Thomas Aquinas Commentary Jeremiah 7

1. Here, the prophet excludes the third means of assistance on which the people might have relied: the practice of their religion. He addresses this in three areas:

1. Regarding the sanctity of the temple.
2. Regarding the devotion of prayer, as seen in the verse, therefore, you shall not pray for this people (Jeremiah 7:16).
3. Regarding the offering of sacrifices, as seen in the verse, thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel (Jeremiah 7:21).

Regarding the first point on the sanctity of the temple, the prophet makes two arguments:

1. First, he speaks as if offering sound advice in good faith: stand in the gate. This was so that they might at least be forced to listen because of the sanctity of the place; it is as if he were saying, “They refuse to listen elsewhere.”

   He commands them: Make your ways—that is, your actions—good, and your inclinations—your thoughts, by which you decide what to do. Prepare the way, make straight the paths of our God in the wilderness (Isaiah 40:3).

   Then he speaks of the fruit of obedience: and I will dwell. Behold the dwelling place of God is with men, and he shall dwell with them (Revelation 21:3).

   Finally, he refutes their vain hope: trust not in lying words. He does this since they were saying that, because of the temple's sanctity, they could avoid all punishment without amending their lives. They would repeat, “The temple of the Lord is holy; the temple of the Lord is precious; the temple of the Lord is revered by all.” But God has not chosen a people because of the place, but a place because of the people .

2. Second, he returns to his purpose and explains it, which he does in two parts.

   1. First, regarding the earlier part of the command, he shows what is meant by making one’s ways good, and he lays out the steps in order of action. He starts with their internal state: for if you truly amend, as if you were determining or directing in your mind and setting straight in thought your inclinations.

      Next, regarding doing good to a neighbor: if you carry out judgment.

      Then, in relation to God: nor walk after strange gods.

      He again reminds them of the fruit of his counsel: I will dwell with you, if you will desire it and listen. Lord, who shall dwell in your tabernacle, or who shall rest on your holy mountain? He who walks without stain, and does justice (Psalms 15:1–2).

   2. Second, he explains the latter part of his argument, which also has two sections.

      1. First, he exposes their false confidence and attributes this defect to their guilt: behold, you trust in lying words. He says this because they believe they can commit the following sins with impunity:

         • to steal, a sin against a neighbor’s property;
         • to kill, a sin against his person;
         • to commit adultery, a sin that is partly against his property and partly against his person;
         • to swear falsely, which is a sin against God.

         As Isaiah says, We have set a lie as our hope, and by a lie are we protected (Isaiah 28:15).

         He also addresses their external show of religion, which contradicts a sufficient amendment of life: you have come, and stood before me in this house. They acted as if believing that merely entering the temple would suffice. Perhaps they were deceived by Solomon’s prayer, which is recorded in 2 Chronicles 6 and 1 Kings 8. The prophet, however, understands that one must enter the house of the Lord only after completely amending one’s conduct, not with the false confidence that says, Because we have done all these abominations without His intervention.

      2. Second, he refutes their false confidence.

         1. First, he refutes it with an argument, showing that their external religion is an insufficient amendment for their sins: has not, then, this house become a den of thieves? It is as if he were saying, “If you enter my house unpurified, you make it a den of thieves.” My house shall be called a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves (Matthew 21:13). And he shows their obvious guilt: I, even I—who am particularly present and see all things everywhere—have seen your sins. All the ways of men lay open to his eyes; the Lord is a weigher of spirits (Proverbs 16:2).

         2. Second, he refutes it by example. This refutation also has two parts.

            1. First, he gives the example of Shiloh, where the tabernacle had previously been set up: go to my place in Shiloh. And he rejected the tabernacle of Shiloh, his tabernacle, where he dwelled among men (Psalms 78:60).

            2. Second, he applies this example to the current situation, assuming a similar fault: and now, because you have done all these things, says the Lord, though I have spoken to you rising early. The commentator explains “rising early” as being like a diligent man who gets up very early to complete his work, or as a time suitable for contemplation and receiving wisdom, since the body is then at rest. The Lord continues, I called. For I called and you refused, I implored and there was none who would look (Proverbs 1:24).

               From this, the prophet deduces a similar punishment—the destruction of the place: I shall do to this house. As it says later, I shall make this house like Shiloh, and this city a curse to all the nations (Jeremiah 26:6).

