Bible Strands
Jeremiah 7:21
This is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: Add your burnt offerings to your other sacrifices and eat the meat yourselves!
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The LORD of Hosts speaks through Jeremiah to the people of Israel, immediately after pronouncing that His unquenchable fury will consume the land and its inhabitants (Jeremiah 7:20).
The words — The imperative סְפ֥וּ (se.Fu) literally commands the people to "add" their burnt offerings to their other sacrifices, framing the ritual as a meal to be consumed by themselves.
The thread — This pattern of God rejecting ritual disconnected from obedience runs through Hosea 8:13, Jeremiah 6:20, and Isaiah 1:11, where sacrifices are declared unacceptable when offered without covenant faithfulness.
Why it lands — It requires the reader to stop treating worship as a transactional meal and to recognize that God prioritizes obedience over ritual performance.
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
Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel; Put your burnt offerings unto your sacrifices, and eat flesh.
Cross-references
- Hosea 8:13 Though they offer sacrifices as gifts to Me, and though they eat the meat, the LORD does not accept them. Now He will remember their iniquity and punish their sins: They will return to Egypt.
- Jeremiah 6:20 What use to Me is frankincense from Sheba or sweet cane from a distant land? Your burnt offerings are not acceptable; your sacrifices do not please Me.”
- Isaiah 1:11 “What good to Me is your multitude of sacrifices?” says the LORD. “I am full from the burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well-fed cattle; I take no delight in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats.
- Amos 5:21 “I hate, I despise your feasts! I cannot stand the stench of your solemn assemblies.