Jeremiah 7:21
in Jeremiah 7This is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: Add your burnt offerings to your other sacrifices and eat the meat yourselves!
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Thus saith Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel: Add your burnt-offerings unto your sacrifices, and eat ye flesh.
KJV
Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel; Put your burnt offerings unto your sacrifices, and eat flesh.
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This verse in Jeremiah 7
Commentary
4 notes on this verse(Verse 21) Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices, and eat the flesh. When He condemns the temple, He consequently condemns the sacrifices as well; and He indirectly accuses them because they offer victims not out of reverence for Him, but out of a desire for feasts.
This site's exposition
Put your burnt offerings unto your sacrifices, and eat flesh
on Jeremiah 7:21-23
Put your burnt offerings unto your sacrifices, and eat flesh is heard by the bench as biting irony: since sacrifice without obedience buys nothing, the priests may as well eat the meat meant for the altar themselves. Verse 22's claim, I spake not unto your fathers concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices, is read two ways among the older writers, some taking it as emphasis meaning the moral command came first and mattered more, others noting the sacrificial law was not the first word given at Sinai, obedience was. Either reading lands on verse 23: obey my voice, and I will be your God, the covenant's own priority stated in the Lord's own words.
The record, by era
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
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 Jer 7:21-28 is the Haphtarah (lesson) from the prophets, after the Parashah, Lev. 6–8, or Lesson from the Law.
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
Put . . . burnt offerings unto . . . sacrifices . . . eat flesh--Add the former (which the law required to be wholly burnt) to the latter (which were burnt only in part), and "eat flesh" even off the holocausts or burnt offerings.
The words behind it
12 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| כֹּ֥ה | koh | thus | H3541 → | 577 times |
| אָמַ֛ר | ʾamar | he says | H559 → | 5305 times |
| יְהוָ֥ה | yahweh | Yahweh | H3068 → | 6520 times |
| צְבָא֖וֹת | tzevaot | of hosts | H6635 → | 485 times |
| אֱלֹהֵ֣י | ʾelohei | [the] God of | H430 → | 2601 times |
| יִשְׂרָאֵ֑ל | yisrael | Israel | H3478 → | 2507 times |
| עֹלוֹתֵיכֶ֛ם | oloteikhem | burnt offerings your | H5930 → | 287 times |
| סְפ֥וּ | sefu | add | H3254 → | 212 times |
| עַל־ | ʾal- | to | H5921 → | 5755 times |
| זִבְחֵיכֶ֖ם | zivcheikhem | sacrifices your | H2077 → | 162 times |
| וְאִכְל֥וּ | veikhlu | and eat | H398 → | 810 times |
| בָשָֽׂר׃ | vasar | meat | H1320 → | 270 times |
כֹּ֥הthus
kohH3541 →577 times
אָמַ֛רhe says
ʾamarH559 →5305 times
יְהוָ֥הYahweh
yahwehH3068 →6520 times
צְבָא֖וֹתof hosts
tzevaotH6635 →485 times
אֱלֹהֵ֣י[the] God of
ʾeloheiH430 →2601 times
יִשְׂרָאֵ֑לIsrael
yisraelH3478 →2507 times
עֹלוֹתֵיכֶ֛םburnt offerings your
oloteikhemH5930 →287 times
סְפ֥וּadd
sefuH3254 →212 times
עַל־to
ʾal-H5921 →5755 times
זִבְחֵיכֶ֖םsacrifices your
zivcheikhemH2077 →162 times
וְאִכְל֥וּand eat
veikhluH398 →810 times
בָשָֽׂר׃meat
vasarH1320 →270 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Jeremiah 6:20What use to Me is frankincense from Sheba or sweet cane from a distant land? Your burnt offerings are not acceptable; your sacrifices do not please Me.”
it leads to
- Isaiah 1:11
“What good to Me is your multitude of sacrifices?” says the LORD. “I am full from the burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well-fed cattle; I take no delight in the blood…
- Micah 6:6–8
With what shall I come before the LORD when I bow before the God on high? Should I come to Him with burnt offerings, with year-old calves?
- Amos 5:21–22
“I hate, I despise your feasts! I cannot stand the stench of your solemn assemblies.
- Psalms 40:6
Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, but my ears You have opened. Burnt offerings and sin offerings You did not require.
- Isaiah 1:11
Through
Hosea 8:13Though they offer sacrifices as gifts to Me, and though they eat the meat, the LORD does not accept them. Now He will remember their iniquity and punish their sins: They will return to…
it leads to
- Hosea 9:6
For even if they flee destruction, Egypt will gather them and Memphis will bury them. Their precious silver will be taken over by thistles, and thorns will overrun their tents.
- Hosea 9:9
They have deeply corrupted themselves as in the days of Gibeah; He will remember their guilt; He will punish their sins.
- Amos 5:22
Even though you offer Me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them; for your peace offerings of fattened cattle I will have no regard.
- Amos 8:7
The LORD has sworn by the Pride of Jacob: “I will never forget any of their deeds.
- Hosea 9:6
Where this verse is studied
No study on the site is anchored to this verse yet.
Also on Jeremiah 7: 2 studies that walk through this chapter ▾
About Jeremiah
This page draws on Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Carl Friedrich Keil, The Prophecies of Jeremiah; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, Commentary on Jeremiah and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.