Jeremiah 13:17

But if ye will not hear it, my soul shall weep in secret places for your pride; and mine eye shall weep sore, and run down with tears, because the LORD's flock is carried away captive. HEAR IT - my exhortation. IN SECRET - as one mourning and humbling himself for their sin, not self-righteously condemning them (). YOUR PRIDE - (note, ; , "That He may ... hide pride from man"). FLOCK - () people; just as kings and leaders are called pastors....

The Prophet had indirectly threatened them; but yet there was some hope of pardon, provided the Jews anticipated God’s judgment in time and humbled themselves before him. He now declares more clearly that a most certain destruction was nigh at hand, _If ye will not hear, _he says, _weep will my soul in secret _But much weight is in what the Prophet intimates, that he would cease to address them, as though he had said, “I have not hitherto left off to exhort you, for God has so commanded me; but there will be no remedy, if ye as usual harden yourselves against what I teach you. There remains then nothing now for me, except to hide myself in some secret place and there to mourn; for my prophetic office among you is at an end, as ye are unworthy of such a favor from God.” He does not state simply, _If ye will not hear, _but he adds a pronoun, this, _If ye will not hear this, _or it: for the...

12-17 As the bottle was fitted to hold the wine, so the sins of the people made them vessels of wrath, fitted for the judgments of God; with which they should be filled till they caused each other's destruction. The prophet exhorts them to give glory to God, by confessing their sins, humbling themselves in repentance, and returning to his service. Otherwise they would be carried into other countries in all the darkness of idolatry and wickedness. All misery, witnessed or foreseen, will affect a feeling mind, but the pious heart must mourn most over the afflictions of the Lord's flock....

Verse Jeremiah 13:17. _MY SOUL SHALT WEEP IN SECRET PLACES_] If you will not hearken to the Lord, there is no remedy: destruction must come; and there is nothing left for me, but to go in secret, and mourn and bewail your wretched lot....

THE LORD’S FLOCK - The people carried away captive with Jeconiah formed the Jewish Church, as we are expressly told, whereas Zedekiah and the people of Jerusalem possessed only the externals of the Church and not its reality. It is for this reason that the seventy years’ exile counts from Jeconiah’s captivity....

EXPOSITION The chapter falls into two parts—the one describing a divinely commanded action of the prophet, symbolical of the approaching rejection of the Jewish people, the other announcing in literal language the ruin especially of the king and the queen-mother, and emphasizing the inveterate corruption which rendered such a blow necessary. The mention of the queen-mother (see Jeremiah 13:18) renders it probable that Jehoiachin is the king under whom the prophecy was composed. It is true that other kings besides Jehoiachin ascended the throne in the lifetime of their mother; but the express and repeated mention of the queen-mother in the account of Jehoiachin (2 Kings 24:12, 2 Kings 24:15; comp....

BUT IF YE WILL NOT HEAR IT,.... The advice and exhortation now given, to repent of sin, be humble before God, and glorify him: MY SOUL SHALL WEEP IN SECRET PLACES FOR YOUR PRIDE; he would no more act in a public character; but, laying aside his office as a prophet and public instructor, would retire to some corner, where he might not be seen or heard, and there lament the sins of the people, particularly their "pride", which had been the cause of their ruin; or mourn on account of their glory and excellency, as the word may be rendered, which would depart from them; their city and temple would be burnt; and their king, princes, and nobles, and the flower of the nation, carried into Babylon; so the Jews a interpret it of the glory of Israel, which should cease from them, and be given to the nations of the world; Jeremiah 13:9; mine eyes shall

CHAPTER 13 Signs, Warnings, and Exhortations _ 1. The linen girdle and the filled bottles (Jeremiah 13:1) _ 2. Hear and give glory (Jeremiah 13:15) 3. The justice of the judgment (Jeremiah 13:22) Jeremiah 13:1. The prophet enacts a sign, that of the linen girdle. After he had put on the girdle, he was told to hide it in a hole of the rock of the Euphrates. After many days, he was commanded to dig for the girdle. It was found marred and profitable for nothing. Was this only a vision, or did the prophet actually make the long journey to the Euphrates and then repeat it after many

ISRAEL'S PRIDE. The prophet warns against the arrogancy that persistently refuses to obey (_i.e._ give glory to; _cf._ 1 Samuel 6:5) Yahweh, and compares the disobedient with travellers on mountain paths, who wait vainly in the twilight for light, until the night falls (Jeremiah 13:16 _mgg)._ He is filled with grief at their coming captivity....

MY SOUL. Me (emphatic). Hebrew. _nephesh._ App-13. Figure of speech _Anthropopatheia._ WEEP... WEEP SORE... RUNDOWN. Figure of speech _Anabasis._ App-6. RUN DOWN, &C. Compare Matthew 26:38; Luke 19:41. See App-85....