Deeper Commentary

Jeremiah 7:1 The word that came to Jeremiah from Yahweh saying- This appears to be parallel to the incidents of Jer. 26, as Jeremiah's prophecies and events in his life aren't at all chronological within the book of Jeremiah.

Jeremiah 7:2 Stand in the gate of Yahweh’s house and proclaim there this word and say, ‘Hear the word of Yahweh, all you of Judah, who enter in at these gates to worship Yahweh- This was probably not one of the outer gates, but one of the three gates which led from the inner court to the outer. Probably it was the gate where Baruch later recited the prophecies of Jeremiah, called "the new gate of the Lord’s house", located in the "upper" i.e. inner court (Jer. 36:10 cp. 26:10). Probably the time was one of the three great feasts, when the people of Judah would have come up to the temple.

 

Jeremiah 7:3 Thus says Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place- Jeremiah especially reveals the grace which God was so eager to show to the exiles. Jer. 7:3-7 made it clear that Judah’s return to the land was to be conditional upon them not oppressing the poor- only “then will I cause you to dwell in this place” (AV). Yet in His grace and zeal for His people, it seems God overlooked that condition- for the returned exiles did oppress (Neh. 5:1-5), and yet they returned to the land. And yet they would’ve dwelt in Zion “for ever and ever” (Jer. 7:7) if they had not been abusive to others and truly loved God.

 

Jeremiah 7:4 Don’t trust in lying words by saying, Yahweh’s temple, Yahweh’s temple, Yahweh’s temple, are these- Time and again Jeremiah accuses the people of purposefully inciting God to anger through their worshipping of Him (Jer. 7:18,19; 11:17,18; 25:6; 44:3-8)- whereas the onlooker would’ve likely commented that at least they were doing something , and Jeremiah should just calm himself down about it all. He uses a grating sarcasm in Jer. 7:21-23: “Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices, and eat the flesh… I did not speak to your fathers or command them concerning burnt offerings…but this command I gave them: Obey my voice”. The people loved their temple: “The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord…’, they said. And Jeremiah responds: “You trust in deceptive words to no avail” (Jer. 7:4,8). And time and again, the prophets predicted the destruction of the temple by the God of Israel. This was radical stuff in those days; the idea was that the survival of a god depended upon the survival of his temple or shrine. No pagan god would threaten to destroy his own shrine. Israel’s God was so different.

Jeremiah 7:5 For if you thoroughly amend your ways and your doings; if you thoroughly execute justice between a man and his neighbour- Perhaps their "ways" refer to the well trodden ways and paths of thought within the mind, reflected in "doings". "Amend" is the word used of how Cain was bidden "do well", to amend his ways, and a sin offering was even provided for him (Gen. 4:7). Hereby Israel are set up as Cain, a parallel which the Lord (Jn. 8:44) and New Testament writers also perceive. Judah had "trimmed" or "amended" their ways to seek relationships with the surrounding nations (Jer. 2:33 s.w.), willing to accept their gods and whatever cult obligations to them which were required. But they would not amend their ways for Yahweh. "Amend" is the word translated 'to do well to' in Jer. 7:23. If they amended their ways, God would amend or change His plans of judgment. Here we behold the openness of God, His deep sensitivity to human repentance and change.

Jeremiah 7:6 If you don’t oppress the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow, and don’t shed innocent blood in this place, neither walk after other gods to your own hurt- Because they oppressed Gentiles, therefore they were to be oppressed by them (Dt. 28:29,33; Jer. 50:33 s.w.). Their judgments were appropriate to their sins. Innocent blood was shed in the temple; it was there that the idols were worshipped and child sacrifice made. This is in proximity to the description of that temple as a den of robbers (Jer. 7:11), and these two ideas are found in Ez. 18:10: "If he fathers a son who is a robber, a shedder of blood, and who does any one of these things". These were all things going on at the time of Ezekiel. The exiles needed to repent of these things. These actual things had been practiced by the ruling classes who were now in exile with Ezekiel. The same word is used to express how the Jerusalem temple had been turned by the priests into a "den of robbers" or oppressors (Jer. 7:11). Jeremiah as a priest is addressing the leaders of the priests. One reason Judah was destroyed was because Manasseh was a 'shedder of blood' (2 Kings 21:16; 24:4). Perhaps this was being focused upon by some, complaining that God was unfairly punishing them for Manasseh's sins. But the reality was that in essence, his descendants and wider family had done the same as he had done. For they too had been involved in the shedding of the innocent blood of their own children to the idol cults (Ps. 106:38).