               And regarding the captivity of the people, he says: I shall drive you from before my face. As it says later, you have scattered my flock and have driven them away, and have not visited them (Jeremiah 23:2).

1. Here, he excludes the remedy of prayer.

   First, he presents the decree: neither take up, even when asked by them, and do not stand against, because the prayer of the saints, in a certain sense, delays and hinders the decree of God. For example, For a man without blame made haste to pray for the people, bringing forth the shield of his service, prayer, and by incense making supplication, withstood the wrath and put an end to the calamity, showing that he was your servant .A reference to Aaron in Numbers 16:46, who stopped a plague by offering incense. Also, There is none who invokes your name, who may arise and take hold of you (Isaiah 64:7).

   On the contrary, one might point to the passage, God, whose wrath no one can oppose (Job 9:13). However, the answer is that this is true regarding the strength of human virtue, but not the strength of prayer and humility.

   The decree continues: Because I will not hear. This is like a lord of the court who does not want the sight of a pleading servant to sway him, as in the command, Pretend that you are in mourning; put on mourning clothes, and do not anoint yourself with oil (2 Kings 14:2).

   Second, he addresses the matter from the perspective of their guilt.

   First, he notes their guilt is obvious, since it was done publicly: do you not see? This is like the command, Son of man, make Jerusalem to know her abominations (Ezekiel 16:2). Furthermore, the sin is common to both sexes and all ages: the sons gather wood, the fathers kindle the fire, and the women sprinkle the fat, to make cakes to the queen of heaven—that is, to the moonAstarte/Ashtoreth, a Canaanite deity venerated as the goddess of the moon. or to the host of heaven and all the stars. As it says elsewhere: what of it if we sacrifice to the queen of heaven, and pour out drink offerings to her; did we make cakes to worship her without our husbands? (Jeremiah 44:19).

   Second, he shows the folly of those who sin, because they did not injure God, but themselves: do they provoke me to anger? As Job asks, If you sin will you do him harm? (Job 35:6). And as the Psalm says, His sorrow shall be turned on his own head, and his iniquity shall descend upon his own crown (Psalms 7:17).

   Third, he threatens punishment: therefore, thus says the Lord. This echoes a previous warning: lest my indignation should blaze forth like fire, and burn, and there be none to extinguish it, because of the wickedness of your thoughts (Jeremiah 4:4).

1. First, the prophet sets aside their confidence in sacrifices. He reveals God’s perspective with the words, add burnt offerings to your sacrifices. It is as if he were saying, “Just as the greater part of your sacrifices is for your own use, so you should eat the entirety of the burnt offerings yourselves, for I take no pleasure in the eating of flesh.” As the Psalm says, Do I eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of goats? (Psalms 49:13).

   He gives the reason for this with the words, for I did not speak. The Lord did not desire this for His own sake, but so that through it He might draw them away from idolatry. For this reason, before the worship of the calf (Exodus 32:1–8), no commandments were given concerning sacrifices. Sacrifice and oblation you have not desired, but ears have you made for me. Holocaust and sin offering you have not required. Then I said, ‘Behold, I come’ (Psalms 39:6–7).

Second, he rebukes them for their disobedient conduct.

He does this first by showing their guilt, and second by threatening punishment, at cut off your hair (Jeremiah 7:29).

Concerning their guilt, he first proves their disobedience as if by induction. He shows they are disobedient to the Law by drawing their attention to its commandments: but this thing did I command. This was commanded from the beginning, as if it were the primary intention. He continues, Hear my voice, which concerns the moral precepts, and adds the promise, You shall be for me a people, and I will be a God for you (Ezekiel 36:28).

He then notes their contempt for the commandment: but they did not listen . . . they went backward, always adding more sin afterward. As Isaiah says, All have turned aside to their own way, each one to his greed, from the greatest to the least (Isaiah 56:11).

He also shows that they were disobedient to the prophets who came before them: and I sent all my servants the prophets to you. As it is written, The Lord has testified against Israel and against Judah by the hand of all his prophets and seers, saying: turn back from your evil ways, and keep my commandments and my sacred rites, according to the Law which I commanded your fathers, and as I have sent word to you by the hand of my servants the prophets. They did not listen, but stiffened their necks, like the necks of their fathers, who did not wish to obey the Lord their God (2 Kings 17:13–14).

