And the LORD saith, Because they have forsaken my law which I set before them, and have not obeyed my voice, neither walked therein;
Parallel translations
- WEB Yahweh says, “Because they have forsaken my law which I set before them, and have not obeyed my voice, neither walked therein,
- BSB And the LORD answered, “It is because they have forsaken My law, which I set before them; they have not walked in it or obeyed My voice.
- NKJV And the Lord said, “Because they have forsaken My law which I set before them, and have not obeyed My voice, nor walked according to it,
- NASB The Lord said, “Because they have abandoned My Law which I put before them, and have not obeyed My voice nor walked according to it,
- NLT The Lord replies, “This has happened because my people have abandoned my instructions; they have refused to obey what I said.
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 gives the answer: the land suffers because the people forsook His law and disobeyed His voice. Their abandonment of God's word brought the ruin.
Overview
Yahweh explains that the calamity flows directly from the people's rejection of the law He set before them and their refusal to walk in it. The cause is moral and covenantal, not arbitrary. The verse establishes that obedience to God's word is the path of life and its abandonment the road to ruin, a truth the gospel honors by writing God's law on renewed hearts.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 8
- 2 Chr 7:19But if ye turn away, and forsake my statutes and my commandments, which I have set before you, and shall go and serve other gods, and worship them;
- Jer 22:9Then they shall answer, Because they have forsaken the covenant of the LORD their God, and worshipped other gods, and served them.
- Ezra 9:10And now, O our God, what shall we say after this? for we have forsaken thy commandments,
- Ps 89:30–32If his children forsake my law, and walk not in my judgments;
- Ps 119:53Horror hath taken hold upon me because of the wicked that forsake thy law.
- Deut 31:16–17And the LORD said unto Moses, Behold, thou shalt sleep with thy fathers; and this people will rise up, and go a whoring after the gods of the strangers of the land, whither they go to be among them, and will forsake me, and break my covenant which I have made with them.
- Zeph 3:1–6Woe to her that is filthy and polluted, to the oppressing city!
- Prov 28:4They that forsake the law praise the wicked: but such as keep the law contend with them.
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
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 9:13 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.