Jeremiah 7:1-34

Faulty Religion and Unethical Behavior Will Lead to Judgment

7:1 The Lord said to Jeremiah: ¹  7:2 “Stand in the gate of the Lord’s temple and proclaim ²  this message: ‘Listen, all you people of Judah who have passed through these gates to worship the Lord. ³  Hear what the Lord has to say. 7:3 The Lord God of Israel who rules over all ⁴  says: Change the way you have been living and do what is right. ⁵  If you do, I will allow you to continue to live in this land. ⁶  7:4 Stop putting your confidence in the false belief that says, ⁷  “We are safe! ⁸  The temple of the Lord is here! The temple of the Lord is here! The temple of the Lord is here!” ⁹  7:5 You must change ¹⁰  the way you have been living and do what is right. You must treat one another fairly. ¹¹  7:6 Stop oppressing foreigners who live in your land, children who have lost their fathers, and women who have lost their husbands. ¹²  Stop killing innocent people ¹³  in this land. Stop paying allegiance to ¹⁴  other gods. That will only bring about your ruin. ¹⁵  7:7 If you stop doing these things, ¹⁶  I will allow you to continue to live in this land ¹⁷  which I gave to your ancestors as a lasting possession. ¹⁸ 

7:8 “‘But just look at you! ¹⁹  You are putting your confidence in a false belief ²⁰  that will not deliver you. ²¹  7:9 You steal. ²²  You murder. You commit adultery. You lie when you swear on oath. You sacrifice to the god Baal. You pay allegiance to ²³  other gods whom you have not previously known. 7:10 Then you come and stand in my presence in this temple I have claimed as my own ²⁴  and say, “We are safe!” You think you are so safe that you go on doing all those hateful sins! ²⁵  7:11 Do you think this temple I have claimed as my own ²⁶  is to be a hideout for robbers? ²⁷  You had better take note! ²⁸  I have seen for myself what you have done! says the Lord. 7:12 So, go to the place in Shiloh where I allowed myself to be worshiped ²⁹  in the early days. See what I did to it ³⁰  because of the wicked things my people Israel did. 7:13 You also have done all these things, says the Lord, and I have spoken to you over and over again. ³¹  But you have not listened! You have refused to respond when I called you to repent! ³²  7:14 So I will destroy this temple which I have claimed as my own, ³³  this temple that you are trusting to protect you. I will destroy this place that I gave to you and your ancestors, ³⁴  just like I destroyed Shiloh. ³⁵  7:15 And I will drive you out of my sight just like I drove out your relatives, the people of Israel.’” ³⁶ 

7:16 Then the Lord said, ³⁷  “As for you, Jeremiah, ³⁸  do not pray for these people! Do not cry out to me or petition me on their behalf! Do not plead with me to save them, ³⁹  because I will not listen to you. 7:17 Do you see ⁴⁰  what they are doing in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? ⁴¹  7:18 Children are gathering firewood, fathers are building fires with it, and women are mixing dough to bake cakes to offer to the goddess they call the Queen of Heaven. ⁴²  They are also pouring out drink offerings to other gods. They seem to do all this just ⁴³  to trouble me. 7:19 But I am not really the one being troubled!” ⁴⁴  says the Lord. “Rather they are bringing trouble on themselves to their own shame! ⁴⁵  7:20 So,” the Lord God ⁴⁶  says, “my raging fury will be poured out on this land. ⁴⁷  It will be poured out on human beings and animals, on trees and crops. ⁴⁸  And it will burn like a fire which cannot be extinguished.”

7:21 The Lord said to the people of Judah, ⁴⁹  “The Lord God of Israel who rules over all ⁵⁰  says: ‘You might as well go ahead and add the meat of your burnt offerings to that of the other sacrifices and eat it, too! ⁵¹  7:22 Consider this: ⁵²  When I spoke to your ancestors after I brought them out of Egypt, I did not merely give them commands about burnt offerings and sacrifices. 7:23 I also explicitly commanded them: ⁵³  “Obey me. If you do, I ⁵⁴  will be your God and you will be my people. Live exactly the way I tell you ⁵⁵  and things will go well with you.” 7:24 But they did not listen to me or pay any attention to me. They followed the stubborn inclinations of their own wicked hearts. They acted worse and worse instead of better. ⁵⁶  7:25 From the time your ancestors departed the land of Egypt until now, ⁵⁷  I sent my servants the prophets to you again and again, ⁵⁸  day after day. ⁵⁹  7:26 But your ancestors ⁶⁰  did not listen to me nor pay attention to me. They became obstinate ⁶¹  and were more wicked than even their own forefathers.’”

