Bible Strands
Jeremiah 7:29
Cut off your hair and throw it away. Raise up a lamentation on the barren heights, for the LORD has rejected and forsaken the generation of His wrath.’
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Jeremiah issues this command to the people of Judah immediately after describing a nation that refused to listen to God and lost truth from their lips. The directive occurs at a moment of impending judgment, right before the prophet details how Judah defiled the temple with abominations.
The words — The imperative גָּזִּי (gāzī) commands "cut off," paired with נִזְרֵךְ (nizrēḵ), literally "your hair" or "your crown." The prophet also uses קִינָה (qînâ), meaning "a lamentation," to direct the people to publicly mourn on the barren heights.
The thread — This hair-cutting as public mourning appears in Job 1:20 and Micah 1:16, while the declaration of divine rejection mirrors Jeremiah 6:30’s label of Judah as rejected silver.
Why it lands — The text states that persistent disobedience and temple defilement provoke God’s deliberate abandonment of the current generation. Readers must acknowledge that rejecting correction results in a finalized state of rejection, not a temporary trial.
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
Cut off thine hair, O Jerusalem, and cast it away, and take up a lamentation on high places; for the Lord hath rejected and forsaken the generation of his wrath.
Cross-references
- Job 1:20 Then Job stood up, tore his robe, and shaved his head. He fell to the ground and worshiped,
- Jeremiah 6:30 They are called rejected silver, because the LORD has rejected them.”
- Micah 1:16 Shave yourselves bald and cut off your hair in mourning for your precious children; make yourselves as bald as an eagle, for they will go from you into exile.
- Jeremiah 16:6 “Both great and small will die in this land. They will not be buried or mourned, nor will anyone cut himself or shave his head for them.
- Deuteronomy 32:5 His people have acted corruptly toward Him; the blemish on them is not that of His children, but of a perverse and crooked generation.
- 2 Kings 17:20 So the LORD rejected all the descendants of Israel. He afflicted them and delivered them into the hands of plunderers, until He had banished them from His presence.
- Isaiah 15:2 Dibon goes up to its temple to weep at its high places. Moab wails over Nebo, as well as over Medeba. Every head is shaved, every beard is cut off.
- Jeremiah 9:17 This is what the LORD of Hosts says: “Take note, and summon the wailing women; send for the most skillful among them.
- Jeremiah 47:5 The people of Gaza will shave their heads in mourning; Ashkelon will be silenced. O remnant of their valley, how long will you gash yourself?
- Jeremiah 48:37 For every head is shaved and every beard is clipped; on every hand is a gash, and around every waist is sackcloth.