Jeremiah 32:34

Jer 32:34 But they set their abominations in the house, which is called by my name, to defile it.

Ver. 34. In the house which is called by my name.] Templi periphrasis haec est emphatica, atque argumentosa.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

32:34-35 The people had sinned by defiling God’s own Temple with abominable idols (Ezek 8:3). The leaders of Judah were also known to sacrifice their own children to an Ammonite deity named Molech (cp. Jer 7:30-34).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

(Jer 7:30-31; Eze 8:5-17).

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

There was here, as it were, an extreme wickedness, for the Jews had profaned the Temple itself. It was a grievous offense, when every one had, as we have seen, private services at home, where they burned incense on the roofs, and poured libations to foreign gods; but when impiety had gone so far, that even the Temple itself was polluted with idols, what hope was there of repentance?

He says that they had set their abominations in the Temple. It is called, indeed, a house after the manner of the Hebrews, but it is afterwards distinguished from private buildings, when he says, on which my name is called and then, that they might defile it God here shews that the Temple had been dedicated to him; it was then a sacrilegious profanation when they offered their sacrifices to idols. They were, indeed, already apostates; but such a sacrilege was not so notorious in their private superstitions as in the Temple; for this was to deprive God of his own honor. Though it was not right in them to abandon themselves to all kind of wickedness when they came forth from the Temple; yet the Temple itself ought to have continued, as it were, safe and free from every defilement. For this reason, therefore, he says that it was called by his name, and then that the Temple itself had been defiled, so that they did not spare his sacred name. The rest I shall defer till to-morrow.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(34, 35) They set their abominations in my house . . .—On the sins thus referred to, see Notes on Jer_7:30-31, which are here almost verbally reproduced.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

34, 35. See on Jer_7:30-31, in the main identical with these vv. In addition it is to be remarked that here Baal and Molech are identified. Molech is probably only a variant or distortion of the word melech, king, in order to express contempt or abhorrence by giving to the consonants the vowels of bosheth, shame (cp. Ishbosheth, 2Sa_2:8, for Eshbaal, 1Ch_8:33). Apparently this title of king “was in use among the Phoenicians and especially at Byblus; and Philo of Byblus writes of the god of his city, whom he calls Cronus, that he sacrificed his own son. Of this deity Diodorus says, ‘The Carthaginians had a brasen statue of Cronus, with hands extended upwards, but with the palms bent downwards towards the earth, so that the child who was laid upon them rolled into a pit of fire below.’ Now since Cronus was a god of the Underworld where ‘no rays of the sun penetrated and no wind blew’ (Homer, Iliad 8:479 ff.), i.e. was a god of the Dead, it is quite probable that the deity whom the Semites called Melech was also a god of the Shades. Such a god would naturally be supposed to have the desire of peopling his realm, and human sacrifices would seem to be acceptable to him. Thus Melech seems to be the designation of a deity like the Babylonian Nergal (2Ki_17:30), the god of pestilence, war, and the country of the dead.” Barnes on 1Ki_11:5 C. B.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And they built the high places of Baal, which are in the valley of the son of Hinnom,.... Or "the high places of that Baal (k), which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom"; to distinguish him from other Baalim; and who seems to be the same with Molech after mentioned; and the signification of their names agree; the one is lord or master; the other king:

to cause their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire unto Molech: the phrase, "through the fire", is not in the text; but is well enough supplied from other places, where it is. Some think that their infants were not burnt to death with fire, but only were held over the flame by way of lustration; or were made to pass between two fires, and so were purified and dedicated to the idol:

which I commanded them not, neither came it into my mind that they should do this abomination; See Gill on Jer 7:31;

to cause Judah to sin; which Abarbinel understands of the children of Israel, who first began this practice, and seduced and drew the children of Judah into it; but rather it seems to intend the kings, princes, priests, prophets, and inhabitants of Jerusalem, who, by their example, led the people of the Lord into the same practice.

(k) "quae in valle", Montanus; "excelsa Baal qui erat in valle", Calvin.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

It, under Achaz, Manasses, and perhaps the last kings of Juda, Ezechiel viii. 9.

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Their abominations; their idols, which above all things the jealous God abhorreth, and therefore he calleth them abominations, in the abstract, for abominable things, Deu 32:16; 1Ki 11:5; 2Ki 23:13.

In the house which is called by my name; that is, in the temple, which was ordinarily called the house of the Lord, and the temple of the Lord.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

34, 35. They set their abominations — Their idols. A repetition of Jer_7:30-31, except that Baal is put for “Tophet” and Molech for “in the fire.” Molech the king and Baal the lord are simply different names of the Sun-god, but in altered relations.

In the house — The temple, which was still standing.

To pass through the fire — This phrase, here and everywhere, as also the various kindred phrases, implies the literal burning of the children, though as we learn from Eze_16:21, they may not have been burned alive, but slain first.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Vers. 34, 35. Repeated, with slight variations, from Jer_7:30, Jer_7:31. "Baal" and "Molech" are identified as in Jer_19:5 Jer_7:31, and even more distinctly.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Have set - Their idols.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.