Jeremiah 7:17

17 Can't you see what they're doing in all the villages of Judah and in the Jerusalem streets?

Jeremiah 7:17 Meaning and Commentary

Jeremiah 7:17

Seest thou not what they do in the cities Judah
Not in one city only, but in all of and particularly the chief of them; as follows: and in the streets of Jerusalem?
these words, with what is said next, show the reason why the prophet was forbid to pray for this people, and the Lord was so provoked with them as to cast them out of his sight; and he appeals to the prophet, and to what he saw, or which he might see; for what was done was done not in secret, but openly, in the very streets of the city; by which he might be sufficiently convinced it was but just with God to do what he determined to do with them.

Jeremiah 7:17 In-Context

15 And as for you, I'm going to get rid of you, the same as I got rid of those old relatives of yours around Shiloh, your fellow Israelites in that former kingdom to the north.'

16 "And you, Jeremiah, don't waste your time praying for this people. Don't offer to make petitions or intercessions. Don't bother me with them. I'm not listening.

17 Can't you see what they're doing in all the villages of Judah and in the Jerusalem streets?

18 Why, they've got the children gathering wood while the fathers build fires and the mothers make bread to be offered to 'the Queen of Heaven'! And as if that weren't bad enough, they go around pouring out libations to any other gods they come across, just to hurt me.

19 "But is it me they're hurting?" God's Decree! "Aren't they just hurting themselves? Exposing themselves shamefully? Making themselves ridiculous?