Jeremiah 23:40

And I will bring an everlasting reproach upon you, and a perpetual shame, which shall not be forgotten. NOT BE FORGOTTEN. If we translate as the English version, the antithesis is, though I forget you, your shame shall not be forgotten. Remarks: (1) How terrible will be the judgments of God on the pastors that scatter the sheep from, instead of gathering them to Him (Jeremiah 23:1). But their unfaithfulness will not set aside God's faithfulness to His own covenant with His elect. He will, in His own time and way, "gather the elect remnant of His flock," both the spiritual Israel, the elect Church, and the literal Israel, "out of all countries." (2) Messiah, "the righteous Branch," raised by God the Father unto David, is the Instrument by...

What is here contained is, that though the Jews justly gloried for a time in being the peculiar people of God, yet this would avail them nothing, as they had divested themselves of that honor in which they had excelled, by the abnegation of true religion. Here then the Prophet strips the Jews of that foolish boasting with which they were inflated when they said that they were the people of God, and threatens that God having taken away their glory would make them lie under perpetual shame. We at the same time know, that such threatenings are to be restricted as to time, they extend only to the coming of Christ; for the Church of God could not have been doomed to eternal reproach. But as to hypocrites, as there was no repentance, so they never obtained pardon; but God delivered his own from eternal reproach when Christ the Redeemer appeared; yet these words are to be understood as rightly...

33-40 Those are miserable indeed who are forsaken and forgotten of God; and men's jesting at God's judgments will not baffle them. God had taken Israel to be a people near to him, but they shall now be cast out of his presence. It is a mark of great and daring impiety for men to jest with the words of God. Every idle and profane word will add to the sinner's burden in the day of judgment, when everlasting shame will be his portion....

Verse Jeremiah 23:40. _I WILL BRING AN EVERLASTING REPROACH UPON YOU_] And this reproach of having rebelled against so good a God, and rejected so powerful a Saviour, follows them to this day through all their dispersions, in every part of the habitable earth. The word of the Lord cannot fail....

EXPOSITION The first eight verses form the necessary conclusion of the group of discourses summarized in Jeremiah 21:1; Jeremiah 22:1. Like Isaiah, our prophet follows up denunciation with consolation, and will have the mind rest on the sure promises of God for the Messianic future. A part of the people has been already scattered abroad. In Jeremiah 24:8, "those who dwell in the land of Egypt" are a section no less important than "those who remain in this land;" and the Babylonian Captivity is an event only too certain to take place (comp. Jeremiah 24:8). Unhappy Judah! for though not free from responsibility, it

AND I WILL BRING AN EVERLASTING REPROACH UPON YOU,.... Which was a just retaliation for reproaching, vilifying, and bantering his word: they who had been honoured so much and so long as the people of God, and their city counted the glory of the earth; yet now both they and that should be the byword of the people, and had in the utmost contempt, and that for ever, or at least a long time, even for a series of ages; which has been their case ever since their destruction by the Romans, and still is; for this cannot be restrained to the short captivity of seventy years in Babylon; though this reproach began then, and they never recovered their former honour and glory; AND A PERPETUAL SHAME, WHICH SHALL NOT BE FORGOTTEN; the same thing in different words, to heighten their disgrace, and confirm the perpetuity of it....

CHAPTER 23:9-40 Condemnation of the False Prophets _ 1. Jeremiah's lament on account of the false prophets (Jeremiah 23:9) _ 2. The condemnation of these prophets (Jeremiah 23:15) 3. Forgotten and forsaken (Jeremiah 23:33) Jeremiah 23:9. The prophet is overwhelmed because of the wicked prophets, because in the LORD's house wickedness was found. The false prophets of Samaria had led the people into idolatry and the prophets of Judah were guilty of all kinds of immoralities. Like priests, like people; they all became unto the Lord as Sodom, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem like Go

THE PROPHETS. Jeremiah is overcome by the stern message given him to deliver. The evil of the land is encouraged by prophet and priest (Jeremiah 6:13), even the Temple being dishonoured (2 Kings 21:5); for this they shall be thrust down a dark and slippery way (Jeremiah 23:9). The immorality of the southern prophets is worse than was the false religion of the northern (Jeremiah 23:13). Hence their punishment (Jeremiah 23:15; cf. Jeremiah 9:15). They inspire

EVERLASTING... PERPETUAL. Put by Figure of speech _Synecdoche_ (of the Whole), for. part of time. life long. Limited here by the promised Restoration....

Jeremiah 23:9-40. Condemnation of the prophets Following on the prophecies relating to successive kings of Judah, we have a section dealing with the iniquities of a class who also grievously misled the nation. The passage doubtless contains much that is genuine, but, from the diffuseness of style, especially in the latter part, it may be safely inferred that additional matter has been inserted. Commentators, however, are by no means agreed as to the amount of the latter. Du. omits all after Jeremiah 23:15, Co. nearly all after Jeremiah 23:24, Gi. Jeremiah 23:30, while the last-named also rejects...