Jeremiah 8 commentary

Though no real hurt can be done to a dead body, yet disgrace to the remains of wicked persons may alarm those yet alive; and this reminds us that the Divine justice and punishments extend beyond the grave. Whatever befalls us here, let us humble ourselves before God, and seek his mercy.

What brought this ruin? 1. The people would not attend to reason; they would not act in the affairs of their souls with common prudence. Sin is backsliding; it is going back from the way that leads to life, to that which leads to destruction. 2. They would not attend to the warning of conscience. They did not take the first step towards repentance: true repentance begins in serious inquiry as to what we have done, from conviction that we have done amiss. 3. They would not attend to the ways of providence, nor understand the voice of God in them, 7. They know not how to improve the seasons of grace, which God affords. Many boast of their religious knowledge, yet, unless taught by the Spirit of God, the instinct of brutes is a more sure guide than their supposed wisdom. 4. They would not attend to the written word. Many enjoy abundance of the means of grace, have Bibles and ministers, but they have them in vain. They will soon be ashamed of their devices. The pretenders to wisdom were the priests and the false prophets. They flattered people in sin, and so flattered them into destruction, silencing their fears and complaints with, All is well. Selfish teachers may promise peace when there is no peace; and thus men encourage each other in committing evil; but in the day of visitation they will have no refuge to flee unto.

At length they begin to see the hand of God lifted up. And when God appears against us, every thing that is against us appears formidable. As salvation only can be found in the Lord, so the present moment should be seized. Is there no medicine proper for a sick and dying kingdom? Is there no skilful, faithful hand to apply the medicine? Yes, God is able to help and to heal them. If sinners die of their wounds, their blood is upon their own heads. The blood of Christ is balm in Gilead, his Spirit is the Physician there, all-sufficient; so that the people may be healed, but will not. Thus men die unpardoned and unchanged, for they will not come to Christ to be saved.

I Have said that Jeremiah repeats in the first verse what he had before said, — that the Jews would be deprived of their graves, in order that there might be on the dead a mark of God’s vengeance; as though he had said, that after having been destroyed by the hand of enemies, they would have their punishment extended farther by having their dead bodies exposed to the wild beasts and birds. The faithful, as I have said, suffer no loss, when burial is denied them; but yet they do not disregard burial, inasmuch as it is a badge of the resurrection. Though God suffers them to be involved in this disgrace with the reprobate, yet this does not hinder but that God should execute his vengeance on the wicked by such a temporal punishment as turns to a blessing to the faithful. It is therefore no unmeaning denunciation, when the Prophet says that the time was at hand, when their bones would be taken out of their graves.

He mentions the bones of kings, and of priests, and of prophets, and of the whole people The kings thought that as soon as they were hid in their graves, their dead bodies would be deemed sacred: the same notion prevailed as to rulers, priests, and prophets: but he says that no grave would be untouched or free from the outrage of enemies; and thus he shews, that the city would be rooted up from its foundations. Were the city to remain safe, the graves would be spared. Hence this punishment could not have been inflicted, without the very foundations of the city being dug up by the enemies. In short, he points out here a dreadful and final overthrow; and at the same time he shews the reason why God would manifest such severity towards the Jews.

It was, because they served the sun, and the moon, and the stars It was God’s just vengeance, that their bones should be taken from their graves, in order that the sun and moon and all the stars might be witnesses of his judgment. By these words Jeremiah indirectly reprobates the senselessness of the people for thinking that they performed an acceptable service to the sun and moon. He therefore says, that all the stars and the planets would become as it were spectators of the vengeance which God would execute; as though he had said, that the whole celestial host would approve of that punishment; for nothing is more detestable to creatures, than when the glory of their Maker is ascribed to them. It is indeed true that the sun, moon, and stars are without sense or reason; but the Prophet here attributes reason to them, in order that he might shake off from the Jews that stupidity in which they hardened themselves, while they thought that they were rendering to the sun an acceptable service. At the same time he alludes, as it appears also from other places, to the punishment inflicted on adulterers: for when a harlot is drawn out and led forth in contempt and disgrace in the presence of her adulterers, it is deemed a most just punishment. And thus as the Jews had as it were committed adultery with the sun and the moon and the stars, so the Prophet says here, that their disgrace and baseness would be made manifest in the sight of the sun, and the moon, and the stars.

He says, which they have loved He no doubt alludes to the blind ardor by which idolaters were possessed, when they zealously pursued their illicit devotions; for it was a species of an unbridled and mad passion, as it appears from other places; for no fornicator burns with a more impetuous lust after a woman, than idolaters do, when Satan dazzles their eyes and fascinates their hearts. Of this impure love then does the Prophet now speak; and at the same time, he indirectly condemns the Jews for having alienated themselves without a cause from God, who was their legitimate husband. There is indeed nothing less tolerable than for men thus perfidiously to forsake God, when he has invited them to himself, and contracted as it were with them a holy and an inviolable marriage.

He afterwards adds, whom they have served This was still more base; they devoted themselves to the work of serving the sun, the moon, and the stars. He mentions in the third place, that they walked after them. God had shewn them the right way, and had commanded them to follow him: but they forsook God, says the Prophet, and followed the stars of heaven. He states in the fourth place, that they sought them. By this he refers to their perverseness. Some render the word “consulted,” of which I do not approve, for it is strained and far-fetched. Though it be improper to render the word “consult;” yet the meaning is the same: they sought them, that is, their counsel and direction. They sought them in all emergencies. “To inquire of the Lord,“ in Genesis 25:22, is literally “to seek the Lord;” and “to inquire of God,” in Exodus 18:15, is literally “to seek God.” Indeed, to inquire of or to ask, that is, counsel, seems to be the most common meaning of the word. “Sought,“ is the Vulgate and Targum, — “consulted,“ is the Syriac, — and “cleaved to,“ is the Septuagint and Arabic; and this is the idea of Calvin. — Ed. The Prophet, I doubt not, denotes here the persevering attention of the Jews to the objects of their worship; for they followed their idols not by a sudden and momentary impulse, but they resolutely devoted themselves to them and became as it were fixed in their wicked purpose. And he says in the last place, that they prostrated themselves before them. This was the way in which they served them. It is an evidence of reverence when men prostrate themselves before their idols; and thus they serve them, for it is an act of worship. The Prophet might indeed have sufficiently expressed in one sentence the impiety of the people; but he joins together several sentences for the sake of amplification, in order that he might render more evident the ingratitude of the people in seeking for themselves unknown gods, and in setting up false and fictitious modes of worship, rather than to render obedience to the only true God and to acquiesce in his law, which is a certain rule, and never leads any astray. It would be better to render אמונהbefore the verbs here as an adverb, because, as, or inasmuch as. There is a pronoun following every verb, —

2. And they shall expose them to the sun, And to the moon, and to all the host of heaven: As they had loved them, and as they had served them, And as they had walked after them, And as they had sought them, And as they had bowed down to them, They shall not be gathered, nor buried; For dung on the face of the land shall they be.

The order here is from the principle to the action, and not the contrary, as is often the case: love — service — walking according to the rules prescribed — seeking counsel-and worshipping. — Ed.

He afterwards adds, They shall not be gathered, nor be buried; for dung shall they be on the face or surface of the land He confirms what he had said of the punishment before mentioned, — that they had acted disdainfully towards God, and had prostrated themselves before their idols, so after death they would be made base and detestable, so that the mind would revolt at such a hateful sight. This is the meaning. It follows —

Jeremiah 8:3

3. And death shall be chosen rather than life by all the residue of them that remain of this evil family, which remain in all the places whither I have driven them, saith the Lord of hosts.

3. Et eligetur (ad verbum esset, electa est) mors (sed debet resolvi in futurum tempus) prae vita ab omnibus reliquiis, quae residuae erunt ab hac prava natione (a natione hac mala) in omnibus locis ubi residui fuerint, ad quae expulero eos (ad quae illuc; sed שם, est supervacuum,) dicit Jehova exercituum.

He intimates in this verse, that all survivors would be doubly miserable, as it would be better for them to die at once than to pine away in unceasing evils: for they who give another meaning to the words, seem not to understand the design of the Prophet. The import then of the passage is, — that however dreadful God’s judgment would be, when slaughters everywhere prevailed, and dead bodies were drawn out which had been previously buried, yet all this would be a slight punishment in comparison with what God would inflict on the rest, such as remained alive: and he also intimates that their life would be more miserable than death itself, yea, than ten deaths.

That those then who would escape death might not think that they gained any advantage, the Prophet says, Chosen shall be death before life by all the residue We hence learn how grievous was to be God’s vengeance; for nothing would be better or more desirable than to undergo death at once, as life would be nothing else but a continued languor and torment. Expected then will be death in all places in which there shall be survivors, where I shall drive them He mentions a reason for this twofold misery, — they would not be allowed to live in their own country, but would become aliens, — and they would find in their exile God’s hand against them, and as it were following them everywhere. The literal rendering of this verse is as follows, —

And chosen shall be death rather than life by all the remnant, — Who shall remain of this wicked family, In all the places of such as shall remain, Whither I shall have driven them, Saith Jehovah of hosts.

Blayney justly observes, that the participle in the second line is in apposition with “remnant,“ as explanatory of it, and is not to be put in the genitive case, as in our version. A similar construction is found in Jeremiah 24:8. But there is no sufficient authority or reason for omitting the same participle after “places,“ as is done by Blayney. Such repetitions are common in the prophets. — Ed.

PRAYER

Grant, Almighty God, that as thou terrifiest us daily with thy judgments, and as it is needful for our sloth to be stimulated, and for our corruption to be thus corrected, — O grant, that we may be moved by thy threatenings, and at the same time suffer ourselves to be kindly invited by thee, and make such progress in thy word, that, being terrified by threatenings, we may also readily and willingly obey whenever thou in a paternal manner callest us to thyself, and labor in every way to devote ourselves wholly to thee, by subduing the corrupt affections of our flesh, so that nothing may hinder us to be submissive to thy will, until we shall at length enjoy the rest of that eternal inheritance, which thou hast promised to us in Christ Jesus our Lord. — Amen.

Lecture Thirty-Second

Jeremiah 8:4-5

4. Moreover thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the LORD; Shall they fall, and not arise? shall he turn away, and not return?

4. Et dices ad eos, Sic dicit Jehova, An qui ceciderunt non resurgent? si quis aversus fuerit non revertetur?

5. Why then is this people of Jerusalem slidden back by a perpetual backsliding? they hold fast deceit, they refuse to return.

5. Quare rebellis est populus hic Jerosolymae rebellione perpetua? (forti, ad verbum;) adhaeserunt fraudi (vel, apprehenderunt fraudem,) noluerunt reverti.

Though God had reminded his Prophet of the event, yet he still invites the Jews to repentance; not that there was any hope of restoring them to a right mind, (for he had said that they were wholly irreclaimable,) but that their perverseness might be less excusable; and it was also his object to afford some relief to the small number of the godly who still remained; for they had not all fallen away into impiety, though the great body of the people had become corrupt. God then, partly to aggravate the sin of the ungodly, and partly to provide for his faithful people, exhorts those to repentance, who were yet wholly intractable. And here we ought to consider that God’s goodness, when abused, brings a much heavier judgment. God does here in a manner contend with the wickedness of his people, by setting before them the hope of pardon, if they repented.

Thou shalt then say to them; that is, “Though I have already testified to thee that thy labor would be in vain, yet thou shalt not give over thy work.” Shall they who have fallen rise again? This sentence is variously explained; the greater part of interpreters confine it to the Jews only, “Shall the Jews who have fallen rise again?” As to the second clause, some give this explanation, “If Israel returns, will not God also return?” that is, from his wrath, or, “Will he not be propitious?” Or, “If Israel turns away, will not God also turn away?” Others understand both parts of the sentence of the people, “If the people have once turned away, will they not yet return to God?” For the verb שוב, shub, has contrary meanings; it means, to fall away, to rebel, to go back; and it means also to return. But after having maturely considered the words and the design of the Prophet, I think it to be a general statement, as though he had said, “When any one falls, he immediately thinks of recovering his fall; when any one deviates from the right course, being warned of his going astray, he immediately looks for the road. This is what is usually done, what then means this so great a stupidity, that the people of Jerusalem do not repent, when yet they ought to have long ago acknowledged their fall and their wanderings?”

Whoever will impartially consider the discourse of the Prophet must see that this is the real meaning; for, in the second of these verses, he says, Why is this people of Jerusalem, etc.; he now first speaks, as it clearly appears, of the people. It then follows that the former verse ought not to be applied to the people; but it contains only a general statement. In short, Jeremiah condemns here the madness of the people, because they followed not the example of those who have either fallen or deviated from the way by mistake. For it is what is naturally implanted in all, that they do not willingly perish in their misfortunes. He then who falls immediately strives to rise again; and he who leaves the right way, tries if possible to return to it again. This then is what the most foolish will do; why then, says Jeremiah, do not this people imitate such an example? He therefore shews by this comparison, that their conduct was monstrous; for they obstinately adhered to their vices, and never thought that there was a hope of reconciliation if they from the heart returned unto God. And he emphatically mentions Jerusalem; for had such obstinacy prevailed among the Chaldeans or the Egyptians, it would indeed have been inexcusable; but not so strange as among a people to whom the law had been given, and to whom God had plainly revealed the way of salvation. When, therefore, this people so hardened themselves as to reject all warnings, was it not monstrous? Most agree in this view,-Gataker, Venema, Henry, Lowth, Blayney, and Scott. All the versions favor this view, giving two different meanings to שוב, repeated in the last clause, except the Syriac, which gives this version, “Though they ought to repent, they yet do not repent.” — Ed

Then he says, that they were rebellious with a pertinacious rebellion; that is, that they forsook God not only through levity or want of thought, or some sudden impulse, but so pertinaciously, that the prophets spent their labor in vain in teaching and exhorting them. Hence he calls it a strong rebellion, though the word may be taken here as in other places in the sense of perpetual And he assigns the cause, because they laid hold on deception, that is, they adhered fast to deception. But the Prophet means by deception, not that by which a neighbor is deceived or circumvented, but hypocrisy, by which men so blind themselves, that they are unwilling either to attend to God’s word, or to open their eyes to see the light. When, therefore, men through willful obstinacy bury themselves in darkness, they may be said to lay fast hold on deception The idea of revolt or apostasy is given by the ancient versions to the verb used at the beginning of the verse, and also to the noun which follows, and not that of rebellion, as by Calvin. The same meaning is given by Gataker, Venema, and Blayney; and they consider that Jerusalem is in apposition with “this people,“ in this manner, — Why has this people, Jerusalem, Revolted with perpetual revolt? As it has been already observed, the verb שוב, with all its derivations, means strictly to turn, but is used in the sense of turning to or from, that is, of returning or of departing. The context is our guide. It can hardly be supposed to have these two meanings in the same passage. All agree in giving it the idea of returning, at the end of the fourth verse, and at the end of this verse, the fifth; and in the three other instances in which it occurs here, they give it the idea of turning away or departing. I am disposed to think that it has the first meaning throughout the passage. I would render these two verses thus, —

4. Thou shalt also say to them, Thus saith Jehovah, — Do men fall and not rise again? Does any one return and not return? —

5. Why, — often have this people returned, Jerusalem is returning continually! — They hold fast deceit, they have refused to return.

The hypocrisy of the people is the subject: they pretended to return, but did not really return; they were deceitful. It is a sort of a dialogue. The beginning of the next verse is an answer to the end of this, —

6. I hearkened and heard, “No:“ thus they say: Yet no man has repented of his evil, — Saying, What have I done? Every one returns to his own course, Like a horse rushing into battle.

The charge of refusing to return was negatived. — Ed.

David says, in Psalm 32:2, that the man is blessed in whose spirit there is no guile: he entertains no guile, as we commonly do. Now, to entertain guile is to possess a deceitful heart. He had before said that they are blessed whose sins are forgiven and to whom iniquity is not imputed: he adds by way of explanation, provided there be no guile in the spirit; and why? Because wicked men seem to themselves to be blessed, for they perceive not their own misery, because they are enveloped in their own coverings: and this is the guile of which David speaks. According to the same meaning, our Prophet says, that those laid fast hold on deception, who were so involved in darkness or so blinded by their lusts, as to seek to deceive God; but they deceive themselves. This then is the cause why those whom God corrects and chastises feel no penitence; for they are willfully blind, they close their eyes and deafen their ears, and seek to be deceived by the devil; they attend not to the holy warnings given them for their salvation. If then, we wish to be healed of our vices, let us ever begin in this way, — let us carefully examine our thoughts and our motives, and not please ourselves nor deceive ourselves by empty flatteries, but strive to shake off whatever is reprehensible and vicious. The very beginning of true repentance is to renounce all deceptions and fallacies and to seek the light, which can alone discover to us our evils. It afterwards follows —

Jeremiah 8:6

6. I hearkened and heard, but they spake not aright: no man repented him of his wickedness, saying, What have I done? every one turned to his course, as the horse rusheth into the battle.

6. Attendi et audivi, non loquentur recte; nemo est quem poeniteat (ad verbum, non vir poenitens super malo suo; sed sensus clarior est, nemo est quem poeniteat) malitiae suae, dicendo, Quid feci? omnis vertitur (ad verbum pro omnes vertuntur) ad cursos suos, sicut equus ruit (ad verbum, inundat; sed metaphorica est locutio; Sicut ergo equus praeceps ruit) in praelium.

These words may be considered as spoken by God himself, — that he from heaven examined the state of the people; but it is more suitable to regard them as spoken by the Prophet; for he was placed, as it were, in a watch — tower in order to observe how the people acted towards God. He now testifies, that having seen their pursuits and their doings, he saw nothing that was right. The people ought to have been more touched by these words. We indeed know how ready we are naturally to lay hold on any pretences, when we wish to continue quiet in our dregs. So the greater part are wont to object and say, “O, indeed, thou reprovest me, but inconsiderately; for thou knowest not what is in my heart.” Hence the Prophet says, that he had carefully examined what sort of people they were, and that he spoke of what was well known to him, and fully seen by him, —

I have heard, he says, and attended; but they speak not rightly He means, that so far were the Jews from repenting truly and sincerely, that they did not even with their mouths profess to do so. It is less to confess sins than really to amend; but the Prophet says, that they did not even say what was right. It hence follows, that they were very far from having any serious thoughts of repentance, since they were so wanton with their tongues, or at least afforded no evidence of sorrow.

He then adds, that there was no one who repented, saying, etc. This clause is explanatory, for Jeremiah proves here more clearly that they did not speak rightly, for they did not say, What have I done? But he says first, that there was no one who repented of his wickedness He afterwards shews, that what is first necessary for repentance is, that the sinner should call himself to an account; for as long as we rest secure in our sins, it is impossible for us to repent, It is hence necessary that every one should examine himself, so as to call himself to an account, and in a manner to summon himself before God’s tribunal. We then see that men can never be brought to repentance, except they set their own evils before their eyes, so as to feel ashamed, and to ask themselves, as it were in great fear, What have we done? for this question is an evidence of terror. Many, we know, formally own their sins; but this is useless, for afterwards such an acknowledgement vanishes without producing any benefit. Then real repentance necessarily requires that the sinner should not only be displeased with himself, should not only be ashamed, but that he should also be filled with terror at his own sins; for this is what is meant by the inquiry, What have I done? for it implies astonishment.

We now perceive the meaning of the Prophet’s words: he says, that he did not inconsiderately reprove the people, but that he found such perversity in them that no one spoke rightly, that no one repented, because they did not consider what they were, nor examined their own lives, but slept securely in their sins.

He pursues the same subject when he says, that all turned to their own courses, that is, to their own lusts. But by the word “courses” the Prophet means impetuous movements; as though he had said, that the Jews were so precipitant in following their lusts, that they in a manner ran headlong after them; and he compares them to horses rushing into battle. We know with what impetuosity horses advance when they hasten to battle; for they seem to fly, to cut the air, and to dig the ground with their hoofs. Thus the comparison is exceedingly suitable, when the Prophet says that the Jews were so impetuous in pursuing their lusts, that they rushed on, not less precipitantly than war — horses when advancing to battle. It now follows —

Jeremiah 8:7

7. Yea, the stork in the heaven knoweth her appointed times; and the turtle and the crane and the swallow observe the time of their coming; but my people know not the judgment of the LORD.

7. Etiam ciconia in coelis cognoscit tempora sua, et turtur et hirundo (alii vertunt, picam; sed nomen hirundinis est aptius, quemadmodem statim patebit,) et grues observant tempus itineris; populus autem meus non cognoscit judicium Jehovae.

