Y’all Must Correct Your Ways
Jeremiah 7The word that came to Jeremiah from YHWH, saying, “You must stand in the gate of the house of YHWH and proclaim this word there, saying, ‘Y’all are to listen to the word of YHWH, all from Judah, who enter in at these gates to worship YHWH.’”
YHWH Almighty, the God of Israel says, “Y’all must correct your* ways and your* deeds, and I will cause y’all to dwell in this place. Y’all must not trust in words of deceptive and say, ‘This is the temple of YHWH, the temple of YHWH, the temple of YHWH.’ For if y’all correct-correct your* ways and your* doings, if y’all thoroughly practice-practice justice between a person and their neighbor; if y’all don’t oppress the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow, and don’t shed innocent blood in this place, and y’all don’t walk after other gods to your* own disaster, then I will cause y’all to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to y’all’s ancestors, from long ago to forever. But look, y’all trust in words if deceptive Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, burn incense to Baal, and walk after other gods that y’all have not known, then y’all would come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, ‘We are delivered,’ so that y’all may do all these detestable acts? Has this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in y’all’s eyes? Look, I myself have seen it,” says YHWH.
“But now y’all must go to my place which was in Shiloh, where I caused my name to dwell at the first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people Israel. Now, because y’all have done all these things,” says YHWH, “and I spoke to y’all, rising up early and speaking, but y’all didn’t listen; and I called y’all, but you* didn’t answer. Therefore I will do to the house which is called by my name, in which y’all trust, and to the place which I gave to y’all and to y’all’s ancestors, as I did to Shiloh. I will cast y’all out of my sight, as I have cast out all y’all’s siblings, even the whole offspring of Ephraim.
“Therefore don’t pray for this people. Don’t lift up a cry or prayer for them or make intercession to me; for I will not hear you. Don’t you see what they do in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead the dough, to make cakes to the queen of the sky, and to pour out drink offerings to other gods, that they may provoke me to anger. Do they provoke me to anger?” says YHWH. “Don’t they provoke themselves, to the confusion of their own faces?”
Therefore Lord YHWH says: “Surely, my anger and my wrath will be poured out on this place, on man, on animal, on the trees of the field, and on the fruit of the ground; and it will burn and will not be quenched.”
Thus YHWH Almighty, the God of Israel says: “Y’all can add your* burnt offerings to your* sacrifices and eat the meat. For when I brought y’all’s ancestors out of the land of Egypt, I did not speak to or command them concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices; However, I commanded them with this, saying, ‘Y’all are to listen to my voice, and I will be y’all’s God, and y’all will be my people. Walk in all the way that I command y’all, so that it may be well with y’all.’ But they didn’t listen or turn their ear, but walked in their own counsels and in the stubbornness of their evil heart, and went backward, and not forward. Since the day that y’all’s ancestors came out of the land of Egypt to this day, I have sent all my servants the prophets to y’all, rising up early every day and sending them. Yet they didn’t listen to me or incline their ear, but made their neck stiff. They did worse than their ancestors.
“You speak all these words to them, they will not listen to you. When you call to them, they will not answer you. You are to tell them, ‘This is the nation that has not listened to YHWH their God’s voice, nor received instruction. Truth has perished, and is cut off from their mouth.’ You are to cut off your hair, and throw it away, and take up a lamentation on the bare heights, because YHWH has rejected and forsaken the generation of ʜɪꜱ wrath.
The Valley of Slaughter
“For the children of Judah have done that which is evil in my sight,” says YHWH. “They have set their detestable things in the house which is called by my name, to defile it. They have built the high places of Topheth, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, which I didn’t command, nor did it come into my mind. Therefore look, the days come”, says YHWH, “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 until there is no place to bury. The dead bodies of this people will be food for the birds of the sky, and for the animals of the earth. No one will frighten them away. Then I will cause 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 will become a waste.”