1“The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron, and with the point of a diamond. It is engraved on the tablet of their heart, and on the horns of your altars.
2Even their children remember their altars and their Asherah poles by the green trees on the high hills.
3My mountain in the field, I will give your substance and all your treasures for a plunder, and your high places, because of sin, throughout all your borders.
4You, even of yourself, will discontinue from your heritage that I gave you. I will cause you to serve your enemies in the land which you don’t know, for you have kindled a fire in my anger which will burn forever.”
1 “The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron, and with the point of a diamond. It is engraved on the tablet of their heart, and on the horns of your altars.
2 Even their children remember their altars and their Asherah poles by the green trees on the high hills.
3 My mountain in the field, I will give your substance and all your treasures for a plunder, and your high places, because of sin, throughout all your borders.
4 You, even of yourself, will discontinue from your heritage that I gave you. I will cause you to serve your enemies in the land which you don’t know, for you have kindled a fire in my anger which will burn forever.”
KJVKing James Version
1 The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron, and with the point of a diamond: it is graven upon the table of their heart, and upon the horns of your altars;
2 Whilst their children remember their altars and their groves by the green trees upon the high hills.
3 O my mountain in the field, I will give thy substance and all thy treasures to the spoil, and thy high places for sin, throughout all thy borders.
4 And thou, even thyself, shalt discontinue from thine heritage that I gave thee; and I will cause thee to serve thine enemies in the land which thou knowest not: for ye have kindled a fire in mine anger, which shall burn for ever.
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JPSJPS Tanakh (1917)
1 The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron, and with the point of a diamond; it is graven upon the tablet of their heart, and upon the horns of your altars.
2 Like the symbols of their sons are their altars, and their Asherim are by the leafy trees, upon the high hills.
3 O thou that sittest upon the mountain in the field, I will give thy substance and all thy treasures for a spoil, and thy high places, because of sin, throughout all thy borders.
4 And thou, even of thyself, shalt discontinue from thy heritage that I gave thee; and I will cause thee to serve thine enemies in the land which thou knowest not; for ye have kindled a fire in My nostril, which shall burn for ever.
Proverbs 3:3(v1)Don’t let kindness and truth forsake you. Bind them around your neck. Write them on the tablet of your heart.
Jeremiah 15:14(v4)I will make them to pass with your enemies into a land which you don’t know; for a fire is kindled in my anger, which will burn on you.”
2 Corinthians 3:3(v1)being revealed that you are a letter of Christ, served by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tablets…
Proverbs 7:3(v1)Bind them on your fingers. Write them on the tablet of your heart.
Leviticus 4:25(v1)The priest shall take some of the blood of the sin offering with his finger, and put it on the horns of the altar of burnt offering. He…
Show all 62 cross-references
Lamentations 5:2(v4)Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers, our houses to aliens.
2 Chronicles 24:18(v2)They abandoned the house of Yahweh, the God of their fathers, and served the Asherah poles and the idols, so wrath came on Judah and…
Job 19:23-24(v1)“Oh that my words were now written! Oh that they were inscribed in a book! That with an iron pen and lead they were engraved in the rock…
Isaiah 5:25(v4)Therefore Yahweh’s anger burns against his people, and he has stretched out his hand against them and has struck them. The mountains…
Jeremiah 7:20(v4)Therefore the Lord Yahweh says: “Behold, my anger and my wrath will be poured out on this place, on man, on animal, on the trees of the…
Jeremiah 15:13(v3)I will give your substance and your treasures for a plunder without price, and that for all your sins, even in all your borders.
Mark 9:43-49(v4)If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life maimed, rather than having your two hands to go…
Leviticus 4:17-18(v1)The priest shall dip his finger in the blood and sprinkle it seven times before Yahweh, before the veil. He shall put some of the blood on…
2 Kings 24:13(v3)He carried out from there all the treasures of Yahweh’s house, and the treasures of the king’s house, and cut in pieces all the vessels of…
Jeremiah 2:20(v2)“For long ago I broke off your yoke, and burst your bonds. You said, ‘I will not serve;’ for on every high hill and under every green tree…
Jeremiah 26:18(v3)“Micah the Morashtite prophesied in the days of Hezekiah king of Judah; and he spoke to all the people of Judah, saying, ‘Yahweh of Armies…
Hosea 12:11(v1)If Gilead is wicked, surely they are worthless. In Gilgal they sacrifice bulls. Indeed, their altars are like heaps in the furrows of the…
Deuteronomy 4:26-27(v4)I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that you will soon utterly perish from off the land which you go over the Jordan to…
Judges 3:7(v2)The children of Israel did that which was evil in Yahweh’s sight, and forgot Yahweh their God, and served the Baals and the Asheroth.
2 Chronicles 33:3(v2)For he built again the high places which Hezekiah his father had broken down; and he raised up altars for the Baals, made Asheroth, and…
Isaiah 1:29(v2)For they shall be ashamed of the oaks which you have desired, and you shall be confounded for the gardens that you have chosen.
Isaiah 14:3(v4)It will happen in the day that Yahweh will give you rest from your sorrow, from your trouble, and from the hard service in which you were…
Isaiah 17:8(v2)They will not look to the altars, the work of their hands; neither shall they respect that which their fingers have made, either the…
Isaiah 39:4-6(v3)Then he asked, “What have they seen in your house?” Hezekiah answered, “They have seen all that is in my house. There is nothing among my…
Jeremiah 16:13(v4)Therefore I will cast you out of this land into the land that you have not known, neither you nor your fathers. There you will serve other…
Jeremiah 27:12-13(v4)I spoke to Zedekiah king of Judah according to all these words, saying, “Bring your necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon, and serve…
Leviticus 26:30(v3)I will destroy your high places, and cut down your incense altars, and cast your dead bodies upon the bodies of your idols; and my soul…
Leviticus 26:31-34(v4)I will lay your cities waste, and will bring your sanctuaries to desolation. I will not take delight in the sweet fragrance of your…
Deuteronomy 28:25(v4)Yahweh will cause you to be struck before your enemies. You will go out one way against them, and will flee seven ways before them. You…
Deuteronomy 28:47-48(v4)Because you didn’t serve Yahweh your God with joyfulness and with gladness of heart, by reason of the abundance of all things; therefore…
Deuteronomy 29:26-28(v4)and went and served other gods and worshiped them, gods that they didn’t know and that he had not given to them. Therefore Yahweh’s anger…
Deuteronomy 32:22-25(v4)For a fire is kindled in my anger, that burns to the lowest Sheol, devours the earth with its increase, and sets the foundations of the…
Joshua 23:15-16(v4)It shall happen that as all the good things have come on you of which Yahweh your God spoke to you, so Yahweh will bring on you all the…
1 Kings 9:7(v4)then I will cut off Israel out of the land which I have given them; and I will cast this house, which I have made holy for my name, out of…
2 Kings 25:13-16(v3)The Chaldeans broke up the pillars of bronze that were in Yahweh’s house and the bases and the bronze sea that were in Yahweh’s house, and…
2 Kings 25:21(v4)The king of Babylon attacked them, and put them to death at Riblah in the land of Hamath. So Judah was carried away captive out of his land.
2 Chronicles 33:19(v2)His prayer also, and how God was entreated of him, and all his sin and his trespass, and the places in which he built high places, and set…
Nehemiah 9:28(v4)But after they had rest, they did evil again before you; therefore you left them in the hands of their enemies, so that they had the…
Psalms 78:58(v2)For they provoked him to anger with their high places, and moved him to jealousy with their engraved images.
Isaiah 2:2-3(v3)It shall happen in the latter days, that the mountain of Yahweh’s house shall be established on the top of the mountains, and shall be…
Isaiah 27:9(v3)Therefore by this the iniquity of Jacob will be forgiven, and this is all the fruit of taking away his sin: that he makes all the stones of…
Isaiah 30:33(v4)For his burning place has long been ready. Yes, for the king it is prepared. He has made its pyre deep and large with fire and much wood.…
Isaiah 66:24(v4)“They will go out, and look at the dead bodies of the men who have transgressed against me; for their worm will not die, nor will their…
Jeremiah 5:29(v4)“Shouldn’t I punish for these things?” says Yahweh. “Shouldn’t my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?
Jeremiah 7:18(v2)The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead the dough, to make cakes to the queen of the sky, and to…
Jeremiah 12:7(v4)“I have forsaken my house. I have cast off my heritage. I have given the dearly beloved of my soul into the hand of her enemies.
Jeremiah 12:12(v3)Destroyers have come on all the bare heights in the wilderness; for the sword of Yahweh devours from the one end of the land even to the…
Jeremiah 25:9-11(v4)behold, I will send and take all the families of the north,” says Yahweh, “and I will send to Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my…
Jeremiah 52:15-20(v3)Then Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried away captive of the poorest of the people, and the residue of the people who were left in…
Lamentations 1:10(v3)The adversary has spread out his hand on all her pleasant things; for she has seen that the nations have entered into her sanctuary,…
Lamentations 1:12(v4)“Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by? Look, and see if there is any sorrow like my sorrow, which is brought on me, with which Yahweh…
Lamentations 5:17-18(v3)For this our heart is faint. For these things our eyes are dim. For the mountain of Zion, which is desolate. The foxes walk on it.
Ezekiel 6:3(v3)and say, ‘You mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord Yahweh! The Lord Yahweh says to the mountains and to the hills, to the…
Ezekiel 7:20-22(v3)As for the beauty of his ornament, he set it in majesty; but they made the images of their abominations and their detestable things…
Ezekiel 16:39(v3)I will also give you into their hand, and they will throw down your vaulted place, and break down your lofty places. They will strip you of…
Ezekiel 20:28(v2)For when I had brought them into the land which I swore to give to them, then they saw every high hill, and every thick tree, and they…
Ezekiel 20:47-48(v4)Tell the forest of the South, ‘Hear Yahweh’s word: The Lord Yahweh says, “Behold, I will kindle a fire in you, and it will devour every…
Ezekiel 21:31(v4)I will pour out my indignation on you. I will blow on you with the fire of my wrath. I will deliver you into the hand of brutish men,…
Hosea 4:13-14(v2)They sacrifice on the tops of the mountains, and burn incense on the hills, under oaks and poplars and terebinths, because its shade is…
Micah 1:5-7(v3)“All this is for the disobedience of Jacob, and for the sins of the house of Israel. What is the disobedience of Jacob? Isn’t it Samaria?…
Micah 3:12–4:2(v3)Therefore Zion for your sake will be plowed like a field, and Jerusalem will become heaps of rubble, and the mountain of the temple like…
Nahum 1:5-6(v4)The mountains quake before him, and the hills melt away. The earth trembles at his presence, yes, the world, and all who dwell in it. Who…
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (27 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
John Calvin1540 · Public DomainOn vv1–4The Prophet teaches us here in other words what…
The Prophet teaches us here in other words what we have often already seen, — that the Jews in vain sought refuges, for their sin had so much accumulated that it was very apparent. It indeed often happens, that men fall; but God, who is ever inclined to mercy, forgives them; and they are also often led astray through levity, and thus their sins are not engraven on their hearts. But Jeremiah says, that nothing remained for that nation but to be entirely swept away, because their iniquity was past recovery. Had they been lightly besprinkled with vices, there might have been still a remedy for them; but when their iniquities were engraven on their hearts, on their marrow and bones, what more remained for them? He had said before,
“Can the Ethiop change his skin?” (Jeremiah 13:23)
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though the Ethiop may change his skin, and also the panther, yet thou art still like thyself. They had so completely imbibed a contempt for God, and also perverseness, that they could not by any means be restored to a right mind. We now then perceive the meaning of the Prophet in this passage.
He says that the sin of Judah was written with an iron pen, with the point of adamant; as though he had said, “They are not only slightly imbued with iniquity, for then there might be some healing; but iniquity is engraven on their inmost feelings, as though one had graven it with adamant or with an iron pen.” It hence appears, that they were wholly unworthy of pardon, as they were in no way capable of receiving mercy, how much soever God might have been inclined to receive them into favor; for their obstinacy had closed the way of salvation; nor could they apply to themselves the promises, for they require repentance in sinners.
He then adds, It is graven on the table of their heart; as though he had said, that they were so addicted to iniquity, that all their inward parts bore the impressions of it. It hence follows that the Jews were so proved to be guilty, that they in vain contrived evasions, for their own conscience condemned them. At the same time, I consider the Prophet as speaking not only of guilt, but also of sin itself, and of their propensity to evil. He means then that the Jews had not only sinned and transgressed God’s law in a way not common, but that they were also so given up to wickedness as to delight in the iniquity that was graven on their hearts. He calls by a metaphor the affections or feelings the tables of the heart: For he compares the heart to tables; as writing appears when cut in stone or brass, so when a sinful impression is made on the hearts of men, iniquity itself may be said to be graven on the tables of the heart.
He afterwards adds, And on the horns of your altars. He had spoken of the heart, he now proceeds farther, — that there appeared openly an evidence of hidden iniquity. Had he spoken only of their hearts, the Jews might have objected and said, “How canst thou penetrate into our hearts? Art thou God, to examine and try our inward emotions?” But the Prophet adds, that their iniquity was sufficiently known by their altars. He at the same time intimates, that they in vain alleged the name of religion; for under that pretense they especially sinned against God; for they had vitiated his pure worship. And to confirm this very thing he adds —
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators1599 · Public DomainOn vv1–4The remembrance of their contempt of God cannot pass,…
The remembrance of their contempt of God cannot pass, albeit for a time he defer the punishment, for it shall be manifest to men and Angels.
Instead of the Law of God, they have written idolatry and all abominations in their heart.
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Your sins appear in all the altars that you have erected to idols.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp1656 · Public DomainOn vv1–4Jer 17:1 The sin of Judah [is] written with…
Jer 17:1 The sin of Judah [is] written with a pen of iron, [and] with the point of a diamond: [it is] graven upon the table of their heart, and upon the horns of your altars;
Ver. 1. The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron.] The four first verses of this chapter are left out by the Septuagint. Jerome saith they omitted them in gratiam et honorem papuli sui, in favour, and for the honour of their countrymen the Jews; but that was no just reason. "For ever, O Lord, thy word is settled in heaven," {Psa 119:89} though there were not a Bible left on earth. These sinners against their own souls had their idolatry so deeply engraven on their hearts, that they could not get out the stamp, and the guilt thereof stuck so fast to their consciences, that they could hardly get off either the sting or the stain thereof.
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It is graven upon the tables of their hearts.] Their sin lay there, where the law should have lain. {Jer 31:33} Like as Queen Mary, when she died, told those about her that the loss of Calais lay at her heart, a place far fitter for Jesus Christ.
And upon the horns of your altars,] Whereon the blood of your sacrifices are sprinkled, and so your sin proclaimed.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole1685 · Public DomainOn vv1–4There is much arguing amongst those that are critical…
There is much arguing amongst those that are critical about the true signification of words, what is here signified by שטיד which we translate a diamond; most agree that it doth not signify a diamond, (not used in engraving,) but that by the pen of iron, and the point of a diamond, are meant some tools with which they were wont to engrave things upon hard substances; it may be made in a figure resembling the claw of a bird, as the word seemeth to import.
It is graven upon the table of their heart; it is graven in their hearts; they are so accustomed to sin, so inured to idolatry, that there is no hope of any reclaiming them. For how can they that are accustomed to do evil, do well?
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And upon the horns of your altars; nor is it a thing done in secret, but it is written, or painted, or engraven upon the horns of their altars. God’s altar was foursquare, and at each corner there was a rising part made of brass something high, these were called the horns of the altar. See Exo 27:2; Eze 43:15,16. Now their sin is either said to be engraven or published upon the horns of the altar, because the blood of the sacrifices which they offered to idols was sprinkled there, or because their altars had some inscription upon them, declaring to what idol that altar was consecrated, as the altar of Athens had.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry1710 · Public DomainOn v1The people had asked (Jer 16:10), What is our…
The people had asked (Jer 16:10), What is our iniquity, and what is our sin? as if they could not be charged with any thing worth speaking of, for which God should enter into judgment with them; their challenge was answered there, but here we have a further reply to it, in which,
I. The indictment is fully proved upon the prisoners, both the fact and the fault; their sin is too plain to be denied and too bad to be excused, and they have nothing to plead either in extenuation of the crime or in arrest and mitigation of the judgment. 1. They cannot plead, Not guilty, for their sins are upon record in the book of God's omniscience and their own conscience; nay, and they are obvious to the eye and observation of the world, Jer 17:1, Jer 17:2. They are written before God in the most legible and indelible characters, and sealed among his treasures, never to be forgotten, Deu 32:34. They are written there with a pen of iron and with the point of a diamond; what is so written will not be worn out by time, but is, as Job speaks, graven in the rock for ever. Note, The sin of sinners is never forgotten till it is forgiven. It is ever before God, till by repentance it comes to be ever before us. It is graven upon the table of their heart; their own consciences witness against them, and are instead of a thousand witnesses. What is graven on the heart, though it may be covered and closed up for a time, yet, being graven, it cannot be erased, but will be produced in evidence when the books shall be opened. Nay, we need not appeal to the tables of the heart, perhaps they will not own the convictions of their consciences. We need go no further, for proof of the charge, than the horns of their altars, on which the blood of their idolatrous sacrifices was sprinkled, and perhaps the names of the idols to whose honour they were erected were inscribed. Their neighbours will witness against them, and all the creatures they have abused by using them in the service of their lusts. To complete the evidence, their own children shall be witnesses against them; they will tell truth when their fathers dissemble and prevaricate; they remember the altars and the groves to which their parents took them when they were little, v. 2. It appears that they were full of them, and acquainted with them betimes, they talked of them so frequently, so familiarly, and with so much delight. 2. They cannot plead that they repent, or are brought to a better mind. No, as the guilt of their sin is undeniable, so their inclination to sin is invincible and incurable. In this sense many understand Jer 17:1, Jer 17:2. Their sin is deeply engraven as with a pen of iron in the tables of their hearts. They have a rooted affection to it; it is woven into their very nature; their sin is dear to them, as that is dear to us of which we say, It is engraven on our hearts. The bias of their minds is still as strong as ever towards their idols, and they are not wrought upon either by the word or rod of God to forget them and abate their affection to them. It is written upon the horns of their altars, for they have given up their names to their idols and resolve to abide by what they have done; they have bound themselves, as with cords, to the horns of their altars. And Jer 17:2 may be read fully to this sense: As they remember their children, so remember they their altars and their groves; they are as fond of them and take as much pleasure in them as men do in their own children, and are as loth to part with them; they will live and die with their idols, and can no more forget them than a woman can forget her sucking child.
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II. The indictment being thus fully proved, the judgment is affirmed and the sentence ratified, Jer 17:3, Jer 17:4. Forasmuch as they are thus wedded to their sins, and will not part with them, 1. They shall be made to part with their treasures, and those shall be given into the hands of strangers. Jerusalem is God's mountain in the field; it was built on a hill in the midst of a plain. All the treasures of that wealthy city will God give to the spoil. Or, My mountains with the fields, thy wealth and all thy treasures will I expose to spoil; both the products of the country and the stores of the city shall be seized by the Chaldeans. Justly are men stripped of that which they have served their idols with and have made the food and the fuel of their lusts. My mountain (so the whole land was, Psa 78:54, Deu 11:11) you have turned into your high places for sin, have worshipped your idols upon the high hills (Jer 17:2), and now they shall be give for a spoil in all your borders. What we make for a sin God will make for a spoil; for what comfort can we expect in that wherewith God is dishonoured? 2. They shall be made to part with their inheritance, and shall be carried captives into a strange land (Jer 17:4): Thou, even thyself (or thou thyself and those that are in thee, all the inhabitants), shall discontinue from thy heritage that I gave thee. God owns that it was their heritage, and that he gave it to them; they had an unquestionable title to it, which was an aggravation of their folly in throwing themselves out of the possession of it. It is through thyself (so some read it), through thy own default, that thou art disseised. Thou shalt discontinue, or intermit, the occupation of thy land. The law appointed them to let their land rest (it is the word here used) one year in seven, Exo 23:11. They did not observe that law, and now God would compel them to let it rest (the land shall enjoy her sabbaths, Lev 26:34); and yet it shall be not rest to them; they shall serve their enemies in a land they know not. Observe, (1.) Sin works a discontinuance of our comforts and deprives us of the enjoyment of that which God has given us. Yet, (2.) A discontinuance of the possession is not a defeasance of the right, but it is intimated that upon their repentance they shall recover possession again. For the present, you have kindled a fire in my anger, which burns so fiercely that it seems as if it would burn for ever; and so it will unless you repent, for it is the anger of an everlasting God fastening upon the immortal souls, and who knows the power of that anger?
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill1763 · Public DomainOn vv1–4The sin of Judah is written with a pen…
The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron,.... Or an iron tool, such as engravers use in working on hard matter:
and with the point of a diamond; such as glaziers use in cutting their glass; though this is not the word used for a diamond in Exo 28:18, this word is elsewhere translated an adamant, Eze 3:9. Bothart (h) takes it to be the smiris, which jewellers use in polishing their gems. Jarchi makes mention of a Midrash, or exposition, which explains the iron pen of Jeremiah, and the point of the adamant, or diamond, of Ezekiel, because of what is said of them, Jer 1:18. Kimchi thinks the word "shamir", rendered "diamond", is expressive of the subject matter on which their sin is said to be written, and not of the instrument with which; and then it is to be read thus,
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"the sin of Judah is written with an iron pen (with an iron claw, or nail, of which mention is made in some Jewish writings) upon "shamir", or an adamant stone;''
which is no other than their stony heart, as it follows:
it is graven upon the table of their heart; where it is so fixed that it cannot be rooted out, and will never be forgotten by them, but always remembered and desired; for which they have the strongest affections, having a place, and having made deep impressions there: or this may denote the evidence of it in their own consciences, which bore witness to it, and which they could not deny:
and upon the horns of your altars; on which the names of their idols were engraven or inscribed, Act 17:23, so that their idolatry was notorious; their consciences within, and their altars without, were testimonies of it and besides, the blood of the sacrifices was poured upon the horns of the altar, Lev 4:7 and which, as it was done at the offering of sacrifices appointed of God, so very probably at the offering of sacrifices to idols, and which made their sin notorious; yea, even all the sacrifices of the ceremonial law were a standing testimony of their being sinners, and carried in them a confession of sin, and that they were deserving of death, and so were a handwriting against them; for there is no need to limit the sin of Judah here to idolatry, but it may include all their sins; and so the Targum expresses it in the plural number,
"the sins of Judah;''
though, if any particular sin is intended, it seems to be idolatry, by what follows.
(h) Hierozoic. par. 2. l. 6. c. 11, col. 842. of which stone, see Dioseorides, Hesychius, & Stephanus in ib.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley1765 · Public DomainOn vv1–4The captivity of Judah for her sin, ver. 1-4.…
The captivity of Judah for her sin, ver. 1-4. Trust in man cursed: in God, blessed, ver. 5-8. The deceitful heart and most secret practices are known to God, ver. 9-11. The salvation of God, ver. 12-14. The prophet complains of the mockers of his prophecies, ver. 15-18. Of keeping the sabbath, ver. 19-27.
Graven - Nor is it a thing done in secret, but it is engraven upon the horns of their altars. God's altar was four-square, and at each corner there was a rising part made of brass, these were called the horns of the altar. Now their sin is said to be engraven upon the horns of the altar, because the blood of the sacrifices which they offered to idols was sprinkled there, or because their altars had some inscription upon them, declaring to what idol that altar was consecrated.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke1810 · Public DomainOn vv1–3This chapter begins with setting forth the very strong…
CHAPTER XVII
This chapter begins with setting forth the very strong bias
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which the people of Judah had to idolatry, with the fatal
consequences, 1-4.
The happiness of the man that trusted in Jehovah is then
beautifully contrasted with the opposite character, 5-8.
God alone knows the deceitfulness and wretchedness of the heart
of man, 9, 10.
The comparison of a bird's hatching the eggs of another of a
different species, which will soon forsake her, is highly
expressive of the vanity of ill-acquired riches, which often
disappoint the owner, 11.
The prophet continues the same subject in his own person,
appeals to God for his sincerity, and prays that the evil
intended him by his enemies may revert on their own heads,
12-18.
The remaining part of the chapter is a distinct prophecy
relating to the due observance of the Sabbath, enforced both by
promises and threatenings, 19-27.
NOTES ON CHAP. XVII
Verse 1. The sin of Judah] Idolatry.
Is written with a pen of iron] It is deeply and indelibly written in their heart, and shall be as indelibly written in their punishment. Writing with the point of a diamond must refer to glass, or some vitrified substance, as it is distinguished here from engraving with a steel burine, or graver. Their altars show what the deities are which they worship. There may be reference here to the different methods of recording events in those days: -
1. A pen or stile of iron, for engraving on lead or wood.
2. A point of a diamond, for writing on vitreous substances.
3. Writing on tables of brass or copper.
4. Writing on the horns of the altars the names of the deities worshipped there. This is probable.
In several parts of India, and all through Ceylon, an iron or steel pen is used universally; with these the natives form the letters by incisions on the outer rind of the palm leaf. Books written in this way are very durable. This pen is broad at the top, has a very fine sharp point, and is sharp at one side as a knife, to shave and prepare the palm leaf. A pen of this description now lies before me.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson1811 · Public DomainOn vv1, 3Jer 17:1-2. The sin of Judah is written with…
Jer 17:1-2. The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron — Many of the Jews, though living in the habitual commission of the grossest crimes, were, nevertheless, self-righteous, and thought they did not deserve that God should enter into judgment with them in any such way as Jeremiah foretold he would do. Wherefore, said they, hath the Lord pronounced all this great evil against us? What is our iniquity? What is our sin? chap. Jer 16:10. Here the prophet tells them their sin was too plain to be denied, and too bad to be excused: that it was written in indelible characters, not only before God, to whose omniscience it lay continually open, but in their own hearts and consciences; as if written with a pen of iron, or an engraving instrument, or the point of a diamond; instruments employed to make durable inscriptions on hard substances. As if he had said, Their sins are as manifest, and the remembrance of them as durable, as the memorable actions which have been engraven on pillars of stone, or tablets of brass, to give them notoriety, and preserve them from oblivion. The expression, it is graven upon the table of their hearts, may also be intended to signify the rooted affection which they had to sin, especially to the sin of idolatry; that it was woven into their very nature, and was as dear to them as that is to us, of which we say, It is engraven on our hearts. In like manner, their idolatrous altars and other monuments of their heathenish superstitions, were undeniable tokens of the corrupt inclinations of their hearts, which were altogether estranged from God and his true worship. Or their sin might be said to be engraven on the horns of their altars, because the blood of the sacrifices which they offered to their idols was sprinkled there, or because their altars had some inscription upon them, declaring to what idol each altar was consecrated. Whilst their children remember their altars — This shows how inveterate they were in this sin of idolatry, that they taught it to their children.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes1834 · Public DomainOn vv1–4This section Jer 17:1-4 is inseparably connected with the…
This section Jer 17:1-4 is inseparably connected with the preceding. Judah’s sin had been described Jer 16:19 as one of which the very Gentiles will become ashamed. and for which she will shortly be punished by, an intervention of God’s hand more marked than anything in her previous history. Jeremiah now dwells upon the indelible nature of her sin.