Jeremiah 7:7 Then will I cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers, from of old even for evermore- The whole exile and return need never have happened- the prophecies of this need not have come true in the way they did, for even before the Babylonian invasion, Judah had been offered the prospect of eternally remaining in their land, if they repented. And after it happened, Jeremiah commented: “Your prophets… did not expose your sin to ward off your captivity” (Lam. 2:14 NIV). It could have been ‘warded off’ by the peoples’ repentance. Note how Jeremiah, himself a prophet at the time, so wishes to take the blame upon himself for not  pleading more powerfully with the people. Perhaps we will have similar feelings when the time of tribulation breaks forth in the very last days.  

Jeremiah 7:8 Behold, you trust in lying words, that can’t profit- The attraction to them of the false prophets was that they offered "profit". It was materialism and a chronic coveting of instant wealth which led them to idolatry, which the prophets taught. This was because those idols were fertility cults offering good harvests and prosperity in return for worshipping them. It was idolatry which "can't profit" (s.w. 1 Sam. 12:21; Is. 44:9,10; Jer. 2:8), and this was what the "lying words" were all about.

Jeremiah 7:9 Will you steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, burn incense to Baal and walk after other gods that you have not known- This was the behaviour inculcated by the false prophets of :8. They "walked after" gods they did not "know", in the Hebraic sense of having a relationship with. Idols don't have relationships with people; they are worshipped in the minds of the idolaters. Yahweh alone has real, legitimate two way relationship with His people.

Jeremiah 7:10 And come and stand before Me in this house, which is called by My name, and say, We are saved; so that you may do all these abominations?- The lack of conscience and shamelessness of the people is quite a theme in Jeremiah. They thought that their connection with Yahweh and the temple was some kind of 'once saved always saved' position which meant they could not really sin. This led them to what appears terrible hypocrisy; doing the things of :9 and then coming into the temple to proclaim their innocence. Indeed it seems Judah purposefully committed their worst sacrilege in the temple on the Sabbath, "in the same day" (Ez. 23:38). The child sacrifices of Ez. 23:39 were committed on the Sabbath. They had justified their perversions by claiming that they were in fact a form of Yahweh worship. That was the only way their consciences could be numbed to do as they did. This is the scenario of Jer. 7:7-10; they offered their children in nearby Gehenna and then came into the temple, reasoning that they were "delivered", saved from Egypt and from threatened judgment, in order to be able to sin without conscience. This was the Old Testament form of continuing in sin because grace abounded (Rom. 6:1).

Jeremiah 7:11 Is this house, which is called by My name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, I, even I, have seen it, says Yahweh- A robbers' "den" is a place where they retreat in safety, certain that in their den they are safe from prosecution or the judgment of those they had stolen from. This is what they considered the temple to be. But there was no special, holy place which of itself provided a literal space which shielded from the eyes of Yahweh's judgment. Their holy concept of sacred space, and protection within it, was a false teaching from their prophets.

Jeremiah 7:12 But go now to My place which was in Shiloh, where I caused My name to dwell at the first- Commonly enough, the New Testament speaks of baptism as a calling upon the Name of the Lord. This must be understood against its Hebrew background- qara' beshem Yahweh, which originally referred to approaching God in sacrifice (Gen. 12:7,8; Ps. 116:4,17). God placed His Name upon places in order to make them suitable places for sacrifice to be offered to Him (Dt. 12:4-7,21; Jer. 7:12). Baptism was thus seen as a sacrificial commitment to Yahweh in solemn covenant.

And see what I did to it for the wickedness of My people Israel- This reminder is in the context of :11, where we saw that Israel considered the temple a sacred space which somehow automatically preserved them from any prosecution for their sins. And so they were reminded that God doesn't operate sacred spaces like that. God's earlier sacred space in Shiloh had been destroyed because of the wickedness of the people, and the Jerusalem temple was not going to be any different. If the people had taken a more Biblical approach, they would have realized that the Scriptures spoke of God's people being taken captive out of their land; the existence of the temple was not going to save them from that.

