Jeremiah 6:18

Therefore hear, ye nations, and know, O congregation, what is among them. CONGREGATION - parallel to "nations;" it therefore means the gathered peoples who invited to be witnesses how great is the perversity of the Israelites (Jeremiah 6:16), and that they deserve the severe punishment about to be inflicted on them (). KNOW WHAT IS AMONG THEM - what deeds are committed by the Israelites (Jeremiah 6:16). (Maurer.) Or, 'what punishments are about to be inflicted on them' (Calvin). I prefer the former view....

He turns now to address the nations, which had never heard anything of true religion. But the design of the apostrophe was, to make the Jews ashamed of their insensibility and deafness, for more attention and understanding were found among heathen nations. This was surely very great shame: the Jews had been plainly taught by the Law and by the Prophets, God had continued morning and evening to repeat the same things to them, that the nations, who had never heard the prophets and to whom the Law had not been given, should still be endued with more understanding and judgment than the Jews — this was very shameful and really monstrous. Thus the Prophet’s design was to expose their disgraceful conduct by addressing the nations, and saying, _Hear, ye nations _ Then he says, _Know, thou assembly _The words used are דעי _, doi, _and עדה, _ode; _and though the letters are inverted, there is yet...

18-30 God rejects their outward services, as worthless to atone for their sins. Sacrifice and incense were to direct them to a Mediator; but when offered to purchase a license to go on in sin, they provoke God. The sins of God's professing people make them an easy prey to their enemies. They dare not show themselves. Saints may rejoice in hope of God's mercies, though they see them only in the promise: sinners must mourn for fear of God's judgments, though they see them only in the threatenings. They are the worst of revolters, and are all corrupters. Sinners soon become tempters. They are compared to ore supposed to have good metal in it, but which proves all dross. Nothing will prevail to part between them and their sins. Reprobate silver shall they be called, useless and worthless. When warnings, corrections, rebukes, and all means of grace, leave men unrenewed, they will be left, as...

God summons three witnesses to hear His sentence. (1) the Gentiles. (2) all mankind, Jews and Gentiles. (3) nature (see Jeremiah 6:19). WHAT IS AMONG THEM - Rather, “what happens” in them; i. e., “Know what great things I will do to them.”...

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

THEREFORE HEAR, YE NATIONS,.... Since the Jews refused to hearken to the word of the Lord, the Gentiles are called upon to hear it, as in Acts 13:45, this is a rebuke to the Jews, that the Gentiles would hear, when they would not: AND KNOW, O CONGREGATION; either of Israel, as the Targum and Kimchi explain it; or of the nations of the world, the multitude of them; or the church of God in the midst of them: WHAT IS AMONG THEM; among the Jews: either what evil is among them; what sins and transgressions are committed by them; which were the cause of the Lord's threatening them with sore judgments, and bringing them upon them; so Jarchi and Kimchi interpret the words; to which agrees the Targum, "and let the congregation of Israel know their sins;'' or the punishments the Lord inflicted on them: so the Vulgate Latin version, "and kno

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....

Jeremiah 6:16. OBEDIENCE MORE THAN SACRIFICE. Yahweh vainly bade the people stand at the parting of the ways (Hebrew, by the ways), and seek the ancient road to prosperity, that they may find repose for themselves. The watchmen-prophets have called in vain. Yahweh's teaching (law, not necessarily written) has been rejected. For these moral faults far-fetched offerings and many sacrifices do not atone; Yahweh will make the people stumble to their ruin. Jeremiah 6:16. saith should be said. This verse must not be taken in the spiritual sense of Matthew 11:29; the good is material well-being, the rest security, and your souls is no more than a reflexive pronoun here....

CONGREGATION. assembly (in its civil aspect). Hebrew. _'edah,_. technical Pentateuchal word. First occurrence in Exodus 12:3; Exodus 12:6; Exodus 12:19; Exodus 12:47. Used technically of Israel, fifteen times in Exodus; twelve in Leviticus; eighty-three times in Numbers. Found in the prophets only here; Jeremiah 30:20. and Hosea 7:12 (reference to Pentateuch) App-92....

The third division. See introd. note to the ch....