A pen of iron - i. e., an iron chisel for cutting inscriptions upon tables of stone.
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The point of a diamond - The ancients were well acquainted with the cutting powers of the diamond.
Altars - Not Yahweh’s one altar, but the many altars which the Jews had set up to Baalim Jer 11:13. Though Josiah had purged the land of these, yet in the eleven years of Jehoiakim’s reign they had multiplied again, and were the external proofs of Judah’s idolatry, as the table of her heart was the internal witness.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary1859 · Public DomainOn vv1, 3, 4The. Grabe (de Vit. p. 8.) observes that the…
The. Grabe (de Vit. p. 8.) observes that the four first verses were omitted in the Septuagint by some careless transcriber, long before the days of Origen, who restored them from the Hebrew and the other Greek versions. On such occasions his work was very useful; but the marks being soon neglected, great confusion ensued. (St. Jerome) (Kennicott, Dis. ii.) --- Grabe has restored these verses in his edition. (Haydock) --- Eusebius (Dem. x.) and Theodoret acknowledged them; and Nobilius found the first verse thus expressed in many copies, (Calmet) as it is in Grabe: "The sin of Juda is expressed in writing with a finger nail of adamant, cleaving to the breast of," &c. (Haydock) --- Altars, to appear more conspicuously to the latest times. This excited God’s indignation. (Calmet) --- These figurative expressions shew the inveterate malice of the people. (Worthington)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures1864 · Public DomainOn v1Jeremiah 17
Jeremiah 17
4. Refutation of the objection (Jer_16:10) that the people had not generally served idols
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Jer_17:1-4
1 The sin of Judah is written with an iron stylus,1
Graven with a diamond point on the tablet of their heart,
On the horns of their altars;
2 As their children remember their altars,
And their images of Baal2 by3 the green trees, by the high hills.
3 My mountain together with4 the fields,
Thy substance and all thy treasures will I give up to spoil,
Thy heights!—for thy sin in all thy borders.
4 And thou shalt withhold thy hand from the inheritance which I have given thee;
And I cause thee to serve thy enemies in a land that thou knowest not:
For ye have kindled a fire in my nostrils that shall burn forever.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
The denial of having sinned against Jehovah (Jer_16:10) must mean that the fact of idolatry is denied. Against such a bold and shameless assertion the prophet rises here with visibly increasing indignation. He says that the sin of Judah is certified, and as it were, recorded in the archives, viz. (a in their own conscience, in which the memory of their idolatrous abominations is fixed like an ineffaceable brand, and (b) externally, on the horns of the altars, where the blood of the slaughtered children adheres as an equally ineffaceable memorial (Jer_17:1). These two testimonies were just as deep and inextinguishable to them, the actors present, as to the children the impression of that horrible cult which had snatched away so many from their midst would remain unforgetable. And so deep was this impression, that the mere sight of green trees and high hills was sufficient to refresh it continually (Jer_17:2). On the basis of the facts thus certified, the prophet repeats the announcement of the divine punishments, which will consist in plunder of substance, desolation of the land, according to the analogy of the year of release, and deportation into an unknown land (Jer_17:3-4).
Jer_17:1; Jer_2:5 The sin of Judah … high hills.Origen (Hom. XVI. ed. Lommatzsch., S. 301), Isid. Hisp. (De Pass. Dom., Jeremiah 22). Ghisler (ad h. l.) by Judah here understand Judas Iscariot.—Iron stylus. Comp. Job_19:24.—diamond point, שָׁמִיר, which occurs besides, in this sense, only in Eze_3:9; Zec_7:12, appears to designate especially the diamond, which serves as a pointed cutting instrument, since everywhere else (Isa_5:9; Isa_7:23-25; Isa_9:17; Isa_10:17; Isa_27:4) it is used in the meaning of “thorn.” Comp. Herzog, Real-Enc. III., S. 642; Winer, R.-W.-B. I., S. 284.—On the tablet, etc. Passing momentary events make only a superficial impression. But whatever has exercised a long-continued and intensive activity is deeply graven. In opposition to the assertion (Jer_17:10) that Israel has not sinned against the Lord, the prophet points to the continuance of idolatry among the people, and the deep, inextinguishable traces, which it has left behind. These are double; of an external and internal sort. Internally is the conscience, the remembrance, the whole spiritual habitus, which keeps before Israel the fact of the long practised idolatry. Externally are the idol-altars, with the blood of the children offered upon them, crying towards heaven, which testify of the sin to all the world. It is therefore audacity on the part of the people to pretend that they have forgotten the fact. The expression write on the table of the heart is found also in Pro_3:3; Pro_7:3.—horns of the altars. That the idol-altars are meant is evident 1, from the plural, for there was but a single altar of Jehovah (J. D. Michaelis); 2, from the connection, for Israel’s sin was to be read only on the idol-altars, not on the altar of the Lord,—or on the latter only in so far as they had perhaps used it for idolatrous worship (comp. 2Ch_15:3; Winer, s. v. Brandopferaltar). The altars in Jer_17:2 are doubtless also those of the idols, and identical with those mentioned in Jer_17:1.—On the horns of the altar of burnt offering and the sprinkling of these with the blood of the guilt offering, comp. Exo_27:2 (coll. Psa_118:27); Jer_29:12; Lev_4:18; Lev_4:25; Lev_4:30; Lev_4:34; Lev_8:15; Lev_9:9. That the idol-altars also had such horns is clear from Amo_3:14. Comp. Winer, R.-W.-B. s. v. Hörner.—Their altars, lit., youraltars. On the change of person comp. rems. on Jer_5:14; Jer_12:13.—remember. We may reject at the outset the ungrammatical explanations which either take כְּ=לְ (so that their children remember, Luther, Zwingle, substantially Calvin) or understand God as the subject of remember (Seb. Schmidt, Clericus, Ch. B. Michaelis). All those interpretations are at least very harsh, which regard the Jews as the subject, (ut recordantur filiorum suorum ita altarium, etc., i.e., their altars are as dear to their hearts as their children, R. Salomo, D. Kimchi, Abarbanel, Diodatus, Maurer; remembering their children, they remember also the altars on which they offered them, Hitzig) or which take כְּ in the sense of because, if, (Jerome, Chald., Arab., and many later) or which find the apodosis in Jer_17:3 (Ewald, Umbreit). Since in Jer_17:1 there is evidently likewise the idea of a monumentum, a record assuring a perpetual remembrance, the reciprocal relation of Jer_17:1-2 is indicated at the outset. There is a third memorial of the sin denied by the Israelites, the testimony of which is the more unexceptionable as it proceeds from the mouth of children (Psa_8:3; Mat_21:16): the remembrance by the children of that horrible worship to which so many from their midst fell a sacrifice. The prophet points to an effect of that horrid ritual, which is not indeed elsewhere expressly testified, but is in itself entirely natural. Why should not Moloch have been the terror of the Israelitish children, when there was such real and sad ground for it, as is wanting in other bugbears which terrify the children of the present day?—Their children is therefore the subject of remember, and the construction is as ex. gr., Jer_5:26; Jer_6:7. Comp. Naegelsb. Gr., § 95, 2.—Images, etc. The אֲשֵׁרִים are the masculine images of Baal [not of Astarte, as Henderson.—S. R. A.] (comp. 1Ki_14:23; 2Ki_17:10; 2Ki_23:14, etc.) as אֲשֵׁרוֹת are primarily and in general the images corresponding to the female principle of Baal. What was their form is still undecided, also whether they had special relation to the service of Moloch. Should the latter not be the case, yet their relation to the murderous rites of child-sacrifice is beyond a doubt. For children were offered to Baal in all his forms, comp. Jer_7:31; Jer_19:5; Jer_32:35. Herzog, Real-Enc. I. S. 638; IX., S. 715.—By the green trees, על־עץ. Hitzig and Graf rightly take עַל here in a causal sense connecting it with remember, not with altars. If the place was to be designated where the altars and images stood, we cannot conceive why the prophet should write “on green trees,” and deviate from the stereotyped form of “under every green tree.” It is accordingly more probable that it is to express that the mere sight of green trees and high hills awoke in the Israelite children the remembrance of those terrible altars and images. We can certainly show no passage in which עַל is used, after a verb of remembrance, of that which occasioned the remembrance. But all those passages are analogous in which עַל designates the occasioning circumstances in general, ex. gr., Gen_26:7; Gen_26:9; Ps. 44:32; 1Sa_4:13. Comp. עַל־מָה, Jer_9:11; Job_13:14.
Jer_17:3. My mountain … in all thy borders. The words הררי בשׂדה are either connected with the preceding context in various ways (Jerome: Sacrificantes in agro; Syr.: in montibus et in deserto; Chald.: Super montes in agro; Arab.: in montibus et in agris;R. Salomo, Abarbanel, Kimchi: O mons mi, qui in agro es, as a designation of Jerusalem, to which the previous context is addressed; Zwingli: ut filii recordantur ararum … collium, montium et agrorum;Ewald, Meier: הַרְרֵי בַשָּׂדֶה as in apposition to גְּבָעוֹת), or with the following, when it is either rendered as in the vocative, and Zion, as the high place of the country και’ ἐξοχήν, or Israel as sacrificing on mountains, or fleeing to mountains (Calvin), is understood by it, or it is connected with thy heights (Luther), or as an accusative with thy substance (montem meum una cum agro … dabo, Gesenius, Gaab, Rosenmueller, Umbreit). Hitzig calls attention to Jer_18:14; Jer_21:13, where Zion is designated as צוּר שָׂדַי and צוּר הֵמִּישֹׁר. But here the connection is quite different. In this place the prophet would evidently say that all property, movable and immovable, divine and human, dedicated to the service of God and the service of idols will be given up to plunder on account of their intensive (Jer_17:1-2), as extensive and universally diffused sin (in all thy borders). For this reason also I do not believe that mountain is to be rendered as in the vocative. It is rather accusative, dependent on I will give, and the explanation already mentioned as that of Gesenius, Gaab, Rosenmueller and Umbreit, is the correct one. The mountain of the Lord also is desecrated; it therefore, in so far as it contains property that can be so treated, will also, like the fruitful field, be given up to plunder. The prophet says fields, because he wishes to designate only the land, which produces substance and treasures, or things that may be plundered. Thy substance and all, etc., is a more particular explanation of my mountain. It tells us how a mountain and fields can be plundered. Thy substance, thy treasures have primary reference to fields. But that also which the mountain contained belonged in a certain respect to the people, and they were likewise despoiled of it. On the subject comp. Jer_27:16; Jer_28:3; Jer_52:17 sqq.—Thy heights is in antithesis to my mountain. Even the sanctuaries dedicated to the idols were to be objects of spoliation. It is clear that thy heights is governed by give, but its abrupt position is strange. If we could connect exclusively with for thy sin, this difficulty would be removed. But not only the high places, but all that has been previously mentioned is given up on account of their sin. Syrus and the Arabic (MS. Oxon), omit thy heights altogether. Hitzig translates “for atonement,” comparing Zec_14:17; Deu_29:11, and with respect to the construction, Deut. 21:29. But the expression in all thy borders would then be quite feeble and superfluous. Graf after Gesenius, De Wette and others:—Thy heights with the sin cleaving thereto I give up. But was it necessary to guard against the thought that the Lord would give up the heights without the sin, or that He would omit the latter? How is such a separation of the heights and the sin even conceivable? Thy heights may then be regarded as an emphatic asyndeton.—For thy sin. Comp. Mic_1:5; 2Ki_24:3.—In all thy borders. This addition corresponds exactly to the previously stated extent of the punishment: Since the sin has been universally diffused, so all the possessions in the whole land will be made the means of punishment.
