Jeremiah 7:24

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.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(24) Imagination.—Better, stubbornness, as in Jeremiah 3:17.

Went backward and not forward.—The whole sacrificial system, even at its best, to say nothing of its idolatrous corruptions, was accordingly, from Jeremiah’s point of view, a retrograde movement. The apostasy of the people in the worship of the golden calf involved a like deflection, necessary and inevitable though it might be as a process of education, from the first ideal polity, based upon the covenant made with Abraham, i.e., upon a pure and spiritual theism, the emblems and ordinances of which, though “shadows of good things to come,” were in themselves “weak and beggarly elements” (Hebrews 10:1; Galatians 4:9).

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

7:21-28 God shows that obedience was required of them. That which God commanded was, Hearken diligently to the voice of the Lord thy God. The promise is very encouraging. Let God's will be your rule, and his favour shall be your happiness. God was displeased with disobedience. We understand the gospel as little as the Jews understood the law, if we think that even the sacrifice of Christ lessens our obligation to obey.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Imagination - Better, as in the margin.

And went backward - literally, as in the margin; i. e., they turned their back upon Me to follow their own devices.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

24. hearkened not—They did not give even a partial hearing to Me (Ps 81:11, 12).

imagination—rather, as Margin, "the stubbornness."

backward, &c.—(Jer 2:27; 32:33; Ho 4:16).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Nor inclined their ear: it notes something of a higher degree of non-attention than bare not hearkening, viz. their not listening that they might obey what they hear, Jeremiah 7:26 11:8, noting not only their slightness, but their stiffness.

The imagination, or stubbornness. See Jeremiah 3:17.

Went backward, and not forward, like restive beasts; see Jeremiah 2:27; a sign of their contempt; implying either,

1. They were worse by their admonitions and corrections, and so nothing did thrive with them. Or,

2. From the very first they have gone further and further from me, as Jeremiah 7:25,26.

3. Or else depending upon their outward services, they set not my commands before their eyes, but cast my true worship behind their backs, Matthew 23:23.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear,.... Neither to the law that was given them, nor to the promises that were made unto them, this was the case of the Jewish fathers, and also of their posterity, to whom belonged the law, and the promises, and the service of God:

but walked in the counsels and in the imagination of their evil heart; what their evil heart imagined, advised and directed to, that they attended to, walked in, and pursued after. The heart of man is evil; it is desperately wicked, even wickedness itself; and so is every thought and every imagination of the thoughts of it and all its counsels, machinations and contrivances; and therefore the consequence of walking in these, or steering the course of life according to them, must be bad:

and went backward, and not forward; they went backwards from the ways of God, and walked not in them. The Targum is,

"they turned the back in my worship, and did not put my fear before their face;''

or else this may design, not their sin, but their punishment, as Kimchi interprets it; they did not prosper, but suffered adversity; a curse, and not a blessing, attended the works of their hands.

Geneva Study Bible

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.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

24. in their own counsels] lit. in counsels. The words are best omitted (with LXX).

stubbornness] Cp. Jeremiah 3:17.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 24. - Imagination; rather, stubbornness (see on Jeremiah 3:17). Went backward, and not forward; rather, turned their back, and not their face (literally, became backwards, and not forwards). Jeremiah 7:24

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

But they have not regarded that which was foremost and most cardinal in the law. They hearkened not, sc. to my voice; and instead of walking in the ways commanded, they walked in the counsels of the stubbornness of their evil heart. בּמעצות is stat. absol., and בּשׁררוּת is co-ordinated with it in apposition, instead of being subordinated; cf. Ew. 289, c. The lxx have not seen their way to admit such a co-ordination, and so have omitted the second term; and in this, Movers, Hitz., and Graf have followed them, deleting the word as a mere gloss. As to "the stubbornness of their evil heart," see on Jeremiah 3:17. יהיוּ לאחור, they were backwards, not forwards, i.e., they so walked as to turn to me the back and not the face. היה with ל expresses the direction or aim of a thing. The subject to these clauses is the Israelites from the time of Moses down to that of Jeremiah. This is shown by the continuation of the same idea in Jeremiah 7:25 and Jeremiah 7:26. From the time the fathers were led out of Egypt till the present time, God has with anxious care been sending prophets to exhort and warn them; but they have not hearkened, they have made their neck hard, i.e., were stiffnecked, and did worse than their fathers, i.e., each succeeding generation did more wickedly than that which preceded it. On למן היּום, (the period) from the day...until...cf. the remarks on Haggai 2:18. The ל gives to the mention of the time the value of an independent clause, to which that which is said regarding that time is joined by ו consec. יום is adverbial accusative: by the day, i.e., daily, in early morn, i.e., with watchful care sending (on this expression, see at Jeremiah 7:13). יום acquires this sense, not in virtue of its standing for יום יום, but by reason of its connection with the two infinitives absoll.