VII. (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 presenc... [ Continue Reading ]
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, t... [ Continue Reading ]
YOUR WAYS AND YOUR DOINGS. — “Ways,” as in Zechariah 1:6, of general habits, “doings” of separate acts. I WILL CAUSE YOU TO DWELL. — The English suggests the thoughts of something new, but what Jeremiah promises is simply the continuance of the blessings they had hitherto enjoyed. _I will let you d... [ Continue Reading ]
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... [ Continue Reading ]
A MAN AND HIS NEIGHBOUR. — The Jewish idiom for the English “one man and another.”... [ Continue Reading ]
THE STRANGER, THE FATHERLESS, AND THE WIDOW. — Grouped together, as in Deuteronomy 14:29; Deuteronomy 24:19, as the three great representatives of the poor and helpless, standing most in need therefore of man’s justice and of the divine protection.... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR EVER AND EVER. — Literally, _from eternity to eternity,_ or, perhaps, _from age to age._ The English punctuation connects these words with “I will cause you to dwell,” but the accentuation of the Hebrew with “I gave to your fathers;” the gift was to have been in perpetuity (Genesis 17:8), but th... [ Continue Reading ]
LYING WORDS. — With special reference to those already cited in Jeremiah 7:4.... [ Continue Reading ]
WILL YE STEAL. — The English obscures the emphasis of the Hebrew idiom which gives the verbs as a series of infinitives, _What! to steal, to murder, to burn incense to Baal..._ _and then have ye come before me_ _...! _... [ Continue Reading ]
_(_10_)_ AND COME AND STAND. — Better, _and then_ have ye come, and stood before me. WE ARE DELIVERED. — Taking the word as it stands (a different punctuation adopted by some commentators and versions gives _Deliver us,_ as though reproducing, with indignant scorn, the very prayer of the people), t... [ Continue Reading ]
A DEN OF ROBBERS. — The words had a special force in a country like Palestine, where the limestone rocks presented many caves, which, like that of Adullam (1 Samuel 22:1), were the refuge of outlaws and robbers. Those who now flocked to the courts of the Temple, including even priests and prophets,... [ Continue Reading ]
MY PLACE WHICH WAS IN SHILOH. — The history of the past showed that a Temple dedicated to Jehovah could not be desecrated with impunity. Shiloh had been chosen for the centre of the worship of Israel after the conquest of Canaan (Joshua 18:1), and was reverenced as such through the whole period of t... [ Continue Reading ]
RISING UP EARLY AND SPEAKING. — A characteristic phrase of Jeremiah’s, and used by him only (Jeremiah 13:25; Jeremiah 25:4; Jeremiah 26:5; Jeremiah 29:19). In its bold anthropomorphism it takes the highest form of human activity, waking from sleep and beginning at the dawn of day, to represent the l... [ Continue Reading ]
THE WHOLE SEED OF EPHRAIM. — The fate of the tribes of the Northern kingdom, among which Ephraim had always held the leading position, was already familiar to the people. They were dwelling far off by Habor or Gozan, and the cities of the Medes (2 Kings 15:29; 2 Kings 17:6; 2 Kings 18:11). A like ex... [ Continue Reading ]
PRAY NOT THOU. — The words imply that a prayer of intercession, like that which Moses had offered of old (Exodus 32:10), was rising up in the heart of the prophet. He is told that he must check it. Judgment must have its way. The discipline must be left to do its work. A like impulse met by a like r... [ Continue Reading ]
SEEST THOU NOT...? — We enter on one of the darker regions of Jewish idolatry, such as Ezekiel (Jeremiah 8) saw in vision. A foreign worship of the basest kind was practised, not only in secret, but in the open places.... [ Continue Reading ]
THE QUEEN OF HEAVEN. — The goddess thus described was a kind of Assyrian Artemis, identified with the moon, and connected with the symbolic worship of the reproductive powers of Nature. Its ritual probably resembled that of the Babylonian Aphrodite, Mylitta, the mother-goddess, in its impurities (He... [ Continue Reading ]
DO THEY NOT PROVOKE THEMSELVES...? — The interpolated words, though they complete the sense, mar the abrupt force of the Hebrew. _Is it not themselves, to the confusion of their own faces? _... [ Continue Reading ]
