Jeremiah 7 commentary

JEREMIAH 7 COMME TARY
EDITED BY GLE PEASE
False Religion Worthless
1 This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the
Lord:
BAR ES 1-2, "In Jer. 7–10 he addresses the people as they flocked into Jerusalem
from the country, to attend the solemn services in the temple upon a fastday. Jehoiakim
Jer. 26 had just ascended the throne, and was so incensed at this sermon that he would
have put Jeremiah to death but for the influence of Ahikam. With the accession of
Jehoiakim all hope of averting the ruin of the country had passed away. He represented
the reverse of his father’s policy, and belonged to that faction, who placed their sole hope
of deliverance in a close alliance with Pharaoh-Necho. As this party rejected the
distinctive principles of the theocracy, and the king was personally an irreligious man,
the maintenance of the worship of Yahweh was no longer an object of the public care. At
this time upon a public fast-day, appointed probably because of the calamities under
which the nation was laboring, Jeremiah was commanded by Yahweh to stand at the
gate of the temple, and address to the people as they entered words of solemn warning.
The whole sermon divides itself into three parts;
In Jer. 7–10 he addresses the people as they flocked into Jerusalem from the country,
to attend the solemn services in the temple upon a fastday. Jehoiakim Jer. 26 had just
ascended the throne, and was so incensed at this sermon that he would have put
Jeremiah to death but for the influence of Ahikam. With the accession of Jehoiakim all
hope of averting the ruin of the country had passed away. He represented the reverse of
his father’s policy, and belonged to that faction, who placed their sole hope of
deliverance in a close alliance with Pharaoh-Necho. As this party rejected the distinctive
principles of the theocracy, and the king was personally an irreligious man, the
maintenance of the worship of Yahweh was no longer an object of the public care. At this
time upon a public fast-day, appointed probably because of the calamities under which
the nation was laboring, Jeremiah was commanded by Yahweh to stand at the gate of the
temple, and address to the people as they entered words of solemn warning. The whole
sermon divides itself into three parts;
(1) It points out the folly of the superstitious confidence placed by the people in the
temple, while they neglect the sole sure foundation of a nation’s hope. A sanctuary long
polluted by immorality must inevitably be destroyed Jer. 7:2–8:3.
(2) complaints follow of a more general character, in which the growing wickedness of
the nation and especially of the leaders is pointed out Jer. 8:4–9:24.
(3) lastly the prophet shows the possibility of averting the evils impending upon the

nation Jer. 9:25–10:25.
Jer_10:1-2. The temple had several entrances 2Ch_4:9; and the gate or door here
mentioned is probably that of the inner court, where Baruch read Jeremiah’s scroll Jer_
36:10. The prophet stood in the doorway, and addressed the people assembled in the
outer court.
All ye of Judah - Better, literally all Judah (compare Jer_26:2).
CLARKE, "The word that came to Jeremiah - This prophecy is supposed to
have been delivered in the first year of the reign of Jehoiakim, son of Josiah, who, far
from following the example of his pious father, restored idolatry, maintained bad priests
and worse prophets, and filled Jerusalem with abominations of all kinds.
GILL, "The word that came to Jeremiah,.... The Word of prophecy, as the
Targum:
from the Lord, saying; this begins a new prophecy. This verse, and the beginning of
the next, are wanting in the Septuagint version.
HE RY, "These verses begin another sermon, which is continued in this and the two
following chapters, much to the same effect with those before, to reason them to
repentance. Observe,
I. The orders given to the prophet to preach this sermon; for he had not only a general
commission, but particular directions and instructions for every message he delivered.
This was a word that came to him from the Lord, Jer_7:1. We are not told when this
sermon was to be preached; but are told, 1. Where it must be preached - in the gate of
the Lord's house, through which they entered into the outer court, or the court of the
people. It would affront the priests, and expose the prophet to their rage, to have such a
message as this delivered within their precincts; but the prophet must not fear the face
of man, he cannot be faithful to his God if he do. 2. To whom it must be preached - to the
men of Judah, that enter in at these gates to worship the Lord; probably it was at one of
three feasts, when all the males from all parts of the country were to appear before the
Lord in the courts of his house, and not to appear empty: then he had many together to
preach to, and that was the most seasonable time to admonish them not to trust to their
privileges. Note, (1.) Even those that profess religion have need to be preached to as well
as those that are without. (2.) It is desirable to have opportunity of preaching to many
together. Wisdom chooses to cry in the chief place of concourse, and, as Jeremiah here,
in the opening of the gates, the temple-gates. (3.) When we are going to worship God we
have need to be admonished to worship him in the spirit, and to have no confidence in
the flesh, Phi_3:3.
JAMISO , "Jer_7:1-34. The seventh through ninth chapters. Delivered in the
beginning of Jehoiakim’s reign, on the occasion of some public festival.
The prophet stood at the gate of the temple in order that the multitudes from the
country might hear him. His life was threatened, it appears from Jer_26:1-9, for this
prophecy, denouncing the fate of Shiloh as about to befall the temple at Jerusalem. The
prophecy given in detail here is summarily referred to there. After Josiah’s death the

nation relapsed into idolatry through Jehoiakim’s bad influence; the worship of Jehovah
was, however, combined with it (Jer_7:4, Jer_7:10).
K&D, "The vanity of trusting in the temple. - Jer_7:1. "The word that came to
Jeremiah from Jahveh, saying, Jer_7:2. Stand in the gate of the house of Jahveh, and
proclaim there this word, and say, Hear the word of Jahveh, all ye of Judah, that enter
these gates to worship before Jahveh: Jer_7:3. Thus hath spoken Jahveh of hosts, the
God of Israel, Make your ways and your doings good, and I will cause you to dwell in
this place. Jer_7:4. Trust ye not in lying words, when they say, The temple of Jahveh,
the temple of Jahveh, the temple of Jahveh, is this. Jer_7:5. But if ye thoroughly make
your ways good, and your doings; if ye thoroughly execute right amongst one another;
Jer_7:6. Oppress not stranger, fatherless, and widow, and shed not innocent blood in
this place, neither follow after other gods to your hurt; Jer_7:7. Then I cause you to
dwell in this place, in the land which I have given unto your fathers, from eternity unto
eternity. Jer_7:8. Behold, ye trust in lying words, though they profit not. Jer_7:9.
How? to steal, to murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and offer odours to
Baal, and to walk after other gods whom ye know not? Jer_7:10. And then ye come and
stand before my face in this house, upon which my name is named, and think, We are
saved to do all these abominations. Jer_7:11. Is then this house become a den or
murderers, over which my name is named, in your eyes? I too, behold, have seen it,
saith Jahveh. Jer_7:12. For go ye now to may place which was at Shiloh, where I
formerly caused my name to dwell, and see what I have done unto it for the wickedness
of my people Israel. Jer_7:13. And now, because ye do all these deeds, saith Jahve, and
I have spoken to you, speaking from early morning on, and ye have not heard; and I
have called you, and ye have not answered; Jer_7:14. Therefore I do unto this house,
over which my name is named, wherein ye trust, and unto the place which I have given
to you and to your fathers, as I have done unto Shiloh. Jer_7:15. And cast you away
from my face, as I have cast away all your brethren, the whole seed of Ephraim."
COFFMA , "Verse 1
JEREMIAH 7
JEREMIAH'S TEMPLE SERMO
Another title of this chapter would be, "Repentance the Only Hope of Israel." God
commanded Jeremiah to stand in the gate, or entrance, to the Temple and to
denounce the grievous sins and debaucheries of the people, probably upon one of
the great festive occasions when the crowds were thronging to the temple.
How strange it is that the people denounced by this address were the very people of
whom it might be supposed that they were the true worshippers of God. The
symbolism is dramatic. The temple itself was a stronghold of false priests, "a den of
thieves and robbers," even as Christ referred to it at a far later date. The picture is
startling. Jeremiah, the true preacher of God's Word, cannot get into the temple at
all. He must stand in the gate, on the steps, at the entrance!
We shall observe the following chapter divisions. First, there is a statement of the
case against Judah, coupled with a reiteration of the Law of God and a ringing

command for the people of God to repent of their apostasy (Jeremiah 7:1-7). Then
there is a further description of the people's apostasy and of their rejection of God's
Word (Jeremiah 7:8-12). This is followed by the announcement of God's judgment
against them (Jeremiah 7:13-15). There follows an attack against the false worship
of the Queen of Heaven (Jeremiah 7:16-20). The prophet denounced their
supposition that sacrifices could be substituted for true obedience to God's Word
(Jeremiah 7:21-28). The chapter concludes with a vehement condemnation of the
sacrifice of children to Molech in the Valley of Hinnom, and other evil practices
(Jeremiah 7:29-34).
Jeremiah 7:1-3
"The word that came to Jeremiah from Jehovah, saying, Stand in the gate of
Jehovah's house, and proclaim there this word, and say, Hear the word of Jehovah,
all ye of Judah that enter in at these gates to worship Jehovah. Thus saith Jehovah
of hosts, the God of Israel, Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you
to dwell in this place."
Cook spoke of the date of this appeal as follows:
"This prophecy was spoken in the first year of Jehoiachim, when the probation of
Judah was virtually over, and it constitutes the final solemn appeal to the conscience
of the people, and a protest while the new king was still young upon his throne,
against the ruinous course upon which he so immediately entered."[1]
Why did Judah so desperately need the stern admonition of the prophet here which,
in short, demanded that they immediately and completely change their behavior!
Why? They were a nation of evil doers, violating every commandment in the
Deca1ogue, and yet frequenting the temple services and making the customary
sacrifices, supposing that these external activities would assure their safety and
protection from God, no matter what evil deeds they were guilty of.
There was also a wide-spread opinion among the people that as long as the Temple
stood the whole nation was guaranteed by God Himself of their safety and security.
Ash noted that, "The reforms of Josiah (superficial as they were) had focused
attention on the temple, and had apparently created the illusion that God would
never let it be destroyed."[2] Also as Robinson observed, "The remarkable
deliverance of the city from Sennacherib in 701 B.C. had contributed to the belief
that Jerusalem was inviolable."[3]
The correction of such erroneous opinions on the part of the populace was surely
one of the purposes of Jeremiah's address.
COKE, "Verse 1-2
Jeremiah 7:1-2. The word that came to Jeremiah— We have here a new discourse,
which reaches to the 13th chapter, wherein the prophet declaims against the vices of
Judah and Jerusalem, particularly their hypocrisy and false confidence in their

