The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying,
KJV
The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying,
Commentary
Commentary
The prophet having in God's name reproved the people for their sins,
and given them warning of the judgments of God that were coming upon
them, in this chapter prosecutes the same intention for their
humiliation and awakening.
I. He shows them the invalidity of the plea they so much relied on,
that they had the temple of God among them and constantly attended the
service of it, and endeavours to take them off from their confidence in
their external privileges and performances, ver. 1-11 .
II. He reminds them of the desolations of Shiloh, and foretels that
such should be the desolations of Jerusalem, ver. 12-16 .
III. He represents to the prophet their abominable idolatries, for
which he was thus incensed against them, ver. 17-20 .
IV. He sets before the people that fundamental maxim of religion that
"to obey is better than sacrifice"
( 1 Sam. xv. 22 ),
and that God would not accept the sacrifices of those that obstinately
persisted in disobedience, ver. 21-28 .
V. He threatens to lay the land utterly waste for their idolatry and
impiety, and to multiply their slain as they had multiplied their sin, ver. 29-34 .
1 The word that came to Jeremiah from the L ORD , saying,
2 Stand in the gate of the L ORD 's house, and proclaim there
this word, and say, Hear the word of the L ORD , all ye of Judah,
that enter in at these gates to worship the L ORD .
3 Thus saith the L ORD of hosts, the God of Israel, Amend your
ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this
place.
4 Trust ye not in lying words, saying, The temple of the L ORD ,
The temple of the L ORD , The temple of the L ORD , are these.
5 For if ye throughly amend your ways and your doings; if ye
throughly execute judgment between a man and his neighbour;
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:
7 Then will I cause you to dwell in this place, in the land
that I gave to your fathers, for ever and ever.
8 Behold, ye trust in lying words, that cannot profit.
9 Will ye steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear
falsely, and burn incense unto Baal, and walk after other gods
whom ye know not;
10 And come and stand before me in this house, which is called
by my name, and say, We are delivered to do all these
abominations?
11 Is this house, which is called by my name, become a den of
robbers in your eyes? Behold, even I have seen it, saith the
L ORD .
12 But go ye now unto my place which was in Shiloh, where I
set my name at the first, and see what I did to it for the
wickedness of my people Israel.
13 And now, because ye have done all these works, saith the
L ORD , and I spake unto you, rising up early and speaking, but ye
heard not; and I called you, but ye answered not;
14 Therefore will I do unto this house, which is called by my
name, wherein ye trust, and unto the place which I gave to you
and to your fathers, as I have done to Shiloh.
15 And I will cast you out of my sight, as I have cast out all
your brethren, even the whole seed of Ephraim.
These verses begin another sermon, which is continued in this and the
two following chapters, much to the same effect with those before, to
reason them to repentance. Observe,
I. The orders given to the prophet to preach this sermon; for he had
not only a general commission, but particular directions and
instructions for every message he delivered. This was a word that came to him from the Lord, v. 1 .
We are not told when this sermon was to be preached; but are told,
1. Where it must be preached-- in the gate of the Lord's house, through which they entered into the outer court, or the court of the
people. It would affront the priests, and expose the prophet to
their rage, to have such a message as this delivered within their
precincts; but the prophet must not fear the face of man, he cannot be
faithful to his God if he do.
2. To whom it must be preached--to the men of Judah, that enter in
at these gates to worship the Lord; probably it was at one of three
feasts, when all the males from all parts of the country were to appear
before the Lord in the courts of his house, and not to appear
empty: then he had many together to preach to, and that was the
most seasonable time to admonish them not to trust to their privileges.
Note,
(1.) Even those that profess religion have need to be preached to as
well as those that are without.
(2.) It is desirable to have opportunity of preaching to many together.
Wisdom chooses to cry in the chief place of concourse, and, as
Jeremiah here, in the opening of the gates, the temple-gates.
(3.) When we are going to worship God we have need to be admonished to worship him in the spirit, and to have no confidence in the
flesh, Phil. iii. 3 .
II. The contents and scope of the sermon itself. It is delivered in the
name of the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, who commands the
world, but covenants with his people. As creatures we are bound to
regard the Lord of hosts, as Christians the God of
Israel; what he said to them he says to us, and it is much the same
with that which John Baptist said to those whom he baptized
( Matt. iii. 8, 9 ), Bring forth fruits meet for repentance; and think not to say within
yourselves, We have Abraham to our father. The prophet here tells
them,
1. What were the true words of God, which they might trust to. In
short, they might depend upon it that if they would repent and reform
their lives, and return to God in a way of duty, he would restore and
confirm their peace, would redress their grievances, and return to them
in a way of mercy
( v. 3 ): Amend your ways and your doings. This implies that there had
been much amiss in their ways and doings, many faults and errors. 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. He explains himself
( v. 5-7 ),
and tells them particularly,
(1.) What the amendment was which he expected from them. They must thoroughly amend; in making good, they must make good
their ways and doings; they must reform with resolution, and it
must be a universal, constant, preserving reformation--not partial, but
entire--not hypocritical, but sincere--not wavering, but constant. They
must make the tree good, and so make the fruit good, must amend their
hearts and thoughts, and so amend their ways and doings. In particular,
[1.] They must be honest and just in all their dealings. Those that had
power in their hands must thoroughly execute judgment between a man
and his neighbour, without partiality, and according as the merits
of the cause appeared. They must not either in judgment or in contract oppress the stranger, the fatherless, or the widow, nor
countenance or protect those that did oppress, nor refuse to do them
justice when they sought for it. They must not shed innocent
blood, and with it defile this place and the land wherein
they dwelt.
[2.] They must keep closely to the worship of the true God only:
" Neither walk after other gods; do not hanker after them, nor
hearken to those that would draw you into communion with idolaters; for
it is, and will be, to your own hurt. Be not only so just to
your God, but so wise for yourselves, as not to throw away your
adorations upon those who are not able to help you, and thereby provoke
him who is able to destroy you." Well, this is all that God insists
upon.
(2.) He tells them what the establishment is which, upon this
amendment, they may expect from him
( v. 7 ):
"Set about such a work of reformation as this with all speed, go
through with it, and abide by it; and I will cause you to dwell in
this place, this temple; it shall continue your place of resort and
refuge, the place of your comfortable meeting with God and one another;
and you shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers for ever
and ever, and it shall never be turned out either from God's house
or from your own." It is promised that they shall still enjoy their
civil and sacred privileges, that they shall have a comfortable
enjoyment of them: I will cause you to dwell here; and those
dwell at ease to whom God gives a settlement. 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. An everlasting inheritance in the heavenly Canaan is hereby
secured to all that live in godliness and honesty. And the vulgar Latin
reads a further privilege here, v. 3, 7 . Habitabo vobiscum--I will dwell with you in this place; and we
should find Canaan itself but an uncomfortable place to dwell in if God
did not dwell with us there.
2. What were the lying words of their own hearts, which they must not
trust to. He cautions them against this self-deceit
( v. 4 ):
" Trust no in lying words. You are told in what way, and upon
what terms, you may be easy safe, and happy; now do not flatter
yourselves with an opinion that you may be so on any other terms, or in
any other way." Yet he charges them with this self-deceit arising from
vanity
( v. 8 ):
" Behold, it is plain that you do trust in lying
words, notwithstanding what is said to you; you trust in words
that cannot profit; you rely upon a plea that will stand you in no
stead." Those that slight the words of truth, which would profit them,
take shelter in words of falsehood, which cannot profit them. Now
these lying words were, " The temple of the Lord, the temple of the
Lord, the temple of the Lord are these. These buildings, the
courts, the holy place, and the holy of holies, are the temple of
the Lord, built by his appointment, to his glory; here he resides,
here he is worshipped, here we meet three times a year to pay our
homage to him as our King in his palace." This they thought was
security enough to them to keep God and his favours from leaving them,
God and his judgments from breaking in upon them. When the prophets
told them how sinful they were, and how miserable they were likely to
be, still they appealed to the temple: "How can we be either so or so,
as long as we have that holy happy place among us?" The prophet repeats
it because they repeated it upon all occasions. It was the cant of the
times; it was in their mouths upon all occasions. If they heard an
awakening sermon, if any startling piece of news was brought to them,
they lulled themselves asleep again with this, "We cannot but do well,
for we have the temple of the Lord among us. " Note, The
privileges of a form of godliness are often the pride and
confidence of those that are strangers and enemies to the power of it.
It is common for those that are furthest from God to boast themselves
most of their being near to the church. They are haughty because of
the holy mountain ( Zeph. iii. 11 ),
as if God's mercy were so tied to them that they might defy his
justice. Now to convince them what a frivolous plea this was, and what
little stead it would stand them in,
(1.) He shows them the gross absurdity of it in itself. 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, v. 9, 10 .
