J A C 7:1-28. Exhortation.
D 7:29 - 8:13. Call for lamentation.
B 8:14 - 9:9. Invasion.
A D 9:10-26. Call for lamentation.
C 10:1-16. Exhortation.
B 10:17-25. Expulsion.
C E 1,2. Proclamation.
F 3-26. Disobedience.
E 27,28-. Proclamation.
F -28. Disobedience.
518-500 B.C.
Jeremiah 7)
1 The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord (Yahaveh), saying, (the danger attending this message is shown in ch. 28. Cp. 7:2 with 26:2; 7:3 with 26:13; 7:12-14 with 26:4-6. Ch. 26 was in the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim, probably his 4th year. Ch. 26 is the historical appendix of ch. 7.)
2 “Stand in the gate of the Lord's house (i.e. in the fore-court. This proclamation has the Temple and its frequenters for its subject.), and proclaim there this word, and say, ‘Hear the word of the Lord, all Judah, that enter in at these gates to worship the Lord.
F G¹ 3-20. Incrimination. (Shiloh). G² 21-26. Incrimination. (Egypt).
G¹ H¹ 3-. Ways and Doings.
J¹ u¹ -3. Land.
v¹ 4. Temple.
H² 5. Ways and Doings.
J² v² 6. Temple.
u² 7. Land.
H³ 8,9. Ways and Doings.
J³ v³ 10,11. Temple.
u³ 12-16. Land.
H 17-19. Ways and Doings.
J4 v4 20-. Temple.
u4 -20. Land.3 Thus says the Lord of hosts (Yahaveh Sabaioth), the God (Elohim) of Israel, ‘Amend your ways and your doings,
and I will cause you to dwell in this place.
4 Confide you all not in lying words, saying, 'The temple of the Lord, The temple of the Lord, The temple of the Lord, are these.’ (Note the Fig., for great emphasis, to exhibit the fanaticism common to all idolaters.)
5 For if you all thoroughly amend your ways and your doings; if you all thoroughly execute judgment between a man and his neighbor;
6 If you all oppress not the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow (see Deut. 24:17), and shed not innocent blood in this place (see Deut. 19:10), neither walk after other gods to your hurt: (see Ex.20:3. Deut. 6:14; 8:19, &c.)
7 Then will I cause you to dwell in this place (see Deut. 4:40), in the land that I gave to your fathers, for ever and ever. (Fig. put for an age-abiding generation)
8 Behold, you all trust in lying words, that cannot profit.
9 Will you all steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense to Baal, and walk after other gods whom you all know not; (see Ex. 20:7-15)
10 And still come and stand before Me in this house, whereupon My name was called, and say, ‘We are delivered to do all these abominations?’
11 Is this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? (this passage used by our Lord, just as Isa. 56:7 was in Matt.21:13. Mark 11:27. Luke 19:46) Behold, even I have seen it, [is] the Lord's oracle.
12 But go you all now to My place which was in Shiloh (which is now Seilün. Cp. 26:6,9; 41:5), where I set My name at the first (see Deut. 12:5,11, &c. Cp. 1 Sam. 4;4), and see what I did to it for the wickedness of My people Israel. (see 1 Sam. 4:11, and cp. 25:6)
13 And now, because you all have done all these works, [is] the Lord's oracle, and I spoke to you, rising up early and speaking (this phrase is almost peculiar to Jeremiah, where it occ. 11 times. Occ. only elsewhere in 2 Chron.36:15), but you all heard not; and I called you, but you all answered not;
14 Therefore will I do to this house, which is called by My name, wherein you all trust, and to the place which I gave to you and to your fathers, according as I have done to Shiloh.
15 And I will cast you out of my sight, as I have cast out all your brethren, even the whole seed of Ephraim. (Fig., for the 10 tribes which were already in captivity. The trouble recorded in ch. 27 proves that this prediction was spoken)
16 Therefore do not you pray for this People, neither lift up cry nor prayer for them, neither make intercession to Me (cp. 11:14; 14:11): for I will not hear you.
17 Do not you see what they do in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? (look what they do in Christian churches today!)
18 The sons gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead their dough, to make (or, offer) cakes to the queen of heaven (The hot cross buns of Good Friday and the dyed eggs of Easter Sunday figured in the Chaldean rites just as they do today. The buns,' known by the identical name, were used in the worship of the queen of heaven, the goddess Ishtar, as early as the days of Cecrops, the founder of Athens, that is, 1500 years before the Christian era. One species of sacred bread which used to be offered to the gods was called “Boun Hislop”, (Two Babylons, pg 107). The hot cross buns are not now offered, but eaten instead, on the festival of Easter (Astarte - Ishtar). "The origin of the Pasch (Passover) eggs is just as clear. The ancient Druids bore an egg as the sacred emblem of their order. In the mysteries of Bacchus, as celebrated in Athens, one part of the nocturnal ceremony consisted in the consecration of an egg. The hindu fables celebrate their mundane egg as of a golden color. In China, even as late as the 19th century, dyed or painted eggs were used during sacred festivals. In ancient times, eggs were used in the religious rites of the Egyptians and the Greeks, and were hung up for mystic purposes in their temples. . . The classic poets are full of the fable of the mystic egg of the Babylonians. The occult meaning of the mystic egg of Astarte had reference to the ark during the time of the flood, in which the whole human race was shut up, as the chick is enclosed in the egg before it is hatched. And of course, the egg also refers to birth, or creation. Though the deified queen, whom Astarte represented, had no actual existence till some centuries after the flood, yet through the doctrine of metampsychosis, which was firmly established in Babylon, it was easy for her worshipers to be made to believe that, in a previous incarnation, she had lived in the Antediluvian world and passed safely through the waters of the flood. The Roman Catholic Church then adopted this mystic egg of Astarte, and consecrated it as a symbol of Christ's resurrection." (Ibid pg 109 -110). The Bible clearly tells us what God considers the memorial of Christ's death and resurrection. It is not the pagan celebration of Easter, in honor of the pagan god, Ishtar. It is BAPTISM: See 19:13; 44:19; and cp. 2 Kings 21:3,5; 23:12,13), and to pour out drink offerings to other gods, that they may provoke Me to anger. (They had confused themselves.)
