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Jeremiah 7

ירמיהו פרק ז׳

Section: נביאים · נביאים אחרונים | Book: Jeremiah | Chapter: 7 of 52 | Day: 220 of 742

Date: September 19, 2026

קלאוד על הנ״ך

Chapter 7 is the Temple Gate sermon, and it is arguably the single most consequential prophetic address in the book. The framing is deliberate. Radak notices at once that the chapter opens hadavar asher hayah el Yirmiyahu, the word that came to Yirmiyahu, rather than the simpler koh amar Hashem that begins the preceding parshiot, and he explains that the change signals something about the delivery rather than the content: the fact that the prophet went and stood in the gate of the Beit Hashem was itself commanded to him. This was not a prophecy that happened to be spoken in the Temple courtyard; the location was the message. Amod b’shaar Beit Hashem - stand in the gate of the House of the Lord - which Radak identifies as the eastern gate, the most distinguished of the seven gates of the azarah. The audience is specified with equal precision: kol Yehudah haba’im bashe’arim ha’eleh l’hishtachavot laHashem, all of Yehudah who come through these gates to bow down to the Lord. Yirmiyahu is not sent to the idolaters at the Tofet or the drunkards in the marketplace. He is sent to the worshippers, at the moment of their worship, on their way in to do the very thing they believe secures them. The demand is then stated twice, in verse 3 and again in verses 5 through 7, and both times conditionally: heitivu darcheichem umaalaleichem, mend your ways and your deeds, va’ashakhnah etchem bamakom hazeh. Metzudat David and Radak both read va’ashakhnah plainly - I will settle you in this place and you will not be exiled from it - which makes continued residence in the land a consequence rather than a possession. And when the prophecy specifies what mending would look like, none of it is cultic: im aso ta’asu mishpat bein ish uvein re’ehu, justice between a man and his fellow; ger yatom v’almanah lo ta’ashoku, no oppression of the stranger, the orphan and the widow; v’dam naki al tishpechu bamakom hazeh, no innocent blood shed in this place. Radak observes that the three vulnerable classes are named not because others may be exploited freely but because these are the ones most commonly oppressed on account of their weakness, and he adds a chilling gloss on bamakom hazeh: shedding innocent blood is evil everywhere, but here it is worse, because this is the place of the Shechinah. The Temple does not launder what happens near it. It raises the stakes.

Against this stands the sentence that has echoed through Jewish memory for twenty-six centuries: al tivtechu lachem el divrei hasheker lemor heichal Hashem heichal Hashem heichal Hashem hemah. Do not trust in words of falsehood, saying, The Temple of the Lord, the Temple of the Lord, the Temple of the Lord - these are they. The threefold repetition is the whole rhetorical genius of the verse, and the commentators divide instructively over it. Radak, citing his father, explains that the three correspond to the three chambers of the building, the ulam, the heichal and the devir, all of which bear the name heichal, which is why the verse ends hemah in the plural; Metzudat David gives the same reading and spells out the argument the people were making, that the Temple of the Lord is in our midst and God will not destroy His own house. Rashi hears something different in the repetition - the three annual pilgrimages, three times a year you appear before Me - which turns the refrain into a ledger of religious attendance offered as a receipt. Radak also raises the possibility that these are the words of the false prophets who were misleading them, or the people’s own retort thrown back at Yirmiyahu, and suggests as well that threefold repetition is simply the idiom of the language for emphasis. All the readings converge on one thing. The refrain is the sound of a theology of guaranteed immunity, chanted rather than argued, and the prophet quotes it only in order to name it as divrei hasheker; verse 8 will not even grant it dignity, hinneh atem botchim lachem al divrei hasheker levilti ho’il, you are relying on lies that are of no avail. The indictment then turns concrete. Verse 9 is a catalogue - haganov, ratzoach, v’na’of, v’hishave’a lasheker, v’kater laBa’al - four of the Ten Commandments broken in a single breath with idolatry appended, which Rashi reads as a question with a sting in it: will you do all these, and shall the Temple avail you? And then verse 10, uvatem va’amadtem lefanai babayit hazeh asher nikra shemi alav va’amartem nitzalnu, you come and stand before Me in this house that bears My name and say, We are saved. Radak cuts to the heart of it: the belief that entry rescues you is not a mitigation of the sin but its doubling, because it takes a brazenness of face to walk in before Me after doing precisely what I forbade. Hence hame’arat paritzim hayah habayit hazeh b’eineichem - has this house become a den of robbers in your eyes? Metzudat David and Radak unpack the image identically, brigands who commit their crimes and then withdraw to a cave outside the city to hide from other men, and Radak presses the obvious point that a cave conceals a man from men but not from Heaven. So the verse ends gam anochi hinneh ra’iti: a person can deceive another by showing a face that is not what is in his heart, but I saw your heart, and I saw that when you came before Me your heart was not toward Me but toward returning to the abominations you had already done.

Then Yirmiyahu produces the argument no one could answer, because it was not theoretical but geographical. Ki lechu na el mekomi asher b’Shilo asher shikanti shemi sham barishonah, ur’u et asher asiti lo mipnei ra’at ami Yisrael - go now to My place at Shiloh, where I caused My name to dwell at first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of My people Israel. Metzudat David glosses barishonah as the era before Yerushalayim was chosen and points to the ruin that came in the days of Eli haKohen; Radak spells out what the visitor would find, that God destroyed it, withdrew His Shechinah from it, and let the Aron itself go into captivity among the Pelishtim, v’lo chashashti lichvodi, and I was not concerned for My own honor once they were treating it with contempt. The rhetorical force is overwhelming. The people are asked to walk twenty miles north and look at the ruins of the last building God had put His name on. He had done it before. The name of God resting on a structure had not saved that structure, and the sanctuary standing in front of them was under no different law. Rashi’s terse note on verse 14, as I did to Shiloh, in the days of Eli, is all the proof the argument requires. Verse 15 then widens the precedent from a building to a people: v’hishlachti etchem me’al panai ka’asher hishlachti et kol acheichem et kol zera Efrayim. Rashi and Metzudat David identify the brood of Efrayim as the ten tribes already carried off, and Radak explains that they carry Efrayim’s name because the kingship passed to Efrayim on the day the monarchy split. Yehudah is told to look at Shiloh, and then to look at its own missing brothers, and to understand that it stands in the same line. What follows is among the most severe sentences ever spoken to a prophet: v’atah al titpallel b’ad ha’am hazeh v’al tisa ba’adam rinah utfillah v’al tifga bi ki eineni shomea otach. Do not pray for this people, do not lift up cry or prayer for them, do not intercede with Me, for I am not listening to you. Radak explains the vocabulary, tisa as the raising of the voice and rinah as a cry, and Metzudat David notes that the repeated clauses are one prohibition stated twice for force. The shock is not that the people are condemned, since the chapter has been condemning them from its third verse. The shock is that intercession itself is closed. Moshe stood in the breach after the Egel and prevailed; Avraham bargained over Sedom; Shmuel said chalilah li mechato laHashem mechadol l’hitpallel ba’adchem, far be it from me to sin by ceasing to pray for you. Yirmiyahu, who weeps more than any other prophet, is forbidden the one act the prophetic office exists to perform.