"What," says he, " will you steal, murder, and commit adultery, be guilty of the vilest immoralities, and which the common interest, as
well as the common sense, of mankind witness against? Will you swear
falsely, a crime which all nations (who with the belief of a God
have had a veneration for an oath) have always had a horror of? Will you burn incense to Baal, a dunghill-deity, that sets up as a
rival with the great Jehovah, and, not content with that, will you
walk after other gods too, whom you know not, and by all
these crimes put a daring affront upon God, both as the Lord of
hosts and as the God of Israel? Will you exchange a God of
whose power and goodness you have had such a long experience for gods
of whose ability and willingness to help you you know nothing? And,
when you have thus done the worst you can against God, will you brazen
your faces so far as to come and stand before him in this house
which is called by his name and in which his name is called
upon--stand before him as servants waiting his commands, as supplicants
expecting his favour? Will you act in open rebellion against him, and
yet herd among his subjects, among the best of them? By this, it should
seem, you think that either he does not discover or does not dislike
your wicked practices, to imagine either of which is to put the highest
indignity possible upon him. It is as if you should say, We are
delivered to do all these abominations. " If they had not the front
to say this, totidem verbis--in so many words, yet their actions
spoke it aloud. They could not but own that God, even their own God,
had many a time delivered them, and been a present help to them, when
otherwise they must have perished. He, in delivering them, designed to
reduce them to himself, and by his goodness to lead them to repentance;
but they resolved to persist in their abominations notwithstanding. As
soon as they were delivered (as of old in the days of the Judges) they did evil again in the sight of the Lord, which was in effect to
say, in direct contradiction to the true intent and meaning of the
providences which had affected them, that God had delivered them in
order to put them again into a capacity of rebelling against him, by
sacrificing the more profusely to their idols. Note, Those who continue
in sin because grace has abounded, or that grace may abound, do in
effect their idols. Note, Those who continue in sin because grace has
abounded, or that grace may abound, do in effect make Christ the
minister of sin. Some take it thus: "You present yourselves before God
with your sacrifices and sin-offerings, and then say, We are
delivered, we are discharged from our guilt, now it shall do us no
hurt; when all this is but to blind the world, and stop the mouth of
conscience, that you may, the more easily to yourselves and the more
plausibly before others, do all these abominations. "
[2.] His temple was a holy place; but this plea made it a protection to
the most unholy persons: " Has this house, which is called by my
name and is a standing sign of God's kingdom of sin and
Satan-- has this become a den of robbers in your eyes? Do you
think it was built to be not only a rendezvous of, but a refuge and
shelter to, the vilest of malefactors?" No; though the horns of the
altar were a sanctuary to him that slew a man unawares, yet they were
not so to a wilful murderer, nor to one that did aught presumptuously, Exod. xxi. 14; 1 Kings ii. 29 .
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. 13 .
But could they thus impose upon God? No: Behold, I have seen it,
saith the Lord, have seen the real iniquity through the counterfeit
and dissembled piety. Note, Though men may deceive one another with the
appearances of devotion, yet they cannot deceive God.
(2.) He shows them the insufficiency of this plea adjudged long since
in the case of Shiloh.
[1.] It is certain that Shiloh was ruined, though it had God's
sanctuary in it, when by its wickedness it profaned that sanctuary
( v. 12 ): Go you now to my place which was in Shiloh. It is probable that
the ruins of that once flourishing city were yet remaining; they might,
at least, read the history of it, which ought to affect them as if they
saw the place. There God set his name at the first, there the
tabernacle was set up when Israel first took possession of Canaan
( John xviii. 1 ),
and thither the tribes went up; but those that attended the service of
the tabernacle there corrupted both themselves and others, and from
them arose the wickedness of his people Israel; that fountain
was poisoned, and sent forth malignant streams; and what came of it?
No; God forsook it
( Ps. lxxviii. 60 ),
sent his ark into captivity, cut off the house of Eli that presided
there; and it is very probable that the city was quite destroyed, for
we never read any more of it but as a monument of divine vengeance upon
holy places when they harbour wicked people. Note, God's judgments
upon others, who have really revolted from God while they have kept up
a profession of nearness to him, should be a warning to us not to trust in lying words. It is good to consult precedents, and make
use of them. Remember Lot's wife; remember Shiloh and the seven
churches of Asia; and know that the ark and candlestick are moveable
things, Rev. ii. 5; Matt. xxi. 43 .
[2.] It is as certain that Shiloh's fate will be Jerusalem's doom if a
speedy and sincere repentance prevent it not. First, Jerusalem
was now as sinful as ever Shiloh was; that is proved by the unerring
testimony of God himself against them
( v. 13 ):
" You have done all these works, you cannot deny it:" and they
continued obstinate in their sin; that is proved by the testimony of
God's return and repent, rising up early and speaking, as one in
care, as one in earnest, as one who would lose no time in dealing with
them, nay, who would take the fittest opportunity for speaking to them
early in the morning, when, if ever, they were sober, and had
their thoughts free and clear; but it was all in vain. 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, v. 14 .
Those that tread in the steps of the wickedness of those that went
before them must expect to fall by the like judgments, for all these
things happened to them for ensamples. The temple at Jerusalem,
though ever so strongly built, if wickedness was found in it, would be
as unable to keep its ground and as easily conquered as even the
tabernacle in Shiloh was, when God's day of vengeance had come. "This
house" (says God) "is called by my name, and therefore you may
think that I should protect it; it is the house in which you
trust, and you think that it will protect you; this land is the
place, this city the place, which I gave to you and your
fathers, and therefore you are secure of the continuance of it, and
think that nothing can turn you out of it; but the men of Shiloh thus
flattered themselves and did but deceive themselves." He quotes another
precedent
( v. 15 ),
the ruin of the kingdom of the ten tribes, who were the seed of
Abraham, and had the covenant of circumcision, and possessed the land
which God gave to them and their fathers, and yet the idolatries threw
them out and extirpated them: "And can you think but that the same evil
courses will be as fatal to you?" Doubtless they will be so; for God is
uniform and of a piece with himself in his judicial proceedings. It is
a rule of justice, ut parium par sit ratio--that in similar cases
the same judgment should proceed. "You have corrupted yourselves
as your brethren the seed of Ephraim did, and have become
their brethren in iniquity, and therefore I will cast you out of my
sight, as I have cast them. " The interpretation here given of the
judgment makes it a terrible one indeed; the casting of them out of
their land signified God's casting them out of his sight, as if he
would never look upon them, never look after them, more. Whenever we
are cast, it is well enough, if we be kept in the love of God; but, if
we are thrown out of his favour, our case is miserable though we dwell
in our own land. This threatening, that God would make this house like
Shiloh, we shall meet with again, and find Jeremiah indicted for it, ch. xxvi. 6 .
16 Therefore pray not thou for this people, neither lift up cry
nor prayer for them, neither make intercession to me: for I will
not hear thee.
17 Seest thou not what they do in the cities of Judah and in
the streets of Jerusalem?
18 The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire,
and the women knead their dough, to make cakes to the queen of
heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto other gods, that
they may provoke me to anger.
19 Do they provoke me to anger? saith the L ORD : do they not provoke themselves to the confusion of their own faces?
20 Therefore thus saith the Lord G OD ; Behold, mine anger and my
fury shall be poured out upon this place, upon man, and upon
beast, and upon the trees of the field, and upon the fruit of the
ground; and it shall burn, and shall not be quenched.
God had shown them, in the foregoing verses, that the temple and the
service of it, of which they boasted and in which they trusted, should
not avail to prevent the judgment threatened. 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.
I. God here forbids the prophet to pray for them
( v. 16 ):
"The decree has gone forth, their ruin is resolved on, therefore pray not thou for this people, that is, pray not for the
preventing of this judgment threatened; they have sinned unto
death, and therefore pray not for their life, but for the life of
their souls," 1 John v. 16 .
See here,
1. 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 was hated, and persecuted,
and reproached, by the children of his people, and yet he prayed for
them; for it becomes us to render good for evil.
2. That God's praying prophets have a great interest in heaven, how
little soever they have on earth. When God has determined to destroy
this people, he bespeaks the prophet not to pray for them, because he
would not have his prayers to lie (as prophets' prayers seldom did)
unanswered. God said to Moses, Let me alone, Exod. xxii. 10 .
3. It is an ill omen to a people when God restrains the spirits of his
ministers and people from praying for them, and gives them to see their
case so desperate that they have no heart to speak a good word for
them.
4. Those that will not regard good ministers' preaching cannot expect
any benefit by their praying. If you will not hear us when we speak
from God to you, God will not hear us when we speak to him for you.
II. He gives him a reason for this prohibition. Praying breath is too
precious a thing to be lost and thrown away upon a people hardened in
sin and marked for ruin.
