It is probable that this chapter was Jeremiah's first sermon after his
ordination; and a most lively pathetic sermon it is as any we have is
all the books of the prophets. Let him not say, "I cannot speak, for I
am a child;" for, God having touched his mouth and put his words into
it, none can speak better. The scope of the chapter is to show God's
people their transgressions, even the house of Jacob their sins; it is
all by way of reproof and conviction, that they might be brought to
repent of their sins and so prevent the ruin that was coming upon them.
The charge drawn up against them is very high, the aggravations are
black, the arguments used for their conviction very close and pressing,
and the expostulations very pungent and affecting. The sin which they
are most particularly charged with here is idolatry, forsaking the true
God, their own God, for other false gods. Now they are told,
I. That this was ungrateful to God, who had been so kind to them, ver. 1-8 .
II. That it was without precedent, that a nation should change their
god, ver. 9-13 .
III. That hereby they had disparaged and ruined themselves, ver. 14-19 .
IV. That they had broken their covenants and degenerated from their
good beginnings, ver. 20, 21 .
V. That their wickedness was too plain to be concealed and too bad to
be excused, ver. 22, 23, 35 .
VI. That they persisted witfully and obstinately in it, and were
irreclaimable and indefatigable in their idolatries, ver. 24, 25, 33, 36 .
VII. That they shamed themselves by their idolatry and should shortly
be made ashamed of it when they should find their idols unable to help
them, ver. 26-29, 37 .
VIII. That they had not been convinced and reformed by the rebukes of
Providence that had been under, ver. 30 .
IX. That they had put a great contempt upon God, ver. 31, 32 .
X. That with their idolatries they had mixed the most unnatural
murders, shedding the blood of the poor innocents, ver. 34 .
Those hearts were hard indeed that were untouched and unhumbled when
their sins were thus set in order before them. O that by meditating on
this chapter we might be brought to repent of our spiritual idolatries,
giving that place in our souls to the world and the flesh which should
have been reserved for God only!
1 Moreover the word of the L ORD came to me, saying,
2 Go and cry in the ears of Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith the
L ORD ; I remember thee, the kindness of thy youth, the love of
thine espousals, when thou wentest after me in the wilderness, in
a land that was not sown.
3 Israel was holiness unto the L ORD , and the first-fruits of
his increase: all that devour him shall offend; evil shall come
upon them, saith the L ORD .
4 Hear ye the word of the L ORD , O house of Jacob, and all the
families of the house of Israel:
5 Thus saith the L ORD , What iniquity have your fathers found in
me, that they are gone far from me, and have walked after vanity,
and are become vain?
6 Neither said they, Where is the L ORD that brought us up out
of the land of Egypt, that led us through the wilderness, through
a land of deserts and of pits, through a land of drought, and of
the shadow of death, through a land that no man passed through,
and where no man dwelt?
7 And I brought you into a plentiful country, to eat the fruit
thereof and the goodness thereof; but when ye entered, ye defiled
my land, and made mine heritage an abomination.
8 The priests said not, Where is the L ORD ? and they that
handle the law knew me not: the pastors also transgressed against
me, and the prophets prophesied by Baal, and walked after things
that do not profit.
Here is,
I. A command given to Jeremiah to go and carry a message from God to
the inhabitants of Jerusalem. He was charged in general
( ch. i. 17 )
to go and speak to them; here he is particularly charged to go
and speak this to them. Note, It is good for ministers by faith
and prayer to take out a fresh commission when they address themselves
solemnly to any part of their work. Let a minister carefully compare
what he has to deliver with the word of God, and see that it agrees
with it, that he may be able to say, not only, The Lord sent me, but, He sent me to speak this. He must go from Anathoth, where
he lived in a pleasant retirement, spending his time (it is likely)
among a few friends and in the study of the law, and must make his
appearance at Jerusalem, that noisy tumultuous city, and cry in
their ears, as a man in earnest and that would be heard: "Cry
aloud, that all may hear, and none may plead ignorance. Go close to
them, and cry in the ears of those that have stopped their
ears."
II. The message he was commanded to deliver. He must upbraid them with
their horrid ingratitude in forsaking a God who had been of old so kind
to them, that this might either make them ashamed and bring them to
repentance, or might justify God in turning his hand against them.
1. God here puts them in mind of the favours he had of old bestowed
upon them, when they were first formed into a people
( v. 2 ):
" I remember for thy sake, and I would have thee to remember it,
and improve the remembrance of it for thy good; I cannot forget the
kindness of thy youth and the love of thy espousals. "
(1.) This may be understood of the kindness they had for God; it was
not such indeed as they had any reason to boast of, or to plead with
God for favour to be shown them (for many of them were very unkind and
provoking, and, when they did return and enquire early after God, they
did but flatter him), yet God is pleased to mention it, and plead it
with them; for, though it was but little love that they showed him, he
took it kindly. When they believed the Lord and his servant
Moses, when they sang God's praise at the Red Sea, when at
the foot of Mount Sinai they promised, All that the Lord shall say
unto us we will do and will be obedient, then was the kindness
of their youth and the love of their espousals. When they seemed so
forward for God he said, Surely they are my people, and will be
faithful to me, children that will not lie. Note, Those that
begin well and promise fair, but do not perform and persevere, will
justly be upbraided with their hopeful and promising beginnings. God
remembers the kindness of our youth and the love of our
espousals, the zeal we then seemed to have for him and the
affection wherewith we made our covenants with him, the buds and
blossoms that never came to perfection; and it is good for us to
remember them, that we may remember whence we have fallen, and return
to our first love, Rev. ii. 4, 5; Gal. iv. 15 .
In two things appeared the kindness of their youth: --
[1.] That they followed the direction of the pillar of cloud and fire
in the wilderness; and though sometimes they spoke of returning into
Egypt, or pushing forward into Canaan, yet they did neither, but for
forty years together went after God in the wilderness, and
trusted him to provide for them, though it was a land that was not
sown. This God took kindly, and took notice of it to their praise
long after, that, though much was amiss among them, yet they never
forsook the guidance they were under. Thus, though Christ often chid
his disciples, yet he commended them, at parting, for continuing with
him, Luke xxii. 28 .
It must be the strong affection of the youth, and the espousals, that
will carry us on to follow God in a wilderness, with an implicit faith
and an entire resignation; and it is a pity that those who have so
followed him should ever leave him.
[2.] That they entertained divine institutions, set up the tabernacle
among them, and attended the service of it. Israel was then holiness
to the Lord; they joined themselves to him in covenant as a
peculiar people. Thus they began in the spirit, and God puts them in
mind of it, that they might be ashamed of ending in the
flesh.
(2.) Or it may be understood of God's kindness to them; of that he
afterwards speaks largely. When Israel was a child, then I loved
him, Hos. xi. 1 .
He then espoused that people to himself with all the affection with
which a young man marries a virgin ( Isaiah lxii. 5 ),
for the time was a time of love, Ezek. xvi. 8 .
[1.] God appropriated them to himself. Though they were a sinful
people, yet, by virtue of the covenant made with them and the church
set up among them, they were holiness to the Lord, dedicated to
his honour and taken under his special tuition; they were the first
fruits of his increase, the first constituted church he had in the
world; they were the first-fruits, but the full harvest was to be
gathered from among the Gentiles. The first-fruits of the
increase were God's part of it, were offered to him, and he was
honoured with them; so were the people of the Jews; what little
tribute, rent, and homage, God had from the world, he had it chiefly
from them; and it was their honour to be thus set apart for God. This
honour have all the saints; they are the first-fruits of his
creatures, Jam. i. 18 .
[2.] Having espoused them, he espoused their cause, and became an enemy to their enemies, Exod. xxiii. 22 .
Being the first-fruits of his increase, all that devoured him (so it should be read) did offend; they trespassed, they
contracted guilt, and evil befel them, as those were reckoned offenders that devoured the first-fruits, or any thing
else that was holy to the Lord, that embezzled them, or
converted them to their own use, Lev. v. 15 .
Whoever offered any injury to the people of God did so at their peril;
their God was ready to avenge their quarrel, and said to the proudest
of kings, Touch not my anointed, Ps. cv. 14, 15; Exod. xvii. 14 .
He had in a special manner a controversy with those that attempted to
debauch them and draw them off from being holiness to the Lord; witness his quarrel with the Midianites about the matter of
Peor, Num. xxv. 17, 18 .
[3.] He brought them out of Egypt with a high hand and great
terror
( Deut. iv. 34 ),
and yet with a kind hand and great tenderness led them through a vast
howling wilderness
( v. 6 ), a land of deserts and pits, or of graves, terram
sepulchralem--a sepulchral land, where there was ground, not to
feed them, but to bury them, where there was no good to be expected,
for it was a land of drought, but all manner of evil to be
feared, for it was the shadow of death. In that darksome valley
they walked forty years; but God was with them; his rod, in
Moses's hand, and his staff, comforted them, and even there God prepared a table for them ( Ps. xxiii. 4, 5 ),
gave them bread out of the clouds and drink out of the rocks. It was a
land abandoned by all mankind, as yielding neither road nor rest. It
was no thoroughfare, for no man passed through it --no
settlement, for no man dwelt there. For God will teach his
people to tread untrodden paths, to dwell alone, and to be singular.
The difficulties of the journey are thus insisted on, to magnify the
power and goodness of God in bringing them, through all, safely to
their journey's end at last. All God's spiritual Israel must own their
obligations to him for a safe conduct through the wilderness of this
world, no less dangerous to the soul than that was to the body.
[4.] At length he settled them in Canaan
( v. 7 ): I brought you into a plentiful country, which would be the more
acceptable after they had been for so many years in a land of
drought. They did eat the fruit thereof and the goodness
thereof, and were allowed so to do. I brought you into a land of
Carmel (so the word is); Carmel was a place of extraordinary
fruitfulness, and Canaan was as one great fruitful field, Deut. viii. 7 .
[5.] God gave them the means of knowledge and grace, and communion with
him; this is implied, v. 8 .
They had priests that handled the law, read it, and expounded it
to them; that was part of their business, Deut. xxxiii. 8 .
They had pastors, to guide them and take care of their affairs,
magistrates and judges; they had prophets to consult God for them and
to make known his mind to them.
2. He upbraids them with their horrid ingratitude, and the ill returns
they had made him for these favours; let them all come and answer to
this charge
( v. 4 );
it is exhibited in the name of God against all the families of the
house of Israel, for they can none of them plead, Not
guilty. (1.) He challenges them to produce any instance of his being unjust and
unkind to them. Though he had conferred favours upon them in some
things, yet, if in other things he had dealt hardly with them, they
would not have been altogether without excuse. He therefore puts it
fairly to them to show cause for their deserting him
( v. 5 ):
" What iniquity have your fathers found in me, or you either?
Have you, upon trial, found God a hard master? Have his commands put
any hardship upon you or obliged you to any thing unfit, unfair, or
unbecoming you? Have his promises put any cheats upon you, or raised
your expectations of things which you were afterwards disappointed of?
You that have renounced your covenant with God, can you say that it was
a hard bargain and that which you could not live upon? You that have
forsaken the ordinances of God, can you say that it was because they
were a wearisome service, or work that there was nothing to be got by?
No; the disappointments you have met with were owing to yourselves, not
to God. The yoke of his commandments if easy, and in the keeping of
them there is great reward. " Note, Those that forsake God cannot
say that he has ever given them any provocation to do so: for this we
may safely appeal to the consciences of sinners; the slothful servant
that offered such a plea as this had it overruled out of his own
mouth, Luke xix. 22 .
Though he afflicts us, we cannot say that there is iniquity in him; he
does us no wrong. The ways of the Lord are undoubtedly equal; all the
iniquity is in our ways.
(2.) He charges them with being very unjust and unkind to him
notwithstanding.
[1.] They had quitted his service: " They have gone from me, nay,
they have gone far from me. " They studied how to estrange
themselves from God and their duty, and got as far as they could out of
the reach of his commandments and their own convictions. Those that
have deserted religion commonly set themselves at a greater distance
from it, and in a greater opposition to it, than those that never knew
it.
[2.] They had quitted it for the service of idols, which was so much
the greater reproach to God and his service; they went from him, not to
better themselves, but to cheat themselves: They have walked after
vanity, that is, idolatry; for an idol is a vain thing; it is nothing in the world, 1 Cor. viii. 4;
Deut. xxxii. 21; Jer. xiv. 22 .
Idolatrous worships are vanities, Acts xiv. 15 .
Idolaters are vain, for those that make idols are like unto them ( Ps. cxv. 8 ),
as much stocks and stones as the images they worship, and good for as
little.
[3.] They had with idolatry introduced all manner of wickedness. When
they entered into the good land which God gave them they defiled it
( v. 7 ),
by defiling themselves and disfitting themselves for the service of
God. It was God's land; they were but tenants to him, sojourners in it, Lev. xxv. 23 .
It was his heritage, for it was a holy land, Immanuel's land; but they made it an abomination, even to God himself, who was wroth, and
greatly abhorred Israel.
[4.] Having forsaken God, though they soon found that they had changed
for the worse, yet they had no thoughts of returning to him again, nor
took any steps towards it. Neither the people nor the priests made any
enquiry after him, took any thought about their duty to him, nor
expressed any desire to recover his favour. First, The people said not, Where is the Lord? v. 6 .
Though they were trained up in an observance of him as their God, and
had been often told that he brought them out of the land of
Egypt, to be a people peculiar to himself, yet they never asked
after him nor desired the knowledge of his ways. Secondly, The priests said not, Where is the Lord? v. 8 .
Those whose office it was to attend immediately upon him were in no
concern to acquaint themselves with him, or approve themselves to him.
Those who should have instructed the people in the knowledge of God
took no care to get the knowledge of him themselves. The scribes, who handled the law, did not know God nor his will, could not
expound the scriptures at all, or not aright. The pastors, who should
have kept the flock from transgressing, were themselves ringleaders in
transgression: They have transgressed against me. The pretenders
to prophecy prophesied by Baal, in his name, to his honour, being
backed and supported by the wicked kings to confront the Lord's
prophets. Baal's prophets joined with Baal's priests, and walked after
the things which do not profit, that is, after the idols which
can be no way helpful to their worshippers. See how the best characters
are usurped, and the best offices liable to corruption; and wonder not
at the sin and ruin of a people when the blind are leaders of
the blind.
