Jeremiah 7:18 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Jeremiah 7:18
The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead their dough, to make cakes to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto other gods, that they may provoke me to anger.
a son (as a builder of the family name) · definite article + noun, common masculine plural absolute
gather
מְלַקְּטִ֣יםme.la.ke.Tim
H3950
properly · verb, piel active participle, masculine plural absolute
wood
עֵצִ֗ים'e.Tzim
H6086
a tree (from its firmness) · noun, common masculine plural absolute
fathers
וְהָֽאָבוֹת֙ve.ha.'a.Vot
H1
father · conjunction + definite article + noun, common feminine plural absolute
kindle
מְבַעֲרִ֣יםme.va.'a.Rim
H1197
to kindle · verb, piel active participle, masculine plural absolute
fire
הָאֵ֔שׁha.'Esh
H784
fire (literally or figuratively) · definite article + noun, common both genders singular absolute
women
וְהַנָּשִׁ֖יםve.ha.na.Shim
H802
a woman · conjunction + definite article + noun, common masculine plural absolute
knead
לָשׁ֣וֹתla.Shot
H3888
to knead · verb, qal active participle, feminine plural absolute
dough
בָּצֵ֑קba.Tzek
H1217
dough (as swelling by fermentation) · noun, common masculine singular absolute
make
לַעֲשׂ֨וֹתla.'a.Sot
H6213
to do or make · preposition + verb, qal infinitive construct
cakes
כַּוָּנִ֜יםka.va.Nim
H3561
something prepared · noun, common masculine plural absolute
queen
לִמְלֶ֣כֶתlim.Le.khet
H4446
a queen · preposition + noun, common feminine singular construct
heaven
הַשָּׁמַ֗יִםha.sha.Ma.yim
H8064
the sky (as aloft · definite article + noun, common masculine plural absolute
out
וְהַסֵּ֤ךְve.ha.Sekh
H5258
to pour out · conjunction + verb, hiphil infinitive construct
offerings
נְסָכִים֙ne.sa.Khim
H5262
a libation · noun, common masculine plural absolute
other
אֲחֵרִ֔ים'a.che.Rim
H312
properly · adjective, masculine plural absolute
gods
לֵאלֹהִ֣יםle.lo.Him
H430
gods in the ordinary sense · preposition + noun, common masculine plural absolute
anger
הַכְעִסֵֽנִיhakh.'i.Se.ni
H3707
to trouble · verb, hiphil infinitive construct + pronominal suffix
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Jeremiah 19:13 And the houses of Jerusalem, and the houses of the kings of Judah, shall be defiled as the place of Tophet, because of all the houses upon w…
Jeremiah 44:17-19 But we will certainly do whatsoever thing goeth forth out of our own mouth, to burn incense unto the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink…
1 Kings 14:9 But hast done evil above all that were before thee: for thou hast gone and made thee other gods, and molten images, to provoke me to anger,…
1 Corinthians 10:22 Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? are we stronger than he?
Deuteronomy 4:19 And lest thou lift up thine eyes unto heaven, and when thou seest the sun, and the moon, and the stars, even all the host of heaven, shoulde…
Deuteronomy 32:16 They provoked him to jealousy with strange gods, with abominations provoked they him to anger.
Deuteronomy 32:21 They have moved me to jealousy with that which is not God; they have provoked me to anger with their vanities: and I will move them to jealo…
Deuteronomy 32:37-38 And he shall say, Where are their gods, their rock in whom they trusted,
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Jeremiah 7:16-20
God had shown them, in the foregoing verses, that the temple and the service of it, of which they boasted and in which they trusted, should not avail to prevent the judgment threatened. But there was another thing which might stand them in some stead, and which yet they had no value for, and that was the prophet's intercession for them; his prayers would do them more good than their own pleas: now here that support is taken from them; and their case is said indeed who have lost their interest in the prayers of God's ministers and people.
I. God here forbids the prophet to pray for them (Jer 7:16): "The decree has gone forth, their ruin is resolved on, therefore pray not thou for this people,…
children . . . fathers . . . women--Not merely isolated individuals practised idolatry; young and old, men and women, and whole families, contributed their joint efforts to promote it. Oh, that there were the same zeal for the worship of God as there is for error (Jer 44:17, Jer 44:19; Jer 19:13)!
