Jeremiah 7:21 kjv
Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Put your burnt offerings unto your sacrifices, and eat flesh.
Jeremiah 7:21 nkjv
Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: "Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices and eat meat.
Jeremiah 7:21 niv
"?'This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Go ahead, add your burnt offerings to your other sacrifices and eat the meat yourselves!
Jeremiah 7:21 esv
Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: "Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices, and eat the flesh.
Jeremiah 7:21 nlt
This is what the LORD of Heaven's Armies, the God of Israel, says: "Take your burnt offerings and your other sacrifices and eat them yourselves!
Jeremiah 7 21 Cross References
| Verse | Text | Reference |
|---|---|---|
| 1 Sam 15:22 | "Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams." | Obedience over sacrifice |
| Ps 40:6 | "In sacrifice and offering you have not delighted, but you have given me an open ear." | God's desire for hearing, not mere ritual |
| Ps 50:8-13 | "I will not reprove you for your sacrifices... For every beast of the forest is mine..." | God owns all, does not need their sacrifices |
| Ps 51:16-17 | "For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it... The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise." | True sacrifice is a contrite heart |
| Prov 15:8 | "The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the LORD..." | God despises sacrifices from wicked hearts |
| Prov 21:27 | "The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination; how much more when he brings it with evil intent?" | Motivation matters more than the act |
| Isa 1:11-17 | "What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices?... I have had enough of burnt offerings..." | God rejects rituals while justice is absent |
| Isa 66:3 | "He who kills an ox is like one who slays a man; he who sacrifices a lamb, like one who breaks a dog's neck..." | Abominable acts of hypocritical worship |
| Jer 6:20 | "What do I care about incense from Sheba, or sweet cane from a distant land? Your burnt offerings are not acceptable, nor your sacrifices pleasing to me." | God's disinterest in ritual without truth |
| Jer 7:22-23 | "For when I brought your fathers out of the land of Egypt, I did not speak to them... concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices. But this command I gave them: 'Obey my voice...'" | Obedience as the original covenant requirement |
| Hos 6:6 | "For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings." | Mercy and knowledge over ritual |
| Amos 5:21-24 | "I hate, I despise your feasts, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies... But let justice roll down like waters..." | Rejection of worship without justice |
| Mic 6:6-8 | "With what shall I come before the LORD...? He has told you, O man, what is good: and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?" | Justice, kindness, humility as God's requirement |
| Mal 1:10 | "'Oh that there were one among you who would shut the temple doors, that you might not kindle fire on my altar in vain!'" | Rather no sacrifice than false sacrifice |
| Matt 9:13 | "Go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’" | Jesus quotes Hos 6:6, emphasizing mercy |
| Matt 12:7 | "And if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the innocent." | Jesus again affirms God's priority of mercy/love |
| Matt 15:8-9 | "This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men." | Outward worship, inward hypocrisy |
| Matt 23:27-28 | "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs... inside full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness. So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness." | Hypocrisy and outward show |
| Mk 12:33 | "and to love him with all the heart... and to love one's neighbor as oneself, is much more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices." | Love and devotion are supreme |
| Jn 4:23-24 | "But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him." | Worship in spirit and truth |
| Heb 10:5-7 | "Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, 'Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired... But a body have you prepared for me; in burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure.'" | Christ fulfills, obsoletes mere ritual |
| Tit 1:16 | "They profess to know God, but they deny him by their works. They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work." | Deeds betray false profession |
Jeremiah 7 verses
Jeremiah 7 21 Meaning
Jeremiah 7:21 is a powerful expression of divine sarcasm and rejection of superficial religious practice. God, through the prophet, scornfully commands the people of Judah to continue their ritual sacrifices, but in a manner that explicitly violates the Law and exposes the hollowness of their worship. Their burnt offerings, which were meant for complete devotion to God, are to be treated like common peace offerings, the meat consumed by the worshippers. This pronouncement signifies God's utter rejection of their rituals performed without true obedience, repentance, or justice, indicating that their acts of worship have become an abomination to Him.
Jeremiah 7 21 Context
Jeremiah 7:21 is a central statement within Jeremiah's "Temple Sermon" (Jeremiah 7:1-15). This sermon was delivered at the gate of the Temple in Jerusalem, addressing the people who mistakenly believed that the presence of God's Temple guaranteed their safety and immune from judgment, despite their rampant sin and idolatry. They uttered the phrase "The temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD are these" (7:4), implying a magical or automatic protection. Yet, simultaneously, they were engaged in covenant-breaking sins: stealing, murdering, committing adultery, swearing falsely, burning incense to Baal, and walking after other gods (7:9-10). They presumed that their ceremonial offerings within the Temple could somehow negate their sinful lifestyles. Verse 21 comes after God explicitly states that His primary demand upon Israel during the Exodus was obedience, not sacrifices themselves (7:22-23), laying the groundwork for the biting sarcasm of verse 21 which condemns their misplaced religious zeal. The verse underscores God's deep disillusionment with ritual without genuine transformation, in a time leading up to the Babylonian exile.
