Jeremiah 6-7
New Catholic Bible
Chapter 6[a]
Invasion and Destruction
1 O people of Jerusalem, flee for safety!
Depart immediately from Jerusalem!
Sound the trumpet in Tekoa![b]
Raise a signal over Beth-haccherem!
For disaster looms from the north,
immense destruction will ensue.
2 The beautiful and delicate daughter Zion
faces imminent destruction.
3 Shepherds will advance against her with their flocks;
they will pitch their tents all around her,
each one grazing his own portion of the pasture.
4 “Prepare for war against her!
Arise! We will attack at noon.”
“It is now too late.
The daylight is fading,
and the evening shadows have begun to lengthen.”
5 “On your feet! Let us attack by night
and destroy her palaces.”
6 These are the words of the Lord of hosts:
Cut down her trees
and raise up siege-ramps against Jerusalem.
This city must be punished,
for oppression is rampant within her.
7 As a well keeps its water fresh,
so she keeps fresh her wickedness.
Sounds of violence and destruction resound within her;
sickness and wounds are never out of my sight.
8 Heed my warning, O Jerusalem,
or I will turn away from you in revulsion
and reduce you to a desert,
a desolate land where no man dwells.
9 These are the words of the Lord of hosts:
Glean thoroughly like a vine
the remnant of Israel.
Like one who picks the grapes,
pass your hand once again over its branches.
10 To whom should I speak and issue warning
so that they may hear?
See, their ears are closed,
and so they cannot pay heed
They regard the word of the Lord as offensive
and they take no pleasure in it.
11 However, I am filled with the wrath of the Lord,
and I am weary of holding it in.
I will pour it out on the children in the street
as well as on the gatherings of young men.
Both husband and wife will be taken,
the elderly and those far advanced in years.
12 Their houses will be turned over to others,
together with their fields and their wives,
when I stretch out my hand
against those who dwell in the land,
says the Lord.
13 For from the least to the greatest,
all are greedy for gain.
All of them practice fraud,
prophets and priests alike.
14 They treat the wound of my people
as though it were a minor bruise,
saying, “All is well,”
when in reality, disaster looms on the horizon.
15 They should be ashamed
because of their abominable deeds.
Yet they are never ashamed
they do not know how to blush.
Therefore, they will fall along with the others;
they will be cast down when I punish them,
says the Lord.
16 These are the words of the Lord of hosts:
Stand at the crossroads and look around;
ask for the ancient paths.
When you are shown where the good way lies,
walk along it and your souls will find rest.
However, they said, “We will not take it.”
17 I also posted sentinels for you and said,
“Listen to the sound of the trumpet!”
But they said, “We will not give it any heed.”
18 Therefore, hear, you nations,
and come to understand, you people,
the fate that will befall them.
19 Let all on earth come to understand
the extent of the disaster I will inflict on this people,
the inescapable fruit of their schemes,
because they have not given heed to my words
and have rejected my law.
20 What use do I have for incense imported from Sheba
or fragrant cane from a distant land?
I do not regard your burnt offerings as acceptable,
nor are your sacrifices pleasing to me.
21 Therefore, thus says the Lord:
Behold, I will now place obstacles before this people
that will cause them to stumble.
Fathers and sons, friends and neighbors,
will all perish together.
22 These are the words of the Lord of hosts:
Behold, a people is approaching
from the land of the north;
a great nation is coming forth
from the ends of the earth.
23 Armed with bow and javelin,
they are cruel and lack any semblance of mercy.
Their sound is like the thunder of the sea
as they ride forth on their horses;
they approach in battle formation
to fight against you, O daughter of Zion.
24 As news about them reaches us,
our hands become limp.
Anguish has gripped us,
pain like that of a woman in labor.
25 Do not venture forth into the countryside
or walk along the roads.
Terror lurks on every side
from the swords of the enemy.
26 O daughter of my people,
wrap yourselves in sackcloth
and roll in the ashes.
Mourn as you would for an only child
with bitter lamentation.
For suddenly approaching us,
we will behold the destroyer.
27 [c]I have designated you as a tester of my people
so that you may learn and test their ways.
28 All of then are unrepentant rebels,
comfortable in slander and corrupt without exception,
hard as bronze and iron.
29 The bellows roar
and the lead is consumed by the fire.
In vain does the smelter do his work,
for the wicked are not purged out.[d]
30 They are called “rejected silver,”
for the Lord has indeed rejected them.
Prophecies Mainly in the Days of Jehoiakim
Chapter 7
True Worship.[e] 1 This is the word of the Lord that was delivered to Jeremiah: 2 Stand at the gate of the house of the Lord, and proclaim there this message: Hear the word of the Lord, all you people of Judah who enter through these gates to worship the Lord. 3 This is the message that the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, proclaims to you: Amend your ways and your deeds so that I may remain with you in this place. 4 Do not place your trust in these deceptive words: This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord.
5 However, if you truly amend your ways and your deeds, if you are upright in your dealings with your neighbor; 6 if you do not oppress the alien, the orphan, and the widow; if you do not shed innocent blood in this place; and if you do not follow other gods and thereby cause your own destruction, 7 then I will allow you to live in this place, in the land that I gave as a permanent gift to your fathers long ago.