religious principles; delivering also some threats against Edom, Moab, Ammon, and
the people of Arabia: see chap. Jeremiah 9:26. Jeremiah pronounced this discourse
at the east gate of the temple, which led directly to it, before all the people who
entered there. See Calmet.
BE SO , "Jeremiah 7:1. The word of the Lord, &c. — The date of this new
sermon is not precisely marked, but it is probable it was delivered not long after the
preceding one, and on the following occasion. “Besides the prophets who were
commissioned to announce the approaching calamities of Judah and Jerusalem,
there were others who took upon themselves to flatter the people with opposite
predictions. They taught them to look upon such threats as groundless, since God,
they said, would have too much regard to his own honour, to suffer his temple to be
profaned, and the seat of his holiness to be given up into the hand of strangers.
Jeremiah is therefore commanded openly to reprove the falsehood of these
assertions, and to show, by an example in point, that the sanctity of the place would
afford no security to the guilty; but that God would assuredly do by his house at
Jerusalem what he had done unto Shiloh; and cast the people of Judah out of his
sight as he had already cast off the people of Israel for their wickedness.” — Blaney.
ELLICOTT, "(1) This chapter and the three that follow form again another great
prophetic sermon, delivered to the crowds that flocked to the Temple. There is
nothing in the discourse which absolutely fixes its date, but the description of
idolatry, as prevalent, and, possibly, the reference to the presence of the Chaldæan
invader in Jeremiah 8:16; Jeremiah 10:22, fit in rather with the reign of Jehoiakim
than with that of Josiah; and from the special reference to Shiloh in Jeremiah 26:6;
Jeremiah 26:9, as occurring in a prophecy delivered at the beginning of that reign, it
was probably this discourse, or one like it, and delivered about the same time, that
drew down that king’s displeasure (see Jeremiah 7:14).
PETT, "Verses 1-15
Judah Must ot Trust In The Presence Of The Temple For Security Because As A
Result Of Their Evil Ways YHWH Intends To Do To The Temple What He Did To
His House At Shiloh, Destroy It (Jeremiah 7:1-15).
As a result of the amazing deliverance of Jerusalem with its Temple from the
Assyrians in the time of Hezekiah, and what had in contrast happened to
neighbouring temples, the myth had grown up that the security of Jerusalem was
guaranteed by the presence of the Temple among them. Their view had become that
YHWH would not allow His Temple to be destroyed so that the Temple was
inviolable. In consequence they had gained the false confidence that they too would
be secure in Jerusalem, whatever their behaviour. In this passage therefore YHWH
calls on Jeremiah to dispel that myth and make clear to all Judah that such
dependence was totally false. Indeed the truth was that unless they repented He
intended to do to the Temple precisely what He had done to His previous house at
Shiloh (something that they had overlooked), allow it to be utterly destroyed.
On the basis of Jeremiah 26:1 it is accepted by many that these words were spoken

at the commencement of the reign of Jehoiakim in around 609 BC. They argue that
the similarities are too striking to be ignored. Others, however, disagree and argue
that the similarities are not such as to demand that the incidents are the same and
that Jeremiah might well have given the substance of this message a number of
times, even in the time of Josiah. It is then especially pointed out that here there is
no indication of a violent response by the priests, something which is very
prominent in chapter 26. That is seen as indicating the restraining hand of Josiah.
Furthermore, they say, here the message was given in the gate of YHWH’s house,
while in chapter 26 it was in the court of YHWH’s house
Jeremiah 7:1
‘The word that came to Jeremiah from YHWH, saying,’
For the idea behind these words see Jeremiah 1:4, (the word of YHWH came to me
saying’); Jeremiah 2:4, (hear you the word of YHWH --); Jeremiah 3:6, (moreover
YHWH said to me in the days of Josiah the king’). It was introductory to a new
series of prophecies. And it stressed that what Jeremiah was proclaiming was the
true word of YHWH.
BI 1-7, "Stand in the gate . . . and proclaim.
Boldness in preaching
Some preachers are traders from port to port, following the customary and approved
course; others adventure over the whole ocean of human concerns. The former are
hailed by the common voice of the multitude, whose cause they hold, the latter blamed
as idle, often suspected of hiding deep designs, always derided as having lost all guess of
the proper course. Yet, of the latter class of preachers was Paul the apostle. Such
adventurers, under God, this age of the world seems to us especially to want. There are
ministers now to hold the flock in pasture and in safety, but where are they to make
inroads upon the alien, to bring in the votaries of fashion, of literature, of sentiment, of
policy, and of rank? Truly, it is not stagers who take on the customary form of their office
and go the beaten round of duty, and then lie down content; but it is daring adventurers,
who shall eye from the grand eminence of a holy and heavenly mind all the grievances
which religion underlies, and all the obstacles which stay her course, and then descend
with the self-denial and faith of an apostle to set the battle in array against them.
(Edward Irving.)
Enter in at these gates to worship the Lord.—
The character required in those the would worship God
The heathen had a notion that the gods would not like the service and sacrifice of any
but such as were like themselves, and therefore to the sacrifice of Hercules none were to
be admitted that were dwarfs; and to the sacrifice of Bacchus, a merry god, none that
were sad and pensive, as not suiting their genius. An excellent truth may be drawn from
their folly: he that would like to please God must be like God. (H. G. Salter.)

Amend your ways and your doings.—
Religion, the best security to Church and State
I. Religion, and the general practice of it in a nation, is the surest establishment of states
and kingdoms.
1. This is true in a natural way; because the duties of religion have a natural tendency
to those things which are the foundations of that establishment, namely, peace,
unity, and order.
2. But besides a natural tendency in virtue and goodness to the establishment of
states and kingdoms, as many as believe religion must likewise believe that the
general practice of it in a nation will be always attended with a supernatural blessing
from God. For this is the result of all the declarations of God, as to the manner and
rule of His dealings with mankind, whether persons or nations, that as many as
faithfully serve and obey Him, shall be assuredly intituled to His favour and
protection.
II. In every nation it is the proper business of the civil magistrates, as such, to vindicate
and maintain the honour of religion. And when I am speaking of authority, and the
vigorous application thereof by the magistrate, I cannot omit one thing, which is a
mighty enforcement of it, a good example; which, in its nature, is the most forcible way
of teaching and correcting, and without which, neither the instructions of ministers, nor
the authority of magistrates, can avail, to the effectual discouragement and suppression
of vice.
III. Without a serious regard to the moral and spiritual duties of religion, the greatest
zeal in other matters, even though it be for the established worship of God, will not
secure the Divine favour and protection, either to persons or nations. The external rites
of religion are good helps to devotion, and proper means of maintaining order and
decency in the public worship; and a zeal to preserve them, with a serious regard to
those pious and wise ends, is very laudable: but to believe that zeal for them will atone
for a neglect of the moral and spiritual duties of religion is a dangerous error. (E. Gibson,
D. D.)
The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, are
these.
The folly of trusting in external privileges
I. We are to show the extreme folly of trusting to any religious privileges, while our
hearts remain unrenewed and our lives unholy. On what ground can we rely on the
continuance of God’s favour under such circumstances? Should we, because a friend had
conferred many benefits upon us, and forgiven us many offences, be justified in
supposing that there would be no limit to his endurance? Yet the Jews—and their case is
not singular—seemed to claim a special right to the continued favour of God, in virtue of
their religious privileges; not considering that those privileges were a free gift; that they
might at any time be withdrawn, without a shadow of injustice; and that while they
lasted they were intended to operate, not as inducements to presumption, but as motives
to love and thankfulness and obedience. They had in themselves no spiritual efficacy.
Neither the character of God, nor His promises, held out any ground of hope on which to
build such a conclusion. It would not have been consistent with His holiness, or wisdom,
or justice, that the sinner should escape under the plea of any national or personal

privileges, however great. And His promises, both temporal and spiritual, were all made
in accordance with the same principle. “If ye walk in My statutes, and keep My
commandments and do them . . . then I will walk among you, and I will be your God;. .
.but if ye will not hearken unto Me, and will not do all these commandments,. . .I will set
My face against you.” The whole tenor of God’s providential dispensations is likewise to
the same effect. And accordingly, the Jews, great as were their national mercies, found
on numerous occasions that they were not exempt from the just displeasure of their
Divine Governor. Yet, with all these proofs of God’s righteous judgments, their constant
cry was, “The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord”: they caught hold, as it were, of
the horns of the altar with unhallowed hands; and, notwithstanding the threatenings of
the Almighty, were ever prone to trust in those external privileges. At the very time when
they were committing the grievous enormities of which the prophet Jeremiah convicts
them, they were zealous for the outward worship of God, and boasted highly of their
religious profession. But could any folly be greater than that of supposing that this
insincere worship could satisfy Him who searcheth the heart and trieth the reins? The
prophet forcibly points out the extreme folly and delusiveness of such expectations:
“Go,” he says, “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. 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 unto you, but ye answered not; 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.” Having thus considered the extreme
folly of trusting to external privileges, while the heart is unrenewed and the life unholy,
we are—
II. To show that this folly is too common in all ages; and that we ourselves, perhaps, are
guilty of it. How many pride themselves in being zealous Protestants, or strict members
of the Established Church, or regular attendants on public worship, while they live in the
spirit of the world, and without any scriptural evidence of being in a state of favour with
God! How many trust to the supposed orthodoxy of their faith; or to their zeal against
infidelity, enthusiasm; while they are ignorant of the scriptural way of salvation, and
indifferent to the great concern of making their calling and election sure! How many
cherish a secret hope from the prayers of religious parents, the zeal and piety of their
ministers. In short, innumerable are the ways in which persons deceive themselves on
these subjects; fancying that the temple of the Lord is among them; and on this vain
surmise remaining content and careless in their sins, and ignorant of all true religion.
Now let us ask ourselves, in conclusion, whether such is our own case. On what are we
placing our hopes for eternity? Are we resting upon anything superficial or external;
upon anything short of genuine conversion of heart to God? True piety is not anything
that can be done for us; it must be engrafted in us; it must dwell in our hearts, and show
its blessed effects in our conduct. (Christian Observer.)
2 “Stand at the gate of the Lord’s house and there
proclaim this message:

“‘Hear the word of the Lord, all you people of
Judah who come through these gates to worship
the Lord.
BAR ES, "In Jer. 7–10 he addresses the people as they flocked into Jerusalem from
the country, to attend the solemn services in the temple upon a fastday. Jehoiakim Jer.
26 had just ascended the throne, and was so incensed at this sermon that he would have
put Jeremiah to death but for the influence of Ahikam. With the accession of Jehoiakim
all hope of averting the ruin of the country had passed away. He represented the reverse
of his father’s policy, and belonged to that faction, who placed their sole hope of
In Jer. 7–10 he addresses the people as they flocked into Jerusalem from the country,
to attend the solemn services in the temple upon a fastday. Jehoiakim Jer. 26 had just
ascended the throne, and was so incensed at this sermon that he would have put
Jeremiah to death but for the influence of Ahikam. With the accession of Jehoiakim all
hope of averting the ruin of the country had passed away. He represented the reverse of
his father’s policy, and belonged to that faction, who placed their sole hope of
(1) It points out the folly of the superstitious confidence placed by the people in the
temple, while they neglect the sole sure foundation of a nation’s hope. A sanctuary long
polluted by immorality must inevitably be destroyed Jer. 7:2–8:3.
(2) complaints follow of a more general character, in which the growing wickedness of
the nation and especially of the leaders is pointed out Jer. 8:4–9:24.
(3) lastly the prophet shows the possibility of averting the evils impending upon the
nation Jer. 9:25–10:25.
Jer_10:1-2. The temple had several entrances 2Ch_4:9; and the gate or door here
mentioned is probably that of the inner court, where Baruch read Jeremiah’s scroll Jer_
36:10. The prophet stood in the doorway, and addressed the people assembled in the
outer court.

All ye of Judah - Better, literally all Judah (compare Jer_26:2).
CLARKE, "Stand in the gate of the Lord’s house - There was a show of public
worship kept up. The temple was considered God’s residence; the usual ceremonies of
religion restored by Josiah were still observed; and the people were led to consider the
temple and its services as sacred things, which would be preservatives to them in case of
the threatened invasion.
GILL, "Stand in the gate of the Lord's house,.... That is, of the temple, and the
court of it. This gate, as Kimchi says, was the eastern gate, which was the principal gate
of all; see Jer_26:2,
and proclaim there this word, and say; with a loud voice, as follows:
hear ye the word of the Lord, all ye of Judah; the inhabitants of the several parts
of Judea, which came to the temple to worship; very probably it was a feast day, as
Calvin conjectures; either the passover, or pentecost, or feast of tabernacles, when all the
males in Israel appeared in court:
that enter in at these gates to worship the Lord; there were seven gates belonging
to the court, three on the north, three on the south, and one in the east, the chief of all,
as Kimchi, Abarbinel, and Ben Melech observe; and this agrees with the account in the
Misna (k). The names of them were these; on the south side were these three, the
watergate, the gate of the firstlings; or the gate of offering, and the gate of kindling; on
the north were these three, the gate Nitzotz, called also the gate of the song, the gate
Korban, sometimes called the gate of women, and Beth Moked; and the gate in the east
was the gate Nicanor, and this gate was the most frequented; and therefore Jeremiah
was ordered to stand here, and deliver his message.
JAMISO , "the gate — that is, the gate of the court of Israel within that of the
women. Those whom Jeremiah addresses came through the gate leading into the court
of the women, and the gate leading into the outer court, or court of the Gentiles (“these
gates”).
K&D, "Jer_7:2
The gate of the temple into which the prophet was to go and stand, is doubtless one of
the three gates of the inner or upper court, in which he could stand and address the
people gathered before him, in the outer court; perhaps the same in which Baruch read
Jeremiah's prophecies to the people, Jer_36:10 (Schmid, Hitz.). The gates through
which the people entered to worship are those of the outer court. The form of address:
All Judah, ye who enter, etc., warrant us in assuming that Jeremiah delivered this
discourse at one of the great annual festivals, when the people were wont to gather to
Jerusalem from the length and breadth of the land.

CALVI , "Here the Prophet gives a short account of the sermon, in which he
severely reproved the people, because his labor had been useless, though he had
sharply and severely reproved them. He says then, that he had a command from
above to stand at the gate of the Temple. This was indeed usually done by the
prophets: but God seems to have intended that this reproof should be heard by all.
He says further, that he was commanded to address the whole tribe of Judeah
It is hence probable, and what may be easily concluded, that this discourse was
delivered on a feast — day, when there was the usual assembly of the people. He
could not indeed have made this address on other days; for then the inhabitants of
the city only frequented the Temple. But on the feast — days they usually came
from the neighboring towns and from the whole country to celebrate God’s rightful
worship, which had been prescribed in the law. Since then Jeremiah addressed the
whole tribe of Judah, we hence conclude, that he spoke not only to the inhabitants of
the city, but also to the whole tribe, which came together to keep the feast — day.
ow the object of his sermon was, to exhort them seriously to repent, if they wished
God to be reconciled to them. So the Prophet shews, that God did not regard their
sacrifices and external rites, and that this was not the way, as they thought, of
appeasing him. For after they had celebrated the feast, every one returned home, as
though they all, after having made an expiation, had God propitious to them. The
Prophet shews here, that the way of worshipping God was very different, which was
to reform their lives.
COKE, "Jeremiah 7:4. The temple of the Lord are these— These gates, in which
Jeremiah was commanded to stand: so in the Gospel our Savour says, See you all
these things? pointing to the temple, of which one stone was not to be left upon
another. The threefold repetition of the temple of the Lord, expresses great
vehemence, and an extreme presumption in these people. The prophet in
apostrophizing Judaea, chap. Jeremiah 22:29 makes use of a like threefold
repetition.
TRAPP, "Jeremiah 7:2 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.
Ver. 2. Stand in the gate of the Lord’s house.] The east gate, which was the most
famous and most frequented of the people, and therefore fittest for the purpose.
And proclaim there this word.] Stand there with this word (as once the angel with a
terrible sword did at the porch of paradise) to excommunicate, as it were, this
hypocritical people; and do it verbis non tantum disertis sed et exertis, plainly and
boldly.
BE SO , "Jeremiah 7:2. Stand in the gates of the Lord’s house — amely, the east
gate of the temple, which led directly to it, where he delivered this discourse, before

all the people who entered there. And proclaim there this word — Proclaiming
signifies both the authority by which he spake, and the divulging of what he spake
plainly and boldly. And as it was in so public a place, namely, at the entrance of the
court of the people, not of that of the priests, that he uttered this prophecy, so
possibly it might be at one of the three feasts, when all the males from all parts of
the country were to appear before the Lord in the courts of his house. In that case
he would have many collected together to preach to, and that was the most
seasonable time to admonish them not to trust in their privileges.
ELLICOTT, "(2) The gate of the Lord’s house.—As a priest, Jeremiah would have
access to all parts of the Temple. On some day when the courts were thronged with
worshippers (Jeremiah 7:10), probably a fast-day specially appointed, he stands at
the inner gate of one of the courts, possibly, as in Jeremiah 17:19, that by which the
king entered in ceremonial state, and looking about on the multitudes that thronged
it, speaks to them “the word of the Lord,” the message which he had been specially
commissioned to deliver.
PETT, "Jeremiah 7:2
“Stand in the gate of YHWH’s house, and proclaim there this word, and say, ‘Hear
the word of YHWH, all you of Judah, who enter in at these gates to worship
YHWH.’ ”
Jeremiah was called on to stand in the gate of YHWH’s house. This was probably
the gate that led into the inner court, (the court that would later become the court of
the priests), and it may well have been seen as a place for the making of
proclamations. He was probably looking outwards from the raised gateway towards
the crowds gathered in the outer court, presumably during one of the main feasts of
Israel.
PULPIT, "Stand in the gate; i.e. not an outer gate (for the outer court would be
filled with the people whom Jeremiah was to address), but one of the three gates
which led from the inner court to the outer. Probably it was the gate where Baruch
recited the prophecies of Jeremiah at a later period, and which is designated "the
new gate of the Lord's house," and said to have been situated in the "upper" i.e.
inner court (Jeremiah 36:10; comp. Jeremiah 26:10). We may conjecture that either
one of the three great festivals or some extraordinary fast had brought a large
number of people together at the temple.
3 This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of
Israel, says: Reform your ways and your actions,

and I will let you live in this place.
BAR ES, "If the people repented, instead of being led into captivity, God would
maintain their national existence. It is a promise of the continuance of an old blessing.
GILL, "Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel,.... The Lord of armies
above and below in general, and the God of Israel in particular; wherefore they ought to
hearken to what he was about to say, and to be obedient to him:
amend your ways and your doings; or, "make them good" (l); which shows that
they were bad, and were not agreeable to the law and will of God, to which they ought to
have been conformed; and the way to amend them was to act according to the rule of the
divine word they were favoured with:
and I will cause you to dwell in this place; to continue to dwell in Jerusalem, and
in Judea, the land of their nativity, and in the temple, the house of God, and place of
religious worship; but, if not, it is suggested that they should not continue here, but be
carried captive into a strange land.
HE RY 3-7, "The contents and scope of the sermon itself. It is delivered in the name
of the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, who commands the world, but covenants with his
people. As creatures we are bound to regard the Lord of hosts, as Christians the God of
Israel; what he said to them he says to us, and it is much the same with that which John
Baptist said to those whom he baptized (Mat_3:8, Mat_3:9), Bring forth fruits meet for
repentance; and think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father.
The prophet here tells them,
1. What were the true words of God, which they might trust to. In short, they might
depend upon it that if they would repent and reform their lives, and return to God in a
way of duty, he would restore and confirm their peace, would redress their grievances,
and return to them in a way of mercy (Jer_7:3): Amend your ways and your doings.
This implies that there had been much amiss in their ways and doings, many faults and
errors. But it is a great instance of the favour of God to them that he gives them liberty to
amend, shows them where and how they must amend, and promises to accept them
upon their amendment: “I will cause you to dwell quietly and peaceably in this place,
and a stop shall be put to that which threatens your expulsion.” Reformation is the only
way, and a sure way to ruin. He explains himself (Jer_7:5-7), and tells them particularly,
(1.) What the amendment was which he expected from them. They must thoroughly
amend; in making good, they must make good their ways and doings; they must
reform with resolution, and it must be a universal, constant, preserving reformation -
not partial, but entire - not hypocritical, but sincere - not wavering, but constant. They
must make the tree good, and so make the fruit good, must amend their hearts and
thoughts, and so amend their ways and doings. In particular, [1.] They must be honest
and just in all their dealings. Those that had power in their hands must thoroughly

