Jeremiah 18:15

Because my people hath forgotten me, they have burned incense to vanity, and they have caused them to stumble in their ways from the ancient paths, to walk in paths, in a way not cast up; BECAUSE - rather, And yet; in defiance of the natural order of things. MY PEOPLE HATH FORGOTTEN ME - (). This implies a previous knowledge of God, whereas He was unknown to the Gentiles: the Jews' forgetting of God, therefore, arose from determined perversity. THEY HAVE CAUSED THEM TO STUMBLE - namely, the false prophets and idolatrous priests have caused the people to stumble. FROM THE ANCIENT PATHS - (): the paths which their pious ancestors trod. Not antiquity indiscriminately, but the example of the fathers who trod...

We now perceive the meaning of this passage. It is doubtless natural for all to be satisfied with present blessings, especially when nothing better can anywhere else be found. When one has a fountain in his own field, why should he go elsewhere to drink? This would be monstrous. Dost thou want water? God supplies thee with it; take it from thine own fountain. If one objects and says, “That fountain I dislike; I wish to know whether better waters can be found at a distance.” This we see is a proof of brutal stupidity; for if the water which flows he cold and pure, and he dislikes it, because he wishes to go to the spring, he shews his own folly, whoever he may be. If, for instance, any one at this day would not drink the waters of the Rhone, which flows by here, and would not taste of the springs, but would run to the fountain and spring-head of the Rhone, would he not deserve to perish t...

11-17 Sinners call it liberty to live at large; whereas for a man to be a slave to his lusts, is the very worst slavery. They forsook God for idols. When men are parched with heat, and meet with cooling, refreshing streams, they use them. In these things men will not leave a certainty for an uncertainty; but Israel left the ancient paths appointed by the Divine law. They walked not in the highway, in which they might travel safely, but in a way in which they must stumble: such was the way of idolatry, and such is the way of iniquity. This made their land desolate, and themselves miserable. Calamities may be borne, if God smile upon us when under them; but if he is displeased, and refuses his help, we are undone. Multitudes forget the Lord and his Christ, and wander from the ancient paths, to walk in ways of their own devising. But what will they do in the day of judgment!...

BECAUSE - “For.” Jeremiah returns to, and continues the words of, Jeremiah 18:13. VANITY - A word meaning “falsehood,” which signifies that the worship of idols is not merely useless but injurious. THEY HAVE CAUSED THEM TO STUMBLE - Judah’s prophets and priests were they who made her to err Jeremiah 5:31. The idols were of themselves powerless for good or evil. IN THEIR WAYS ... - Or, “in their ways, the everlasting paths, to walk in byways, in a road not cast up. The paths of eternity” carry back the mind not to the immediate but to the distant past, and suggest the good old ways in which the patriarchs used to walk. The “road cast up” means

EXPOSITION This chapter is the introduction of a group of prophecies (extending to Jeremiah 25:1.) of various dates; their sequence has evidently not been determined by chronological considerations. The prophet's first object is, perhaps, to refute the scoffing inquiry (Jeremiah 17:15), "What has become of the [threatening] word of Jehovah?" and to justify the glorious premise given at the conclusion of the last chapter. The fulfillment of threatenings and promises alike is conditioned by the moral attitude of the people (comp. Ezekiel 33:11). God, as it were, holds them in either hand, and there is still time (contrast...

BECAUSE MY PEOPLE HATH FORGOTTEN ME,.... Or, "that they have forgotten me" z; this is the horrible thing they have done, which was unheard of among the Gentiles, who were always tenacious of their gods, and the worship of them; and that foolish and unwise thing, which was like leaving pure flowing streams of water for dirty puddles. This is to be understood of their forsaking the worship of God, as the Targum interprets it, and following after idols: THEY HAVE BURNT INCENSE TO VANITY; to idols, which are vain empty things, and which cannot give their worshippers what they expect from them: or, "in vain they burn incense" a; even to the true God, while they also sacrificed unto idols; which to do was an abomination to the Lord, Isaiah 1:13; and especially burning incense to idols must be a vain thing; and so the Targum, "to no profit a they burn incense or spices

CHAPTER 18 The Potter and the Clay _ 1. In the potter's house and the message (Jeremiah 18:1) _ 2. The plot against the prophet and his prayer (Jeremiah 18:18) Jeremiah 18:1. He was commanded to go to the house of a potter and watch his work. The vessel Jeremiah sees fashioned out of clay is marred; it did not turn out well. Then the clay was taken up again and made in another vessel as it seemed good to the potter to make it. Then came the message: “O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the LORD. Behold as the clay is in the potter's hand, so are ye in my hand, O house of Israel.” If the creature of the dust can do as he pleases with the clay, how much

THE POTTER AND THE CLAY. The potter (Jeremiah 18:1) moulding his clay on the upper stone, which he makes revolve by his feet resting on the connected lower stone, is compared with Yahweh in His control of Israel (Jeremiah 18:5). The point of the comparison, as worked out in Jeremiah 18:7 ff_.,_ is not predestination (contrast Romans 9-11), but the conditionality of Yahweh's treatment of a nation, according as it turns to good or to evil (_cf._ the story of Jonah and Nineveh, also Ezekiel's individualism, Jeremiah 18:20 ff.). Judah, however, will not repent (with...

FORGOTTEN. Showing that the emphasis is on the leaving and forsaking of Jeremiah 18:14. VANITY. Used of idols. Figure of speech _Metonymy_ (of Subject)....

_For_ This continues the thought of the 13th _v_., Jeremiah 18:14 being parenthetic. _vanity_ lit. _unreality_, meaning idols, but a different word from that used in Jeremiah 2:5, where see notes. Here the sense is materially or morally unsubstantial or groundless. See Dr. _Parallel Psalter_, p. 464. _they have caused_ The pronoun must refer to the idols (2 Chronicles 28:23); but it is better, as the LXX's rendering suggests, to translate _have stumbled_, thus retaining "the people" as the subject. _in the ancient paths_ Cp. ch. Jeremiah 6:16. _not cast up_ not r