7:17-19
(Verse 17 and following) Don't you see what they are doing in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? The sons gather wood, the fathers light the fire, and the women knead dough to make cakes for the queen of heaven. They also pour out drink offerings to other gods, provoking me to anger. Do they provoke me to anger?" says the Lord. "Do they not provoke themselves, to their own shame? Therefore thus says the Lord: 'Behold, my anger and my wrath will be poured out on this place, on man and beast, on the trees of the field and the fruit of the ground; it will burn and not be quenched.' They do these things that follow: Both inside and outside, both in the streets and in the exits of Jerusalem, the sons carry wood, and the fathers light the fire, and the women sprinkle fat with flour, in order to make Chauonim, which we have interpreted as pancakes, or preparations, to show all kinds of sacrifices to the queen of heaven, whom we should accept as the moon; or certainly to the army of heaven, so that we understand all the stars. And after this they willingly offer incense to foreign gods: not because they are gods, but because under their names they summon demons, and provoke me to anger by doing these things. The wretched fools do not understand that this dispute does not harm me, whom anger never affects: but it brings upon themselves confusion of their own countenance, and everlasting dishonor. Therefore, whatever we do, we do not harm God, who can never be harmed: but we prepare destruction for ourselves, storing up wrath for the day of wrath. Therefore, He established different duties for sons, fathers, mothers, and even wives, so that no age would dissent from impiety.
7:20
(Verse 20) Therefore, thus says the Lord God: Behold, my wrath and my indignation have been poured out (or have dripped) upon this place, upon men and upon animals, upon the trees of the region, and upon the fruits of the earth; and it shall burn and not be extinguished. He who said before: Do they provoke me to anger? How now does he say: Behold, my wrath and my indignation have dripped upon this place? And here is the meaning: I, indeed, naturally do not get angry, but they act in such a way as to provoke me to anger, and I seem to change my nature. Therefore, they try to make me angry as much as they can. And beautifully, he does not say that my anger was poured out on this place, but that it dripped: to signify a moderate punishment. But if in a drop of anger there is such harshness, what will happen if the entire rain pours out? But even a mixed feeling of indignation can be understood in such a way that what he did not want to do for a long time, he is compelled to do because of the multitude of sins. But when God becomes angry, both humans and the things that belong to humans will experience a similar destruction. And it will be set on fire, he says, no doubt because of the rage of the Lord, and it will not be extinguished, because the people do not act in a way that can extinguish it.
7:21-23
(Verse 21 onwards) Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices, and eat the flesh. For I did not speak to your fathers, or command them concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices when I brought them out of the land of Egypt. But this is what I commanded them, saying, 'Obey My voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be My people. And walk in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well with you.' When He condemns the temple, He consequently condemns the sacrifices as well; and He indirectly accuses them because they offer victims not out of reverence for Him, but out of a desire for feasts. Moreover, when He says, 'I did not speak with your fathers, nor did I command them concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices, it is clearly understood that He first gave the Decalogue on stone tablets, written by the finger of God, and after the offense of idolatry and the worship of the golden calf, He then ordered sacrifices to be made to Him instead of to the demons, thus setting aside the pure worship of God's commandments and allowing the offering of blood and the desire for meat.
7:24-25
(Ver. 24, 25.) And they did not listen, nor incline their ear, but they went after their own desires and the wickedness of their evil hearts. They turned backwards, and not forwards, from the day their fathers left the land of Egypt until this day. When I spoke, saying, 'Listen to my voice, and I will be your God,' they did not listen, nor incline their ear, but they followed the desires of their own hearts. And contrary to the opinion of the Apostles, who forgot the past and reached out to the future, they did the opposite: desiring the past and despising the future. And he says that, from the day their fathers left the land of Egypt until this day, they have always been transgressing against the Lord. Hence, the grace of the Gospel was necessary, which preserved them not by their own merit, but by the mercy of the Lord.
7:26
(Verse 26) And I sent to you all my servants the prophets, rising up early and sending them, saying, 'Turn now everyone from his evil way and amend your doings, and do not go after other gods to serve them, and you shall dwell in the land which I have given to you and to your fathers.' But you have not inclined your ear nor listened to me. Instead, you have stiffened your neck and done worse than your fathers. Therefore, the anger of the Lord was kindled against this people, and it has poured out and not been quenched.'
7:27-28
(Verse 27, 28.) And you shall speak to them all these words, and they will not listen to you. And you shall call to them, and they will not respond to you. And you shall say to them: This is a people who has not heard the voice of their Lord God, nor received discipline. Faith has perished and has been taken away from their mouth. Do not doubt, he says, that they have hardened their neck, and have done worse than their fathers. Behold, I give them a place for repentance: and yet I do not speak that they may become, but because they will be, therefore I foretell. Speak now to them with my words, and yet they will not listen to you; and you will call to them, and they will not respond to you. For their pride will be so great that when you call them to hear, no one will deign to respond. And you will say to them: This is a nation that has not heard the voice of their God, nor received discipline. Beautifully, as I have said before, he calls not his people, but a nation. Although this was done in part during the time of the Prophets, and it has preceded in shadow and in image, it is more fully fulfilled in Christ, when they refused to receive discipline and despised the voice of their Lord. Where elegantly is inferred: Faith has perished, which properly belongs to Christians; and it has been taken away from their lips: namely, all confession of the Son of God and of faith.
