Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Jeremiah 32:34

But they set their abominations in the house, which is called by my name, to defile it.

34, 35. See on Jer 7:30-31, in the main identical with these vv. In addition it is to be remarked that here Baal and Molech are identified. Molech is probably only a variant or distortion of the word melech, king, in order to express contempt or abhorrence by giving to the consonants the vowels of bosheth, shame (cp. Ishbosheth, 2Sa 2:8, for Eshbaal, 1Ch 8:33). Apparently this title of king “was in use among the Phoenicians and especially at Byblus; and Philo of Byblus writes of the god of his city, whom he calls Cronus, that he sacrificed his own son. Of this deity Diodorus says, ‘The Carthaginians had a brasen statue of Cronus, with hands extended upwards, but with the palms bent downwards towards the earth, so that the child who was laid upon them rolled into a pit of fire below.’ Now since Cronus was a god of the Underworld where ‘no rays of the sun penetrated and no wind blew’ (Homer, Iliad 8:479 ff.), i.e. was a god of the Dead, it is quite probable that the deity whom the Semites called Melech was also a god of the Shades. Such a god would naturally be supposed to have the desire of peopling his realm, and human sacrifices would seem to be acceptable to him. Thus Melech seems to be the designation of a deity like the Babylonian Nergal (2Ki 17:30), the god of pestilence, war, and the country of the dead.” Barnes on 1Ki 11:5 C. B.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

Their abominations; their idols, which above all things the jealous God abhorreth, and therefore he calleth them abominations, in the abstract, for abominable things, Deu 32:16; 1Ki 11:5; 2Ki 23:13.

In the house which is called by my name; that is, in the temple, which was ordinarily called the house of the Lord, and the temple of the Lord.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

34. (Jer 7:30;Jer 7:31; Eze 8:5-17).

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

But they set their abominations,…. Their idols, which were abominable to the Lord, and ought to have been so to them: these they placed

in the house (which is called by my name), to defile it; in the temple; as by Ahaz, Manasseh, and others: see Jer 7:30.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

There was here, as it were, an extreme wickedness, for the Jews had profaned the Temple itself. It was a grievous offense, when every one had, as we have seen, private services at home, where they burned incense on the roofs, and poured libations to foreign gods; but when impiety had gone so far, that even the Temple itself was polluted with idols, what hope was there of repentance?

He says that they had set their abominations in the Temple. It is called, indeed, a house after the manner of the Hebrews, but it is afterwards distinguished from private buildings, when he says, on which my name is called (74) and then, that they might defile it God here shews that the Temple had been dedicated to him; it was then a sacrilegious profanation when they offered their sacrifices to idols. They were, indeed, already apostates; but such a sacrilege was not so notorious in their private superstitions as in the Temple; for this was to deprive God of his own honor. Though it was not right in them to abandon themselves to all kind of wickedness when they came forth from the Temple; yet the Temple itself ought to have continued, as it were, safe and free from every defilement. For this reason, therefore, he says that it was called by his name, and then that the Temple itself had been defiled, so that they did not spare his sacred name. The rest I shall defer till to-morrow.

(74) The Vulg. and the Targ. very incorrectly render the words, “In which my name is called.” The Sept. and the Syr. are the same as our version. It was, no doubt, a house of prayer; but what is here meant is, that it was called God’s house. — Ed.

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

(34, 35) They set their abominations in my house . . .On the sins thus referred to, see Notes on Jer. 7:30-31, which are here almost verbally reproduced.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

34, 35. They set their abominations Their idols. A repetition of Jer 7:30-31, except that Baal is put for “Tophet” and Molech for “in the fire.” Molech the king and Baal the lord are simply different names of the Sun-god, but in altered relations.

In the house The temple, which was still standing.

To pass through the fire This phrase, here and everywhere, as also the various kindred phrases, implies the literal burning of the children, though as we learn from Eze 16:21, they may not have been burned alive, but slain first.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Jer 32:34 But they set their abominations in the house, which is called by my name, to defile it.

Ver. 34. In the house which is called by my name. ] Templi periphrasis haec est emphatica, atque argumentosa.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)