execute judgment between a man and his neighbour, without partiality, and according
as the merits of the cause appeared. They must not either in judgment or in contract
oppress the stranger, the fatherless, or the widow, nor countenance or protect those
that did oppress, nor refuse to do them justice when they sought for it. They must not
shed innocent blood, and with it defile this place and the land wherein they dwelt. [2.]
They must keep closely to the worship of the true God only: “Neither walk after other
gods; do not hanker after them, nor hearken to those that would draw you into
communion with idolaters; for it is, and will be, to your own hurt. Be not only so just to
your God, but so wise for yourselves, as not to throw away your adorations upon those
who are not able to help you, and thereby provoke him who is able to destroy you.” Well,
this is all that God insists upon.
JAMISO , "cause you to dwell — permit you still to dwell (Jer_18:11; Jer_26:13).
K&D, "Jer_7:3-4
Jer_7:3 contains the central idea of the discourse: it is only morally good endeavours
and deeds that give the people a sure title to a long lease of the land. ‫יב‬ ִ‫יט‬ ֵ‫ה‬ is not merely,
amend one's conduct; but, make one's way good, i.e., lead a good life. The "ways" mean
the tendency of life at large, the "doings" are the individual manifestations of that
tendency; cf. Jer_18:11; Jer_26:13. "In this place," i.e., in the land that I have given to
your fathers; cf. Jer_7:8 and Jer_14:13 with Jer_7:15, Jer_24:5-6. Positive exhortation
to a pure life is followed by negative dehortation from putting trust in the illusion: The
temple, etc. The threefold repetition of the same word is the most marked way of laying
very great emphasis upon it; cf. Jer_22:29, Isa_6:3. "These," these halls, the whole
complex mass of buildings (Hitz.), as in 2Ch_8:11; and here ‫ה‬ ָ ֵ‫ה‬ has the force of the
neuter; cf. Ew. §318, b. The meaning of this emphatic way of mentioning the temple of
the Lord is, in this connection, the following: Jerusalem cannot be destroyed by enemies,
because the Lord has consecrated for the abode of His name that temple which is in
Jerusalem; for the Lord will not give His sanctuary, the seat of His throne, to be a prey to
the heathen, but will defend it, and under its protection we too may dwell safely. In the
temple of the Lord we have a sure pledge for unbroken possession of the land and the
maintenance of the kingdom. Cf. the like discourse in Mic_3:11, "Jahveh is in our midst,
upon us none evil can come." This passage likewise shows that the "lying words" quoted
are the sayings of the false prophets, whereby they confirmed the people in their secure
sinfulness; the mass of the people at the same time so making these sayings their own as
to lull themselves into the sense of security.
CALVI , "Make good, he says, your ways and your doings, then will I dwell in this
place (189) This promise contains an implied contrast; for the Prophet intimates,
that the people would not long survive, unless they sought in another way to pacify
God. “I will dwell, “he seems to say, — in this place, when your life is changed.” It
then follows on the other hand, “God will drive you into exile, except you change
your life: in vain then do you seek a quiet and happy state through offering your
sacrifices. God indeed esteems as nothing this external worship, except it be
preceded by inward sincerity, unless integrity of life accompanies your profession.”
This is one thing.

TRAPP, "Jeremiah 7:3 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.
Ver. 3. Amend your ways and your doings.] Heb., Make good your ways, sc., by
repentance for and from your sins, and by believing the Gospel. Defaecantur enim
mores, ubi medullitus excipitur evangelium. Amendment of life is an upright,
earnest, and constant endeavour to do all that God commandeth, and to forbear
what he forbiddeth.
BE SO , "Jeremiah 7:3. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel — As
creatures, we are all bound to regard the Lord of hosts; as members of the visible
church, the God of Israel; what he said to them he says to us; and it is much the
same with that which John the Baptist said to those whom he baptized, Matthew
3:8-9. Bring forth fruits meet for repentance, and think not to say, within
yourselves, We have Abraham for our father. Amend your ways and your doings —
This implies that there had been much amiss in their ways and doings, but it was a
great instance of the goodness of God to them, that he gave them liberty to amend,
showed them wherein and how they must amend, and promised to accept them upon
their amendment. And I will cause you to dwell in this place — amely, quietly and
peaceably. You shall not go into captivity, but a stop shall be put to that which
threatens your expulsion. Observe, reader, reformation is the only way, and a sure
way to prevent ruin.
PETT, "Jeremiah 7:3
“Thus says YHWH of hosts, the God of Israel, ‘Amend your ways and your doings,
and I will cause you to dwell in this place.’ ”
His words commenced with a call from YHWH of hosts, as ‘the God of Israel’,
addressed to what remained of ‘Israel’, requiring them to amend their ways,
accompanied by an assurance that if they did so He would enable them to continue
dwelling in the land, and in Jerusalem. So even at this point there was hope for them
if they truly repented.
‘In this place.’ That is, in this land, compare Jeremiah 7:7; Jeremiah 7:20.
Alternately in context it might indicate the Temple, repointing the text to read, ‘I
will dwell with you in this place’. For this place’ compare the stress in Deuteronomy
12 on ‘the place which YHWH your God will choose’.
4 Do not trust in deceptive words and say, “This is
the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the

temple of the Lord!”
BAR ES, "The temple of the Lord - Thrice repeated, to emphasize the rejection
of the cry ever upon the lips of the false prophets. In their view the maintenance of the
temple-service was a charm sufficient to avert all evil.
These - The buildings of the temple, to which Jeremiah is supposed to point. The
Jews put their trust in the material buildings.
CLARKE, "The temple of the Lord - In the Chaldee the passage stands thus: -
“Do not trust in the words of lying prophets, which say, Before the temple of the Lord ye
shall worship; Before the temple of the Lord ye shall sacrifice; Before the temple of the
Lord ye shall adore; thrice in the year ye shall appear before it.” This the Targumist
supposes to have been the reason why the words are here thrice repeated. They rather
seem to express the conviction which the people had, that they should be safe while their
temple service continued; for they supposed that God would not give it up into profane
hands. But sacred places and sacred symbols are nothing in the sight of God when the
heart is not right with him.
GILL, "Trust ye not in lying words,.... In the words of the lying prophets, as the
Targum; and to the same purpose is the Arabic version,
"do not trust in lying words, for the false prophets do not profit you in anything;''
the things in which they trusted, and in which the false prophets taught them to place
their confidence, were their coming up to the temple at certain times for religious
exercises, and their attendance on temple service and worship, offering of sacrifices, and
the like. The Septuagint version is, "trust not in yourselves, in lying words"; see Luk_
18:9, in their external actions of devotion, in their ritual performances, taking them for
righteousness; and adds, what is not in the Hebrew text, "for they altogether profit you
not"; in the business of justification before God, and acceptance with him:
saying, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the
Lord, are these; that is, the people that hypocritically worshipped there, as the false
prophets told them; and so the Syriac version, "ye are the temple of the Lord"; though
that begins the next verse, with the last clause of this,
if ye amend your ways, &c. see 1Co_3:16 or rather the temple of the Lord are those
gates through which they entered, Jer_7:2 or those buildings which were pointed at with
the finger; or ‫,המה‬ "these", is a clause by itself; and the sense is, these are the lying words
that should not be trusted in, namely, the temple and temple services; when all manner

of sin and wickedness were committed by them, which they thought to atone for by
coming to the temple and worshipping there. The mention of these words three times is,
as Jarchi thinks, in reference to the Jews appearing in the temple three times a year, at
the feast of passover, pentecost, and tabernacles; and so the Targum,
"who say (i.e. the false prophets), before the temple of the Lord ye worship; before the
temple of the Lord ye sacrifice; before the temple of the Lord ye bow; three times in a
year ye appear before him.''
Kimchi's father, R. Joseph, is of opinion, that it refers to the three parts of the temple,
the porch, the holy place, and the holy of holies; but Kimchi himself takes it that these
words are trebled for the greater confirmation of them; and they may denote the
vehemence and ardour of affection for the temple.
JAMISO , "The Jews falsely thought that because their temple had been chosen by
Jehovah as His peculiar dwelling, it could never be destroyed. Men think that ceremonial
observances will supersede the need of holiness (Isa_48:2; Mic_3:11). The triple
repetition of “the temple of Jehovah” expresses the intense confidence of the Jews (see
Jer_22:29; Isa_6:3).
these — the temple buildings which the prophet points to with his finger (Jer_7:2).
CALVI , "Then the Prophet comes closer to them when he says, Trust ye not in
words of falsehood. For had not this been expressly said, the Jews might, according
to their usual way, have found out some evasion: “Have we then lost all our labor in
celebrating our festivals with so much diligence, in leaving our homes and families
to present ourselves before God? We have spared no expense, we have brought
sacrifices and spent our money; and is all this of no value before God?” For
hypocrites always magnify their trumperies, as we find in the fifty-eighth chapter of
Isaiah, where they expostulated with God, as though he were unkind to them, “We
have from day to day sought the Lord.” To this the Lord answered, “In vain ye seek
me from day to day and search for my ways.” Hence the Lord disregarded that
diligence with which hypocrites sought to render him propitious without real
sincerity of heart. It is for the same purpose that the Prophet now adds, Trust ye
not, etc. It is an anticipation in order to prevent them from making their usual
objection, “What then? Has the Temple been built in vain?” But he says, “Is not
God worshipped here in vain? They are words of falsehood, when religious sincerity
is absent.”
We hence see that external rites are here repudiated, when men seek in a false way
to gain favor before God, and seek to redeem their sins by false compensations,
while yet their hearts continue perverse. This truth might be enlarged upon, but as
it often occurs in the prophets, I only notice it shortly. It is enough to regard the
main point, — that while the Jews were satisfied with the Temple, the ceremonies
and the sacrifices, they were self — deceivers, for their boasting was fallacious: “the
words of falsehood” are to be taken as meaning that false and vain glorying in
which the Jews indulged, while they sought to ward off God’s vengeance by external
rites, and at the same time made no effort to return into favor by ameliorating their
life.