7:27 Then the Lord said to me, ⁶²  “When you tell them all this, they will not listen to you. When you call out to them, they will not respond to you. 7:28 So tell them: ‘This is a nation that has not obeyed the Lord their God and has not accepted correction. Faithfulness is nowhere to be found in it. These people do not even profess it anymore. ⁶³  7:29 So, mourn, ⁶⁴  you people of this nation. ⁶⁵  Cut off your hair and throw it away. Sing a song of mourning on the hilltops. For the Lord has decided to reject ⁶⁶  and forsake this generation that has provoked his wrath!’” ⁶⁷ 

7:30 The Lord says, “I have rejected them because ⁶⁸  the people of Judah have done what I consider evil. ⁶⁹  They have set up their disgusting idols in the temple ⁷⁰  which I have claimed for my own ⁷¹  and have defiled it. 7:31 They have also built places of worship ⁷²  in a place called Topheth ⁷³  in the Valley of Ben Hinnom so that they can sacrifice their sons and daughters by fire. That is something I never commanded them to do! Indeed, it never even entered my mind to command such a thing! ⁷⁴  7:32 So, watch out!” ⁷⁵  says the Lord. “The time will soon come when people will no longer call those places Topheth or the Valley of Ben Hinnom. But they will call that valley ⁷⁶  the Valley of Slaughter and they will bury so many people in Topheth they will run out of room. ⁷⁷  7:33 Then the dead bodies of these people will be left on the ground for the birds and wild animals to eat. ⁷⁸  There will not be any survivors to scare them away. 7:34 I will put an end to the sounds of joy and gladness, or the glad celebration of brides and grooms throughout the towns of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem. For the whole land will become a desolate wasteland.”

[7:1]  ¹ tn Heb “The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord.”

[7:2]  ² tn Heb “Proclaim there…” The adverb is unnecessary in English style.

[7:2]  ³ sn That is, all those who have passed through the gates of the outer court and are standing in the courtyard of the temple.

[7:3]  ⁴ tn Heb “Yahweh of armies, the God Israel.”

[7:3]  ⁵ tn Or “Make good your ways and your actions.” J. Bright’s translation (“Reform the whole pattern of your conduct”; Jeremiah [AB], 52) is excellent.

[7:3]  ⁶ tn Heb “place” but this might be misunderstood to refer to the temple.

[7:4]  ⁷ tn Heb “Stop trusting in lying words which say.”

[7:4]  ⁸ tn The words “We are safe!” are not in the text but are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[7:4]  ⁹ tn Heb “The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord are these (i.e., these buildings).” Elsewhere triple repetition seems to mark a kind of emphasis (cf. Isa 6:3; Jer 22:29; Ezek 21:27 [32 HT]). The triple repetition that follows seems to be Jeremiah’s way of mocking the (false) sense of security that people had in the invincibility of Jerusalem because God dwelt in the temple. They appeared to be treating the temple as some kind of magical charm. A similar feeling had grown up around the ark in the time of the judges (cf. 1 Sam 3:3) and the temple and city of Jerusalem in Micah’s day (cf. Mic 3:11). It is reflected also in some of the Psalms (cf., e.g., Ps 46, especially v. 5).

[7:5]  ¹⁰ tn The infinitive absolute precedes the finite verb for emphasis.

[7:5]  ¹¹ tn Heb “you must do justice between a person and his fellow/neighbor.” The infinitive absolute precedes the finite verb for emphasis.

[7:6]  ¹² tn Heb “Stop oppressing foreigner, orphan, and widow.”

[7:6]  ¹³ tn Heb “Stop shedding innocent blood.”

[7:6]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “going/following after.” See the translator’s note at 2:5 for an explanation of the idiom involved here.

[7:6]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “going after other gods to your ruin.”