1. They are resolved to persist in their rebellion against God, and
will not be turned back by the prophet's preaching. For this he appeals
to the prophet himself, and his own inspection and observation
( v. 17 ): Seest thou not what they do openly and publicly, without either
shame or fear, in the cities of Judah and in the streets of
Jerusalem? 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. Now observe,
(1.) What the sin is with which they are here charged--it is idolatry, v. 18 .
Their idolatrous respects are paid to the queen of heaven, the
moon, either in an image or in the original, or both. They worshipped
it probably under the name of Ashtaroth, or some other of their
goddesses, being in love with the brightness in which they saw the moon
walk, and thinking themselves indebted to her for her benign influences
or fearing her malignant ones, Job xxxi. 26 .
The worshipping of the moon was much in use among the heathen nations, ch. xliv. 17, 19 .
Some read it the frame or workmanship of heaven. The
whole celestial globe with all its ornaments and powers was the object
of their adoration. They worshipped the host of heaven, Acts vii. 42 .
The homage they should have paid to their Prince they paid to the
statues that beautified the frontispiece of his palace; they worshipped
the creatures instead of him that made them, the servants instead of
him that commands them, and the gifts instead of him that gave them. With the queen of heaven they worshipped other gods, images of things not only in heaven above, but in earth beneath, and
in the waters under the earth; for those that forsake the true God
wander endlessly after false ones. To these deities of their own making
they offer cakes for meat-offerings, and pour out
drink-offerings, as if they had their meat and drink from them and
were obliged to make to them their acknowledgments: and see how busy
they are, and how every hand is employed in the service of these idols,
according as they used to be employed in their domestic services. The children were sent to gather wood; the fathers kindled
the fire to heat the oven, being of the poorer sort that could not
afford to keep servants to do it, yet they would rather do it
themselves than it should be undone; the women kneaded the dough with their own hands, for perhaps, though they had servants to do it,
they took a pride in showing their zeal for their idols by doing it
themselves. Let us be instructed, even by this bad example, in the
service of our God.
[1.] Let us honour him with our substance, as those that have
our subsistence from him, and eat and drink to the glory of him from
whom we have our meat and drink.
[2.] Let us not decline the hardest services, nor disdain to stoop to
the meanest, by which God may be honoured; for none shall kindle a
fire on God's altar for nought. Let us think it an honour to be
employed in any work for God.
[3.] Let us bring up our children in the acts of devotion; let them, as
they are capable, be employed in doing something towards the keeping up
of religious exercises.
(2.) What is the direct tendency of this sin: "It is that they may
provoke me to anger; they cannot design any thing else in it. But
( v. 19 ) do they provoke me to anger? Is it because I am hard to be
pleased, or easily provoked? Or am I to bear the blame of the
resentment? No; it is their own doing; they may thank themselves, and
they alone shall bear it." Is it against God that they provoke him
to wrath? Is he the worse for it? Does it do him any real damage?
No; is it not against themselves, to the confusion of their
own faces? It is malice against God, but it is impotent malice; it
cannot hurt him: nay, it is foolish malice; it will hurt themselves.
They show their spite against God, but they do the spite to themselves.
Canst thou think any other than that a people, thus desperately set
upon their own ruin, should be abandoned?
2. God is resolved to proceed in his judgments against them, and will
not be turned back by the prophet's prayers
( v. 20 ): Thus saith the Lord God, and what he saith he will not unsay,
nor can all the world gainsay it; hear it therefore, and tremble.
" Behold, my anger and my fury shall be poured out upon this
place, as the flood of waters was upon the old world or the shower
of fire and brimstone upon Sodom; since they will anger me, let them
see what will come of it." They shall soon find,
(1.) That there is no escaping this deluge of fire, either by flying
from it or fencing against it; it shall be poured out on this
place, though it be a holy place, the Lord's house. It shall reach
both man and beast, like the plagues of Egypt, and, like some of
them, shall destroy the trees of the field and the fruit of the
ground, which they had designed and prepared for Baal, and
of which they had made cakes to the queen of heaven. (2.) There is no extinguishing it: It shall burn and shall not be
quenched; prayers and tears shall then avail nothing. When his
wrath is kindled but a little, much more when it is kindled to such
a degree, there shall be no quenching it. God's wrath is that fire
unquenchable which eternity itself will not see the period of. Depart, you cursed, into everlasting fire.
21 Thus saith the L ORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Put your
burnt offerings unto your sacrifices, and eat flesh.
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:
23 But this thing commanded I them, saying, Obey my voice, and
I will be your God, and ye shall be my people: and walk ye in all
the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well unto you.
24 But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear, but walked
in the counsels and in the imagination of their evil heart, and
went backward, and not forward.
25 Since the day that your fathers came forth out of the land
of Egypt unto this day I have even sent unto you all my servants
the prophets, daily rising up early and sending them: 26 Yet they hearkened not unto me, nor inclined their ear, but
hardened their neck: they did worse than their fathers.
27 Therefore thou shalt speak all these words unto them; but
they will not hearken to thee: thou shalt also call unto them;
but they will not answer thee.
28 But thou shalt say unto them, This is a nation that
obeyeth not the voice of the L ORD their God, nor receiveth
correction: truth is perished, and is cut off from their mouth.
God, having shown the people that the temple would not protect them
while they polluted it with their wickedness, here shows them that
their sacrifices would not atone for them, nor be accepted, while they
went on in disobedience. See with what contempt he here speaks of their
ceremonial service
( v. 21 ).
" Put your burnt-offerings to your sacrifices; go on in them as
long as you please; add one sort of sacrifice to another; turn your burnt-offerings (which were to be wholly burnt to the honour of
God) into peace-offerings " (which the offerer himself had a
considerable share of), "that you may eat flesh, for that is all
the good you are likely to have from your sacrifices, a good meal's
meat or two; but expect not any other benefit by them while you live at
this loose rate. Keep your sacrifices to yourselves " (so some
understand it); "let them be served up at your own table, for they are
no way acceptable at God's altars." For the opening of this,
I. He shows them that obedience was the only thing he required of them, v. 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. 38 .
No: Will God eat the flesh of bulls? Ps. l. 13 . I spoke not to your fathers concerning burnt-offerings or
sacrifices, not of them at first. The precepts of the moral
law were given before the ceremonial institutions; and those came
afterwards, as trials of their obedience and assistances to their
repentance and faith. The Levitical law begins thus: If any man of
you will bring an offering, he must do so and so
( Lev. i. 2, ii. 1 ),
as if it were intended rather to regulate sacrifice than to require it.
But that which God commanded, which he bound them to by his supreme
authority and which he insisted upon as the condition of the covenant,
was, Obey my voice; see Exod. xv. 26 ,
where this was the statute and the ordinance by which God proved them: Hearken diligently to the voice of the Lord thy God. The
condition of their being God's peculiar people was this
( Exod. xix. 5 ), If you will obey my voice indeed. "Make conscience of the duties
of natural religion, observe positive institutions from a principle of
obedience, and then I will be your God and you shall be my
people, " which is the greatest honour, happiness, and satisfaction,
that any of the children of men are capable of. "Let your conversation
be regular, and in every thing study to comply with the will and word
of God; walk within the bounds that I have set you, and in
all the ways that I have commanded you, and then you may assure
yourselves that it shall be well with you. " The demand here is
very reasonable, that we should be directed by Infinite Wisdom to that
which is fit, that he that made us should command us, and that he
should give us law who gives us our being and all the supports of it;
and the promise is very encouraging: Let God's will be your rule and
his favour shall be your felicity.
II. He shows them that disobedience was the only thing for which he had
a quarrel with them. He would not reprove them for their
sacrifices, for the omission of them; they had been continually
before him ( Ps. l. 8 );
with them they hoped to bribe God, and purchase a license to go on in
sin. That therefore which God had all along laid to their charge was
breaking his commandments in the course of their conversation, while
they observed them, in some instances, in the course of their devotion, v. 24, 25 ,
&c.
1. They set up their own will in competition with the will of God: They hearkened not to God and to his law; they never heeded
that; it was to them as if it had never been given or were of no force;
they inclined not their ear to attend to it, much less their
hearts to comply with it. But they would have their own way, would do
as they chose, and not as they were bidden. Their own counsels were their guide, and not the dictates of divine wisdom; that shall be
lawful and good with them which they think so, though the word of God
says quite contrary. The imagination of their evil heart, the
appetites and passions of it, shall be a law to them, and they will
walk in the way of it, and in the sight of their eyes.
2. If they began well, yet they did not proceed, but soon flew off.
They went backward, when they talked of making a captain, and
returning to Egypt again, and would not go forward under God's conduct.
They promised fair: All that the Lord shall say unto us we well
do; and, if they would but have kept in that good mind, all would
have been well; but, instead of going on in the way of duty, they drew
back into the way of sin, and were worse than ever.
