CLARITY EDITION · OLD TESTAMENT
Jeremiah 7
Chapter 7 of 52
Chapter Overview
What happens in Jeremiah 7
Jeremiah stands at the gate of the Temple and delivers one of his most famous sermons. He warns the people not to trust in the Temple building itself while continuing to sin. God reminds them what happened to Shiloh, where the tabernacle once stood.
Scripture
Jeremiah 7
The Temple Sermon
Study note
God sends Jeremiah to stand at the entrance of the Temple and call the people to change their ways. The people believed that as long as the Temple stood in Jerusalem, God would never let the city be destroyed. Jeremiah tells them this is a false hope. God will only let them stay in the land if they truly change their behavior, treat each other fairly, stop mistreating foreigners, orphans, and widows, and stop worshipping other gods.
1 This is the message the Lord gave to Jeremiah: The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying,
2 "Stand at the door of the Lord's Temple. Say this: 'People of Judah, you walk through these gates to worship. Now listen to the Lord!'" Stand in the gate of the LORD's house, and proclaim there this word, and say, Hear the word of the LORD, all ye of Judah, that enter in at these gates to worship the LORD.
3 The Lord of Heaven's Armies, the God of Israel, says this: "Fix your ways and change how you live. Then I will let you keep living in this place." Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place.
4 "Stop trusting those lying words that people keep repeating: 'This is the Lord's Temple, the Lord's Temple, the Lord's Temple!'" Trust ye not in lying words, saying, The temple of the LORD, The temple of the LORD, The temple of the LORD, are these.
5 "Only if you genuinely change how you act and treat each other —" For if ye throughly amend your ways and your doings; if ye throughly execute judgment between a man and his neighbour;
6 "You must stop cheating strangers, orphans, and widows. Stop killing the innocent. Stop chasing after other gods. Those gods only bring you harm." If ye oppress not the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and shed not innocent blood in this place, neither walk after other gods to your hurt:
7 "then I will let you go on living in this place, the land I gave to your ancestors to enjoy forever." Then will I cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers, for ever and ever.
The Temple Is Not a Hideout
Study note
The people steal, murder, lie, and worship false gods, then come to stand in the Temple and say they are safe. God asks if they think his Temple has become a den of robbers. He points to what happened at Shiloh, where the tabernacle once stood. God destroyed that place because of Israel's sins, and he will do the same to the Temple in Jerusalem.
8 "But look at what you're doing! You're putting your trust in lies that won't help you at all." Behold, ye trust in lying words, that cannot profit.
9 "Do you truly think you can steal and murder? Do you think you can sleep with another's spouse? Do you think you can lie under oath? Can you burn incense to Baal and worship gods you never knew --" Will ye steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense unto Baal, and walk after other gods whom ye know not;
10 "and then walk into this Temple that carries my name and announce, 'We're safe!' — only to go right back to doing all those disgusting things?" And come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, We are delivered to do all these abominations?
11 "Do you think this Temple that carries my name is just a hideout for criminals? Because I've been watching everything!" says the Lord. Is this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, even I have seen it, saith the LORD.
12 "Go take a trip to Shiloh, where I first made a home for my name. See what I did to that place because of the wickedness of my people Israel." But go ye now unto my place which was in Shiloh, where I set my name at the first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people Israel.
13 "And now," says the Lord. "You have done all these same things. I spoke to you over and over. You would not listen. I called out to you. You would not answer." And now, because ye have done all these works, saith the LORD, and I spake unto you, rising up early and speaking, but ye heard not; and I called you, but ye answered not;
14 "I will do to this Temple what I did to Shiloh. This Temple carries my name. You count on it. But I gave this land to you and your fathers. I will treat it the same way." Therefore will I do unto this house, which is called by my name, wherein ye trust, and unto the place which I gave to you and to your fathers, as I have done to Shiloh.
15 "I will throw you out of my sight, just the way I threw out all your relatives -- the whole northern kingdom of Israel." And I will cast you out of my sight, as I have cast out all your brethren, even the whole seed of Ephraim.
Worshipping the Queen of Heaven
Study note
God tells Jeremiah not to even pray for these people because he will not listen. The families in Judah have organized their idol worship as a family project. Children gather wood, fathers light the fires, and women bake cakes for a pagan goddess called the Queen of Heaven. God says their actions only hurt themselves.
16 "And as for you, Jeremiah — don't bother praying for these people. Don't cry out to me or beg on their behalf. Don't plead with me, because I won't listen." Therefore pray not thou for this people, neither lift up cry nor prayer for them, neither make intercession to me: for I will not hear thee.
17 "Don't you see what they're doing all over the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem?" Seest thou not what they do in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem?
18 "The children pick up sticks for firewood. The fathers start the fire. The mothers mix dough to bake cakes as offerings to the 'Queen of Heaven.' They pour out drink offerings to other gods, all to make me angry." The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead their dough, to make cakes to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto other gods, that they may provoke me to anger.
19 "But are they truly hurting me?" asks the Lord. "Aren't they hurting themselves and heaping shame on their own heads?" Do they provoke me to anger? saith the LORD: do they not provoke themselves to the confusion of their own faces?
