John Calvin Commentary Jeremiah 7:9-11

"Will ye steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense unto Baal, and walk after other gods that ye have not known, and come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, We are delivered; that ye may do all these abominations? Is this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, I, even I, have seen it, saith Jehovah." — Jeremiah 7:9-11 (ASV)

The meaning seems to be suspended in the first verse, when he says, Whether to steal, to kill, and to commit adultery, etc.; but there is nothing ambiguous in the passage. For although the words are somewhat abrupt, we still infer the meaning to be: “Will you steal,” etc.?

Verbs in the infinitive mood, we know, are often to be considered as verbs in the future tense: “Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, burn incense to Baal,” etc.? The Prophet shows how foolishly the Jews sought to make an agreement with God, so that they might with impunity provoke Him by their many vices.

When they entered the Temple, they thought He was obligated to receive them, as though that was a proper reconciliation. But the Prophet exposes this folly. For what can be more absurd than that God should allow people to commit murders, thefts, and adulteries with impunity? Hypocrites do not express this in words; but when they make external ceremonies a sort of expiation, and seek by such means to bury their sins, do they not make God their associate?

Do they not make Him a partner, as it were, with them, when they would have Him cover their adulteries? When they take sacrifices from their plunder to expiate their crimes, do they not make Him a participant in their robberies? The Prophet, therefore, plainly condemns hypocrites in this place, because they acted most contemptuously toward God, by involving Him in their own vices, as though He were the associate of thieves, murderers, and adulterers.

Will you steal, he says, and then, will you kill, commit adultery, and swear falsely? These four sins are against the Second Table, in which God forbids us to steal, to kill, to commit adultery, and to deceive our neighbors by false swearing. These four vices are mentioned in order that the Prophet might show that all the duties of love were wholly disregarded by the Jews.

He then adds things which belong to the First Table, even the offering of incense to Baal, and the walking after alien gods, which yet were unknown to them. By these two clauses he proves their impiety. He mentions one kind of idolatry—that they offered incense to Baal.

The Prophets often refer in the plural number to Baalim, regarded by the Jews as advocates, by whose intercession, as they thought, they gained favor with God; as is the case to this day under the Papacy, whose Baalim are angels and dead men. For they do not regard them as gods, but think that by employing these as advocates they conciliate God and obtain His favor.

Such was the superstition which prevailed among the Jews. But the Prophet here includes all idols under the word Baal. There is afterwards a general complaint—that God was neglected, and that they had perfidiously departed from Him, for they walked after alien gods; and he exaggerates the crime by saying that they were unknown.

The Prophet, no doubt, here suggests a contrast with the certain knowledge that is the basis of true religion. God had given evident proofs of His glorious power through many miracles when the Israelites were redeemed. He had afterwards confirmed this with many blessings, and the law had been proclaimed, accompanied by many signs and wonders (Exodus 20:18; Deuteronomy 5:22, 23). Therefore, the Jews could not have pleaded involuntary error, for after so many proofs, there could have been no excuse on the ground of ignorance.

Now, concerning alien gods, how did they come to know that they were gods? There was no proof; they had no reason to believe them to be so. Thus, we see how grievously wicked the Jews were, for they had departed from the worship of the true God—who had made Himself known to them by many miracles and had confirmed the authority of His law so that it could not be questioned—and they had gone after unknown gods!

The Prophet now adds, You come—that is, after you have allowed yourselves to steal, murder, commit adultery, and corrupt the whole worship of God—at last, You come and stand before me in this temple.

God proceeds with the same subject. For it was not only His purpose here to condemn the Jews as murderers, thieves, and adulterers, but He proceeds further, even to show their shameless effrontery in coming with an unblushing front and entering the Temple, as though they were the true worshippers of God.

“What do you mean,” he says, “by this? You bring with you murders, thefts, adulteries, and abominable filth; you are contaminated with the most disgraceful things. Presently you enter the Temple and think that you are at liberty to do anything.” Similar is the language we find in the first chapter of Isaiah, verses 12 and 15 (Isaiah 1:12, 15): God complains there that they trod the pavement of His Temple and brought hands polluted with blood.

So also in this place, You come, he says, intimating his detestation, and you stand before me in this Temple. Although God was not enclosed in that Temple, yet we know that the Ark of the Covenant was the symbol of His presence. Hence, we often meet in the law with this expression, You shall stand before me. Here then, God shows that it was a detestable and monstrous thing that the Jews dared to rush into His presence when polluted and contaminated with so many vices.

And he adds, In this house, on which my name is called, that is, which has been dedicated to me. For to call God’s name on the Temple means nothing else but that the Temple was consecrated to Him, so that He was worshipped there. When God is truly worshipped, those who seek Him find that He Himself is present by His grace and power.

Since God had commanded the Temple to be built for Him, that He might be worshipped there, He says His name was called there, that is, according to its first and sacred appointment. Absurdly indeed did the Jews call on His name, for there was no religion, no piety in them. But according to God’s institution, His name was called upon in the Temple, as He had consecrated it to Himself.

Therefore, God reminds them of the first institution, which was holy and ought to have remained inviolable: “Do you not know that this place has been chosen by me, that my name might be invoked there? You stand before me in the holy place, and you stand polluted! And though polluted, not with one kind of vice, but my whole law has been violated by you, and my Tables despised, you still stand!”

Thus, we see the Prophet's design, for he condemns the effrontery and perversity of the Jews because they dared to rush into God’s presence in all their pollutions.