 

Jeremiah 7:13 Now, 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- Several times God speaks of His rising up early in the morning through the ministry of the prophets, every single day since Israel left Egypt (2 Chron. 36:15; Jer. 7:13,25). The figure is stressed- God Himself rose up early every day to teach and appeal to His people (Jer. 32:33). Alarm clocks have changed our appreciation of this. Have you ever had to make yourself wake up before dawn, without an alarm clock? You can only do it by having a deep internal, subconscious awareness that you must get up early. You don't sleep well, you keep waking up and wondering if it's time to get up. So to make oneself rise up early was easily understood as a figure expressing great mental effort. And God did this every day for centuries...

Jeremiah 7:14 Therefore thus will I 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- Trust in the physical temple as a place of salvation and automatic shielding from God's judgment is seen today, in that religious people tend to trust in the external structures and symbols of their religion. This is the problem with religion; and human beings are wired with a tendency toward such external religion. The way of Yahweh is the way of the heart, of the Spirit; and external religion militates against this. Their "trust" was in the external form of their religion rather than the essential content- which should have been Yahweh. This "trust" was in the lying words of the prophets who taught this false idea about Jerusalem (:4,8).

Jeremiah 7:15 I will cast you out of My sight, as I have cast out all your brothers, even the whole seed of Ephraim- As pointed out to them earlier, the fate of the ten tribes was to be theirs. They considered God's "sight" or presence (s.w.) to be uniquely in the Jerusalem temple. This was not in fact the case, but for the sake of getting through to them, God accepts this for a moment to be true (as the NT language of demons does); and says that in any case, they will be cast out of Jerusalem and His presence in Zion. Ezekiel puts it another way, in saying that God's presence would depart, and the visions of the cherubim departing put that in visual terms. Here, God says that they will be cast out of His presence, even assuming that presence remained in Zion.

Jeremiah 7:16 Therefore don’t pray for this people, neither lift up a cry nor prayer for them, neither make intercession to Me; for I will not hear you- Perhaps God was purposefully alluding to how Abraham's intercession saved Lot out of Sodom. But in this case, therefore, the sins of Jerusalem were worse than those of Sodom, and this precluded the power of such intercession. See on :27. For the sake of our prayers, in some cases sins of others can be forgiven when otherwise they wouldn’t be. For the sake of our conversion of our erring brethren, they can be saved from eternal death and have their sins covered. The Lord’s prayer says as much- we ask God to forgive us our  sins; not ‘me my sins’. Only once Israel had passed a certain level of sinfulness was Jeremiah told to cease prayer for them (Jer. 7:16 cp. 11:14). Until that point, God seems to have been willing to read Jeremiah’s prayer for them as their prayer (his “cry” was seen as theirs). And Ez. 14:14,18 imply the same- Noah, Daniel and Job could have delivered Israel at this time up to a certain point, but they were so hardened in sin at Jeremiah and Ezekiel’s time that even those men wouldn’t have saved a nation which otherwise, for a lower level of sin as it were, they could otherwise have saved. If we have any grain of love in us, we will likewise dedicate ourselves to fervent prayer for our brethren, seeing it does have effect and validity within certain boundaries.

The new Testament references to intercession never suggest that the Lord Jesus Christ intercedes in the sense of offering our prayers to God. "Intercession" can be read as another way of describing prayer; this is how the term is invariably used (Jer. 7:16; 27:18; Rom. 11:2; 1 Tim. 2:1). Thus when Jeremiah is told not to intercede for Israel, this meant he was not to pray for them; it does not imply that he was acting as a priest to offer Israel's prayers to God. Nowhere in the Bible is the idea floated that a man can offer another man's prayers to God and thereby make them acceptable. The Greek for "intercession" essentially means to meet a person; prayer / intercession is a meeting with God. There is evidently nothing morally impossible about a man having direct contact with God in prayer without any priest or 'mediator'; the Old Testament abounds with such examples. The fact we are called upon to make intercession for others is surely conclusive proof that "intercession" means prayer, not relaying the words of another to God (1 Tim. 2:1). This meaning of intercession needs to be borne in mind when we consider its occurrences in Rom. 8. There we are taught that we know not what to pray for as we ought; the Lord Jesus makes intercession for us- i.e. He prays for us- not with words, i.e. not transferring our human words into God's language, not shuttling to and from between us and God as it were, but with His own groanings of the spirit. We don't know how to pray, so Christ prays (intercedes, in the language of Rom. 8) for us.