20 So the Lord God says, "My anger and fury will be poured out on this place — on the people, the animals, the trees in the fields, and the crops in the ground. It will burn like a fire that no one can put out." Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, mine anger and my fury shall be poured out upon this place, upon man, and upon beast, and upon the trees of the field, and upon the fruit of the ground; and it shall burn, and shall not be quenched.
Obedience, Not Sacrifice
Study note
God makes a surprising statement: when he brought the Israelites out of Egypt, the most important thing he asked for was not animal sacrifices but obedience. He wanted them to listen to his voice and walk in his ways. But from that day to the present, they have refused to listen, growing worse than their ancestors with each generation.
21 The Lord of Heaven's Armies, Israel's God, says this. "Go ahead. Pile all your burnt offerings on your other offerings. Eat the meat yourselves!" Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Put your burnt offerings unto your sacrifices, and eat flesh.
22 "I brought your fathers out of Egypt. But I did not talk about burnt offerings and animal offerings." For I spake not unto your fathers, nor commanded them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices:
23 "Here is what I told them: 'Listen to what I say, and I will be your God, and you will be my people. Live the way I show you, and everything will go well for you.'" But this thing commanded I them, saying, Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be my people: and walk ye in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well unto you.
24 "But they refused to listen or pay any attention. They followed their own stubborn plans and their own evil desires. They went backward instead of forward." But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear, but walked in the counsels and in the imagination of their evil heart, and went backward, and not forward.
25 "From the day your ancestors marched out of Egypt until right now, I have sent you my servants the prophets. I sent them every day." Since the day that your fathers came forth out of the land of Egypt unto this day I have even sent unto you all my servants the prophets, daily rising up early and sending them:
26 "But nobody listened. Nobody paid attention. Your ancestors were just as stubborn, and they did even worse than their parents." Yet they hearkened not unto me, nor inclined their ear, but hardened their neck: they did worse than their fathers.
27 "You will tell them all of this, Jeremiah, but they won't listen. You will call out to them, but they won't answer." Therefore thou shalt speak all these words unto them; but they will not hearken to thee: thou shalt also call unto them; but they will not answer thee.
28 "So say to them, 'This is the nation that refused to listen to the Lord their God and wouldn't accept correction. Truth has been killed off. You won't hear it from their lips anymore.'" But thou shalt say unto them, This is a nation that obeyeth not the voice of the LORD their God, nor receiveth correction: truth is perished, and is cut off from their mouth.
The Valley of Slaughter
Study note
God tells Jerusalem to cut off her hair as a sign of mourning because he has rejected this generation. The people have set up idols in the Temple itself and have sacrificed their own children in the fire at a place called Topheth in the Valley of Hinnom south of Jerusalem. God says this valley will be renamed the Valley of Slaughter because of the terrible judgment coming.
29 "Cut off your hair and throw it away. Go up to the bare hilltops and sing a funeral song, because the Lord has turned away from and abandoned this generation that made him so angry." Cut off thine hair, O Jerusalem, and cast it away, and take up a lamentation on high places; for the LORD hath rejected and forsaken the generation of his wrath.
30 "The people of Judah have done evil before me," says the Lord. "They set up their disgusting idols inside the very Temple that carries my name, making it unclean." For the children of Judah have done evil in my sight, saith the LORD: they have set their abominations in the house which is called by my name, to pollute it.
31 "They built places of worship at Topheth in the Valley of Ben Hinnom so they could burn their own sons and daughters in the fire as sacrifices. I never told them to do that. It never even crossed my mind." And they have built the high places of Tophet, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire; which I commanded them not, neither came it into my heart.
32 "So watch out! The days are coming," says the Lord, "when people will stop calling it Topheth or the Valley of Ben Hinnom. Instead, they'll call it the Valley of Slaughter. They'll have to bury bodies in Topheth because there won't be room anywhere else." Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that it shall no more be called Tophet, nor the valley of the son of Hinnom, but the valley of slaughter: for they shall bury in Tophet, till there be no place.
33 "The bodies of these people will lie on the ground. They will be food for the birds and wild animals. No one will be there to chase them off." And the carcases of this people shall be meat for the fowls of the heaven, and for the beasts of the earth; and none shall fray them away.
34 "I will silence every sound of celebration and joy in Judah's towns and Jerusalem's streets. No more happy wedding songs or voices of brides and grooms. The land will become an empty, silent wasteland." Then will I cause to cease from the cities of Judah, and from the streets of Jerusalem, the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride: for the land shall be desolate.
Key Themes
Themes in Jeremiah 7
False security in religious institutionsHypocrisy of outward worship with sinful livingThe lesson of shiloh's destructionTrue obedience versus empty ritualGod's willingness to judge even sacred places
Prophetic Connections
How this chapter points to Christ
Jeremiah 7:11 Matthew 21:13; Mark 11:17
Jeremiah's accusation that the people have turned God's temple into 'a den of robbers' is directly quoted by Jesus when he drives out the money changers, connecting the corruption of Jeremiah's day to the temple abuses Jesus confronted.
Apply This Today
Living Jeremiah 7
Attending a place of worship does not provide a license to live however we please. God values genuine obedience and transformed behavior over empty religious routines. If we treat sacred places as talismans while ignoring God's commands, we deceive only ourselves.
Go Deeper
Study Jeremiah in Covenant Path
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