Here again Jeremiah condemns the shameful insensibility of the people, — that they had less wisdom than birds, not endued with reason and understanding. He then says, that the Jews were more foolish than cranes, swallows, and storks. He no doubt deeply wounded the feelings of the people by so severe a reproof; but it was necessary thus sharply to reprehend the despisers of God; for it appears evident by these words, that they were become exceedingly hardened in their vices. No wonder, then, that the Prophet declares that they were more silly than cranes and swallows. Isaiah also exposes the same sort of madness, when he says that the ox knew his own master, and the ass his master’s crib, but that God was not known by his people. (Isaiah 1:3.) Now Isaiah made the Jews worse than oxen and asses, because these brute animals possess something like memory, so that they keep to their own manger and crib. So now Jeremiah, speaking of storks, etc., says, —

Behold, the stork knows the time in which it ought to migrate from one country to another; and the same is observed by swallows and cranes It is curious the variety as to the names of birds in this verse, as given in the ancient versions: Vulgate; kite — turtle — swallow — stork; Septuagint, stork — turtle — swallow — sparrows; Syriac, stork — turtle — crane — swallow; Arabic, crane — turtle — swallow — birds; and the Targum is, stork — turtle — crane — swallow. The names in our versions seem to be the most correct, and are adopted by Venema and Blayney, stork — turtle — crane — swallow; the same with the Syriac and the Targum — Ed. For at stated times they seek a warmer climate; that is, they leave a cold country, that they may escape the severity of winter; and they afterwards know the time in which they are to return. As, then, the birds of the air observe their seasons, how is it that my people do not consider the judgment of God? By mentioning the heavens, he no doubt alludes to the constant flying of birds, the birds having hardly any rest, for they continually rove through the air. Since, then, there is so much wisdom in birds, which yet the air wafts here and there, how comes it, that a people, who dwell quietly at home, who can leisurely meditate on God’s law — how comes it that this people understand nothing? We hence see that there is an import in the word heavens which has not been noticed. Readers may yet have their doubts; for it is nothing strange that birds in the heavens should have a clearer view, as they come nearer the sun and the element of fire: but different seems to have been the Prophet’s object; which was to shew, that though birds labor as it were continually, they yet contrive to know the suitable time for going and returning. Hence, then, is exaggerated more fully the insensibility of that people, who, while sitting leisurely at home, did not consider what God did set before them.

The particle גם, gam, even, is emphatical; Even the stork, he says. What means this, that birds, though not possessed of understanding, do yet know their time? But my people, etc. By saying “my people, “the Prophet no doubt intended more clearly to set forth their wickedness. For, as I have before said, such blindness in heathens would not have been so strange; but as they were the holy and peculiar people of God, it was far more shameful and monstrous that they knew not his judgment.

Christ uses other words in condemning the Pharisees for not attending to the time of their visitation; for he says, “Ye are wont to conclude what will be the state of the heavens in the morning; for if the sky be red in the evening, ye say, It will be fine to — morrow; and ye know the signs of future and approaching rain: ye possess, he says, judgment sufficiently acute in external things, which conduce to the benefit of the present life; yet ye know not the time of your visitation, and still ye seek signs: but were ye attentive, God would shew to you in a way clear enough, and as it were by the finger, that the time of deliverance which ye pretend to expect is now nigh at hand.” But the Prophet reproves the Jews in a severer strain, when he says that there was more fatuity and madness in them than in birds. They know not, he says, the judgment of Jehovah, though it had been shewn to them many times, and for a long season.

But some one might have objected and said, “No wonder if we perceive not God’s judgment, for his judgments are a great deep; and since these exceed what we can comprehend, there is no reason to find fault with us.” But the Prophet speaks not here of hidden judgments, which elude the comprehension of men, but of punishments, of which they had been so often warned. Since, then, they were so blind as not to see what was clear and evident, the Prophet justly says that they were more foolish than cranes, and the other birds which he mentions. It follows —

Jeremiah 8:8

8. How do ye say, We are wise, and the law of the Lord is with us? Lo, certainly in vain made he it; the pen of the scribes is in vain.

8. Quomodo dicetis (pro dicitis; significat continuum actum) sapientes nos (hoc est, nos sumus sapientes,) et lex Jehovae nobiscum est (vel, penes nos, melius:) certe ecce frustra aptavit stylum (vel, calamum) scriptor; frustra sunt seribae.

Interpreters think that the Prophet here directs his words to the priests, and the false prophets, and the other chiefs of the people, because they proudly arrogated to themselves the knowledge of the law: but what is said may be no less extended to the whole people; for, as we shall presently see, all of them, from the least to the greatest, no doubt boasted that they were sufficiently wise. I hence think that the Prophet here inveighs against the whole body of the people; for all, almost without exception, rejected his teaching, as we see also to be done at the present day; for who is there that can bear to be admonished and reproved? All say that they are wise enough: “Oh! do you think that I am a child?” or, as it is commonly said, “Do you think that I am a goose? I know how I am to live, and I am not without reason.” Thus the rudest and the most ignorant set up their own wisdom and sharpness of wit against God and his prophets. Such audacity and ferociousness prevailed no doubt in the time of Jeremiah. For when he sharply reproved them, they were ready with their answer, — “Oh! thou treatest us as though we were barbarians, as though God’s law was unknown to us, as though we had not been taught from our childhood how we are to live: does not God dwell in the midst of us?” Since, then, the Jews did set up as it were this shield against the doctrine of the Prophet, he attacks them here with great vehemence, —

How say ye, We are wise? He afterwards describes the kind of wisdom which they claimed, The law of God is with us: and doubtless, to attend to God’s law is the way of becoming really wise. Had they justly boasted that they had the law, the Prophet would not have brought against them the charge, that they were doubly foolish. But as they falsely made this pretense, he says to them, How? and here he asks a question as to what was very strange, “How are you so foolish, “he says, “that ye think yourselves wise, as though the law of God were with you? Surely, if so, in vain has the law been written; for ye shew by your whole life that you have never known anything of what God by the law commands and sets before us, and what the design of it is.”

Thus Jeremiah shows by their life that there was no ground for their foolish boasting; for they gave no evidence of their wisdom. It is indeed necessary for those who seek to be God’s disciples to bring forth some fruit: but as there was among them so much impiety, so much contempt of God, and as, in short, their whole life proclaimed them to be wholly insane, he says, In vain has he prepared his pen, even the writer of the law; and in vain have been the scribes, that is, the teachers; for by scribes, in the second place, he understands teachers. The latter part of this verse has another meaning according to the ancient versions. They are substantially to this purport, —

Behold, surely to deceive is what the false pen of the scribes has done.

The Vulgate, with which the rest materially agree, is as follows, —

Verily, falsehood has the false pen of the scribes wrought.

As a proof of this it is added in the next verse, that those who pretended to be wise were made ashamed, etc. That the reference is made to the false glosses of the scribes, the expounders of the law, is confirmed by verse 11. I render the whole verse thus, —

8. How can ye say, “Wise are we, And the law of Jehovah is with us?” Indeed! — Behold, to deceive Has the deceptive pen of the scribes served.

He ironically admits that they had the law; but he refers to the false interpretation of the teachers; and in the next verse he mentions the effect on the pretended wise, and the fact as to God’s law, —

9. Ashamed have become the wise, They have been dismayed and ensnared: Behold, the word of Jehovah have they despised; And wisdom, what have they!

— Ed.

I explain this passage somewhat different from other interpreters; for there seems to be implied a kind of irony, as we commonly say, Il faut bruler tous les livres. Hence Jeremiah derides their folly, in saying that they knew how they were to live, because the teaching of the law prevailed among them. “If it be so, “he says, “what is God’s law? Doubtless, nothing, as the whole of its teaching must in this way be deemed as nothing.” We now then see that the Jews are here reproved as false, for they claimed the law, as though it were a shadow without a body, and possessed not a particle of right knowledge. He afterwards adds —

Jeremiah 8:9

9. The wise men are ashamed, they are dismayed and taken: lo, they have rejected the word of the Lord; and what wisdom is in them?

9. Pudefacti sunt sapientes, territi sunt et capti sunt (תחת significat proprie frangere, vel, conterere, sed transferter ad animum, et tunc significat terrere; dicit igitur esse territos, deinde illaqueatos; postea adjungit causam, nempe,) quia respuerunt in verbo (sed ב est supervacuum, verbum ergo) Jehova (reprobarunt, vel repudiarunt,) et sapientia quid illis (prodest, subaudiunt quidam interpretes; alii vertunt, et quid est in ipsis sapientiae? Ego autem aliter accipio, ut statim dicam.)

He says now that the wise were ashamed, and astonished, and ensnared By which words he means, that the Jews gained nothing by their craftiness, while they arrogated to themselves wisdom, and under this pretense rejected all admonitions, and sought to be spared.

“This wisdom, “he says, “avails you nothing, for God, as it is said in another place, will take you unawares.” (Isaiah 29:14; 1 Corinthians 1:19.)

Ashamed, then, he says, are they; not that they were then ashamed; for be said before, in Jeremiah 6:15, and will state the same presently, that they were so hardened that they could not be made ashamed, nor be made to blush: It would be better to consider the shame in this verse as referring to the people, and the want of shame in Jeremiah 8:12, as applied to the teachers, the scribes, the false interpreters of the law, who promised peace, while there was no peace. — Ed. but he here denounces a punishment, which was soon to overtake them; as though he had said, “Ye have now an iron front, and think that ye can elude God and his servants with impunity; but God will take you unawares, and will so shake off the masks under which you hide yourselves, that your disgrace shall be made manifest to all.” This is the meaning.

For the same purpose he says, “Ye are now secure, but God will shortly fill you with such terror, that he will make you greatly astonished ” He intimates, then, that nothing would benefit them while they took delight in their vices, and increasingly hardened themselves; for God would deprive them of their craftiness, and cast them down with terror, however secure and perverse they were now.

By the third word he sets forth the manner in which they would be treated: God would have his snares by which he would take them. He alludes to the subterfuges in which those hypocrites trust, who proudly oppose God, while they think that by their arts they can escape in this or that way, and often devise some new schemes by which they may deceive God. Hence the Prophet, alluding to their perverse cunning, says, that God would be as it were a fowler, who would ensnare them, and hold them captive.

He afterwards assigns the reason, Because they had repudiated, or despised or rejected, The verb is here followed by ב: see note on Jeremiah 2:37 (for the verb means all these things,) the word of Jehovah And he uses a demonstrative particle, Behold, that they might not, as usual, make any evasions: “The thing, “he says, “is sufficiently known, and even children can be judges of your impiety, that you have rejected the word of Jehovah.” He draws hence this inference, What does wisdom avail them? or, What is their wisdom? Either of these meanings may be admitted, They were wise to no purpose, while they provoked God by their impious contempt. “I hate the wise who is not wise for himself, “is an old proverb. As then the Jews ill consulted their own benefit, by rejecting the word of God, in which their safety was involved, the Prophet justly alleges, that their wisdom availed them nothing. Others read, “What is their wisdom, “when there is no fear of God? And doubtless it ever remains a truth, that the fear of God is the beginning and the chief part of wisdom. (Proverbs 1:7; Proverbs 9:10; Psalm 111:10.) Since then they had basely despised God’s word, rightly does the Prophet ask, “What is their wisdom?” But there is a third meaning which is suitable, even this, And wisdom, what to them? So it is literally, — What is wisdom to them? He still speaks to them ironically, as though he said, “They are indeed wise, but in their own esteem; they have therefore no need of being taught: What then is wisdom to them!” The meaning is, that they were so swollen with pride that they received no instruction. How so? They refused wisdom through the false conceit with which they were inflated. Let, however, every one choose for himself; my object is to shew what I mostly approve. There will be no lecture to — morrow, as a consistory is to be held.

PRAYER

Grant, Almighty God, that since thou ceasest not daily to rouse us, as also our sloth requires continual warnings, — O grant, that we may not be unteachable, and that our perverseness may not hinder us to return immediately and willingly to thee, from whom we have, through our own fault, alienated ourselves: and may we not only feel some desire to repent, but persevere so constantly in the exercise of penitence, that through the whole course of our life we may contend with our lusts, until having at length subdued them all, we shall reach the goal which has been set before us, and enjoy in heaven that eternal inheritance, which has been procured for us by the blood of thine only — begotten Son. — Amen.

Lecture Thirty-Third

Jeremiah 8:10

10. Therefore will I give their wives unto others, and their fields to them that shall inherit them: for every one from the least even unto the greatest is given to covetousness, from the prophet even unto the priest every one dealeth falsely.

10. Propterea dabo uxores eorum alienis, et agros eorum possessoribus; quia a parvo usque ad magnum omnes cupiditatem concupiverunt (vel, cupiditate concupiverunt;) a propheta usque ad sacerdotem omnes egerunt fallaciter.

GOD here threatens punishment, because he found that he effected nothing, and that he had to do with an obstinate people, having before tried whether they were reclaimable. Having seen that exhortations were of no avail, he now comes to extreme severity, I will give, he says, their wives to strangers. He sets forth, by a particular instance, the evils which usually accompany wars: and nothing is more distressing than when the wife is snatched away from her husband; for if husbands had their option, they would prefer instant death than to bear such a disgrace. Jeremiah then shews that the most atrocious thing that happens to conquered nations was nigh the Jews, — that their men would be deprived of their wives. He afterwards says the same thing of their fields; God declares that he would give the fields to their possessors. By this mode of speaking he intimates, that they would be deprived of their fields, not for a short time, but perpetually.

There is, indeed, a contrast here implied: for it sometimes happens, that enemies prevail and plunder everything; but yet they take no long possession of the fields, for a change succeeds: but when he calls enemies possessors, he means that there would be such a calamity, that the Jews would for a long time, even for their life, be banished from their country, and would lose their possessions. They thought that the land was so given to them, that it could never be taken from them: and doubtless the Lord would have never expelled them, had they not defiled it with their pollutions; but as they had polluted it by their sins, they deserved to be banished from it. So the Prophet shews that their confidence was absurd, in thinking that they would be the perpetual inheritors of that land: “Succeed you, “he says, “shall others, who shall possess it as it were by an hereditary right.” We now perceive the Prophet’s meaning.

He afterwards mentions the reason why God had resolved to deal so severely with them, For they are, he says, from the least to the greatest given up to avarice It would be more suitable to render “for” because, as it is explanatory of לכן, “for this,“ or, for this reason, at the beginning of the verse. This illative, and others too, are often used anticipatively, —

For this reason, give will I Their wives to strangers, their fields to inheritors; Because from the least even to the greatest, Ever one covets gain; From the prophet even to the priest, Every one practices deception.

— Ed. He means that no equity prevailed among the people; for under one kind of sin he includes all frauds and plunders, and every kind of injustice. He then says, that every one was addicted to his own gain, so that they practiced mutual wrongs without any regard to what was right and just.

He then enlarges on the subject and says, that all, from the prophet to the priest, acted deceitfully There is here also a part mentioned for the whole. But Jeremiah in various ways sets forth the wrongs by which men harassed one another. Nor does he exclude violence when he speaks of fraud; but it is the same as though he said, that they, being forgetful of what was right, practiced fraud of every kind. It was, indeed, a dreadful thing, that there remained no rectitude or justice in the prophets and the priests, who ought to have carried light for others, and to have shewn to them the right way, as God had constituted them to be the leaders of the people. Since, then, even these acted deceitfully, there must have been among the common people the most disgraceful injustice. Hence the Prophet shews by these words, that God could not be charged with too much rigor, as though he treated the people cruelly; for there was such a mass of wickedness, that it could no longer be borne. It follows —

Jeremiah 8:11

11. For they have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.

11. Et curarunt vulnus filiae populi mei super nihilo, dicendo, Pax, pax; et nulla pax.

THE Prophet repeats what we have noticed in the sixth chapter: but it was necessary to reiterate often, to the deaf and the slothful, what had already been forgotten, or what had not touched their hearts. As these things have been already explained, I shall now only refer briefly to the main points.

He no doubt condemns here the priests and the prophets. He spoke before generally of the whole people, “from the least,” he said, “to the greatest.” But as for the sake of amplifying, he had expressly mentioned the prophets and the priests as given to fraudulent dealings, he now in an especial manner condemns them, not only for grievously offending God, but also for deceiving others by their flatteries, as though they were allowed to sin with impunity. It is, indeed, an inexcusable crime in those, who ought to lead others, to be no less wicked than the common people; for they not only by their example, but also by their doctrine, corrupt the whole community, and thus they increase the evil twofold. It was therefore an intolerable impiety, when they were so presumptuous as to spread those falsehoods, by which they led the people to despise God and his law. Hence he says, that they healed the wound of the people, while God was yet shewing tokens of his wrath. And he speaks, as it has been said elsewhere, by way of concession, as though he had said, that they were very foolish physicians in applying plaisters to cover the wrath of God. See note on Jeremiah 6:14.

Behold, he says, they have healed the wound of my people, saying, Peace, peace By mentioning the word twice the Prophet shews more clearly how supine was their security; for they deceived the people not only once, but proceeded obstinately in the work of deceiving the wretched people by their false promises. He adds, When there was no peace This may be taken in two ways, — that God by the event exposed their madness, — or, that when there was no prosperity, they still fallaciously promised peace. As God elsewhere complains that the prophets flattered the people, so he does here: such sentences we have already often explained. He then adds —

Jeremiah 8:12

12. Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore shall they fall among them that fall: in the time of their visitation they shall be cast down, saith the Lord.

12. An pudor (est enim interrogative hoc legendum, sicuti capite sexto diximus, subaudienda igitur est particula, An; An ergo pudefacti sunt) quod abominationem patrarunt? etiam in pudore non pudifacti sunt, et erubescere non noverunt; propterea cadent inter cadentes; in tempore visitationis ipsorum impingent (vel, corruent,) dicit Jehova.

The Prophet in these words shews still more clearly that they were wholly irreclaimable; for they had divested themselves of every shame. It is no doubt a proof of a wickedness past all remedy, when no shame remains. This verse has been also explained in the sixth chapter; it forms the fifteenth verse. But we must bear in mind the design of the Prophet. It is then briefly this, — to shew that the wickedness of the people was unhealable, and for this reason, because they had an iron front.

Hence he asks, Have they been ashamed, because they have committed abomination? as though he had said, “They have been proved guilty of wickedness, can they be made to feel any shame?” To this he answers, Even in their shame they are not ashamed The particle גם, gam, even, is emphatic, Then the meaning may be thus given, — that when God brought against them their shameful conduct, and proved them guilty, so that they could not escape by any evasion — that when they were thus convicted, they yet had no feeling of shame. At the same time, this passage may be explained as referring to what is commonly called actual conviction; for they were well — nigh consumed with miseries, through their untamable perverseness, while contending with God’s judgment. Even then in shame itself they had no feeling of shame

Added is the reason, They know not how to blush By this want of shame, then, Jeremiah proves that they were men past remedy. And on this account he adds, Fall therefore shall they among those who fall, and in the time of their visitation they shall perish, or stumble. By these words he intimates that they were no longer to be reasoned with, and that God’s vengeance would be just in wholly destroying them, for he had in vain spoken to them, he had in vain contended with them, he had in vain tried to bring them to the right way. The import of the whole then is, — that the only thing that remained for them was destruction; for they had without shame rejected all instruction and every warning.

And he says, among the fallen, because every one, as it is commonly the case, encouraged others in their contempt of God, and in their perverseness. When therefore they saw others to be like themselves, they entertained hope of impunity; and hence they were allured to sin by this deception. On this account the Prophet says, that ruin was nigh them all. They shall fall, he says, among the fallen, This may be differently understood. There are here throughout the passage two parties spoken of, — the people, and the priests together with the prophets. The “wise” men, in Jeremiah 8:9, made ashamed were the people deluded by the priests and prophets. Those who felt no shame, mentioned in this verse, though their words proved false, were the priests and prophets: and hence we see the import of this expression here, that they were appointed to fall with the fallen, that punishment would reach them as well as the people.

This verse is somewhat different from the fifteenth of the sixth chapter, and may be thus rendered, —

12. Have they been ashamed, Because they have done abomination? Even with shame they are not ashamed, And how to blush they know not: Therefore fall shall they with the fallen; At the time of their visitation They shall perish, saith Jehovah.

The “abomination” was the perversion of the law so as to justify idolatry and all kinds of wickedness. — Ed. and stumble in the time of their visitation. He shews that God had fixed a day in which they were to be destroyed. But if he deferred the time, there was no reason for them to think that it would be to their advantage; for they would by their obstinacy procure for themselves a heavier judgment. In short, though God might spare them for a time, yet the Prophet warns them, that this would avail them nothing, as God’s time of visitation was fixed. Then follows a confirmation —

Jeremiah 8:13

13. I will surely consume them, saith the Lord: there shall be no grapes on the vine, nor figs on the fig tree, and the leaf shall fade; and the things that I have given them shall pass away from them.

13. Colligendo colligam (vel, perdendo perdam,) dicit Jehova: non uvae in vite (vel, botri,) et non ficus in ficulnea; et folium decidet, et dabo illis, transibunt (hoc est, quae dedere illis transibunt ab ipsis.)

