Jeremiah 7:2

2 "Stand in the gate of God's Temple and preach this Message.

Jeremiah 7:2 Meaning and Commentary

Jeremiah 7:2

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 ( Jeremiah 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 F11. 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.


FOOTNOTES:

F11 Middot, c. 1. sect. 4, 5.

Jeremiah 7:2 In-Context

1 The Message from God to Jeremiah:
2 "Stand in the gate of God's Temple and preach this Message.
3 God-of-the-Angel-Armies, Israel's God, has this to say to you:
4 Don't for a minute believe the lies being spoken here - "This is God's Temple, God's Temple, God's Temple!"
5 Total nonsense! Only if you clean up your act (the way you live, the things you do), only if you do a total spring cleaning on the way you live and treat your neighbors,
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.