Jeremiah 7:4

7:4 Stop putting your confidence in the false belief that says, ¹  “We are safe! ²  The temple of the Lord is here! The temple of the Lord is here! The temple of the Lord is here!” ³ 

Jeremiah 7:10

7:10 Then you come and stand in my presence in this temple I have claimed as my own ⁴  and say, “We are safe!” You think you are so safe that you go on doing all those hateful sins! ⁵ 

Deuteronomy 28:52

28:52 They will besiege all of your villages ⁶  until all of your high and fortified walls collapse – those in which you put your confidence throughout the land. They will besiege all your villages throughout the land the Lord your God has given you.

Micah 3:11

3:11 Her ⁷  leaders take bribes when they decide legal cases, ⁸ 

her priests proclaim rulings for profit,

and her prophets read omens for pay.

Yet they claim to trust ⁹  the Lord and say,

“The Lord is among us. ¹⁰ 

Disaster will not overtake ¹¹  us!”

Acts 6:13-14

6:13 They brought forward false witnesses who said, “This man does not stop saying things against this holy place ¹²  and the law. ¹³  6:14 For we have heard him saying that Jesus the Nazarene will destroy this place and change the customs ¹⁴  that Moses handed down to us.”

¹ tn Heb “Stop trusting in lying words which say.”

² tn The words “We are safe!” are not in the text but are supplied in the translation for clarity.

³ tn Heb “The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord are these (i.e., these buildings).” Elsewhere triple repetition seems to mark a kind of emphasis (cf. Isa 6:3; Jer 22:29; Ezek 21:27 [32 HT]). The triple repetition that follows seems to be Jeremiah’s way of mocking the (false) sense of security that people had in the invincibility of Jerusalem because God dwelt in the temple. They appeared to be treating the temple as some kind of magical charm. A similar feeling had grown up around the ark in the time of the judges (cf. 1 Sam 3:3) and the temple and city of Jerusalem in Micah’s day (cf. Mic 3:11). It is reflected also in some of the Psalms (cf., e.g., Ps 46, especially v. 5).

⁴ 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.

⁵ 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…”

⁶ tn Heb “gates,” also in vv. 55, 57.

⁷ sn The pronoun Her refers to Jerusalem (note the previous line).

⁸ tn Heb “judge for a bribe.”

⁹ tn Heb “they lean upon” (so KJV, NIV, NRSV); NAB “rely on.”

¹⁰ tn Heb “Is not the Lord in our midst?” The rhetorical question expects the answer, “Of course he is!”

¹¹ tn Or “come upon” (so many English versions); NCV “happen to us”; CEV “come to us.”

¹² sn This holy place is a reference to the temple.

¹³ sn The law refers to the law of Moses. It elaborates the nature of the blasphemy in v. 11. To speak against God’s law in Torah was to blaspheme God (Deut 28:15-19). On the Jewish view of false witnesses, see Exod 19:16-18; 20:16; m. Sanhedrin 3.6; 5.1-5. Stephen’s speech in Acts 7 may indicate why the temple was mentioned.

¹⁴ tn Or “practices.”