Isaiah 58:1

The Lord Desires Genuine Devotion

58:1 “Shout loudly! Don’t be quiet!

Yell as loud as a trumpet!

Confront my people with their rebellious deeds; ¹ 

confront Jacob’s family with their sin! ² 

Jeremiah 7:2

7:2 “Stand in the gate of the Lord’s temple and proclaim ³  this message: ‘Listen, all you people of Judah who have passed through these gates to worship the Lord. ⁴  Hear what the Lord has to say.

Jeremiah 19:14-15

19:14 Then Jeremiah left Topheth where the Lord had sent him to give that prophecy. He went to the Lord’s temple and stood ⁵  in its courtyard and called out to all the people. 19:15 “The Lord God of Israel who rules over all ⁶  says, ‘I will soon bring on this city and all the towns surrounding it ⁷  all the disaster I threatened to do to it. I will do so because they have stubbornly refused ⁸  to pay any attention to what I have said!’”

Jeremiah 20:2-3

20:2 When he heard Jeremiah’s prophecy, he had the prophet flogged. ⁹  Then he put him in the stocks ¹⁰  which were at the Upper Gate of Benjamin in the Lord’s temple. ¹¹  20:3 But the next day Pashhur released Jeremiah from the stocks. When he did, Jeremiah said to him, “The Lord’s name for you is not ‘Pashhur’ but ‘Terror is Everywhere.’ ¹² 

Jeremiah 22:1-2

22:1 The Lord told me, ¹³  “Go down ¹⁴  to the palace of the king of Judah. Give him a message from me there. ¹⁵  22:2 Say: ‘Listen, O king of Judah who follows in David’s succession. ¹⁶  You, your officials, and your subjects who pass through the gates of this palace must listen to what the Lord says. ¹⁷ 

Jeremiah 26:2

26:2 The Lord said, “Go stand in the courtyard of the Lord’s temple. ¹⁸  Speak out to all the people who are coming from the towns of Judah to worship in the Lord’s temple. Tell them everything I command you to tell them. Do not leave out a single word!

Jeremiah 36:10

36:10 At that time Baruch went into the temple of the Lord. He stood in the entrance of the room of Gemariah the son of Shaphan who had been the royal secretary. ¹⁹  That room was in the upper court ²⁰  near the entrance of the New Gate. ²¹  There, where all the people could hear him, he read from the scroll what Jeremiah had said. ²² 

Matthew 21:23

The Authority of Jesus

21:23 Now after Jesus ²³  entered the temple courts, ²⁴  the chief priests and elders of the people came up to him as he was teaching and said, “By what authority ²⁵  are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?”

John 18:20

18:20 Jesus replied, ²⁶  “I have spoken publicly to the world. I always taught in the synagogues ²⁷  and in the temple courts, ²⁸  where all the Jewish people ²⁹  assemble together. I ³⁰  have said nothing in secret.

[58:1]  ¹ tn Heb “declare to my people their rebellion.”

[58:1]  ² tn Heb “and to the house of Jacob their sin.” The verb “declare” is understood by ellipsis (note the preceding line).

[7:2]  ³ tn Heb “Proclaim there…” The adverb is unnecessary in English style.

[7:2]  ⁴ sn That is, all those who have passed through the gates of the outer court and are standing in the courtyard of the temple.

[19:14]  ⁵ tn Heb “And Jeremiah entered from Topheth where the Lord had sent him to prophesy and he stood in the courtyard of the Lord’s temple.”

[19:15]  ⁷ tn Heb “Yahweh of armies, the God of Israel.”

[19:15]  ⁸ tn Heb “all its towns.”

[19:15]  ⁹ tn Heb “They hardened [or made stiff] their neck so as not to.”

[20:2]  ⁹ tn Heb “And Pashhur son of Immer, the priest and he [= who] was chief overseer [or officer] in the house of the Lord heard Jeremiah prophesying these words/things 20:2 and Pashhur had the prophet Jeremiah flogged.” This verse and the previous one has been restructured in the translation to better conform with contemporary English style.

[20:2]  ¹⁰ tn The meaning of this word is uncertain. It occurs only here, in 29:26 where it is followed by a parallel word that occurs only there and is generally translated “collar,” and in 2 Chr 16:10 where it is preceded by the word “house of.” It is most often translated “stocks” and explained as an instrument of confinement for keeping prisoners in a crooked position (from its relation to a root meaning “to turn.” See BDB 246 s.v. מַהְפֶּכֶת and KBL 500 s.v. מַהְפֶּכֶת for definition and discussion.) For a full discussion including the interpretation of the ancient versions see W. L. Holladay, Jeremiah (Hermeneia), 1:542-43.

[20:2]  ¹¹ sn A comparison of Ezek 8:3 and 9:2 in their contexts will show that this probably refers to the northern gate to the inner court of the temple. It is called Upper because it was on higher ground above the gate in the outer court. It is qualified by “in the Lord’s temple” to distinguish it from the Benjamin Gate in the city wall (cf. 37:13; 38:7). Like the Benjamin Gate in the city wall it faced north toward the territory of the tribe of Benjamin.

[20:3]  ¹¹ tn This name is translated rather than transliterated to aid the reader in understanding this name and connect it clearly with the explanation that follows in the next verse. For a rather complete discussion on the significance of this name and an attempt to explain it as a pun on the name “Pashhur” see J. A. Thompson, Jeremiah (NICOT), 455, n. 35.

[22:1]  ¹³ tn The word “me “ is not in the text. It is, however, implicit and is supplied in the translation for clarity.

[22:1]  ¹⁴ sn The allusion here is to going down from the temple to the palace which was on a lower eminence. See 36:12 in its context.

[22:1]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “And speak there this word:” The translation is intended to eliminate an awkward and lengthy sentence.

[22:2]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “who sits on David’s throne.”

[22:2]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “Hear the word of the Lord, O king of Judah who sits on the throne of David, you, and your officials and your people who pass through these gates.”

[26:2]  ¹⁷ sn It is generally agreed that the incident recorded in this chapter relates to the temple message that Jeremiah gave in 7:1-15. The message there is summarized here in vv. 3-6. The primary interest here is in the response to that message.

[36:10]  ¹⁹ sn Shaphan had been the royal secretary under Jehoiakim’s father’s rule. During the course of his official duties the book of the law had been discovered and he had read it and reported its contents to Josiah who instituted sweeping reforms on the basis of his obedience to it. (See 2 Kgs 22 and note especially vv. 3, 8, 10.) If the Shaphan mentioned in 26:14 is the same person as this, Gemariah would have been the brother of the man who spoke up on Jeremiah’s behalf when the priests and prophets sought to have him killed.

[36:10]  ²⁰ sn It is generally agreed that this is the same as the inner court mentioned in 1 Kgs 6:36; 7:12. It is called “upper” here because it stood above (cf. 1 Kgs 7:12) the outer court where all the people were standing.

[36:10]  ²¹ sn The New Gate is the same gate where Jeremiah had been accused of falsely claiming the Lord’s authority for his “treasonous” prophecies according to 26:10-11. See the study note on 26:10 for more details about the location of this gate.

[36:10]  ²² tn The syntax of the original is complicated due to all the qualifying terms: Heb “And Baruch read from the scroll the words of Jeremiah in the house of the Lord in (i.e., in the entrance of) the room of Gemariah son of Shaphan the scribe in the upper court at the entrance of the New Gate in the house of the Lord in the ears of all the people.” The sentence has been broken down and restructured to contain all the same information in shorter English sentences that better conform with contemporary English style.

[21:23]  ²¹ tn Grk “he.”

[21:23]  ²² tn Grk “the temple.”

[21:23]  ²³ tn On this phrase, see BDAG 844 s.v. ποῖος 2.a.γ.1

[18:20]  ²³ tn Grk “Jesus answered him.”

[18:20]  ²⁴ sn See the note on synagogue in 6:59.

[18:20]  ²⁵ tn Grk “in the temple.”

[18:20]  ²⁶ tn Grk “the Jews.” Here the phrase refers to the Jewish people generally, for whom the synagogues and the temple courts in Jerusalem were important public gathering places. See also the note on the phrase “Jewish religious leaders” in v. 12.

[18:20]  ²⁷ tn Grk “And I.” The conjunction καί (kai, “and”) has not been translated here in keeping with the tendency of contemporary English style to use shorter sentences.