Jeremiah 7:6
If ye oppress not the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and shed not innocent blood in this place, neither walk after other gods to your hurt: If ye oppress not the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and shed not innocent blood in this place, neither walk after other gods to your hurt:
The verse forbids oppressing the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, shedding innocent blood in that place, and walking after other gods. Protection of strangers, orphans, and widows, refusal to shed innocent blood, and rejection of other gods belong to the amendment of conduct required of God's people. Walking after other gods is to the people's own hurt and harm.
These duties are conditions for continuing to dwell in the land given to their ancestors. Amending ways and doings, doing justice between neighbors, and obeying God and His commands is required, and the promise is that if these conditions are met God will let them remain. Judah's continued life in the land depended on just and faithful conduct and on thorough reformation in conduct.
Trust in the temple and its worship, religious observance, and outward religious advantages cannot protect the people or excuse oppression, violence, and idolatry. Worship at the temple cannot replace just and faithful living, and temple worship could not protect them while they continued these wrongs. Security belongs with obedience to God and His commands and with purity of character, and only a reformed heart, changed conduct, and thorough reformation can avert judgment and its consequences.
As part of Jeremiah 7:1-14, the verse warns unfaithful leaders who ignored God's principles, indulged selfishness, and followed the plans and imagination of their own hearts and their own wisdom instead of relying on divine wisdom and power. For men in important positions of trust, the verse lays down God's principles of faithfulness, simplicity, self-denial and self-sacrifice, with reliance on divine wisdom and power and refusal to oppress others. It reproves unfaithfulness in trust and confronts those not walking in the light, demanding humbling of heart before God with repentance, confession, and thorough change, or judgment will follow. Resisting its warnings and persisting in a chosen wrong course brings danger of being given over to one's own perverted thoughts. Cited together with Jeremiah 5:1-5, the verse warns about the perverted ministry of people who have long known the truth, linked to leaders who disregard God's cautions and impose their own judgment and ideas on the people.