- 1The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying,
- 2Stand in the gate of the LORD’s house, and proclaim there this word, and say, Hear the word of the LORD, all ye of Judah, that enter in at these gates to worship the LORD.
- 3Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place.
- 4Trust ye not in lying words, saying, The temple of the LORD, The temple of the LORD, The temple of the LORD, are these.
- 5For if ye throughly amend your ways and your doings; if ye throughly execute judgment between a man and his neighbour;
- 6If ye oppress not the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and shed not innocent blood in this place, neither walk after other gods to your hurt:
- 7Then will I cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers, for ever and ever.
- 8 Behold, ye trust in lying words, that cannot profit.
- 9Will ye steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense unto Baal, and walk after other gods whom ye know not;
- 10And come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, We are delivered to do all these abominations?
- 11Is this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, even I have seen it, saith the LORD.
- 12But go ye now unto my place which was in Shiloh, where I set my name at the first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people Israel.
- 13And now, because ye have done all these works, saith the LORD, and I spake unto you, rising up early and speaking, but ye heard not; and I called you, but ye answered not;
- 14Therefore will I do unto this house, which is called by my name, wherein ye trust, and unto the place which I gave to you and to your fathers, as I have done to Shiloh.
- 15And I will cast you out of my sight, as I have cast out all your brethren, even the whole seed of Ephraim.
- 16Therefore pray not thou for this people, neither lift up cry nor prayer for them, neither make intercession to me: for I will not hear thee.
- 17 Seest thou not what they do in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem?
- 18The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead their dough, to make cakes to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto other gods, that they may provoke me to anger.
- 19Do they provoke me to anger? saith the LORD: do they not provoke themselves to the confusion of their own faces?
- 20Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, mine anger and my fury shall be poured out upon this place, upon man, and upon beast, and upon the trees of the field, and upon the fruit of the ground; and it shall burn, and shall not be quenched.
- 21 Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Put your burnt offerings unto your sacrifices, and eat flesh.
- 22For I spake not unto your fathers, nor commanded them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices:
- 23But this thing commanded I them, saying, Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be my people: and walk ye in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well unto you.
- 24But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear, but walked in the counsels and in the imagination of their evil heart, and went backward, and not forward.
- 25Since the day that your fathers came forth out of the land of Egypt unto this day I have even sent unto you all my servants the prophets, daily rising up early and sending them:
- 26Yet they hearkened not unto me, nor inclined their ear, but hardened their neck: they did worse than their fathers.
- 27Therefore thou shalt speak all these words unto them; but they will not hearken to thee: thou shalt also call unto them; but they will not answer thee.
- 28But thou shalt say unto them, This is a nation that obeyeth not the voice of the LORD their God, nor receiveth correction: truth is perished, and is cut off from their mouth.
- 29 Cut off thine hair, O Jerusalem, and cast it away, and take up a lamentation on high places; for the LORD hath rejected and forsaken the generation of his wrath.
- 30For the children of Judah have done evil in my sight, saith the LORD: they have set their abominations in the house which is called by my name, to pollute it.
- 31And they have built the high places of Tophet, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire; which I commanded them not, neither came it into my heart.
- 32 Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that it shall no more be called Tophet, nor the valley of the son of Hinnom, but the valley of slaughter: for they shall bury in Tophet, till there be no place.
- 33And the carcases of this people shall be meat for the fowls of the heaven, and for the beasts of the earth; and none shall fray them away.
- 34Then will I 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 shall be desolate.
KING JAMES VERSION
JEREMIAH 7
Read the chapter, follow a linked verse, and continue into related Watchman 33 teaching.
CHAPTER VISUAL
Jeremiah 7 — The Temple Sermon and the Den of Robbers.
About this illustration
The composition centers the temple sermon and the den of robbers as the chapter’s defining visual, using a unified, historically grounded scene while avoiding written text and any bodily depiction of God.
Scripture basis: Jeremiah 7:1–34King James Version · Standardized 1769 text with Strong’s numbering · Public domain outside the United Kingdom
EXPLORE THE MESSAGE
Related Watchman 33 Resources
Archaeological Evidence
ARCHAEOLOGY EVIDENCEInscription
Late eighth–early seventh century BC
The Khirbet el-Qom Inscription
A difficult late-eighth- or early-seventh-century BC tomb graffito blesses Uriyahu by Yahweh and invokes the much-debated phrase ‘his asherah,’ offering rare evidence for personal Judahite religion while resisting any simple reconstruction of what the writer believed.
Deuteronomy 16:21 · 2 Kings 21:7 · 2 Kings 23:4–7
ARCHAEOLOGY EVIDENCECult & worship
Eighth-early sixth centuries BC
Judahite Pillar Figurines
Hundreds of small female terracotta figurines with handmade pillar bodies and either pinched or mold-made heads occur across late Iron Age Judah, documenting household image use while leaving the represented figure and exact ritual purpose unresolved.
Jeremiah 7:17–20
ARCHAEOLOGY EVIDENCEArchaeological site
Iron Age I; destruction in the eleventh century BC
Shiloh’s Iron Age Cult Center and Destruction
Storage buildings, vessels, animal remains, and an eleventh-century destruction horizon establish Shiloh as a substantial Iron I center, while the precise sanctuary location and cause of destruction remain unresolved.
1 Samuel 1:1–24 · 1 Samuel 4:1–11 · Jeremiah 7:12–14
ARCHAEOLOGY EVIDENCEManuscript
Hellenistic period, approximately 225–175 BC
4QJeremiahᵃ (4Q70): The Longer Hebrew Edition
An early Cave 4 Jeremiah scroll preserves portions of chapters 7–22 and broadly represents the longer Hebrew textual tradition known from the Masoretic Text.
Jeremiah 7:1–34 · Jeremiah 10:1–25 · Jeremiah 20:1–18
ARCHAEOLOGY EVIDENCECult & worship
approximately 8th-2nd centuries BC
The Carthage Tophet and Phoenician Child-Burial Debate
Urns of cremated infants and animals, dedicatory stelae, and competing osteological readings make Carthage's Tophet essential comparative evidence for biblical condemnations of child sacrifice—while leaving the frequency and circumstances of killing disputed.
Leviticus 18:21 · 2 Kings 23:10 · Jeremiah 7:30–32
ARCHAEOLOGY EVIDENCECult & worship
Ninth century BC, Iron Age IIA
The Yavneh Philistine Temple Repository Pit
A ninth-century BC repository at Yavneh held thousands of deliberately broken cult objects, including more than 120 decorated stands, revealing ritual performance and sacred disposal in Philistia.
Joshua 15:11 · 2 Chronicles 26:6 · 1 Samuel 5:1–5
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