Jer_17:4. And thou shalt … forever. In this verse ובך causes the only difficulty. It has been either entirely passed over (Syrus, Arab., Luther), or explained in a more or less forced manner, as unfreely (Vatable), by thy iniquity, naked and bare, alone (so Jerome, on the ground of which Ewald would alter to לְבָדָד). But it is evident that Jeremiah had in view Deu_15:2-3. This has been recognized by many expositors. Some (ex. gr., Seb. Schmidt, Rosenm.) supply, therefore, יָדְֽךָ from Deu_15:2. J. D. Michaelis was the first to suppose that יָדְֽךָ alone should be read. Graf expresses this distinctly, and without doubt correctly. For on the one hand וּבְךָ, however interpreted, yields no satisfactory meaning. On the other hand the expression שׁמטּ יד מן ו׳, withhold thy hand, etc., corresponds perfectly to the connection. The year of release (comp. Deu_15:1-13), so called from the שְׁמִטָּה, the release of the debtor from the oppressive hand of the creditor, coincides with the Sabbatic year (comp. Exo_23:10-11; Lev_25:1-7), in which the land is to remain uncultivated (comp. Saalschuetz, Mos. Recht., S. 162 ff.; Herzog, R-Enc. XIII., S. 204 ff.). The state of desolation, in which the land will be in consequence of the destined exile of the people is in Lev_26:24-25 expressly compared with that Sabbatic year, or year of release, and is called the Sabbath-time of the land (שַׁבְתֹתֶיהָ). In 2Ch_36:21 (comp. 3 Esdr. 1:58) it is expressly set forth that the Babylonian captivity was the fulfilment of the divine word proclaimed by Jeremiah, according to which the land was promised its holiday (שָׁבָּתוֹת). But in no other place than this does Jeremiah intimate this thought. If now it is undoubted that this passage, with reference to Deu_15:2 coll. Lev_26:34-35, designates the exile as a period of release for the land, we cannot avoid perceiving in וּבְךָ an altered form of the יָדְֽךָ of Deuteronomy. On I cause thee to serve, vide supra, on Jer_15:14.—For ye have kindled, etc. The words are a free quotation from Deu_32:22, while those in Jer_15:14, at least in their first part, agree verbatim with the original passage.
Footnotes:
[1]Jer_17:1.—צפרן. This word, which occurs besides only in Deu_21:12 is the nail, unguis, but since the finger-nail cannot be used for the engraving of ineffaceable writing, the word must mean a sharp, cutting instrument in general, in correspondence with the fundamental meaning of the root (= incidere, insculpere. Comp. Aram. טְפַר).
[2]Jer_17:2.—[A. V.: their groves; De Wette: their Astartes (but comp. Exeget. Notes).—S. R. A.]
[3]Jer_17:2.—Explanations which render עַל as local = with, together with (אֵצֶל, R. Sal.), or cumulative = una cum (Seb. Schmidt and others) are as unsatisfactory as the reading בָּל־עֵץ, which is found in the Chald., Syr., and in 16 Codd. of Kennicott and 9 of De Rossi.
[4]Jer_17:3.—בִּ = in the midst, but in the sense of accompaniment, together with. Comp. Jer_11:19; Naegelsb. Gr., § 112, 5, a.
[5] The LXX. does not contain verses 1–4. Without doubt Jerome is correct in saying, forsitan pepercerunt populo suo. Origen in the Hexapla gives under asterisks the following translation, which he found in other translators: Jer_17:1. Ἁμαρτια Ἰούδα γεγραπται ἐν γραφείῳ σιδηρῷ·, ἐν ὄνυχι ἀδαμαντίῳ, έγκεκολαμμἐνη ἐπἰ τοῦ στήθους τῆς καρδίας αὑτῶν, καὶ τοῖς κέρασι τῶν θυσιαστηρίων αὐτῶν.
Jer_17:4. Kαὶ ἁφαιρθήσεται (αι. ἀφαιρεθήσῃ), καὶ ταπεινωθήσεται (αι. ταπεινωθήσῃ) ἀπὸ τῆς κληρονοηίσς σου, ἧς ἔδωκάσοι, καὶ ἀναβιβάσω σε ἐν τοῖς εχθροῖς σου ἐν τῃ γῆ ῇ οὐκ έ̓γνως· ὄτι πῦρ ἐγκἐκαυσται ἐν τῷ θυμῷ ηου, ἔως αιῶνος καυσθἤσεται. Τάδε λἐγει κύριος. Τhus in Montfaucon, Hexapl. Tom. II., p. 210.—Eusebius also, Dem. Ev. X. 5 (comp. Jer_2:25), communicates the words, remarking that he found them ἀν ταῖς τῶν λοιπῶν ἑρμηνευτῶν ἐκδόσεσι, ετι μετὰ παραδόσεως άστεμίσκων ἐν τοῖς ακριβἐσι τῶν παρα τοῖς Ο. ἀντιγρἀφοις Drusius remarks that in nonnullis codd. græcis et in uno Vaticano leguntur sub asteriscis.
CONCLUSION (Jer_17:5-18)
1. Retrospective glance at the deep roots of the corruption
Jer_17:5-13
5 Thus saith Jehovah: Cursed the man, who trusts in men,
And makes flesh his arm, and whose heart departs from Jehovah.
6 He will be like one forsaken6 in the desert
And will not see when good comes,
And will dwell in the arid places in the wilderness,
In a land salt and uninhabited.
7 Blessed the man who trusts in Jehovah,
And whose confidence Jehovah is!
8 He is like a tree planted by water,
And which stretches forth7 its roots to8 the river,
And will not fear9 when the heat comes, and its leaf is green,
And in the year of drought it will not have care nor cease from fruit-bearing.
9 The heart is more deceitful than anything
And profoundly corrupt Who can know it?
10 I, Jehovah, search the heart, try the reins,
Even10 to give every one according to his way,
According to the fruit of his doings.
11 A partridge, which fosters without having laid,
Is he who accumulates riches not by right.
In the half of his days he will leave them,
And at his end he will be a fool.
12 O throne of glory, height11 of beginning, place of our sanctuary!
13 Hope of Israel, Jehovah!
All who forsake thee are put to shame!
Those who depart12 from me must be written in the earth,
Because they have forsaken the fountain of living water, Jehovah.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
This long discourse ends with a concluding address in two parts, the first of which relates to general, the second to personal matters. In the first (Jer_17:5-13) the prophet indicates the most inward and hidden roots of the spiritual and physical corruption of his people. He mentions three chief moral defects, attaching to each the corresponding punishment. At the head he places the perverse disposition, which regards not the Lord, but flesh as the source and treasure of all blessing (Jer_17:5). The punishment of this sin is mentioned in Jer_17:6, the shadow being further deepened in Jer_17:7-8 by the contrast there presented. The second radical defect, designated in Jer_17:9, is the perfidiousness of the heart in connection with its weakness. In consequence of this habitus, the human heart is unfathomable to human sight, yet the Lord is in a position to look through and to judge it (Jer_17:10). Avarice is designated as the third destructive root to which every means is right, to which, however, poverty and shame must follow as a just recompense (Jer_17:11).—The last two verses express once more in a comprehensive manner, and after a solemn invocation of Jehovah, the judgment of destruction on all those who have forsaken Jehovah, the fountain of living water (Jer_17:12-13).
Jer_17:5-6. Thus saith Jehovah … salt and uninhabited. The prophet had in the previous context repeatedly designated the Lord as his and Israel’s only safety: Jer_14:8; Jer_14:22; Jer_15:20-21; Jer_16:19. He, however, expressly intimated in Jer_16:19, that the Israel of those times was wanting in confidence in this Saviour. Here he renders this sin of unbelief strongly prominent, portraying it according to its positive and its negative side. He mentions the positive side first. Man and flesh designate the totality of all earthly visible forces in antithesis to the spiritual power of the invisible God. It is precisely their visibility which withdraws the carnal mind from the invisible things to be apprehended by faith alone. The mind is first taken captive by things visible. Then having gained a firm footing in these, it breaks loose from the Invisible. It was so in the Fall. This confidence in things visible, however, is idolatry (comp. Luther’s explanation of the first commandment). Hence the curse may well be an allusion to Deu_27:15 coll. deut 11:28.—Man and flesh. (אָדָם and בָּשָׂר) synonymous also in Isa_31:3 coll. Job_10:4; Psa_56:5. [“The Hebrew language, having three distinct words for man, has the advantage of our English in the finer shades of a passage like this, ‘cursed is the man (strong man) who trusteth in man (frail man of the earth) who maketh flesh (mere weakness) his arm.’ ” Cowles.—S. R. A.]—His arm, זְרוֹעַ, the organ for the exhibition of physical force. He who delivers over this function to another, i.e. makes him his arm, has him for his assistant, for protection and deliverance Comp. Isa_33:2; Psa_83:9.—A land salt, etc. Comp. Job_39:6; Psa_107:34.—Will dwell. תשׁב intransitive, as in Jer_17:25; Jer_30:18; Jer_50:13; Jer_50:39; Isa_13:20.
Jer_17:7-8. Blessed the man … fruit bearing. We might, suppose that these verses were so co-ordinate with the two preceding that the two pairs would constitute an independent, self-contained whole. But then the following verses would be entirely disconnected. I therefore think that verses 7 and 8 are to serve as a foil to the thought expressed in Jer_17:5-6, which is shown to be the main thought by its position—As a tree. Comp. Psa_1:3.—Drought. Comp. Jer_14:1.
Jer_17:9-10. The heart is more deceitful … his doings. Were the hearts of men, and especially of the Israelites, upright and directed to the true and the good, they must agree in word and deed with that which the prophet has declared in Jer_17:5-8. But there is nothing in the world so deceitful as the human heart, which understands the art thoroughly of pursuing the evil under the appearance of wishing the right (comp. Jeremiah 5 and Jer_9:2-8). This deceitfulness is however only a symptom of the deep depravity, the incurable sickness by which the heart is possessed.—Deceitful, עקב. Comp. on Jer_9:3. The word occurs here only as an adjective with this meaning.—Corrupt, אנשׁ. The meaning “desperate” is not contained in the word. It is everywhere = severely sick, incurable (Jer_15:18; Jer_30:12; Jer_30:15; Isa_17:11; Mic_1:9; Job_34:6), full of the deepest pain (Jer_17:16). No man is in a condition to see through the deceitful hypocrisy of the human heart, but the Lord can do it, and founds on this His knowledge, His strict and righteous judgment. Comp. Jer_11:20; Jer_12:3; Jer_20:12.—Even to give. Separating the statement of the object from the fundamental declaration, the word even sets forth the independence of the latter. God is not omniscient merely for the purpose of judging, but in His essential nature. Comp. besides comm. on Jer_6:2.
Jer_17:11. A partridge … be a fool. As the third root of spiritual and bodily corruption the prophet names avarice, which is the root of all evil (1Ti_6:10). The selfish inquire not about the right (comp. Jer_5:1; Jer_5:26 sqq.; Jer_6:6-7; Jer_13:8; Jer_13:10), therefore the blessing of God is also denied them. Lightly come lightly go. Forsaken and put to shame the unrighteous man is at last like the bird, of which it is said that it collects the young of others and fosters them, but is forsaken by them as soon as they perceive that a stranger has usurped a mother’s rights over them. The form of comparison is like that in Pro_10:20; Pro_11:22; Pro_16:24, etc. It is doubtful what bird is to be understood by קֹרֵא. The word is found besides only in 1Sa_16:20. The ancient translators and most of the Comm. understand the partridge, and the dialects also favor this rendering. Only natural history does not confirm this peculiarity of the partridge. Comp. Winer s. v. Rebhuhn. [“The ancients believed that she stole the eggs of other birds and hatched them as her own. See Epiphan. Physiol. cap. 9.; Isid.Origg. Jer_12:7.” Henderson.—S. R. A.].—Fosters. דָּגָר occurs besides only in Isa_34:15. It is there expressly distinguished from בקע, to hatch, and can mean only the gathering together and cherishing by warmth of the newly hatched young. Winer quotes inter al. a passage from Olympiodorus: ὁ πέρδιξ * * * τοὺς ἀλλοτρίους προσκαλε͂ιται νεοτ τούς οἵτινες γνόντες ὕστερον, ὅτι οὐκ εἰσὶν αὐτο̄υ, καταλιμπάνουσιν αὐτόν. This agrees admirably with the sense and connection of the passage, though it must still remain undecided whether we have here a real popular opinion existing at the time of Jeremiah, or only one deduced from this passage.—Shall leave them refers to the riches. On fool comp. Jer_10:8; Jer_10:14.