8 You have been placing your trust in deceitful words that are completely worthless. 9 Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, engage in perjury, burn incense to Baal, and follow other gods about whom you know nothing, 10 and then come and stand before me in this house which bears my name and say, “We are safe,” all the while intending to continue doing these abominable deeds? 11 Has this house which bears my name become in your eyes a den of thieves? Be assured that I am fully aware of what you are doing, says the Lord.
12 Go now to my shrine of Shiloh which I originally designated as the dwelling place of my name. There you can observe what I did to it as the result of the wickedness of my people Israel.[f] 13 And now, because you have done all these things, says the Lord, and refused to listen when I spoke to you continuously, and would not answer when I called you, 14 I therefore will do to the house that bears my name, to this house in which you trust, and to this place which I gave to you and your fathers, just what I did to Shiloh. 15 And I will cast you out of my sight, just as I cast out all your kinsfolk, all the offspring of Ephraim.
16 Abuses in Worship. For your part, Jeremiah, do not intercede for this people, do not raise a plea or a prayer on their behalf, and do not intercede with me, for I will not listen to you. 17 Do you not observe what they are doing in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? 18 The children gather up the wood, their fathers light the fire, and the women knead dough to make cakes for the queen of heaven. And to arouse my anger, they pour out drink offerings to other gods.
19 But am I the one whom they hurt? asks the Lord. Is it not rather themselves, to their own shame? 20 Therefore, says the Lord God, my anger and wrath will pour forth on this place, on man and beast, on the trees of the field and the fruits of the earth, and burn without being quenched.
21 Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices and consume all the flesh yourselves. 22 For when I brought forth your ancestors out of the land of Egypt, I gave them no commands in regard to burnt offerings and sacrifices. 23 What I commanded them was this: Listen to my voice, and I will be your God, and you will be my people. If you follow all the ways that I command you, then you will prosper.
24 However, they did not obey or pay heed to my words. Rather, they persisted in following their own evil inclinations with stubborn hearts and turned their backs to me, not their faces. 25 From the day your ancestors left Egypt until today, I unfailingly sent all my servants the prophets to them. 26 Yet they have not listened to me or paid attention; instead they stiffened their necks and proved to be worse than their ancestors.
27 When you speak all these words to them, they will not listen to you. When you call out to them, they will not answer you. 28 Then you are to say to them: This is the nation that did not obey the Lord, their God, or accept correction. Truth has perished. It no longer issues forth from their mouths.
29 [g]Cut off your hair and cast it away;
raise a lamentation on the barren heights.
For the Lord has rejected and abandoned
the generation that has provoked his wrath.
30 The people of Judah have perpetrated deeds that are evil in my sight, says the Lord. They have defiled the house that bears my name by setting up within it their loathsome idols. 31 Furthermore, they have built the high places of Topheth[h] in the Valley of Ben-hinnom to burn their sons and daughters in the fire—a deed that I never ordered and that never even entered my mind.
32 Therefore, beware, for the days are coming, says the Lord, when the names of Topheth and the Valley of Ben-hinnom will no longer be used. They will rather be referred to as the Valley of Slaughter. Because of a scarcity of space, Topheth will become a burial ground. 33 The corpses of this people will serve as food for the birds of the sky and the animals of the earth, and no one will frighten them away. 34 In the towns of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem I will banish all sounds of joy and gladness and the voices of the bridegroom and bride, for the entire land will have become a desert.
Footnotes
- Jeremiah 6:1 The nation has not heeded the word of God. God is about to strike without pity.
- Jeremiah 6:1 Tekoa, a little south of Bethlehem, and Beth-haccherem, west of Jerusalem, were places near the capital. The poetic style allowed the use of varied concrete names instead of repeating “Jerusalem.”
- Jeremiah 6:27 The prophet’s work is useless: Israel refuses purification.
- Jeremiah 6:29 Smelters of silver used lead because when this melted and oxidized on contact with air it drew to itself the dross from the precious metal.
- Jeremiah 7:1 We are here in the period of Jehoiakim, and there has been a revival of idolatry. But there is another and even more serious danger: the temple and its sacrifices have become a barrier between God and his people. If the people persist in their impious behavior, even offering libations to the goddess of fecundity (v. 18), nothing will be able to save them, and the temple itself will not escape the ruin! The example of another temple, the one in Shiloh, in which even the Ark had rested (see 1 Sam 4:12-18) and the ruin of the entire northern kingdom in 721 B.C. (v. 15) are precedents which ought to make people think.
- Jeremiah 7:12 It is from this verse (and see Jer 26:6) and from Ps 78:60 that we know the end of the sanctuary at Shiloh.
- Jeremiah 7:29 The Valley of Ben-hinnom, where sacrifices of children were offered, would become an open-air charnel house. And in the neighborhood of the city, the desecrated bones of worshipers of the stars (see Jer 8:2) would remain exposed before the gaze of their helpless divinities. The privation of burial and the desecration of graves were curses.
- Jeremiah 7:31 Topheth probably means “furnace, pyre.”
