The Book of the Prophet Jeremiah
Jeremiah 7
Chapter VII · Vol. III, pp. 1238–1240
1 Jeremiah is sent to call for true repentance, to prevent the Jews' captivity. 8 God rejecteth their vain confidence, 12 by the example of Shiloh. 17 He threateneth them for their idolatry. 21 He rejecteth the sacrifices of the disobedient. 29 He exhorteth to mourn for their abominations in Tophet, 32 and the judgments for the same.
1 The aword1 that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying,
B.C. cir. 610.
a ch.1.2,3; 2.1; 11.1; 14.1; 15.1; 16.1; 18.1,5; 21.1; 24.4; 25.1; 26.1; 27.1.
1 This is a new prophecy, which continues to the end of ch. x.—C.
2 Stand in the bgate of the LORD's house, and proclaim there this word, and say, cHear the word of the LORD, all ye of Judah, that enter in at these gates to worship the LORD.
3 Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, dAmend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place.
d Mat.3.8. ch.18.11; 26.13; ver.5-7. Is.1.16-19; 55.7. Eze.18.30,31; 33.11. Pr.28.13; 27.14.
4 Truste ye not in lying words, saying, gThe temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, are these.
5 For hif ye throughly amend your ways and your doings; if ye throughly execute judgment between a man and his neighbour;
A.M. cir. 3394. B.C. cir. 610.
h Is.1.16-19; 55.6,7. ch.4.1-4; 22.3,4; 18.20-26. Le.26.1-14. De.28.1-15.
6 Ifi ye oppress not the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and shed not innocent blood in this place, jneither walk after other gods to your hurt:
i Ex.22.21,22. De.27.19; 5.7-9. Is.59.7. ch.22.3,4. Eze.18.6-18.
j De.6.14,15.
7 Thenk will I cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers, for ever and ever.2
k De.4.40. 2 Ch.33.8. Ge.17.8. ch.25.5.
2 The nature and necessity of true piety and genuine practical godliness, are as fully set forth and as strongly enjoined by the prophets as by the apostles. The writings of Jeremiah are especially rich in practical exhortations. In no part of the Bible is the folly of mere religious formalism more clearly shown. Christian nations may learn most important lessons from this book; and the cold ritualist may well tremble as he reads.—P.
8 Behold, lye trust in lying words, that cannot profit.
l ch.4.10; 14.13,14; 6.14; 8.10,11; 23.14,16,26,32; 28.2,3; ver.4. Eze.13.2-22.
9 Willn ye steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense unto Baal, and walk after other gods owhom ye know not;
n Ho.4.1,2. Ro.2.2,17,&c. 2 Ti.3.2-5. Zep.1.5. 1 Co.6.9,10. Ga.5.19-21. 1 Ki.18.21.
10 Andp come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name,3 and say, We are delivered to do all these abominations?
p Eze.23.37-39. Jude 4. Pr.7.14,15. Mal.3.5. Mi.3.11. Mat.23.14.
3 Heb. whereupon my name is called.
11 Isq this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? rbehold, even I have seen it, saith the LORD.
12 But go ye now unto my place swhich was in Shiloh,4 where I set my name at the first, and see twhat I did to it for the wickedness of my people Israel.
s De.12.11. Jos.18.1. Ju.18.31. 1 Sa.1.3; 4.3,4.
4 Here the ark rested till the time of Eli, when it was taken by the Philistines.—C.
t 1 Sa.4.10,11. Ps.78.60,61. ch.26.6,9; 44.2,3.
13 And now, because ye have done all these works, saith the LORD, and I spake unto you, risingu up early5 and speaking, but ye heard not; and vI called you, but ye answered not;
A.M. cir. 3394. B.C. cir. 610.
u Ne.9.29,30. ver.25; ch.11.7; 25.3; 35.15; 44.4. 2 Ch.36.15,16.
5 Giving early warning by the prophets of every impending judgment.—C.
14 Therefore xwill 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 yShiloh.6
x Ps.74.6-8. 2 Ki.25.9. Eze.7.20,21; 24.21,25. Mat.24.1,2; 23.38. Is.64.11. 1 Ki.9.7.
y 1 Sa.4.10,11. Ps.78.60; 132.6. ch.26.6,9.
6 Shiloh was a city of Ephraim where the tabernacle and ark were set up at an early period, and remained many years. The sins of the people, and especially of the priests officially employed in the tabernacle service, brought upon it the curse of Heaven. After the capture of the ark and death of Eli it fell to ruin; and now for many centuries it has remained desolate.—P.
