Jeremiah 7:21

Lexham English Bible

Contextual Overview

²¹ Thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, "Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices, and eat the flesh. ²² For I did not speak with your ancestors, nor did I command them in the day of bringing them out from the land of Egypt, concerning the matter of burnt offering and sacrifice. ²³ But I only commanded them this word, saying, ‘Obey my voice, and I will be to you God, and you will be to me people, and you must walk in all of the way that I command you, so that it goes well with you.' ²⁴ Yet they did not obey, and they did not incline their ear, but they walked in their own plans, in the stubbornness of their evil heart, and they became worse instead of better. ²⁵ From the day that your ancestors came out from the land of Egypt until this day I have sent to you all my servants the prophets, day after day, sending again and again. ²⁶ Yet they have not listened to me and they have not inclined their ear, but they have hardened their neck, they did more evil than their ancestors. ²⁷ So you shall speak to them all these words, but they will not listen to you, and you shall call to them, but they will not answer you. ²⁸ "And you shall say to them, ‘This is the nation that has not obeyed the voice of Yahweh their God, and they have not accepted discipline. The truth has perished, and it is cut off from their mouths.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Put: Jeremiah 6:20, Isaiah 1:11-15, Hosea 8:13, Amos 5:21-23

Reciprocal: Exodus 29:18 - a burnt offering 2 Chronicles 35:9 - gave Psalms 40:6 - Sacrifice Psalms 50:8 - General Proverbs 15:8 - sacrifice Proverbs 21:3 - General Ecclesiastes 5:1 - give Isaiah 29:1 - add Jeremiah 14:12 - and when Micah 6:7 - pleased Malachi 1:13 - should I accept Mark 12:33 - is more Luke 11:42 - and pass Hebrews 10:4 - not

Cross-References

Genesis 6:13
And God said to Noah, "The end of all flesh has come before me, for the earth was filled with violence because of them. Now, look, I am going to destroy them along with the earth.

Genesis 6:17
And I, behold, I am about to bring the flood waters over the earth to destroy all flesh in which is the breath of life from under the heaven; everything that is on the earth shall perish.

Genesis 7:3
as well as from the birds of heaven seven pairs, male and female, to keep their kind alive on the face of the earth.

Genesis 7:4
For within seven days I will send rain upon the earth for forty days and forty nights. And I will blot out all the living creatures that I have made from upon the face of the ground."

Genesis 7:6
Noah was six hundred years old when the flood waters came upon the earth.

Genesis 7:7
And Noah and his sons and his wife, and the wives of his sons with him, went into the ark because of the waters of the flood.

Genesis 7:15
And they came to Noah to the ark, two of each, from every living thing in which was the breath of life.

Genesis 7:17
And the flood came forty days and forty nights upon the earth. And the waters increased, and lifted the ark, and it rose up from the earth.

Genesis 7:20
The waters swelled fifteen cubits above the mountains, covering them.

Genesis 7:22
Everything in whose nostrils was the breath of life, among all that was on dry land, died.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Thus saith the Lord God of hosts, the God of Israel,.... The Lord of armies above and below, and the covenant God of the people of Israel; who were bound to serve him, not only by the laws of creation, and the bounties of Providence, but were under obligation so to do by the distinguishing blessings of his goodness bestowed upon them; wherefore their idolatry, and other sins committed against him, were the more heinous and aggravated:

put your burnt offerings unto your sacrifices, and eat flesh; that is, add one offering to another; offer every kind of sacrifice, and, when you have done, eat the flesh of them yourselves; for that is all the advantage that comes by them; they are not acceptable to me, as Jarchi observes, therefore why should you lose them? burnt offerings were wholly consumed, and nothing was left of them to eat; but of other sacrifices there were, particularly the peace offerings; which the Jewish commentators think are here meant by sacrifices; and therefore the people are bid to join them together, that they might have flesh to eat; which was all the profit arising to them by legal sacrifices. The words seem to be sarcastically spoken; showing the unacceptableness of legal sacrifices to God, when sin was indulged, and the unprofitableness of them to men.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The meaning is, Increase your sacrifices as you will. Acid burnt-offering to peace-offerings. All is in vain as long as you neglect the indispensable requirements of obedience and moral purity. Eat flesh is equivalent to sacrifice. The flesh of animals offered in sacrifice was usually eaten by the offerers, and this meal was regarded as a symbol of reconciliation. God and man partook of the same victim, and so were made friends. This passage Jeremiah 7:21-28 is the Haphtarah (lesson) from the prophets, after the Parashah, Lev. 6–8, or Lesson from the Law. The selection of such a Haphtarah shows that the Jews thoroughly understood that their sacrifices were not the end of the Law, but a means for spiritual instruction.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Jeremiah 7:21. Put your burnt-offerings unto your sacrifices, and eat flesh. — I will receive neither sacrifice nor oblation from you; therefore you may take the beasts intended for sacrifice, and slay and eat them for your common nourishment. Jeremiah 7:29.