JEREMIAH CHAPTER 2 God's numerous and continued mercies render the Jews in their idolatry inexcusable, and unparalleled in any nation; and themselves the causes of their calamities, JEREMIAH 2:1. Their gross idolatry, JEREMIAH 2:20; incorrigibleness, blood-shedding, and hypocrisy, JEREMIAH 2:29. Now... [ Continue Reading ]
Go, viz. from Anathoth to Jerusalem. CRY IN THE EARS; proclaim it so that they may hear it. OF JERUSALEM; declare God's will to the inhabitants thereof; a metonymy of the subject. THUS SAITH THE LORD; the prophet's usual form of words in this book, whereby he frequently intimates that he came with G... [ Continue Reading ]
ISRAEL WAS HOLINESS, or HOLY, the abstract for the concrete, i.e. a people dedicated to God; thus the word is used LEVITICUS 21:7, LEVITICUS 27:14; set apart from other people for myself by peculiar laws and rites. AND THE FIRST-FRUITS OF HIS INCREASE: this supplement AND is better left out, it bein... [ Continue Reading ]
HEAR YE THE WORD OF THE LORD: he bespeaks their attention to what he is about to speak, as unto the word of the Lord, telling them that he deliver's God's message, and vents not his own passions: the like ISAIAH 1:10, and elsewhere frequently, both in the Old and New Testament, as 1 CORINTHIANS 11:2... [ Continue Reading ]
God having, as it were on his own behalf, shown how kind he had been, calls upon them to speak now, if they knew any thing of injury, either in breach of covenant or severity, that they can charge him with, that they have thus apostatized. SEE POOLE ON "ISAIAH 1:18"; SEE POOLE ON "ISAIAH 5:3": compa... [ Continue Reading ]
NEITHER SAID, i.e. with themselves, thought not. BROUGHT US UP: the expression may have some respect to the situation of the place, as lying lower than Canaan; but the design is to reprove their sloth and stupidity, charging herein their apostacy, not upon their ignorance, but wilfulness; their deli... [ Continue Reading ]
PLENTIFUL COUNTRY, Heb. LAND OF CARMEL, ISAIAH 29:17; understand Canaan, NUMBERS 13:27: SEE POOLE ON "ISAIAH 35:2". TO EAT THE FRUIT THEREOF AND THE GOODNESS; to enjoy all the blessing of it. MY LAND, i.e. consecrated to my name, LEVITICUS 25:23; and this you have defiled by going a whoring after yo... [ Continue Reading ]
THEY THAT HANDLE THE LAW KNEW ME NOT: q.d. They that should have taught others knew as little as they, or regarded as little to know, HOSEA 4:6, who are said here to handle or teach the law, viz. the priests and Levites, who Were the ordinary teachers of the law; not that they did so, but that eithe... [ Continue Reading ]
I WILL YET PLEAD WITH YOU: this is to be understood either really, by his judgments, PSALMS 74:22, and that with great severities; or verbally, he will go on to deal with them, to convince them by his prophets, as he did with their fathers, that they may be left without excuse, JEREMIAH 7:25,26. WIT... [ Continue Reading ]
THE ISLES OF CHITTIM; a synecdochical expression, extending to all isles in the Mediterranean Sea, or any other the neighbouring coasts; for the Hebrews call all people that are separated from them by the Mediterranean Sea islanders, because they come to them by shipping. See of Chittim, ISAIAH 23:1... [ Continue Reading ]
HATH A NATION CHANGED THEIR GODS? q.d. No, they are unmovable and fixed to their idols, although they are false gods; what they receive from their fathers they tenaciously hold. THEIR GLORY, viz. the true God, who was their glory; a metonymy of the adjunct, PSALMS 106:20; and who always did them goo... [ Continue Reading ]
BE ASTONISHED, O YE HEAVENS; angels, say some, but rather the visible heavenly bodies; a pathetical expression in a poetical prosopopoeia, as DEUTERONOMY 4:26, DEUTERONOMY 32:1, intimating that it is such a tiring that the very inanimate creatures, could they be sensible of it, would be astonished.... [ Continue Reading ]
