Jeremiah 7

Jeremiah 7:1-15

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 precludes the same intention for their bombination and awakening. 1. He shows them the vanity of revolver as their privileges and performances, ver. 1—11. 2. He mends them of the deliations of Shiloh; and forests that such should be the deliations of Jerusalem, ver. 12—16. 3. God represents to the prophet their abominable idolatries, for which he was thus incensed against them, ver. 17—20. 4. He efforts the people, that to obey is better than sacrifice, and that God would not accept the sacrifices of those that abominantly perplexed in disobedience, ver. 21—28. 5. He threatens to say the land at-

tirely waste for their idolatry and impiety, and is multiply their sin-

Jeremiah 7:7-15

3. 8. Ver. 19. § Chap. xxviii. 6. § Heb. 11 is good and right in your eyes. 1. Ver. 12.

4. So the priests, and the prophets, and all the people, heard Jeremiah speaking these words in the house of the LORD. 8. ¶ Now it came to pass, when Jeremiah had made an end of speaking all that the LORD had commanded him to speak unto all the people, that the priests, and the prophets, and all the people took him, saying, ‘Thou shalt surely die. 9. Why hast thou prophesied in the name of the LORD, saying, This house shall be like Shiloh, and this city shall be defolate without an inhabitant? and all the people were gathered against Jeremiah, in the house of the LORD. 10. ¶ When the princes of Judah heard these things, then they came up from the king’s house unto the house of the LORD, and sat down in the entry of the new gate of the LORD’s body. 11. Then spake the priests, and the prophets unto the princes, and to all the people, saying, ‘This man is worthy to die, for he hath prophesied against this city, as ye have heard with your ears. 12. ¶ Then spake Jeremiah unto all the princes, and to all the people, saying, the LORD sent me to prophesy against this house, and against this city, all the words that ye have heard. 13. Therefore now I amend your ways, and your doings, and obey the voice of the LORD your God, and the LORD will repent him of the evil that he hath pronounced against you. 14. As for me, behold, I am in your hand: do with me as I seemeth good and meet unto you. 15. But know ye for certain, that if ye put me to death, ye shall surely bring innocent blood upon yourselves, and upon this city, and upon the inhabitants thereof: for of a truth the LORD hath sent me unto you, to speak all these words in your ears.

The plainest and most reasonable admonitions, delivered with the tenderest affection, and urged with the most solemn weight of God’s authority, have no effect upon the hardened sinner but to exasperate his corruptions, as it here appears.

1. Jeremiah is arrested for his preaching, and dragged before the magistrates, that he may be condemned and executed. The ungodly priests and false prophets, that in all ages and places have been the bitterest enemies and persecutors of the few faithful, arose, exasperated at what they heard, and the people, at their instigation, readily followed them; they seize the poor prophet, and threaten him with immediate death, either in the rage of pretended zeal, or by form of law, v. 8. The charge against him is for falsehood, and blasphemous words spoken against that holy place, because in the name of the Lord he had said, this house shall be like Shiloh, and this city shall be defolate without inhabitants. Such an uproar raided a vast tumult, and all the people run together, the tidings of which soon brought up the princes from the king’s house into the temple, and before them as judges the criminal is produced, at the entry of the new gate of the Lord’s body, where they sat to hear the cause. The false prophets and priests, who had been a great man in the transgression of opposing the ministers of truth, stand forth to accuse him, and shewning but to gain a verdict in their favour, appealing for the truth of their charge to all the people who had heard Jeremiah’s discourse, and demanding judgment against him as much worthy to him. Nate, They who will be reckless for God must have been put their lives in their hand. Now when Jesus who have

the true preachers of Christ been in danger by tumultuous mobs, instigated by apolloste priests!

2. Jeremiah vindicates himself from the charge, not by denying it, but by maintaining the truth of what he had spoken. The words were not his own. God had sent him, and how could he then be silent? Besides, the threatening only affected the impenitent. So far therefore from desisting, he urges the admonition he had given; Therefore now amend your ways and your charge, and obey the voice of the Lord your God, who yet did not disclaim the relation, and was ready instantly, on their repentance, to recede the threatening issued against them. What was urged with so kind an intention surely deferred our punishment, but praise. However, he submits to whatever firmness they thought fit to pronounce, but warns them of the danger of shedding the blood of an innocent man, which would cry for vengeance; and the still more atrocious guilt of flaying a prophet purely for delivering the words which of a truth the Lord had just him to speak, who would not fall confidently to avenge such a flagrant inflict upon himself, as well as such cruel injustice done to his servant. Nate, (1.) To preach boldly, and suffer patiently for well-doing, is the true spirit of a Christian minister. (2.) We must abide by God’s word, nor ever recede a step, though the greatest loss and damage, yea though death itself, threatens us for our fidelity.

