Jeremiah7chapter 7

Jeremiah 7:1

“The word that came to Jeremiah,.... The Word of prophecy, as the Targum: from the Lord, saying; this begins a new prophecy. This verse, and the beginning of the next, are wanting in the Septuagint version.”

Jeremiah 7:1

“In Jer. 7–10 he addresses the people as they flocked into Jerusalem from the country, to attend the solemn services in the temple upon a fastday. Jehoiakim Jer. 26 had just ascended the throne, and was so incensed at this sermon that he would have put Jeremiah to death but for the influence of Ahikam. With the accession of Jehoiakim all hope of averting the ruin of the country had passed away. He represented the reverse of his father’s policy, and belonged to that faction, who placed their sole hope of deliverance in a close alliance with Pharaoh-Necho.”

Jeremiah 7:2

“Stand in the gate of the Lord’s house - There was a show of public worship kept up. The temple was considered God’s residence; the usual ceremonies of religion restored by Josiah were still observed; and the people were led to consider the temple and its services as sacred things, which would be preservatives to them in case of the threatened invasion.”

Jeremiah 7:2

“The gate - The east gate, which was the publick place of going out and coming in, and where the people were then wont to assemble. Proclaim - Proclaiming signifies both the authority by which he spake, and the divulging of what he spake plainly and boldly; possibly, it might be at some publick time, when all the males were to meet.”

Jeremiah 7:3

“If the people repented, instead of being led into captivity, God would maintain their national existence. It is a promise of the continuance of an old blessing.”

Jeremiah 7:3

“But it is a great instance of the favour of God to them that he gives them liberty to amend, shows them where and how they must amend, and promises to accept them upon their amendment: " I will cause you to dwell quietly and peaceably in this place, and a stop shall be put to that which threatens your expulsion." Reformation is the only way, and a sure way to ruin.”

Jeremiah 7:4

If heaven and earth must pass away, obviously all things that are earthly must also pass away. Therefore the spots that witnessed the crucifixion and the resurrection profit those only who bear their several crosses, who day by day rise again with Christ and who thus show themselves worthy of an abode so holy. Those who say, "the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord," should give ear to the words of the apostle: "you are the temple of the Lord," and the Holy Spirit "dwells in you."

Jeremiah 7:4

“The temple of the Lord - In the Chaldee the passage stands thus: - “Do not trust in the words of lying prophets, which say, Before the temple of the Lord ye shall worship; Before the temple of the Lord ye shall sacrifice; Before the temple of the Lord ye shall adore; thrice in the year ye shall appear before it.” This the Targumist supposes to have been the reason why the words are here thrice repeated.”

Jeremiah 7:4

“Now the object of his sermon was, to exhort them seriously to repent, if they wished God to be reconciled to them. So the Prophet shews, that God did not regard their sacrifices and external rites, and that this was not the way, as they thought, of appeasing him.”

Jeremiah 7:4

“Saying - Because this was God's house, they flattered themselves that he would not suffer the Chaldeans to destroy it, therefore the prophet cautions them not to deceive themselves, trusting to the temple and its buildings, as the two courts and house, and holy of holies implied in the word these, which he doth as it were point to with his finger.”

Jeremiah 7:5

“A summary of the conditions indispensable on man’s part, before he can plead the terms of the covenant in his favor. Jer 7:6 In this place - i. e., in Jerusalem. The prophet refers to innocent blood shed there judicially. Of one such judicial murder Jehoiakim had already been guilty Jer 26:23. Jer 7:7 Why then do not the Jews still possess a land thus eternally given them? Because God never bestows anything unconditionally.”

Jeremiah 7:6

“Oppress not - Here they are cautioned against three sins, that this people were generally addicted to, oppression, blood, and idolatry; and instances in the worst of oppressions, of such as God hath more especially taken into his immediate protection.”

Jeremiah 7:7

“They shall enjoy it by covenant, by virtue of the grant made of it to their fathers, not by providence, but by promise. They shall continue in the enjoyment of it without eviction or molestation; they shall not be disturbed, much less dispossessed, for ever and ever; nothing but sin could throw them out.”