19 Do they provoke Me to anger? [is] the Lord oracle (Fig., by which the one word implies a second meaning. "Do they provoke Me...? No: they bring on themselves" the judgment of Yehovah. See Deut.32:21): do they not provoke themselves to the confusion of their own faces?
20 Therefore thus says the Lord GOD; Behold, My anger and My fury shall be poured out upon this place,
upon mankind, and upon beast, and upon the trees of the field, and upon the fruit of the ground; and it shall burn, and shall not be quenched.” (curse put on a family that will partake in such nonsense as "Easter" = rolling of fertility eggs & quick like a bunny = fertility rites, instead of PASSOVER which our Lord and Savior became, because you insult God!!! See Ezek. 8:15-18. Rom. 6:3-6.)
G² w 21,22. Command.
x 23,24. Disobedience.
w 25. Command.
x 26. Disobedience.
21 Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel; “Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices, and eat flesh.
22 For I spoke not to your fathers, nor commanded them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices: (see Ex. 15:26; 19:5, which was before any law was given. This vindicates the passage from modern criticism. Cp. Lev. 26:3-13, and 1 Sam. 15:22, with Ps. 50:8,9; 51:16,17; Isa.1:11-17. Hos. 6:6. Amos 5:21-24. Mic. 6-8. Matt. 9:13; 12:7; 23:23)
23 But this thing commanded I them, saying, ‘Obey My voice, and I will be your God, and you all shall be My people: and walk you all in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well unto you.’ (see Lev.26:3-13)
24 But they listened not, nor inclined their ear, but walked in the counsels and in the imagination of their evil heart (see 3:17), and went backward, and not forward.
25 Since the day that your fathers came forth out of the land of Egypt (see Ex.12-15) unto this day I have even sent to you all My servants the prophets, daily rising up early and sending them:
26 Yet they listened not to Me, nor inclined their ear, but hardened their neck: they did worse than their fathers.
27 Therefore you shall speak all these words to them; but they will not listen to you: you shall also call to them; but they will not answer you.
28 But you shall say to them,
‘This is the nation that listens not to the voice of the Lord their God, nor receives correction (or instruction, or discipline): fidelity (or veracity) is perished, and is cut off from their mouth.’
D K¹ 7:29-31. Incrimination. Pollution of the Temple.
L¹ 7:32 - 8:3. Threatening. Slaughter.
K² 8:4-9. Incrimination. Impenitence.
L² 8:10,11. Threatening. Dispossession.
K³ 8:12-. Incrimination. Effrontery.
L³ 8:-12,13. Threatening. Fall. Cast down.
29: Cut off your hair (a symbol of mourning), O Jerusalem (or, "daughter of My People". Cp. 8:11,19,21,22; 9:1,7. The verb is fem. [sing.]), and cast it away (showing the completeness of the operation), and take up a lamentation on high places (as such. Cp. 3:21); for the Lord has rejected and forsaken the generation of His wrath. (gen. of relation. Cp. Rom.8:36)
30: For the sons of Judah have done evil in My sight, [is] the Lord oracle: they have set their abominations in the house (note the enormity of the evil) whereon My name was called, to pollute it.
31: And they have built the high places (Idolatrous place. Not the same word as v.29) of Tophet (= place of burning. In the valley of the son of Hinnon. 2 Kings 23:10. Isa. 30:33. Jer. 19:6,11-14. And you might, if you want to, call it the gates of hell), which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire (this shows the result of passing them through fire); which I commanded them not (see Deut. 17:3; 18:10. Lev. 18:21. Note the sin of adding to God's commands and words. “It wasn’t My doings”, God said, this burning business.), neither ascended it into My heart. (“Heart” in the Hebrew means in His mind. It did not even enter God’s mind to teach a “burning place”. Man did it. Or blame it on Satan if you want to. And that’s why Jesus would pick this spot. And His emotions, for the fact that wicked people had driving this world to that point, that there had to be a placed used that would threaten fire. Even call our Father a consuming fire to cause souls or spirits, which is to say the intellect of people, to realize how serious this subject is. Because we’re talking about the eternity.)
L¹ M y 7:32-. Cessation of Name. Temple.
z 7:-32. Reasobn. "
a 7:33. Carcasses unburned. "
M y 7:34-. Cessation of joy. Land.
z 7:-34, Reason. "
a 8:1-3. Bones unburned. "32: Therefore, behold, the days come, [is] the Lord's oracle, that it shall no more be called Tophet, nor the valley of the son of Hinnom, but the valley of slaughter: (Cp. 19:9; 12:3. Zech.11:4,7. Occ. only in Jer. and Zech.)
for they shall bury in Tophet, till there be no place.
33: And the carcasses of this people shall be meat for the fowls of the heaven (see Deut. 28:26), and for the beasts of the earth; and none shall frighten them away.
34: Then will I cause to cease from the cities of Judah, and from the streets of Jerusalem, the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride: (this refrain is peculiar to Jer.)
for the land shall be desolate. (see Lev. 26:31,33)