Jeremiah 6:29

The bellows are burned, the lead is consumed of the fire; the founder melteth in vain: for the wicked are not plucked away. THE BELLOWS ARE BURNED - so intense a heat is made that the very bellows are almost set on fire. Rosenmuller translates, not so well, from a Hebrew root, 'pant' or 'snort' referring to the sound of the bellows blown hard. LEAD - employed to separate the baser metal from the silver, as quicksilver is now used. In other words, the utmost pains have been used to purify Israel in the furnace of affliction, but in vain (, Thou hast consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction." The "faith" of the godly, on the contrary, is as pure "gold tried with fire"). CONSUMED OF THE FIRE. In the Chetib or Hebrew text, the "consumed" is supplied out of the previous "burned." If we were to tran...

He says, that the _bellows _was consumed by _the fire _and without any advantage. The whole sentence is metaphorical. Interpreters refer it simply to what was taught; and hence they consider the mouth of the Prophet to be the bellows, by which the fire was kindled. So the meaning would be, — that the Prophet was as it were burnt, through his incessant crying, like the bellows, which by being continually used is at length consumed, especially when the fire burns fiercely. They then suppose that the Prophet complains that his throat had dried up, like the bellows, which being burnt by the fire can no longer do its work. But what if we refer this to the punishments and judgments by which God had chastised his people, and yet without benefit? For so he complains in the first chapter of Isaiah, and in other places. “In vain, “he says, “have I chastised thee:” and Jeremiah has before said, “...

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...

THE BELLOWS ARE BURNED - Worn out by continual blowing. The prophet has exhausted all his efforts. His heart, consumed by the heat of divine inspiration, can labor no more. Others translate “The bellows snort,” i. e., blow furiously. More probably, “The bellows glow” with the strong heat of the fire. PLUCKED AWAY - Separated. The smelter’s object is to separate the metal from the dross....

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

THE BELLOWS ARE BURNT,.... Which Kimchi interprets of the mouth and throat of the prophet, which, through reproving the people, were dried up, and become raucous and hoarse, and without any profit to them; and so the Targum, "lo, as the refiner's blower, that is burnt in the midst of the fire, so the voice of the prophets is silent, who prophesied to them, turn to the law, and they turned not;'' or the judgments and chastisements of God upon the Jews may be meant, which were inflicted upon them to no purpose: THE LEAD IS CONSUMED OF THE FIRE; lead being used formerly, as is said f, instead of quicksilver, in purifying of silver; which being consumed, the refining is in vain: or it may be rendered, OUT OF THE FIRE IT IS PERFECT LEAD g; or wholly lead, a base metal, no gold and silver in it, to which the Jews are compared: THE FOUNDER MELTETH IN VAIN; to whom either the prophet is lik...

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 PROPHET'S TASK. The record of earlier prophecies (Jeremiah 6:1) fitly closes with the application to the prophet of the figure of the trier (_mg._) or assayer; so inextricably is the alloy mixed with the silver that, though the bellows blow, and the lead (which was added to carry away the alloy) is oxidised in the heat, no purification is effected; only impure silver remains (Driver). Jeremiah 6:27. Omit A FORTRESS, which is probably a marginal note on the rendering tower, which should be trier....

FOUNDER MELTETH. refiner refineth....

The last of the four divisions. See introd. note to the ch....