Jeremiah 3 commentary

In repentance, it is good to think upon the sins of which we have been guilty, and the places and companies where they have been committed. How gently the Lord had corrected them! In receiving penitents, he is God, and not man. Whatever thou hast said or done hitherto, wilt thou not from this time apply to me? Will not this grace of God overcome thee? Now pardon is proclaimed, wilt thou not take the benefit? They will hope to find in him the tender compassions of a Father towards a returning prodigal. They will come to him as the Guide of their youth: youth needs a guide. Repenting sinners may encourage themselves that God will not keep his anger to the end. All God's mercies, in every age, suggest encouragement; and what can be so desirable for the young, as to have the Lord for their Father, and the Guide of their youth? Let parents daily direct their children earnestly to seek this blessing.

If we mark the crimes of those who break off from a religious profession, and the consequences, we see abundant reason to shun evil ways. It is dreadful to be proved more criminal than those who have actually perished in their sins; yet it will be small comfort in everlasting punishment, for them to know that others were viler than they.

See God's readiness to pardon sin, and the blessings reserved for gospel times. These words were proclaimed toward the north; to Israel, the ten tribes, captive in Assyria. They are directed how to return. If we confess our sins, the Lord is faithful and just to forgive them. These promises are fully to come to pass in the bringing back the Jews in after-ages. God will graciously receive those that return to him; and by his grace, he takes them out from among the rest. The ark of the covenant was not found after the captivity. The whole of that dispensation was to be done away, which took place after the multitude of believers had been greatly increased by the conversion of the Gentiles, and of the Israelites scattered among them. A happy state of the church is foretold. He can teach all to call him Father; but without thorough change of heart and life, no man can be a child of God, and we have no security for not departing from Him.

Sin is turning aside to crooked ways. And forgetting the Lord our God is at the bottom of all sin. By sin we bring ourselves into trouble. The promise to those that return is, God will heal their backslidings, by his pardoning mercy, his quieting peace, and his renewing grace. They come devoting themselves to God. They come disclaiming all expectations of relief and succour from any but the Lord. Therefore they come depending upon him only. He is the Lord, and he only can save. It points out the great salvation from sin Jesus Christ wrought out for us. They come justifying God in their troubles, and judging themselves for their sins. True penitents learn to call sin shame, even the sin they have been most pleased with. True penitents learn to call sin death and ruin, and to charge upon it all they suffer. While men harden themselves in sin, contempt and misery are their portion: for he that covereth his sins shall not prosper, but he that confesseth and forsaketh them, shall find mercy.

Many regard this verse as connected with the last, and thus read them connectedly, “God hates false confidences, because he says, “etc. But this seems not to me to be suitable; for Jeremiah brings before us here a new subject, — that God seeks to be reconciled to his people, according to what a husband does, who desires to receive into favor an unchaste wife, and is ready to grant her full pardon, and to take her again as a chaste and faithful wife. This verse, then, cannot be connected with the foregoing, in which, as we have seen, the people are condemned. The word לסמר lamer, means the same, as I think, as when we say in French, par maniere de dire, or as when it is commonly said, “Suppose a case.” For the Prophet does not here introduce God as the speaker, but lays before us a common subject, with this preface, לאמר, lamer, that is, “Be it so, that a man divorces his wife, and she becomes allied to another husband, can she again return to her first husband? This is not usually done; but I will surpass whatever kindness there may be among men, for I am ready to receive thee, provided thou wilt in future observe conjugal fidelity, and part with thy adulteries and adulterers.” The word at the beginning of this verse has puzzled most, the form being so unusual. It is left out by the Septuagint, the Syriac, and the Arabic The Vulgate has “vulgo dieitur — it is commonly said.” But ל means at times “according to;” and it may be so rendered here, —

According to what is said, If a man sends away his wife, And she goes from him and becomes another man’s, Is he to return to her again? Polluted, shall it not be polluted, even that land? But thou hast played the harlot with many friends, Yet return to me, saith Jehovah.

The particle הן in the first line is Chaldee for אם; it is so rendered by the Targun and the early versions. The pronoun ההיא after “land” cannot be rendered as Calvin proposes; it agrees in gender with “land.” It is singular that the Septuagint, the Vulgate, and the Arabic, have “woman” instead of “land;” yet the Syriac and Targum retain “land:“ but in them all this pronoun is construed with the noun. Gataker takes “land” here, and in Deuteronomy 24:4, as meaning “the state,“ the community, and refers to Numbers 35:33; Psalm 106:38; Isaiah 24:5. — Ed

As to the main point, there is here no ambiguity: for God shews that he would be reconciled to the Jews, provided they proceeded not obstinately in their sinful courses. But in order to set forth more fully his mercy, he uses a comparison which must be a little more attentively considered. He had before said that he held the place of a husband, that the people occupied the station of a wife; and then he complained of the base perfidy of the people, who had forsaken him, and said that they had acted like a wife who, having despised her husband, prostituted herself to such adulterers as might happen to meet her: but he now adds, “Behold, if a man dismisses his wife, and she becomes the wife of another, he will never receive her again.” And this was forbidden by the law. “But I am ready, “he says, “to receive thee, though I had not given thee the usual divorce at my pleasure, as husbands are wont to do who repudiate their wives, when there is anything displeasing in them.” It is not a simple comparison, as many think; (I know not whether all think so, for I have not read any who seem to understand the true meaning;) for God does not simply compare himself to a husband who has repudiated his wife for adultery; but as I have already said, there are here two clauses. The Jews were then wont to divorce their wives even for slight causes, and for no cause at all.

Now, God speaks thus by Isaiah,

“Shew me the bill of your mother’s divorcement,” (Isaiah 50:1)

as though he had said, “I have not repudiated your mother.” For if any one then departed from his wife, the law compelled him to take some blame on himself; for what was the bill of divorcement? It was a testimony to the wife’s chastity; for if any one was found guilty of adultery, there was no need of divorcement, as it was a capital crime. (Leviticus 20:10; Deuteronomy 22:22.) Hence adulteresses were not usually divorced; but if any woman had conducted herself faithfully towards her husband, and he wished to repudiate her, the law constrained him to give her the bill of divorcement: “I repudiate this wife, not because she hath broken or violated the bond of marriage, but because her manners are not agreeable, because her beauty does not please me.” Thus the husbands were then commanded to take some of the blame on themselves. Hence the Lord says by Isaiah,

“Shew me the bill of your mother’s divorcement;”

as though he had said, “She has departed from me; she has broken the bond of marriage by her fornications; I am not then in fault for being alienated from you.”

God then does not mean in this place, that he had divorced the people; for this would have been wrong and unlawful, and could not have been consistent with the character of God. But as I have already said, there is here a twofold comparison. “Though a husband should fastidiously send away his wife, and she through his fault should be led to contract another marriage, and become the partner of another, as though in contempt of him, he could hardly ever bear that indignity, and become reconciled to her: but ye have not been repudiated by me, but are like a perfidious woman, who shamefully prostitutes herself to all whom she may meet with; and yet I am ready to receive you, and to forget all your base conduct.” We now then understand the import of the words.

In the second clause there is a comparison made from the less to the greater. For the return into favor would have been easier, if the repudiated wife had afterwards become acceptable to him, though she had become the wife of another; but when an adulteress finds her husband so willing of himself, and ready to grant free pardon, it is certainly an example not found among mortals. Thus we see that God, by an argument from the less to the greater, enhances his goodness towards the people, in order to render the Jews the less excusable for rejecting so pertinaciously a favor freely offered to them.

But it may be asked, why the Prophet says, By pollution shall not this land be polluted, or, through this? I shall speak first of the words, and then refer to the subject. Almost all give this version, “Is not that land by pollution polluted.” But I know not what sense we can elicit by such a rendering, except, it may be, that God compares a divorced wife to the land, or that he, by an abrupt transition, transfers to the land what he had said of a divorced wife, or rather that he explains the metaphor which had been used. If this sense be approved, then the copulative which follows must be rendered as a causative, which all have rendered adversatively, and rightly too, “But thou.” I then prefer to read ההיא, eeia, by itself, “by this;” that is, when a wife returns again to her first husband, after having married another; for the law, as we have said, forbad this; and the husband must have become an adulterer, if he took again the wife whom he had repudiated. Liberty was granted to women by divorce; not that divorce was by God allowed; but as the women were innocent, they were released, for God imputed the fault to the husbands. And when the repudiated wife married another man, this second marriage was considered legitimate. If, then, the first husband sought to recover the wife whom he had divorced, he violated the bond of the second marriage. For this reason, and according to this sense, the Prophet says, that the land would by this become polluted; as though he had said, “It is not lawful for husbands to take back their wives, however ready they may be to forgive them; but I require no other thing but your return to me.”

As to the words, we now see that the Prophet does not say without reason, “By this;” that is, when a woman unites herself to one man, and then to another, and afterwards returns to her first husband; for society would thus be torn asunder, and also the sacred bond of marriage, the main thing in the preservation of social order, would be broken.

It is added, But thou hast played the harlot with many companions The Septuagint, the Syriac, and the Arabic, have by a mistake rendered the word “pastors” or shepherds; but the Vulgate has “lovers,“ which our version and Blayney have adopted. But the word means companions, friends, intimates, neighbors. Gataker renders it “mates.” — Ed. What we have before observed is here confirmed, — that the people had been guilty, not only of one act of adultery, but that they were become like common strumpets, who prostitute themselves to all without any difference; and this is what will be presently stated. Those whom he calls companions or friends were rivals. He says, Yet return to me, saith Jehovah: by which he intimated, — “Pardon is ready for thee, provided thou repentest.”

An objection may, however, be here raised, — How could God do what he had forbidden in his law? The answer is obvious, — No other remedy could have been given to preserve order in society when men were allowed to repudiate their wives, except by adding this restraint, as a proof that God did not favor their levity and changeableness. It was thus necessary, for the interest of society, to punish such men as were too morose and rigid, by withholding from them the power of recovering the wives whom they had dismissed. It might otherwise have been, that one changed his love the third day, or in a month, or in a year, and demanded his wife. God then intended to put this restraint on divorce, so that no man, who had put away his wife, could take her again. But the case is very different as to God himself: it is therefore nothing strange that he claims for himself the right of being reconciled to the Jews on their repentance. It follows —

Jeremiah 3:2

2. Lift up thine eyes unto the high places, and see where thou hast not been lien with. In the ways hast thou sat for them, as the Arabian in the wilderness; and thou hast polluted the land with thy whoredoms, and with thy wickedness.

2. Tolle oculos tuos ad loca excelssa (hoc est, ad colles,) et vide ubi non scortata fueris; super vias (vel, juxta vias) sedisti illis (hoc est, ad illos captandos,) quemadmodum Arabs in deserto; et polluisti terraim scortationibus tuis et malitia tua.

As the Prophet had charged the Jews with being wanton in a loose and promiscuous manner, as it is the case with abandoned women, after having cast away all shame, that they might not evade the charge and object, that they were not conscious of any crime, he makes them in a manner the judges themselves, Raise up, he says, thine eyes to the high places and see; that is, “I bring forward witnesses sufficiently known to thee; there is no hill in the land where thou hast not been connected with idols.” We have already said, and we shall find the same thing often mentioned by this Prophet, — that superstitions are deemed idolatries by God. But it was a customary thing with the Jews to ascend high places, as though they were there nearer to God. This is the reason why the Prophet bids them to turn their eyes to all the hills: See, he says, whether is there any hill free from thy fornications. For as strumpets seek hiding — places to perpetrate their obscenities, so the Jews sought hills as their brothels. And thus their impiety was the more execrable as they went forth openly, and especially as they wished their flagitious acts to be seen at a distance, ascending, as they did, elevated places; but strumpets, having found adulterers or paramours, are wont to seek some secret retreats. The Prophet then cuts off from the Jews every occasion for evading the charge, when he bids them to raise up their eyes to the high places; for when they prostrated themselves before their idols, it was the same as when strumpets commit acts of adultery.

And he adds, that they sat by the ways, as the Arabian in the desert He again repeats what we have before observed, — that the Jews were not led away by the enticement of others to violate the conjugal pledge which they had given to God, but were, on the contrary, moved by their own wantonness, so that they of themselves sought base and filthy gratifications, he had before said, “Thou hast corrupted others by thy wickedness;” and now he confirms the same, “Thou hast sat, he says, “by all the ways.” This also is what is done by vile strumpets, who, as it has been said, have lost all shame. But the Prophet enhances this crime by another comparison, As an Arabian in the desert, who lies in wait for travelers, that he may rob and kill them: thus hast thou sat by the ways Gataker suggests another idea,-that the reference is made to the Arabian traders, who fix their tents in the wilderness to wait for the merchants. Blayney renders the lines differently, —

Lift up thine eyes upon the open plains, and see; Where hast thou not been defiled in the highways? Thou hast sat waiting in them like an Arabian in the desert.

To render שפים, “open plains,” is without authority; it means “craggy eminences,“ or elevated places. See Numbers 23:3; Isaiah 41:18; Jeremiah 14:6. The division, too, is arbitrary. “The ways,” or highways, connects better with the following verb; and להם is not “in them,“ but to or for them, that is, her lovers, mentioned in the preceding verse. Our version is the most suitable, with which that of Calvin corresponds.

“Arabian” is rendered “crow” by the Septuagint, the Syriac, and the Arabic; “robber” by the Vulgate, but “Arabian” by the Targum. It is true that the word for a crow is from the same root, but the iod attached to it shews it to be a proper name. Where the Vulgate got the word “robber,“ it is hard to know. — Ed.

We then see here a double comparison; one taken from strumpets, who having in time past made gain, when they find themselves neglected, besiege the ways, and offer themselves to any they may meet with. This is the first comparison; the other is, that they were like robbers, who lie in wait for travelers; as though he had said, that the Chaldeans and Egyptians were excusable when compared with the Jews, because they had been drawn by their wicked arts into illicit treaties, like a traveler who passing by is enticed by a robber, — “What art thou but a helpless man; but if thou joinest me, and engagest to be my companion, there is the best prospect of gain, and new spoils will fall into our hands daily.” Such a robber is twice and three times more wicked than the other. So also, the Prophet says of the Jews, that they were like old robbers, who had become hardened in intrigues, in plunders, and in every kind of wickedness, and had enticed to themselves both the Egyptians and the Assyrians. It afterwards follows —

Jeremiah 3:3

3. Therefore the showers have been withholden, and there hath been no latter rain; and thou hadst a whore’s forehead, thou refusedst to be ashamed.

3. Et prohibitae sunt pluviae, et serotina non fuit; et frons mulieris meretricis fuit tibi, recusasti erubescere.

Jeremiah proceeds with his severe reproof, — that the Jews were wholly given to wickedness, for they had altogether devoted themselves to superstitions, and also to unlawful alliances, and had in both instances despised God. He now shews how great and how strong was their obstinacy. Restrained, he says, have been the rains, there has not been the latter rain; yet the front of a harlot has been thine; as though he had said, that the Jews had not in any degree been subdued by punishment. It was a most atrocious wickedness to give no ear to pious warnings, when the prophets continually cried to them, and endeavored to restore them to the right way. That they thus hardened themselves against the addresses of the prophets, was a proof of the greatest impiety. But God tried also to restore them to himself by punishments, and those very heavy. He punished them with sterility; and the drought of which the Prophet speaks was no doubt so uncommon, that the Jews might perceive, had they a particle of a sound mind, that God was at war with them. It often happens that not a drop of rain fails from heaven; for we see that many summers are hot and dry: there is no doubt but that God then reminds us of our sins and exhorts us to repent. But as familiarity makes us to overlook God’s judgments, he sometimes punishes us in a new and unusual manner. I doubt not then but that the Prophet, by saying, Restrained have been rains from them, refers to some extraordinary instance of God’s vengeance, whereby the Jews might have perceived, except they were extremely besotted, that God was opposed to and displeased with them. It is usual to render the ו before “restrained,” “therefore;” but the sentence will read better, connected as it is with the latter part of the previous verse, by giving it its most common meaning, —

And restrained have been the showers, And the latter rain has not been; Yet the front of a wanton woman hast thou had, Thou hast refused to be made ashamed.

This last verb is in the Infinitive Huphal. It means in Hiphil, to make ashamed; and then in Huphal, to be made ashamed. The Targum expresses thus the general sense of the last line, “Thou hast been unwilling to humble thyself.” The rest of the verse is rendered almost literally. The Septuagint and the Arabic wander very far from the Hebrew. The Vulgate is a literal version, and the Syriac is nearly so, only it connects “wickedness, “in the last verse, with restrained, thus, —

And for thy wickedness have been restrained the dews.

And it is not improbable but that this was the original reading. — Ed.

The import of what is said is, — that the Jews had not only run here and there through a mad impulse, according to their own wills and inclinations, but that they had also been checked by evident judgments, since God had from heaven openly shewed himself to be the vindicator of his own glory, and as there had been so great a drought, that it appeared clear that the curse of the law had been fulfilled towards them,

“I will make heaven iron to you, and the earth brass.” (Leviticus 26:19)

As to the latter rain, we have said elsewhere that by this word is meant the rain which falls just before harvest; and it is called “latter” with reference to the harvest. For, as there is great heat in those eastern parts, they want rain before the harvest commences; the extreme heat of the sun would otherwise scorch up the grain. Hence, they especially look for the latter rain, which comes shortly before harvest — time. The other rain, in September and October, is called, on account of the sowing — time, a seasonable rain; for it soaks and moistens the seed, that it may strike roots and gather rigor and strength. The object is to shew, that God had from heaven given to the Jews manifest tokens of his displeasure, and yet without any benefit; for they had the front of a harlot, and felt no shame; that is, they were moved by no judgments of God, and could not bear to be corrected.

PRAYER

Grant, Almighty God, that as thou hast been once pleased not only to adopt us as thy children, but also to unite us to thyself by the bond of marriage, and to give us a pledge of this sacred union in thine only — begotten Son, — O grant, that we may continue in the faith of thy Gospel, and so honestly keep the pledge given to thee, that thou mayest also shew thyself to us as a Husband and as a Father, and that we may to the end find in thee that merciful kindness which is needful to retain us in the holy fear of thy name, until we shall at length enjoy fellowship with thee in thy celestial kingdom, through Christ our Lord. — Amen.

Lecture Eleventh

Jeremiah 3:4

4. Wilt thou not from this time cry unto me, My father, thou art the guide of my youth?

4. An non posthac clamabis ad me, Pater mi, dux adolescentiae meae tu es?

God, after having set forth the wickedness of his people, and severely reproved them as they deserved, now kindly invites them to repentance, Wilt thou not say to me hereafter, he says, My Father! Some incorrectly render the words, “Wilt thou say to me, My Father,” as though God would reject what they said: and they give the meaning, — that the Jews would act dishonestly in thus glorying in God’s name, from whom they were so alienated. But very different is the meaning of the Prophet: for God mitigates the severity of the reproof which we have observed, and shews that he would be ready to be reconciled to them, if they repented: nay, he waits not for their repentance, but of his own accord meets and allures these perfidious apostates: “What!” says God, “shall there be no more any union between us?” For God expresses here the feeling of one grieving and lamenting, when he saw the people perishing; and he seems anxious, if possible, to restore them.

It is with this design that he asks, “Will they not again call on me as their Father and the guide of their youth?” And by this periphrastic way of speaking, he intimates that he was the husband of that people; for most tender is that love which a youth has for a young virgin in the flower of her age. God, then, makes use now of this comparison, and says, that he still remembered the love which he had manifested towards his people. In short, he shews here that pardon was ready, if the people sought reconciliation; and he confirms the same thing when he adds —

Jeremiah 3:5

5. Will he reserve his anger for ever? will he keep it to the end? Behold, thou hast spoken and done evil things as thou couldest.

5. An observabit in seculum? an custodiet in perpetuum? Ecce, loquuta es, et perpetrasti malitias (vel, scelera) et potuisti.

God shews that it was the fault of the Jews, that he did not receive them into favor. And here he takes the argument from his own nature, and speaks of himself in the third person; and it is the same as though the Prophet had interposed this reasoning, “God is not inexorable, for he is as ready to forgive as he is long — suffering: now, then, what prevents you from living happily again under his government? for he will spare you, provided he finds in you genuine repentance.” We now then see, what the Prophet means here: for as God had kindly exhorted the people to repent, the Prophet speaks now generally of God’s own nature, — that he keeps not for ever, nor reserves perpetually

These words, when put alone, mean that he does not cherish vengeance, and in our language we imitate the Hebrews, Il lui garde. This garde, when put without anything added to it, means, as I have said, that vengeance is cherished within. But nothing is more contrary than this to the nature of God. It hence follows, that the Jews had no obstacle in their way, except that they shunned God, and that being addicted to their own vices, they were unwilling to receive the pardon that was freely offered to them.

As to the second clause, it admits of being explained in two ways. We may regard an adversative particle to be understood, “though thou hast spoken and hast done, “etc.; as if God had said, that he would be propitious to the Jews, however atrociously they might have sinned. But another view is more simple, — that God here complains that there was no hope of amendment, as they had become hardened in their vices, “Thou hast spoken,” he says, “thou hast done, and thou hast been able.” And interpreters further vary in their views: for the copulative is explained by some as a particle of comparison, in the sense of כאשר, keasher, “according to what thou wert able, thou hast done wickedness.” But others take the words more simply and more correctly, as I think, “Thou hast been very strong;” that is, thou hast exerted all thy power, so that thou hast put forth all thy strength in doing evil, as we say in Latin, pro virili, with all thy might; that is, as far as thy capacity extended, thou hast devoted thyself to wickedness. This and the preceding verse have been variously explained. The view given by Calvin has been most commonly adopted; but it is hardly consistent with a literal rendering of the original, which I consider to be as follows, —

4. Hast thou not from this time called to me, “My Father, the guide of my youth art thou:

5. Will he reserve wrath for ever, Or keep it to the end?” Behold, thou hast so spoken, And hast done evils and persevered.

“From this time,” that is, the time spoken of before, when the people followed idolatry. During this time, they called God their Father, and promised themselves the remittance of his displeasure. They said this, and yet followed their superstitions. This is the view which Gataker seemed most disposed to take. Horsley thus paraphrases the last line, —

“Thou hast persisted incorrigibly in doing evil.”

The Septuagint give “called,” in the past tense; the Vulgate, in the imperative, “voca — call;” the Syriac, the Arabic, and the Targum, in the future tense, “Wilt thou not call,” etc. The received text has קראתי, which is no doubt wrong; the iod is not found in very many MSS., and all the early versions agree in giving the verb in the second person. The same is to be said of דברתי, it ought to be דברת, though Horsley prefers the former; but neither the early versions nor the context favor it. The phrase מעתה is rendered by the Septuagint, “ὡσ οἰκόν — as a house,” and by the Arabic, “ut filia — as a daughter.” How such mistakes could have been made, it is difficult to say. The Syriac has “hereafter;” and the Targum, “from this time.” — Ed

I therefore give this explanation: God had before put on, as it were, the character of one in grief and sorrow, and kindly exhorted the people to repent, and testified that he would be ready to pardon them, and at the same time shewed in general that he would be propitious, as he is by nature inclined to mercy. After having set forth these things, he now adds, that he despaired of that people, because they gloried in their own wickedness: for to speak and to do means the same as if he had said, that the people were so impudent, that they boasted of their rebellion against God, and dared to call darkness light; for the superstitious, we know, glory against God without any shame. Now, such was the state of the people; for God, by his prophets, condemned this especially in them — that they had corrupted the pure worship of the law; but they with a meretricious front dared to set up against him their own devotions and good intentions, as they are commonly called. As then, they thus presumptuously defended their wicked deeds, God here complains that they were in no way healable, and so he leaves them as past remedy. This I regard as the real meaning of the Prophet: and of similar import is the verb תוכל, tucal; “thou hast put forth all thy might,” he says, that is, thou hast observed no limits in sinning, but, on the contrary, hast given thyself up to unbridled licentiousness. It now follows —

Jeremiah 3:6-8

6. The LORD said also unto me in the days of Josiah the king, Hast thou seen that which backsliding Israel hath done? she is gone up upon every high mountain and under every green tree, and there hath played the harlot.

6. Et dixit Jehova ad me in diebus Josiae regis, An vidisti quid fecerit aversatrix (alii vertunt, rebellis) Israel? Profecta est ipsa super omnem montem excelsum, et subtus omnem arborem frondosam, et scortata est illic:

7. And I said after she had done all these things, Turn thou unto me. But she returned not. And her treacherous sister Judah saw it

7. Et dixi, Post facere ipsam (hoc est, postquam fecit omnia haec,) Ad me revertere (alii in tertia persona reddunt, Revertatur;) et non reversa est: et vidit perfida ejus soror Jehudah.

8. And I saw, when for all the causes whereby backsliding Israel committed adultery I had put her away, and given her a bill of divorce; yet her treacherous sister Judah feared not, but went and played the harlot also.

8. Et vidi, quod super his omnibus (hoc est, quod propter haec, nempe אדות significat occasiones vel causas,) quia scortata erat rebellis Israel, dimiserim ipsam (repudiaverim,) et dederim librum repudiorum ejus (repudii ejus) illi, et non timuit perfida Jehudah soror ejus, et scortata est etiam ipsa.

Here the Prophet enters on a new discourse: he relates what God had committed to him, and mentions the time, even in the reign of Josiah. It is indeed well known, that the land was then cleansed from superstitions; for that pious king labored to restore the true worship of God, and to remove all the filth and defilements, by which the temple and the whole of religion had been corrupted. He strenuously exerted himself, and no doubt there was an improved appearance of religion throughout the land; but we shall see that a great portion of the people were under the influence of hypocrisy and deceit., as it is usually the case when rulers seek to support the pure worship of God, and to free it from all corruptions; for there are many hypocrites, who for a time dissemble, while the same antipathy to God still remains. Such was then the condition of the people.

And this ought to be carefully observed; for Jeremiah might have appeared to have dealt somewhat too sharply and rigorously with his own nation, as reform was in the mouth of all, according to what we find to be the case with many now, who having left the superstitions of the Papacy, seemed at first to embrace the doctrines of the Gospel, but all now wish to be satisfied with any kind of reformation; at the same time, they shake off the yoke of Christ and can bear submission to no discipline: in short, their object, is to subvert all order; and yet they boldly claim to be the advocates of reformation, whenever their impiety is reproved. This was no doubt the contest which Jeremiah had to carry on, the same with that by which the Lord tries his servants at this day. He therefore says, that he received this commission in the days of Josiah, that is, when that king was laboring to establish the pure worship of God, and no one dared to oppose; for we find that God was then worshipped by the whole people without any external corruptions.

But what is contained in this commission? Hast thou seen, he says, what apostate Israel hath done? God here compares the ten tribes with the tribe of Judah, with whom was united, as it is well known, the half tribe of Benjamin: he then compares Israel with the tribe of Judah, “Do you not see what rebellious Israel hath done?” But he introduces the kingdom of Israel, as well as the kingdom of Judah, under the character of women; for God, as it has already appeared, represents himself as the husband of his people. He then says that he had two wives, even Israel and Judah. God had indeed espoused to himself the whole seed of Abraham by one contract; but Jeremiah speaks here in a popular manner. Though the Israelites had departed from God, yet he had not wholly rejected them. The kingdom of Israel had then become adulterous; but God for a time bore with that sin, so that the covenant, in part, remained. For this reason he acknowledges as his wives both Israel and Judah. Hence he says, “Hast thou not seen what estranged Israel hath done?” The word משבה, meshibe, is derived from שוב, shub, which signifies, both to return and to depart; and Jerome everywhere renders it aversatrix, one who turns aside, or is estranged. It is correctly rendered as a noun, for had it been an adjective or a participle, it would have followed the word Israel. Literally it is, “the apostates,” —

Hast thou seen what she did, the apostates Israel?

Or, it may be rendered, “the backslider Israel,” though the word is deficient, having no feminine termination. — Ed. But some render it “rebellious;” we might say more correctly in French, debauchee She went, he says, on every high hill, and under every shady tree, and there played the harlot In short, God complains that the ten tribes had violated the sacred bond of marriage, when they prostituted themselves to idols, even on all high hills and under all shady trees: for as I have already said, they chose those places as though there was some holiness both on mountains and under shades of trees.

He afterwards adds, Yet I said; God here states, that he had long suspended his judgment before he punished the people of Israel. He then extols here his patience, that he had not immediately visited the Israelites as they deserved, but bore with them and for a long time waited to see whether they could be reclaimed: I said, then, after she had done all these things, Return to me If we read in the third person, the sense will be the same, “I hoped indeed that they would return to the right way, though they had thus fallen away, yea though they had denied me by an impious defection, and had become alienated from the faith and from piety.” But I am more inclined to another view, — that God here records the fact, that he had recalled to himself the ten tribes by his servants the Prophets, though they had by their many crimes provoked his wrath. Here then God shews how perverse the Israelites had been; for he had tried to restore them, if possible, to himself, but had spent all his labor in vain. I thus explain, I said, of the prophetic instruction: “Though then the Israelites had plunged themselves into impieties, I yet ceased not to try whether they could be restored to me.” He intimates, in short, that he had been unlike those husbands, who will not be reconciled to their wives, burning with jealousy, because they see that they had been exposed to so much disgrace. God then shews that though the Israelites had departed from him, he yet sent his prophets, and of his own free will sought reconciliation with them, but that they had refused to return. The difficulty at the beginning of the eighth verse may be removed either by adopting ואראה, as in two MSS., and taking the verb to be in Hiphil, or ותרא, as in one MS., as a repetition of the former verb, according to the Syriac It is left out in the Vulgate But it is most suitable to the context to take the verb to be in Hiphil. Then the passage would read thus, —

6. Hast thou not seen what she did, the apostate Israel? Go did she on every high hill and under every green tree, And play there the harlot:

7. And I said, after she had done all these things, “To me return;” but she returned not: And see this did the hypocrite, her sister Judah:

8. And I caused her to see, that on all these accounts, As adultery the apostate Israel would commit, I dismissed her, and gave to her The bill of her divorcement; Yet fear not, did the hypocrite Judah, her sister, But went and played the harlot, even herself.