He confirms, as I have said, what he had declared in the last verse, tie had said, that there would be the ruin of the whole people: for the same purpose he now adds, Destroying I will destroy them The verb אסף, asaph, properly means “to collect, “but metaphorically, “to destroy;” as we say in our language, Trousser; Je les trousserai tous ensemble. And hence it more fully appears, that the Prophet explains what he had said, that destruction was nigh them all, so that none would remain, that is, with regard to the people as a body, as a community; for God ever preserved a remnant. We have, indeed, said elsewhere, and we shall have to notice the same thing often again, that the prophets, regarding the people as a body, threatened them all with destruction; but when they addressed the elect, and the faithful, they added a modification: Destroying I will then destroy them

He afterwards shews the manner: No grapes shall be on the vines, and no figs on the fig — trees The word for “fig” means the fruit as well as the tree, as it is well known. And that he might more fully set forth God’s vengeance, he says, that the very leaves would wither. The meaning is, that God would soon come as an avenger, however securely the Jews might be resting in their sins: and he shews the kind of vengeance that awaited them, — that God would deprive them of all sustenance and support; by mentioning a part for the whole, he includes everything necessary for life. He speaks not of wine, and of corn, and of oil; but by figs and grapes, as I have said, he comprehends every kind of sustenance; and even the leaves would wither and fall.

In the second place, he adds, Even, what I shall give them shall pass away from them Some apply this to the fruit in the granaries and cellars, as though he had said, “Even if they should have provisions in their storehouses and cellars, and be furnished with plenty, all this shall yet avail them nothing, for it shall be all taken away; for to pass away has often this meaning; and the מ, mem, affixed, is the same as though it was מהם, meem, from them. Others render the words, “they shall pass over them;” but this is too strained. They refer to the precepts granted to the Jews, which they had rendered void or neglected: but this cannot suit the passage. And as to the first explanation, it seems to me too limited. I therefore take this to be the meaning, — “Even if the grapes and figs come to maturity, yet what they shall consider as already prepared shall be taken away.” The Prophet then means, that there would be various ways by which the Jews would be reduced to penury and want; for either the enemies would rob them of their grapes and figs, or he himself would send sterility; or, when they thought their provisions secured to them, they would not yet be allowed to enjoy them. This is the import of the whole. The verse may be thus rendered, —

13. I will gather their ingathering, saith Jehovah: No grapes shall be on the vine, And no figs on the fig-tree, Even the leaf shalt fade away; For I will give these to those who shall pass through them.

God threatens the Jews with the deprivation of the fruits of the earth. He would gather their fruits by means of their enemies, such as would pass through them; and there would be no limits for them. As to the last line, it is a common thing in Hebrew to leave out the relative “who” before a verb in the future tense. So it is in Welsh —

Canys rhoddav y rhain iddynt hwy a dramwyant trwyddynt.

The most literal and the most suitable to the context is this rendering. — Ed. It follows —

Jeremiah 8:14

14. Why do we sit still? assemble yourselves, and let us enter into the defenced cities, and let us be silent there: for the Lord our God hath put us to silence, and given us water of gall to drink, because we have sinned against the Lord.

14. Ut quid nos sedemus? congregate vos, et ingrediamur urbes munitas (urbes munitionis, ad verbum,) et quiescamus illic: certe Jehova Deus noster silere nos (vel, quiescere nos) fecit, et potavit nos a quis venenatis (vel, aquis fellis; nam ראש, significat fel et venenum;) quia impie egimus contra Jehovam.

This verse, and those which follow, are explained in different ways; but I will briefly shew the meaning of the Prophet. I have no doubt but that he speaks here in the name of the whole people. The Prophet, then, in these words, represents what occupied their minds, and the counsels which the Jews adopted: and further, there is no doubt but that he shews in these words that they, as hypocrites are wont to do, had recourse to expedients, by which they thought they could protect themselves from God’s wrath. For they who think that the Prophet spoke his own sentiments are greatly mistaken: on the contrary, he relates here the purposes which the Jews formed; and at the same time he reproves their hardness in turning here and there, and in thinking that they could turn aside the judgment of God; for hypocrites, unless constrained, never ascend to the first cause; that is, they never acknowledge nor regard the hand of him who strikes them, as it is said in another place. (Isaiah 9:13.) They indeed feel their evils, and seek to apply remedies; but they stop at the nearest reliefs, without seeking to pacify God and to return into favor with him; and when the smallest hope is given them, they think themselves to be safe, if they betake themselves to this or that hiding-place.

This feeling is what the Prophet describes: Why do we sit? or, “Why do we rest?” But the word here means to sit still: Why do we then sit still? as though they had accused themselves of sloth or idleness: “What means this our slothfulness? we sit still in the villages, which are exposed to the violence of enemies: gather then yourselves, and let us enter into fortified cities; we shall rest there.” They thought that they should be safe, if they entered into fortified cities. Then, on the other hand, Jeremiah shews how foolishly they trusted to such refuges. Surely, he says, our God hath made us silent He had said before ונדמה-שם, vanudame-shem, “and we shall there rest.” The verb, means to rest, and to be silent. He repeats the same word, “Surely, our God hath made us to be silent;” but in a different sense. There is then a striking allusion in the verb דמה, dame, or the sameness of sound. “Jehovah hath made us to be silent, “or to rest; or, he hath cut us off, for in Hiphil, it has this meaning. The verb דמהmeans, to be silent, to be reduced to silence; and the silence is that of inactivity, or of weakness, or of death. The silence of inactivity seems to be the meaning in the first instance, and the silence of weakness in the second: “Let us be silent,“ or, let us rest; “God hath made us silent,“ or, made us feeble, or, reduced to nothing our strength: —

14. Why do we sit still? be ye assembled, And let us go into fortified cities, And let us be silent there; For Jehovah our God has reduced us to silence; And he has given us to drink the water of hemlock, Because we have sinned against Jehovah.

That ראשis “hemlock,“ or some poisonous herb, is evident from Hosea 10:4. “The water” seems to be the juice in this instance — “the juice of hemlock.” It is rendered “the water of gall, ὕδωρ χολὢς,” by the Septuagint, and the same by the Vulgate; “bitter waters,“ by the Syriac; “water of bitterness,“ by the Arabic; “the cup of malediction,“ by the Targum. “Water of hemlock” is the rendering of Blayney.

Horsley renders the third and the fourth line as follows: —

And let us there sit in despair, Since the Lord our God hath brought us to despair.

— Ed.

We hence see, that on the one hand is declared what might have given some comfort to the Jews, for there were fortified cities which might have protected them from the assaults of enemies; but, on the other hand, the Prophet shews that they were greatly mistaken, for God would make them to rest in a different manner, as he would reduce them to nothing; for the dead are said to rest, or to be silent. In short, he means a quiet state when speaking in the name of the people; but he refers to destruction when speaking by God’s command.

He afterwards confirms the same thing in a metaphorical language, God will give them the waters of gall, or, poisoned waters: and he adds, Because they have acted impiously against Jehovah We may learn from this last part, that the Prophet is now performing the duty of his office. The people indeed never willingly allowed that they were suffering punishment justly due to their sins; but the Prophet here reproves them for hoping to be safe by fleeing to fortified cities, as though God could not follow them there. He then says that God’s vengeance would closely pursue them, and that wherever they fled, they would still be exposed to evils, for they carried with them their impieties, which would draw upon them the wrath of God. It follows —

Jeremiah 8:15

15. We looked for peace, but no good came; and for a time of health, and behold trouble!

15. Expectando The word is קוה, hoping, or longing, rendered by all the ancient versions, as though it were in the first person plural. It may be taken as a noun, —

The hope was for peace, but there was no good! For a time of healing, but behold terror!

— Ed. pacem (vel, ad pacem) et non bonum; ad tempus sanationis, et ecce terror (aut, turbatio.)

He explains his meaning more clearly in this verse, — that the Jews in vain flattered themselves, while they entertained vain hopes. He then says that there was no reason for them to deceive themselves; for were they to promise themselves peace a hundred times, ruin would still be nigh them, and that though they hoped for a time of healing, terror would assail them. We hence see that in the last verse his purpose was to shew how foolish the people were, who thought that they would be safe by means of the remedies which seemed to be at hand, though they despised God’s judgment. It follows —

Jeremiah 8:16

16. The snorting of his horses was heard from Dan: the whole land trembled at the sound of the neighing of his strong ones; for they are come, and have devoured the land, and all that is in it; the city, and those that dwell therein.

16. A Dan auditus est fremitus equorum ejus, a voce hinnituum robustorum ejus tremefacta est (vel, contremuit) tota terra; quia venient (nam copula hic resolvi debet in causalem particulam) et comedent terram et plenitudinem (vel, copiam) ejus, urbem et habitatores ejus.

He says, Heard has been the snorting of horses from Daniel Dan was on the extremities, as it is well known, of the land of Canaan. Some think that the loudness of the noise is intended, as it was heard from such a distance in the holy city itself; but I know not whether this can be gathered from the words of the Prophet. The simpler and the correcter meaning then is, that though Jerusalem rested securely, they were not yet in a quiet state on the borders of the land, for they were disturbed by the snorting of the enemies’ horses. From Dan then has been heard a snorting When the inhabitants of a city indulge in pleasures, while the borders of the land are assailed by enemies, it might be pertinently said to them, “Why do ye here live at your ease? your neighbors and your brethren are exposed to the assaults of enemies: war therefore ought to be waged in your land, though it has not yet reached your gates and your walls.” So the Prophet speaks here: “From Dan has been heard the snorting of his horses.” The relative “his” may be applied to the Assyrians; for the Hebrews often use relatives without antecedents. But it is more probable that Jeremiah refers to the first mover of the war, even God; as though he had said, — “God will send forth hostile armies, which will disturb the borders of your land.” He then calls them the horses of God; for the Chaldeans did not wage that war, but under the authority of God, as we have often seen, and shall have to notice often again.

Then he says, At the noise of the neighings of his strong ones, etc. He calls the horses “strong,“ אבירים, abirim; and as he had not described them, he now does so. Trembled, he says, has the land at the noise of the neighings of his strong ones As he mentions the neighings of horses, we must understand “strong” as referring to the horses themselves. Come, he says, shall they, and shall devour the land and its fullness, the city and its inhabitants Here is an irregularity as to the number; for he puts city for cities, as he threatens not only Jerusalem, but also the neighboring cities. Whatever then might be the abundance in the land, the enemies would devour it; and he says also, that they would devour the cities and their inhabitants. It follows —

Jeremiah 8:17

17. For, behold, I will send serpents, cockatrices, among you, which will not be charmed, and they shall bite you, saith the Lord

17. Quia ecce ego mitto in vos serpentes, regulos (quidam tamen subaudiunt copulam, serpentes et regulos) quibus nulla erit incantatio, et mordebunt vos, dicit Jehova.

He increases their terror by another comparison, — that not only enemies would violently attack them, but that their bitings would be venomous. He had spoken of horses, and mentioned their violent onsets; but he now expresses another thing, — that the Jews would have to carry on war with vipers and basilisks The Prophet no doubt only meant to shew that they could not possibly escape; for as from serpents men can hardly escape, especially when they are numerous, and assail them on every side, so he intimates, that the war would be fatal to the Jews, when attacked by serpents and vipers.

They shall bite you, he says, and for them there will be no incantation; that is, by no means can they be driven away from you. If one asks, Can serpents be driven away by incantations? the answer is, — that the Prophet here does not refer to what is true, but speaks according to the common opinions of men. It has been thought in all ages, that serpents can be driven away by incantations, or be killed, or be deprived of the power of hurting. “The deadly snake, “says Virgil, in Eclo. viii., “is dissolved in the meadows by singing.” What that heathen poet has said has been believed also by other nations; and as I have already said, it has been a commonly received opinion that serpents may be charmed. As then it was a common belief, the Prophet says, “If ye think that these serpents can be turned away, and the hurt that proceeds from them, ye are greatly deceived; for there will be for them no incantation.” There is also a mention made of incantation in Psalm 58:6: but as I have already said, the prophets accommodate their words to the comprehension of men. The Prophet does here also indirectly reprove the Jews, by comparing their false resources to incantations, as though he had said, — “Ye think that ye can soothe your enemies by flatteries and bribery, so that they may not hurt you; and ye also think that ye have ready at hand various means by which you may avert the evils which impend over you: in vain, he says, ye deceive yourselves with such hopes; for all your incantations as to these serpents shall be to no purpose, and wholly useless.”

We now then perceive the Prophet’s intention, and see that by this figure he ironically derides the crafty measures of the people, and all the remedies which they thought they had in readiness when assailed by their enemies. It follows —

Jeremiah 8:18

18 When I would comfort myself against sorrow, my heart is faint in me.

18. Roborate meum (vel, quum vellem roborare me) super dolorem, super me cor meum infirmum est.

Interpreters explain differently the word מבלגיתי, mebelgiti. Some take מ, mem, in the sense of ב, beth; but others, with whom I agree, regard it as a servile, deriving the word from בלג, belag; and this letter is prefixed to it to shew that it is a noun. The ת, tau, also at the end, is a servile. The ancient versions and the Targum all differ as to the meaning of this word; and it is difficult to make the original to agree with any of them. The word, as in the received text, is a verbal noun from Hiphil, with a iod affixed to it, and is either a personal noun in the feminine gender, “my consoler,“ or “strengthener,“ meaning his own soul,-or a common noun, “my consolation,“ or “strength,“ meaning God. But Schultens, regarding the verb as signifying to smile or to laugh, and thinking that it means here the laugh of misery or of contempt, renders it “O thou (i.e., the daughter of Sion) that grinnest at me for pain,“ and sayest, “within me the heart is sick.” The Targum seems to favor this view, as it mentions the division of the people. Blayney, according to several copies, divides the word thus, מבלי גיתי, and considers the one as a negative, and the other a verbal noun from גהה, to heal, and renders the verse thus: —

Sorrow is upon me past my remedying, My heart within me is faint.

Still the simplest way, and the most suitable to the passage, is to take the word as a common noun, signifying consolation, comfort or strength, and to consider the words as addressed to God, —

My strength! within me is sorrow, Within me is my heart faint.

“Faint,“ that is, through grief. It is rendered “grieve,“ or “is sorrowful,“ by all the ancient versions and the Targum. — Ed.

The Prophet then means, that he sought strength in his sorrow, but that his heart was weak He no doubt, I think, sets forth in this verse the perverse character of the people, — that they sought through their obstinacy to drive away every punishment. This could not indeed be referred to himself, or to those who were like him, as we know how fearful are God’s servants with regard to his wrath; for as the fear of God prevails in their hearts, so they are easily terrified by his judgment; but hypocrites and wicked men ever harden themselves as far as they can. They then strengthened themselves against God, and thought in this way to be conquerors. Since they thus perversely contended with God, the Prophet sets forth here the great hardness of the people: I would, he says, strengthen myself in my sorrow; but my heart is within me weak; that is, “In vain are these remedies tried; in vain have ye hitherto endeavored to strengthen yourselves, and have sought fortresses and strongholds against God; for sorrow will at length prevail, as the Lord will add troubles to troubles, so that ye must at length succumb under them.”

He means the same when he says, his heart was within him weak: “I have, “he says, “been oppressed with sorrow, when I thought I had strength enough to resist.” For thus the ungodly think manfully to act, when they madly resist God; but at length they find by the event that they in vain seek thus to strengthen themselves; for our heart, he says, will become within us weak, and debility itself will at last oppress and overwhelm us.

PRAYER

Grant, Almighty God, that since we have been abundantly taught by ancient examples how insane they are who bend not under thy threatenings, and repent not in due time while thou invitest them to repentance, — O grant, that we may wholly give up ourselves to be disciplined by thee, and that we may not only bear with submissive minds to be chastised, but also learn by thy warnings to return without delay to thee, and that we may so remain in obedience to thee, that with unceasing perseverance we may fight under thy banner, until having at length finished our warfare, we shall enjoy that blessed rest which has been prepared for us by Christ our Lord. — Amen.

Lecture Thirty-Fourth

Jeremiah 8:19

19. Behold the voice of the cry of the daughter of my people because of them that dwell in a far country: Is not the LORD in Zion? is not her king in her? Why have they provoked me to anger with their graven images, and with strange vanities?

19. Ecce vox clamoris filiae populi mei a terra longinqua, An Jehova non est in Sion? an rex ejus non est in ea? Quare provocarunt me ad iram in suis sculptilibus? in vanitati-bus aiieni?

The Prophet in this verse assumes different characters: he first denounces ruin, which, though near, was not yet dreaded by the people; he then represents the people, and relates what they would say; in the third place, he adds an answer in God’s name to check the clamors of the people.

When he says that the daughter of his people uttered a cry, he is to be understood as referring to a future time; for the Jews as yet continued perversely in their sins, and ridiculed all threatenings, and regarded as nothing what was said by the prophets. Jeremiah then does not mean that his own nation cried, as though they dreaded future calamities, (for they were heedlessly secure;) but he condemns their indifference, as though he had said, “Ye indeed do now indulge your own delusions, and think that your felicity is to be perpetual; but in a short time your cry will be heard.” The words, From a distant land, interpreters apply to the Chaldeans and Assyrians, as though the Prophet had said, “Ye hope for a perpetual rest, because your enemies are far from you; hence distance and delay in marching produce this security in you; for it seems not to you credible that your enemies shall make such a journey, except with much expense and much trouble; but in this opinion you are deceived; for though the Chaldeans and the Assyrians are far distant from you, yet they shall soon come and constrain you to utter a cry: ye cannot now bear the warnings of the prophets, my voice ye cannot endure; but God will constrain you to utter a different voice, for ye shall cry, but without any avail.”

This meaning is not without reason on its side: if then the Prophet’s words be thus taken, I offer no objection; for hypocrites derive confidence from the present appearance of things; when they see that there is quietness on every side, they fear no danger; when God threatens them, and shews not immediately his rods, they ridicule or despise them.: thus have we seen in other places.

But another meaning is not unsuitable, — that Jeremiah describes the lamentations of the people in exile, after having been driven into Chaldea and Assyria: The voice, then, of the daughter of my people from a distant land; Literally it is, “The voice of the shout of the daughter of my people,” four words in succession, and three in regimine by juxtaposition. The Welsh is exactly the same, “Llev gwaedd merch vy mhobl“ — Voice shout daughter my people. — Ed. that is, after having been deprived of their country, they will then begin to cry, and for this reason, because they wished the prophets to give them rest, and refused to bear any reproofs. Appropriate also is this view; but I prefer the former, — that the people would shortly find out how foolishly they deluded themselves, when God by his servants threatened them with ruin and destruction: and hence he uses the demonstrative particle, “Behold:” Behold, he says, the voice of crying; and yet great was the silence then at Jerusalem: for though in their pleasure they uttered some voices, yet as to weepings and lamentations the whole city was silent. The Prophet then refers to what was hidden. But God usually acts in this way, as he afterwards executes suddenly his judgment; for when the wicked say, Peace, peace, destruction comes and suddenly overwhelms them. (1 Thessalonians 5:8.)

He adds in the second place, Is not Jehovah in Sion? Is not her king in her? The Prophet no doubt expresses here the complaints of the people on finding themselves overwhelmed with so many and so great evils, without receiving any aid from heaven. For hypocrites ever expostulate with God; and as they consider that they are unjustly chastised, they reject every instruction, and avoid it as much as they can; in short, they seek stupidity, that they may deceive themselves with vain delusions. As then it is usual with hypocrites to reject every apprehension of God’s wrath, Jeremiah strikingly describes their contumacy, “Is not Jehovah in Sion? Is not her king in her?” For they accused God of falsehood, as though he had deceived them, since he had promised to be the defender of the city, and of the whole land. As then they thought that God was bound to them by this promise, they daringly raged against him, “What means this? for God has chosen this place, where Abraham’s race might worship him; it has been as it were his earthly kingdom: but now what can this mean, that enemies are coming here? Can God ever permit them to do so? This is not possible, except God himself be overcome.”

We hence see the import of the Prophet’s words; for he here imitates the perverse language of the people, and recites the words which he knew most of them used. We have before found him addressing them,

“Trust not in words of falsehood, saying, The temple of Jehovah, the temple of Jehovah, the temple of Jehovah,” (Jeremiah 7:4;)

for they were wont perversely to allege against God, the temple, and to regard it as a shield to ward off every evil. In the same way the Prophet says now, “Is not God in Sion?” and then, “Is not her king in her?” The Jews were not only persuaded that God would be propitious to them, but they doubted not of their own safety, while they could turn their eyes to their king. They therefore uttered these words, as though they were beyond the chance of danger: for we know what God had declared respecting the kingdom, that it would continue for ever: So long as the sun and moon shall be in heaven, shall remain the seat of David, and his posterity flourish. (Psalm 89:36, 37.) Hence they connected the king with God; as though they had said, “Here is God worshipped, and his power dwells in the temple; the king also, whom he has set over us, is a sure pledge of his favor; and the perpetuity of his kingdom has been promised to us: it then follows, that either God is untrue, and that we have been deceived with vain promises, or that our enemies will come in vain; for when they shall make every effort, God, who is the guardian of our safety, will easily drive them away.”

