Jeremiah 7
1 The word that was maad of the Lord to Jeremye,
Yahweh gave me another message. He said to me,
2 and seide, Stonde thou in the yate of the hous of the Lord, and preche there this word, and seie, Al Juda, that entren bi these yatis for to worschipe the Lord, here ye the word of the Lord.
“Go to the entrance of my temple, and give this message to the people: You people of Judah who worship here, listen to this message from Yahweh!
3 The Lord of oostis, God of Israel, seith these thingis, Make ye good youre weies, and youre studies, and Y schal dwelle with you in this place.
The Commander of the armies of angels says to you, ['If you] stop doing evil things and start doing what is right, I will allow you to remain living in your land.'
4 Nyle ye triste in the wordis of leesyng, and seie, The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord is.
[But some people] are repeatedly saying to you, ‘The temple of Yahweh is here, [so we will be safe]; [he will not allow us and the temple to be destroyed].’ But do not pay attention to what they say, because they are deceiving you.
5 For if ye blessen youre weies, and your studies; if ye doon doom bitwixe a man and his neiybore;
[I will act mercifully to you only] if you change your behavior and stop doing evil things, and if you [start to] act fairly/justly toward others,
6 if ye maken not fals caleng to a comelyng, and to a fadirles child, and to a widewe; nether scheden out innocent blood in this place, and goen not after alien goddis, in to yuel to you silf,
and if you stop oppressing foreigners [who live in your country], and orphans and widows, and if you stop murdering people, and if you stop worshiping (foreign gods/idols). However, if you continue to do those things, you will be destroyed.
7 Y schal dwelle with you in this place, in the lond which Y yaf to youre fadris, fro the world and til in to the world.
If you do what I have told you, I will allow you to stay in this land that I promised to your ancestors that it would belong to them [and their descendants] forever.
8 Lo! ye trusten to you in the wordis of leesyng, that shulen not profite to you;
[People are repeatedly] telling you, [‘The temple is here, so we are safe]’, and you are trusting/believing [that what they are saying is true], but it is a lie. [Those people are deceiving you, and what they say is] worthless.
9 to stele, to sle, to do auowtrie, to swere falsli, to make sacrifice to Baalym, and to go aftir alien goddys, whiche ye knowen not.
You think that [RHQ] you can steal things, murder people, commit adultery, tell lies in court, and worship Baal and all those other gods that you did not know about previously,
10 And ye camen, and stoden bifor me in this hous, in which my name is clepid to help; and ye seiden, We ben delyuered, for we han do alle these abhomynaciouns.
and then come here and stand in front of this temple, which is my temple, and say ‘Nothing bad will happen to us!’, while you continue to do all those abominable things.
11 Whether therfor this hous, wherynne my name is clepid to help bifore youre iyen, is maad a denne of theues? I, Y am, Y siy, seith the Lord.
Do you realize that you are causing this temple, which is my temple, to become like [MET] a den where bandits hide [RHQ]? Do you not know that I see [all the evil things that you people do there]?
12 Go ye to my place in Silo, where my name dwellide at the bigynnyng, and se ye what thingis Y dide to it, for the malice of my puple Israel.
[Long ago] I put my Sacred Tent at Shiloh [city], to be a place where people would worship me [MTY]. Think about how I [destroyed it] because my people, the Israeli people, did [many] wicked things there.
13 And now, for ye han do alle these werkis, seith the Lord, and Y spak to you, and roos eerli, and Y spak, and ye herden not, and Y clepide you, and ye answeriden not;
And while you were continually doing those wicked things, I told you about it many times, but you refused to listen. I called out to you, but you refused to answer [me].
14 Y schal do to this hous, wherynne my name is clepid to help, and in which hous ye han trist, and to the place which Y yaf to you and to youre fadris, as Y dide to Silo.
Therefore, just like I destroyed Shiloh, I will [now] destroy this temple that was built for people to worship me [MTY], this temple that you trust in, that is in this place that I gave to you and your ancestors.
15 And Y schal caste you forth fro my face, as Y castide forth alle youre britheren, al the seed of Effraym.
And I will expel you from this land and send you [to other countries] far away from me, just like I did to your relatives, the people of Israel.”
16 Therfor nyl thou preie for this puple, nether take thou heriyng and preier for hem; and ayenstonde thou not me, for Y schal not here thee.
[Yahweh said to me, “Jeremiah], do not pray for these people [any longer]. Do not cry for them or plead for [me to help] them, because I will not pay any attention to you.
17 Whether thou seest not, what these men don in the citees of Juda, and in the stretis of Jerusalem?
Do you see [the wicked things] that they are doing in the streets of Jerusalem and in the [other] towns in Judah?
18 The sones gaderen stickis, and the fadris kyndlen a fier; and wymmen sprengen togidere ynnere fatnesse, to make kakis to the queen of heuene, to make sacrifice to alien goddis, and to terre me to wrathfulnesse.
The children gather firewood and their fathers use it to make fires [on the altars to burn sacrifices]. The women knead/make dough to make cakes to offer to [their goddess Astarte who is called] the Queen of Heaven. And [on their altars] they pour out offerings of wine to [their] other idols. All of those things cause me to become extremely angry!
19 Whether thei stiren me to wrathfulnesse? seith the Lord; whether thei stiren not hem silf in to schenschip of her cheer?