3. ¶ Then said the princes, and all the people unto the priests, and to the prophets, This man is not worthy to die: for he hath spoken to us in the name of the LORD our God. 17. Then rose up certain of the elders of the land, and spake to all the assembly of the people, saying, 18. Mica the Morathite prophesied in the days of Hezekiah king of Judah, and spake to all the people of Judah, saying, Thus saith the LORD of hosts, Zion shall be plowed like a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house, at the high places of the forest. 19. Did Hezekiah king of Judah, and all Judah put him at all to death? did he not fear the LORD, and he thought? the LORD, and the LORD repented him of the evil which he had pronounced against them? Thus might we procure great evil against our souls. 20. And there was also a man that prophesied in the name of the LORD, Urijah the son of Shemaiah of Kirjath-jarim, who prophesied against this city, and against this land, according to all the words of Jeremiah. 21. And when Jehoiakim the king, with all his mighty men, and all the princes heard his words, the king sought to put him to death; but when Urijah heard it, he was afraid, and fled, and went into Egypt. 22. And Jehoiakim the king sent men into Egypt, namely, Elnathan the son of Achbor, and certain men with him into Egypt. 23. And they set forth Urijah out of Egypt, and brought him unto Jehoiakim the king, who saw him with the sword, and cast his dead body into the graves of the common people. 24. Nevertheless the hand of Ahikam the son of Shaphan was with Jeremiah, that they should not give him into the hand of the people to put him to death.

Jeremiah 7:13-15

With like abominations they had offended God, and equally deaf to the repeated admonitions of God’s prophets had they been, v. 13. therefore the temple and city of Jerusalem shall become as Shiloh, a deliation, v. 14. and God will cast off the whole people of Judah, as he had already done by their brethren of Israel, who were gone long since into captivity,

Jeremiah 7:15

Note, (1.) God’s judgments on others are warnings to us Before Christ

(2.) They who follow sinners examples will surely suffer with them. (3.) They who are cut off from God are truly miserable, and must, as the necessary consequences, be shortly cast down into hell.

16. Therefore I pray not thou for this people, neither lift up cry nor prayer for them, neither make intercellion to me; for I will not hear thee. 17. ¶ Soult 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 a ger? Sath the LORD: do they not provoke themselves to the confusion of their own faces? 20. Therefore thus Sath the Lord GOD, Behold, mine anger, and my fury shall be poured out upon this place, upon man and upon beall, and upon the trees of the field, and upon the fruit of the ground; and it shall burn, and shall not be quenched.

17. 16—20. Their own prayers and services, were so hypocrised, and abominable, no good could be expected from them; but the prophet still continued their advocate, and his prayers were usually awaiting; but God will cut off from them every resource.

18. He is forbid to pray for them. Much as the prophet had their salvation at heart, God’s decree is fixed, prayer comes too late, their ruin is determined, &c. 16. Note, (1.) They who preach to sinners must pray for them; yea, though they revile and persecute. (2.) In a desperate state is that people, concerning whom God refutes to be intracted, and dusts up the mouths of his prophets.

19. God affirms the reason for his prohibition; their impudent is squints, and incorrigible oblivency. Openly in the cities of Judah, yea, in the very Streets of Jerusalem, under the prophet’s eye, uncaved by his presence, and unaffected with his warning, they performed their idolatrous rites, offering meat-offerings and drink-offerings to the queen of heaven, the moon, confiscated for a godless, and to their other idols; and in the work all ages and feces joined, so universal was the corruption found. The very children gathered the wood, which they have been kindled the fire, and the women kneaded the cakes, to prevent God to anger, &c. 17, 18. See how carefully idolatrous initiated betimes their children in the service of their idols; shall we be less inflictious to inflict ours in the knowledge of the living God? Could they so freely part with their bread and wine in these decrible rites; and shall not we more liberally in God’s service break our bread to the hungry, and up in our battle to the thrifty?

