If you opress not the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and shed not innocent blood in this place, and walk not after strange gods to your own hurt,

“And thus did He send prophets prior to the transmigration to Babylon, and after that event others again in greater number than the former, to seek the fruits, saying thus to them (the Jews): "Thus saith the Lord, Cleanse your ways and your doings, execute just judgment, and look each one with pity and compassion on his brother: oppress not the widow nor the orphan, the proselyte nor the poor, and let none of you treasure up evil against his brother in your hearts, and love not false swearing. Wash you, make you clean, put away evil from your hearts, learn to do well, seek judgment, protect the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow; and come, let us reason together, saith the Lord." And again: "Keep thy tongue from evil, and thy lips that they speak no guile; depart from evil, and do good; seek peace, and pursue it." In preaching these things, the prophets sought the fruits of righteousness.”

“Here he excludes the third remedy in which they could trust, namely concerning the worship of divine religion; and first as to the holiness of the temple; second as to the devotion of prayer, there, "therefore do not pray for this people"; third as to the offering of sacrifices, there, "thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel." Concerning the first, two things. First he sets down a kind of wholesome counsel, showing true confidence: "stand in the gate," so that at least by the reverence of the place they might be compelled to listen: as if he were to say: otherwise they scorn to listen: "make good your ways" — actions, pursuits, thoughts — by which you deliberate about what is to be done. Isa. 40: "direct the way, make straight in the wilderness the paths of our God." And first he sets down the fruit: "and I will dwell." Apoc. 21: "behold the tabernacle of God with men, and he will dwell with them." And he excludes vain hope: "do not trust in lying words," inasmuch as they said that on account of the holiness of the temple they could avoid all punishments without amendment of life. The temple of the Lord, holy; the temple of the Lord, precious; the temple of the Lord, venerated by all. 2 Machab. 5: God did not choose the nation for the place's sake, but the place for the nation's sake. Second, he expounds it: and first as to the first part, showing what it is to make good ways, resuming the counsel, ordering them both toward themselves in action: since "if you shall bless" — as it were, you had determined in mind, or directed — and "in thought," your pursuits: and toward one's neighbor, as to the doing of good, "if you shall do": and in comparison with God, "and you shall not walk after strange gods": he resumes the fruit of the counsel: "I will dwell with you, if you will, and you shall hear," et cetera. Ps. 14: "Lord, who shall dwell in your tabernacle, or who shall rest in your holy mountain? He who walks without blemish, and works justice," et cetera. Second, he expounds as to the second part: and first he shows the false confidence, setting down the defect on the part of guilt: "behold you trust in yourselves in lying words," in that you say you can commit with impunity these things that follow: "to steal" — against a neighbor's property, "to kill" — against his person, "to commit adultery" — against that which is as it were property and as it were person, "to swear." Here he sets down sins against God. Isa. 28: "we have set our hope in a lie, and by a lie we are protected." And he sets down the appearance on the part of an insufficient amendment: "and you have come, and stood before me in this house," believing, as it were, that by the mere entering of the temple they give satisfaction, perhaps deceived by the prayer of Solomon which is found in 2 Paralip. 6, and 3 Kings 8. And he himself understands that the house of the Lord is to be entered with a perfect amendment of morals. "Because we have done all these abominations" — that is, on account of it. Second, he excludes it, first by an argument showing the amendment insufficient for the guilt: "has then this house become a den of robbers?" As if he were to say: if you enter my house unpurified, you make it a den of robbers. Matt. 21: "My house shall be called a house of prayer: but you have made it a den of robbers." And he shows the guilt to be manifest: "I, I" — in the singular — "am," seeing all things everywhere; "I have seen your sins." Prov. 16: "all the ways of man lie open to his eyes; the Lord is the weigher of spirits." Second, he excludes it by an example: and first he sets down the example of Shiloh, where the tabernacle had first been placed: "go to my place in Shiloh." Ps. 77: "and he cast off the tabernacle of Shiloh, his tabernacle, where he dwelt among men." Second, he adapts it to the matter at hand, assuming a like guilt: "and because you have done all these works, says the Lord, and I spoke to you, rising up early" — after the manner of an anxious man, who rises at earliest morning to complete his works; or because that time is fitting for contemplation, and for receiving the words of wisdom, the body now being rested. "I called." Prov. 1: "because I called, and you refused; I called upon you, and there was none that regarded," et cetera. And he concludes a like punishment, as to the destruction of the place: "I will do to this house." Below, 26: "I will make this house like Shiloh, and this city I will give as a curse to all the nations of the earth." And as to the captivity of the people: "I will cast you out." Below, 23: "you have scattered my flock, and cast them out, and have not visited them."”

“If ye oppress not the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow,.... Who have none to help them, and who ought to have mercy and compassion shown them, as well as justice done them; and should not be injured by private men in their persons and properties, and much less oppressed in courts of judicature by those who should be the patrons and defenders of them: and shed not innocent blood in this place: in the temple, where the sanhedrim, or great court of judicature, sat; for this does not so much respect the commission of murder by private persons, as the condemnation of innocent men to death by the judges, which is all one as shedding their blood; and by which actions they defiled that temple they cried up, and put their trust in; to shed innocent blood in any place, Kimchi observes, is an evil; but to shed it in this place, in the temple, was a greater evil, because this was the place of the Shechinah, or where the divine Majesty dwelt: neither walk after other gods to your hurt; the gods of e people, as the Targum; "for this", as the Arabic version renders it, "is pernicious to you"; idolatry was more hurtful to themselves than to God; and therefore it is dissuaded from by an argument taken from their own interest.”