9 Wherefore I will yet plead with you, saith the L ORD , and with
your children's children will I plead.
10 For pass over the isles of Chittim, and see; and send unto
Kedar, and consider diligently, and see if there be such a thing.
11 Hath a nation changed their gods, which are yet no gods?
but my people have changed their glory for that which doth not
profit.
12 Be astonished, O ye heavens, at this, and be horribly
afraid, be ye very desolate, saith the L ORD .
13 For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken
me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns,
broken cisterns, that can hold no water.
The prophet, having shown their base ingratitude in forsaking God, here
shows their unparalleled fickleness and folly
( v. 9 ): I will yet plead with you. Note, Before God punishes sinners he
pleads with them, to bring them to repentance. Note, further, When much
has been said of the evil of sin, still there is more to be said; when
one article of the charge is made good, there is another to be urged;
when we have said a great deal, still we have yet to speak on God's
behalf, Job xxxvi. 2 .
Those that deal with sinners, for their conviction, must urge a variety
of arguments and follow their blow. God had before pleaded with their
fathers, and asked why they walked after vanity and became vain, v. 5 .
Now he pleads with those who persisted in that vain conversation
received by tradition from their fathers, and with their
children's children, that is, with all that in every age tread in
their steps. Let those that forsake God know that he is willing to
argue the case fairly with them, that he may be justified when he
speaks. He pleads that with us which we should plead with
ourselves.
I. He shows that they acted contrary to the usage of all nations. Their
neighbours were more firm and faithful to their false gods than they
were to the true God. They were ambitious of being like the
nations, and yet in this they were unlike them. He challenges them
to produce an instance of any nation that had changed their gods ( v. 10, 11 )
or were apt to change them. Let them survey either the old records or
the present state of the isles of Chittim, Greece, and the European
islands, the countries that were more polite and learned, and of Kedar,
that lay south-east (as the other north-west from them), which were
more rude and barbarous; and they should not find an instance of a
nation that had changed their gods, though they had never done
them any kindness, nor could do, for they were no gods. Such a
veneration had they for their gods, so good an opinion of them, and
such a respect for the choice their fathers had made, that though they
were gods of wood and stone they would not change them for gods of
silver and gold, no, not for the living and true God. Shall we
praise them for this? We praise them not. But it may well be urged,
to the reproach of Israel, that they, who were the only people that had
no cause to change their God, were yet the only people that had changed
him. Note, Men are with difficulty brought off from that religion which
they have been brought up in, though ever so absurd and grossly false.
The zeal and constancy of idolaters should shame Christians out of
their coldness and inconstancy.
II. He shows that they acted contrary to the dictates of common sense,
in that they not only changed (it may sometimes be our duty and wisdom
to do so), but that they changed for the worse, and made a bad bargain
for themselves.
1. They parted from a God who was their glory, who made them truly
glorious and every way put honour upon them, one whom they might with a
humble confidence glory in as theirs, who is himself a glorious God and
the glory of those whose God he is; he was particularly the glory of
his people Israel, for his glory had often appeared on their
tabernacle.
2. They closed with gods that could do them no good, gods that do
not profit their worshippers. Idolaters change God's glory into
shame
( Rom. i. 23 )
and so they do their own; in dishonouring him, they disgrace and
disparage themselves, and are enemies to their own interest. Note,
Whatever those turn to who forsake God, it will never do them any good;
it will flatter them and please them, but it cannot profit them. Heaven itself is here called upon to stand amazed at the sin and folly
of these apostates from God
( v. 12, 13 ): Be astonished, O you heavens! at this. The earth is so
universally corrupt that it will take no notice of it; but let the
heavens and heavenly bodies be astonished at it. Let the sun blush to
see such ingratitude and be afraid to shine upon such ungrateful
wretches. Those that forsook God worshipped the host of heaven, the sun, moon, and stars; but these, instead of being pleased with the
adorations that were paid to them, were astonished and horribly
afraid; and would rather have been very desolate, utterly
exhausted (as the word is) and deprived of their light, than that
it should have given occasion to any to worship them. Some refer it to
the angels of heaven; if they rejoice at the return of souls to
God, we may suppose that they are astonished and horribly afraid at the
revolt of souls from him. The meaning is that the conduct of this
people towards God was,
(1.) Such as we may well be astonished and wonder at, that ever men,
who pretend to reason, should do a thing so very absurd.
(2.) Such as we ought to have a holy indignation at as impious, and a
high affront to our Maker, whose honour every good man is jealous for.
(3.) Such as we may tremble to think of the consequences of. What will
be in the end hereof? Be horribly afraid to think of the wrath and
curse which will be the portion of those who thus throw themselves out
of God's grace and favour. Now what is it that is to be thought of with
all this horror? It is this: " My people, whom I have taught and
should have ruled, have committed two great evils, ingratitude
and folly; they have acted contrary both to their duty and to their
interest."
[1.] They have affronted their God, by turning their back upon
him, as if he were not worthy their notice: " They have forsaken me,
the fountain of living waters, in whom they have an abundant and
constant supply of all the comfort and relief they stand in need of,
and have it freely." God is their fountain of life, Ps. xxxvi. 9 .
There is in him an all-sufficiency of grace and strength; all our
springs are in him and our streams from him; to forsake him is, in
effect, to deny this. He has been to us a bountiful benefactor, a fountain of living waters, over-flowing, ever-flowing, in the
gifts of his favour; to forsake him is to refuse to acknowledge his
kindness and to withhold that tribute of love and praise which his
kindness calls for.
[2.] They have cheated themselves, they forsook their own
mercies, but it was for lying vanities. They took a great deal of
pains to hew themselves out cisterns, to dig pits or pools in
the earth or rock which they would carry water to, or which should
receive the rain; but they proved broken cisterns, false at the
bottom, so that they could hold no water. When they came to
quench their thirst there they found nothing but mud and mire, and the
filthy sediments of a standing lake. Such idols were to their
worshippers, and such a change did those experience who turned from God
to them. If we make an idol of any creature-wealth, or pleasure, or
honour,--if we place our happiness in it, and promise ourselves the
comfort and satisfaction in it which are to be had in God only,--if we
make it our joy and love, our hope and confidence, we shall find it a
cistern, which we take a great deal of pains to hew out and fill, and
at the best it will hold but a little water, and that dead and flat,
and soon corrupting and becoming nauseous. Nay, it is a broken cistern,
that cracks and cleaves in hot weather, so that the water is lost when
we have most need of it, Job vi. 15 .
Let us therefore with purpose of heart cleave to the Lord only, for
whither else shall we go? He has the words of eternal
life.
14 Is Israel a servant? is he a home-born slave? why is he
spoiled?
15 The young lions roared upon him, and yelled, and they made
his land waste: his cities are burned without inhabitant.
16 Also the children of Noph and Tahapanes have broken the
crown of thy head.
17 Hast thou not procured this unto thyself, in that thou hast
forsaken the L ORD thy God, when he led thee by the way?
18 And now what hast thou to do in the way of Egypt, to drink
the waters of Sihor? or what hast thou to do in the way of
Assyria, to drink the waters of the river?
19 Thine own wickedness shall correct thee, and thy
backslidings shall reprove thee: know therefore and see that it
is an evil thing and bitter, that thou hast forsaken the L ORD thy God, and that my fear is not in thee, saith the Lord G OD of
hosts.
The prophet, further to evince the folly of their forsaking God, shows
them what mischiefs they had already brought upon themselves by so
doing; it had already cost them dear, for to this were owing all the
calamities their country was now groaning under, which were but an
earnest of more and greater if they repented not. See how they smarted
for their folly.
I. Their neighbours, who were their professed enemies, prevailed
against them, and this was owing to their sin.
1. They were enslaved and lost their liberty
( v. 14 ): Is Israel a servant? No; Israel is my son, my first-born, Exod. iv. 22 .
They are children; they are heirs. Nay, their extraction is noble; they
are the seed of Abraham, God's friend, and of Jacob his chosen. Is
he a home-born slave? No; he is not the son of the
bond-woman, but of the free. They were designed for dominion, not
for servitude. Every thing in their constitution carried about it the
marks of freedom and honour. Why then is he spoiled of his
liberty? Why is he used as a servant, as a home-born slave? Why
does he make himself a slave to his lusts, to his idols, to that
which does not profit? v. 11 .
What a thing is this, that such a birthright should be sold for a mess
of pottage, such a crown profaned and laid in the dust! Why is he made
a slave to the oppressor? God provided that a Hebrew servant should be
free the seventh year, and that their slaves should be of the
heathen, not of their brethren, Lev. xxv. 44, 46 .
But, notwithstanding this, the princes made slaves of their subjects,
and masters made slaves of their servants
( ch. xxxiv. 11 ),
and so made their country mean and miserable, which God had made happy
and honourable. The neighbouring princes and powers broke in upon
them, and made some of them slaves even in their own country, and
perhaps sold others for slaves into foreign countries. And how came
they thus to lose their liberties? For their iniquities they sold
themselves, Isa. l. 1 .
We may apply this spiritually. Is the soul of man a servant? Is it a
home-born slave? No, it is not. Why then is it spoiled? It is
because it has sold its own liberty and enslaved itself to divers lusts
and passions, which is a lamentation, and should be for a lamentation.
2. They were impoverished and had lost their wealth. God brought them
into a plentiful country
( v. 7 ),
but all their neighbours made a prey of it
( v. 15 ): Young lions roar aloud over him and yell; they are a continual
terror to him. Sometimes one potent enemy, and sometimes another, and
sometimes many in confederacy, fall upon him, and triumph over him.
They carry off the fruits of his land, and make that waste, and burn his cities, when first they have plundered them, so that
they remain without inhabitant, either because there are no
houses to dwell in or because those that should dwell in them are
carried into captivity.
3. They were abused, and insulted over, and beaten by every body
( v. 16 ):
"Even the children of Noph and Tahapanes, despicable people, not
famed for military courage nor strength, have broken the crown of
thy head, or fed upon it. In all their struggles with thee they
have been too hard for thee, and thou hast always come off with a
broken head. The principal part of thy country, that which lay next
Jerusalem, has been and is a prey to them." How calamitous the
condition of Judah had been of late in the reign of Manasseh we find, 2 Chron. xxxiii. 11 ,
and perhaps it had not now much recovered itself.
4. All this was owing to their sin
( v. 17 ): Hast thou not procured this unto thyself? By their sinful
confederacies with the nations, and especially their conformity to them
in their idolatrous customs and usages, they had made themselves very
mean and contemptible, as all those do that have made a profession of
religion and afterwards throw it off. Nothing now appeared of that
which, by their constitution, made them both honourable and formidable,
and therefore nobody either respected them or feared them. But this was
not all; they had provoked God to give them up into the hands of their
enemies, and to make them a scourge to them and give them success
against them; and "thus thou hast procured it to thyself, in that
thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God, revolted from thy allegiance
to him and so thrown thyself out of his protection; for protection and
allegiance go together." Whatever trouble we are in at any time we may
thank ourselves for it; for we bring it upon our own head by our
forsaking God: " Thou hast forsaken thy God at the time that he was
leading thee by the way " (so it should be read); "Then when he was
leading thee on to a happy peace and settlement, and thou wast within a
step of it, then thou forsookest him, and so didst put a bar in thy own
door."
II. Their neighbours, that were their pretended friends, deceived them,
distressed them, and helped them not, and this also was owing to their
sin.
1. They did in vain seek to Egypt and Assyria for help
( v. 18 ):
" What hast thou to do in the way of Egypt? When thou art under
apprehensions of danger thou art running to Egypt for help, Isa. xxx. 1, 2; xxxi. 1 .
Thou art for drinking the waters of Sihor, " that is, Nilus. "Thou reliest upon their multitude, and refreshest thy
self with the fair promises they make thee. At other times thou art in the way of Assyria, sending or going with all speed to fetch
recruits thence, and thinkest to satisfy thyself with the waters of
the river Euphrates; what hast thou to do there? What wilt
thou get by applying to them? They shall help in vain, shall be
broken reeds to thee, and what thou thoughtest would be to thee as a
river will be but a broken cistern."
2. This also was because of their sin. The judgment shall unavoidably
come upon them which their sin has deserved; and then to what purpose
is it to call in help against it? v. 19 .
" Thy own wickedness shall correct thee, and then it is
impossible for them to save thee; know and see therefore, upon
the whole matter, that it is an evil thing that thou hast forsaken
God, for it is that which makes thy enemies enemies indeed, and thy
friends friends in vain." Observe here,
(1.) The nature of sin; it is forsaking the Lord as our God; it
is the soul's alienation from him and aversion to him. Cleaving to sin
is leaving God.
(2.) The cause of sin; it is because his fear is not in us. It
is for want of a good principle in us, particularly for want of the
fear of God; this is at the bottom of our apostasy from him; men
forsake their duty to God because they stand in no awe of him nor have
any dread of his displeasure.
(3.) The malignity of sin; it is an evil thing and a bitter. Sin
is an evil thing, only evil, an evil that has no good in it, an evil
that is the root and cause of all other evil; it is evil indeed, for it
is not only the greatest contrariety to the divine nature, but the
greatest corruption of the human nature. It is bitter; a state
of sin is the gall of bitterness, and every sinful way will be bitterness in the latter end; the wages of it is death, and
death is bitter.