With regard to the expressions The Temple, etc. , some explain them thus, — they
were “words of falsehood, “when they said that they came to the Temple; and so the
supplement is, “when they said that they came, “for the pronoun demonstrative is
plural. (190) Hence they understand this of the people; not that the Jews called
themselves the Temple of God, but that they boasted that they came to the Temple
and there worshipped God. But I rather agree with others, who explain this of the
three parts of the Temple. There was, we know, the court, then the Temple, and,
lastly, the interior part, the Holy of holies, where was the Ark of the Covenant. The
prophets often speak of the Temple only; but when they spoke distinctly of the form
of the Temple, they mentioned the court, as I have said, where the people usually
offered their sacrifices, and then the holy place, into which the priests entered alone;
and, lastly, the secret place, which was more hidden, and was called the Holy of
holies. It seems then that this passage of the Prophet is to be understood as meaning
that the people said that the court, the Temple, and the interior part, were the
Temples of God, as though they had a triple Temple.
But we must observe the design of the Prophet, which interpreters have omitted.
The Prophet then made this repetition especially, because the Temple was as it were
a triple defense to hypocrites, like a city, which, when surrounded, not by one, but
by three walls, is deemed impregnable. Since, then, the Jews exalted their Temple,
consisting of three parts, it was the same as they set up a triple wall or a triple
rampart against God’s judgments! “We are invincible; how can enemies come to us?
how can any calamity reach us? God dwells in the midst of us, and here he has his
habitation, and not one and single fort, but a triple fort; he has his court, his
Temple, and his Holy of holies.” We now then understand why the Prophet made
this repetition, and used also the plural number.
Trust ye not in those who speak falsehood, saying, —
The Temple of Jehovah, the Temple of Jehovah, The Temple of Jehovah, are these.
The Septuagint, the Syriac, and the Arabic, have “the Temple of the Lord” only
twice, and the verb is in the singular number, “The Temple of the Lord, the Temple
of the Lord it is.” The verb is the same in the Vulgate, only the words, as in Hebrew,
and also in the Targum, are repeated thrice. The paraphrase of the latter is rather
singular, — “Trust not in the words of the prophets of falsehood, who say, Before
the Temple of the Lord ye worship, before the Temple of the Lord ye sacrifice,
before the Temple of the Lord ye offer praise; three times a year ye appear before
him.”
“These” mean, as Gataker thinks, these places or buildings; and Lowth and Blayney
think the same. The repetition seems to denote the frequency with which the Jews
used the words: they continually boasted of having God’s Temple among them.
“The Prophet,“ says Henry, “repeats it, because they repeated it upon all occasions.
It was the cant of the times. If they heard an awakening sermon, they lulled
themselves asleep again with this, ‘We cannot but do well, for we have the Temple of
the Lord among us.’ It is common for those that are farthest from God to boast

themselves most of their being near to the Church.” — Ed.
COFFMA , "Verse 4
"Trust ye not in lying words, saying, The temple of Jehovah, the temple of Jehovah,
the temple of Jehovah, are these. For if ye thoroughly amend your ways and your
doings; if ye thoroughly execute justice between a man and his neighbor; if ye
oppress not the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, and shed not innocent
blood, neither walk after other gods to your own hurt: then will I cause you to dwell
in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers, from of old, even forevermore."
ote the triple repetition of "The temple of Jehovah." It appears that the people
were using these words as a kind of charm or talisman to protect and bless them
even in the pursuit of their wicked ways. As Matthew Henry stated it, "It was the
cant of the times; it was in their mouths upon all occasions. If they received bad
news, they lulled themselves to sleep again, saying, `We cannot but do well, we have
the temple of the Lord among us.'"[4]
Jeremiah's breaking in upon that crowd of arrogant, overconfident, hypocrites with
the stinging words of Jehovah, commanding them either to repent or perish must
have been resented like a plague of smallpox. "Is it any wonder that this `temple
sermon' caused a terrific uproar and almost cost Jeremiah his life (Jeremiah
26:7ff)?" [5]
"Shed not innocent blood in this place ..." (Jeremiah 7:6). Cook and other scholars
believe that the reference here is to, "The innocent blood shed there judicially. Of
one such judicial murder, Jehoiachim had already been guilty (Jeremiah 26:23)."[6]
There were probably many other such crimes.
The particular sins mentioned here, which God through Jeremiah commanded the
Jews to cease from committing, were merely a representative list; and the list will be
greatly expanded in later verses. All of these sins of lustful selfishness were the
result of Judah's having first rejected their primary obligation to Jehovah as spelled
out in the Mosaic covenant at Sinai. "All of their sins were the consequence of their
breach of the covenant and their rejection of God's sovereignty."[7] We consider
this statement from Thompson as a profoundly accurate declaration. Many people
seem to be unaware that once man's primary obligation to Almighty God is either
neglected or forsaken, all of the other sins may be expected to follow immediately.
They are merely the consequences of man's violation of that higher obligation to his
Creator.
"The land that I gave to your fathers forever and ever ..." (Jeremiah 7:7). "This is
the very strongest formula in the Hebrew tongue for a perpetual gift, meaning,
`from forever unto forever.' Why then do not the Jews still possess the land
eternally given to them? Because God never bestows anything unconditionally."[8]
The Jews received the land of Canaan under the terms of a covenant, itself called a

covenant of eternity (Genesis 17:7); but that covenant had conditions which the
Jews were obligated to observe, as spelled out in the closing chapters of
Deuteronomy, with the divine warning that if they rebelled against the covenant
God would indeed "pluck them off the land" (Deuteronomy 28:63). In this
connection, be sure to read Jeremiah 18:5-10.
TRAPP, "Jeremiah 7:4 Trust ye not in lying words, saying, The temple of the
LORD, The temple of the LORD, The temple of the LORD, [are] these.
Ver. 4. Trust ye not in lying words.] Or, Matters, sc., that will deceive you. The ships
Triumph or Good Speed may be ventorum ludibrium, mocked by the wind and
miscarry upon the hard rocks or soft sands; so fair shows and bare titles help not.
Vatinius, that wicked Roman, professed himself a Pythagorean: (a) and vicious
Antipater wore a white cloak, the ensign of innocence. This was virtutis stragulum
pudefacere, said Diogenes wittily, to put honesty to an open shame.
The temple of the Lord, the temple - are these,] i.e., These buildings, or these three
parts of the temple, viz., the most holy place, the sanctuary, and the outer court. To
these are made the promises of God’s perpetual residence; [Psalms 132:14] therefore
we are safe from all danger while here we take sanctuary. See Micah 3:11. The
Romish crew, in like manner, have nothing in their mouths so much as the Church,
the Church, the Catholic Church; (b) and therein, like oyster wives, they outcry us.
Many also among ourselves cry, "The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord,"
who do yet nothing care for the Lord of the temple. They glory in external
privileges, and secure themselves therein, as the Jews fable that Og, King of Bashan,
escaped in the flood by riding astride upon the ark without. But what profiteth it
“ Respicere ad phaleras, et nomina vana Catonum? ”
Esse Christianum grande est, non videri, saith Jerome. It is a great privilege to be a
Christian, but not to seem only to be so; an empty title yieldeth but an empty
comfort at last.
BE SO , "Jeremiah 7:4. Trust ye not in lying words — Do not flatter yourselves
with an opinion that you can be safe and happy on any other terms than those which
God points out. Saying, The temple of the Lord, &c., are these — As much as to say,
God hath placed his name here, Jeremiah 7:10, 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? Thus,
Jeremiah 18:18, they express their confidence that the law would not perish from
the priests, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. And Micah
3:11, they are said to lean on the Lord, saying, Is not the Lord among us? o evil
can come upon us. These were the lying words on which they trusted, and against
trusting in which the prophet here solemnly cautions them. The Targum intimates
that the reason of the three-fold repetition of the words, The temple of the Lord,
was, because every Jew was obliged to visit the temple thrice a year. But it seems

more likely that they are thus repeated, to express the confident and reiterated
boasts of the temple, which were in the people’s mouths, and their extreme
vehemence and unreasonable presumption.
ELLICOTT, "(4) Trust ye not in lying words . . .—The emphatic threefold
repetition of the words thus condemned, “The temple of the Lord,” points to its
having been the burden of the discourses of the false prophets, possibly to the
solemn iteration of the words in the litanies of the supplicants. With no thought of
the Divine Presence of which it was the symbol, they were ever harping on its
greatness, identifying themselves and the people with that greatness, and predicting
its perpetuity. So in Matthew 24:1 the disciples of our Lord point, as with a national
pride, to the buildings of the later Temple. The plural “these” is used rather than
the singular, as representing the whole complete fabric of courts and porticoes. The
higher truth that the “congregation” of Israel was the living Temple (1 Corinthians
3:16; 1 Peter 2:5), was not likely to be in the thoughts of those whom Jeremiah
rebuked.
ISBET, "DELUDED FORMALISTS
‘The temple of the Lord, The temple of the Lord, The temple of the Lord, are these.’
Jeremiah 7:4
I. Religious formalism.—When Jeremiah threatened Israel with the coming of the
king of Assyria, the false prophets minimised the terror of his utterances by pointing
to the Temple and assuring the people that there was no reason to anticipate the
overthrow of their city, since it was the custodian of the holy shrine of Jehovah. ‘Ye
have the Temple in your midst, surely then you are a religious people. You cannot
be as bad as this pessimistic prophet alleges, and God cannot very well dispense with
you.’
II. But men may perform the most sacred rites, and yet perpetrate the grossest
crimes. The presence of a Temple with all its priests and rites does not necessarily
denote holiness, but often the contrary. In some countries brigands will seek the
blessing of heaven on their plans of murder and plunder. Our safety lies, not in
outward rites, but in amending our ways and doings, in executing judgment, and
refusing to walk after other gods. ot in having sprung from godly parents, nor in
engagedness in holy things, nor in the practice of religious rites, will help come, but
in being genuinely right with God. Real religion consists not in temple-rites, but in
humility, unselfishness, and godliness.
Illustration
‘Men are always prone to attribute to the externals of religion a saving efficacy,
imagining that a rigorous attention to these will condone for the commission of sins
like those enumerated in the earlier verses. It is a terrible thing for a soul when,
beneath an outward decorum of behaviour, the heart is filled with all manner of
abominations, as the Temple was filled with robbers (Jeremiah 7:11. See also
Matthew 21:13).’

