Jeremiah 5:14

Wherefore thus saith the LORD God of hosts, Because ye speak this word, behold, I will make my words in thy mouth fire, and this people wood, and it shall devour them. BECAUSE YE SPEAK THIS WORD. He turns away from addressing the people directly, to the prophet: implying that He puts them to a distance from Him and only communicates with them through His prophet (): He began with saying "Ye," but ends with speaking of them, no longer to them: "this people!" estranged from me. BEHOLD, I WILL MAKE MY WORDS IN THY MOUTH FIRE, AND THIS PEOPLE WOOD - thy denunciations of judgments shall be fulfilled, and shall consume them as fire does wood. In it is the penetrating energy of fire which is the point of comparison: here it is its devouring violence....

God shews here how intolerable to him was their wantonness in despising the prophets, through whom he would have himself attended to. Though Christ did not refer to this passage, when he said, “He who hears you hears me, and he who despises you despises me,” (Luke 10:16) yet it contains an eternal law; for God’s will from the beginning has been, that his servants should be obeyed, as though he himself had come down from heaven. Hence the Jews dealt no less contumeliously with God in despising his prophets, than if they had dared to treat God himself with contempt. God then now shews how much he abhorred that madness, through which they rendered void all the labors of his servants. _Therefore thus saith Jehovah, the God of hosts _Jeremiah made this preface, that he might more effectually rouse the Jews; for if he had omitted Thus saith Jeho

10-18 Multitudes are ruined by believing that God will not be so strict as his word says he will; by this artifice Satan undid mankind. Sinners are not willing to own any thing to be God's word, that tends to part them from, or to disquiet them in, their sins. Mocking and misusing the Lord's messengers, filled the measure of their iniquity. God can bring trouble upon us from places and causes very remote. He has mercy in store for his people, therefore will set bounds to this desolating judgment. Let us not overlook the "nevertheless," ver. Jeremiah 5:18. This is the Lord's covenant with Israel. He thereby proclaims his holiness, and his utter displeasure against sin while sparing the sinner, Psalms 89:30-19....

Verse Jeremiah 5:14. _BECAUSE YE SPEAK THIS WORD_] Because ye thus treat my message, "I will make my words in thy mouth fire." They have said _they are but air_; but I will make them _fire_, and a _fire_ too that shall _devour them_. And how this was to be done, and by whom, is mentioned in the next verse....

EXPOSITION Is the punishment thought too severe? Then let the moral condition of Jerusalem be inquired into. Must not such transgressions precipitate its people into ruin? There are four well-marked sections or strophes. JEREMIAH 5:1 Gladly would Jehovah pardon, if his people showed but a gleam of sound morality. But they are all deaf to the warning voice—the Law of God is flagrantly violated. In particular the marriage tie, as well the typical one between man and woman as the anti-typical between the people and its God, is openly disregarded (comp. Hosea 4:1; Micah 7:2; Isaiah 64:6,...

WHEREFORE THUS SAITH THE LORD GOD OF HOSTS, BECAUSE YE SPEAK THIS WORD,.... That it is not the Lord; it is not he that speaks; it is no prophecy of him, and therefore shall become wind, and come to nothing: BEHOLD, I WILL MAKE MY WORD IN THY MOUTH FIRE: it shall have its effect, and a dreadful one; it shall not become wind, but be as fire, not to enlighten the understanding, to purify the conscience, and warm the heart; but to torture, distress, and destroy, as the fire of the word out of the mouths of the two witnesses, Revelation 11:5: AND THIS PEOPLE WOOD, AND IT SHALL DEVOUR THEM; as wood is devoured by fire, so shall this people be destroyed by sword and famine, as the word of the prophecy has declared they should; and which was done by the following means....

Jeremiah 5:10. _Go ye up upon her walls, and destroy; but make not a full end: take away her battlements; for the are not the LORD'S. For the house of Israel and the house of Judah have dealt very treacherously against me, saith the LORD. They have belied the LORD,_ They have made it out as though God himself were a liar. They have contradicted him whose word is the truth itself. They have despised his threatenings, they have refused his invitations, they have disbelieved his promises: «they have belied the Lord,» Jeremiah 5:12. And said, It is not he; neither shall evil come upon us; neither shall we see sword nor famine: and the prophets shall become wind, and the word is not in them: thus shall it be done unto them. Wherefore thus saith the LORD God of hosts, Because y

CHAPTER 5 _ 1. The apostate conditions of Jerusalem (Jeremiah 5:1) _ 2. The impending judgment (Jeremiah 5:10) 3. Sowing and reaping (Jeremiah 5:19) 4. The horrible thing (Jeremiah 5:30) Jeremiah 5:1. So degenerate had the inhabitants of Jerusalem become that the Lord promised if but one man could be found in the city who executed judgment and sought the truth, He would pardon Jerusalem. It was a general apostasy. A similar apostasy is predicted for the end of our age. “Nevertheless when the Son of Man

THE COMING OF THE FOE. Let the enemy, therefore, destroy the vineyard of Judah, for of its owner Judah has said, He does nothing, rejecting His warnings by (true) prophets. The word they have rejected now becomes a fire to consume (_cf._ Jeremiah 23:29; ancient thought attached great power to the spoken word). The enemy (Scythians or, later, Babylonians) comes to destroy, being enduring (_mg.),_ foreign in speech (Isaiah 28:11), and a nation of warriors (mighty men), whose arrows do not miss (Jeremiah 5:16). Heathenism at home shall bring exile abroad (Jeremiah 5:19)....

THE LORD GOD OF HOSTS. Hebrew. _Jehovah._ the Elohim of Zebaioth. Occurs in Jeremiah only here, Jeremiah 15:16; Jeremiah 35:17. and Jeremiah 49:5....