Bible Strands
Jeremiah 5:7
“Why should I forgive you? Your children have forsaken Me and sworn by gods that are not gods. I satisfied their needs, yet they committed adultery and assembled at the houses of prostitutes.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — God speaks through Jeremiah to Judah at a moment of declared rebellion, immediately following pronouncements of predatory judgment for their persistent unfaithfulness.
The words — The Hebrew אֶֽסְלַֽח ('es.lo.ach-) means "will I forgive," and עֲזָב֔וּ/נִי ('a.za.Vu./ni) translates literally as "they have forsaken me," structuring the verse around the denial of pardon.
The thread — This trajectory of abandoning covenant loyalty for idols runs through Deuteronomy 32:21, Joshua 23:7, and Galatians 4:8, where swearing by or serving "gods that are not gods" consistently triggers divine jealousy and warning.
Why it lands — The text requires the reader to confront the factual cost of ingratitude and idolatry, demonstrating that sustained rejection of divine provision and covenant loyalty forfeits any claim to mercy.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
How shall I pardon thee for this? thy children have forsaken me, and sworn by them that are no gods: when I had fed them to the full, they then committed adultery, and assembled themselves by troops in the harlots’ houses.
Cross-references
- Joshua 23:7 So you are not to associate with these nations that remain among you. You must not call on the names of their gods or swear by them, and you must not serve them or bow down to them.
- Galatians 4:8 Formerly, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those who by nature are not gods.
- Deuteronomy 32:21 They have provoked My jealousy by that which is not God; they have enraged Me with their worthless idols. So I will make them jealous by those who are not a people; I will make them angry by a nation without understanding.
- Jeremiah 2:11 Has a nation ever changed its gods? (Yet they are not gods at all.) But My people have exchanged their Glory for useless idols.
- Zephaniah 1:5 those who bow on the rooftops to worship the host of heaven, those who bow down and swear by the LORD but also swear by Milcom,
- 1 Corinthians 8:4 So about eating food sacrificed to idols: We know that an idol is nothing at all in the world, and that there is no God but one.
- Deuteronomy 32:15 But Jeshurun grew fat and kicked—becoming fat, bloated, and gorged. He abandoned the God who made him and scorned the Rock of his salvation.
- Jeremiah 23:10 For the land is full of adulterers—because of the curse, the land mourns and the pastures of the wilderness have dried up—their course is evil and their power is misused.
- James 4:4 You adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore, whoever chooses to be a friend of the world renders himself an enemy of God.
- Jeremiah 12:16 And if they will diligently learn the ways of My people and swear by My name, saying, ‘As surely as the LORD lives’—just as they once taught My people to swear by Baal—then they will be established among My people.