Jeremiah 7:23

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

Obey: Jeremiah 11:4, Jeremiah 11:7, Exodus 15:26, Exodus 19:5, Exodus 19:6, Leviticus 26:3-12, Deuteronomy 5:29, Deuteronomy 5:33, Deuteronomy 6:3, Deuteronomy 11:27, Deuteronomy 13:4, Deuteronomy 30:2, Deuteronomy 30:8, Deuteronomy 30:20, Romans 16:26, 2 Corinthians 10:5, Hebrews 5:9

and I: Jeremiah 31:33

that it: Jeremiah 42:6, Deuteronomy 4:10, Deuteronomy 5:16, Deuteronomy 5:33

Reciprocal: Genesis 3:17 - and hast Genesis 22:18 - obeyed Exodus 24:7 - All that Leviticus 26:12 - will be Numbers 29:17 - General Deuteronomy 4:30 - obedient Deuteronomy 10:12 - what doth Deuteronomy 17:3 - which Judges 2:2 - but ye have 1 Samuel 15:22 - Hath the Lord 2 Kings 17:13 - keep 2 Kings 18:12 - they obeyed not 2 Kings 21:8 - only if they Job 36:11 - If Psalms 51:16 - delightest Psalms 81:11 - people Psalms 119:4 - General Proverbs 19:16 - keepeth the Isaiah 26:20 - my Jeremiah 6:16 - and walk Jeremiah 18:10 - do Jeremiah 32:23 - but Zephaniah 3:2 - obeyed Zechariah 7:7 - cried Zechariah 7:9 - saying Luke 13:34 - and ye 1 Corinthians 7:19 - but

Cross-References

Genesis 7:1
Then Yahweh said to Noah, "Go—you and all your household—into the ark, for I have seen you are righteous before me in this generation.

Genesis 7:8
Of clean animals, and of animals which are not clean, and of the birds, and everything that creeps upon the ground,

Genesis 7:9
two of each went to Noah, into the ark, male and female, as God had commanded Noah.

Genesis 7:10
And it happened that after seven days the waters of the flood came over the earth.

Genesis 7:14
they and all the living creatures according to their kind, and all the domesticated animals according to their kind, and all the creatures that creep upon the earth according to their kind, all the birds according to their kind, every winged creature.

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 7:18
And the waters prevailed and increased greatly upon the earth. And the ark went upon the surface of the waters.

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

Genesis 7:21
And every living thing that moved on the earth perished—the birds, and the domesticated animals, and the wild animals, and everything that swarmed on the earth, and all humankind.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

But this thing commanded I them, saying,.... This was the sum and substance of what was then commanded, even obedience to the moral law; this was the main and principal thing enjoined, and to which the promise was annexed:

obey my voice: the word of the Lord, his commands, the precepts of the decalogue; obedience to which was preferable to the sacrifices of the ceremonial law; see 1 Samuel 15:22, wherefore it follows:

and I will be your God, and ye shall be my people; the meaning is, that while they were obedient to him, he would protect them from their enemies, and continue them in their privileges and blessings, which he had bestowed upon them as his peculiar people:

and walk ye in all the ways that I have commanded you; not only in some of them, but in all of them; not merely in the observance of legal sacrifices, but chiefly in the performance of moral actions; even in all the duties of religion, in whatsoever is required in the law, respecting God or man:

that it may be well unto you; that they might continue in the land which was given them for an inheritance, and enjoy all the blessings promised to their obedience.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Obey ... - These words are not found verbatim in the Pentateuch, but are a sum mary of its principles. Sacrifice is never the final cause of the covenant, but always obedience (Exodus 19:5-6; Leviticus 11:45. Compare Exodus 20:0; Deuteronomy 11:0, in which the moral object of the Mosaic dispensation is most clearly taught). In connection with Jeremiah’s argument, notice that Amos 5:25 (taken in conjunction with Joshua 5:2-7) proves that the ceremonial law was not observed during the 40 years’ wandering in the wilderness. A thing so long in abeyance in the very time of its founder, could not be of primary importance.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Jeremiah 7:23. This thing commanded I them - Obey my voice — It was not sacrifices and oblations which I required of your fathers in the wilderness, but obedience; it was to walk in that way of righteousness which I have commanded; then I should have acknowledged them for my people, and I should have been their God; and then it would have been well with them. But to my commands,

1. They hearkened not - paid no regard to my word.

2. They inclined not the ear - showed no disposition to attend to my counsels.

3. They walked in the imaginations of their evil heart - followed its irregular and impure motions, rather than the holy dictates of my Spirit.

4. They went backward and not forward. Instead of becoming more wise, obedient, and holy, they grew more corrupt; so that they became more profligate than their fathers.