DONNIE DAILY GEMS FOR SATURDAY AUGUST 13:
DAILY BIBLE READING
Jeremiah 7-9Easy-to-Read Version (ERV)
Jeremiah's Temple Sermon
7 This is the Lord's message to Jeremiah: 2 "Jeremiah, stand at the gate of
the Lord's house. Teach this message at the gate:
"'Hear the message from the Lord, all you people of the nation of Judah. All
you who come through these gates to worship the Lord, hear this message. 3
The Lord All-Powerful, the God of Israel, says: Change your lives and do
good things. If you do this, I will let you live in this place.[a] 4 Don't
trust the lies that some people say. They say, "This is the Temple of the
Lord, the Temple of the Lord, the Temple of the Lord![b]" 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 help widows
and orphans. Don't kill innocent people! And don't follow other gods,
because they will only ruin your lives. 7 If you obey me, I will let you
live in this place. I gave this land to your ancestors for them to keep
forever.
8 "'But you are trusting lies that are worthless. 9 Will you steal and
murder? Will you commit adultery? Will you falsely accuse other people? Will
you worship the false god Baal and follow other gods that you have not
known? 10 If you commit these 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 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 they did.[c]
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 as I destroyed
Shiloh. And that house in Jerusalem that is called by my name is the Temple
you trust in. I gave that place to you and to your ancestors. 15 I will
throw you away from me just as I threw away all your brothers from Ephraim.'
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 me to help them. I will not listen to
your prayer for them. 17 I know you see what they 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 then make cakes of bread to offer to the Queen of Heaven. The
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 they are really hurting." This
message is from the Lord. "They are only hurting themselves. They are
bringing shame on themselves."
20 So this is what the Lord God says: "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-no one will be able to stop it."
Obedience Is Better Than Sacrifice
21 This is what the Lord All-Powerful, the God of Israel, says: "Go and
offer as many burnt offerings and sacrifices as you want. Eat the meat of
those sacrifices yourselves. 22 I brought your ancestors 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 did not listen to me. They did not pay attention to
me. They were stubborn and did what 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 even worse than their fathers did.
27 "Jeremiah, you will tell these things to the people of Judah. But they
will not listen to you. You call to them, but they will not 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. They don't
know the true teachings.'
The Valley of Slaughter
29 "Jeremiah, cut off your hair and throw it away.[d] Go up to the bare
hilltop and cry, because the Lord has rejected this generation of people. He
has turned his back on these people. And in anger he will punish them. 30 Do
this because I have seen the people of Judah doing evil things." This
message is from the Lord. "They have set up their idols, and I hate those
idols. They have set up idols in the Temple that is called by my name. They
have made my house 'dirty'! 31 The people of Judah built the high places of
Topheth in the Valley of Ben Hinnom where they killed their own sons and
daughters and burned them as sacrifices. This is something I never
commanded. Something like this never even entered my mind! 32 So I warn you.
The days are coming," says the Lord, "when people will not call this place
Topheth or the Valley of Ben Hinnom anymore. No, they will call it the
Valley of Slaughter. They will give it this name because they will bury the
dead people in Topheth until there is no more room to bury anyone else. 33
Then the bodies of the dead people will become food for the birds of the
sky. Wild animals will eat the bodies of those people. There will be no one
left alive to chase the birds or animals away. 34 I will bring an end to the
sounds of joy and happiness in the towns of Judah and in the streets of
Jerusalem. There will be no more sounds of the bride and bridegroom in Judah
or Jerusalem. The land will become an empty desert."
8 This message is from the Lord: "At that time men will take the bones of
the kings and important rulers of Judah from their tombs. They will take the
bones of the priests and prophets from their tombs. They will take the bones
of all the people of Jerusalem from their tombs. 2 They will spread the
bones on the ground under the sun, the moon, and the stars. The people of
Jerusalem love to worship the sun, the moon, and the stars. No one will
gather the bones and bury them again. So the bones of those people will be
like dung thrown on the ground.
3 "I will force the people of Judah to leave their homes and their land.
They will be taken away to foreign lands. Some of the people of Judah who
were not killed in the war will wish that they had been killed." This
message is from the Lord All-Powerful.
