Jeremias 7:5-15

5 For if ye thoroughly correct your ways and your practices, and do indeed execute judgment between a man and his neighbour;

6 and oppress not the stranger, and the orphan, and the widow, and shed not innocent blood in this place, and go not after strange gods to your hurt:

7 then will I cause you to dwell in this place, in the land which I gave to your fathers of old and for ever.

8 But whereas ye have trusted in lying words, whereby ye shall not be profited;

9 and ye murder, and commit adultery, and steal, and swear falsely, and burn incense to Baal, and are gone after strange gods whom ye know not,

10 so that it is evil with you; yet have ye come, and stood before me in the house, whereon my name is called, and ye have said, We have refrained from doing all these abominations.

11 Is my house, whereon my name is called, a den of robbers in your eyes? And, behold, I have seen , saith the Lord.

12 For go ye to my place with is in Selo, where I caused my name to dwell before, and see what I did to it because of the wickedness of my people Israel.

13 And now, because ye have done all these deeds, and I spoke to you, but ye hearkened not to me; and I called you, but ye answered not;

14 therefore I also will do to the house whereon my name is called, wherein ye trust, and to the place which I gave to you and to your fathers, as I did to Selo.

15 And I will cast you out of my sight, as I cast away your brethren, all the seed of Ephraim.

Jeremias 7:5-15 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO JEREMIAH 7

In this chapter the Lord, by the prophet, calls the people of the Jews to repentance and reformation; reproves them for their vain confidence; and threatens them with destruction for their many sins, and particularly idolatry. The preface to all this is in Jer 7:1,2, the exhortation to amendment, encouraged to by a promise that they should dwell in the land, is in Jer 7:3, but this was not to be expected on account of the temple, and temple service; but through a thorough reformation of manners; an exercise of justice, and avoiding all oppression and idolatry, Jer 7:4-7, their vain confidence in the temple is exposed; they fancying that their standing there, and doing the service of it, would atone for their theft, murder, adultery, perjury, and idolatry; and that they might commit these with impunity; wherefore they are let to know, that so doing these they made the temple a house of thieves; and that for such wickedness, what the Lord had done to his place in Shiloh, which they are reminded of, he would to the temple, and to them, reject and cast them off, Jer 6:8-15, and seeing they also had a dependence on the prophet's prayer, he is bid not to pray for them, for his prayers would not he heard; and he is directed to observe their wretched idolatry, of which an instance is given, whereby they provoked the Lord to anger; and therefore he was determined to pour out his fury on man and beast, and on the trees and fruit of the field, Jer 7:16-20 and whereas they trusted in their burnt offerings and sacrifices, these are rejected, as being what were not originally commanded; but obedience to the moral law, and the precepts of it, which they refused to hearken to, though they were oft called upon to it by his servants the prophets, Jer 7:21-26, and it is foretold that the Prophet Jeremy would meet with the same treatment; that they would not hearken to his words, nor answer to his call; and therefore he should declare them a disobedient, incorrigible, and an unfaithful people, Jer 7:27,28 hence, either he, or Jerusalem, is called upon to cut off the hair, as a sign of mourning; for their rejection of the Lord, occasioned by their sins, and especially their idolatry, of which instances are given, Jer 7:29-31 and it is threatened that the place of their idolatry should be a place of slaughter and of burial, till there should be no room for more; and the carcasses of the rest should be the food of fowls and beasts; and all joy should cease from Judah and Jerusalem, Jer 7:32-34.