Jeremiah 7:1-15 - Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible

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Bible Comments

The Temple Sermon. The prophet is sent to the gate of the Temple, to rebuke the false confidence of Yahweh's worshippers in the possession of this block of buildings (these, Jeremiah 7:4). Yahweh desires social justice (Jeremiah 7:6), moral conduct (Jeremiah 7:9), and wholehearted worship; otherwise the security inspired by the fact that the Temple belongs to Him (Jeremiah 7:10, note mg.) is utterly baseless. Yahweh will not permit His Temple to become like some cave which shelters robbers (Jeremiah 7:11; cf. Matthew 21:13), but will destroy it as He destroyed that of Shiloh, and will banish Judah as He banished the northern tribes (Ephraim) from His land. The confidence in the possession of the Temple which is here rebuked was a natural outcome of the reformation under Josiah (2 Kings 22 f.), which made it the only centre of worship; the remarkable deliverance of Jerusalem from Sennacherib in 701 (2 Kings 19:35) had also contributed to the belief that the city was inviolable. The effect of the prophet's words in denouncing this sense of security is described in Jeremiah 26, which refers to the same occasion, i.e. soon after 608 B.C.

Jeremiah 7:6. Stranger denotes the settled foreigner; cf. Deuteronomy 1:16, etc.

Jeremiah 7:12. Shiloh: in Ephraim, with Eli as its priest (1 Samuel 1-3), and the Ark as its pride; it was probably destroyed by the Philistines after the victory described in 1 Samuel 4:10 ff.; cf. 1 Samuel 7:1 *, Psalms 78:60.

Jeremiah 7:15. Omit the first all, with LXX.

Related Commentaries of Jeremiah 7:1

Jeremiah 7:1-15

1 The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying,

2 Stand in the gate of the LORD'S house, and proclaim there this word, and say, Hear 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, 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 LORD, The temple of the LORD, The temple of the LORD, 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 LORD.

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 LORD, 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.