Sin and Punishment
4 "Jeremiah, say this to the people of Judah: 'This is what the Lord says:
"'You know if a man falls down,
he gets up again.
And if a man goes the wrong way,
he turns around and comes back.
5
The people of Judah went the wrong way.
But why do the people of Jerusalem continue going the wrong way?
They believe their own lies.
They refuse to turn around and come back.
6
I have listened to them very carefully,
but they don't say what is right.
They are not sorry for their sins.
They don't think about the evil they have done.
They do things without thinking.
They are like horses running into a battle.
7
Even the birds in the sky
know the right time to do things.
The storks, doves, swifts, and thrushes
know when it is time to fly to a new home.
But my people don't know
what the Lord wants them to do.
8
"'You keep saying, "We have the Lord's teachings. So we are wise!"
But this is not true, because the scribes have lied with their pens.
9
These "wise people" refused to listen to the Lord's teachings.
So they are not really wise at all.
These "wise people" were trapped.
They became shocked and ashamed.
10
So I will give their wives to other men.
I will give their fields to new owners.
All the people of Israel want more and more money.
All of them, from the least important to the most important, are like
that.
Even the prophets and priests tell lies.
11
They should bandage the wounds my people have suffered,
but they treat their wounds like small scratches.
They say, "It's all right, everything is all right."
But it is not all right!
12
They should be ashamed of the evil things they do,
but they are not ashamed at all.
They don't know enough to be embarrassed by their sins.
So they will be punished with everyone else.
They will be thrown to the ground when I punish the people.'"
This is what the Lord said.
13
"'I will take away their fruit and crops
so that there will be no harvest, says the Lord.
There will be no grapes on the vine and no figs on the fig tree.
Even the leaves will become dry and die.
I will take away the things I gave them.'"[e]
14
"They will say, 'Why are we just sitting here?
Come, let's run to the strong cities.
If the Lord our God is going to make us die,
then let's die there.
We have sinned against the Lord,
so he has given us poisoned water to drink.
15
We hoped to have peace,
but nothing good has come.
We hoped that he would forgive us,
but only disaster has come.
16
From the land of the tribe of Dan,
we hear the snorting[f] of the enemy's horses.
The ground shakes from the pounding of their hooves.
They have come to destroy the land
and everything in it.
They have come to destroy the city
and all the people who live there.'"
17
"People of Judah, I am sending poisonous snakes[g] to attack you.
These snakes cannot be controlled.
They will bite you."
This message is from the Lord.
18
God, I am very sad and afraid.
19
Listen to my people.
Everywhere in this country, people are crying for help.
They say, "Is the Lord still at Zion?
Is Zion's King still there?"
But God says,
"The people of Judah worshiped their worthless foreign idols.
That made me very angry!
Why did they do that?"
20
And the people say,
"Harvest time is over.
Summer is gone,
and still we have not been saved."
21
My people are hurt, so I am hurt.
I am too sad to speak.
22
Surely there is some medicine in Gilead.
Surely there is a doctor in Gilead.
So why are the wounds of my people not healed?
9 If my head were filled with water,
and if my eyes were a fountain of tears,
I would cry day and night for my people who have been destroyed.
2
If only I had a place in the desert-
a house where travelers spend the night-
so I could leave my people.
I could go away from them,
because they are all unfaithful to God.
They have all turned against him.
3
"They use their tongues like a bow;
lies fly from their mouths like arrows.
Lies, not truth,
have grown strong in this land.
They go from one sin to another.
They don't know me."
This is what the Lord said.
4
"Watch your neighbors!
Don't trust your own brothers,
because every brother is a cheat.
Every neighbor talks behind your back.
5
Everyone lies to their neighbor.
No one speaks the truth.
The people of Judah have taught
their tongues to lie.
They sinned until they were too tired
to come back.
6
One bad thing followed another,
and lies followed lies.
The people refused to know me."
This is what the Lord said.
7
So the Lord All-Powerful says,
"A worker heats metal in a fire to test it and see if it is pure.
I will test the people of Judah like that.
I have no other choice.
My people have sinned.
8
The people of Judah have tongues as sharp as arrows.