20. He threatens them with the dire consequences of this conduct. Do they provide me to anger? No: such perturbation as we feel, enters out into the eternal mind. Or don’t be re-ever any damage by their wickedness? No: as their goodness could not add to his self-sufficient life and happiness, neither can their wickedness take from it. The hurt they do is only to themselves, bringing upon their own heads swift destruction. Therefore thus Sath the Lord God, Behold, mine anger and a fury shall be poured out upon this place; a deluge of wrath, such as tempt away the world of the ungodly, or which tell upon devout Sodom. The temple and city shall be utterly destroyed; both man and beall be consumed; and the very trees and fruits of the ground devoured by the fire of divine wrath. It shall burn with irresistible fury, and shall not be quenched. And herein we have an awful representation of the punishment of all the wicked in hell, who depart uncivil into everlasting fire.

21. ¶ Thus Sath the LORD of hosts the God of Israel, Put your burnt-offerings unto your sacrifices, and eat flesh. 22. For I 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 I 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 I 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 I rising up early, and sending them. 26. Yet they hearkened not unto me, nor inclined their ear, but I hardened

their neck, they did worfe than their fathers. 27. Therefore I thou shalt speak all their 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 LORD their God, nor receiveth correction: truth is perished, and is cut off from their mouth.

9. 21—28. As they placed so much dependence on their sacrifices to procure their acceptance with God, God will have them know their are insignificant and vain, which they unfit their end, and prevented their inflictions. For your burnt-offerings unto your sacrifices, and eat flesh; either give over such vain oblations, and use them rather at your own tables; or add never so many or expensive offerings, and pretend never so religiously to eat them before the Lord; they are utterly unacceptable, which the love and power of sin remains unfounded in your hearts. For,

10. Obedience, not sacrifice, is the great thing God requires. The ten commandments were first delivered to their fathers in the wilderness; and though sacrifices were afterwards inflicted, it was not for their own sake, but in order to lead them by faith to the great Antitype, whose atonement was therein repelanted, exclusive of which, they were utterly inflicted and unacceptable. The principal part therefore of the Sinai covenant was, Obey my voice; and so this the possible was annexed, I will be your God, and ye shall be my people; protecting them from their enemies, and preserving them in the possession of the promised land; and as long as they thus carefully walked in all God’s ways, so long it should be well with them, and prosperity continually attend them.

11. Disobedience to the moral law is their great offence, and this had been their case from their very coming out of Egypt to that day. Their fathers and they had together rejected God’s law, to walk after the imaginations of their own evil hearts; and, instead of advancing in the ways of holiness and happiness, turned back into the paths of sin and misery, &c. 24. and this in opposition to long and repeated warnings, brought them from those divinely-appointed ministers, whom God from time to time raided up to admonish them of the evil and danger of their ways, &c. 25. Instead of astonishing every generation grew worse, and more hardened, till the measure of their iniquities now rose to the born, &c. 26. therefore the prophet is commanded to speak all their words unto them; those charges of their rebellion and oblivency, and those warnings of their impending ruin. Not that these would have any effect; God forereth him they would not hearken, nor answer to his calls: but, to leave them inexcusable in their wickedness, thou shalt say unto them, ‘This is a nation that obeyeth not the voice of the Lord their God, which relation aggravated their disobedience, nor receiveth correction; they will not be taught by the word, nor reclaimed by the red: truth is perished, and is cut off from their mouth; they are false and faithful to God and man, and nothing, but lies, infelicity, and hypocrisy, is to be found amongst them, and therefore nothing but ruin to be expected. Note, We may not cease to admonish sinners, though we for no prospect of reclaiming them; we must speak, if but for a testimony against them.

12. ¶ Cut off thine hair, O Jerusalem, and cast it away, and take up a lamentation on high places; for the LORD hath rejected and forsaken the generation of his wrath. 30. For the children of Judah have done evil in my sight, Sath the LORD: they have for 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, Sath the LORD, 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 carcasses of this people shall be meat for the sows of the heaven, and for the beasts of the earth, and none shall fray them away. 34. Then I will I cause to cease from the cries 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 idolatrous.

