Jeremiah 7 · WEB
The Temple Sermon
Listen — WEB narration 0:00 / 0:00 Narration: World English Bible (David Williams), public domain — AudioTreasure.
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The word that came to Jeremiah from Yahweh, saying,
2"Stand in the gate of Yahweh's house, and proclaim there this word, and say, 'Hear Yahweh's word, all you of Judah, who enter in at these gates to worship Yahweh.
3Yahweh 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, 'Yahweh's temple, Yahweh's temple, Yahweh'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,
10and 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 Yahweh.
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 Yahweh, "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. Don't 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 heaven, and to pour out drink offerings to other gods, that they may provoke me to anger.
19Do they provoke me to anger?" says Yahweh. "Don't they provoke themselves, to the confusion of their own faces?"
20Therefore the Lord Yahweh 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."
21Yahweh 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 turn 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 Yahweh their God's voice, nor received instruction. Truth has perished, and is cut off from their mouth.'
29"Cut off your hair, and throw it away, and take up a lamentation on the bare heights; for Yahweh 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 Yahweh. "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.
32"Therefore behold, the days come," says Yahweh, "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."
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Summary
Jeremiah 7 records the famous Temple Sermon, in which Yahweh sends Jeremiah to stand at the temple gate and confront the people of Judah for their false sense of security. The people chant "The temple of Yahweh" as though the building itself were a magic charm that guaranteed God's protection, while simultaneously committing theft, murder, adultery, idolatry, and even child sacrifice at Topheth. Yahweh points to the destruction of his earlier sanctuary at Shiloh as proof that he will not spare a place that bears his name if the people refuse to repent. The chapter closes with a devastating warning that the Valley of Hinnom will become a valley of mass burial and that all joy will cease from Judah.
Themes
- False religious security and the danger of treating worship as a talisman
- Obedience over ritual sacrifice
- The inevitability of judgment when repentance is refused
- Social justice as inseparable from genuine worship
- The horror of child sacrifice and syncretistic idolatry
Key verses
- Jer 7:11 — “Has this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, I myself have seen it.”
- Jer 7:23 — “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.”
- Jer 7:31 — “They 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.”
- Jer 7:4 — “Don't trust in lying words, saying, 'Yahweh's temple, Yahweh's temple, Yahweh's temple, are these.'”
Context & background
This sermon was likely delivered early in King Jehoiakim's reign (around 609-608 BC), at the gate of Solomon's temple in Jerusalem. Jeremiah's reference to Shiloh (modern Khirbet Seilun in the West Bank, Palestine) recalls the destruction of Israel's first central sanctuary, where the tabernacle and the Ark of the Covenant once resided, likely destroyed by the Philistines around 1050 BC (1 Samuel 4). The Valley of Hinnom (Hebrew: Ge-Hinnom), located just south of Jerusalem's Old City, was the site of Topheth, where children were burned as offerings to the god Molech — a practice borrowed from Canaanite religion. The Greek form of "Ge-Hinnom" is Gehenna, which later became the New Testament term for hell. The "queen of heaven" (verse 18) likely refers to the Mesopotamian goddess Ishtar (Astarte), whose worship had infiltrated Judah.
Cross-references
- 1 Sam 4:10-11 — The destruction of Shiloh and capture of the Ark, the historical event Jeremiah references as a warning
- 2 Kings 23:10 — Josiah's earlier reform that defiled Topheth in the Valley of Hinnom to stop child sacrifice
- Hos 6:6 — "I desire mercy, and not sacrifice" — the same principle Jeremiah emphasizes in verses 22-23
- Matt 21:13 — Jesus quotes Jer 7:11 ("den of robbers") when he cleanses the temple, directly connecting his action to Jeremiah's Temple Sermon
- Mic 3:11-12 — Micah similarly warns that Jerusalem and the temple will be destroyed because of the people's sins