COMMITTED TWO EVILS, viz. remarkable ones, and with a witness. LIVING WATERS; a metaphor taken from springs, called living here, and GENESIS 26:19, and elsewhere, because they never cease or intermit; such had God's care and kindness been over and to them; see on ISAIAH 58:11; his Spirit continually... [ Continue Reading ]
IS ISRAEL A SERVANT? IS HE A HOME-BORN SLAVE? did I ever account him so? or did I not rather always reckon him my first-born? so some, as JEREMIAH 2:31. But it may better relate to his sad condition and abuses from others, as JEREMIAH 49:1, which God or the prophet doth here inquire into; and slave... [ Continue Reading ]
THE YOUNG LIONS; understand the Assyrians, Babylonians, and Egyptians, &c., called LIONS from their fierceness, and young from their strength. See this JEREMIAH 4:7, JEREMIAH 50:17. ROARED UPON HIM, AND YELLED; noting the terrible voice that the lion puts forth, either in the seizing the prey, some... [ Continue Reading ]
NOPH AND TAHAPANES; two of the king of Egypt's principal seats. Concerning _Noph_, sometimes called Memphis, now Cairo, see on ISAIAH 19:13. Concerning _Tahapanes_, see EZEKIEL 30:18, probably taking its name from Tahpenes, queen of Egypt, 1 KINGS 11:19; called also _Hanes_: SEE POOLE ON "ISAIAH 30:... [ Continue Reading ]
HAST THOU NOT PROCURED THIS UNTO THYSELF? here God by his prophet shows that they may thank themselves for all that is hastening upon them. See NUMBERS 32:23. IN THAT THOU HAST FORSAKEN THE LORD: here he shows wherein, viz. in forsaking God: not that he left them, but they him, and that without any... [ Continue Reading ]
WHAT HAST THOU TO DO IN THE WAY OF EGYPT? what business hast thou there? or what dost thou expect from thence? or what need hast thou to go or send messengers thither, if thou wouldst but keep close to me? SIHOR, viz. Nilus; it signifies black, from whence called Melas by the Greeks, either from the... [ Continue Reading ]
THINE OWN WICKEDNESS SHALL CORRECT THEE: the meaning is either, 1. There need no further evidence against thee than thine own evil courses, HOSEA 5:5. Or rather, might correct thee, i.e. one would think should be sufficient to reclaim thee: see HOSEA 2:7. Or, 2. Thy own wickedness is the cause of... [ Continue Reading ]
OF OLD TIME I HAVE BROKEN THY YOKE, i.e. the bondage and tyranny that thou wert under in old time in Egypt, as also divers times besides, as appears through the Book of Judges. The Hebrew elam, that signifies everlasting, is sometimes used for a long time to come, and also for a long time past; so h... [ Continue Reading ]
A NOBLE VINE; a usual metaphor for the church, PSALMS 80:8,9, &c. SEE POOLE ON "ISAIAH 5:1". The Hebrew is _Sorek_, and may refer to the place or to the plant. With reference to the place, it may be taken either for a proper name, as Carmel for any fruitful place; so here noting either the place whe... [ Continue Reading ]
Though interpreters do greatly vary. in describing what is particularly meant here by NITRE AND SOAP, and it would be superfluous to mention here; yet all agree they are some materials that artists make use of for the cleansing away spots from the skin, clothes, or other things; and the sense is pla... [ Continue Reading ]
HOW CANST THOU SAY? with what face canst thou go about to excuse thyself, or deny what is so evident, and so truly charged upon thee? JEREMIAH 2:20. I HAVE NOT GONE AFTER BAALIM: the word is plural, as comprehensive of all their idols, HOSEA 11:2, and is a name usually given to several of them, as B... [ Continue Reading ]
A WILD ASS; or, _O wild ass_; another similitude for the more lively description of the same thing; neither need we be solicitous about the variety or extravagancies of conjectures about this beast; or you may consult as before. It is said to be wild and untamed, as being USED TO THE WILDERNESS doth... [ Continue Reading ]
WITHHOLD THY FOOT FROM BEING UNSHOD; good counsel given them by the prophet to tarry at home; either that they do not go a gadding after their spiritual or corporal adulteries, or seek foreign aids, thereby to wear out their shoes; a metonymy of the effect, JOSHUA 9:13: or, that thou put not off thy... [ Continue Reading ]
