Jeremiah 7:31

The context

Jeremiah 7 is the temple sermon, delivered at the gate of the house of the LORD to people treating the building as a guarantee. The prophet lists their offenses and then points to Topheth, the place of burning in the valley of the son of Hinnom, where children were sacrificed. The verse is God's own verdict on that practice.

What it establishes

The claim is stark and specific: the sacrifice of children was not commanded, and the thought of it did not arise with God. It is one of the few places where the text says directly that a practice carried on in the name of religion was never God's will.

What it does not establish

It does not resolve every hard text about divine command. The verse says this practice was not commanded; it does not argue the general case about warfare or other severe statutes, and it should not be stretched into a rule that nothing in Israel's law was ever attributed to God.

Short note, first pass, October 2026. Corrections welcome.

Cited in these answers

• If a father ever killed his own son he would—all things being equal—be rightly judged immoral. But according to Genesis 22, God told Abraham to kill his own son, and was judged righteous for his WILLINGNESS to do so. So God ordains child murder, huh?

Part of Scripture, Opened — the exegetical layer behind every citation on this site. Scripture quotations are from the ESV.