell these things to the people of Judah. But they won’t listen to you! You call to them, but they won’t answer you.

²⁸ So you must tell them these things: This is the nation that did not obey the Lord its God. These people did not listen to God’s teachings. These people don’t know the true teachings.