Jeremiah 7:5

Jer 7:5 For if ye throughly amend your ways and your doings; if ye throughly execute judgment between a man and his neighbour;

Ver. 5. For if ye thoroughly amend your ways.] If ye thoroughly execute judgment; if ye be serious in the one, and sedulous in the other. See Jer 7:2.

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.

A summary of the conditions indispensable on man’s part, before he can plead the terms of the covenant in his favor.

Jer 7:6

In this place - i. e., in Jerusalem. The prophet refers to innocent blood shed there judicially. Of one such judicial murder Jehoiakim had already been guilty Jer 26:23.

Jer 7:7

Why then do not the Jews still possess a land thus eternally given them? Because God never bestows anything unconditionally. The land was bestowed upon them by virtue of a covenant Gen 17:7; the Jews had broken the conditions of this covenant Jer 7:5-6, and the gift reverted to the original donor.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Jer_7:5

If ye thoroughly amend.

Thorough amendment

1. Religion has to do with character and conduct. Religion is that which binds, and it has a tremendous grip. It has to do not only with creeds, and forms, and rites, but with character and conduct.

2. Religion makes little of mere emotion. Some persons delight in the excitation of the sensibilities. The Masters word is, If ye love Me, keep My commandments. This is the proof of genuine love. The mother takes her boys kiss as a sign of emotion, but sees in his obedience the proof of principle, which is more than mere feeling.

(1) The first characteristic of true religion is a right view of sin. Our prayer should be, Wash me thoroughly, even as the spotted robe was in Davids day cleansed in a vat with strong acid and alkali, mauled and bruised with mallet, till the stain was gone. God uses powerful methods to purify. Some dread to be born again, because they know that they will be required to thoroughly amend their ways, i.e., throughly, as the word was formerly spelled. True amendment goes through and through to the uttermost end--clear to the furthest limit.

(2) There must be not only right views, but a clean sweep of sin. The people of Israel found that those they spared of idolatrous nations were thorns in their sides and pricks in their eyes. If we do not drive sin out, sin will drive us out. What we call little sins accumulate, as do the snowflakes which stop a locomotive. We shall arrest the power and blessing of God by tolerating small transgressions.

(3) Thorough amendment comprehends character and conduct--what we are and what we do. It were useless to throw our prayers into a malarious swamp and leave the source, the well head, unclean. Pray that Gods Spirit may create a clean heart. Then follow conscience. The amendment enjoined in the text is a new life. Christ and the soul are firmly united, and He is the model. A little fibre, just enough to cling to the sacrament, is not enough. That Hamburg grapevine would not have yielded you those rich clusters if the branches had not been closely united to the vine. You are Christs. You will hate sin because He abhors it. You will also heed Christs demands on your time, your income, and your strength.

3. The text promises permanency; not merely a visit, but an abode where one can root and grow, work and worship, till transplanted to heaven. (T. L. Cuyler, D. D.)

Reformation must be thorough

Some men, when they attempt to reform their lives, reform those things for which they do not much care. They take the torch of Gods Word, and enter some indifferent chamber and the light blazes in, and they see that they are very sinful there; and then they look into another room, where they do not often stay, and are willing to admit that they are very sinful there; but they leave unexplored some cupboards and secret apartments where their life really is, and where they have stored up the things which are dearest to them, and which they will neither part with nor suffer rebuke for. (H. W. Beecher.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Jer 7:5-7. For if ye thoroughly amend your ways, &c. — In these verses the prophet tells them particularly what the amendment was which was necessary that they might escape destruction. It must be a thorough amendment, a universal, continued, persevering reformation; not partial, but entire; not hypocritical, but sincere; not wavering, but constant. They must make the tree good, and so make the fruit good; must amend their hearts and thoughts, and so amend their ways and doings. In particular, 1st, They must be honest and just in all their dealings. They who had power in their hands must thoroughly execute judgment between a man and his neighbour, without partiality. They must not, either in judgment, or in matters of contract, oppress the stranger, the fatherless, or the widow — Nor countenance or protect those that did oppress them, nor refuse to do them right when they sought for it. They must not shed innocent blood — And with it defile the temple, the city, and the land wherein they dwelt. 2d, They must keep close to the worship of the true God only, neither walking after other gods, nor hearkening to those that would draw them into communion with idolaters. Then will I cause you to dwell in this place, &c. — Upon this condition I will establish and fix you in this land for ever and ever — That is, from age to age, and you shall possess it, as your fathers did before you, from the days of Joshua until now.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

