Jeremiah 7: 1 – 34
In lies we trust
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 you of Judah who enter in at these gates to worship the LORD!’?” 3 Thus says 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 Do not trust in these lying words, saying, ‘The temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD are these.’ 5 “For if you thoroughly amend your ways and your doings, if you thoroughly execute judgment between a man and his neighbor, 6 if you do not oppress the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place, or walk after other gods to your hurt, 7 then I will cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers forever and ever. 8 “Behold, you trust in lying words that cannot profit. 9 Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, burn incense to Baal, and walk after other gods whom you do not know, 10 and then 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 Has this house, which is called by My name, become a den of thieves in your eyes? Behold, I, even I, have seen it,” says the LORD. 12 “But go now to My place which was in Shiloh, where I set My name at the first, and see what I did to it because of the wickedness of My people Israel. 13 And now, because you have done all these works,” says the LORD, “and I spoke to you, rising up early and speaking, but you did not hear, and I called you, but you did not answer, 14 therefore I will do to the house which is called by My name, in which you trust, and to this place which I gave to you and 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—the whole posterity of Ephraim. 16 “Therefore do not pray for this people, nor lift up a cry or prayer for them, nor make intercession to Me; for I will not hear you. 17 Do you not see what they do in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? 18 The children gather wood, the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead dough, to make cakes for the queen of heaven; and they pour out drink offerings to other gods, that they may provoke Me to anger. 19 Do they provoke Me to anger?” says the LORD. “Do they not provoke themselves, to the shame of their own faces?” 20 Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: “Behold, My anger and My fury will be poured out on this place—on man and on beast, on the trees of the field and on the fruit of the ground. And it will burn and not be quenched.” 21 Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: “Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices and eat meat. 22 For I did not 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. 23 But this is what I commanded them, saying, ‘Obey My voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be My people. And walk in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well with you.’ 24 Yet they did not obey or incline their ear, but followed the counsels and the dictates of their evil hearts, and went backward and not forward. 25 Since the day that your fathers came out of the land of Egypt until this day, I have even sent to you all My servants the prophets, daily rising up early and sending them. 26 Yet they did not obey Me or incline their ear but stiffened their neck. They did worse than their fathers. 27 “Therefore you shall speak all these words to them, but they will not obey you. You shall also call to them, but they will not answer you. 28 “So you shall say to them, ‘This is a nation that does not obey the voice of the LORD their God nor receive correction. Truth has perished and has been cut off from their mouth. 29 Cut off your hair and cast it away, and take up a lamentation on the desolate heights; for the LORD has rejected and forsaken the generation of His wrath.’ 30 For the children of Judah have done evil in My sight,” says 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 did not command, nor did it come into My heart.
32 “Therefore behold, the days are coming,” says the LORD, “when it will no more be called Tophet, or the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter; for they will bury in Tophet until there is no room. 33 The corpses of this people will be food for the birds of the heaven and for the beasts of the earth. And no one will frighten them away. 34 Then 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 shall be desolate.
Truthfulness is supposed to be one of the key components of integrity. Most people lie to someone else at least once or twice a day and over a week, they lie to 30 percent of the individuals they interact with. The question we need answered is what is the functions behind doing this?
We lie to protect. When someone feeds you lies they are protecting what they are doing. They are afraid of what they are doing would be viewed as bad so they cover up what they are doing in secret to protect their personal actions.
Is there a way to know you are being lied to by someone?
In truth there are some signals which help us recognize a liar but the way we are made we are not always on the alert that a predator is waiting to spring their lying words upon us. If you go about life analyzing everyone you meet then these indicators will help you determine a lie.
. When an immediate response is expected the other person pauses or delays and answer.
. Covering up the falsehood such as hiding the mouth or eyes which is their reaction to shield themselves from the reaction that might come from the lie.
. Clearing the throat prior to response
. Hand to face activity is an autonomic nervous system reaction when lying
. Tidying behaviors such as straightening a tie or skirt. Suddenly repositioning paperwork on the desk (if you ever watched Hitler speak he is displaying his lying after proclaiming a point and before speaking again he tidies his paperwork). These distractions attempt to alleviate the anxiety of lying.
Once you are sure someone is stretching the truth what do you do?
1. Best way is do nothing. Just exit stage left and get away from anything this lie is trying to trap you with
2. Deflect with humor. Just recently this display salesman stopped me and wanted to get me into a conversation to lie and sell me a new power company subscription. He asked me if he could ask me a question which sales training a means is to engage me in a conversation. I agreed that he could go ahead and ask his question. He did then immediately he led to another question. I said, ‘You stopped me to see if you could ask me a question which I agreed.’ I smiled, ‘this is now number 2 question which I didn’t agree upon. Have a nice day.’
3. Play dumb and see how this person can attempt to explain his lie(s).
4. Point out the lie. (a person came to my house and said that he was from the power company. I said directly to him, ‘No you are not. I just was informed yesterday that people were impersonating this to sell a different type of plan.’
Jeremiah is taught by our Holy Father Yahweh that the whole nation has become a bunch of liars. They no longer adhere to the motto, ‘In God we trust’. They should make their currency say, ‘In lies we trust.’
Because of the amazing deliverance of Jerusalem with its Temple from the Assyrians in the time of Hezekiah, and what had in contrast happened to neighboring temples, the myth had grown up that the security of Jerusalem was guaranteed by the presence of the Temple among them. Their view had become that YHWH would not allow His Temple to be destroyed so that the Temple was inviolable. In consequence they had gained the false confidence that they too would be secure in Jerusalem, whatever their behavior. In this passage therefore, YHWH calls on Jeremiah to dispel that myth and make clear to all Judah that such dependence was totally false. The truth was that unless they repented He intended to do to the Temple precisely what He had done to His previous house at Shiloh (something that they had overlooked), allow it to be destroyed.
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 you of Judah who enter in at these gates to worship the LORD!’”
Jeremiah was called on to stand in the gate of YHWH’s house. This was probably the gate that led into the inner court, (the court that would later become the court of the priests), and it may well have been a place for the making of proclamations. He was probably looking outwards from the raised gateway towards the crowds gathered in the outer court, presumably during one of the main feasts of Israel.
3 Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: “Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place.
His words commenced with a call from YHWH of hosts, as ‘the God of Israel’, addressed to what remained of ‘Israel’, requiring them to amend their ways, accompanied by an assurance that if they did so He would enable them to continue dwelling in the land, and in Jerusalem. So even at this point there was hope for them if they truly repented.
‘In this place’ is, in this land or more likely refers to the Temple.
4 Do not trust in these lying words, saying, ‘The temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD are these.’
But if they were to continue dwelling in the land it would be necessary for them to cease deceiving themselves into thinking that somehow the presence of the Temple of YHWH made Jerusalem inviolable, and that YHWH would not allow His holy hill to be approached by the enemy. There was no point in their continually saying, “‘The temple of YHWH, the temple of YHWH, the temple of YHWH is these” as though that could keep the enemy at bay by continual emphasis, unless they also amended their ways, for such thinking was invalid.
The threefold repetition of ‘the Temple of YHWH’ indicates Jeremiah’s weariness with constantly hearing the false prophets declaring Judah’s inviolability because of the presence of the Temple of YHWH in that he is bringing out that they keep on saying it again and again. ‘Are these.’ That is, are all these buildings, furniture and courts making up the Temple complex.
One of the most remarkable evidences of the corruption of men’s hearts is that they can have a high estimate of ‘holy things’, and even of a holy God, and yet not recognize the demand that it lays on them to be equally ‘holy. (‘You shall be holy, for I am holy’). They can appreciate God’s holiness and believe that it offers them protection, especially from people ‘worse’ than they are, while at the same time excusing themselves from the need to be equally holy. As long as by their own standards they are not guilty of what they see as major sins (even when in fact they are, but they see it as excusable in their case) they consider that they have done all that can reasonably be expected of them, while at the same time being hard on those who stir up their consciences or do things that they cannot condone. They hate those who make them feel guilty and they ‘condone the sins they are inclined to, by condemning those they have no mind to.’ And then they think that all is well. They overlook the fact that at the center of the Scriptural conception of the holiness of YHWH is the idea morally speaking that He is pure and beyond reproach, (as is revealed by His covenant), and that He requires the same of His people. They forget that, as Psalm 24 makes clear (compare also Psalm 15), only what is truly pure and righteous is acceptable in His presence. It was because of this strange spiritual blindness that they were able in this situation to have a high view of The Temple and its importance to God, without it having any real moral effect on their lives. It was the folly of such thinking that Jeremiah was seeking to bring home to them.