“On all these accounts,” or, for all these reasons, refers to several things-the first apostasy — God’s invitation — and Israel’s refusal. God caused Judah to see these things by his prophets, but Judah feared not. The word בגדה, hypocrite, or the perfidious one, is a feminine participle, used as a noun. It is explained in the tenth verse by “feignedly” or falsely. Hypocrites would be the correct rendering. It is rendered by the Septuagint, “faithless — ασύνθετος,” — by the Vulgate, “prevaricatress — praevaricatrix, “and by the Targum, “falsifier” or cheat. — Ed

He then adds, See did she, that is, the whole kingdom of Judah, that, for al1 this, because the rebellious Israel had played the harlot, etc. We shall hereafter find the design of this comparison; for he amplifies the sin of the kingdom of Judah, inasmuch she had time enough to observe what he now relates, and was able to see it at a distance as it were from a watchtower; yet she saw it without any advantage. God then intended to shew how great was the hardness of the Jews, who had seen the defection of the ten tribes, and had seen how severely they had been reproved by the prophets.

He then says, And I saw As he had said that the kingdom of Judah had seen what happened to Israel, so he now says, that he had seen both, See then did I Now, what does he declare that he had seen? Even that Judah had played the harlot; for he now speaks of Judah as of a woman. Then God says, that it was not a thing hid from him that Judah had surpassed the crimes of her sister, not through ignorance or deception, but through deliberate wickedness: See, he says, did I, that notwithstanding all these things, she played the harlot He thus explains more fully what he had briefly touched upon before. He had said, that Judah had seen, but this on account of its brevity might have appeared ambiguous: he therefore explains it more at large; “See did Judah that I gave a bill of divorcement to her sister, because she had played the harlot; and yet she feared not;” that. is, she thought not of repenting, when she had such a striking example of vengeance set before her eyes.

But it may be here asked, how could it be said that a bill of divorce had been given to the Israelites, when he denies by the Prophet Isaiah that he had given it? (Isaiah 50:1.) But the Prophet here takes another view of the subject; for he does not speak here of the bills of divorce, such as were usually given, when a husband repudiated a wife who had been chaste and faithful; but he speaks of that lawful divorce, when a woman, convicted of adultery, is liable to a capital punishment. God then by his prophet Isaiah denies that he had given a bill of divorcement; but he says here that he had given it, because he had repudiated an adulterous woman. It was not indeed at that time customary among the Jews to divorce an adulteress, for she was led to execution. But we have seen at the beginning of the chapter that there is a difference between God and husbands. As then God did not deal, as he might have justly done, with the Israelites, and did not execute a capital punishment, as he might rightly have done, and what was usually done, he says that he had given a bill of divorce, that is, that he had repudiated that people. But by the bill of divorce he means exile; for when the ten tribes were banished, it was the same as though God openly shewed that he had no connection with that people: as long as they continued in the holy land and in the promised inheritance, some kind of union remained; but when they were dispersed here and there, and every sort of worship had ceased among them, and also when the very kingdom of Israel had no longer an existence, God had then divorced them.

See then did her sister Judah, and she feared not It was indeed an instance of great insensibility, not to learn wisdom at the expense of others; and it is a complaint found everywhere in the prophets, — that the Jews were not stimulated to repentance, while God spared them, and at the same time set before them examples which ought in all reason to have terrified them. For what ought they to have considered, but that God would punish those many transgressions by which they provoked his wrath, since he had not spared their brethren? They saw that the kingdom of Israel had been abolished, and yet all of them derived their origin from the same father, even Abraham: how was it then that they so heedlessly despised God’s judgment, which had been for a long time before their eyes? Hence he complains that they feared not It now follows —

Jeremiah 3:9

9. And it came to pass through the lightness of her whoredom, that she defiled the land, and committed adultery with stones and with stocks.

9. Et factum est a velocitate (vertunt tam Hieronymus quam alii interpretes, facilitatem; nomen deductum est a קלל, quod significat interdum esse velocem; hic levitas notatur, vel petulantia, factum est, igitur, a levitate, aut petulantia) scortationum ejus, ut pollueret terram (vel, contaminaret; alii vertunt, peccare faceret; sed Hieronymus ubique fere reddit hoc verbum per contaminare, neque male quadrat,) et scortata est cum lapide et cum ligno.

Here the Prophet completes his charge, — that so far was it that the punishment which God had inflicted on the Israelites, had any effect on the tribe of Judah, that she surpassed by her levity and lustfulness the whoredomes of her sister. She has polluted, he says, the land, or made the land to sin, that is, rendered the land guilty. It is indeed what greatly exaggerates the crime, when it is said that the land became guilty or contaminated. The land, we know, was in itself pure, and could contract no pollution from the vices of men; but that the impiety of men might be exhibited the more detestable, the land is said to have been contaminated by them:

Or, it may be said that the land was made guilty. How so? The reason why they are said to have contaminated the land or to have made it guilty or to have implicated it in their own vices, he gives in these words, she has played the harlot with stone and with wood This verse may be thus rendered, —

And it was, that through the report of her fornication, She polluted the land; And she committed adultery with stone and wood.

There is no instance of קל, in the sense of swiftness, etc., being used as a noun. It is the Chaldee for קול, voice, fame, report. Gataker paraphrases the words thus, “by her notorious fornication.” The early versions and the Targum all differ. Excessive addiction to idolatry is evidently what is spoken of. — Ed Of this metaphor of playing the harlot it is not necessary now to speak; for we have said already, that this similitude is often repeated, because God had united that people to himself and bound them to him, as it were, by the sacred bond of marriage. Hence whenever the people departed from the pure worship of God, they were justly said to have played the harlot, for they violated their pledged faith: as simplicity of faith is spiritual chastity, so apostasy is that shamelessness and perfidy, when a wife becomes unfaithful to her husband by following adulterers. It afterwards follows —

Jeremiah 3:10

10. And yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah hath not turned unto me with her whole heart, but feignedly, saith the LORD.

10. Atque etiam in tote hoc (vel, in his onmibus) non reversa est ad me perfida (vel, fraudulenta: דגב est fraudare) sorer ejus Jehudah in toto corde suo, sed in mendacio, inquit Jehova.

He goes on with the same subject, — that the Jews were not moved by any fear when they saw the dreadful vengeance executed on their brethren on account of their sins. Her perfidious sister, he says, returned not to me, that is, after so many warnings by the prophets and such an example of punishment. He however adds an explanation, — she turned not with her whole heart, but feignedly and falsely. This verse stands connected, not with the preceding, but with the eighth, —

Yea, even for all this, Return to me did not the hypocrite, Her sister Judah, with all her heart, But in falsehood, saith Jehovah.

“In falsehood,” or, by dealing falsely, as it may be taken by a participle preceded by a preposition. — Ed.

The Prophet anticipates here such objections as the Jews might have alleged, “What! thou deniest that we have returned! Is not the whole land cleansed from idolatries? Is not God worshipped according to the requirements of the law? Is there any more an altar seen under the shades of trees or on hills?” As then they might have thus evaded the charge as they usually did, the Prophet obviates such an evasion and says, “Though they have ill appearance given some tokens of repentance, yet they have only put on a disguise and have acted falsely towards God; for there is no integrity in them.” We now more clearly see why he had before specifically mentioned the time of Josiah; for the Jews then returned feignedly to God: there was in the king and in a few a right feeling, but in the rest dissimulation only. God then in a few words shews, that he cares not for that reformation which is false and feigned, but that he requires a genuine feeling within: hence he thus concludes —

Jeremiah 3:11

11. And the LORD said unto me, The backsliding Israel hath justified herself more than treacherous Judah.

11. Et dixit Jehova ad me, justificavit animam suam aversatrix Israel prae fraudulenta Jehuda (vel, perfida, semper est בגדה.)

We now see more clearly for what purpose Jeremiah compared the ten tribes with the kingdom of Judah; it was done in order to shew that the Jews, who wished to be deemed far more holy than others, were yet more perfidious and deserved a heavier punishment, because they acted so deceitfully with God.

It may be here asked, why he pronounces the Jews worse than the Israelites, while they still continued in a sort of middle state of things. We indeed know that the kingdom of Judah was become so corrupt, that hardly any religion remained there; yet the temple was still standing and the priesthood still existed at Jerusalem. But the Prophet condemns the Jews more than the Israelites for other reasons, even because they ought to have become wise through the calamities of others, and they ought to have been confirmed in true religion when they saw their brethren falling away from the pure worship of God: these things they ought to have maturely considered. It was this supine sottishness that rendered them worse than all their brethren, and also their pride, the chief cause of their condemnation, for they boasted that they remained perfect, while the ten tribes had become degenerated. These were the reasons why he says that Israel, though a perfidious woman, was yet more righteous than her sister Judah.

The language indeed is not to be strictly taken when it is said, that she justified her soul; for God does not here excuse the Israelites, nor does he free or absolve them from guilt, (for he had severely punished them;) but this way of speaking is commonly used by the prophets; — Sodom was righteous in comparison with Jerusalem; and Tyre and Sidon were just when compared with the Jews. (Ezekiel 16:47, 48.) Justified then has she her soul, This is the literal expression, but the word נפש is often taken for oneself, and ought often to be so rendered. See Numbers 30:5; Job 18:4; Psalm 7:2; God is said to swear by his soul, that is, by himself, Amos 6:8 —

Then said Jehovah to me, — Justified herself hath apostate Israel, More than the hypocrite Judah.

Manifest and open apostasy is more honest than the double dealing of hypocrites, who combine God’s worship with idolatry; nor is it so hateful to God. — Ed. even the treacherous or the apostate Israel, in comparison with the perfidious Judah; that is, for the reasons which I have stated. The obstinacy of the Jews was greater and less excusable: the external worship of God, which they had retained, ought to have been a bridle to check them; and they had also seen how severe a judge God had been towards the ten tribes; but the judgments of God they despised, and derived no benefit from them.

PRAYER

Grant, Almighty God, that since thou hast deigned to adopt us as thy people, and to unite us to thyself in thine only — begotten Son, — O grant, that we may continue pure and chaste in our obedience to thy Gospel, and never turn aside to those corruptions which disunite that sacred bond of union, which has been confirmed between us by the blood of thy Son, but that we may so persevere in serving thee, that our whole life and all our actions may be evidences of that holy calling, by which is laid up for us the hope of eternal salvation, until we shall at length come into the possession of that kingdom which has been obtained for us by so great a price, and there enjoy the fruit of our faith, sincerity, and perseverance, through Christ our Lord. — Amen.

Lecture Twelfth

Jeremiah 3:12

12. Go and proclaim these words toward the north, and say, Return, thou backsliding Israel, saith the LORD; and I will not cause mine anger to fall upon you: for I am merciful, saith the LORD, and I will not keep anger for ever.

12. Vade et clama (hoc est, cum clamore intona) sermones hos versus Aquilonem, et dic, Revertere rebellis Israel, dicit Jehova: non, non faciam incumbere (cadere, ad verbum) iram meam (alii vertunt, faciem meam; sed metaphorice slgnificat iram) in vos, quia clemens ego, dicit Jehova, non servabo in seculum.

The Prophet, after having shewn that the tribe of Judah deserved a heavier punishment than the ten tribes, and having mentioned the cause, that they had seen their brethren severely chastised and were not moved, now turns his discourse to the Israelites themselves, or the ten tribes, and promises that God would be propitious to them. The kingdom of Israel had now been overthrown, and the people had been banished into Assyria, Persia, and Media. They had been scattered, and the name of the kingdom had been obliterated. The land had been often laid waste and the kingdom partly existed, as four tribes only were first driven to exile; but at, length the very name of a kingdom ceased to exist, and they were all, as I have said, led away into captivity. Hence the Prophet is bidden to address his words towards the north; for though the greater part of the people dwelt then in the east, yet as they had been banished by the Assyrians, God had a regard to the capital of the monarchy in bidding the Prophet to address those whom the enemies had led away to the north.

Cry, then, not so much on account of the distance of the place, but that the Jews, who were deaf, might hear him crying; for the Prophet was bidden to speak not only for the sake of the Israelites, but that through them he might set before the Jews the mercy of God, if only they returned to a sound mind. Now the import of the whole is, — that though the Israelites had been rebellious and had turned away from God, yet pardon was ready for them, if they returned. What the Prophet means by the word return, we have already in part explained, and we shall have to speak on the subject more fully elsewhere. He then requires repentance, and promises that God would be propitious to them in case they returned to him.

He afterwards adds, I will not make my face, or rather, my wrath, to fall upon you; for this latter meaning is the most appropriate. God had already severely punished their sins; for what can happen to a people more grievous than to be banished from their own country, and then to be oppressed by cruel tyranny? They yet suffered a heavier punishment; for the worship according to the Law had been taken away from them, they had been repudiated by God, they had lost that glory by which they thought that they excelled all other nations in having been chosen as God’s peculiar people. All these things had been entirely lost. In what sense then does God declare that he would not be angry with them? By this way of speaking the Prophet simply means, that God would not be irreconcilable, as though he had said, “My wrath shall not dwell, or shall not he upon you; but I will mitigate the punishment which I have inflicted.” Hence I do not disapprove of Jerome’s rendering, “I will not make steady,” (firmabo;) though when he adds “face, “he does not sufficiently set forth the meaning of the Prophet. But this may be admitted, “I will not make steady my wrath upon you;” that is, “My wrath shall not lie or dwell on your heads, so as wholly to overwhelm you.” God’s wrath had already fallen upon them, but in such a way that there was still some hope of deliverance. God then denies, that the calamities, by which he had chastised their sins, would be fatal, for he would withdraw his hand and not pursue them to the last extremity.

The meaning then is, — that if the people returned to God they would obtain pardon, because God of his own free will invited them and promised that the punishment which he had inflicted on account of their sins, would be only for a time. 12. Go and proclaim these words towards the north, and say, — Return, apostate Israel, saith Jehovah; I will not cause my wrath to fall on you, For merciful am I, saith Jehovah; I will not reserve it for ever.

That פני, commonly rendered “face,” means sometimes wrath or anger, is evident, see Psalm 21:9; Lamentations 4:16. God is said to have his face against the wicked, Psalm 34:16, and to make his face to shine on his people, Psalm 80:3. This accounts for the word being taken sometimes, as it were, in a bad sense: He has an angry as well as a smiling face.

The rendering of the Septuagint is, “I will not set firm (στηριῶ) my face upon you,” of the Vulgate, “I will not turn away my face from you,” of the Syriac and Arabic, “I will not harden my face against you,” and of the Targum, “I will not send my wrath upon you.” The last comes nearest to the Hebrew.

Blayney’s version is a paraphrase, —

I will not look down upon you with a lowering brow;

and so is his version of the last line, —

I will not keep displeasure in view for ever.

Our version in both instances is much to be preferred. — Ed.

God further confirms this truth by mentioning what his nature is, for merciful am I, and I will not retain wrath for ever The promise was special in case the people returned; God now adds a general truth by way of confirmation, — that he was disposed to shew mercy, and that he would readily forgive for his mercy’s sake. Since God then is such, and cannot deny himself, there is no reason why a sinner should despair and thus close up the way, that he should not in his penitence implore God’s mercy.

We may hence gather a profitable doctrine, — that whenever unbelief lays hold on our minds, so that we cannot apply to our benefit the promises of God, this should ever be remembered by us — that God is merciful. As God then is so gracious, that he reserves not wrath for ever, but that it is only for a time, we ought to entertain hope; and corresponding with this is what is said in the Psalms,

“A moment is he in his wrath; and life is in his goodness and mercy,” (Psalm 30:5;)

as though he had said, that God’s wrath soon passes away, provided we repent, but that he shews his mercy through all ages; for this is what is meant by the word “life.” He then goes on —

Jeremiah 3:13

13. Only acknowledge thine iniquity, that thou hast transgressed against the LORD thy God, and hast scattered thy ways to the strangers under every green tree, and ye have not obeyed my voice, saith the LORD.

13. Tantnm modo (vel, atqui) cognosce iniquitatem tuam, quia adversus Jehovam Deum tuum scelerate egisti, et dispersisti (vel, dissipasti, aut, prostituisti) vias tuas alienis, sub omni arbore frondosa, et vocem meam non audivisti, inquit Jehova.

God lays down here a condition, lest hypocrites, relying on his goodness, should become more and more hardened, and yet think that he is bound as it were to them; for they usually reason thus, — “God is so kind that he recalls us to himself, and of his own free will invites even sinners; we may therefore easily settle matters with him.” Thus hypocrites by false thoughts’ delude themselves, thinking that they can elude God, since he seeks nothing else but to restore sinners to himself. Hence with the promise of favor there ought ever to be connected an exhortation to repentance. God then reminds here the Israelites, that they were greatly deceived, if they thought they could without any difficulty obtain pardon.

Hence he says, know thine iniquity The particle אך, ak, may be rendered only, or but, or yet. I prefer the second meaning, but; for an exception, as I have said, is here added, lest the Israelites slumbered in their vices, if they persuaded themselves that God was, as it, were, in their power and subject to their will. We hence see that the Prophet, modifying what he had said, introduces this sentence, “But in the meantime know thine iniquity, otherwise thou canst expect no peace with God.” Then these words follow, because thou hast acted wickedly against Jehovah thy God By these words the Prophet proves that the Israelites were guilty, lest they supposed that they could by evasions escape the wrath of God; for we know that often, even those who are conscious of their guilt, are not willing to confess their sins; and it is strange that men are so besotted as ever to contend with God. On this account the Prophets, when they exhorted the people to repent, at the same time brought to light their sins. Were there in men frankness and honesty, there would be no need thus to charge them; but as they either boldly deny their sins, or are so callous as to be moved by no fear, it is necessary to prick them sharply and even deeply to wound them. This is what the Prophet now does; Thou, he says, hast done wickedly against thy God; as though he had said, “I do not now in vain remind thee to own thy sins, for God himself condemns thee: think not thou that thou canst gain anything by thy subterfuges.”

He mentions also particulars, that he might come into closer quarters with them, Thou hast dispersed, he says, or scattered, thy ways to strangers, under every shady tree He again compares the Israelites to strumpets, who commonly so prostitute themselves, that they ramble from one place to another, invite and allure all they meet with. The Prophet then says, that the Israelites had thus dispersed themselves. He speaks delicately on an indelicate subject. But what he means is, that the Israelites were not content with one kind of superstition or with one idol, but blended together as many superstitions as they could, and borrowed false notions from all quarters: they were like a rambling strumpet, who prostitutes herself to all men indifferently. And strangers he calls all their fictitious gods; for as I have often said, they ought to have regarded him as their husband. When therefore the Israelites turned away to other gods, they became like a woman, who leaves her husband and prostitutes herself to any she can find. It is indeed a most common thing for those who forsake the true worship of God to seek for themselves various errors from all quarters, and to abandon themselves unreservedly to all kinds of superstitions.

He at length adds, And thou hast not hearkened to my voice By this fact the Prophet enhances their sin; for they had been instructed in the doctrine of the law, and understood the right way of salvation: how then was it that they thus polluted themselves with so many superstitions? It could not have been attributed to ignorance. It was then their manifest rebellion against God. The Prophet then shews that they had been disobedient and intractable, and that they had relapsed into idolatry and pernicious errors, because they had shaken off the yoke of God, and suffered not themselves to be ruled and guided by his word. But yet know thine iniquity, That against Jehovah thy God hast thou rebelled; For thou hast diversified thy ways for strangers, Under every green tree; And to my voice ye hearkened not, saith Jehovah.

The word אך is rendered by the early versions and the Targum, But, or But yet, or Nevertheless, “Verum,” “Verumtamen.” The third line is thus explained by Parkhurst, “Thou hast run after various heathen nations in their several idolatries.” And this they did, while they refused to attend to the voice of God. To attend to, rather than to obey, is what is meant. So the Vulgate and the Syriac, “My voice ye heard not,” or, as the former, “thou didst not hear.” — Ed

We now then perceive the meaning of this verse: God first requires a confession of sins from the Israelites; and thus he sets forth how available that return would be which he had previously mentioned; for until a sinner knows his sinfulness, he will never really and from the heart return to God, as the beginning of repentance is the confession of guilt. He then proves them to have been guilty, that he might cut off from them every pretense for evasion. He mentions in the third place specific sins, that he might hold them as it were fast bound, even that they had polluted themselves with superstitions, and that they had become, not only like an adulterous woman who follows another man, but also like filthy strumpets, who run here and there and make no difference between men known or unknown. He shews in the last place, that all this happened through mere obstinacy; for they had cast aside every regard for God, though he had given them his law, and sent the prophets as its faithful interpreters, so that they understood what God approved and what was just and right. The reason then why they went astray was, that they closed their ears to God’s word, and suffered not themselves to be ruled by it, but became wholly unteachable. Let us go on —

Jeremiah 3:14

14. Turn, O backsliding children, saith the LORD; for I am married unto you: and I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion:

14. Revertimini filii rebelles, dieit Jehova, quoniam ego maritus vester (vel, dominatus sum in vobis, ut alii vertunt; alii, taedio affectus sum in vobis; dicemus postea de hoc verbo,) et assumam vos, unum e civitate, et duos e familia (vel, cognatione, vel, tribu,) et addueam vos in Sion.

Jeremiah repeats the same thing in other words; but God by so many words shews clearer how ready he would be to grant pardon, provided the Israelites really repented. It would have been enough for God to testify once, that he would be reconcilable, but seeing that they were slow and hard to believe, he proceeds in the same strain. It is a wonderful forbearance and kindness that God, finding his favor neglected, and as it were rejected through the sloth of men, should yet persevere, and invite them again and again. What man would thus patiently bear the loathing of his favor and kindness? But we see that God does not immediately reject the tardy and the slothful, but adds new stimulants that he might at length move them, though this may seem more than necessary. How great is our torpidity? Were not God daily to urge us, how little attention would any of us give to his admonitions? It is, therefore, no wonder that he, pardoning our tardiness, should again and again invite us to repentance; which we find is done continually in the Church.

This, then, is the reason why the Prophet now repeats the same thing, Return, now, ye rebellious children; for he had said before, “Return, thou rebellious Israel.” He then adds, For I am a husband to you Some regard בעל bol, in the sense of being wearied, when found as here, בעלתי בכם bolti bekem, “I have been wearied by you:” but this meaning does not comport with this passage. Nor is there an instance of such a meaning. Literally it is, “For I have been married with (or to) thee.” When this verb is followed by כ, as in Jeremiah 31:32, this is its meaning; but when followed by ל, as in 1 Chronicles 4:22, it means to rule, to exercise dominion. The Vulgate is, “For I am thy husband.” The Targum gives the meaning, “For I have chosen you.” The Septuagint went astray, “For I will rule over you.” — Ed More correctly, then, have others rendered the words, “I am lord to you: “but this lord is not to be taken indefinitely as in Latin, for it properly means a husband, who is a lord to his wife. God, then, no doubt, continues the same comparison, that of a marriage, which has already been often mentioned; for he charges the Israelites with adultery, because they had departed from him. Hence it is that he says, I am your husband He had previously said, “Though a person, when he repudiates his wife, and she be married to another, will never again be reconciled to her; yet I am ready to forgive your perfidy and wantonness: only observe chastity hereafter, and I will deal kindly with you.” Similar is this passage, “I am your husband,” though I have repudiated you. He had, indeed, said, that he had given them a bill of divorce, and thus testified, as by a public document, that there was no longer any connection between him and that people, for exile was a kind of divorce; but he says now, “I am your husband; for though I have been grievously offended with you, because you have broken your pledged faith, I yet remain in the same mind, so as to be ready to be your husband.”

We now, then, perceive the real meaning of the Prophet: despair might have laid hold on the Israelites so as to dread that access to which the Prophet had invited them; but that no terror might hinder them to repent, God here declares that he would become their husband, and that he had not forgotten that relationship with which he had once favored them. The sum of what he says is, “I have once embraced you with the love of a husband; ye have, indeed, become alienated from me, but return, and I am ready to forgive and to receive you, as though ye had always been faithful to me.”

Again will I take you, he says; and then he adds, one from a city, two from a family Deserving of especial notice is this passage; for God shews that they were not to wait for one another, and also, that though the whole body of the people rotted in their sins, yet a few would return to him, and that he would be reconciled to them. This was a point most necessary to be taught; for God’s covenant was in common with the whole seed of Abraham; they might then have concluded that the covenant was extinct, except he gathered together the whole people; for he had not chosen one or two or a hundred or a thousand, but all the seed of Abraham. Since then the promise, without exception, was common, to all, any one might thus reason, “What connection have I with God, except as one born of the race of Abraham? but I am not alone, for we are all the children of Abraham: yet I see that none turn to God, so I must perish with the rest of the people.” Now, that this thought should not hinder the godly, he says, “I will take one from a city, two from a family;” The word is taken sometimes in a limited sense, and means what we understand by family: but it has here evidently a more extended meaning, and signifies a tribe, a community; for it includes more than a city. Such is its meaning in Jeremiah 8:3; and in Amos 3:1, it comprehends the whole community of Israel. It is rendered “ἐκ πατριᾶς, — from a tribe,” by the Septuagint, but improperly; “kindred,“ by the Vulgate and the Targum It no doubt means sometimes kindred, but not evidently in this place. — Ed that is, “If one only come to me from a city he shall find an open door; if two only from a tribe come to me, I shall receive them.” We now apprehend the design of the Prophet.

Interpreters, indeed, explain one from a city as meaning, that though the multitude should perish, yet God would not deny forgiveness to three or four; but they teach not what is especially worthy of notice, that two or three are mentioned, because this thought, as it has been said, might have perplexed them, that is, that they had been all in common chosen as a holy people.

What is here taught may be useful to us in the present day. For we see many foolishly excluding themselves from the hope of salvation, and seeking no access to God, because they have a regard to one another, and the great mass hold them entangled. How is it under the Papacy, that so many pertinaciously resist God? even because they think themselves safely hid in the multitude. We also find among us that some are an hindrance to others. Let this truth be ever remembered, that when God stretches forth his arms, he is ready to receive, not only all, were they with one consent to come to him, but also two or three, even from one city, or from a whole people.

He adds, I will cause you to come to Zion. This had been once said before: God intimates that their exile would be temporary, that the Israelites would again be made partakers of his inheritance, if they returned to God in sincerity and truth. It follows —

Jeremiah 3:15

15. And I will give you pastors according to mine heart, which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding.

15. Et dabo vobis pastores secundum cor meurn, et pascent vos scientia et intelligentia (hoc est, scienter et prudenter).

Here God promises that he would so provide for the salvation of his people after their return from exile, that they should not again perish. But the cause of God’s vengeance ought to be observed, which is expressed in the fifth chapter of Isaiah, “My people,” he says, “have been led captive, because they had no knowledge; therefore the grave has widened its soul or its throat. Rather, “itself;” for the word often rendered soul, has sometimes this meaning. See note on Jeremiah 3:11. — Ed. He then says, that the cause of the people’s ruin was, because instruction had ceased among them, and pastors had become mute dogs or robbers. Here, on the other hand, God declares that he would give them faithful pastors, who would discharge in a befitting manner their office. I, indeed, allow, that under this term are included faithful and wise magistrates; but he especially refers to prophets and priests, whose office it is in particular to reform idolatry. Blayney, following the Targum, renders pastors “rulers,” and feed, “rule:” but this is to interpret and not to translate, as the words have never strictly these meanings, though what are sometimes to be understood by pastors are rulers, and by feeding, ruling or governing. But the interpretation in this instance seems not to be correct, and for the reason here assigned by Calvin It is indeed the opinion of Henry, Scott, Adam Clarke, and others, that both civil and ecclesiastical pastors are intended; and if so, “knowledge” may be applied to the latter, and “wisdom” to the former. The Septuagint have omitted “wisdom,” and retain only “knowledge.” The Targum has “knowledge and wisdom;” the Vulgate, “knowledge and doctrine;” the Syriac, “knowledge and prudence;” and Blayney, “knowledge and discretion.” The verb רעה means “to feed on,“ as in Isaiah 44:20, or, as here, to “feed with.” It means also to “feed itself” as a beast does, Isaiah 11:7

We hence learn that the Church cannot continue without having faithful pastors to shew the way of salvation. The wellbeing of the Church then is secured, when God raises up true and faithful teachers to proclaim his truth: but when the Church is deprived of sound teachers, all things soon fall into ruin. For God, no doubt, intimates by this promise that he would not only be the deliverer of his people, so as to restore them from exile, but that he would be also their perpetual guardian after the people had returned to their own country. It hence follows, that the Church of God is not only begotten by means of holy and godly pastors, but that its life is also cherished, nourished, and confirmed by them to the end. As it is not enough for civil order to be once set up, except the magistrates continue in their office, so nothing is more ruinous to the Church than for God to take away faithful pastors. It cannot indeed be, that people will return to God, unless prophets be first sent: but God speaks here of a continued course of instruction, and of a well regulated government in the Church, as though he had said, “I will not only give you prophets to lead you from your wanderings to me, and to restore you to the way of salvation, but I will also continually set over you sound and faithful teachers.” But we must notice, that those who preside cannot rightly discharge their office unless they are endued with wisdom. God also intimates his paternal love, when he says, that good pastors would be dear to him. It afterwards follows —

Jeremiah 3:16

16. And it shall come to pass, when ye be multiplied and increased in the land, in those days, saith the LORD, they shall say no more, The ark of the covenant of the LORD: neither shall it come to mind: neither shall they remember it; neither shall they visit it, neither shall that be done any more.

16. Et erit, cum multiplicati fueritis et fructificaveritis (vel, creveritis) in terra diebus illis, dicit Jehova, non dicent amplius, Arca foederis Jehovae, et non ascendet in cor, et non recordabuntur ejus, et non visitabunt, et non fiet amplius.

Interpreters have perverted this verse, for none of them have understood the design of the Prophet. The Jews, for the most part, have adduced frigid and far — fetched glosses, — that they would no more bring out to battles the Ark of the Covenant, as no enemy would invade their land. They think then that a peaceable state is promised to the people, as they would be constrained by no hostile force to carry the Ark of the Covenant here and there. But we clearly see that the words mean no such thing: it is then a comment wholly foreign to the subject. Others say, that what is said must be applied to the time of the Messiah, and none even of the Jews deny this; for it afterwards follows, that the Israelites would return with the tribe of Judah. This had not yet been fulfilled; it hence follows, that the Prophet here predicts of the kingdom of Christ. But the Jews, while allowing this, do not understand that anything is said of the abrogation of legal ceremonies; it has yet been thought by almost all Christians, that the Prophet here teaches us, that when Christ should come, an end would be put to all the shadows of the law, so that there would be no more any Ark of the Covenant, as the fullness of the Godhead would dwell in Christ.

This indeed is a view which seems plausible, but the meaning of the Prophet, as I think, is wholly different: for he refers here to that divorce or division which had for a long time existed between the kingdom of Judah and the kingdom of Israel. Though the kingdom of Israel, as to the number of its men, largeness of territory and wealth, was more flourishing and prosperous than the kingdom of Judah; yet there remained these advantages to the Jews, — that they had a Temple built according to God’s command, — that its place had been chosen by God, — that they had the Ark of the Covenant as a symbol of God’s presence. Hence there was contention between the kingdom of Judah and the ten tribes: the Israelites were elated on account of their number and their riches, and other temporal advantages; and the Jews gloried in their Temple and the Ark of the Covenant. And what now does the Prophet say? He declares that such would be the concord between the Israelites and the Jews, that the Jews would no more say, “The Ark of the Covenant,” “The Temple of God;” for God would be present with them all. And the Prophet proceeds to confirm more fully what I have just said: it is therefore necessary to add the two following verses. He then says —

Jeremiah 3:17-18

17. At that time they shall call Jerusalem the throne of the LORD; and all the nations shall be gathered unto it, to the name of the LORD, to Jerusalem: neither shall they walk any more after the imagination of their evil heart.

17. Tempore illo vocabunt Jerusalem solium Jehovae, et congregabuntur ad eam omnes gentes ad nomen Jehovae, Jerusalem dico; et non ambulabunt posthac (vel, amplius) post duriciem (alii vertunt, obstinationem; est etiam interdum cogitatio, שררות, post duriciem) cordis sui malam.

18. In those days the house of Judah shall walk with the house of Israel, and they shall come together out of the land of the north to the land that I have given for an inheritance unto your fathers.

18. In diebus illis venient domus Jehudah cum domo Israel, venient simul e terra aquilonis ad terram, quam dedi in haereditatem patribus vestris (vel, quam dedi possidendam jure haereditario patribus vestris.)

We now understand more clearly what I have already said, — that the Prophet promises here that there would be concord between the ten tribes and the kingdom of Judah, when both returned from exile; as though he had said, that their condition would be better than it ever had been; for the seed of Abraham had been torn as it were asunder; and the people whom God intended that they should continue in a holy union had become divided in the most shameful manner. We indeed know that there had been inveterate hatred between the Jews and the Israelites. As then there had been such disgraceful division for a long time between the children of Abraham, the Prophet now shews what would be the fruit of exile; for after having been for a time chastised by the Lord, they would return to their own country, not to entertain the same emulation as had existed, but to unite together in calling on God, in order that the Jews might be as brethren to the Israelites, and the Israelites might cultivate mutual concord with the tribe of Judah.

PRAYER

Grant, Almighty God, that as thou at this day mercifully sparest us, when yet in various ways we provoke thy displeasure, — O grant, that we may not harden ourselves against thy chastisements, but that thy forbearance may lead us to repentance, and that also thy scourges may do us good, and that we may so truly turn to thee, that our whole life may testify that we are in our hearts changed; and may we also stimulate one another, that we may unite together in rendering obedience to thy word, and each of us strive to glorify thy name, through Christ Jesus our Lord. — Amen.

Lecture Thirteenth

WE began yesterday to explain what the Prophet means, when he says, that there would be no more a remembrance of the Ark of the Covenant after the return of the Israelites into their country and their increase in it, even because there would be no discord among them as there had been before they were led into exile. For the ten tribes, we know, worshipped God after their own manner, as they had departed from the pure and simple teaching of the law. The Prophet then means, that they would all be the worshippers of the only true God, and that there would be among them such an unity of faith, that the Jew would not call God his God only, and that an Israelite would not desire for himself another God. Hence he adds, It shall not ascend on the heart; that is, such a thought shall no more come into their minds; and they shall not remember it; that is, no monuments of their ancient disunion shall exist any more among them; and they shall not visit it, which means, they shall no more come stealthily into Jerusalem who may wish to offer sacrifices to God; and in short, he says, No such thing shall be done The literal rendering of this verse I conceive to be the following, —

16. And it shall be, that ye shall multiply And be fruitful in the land. In those days, saith Jehovah, they shall no more say, — “The Ark of the Covenant of Jehovah;” And it shall not come to their mind, Nor shall they mention it, nor visit it; And not made shall it be any more.

The two first lines seem connected with the former verse. There is a gradation in the three last lines, — It shall not be thought of, much less mentioned or named, as given by the Septuagint, — still less be visited, — and much less still, be made. This gradation is destroyed by Blayney by rendering the first line,

Nor shall it be the delight of their heart;

literally it is, “And it shall not ascend on the heart.” The “heart” means often in Hebrew the mind; and “to come to mind” is the idea; it would not be thought of. The phrase occurs in this book in two other places, Jeremiah 7:31; Jeremiah 44:21; and, not to think, or, not to come to mind, is the most suitable meaning, as it is given in our version. The purpose of this kind of gradation is to render the thing more certain and indisputable, so that there might be no room for doubt. — Ed.

Then he says, At that time called shall be Jerusalem the throne of Jehovah The Prophet may appear inconsistent with himself by saying that Jerusalem would be the throne of God, and yet that the Jews would make no mention of the Ark of the Covenant: but the two clauses wholly agree, for he means that Jerusalem would be the seat and habitation of the eternal God, without any dispute being raised among them. The Israelites before their exile boasted that they retained the worship of the true God, and so magnificent was the display, and so great the pomp, that Jerusalem was quite obscure as to any external splendor. But the Prophet says that this distinction would no longer exist, and that the Israelites would no more contend with the Jews, for all would allow Jerusalem to be the sanctuary of God; as though he had said, “Pure religion shall flourish among them all without exception, such as had not done before.” And this passage he more clearly confirms by the words which follow: —

Assemble into it shall all nations to the name of Jehovah; or, on account of the name of Jehovah (ל, lamed, is here instead of a causal particle) shall all nations assemble at Jerusalem. This seems to be the best rendering. Blayney leaves out the word “Jerusalem;” but for no sufficient reason. The whole verse is as follows: —

In that day call shall they Jerusalem, “The throne of Jehovah;” And gathered into it shall be all the nations, For the name of Jehovah, even to Jerusalem; And they shall no more walk after the resolutions of their wicked heart.

— Ed. We see that there is nothing doubtful in these words, for the Prophet distinctly declares, that the worship of God, such as the Law required, would attain such esteem, that all nations would be ready to embrace whatever would be taught by the Jews. But by all nations we are to understand strictly the ten tribes, as they are called many nations in several places. If any one prefers to extend the meaning, let him enjoy his own opinion.

As I have said yesterday, the Jews think that the time of the Messiah is described here, because what Jeremiah promises has never been fulfilled; for there was no assembling of nations when the Jews returned from exile to their own country, as the Jews alone returned at that time. Hence they conclude that this passage can be explained in no other way than by referring it to the kingdom of Messiah; which, indeed, I confess to be true. But as that return and restoration of the people was a prelude of Christ’s kingdom, the prophets ever begin at that time whenever they prophesy of the Church being renewed. It is indeed true, that the restoration of the whole world was to be looked for through the coming of Christ; yet God began to restore his Church, when he stretched forth his hand to the Jews, and when they built the city and the temple; which was necessary to be done before Christ came forth. But as to this passage, whether by nations we understand the ten tribes, or both kingdoms, or all nations indiscriminately, the meaning of the Prophet is equally clear, which is this, — that the Church would become larger than before, when God restored the people, and that God would then cause true religion to flourish, unaccompanied with envy and strife.

What follows confirms the opinion, that the passage is to be explained of the two kingdoms, Walk, he says, shall they no more after the evil hardness of their own heart “Evil” is connected with “hardness;” but it belongs properly to “their heart.” The word rendered “hardness” is שררות a plural noun, found eight times in Jeremiah; here, and in Jeremiah 7:24; Jeremiah 9:14; Jeremiah 11:8; Jeremiah 13:10; Jeremiah 16:12; Jeremiah 18:12; Jeremiah 23:17; and twice elsewhere, Deuteronomy 29:19; Psalm 81:12. It is so variously rendered by the Septuagint, that they evidently did not understand its specific meaning; ἐνθυμήματα, thoughts, devices; τὰ ἄρεστα, things pleasing or agreeable; πλάνη, wandering. These words are used for it in Jeremiah. The Vulgate ever renders it “pravitas — pravity — wickedness.” The Targum uniformly renders it “cogitatio — thought or imagination.” The latter word is used in our version, (except in Psalm 81:12, “lust,”) with a marginal reading “stubbornness.” The Syriac and Arabic vary as much as the Septuagint, “appetites, lusts, will,” etc. To “walk after” precedes it in most instances except in Jeremiah 18:12, where it is preceded by “doing.” Now to “do the hardness of the heart,” is no suitable expression; nor is “imagination” or “stubbornness” anything better. It can be derived from no verb which means to think or to imagine, or which has any connection with depravity or wickedness, or with appetites or lusts. Nor can we derive it from שרה, which those do who render it “stubbornness;” for that will suit the passage referred to in Jeremiah 18:12. It must then come from שר, to direct, to regulate, to rule, to exercise authority. It occurs three times in a reduplicate form; as a participial noun in Esther 1:22, and as a verb and a participle in Hithpael in Numbers 16:13, where it is applied in the sense of making oneself a prince or a tyrant. The literal meaning of the noun then is, in the plural number, predominances, domineerings, arbitraments; and it may be rendered determinations, resolutions, predominant influences or inclinations. “Walk shall they no more after the resolutions of their wicked heart.” It is used in Jeremiah 7:24, in apposition with “counsels,” being evidently a stronger word: it seems to mean resoluteness or resolvedness, a full determination, a willful decision. Parkhurst renders it, “the ruling principles.” — Ed It was not usual to speak thus of heathen nations, who had ever been strangers to the teaching of the Law. As this, then, can only be specifically applied to the Jews and Israelites, that explanation is the most to be approved, which makes all nations to mean the ten tribes, or the whole people.

Then is added, what is of the same meaning, In those days shall come the house of Judah with the house of Israel It hence appears, that the Prophet speaks of the posterity of Abraham and not of other nations; for he adds this verse as explanatory. It might, indeed, have been asked, “What does this mean, All nations shall come?” To this he answers, “The house of Israel shall unite with the house of Judah;” that is, there shall be no more hatred between these two nations, for they shall acknowledge one another as brethren, and know that they have arisen from the same source, and that they ought to be one people. In short, the Prophet explains in this verse what he had said before. And we ought especially to notice what he adds, Come shall they together from the land of the north into the land which I have given to be possessed by their fathers The Jews had not yet gone into exile; the Prophet said this to them while they were quiet, as it were, in their own nest at Jerusalem, and in the country around; nor could he convince them of what they afterwards found to be true to their great loss, — that an exile was nigh them, like that which they then saw had happened to their brethren, the Israelites. But yet the Prophet spoke of them, as though they had been exiled and dwelt like the Israelites in the north country; Come together , he says, shall they from the land of the north Calvin uses the verb “venient, “shall come, twice: but the first verb is to walk, and expresses the associating of Judah with Israel, or their union. The words are, —

In those days walk will the house of Judah with the house of Israel, And come shall they together from the land of the north, To the land which I made their fathers to inherit.

They would be first united, and then advance together to their own land. — Ed.

They might have objected and said, “We are as yet enjoying our own inheritance, and no one can drive us hence, for it cannot be that God shall be deprived of his own temple, as he has chosen for himself a perpetual habitation among us.” Such words were no doubt clamorously spoken by them. But the Prophet here repels their vain confidence, and says, that their only hope of deliverance was in looking forward to the restoration which the Lord would grant them after they had been for a time banished from their country. Now the Prophet here sets forth to them the benefit which would arise from exile, in order that they might bear with more submission the punishment they were to endure: for they might have a hundred times despaired, had they no hope that this exile would be only for a time, and that they would again be gathered together with their brethren the Israelites. It now follows —

Jeremiah 3:19

19. But I said, How shall I put thee among the children, and give thee a pleasant land, a goodly heritage of the hosts of nations? and I said, Thou shalt call me, My father; and shalt not turn away from me.

19. Et ego dixi, Quomodo ponam to in filios, et dabo tibi terram desiderii (hoc est, desiderabilem,) haereditatem cupiditatis Calvin takes the word in its Chaldee meaning; צבי means in Hebrew, elation, splendor, glory; but in Chaldee, desire, what is desired; and this suits the passage best, “The inheritance of desire to hosts of nations;” that is, “The inheritance desired by hosts of nations;” This is the meaning preferred by Gataker I would render the whole verse thus, —

19. But I, said have I, “How shall I put thee among the children, And give thee the land of delight, The inheritance desired by hosts of nations?” Said have I also, “My Father shalt thou call me, And from me thou wilt not turn away.”

When the pronouns are given before verbs in Hebrew, as אנכי I, here, they are ever emphatical. “But I,” or, “as for me,” or, “even I have said.” — Ed (hoc est, quae concupiscitur,) exercitus gentium? Et dixi, Pater mi, clamabis ad me, et a me non recedes (de post me, ad verbtum, מאחרי.)

It is not my purpose to mention all the expositions of this verse; but it is enough to shew what seems to be the meaning of the Prophet. Whenever I touch on opinions which I disapprove, this I feel constrained to do, because when they present the appearance of truth, readers may be deceived by them: but when the truth itself is sufficiently conspicuous, I am not disposed to spend labor in refuting the opinions of others.

What, then, the words of the Prophet mean is this, — God here asks, How was it possible that the race of Abraham could again be propagated since it was nearly dead? The answer is, It shall be, when thou wilt call me Father, and turn not away from me The question was asked, that the Jews might feel as though their condition was past remedy. And doubtless, since they had so greatly and so obstinately provoked God by their wickedness, they might have seemed to have become wholly lost. God then assumes here the character of one filled with astonishment, as though he had said, “Ye are, indeed, in a state of despair, there is no hope of your salvation; but yet, as it is my purpose again to restore you, I wish now to find out a way, by which your race may again be propagated.” How, then, is this to be done? He shews that the only thing required was, to call him Father, not with the mouth, but really with the heart.

We now, then, perceive the meaning of the Prophet: for he humbles the Israelites by thus ascribing astonishment to God, as though it was a thing very difficult to be done; but at the same time he gives them hope, because salvation was prepared for them, provided they called on God with a sincere heart, and acknowledged him as their Father, and that perseveringly, without ever turning aside from him. In short, God intimates that the Israelites were like dead men, and that their salvation was hopeless, without a resurrection, he yet promises them salvation on this condition, — that they called on him and did this, not with a double heart, nor by a sudden impulse, such as soon vanishes away; for he says, Thou shalt not turn aside from me; that is, “Be always obedient to me, and I will prove that I shall not be called in vain a Father by you.” It follows —

Jeremiah 3:20

20. Surely as a wife treacherously departeth from her husband, so have ye dealt treacherously with me, O house of Israel, saith the LORD.

20. Certe (subaudienda est particula sicut) perfideagit mulier a socio suo Blayney, contrary to all the early versions, construes the word מרעה with woman, “a wicked woman.” “Friend,” or associate, or partner, is here evidently put for husband; a thing commonly done in other languages. Our common version of this verse is by no means correct: the preposition מ is not always “from,” but sometimes “with.” So here, —

Surely, as a woman deals perfidiously with her partner, So perfidiously against me have ye dealt, O house of Israel, saith Jehovah.

— Ed. (hoc est, perfide agit cum marito, ubi ab ipso discedit, vel, se alienat,) sic perfide egistis in me, domus Israel, inquit Jehovah.

He confirms the first clause of the preceding verse: for he had said that it could hardly be that the Jews would recover what they had lost, and be formed again a new people; and he shews the reason, — because they were like an adulteress, as he had before stated. But he did not yet wish to take away every hope; only he insists on this, that they were seriously to consider their sins, in order that they might become displeased with themsalves, and flee to God’s mercy for refuge. Nor did he do this so much for their sake, as for the sake of the people among whom he dwelt. For he had respect, as it has been often stated, especially to the Jews, who had become so hardened in their vices as not to think that this example, by which God intended to terrify them, so as to bend their hard hearts to repentance, belonged to them. Hence it was for this reason that God so severely reproved Israel; for he had said before, that the Jews were still worse. He afterwards subjoins —

Jeremiah 3:21

21. A voice was heard upon the high places, weeping and supplications of the children of Israel: for they have perverted their way, and they have forgotten the LORD their God.

21. Vox super excelsa audita est, fletus precationum filiorum Israel; quia perverterunt viam suam, obliti sunt Jehovae Dei sui.

What I have stated becomes now more evident, — that the case of the Israelites is here set before the Jews, that the perverse, whom God had spared, might know that the same punishment impended over them, except they returned in due time to him: for the Prophet declares, that the Israelites were weeping and in tears, because they had departed from their God, and violated their faith pledged to him. For what purpose did he do this? That the Jews, who indulged themselves in their own pleasures, might be awakened, and be convinced, that except they anticipated God’s judgments, the same tears and the same weeping were prepared for them. The Israelites, indeed, did not as yet thus weep and shew signs of true repentance; for the Prophet does not here commend their feeling or their piety, but intimates, that they were thus severely afflicted, because they had forsaken their God.

A voice, he says, was heard on high places, ‘that is, It was everywhere sufficiently known how cruelly the Israelites were oppressed by their enemies. Now they cried, then they called themselves the most wretched of men: why was this lamentation? Because they had perverted their ways It is, then, the same as though he had said, — that it was a monstrous perverseness in the Jews, that being warned by the punishment of their brethren, they did not repent: for the calamity which happened to the Israelites filled all men with terror. That kingdom had, indeed, flourished for a long time; but the land had been emptied of its inhabitants, and was occupied by wild beasts, until some were sent from Persia and other parts in the East to cultivate it. How could a land so pleasant and so fruitful have become like a desert? Even because God had so predicted:

“Ye have neglected,” he says, “my Sabbaths, and your land shall rest, and it shall no more be wearied by you.” (Leviticus 26:34, 35.)

It was an awful sight; and nations, far and wide, were able to see how great must have been the impiety of that people, on whom God had taken such dreadful vengeance. Were not the Jews, who had this solitude before their eyes, and this devastation of the land, extremely stupid in overlooking all this?

We now see the design of the Prophet, when he says, A voice on high places was heard, as though the Israelites cried on the tops of mountains. And he adds, the weeping of the supplications, etc.: but he does not mean, that they were prayers which arose from faith; but simply that they were such lamentations as betokened misery and wretchedness. In giving a reason, the Prophet mentions not what the Israelites confessed, but only shews the cause why they so deeply deplored their calamities; it was, because they had perverted their ways, and forgotten Jehovah their God The verse may be thus rendered, —

21. A voice on the high places! Heard is the weeping, the supplications Of the people of Israel; Because they had perverted their way, Had forgotten Jehovah their God.

Instead of “high places,” Blayney has “plains;” but there is no satisfactory reason for the change. As the verb in Hebrew commonly precedes its nominative, the construction adopted above is the most suitable to the character of the language. — Ed. He afterwards adds —

Jeremiah 3:22-23

22. Return, ye backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings. Behold, we come unto thee; for thou art the LORD our God.

22. Revertimini, filii rebelles; sanabo transgressiones vestras. Ecce, nos venimus ad to, quia Jehova Deus noster.

23. Truly in vain is salvation hoped for from the hills, and from the multitude of mountains: truly in the LORD our God is the salvation of Israel.

23. Certe fallacia a collibus, multitudo montium; certe in Jehova Deo nostro sans Israel.

God here exhorts the Israelites to repent, that by their example he might move the Jews. The benefit of what is here taught might indeed have reached to the miserable captives and exiles; but as Jeremiah was especially the teacher of his own nation, he labored chiefly no doubt for their advantage, as we have before stated. God then here declares, that he would be reconcilable to the Israelites, how grievously soever they had sinned, he afterwards introduces them as answering, Behold, we return, or we shall come to thee: for the Prophet speaks here of the future conversion of the ten tribes.

It is then a dialogue between God and the Israelites. God himself freely invites them to repent: Return, he says, ye rebellious children; and then he promises to be a physician to heal their diseases: I will heal thy transgressions; that is, I will blot out thy sins, and absolve thee from guilt. God then undertakes to do these things; first, to stimulate the Israelites to repentance, and then to give them the hope of pardon: and he says that a remedy was provided for them, except they hardened themselves. Now, the Israelites, on the other hand, make this answer, Behold, we shall come to thee Here Jeremiah condemns the obstinacy of his own nation, by saying, that the Israelites, when thus kindly invited by God, would not be perverse, but would, on the contrary, be tractable and obedient. This indeed was not fulfilled, when a liberty to return was given to the people, except in the case of a few, who had a right feeling, and preferred the glory of God to their temporal advantages. But the number was small; nor was it a matter of surprise; for God had not previously said, without reason, that if one came from a city, and two from a tribe, he would be received, though others continued fixed in their perverseness. However this may have been, God here intimates that the Israelites would not be so refractory as not to obey his admonition when the hope of pardon and salvation would be presented to them: and this is mentioned, that the perverseness of the Jews might appear more detestable.

But some think that the Israelites are here upbraided, because they hypocritically pretended that they always sought God. Hence they elicit this meaning, “Ye indeed say, Behold, we return to thee, thou art our God;” as though he condemned their hypocrisy, because they falsely alleged that they always sought him. But this view seems to me foreign to the intention of the Prophet. Hence I doubt not but that Jeremiah sets before the Jews, as in a picture, what ought to have constrained them not to persist so obstinately in their sinful courses: “Behold,” he says, “God is prepared to receive into favor your brethren, who are undone and past all hope; and when they shall hear God’s voice kindly and graciously inviting them to himself, they will doubtless return: why then do not ye obey?”

And in the same sense is to be taken what follows, Surely, deceit is from the hills, and the multitude of mountains, or, from the multitude of mountains, as the letter מ is to be repeated. Here the Prophet more fully expresses the evidence of their repentance, as though he had said, “We have been deceived by the hills and the multitude of mountains; we thought that there would be more defense from a large number of gods than if we worshipped one God: this deception has led to ruin. Let then all these deceits be now discarded; for we shall be content with the only true God.” In short, the Israelites confess, in these words, that they had been drawn into ruin by the worst of errors, while they sought many gods, and did not acquiesce in the one true God.

Then they add, for surely in Jehovah our God is salvation They set here the one true God in opposition to all their idols, as though they had said, that the cause of all their evils was, that they did not continue in the service of the one true God, but wandered after a multitude of Gods. We hence see that these two things cannot possibly be connected, — to worship the true God, — and to seek for ourselves various other gods, and to form vain hopes, as they do, who are not satisfied with the only true God. The literal rendering of these two verses is the following:-

22. Return, ye apostate children, I will heal your apostasies. — Behold us! We come to thee; For thou art Jehovah our God:

23. Surely, in vain are the hills, The multitude of mountains; Surely, in (or through) Jehovah our God Is the salvation of Israel.

The word rendered “apostate,” does not mean “rebellious,” but such as turn away, i.e., from God; and the word for “apostasies” means the same, being from the same root. The מ before the word for “hills,” is not a preposition, as it is commonly taken, but a formative: so it appears from all the versions. Blayney conjectures that it belongs to the former word, and makes it לשקרים; but then he does not account for the ל prefixed to it. There is no different reading. The Septuagint is, εἰς ψεῦδος ἧσαν οἱ ζουνοὶ — for a lie were the hills. The Vulgate, Syriac, and Arabic, are materially the same. — Ed It follows —

Jeremiah 3:24

24. For shame hath devoured the labour of our fathers from our youth; their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters.

24. Et pudor (vel, probrum) voravit laborem patrum nostrorum a pueritia nostra, oves eorum et pecora eorum, filios eorum et filias eorum.

They confirm more fully the same complaint, — That God had by manifest proofs shewed the sins of the nation; for he had consumed their labor, that is, whatever they had acquired by labor. He also adds sheep and cattle, and then sons and daughters He does not indeed ascribe this consumption to God; but the mode of speaking is more emphatic, when he says, Shame has consumed the labor of our fathers from our childhood: for by shame he understands wickedness, of which they ought to have been ashamed. The meaning then is, that all the evils they had endured could in no other way be accounted for, inasmuch as the whole was to be ascribed to their wickedness. Our shame, then, Rather, “And the shame,” i e , the idol-worship, referred to in the preceding verse; the article ה is prefixed to the noun. This is the view taken by Gataker and Blayney See Jeremiah 11:13; Hosea 9:10. — Ed that is, our wickedness, has consumed the labor of our fathers It follows —

Jeremiah 3:25

25. We lie down in our shame, and our confusion covereth us: for we have sinned against the LORD our God, we and our fathers, from our youth even unto this day, and have not obeyed the voice of the LORD our God.

25. Jacuimus in pudore nostro, et operuit nos ignomina nostra; quoniam cum Jehova Deo nostro scelerate egimus, nos et patres nostri, a pueritia nostra, et ad hunc diem usque; et non audivimus vocem Jehovae Dei nostri.

As the Israelites say here nothing new, but continue the same subject, I propose only to touch briefly on the words, lest I should be too tedious. They say then that they were lying in their miseries; and why? because they had dealt wickedly with God We see that they are explaining what they had confessed, — even that the labor of their fathers had been consumed by their shame, that is, by their wickedness; and they ascribe to themselves what might have been put to the account of their fathers, because they knew that they were heirs to their iniquity. We have lain, they say, in our shame Calvin seems to have followed the Septuagint in rendering the verb in the past tense. The Vulgate and Syriac retain the future of the original; but the Targum gives the present, and rightly so, as the future in Hebrew is often to be so taken. It is the same in Welsh, the future conveys the meaning of the present. This distich might in that language be rendered exactly according to the Hebrew, and the future would be understood as expressing what the present state of things is, —

Gorweddwn yn ein cywilydd, A gorchuddia ni ein gwarth.

But in English the present must be used, as it is the confession of the penitent when returning to God, —

We lie in our shame, And cover us does our disgrace, Because against Jehovah our God Have we sinned, we and our fathers, From our childhood even to this day; And we have not hearkened To the voice of Jehovah our God.

— Ed. They here shortly confess that they were deservedly miserable, that they could not accuse God of cruelty, as that he afflicted them too severely. How so? because they were lying in their own shame, and their own disgrace covered them; as though they said, that the cause of all their evils was to be found in their sins, and that it was not to be sought anywhere else.

Because we and our fathers, they say, have done wickedly By these words they intimate that they had acted thus, not for a day only, but had been so perverse, that from early life they had imbibed the iniquity of their fathers, and thus added evils to evils. They had said before, that the labor of their fathers had been consumed from their childhood, thereby signifying the continuance of their punishment; for God had not for a day chastised them, but had often repeated his scourges, and yet without any benefit. Now they add, “As we have from our childhood dealt wickedly towards our God, so also he has warned us from our childhood to return to him; and it has been our fault that we have not returned, for he called us; but as we were obstinate, so also God has justly executed on us his vengeance.”

They afterwards say, even to this day; by which they confirm what I have already stated, — that they had been so perverse as not to cease from their vices. At the same time he points out the source of all their wickedness: they hearkened not to the voice of Jehovah Had they gone astray, and had God been silent, their fault might have been extenuated; but as God had daily sent prophets to them, who never ceased to cry in their hearing, and yet they continued deaf, their perverseness in their sinful courses was inexcusable. We then see that their sin was increased by the circumstance, that they refused to hear the voice of God; as though he had said, that God had done his part in calling them back from the way of ruin, but that they had been so obstinate as to disregard his favor, and that they thus justly suffered, not only for their impiety, but also for their ingratitude and perverse wickedness.

PRAYER

Grant, Almighty God, that as we cease not, though favored with many blessings, to provoke thee by our misdeeds, as though we avowedly carried on war against thee, — O grant, that we being at length warned by those examples, by which thou invitest us to repentance, may restrain our depraved nature, and in due time repent, and so devote ourselves to thy service, that thy name through us may be glorified, and that we may strive to bring into the way of salvation those who seem to be now lost, so that thy mercy may extend far and wide, and that thus thy salvation, obtained through Christ thine only — begotten Son, may be known and embraced by all nations. — Amen.