Jeremiah 7 21 Word analysis
Thus says the LORD of hosts: A standard prophetic formula (
koh amar Yahweh Tzeva'ot), emphasizing the divine origin and absolute authority of the message. The title "LORD of hosts" signifies God's sovereign power over all spiritual and earthly armies, highlighting the gravitas of His pronouncement against His unfaithful people.the God of Israel: Identifies the specific covenant God who is speaking, underlining the intimate, yet now strained, relationship between God and His chosen people, whose covenant obligations they have consistently failed to uphold.
'Add (יָסְפוּ - yaspu): An imperative verb, "continue, increase, heap upon." This is uttered with sharp irony. God is not genuinely commanding them to increase their sacrifices, but sarcastically urging them to continue their current misguided approach, thereby making His point clearer through exaggeration of their misdeeds.
your burnt offerings (עֹלוֹת - olot): Refers to the "whole burnt offerings," where the entire animal was consumed by fire on the altar, symbolizing total dedication and atonement to God. The burnt offering was the most complete form of sacrifice, wholly given to God with no portion for human consumption.
to your other sacrifices (זְבָחִים - z'vachim): A general term for "sacrifices" or "peace offerings," portions of which could be eaten by the worshipper and priests. This term differentiates from the burnt offering, suggesting a category of offerings that involved consumption.
and eat the flesh (וְאִכְלוּ בָּשָׂר - v'ikhlu basar): This is the climactic and most shocking element. Ordinarily, the meat of a burnt offering was exclusively for God, totally consumed by fire. Commanding them to "eat the flesh" of their burnt offerings means:
- Violation of Law: A direct contradiction of Levitical law regarding olot.
- Profanity/Sacrilege: What was holy and set apart for God is effectively demoted to common food.
- Meaninglessness: Since their sacrifices are already an abomination to God due to their sin, God considers them useless ritual acts fit only for common consumption, no longer functioning as an act of worship or atonement to Him.
- Self-Serving Worship: It exposes that their worship is for themselves and their own comfort, not truly for God.
Words-group analysis:
- "Add your burnt offerings to your other sacrifices": This phrase satirically combines two distinct types of offerings, a burnt offering (olah) which was wholly for God, and other sacrifices (zevachim) which involved communal eating. By telling them to blend them, God is saying that in their current state of heart, all their offerings, even the most dedicated, have become like mere common meals, possessing no true spiritual efficacy for Him.
- "and eat the flesh": This direct, startling command is the punchline. It strips the burnt offering of its sacred function entirely, reducing it to mere sustenance. This act signifies the absolute rejection of their external religious devotion by God, emphasizing that their physical rituals hold no value in the absence of spiritual truth, obedience, and ethical living. The command points to God’s preference that if they insist on ritual over righteousness, they may as well feed themselves with the animals, as the sacrifices are certainly not feeding Him (spiritually) or satisfying His covenant demands.
Jeremiah 7 21 Bonus section
The context of Jeremiah's Temple Sermon in Jeremiah 7 also directly addresses the common misconception that outward religious symbols or institutions (like the Temple itself) confer automatic divine protection or favor, regardless of personal conduct. The people relied on the physical presence of the Temple rather than on the covenant relationship with God it was meant to represent. This verse extends that critique to the sacrificial system. While sacrifices were divinely instituted, their purpose was for a repentant people seeking reconciliation. When performed by an unrepentant, hypocritical people, they lost their intended meaning and became an affront. This principle foreshadows New Testament teachings where the true sacrifice is a yielded heart and life, culminating in Christ's singular, perfect sacrifice (Heb 10). The prophetic method here employs a form of "reversal" – taking a sacred command (offering olah) and ironically reversing its practice (eating it) to emphasize the gravity of their spiritual deviation.
Jeremiah 7 21 Commentary
Jeremiah 7:21 profoundly articulates God's frustration with His people's superficial piety. Through biting sarcasm, He declares that their meticulously performed rituals and expensive sacrifices hold no weight with Him when their hearts are rebellious and their lives are filled with injustice and idolatry. By commanding them to "eat the flesh" of their burnt offerings—an act strictly forbidden and sacrilegious—God symbolically nullifies their entire system of worship. He communicates that their worship, devoid of a right heart and right conduct, is not only rejected but mocked. It underscores a timeless biblical principle: external religious acts are meaningless, even abhorrent, without internal transformation, genuine obedience, and active pursuit of justice and righteousness. This verse serves as a stark warning against empty religion, demanding sincerity and integrity over mere ritualistic performance.