Jer_17:12-13. O throne of glory … Jehovah. Comprehensive conclusion in the form of a brief but solemn invocation of Jehovah. From Hope of Israel it is evident that the words of the prophet were addressed in the last instance to the person of the Lord. But he mentions first the exteriora, which are the places and bearers of His glory: his throne, the place where His throne stands, the sanctuary which surrounds it, for he wishes to set forth distinctly how foolish and criminal it is to do that, which he has censured in Jer_17:5; Jer_17:9; Jer_17:11 and which he afterwards comprises in one word, “forsake the Lord.” Israel has given up the truly real and eternal sanctuaries for the miserable high-places of idolatry. I do not therefore hold the view that Jer_17:12 is addressed to Jehovah Himself, for the reason given by Graf, that the Lord cannot possibly be called place of sanctuary.—O throne of glory. Comp. 1Sa_2:8; Isa_22:23; Jer_14:21. The Lord’s throne appears in the Old Test in three degrees. First, Jerusalem is thus named (Jer_3:17), second, the ark of the covenant (Exo_25:22; Psa_80:2; Psa_99:1), third, the proper, so to speak, and transcendent throne (Isa_6:1; Eze_1:26; Dan_7:9; Psa_9:5; Psa_11:3; Psa_47:9; Psa_110:1). These three degrees are however so connected, that he who forsakes one does the same to the other. The prophet has primarily in view here, as at any rate in Jer_14:21, the visible throne of the Lord.—Height of beginning. The idea expressed by מָרוֹם has also several gradations. 1. Mt. Zion is called הַרֹ מְרוֹם ישׂראל, Eze_17:23; Eze_20:40 coll. Eze_34:14; Jer_31:12. 2. It is very often used to designate the transcendent abode of Jehovah, Isa_33:5; Isa_57:15; Mic_6:6; Jer_25:30; Psa_93:4; Psa_68:19, etc. The expression מראשׁון, which occurs here only (comp. מֵרֹאשׁ, Pro_8:23) agrees with מרום in both senses. For that transcendent abode is from the beginning, eternally existing (comp. Psa_93:2), and Zion also as chosen from eternity is in idea the eternal dwelling-place of God. (Comp. Psa_132:13-14 coll. Exo_15:17; Exo_20:24; Deu_5:12).—Place of our sanctuary. Comp. Isa_60:13; Dan_8:11. Even the sanctuary of Israel (מקדש) is a double one, an earthly and a heavenly. The former is made according to the type of the latter (Exo_25:8-9; Exo_25:40; Exo_26:30). Thus though the expression refers primarily to the earthly sanctuary the heavenly is not excluded. There is no objection to the impersonal rendering of these three substantives in the prophet’s addressing words of prayer to them. For what the prophet declares with respect to them: “All who forsake thee are put to shame,” would be quite unprejudicial even if “Hope of Israel,” etc., did not come between. But the three former are entirely sunk in this last conception, since it is only in and by Jehovah that they have any existence or meaning. Hence also the singular suffix in עֹזְבֶיךָ. The older commentators render throne of glory as nominative, either taking the first and the last three words together (solium gloriæ excelsum, ab initio locus sanctuarii nostri, Calvin), or regarding throne (thronus, qui est altitudo ab æterno, est locus sanctuarii, Seb. Schmidt), or height (a throne in glory is the height of beginning, the place of our sanctuary, Neumann) as the nominative. According to these renderings however it is scarcely possible to find a suitable connection.—Hope of Israel. Comp. Jer_14:8; Jer_50:7.—Written in the earth. In the earth (in the dust, Job_14:8), where what is written will be speedily effaced, shall those who depart from me be written. The antithesis on the one hand would be to Jer_17:1 (the sin in brass, the sinners in dust), on the other hand to the book of life (Exo_32:32; Psa_69:29; Dan_12:1; Mal_3:16; Luk_10:20; Php_4:3; Rev_3:5; Rev_13:8; Rev_17:8; Rev_21:27). Meier reads: they vanished away in the laud (Job_15:30), all who are recorded in it (Jer_17:1; Jer_22:30) that they have forsaken the fountain, etc. This exegesis also is exposed to several objections: 1. that סוּר must be taken in the sense of vanish away: 2. the imperf. יִבָּתֵבוּ I therefore prefer to adhere to the reading of the Chethibh. The rapid change of person forms no objection to this. Comp. on Jer_5:14; Jer_9:7; Jer_12:13; Jer_17:1. The Lord then continues in confirmation of the prophet’s address.—Fountain, etc. Comp. Jer_2:13; Psa_36:10.
Footnotes:
[6]Jer_17:6.—כערער. The ancient translations all express here, doubtless on the ground of the antithesis in Jer_17:8, the name of a tree or shrub, while in Psalms 102 where alone the word occurs a second time, they all, in accordance with the context, express the idea of miser. Since now עַרְעָר is formed after the analogy of כַּבְכָּב ,זַלְזַל ,דַּרְדַּר ,נַלְנַל (כּוֹכָב), etc. (comp. Olsh. § 189, a; Naegelsb. Gr., § 42, a, S. 87), since, further, the corresponding verbal root is given by Jer_51:58 (עַרְעֵר תִּתְעַרְ עַר) unquestionably with the meaning denudare (comp. Isa_23:13; Isa_32:11; Hab_3:9. מָעוֹר nuditas, עָרם nudus, עָרִירִי nudus, solitarius; Gen_15:2; Lev_20:20-21; Jer_22:30), the meaning of “naked, destitute, wretched,” is assured also in this passage. [Henderson: “I acquiesce in the opinion of Dr. Robinson, that it is the same as the Arab. ׁׁ Arar, the juniper-tree which is found in the vicinity of the Arabah, or the Great Valley, to the south of the Dead Sea. See Bibl. Res. II., 506. Thus De Wette: Wacholderbaum. The same form of the word occurs Psa_102:18, where the idea conveyed is that of naked, destitute. The point of comparison in the two passages of our prophet is the forlorn appearance of a solitary juniper, deprived of all nourishment in the arid desert.”—Hitzig referring to the composition of Psalms 102, after the flight of Jonathan into the desert of Tekoa, and the connection with Jer_48:6, where also flight is spoken of, decides that the word designates one who has flet or been driven into the desert, or one who has come into misfortune as starved or perishing.—S. R. A.]. On the words in Jer_48:6, כַּעֲרוֹעֵר בַּפדְבָּר, comp. rems. there.
[7]Jer_17:8.—יובל. ἄπ. λεγ., synonymous with יבל, Isa_30:25; Isa_44:4.
[8]Jer_17:8.—עַל for אֵל as frequently in Jer. Comp. on Jer_10:1.
[9]Jer_17:8.—ולא ירא. The Keri reads יִרְאֶח after Jer_17:6. The Chethibh should be punctuated יִרָא (Imperf. from יָרֵא), corresponding to יִרְאַנ, and is at any rate to be preferred; as also the ancient translations express it, with the exception of the Chaldee.
[10]Jer_17:10.—ולתת. Comp. Jer_32:19. The Vau, which the ancient translations and many Codd. omit, is not so superfluous as Graf supposes.
[11]Jer_17:12.—מרום might grammatically be in the accusative, but as בָּבוֹד appears to be contrasted with בּשֶׁת (Jer_3:24; Jer_11:13), so does מרום ו׳ with בּמוֹת.
[12]Jer_17:13.—יסורי. The Chethibh יְסוּרַי would be formed like יְתוּר ,יְקוּם ,יָרִיב, (Olsh. § 212). The form יַסוּר as a noun, does not, however, occur elsewhere, and the sudden change of person is strange. The Keri reads וְסוּרַי. The meaning is the same (= those departing from me. Comp. קָמַי, Jer_51:1); the form is likewise a rare one. (Yet comp. Jer_2:21; Isa_49:21; Olsh. § 172, b.) Meier reads יָסיּרוּ.
2. PETITION OF THE PROPHET FOR THE SAFETY OF HIS PERSON AND THE HONOR OF HIS OFFICIAL MINISTRATIONS
Jer_17:14-18
14 Heal me, Jehovah, that I may be healed;
Deliver me that I may be delivered, for thou art my praise!
15 Behold, they say to me: Where is the word of Jehovah? Let it come now.
16 But I have not hastened away from being a pastor after thee;
And the calamitous day I have not desired, thou knowest.
That which went forth from my lips was from thee.
17 Be not13 a terror to me, my refuge in the day of distress!
18 My persecutors must be put to shame,
But I must not be put to shame;
They must be dismayed, but I must not be dismayed!
Bring14 upon them the day of calamity,
And doubly15 with destruction destroy them!
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
The second, personal half of the conclusion. The prophet prays for safety and deliverance for himself (Jer_17:14). In opposition to the scornful doubt in the fulfilment of his predictions, expressed in Jer_17:15, he prays on the ground of the fact that he had not hastened into the prophetic office, or declared his own inventions (Jer_17:16), that the Lord, his refuge, would not be a terror to him or suffer him to be put to shame, but his persecutors, and bring upon them the day of calamity and double destruction (Jer_17:17-18).
Jer_17:14. Heal me … thou art my praise. The prophet begins with a prayer for safety and deliverance in general.—Heal me. Deu_32:39; Psa_6:3; Psa_30:3.—My praise, the object of my confident boasting. Comp. Deu_10:21;. Psa_71:6.
Jer_17:15-16. Behold, they say … was from thee. The prophet resumes the thought in Jer_15:10; Jer_15:15-19 (coll. Jer_20:7-12).—Where, etc. Comp. Isa_5:19; Eze_12:22 sqq. It is used ironically also in Psa_42:4; Psa_42:11; Psa_79:10; 2Ki_18:34, etc.—On Let it come now, comp. Jer_28:8, Jeremiah 9 : Deu_18:21-22 coll. Jer_13:2.—But I have not, etc. The prophet would deserve such scorn, if he had taken the word of the Lord into his mouth in his own strength, or deceitfully, as others did, Jer_14:14-15.—But he is not a pseudo-prophet, but a prophet against his will. Comp. Jer_1:6 sqq.; Jer_20:7.—The words I have not hastened (לא אצתי מ׳) have been variously explained. But all the commentators (when they do not alter the reading, as the Syr., which reads מֵרָעָה) concur in understanding רֹעֶה of the spiritual pastorate. The thought that he had not hastened from the pastoral office or spiritual pasture after Jehovah does not however suit the connection. For he can wish only to defend himself against the imputation of having hurried. It is very remarkable that not a single comm. has yet thought of taking רֹעֶה in a physical sense; doubtless because the knowledge of Jeremiah’s priestly descent has seemed to preclude the thought of his having been a shepherd. But why may not Jeremiah, who was called as a נַעַר to the prophetic office, have previously tended his father’s sheep? The shepherd’s state was rendered sacred to the Israelites by the example of their fathers, and kings as well as prophets had proceeded from it (comp. Amo_1:1; Amo_7:14 coll. Exo_3:1). Moreover the מִנְרָשׁ [pasture, common], which was possessed by every priestly and levitical city (comp. Joshua 21. and 1 Chronicles 6.), was according to Num_35:4 expressly intended “for the cattle.” Anathoth also had its מִגְרָשׁ (Jos_21:18). Comp. Herzog, R.-Enc. VI. S. 150. How well now it suits the connection if Jer. says: They scorn me as a prophet and yet I did not hurry away from being a shepherd (מִהִיוֹת רֹעֶה=מִרֹעֶה. Comp. Jer_2:25; Jer_48:2; Psa_83:5; 1Sa_15:23; 1Sa_15:26) after thee.—אוּץ = to press, to haste:Exo_5:13; Jos_10:13; Pro_19:2; Pro_21:5; Pro_28:20.—אהריך. Comp. Jer_2:2; Jer_3:19. Going after Jehovah is in antithesis to going after the flock (comp. 1Ch_17:7). [Hitzig: “I have not hastened away not to keep after thee. In אוּץ is the idea of wilfulness, following one’s own impulse in any direction. ‘I did not struggle away so that I should not be pasturing,’ etc.אחריד does not suit the usual rendering of רעח as the trade of the shepherd, but leads to this, that Jahve is the shepherd, leader, and Jeremiah the lamb, Psa_23:1. Willingly following him (comp. 1Sa_7:2; Num_14:24) he allowed himself to be fed by Jahve (comp. Pro_10:21) with words of truth and with revelation Jer_15:16.” Henderson appears to follow Hitzig in this rendering.—Wordsworth: “Rather, I have not hastened backward from being a shepherd (a prophet) after thee. When I was called by Thee, I did not withdraw myself hastily from Thy service (see Gesen. 23), but I obeyed Thy call without delay: and I did not desire the woful day.”—So also Cowles.—S. R. A.]
And the calamitous day. Comp. rems. on Jer_17:9. From the connection the prophet can mean only the day of his entrance into the prophetic office. (Comp. Jer_20:7 sqq.; Jer_15:10-11). For he needed not to give the assurance that he did not desire the day of calamity for the whole people. He might indeed have been reproached with loving to prophesy evil, but there is nothing of this in the text.—Thou knowest. Comp. Jer_15:15.—That which went forth, etc. That which has gone forth from his lips, since he has been a prophet, God knows and approves, he has nothing then to fear from the criticism of men. Comp. Pro_5:21; Lam_2:19.
Jer_17:17-18. Be not a terror … destroy them. The negative petition, comp. Jer_17:14.—persecutors, pursuers. Comp. Jer_15:15; Jer_20:11.—doubly with destruction. Comp. Jer_16:18.
[14]Jer_17:18.—חביא, a rare form instead of חָבִא, but comp. 1Sa_20:40; Olsh., § 256 b, S. 569.
[15]Jer_17:18.—כִשְׁנֶה (not מִשְׁנֵה) is accus. modi. Comp. Naegelsb. Gr., § 70 g.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. On Jer_14:7. “Medicina erranti confessio, qua de re Psa_32:3-4 et Ambrosius eleganter: Confessio verecunda suffragatur Deo, et pœnam, quam defensione vitare non possumus, pudore revelamus (lib. de Joseph., c. 36), et alibi idem: Cessat vindicta divina, si confessio præcurat humana. Etsi enim confessio non est causa meritoria remissionis peccatorum, est tamen necessarium quoddam antecedens.” Förster.
2. “In earnest and hearty prayer there is a conflict between the spirit and the flesh. The flesh regards the greatness of the sins, and conceives of God as a severe Judge and morose being, who either will not help further or cannot. The spirit, on the other hand, adheres to the name of God, i. e., to His promise; he apprehends God by faith as his true comfort and aid, and depends upon Him.” Cramer.
3. On Jer_14:9 a. “Ideo non vult Deus cito dare, ut discas ardentius orare.” Augustine.
4. On Jer_14:9 b. “Quia in baptismo nomen Domini, i. e., totius SS. et individuæ Trinitatis super nos quoque invocatum est, eo et ipso nos in fœdus Dei recepti sumus et inde populus Dei salutamur.” Förster.
