Bible Strands
Jeremiah 7:5
For if you really correct your ways and deeds, if you act justly toward one another,
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — God speaks through Jeremiah to Israel, confronting a community that mistakes temple possession for guaranteed security. The prophecy is delivered in a covenantal setting where ritual claims are directly contrasted with required behavioral reform.
The words — תֵּיטִיבוּ (teiTivu) translates literally as “you will make good” or “correct,” applied to דַּרְכֵי (darkei) “your ways” and מַֽעַלְלֵי (ma'allei) “your deeds.” The syntax establishes a strict conditional clause that must be fulfilled before any subsequent promise applies.
The thread — This conditional framework appears in 1 Kings 6:12, where temple building is contingent on keeping statutes and ordinances, and Isaiah 1:19, which ties obedience to receiving the land. Jeremiah 4:1 repeats the pattern by making return to Yahweh dependent on removing detestable idols.
Why it lands — The text requires readers to assess covenant standing through observable ethical conduct rather than religious location or claims. Obedience to justice and the cessation of oppression are presented as non-negotiable prerequisites for divine favor.
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
For if ye throughly amend your ways and your doings; if ye throughly execute judgment between a man and his neighbour;
Cross-references
- 1 Kings 6:12 “As for this temple you are building, if you walk in My statutes, carry out My ordinances, and keep all My commandments by walking in them, I will fulfill through you the promise I made to your father David.
- Isaiah 1:19 If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the best of the land.
- Jeremiah 4:1 “If you will return, O Israel, return to Me,” declares the LORD. “If you will remove your detestable idols from My sight and no longer waver,
- Jeremiah 7:3 Thus says the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel: Correct your ways and deeds, and I will let you live in this place.
- Isaiah 16:3 “Give us counsel; render a decision. Shelter us at noonday with shade as dark as night. Hide the refugees; do not betray the one who flees.
- Jeremiah 22:3 This is what the LORD says: Administer justice and righteousness. Rescue the victim of robbery from the hand of his oppressor. Do no wrong or violence to the foreigner, the fatherless, or the widow. Do not shed innocent blood in this place.
- Ezekiel 18:8 He does not engage in usury or take excess interest, but he withholds his hand from iniquity and executes true justice between men.
- Ezekiel 18:17 He withholds his hand from harming the poor and takes no interest or usury. He keeps My ordinances and follows My statutes. Such a man will not die for his father’s iniquity. He will surely live.
- Judges 21:12 So they found among the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead four hundred young women who had not had relations with a man, and they brought them to the camp at Shiloh in the land of Canaan.
- Judges 5:1 On that day Deborah and Barak son of Abinoam sang this song: