Jeremiah 7:8

8 "'Get smart! Your leaders are handing you a pack of lies, and you're swallowing them!

Jeremiah 7:8 Meaning and Commentary

Jeremiah 7:8

Behold, ye trust in lying words
What they are dissuaded from, ( Jeremiah 7:4 ) , is here affirmed they did, and which is introduced with a note of asseveration, attention, and admiration; it being a certain thing that they did so; and was what was worthy of their consideration and serious reflection upon; and it was astonishing that they should, since so to do was of no advantage to them, but the contrary: that cannot profit;
temple worship and service, legal sacrifices and ceremonies, could not take away sin, and expiate the guilt of it; or justify men, and render them acceptable to God; these, without faith in the blood and sacrifice of Christ, were of no avail; and especially could never be thought to be of any use and profit, when such gross abominations were indulged by them as are next mentioned.

Jeremiah 7:8 In-Context

6 only if you quit exploiting the street people and orphans and widows, no longer taking advantage of innocent people on this very site and no longer destroying your souls by using this Temple as a front for other gods -

7 only then will I move into your neighborhood. Only then will this country I gave your ancestors be my permanent home, my Temple.

8 "'Get smart! Your leaders are handing you a pack of lies, and you're swallowing them!

9 Use your heads! Do you think you can rob and murder, have sex with the neighborhood wives, tell lies nonstop, worship the local gods, and buy every novel religious commodity on the market

10 - and then march into this Temple, set apart for my worship, and say, "We're safe!" thinking that the place itself gives you a license to go on with all this outrageous sacrilege?