Jeremiah 7
PATThe prophet reproves the Jews’ vain confidence in their temple, and the external observances of religion, when, at the same time, they rejected God’s messages by the prophets, and defiled themselves with the worst sorts of, idolatry. Justin Martyr, Dialog, cum Tryph. p. 237. and Iren. lib. iv. Cap. 29.)
Jeremiah 7:2
STAND in the gate of the Lords house. This most commentators understand of the east gate of the temple, which led directly up to it. (Sec xix. 2.)
Jeremiah 7:4
The temple of the Lord, are these. As much as to say, God hath placed his name here, (ver. 10.) and chose these stately buildings as the place of his peculiar residence, and what reason is there to believe that he will ever forsake it, and give it up to be destroyed by strangers and idolaters? (Compare xviii. 18. Micah iii. 11.)
Jeremiah 7:8
Behold, ye trust in lying words. Uttered by your false prophets, who foretcllpcacc, and soothe you up in your irapenitency. (See iv. 10. xiv. 13, 14.)
Jeremiah 7:9
Will ye steal, murder, and commit adultery, &c. The prophet does not charge them with the transgression of tho ritual ordinances of Moses, but with the breach of the weightier matters of the law. Thus the prophets shewed men a more excellent way of serving God, than by relying upon external performances, and thereby prepared their minds for the reception of the gospel.
Jeremiah 7:10
And come and stand before me in this house. That is, in the courts before this house. (See the note on xxvi. 7.) Their making no scruple to come into God’s immediate presence, with the defilements of. their sins upon them, implied, that they thought the greatest sins, and even the worship of idols, consistent with the worship and service of the true God. (Compare Ezek. xxiii. 37 — 39.) And say, We are delivered to do all these abominations.] Will ye interpret the deliverances God hath formerly vouchsafed to you, as so many licences to commit new abominations? or, do you think when you offer your propitiatory sacrifices, that they will wipe away the guilt of all your past offences, and ye may securely renew your former ill practices, having such a certain and easy method of obtaining pardon?.
Jeremiah 7:11
Is this house, which is called by my name^ become a den of robbers in your eyes?. Thus you make my house a place of sanctuary and protection to malefactors, who perform an outward service to me there, that they may conti-,nue the more securely in their sins.
Jeremiah 7:12
But go ye now to Shiloh, where I set my name at the first, &c. God’s ark and tabernacle were placed in Shi- Joh, as soon as ever the Jsraelitcs had taken possession of the promised land, (Josh, xviii. 1.) and yet I suffered the ark itself to fall into the hands of the Philistines, and quite forsook that place of my residence. (Psal. lxxviii. 60.) Vcf. 13. I spake unto you, rising up early and speaking.] The phrase rising up early, signifies diligence and assiduity. (Sec Isa.1.4.) The same sense is elsewhere expressed in the Hebrew, by doing any thing in the morning, which our translators render early, Psal. xlvi. 5. xc. 14. (See likewise Psal. cxliii. 8. Isa. xxxiv. 2.)
Jeremiah 7:15
And I will cast you out of my sight, as I have cast out allyour brethren, even thewhole house ofEphraim. That is, all the ten tribes, who are often called by the name of Ephraim, that being the principal tribe among them: their first king Jeroboam being of that tribe. (Sec the note upon Isa. vii. 2.)
Jeremiah 7:16
Therefore pray not thou for this people, &c. Nothing but a universal reformation, which God foresaw would not be effected, could deliver the Jews from that captivity and desolation which he had threatened to bring upon thorn. In some cases tho intercessions of good men havo been so far prevalent as to rescue sinners from the punishments they deserved: but here God declares nothing but a general amendment shall avert the judgments threatened. The Divine decree being without repentance irrevocable, (see iv. 28. xiv. 11, 12.) he forbids Jeremiah to interpose by his prayers for the reversing of it. But still the prophet might pray to God jaot to proceed to an utter destruction of his people; and accordingly we find he did pray to that effect. (Sec xiv. 7 — 9. and the notes on xvii. 25.)
Jeremiah 7:18
To make cakes to the queen of heaven. As the gentiles offered to the moon, at. the first appearance of the new moon, which custom Dr.Spcncer proves out of Herodotus and J*ucian, de Lcgib. Hebr. lib. iii. cap. 3. The word melecheth may signify all the host of heaven. (Compare xix. 13.) And to pour out drink-offerings to other gods.] They offered their meat-offerings and drink-offerings to other gods, in imitation of those which were offered to the true God. (Sec Numb, xxviii. 5. 7.)
Jeremiah 7:19
l>o they provoke me to anger? saith the. Lord: do they not provoke themselves to the confusion of their own faces?. Do they think to shew their spite against me, as if they could hurtmc by their wickedness X Will not their sins turn at last to their own utter confusion?
Jeremiah 7:20
Behold, my anger— shall be poured out— upon man, and upon beast, and upon, the trees of the field, &c. (See iv. 25,26. ix. 10. xii.4:) And it shall burn, and not be quenched.] It shall.make.a total /destruction. (Compare xv. 14. Lam. ii. 3. iv. 11. Dcut. xxxii. 22. Isa. xlii.25. Psal. lxxviii. 63.1xxxix. 46.)
Jeremiah 7:21
Put. your burnt-offerings to your sacrifices, and eat flesh. The burnt-offerings after they were flayed were to be consumed wholly upon the altar; (Lev. i. 9.) whereas in the sacrifices of the peace-offerings, only the fat was burnt upon the altar, the remainder belonged partly to the priest, and the rest was spent in a religious entertainment. (Sec Lev. ii. 29. 34. Deut. xii. 11, 12.) Here the prophet tells the Jews, they may if they please eat the flesh of their burnt-oflerings, as well as of their peace-offerings, for God will accept neither of them from their hands, (sec vi. 20.).and looks upon them only as common meats. (Compare Hos. viii. 13.)
