What Does Jeremiah 7:31 Mean in the King James?
And they have built the high places of Tophet, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire; which I commanded them not, neither came it into my heart.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The fire is built into a high place by human hands, but this burning never rises from God’s heart.
THE MEANING
This verse names the burning of children plainly and refuses to hide it behind religious language. It speaks now: this violence is not commanded by God, and the idea does not rise from God’s heart.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that God desires or commands the destruction of children as a religious offering.
THE ROOT
עָלְתָה עַל־לִבִּי
ʿāletāh ʿal-libbî
GROWS FROM
עלה
to go up, ascend, rise
“came into my heart” in this verse is ʿāletāh ʿal-libbî. The Hebrew idiom is literally “it did not rise upon my heart,” picturing the deed as something that never ascends from God’s inward intention. The same root forms עֹלָה (ʿōlāh, burnt offering), an offering that “goes up”; in a verse about children burned in fire, that echo makes the denial especially sharp.
ALSO GROWS
ʿōlāh: burnt offering; an offering that goes up
עֹלָה
Its shared root gives “rise” a concrete echo in a verse that names burning, while the sentence denies that this act rises from God’s heart.
maʿalah: ascent; an upward step or stairway
מַעֲלָה
It preserves the root’s sense of upward movement and clarifies the verse’s image of a thought rising upon the heart.
THE PATTERN
God rejects the destruction of children even when it is framed as a religious offering.
And thou shalt not let any of thy seed pass through the fire to Molech, neither shalt thou profane the name of thy God: I am the LORD.Thou shalt not do so unto the LORD thy God: for every abomination to the LORD, which he hateth, have they done unto their gods; for even their sons and their daughters they have burnt in the fire to their gods.Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?THE THREAD
They have built also the high places of Baal, to burn their sons with fire for burnt offerings unto Baal, which I commanded not, nor spake it, neither came it into my mind:Jeremiah 19:5 repeats the phrase עָלְתָה עַל־לִבִּי (ʿāletāh ʿal-libbî, “rose upon my heart”), though the KJV renders it “came into my mind.” The repeated wording makes the denial unmistakable: the practice is neither commanded nor something that rises in God’s heart.
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