5. On Jer_14:10. “So long as the sinner remains unchanged and uncontrite God cannot remove the punishment of the sin (Jer_26:13).” Starke.—“Quotidie crescit pœna, quia quotidie crescit et culpa.” Augustine.
6. On Jer_14:11-12. [“We further gather from this passage that fasting is not in itself a religious duty or exercise, but that it refers to another end. Except then they who fast have a regard to what is thereby intended—that there may be a greater alacrity in prayer—that it may be an evidence of humility in confessing their sins,—and that they may also strive to subdue all their lusts;—except these things be regarded, fasting becomes a frivolous exercise, nay, a profanation of God’s worship, it being only superstitious. We hence see that fastings are not only without benefit except when prayers are added, and those objects which I have stated are regarded, but that they provoke the wrath of God as all superstitions do, for His worship is polluted.” Calvin.—S. R. A.] “Unbelief is a mortal sin, so that by it the good is turned into evil. For fasting or praying is good; but when the man who does it has no faith it becomes sin (Psa_109:7).” Cramer.
7. On Jer_14:14. “He who would be a preacher must have a regular appointment. In like form for all parts of divine worship we must have God’s word and command for our support. If we have it not all is lost.” Cramer.
8. On Jer_14:14 (I have not sent them). “This does not come at all into the account now-a-days; and I do not know, whether to such a preacher, let him have obtained his office as he may, in preaching, absolution, marrying and exorcising, or on any other occasion, when he appeals to his calling before the congregation or against the devil, the thought once occurs, whether he is truly sent by God. Thus the example of the sons of Sceva (Act_19:14; Act_19:16) is no longer considered, and it appears that the devil is not yet disposed by such frightful occurrences to interrupt the atheistical carelessness of the teachers.” Zinzendorf.
9. On Jer_14:15. “The example of Pashur and others shortly afterwards confirms this discourse. This is an important point. One should however, with that modesty and prudence, which Dr. Wiesmann (Prof. of Theol. in Tübingen), who seems called of God to be a writer of church history, in his Introd. in Memorabilia historiæ sacræ N. T. (1731 and 1745) which I could wish were in the hands of all teachers, repeatedly recommends, have regard to this also, when so-called judgments on the wicked are spoken of, that when the Lord in His wisdom and omnipotence exercises justice on such transgressors by temporal judgments, these are often a blessing to them and the yet remaining means of their salvation. It is related that a certain clergyman in a Saxon village, about the year 1730, felt such a judgment upon himself and his careless ministry, and after happy and humble preparation on a usual day of fasting and prayer, presented himself before his church as an example, and exercised on himself what is called church discipline, whereupon he is said to have fallen down dead with the words,
‘My sin is deep and very great,
And fills my heart with grief.
O for thy agony and death,
Grant me, I pray, relief.’
He is no doubt more blessed, and his remembrance more honorable, than thousands of others, who are praised by their colleagues in funeral discourses as faithful pastors, and at the same time, or already before, are condemned in the first but invisible judgment as dumb dogs, wolves or hirelings.” Zinzendorf.
10. On Jer_14:16. “Although preachers lead their hearers astray, yet the hearers are not thus excused. But when they allow themselves to be led astray, the blind and those who guide them fall together into the ditch (Luk_6:39).” Cramer. [“When sinners are overwhelmed with trouble, they must in it see their own wickedness poured upon them. This refers to the wickedness both of the false prophets and the people; the blind lead the blind, and both fall together into the ditch, where they will be miserable comforters one to another.” Henry.—S. R. A.]
11. On Jer_14:19. Chrysostom refers to Rom_11:1 sqq., where the answer to the prophet’s question is to be found.
12. On Jer_14:21. “Satan has his seat here and there (Rev_2:13). I should like to know why the Saviour may not also have His cathedral. Assuredly He has, and where one stands He knows how to maintain it, and to preserve the honor of the academy.” Zinzendorf.
[“Good men lay the credit of religion, and its profession in the world, nearer their hearts than any private interest or concern of their own; and those are powerful pleas in prayer which are fetched from thence, and great supports to faith. We may be sure that God will not disgrace the throne of His glory, on earth; nor will He eclipse the glory of His throne by one providence, without soon making it shine forth, and more brightly than before, by another. God will be no loser in His honor in the long run.” Henry.—S. R. A.]
13. On Jer_14:22. “Testimony to the omnipotence of God, for His are both counsel and deed (Pro_8:14). Use it for consolation in every distress and for the true apodictica [demonstration] of all articles of Christian faith, however impossible they may appear.” Cramer.—[“The sovereignty of God should engage, and His all-sufficiency encourage, our attendance on Him, and our expectations from Him, at all times.” Henry.—“Hence may be learned a useful doctrine—that there is no reason why punishments, which are signs of God’s wrath, should discourage us so as to prevent us from venturing to seek pardon from Him; but on the contrary a form of prayer is here prescribed for us; for if we are convinced that we have been chastised by God’s hand, we are on this very account encouraged to hope for salvation; for it belongs to Him who wounds to heal, and to Him who kills to restore to life.” Calvin.—S. R. A.]
14. On Jer_15:1. On the part of the Catholics it is maintained that “hoc loco refellitur hæreticorum error … orationes defunctorum sanctorum nihil prodesse vivis. Contrarium enim potius ex hisce arguendum suggeritur, nempe istiusmodi sanctorum mortuorum orationes et fieri coram Deo solere pro viventibus, et quando viventes ipsi non posuerint ex semet obicem, illas esse iis maxime proficuas. Ghisl. Tom. II. p. 296). To this it is replied on the part of the Protestants. 1. Enuntiatio isthæc plane est hypothetica. 2. Eo tantum spectat, ut si Moses et Samuel in vivis adhuc essent, adeoque in his terris pro populo preces interponerent suas, perinde ut ille, Exodus 32. hic vero 1 Samuel 7. (Förster, S. 86).” He also adds two testimonies of the fathers against the invocation of saints. One from Augustine, who (contra Maximin., L. 1), calls such invocation sacrilegium, the other from Epiphanius who (Hæres 2) names it an error seductorum, and adds “non sanctos colimus, sed sanctorum dominum.”—That the intercession of the living for each other is effective, Cramer testifies, saying “Intercession is powerful, and is not without fruit, when he who prays and he for whom he prays are of like spirit.” Comp. Rom_15:30; 2Co_1:11; Eph_6:18-19; 1Ti_2:1-2; 1Jn_5:16. [To the same effect also Calvin and Henry.—S. R. A.]
15. On Jer_15:4 b. “Scilicet in vulgus manant exempla regentum, utque ducum lituos, sic mores castra sequuntur.”—“Non sic inflectere sensus humanos edicta valent ut vita regentum.”—“Qualis rex talis grex.” Förster.
16. “God keeps an exact protocol [register] of sins, and visits them to the third and fourth generation.” Cramer. [“See what uncertain comforts children are; and let us therefore rejoice in them as though we rejoiced not.” Henry.—S. R. A]
17. On Jer_15:5. “When God abandons us we are abandoned also by the holy angels, and all creatures. For as at court when two eyes are turned away the whole court turns away; so when the Lord turns away all His hosts turn away also.” Cramer.
18. On Jer_15:7. “God as a faithful husbandman has all kinds of instruments for cleaning His grain. He has two kinds of besoms and two kinds of winnowing-fan. With one He cleanses, winnows the grain and sweeps the floor, so that the chaff may be separated from the good wheat. This is done by the Fatherly cross. But if this does not avail He takes in hand the besom of destruction.” Cramer.
19. On Jer_15:10. “The witnesses of Jesus have the name among others of being hard and rough people, from whom they cannot escape without quarreling. It is not only a reproach which Ahab and such like make to Elijah, ‘Art thou he that troubleth Israel?’ (1Ki_19:17). But even true-hearted people like Obadiah do not thoroughly trust to them; every one has the thought, if they would only behave more gently it would be just as well and make less noise. Meanwhile the poor Elijah is sitting there, knowing not what to do; a Jeremiah laments the day of his birth … why am I then such a monster? Why such an apple of discord? What manner have I? How do I speak? ‘For when I speak, they are for war’ (Psa_120:7). He does not at once remember that they called the master Beelzebub, and persecuted all the prophets before him; that his greatest sin is that he cares for the interests of Jesus in opposition to Satan.” Zinzendorf. [“Even those who are most quiet and peaceable, if they serve God faithfully, are often made men of strife. We can but follow peace; we have the making only of one side of the bargain, and therefore can but, as much as in us lies, live peaceably.” Henry.—S. R. A.]
20. On Jer_15:10 b. (I have neither lent nor borrowed at usury). “My dear Jeremiah! Thou mightest have done that; that is according to the custom of the country, there would be no such noise about that. There is no instance of a preacher being persecuted because he cared for his household. But to take payment in such natural products as human souls, that is ground of distrust, that is going too far, that thou carriest too high, and thou must be more remiss therein, otherwise all will rise up against thee; thou wilt be suspended, removed, imprisoned or in some way made an end of, for that is pure disorder and innovation, that smacks of spiritual revolutionary movements.” Zinzendorf.
21. On Jer_15:15 a. (Thou knowest that for thy sake I have suffered reproach). “This is the only thing that a servant of the Lamb of God should care for, that he does indeed suffer not the least in that he has disguised and disfigured the doctrine of God and his Saviour. … It might be wished that no servant of the Lord, especially in small cities and villages, would now and then make a quarrel to relieve the tedium, which will occupy the half of his life, and of which it may be said in the end: vinco vel vincor, semper ego maculor.” Zinzendorf.
22. On Jer_15:16. “The sovereign sign of a little flock depending on Christ is such a hearty, spiritual tender disposition towards the Holy Scriptures, that they find no greater pleasure than in their simple but heart-searching truths. I, poor child, if I but look into the Bible, am happy for several hours after. I know not what misery I could not alleviate at once with a little Scripture.” Zinzendorf. [On Jer_17:17. “It is the folly and infirmity of some good people that they lose much of the pleasantness of their religion by the fretfulness and uneasiness of their natural temper, which they humor and indulge instead of mortifying it.” Henry.—S. R. A.]
23. On Jer_15:19, a. (And thou shalt stand before me: [Luther: thou shalt remain my preacher]) “Hear ye this, ye servants of the Lord! Ye may be suspended, removed, lose your income and your office, suffer loss of house and home, but ye will again be preachers. This is the word of promise. * * * And if one is dismissed from twelve places, and again gets a new place, he is a preacher to thirteen congregations. For in all the preceding his innocence, his cross, his faith preach more powerfully than if he himself were there.” Zinzendorf.
Note.—On this it may be remarked that in order to be the mouth of the Lord it is not necessary to have a church.
24. On Jer_15:19 b. (Before thou return to them) “We can get no better comfort than this, that our faithful Lord Himself assures us against ourselves. I will make thee so steady, so discreet, so well-founded, so immovable, that, hard as the human heart is, and dead and opposed, yet it will be rather possible that they all yield to thee, than that thou shouldest be feeble or slack and go over to them.” Zinzendorf.
25. On Jer_15:20. “A preacher must be like a bone, outwardly hard, inwardly full of marrow.” Förster. [“Ministers must take those whom they see to be precious into their bosoms, and not sit alone, as Jeremiah did, but keep up conversation with those they do good to, and get good by.” Henry.—S. R. A.]
26. On Jer_16:2. “It is well-known that in no condition is celibacy attended by so many evils as in that of the clergy and that this condition entails in a certain measure a present necessity of marrying. For if any one needs a helpmeet to be by his side, it is the man who must be sacrificed to so many different men of all classes. But all this must be arranged according to circumstances. Ye preachers! Is it made out that ye marry only for Jesus? … that you have the church alone as your object? and that you subject yourselves to all the hardships of this condition with its tribulations only for the profit of many? First, then, examine maturely in your offices, whether there is no word of the Lord, whether circumstances do not show, whether there is not an exception from the rule in your case, that you are to take no wife; whether Paul does not call to you in spirit, ‘I would that thou wert as I.’ May it not sometimes be said? ‘Take no wife at this time or at this place!’ or ‘Take not another!’ How does the matter look on closer examination? The rather, as it is known to the servants of Christ to be no hyperbolical speech, when it is said, ‘The minister has slain his thousands, but the minister’s wife her ten thousands.’ He that loves anything more than Christ is not worthy of Him. If it cannot be cured endure it. But see to it the more, that those who have wives be as those who have them not (1Co_7:29). Lead your wife in prayer diligently and plainly, as Moses with Zipporah (Exo_4:25, Surely a bloody husband art thou to me). If they would not have you dead they must leave you your Lord. I know not when anything was so pleasing to me as when I saw a certain minister’s wife weeping sorely from apprehension that her husband would not endure a certain trial. She saw clearly that he would retain his charge, but she feared the Saviour would make it hard to him.”Zinzendorf.
27. On Jer_16:2. “Ridiculi sunt Papicolæ, qui ex hoc typo articulum religionis suæ de cœlibatu saceraotum exstruere conantur. Nam. 1. tota hæc res fuit typica. Typica autem et symbolica theologia non est argumentativa juxta axioma Thomæ. 2. Non simpliciter interdicitur conjugium prophetæ in omni loco, sed tantum in hoc loco.” Förster.