(4.) The fatal consequences of sin; as it is in itself evil and bitter,
so it has a direct tendency to make us miserable: " Thy own
wickedness shall correct thee, and thy backslidings shall reprove
thee, not only destroy and ruin thee hereafter, but correct and
reprove thee now; they will certainly bring trouble upon thee; and
punishment will so inevitably follow the sin that the sin shall itself
be said to punish thee. Nay, the punishment, in its kind and
circumstances, shall so directly answer to the sin, that thou mayest
read the sin in the punishment; and the justice of the punishment shall
be so plain that thou shalt not have a word to say for thyself; thy own
wickedness shall convince thee and stop thy mouth for ever and thou
shalt be forced to own that the Lord is righteous. "
(5.) The use and application of all this: " Know therefore, and
see it, and repent of thy sin, that so the iniquity which is thy
correction may not be thy ruin. "
20 For of old time I have broken thy yoke, and burst thy
bands; and thou saidst, I will not transgress; when upon every
high hill and under every green tree thou wanderest, playing the
harlot.
21 Yet I had planted thee a noble vine, wholly a right seed:
how then art thou turned into the degenerate plant of a strange
vine unto me?
22 For though thou wash thee with nitre, and take thee much
soap, yet thine iniquity is marked before me, saith the Lord
G OD .
23 How canst thou say, I am not polluted, I have not gone after
Baalim? see thy way in the valley, know what thou hast done: thou art a swift dromedary traversing her ways;
24 A wild ass used to the wilderness, that snuffeth up the
wind at her pleasure; in her occasion who can turn her away? all
they that seek her will not weary themselves; in her month they
shall find her.
25 Withhold thy foot from being unshod, and thy throat from
thirst: but thou saidst, There is no hope: no; for I have loved
strangers, and after them will I go.
26 As the thief is ashamed when he is found, so is the house of
Israel ashamed; they, their kings, their princes, and their
priests, and their prophets,
27 Saying to a stock, Thou art my father; and to a stone,
Thou hast brought me forth: for they have turned their back
unto me, and not their face: but in the time of their trouble
they will say, Arise, and save us.
28 But where are thy gods that thou hast made thee? let them
arise, if they can save thee in the time of thy trouble: for according to the number of thy cities are thy gods, O Judah.
In these verses the prophet goes on with his charge against this
backsliding people. Observe here,
I. The sin itself that he charges them with--idolatry, that great
provocation which they were so notoriously guilty of.
1. They frequented the places of idol-worship
( v. 20 ):
" Upon every high hill and under every green tree, in the high
places and the groves, such as the heathen had a foolish fondness and
veneration for, thou wanderest, first to one and then to
another, like one unsettled, and still uneasy and unsatisfied; but in
all playing the harlot, " worshipping false gods, which is
spiritual whoredom, and was commonly accompanied with corporal whoredom
too. Note, Those that leave God wander endlessly, and a vagrant lust is
insatiable.
2. They made images for themselves, and gave divine honour to them
( v. 26, 27 );
not only the common people, but even the kings and princes, who should
have restrained the people from doing ill, and the priests and
prophets, who should have taught them to do well, were themselves so
wretchedly sottish and stupid, and under the power of such a strong
delusion, as to say to a stock, "Thou art my father (that is,
Thou art my god, the author of my being, to whom I owe duty and on whom
I have a dependence)," and to a stone, to an idol made of stone,
" Thou hast begotten me, or brought me forth; therefore
protect me, provide for me, and bring me up." What greater affront
could men put upon God, who is our Father that has made us? It was a
downright disowning of their obligations to him. What greater affront
could men put upon themselves and their own reason than to acknowledge
that which is in itself absurd and impossible, and, by making stocks
and stones their parents, to make themselves no better than stocks and
stones? When these were first made the objects of worship they were
supposed to be animated by some celestial power or spirit; but by
degrees the thought of this was lost, and so vain did idolaters become in their imagination, even the princes and priests themselves,
that the very idol, though made of wood and stone, was supposed to be
their father, and adored accordingly.
3. They multiplied these dunghill deities endlessly
( v. 28 ): According to the number of thy cities are thy gods, O Judah! When they had forsaken that God who is one, and all-sufficient for all,
(1.) They were not satisfied with any gods they had, but still desired
more, that idolatry being in this respect of the same nature with
covetousness, which is spiritual idolatry (for the more men have the
more they would have), which is a plain evidence that what men make an
idol of they find to be insufficient and unsatisfying, and that it
cannot make the comers thereunto perfect. (2.) They could not agree in the same god. Having left the centre of
unity, they fell into endless discord; one city fancied one deity and
another another, and each was anxious to have one of its own to be near
them and to take special care of them. Thus did they in vain seek that
in many gods which is to be found in one God only.
II. The proof of this. No witnesses need be called; it is proved by the
notorious evidence of the facts.
1. They went about to deny it, and were ready to plead, Not
guilty. They pretended that they would acquit themselves from this
guilt, they washed themselves with nitre, and took much
soap, offered many things in excuse and extenuation of it, v. 22 .
They pretended that they did not worship these as gods, but as demons,
and mediators between the immortal God and mortal men, or that it was
not divine honour that they gave them, but civil respect; thus they
sought to evade the convictions of God's word and to screen themselves
from the dread of his wrath. Nay, some of them had the impudence to
deny the thing itself; they said, I am not polluted, I have not gone
after Baalim, v. 23 .
Because it was done secretly, and industriously concealed
( Ezek. viii. 12 ),
they thought it could never be proved upon them, and they had impudence
enough to deny it. In this, as in other things, their way was like that
of the adulterous woman, that says, I have done no wickedness, Prov. xxx. 20 .
2. Notwithstanding all their evasions, they are convicted of it and
found guilty: " How canst thou deny the fact, and say, I have
not gone after Baalim? How canst thou deny the fault, and say, I
am not polluted? " The prophet speaks with wonder at their
impudence: "How canst thou put on a face to say so, when it is
certain?"
(1.) "God's omniscience is a witness against thee: Thy iniquity is
marked before me, saith the Lord God; it is laid up and hidden, to
be produced against thee in the day of judgment, sealed up among his
treasures, " Deut. xxxii. 34;
Job xxi. 19; Hos. xiii. 12 .
"It is imprinted deeply and stained before me;" so some
read it. "Though thou endeavour to wash it out, as murderers to get
the stain of the blood of the person slain out of their clothes, yet it
will never be got out." God's eye is upon it, and we are sure that his
judgment is according to truth.
(2.) "Thy own conscience is a witness against thee. See thy way in
the valley " (they had worshipped idols, not only on the high hills,
but in the valleys, Isa. lvii. 5, 6 ),
in the valley over-against Beth-peor (so some), where they
worshipped Baal-peor
( Deut. xxxiv. 6, Num. xxv. 3 ),
as if the prophet looked as far back as the iniquity of Peor; but, if it mean any particular valley, surely it is the valley of
the son of Hinnom, for that was the place where they sacrificed
their children to Moloch and which therefore witnessed against them
more than any other: "look into that valley, and thou canst not but know what thou hast done. "
III. The aggravations of this sin with which they are charged, which
made it exceedingly sinful.
1. God had done great things for them, and yet they revolted from him
and rebelled against him
( v. 20 ): Of old time I have broken thy yoke and burst thy bonds; this
refers to the bringing of them out of the land of Egypt and the house of bondage, which they would not remember
( v. 6 ),
but God did; for, when he told them that they should have no other gods
before him, he prefixed this as a reason: I am the Lord thy God that
brought thee out of the land of Egypt! These bonds of theirs which
God had loosed should have bound them for ever to him; but they had
ungratefully broken the bonds of duty to that God who had broken the
bonds of their slavery.
2. They had promised fair, but had not made good their promise:
" Thou saidst, I will not transgress; then, when the mercy of thy
deliverance was fresh, thou wast so sensible of it that thou wast
willing to lay thyself under the most sacred ties to continue faithful
to thy God and never to forsake him." Then they said, Nay, but we
will serve the Lord, Josh. xxiv. 21 .
How often have we said that we would not transgress, we would
not offend any more, and yet we have started aside, like a deceitful
bow, and repeated and multiplied our transgressions!
3. They had wretchedly degenerated from what they were when God first
formed them into a people
( v. 21 ). I had planted thee a noble vine. The constitution of their
government both in church and state was excellent, their laws were
righteous, and all the ordinances instructive and very significant; and
a generation of good men there was among them when they first settled
in Canaan. Israel served the Lord, and kept close to him all
the days of Joshua, and the elders that out-lived Joshua, Josh. xxiv. 31 .
They were then wholly a right seed, likely to replenish the
vineyard they were planted in with choice vines. But it proved
otherwise; they very next generation knew not the Lord, nor the
works which he had done ( Judg. ii. 10 ),
and so they were worse and worse till they became the degenerate
plants of a strange vine. They were now the reverse of what they
were at first. Their constitution was quite broken, and there was
nothing in them of that good which one might have expected from a
people so happily formed, nothing of the purity and piety of their
ancestors. Their vine is as the vine of Sodom, Deut. xxxii. 32 .
This may fitly be applied to the nature of man; it was planted by its
great author a noble vine, a right seed (God made man
upright); but it is so universally corrupt that it has become the degenerate plant of a strange vine, that bears gall and
wormwood, and it is so to God, it is highly distasteful and
offensive to him.
4. They were violent and eager in the pursuit of their idolatries,
doted on their idols, and were fond of new ones, and they would not be
restrained form them either by the word of God or by his providence, so
strong was the impetus with which they were carried out after
this sin. They are here compared to a swift dromedary traversing her
ways, a female of that species of creatures hunting about for a
male
( v. 23 ),
and, to the same purport, a wild ass used to the wilderness ( v. 24 ),
not tamed by labour, and therefore very wanton, snuffing up the wind
at her pleasure when she comes near the he-ass, and on such an occasion who can turn her away? Who can hinder her from that
which she lusts after? Those that seek her then will not
weary themselves for her, for they know it is to no purpose; but
will have a little patience till she is big with young, till that month
comes which is the last of the months that she fulfils ( Job xxxix. 2 ),
when she is heavy and unwieldy, and then they shall find her, and she cannot out-run them. Note,
(1.) Eager lust is a brutish thing, and those that will not be turned
away from the gratifying and indulging of it by reason, and conscience,
and honour, are to be reckoned as brute-beasts and no better, such as
were born, and still are, like the wild ass's colt; let them not
be looked upon as rational creatures.
(2.) Idolatry is strangely intoxicating, and those that are addicted to
it will with great difficulty be cured of it. That lust is as
headstrong as any.
(3.) There are some so violently set upon the prosecution of their
lusts that it is to no purpose to attempt to give check to them: those
that do so weary themselves in vain. Ephraim is joined to idols; let
him alone. (4.) The time will come when the most fierce will be tamed and the most
wanton will be manageable; when distress and anguish come upon them,
then their ears will be open to discipline, that is the month in which
you may find them, Ps. cxli. 5, 6 .
5. They were obstinate in their sin, and, as they could not be
restrained, so they would not be reformed, v. 25 .
Here is,
(1.) Fair warning given them of the ruin that this wicked course of
life would certainly bring them to at last, with a caution therefore
not to persist in it, but to break off from it. He would certainly
bring them into a miserable captivity, when their feet should be
unshod, and they should be forced to travel barefoot, and when they
would be denied fair water by their oppressors, so that their throat
should be dried with thirst; this will be in the end hereof. Those that
affect strange gods, and strange ways of worship, will justly be made
prisoners to a strange king in a strange land. "Take up in time
therefore; thy running after thy idols will run the shoes off thy
feet, and thy panting after them will bring thy throat to thirst;
withhold therefore thy foot from these violent pursuits, and thy throat
from these violent desires." One would think that it should effectually
check us in the career of sin to consider what it will bring us to at
last.
(2.) Their rejecting this fair warning. They said to those that would
have persuaded them to repent and reform, " There is no hope; no, never expect to work upon us, or prevail with us to cast away our
idols, for we have loved strangers, and after them we will go; we are resolved we will, and therefore trouble not yourselves nor us
any more with your admonitions; it is to no purpose. There is no hope
that we should ever break the corrupt habit and disposition we have
got, and therefore we may as well yield to it as go about to get the
mastery of it." Note, Their case is very miserable who have brought
themselves to such a pass that their corruptions triumph over their
convictions; they know they should reform, but own they cannot, and
therefore resolve they will not. But, as we must not despair of the
mercy of God, but believe that sufficient for the pardon of our sins,
though ever so heinous, if we repent and sue for that mercy, so neither
must we despair of the grace of God, but believe that able to subdue
our corruptions, though ever so strong, if we pray for and improve that
grace. A man must never say There is no hope, as long as he is
on this side hell.
6. They had shamed themselves by their sin, in putting confidence in
that which would certainly deceive them in the day of their distress,
and putting him away that would have helped them, v. 26-28 . As the thief is ashamed when, notwithstanding all his arts and
tricks to conceal his theft, he is found, and brought to punishment, so are the house of Israel ashamed, not with a penitent shame
for the sin they had been guilty of, but with a penal shame for the
disappointment they met with in that sin. They will be ashamed when
they find,
(1.) That they are forced to cry to the God whom they had put contempt
upon. In their prosperity they had turned the back to God and not the
face; they had slighted him, acted as if they had forgotten him, or did
what they could to forget him, would not look towards him, but looked
another way; they went from him as fast and as far as they could; but
in the time of their trouble they will find no satisfaction but in
applying to him; then they will say, Arise, and save us. Their
fathers had many a time taken this shame to themselves
( Judg. iii. 9, iv. 3, x. 10 ),
yet they would not be persuaded to cleave to God, that they might come
to him in their trouble with the more confidence.
(2.) That they have no relief from the gods they have made their court
to. They will be ashamed when they perceive that the gods they have
made cannot serve them, and that the God who made them will not serve
them. To bring them to this shame, if so be they might hereby be
brought to repentance, they are here sent to the gods whom they
served, Judg. x. 14 .
They cried to God, Arise, and save us. God says of the idols,
" Let them arise, and save thee, for thou hast no reason to
expect that I should Let them arise, if they can, from the places where
they are fixed; let them try whether they can save thee: but thou wilt
be ashamed when thou findest that they can do thee no good, for, though
thou hadst a god for every city, yet thy cities are burnt without
inhabitant, " v. 15 .
Thus it is the folly of sinners to please themselves with that which
will certainly be their grief, and pride themselves in that which will
certainly be their shame.