CHAPTER 4

Lecture Fourteenth

Jeremiah 4:1

1. If thou wilt return, O Israel, saith the Lord, return unto me: and if thou wilt put away thine abominations out of my sight, then shalt thou not remove.

1. Si reverteris Israel, dicit Jehova, ad me revertere (vel, apud me quiesce;) et si abstuleris abominationes tuas a facie mea, et non fueris vagus (alii, et non migrabis.)

CHAPTER 3

Jr 3:1-25. God's Mercy notwithstanding Judah's Vileness.

Contrary to all precedent in the case of adultery, Jehovah offers a return to Judah, the spiritual adulteress (Jr 3:1-5). A new portion of the book, ending with the sixth chapter. Judah worse than Israel; yet both shall be restored in the last days (Jr 3:6-25).

1. They say--rather, as Hebrew, "saying," in agreement with "the Lord"; Jr 2:37 of last chapter [Maurer]. Or, it is equivalent to, "Suppose this case." Some copyist may have omitted, "The word of the Lord came to me," saying.

shall he return unto her--will he take her back? It was unlawful to do so (De 24:1-4).

shall not--Should not the land be polluted if this were done?

yet return--(Jr 3:22; Jr 4:1; Zec 1:3; compare Eze 16:51, 58, 60). "Nevertheless," &c. (see on Is 50:1).

2. high places--the scene of idolatries which were spiritual adulteries.

In ... ways ... sat for them--watching for lovers like a prostitute (Ge 38:14, 21; Pr 7:12; 23:28; Eze 16:24, 25), and like an Arab who lies in wait for travellers. The Arabs of the desert, east and south of Palestine, are still notorious as robbers.

3. no latter rain--essential to the crops in Palestine; withheld in judgment (Le 26:19; compare Joe 2:23).

whore's forehead--(Jr 8:12; Eze 3:8).

4. from this time--not referring, as Michaelis thinks, to the reformation begun the year before, that is, the twelfth of Josiah; it means--now at once, now at last.

me--contrasted with the "stock" whom they had heretofore called on as "father" (Jr 2:27; Lu 15:18).

thou art--rather, "thou wast."

guide of ... youth--that is, husband (Jr 2:2; Pr 2:17; Ho 2:7, 15). Husband and father are the two most endearing of ties.

5. he--"thou," the second person, had preceded. The change to the third person implies a putting away of God to a greater distance from them; instead of repenting and forsaking their idols, they merely deprecate the continuance of their punishment. Jr 3:12 and Psa 103:9, answer their question in the event of their penitence.

spoken and--rather (God's reply to them), "Thou hast spoken (thus), and yet (all the while) thou hast done evil," &c.

as thou couldest--with all thy might; with incorrigible persistency [Calvin].

6. Jr 3:6-6:30, is a new discourse, delivered in Josiah's reign. It consists of two parts, the former extending to Jr 4:3, in which he warns Judah from the example of Israel's doom, and yet promises Israel final restoration; the latter a threat of Babylonian invasion; as Nabopolassar founded the Babylonian empire, 625 B.C., the seventeenth of Josiah, this prophecy is perhaps not earlier than that date (Jr 4:5, &c.; Jr 5:14, &c.; Jr 6:1, &c.; Jr 22:1-30); and probably not later than the second thorough reformation in the eighteenth year of the same reign.

backsliding--literally, "apostasy"; not merely apostate, but apostasy itself, the essence of it (Jr 3:14, 22).

7. I said--(2Ki 17:13).

sister--(Eze 16:46; 23:2, 4).

8. I saw that, though (whereas) it was for this very reason (namely), because backsliding (apostate) Israel had committed adultery I had put her away (2Ki 17:6, 18), and given her a bill of divorce, yet Judah, &c. (Eze 23:11, &c.).

bill of divorce--literally, "a writing of cuttings off." The plural implies the completeness of the severance. The use of this metaphor here, as in the former discourse (Jr 3:1), implies a close connection between the discourses. The epithets are characteristic; Israel "apostate" (as the Hebrew for "backsliding" is better rendered); Judah, not as yet utterly apostate, but treacherous or faithless.

also--herself also, like Israel.

9. it--Some take this verse of Judah, to whom the end of Jr 3:8 refers. But Jr 3:10 puts Judah in contrast to Israel in this verse. "Yet for all this," referring to the sad example of Israel; if Jr 3:9 referred to Judah, "she" would have been written in Jr 3:10, not "Judah." Translate, "It (the putting away of Israel) had come to pass through ... whoredom; and (that is, for) she (Israel) had defiled the land" &c. [Maurer]. English Version, however, may be explained to refer to Israel.

lightness--"infamy." [Ewald]. Maurer not so well takes it from the Hebrew root, "voice," "fame."

10. yet--notwithstanding the lesson given in Israel's case of the fatal results of apostasy.

not ... whole heart--The reformation in the eighteenth year of Josiah was not thorough on the part of the people, for at his death they relapsed into idolatry (2Ch 34:33; Ho 7:14).

11. justified herself--has been made to appear almost just (that is, comparatively innocent) by the surpassing guilt of Judah, who adds hypocrisy and treachery to her sin; and who had the example of Israel to warn her, but in vain (compare Eze 16:51; 23:11).

more than--in comparison with.

12. Go--not actually; but turn and proclaim towards the north (Media and Assyria, where the ten tribes were located by Tiglath-pileser and Shalmaneser, 2Ki 15:29; 17:6; 18:9, 11).

Return ... backsliding--Hebrew, Shubah, Meshubah, a play on sounds. In order to excite Judah to godly jealousy (Ro 11:14), Jehovah addresses the exiled ten tribes of Israel with a loving invitation.

cause ... anger to fall--literally, "I will not let fall My countenance" (compare Ge 4:5, 6; Job 29:3), that is, I will not continue to frown on you.

keep--"anger" is to be supplied (see on Jr 3:5).

13. Only acknowledge--(De 30:1, 3; Pr 28:13).

scattered thy ways, &c.--(Jr 2:25). Not merely the calves at Beth-el, but the idols in every direction, were the objects of their worship (Eze 16:15, 24, 25).

14. I am married--literally, "I am Lord," that is, husband to you (so Jr 31:32; compare Ho 2:19, 20; Is 54:5). Gesenius, following the Septuagint version of Jr 31:32, and Paul's quotation of it (He 8:9), translates, "I have rejected you"; so the corresponding Arabic, and the idea of lordship, may pass into that of looking down upon, and so rejecting. But the Septuagint in this passage translates, "I will be Lord over you." And the "for" has much more force in English Version than in that of Gesenius. The Hebrew hardly admits the rendering though [Hengstenberg].

take you one of a city--Though but one or two Israelites were in a (foreign) city, they shall not be forgotten; all shall be restored (Am 9:9). So, in the spiritual Israel, God gathers one convert here, another there, into His Church; not the least one is lost (Mt 18:14; Ro 11:5; compare Jr 24:5-7).

family--a clan or tribe.

15. pastors--not religious, but civil rulers, as Zerubbabel, Nehemiah (Jr 23:4; 2:8).

16. they shall say no more--The Jews shall no longer glory in the possession of the ark; it shall not be missed, so great shall be the blessings of the new dispensation. The throne of the Lord, present Himself, shall eclipse and put out of mind the ark of the covenant and the mercy seat between the cherubim, God's former throne. The ark, containing the two tables of the law, disappeared at the Babylonian captivity, and was not restored to the second temple, implying that the symbolical "glory" was to be superseded by a "greater glory" (Hag 2:9).

neither ... visit it--rather, "neither shall it be missed" (so in Jr 23:4).

done--rather, "neither shall it (the ark) be made (that is, be restored) any more" [Maurer].

17. Jerusalem--the whole city, not merely the temple. As it has been the center of the Hebrew theocracy, so it shall be the point of attraction to the whole earth (Is 2:2-4; Zec 2:10, 11; 14:16-21).

throne of ... Lord--The Shekinah, the symbol of God's peculiar nearness to Israel (De 4:7) shall be surpassed by the antitype, God's own throne in Jerusalem (Psa 2:6, 8; Eze 34:23, 24; Zec 2:5).

imagination--rather, as Margin, "the obstinacy" or stubbornness.

18. Judah ... Israel ... together--Two distinct apostasies, that of Israel and that of Judah, were foretold (Jr 3:8, 10). The two have never been united since the Babylonish captivity; therefore their joint restoration must be still future (Is 11:12, 13; Eze 37:16-22; Ho 1:11).

north--(Jr 3:12).

land ... given ... inheritance--(Am 9:15).

19. The good land covenanted to Abraham is to be restored to his seed. But the question arises, How shall this be done?

put ... among ... children--the Greek for adoption means, literally, "putting among the sons."

the children--that is, My children. "How shall I receive thee back into My family, after thou hast so long forsaken Me for idols?" The answer is, they would acknowledge Him as "Father," and no longer turn away from Him. God assumes the language of one wondering how so desperate apostates could be restored to His family and its privileges (compare Eze 37:3; Calvin makes it, How the race of Abraham can be propagated again, being as it were dead); yet as His purpose has decreed it so, He shows how it shall be effected, namely, they shall receive from Him the spirit of adoption to cry, "My Father" (Joh 1:12; Ga 4:6). The elect are "children" already in God's purpose; this is the ground of the subsequent realization of this relationship (Ep 1:5; He 2:13).

pleasant land--(Jr 11:5; Eze 20:6; Da 11:16, Margin).

heritage of ... hosts--a heritage the most goodly of all nations [Maurer]; or a "heritage possessed by powerful hosts" (De 4:38; Am 2:9). The rendering "splendors," instead of "hosts," is opposed by the fact that the Hebrew for "splendor" is not found in the plural.

20. Surely--rather, "But."

husband--literally, "friend."

21. In harmony with the preceding promises of God, the penitential confessions of Israel are heard.

high places--The scene of their idolatries is the scene of their confessions. Compare Jr 3:23, in which they cast aside their trust in these idolatrous high places. The publicity of their penitence is also implied (compare Jr 7:29; 48:38).

22. Jehovah's renewed invitation (Jr 3:12, 14) and their immediate response.

heal--forgive (2Ch 30:18, 20; Ho 14:4).

unto thee--rather, "in obedience to thee"; literally, "for thee" [Rosenmuller].

23. multitude of mountains--that is, the multitude of gods worshipped on them (compare Psa 121:1, 2, Margin).

24. shame--that is, the idols, whose worship only covers us with shame (Jr 11:13; Ho 9:10). So far from bringing us "salvation," they have cost us our cattle and even our children, whom we have sacrificed to them.

25. (Ezr 9:7).

If a man put away his wife - It was ever understood, by the law and practice of the country, that if a woman were divorced by her husband, and became the wife of another man, the first husband could never take her again. Now Israel had been married unto the Lord; joined in solemn covenant to him to worship and serve him only. Israel turned from following him, and became idolatrous. On this ground, considering idolatry as a spiritual whoredom, and the precept and practice of the law to illustrate this case, Israel could never more be restored to the Divine favor: but God, this first husband, in the plenitude of his mercy, is willing to receive this adulterous spouse, if she will abandon her idolatries and return unto him. And this and the following chapters are spent in affectionate remonstrances and loving exhortations addressed to these sinful people, to make them sensible of their own sin, and God's tender mercy in offering to receive them again into favor.

As the Arabian in the wilderness - They were as fully intent on the practice of their idolatry as the Arab in the desert is in lying in wait to plunder the caravans. Where they have not cover to lie in ambush, they scatter themselves about, and run hither and thither, raising themselves up on their saddles to see if they can discover, by smoke, dust, or other token, the approach of any travelers.

There hath been no latter rain - The former rain, which prepared the earth for tillage, fell in the beginning of November, or a little sooner; and the latter rain fell in the middle of April, after which there was scarcely any rain during the summer.

Wilt thou not - cry unto me, My father - Wilt thou not allow me to be thy Creator and Preserver, and cease thus to acknowledge idols? See on Jer 2:27 (note).

Will he reserve his anger for ever? - Why should not wrath be continued against thee, as thou continuest transgression against the Lord?

The Lord said also unto me in the days of Josiah the king - This is a new discourse, and is supposed to have been delivered after the eighteenth year of the reign of Josiah. Here the prophet shows the people of Judah the transgressions, idolatry, obstinacy, and punishment of their brethren, the ten tribes, whom he calls to return to the Lord, with the most gracious promises of restoration to their own country, their reunion with their brethren of Judah, and every degree of prosperity in consequence. He takes occasion also to show the Jews how much more culpable they were than the Israelites, because they practiced the same iniquities while they had the punishment and ruin of the others before their eyes. He therefore exhorts them to return to God with all their hearts, that they might not fall into the same condemnation. See the following verses.

And I said - By the prophets Elijah, Elisha, Hosea, Amos, etc.; for all these prophesied to that rebellious people, and exhorted them to return to the Lord.

I had put her away - Given them up into the hands of the Assyrians.

The lightness of her whoredom - The grossness of her idolatry: worshipping objects the most degrading, with rites the most impure.

Backsliding Israel hath justified herself more - She was less offensive in my eyes, and more excusable, than treacherous Judah. So it is said, Luk 18:14, the humbled publican went down to his house justified rather than the boasting Pharisee. The one was more to be pitied than the other, and more likely to receive the mercy of God.

Proclaim these words toward the north - The countries where the ten tribes were then in captivity, Mesopotamia, Assyria, Media, etc., see 2Kgs 17:6; these lay north of Judea. How tender and compassionate are the exhortations in this and the following verses! Could these people believe that God had sent the prophet and yet prefer the land of their bondage to the blessings of freedom in their own country, and the approbation of their God?

I will take you one of a city, and two of a family - If there should be but one of a city left, or one willing to return, and two only of a whole tribe, yet will I receive these, and bring them back from captivity into their own land. I have heard these words most sinfully applied to show the nature of a fancied eternal decree of election, that has appointed in several cases one only out of a whole city, and two out of a whole family, to be eternally saved, leaving the rest, according to the decree of reprobation, to perish everlastingly! And yet these persons, who spoke thus of the Fountain of eternal goodness and mercy, professed to believe in Him who by the grace of God tasted death for every man.

I win give you pastors according to mine heart - The pastor means either the king or the prophet; and the pastors here promised may be either kings or prophets, or both. These shall be according to God's own heart; they shall be of his own choosing and shall be qualified by himself: and in consequence they shall feed the people with knowledge, דעה deah that Divine truth concerning the true God and the best interests of man, which was essentially necessary to their salvation; and understanding השכיל haskeil, the full interpretation of every point, that in receiving the truth they might become wise, holy, and happy.

The ark of the covenant of the Lord - This symbol of the Divine presence, given to the Jews as a token and pledge of God's dwelling among them, shall be no longer necessary, and shall no longer exist; for in the days of the Messiah, to which this promise seems to relate, God's worship shall not be confined either to one place or to one people. The temple of God shall be among men, and every where God be adored through Christ Jesus.

Neither shall that be done any more - The ark shall be no more established, nor carried from place to place, nor shall men go to visit it. All its ceremonies and importance shall cease; and, if lost, shall never be rebuilt.

They shall call Jerusalem the throne of the Lord - The new Jerusalem, the universal Church of Christ, shall be God's throne: and wherever he is acknowledged as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, there God sits on his throne, and holds his court.

The house of Judah shall walk with the house of Israel - That is, in those days in which the Jews shall be brought in with the fullness of the Gentiles.

Out of the land of the north - From Chaldea. This prophecy has two aspects: one refers to the return from the Babylonish captivity; the other, to the glorious days of Christianity. But the words may refer to that gathering together of the Jews, not only from Chaldea, but from the countries of their dispersion over the face of the whole earth, and uniting them in the Christian Church.

How shalt I put thee among the children - As if he had said, How can ye be accounted a holy seed, who are polluted? How can ye be united to the people of God, who walk in the path of sinners? How can ye be taken to heaven, who are unholy within, and unrighteous without?

And I said, Thou shalt call me, My father - This is the answer to the above question. They could not be put among the children unless they became legal members of the heavenly family: and they could not become members of this family unless they abandoned idolatry, and took the Lord for their portion. Nor could they be continued in the privileges of the heavenly family, unless they no more turned away from their heavenly Father.

A voice was heard upon the high places - Here the Israelites are represented as assembled together to bewail their idolatry and to implore mercy. While thus engaged, they hear the gracious call of Jehovah: -

Return, ye backsliding children - This they gladly receive, and with one voice make their confession to him: "Behold, we come unto thee, for thou art Jehovah our God;" and thence to the end of the chapter, show the reasons why they return unto God.

1. Because he is the true God.

2. Because the idols did not profit them: they could give no help in time of trouble.

3. Because it is the prerogative of God alone to give salvation.

4. Because they had no kind of prosperity since they had abandoned the worship of their Maker. And this was not only their case, but it was the case of their forefathers, who all suffered in consequence of their idolatry and disobedience.

5. These reasons are concluded with a hearty confession of sin, at the thought of which they are confounded; for the remembrance of their sin was grievous to them, and the burden was intolerable. This confession ended, God appears in the next chapter with gracious promises, and proper directions how they are to return, and how to conduct themselves in future.

For shame hath devoured - The word shame, here and in Jer 11:13; Hos 9:10, is supposed to signify Baal, the idol which they worshipped. That thing or shame which has brought you into contempt, confusion, and ruin. Sooner or later every sinner must be ashamed of his conduct; next, confounded; and, lastly, ruined by it, unless by true faith and hearty repentance he returns to the Lord.

Shall be - He cannot take her again according to the law, Deut 24:1 - 4. Yet I am ready to be reconciled to you. Polluted - Would not so great a sin greatly pollute a nation? Many - Not with one only, but many idols.

Lien with - Where there are not the footsteps of thy idolaters. Sat - To assure passengers. As the Arabian - An allusion to the custom of that people, who were wont to pitch their tents by the way - sides, that they might meet with their customers to trade, as they passed along. Wickedness - Not only thy idolatries, but other wicked courses.

A whore's forehead - For all this, thou didst still remain obstinate, as ashamed of nothing.

My father - Wilt thou not as a child call upon me, whom thou hast thus greatly provoked. The guide - I have been brought up by thee.

Will he - Will he not be reconciled?

Israel - The ten tribes who fell off from Judah.

Given a bill - Delivered her up into the hands of the Assyrian, where God took from her the title of being his church, 2Kings 17:5,6.

And yet - Though God saw what she did, and though she saw the shameful idolatry of Israel, and what she had suffered.

The north - To Assyria and Media, that lay northward from Judea, whither the ten tribes were carried by Tiglath - pileser, and Salmanezer.

Strangers - To other gods, or to idols, running here and there up and down.

I am married - I am in covenant with you, and this covenant notwithstanding all your unfaithfulness, I am ready to renew with you. Family - This word is taken frequently for a country or nation, and this may partly respect the fewness of those that will return. But chiefly it respects God's exact care of them, that being now married to them, there shall not be one in a city, or two in a country or tribe, but he will find them out. Zion - The ten tribes did never return into their own land, therefore this must be understood of a spiritual going up to Zion, when all Israel shall be saved, Rom 11:26.

Multiplied - After the growth of the church under the Messiah. The ark - That whole worship with all the rites and ceremonies belonging to it shall cease, Christ being come, who was the substance of what the ark, and all other rites shadowed. Covenant - Called also the ark of the testimony, because the two tables of the law, which were the testimony, or witness of the covenant were in it. Any more - It shall be no more in use; neither shall men trouble their thoughts about it, or mention it.

The throne - Instead of the ark, the church typified by Jerusalem, shall be the place of God's residence, where by his spirit he will rule and act in his word and ordinances. Jerusalem - Dwelling in Jerusalem, or where the Lord placed his name, of old in Jerusalem, but now in the church. Neither - Both Jews and Gentiles shall now conform themselves to the will of God.

Judah - The two kingdoms shall become one. Shall come - Of their captivity, a promise of their enjoying again their ancient possession at their last conversion.

Put - Esteem thee as my child, 'till thou give some proof, of thy repentance. Give thee - How shall I put thee into possession of that pleasant land. Of nations - Great hosts and multitudes of nations, or Gentiles, that shall be joined to them in the gospel church. Thou shalt - On this condition, that thou wilt own me, and not return any more to idols.

A voice - Here the prophet seems to express Israel's repentance. Forgotten - This expresses, rather the matter or their prayer, than the cause of it.

The hills - From idols which were worshipped upon hills. Mountains - The multitude of sacrifices, which they offer in the mountains.

Shame - Sin, which causes shame, for that brought shame first into the world. Devoured - This hath been the fruit of our labour.

Lie down - An expression to set forth the greatness of their repentance and sorrow in great perplexity, not knowing what to do, throws himself down upon his couch or bed.

1 THey say , if a man put away his wife, and she go from him, and becomes another mans, shall he return unto her again ? Shall not that land be greatly polluted ? But thou hast played the harlot with many lovers; yet return again to me, saith the LORD.

Or, men use to say, if this, with the four following verses, belong to the former Chapter, then it seems to express Gods condescension to them, that though, if a Woman forsake her Husband, and be married to another man, the Law will not permit him to receive her again, yet God would receive thee again upon thy returning to him, but thou chusest rather obstinately to adhere to thy other confidences, wherein thou shalt not prosper. But, if we look upon them, as beginning a new Argument, then here God declares his readiness to receive them again upon their Repentance, though it be very unusual for Husbands so to do, when their Wives have proved treacherous unto them in betaking themselves to other Husbands, and so this chapter may very well begin, with such a proverbial speech they say, or men use to say, or it is commonly said.

Or give her a bill of Divorce, Deut. 24.1.

q. d. He cannot take her again according to the Law, Deut. 24.1, 2, 3, 4. Or, rather will a man do such a thing? If the Law were not against it, would any man be so easily wrought upon, as to take her again? No certainly, it is an argunment from the less to the greater, to set forth Gods great lenity towards them, q. d. if an Husband should turn away his Wife, meerly because he pleased her not, though she gave him no just cause, and she should bestow her self on another, he would not be reconciled to her, neither might he take her again, but you have gone a Whoring from me, and sufficiently provoked me to reject, and turn you off. I will dispence with my own Law for your sakes, and will act by my prerogative, I am ready to be reconciled to follow them, that fly from me, as in the close of the verse, and Zec. 1.3. and Mal. 3.7. God will pardon sins of Apostacy▪ and falls after Repentance.

Heb. In being prophane be prophaned would not so great a sin greatly pollute a State, or Nation, Lev. 18.27, 28, It must needs be polluted by such Marriages to, and fro, and promiscuous couplings, Deut. 24.4.

Not with one only, as being sufficient to make thee an Adulteress, but a common Strumpet, joyning in fellowship with divers associates, and companions, or many Idols.

Marginal references: Heb. saying.

2 Lift up thine eyes unto the high places , and see where thou hast not been lien with: In the wayes hast thou [illegible: 1 letter]at for them, as the Arabian in the wilderness: and thou hast polluted the land with thy whoredoms, and with thy wickedness .

Do but look, and consider, whether I do charge thee wrongfully or no.

He directs her to the places of her whoredoms, and Idolatries, called High places being principally upon Hills, 2 Kings 21.3. and divers other places, though sometimes in Vallies, chap. 2.23. which notes also her impudence▪ that, whereas other Whores affected privacy, she should be filthy in the open view.

Thy filthiness has been every where so frequent, that thou canst scarce shew a place, that hath been free of thy pollutions, verse 6, 13. where there are not the Footsteps of thy Fornications and Idolatries.

Viz. To allure Passengers, See Ezek. 16.24, 25. and waiting for them, viz. Thy Associates, not drawn by others allurements, but thine own Lasciviousness.

An allusion to the manner and custom of that People, either lying in wait by the way for Passengers as Robbers use to do, Hos. 6.9. They being noted for Robbers. Or rather, in a way of Traffick, that were wont to pitch their Tents by the way sides, that they might meet with their customers to Trade, as they passed along, very properly pointing out the practice of Harlots, see Prov. 7.11, 12.

Not only thy Idolatries, but all other thy wicked courses.

Marginal references: Gen. 38.14.

3 Therefore the showers have been withholden , and there hath been no latter rain : and thou hadst a whores forehead , thou refusedst to be ashamed.

Viz. By me, according to my threatning, Lev. 26.19. and Deut. 28.23, 24. i. e. a drought sent upon thee, either as a punishment of thy wickedness, thus publick sins bring publick judgments, or as an aggravation of it, and then it must be read though, as it often is, q. d. notwithstanding the great drought; and this the last words of the verse seem to favour.

This added to showers before mentioned seems to imply, there had been no former, nor latter Rain, the former for the springing of the Corn, the latter for the plumping, and ripening it, this coming a little before harvest.

For all this, thou didst still remain impudent, and obstinate as ashamed of nothing chap. 6.15. thus proverbially expressed because shame doth first, and mostly appear in the forehead thus Antichrists impudence is expressed, Revelations 17.5. and some ancient Hereticks were called Effrontes.

Marginal references: chap. 9.12.; chap. 8.12. Zeph. 3.5.

4 Wilt thou not from this time cry unto me, My Father , thou art the guide of my youth .

Viz. That I have withholden showers; some refer this, 1. To the time to come, wilt thou not yet be wise; and for the [illegible: 1 letter]uture seek to me, having found all thy other ways successless, Isa. 9.13. chap. 8.14. 2. To the time present, how canst thou challenge me for my present severity, and continuing it towards thee, when thou still retainest thy filthiness, thy Whores forehead, ver. 3. Thou still continuest worshipping Idols, and yet fanciest thy self faithful to me. 3. To the time past, i. e. hast thou not all along pretended kindness to me, and as if thou hadst walked close with me, 2 King. 17.32, 33. Ezek ▪ 23.39.

Wilt thou not as a Child call upon me, whom thou hast thus greatly provoked, and own me as a Father, ver. 19. for such have I been to thee, Psal. 103.13. Mal. 1.6. and 3.17.

Either on whom I have depended, as being brought up by thee, or the submissive expression of a Wife seeking to be reconciled to her Husband, that God would be to her, as he had been in the dayes of her youth, such a case as is expressed, 1 Cor. 7.11. words of flattery usual with Hypocrites; Or rather, being Married to thee in thy youth, a Periphrasis for Husband, Prov. 2.17. which argues great tenderness towards her ver. 2. thus the tenderness of this relation is expressed, Mal. 2.14. and so God is said to espouse them to himself, Ezek. 16.8.

5 Will he reserve his anger for ever? will he keep it to the end ? Behold, thou hast spoken and done evil things as thou couldest.

Here being a defect of the noun, the Jews supply it with thy sin, Isa. 43.25. but by the most, and best, as we do his anger compare it with ver. 12. Psal. 103.9. Nahum. 1.2. in which Texts there is a defect of the same word this may seem to be the words of the Prophet, and so the connexion is easie with the foregoing words, q. d. if thou wouldst do so try me now, &c. would he reserve his anger? Would he not be reconciled? but thou hast taken quite another course: Or, they may be the words of God, as it were, teaching his People how they should accost him God is more forward, and earnest for reconciliation, then sinners themselves.

The same with the former for ever.

Gods challenge of the People charging them, either with their resolved wickedness, that they had made good all their evil words by their evil actions, they had even done as they said; or rather, with their hypocrisie. q. d. notwithstanding all thy former promises, yet thou persistest still in thy lewdness, and obstinacy, Isaiah 58.2. Hosea 7.14.

Marginal references: Isa. 57.16.

6 ¶ The LORD said also unto me ; in the dayes of Josiah the king , Hast thou seen that which backsliding Israel hath done ? she is gone up upon every high mountain, and under every green tree, and there hath played the harlot.

Or again, shewing that here begins a new Sermon, in which the Prophet from God 1. declares Israels Apostacy, and how it fared with them for it. 2. Aggravates Iuda[illegible: 1 letter] 's sin, for not taking warning, 3. Issues forth an invitation of them both, to Repentance, with a promise of acceptation, and reuniting them under the Messiah. 4. Relates the compliance of the faithful among them with this invitation.

Viz. By revelation for he speaks of things that Israel had done when they were carryed away by the King of Assyria, 2 King. 17.5. to 13. long before Ieremiah was born, therefore he saith, hast thou not seen, i. e. considered wherefore God gave her a bill of divorce.

When he would have purged the Land and restored the pure Worship of God

Viz. The Ten Tribes who fell off from Iudah, and set up a distinct Kingdom of their own under Ieroboam: What they did, viz. in their Idolatries expressed in the next words, and chap. 2.20. see there, when they openly Apostatized from God, and that with one common consent, insomuch that all their Kings proved wicked, and Idolatrous, and possibly it may look as far back as Solomons defection, 1 King. 11.4, 5. &c▪ which may now come in remembrance.

7 And I said, after she had done all these things, turn thou unto me . But she returned not. And her treacherous sister Judah saw it .

Viz. By Repentance, Acts 3.19. although she had been so vile, and abominable, yet the Lord waited in expectation of her return.

Benjamin is also here comprized, but Iudah being the chief, is onely named, these two abiding together after the other ten revolted to Ieroboam, called Israels sister, because they were all descended from the Patriarch Iacob, Ezek. 16.46. compare 23.2, 4. and treacherous or the treacherous one because of her frequent revolts, 2 Chron. 21.6, &c. and 24.17, 18. and many other times, and after as frequent renewed Covenants, and Promises both in conjunction with the rest of the Tribes, Deut. 5.2, 3, 23. &c. and 29.10, 11, 12. &c. and afterwards, 2 Chron. 13.9, 10. &c. and 2 Chron. 15.12. &c. and 23.16. and 29.10.

i. e. They were not strangers to it but knew it, as the word is Psal. 40.3. They could not but know how I had dealt with Israel.

