1883 Haydock Douay Rheims Bible

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Jeremiah 7:1 The word that came to Jeremias from the Lord, saying:

Jeremiah 7:2 Stand in the gate of the house of the Lord, and proclaim there this word, and say: Hear ye the word of the Lord, all ye men of Juda, that enter in at these gates, to adore the Lord.

Gate, before all the people. This discourse ends [in] Jeremias 13. (Calmet)
Jeremiah 7:3 Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: *Make your ways and your doings good: and I will dwell with you in this place.

Jeremias 26:13.
Dwell. Hebrew, "make you dwell here." (Haydock)
Jeremiah 7:4 Trust not in lying words, saying: The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, it is the temple of the Lord.

Lord. The triple repetition shews the vain confidence of the people, who blindly imagined that the temple would screen them, (Calmet) and that external sacrifices would suffice. But they were rejected with the temple. (Worthington)
Jeremiah 7:5 For if you will order well your ways, and your doings: if you will execute judgement between a man and his neighbour.

Jeremiah 7:6 If you oppress not the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and shed not innocent blood in this place, and walk not after strange gods to your own hurt:

Jeremiah 7:7 I will dwell with you in this place: in the land, which I gave to your fathers from the beginning, and for evermore.

Dwell. Hebrew and Septuagint as [in] ver. 3. (Haydock)
Jeremiah 7:8 Behold, you put your trust in lying words, which shall not profit you:

Jeremiah 7:9 To steal, to murder, to commit adultery, to swear falsely, to offer to Baalim, and to go after strange gods, which you know not.

Not, which have done you no good, and deserve not to be styled gods. (Calmet)
Jeremiah 7:10 And you have come, and stood before me in this house, in which my name is called upon, and have said: We are delivered, because we have done all these abominations.

Because. Hebrew also, "although," (Sa; Grotius) "to perform," (Chaldean; Montanus) or "by doing." God must surely approve of our conduct, since we are unmolested. (St. Thomas Aquinas; Lyranus) --- But the Vulgate seems preferable, and the people attribute their success to idols, Jeremias 44:17., and 2 Paralipomenon 28:23.
Jeremiah 7:11 *Is this house then, in which my name hath been called upon, in your eyes become a den of robbers? I, I am he: I have seen it, saith the Lord.

Matthew 21:13.; Mark 11:17.; Luke 19:46.
Robbers. Our Saviour alludes to this, Matthew 21:13. --- Seen. Think not to hide yourselves, as in a den. My temple shall not be an asylum for wretches. (Calmet)
Jeremiah 7:12 Go ye to my place in Silo, where my name dwelt from the beginning: and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people Israel:

Beginning, under Josue. (Haydock) --- The sins of a few priests caused this place to be abandoned, (1 Kings 2:22., and 3:4., and Psalm 77:60.) and shall the crimes of a whole people escape? (Calmet) --- It is true, that place and Jerusalem were once sanctified: but the people being criminal, God retires. (Worthington)
Jeremiah 7:13 And now, because you have done all these works, saith the Lord: and I have spoken to you rising up early, and speaking, and you have not heard: *and I have called you, and you have not answered:

Proverbs 1:24.; Isaias 65:12.
Early. Sparing no opportunity of reclaiming you. (Calmet)
Jeremiah 7:14 *I will do to this house, in which my name is called upon, and in which you trust, and to the place which I have given you and your fathers, as I did to Silo.

1 Kings 4:2.; 1 Kings 4:10.
Jeremiah 7:15 And I will cast you away from before my face, as I have cast away all your brethren, the whole seed of Ephraim.

Ephraim. The ten tribes (Worthington) had been led into captivity in the days of Ezechias, the great-grandfather of Josias. (Calmet)
Jeremiah 7:16 *Therefore do not thou pray for this people, nor take to thee praise and supplication for them, and do not withstand me: for I will not hear thee.

Jeremias 11:14.; Jeremias 14:11.
Praise, offered to appease my wrath. (Haydock) --- This admirably shews the force of the saints' intercession, which God does not reject, but rather encourages by such declarations. Abraham and Moses did not leave off praying for the guilty, (Genesis 18:23., and Exodus 32:10.) and the Lord complains that there was none to withhold him, Isaias 64:7., and Ezechiel 22:30. (Calmet)
Jeremiah 7:17 Seest thou not what they do in the cities of Juda, and in the streets of Jerusalem?

Jeremiah 7:18 The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead the dough, to make cakes to the queen of heaven, and to offer libations to strange gods, and to provoke me to anger.

Heaven. That is, the moon, which they worshipped under that name. (Challoner) --- Some understand the sun also and stars, Jeremias 44:17., and Isaias 65:11. All the family contributes to promote this idolatry.
Jeremiah 7:19 Do they provoke me to anger, saith the Lord? is it not themselves, to the confusion of their own countenance?