The chapter justifies that prohibition by showing him the evidence. Ha’eincha ro’eh mah hemah osim b’arei Yehudah uvchutzot Yerushalayim, do you not see what they are doing - and Radak’s note is that they were no longer ashamed to provoke Him openly, in the markets and public squares. The picture in verse 18 is domestic and therefore devastating: habanim melaktim etzim v’ha’avot mevaarim et ha’esh v’hanashim lashot batzek, children gathering wood, fathers kindling the fire, women kneading dough, to make cakes for the meleches hashamayim. Radak notes that the entire household is employed in this service; Rashi describes the kavanim as cakes stamped in the shape of a star and, with Radak, records the Targum’s rendering of the queen of heaven as a star. Idolatry here is not a lapse. It is a family activity with a division of labor. And yet verse 19 undercuts even the anger it provokes - ha’oti hem machisim, halo otam lema’an boshet peneihem - and Radak takes the occasion for a full statement of divine impassibility: no middah of anger inheres in God, the Torah speaks in human idiom when it says they provoked Me, and as Elihu told Iyov, their evil does not injure Him and their good does not benefit Him. They are not damaging God. They are damaging themselves. Out of that comes the theological center of the chapter, and one of the most discussed passages in all of Nach: ki lo dibarti et avoteichem v’lo tzivitim b’yom hotzi’i otam me’eretz Mitzrayim al divrei olah vazavach, ki im et hadavar hazeh tziviti otam lemor shimu b’koli. I did not speak to your fathers, nor command them, on the day I brought them out of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices; but this thing I commanded them, saying, Obey My voice. The verse is jarring on its face, since the Torah is full of commands concerning olot and zevachim, and the commentators labor over it with evident seriousness. Rashi resolves it by pointing to the opening of the covenant at Sinai, where the first condition was only im shamoa tishme’u b’koli ushmartem et briti vihyitem li segulah - obedience, not offering. Metzudat David builds a proof by omission: if the purpose of the Exodus had been the bringing of korbanot, such that everything hung on them independently of listening to God’s voice, the command would have had to come on the day of the Exodus itself, and it did not. Radak gives the widest treatment. He cites the reading that the first commandments were those given at Marah, sham sam lo chok umishpat, which Chazal identify as Shabbat and dinim and which say nothing of offerings; he argues that the essence was never olah vazavach but shimu b’koli, and observes that the Aseret HaDibrot, the whole Torah in miniature, do not mention sacrifice once. Even where the Torah legislates it, he notes, it does not command a person to bring one - adam ki yakriv mikem korban, when a man brings an offering of his own initiative, then it shall be thus and so - and no individual is ever obligated except after an inadvertent sin. He closes with the Rambam’s account in the Moreh, that the sacrificial order was given to redirect a practice the nations already had and turn worship away from idolatrous temples toward the service of God. This chapter is where that whole argument in Jewish thought begins. Verse 21 sets it up with contemptuous irony - oloteichem sefu al zivcheichem v’ichlu vasar, add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices and eat meat - which Rashi and Metzudat David read as a bitter concession: since the olot are not accepted before Me anyway and are wholly consumed, treat them as shelamim and at least get a meal out of them; why lose the meat? Radak adds that the verse names olot and shelamim but not chatat and asham, because these people were neither confessing nor repenting, and in any case were sinning b’mezid, for which there is no offering at all.

The last movement traces the failure backward and then forward. Backward: vayelchu b’moatzot bishrirut libam hara vayihyu l’achor v’lo lefanim, they walked in their own counsels, in the stubbornness of their evil heart, and went backward and not forward - Metzudat David reading this as steady decline, every day diminishing in the service of God rather than adding, and Radak as the punishment itself, a curse on the work of their hands. Against that backsliding stands the divine persistence, stated in the chapter’s most poignant idiom: va’eshlach aleichem et kol avadai hanevi’im yom hashkem v’shaloach, I sent you all My servants the prophets, daily, rising early and sending. Radak explains the image with homely realism - a warning is given in the morning, before a man goes out to his work, and so the prophets were dispatched at daybreak - which converts the entire prophetic tradition into a picture of God rising before dawn, every day, for centuries, to try again. The answer was always the same: vayakshu et orpam here’u me’avotam, they stiffened their necks and did worse than their fathers, which Radak illustrates with Menasheh and Amon, the later ones multiplying guilt beyond the earlier. Then, in verse 27, God tells Yirmiyahu in advance that this very speech will fail, and Radak’s gloss is the one to carry away: I know they will not listen and will not even answer you, af al pi chen hazhirem, nevertheless warn them. The obligation of the prophet does not depend on the prospect of success. The verdict on the generation comes in four words that summarize the book, avdah ha’emunah v’nichretah mipihem, faithfulness has perished and been cut off from their mouth - and Radak reads it in the harshest available sense: most people at least speak truth with their mouths while their hearts are otherwise, in order to appear good, but these have lost it even from the mouth. Forward, the chapter ends in fire. Gozi nizrech v’hashlichi us’i al shefayim kinah, shear your crown and cast it away and take up a lament on the bare heights - Rashi offering both readings of nezer, the hair to be torn out in mourning or the diadem, your great ones, as the Targum has it, and Metzudat David explaining the shefayim practically, raise the lament on high ground so it carries far. Verse 31 then names the abomination the chapter has been circling: they built the high places of the Tofet in Gei Ben-Hinnom to burn their sons and daughters in fire, asher lo tziviti v’lo altah al libi. Rashi gives the terrible etymology - the Molech of copper heated from beneath, its hands outstretched and glowing, the child set upon them, and the priests beating drums, tupim, so the father would not hear his son’s cry and relent; Tofet from the drum, Hinnom from nehimat haben, the moaning of the child - and he extends lo altah al libi to its most famous application: when I spoke to Avraham to slaughter his son, it never entered My mind that he actually slaughter him, only that his righteousness be made known. Radak records that Chazal read asher lo tziviti as Yiftach and v’lo altah al libi as Mesha king of Moav. The punishment is a renaming: the place will no longer be called the Tofet or Gei Ben-Hinnom but Gei HaHaregah, the Valley of Slaughter, and they will bury there for lack of room until the corpses that cannot be buried become food for the birds of the sky and the beasts of the earth with none to frighten them off. The final verse silences everything - v’hishbati me’arei Yehudah umechutzot Yerushalayim kol sason v’kol simchah kol chatan v’kol kallah, ki lecharbah tihyeh ha’aretz - and Radak supplies the counterpoint in a single line, that in place of the voice of rejoicing there will be the voice of wailing, of weeping and crying out. It is one of the great ironies of Jewish liturgy that these same six words were lifted out of this verse of doom and set into the sheva berachot recited under every chuppah, announcing the exact reversal Yirmiyahu himself would later prophesy in chapter 33. The sermon that began at the gate of a building the people thought could never fall ends with the silence of an entire land, and Jewish memory answered it by putting the prophet’s silenced sounds into the mouth of every wedding since.

