Why does the Lord tell Jeremiah to not pray or intercede for the people?

This short section (Jeremiah 7:16–20) describes the Lord speaking to Jeremiah. The passage may very well come from a different period of Jeremiah’s ministry than the one in the previous section, but it is integrated into this literary context (Jeremiah 7:1–8:3) that deals with the abuse of worship in Judah.¹ What becomes clear in this section of prose is that even if there was no immediate attempt to undo the reforms Jehoiakim had brought about in temple worship, people saw no problem with worshipping other gods in other places.²

The Lord commands Jeremiah to stop praying for the people of Judah. The command comes as a shock and surprise to the reader. It really does appear as if the Lord is finally turning his back on his people completely. He tells Jeremiah not to pray, for I will not hear you. It literally means, I am not listening to you. The Lord has made up his mind to judge his people and he will not listen to Jeremiah intercede for them.³

The Lord commands Jeremiah not to pray on at least two other occasions (Jeremiah 11:14; Jeremiah 14:11) and Jeremiah does continue to pray for Judah (Jeremiah 18:20; Jeremiah 21:12; Jeremiah 37:3). It would appear therefore that the command not to pray in Jeremiah 7:16 is not a permanent one. The Hebrew negative that is used three times in Jeremiah 7:16 is al and not the emphatic lo which is typically permanent. So, the command not to pray seems to be due to the specific situation that is described in Jeremiah 7:17–18. The prophet is being told not to pray for the people under the current circumstances.⁴ However, the seriousness of the command must not be missed. It seems to suggest that the possibility of repentance was so small that prayer would no longer change anything; the time for judgment has come.⁵ This should not however be taken as a turning point in Jeremiah’s ministry, at which judgment becomes an absolute certainty with no hope of repentance.⁶