But I am not [RHQ] the one whom they are hurting; they are really [RHQ] hurting themselves [by doing these things for which they should be] very ashamed!”
20 Therfor the Lord God seith these thingis, Lo! my strong veniaunce and myn indignacioun is wellid togidere on this place, on men, and on beestis, and on the tree of the cuntrei, and on the fruitis of erthe; and it schal be kyndlid, and it schal not be quenchid.
So Yahweh the Lord says this: “Because I am extremely angry with [what happens at] this place, I will punish these people severely [MTY]; my being very angry will be [like] [MET] a fire that will not be extinguished, and I will destroy the people, [their] animals, [their] fruit trees, and [their] crops.”
21 The Lord of oostis, God of Israel, seith these thingis, Heepe ye youre brent sacrifices to youre slayn sacrifices, and ete ye fleischis.
Therefore, this is what the Commander of the armies of angels says: “Take away [IRO] your offerings that you bring to burn completely on your altars and your [other] sacrifices; [don’t give them to me]; eat them [yourselves]!
22 For Y spak not with youre fadris, and Y comaundide not to hem of the word of brent sacrifices, and of slayn sacrifices, in the dai in which Y ledde hem out of the lond of Egipt.
When I led your ancestors out of Egypt, it was not offerings to be completely burned on the altar or [other] sacrifices that I wanted from them.
23 But Y comaundide this word to hem, and Y seide, Here ye my vois, and Y schal be God to you, and ye schulen be a puple to me; and go ye in al the weie which Y comaundide to you, that it be wel to you.
What I told them was, ‘Obey me; [if you do that], I will be your God and you will be my people. If you do the things that I want you to do, everything will go well for you.’
24 And thei herden not, nether bowiden doun her eere, but thei yeden in her lustis, and in the schrewidnesse of her yuel herte; and thei ben put bihynde, and not bifore,
But your ancestors would not pay any attention [DOU] to me. They continued to do [the evil things] that they wanted to do, everything that in their stubborn inner beings they desired to do. Instead of coming closer to me, they went further away from me.
25 fro the dai in which her fadris yeden out of the lond of Egipt til to this dai. And Y sente to you alle my seruauntis profetis, and Y roos eerli bi the dai, and Y sente.
From the day that your ancestors left Egypt until now, I have continued to send my prophets to you.
26 And thei herden not me, nether bowiden doun her eere; but thei maden hard her nol, and wrouyten worse than the fadris of hem.
But you, [my people], have not listened to me or paid attention to what I said; you have been stubborn, and you have done more sinful things than your ancestors did.”
27 And thou schalt speke to hem alle these wordis, and thei schulen not heere thee; and thou schalt clepe hem, and thei schul not answere to thee.
[Then Yahweh said to me], “When you tell all this to my people, they will not listen to you. When you call to them, they will not answer.
28 And thou schalt seie to hem, This is the folc, that herde not the vois of her Lord God, nether resseyuede chastysyng; feith perischide, and is takun awei fro the mouth of hem.
Say to them, ‘You people [of Judah] have not obeyed Yahweh, your God; you have not accepted it when he tried to correct you. No one among you is truthful; you do not say anything that is true; [you speak only lies].’
29 Clippe thin heer, and cast awei, and take thou weilyng streiytli; for the Lord hath cast awei, and hath forsake the generacioun of his strong veniaunce.
[So, tell them to] cut off their hair [to show that they are mourning]; tell them to go up into the hills and sing a sad funeral song, because I have completely rejected [DOU] this generation [of people] who have made me angry.”
30 For the sones of Juda han do yuel bifor myn iyen, seith the Lord; thei han set her offendyngis in the hous, in which my name is clepid to help, that thei schulden defoule that hous;
Yahweh says this: “The people of Judah have done many things that I say are evil. They have set up their disgusting idols in my temple, causing it to become an unacceptable [place to worship me].
31 and thei bildiden hiye thingis in Tophet, which is in the valei of the sone of Ennon, that thei schulden brenne her sones and her douytris bi fier, whiche thingis Y comaundide not, nether thouyte in myn herte.
They have built altars at Topheth in Ben-Hinnom Valley [outside Jerusalem], and they sacrifice their sons and daughters on those altars. I never commanded them to do that; I never even thought that anyone would do that.
32 Therfor lo! daies comen, seith the Lord, and it schal no more be seid Tophet, and the valei of the sone of Ennon, but the valey of sleyng; and thei schulen birie in Tophet, for ther is no place.
So they should beware! There will be a time when that place will no longer be called Topheth or the Hinnom Valley; instead, it will be called the Valley of Slaughter. There will be a huge number of people who will be buried there, with the result that there will be no space to bury more bodies.
33 And the deed careyn of this puple schal be in to mete to the briddis of heuene, and to the beestis of erthe; and noon schal be that schal dryue awei.
The corpses of my people that are [not buried and are] left on the ground will be eaten by vultures and wild animals, and there will be no one to shoo/chase them away.
34 And Y schal make to ceesse the vois of ioye, and the vois of gladnesse, and the vois of spouse, and the vois of spousesse fro the citees of Juda, and fro the stretis of Jerusalem; for the lond schal be in desolacioun.
There will be no one singing and laughing any more in the streets of Jerusalem; there will be no more joyful voices of bridegrooms and brides in Judah, because the land will be completely destroyed.”
