Why will the Lord do to “the house that is called by my name, and in which you trust” as he did to Shiloh?

The generation living in Judah to whom Jeremiah speaks these words is no different from the generation that lived during the destruction of the Lord’s place in Shiloh. The people in Judah have done all these things listed in Jeremiah 7:1–11. They have also ignored the Lord’s warnings when he persistently spoke to them and called them back to faithfulness through his many prophets, including Jeremiah. Because of all this the Lord will do to the house that is called by my name, and in which you trust, and to the place that I gave to you and your fathers, as I did to Shiloh. The trust they placed in empty temple rituals while ignoring the covenant’s demands on their lives will be betrayed as the Lord not only destroys the Temple but removes them from the land he has given their forefathers as part of his covenant promise. Truly the covenant has been broken and now the curses will replace blessings.

The mention of the repeated warnings, that the Lord had sent through his prophets, points to the longsuffering patience of the Lord. No one could ever say that the Lord did not give his people many opportunities to turn to him before judgment came. But the persistency of his warnings was matched by the refusal of the people to listen.¹