_Then said the Lord unto me_, &c. This is the Lord's answer to the fervent prayers of Jeremiah, contained in the last four verses of the preceding chapter. _Though Moses and Samuel stood before me_ By prayer or sacrifice to reconcile me to them; _yet my mind could not be toward this people_ Yet I co... [ Continue Reading ]
_If they say unto thee, Whither shall we go forth?_ If they ask thee what thou meanest by going forth, and whither they shall go: _thou shalt tell them, Such as are for death to death_, &c. In general, You shall go forth, saith God, to ruin and destruction; but shall not be all destroyed in one and... [ Continue Reading ]
_Thou hast forsaken me, thou art gone backward_ God here, by more expressions of the same import with many that we have before met with, declares his steady resolution to destroy them for their apostacy from him; and represents himself as an angry prince or parent, that had frequently been provoked... [ Continue Reading ]
_Their widows are increased above the sand of the seas_ A hyperbolical expression. The prophet still speaks of things to come as if present. In Jehoiakim's time we read of no great number of widows, but they were exceedingly multiplied when the city was besieged and taken in Zedekiah's time. _I have... [ Continue Reading ]
_She that hath borne seven languisheth Seven_ is put for many, (see 1 Samuel 2:5,) and the multitude of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the mother-city, is here alluded to; the prophet pursuing the metaphor of the former verse, and describing the mother-city under the figure of a woman that had been f... [ Continue Reading ]
_Wo is me, my mother_ The prophet here complains of the opposition he met with from his countrymen for speaking unwelcome truths. _Thou hast borne me a man of contention to the whole earth_ Or, _whole land_, rather. I am the object of common hatred; every body takes occasion to quarrel with me, beca... [ Continue Reading ]
_Shall iron break the northern iron?_ The northern iron is the hardest of any. “It is here,” says Blaney, “justly supposed to denote, in a primary sense, that species of hardened iron, or steel, called in Greek χαλυψ, from the Chalybes, a people bordering on the Euxine sea, and consequently lying to... [ Continue Reading ]
Here God turns his speech from the prophet to the people. _Thy substance and thy treasures will I give to the spoil_ All thy riches and precious things shall be spoiled: there shall be no price taken for the redemption of them. _For all thy sins in all thy borders_ All parts of the country, even tho... [ Continue Reading ]
_O Lord, thou knowest_ Thou knowest my sincerity, how faithfully I have declared thy will: or, thou knowest my sufferings, how wickedly my enemies act toward me. It is matter of comfort to us, that, whatever befalls us, we have a God to go to, before whom we may spread our case, and to whose omnisci... [ Continue Reading ]
_I sat not in the assembly of the mockers_ Or, _of those that make merry_, as משׂחקים is elsewhere rendered: see Jeremiah 30:19; Jeremiah 31:4. Jeremiah soon found that the joy which he had conceived in being called to the prophetic office, and favoured with extraordinary communications from God, wa... [ Continue Reading ]
_Therefore thus saith the Lord_ In these verses we have God's gracious answer to the preceding expostulation. Though the prophet betrayed much human frailty in his address, yet God vouchsafed to answer him with good and comfortable words, for he knows our frame. _If thou return_ Namely, from thy dif... [ Continue Reading ]