7:29
(Verse 29.) Shave your hair and cast it away, and take up a lamentation upon your lips: for the Lord has cast off and abandoned the generation of his wrath. And when Job heard of the death of his sons and daughters, he tore his garments and shaved his head (Job 1): and among the ancients, it was the custom of mourners to shave their hair. But now, on the contrary, letting one's hair down is a sign of mourning. However, every lamentation and prophetic wailing is undertaken for this reason: because the Lord has cast off and abandoned the generation of his wrath. There is no doubt that it signifies the people of the Jews. And especially this can be referred to the time of Christ, when faith perishes, and the Lord is blasphemed by the people.
7:30-31
(Verse 30, 31.) Because the sons of Judah have done evil in my sight, says the Lord: they have set up their stumbling blocks in the house where my name is invoked, to defile it. And they have built the high places (or altar) of Topheth, which is in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in fire: which I did not command, nor did it come into my mind. We learn in the beginning of Ezekiel that the sons of Judah put a statue of Baal in the Temple of God. However, the high places, which are called Bamoth in Hebrew, or the altar of Topheth, which is in the Valley of the Sons of Hinnom, signify that place which is watered by the springs of Siloam; and it is pleasant and wooded, and even today offers delights of gardens. However, the error of paganism occupied all the provinces, so that they would sacrifice victims on the tops of mountains and in the most beautiful groves, and all the superstitions of corrupt religion would be observed. Topheth, in the Hebrew language, is interpreted as "width"; and it is reported in the book of Joshua the son of Nun concerning this place, which is in the Valley of the Sons of Hinnom, and in Hebrew it is called Gehenna (γέεννα), for it signifies a gorge, that is, a valley; and Hinnom either signifies a man's name or "favor". And the Hebrews report that this place is called Gehenna, because all the people of the Jews will perish there, offending God. In this place they also consecrated their sons with fire to the idols, or offered them as a burnt offering, which God did not command them, nor did the Law prescribe any such thing. If Jephthah offered his virgin daughter to God, it is not the sacrifice that pleases, but the intention of the offerer. And if a dog, or a donkey, or any unclean animal had come first to meet the father returning from the slaughter of the enemies, he should not have offered it to God.
7:32-33
(Verse 32, 33.) Therefore, behold the days are coming, says the Lord, and it shall no longer be called Topheth, or the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter; for they will bury in Topheth until there is no more room. The corpses of this people will be food for the birds of the air and the animals of the earth, and there will be no one to frighten them away. The time of the siege is indicated, which they endured from the ninth year of King Zedekiah until the eleventh year (2 Kings 25); and the fact that the valley itself should not be called Gehenna, that is, the Valley of Hinnom or the Valley of the Sons of Hinnom, but rather the Valley of Slaughter due to the killing of many. But there will be such a slaughter, that in the place previously dedicated to religion, countless graves will be buried: and those who could not be buried, will be torn apart by birds and devoured by beasts. And let there be no one to drive them away, fearing the same, and the duties of burying the dead. We hurry through the obvious, so that wherever there is a place, we may dwell in darkness. For the magnitude of the book itself can cause disgust to readers, let alone if it is more extensively discussed by us.
7:34
(Verse 34.) And I will cause the cities of Judah to cease, and I will silence in the streets of Jerusalem the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride. For the land shall become a desolation. And when places of idolatry are turned into tombs, the unburied corpses of those who offended God shall lie there, from the once city of Jerusalem and from the other cities that were under its dominion, all joy and mourning and groaning and desolation shall be removed.
8:1-3
(Chapter 8, verses 1 and following) In that time, says the Lord, the bones of the king of Judah and the bones of his princes and the bones of the priests and the bones of the prophets and the bones of those who lived in Jerusalem will be thrown out of their tombs. And they will spread them before the sun and the moon and all the host of the heavens, which they loved and served and after which they walked and which they sought and worshiped. They shall not be gathered nor buried; they shall be as dung upon the face of the earth. And all those who remain from this wicked kinship will choose death over life, in all the places that have been abandoned, to which I have cast them out," says the Lord of Hosts. "We witness in our time that everything that the prophetic word describes has happened: not only to Jerusalem, which suffered these things from the Chaldeans and Romans, but to the whole world, so that tears have dried up, and everything is filled with the bones of the dead. And because they used to bury gold and certain ornaments, either of women or men, in tombs according to the ancient custom, greed also broke and dug them up so that they would be exposed to the sky and light. And therefore the bones of the kings of Judah, and its princes, and of the priests and prophets, and of all the people who had been in Jerusalem, were brought forth from the tombs, exposed to the sun and moon, and to the sight of all the stars, so that those whom they had served, abandoning God, would be exposed to their sights, and consumed in dung and ashes. But if anyone were able to escape from the crowd and go to whatever place, he would prefer death to life: and he would think that the destruction of an unfortunate soul is a remedy.
8:4
(Verse 4.) And you shall say to them: Thus says the Lord: Shall the one who falls not rise up again? And the one who turns away not return? After so many evils, it provokes those who were able to remain to repentance. Before the things that were threatened come, it exhorts to conversion, and gives place to repentance. But what is written in Hebrew: And the one who turns away not return, it signifies that the one who has turned away from God, if he wishes to turn to better things, can also turn the anger of God to better things and resist the coming and avoid the blows through prayers.
8:5