7:8 “‘But just look at you! 17 You are putting your confidence in a false belief 18 that will not deliver you. 19 7:9 You steal. 20 You murder. You commit adultery. You lie when you swear on oath. You sacrifice to the god Baal. You pay allegiance to 21 other gods whom you have not previously known. 7:10 Then you come and stand in my presence in this temple I have claimed as my own 22 and say, “We are safe!” You think you are so safe that you go on doing all those hateful sins! 23 7:11 Do you think this temple I have claimed as my own 24 is to be a hideout for robbers? 25 You had better take note! 26 I have seen for myself what you have done! says the Lord.
7:49 ‘Heaven is my throne,
and earth is the footstool for my feet.
What kind of house will you build for me, says the Lord,
or what is my resting place? 40
7:50 Did my hand 41 not make all these things?’ 42
1 tn Heb “in a tent and in a dwelling.” The expression is a hendiadys, using two terms to express one idea.
2 tn Heb “Did I speak a word?” In the Hebrew text the statement is phrased as a rhetorical question.
3 tn Heb “tribes” (so KJV, NASB, NCV), but the parallel passage in 1 Chr 17:6 has “judges.”
4 tn Heb “whom I commanded to shepherd” (so NIV, NRSV).
5 tn Heb “Stop trusting in lying words which say.”
6 tn The words “We are safe!” are not in the text but are supplied in the translation for clarity.
7 tn Heb “The temple of the
8 tn The infinitive absolute precedes the finite verb for emphasis.
9 tn Heb “you must do justice between a person and his fellow/neighbor.” The infinitive absolute precedes the finite verb for emphasis.
10 tn Heb “Stop oppressing foreigner, orphan, and widow.”
11 tn Heb “Stop shedding innocent blood.”
12 tn Heb “going/following after.” See the translator’s note at 2:5 for an explanation of the idiom involved here.
13 tn Heb “going after other gods to your ruin.”
14 tn The translation uses imperatives in vv. 5-6 followed by the phrase, “If you do all this,” to avoid the long and complex sentence structure of the Hebrew sentence which has a series of conditional clauses in vv. 5-6 followed by a main clause in v. 7.
15 tn Heb “live in this place, in this land.”
16 tn Heb “gave to your fathers [with reference to] from ancient times even unto forever.”
17 tn Heb “Behold!”
18 tn Heb “You are trusting in lying words.” See the similar phrase in v. 4 and the note there.
19 tn Heb “not profit [you].”
20 tn Heb “Will you steal…then say, ‘We are safe’?” Verses 9-10 are one long sentence in the Hebrew text.
21 tn Heb “You go/follow after.” See the translator’s note at 2:5 for an explanation of the idiom involved here.
22 tn Heb “over which my name is called.” For this nuance of this idiom cf. BDB 896 s.v. קָרָא Niph.2.d(4) and see the usage in 2 Sam 12:28.
23 tn Or “‘We are safe!’ – safe, you think, to go on doing all those hateful things.” Verses 9-10 are all one long sentence in the Hebrew text. It has been broken up for English stylistic reasons. Somewhat literally it reads “Will you steal…then come and stand…and say, ‘We are safe’ so as to/in order to do…” The Hebrew of v. 9 has a series of infinitives which emphasize the bare action of the verb without the idea of time or agent. The effect is to place a kind of staccato like emphasis on the multitude of their sins all of which are violations of one of the Ten Commandments. The final clause in v. 8 expresses purpose or result (probably result) through another infinitive. This long sentence is introduced by a marker (ה interrogative in Hebrew) introducing a rhetorical question in which God expresses his incredulity that they could do these sins, come into the temple and claim the safety of his protection, and then go right back out and commit the same sins. J. Bright (Jeremiah [AB], 52) catches the force nicely: “What? You think you can steal, murder…and then come and stand…and say, ‘We are safe…’ just so that you can go right on…”
24 tn Heb “over which my name is called.” For this nuance of this idiom cf. BDB 896 s.v. קָרָא Niph.2.d(4) and see the usage in 2 Sam 12:28.
25 tn Heb “Is this house…a den/cave of robbers in your eyes?”
26 tn Heb “Behold!”
27 sn My name will be great among the nations. In what is clearly a strongly ironic shift of thought, the
28 tn Grk “answering, he said to them.” The participle ἀποκριθείς (ajpokriqei") is redundant in English and has not been translated.
29 tn Grk “Truly (ἀμήν, amhn), I say to you.”
30 sn With the statement not one stone will be left on another Jesus predicted the total destruction of the temple, something that did occur in
31 tn Grk “not one stone will be left here on another which will not be thrown down.”
32 sn This mountain refers to Mount Gerizim, where the Samaritan shrine was located.
33 tn The word “people” is not in the Greek text, but is supplied to indicate that the Greek verb translated “say” is second person plural and thus refers to more than Jesus alone.
34 map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.
35 sn Woman was a polite form of address (see BDAG 208-9 s.v. γυνή 1), similar to “Madam” or “Ma’am” used in English in different regions.
36 tn Grk “an hour.”
37 tn The verb is plural.
38 sn The title the Most High points to God’s majesty (Heb 7:1; Luke 1:32, 35; Acts 16:7).
39 sn The phrase made by human hands is negative in the NT: Mark 14:58; Acts 17:24; Eph 2:11; Heb 9:11, 24. It suggests “man-made” or “impermanent.” The rebuke is like parts of the Hebrew scripture where the rebuke is not of the temple, but for making too much of it (1 Kgs 8:27; Isa 57:15; 1 Chr 6:8; Jer 7:1-34).
40 sn What kind…resting place? The rhetorical questions suggest mere human beings cannot build a house to contain God.
41 tn Or “Did I.” The phrase “my hand” is ultimately a metaphor for God himself.
42 tn The question in Greek introduced with οὐχί (ouci) expects a positive reply.