PETT, "Jeremiah 7:4
“Do not trust in lying words, saying, ‘The temple of YHWH, the temple of YHWH,
the temple of YHWH, are these.’ ”
But if they were to continue dwelling in the land it would be necessary for them to
cease deceiving themselves into thinking that somehow the presence of the Temple
of YHWH made Jerusalem inviolable, and that YHWH would not allow His holy
hill to be approached by the enemy. There was no point in their continually saying,
“‘The temple of YHWH, the temple of YHWH, the temple of YHWH are these
(miscellany of buildings)” as though that could keep the enemy at bay by continual
emphasis, unless they also amended their ways, for such thinking was invalid.
Compare Micah 3:11 where the heads of Judah, the priests and the prophets also
erroneously claimed, ‘Is not YHWH in the midst of us? o evil will come on us.’
The threefold repetition of ‘the Temple of YHWH’ possibly indicates Jeremiah’s
weariness with constantly hearing the false prophets declaring Judah’s inviolability
because of the presence of the Temple of YHWH in that he is bringing out that they
keep on saying it again and again. ‘Are these.’ That is, are all these buildings,
furniture and courts making up the Temple complex.
Alternately it may be intended as a sardonic comparison with the ‘holy, holy, holy’
of the Seraphim as depicted in Isaiah 6:3 (and repeated in Revelation 4:8). Instead
of drawing attention to the holiness of YHWH, they were concentrating their hopes
on the physical presence of what was virtually a mascot. Indeed the words may have
formed part of a self-comforting liturgy by which they assured themselves of their
own security.
One of the most remarkable evidences of the corruption of men’s hearts is that they
can have a high estimate of ‘holy things’, and even of a holy God, and yet not
recognise the demand that it lays on them to be equally ‘holy. (‘You shall be holy,
for I am holy’). They have the ability to appreciate God’s holiness and believe that it
offers them some kind of protection, especially from people ‘worse’ than they are,
while at the same time excusing themselves from the need to be equally holy. As long
as by their own standards they are not guilty of what they see as major sins (even
when in fact they are, but they see it as excusable in their case) they consider that
they have done all that can reasonably be expected of them, while at the same time
being hard on those who stir up their consciences or do things that they cannot
condone. They hate those who make them feel guilty and they ‘condone the sins they
are inclined to, by condemning those they have no mind to.’ And then they think
that all is well. They overlook the fact that at the centre of the Scriptural conception
of the holiness of YHWH is the idea morally speaking that He is pure and beyond
reproach, (as is revealed by His covenant), and that He requires the same of His
people. They forget that, as Psalms 24 makes clear (compare also Psalms 15), only
what is truly pure and righteous is acceptable in His presence. It was because of this
strange spiritual blindness that they were able in this situation to have a high view
of The Temple and its importance to God, without it having any real moral effect on

their lives. It was the folly of such thinking that Jeremiah was seeking to bring home
to them.On The Other Hand If They Do Amend Their Ways They Will Be Inviolate.
PULPIT, "The temple of the Lord. otice the iteration of the phrase, as if its very
sound were a charm against evil. It reminds us of the performances of the howling
dervishes at Cairo, who "sometimes remain for hours, incessantly shouting the
Muslim confession of faith (la ilaha, etc.)". The phrase is repeated three times to
express earnestness of the speakers (comp. Jeremiah 22:29, "O earth, earth, earth").
These false prophets evidently retained a large amount of the old materialistic faith
of the Semitic nations (to whom the Israelites belonged by race), which localized the
presence and the power of the divinity. The temple was, in fact, their palladium, and
as long as it stood, the national independence appeared to them to be secured. They
faithfully handed on the teaching of those prophets of the last generation, who, as
Micah tells us (Micah 3:11), were wont to "lean upon the Lord, and say, Is not the
Lord among us? none evil can come upon us." How Isaiah met this error we may
collect from Isaiah 28:16 (see my Commentary). Are these; i.e. these buildings.
5 If you really change your ways and your actions
and deal with each other justly,
CLARKE, "If ye throughly amend your ways - Literally, If in making good ye
fully make good your ways. God will no longer admit of half-hearted work. Semblances
of piety cannot deceive him; he will not accept partial reformation; there must be a
thorough amendment.
GILL, "For if ye thoroughly amend your ways and your doings,.... Or, "if ye
make your ways good, and do your works well", which is what is exhorted to Jer_7:3,
and respects the duties of the moral law; which are more acceptable to God than legal
sacrifices, when done from right principles, and with right views, from love, in faith, and
to the glory of God; which is doing good works well; the particulars of which follow:
if you thoroughly execute judgment between a man and his neighbour;
without respect to persons, without favour and affection, without bribery and
corruption; passing a righteous sentence, and making an equitable decision of the case
between them, according to the law of God, and the rules of justice and equity: this

respects judges and civil magistrates.
JAMISO , "For — “But” [Maurer].
judgment — justice (Jer_22:3).
K&D, "Jer_7:5-7
Over against such sayings Jeremiah puts that which is the indispensable condition of
continued sojourn in the land. ‫י‬ ִⅴ, Jer_7:5, after a preceding negative clause, means: but
on the contrary. This condition is a life morally good, that shall show itself in doing
justice, in putting away all unrighteousness, and in giving up idolatry. With ‫ם‬ ִ‫א‬ begins a
list of the things that belong to the making of one's ways and doings good. The adjunct to
‫ט‬ ָ ְ‫שׁ‬ ִ‫,מ‬ right, "between the man and his neighbour," shows that the justice meant is that
they should help one man to his rights against another. The law attached penalties to the
oppression of those who needed protection - strangers, orphans, widows; cf. Exo_22:21.,
Deu_24:17., Jer_27:19; and the prophets often denounce the same; cf. Isa_1:17, Isa_
1:23; Isa_10:2; Eze_22:7; Zec_7:10; Mal_3:5; Psa_94:6, etc. for '‫ּא־ת‬‫ל‬ is noteworthy, but
is not a simple equivalent for it. Like ου ʆ µή, ‫ב‬ʆ‫כ‬ implies a deeper interest on the part of
the speaker, and the sense here is: and ye be really determined not to shed innocent
blood (cf. Ew. §320, b). Hitz.'s explanation, that ‫ל‬ፍ is equal to ‫ר‬ ֶ‫שׁ‬ ֲ‫א‬ ‫ּא‬‫ל‬ or ‫ם‬ ִ‫א‬ ‫ּא‬‫ל‬, and that it
her resumes again the now remote ‫ם‬ ִ‫,א‬ is overturned by the consideration that ‫ל‬ፍ is not
at the beginning of the clause; and there is not the slightest probability in Graf's view,
that the ‫ל‬ፍ must have come into the text through the copyist, who had in his mind the
similar clause in Jer_22:3. Shedding innocent blood refers in part to judicial murders
(condemnation of innocent persons), in part to violent attacks made by the kings on
prophets and godly men, such as we hear of in Manasseh's case, 2Ki_21:16. In this place
(Jer_7:7), i.e., first and foremost Jerusalem, the metropolis, where moral corruption had
its chief seat; in a wider sense, however, it means the whole kingdom of Judah (Jer_7:3
and Jer_7:7). "To your hurt" belongs to all the above-mentioned transgressions of the
law; cf. Jer_25:7. "In the land," etc., explains "this place." "From eternity to eternity" is a
rhetorically heightened expression for the promise given to the patriarchs, that God
would give the land of Canaan to their posterity for an everlasting possession, Gen_17:8;
although here it belongs not to the relative clause, "that I gave," but to the principal
clause, "cause you to dwell," as in Exo_32:13.
CALVI , "Interpreters do not agree as to the meaning of this passage. Some render
‫אם‬ ‫,כי‬ ki am, “But rather, “or, “But.” I indeed allow that it is so taken in many
places; but they are mistaken who read ‫אם‬ ‫,כי‬ ki am, as one word; for the Prophet,
on the contrary, repeats what he had said, and that is, that God would not be
propitious to the Jews except their life proved that they had really repented. The
words are sometimes taken as one in Hebrew, and mean “but;” yet in other places
they are often taken as separate words, as we found in the second chapter, “Though
thou washest thyself with nitre;” and for the sake of emphasis the particle “surely,
“is put before “though.” But in this place the Prophet simply means, that the Jews

were deceived in seeking to prescribe a law for God according to their own will, as it
belongs only to him either to approve or to reject their works. And this meaning is
confirmed by the latter part of the verse, for we read not there ‫אם‬ ‫,כי‬ ki am, but ‫,אם‬
am; “ If by doing ye shall do judgment;” and then in the same form he adds, “If ye
will not oppress the stranger, the orphan, and the widow;” and at last he adds,
“Then (a copulative I allow is here, but it is to be taken as an adverb) I will make
you to dwell in this place.”
The purport of the whole is, — that sacrifices are of no importance or value before
God, unless those who offer them wholly devote themselves to God with a sincere
heart. The Jews sought to bind God as it were by their own laws: he shews that he
was thus impiously put under restraint. He therefore lays down a condition, as
though he had said, “it belongs to me to prescribe to you what is right. Away, then,
with your ceremonies, by which ye think to expiate your sins; for I regard them not,
and esteem them as nothing.” What then is to be done? He now shews then, “If you
will rightly order your life, ye shall dwell in this place.”
For yesterday the Prophet exhorted the people to repent; and he employed the
sentiment which he now repeats. He commanded the people to come to God with an
upright and pure mind; he afterwards added another sentence, “Trust not in words
of falsehood, saying, The Temple of the Lord, “etc. He now again repeats what he
had said, “If ye will make your ways good.” He shews now more clearly that no
wrong was done to the people when God repudiated their ceremonies; for he
required a pure heart, and external rites without repentance are vain and useless.
This then is what the Prophet had in view: “Though God seems to treat you with
great severity, he yet promises to be kind to you, if you order your lives according to
his law: is this unjust? Can the condition which is proposed to you by God be liable
to any calumnies, as though God treated you cruelly!” This then is the meaning of
the Prophet.
If ye will make good your ways, that is, if your life be amended; and if ye will do
judgment, etc. He now comes to particulars; and first he addresses the judges,
whose duty it was to render to every one his right, to redress injuries, to pronounce
what was just and right when any contention arose. If then, he says, ye will do
justice between a man and his neighbor, that is, if your judgments be right, without
favor or hatred, and if no bribes lead you from what is right and just, while
pronouncing judgment on a case between a man and his brother.
BE SO , "Jeremiah 7:5-7. For if ye thoroughly amend your ways, &c. — In these
verses the prophet tells them particularly what the amendment was which was
necessary that they might escape destruction. It must be a thorough amendment, a
universal, continued, persevering reformation; not partial, but entire; not
hypocritical, but sincere; not wavering, but constant. They must make the tree good,
and so make the fruit good; must amend their hearts and thoughts, and so amend
their ways and doings. In particular, 1st, They must be honest and just in all their
dealings. They who had power in their hands must thoroughly execute judgment