5 “For if you thoroughly amend your ways and your doings, if you thoroughly execute judgment between a man and his neighbor, 6 if you do not oppress the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place, or walk after other gods to your hurt, 7 then I will cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers forever and ever.
What was needed was for them to genuinely amend their ways and doings, by submitting to God’s covenant and ensuring that people obtained true justice in the everyday affairs of life, that the more helpless in society were not oppressed or being taken advantage of (something very important to God that the blood of innocent people was not being shed (by judicial murder, by attacks on the righteous, including the prophets, and by general violence), and that idolatry, which could only cause them harm, was being put to one side. If they did this, walking in accordance with His covenant, He would then ensure that they were able to continue dwelling in the land continually forever, the land which He had given to their forefathers from of old. The corollary was that being allowed to live in the land depended on covenant obedience.
8 “Behold, you trust in lying words that cannot profit.
The problem was that they believed in the words of false teachers and false prophets, words which said otherwise, giving them assurances based on false premises. Such words could not possibly be profitable for them, for they would simply hasten their destruction.
9 Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, burn incense to Baal, and walk after other gods whom you do not know, 10 and then come and stand before Me in this house which is called by My name, and say, ‘We are delivered to do all these abominations’?
The unspoken comment required is that ‘it is preposterous!’ So the basic question was, did they really think that they could continue stealing, murdering, committing adultery, giving false testimony and burning incense to Baal in the Temple and in their high places, and walking after other gods, thus breaking so many of the stipulations in His covenant, and then come and stand before Him in the house which was called by His Name and claim that He would deliver them? If so they had a strange idea of YHWH, for He abominated all these things and would rather bring them into account for them.
The fact that the Temple was called by His Name made it ‘holy’, because it connected it with the very nature of God as revealed in His Name, so that only those who were compatible with God in that way could be welcomed there (Psalms 15; 24), simply because the behavior of those who worshipped there reflected on His Name and reputation. To worship in YHWH’s house was a serious matter, for the worshippers of any god revealed by their lives the nature of that god. Thus, in the house which was called by His Name unrepentant and disobedient sinners were not welcome. It was for the true hearted only.
It is one of the evidences of the fallen state of man that he does think that God does not really mind about his sins, and that he can continue in them blatantly while still retaining a relationship with God, and that in spite of God’s declaration that it is not so. They go on about God’s active love and forgiveness and overlook the fact that both are dependent on repentance because of God’s antipathy to sin. They forget that by His nature God cannot be fully merciful to the unrepentant. He can give them sun and rain, but He cannot give them forgiveness. What was to happen to Judah was to be a lesson for all time that God really does mind about our sins, sufficiently to allow such an extreme judgment to come on those who, despite being supposedly His people, broke His commandments.
11 Has this house, which is called by My name, become a den of thieves in your eyes? Behold, I, even I, have seen it,” says the LORD.
He therefore asks them whether in fact they saw the house which was called by His Name as a ‘den of robbers’, a den of covenant breakers, a place where those who were planners of mischief were welcome? That was the impression that they were giving. For they gathered there as people who were corrupt and dishonest, as though they had a right to be there despite their failings. Did they really think that He, YHWH, could be a companion of thieves and blatant sinners? Was this not very much the opposite of what was revealed in the Psalms, where it says ‘who shall ascend into the hill of YHWH, and who shall stand in His holy place? Even he who has clean hands and a pure heart, who has not lifted up his soul to what is vain (any form of idolatry especially included) nor sworn deceitfully in matters related to his neighbor’ (Psalm 24. 3-5). The truth was that only the pure in heart and the penitent (Isaiah 1.11-18; 57.15) could find a welcome in His house, while they were the very opposite.
