their own. But his earlier
denunciations of such shrines, delivered independently of Deuteronomy, had
been enough to rouse his fellow-villagers against him as a traitor to
their local interests and pieties.

Another address, VII. 1-15, said to have been delivered to all Judah,
rebukes the people for their false confidence in the Temple and their
abuse of it, and threatens its destruction. Editorial additions may exist
in both the Hebrew and Greek texts of this address, but it contains
phrases non-deuteronomic and peculiar to Jeremiah, while its echoes of
Deuteronomy were natural to the occasion. Except for a formula or two, I
take the address to be his own. Nor am I persuaded by the majority of
modern critics that it is a mere variant of the Temple address reported in
Ch. XXVI as given _in the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim_. Why may
Jeremiah not have spoken more than once on the same theme to the same, or
a similar effect? Moreover, the phrase _We are delivered!_ VII. 10, which
does not recur in XXVI, suits the conditions before, rather than those
after, the Battle of Megiddo. For parallel with the increased faith in the
Temple, due mainly to the people's consciousness of their obedience to the
Law-Book, was their experience of deliverance from the Assyrian yoke. I am
inclined, therefore, to refer VII. 1-15 to the reign of Josiah, rather
than with XXVI to that of Jehoiakim.(280) But, whatever be its date, VII.
1-15 is relevant to our present discussion.

VII. 2, 3. Hear ye the Word of the Lord, all Judah!(281) Thus
saith the Lord, the God of Israel--Better your ways and your doings
that I may leave you to dwell in this Place. 4. Put not your trust
on lying words,(282) saying to yourselves,(283) "The Temple of the
Lord, The Temple of the Lord, The Temple of the Lord--[5] are
those!"(284) But if ye thoroughly better your ways and your
doings, if ye indeed do justice between a man and his fellow, [6]
and oppress not the sojourner, the orphan, and the widow, and shed
not innocent blood [in this Place], nor go after other gods to
your hurt, [7] then I shall leave you to abide in this Place [in
the land which I gave to your fathers from of old for ever]. 8.
Behold, you put your trust on lying words that cannot profit. 9.
What? Steal, murder, fornicate, swear falsely, and burn(285) to
Baal, and go after other gods whom ye knew not, [10] yet come and
stand be