15 And I will cast you out of my sight, zas I have cast out all your brethren, even the whole seed of Ephraim.7
16 Therefore apray not thou for this people, neither lift up cry nor prayer for them, neither make intercession to me: for I will not hear thee.
a 1 Jn.5.16. Ex.32.10. ch.11.14; 14.11; 15.1. Eze.14.14,20. The sentence of their destruction is irrevocable.
17 Seestb thou not what they do in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem?
b ch.6.17,27. Eze.8.6,9,12,15,17; xi. xvi. xxii.-xxiv.
18 Thec children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead their dough, to make cakes to the 8queen9 of heaven,1 and to pour out drink-offerings unto other gods, that theyd may provoke me2 to anger.
c ch.44.17,19. Ps.16.4. Ho.4.17.
8 Or, frame or workmanship.
9 'Works or hosts of heaven.'—Piscator.
1 See note * below.
d ch.25.7; 32.29. Is.65.3. De.32.16,21.
2 Provoke me. In contempt of my displeasure.—C.
* Ashtoreth or Astarte, a goddess of the Phoenicians, is here referred to. Her worship was introduced into Israel at a very early period, and was often accompanied by most immoral and lascivious rites. Her sanctuaries were generally shady groves where the votaries could practise their revelries without subjecting themselves to the public eye. Astarte represented the moon, as Baal did the sun, and her emblem was a crescent. The cakes presented to her were made in the form of a crescent.—P.
19 Doe they provoke me to anger? saith the LORD: do they not provoke themselves,3 to the confusion of their own faces?
20 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD, gBehold, 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.
21 Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; hPut your burnt-offerings unto your sacrifices, and eat flesh.
h Is.1.11-15; 66.3,4. ch.6.20. Ho.8.13. Am.5.21.
22 For iI spake not unto your fathers, nor commanded them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning4 burnt-offerings or sacrifices:
i 1 Sa.15.22. Ps.40.6; 50.14. Ho.6.6. Mar.12.33.
4 Heb. concerning the matter of.
23 But this thing commanded I them, saying, jObey 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.
j ch.11.4. De.6.3; 5.29,33. Ex.15.26; 19.5,6. Le.26.3-12.
24 But kthey hearkened not, nor inclined their ear, but walked in the counsels and in the imagination5 of their evil heart, and went6 backward,l and not forward.
k Eze.20.8,13,16,21. Ps.81.11,12. ch.11.7,8. Ex.32.7,8. Nu.14.22. Ne.9.16-26. Ps.cvi. lxxviii.
5 Or, stubbornness, ch.3.17.
6 Heb. were.
l ver.26; ch.3.6,10,14,22; 32.33; 8.5. Ne.9.29. Ho.4.16; 11.2.
25 Since the nday that your fathers came forth out of the land of Egypt unto this day, I have even osent unto you all my servants the prophets, daily rising up early and sending them:
n Ex.xii. to 2 Ki.xxiv.
o 2 Ch.36.15. ch.25.4; 44.4; ver.13. Mat.21.34-36.
26 Yetp they hearkened not unto me, nor inclined their ear, but hardened their neck: they did worse than their fathers.
p Ps.lxxviii. cvi. Eze.20.8-21. Ne.9.17,29. ch.16.12; 3.9; 17.23; 19.15; 25.3; 11.8. Nu.32.14. Mat.21.35,36. 2 Ch.xxi. xxviii. xxxiii.
27 Therefore thou shalt speak all these words unto them, qbut 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, rThis is a nation that obeyeth not the voice of the LORD their God, nor receiveth correction:7 truth is perished, and is cut off from their mouth.
r ch.2.30. Is.59.2-15. Eze.xxii. Mi.7.1-5. Zep.3.1-3. ch.9.2-8; 32.33.
7 Or, instruction.
29 Cuts off thine hair,8 O Jerusalem, and cast it away, and take up a lamentation on high places;9 for the LORD thath rejected and forsaken the ugeneration of his wrath.
30 For the children of Judah have done evil in my sight, saith the LORD: they have set vtheir abominations in the house which is called by my name, to pollute it.
v ch.23.11; 32.34. 2 Ch.33.5. 2 Ki.21.4,7; 23.4. Eze.8.5-17; 7.20; 43.7,8.
31 And they have built the xhigh places of Tophet,1 which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire; which I ycommanded them 2not, neither came it into3 my heart.
x 2 Ki.23.10; 21.4,7. ch.19.5; 32.35. Ps.106.38. Le.18.21. Eze.16.20.