פרק ז׳ · Chapter 7

פסוק א׳ · Verse 1

Hebrew:

הַדָּבָר֙ אֲשֶׁ֣ר הָיָ֣ה אֶֽל־יִרְמְיָ֔הוּ מֵאֵ֥ת יְהֹוָ֖ה לֵאמֹֽר׃

English:

The word that came to Jeremiah from GOD:

The chapter opens with an unusual formula - hadavar asher hayah el Yirmiyahu, the word that came to Yirmiyahu - rather than the koh amar Hashem that introduced the preceding prophecies. Radak explains that the change is deliberate: because this prophecy was to be delivered standing in the gate of the Beit Hashem, the verse says 'the word that came' in order to make clear that the manner of its delivery, and not only its content, was itself commanded from God.

פסוק ב׳ · Verse 2

Hebrew:

עֲמֹ֗ד בְּשַׁ֙עַר֙ בֵּ֣ית יְהֹוָ֔ה וְקָרָ֣אתָ שָּׁ֔ם אֶת־הַדָּבָ֖ר הַזֶּ֑ה וְאָמַרְתָּ֞ שִׁמְע֣וּ דְבַר־יְהֹוָ֗ה כׇּל־יְהוּדָה֙ הַבָּאִים֙ בַּשְּׁעָרִ֣ים הָאֵ֔לֶּה לְהִֽשְׁתַּחֲוֺ֖ת לַיהֹוָֽה׃ {ס}         

English:

Stand at the gate of the House of GOD, and there proclaim this word: Hear the word of GOD, all you of Judah who enter these gates to worship GOD!

The prophet is stationed at the gate of the Temple and told to proclaim to all of Yehudah who enter these gates to bow down to Hashem. Radak identifies the gate as the eastern one, the most distinguished of the seven gates of the azarah - three in the north, three in the south, and one in the east. The audience matters as much as the location: Yirmiyahu is sent not to the idolaters but to the worshippers, intercepted on their way in to worship.

פסוק ג׳ · Verse 3

Hebrew:

כֹּֽה־אָמַ֞ר יְהֹוָ֤ה צְבָאוֹת֙ אֱלֹהֵ֣י יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל הֵיטִ֥יבוּ דַרְכֵיכֶ֖ם וּמַעַלְלֵיכֶ֑ם וַאֲשַׁכְּנָ֣ה אֶתְכֶ֔ם בַּמָּק֖וֹם הַזֶּֽה׃

English:

Thus said GOD of Hosts, the God of Israel: Mend your ways and your actions, and I will let you dwell in this place.

The demand of the whole sermon is stated in a single conditional clause: heitivu darcheichem umaalaleichem, mend your ways and your deeds, and I will let you dwell in this place. Metzudat David and Radak both read va'ashakhnah in its plain sense - I will settle you here and you will not be exiled from it - which reframes continued residence in the land as a consequence of conduct rather than a possession that cannot be lost.

פסוק ד׳ · Verse 4

Hebrew:

אַל־תִּבְטְח֣וּ לָכֶ֔ם אֶל־דִּבְרֵ֥י הַשֶּׁ֖קֶר לֵאמֹ֑ר הֵיכַ֤ל יְהֹוָה֙ הֵיכַ֣ל יְהֹוָ֔ה הֵיכַ֥ל יְהֹוָ֖ה הֵֽמָּה׃

English:

Don’t put your trust in illusions and say, “The Temple of GOD, the Temple of GOD, the Temple of GOD are these [buildings].”

This is the chapter's most famous verse and the refrain that gave the sermon its fame: do not trust in words of falsehood, saying 'the Temple of the Lord, the Temple of the Lord, the Temple of the Lord - these are they.' Metzudat David spells out the argument being made - the Temple of the Lord is in our midst and God will not destroy His own house - and explains the threefold repetition, with Radak citing his father, as corresponding to the three chambers, the ulam, the heichal and the devir, which is why the verse ends hemah in the plural. Rashi hears the repetition differently, as the three annual pilgrimages, three times a year you appear before Me, turning the chant into a tally of attendance offered as a receipt; Radak further suggests these may be the words of the false prophets, or the people's own retort to Yirmiyahu, or simply the idiom of the language repeating a phrase for emphasis.
▶Commentaries (1)
רש״יRashi
היכל ה' היכל ה' היכל ה'. תלת זימנין בשתא אתון מתחזין קדמוהי:
The Temple of the Lord, the Temple of the Lord, etc. Three times a year you appear before Me.

פסוק ה׳ · Verse 5

Hebrew:

כִּ֤י אִם־הֵיטֵיב֙ תֵּיטִ֔יבוּ אֶת־דַּרְכֵיכֶ֖ם וְאֶת־מַעַלְלֵיכֶ֑ם אִם־עָשׂ֤וֹ תַֽעֲשׂוּ֙ מִשְׁפָּ֔ט בֵּ֥ין אִ֖ישׁ וּבֵ֥ין רֵעֵֽהוּ׃

English:

No, if you really mend your ways and your actions; if you execute justice between one party and another;

פסוק ו׳ · Verse 6

Hebrew:

גֵּ֣ר יָת֤וֹם וְאַלְמָנָה֙ לֹ֣א תַעֲשֹׁ֔קוּ וְדָ֣ם נָקִ֔י אַֽל־תִּשְׁפְּכ֖וּ בַּמָּק֣וֹם הַזֶּ֑ה וְאַחֲרֵ֨י אֱלֹהִ֧ים אֲחֵרִ֛ים לֹ֥א תֵלְכ֖וּ לְרַ֥ע לָכֶֽם׃

English:

if you do not oppress the stranger, the orphan, and the widow; if you do not shed the blood of the innocent in this place; if you do not follow other gods, to your own hurt—

The conditions continue, and they are entirely ethical rather than cultic: do not oppress the ger, the yatom and the almanah, do not shed innocent blood in this place, and do not follow other gods to your own hurt. Radak explains that these three are singled out not because others may be oppressed freely but because they are the ones most commonly exploited on account of their weakness, and he adds a pointed gloss on bamakom hazeh - bloodshed is evil anywhere, but here it is worse, since this is the place of the Shechinah. Metzudat David reads lera lachem as meaning that harm, not benefit, is all that idolatry will ever produce for them.

פסוק ז׳ · Verse 7

Hebrew:

וְשִׁכַּנְתִּ֤י אֶתְכֶם֙ בַּמָּק֣וֹם הַזֶּ֔ה בָּאָ֕רֶץ אֲשֶׁ֥ר נָתַ֖תִּי לַאֲבוֹתֵיכֶ֑ם לְמִן־עוֹלָ֖ם וְעַד־עוֹלָֽם׃

English:

then only will I let you dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your ancestors for all time.

Only then comes the promise: if you do all this, I will let you dwell in this place, in the land I gave your fathers, forever. Metzudat David underlines the conditionality - if you act this way, then I will settle you here, and not otherwise - while Radak reads lemin olam v'ad olam as reaching back to the days of Avraham and forward through all time, on the condition that your children walk in My ways.

