Jeremiah had already prophesied against the Jews, who had taken refuge in Egypt, as though there would be for them in that rich and almost unassailable land a safe and quiet retreat. But he now speaks against them for another reason, and denounces on them something more grievous than before, even be... [ Continue Reading ]
He now begins with reproof, because they were so stupid as not to remember the vengeance which God had executed on themselves and on the whole nation. They had been left alive for this end, that they might acknowledge God’s judgment, and thus return to a right mind. Here, then, the Prophet upbraids... [ Continue Reading ]
He afterwards adds, _For the evil which they did to provoke _me. He refers to the sins by which the Jews had provoked the wrath of God; for the people whom Jeremiah addressed had relapsed into those superstitions which had been the cause of their ruin. Had the Prophet spoken generally and said, that... [ Continue Reading ]
Now follows a circumstance by which their impiety was still further enhanced, that God had _sent _them Prophets who stretched forth their hands to them to draw them from their errors. For had they never been warned, their condemnation would have been just; for God had once shewn to them by his Law w... [ Continue Reading ]
And he adds, _But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear to turn from their wickedness, to burn no incense to alien gods _Here God charges the Jews with irreclaimable obstinacy, for the teaching of the Law did not retain them in obedience, nor did they attend to it, though often and at different... [ Continue Reading ]
Now he adds, _On this account has my wrath and my fury been poured forth, and has burned through the cities of Judah, and through the streets of Jerusalem; and this day they are a waste and a desolation _The word שממה, _shimme, _sometimes means amazement, as it has been before stated; but when it is... [ Continue Reading ]
He then adds, _Why then do ye now this great evil against your own souls, to cut off from you man and woman, child and suckling, _from the midst of Judah, _that nothing may remain for you? he _re at length the passage is finished; for what we have hitherto read would have kept the reader in suspense... [ Continue Reading ]
I was in the last Lecture obliged to cut short the subject of the Prophet; for this verse depends on the foregoing, and is to be read together with it. The Prophet asked why the Jew’s willingly cut off from themselves every hope of safety, and were seeking their own ruin. He now expresses the matter... [ Continue Reading ]
The Prophet now sets forth how extremely shameful was the insensibility of the Jews, in not acknowledging that God had most severely and grievously punished the superstitions to which they had previously been addicted. At the same time, if we regard the word used, he seems not to understand punishme... [ Continue Reading ]
He afterwards mentions how great had been the perverseness of that people, _They are not humbled, _he says, _to this day, _though they had been most severely smitten by the rods of God. Even fools, when smitten, become wise, as the old proverb says. As the Jews then had been so grievously chastised... [ Continue Reading ]
He again denounces punishment on the obstinate; nor is it a wonder that these threatenings were so often repeated, since he had to do with men so ferocious and refractory. The reason then why he denounced on them God’s judgment, was because they boldly derided him; and it will become more evident fr... [ Continue Reading ]
And first, indeed, the Prophet briefly shews that all those would perish who had yet falsely imagined that they could not otherwise be safe than by fleeing into Egypt. Then Jeremiah here reproves and condemns their false and vain confidence. And then he explains the manner when he says, _I will take... [ Continue Reading ]
He confirms in this verse what he had said in the last, that he would again take vengeance on impiety, as he had done previously. The Jews were before visited with a very grievous calamity, when inebriated with prosperity; but now, when God would have shaken from off them their torpor, the Prophet j... [ Continue Reading ]
The Prophet seems to be inconsistent with himself; for at the beginning of the verse he says that there would be no residue, but at the end he adds an exception, that there would be few alive, who would flee, and, by some miracle, escape from death. Some take this view, that none of the ungodly desp... [ Continue Reading ]
Here is more fully seen the irreclaimable obstinacy of that nation; for Jeremiah had given them more than sufficient evidences of his integrity. They ought then to have been fully convinced that he was a true Prophet of God. Though they had disregarded him for forty years and more, he had yet given... [ Continue Reading ]
We see, in short, that God’s Prophet was rejected; and yet there is no doubt but the Jews pretended some religion, but they did not think that they were bound to obey the command of man. And whence was this contempt? even from nothing but perverseness; for however hypocrites may dissemble and say th... [ Continue Reading ]
Here they shew more openly their obstinacy; for having said that they had no faith in Jeremiah, as he had not been sent by God, they now add that they would indeed be the worshippers of God, but according to their own will. We have here discovered to us the fountain of all superstitions. This passag... [ Continue Reading ]
Here he enlarges on their ingratitude, that they attributed to God the fault of all their calamities, when yet God would have drawn them, as the Prophet will hereafter tell us, as it were out of darkness into light, had they been reclaimable. They ought to have been restored, by punishments, to thei... [ Continue Reading ]
They brought forward another argument, that they were not a small portion, but the whole people, who then flourished in prosperity, when they offered incense to idols. We know that but a few remained of that large multitude, which lived when the kingdom as yet existed. They said then that they were... [ Continue Reading ]
The Prophet refutes the impious objections by which the Jews had attempted to subvert and to render contemptible his doctrine, he then turns against them all that they had falsely boasted. They had at the beginning said, _“Our kings, _our _princes, _and our _fathers, _had before used these rites; an... [ Continue Reading ]
_The incense, _he says, _which ye have burnt in the cities of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem, ye and your fathers, your kings, and your princes, and the whole people of the land, has not Jehovah remembered them? _Whence, he says, has this dreadful calamity proceeded, which has destroyed all your... [ Continue Reading ]
And hence he adds, _Jehovah could not endure the wickedness of your works and the abominations which ye have done: therefore, _he says, _your land has been reduced to a waste _The Prophet, in short, shews that had they not been justly exposed to God’s judgment, they would not have been destroyed. Fo... [ Continue Reading ]
He at length explains more clearly, in other words, the same thing, on _account of your incense, _he says, _and because ye have done wickedly, _etc. By naming incense especially, stating a part for the whole, he refers to all false and corrupt modes of worship, as it was stated yesterday; but he dec... [ Continue Reading ]
Jeremiah pursues the same subject, and not only bitterly reproves the ungodly men who so pertinaciously despised his doctrine, but also shews that they could gain nothing by their audacity, because they would at length be violently broken down, as they could not bear to be corrected, he says at the... [ Continue Reading ]
_Hear ye now, _he says, _the word of Jehovah, etc_. By these words, as I have already hinted, he intimates, that they could gain nothing by their insolence, except that they would thereby provoke God, who on the other hand did set up his own power against them. _Thus, _then, _saith Jehovah, _Behold,... [ Continue Reading ]
Here he more dearly expresses what he had said in the last verse, that none of the Jews would remain alive in Egypt. He now then points out the manner, even because he would not cease to consume them until they wholly perished and were brought to final ruin. He had said, No _more shall my name be ca... [ Continue Reading ]
He at length adds that a few would escape. He had said before, (Jeremiah 44:14) that there would be none, but added at the end of the verse, _“but _such as shall escape.” We said that this second clause is to be explained of the Jews who had been driven into exile in Babylon. But if it be applied to... [ Continue Reading ]
Jeremiah seals his prophecy by adding a sign which yet was to be coincident with it. It was not then, as they say, a premonstrative sign. And doubtless the Jews were wholly unworthy that God should shew them anything extraordinary; but this sign was only added, that they might know that they in vain... [ Continue Reading ]
This sign then had a reference to what was future. But the sign given to Moses was retrospective, for the people more clearly saw that God had _been _their deliverer, because it had been predicted to Moses when yet in the desert that the Israelites would come there; and that place, even Mount Sinai,... [ Continue Reading ]