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Jeremiah 7

Jeremiah confronts Judah’s trust in the temple while its people reject God’s commands, exposing worship used as cover for wrongdoing.

At the gate of YHWH’s house, Jeremiah must address the people of Judah coming to worship. God confronts their confidence that the temple will protect them while they practice injustice and serve other gods. He points to Shiloh as evidence that a place bearing his name can face judgment. The speech moves from a call to change their conduct to warnings of expulsion, ending with child sacrifice at Topheth and the devastation to come.

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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.
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.”
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.’
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.”
World English BibleRead in NIV in Psalmlog →Highlighted verses are the most connected.
Key verses
Jeremiah 7:11The image of a den of robbers exposes Judah’s use of God’s house as shelter after committing injustice.
Jeremiah 7:22God challenges Judah’s reliance on sacrifice by recalling what he commanded when he brought their ancestors out of Egypt.
Jeremiah 7:23God’s command to hear and obey anchors the chapter’s contrast between belonging to him and refusing his voice.
Where this chapter reaches

Matthew and Mark record Jesus using Jeremiah’s phrase “den of robbers” when confronting what was happening in the temple, linking both scenes through a charge against corrupted worship. Exodus and Deuteronomy share the chapter’s account of deliverance from Egypt and its call to obey God’s voice.

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Notice

After reading the whole chapter

What does God’s reference to Shiloh reveal about Judah’s confidence in the temple?

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Where does this chapter challenge your understanding of the relationship between worship and obedience?

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Questions people ask about Jeremiah 7

What does “den of robbers” mean in Jeremiah 7:11?

A den is a place where robbers take refuge. In the preceding verses, Judah’s people commit theft, murder, adultery, and idolatry, then stand in God’s house claiming safety. The phrase accuses them of treating the temple as protection from the consequences of conduct God condemns. God declares that he sees it.

Does Jeremiah 7:22 say God never commanded sacrifices?

Verse 22 refers to the time God brought Israel out of Egypt; verse 23 identifies his central command as listening to his voice. Exodus also contains commands about sacrifices. Read together, these texts present Jeremiah’s sharp contrast as an attack on sacrifice detached from obedience. Ritual cannot override God’s commands.

Why does God tell Jeremiah not to pray for the people?

God ties this command to Judah’s persistent refusal to listen and its open worship of other gods. Whole households take part, and repeated prophetic warnings have gone unanswered. The prohibition concerns Jeremiah’s intercession for this people under the announced judgment; it is no general ban on praying for people who disobey God.

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Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY). Scripture from the World English Bible (public domain). Arc diagram after Chris Harrison and Christoph Römhild (2007).