פסוק ח׳ · Verse 8

Hebrew:

הִנֵּ֤ה אַתֶּם֙ בֹּטְחִ֣ים לָכֶ֔ם עַל־דִּבְרֵ֖י הַשָּׁ֑קֶר לְבִלְתִּ֖י הוֹעִֽיל׃

English:

See, you are relying on illusions that are of no avail.

The prophet returns to the false confidence and dismisses it flatly: you are relying on words of falsehood that avail nothing. Metzudat David identifies the lie precisely as bitachon haheichal, trust in the Temple building itself, and says there is no benefit in that trust at all; Radak adds the sharper observation that they can already see for themselves that these words are producing nothing.

פסוק ט׳ · Verse 9

Hebrew:

הֲגָנֹ֤ב ׀ רָצֹ֙חַ֙ וְֽנָאֹ֔ף וְהִשָּׁבֵ֥עַ לַשֶּׁ֖קֶר וְקַטֵּ֣ר לַבָּ֑עַל וְהָלֹ֗ךְ אַחֲרֵ֛י אֱלֹהִ֥ים אֲחֵרִ֖ים אֲשֶׁ֥ר לֹֽא־יְדַעְתֶּֽם׃

English:

Will you steal and murder and commit adultery and swear falsely, and sacrifice to Baal, and follow other gods whom you have not experienced,

The indictment turns concrete with a catalogue of crimes - stealing, murdering, committing adultery, swearing falsely, offering to Baal, following gods you never knew - four of the Ten Commandments broken in a single breath with idolatry appended. Rashi reads the whole verse as a question with a sting in it: will you do all these things, and shall the Temple then avail you? Metzudat David gives the same reading of the interrogative form.
▶Commentaries (1)
רש״יRashi
הגנוב רצוח וגו'. בתמיה וכי אלה תעשו ויועיל ההיכל לכם:
Will you steal, murder, etc. This is a question. Will you do all these, and should the Temple of the Lord avail for you?

פסוק י׳ · Verse 10

Hebrew:

וּבָאתֶ֞ם וַעֲמַדְתֶּ֣ם לְפָנַ֗י בַּבַּ֤יִת הַזֶּה֙ אֲשֶׁ֣ר נִקְרָֽא־שְׁמִ֣י עָלָ֔יו וַאֲמַרְתֶּ֖ם נִצַּ֑לְנוּ לְמַ֣עַן עֲשׂ֔וֹת אֵ֥ת כׇּל־הַתּוֹעֵב֖וֹת הָאֵֽלֶּה׃

English:

and then come and stand before Me in this House that bears My name and say, “We are safe”?—[Safe] to do all these abhorrent things!

The question completes itself: and then you come and stand before Me in this House that bears My name and say nitzalnu, we are saved - saved, that is, in order to go and do all these abominations again. Metzudat David explains that the Temple thus becomes an aid and an encouragement to sin rather than a check on it, since trust in the building is precisely what makes the return to sin possible. Radak, in the previous verse, had already framed the whole argument the same way - you imagine you can commit the abominations and escape their punishment simply by coming and standing before Me in this house.

פסוק י״א · Verse 11

Hebrew:

הַֽמְעָרַ֣ת פָּרִצִ֗ים הָיָ֨ה הַבַּ֧יִת הַזֶּ֛ה אֲשֶׁר־נִקְרָֽא־שְׁמִ֥י עָלָ֖יו בְּעֵינֵיכֶ֑ם גַּ֧ם אָנֹכִ֛י הִנֵּ֥ה רָאִ֖יתִי נְאֻם־יְהֹוָֽה׃

English:

Do you consider this House, which bears My name, to be a den of thieves? As for Me, I have been watching—declares GOD.

Has this House that bears My name become a den of robbers in your eyes? Metzudat David and Radak unpack the metaphor identically: brigands commit their crimes and then withdraw to a cave outside the city to hide themselves from other men. Radak presses the point that this is not a mitigation of the sin but its doubling, since it takes brazenness to enter before God after doing exactly what He forbade - and both he and Rashi read the closing gam anochi hinneh ra'iti as God's reply that He too has seen, and specifically has seen what is in their hearts, which no man can conceal from Him as one man conceals it from another.
▶Commentaries (1)
רש״יRashi
המערת פריצים. היה בעיניכם הבית הזה בתמיה: הנה ראיתי. שכך הוא בעיניכם:
Has...a cave of profligate men? Was this house in your eyes? This is a question. behold I have seen that it is so in your eyes.

פסוק י״ב · Verse 12

Hebrew:

כִּ֣י לְכוּ־נָ֗א אֶל־מְקוֹמִי֙ אֲשֶׁ֣ר בְּשִׁיל֔וֹ אֲשֶׁ֨ר שִׁכַּ֧נְתִּֽי שְׁמִ֛י שָׁ֖ם בָּרִֽאשׁוֹנָ֑ה וּרְאוּ֙ אֵ֣ת אֲשֶׁר־עָשִׂ֣יתִי ל֔וֹ מִפְּנֵ֕י רָעַ֖ת עַמִּ֥י יִשְׂרָאֵֽל׃

English:

Just go to My place at Shiloh, where I had established My name formerly, and see what I did to it because of the wickedness of My people Israel.

Here is the argument that could not be answered, because it was geographical rather than theoretical: go now to My place at Shiloh, where I caused My name to dwell first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of My people Israel. Metzudat David glosses barishonah as the period before Yerushalayim was chosen and points to the ruin that came in the days of Eli haKohen. Radak spells out what a visitor would find - that God destroyed it, withdrew His Shechinah, and let the Aron itself go into captivity among the Pelishtim - and draws the conclusion in God's own voice: I was not concerned for My honor once they were treating it with contempt, and so I will do to this house as well.

פסוק י״ג · Verse 13

Hebrew:

וְעַתָּ֗ה יַ֧עַן עֲשׂוֹתְכֶ֛ם אֶת־כׇּל־הַמַּעֲשִׂ֥ים הָאֵ֖לֶּה נְאֻם־יְהֹוָ֑ה וָאֲדַבֵּ֨ר אֲלֵיכֶ֜ם הַשְׁכֵּ֤ם וְדַבֵּר֙ וְלֹ֣א שְׁמַעְתֶּ֔ם וָאֶקְרָ֥א אֶתְכֶ֖ם וְלֹ֥א עֲנִיתֶֽם׃

English:

And now, because you do all these things—declares GOD—and though I spoke to you persistently, you would not listen; and though I called to you, you would not respond—

The transition from precedent to sentence: because you have done all these things, and because I spoke to you hashkem v'daber, rising early and speaking, and you did not listen, and I called and you did not answer. Metzudat David explains the idiom as God rising early each day and speaking through the prophets, and reads va'ekra etchem as the call to return in teshuvah - a summons that was issued and simply ignored.

פסוק י״ד · Verse 14

Hebrew:

וְעָשִׂ֜יתִי לַבַּ֣יִת ׀ אֲשֶׁ֧ר נִֽקְרָא־שְׁמִ֣י עָלָ֗יו אֲשֶׁ֤ר אַתֶּם֙ בֹּטְחִ֣ים בּ֔וֹ וְלַ֨מָּק֔וֹם אֲשֶׁר־נָתַ֥תִּי לָכֶ֖ם וְלַאֲבוֹתֵיכֶ֑ם כַּאֲשֶׁ֥ר עָשִׂ֖יתִי לְשִׁלֽוֹ׃

English:

therefore I will do to the House that bears My name, on which you rely, and to the place that I gave you and your ancestors, just what I did to Shiloh.

The verdict falls: I will do to the House that bears My name, in which you trust, and to the place I gave you and your fathers, exactly what I did to Shiloh. Rashi's terse note supplies the historical anchor - as I did to Shiloh, in the days of Eli - and Metzudat David identifies hamakom, the place, as Yerushalayim itself. The trust named in the verse, asher atem botchim bo, is the very heichal Hashem refrain of verse 4, now stated as the reason for the ruin rather than a defense against it.
▶Commentaries (1)
רש״יRashi
כאשר עשיתי לשילו. בימי עלי:
as I did to Shiloh in the days of Eli.

פסוק ט״ו · Verse 15

Hebrew:

וְהִשְׁלַכְתִּ֥י אֶתְכֶ֖ם מֵעַ֣ל פָּנָ֑י כַּאֲשֶׁ֤ר הִשְׁלַ֙כְתִּי֙ אֶת־כׇּל־אֲחֵיכֶ֔ם אֵ֖ת כׇּל־זֶ֥רַע אֶפְרָֽיִם׃ {פ}

English:

And I will cast you out of My presence as I cast out your kinsfolk, the whole brood of Ephraim.

The precedent widens from a building to a people: I will cast you out of My presence as I cast out all your brothers, all the seed of Efrayim. Rashi and Metzudat David identify the seed of Efrayim as the ten tribes already exiled, and Metzudat David adds that they are named for Efrayim because Yerovam, who first reigned over them, was of Efrayim's line; Radak explains it from the day the monarchy split, when the kingship passed to Efrayim and the ten tribes took his name thereafter. Yehudah is being shown both a ruined sanctuary and its own missing brothers.
▶Commentaries (1)
רש״יRashi
כאשר השלכתי וגו'. עשרת השבטים:
as I cast, etc. the ten tribes.

פסוק ט״ז · Verse 16

Hebrew:

וְאַתָּ֞ה אַל־תִּתְפַּלֵּ֣ל ׀ בְּעַד־הָעָ֣ם הַזֶּ֗ה וְאַל־תִּשָּׂ֧א בַעֲדָ֛ם רִנָּ֥ה וּתְפִלָּ֖ה וְאַל־תִּפְגַּע־בִּ֑י כִּֽי־אֵינֶ֥נִּי שֹׁמֵ֖עַ אֹתָֽךְ׃

English:

As for you, do not pray for this people, do not raise a cry of prayer on their behalf, do not plead with Me; for I will not listen to you.

One of the most severe sentences ever spoken to a prophet: do not pray for this people, do not lift up cry or prayer on their behalf, do not intercede with Me, for I am not listening to you. Metzudat David notes that the repeated clauses are one prohibition stated twice for force, and Radak explains the vocabulary - tisa is the raising of the voice, and rinah is a cry. What is closed here is not merely the people's hope but the prophetic office itself in its intercessory function, the role Moshe played after the Egel and Shmuel refused to abandon.

פסוק י״ז · Verse 17

Hebrew:

הַאֵינְךָ֣ רֹאֶ֔ה מָ֛ה הֵ֥מָּה עֹשִׂ֖ים בְּעָרֵ֣י יְהוּדָ֑ה וּבְחֻצ֖וֹת יְרוּשָׁלָֽ͏ִם׃

English:

Don’t you see what they are doing in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem?

God answers the implicit protest by pointing to the evidence: do you not see what they are doing in the cities of Yehudah and the streets of Yerushalayim? Metzudat David reads the verse as a plain rhetorical question, and Radak draws out what the mention of the public streets is meant to convey - they were no longer even ashamed to provoke Him openly, in the markets and squares, where everyone could see.

פסוק י״ח · Verse 18

Hebrew:

הַבָּנִ֞ים מְלַקְּטִ֣ים עֵצִ֗ים וְהָאָבוֹת֙ מְבַעֲרִ֣ים אֶת־הָאֵ֔שׁ וְהַנָּשִׁ֖ים לָשׁ֣וֹת בָּצֵ֑ק לַעֲשׂ֨וֹת כַּוָּנִ֜ים לִמְלֶ֣כֶת הַשָּׁמַ֗יִם וְהַסֵּ֤ךְ נְסָכִים֙ לֵאלֹהִ֣ים אֲחֵרִ֔ים לְמַ֖עַן הַכְעִסֵֽנִי׃

English:

The children gather sticks, the fathers build the fire, and the mothers knead dough, to make cakes for the Queen of Heaven, and they pour libations to other gods, to vex Me.

The scene is domestic and therefore devastating: children gathering wood, fathers kindling the fire, women kneading dough to make cakes for the queen of heaven, with libations poured to other gods. Metzudat David observes that every member of the household is assisting in the transgression, and Radak likewise notes that the whole family is employed in this service. Rashi describes the kavanim as cakes stamped in the shape of a star and, like Radak, records the Targum's rendering of meleches hashamayim as a star of heaven, while Metzudat David takes it as the sun, the greatest of the heavenly bodies, as though it ruled over all the rest.
▶Commentaries (1)
רש״יRashi
לעשות כוונים. דפוס הכוכב: למלכת השמים. כוכב הגדול היו קורין מלכת השמים ל' מלוכה וכן ת"י לכוכבת שמיא:
star-shaped cakes Heb. כַּוָנִים, the shape of a star. to the queen of heaven The largest star they would call מלכת השמים, an expression of a queen, (מלכּה), and so did Jonathan render it: לכוכבת שמיא, to the female star of heaven.

פסוק י״ט · Verse 19

Hebrew:

הַאֹתִ֛י הֵ֥ם מַכְעִסִ֖ים נְאֻם־יְהֹוָ֑ה הֲל֣וֹא אֹתָ֔ם לְמַ֖עַן בֹּ֥שֶׁת פְּנֵיהֶֽם׃

English:

Is it Me they are vexing?—says GOD. It is rather themselves, to their own disgrace.

The verse pulls back from the anger it has just provoked: is it Me they are vexing, says Hashem, or is it not themselves, to their own shame? Radak takes the occasion for a full statement of divine impassibility - no attribute of anger inheres in God, and when the Torah says they provoked Me it speaks in the idiom of human beings; as Elihu told Iyov, a man's wickedness does not injure Him and his righteousness does not benefit Him. Metzudat David reads it the same way: their deeds cannot harm Him, and the only thing their idolatry produces is disgrace and humiliation for themselves.

פסוק כ׳ · Verse 20

Hebrew:

לָכֵ֞ן כֹּה־אָמַ֣ר ׀ אֲדֹנָ֣י יֱהֹוִ֗ה הִנֵּ֨ה אַפִּ֤י וַחֲמָתִי֙ נִתֶּ֙כֶת֙ אֶל־הַמָּק֣וֹם הַזֶּ֔ה עַל־הָאָדָם֙ וְעַל־הַבְּהֵמָ֔ה וְעַל־עֵ֥ץ הַשָּׂדֶ֖ה וְעַל־פְּרִ֣י הָאֲדָמָ֑ה וּבָעֲרָ֖ה וְלֹ֥א תִכְבֶּֽה׃ {פ}

English:

Assuredly, thus said my Sovereign GOD: My wrath and My fury will be poured out upon this place, on human beings and on animals, on the trees of the field and the fruit of the soil. It shall burn, with none to quench it.

The wrath is now poured out on the place itself, on man and beast, on the tree of the field and the fruit of the ground, and it will burn unquenched. Rashi glosses nitechet as pouring down and reaching its target, comparing the rain that did not reach the ground in Mitzrayim; Metzudat David reads v'lo tichbeh as meaning the fury will not cease until everything is consumed. Radak notes the measure-for-measure logic - they acted to provoke anger, and so anger is what will fall upon them.
▶Commentaries (1)
רש״יRashi
נתכת. יורדת ומגעת כמו ומטר לא נתך ארצה (שמות ט׳:ל״ג) לא מטא:
reaches Heb. נתכת, falls and reaches. Comp. (Exodus 9:33) "and rain did not reach (נתּך) the earth"; did not reach.

פסוק כ״א · Verse 21

Hebrew:

כֹּ֥ה אָמַ֛ר יְהֹוָ֥ה צְבָא֖וֹת אֱלֹהֵ֣י יִשְׂרָאֵ֑ל עֹלוֹתֵיכֶ֛ם סְפ֥וּ עַל־זִבְחֵיכֶ֖ם וְאִכְל֥וּ בָשָֽׂר׃

English:

Thus said GOD of Hosts, the God of Israel: Add your burnt offerings to your other sacrifices and eat the meat!

The sarcasm is withering: add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices and eat the meat. Rashi and Metzudat David both read it as a bitter concession - since the olot, which are wholly consumed, are not accepted before Me anyway, you may as well treat them as shelamim and at least get a meal out of them; why lose the meat for nothing? Radak observes that the verse names olot and shelamim but pointedly not chatat and asham, because these people were neither confessing nor repenting, and were sinning deliberately, for which no offering exists at all.
▶Commentaries (1)
רש״יRashi
עולותיכם. שאתם מקריבים כליל טוב לכם שתוסיפו אותם על שלמיכם ותקריבו אותם שלמים ותאכלו הבשר שהרי אינם מקובלות לפני ולמה תפסידום:
your burnt offerings that you offer up completely it would be better for you to add them to your peace-offerings and sacrifice them as peace-offerings and eat the flesh, for they are not acceptable before Me. Why, then, should you lose them?

פסוק כ״ב · Verse 22

Hebrew:

כִּ֠י לֹֽא־דִבַּ֤רְתִּי אֶת־אֲבֽוֹתֵיכֶם֙ וְלֹ֣א צִוִּיתִ֔ים בְּי֛וֹם (הוציא) [הוֹצִיאִ֥י] אוֹתָ֖ם מֵאֶ֣רֶץ מִצְרָ֑יִם עַל־דִּבְרֵ֥י עוֹלָ֖ה וָזָֽבַח׃

English:

For when I freed your ancestors from the land of Egypt, I did not speak with them or command them concerning burnt offerings or sacrifice.

One of the most discussed verses in all of Nach: I did not speak to your fathers, nor command them, on the day I brought them out of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices. Rashi resolves the apparent contradiction with the Torah by pointing to the opening of the covenant at Sinai, where the first condition was only im shamoa tishme'u b'koli - obedience, not offering. Metzudat David builds a proof by omission: had the purpose of the Exodus been the bringing of korbanot, the command would have had to come on the day of the Exodus itself. Radak treats it at length, citing the view that the first commands were those at Marah, which Chazal identify as Shabbat and dinim, noting that the Aseret HaDibrot never mention sacrifice, that the Torah never commands an individual to bring an offering but only legislates how one is brought if he chooses, and closing with the Rambam's account in the Moreh that the sacrificial order was given to redirect a practice the nations already had toward the service of God.
▶Commentaries (1)
רש״יRashi
ביום הוציאי אותם. תחלת תנאי לא היתה אלא אם שמוע תשמעו בקולי ושמרתם את בריתי והייתם לי סגול' (שם יט):
on the day I brought them forth The beginning of the condition was only (Exodus 19:5): "If you hearken to My voice and keep My covenant, you shall be a peculiar treasure to Me."

פסוק כ״ג · Verse 23

Hebrew:

כִּ֣י אִֽם־אֶת־הַדָּבָ֣ר הַ֠זֶּ֠ה צִוִּ֨יתִי אוֹתָ֤ם לֵאמֹר֙ שִׁמְע֣וּ בְקוֹלִ֔י וְהָיִ֤יתִי לָכֶם֙ לֵֽאלֹהִ֔ים וְאַתֶּ֖ם תִּֽהְיוּ־לִ֣י לְעָ֑ם וַהֲלַכְתֶּ֗ם בְּכׇל־הַדֶּ֙רֶךְ֙ אֲשֶׁ֣ר אֲצַוֶּ֣ה אֶתְכֶ֔ם לְמַ֖עַן יִיטַ֥ב לָכֶֽם׃

English:

But this is what I commanded them: Do My bidding, that I may be your God and you may be My people; walk only in the way that I enjoin upon you, that it may go well with you.

Here is what was actually commanded: shimu b'koli - obey My voice, and I will be your God and you will be My people, and walk in all the way I command you, that it may go well with you. Metzudat David ties it directly to the Sinai covenant, ve'atah im shamoa tishme'u b'koli, and draws the conclusion of the previous verse: this is the essence, and the bringing of offerings is one mitzvah among many, worth nothing in the absence of obedience. He also reads v'hayiti lachem lElohim as a promise of good bestowed directly, without intermediary, and lema'an yitav lachem as the reminder that God derives no benefit from this - the entire arrangement is for their sake.

פסוק כ״ד · Verse 24

Hebrew:

וְלֹ֤א שָֽׁמְעוּ֙ וְלֹא־הִטּ֣וּ אֶת־אׇזְנָ֔ם וַיֵּֽלְכוּ֙ בְּמֹ֣עֵצ֔וֹת בִּשְׁרִר֖וּת לִבָּ֣ם הָרָ֑ע וַיִּהְי֥וּ לְאָח֖וֹר וְלֹ֥א לְפָנִֽים׃

English:

Yet they did not listen or give ear; they followed their own counsels, the willfulness of their evil hearts. They have gone backward, not forward,

The answer to that command, from the beginning, was refusal: they did not listen or incline their ear but walked in their own counsels, in the stubbornness of their evil heart, and went backward and not forward. Rashi connects shrirut to the root of ashurenu, seeing, so that the phrase means walking by what their own heart sees; Metzudat David reads vayihyu l'achor as steady moral decline, diminishing every day in the service of God rather than increasing. Radak takes the backward motion as the punishment itself, a curse rather than a blessing resting on the work of their hands.
▶Commentaries (1)
רש״יRashi
בשרירות לבם. במראה לבם ל' אשורנו (במדבר כד):
in the view Heb. בשררות, in the view of their heart, an expression related to (Num. 24:17) "I see him אשורנו."

פסוק כ״ה · Verse 25

Hebrew:

לְמִן־הַיּ֗וֹם אֲשֶׁ֨ר יָצְא֤וּ אֲבֽוֹתֵיכֶם֙ מֵאֶ֣רֶץ מִצְרַ֔יִם עַ֖ד הַיּ֣וֹם הַזֶּ֑ה וָאֶשְׁלַ֤ח אֲלֵיכֶם֙ אֶת־כׇּל־עֲבָדַ֣י הַנְּבִיאִ֔ים י֖וֹם הַשְׁכֵּ֥ם וְשָׁלֹֽחַ׃

English:

from the day your ancestors left the land of Egypt until today. And though I kept sending all My servants, the prophets, to them daily and persistently,

Against that backsliding stands the divine persistence, in the chapter's most poignant idiom: from the day your fathers left Egypt until this day I sent you all My servants the prophets, yom hashkem v'shaloach, daily, rising early and sending. Radak explains the image with homely realism - a warning is most effective in the morning, before a man goes out to his work, and so God dispatched the prophets at daybreak. Rashi and Metzudat David give the same reading of the phrase, day after day, rising early and sending. The whole prophetic tradition is compressed here into a picture of God getting up before dawn, for centuries, to try again.
▶Commentaries (1)
רש״יRashi
יום השכם ושלוח. מידי יום ביום השכם ושלוח:
sending them day [after day] every fresh morn Every day sending them early.

פסוק כ״ו · Verse 26

Hebrew:

וְל֤וֹא שָֽׁמְעוּ֙ אֵלַ֔י וְלֹ֥א הִטּ֖וּ אֶת־אׇזְנָ֑ם וַיַּקְשׁוּ֙ אֶת־עׇרְפָּ֔ם הֵרֵ֖עוּ מֵאֲבוֹתָֽם׃

English:

they would not listen to Me or give ear. They stiffened their necks, they acted worse than their ancestors.

And the answer was always the same: they did not listen or incline their ear, they stiffened their necks, they did worse than their fathers. Metzudat David explains the metaphor of the stiff neck as an inability to turn the face toward God, drawn from the image of a man who refuses to turn toward his fellow to hear him speak. Radak illustrates the deterioration concretely with Menasheh and Amon, the later generations multiplying guilt beyond the earlier ones.

פסוק כ״ז · Verse 27

Hebrew:

וְדִבַּרְתָּ֤ אֲלֵיהֶם֙ אֶת־כׇּל־הַדְּבָרִ֣ים הָאֵ֔לֶּה וְלֹ֥א יִשְׁמְע֖וּ אֵלֶ֑יךָ וְקָרָ֥אתָ אֲלֵיהֶ֖ם וְלֹ֥א יַעֲנֽוּכָה׃

English:

You shall say all these things to them, but they will not listen to you; you shall call to them, but they will not respond to you.

God tells Yirmiyahu in advance that this very sermon will fail: you shall speak all these words to them and they will not listen, you shall call to them and they will not answer. Radak's gloss is the one to carry away - I know they will not listen and will not even answer you when you call, af al pi chen hazhirem, nevertheless warn them. Metzudat David reads the same, that God is telling the prophet what he already knows will happen. The obligation of the prophet does not depend on any prospect of success.

פסוק כ״ח · Verse 28

Hebrew:

וְאָמַרְתָּ֣ אֲלֵיהֶ֗ם זֶ֤ה הַגּוֹי֙ אֲשֶׁ֣ר לֽוֹא־שָׁמְע֗וּ בְּקוֹל֙ יְהֹוָ֣ה אֱלֹהָ֔יו וְלֹ֥א לָקְח֖וּ מוּסָ֑ר אָֽבְדָה֙ הָאֱמוּנָ֔ה וְנִכְרְתָ֖ה מִפִּיהֶֽם׃ {ס}         

English:

Then say to them: This is the nation that would not obey the ETERNAL their God, that would not accept rebuke. Faithfulness has perished, vanished from their mouths.

The verdict on the generation, in four words that could summarize the entire book: avdah ha'emunah v'nichretah mipihem, faithfulness has perished and been cut off from their mouth. Metzudat David reads it as the loss of emunat haEl from their hearts and even from their speech, so that they no longer mention it at all. Radak gives the harshest available reading: most people at least speak the truth with their mouths while their hearts are otherwise, in order to appear good, but these have lost it even from the mouth.

פסוק כ״ט · Verse 29

Hebrew:

גׇּזִּ֤י נִזְרֵךְ֙ וְֽהַשְׁלִ֔יכִי וּשְׂאִ֥י עַל־שְׁפָיִ֖ם קִינָ֑ה כִּ֚י מָאַ֣ס יְהֹוָ֔ה וַיִּטֹּ֖שׁ אֶת־דּ֥וֹר עֶבְרָתֽוֹ׃

English:

Shear your locks and cast them away, Take up a lament on the heights, For GOD has spurned and cast off The brood that provoked such wrath.

The chapter turns to lament: shear your crown, cast it away, and take up a dirge on the bare heights, for Hashem has rejected and abandoned the generation of His wrath. Rashi offers both readings of nezer - tear out your hair, as an expression of mourning, comparing the shaving in Iyov, or else the diadem, meaning your great ones, as the Targum has it. Metzudat David explains the shefayim practically, that the lament is raised on high ground so it will be heard from far off; Radak connects gozi nizrech to the long hair of the nazir and to the mourning idiom korchi vagozi al benei ta'anugayich.
▶Commentaries (1)
רש״יRashi
גזי נזרך. תלשי שערך כמו ויגז שלוים (שם ט) ויגז את ראשו (איוב א׳:כ׳) ל"א נזרך כתרך ל' גדולה וכן תרגם יונתן רברביך וכן חיברו מנחם: ויטוש. ויעזוב:
So tear off your diadem Heb. גזי נזרך, tear out your hair. Comp. (Num. 11:31) "And He caused quails to fly (ויגז)"; also (Job 1:20), "And he shaved (ויגז) his head." Another explanation is that נזרך means 'your diadem,' an expression of greatness, and so did Jonathan render: רברביך your great ones, and so did Menahem classify it (p. 83). and abandoned Heb. ויטש.