3. When God sent to them by word of mouth to put them in mind of the
written word, which was the business of the prophets, it was all one;
still they were disobedient. God had servants of his among them in
every age, since they came out of Egypt unto this day, some or
other to tell them of their faults and put them in mind of their duty,
whom he rose up early to send (as before, v. 13 ),
as men rise up early to call servants to their work; but they were as
deaf to the prophets as they were to the law
( v. 26 ): Yet they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear. 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.
4. Their practice and character were still the same. They are worse,
and not better, than their fathers. (1.) Jeremiah can himself witness against them that they were
disobedient, or he shall soon find it so
( v. 27 ):
" Thou shalt speak all these words to them, shalt particularly
charge them with disobedience and obstinacy. But even that will not
work upon them: They will not hearken to thee, nor heed thee.
Thou shalt go, and call to them with all the plainness and
earnestness imaginable, but they will not answer thee; they will
either give thee no answer at all or not an obedient answer; they will
not come at thy call."
(2.) He must therefore own that they deserved the character of a
disobedient people, that were ripe for destruction, and must go to them
and tell them so to their faces
( v. 28 ):
" Say unto them, This is a nation that obeys not the voice of the
Lord their God. They are notorious for their obstinacy; they
sacrifice to the Lord as their God, but they will not be ruled by him
as their God; they will not receive either the instruction of his word
or the correction of his rod; they will not be reclaimed or reformed by
either. Truth has perished among them; they cannot receive it;
they will not submit to it nor be governed by it. They will not speak
truth; there is no believing a word they say, for it is cut off from
their mouth, and lying comes in the room of it. They are false both
to God and man."
29 Cut off thine hair, O Jerusalem, and cast it away, and
take up a lamentation on high places; for the L ORD hath rejected
and forsaken the generation of his wrath.
30 For the children of Judah have done evil in my sight, saith
the L ORD : they have set their abominations in the house which is
called by my name, to pollute it.
31 And they have built the high places of Tophet, which is in
the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their
daughters in the fire; which I commanded them not, neither came
it into my heart.
32 Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the L ORD , that it
shall no more be called Tophet, nor the valley of the son of
Hinnom, but the valley of slaughter: for they shall bury in
Tophet, till there be no place.
33 And the carcases of this people shall be meat for the fowls
of the heaven, and for the beasts of the earth; and none shall
fray them away.
34 Then will I cause to cease from the cities of Judah, and
from the streets of Jerusalem, the voice of mirth, and the voice
of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the
bride: for the land shall be desolate.
Here is,
I. A loud call to weeping and mourning. Jerusalem, that had been a
joyous city, the joy of the whole earth, must now take up a
lamentation on high places ( v. 29 ),
the high places where they had served their idols; there must they now
bemoan their misery. In token both of sorrow and slavery, Jerusalem
must now cut off her hair and cast it away; the word is peculiar
to the hair of the Nazarites, which was the badge and token of their
dedication to God, and it is called their crown. Jerusalem had
been a city which was a Nazarite to God, but now must cut off her
hair, must be profaned, degraded, and separated from God, as she
had been separated to him. It is time for those that have lost their
holiness to lay aside their joy.
1. The sin of Jerusalem appears here very heinous, nowhere worse, or
more exceedingly sinful
( v. 30 ):
" The children of Judah " (God's profession people, that came
forth out of the waters of Judah, Isa. xlviii. 1 )
" have done evil in my sight, under my eye, in my presence; they
have affronted me to my face, which very much aggravates the affront:"
or, "They have done that which they know to be evil in my sight, and in the highest degree offensive to me." Idolatry was the sin which
was above all other sins evil in God's sight. Now here are two things
charged upon them in their idolatry, which were very provoking:
(1.) That they were very impudent in it towards God and set him at
defiance: They have set their abominations (their abominable
idols and the altars erected to them) in the house that is called by
my name, in the very courts of the temple, to pollute it (Manasseh did so, 2 Kings xxi. 7, xxiii. 12 ),
as if they thought God would connive at it, or cared not though he was
ever so much displeased with it, or as if they would reconcile heaven
and hell, God and Baal. The heart is the place which God has chosen to put his name there; if sin have the innermost and uppermost
place there, we pollute the temple of the Lord, and therefore he
resents nothing more than setting up idols in the heart, Ezek. xiv. 4 .
(2.) That they were very barbarous in it towards their own children, v. 31 .
They have particularly built the high places of Tophet, where
the image of Moloch was set up, in the valley of the son of
Hinnom, adjoining to Jerusalem; and there they burnt their sons
and their daughters in the fire, burnt them alive, killed them, and
killed them in the most cruel manner imaginable, to honour or appease
those idols that were devils and not gods. This was surely the greatest
instance that ever was of the power of Satan in the children of
disobedience, and of the degeneracy and corruption of the human nature.
One would willingly hope that there were not many instances of such a
barbarous idolatry; but it is amazing that there should be any, that
men could be so perfectly void of natural affection as to do a thing so
inhuman as to burn little innocent children, and their own too, that
they should be so perfectly void of natural religion as to think it
lawful to do this, nay, to think it acceptable. 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. God says of this
that it was what he commanded them not, neither cam it into his
heart, which is not meant of his not commanding them thus to
worship Moloch (this he had expressly forbidden them), but he
had never commanded that his worshippers should be at such an expense,
nor put such a force upon their natural affection, in honouring him; it
never came into his heart to have children offered to him, yet they had
forsaken his service for the service of such gods as, by commanding
this, showed themselves to be indeed enemies to mankind.
2. The destruction of Jerusalem appears here very terrible. That speaks
misery enough in general
( v. 29 ), The Lord hath rejected and forsaken the generation of his wrath. Sin makes those the generation of God's wrath that had ben the
generation of his love. And God will reject and quite forsake those who
have thus made themselves vessels of wrath fitted to
destruction. He will disown them for his. "Verily, I say unto you,
I know you not." And he will give them up to the terrors of their own
guilt, and leave them in those hands.
(1.) Death shall triumph over them, v. 32, 33 .
Sin reigns unto death; for that is the wages of it, the end of those
things. Tophet, the valley adjoining to Jerusalem, shall be
called the valley of slaughter, for there multitudes shall be
slain, when, in their sallies out of the city and their attempts to
escape, they fall into the hands of the besiegers. Or it shall be
called the valley of slaughtered ones, because thither the
corpses of those that are slain shall be brought to be buried, all
other burying places being full; and there they shall bury until
there be no more place to make a grave. This intimates the
multitude of those that shall die by the sword, pestilence, and famine.
Death shall ride on prosperously, with dreadful pomp and power, conquering and to conquer. The slain of the Lord shall be many. This valley of Tophet was a place where the citizens of Jerusalem
walked to take the air; but it shall now be spoiled for that use, for
it shall be so full of graves that there shall be no walking there,
because of the danger of contracting a ceremonial pollution by the
touch of a grave. There it was that they sacrificed some of their
children, and dedicated others to Moloch, and there they should fall as
victims to divine justice. Tophet had formerly been the burying place,
or burning place, of the dead bodies of the besiegers, when the
Assyrian army was routed by an angel; and for this it was ordained
of old, Isa. xxx. 33 .
But they having forgotten this mercy, and made it the place of their
sin, God will now turn it into a burying place for the besieged. In
allusion to this valley, hell is in the New Testament called Gehenna--the valley of Hinnom, for there were buried both the
invading Assyrians and the revolting Jews; so hell is a receptacle
after death both for infidels and hypocrites, the open enemies of God's
church and its treacherous friends; it is the congregation of the
dead; it is prepared for the generation of God's wrath. But
so great shall that slaughter be that even the spacious valley of
Tophet shall not be able to contain the slain; and at length there
shall not be enough left alive to bury the dead, so that the
carcases of the people shall be meat for the birds and beasts of
prey, that shall feed upon them like carrion, and none shall have the
concern or courage to frighten them away, as Rizpah did from the dead
bodies of Saul's sons, 2 Sam. xxviii. 26 , Thy carcase shall be meat to the fowls and beasts, and no man shall
drive them away. Thus do the law and the prophets agree, and the
execution with both. The decent burying of the dead is a piece of
humanity, in remembrance of what the dead body has been--the tabernacle
of a reasonable soul. 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. 9 .
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.
(2.) Joy shall depart from them
( v. 34 ): Then will I cause to cease the voice of mirth. God had called by his prophets, and by less judgments, to weeping and
mourning; but they walked contrary to him, and would hear of
nothing but joy and gladness, Isa. xxii. 12, 13 .
And what came of it? Now God called to lamentation ( v. 29 ),
and he made his call effectual, leaving them neither cause nor heart
for joy and gladness. Those that will not weep shall weep; those that
will not by the grace of God be cured of their vain mirth shall by the
justice of God be deprived of all mirth; for when God judges he will
overcome. It is threatened here that there shall be nothing to
rejoice in. There shall be none of the joy of weddings; no mirth, for
there shall be no marriages. The comforts of life shall be abandoned,
and all care to keep up mankind upon earth cast off; there shall be
none of the voice of the bridegroom and the bride, no
music, no nuptial songs. Nor shall there be any more of the joy of the
harvest, for the land shall be desolate, uncultivated and
unimproved. Both the cities of Judah and the streets of
Jerusalem shall look thus melancholy; and when they thus look about
them, and see no cause to rejoice, no marvel if they retire into
themselves and find no heart to rejoice. Note, God can soon mar the
mirth of the most jovial, and make it to cease, which is a reason why
we should always rejoice with trembling, be merry and wise.
INTRODUCTION TO JEREMIAH 7
In this chapter the Lord, by the prophet, calls the people of the Jews to repentance and reformation; reproves them for their vain confidence; and threatens them with destruction for their many sins, and particularly idolatry. The preface to all this is in Jer 7:1, the exhortation to amendment, encouraged to by a promise that they should dwell in the land, is in Jer 7:3, but this was not to be expected on account of the temple, and temple service; but through a thorough reformation of manners; an exercise of justice, and avoiding all oppression and idolatry, Jer 7:4, their vain confidence in the temple is exposed; they fancying that their standing there, and doing the service of it, would atone for their theft, murder, adultery, perjury, and idolatry; and that they might commit these with impunity; wherefore they are let to know, that so doing these they made the temple a house of thieves; and that for such wickedness, what the Lord had done to his place in Shiloh, which they are reminded of, he would to the temple, and to them, reject and cast them off, Jer 6:8, and seeing they also had a dependence on the prophet's prayer, he is bid not to pray for them, for his prayers would not he heard; and he is directed to observe their wretched idolatry, of which an instance is given, whereby they provoked the Lord to anger; and therefore he was determined to pour out his fury on man and beast, and on the trees and fruit of the field, Jer 7:16 and whereas they trusted in their burnt offerings and sacrifices, these are rejected, as being what were not originally commanded; but obedience to the moral law, and the precepts of it, which they refused to hearken to, though they were oft called upon to it by his servants the prophets, Jer 7:21, and it is foretold that the Prophet Jeremy would meet with the same treatment; that they would not hearken to his words, nor answer to his call; and therefore he should declare them a disobedient, incorrigible, and an unfaithful people, Jer 7:27 hence, either he, or Jerusalem, is called upon to cut off the hair, as a sign of mourning; for their rejection of the Lord, occasioned by their sins, and especially their idolatry, of which instances are given, Jer 7:29 and it is threatened that the place of their idolatry should be a place of slaughter and of burial, till there should be no room for more; and the carcasses of the rest should be the food of fowls and beasts; and all joy should cease from Judah and Jerusalem, Jer 7:32.
Ver. 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 7:2
Ver. 2. Stand in the gate of the Lord's house,.... That is, of the temple, and the court of it. This gate, as Kimchi says, was the eastern gate, which was the principal gate of all; see Jer 26:2:
and proclaim there this word, and say; with a loud voice, as follows:
hear ye the word of the Lord, all ye of Judah; the inhabitants of the several parts of Judea, which came to the temple to worship; very probably it was a feast day, as Calvin conjectures; either the passover, or pentecost, or feast of tabernacles, when all the males in Israel appeared in court:
that enter in at these gates to worship the Lord; there were seven gates belonging to the court, three on the north, three on the south, and one in the east, the chief of all, as Kimchi, Abarbinel, and Ben Melech observe; and this agrees with the account in the Misna {k}. The names of them were these; on the south side were these three, the watergate, the gate of the firstlings; or the gate of offering, and the gate of kindling; on the north were these three, the gate Nitzotz, called also the gate of the song, the gate Korban, sometimes called the gate of women, and Beth Moked; and the gate in the east was the gate Nicanor, and this gate was the most frequented; and therefore Jeremiah was ordered to stand here, and deliver his message.
{k} Middot, c. 1. sect. 4, 5.
Jeremiah 7:3
Ver. 3. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel,.... The Lord of armies above and below in general, and the God of Israel in particular; wherefore they ought to hearken to what he was about to say, and to be obedient to him:
amend your ways and your doings; or, "make them good" {l}; which shows that they were bad, and were not agreeable to the law and will of God, to which they ought to have been conformed; and the way to amend them was to act according to the rule of the divine word they were favoured with:
and I will cause you to dwell in this place; to continue to dwell in Jerusalem, and in Judea, the land of their nativity, and in the temple, the house of God, and place of religious worship; but, if not, it is suggested that they should not continue here, but be carried captive into a strange land.
{l} Mkykrd wbyjyh "bonas facite vias vestras", V. L. Munster, Pagninus, Montanus; "efficite", &c. Junius & Tremellius, Piscator.
Jeremiah 7:4
Ver. 4. Trust ye not in lying words,.... In the words of the lying prophets, as the Targum; and to the same purpose is the Arabic version,
"do not trust in lying words, for the false prophets do not profit you in anything;''
the things in which they trusted, and in which the false prophets taught them to place their confidence, were their coming up to the temple at certain times for religious exercises, and their attendance on temple service and worship, offering of sacrifices, and the like. The Septuagint version is, "trust not in yourselves, in lying words"; see Lu 18:9, in their external actions of devotion, in their ritual performances, taking them for righteousness; and adds, what is not in the Hebrew text, "for they altogether profit you not"; in the business of justification before God, and acceptance with him:
saying, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, are these; that is, the people that hypocritically worshipped there, as the false prophets told them; and so the Syriac version, "ye are the temple of the Lord"; though that begins the next verse, with the last clause of this,
if ye amend your ways, &c. see 1Co 3:16 or rather the temple of the Lord are those gates through which they entered, Jer 7:2 or those buildings which were pointed at with the finger; or hmh, "these", is a clause by itself; and the sense is, these are the lying words that should not be trusted in, namely, the temple and temple services; when all manner of sin and wickedness were committed by them, which they thought to atone for by coming to the temple and worshipping there. The mention of these words three times is, as Jarchi thinks, in reference to the Jews appearing in the temple three times a year, at the feast of passover, pentecost, and tabernacles; and so the Targum,
"who say (i.e. the false prophets), before the temple of the Lord ye worship; before the temple of the Lord ye sacrifice; before the temple of the Lord ye bow; three times in a year ye appear before him.''
Kimchi's father, R. Joseph, is of opinion, that it refers to the three parts of the temple, the porch, the holy place, and the holy of holies; but Kimchi himself takes it that these words are trebled for the greater confirmation of them; and they may denote the vehemence and ardour of affection for the temple.
Jeremiah 7:5
Ver. 5. For if ye thoroughly amend your ways and your doings,.... Or, "if ye make your ways good, and do your works well", which is what is exhorted to Jer 7:3, and respects the duties of the moral law; which are more acceptable to God than legal sacrifices, when done from right principles, and with right views, from love, in faith, and to the glory of God; which is doing good works well; the particulars of which follow:
if you thoroughly execute judgment between a man and his neighbour; without respect to persons, without favour and affection, without bribery and corruption; passing a righteous sentence, and making an equitable decision of the case between them, according to the law of God, and the rules of justice and equity: this respects judges and civil magistrates.
Jeremiah 7:6
Ver. 6. If ye oppress not the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow,.... Who have none to help them, and who ought to have mercy and compassion shown them, as well as justice done them; and should not be injured by private men in their persons and properties, and much less oppressed in courts of judicature by those who should be the patrons and defenders of them:
and shed not innocent blood in this place: in the temple, where the sanhedrim, or great court of judicature, sat; for this does not so much respect the commission of murder by private persons, as the condemnation of innocent men to death by the judges, which is all one as shedding their blood; and by which actions they defiled that temple they cried up, and put their trust in; to shed innocent blood in any place, Kimchi observes, is an evil; but to shed it in this place, in the temple, was a greater evil, because this was the place of the Shechinah, or where the divine Majesty dwelt:
neither walk after other gods to your hurt; the gods of e people, as the Targum; "for this", as the Arabic version renders it, "is pernicious to you"; idolatry was more hurtful to themselves than to God; and therefore it is dissuaded from by an argument taken from their own interest.
Jeremiah 7:7
Ver. 7. Then will I cause you to dwell in this place,.... In the land of Judea, and not suffer them to be carried captive, which they had been threatened with, and had reason to expect, should they continue in their sins, in their impenitence and vain confidence:
in the land that I gave to your fathers; to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, by promise; and to the Jewish fathers in the times of Joshua, by putting them in actual possession of it:
for ever and ever: for a great while; a long time, as Kimchi explains it; from the days of Abraham for ever, even all the days of the world, provided they and their children walked in the ways of the Lord. This clause may either be connected with the word "dwell", or with the word give; and the sense is, either that they should dwell in it for ever and ever; or it was given to their fathers for ever and ever.
