JEREMIAH CHAPTER 23 Woe against wicked pastors; the scattered flock shall be gathered; Christ shall rule and save them, JEREMIAH 23:1: against false prophets, JEREMIAH 23:9, and mockers of the true, JEREMIAH 23:33. There is the like woe against the PASTORS denounced EZEKIEL 34:2. Interpreters judge... [ Continue Reading ]
THAT FEED MY PEOPLE: God calleth them _his people, his flock, the sheep of his pasture_, with respect to the ancient covenant which God had made with their fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They are said to have fed this people, because it was their duty, and the business of their office, so to ha... [ Continue Reading ]
God puts a difference betwixt those that were misled by the examples of others, and the rulers who set them such an ill example; he threatened Jehoiakim and Jehoiachin, or Jeconiah, that they should return no more; but for the people, he here promiseth them a return, at least a remnant of them, when... [ Continue Reading ]
AND I WILL SET UP SHEPHERDS OVER THEM WHICH SHALL FEED THEM: some think this prophecy was fulfilled in Nehemiah and Zerobabel, who were pious and good governors, and consulted in their government the good of the people committed to their trust, NEHEMIAH 2:10, NEHEMIAH 5:14. Others rather understand... [ Continue Reading ]
Though some interpreters think that Zorobabel may be here intended, who was descended from David, and ruled the people when they came out of Babylon, yet even the Jewish doctors themselves, as well as the Christian interpreters, understand this as a prophecy and promise of the Messiah; the prophecie... [ Continue Reading ]
During the reign and kingdom of the Messias (whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom) the people of God, typified by Judah and Israel, the true Israel of God, those that are Jews indeed, _shall be saved_ with a spiritual salvation; for he was therefore called _Jesus_, because he was to _save his peo... [ Continue Reading ]
No text from Poole on this verse.... [ Continue Reading ]
SEE POOLE ON "JEREMIAH 16:14", where much the same words are to be found. The prophet aggravateth the greatness of that salvation, which should be brought by Christ to all the true Israel of God, by comparing it with the deliverance of the ancient Israel of God out of the land of Egypt; which he sai... [ Continue Reading ]
The prophet having denounced the wrath of God against the wicked rulers of Judah under the notion of pastors, cometh here to discharge the like trust with reference to those orders of persons amongst the Jews, whose office it was, or at least who took upon them, to reveal the mind and will of God to... [ Continue Reading ]
Under that term ADULTERERS all species of uncleanness are comprehended. BECAUSE OF SWEARING THE LAND MOURNETH; by false swearing, or by idle and profane swearing, the land is brought to ruin. The word signifies also a curse or cursing. Many good interpreters judge that the more genuine sense and tru... [ Continue Reading ]
Those whose work was to reveal the mind of God to the people, and who pretended to that office; and those that were employed in offering sacrifices, and other works which belonged to the priestly office, according to the law; the whole ecclesiastical order, all their ministry, were PROFANE; not mere... [ Continue Reading ]
As their ordinary course is wicked and sinful, so they shall find that it will in the event be to them pernicious, perilous, and full of danger, as a slippery path is to them that walk in a dark night, THEY SHALL BE DRIVEN ON till they fall therein. Courses of sin may look smooth, but they always pr... [ Continue Reading ]
There was a time when I saw _folly in the prophets_ that belonged to the ten tribes, whose chief city was Samaria. The word translated FOLLY signifies unsavoury, or an absurd thing. Our Saviour compareth wicked ministers to unsavoury salt, MATTHEW 5:13, salt that is turned foolish (as the Greek word... [ Continue Reading ]
AN HORRIBLE THING; the word signifies FILTHINESS, STENCH, or an abominable thing, things every whit as bad, in some kind worse, than what I saw in the prophets of the ten tribes. THEY COMMIT ADULTERY; they commit not spiritual adultery only, but carnal adultery, they are whoremongers. AND WALK IN LI... [ Continue Reading ]
Under the term _prophets_ he comprehendeth all the ecclesiastical guides of Jerusalem at this time, whether priests or prophets. He threatens to FEED THEM WITH WORMWOOD; some think the word is better translated poison: by _wormwood, or poison_, and _the water of gall_, he threatens great and fatal j... [ Continue Reading ]
People are under no religious obligation to hear any thing but the revealed will of God, and are not to obey those that call to them for what that doth not call to them; nor to listen to them, the scope of whose teaching is but to make them vain, sinfully vain, or to deceive their souls; no man is u... [ Continue Reading ]
Lewd and corrupt ministers are a hatred and abomination in the house of the Lord to all serious good people, and are therefore obliged to make themselves a party of those that are like themselves, whose favour they cannot have without indulging them in their lusts. Hence they prophesy PEACE to the v... [ Continue Reading ]
Who besides us hath known THE COUNSEL OF THE LORD? arrogating to themselves a fellowship and acquaintance with the mind and will of God. Or, (which I should rather judge the sense,) Which of those prophets, that prophesy such terrible things against this city, is a privy-counsellor to God? The words... [ Continue Reading ]
A severe judgment of God, that should resemble _a whirlwind_, for the sudden and utter destruction that it shall bring. See JEREMIAH 30:23,24. The same word is elsewhere translated a _storm_, PSALMS 83:15 AMOS 1:14 JONAH 1:4. It is called _a whirlwind of the Lord_, either to denote the greatness of... [ Continue Reading ]
It is therefore called a _continuing whirlwind_, JEREMIAH 30:23. The prophet speaks of the judgment as of a messenger, which coming from God, should not return till it had done its errand, and executed what it came for, even whatever God had resolved it should effect. Men are ready to flatter themse... [ Continue Reading ]
No text from Poole on this verse.... [ Continue Reading ]
These false prophets did not prophesy without the approbation of the rulers of the ecclesiastical state amongst the Jews in their corrupt state, but so they might, and yet not be sent of God. The judgment of a Divine mission for the revelation of God's mind unto people must not be merely from their... [ Continue Reading ]
Atheism is generally the foundation of ill life. Men say God sees them not, the Almighty doth not regard. them. By a God at hand many understand heaven: Do you think that my eyes are limited like yours, that I cannot see their practices, though far off from me; that is, from the place of my glorious... [ Continue Reading ]
What do these atheistical priests, and prophets, and people think? Do they think that I, who am a God of purer eyes than to behold iniquity, see and take notice of what doctrine they preach, and what lives they live? If they did, surely they would not dare to do as they do. Do they think that I do n... [ Continue Reading ]
_ Visions and dreams_ were two usual ways by which under the law God made himself known of old to his prophets, making them sometimes, being awake, to hear a voice; sometimes attended with, and proceeding upon, some visible appearance, sometimes not: at other times causing them being asleep, to drea... [ Continue Reading ]
Will these prophets never have done? Have they not deceived people long enough with their lies, and the deceit of their own hearts; and that not unwarily, and by involuntary mistake, but of set purpose, it being in their heart, their purpose and design, to do it. Some join it to the following verse,... [ Continue Reading ]
TO FORGET MY NAME; that is, to forget me, and those things by which I have made myself known unto them, my word and my works. BY THEIR DREAMS WHICH THEY TELL ABROAD EVERY ONE TO HIS NEIGHBOUR, as if they were revelations which I had in their sleep made unto them; but they are indeed lies, and nothin... [ Continue Reading ]
A DREAM; not a Divine dream; a revelation which I have made to him in his sleep (as appeareth by the following opposition, betwixt a _dream_ and the _word of the Lord_); but if any man hath dreamed an ordinary dream, let him tell it as a dream; let him not entitle God to it. AND HE THAT HATH MY WORD... [ Continue Reading ]
Full of life and efficacy, 1 THESSALONIANS 6:63 HEBREWS 4:12; LIKE A FIRE THAT WARMETH, and healeth, and melteth, and consumeth the dross; AND LIKE A HAMMER THAT BREAKETH the flints, so my word breaketh hard hearts. Others think that the word is here compared to fire, and to a hammer, because of the... [ Continue Reading ]
There are various opinions as to what the prophet meaneth here by those prophets that _stole the Lord's words_ from their neighbours. Some, by their NEIGHBOUR, understanding the true prophets, from whom they stole those forms of speech, _Thus saith the Lord_, or, _The word of the Lord_, or, _The bur... [ Continue Reading ]
Some think the Hebrew words were more properly translated _smooth their tongues_: see the English Annotations. But the next words seem to assure us that the crime for which God here by the prophet reflecteth upon the false prophets, was not so much their flattering people, and speaking to them such... [ Continue Reading ]
FALSE DREAMS; that is, false things under the notion of things which I have revealed unto them in their sleep. By _lightness_ here some understand volubility and smoothness of tongue and speech; others, lasciviousness; others, levity and inconstancy: the last seemeth most probably the sense. I SENT... [ Continue Reading ]
The true prophets, to let the people know how little pleasing it was to them to be the messengers of God's threatenings, to denounce his judgments, usually thus began their prophecies of that nature, calling them THE BURDEN OF THE LORD, as may be seen, ISAIAH 13:1, ISAIAH 15:1 22:1 HABAKKUK 1:1 MALA... [ Continue Reading ]
That is, that shall in derision say thus, mocking at my threatenings and judgments. I will not only punish him, but his whole family.... [ Continue Reading ]
I will have you speak more reverently of me and my word to my prophets.... [ Continue Reading ]
THE BURDEN OF THE LORD SHALL YE MENTION NO MORE; not in scorn and derision, as not believing there were any such judgments as they threaten; nor hardly, as if I sent yon no other messages but burdens. These false and irreverent speeches, which are in every man's mouth, shall be burdensome to them, b... [ Continue Reading ]
THUS SHALT THOU SAY TO THE PROPHET; to my true prophet. You shall speak to them reverently, and as becometh you.... [ Continue Reading ]
Because you go on in your scoffing and deriding my word and my prophets; and that when I have expressly forbidden you those profane speeches, or that deriding form of speech; adding further contempt to your former profaneness.... [ Continue Reading ]
_ I will forget you_ as to my affection, and that is more than if all your friends forgot you. There is a great emphasis in the doubling of the pronoun, I, EVEN I. I WILL FORSAKE YOU as to the presence of my special gracious providence. And do not flatter yourselves that I will not do it, because of... [ Continue Reading ]
And you shall be a reproach, and that not for a few days, but for ever; and a penal shame, which neither you nor those that see or hear of it shall forget. See such expressions JEREMIAH 20:11.... [ Continue Reading ]