He adds, And you say—that is, while standing in the Temple—you say, Oh, we are freed to do all these abominations. This means, “You think that the Temple is a cover for you to hide all your vices. And so you think that you have escaped from my hand, as though no account is any longer to be made of your sins, my Temple being regarded by you as an asylum, under whose shade you take shelter.”

It is indeed certain that the Jews did not speak this way; for if they had been asked whether their life was abominable, they would have denied it. He speaks of the reality of the situation, and he speaks in the person of God and according to His command.

He therefore condemns hypocrites for thinking themselves freed because they came to the Temple, and for believing that all those abominations he had mentioned—their impiety toward God and their injustice toward their neighbors—would go unpunished.

He afterwards adds, Is this house, which is called by my name, a den of robbers? This is the conclusion of the passage, which contains an amplification of their vices. For the Prophet had allowed the Jews to form a judgment, as though he had been discussing an obscure or doubtful subject: “Behold, judge for yourselves in your own case: is it right for you to steal, to murder, and to commit adultery, and then to come into this Temple and to boast that impunity is granted to you for all your evils?”

This indeed ought to have been enough. But as the obstinacy and stupor of the Jews were so great that they would not have yielded without being most fully and variously proven guilty, the Prophet adds this sentence: Is this house, which is called by my name, a den of robbers? That is, “Have I chosen this place for myself, that you might worship me, in order that you might be more licentious than if there were no religion?”

For what purpose is religion? Is it not so that people may by this bridle restrain themselves, that they may not be libertines? For surely the worship and fear of God are the directors of equity and justice. Now, would it not be better to have no Temple and no sacrifices, than for people to take more liberty to sin by making their ceremonies an excuse?

Away then with your ceremonies! Conscience shows that it is a wretched thing to oppress or injure a neighbor. All are constrained by common sense to own that adultery is a filthy and detestable thing, and people think the same of robberies and murders. As for superstitions, when they are seen as such, all are constrained to allow that the worship of God ought to be preserved in its purity.

Well then, if there had been no Temple among you, this truth must have been impressed on your minds—that God ought to be worshipped in purity. Now, because the Temple has been built at Jerusalem, because you offer sacrifices there, you are thieves, you are adulterers, you are murderers! And you think that I am somehow blind, that I am no longer the avenger of so many and such atrocious evils! ‘A den of robbers then is my house become to you.’ But this sentence is to be read interrogatively: “Can it be that this Temple, this sanctuary, has become a den of robbers?”

But we must consider the significance of the comparison. Robbers, though they are most audacious and wholly savage, do not yet dare openly to use their swords; they dare not kill helpless people in public. Why? They fear the punishment allotted to them by the laws; they are cautious.

But when they seize people in some hidden place, then they take more liberty in their robberies: they kill them and then take their property. Thus, we see that dens and hidden places offer more safety for robbers.

The comparison, then, is most suitable when the Prophet says that the Jews made the Temple of God a den of robbers. For if there had been no Temple, some integrity might have remained, secured by the common feelings of humanity. But when they covered their baseness with sacrifices, they thought they thus escaped all judgment.

Thus, Christ applied this prophecy to his time, for the Jews had even then profaned the Temple. Though they presumptuously and falsely called on God’s name, they yet sought the Temple as an asylum for impurity. This folly Christ exposed, as the Prophet had done.

He afterwards adds, Even I, behold I see, says Jehovah. Jeremiah here no doubt touches ironically on the false confidence with which the Jews deceived themselves, for hypocrites seem to themselves to know whatever is necessary.

And so it is, that because they think themselves to be acute, they are bolder and more presumptuous in contriving deceitful schemes by which they seek to delude God and humanity. Thus, the Prophet here tauntingly touches them to the quick by intimating that they wished to make God, as it were, blind: Even I, behold I see, he says.

It would not yet be sufficiently evident how emphatic the phrase is, were it not for a similar passage in Isaiah 29:15:

I also am wise. The Prophet had said, Woe to the crafty and the wise, who have dug pits for themselves.

He there condemns ungodly people who thought that they could somehow by their falsehoods deceive God—which seems to be, and is, monstrous. Yet it is an evil that commonly prevails among humanity, for hardly one person in a hundred can be found who does not seek coverings to hide from the eyes of God.

This is the case especially with courtiers and clever people, who assume for themselves so much clear-sightedness that God sees nothing in comparison with them. The Lord therefore, by Isaiah, gives this answer: “I also am wise. If you are wise, allow me at least some portion of wisdom, and do not think that I am altogether foolish.”

So also in this place: “Before my eyes, this house is made a den of robbers.” That is, “If there is any sense in you, does it not appear evident that you have made a den of robbers of my Temple? And can I still be blind? If you think that you are very clear-sighted, I also do see, says the Lord.”

Thus, we see what force there is in the particle gam, also, and in the pronoun anoki, I, and in ene, behold; for these three words are heaped together, that God might show that He was not unobservant when the people so audaciously ran headlong into all kinds of vices and sought by their falsehoods to cover His eyes, that He might not see anything.

Prayer:

Grant, Almighty God, that as You do not build a temple among us today of wood and stones, and as the fullness of Your Godhead dwells in Your only begotten Son, and as he by his power fills the whole world, and dwells in our midst, and even in us—O grant, that we may not profane his sanctuary by our vices and sins, but so strive to consecrate ourselves to Your service, that Your name through his name may be continually glorified, until we are at length received into that eternal inheritance, where that glory which we now see in the truth contained in Your gospel will appear to us openly, and face to face. Amen.