Their mouths speak lies.
They all speak kindly to their neighbors,
but they are secretly planning ways to attack them.
9
Should I punish the people of Judah for doing these things?"
This message is from the Lord.
"You know I should punish a nation such as this.
I should give it the punishment it deserves."
10
I, Jeremiah, will cry for the mountains.
I will sing a funeral song for the empty fields,
because all the animals were taken away.
No one travels there now.
The sounds of cattle cannot be heard.
The birds have flown away,
and the animals are gone.
11
The Lord says,[h] "I will make the city of Jerusalem a pile of garbage.
It will be a home for jackals.
I will destroy the cities in the land of Judah,
so no one will live there."
12 Is there a man who is wise enough to understand these things? Is there
someone who has been taught by the Lord? Can anyone explain his message? Why
was the land ruined? Why was it made like an empty desert where no one goes?
13 The Lord answered, "It is because the people of Judah stopped following
my teachings. I gave them my teachings, but they refused to listen to me.
They did not follow my teachings. 14 The people of Judah lived their own
way. They were stubborn. They followed the false god Baal. Their fathers
taught them to follow those false gods."
15 So the Lord All-Powerful, the God of Israel, says, "I will soon make the
people of Judah eat bitter food and drink poisoned water. 16 I will scatter
the people of Judah throughout other nations. They will live in strange
nations that they and their fathers never knew about. I will send men with
swords. They will kill the people of Judah. They will kill them until all
the people are gone."
17
This is what the Lord All-Powerful says:
"Now think about these things!
Call for the women who get paid to cry at funerals.
Send for the people who are good at that job.
18
The people say,
'Let those women come quickly
and cry for us.
Then our eyes will fill with tears
that flow over our eyelids like streams of water.'
19
"The sound of loud crying is heard from Zion:
'We are really ruined!
We are so ashamed!
We must leave our land,
because our houses have been destroyed.
Now our houses are only piles of rock.'"
20
Now, women of Judah, listen to the message from the Lord.
Listen to the words from his mouth.
Teach your daughters how to cry loudly.
Each of them must learn to sing this funeral song:
21
"Death has climbed in through our windows
and has come into our palaces.
Death has come to our children who play in the streets
and to the young men who meet in the public places."
22
This is what you should say: "The Lord says,
'Dead bodies will lie
in the fields like dung.
Their bodies will lie on the ground like grain a farmer has cut.
But there will be no one to gather them.'"
23
This is what the Lord says:
"The wise must not brag about their wisdom.
The strong men must not brag about their strength.
The rich must not brag about their money.
24
But if someone wants to brag, then let them brag about this:
Let them brag that they learned to know me.
Let them brag that they understand that I am the Lord,
that I am kind and fair,
and that I do good things on earth.
I love this kind of bragging."
This message is from the Lord.
25 This is what the Lord says: "The time is coming when I will punish all
those who are circumcised only in the body. 26 I am talking about the people
of the nations of Egypt, Judah, Edom, Ammon, Moab, and all those who live in
the desert. The circumcision they do is not the kind the Lord wants. But the
people of Israel are not really circumcised either. They are not circumcised
in their hearts.[i]"
Footnotes:
a.Jeremiah 7:3 I will . place This can also mean "I will live with you."
b.Jeremiah 7:4 This is . Lord Many people in Jerusalem thought the Lord
would always protect the city where his Temple was, so it didn't matter how
evil they were.
c.Jeremiah 7:12 Go . they did Shiloh was probably destroyed by the
Philistines in the time of Eli and Samuel. See 1 Sam. 4.
d.Jeremiah 7:29 cut . away This showed that Jeremiah was sad.
e.Jeremiah 8:13 I will take away . gave them The Hebrew text here is hard to
understand.
f.Jeremiah 8:16 snorting The sound caused by forcing breath very hard
through the nose.
g.Jeremiah 8:17 poisonous snakes This probably means one of Judah's enemies.
h.Jeremiah 9:11 The Lord says This is implied from the context.
i.Jeremiah 9:26 circumcised in their hearts See the note at Jer. 4:4.
Easy-to-Read Version (ERV)
Copyright C 2006 by Bible League International