He even predicts that they will not obey him: And you shall speak . . . but they will not listen. This is because the house of Israel does not wish to hear you, because they do not wish to hear me; indeed, the whole house of Israel has a hard forehead and an obstinate heart (Ezekiel 3:7). And again, I have called, but you have not answered; I have spoken, but you did not listen, but you have done evil in my sight, and have chosen what I did not want (Isaiah 65:12).

Second, he draws the conclusion, which begins with the words, you will say to them. This is because, as it says above, in vain have I struck your children; they have not received correction (Jeremiah 2:30). This refers to the loss of faithfulness. This can be understood as faithfulness to the Lord, for with the heart we believe unto justice, but with the mouth confession is made unto salvation (Romans 10:10). Alternatively, it can mean fidelity to one’s neighbor, as in, A faithful man who shall find? (Proverbs 20:6).

Here, he threatens them with punishment.

1. He prefigures it with a sign: cut off your hair. As in Ezekiel 5:2, you shall burn the third part of your hair with fire in the midst of the city, according to the fulfillment of the days of the siege; and you shall take a third part, and strike it with a sword round about; and a third part you shall scatter to the wind. He also says, The generation of his fury. I shall send him to a false nation, and against the people of my fury shall I commission him (Isaiah 10:6).

2. He explains his words:

   1. Resuming the sin of idolatry, he rebukes them from the holy place because they placed abominations—that is, idols—in the house, namely, the temple, in a public and open place.

      and they have built... which I have not commanded, as if to say, “I have not commanded such difficult things from them.” From this it becomes clear that they have also turned away from me. They have sacrificed their sons and their daughters to demons; the flesh of their sons and their daughters they have offered to the graven images of Canaan (Psalms 105:37).

   2. He threatens them with punishment:

      • With the slaughter of their men.
      • With the scattering of their bodies, when he says, in that time, says the Lord, they shall cast out the bones of the king of Judah (Jeremiah 8:1).
      • With the driving out of the remnant, as it says, and they shall choose death rather than life (Jeremiah 8:3).

Concerning the first point—the slaughter—there are three details.

1. He gives the place of the slaughter: therefore, the days shall come, when they will be punished in the same place where they sinned.

   Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when this place shall no longer be called Tophet, and the valley of the sons of Hinnom, but the valley of slaughter (Jeremiah 19:6).

2. He excludes the duty of burial: and the dead of this people shall be as food for the birds of the air. Yet, some of them will be buried, either by those who remain or by the enemy, who are unable to bear the stench.

   They have given the bodies of your servants as food to the birds of the air, and the flesh of your saints to the beasts of the earth (Psalms 78:2).

3. He excludes all joy: and I shall make cease. All of this testifies to the magnitude of the slaughter. The joy of our heart has ceased; our dance is turned into sorrow (Lamentations 5:15).

Collations

• Note that God dwells (Jeremiah 7:3) with us in several ways:

  • Through the steadfastness of our faith: That Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith (Ephesians 3:17).
  • Through the harmony of brotherly love: where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them (Matthew 18:20).
  • Through obedience to the commandments: if anyone love me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make a dwelling place with him (John 14:23).
  • Through the height of devout contemplation: I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears my voice and opens to me, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me (Revelation 3:20).

• Also note that he speaks of the temple (Jeremiah 7:4) according to multiple senses:

  • Historically: I shall worship in your holy temple, and confess your name (Psalms 138:2).
  • Allegorically, as the Church herself: the temple of God is holy, which temple you are (1 Corinthians 3:17).
  • Typologically, as the just man himself: do you not know that your bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit? (1 Corinthians 6:19).
  • Anagogically, as God himself: the Lord God almighty is its temple, and the lamb (Revelation 21:22).

• Also note that we ought to listen to the voice (Jeremiah 7:23) of the Lord in several ways:

  • By loving him with the love of charity, because he is our good: you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength (Deuteronomy 6:5).
  • By serving him with sacred worship, because he is the Lord: you shall worship the Lord your God, and him alone shall you serve (Deuteronomy 10:20), and Serve the Lord with fear (Psalms 2:11).
  • By walking after him in observance of his commandments, because he is our Father: you will call me ‘Father,’ and you will not cease to walk after me (Jeremiah 3:19).
  • By seeking him with right intention, because he is our end: seek the Lord, all you meek of the earth, because you have done his judgment (Zephaniah 2:3).
  • By worshiping him with proper honor, because he is our creator and our God: you shall worship the Lord your God (Matthew 4:10).