Jeremiah 5:20

_DECLARE THIS IN THE HOUSE OF JACOB, AND PUBLISH IT IN JUDAH, SAYING,_ No JFB commentary on this verse....

The Prophet confirms what he had said, lest the Jews should think that they were only terrified by words, and not dread the consequences. Hence he says, _Declare this _The Prophet, no doubt, alludes to a custom which prevailed; for wars were usually proclaimed by heralds. Enemies did not immediately march forth, but they proclaimed war that the cause might appear just. Hence God here declares, that he had spoken in earnest by the mouth of Jeremiah, as though war had been in the usual manner proclaimed, and armed enemies were already nigh at hand....

19-31 Unhumbled hearts are ready to charge God with being unjust in their afflictions. But they may read their sin in their punishment. If men will inquire wherefore the Lord doeth hard things unto them, let them think of their sins. The restless waves obeyed the Divine decree, that they should not pass the sandy shores, which were as much a restraint as lofty mountains; but they burst all restraints of God's law, and were wholly gone into wickedness. Neither did they consider their interest. While the Lord, year after year, reserves to us the appointed weeks of harvest, men live on his bounty; yet they transgress against him. Sin deprives us of God's blessings; it makes the heaven as brass, and the earth as iron. Certainly the things of this world are not the best things; and we are not to think, that, because evil men prosper, God allows their practices. Though sentence against evil w...

Against the God (1) of Creation Jeremiah 5:22, and (2) of Providence Jeremiah 5:24, They sin, not merely by apostasy, but by a general immorality extending to all classes Jeremiah 5:25. It is in this immorality that their idolatry has its root. Jeremiah 5:22 The sea is the symbol of restless and indomitable energy, chafing against all resistance, and dashing to pieces the works whereby man endeavors to restrain its fury. Yet God has imposed upon it laws whi

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,...

DECLARE THIS IN THE HOUSE OF JACOB,.... That a mighty nation should come and destroy them, and they should be servants in a strange land; or rather the words seem to be an order to declare war against the Jews, and even in their own land; and do not seem to be addressed to the prophet, but to others, seeing the words are in the plural number; see Jeremiah 4:5: AND PUBLISH IT IN JUDAH: the house of Jacob and Judah are the same, namely, the two tribes of Benjamin and Judah; for, as for the ten tribes, as observed on Jeremiah 5:15, they had been carried captive before this time: SAYING: as follows:...

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

LET EVIL-DOERS FEAR YAHWEH. The folly of not fearing Yahweh is rebuked by a reminder of the power of Him who has set an impassable limit even to the sea (_cf._ the rebuke of Job's presumption by the description of Nature as Yahweh's work, Job 38-41). Because they have not feared Him who gives the regular rains (the former in October, the latter in March-April), and the resultant harvest (Jeremiah 5:24), they have lost these gifts. Punishment is brought down on the nation by evil-doers, who fill their houses with (the gains of) deceit, as bird-catchers their cages with birds, and by the same arts; evil-doers who are prosperous and sleek, and unjust to the helpless. Horrible in Yahweh's eyes is the degeneracy of the prophets who ought to teach the truth, and of the priests who follow the suggestions of the prophets ...

DECLARE... PUBLISH. Compare Jeremiah 4:15. IN THE HOUSE OF JACOB. Only here, and Amos 3:13, with the Preposition "in". See note on Jeremiah 2:4....