Jeremiah 7

The Temple Sermon

¹The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying,

²“Stand in the gate of the LORD’s house, and proclaim this word there, and say, ‘Hear the LORD’s word, all you of Judah, who enter in at these gates to worship the LORD.’”

³The LORD of Armies, the God of Israel says, “Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place.

⁴Don’t trust in lying words, saying, ‘The LORD’s temple, the LORD’s temple, the LORD’s temple, are these.’

⁵For if you thoroughly amend your ways and your doings, if you thoroughly execute justice between a man and his neighbor;

⁶if you don’t oppress the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow, and don’t shed innocent blood in this place, and don’t walk after other gods to your own hurt,

⁷then I will cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers, from of old even forever more.

⁸Behold, you trust in lying words that can’t profit.

⁹Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, burn incense to Baal, and walk after other gods that you have not known,

¹⁰then come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, ‘We are delivered,’ that you may do all these abominations?

¹¹Has this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, I myself have seen it,” says the LORD.

¹²“But go now to my place which was in Shiloh, where I caused my name to dwell at the first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people Israel.

¹³Now, because you have done all these works,” says the LORD, “and I spoke to you, rising up early and speaking, but you didn’t hear; and I called you, but you didn’t answer;

¹⁴therefore I will do to the house which is called by my name, in which you trust, and to the place which I gave to you and to your fathers, as I did to Shiloh.

¹⁵I will cast you out of my sight, as I have cast out all your brothers, even the whole offspring of Ephraim.

Do Not Pray for This People

¹⁶“Therefore don’t pray for this people. Don’t lift up a cry or prayer for them or make intercession to me; for I will not hear you.

¹⁷Don’t you see what they do in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem?

¹⁸The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead the dough, to make cakes to the queen of the sky, and to pour out drink offerings to other gods, that they may provoke me to anger.

¹⁹Do they provoke me to anger?” says the LORD. “Don’t they provoke themselves, to the confusion of their own faces?”

²⁰Therefore the Lord GOD says: “Behold, my anger and my wrath will be poured out on this place, on man, on animal, on the trees of the field, and on the fruit of the ground; and it will burn and will not be quenched.”

Obedience Better Than Sacrifice

²¹The LORD of Armies, the God of Israel says: “Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices and eat meat.

²²For I didn’t speak to your fathers or command them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices;

²³but this thing I commanded them, saying, ‘Listen to my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people. Walk in all the way that I command you, that it may be well with you.’

²⁴But they didn’t listen or turn their ear, but walked in their own counsels and in the stubbornness of their evil heart, and went backward, and not forward.

²⁵Since the day that your fathers came out of the land of Egypt to this day, I have sent to you all my servants the prophets, daily rising up early and sending them.

²⁶Yet they didn’t listen to me or incline their ear, but made their neck stiff. They did worse than their fathers.

²⁷“You shall speak all these words to them, but they will not listen to you. You shall also call to them, but they will not answer you.

²⁸You shall tell them, ‘This is the nation that has not listened to the LORD their God’s voice, nor received instruction. Truth has perished, and is cut off from their mouth.’

The Valley of Slaughter

²⁹Cut off your hair, and throw it away, and take up a lamentation on the bare heights; for the LORD has rejected and forsaken the generation of his wrath.

³⁰“For the children of Judah have done that which is evil in my sight,” says the LORD. “They have set their abominations in the house which is called by my name, to defile it.

³¹They have built the high places of Topheth, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, which I didn’t command, nor did it come into my mind.

³²Therefore behold, the days come”, says the LORD, “that it will no more 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 place to bury.

³³The dead bodies of this people will be food for the birds of the sky, and for the animals of the earth. No one will frighten them away.

³⁴Then I will 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 will become a waste.”

Previous Jeremiah 6

Next Jeremiah 8

Jeremiah delivers God's temple sermon, confronting Judah's false confidence in the temple's presence while they persist in injustice and idolatry. God warns that ritual worship without obedience is meaningless, citing the destruction of Shiloh as precedent for what will happen to Jerusalem's temple. The chapter emphasizes that God desires justice and righteousness over empty religious ceremonies, declaring that continued disobedience will result in exile and judgment.

