Jeremiah 7:24

But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear, but walked in the counsels and in the imagination of their evil heart, and went backward, and not forward. HEARKENED NOT - they did not give even a partial hearing to me (Psalms 81:11). IMAGINATION - rather, as margin, 'the stubbornness.' BACKWARD ... - (, "They have turned their back unto me, and not their face;" ; , "Israel slideth back as a backsliding heifer")....

_They hearkened not nor inclined their ear _Here the Prophet shews, that the Jews did not then begin to be rebellious against God and his word; for they imitated the impious contumacy of their fathers: and he dwells on this more at large. He now says, “I gave no command about sacrifices, but only this one thing I required of your fathers, to obey me.” _They hearkened not, _he says. What could have been a juster demand than that they should obey God? How great, then, and how base an indignity it was, to reject his authority? Nay, still more, they _inclined not the ear: _for by this phrase the Prophet means not only a contempt of his word and indifference, but their obstinacy and willfulness, inasmuch as they had hardened themselves against God. Hypocrites do, indeed, sometimes incline the ear, and wish to know what is said, and in some measure consider it: but the Prophet here sets forth...

21-28 God shows that obedience was required of them. That which God commanded was, Hearken diligently to the voice of the Lord thy God. The promise is very encouraging. Let God's will be your rule, and his favour shall be your happiness. God was displeased with disobedience. We understand the gospel as little as the Jews understood the law, if we think that even the sacrifice of Christ lessens our obligation to obey....

IMAGINATION - Better, as in the margin. AND WENT BACKWARD - literally, as in the margin; i. e., they turned their back upon Me to follow their own devices....

EXPOSITION Ch. 7-10.—Severe rebukes of idolatry alternating with announcements of the impending judgment. The circumstances connected with this discourse, or part thereof, appear to be detailed in Jeremiah 26:1. Among the parallelisms between the two sections, notice especially the reference to the fate of the temple of Shiloh (comp. Jeremiah 26:14 with Jeremiah 26:6). The date of the original utterance of the prophecy is thus fixed for one of the early years of the reign of Jehoiakim. Jeremiah 10:1, however, requires separate consideration....

BUT THEY HEARKENED NOT, NOR INCLINED THEIR EAR,.... Neither to the law that was given them, nor to the promises that were made unto them, this was the case of the Jewish fathers, and also of their posterity, to whom belonged the law, and the promises, and the service of God: BUT WALKED IN THE COUNSELS AND IN THE IMAGINATION OF THEIR EVIL HEART; what their evil heart imagined, advised and directed to, that they attended to, walked in, and pursued after. The heart of man is evil; it is desperately wicked, even wickedness itself; and so is every thought and every imagination of the thoughts of it and all its counsels, machinations and contrivances; and therefore the consequence of walking in these, or steering the course of life according to them, must be bad: AND WENT BACKWARD, AND NOT FORWARD; they went backwards from the ways of God, and walked not in them. The Targum is, "they turned...

Jeremiah 7:21. _Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Put your burnt offerings unto your sacrifices, and eat flesh. For I spake not unto your fathers, nor commanded them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices:_ You have heard what God said to them when they came out of Egypt. Jeremiah 7:23. _But this thing commanded I them, saying, Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be my people: and walk ye in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well unto you. But they hearkened not, nor inclined their car, but walked in the counsels and in the imagination of their evil heart, and went backward, and not forward._ Since the day that your fathers came forth out of the lan

THE PROPHET'S TEMPLE ADDRESS (7-9) CHAPTER 7 _ 1. Amend your ways and your doings (Jeremiah 7:1) _ 2. No prayer-answer to be expected (Jeremiah 7:16) 3. Sacrifices rejected; Obedience demanded (Jeremiah 7:21) 4. Jerusalem's rejection (Jeremiah 7:29) Jeremiah 7:1. We call this next address of the prophet “the temple address,” because he was commanded to stand in the gate of the LORD's house. There he stood, a solitary figure, and said: “Hear the Word of the LORD, all ye of Judah, that enter in a

OBEDIENCE NECESSARY, NOT SACRIFICE. Yahweh scornfully tells these formal worshippers to eat even the burnt-offering (wholly offered to God), as well as the peace-offering (which was eaten by the worshippers, except the blood and portions of the fat); both are mere flesh, without sacrificial value in the hands of the disobedient. In the desert days He asked for obedience, not sacrifice; but Israel has refused it, notwithstanding the continued ministry of the prophets, nor will Jeremiah's own message be heard. Jeremiah 7:22 f. clearly show that the Pentateuch in its present form was not known to Jeremiah (_cf._ Amos 5:25), for the Priestly Code lays the greatest stress on sacrifice as Divinely prescribed from the beginning....

IMAGINATION. See note on Jeremiah 3:17....