for in these I delight: kindness, justice, righteousness

This is the word that came to Jeremiah from YHWH: "Stand at the gate of YHWH's house and there proclaim this message:
" 'Hear the word of YHWH, all you people of Judah who come through these gates to worship YHWH. This is what YHWH Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Reform your ways and your actions, and I will let you live in this place. Do not trust in deceptive words and say, "This is the temple of YHWH, the temple of YHWH, the temple of YHWH!" If you really change your ways and your actions and deal with each other justly, if you do not oppress the alien, the fatherless or the widow and do not shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not follow other gods to your own harm, then I will let you live in this place, in the land I gave your forefathers for ever and ever.

"Say to them, 'This is what YHWH says:
" 'When men fall down, do they not get up?
When a man turns away, does he not return?

Why then have these people turned away?
Why does Jerusalem always turn away?
They cling to deceit;
they refuse to return.

I have listened attentively,
but they do not say what is right.
No one repents of his wickedness,
saying, "What have I done?"
Each pursues his own course
like a horse charging into battle.

Even the stork in the sky
knows her appointed seasons,
and the dove, the swift and the thrush
observe the time of their migration.
But my people do not know
the requirements of YHWH.

This is what YHWH says:
"Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom
or the strong man boast of his strength
or the rich man boast of his riches,

but let him who boasts boast about this:
that he understands and knows me,
that I am YHWH, who exercises kindness,
justice and righteousness on earth,
for in these I delight,"
declares YHWH.



Jeremiah 7:1-7, 8:4-7, 9:23,24 NIV


[Yahweh, may these words describe me: kind, just and righteous. May I learn to understand and know you.]