Bible Strands
Jeremiah 7:34
I will remove from the cities of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem the sounds of joy and gladness and the voices of the bride and bridegroom, for the land will become a wasteland.”
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — God speaks this declaration through Jeremiah to the people of Judah and Jerusalem immediately after describing their unburied corpses becoming food for scavengers.
The words — The Hebrew verb וְהִשְׁבַּתִּי (ve./hish.ba.Ti) literally means “and I will cause to cease” and directly governs four distinct items: the sound of joy, gladness, the bridegroom, and the bride.
The thread — This motif of silenced celebration appears in Ezekiel 26:13, where God promises to mute songs and lyres, and in Hosea 2:11, where He ends feasts and appointed gatherings. It resurfaces in Revelation 18:23, which declares that the voices of a bride and bridegroom will never again be heard in a judged city.
Why it lands — The text demands recognition that divine judgment removes all markers of communal life and future hope, leaving only desolation. It requires the reader to accept that the cessation of joy is a direct consequence of the land becoming a wasteland.
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
Then will I cause to cease from the cities of Judah, and from the streets of Jerusalem, the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride: for the land shall be desolate.
Cross-references
- Ezekiel 26:13 So I will silence the sound of your songs, and the music of your lyres will no longer be heard.
- Hosea 2:11 I will put an end to all her exultation: her feasts, New Moons, and Sabbaths—all her appointed feasts.
- Revelation 18:23 The light of a lamp will never shine in you again, and the voices of a bride and bridegroom will never call out in you again. For your merchants were the great ones of the earth, because all the nations were deceived by your sorcery.”
- Jeremiah 25:10 Moreover, I will banish from them the sounds of joy and gladness, the voices of the bride and bridegroom, the sound of the millstones, and the light of the lamp.
- Leviticus 26:33 But I will scatter you among the nations and will draw out a sword after you as your land becomes desolate and your cities are laid waste.
- Isaiah 1:7 Your land is desolate; your cities are burned with fire. Foreigners devour your fields before you—a desolation demolished by strangers.
- Isaiah 24:7 The new wine dries up, the vine withers. All the merrymakers now groan.
- Isaiah 3:26 And the gates of Zion will lament and mourn; destitute, she will sit on the ground.
- Jeremiah 4:27 For this is what the LORD says: “The whole land will be desolate, but I will not finish its destruction.
- Jeremiah 16:9 For this is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: I am going to remove from this place, before your very eyes and in your days, the sounds of joy and gladness, the voices of the bride and bridegroom.