Jeremiah 7:20 Therefore, thus saith the Lord God: Behold, my wrath and my indignation is enkindled against this place, upon men and upon beasts, and upon the trees of the field, and upon the fruits of the land, and it shall burn, and shall not be quenched.

Jeremiah 7:21 Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Add your burnt-offerings to your sacrifices, and eat ye the flesh.

Flesh. I reject your holocausts. Keep them for yourselves. (Calmet)
Jeremiah 7:22 For I spoke not to your fathers, and I commanded them not, in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning the matter of burnt-offerings and sacrifices.

I commanded them not: viz., such sacrifices as the Jews at this time offered without obedience; which was the thing principally commanded: so that in comparison with it, the offering of the holocausts and sacrifices was of small account. (Challoner) --- The observance of the decalogue would suffice. Victims were to teach internal piety, Leviticus 1. (Worthington) --- God "brought them out of Egypt, not for the sake of their sacrifices, but that they might....hear his word." (St. Irenaeus, [Against Heresies] 4:17.) --- This was the principal design. See Matthew 9:13., and Osee 6:6., and 1 Corinthians 1:17. (Maldonat) (Menochius) (Calmet) --- The rules for sacrifices were given after the adoration of the calf, as necessary preservatives against idolatry. (St. Thomas Aquinas, [Summa Theologica] 1:2. q. 102. a. 3.) --- Yet the paschal lamb, etc., had been already commanded. (Calmet) --- Many such absolute expressions imply a condition or comparison. (Gloss.) (Proverbs 8:10.) --- I brought. Several manuscripts read thus more accurately than the Hebrew, "He brought," (Kennicott) which Protestants abandon, (Haydock) though the present reading may stand. (Chappel.) (Crat.) --- Every variation should be noticed, as this and the former verse "seem greatly corrupted; perhaps the Syriac version will be the best guide to their true meaning." (Kennicott) --- Yet the passage is sufficiently intelligible in the Vulgate and Septuagint.
Jeremiah 7:23 But this thing I commanded them, saying: Hearken to my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people: and walk ye in all the way, that I have commanded you, that it may be well with you.

Jeremiah 7:24 But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear: but walked in their own will, and in the perversity of their wicked heart: and went backward and not forward,

Jeremiah 7:25 From the day that their fathers came out of the land of Egypt, even to this day. And I have sent to you all my servants, the prophets, from day to day, rising up early and sending.

Jeremiah 7:26 And they have not hearkened to me: nor inclined their ear: but have hardened their neck, *and have done worse than their fathers.

Jeremias 16:12.
Jeremiah 7:27 And thou shalt speak to them all these words, but they will not hearken to thee: and thou shalt call them, but they will not answer thee.

Thee. Septuagint omit this verse, which Grabe replaces. The people will be more inexcusable. (Haydock)
Jeremiah 7:28 And thou shalt say to them: This is a nation which hath not hearkened to the voice of the Lord their God, nor received instruction: faith is lost, and is taken away out of their mouth.

Jeremiah 7:29 Cut off thy hair, and cast it away: and take up a lamentation on high: for the Lord hath rejected, and forsaken the generation of his wrath,

High. People lamented in such places, Jeremias 9:13., and Judges 11:35. (Calmet) --- Wrath, which he treats with the utmost severity. (Haydock)
Jeremiah 7:30 Because the children of Juda have done evil in my eyes, saith the Lord. They have set their abominations in the house in which my name is called upon, to pollute it:

Abominations. Hebrew. We have literally, "stumbling-blocks," offendicula. (Haydock) --- Manasses placed idols in the very temple, as the last kings of Juda did, 4 Kings 23:4., and Ezechiel 8:3.
Jeremiah 7:31 And they have built the high places of Topheth, which is in the valley of the son of Ennom, to burn their sons, and their daughters, in the fire: which I commanded not, nor thought on in my heart.

Valley, to the south of the city. Here Moloc was adored, and Josias therefore contaminated the place, 4 Kings 23:10. (Calmet) --- It was very delightful. (St. Jerome)
Jeremiah 7:32 Therefore, behold the days shall come, saith the Lord, and it shall no more be called Topheth, nor the Valley of the son of Ennom: but the Valley of slaughter, and they shall bury in Topheth, because there is no place.

Place, elsewhere. (Haydock) --- This was verified when Nabuchodonosor and Titus besieged the city. (Calmet) --- The latter was quite shocked. (Josephus, Jewish Wars 6:14.) See Jeremias 19., and 31:40.
Jeremiah 7:33 And the carcasses of this people shall be meat for the fowls of the air, and for the beasts of the earth, and there shall be none to drive them away.

Jeremiah 7:34 *And I will cause to cease out of the cities of Juda, and out of the streets of Jerusalem, the voice of joy, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride: for the land shall be desolate.

Zacharias 12:13.
Bride. None shall think of marrying, (chap. 16:9., and 25:10.; Calmet) all being filled with lamentation. (Menochius)