Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 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.
4. lying words ] those of the false prophets, who maintained that the possession of the Temple was enough. Jehovah would never suffer it to be overthrown, and thus its presence would be a kind of charm or fetish. They doubtless relied on such passages as Isa 37:22 ff., with the signal overthrow of Assyria that followed, as well as on the sentiment produced by the centralisation of worship at Jerusalem under Josiah.
The temple of the Lord ] Cp. for the threefold repetition Jer 22:29; Isa 6:3. Here it seems intended as a charm. Cp. 1Ki 18:26 as illustrated by Mussulman Dervishes at the present day. See Stanley, f. Ch. II. 254, 438.
these ] the buildings of the Temple.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
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.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 4. 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.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Because this was Gods house, wherein he had promised to dwell, and that for ever, Psa 132:13,14, they flattered themselves that he could dwell no where else, and would not depart, and certainly would not suffer the Chaldeans to destroy this, and therefore that no evil could befall them, as they promised themselves, Mic 3:11; therefore the prophet cautions them not to deceive themselves in trusting to the temple and its buildings, as the two courts, and house, and holy of holies, implied in the word these, which he doth as it were point to with his finger; (for where the prophets speak distinctly of the form of the temple, they reckon the court, where the people did sacrifice, and the holy place, or house, whereinto the priests only did enter, and the oracle, or holy of holies, wherein was the ark of the covenant, and into which only the high priest entered, and that but once a year;) which these hypocrites looked upon themselves secured by, as it were, by a treble wall, fort, or bulwark, that they could not miscarry; but he would have them to know that neither these, nor the services belonging to them, will be able to secure them, Jer 7:8; Jer 4:14; and it is likely their false prophets did thus persuade them, whose prophecies he calls here these
lying words; but God will have them know that he doth not choose a nation for the places sake, but the place for the nations sake; the like caution the apostle gives them, 1Co 10:2, &c. The emphasis that may be in this threefold repetition seems rather to relate to the confident and often reiterated brags and boasts of the temple that were in their mouths, than the worth and excellency of it, in regard of Gods owning it.
These; the prophet, standing in the gate at which the people entered, doth as it were point at the several buildings appertaining to the temple, viz. the courts, house, oracle, &c.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
4. The Jews falsely thought thatbecause their temple had been chosen by Jehovah as His peculiardwelling, it could never be destroyed. Men think that ceremonialobservances will supersede the need of holiness (Isa 48:2;Mic 3:11). The triple repetitionof “the temple of Jehovah” expresses the intense confidenceof the Jews (see Jer 22:29;Isa 6:3).
thesethe templebuildings which the prophet points to with his finger (Jer7:2).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
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 Lu 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 , “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.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
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.
(190) The difficulty in the construction is removed by Blayney, who renders דברי as a participle, as it is in some other places, Psa 5:6 : Psa 38:3; Psa 63:11. His version is, —
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.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(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 Mat. 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 (1Co. 3:16; 1Pe. 2:5), was not likely to be in the thoughts of those whom Jeremiah rebuked.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
4. Lying words Words of deception, misleading them as to their confidence. The error consisted in assuming as fact, that because Jerusalem contained the temple of the Lord that she stood in no danger of punishment from her apostasy and wickedness. That was a sort of national fetichism, such as has had many illustrations in history. The threefold repetition of the phrase “temple of the Lord” serves to indicate the fulness and emphasis of their confidence.
These Probably alluding to the halls, courts, and various structures of the sanctuary.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Jer 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. Jer 22:29 makes use of a like threefold repetition.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Jer 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; Psa 132:14 therefore we are safe from all danger while here we take sanctuary. See Mic 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.
a Cic. in Vatinium.
b Ecclesiam ad ravim usque crepant catholicam.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Trust = Confide. Hebrew. batah. App-69.
The temple of the LORD. Note the Figure of speech Epizeuxis (App-4), for great emphasis, to exhibit the fanaticism common to all idolaters.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Jer 7:4-7
Jer 7:4-7
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 in this place, 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 for evermore.
Note 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.”
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 (Jer 26:7 ff)?”
Shed not innocent blood in this place…
(Jer 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 (Jer 26:23). 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.” 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…
(Jer 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.
The Jews received the land of Canaan under the terms of a covenant, itself called a covenant of eternity (Gen 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” (Deu 28:63). In this connection, be sure to read Jer 18:5-10.
The men of Judah, like the majority of all ages, took worship for granted. They were content simply to show up at the Temple and participate in the prescribed ritual. They assumed that God was pleased with their conduct. In the opening paragraph of his Temple sermon Jeremiah attacks this presumptuous attitude toward worship by (1) indicating a fundamental requirement of true worship (Jer 7:3-7,); (2) challenging the fallacious assumption that worship had no bearing on conduct nor vice versa (Jer 7:8-11); and (3) threatening the destruction of the Temple and the exile of the populace (Jer 7:12-15).