29 Wherefore will ye plead with me? ye all have transgressed
against me, saith the L ORD .
30 In vain have I smitten your children; they received no
correction: your own sword hath devoured your prophets, like a
destroying lion.
31 O generation, see ye the word of the L ORD . Have I been a
wilderness unto Israel? a land of darkness? wherefore say my
people, We are lords; we will come no more unto thee?
32 Can a maid forget her ornaments, or a bride her attire?
yet my people have forgotten me days without number.
33 Why trimmest thou thy way to seek love? therefore hast thou
also taught the wicked ones thy ways.
34 Also in thy skirts is found the blood of the souls of the
poor innocents: I have not found it by secret search, but upon
all these.
35 Yet thou sayest, Because I am innocent, surely his anger
shall turn from me. Behold, I will plead with thee, because thou
sayest, I have not sinned.
36 Why gaddest thou about so much to change thy way? thou also
shalt be ashamed of Egypt, as thou wast ashamed of Assyria.
37 Yea, thou shalt go forth from him, and thine hands upon
thine head: for the L ORD hath rejected thy confidences, and thou
shalt not prosper in them.
The prophet here goes on in the same strain, aiming to bring a sinful
people to repentance, that their destruction might be prevented.
I. He avers the truth of the charge. It was evident beyond
contradiction; it was the greatest absurdity imaginable in them to
think of denying it
( v. 29 ):
" Wherefore will you plead with me, and put me upon the proof of
it, or wherefore will you go about to plead any thing in excuse of the
crime or to obtain a mitigation of the sentence? Your plea will
certainly be overruled, and judgment given against you: you know you
have all transgressed, one as well as another; why then to you quarrel with me for contending with you?"
II. He heightens it from the consideration both of their
incorrigibleness and of their ingratitude.
1. They had not been wrought upon by the judgments of God which they
had been under
( v. 30 ): In vain have I smitten your children, that is, the children or
people of Judah. They had been under divine rebukes of many kinds. God
therein designed to bring them to repentance; but it was in
vain. They did not answer God's end in afflicting them; their
consciences were not awakened, nor their hearts softened and humbled,
nor were they driven to seek unto God; they received no
instruction by the correction, were not made the better by
it; and it is a great loss thus to lose an affliction. They did not
receive, they did not submit to, or comply with, the correction,
but their hearts fretted against the Lord, and so they were smitten
in vain. Even the children, the young people, among
them (so it may be taken), were smitten in vain; they were so
soon prejudiced against repentance that they were as untractable as the
old ones that had been long accustomed to do evil. 2. They had not been wrought upon by the word of God which he had sent
them in the mouth of his servants the prophets; nay, they had killed
the messengers for the sake of the message: " Your own sword has
devoured your prophets like a destroying lion; you have put them to
death for their faithfulness with as much rage and fury, and with as
much greediness and pleasure, as a lion devours his prey." Their
prophets, who were their greatest blessings, were treated by them as if
they had been the plagues of their generation, and this was their
measure-filling sin, 2 Chron. xxxvi. 16 .
They killed their own prophets, 1 Thess. ii. 15 .
3. They had not been wrought upon by the favours God had bestowed upon
them
( v. 31 ):
" O generation! " (he does not call them, as he might, O
faithless and perverse generation! O generation of
vipers! but speaks gently, O you men of this generation!) " see
the word of the Lord, do not only hear it, but consider it
diligently, apply your minds closely to it." As we are bidden to hear the rod ( Micah vi. 9 ),
for that has its voice, so we are bidden to see the word, for
that has its visions, its views. It intimates that what is here said is
plain and undeniable; you may see it to be very evident; it is written
as with a sun-beam, so that he that runs may read it: Have I been a
wilderness to Israel, a land of darkness. Note, None of those who
have had any dealings with God ever had reason to complain of him as a wilderness or a land of darkness. He has blessed us
with the fruits of the earth, and therefore we cannot say that he has
been a wilderness to us, a dry and barren land, that (as Mr. Gataker
expresses it) he has held us to hard meat, as cattle fed upon
the common. No; his sheep have been led into green pastures. He has
also blessed us with the lights of heaven, and has not withheld them,
so that we cannot say, He has been to us a land of darkness. He has
caused his sun to shine, as well as his rain to fall, upon the evil and
unthankful. Or the meaning is, in general, that the service of God has
not been to any either an unpleasant or an unprofitable service. God
sometimes has led his people through a wilderness and a land
of darkness, but he himself was then to them all that which they
needed; he so fed them with manna, and led them by a pillar of fire,
that it was to them a fruitful field and a land of light. The world is,
to those who make it their home and their portion, a wilderness and a
land of darkness, vanity and vexation of spirit; but those that dwell
in God have the lines fallen to them in pleasant places. 4. Instead of being wrought upon by these, they had grown intolerably
insolent and imperious. They say, We are lords; we will come no more
unto thee. Now that they had become a potent kingdom, or thought
themselves such, they set up for themselves, and shook off their
dependence upon God. This is the language of presumptuous sinners, and
it is not only very impious and profane, but very unreasonable and
foolish.
(1.) It is absurd for us who are subjects to say, We are lords (that is, rulers ) and we will come no more to God to
receive commands form him; for, as he is King of old, so he is King for
ever, and we can never pretend to be from under his authority.
(2.) It is absurd for us who are beggars to say, We are lords, that is, We are rich, and we will come no more to God, to receive
favours from him, as if we could live without him and need not be
beholden to him. God justly takes it ill when those to whom he has
been a bountiful benefactor care not either for hearing from him or
speaking to him.
III. He lays the blame of all their wickedness upon their forgetting
God
( v. 32 ): They have forgotten me; they have industriously banished the
thoughts of God out of their minds, jostled those thoughts out with
thoughts of their idols, and avoided all those things that would put
them in mind of God.
1. Though they were his own people, in covenant with him and professing
relation to him, and had the tokens of his presence in the midst of
them and of his favour to them, yet they forgot him.
2. They had long neglected him, days without number, time out
of mind, as we say. They had not for a great while entertained any
serious thoughts of him; so that they seem quite to have forgotten him,
and resolved never to remember him again. How many days of our lives
have passed without suitable remembrance of God! Who can number those
empty days?
3. They had not had such a regard and affection to him as young ladies
generally have to their fine clothes: Can a maid forget her
ornaments or a bride her attire? No; their hearts are upon them;
they value them so much, and themselves upon them, that they are ever
and anon thinking and speaking of them. When they are to appear in
public they do not forget any of their ornaments, but put every
one in its place, as they are described, Isa. iii. 18 ,
&c. And yet my people have forgotten me. It is sad that any
should be more in love with their fine clothes than with their God, and
should rather leave their religion behind them, or part with that, than
leave any of their ornaments behind them, or part with them. Is not
God our ornament? Is he not a crown of glory and a diadem of
beauty to his people? Did we look upon him to be so, and upon our
religion as an ornament of grace to our head and chains about
our neck ( Prov. i. 9 ),
we should be as mindful of them as ever any maid was of her ornaments,
or a bride of her attire, we should be as careful to preserve them and
as fond to appear in them.
IV. He shows them what a bad influence their sins had had upon others.
The sins of God's professing people harden and encourage those about
them in their evil ways, especially when they appear forward and
ringleaders in sin
( v. 33 ): Why trimmest thou thy way to seek love? There is an allusion
here to the practice of lewd women who strive to recommend themselves
by their ogling looks and gay dress, as Jezebel, who painted her
face and tired her head. Thus had they courted their neighbours
into sinful confederacies with them and communion in their idolatries,
and had taught the wicked ones their ways, their ways of mixing
God's institutions with their idolatrous customs and usages, which was
a great profanation of that which was sacred and made the ways of their
idolatry worse than that of others. Those have a great deal to answer
for who, by their fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness,
make wicked ones more wicked than otherwise they would be.
V. He charges them with the guilt of murder added to the guilt of their
idolatry
( v. 34 ): Also in thy skirts is found the blood of the souls, the
life-blood of the poor innocents, which cried to heaven, and for
which God was now making inquisition. The reference is to the
children that were offered in sacrifice to Moloch; or it may be taken
more generally for all the innocent blood which Manasseh shed,
and with which he had filled Jerusalem ( 2 Kings xxi. 16 ),
the righteous blood, especially the blood of the prophets and
others that witnessed against their impieties. This blood was found not by secret search, not by diggings (so the word is),
but upon all these; it was above ground. This intimates that the
guilt of this kind which they had contracted was certain and evident,
not doubtful or which would bear a dispute; and that it was avowed and
barefaced, and which they had not so much sense either of shame or fear
as to endeavour to conceal, which was a great aggravation of it.
VI. He overrules their plea of, Not guilty. Though this matter
be so plain, yet thou sayest, Because I am innocent, surely his
anger shall turn from me; and again, Thou sayest, I have not
sinned ( v. 35 );
therefore I will plead with thee, and will convince thee of thy
mistake. Because they deny the charge, and stand upon their own
justification, therefore God will join issue with them and plead with
them, both by his word and by his rod. Those shall be made to know how
much they deceive themselves,
1. Who say that they have not offended God, that they are innocent,
though they have been guilty of the grossest enormities.
2. Who expect that God will be reconciled to them though they do not
repent and reform. They own that they had been under the tokens of
God's anger, but they think that it was causeless, and that they by
pleading innocency had proved it to be so, and therefore they conclude
that God will immediately let fall his action and his anger shall be
turned from them. This is very provoking, and God will plead with
them, and convince them that his anger is just, for they have sinned,
and he will never cease his controversy till they, instead of
justifying themselves thus, humble, and judge, and condemn
themselves.
VII. He upbraids them with the shameful disappointments they met with,
in making creatures their confidence, while they made God their enemy, v. 36, 37 .
It was a piece of spiritual idolatry they were often guilty of that
they trusted in an arm of flesh and their hearts therein departed from the Lord. Now here he shows them the folly of it.
1. They were restless, and unsatisfied in the choice of their
confidences: " Why gaddest thou about so much to change thy way? Doubtless it is because thou meetest not with that in those thou didst
confide in which thou promisedst thyself." Those that make God their
hope, and walk in a continual dependence upon him, need not gad
about to change their way; for their souls may return to him, and
repose in him, as their rest: but those that trust in creatures will be
perpetually uneasy, like Noah's dove, that found no rest for the sole
of her foot. Every thing they trust to fails them, and then they think
to change for the better, but they will be still disappointed. They
first trusted to Assyria, and, when that proved a broken reed, they
depended upon Egypt, and that proved no better. Creatures being vanity,
they will be vexation of spirit to all those that put their confidence
in them; they gad about, seeking rest and finding none.
2. They were quite disappointed in the confidences they made choice of;
so the prophet tells them they should be: Thou shalt be ashamed of
Egypt, which thou now trustest in, as formerly thou wast of
Assyria, who distressed them and helped them not, 2 Chron. xxviii. 20 .
The Jews were a peculiar people in their profession of religion, and
for that reason none of the neighbouring nations cared for them, nor
could heartily love them; and yet the Jews were still courting them,
and confiding in them, and were well enough served when deceived by
them. See what will come of it
( v. 37 ): Thou shalt go forth from him, thy ambassadors or envoys shall
return from Egypt re infectâ--disappointed, and therefore with their hands upon their heads, lamenting the desperate
condition of their people. Or, Thou shalt go forth hence, that
is, into captivity in a strange land, with thy hands upon thy
head, holding it because it aches ( ubi dolor ibi digitus--where
the pain is the finger will be applied ), or as people ashamed, for
Tamar, in the height of her confusion, laid her hand on her
head, 2 Sam. xiii. 19 .
"And Egypt, that thou reliest on, shall not be able to prevent it nor
to rescue thee out of captivity." Those that will not lay their hand on
their heart in godly sorrow, which works life, shall be made to lay
their hand on their head in the sorrow of the world, which works death.
And no wonder that Egypt cannot help them, when God will not, If the
Lord do not help thee, whence should I? The Egyptians are broken
reeds, for the Lord has rejected thy confidences; he will not
make use of them for thy relief, will neither so far honour them, nor
so far give countenance to thy confidence in them, as to appoint them to
be the instruments of any good to thee, and therefore thou shalt not
prosper in them; they shall not stand thee in any stead nor give
thee any satisfaction. As there is no counsel or wisdom that can
prevail against the Lord, so there is none that can prevail without
him. Some read it, The Lord has rejected thee for thy
confidences; because thou hast dealt so unfaithfully with him as to
trust in his creatures, nay, in his enemies when thou shouldst have
trusted in him only, he has abandoned thee to that destruction from
which thou thoughtest thus to shelter thyself; and then thou canst
not prosper, for none ever either hardened himself against God or
estranged himself from God and prospered.
INTRODUCTION TO JEREMIAH 2
This chapter contains the prophet's message from the Lord to the people of the Jews; in which they are reminded of their former favours, in order to aggravate their sins and transgressions they were chargeable with; to show their ingratitude and unkindness, and to bring them to a conviction and acknowledgment of their iniquities, without which punishment would be inflicted on them. The preface to this message is in Jer 2:1, and the discourse begins with an account of their former state and condition when they came out of Egypt; what kindness was shown them by the Lord, and what was returned to him by them; what they were to him, and how much regarded by him, Jer 2:2 and so far were they from being injured by him, that might cause them to depart from him, which they are desired to give attention to, that they were followed with various instances of goodness, which are particularly enumerated; and yet no notice was taken of them, neither by people, priests, pastors, and prophets, who were guilty of the grossest ignorance and wickedness, Jer 2:4, wherefore the Lord determines to plead with them and theirs; and charges them with such idolatry as was not to be found among the Gentiles, Jer 1:9 the heavens are called upon to be astonished at it; and the reason given for it, the ingratitude and folly of this people, Jer 2:12 in order to reclaim them, the Lord by the prophet proceeds to observe to them the corrections and chastisement they had already endured, being brought into bondage, their land wasted, cities burnt, and their glory taken from them; all which were owing to their revoltings and backslidings, and by which they might see what an evil and bitter thing sin is in its effects, Jer 2:14 and again reminds them of former favours; how that he loosed them from their yoke and bonds, when they promised to transgress no more, and yet did more and more; how he had raised them from a right seed, and planted them a noble vine, and yet they were sadly degenerated, and were guilty of such crimes as were not to be removed by anything done by them, Jer 2:20, and notwithstanding all this, they had the impudence to deny that they were tainted with idolatry, when they had been so guilty of it in the valley of Hinnom, and elsewhere; and were comparable to the lustful dromedary and wild ass, and so fond of strange gods, that they thirsted after them, and were resolved to follow them, Jer 2:23 and yet the time would come when all ranks of men among them would be ashamed of their worship of stocks and stones, and in the time of their trouble call upon the Lord to save them, when they would be sent to their gods, who were as numerous as their cities, Jer 2:26 wherefore it was in vain to plead their innocence, when they were all so guilty, and had received correction without amendment, and had even slain the prophets of the Lord, Jer 2:29 and then the Lord again upbraids them with their ingratitude to him, who had been so good and kind to them; with their forgetfulness of him, illustrated by a maid's not forgetting her ornaments, and a bride her attire; with their artful methods to entice others to idolatry, and with their shedding of innocent blood; and yet, after all this, they asserted their innocence, and affirmed they had never sinned, Jer 2:31, for all which sentence is pronounced against them, and punishment is threatened them, Jer 2:36.
