Jeremiah 6:10

To whom shall I speak, and give warning, that they may hear? behold, their ear is uncircumcised, and they cannot hearken: behold, the word of the LORD is unto them a reproach; they have no delight in it. EAR IS UNCIRCUMCISED - closed against the precepts of God by the foreskin of carnality (, "uncircumcised hearts;" ; , "uncircumcised in heart and ears"). WORD OF THE LORD IS UNTO THEM A REPROACH - (, "The word of the Lord was made a reproach unto me, and a derision daily")....

The Prophet here shews there was no reason for him to labor any longer in trying to reform the people, for he spoke to the deaf. He had said before, according to our lecture yesterday, that God was still ready to be reconciled to the Jews, if they repented; but now, referring to himself, he says that his words were wholly lost. Hence he asks a question as respecting a thing strange or unexpected. _To whom, _he says, _shall I speak? and to whom shall I protest? _He had indeed, as we found yesterday, exhorted the people to repent: but there is nothing inconsistent in all this; for he wished, as far as he could, to secure, the safety of the people. Even God had commanded this; and it was his will, as it was yesterday stated, that a testimony should be borne, that it was not his fault, according to what had been taught, that he was not reconciled to the people. We now then see that the whole...

9-17 When the Lord arises to take vengeance, no sinners of any age or rank, or of either sex escape. They were set upon the world, and wholly carried away by the love of it. If we judge of this sin by God's word, we find multitudes in every station and rank given up to it. Those are to be reckoned our worst and most dangerous enemies, who flatter us in a sinful way. Oh that men would be wise for their souls! Ask for the old paths; the way of godliness and righteousness has always been the way God has owned and blessed. Ask for the old paths set forth by the written word of God. When you have found the good way, go on in it, you will find abundant recompence at your journey's end. But if men will not obey the voice of God and flee to his appointed Refuge, it will plainly appear at the day of judgment, that they are ruined because they reject God's word....

Verse Jeremiah 6:10. _THE WORD OF THE LORD IS UNTO THEM A REPROACH_] It is an object of _derision_; they _despise it_....

GIVE WARNING - Rather testify. REPROACH - They make the Word of God the object of their ridicule....

EXPOSITION A prophecy, in five stanzas or strophes, vividly describing the judgment and its causes, and enforcing the necessity of repentance. JEREMIAH 6:1 Arrival of a hostile army from the north, and summons to flee from the doomed city. JEREMIAH 6:1 O YE CHILDREN OF BENJAMIN. The political rank of Jerusalem, as the capital of the kingdom of Judah, makes it difficult to realize that Jerusalem was not locally a city of Judah at all. It belonged, strictly speaking, to the tribe of Benjamin, a tribe whose insignificance, in comparison with Judah, seems to have led to the adoption of a form of expression not literally accurate (see Psa 128:1-6 :68). The true state of the ease is evident from an examination of the two par

TO WHOM SHALL I SPEAK, AND GIVE WARNING, THAT THEY MAY HEAR?.... These are the words of the prophet, despairing of any success by his ministry; suggesting that the people were so universally depraved, that there were none that would hear him; that speaking to them was only beating the air, and that all expostulations, warnings, remonstrances, and testimonies, would signify nothing: BEHOLD, THEIR EAR IS UNCIRCUMCISED, AND THEY CANNOT HEARKEN; their ears were stopped with the filth of sin naturally, and they wilfully stopped their ears like the adder; and so being unsanctified, they neither could hear nor desired to hear the word of the Lord, as to understand it; see Acts 7:51: BEHOLD, THE WORD OF THE LORD IS UNTO THEM A REPROACH; they reproached it, and blasphemed it, as a novel and false doctrine, and thought it a dishonour to them to receive and profess it;

CHAPTER 6 _ 1. The call to the children of Benjamin (Jeremiah 6:1) _ 2. Corruption and the deserved judgment (Jeremiah 6:9) 3. The prophet addressed (Jeremiah 6:27) Jeremiah 6:1. The children of Benjamin are exhorted to flee for safety on account of the evil from the north. There were probably among the Benjamites God-fearing men. Those who heeded the call fled and escaped. It is a warning message which follows: “Be thou instructed, O Jerusalem, let my soul depart from thee; lest I make thee desolate, a land not inhabited.” But they heeded it not....

THE JUSTIFICATION OF YAHWEH'S WRATH. The turn of Judah, the remnant of Israel, is now come, and Yahweh bids the foe, figured as a grape-gatherer at work on the vine (see on Jeremiah 2:21) to do his work thoroughly (Jeremiah 6:9 _mg.)._ The prophet complains that the ears of the people are closed to his word, yet he cannot hold it back (Jeremiah 20:9), and will pour it out (so LXX) even on the playing children and the irresponsible youth. Calamity falls on all alike, for all seek gain, and the very leaders are false with their easy talk of prosperity (Jeremiah 6:15; both _mgg.)._...

GIVE WARNING. testify. EAR IS UNCIRCUMCISED. Reference to Pentateuch (Exodus 6:12; Exodus 6:30; Leviticus 26:41). Figure of speech _Catachresis_ (App-6). An ear not brought into the covenant. A REPROACH. Note the fate of Jehovah's word in the down-grade of Jeremiah's days. in Jeremiah 6:10. reproach; in Jeremiah 8:9, rejected; in Jeremiah 17:15, scoffed at; in...