Jeremiah 7:10

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?

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(10) And come and stand.—Better, and then have ye come, and stood before me.

We are delivered.—Taking the word as it stands (a different punctuation adopted by some commentators and versions gives Deliver us, as though reproducing, with indignant scorn, the very prayer of the people), the sense seems to be this. The people tried to combine the worship of Baal and Jehovah, and passed from the one temple to the other. They went away from the fast or feast in the house of the Lord with the feeling that they were “saved,” or “delivered.” They had gone through their religious duties, and might claim their reward. The prophet seems to repeat their words in a tone of irony, They were “delivered,” not from their abominations, but as if set free to do them.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

7:1-16 No observances, professions, or supposed revelations, will profit, if men do not amend their ways and their doings. None can claim an interest in free salvation, who allow themselves in the practice of known sin, or live in the neglect of known duty. They thought that the temple they profaned would be their protection. But all who continue in sin because grace has abounded, or that grace may abound, make Christ the minister of sin; and the cross of Christ, rightly understood, forms the most effectual remedy to such poisonous sentiments. The Son of God gave himself for our transgressions, to show the excellence of the Divine law, and the evil of sin. Never let us think we may do wickedness without suffering for it.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

We are delivered - Jeremiah accuses them of trusting in the ceremonial of the temple instead of leading holy lives. "You break," he says, "the Ten Commandments, and then you go to the Temple; and when the service is over you say, We are delivered. We have atoned for our past actions, and may start afresh with easy minds upon a new course of wickedness."

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

10. And come—And yet come (Eze 23:39).

We are delivered—namely, from all impending calamities. In spite of the prophet's threats, we have nothing to fear; we have offered our sacrifices, and therefore Jehovah will "deliver" us.

to do all these abominations—namely, those enumerated (Jer 7:9). These words are not to be connected with "we are delivered," but thus: "Is it with this design that ye come and stand before Me in this house," in order that having offered your worthless sacrifices ye may be taken into My favor and so do all these abominations (Jer 7:9) with impunity? [Maurer].

Matthew Poole's Commentary

And come and stand before me in this house; in the temple; either as if they had done no such thing, like the whore, that wipes her mouth, and saith she hath done no wickedness, Proverbs 30:20, noting their deep hypocrisy; or else that barely this would expiate for all their abominations, as if they could make God amends for their sins by their duties; and their posture of standing notes their service, 1 Kings 10:8 Proverbs 22:29.

Which is called by my name; that is acknowledged to bc my house, and bears my name, dedicated to me.

We are delivered to do all these abominations; that is, after they had appeared before God with their sacrifices, either they thought themselves safe from all danger, and freed from God’s judgments, Malachi 3:15; or rather privileged to return to all those wickednesses again, hereby noting their impudence. See Isaiah 1:12, &c. LXX. read it, we have abstained from all these abominations, as if these were the lying words in which they trusted.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And come and stand before me in this house,.... In the temple; this they did after they had been guilty of such immoralities and idolatry; thinking by their appearance there, and their performance of a few ceremonies, and offering of some sacrifices, that all were atoned for: or this denotes their impudence, that, after the commission of such notorious crimes, they should have the front to come into the house of God, and stand before him, as if they had never departed from him, and were his people, and the true worshippers of him:

which is called by my name; the temple of God, the house of God, the sanctuary of the Lord; and where his name was also called upon, being a house of prayer; or where prayer was made to the Lord:

and say, we are delivered; from the punishment of the above sins, by coming into the temple, and standing before the Lord in it; by calling on his name, and offering sacrifices, though with impure hearts and hands, and in a hypocritical way

to do all these abominations; before mentioned; theft, murder, adultery, perjury, and idolatry. The sense is, either we are delivered and freed from punishment, that we may do these things with impunity; this is the use we make of, and the inference we draw from, our deliverance from evil: or we are delivered, though we commit these abominations, and therefore in them: or, seeing we are delivered, therefore do we these things; not that they really said these words, but this was the language of their actions. The Syriac version is, "deliver us, while we commit all these sins".

Geneva Study Bible

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?

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

10. called by my name] in token of ownership. Cp. Jeremiah 14:9, Jeremiah 25:29, Jeremiah 32:34. See other references for the phrase in Dr.’s note.

We are delivered] We are guaranteed impunity by the discharge of this religious formality. It is best with R.V. to limit the people’s supposed utterance to these three words, and to make the clause that follows to be the prophet’s indignant and sarcastic retort.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 10. - And come, etc.; rather, and then ye come, etc. We are delivered to do, etc.; rather, we have escaped, in order to do, etc. To make the concluding words of the verse a part of the speech seems hardly fair to the Jews, who would certainly not proclaim that they had made their escape from the threatened judgment with the object of prosecuting abominable acts. Such a view, moreover, greatly weakens the force of the emphatic "We have escaped." "In order to do," etc., are the words of the prophet, who thus lays bare the secret intentions of these formal worshippers. Jeremiah 7:10

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Breaches of almost all the commandments are specified; first the eighth, sixth, and seventh of the second table, and then two commandments of the first table; cf. Hosea 4:2. Swearing falsely is an abuse of God's name. In "offer odours to Baal," Baal is the representation of the false gods. The phrase, other gods, points to the first commandment, Exodus 20:3; and the relative clause: whom ye knew not, stands in opposition to: I am Jahveh your God, who hath brought you out of Egypt. They knew not the other gods, because they had not made themselves known to them in benefits and blessings; cf. Jeremiah 19:4. While they so daringly break all God's commands, they yet come before His face in the temple which Jahveh has chosen to reveal His name there. 'אשׁר נקרא is not: which bears my name (Hitz.); or: on which my name is bestowed, which is named after me (Graf). The name of Jahveh is the revelation of Himself, and the meaning is: on which I have set my glory, in which I have made my glorious being known; see on Deuteronomy 28:10 and Amos 9:12. We are saved, sc. from all the evils that threaten us, i.e., we are concealed, have nothing to fear; cf. Ezekiel 14:16, Ezekiel 14:18; Amos 3:12. The perfect denotat firmam persuasionem incolumitatis. Chr. B. Mich. By changing נצּלנוּ into נצּלנוּ, as Ewald, following the Syr., reads, the sense is weakened. 'למען עשׂות וגו is neither: as regards what we have done, nor: because equals while or whereas ye have done (Hitz.), but: in order to do that ye may do. למען with the infin., as with the perf., has never the signif., because of or in reference to something past and done, but always means, with the view of doing something; English: to the end that. The thought is simply this: Ye appear in my temple to sacrifice and worship, thinking thus to appease my wrath and turn aside all punishment, that so ye may go on doing all these (in Jeremiah 7:9 enumerated) abominations. By frequenting the temple, they thought to procure an indulgence for their wicked ongoings, not merely for what they had already done, but for what they do from day to day.