At the first view this seems to be an evidence of faith, as the people seemed persuaded that they should be safe and secure under the protection of God, and as they turned their eyes to that kingdom, which was a remarkable exhibition of God’s presence: for as David was a type of Christ, and also his posterity, no other refuge could have been sought by the faithful than that which is here described. But we know how hypocrites swell with vain confidence, while yet they are wholly destitute of faith, and how they become wantonly insolent whenever God threatens them, as though they held him bound at their will. As then the ungodly are wont thus to abuse the name of God, it is no wonder that they imitate the language of his true servants: but yet they are wholly different. How so? They lay hold on the promises, but they have no faith nor repentance. “This is my rest for ever: it then follows that we shall be ever safe, for God cannot be overcome by any force of arms, by any onset of enemies; since he has taken us under his protection, what have we to fear?” But, at the same time, they despised God and all his teaching.

We hence see how foolish was the boasting of that people, since they wholly despised the holy name of God, and did swell only with wind, inasmuch as they were altogether destitute of faith and piety. We must also ever keep in mind what I have already said, — that the Jews not only entertained this vain confidence, but also presumptuously rose up against God, as though he had deceived them, having promised that Sion would be his perpetual rest: they now ask him, why he did not defend the city, as he dwelt in Sion? and why was not the king their protection, since it had been said, “So long as the sun and moon shall be in heaven, shall remain the throne of David?” Now follows God’s answer.

Why then have they provoked me with their carvings, and the vanities of the foreigner? Here God retorts their false complaints. We hence learn, that in the last clause the contumacy of the people is what is set forth by Jeremiah: they raged against God, because he did not aid them in time. God shews how absurdly they complained against him, and accused him: Why, he says, have they provoked me? “They say now that they are forsaken, because there is no faithfulness in me: I have not betrayed them, nor forsaken them, but they have forsaken me ” We now perceive the meaning of the Prophet. We observe, indeed, that the passage is abrupt, for the Prophet assumes different characters; but as to what is meant there is nothing doubtful.

God says, that he was provoked with carvings: it hence follows, that the temple was polluted. God had indeed promised to dwell in the temple, but on a certain condition, provided he was faithfully, and in a legitimate manner, worshipped there; but the people with their pollutions had defiled the temple. God then shews that there was a just cause why he had departed, according to what is set forth more fully in the tenth chapter of Ezekiel: God shews to his servant in that vision that he had left the temple, and for this reason, — because his holiness could not be blended with ungodly and filthy profanations. He first mentions carvings generally, and then he adds, the vanities of the foreigner: and here he amplifies the sin of the people, because they borrowed here and there from foreigners such superstitions as were unknown to their fathers, as though they wished to banish God from the temple, and from the whole land. The meaning of this verse is viewed by some differently. Their exile is considered as referred to at the beginning of the verse, “from a distant land,” — or literally, “from the land of the remote ones.” All the versions render the preposition “from,” and not “because of,” as in our version. The Prophet contemplates them as in banishment, and relates what they would say, and what answer God had for them: and they seem to have been thus contemplated to the end of the chapter, —

19. Behold the voice of the cry of the daughter of my people From the land of the remote ones, — “Was not Jehovah in Sion? Was not her king within her?” “Why! they provoked me with their carved images, With the vanities of the foreigner.”

Then follows the continuation of the cry in exile, —

20. “Passed has the harvest, Ended has the summer, And we have not been saved!”

The “King,” in verse 19, is “Jehovah” in the former line. “The vanities of the foreigner” were idols: they were vanities, because they could do nothing, neither good nor evil. What made them gods were the imaginations of the infatuated and superstitious. The gods of many now are nothing better. Every notion of God is false but what is consistent with his word. The Socinian god is not the true God; it is the fiction of a perverted mind. Nor is the god of the thorough Papists anything better, nor the god of the Pharisee. — Ed. It follows —

Jeremiah 8:20

20. The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.

20. Transiit messis, finita est aestas, et nos non sumus servati.

The Prophet shews now in the name of the people what was the hindrance. At the time Jeremiah spoke, the Jews confidently boasted that God was their defender; and they did not think that the Chaldeans were preparing for an expedition. But as they were inflated with false confidence, the Prophet here recites what they would presently say, Passed has the harvest, ended has the summer, and we have not been saved; that is, “We thought that the associates, with whom we have made alliances, would at length come to our aid; and we have in this respect been deceived.” In saying, that the harvest had passed, some think that they expected help from the Egyptians after they had gathered their corn into barns; for there is then more leisure, and then also there are provisions for the army. But the Prophet seems to include the whole time suitable for carrying on war; as though he had said, “What will become of us at last? for if the Egyptians intended to bring help, they would have done so at the suitable time of the year; but passed has the harvest, and the summer has ended: will they come now, when the severity of winter constrains them to keep at home?.”

It is the same as though they had said, “There is no hope of aid either from the Egyptians or from other confederates, for the seasonable time is gone by.” There was nothing less credible to the Jews at that time; for as it; has elsewhere appeared, they doubted not but that the Egyptians would bring them aid, and supply them with help instead of God: but the Prophet intimates, that whatever the Egyptians might have promised would be in vain, and wholly useless, that the people would at length find out by experience that their promises were mere trumperies, yea, impostures and deceits. In short, he describes in the name of the people (that what he said might be more emphatical) what they would soon find out, though they would not believe it at that time. It follows —

Jeremiah 8:21

21. For the hurt of the daughter of my people am I hurt; I am black; astonishment hath taken hold on me.

21. Super contritione filiae populi mei contritus sum, obtenebratus sum, stupor (nam שמם est stupere et attonitum esse; stupor ergo) apprehendit me.

As the hardness of the people was so great, that the threatenings we have observed did not touch them, the Prophet now ascribes to himself what he had before attributed to them. We then see how the Prophet varies his mode of speaking; but it was necessary, for he was at a loss to find a way to address them sufficiently strong to penetrate into their stony and even iron hearts. We need not wonder, then, that there are so many figurative terms used by the Prophet; for it was needful to set before them God’s judgment in various ways, that the people might be awakened out of their torpid state.

He then says, that he was bruised for the bruising of his people. He was no doubt ridiculed by most of them: “Oh! thou grievest for thine own evils; it is well and prosperous with us: who has asked thee for this pity? Think not, then, that thou canst gain any favor with us, for we are contented with our lot. Weep rather for thine own calamities, if thou hast any at home; but suffer us at the same time to enjoy our pleasures, since God is propitious and indulgent to us.” Thus then was the Prophet derided; but yet he warns the obstinate people, that they might be less excusable: he says, that he was rendered black; for sorrow brings blackness with it, and makes dark the face of man: it is a metaphorical expression. He says at last, that he was astonished To keep throughout the metaphorical character of this verse, it ought to be rendered thus, —

For the bruising of the daughter of my people I was bruised, I became black; Desolation possessed me.

But taking the words as applied to the mind, divested of metaphor, we must render them thus, —

For the sorrow of the daughter of my people I sorrowed, I mourned; Astonishment possessed me.

And this “astonishment” he explains in the next verse: there were means of restoration, and yet the people were not restored; at this he was astonished. — Ed. The astonishment with which he was seized he no doubt sets down as being the opposite of the people’s torpor and insensibility, for they had no fear for themselves. It follows —

Jeremiah 8:22

22 Is there no balm in Gilead? is there no physician there? why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered?

22. An resina (aut, balsamus) non est in Gilead? an medicus non illic est? nam cur non ascendit sanitas filiae populi mei?

The Prophet intimates in these words that the slaughter of the people would be so fatal that they would in vain seek remedies; as though he had said, that the disease would be incurable, and altogether deadly. The people, no doubt, ever devised for themselves many kinds of aids, according to what is commonly done; for ungodly men, when any danger appears, look around them on all sides; and when they think that they can be protected by any kind of assistance, or by any of the means they contrive, they rest secure and free from every trouble. Hence the Prophet, that he might dispel such vain confidences, says that there would be no rosin to heal their diseases. The rosin is a liquid which flows, not from every tree, but from the pine, and trees of that kind.

We may conclude from this passage, as well as from other passages, that the best and the most valuable rosin was found in that part of Judea, called Gilead. Indeed the whole of Judea produced rosin; but as it was more abundant in Gilead, and as that rosin was more odoriferous and more powerful, he expressly mentions that place. The word צרי tsari, means also balsam: and as to this let each follow his own opinion, for the Jews themselves do not altogether agree. They who render it “treacle” wholly depart from the meaning, and offer what is absurd; for we know that treacle is made up of several ingredients: now rosin is not any sort of gum, but a thick liquid, as I have said, which belongs to trees; and from it comes rosin, and mastic, and other things; for the liquid becomes thick after it has flown from the trees.

He says then, as one astonished, Is there not rosin in Gilead? Is there not a physician there? But the Prophet foretells here by the Spirit, that there would be such a destruction as could not by any means be avoided, that the disease would be incurable. For why, he says, does not health come to the daughter of my people? The reason is added, because healing could not be expected by the people; not that the Jews perceived this, for, on the contrary, they boasted, as I have said, of their perfect safety. But the Prophet here declares that a deadly disease was at hand, which would inevitably destroy the wicked As the whole passage, from the 19th verse, is anticipative, and represents the ease of the Jews in captivity, this verse is to be viewed in the same light, and rendered in the past tense, —

22. Was there not balm in Gilead? Was there not a healer there? Why then has not succeeded The recovery of the daughter of my people?

Whether balm or rosin be meant, it makes no great difference; its healing virtues had become proverbial; and in this sense it is to be taken here. Kimchi held that it was balm or balsam, which Josephus reports was first brought to Judea by the Queen of Sheba. But the tree which produced צרי, was not an exotic, but indigenous in Judea, as it appears from Genesis 37:25, and 43:10; and it grew especially in Gilead, as it appears from this passage and from chap. 46:11 Bochart maintained that rosin is meant by the word, the gum drawn from the Terebinthus or the turpentine tree, which possesses strong healing virtues. It is rendered, “ῥητίνη — rosin,” by the Septuagint, the Vulgate, and the Arabic; and “cera — wax,” by the Syriac. “Healer,” or physician, is rendered “ἰατρὸς — healer,” by the Septuagint, and “medicus,” by the Vulgate, Syriac, and Arabic. It appears that Gilead was not only celebrated for its healing gum, but also for its medical men.

The balm was the word of God, and the healer who applied it was the prophet or the teacher.

Perhaps the most literal rendering of the first two lines is the following, and the most suitable to express astonishment, —

The balm, not in Gilead!: Verily, a healer, not there!

— Ed. Afterwards follows —

CHAPTER 9

Jeremiah 9:1

1. Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!

1. Quis ponet caput meum aquas, et oculum meum fontem lachrymarum? et deflebo die et nocte (hoc est, dies et noctes) interfectos filiae populi mei.

CHAPTER 8

Jr 8:1-22. The Jew's Coming Punishment; Their Universal and Incurable Impenitence.

1. The victorious Babylonians were about to violate the sanctuaries of the dead in search of plunder; for ornaments, treasures, and insignia of royalty were usually buried with kings. Or rather, their purpose was to do the greatest dishonor to the dead (Is 14:19).

2. spread ... before the sun, &c.--retribution in kind. The very objects which received their idolatries shall unconcernedly witness their dishonor.

loved ... served ... after ... walked ... sought ... worshipped--Words are accumulated, as if enough could not be said fully to express the mad fervor of their idolatry to the heavenly host (2Ki 23:5).

nor ... buried--(Jr 22:19).

dung--(Jr 9:22; Psa 83:10).

3. The survivors shall be still worse off than the dead (Job 3:21, 22; Re 9:6).

which remain in all the places--"in all places of them that remain, whither I ... that is, in all places whither I have driven them that remain [Maurer].

4. "Is it not a natural instinct, that if one falls, he rises again; if one turns away (that is, wanders from the way), he will return to the point from which he wandered? Why then does not Jerusalem do so?" He plays on the double sense of return; literal and metaphorical (Jr 3:12; 4:1).

5. slidden ... backsliding--rather, as the Hebrew is the same as in Jr 8:4, to which this verse refers, "turned away with a perpetual turning away."

perpetual--in contrast to the "arise" ("rise again," Jr 8:4).

refuse to return--in contrast to, "shall he ... not return" (Jr 8:4; Jr 5:3).

6. spake not aright--that is, not so as penitently to confess that they acted wrong. Compare what follows.

every one ... his course--The Keri reads "course," but the Chetib, "courses." "They persevere in the courses whatever they have once entered on." Their wicked ways were diversified.

horse rusheth--literally, "pours himself forth," as water that has burst its embankment. The mad rapidity of the war horse is the point of comparison (Job 39:19-25).

7. The instinct of the migratory birds leads them with unfailing regularity to return every spring from their winter abodes in summer climes (So 2:12); but God's people will not return to Him even when the winter of His wrath is past, and He invites them back to the spring of His favor.

in the heaven--emphatical. The birds whose very element is the air, in which they are never at rest, yet show a steady sagacity, which God's people do not.

times--namely, of migrating, and of returning.

my people--This honorable title aggravates the unnatural perversity of the Jews towards their God.

know not, &c.--(Jr 5:4, 5; Is 1:3).

8. law ... with us--(Ro 2:17). Possessing the law, on which they prided themselves, the Jews might have become the wisest of nations; but by their neglecting its precepts, the law became given "in vain," as far as they were concerned.

scribes--copyists. "In vain" copies were multiplied. Maurer translates, "The false pen of the scribes hath converted it [the law] into a lie." See Margin, which agrees with Vulgate.

9. dismayed--confounded.

what wisdom--literally, "the wisdom of what?" that is, "wisdom in what respect?" the Word of the Lord being the only true source of wisdom (Psa 119:98-100; Pr 1:7; 9:10).

10-12. Repeated from Jr 6:12-15. See a similar repetition, Jr 8:15; Jr 14:19.

inherit--succeed to the possession of them.

13. surely consume--literally, "gathering I will gather," or "consuming I will consume."

no grapes ... nor figs--(Joe 1:7; Mt 21:19).

things that I have given ... shall pass away--rather, "I will appoint to them those who shall overwhelm (pass over) them," that is, I will send the enemy upon them [Maurer]. English Version accords well with the context; Though their grapes and figs ripen, they shall not be allowed to enjoy them.

14. assemble--for defense.

let us be silent--not assault the enemy, but merely defend ourselves in quiet, until the storm blow over.

put us to silence--brought us to that state that we can no longer resist the foe; implying silent despair.

water of gall--literally, "water of the poisonous plant," perhaps the poppy (Jr 9:15; 23:15).

15. Repeated (Jr 14:19).

We looked for--owing to the expectations held out by the false prophets.

health--healing; that is, restoration from adversity.

16. his horses--the Chaldean's.

was heard--the prophetical past for the future.

from Dan--bordering on Phoenicia. This was to be Nebuchadnezzar's route in invading Israel; the cavalry in advance of the infantry would scour the country.

strong ones--a poetical phrase for steeds, peculiar to Jeremiah (Jr 47:3; compare Jr 4:13, 29; 6:23).

17. I--Jehovah.

cockatrices--basilisks (Is 11:8), that is, enemies whose destructive power no means, by persuasion or otherwise, can counteract. Serpent-charmers in the East entice serpents by music, and by a particular pressure on the neck render them incapable of darting (Psa 58:4, 5).

18. (Is 22:4). The lamentation of the prophet for the impending calamity of his country.

against sorrow--or, with respect to sorrow. Maurer translates, "Oh, my exhilaration as to sorrow!" that is, "Oh, that exhilaration ('comfort', from an Arabic root, to shine as the rising sun) would shine upon me as to my sorrow!"

in me--within me.

19. The prophet in vision hears the cry of the exiled Jews, wondering that God should have delivered them up to the enemy, seeing that He is Zion's king, dwelling in her (Mi 3:11). In the latter half of the verse God replies that their own idolatry, not want of faithfulness on His part, is the cause.

because of them that dwell in a far country--rather, "from a land of distances," that is, a distant land (Is 39:3). English Version understands the cry to be of the Jews in their own land, because of the enemy coming from their far-off country.

strange vanities--foreign gods.

20. Proverbial. Meaning: One season of hope after another has passed, but the looked-for deliverance never came, and now all hope is gone.

21. black--sad in visage with grief (Joe 2:6).

22. balm--balsam; to be applied to the wounds of my people. Brought into Judea first from Arabia Felix, by the queen of Sheba, in Solomon's time [Josephus, Antiquities, 8.2]. The opobalsamum of Pliny; or else [Bochart] the resin drawn from the terebinth. It abounded in Gilead, east of Jordan, where, in consequence, many "physicians" established themselves (Jr 46:11; 51:8; Ge 37:25; 43:11).

health ... recovered--The Hebrew is literally, "lengthening out ... gone up"; hence, the long bandage applied to bind up a wound. So the Arabic also [Gesenius].

They shall bring out the bones - This and the two following verses are a continuation of the preceding prophecy, and should not have been separated from the foregoing chapter.

In order to pour the utmost contempt upon the land, the victorious enemies dragged out of their graves, caves, and sepulchers, the bones of kings, princes, prophets, priests, and the principal inhabitants, and exposed them in the open air; so that they became, in the order of God's judgments, a reproach to them in the vain confidence they had in the sun, moon, and the host of heaven - all the planets and stars, whose worship they had set up in opposition to that of Jehovah. This custom of raising the bodies of the dead, and scattering their bones about, seems to have been general. It was the highest expression of hatred and contempt. Horace refers to it: -

Barbarus, heu, cineres insistet victor, et urbem

Eques sonante verberabit ungula:

Quaeque carent ventis et solibus ossa Quirini (Nefas videre) dissipabit insolens.

Epod. 16:11. "Barbarians fell shall wanton with success,

Scatter the city's flaming ruins wide;

Or through her streets in vengeful triumph ride,

And her great founder's hallowed ashes spurn,

That slept uninjured in the sacred urn."

Francis.

See this judgment referred to, Baruch 2:24, 25.

Moreover thou shalt say - Dr. Blayney very properly observes, "In that part of the prophecy which follows next, the difference of speakers requires to be attended to; the transition being quick and sudden, but full of life and energy. The prophet at first, in the name of God, reproves the people's incorrigibility; he charges their wise ones with folly, and threatens them with grievous calamities, Jer 8:4-13. In the three next verses he seems to apostrophize his countrymen in his own person, and as one of the people that dwelt in the open towns, advising those that were in the like situation to retire with him into some of the fortified cities, and there wait the event with patience, since there was nothing but terror abroad, and the noise of the enemy, who had already begun to ravage the country, Jer 8:14-16. God speaks, Jer 8:17, and threatens to bring foes against them that should be irresistible. The prophet appears again in his own person, commiserating the daughter of his people, who is heard bewailing her forlorn case in a distant land; while the voice of God, like that of conscience, breaks in upon her complaints, and shows her that all this ruin is brought upon her by her own infidelities, Jer 8:18-20. The prophet once more resumes his discourse; he regrets that no remedy can be found to close up the wounds of his country, and pathetically weeps over the number of her slain, Jer 8:21, Jer 9:1."

Shall they fall, and not arise? shall he turn away, and not return? - That is, It is as possible for sinners to return from their sin to God, for his grace is ever at hand to assist, as it is for God, who is pouring out his judgments, to return to them on their return to him. But these held fast deceit, and refused to return; they would not be undeceived.

As the horse rusheth into the battle - This strongly marks the unthinking, careless desperation of their conduct.

The stork in the heaven - The birds of passage know the times of their going and return, and punctually observe them; they obey the dictates of nature, but my people do not obey my law.

The pen of the scribes is in vain - The deceitful pen of the scribes. They have written falsely, though they had the truth before them. It is too bold an assertion to say that "the Jews have never falsified the sacred oracles;" they have done it again and again. They have written falsities when they knew they were such.

Therefore will I give their wives - From this to the end of Jer 8:15 is repeated from Jer 6:13-15.

The snorting of his horses was heard from Dan - From this to the end of Jer 8:15 is repeated from Babylon to Jerusalem; and it was by this city, after the battle of Carchemish, that Nebuchadnezzar, in pursuing the Egyptians, entered Palestine.

The whole land trembled at the sound of the neighing of his strong ones - Of his war horses. This is a fine image; so terrible was the united neighing of the cavalry of the Babylonians that the reverberation of the air caused the ground to tremble. This is better, and more majestic, than the celebrated line of Virgil: -

Quadrupe - dante pu - trem soni-tu quatit ungula campum.

