Jeremiah Chapter 7

From The Open Bible Project

7:1 The word that came to Jeremiah from Yahweh, saying,

7:2 "Stand in the gate of Yahweh's house, and proclaim there this word, and say, 'Hear the word of Yahweh, all you of Judah, who enter in at these gates to worship Yahweh.

7:3 Thus says Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place.

7:4 Don't trust in lying words, saying, The temple of Yahweh, the temple of Yahweh, the temple of Yahweh, are these.

  • (a) Believe not the false prophets, who say that for the temple’s sake, and the sacrifices there the Lord will preserve you, and so nourish you in your sin, and vain confidence.

7:5 For if you thoroughly amend your ways and your doings; if you thoroughly execute justice between a man and his neighbor;

7:6 if you don't oppress the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow, and don't shed innocent blood in this place, neither walk after other gods to your own hurt:

7:7 then will I cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers, from of old even forevermore.

  • (b) God shows on what condition he made his promise to this temple that they would be a holy people to him, as he would be a faithful God to them.

7:8 Behold, you trust in lying words, that can't profit.

7:9 Will you steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense to Baal, and walk after other gods that you have not known,

7:10 and come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, We are delivered; that you may do all these abominations?

7:11 Is this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, I, even I, have seen it, says Yahweh.

  • (c) As thieves hidden in holes and dens think themselves safe, so when you are in my temple, you think to be covered with the holiness of it, and that I cannot see your wickedness, (Matthew 21:13).

7:12 But go now to my place which was in Shiloh, where I caused my name to dwell at the first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people Israel.

  • (d) Because they depended so much on the temple, which was for his promise, that he would be present and defend them where the ark was, he sends them to God’s judgments against Shiloh, where the ark had remained about 300 years, and after was taken, the priests slain, and the people miserably discomfited, (1 Samuel 4:11; Jeremiah 26:6).

7:13 Now, because you have done all these works, says Yahweh, and I spoke to you, rising up early and speaking, but you didn't hear; and I called you, but you didn't answer:

  • (e) That is, I never ceased to warn you, as in (Isaiah 65:2; 1:23).

(f) He shows the only remedy to redress our faults: to allow God to lead us in the way, and to obey his calling, (Isaiah 66:4).

7:14 therefore will I do to the house which is called by my name, in which you trust, and to the place which I gave to you and to your fathers, as I did to Shiloh.

7:15 I will cast you out of my sight, as I have cast out all your brothers, even the whole seed of Ephraim.

  • (g) I will send you into captivity as I have done Ephraim, that is, the ten tribes.

7:16 Therefore don't pray for this people, neither lift up a cry nor prayer for them, neither make intercession to me; for I will not hear you.

  • (h) To assure them that God had determined with himself to punish their wickedness, he shows the prayer of the godly cannot help them, while they remain in their obstinacy against God, and will not use the means that he uses to call them to repentance, (Jeremiah 11:14, Jeremiah 14:11).

7:17 Don't you see what they do in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem?

7:18 The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead the dough, to make cakes to the queen of the sky, and to pour out drink offerings to other gods, that they may provoke me to anger.

  • (i) That is, they sacrifice to the sun, moon and stars, which they called the queen of heaven, (Jeremiah 44:17; 2 Kings 23:5).

7:19 Do they provoke me to anger? says Yahweh; [do they] not [provoke] themselves, to the confusion of their own faces?

7:20 Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: Behold, my anger and my wrath shall be poured out on this place, on man, and on animal, and on the trees of the field, and on the fruit of the ground; and it shall burn, and shall not be quenched.

7:21 Thus says Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel: Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices, and eat meat.

7:22 For I didn't speak to your fathers, nor command them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices:

  • (k) Showing that it was not his chief purpose and intent, that they should offer sacrifices, but that they should regard, why they were ordained: that is, to be joined to the word as seals and confirmations of remissions of sins in Christ: for without the word they were vain and unprofitable.

7:23 but this thing I commanded them, saying, Listen to my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people; and walk in all the way that I command you, that it may be well with you.

7:24 But they didn't listen nor turn their ear, but walked in [their own] counsels [and] in the stubbornness of their evil heart, and went backward, and not forward.

7:25 Since the day that your fathers came forth out of the land of Egypt to this day, I have sent to you all my servants the prophets, daily rising up early and sending them:

  • (l) Which was about fourteen hundred years.
  • (m) Read (Jeremiah 7:13).

7:26 yet they didn't listen to me, nor inclined their ear, but made their neck stiff: they did worse than their fathers.

7:27 You shall speak all these words to them; but they will not listen to you: you shall also call to them; but they will not answer you.

  • (n) By which he shows that the pastors should not leave their flocks in their obstinacy, for the Lord will use the means of his servants to make the wicked more faulty and to prove his.

7:28 You shall tell them, This is the nation that has not listened to the voice of Yahweh their God, nor received instruction: truth is perished, and is cut off from their mouth.

7:29 Cut off your hair, [Jerusalem], and cast it away, and take up a lamentation on the bare heights; for Yahweh has rejected and forsaken the generation of his wrath.

  • (o) In sign of mourning, as in (Job 1:20).
  • (p) Against whom he had just opportunity to pour out his wrath (Micah 1:6).

7:30 For the children of Judah have done that which is evil in my sight, says Yahweh: they have set their abominations in the house which is called by my name, to defile it.

7:31 They have built the high places of Topheth, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire; which I didn't command, nor did it come into my mind.

7:32 Therefore, behold, the days come, says Yahweh, that it shall no more be called Topheth, nor The valley of the son of Hinnom, but The valley of Slaughter: for they shall bury in Topheth, until there be no place [to bury].

7:33 The dead bodies of this people shall be food for the birds of the sky, and for the animals of the earth; and none shall frighten them away.

7:34 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 become a waste.

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