Jeremiah 13:7

_THEN I WENT TO EUPHRATES, AND DIGGED, AND TOOK THE GIRDLE FROM THE PLACE WHERE I HAD HID IT: AND, BEHOLD, THE GIRDLE WAS MARRED, IT WAS PROFITABLE FOR NOTHING._ NO JFB COMMENTARY ON THESE VERSES....

The Prophet, by saying that he went to the Euphrates, confirms what he had narrated: he did not indeed mean that he actually went there, but his object was to give the Jews a vivid representation. It is then what Rhetorians call a scene presented to the view; though the place is not changed, yet the thing is set before the eyes by a lively description. (71) Thus the Prophet, as the Jews were deaf, exhibited to their view what they would not hear. This is the reason why he says that he _went. _For the same purpose is what follows, that at _the end of many days _God had bidden him to take out the _girdle _Here also is signified the length of the exile. As to the _hole in a rock, _what is meant is disgrace; for without honor and esteem the Jews lived in banishment, in the same manner as though they were cast into a cavern. Hence by the hole is signified their ignoble and base condition, tha...

1-11 It was usual with the prophets to teach by signs. And we have the explanation, ver. Jeremiah 13:9. The people of Israel had been to God as this girdle. He caused them to cleave to him by the law he gave them, the prophets he sent among them, and the favours he showed them. They had by their idolatries and sins buried themselves in foreign earth, mingled among the nations, and were so corrupted that they were good for nothing. If we are proud of learning, power, and outward privileges, it is just with God to wither them. The minds of men should be awakened to a sense of their guilt and danger; yet nothing will be effectual without the influences of the Spirit....

Verse Jeremiah 13:7. _AND BEHOLD, THE GIRDLE WAS MARRED; IT WAS PROFITABLE_ _FOR NOTHING._] This symbolically represented the state of the Jews: they were corrupt and abominable; and God, by sending them into captivity, "marred the pride of Judah, and the great pride of Jerusalem," Jeremiah 13:9....

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....

THEN I WENT TO EUPHRATES,.... In a vision; this is the second journey, of which Jeremiah 13:5, AND DIGGED; the hole, in process of time, being stopped up with soil or sand, that were thrown up over it; this digging was in a visionary way; see Ezekiel 8:8: AND TOOK THE GIRDLE FROM THE PLACE WHERE I HAD HID IT; which he knew again by some token or another: AND, BEHOLD, THE GIRDLE WAS MARRED; or "corrupted" q; it was become rotten by the washing of the water over it, and its long continuance in such a place: IT WAS PROFITABLE FOR NOTHING; it could not be put upon a man's loins, or be wore any more; nor was it fit for any other use, it was so sadly spoiled and so thoroughly rotten. It is in the Hebrew text, "it shall not prosper to all

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

THE SYMBOL OF THE WAIST-CLOTH, its removal signifying the rejection and ruin of Judah, as a consequence of her disobedience. The prophet buys and wears a linen waist-cloth, not yet put in water, as a declaration of Yahweh's adoption of His people into closest intimacy. The prophet then removes it, and buries it in a rocky cleft where it is spoilt by damp, the removal being a sign that Yahweh puts His people from Him into the ruin of exile. Such symbolism as this, so frequent on the part of Hebrew prophets (for Jeremiah, _cf._ Jeremiah 16:5 ff., Jeremiah 27:2 ff; Jeremiah 28:10 ff., Jeremiah 32:6 ff.,...

IT WAS. Some codices, with one early printed edition, read "and it was"....

Jeremiah 13:1-11. The acted symbol of the linen girdle This ch. consists of five sections, quite independent of one another. The first two are in poetic prose, and the remaining in Ḳinah metre. Three questions arise in respect to this first section: (i) Does it relate a real transaction or a vision? (ii) What is the application of the symbol? (iii) To what date may we refer it? As regards (i) we may state that Du. rejects with scorn the passage, as non-Jeremianic, considering it as childish, and as a later insertion. Most commentators, however, refuse to accept this view. If we accept the view that the transaction was real, where was it carried out? Some think that the Heb. _Pěrath_, rendered elsewhere Euphrates (though generally "the river" is prefixed to it), may have here meant Parah (Jo