It would be much easier to shake the ground with the prancings of many horses, than to cause an earthquake by the sound of the neighing of the troops of cavalry.

I will send serpents - These were symbols of the enemies that were coming against them; a foe that would rather slay them and destroy the land than get booty and ransom.

The harvest is past - The siege of Jerusalem lasted two years; for Nebuchadnezzar came against it in the ninth year of Zedekiah, and the city was taken in the eleventh; see 2Kgs 25:1-3. This seems to have been a proverb: "We expected deliverance the first year - none came. We hoped for it the second year - we are disappointed; we are not saved - no deliverance is come."

Is there no balm in Gilead? - Yes, the most excellent in the world. "Is there no physician there?" Yes, persons well skilled to apply it. "Why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered?" Because ye have not applied to the physician, nor used the balm. Ye die because ye will not use the remedy. But to apply this metaphor: - The Israelites are represented as a man dying through disease; and a disease for the cure of which the balm of Gilead was well known to be a specific, when judiciously applied by a physician. But though there be balm and a physician, the people are not cured; neither their spiritual nor political evils are removed. But what may all this spiritually mean? The people are morally diseased; they have sinned against God, and provoked him to destroy them. They are warned by the prophet to repent and turn to God: they refuse, and sin on. Destruction is come upon them. Might they not have avoided it? Yes. Was it the fault of God? No. Did he not send his prophets with the richest offers of mercy? Did he not give them time, the best instructions, and the most effectual means of returning to him? Has not mercy, the heavenly balm, been ever at hand? And has not God, the great Physician, been ever ready to apply it? Yes. Why then are they not converted and healed? Because they would not apply to the Divine Physician, nor receive the only remedy by which they could be spiritually healed. They, then, that sin against the only remedy must perish, because they might have had it, but would not. It is not because there is a deficiency of grace, nor of the means of grace, that men are not saved; but because they either make no use, or a bad use, of them. Jesus Christ, by the grace of God, has tasted death for every man; but few are saved, because they Will Not come unto him that they may have life.

In my old MS. Bible the text is rendered thus: -

Whether gumm is not in Galaad? Or a leche is not there? Why than the hid wounde of the daughter of my peple is not all helid?

How shall they escape who neglect so great a salvation? Reader, lay this to heart; and, while there is time, apply heartily to the great Physician for thy cure.

The bones - This denotes the utter desolation of the city, not only rasing the walls, but turning up the very sepulchres which were accounted sacred, and not to be violated.

Not arise - Will they never think of rising again? Not return - Will he wander for ever?

Deceit - Their false prophets, encouraging themselves in their wickedness, and pleasing themselves, that their miseries should not come upon them.

Appointed time - The seasons of her going and coming. The judgment - God's vengeance, hovering over Jerusalem, and Judea.

How - These things considered where is your wisdom? He speaks to the whole body of the people. The Lord - This may have a more special eye to the priests. In vain - For any use they made of it; neither need it ever have been copied out by the scribe. A scribe was a teacher, one well versed in the scripture, or esteemed to be so.

Pass away - Shall be taken away by their enemies.

Why - The people at length seem to bethink themselves, and thus to bespeak each other. Silent - Keep close within our walls.

The snorting - The fury of the Chaldeans march is described by the snorting of their horses, which is a noise they make through their nostrils. Heard - Even to Jerusalem. Have devoured - It is spoken in a prophetical style, who use to express the certainty of what shall be, as if it actually were already.

Shall bite - There will be no appeasing their fury by any method.

Sorrow - The prophet now seems to speak, how greatly the calamity of this people affected him.

Why - As if God should seem to reply; let them not think it strange, seeing they have turned their backs upon me, and trusted to idols.

Am I hurt - The prophet here shews how deeply he is affected with the peoples misery. Black - I am as those that are clad in deep mourning.

1 AT that time, saith the LORD they shall bring out the bones of the kings of Judah, and the bones of his princes, and the bones of the priests, and the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem out of their graves.

This Chapter being a continuation of the former, he proceeds in carrying on the threatning with higher aggravations of the Judgment, viz. that when the time shall come spoken of chap. 7.32. the Chaldea[illegible: 1 letter]s rage shall reach, not only to the living, but even against those, that are in their graves, and that sparing none of any degree, or quality; Of the Nobles and Princes as Manasse[illegible: 1 letter], and others; possibly led to it out of greediness, supposing to find great treasure in their Sepulchres; of the Priests, and Prophets, principally the false ones, as a just judgment of God against them for deceiving the People: of the Inhabitants of Ierusalem, out of their spight and fury kindled against them, as Souldiers, or in contempt, and ignominy, and this notes the utter desolation of the City, not only razing the walls but turning up the very Sepulchres which were accounted sacred, and not to be violated.

2 And they shall spread them before the sun, and the moon, and all the host of heaven, whom they have loved, and whom they have served, and after whom they have walked, and whom they have sought, and whom they have worshipped: they shall not be gathered, nor be buryed; they shall be for dung upon the face of the earth.

Not gather them together into charnel houses as we usually do out of humanity, but scatter them about as it were to be turned into dust and dung.

viz. All the rest of the Stars, to shew that they should not lye out in the day time onely, but night also, before the Moon and Stars chap. 36.30. their Carcases shall be cast to their Idols, Lev. 26.30. 2 Kings 23.14, 20. a kind of Lex talionis, that as they had served, and worshipped these Creatures, God doth as it were appoint them as spectators, and witnesses of his vengeance, and what contempt he pours upon them, their Carcases being brought before their Idols, which will be so shameful, as if one should draw forth the Adulteress, with the Adulterer into open view, and expose them together, and it also insinuates the inability that is in these dumb Idols to help them in their misery.

This and the following terms serve to express the greatness and variety of their affection and zeal in their worshipping of them, Deut. 4.19. 2 Kings 23.5. chap. 7.18. he multiplies words, as it were implying, that there can hardly be words enough to express their folly and madness, the Gentiles worshipping these Creatures, not only for their beauty and lustre, but according to their an[illegible: 1 letter]ient Philosophy apprehending them to have been living Creatures, and that all events were ordered by them.

On the superficies of it, there shall be no care taken of them, but they shall lye in the open Country in the Air, till they rot into dung or dry into dust, as in the beginning of the verse, see Psal. 83.10. chap. 9.22. they shall be ignominious even after death.

3 And death shall be chosen rather then life, by all the residue of them that remain of this evil family, which remain in all the places whither I have driven them, saith the LORD of hosts.

A description of the unexpressibleness of their misery, that notwithstanding all the barbarism of the Babylonians excercised, both upon the living and the dead, yet a small matter in comparison of what the living would feel, of the greatness of which misery there was a double cause; not only their being led into Captivity, but Gods displeasure following them, even in their banishment, being sorely oppressed, one of those threatnings, Lev. 26.36, 39. see Iob 3.20, 21. Rev. 9.6.

Some dispersed among the Mountains, and hiding places of Iudea, others in the Desert of Moab and Idumea, whither they fled for fear of the Chaldeans and all other places, where God would scatter them, an Hypallage.

He that hath all the Creatures as an Army at his Command, can do this against those, with whom he is displeased▪

4 ¶ Moreover, thou shalt say i unto them, thus saith the LORD, shall they fall, and not arise? shall he turn away, and not return?

An interrogation that hath the force of a negative, i. e. surely none, or will men, is there no hope? and are they upon this ground desperate? Or rather will men fall and not arise? Are they such fools? that having fallen by their sins, and been foretold all that is coming, that they will not accept of a remedy, chap. 7.27. Hos. 14.1.

A metaphor taken from one that is out of his way, can any imagine, that if one tell him of it, and direct him aright, that he will not hearken to him, and turn back? It is even against nature it self for a man not to seek his own good.

Though possibly it be all in vain, yet thou shalt keep in thy work.

5 Why then is this people of Jerusalem slidden back, by a perpetual backsliding: They hold fast deceit, they refuse to return.

Either a universal backsliding. Or, rather obstinately resolved to hold on, though they see they are out of the way, not out of levity or inconsiderateness, the Heb. word signifies strength, the same used, Psal. 13.1. and translated for ever, implying a strong, stiff, stout refusal, see Isa. 57.17. chap. 5.3.

Either their injustice and couzenages in circumventing one another, which was so frequent among them, chap. 9.4, 5, 6. Mic. 7.3.4. or their hypocrisie whereby they think to deceive God, but they do indeed deceive themselves the great impediment of their Repentance, Isa. 44.20. or rather their sticking close to their false Prophets who did deceive them, thence incouraging themselves in their wickedness, and pleasing themselves, that their miseries should not come upon them. See on Isa. 30.10. chap. 5.31. and 14.13, 14. &c.

6 I hearkned and heard, but they spake not aright, no man repented him of his wickedness, saying, What have I done? Every one turned to his course, as the horse rusheth into the battle.

i. e. That I might hear, the words rather of God then of the Prophet which the continuance of the speech seems to shew in the next verse, the close whereof is plain that God speaks, expressing himself after the manner of men, who are wont to listen diligently after the things they are very desirous of, see 1 Kings 20.33, Mal. 3.16.

Or not so as the LXX, and the word is thus used, Exod. 10.11. Psal. 1.4. not so as I would have had them, so far from Repentance, that I do not perceive a word from them tending the way.

I see no tendency to Repentance, I see none of them so much as calling themselves to an account, not recoiling upon themselves, where Repentance usually begins, 2 Chron. 6.37. as men use upon an inconsiderate act to smite upon their breast, or thigh, and say what have I done, as 2 Samuel. chapter 3. verse 24.

To their accustomed way, committing all wickedness without restraint, see on Isa. 59.7. the fury and unbridledness of their lusts, being spurred on by their wills is described in the next expression, shewing how like a headstrong Horse, he runs away with his Rider, or compared to the delight, that an horse seems to take in running violently, and headstrongly into the Battle, as it is described, Iob 39.21. &c. and this word rushing, signifying properly an inunda[illegible: 1 letter]ion of waters, helps to shew their uncontroulableness in another Metaphor, and see this verified of them, chap. 2.23, 24. It is said every one by an hyberbole, as Psal. 14.3. and frequently elsewhere.

7 Yea, the stork in the heaven knoweth her appointed times; and the turtle, and the crane, and the swallow observe the time of their coming; but my people know not the judgment of the LORD.

i. e. In the Air, which is often called heaven, where the Birds fly, Psal. 8.8. compare chap. 7.33. who possibly observe the fit time by the temperature of the Air.

i. e. Observeth the several Seasons of her going, and coming by some natural instinct, and this is said of the Stork; what kind of Fowl is here meant is disputable, see English Annot. and Lat. Symp.

The same thing diversified in these several Fowles, that know also their Seasons.

This notes the great stupidity of his people seeming not to have as much sense in them, as the Birds in the Air, not knowing their sum[illegible: 1 letter]er of prosperity, to make a good use of Gods favours, nor the wi[illegible: 1 letter]ter of adversity, either to prevent or remove that wrath of God that hangs over their heads Isa. 5.12. Luke 19.42.44. they know not their time for Repentance, and making their peace with God compared also, on the same account, to the beasts of the Field, Isa. 1.3. and thus Christ upbraids the Pharisees, Matth. 16.2, 3.

Either Gods vengeance in general, or particularly hovering over Ier[illegible: 1 letter]salem, and Iudaea, or rather the manner of Gods dispensations with them. So the word is used, 1 Sam. 2.13. and 8.11

Marginal references: chap. 5.4, 5.

8 How do ye say, We are wise, and the law of the LORD is with us? Lo, certainly in vain made he it, the pen of the scribes is in vain.

q. d. Th[illegible: 1 letter]se things considered where is your Wisdom? When you see the very Fowls of the Air are not so stupid, as you are; he speaks either to Princes and Priests, or to the whole body of the people.

This may be understood either more general of all, or may have a more special Eye to the Priests, with whom it was intrusted, Deut. 33.10▪ Mal. 2.7. They were wont to boast much of the Law, as well as of the Temple, chap. 18.18. Rom. 2.17, 23.

q. d. for any use they made of it, they had as good have been without it, God needed not to have given them a Law, Hos. 8.12.

Neither need it ever have been copyed out divulged and conveighed down to them by the Scribe, Deut. 17.18. or the prevarications, and collusions these Lawyers used in the false interpretation of the Law, wherein they sided with the false Prophets, should be in vain. A Scribe was a Teacher one well versed in the Scripture or esteemed so.

Marginal references: Or, [illegible: 1 letter]he [illegible: 1 letter]alse pen of the Scribes worketh for falshood.

9 The wise men are ashamed, they are dismayed and taken; lo, they have rejected the word of the LORD; and what wisdom is in them?

They trusted to their refuges of lies, but when God shall bring the judgment threatned the wisest among them will find, that they shall be confounded among themselves, not knowing what to do for all their wisdom, but shall be taken with the rest, chap. 4.9. by wisemen he means the Scribes in the former verse. The same said of Babylon, Isa. 47.10.

Or what is wisedom to them? how can they say they are wise, when they have no fear of God, which is the beginning of wisdom, Prov. 1.7. when they have no respect at all to the Word of God, as to any holy practice which is the fountain of all wisdom, Deut. 4.6. Psal. 19.7. 2. Tim. 3.15.

Marginal references: chap. 6.15.; Or, have they been ashamed, &c.; Heb. the wisdom of what thing.

10 Therefore will I give their wives unto others, and their fields to them that shall inherit them: for every one from the least even unto the greatest is given to covetousness, from the prophet even unto the Priest, every one dealeth falsely.

A paraphraestical description of the miseries of War; God doth here insinuate that their misery shall not be for a short time, but so long, as that strangers, viz. The Chaldaeans shall enjoy their Land by inheritances, so far should they be from possessing their Land for ever.

So greedy after their own private gain, that they took no care of equity, or justice, in which word is comprized all their fraudulent dealings one among another.

Of this and the two next verses, see on chap. 6.13, 14, 15.

Marginal references: Deut. 28.30. Amos 5.11. Zeph. 1.13.; Isa. 56.11.

13 ¶ I will surely consume them, saith the LORD; There shall be no grapes on the vine, nor figs on the fig tree, and the leaf shall fade, and the things that I have given them shall pass away from them.

Or in gathering I will consume them; q. d. I will so gather them togeth[illegible: 2 letters] into their several Cities to be besieged, that it shall be no hard matter to destroy them, ver. 16. viz. The body of the people, not every one, for there was a remnant, that did escape.

These Fruits, Grapes, and Figs, it is probable, were of greatest account and use among them, Isa. 36.16. and so may be put for all other things, either for necessity or delight, which God threatens he will deprive them of by reason of the Siege, which a famine shall succeed, chap. 5.17. Ioel 1.7. Hab. 3.17. See the like Z[illegible: 1 letter]ph. 1.2, 3. Or possibly, it may be spoken by way of similitude, q. d. they shall be wasted, as when there is no Grapes on the Vine, &c. the Land shall be left as bare, as when by Tempests or other violence, there is neither leaf or fruit left upon the Tree, Psal. 78.47.

If this refer to the further punishment, as some, then it is as much as to say, what they have already received from me and laid up, they shall also be deprived of Hos. 2.8, 9. or though I have given it to them, yet they shall not injoy it, it shall be taken away by their enemies; if it relate to the reason of the punishment, as others, then the copulative is put for the causal. q. d. because the things that I gave them. viz. My Laws, pass away, i. e. they have transgressed, Isa. 24.4, 5. either sense lies fair.

Marginal references: Or, In g[illegible: 1 letter]th[illegible: 1 letter]ring I will consume.; Isa. 5.1. &c.; Matth. 21.19. Luk. 13.6. &c.

14 Why do we sit still? Assemble your selves, and let us enter into the defenced cities, and let us be silent there, for the Lord our GOD hath put us to silence, and given us water of gall to drink, because we have sinned against the LORD.

The people at length seem to bethink themselves, and thus to bespeak each other.

In their scattered Villages, there is no safety for us, let us retire into places of greater security, Matth. 24.16, 17, 18. possibly they thought they might be secured there, as they had been before in the time of Sennacherib.

Keep close within our walls, say or do nothing to provoke the Enemy but sit down, and bewail the desperateness of our condition, Lam. 3.28, 29. or tremblingly expect the issue of this sad war for there is no possibility of making head against such an Enemy, that bears down all before them.

They now begin to perceive, that the hand of God is in all this, and that therefore they have not a word to say, as if they were wronged, God hath put them to shame, much less courage to oppose the Babylonians, their heart fails them, they are as men in a great terror and consternation, God hath put us to silence, let us be silent.

Or Poison probably the name of some poisonous Herb, with the juice or infusion whereof they were wont to kill persons, as Hemlock, Nightshade, &c. See Hos. 10.4. it notes those bitter destructive judgments that God was bringing upon them, chap. 9.15. which did spring from that bitter root of their sinning against him, as in the next words.

Marginal references: chap. 4.5.; chap. 23.15.; Or, poison.

15 We looked for peace, but no good came, and for a time of health, and behold, trouble.

Viz. Upon the perswasion of our Prophets, we expected that these troubles would never come, but all would be well, but we find our selves meerly deluded by them, we looked so long, till even our eyes failed us, but we see no remedy for us, Lam. 4.17. A metaphor: miseries are often in Scripture compared to diseases, and deliverances to healing, Deut. 32.39. Psal. 103.3. chap. 33.6.

Marginal references: chap. 14.19▪

16 The snorting of his horses was heard from Dan: the whole land trembled at the sound of the neighing of his strong ones: for they are come and have devoured the land and all that is in it; the city, and those that dwell therein.

The fury of the Chaldaeans march is described by the snorting of their Horses, which is a noise they make through their Nostrils, when they are chafed, and fretted.

i. e. Even to Ierusalem, q. d. the dreadfulness of the noise shall be heard from far, or rather, though Ierusalem seem to be secure, yet the furthest Coasts of the Land are in great consternation, viz. the outmost boundary of Canaan Northward, through which the Chaldaean Army was to march. See chap. 4.15. or it is said to be heard, either the noise it self, or the fame of it, chap. 6.24.

His choice Horses or Cavalry, or his stout and sturdy ones, as the word signifies, and expressed by their brisk frollicksomness, and courage in the word neighing properly applied to Horses, understanding here the chief of them, and the word for strong ones is applyed to any thing, that excels, as to man, Iob 34.20. to Angels, Psal. 78.25. A[illegible: 1 letter]gels food or the bread of the mighty. And for Horses as here, and Iudg. 5.22. chap. 47.3.

Heb. the fullness of it, the Trees, and Fruits, and wealth of the Land, they are entred upon their spoil, and will leave nothing in the Land, chap. 4.20. It is spoken in a prophetical stile, who use to express the certainty of what shall be, as if it actually were already.

viz. Ierusalem, or rather the Cities with all their Inhabitants, as well as the Country, the singular number, being put for the plural, as Isa. 27.10.

Marginal references: Heb. the fulness thereof.

17 For behold, I will send serpents, cockatrices, among you, which will not be charmed, and they shall bite you, saith the LORD.

He proceeds in increasing of their terror, q. d. there will be no appeasing, or allaying of their fury by any art or method, therefore represented by Cockatrices, called in Latine Reg[illegible: 1 letter]lus, or King of Serpents, as putting to flight all other Serpents, put by apposition to Serpents shewing what kind of Serpent they shall be, a sort that cannot be charmed, viz. such an Enemy as by no intreaty can be made ex[illegible: 2 letters]able; See on Isa. 11.8. LXX, deadly Serpents.

They shall afflict you with sore punishments, not only stings in their Tails, as Scorpions, but in their Teeth, whereby they shall devour you. ver. 16.

Marginal references: Psal. 58.4, 5▪

18 When I would comfort my self against sorrow: my heart is faint in me.

The language of the people being long shut up in their Cities and finding no r[illegible: 1 letter]lief, at last faint, Lam. 4.17. But more probably the Prophet now seems to speak his own resentments how greatly the calamity of his people did affect him, the like Isa. 22.4. when he would sometimes refresh himself with the comfortable refreshments of Nature, the thoughts of his Peoples Misery do so afflict him, that his heart is ready to faint, to sink within him.

Marginal references: Heb. upon.

19 Behold, the voice of the cry of the daughter of my people, because of them that dwell in a far country: Is not the LORD in Zion? is not her King in her? why have they provoked me to anger with their graven Images, and with strange vanities?

i. e. The greatness of their cry, the bitter cries and schreeches and complaints that methinks I hear: The words are abrupt, because the Prophet is to represent several persons speaking; himself, the People and God.

See chap. 4.11. possibly because Ieremiah loved them, instructed them, admonished them as a daughter.

Viz. Their enemies the Babylonians, that were to come against them from a very far Country, chap. 6.22. or the voice of them, that were Captives under those of a far Country, now they begin to cry, which would not be perswaded to it before; the first is most to be approved of.

Viz. In Ierusalem a Metonymy of the Subject.

