Jeremiah 7:1-34
1-20. Ceremonies and sacred places shall be no defence.... [ Continue Reading ]
1-20. Ceremonies and sacred places shall be no defence.... [ Continue Reading ]
God, said the false prophets, will never allow His Temple to be overthrown: cp. Micah 3:11. The TEMPLE, etc.] The threefold repetition suggests 'the energy of iteration that only belongs to Eastern fanatics' (Stanley, 'Jewish Church,' ii, 438). 5-7. Their tenure of the Temple is conditional on obe... [ Continue Reading ]
WE ARE DELIVERED] By the discharge of this formality we are set free for a return to wickedness.... [ Continue Reading ]
DEN OF ROBBERS] a place of retreat in the intervals between acts of violence: see Matthew 21:13 and parallel passages.... [ Continue Reading ]
SHILOH] a town of Ephraim, in a central position, chosen by Joshua as the restingplace of the ark and for the Tabernacle. It was a considerable place in the time of the Judges (Judges 21:19; Judges 21:21). Its fall into idolatry was followed by loss of the ark (1 Samuel 4) and subsequent captare and... [ Continue Reading ]
EPHRAIM] meaning, as often (e.g. Isaiah 7:2), the ten northern tribes in captivity for nearly a century.... [ Continue Reading ]
So in Jeremiah 14:7, when Jeremiah does intercede for them, the prayer is rejected.... [ Continue Reading ]
QUEEN OF HEAVEN] identified either with the moon or with the Assyrian Ishtar, the planet Venus. The Jewish women were specially given to that worship, offering incense and cakes stamped with a representation of the goddess: cp. Jeremiah 44:17.... [ Continue Reading ]
DO THEY PROVOKE ME] Their sin does not provoke God to a mere helpless anger, but to a wrath that is quick to punish and destroy them. 21-28. The moral law has always taken precedence of the ceremonial.... [ Continue Reading ]
PUT YOUR BURNT OFFERINGS, etc.] Multiply your victims _ad libitum._ It will avail you nought. 22, 23. This need not be more than a forcible oratorical expression, not meaning that no ceremonial laws were given to Israel when brought out of Egypt, but that in the promulgation of the Ten Commandments... [ Continue Reading ]
IMAGINATION] see on Isaiah 3:17; 27. Jeremiah need not therefore expect that his words will be heeded. 29-34. Where they sinned there shall they be punished.... [ Continue Reading ]
CUT OFF THINE HAIR] in token of mourning, or as a Nazirite shaved his head after immediate contact with a dead body (Numbers 6:9) to mark defilement. The hair was the mark of consecration of the High Priest (Exodus 29:6) and of the Nazirite (Numbers 6:5). Here it is the mark of Jerusalem as chief ci... [ Continue Reading ]
VALLEY OF HINNOM] on the W. and S. sides of the city, Tophet being near the E. extremity of the S. reach. The valley had an evil name, (_a_) as the place of human sacrifices; (_b_) as defiled by Josiah; (_c_) as the receptacle of the offal and filth of the city. Hence it afterwards became with the J... [ Continue Reading ]
TILL THERE BE NO PLACE] rather, 'for want of room's (elsewhere). The carnage of war shall extend far beyond the valley. Some think that the immediate result of this discourse was the trial of the prophet, as recorded in Jeremiah 26:24, when the mob rose against him and he was saved with difficulty.... [ Continue Reading ]