between a man and his neighbour, without partiality. They must not, either in
judgment, or in matters of contract, oppress the stranger, the fatherless, or the
widow — or countenance or protect those that did oppress them, nor refuse to do
them right when they sought for it. They must not shed innocent blood — And with
it defile the temple, the city, and the land wherein they dwelt. 2d, They must keep
close to the worship of the true God only, neither walking after other gods, nor
hearkening to those that would draw them into communion with idolaters. Then will
I cause you to dwell in this place, &c. — Upon this condition I will establish and fix
you in this land for ever and ever — That is, from age to age, and you shall possess
it, as your fathers did before you, from the days of Joshua until now.
PETT, "Jeremiah 7:5-7
“For if you thoroughly amend your ways and your doings; if you thoroughly execute
justice between a man and his neighbour; if you do not oppress the sojourner, the
fatherless, and the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place, nor walk
after other gods to your own hurt, then will I cause you to dwell in this place, in the
land that I gave to your fathers, from of old even for evermore.”
What was needed was for them to genuinely amend their ways and doings, by
submitting to God’s covenant and ensuring that people obtained true justice in the
everyday affairs of life, that the more helpless in society were not oppressed or being
taken advantage of (something very important to God - see Jeremiah 27:19; Exodus
22:21 ff.; Deuteronomy 24:17 ff.; Isaiah 1:17; Isaiah 1:23; Isaiah 10:2; Ezekiel 22:7;
Zechariah 7:10; Malachi 3:5; Psalms 94:6, etc.), that the blood of innocent people
was not being shed (by judicial murder, by attacks on the righteous, including the
prophets, and by general violence), and that idolatry, which could only cause them
harm, was being put to one side. If they did this, walking in accordance with His
covenant, He would then ensure that they were able to continue dwelling in the land
continually for ever, the land which He had given to their forefathers from of old.
The corollary was that being allowed to live in the land depended on covenant
obedience.
‘To your own hurt.’ This covered all the failures mentioned, not just the last one,
compare Jeremiah 25:7.
‘From of old even for evermore.’ This could theoretically be translated ‘from
everlasting to everlasting.’ It could not be literally true, for the land had not existed
from everlasting, nor would it exist for evermore. Thus it includes within it the seed
idea of the new heavens and the new earth, where Abraham and his descendants
will receive ‘a better country’ (Hebrews 11:10-14), thus ensuring that His final
promises of the land to them will be fulfilled in a way better than they could ever
have dreamed of.

6 if you do not oppress the foreigner, the
fatherless or the widow and do not shed innocent
blood in this place, and if you do not follow other
gods to your own harm,
BAR ES, "A summary of the conditions indispensable on man’s part, before he can
plead the terms of the covenant in his favor.
Jer_7:6
In this place - i. e., in Jerusalem. The prophet refers to innocent blood shed there
judicially. Of one such judicial murder Jehoiakim had already been guilty Jer_26
GILL, "If ye oppress not the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow,.... Who
have none to help them, and who ought to have mercy and compassion shown them, as
well as justice done them; and should not be injured by private men in their persons and
properties, and much less oppressed in courts of judicature by those who should be the
patrons and defenders of them:
and shed not innocent blood in this place: in the temple, where the sanhedrim, or
great court of judicature, sat; for this does not so much respect the commission of
murder by private persons, as the condemnation of innocent men to death by the judges,
which is all one as shedding their blood; and by which actions they defiled that temple
they cried up, and put their trust in; to shed innocent blood in any place, Kimchi
observes, is an evil; but to shed it in this place, in the temple, was a greater evil, because
this was the place of the Shechinah, or where the divine Majesty dwelt:
neither walk after other gods to your hurt; the gods of e people, as the Targum;
"for this", as the Arabic version renders it, "is pernicious to you"; idolatry was more
hurtful to themselves than to God; and therefore it is dissuaded from by an argument
taken from their own interest.
JAMISO , "this place — this city and land (Jer_7:7).
to your hurt — so Jer_7:19; “to the confusion or their own faces” (Jer_13:10; Pro_
8:36).
CALVI , "Then he adds, if ye will not oppress the stranger and the orphan and the
widow This also belonged to the judges: but God no doubt shews here generally,
that injustice greatly prevailed among the people, as he condemns the cruelty and
perfidy of the judges themselves.
As to strangers and orphans and widows, they are often mentioned; for strangers as
well as orphans and widows were almost destitute of protection, and were subject to

many wrongs, as though they were exposed as a prey. Hence, whenever a right
government is referred to, God mentions strangers and orphans and widows; for it
might hence be easily understood of what kind was the public administration of
justice; for when others obtain their right, it is no matter of wonder, since they have
advocates to defend their cause, and they have also the aid of friends. Thus every
one who defends his own cause, obtains at least some portion of his right. But when
strangers and orphans and widows are not unjustly dealt with, it is an evidence of
real integrity; for we may hence conclude, that there is no respect of persons among
the judges. But as this subject has been handled elsewhere, I only touch on it lightly
here.
And if ye will not shed, he says, innocent blood in this place Here the Prophet
accuses the judges of a more heinous crime, and calls them murderers. They had,
however, no doubt some plausible pretences for shedding the blood of the innocent.
But the Prophet, speaking here in the name of God and by the dictates of his Spirit,
overlooks all these as altogether vain, though the judges might have thought them
sufficient excuses. By saying, in this place, he shews how foolish was their
confidence in boasting of God’s worship, sacrifices, and Temple, while yet they had
polluted the Temple with their cruel murders. (191)
He then passes to the first table of the law, If ye will not walk after foreign gods to
your evil By stating a part for the whole, he condemns every kind of impiety: for
what is it to walk after alien gods but to depart from the pure and legitimate
worship of the true God and to corrupt it with superstitions? We see then what the
Prophet means: he recalls the Jews to the duty of observing the law, that they might
thereby give a veritable evidence of their repentance: “Prove, “he says, “that you
have repented from the heart.” He shews how they were to prove this, even by
observing the law of God. And, as I have said, he refers to the first Table by stating
a part for the whole. As to the second Table, he mentions some particulars which
were intended to shew that they violated justice and equity, and also that cruelty
and perfidiousness, frauds and rapines, prevailed greatly among them.
7 then I will let you live in this place, in the land I
gave your ancestors for ever and ever.
BAR ES, "Jer_7:7

Why then do not the Jews still possess a land thus eternally given them? Because God
never bestows anything unconditionally. The land was bestowed upon them by virtue of
a covenant Gen_17:7; the Jews had broken the conditions of this covenant Jer_7:5-6,
and the gift reverted to the original donor.
GILL, "Then will I cause you to dwell in this place,.... In the land of Judea, and
not suffer them to be carried captive, which they had been threatened with, and had
reason to expect, should they continue in their sins, in their impenitence and vain
confidence:
in the land that I gave to your fathers; to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, by promise;
and to the Jewish fathers in the times of Joshua, by putting them in actual possession of
it:
for ever and ever: for a great while; a long time, as Kimchi explains it; from the days
of Abraham for ever, even all the days of the world, provided they and their children
walked in the ways of the Lord. This clause may either be connected with the word
"dwell", or with the word give; and the sense is, either that they should dwell in it for
ever and ever; or it was given to their fathers for ever and ever.
HE RY, "He tells them what the establishment is which, upon this amendment, they
may expect from him (Jer_7:7): “Set about such a work of reformation as this with all
speed, go through with it, and abide by it; and I will cause you to dwell in this place, this
temple; it shall continue your place of resort and refuge, the place of your comfortable
meeting with God and one another; and you shall dwell in the land that I gave to your
fathers for ever and ever, and it shall never be turned out either from God's house or
from your own.” It is promised that they shall still enjoy their civil and sacred privileges,
that they shall have a comfortable enjoyment of them: I will cause you to dwell here;
and those dwell at ease to whom God gives a settlement. They shall enjoy it by covenant,
by virtue of the grant made of it to their fathers, not by providence, but by promise. They
shall continue in the enjoyment of it without eviction or molestation; they shall not be
disturbed, much less dispossessed, for ever and ever; nothing but sin could throw them
out. An everlasting inheritance in the heavenly Canaan is hereby secured to all that live
in godliness and honesty. And the vulgar Latin reads a further privilege here, Jer_7:3,
Jer_7:7. Habitabo vobiscum - I will dwell with you in this place; and we should find
Canaan itself but an uncomfortable place to dwell in if God did not dwell with us there.
JAMISO , "The apodosis to the “if ... if” (Jer_7:5, Jer_7:6).
to dwell — to continue to dwell.
for ever and ever — joined with “to dwell,” not with the words “gave to your fathers”
(compare Jer_3:18; Deu_4:40).
CALVI , "Then follows the latter part, Then I will make you to dwell, (192) etc.
God sets this clause in opposition to the false confidence of the people, as though he
had said, “Ye wish me to be propitious to you; but mock me not by offering
sacrifices without sincerity of heart, without a devout feeling; be consistent; and
think not that I am pacified by you, when ye come to the Temple with empty
display, and pollute your sacrifices with impure hands. I therefore do not allow this
state of things; but if ye come on the condition of returning into favor with me, then

