Jeremiah 7:4 - Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible

Because this was God's house, wherein he had promised to dwell, and that for ever, Psalms 132:13,14, they flattered themselves that he could dwell no where else, and would not depart, and certainly would not suffer the Chaldeans to destroy this, and therefore that no evil could befall them, as they promised themselves, Micah 3:11; therefore the prophet cautions them not to deceive themselves in trusting to the temple and its buildings, as the two courts, and house, and holy of holies, implied in the word these, which he doth as it were point to with his finger; (for where the prophets speak distinctly of the form of the temple, they reckon the court, where the people did sacrifice, and the holy place, or house, whereinto the priests only did enter, and the oracle, or holy of holies, wherein was the ark of the covenant, and into which only the high priest entered, and that but once a year;) which these hypocrites looked upon themselves secured by, as it were, by a treble wall, fort, or bulwark, that they could not miscarry; but he would have them to know that neither these, nor the services belonging to them, will be able to secure them, Jeremiah 7:8 Jeremiah 4:14; and it is likely their false prophets did thus persuade them, whose prophecies he calls here these lying words; but God will have them know that he doth not choose a nation for the place's sake, but the place for the nation's sake; the like caution the apostle gives them, 1 Corinthians 10:2, &c. The emphasis that may be in this threefold repetition seems rather to relate to the confident and often reiterated brags and boasts of the temple that were in their mouths, than the worth and excellency of it, in regard of God's owning it. These; the prophet, standing in the gate at which the people entered, doth as it were point at the several buildings appertaining to the temple, viz. the courts, house, oracle, &c.