Question 1

In v.21, what does the instruction to “add your burnt offerings… and eat” communicate within this speech?

Accepted Answer

Verse 21 reads like a deliberately jarring line. Burnt offerings were normally fully given to God, while other sacrifices could involve eating. By telling them to combine them and eat, God treats their ritual system as if it no longer carries its intended meaning. The point fits the wider temple speech: they are relying on temple activity while ignoring God’s voice. Whether heard as sarcasm or as dismissal, the effect is the same inside the argument—sacrifice is being exposed as powerless to secure God’s favor when obedience is absent.

Question 2

How do vv.22–23 define what God says he “commanded” when he brought Israel out of Egypt?

Accepted Answer

Verses 22–23 contrast two things: sacrifice and listening. God says that in the foundational moment of deliverance from Egypt, his central demand was not focused on offerings, but on a relationship expressed in obedience: “Listen to my voice… walk… in all the way that I command.” The passage attaches identity (“I will be your God… you shall be my people”) and well-being (“that it may be well with you”) to that listening. Whatever place sacrifices may have elsewhere, these verses make obedience the heart of covenant life in this argument.

Question 3

What sequence of refusal is described in vv.24–26, and how does it escalate?

Accepted Answer

The passage piles up descriptions of resistance. First, they “didn’t listen” and didn’t even “turn their ear,” emphasizing refusal at the level of attention (v.24). Next, they “walked in their own counsels” and “stubbornness,” presenting self-directed life as the alternative to God’s direction. The result is movement “backward, and not forward,” a picture of moral decline. Then vv.25–26 broaden it historically: God kept sending prophets again and again, yet the people continued not to listen, hardened themselves (“stiff neck”), and became worse than prior generations.

Question 4

What does v.25 contribute to the passage’s view of God and the prophets?

Accepted Answer

Verse 25 highlights persistence: from the exodus onward, God says he repeatedly sent “my servants the prophets,” described with urgency (“daily… rising up early”). Within the logic of the passage, this undercuts any claim that the people lacked warning, instruction, or opportunity to respond. It also frames prophetic messages as part of God’s ongoing pursuit of covenant faithfulness, not as random interruptions. The prophets function here as evidence that God kept calling for listening and correction over a long span of time.

Question 5

How do vv.27–28 anticipate Jeremiah’s reception, and what label is given to the nation?

Accepted Answer

In vv.27–28 Jeremiah is told to speak, but the response is predicted in advance: they will not listen and will not answer. That prediction ties Jeremiah’s experience to the larger history of rejecting prophets (vv.25–26). The nation is then characterized by two negatives: they have not listened to God’s voice, and they have not “received instruction” (v.28). The concluding line—“truth is perished, and is cut off from their mouth”—adds a social diagnosis: refusal has reached the point that truthful acknowledgment and faithful speech have disappeared from public life.

Question 6

What are two plausible ways to read v.22 (“I didn’t… command… concerning sacrifices”), and which elements of the passage control the meaning either way?

Accepted Answer

One reading takes v.22 as a flat denial that God commanded sacrifices at the exodus, implying sacrifice is not part of God’s will. Another reading hears v.22 as forceful contrast: God is saying sacrifices were not the main point compared to listening and obedience (v.23). In either case, the passage’s controlling emphasis is clear: God’s priority is listening to his voice and walking in his commanded way, and sacrifice cannot compensate for refusal (vv.21, 23–24). The historical pattern of ignoring prophets reinforces that the real issue is hardened disobedience, not a lack of ritual activity.

Jeremiah 7:21-28

Scripture