Jeremiah 7:29 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Jeremiah 7:29
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.
to cut off · verb, qal imperative, 2nd person feminine singular
hair
נִזְרֵךְ֙niz.reKh
H5145
properly · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person feminine singular
away
וְֽהַשְׁלִ֔יכִיve.hash.Li.khi
H7993
to throw out · conjunction + verb, hiphil imperative, 2nd person feminine singular
up
וּשְׂאִ֥יu.se.'I
H5375
to lift · conjunction + verb, qal imperative, 2nd person feminine singular
lamentation
קִינָ֑הki.Nah
H7015
a dirge (as accompanied by beating the breasts or on in… · noun, common feminine singular absolute
places
שְׁפָיִ֖םshe.fa.Yim
H8205
bareness · noun, common masculine plural absolute
LORD
יְהוָ֔הYah.weh
H3068
Jehovah · proper noun, a title
rejected
מָאַ֣סma.'As
H3988
to spurn · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
forsaken
וַיִּטֹּ֖שׁvai.yi.Tosh
H5203
properly · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
generation
דּ֥וֹרDor
H1755
properly · noun, common masculine singular construct
wrath
עֶבְרָתֽוֹev.ra.To
H5678
an outburst of passion · noun, common feminine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
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
Job 1:20 Then Job arose, and rent his mantle, and shaved his head, and fell down upon the ground, and worshipped,
Jeremiah 6:30 Reprobate silver shall men call them, because the LORD hath rejected them.
Micah 1:16 Make thee bald, and poll thee for thy delicate children; enlarge thy baldness as the eagle; for they are gone into captivity from thee.
Jeremiah 16:6 Both the great and the small shall die in this land: they shall not be buried, neither shall men lament for them, nor cut themselves, nor ma…
Deuteronomy 32:5 They have corrupted themselves, their spot is not the spot of his children: they are a perverse and crooked generation.
2 Kings 17:20 And the LORD rejected all the seed of Israel, and afflicted them, and delivered them into the hand of spoilers, until he had cast them out o…
Isaiah 15:2-3 He is gone up to Bajith, and to Dibon, the high places, to weep: Moab shall howl over Nebo, and over Medeba: on all their heads shall be bal…
Jeremiah 9:17-21 Thus saith the LORD of hosts, Consider ye, and call for the mourning women, that they may come; and send for cunning women, that they may co…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Jeremiah 7:29–end
Here is, I. A loud call to weeping and mourning. Jerusalem, that had been a joyous city, the joy of the whole earth, must now take up a lamentation on high places (Jer 7:29), the high places where they had served their idols; there must they now bemoan their misery. In token both of sorrow and slavery, Jerusalem must now cut off her hair and cast it away; the word is peculiar to the hair of the Nazarites, which was the badge and token of their dedication to God, and it is called their crown. Jerusalem had been a city which was a Nazarite to God, but now must cut off her hair, must be profaned, degraded, and separated from God, as she had been separated to him. It is time for those that have…
Jeremiah addresses Jerusalem under the figure of a woman, who, in grief for her lost children, deprives her head of its chief ornament and goes up to the hills to weep (Jdg 11:37-38; Isa 15:2).
hair--flowing locks, like those of a Nazarite.
high places--The scene of her idolatries is to be the scene of her mourning (Jer 3:21).
generation of his wrath--the generation with which He is wroth. So Isa 10:6; "the people of My wrath."