ASHAMED WHEN HE IS FOUND; not ashamed of his sin of theft, but that he is found, that his shifts and blinds would serve him no longer, especially if he have had the reputation of an honest man. THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL; or families, the twelve tribes; a metonymy of the subject. ASHAMED; or, confounded, i... [ Continue Reading ]
A STONE; idol; a metonymy of the matter, because idols are made of these materials, DANIEL 5:4. BROUGHT ME FORTH; or, begotten me; so is the word used, GENESIS 4:18. This notes the sottish stupidity of this people, to take a lifeless stock or stone to be their maker, and to give the honour of God un... [ Continue Reading ]
THY GODS; thy idols, viz. gods of thy own making; what do they do for thee? ISAIAH 31:3. LET THEM ARISE: either by way of challenge, let them produce their idols now, to help them, if they can, whom they call their fathers and their makers; or by way of scoff, as Elijah to Baal's priests: see JUDGES... [ Continue Reading ]
WHEREFORE WILL YE PLEAD WITH ME? YE ALL: q.d. You are all at my mercy, why will you contend? all this that I charge you with is clear and evident, and all makes against you, JEREMIAH 2:23,34. Wherefore do you expostulate, and put me to my proofs? This they were good at, JEREMIAH 16:10. There is noth... [ Continue Reading ]
YOUR CHILDREN; either your posterity, that you breed up like yourselves; or rather, your inhabitants in every city, they being frequently called the children of such a city, or such a place: _children of Seir_, 2 CHRONICLES 25:14, _children_, of the province, EZRA 2:1, and _children of thy people_,... [ Continue Reading ]
O GENERATION; or, O ye men of this generation, a note of admiration; or rather, O generation, a note of compellation: it is to you I speak, SEE YE THE WORD OF THE LORD, i.e. look well to it, consider it; as the rod is to teach, and therefore ought to be heard, MICAH 6:9, so the word is to be conside... [ Continue Reading ]
CAN A MAID FORGET HER ORNAMENTS? how seldom is it, and how unlikely, that a maid should forget her ornaments! OR A BRIDE HER ATTIRE? whether it belongs to the head, or the breast, or arms, whether bracelets or jewels, wherever worn, is not worth the disputing; but understand those rich jewels which... [ Continue Reading ]
WHY TRIMMEST, or _deckest_, EZEKIEL 23:40, thinking thereby to entice others to thy help? thus is the word used, JEREMIAH 4:30. Or, Why dost thou use so much art and skill, and take so much pains, to go and send here and there to contract a friendship with foreign people, and to bring them to thy em... [ Continue Reading ]
IN THY SKIRTS, viz. of thy garments; a synecdoche of the kind; the tokens of thy cruelty may be seen openly there: or, in _thy hands_, as the LXX.: or a metaphor from birds of rapine, whose wings are bloody with their prey; but not so well. _Is found the blood of the souls of the poor innocents_, i.... [ Continue Reading ]
YET THOU SAYEST; or interrogatively, Darest thou say? hast thou the impudence to affirm it? INNOCENT; clear of this whole charge. _Shall turn_; shall not break out against me, ISAIAH 5:25. I WILL PLEAD WITH THEE; I will proceed in my judgment against thee, JEREMIAH 2:9 JEREMIAH 25:31. Or it is a sof... [ Continue Reading ]
THY WAY, i.e. thy actions; a metaphor. SEE POOLE ON "JEREMIAH 2:33". Why dost thou shuffle thus with me, to seek auxiliaries any where, rather than to cleave to me, JEREMIAH 2:18; SEE POOLE ON "ISAIAH 52:9", SEE POOLE ON "ISAIAH 52:10". Or, like strumpets, whose love is never fixed, but sometimes se... [ Continue Reading ]
THOU SHALT GO FORTH FROM HIM: some apply it to the sad and ineffectual return of the ambassadors, being disappointed in their expectation from the king of Egypt; but rather, All the help thou canst procure from abroad shall not prevent thy captivity, but from hence thou shalt go. THINE HANDS UPON TH... [ Continue Reading ]