7:5-7 Idol worship had harmed the people—spiritually, because idols were delusions; socially, because their behavior destroyed fellowship; and politically, because they did not think foreign armies could conquer them. Unless the people changed, they had no future in the Promised Land (Exod 22:21-24; Deut 4:40; 6:14-15).

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

For--"But" [MAURER].

judgment--justice (Jer 22:3).

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

Verse 5. If ye throughly amend your ways] Literally, If in making good ye fully make good your ways. God will no longer admit of half-hearted work. Semblances of piety cannot deceive him; he will not accept partial reformation; there must be a thorough amendment.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Interpreters do not agree as to the meaning of this passage. Some render כי אם, ki am, “But rather, “or, “But.” I indeed allow that it is so taken in many places; but they are mistaken who read כי אם, ki am, as one word; for the Prophet, on the contrary, repeats what he had said, and that is, that God would not be propitious to the Jews except their life proved that they had really repented. The words are sometimes taken as one in Hebrew, and mean “but;” yet in other places they are often taken as separate words, as we found in the second chapter, “Though thou washest thyself with nitre;” and for the sake of emphasis the particle “surely, “is put before “though.” But in this place the Prophet simply means, that the Jews were deceived in seeking to prescribe a law for God according to their own will, as it belongs only to him either to approve or to reject their works. And this meaning is confirmed by the latter part of the verse, for we read not there כי אם, ki am, but אם, am; “If by doing ye shall do judgment;” and then in the same form he adds, “If ye will not oppress the stranger, the orphan, and the widow;” and at last he adds, “Then (a copulative I allow is here, but it is to be taken as an adverb) I will make you to dwell in this place.”

The purport of the whole is, — that sacrifices are of no importance or value before God, unless those who offer them wholly devote themselves to God with a sincere heart. The Jews sought to bind God as it were by their own laws: he shews that he was thus impiously put under restraint. He therefore lays down a condition, as though he had said, “it belongs to me to prescribe to you what is right. Away, then, with your ceremonies, by which ye think to expiate your sins; for I regard them not, and esteem them as nothing.” What then is to be done? He now shews then, “If you will rightly order your life, ye shall dwell in this place.”

For yesterday the Prophet exhorted the people to repent; and he employed the sentiment which he now repeats. He commanded the people to come to God with an upright and pure mind; he afterwards added another sentence, “Trust not in words of falsehood, saying, The Temple of the Lord, “etc. He now again repeats what he had said, “If ye will make your ways good.” He shews now more clearly that no wrong was done to the people when God repudiated their ceremonies; for he required a pure heart, and external rites without repentance are vain and useless. This then is what the Prophet had in view: “Though God seems to treat you with great severity, he yet promises to be kind to you, if you order your lives according to his law: is this unjust? Can the condition which is proposed to you by God be liable to any calumnies, as though God treated you cruelly!” This then is the meaning of the Prophet.

If ye will make good your ways, that is, if your life be amended; and if ye will do judgment, etc. He now comes to particulars; and first he addresses the judges, whose duty it was to render to every one his right, to redress injuries, to pronounce what was just and right when any contention arose. If then, he says, ye will do justice between a man and his neighbor, that is, if your judgments be right, without favor or hatred, and if no bribes lead you from what is right and just, while pronouncing judgment on a case between a man and his brother.

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.

(5) A man and his neighbour.—The Jewish idiom for the English “one man and another.”

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

For if ye thoroughly amend your ways and your doings,.... Or, "if ye make your ways good, and do your works well", which is what is exhorted to Jer 7:3, and respects the duties of the moral law; which are more acceptable to God than legal sacrifices, when done from right principles, and with right views, from love, in faith, and to the glory of God; which is doing good works well; the particulars of which follow:

if you thoroughly execute judgment between a man and his neighbour; without respect to persons, without favour and affection, without bribery and corruption; passing a righteous sentence, and making an equitable decision of the case between them, according to the law of God, and the rules of justice and equity: this respects judges and civil magistrates.