A Fundamental Requirement Jer 7:3-7
Jeremiahs sermon opens with a call for repentance. Amend (lit., cause to be good) your ways and your deeds, i.e., change the whole pattern of your conduct. Only if such a fundamental change took place would God continue to allow them to inhabit the land of Judah (Jer 7:3). Jeremiah begs his hearers for their own sake not to give any credence to the superstition that the presence of the Temple of the Lord was a guarantee for the safety of the city. The people were acting as though merely the repetition of the phrase Temple of the Lord was some sort of a magical charm to ward off all evil. What a dramatic moment it must have been when Jeremiah thrice repeated the phrase for emphasis gesturing as he did so to the courts and building that were part of the Temple complex (Jer 7:4).
Jer 7:5-7 contain a conditional sentence of which Jer 7:5-6 are the protasis and Jer 7:7 the apodosis. Five conditions for national survival are laid down: (1) Repeating the basic demand of Jer 7:3, they must thoroughly amend their ways and their deeds. (2) They must make sure that justice is executed in the courts (Jer 7:5). (3) They must not oppress the stranger, the orphan and the widow. The Old Testament enjoined Israel to show respect for peoples of other nationalities and races simply because they were fellow human beings. Many Christians have not yet caught up with this passage. There was to be a concern for the weak and for those who had lost their natural protector. No other code of laws from antiquity is marked by such humanity in respect to the unfortunate. (4) Innocent blood must no longer be shed in the land through violence and miscarriage of justice. (5) They must cease to follow after other gods to their own hurt. Idolatry would lead deeper and deeper into sin and have dire repercussions both on the national and personal level. If they fulfilled these fundamental requirements God would cause t h e m to continue to dwell in the land. God had given that land to their forefather for ever and ever. (lit., from the most remote antiquity to the most distant future). But that divine promise was conditional. If the present generation was to continue to enjoy the land gift of God they must meet the conditions which God specifies here.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
Trust: Jer 7:8, Jer 6:14, Jer 28:15, Jer 29:23, Jer 29:31, Eze 13:19, Mat 3:9, Mat 3:10
The temple: Jer 7:9-12, 1Sa 4:3, 1Sa 4:4, Mic 3:11, Zep 3:11, Luk 3:8
Reciprocal: 1Sa 4:5 – all Israel 2Sa 15:25 – Carry back 1Ki 9:7 – this house 2Ch 36:19 – they burnt Psa 50:16 – What Psa 94:20 – fellowship Isa 28:17 – and the hail Isa 48:2 – and stay Isa 57:12 – General Isa 59:4 – trust Isa 66:1 – where is the house Jer 3:16 – say Jer 5:10 – they are not Jer 7:14 – wherein Jer 13:25 – trusted Jer 21:13 – Who Eze 16:15 – thou didst Eze 24:25 – their strength Hos 5:6 – go Hos 8:2 – General Amo 5:14 – as Amo 6:1 – at ease Zec 11:3 – for their Act 6:14 – that Act 7:49 – what house Act 21:28 – brought Rom 2:17 – restest Jam 3:10 – of
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
DELUDED FORMALISTS
The temple of the Lord, The temple of the Lord, The temple of the Lord, are these.
Jer 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. Not 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 (Jer 7:11. See also Mat 21:13).
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
Jer 7:4. The lying words against which the people were warned were those of the false leaders who had been calming the citizens by false assurance of peace. (See eh. 6: 14.) These corrupt priests would profess to be interested in the temple of the Lord but they were not sincere. Though they entered the temple at times to officiate in the services appointed for that place, their heart’s rea] interest centered in the vain worship of false gods.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Jer 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, Jer 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, Jer 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 Mic 3:11, they are said to lean on the Lord, saying, Is not the Lord among us? No 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 peoples mouths, and their extreme vehemence and unreasonable presumption.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
7:4 Trust ye not in {a} lying words, saying, The temple of the LORD, The temple of the LORD, The temple of the LORD, [are] these.
(a) Believe not the false prophets, who say that for the temple’s sake, and the sacrifices there the Lord will preserve you, and so nourish you in your sin, and vain confidence.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
The people were not to assume that just because they had the temple, the Lord would keep them safe. Many of the Judahites believed that the existence of the temple guaranteed Jerusalem’s inviolability. God’s supernatural deliverance of Jerusalem in Hezekiah’s reign probably accounts for some of this feeling (2Ki 18:13 to 2Ki 19:37). Furthermore, Josiah had glorified the temple during his reforms.
"They [these Judeans] would argue that God had chosen Zion as his earthly dwelling place (cf. Psa 132:13-14) and had promised to David and his descendants a kingdom for ever (2Sa 7:12-13). In the light of such promises it seemed to be a natural conclusion that God would not allow either his dwelling place (the temple) or his chosen ruler to come to any harm." [Note: Thompson, p. 277.]
"The temple building itself had become the people’s object of worship, replacing the Person of the building." [Note: Jensen, p. 37.]