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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadPaul Kretzmann Commentary - Jeremiah 7:16 - 7:28
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The Idolatry and Disobedience of the Jews
v. 16. Therefore pray not thou for this people, the Lord expressly forbidding the prophet to make intercession for the reprobate nation, neither lift up cry nor prayer for them, neither make intercession to Me; for I will not hear thee. As strong as the prayers of the righteous are in holding back the wrath of God, the time will come when they are unavailing, due to the hardness of men's hearts, which provokes the punishment of the Lord.
v. 17. Seest thou not what they do in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? The wickedness which Jeremiah was obliged to witness wherever he looked was bound to convince him that the course of the Lord was right, that He was fully justified in rejecting all prayers made in behalf of the apostate Jews. The extent of their idolatry is now described.
v. 18. The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead their dough to make cakes to the queen of heaven, the female goddess Ashtoreth, or Astarte, the counterpart of the male idol Baal, in whose honor the cakes, made of honey, fine flour, and other ingredients, bore a round, flat surface to resemble the disk of the moon, and to pour out drink-offerings, the libations made as sacrifices, unto other gods that they may provoke Me to anger, the expression implying design on their part, the deliberate intention to arouse His wrath.
v. 19. Do they provoke Me to anger? saith the Lord. Do they truly believe that they can aggrieve Him by such acts? Will they reduce the bliss which He enjoys? Do they not provoke themselves, bringing grief and sorrow upon their own heads, to the confusion of their own, faces? That is ever the consequence of sin: the perfect blessedness of God is not reduced by man's transgression, but his own peace of mind is disturbed, and he loads grief and sorrow upon himself.
v. 20. Therefore, thus saith the Lord God, Jehovah, the All-powerful: Behold, Mine anger and My fury shall be poured out upon this place, upon Jerusalem, as the center of His nation and from there over the entire land, upon man, and upon beast, on the cattle owned by them, and upon the trees of the field, and upon the fruit of the ground, that resulting from its tilling by the hand of man; and it, the fury of the Lord, shall burn and shall not be quenched, the very irrational and inanimate creation being included in the Lord's punishment, in order to strike terror to the heart of men.
v. 21. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, still the Lord of those who are truly His Israel, His people, but who here addresses the apostate nation: Put your burnt offerings unto your sacrifices, the former, which were required to be wholly burned, being mingled with the latter, of which only parts were placed on the altar of burnt offerings, and eat flesh. It is a cry of disgust: So far as I am concerned, you may treat the one the same as the other; they are both equally loathsome to Me, since I despise your entire worship.
v. 22. 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, it was not His object to establish a mere external worship without true piety of the heart,
v. 23. but this thing commanded I them, saying, Obey My voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be My people, that being the fundamental principle upon which the entire relation between God and Israel was built up, and walk ye in all the ways that I have commanded you that it may be well unto you. All the Jewish rites and ceremonies presupposed faith and obedience on the part of the people. God required no sacrifice, unless it was the outgrowth of obedience grounded in faith. The actual claims of the Moral Law always preceded the ordinances pertaining to the outward form of worship. Cf 1Sa_15:22.
v. 24. But they hearkened not, they ignored the Lord and His precepts entirely, nor inclined their ear, they did not even attempt to listen, but walked in the counsels and in the imagination, the stubbornness, of their evil heart and went backward and not forward, literally, "they were to the back and not to the face," that is, they turned their backs to the Lord.
v. 25. Since the day that your fathers came forth out of the land of Egypt unto this day, beginning with Moses, the servant of Jehovah, I have even sent unto you all My servants, the prophets, daily rising up early and sending them, with unremitting diligence and eager kindliness;
v. 26. yet they hearkened not unto Me nor inclined their ear, but hardened their neck, like a stubborn ox under the yoke, Deu_31:27; they did worse than their fathers, the later generations, particularly that now addressed, being much farther removed from the true service of Jehovah than the generation of the Exodus.
v. 27. Therefore thou shall speak all these words unto them, but they will not hearken to thee, Jeremiah would have as little success as the other prophets had had; thou shall also call unto them, but they will not answer thee, being utterly indifferent to the Word of the Lord.
v. 28. But thou shalt say unto them, This is a nation that obeyeth not the voice of the Lord, their God, being therefore classed with the Gentile nations, nor receiveth correction, hardened to the point that all rebukes make no impression upon them; truth is perished, all reliability, all fidelity is lost, and is cut off from their mouth. There is a fine bit of sarcasm in this phrase, for the Jews confessed the Lord with their mouths only, and not with their hearts. The use of God's name for the purpose of mouth-worship only is a flagrant offense against the Second Commandment and is bound to bring down the wrath of God upon the offenders.