John Gill on Jeremiah 7:29
Cut off thine hair, O Jerusalem, and cast it away,.... This supplement is made, because the word is feminine; and therefore cannot be directed to the prophet, but to Jerusalem, and its inhabitants; shaving the head is a sign of mourning, Job 1:20 and this is enjoined, to show that there would soon be a reason for it; wherefore it follows:
and take up a lamentation on high places: that it might be heard afar off; or because of the idolatry frequently committed in high places. The Targum is,
"pluck off the hair for thy great ones that are carried captive, and take up a lamentation for the princes:''
for the Lord hath rejected and forsaken the generation of his wrath; a generation of men, de…
(Verse 29.) Shave your hair and cast it away, and take up a lamentation upon your lips: for the Lord has cast off and abandoned the generation of his wrath. And when Job heard of the death of his sons and daughters, he tore his garments and shaved his head (Job 1): and among the ancients, it was the custom of mourners to shave their hair. But now, on the contrary, letting one's hair down is a sign of mourning. However, every lamentation and prophetic wailing is undertaken for this reason: because the Lord has cast off and abandoned the generation of his wrath. There is no doubt that it signifies the people of the Jews. And especially this can be referred to the time of Christ, when faith perishes, and the Lord is blasphemed by the people.
But last of all He sent to those unbelievers His own Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, whom the wicked husbandmen cast out of the vineyard when they had slain Him. Wherefore the Lord God did even give it up (no longer hedged around, but thrown open throughout all the world) to other husbandmen, who render the fruits in their seasons—the beautiful elect tower being also raised everywhere. For the illustrious Church is [now] everywhere, and everywhere is the winepress digged: because those who do receive the Spirit are everywhere. For inasmuch as the former have rejected the Son of God, and cast Him out of the vineyard when they slew Him, God has justly rejected them, and given to the Gentiles outside the vineyard the fruits of its cultivation. This is in accordance with what Jeremiah says, "The Lord hath rejected and cast off the nation which does these things; for the children of Judah have done evil in my sight, saith the Lord."
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
Baldness — From natural causes was uncommon (2 Kings 2:23; Isa. 3:24). It was included apparently under “scab” and “scurf,” which disqualified for the priesthood (Lev. 21:20). The Egyptians were rarely subject…
Hair — (1.) The Egyptians let the hair of their head and beard grow only when they were in mourning, shaving it off at other times. “So particular were they on this point that to have neglected it was a…
Condescension Of God · Expostulates with backsliding Israel — Expostulates with backsliding Israel
Hair, The · Cut off in affliction — Cut off in affliction
Impenitence · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
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).
on Jeremiah 7:29
Jeremiah 7:29
29. 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.
29. Tonde comam tuam et projice et attolle super excelsa lamentationem; quid reprobavit (vel, vilipendit; sed verbum reprobandi magis placet hoc loco) Jehova, et reliquit aetatem indignationis suae.
Here again Jeremiah exhorts his own people to lament; and he uses the feminine gender, as though he called the people, the daughter of Sion, or the daughter of Jerusalem. He then, according to a common mode of speaking, calls the whole people a woman. [211]
He first bids her to shave off the hair The word nzr, nesar…
Therefore the Lord has rejected the backsliding people, so that it shall perish shamefully. - Jer 7:29. "Cut off thy diadem (daughter of Zion), and cast it away, and lift up a lamentation on the bald peaked mountains; for the Lord hath rejected and cast out the generation of His wrath. Jer 7:30. For the sons of Judah have done the evil in mine eyes, saith Jahveh, have put their abominations in the house on which my name is named, to pollute it; Jer 7:31. And have built the high places of Tophet, which is in the valley of Benhinnom, to burn their sons and daughters in the fire; which I have not commanded, neither came it into my heart. Jer 7:32. Therefore, behold, the days come, saith Jahveh,…
The Lord instructed Jeremiah to continue to proclaim his messages even though the people of Judah had totally rejected the Lord and would not listen (cp. Ezek 2:7). The appropriate action for Jeremiah to take was to shave his head, mourn, and weep alone on the mountains (cp. Job 1:20).
Rashi on Jeremiah 7:29
So tear off your diadem Heb. גזי נזרך, tear out your hair. Comp. (Num. 11:31) “And He caused quails to fly (ויגז)”; also (Job 1:20), “And he shaved (ויגז) his head.” Another explanation is that נזרך means ‘your diadem,’ an expression of greatness, and so did Jonathan render: רברביך your great ones, and so did Menahem classify it (p. 83).
and abandoned Heb. ויטש.
