Jeremiah 7:21-34
Obedience over Sacrifice
21 This is what the LORD of Armies, the God of Israel, says: “Add your burnt offerings to your other sacrifices, and eat the meat yourselves, 22 for when I brought your ancestors out of the land of Egypt, I did not speak with them or command them concerning burnt offering and sacrifice. 23 However, I did give them this command: ‘Obey me, and then I will be your God, and you will be my people. Follow every way I command you so that it may go well with you.’ 24 Yet they didn’t listen or pay attention but followed their own advice and their own stubborn, evil heart. They went backward and not forward. 25 Since the day your ancestors came out of the land of Egypt until today, I have sent all my servants the prophets to you time and time again.[fn] 26 However, my people wouldn’t listen to me or pay attention but became obstinate; they did more evil than their ancestors.
A Lament for Disobedient Judah
27 “When you speak all these things to them, they will not listen to you. When you call to them, they will not answer you. 28 Therefore, declare to them, ‘This is the nation that would not listen to the LORD their God and would not accept discipline. Truth[fn] has perished — it has disappeared from their mouths. 29 Cut off the hair of your sacred vow[fn] and throw it away. Raise up a dirge on the barren heights, for the LORD has rejected and abandoned the generation under his wrath.’
30 “For the Judeans have done what is evil in my sight.” This is the LORD’s declaration. “They have set up their abhorrent things in the house that bears my name in order to defile it. 31 They have built the high places of Topheth[fn] in Ben Hinnom Valley[fn] in order to burn their sons and daughters in the fire, a thing I did not command; I never entertained the thought.
32 “Therefore, look, the days are coming” — the LORD’s declaration — “when this place will no longer be called Topheth and Ben Hinnom Valley, but Slaughter Valley. Topheth will become a cemetery,[fn] because there will be no other burial place. 33 The corpses of these people will become food for the birds of the sky and for the wild animals of the land, with no one to scare them away. 34 I will remove from the cities of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem the sound of joy and gladness and the voices of the groom and the bride, for the land will become a desolate waste.
For deeper study: David Guzik Commentary
