Matthew Poole and continuators on Jeremiah 4:3

3 ¶ For thus saith the LORD to the men of Judah and Jerusalem , Break up your fallow ground, and sow not among thorns .

Heb. Man, i. e. to each man, I speak to every individual among you, Ezek. 20.7, 8.

The Lord having spoke what he had to say at present to Israel, turns now his speech from Israel to Iudah, and so continues it, which consists of several subjects, and first begins with Repentance.

i. e. Prepare your hearts by making them soft, tender, and plyable, fit to embrace my word; a metaphor taken [illegible: 1 letter]rom plow men, that do either prepare the ground, that hath lain some time wast, and untilled by tearing up the surface of the Earth, making it mellow, and soft to receive the seed; for the Heb. word Nir seems to be of larger extent, then bare preparation; God useth the same word when he speaks to the same purpose to Israel, Hos. 10.13. and so is it used, Prov. 13.23. or it may relate to both, that every thing that may be injurious to the Seed, may be stubbed up. Or rather, from such as plow the ground.

Rid your hearts and hands of what may hinder you of embracing my word, grub up all those Briers, and Thorns, and mischievous weeds that will not suffer my counsels to take, or my graces to thrive with you, such as use to overrun the sluggards field, Prov. 24.30, 31. here the Lord begins to call upon them to Repent: the phrase seems to intimate that the Jews had been wont to mix the Thruths of God among their own inventations, as Seed among Thorns, and corrupted it: as also, that they retained many secret, and hidden sins like Hypocrites, which he exhorts them to eradicate.

Marginal references: Math. 13.7, 22.