JEREMIAH CHAPTER 5 None godly in Judah, JEREMIAH 5:1. They swear falsely, though God be a God of truth; they are incorrigible and senseless, and know not the law, or else wilfully violate it, JEREMIAH 5:2. Their idolatry, adultery, JEREMIAH 5:7; contempt of God's word and prophets, which should be s... [ Continue Reading ]
THOUGH THEY SAY, THE LORD LIVETH; though when they swear, they use the form of an oath, and say, The LORD LIVETH, JEREMIAH 5:2, or, By the _living God_. By swearing here we may understand all their service of God, by a synecdoche, swearing being a part of God's worship. _Surely they swear falsely_;... [ Continue Reading ]
ARE NOT THINE EYES UPON THE TRUTH? The prophet, observing the obstinacy of this people, abruptly turns himself to God, yet emphatically insinuates their incorrigibleness. This may refer either to God's discerning and knowing truth from falsehood, as being impossible that any thing should be hid from... [ Continue Reading ]
THEREFORE I SAID; or, perhaps, I said with myself; not, possibly, that he thought so, but that he might thus express himself, as men use to speak. SURELY THESE ARE POOR; poor, low-spirited, or of the meanest rank among the vulgar, understand but little; either men of greater ignorance, 1 THESSALONIA... [ Continue Reading ]
I WILL GET ME UNTO THE GREAT MEN, i.e. to the nobles, both prince and priest, that have more time to consider these things, have been better taught and educated, PROVERBS 4:4. Not that Jeremiah had any better thoughts of these, but as carrying a great probability with it. FOR THEY HAVE KNOWN: had it... [ Continue Reading ]
Nebuchadnezzar and the Chaldean army from Syria and Libanus, woody places, are here pointed at under the metaphor of beasts of prey of three kinds; the malignity that is proper to each of these creatures shall be put forth in this Babylonian army, compared, for instance, to a lion, JEREMIAH 4:7 whic... [ Continue Reading ]
HOW SHALL I PARDON? how canst thou expect that I shall bear such affronts? I shall expose myself, and seem to lay aside my power; I shall be looked upon as one that either regard not such injuries, or cannot avenge them, as JEREMIAH 5:9. THY CHILDREN; thy inhabitants, both in city and country. SWORN... [ Continue Reading ]
OLBGrk; FED HORSES, to note the greatness and unruliness of their lust, pampered horses being most wanton, like that DEUTERONOMY 32:15. IN THE MORNING: it is questioned whether morning relates to horses or to men; if to horses, then they are compared to stallions, that having been fed to the full ov... [ Continue Reading ]
VISIT, i.e. punish, PSALMS 89:32. Should I connive at such things, the wicked would say, I did not see them, or take notice of them, PSALMS 50:21, much to the same purpose with JEREMIAH 5:7, beginning; and punishment may be termed visiting, as implying the equity of God's procedures, that he first s... [ Continue Reading ]
GO YE UP UPON HER WALLS; ye Babylonians, go now execute my vengeance on them. I give them into your hands; behold, I give you a commission. AND DESTROY; I permit and order you not only to take the city, but make havoc of her inhabitants, ISAIAH 10:6. BUT MAKE NOT A FULL END: though God give them a l... [ Continue Reading ]
Whether ISRAEL be put here for the ten tribes, and JUDAH for the two, as often they are, JEREMIAH 2:4, and sundry other places; or rather, whether Judah here be only explicative, and the word meant of the two tribes only, read thus, the HOUSE OF ISRAEL, even the house of Judah, is not much material.... [ Continue Reading ]
THEY HAVE BELIED THE LORD: this may signify either a denying, viz. a renouncing, making little or nothing of him, as some; or a denying, i.e. not believing, that these words of the prophet were God's words, or God did not say so; he gave not the prophet, nor any other, any such commission; and possi... [ Continue Reading ]
SHALL BECOME WIND; a proverbial speech, very frequent, not in common language only, but Scripture also, JOB 6:26 ECCLESIASTES 5:16, and elsewhere; i.e. all the prophet's threats shall come to nothing: and thus they scoffed at them, Tush, what do they signify? they are but _bruta fulmina_: see 2 CHRO... [ Continue Reading ]
WHEREFORE THUS SAITH THE LORD: these vile wretches having now done speaking, God begins to speak; and because they had thus slighted the prophet, and God speaking by him, (as in the next words, BECAUSE YE SPEAK THIS WORD,) here tells them what he will do; or rather, turns himself abruptly to the pro... [ Continue Reading ]
FROM FAR, viz. from Chaldea. _House of Israel_: by these are meant Judah; for Israel, properly so called, viz. the ten tribes, were in captivity before; see on JEREMIAH 4:1; called the house of Israel, not only because they descended from Jacob, but because they were the chief of that stock\'b7 IT I... [ Continue Reading ]
