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Jeremiah 7:3

in Jeremiah 7

Thus says the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel: Correct your ways and deeds, and I will let you live in this place.

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

Thus saith Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place.

KJV

Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place.

This verse in Jeremiah 7

Commentary

7 notes on this verse

A commentator

Jerome

Commentary on Jeremiah · Written before 420.

(Verse 3.) Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Make (or direct) your ways and your pursuits (or inventions) good, and I will dwell with you in this place (or make you dwell in this place). The most merciful physician desires to heal all those wounded with medicine. For when he says, 'Make (or correct) your ways good,' he shows that they are perverse and have no good in themselves. And because it is natural for each person to love their homeland alone and have nothing sweeter, rewards are promised to the obedient.

This site's exposition

the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD

on Jeremiah 7:1-3

Jeremiah is told to “Stand in the gate of the house of the LORD” and preach to the worshippers. So the temple court becomes a courtroom on the way to sacrifice. The message is conditional, “Correct your ways and deeds, and I will let you live in this place”.

This site's exposition

Correct your ways and deeds

Jerome compares the LORD here to a physician who names the wound so that he can heal it. The command to correct assumes the ways are crooked, and Matthew Henry notes that it also shows the people where and how to mend. Mercy speaks first.

The record, by era

The Church Fathers1 voice

A commentator

Irenaeus

AGAINST HERESIES 4:36.2 · Written before 202.

proposed

And thus did He send prophets prior to the transmigration to Babylon, and after that event others again in greater number than the former, to seek the fruits, saying thus to them (the Jews): "Thus saith the Lord, Cleanse your ways and your doings, execute just judgment, and look each one with pity and compassion on his brother: oppress not the widow nor the orphan, the proselyte nor the poor, and let none of you treasure up evil against his brother in your hearts, and love not false swearing.

The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

But it is a great instance of the favour of God to them that he gives them liberty to amend, shows them where and how they must amend, and promises to accept them upon their amendment: " I will cause you to dwell quietly and peaceably in this place, and a stop shall be put to that which threatens your expulsion." Reformation is the only way, and a sure way to ruin.
Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel,....

The Nineteenth Century1 voice

If the people repented, instead of being led into captivity, God would maintain their national existence. It is a promise of the continuance of an old blessing.

The words behind it

13 Hebrew words

Every 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.

  • כֹּֽה־thus

    koh-H3541 →577 times

  • אָמַ֞רhe says

    ʾamarH559 →5305 times

  • יְהוָ֤הYahweh

    yahwehH3068 →6520 times

  • צְבָאוֹת֙of hosts

    tzevaotH6635 →485 times

  • אֱלֹהֵ֣י[the] God of

    ʾeloheiH430 →2601 times

  • יִשְׂרָאֵ֔לIsrael

    yisraelH3478 →2507 times

  • הֵיטִ֥יבוּmake good

    heitivuH3190 →117 times

  • דַרְכֵיכֶ֖םways your

    darkheikhemH1870 →707 times

  • וּמַֽעַלְלֵיכֶ֑םand deeds your

    umaaleikhemH4611 →41 times

  • וַאֲשַׁכְּנָ֣הso let me cause to dwell

    vaashakenahH7931 →129 times

  • אֶתְכֶ֔ם<obj.> you

    ʾetkhemH853 →10935 times

  • בַּמָּק֥וֹםin the place

    bamakomH4725 →401 times

  • הַזֶּֽה׃<the> this

    hazehH2088 →1180 times

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

The walk

8 stops

Each 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

    Isaiah 55:7

    Let the wicked man forsake his own way and the unrighteous man his own thoughts; let him return to the LORD, that He may have compassion, and to our God, for He will freely…

    it leads to

    • Proverbs 28:13

      He who conceals his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them will find mercy.

    • James 4:8–10

      Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

    • Ezekiel 18:21–23

      But if the wicked man turns from all the sins he has committed, keeps all My statutes, and does what is just and right, he will surely live; he will not die.

    • Luke 15:10

      In the same way, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of God’s angels over one sinner who repents.”

    • Isaiah 44:22

      I have blotted out your transgressions like a cloud, and your sins like a mist. Return to Me, for I have redeemed you.

  • Through

    Proverbs 28:13

    He who conceals his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them will find mercy.

    it leads to

    • 1 John 1:8–10

      If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

    • Psalms 32:3–5

      When I kept silent, my bones became brittle from my groaning all day long.

    • Job 31:33

      if I have covered my transgressions like Adam by hiding my guilt in my heart,

Where this verse is studied

About Jeremiah

Jeremiah Lamenting the Destruction of Jerusalem, Rembrandt, 1630. Public domain.
Jeremiah Lamenting the Destruction of Jerusalem, Rembrandt, 1630. Public domain.

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; Irenaeus, AGAINST HERESIES 4:36.2; Jerome, Commentary on Jeremiah; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.