Jeremiah 7:8
Ver. 8. Behold, ye trust in lying words,.... What they are dissuaded from, Jer 7:4, is here affirmed they did, and which is introduced with a note of asseveration, attention, and admiration; it being a certain thing that they did so; and was what was worthy of their consideration and serious reflection upon; and it was astonishing that they should, since so to do was of no advantage to them, but the contrary:
that cannot profit; temple worship and service, legal sacrifices and ceremonies, could not take away sin, and expiate the guilt of it; or justify men, and render them acceptable to God; these, without faith in the blood and sacrifice of Christ, were of no avail; and especially could never be thought to be of any use and profit, when such gross abominations were indulged by them as are next mentioned.
Jeremiah 7:9
Ver. 9. Will ye steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely,.... At the same time they offered sacrifices, and trusted in them, they did those things, which would not be grateful to the Lord, nor profitable to them; or, "ye do steal", &c.; so the Septuagint, and all the Oriental versions; and likewise the Targum; as charging them with them; these are sins against the second table of the law, as what follow are against the first:
and burn incense to Baal, and walk after other gods whom ye know not; for they not only burnt incense to Baal, which was an act of idolatrous worship; but served other strange gods they had not known before; whose names they had never heard of, and of whose help and assistance they now had no experience, nor received any benefit from, as they had on the one and only true God; and therefore it was great folly and ingratitude in them to forsake the Lord, and walk after these.
Jeremiah 7:10
Ver. 10. And come and stand before me in this house,.... In the temple; this they did after they had been guilty of such immoralities and idolatry; thinking by their appearance there, and their performance of a few ceremonies, and offering of some sacrifices, that all were atoned for: or this denotes their impudence, that, after the commission of such notorious crimes, they should have the front to come into the house of God, and stand before him, as if they had never departed from him, and were his people, and the true worshippers of him:
which is called by my name; the temple of God, the house of God, the sanctuary of the Lord; and where his name was also called upon, being a house of prayer; or where prayer was made to the Lord:
and say, we are delivered; from the punishment of the above sins, by coming into the temple, and standing before the Lord in it; by calling on his name, and offering sacrifices, though with impure hearts and hands, and in a hypocritical way
to do all these abominations; before mentioned; theft, murder, adultery, perjury, and idolatry. The sense is, either we are delivered and freed from punishment, that we may do these things with impunity; this is the use we make of, and the inference we draw from, our deliverance from evil: or we are delivered, though we commit these abominations, and therefore in them: or, seeing we are delivered, therefore do we these things; not that they really said these words, but this was the language of their actions. The Syriac version is, "deliver us, while we commit all these sins".
Jeremiah 7:11
Ver. 11. Is this house, which is called by my name,.... Meaning the temple:
become a den of robbers in your eyes? or do you look upon it, and make use of it, as thieves do of dens; who, when they have robbed and murdered men, betake themselves to them, not only to share their spoil, but to hide themselves? just so those thieves, murderers adulterers, perjurers, and idolaters, after they had committed such gross enormities, came into the temple and offered sacrifices; thinking hereby to cover their sins, and expiate the guilt of them, and to be looked upon as good men, and true worshippers of God, when they were no better than thieves and robbers; and such were the Pharisees in Christ's time, and such was the temple as made by them; see Mt 21:13:
behold, even I have seen it, saith the Lord; not only all the abominations committed by them, but the use they made of the temple and the worship of it; all the hypocrisy of their hearts, and the inward thoughts of them, and their views and intentions in their offerings and sacrifices; as well as what ruin and destruction the Lord designed to bring shortly upon them, and upon that house which they had made a den of robbers; as follows:
Jeremiah 7:12
Ver. 12. But go ye now unto my place, which was in ,.... A city in the tribe of Ephraim, on the north of Bethel, and the south of Lebonah, and not far from Shechem, Jud 21:19 here were the tabernacle, the ark and altar of the Lord, and the sacrifices; and therefore the tabernacle is called the tabernacle of Shiloh, Ps 78:60, and here the Lord calls it his place; the place of the house of his Shechinah, as the Targum paraphrases it; and where he would have those people go; which is not to be understood locally, but of their taking this place into the consideration of their minds, and observe what was done to it, and became of it; though it was once the place where the Lord dwelt, and where his name was called formerly; as follows:
where I set my name at the first; when the children of Israel first entered into Canaan's land, the tabernacle was set up and established in Shiloh, in Joshua's time, Jos 18:1 and there it continued to the times of Eli:
and see what I did to it, for the wickedness of my people Israel; he refused and forsook his tabernacle there; he suffered the ark, which was fetched from thence in the times of Eli, to be taken and carried captive, and that because of the sins of his people,
Ps 78:60. Jerom {m} says, in his time, the altar that was pulled down was shown, though scarce the foundations of it were to be seen. Now the Lord would have these people consider what was done to Shiloh; that though this was the first place where the tabernacle was set in the land of Canaan, and so the inhabitants of it had antiquity on their side; yet this did not secure them, nor the tribe it was in, from being rejected by the Lord, when they sinned against him; nor should the tribes of Judah and Benjamin think themselves secure because of the temple of the Lord, since they might expect he would do to them for their sins what he had done to others before.
{m} Comment. in Zeph. ch. 1. fol. 94. L. Epitaph. Paulae, fol. 59. L.
Jeremiah 7:13
Ver. 13. And now, because ye have done all these works, saith the Lord,.... Meaning evil works, such as theft, murder, adultery, perjury, and idolatry, mentioned Jer 7:8 or the same which were done by the people of Israel, on account of which the tabernacle at Shiloh was left:
and I spake unto you, rising up early; that is, by his servants the prophets, whom he sent unto them, and by whom he spoke, as the Targum paraphrases it, and as it is in Jer 7:25, which shows the Lord's great concern for this people, his early care of them, in sending his servants betimes to warn, rebuke, and reclaim them:
and speaking, but ye heard not; would not listen to the words of the prophets, and of the Lord by them; but turned a deaf ear to them, which aggravates their stubbornness, obstinacy, and wickedness, that so much respect should be shown them, so much pains should be taken with them, and that so early, and yet to no purpose:
and I called you, but ye answered not; this call was by the external ministry of the prophets, and was with great vehemence in them, but not with divine energy; however, it was sufficient to leave the Jews without excuse; and their inattention to it exposes their hardness and wilful obstinacy; see Pr 1:24.
Jeremiah 7:14
Ver. 14. Therefore will I do unto this house, which is called by my name,.... The temple, as in Jer 7:11, for though it was called by his name, and his name was called upon in it, yet this could not secure it from desolation; for so the name of the Lord was set in the tabernacle at Shiloh, and yet he forsook it through the wickedness of the people:
wherein ye trust; they trusted in the sacrifices there offered up, and the service there performed; in the holiness of the place, and because it was the residence of the divine Majesty; wherefore they thought this would be a protection and defence of them; and this was trusting in lying words, as in Jer 7:4:
and unto the place which I gave unto you and your fathers; meaning either Jerusalem; and so the Syriac version renders it, "and to the city"; or the whole land of Judea, as in Jer 7:7:
as I have done to Shiloh; See Gill on "Jer 7:12".
Jeremiah 7:15
Ver. 15. And I will cast you out of my sight,.... Or, "from before my face", or "faces" {n}; out of the land of Judea, and cause them to go into captivity; and so the Targum paraphrases it,
"I will cause you to remove out of the land of the house of my majesty:''
as I have cast out all your brethren, even the whole seed of Ephraim; or Israel, as the Targum; that is, the ten tribes so called, because Ephraim, a principal tribe, and the metropolis of the kingdom, was in it, and Jeroboam, the first king of the ten tribes, was of it: now, as they were carried captive into Babylon, so should the Jews; or they of the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin; who could not expect to fare better than their brethren, who were more in number than they; and especially since they were guilty of the same sins.
{n} ynp lem "desuper faciebus meis", Montanus; "a faciebus meis" Schmidt.
Jeremiah 7:16
Ver. 16. Therefore pray not thou for this people,.... These are the words of the Lord to the Prophet Jeremiah, forbidding him to pray for the people of the Jews; which he either was doing, or about to do, and which, from the great affection he had for them, he was inclined unto; wherefore, to show how much the Lord was displeased with them, and how determined he was to punish them with captivity, he orders the prophet not to make any supplication for them:
neither lift up cry nor prayer for them; referring to the gestures of lifting up the eyes and hands in prayer, and also to the frame of the heart, in the exercise of faith and holy confidence: "cry" and "prayer" are put together, because prayer is sometimes made, especially when persons are in great distress, with strong cryings and tears; see Heb 5:7:
neither make intercession to me; or, "meet me" {o}; or come between him and this people, and so act the part of a mediator, of which office intercession is a branch; it properly belongs to Christ. The Jews say {p} there is no heygp, "meeting", but prayer, or that is always intended by it; for proof of which they cite this passage:
for I will not hear thee; on the behalf of them, being so highly provoked by them, and determined they should go into captivity; see
Jer 15:1.