28. On Jer_16:7. This passage (as also Isa_58:7) is used by the Lutheran theologians to prove that panem frangere may be equivalent to panem distribuere, as also Luther translates: “They will not distribute bread among them.” This is admitted by the Reformed, who, however, remark that it does not follow from this that frangere et distribuere also “in Sacramento æquipollere, quod esset a particulari ad particulare argumentari.” Comp. Turretin., Inst. Theol. Elencht. Tom. III., p. 499.
29. On Jer_16:8. “When people are desperately bad and will not be told so, they must be regarded as heathen and publicans (Mat_17:18; Tit_3:10; 1Co_5:9).” Cramer.
30. On Jer_16:19. “The calling of the heathen is very consolatory. For as children are rejoiced at heart when they see that their parents are greatly honored and obtain renown and praise in all lands, so do all true children of God rejoice when they see that God’s name is honored and His glory more widely extended.” Cramer.—This passage is one of those which predict the extension of the true religion among all nations, and are therefore significant as giving impulse and comfort in the work of missions. Comp. Deu_32:21; Hos. 2:1, 25; Joe_3:5; Isa_49:6; Isa_65:1; Rom_10:12 sqq.
31. On Jer_16:21. “Nothing can be learned from God without God. God instructs the people by His mouth and His hand, verbis et verberibus.” Cramer.
32. On Jer_17:1. “Scripta est et fides tua, scripta est et culpa tua, sicut Jeremias dixit: scripta est Juda culpa tua graphio ferreo et ungue adamantino. Et scripta est, inquit, in pectore et in corde tuo. Ibi igitur culpa est ubi gratia; sed culpa graphio scribitur, gratia spiritu designatur.” Ambros. de Sp. s. III. 2.
33. On Jer_17:1. “The devil is God’s ape. For when he sees that God by the writing of His prophets and apostles propagates His works and wonders to posterity, he sets his own pulpiteers to work, who labor with still greater zeal, and write not only with pens and ink, but also with diamonds, that such false religion may have the greater respect and not go down.” Cramer.
34. On Jer_17:5.
“O man in human help and favor
Trust not, for all is vanity,
The curse is on it,—happy he,
Who trusts alone in Christ the Saviour.”
[“When water is blended with fire, both perish; so when one seeks in part to trust in God and in part to trust in men, it is the same as though he wished to mix heaven and earth together, and to throw all things into confusion. It is then to confound the order of nature, when men imagine that they have two objects of trust, and ascribe half their salvation to God and the other half to themselves or to other men.” Calvin.—S. R. A.]
35. On Jer_17:5. “A teacher is commanded to be the first to honor the authorities, to pray for them and be subject to them as God’s servants… But since the authorities, in all which pertains to the concerns of the soul, have part only as members, there is great occasion for this cursed dependence on flesh … when one from the hope of good personal protection … gives up the work of the Lord to the powers of the earth. … It is true the church is to have foster-parents who are kings. But nevertheless neither kings nor princes are its tutelar deities, much less lords and commanders of the church, but one is our Master, one our Judge, one our King, the Crucified.” Zinzendorf.
36. On Jer_17:5. Reformed theologians, ex. gr., Lambertus Danæus (ob. 1596) have applied this passage in the sense of Joh_6:63, in their controversies against the Lutheran doctrine of the Supper. But as Calvin declared, it is not the flesh of Christ, but only earthly flesh and that per contemtum which is here spoken of Comp. Förster, S. 97.
37. On Jer_17:7. “Blessed are those teachers, who have betaken themselves, to His protection, who once promised His Church, that even the gates of hell should not prevail against it …… Who has ever been put to shame who trusted in Him?” Zinzendorf.
38. On Jer_17:9. “This is a spiritual anatomy of the heart. Examples: Manasseh (2 Chronicles 33.); Hezekiah (38:39); the children of Israel (Numbers 14.). Alii sumus dum lætamur et omnia in vita nobis secundo vento succedunt; alii vero in temporibus calamitosis, ubi quid præter sententiam acciderit. Comp. Ser. Jer 11:27.” (MS. note in my copy of Cramer’s Bibel).
39. On Jer_17:9. Νᾶφε καὶ μέμνασο ἀπιστεῖν. This applies with respect to ourselves and others. For the defiant it avails as an extinguisher (Rom_12:3); but the despairing may be reassured by it (1Jn_3:19-20).
40. On Jer_17:14. (Thou art my praise)…… “When a teacher confines himself to the praise of the cross and lets all other matters of praise go, which might adorn a theologian of these times, and adheres immovably to this: ‘I am determined to know nothing among you but Jesus Christ the crucified’ (1Co_2:2),—amid all the shame of His cross He is victorious over the rest.” Zinzendorf.
41. On Jer_17:16. (That which I have preached was right before thee). “It is not difficult to know in these times what is right before the Lord. There is His word; he who adheres to this strictly, knows in thesi that he is right …… In all this it is the teacher’s chief maxim, not to make use of the application without need, but to make the truth so plain in his public discourse, that the hearers must necessarily make the application to themselves. … ‘Thus saying, thou reproachest us also,’ said the lawyer (Luk_11:45).… Others went away convicted in their consciences.” Zinzendorf.
42. On Jer_17:17. “That is a period which straitens the hearts of witnesses, when their rock, their protection, their consolation, their trust is a terror to them. But under this we must bow and faithfully endure, and we shall have a peaceable fruit of righteousness. Discipline always ends gloriously.” Zinzendorf.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
On Jer_14:7-9. Jeremiah a second Israel, who wrestles with the Lord in prayer. 1. In what the Lord is strong against the prophet: the sin of the people. 2. In what the prophet is strong against the Lord: the Name of the Lord (a) in itself. This compels him to show that He is not a desperate hero, or giant, who cannot help; (b) in that His name is borne by Israel. Thus the Lord is bound to show Himself as He who is in Israel (not a guest or stranger), and consequently the Comforter and Helper of Israel.—Heim und Hoffmann, The Major Prophets (Winnenden, 1839). As Daniel (Jer_9:6) prayed, We have sinned and committed iniquity, etc., so Jeremiah took his share in the sin and guilt of his people.—This is true penitence, when one no longer wishes to contend with God in tribulation, but confesses his sin and condemnation, when he sees that if God should treat us according to our misdeeds, He could find no ground for grace. But for His name’s sake He can show us favor. He Himself is the cause of the forgiveness of sin.—Calwer Handbuch [Manual]. Notwithstanding the ungodliness of the people the prophet may still say, “Thou art among us,” because the temple of the Lord and His word were still in the land, and the pious have never all died out. [On Jer_14:7-9. “Prayer hath within itself its own reward. The prayer of the prophet consists of confession and petition. 1. Confession fitly begins. It is the testimony of iniquity, and that this iniquity is against God. When we are to encounter any enemy or difficulty, it is sin weakens us. Now confession weakens it, takes off the power of accusation, etc. 2. Petition: For Thy name’s sake. This is the unfailing argument which abides always the same and hath always the same force. The children of God are much beholden to their troubles for clear experiences of themselves and God. Though thou art not clear in thy interest as a believer, yet plead thy interest as a sinner, which thou art sure of.” Leighton.—S. R. A.]
2. On Jer_14:13-16. Against false prophets. 1. They tell the world what it likes to hear (Jer_17:13); 2. The Lord denies them (Jer_17:14); 3. The Lord punishes them (Jer_17:15); 4. The Lord also punishes those who allow themselves to be deceived by them (Jer_17:16).—Tüb. Bibelw.: To enter the preacher’s office without divine calling, what an abomination is that! But mark this, ye hirelings! the sentence of condemnation is already pronounced over you (Jer_23:21; Mat_7:15).—Osiander Bibl.: God avenges the deception of false teachers most severely, if not in this world in the next (Act_13:10-11).—Starke: God punishes both deceivers and deceived, the latter cannot then lay all the guilt on the former (Jer 27:45).
3. On Jer_14:19-22. The church’s distress and consolation. 1. The distress is (a) outward (Jer_17:19), (b) inward (Jer_17:20, the reason of the outward, confession). 2. The consolation (a). The Lord’s Name, [α] It is called and is One (Jer_17:22): [β] His glory and that of the church (throne of glory) are one; (b) the Lord’s covenant (Jer_17:21).—What in the present circumstances should be our position towards God? 1. The divine providence, in which we are at present: 2. Our confession, which we make before God: 3. Our petition, which we should address to Him. Voelter in Palmer’s Ev. Casual-Reden. [Occasional Discourses], 4th Ed., 1865.
4. On Jer_15:16. Sermon on a Reformation or Bible-Anniversary. The candlestick of the Gospel has been rejected by more than one church. We therefore pray: Preserve to us Thy word (Ps. 109:43). 1. Why we thus pray (Thy Word is our hearts’ joy and comfort); 2. Why we hope to be heard (for we are named by Thy name).
5. On Jer_15:19. Caspari (Installation-sermon at Munich, Adv., 1855). These words treat; 1, of the firm endurance; 2, of the holy zeal; 3, of the joyful confidence, with which a preacher of God must come to an evangelical church.
6. Homilies of Origen are extant on Jer_15:5-6; (Hom. XII., Ed. Lommatzsch); Jer_15:10-19 (Hom. XIV.); Jer_15:10; Jer_17:5 (Hom. XV.). [On Jer_15:20. “I. God’s qualification to be an overseer of the church. The metaphor of a wall implies, (1) courage, (2) innocence and integrity, (3) authority. II. The opposition a church-governor will be sure to meet with, (1) by seditious preaching and praying, (2) by railing and libels; (3) perhaps by open force. III. The issue and success of such opposition (they shall not prevail).” South.—S. R. A.]
7. On Jer_16:19-21. Missionary Sermon. The true knowledge of God. 1. It is to be had in Christianity (Jer_17:19, a). 2. It will also make its way to the heathen, for (a) It is God’s will that they should be instructed (Jer_17:21); (b) they are ready to be instructed (Jer_17:19 b. 20).
8. On Jer_17:5-8. The blessing of faith and the curse of unbelief (comp. Ebal und Gerizim). 1. Why does the curse come upon the unbeliever? (He departs in his heart from the Lord). 2. Wherein this curse consists (Jer_17:6). 3. Why must blessing be the portion of the believer? (Jer_17:7). 4. Wherein this blessing consists (Jer_17:8).
9. On Jer_17:5-8, and Jer_18:7-10. Schleiermacher (Sermon on 28 Mar., 1813, in Berlin): We regard the great change (brought about by the events of the period) on the side of our worthiness before God. 1. What in this respect is its peculiar import and true nature. 2. To what we must then feel ourselves summoned.
10. On Jer_17:9-10. The human heart and its Judges 1. The antithesis in the human heart. 2. The impossibility of fathoming it with human eyes. 3. The omniscient God alone sees through it; and 4, judges it with justice. [“The heart is deceitful—it always has some trick or other by which to shuffle off conviction.” Henry.—“It is extremely difficult for sinners to know their hearts. I. What is implied in their knowing their own hearts. 1. It implies a knowledge of their selfishness. 2. Of their desperate incurable wickedness. 3. Of their extreme deceitfulness. II. Why it is so extremely difficult for them to know their own hearts. 1. They are unwilling to know them. 2. Because of the deceitfulness of sin. They love or hate, as they appear friendly or unfriendly to them: (a) God, (b) Christ, (c) good men, (d) one another, (e) the world, (f) their own hearts, (g) the means of grace, (h) their convictions, (i) heaven—Improvement. The only way to know the heart is to inquire whether it loves God or not, etc. 2. Saints can more easily ascertain their true character than sinners Song of Solomon 3. All changes in life are trials of the heart,” etc., etc. Emmons.—“I. The human heart exhibits great fraud and treachery. 1. We are changeable by that connection which the soul has with the body. 2. By its connection with external objects by our senses. 3. By its love of novelty and variety. 4. By its hasty resolutions. 5. By its self-love. II. Its excessive malice is seen in history and experience. III. Its deep dissimulation and hypocrisy render it inscrutable. Inferences: 1. We should entertain a sober diffidence of ourselves. 2. We should not be surprised when men use us ill or disappoint us. 3. We should take care and give good principles and a good example to those young persons under our guidance. 4. We should be ready to confess our offences to God. 5. We should bear in mind that we are under the inspection of one who searcheth the hearts,” etc. Jortin.—See also two Sermons by Jer. Taylor.—S. R. A.].
11. Rud. Kœgel (Court and Cathedral preacher at Berlin, 1865). Sermon on Jer_17:9; Jer_17:19, and Heb_13:9 : Two pictures: 1, the unregenerate; 2, the regenerate heart.
12. On Jer_17:12-13. Sermon for the dedication of a church, the anniversary of the Reformation, or on Whitsunday. The church of the Lord. 1. What it is in itself (place of sanctuary, throne of divine glory, house of Him, who is Israel’s hope). 2. What it will be (it will ever remain firm, Mat_16:18): 3. What they find who forsake it (Jer_17:19).
13. On Jer_17:14-18. Cry for help of a preacher tempted on account of the truth. 1. The temptation (Jer_17:15). 2. The demonstration of innocence (Jer_17:16). 3. The cry for help, (a) negative (Jer_17:17-18), (b) positive (Jer_17:19). [On Jer_17:14. The penitent’s prayer. 1. The words express an earnest desire for salvation. 2. He applies to Almighty God for it. 3. Through the medium of prayer. 4. With confidence that he will be heard. Dr. A. Thomson of Edinburgh.—S. R. A.].