13. 29—34. Jerusalem, in the prospect of her approaching deliations, is called upon to cut off her hair, in token of deepest mourning, Job 1. 20. and on the high places, the scene of her abominations, to lift up an exceeding bitter cry, as rejected of God, devoted to wrath, and given up into the hands of her cruel enemies.

14. Her Before Chall him.

15. Has sin in exceeding fowls. They have done evil in my fight, faith the Lord; continued in a courts of open and daring impiety: particularly their abominable idolatries provoked him, which to such an enormous height they had carried, that in God’s own house they had dared to set up their images, and near their altars, as if they designed on purpose to defile that holy place; and their sacrifices were as horrid and inhuman, as their deities were destillable. They built the high places of Tupha, where Moolich’s hatred image stood, and, deaf to the cries of nature, and the thrieks of murdered infants, there parents, loft to every feeling of mutual affection, burnt their children in the fore. It is said, this was performed by hearing the brazen idol red hot, and then the parent laid the child on his arms, whilst the priests beat drums to drown the horrid thrieks and cries: sacrifices which God never commanded, and such as he never thought of enjoining his wordings. Note, When sin hath hardened the heart, it is amazing to what a pitch of barbarity and inhumanity men may go.

16. The vengeance denounced for this is exceeding terrible. Topher, the scene of their abominations; shall shortly change its name for the valley of Slaughter, or of the state; for there shall multitudes fall by the sword, or be carried thither to be buried; multitudes so great, that graves shall be warning for them, v. 32. and the unburied corpses lie for meat to the fowls of heaven, and beasts of the earth, and not a man be left to fray them away, v. 33. Deserted now are the Streets of Jerusalem; no voice of joy is heard; no congratulations of the bride or bridegroom; but either the sound of mournful lamentations, or the land so desolate, that none are left to weep, and more melancholy silence reigns. Note, God will soon change fowls with into everlasting mourning: we need rejoice with trembling.

Jeremiah 7:16-24

God knoweth how to deliver his people out of temptation, and, when their case appears most desperate, to rescue them from the jaws of the lion.

1. Jeremiah is acquitted, notwithstanding the malicious accusations of his enemies. Such an evidence attended his defence, such a noble simplicity appeared in it, such approved fidelity, and God himself put such an awe upon the princes and people, that though they strangely hardened their hearts against the admonition given, yet they own God’s authority, and dare not condemn the innocent prophet. Nate, There are many on whom the word of God hath so far an influence as to extort their assent to its truth, who nevertheless continue unhumbled in their sins.

2. Some of the court, from among the princes, and perhaps Ahikam after-mentioned at their head, rose up in the prophet’s defence, and, as a precedent, quoted the case of Mica, who a little before, in the days of Hezekiah, had prophesied as severe things as ever Jeremiah had done, that Jerusalem should become heaps, the city plagued as a field, and the temple utterly demolished, v. 18. yet so far were Hezekiah and his princes from condemning him to death for his fidelity, that they trembled at God’s word, befought the Lord, repented of their evil deeds, and this was the lengthening of their prosperity, God accepting their repentance, and withholding the threewell judgment. And such conduct, they intimate, in the present case, would be most fit and becoming, whereas to act otherwise, in shedding innocent blood at the instigation of exasperated priests, incensed at leaving their pride, hypocrisy, and falsehood denuded, would preserve great evil against their fruits, lay them under heavy guilt,

and expose them to God’s awful vengeance. Note, (1.) The greatest men thwe their wisdom in hearing and obeying the admonitions of God. (2.) The dreadful consequences of sin, if nothing else, should deter us from it; if we have little sense of its evil and malignity, the fear of hell at least should restrain us.

3. Another instance is quoted of a prophet put to death in the present reign, which some suppose to be a case in point urged by Jeremiah’s persecutors in reply to the former, and in order to obtain his condemnation. Others, that it is the continuation of the same person’s discourse, urging the guilt already brought upon the law by the murder of one prophet, and that to increase it, by a repetition of the like crime, could not but hasten their destruction. Others suppose this story was added by Jeremiah himself, or whoever collected his prophecies, as an instance of God’s extraordinary interposition in the present case, when his family, in the same reign, another holy man, Urulah, met his fate in the discharge of his office, and for the very same words Jeremiah had spoken. Provoked by his preaching, the king and his nobles fought to say him; and, to avoid it, the prophet either prudently abdicated, or rather immorally detested his poft; for men of true grace may at times be overcome with fear; though usually little is to be got by sight, as in the present case. Cowardice often exposes those to ruin whom courage might have extracted from danger. The king sent after him to Egypt, whether he had fled, got him delivered up as a flare-criminal, and drew him, probably with his own hand, at least commanded it to be done; and, to make the ignominy the greater, and his prophecies disregarded, and his dead body into the greater of the common people.