And yet it was that kind of attitude (seeing His house as a gathering place for evil men) that YHWH, in all His holiness, had plainly seen in them. He could see that they really did think that it did not matter how they behaved, or what possessed their hearts, if they followed the recognized Temple rituals. They seemingly did think that His house would welcome even those who were violent and dishonest and had no intention of relinquishing those ways, if they offered the appropriate sacrifices. Well, they were in for a rude awakening.
12 “But go now to My place which was in Shiloh, where I set My name at the first, and see what I did to it because of the wickedness of My people Israel.
Let them just consider what had happened to His former house at Shiloh where he had caused His Name to dwell. Shiloh was the first major center at which the Tabernacle had been established for a long time. It had been established there by Joshua once the initial conquest was over and had continued there throughout the period of the Judges up to Samuel. They should recall that the people who had worshipped at Shiloh had had a similar view of things and see what had happened there. He had caused it to be destroyed because of the wickedness of His people, a precedent which boded ill for the Temple. The destruction of Shiloh is not actually described elsewhere in Scripture, but it is implied by the fact that when Samuel, who had been brought up in the Tabernacle at Shiloh, ministered to the people after the Philistines had been driven back, it was not at Shiloh, but elsewhere, while the Tabernacle furniture itself next turned up at Nob (1 Samuel 21.6). Shiloh simply disappeared from history without mention.
13 And now, because you have done all these works,” says the LORD, “and I spoke to you, rising up early and speaking, but you did not hear, and I called you, but you did not answer,
And now, because they had ‘done all these works’ and demonstrated that they were even worse than those who had worshipped at Shiloh, in that they had stolen, murdered, committed adultery, sworn falsely, and burned incense to Baal, walking after other gods that they had not known (verse 9), and refusing to listen to His continual pleading through the prophets, He would now act against them. ‘Rising up early’ indicates the great effort that He had made to speak to them (compare verse 25). And He then emphasizes how He had repeatedly spoken to them and called them and had had no reply, indicating quite clearly that their unresponsiveness was not because they had had no opportunity.
14 therefore I will do to the house which is called by My name, in which you trust, and to this place which I gave to you and your fathers, as I have done to Shiloh.
And one way in which He would act against them would be by destroying the Temple and the land which He had given them, in the same way as He had destroyed Shiloh. They had made it a den of robbers and He would treat it as such. It is difficult for us to appreciate the enormity in the eyes of the people of Jerusalem of what Jeremiah was saying. Not only was belief in the inviolability of the Temple firmly rooted deep in their hearts, but they also considered that they were special to YHWH (despite their continuing disobedience, which they dismissed as unimportant as long as they maintained the Temple ritual) and that He had a special place for them in His purposes. How then could He destroy them as He had destroyed Shiloh? It was unthinkable.
15 And I will cast you out of My sight, as I have cast out all your brethren—the whole posterity of Ephraim.
And YHWH then informed them that not only would He destroy both their Temple and their land as He had Shiloh, but He would also cast the people themselves out of His sight as He had cast ‘the whole seed of Ephraim’ (all the people of northern Israel which, especially in its reduced form, had been known as ‘Ephraim, centering on Mount Ephraim and being named after the most influential of the northern tribes) out of His sight. And all knew what that meant. It meant captivity and exile.
Jeremiah was called on no longer to pray for the people of Judah because there was no longer any possibility that such a prayer would be heard). This has been identified by some in terms of Ashtoreth/Ishtar/Astarte although it is nowhere said so. The consequence of all this was that they had brought on themselves total ‘confusion’. That indeed was why YHWH’s anger was about to be poured out on the whole land, including man, animals, trees and crops in a way which could not be prevented (‘it will not be quenched’).
For at the very root of the problem was the fact that they had refused to hear Him to obey Him or to walk in His ways. It was such activity that had always been His priority. Thus, their offerings and sacrifices, which had always been of secondary importance, were in vain. And this situation had been exacerbated even more by the fact that He had sent to them His servants the prophets, to whom also they had refused to listen, just as they would now not listen to Jeremiah. That is why they are to be branded as the people who would not listen to the voice of YHWH their God, truth having been cut off from their mouths.