SHALL BE POURED OUT. — The word is used in Exodus 9:33 of the plague of rain; here, of the great shower of the fire of the wrath of Jehovah (comp. Nahum 1:6). It is significant that it had been used by Josiah on hearing of the judgments denounced in the new-found copy of the Law (2 Chronicles 34:21)... [ Continue Reading ]
PUT YOUR BURNT OFFERINGS. — i.e., “Add one kind of sacrifice to another. Offer the victim, and then partake of the sacrificial feast. All is fruitless, unless there be the true conditions of acceptance, repentance, and holiness.”... [ Continue Reading ]
I SPAKE NOT... CONCERNING BURNT OFFERINGS OR SACRIFICES. — “Concerning” is, literally, _for,_ or _with a view to, the matter of sacrifices._ The words seem at first hard to reconcile with the multiplied rules as to sacrifices both in Exodus and Leviticus. They are, however, rightly understood, stric... [ Continue Reading ]
BUT THIS THING COMMANDED I THEM. — The words that follow are a composite quotation, partly from the lately re-found Deuteronomy (Deuteronomy 5:33), partly from the words that were strictly true of the “day” when Israel came out of Egypt (Exodus 19:5), partly from the very book which seemed to be mos... [ Continue Reading ]
IMAGINATION. — Better, _stubbornness,_ as in Jeremiah 3:17. WENT BACKWARD AND NOT FORWARD. — The whole sacrificial system, even at its best, to say nothing of its idolatrous corruptions, was accordingly, from Jeremiah’s point of view, a retrograde movement. The apostasy of the people in the worship... [ Continue Reading ]
DAILY RISING UP. — Stress is laid on the continual succession of prophets as witnesses of the Truth from the beginning. The prophet was not tied to the actual letter of his statement, and the prominence given to Samuel, as the first who bore the name of prophet (1 Samuel 9:9), seems at first against... [ Continue Reading ]
WORSE THAN THEIR FATHERS. — The rapid survey of the past makes it doubtful whether the comparison is made between the generations that came out of Egypt and their immediate followers, or between those followers and their successors. Probably the general thought was that the whole history of Israel h... [ Continue Reading ]
THEREFORE... ALSO. — Better, in both cases, _though thou shalt speak, yet they will not hearken; though thou shalt call unto them, yet they will not answer thee. _... [ Continue Reading ]
BUT THOU SHALT SAY. — Better, _And thou shalt say,_ with an implied “therefore.” THIS IS A NATION. — Better, _This is the nation,_ as pre-eminent in its sin. TRUTH. — Better, as in Jeremiah 7:2, _faithfulness. _... [ Continue Reading ]
CUT OFF THINE HAIR. — Literally, as in 2 Samuel 1:10; 2 Kings 11:12, _thy crown_ or _diadem;_ but the verb determines the meaning. The word _Netzer_ (“consecration” in the Authorised version) is applied to the unshorn locks of the Nazarite (Numbers 6:7), and from it he took his name. As the Nazarite... [ Continue Reading ]
IN THE HOUSE WHICH IS CALLED BY MY NAME. — This had been done by Ahaz (2 Chronicles 28:2), and after the Temple had been cleansed by Hezekiah (2 Chronicles 29:5) had been repeated by Manasseh (2 Kings 21:4; 2 Chronicles 33:3). Josiah’s reformation again checked the tendency to idolatry (2 Kings 23:4... [ Continue Reading ]
HIGH PLACES. — Not the same word as in Jeremiah 7:29, but _bamoth,_ as in the “high places” of Baal, in Numbers 22:41; Numbers 23:3, the Bamoth-baal of Joshua 13:17. The word had become almost technical for the mounds, natural or (as in this passage) artificial, on which altars to Jehovah or _to_ ot... [ Continue Reading ]
TILL THERE BE NO PLACE. — Better, _because there is no room_ — i.e., for want of space the dead should be buried even in the spot which the worshippers of Molech looked on as sacred, and the worshippers of Jehovah as accursed, and which both therefore would willingly avoid using as a place of sepult... [ Continue Reading ]
NONE SHALL FRAY THEM AWAY. — No picture could be more appalling in its horrors — streets and valleys filled with the bodies of the slain, vultures and jackals feeding on them, and not one hand raised, like that of Rizpah (2 Samuel 21:10), to protect the dead from that extremest desecration. Here, ag... [ Continue Reading ]
THEN WILL I CAUSE TO CEASE... THE VOICE OF MIRTH. — The special imagery of the picture of desolation is characteristic of Jeremiah (Jeremiah 16:9; Jeremiah 25:10; Jeremiah 33:11). No words could paint the utter break-up of the life of the nation more forcibly. Nothing is heard but wailing and lament... [ Continue Reading ]