Jeremiah 7:8

“If they knew any thing either of the temple of the Lord or of the Lord of the temple, they must think that to plead that, either in excuse of their sin against God or in arrest of God's judgment against them, was the most ridiculous unreasonable thing that could be. [1.] God is a holy God; but this plea made him the patron of sin, of the worst of sins, which even the light of nature condemns,”

Jeremiah 7:9

“Will ye steal, murder - Will you continue to commit such abominations, and pretend to worship me; and thus defile the place that is called by my name; and so make my house a den of robbers? I have seen this, - and can you expect to escape condign punishment? Ye shall not escape.”

Jeremiah 7:9-10

“Those that think to excuse themselves in unchristian practices with the Christian name, and sin the more boldly and securely because there is a sin-offering provided, do, in effect, make God's house of prayer a den of thieves, as the priests in Christ's time, Matt. xxi.”

Jeremiah 7:10

We are delivered - Jeremiah accuses them of trusting in the ceremonial of the temple instead of leading holy lives. “You break,” he says, “the Ten Commandments, and then you go to the Temple; and when the service is over you say, We are delivered. We have atoned for our past actions, and may start afresh with easy minds upon a new course of wickedness.”

Jeremiah 7:11

"Has not this house, in which my name is invoked, been made a den of thieves before your eyes? I who am, I have seen it, says the Lord." I believe that it was from here that the Gospel took: "It is written, 'My father's house will be called a house of prayer,' but you have made it a den of thieves," or, according to another Gospel, "a house of trade." The church of God is turned into a den of thieves when robbery, murder, adultery, perjury, sacrilege, heretical inventions and other evils are practiced within it.

Jeremiah 7:11

“Robbers - literally, tearers, those who rob with violence. The temple was the place which sheltered them. It had been consecrated to God. Now that it harbors miscreants, must it not as inevitably be destroyed as a den of robbers would be by any righteous ruler?”

Jeremiah 7:12

“But go ye now unto my place which was in Shiloh - See what I did to my tabernacle and ark formerly: after a long residence at Shiloh, for the iniquity of the priests and the people, I suffered it to fall into the hands of the Philistines, and to be carried captive into their land, and to be set up in the house of their idols.”

Jeremiah 7:12

“Shiloh was situated between Beth-el and Shechem in Ephraim. at the first--implying that Shiloh exceeded the Jewish temple in antiquity. But God's favor is not tied down to localities (Ac 7:44). my people Israel--Israel was God's people, yet He spared it not when rebellious: neither will He spare Judah, now that it rebels, though heretofore it has been His people.”

Jeremiah 7:13

“Rising up early and speaking - A proverbial expression for “speaking zealously and earnestly.” It is used only by Jeremiah.”

Jeremiah 7:13

“God spoke, but they heard not, they heeded not, they never minded; he called them, but they answered not; they would not come at his call. Note, What God has spoken to us greatly aggravates what we have done against him. Secondly, Jerusalem shall shortly be as miserable as ever Shiloh was: Therefore I will do unto this house as I did to Shiloh, ruin it, and lay it waste,”

Jeremiah 7:14

“I gave--and I therefore can revoke the gift for it is still Mine (Le 25:23), now that ye fail in the only object for which it was given, the promotion of My glory.”

Jeremiah 7:15

“The whole seed of Ephraim - i. e., the whole of the nine northern tribes. Their casting out was a plain proof that the possession of the symbols of God’s presence does not secure a Church or nation from rejection, if unworthy of its privileges.”

Jeremiah 7:16

“Therefore pray not thou for this people - They have filled up the measure of their iniquity, and they must become examples of my justice. How terrible must the state of that place be, where God refuses to pour out the spirit of supplication on his ministers and people in its behalf!”

Jeremiah 7:16

“That God's prophets are praying men; Jeremiah foretold the destruction of Judah and Jerusalem, and yet prayed for their preservation, not knowing that the decree was absolute; and it is the will of God that we pray for the peace of Jerusalem. Even when we threaten sinners with damnation we must pray for their salvation, that they may turn and live.”

Jeremiah 7:16

“But there was another thing which might stand them in some stead, and which yet they had no value for, and that was the prophet's intercession for them; his prayers would do them more good than their own pleas: now here that support is taken from them; and their case is said indeed who have lost their interest in the prayers of God's ministers and people.”