Or as King in Zion, or have we not a King of the seed of David, to whom the Kingdom was granted to be perpetual? Either the words of God, q. d. was not I among you to provide for you, and protect you, but you must needs repair to Idols? the like kind▪ of speech is in 2 King. 1.3. and the close of the verse seems to [illegible: 1 letter]avour this, or, as others, an expostulatory Lamentation of the People, that the cruel Adversary should prevail over a people, that had God so near them, Psal. 48.2, 3. and 76.1, 2. hath God now left us? and is the promise of our continuance here at an end? Psal. 89.36, 37, 38.

As if God should seem to reply here; Let them not think it strange, seeing they have turned their backs upon me, and trusted to Idols, which are but vanity, chap. 2.11, 13. called vanity, not only because Idols are as nothing, but because all the Confidence, that is put in them is vain, and because Idolaters are vain in their minds, and want understanding, I have not forsaken them, but they me.

Marginal references: Heb. beca[illegible: 1 letter]se of the the country of them that are far off.

20 The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.

And the winter no time for war, the peoples continued complaint, not unlike that ver. 15. the year is gon, and we ar[illegible: 1 letter] still frustrated in our expectations, the time that we expected help from Egypt, Isa. 30.2, 3, 5.

Viz. By the Egyptians, or any other Confederates.

21 For the hurt of the daughter of my people am I hurt; I am black; astonishment hath taken hold on me.

The Prophet here shews how deeply he is affected with the peoples misery, he deeply sympathizeth with them, it signifies brokers ▪ I am broken in my spirit, and so it answers to the breach that is made upon the people.

I am as those that are clad in deep Mourning, Psal. 38.6. chap. 14.2.

I am amazed to think that my people should sin themselves beyond help, no remedy for them, as the next verse, that no threatnings or Counsels should prevail with them.

22 Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no Physitian there? why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered.

Gilead was eminent for Balm, Gen. 43.11. taken for Rosin, or T[illegible: 1 letter]rpentine, which is a kind of more liquid Rosin, and either flowes, or drops from certain trees of its own accord, or their juice flowes from several holes pierced into them, as from the Pin[illegible: 1 letter], Ce[illegible: 1 letter]ar, Cypress, or Terebinth Tree. Heb. T[illegible: 1 letter]eri. Gr. [non-Latin text not transcribed] from [non-Latin text not transcribed] to flow, or run. Lat. resina. Engl. Rosin. A near affinity of the words in e[illegible: 1 letter]ch language, the nature whereof is to dissolve hardness, to clear, and close up wounds.

Or Chirurgion, probably in a Country where were such plenty of remedies, there could not want Artists, whereby their cures might be facilitated, by means of which the Gileadites and Arabians did excel there.

Heb. gone up; the like expression, 2 Chron. 24.13. the work was perfected, Heb. the healing, went up upon the work, and so Neh. 4.7. the Prophet expresseth his grievous complaint by way of admiration, by a Metaphor, implying the inveteracy, and obstinacy of their hearts, that either would not come to the Physitian or that they should be thus incurable, where they wanted not for Prophets and Teachers, or for all spiritual means, flowing down daily upon them, can Ierusalem, and Judea be without spiritual Physitians? some understand it by way of Sarcasme, q. d. where are your Medicines, your Arms, your Counsels, your con[illegible: 1 letter]ederacies? and where are your Physiti[illegible: 2 letters]s, your Prin[illegible: 1 letter]es and Priests, that promised you Relief? without God, you see, no help in any means; But the former more natural, and agrees best with the beginning of the next Chapter.

Marginal references: Gen. 37.25. chap. 46.11. & 51.8.; Heb. go[illegible: 1 letter]e up.

Jer 8:1-2

But even then the judgment has not come to a height. Even sinners long dead must yet bear the shame of their sins. "At that time" points back to "days come" in Jer 7:32. The Masoretes wished to have the ו before יוציאוּ deleted, apparently because they took it for ו consec. But it here stands before the jussive, as it does frequently, e.g., Jer 13:10, Exo 12:3. They will take the bones of the kings, princes, priests, and prophets, the rulers and leaders of the people (cf. Jer 2:26), and the bones of the other inhabitants of Jerusalem, out of their graves, and spread them out before the sun, the moon, and the stars, i.e., expose them under the open sky to the influence of the heavenly bodies, so that they shall rot away, become "dung on the face of the earth." The worst dishonour that could be done to the dead, a just return in kind for their worship of sun, moon, and stars: cf. Exo 7:18; 2Ki 21:5; 2Ki 23:11. This worship the prophet describes in its various stages: "Inclination of the heart, the act of devoting and dedicating themselves to the service, the frequenting of gods’ sanctuary in order to worship and to obtain oracles; while he strives to bring out in strong relief the contrast between the zeal of their service and the reward they get by it" (Hitz.). They shall not be gathered, i.e., for burial: cf. 2Sa 21:13.; 1Sa 31:13. The dead shall suffer this at the hands of enemies despoiling the land. The reason for so doing was, as Jerome observes, the practice of burying ornaments and articles of value along with the dead. Seeking for such things, enemies will turn up the graves (cf. acts of this kind the case of Ibn Chaldun, in Sylv. de Sacy, Abdollat. p. 561), and, in their hatred and insolence, scatter the bones of the dead all about.

Jer 8:3

Not less dreadful will be the fate of those who remain in life; so appalling that they will prefer death to life, since every kind of hardship in exile and imprisonment amongst the heathen is awaiting them: cf. Lev 26:36-39; Deu 28:65-67. המּקמות  strikes us as peculiar, seeing that the latter word cannot be adjective to the former; for "in all the remaining places of Judah" (Umbr.) gives no suitable sense, and "in all remaining places outside of Judah" is contrary to usage. But הנּשׁארים may be taken as genitive, in spite of the article prefixed to the stat. constr. מקמות; and we may then translate, with Maur.: in all the places of those who remain whither I have driven them. The lxx have omitted the second word; and it is possible it may have found its way hither from the preceding line by an error of transcription. And so Hitz., Ew., and Graf have deleted it as a gloss; but the arguments adduced have little weight. The lxx have also omitted "and say to them," Jer 8:4, have changed כּה into כּי, and generally have treated Jeremiah in a quite uncritical fashion: so that they may have omitted the word from the present verse because it seemed awkward to them, and was not found in the parallel passages, Jer 29:14; Jer 23:3, which are not, however, precisely similar to the present verse.

Jer 8:4-7

The People’s Obstinacy in Wickedness, and the Dreadfulness of the Judgment. - Since the people cleaves stedfastly to its sin (Jer 8:4-13), the Lord must punish sorely (Jer 8:14 -23). - Jer 8:4-13. "And say to them, Thus hath the Lord said: Doth one fall, and not rise again? or doth one turn away, and not turn back again? Jer 8:5. Why doth this people of Jerusalem turn itself away with a perpetual turning? They hold fast by deceit, they refuse to return. Jer 8:6. I listened and heard: they speak not aright; no one repenteth him of his wickedness, saying, What have I done? They all turn to their course again, like a horse rushing into the battle. Jer 8:7. Yea, the stork in the heaven knoweth her appointed times; and turtle-dove, and swallow, and crane, keep the time of their coming; but my people know not the judgment of Jahveh. Jer 8:8. How can ye say, Wise are we, and the law of Jahve we have? Certainly the lying pen of the scribes hath made it a lie. Jer 8:9. Ashamed the wise men become, confounded and taken; lo, the word of Jahveh they spurn at; and whose wisdom have they? Jer 8:10. Therefore will I give their wives unto others, their fields to new heirs: for from the small to the great, they are all greedy for gain; from the prophet even unto the priest, they all use deceit. Jer 8:11. And they heal the hurt of the daughter of my people as it were a light matter, saying, Peace, peace; and yet there is no peace. Jer 8:12. They have been put to shame because they have done abomination; yet they take not shame to themselves, ashamedness they know not. Therefore they shall fall amongst them that fall: in the time of their visitation they shall stumble, that Jahve said. Jer 8:13. Away, away will I sweep them, saith Jahveh: no grapes on the vine, and no figs on the fig-tree, and the leaf is withered; so I appoint unto them those that shall pass over them."

This strophe connects itself with what precedes. A judgment, dreadful as has been described in Jer 7:32-8:3, will come on Judah, because the people cleaves stiffneckedly to its sins. The ואמרתּ of Jer 8:4 corresponds to that in Jer 7:28. The questioning clauses in Jer 8:4 contain universal truths, which are applied to the people of Judah in Jer 8:5. The subjects to יפּלוּ and ישׁוּב are indefinite, hence singular and plural with like significance: cf. Gesen. §137, 3; Ew. §294, b. The verb ישׁוּב, turn oneself, turn about, is here used in a double sense: first, as turn away from one; and then turn towards him, return again. In the application in Jer 8:5, the Pilel is used for to turn away from, and strengthened by: with perpetual turning away or backsliding. נצּחת is not partic. Niph. fem. from נצח, but an adjectival formation, continual, enduring, from נצח, continuance, durableness. "Jerusalem" belongs to "this people:" this people of Jerusalem; the loose grammatical connection by means of the stat. constr. not being maintained, if the first idea gives a sense intelligible by itself, so that the second noun may then be looked on rather in the light of an apposition conveying additional information; cf. Ew. §290, c. תּרמית, equivalent to מרמה, deceit against God. they refuse to return. Sense: they will not receive the truth, repent and return to God. The same idea is developed in Jer 8:6. The first person: I have listened and heard, Hitz. insists, refers to the prophet, "who is justified as to all he said in Jer 8:5 by what he has seen." But we cannot account that even an "apt" view of the case, which makes the prophet cite his own observations to show that God had not spoken without cause. It is Jahveh that speaks in Jer 8:5; and seeing that Jer 8:6 gives not the slightest hint of any change in the speaker, we are bound to take Jer 8:6 also as spoken by God. Thus, to prove that they cleave unto deceit, Jahveh says that He has given heed to their deeds and habits, and heard how they speak the לוא־כן, the not right, i.e., lies and deceit. The next clause: not one repents him of his wickedness, corresponds to: they refuse to return; cf. Jer 8:5 (נחם is partic.). Instead of this, the whole of it, i.e., all of them, turn again to their course. שׁוּב with ב, construed as in Hos 12:7 : turn oneself to a thing, so as to enter into it. For מרוּצה, the sig. course is certified to by 2Sa 18:27. The Chet. מרצותם .tehC e is doubtless merely an error of transcription for מרוּצתם, as is demanded by the Keri. Turn again into their course. The thought is: instead of considering, of becoming repentant, they continue their evil courses. This, too, is substantially what Hitz. gives. Ros., Graf, and others, again, take this in the sense of turning themselves away in their course; but it is not fair to deduce this sense for שׁוּב without מן from Jer 8:4; nor is the addition of "from me" justifiable. Besides, this explanation does not suit the following comparison with the horse. It is against analogy to derive מרצותם from רצה with the sig. desire, cupidity. Ew., following the Chald., adopts this sense both here and in Jer 22:17 and Jer 23:10, though it is not called for in any of these passages, and is unsuitable in Jer 22:17. As a horse rusheth into the battle. שׁטף, pour forth, overflow, hence rush on impetuously; by Jerome rightly translated, cum impetu vadens. Several commentators compare the Latin se effundere (Caes. Bell. Gall. v. 19) and effundi (Liv. xxviii. 7); but the cases are not quite in point, since in both the words are used of the cavalry, and not of the steed by itself. This simile makes way for more in Jer 8:7. Even the fowls under the heaven keep the time of their coming and departure, but Israel takes no concern for the judgment of its God; cf. Isa 1:3. חסידה, (avis) pia, is the stork, not the heron; see on Lev 11:19. "In the heaven" refers to the flight of the stork. All the birds mentioned here are birds of passage. תּור and סוּס are turtle-dove and pigeon. For סוּס the Masoretes read סיס, apparently to distinguish the word from that for horse; and so the oriental Codd. propose to read in Isa 38:14, although they wrote עגוּר .סוּס is the crane (acc. to Saad. and Rashi), both here and in Isa 38:14, where Gesen., Knob., and others, mistaking the asyndeton, take it as an adjective in the sig. sighing. (Note: Starting from this unproved interpretation of Isa 38:14, and supporting their case from the lxx translation of the present passage, τρυγὼν καὶ χελιδὼν ἀγροῦ στρουθία, Hitz. and Graf argue that עגוּר is not the name of any particular bird, but only a qualifying word to סוּס, in order to distinguish the swallow from the horse, the sense more commonly attached to the same word. But that confused text of the lxx by no means justifies us in supposing that the ו cop. was introduced subsequently into the Heb. text. It is possible that ἁγροῦ is only a corrupt representation of עגוּר, and the στρουθία came into the lxx text in consequence of this corruption. but certainly the fact that the lxx, as also Aquil. and Symm., both here and in Isa 38:14, did not know what to make of the Hebrew word, and so transcribed it in Greek letters, leads us to conclude that these translators permitted themselves to be guided by Isa 38, and omitted here also the copula, which was there omitted before עגוּר. מועדים  are the fixed times for the arrival and departure of the birds of passage.

Jer 8:8

In spite of this heedlessness of the statutes, the judgment of God, they vainly boast in their knowledge and possession of God’s law. Those who said, We are wise, are mainly the priests and false prophets; cf. Jer 8:10, Jer 2:8; Jer 5:31. The wisdom these people claimed for themselves is, as the following clause shows, the knowledge of the law. They prided themselves on possessing the law, from which they conceived themselves to have drawn their wisdom. The second clause, as Hitz. observed, shows that it is the written law that is meant. The law is with us. This is not to be understood merely of the outward possession of it, but the inward, appropriated knowledge, the mastery of the law. The law of Jahveh, recorded in the Pentateuch, teaches not only the bearing towards God due by man, but the bearing of God towards His people. The knowledge of this law begets the wisdom for ruling one’s life, tells how God is to be worshipped, how His favour is to be procured and His anger appeased.

As against all this, Jeremiah declares: Assuredly the lying pen (style) of the scribes hath made it a lie. Ew., Hitz., Graf, translate ספרים, authors, writers; and the two latter of them take עשׂה = labour: "for a lie (or for deception) hath the lying style (pen) of the writers laboured." This transl. is feasible; but it seems simpler to supply 'תּורת יי: hath made it (the law); and there is no good reason for confining סופר to the original composers of works. The words are not to be limited in their reference to the efforts of the false prophets, who spread their delusive prophecies by means of writings: they refer equally to the work of the priests, whose duty it was to train the people in the law, and who, by false teaching as to its demands, led the people astray, seduced them from the way of truth, and deceived them as to the future. The labours both of the false prophets and of the wicked priests consisted not merely in authorship, in composing and circulating writings, but to a very great extent in the oral teaching of the people, partly by prophetic announcements, partly by instruction in the law; only in so far as it was necessary was it their duty to set down in writing and circulate their prophecies and interpretations of the law. But this work by word and writing was founded on the existing written law, the Torah of Moses; just as the true prophets sought to influence the people chiefly by preaching the law to them, by examining their deeds and habits by the rule of the divine will as revealed in the Torah, and by applying to their times the law’s promises and threatenings. For this work with the law, and application of it to life, Jer. uses the expression "style of the Shoferim," because the interpretation of the law, if it was to have valid authority as the rule of life, must be fixed by writing. Yet he did not in this speak only of authors, composers, but meant such as busied themselves about the book of the law, made it the object of their study. But inasmuch as such persons, by false interpretation and application, perverted the truth of the law into a lie, he calls their work the work of the lying style (pen).

Jer 8:9-12

Those who held themselves wise will come to shame, will be dismally disabused of their hopes. When the great calamity comes on the sin-hardened people, they shall be confounded and overwhelmed in ruin (cf. Jer 6:11). They spurn at the word of Jahveh; whose wisdom then have they? None; for the word of the Lord alone is Israel’s wisdom and understanding, Deu 4:6.

The threatening in Jer 8:10 includes not only the wise ones, but the whole people. "Therefore" attaches to the central truth of Jer 8:5 and Jer 8:6, which has been elucidated in Jer 8:7-9. The first half of Jer 8:10 corresponds, in shorter compass, to what has been said in Jer 6:12, and is here continued in Jer 8:10-12 in the same words as in Jer 6:13-15. יורשׁים are those who take possession, make themselves masters of a thing, as in Jer 49:2 and Mic 1:15. This repetition of the three verses is not given in the lxx, and Hitz. therefore proposes to delete them as a supplementary interpolation, holding that they are not only superfluous, but that they interrupt the sense. For he thinks Jer 8:13 connects remarkably well with Jer 8:10, but, taken out of its connection with what precedes as we have it, begins baldly enough. To this Graf has made fitting answer: This passage is in no respect more superfluous or awkward than Jer 6:13.; nor is the connection of Jer 8:13 with Jer 8:10 at all closer than with Jer 8:12. And Hitz., in order to defend the immediate connection between Jer 8:13 and Jer 8:10, sees himself compelled, for the restoration of equilibrium, to delete the middle part of Jer 8:13 (from "no grapes" to "withered") as spurious; for which proceeding there is not the smallest reason, since this passage has neither the character of an explanatory gloss, nor is it a repetition from any place whatever, nor is it awanting in the lxx. Just as little ground is there to argue against the genuineness of the two passages from the variations found in them. Here in Jer 8:10 we have מקּטן  ועד־גּדול instead of the  מקּטנּםof Jer 6:13; but the suffix, which in the latter case pointed to the preceding "inhabitants of the land," was unnecessary here, where there is no such reference. In like manner, the forms הכּלם for הכלים, and עת פּקדּתם for עת־פּקדתּים, are but the more usual forms used by Jeremiah elsewhere. So the omission of the א in ירפּוּ for ירפּאוּ, as coming either from the writer or the copyist, clearly does not make against the genuineness of the verses. And there is the less reason for making any difficulty about the passage, seeing that such repetitions are amongst the peculiarities of Jeremiah’s style: cf. e.g., Jer 7:31-33 with Jer 19:5-7; Jer 10:12-16 with Jer 51:15-19; Jer 15:13-14, with Jer 17:3-4; Jer 16:14-15, with Jer 23:7-8, Jer 23:5-6, with Jer 33:15-16; Jer 23:19-20, with Jer 30:23-24, and other shorter repetitions.

Jer 8:13

The warning of coming punishment, reiterated from a former discourse, is strengthened by the threatening that God will sweep them utterly away, because Judah has become an unfruitful vine and fig-tree. In אסף  we have a combination of אסף, gather, glean, carry away, and הסיף, Niph. of סוּף, make an end, sweep off, so as to heighten the sense, as in Zep 1:1. - a passage which was doubtless in the prophet’s mind: wholly will I sweep them away. The circumstantial clauses: no grapes - and the leaves are withered, show the cause of the threatening: The people is become an unfruitful vine and fig-tree, whose leaves are withered. Israel was a vineyard the Lord had planted with noble vines, but which brought forth sour grapes, Jer 2:21; Isa 5:2. In keeping with this figure, Israel is thought of as a vine on which are no grapes. With this is joined the like figure of a fig-tree, to which Micah in Mic 7:1 makes allusion, and which is applied by Christ to the degenerate race of His own time in His symbolical act of cursing the fig-tree (Mat 21:19). To exhaust the thought that Judah is ripe for judgment, it is further added that the leaves are withered. The tree whose leaves are withered, is near being parched throughout. Such a tree was the people of Judah, fallen away from its God, spurning at the law of the Lord; in contrast with which, the man who trusts in the Lord, and has delight in the law of the Lord, is like the tree planted by the water, whose leaves are ever green, and which bringeth forth fruit in his season, Jer 17:8; Psa 1:1-3. Ros. and Mov. are quite wrong in following the Chald., and in taking the circumstantial clauses as a description of the future; Mov. even proceeds to change אסף אסיפם into אסף  . The interpretation of the last clause is a disputed point. Ew., following the old translators (Chald., Syr., Aq., Symm., Vulg.; in the lxx they are omitted), understands the words of the transgression of the commands of God, which they seem to have received only in order to break them. ואתּן seems to tell in favour of this, and it may be taken as praeter. with the translation: and I gave to them that which they transgress. But unless we are to admit that the idea thus obtained stands quite abruptly, we must follow the Chald., and take it as the reason of what precedes: They are become an unfruitful tree with faded leaves, because they have transgressed my law which I gave them. But ואתּן with ו consec. goes directly against this construction. Of less weight is the other objection against this view, that the plural suffix in יעברוּם has no suitable antecedent; for there could be no difficulty in supplying "judgments" (cf. Jer 8:8). But the abrupt appearance of the thought, wholly unlooked for here, is sufficient to exclude that interpretation. We therefore prefer the other interpretation, given with various modifications by Ven., Rose., and Maur., and translate: so I appoint unto them those that shall pass over them. The imperf. c. ו consec. attaches itself to the circumstantial clauses, and introduces the resulting consequence; it is therefore to be expressed in English by the present, not by the praeter.: therefore I gave them (Näg.). נתן in the general sig. appoint, and the second verb with the pron. rel. omitted: illos qui eos invadent. עבר, to overrun a country or people, of a hostile army swarming over it, as e.g., Isa 8:8; Isa 28:15. For the construction c. accus. cf. Jer 23:9; Jer 5:22. Hitz.'s and Graf’s mode of construction is forced: I deliver them up to them (to those) who pass over them; for then we must not only supply an object to אתּן, but adopt the unusual arrangement by which the pronoun להם is made to stand before the words that explain it.