16 “Therefore do not pray for this people, nor lift up a cry or prayer for them, nor make intercession to Me; for I will not hear you.
In a threefold manner YHWH now called on Jeremiah no longer to pray for the people of Judah because He simply would not listen to him. The end had been reached and mercy was no longer available. ‘Do not pray -- nor lift up cry or prayer -- nor make intercession’. Please notice the advancement in intensity, with intercession involving personal involvement. It was an emphatic statement for which there was to be no exception.
It is a reminder to us that although God is continually longsuffering, there regularly comes a time when, because of people’s intransigence, He finally brings things to a conclusion, to begin again. It happened for the people in the time of Noah, with the Flood (Genesis 6.7). It happened for the Canaanites when, after waiting for four hundred years for them to repent (Genesis 15.16), He finally sent in the Israelites to destroy them. It had happened for Israel when it had continually refused to listen to His prophets, so that Samaria had been destroyed and they had at last been exiled. Now it had happened to Judah, who could thus only await their certain end.
17 Do you not see what they do in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem?
God recognized the shock that this strange request not to pray for the people must have been to Jeremiah and so He makes clear His reasons, asking him to consider what he can see with his own eyes, the activities of the people in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. The whole land is involved.
18 The children gather wood, the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead dough, to make cakes for the queen of heaven; and they pour out drink offerings to other gods, that they may provoke Me to anger.
All were involved. The children gather the wood, the fathers kindle the fire, the women knead the dough. All are concerned in making cakes for the Queen of Heaven, as well as pouring out drink-offerings to other gods, thus provoking Him to anger. While the formal worship of YHWH continued in the Temple, and they paid lip service to it, it was these other gods and goddesses, accompanied by their depraved practices, who took all of the people’s attention and affection, and because the celebrations were carried out indoors they had no doubt escaped Josiah’s attempts at reformation. They could no longer blatantly offer blood sacrifices to such gods, but cake-offerings and drink-offerings were a different matter
19 Do they provoke Me to anger?” says the LORD. “Do they not provoke themselves, to the shame of their own faces?”
What they also needed to recognize was that what they were doing was provoking confusion (shame) to their own faces, bringing shame and embarrassment on themselves (3.25, where they had recognized that fact, but had failed to make it good, so that they were without excuse because they were continuing to do it).
20 Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: “Behold, My anger and My fury will be poured out on this place—on man and on beast, on the trees of the field and on the fruit of the ground. And it will burn and not be quenched.”
As a result (‘therefore’) their Sovereign Lord YHWH had now determined to pour out His wrath on the whole land, involving all of nature, man, beast, trees and crops. The land itself would burn with unquenched fire, a regular picture of final judgment.
21 Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: “Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices and eat meat.
The people would no doubt have argued that they were still fulfilling their obligations with regard to offerings and sacrifices, and so ‘YHWH of hosts, God of Israel’ calls on them sarcastically to add to them as much as they liked, and to partake of them all, even the burnt offerings which were strictly for YHWH only and had to be wholly burned up. The implication is that such restrictions had become irrelevant because He no longer saw them as being offered to Him. And the implication was that it would do them no good, because this was not YHWH’s prime requirement.
It is YHWH of hosts Who says this, the One Who not only controls the hosts that will come against them but is also over all the hosts of Heaven. Before Him the Queen of Heaven was a nonentity, she didn’t exist.
22 For I did not 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. 23 But this is what I commanded them, saying, ‘Obey My voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be My people. And walk in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well with you.’
This is not saying that they were unaware of the idea of sacrifices, for not only would that have been unlikely for people who had been living in Egypt, but in fact the offering of sacrifices to YHWH had been one of the reasons for their wanting to leave Egypt, and such sacrifices were their first thought when they rebelled against YHWH and set up the golden calf. Rather it is pointing out that what had been YHWH’s stress immediately after they left Egypt was not that they should offer to Him burnt offerings and sacrifices, but that they should listen to His voice, recognize Him as their God and obey His commandments. In other words, He was emphasizing that obedience was more important than sacrifices.