And yet Jeremiah did pray for the people. We see here the degree to which he recognized that God was and is open to dialogue with man. Perhaps he recalled how God had asked Moses not to intercede with Him not to destroy Israel ("now therefore let Me alone...", Ex. 32:10); and yet Moses had continued interceding and God changed His plan. But now, that was not possible. An end had to come.

Jeremiah 7:17 Don’t you see what they do in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem?- The implication could be that Jeremiah was too slow to perceive exactly how wicked the people were. The sins on the streets of Jerusalem were having idols on every street and naming every street after an idol, just as was done in Babylon.

Jeremiah 7:18 The 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- Again we see that the whole of society, including women and children, were implicated in the idolatry. They would not have considered that they were intentionally doing this to provoke Yahweh to anger, but this is how He read it. For God as it were imputes to our actions their real implications, both positively and negatively.

"The queen of heaven" was a Babylonian fertility god, otherwise called Ishtar, shaped like the moon or the planet Venus. It was the god of female fertility, hence the note that the women and children were a large part of its worship. Each female devotee was expected to sleep with the male cult prostitutes of this cult. And then sacrifice one of their children to it. No wonder this so upset God, seeing that He was the source of Israel's fertility, and their children were born to Him and not to the supposed queen of heaven. The women later protested that they were impenitent of this worship of the queen of heaven, and they did so with the full blessing of their husbands; this was significant, seeing that the cult involved sleeping with other men and offering their children to Ishtar (Jer. 44:19). See on :22.

Jeremiah 7:19 Do they provoke Me to anger? says Yahweh. Don’t they provoke themselves, to the confusion of their own faces?- So the theme is repeated- that sin is its own judgment, and they were sinning against their own souls as well as against God. This 'confusion of face' is a term used by both Ezra and Daniel in their prayers, counting themselves amongst those who had suffered this judgment, even though they had not committed the sins of :18 (Ezra 9:7; Dan. 9:7,8). This is a powerful example of how the righteous do not separate themselves from the wicked but consider themselves united in sharing the same judgment; just as the righteous Lord Jesus did for us in tasting death for every man.

Jeremiah 7:20 Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: Behold, My anger and My wrath shall be poured out on this place, on man, and on animal, and on the trees of the field, and on the fruit of the ground; and it shall burn, and shall not be quenched- At the beginning of Jeremiah's ministry, the implication was that the wrath could be quenched still (Jer. 4:4); but the time would come when it could not be. By the time of Jer. 7:20, God was saying that His wrath could no longer be quenched (as 2 Kings 22:17; 2 Chron. 34:25). And yet even after this point, God still speaks as if it could be quenched by repentance (Jer. 21:12). Even to the point of self-contradiction, God was so eager to have His wrath quenched. And this God is our God. His eagerness for human repentance should be reflected in our attitudes, both to others and to our own sins. Breaking relationship with people by casting them out of fellowship is not reflective of that.

Jeremiah 7:21 Thus says Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel: Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices, and eat meat- As with Saul, God can send "an evil spirit from the Lord" to confirm men in their evil way, and also conversely the Holy Spirit to confirm those who wish to be spiritual in their way. This is why we are to pray "Lead us not into temptation", for God can encourage sinners in their way as He does here. And so Israel went backward and not forward, they were confirmed in their backward path (:24).

Jeremiah 7:22 For I didn’t speak to your fathers, nor command them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices- God did command sacrifices; but He not so much commanded them as required Israel's spirit of obedience and acceptance of Him. "Not A... not B" is a construction found in Hebrew and other languages which means 'Not so much A, but actually more importantly B'. The sacrifices to the idols in :18 were therefore being performed in the name of Yahweh worship. This explains how shameless Israel were in their idolatry. They had convinced themselves that the false teachings from the false prophets were correct, and therefore they could worship Yahweh through idolatry. And this is an abiding temptation throughout all the generations of God's people.

