Jeremiah 7:1-34

With this section the second movement in commissioning the prophet commences. It deals first with the sins of worship. These are first denounced. At the gate of the Temple the prophet rebuked the people for putting their trust in external things, and told them that their true safety lay in amending their ways. He charged them with committing all manner of sin, and yet standing before God in His house, imagining that by this external act they would be delivered and set free to continue in abomination. He bade them take lesson from the history of Shiloh, and from what Jehovah had done with Israel.

So terrible was the condition that the prophet was charged at last not to pray for the people. Their sin was heinous and persistent, therefore all their sacrifices and offerings were refused. For this idolatry of formalism the sentence of judgment was again pronounced. They had defiled the Temple and built Topheth as a place of worship. This Topheth was to become "the valley of Slaughter," and all mirth was to end.