John Gill Commentary Jeremiah 7

The word that came to Jeremiah
The Word of prophecy, as the Targum: from the Lord, saying;
this begins a new prophecy. This verse, and the beginning of the next, are wanting in the Septuagint version.

Stand in the gate of the Lord's house
That is, of the temple, and the court of it. This gate, as Kimchi says, was the eastern gate, which was theprincipal gate of all; see (Jeremiah 26:2) : and proclaim there this word, andsay ;
with a loud voice, as follows: hear you the word of the Lord, all you of Judah ;
the inhabitants of the several parts of Judea, which came to the temple to worship; very probably it was afeast day, as Calvin conjectures; either the passover, or pentecost, or feast of tabernacles, when all themales in Israel appeared in court: that enter in at these gates to worship the Lord;

there were seven gates belonging to the court, three on the north, three on the south, and one in the east,the chief of all, as Kimchi, Abarbinel, and Ben Melech observe; and this agrees with the account in the Misna^F11 . The names of them were these; on the south side were these three, the watergate, the gate ofthe firstlings; or the gate of offering, and the gate of kindling; on the north were these three, the gateNitzotz, called also the gate of the song, the gate Korban, sometimes called the gate of women, and BethMoked; and the gate in the east was the gate Nicanor, and this gate was the most frequented; and thereforeJeremiah was ordered to stand here, and deliver his message.

FOOTNOTES:

• F11: Middot, c. 1. sect. 4, 5.

Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel
The Lord of armies above and below in general, and the God of Israel in particular; wherefore they ought to hearken to what he was about to say, and to be obedient to him: amend your ways and your doings ;
or, "make them good" ^F12 ; which shows that they were bad, and were not agreeable to the law and will of God, to which they ought to have been conformed; and the way to amend them was to act according to the rule of the divine word they were favoured with: and I will cause you to dwell in this place ;
to continue to dwell in Jerusalem, and in Judea, the land of their nativity, and in the temple, the house of God, and place of religious worship; but, if not, it is suggested that they should not continue here, but be carried captive into a strange land.

FOOTNOTES:

• F12: (Mkykrd wbyjyh) "bonas facite vias vestras", V. L. Munster, Pagninus, Montanus; "efficite" Junius & Tremellius, Piscator.

Trust you not in lying words
In the words of the lying prophets, as the Targum; and to the same purpose is the Arabic version, "do not trust in lying words, for the false prophets do not profit you in anything;" the things in which they trusted, and in which the false prophets taught them to place their confidence, were their coming up to the temple at certain times for religious exercises, and their attendance on temple service and worship, offering of sacrifices, and the like. The Septuagint version is, "trust not in yourselves, in lying words"; see (Luke 18:9) , in their external actions of devotion, in their ritual performances, taking them for righteousness; and adds, what is not in the Hebrew text, "for they altogether profit you not"; in the business of justification before God, and acceptance with him.

saying, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of
the Lord, are these ;
that is, the people that hypocritically worshipped there, as the false prophets told them; and so the Syriac version, "you are the temple of the Lord"; though that begins the next verse, with the last clause of this, if you amend your ways see (1 Corinthians 3:16 1 Corinthians 3:17) or rather the temple of the Lord are those gates through which they entered, (Jeremiah 7:2) or those buildings which were pointed at with the finger; or (hmh) , "these", is a clause by itself; and the sense is, these are the lying words that should not be trusted in, namely, the temple and temple services; when all manner of sin and wickedness were committed by them, which they thought to atone for by coming to the temple and worshipping there.

The mention of these words three times is, as Jarchi thinks, in reference to the Jews appearing in the temple three times a year, at the feast of passover, pentecost, and tabernacles; and so the Targum, ``who say (i.e. the false prophets), before the temple of the Lord you worship; before the temple of the Lord you sacrifice; before the temple of the Lord you bow; three times in a year you appear before him.'' Kimchi's father, R. Joseph, is of opinion, that it refers to the three parts of the temple, the porch, the holy place, and the holy of holies; but Kimchi himself takes it that these words are trebled for the greater confirmation of them; and they may denote the vehemence and ardour of affection for the temple.

For if you thoroughly amend your ways and your doings
Or, "if you make your ways good, and do your works well", which is what is exhorted to (Jeremiah 7:3) , and respects the duties of the moral law; which are more acceptable to God than legal sacrifices, when done from right principles, and with right views, from love, in faith, and to the glory of God; which is doing good works well; the particulars of which follow: if you thoroughly execute judgment between a man and his neighbour ;
without respect to persons, without favour and affection, without bribery and corruption; passing a righteous sentence, and making an equitable decision of the case between them, according to the law of God, and the rules of justice and equity: this respects judges and civil magistrates.