Jeremiah 7 – Skeptic's Annotated Bible answered

A response and reply to the notes on Jeremiah 7 in the Skeptic's Annotated Bible (SAB).

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King James Version

SAB comment

My comment


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

2 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 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 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 For if ye throughly amend your ways and your doings; if ye throughly execute judgment between a man and his neighbour;

6 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 will I cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers, for ever and ever.

8 Behold, ye trust in lying words, that cannot profit.

9 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 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 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 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, 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 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 And I will cast you out of my sight, as I have cast out all your brethren, even the whole seed of Ephraim.

16 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.

God says that there are some people that you just shouldn't bother praying for. If you do, he won't listen anyway.
This verse is very specific: do not pray for this people, i.e. the inhabitants of Jerusalem. They had turned their back on God for hundreds of years, and despite God's warnings that he would bring upon them the punishment for their sins and remember their breaking of the covenant between him and Israel, they had not listened. At some point God would do what he said he would do and that point had been reached now. God had given them this country, but told them he would take it away from them if they would not serve him. And so it happened.

17 Seest thou not what they do in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem?

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, and to pour out drink offerings unto other gods, that they may provoke me to anger.

God is angered by children who gather wood, fathers who make fires, and women that make bread for the "queen of heaven" (Mary?) and other gods.
This was directly against the first and second commandments (Ex. 20:3-4):

Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:

The observation the author of the SAB makes about Mary is correct: she is venerated as a god by the Roman Catholic Church and indeed called the queen of heaven by them. All such practises are condemned by this verse.

19 Do they provoke me to anger? saith the LORD: do they not provoke themselves to the confusion of their own faces?

20 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.

God will pour out his anger on both man and beast. Not even the trees will be spared from his wrath. And the ground itself will burn forever.
John Gill observes on the pouring out of wrath upon man and upon beast:

upon beasts for the sake of man, they being his property, and for his use; otherwise they are innocent, and do not deserve the wrath of God, nor are they sensible of it:

That the anger of God shall burn and not not be quenched indicates that this will surely come: God's anger will not be quenched until Jerusalem would be destroyed.

21 Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Put your burnt offerings unto your sacrifices, and eat flesh.

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:

Did God command the Israelites to make him burnt offerings?
Yes, God did command the Israelites to make burnt offerings. But as can be seen in the next verse (verse 23): what use is burnt offerings if you do not desire to walk in God's way? You bring a burnt offering to indicate that you have sinned and you acknowledge that sin must be atoned for. But if you do not want to acknowledge you have sinned and have no desire to leave them, what purpose does your burnt offering serve?
So it wasn't about the burnt offering, that would not satisfy God. The burnt offering was only an outward sign of the inward acknowledgement that sin had to be atoned for.

23 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 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 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 Yet they hearkened not unto me, nor inclined their ear, but hardened their neck: they did worse than their fathers.

27 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 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.

29 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 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 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 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 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.

God will feed the people to the birds and the beasts, "and none shall fray them away." 
Why is this injustice? Hadn't they deserved this? They had burnt their own sons and daughters in the fire, verse 31!

34 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.

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