Jer 8:14-22 The horrors of the approaching visitation. - Jer 8:14. "Why do we sit still? Assemble yourselves, and let us go into the defenced cities, and perish there; for Jahveh our God hath decreed our ruin, and given us water of gall to drink, because we have sinned against Jahveh. Jer 8:15. We looked for safety, and there is no good; for a time of healing, and behold terrors. Jer 8:16. From Dan is heard the snorting of his horses; at the loud neighing of his steeds the whole earth trembles: they come, and devour the land and its fulness, the city and those that dwell therein. Jer 8:17. For, behold, I send among you serpents, vipers, of which there is no charming, which shall sting you, saith Jahve. Jer 8:18. Oh my comfort in sorrow, in me my heart grows too sock. Jer 8:19. Behold, loud sounds the cry of the daughter from out of a far country: 'Is Jahveh not in Zion, nor her King in her?' Why provoked they me with their images, with vanities of a foreign land? Jer 8:20. Past is the harvest, ended is the fruit-gathering, and we are not saved. Jer 8:21. For the breaking of the daughter of my people am I broken, am in mourning; horror hath taken hold on me. Jer 8:22. Is there no balm in Gilead, or no physician there? why then is no plaister laid upon the daughter of my people? V. 23.Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears! then would I weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people."

In spirit the prophet sees the enemy forcing his way into the country, and the inhabitants fleeing into the fortified cities. This he represents to his hearers with graphic and dramatic effect. In Jer 8:14 the citizens of Judah are made to speak, calling on one another to flee and give up hope of being saved. "Why do we sit still?" i.e., remain calmly where we are? We will withdraw into the strong cities (cf. Jer 4:5), and perish there by famine and disease (נדּמה for נדּמּה, imperf. Niph., from דּמם: cf. Gesen. §67, 5, Rem. 11; in Niph. be destroyed, perish). The fortresses cannot save them from ruin, since they will be besieged and taken by the enemy. For our sin against Him, God has decreed our ruin. The Hiph. from דמם, prop. put to silence, bring to ruin, here with the force of a decree. מי ראשׁ, bitter waters; ראשׁ or רושׁ, Deu 32:32, is a plant with a very bitter taste, and so, since bitterness and poison were to the Jews closely connected, a poisonous plant; see on Deu 29:17. So they call the bitter suffering from the ruin at hand which they must undergo. Cf. the similar figure of the cup of the anger of Jahveh, Jer 25:15.

Indignities Threatened to the Dead. (b. c. 606.)

1 At that time, saith the Lord , they shall bring out the bones of the kings of Judah, and the bones of his princes, and the bones of the priests, and the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, out of their graves: 2 And they shall spread them before the sun, and the moon, and all the host of heaven, whom they have loved, and whom they have served, and after whom they have walked, and whom they have sought, and whom they have worshipped: they shall not be gathered, nor be buried; they shall be for dung upon the face of the earth. 3 And death shall be chosen rather than life by all the residue of them that remain of this evil family, which remain in all the places whither I have driven them, saith the Lord of hosts.

These verses might fitly have been joined to the close of the foregoing chapter, as giving a further description of the dreadful desolation which the army of the Chaldeans should make in the land. It shall strangely alter the property of death itself, and for the worse too.

I. Death shall not now be, as it always used to be—the repose of the dead. When Job makes his court to the grave it is in hope of this, that there he shall rest with kings and counsellors of the earth; but now the ashes of the dead, even of kings and princes, shall be disturbed, and their bones scattered at the grave's mouth, Ps. cxli. 7. It was threatened in the close of the former chapter that the slain should be unburied; that might be through neglect, and was not so strange; but here we find the graves of those that were buried industriously and maliciously opened by the victorious enemy, who either for covetousness, hoping to find treasure in the graves, or for spite to the nation and in a rage against it, brought out the bones of the kings of Judah and the princes. The dignity of their sepulchres could not secure them, nay, did the more expose them to be rifled; but it was base and barbarous thus to trample upon royal dust. We will hope that the bones of good Josiah were not disturbed, because he piously protected the bones of the man of God when he burnt the bones of the idolatrous priests, 2 Kings xxiii. 18. The bones of the priests and prophets too were digged up and thrown about. Some think the false prophets and the idol-priests, God putting this mark of ignominy upon them: but, if they were God's prophets and his priests, it is what the Psalmist complains of as the fruit of the outrage of the enemies, Ps. lxxix. 1, 2. Nay, those of the spiteful Chaldeans that could not reach to violate the sepulchres of princes and priests would rather play at small game than sit out, and therefore pulled the bones of the ordinary inhabitants of Jerusalem out of their graves. The barbarous nations were sometimes guilty of these absurd and inhuman triumphs over those they had conquered, and God permitted it here, for a mark of his displeasure against the generation of his wrath, and for terror to those that survived. The bones, being dug out of the graves, were spread abroad upon the face of the earth in contempt, and to make the reproach the more spreading and lasting. They spread them to be dried that they might carry them about in triumph, or might make fuel of them, or make some superstitious use of them. They shall be spread before the sun (for they shall not be ashamed openly to avow the fact at noon day) and before the moon and stars, even all the host of heaven, whom they have made idols of, v. 2. From the mention of the sun, moon, and stars, which should be the unconcerned spectators of this tragedy, the prophet takes occasion to show how they had idolized them, and paid those respects to them which they should have paid to God only, that it might be observed how little they got by worshipping the creature, for the creatures they worshipped when they were in distress saw it, but regarded it not, nor gave them any relief, but were rather pleased to see those abused in being vilified by whom they had been abused in being deified. See how their respects to their idols are enumerated, to show how we ought to behave towards our God. 1. They loved them. As amiable being and bountiful benefactors they esteemed them and delighted in them, and therefore did all that follows. 2. They served them, did all they could in honour of them, and thought nothing too much; they conformed to all the laws of their superstition, without disputing. 3. They walked after them, strove to imitate and resemble them, according to the characters and accounts of them they had received, which gave rise and countenance to much of the abominable wickedness of the heathen. 4. They sought them, consulted them as oracles, appealed to them as judges, implored their favour, and prayed to them as their benefactors. 5. They worshipped them, gave them divine honour, as having a sovereign dominion over them. Before these light of heaven, which they had courted, shall their dead bodies be cast, and left to putrefy, and to be as dung upon the face of the earth; and the sun's shining upon them will but make them the more noisome and offensive. Whatever we make a god of but the true God only, it will stand us in no stead on the other side death and the grave, nor for the body, much less for the soul.

II. Death shall now be what it never used to be—the choice of the living, not because there appears in it any thing delightsome; on the contrary, death never appeared in more horrid frightful shapes than now, when they cannot promise themselves either a comfortable death or a human burial; and yet every thing in this world shall become so irksome, and all the prospects so black and dismal, that death shall be chosen rather than life (v. 3), not in a believing hope of happiness in the other life, but in an utter despair of any ease in this life. The nation is now reduced to a family, so small is the residue of those that remain in it; and it is an evil family, still as bad as ever, their hearts unhumbled and their lusts unmortified. These remain alive (and that is all) in the many places whither they were driven by the judgments of God, some prisoners in the country of their enemies, others beggars in their neighbour's country, and others fugitives and vagabonds there and in their own country. And, though those that died died very miserably, yet those that survived and were thus driven out should live yet more miserably, so that they should choose death rather than life, and wish a thousand times that they had fallen with those that fell by the sword. Let this cure us of the inordinate love of life, that the case may be such that it may become a burden and terror, and we may be strongly tempted to choose strangling and death rather.

Full of Impenitent Sinners; Hardened Wickedness of Judah. (b. c. 606.)

4 Moreover thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the Lord ; Shall they fall, and not arise? shall he turn away, and not return? 5 Why then is this people of Jerusalem slidden back by a perpetual backsliding? they hold fast deceit, they refuse to return. 6 I hearkened and heard, but they spake not aright: no man repented him of his wickedness, saying, What have I done? every one turned to his course, as the horse rusheth into the battle. 7 Yea, the stork in the heaven knoweth her appointed times; and the turtle and the crane and the swallow observe the time of their coming; but my people know not the judgment of the Lord . 8 How do ye say, We are wise, and the law of the Lord is with us? Lo, certainly in vain made he it; the pen of the scribes is in vain. 9 The wise men are ashamed, they are dismayed and taken: lo, they have rejected the word of the Lord ; and what wisdom is in them? 10 Therefore will I give their wives unto others, and their fields to them that shall inherit them: for every one from the least even unto the greatest is given to covetousness, from the prophet even unto the priest every one dealeth falsely. 11 For they have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace. 12 Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore shall they fall among them that fall: in the time of their visitation they shall be cast down, saith the Lord .

The prophet here is instructed to set before this people the folly of their impenitence, which was it that brought this ruin upon them. They are here represented as the most stupid senseless people in the world, that would not be made wise by all the methods that Infinite Wisdom took to bring them to themselves and their right mind, and so to prevent the ruin that was coming upon them.

I. They would not attend to the dictates of reason. They would not act in the affairs of their souls with the same common prudence with which they acted in other things. Sinners would become saints if they would but show themselves men, and religion would soon rule them if right reason might. Observe it here. Come, and let us reason together, saith the Lord (v. 4, 5): Shall men fall and not arise? If men happen to fall to the ground, to fall into the dirt, will they not get up again as fast as they can? They are not such fools as to lie still when they are down. Shall a man turn aside out of the right way? Yes, the most careful traveller may miss his way; but then, as soon as he is aware of it, will he not return? Yes, certainly he will, with all speed, and will thank him that showed him his mistake. Thus men do in other things. Why then has this people of Jerusalem slidden back by a perpetual backsliding? Why do not they, when they have fallen into sin, hasten to get up again by repentance? Why do not they, when they see they have missed their way, correct their error and reform? No man in his wits will go on in a way that he knows will never bring him to his journey's end; why then has this people slidden back by a perpetual backsliding? See the nature of sin—it is a backsliding it is going back from the right way, not only into a by-path, but into a contrary path, back from the way that leads to life to that which leads to utter destruction. And this backsliding, if almighty grace do not interpose to prevent it, will be a perpetual backsliding. The sinner not only wanders endlessly, but proceeds end-ways towards ruin. The same subtlety of the tempter that brings men to sin holds them fast in it, and they contribute to their own captivity: They hold fast deceit. Sin is a great cheat, and they hold it fast; they love it dearly, and resolve to stick to it, and baffle all the methods God takes to separate between them and their sins. The excuses they make for their sins are deceits, and so are all their hopes of impunity; yet they hold fast these, and will not be undeceived, and therefore they refuse to return. Note, There is some deceit or other which those hold fast that go on wilfully in sinful ways, some lie in their right hand, by which they keep hold of their sins.

II. They would not attend to the dictates of conscience, which is our reason reflecting upon ourselves and our own actions, v. 6. Observe, 1. What expectations there were from them, that they would bethink themselves: I hearkened and heard. The prophet listened to see what effect his preaching had upon them; God himself listened, as one that desires not the death of sinners, that would have been glad to hear any thing that promised repentance, that would certainly have heard it if there had been any thing said of that tendency, and would soon have answered it with comfort, as he did David when he said, I will confess, Ps. xxxii. 5. God looks upon men when they have done amiss (Job xxxiii. 27), to see what they will do next; he hearkens and hears. 2. How these expectations were disappointed: They spoke not aright, as I thought they would have done. They did not only not do right, but not so much as speak right; God could not get a good word from them, nothing on which to ground any favour to them or hopes concerning them. There was none of them that spoke aright, none that repented him of his wickedness. those that have sinned then, and then only, speak aright when they speak of repenting; and it is sad when those that have made so much work for repentance do not say a word of repenting. Not only did God not find any repenting of the national wickedness, which might have helped to empty the measure of public guilt, but none repented of that particular wickedness which he knew himself guilty of. (1.) They did not so much as take the first step towards repentance; they did not so much as say, What have I done? There was no motion towards it, not the least sign or token of it. Note, True repentance beings in a serious and impartial inquiry into ourselves, what have we done, arising from a conviction that we have done amiss. (2.) They were so far from repenting of their sins that they went on resolutely in their sins: Every one turned to his course, his wicked course, that course of sin which he had chosen and accustomed himself to, as the horse rushes into the battle, eager upon action, and scorning to be curbed. How the horse rushes into the battle is elegantly described, Job xxxix. 21, &c. He mocks at fear and is not affrighted. Thus the daring sinner laughs at the threatenings of the word as bugbears, and runs violently upon the instruments of death and slaughter, and nothing will be restrained from him.

III. They would not attend to the dictates of providence, nor understand the voice of God in them, v. 7. It is an instance of their sottishness that, though they are God's people, and therefore should readily understand his mind upon every intimation of it, yet they know not the judgment of the Lord; they apprehend not the meaning either of a mercy or an affliction, not how to accommodate themselves to either, nor to answer God's intention in either. They know not how to improve the seasons of grave that God affords them when he sends them his prophets, nor how to make use of the rebukes they are under when his voice cries in the city. They discern not the signs of the times (Matt. xvi. 3), nor are aware how God is dealing with them. They know not that way of duty which God had prescribed them, though it be written both in their hearts and in their books. 2. It is an aggravation of their sottishness that there is so much sagacity in the inferior creatures. The stork in the heaven knows her appointed times of coming and continuing; so do other season-birds, the turtle, the crane, and the swallow. These by a natural instinct change their quarters, as the temper of the air alters; they come when the spring comes, and go, we know not whither, when the winter approaches, probably into warmer climates, as some birds come with winter and go when that is over.

IV. They would not attend to the dictates of the written word. They say, We are wise; but how can they say so? v. 8. With what face can they pretend to any thing of wisdom, when they do not understand themselves so well as the brute-creatures? Why, truly, they think they are wise because the law of the Lord is with them, the book of the law and the interpreters of it; and their neighbours, for the same reason, conclude they are wise, Deut. iv. 6. But their pretensions are groundless for all this: Lo, certainly in vain made he it; surely never any people had Bibles to so little purpose as they have. They might as well have been without the law, unless they had made a better use of it. God has indeed made it able to make men wise to salvation, but as to them it is made so in vain, for they are never the wiser for it: The pen of the scribes, of those that first wrote the law and of those that now write expositions of it, is in vain. Both the favour of their God and the labour of their scribes are lost upon them; they receive the grace of God therein in vain. Note, There are many that enjoy abundance of the means of grace, that have great plenty of Bibles and ministers, but they have them in vain; they do not answer the end of their having them. But it might be said, They have some wise men among them, to whom the law and the pen of the scribes are not in vain. To this it is answered (v. 9): The wise men are ashamed, that is, they have reasons to be so, that they have not made a better use of their wisdom, and lived more up to it. They are confounded and taken; all their wisdom has not served to keep them from those courses that tend to their ruin. They are taken in the same snares that others of their neighbours, who have not pretended to so much wisdom, are taken in, and filled with the same confusion. Those that have more knowledge than others, and yet do no better than others for their own souls, have reason to be ashamed. They talk of their wisdom, but, Lo, they have rejected the word of the Lord; they would not be governed by it, would not follow its direction, would not do what they knew; and then what wisdom is in them? None to any purpose; none that will be found to their praise at the great day, how much soever it is found to their pride now. The pretenders to wisdom, who said, "We are wise and the law of the Lord is with us," were the priests and the false prophets; with them the prophet here deals plainly. 1. He threatens the judgments of God against them. Their families and estates shall be ruined (v. 10): Their wives shall be given to others, when they are taken captives, and their fields shall be taken from them by their victorious enemy and shall be given to those that shall inherit them, not only strip them for once, but take possession of them as their own and acquire a property in them as their own and acquire a property in them, which they shall transmit to their posterity. And (v. 12), notwithstanding all their pretensions to wisdom and sanctity, they shall fall among those that fall; for, if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall together into the ditch. In the time of their visitation, when the wickedness of the land comes to be enquired into, it will be found that they have contributed to it more than any, and therefore they shall be sure to be cast down and cast out. 2. He gives a reason for these judgments (v. 10-12), even the same account of their badness which we meet with before (ch. vi. 13-15), where it was opened at large. (1.) They were greedy of the wealth of this world, which is bad enough in any, but worst in prophets and priests, who should be best acquainted with another world and therefore should be most dead to this. But these, from the least to the greatest, were given to covetousness. The priests teach for hire and the prophets divine for money, Mic. iii. 11. (2.) They made no conscience of speaking truth, no, not when they spoke as priests and prophets: Every one deals falsely, looks one way and rows another. There is no such thing as sincerity among them. (3.) They flattered people in their sins, and so flattered them into destruction. They pretended to be the physicians of the state, but knew not how to apply proper remedies to its growing maladies; they healed them slightly, killed the patient with palliative cures, silencing their fears and complaints with, "Peace, peace, all is well, and there is no danger," when the God of heaven was proceeding in his controversy with them, so that there could be no peace to them. (4.) When it was made to appear how basely they prevaricated they were not at all ashamed of it, but rather gloried in it, (v. 12): They could not blush, so perfectly lost were they to all sense of virtue and honour. When they were convicted of the grossest forgeries they would justify what they had done, and laugh at those whom they had imposed upon. Such as these were ripe for ruin.

Destruction Threatened for Sin; Despair of Sinners in Trouble; The Prophet's Lamentation. (b. c.  606.)

13 I will surely consume them, saith the Lord : there shall be no grapes on the vine, nor figs on the fig tree, and the leaf shall fade; and the things that I have given them shall pass away from them. 14 Why do we sit still? assemble yourselves, and let us enter into the defenced cities, and let us be silent there: for the Lord our God hath put us to silence, and given us water of gall to drink, because we have sinned against the Lord . 15 We looked for peace, but no good came; and for a time of health, and behold trouble! 16 The snorting of his horses was heard from Dan: the whole land trembled at the sound of the neighing of his strong ones; for they are come, and have devoured the land, and all that is in it; the city, and those that dwell therein. 17 For, behold, I will send serpents, cockatrices, among you, which will not be charmed, and they shall bite you, saith the Lord . 18 When I would comfort myself against sorrow, my heart is faint in me. 19 Behold the voice of the cry of the daughter of my people because of them that dwell in a far country: Is not the Lord in Zion? is not her king in her? Why have they provoked me to anger with their graven images, and with strange vanities? 20 The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved. 21 For the hurt of the daughter of my people am I hurt; I am black; astonishment hath taken hold on me. 22 Is there no balm in Gilead; is there no physician there? why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered?

In these verses we have,

I. God threatening the destruction of a sinful people. He has borne long with them, but they are still more and more provoking, and therefore now their ruin is resolved on: I will surely consume them (v. 13), consuming I will consume them, not only surely, but utterly, consume them, will follow them with one judgment after another, till they are quite consumed; it is a consumption determined, Isa. x. 23. 1. They shall be quite stripped of all their comforts (v. 13): There shall be no grapes on the vine. Some understand this as intimating their sin; God came looking for grapes from this vineyard, seeking fruit upon this fig-tree, but he found none (as Isa. v. 2, Luke xiii. 6); nay, they had not so much as leaves, Matt. xxi. 19. But it is rather to be understood of God's judgments upon them, and may be meant literally—The enemy shall seize the fruits of the earth, shall pluck the grapes and figs for themselves and beat down the very leaves with them; or, rather, figuratively—They shall be deprived of all their comforts and shall have nothing left them wherewith to make glad their hearts. It is expounded in the last clause: The things that I have given them shall pass away from them. Note, God's gifts are upon condition, and revocable upon non-performance of the condition. Mercies abused are forfeited, and it is just with God to take the forfeiture. 2. They shall be set upon by all manner of grievances, and surrounded with calamities (v. 17): I will send serpents among you, the Chaldean army, fiery serpents, flying serpents, cockatrices; these shall bite them with their venomous teeth, give them wounds that shall be mortal; and they shall not be charmed, as some serpents used to be, with music. These are serpents of another nature, that are not so wrought upon, or they are as the deaf adder, that stops her ear, and will not hear the voice of the charmer. The enemies are so intent upon making slaughter that it will be to no purpose to accost them gently, or offer any thing to pacify them, or mollify them, or to bring them to a better temper. No peace with God, therefore none with them.

