They came in and possessed it, but they did not obey Your voice or walk in Your law. They failed to perform all that You commanded them to do, and so You have brought upon them all this disaster.
Parallel translations
- WEB and they came in, and possessed it, but they didn’t obey your voice, neither walked in your law; they have done nothing of all that you commanded them to do: therefore you have caused all this evil to come upon them.
- KJV And they came in, and possessed it; but they obeyed not thy voice, neither walked in thy law; they have done nothing of all that thou commandedst them to do: therefore thou hast caused all this evil to come upon them:
- NKJV And they came in and took possession of it, but they have not obeyed Your voice or walked in Your law. They have done nothing of all that You commanded them to do; therefore You have caused all this calamity to come upon them.
- NASB They came in and took possession of it, but they did not obey Your voice or walk in Your Law; they did not do anything that You commanded them to do; therefore You have made all this disaster happen to them.
- NLT Our ancestors came and conquered it and lived in it, but they refused to obey you or follow your word. They have not done anything you commanded. That is why you have sent this terrible disaster upon them.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Israel took the land but disobeyed God's voice and law, so He brought this disaster upon them. It acknowledges that judgment is the just fruit of covenant unfaithfulness.
Overview
Jeremiah confesses that the people, having received God's good gift, refused to obey, and that the present calamity is the righteous consequence. This honest acknowledgment of sin frames the siege as deserved discipline, not arbitrary cruelty. It exposes humanity's persistent failure to obey, underscoring the need for the new-covenant heart and the obedience of Christ on His people's behalf (Rom. 5:19).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 26
- Ezra 9:7From the days of our fathers to this day, our guilt has been great. Because of our iniquities, we and our kings and priests have been delivered into the hands of the kings of the earth and put to the sword and captivity, to pillage and humiliation, as we are this day.
- Dan 9:10–14and have not obeyed the voice of the LORD our God to walk in His laws, which He set before us through His servants the prophets.
- Ps 78:54–55He brought them to His holy land, to the mountain His right hand had acquired.
- Ps 44:2–3With Your hand You drove out the nations and planted our fathers there; You crushed the peoples and cast them out.
- Lam 1:18The LORD is righteous, for I have rebelled against His command. Listen, all you people; look upon my suffering. My young men and maidens have gone into captivity.
- Ps 105:44–45He gave them the lands of the nations, that they might inherit the fruit of others’ labor,
- Lev 26:14–46If, however, you fail to obey Me and to carry out all these commandments,
- Jer 7:23–24but this is what I commanded them: Obey Me, and I will be your God, and you will be My people. You must walk in all the ways I have commanded you, so that it may go well with you.
- Judg 10:6–18And again the Israelites did evil in the sight of the LORD. They served the Baals, the Ashtoreths, the gods of Aram, Sidon, and Moab, and the gods of the Ammonites and Philistines. Thus they forsook the LORD and did not serve Him.
- Gal 3:10All who rely on works of the law are under a curse. For it is written: “Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law.”
- John 15:14You are My friends if you do what I command you.
- Lam 1:8Jerusalem has sinned greatly; therefore she has become an object of scorn. All who honored her now despise her, for they have seen her nakedness; she herself groans and turns away.
- Jas 2:10Whoever keeps the whole law but stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it.
- Deut 28:15–68If, however, you do not obey the LORD your God by carefully following all His commandments and statutes I am giving you today, all these curses will come upon you and overtake you:
- Ezek 20:21But the children rebelled against Me. They did not walk in My statutes or carefully observe My ordinances—though the man who does these things will live by them—and they profaned My Sabbaths. So I resolved to pour out My wrath upon them and vent My anger against them in the wilderness.
- Neh 9:15In their hunger You gave them bread from heaven; in their thirst You brought them water from the rock. You told them to go in and possess the land which You had sworn to give them.
- Jer 11:7–8For from the time I brought your fathers out of the land of Egypt until today, I strongly warned them again and again, saying, ‘Obey My voice.’
- Judg 2:11–13And the Israelites did evil in the sight of the LORD and served the Baals.
- Ezek 20:8But they rebelled against Me and refused to listen. None of them cast away the abominations before their eyes, and they did not forsake the idols of Egypt. So I resolved to pour out My wrath upon them and vent My anger against them in the land of Egypt.
- Josh 23:16If you transgress the covenant of the LORD your God, which He commanded you, and go and serve other gods and bow down to them, then the anger of the LORD will burn against you, and you will quickly perish from this good land He has given you.”
- Zech 1:2–4“The LORD was very angry with your fathers.
- Neh 9:22–30You gave them kingdoms and peoples and allotted to them every corner of the land. So they took the land of Sihon king of Heshbon and of Og king of Bashan.
- Lam 5:16–17The crown has fallen from our head. Woe to us, for we have sinned!
- Dan 9:4–6And I prayed to the LORD my God and confessed, “O, Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps His covenant of loving devotion to those who love Him and keep His commandments,
- Luke 17:10So you also, when you have done everything commanded of you, should say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.’”
- Ezek 20:18In the wilderness I said to their children: ‘Do not walk in the statutes of your fathers or keep their ordinances or defile yourselves with their idols.
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Christ at the center
Against the failure of false shepherds Jeremiah promises the Righteous Branch, 'The LORD our righteousness,' and the new covenant written on the heart and sealed in the blood of Christ.
How Jeremiah 32:23 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.