4. Notwithstanding all the pleas of his accusers, Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, 2 Kings xxii. 12. a man who had lived under pious Judah, a great man, yet a good man, and the prophet’s friend, stood by him, and prevailed upon the princes not to deliver him into the hand of the enraged people, whom the priests had inflamed, and were ready to murder him, as soon as they could obtain permission. Note, God hath in his hands the hearts of all men, and can raise us up friends, in the day of trial, where we shall expected to find them.

Jeremiah 7:17-20

Before God

(2). They who follow sinners examples will surely suffer with them. (3.) They who are cast off from God are truly miserable, and such, as the necessary consequence, be shortly cast down into hell.

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. ¶ Seek 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 they 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 a ger? Sath the LORD: do they not pre-vele themselves to the confusion of their own faces? 20. Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, mine anger; and my fury shall be poured out upon this place, upon man and upon beall, and upon the trees of the field, and upon the fruit of the ground; and * it shall burn, and shall not be quenched.

Their own prayers and services, were so hypocritical and abominable, no good could be expected from them; but the prophet still continued their advocacy, and his prayers were wholly waning; but God will cut off from them every resource.

1. He is forbid to pray for them. Much as the prophet had their salvation at heart, God’s decree is fixed, prayer comes too late, their ruin is determined, v. 16. Note, (1.) They who preach to sinners must pray for them; yea, though they revile and periccate. (2.) In a desperate state is that people, concerning whom God refuses to be intreated, and shuts up the mouths of his prophets.

2. God alleges the reason for his prohibition; their impudent iniquities, and incorrigible obituary. Openly in the cities of Judah, yea, in the very streets of Jerusalem, under the prophet’s eye, uncured by his pretences, and enuflected with his warning, they performed their idolatrics, they, offering me to offer a good drink-offering to the queen of heaven, the money, confecuted for a godless, and to their other idols; and in the work all ages and sexes joined, so universal was the corruption forced. The very children gathered the wood, whilst their fathers kindled the fire, and the women kneaded the cakes, to provide God to anger, v. 17, 18. See how carefully idolatrics initiated berimes their children in the service of their idols; shall we be less inflictious to instruct ours in the knowledge of the living God? Could they do freely part with their bread and wine in these detestable rites; and shall not we more liberally in God’s service break our bread to the hungry, and op in our battle to the thrifty?

3. He threatens them with the dire consequences of this conduct. Do they provoke me to anger? No: such perturbation as we feel, enters not into the eternal mind. Or doth he receive any damage by their wickedness? No: as their goodness could not add to his self-sufficient life and happiness, neither can their wickedness take from it. The hurt they do is only to themselves, bringing upon their own heads swift destruction. Therefore thus saith the Lord God, Behold, mine anger and a fury shall be poured out upon this place; a deluge of wrath, such as except away the world of the ungodly, or which tell upon devoted Sodom. The temple and city shall be utterly destroyed; both man and beall be confused; and the very trees and fruits of the ground devoured by the fire of divine wrath. It shall burn with irresistible fury, and shall not be quenched. And herein we have an awful representation of the punishment of all the wicked in hell, who depart accursed into everlasting fire.

4. ¶ Thus saith the LORD of hosts the God of Israel, * Put your burnt-offerings unto your sacrifices, and eat flesh. 22. For * I speak 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 hearkned 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 come forth out of the land of Egypt unto this day, * I have even sent unto you all my servants the prophets, daily * rifing up early, and sending them. 26. ¶ Yet they hearkned not unto me, nor inclined their ear, but * hardened

their neck, they did worfe than their fathers. 27. Therefore * thou shalt speak all thefe 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 LORD their God, nor receiveth correction: truth is perished, and is cut off from their mouth.

