Jeremiah 7: The Temple Sermon

"The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying, Stand in the gate of the LORD's house, and proclaim there this word… Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place. Trust ye not in lying words, saying, The temple of the LORD, The temple of the LORD, The temple of the LORD, are these" (7:1–4).

"For if ye throughly amend your ways and your doings; if ye throughly execute judgment between a man and his neighbour; if ye oppress not the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and shed not innocent blood in this place, neither walk after other gods to your hurt: Then will I cause you to dwell in this place" (vv. 5–7).

"Will ye steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense unto Baal… And come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, We are delivered to do all these abominations? Is this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes?… But go ye now unto my place which was in Shiloh, where I set my name at the first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people Israel" (vv. 9–12).

"The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead their dough, to make cakes to the queen of heaven" (v. 18). "And they have built the high places of Tophet, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire; which I commanded them not, neither came it into my heart" (v. 31).

Shiloh

Shiloh (Khirbet Seilun), about 30 km north of Jerusalem, held the tabernacle and the ark in the days of Eli and Samuel. Danish (1926–32) and Israeli (1981–84) excavations found a large Iron I settlement that ended in destruction in the 11th century BC; more recent excavations continue. The archaeology fits a destroyed sanctuary town, though linking it to a specific battle (1 Samuel 4) is an inference. By Jeremiah's time Shiloh's ruin was proverbial (26:6, 9).

The queen of heaven

Cakes, libations and incense to "the queen of heaven" (7:18; 44:17–19, 25) point to a goddess worshipped in households, with women prominent in the rites. She is usually identified with Ishtar/Astarte or a Canaanite goddess such as Asherah or Anat; Mesopotamian Ishtar was honored with cakes (kamanu, related to Hebrew kawwanim). The many Judean pillar figurines of the 8th–7th centuries BC show household religion with female imagery, but which goddess they represent is debated (INV-11, planned).

The sermon told twice

Jeremiah 26 narrates the same sermon ("In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim," about 609/608 BC), its threat of making the temple "like Shiloh," and Jeremiah's trial, where elders cite Micah 3:12 in his defense. Chapter 7 gives the sermon's content; chapter 26 its occasion and consequences. Many scholars think chapter 7 has been expanded in the style of Deuteronomy; others attribute it largely to Jeremiah. See "The Temple Is Not a Magic Shield" (release 2).

"I spake not… concerning burnt offerings" (7:22)

The verse seems to deny that God commanded sacrifices at the exodus, though Leviticus contains many sacrificial laws. Interpreters read it as prophetic hyperbole ("not sacrifice first, but obedience"), as evidence that Jeremiah's tradition did not know the priestly laws in their present form, or as contrasting the covenant at Sinai (obedience) with later ritual. Each reading is defended; the text's point is that ritual without obedience is worthless.

Jesus at the temple

Mark 11:17, Matthew 21:13 and Luke 19:46 report that Jesus, driving out traders, said, "My house shall be called a house of prayer… but ye have made it a den of thieves," joining Isaiah 56:7 and Jeremiah 7:11. The Gospels use Jeremiah's phrase in a different setting: the Roman-period temple, its trade, and Jesus' prophetic act. As in Jeremiah 26, the action provokes the authorities (Mark 11:18). The connection is the Gospels' own quotation; what Jesus intended by the action is debated by historians (a protest against trade, a symbolic announcement of destruction, or both).