Commentary on Jeremiah Volume 1 John Calvin (continued)
JOHN CALVIN
was vitiated. The rest to-morrow.
PRAYER
Grant, Almighty God, that since thou so constantly invitest us, daily and even hourly, to thyself, we may not give thee occasion to complain, as of thy people of old, that we are deaf and thus neglect thy holy admonitions, but that we may be teachable and submissive to thee, and that, as thou risest early, we may also be ready to meet thee, and be obedient to thee, not only for one day, but persevere through life in the same course, until at length we shall reach that blessed rest, prepared for us in heaven by Jesus Christ our Lord. --- Amen.
Lecture Thirty-First
Jeremiah 7:31
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.
31. Et aedificavit excelsa Topheth, quae in valle filii Hinnom, ut comburerent filios suos et filias suas igni; quod non mandavi, et non ascendit super cor meum.
Jeremiah in this verse also inveighs against those superstitions by which the Jews had corrupted the true and pure worship of God. He says, that they had builded high places, which was prohibited in the law. (Leviticus 26:30.) Now God, as it has been before said, prefers obedience to all sacrifices, (1 Samuel 15:22:) hence the Prophet justly condemned them, that they forsook the Temple and built for themselves high places or groves, and also altars.
He then mentions one particular place, even Tophet in the valley of Hinnom The prophets, in order to render the place detestable, no doubt designated the infernal regions by {,}תפתTophet, and {,}גיא{ }הנםgia enom. For when Isaiah speaks, in the thirtieth chapter, of the eternal punishment of the wicked, he mentions Tophet, which is the same word as we find here. As to the valley of Hinnom, it is called in Greek Gehenna, and is taken to designate eternal death, or the torments which await all the wicked. In a similar manner the word Paradise is metaphorically taken for the blessed state and for the eternal inheritance; for God so placed man at first in that eastern garden, that he might in a manner protect him under his own wings. As then the blessing and favor of God shone on that place where Adam first dwelt, that it might be a certain image of celestial life and of true happiness, so they called the glory, prepared for all God's children in heaven, Paradise. So also on the other hand the prophets called hell {,}גיא{ }הנםgia enom, in order that the Jews might detest those impious and sacrilegious modes of worship by which their fathers had polluted themselves. And for the same reason they call hell, Tophet. The ancients also say, that it was a place in the suburbs of the city. They were not wont then to assemble afar off for the sake of these abominations, since the place was within sight of the Temple, and they knew that there was the only true altar approved by God, and that it was not lawful to offer sacrifices anywhere else. Since they knew this, and God had set such a place before their eyes, the greater was their madness, when they preferred a filthy spot in which to worship God according to their own will, or rather according to their own wantonness.