Jeremiah 7:22
23. For I spake not to your fathers— concerning burnt-offerings or sacrifices: but this thing commanded I them, saying, Obey my voice, &c. It is a way of speaking usual in Scripture, to express the preference that is due to one thing above another, in terms which express the rejecting of that which is less worthy; and thus I conceive we are to understand the text here, in correspondence with the parallel place of Hosca, (vi. 6.) I will have mercy and not sacrifice. iThe words in both places implying, that God always.laid a greater stress upon sincere obedience, than on external observances, and designed the latter, as so t many mounds and fences, to.guard and preserve the former. And thus much Maimonidcs himself grants, More •Neyoch. par, iii. ccip. 32. But several of the fathers infer from this text,: tMt God never gave any command lo the Jews about sacrifices/ till after they had defiled themselves with idolatry, by offering sacrifices to the golden calf. (See
Jeremiah 7:24
And went backward, and not forward. The expression is taken from headstrong oxen, that draw back, and refuse to put their necks under the yoke. (See here, ver. 20. Nehem. ix. 29. Hos. iv. 16.) In the same sense the word backsliding is often applied to the Jews in this prophecy. (See iii. 6. 10. 14. 22. viii. 5.)
Jeremiah 7:26
They did worse than their fathers. By setting up idols in the temple itself. (See ver. 30. 2 Kings xxi. 7. and the notes upon iii. 11.)
Jeremiah 7:29
Cut off thy hair, O Jerusalem. This was commonly practised in the time of great sorrow and mourning. (See xlvii. 5. xlviii. 37. and the notes upon Isa. xv. 2.) Take up a lamentation in high places.] See iii. 21. Lud. de Dieu observes, that the word sephajim sometimes signifies plains, or open places; which sense agrees very well with other texts where the word is used. (Sec iv. 11. xii. 12.) So the sense will be, Make the most public and solemn lamentation. For the Lord hath rejected and forsaken the generation of his wrath.] This sinful generation, who have so highly provoked his anger. Afc God is said to reject or cast off his people, when he gives them up into the hands of their enemies, so he is said to choose them again at the restoration of their captivity. (See Isa. xiv. 1. Zech. i. 17. ii. 12.)
Jeremiah 7:30
Tliey have set up their abominations in the house which is called by my name, to pollute it. Meaning the image and altars for idolatrous worship, which Manasseh had set up in the temple and the courts near it. (See xxiii. 11. xxxii. 34. 2 Kings xxi. 4. 7. xxiii. 4.) Which gave occasion to other profanations of the temple in aftertimes. (See Ezek. viii. 5, 6, &c.)
Jeremiah 7:31
And they have built the high places of Tophet, which’ is in the valley ofthesonofllinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire. This unnatural custom of burning their children by way of sacrifice to Moloch, was derived from the Canaanites. (See Psal. cvi. 38.) Theplace where they performed this inhuman rite was called Tophet, from the tabrets which sounded there, to drown the cries of the children thus cruelly murdered; it is called here the high place of Tophet, because probably there was a temple or an altar built there to Moloch. (See the note on ii. 20.) And the valley of the son of Hinnom, or the valley of Hinnom, in the Hebrew, Gee Ilinnom, from whence the word Gehenna is derived, to signify hell. The sacrifice here offered being a lively picture of hell-torments. Which I commanded them not, neither came it into my lieart.] On the contrary, 1 expressed the greatest detestation against this practice, and forbade it under the severest penalties. (Compare xxxii. 35. and Lev. xx.l — 5:) The words are spoken by the figure, called Meidsis, by which a great deal more is implied than is » expressed; a way of speaking frequent in Scripture. See Deut. xvii. 3. where the text, speaking of the worship of the host of heaven, adds, which I have not commanded; the meaning is, I expressly forbade it. So God, reproving the idolatry of the Jews, saith, They chose things whertin I delighted not; that is, which I utterly abhorred, (Isa. lxv. 12.) and* Jeremiah (ii. 8.) calls idols things that do not profit; that is, Whose worship is not only insignificant, but likewise extremely hurtful and dangerous. By the same figure wo arc to expound these expressions; a false balance is not good, (Prov. xx. 23.) and to have respect of persons is not good, (xxviii. 21.) that is, is very wicked. St. Paul expresses the vilest sins, by calling them things which are not convenient: (Rom. i. 28.) therefore they put a very false gloss upon this text, that would infer from it, that nothing is to be used in God’s worship, but what is expressly commanded in his word.
Jeremiah 7:32
It shall no more be called Tophet — but, the valley of slaughter: for they shall bury in Tophet, till there be no place. King Josiah first of all defiled this place, as the text speaks, 2 Kings xxiii. 10. that is, polluted it, or unconsecrated it, by burying dead bodies in it, (cornpare ver. 16. of that chapter.) And afterward, when great numbers died in the siege of Jerusalem, and the famine that followed upon it, it became a common burying-place of the Jews*: (see xix. 6.) whereby was fulfilled that prophecy of Eze~ kiel, (vi. 5.) I will lay the dead carcasses of the children of Israel before their idols. (Compare Lev. xxvi. 30» Ezek. vi.4, 5.13.)
Jeremiah 7:34
I will cause to cease the voice ofmirth > and the voice of gladness. See the note on xvi. 9. Tlie voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride J] Men will have no encouragement to marry, when they see nothing but ruin and desolation before their eyes. (See xvi. 1—4.)