Jeremiah 7:22
in Jeremiah 7For when I brought your fathers out of the land of Egypt, I did not merely command them about burnt offerings and sacrifices,
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
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:
KJV
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:
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This verse in Jeremiah 7
Commentary
9 notes on this verseA commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
"I will have mercy, and not sacrifice" (1Sa 15:22). Love to God is the supreme end, external observances only means towards that end. "The mere sacrifice was not so much what I commanded, as the sincere submission to My will gives to the sacrifice all its virtue" [MAGEE, Atonement, Note 57].
This site's exposition
Add your burnt offerings to your other sacrifices
on Jeremiah 7:21-23
Verse 22 says the LORD “did not merely command them about burnt offerings and sacrifices”, for the sacrificial law was not the first word. That first word stands in verse 23, “Obey Me, and I will be your God”.
This site's exposition
about burnt offerings and sacrifices
The word merely in the Berean reading follows the view Jamieson, Fausset and Brown take: sacrifice was a means, and love for God the end. They point to 1 Samuel 15:22. Matthew Henry reads the verse as an appeal to the covenant made when Israel came out of Egypt.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers4 voices
He has therefore abolished these things, that the new law of our Lord Jesus Christ, which is without the yoke of necessity, might have a human oblation. And again He says to them, "Did I command your fathers, when they went out from the land …
A commentator
Apostolic ConstitutionsCONSTITUTIONS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES 6:4.22 · Written before 380.
proposed
You are blessed who are delivered from the curse. Christ, the Son of God, by his coming has confirmed and completed the law but has taken away the additional precepts, although not all of them, yet at least the more grievous ones. He confirmed the former and abolished the latter, and he has again set the free will of humankind at liberty. He does not subject them to the penalty of a temporal death but gives laws to them according to another constitution. For this reason, he says, "If anyone will come after me, let him come." And again, "Will you also go away?" And besides, before his coming he refused the sacrifices of the people, while they frequently offered them, when they sinned against him and thought he was to be appeased by sacrifices but not by repentance.
It is made clear also from this that the obsolete prescriptions of the law had been imposed because of Israel's limitations. Since they had learned in Egypt how to sacrifice to idols, he wanted to separate them from those practices—in all the prophets he rejects …
(Verses 22-23) For I did not speak to your fathers, or command them concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices when I brought them out of the land of Egypt. But this is what I commanded them, saying, 'Obey My voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be My people. And walk in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well with you.'
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
He appeals to the original contract, by which they were first formed into a people, when they were brought out of Egypt. God made them a kingdom of priests to himself, not that he might be regaled with their sacrifices, as the devils, whom the heathen worshipped, which are represented as eating with pleasure the fat of their sacrifices and drinking the wine of their drink-offerings, Deut. xxxii.
1 more voice on this verse
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
For I spake not unto your fathers,....
The words behind it
16 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| כִּ֠י | ki | for | H3588 → | 4482 times |
| לֹֽא־ | lo'- | not | H3808 → | 5168 times |
| דִבַּ֤רְתִּי | dibarti | I spoke | H1696 → | 1141 times |
| אֶת־ | ʾet- | with | H854 → | 929 times |
| אֲבֽוֹתֵיכֶם֙ | ʾavoteikhem | ancestors your | H1 → | 1212 times |
| וְלֹ֣א | velo' | and not | H3808 → | 5168 times |
| צִוִּיתִ֔ים | tzivitim | I commanded them | H6680 → | 494 times |
| בְּי֛וֹם | beyom | on [the] day | H3117 → | 2304 times |
| הוֹצִיאִ֥י | hotzi' | brought out I | H3318 → | 1067 times |
| אוֹתָ֖ם | ʾotam | <obj.> them | H853 → | 10935 times |
| מֵאֶ֣רֶץ | meeretz | from [the] land of | H776 → | 2504 times |
| מִצְרָ֑יִם | mitzrayim | Egypt | H4714 → | 641 times |
| עַל־ | ʾal- | on | H5921 → | 5755 times |
| דִּבְרֵ֥י | divrei | matters of | H1697 → | 1440 times |
| עוֹלָ֖ה | olah | burnt offering | H5930 → | 287 times |
| וָזָֽבַח׃ | vazavach | and sacrifice | H2077 → | 162 times |
כִּ֠יfor
kiH3588 →4482 times
לֹֽא־not
lo'-H3808 →5168 times
דִבַּ֤רְתִּיI spoke
dibartiH1696 →1141 times
אֶת־with
ʾet-H854 →929 times
אֲבֽוֹתֵיכֶם֙ancestors your
ʾavoteikhemH1 →1212 times
וְלֹ֣אand not
velo'H3808 →5168 times
צִוִּיתִ֔יםI commanded them
tzivitimH6680 →494 times
בְּי֛וֹםon [the] day
beyomH3117 →2304 times
הוֹצִיאִ֥יbrought out I
hotzi'H3318 →1067 times
אוֹתָ֖ם<obj.> them
ʾotamH853 →10935 times
מֵאֶ֣רֶץfrom [the] land of
meeretzH776 →2504 times
מִצְרָ֑יִםEgypt
mitzrayimH4714 →641 times
עַל־on
ʾal-H5921 →5755 times
דִּבְרֵ֥יmatters of
divreiH1697 →1440 times
עוֹלָ֖הburnt offering
olahH5930 →287 times
וָזָֽבַח׃and sacrifice
vazavachH2077 →162 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
1 Samuel 15:22But Samuel declared: “Does the LORD delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obedience to His voice? Behold, obedience is better than sacrifice, and attentiveness is better than the fat of…
it leads to
- Hosea 6:6
For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Proverbs 21:3
To do righteousness and justice is more desirable to the LORD than sacrifice.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Psalms 51:16–17
For You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; You take no pleasure in burnt offerings.
- Amos 5:21–24
“I hate, I despise your feasts! I cannot stand the stench of your solemn assemblies.
- Mark 12:33
and to love Him with all your heart and with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself, which is more important than all burnt offerings and…
- Hosea 6:6
Through
Matthew 9:13But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
it leads to
- Mark 2:17
On hearing this, Jesus told them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
- Matthew 12:7
If only you had known the meaning of ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the innocent.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Luke 19:10
For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”
- Mark 2:17
Where this verse is studied
About Jeremiah
Who and where
1 name in this verse with a page on the site.
This page draws on Apostolic Constitutions, CONSTITUTIONS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES 6:4.22; Carl Friedrich Keil, The Prophecies of Jeremiah; Epistle of Barnabas, The Epistle of Barnabas, Chapter II; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, Commentary on Jeremiah; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Theodoret of Cyrus, ON JEREMIAH 2:7.21-23.