Jeremiah 7:21-28

As they placed so much dependance on their sacrifices to procure their acceptance with God, God will have them know their are insignificant and vain, whilst they unfit their end, and perverted their infiltration. For your heart-offerings unto your sacrifices, and eat flesh; either give over such vain obliations, and use them rather as your own tables; or add never so many or expensive offerings, and pretend never so religiously to eat them before the Lord; they are utterly unacceptable, whilst the love and power of sin remains unfounded in your hearts. For,

1. Obedience, not sacrifice, is the great thing God requires. The ten commandments were first delivered to their fathers in the wilderness; and though sacrifices were afterwards instituted, it was not for their own sake, but in order to lead them by faith to the great Antitype, whose atonement was therein repelerned, exclusive of which, they were utterly idileth and unacceptable. The principal part therefore of the Sinai covenant was, Obey my voice; and to this the promise was annexed, I will be your God, and ye shall be my people; protecting them from their enemies, and preserving them in the possession of the promoted land; and as long as they thus carefully walked in all God’s ways, so long it should be well with them, and prosperity continually attend them.

2. Disobedience to the moral law is their great offence, and this had been their case from their very coming out of Egypt to that day. Their fathers and they had together rejected God’s law, to walk after the imagination of their own evil hearts; and, instead of advancing in the ways of holiness and happiness, turned back into the paths of sin and misery, v. 24. and this in opposition to long and repeated warnings, brought them from those divinely-appointed ministers, whom God from time to time raided up to admonish them of the evil and danger of their ways, v. 25. Instead of amending, every generation grew worse, and more hardened, till the measure of their iniquities now rose to the form, v. 26. therefore the prophet is commanded to speak all thefe words unto them; those changes of their rebellion and obituary, and those warnings of their impending ruin. Not that these would have any effect; God foretells him they would not hearken, nor answer to his calls: but, to leave them inexcusable in their wickedness, thou shalt say unto them, This is a nation that obeyeth not the voice of the Lord their God, which relation aggravated their disobedience, nor receiveth not—O. 28. they will not be taught by the word, nor reclaimed by the red: truth is perished, and is cut off from their mouth; they are false and faithful to God and man, and nothing but lies, infancy, and hypocrisy, is to be found among them, and therefore nothing but ruin to be expected. Note, We may not cease to admonish sinners, though we for no prospect of reclaiming them; we must speak, if but for a testimony against them.

3. ¶ * Cut off thine hair, O Jerusalem, and call it away, and take up a lamentation on high places; for the LORD hath rejected and forsaken the generation of his wrath. 30. For the children of Judah have done evil in my sight, saith the LORD: * 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 LORD, 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 carcasses 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 destitute.

Jeremiah 7:29-34

Jerusalem, in the prospect of her approaching deliations, is called upon to cut off her hair, in token of deepest mourning, for i. no. and on the high places, the scene of her abomination, to lift up an exceeding honor cry, as rejected of God, devoted to wrath, and given up into the hands of her cruel enemies.

1. Her

2. Has sin is exceeding sinful. They have done evil in my fight, faith the Lord; continued in a course of open and daring impiety: particularly their abominable idolaters provoked him, which to such an enormous height they had carried, that in God’s own house they had dared to set up their images, and rear their altars, as if they designed on purpose to defile that holy place; and their sacrifices were as horrid and inhuman, as their duties were detestable. They built the high places of Tuphat, where Malach’s bared image stood, and, dear to the cries of nature, and the thickets of murdered infants, there parents, lost to every feeling of natural affections, burnt their children in the fire. It is said, this was performed by hearing the brazen idol red hot, and then the parent laid the child on his arms, whilst the priests beat drums to drown the horrid thickets and cries: sacrifices which God never commanded, and such as he never thought of enjoining his wordings. Note, When sin hath hardened the heart, it is amazing to what a pitch of barbarity and inhumanity men may go.

3. The vengeance denounced for this is exceeding terrible. Tuphat, the scene of these abominations, shall shortly change its name for the valley of Janghars, or of the state; for there shall multitudes fall by the sword, or be carried thither to be buried; multitudes so great, that grams shall be wanting for them, v. 32, and the unburied corpses lie for meat to the fowls of heaven, and beasts of the earth, and not a man be left to fray them away, v. 33. Deserved now are the fireers of Jerusalem; no voice of joy is heard; no congratulations of the bride or bridegroom; but either the sound of mournful lamentations, or the land so desolate, that none are left to weep, and more melancholy silence reigns. Note, God will soon change sinful mirth into everlasting mourning: we need rejoice with trembling.