What they should now recognize was what had been His prime concern on delivering them from Egypt. It had not been to command them to offer offerings and sacrifices but to command them to hear His voice and obey His commandments. It was this latter that had come immediately on leaving Egypt, whilst the regulations concerning offerings and sacrifices had come some long time after. Thus His original command immediately after the deliverance of the Red Sea had been (Exodus 15.25-26), ‘If you will diligently listen to the voice of YHWH and will give ear to His commandments and will keep all His statutes, I will put on you none of these diseases which I have put on the Egyptians (compare ‘that it may be well with you’), for I am YHWH Who heals you.’ Thus He had revealed from the beginning that what He was primarily concerned to receive from them was obedience to His commandments, and that it was that on which their wellbeing would depend.
Thus, what YHWH is saying here is that once they had left Egypt, purportedly to offer offerings and sacrifices, it was not that which had been His first concern, but their willingness to listen to Him, obey His commandments and walk in His ways.
24 Yet they did not obey or incline their ear, but followed the counsels and the dictates of their evil hearts, and went backward and not forward.
What followed had been that they had not listened, or inclined their ear, nor had they walked in all the way that He had commanded them. Rather they had walked in their own counsels and in the stubbornness of their own evil hearts and had gone backwards and not forwards. In other words, their hearts had gone backwards to Egypt (as witness the molten calf) and all its connections with idol worship, rather than forwards in obedience to their covenant with YHWH.
25 Since the day that your fathers came out of the land of Egypt until this day, I have even sent to you all My servants the prophets, daily rising up early and sending them.
From the day that their fathers had come out of Egypt right up to this point in time, He had sent to them all His servants the prophets, ‘daily rising up early and sending them’. His supply of prophets had been constant, with Jeremiah now being the most recent one to be on their case. That there had been prophets other than Moses before the time of Samuel comes out in Numbers 11.25-29; Judges 4.4; 6.8.
26 Yet they did not obey Me or incline their ear but stiffened their neck. They did worse than their fathers.
But they had not listened, nor inclined their ear. Rather they had stiffened their necks stubbornly refusing to hear and holding back on obedience. Thus, they had done even worse than their fathers.
27 “Therefore you shall speak all these words to them, but they will not obey you. You shall also call to them, but they will not answer you.
So, while Jeremiah was to speak all these words to them He was not to be surprised when they did not listen and did not respond to his call.
28 “So you shall say to them, ‘This is a nation that does not obey the voice of the LORD their God nor receive correction. Truth has perished and has been cut off from their mouth.
He was to make clear that they had as a whole adamantly failed to listen to the voice of YHWH, and had not received His instruction, the consequence being that as far as they were concerned truth was dead, and all that they spoke was lies.
YHWH now turns from the question of their general disobedience and idolatry, to their particular disobedience in reference to their especially evil behavior with regard to idols in that they have set up their abominations in the House of YHWH, and have done even worse (if that were possible) in the Valley of Topheth where they have offered their children as sacrifices to idols, something which He had not commanded and had not (and would not have) even remotely considered. He calls on them to lament because, as a result, He was going to make the Valley of Topheth a place of slaughter and death in that it would become a place for burying huge numbers of dead and a place where the bones of kings and princes, priests and prophets, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, would be exposed before the sun, moon and stars that they had worshipped, as though they were criminals, whilst those evil people who survived the massacre and went into exile would seek death rather than life.
29 Cut off your hair and cast it away and take up a lamentation on the desolate heights; for the LORD has rejected and forsaken the generation of His wrath.’
The command to ‘cut off’ is in the feminine, suggesting that here the call is to ‘the daughter of Zion’ (6.23), that is, the inhabitants of Jerusalem. YHWH calls on her to mourn and lament by cutting off her hair (her ‘crown’) and casting it away. This may signify that she is to do this because she has already cast away her glory (her crown) or that, having been rejected by YHWH, she is to cast off the sign of her consecration to Him, in the same way as a Nazarite cut off his hair and cast it away when he had broken his vow. Either way it is a way of signifying great loss.
She is to take up her lamentation on the ‘bare heights’, the very place where they had offered incense at their high places (3.2). Instead of indulging in their riotous sex-ridden festivals they were to humiliate themselves and mourn and weep because rather than facing blessing their future was dismal. And this was because YHWH had rejected and forsaken them, because of the fact that they were the generation at which His wrath was directed. ‘The generation of His wrath’ probably signifies the generation on which YHWH had decided the punishment must fall for all the failures of the past which had aroused His wrath, because they had now reached the point of no return.