[7:7]  ¹⁶ tn The translation uses imperatives in vv. 5-6 followed by the phrase, “If you do all this,” to avoid the long and complex sentence structure of the Hebrew sentence which has a series of conditional clauses in vv. 5-6 followed by a main clause in v. 7.

[7:7]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “live in this place, in this land.”

[7:7]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “gave to your fathers [with reference to] from ancient times even unto forever.”

[7:8]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “Behold!”

[7:8]  ²⁰ tn Heb “You are trusting in lying words.” See the similar phrase in v. 4 and the note there.

[7:8]  ²¹ tn Heb “not profit [you].”

[7:9]  ²² tn Heb “Will you steal…then say, ‘We are safe’?” Verses 9-10 are one long sentence in the Hebrew text.

[7:9]  ²³ tn Heb “You go/follow after.” See the translator’s note at 2:5 for an explanation of the idiom involved here.

[7:10]  ²⁴ tn Heb “over which my name is called.” For this nuance of this idiom cf. BDB 896 s.v. קָרָא Niph.2.d(4) and see the usage in 2 Sam 12:28.

[7:10]  ²⁵ tn Or “‘We are safe!’ – safe, you think, to go on doing all those hateful things.” Verses 9-10 are all one long sentence in the Hebrew text. It has been broken up for English stylistic reasons. Somewhat literally it reads “Will you steal…then come and stand…and say, ‘We are safe’ so as to/in order to do…” The Hebrew of v. 9 has a series of infinitives which emphasize the bare action of the verb without the idea of time or agent. The effect is to place a kind of staccato like emphasis on the multitude of their sins all of which are violations of one of the Ten Commandments. The final clause in v. 8 expresses purpose or result (probably result) through another infinitive. This long sentence is introduced by a marker (ה interrogative in Hebrew) introducing a rhetorical question in which God expresses his incredulity that they could do these sins, come into the temple and claim the safety of his protection, and then go right back out and commit the same sins. J. Bright (Jeremiah [AB], 52) catches the force nicely: “What? You think you can steal, murder…and then come and stand…and say, ‘We are safe…’ just so that you can go right on…”

[7:11]  ²⁶ tn Heb “over which my name is called.” For this nuance of this idiom cf. BDB 896 s.v. קָרָא Niph.2.d(4) and see the usage in 2 Sam 12:28.

[7:11]  ²⁷ tn Heb “Is this house…a den/cave of robbers in your eyes?”

[7:11]  ²⁸ tn Heb “Behold!”

[7:12]  ²⁹ tn Heb “where I caused my name to dwell.” The translation does not adequately represent the theology of the Lord’s deliberate identification with a place where he chose to manifest his presence and desired to be worshiped (cf. Exod 20:25; Deut 16:2, 6, 11).

[7:12]  ³⁰ sn The place in Shiloh…see what I did to it. This refers to the destruction of Shiloh by the Philistines circa 1050 b.c. (cf. Ps 78:60). The destruction of Shiloh is pertinent to the argument. The presence of the tabernacle and ark of the covenant did not prevent Shiloh from being destroyed when Israel sinned. The people of Israel used the ark as a magic charm but it did not prevent them from being defeated or the ark being captured (1 Sam 4:3, 11, 21-22).

[7:13]  ³¹ tn This reflects a Hebrew idiom (e.g., 7:25; 11:7; 25:3, 4), i.e., an infinitive of a verb meaning “to do something early [or eagerly]” followed by an infinitive of another verb of action. Cf. HALOT 1384 s.v. שָׁכַם Hiph.2.

[7:13]  ³² tn Heb “I called to you and you did not answer.” The words “to repent” are not in the text but are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[7:14]  ³³ tn Heb “over which my name is called.” For this nuance of this idiom cf. BDB 896 s.v. קָרָא Niph.2.d(4) and see the usage in 2 Sam 12:28.

[7:14]  ³⁴ tn Heb “fathers” (also in vv. 22, 25, 26).

[7:14]  ³⁵ tn Heb “I will do to this house which I…in which you put…and to this place which…as I did to Shiloh.”

[7:15]  ³⁶ tn Heb “the descendants of Ephraim.” However, Ephraim here stands (as it often does) for all the northern tribes of Israel.

[7:16]  ³⁷ tn The words “Then the Lord said” are not in the text but are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[7:16]  ³⁸ tn Heb “As for you.” The personal name Jeremiah is supplied in the translation for clarity.

