John Calvin Commentary Jeremiah 26:9

"Why hast thou prophesied in the name of Jehovah, saying, This house shall be like Shiloh, and this city shall be desolate, without inhabitant? And all the people were gathered unto Jeremiah in the house of Jehovah." — Jeremiah 26:9 (ASV)

Here the cause of Jeremiah’s condemnation is also added: that he had dared to threaten the holy city and the Temple with such severity. They did not inquire whether God had commanded this, or whether Jeremiah had any just cause for doing so. Instead, they took it for granted that a wrong was done to God whenever anything was alleged against the dignity of the Temple. They also believed the city was sacred, and therefore nothing could be said against it without detracting from God's many specific promises, since He had testified that it would always be safe, because He dwelt in its midst. We therefore see by what right, and under what pretext, the priests and the prophets condemned Jeremiah.

And by saying, in the name of Jehovah, they undoubtedly accused him of being a cheat, or a false pretender, because he had said that this had been commanded by God, for they considered such a thing impossible and absurd. God had promised that Jerusalem would be His perpetual dwelling place; Jeremiah’s words were, I will make this city like Shiloh. God seemed, in appearance, to be inconsistent with Himself: This is my rest for ever, and yet, this shall be a desert. We therefore see that the priests and the prophets were not without some plausible pretext for condemning Jeremiah.

There is therefore some weight in what they said: “Do you not make God contradict Himself? For what you denounce in His name openly and directly conflicts with His promises. But God is always consistent with Himself. You are therefore a cheat and a liar, and thus one of the false prophets, whom God does not permit in His Church.” And yet what they boasted was entirely baseless, for God had not promised that the Temple would be perpetual in order to give the people license to indulge in all kinds of wickedness.

It was not, then, God’s purpose to bind Himself to ungodly men, so that they might expose His name to open reproach. It is therefore evident that the prophets and priests were only feigning, when they took for granted what ought to have been understood conditionally—that is, if they worshipped Him in sincerity as He had commanded.

For it was not right to separate two things that God had connected. He required piety and obedience from the people, and He also promised that He would be the guardian of the city, and that the Temple would be safe under His protection. But the Jews, having neither faith nor repentance, boasted about what had been said of the Temple; indeed, they bragged, as we have seen elsewhere, and spoke falsely. And therefore the Prophet derided them by repeating three times:

The Temple of Jehovah, the Temple of Jehovah, the Temple of Jehovah, (Jeremiah 7:4)

as if he had said—“This is your silly talk; you always cry boastingly, ‘The Temple of God;’ but all this will be of no use to you.”

It then follows that the people were assembled. Here Jeremiah passes to another part of the narrative, for he reminded the princes and the king’s counselors that they were not without reason stirred to go up to the Temple.

If the dispute had been among a few people, Jeremiah would either have been killed, or in some way seized. Or it might have been that the princes would have circumvented the king and his counselors, and thus the holy man would have been secretly crushed. But here Jeremiah introduced these words: that the whole people were assembled against him. Therefore, the report reached the king’s court, and so the princes and counselors were commanded to come.

In short, Jeremiah shows the reason why the princes came to the Temple: it was because the city was everywhere in commotion when the report spread that something new and intolerable had been announced. The king therefore could not ignore this commotion, for it is a dangerous thing to allow a popular tumult to prevail. And therefore Jeremiah thus adds:—