Charles Ellicott Commentary Jeremiah 7:22

"For I spake not unto your fathers, nor commanded them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt-offerings or sacrifices:" — Jeremiah 7:22 (ASV)

I spake not ... concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices. —“Concerning” is, literally, for, or with a view to the matter of sacrifices. At first, these words seem difficult to reconcile with the numerous rules regarding sacrifices in both Exodus and Leviticus. However, when rightly understood, they are strictly in harmony with the facts. These sacrifices were not the end contemplated. The first promulgation of the Law, the basis of the covenant with Israel, intended a spiritual, ethical religion, whose basis was found in the ten great Words, or commandments, of Exodus 20:0.

The ritual connected with sacrifice was prescribed partly as a concession to the inclination which showed itself, in its evil form, in the worship of the golden calf, and partly as a means of education.

The book of Deuteronomy, representing the higher truth from which Moses started (Exodus 19:5) and upon which he at last fell back, bore witness to the original purport of the Law (Deuteronomy 6:3; Deuteronomy 10:12).

Its rediscovery under Josiah left, here as elsewhere, its impression on the mind of Jeremiah. However, prophets—as in 1 Samuel 15:22; Hosea 6:6; Hosea 8:11–13; Amos 5:21–27; Micah 6:6–8; Psalms 50; Psalms 51—had all along borne similar witness, even while fully recognizing the fact and the importance of a sacrificial ritual.