8 And I saw , when for all the causes whereby backsliding Israel committed adultery, I had put her away and given her a bill of divorce , yet her treacherous sister Judah feared not , but went and played the harlot also .

q. d. That which others discern not, I saw well enough, viz. Both her Hypocrisie and dissimulation, and her incorrigibleness notwithstanding what had been befallen Israel, whose correction should have been her instruction; thus God speaks of the notice he took of both, ch. 23.13, 14. Israel is said to be backsliding, but Iudah treacherous, because she retained the Worship of God, though she did often privately, and closely embrace Idols, and sometimes publickly under Manasse[illegible: 1 letter] and Ahaz, and other wicked Kings.

Or notwithstanding all the ground, and reason I had to deal so with Israel in regard of her Adulteries, as to put her way.

Delivered her up into the hands of the Assyrian, where God took from her the title of being his Church, 2 King. 17.5, 6. &c. which he calls here a bill of divorce, not such a one as the Jews were allowed to give upon every slight ground (for such an one God denies, that ever he gave them, and challengeth them to produce it, Isa. 50.1.) but upon just, and great occasion, viz. her playing the Adulteress against him in her Idolatries.

i. e. Was neither afraid of giving me offence, nor of the like punishment.

Although she had seen the judgment of God executed upon Israel before her eyes, which made it the more stupendious, that she would take no warning by her Sisters sufferings, Prov. 28.14. yet she went on still, Ezek. 23.11, 12, &c.

9 And it came to pass through the lightness of her whoredom , that she defiled the land , and committed adultery with stones and with stocks .

Whether of Iudah's or of Israel's is not agreed upon, but the right applying of it doth depend much upon the right acceptation of the word Lightness which comes from an hebrew word that signifies voice, and so it may refer, either to the noise or fame of it, that would fly abroad, and thus it is applyed to Israel, i. e. though Israels whoredoms were never so much blazed abroad, yet Iudah regarded it not. Or, it may be taken for the heinousness of it, a crying voice, as Gen. 4.10. and so by an [illegible: 2 letters]pallage, her whoredomes of fame or notorious whoredoms; and is not ill expressed here by lightness of her whoredom, noting her impudence in it, as we use to term a common Harlot a light Woman, and thus it is applyed to Iudah both the foregoing, and following words seeming to be an aggravation of Iudah's refrac[illegible: 1 letter]oriness.

Brought the whole Land under the imputation of filthiness.

i. e. With Idols made of Stone and Wood, a Metonymy of the Matter to note the baseness of the Fact.

Marginal references: Or, fame.

10 And yet for all this , her treacherous sister Judah hath not turned unto me with her whole heart, but feignedly, saith the LORD.

Though God saw, what she did, and though she saw the shameful Idolatry of Israel, and what she had suffered, yet she was not warned, see verse 8. but fell to Idolatry under Manasse[illegible: 1 letter] who undid what Hezekiah had done, 2 Chron. 33.3. though under fair pretences she dissembled with God in the days of Iosiah, 2 Chron. 34.32.33. as appeared by her sudden revolt, viz. in less then 3 months after Iosia's death, 2 King. 23.31, 32.

Marginal references: Heb. in falsehood.

11 And the LORD said unto me; The backsliding Israel hath justified her self more then treacherous Judah.

Was less vile, hath more to say for herself; Iudah's sin being greatly aggravated compared with Israel, Ezek. 16.51. and 23.11. see Luk. 18.14. For, though Israel's sins were more, and their Idolatry continued, yet in Iudah it was more heinous 1. Because of their unruly headstrongness, that broke the raines and restraint, which their external Worship ought to have had upon them. 2. Because of their stupid security in not being warned by the judgments, that they had seen befall Israel for the very same things. 3. Because of their intolerable Pride, boasting that their slate was still unshaken. 4. Because of their gross per[illegible: 1 letter]idiousness in making promises, and breaking them, which Israel did not, because she brought not her self under such solemn, and frequent obligations, see ver. 7. Lastly, because they were a great deal more zealous in their Idolatries then Israel was, viz. under Manasseh when they slew all the Prophets of the Lord.

12 ¶ Go , and proclaim these words toward the north , and say, Return thou backsliding Israel, saith the LORD; and I will not cause mine anger to fall upon you: For I am merciful , saith the LORD, and I will not keep anger for ever.

It may possibly be used here as an Adverb of exciting, namely go to, as is usual, or it notes speed, go quickly out of hand not locally, but set thy face, chap. 2.2. or feet that way or by thy office, address thy self to them, viz. by way of Proclamation crying aloud; possibly implying the distance of place, this voice may in time reach them, though a great way off. Or rather the deafness of Israel, or the [illegible: 1 letter]bdurateness of Iudah, that they might hear what God saith to Israel, conceive hope and be reclaimed by their example, and be excited to emulation.

i. e. To Assyria and Media and the regions thereabouts that lay Northward from Iudea, whither the Ten Tribes were carried by Tiglath-Pileser, and Salmaneser, 2 King. 15.29. and 17.6.

Upon condition of returning to their former true Worship of God, that thereby Iudah might be awakened, he promiseth that he will not let his anger, or his face, as in the hebrew, because anger principally appears in the face, his angry face or countenance to be upon them, so it is used, Lev. 17.10. Psal. 34.16. and not be inexorable, viz. for ever, which is to be supplyed from the next words: for otherwise his anger lay heavy upon them at this time.

A metaphor from things on high that drop down to the hurt of whatever is under it, and so chap. 23.24. compare Gen. 19.24.

Here is the ground of this conditional promise, taken from the nature of God, that sinners may not despair, Psal. 86.15. and 103.8, 9. &c.

Marginal references: verse 5.

13 Only acknowledge thine iniquity, that thou hast transgressed against the LORD thy God, and hast scattered thy wayes to the strangers under every green tree, and ye have not obeyed my voice , saith the LORD.

Which will be the evidence of thy Repentance, without which thou canst not lay claim to any pardon, Prov. 28.13. Isa. 55.7. This is spoken by way of limitation, lest the Israelites should fancy a too easie pardon from Gods merciful nature, exhortations to Repentance should always accompany the exhibition of Promises.

Viz. To other Nations, or rather to othe[illegible: 1 letter] gods, or to Idols, running here and there up and down like a light impudent Harlot, sometimes to one, sometimes to another, thus sucking in divers superstitions, called scattering thy wayes, ver. 6. 2 King. 17.4, 9, 10. and chap. 2.23.25. thy feet whereby we go on in wayes, a metaphorical Metonymy.

So that your sin is not a sin of ignorance, but of obstinacy, shutting your ears against my counsels, which I sent you by my Prophets for your reclaiming, 2 King. 17.13. &c.

14 Turn, O backsliding children, saith the LORD; for I am married unto you: and I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion .

I am in Covenant with you, Deut. 29.1, 10, 11, 12, &c. and this Covenant notwithstanding all your unfaithfulness, I am ready to renew with you, Hos. 2.19, 20.

This word Family is not always to be taken strictly for an houshold; for then the expression would seem to imply more in a Family then in a City; but frequently for a Country or Nation, compare Gen. 12.3. with 22.18. Ezek. 14.17, 18, 19. See chap. 1.15. or for a Tribe and this may partly respect the fewness of those, that will be found penitents, and return, God will have a sprinkling in every City, and in every Family or Tribe, or Country, but chiefly it respects Gods exact care of them, that being now married to them, there shall not be one in a City, or two in a Country, or Tribe but he will find them out, if there be but one, or two he will not overlook them, this seems to be intimated, Isa. 27.12. a Text that points at the same thing.

i. e. To Ierusalem a Type of the Church, a double metonymy of the Subject. It is the manner of the Prophets, when they are treating of temporal deliverances, especially from Babylon, frequently to break out abruptly into the spiritual deliverance by Christ and so probably he doth here; and therefore bringing them to Zion must be understood, either of joyning them to his Church under the Messiah, or bringing them again to Worship with Iudah at Ierusalem: as may seem to be intimated chap. 31.6. but the 10 Tribes did never return into their own Land, and therefore that Text must be understood of a spiritual going up to Zion, viz. when all Israel shall be saved, Rom. 11.26. see Isa. 56.7, 8. and 66.20. and ver. 18. Thus we may look upon this part of the Prophesie to have respect, partly to what God was at that time about to do, in this verse, and partly what he would hereafter do, when they should be again setled in their own Land, under the Messiah, ver. 16, 17, 18, 19.

15 And I will give you pastors according to mine heart , which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding .

Either Civil Magistrates, which are sometimes so called, Mic. 5.5. Or, rather Ecclesiastical, as appears both from the reason of Gods judgments upon Israel, viz. Their Pastors being generally, either Thieves, or dumb Dogs; and also from the nature of their office in the close of the verse, and thus they are called Eph. 4.11.

Such as I will both chuse for you, and approve off, and that shall faithfully and skilfully declare unto you my mind, which intimates not only a single act of deliverance, but his constant preservation of them.

This notes, either the nature of their food. See Neh. 8.8. Mal. 2.7. Or rather the manner of their feeding, see Psal. 78.72. see 1 Pet. 5.2. see more of this promise, chap. 23.4.

Marginal references: Ezek. 34.23.

16 And it shall come to pass when ye be multiplied , and increased in the land, in those doyes , saith the LORD, they shall say no more, The ark of the covenant of the LORD: neither shall it come to mind, neither shall they remember it, neither shall they visit it, neither shall that be done any more .

Pointing at the great work of Conversion, that should be among them, especially in the dayes of the Messias and how greatly the Church should be encreased by the accession of the Gentiles, a beginning whereof we read Act. 2.41. and 4.4.

After the growth of the Church under the Messiah.

A Synecdochical expression for all the legal Ceremonies, whereof the Ark was a chief part, the sense is, that whole Worship with all the Rites and Ceremonies belonging to it should wholy cease, Christ being come, who was the substance of what the Ark, and all other Rites did but shadow out for a time, he being now our propitiatory, instead of the covering of the Ark, or Mercy-seat, Rom. 3.25. he answers all the uses and purposes thereof, in the Ark was laid up the Manna, Aarons Rod, and the Tables of the Law, Heb. 9.4. he is now the bread of Life, Ioh. 6.35. he is our Rod of Government, Psal. 23.4. in him is the whole Law fulfilled, Rom. 10.4. and now God shall reign gloriously in his Church by his Word, and Spirit, and shall be so Worshipped without Ceremony, Ioh[illegible: 1 letter] 4.21, 23. For if this so eminent, and comprehensive a token of Gods presence must cease in the dayes of the Gospel, much more the Temple Service, with all the Rites belonging to it, Ioh. 1.17. Col. 2 17. Heb. 10.8, 9.

Called also the Ark of the Testimony, Exod. 25.22. and 30.26. and 31.7. and the reason is, because the two Tables of the Law, which were the Testimony, or witness of the Covenant were closed up in it, Exod. 25.16, 21. and 40.20.

i. e. It shall be no more in use, neither shall there be any miss of it, or any thing like it, there shall be no such thing; men shall not trouble their thoughts about it, or mention it, compare Isa. 65.17. or repair to it as an Oracle to receive the answers of God; nor for Gods Worship, compare Ier. 16.14, 15. Or to the place of its residence, as if no where else to be had; in a word, it shall not at all he had in honour or respect or made much of. The word [non-Latin text not transcribed] H[illegible: 1 letter]asah, done or made signifies to magnifie, as it seems to be used, Deut. 32.6. and 1 Sam. 12.6. the whole Church shall now be the Throne of God, ver. 17. to which purpose the Ark formerly served, now God foreseeing, partly how hard a thing it would be to be believed, and partly the pleas that the corrupt Wit, and invention of man would find out for the retaining of these Rites, and by consequence their loathness to forgo them, he useth such an heap, and variety of expressions to the same thing, that he may leave no room for doubting in a thing so plainly, and fully prohibited in Gospel times.

Marginal references: Heb. upon the heart.; Or it be magnified.

17 At that time they shall call Jerusalem the throne of the LORD: and all the nations shall be gathered unto it, to the name of the LORD, to Jerusalem : neither shall they walk any more after the imagination of their evil heart .

Instead of the Ark, whereon was the Mercy-seat, now the Church typified by Ierusalem, Gal. 4.26. and Rev. 21.2. shall be the place of Gods residence, where by his Spirit he will rule and act in his Word and Ordinances, and in special the Messias, see chap. 14.21. and verse 16.

Intimating both their readiness to come in, and their number, according to that Prophesie of Iacob, Gen. 49.10. See Isa. 2.2. by Nations here understand, either the Ten Tribes who are called many people both Israel and Iudah united, their distance being taken away, see ver. 18. or rather some of all nations, that shall flock into the Gospel Church; for when the Prophets foretel this state, they generally usher it in with the return of this people, at which time the Church shall be greatly enlarged.

i. e. dwelling in Ierusalem, or where the Lord placed his name, viz. Of old in Ierusalem, Psal. 122.2, 3, &c. but now in the Church, Rev. 21.2, 3. without Ark or Temple, Rev. 21.22. where he will be known as it were by his proper name, Isa. 60.9. or as manifest in the flesh.

Both Iew and Gentile shall now conform themselves to the Will of God, Isa. 2.3. The word imagination here comes from a root, that signifies to see, and thus it is sometimes applied to the judgment, Psal. 17.2. and sometimes, to the affection, Psal. 66.18. here it may comprehend both, they will follow neither their own judgment, or affection, but wholly the Word of God, the word is thus phrased, Num. 15.39. and Eccl. 11.9. some read it after the hardness, Deuteronomy 29.19.

Marginal references: chap. 11.8.; Heb. stubbornness.

18 In those dayes the house of Judah shall walk with the house of Israel, and they shall come together out of the land of the north , to the land b that I have given for an inheritance unto your fathers.

These two Kingdoms shall become one, that had been so long divided, the enmity that was between them shall be taken away, and they shall walk hand in hand in a friendly manner one with another, which is implyed in this phrase of walking together, Psal. 55.14. Amos 3.3. and this points at their incorporating into one body united by the same Spirit, as members under the same body under Christ their Head, and that without distinction of Nations. See Isa. 11.12, 13. and Ezek. 37.16, 17. Eph. 2.14, 15, 16. and 3.6.

Viz. Of their Captivity, see the place verse 12.

Viz. Canaan both a promise of their enjoying again their antient possession at their last conversion, and typifying the Church of Christ, which they shall be of, when brought out of their spiritual Captivity.

Marginal references: Or, to.; Or, caused your [illegible: 1 letter]athers to possess.

19 But I said, How shall I put thee among the children , and give thee a pleasant land , a goodly heritage of the hosts of nations ? and I said, thou shalt call me, my father , and shalt not turn away from me.

Words that speak, either first Gods putting them to their own thoughts, how they could think he should bring such a perfidious people as they were into the Land, which he had promised? Else, secondly his considering within himself, how or what course he should take to bring such a thing about, and accomplish it, they had so greatly degenerated from him, and disobliged him. See Hos. 6.4. both implying that such a thing could not be brought about without Repentance, and true conversion to him, wrought by his free grace, Eph. 1.5, 6.

Esteem thee as my Child, till thou give some clearer proof, and demonstration of thy Repentance.

How shall I put thee into possession of that pleasant Land of desire, that I have promised thee, Canaan is so called, Psal. 106.24. Dan. 8.9. and 11.16, 41.

Heb. heritage of glory, or beauty, see Isa. 4.2.

So called either because possessed by several potent Nations, Num. 13 28. and Deut. 4.38. or rather it may note the great hosts, and multitudes of Nations, or Gentiles, that should be joyned to them in the Gospel Church, viz. Of Gods Elect, and so an heritage of the greatest delights, or the desire of Nations; a People to whom all the Nations would desire to Flock. See Ezek. 20.6. and may be spoken also of the heavenly Canaan; the LXX render it, the heritage of God the Omnipotent Governour of the Nations.

God comes now to a resolution how he would do it, either it is a direction, q. d. on this condition, that thou wilt own me, and not return any more to Idols, this shall be done, or a promise, I will cause thee to own me, and give thee perseverance, that thou shalt not depart from me: and this is very applicable to the work of Christ, see Ioh. 1.12. see also 2 Cor. 6.17, 18. and the condition is indeed no more, then God promiseth to effect in them.

Marginal references: Heb. land of desire.; Heb. an heritage of glory, or beauty.; Heb. from after me.

20 ¶ Surely, as a wife treacherously departeth from her husband , so have you dealt treacherously with me, O house of Israel, saith the LORD.

God here by telling her what she had formerly been, endeavours to engage her to what she ought to be, namely considering her former unfaithfulness in time past, how she ought to carry it for the future, see 1 Pet. 4.3.

Marginal references: Heb. friend; chap. 5.11.

21 A voice was heard upon the high places , weeping and supplications of the children of Israel : for they have perverted their way, and they have forgotten the LORD their God?

Here the Prophet seems to express Israels Repentance, and turning to God, and that, which they were at present ingaging themselves in, (the word being participial and in the present tense) delivered in a prophetical stile as that in chap. 31.15. and that not only out of a sense of their judgements, that they were under, but chiefly of their sins, they were guilty of, and the pardon of which they were now begging, which is intimated by weeping, and supplication.

Viz. That their cry might be the more publique, both open, and loud chap. 22.20. and Matth. 10.27. possibly alluding to the usual practice, of praying on the tops of houses in great calamities, Isa. 15.3. and 22.1. Ier. 7.29.

Or rather weeping supplications shewing the intenseness of it, praying in weeping, and weeping in prayer, Zech. 12.10. like Peters weeping Matth. 26.75.

The end of which might be to provoke Iudah also to Repentance, or otherwise to charge upon them their stupidity, and threaten them with the like judgments, if they would not return upon Israels example.

22 Return , ye backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings , Behold, we come unto thee , for thou art the LORD our God.

Viz. Repent for Sin and from Sin; here God calls upon them, and invites them to consider whither they are going, and to hearken unto the voice of his Ministers, Hos. 14.1. Act. 3.19. See verse 12. God doth as it were bid them hearken to his Messengers, and then he will heal their backsliding.

i. e. Idolatries, whereby you turned from me, and rebelled against me, I will take you into that state, as if you had never turned from me, I will make all whole again among you, and reconcile you to my self, Isa. 57.18. chap. 32.40. see Zech. 10.6. and 13.9. I will not only remove your judgements, but your sins also shall be forgiven? This is either Gods framing their answer for them, prescribing the manner, and form of their Repentance by a figure called Mimesis, Hos. 14.2, 3. or, it is their reply to God by way of promise, which they performed under, Iosiah, 2 King. 22. and 23, which with their confession, reacheth to the end of the Chapter.

This expresseth, rather the matter of their Prayer, then the cause of it, Lam, 5.16. drawn chiefly from their sins, as also from their calamities.

Words expressing the strongest inducements to it imaginable, because God hath right to them, is willing to accept them, and able to save them, Isa. 55.7. chap. 14.22.

23 Truly in vain is salvation hoped for from the hills , and from the multitude of mountains : truly in the LORD our God is the salvation of Israel .

i. e. Either from their Idols which were Worshipped upon Hills, a Metonymy of the Subject, chap. 2.20. Idols of the hills or from any other external power whatsoever, either of persons, or things, as the strength of Hills, or Forts, High places, and strong places, and assistance from Kings, Hos. 14.3.

Viz. The abundance of them, that they have in their Mountains, or the multitude of Sacrifices, which they offer in the mountains, or to multiply Sacrifices, Quest. but doth not the Psalmist hope for Salvation from the Hills, Psal. 121.1. Answer, Yes the Hills of the Land of Promise, which were a pledge of Gods favour to his People, especially those two of Zion, and Moriah, where God did peculiarly manifest his presence, Psal. 87.

Or our Salvation which we do now acknowledge is only in our God, and not in idols, of which we have had ample experience, Psal. 44.7. and 130.7, 8. See Isa. 43.10, 11. Hos. 13.4, 9.

Marginal references: Psal. 3.8.

24 For shame hath devoured the labour of our fathers from our youth ; their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters .

Either in general put for sin, which causeth shame, a Metonymy of the Effect; for that brought shame first into the World, Gen. 2.25. Or, in particular the Idol Baal called the shameful thing, Ier. 11.13. Hos. 9.10.

q. d. This hath been the fruit of our Idolatry, to have all things go to ruine, both in respect of expence, that which our Fathers having got for themselves, and us by their industry, they have expended upon Baal, and other Idols, Ezek. 16.16. to 21. and also of the heavy Judgments, that God brought upon us for it. chap. 5.17.

Either with reference to the nation, ever since they began first to be a People unto God, and followed him in the Wilderness, chap. 2.2. or rather ever since we were born, or took notice of any thing, thus it was from time to time, we find from our Childhood, that our Fathers have laboured in vain, and all things have succeeded ill with us, because of their departure from God.

All these things are mentioned to shew, that they did thrive in nothing, but either a blast upon all from God, Hos. 9.11. to the end Mal. 2.2, 3. or Idolatrous Sacrifices consumed all, Amos 4.4, 5. the Idols not sparing even our very Children, Psal. 106.37. or the Enemy spoiled us of all, chap. 5.17. and all this as the sad effect of our Idolatries.

25 We lie down in our shame, and our confusion covereth us : for we have sinned against the LORD our God, we and our fathers from our youth even unto this day , and have not obeyed the voice of the LORD our God.

We are perplexed, and confounded within our selves, we are such a reproach both to God and Man, that we cannot but lift up our hands for shame, even we, that had once an whores forehead verse 3. but must lye down in our shame, an expression to set forth the greatness of their Repentance, and sorrow, as one in great perplexity, not knowing what to do, throwes himself down upon his Couch or Bed, 1 King. 21.4.

A metaphor from persons muffled up in the Bed clothes, as ashamed to be seen, the like expression, Psal. 44.15.

This notes the universality of their sins, the whole generation of us, like Fathers, like Children. True Confession wraps up our own, and others sins, Ezra 9.7. Neh. 9.33, 34. Psal. 106.6, 7. chap. 14.20. and keeps us from all excuse by others examples, 2 Kings 17.41. which gross guilt of theirs in this kind is described chap. 44.17.

As the former sets forth the universality of their sins, so this the continuance of them, Deut. 9.7. 2 Kings 17.34, 41.

Jer 3:1-2

As a divorced woman who has become another man’s wife cannot return to her first husband, so Judah, after it has turned away to other gods, will not be received again by Jahveh; especially since, in spite of all chastisement, it adheres to its evil ways. Jer 3:1. "He saith, If a man put away his wife, and she go from him, and become another man’s, can he return to her again? would not such a land be polluted? and thou hast whored with many partners; and wouldst thou return to me? saith Jahveh. Jer 3:2. Lift up thine eyes unto the bare-topped hills and look, where hast thou not been lien with; on the ways thou sattest for them, like an Arab in the desert, and pollutedst the land by thy whoredoms and by thy wickedness. Jer 3:3. And the showers were withheld, and the latter rain came not; but thou hadst the forehead of an harlot woman, wouldst not be ashamed. Jer 3:4. Ay, and from this time forward thou criest to me, My father, the friend of my youth art thou. Jer 3:5. Will he always bear a grudge and keep it up for ever? Behold, thou speakest thus and dost wickedness and carriest it out." This section is a continuation of the preceding discourse in Jer 2, and forms the conclusion of it. That this is so may be seen from the fact that a new discourse, introduced by a heading of its own, begins with Jer 3:6. The substance of the fifth verse is further evidence in the same direction; for the rejection of Judah by God declared in that verse furnishes the suitable conclusion to the discourse in Jer 2, and briefly shows how the Lord will plead with the people that holds itself blameless (Jer 2:35).The contrary assertion of Ew. and Nägelsb. that these verses do not belong to what precedes, but constitute the beginning of the next discourse (Jer 3-6), rests upon an erroneous view of the train of thought in this discourse. And such meagre support as it obtains involves a violation of usage in interpreting ושׁוב as: yet turn again to me, and needs further the arbitrary critical assertion that the heading in Jer 3:6 : and Jahveh said to me in the days of Josiah, has been put by a copyist in the wrong place, and that it ought to stand before Jer 3:1. - Nor is there any reason for the assumption of J. D. Mich. and Graf, that at Jer 3:1 the text has been mutilated, and that by an oversight ויהי  has dropped out; and this assumption also contradicts the fact that Jer 3:1-5 can neither contain nor begin any new prophetic utterance.

But it is somewhat singular to find the connection made by means of לאמר, which is not translated by the lxx or Syr., and is expressed by Jerome by vulgo dicitur. Ros. would make it, after Rashi, possem dicere, Rashi’s opinion being that it stands for ישׁ לי לימר. In this shape the assumption can hardly be justified. It might be more readily supposed that the infinitive stood in the sense: it is to be said, one may say, it must be affirmed; but there is against this the objection that this use of the infinitive is never found at the beginning of a new train of thought. The only alternative is with Maur. and Hitz. to join לאמר with what precedes, and to make it dependent on the verb מאס in Jer 2:37 : Jahveh hath rejected those in whom thou trustest, so that thou shalt not prosper with them; for He says: As a wife, after she has been put away from her husband and has been joined to another, cannot be taken back again by her first husband, so art thou thrust away for thy whoredom. The rejection of Judah by God is not, indeed, declared expressis verbis in Jer 3:1-5, but is clearly enough contained there in substance. Besides, "the rejection of the people’s sureties (Jer 2:37) involves that of the people too" (Hitz.). לאמר, indeed, is not universally used after verbis dicendi alone, but frequently stands after very various antecedent verbs, in which case it must be very variously expressed in English; e.g., in Jos 22:11 it comes after ישׁמעוּ, they heard: as follows, or these words; in 2Sa 3:12 we have it twice, once after the words, he sent messengers to David to say, i.e., and cause them say to him, a second time in the sense of namely; in 1Sa 27:11 with the force of: for he said or thought. It is used here in a manner analogous to this: he announces to thee, makes known to thee. - The comparison with the divorced wife is suggested by the law in Deu 24:1-4. Here it is forbidden that a man shall take in marriage again his divorced wife after she has been married to another, even although she has been separated from her second husband, or even in the case of the death of the latter; and re-marriage of this kind is called an abomination before the Lord, a thing that makes the land sinful. The question, May he yet return to her? corresponds to the words of the law: her husband may not again (לשׁוּב) take her to be his wife. The making of the land sinful is put by Jer. in stronger words: this land is polluted; making in this an allusion to Lev 18:25, Lev 18:27, where it is said of similar sins of the flesh that they pollute the land.

With "and thou hast whored" comes the application of this law to the people that had by its idolatry broken its marriage vows to its God. זנה is construed with the accus. as in Eze 16:28. רעים, comrades in the sense of paramours; cf. Hos 3:1. רבּים, inasmuch as Israel or Judah had intrigued with the gods of many nations. ושׁוב אלי .snoi is infin. abs., and the clause is to be taken as a question: and is it to be supposed that thou mayest return to me? The question is marked only by the accent; cf. Ew. §328, a, and Gesen. §131, 4, b. Syr., Targ., Jerome, etc. have taken ושׁוב as imperative: return again to me; but wrongly, since the continuity is destroyed. This argument is not answered by taking ו copul. adversatively with the sig. yet: it is on the contrary strengthened by this arbitrary interpretation. The call to return to God is incompatible with the reference in Jer 3:2 to the idolatry which is set before the eyes of the people to show it that God has cause to be wroth. "Look but to the bare-topped hills." שׁפים, bald hills and mountains (cf. Isa 41:18), were favoured spots for idolatrous worship; cf. Hos 4:13. When hast not thou let thyself be ravished? i.e., on all sides. For שׁגּלתּ the Masoretes have here and everywhere substituted שׁכּבתּ, see Deu 28:30; Zec 14:2, etc. The word is here used for spiritual ravishment by idolatry; here represented as spiritual fornication. Upon the roads thou sattest, like a prostitute, to entice the passers-by; cf. Gen 38:14; Pro 7:12. This figure corresponds in actual fact to the erection of idolatrous altars at the corners of the streets and at the gates: 2Ki 23:8; Eze 16:25. Like an Arab in the desert, i.e., a Bedouin, who lies in wait for travellers, to plunder them. The Bedouins were known to the ancients, cf. Diod. Sic. 2:48, Plin. Hist. Nat. vi. 28, precisely as they are represented to this day by travellers. - By this idolatrous course Israel desecrated the land. The plural form of the suffix with the singular זנוּת is to be explained by the resemblance borne both in sound and meaning (an abstract) by the termination וּת to the plural ות; cf. Jer 3:8, Zep 3:20, and Ew. §259, b. רעתך refers to the moral enormities bound up with idolatry, e.g., the shedding of innocent blood, Jer 2:30, Jer 2:35. The shedding of blood is represented as defilement of the land in Num 35:33.

Jer 3:3

But the idolatrous race was not to be brought to reflection or turned from its evil ways, even when judgment fell upon it. God chastised it by withholding the rain, by drought; cf. Jer 14:1., Amo 4:7. רביבים, rain-showers (Deu 32:2), does not stand for the early rain (יורה), but denotes any fall of rain; and the late rain (shortly before harvest) is mentioned along with it, as in Hos 6:3; Zec 10:1. But affliction made no impression. The people persisted in its sinful courses with unabashed effrontery; cf. Jer 5:3; Eze 3:7.

