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.’
Parallel translations
- WEB Cut off your hair, and throw it away, and take up a lamentation on the bare heights; for Yahweh has rejected and forsaken the generation of his wrath.
- KJV 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.
- NKJV Cut off your hair and cast it away, and take up a lamentation on the desolate heights; for the Lord has rejected and forsaken the generation of His wrath.’
- NASB ‘Cut off your hair and throw it away, And take up a song of mourning on the bare heights; For the Lord has rejected and forsaken The generation of His wrath.’
- NLT Shave your head in mourning, and weep alone on the mountains. For the Lord has rejected and forsaken this generation that has provoked his fury.’
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
God calls for mourning, cutting off the hair and lamenting, because He has rejected this generation under His wrath. The fitting response to such judgment is heartfelt grief.
Overview
Cutting the hair was a sign of mourning and shame. The 'generation of his wrath' is the people whom God has set under judgment for their persistent sin. The lament both expresses sorrow and serves as a final plea, reminding readers of the seriousness of provoking a holy God.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 18
- Job 1:20Then Job stood up, tore his robe, and shaved his head. He fell to the ground and worshiped,
- Mic 1:16Shave 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.
- Jer 6:30They are called rejected silver, because the LORD has rejected them.”
- Jer 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.
- Jer 47:5The people of Gaza will shave their heads in mourning; Ashkelon will be silenced. O remnant of their valley, how long will you gash yourself?
- Deut 32:5His people have acted corruptly toward Him; the spot on them is not that of His children, but of a perverse and crooked generation.
- Matt 3:7But when John saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his place of baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?
- Ezek 19:1“As for you, take up a lament for the princes of Israel
- Jer 48:37For every head is shaved and every beard is clipped; on every hand is a gash, and around every waist is sackcloth.
- Matt 12:39Jesus replied, “A wicked and adulterous generation demands a sign, but none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.
- 2 Kgs 17:20So 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.
- Ezek 28:12“Son of man, take up a lament for the king of Tyre and tell him that this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘You were the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty.
- Jer 9:17–21This is what the LORD of Hosts says: “Take note, and summon the wailing women; send for the most skillful among them.
- Matt 16:4A wicked and adulterous generation demands a sign, but none will be given it except the sign of Jonah.” Then He left them and went away.
- Acts 2:40With many other words he testified, and he urged them, “Be saved from this corrupt generation.”
- Matt 23:36Truly I tell you, all these things will come upon this generation.
- Zech 11:8–9And in one month I dismissed three shepherds. My soul grew impatient with the flock, and their souls also detested me.
- Isa 15:2–3Dibon 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.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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 7:29 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.