QUIVER; collectively expressed for quivers; a synecdoche for the whole military preparations, and a metonymy of the containing for the contained, viz. the arrows that will be shot out of them, called _the sons of the quiver_, LAMENTATIONS 3:13; bow and arrow being the chief weapons for war in those... [ Continue Reading ]
THEY SHALL EAT UP THINE HARVEST, AND THY BREAD; they shall make clean riddance, leave thee, no supports of life, but bring an utter famine upon thee; it is thus threatened DEUTERONOMY 28:30,48,51. WHICH THY SONS AND THY DAUGHTERS SHOULD EAT; or, they shall eat up thy sons and thy daughters; but this... [ Continue Reading ]
See this verse explained JEREMIAH 4:27, save only that I think here it is taken in the first sense there mentioned; for it is not said only, as in that verse, I WILL NOT MAKE A FULL END, or a full end _of you_, but a full end _with_ you: q.d. I have not done with you yet. See LEVITICUS 26:14.... [ Continue Reading ]
WHEREFORE DOETH THE LORD OUR GOD ALL THESE THINGS UNTO US? this speaks either their unparalleled insolency, in a manner challenging God, as if they had not deserved such dealing at his hands, they might have expected better usage from him; the Jews were good at these kinds of challenging of God, ISA... [ Continue Reading ]
See of this JEREMIAH 4:5. By JUDAH and JACOB we are to understand the two tribes only, as JEREMIAH 5:11, which see.... [ Continue Reading ]
WITHOUT UNDERSTANDING, Heb. _heart_. They have no heart to return, or to any thing of instruction or reformation, but are stupid and sottish, regardless of all counsel, wisdom, and common prudence. The heart is said to be the symbol, and according to Galen the seat, of wisdom; so the poet placeth it... [ Continue Reading ]
FEAR YE NOT ME: either a convincing argument to persuade them to submit unto him; Will ye not submit to me, that can rule the sea? which, as unruly a thing as it is, yet quietly yields to my will: or rather, a very angry challenge and expostulation; Do you think that I, that can tame the boisterous... [ Continue Reading ]
They are not only revolted from me, and gone back, but they continue obstinate, and will not return, PSALMS 78:8, as the next clause intimates, where God shows their obstinacy by the effect of it. GONE, viz. from me, they persist in their courses, no reclaiming of them; for they are not only revolte... [ Continue Reading ]
NEITHER SAY THEY IN THEIR HEART; they are so careless that they never trouble themselves about it; or so obdurate and stiff that they never lay it to heart, or consider that it is God that disposeth of all fixings according to his own pleasure, both in the earth and in the great deep. FEAR; or, _ser... [ Continue Reading ]
YOUR INIQUITIES HAVE TURNED AWAY THESE THINGS: q.d. Do not say your ground is parched up with drought, or your fruits are corrupted and rotted by too much or unseasonable rain; we have nothing now in so due a course as we were wont to have it. Would you know the reason of it? You have inverted the o... [ Continue Reading ]
AMONG MY PEOPLE ARE FOUND WICKED MEN; I need not search for such among the heathen nations, for they are found even among them that are called by my name, whereas all my people ought to have been holy. THEY LAY WAIT, or contemplate mischievous designs, under deceits, as fowlers do hide themselves, w... [ Continue Reading ]
AS A CAGE IS FULL OF BIRDS, SO ARE THEIR HOUSES FULL OF DECEIT, i.e. they fill up their houses with the goods and wealth of those that they deceive and overreach; ill-gotten goods; a metonymy of the efficient; as the fowler carries his cage along with him, wherein he puts the birds which he catcheth... [ Continue Reading ]
THEY ARE WAXEN FAT, THEY SHINE; or, so fat that they shine; by reason.of their wealth and riches they pamper themselves till their eyes stand out with fatness, PSALMS 73:7; their wrinkles are filled up with fat, which makes their faces shine. THEY OVERPASS THE DEEDS OF THE WICKED; either, they go be... [ Continue Reading ]
It is expressed as a thing taken for granted, he certainly will. Can I be a God, and wink at such things? It cannot be. See this explained JEREMIAH 5:9.... [ Continue Reading ]
So prodigious or stupendous a crime, that it is beyond the thought or apprehension of man to conceive, much more to express; and so abominable, that a man would even loathe the thoughts of. What this is we have in the next verse. THE LAND, Heb. _this land_, aggravating the greatness of the wonder, t... [ Continue Reading ]
THE PROPHETS PROPHESY FALSELY; either spreading and dispersing abroad the lies of their idols, particularly Baal, JEREMIAH 2:8, or venting their lies in the name of the true God, JEREMIAH 4:10. THE PRIESTS BEAR RULE BY THEIR MEANS; by this means it comes to pass that the princes and priests are enco... [ Continue Reading ]