II. The people sinking into despair under the pressure of those calamities. Those that were void of fear (when the trouble was at a distance) and set it at defiance, are void of hope now that it breaks in upon them, and have no heart either to make head against it or to bear up under it, v. 14. They cannot think themselves safe in the open villages: Why do we sit still here? Let us assemble, and go into a body into the defenced cities. Though they could expect no other than to be surely cut off there at last, yet not so soon as in the country, and therefore, "Let us go, and be silent there; let us attempt nothing, nor so much as make a complaint; for to what purpose?" It is not a submissive, but a sullen silence, that they here condemn themselves to. Those that are most jovial in their prosperity commonly despond most, and are most melancholy, in trouble. Now observe what it is that sinks them.

1. They are sensible that God is angry with them: "The Lord our God has put us to silence, has struck us with astonishment, and given us water of gall to drink, which is both bitter and stupifying, or intoxicating. Ps. lx. 3, Thou hast made us to drink the wine of astonishment. We had better sit still than rise up and fall; better say nothing than say nothing to the purpose. To what purpose is it to contend with our fate when God himself has become our enemy and fights against us? Because we have sinned against the Lord, therefore we are brought to the plunge." This may be taken as the language, (1.) Of their indignation. They seem to quarrel with God as if he had dealt hardly with them in putting them to silence, not permitting them to speak for themselves, and then telling them that it was because they had sinned against him. Thus men's foolishness perverts their way, and then their hearts fret against the Lord. Or rather, (2.) Of their convictions. At length they begin to see the hand of God lifted up against them, and stretched out in the calamities under which they are now groaning, and to own that they have provoked him to contend with them. Note, Sooner or later God will bring the most obstinate to acknowledge both his providence and his justice in all the troubles they are brought into, to see and say both that it is his hand and that he is righteous.

2. They are sensible that the enemy is likely to be too hard for them, v. 16. They are soon apprehensive that it is to no purpose to make head against such a mighty force; they and their people are quite dispirited; and, when the courage of a nation is gone, their numbers will stand them in little stead. The snorting of the horses was heard from Dan, that is, the report of the formidable strength of their cavalry was soon carried all the nation over and every body trembled at the sound of the neighing of his steeds; for they have devoured the land and all that is in the city; both town and country are laid waste before them, not only the wealth, but the inhabitants, of both, those that dwell therein. Note, When God appears against us, every thing else that is against us appears very formidable; whereas, if he be for us, every thing appears very despicable, Rom. viii. 3.

3. They are disappointed in their expectations of deliverance out of their troubles, as they had been surprised when their troubles came upon them; and this double disappointment very much aggravated their calamity. (1.) The trouble came when they little expected it (v. 15): We looked for peace, the continuance of our peace, but no good came, no good news from abroad; we looked for a time of health and prosperity to our nation, but, behold, trouble, the alarms of war; for, as it follows (v. 16), the noise of the enemies' horses was heard from Dan. Their false prophets had cried Peace, peace, to them, which made it the more terrible when the scene of war opened on a sudden. This complaint will occur again, ch. xiv. 19. (2.) The deliverance did not come when they had long expected it (v. 20): The harvest is past, the summer is ended; that is, there is a great deal of time gone. Harvest and summer are parts of the year, and when they are gone the year draws towards a conclusion; so the meaning is, "One year passes after another, one campaign after another, and yet our affairs are in as bad a posture as ever they were; no relief comes, nor is any thing done towards it: We are not saved." Nay, there is a great deal of opportunity lost, the season of action is over and slipped, the summer and harvest are gone, and a cold and melancholy winter succeeds. Note, The salvation of God's church and people often goes on very slowly, and God keeps his people long in the expectation of it, for wise and holy ends. Nay, they stand in their own light, and put a bar in their own door, and are not saved because they are not ready for salvation.

4. They are deceived in those things which were their confidence and which they thought would have secured their peace to them (v. 19): The daughter of my people cries, cries aloud, because of those that dwell in a far country, because of the foreign enemy that invades them, that comes from a far country to take possession of ours; this occasions the cry; and what is the cry? It is this: Is not the Lord in Zion? Is not her king in her? These were the two things that they had all along buoyed up themselves with and depended upon, (1.) That they had among them the temple of God, and the tokens of his special presence with them. The common cant was, "Is not the Lord in Zion? What danger then need we fear?" And they held by this when the trouble was breaking in upon them. "Surely we shall do well enough, for have we not God among us?" But, when it grew to an extremity, it was an aggravation of their misery that they had thus flattered themselves. (2.) That they had the throne of the house of David. As they had a temple, so they had a monarchy, jure divino—by divine right: Is not Zion's king in her? And will not Zion's God protect Zion's king and his kingdom? Surely he will; but why does he not? "What" (say they) "has Zion neither a God nor a king to stand by her and help her, that she is thus run down and likely to be ruined?" This outcry of theirs reflects upon God, as if his power and promise were broken or weakened; and therefore he returns an answer to it immediately: Why have they provoked me to anger with their graven images? They quarrel with God as if he had dealt unkindly by them in forsaking them, whereas they by their idolatry had driven him from them; they have withdrawn from their allegiance to him, and so have thrown themselves out of this protection. They fret themselves, and curse their king and their God (Isa. viii. 21), when it is their own sin that separates between them and God (Isa. lix. 2); they feared not the Lord, and then what can a king do for them? Hos. x. 3.

III. We have here the prophet himself bewailing the calamity and ruin of his people; for there were more of the lamentations of Jeremiah than those we find in the book that bears that title. Observe here, 1. How great his griefs were. He was an eyewitness of the desolations of his country, and saw those things which by the spirit of prophecy he had foreseen. In the foresight, much more in the sight, of them, he cries out, "My heart is faint in me, I sink, I die away at the consideration of it, v. 18. When I would comfort myself against my sorrow, I do but labour in vain; nay, every attempt to alleviate the grief does but aggravate it." It is our wisdom and duty, under mournful events, to do what we can to comfort ourselves against our sorrow, by suggesting to ourselves such considerations as are proper to allay the grief and balance the grievance. But sometimes the sorrow is such that the more it is repressed the more strongly it recoils. This may sometimes be the case of very good men, as of the prophet here, whose soul refused to be comforted and fainted at the cordial, Ps. lxxvii. 2, 3. He tells us (v. 21) what was the matter: "It is for the hurt of the daughter of my people that I am thus hurt; it is for their sin, and the miseries they have brought upon themselves by it; it is for this that I am black, that I look black, that I go in black as mourners do, and that astonishment has taken hold on me, so that I know not what to do nor which way to turn." Note, The miseries of our country ought to be very much the grief of our souls. A gracious spirit will be a public spirit, a tender spirit, a mourning spirit. It becomes us to lament the miseries of our fellow-creatures, much more to lay to heart the calamities of our country, and especially of the church of God, to grieve for the affliction of Joseph. Jeremiah had prophesied the destruction of Jerusalem, and, though the truth of his prophecy was questioned, yet he did not rejoice in the proof of the truth of his prophecy was questioned, yet he did not rejoice in the proof of the truth of it by the accomplishment of it, preferring the welfare of his country before his own reputation. If Jerusalem had repented and been spared, he would have been far from fretting as Jonah did. Jeremiah had many enemies in Judah and Jerusalem, that hated, and reproached, and persecuted him; and in the judgments brought upon them God reckoned with them for it and pleaded his prophet's cause; yet he was far from rejoicing in it, so truly did he forgive his enemies and desire that God would forgive them. 2. How small his hopes were (v. 22): "Is there no balm in Gilead—no medicine proper for a sick and dying kingdom? Is there no physician there—no skilful faithful hand to apply the medicine?" He looks upon the case to be deplorable and past relief. There is no balm in Gilead that can cure the disease of sin, no physician there that can restore the health of a nation quite overrun by such a foreign army as that of the Chaldeans. The desolations made are irreparable, and the disease has presently come to such a height that there is no checking it. Or this verse may be understood as laying all the blame of the incurableness of their disease upon themselves; and so the question must be answered affirmatively: Is there no balm in Gilead—no physician there? Yes, certainly there is; God is able to help and heal them, there is a sufficiency in him to redress all their grievances. Gilead was a place in their own land, not far off. They had among themselves God's law and his prophets, with the help of which they might have been brought to repentance, and their ruin might have been prevented. They had princes and priests, whose business it was to reform the nation and redress their grievances. What could have been done more than had been done for their recovery? Why then was not their health restored? Certainly it was not owing to God, but to themselves; it was not for want of balm and a physician, but because they would not admit the application nor submit to the methods of cure. The physician and physic were both ready, but the patient was wilful and irregular, would not be tied to rules, but must be humoured. Note, If sinners die of their wounds, their blood is upon their own heads. The blood of Christ is balm in Gilead, his Spirit is the physician there, both sufficient, all-sufficient, so that they might have been healed, but would not.

CHAP. VIII.

Ver. 1. AT that time they ſhall bring out the bones] They ſhall not ſuffer the dead to reſt in their graves, Maximè propter ornamenta in ſepulchris condita, chiefly for the treaſure, the Chaldees ſhall there look for: See 2 Chron. 36.19. Neh. 2.3. Joſeph Antiq. lib. 13. chap. 15. Baruch 2.24. For extremity of deſpite alſo, A. D. 897. dead mens bones have been digged up. Pope Formoſus was ſo dealt with by his ſucceſſour Stephanus the ſixth: and many of the holy Martyrs, by their barbarous perſecutors.Act. & Mon. 1905. Ibid. 1784. Cardinal Paol had a purpoſe to have taken up King Henry the eighths body at Windſor, and to have burned it, but was prevented by death. Charles 5. would not violate Luthers grave, though he were ſolicited ſo to do, when he had conquered Saxony. But if he had, it had been never the worſe with Luther: who being asked where he would reſt? anſwered ſub caelo: Caelo tegitur qui caret urnâ. Of all foule, we moſt hate and deteſt the crows: and of all beaſts, the Jackalls (a kind of foxes in Barbary) becauſe the one digs up the graves and devours the fleſh, the other picketh out the eyes of the dead.

Ver. 2. And they ſhall ſpread them before the Sun] Whom theſe Idolaters had worſhipped whiles they were alive, and thought they could never do enough for, as is hinted by thoſe many expreſſions in the text.

Whom they have loved, and whom they have ſerved, &c.] Innuitur poena talionis, ſaith Piſcator: their dead bodies ſhall lye unburied in the ſight of theſe their deities, who could do them no good either alive or dead.

Ver. 3. And death ſhall be choſen rather then life] They being captives and ſorely oppreſſed, ſhall ſing that doleful ditty, — O terque quaterque b[illegible: 1 letter]ati, Queis ante ora patrum Solymae ſub moenibus altis Contigit oppetere.— Oh how happy were they that periſhed,Vae victis. during the ſiege, or in the ſurpriſal of the City! Life indeed is ſweet, as we ſay: and man is a life-loving creature, ſaid that heathen: but it may fall out that life ſhall be a burden, and a bitterneſſe: how oft doth Job unwiſh it? and how fain would Eliah have been rid of it? ſo little cauſe is there that any good man ſhould be either fond of life, or afraid of death.

Ver. 4. Shall they fall and not ariſe?] Or, when men fall, will they not ariſe]? Or, will not one that hath turned aſide, return? To fall, may befall any man: but ſhall he lye there, and not aſſay to get up again? to loſe his way may be incident to the wiſeſt: but who but a fool would not make haſte to get into the right way again? Errare humanum eſt: perſeverare, diabolicum. And yet theſe ſtubborn Jews refuſe to riſe or return.

Ver. 5. Why then is this people of Jeruſalem, &c.] Why elſe but becauſe they are voyd of all true reaſon, and quite beſide themſelves in point of ſalvation? their pertinacy or rather pervicacy in ſinning is altogether inſuperable. Monoceres interimi poteſt, capi non poteſt.

They hold faſt deceit] They hold cloſe to their falſe Prophets, or rather a falſe heart of their own hath deceived them, as ver. 11. a deceived heart hath turned them aſide, as Eſa. 44.20. See there.

Ver. 6. I hearkened and heard] Or, I have liſtened to hear; but could not yet hear them liſp out one ſyllable of ſavoury language.

No man repented of his wickedneſſe] No nor ſo much as reflected, or turned ſhort again upon himſelf to take a reveiw of his former evil practices: which yet is the very firſt thing in repentance, 2 Chron. 6.37. Luk. 15.17.

Saying, What have I done] The Pythagoreans once a day put this queſtion to themſelves. And the Oratour thus beſpoke his adverſary Nevius, Si haec duo tecum verba reputaſſes Quid ago? reſpiraſſet cupiditas & avaritia paululum: Cicero orat. pro Quintio. that is, hadſt thou but ſaid thoſe two words to thy ſelf, What do I? thy luſt and covetouſneſs would thereby have been cooled and qualified.

Every one turned to his courſe as a horſe ruſheth] Heb. ruſheth with as much violence as an overflowing flood. Hinc apparet fructus liberi arbitrii, ſaith Oecolampadius: See here the fruit of free-will, and what man will do being left to himſelf. Carnal affections are forcible and furious: Plato himſelf ſaw, and could ſay as much,In Phad[illegible: 1 letter]o. when he compared concupiſcence to an headſtrong horſe, that runneth away with his rider, and cannot be ruled.

Ver. 7. Yea, the ſtork in the heaven knoweth her appointed time] Theſe fouls, though wanting reaſon, know well when to change quarters: whether againſt ſummer as the ſtork, turtle and ſwallow; or againſt winter as the crane.

But my people know not the judgement of the Lord] Whether his ſummer of grace offered, or his winter of puniſhment threatened; to embrace the one, or to prevent the other. See a like diſſimilitude and oppoſition, Iſa. 1.3.

Ver. 8. How do ye ſay We are wiſe?] If ye were ſo, ye would never ſay ſo. Surely I am more brutiſh then any man, ſaid holy Agur, Prov. 30.2. This only I know that I know nothing, ſaid Socrates. Neither know I ſo much as this that I know juſt nothing, ſaid a third. How could theſe in the text ſay, We are wiſe, when the fouls of the ayr outwitted them? confer, Job 35.11.

The Law of the Lord is with us] Vox eſt Phariſaeorum. So the Jeſuites at this day (as of old the Gnoſticks) will needs be held the only knowing men. The Empire of learning belongeth to the Jeſuites, ſay they: a Jeſuite cannot be an heretick; Caſaub. ex Apologiſta. Jungantur in unum, dies cum nocte, lux cum tenebris, &c. i. e. Let day and night be jumbled together, light and darkneſs, heat and cold, health and ſickneſs, life and death; ſo may there be ſome likelihood that a Jeſuite may be an heretick, ſaith one of them. The Church is the ſoul of the world, the Clergy of the Church; and we, of the Clergy, ſaith another.

Lo certainly in vain made he it] i. e. The Law, for any good uſe, that this people or their leaders put it to. See Hoſ. 8.12. Rom. 2.17,—25.

Ver. 9. The wiſe men are aſhamed] They have cauſe to be aſhamed of their groſſe ignorance and folly, ver. 7, 8. and greater cauſe then ever humble Auſtin had to ſay Scientia mea me damnat, my knowledge undoeth me.

Lo they have rejected the word of the Lord] As to any holy practice: their knowledge is only Apprehenſive and notional, not Affective and practical.

And what wiſdom is in them] q d. None worth ſpeaking of: they loſe their civil praiſes, becauſe not wiſe to ſalvation.

Ver. 10. Therefore will I give their wives] For a puniſhment of their rejecting my Word, which ought to be received with all reverence and good affection.Dilher. Elect. lib. 1. cap. 2. The Turkes do ſo highly reſpect the Alchoran (which is their Bible) that if a Chriſtian do but ſit upon it though unwittingly, they preſently put him to death.

For every one, &c.] See chap. 6.13.

Ver. 11. For they have healed] See chap. 6.14.

Ver. 12. Were they aſhamed] See chap. 6.15.

Ver. 13. I will ſurely conſume them, ſaith the Lord] Texitur hic quaſi tragoediae ſcena; here followeth a kind of Tragedy, ſaith an Expoſitour; God is brought in threatening, the Prophet bewailing, the people deſpairing, and yet bethinking themſelves of ſome ſhelter and ſafeguard, if they knew where to find it, &c.

There ſhall be no grapes on the vine, nor figs] But inſtead thereof I will give them waters of gall to drink, ver. 14. Tremellius and Piſcator read it thus, There are no grapes on the vine, nor figs on the figtree, yea the leaves are fallen: that is, ſay they, there is no power of godlineſſe found among them, no not ſo much as any profeſſion, neither fruit nor leafe.

And the things that I have given them ſhall paſſe away] I will curſe their bleſſings, Mal. 2.2. and deſtroy them after that I have done them good, Joſh. 24.

Ver. 14. Why do we ſit ſtill] Here the people ſpeak (ſee on ver. 13.) being grievouſly frighted upon the coming of the Chaldees; and thereupon conſulting what courſe to take: but all would not do, ver. 16.

Let us be ſilent] Sic ſilent pavidimures coram fele.

For the Lord our God hath put us to ſilence] Hath expectorated our courage, and ſtopped our mouths.

And hath given us waters of gall to drink] Succum cicutae, our bane, our deaths-draught: ſo that now we know, by woful experience, what an evil and bitter thing ſin is: for a drop of honey we have now a ſea of gall.

Ver. 15. We looked for peace, but no good came] Our falſe Prophets have merely deluded us. So poor ſouls, when ſtung by the Friers Sermons, were ſet to pennances and good deeds, which ſtilled them for a while, but could not yeeld them any laſting comfort. The ſoul is ſtill ready to ſhift, and ſhark in every by-corner for eaſe: but that will not be, till it comes to Chriſt.

Ver. 16. The ſnorting of his horſes was heard from Dan] See chap. 4.15. this cauſed in the Jews hearts a motion of trepidation: confer Job 39.20, It is the priviledge of believers in nothing to be terrified by their adverſaries, Phil. 1.28. but with the horſe ſpoken of Job 39.22. to mock at fear, and not to turn back from the dint of the ſword.

Ver. 17. Behold I will ſend Serpents, Cockatrices] i. e. Chaldees, no leſſe virulent then ſerpents, as violent as horſes. Serpentum tot ſunt venena quot genera, tot pernicies quot species, tot dolores quot colores, ſaith an Ancient: Serpents are of ſeveral ſorts,Iſidor. lib. 12. cap. 2. but all poiſonful and pernicious. The Baſilisk or Cockatrice here inſtanced (the worſt ſort of ſerpents, ſay the Septuagint here) goeth not upon the belly as other ſerpents: but erect from the middle part, and doth ſo infect the aire, that by the peſtilent breath coming therefrom, fruits are killed, and men being but lookt upon by it, and birds flying over it: ſtones alſo are broken thereby, and all other ſerpents put to flight.

Dlod. Piſc. And they ſhall bite you] There is an elegancy in the original.

Ver. 18. When I would comfort my ſelfe, &c.] Or, as ſome render it, O my comfort againſt ſorrow, i. e. O my God; others, my recreation is joyned with ſorrow.

Ver. 19. Behold the voyce of the cry] This was it that broke the good Prophets heart, the ſhrieks of his people.

Haec eſt querela hypocritarum. Oecol. Is not the Lord in Zion?] Thus in their diſtreſſe they leaned upon the Lord, as Mic. 3.11. and enquired after him, whom in their proſperity they made little reckoning of.

Why have they provoked me to anger?] q. d. The fault is meerly in themſelves, who have driven me out from amongſt them by their Idolatries.

Ver. 20. The harveſt is past, the ſummer is ended] They had ſet God a time, and looked for help that ſummer at fartheſt: but the Lord, as he never faileth in his own time, ſo he ſeldom comes at ours. Let us think we hear our poor brethren in Piedmont, Poland, Pomeraenia, complaining to us in this ſort, and be excited to help them, by our prayers and reliefs, &c.

Ver. 21. For the hurt of the daughter of my people am I hurt, I am black] Or, I go in black, mourner like: or I am denigrated and contemned for bewailing my peoples miſery, who neither feel nor fear hurt.

Ver. 22. Is there no balm in Gilead?] Yes ſurely, there or nowhere: in Gilead grew a balſom good to make ſalves for all ſores, they ſay. This balſam grew there only in two large gardens, which belonged to the King. The nature of the tree could not abide iron but preſently dyed, if cut never ſo ſmall a depth: they uſed therefore glaſſe, bone-knives, ſharp ſtones, to get the gumme out of the tree.

Is there no Phyſician there?] Or, no Chirurgion there, where this medicinal ſimple ſo aboundeth? but this peoples ſorrow is immedicable, their diſeaſe deſperate—doctâ plus valet arte malum. The balm of the ſoul is Prayer, ſaith the Chaldee Paraphraſt; is Repentance, ſaith Hierom[illegible: 1 letter] is Chriſt applyed by faith, ſay we: Sanguis medici eſt curatio phrenetici. To this Almighty Phyſician, no diſeaſe can be incurable.