Thank you.
From: Jeremiah 7:1-11
False worship. Discourse concerning the temple
[5] “For if you truly amend your ways and your doings, if you truly execute justice
one with another, [6] if you do not oppress the alien, the fatherless or the widow,
or shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not go after other gods to your
own hurt, [7] then I will let you dwell in this place, in the land that I gave of old to
your fathers for ever.
[8] “Behold, you trust in deceptive words to no avail. [9] Will you steal, murder,
commit adultery, swear falsely, burn incense to Baal, and go after other gods
that you have not known, [10] and then come and stand before me in this house,
which is called by my name, and say, ‘We are delivered!’ — only to go on doing
all these abominations? [11] Has this house, which is called by my name, be-
come a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, I myself have seen it, says the
LORD.
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Commentary:
7:1-20. Chapter 26 gives more detailed information about the situation covered in
these verses, and what the outcome was. We are told there that Jeremiah made
this speech in the temple “in the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim the son of
Josiah” (26:1), that is, in 608 BC. Shortly before that, Josiah had died in battle (2
Kings 23:29-30; 2 Chron 35:19-24), having done maintenance work on the tem-
ple and having introduced a programme of religious reform based on the centrali-
zation of worship in Jerusalem. Josiah was succeeded by Jehoahaz, whose reign
lasted only three months (cf. Kings 23:31; 2 Chron 36:2), followed by Josiah’s bro-
ther Jehoiakim. That latter reign saw a tolerance of the idolatrous practices that
Josiah had striven to uproot.
The people of Judah felt sure that having the temple in their territory would guar-
antee divine favour and protection for them, and they became surer still after 701,
when the Assyrian troops of Sennacherib turned back from the walls of Jerusalem
without entering the holy city. The high profile that the temple received as a result
of Josiah’s reforms helps to explain the blind confidence felt by the people that
they had nothing to fear if they stayed close to that sanctuary. So, at the time
when Jeremiah was uttering these oracles, even though the temple was there in
all its splendour, religious practice was far from being in line with what the Lord
commanded. Hence the prophet’s insistence on conversion, on true religion,
which manifests itself in fidelity to the Lord, in charity and justice (vv. 5-7). Rites
performed in the temple are of no avail if people don’t listen to the Lord and if they
continue to commit all sorts of sins. Naive confidence in the temple is not enough
(v. 4). To be safe and secure they must obey the Law of God (vv. 8-10). The tem-
ple has no magic power, and it will suffer the same fate as the shrine of Shiloh (v.
14), the famous centre of worship that housed the ark of the Covenant before it
was moved to Jerusalem (Josh 18:1; Judg 21:19) and that was probably des-
troyed by the Philistines. Unless they mend their ways, the people of Jerusalem
will be expelled, just like their brethren in the Northern kingdom, the Ephraimites
(v. 15).
Despite his preaching, Jeremiah finds that they fail to repent. Not only do they
not listen to him: they think that the temple guarantees their safety, yet they
combine that belief with pagan rites in honour of Isthar, the “queen heaven”, the
Assyrian goddess of fertility (vv. 16-18). God will surely punish them (vv. 19-20).
The expression “den of robbers” (v. 11), employed here to describe the temple
when used by people who are very far from being obedient to the Lord, will occur
again when Jesus expresses his pain at all the noise made by traders in the tem-
ple and at people’s disrespect for that holy place (Mt 21:12-13 and par.). Jeremi-
ah is not condemning religious worship in the temple of Jerusalem (nor does Je-
sus); he is saying that they have emptied it of meaning. In any event, after the
coming of Christ, worship of the Lord is no longer confined to rites or external ac-
tions performed in some particular place; people can worship God in their hearts
whenever they happen to be. Therefore St Jerome writes: “Those who say to
themselves constantly, ‘This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord,
the temple of the Lord’, should listen to what the Apostle says: ‘Do you not know
that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?’ (1 Cor 3:16). Are
you in Jerusalem? Are you in Brittany? It does not matter. The heavenly Pre-
sence lies open before us always, for the kingdom of God is within us “ (Episto-
lae, 2, 58, 2).
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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.
Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.