Bible Strands
Jeremiah 7:24
Yet they did not listen or incline their ear, but they followed the stubborn inclinations of their own evil hearts. They went backward and not forward.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Jeremiah delivers God’s message to Judah during a sustained prophetic ministry, contrasting their current rebellion with the covenant obligations given from the Exodus onward.
The words — הִטּוּ (hi.Tu) translates literally as “they inclined,” describing the deliberate refusal to turn toward divine instruction. בְּמֹעֵצוֹת (be./Mo.'e.Tzot) means “in counsels” or “in plans,” indicating they acted on their own internal directives rather than God’s commands.
The thread — This pattern of willful deafness appears in Psalms 81:11, where God states His people would not listen or obey. Jeremiah 7:26 immediately follows with the same structural accusation, noting they stiffened their necks and did more evil.
Why it lands — The text records a factual rejection of divine instruction in favor of self-directed paths. It demands recognition that spiritual regression follows the conscious choice to ignore repeated warnings.
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
But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear, but walked in the counsels and in the imagination of their evil heart, and went backward, and not forward.
Cross-references
- Psalms 81:11 But My people would not listen to Me, and Israel would not obey Me.
- Deuteronomy 29:19 because when such a person hears the words of this oath, he invokes a blessing on himself, saying, ‘I will have peace, even though I walk in the stubbornness of my own heart.’ This will bring disaster on the watered land as well as the dry.
- Jeremiah 7:26 Yet they would not listen to Me or incline their ear, but they stiffened their necks and did more evil than their fathers.
- Jeremiah 8:5 Why then have these people turned away? Why does Jerusalem always turn away? They cling to deceit; they refuse to return.
- Jeremiah 32:33 They have turned their backs to Me and not their faces. Though I taught them again and again, they would not listen or respond to discipline.
- Ezekiel 20:13 Yet the house of Israel rebelled against Me in the wilderness. They did not follow My statutes and they rejected My ordinances—though the man who does these things will live by them—and they utterly profaned My Sabbaths. Then I resolved to pour out My wrath upon them and put an end to them in the wilderness.
- Exodus 32:7 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Go down at once, for your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves.
- Nehemiah 9:29 You admonished them to turn back to Your law, but they were arrogant and disobeyed Your commandments. They sinned against Your ordinances, by which a man will live if he practices them. They turned a stubborn shoulder; they stiffened their necks and would not obey.
- Jeremiah 2:27 say to a tree, ‘You are my father,’ and to a stone, ‘You gave me birth.’ They have turned their backs to Me and not their faces. Yet in the time of trouble, they say, ‘Rise up and save us!’
- Jeremiah 3:17 At that time they will call Jerusalem The Throne of the LORD, and all the nations will be gathered in Jerusalem to honor the name of the LORD. They will no longer follow the stubbornness of their evil hearts.