Jeremiah 7:29 (DRB)

Passage

Cut off thy hair, and cast it away: and take up a lamentation on high: for the Lord hath rejected, and forsaken the generation of his wrath,

Nearby Context

Jeremiah 7:27 And thou shalt speak to them all these words, but they will not hearken to thee: and thou shalt call them, but they will not answer thee.

Jeremiah 7:28 And thou shalt say to them: This is a nation which hath not hearkened to the voice of the Lord their God, nor received instruction: faith is lost, and is taken away out of their mouth.

Jeremiah 7:29 Cut off thy hair, and cast it away: and take up a lamentation on high: for the Lord hath rejected, and forsaken the generation of his wrath,

Jeremiah 7:30 Because the children of Juda have done evil in my eyes, saith the Lord. They have set their abominations in the house in which my name is called upon, to pollute it;

Jeremiah 7:31 And they have built the high places of Topheth, which is in the valley of the son of Ennom, to burn their sons, and their daughters in the fire: which I commanded not, nor thought on in my heart.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "hair", "cast", "away", "take", "lamentation", "high", "lord", and "hath". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "hair" and "cast", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 28's "And thou shalt say to them This..." into verse 30's "Because the children of Juda have done...", so "hair" and "cast" belong inside that flow. In Jeremiah context, the local focus is covenant, worship, and faithfulness.

A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "hair" and "cast" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.