Jeremiah 5:7
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“Why should I forgive you? Your children have forsaken Me and sworn by gods that are not gods. I satisfied their needs, yet they committed adultery and assembled at the houses of prostitutes.
Commentaries
Excerpts gathered from published commentaries to ground the reading.
Reproof for sin and threatenings of judgment are intermixed in this chapter, and are set the one over against the other: judgments are threatened, that the reproofs of sin might be the more effectual to bring them to repentance; sin is discovered, that God might be justified in the judgments threatened. I. The sins they are charged with are very great: - Injustice (Jer 5:1), hypocrisy in religion (Jer 5:2), incorrigibleness (Jer 5:3), the corruption and debauchery of both poor and rich (Jer 5:4, Jer 5:5), idolatry and adultery (Jer 5:7, Jer 5:8), treacherous departures from God (Jer 5:11), and impudent defiance of him (Jer 5:12, Jer 5:13), and, that which is at the bottom of all this, want of the fear of God, notwithstanding the frequent calls given them to fear him (Jer 5:20-24). In the close of the chapter they are charged with violence and oppression (Jer 5:26-28), and a combination of those to debauch the nation who should have been active to reform it (Jer 5:30, Jer 5:31). II. The judgments they are threatened with are very terrible. In general, they shall be reckoned with (Jer 5:9, Jer 5:29). A foreign enemy shall be brought in upon them (Jer 5:15-17), shall set guards upon them (Jer 5:6), shall destroy their fortification (Jer 5:10), shall carry them away into captivity (Jer 5:19), and keep all good things from them (Jer 5:25). Herein the words of God's prophets shall be fulfilled (Jer 5:14). But, III. Here is an intimation twice given that God would in the midst of wrath remember mercy, and not utterly destroy them (Jer 5:10, Jer 5:18). This was the scope and purport of Jeremiah's preaching in the latter end of Josiah's reign and the beginning of Jehoiakim's; but the success of it did not answer expectation.
Open source ↗5:7-8 These verses list the evidence of sins the people had committed, including rejection of the Lord, submission to pagan deities, and sexual misconduct (7:9; 12:16; Num 25:1-3; Deut 32:21; Josh 23:7; Zeph 1:5; Gal 4:8). Idolatry and adultery were closely connected in Israel because both represented the breach of an exclusive covenant.
Open source ↗Original language
The Hebrew and Greek words behind this passage, with Strong's numbers — from openscriptures (CC BY-SA).
Cross-references
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Formerly, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those who by nature are not gods.
So you are not to associate with these nations that remain among you. You must not call on the names of their gods or swear by them, and you must not serve them or bow down to them.
Has a nation ever changed its gods, though they are no gods at all? Yet My people have exchanged their Glory for useless idols.
They have provoked My jealousy by that which is not God; they have enraged Me with their worthless idols. So I will make them jealous by those who are not a people; I will make them angry by a nation without understanding.
So about eating food sacrificed to idols: We know that an idol is nothing at all in the world, and that there is no God but one.
those who bow on the rooftops to worship the host of heaven, those who bow down and swear by the LORD but also swear by Milcom,
But Jeshurun grew fat and kicked— becoming fat, bloated, and gorged. He abandoned the God who made him and scorned the Rock of his salvation.
You adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore, whoever chooses to be a friend of the world renders himself an enemy of God.
For the land is full of adulterers— because of the curse, the land mourns and the pastures of the wilderness have dried up— their course is evil and their power is misused.
And if they will diligently learn the ways of My people and swear by My name, saying, ‘As surely as the LORD lives’—just as they once taught My people to swear by Baal—then they will be established among My people.