Jeremiah 7:20

20 "Here's what the Master God has to say: 'My white-hot anger is about to descend on this country and everything in it - people and animals, trees in the field and vegetables in the garden - a raging wildfire that no one can put out.'

Jeremiah 7:20 Meaning and Commentary

Jeremiah 7:20

Therefore thus saith the Lord God
Since these are their thoughts, and this the fruit of their doings: behold, my anger and my fury shall be poured out upon this place;
like fire, to consume and destroy it; meaning Jerusalem, which was burned with fire; as an emblem of God's wrath, and an instance of his vengeance upon it, for sins; which came down in great abundance, like a storm or tempest: upon man and upon beast;
upon beasts for the sake of man, they being his property, and for his use; otherwise they are innocent, and do not deserve the wrath of God, nor are they sensible of it: and upon the trees of the field, and upon the fruit of your ground;
which should be blighted by nipping winds, or cut down and trampled upon by the Chaldean army: and it shall burn, and shall not be quenched;
that is, the wrath of God shall burn like fire, and shall not cease until it has executed the whole will of God in the punishment of his people.

Jeremiah 7:20 In-Context

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?

20 "Here's what the Master God has to say: 'My white-hot anger is about to descend on this country and everything in it - people and animals, trees in the field and vegetables in the garden - a raging wildfire that no one can put out.'

21 "The Message from God-of-the-Angel-Armies, Israel's God: 'Go ahead! Put your burnt offerings with all your other sacrificial offerings and make a good meal for yourselves. I sure don't want them!

22 When I delivered your ancestors out of Egypt, I never said anything to them about wanting burnt offerings and sacrifices as such.