פסוק ל׳ · Verse 30

Hebrew:

כִּי־עָשׂ֨וּ בְנֵי־יְהוּדָ֥ה הָרַ֛ע בְּעֵינַ֖י נְאֻם־יְהֹוָ֑ה שָׂ֣מוּ שִׁקּוּצֵיהֶ֗ם בַּבַּ֛יִת אֲשֶׁר־נִקְרָֽא־שְׁמִ֥י עָלָ֖יו לְטַמְּאֽוֹ׃

English:

For the people of Judah have done what displeases Me—declares GOD. They have set up their abominations in the House that is called by My name, and they have defiled it.

The reason is stated bluntly: the children of Yehudah did evil in My eyes and set their abominations in the House that bears My name, to defile it. Metzudat David explains shikutzeihem as the detested idols placed within the Beit HaMikdash itself in order to render it impure, and Radak identifies the historical actors - Achaz and Menasheh did this, and the people of Yehudah with them. The building whose inviolability they were chanting had been turned by their own kings into a repository of idols.

פסוק ל״א · Verse 31

Hebrew:

וּבָנ֞וּ בָּמ֣וֹת הַתֹּ֗פֶת אֲשֶׁר֙ בְּגֵ֣יא בֶן־הִנֹּ֔ם לִשְׂרֹ֛ף אֶת־בְּנֵיהֶ֥ם וְאֶת־בְּנֹתֵיהֶ֖ם בָּאֵ֑שׁ אֲשֶׁר֙ לֹ֣א צִוִּ֔יתִי וְלֹ֥א עָלְתָ֖ה עַל־לִבִּֽי׃ {פ}

English:

And they have built the shrines of Topheth in the Valley of Ben-hinnom to burn their sons and daughters in fire—which I never commanded, which never came to My mind.

The final abomination is named: they built the high places of the Tofet in the valley of Ben-Hinnom to burn their sons and daughters in fire - which I did not command, and which never came into My heart. Rashi supplies the terrible etymology: the Molech of copper heated from beneath, its hands outstretched and glowing, the child set upon them, while the priests beat drums, tupim, so the father would not hear his son's cry and relent - Tofet from the drum, Hinnom from nehimat haben, the moaning of the child - and Metzudat David records the same explanation. Rashi also extends v'lo altah al libi to the Akedah: when I spoke to Avraham to slaughter his son, it never entered My mind that he should actually slaughter him, only that his righteousness be made known. Radak notes Chazal's reading of the two clauses as referring to Yiftach and to Mesha king of Moav.
▶Commentaries (1)
רש״יRashi
במות התופת. הוא המולך שהיה של נחשת ומסיקין אותו מתחתיו וידיו פשוטות וניסקות ונותנין את הילד על ידיו והוא נכוה ונוהם והכומרים היו מקישין בתופים שלא ישמע האב קול הבן ויכמרו רחמיו, תופת על שם התוף: הנם. על שם נהמת הבן: לא צויתי. במצות שיקריבו בניהם לקרבן ולא דברתי לאחד מן הנביאים וכשדברתי לאברהם לשחוט את בנו לא עלתה על לבי שישחוט אלא להודיע צדקו:
the high places of Topheth That is Molech, which was of copper, and they would heat it up from underneath it with its hands spread out and heated. And they would place the child on his hands, and he would be burnt and moan, and the priests would beat drums so that the father should not hear his son's voice and take pity. It is called Topheth because of the drum (תּוף), Hinnom because of the child's moaning (נהמת). Hinnom Because of the child's moaning. which I did not ordain with commandments that they offer up their children as sacrifices, and I did not speak to any of the prophets, and when I did speak to Abraham to slaughter his son, it did not enter My mind that he slaughter, but only to make his righteousness known.

פסוק ל״ב · Verse 32

Hebrew:

לָכֵ֞ן הִנֵּֽה־יָמִ֤ים בָּאִים֙ נְאֻם־יְהֹוָ֔ה וְלֹא־יֵאָמֵ֨ר ע֤וֹד הַתֹּ֙פֶת֙ וְגֵ֣יא בֶן־הִנֹּ֔ם כִּ֖י אִם־גֵּ֣יא הַהֲרֵגָ֑ה וְקָבְר֥וּ בְתֹ֖פֶת מֵאֵ֥ין מָקֽוֹם׃

English:

Assuredly, a time is coming—declares GOD—when this people shall no longer speak of Topheth or the Valley of Ben-hinnom, but of the Valley of Slaughter; and they shall bury in Topheth until no room is left.

The punishment is a renaming: days are coming when this place will no longer be called the Tofet or the valley of Ben-Hinnom but Gei HaHaregah, the Valley of Slaughter, and they will bury in the Tofet until no room is left. Metzudat David explains that so many will fall slain there that the burials will exhaust the ground itself. Radak adds the grim detail that before this there had been no burial ground there at all - the valley of child sacrifice becomes a mass grave for the very generation that sacrificed there.

פסוק ל״ג · Verse 33

Hebrew:

וְֽהָ֨יְתָ֜ה נִבְלַ֨ת הָעָ֤ם הַזֶּה֙ לְמַֽאֲכָ֔ל לְע֥וֹף הַשָּׁמַ֖יִם וּלְבֶהֱמַ֣ת הָאָ֑רֶץ וְאֵ֖ין מַחֲרִֽיד׃

English:

The carcasses of this people shall be food for the birds of the sky and the beasts of the earth, with none to frighten them off.

The dead who cannot be buried become food for the birds of the sky and the beasts of the earth, with none to frighten them off. Rashi explains v'ein macharid as meaning no one will be left to drive the birds away from the corpses, and Metzudat David reads it the same way. Radak connects the verse directly to what precedes: these are the ones for whom no room remained, or whom the buriers were too exhausted by the sheer number of slain to bury at all.
▶Commentaries (1)
רש״יRashi
ואין מחריד. את העופות מעל הפגרים:
and no one will frighten them i.e., no one will frighten the fowl from the carcasses.

פסוק ל״ד · Verse 34

Hebrew:

וְהִשְׁבַּתִּ֣י ׀ מֵעָרֵ֣י יְהוּדָ֗ה וּמֵֽחֻצוֹת֙ יְר֣וּשָׁלַ֔͏ִם ק֤וֹל שָׂשׂוֹן֙ וְק֣וֹל שִׂמְחָ֔ה ק֥וֹל חָתָ֖ן וְק֣וֹל כַּלָּ֑ה כִּ֥י לְחׇרְבָּ֖ה תִּהְיֶ֥ה הָאָֽרֶץ׃

English:

And I will silence in the towns of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem the sound of mirth and gladness, the voice of bridegroom and bride. For the whole land shall fall to ruin.

The chapter closes in silence: I will cause to cease from the cities of Yehudah and the streets of Yerushalayim the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, for the land shall become a ruin. Metzudat David explains that these sounds will no longer be heard there because no one will remain, and Radak supplies the counterpoint in a single line - in place of the voice of rejoicing there will be the voice of wailing, of weeping and crying out. These same six words were later lifted from this verse of doom into the sheva berachot recited under every chuppah, and Yirmiyahu himself will reverse them in chapter 33.

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