Jer 3:4-5

Henceforward, forsooth, it calls upon its God, and expects that His wrath will abate; but this calling on Him is but lip-service, for it goes on in its sins, amends not its life. הלוא, nonne, has usually the force of a confident assurance, introducing in the form of a question that which is held not to be in the least doubtful. מעתּה, henceforward, the antithesis to מעולם, Jer 2:20, Jer 2:27, is rightly referred by Chr. B. Mich. to the time of the reformation in public worship, begun by Josiah in the twelfth year of his reign, and finally completed in the eighteenth year, 2 Chron 34:3-33. Clearly we cannot suppose a reference to distress and anxiety excited by the drought; since, in Jer 3:3, it is expressly said that this had made no impression on the people. On אבי, cf. Jer 2:27. אלּוּף נערי (cf. Pro 2:17), the familiar friend of my youth, is the dear beloved God, i.e., Jahveh, who has espoused Israel when it was a young nation (Jer 2:2). Of Him it expects that He will not bear a grudge for ever. נטר, guard, then like τηρεῖν, cherish ill-will, keep up, used of anger; see on Lev 19:18; Psa 103:9, etc. A like meaning has ישׁמר, to which אף, iram, is to be supplied from the context; cf. Amo 1:11. - Thus the people speaks, but it does evil. דּבּרתּי, like קראתי in Jer 3:4, is 2nd pers. fem.; see in Jer 2:20. Hitz. connects דּבּרתּי so closely with ותּעשׂי as to make הרעות the object to the former verb also: thou hast spoken and done the evil; but this is plainly contrary to the context. "Thou speakest" refers to the people’s saying quoted in the first half of the verse: Will God be angry for ever? What they do is the contradiction of what they thus say. If the people wishes that God be angry no more, it must give over its evil life. הרעות, not calamity, but misdeeds, as in Jer 2:33. תּוּכל, thou hast managed it, properly mastered, i.e., carried it through; cf. 1Sa 26:25; 1Ki 22:22. The form is 2nd pers. fem., with the fem. ending dropped on account of the Vav consec. at the end of the discourse, cf. Ew. §191, b. So long as this is the behaviour of the people, God cannot withdraw His anger.

CHAP. III. 6-VI. 30. — THE REJECTION OP IMPENITENT ISRAEL.

These four chapters form a lengthy prophetic discourse of the time of Josiah, in which two great truths are developed : that Israel can become a partaker of promised blessing only through conversion to the Lord, and that by perseverance in apostasy it is drawing on itself the judgment of expulsion amongst the heathen. In the first section, Jer 3:6-4:2, we have the fate of the ten tribes displayed to the faithless Judah, and the future reception again and conversion of Israel announced. In the second section, Jer 4:3-31, the call to Judah to repent is brought home to the people by the portrayal of the judgment about to fall upon the kingdom, the destruction of Jerusalem and the devastation of the land. In the third section, chap, 5, a further description is given of the people's persistence in unrighteousness and apostasy. And in the fourth section, chap, 4, the impending judgment and its horrors are yet more fully exhibited to a generation blinded by its self-righteous confidence in the external performance of the sacrificial worship. Eichhorn and Hitz. have separated Jer 3:6-4:2 from what follows as being a separate oracle, on the ground that at Jer 4:3 a new series of oracles begins, extending to Jer 10:25. These oracles, they say, “are composed under the impressions created by an invasion of a northern nation, looked for with dread and come at last in reality;” while they find no trace of this invasion in Jer 3:6-4:2 . This latter section they hold rather to be the completion to Jer 2:1-3:5, seeing that the severe retort (3:5) upon repentant Judah is justified here (3:10) by the statement that this is no true repentance; that the harsh saying : thou hast thyself wrought out thy misfortunes, cannot be the prophet's last word ; and that the final answer to הֲיִנְטֹ֣ר לְעוֹלָ֔ם in ver. 5 is not found before לֹ֥א אֶטּ֖וֹר לְעוֹלָֽם in ver. 12. By Dahler, Umbreit, Neumann, Jer 3. is taken as an independent discourse ; but they hold it to extend to Jer 4:4, because כִּי in iv. 3 cannot introduce a new discourse. The two views are equally untenable. It is impossible that a new discourse should begin with “for thus saith Jahveh ;” and it is as impossible that the threatening of judgment beginning with iv. 5, “declare ye in Jahveh,” should be torn apart, separated from the call : “plow up a new soil ; circumcise the foreskins of your hearts, that my wrath go not forth like fire and burn,” etc. (4:3, 4). Against the separation and for the unity we have arguments in the absence of any heading and of any trace of a new commencement in chap, iv., and in the connection of the subject-matter of all the sections of these chapters.' By Eosenm. has been justly urged : “Cum inscriptio hic (3, 6) etc. 7, 1, obvia, qua concionis habitæ tempus notatur, tum manifesta omnium partium inde a c. 3, 6, usque ad finem cap. 6 cohærentia, et orationis tenor sine uho interstitio ac novæ concionis signo decurrens.” We have no ground for the disjunction of one part of the discourse from the other in the fact that in Jer 3:6-4:2 apostate Israel (of the ten tribes) is summoned to return to the Lord, and invited to repentance by the promise of acceptance and rich blessing for those who in penitence return again to God ; while in iv. 3-vi. the devastation of the land and dispersion amongst the heathen are held out as punishment of a people (Judah) persisting in apostasy (see comment, on 3:6 ff.). The supposed connection between the discourse, Jer 3:6-4:2 and Jer 2:1-3:5, is not so close as Hitz. would have it. The relation of Jer 3:6 ff, to Jer 2:1 ff. is not that the prophet desires in Jer 3:6-4:2 to explain or mitigate the harsh utterance in Jer 3:5, because his own heart could not acquiesce in the thought of the utter rejection of his people, and because the wrath of the seer was here calming down again. This opinion and the reference of the threatened judgment in chap, 4-6. to the Scythians are based on unscriptural views of the nature of prophecy. But even if, in accordance with what has been said, these four chapters form one continuous prophetic discourse, yet we are not justified by the character of the whole discourse as a unity in assuming that Jeremiah delivered it publicly in this form before the people at some particular time. Against this tells the indefiniteness of the date given : in the days of Josiah ; and of still greater weight is the transition, which we mark repeated more than once, from the call to repentance and the denunciation of sin, to threatening and description of the judgment about to fall on people and kingdom, city and country; cf. Jer 4:3 with v. 1 and Jer 4:1, 16. From this we can see that the prophet continually begins again afresh, in order to bring more forcibly home to the heart what he has already said. The discourse as we have it is evidently the condensation into one uniform whole of a series of oral addresses which had been delivered by Jeremiah in Josiah's times.

Chap. 3:6-4:2. The rejection and restoration of Israel (of the Ten Tribes).

— Hgstb. speaks of this passage as the announcement of redemption in store for Israel. And he so speaks not without good cause ; for although in Jer 3:6-9 the subject is the rejection of Israel for its backsliding from the Lord, yet this introduction to the discourse is but the historical foundation for the declaration of good news (Jer 3:12-4:2), that rejected Israel will yet return to its God, and have a share in the glory of the Messiah. From the clearly drawn parallel between Israel and Judah in Jer 3:8-11 it is certain that the announcement of Israel's redemption can have no other aim than “to wound Judah.” The contents of the whole discourse maybe summed up in two thoughts: 1. Israel is not to remain alway rejected, as pharisaic Judah imagined ; 2. Judah is not to be alway spared. When Jeremiah entered upon his office Israel had been in exile for 94 years, and all hope for the restoration of the banished people seemed to have vanished. But Judah, instead of taking warning by the judgment that had fallen upon the ten tribes, and instead of seeing in the downfall of the sister people the prognostication of its own, was only confirmed by it in its delusion, and held its own continued existence to be a token that against it, as the people of God, no judgment of wrath could come. This delusion must be destroyed by the announcement of Israel's future reinstatement.

Jer 3:6-10 Israel’s backsliding and rejection a warning for Judah. - Jer 3:6. "And Jahveh spake to me in the days of King Josiah, Hast thou seen what the backsliding one, Israel, hath done? she went up on every high mountain, and under every green tree, and played the harlot there. Jer 3:7. And I thought: After she hath done all this, she will return to me; but she returned not. And the faithless one, her sister Judah, saw it. Jer 3:8. And I saw that, because the backsliding one, Israel, had committed adultery, and I had put her away, and had given her a bill of divorce, yet the faithless one, Judah, her sister, feared not even on this account, and went and played the harlot also. Jer 3:9. And it befell that for the noise of her whoredom the land was defiled, and she committed adultery with stone and wood. Jer 3:10. And yet with all this, the faithless one, her sister Judah, turned not to me with her whole heart, but with falsehood, saith Jahveh." The thought of these verses is this: notwithstanding that Judah has before its eyes the lot which Israel (of the ten tribes) has brought on itself by its obdurate apostasy from the covenant God, it will not be moved to true fear of God and real repentance. Viewing idolatry as spiritual whoredom, the prophet developes that train of thought by representing the two kingdoms as two adulterous sisters, calling the inhabitants of the ten tribes משׁבה, the backsliding, those of Judah בּגודה, the faithless. On these names Venema well remarks: "Sorores propter unam eandemque stirpem, unde uterque populus fuit, et arctam ad se invicem relationem appellantur. Utraque fuit adultera propter idololatriam et faederis violationem; sed Israel vocatur uxor aversa; Juda vero perfida, quia Israel non tantum religionis sed et regni et civitatis respectu, adeoque palam erat a Deo alienata, Juda vero Deo et sedi regni ac religionis adfixa, sed nihilominus a Deo et cultu ejus defecerat, et sub externa specie populi Dei faedus ejus fregerat, quo ipso gravius peccaverat." This representation Ezekiel has in Jer 23 expanded into an elaborate allegory. The epithets משׁבה and בּגודה or בּגדה (Jer 3:11) are coined into proper names. This is shown by their being set without articles before the names; as mere epithets they would stand after the substantives and have the article, since Israel and Judah as being nomm. propr. are definite ideas. משׁוּבה is elsewhere an abstract substantive: apostasy, defection (Jer 8:5; Hos 11:7, etc.), here concrete, the apostate, so-called for her many משׁבות, Jer 3:22 and Jer 2:19. בּגודה, the faithless, used of perfidious forsaking of a husband; cf. Jer 3:20, Mal 2:14. הלכה היא, going was she, expressing continuance. Cf. the same statement in Jer 2:20. ותּזני, 3rd pers. fem., is an Aramaizing form for ותּזנה or ותּזן; cf. Isa 53:10.

Jer 3:7

And I said, sc. to myself, i.e., I thought. A speaking by the prophets (Rashi) is not to be thought of; for it is no summons, turn again to me, but only the thought, they will return. It is true that God caused backsliding Israel to be ever called again to repentance by the prophets, yet without effect. Meantime, however, no reference is made to what God did in this connection, only Israel’s behaviour towards the Lord being here kept in view. The Chet. ותּראה is the later usage; the Keri substitutes the regular contracted form ותּרא. The object, it (the whoredom of Israel), may be gathered from what precedes.

Jer 3:8

Many commentators have taken objection to the וארא, because the sentence, "I saw that I had therefore given Israel a bill of divorce," is as little intelligible as "and the faithless Judah saw it, and I saw it, for," etc. Thus e.g., Graf, who proposes with Ew. and Syr. to read ותּרא, "and she saw," or with Jerome to omit the word from the text. To this we may add, that either the change or the omission destroys the natural relation to one another of the clauses. In either case we would have this connection: "and the faithless one, her sister Judah, saw that, because the backslider Israel had committed adultery, I had put her away...yet the faithless one feared not." But thus the gist of the thing, what Judah saw, namely, the repudiation of Israel, would be related but cursorily in a subordinate clause, and the 7th verse would be shortened into a half verse; while, on the other hand, the 8th verse would be burdened with an unnaturally long protasis. Ros. is right in declaring any change to be unnecessary, provided the two halves of Jer 3:7 and Jer 3:8 are connected in this sense: vidi quod quum adulteram Israelitidem dimiseram, tamen non timeret ejus perfida soror Juda. If we compare Jer 3:7 and Jer 3:8 together, the correspondence between the two comes clearly out. In the first half of either verse Israel is spoken of, in the second Judah; while as to Israel, both verses state how God regarded the conduct of Israel, and as to Judah, how it observed and imitated Israel’s conduct. וארא corresponds to ואמר in Jer 3:7. God thought the backsliding Israel will repent, and it did not, and this Judah saw. Thus, then, God saw that even the repudiation of the backsliding Israel for her adultery incited no fear in Judah, but Judah went and did whoredom like Israel. The true sense of Jer 3:8 is rendered obscure or difficult by the external co-ordination to one another of the two thoughts, that God has rejected Israel just because it has committed adultery, and, that Judah nevertheless feared not; the second thought being introduced by Vav. In reality, however, the first should be subordinated to the second thus: that although I had to reject Israel, Judah yet feared not. What God saw is not the adultery and rejection or divorce of Israel, but that Judah nevertheless had no fear in committing and persisting in the self-same sin. The כּי belongs properly to לא יראה, but this relation is obscured by the length of the prefixed grounding clause, and so לא יראה is introduced by ,על־כּל־אדות åגו' .ו yb decud literally: that for all the reasons, because the backslider had committed adultery, I put her away and gave her a bill of divorce; yet the faithless Judah feared not. In plain English: that, in spite of all my putting away the backsliding Israel, and my giving her...because she had committed adultery, yet the faithless Judah feared not. On ספר כּריתוּת, cf. Deu 24:1, Deu 24:3.

Jer 3:9

In Jer 3:9 Judah’s fornication with the false gods is further described. Here מקּל זנåּתהּ ereH  is rather stumbling, since ob vocem scortationis cannot well be simply tantamount to ob famosam scortationem; for קול, voice, tone, sound, din, noise, is distinct from שׁם or שׁמע, fame, rumour. All ancient translators have taken קל from קלל, as being formed analogously to עז ,תּם ,חם; and a Masoretic note finds in the defective spelling קל an indication of the meaning levitas. Yet we occasionally find קול, vox, written defectively, e.g., Exo 4:8; Gen 27:22; Gen 45:16. And the derivation from קלל gives no very suitable sense; neither lightness nor despisedness is a proper predicate for whoredom, by which the land is polluted; only shame or shameful would suit, as it is put by Ew. and Graf. But there is no evidence from the usage of the language that קל has the meaning of קלון. Yet more inadmissible is the conjecture of J. D. Mich., adopted by Hitz., that of reading מקּל gnidaer fo taht, stock, for מקּל, a stock being the object of her unchastity; in support of which, reference is unfairly made to Hos 4:12. For there the matter in hand is rhabdomancy, with which the present passage has evidently nothing to do. The case standing thus, we adhere to the usual meaning of קל: for the noise or din of her whoredom, not, for her crying whoredom (de Wette). Jeremiah makes use of this epithet to point out the open riotous orgies of idolatry. תּחנף is neither used in the active signification of desecrating, nor is it to be pointed ותּחנף (Hiph.). On the last clause cf. Jer 2:27.

Jer 3:10

But even with all this, i.e., in spite of this deep degradation in idolatry, Judah returned not to God sincerely, but in hypocritical wise. "And yet with all this," Ros., following Rashi, refers to the judgment that had fallen on Israel (Jer 3:8); but this is too remote. The words can bear reference only to that which immediately precedes: even in view of all these sinful horrors the returning was not "from the whole heart," i.e., did not proceed from a sincere heart, but in falsehood and hypocrisy. For (the returning being that which began with the abolition of idolatrous public worship in Josiah’s reformation) the people had returned outwardly to the worship of Jahveh in the temple, but at heart they still calve to the idols. Although Josiah had put an end to the idol-worship, and though the people too, in the enthusiasm for the service of Jahveh, awakened by the solemn celebration of the passover, had broken in pieces the images and altars of the false gods throughout the land, yet there was imminent danger that the people, alienated in heart from the living God, should take the suppression of open idolatry for a true return to God, and, vainly admiring themselves, should look upon themselves as righteous and pious. Against this delusion the prophet takes his stand.

Jer 3:11-12

Israel’s return, pardon, and blessedness. - Jer 3:11. "And Jahveh said to me, The backsliding one, Israel, is justified more than the faithless one, Judah. Jer 3:12. Go and proclaim these words towards the north, and say, Turn, thou backsliding one, Israel, saith Jahveh; I will not look darkly on you, for I am gracious, saith Jahveh; I will not always be wrathful. Jer 3:13. Only acknowledge thy guilt, for from Jahveh thy God art thou fallen away, and hither and thither hast thou wandered to strangers under every green tree, but to my voice ye have not hearkened, saith Jahveh. Jer 3:14. Return, backsliding sons, saith Jahveh; for I have wedded you to me, and will take you, one out of a city and two out of a race, and will bring you to Zion; Jer 3:15. And will give you shepherds according to my heart, and they will feed you with knowledge ad wisdom. Jer 3:16. And it comes to pass, when ye increase and are fruitful in the land, in those days, saith Jahveh, they will no more say, 'The ark of the covenant of Jahveh;' and it will no more come to mind, and ye will not longer remember it or miss it, and it shall not be made again. Jer 3:17. In that time they shall call Jerusalem the throne of Jahveh; and to it all peoples shall gather themselves, because the name of Jahveh is at Jerusalem: and no longer shall they walk after the stubbornness of their evil heart. Jer 3:18. In those days shall the house of Judah go along with the house of Israel, and together out of the land of midnight shall they come into the land which I have given for an inheritance unto your fathers." In Jer 3:11, from the comparison of the faithless Judah with the backsliding Israel, is drawn the conclusion: Israel stands forth more righteous than Judah. The same is said in other words by Eze 16:51.; cf. (Ezek.) Jer 23:11. צדק in Piel is to show to be righteous, to justify. נפשׁהּ, her soul, i.e., herself. Israel appears more righteous than Judah, not because the apostasy and idolatry of the Israelites was less than that of the people of Judah; in this they are put on the same footing in Jer 3:6-10; in the like fashion both have played the harlot, i.e., stained themselves with idolatry (while by a rhetorical amplification the apostasy of Judah is in Jer 3:9 represented as not greater than that of Israel). But it is inasmuch as, in the first place, Judah had the warning example of Israel before its eyes, but would not be persuaded to repentance by Israel’s punishment; then again, Judah had more notable pledges than the ten tribes of divine grace, especially in the temple with its divinely-ordained cultus, in the Levitical priesthood, and in its race of kings chosen by God. Hence its fall into idolatry called more loudly for punishment than did that of the ten tribes; for these, after their disruption from Judah and the Davidic dynasty, had neither a lawful cultus, lawful priests, nor a divinely-ordained kingship. If, then, in spite of these privileges, Judah sank as far into idolatry as Israel, its offence was greater and more grievous than that of the ten tribes; and it was surely yet more deserving of punishment than Israel, if it was resolved neither to be brought to reflection nor moved to repentance from its evil ways by the judgment that had fallen upon Israel, and if, on the contrary, it returned to God only outwardly and took the opus operatum of the temple-service for genuine conversion. For "the measure of guilt is proportioned to the measure of grace." Yet will not the Lord utterly cast off His people, Jer 3:12. He summons to repentance the Israelites who had now long been living in exile; and to them, the backsliding sons, who confess their sin and return to Him, He offers restoration to the full favours of the covenant and to rich blessings, and this in order to humble Judah and to provoke it to jealousy. The call to repentance which the prophet is in Jer 3:12 to proclaim towards the region of midnight, concerns the ten tribes living in Assyrian exile. צפנה, towards midnight, i.e., into the northern provinces of the Assyrian empire the tribes had been carried away (2Ki 17:6; 2Ki 18:11). שׁוּבה, return, sc. to thy God. Notwithstanding that the subject which follows, משׁבה, is fem., we have the masculine form here used ad sensum, because the faithless Israel is the people of the ten tribes. לא אפּיל פּני, I will not lower my countenance, is explained by Gen 4:5; Job 29:24, and means to look darkly, frowningly, as outward expression of anger; and this without our needing to take פּני for כּעסי as Kimchi does. For I am חסיד, gracious; cf. Exo 34:6. As to אטּור, see on Jer 3:5.

Jer 3:13-15

An indispensable element of the return is: Acknowledge thy guilt, thine offence, for grievously hast thou offended; thou art fallen away (פּשׁע), and תּפזּרי את־דּרכיך, lit., hast scattered thy ways for strangers; i.e., hither and thither, on many a track, hast thou run after the strange gods: cf. Jer 2:23.

The repeated call שׁוּבוּ, Jer 3:14, is, like that in Jer 3:12, addressed to Israel in the narrower sense, not to the whole covenant people or to Judah. The "backsliding sons" are "the backsliding Israel" of Jer 3:7, Jer 3:8, Jer 3:11., and of Jer 3:22. In Jer 3:18 also Judah is mentioned only as it is in connection with Israel. בּעלתּי בכם, here and in Jer 31:32, is variously explained. There is no evidence for the meaning loathe, despise, which Ges. and Diet. in the Lex., following the example of Jos. Kimchi, Pococke, A Schultens, and others, attribute to the word בּעל; against this, cf. Hgstb. Christol. ii. p. 375; nor is the sig. "rule" certified (lxx διότι ἐγὼ κατακυριεύσω ὑμῶν); it cannot be proved from Isa 26:13. בּעל means only, own, possess; whence come the meanings, take to wife, have oneself married, which are to be maintained here and in Jer 31:32. In this view Jerome translates, quia ego vir vester; Luther, denn ich will euch mir vertrauen; Hgstb., denn ich traue euch mir an;-the reception anew of the people being given under the figure of a new marriage. This acceptation is, however, not suitable to the perf. בּעלתּי, for this, even if taken prophetically, cannot refer to a renewal of marriage which is to take place in the future. The perf. can be referred only to the marriage of Israel at the conclusion of the covenant on Sinai, and must be translated accordingly: I am your husband, or: I have wedded you to me. This is demanded by the grounding כּי; for the summons to repent cannot give as its motive some future act of God, but must point to that covenant relationship founded in the past, which, though suspended for a time, was not wholly broken up.Calvin gives it rightly: "Dixerat enim, se dedisse libellum repudii h. e. quasi publicis tabulis se testatum fuisse, nihil amplius sibi esse conjunctionis cum populo illo. Nam exilium erat instar divortii. Jam dicit: Ego sum maritus vester. Nam etiamsi ego tam graviter laesus a vobis fuerim, quia fefellistis fidem mihi datam, tamen maneo in proposito, ut sim bovis maritus;...et perinde ac si mihi semper fidem praestitissetis, iterum assuman vos, inqiut."

The promise of what God will do if Israel repents is given only from ולקחתּי (with ו consec.) onwards. The words, I take you, one out of a city, two out of a race, are not with Kimchi to be so turned: if even a single Israelite dwelt in a heathen city; but thus: if from amongst the inhabitants of a city there returns to me but one, and if out of a whole race there return but two, I will gather even these few and bring them to Zion. Quite aside from the point is Hitz.'s remark, that in Mic 5:1, too, a city is called אלף, and is equivalent to משׁפּחה. The numbers one and two themselves show us that משׁפּחה is a larger community than the inhabitants of one town, i.e., that it indicates the great subdivisions into which the tribes of Israel were distributed. The thought, then, is this: Though but so small a number obey the call to repent, yet the Lord will save even these; He will exclude from salvation no one who is willing to return, but will increase the small number of the saved to a great nation. This promise is not only not contradictory of those which declare the restoration of Israel as a whole; but it is rather a pledge that God will forget no one who is willing to be saved, and shows the greatness of the divine compassion.

As to the historical reference, it is manifest that the promise cannot be limited, as it is by Theodrt. and Grot., to the return from the Assyrian and Babylonian exile; and although the majority of commentators take it so, it can as little be solely referred to the Messianic times or to the time of the consummation of the kingdom of God. The fulfilment is accomplished gradually. It begins with the end of the Babylonian exile, in so far as at that time individual members of the ten tribes may have returned into the land of their fathers; it is continued in Messianic times during the lives of the apostles, by the reception, on the part of the Israelites, of the salvation that had appeared in Christ; it is carried on throughout the whole history of the Church, and attains its completion in the final conversion of Israel. This Messianic reference of the words is here the ruling one. This we may see from "bring you to Zion," which is intelligible only when we look on Zion as the seat of the kingdom of God; and yet more clearly is it seen from the further promise, Jer 3:15-17, I will give you shepherds according to my heart, etc. By shepherds we are not to understand prophets and priests, but the civil authorities, rulers, princes, kings (cf. Jer 2:8, Jer 2:26). This may not only be gathered from the parallel passage, Jer 23:4, but is found in the כּלבּי, which is an unmistakeable allusion to 1Sa 13:14, where David is spoken of as a man whom Jahveh has sought out for Himself after His heart (כּלבבו), and has set to be prince over His people. They will feed you דּעה . Both these words are used adverbially. דּעה is a noun, and השׂכּיל an infin.: deal wisely, possess, and show wisdom; the latter is as noun generally השׂכּל , Dan 1:17; Pro 1:3; Pro 21:16, but is found also as infin. absol. Jer 9:23. A direct contrast to these shepherds is found in the earlier kings, whom Israel had itself appointed according to the desire of its heart, of whom the Lord said by Hosea, They have set up kings (to themselves), but not by me (Hos 8:4); kings who seduced the people of God to apostasy, and encouraged them in it. "In the whole of the long series of Israelitish rulers we find no Jehoshaphat, no Hezekiah, no Josiah; and quite as might have been expected, for the foundation of the throne of Israel was insurrection" (Hgstb.). But if Israel will return to the Lord, He will give it rulers according to His heart, like David (cf. Eze 34:23; Hos 3:5), who did wisely (משׂכּיל ) in all his ways, and with whom Jahveh was (1Sa 18:14.; cf. 1Ki 2:3). The knowledge and wisdom consists in the keeping and doing of the law of God, Deu 4:6; Deu 29:8. As regards form, the promise attaches itself to the circumstances of the earlier times, and is not to be understood of particular historical rulers in the period after the exile; it means simply that the Lord will give to Israel, when it is converted to Him, good and faithful governors who will rule over it in the spirit of David. But the Davidic dynasty culminates in the kingship of the Messiah, who is indeed named David by the prophets; cf. Jer 22:4.

Jer 3:16-17

In Jer 3:16 and Jer 3:17 also the thought is clothed in a form characteristic of the Old Testament. When the returned Israelites shall increase and be fruitful in the land, then shall they no more remember the ark of the covenant of the Lord or feel the want of it, because Jerusalem will then be the throne of the Lord. The fruitfulness and increase of the saved remnant is a constant feature in the picture of Israel’s Messianic future; cf. Jer 23:3; Eze 36:11; Hos 2:1. This promise rests on the blessing given at the creation, Gen 1:28. God as creator and preserver of the world increases mankind together with the creatures; even so, as covenant God, He increases His people Israel. Thus He increased the sons of Israel in Egypt to be a numerous nation, Exo 1:12; thus, too, He will again make fruitful and multiply the small number of those who have been saved from the judgment that scattered Israel amongst the heathen. In the passages which treat of this blessing, פּרה generally precedes רבה; here, on the contrary, and in Eze 36:11, the latter is put first. The words 'לא יאמרוּ וגו must not be translated: they will speak no more of the ark of the covenant; אמר c. accus. never has this meaning. They must be taken as the substance of what is said, the predicate being omitted for rhetorical effect, so that the words are to be taken as an exclamation. Hgstb. supplies: It is the aim of all our wishes, the object of our longing. Mov. simply: It is our most precious treasure, or the glory of Israel, 1Sa 4:21.; Psa 78:61. And they will no more remember it. Ascend into the heart, i.e., come to mind, joined with זכר here and in Isa 65:17; cf. Jer 7:31; Jer 32:35; Jer 51:50; 1Co 2:9. ולא יפקדוּ, and they will not miss it; cf. Isa 34:16; 1Sa 20:6, etc. This meaning is called for by the context, and especially by the next clause: it will not be made again. Hitz.'s objection against this, that the words cannot mean this, is an arbitrary dictum. Non fiet amplius (Chr. B. Mich.), or, it will not happen any more, is an unsuitable translation, for this would be but an unmeaning addition; and the expansion, that the ark will be taken into the battle as it formerly was, is such a manifest rabbinical attempt to twist the words, that it needs no further refutation. Luther’s translation, nor offer more there, is untenable, since עשׂה by itself never means offer.