Jeremiah 7:17

“The proof of the hopeless immorality of the people is this, that they worship pagan deities (1) generally in the cities of Judah, and not in the capital only; and (2) publicly in the streets of Jerusalem. Such public idolatry could have been practiced only in the reign of a king like Jehoiakim.”

Jeremiah 7:17

“This intimates both that the sin was evident and could not be denied and that the sinners were impudent and would not be reclaimed; they committed their wickedness even in the prophet's presence and under his eye; he saw what they did, and yet they did it, which was an affront to his office, and to him whose officer he was, and bade defiance to both.”

Jeremiah 7:18

“The children gather wood - Here is a description of a whole family gathered together, and acting unitedly in idolatrous worship. 1. The children go and collect wood, and bring it to the place of sacrifice. 2. The fathers lay it in order, and kindle a fire. 3. The mother and her maids knead dough, make their batch, and out of it form cakes, and bake them for the honor of the queen of heaven; most probably the moon, though perhaps not exclusive of the sun and planets, generally called the host of heaven.”

Jeremiah 7:18

“The children - Here God shews how busily they are employed from the youngest to the oldest for their idolatry. The queen - As the sun was looked upon as king, so the moon as the queen of heaven.”

Jeremiah 7:21

“The meaning is, Increase your sacrifices as you will. Acid burnt-offering to peace-offerings. All is in vain as long as you neglect the indispensable requirements of obedience and moral purity. Eat flesh is equivalent to sacrifice. The flesh of animals offered in sacrifice was usually eaten by the offerers, and this meal was regarded as a symbol of reconciliation. God and man partook of the same victim, and so were made friends. This passage Jer 7:21-28 is the Haphtarah (lesson) from the prophets, after the Parashah, Lev. 6–8, or Lesson from the Law.”

Jeremiah 7:21

“Put . . . burnt offerings unto . . . sacrifices . . . eat flesh--Add the former (which the law required to be wholly burnt) to the latter (which were burnt only in part), and "eat flesh" even off the holocausts or burnt offerings.”

Jeremiah 7:22

"I will have mercy, and not sacrifice" (1Sa 15:22). Love to God is the supreme end, external observances only means towards that end. "The mere sacrifice was not so much what I commanded, as the sincere submission to My will gives to the sacrifice all its virtue" [MAGEE, Atonement, Note 57].

Jeremiah 7:22-23

“He appeals to the original contract, by which they were first formed into a people, when they were brought out of Egypt. God made them a kingdom of priests to himself, not that he might be regaled with their sacrifices, as the devils, whom the heathen worshipped, which are represented as eating with pleasure the fat of their sacrifices and drinking the wine of their drink-offerings, Deut. xxxii.”

Jeremiah 7:23-26

In a manner most germane to this parable, He said by Jeremiah: "Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be my people; and ye shall walk in all my ways, which I have commanded you." This is the invitation of God. "But," says He, "they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear." This is the refusal of the people. "They departed, and walked every one in the imagination of their evil heart." "I have bought a field-and I have bought some oxen-and I have married a wife."

Jeremiah 7:23

“Obey ... - These words are not found verbatim in the Pentateuch, but are a sum mary of its principles. Sacrifice is never the final cause of the covenant, but always obedience (Exo 19:5-6; Lev 11:45. Compare Exo. 20; Deut. 11, in which the moral object of the Mosaic dispensation is most clearly taught). In connection with Jeremiah’s argument, notice that Amo 5:25 (taken in conjunction with Jos 5:2-7) proves that the ceremonial law was not observed during the 40 years’ wandering in the wilderness.”

Jeremiah 7:24

“When I said, "Hear my voice and I will be your God," "they did not listen or incline their ears" but followed the desires of their own hearts and, contrary to the principle of the apostle, who forgot what was in the past and strived for what lay before him, they did the opposite, pining for the past and despising the future.”

Jeremiah 7:24

“Imagination - Better, as in the margin. And went backward - literally, as in the margin; i. e., they turned their back upon Me to follow their own devices.”