Jeremiah 7:23 But this thing I commanded them, saying, Listen to My voice, and I will be Your God, and you shall be My people; and walk in all the way that I command you- As explained on :22, the requirement for burnt offerings was not God's essential desire. He wished for obedience and relationship with Him far more than technical obedience; the laws about offerings were to elicit and strengthen that essentially personal relationship between God and individual people. It was quite possible to perform the religious side of Yahweh worship without any personal sense of obedience to His word and relationship with Him. And we all have within us the poles of religion on one side, and spirituality on the other. They were completely on the religious pole, and lacked any real spirituality.

That it may be well with you- "Amend" in :5 is the word here translated 'to do well to'. If they amended their ways, God would amend or change His plans of judgment. Here we behold the openness of God, His deep sensitivity to human repentance and change.

Jeremiah 7:24 But they didn’t listen nor turn their ear, but walked in their own counsels and in the stubbornness of their evil heart- And went backward, and not forward- The "counsel" or advice / teaching they were following was that of the false prophets (:22). But actually those "counsels" were from their own evil minds. The false teachers were teaching them what they knew the mass of the people subconsciously wanted to hear. It is a feature of human nature that we can even subconsciously perceive what the 'other' or our audience wants us to say and teach- and to do and say what they want. Hence the weak Christians of the first century heaped to themselves teachers who taught them what they subconsciously wanted to hear, repeating to them what "their own lusts" wanted (2 Tim. 4:3).

And went backward, and not forward- As explained on :21, Israel went backward and not forward, in that they were confirmed in their backward path.

Jeremiah 7:25 Since the day that your fathers came forth 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- See on Jer. 23:18,22. God reminds Israel that “day after day”, ever since they left Egypt, He had consistently and persistently sent His prophets to them- there was never a day when a prophet wasn’t active (Jer. 7:25; 11:7: 25:4; 26:15; 29:19; Am. 3:7; 2:12). And yet obviously we only have the written record of a few of those prophets. It would seem from this that there were prophets apart from Moses who appealed to Israel in the wilderness to repent of their ways.

Jeremiah 7:26 Yet they didn’t listen to Me, nor inclined their ear, but made their neck stiff: they did worse than their fathers- Inclining or humbling / bowing down the ear means that true response to God's word ought to be a humbling experience. We cannot come away from engagement with God's word without being humbled. And this very phrase is used of how God bows down / inclines His ear to human prayer (2 Kings 19:16; Ps. 17:6; 31:2; 71:2 and often). We see here the mutuality possible between God and man, and the interplay between Bible reading and God's response to our prayers. We speak to God in line with our understanding of His word, and He responds to our prayers. Bible reading and prayer therefore mesh together in the Christian life, as part of the upward spiral of spirituality. God is not silent to our prayers- He reveals Himself in response through His word.

Jeremiah 7:27 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- Jeremiah like Ezekiel (Ez. 3:7) was told that Israel wouldn’t hear him, but still he pleaded with them to hear (Jer. 9:20; 10:1; 11:6; 16:12; 17:24; 38:15); just as he was told not to pray for them, but he kept praying. This reflected God’s hope was that perhaps they would hearken (Jer. 26:3) although He had foretold they wouldn’t. Jeremiah was told not to pray for Israel (Jer. 7:16; 11:14; 14:11) and yet he did (Jer. 14:20; 42:2,4). And in similar vein, knowing the destruction that would come on all except Noah, God waited in the hope that more would be saved. He as it were hoped against His own foreknowledge that more would saved (1 Pet. 3:20).

Jeremiah 7:28 You shall tell them, This is the nation that has not listened to the voice of Yahweh their God, nor received instruction- The instruction given and refused was the previous incursions of Judah's enemies and the drought God had brought upon them (Jer. 2:30; Zeph. 3:7).

Truth is perished, and is cut off from their mouth- "Truth" is a term often used about covenant relationship. The greatest truth is not some intellectually correct analysis of Bible verses, but of real covenant relationship with God. But they had rejected this, and so God had rejected them (:29). "Truth" in the sense of intellectually correct understanding cannot "perish", nor has it done so over the generations in that some have always understood correctly. God doesn't need His truth in that sense to be defended. But truth in the sense of covenant relationship can perish from those who once held it, and that is the paramount concern.