[7:16]  ³⁹ tn The words “to save them” are not in the text but are implicit from the context. They are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[7:17]  ⁴⁰ tn Or “Just look at…” The question is rhetorical and expects a positive answer.

[7:17]  ⁴¹ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[7:18]  ⁴² tn The form for “queen” is unusual. It is pointed (מְלֶכֶת [mÿlekhet] instead of מַלְכַּת [malkat]) as though the Masoretes wanted to read the word for “work” (מְלֶאכֶת [mÿle’khet]), i.e., the “hosts of,” a word that several Hebrew mss read and an understanding the LXX reflects. The other ancient and modern versions generally, however, accept it as a biform for the word “queen.”

[7:18]  ⁴³ tn Heb “to provoke me.” There is debate among grammarians and lexicographers about the nuance of the Hebrew particle לְמַעַן (lÿma’an). Some say it always denotes purpose, while others say it may denote either purpose or result, depending on the context. For example, BDB 775 s.v. לְמַעַן note 1 says that it always denotes purpose, never result, but that sometimes what is really a result is represented ironically as though it were a purpose. That explanation fits nicely here in the light of the context of the next verse. The translation is intended to reflect some of that ironic sarcasm.

[7:19]  ⁴⁴ tn Heb “Is it I whom they provoke?” The rhetorical question expects a negative answer which is made explicit in the translation.

[7:19]  ⁴⁵ tn Heb “Is it not themselves to their own shame?” The rhetorical question expects a positive answer which is made explicit in the translation.

[7:20]  ⁴⁶ tn Heb “Lord Yahweh.” The translation follows the ancient Jewish tradition of substituting the Hebrew word for God for the proper name Yahweh.

[7:20]  ⁴⁷ tn Heb “this place.” Some see this as a reference to the temple but the context has been talking about what goes on in the towns of Judah and Jerusalem and the words that follow, meant as a further explanation, are applied to the whole land.

[7:20]  ⁴⁸ tn Heb “the trees of/in the field and the fruit of/in the ground.”

[7:21]  ⁴⁹ tn The words “The Lord said to the people of Judah” are not in the text but are implicit in the shift in addressee between vv. 16-20 and vv. 21-26.

[7:21]  ⁵⁰ tn Heb “Yahweh of armies, the God of Israel.”

[7:21]  ⁵¹ tn Heb “Add your burnt offerings to your [other] sacrifices and eat the meat!” See the following sn for explanation. This is an example of the rhetorical use of the imperative for a sarcastic challenge. Cf. GKC 324 §110.a; cf. Amos 4:4, “Go to Bethel and sin!”

[7:22]  ⁵² tn Heb “For” but this introduces a long explanation about the relative importance of sacrifice and obedience.

[7:23]  ⁵³ tn Verses 22-23a read in Hebrew, “I did not speak with your ancestors and I did not command them when I brought them out of Egypt about words/matters concerning burnt offering and sacrifice, but I commanded them this word:” Some modern commentators have explained this passage as an evidence for the lateness of the Pentateuchal instruction regarding sacrifice or a denial that sacrifice was practiced during the period of the wilderness wandering. However, it is better explained as an example of what R. de Vaux calls a dialectical negative, i.e., “not so much this as that” or “not this without that” (Ancient Israel, 454-56). For other examples of this same argument see Isa 1:10-17; Hos 6:4-6; Amos 5:21-25.

[7:23]  ⁵⁴ tn Heb “Obey me and I will be.” The translation is equivalent syntactically but brings out the emphasis in the command.

[7:23]  ⁵⁵ tn Heb “Walk in all the way that I command you.”

[7:24]  ⁵⁶ tn Or “They went backward and not forward”; Heb “They were to the backward and not to the forward.” The two phrases used here appear nowhere else in the Bible and the latter preposition plus adverb elsewhere is used temporally meaning “formerly” or “previously.” The translation follows the proposal of J. Bright, Jeremiah (AB), 57. Another option is “they turned their backs to me, not their faces,” understanding the line as a variant of a line in 2:27.

[7:25]  ⁵⁷ tn Heb “from the day your ancestors…until this very day.” However, “day” here is idiomatic for “the present time.”