{o} yb egpt law "et ne oecurras mihi", Calvin; "et ne obsistas mihi", V. L. "et ne intervenias apud me", Tigurine version. {p} T. Bab. Beracot, fol. 26. 2. Taanith, fol. 7. 2. & 8. 1. Sota, fol. 14. 1. & Sanhedrin, fol. 95. 2.
Jeremiah 7:17
Ver. 17. Seest thou not what they do in the cities ,.... Not in one city only, but in all of and particularly the chief of them; as follows:
and in the streets of ? these words, with what is said next, show the reason why the prophet was forbid to pray for this people, and the Lord was so provoked with them as to cast them out of his sight; and he appeals to the prophet, and to what he saw, or which he might see; for what was done was done not in secret, but openly, in the very streets of the city; by which he might be sufficiently convinced it was but just with God to do what he determined to do with them.
Jeremiah 7:18
Ver. 18. The children gather wood,.... In the fields, or out of the neighbouring forest; not little children, but young men, who were able to cut down trees, and bear and carry burdens of wood:
and the fathers kindle the fire; take the wood of their children, lay it in order, and put fire to it; which shows that they approved of what their children did, and that what they did was by their direction and order:
and the women knead their dough; so that every age and sex were employed in idolatrous service, which is here intended; the corruption was universal; and therefore the whole body was ripe for ruin; nor would the Lord be entreated for them: and all this preparation was,
to make cakes for the queen of heaven; the moon, as Abarbinel; which rules by night, as the sun is the king that rules by day; and which was much worshipped by the Heathens, whom the Jews imitated. Some render it,
to the work, or workmanship, of heavens; {q} that is, to the whole host of heaven, sun, moon, and stars, which were worshipped in the cities of , and in the places round about , 2Ki 23:5. The Targum renders it,
"to the star of heaven;''
and Jarchi interprets it of some great star in the heaven, called the queen of heaven; and thinks that these cakes had the impress of a star upon them; see Am 5:26 where mention is made of "Chiun, your image, the star of your god". The word "chiun" is akin to the word here translated cakes, and thought to be explained by a star; see also Ac 7:43 but it seems rather to be the moon, which is expressly called by Apuleius {r} the queen of heaven; and often by others Coelestis; and Urania by the Africans, as Tertullian {s} and Herodian {t} affirm; as also Beltis, by Abydenus {u}; and Baaltis, by Philo-Byblius, or Sanchoniatho {w}; which have the signification of "queen"; and these cakes might have the form of the moon upon them, and be made and offered in imitation of the shewbread:
and to pour out drink offerings unto other gods; not different from the queen of heaven, and the hosts thereof; for to her and them drink offerings were poured out, Jer 44:18 but other gods besides the one, only, living, and true God:
that they may provoke me to anger; not that this was their intention, but so it was eventually.
{q} Mymvh tklml "operi coelorum", Piscator, Gataker, Cocceius "machinae coelorum", Munster, Tigurine version; so Kimchi and Ben Melech. {r} Metamorph. l. 11. principio. {s} Apologet. c. 24. {t} Hist. l. 5. 1. 15. {u} Apud Euseb. Praepar. Evangel. l. 9. c. 41. p. 456. {w} Apud ib. l. 2. c. 10. p. 38.
Jeremiah 7:19
Ver. 19. Do they provoke me to anger? saith the Lord,.... No: he cannot be provoked to anger as men are; anger does not fall upon him as it does on men; there is no such affection in God as there is in men; his Spirit cannot be irritated and provoked in the manner that the spirits of men may be; and though sin, and particularly idolatry, is disagreeable to him, contrary to his nature, and repugnant to his will; yet the damage arising from it is more to men themselves than to him; and though he sometimes does things which are like to what are done by men when they are angry, yet in reality there is no such perturbation in God as there is in men:
do they not provoke themselves to the confusion of their own faces? the greatest hurt that is done is done to themselves; they are the sufferers in the end; they bring ruin and destruction upon themselves; and therefore have great reason to be angry with themselves, since what they do issues in their own shame and confusion. The Targum is,
"do they think that they provoke me? saith the Lord; is it not for evil to themselves, that they may be confounded in their works?''
Jeremiah 7:20
Ver. 20. Therefore thus saith the Lord God,.... Since these are their thoughts, and this the fruit of their doings:
behold, my anger and my fury shall be poured out upon this place; like fire, to consume and destroy it; meaning Jerusalem, which was burned with fire; as an emblem of God's wrath, and an instance of his vengeance upon it, for sins; which came down in great abundance, like a storm or tempest:
upon man and upon beast; upon beasts for the sake of man, they being his property, and for his use; otherwise they are innocent, and do not deserve the wrath of God, nor are they sensible of it:
and upon the trees of the field, and upon the fruit of your ground; which should be blighted by nipping winds, or cut down and trampled upon by the Chaldean army:
and it shall burn, and shall not be quenched; that is, the wrath of God shall burn like fire, and shall not cease until it has executed the whole will of God in the punishment of his people.
Jeremiah 7:21
Ver. 21. Thus saith the Lord God of hosts, the God of Israel,.... The Lord of armies above and below, and the covenant God of the people of Israel; who were bound to serve him, not only by the laws of creation, and the bounties of Providence, but were under obligation so to do by the distinguishing blessings of his goodness bestowed upon them; wherefore their idolatry, and other sins committed against him, were the more heinous and aggravated:
put your burnt offerings unto your sacrifices, and eat flesh; that is, add one offering to another; offer every kind of sacrifice, and, when you have done, eat the flesh of them yourselves; for that is all the advantage that comes by them; they are not acceptable to me, as Jarchi observes, therefore why should you lose them? burnt offerings were wholly consumed, and nothing was left of them to eat; but of other sacrifices there were, particularly the peace offerings; which the Jewish commentators think are here meant by sacrifices; and therefore the people are bid to join them together, that they might have flesh to eat; which was all the profit arising to them by legal sacrifices. The words seem to be sarcastically spoken; showing the unacceptableness of legal sacrifices to God, when sin was indulged, and the unprofitableness of them to men.
Jeremiah 7:22
Ver. 22. For I spake not unto your fathers,.... Meaning not Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but Moses, Aaron, and others, who were living at the time of the bringing of the children of Israel out of Egypt, as appears by what follows:
nor commanded them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings, or sacrifices; these are not in the decalogue or ten commands; these are no part of that law or covenant, but are an appendage or addition to it; and though they are of early institution and use, yet they never were appointed for the sake of themselves, but for another end; they were types of Christ, and were designed to lead the faith of the people of God to him; they never were intended as proper expiations of sin, and much less to cover and encourage immorality; whenever therefore they were offered up in a hypocritical manner, and without faith in Christ, and in order to atone for sinful actions, without any regard to the sacrifice of Christ, they were an abomination to the Lord. These were not the only things the Lord commanded the children of ; nor the chief and principal ones; and in comparison of others, of more consequence and moment, were as none at all; and which are next mentioned.
Jeremiah 7:23
Ver. 23. But this thing commanded I them, saying,.... This was the sum and substance of what was then commanded, even obedience to the moral law; this was the main and principal thing enjoined, and to which the promise was annexed:
obey my voice: the word of the Lord, his commands, the precepts of the decalogue; obedience to which was preferable to the sacrifices of the ceremonial law; see 1Sa 15:22, wherefore it follows:
and I will be your God, and ye shall be my people; the meaning is, that while they were obedient to him, he would protect them from their enemies, and continue them in their privileges and blessings, which he had bestowed upon them as his peculiar people:
and walk ye in all the ways that I have commanded you; not only in some of them, but in all of them; not merely in the observance of legal sacrifices, but chiefly in the performance of moral actions; even in all the duties of religion, in whatsoever is required in the law, respecting God or man:
that it may be well unto you; that they might continue in the land which was given them for an inheritance, and enjoy all the blessings promised to their obedience.
Jeremiah 7:24
Ver. 24. But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear,.... Neither to the law that was given them, nor to the promises that were made unto them, this was the case of the Jewish fathers, and also of their posterity, to whom belonged the law, and the promises, and the service of God:
but walked in the counsels and in the imagination of their evil heart; what their evil heart imagined, advised and directed to, that they attended to, walked in, and pursued after. The heart of man is evil; it is desperately wicked, even wickedness itself; and so is every thought and every imagination of the thoughts of it and all its counsels, machinations and contrivances; and therefore the consequence of walking in these, or steering the course of life according to them, must be bad:
and went backward, and not forward; they went backwards from the ways of God, and walked not in them. The Targum is,
"they turned the back in my worship, and did not put my fear before their face;''
or else this may design, not their sin, but their punishment, as Kimchi interprets it; they did not prosper, but suffered adversity; a curse, and not a blessing, attended the works of their hands.