Context

This chapter follows Jeremiah's earlier calls to repentance and precedes further descriptions of Judah's spiritual adultery, marking a decisive turn toward inevitable judgment.

Key Themes

Outline

1-15
The Temple Sermon Jeremiah proclaims at the temple gate that God's presence depends on justice and righteousness, not mere temple worship, warning of Shiloh's fate.
16-20
Do Not Pray for This People God forbids intercession for Judah due to their systematic idolatry, including worship of the queen of heaven.
21-26
Obedience Better Than Sacrifice God declares that obedience to His voice matters more than burnt offerings and sacrifices, which were not His primary concern at the exodus.
27-34
The Valley of Slaughter Jeremiah prophesies that continued disobedience will transform Topheth into a place of mass burial and desolation.

The Temple Sermon

7:1–7:15

prophecy speech warning

God commands Jeremiah to preach at the temple, warning that ritual worship without justice and obedience is worthless and will lead to Jerusalem's destruction like Shiloh.

person_contrast

Jeremiah's temple sermon uniquely combines cultic criticism with social justice demands, making it the only prophetic text where temple ritual and treatment of orphans/widows appear as equally weighted covenant requirements.

Do Not Pray for This People

7:16–7:20

prophecy speech wrathful

God forbids Jeremiah from interceding for the people because of their persistent idolatry, including worship of the queen of heaven, which provokes divine wrath.

person_contrast

God's prohibition against Jeremiah's intercession marks the only instance where divine wrath explicitly overrides prophetic prayer, reversing the typical prophet-mediator role.

Obedience Better Than Sacrifice

7:21–7:28

prophecy speech solemn

God declares that obedience to His voice is more important than burnt offerings and sacrifices, condemning Israel's persistent rebellion since the exodus.

person_contrast

Jeremiah's radical claim that God never commanded sacrifices during the exodus directly contradicts Leviticus, creating one of Scripture's most provocative theological tensions between ritual and relational obedience.

The Valley of Slaughter

7:29–7:34

prophecy speech mournful

God pronounces judgment on Judah for child sacrifice at Topheth, declaring the valley will become a place of mass burial and the land will be desolate.

theme_rarity

Jeremiah transforms Topheth from a site of child sacrifice into "Valley of Slaughter," creating a grim wordplay where the location's horrific purpose becomes its prophetic destiny.

Insight Character Study

God's prohibition against Jeremiah's intercession marks the only instance where divine wrath explicitly overrides prophetic prayer, reversing the typical prophet-mediator role.

Insight Character Study

Insight Rare Theme

Jeremiah transforms Topheth from a site of child sacrifice into "Valley of Slaughter," creating a grim wordplay where the location's horrific purpose becomes its prophetic destiny.

Cross-References

Connected passages across Scripture

Jeremiah 7:6 5 references

Lexicals 5

Jeremiah 22:3 Lexical

The LORD says: “Execute justice and righteousness, and deliver him who is robbed out of the hand of the oppressor. Do no…

7 shared words

Zechariah 7:10 Lexical

Don’t oppress the widow, the fatherless, the foreigner, nor the poor; and let none of you devise evil against his brothe…

Jeremiah 7

The Temple Sermon

Do Not Pray for This People

Obedience Better Than Sacrifice

The Valley of Slaughter

The Temple Sermon

Do Not Pray for This People

Obedience Better Than Sacrifice

The Valley of Slaughter

Insights

Cross-References

Jeremiah 7:6 5 references

Jeremiah 7:8 1 reference

Jeremiah 7:9 3 references

Jeremiah 7:12 2 references

Jeremiah 7:16 3 references

Jeremiah 7:18 5 references

Jeremiah 7:20 5 references

Jeremiah 7:24 1 reference

Jeremiah 7:26 1 reference

Jeremiah 7:30 1 reference

Jeremiah 7:31 5 references

Jeremiah 7:32 5 references

Jeremiah 7:33 5 references

Jeremiah 7:34 4 references

Interlinear

Historical Context

Timeline

Exodus