The thought is this: then they will no longer have any feeling of desire or want towards the ark. And wherefore? The answer is contained in Jer 3:17: At that time will they call Jerusalem the throne of Jahveh. The ark was the throne of Jahveh, inasmuch as Jahveh, in fulfilment of His promise in Exo 25:22, and as covenant God, was ever present to His people in a cloud over the extended wings of the two cherubim that were upon the covering of the ark of the law; from the mercy-seat too, between the two cherubs, He spake with His people, and made known to them His gracious presence: Lev 16:2; cf. 1Ch 13:6; Psa 80:2; 1Sa 4:4. The ark was therefore called the footstool of God, 1Ch 28:2; Psa 99:5; Psa 132:7; Lam 2:1. But in future Jerusalem is to be, and to be called, the throne of Jahveh; and it is in such a manner to take the place of the ark, that the people will neither miss it nor make any more mention of it. The promise by no means presumes that when Jeremiah spoke or wrote this prophecy the ark was no longer in existence; "was gone out of sight in some mysterious manner," as Movers, Chron. S. 139, and Hitz. suppose,Against this Hgstb. well says, that this allegation springs from the incapacity of modern exegesis to accommodate itself to the prophetic anticipation of the future; and that we might as well infer from Jer 3:18, that at the time these words were spoken, the house of Judah must already in some mysterious manner have come into the land of the north. 2Ch 35:5 furnishes unimpeachable testimony to the existence of the ark in the 18th year of Josiah. And even Graf says he cannot find anything to justify Movers’ conclusion, since from the special stress laid on the fact that at a future time they will have the ark no longer, it might more naturally be inferred that the ark was still in the people’s possession, and was an object of care to them. but only that it will be lost or destroyed. This could happen only at and along with the destruction of Jerusalem; and history testifies that the temple after the exile had no ark. Hence it is justly concluded that the ark had perished in the destruction of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans, and that upon the rebuilding of the temple after the exile, the ark was not restored, because the nucleus of it, the tables of the law written by the finger of God, could not be constructed by the hand of man. Without the ark the second temple was also without the gracious presence of Jahveh, the Shechinah or dwelling-place of God; so that this temple was no longer the throne of God, but only a seeming temple, without substance or reality. And thus the Old Testament covenant had come to an end. "We have here then before us," Hgstb. truly observes, "the announcement of an entire overthrow of the earlier form of the kingdom; but it is such an overthrow of the form that it is at the same time the highest perfection of the substance - a process like that in seed-corn, which only dies in order to bring forth much fruit; like that in the body, which is sown a corruptible that it may rise an incorruptible." For the dwelling and enthronement of the Lord amidst His people was again to come about, but in a higher form. Jerusalem is to become the throne of Jahveh, i.e., Jerusalem is to be for the renewed Israel that which the ark had been for the former Israel, the holy dwelling-place of God. Under the old covenant Jerusalem had been the city of Jahveh, of the great King (Psa 48:3); because Jerusalem had possessed the temple, in which the Lord sat enthroned in the holy of holies over the ark. If in the future Jerusalem is to become the throne of the Lord instead of the ark, Jerusalem must itself become a sanctuary of God; God the Lord must fill all Jerusalem with His glory (כּבוד), as Isaiah prophesied He would in Isaiah 60, of which prophecy we have the fulfilment portrayed in Apoc. 21 and 22. Jeremiah does not more particularly explain how this is to happen, or how the raising of Jerusalem to be the throne of the Lord is to be accomplished; for he is not seeking in this discourse to proclaim the future reconstitution of the kingdom of God. His immediate aim is to clear away the false props of their confidence from a people that set its trust in the possession of the temple and the ark, and further to show it that the presence of the temple and ark will not protect it from judgment; that, on the contrary, the Lord will reject faithless Judah, destroying Jerusalem and the temple; that nevertheless He will keep His covenant promises, and that by receiving again as His people the repentant members of the ten tribes, regarded by Judah as wholly repudiated, with whom indeed He will renew His covenant.

As a consequence of Jerusalem’s being raised to the glory of being the Lord’s throne, all nations will gather themselves to her, the city of God; cf. Zec 2:1-13 :15. Indeed in the Old Testament every revelation of the glory of God amongst His people attracted the heathen; cf. Jos 9:9. לשׁם יהוה, not, to the name of Jahveh towards Jerusalem (Hitz.), but, because of the name of Jahveh at Jerusalem (as in Jos 9:9), i.e., because Jahveh reveals His glory there; for the name of Jahveh is Jahveh Himself in the making of His glorious being known in deeds of almighty power and grace. לירוּשׁלם, prop. belonging to Jerusalem, because the name makes itself known there; cf. Jer 16:19; Mic 4:2; Zec 8:22. - The last clause, they will walk no more, etc., refers not to the heathen peoples, but to the Israelites as being the principal subject of the discourse (cf. Jer 5:16), since שׁררוּת  is used of Israel in all the cases (Jer 7:24; Jer 9:13; Jer 11:8; Jer 13:10; Jer 16:12; Jer 18:12; Jer 23:17, and Psa 81:13), thus corresponding to the original in Deu 29:18, whence it is taken. שׁררוּת prop. firmness, but in Hebr. always sensu malo: obstinacy, obduracy of heart, see in Deut. l.c.; here strengthened by the adjective הרע belonging to לבּם.

Jer 3:18

In those days when Jerusalem is glorified by being made the throne of the Lord, Judah along with Israel will come out of the north into the land which the Lord gave to their fathers. As the destruction of Jerusalem and of the temple is foretold implicite in Jer 3:16, so here the expulsion of Judah into exile is assumed as having already taken place, and the return not of Israel, only, but of Judah too is announced, as in Hos 2:2, and more fully in Eze 27:16. We should note the arrangement, the house of Judah with (על, prop. on) the house of Israel; this is as much as to say that Israel is the first to resolve on a return and to arise, and that Judah joins itself to the house of Israel. Judah is thus subordinated to the house of Israel, because the prophet is here seeking chiefly to announce the return of Israel to the Lord. It can surely not be necessary to say that, as regards the fulfilment, we are not entitled hence to infer that the remnant of the ten tribes will positively be converted to the Lord and redeemed out of exile sooner than the remnant of Judah. For more on this point see on Jer 31:8.

Jer 3:19-25 The return of Israel to its God. - Jer 3:19. "I thought, O how I will put thee among the sons, and give thee a delightful land, a heritage of the chiefest splendour of the nations! and thought, 'My Father,' ye will cry to me, and not turn yourselves away from me. Jer 3:20. truly as a wife faithlessly forsakes her mate, so are ye become faithless towards me, house of Israel, saith Jahveh. Jer 3:21. A voice upon the bare-topped hills is heard, suppliant weeping of the sons of Israel; for that they have made their way crooked, forsaken Jahveh their God. Jer 3:22. 'Return, ye backsliding sons, I will heal your backsliding,' Behold, we come to thee; for Thou Jahveh art our God. Jer 3:23. Truly the sound from the hills, from the mountains, is become falsehood: truly in Jahveh our God is the salvation of Israel. Jer 3:24. And shame hath devoured the gains of our fathers from our youth on; their sheep and their oxen, their sons and their daughters. Jer 3:25. Let us lie down in our shame, and let our disgrace cover us; for against Jahveh our God have we sinned, we and our fathers, from our youth even unto this day, and have not listened to the voice of our God." Hitz. takes Jer 3:18 and Jer 3:19 together, without giving an opinion on ואנכי אמרתּי. Ew. joins Jer 3:19 to the preceding, and begins a new strophe with Jer 3:21. Neither assumption can be justified. With Jer 3:18 closes the promise which formed the burden of the preceding strophe, and in Jer 3:19 there begins a new train of thought, the announcement as to how Israel comes to a consciousness of sin and returns penitent to the Lord its God (Jer 3:21-25). The transition to this announcement is formed by Jer 3:19 and Jer 3:20, in which the contrast between God’s fatherly designs and Israel’s faithless bearing towards God is brought prominently forward; and by ואנכי אמרתּי it is attached to the last clause of the 18th verse. His having mentioned the land into which the Israelites would again return, carries the prophet’s thoughts back again to the present and the past, to the bliss which Jahveh had designed for them, forfeited by their faithless apostasy, and to be regained only by repentant return (Graf). "I thought," refers to the time when God gave the land to their fathers for an inheritance. Then spake, i.e., thought, I; cf. Psa 31:23. How I will set thee or place thee among the sons! i.e., how I will make thee glorious among the sons (שׁית c. accus. and ב, as in 2Sa 19:29). No valid objection against this is founded by Hitz.'s plea that in that case we must read אשׁיתך, and that by Jeremiah, the teacher of morals, no heathen nation, or any but Israel, can ever be regarded as a son of God (Jer 31:9, Jer 31:20). The fem. אשׁיתך is explained by the personification of Judah and Israel as two sisters, extending throughout the whole prophecy. The other objection is erroneous as to the fact. In Jer 31:9 Jahveh calls Ephraim, = Israel, his first-born son, as all Israel is called by God in Exo 4:22. But the conception of first-born has, as necessary correlate, that of other "sons." Inasmuch as Jahveh the God of Israel is creator of the world and of all men, all the peoples of the earth are His בּנים; and from amongst all the peoples He has made choice of Israel as סגלּה, or chosen him for His first-born son. Hitz.'s translation: how will I endow thee with children, is contrary to the usage of the language. - The place which God willed to give Israel amongst His children is specified by the next clause: and I willed to give thee a delightful land (ארץ חמדּה as in Zec 7:14; Psa 106:24). צבי צבאות, ornament of ornaments, i.e., the greatest, most splendid ornament. For there can be no doubt that צבאות does not come from צבא, but, with Kimchi after the Targum, is to be derived from צבי; for the plural צביים from צבי may pass into צבאים, cf. Gesen. §93. 6 b, as Ew., too, in §186, c, admits, though he takes our צבאות from צבא, and strains the meaning into: an heirloom-adornment amidst the hosts of heathen. After such proofs of a father’s love, God expected that Israel would by a true cleaving to Him show some return of filial affection. To cry, "My father," is a token of a child’s love and adherence. The Chet. תּקראוּ and תּשׁוּבוּ are not to be impugned; the Keris are unnecessary alterations.

The Wickedness of Israel. (b. c. 620.)

1 They say, If a man put away his wife, and she go from him, and become another man's, shall he return unto her again? shall not that land be greatly polluted? but thou hast played the harlot with many lovers; yet return again to me, saith the Lord . 2 Lift up thine eyes unto the high places, and see where thou hast not been lien with. In the ways hast thou sat for them, as the Arabian in the wilderness; and thou hast polluted the land with thy whoredoms and with thy wickedness. 3 Therefore the showers have been withholden, and there hath been no latter rain; and thou hadst a whore's forehead, thou refusedst to be ashamed. 4 Wilt thou not from this time cry unto me, My father, thou art the guide of my youth? 5 Will he reserve his anger for ever? will he keep it to the end? Behold, thou hast spoken and done evil things as thou couldest.

These verses some make to belong to the sermon in the foregoing chapter, and they open a door of hope to those who receive the conviction of the reproofs we had there; God wounds that he may heal. Now observe here,

I. How basely this people had forsaken God and gone a whoring from him. The charge runs very high here. 1. They had multiplied their idols and their idolatries. To have admitted one strange God among them would have been bad enough, but they were insatiable in their lustings after false worships: Thou hast played the harlot with many lovers, v. 1. She had become a common prostitute to idols; not a foolish deity was set up in all the neighbourhood but the Jews would have it quickly. Where was a high place in the country but they had had an idol in it? v. 2. Note, In repentance it is good to make sorrowful reflections upon the particular acts of sin we have been guilty of, and the several places and companies where it has been committed, that we may give glory to God and take shame to ourselves by a particular confession of it. 2. They had sought opportunity for their idolatries, and had sent about to enquire for new gods: In the high—ways hast thou sat for them, as Tamar when she put on the disguise of a harlot (Gen. xxxviii. 14), and as the foolish woman, that sits to call passengers, who go right on their way, Prov. ix. 14, 15. As the Arabian in the wilderness—the Arabian huckster (so some), that courts customers, or waits for the merchants to get a good bargain and forestal the market—or the Arabian thief (so others), that watches for his prey; so had they waited either to court new gods to come among them (the newer the better, and the more fond they were of them) or to court others to join with them in their idolatries. They were not only sinners, but Satans, not only traitors themselves, but tempters to others. 3. They had grown very impudent in sin. They not only polluted themselves, but their land, with their whoredoms and with their wickedness (v. 2); for it was universal and unpunished, and so became a national sin. And yet (v. 3), "Thou hadst a whore's forehead, a brazen face of thy own. Thou refusedst to be ashamed; thou didst enough to shame thee for ever, and yet wouldst not take shame to thyself." Blushing is the colour of virtue, or at least a relic of it; but those that are past shame (we say) are past hope. Those that have an adulterer's heart, if they indulge that, will come at length to have a whore's forehead, void of all shame and modesty. 4. They abounded in all manner of sin. They polluted the land not only with their whoredoms (that is, their idolatries), but with their wickedness, or malice (v. 2), sins against the second table: for how can we think that those will be true to their neighbour that are false to their God? "Nay (v. 5), thou hast spoken and done evil things as thou couldst, and wouldst have spoken and done worse if thou hadst known how; thy will was to do it, but thou lackedst opportunity." Note, Those are wicked indeed that sin to the utmost of their power, that never refuse to comply with a temptation because they should not, but because they cannot.

II. How gently God had corrected them for their sins. Instead of raining fire and brimstone upon them, because, like Sodom, they had avowed their sin and had gone after strange gods as Sodom after strange flesh, he only withheld the showers from them, and that only one part of the year: There has been no latter rain, which might serve as an intimation to them of their continual dependence upon God; when they had the former rain, that was no security to them for the latter, but they must still look up to God. But it had not this effect.

III. How justly God might have abandoned them utterly, and refused ever to receive them again, though they should return; this would have been but according to the known rule of divorces, v. 1. They say (it is an adjudged case, nay, it is a case in which the law is very express, and it is what every body knows and speaks of, Deut. xxiv. 4), that if a woman be once put away for whoredom, and be joined to another man, her first husband shall never, upon any pretence whatsoever, take her again to be his wife; such playing fast and loose with the marriage-bond would be a horrid profanation of that ordinance and would greatly pollute that land. Observe, What the law says in this case—They say, that is, every one will say, and subscribe to the equity of the law in it; for every man finds something in himself that forbids him to entertain one that is another man's. And in like manner they had reason to expect that God would refuse ever to take them to be his people again, who had not only been joined to one strange god, but had played the harlot with many lovers. If we had to do with a man like ourselves, after such provocations as we have been guilty of, he would be implacable, and we might have despaired of his being reconciled to us.

IV. How graciously he not only invites them, but directs them, to return to him.

1. He encourages them to hope that they shall find favour with him, upon their repentance: "Thou thou hast been bad, yet return again to me," v. 1. This implies a promise that he will receive them: "Return, and thou shalt be welcome." God has not tied himself by the laws which he made for us, nor has he the peevish resentment that men have; he will be more kind to Israel, for the sake of his covenant with them, than ever any injured husband was to an adulterous wife; for in receiving penitents, as much as in any thing, he is God and not man.

2. He therefore kindly expects that they will repent and return to him, and he directs them what to say to him (v. 4): "Wilt thou not from this time cry unto me? Wilt not thou, who hast been in such relation to me, and on whom I have laid such obligations, wilt not thou cry to me? Though thou hast gone a whoring from me, yet, when thou findest the folly of it, surely thou wilt think of returning to me, now at least, now at last, in this thy day. Wilt thou not at this time, nay, wilt thou not from this time and forward, cry unto me? Whatever thou hast said or done hitherto, wilt thou not from this time apply to me? From this time of conviction and correction, now that thou hast been made to see thy sins (v. 2) and to smart for them (v. 3), wilt thou not now forsake them and return to me, saying, I will go and return to my first husband, for then it was better with me than now?" Hos. ii. 7. Or "from this time that thou hast had so kind an invitation to return, and assurance that thou shalt be well received: will not this grace of God overcome thee? Now that pardon is proclaimed wilt thou not come in and take the benefit of it? Surely thou wilt."

(1.) He expects that they will claim relation to God, as theirs: Wilt thou not cry unto me, My Father, thou art the guide of my youth? [1.] They will surely come towards him as a father, to beg his pardon for their undutiful behaviour to him (Father, I have sinned) and will hope to find in him the tender compassions of a father towards a returning prodigal. They will come to him as a father, to whom they will make their complaints, and in whom they will put their confidence for relief and succour. They will now own him as their father, and themselves fatherless without him; and therefore, hoping to find mercy with him (as those penitents, Hos. xiv. 3), [2.] They will come to him as the guide of their youth, that is, as their husband, for so that relation is described, Mal. ii. 14. "Though thou hast gone after many lovers, surely thou wilt at length remember the love of thy espousals, and return to the husband of thy youth." Or it may be taken more generally: "As my Father, thou art the guide of my youth." Youth needs a guide. In our return to God we must thankfully remember that he was the guide of our youth in the way of comfort; and we must faithfully covenant that he shall be our guide henceforward in the way of duty, and that we will follow his guidance, and give up ourselves entirely to it, that in all doubtful cases we will be determined by our religion.

(2.) He expects that they will appeal to the mercy of God and crave the benefit of that mercy (v. 5), that they will reason thus with themselves for their encouragement to return to him: "Will he reserve his anger for ever? Surely he will not, for he has proclaimed his name gracious and merciful." Repenting sinners may encourage themselves with this, that, though God chide, he will not always chide, though he be angry, he will not keep his anger to the end, but, though he cause grief, he will have compassion, and may thus plead for reconciliation. Some understand this as describing their hypocrisy, and the impudence of it: "Though thou hast a whore's forehead (v. 3) and art still doing evil as thou canst (v. 5), yet art thou not ever and anon crying to me, My Father?" Even when they were most addicted to idols they pretended a regard to God and his service and kept up the forms of godliness and devotion. It is a shameful thing for men thus to call God father, and yet to do the works of the devil (as the Jews, John viii. 44), to call him the guide of their youth, and yet give up themselves to walk after the flesh, and to flatter themselves with the expectation that his anger shall have an end, while they are continually treasuring up to themselves wrath against the day of wrath.

Idolatries of Israel; The Treachery of Judah. (b. c. 620.)

6 The Lord said also unto me in the days of Josiah the king, Hast thou seen that which backsliding Israel hath done? she is gone up upon every high mountain and under every green tree, and there hath played the harlot. 7 And I said after she had done all these things, Turn thou unto me. But she returned not. And her treacherous sister Judah saw it. 8 And I saw, when for all the causes whereby backsliding Israel committed adultery I had put her away, and given her a bill of divorce; yet her treacherous sister Judah feared not, but went and played the harlot also. 9 And it came to pass through the lightness of her whoredom, that she defiled the land, and committed adultery with stones and with stocks. 10 And yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah hath not turned unto me with her whole heart, but feignedly, saith the Lord . 11 And the Lord said unto me, The backsliding Israel hath justified herself more than treacherous Judah.

The date of this sermon must be observed, in order to the right understanding of it; it was in the days of Josiah, who set on foot a blessed work of reformation, in which he was hearty, but the people were not sincere in their compliance with it; to reprove them for that, and warn them of the consequences of their hypocrisy, is the scope of that which God here said to the prophet, and which he delivered to them. The case of the two kingdoms of Israel and Judah is here compared, the ten tribes that revolted from the throne of David and the temple of Jerusalem and the two tribes that adhered to both. The distinct history of those two kingdoms we have in the two books of the Kings, and here we have an abstract of both, as far as relates to this matter.

I. Here is a short account of Israel, the ten tribes. Perhaps the prophet had been just reading the history of that kingdom when God came to him, and said, Hast thou seen what backsliding Israel has done? v. 6. For he could not see it otherwise than in history, they having been carried into captivity long before he was born. But what we read in the histories of scripture should instruct us and affect us, as if we ourselves had been eye-witnesses of it. She is called backsliding Israel because that kingdom was first founded in an apostasy from the divine institutions, both in church and state. Now he had seen concerning them, 1. That they were wretchedly addicted to idolatry. They had played the harlot upon every high mountain and under every green tree (v. 6), that is, they had worshipped other gods in their high places and groves; and no marvel, when from the first they had worshipped God by the images of the golden calves at Dan and Bethel. The way of idolatry is down-hill: those that are in love with images, and will have them, soon become in love with other gods, and will have them too; for how should those stick at the breach of the first commandment who make no conscience of the second? 2. That God by his prophets had invited and encouraged them to repent and reform (v. 7): "After she had done all these things, for which she might justly have been abandoned, yet I said unto her, Turn thou unto me and I will receive thee." Though they had forsaken both the house of David and the house of Aaron, who both had their authority jure divino—from God, without dispute, yet God sent his prophets among them, to call them to return to him, to the worship of him only, not insisting so much as one would have expected upon their return to the house of David, but pressing their return to the house of Aaron. We read not that Elijah, that great reformer, ever mentioned their return to the house of David, while he was anxious for their return to the faithful service of the true God according as they had it among them. It is serious piety that God stands upon more than even his own rituals. 3. That, notwithstanding this, they had persisted in their idolatries: But she returned not, and God saw it; he took notice of it, and was much displeased with it, v. 7, 8. Note, God keeps account, whether we do or no, how often he has called to us to turn to him and we have refused. 4. That he had therefore cast them off, and given them up into the hands of their enemies (v. 8): When I saw (so it may be read) that for all the actions wherein she had committed adultery I must dismiss her, I gave her a bill of divorce. God divorced them when he threw them out of his protection and left them an easy prey to any that would lay hands on them, when he scattered all their synagogues and the schools of the prophets and excluded them from laying any further claim to the covenant made with their fathers. Note, Those will justly be divorced from God that join themselves to such as are rivals with him. For proof of this go and see what God did to Israel.

II. Let us now see what was the case of Judah, the kingdom of the two tribes. She is called treacherous sister Judah, a sister because descended from the same common stock, Abraham and Jacob; but, as Israel had the character of a backslider, So Judah is called treacherous, because, though she professed to keep close to God when Israel had backslidden (she adhered to the kings and priests that were of God's own appointing, and did not withdraw from her allegiance, so that it was expected she should deal faithfully), yet she proved treacherous, and false, and unfaithful to her professions and promises. Note, The treachery of those who pretend to cleave to God will be reckoned for, as well as the apostasy of those who openly revolt from him. Judah saw what Israel did, and what came of it, and should have taken warning. Israel's captivity was intended for Judah's admonition; but it had not the designed effect. Judah feared not, but thought herself safe because she had Levites to be her priests and sons of David to be her kings. Note, It is an evidence of great stupidity and security when we are not awakened to a holy fear by the judgments of God upon others. It is here charged on Judah, 1. That when they had a wicked king that debauched them they heartily concurred with him in his debaucheries. Judah was forward enough to play the harlot, to worship any idol that was introduced among them and to join in any idolatrous usage; so that through the lightness (or, as some read it, the vileness and baseness) of her whoredom, or (as the margin reads it) by the fame and report of her whoredom, her notorious whoredom, for which she had become infamous, she defiled the land, and made it an abomination to God; for she committed adultery with stones and stocks, with the basest idols, those made of wood and stone. In the reigns of Manasseh and Amon, when they were disposed to idolatry, the people were so too, and all the country was corrupted with it, and none feared the ruin which Israel by this means had brought upon themselves. 2. That when they had a good king, that reformed them, they did not heartily concur with him in the reformation. This was the present case. God tried whether they would be good in a good reign, but the evil disposition was still the same: They returned not to me with their whole heart, but feignedly, v. 10. Josiah went further in destroying idolatry than the best of his predecessors had done, and for his own part he turned to the Lord with all his heart and with all his soul; so it is said of him, 2 Kings xxiii. 25. The people were forced to an external compliance with him, and joined with him in keeping a very solemn passover and in renewing their covenants with God (2 Chron. xxxiv. 32, xxxv. 17); but they were not sincere in it, nor were their hearts right with God. For this reason God at that very time said, I will remove Judah out of my sight, as I removed Israel (2 Kings xxiii. 27), because Judah was not removed from their sin by the sight of Israel's removal from their land. Hypocritical and ineffectual reformations bode ill to a people. We deceive ourselves if we think to deceive God by a feigned return to him. I know no religion without sincerity.

III. The case of these sister kingdoms is compared, and judgment given upon the comparison, that of the two Judah was the worse (v. 11): Israel has justified herself more than Judah, that is, she is not so bad as Judah is. This comparative justification will stand Israel in little stead; what will it avail us to say, We are not so bad as others, when yet we are not really good ourselves? But it will serve as an aggravation of the sin of Judah, which was in two respects worse than that of Israel:—1. More was expected from Judah than from Israel; so that Judah dealt treacherously, they vilified a more sacred profession, and falsified a more solemn promise, than Israel did. 2. Judah might have taken warning by the ruin of Israel for their idolatry, and would not. God's judgments upon others, if they be not means of our reformation, will help to aggravate our destruction. The prophet Ezekiel (ch. xxiii. 11) makes the same comparison between Jerusalem and Samaria that this prophet here makes between Judah and Israel, nay, and (Ezek. xvi. 48) between Jerusalem and Sodom, and Jerusalem is made the worst of the three.

Encouragements to Repentance. (b. c. 620.)

12 Go and proclaim these words toward the north, and say, Return, thou backsliding Israel, saith the Lord ; and I will not cause mine anger to fall upon you: for I am merciful, saith the Lord , and I will not keep anger for ever. 13 Only acknowledge thine iniquity, that thou hast transgressed against the Lord thy God, and hast scattered thy ways to the strangers under every green tree, and ye have not obeyed my voice, saith the Lord . 14 Turn, O backsliding children, saith the Lord ; for I am married unto you: and I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion: 15 And I will give you pastors according to mine heart, which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding. 16 And it shall come to pass, when ye be multiplied and increased in the land, in those days, saith the Lord , they shall say no more, The ark of the covenant of the Lord : neither shall it come to mind: neither shall they remember it; neither shall they visit it; neither shall that be done any more. 17 At that time they shall call Jerusalem the throne of the Lord ; and all the nations shall be gathered unto it, to the name of the Lord , to Jerusalem: neither shall they walk any more after the imagination of their evil heart. 18 In those days the house of Judah shall walk with the house of Israel, and they shall come together out of the land of the north to the land that I have given for an inheritance unto your fathers. 19 But I said, How shall I put thee among the children, and give thee a pleasant land, a goodly heritage of the hosts of nations? and I said, Thou shalt call me, My father; and shalt not turn away from me.

Here is a great deal of gospel in these verses, both that which was always gospel, God's readiness to pardon sin and to receive and entertain returning repenting sinners, and those blessings which were in a special manner reserved for gospel times, the forming and founding of the gospel church by bringing into it the children of God that were scattered abroad, the superseding of the ceremonial law, and the uniting of Jews and Gentiles, typified by the uniting of Israel and Judah in their return out of captivity. The prophet is directed to proclaim these words towards the north, for they are a call to backsliding Israel, the ten tribes that were carried captive into Assyria, which lay north from Jerusalem. That way he must look, to show that God had not forgotten them, though their brethren had, and to upbraid the men of Judah with their obstinacy in refusing to answer the calls given them. One might as well call to those who lay many hundred miles off in the land of the north; they would as soon hear as these unbelieving and disobedient people; backsliding Israel will sooner accept of mercy, and have the benefit of it, than treacherous Judah. And perhaps the proclaiming of these words towards the north looks as far forward as the preaching of repentance and remission of sins unto all nations, beginning at Jerusalem, Luke xxiv. 47. A call to Israel in the land of the north is a call to others in that land, even as many as belong to the election of grace. When it was suspected that Christ would go to the dispersed Jews among the Gentiles, it was concluded that he would teach the Gentiles, John vii. 35. So here.

I. Here is an invitation given to backsliding Israel, and in them to the backsliding Gentiles, to return unto God, the God from whom they had revolted (v. 12): Return, thou backsliding Israel. And again (v. 14): "Turn, O backsliding children! repent of your backslidings, return to your allegiance, come back to that good way which you have missed and out of which you have turned aside." Pursuant to this invitation, 1. They are encouraged to return. "Repent, and be converted, and your sins shall be blotted out, Acts iii. 19. You have incurred God's displeasure, but return to me, and I will not cause my anger to fall upon you." God's anger is ready to fall upon sinners, as a lion falls on his prey, and there is none to deliver, as a mountain of lead falling on them, to sink them past recovery into the lowest hell. But if they repent it shall be turned away, Isa. xii. 1. I will not keep my anger for ever, but will be reconciled, for I am merciful. We that are sinful were for ever undone if God were not merciful; but the goodness of his nature encourages us to hope that, if we by repentance undo what we have done against him, he will by a pardon unsay what he has said against us. 2. They are directed how to return (v. 13): "Only acknowledge thy iniquity, own thyself in a fault and thereby take shame to thyself and give glory to God." I will not keep my anger for ever (that is a previous promise); you shall be delivered form that anger of God which is everlasting, from the wrath to come; but upon what terms? Very easy and reasonable ones. Only acknowledge thy sins. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive them. This will aggravate the condemnation of sinners, that the terms of pardon and peace were brought so low, and yet they would not come up to them. If the prophet had told thee to do some great thing wouldst thou not have done it? How much more when he says, Only acknowledge thy iniquity? 2 Kings v. 13. In confessing sin, (1.) We must own the corruption of our nature: Acknowledge thy iniquity, the perverseness and irregularity of thy nature. (2.) We must own our actual sins: "That thou hast transgressed against the Lord thy God, hast affronted him and offended him." (3.) We must own the multitude of our transgressions: "That thou hast scattered thy ways to the strangers, run hither and thither in pursuit of thy idols, under every green tree. Wherever thou hast rambled thou hast left behind thee the marks of thy folly." (4.) We must aggravate our sin from the disobedience that there is in it to the divine law. The sinfulness of sin is the worst thing in it: "You have not obeyed my voice; acknowledge that, and let that humble you more than any thing else."

II. Here are precious promises made to these backsliding children, if they do return, which were in part fulfilled in the return of the Jews out of their captivity, many that belonged to the ten tribes having perhaps joined themselves to those of the two tribes, in the prospect of their deliverance, and returning with them; but the prophecy is to have its full accomplishment in the gospel church, and the gathering together of the children of God that were scattered abroad to that: "Return, for, though you are backsliders, yet you are children; nay, though a treacherous wife, yet a wife, for I am married to you (v. 14) and will not disown the relation." Thus God remembers his covenant with their fathers, that marriage covenant, and in consideration of that he remembers their land, Lev. xxvi. 42.

