Tzav

Tzav Posted On Jan 1, 1980 | Haftarah Reading

This translation was taken from the JPS Tanakh.

Jeremiah 7:21 – 8:3; 9:22-23

Chapter 7

21 Thus said the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel: Add your burnt offerings to your other sacrifices and eat the meat! 22 For when I freed your fathers from the land of Egypt, I did not speak with them or command them concerning burnt offerings or sacrifice. 23 But this is what I commanded them: Do My bidding, that I may be your God and you may be My people; walk only in the way that I enjoin upon you, that it may go well with you. 24 Yet they did not listen or give ear; they followed their own counsels, the willfulness of their evil hearts. They have gone backward, not forward, 25 from the day your fathers left the land of Egypt until today. And though I kept sending all My servants, the prophets, to them daily and persistently, 26 they would not listen to Me or give ear. They stiffened their necks, they acted worse than their fathers.

27 You shall say all these things to them, but they will not listen to you; you shall call to them, but they will not respond to you. 28 Then say to them: This is the nation that would not obey the Lord their God, that would not accept rebuke. Faithfulness has perished, vanished from their mouths.

    29 Shear your locks and cast them away,
    Take up a lament on the heights,
    For the Lord has spurned and cast off
    The brood that provoked His wrath.

30 For the people of Judah have done what displeases Me — declares the Lord. They have set up their abominations in the House which is called by My name, and they have defiled it. 31 And they have built the shrines of Topheth in the Valley of Ben-hinnom to burn their sons and daughters in fire — which I never commanded, which never came to My mind.

32 Assuredly, a time is coming — declares the Lord — when men shall no longer speak of Topheth or the Valley of Ben-hinnom, but of the Valley of Slaughter; and they shall bury in Topheth until no room is left. 33 The carcasses of this people shall be food for the birds of the sky and the beasts of the earth, with none to frighten them off. 34 And I will silence in the towns of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem the sound of mirth and gladness, the voice of bridegroom and bride. For the whole land shall fall to ruin.

Chapter 8
1 At that time — declares the Lord — the bones of the kings of Judah, of its officers, of the priests, of the prophets, and of the inhabitants of Jerusalem shall be taken out of their graves 2 and exposed to the sun, the moon, and all the host of heaven which they loved and served and followed, to which they turned and bowed down. They shall not be gathered for reburial; they shall become dung upon the face of the earth. 3 And death shall be preferable to life for all that are left of this wicked folk, in all the other places to which I shall banish them — declares the Lord of Hosts.

Chapter 9
    22 Thus said the Lord:
    Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom;
    Let not the strong man glory in his strength;
    Let not the rich man glory in his riches.
    23 But only in this should one glory:
    In his earnest devotion to Me.
    For I the Lord act with kindness,
    Justice, and equity in the world;
    For in these I delight

Taken from Tanakh, The Holy Scriptures, (Philadelphia, Jerusalem: Jewish Publication Society) 1985.
Used by permission of The Jewish Publication Society. Copyright © 1962, 1992
Third Edition by the Jewish Publication Society.
No part of this text can be reproduced or forwarded without written permission.
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