Jeremiah 7:29 Cut off your hair and throw it away, and take up a lamentation on the bare heights- The AV adds "Cut off your hair, O Jerusalem". They had thrown away their glory, their God, and so they were invited to throw away their natural glory (1 Cor. 11:15). And for a woman to have a shaved head was a sign of her shame. They were being told to do this to themselves, because spiritually that was what they had done. The rejected are witnesses against themselves (Is. 44:9; Mt. 23:31). Herein lies the crass folly and illogicality of sin. Jeremiah pleaded with Israel: "Wherefore commit ye this great evil against your souls [i.e. yourselves], to cut off from you man and woman... that ye might cut yourselves off" (Jer. 44:7,8, cp. how Jerusalem was to cut her own hair off here in Jer. 7:29). Yahweh is the one who does the cutting off (Jer. 44:11); but they had cut themselves off. Likewise as they had kindled fire on their roofs in offering sacrifices to Baal, so Yahweh through the Babylonians would set fire to those same houses (Jer. 32:29). Thus Israel were the ones who had kindled the fire of Yahweh's condemnation (Jer. 17:4). Both Yahweh and Israel are described as kindling the fire of judgment; He responded to what they had done (Jer. 11:16; 15:14; Lam. 4:11 cp. Jer. 17:4).

For Yahweh has rejected and forsaken the generation of His wrath- "Rejected" is the same word translated "rejected" in Jer. 6:19 where Israel rejected God's word. Their response to that word was therefore their judgment, and the refining fire upon them. It is also translated "despised", and Judah had despised the covenant and word of God (Lev. 26:15,43,44 s.w.). But as those verses in Leviticus bring out, although Israel rejected / despised God, He would not "for all that" reject / despise them eternally. This is the great paradox of God's grace to Israel, which serves as eternal encouragement to His sinful people of all ages. He does not actually operate a measure for measure  policy, of treating His people as they treat Him; although this is not to say that He will not judge them. That generation were "rejected", but that is not to say that there was no hope for their future acceptance; the rejection by God was not eternal.

Jeremiah 7:30 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-  The only way their conscience allowed them to do this was because they absolutely convinced themselves that their idolatry was part of their worship of Yahweh. People can believe very strongly in what they want to believe in, and we see here a deep level of faith in their idea that they could serve Yahweh by serving idols. People believe in what they want to believe in. This is where Biblical faith is so different- we are asked to believe in God's word, in His realities and perspectives, which are not what we intuitively would want to believe in of ourselves.

To defile it- The temple was to be defiled by the Babylonians, but as with all judgments, this was but an extension of what they themselves had done. 

Jeremiah 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- As noted on :30, they did these things because they had persuaded themselves that their idolatry was a form of Yahweh worship. Hence God insists that He had not commanded this, it was not in His mind that they should do this- whereas it seems the false prophets and the priests were teaching that actually this was commanded by God.

Jeremiah 7:32 Therefore behold, the days come, says Yahweh, that it shall no more be called Topheth, nor The valley of the son of Hinnom, but The valley of Slaughter: for they shall bury in Topheth, until there is no place to bury- Where they had offered their own children, they would also be slain. Again, their judgment was appropriate to their sins. A valley full of bodies is the basis for the dry bones in a valley prophecy of Ez. 37. Out of this awful apostasy and its judgment there could come revival. Such was and is the power of God's Spirit. Remember that Ezekiel was contemporary with Jeremiah.

Jeremiah 7:33 The dead bodies of this people shall be food for the birds of the sky and for the animals of the earth; and none shall frighten them away- Lack of burial was the ultimate shame within their culture, and so their judgments were appropriate to their own self understandings. We recall how when God made His unilateral covenant with Abraham in Gen. 15, the birds of prey were frightened away. This may be implying therefore that the covenant relationship was now broken.

Jeremiah 7:34 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 become a waste- The streets of Jerusalem have previously been mentioned (:17) in the context of their being the scene of idolatry, with each street named after a god, just as in Babylon. The mirth and gladness was therefore in their idol rituals. It was this which led to the land becoming "waste", the phrase used about the result of breaking covenant relationship with Yahweh (Lev. 26:31,33).