Jeremiah 7:25
Ver. 25. Since the day that your fathers came forth out of the unto this day,.... That is, in all generations; ever since their first coming out of Egypt, they had been disobedient to the commands of God, and had walked after their own hearts' lusts, and had gone backward, and not forward; for this is not to be connected with what follows:
I have even sent unto you all my servants the prophets, daily rising up early, and sending them; which should be rendered, "although I have sent" {x}; which is an aggravation of their sin, that they should continue in their disobedience, though the Lord sent to them to exhort and warn them, not one, or two, of his servants the prophets, but all of them, and that daily; who rose early in the morning, which denotes their care and diligence to do their message; and which, because they were sent of the Lord, and did his work as he directed them, it is attributed to himself; and of these there was a constant succession, from the time of their coming out of Egypt unto that day; which shows the goodness of God to that people, and their slothfulness, hardness, and obstinacy.
{x} xlvaw "et quamvis miserim", Ar. lnterpr. "cum tamen mitterem", Syr.
Jeremiah 7:26
Ver. 26. Yet they hearkened not unto me,.... Speaking by the prophets:
nor inclined their ear; to what was said to them; would not listen to it, and much less obey what was commanded them:
but hardened their neck; and so became stiffnecked, and would not submit to bear the yoke of the law:
they did worse than their fathers; every generation grew more and more wicked, and went on to be so until the measure of their iniquity was filled up; hence it follows:
Jeremiah 7:27
Ver. 27. Therefore thou shalt speak all these words unto them,.... Before mentioned in the chapter; exhortations to duty, dehortations from sin, promises and threatenings:
but they will not hearken to thee: so as to reform from their evil ways, and do the will of God; they will neither be allured by promises, nor awed by menaces:
thou shalt also call unto them; with a loud voice, showing great vehemency and earnestness, being concerned for their good, and knowing the danger they were in:
but they will not answer thee; this the Lord knew, being God omniscient; and therefore, when it came to pass, it would be a confirmation to the prophet of his mission; and being told of it beforehand, was prepared to meet with and expect such a reception from them; so that he would not be discouraged at it; and at the same time it would confirm the character given of this people before.
Jeremiah 7:28
Ver. 28. But thou shalt say unto them,.... Having found by experience, after long speaking and calling to them, that they are a disobedient and incorrigible people:
this is a nation that obeyeth not the voice of the Lord their God; who, though the Lord is their God, and has chosen and avouched them to be his special people, whom he has distinguished by special favours; yet what he says by his prophets they pay no regard unto, and are no better than the Gentiles, which know not God:
nor receiveth correction; or "instruction" {y}; so as to be reclaimed, and made the better; neither by the word, nor by the rod; neither had any effect upon them:
truth is perished, and is cut off from their mouth; neither faith nor faithfulness is in them; nothing but lying, hypocrisy, and insincerity.
{y} rowm wxql alw "neque acceperunt disciplinam", Schmidt.
Jeremiah 7:29
Ver. 29. Cut off thine hair, O Jerusalem, and cast it away,.... This supplement is made, because the word is feminine; and therefore cannot be directed to the prophet, but to Jerusalem, and its inhabitants; shaving the head is a sign of mourning, Job 1:20 and this is enjoined, to show that there would soon be a reason for it; wherefore it follows:
and take up a lamentation on high places: that it might be heard afar off; or because of the idolatry frequently committed in high places. The Targum is,
"pluck off the hair for thy great ones that are carried captive, and take up a lamentation for the princes:''
for the Lord hath rejected and forsaken the generation of his wrath; a generation of men, deserving of the wrath of God, and appointed to it, on whom he determined to pour it out; of which his rejection and forsaking of them was a token: this was remarkably true of that generation in which Christ and his apostles lived, who disbelieved the Messiah, and had no faith in him, and spoke lying and blasphemous words concerning him; and therefore were rejected and forsaken by the Lord; and wrath came upon them to the uttermost.
Jeremiah 7:30
Ver. 30. For the children of have done evil in my sight, saith the Lord,.... Meaning not a single action only, but a series, a course of evil actions; and those openly, in a daring manner, not only before men, but in the sight of God, and in contempt of him, like the men of Sodom, Ge 13:13:
they have set their abominations in the house which is called by my name, to defile it; that is, set their idols in the temple; here Manasseh set up a graven image of the grove, 2Ki 21:7 which was done, as if it was done on purpose to defile it.
Jeremiah 7:31
Ver. 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. The account he gives of Tophet is this,
"Tophet is Moloch, which was made of brass; and they heated him from his lower parts; and his hands being stretched out, and made hot, they put the child between his hands, and it was burnt; when it vehemently cried out; but the priests beat a drum, that the father might not hear the voice of his son, and his heart might not be moved:''
but in this he is mistaken; for "Tophet" was not the name of an idol, but of a place, as is clear from this and the following verse. There is some agreement between this account of Jarchi, and that which Diodorus Siculus {z} gives of Saturn, to whom children were sacrificed by the Carthaginians; who had, he says, a brasen image of Saturn, which stretched out his hands, inclining to the earth; so that a child put upon them rolled down, and fell into a chasm full of fire:
which I commanded them not: not in my law, as the Targum; nor by any of the prophets, as Jarchi paraphrases it; he commanded them, as Kimchi observes, to burn their beasts, but not their sons and daughters. The instance of Abraham offering up Isaac will not justify it. The case of Jephthah's daughter, if sacrificed, was not by divine command. The giving of seed to Moloch, and letting any pass through the fire to him, is expressly forbidden, Le 18:21:
neither came it into my heart; it was not so much as thought of by him, still less desired, and much less commanded by him. Jarchi's note is,
"though I spoke to Abraham to slay his son, it did not enter into my heart that he should slay him, but to make known his righteousness.''
{z} Bibliothec. Par. 2. l. 20. p. 756.
Jeremiah 7:32
Ver. 32. Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the Lord,.... And they were coming on apace; a little longer, and they would be come; for it was but a few years after this ere Jerusalem was besieged and taken by the army of the Chaldeans, and the slaughter made after mentioned:
that it shall no more be called Tophet: no more be used for such barbarous and idolatrous worship; and no more have its name from such a shocking circumstance:
nor the valley of the son of Hinnom; as it had been from the times of Joshua:
but the valley of slaughter: or, "of the slain"; as the Targum, Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic versions; because of the multitude of men that should be killed there, or brought there to be buried; as follows:
for they shall bury in Tophet till there be no place: till there be no more room to bury there; or, "because there was no place" {a} elsewhere; the number of the slain being so many: this was in righteous judgment, that where they had sacrificed their children, there they should be slain, at least buried.
{a} Mwqm Nyam "quod, [vel] eo quod nullus (alius. sit) locus", ; "ideo quod non () locus", Schmidt.
Jeremiah 7:33
Ver. 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. The sense is, either that there should be such a vast consumption of men, that there would be none left to do this, and so the fowls and beasts might prey upon the carcasses without any disturbance; or else that those that were left would be so devoid of humanity, as not to do this office for the dead.
Jeremiah 7:34
Ver. 34. Then will I cause to cease from the cities of , and from the streets of ,.... Signifying that the devastation should not only be in and about Jerusalem, but should reach all over the land of Judea; since in all cities, towns, and villages, would cease
the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness; upon any account whatever; and, instead of that, mourning, weeping, and lamentation:
the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride; no marrying, and giving in marriage, and so no expressions of joy on such occasions; and consequently no likelihood, at present, of repeopling the city of Jerusalem, and the other cities of Judah:
for the land shall be desolate; without people to dwell in it, and till it. The Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic versions, read, "the whole land".
John Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible.
No observances, professions, or supposed
revelations, will profit, if men do not amend their ways and their
doings. None can claim an interest in free salvation, who allow
themselves in the practice of known sin, or live in the neglect of
known duty. They thought that the temple they profaned would be
their protection. But all who continue in sin because grace has
abounded, or that grace may abound, make Christ the minister of
sin; and the cross of Christ, rightly understood, forms the most
effectual remedy to such poisonous sentiments. The Son of God
gave himself for our transgressions, to show the excellence of the
Divine law, and the evil of sin. Never let us think we may do
wickedness without suffering for it.M
No observances, professions, or supposed
revelations, will profit, if men do not amend their ways and their
doings. None can claim an interest in free salvation, who allow
themselves in the practice of known sin, or live in the neglect of
known duty.
The Son of God
gave himself for our transgressions, to show the excellence of the
Divine law, and the evil of sin. Never let us think we may do
wickedness without suffering for it.M
Sources: Matthew Henry; Gill's Exposition; Matthew Henry Concise
Commentary
Commentary