cakes . . . queen of heaven--Cakes were made of honey, fine flour, &c., in a round flat shape to resemble the disc of the moon, to which they were offered. Others read as Margin, "the frame of heaven," that is, the planets generally; so the Septuagint here; but elsewhere the Septuagint translates, "queen of heaven." The PhÅ“nicians called the moon Ashtoreth or Astarte: the wife of Baal or Moloch,…
The children gather wood,.... In the fields, or out of the neighbouring forest; not little children, but young men, who were able to cut down trees, and bear and carry burdens of wood:
and the fathers kindle the fire; take the wood of their children, lay it in order, and put fire to it; which shows that they approved of what their children did, and that what they did was by their direction and order:
and the women knead their dough; so that every age and sex were employed in idolatrous service, which is here intended; the corruption was universal; and therefore the whole body was ripe for ruin; nor would the Lord be entreated for them: and all this preparation was,
to make cakes for the q…
The Church Fathers
For this is why He at all threatens punishment; that by fear He may destroy contempt; and when the threat alone is sufficient to cause fear in us, He doth not suffer us to undergo the actual trial. See, for instance, what He saith unto Jeremiah, "Seest thou not what they do? Their fathers light a fire, their children gather sticks together, their women knead dough." It is to be feared lest the same kind of thing be said also concerning us. "Seest thou not what they do? No one seeketh the things of Christ, but all their own. Their children run into uncleanness, their fathers into covetousness and rapine, their wives so far from keeping back their husbands from the pomps and vanities of life, do rather sharpen their appetites for them."
"God is jealous" and does not wish the soul that he betrothed to himself in faith to remain defiled by sin, but he wishes it to be purified immediately, wishes it to cast out all its impurities immediately, if it has been, by chance, snatched away by some of them. But if the soul continues in sins and says, "We will not hear the voice of the Lord, but we will do what we wish and will burn incense to the 'queen of heaven,' " a practice condemned by the prophet, it will then be held over for that judgment of Wisdom: "Since I indeed called you and you did not listen but jeered at my words, therefore I will laugh at your ruin, too," or is that judgment that has been placed on those in the Gospel when the Lord says, "Depart from me into the eternal fire that God has prepared for the devil and his angels."
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Bake — The duty of preparing bread was usually, in ancient times, committed to the females or the slaves of the family (Gen. 18:6; Lev. 26:26; 1 Sam. 8:13); but at a later period we find a class of public…
Bread — Among the Jews was generally made of wheat (Ex. 29:2; Judg. 6:19), though also sometimes of other grains (Gen. 14:18; Judg. 7:13). Parched grain was sometimes used for food without any other…
Cake — Cakes made of wheat or barley were offered in the temple. They were salted, but unleavened (Ex. 29:2; Lev. 2:4). In idolatrous worship thin cakes or wafers were offered “to the queen of heaven” (Jer.…
Moon — Heb. yareah, from its paleness (Ezra 6:15), and lebanah, the “white” (Cant. 6:10; Isa. 24:23), was appointed by the Creator to be with the sun “for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years”…
Oven — Heb. tannur, (Hos. 7:4). In towns there appear to have been public ovens. There was a street in Jerusalem (Jer. 37:21) called “bakers’ street” (the only case in which the name of a street in…
Queen of heaven — (Jer. 7:18; 44:17, 25), the moon, worshipped by the Assyrians as the receptive power in nature.
Ashtoreth · i — i
Bread · .Knea — .Knea
Condescension Of God · Expostulates with backsliding Israel — Expostulates with backsliding Israel
Dough · Knea — Knea
Drink Offering · Idolatrous Jews: Offered to the queen of heaven — Idolatrous Jews: Offered to the queen of heaven
Jeremiah 7:17-19
17. Seest thou not what they do in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem?
17. An non rvides tu quid ipsi faciant in urbibus Jehudah et in compitis Jerusalem?
18. The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead their dough, to make cakes to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto other gods, that they may provoke me to anger.
18. Filii colligunt ligna, et patres accendunt ignem, et mulieres ad ponendum ut faciant placentas Reginae coelorum, et fundant (libent) libamina diis alienis, ut me provocent ad iram.
19. Do they provoke me to anger? saith the LORD: do they not provoke themselves to the confusion of the…
This punishment will be turned aside, neither by intercession, because the people re2fuses to give up its idolatry, nor by sacrifice, which God desires not, because for long they have turned to Him the back and not the face, and have not hearkened to His words. - Jer 7:16. "But thou, pray not for this people, and lift not up for them cry and prayer; and urge me not, for I do not hear thee. Jer 7:17. Seest thou not what they do in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem? Jer 7:18. The sons gather sticks, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead dough, to make cakes for the Queen of heaven, and to pour out drink-offerings unto other gods, to provoke me. Jer 7:19. Provo…
Pagan worship had become a family affair; each member of a family provided some part of the ritual. The object of their worship was Ashtoreth, the Queen of Heaven, the mother goddess of the Canaanites with her family of deities (see 44:17-19).
Rashi on Jeremiah 7:18
star-shaped cakes Heb. כַּוָנִים, the shape of a star.
to the queen of heaven The largest star they would call מלכת השמים, an expression of a queen, (מלכּה), and so did Jonathan render it: לכוכבת שמיא, to the female star of heaven.
Impenitence · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Missionaries, All Christians Should Be As · The zeal of idolaters should provoke to — The zeal of idolaters should provoke to
Moon · Worshiped — Worshiped
Moon, The · Worshipped as the queen of heaven — Worshipped as the queen of heaven
Queen · The moon was — The moon was
Woman · Frequently: Zealous in promoting superstition and idolatry — Frequently: Zealous in promoting superstition and idolatry
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
