Page 1043 - The MacArthur Daily Bible

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OCTOBER 11
32 “Therefore behold, the days are coming,”
says the LORD, “when it will no more be called
Tophet, or the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, but
7:18 the queen of heaven. The Jews were the Valley of Slaughter; for they will bury in
worshiping Ishtar, an Assyrian and Babylonian Tophet until there is no room. The corpses of
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goddess also called Ashtoreth and Astarte,the this people will be food for the birds of the
wife of Baal or Molech. Because these deities heaven and for the beasts of the earth. And no
symbolized generative power, their worship one will frighten them away. Then I will cause
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involved prostitution.
to cease from the cities of Judah and from the
streets of Jerusalem the voice of mirth and the
7:22 I did not…command. Bible writers
sometimes use apparent negation to make a voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom
comparative emphasis. What God command- and the voice of the bride. For the land shall
ed His people at the Exodus was not so much be desolate.
the offerings as it was the heart obedience “At that time,” says the LORD, “they shall
which prompted the offerings. 8 bring out the bones of the kings of Judah,
and the bones of its princes, and the bones of
the priests, and the bones of the prophets, and
the trees of the field and on the fruit of the the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, out
ground. And it will burn and not be quenched.” of their graves. They shall spread them
2
21 Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Is- before the sun and the moon and all the host
rael: “Add your burnt offerings to your sacri- of heaven, which they have loved and which
fices and eat meat. For I did not speak to your they have served and after which they have
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fathers, or command them in the day that I walked, which they have sought and which
brought them out of the land of Egypt, con- they have worshiped. They shall not be gath-
cerning burnt offerings or sacrifices. But this ered nor buried; they shall be like refuse on
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is what I commanded them, saying, ‘Obey My the face of the earth. Then death shall be cho-
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voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be sen rather than life by all the residue of those
My people. And walk in all the ways that I who remain of this evil family, who remain in
have commanded you, that it may be well with all the places where I have driven them,” says
you.’ Yet they did not obey or incline their the LORD of hosts.
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ear, but followed the counsels and the dictates 4 “Moreover you shall say to them, ‘Thus says
of their evil hearts, and went backward and the LORD:
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not forward. Since the day that your fathers
came out of the land of Egypt until this day, I “Will they fall and not rise?
have even sent to you all My servants the Will one turn away and not return?
prophets, daily rising up early and sending 5 Why has this people slidden back,
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them. Yet they did not obey Me or incline Jerusalem, in a perpetual backsliding?
their ear, but stiffened their neck. They did They hold fast to deceit,
worse than their fathers. They refuse to return.
27 “Therefore you shall speak all these words 6 I listened and heard,
to them, but they will not obey you. You shall But they do not speak aright.
also call to them, but they will not answer you. No man repented of his wickedness,
“So you shall say to them, ‘This is a nation
28 Saying, ‘What have I done?’
that does not obey the voice of the LORD their Everyone turned to his own course,
God nor receive correction. Truth has per- As the horse rushes into the battle.
ished and has been cut off from their mouth. 7
Cut off your hair and cast it away, and take up
29 “Even the stork in the heavens
a lamentation on the desolate heights; for the Knows her appointed times;
And the turtledove, the swift, and the
LORD has rejected and forsaken the genera- swallow
tion of His wrath.’ For the children of Judah Observe the time of their coming.
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have done evil in My sight,” says the LORD. But My people do not know the
“They have set their abominations in the judgment of the LORD.
house which is called by My name, to pollute
it. And they have built the high places of 8 “How can you say, ‘We are wise,
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Tophet, which is in the Valley of the Son of And the law of the LORD is with us’?
Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daugh- Look, the false pen of the scribe
ters in the fire, which I did not command, nor certainly works falsehood.
did it come into My heart. 9 The wise men are ashamed,
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