Ver. 1. Moreover, the word of the Lord came to me, saying. Here begins the book, and Jeremiah's first sermon; and the following contains the message he was sent with, to which the preceding chapter is only a preface or introduction. The Targum calls it,
"the word of the prophecy from before the Lord.''
Jeremiah 2:2
Ver. 2. Go, and cry in the ears of ,.... Of the inhabitants of , the metropolis of . The prophet seems now to have been at Anathoth, and therefore is bid to go from thence to Jerusalem, and there prophesy before the people in it, as the Targum paraphrases it:
saying, thus saith the Lord, I remember thee; the Lord never forgets his people, though they sometimes think he does; it cannot be for they are engraven on the palms of his hands, yea, are set as a seal on his heart; nor does he forget his covenant with them, nor favours and blessings promised them: or, "I remember for thee"; or, "to thee" {w}: things in thy favour, and which will be to thy advantage:
the kindness of thy youth; either the lovingkindness of the Lord, which he had shown unto them; and the benefits, as the fruits thereof, which he had bestowed upon them in former times, when they were brought out of Egypt, and into the wilderness, which was the infancy both of their civil and church state; see Ho 11:1 and when they received many favours from the Lord, Jer 31:2 or the kindness of the people of Israel to the Lord, which was influenced and drawn forth by his love to them; though this can only be understood of some few of them, since the greater part tempted him, grieved, and provoked him:
the love of thine espousals; for the covenant God made with that people, when he brought them out of Egypt, was in the form of a marriage contract; he became their husband, and they became his spouse and bride; and which is an aggravation of their violation of it,
Jer 31:32 and this love, as before, may be understood either of the love of God to them, or of their love to him. The Targum interprets the former clause of the divine goodness to them, and this of their love to him, paraphrasing the whole thus,
"I remember unto you the blessings of ancient days, and the love of your fathers, who believed in my word:''
when thou wentest after me; the Lord going before them in a pillar of cloud by day, and in a pillar of fire by night; even the angel of God's presence, who was their leader, guide, and preserver:
in the wilderness, in a land that was not sown; where they passed through many difficulties, and lived upon the providence of God, which, in a wonderful manner, supported them with the necessaries of life, which otherwise they could not have had. The Targum is,
"and they walked after my two messengers, after Moses and Aaron, in the wilderness forty years without food, in a land that was not sown.''
The whole of this may be applied to the case of God's people at first conversion, when they are as newly born babes, and become young men in Christ; at which time they are openly espoused to him, having been secretly betrothed in covenant before; but now, through the efficacy of the Spirit attending the word, they are made willing to give up themselves to the Lord, and are espoused to one husband, Christ,
2Co 11:2 at which time also great kindness and love is expressed both by the Lord to them, by quickening them who before were dead; by bringing them out of a most miserable condition; by speaking comfortably to them; by manifesting and applying his pardoning grace; and by openly taking them into his family: and also by them to him again; for the grace of love is then implanted, which, as it is hearty and sincere, is very ardent and fervent; which shows itself by parting with and bearing all for Christ; and by a concern for his company and presence; and by a regard to his people, Gospel, ways, and worship; particularly by following him in his ordinances with great zeal, fervency, and constancy, even though attended with many difficulties and discouragements; and though the way may seem to flesh and blood very unpleasant and unpromising; all which is remembered by the Lord when forgotten by them; and when their love is become cold to him, he not only remembers them, and his love to them, which is always the same, but also their love to him.
{w} Kl ytrkz "recordor tibi", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator; so Schmidt, and some in Vatablus; which is preferred by Gussetius, Ebr. Comment. p. 228.
Jeremiah 2:3
Ver. 3. was holiness unto the Lord,.... When first brought out of Egypt into the wilderness, by the Lord's choice and separation of them to be a holy people to him above all others; by covenant with him, and profession of him; and by his giving them holy laws, and placing a sanctuary among them; and by their high priest, who represented them in the most holy place; and had on the front of his mitre written,
holiness unto the Lord; so the spiritual Israel are chosen in Christ to be holy, and he is made sanctification to them; they are sanctified in him, and by his Spirit; they are called with a holy calling, and unto holiness; and, under the influence of grace, live holy lives and conversations, which the grace of God teaches, and young converts are remarkable for; their consciences being just awakened, and their hearts tender:
and the firstfruits of his increase; Israel was the first nation that God separated for himself; and this being the firstfruits, shows that he would separate others also, and take out of the Gentiles a people for his name, which he has since done; and the elect of God among the Israelites were the firstfruits of his chosen ones elsewhere; it were some of them that first believed in Christ, and received the firstfruits of the Spirit; and all converted ones are a kind of firstfruits of his creatures; the grace they receive at conversion is the firstfruits of a later increase of it, and even of eternal glory:
all that devour him shall offend; or, "all that eat him shall be guilty" {x}; and be condemned and punished, who eat up the Lord's people, as they eat bread; see Ps 53:4, these shall not go unpunished; for his people are as the apple of his eye, and whoever touches and hurts them fall under the divine displeasure, and will be looked upon as criminals and offenders, and will be judged and condemned as such. The allusion is to the eating of the firstfruits, which only belonged to the priests; nor might any of the increase be eaten until the firstfruits were brought to them, Le 23:10. This is expressed in the Chaldee paraphrase of the text,
"whosoever eats of them (the firstfruits) is guilty of death; for as the beginning of the harvest, the sheaf of oblation, whoever eats of it before the priests, the sons of Aaron, have offered of it upon the altar, shall be guilty or condemned; so all that spoil the house of Israel shall be guilty or condemned;''
so Jarchi and Kimchi:
evil shall come upon them, saith the Lord; that is, the evil of punishment, either in this world, or in that which is to come, or in both.
{x} wmvay "rcos fuisse", Junius & Tremellius; "rei peragebantur", Piscator; "rei fiunt", Cocceius.
Jeremiah 2:4
Ver. 4. Hear ye the word of the Lord, O house of Jacob, and all the families of the house of . The Lord, by the prophet, having observed his great kindness to this people, what they were unto him, and what a regard he had for them, proceeds to upbraid them with their ingratitude, and requires an attention to what he was about to say; all are called upon, because, all were guilty. This respects the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin, and the several families in them. The ten tribes had been long carried captive.
Jeremiah 2:5
Ver. 5. Thus saith the Lord, what iniquity have your fathers found in me,.... What injustice or injury has been done them? there is no unrighteousness in God, nor can any be done by him; or what unfaithfulness, or want of truth and integrity in performing promises, had they found in him? he never suffers his faithfulness to fail, or any of the good things he has promised. So the Targum,
"what falsehood have your fathers found in my word?''
none at all; God is a covenant keeping God:
that they are gone far from me; from my fear, as the Chaldee paraphrase; from the word and worship, and ways of God:
and have walked after vanity; after idols, the vanities of the Gentiles, Jer 14:22:
and are become vain? in their imaginations and in their actions, in their knowledge and in their practice, worshipping idols, as well as guilty of many other sins.
Jeremiah 2:6
Ver. 6. Neither said they, where is the Lord?.... They did not ask after him, nor seek his face and favour, nor worship him, nor took any notice of the blessings he bestowed upon them:
that brought us up out of the ? by means of Moses the deliverer, with a mighty hand, and outstretched arm; for, though Moses was the instrument, God was the efficient cause of the deliverance; the favour was his, and the glory of it ought to have been given to him:
that led us through the wilderness; of "Shur", or of "Sin", the desert of Arabia, Ex 15:22 and a dreadful and terrible one it was:
through a land of deserts and of pits, through a land of drought, and of the shadow of death; where were scorpions, fiery serpents, drought, and no water, and so very dangerous as well as uncomfortable travelling; and yet through all this they were led, and wonderfully supplied and preserved;
through a land that no man passed through, and where no man dwelt; there was no passenger in it, nor inhabitants on it, so that there were none to relieve them; whence it appears, that all their supply, support, and preservation, were from the Lord. The Jews {y} interpret this of the first man Adam, after this manner,
"all land, concerning which the first man decreed that it should be inhabited, it is inhabited; and all land, concerning which he did not decree it should be inhabited, it is not inhabited; and such they suggest was this wilderness;''
see De 8:15.
{y} T. Bab. Beracot, fol. 31. 1. & Sota, fol. 46. 2.
Jeremiah 2:7
Ver. 7. And I brought you into a plentiful country,.... "Into the land of Carmel", as in the Hebrew text; that is,
"into the land of Israel, which was planted as Carmel,''
as the Targum paraphrases it; with wheat, barley, vines, fig trees, pomegranates, and olives; a land flowing with milk and honey, De 8:8, so Ben Melech:
to eat the fruit thereof and the goodness thereof; of vineyards and oliveyards, which they had not planted, and for which they had never laboured, Jos 24:13:
but when ye entered ye defiled my land; which the Lord had chosen above all lands, where he would have a temple built for his worship, and where he would cause his Shechinah or glorious Majesty to dwell; but this they defiled by their sins and transgressions, and particularly by their idolatry, as follows:
that made mine heritage an abomination; by devoting it to the worship of idols, as the Targum paraphrases it.
Jeremiah 2:8
Ver. 8. The priests said not, where is the Lord?.... Whose business it was to draw nigh to God, and offer the sacrifices of the people, and inquire of God for them; whose lips should keep knowledge, and at whose mouth the law should be sought, they being the messengers of the Lord of hosts, Mal 2:7:
and they that handle the law knew me not; the sanhedrim, according to Jarchi; or the lawyers and scribes, the Rabbins and doctors of the law, whose business it was to read and explain it; these did not understand it, nor the mind of God in it; and much less did they know him in a spiritual and evangelical manner; or as he is in Christ, and revealed in the Gospel:
the pastors also transgressed against me; kings, as the Targum, Jarchi, and Kimchi interpret it, who were pastors or shepherds in a civil sense; whose business it was to feed the people as the shepherd does his flock; that is, to guide and govern them by wholesome laws, by the laws of God; but, instead of this, they rebelled against the Lord, and transgressed his commands:
and the prophets prophesied by Baal; in his name; pretending to be inspired by that idol, and to receive the spirit of prophecy from him:
and walked after things that do not profit; the gods of the Gentiles, which could not supply them with the least temporal blessing, and much less give them spiritual and eternal ones; see Jer 14:22. This is to be understood of false prophets, as Ben Melech.
Jeremiah 2:9
Ver. 9. Wherefore I will yet plead with you, saith the Lord,.... Either verbally, by reasoning with them, and reproving them for their ignorance, stupidity, and idolatry; or by deeds, inflicting punishment upon them; so the Targum,
"therefore I will take vengeance on you, or punish you, saith the Lord:''
and with your children's children will I plead; who imitate their parents, and do the same evil things as they, which the Lord knew they would; and was particularly true of the Jews in the times of Christ, for which reason wrath came upon them to the uttermost.
Jeremiah 2:10
Ver. 10. For pass over the isles of Chittim, and see,.... Or, "to the isles of Chittim" {z}; so called from Kittim the son of Javan, Ge 10:4 who, as Josephus says {a}, possessed the island of Chethima, now called Cyprus; and, from that, all islands, and most maritime places, are, by the Hebrews, called Chittim, he observes: it may regard all the islands in the Aegean and Mediterranean seas:
and send unto Kedar; which was in Arabia, and lay to the east, as Chittim to the west; and so the Targum paraphrases it,
"send to the provinces of the Arabians:''
and consider diligently, and see if there be such a thing; as what is inquired about in the following verse, a change of deities. All this is to be understood of the contemplation of the mind, and not of any corporeal journey to be taken, to inquire into this matter.
{z} Myytk yya wrbe eiv nhsouv Sept. "transite ad insulas Cethim", V. L. "ad insulas Cypriorum"; so some in Vatablus; "in insulas", Schmidt. {a} Antiqu. l. 1. c. 6. sect. 1.
Jeremiah 2:11
Ver. 11. Hath a nation changed their gods, which are yet no gods?.... Though they are not by nature gods which they worship, only nominal and fictitious deities, yet they did not change them for others; but when they once embraced the worship of them, continued therein; so did the Chittim, the inhabitants of the isles, who though they traded to distant countries, from place to place; and so the Kedarenes, who dwelt in tents, and fed cattle, and moved from one desert to another, and from one pasture to another, as Jarchi observes; yet they carried their gods with them, and did not exchange them for new ones where they came. The Jewish writers say {b}, that the Kedarenes worshipped water, and the Chittim fire; and though they knew that water would quench fire, yet the latter would not change their gods. Kimchi and Abendana relate it just the reverse, and say the Kedarenes worshipped fire, and the Chittim water, which is most likely; and so it is said elsewhere {c}.