30 For the children of Judah have done evil in My sight,” says the LORD. “They have set their abominations in the house which is called by My name, to pollute it.
The fault of the children of Judah was depicted as threefold:
• First, they had done evil in His sight, including their worship of the Queen of Heaven, something confirmed by the infallible word of YHWH.
• Second, they had set their abominations (Asherah images/poles; etc.) in the very house that was called by His Name, an act of great blasphemy.
• Third, they had built high places in Topheth to offer their children as sacrifices to the gods, thus committing mass murder and sacrilege.
The three activities together indicated a totality of evil.
‘They have done evil in His sight.’ They had turned after other gods, they had worshipped Baal on the high hills, they had worshipped the Queen of Heaven in their houses, and they had regularly broken the covenant by their ways, and it had all been done in front of His very eyes. ‘For all things are open to the eyes of Him with Whom we have to do’ (Hebrews 4.13).
‘They have set their abominations in the house which is called by My Name.’ They had even gone so far as to set up abominations in His house, the house that bore the very Name of YHWH. It is clear from this that they had images or pagan pillars or pagan altars in the Temple itself, which suggests that this was written in the time of Jehoiakim (or Zedekiah) because Josiah had previously cleared the Temple of such things in the twelfth year of his reign (2 Chronicles 34.4) prior to Jeremiah’s call. This was thus a new act, causing gross offence to YHWH, and demonstrating that they had failed to learn the lessons of the past, but were instead repeating them.
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 did not command, nor did it come into My heart.
But even worse they had built the high places of Topheth, which means ‘the hearth’ indicating that it was a place of burning. The high places were erected there for offering their children as human sacrifices ‘in the fire’. This was against all that YHWH had taught. It was ‘beyond His imagination’. He had of course once called Abraham to sacrifice his son, but only so that He could teach the lesson that such sacrifice was not required (Genesis 22).
Topheth was in the valley of the sons of Hinnom, an ancient valley known by that name in the time of Joshua probably after its owner. This valley was also used for the burning of refuse, something which eventually made it a symbol of God’s fiery judgment (Gehenna = ge hinnom = the valley of Hinnom). To look over the walls of Jerusalem at night at the refuse fires continually burning far below in the valley must have been an awesome sight and readily recalled God’s fiery judgment.
32 “Therefore behold, the days are coming,” says the LORD, “when it will no more be called Tophet, or the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter; for they will bury in Tophet until there is no room.
Because of these evil sacrifices which took place there the name of the valley would in the future be changed to ‘the valley of Slaughter’. This would be because it would be used as a convenient burial ground, but so great would be the numbers to be buried there because of the coming invasion that it would be filled up with graves so much so that there would be no room for any more. It was certainly fitting that those who sacrificed their own children there in such a terrible manner should find themselves buried, or even left unburied, in the place where they had done it.
33 The corpses of this people will be food for the birds of the heaven and for the beasts of the earth. And no one will frighten them away.
But worse. Many alive at that time would be slain without there being room to bury them, with the result that their dead bodies would be flung on the ground and left for the vultures, and for scavenging beasts like the jackal. Such exposure was usually the fate of criminals and was looked on as the ultimate disgrace. And because the living would all be in exile there would be no one left to scare such scavengers away (2 Samuel 21.10). This would be a literal fulfilment of the curse in Deuteronomy 28.26.
34 Then 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 shall be desolate.
At that time YHWH would remove all joy from the people. The voice of mirth and gladness, and the voice of the bride and bridegroom, would be heard no more in the cities of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem, because the whole land would have been laid waste. Bride and bridegroom were especially mentioned because they were representing the pinnacle of human happiness. But even they would have no cause for rejoicing. It was also at weddings that men knew the highest level of merriment, when the wine flowed freely, even for the poor. But there would be none now, for there would be nothing to celebrate. It may also be as an indication that life had come completely to a halt. Marriage would simply become a reminder of what had been.