1. He promises to gather them together from all places whither they are dispersed and scattered abroad, John xi. 52, I will take you, one of a city, and two of a family, or clan; and I will bring you to Zion, v. 14. All those that by repentance return to their duty shall return to their former comfort. Observe, (1.) God will graciously receive those that return to him, nay, it is he that by his distinguishing grace takes them out from among the rest that persist in their backslidings; if he had left them, they would have been undone. (2.) Of the many that have backslidden from God there are but few, very few in comparison, that return to him, like the gleanings of the vintage—one of a city and two of a country; Christ's flock is a little flock, and few there are that find the strait gate. (3.) Of those few, though dispersed, yet not one shall be lost. Though there be but one in a city, God will find out that one; he shall not be overlooked in a crowd, but shall be brought safely to Zion, safely to heaven. The scattered Jews shall be brought to Jerusalem, and those of the ten tribes shall be as welcome there as those of the two. God's chosen, scattered all the world over, shall be brought to the gospel church, that Mount Zion, the heavenly Jerusalem, that holy hill on which Christ reigns.

2. He promises to set those over them that shall be every way blessings to them (v. 15): I will give you pastors after my heart, alluding to the character given of David when God pitched upon him to be king. 1 Sam. xiii. 14, The Lord hath sought him a man after his own heart. Observe, (1.) When a church is gathered it must be governed. "I will bring them to Zion, not to live as they list, but to be under discipline, not as wild beasts, that range at pleasure, but as sheep that are under the direction of a shepherd." I will give them pastors, that is, both magistrates and ministers; both are God's ordinance for the support of his kingdom. (2.) It is well with a people when their pastors are after God's own heart, such as they should be, such as we would have them be, who shall make his will their rule in all their administrations, and such as endeavour in some measure to conform to his example, who rule for him, and, as they are capable, rule like him. (3.) Those are pastors after God's own heart who make it their business to feed the flock, not to feed themselves and fleece the flocks, but to do all they can for the good of those that are under their charge, who feed them with wisdom and understanding (that is, wisely and understandingly), as David fed them, in the integrity of his heart and by the skilfulness of his hand, Ps. lxxviii. 72. Those who are not only pastors, but teachers, must feed them with the word of God, which is wisdom and understanding, which is able to make us wise to salvation.

3. He promises that there shall be no more occasion for the ark of the covenant, which had been so much the glory of the tabernacle first and afterwards of the temple, and was the token of God's presence with them; that shall be set aside, and there shall be no more enquiry after, nor enquiring of, it (v. 16): When you shall be multiplied and increased in the land, when the kingdom of the Messiah shall be set up, which by the accession of the Gentiles will bring in to the church a vast increase (and the days of the Messiah the Jewish masters themselves acknowledge to be here intended), then they shall say no more, The ark of the covenant of the Lord, they shall have it no more among them to value, or value themselves upon, because they shall have a pure spiritual way of worship set up, in which there shall be no occasion for any of those external ordinances; with the ark of the covenant the whole ceremonial law shall be set aside, and all the institutions of it, for Christ, the truth of all those types, exhibited to us in the word and sacraments of the New Testament, will be to us instead of all. It is very likely (whatever the Jews suggest to the contrary) that the ark of the covenant was in the second temple, being restored by Cyrus with the other vessels of the house of the Lord, Ezra i. 7. But in the gospel temple Christ is the ark; he is the propitiatory, or mercy-seat; and it is the spiritual presence of God in his ordinances that we are now to expect. Many expressions are here used concerning the setting aside of the ark, that it shall not come to mind, that they shall not remember it, that they shall not visit it, that none of these things shall be any more done; for the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth, John iv. 24. But this variety of expressions is used to show that the ceremonies of the law of Moses should be totally and finally abolished, never to be used any more, but that it would be with difficulty that those who had been so long wedded to them should be weaned from them; and that they would not quite let them go till their holy city and holy house should both be levelled with the ground.

4. He promises that the gospel church, here called Jerusalem, shall become eminent and conspicuous, v. 17. Two things shall make it famous:—(1.) God's special residence and dominion in it. It shall be called, The throne of the Lord—the throne of his glory, for that shines forth in the church—the throne of his government, for that also is erected there; there he rules his willing people by his word and Spirit, and brings every thought into obedience to himself. As the gospel got ground this throne of the Lord was set up even where Satan's seat had been. It is especially the throne of his grace; for those that by faith come to this Jerusalem come to God the judge of all, and to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, Heb. xii. 22-24. (2.) The accession of the Gentiles to it. All the nations shall be discipled, and so gathered to the church, and shall become subjects to that throne of the Lord which is there set up, and devoted to the honour of that name of the Lord which is there both manifested and called upon.

5. He promises that there shall be a wonderful reformation wrought in those that are gathered to the church: They shall not walk any more after the imagination of their evil hearts. They shall not live as they list, but live by rules, not do according to their own corrupt appetites, but according to the will of God. See what leads in sin—the imagination of our own evil hearts; and what sin is—it is walking after that imagination, being governed by fancy and humour; and what converting grace does—it takes us off from walking after our own inventions and brings us to be governed by religion and right reason.

6. That Judah and Israel shall be happily united in one body, v. 18. They were so in their return out of captivity and their settlement again in Canaan: The house of Judah shall walk with the house of Israel, as being perfectly agreed, and become one stick in the hand of the Lord, as Ezekiel also foretold, ch. xxxvii. 16, 17. Both Assyria and Chaldea fell into the hands of Cyrus, and his proclamation extended to all the Jews in all his dominions. And therefore we have reason to think that many of the house of Israel came with those of Judah out of the land of the north; though at first there returned but 42,000 (whom we have an account of, Ezra ii.) yet Josephus says (Antiq. 11.68) that some few years after, under Darius, Zerubbabel went and fetched up above 4,000 000 of souls, to the land that was given for an inheritance to their fathers. And we never read of such animosities and enmities between Israel and Judah as had been formerly. This happy coalescence between Israel and Judah in Canaan was a type of the uniting of Jews and Gentiles in the gospel church, when, all enmities being slain, they should become one sheepfold under one shepherd.

III. Here is some difficulty started, that lies in the way of all this mercy; but an expedient is found to get over it.

1. God asks, How shall I do this for thee? Not as if God showed favour with reluctancy, as he punishes with a How shall I give thee up? Hos. xi. 8, 9. No, though he is slow to anger, he is swift to show mercy. But it intimates that we are utterly unworthy of his favours, that we have no reason to expect them, that there is nothing in us to deserve them, that we can lay no claim to them, and that he contrives how to do it in such a way as may save the honour of his justice and holiness in the government of the world. Means must be devised that his banished be not for ever expelled from him, 2 Sam. xiv. 14. How shall I do it? (1.) Even backsliders, if they return and repent, shall be put among the children; and who could ever have expected that? Behold what manner of love is this! 1 John iii. 1. How should we who are so mean and weak, so worthless and unworthy, and so provoking, ever be put among the children. (2.) To those whom God puts among the children he will give the pleasant land, the land of Canaan, that glory of all lands, that goodly heritage of the hosts of nations, which nations and their hosts wish for and prefer to their own country, or which the hosts of the nations have now got possession of. It was a type of heaven, where there are pleasures for evermore. Now who could expect a place in that pleasant land that has so often despised it (Ps. cvi. 24) and is so unworthy of it and unfit for it? Is this the manner of men?

2. He does himself return answer to this question: But I said, Thou shalt call me, My Father. God does himself answer all the objections that are taken from our unworthiness, or they would never be got over. (1.) That he may put returning penitents among the children, he will give them the Spirit of adoption, teaching them to cry, Abba, Father, Gal. iv. 6. "Thou shalt call me, My Father; thou shalt return to me, and resign thyself to me as a father, and that shall recommend thee to my favour," (2.) That he may give them the pleasant land, he will put his fear in their hearts, that they may never turn from him, but may persevere to the end.

Israel Returning to God; Israel Encouraged in Their Return. (b. c. 620.)

20 Surely as a wife treacherously departeth from her husband, so have ye dealt treacherously with me, O house of Israel, saith the Lord . 21 A voice was heard upon the high places, weeping and supplications of the children of Israel: for they have perverted their way, and they have forgotten the Lord their God. 22 Return, ye backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings. Behold, we come unto thee; for thou art the Lord our God. 23 Truly in vain is salvation hoped for from the hills, and from the multitude of mountains: truly in the Lord our God is the salvation of Israel. 24 For shame hath devoured the labour of our fathers from our youth; their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters. 25 We lie down in our shame, and our confusion covereth us: for we have sinned against the Lord our God, we and our fathers, from our youth even unto this day, and have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God.

Here is, I. The charge God exhibits against Israel for their treacherous departures from him, v. 20. As an adulterous wife elopes from her husband, so have they gone a whoring from God. They were joined to God by a marriage-covenant, but they broke that covenant, they dealt treacherously with God, who had always dealt kindly and faithfully with them. Treacherous dealing with men like ourselves is bad enough, but to deal treacherously with God is to deal treasonably.

II. Their conviction and confession of the truth of this charge, v. 21. When God reproved them for their apostasy, there were some among them, even such as God would take and bring to Zion, whose voice was heard upon the high places weeping and praying, humbling themselves before the God of their fathers, lamenting their calamities, and their sins, the procuring cause of them; for this is that which they lament, for this they bemoan themselves, that they have perverted their way and forgotten the Lord their God. Note, 1. Sin is the perverting of our way, it is turning aside to crooked ways and perverting that which is right. 2. Forgetting the Lord our God is at the bottom of all sin. If men would remember God, his eye upon them and their obligation to him, they would not transgress as they do. 3. By sin we embarrass ourselves, and bring ourselves into trouble, for that also is the perverting of our way, Lam. iii. 9. 4. Prayers and tears well become those whose consciences tell them that they have perverted their way and forgotten their God. When the foolishness of man perverts his way his heart is apt to fret against the Lord (Prov. xix. 3), whereas it should be melted and poured out before him.

III. The invitation God gives them to return to him (v. 22): Return, you backsliding children. He calls them children in tenderness and compassion to them, foolish and froward as children, yet his sons, whom though he corrects he will not disinherit; for, though they are refractory children (so some render it), yet they are children. God bears with such children, and so much parents. When they are convinced of sin (v. 21), and humbled for that, then they are prepared and then they are invited to return, as Christ invites those to him that are weary and heavy-laden. The promise to those that return is, "I will heal your backslidings; I will comfort you under the grief you are in for your backslidings, deliver you out of the troubles you have brought yourselves into by your backslidings, and cure you of your refractoriness and tendency to backslide." God will heal our backslidings by his pardoning mercy, his quieting peace, and his renewing grace.

IV. The ready consent they give to this invitation, and their cheerful compliance with it: Behold, we come unto thee. This is an echo to God's call; as a voice returned from broken walls, so this from broken hearts. God says, Return; they answer, Behold, we come. It is an immediate speedy answer, without delay, not, "We will come hereafter," but, "We do come now; we need not take time to consider of it;" not, "We come towards thee," but, "We come to thee, we will make a thorough turn of it." Observe how unanimous they are: We come, one and all. 1. They come devoting themselves to God as theirs: "Thou art the Lord our God; we take thee to be ours, we give up ourselves to thee to be thine; whither shall we go but to thee? It is our sin and folly that we have gone from thee." It is very comfortable, in our returns to God after our backslidings, to look up to him as ours in covenant. 2. They come disclaiming all expectations of relief and succour but from God only: "In vain is salvation hoped for from the hills and from the multitude of the mountains; we now see our folly in relying upon creature-confidences, and will never so deceive ourselves any more." They worshipped their idols upon hills and mountains (v. 6), and they had a multitude of idols upon their mountains, which they had sought unto and put a confidence in; but now they will have no more to do with them. In vain do we look for any thing that is good from them, while from God we may look for every thing that is good, even salvation itself. Therefore, 3. They come depending upon God only as their God: In the Lord our God is the salvation of Israel. He is the Lord, and he only can save; he can save when all other succours and saviours fail; and he is our God, and will in his own way and time work salvation for us. It is very applicable to the great salvation from sin, which Jesus Christ wrought out for us; that is the salvation of the Lord, his great salvation. 4. They come justifying God in their troubles and judging themselves for their sins, v. 24, 25. (1.) They impute all the calamities they had been under to their idols, which had not only done them no good, but had done them abundance of mischief, all the mischief that had been done them: Shame (the idol, that shameful thing) has devoured the labour of our fathers. Note, [1.] True penitents have learned to call sin shame; even the beloved sin which has been as an idol to them, which they have been most pleased with and proud of, even that they shall call a scandalous thing, shall put contempt upon it and be ashamed of it. [2.] True penitents have learned to call sin death and ruin, and to charge upon it all the mischiefs they suffer: "It has devoured all those good things which our fathers laboured for and left to us; we have found from our youth that our idolatry has been the destruction of our prosperity." Children often throw away upon their lusts that which their fathers took a great deal of pains for; and it is well if at length they are brought (as these here) to see the folly of it, and to call those vices their shame which have wasted their estates and devoured the labour of their fathers. Of the labour of their fathers, which their idols had devoured, they mention particularly their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters. First, their idolatries had provoked God to bring these desolating judgments upon them, which had ruined their country and families, and made their estates a prey and their children captives to the conquering enemy. They had procured these things to themselves. Or, rather, Secondly, These had been sacrificed to their idols, had been separated unto that shame (Hos. ix. 10), and they had devoured them without mercy; they did eat the fat of their sacrifices (Deut. xxxii. 38), even their human sacrifices. (2.) They take to themselves the shame of their sin and folly (v. 25): "We lie down in our shame, being unable to bear up under it; our confusion covers us, that is, both our penal and our penitential shame. Sin has laid us under such rebukes of God's providence, and such reproaches of our own consciences, as surround us and fill us with shame. For we have sinned, and shame came in with sin and still attends upon it. We are sinners by descent; guilt and corruption are entailed upon us: We and our fathers have sinned. We were sinners betimes; we began early in a course of sin: We have sinned from our youth; we have continued in sin, have sinned even unto this day, though often called to repent and forsake our sins. That which is the malignity of sin, the worst thing in it, is the affront we have put upon God by it: We have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God, forbidding us to sin and commanding us, when we have sinned, to repent." Now all this seems to be the language of the penitents of the house of Israel (v. 20), of the ten tribes, either of those that were in captivity or those of them that remained in their own land. And the prophet takes notice of their repentance to provoke the men of Judah to a holy emulation. David used it as an argument with the elders of Judah that it would be a shame for those that were his bone and his flesh to be the last in bringing the king back, when the men of Israel appeared forward in it, 2 Sam. xix. 11, 12. So the prophet excites Judah to repent because Israel did: and well it were if the zeal of others less likely would provoke us to strive to get before them and go beyond them in that which is good.

CHAP. III.

Ver. 1. THey ſay] Vulgo dicitur, ſaith the Vulgar; Dicendo dicitur, ſay others. They ſay, and they ſay well, for they have good law for it, Deut. 24.4. But I am above law, ſaith God, and will deal with thee, not according to mine ordinary Rule, but according to my Prerogative. Thou ſhalt be a Paradox to the Bible: for I will do that in favour of thee, which I have inhibited others in like caſe to do, and that ſcarce any man would do, though there were no law to inhibit it, as one here Paraphraſeth.

Shall not the land be greatly polluted] Great ſins do greatly pollute; that of adultery eſpecially: for this is an hainous crime, yea it is an iniquity to be puniſhed by the Judges, Job. 31.11.

But thou hast plaid the harlot—yet return unto me] Haec eſt Dei clementia inſuperabilis; Gods mercy is matchleſs. No man, no God would ſhew mercy as he doth, Mic. 7.18. Mal. 3.7. Zach. 1.3. He followeth after thoſe that run from him, as the Sun-beams do the paſſenger that goeth from them; and as is ſweetly ſet forth by our Saviour in thoſe three Parables, of the loſt groat, the loſt ſheep, and the loſt ſonne, Luk. 15. Paul alloweth of Marke, 2 Tim. 4.11. (though before he had refuſed him, Act. 15.38.) and willeth others to entertain him, Coloſ. 4.10, 11. Let none deſpair that hath but a mind to return to God, from whom he hath deeply revolted. There is a natural Novatianiſme in the timorous conſcience of convinced ſinners, to doubt and queſtion pardon for ſins of Apoſtaſie, and falling after repentance. But this need not be, we ſee here. Pernicious was Ahitophels counſel to Abſolom, Go in to thy Fathers Concubines: this he judged ſuch an injury as David would never put up: yet return again to me ſaith the Lord, and all ſhall be well betwixt us.

Ver. 2. And ſee where thou haſt not been lien with] Pouring out thy ſpiritual whoredoms, as Papiſts now do with their Croſſes, Chappels, Pictures ſet up in all places.

In the wayes haſt thou ſat for them] For thy cuſtomers and copeſmates, like a common ſtrumpet. See Gen. 38.19. Ezek. 16.24, 25, 31.

As the Arabian in the wilderneſſe] As high-way-robbers wait for and way-lay paſſengers, making it thy trade.

Ver. 3. Therefore the ſhowrs have been withholden] Drought and dearth have inſued upon thy ſin. By ſhowrs here underſtand the former rain, called alſo the ſeeds rain, Eſay 20.23.

And there hath been no latter rain] That commonly came a little before harveſt, and was much deſired.

And thou hadſt a whores forehead] Quam pudet non eſſe impudentem, Aug. that can bluſh no more then a ſackbut. We have heard (ſaith a Reverend writer) of Virgins, which at firſt ſeemed modeſt, bluſhing at the motions of an honeſt love; who being once corrupt and debauched, have grown flexible to eaſie intreaties to unchaſtity, and from thence boldly laſcivious, ſo as to ſollicit others,Dr. Halls Remedy of Prophan. p. 179. ſo as to proſtitute themſelves to all comers, yea (as the Caſuists complain of ſome Spaniſh ſtews) to an unnatural filthineſs. The modeſt beginnings of ſin will make way for immodeſt proceeding. Let men take heed of that [non-Latin text not transcribed] i. e. inverecundia, ſhameleſneſs, that Caligula liked ſo well in himſelf: and that the heriticks called Effrontes profeſſed. 'Tis an hard thing to have a brazen face and a broken heart.

Ver. 4. Wilt thou not from this time cry unto me] And is not this extream impudence? haſt thou a face thus to collogue? Hypocritis nihil impudentius: hypocrites are impudent flatterers: they would, if they could, cozen God of his heaven.

Thou art the guide of my youth] i. e. My dear husband, Prov. 2.17. Fair words are light-cheap, and may make fooles fain. But God is not to be ſo courted and complemented.

Ver. 5. Will he reſerve his anger for ever?] Will he not? Nah. 1.2. and is there not good reaſon he ſhould do ſo, ſo long as you ſpeak and do evil things as you can, obſtinately perſiſting in thy ſinful practiſes? He that repenteth with a contradiction (ſaith Tertullian) God will pardon him with a contradiction. Thou repenteſt, and yet continueſt in thy ſins. God will pardon thee, and yet ſend thee to bell: There's a pardon with a contradiction.

As thou couldeſt] i. e. To thine utmoſt. Nolunt ſolita peccare, ſaith Seneca of ſome: they ſtrive to out-ſin themſelves, and others.

Ver. 6. The Lord alſo ſaid unto me in the dayes of Joſiah] This is the beginning of a new Sermon, as moſt hold. Joſiah was a religious Prince, and a zealous reformer: and hypocriſie raigned exceedingly in his dayes, as we ſee here: and as holy Bradford in his letters complaineth, that it did likewiſe in King Edward the ſixths dayes (who was our Engliſh Joſiah) among the great ones eſpecially, who were very corrupt.

She is gone up upon every high mountain] ſc. Ever ſince Solomons mind began to be corrupted, 1 King. 11.4. and now ſhe ſmarteth for it: yet is not Judah warned by her example.

Ver. 7. And I ſaid after ſhe had done] Or, yet I ſaid: but I loſt my ſweet words upon her.

Ver. 8. And I ſaw] That which others could not ſo eaſily diſcern; viz. their hypocriſie and hollow-heartedneſſe, their incorrigibleneſſe alſo and refuſing to he warned by what had befallen their brethren. God looked that Iſraels corrections ſhould have been Jeruſalems inſtructions, and that by their laſhes ſhe ſhould have been leſſoned: which becauſe ſhe was not, he is highly diſpleaſed, and ſpeaks of it here in a very angry dialect.

Yet her treacherous ſiſter Judah feared not] But ſlighted the kindneſs of ſuch a caution, and deſpiſed the counſel that was written to her in her ſiſters blood.

But went and played the harlot alſo] Being therefore the worſe, becauſe ſhe ſhould have been the better of the two.

Ver. 9. And it came to paſſe through the lightneſſe of her whoredome] Or (better) through the vocalneſſe of it, the loudneſſe of her leudneſſe. Heb. The voyce or noiſe of her whoredome, the fame and bruit of it: for it is talked of far and near.

And committed adultery with ſtones and with ſtocks] Haec ferae omnia in coecum, erroneum, meretrioiumque Papatum apte hodie torqueri poſſunt: Do not Idolatrous Papiſts even the ſame?

Ver. 10. Hath not turned unto me with her whole heart] Joſiah did, but the people did not: as ſoon appeared, when in the next Kings raign they fell off as faſt as leaves do in Autumn. And ſo they did here, when Queen Mary ſet up Popery.

Ver. 11. The back ſliding Iſrael hath juſtified her ſelf] That is, ſhe is leſs guilty and faulty of the two: becauſe Judah ſinned againſt more means and mercies; and becauſe ſhe received not inſtruction by her ſiſters deſtruction; Therefore ſhall ſhe feel, what ſhe feared not at a diſtance: therefore ſhall ſhe taſte of Iſraels rod, becauſe ſhe would not hear it: ſhe that would not tremble at her ſiſters divorce, muſt her ſelf be divorced, and be judged as women that break wedlock, Ezek. 16.38. bearing her own ſhame for her ſins that ſhe had committed, more abominable then theirs, ver. 52.

Ver. 12. Go and proclaim theſe words toward the North] i. e, Toward Aſſyria and Media, into which Countries the ten tribes had been carryed captive. And although they cannot hear thee, yet in time this prophecy may be brought to their hearing: and the men of Judah, mean while, may be wrought upon thereby.

And I will not cauſe mine anger to fall upon you] Heb. I will not make my face to fall: I will not further frown upon you, or deal hardly with you.

I will not keep anger for ever] Heb. I will not keep for ever. There is nothing that a man is more ready to keep than his wrath. Therefore the Hebrews put keep, for keep wrath; ſo Pſal. 103.9. Levit. 19.18. See Ver. 5.

Ver. 13. Only acknowledge thine iniquity] Thus favour is promiſed to the ten captivated tribes, ſed per modulum unius poenitentiae, but upon condition of their true repentance:Facit peccator confitendo propitium, quem non facit negando neſcium. Aug. one part whereof is confeſſion of ſin, Prov. 28.13. Pſal. 32.4. When thy ſins and Gods wrath meeting in thy conſcience (ſaith one) make thee deadly ſick, then pour forth thy ſoul in confeſſion; and as it will eaſe thee (as vomiting uſeth to do) ſo alſo it will move God to pitty, and to give thee cordials and comforts to reſtore thee again.

Ver. 14. Turn, O backſliding children] See on Zach. 1.3.

For I am married unto you] And, as I hate putting away, Mal. 2.16. ſo I can receive to favour a wiſe that hath been diſloyal, ver. 1. and after a divorce.

And I will take you one of a City] i. e. Though but a few, as Iſa. 10.11, 12. and 17.6. and 24.3. all the reſt hardening their hearts by unbelief. This hath been principally fulfilled in the dayes of the Goſpel.

Ver. 15. And I will give you Paſtours according to my heart] God gives faithful Paſtours oft for the ſake of but a few that are there to be converted; & viliſſimus pagus eſt palatium eburneum, Luth. tom. 3. pag. 81. a. in quo eſt Paſtor & credentes aliqui, ſaith Luther: the pooreſt village is an Ivory Palace, if there be but in it a Paſtour and ſome few beleevers. Such Paſtours as God here promiſeth (and more largely deſcribeth, chap. 23. and Ezek. 34.) are ſpecial gifts of God: I will give you Paſtours. David, after he had diſcomfited the Amalekites, ſent gifts to his friends in Judah, 1 Sam. 30.26. Great Alexander, when he had prevailed at the river Granicum, and was now aſcended into the upper parts of Aſia, ſent back many gifts, to aſſure them of his love in Macedonia. The like doth God to his Church by ſending them Paſtours, with ſuch two adjuncts as are here. 1. Adherent, his own approbation. 2. Inherent, skill to teach the people. See Eph. 4.8. with the Notes.

Ver. 16. They ſhall ſay no more the Ark, &c.] When the Goſpel ſhall be preached,Paulus ea vocat ſtercora & rudera. the ancient ceremonies ſhall be aboliſhed. This was not ſo eaſily beleeved, and is therefore here again and again aſſured.

Ver. 17. They ſhall call Jeruſalem] i. e. The Church Chriſtian.

The throne of the Lord] The throne of glory, chap. 4.21. So Exod. 17.16. becauſe the hand upon the throne of the Lord, that is, ſay ſome, Amalecks hand upon the Church: which is elſewhere alſo called the Temple of God.

Neither ſhall they walk any more, &c.] i. e. Not at random, but by rule, Eph. 5.15. Heb. not any more after the ſight of their heart, i. e. as themſelves thought good, but as God directeth them.

Ver. 18. In that day ſhall the houſe of Judah walk with the houſe of Iſrael] All the Elect ſhall be reunited in Chriſt: unleſs we ſhall underſtand it of the laſt reduction of the Nation into one, Iſa. 11.13. Ezek. 37.16, 22. Hoſ. 1.11.

And they ſhall come together out of the land of the North] i. e. Out of the place of their captivity, whereby was figured our ſpiritual captivity, &c.

Ver. 19. But I ſaid, How ſhall I put thee among the children?] How, but by my free grace alone, ſith thou haſt ſo little deſerved it? the cauſes of our Adoption, ſee Eph. 1.5, 6.

And give thee a pleaſant land] The heavenly Canaan, which is here fitly called a land of deſire or delight, an heritage or poſſeſſion of goodlineſs, a land of the H[illegible: 1 letter]sts (or deſires) of the Nations.

And I ſaid, thou ſhalt call me My Father] And, My Father affectionately uttered, is an effectual prayer. As Pater I breviſſima quidem vex eſt, ſed omnia complectitur, ſaith Luther, i. e. Ah Father is but a little word, but very comprehenſive; it is ſuch a piece of eloquence, as far exceedeth the rowlings of Demoſthenes, Cicero or whatſoever moſt excellent Orator.

Ver. 20. Surely as a treacherous wife, &c.) This ye have done, but that's your preſent grief, and now you look upon your former diſloyalties with a lively hatred of them: holding that the time paſt of your life may ſuffice to have wrought the will of the Gentiles, &c. 1 Pet. 4.3.

Ver. 21. A voyce was heard upon the high places] Where they were wont to worſhip Idols, now they weep for their ſins, and pray for pardon.

For they have perverted their wayes] This is it that now draweth from them prayers and teares. See Chap. 31.18. Lam 5.14 Oi nalanu, chi chattanu. Wo worth us, that ever we thus ſinned. Some underſtand thoſe words, A voyce is heard, as ſhewing Gods readineſs to hear penitent ſinners ſo ſoon as they begin to turn to him, even before they ſpeak, as the Father of the Prodigal met him. &c.

Ver. 22. Return ye backſliding children] Give the whole turn, and not the half-turn only. So Act. 2.38. Peter ſaid to them that were already prickt at heart, Repent ye, even to a tranſmentation; and chap. 3.19. Repent ye, and be converted, that your ſins may be blotted out. Repent not only for ſin but from ſin too: be through in your repentance, ſet it be ſuch as ſhall never be repented of, 2 Cor. 7.10. It is not a ſlight ſorrow that will ſerve Apoſtates turn; it muſt be deep and down-right.

And I will heal your back ſlidings] Pardon your ſins, and heal your natures. I will love you freely, and cauſe your broken bones to rejoyce, Hoſ. 14.4. Iſa. 19.22. Oh ſweeteſt promiſe I what wonder then that their hard hearts were forthwith melted by it into ſuch a gracious compliance, as followeth.

Behold we come to thee] See Zach. 13.9. with the Note.

Ver. 23. Truly in vain is ſalvation hoped for from the hills] Heb. Truly in vain from the hills; the multitude; the mountaines; it is like to that, Hoſ. 14.3. Aſhur ſhall not ſave us—neither will we ſay any more to the works of our hands, Ye are our gods. See the Notes there.

Truely in the Lord our God] They truſt not God at all, that not alone.

Ver. 24. For ſhame hath devoured the labour of our Fathers] That ſhameful thing Baal hath done it, Chap. 11.13. Hoſ. 9.10. he hath even eaten up our cattle and our Children: of whom if any be left, yet there is nothing left for them: And this we now ſee (long and laſt) poenitentia ducti, & noſtro malo edocti, having bought our wit, and paid dear for our learning. And may not many ill husbands amongſt us ſay as much of their drunkenneſs and wantonneſs? See Prov. 5.9, 10, 11, 12. with the Notes.

Ver. 25 We lye down in our ſhame] We that once had a whores forehead, ver. 3. and ſeemed paſt grace, are now ſore aſhamed of former miſcarriages, yea our confuſion covereth us (as Pſal. 44.15.) becauſe we have ſinned againſt the Lord our God, we and our Fathers from our youth unto this day, and have not obeyed the voyce of our God. Lo here a dainty form and pattern of penitent confeſſion, ſuch as is ſure to find mercy. Haec ſanè omni tempore Chriſtiana eſt ſatisfactio, non meritoria aliqua Papiſtica atque nugivendula. Only we muſt not acknowledge ſin with dry eyes,Zegedia. but point every ſin with a teare, &c.