1 Tophet, which, being interpreted, signifies a drum, as an instrument of noisy joy, such as bacchanalian idolaters feel and express.—C.
2 Not a mere negation, as if God merely did not command this; but an assertion that he commanded them to do it not.—C.
3 Heb. upon.
32 Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, zthat 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.
z Eze.6.5,13. Le.26.30. ch.19.6,11,13.
33 And the acarcases 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.
Notes
Ver. 4. Do not imagine that, because the temple has been the place of God's special residence, he will never forsake it, but uphold it for ever. 9-11. Will ye practise the vilest abominations, and presumptuously appear in my courts, as if ceremonial services could atone for your guilt, and procure you a new indulgence in sin? Is my temple become a refuge for such notorious criminals? 21. You may eat or do what you please with all your offerings, for I detest them.
Ver. 4. Either these courts, and buildings, and apartments, or these worshippers, are the temple of the LORD. In the one view the Jews trusted in the temple as their protection, ver. 14, supposing it had preserved Judah when the ten tribes were carried away; in the other view, they 'trusted in themselves that they were righteous,' and would be preserved on account of the covenant with Abraham, or their own ceremonial observances. C.
Ver. 10. We are delivered, &c. As if they had said, We have been delivered from Egypt, from the perils of the wilderness, from the Philistines, from Sennacherib, and all other enemies, that we might enjoy this freedom of worshipping the gods of our own choice, and practising those rites that the over-scrupulous prophets call 'abominations,' but which we consider rational worship of the 'gods that brought us up out of the land of Egypt,' Ex. 32. 4. C.
Ver. 21. The burnt-offerings were wholly consumed, Le. 1. 9, but only the fat of the peace-offerings. The rest belonged to the priest, and was spent in a religious festival, Le. 7. 29-34; De. 12. 11, 12. God here authorizes them to eat of both; as, being the offerings of hypocrisy and pollution, both were equally unacceptable to him. C.
Ver. 22. This statement draws no contrast between 'ceremonial observances and spiritual duties,' nor asserts any comparative superiority of the one over the other. It merely relates a simple fact—that God neither 'spake nor commanded' anything concerning burnt-offerings or sacrifice in 'the day' that he brought Israel out of the land of Egypt. That 'day' was the day of passing the Red Sea—the last of Egypt, the first of freedom. See Ex. 15. 26. Neither was there, in the moral law, anything spoken or commanded concerning burnt-offering or sacrifice, see Ex. 20. 1-17; nor was it until the people had, through fear, 'removed and stood afar off,' and prayed that God should speak to Moses, and not to them, that any mention was made of sacrifice, Ex. 20. 24. C.
Ver. 25. Rising up early. As every word of God is fraught with plenitude of meaning, the frequent mention of 'rising up early' is not to be regarded as a casual expression, but as a divine lesson, delivered by example, in favour of early rising—a practice alike conducive to health of body, soundness of intellect, and growth in grace. C.
Ver. 27. Since God knew they would not answer, why did he send? Many evident reasons might be assigned, but the most obvious is sufficient:—though they might not answer, others might take warning by their sin of neglect and severity of punishment. C.
Ver. 33. Tophet was situated at, or close to, the junction of the glens of Hinnom and Kidron, just outside the walls of the ancient city of Jerusalem, and in full view of the temple on Moriah. It is encompassed by high rocks and naked cliffs, and every rock and cliff is honey-combed with tombs. It is a literal fact that they have buried in Tophet until there is no place. As I returned from a visit to this spot to my temporary abode on Olivet, in the gray twilight of a summer evening, I saw what appeared to me to be a terrible illustration of the fulfilment of this strange prophecy. I saw hyænas, jackals, and vultures tearing the corpses from the shallow graves in the modern Jewish cemetery on the side of the Kidron. With what harrowing vividness did the prophet's dire prediction then flash upon my mind! P.
Reflections.—God's ministers have need of great boldness in facing multitudes of obstinate sinners. And it is common for the most profligate hypocrites to hope that their external privileges will recommend them to the favour of God, and even to use them as encouragements to the most horrid impieties. One public judgment of God is ordinarily a presage of another, as well as a warning to avoid the causes of it. But, alas! hopeless is their case for whom God's people must not pray! And yet how readily children confirm the denunciations of God against their parents, by following their evil courses! Ceremonies and forms of devotion do but provoke God more and more against men, who prefer them to the standing duties of morality. Slow and gradual, but at last most certain, are his judgments upon obstinate transgressors. And hardened and barbarous sinners have their crimes fearfully marked in their punishment, and are made to change their sinful mirth into everlasting anguish.