But my people have changed their glory; the true God, who is glorious in himself, and whom they should have glorified, and have counted it their highest honour and glory that they knew him, and were the worshippers of him; yet they changed him, their glory, into the similitude of an ox that eateth grass, Ps 106:20, wherefore it is justly added,
for that which doth not profit; meaning Baal, and such like idols; see the note on Jer 2:8.
{b} T. Bab. Taanith, fol. 5. 2. {c} Yalkut Simeoni, par. 2. fol. 60. 3.
Jeremiah 2:12
Ver. 12. Be astonished, O ye heavens, at this,.... Meaning either the angels in heaven, or the heavens themselves, by a personification:
and be horribly afraid, be ye very desolate, saith the Lord; all which may be signified by storms and tempests, by thunder and lightning, and by the sun's withdrawing its light. This is said to aggravate the wickedness committed, as if the heavens blushed and were ashamed, and were confounded and amazed at it; and as if, on account of it, the Jews deserved not the benefit of the heavens, and the orbs in them.
Jeremiah 2:13
Ver. 13. For my people have committed two evils,.... Not but that they had committed more, but there were two principal ones they were guilty of, hereafter mentioned; and it was an aggravation of these crimes, that they were the professing people of God who had committed them: and it may be observed, that such sin; they are not without it, nor the commission of it; and may be left to fall into great sins, and yet remain his people; covenant interest cannot be dissolved; this should be considered not as an encouragement to sin, but as a relief under a sense of sin:
they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters; this is said of Christ, So 4:15, grace in him is compared to "water", it being cooling and refreshing, cleansing and fructifying; and to living water, because it quickens dead sinners, revives drooping saints, supports and maintains spiritual life, and issues in eternal life; and because it is perpetual and ever flowing; and to a "fountain", denoting that the original of it is in Christ, and the great abundance of it which is in him; it is as water in a fountain, in us as in streams: now to forsake this fountain is the first of these evils; which is done when the people of God are remiss in the exercise of faith on Christ; grow cold in their affections to him, and neglect his word and ordinances.
And hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water; this is the other evil; and such are the world, and the things in it, when cleaved unto, and rest and satisfaction are taken in them; the inventions and ordinances of men, when followed and attended to; moral duties, and evangelical services, when depended on; and even spiritual frames, when these are lived upon, and put in the room of Christ; yea, acts of faith, when they are rested in, and the object not so much regarded as should be: moreover, what may principally be intended are, in the first place, forsaking the worship of God, as the Targum interprets it, the assembling of themselves together to attend his service and ordinances, which is to forsake their own mercies; and, in the next place, following after idols, as the same paraphrase explains it, which have no divinity in them, and can yield no help and relief, or give any comfort, or afford any supply in time of distress and need. It is egregious folly to leave a fountain for a cistern, and especially a broken one: in a fountain the water is living, and always running, and ever springing up; not so in a cistern, and in a broken cistern there is none at all.
Jeremiah 2:14
Ver. 14. Is a servant?.... That he does not abide in the house, in his own land, but is carried captive, becomes subject to others, and is used as a slave; so the Targum,
"as a servant;''
is he not the Lord's first born? are not the people of called the children of the living God? how come they then to be treated not as children, as free men, but as servants? this cannot be owing to any breach of covenant or promise on God's part, or to the failure of the blessing of national adoption bestowed on them; but to some sin or sins of theirs, which have brought them into this miserable condition:
is he a home born slave? or born in the house, of the handmaid, and so in the power of the master of the family in whose house he was born,
Ex 21:4 or the sense is, either Israel is a servant,
or a son of the family {d}, as some render the words; not the former, being not only the son of a free woman, but Jehovah's firstborn; if the latter,
why is he spoiled? why is he delivered up to the spoilers? as the Targum; why should he be given up into the hands of the Babylonians, and become their prey? is it usual for fathers to suffer their children, or those born in their house, to be so used? some reason must be given for it.
{d} tyb dyly "filius familias", .
Jeremiah 2:15
Ver. 15. The young lions roared upon him, and yelled,.... Or, "gave out their voice" {e}; meaning the kings of the nations, as the Targum, Jarchi, and Kimchi explain it; and are to be understood of the kings of Assyria and Babylon, and particularly of Nebuchadnezzar; see Jer 50:17 compared to lions for their strength and cruelty; their "roaring" and "yelling design" the bringing forth of their armies against Israel, the noise of the battle, the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war, and the voice of the warrior:
and they made his land waste; all this is said as past, when it was yet to come, because of the certainty of it, and the sure accomplishment of these prophecies; for this respects the future desolation of the land of Israel at the Babylonish captivity:
his cities are burnt without inhabitant; not only Jerusalem was burnt with fire, Jer 52:13, but other cities in the land of Israel, so that they were not inhabited: or, "they were desolate or destroyed" {f} as the Septuagint version, so that none could dwell in them; and so the Targum,
"her cities are desolate, without inhabitant.''
Kimchi's father explains the word by wxmu, "budded", or brought forth herbs or plants; for desolate places bring up plants; where there is no inhabitant, grass grows.
{e} Mlwq wntn "dederunt vocem suam", Montanus, Pagninus; "edunt rocem suam", Schmidt. {f} htun, kateskafhsan, "desolatae sunt, [sive] destructae", Vatablus.
Jeremiah 2:16
Ver. 16. Also the children of Noph and Tahapanes,.... These were cities in . Noph is the same with Moph in Ho 9:6 and which we there rightly render Memphis; as Noph is here by the Targum, Septuagint, Vulgate Latin, Syriac, and Arabic versions; and was formerly, as Pliny {g} says, the palace of the kings of Egypt. It is the same that is now called Alcairo, or Grand Cairo. According to Herodotus {h}, it was built by Menes, the first king of ; and who also makes mention of a city of , called Momemphis {i}. Tahapanes is the same with Hanes in Isa 30:4, and here, in the Arabic version, is called Daphnes; and is thought by some to be the same with Daphnae Pelusiae, a city in . This Tahapanes was the metropolis of Egypt, and the seat of their kings; mention is made of Pharaoh's house in it, in Jer 43:9, now the inhabitants of these, called the children of them, and who are put for the people of Egypt in general, were the allies of the Jews, and in whom they trusted for help, when attacked by their enemies, Isa 30:2 and yet
even these have broken the crown of thy head; which is interpreted, by the Targum, of slaying their mighty men, and spoiling their goods; perhaps it had its accomplishment when Pharaohnecho king of Egypt came out against the king of Assyria, and Josiah king of Judah went out to meet him, and was slain by him at Megiddo; and his son Jehoahaz he put in bonds, and carried him to Egypt, and put his brother upon the throne, and took tribute of gold and silver of him, 2Ki 23:29.
{g} Nat. Hist. l. 5. c. 9. {h} L. 2. vel Euterpe, c. 99. {i} lb. c. 163, 169.
Jeremiah 2:17
Ver. 17. Hast thou not procured this unto thyself,.... All this desolation and destruction, both from the Egyptians and the Babylonians; their sin was the cause of it, their idolatry and forsaking the Lord their God, as follows: and so the Targum,
"is not this vengeance taken upon thee?''
that is, by the Lord, for their sins and transgressions; he suffered these nations to make them desolate on that account: to which agrees the Septuagint version, "hath not he done these things unto thee?" for what the Egyptians and Babylonians did were done by the will of the Lord, who suffered them for their correction: and the Arabic version renders it, "have not I done these things unto thee?" and the Syriac as a prophecy, as indeed so is the whole, "lo, so it shall be done to thee"; as is predicted in the foregoing verses, and that for the following reason:
in that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God; as in Jer 2:13,
See Gill on "Jer 2:13", that is, as the Targum interprets it, the worship of the Lord thy God, his service, his statutes, and his ordinances; and followed after idols, and the worship of them; which is aggravated by the circumstance of time in which this was done:
when he led thee by the way? who showed thee the right way, and thou walkedst not in it, as the Targum; the way in which they should have gone, the way of their duty, and his commandments; and which would have been pleasant and profitable to them, and secured them from ruin and destruction.
Jeremiah 2:18
Ver. 18. And now what hast thou to do in the way of ,.... By worshipping of idols, in imitation of them; or by sending ambassadors thither for help, when they had their Lord, their God, so nigh, had they not forsaken him; nor had Josiah any business to go out against Pharaohnecho, 2Ch 35:21 and, contrary to the express word of God by the Prophet Jeremy, did the Jews which remained in Judea go into Egypt,
Jer 42:19.
To drink the waters of Sihor? which is the river , as Jarchi interprets it. The Septuagint and Arabic versions render it "the waters of Geon", or "Gihon": and this also is the same with the , as Josephus {k} affirms, who says,
"Geon, which runs through , is the same which the Greeks call .''
So Jerom {l} from Eusebius,
"Geon is a river, which with the Egyptians is called .''
The Vulgate Latin version renders it, "troubled water"; and such were the waters of the , which had its name of Sihor from the blackness of it; and hence, by the Greeks {m}, was called Melas; and by the Latines {n}, Melo. Hence, as Braunius {o} observes, it was represented by a black stone, as other rivers by a white one; for which reason the black colour was very grateful to the Egyptians; and for the same reason Osiris, which is the very Nile itself, was reckoned black; and the ox Apis they worshipped was a black one, at least part of it, and was covered with black linen cloth; and its priests were also clothed in black, hence called Chemarim, Ho 10:5.
Or what hast thou to do in the way of Assyria; to go after their idolatrous practices, or to send to them for help; for this was the usual method of the Jews; when the Assyrians oppressed them, then they sent to Egypt for help; and when the Egyptians were upon them, then they applied to the Assyrians; and in both cases acted wrong, for they ought to have sought the Lord their God only:
to drink the waters of the river? of the river . The sense is, that they preferred the waters of the and of , or the gods of the Egyptians and Assyrians, or the help of these people, before the Lord, the fountain of living waters, and his worship and powerful help. The Targum paraphrases this last clause thus,
"why do ye make covenant with the Assyrian, to carry you captive beyond the river ?''
{k} Antiqu. l. 1. c. 1. sect. 3. {l} De locis Hebraicis, fol. 91. H. {m} Eustathius in Dionys. perihg {n} Servius in Virgil. Georg. l. 4. p. 343. & in Aeneid. l. 1. p. 541. {o} Selecta Sacr. l. 4. c. 9. p. 492, & l. 5. Exercit. 4. sect. 8. p. 700, 701.
Jeremiah 2:19
Ver. 19. Thine own wickedness shall correct thee,.... That is, either their wickedness in going to Egypt and Assyria, and the ill success they had in so doing might be an instruction to them to act otherwise, and a correction of their sin and folly; or that their wickedness was a reason, and a very just one, why they were chastened and corrected of the Lord:
and thy backslidings shall reprove thee; or be the cause why they were reproved of God; or their ill success in turning their backs on him, and going to the creature for help, was a severe rebuke of their sin and madness. The Targum is,
"I have brought afflictions upon thee, and thou hast not refrained from thy wickedness; and, because thou art not turned to the law, vengeance is taken on thee.''
Know therefore and see that it is an evil thing and bitter; or observe and take notice what evil and bitter things sin, particularly the forsaking of the Lord and his worship, brings upon persons; for not sin itself is meant, though that is exceeding sinful, and is a root of bitterness, however sweet it may be to the taste of a sinner, and produces bitter effects; but the punishment of sin is meant, or corrections and reproofs for it; which are evil things, as calamities, and captivity, and the like; and which are very ungrateful and disagreeable to flesh and blood; and yet men, going on in a course of sin, and forsaking the Lord, as it follows, are the cause of these things:
that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God; See Gill on "Jer 2:13", this is the source of all the evil and bitterness experienced by them:
and that my fear is not in thee, saith the Lord God of hosts; this was the reason of their forsaking the Lord, his ways and worship, because they had no reverence of him; his fear was not before their eyes, nor on their hearts; and both were the cause of evil coming upon them; so the Targum paraphrases the words,
"and know and see, for I have brought evil and bitterness upon thee, O Jerusalem, because thou hast forsaken the worship of the Lord thy God, and hast not put my fear before thine eyes, saith the Lord, the God of hosts.''
Jeremiah 2:20
Ver. 20. For of old time I have broken thy yoke, and burst thy bands,.... The yoke of the people, as the Targum expresses it, that was upon their necks, and the bands in which they were bound by them; referring to the deliverance of them of old from Egyptian bondage by the hands of Moses, and out of their several captivities among their neighbours by the means of the judges, and in their time; though the Vulgate Latin version renders it, "of old thou hast broken my yoke, and burst my bands"; or "thy yoke", and "thy bands", as the Septuagint and Arabic versions; the yoke of the law that the Lord put upon them, and the bands of statutes and ordinances which he enjoined them; but the former sense is best:
and thou saidst, I will not transgress; here is a double reading; the Cetib or writing is dwbea, "I will not serve"; which is followed by the Vulgate Latin, which so renders it; and by the Septuagint version, "I will not serve thee"; and which is the sense of the Arabic version, "I will not subject myself", that is, to the law and will of God; and so the Syriac version, though to a quite different sense, "I will serve no other god any more": which agrees with the Keri or reading, which is
rwbea, "I will not transgress"; and this is confirmed by the Targum, which paraphrases the words thus,
"and ye said, we will not add any more to transgress thy word;''
and by Jarchi and Kimchi, who interpret it of transgressing the words and commands of God; both have one and the same sense. For whether it be read, "I will not serve"; the meaning is, as Kimchi observes, "I will not serve idols"; or no other god, as the Syriac version: or whether, "I will not transgress"; that is, the command of the Lord, by serving other gods. Hillerus {p} reconciles the writing and reading after this manner, rendering dwbea al, "I will not serve", and
rwbea al, "I will not pass", to servitude; though, in another place {q} "I will not pass over", that is, the rivers of Tigris and Euphrates with the captives; and refers to Mic 1:11, but doubtless reference is had to the promise of obedience and service, which the Israelites made at Mount Sinai quickly after their deliverance out of Egypt, Ex 19:8, but this promise they did not keep: "when", or "for", or "but", or "although" {r},
upon every high hill, and under every green tree, thou wanderest, playing the harlot; that is, committing spiritual whoredom or idolatry with idols, set on high hills and mountains, and under green trees, groves, and shady places; going from one idol to another, as harlots go from one stew to another; or as whoremongers go from harlot to harlot.