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

He tells them, it is not their vain confidence in their privileges, and boasting of the temple, but only their serious and thorough repentance in turning to God, both in point of piety and equity, that can secure them.

Between a man and his neighbour, i.e. impartially among one another, between man and man, without favour or hatred.

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

5, 6. If ye thoroughly amend, etc. — If you shall, in experience and character, join yourself to the Almighty — if you shall become his spiritual habitation, and thus be endowed with the wealth of his attributes — then will you be safe in a sense in which no material thing, not even the temple of Jehovah, could make you so. The conditions which are here specified are doubtless suggestive of the crimes which prevailed among them. One of these is, the not shedding innocent blood; showing that the bloody rites of Moloch were practised among the people.

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

If ye thoroughly amend, etc.; a development of the ides of ver. 3. The true palladium of Judah would be the faithful performance of Jehovah"s moral laws, especially those referring to the conduct of the rulers. Observe the stress which all the prophets lay on the virtues of civil life.

Vers. 5-16. Strange church-goers.

I LOOK AT THEM AS JEREMIAH SAW THEM. Thieves (vers. 6, 9), most cruel oppressors, murderers, adulterers, etc. Yet they were all going into the temple to worship the Lord. Strange church-goers indeed.

II ASK IF THERE BE ANY SUCH NOW? What if some angel of God, unseen by us, were to mark on the foreheads of all who enter our churches now their true characters in the sight of God: would there be no fraudulent, no oppressors of the poor, none whose hearts, though not their hands, are chargeable with having shed innocent blood? Let us each one ask, "What name would be put upon me?

III INQUIRE WHAT POSSIBLE MOTIVES CAN ACTUATE THEM.

1. With some, no doubt, it is a cloak to cover up their real character.

2. Or a tribute paid to the demands of fashion, custom, society. What would be thought of them if they did not go to church?

3. Or a method of quieting conscience. They come away and think they have wiped off the score that was against them. They say (ver. 10), "We are delivered see Exposition to do," etc.

4. Or to set an example to those they are pleased to call "the lower orders;" like the philosophers of old, who, whilst they held all religions to be equally false, yet regarded them all as indispensably useful.

5. Or as a means for so many regarded such things of propitiating the Divine favor and securing a title to heaven by-and-by. But there is no end to the motives which lead such men to do that which, to more honest-hearted people, appears a mockery, an absurdity, and yet worse.

IV LISTEN TO THE LORD"S WORD TO SUCH. He tells them:

1. They were getting no good whatsoever from such worship (ver. 3).

2. They were completely declaring themselves (ver. 4).

3. They were neglecting that amendment of their ways which would save them (ver. 5).

4. They were grossly insulting nod (vers. 10, 11).

5. They were blind to notorious facts: e.g. Shiloh (ver. 12); Ephraim (ver. 15).

6. Thorough reformation was alone the way of life for them (vers. 3, 7). "Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. C.

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

Connecting Statement:

Yahweh continues giving Jeremiah his message to the people of Judah.

make your ways and practices good

"improve your ways and practices." See how you translated this in Jeremiah 7:3.

completely execute justice

The abstract noun "justice" can be translated using the verb "judge." AT: "judge rightly" (See: Abstract Nouns)

do not exploit the one

"treat fairly the foreigner"

orphan

child whose parents have died

pour out innocent blood

Here pouring out innocent blood represents killing those not deserving death. AT: "kill innocent people" (See: Metonymy)

walk after other gods

Here walking after is a metonym for following after with the intent to serve and obey. AT: "serve other gods" (See: Metonymy)

to your own harm

This is an idiom. AT: "for that will ruin you" (See: Idiom)

in this place

Here "this place" refers to the land of Judah.

will let you stay

"will let you continue to live"

from ancient times and forever

"from ancient times and continually." This means Yahweh gave the land to the people of Judah to be their permanent possession.

translationWords

good

just

neighbor

innocent

blood

walk

false god

eternity

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.