OH THAT MY HEAD WERE WATERS, AND MINE EYES. FOUNTAIN OF TEARS. The, calamities that were to come upon Israel filled the prophet with such sorrow that he felt as though his tears should flow like an exhaustless fountain. He hungered for the salvation of his country and people and when he saw that th... [ Continue Reading ]
OH THAT. HAD IN THE WILDERNESS. LODGING PLACE. The wilderness was an uninhabited region,. desert, where men were seldom seen. There were no hotels in those days, but lodging places were erected here and there where the wayfarer could find shelter. Sad of heart, weary, disappointed, the prophet sigh... [ Continue Reading ]
THEY BEND THEIR TONGUES LIKE THEIR BOW FOR LIES. As the bent bow hurls the arrow and wounds or slays, so the lies of the deceivers and slanderers are shot forth to hurt the innocent. Jeremiah as the head of the party of Jehovah, was the target of the slanders of the false prophets. There was an eff... [ Continue Reading ]
TAKE YE HEED EVERY ONE OF HIS NEIGHBOUR. It would be difficult to choose language which would more strongly describe the ill will, the discord and violence that filled Judah at the period to which Jeremiah referred. The factions were in almost open war with each other.. man hardly knew whom to trus... [ Continue Reading ]
THEY HAVE TAUGHT THEIR TONGUE TO SPEAK LIES. Amid the general deceit and falsehood of this sad period of moral and religious decay, there was nothing else that worked so much evil as the words of the false prophets who made the people distrust Jeremiah's predictions and encouraged them with false ho... [ Continue Reading ]
THROUGH DECEIT THEY REFUSE TO KNOW ME. Most skepticism results from. desire not to believe. It is when the truth is received "into honest hearts" that it brings forth.... [ Continue Reading ]
WILL MELT THEM, AND TRY THEM. As the ores are melted and tried in. furnace to drive away the impurities, so God would try his people in the fierce furnace fires to purify them.... [ Continue Reading ]
THEIR TONGUE IS AS AN ARROW. It darts forth, wounds and hurts. It injures by slanders, lies and deceit. "It is. world of iniquity.... [ Continue Reading ]
SHALL NOT MY SOUL BE AVENGED ON SUCH. NATION? God's wrath may be delayed but the nation that sins will not escape. The fall of every nation is due to national sins.... [ Continue Reading ]
NEITHER CAN MEN HEAR THE VOICE OF THE CATTLE. This verse describes the desolation of the country when God's judgments fall upon it. It will be left. wilderness. Cattle, fowl, beast and oxen will have fled.... [ Continue Reading ]
WILL MAKE JERUSALEM HEAPS. About twenty years later this was fulfilled. The city was left in ruins, and for. period of seventy years was not inhabited. A DEN OF DRAGONS. Supposed to be jackals,. beast common in the East, similar to the wolf.... [ Continue Reading ]
WHO IS THE WISE MAN? The one to whom the Lord hath revealed this impending calamity and who prepares for it.... [ Continue Reading ]
BECAUSE THEY HAVE FORSAKEN MY LAW. These three verses declared the reasons why these awful judgments shall come upon Israel. They had forsaken God's law; they had turned to the worship of Baalim, or the Baal gods; therefore they should reap the fruit of their sins and eat wormwood and drink gall. T... [ Continue Reading ]
WILL SCATTER THEM AMONG THE HEATHEN. The events that happened before that generation ended serve to explain the meaning. The city was destroyed, the temple leveled, and the people carried away captive to. far-off and unknown land, among the heathen, beyond the Euphrates, to remain for. period of se... [ Continue Reading ]