I will make you to dwell in this place and in the land which I gave to your fathers.”
The last part of the verse, from age to age, ought to be connected with the verb, “I
will make you to dwell, “ ‫,שכנתי‬ shekanti, “I will make you to dwell from age to age,
“that is, As your fathers dwelt formerly in this land, so shall you remain quiet in the
same, and there shall be to you a peaceable possession; but not in any other place.
We must bear in mind the contrast which I noticed yesterday; for he indirectly
denounces exile on the Jews, because they had contaminated the land by their vices,
and gloried only in their sacrifices. It now follows —
8 But look, you are trusting in deceptive words
that are worthless.
GILL, "Behold, ye trust in lying words,.... What they are dissuaded from, Jer_7:4,
is here affirmed they did, and which is introduced with a note of asseveration, attention,
and admiration; it being a certain thing that they did so; and was what was worthy of
their consideration and serious reflection upon; and it was astonishing that they should,
since so to do was of no advantage to them, but the contrary:
that cannot profit; temple worship and service, legal sacrifices and ceremonies, could
not take away sin, and expiate the guilt of it; or justify men, and render them acceptable
to God; these, without faith in the blood and sacrifice of Christ, were of no avail; and
especially could never be thought to be of any use and profit, when such gross
abominations were indulged by them as are next mentioned.
HE RY, "What were the lying words of their own hearts, which they must not trust
to. He cautions them against this self-deceit (Jer_7:4): “Trust no in lying words. You are
told in what way, and upon what terms, you may be easy safe, and happy; now do not
flatter yourselves with an opinion that you may be so on any other terms, or in any other
way.” Yet he charges them with this self-deceit arising from vanity (Jer_7:8): “Behold, it
is plain that you do trust in lying words, notwithstanding what is said to you; you trust
in words that cannot profit; you rely upon a plea that will stand you in no stead.” Those
that slight the words of truth, which would profit them, take shelter in words of
falsehood, which cannot profit them. Now these lying words were, “The temple of the
Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord are these. These buildings, the
courts, the holy place, and the holy of holies, are the temple of the Lord, built by his
appointment, to his glory; here he resides, here he is worshipped, here we meet three
times a year to pay our homage to him as our King in his palace.” This they thought was
security enough to them to keep God and his favours from leaving them, God and his
judgments from breaking in upon them. When the prophets told them how sinful they

were, and how miserable they were likely to be, still they appealed to the temple: “How
can we be either so or so, as long as we have that holy happy place among us?” The
prophet repeats it because they repeated it upon all occasions. It was the cant of the
times; it was in their mouths upon all occasions. If they heard an awakening sermon, if
any startling piece of news was brought to them, they lulled themselves asleep again with
this, “We cannot but do well, for we have the temple of the Lord among us.” Note, The
privileges of a form of godliness are often the pride and confidence of those that are
strangers and enemies to the power of it. It is common for those that are furthest from
God to boast themselves most of their being near to the church. They are haughty
because of the holy mountain (Zep_3:11), as if God's mercy were so tied to them that
they might defy his justice. Now to convince them what a frivolous plea this was, and
what little stead it would stand them in,
JAMISO , "that cannot profit — Maurer translates, “so that you profit nothing”
(see Jer_7:4; Jer_5:31).
K&D, "Jer_7:8
In Jer_7:8 there is a recurrence to the warning of Jer_7:4, under the form of a
statement of fact; and in Jer_7:9-11 it is expanded to this effect: The affirmation that the
temple of the Lord affords protection is a sheer delusion, so long as all God's
commandments are being audaciously broken. ‫י‬ ִ ְ‫ל‬ ִ‫ב‬ ְ‫ל‬ ‫יל‬ ִ‫ּוע‬‫ה‬, lit., to no profiting: ye rely on
lying words, without there being any possibility that they should profit you.
CALVI , "He again teaches what we observed yesterday, — that the glorying of the
Jews was foolish, while they boasted of the Temple and of their sacrifices to God. He
calls their boastings the words of falsehood, as we have explained, because they
wholly turned to a contrary end what God had instituted. It was his will that
sacrifices should be offered to him in the Temple — to what purpose? To preserve
unity of faith among the whole people. And sacrifices, what was their design? To
shew the people that they deserved eternal death, and also that they were to flee to
God for mercy, there being no other expiation but the blood of Christ. But there was
no repentance, they were not sorry for their sins; nay, as we shall presently see, they
took liberty to indulge more in them on account of their ceremonies, which yet ought
to have been the means of leading them to repentance. They were then the words of
falsehood when they separated the signs from their ends. The reality and the sign
ought indeed to be distinguished the one from the other; but it is an intolerable
divorce, when men lay hold on naked signs and overlook the reality. There was in
the sacrifices the reality which I have now mentioned: they were reminded by the
spectacle that they were worthy of eternal death; and then, they were to exercise
penitence, and thus to flee to God’s mercy. As there was no account made of Christ,
no care for repentance, no sorrow for sins, no fear of God, no humility, it was an
impious separation of what ought to have been united.
We now then more clearly see why the Prophet designates as words of falsehood,
that false glorying in which hypocrites indulge, in opposition to God, when they
would have him satisfied with naked ceremonies. Hence he adds, that they were

words that could not profit, as though he had said, “As ye seek to trifle with God, so
he will also frustrate your design.” It is indeed certain that they dealt dishonestly
with God, when they attempted to satisfy his judgment by frigid ceremonies. He
therefore shews that a reward was prepared for them; for they would at length find,
that no fruit would come from their false dealings. It follows —
COFFMA , ""Behold, ye trust in lying words that cannot profit. Will ye steal,
murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense unto Baal, and
walk after other gods that ye have not known, and come and stand before me in this
house, which is called by my name, and say, We are delivered; that ye may do all
these abominations? Is this house, which is called by my name, become a den of
robbers in your eyes? Behold, I, even I, have seen it, saith Jehovah."
The sins enumerated here constituted violations of the Decalogue as given in Exodus
and Deuteronomy. The specific commandments broken were the 1st, 2nd, 6th, 7th,
8th, and 9th, with the necessary inference that the 10th also was broken, stealing
and adultery both being a direct result of the covetousness forbidden in the last
commandment. As Green noted, "This amounted to a near-total breach of the
covenant stipulations." [9]
"Here is further and conclusive evidence of Jeremiah's deep anchorage in the
Mosaic faith."[10]
"We are delivered ..." (Jeremiah 7:10). The Jews actually believed that merely
because they frequented the temple and brought their sacrifices as usual, that, they
were fully protected in the commission of every crime in the catalogue, "all of this
on the mere grounds of their external presentation of themselves before God at the
place called by his name."[11] They deluded themselves into thinking they were safe
no matter what they did.
"Behold, I, even I have seen it, saith Jehovah ..." (Jeremiah 7:11). Anchor Bible
suggests a paraphrase here: "God says, Look! I'm not blind! Of course, I've seen
it!"[12]
"Is this house ... become a den of robbers ..." (Jeremiah 7:11)? These very words
were spoken by Christ himself as a solemn indictment of the temple during his
personal ministry, "Ye made it (the temple) a den of robbers" (Matthew 21:13).
This is a reference to the blasphemous manner in which the Jews used that temple.
The Hebrew word here "actually means a robber's `cave,' "[13] The figure is that of
a den, or cave, or some other supposedly safe and secure place to which robbers
retired after each of their crimes. What a terrible misuse of holy religion was this
abuse by the Jews.
BE SO , "Jeremiah 7:8-11. Behold, ye trust in lying words — Uttered by your
false prophets, who promise you peace, and sooth you up in your impenitence. Will
ye steal, murder, &c. — Jeremiah does not charge them with the transgression of

the ritual law of Moses, but with the breach of the weightier matters of the moral
law. Thus the prophets showed the Jews a more excellent way of serving God than
by relying upon external ceremonies of their worship, which might have prepared
their minds for the reception of the gospel. And come and stand before me, &c. —
Will ye be guilty of the vilest immoralities, even such as the common interest, as well
as the common sense, of mankind must reprobate? Will ye swear falsely? — A crime
which all nations have always held in abhorrence? Will ye burn incense to Baal? —
A dunghill deity, that sets up as a rival with the great Jehovah; and, not content
with that, will you walk after other gods too, whom ye know not — And by all these
crimes put a daring affront upon the Lord of hosts? Will you exchange a God, of
whose power and goodness you have had such long experience, for gods of whose
ability and willingness to help you know nothing? And when you have thus done the
most you can to affront and insult the infinite and eternal Jehovah, your creator and
preserver, your governor and judge, will you have the effrontery and impudence to
come and stand before him in this house, which is called by his name, and in which
his name is called upon, under a pretence of worshipping and serving him — stand
before him as servants, waiting his commands, as suppliants, expecting his favour?
Will you act in open rebellion against him, and yet rank yourselves among his
subjects, among the best of them? By this it would seem you think that either he
doth not discover, or doth not dislike your wicked practices; to imagine either of
which is to put the highest indignity possible upon him. It is as if you should say, We
are delivered to do all these abominations — If they had not the face to say this in so
many words, yet their actions spoke it aloud. God had many times delivered them,
as they could not but acknowledge, and had been a present help to them when
otherwise they must have perished. By these means he designed to bring them to
himself; by his goodness to lead them to repentance; but they, resolving
notwithstanding to persist in their abominations, said, in effect, in direct
contradiction to God’s true intent, in showing them this kindness, that he had
delivered them to put them again into a capacity of rebelling against him. Will ye,
says the prophet, interpret the deliverances God hath formerly vouchsafed you, as
so many licenses to commit new crimes? Or, do you think, when you offer your
propitiatory sacrifices, that they will wipe away the guilt of all your past offences,
and that you may securely return to your former wicked practices, having such a
certain and easy method of obtaining pardon? Is this house, &c., become a den of
robbers in your eyes? — Do you think it was built, not only to be a rendezvous of,
but a place of shelter to, the vilest malefactors; who perform an outward service to
me there, that they may continue the more securely in their sins? Mark well, reader,
those that think to excuse themselves in unchristian practices, with the Christian
name, and sin the more boldly and securely, because there is a sin-offering provided,
do in effect make God’s house of prayer a den of thieves; as the priests did in
Christ’s time, Matthew 21:13. But could they thus impose upon God? no, Behold, I
have seen it, saith the Lord — Have seen the real iniquity through the counterfeit
and dissembled piety. Though men may deceive one another with the show of
devotion, yet they cannot deceive God.
ISBET, "Verse 8

Jeremiah 7 commentary

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Jeremiah 7 commentary