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How did Jeremiah connect false worship with social injustice?

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Painting by Rembrandt van Rijn showing Jeremiah sitting in a dimly lit cave, head resting on his hand in sorrow, with Jerusalem burning in the background. — Jeremiah *Jeremiah Lamenting the Destruction of Jerusalem*, oil on panel by Rembrandt, 1630: in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.

Jeremiah connected false worship with social injustice by emphasizing that both stemmed from the same root: a fundamental failure to maintain covenantal loyalty to Yahweh and a corruption of the human heart.1

For Jeremiah, true religion was not merely a matter of external ritual or dependence on the Temple for security; rather, it required ethical conduct and obedience to God’s will. He viewed the people's "stubbornness of the evil heart" as the source of both their apostasy—playing the "harlot" with other gods—and their moral failings, such as selfishness and materialism.123

Because he believed that genuine repentance had a strong ethical coloring, he argued that one could not be right with God while simultaneously practicing social injustice. He explicitly denounced leaders like King Jehoiakim for their lack of justice and righteousness, contrasting their behavior with the conduct expected of those who truly know God. Ultimately, Jeremiah taught that the only remedy for this cycle of corruption was a transformation of the inner spirit, which he envisioned as a New Covenant where God’s law would be written directly upon the hearts of the people.123