Jeremiah 7:25

“He also reports that they acted offensively against the Lord "from the day on which their ancestors left the land of Egypt until the present time." Hence, the grace of the gospel was necessary to save them, not due to their own merits but to the Lord's mercy.”

Jeremiah 7:26

“This had been their way and manner all along; they were of the same stubborn refractory disposition with those that went before them; it had all along been the genius of the nation, and an evil genius it was, that continually haunted them till it ruined them at last. Their practice and character were still the same. They are worse, and not better, than their fathers.”

Jeremiah 7:27

"Have no doubt," he says, "that they are stiff-necked and that their works are worse than those of their ancestors. Behold, I give them a place of penance. I do not speak that they may repent, but I only predict what is coming. In any event, you will now speak my word to them and they will not listen to you, and you will call them and they will not answer you, for they are so prideful that when you ask them for a hearing, no one will even bother to respond."

Jeremiah 7:27

“Therefore--rather, "Though thou speak . . . yet they will not hearken" [MAURER], (Eze 2:7), a trial to the prophet's faith; though he knew his warnings would be unheeded, still he was to give them in obedience to God.”

Jeremiah 7:28

"And you should then say to them: This is the generation who did not listen to the voice of the Lord their God or accepted his discipline." It is beautiful, as I said before, not that he calls his own people, but that he calls the human race. For, although at the time of the prophets, it was done in part and as a foreshadowing, it was only fulfilled in Christ, when they refused to accept discipline and despised the voice of their Lord.

Jeremiah 7:28

“Nor receiveth correction - They have profited neither by mercies nor by judgments: blessings and corrections have been equally lost upon them.”

Jeremiah 7:29

“Jeremiah summons the people to lament over the miserable consequences of their rejection of God. In the valley of Hinnom, where lately they offered their innocents, they shall themselves fall before the enemy in such multitudes that burial shall be impossible, and the beasts of the field unmolested shall prey upon their remains.”

Jeremiah 7:29

“Cut off thine hair - This was an usual token of sorrow among the Jews. On high places - Upon the high places where thou wentest a whoring from me. The generation - A generation destined to the wrath of God.”

Jeremiah 7:31

“And they have built the high places of Tophet,.... Where was the idol Moloch; and which place had its name, as Jarchi thinks, from the beating of drums, that the parents of the children that were burnt might not hear the cry of them: which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom; a valley near Jerusalem, and lay to the south of it, Jos 15:8, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire: which was done, as Jarchi says, by putting them into the arms of the brasen image Moloch, heated hot.”

Jeremiah 7:31

“Tophet - in the valley of the son of Hinnom - Tophet was the place in that valley where the continual fires were kept up, in and through which they consecrated their children to Moloch.”

Jeremiah 7:31

“Surely it was in a way of righteous judgment, because they had changed the glory of God into the similitude of a beast, that God gave them up to such vile affections that changed them into worse than beasts.”

Jeremiah 7:32

“The valley of slaughter - The place where the slaughtered thousands of this rebellious people shall be cast, in order to their being burnt, or becoming food for the beasts of the field and the fowls of the air, Jer 7:33. These words are repeated, and their meaning more particularly explained, Jer 19:6-15.”

Jeremiah 7:32-33

“Nay, it is a piece of divinity, in expectation of what the dead body shall be at the resurrection. The want of it has sometimes been an instance of the rage of men against God's witnesses, Rev. xi. Here it is threatened as an instance of the wrath of God against his enemies, and is an intimation that evil pursues sinners even after death.”

Jeremiah 7:33

“And the carcasses of this people shall be meat for the fowls of the heaven, and for the beasts of the earth,.... That is, those which remain unburied, for which there will be found no place to bury them in; all places, particularly Tophet, being so full of dead bodies; not to have a burial, which is here threatened, was accounted a great judgment: and none shall fray them away; or frighten them away; that is, drive away the fowls and the beasts from the carcasses.”

Jeremiah 7:34

“Then will I cause to cease - the voice of mirth - There shall no longer be in Jerusalem any cause of joy; they shall neither marry nor be given in marriage, for the land shall be totally desolated. Such horrible sins required such a horrible punishment. And they must be horrible, when they move God to destroy the work of his own hands.”