{p} De Arcano Kethib & Keri, p. 27, 28. {q} Ib. p. 89, 90. {r} yk "nam", Vatablus, Pagninus, Montanus, Cocceius; "atqui", Calvin, Gataker; "quamvis", Piscator.
Jeremiah 2:21
Ver. 21. Yet I had planted thee a noble vine, wholly a right seed,.... It is usual to compare the people of the Jews to a vineyard, and to vines; and their settlement in the to the planting of vines in a vineyard; see Isa 5:1. Kimchi says this is spoken concerning Abraham; no doubt respect is had to the Jewish fathers, such as Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the twelve patriarchs, Moses, Joshua, and Caleb, and the like; who, having the true and right seed of grace in them, became like choice and noble vines, and brought forth much fruit, and were deserving of imitation by their posterity:
how then art thou turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine unto me? like a vine that grows in the woods, and brings forth wild grapes; so these, their sons, degenerating in practice from their fathers, became corrupt in themselves, and unprofitable to God. The Targum of the whole is,
"I set you before me as the plant of a choice vine, all of you doing truth; but how are you changed before me in your corrupt works? ye have declined from my worship, ye are become as a vine in which there is no profit.''
Jeremiah 2:22
Ver. 22. For though thou wash thee with nitre,.... The word rtn, "nitre", is only used in this place and in Pr 25:20 and it is hard to say what it is. Kimchi and Ben Melech observe, that some say it is what is called "alum"; and others that it is a dust with which they wash the head, and cleanse everything; and so Jarchi says it is a kind of earth used in cleaning garments; and "nitre" is mentioned by the Misnic doctors {s} among those things which are used for the washing of garments, and taking spots out of them; though about what it is they are not agreed; and it seems the nitre of the ancients is unknown to us {t}; and saltpetre is put in the room of it; and some render the word here "saltpetre"; and Pliny {u} observes, that nitre does not much differ from salt, and ascribes to it a virtue of eating out filth, and removing it; so Aristotle {w} reports of the lake Ascania; that its water is of such a nitrous quality, that garments, being put into it, need no other washing. Nitre has its name from rtn, "to loose", because it looses the filth, and cleanses from it:
and take thee much soap. The Septuagint render it, "herb"; and the Vulgate Latin version, "the herb borith"; which is the Hebrew word here used; and about the sense of which there is some difficulty. Kimchi and Ben Melech say some take it to be the same with what is called "soap"; so Jarchi; and others, that it is an herb with which they wash, the same that is called fullers' herb; but whether it is soap, or fullers' herb, or fullers' earth, as others, it is certain it is something fullers used in cleaning garments, as appear from Mal 3:2, where the same word is used, and fullers made mention of as using what is signified by it. It has its name from hrb, which signifies to "cleanse" and "purify". The sense is, let this backsliding and degenerate people take what methods they will to cleanse themselves from their sins, as by their ceremonial ablutions and sacrifices, which was the usual method they had recourse to, to purify themselves, and in which they rested:
yet thine iniquity is marked before me, saith the Lord God; or, "will retain its spots" {x} these remain; the filth is not washed away; the iniquity is not hid and covered; it appears very plain and manifest;
yea, shines like gold; or, "is gilded" {y}; as the word used signifies. It is of too deep a die to be removed by such external things; nothing but the blood of Christ can cleanse from sin, take away its filth, removes its guilt, and cover it out of the sight of God, so that it can be seen no more. The Targum is,
"for if you think to be cleansed from your sins, as they cleanse with nitre, or make white with "borith", or soap; lo, as the mark of a spot which is not clean, so are your sins multiplied before me, saith the Lord God.''
{s} Misn. Sabbat, c. 9. sect. 5. & Nidda, c. 9. sect. 6. & Maimon & Bartenora in ib. & in Misn. Celim, c. 10. sect. 1. {t} Schroder. Pharmacopoeia, l. 3. c. 23. p. 140. {u} Nat. Hist. l. 31. c. 10. {w} Opera, vol. 1, de Mirabil. p. 705. {x} "Maculas tamen retinebit iniquitas tua", Schmidt. {y} Mtkn "nitet, [vel splendet], instar anri", Piscator; "obducat se auro insigni", Junius & Tremellius; so Gussetius renders the word, "inaurari, auro ebduci"; and who rightly observes, that whatever is glided, or covered with gold, the more it is washed with nitre, or soap, the brighter it will appear; and so, whatever other methods are taken to wash away sin, but seeking for justification by the grace of God in Christ, it will be but the more manifest, Ebr. Comment. p. 410.
Jeremiah 2:23
Ver. 23. How canst thou say, I am not polluted,.... No man can say this; for all are defiled with sin; but this was the cast and complexion of these people in all ages; they were a generation of men that were pure in their own eyes, but were not cleansed from their filthiness; they fancied that their ceremonial washings and sacrifices cleansed them from moral impurities, when those only sanctified to the purifying of the flesh; still their iniquity remained marked before the Lord; they acted the part of the adulterous woman in Pr 30:20 to whom they are compared in the context; and, therefore, as wondering at their impudence, they having a whore's forehead, this question is put, how and with what face they could affirm this, and what follows:
I have not gone after Baalim? or, "the Baalim"; the idols of the people, as the Targum interprets it; for there were many Baals, as Baalzephon, Baalpeor, Baalzebub, and others:
see thy way in the valley; where idols were set up and worshipped; or through which the way lay, as Kimchi observes, to the hills and mountains where idolatry was frequently committed; perhaps no particular valley is meant, but any in which idols were worshipped, or which they passed through to the worshipping of them; though the Targum interprets it of the valley in which they dwelt, over against Baalpeor, so Jarchi and Abarbinel, when they worshipped that idol; and seems to design the valley of Shittim, Nu 25:1, but rather, if any particular valley is intended, the valley of Hinnom seems to bid fair for it; and to this it may be the Septuagint version has respect, rendering it en tw poluandriw, "in the sepulchre of the multitude"; multitudes being burnt and buried here:
know what thou hast done; in the valley, especially in the valley of Hinnom, where they caused their children to pass through the fire to Molech:
thou art a swift dromedary. The Targum, Jarchi, and Kimchi, interpret it a young camel; and so the word in the Arabic language signifies; and the epithet "swift" better agrees with that than with the dromedary. Curtius {z} makes mention of dromedary camels of great swiftness; but it may be this is to be understood, not of its swiftness in running, but of its impetuous lust, as Calvin observes; and, indeed, each of these creatures are very libidinous; and therefore these people are compared to them; See Gill on "Mic 1:13", it follows:
traversing her ways; running about here and there after the male, burning with lust, sometimes one way, and sometimes another; and so these people sometimes run after one idol, and sometimes another, and followed a multitude of them. The Targum renders it, "which corrupts or depraves her ways". De Dieu observes, that the word Krv, in the Ethiopic language, signifies "the evening"; and so may intend walking in the evening, in the dark, rather than in the light; which, as it is the way of dromedaries, and almost of all beasts, so of harlots, to whom these people are likened; and he further observes, that, in the Arabic language, it signifies to make common, which agrees with adulterous persons, as these were in a spiritual sense. The word is only used in this place, and is deduced from, or has some relation to, the word Kwrv, which signifies a "shoelatchet", Ge 14:23 as Jarchi and Kimchi observe; and may denote, as the shoe is bound and fastened with the latchet, the binding of her ways to her heart, as the former suggests, the strengthening and confirming of her in her evil ways, and her constant persisting therein; but the first sense of running here and there through lust is best; and is approved by Bynaeus {a} and by Buxtorf {b}.
{z} (Curtius) L. 5. c. 2. {a} De Calceis Heb. l. 1. c. 7. sect. 4. {b} Lex. Heb. rad. Krv.
Jeremiah 2:24
Ver. 24. A wild ass used to the wilderness,.... That is, one that has been brought up in the wilderness, and has been accustomed to live, and run, and range about there; as men in general are compared to this creature for its ignorance, stupidity, folly, stubbornness, and unteachableness, Job 11:12, so the Jewish people are represented as like unto it, for its wantonness and lust:
that snuffeth up the wind at her pleasure; draws it in at her nostrils, and snuffs it up; or opens her mouth, and takes it in with her breath; drinks it in, and swallows it up at her pleasure: or, "with the desire of her soul" {c}; it being grateful and delightful to her. Some read this clause in connection with htnat, rendered "in her occasion"; and differently translate it. The Targum takes it to have the signification of Mynt, "dragons"; or whales; and renders it,
"drinking the wind as a dragon;''
and so Jarchi, who compares it with Jer 14:6 "they snuffed up the wind like dragons"; and so the Syriac version, "thou hast drawn up the wind like a wild dog"; others render it, "gathering the wind of her occasion"; or, "of her meeting" {d}; taking it in, and snuffing it up, as she occasionally met with it in running. The Vulgate Latin version is, "she drew the wind of her love"; it is reported of the wild ass, that it can smell its mate afar off, and, by the wind it snuffs, knows where it is; for which purpose it runs up the hills and mountains to get the scent, which, when it has, its lust is so violent that there is no stopping of it till it comes to the place where its mate is: wherefore it follows,
in her occasion who can turn her away? when this violent fit is upon her, there is no turning her away from pursuing the enjoyment of it; which is expressive of the eager desire of the Jews after the worshipping of idols, how bent upon it, and not to be reclaimed from it:
all they that seek her will not weary themselves; knowing that they can not overtake her, or stop her in her career, or hinder her gratification of her lust. This may be understood either of those who sought to commit spiritual adultery or idolatry with the Jews, they need not weary themselves, being easy to be found by them; or of the prophets that sought to reclaim them, who, perceiving how stubborn, and untractable, and irreclaimable they were, would not weary themselves with their admonitions and reproofs, seeing they were in vain:
in her month they shall find her; not that this creature sleeps one whole month in a year, as Jarchi dreams, when it may be easily taken; but the sense is, that when it is with young, and in the last month, and so is heavy with its burden, it may easily be found and taken; so when the people of Israel should have filled up the measure of their iniquity, and the judgment of God was fallen and lay heavy upon them; then those that sought to return them from their evil ways might find them, and hope to succeed in reclaiming them, and bringing them to repentance; agreeably the Septuagint render it, "in her humiliation"; when chastised and humbled by the Lord for her sins. This is not to be understood of the month of Ab, in which Jerusalem was destroyed, both by Nebuchadnezzar and Titus; in which month the Jews are sure to be found confessing their sins, and humbling themselves, as Kimchi, Abarbinel, and Ben Melech interpret it; nor of the new moon, as others; at everyone of which, those who sought to join with them in idolatrous practices might be sure to find them at them.
{c} wvpn twab "in, [vel] pro desiderio animae suae", Pagninus, Montanus, Junius & Tremellius, Vatablus, Schmidt. {d} htnat xwr "ventum occasionis suae", Pagninus Montanus; "veatum occursus sui", Calvin.
Jeremiah 2:25
Ver. 25. Withhold thy foot from being unshod,.... That it may not be unshod, be naked and bare. The sense is, either, as some, do not take long journeys into foreign countries for help, as into Assyria and Egypt, whither they used to go barefoot; or wore out their shoes by their long journeys, and so returned without; or refrain from idolatry, as Jarchi interprets it, that thou mayest not go naked into captivity; or this is an euphemism, as others think, forbidding adulterous actions, showing the naked foot, the putting off of the shoes, in order to lie upon the bed, and prostitute herself to her lovers; and is to be understood of idolatry:
and thy throat from thirst; after wine, which excites lust; abstain from eager and burning lust after adulterous, that is, idolatrous practices; so the Targum,
"refrain thy feet from being joined with the people, and thy mouth from worshipping the idols of the people.''
The words are paraphrased in the Talmud {e} thus,
"withhold thyself from sinning, that thy foot may not become naked; (the gloss is, "when thou goest into captivity") refrain thy tongue from idle words, that thy throat may not thirst:''
this was said by the Lord, or by the prophets of the Lord sent unto them, to which the following is an answer:
but thou saidst, there is no hope; of ever being prevailed upon to relinquish those idolatrous practices, or of being received into the favour of God after such provocations: no; I will never refrain from them; I will not be persuaded to leave them:
for I have loved strangers; the strange gods of the nations:
and after them will I go; and worship them; so the Targum,
"I love to he joined to the people, and after the Worship of their idols will I go.''
{e} T. Bab. Yoma, fol. 77. 1.
Jeremiah 2:26
Ver. 26. As the thief is ashamed when be is found,.... Taken in the fact, or convicted of it; that is, as the Targum explains it, one that has been accounted faithful, and is found a thief; for, otherwise, those who have lost their character, and are notorious for their thefts and robberies, are not ashamed when they are found out, taken, and convicted:
so is the house of Israel ashamed: of their idolatry, or ought to be; or "shall be", as the Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic versions render it; though not now, yet hereafter, sooner or later:
they, their kings, their princes, and their priests and their prophets; all being guilty; kings setting ill examples, and the people following them; the priests being priests of Baal, and the prophets false ones.
Jeremiah 2:27
Ver. 27. Saying to a stock,.... "To a tree" {f}; to a piece of wood; that is, to an image made of it; so the Targum,
"they say to an image of wood;''
what follows:
thou art my father; ascribing that to the idol which belongs to God, who was their Father that made them, and upheld them, was the author of their beings, and the God of their mercies:
and to a stone; an image of stone:
thou hast brought me forth: into being; affirming it to be his former and maker; so the Targum,
"to that which is made of stone, thou hast created me:''
for they have turned their back unto me, and not their face; they turned their faces to images of wood and stone, and worshipped them; and they turned their backs upon the Lord, his worship and ordinances, and apostatized from him; which the Targum thus expresses,
"for they turned their backs on my worship, and did not put my fear before their faces:''
but in the time of their trouble; when any calamity befalls them, as famine, pestilence, sword, captivity, and the like:
they will say, arise, and save us; not that they will say so to their idols, but they will say so to the true God; for notwithstanding they worshipped idols in time of prosperity, forgetting God their Saviour; yet in adversity they are brought to their senses, and find that none but God can save them, and therefore apply to him; to which agrees the Targum,
"and in the time that evil comes upon them, they deny their idols, and confess before me, and say, have mercy on us, and save us.''
