Глава 7

1–15. The wrath of God is upon Jerusalem and its church. 16–20. The prophet’s pleas for the people are in vain. 21–28. Sacrifices will also bring no benefit if the Jews disobey Jehovah. 29–34. A terrible punishment will befall the apostates. Jeremiah 7:1–15. The Jews were too confident in their safety, believing that Jehovah would not allow His church to be destroyed. But God can promise them this security only if they correct themselves. Now, when they have made the very church of Jehovah a refuge for criminals of all kinds, they can only expect its destruction and the destruction of their entire state. Jer.7:1. The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: Jer.7:2. stand at the gates of the house of the Lord and proclaim this word there and say: Hear the word of the Lord, all Jews who enter through these gates to worship the Lord. This is where the so-called “church speech” of the prophet Jeremiah begins, which was spoken in the temple of Jerusalem. It ends with Chapter IX. Its similarity with the speech of Jeremiah 26, spoken during the first time of the reign of Joachim, gives the right to attribute its origin to the same time. - “At the gates of the house of the Lord” - that is, at the gate leading to the outer courtyard, where the people stood, and not to the inner or priestly courtyard, where the people were not allowed (Ezek 40.17). Jer.7:3. Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Correct your ways and your doings, and I will let you live in this place. Jer.7:4. Do not rely on deceptive words: “here is the church of the Lord, the church of the Lord, the church of the Lord.” The church in itself is not a protection for sinners! Meanwhile, the Jews strenuously insisted that the church was a true refuge for them, even if in fact they were complete apostates from Jehovah. Jer.7:5. But if you completely correct your ways and your deeds, if you faithfully execute judgment between a man and his adversary, Jer.7:6. You will not oppress the foreigner, the orphan and the widow, and shed innocent blood in this place, and you will not follow other gods to your own misfortune, - Jer.7:7. Then I will leave you to live in this place, in this land, which I gave to your fathers throughout the generations. Jer.7:8. Behold, you trust in deceptive words that will not benefit you. Jer.7:9. How! you steal and kill and commit adultery, and swear lies and burn incense to Baal, and follow other gods which you do not know, Jer.7:10. and then come and stand before Me in this house, which is called by My name, and say, “We are saved,” so that from now on you can do all these abominations. The Jews obviously found it possible for themselves to combine the worship of Baal and service to Jehovah. But one decisively excludes the other. Jer.7:11. Has not this house, which is called by My name, become a den of thieves in your eyes? Behold, I have seen it, says the Lord. The Jews turned the church itself into a den or cave, where robbers temporarily took refuge from persecution by the authorities. Jer.7:12. Go therefore to My place in Shiloh, where I first appointed My name to abide, and see what I have done to it because of the wickedness of My people Israel. "Shilom", the city of the tribe of Ephraim, before the death of the high priest Eli, was the same theocratic center that Jerusalem now serves. However, for the sins of the house of Eli and the entire people of Israel, it was deprived of its great advantage and now, during the time of Jeremiah, it was nothing but ruins. Jer.7:13. And now, since you are doing all these things, says the Lord, and I spoke to you early in the morning, and you did not listen, and I called you, but you did not answer, Jer.7:14. then I will do the same to this house that is called by My name, in which you trust, and to the place that I gave to you and to your fathers, as I did to Shiloh. Jer.7:15. And I will cast you out of my presence, just as I have cast away all your brothers, even all the seed of Ephraim. The Lord will do the same with the current central point of the theocracy - Jerusalem and its church. – “Seed of Ephraim” – 10 tribes of Israel, named here by the name of the strongest tribe. Jer.7:16. Do not ask for this people and do not offer prayers and petitions for them, and do not intercede before Me, for I will not hear you. Jer.7:17. Do you not see what they are doing in the cities of Judea and in the streets of Jerusalem? Jer.7:18. Children gather wood, and fathers make fire, and women knead dough to make pies for the goddess of heaven and to offer libations to other gods to grieve Me. Jer.7:19. But do they upset Me? says the Lord; not themselves to their shame? Jer.7:20. Therefore thus says the Lord God: Behold, My wrath and My wrath are poured out on this place, on people and on cattle, and on the trees of the field and on the fruit of the ground, and it will burn and not be quenched. To show the inevitability of the punishment announced to the Jews, the Lord forbids the prophet to pray for this people. “Goddess of the sky” - more precisely from Hebrew: queen of heaven. This is the Babylonian-Assyrian goddess Astarte. In her honor, in Assyria and Babylonia, special cookies were prepared, called Assyrian. Cattani, in Heb. – kawan; it looked like circles, which was reminiscent of the moon (Astarte was the goddess, in fact, of the moon). Verses 21–28. If the Jews count on safety in view of the sacrifices they make in the church, then this calculation is unfounded. God does not need sacrifices per se. The sacrifices should only serve as an expression of the Jews' inner devotion to Jehovah, which they actually do not have. Jer.7:21. Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices and eat the flesh; “Burnt offerings... shall be added to the sacrifices.” In a burnt offering, the entire animal was burned, and from other sacrifices certain parts were used for the use of those who offered the sacrifice or the priests. God now says that they can also eat burnt offerings - He does not need them because, of course, they are not an expression of sincere disposition towards God on the part of those offering them. Jer.7:22. For I did not speak to your fathers, nor did I give them any commandment in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices; Jer.7:23. but he gave them this commandment: “Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and you will be my people, and walk in every way that I command you, that it may go well with you.” This passage is the main reason for biblical critics to deny the antiquity of the so-called priestly code contained in the Pentateuch. Jeremiah, they say, did not know any of the Mosaic regulations regarding sacrifices. But could the prophet speak about the high holiness of the places of sacrifice (Jeremiah 7.12 et seq.) if he considered the laws on sacrifices to be a later invention? Also from Jer 17.26; Jer 31.14 and Jer 33.11 show that Jeremiah himself considered sacrificing to be normal and pleasing to Jehovah (cf. Jer 33.17–24). Therefore, the rabbis correctly interpret this passage by saying that the prophet here specifically speaks of the exit of the Jews from Egypt, excluding the Sinai legislation. It is clear that the prophet wants to instill in the Jews the idea that the first thing God needs is obedience (cf. Exodus 6.7; Exodus 15.26), while sacrifices come in the background... Verses 29–34. The Jews desecrated the temple itself with pagan abominations, and built altars for burning their children in the Tophet Valley. For this there is no forgiveness for them and the Lord will turn their country into a desert. Jer.7:29. Cut off your hair and throw it away, and make a cry on the mountains, for the Lord has rejected and forsaken the generation that incurred His wrath. The command to cut hair is addressed to the daughter of Zion, as can be seen from the fact that in Heb. In the text the verb is placed in the feminine gender. - "On the mountains". Where the Jews sinned by making unlawful sacrifices, there they should weep (cf. Jer 3.21). Jeremiah 7:30. For the sons of Judah do evil in my sight, says the Lord; they have set up their abominations in the house that is called by my name, to defile it; This refers to the introduction of idols into the Jerusalem temple under King Manasseh (2 Kings 21.3–5, 7). Jer.7:31. and they built the high places of Tophet in the valley of the children of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in fire, which I did not command and which did not enter into my heart. “The heights of Tophet”, located “in the valley of the sons of Hinnom” - explanation. see Interpretation. Bible vol. 2 p. 533. – “I did not command.” Jeremiah, apparently here as in other places (Jer 19.5 and Jer 32.35), says that the sacrifices performed in this valley were performed in honor of Jehovah. The idea of ​​sacrificing children to Jehovah may have been influenced by Ex. 13:2, 12, 22:29 (cf. also Mic. 6.7). Jer.7:32. Therefore, behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when they will no longer call this place Tophet and the valley of the sons of Hinnom, but the valley of murder, and they will bury in Tophet for lack of space. Jer.7:33. And the corpses of this people will be food for the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth, and there will be no one to drive them away. "For that." Although these terrible sacrifices were abolished by King Josiah and were not renewed under Joachim (this is evident from the fact that the defeat of the Jews under Joachim is attributed in the book of Kings to the crimes of Manasseh only; 2 Kings 24.3 cf. 2 Kings 21:11, 23, 26), nevertheless, only 18 years have passed since their abolition (until the 5th year). Joachim), and Manasseh’s contemporaries had not yet atoned for their participation in these lawless sacrifices with any suffering. Now they must be punished. - The valley of murder. Here, in the valley of the sons of Ginnom, so many corpses of the slain Jerusalemites will be brought for burial that it can be renamed the valley of murder or the slain. Jer.7:34. And I will stop from the cities of Judah and from the streets of Jerusalem the voice of triumph and the voice of joy, the voice of the groom and the voice of the bride; because this land will be a desert. Jewish wedding processions were always accompanied by a choir of singers who performed cheerful chants. Special notes - at the end of Chapter IX, since Chapters VII, VIII and IX form one speech delivered in the church. You might be interested in: