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1 The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying, 2 Stand in the gate of the LORD's house, and proclaim there this word, and say, Hear the word of the LORD, all ye of Judah, that enter in at these gates to worship the LORD. 3 Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place. 4 Trust ye not in lying words, saying, The temple of the LORD, The temple of the LORD, The temple of the LORD, are these. 5 For if ye throughly amend your ways and your doings; if ye throughly execute judgment between a man and his neighbour; 6 If ye oppress not the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and shed not innocent blood in this place, neither walk after other gods to your hurt: 7 Then will I cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers, for ever and ever. 8 Behold, ye trust in lying words, that cannot profit. 9 Will ye steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense unto Baal, and walk after other gods whom ye know not; 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? 11 Is this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, even I have seen it, saith the LORD. 12 But go ye now unto my place which was in Shiloh, where I set my name at the first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people Israel. 13 And now, because ye have done all these works, saith the LORD, and I spake unto you, rising up early and speaking, but ye heard not; and I called you, but ye answered not; 14 Therefore will I do unto this house, which is called by my name, wherein ye trust, and unto the place which I gave to you and to your fathers, as I have done to Shiloh. 15 And I will cast you out of my sight, as I have cast out all your brethren, even the whole seed of Ephraim. 16 Therefore pray not thou for this people, neither lift up cry nor prayer for them, neither make intercession to me: for I will not hear thee. 17 Seest thou not what they do in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? 18 The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead their dough, to make cakes to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto other gods, that they may provoke me to anger. 19 Do they provoke me to anger? saith the LORD: do they not provoke themselves to the confusion of their own faces? 20 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, mine anger and my fury shall be poured out upon this place, upon man, and upon beast, and upon the trees of the field, and upon the fruit of the ground; and it shall burn, and shall not be quenched. 21 Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Put your burnt offerings unto your sacrifices, and eat flesh. 22 For I spake not unto your fathers, nor commanded them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices: 23 But this thing commanded I them, saying, Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be my people: and walk ye in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well unto you. 24 But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear, but walked in the counsels and in the imagination of their evil heart, and went backward, and not forward. 25 Since the day that your fathers came forth out of the land of Egypt unto this day I have even sent unto you all my servants the prophets, daily rising up early and sending them: 26 Yet they hearkened not unto me, nor inclined their ear, but hardened their neck: they did worse than their fathers. 27 Therefore thou shalt speak all these words unto them; but they will not hearken to thee: thou shalt also call unto them; but they will not answer thee. 28 But thou shalt say unto them, This is a nation that obeyeth not the voice of the LORD their God, nor receiveth correction: truth is perished, and is cut off from their mouth. 29 Cut off thine hair, O Jerusalem, and cast it away, and take up a lamentation on high places; for the LORD hath rejected and forsaken the generation of his wrath. 30 For the children of Judah have done evil in my sight, saith the LORD: they have set their abominations in the house which is called by my name, to pollute it. 31 And they have built the high places of Tophet, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire; which I commanded them not, neither came it into my heart. 32 Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that it shall no more be called Tophet, nor the valley of the son of Hinnom, but the valley of slaughter: for they shall bury in Tophet, till there be no place. 33 And the carcases of this people shall be meat for the fowls of the heaven, and for the beasts of the earth; and none shall fray them away. 34 Then will I cause to cease from the cities of Judah, and from the streets of Jerusalem, the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride: for the land shall be desolate.
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[AD 202] Irenaeus on Jeremiah 7:1-6
Wash! Make yourselves clean! Put away evil from your hearts. Learn to do well. Seek judgment, protect the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow. Come, let us reason together, says the Lord. And again: “Keep your tongue from evil, and your lips that they speak no guile. Depart from evil, and do good. Seek peace, and pursue it.” In preaching these things, the prophets sought the fruits of righteousness.

Source: AGAINST HERESIES 4:36.2
[AD 373] Ephrem the Syrian on Jeremiah 7:1-6
“Do not put your hope in deceptive words that say, ‘Here is the temple of the Lord,’ ” that imply you are his temple. They are only trying to assure you that you will never be left by God as though God would decide to preserve his blessed temple and would save his priests even though they are wicked. No! Do not find hope in those who flatter you with these words. If you have not corrected what you are doing, then you are no temple of God, and God will not save you on account of the sacredness of his temple that is desecrated by you. His soul is disgusted by the multitude of your sacrifices that you offer in your wickedness.

Source: COMMENTARY ON JEREMIAH 7:4
[AD 420] Jerome on Jeremiah 7:1-2
(Chapter 7, Verses 1-2) The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying: Stand in the gate of the house of the Lord, and proclaim (or read) there this word, and say: Hear the word of the Lord, all you people of Judah who enter in through these gates to worship the Lord. This is not found in the LXX edition, but is added from Theodotion's translation from Hebrew. The Prophet is commanded to stand in the gate of the Lord, through which the multitude of the people enters to worship the Lord, so that they may hear what the Lord commands. By which we understand the hardness of the Jewish people, because they regarded the prophets as liars and madmen, while they were compelled by the opportunity and the fame of the place to hear the words of the Lord; and not because the words were from the Lord.

Source: Commentary on Jeremiah
[AD 420] Jerome on Jeremiah 7:1-6
If heaven and earth must pass away, obviously all things that are earthly must also pass away. Therefore the spots that witnessed the crucifixion and the resurrection profit those only who bear their several crosses, who day by day rise again with Christ and who thus show themselves worthy of an abode so holy. Those who say, “the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord,” should give ear to the words of the apostle: “you are the temple of the Lord,” and the Holy Spirit “dwells in you.” Access to the courts of heaven is as easy from Britain as it is from Jerusalem, for “the kingdom of God is within you.”

Source: LETTER 58.3
[AD 420] Jerome on Jeremiah 7:1-6
He instructs both the people of Judea of that time and us today, who are seen to be constituted as the church. We are not to put our faith in the splendor of its buildings. Nor are we to put faith in its golden ceilings and decorated walls of marble. We are not to say “this is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord.” For the temple of the Lord is there where the true faith dwells, in holy living and the chorus of all the virtues. Then he infers, “If you make your ways straight and if your thoughts do not follow error, and if you will do justice and refrain from evil, nor shed innocent blood or scandalize the little ones. If you do not walk after alien gods, honoring perverse doctrines that you simulate in your own hearts for evil purposes. I will dwell with you in that place that you call the temple of God and in the land that I gave to your ancestors, who were obviously apostles and apostolic men. Or at least I will cause you to dwell there from beginning to end in security.” This can be compared with the virgin who spreads modesty and freely prefers chastity, who has another conscience and knows only that virginal purpose of the apostle that “she be holy in body and in spirit.” For what good is a chaste body to a corrupt spirit that does not have the other virtues that this prophetic word describes?

Source: SIX BOOKS ON JEREMIAH 2:32.2-4
[AD 420] Jerome on Jeremiah 7:3
(Verse 3.) Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Make (or direct) your ways and your pursuits (or inventions) good, and I will dwell with you in this place (or make you dwell in this place). The most merciful physician desires to heal all those wounded with medicine. For when he says, 'Make (or correct) your ways good,' he shows that they are perverse and have no good in themselves. And because it is natural for each person to love their homeland alone and have nothing sweeter, rewards are promised to the obedient. 'I will dwell with you,' he says, 'to make you secure in your habitation': either I will establish a stable dwelling for you yourselves, according to Symmachus, who says, 'And I will strengthen you in this place.'

Source: Commentary on Jeremiah
[AD 420] Jerome on Jeremiah 7:4-7
(Verse 4 and following) Do not trust in deceitful words, saying: The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord is here. For if you will bless (or direct) your ways and your pursuits, if you will administer justice between a man and his neighbor (or his), if you will not commit injustice (or oppress them) against strangers, orphans, and widows, if you will not shed innocent blood in this place, and if you will not walk after foreign gods to your own harm; then I will dwell with you (or make you dwell) in this place, in the land which I gave to your fathers from the age to age. What the Seventy added to the beginning of this chapter: 'In words of falsehood, which will not benefit you at all,' is not found in the Hebrew. And at that time he commanded both the people of Judah and us who seem to be established in the Church, not to place our trust in the splendor of buildings, in gilded ceilings, and in walls adorned with marble crusts. And let us not say, 'The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord.' For that is the temple of the Lord, in which true faith dwells, holy conversation, and the chorus of all virtues. Finally, it brings forth: If you walk in the right paths, and your thoughts do not stray after error, and if you follow justice and do not commit evil, nor shed innocent blood, nor cause the simple to stumble, and if you do not walk after foreign gods and worship perverse doctrines, which you have imagined in your hearts for your own harm; then I will dwell with you in this place, which you call the Temple of God, and in the land that I have given to your fathers, to the Apostles, namely, and to the Apostolic men; or certainly I will make you dwell securely from the beginning to the end. This can apply to those virgins who boast of their chastity and present their chastity with an impudent countenance, when their conscience holds something else and they do not understand the Apostle's definition of virginity: that it should be holy in body and spirit. For what good is the chastity of the body to a mind corrupted, if it does not possess the other virtues described by the prophetic discourse?

Source: Commentary on Jeremiah
[AD 215] Clement of Alexandria on Jeremiah 7:8-15
Let us now proceed to consider the mode of his loving discipline, with the aid of the prophetic testimony. Admonition, then, is loving care’s censure and produces understanding. Such is Christ the Educator in his admonitions, as when he says in the Gospel, “How often would I have gathered your children, as a bird gathers her young ones under her wings, and you did not allow it!” And again, the Scripture admonishes, saying, “And they committed adultery with wood and stone and burned incense to Baal.” For it is a very great proof of his love, that, though knowing well the shamelessness of the people who had kicked and bounded away, he notwithstanding exhorts them to repentance and says by Ezekiel, “Son of man, you live in the midst of scorpions; nevertheless, speak to them, if perhaps they will hear.”

Source: CHRIST THE EDUCATOR 1:9
[AD 400] Pseudo-Clement on Jeremiah 7:8-15
Brothers, by doing the will of God our Father, we shall belong to the first church, the spiritual one established before the sun and the moon. But if we do not do the will of the Lord, we shall verify the Scripture that says, “My house has become a den of thieves.”

Source: 2 CLEMENT 14:1
[AD 420] Jerome on Jeremiah 7:8-10
(Verse 8 and following) Behold, you trust in yourselves with words of falsehood (or lies) which have not benefited you. To steal, to kill, to commit adultery, to swear falsely, to offer sacrifices to Baal, and to follow foreign gods that you do not know. And you have come and stood before me in this house, in which my name is invoked, and you have said: We are delivered (or we have ceased): because we have done all these abominations. They vainly have confidence in the temple, as the following sins show. For what profit is it to boldly enter the threshold of God's house, standing with erect neck: and not only to have a polluted heart, but also hands defiled with theft, homicide, adultery, perjury, sacrilege, and worship of those gods whom you do not know? No one doubts that these things happen spiritually in the Church, when considering the happiness of the present time, they do not consider their own sins: and they think that God is hidden, because punishment does not immediately follow; rather, they break forth into such madness, that they think themselves freed, because they have also turned away from the worship of the Lord after evil deeds.

Source: Commentary on Jeremiah
[AD 420] Jerome on Jeremiah 7:8-15
“Has not this house, in which my name is invoked, been made a den of thieves before your eyes? I who am, I have seen it, says the Lord.” I believe that it was from here that the Gospel took: “It is written, ‘My father’s house will be called a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a den of thieves,” or, according to another Gospel, “a house of trade.” The church of God is turned into a den of thieves when robbery, murder, adultery, perjury, sacrilege, heretical inventions and other evils are practiced within it. When its leaders burn with greed and when cheap or not so cheap palliums [the distinctive mantle worn by archbishops] possess the riches formerly of kings. Hence, he infers, “I who am, I have seen it, says the Lord.” In other words, “My eyes have beheld what you thought was hidden. The darkness of your treasures do not escape my consciousness.” He who, though he was rich, became poor for our sake, is now ashamed at our riches and says, “Woe to you wealthy, who have your consolation now!”

Source: SIX BOOKS ON JEREMIAH 2:34.1-3
[AD 60] Mark on Jeremiah 7:11
And they come to Jerusalem: and Jesus went into the temple, and began to cast out them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves; And would not suffer that any man should carry any vessel through the temple. And he taught, saying unto them, Is it not written, My house shall be called of all nations the house of prayer? but ye have made it a den of thieves. [Jeremiah 7:11] And the scribes and chief priests heard it, and sought how they might destroy him: for they feared him, because all the people was astonished at his doctrine.
[AD 60] Matthew on Jeremiah 7:11
And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves, And said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves. [Jeremiah 7:11]
[AD 420] Jerome on Jeremiah 7:11
(Verse 11.) Has this house (or mine) become a den of thieves, as it is written (Vulg. Therefore), in which my name has been invoked in your eyes? I, I am: I have seen, says the Lord. I think this is taken from the Gospel: It is written: My Father's house shall be called a house of prayer: but you have made it a den of thieves (Matthew 21:13); or, as it is written in another Gospel, a house of trade (John 2:16). The Church of God turns into a den of thieves, when thefts, homicides, adulteries, sacrileges, perjuries, the invention of heresies, and all those crimes are committed within it: when the princes are inflamed with the torches of greed, and the once riches of kings possess a cheap or certainly not costly cloak. From this it follows: I, I am, I have seen, says the Lord. My eyes have seen what you think is hidden: the darkness of treasures does not escape my consciousness. He who was rich became poor for us, now he blushes at our wealth (I Cor. VIII), and says: Woe to you, the wealthy, who have your consolation (Luke VI).

Source: Commentary on Jeremiah
[AD 420] Jerome on Jeremiah 7:12
(Verse 12.) Go to my place in Shiloh, where my name dwelt from the beginning, and see what I have done to it because of the evil of my people Israel. The present teaches from the past: and to those who say, 'The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord,' and who rejoice in the splendor of the precious house, Shiloh, where the tabernacle of God was first, recalls a history, about which it is written in the psalm: 'And he rejected the tabernacle of Shiloh' (Psalm 78:60). Just as that place collapsed into ruins and ashes, so too shall the Temple collapse, since it was a dwelling place of similar sins. Therefore, just as the destruction of the Temple serves as an example for us, so too shall the Temple, when the time comes for that prophecy to be fulfilled: Do you think, when the Son of Man comes, he will find faith on earth? (Luke 18:8)

Source: Commentary on Jeremiah
[AD 420] Jerome on Jeremiah 7:13-15
(Verse 13 onwards) And now because you have done all these works, says the Lord: and I spoke to you rising up early and speaking, and you did not hear: and I called you, and you did not answer: I will do to this house, where my name has been invoked, and in which you have trusted, and to the place which I have given to you and your fathers, as I did to Shiloh: and I will cast you away from my face, just as I cast away all your brothers, the entire offspring of Ephraim (also called Israel). This, which we have set forth, is not found in the Septuagint when one rises in the morning and speaks. However, God rises in the morning, not because there is any time without dawn for Him, but so that after the rest of the night, with the strength of the body restored, the soul of man may be more lively and not occupied by pleasures and the desire for food, and may be able to hear and do what is said. Therefore, we also read this in the psalm: In the morning, you will hear my voice; in the morning, I will stand before you and see (Psalm 5:4-5). And in Isaiah: By night, or at daybreak, my spirit will rise up to you, O God: for your commandments are a light upon the earth (Isaiah 26). Therefore, Paul the apostle also calls the sons of light (Ephesians 5), and not of the night or darkness, nor of those who sleep, as the rest do, who do not perceive the commandments of God. Because God called them, rising up from the night, in order to deliver them from darkness, he threatens to do similar things to them as he did to the Temple in Jerusalem, which he made in the place of Shiloh, where the tabernacle first was: so that similar sins may be punished with the same verdict. And how the Lord rejected the seed of Ephraim, that is, the ten tribes which were called Israel, and had princes because of Jeroboam the son of Nebat from the tribe of Ephraim, which was also called the tribe of Joseph; so also Jerusalem and the tribe of Judah with Benjamin testify that they will be rejected. He rejected Shiloh, intending to reject the Temple as well: he rejected the ten tribes, intending to reject the two as well. Whatever is said to that people, let us understand it also of ourselves, if we do similar things.

Source: Commentary on Jeremiah
[AD 220] Tertullian on Jeremiah 7:16
Just as God knows how to heal, so does he furthermore know how to smite. He knows how to make peace but likewise permits evils. He prefers repentance but moreover commands Jeremiah not to pray for the reversal of ills on behalf of the sinful people. He says, “If they will fast, I still will not listen to their plea.” And again: “Do not pray to me on behalf of the people, and do not request on their behalf in prayer and supplication, since I will not listen to them in the time when they shall have invoked me, in the time of their affliction.” And further he, the same One who prefers mercy above sacrifice, says, “And do not pray to me on behalf of this people, and do not request that they may obtain mercy, and do not approach me on their behalf, since I will not listen to them in the time wherein they shall have invoked me, in the time of their affliction.”

Source: ON PURITY 2
[AD 397] Ambrose of Milan on Jeremiah 7:16
Rightly, then, is it said, “Who shall entreat for him?” It implies that it must be such a one as Moses to offer himself for those who sin. Or such as Jeremiah, who, though the Lord said to him, “Pray not for this people,” yet prayed and obtained their forgiveness. For at the intercession of the prophet and the entreaty of so great a seer, the Lord was moved. And Jerusalem, which had meanwhile repented for its sins, had said, “O Almighty Lord God of Israel, the soul in anguish and the troubled spirit cries to you. Hear, O Lord, and have mercy.”

Source: Concerning Repentance 1.9.43
[AD 407] John Chrysostom on Jeremiah 7:16
He did the same thing in explaining himself to Noah about the flood that he did to Ezekiel when while living in Babylon he caused him to see the people’s evil deeds in Jerusalem. And when he told Jeremiah not to pray, there too he explained himself adding, “Do you not see what they do?” And he does the same thing everywhere as he does here [in Matthew]. For what does he say? “The people of Nineveh shall rise up and shall condemn this generation, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and, behold, a greater one than Jonah is here.”

Source: HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW 43:3
[AD 420] Jerome on Jeremiah 7:16
[Daniel 9:2] "I, Daniel, understood by the books the number of the years concerning which the word of the Lord had come to the prophet Jeremiah, that seventy years would be accomplished for the desolation of Jerusalem." Jeremiah had predicted seventy years for the desolation of the Temple (Jeremiah 29:1-10), at the end of which the people would again return to Judaea and build the Temple and the city of Jerusalem. But this fact did not render Daniel careless, but rather encouraged him to pray that God might through his supplications fulfil that which He had graciously promised. Thus he avoided the danger that carelessness might result in pride, and pride cause offense to the Lord. Accordingly we read in Genesis that prior to the Deluge one hundred and twenty years were appointed for men to come to repentance (Genesis 6:3); and inasmuch as they refused to repent even within so long an interval of time as a hundred years, God did not wait for the remaining twenty years to be fulfilled, but brought on the punishment earlier which He had threatened for a later time. So also Jeremiah is told, on account of the hardness of the heart of the Jewish people: "Pray not for this people, for I will not hearken unto thee" (Jeremiah 7:16). Samuel also was told: "How long wilt thou mourn over Saul? I also have rejected him" (1 Samuel 16:1). And so it was with sackcloth and ashes that Daniel besought the Lord to fulfil what He had promised, not that Daniel lacked faith concerning the future, but rather he would avoid the danger that a feeling of security might produce carelessness, and carelessness produce an offense to God.

Source: St. Jerome, Commentary on Daniel, CHAPTER NINE
[AD 420] Jerome on Jeremiah 7:16
(Verse 16.) Therefore, do not pray for this people, nor take on their praise and prayer (or do not ask to obtain mercy for them). And do not resist me, for I will not listen to you. So that it may not seem that the Prophet does not obtain what he asks for, God commands that he not pray for the sinful people who do not repent. And when he says, 'And do not resist me,' he shows that the prayers of the saints can resist God's wrath. And the Lord spoke to Moses: Let me alone, that I may destroy this people: and I will make thee into a great nation (Exod. XXXII, 10). And in the psalms it is written: And Phinehas stood up and appeased him, and the shaking ceased, and it was counted to him for justice (Psal. CV, 30). And Aaron, having taken the censer, stood in the midst between the living and the dead, and the wrath of God ceased. And lest we think that God is cruel, who does not even allow himself to be asked, he gives reasons why he does not listen (Num. XVI), saying:

Source: Commentary on Jeremiah
[AD 253] Origen of Alexandria on Jeremiah 7:17-20
You will find at least in the book of Jeremiah the words of God censuring by the mouth of the prophet the Jewish people for doing obeisance to such objects and for sacrificing to the queen of heaven and to all the host of heaven. The writings of the Christians, moreover, show, in censuring the sins committed among the Jews, that when God abandoned that people on account of certain sins, these sins of idol worship also were committed by them.

Source: AGAINST CELSUS 5:8
[AD 253] Origen of Alexandria on Jeremiah 7:17-20
“God is jealous” and does not wish the soul that he betrothed to himself in faith to remain defiled by sin, but he wishes it to be purified immediately, wishes it to cast out all its impurities immediately, if it has been, by chance, snatched away by some of them. But if the soul continues in sins and says, “We will not hear the voice of the Lord, but we will do what we wish and will burn incense to the ‘queen of heaven,’ ” a practice condemned by the prophet, it will then be held over for that judgment of Wisdom: “Since I indeed called you and you did not listen but jeered at my words, therefore I will laugh at your ruin, too,” or is that judgment that has been placed on those in the Gospel when the Lord says, “Depart from me into the eternal fire that God has prepared for the devil and his angels.”

Source: HOMILIES ON EXODUS 8:6
[AD 407] John Chrysostom on Jeremiah 7:17-20
This is why God threatens punishment, so that by fear he may destroy contempt, and when the threat alone is sufficient to cause fear in us he does not permit us to undergo the actual trial. See, for instance, what he says to Jeremiah, “Do you not see what they do? Their fathers light a fire, their children gather sticks together, their women knead dough to make cakes for the queen of heaven.” It is to be feared lest the same kind of thing be said also concerning us.

Source: HOMILIES ON 1 CORINTHIANS 8:8
[AD 420] Jerome on Jeremiah 7:17-19
(Verse 17 and following) Don't you see what they are doing in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? The sons gather wood, the fathers light the fire, and the women knead dough to make cakes for the queen of heaven. They also pour out drink offerings to other gods, provoking me to anger. Do they provoke me to anger?" says the Lord. "Do they not provoke themselves, to their own shame? Therefore thus says the Lord: 'Behold, my anger and my wrath will be poured out on this place, on man and beast, on the trees of the field and the fruit of the ground; it will burn and not be quenched.' They do these things that follow: Both inside and outside, both in the streets and in the exits of Jerusalem, the sons carry wood, and the fathers light the fire, and the women sprinkle fat with flour, in order to make Chauonim, which we have interpreted as pancakes, or preparations, to show all kinds of sacrifices to the queen of heaven, whom we should accept as the moon; or certainly to the army of heaven, so that we understand all the stars. And after this they willingly offer incense to foreign gods: not because they are gods, but because under their names they summon demons, and provoke me to anger by doing these things. The wretched fools do not understand that this dispute does not harm me, whom anger never affects: but it brings upon themselves confusion of their own countenance, and everlasting dishonor. Therefore, whatever we do, we do not harm God, who can never be harmed: but we prepare destruction for ourselves, storing up wrath for the day of wrath. Therefore, He established different duties for sons, fathers, mothers, and even wives, so that no age would dissent from impiety.

Source: Commentary on Jeremiah
[AD 420] Jerome on Jeremiah 7:20
(Verse 20) Therefore, thus says the Lord God: Behold, my wrath and my indignation have been poured out (or have dripped) upon this place, upon men and upon animals, upon the trees of the region, and upon the fruits of the earth; and it shall burn and not be extinguished. He who said before: Do they provoke me to anger? How now does he say: Behold, my wrath and my indignation have dripped upon this place? And here is the meaning: I, indeed, naturally do not get angry, but they act in such a way as to provoke me to anger, and I seem to change my nature. Therefore, they try to make me angry as much as they can. And beautifully, he does not say that my anger was poured out on this place, but that it dripped: to signify a moderate punishment. But if in a drop of anger there is such harshness, what will happen if the entire rain pours out? But even a mixed feeling of indignation can be understood in such a way that what he did not want to do for a long time, he is compelled to do because of the multitude of sins. But when God becomes angry, both humans and the things that belong to humans will experience a similar destruction. And it will be set on fire, he says, no doubt because of the rage of the Lord, and it will not be extinguished, because the people do not act in a way that can extinguish it.

Source: Commentary on Jeremiah
[AD 132] Epistle of Barnabas on Jeremiah 7:21-23
He has abolished these things so that the new law of our Lord Jesus Christ, which is without the yoke of necessity, might have a human offering. And again he says to them, “Did I command your ancestors, when they went out from the land of Egypt, to offer to me burnt offerings and sacrifices? But this rather I commanded them, Let no one of you cherish any evil in his heart against his neighbor and love not an oath of falsehood.” We ought, therefore, being possessed of understanding, to perceive the gracious intention of our Father. He speaks to us, desirous that we, not going astray like them, should ask how we may approach him. To us, then, he declares, “A sacrifice pleasing to God is a broken spirit. A smell of sweet savor to the Lord is a heart that glorifies him that made it.” We ought, therefore, carefully to inquire concerning our salvation, lest the wicked one, having made his entrance by deceit, should hurl us forth from our [true] life.

Source: EPISTLE OF BARNABAS 2:6-10
[AD 380] Apostolic Constitutions on Jeremiah 7:21-23
You are blessed who are delivered from the curse. Christ, the Son of God, by his coming has confirmed and completed the law but has taken away the additional precepts, although not all of them, yet at least the more grievous ones. He confirmed the former and abolished the latter, and he has again set the free will of humankind at liberty. He does not subject them to the penalty of a temporal death but gives laws to them according to another constitution. For this reason, he says, “If anyone will come after me, let him come.” And again, “Will you also go away?” And besides, before his coming he refused the sacrifices of the people, while they frequently offered them, when they sinned against him and thought he was to be appeased by sacrifices but not by repentance.

Source: CONSTITUTIONS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES 6:4.22
[AD 420] Jerome on Jeremiah 7:21-23
(Verse 21 onwards) Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices, and eat the flesh. For I did not speak to your fathers, or command them concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices when I brought them out of the land of Egypt. But this is what I commanded them, saying, 'Obey My voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be My people. And walk in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well with you.' When He condemns the temple, He consequently condemns the sacrifices as well; and He indirectly accuses them because they offer victims not out of reverence for Him, but out of a desire for feasts. Moreover, when He says, 'I did not speak with your fathers, nor did I command them concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices, it is clearly understood that He first gave the Decalogue on stone tablets, written by the finger of God, and after the offense of idolatry and the worship of the golden calf, He then ordered sacrifices to be made to Him instead of to the demons, thus setting aside the pure worship of God's commandments and allowing the offering of blood and the desire for meat.

Source: Commentary on Jeremiah
[AD 458] Theodoret of Cyrus on Jeremiah 7:21-23
It is made clear also from this that the obsolete prescriptions of the law had been imposed because of Israel’s limitations. Since they had learned in Egypt how to sacrifice to idols, he wanted to separate them from those practices—in all the prophets he rejects them, remember—yet out of consideration for their limitations he utters this remark, “Eat flesh,” that is, Although I reject the sacrifices, I shall not oppose your partaking of flesh. After all, he declares in the law that those wishing to partake of flesh in their own cities and towns should “perform the sacrifice, but pour out the blood on the ground and then partake of the sacrifice,” not as though they were offering it as a sacrifice but as ordinary flesh, as part of the prohibition imposed on performing sacred rites outside the designated place.

Source: ON JEREMIAH 2:7.21-23
[AD 220] Tertullian on Jeremiah 7:24-26
“Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and you will be my people; and you will walk in all my ways, which I have commanded you.” This was God’s invitation. “But,” it says, “they did not listen, nor inclined their ear.” This was Israel’s refusal. “They departed, and walked every one in the imagination of their evil heart.” I have bought a field, I have purchased oxen, I have married a wife. So again he adds: “I have sent to you all my servants the prophets, rising early even before daylight”—this would be the Holy Spirit who calls to those who are feasting—“Yet my people did not listen to me, nor inclined their ear, but stiffened their neck.”

Source: AGAINST MARCION 4.31
[AD 420] Jerome on Jeremiah 7:24-25
(Ver. 24, 25.) And they did not listen, nor incline their ear, but they went after their own desires and the wickedness of their evil hearts. They turned backwards, and not forwards, from the day their fathers left the land of Egypt until this day. When I spoke, saying, 'Listen to my voice, and I will be your God,' they did not listen, nor incline their ear, but they followed the desires of their own hearts. And contrary to the opinion of the Apostles, who forgot the past and reached out to the future, they did the opposite: desiring the past and despising the future. And he says that, from the day their fathers left the land of Egypt until this day, they have always been transgressing against the Lord. Hence, the grace of the Gospel was necessary, which preserved them not by their own merit, but by the mercy of the Lord.

Source: Commentary on Jeremiah
[AD 420] Jerome on Jeremiah 7:24-26
When I said, “Hear my voice and I will be your God,” “they did not listen or incline their ears” but followed the desires of their own hearts and, contrary to the principle of the apostle, who forgot what was in the past and strived for what lay before him, they did the opposite, pining for the past and despising the future. He also reports that they acted offensively against the Lord “from the day on which their ancestors left the land of Egypt until the present time.” Hence, the grace of the gospel was necessary to save them, not due to their own merits but to the Lord’s mercy.

Source: SIX BOOKS ON JEREMIAH 2:41.2-3
[AD 465] Maximus of Turin on Jeremiah 7:24-26
When the whole world was oppressed by the darkness of the devil. When the gloom brought on by sin had laid hold of the world. At the last age, when night had already fallen, this sun deigned to bring forth the rising of his birth. Before the light, before the sun of justice shone, he sent the oracle of the prophets as a kind of dawning, as it is written: “I sent my prophets before the light.”

Source: SERMON 62:2
[AD 420] Jerome on Jeremiah 7:26
(Verse 26) And I sent to you all my servants the prophets, rising up early and sending them, saying, 'Turn now everyone from his evil way and amend your doings, and do not go after other gods to serve them, and you shall dwell in the land which I have given to you and to your fathers.' But you have not inclined your ear nor listened to me. Instead, you have stiffened your neck and done worse than your fathers. Therefore, the anger of the Lord was kindled against this people, and it has poured out and not been quenched.'

Source: Commentary on Jeremiah
[AD 420] Jerome on Jeremiah 7:27-28
(Verse 27, 28.) And you shall speak to them all these words, and they will not listen to you. And you shall call to them, and they will not respond to you. And you shall say to them: This is a people who has not heard the voice of their Lord God, nor received discipline. Faith has perished and has been taken away from their mouth. Do not doubt, he says, that they have hardened their neck, and have done worse than their fathers. Behold, I give them a place for repentance: and yet I do not speak that they may become, but because they will be, therefore I foretell. Speak now to them with my words, and yet they will not listen to you; and you will call to them, and they will not respond to you. For their pride will be so great that when you call them to hear, no one will deign to respond. And you will say to them: This is a nation that has not heard the voice of their God, nor received discipline. Beautifully, as I have said before, he calls not his people, but a nation. Although this was done in part during the time of the Prophets, and it has preceded in shadow and in image, it is more fully fulfilled in Christ, when they refused to receive discipline and despised the voice of their Lord. Where elegantly is inferred: Faith has perished, which properly belongs to Christians; and it has been taken away from their lips: namely, all confession of the Son of God and of faith.

Source: Commentary on Jeremiah
[AD 420] Jerome on Jeremiah 7:27-29
The wrath of the Lord, therefore, is just. It is kindled and poured out on a contemptuous and stiff-necked people who are unwilling to hear the words of God. Yet, as we said above, how God continued to send prophets to them all day long and even through the night!

Source: SIX BOOKS ON JEREMIAH 2:42.1
[AD 420] Jerome on Jeremiah 7:27-29
“Have no doubt,” he says, “that they are stiff-necked and that their works are worse than those of their ancestors. Behold, I give them a place of penance. I do not speak that they may repent, but I only predict what is coming. In any event, you will now speak my word to them and they will not listen to you, and you will call them and they will not answer you, for they are so prideful that when you ask them for a hearing, no one will even bother to respond. And you should then say to them: This is the generation who did not listen to the voice of the Lord their God or accepted his discipline.” It is beautiful, as I said before, not that he calls his own people, but that he calls the human race. For, although at the time of the prophets, it was done in part and as a foreshadowing, it was only fulfilled in Christ, when they refused to accept discipline and despised the voice of their Lord. Thus, Jeremiah has the apt phrase: “faith has perished”—which is distinctive of Christians—“and was removed from their mouth,” clearly referring to the confession of faith of the child of God.

Source: SIX BOOKS ON JEREMIAH 2:43.1-3
[AD 420] Jerome on Jeremiah 7:29
(Verse 29.) Shave your hair and cast it away, and take up a lamentation upon your lips: for the Lord has cast off and abandoned the generation of his wrath. And when Job heard of the death of his sons and daughters, he tore his garments and shaved his head (Job 1): and among the ancients, it was the custom of mourners to shave their hair. But now, on the contrary, letting one's hair down is a sign of mourning. However, every lamentation and prophetic wailing is undertaken for this reason: because the Lord has cast off and abandoned the generation of his wrath. There is no doubt that it signifies the people of the Jews. And especially this can be referred to the time of Christ, when faith perishes, and the Lord is blasphemed by the people.

Source: Commentary on Jeremiah
[AD 202] Irenaeus on Jeremiah 7:30-34
Last of all he sent to those unbelievers his own Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, whom the wicked husbandmen cast out of the vineyard when they had killed him. For this reason, the Lord God gave it up (no longer hedged around but thrown open throughout all the world) to other tenants, who render the fruits in their seasons—the beautiful elect tower being also raised everywhere. For the illustrious church is now everywhere, and everywhere is the winepress dug. Those who do receive the Spirit are everywhere. Because the former tenants have rejected the Son of God and cast him out of the vineyard when they killed him, God has justly rejected them and given to the Gentiles outside the vineyard the fruits of its cultivation. This is in accordance with what Jeremiah says: “The Lord has rejected and cast off the nation that does these things. The children of Judah have done evil in my sight, says the Lord.”

Source: AGAINST HERESIES 4:36.2
[AD 420] Jerome on Jeremiah 7:30-31
(Verse 30, 31.) Because the sons of Judah have done evil in my sight, says the Lord: they have set up their stumbling blocks in the house where my name is invoked, to defile it. And they have built the high places (or altar) of Topheth, which is in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in fire: which I did not command, nor did it come into my mind. We learn in the beginning of Ezekiel that the sons of Judah put a statue of Baal in the Temple of God. However, the high places, which are called Bamoth in Hebrew, or the altar of Topheth, which is in the Valley of the Sons of Hinnom, signify that place which is watered by the springs of Siloam; and it is pleasant and wooded, and even today offers delights of gardens. However, the error of paganism occupied all the provinces, so that they would sacrifice victims on the tops of mountains and in the most beautiful groves, and all the superstitions of corrupt religion would be observed. Topheth, in the Hebrew language, is interpreted as "width"; and it is reported in the book of Joshua the son of Nun concerning this place, which is in the Valley of the Sons of Hinnom, and in Hebrew it is called Gehenna (γέεννα), for it signifies a gorge, that is, a valley; and Hinnom either signifies a man's name or "favor". And the Hebrews report that this place is called Gehenna, because all the people of the Jews will perish there, offending God. In this place they also consecrated their sons with fire to the idols, or offered them as a burnt offering, which God did not command them, nor did the Law prescribe any such thing. If Jephthah offered his virgin daughter to God, it is not the sacrifice that pleases, but the intention of the offerer. And if a dog, or a donkey, or any unclean animal had come first to meet the father returning from the slaughter of the enemies, he should not have offered it to God.

Source: Commentary on Jeremiah
[AD 420] Jerome on Jeremiah 7:32-33
(Verse 32, 33.) Therefore, behold the days are coming, says the Lord, and it shall no longer be called Topheth, or the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter; for they will bury in Topheth until there is no more room. The corpses of this people will be food for the birds of the air and the animals of the earth, and there will be no one to frighten them away. The time of the siege is indicated, which they endured from the ninth year of King Zedekiah until the eleventh year (2 Kings 25); and the fact that the valley itself should not be called Gehenna, that is, the Valley of Hinnom or the Valley of the Sons of Hinnom, but rather the Valley of Slaughter due to the killing of many. But there will be such a slaughter, that in the place previously dedicated to religion, countless graves will be buried: and those who could not be buried, will be torn apart by birds and devoured by beasts. And let there be no one to drive them away, fearing the same, and the duties of burying the dead. We hurry through the obvious, so that wherever there is a place, we may dwell in darkness. For the magnitude of the book itself can cause disgust to readers, let alone if it is more extensively discussed by us.

Source: Commentary on Jeremiah
[AD 420] Jerome on Jeremiah 7:34
(Verse 34.) And I will cause the cities of Judah to cease, and I will silence in 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 become a desolation. And when places of idolatry are turned into tombs, the unburied corpses of those who offended God shall lie there, from the once city of Jerusalem and from the other cities that were under its dominion, all joy and mourning and groaning and desolation shall be removed.

Source: Commentary on Jeremiah