{f} Uel "ligno", V. L. Pagnanius, Montanus, Schmidt.
Jeremiah 2:28
Ver. 28. But where are thy gods that thou hast made thee?.... This is, or would be, the Lord's answer to them, what is become of your gods? why do not you apply to them for help in time of trouble? the gods that you have chosen for yourselves and worshipped; the gods, not that made you, but whom you yourselves have made:
let them arise, if they can save thee in the time of thy trouble; call upon them to arise, those statues of wood and stone, those lifeless and senseless images; let them rise off their seats, and move out of their places, if they can, and see whether they can save in a time of trouble and distress; for there is enough of them, if numbers will do:
for according to the number of thy cities are thy gods, O Judah; in imitation of the Heathens, who had not only in every country, but in every city and town, a different god, the patron and tutelar deity of the place; see 2Ki 17:29. The Septuagint and Arabic versions "add, according to the number of the ways, or streets, of ", they sacrificed to Baal; see Jer 11:13.
Jeremiah 2:29
Ver. 29. Wherefore will ye plead with me?.... Strive and contend, chide, murmur, and complain, when evil came upon them, as if the Lord dealt hardly with them, and as if they had never sinned against him; when their case would not bear to be brought into judgment and examined openly; what would they get by that but shame and disgrace?
ye all have transgressed against me, saith the Lord; high and low, rich and poor, great and small; men of all ranks, degrees, and character; kings, priests and prophets; and therefore ought not to contend with God, and charge him with injustice or unkindness, but themselves with folly and wickedness.
Jeremiah 2:30
Ver. 30. In vain have I smitten your children,.... Or, "for vanity" {g}; for vain speaking, for making vain oaths and vows; so it is explained in the Talmud {h}; but the sense is, that the rod of chastisement was used in vain; the afflictions that came upon them had no effect on them to amend and reform them; they were never the better for them:
they received no correction; or instruction by them; see Jer 5:3,
your own sword hath devoured your prophets; as Isaiah, Zechariah, and Uriah, who were sent to them to reprove and correct them, but they were so far from receiving their correction, that they put them to death; though Kimchi mentions it as the sense of his father, and which he approves of, that this is to be understood, not of the true prophets of the Lord, but of false prophets; wherefore it is said, "your prophets"; and they had no prophets but false prophets, whose prophecy was the cause of the destruction of souls, and this brought ruin upon the prophets themselves; and this sense of the words Jerom gives into; it follows:
like a destroying lion; that is, the sword of the Lord, according to the latter sense; the judgments of God, by which the people fall, and their false prophets with them, were like a lion that destroys and devours all that come near it. The Septuagint and Arabic versions add,
and ye were not afraid; which confirms what was before said, that chastisement and correction were in vain.
{g} awvl "propter vanitatem, [sive] vaniloquentiam", Vatablus. {h} T. Bab. Sabbat, fol. 32. 2. & Cetubot, fol. 72. 1.
Jeremiah 2:31
Ver. 31. O generation, see ye the word of the Lord,.... Take notice of it, consider it; or, hear it, as the Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic versions. Jarchi and Kimchi think {i} the pot of manna was brought out, and shown them, to be looked at by them, for the conviction of them, and confirmation of what follows:
have I been a wilderness unto ? no: the Israelites were plentifully supplied by him when in the wilderness, and since they were brought into a land flowing with milk and honey; so that they stood in need of nothing; they had a constant supply of all good things:
or a land of darkness? of misery, distress, and poverty; where no light of joy, comfort, and prosperity, is; a land that never sees the light, or enjoys the benefit of the sun, and so is barren and unfruitful; "a land of thorns", as the Septuagint version; or, "a desert and uncultivated land", as the Targum, and Syriac and Arabic versions. It may be rendered, "a land of the darkness of God" {k}; that is, of the greatest darkness, of thick and gross darkness, alluding to that in Egypt; as the flame of God, and mountains of God, So 8:6, as Ben Melech and Kimchi observe:
wherefore say my people, we are lords; and can reign without thee; or we have kings and princes, and have no need of thee, so Kimchi; but the word used seems to have another meaning, and to require another sense. The Targum is, "we are removed"; and the Vulgate Latin version, "we have gone back"; to which agrees the Jewish Midrash {l}, mentioned by Jarchi, and confirmed with a passage out of the Misna {m}, "we are separated from thee"; we have departed from thee, turned our backs on thee, have forsaken thee, and left thy ways and worship; and to do so was very ungrateful, when the Lord had so richly supplied them, that they had not lacked any good thing; and this sense agrees with what follows:
we will come no more unto thee? some render it, "we have determined" {n}; as having the same sense with the Arabic word, which signifies to "will" or determine anything; and then the meaning is, we are determined, we are resolved to come no more to thee, to attend thy worship and service any more; and so the Targum,
"we will not return any more to thy worship.''
{i} So Mechilta apud Yalkut in loc. {k} hylpam Ura "terra caliginis Dei", Gataker, Gussetius; "caliginis Jah", Montanus. {l} Midrash R. Tanchuma, apud Jarchi in loc. Vid. Yalkut Simeoni, in Ioc. {m} Misn. Trumot, c. 10. sect. 3. & Machshirin, c. 3. sect. 3. {n} wndr "voluimus non veniemus", &c, De Dieu; "decrevimus non veniemus", Cocceius.
Jeremiah 2:32
Ver. 32. Can a maid forget her ornaments,.... Which she has provided for her wedding day, and is then to wear, and which may be the next; such as ear rings, bracelets, and jewels, which are never out of her mind, and can scarce sleep for thinking of them, how richly she shall be adorned with them; wherefore it follows:
or a bride her attire? or, "her bindings" {o}; her knots about her head or breast. The word is rendered "head bands" in Isa 3:20 and here, by the Septuagint version, "her stomacher"; set with sparkling precious stones; see Isa 61:10, these things her heart being set upon, and priding herself with, cannot be forgotten by her, at least not long:
yet, my people have forgotten me days without number; which shows great stupidity and ingratitude; the Lord not being so much to them, from whom they had received so many favours, as the ornaments of a maid, and the attire of a bride, are to them.
{o} hyrwvq "fasciae suae", Tigurine version; "ligaminum suorum", , Calvin; "ligamentorum suorum", Piscator.
Jeremiah 2:33
Ver. 33. Why trimmest thou thy way to seek love?.... To seek the love, and gain the affections and esteem, of the idolatrous nations; as a lascivious woman dresses herself out in the best manner to excite the lust and move the affections of her lovers; and as Jezebel, who painted her face, and tired her head, 2Ki 9:30 or dressed it in the best manner, where the same word is used as here; so the Targum,
"why dost thou make thy way beautiful, to procure loves (or lovers) to be joined to the people?''
or the sense is, why art thou so diligent and industrious to make thy way, which is exceeding bad, look a good one, by sacrifices and ceremonies, oblations and ablutions, in order to seek and obtain my love and favour, which is all in vain? it is not to be gained by such methods:
therefore hast thou also taught the wicked ones thy ways; the wicked idolatrous nations, to whom they joined themselves; these they taught their ways of sacrificing, their rites, ceremonies, and superstitions; or, as Jarchi interprets it, thou hast taught thyself the worst way among them all; that is, thou hast used thyself to it: there is a double reading in this clause. The Cetib, or writing, is ytdml, "I have taught"; as if they were the words of God, saying, "wherefore I have taught"; or, "will teach"; that is, by punishing thee;
that thy ways are evil; or, as Kimchi explains it,
"I have taught thee by thy ways that they are evil, and evil shall come unto thee because of them.''
The Keri, or reading, is tdml, "thou hast taught"; which is confirmed by the Targum; and is followed by the Septuagint, Vulgate Latin, and other versions. It is by some rendered, "seeing thou hast taught others thy evil ways" {p}; not content to sin themselves, but taught others to do so, and yet would be thought good.
{p} "Quandoquidem etiam (alios) malas docuisti vias tuas", Noldius, p. 507. vid. No. 1998.
Jeremiah 2:34
Ver. 34. Also in thy skirts is found the blood of the souls of the poor innocents,.... Either of the innocent infants of poor persons, who were sacrificed to Moloch; or of the poor prophets of the Lord, whom they slew, because they faithfully reproved them for their sins; and the blood of those being found in their skirts is expressive of the publicness and notoriety of their sin, and also of the large quantity of blood shed, inasmuch as the skirts of their garments were filled with it, as if they had trod and walked in blood; see Isa 63:3.
I have not found it by secret search; or, "by digging" {q}; there was no need to dig for it; it lay above ground; it was upon their skirts, public enough: or, "in ditches", as the Septuagint and Vulgate Latin {r} versions; as when murders are privately and secretly committed; but these were done openly. Some read the words, "thou didst not find them with a digging instrument" {s}; so Jarchi interprets the words,
"you did not find them with a digging instrument, or in digging, when you slew them;''
you did not find them prepared as thieves to break up your houses, or digging down your walls, and breaking through into your houses, then you would have been justified by the law in slaying them, Ex 22:2, but this was not the case:
but upon all these; upon all their skirts, and not in ditches, or under ground; or, "for all these"; thou hast so done; not for their sins, for theft, or any other; but for their faithful reproofs and rebukes; so Jarchi, for all these words with which they reproved thee; or for all these, the idols on whose account, in the worship of them, the blood of the innocents was shed.
{q} trtxmb "in suffossione", Vatablus, Calvin, De Dieu; "effossione", Junius & Tremellius; "perfossione", Schmidt. {r} en diorugmasin, Sept. "in fossis", V. L. {s} "Cum perfossorio", Pagninus, Montanus; "sub. instrumento", Grotius; "terebro", Cocceius.
Jeremiah 2:35
Ver. 35. Yet thou sayest, because I am innocent,.... Or, "that I am innocent"; though guilty of such flagrant and notorious crimes, acting like the adulterous woman, Pr 30:20 to whom the Jews are all along compared in this chapter; which shows the hardness of their hearts, and their impudence in sinning:
surely his anger shall turn from me; the anger of God, since innocent; or, "let his anger be turned from me", as the Septuagint and Arabic versions; pleading for the removing of judgments upon the foot of innocency, which is pretended:
behold, I will plead with thee; enter into judgment with thee, and examine the case closely and thoroughly:
because thou sayest, I have not sinned; it would have been much better to have acknowledged sin, and pleaded for mercy, than to insist upon innocence, when the proof was so evident; nothing can be got by entering into judgment with God, upon such a foundation; and to sin, and deny it, is an aggravation of it: the denial of sin is a double sin, as the wise man says, whom Kimchi cites.
Jeremiah 2:36
Ver. 36. Why gaddest thou about so much to change thy way?.... Or, "by changing thy way" {t}; sometimes going one way, and sometimes another; sometimes to Egypt, and then to Assyria; seeking sometimes to the one for help, and sometimes to the other; at one time serving the gods of the one, in order to curry favour with them, and then the gods of the other, like a lascivious woman that gads about from place to place to increase her lovers, and satisfy her lust. The Vulgate Latin version is, "how exceeding vile art thou become, changing thy ways"; and so Jarchi says, the word ylzt signifies "contempt", or "vileness": deriving it from lwz, or llz, to be "vile" or "contemptible"; and to this sense are the Septuagint and Arabic versions; but Kimchi derives it from lza, to go; to which our version and others agree:
thou also shalt be ashamed of Egypt; as they were in the times of Jehoahaz and Jehoiakim, when Pharaohnecho king of Egypt took the former, and put him in bands, and carried him into Egypt; and set the latter upon the throne, and took tribute of him, for which the land was taxed, 2Ki 23:33
as thou wast ashamed of Assyria; in the times of Ahaz, who sent to the king of Assyria for help, when Judah was smitten by the Edomites, and invaded by the Philistines; but when he came to him, he distressed him, and strengthened and helped him not, 2Ch 28:16.
{t} Kykrd twnvl "mutando viam tuam", Vatablus, Piscator, Junius & Tremellius.
Jeremiah 2:37
Ver. 37. Yea, thou shalt go forth from him,.... From the Egyptian, without any help, and with shame; or, "from this" {u}; that is, from this place, from Jerusalem, and from the land of Judea, into captivity; notwithstanding all the promised and expected help from Egypt,
2Ki 24:7:
and thine hands upon thine head; plucking and dishevelling the hair, as women in distress; so Tamar, when abused by her brother, laid her hand on her head, and went out crying, 2Sa 13:19:
for the Lord hath rejected thy confidences; those in whom they trusted, as the Egyptians; so that they should be of no service to them; or them, because of their trust and confidence in men, when it ought to have been placed above in himself:
and thou shalt not prosper in them; or because of them, as Kimchi; but shalt go into captivity.
{u} hz tam "ab hoc, sub. loco", Gataker; "ab ista", , Grotius; "sub. terra, etiam hinc exibis", Cocceius.
John Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible.
Those who begin well, but do not persevere, will
justly be upbraided with their hopeful and promising beginnings.
Those who desert religion, commonly oppose it more than those
who never knew it. For this they could have no excuse. God's
spiritual Israel must own their obligations to him for safe conduct
through the wilderness of this world, so dangerous to the soul. Alas,
that many, who once appeared devoted to the Lord, so live that
their professions aggravate their crimes! Let us be careful that we
do not lose in zeal and fervency, as we gain knowledge. /V/HBC
748.2
Those who begin well, but do not persevere, will
justly be upbraided with their hopeful and promising beginnings. Those who desert religion, commonly oppose it more than those
who never knew it.
Let us be careful that we
do not lose in zeal and fervency, as we gain knowledge. /V/HBC
748.2
Sources: Matthew Henry; Gill's Exposition; Matthew Henry Concise
Commentary
Commentary