If the people repented, instead of being led into captivity, God would maintain their national existence. It is a promise of the continuance of an old blessing.

The temple of the Lord - Thrice repeated, to emphasize the rejection of the cry ever upon the lips of the false prophets. In their view the maintenance of the temple-service was a charm sufficient to avert all evil.
These - The buildings of the temple, to which Jeremiah is supposed to point. The Jews put their trust in the material buildings.

We are delivered - Jeremiah accuses them of trusting in the ceremonial of the temple instead of leading holy lives. “You break,” he says, “the Ten Commandments, and then you go to the Temple; and when the service is over you say, We are delivered. We have atoned for our past actions, and may start afresh with easy minds upon a new course of wickedness.”

Robbers - literally, tearers, those who rob with violence. The temple was the place which sheltered them. It had been consecrated to God. Now that it harbors miscreants, must it not as inevitably be destroyed as a den of robbers would be by any righteous ruler?

Go ye unto my place in Shiloh - This argument roused the indignation of the people Jeremiah 26:8-9, Jeremiah 26:11. The ark, Jeremiah shows, had not always been at Jerusalem. The place first chosen, as the center of the nation’s worship, was Shiloh, a town to the north of Bethel, situated in the powerful tribe of Ephraim (Joshua 18:1 note). The ruin of Shiloh is ascribed Psalms 78:58-64 to the idolatry which prevailed in Israel after the death of Joshua; a similar ruin due to similar causes should fall on Jerusalem Jeremiah 7:14. The site of Shiloh is identified with Seilun, the ruins of which are so insignificant as to bear out Jerome’s remark, “At Silo, where once was the tabernacle and ark of the Lord, there can scarcely be pointed out the foundation of an altar.”
At the first - In the first stage, the first period of the existence of the Jewish commonwealth, Shiloh was to the Judges what Jerusalem subsequently was to the kings; and as the fall of Shiloh through the wickedness of Eli’s sons marked the period when the government by Judges was to pass away, and the second stage begin; so the power of the kings perished at the fall of Jerusalem, and left the way clear for the third stage of Jewish polity, government by the scribes.

Rising up early and speaking - A proverbial expression for “speaking zealously and earnestly.” It is used only by Jeremiah.

The whole seed of Ephraim - i. e., the whole of the nine northern tribes. Their casting out was a plain proof that the possession of the symbols of God’s presence does not secure a Church or nation from rejection, if unworthy of its privileges.

They had reached that stage in which men sin without any sense of guilt (see 1 John 5:16).
Neither make intercession to me - In Jeremiah 14:7-9 we have an intercessory prayer offered by Jeremiah, but not heard. The intercession of Moses prevailed with God Numbers 11:2; Numbers 14:13-20; Numbers 16:22, because the progress of the people then wins upward; the progress now was from bad to worse, and therefore in Jeremiah 15:1 we read that the intercession even of Moses and Samuel (see 1 Samuel 12:23) would profit nothing.

The proof of the hopeless immorality of the people is this, that they worship pagan deities
(1) generally in the cities of Judah, and not in the capital only; and
(2) publicly in the streets of Jerusalem. Such public idolatry could have been practiced only in the reign of a king like Jehoiakim.

Children ... fathers ... women - All members of the family take part in this idolatry.
Cakes - Probably very similar to those offered at Athens to Artemis.
To the queen of heaven - A Persian and Assyrian deity, who was supposed to symbolize a quality possessed by moonlight of giving to nature its receptive power, as the sun represented its quickening power. The moon thus became generally the symbol of female productiveness, and was worshipped as such at Babylon. Disgraceful usages to which every woman was obliged once to submit formed part of her worship.

Do they not provoke ... - literally, Is it not themselves (“that they provoke”) to the shame of their faces?

Upon man, and upon beast - All creation in some mysterious way shares in man’s fall and restoration Romans 8:19-22.

The meaning is, Increase your sacrifices as you will. Acid burnt-offering to peace-offerings. All is in vain as long as you neglect the indispensable requirements of obedience and moral purity. Eat flesh is equivalent to sacrifice. The flesh of animals offered in sacrifice was usually eaten by the offerers, and this meal was regarded as a symbol of reconciliation. God and man partook of the same victim, and so were made friends. This passage Jeremiah 7:21-28 is the Haphtarah (lesson) from the prophets, after the Parashah, Lev. 6–8, or Lesson from the Law. The selection of such a Haphtarah shows that the Jews thoroughly understood that their sacrifices were not the end of the Law, but a means for spiritual instruction.

Obey ... - These words are not found verbatim in the Pentateuch, but are a sum mary of its principles. Sacrifice is never the final cause of the covenant, but always obedience (Exodus 19:5-6; Leviticus 11:45. Compare Exodus 20; Deuteronomy 11, in which the moral object of the Mosaic dispensation is most clearly taught). In connection with Jeremiah’s argument, notice that Amos 5:25 (taken in conjunction with Joshua 5:2-7) proves that the ceremonial law was not observed during the 40 years’ wandering in the wilderness. A thing so long in abeyance in the very time of its founder, could not be of primary importance.

Imagination - Better, as in the margin.
And went backward - literally, as in the margin; i. e., they turned their back upon Me to follow their own devices.

Rather, Though thou ... yet etc.

A nation - The “nation.” Israel holds so unique a position among all nations that for it to disobey God is marvelous.
Truth ... - Fidelity to God. Though they have the name of Yahweh often upon their lips and swear by Him Jeremiah 5:2, yet it is only profession without practice.

Silence and desolation are to settle upon the whole land.