[7:25]  ⁵⁸ tn On the Hebrew idiom see the note at 7:13.

[7:25]  ⁵⁹ tc There is some textual debate about the legitimacy of this expression here. The text reads merely “day” (יוֹם, yom). BHS suggests the word is to be deleted as a dittography of the plural ending of the preceding word. The word is in the Greek and Latin, and the Syriac represents the typical idiom “day after day” as though the noun were repeated. Either יוֹם has dropped out by haplography or a ם (mem) has been left out, i.e., reading יוֹמָם (yomam, “daily”).

[7:26]  ⁶⁰ tn Or “But your predecessors…”; Heb “But they….” There is a confusing interchange in the pronouns in vv. 25-26 which has led to some leveling in the ancient versions and the modern English versions. What is involved here are four levels of referents, the “you” of the present generation (vv. 21-22a), the ancestors who were delivered from Egypt (i.e., the “they” of vv. 22b-24), the “you” of v. 25 which involves all the Israelites from the Exodus to the time of speaking, and the “they” of v. 26 which cannot be the ancestors of vv. 22-24 (since they cannot be more wicked than themselves) but must be an indefinite entity which is a part of the “you” of v. 25, i.e., the more immediate ancestors of the present generation. If this is kept in mind, there is no need to level the pronouns to “they” and “them” or to “you” and “your” as some of the ancient versions and modern English versions have done.

[7:26]  ⁶¹ tn Heb “hardened [or made stiff] their neck.”

[7:27]  ⁶² tn The words, “Then the Lord said to me” are not in the text but are implicit in the shift from the second and third person plural pronouns in vv. 21-26 and the second singular in this verse. The words are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[7:28]  ⁶³ tn Heb “Faithfulness has vanished. It is cut off from their lips.”

[7:29]  ⁶⁴ tn The word “mourn” is not in the text. It is supplied in the translation for clarity to explain the significance of the words “Cut your hair and throw it away.”

[7:29]  ⁶⁵ tn The words, “you people of this nation” are not in the text. Many English versions supply, “Jerusalem.” The address shifts from second masculine singular addressing Jeremiah (vv. 27-28a) to second feminine singular. It causes less disruption in the flow of the context to see the nation as a whole addressed here as a feminine singular entity (as, e.g., in 2:19, 23; 3:2, 3; 6:26) than to introduce a new entity, Jerusalem.

[7:29]  ⁶⁶ tn The verbs here are the Hebrew scheduling perfects. For this use of the perfect see GKC 312 §106.m.

[7:29]  ⁶⁷ tn Heb “the generation of his wrath.”

[7:30]  ⁶⁸ tn The words “I have rejected them” are not in the Hebrew text, which merely says “because.” These words are supplied in the translation to show more clearly the connection to the preceding.

[7:30]  ⁶⁹ tn Heb “have done the evil in my eyes.”

[7:30]  ⁷⁰ sn Compare, e.g., 2 Kgs 21:3, 5, 7; 23:4, 6; Ezek 8:3, 5, 10-12, 16. Manasseh had desecrated the temple by building altars, cult symbols, and idols in it. Josiah had purged the temple of these pagan elements. But it is obvious from both Jeremiah and Ezekiel that they had been replaced shortly after Josiah’s death. They were a primary cause of Judah’s guilt and punishment (see beside this passage, 19:5; 32:34-35).

[7:30]  ⁷¹ tn Heb “the house which is called by my name.” Cf. 7:10, 11, 14 and see the translator’s note 7:10 for the explanation for this rendering.

[7:31]  ⁷² tn Heb “high places.”

[7:31]  ⁷³ tn Heb “the high places of [or in] Topheth.”

[7:31]  ⁷⁴ tn Heb “It never entered my heart.” The words “to command such a thing” do not appear in the Hebrew but are added for the sake of clarity.

[7:32]  ⁷⁵ tn Heb “Therefore, behold!”

[7:32]  ⁷⁶ tn Heb “it will no longer be said ‘Topheth’ or ‘the Valley of Ben Hinnom’ but ‘the valley of slaughter.’

[7:32]  ⁷⁷ tn Heb “And they will bury in Topheth so there is not room.”

[7:33]  ⁷⁸ tn Heb “Their dead bodies will be food for the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth.”