6. THE SIXTH DISCOURSE
(Jer_17:19-27.)
This short passage is closely connected neither with what precedes nor with what follows. Many commentators have, indeed, devised an extensive frame, so as to include this passage in it together with the previous or subsequent context, but these artificial expedients are not satisfactory. The previous discourse is, as shown above, complete in itself, and requires no further addition. The following passages are also as peculiar and independent as this. This forms a small but important and in form a finished whole. Why should not the prophet have addressed short speeches to the people?
As to the date, all is in favor of the reign of Jehoiakim. 1. The state still exists in unenfeebled independence; no trace betrays that the power of the Chaldeans had become predominant, or that they were immediately threatening. 2. The censure of the transgression of so important a command corresponds rather with the times of the godless Jehoiakim, than of the pious Josiah. The great similarity with Jer_22:1-5, which passage indubitably pertains to the reign of Jehoiakim, is in favor of referring this discourse to the same period. [Henderson: “Eichhorn, Rosenmüller and Maurer, are of opinion that this portion of the chapter belongs to the reign of Jehoiakim, who rapidly undid all the good which had been effected by Josiah, and among other evils encouraged the profanation of the Sabbath, with the due observance of which the prosperity of the State was bound up. The language of the prophet, however, is not objurgatory, as we should have expected, if the profanation in question had actually existed. It is rather that of caution and warning, with a promise of prosperity in case of obedience, and a threatening of destruction to the city in case of disobedience. It would seem, therefore, to belong to the time of Josiah, and to have been delivered in connection with or shortly after his reformation.”—Hitzig refers this passage together with chapter 18, to the period of Jeconiah, or that immediately following the death of Jehoiakim.—S. R. A.]
Exhortation To Hallow The Sabbath
Jer_17:19-27
19Thus saith the Lord [Jehovah] unto me; Go and stand in the gate of the children of the people,16 whereby the kings of Judah come in, and by the which they20go out, and in all the gates of Jerusalem; And say unto them, Hear ye the word of the Lord [Jehovah], ye kings of Judah and all Judah, and all the inhabitants21of Jerusalem that enter in by these gates: Thus saith the Lord [Jehovah]; Take heed ye to yourselves [Care with foresight for your souls],17 and bear no burden on 22the Sabbath-day, nor bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem; neither carry forth a burden out of your houses on the Sabbath day, neither do ye any work, but hallow23ye the Sabbath-day, as I commanded your fathers. But they obeyed [heard] not, neither inclined their ear, but made their neck stiff, that they might not hear18 nor24receive instruction. And it shall come to pass, if ye diligently hearken unto me, saith the Lord [Jehovah] to bring in no burden through the gates of this city on the Sabbath-day, but hallow the Sabbath day to do [by doing] no work therein;19 25then shall there enter into [through] the gates of this city kings and princes20 sitting upon [who sit on] the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, they and their princes, the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and this city26shall remain [be inhabited] forever. And they shall come from the cities of Judah and from the places about [environs of] Jerusalem and from the land of Benjamin, and from the plains and from the mountains, and from the south, bringing [people who bring] burnt offerings and sacrifices and meat-offerings and incense, and bringing27sacrifices of praise unto the house of the Lord [Jehovah]. But if ye will not hearken unto me to hallow the Sabbath day, and not to bear a burden, even entering [or enter] into the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath-day; then will I kindle a fire in the [your] gates thereof, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem and it shall not be quenched.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
Jeremiah is to go under the gate of the city and there warn all the people from the king downwards against the desecration of the Sabbath by bearing burdens and laboring as their fathers had done (Jer_17:18-23). If they would sanctify the Sabbath, their city should remain forever, and their gate should be witnesses of a lively traffic, of importance to the king’s house, the city and the temple (Jer_17:24-26). But if they should continue to desecrate the Sabbath, an inextinguishable fire should consume the gates and palaces of the city (Jer_17:27). Accordingly three parts may be distinguished in this passage.
Jer_17:19-23. Thus saith Jehovah … nor receive instruction.—Go, etc. Comp. Jer_2:2; Jer_3:12; Jer_19:1.—Gate of the children of the people. This gate is mentioned here only. It is, therefore, difficult to determine its position with certainty, as according to Von Raumer (Paläst., 4th Ed., S. 291), not two interpreters agree as to its position. The first question is whether it was a gate of the city or of the temple. Graf correctly remarks that, with respect to a gate of the city יצאו must stand first and יבאו last (comp. 2Ch_23:8). The name בני־העם would also be a very strange one for a city gate. The expression occurs with three meanings. 1. It designates the difference between strangers and natives, although in this sense עם is found in the Old Testament not with the article, but only with suffixes: Gen_23:11; Jdg_14:16; Lev_19:18; Eze_3:11; Num_22:5; Lev_20:17.—2. It designates a difference in rank among the people themselves, and in two degrees, the mass of the people in opposition to the king and the princes (2Ch_35:7 coll. 8), and again the commonalty in opposition to the more respectable classes (Jer_26:23; 2Ki_23:6).—3. The expression designates the difference between priests and not priests, in which sense it corresponds to our term “laity” (2Ch_35:5; 2Ch_35:12-13). It occurs only in the passages cited. Since now nothing is known of a gate of the city through which strangers might not pass, or of one through which only the kings and the dregs of the people, or only the kings and the rest of their subjects to the exclusion of the priests might pass, it follows that the gate must have been a gate of the temple through which only the laity went in and out, since special entrances were reserved for the priests. What gate it was it is difficult to say. The expression was probably not one in general use, but employed only by the priests, since according to the second explanation it included a somewhat dishonorable side-meaning. The rarity of the expression also justifies the conclusion that it was a temporary expression, i. e., in use only in those times, since as is well-known the city gates of Jerusalem bore successively different names. Comp. Raumer’sPaläst. S. 290, 1.—When in 2Ch_23:5, the high-priest Jehoiada posted a third of his people at the שַׁעַר הַיְסוֹד, it is natural to suppose that this was the gate through which he expected Athaliah to pass. It is then further probable that this gate was identical with the one mentioned in our passage “whereby the kings of Judah went in and out.” [Henderson:—“The gate of the mass of the people … was in all probability the gate of David, corresponding to what is now called the Jaffa Gate, and was called the ‘people’s’ gate from the circumstance of its being the principal thorough fare for the tribes in the South, the West, and the North-West.”—S. R. A.] That this gate, even were it a gate of the temple, was adapted to the proclamation of this divine message, is evident if we reflect (a), that this gate also might by the purchase and sale of temple-necessaries (comp. Mat_21:12) be the scene of Sabbath-desecrating traffic; (b) that even if this was not the case, at any rate the gate was one which was much frequented, perhaps more than all the rest.—Not do any work. Comp. Exo_12:16; Exo_20:8 sqq.; Deu_5:12 sqq.—The Sabbath was the day of Jehovah (comp. the passages quoted) a monimentum temporale for his service, hence the observance of this day stood or fell with the worship of Jehovah.—But they obeyed not. The first half of Jer_17:23 is taken verbatim from Jer_7:26.
Jer_17:23 is parenthetical, suggested by as I commanded, etc.
Jer_17:24-26. And it shall come … Jehovah Sitting upon the throne. Comp. Jer_13:13; Jer_22:4.—Shall remain. Comp. rems. on Jer_17:6.—Men of Judah. Comp. Jer_32:44; Jer_33:13; coll. Jos_10:40; Jdg_1:9; Deu_1:7; Zec_7:7.—The plains.שְׁפֵלָה is the low country between Joppa and Gaza, Jos_9:1; Jos_12:8; Jos_15:33 sqq.; 1Ki_10:27; Oba_1:19; Raumer, Paläst. S. 51.—South, נֶגֶב is the southern, as שְׁפֵלָה the western, מִרְבָּד the eastern, הָחָר the northern, parts of the tribe of Judah, separating the two last mentioned. Comp. Jos_15:55 sqq.; 2Sa_24:7.
Jer_17:27. But if ye will not … not be quenched. The negation before to bear must also be referred to enter. Comp. Jer_17:21.—Will I kindle. Comp. Jer_21:14; Jer_49:27; Amo_1:14.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. On Jer 17:30. “It is no derogation to the sagacity of a teacher if he directs his public instructions, admonitions and warnings with some special adaptation to the rulers of the country. Only he must guard against offensive or abusive expressions, and see to it that he carefully distinguish between their office and their life, and be sure of his case, that he is not following the motions of nature, but the calling of the Lord. Act_23:3; 1Ki_14:7-8.” Starke.
2. Man in this earthly life needs, besides work, rest also for body and soul. It would be inept to have one rest day for the body and another for the soul. It would be equally so to have more or fewer holidays than God has ordained by sanctification of the Seventh day, whereby He who is the creator of time has at the same time given us the fundamental principles of its division. As the rest of the body is both negative and positive (abstinence from labor and recuperation of forces) so also is that of the soul. The soul is from God, and must on its day of rest be freed from earthly cares and brought into the element of its heavenly origin, as it were into a cleansing and invigorating bath. The observance by Christians of the first, instead of the Seventh day, as a weekly holiday is well founded in the fact that the day of Christ’s resurrection is also a day of creation, and so much the more glorious as the new and imperishable world is more glorious than the old and perishable world.
3. “Neglect not church going. For though the unbelieving heathen thought it a foolish course to spend the day in idleness, yet temporal subsistence will not therefore fail, but rather will the weekly work of other days flourish the more. Mat_6:33.” Cramer.
4. [“God did not regard the external rite only, but rather the end, of which He speaks in Exo_31:13, and in Eze_20:12. In both places He reminds us of the reason why He commanded the Jews to keep holy the Seventh day, and that was that it might be to them a symbol of sanctification. ‘I have given My Sabbaths,’ He says, ‘to you, that ye might know that I am your God who sanctifieth you.’… And it appears from other places that this command was typical—Christ being the substance. Col_2:16.” Calvin.—S. R. A.]
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
The weekly holiday as the day of Jehovah and as the day of the Lord. 1. What they have in common. The weekly holiday is in both cases (a) a monument of the loving care of our God (a) for our body (β) for our soul; (b) a right of God which forms on our part a holy obligation towards God, ourselves, and our neighbor. 2. The differences. (a) The day of Jehovah is founded on the creation of the perishable world; the day of the Lord is founded on the resurrection of Christ, as of a new, eternal world; (b) the observance of the day of Jehovah was only legal, i. e., (a) imposed by external compulsion, (β) by requirements to be fulfilled by outward observance;—the observance of the day of the Lord is to be more and more an evangelical one, i. e. (a) a free, (b) a spiritually free one, i. e., satisfying the right as well as the obligation of personality.
[“What blessings God has in store for those who make conscience of Sabbath sanctification. 1. The court shall flourish. The honor of the government is the joy of the kingdom, and the support of religion would contribute greatly to both. 2. The city shall flourish. Whatever supports religion tends to establish the civil interests of a land. 3. The country shall flourish. By this the flourishing of a country may be judged of. What does it do for the honor of God? Those who starve their religion either are poor, or are in a fair way to be Song of Solomon 4. The church shall flourish. It is a true observation which some have made, That the streams of all religion run either deep or shallow, according as the banks of the Sabbath, are kept up or neglected.” Henry.—S. R. A.]
Footnotes:
[16]Jer_17:19.—[Hitzig: Of the common man]. The Chethibh reads בני־עם, but this does not make any difference in the sense. If the absence of the article is not due to an oversight, it may be explained by the later, less exact use of language, of which we repeatedly find traces in Jeremiah (comp. Jer_3:2; Jer_6:16; Jer_14:18).
[17]Jer_17:21.—בנפשׁובים. The construction is like Mal_2:15-16, בְּרוּחֲכֶם. But בִּ is not = by, per, after verbs of petition or conjuration (by your life not. Vid. Gesen., Thes. III., S. 1443), or=for the sake of (Meier), but the Niphal involves the meaning of having regard to, observing, and בְּ depends on this. Comp. שִׁמְרוּ־מִי בַנֵּעַר, 2Sa_18:12. That this is the sense of the connection follows plainly from 2Sa_20:10, “took no heed to the sword;” Deu_24:8, “take heed to the plague.” Comp. Naegelsb. Gr., § 100, 3.
[18]Jer_17:23.—שׁומע [Chethibh, שׁמוע] Hiller in Arcano Kri et K’tib, remarks that the Masoretes, when they wished to indicate the Scriptio plena, in order that the difference of their reading might be remarked, set the mater lectionis in another place in the word. So also in Jer_2:25; Jer_9:7; Jer_27:1; Jer_29:23; Jer_32:23. Comp. the Explicatio lectionum masoret. in the Hebrew Bible of Simonis, Halle, 1752.
[19]Jer_17:24.—On the form בֹּה. Comp. Ewald, § 84, b; 247, d. Olsh. § 96, c; 40, h.
[20]Jer_17:25.—וְשָׂרִים is strange. Graf not without reason, assumes an oversight, caused by the frequent juxtaposition of the two words. Comp. Jer_49:38; Hos_13:10; 2Sa_18:5; 1Ch_24:6; 2Ch_28:21; 2Ch_29:30; 2Ch_30:12; Est_1:16; Est_1:21, etc.
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown1871 · Public DomainOn vv2–4children remember--Instead of forsaking the idolatries of their fathers,…
children remember--Instead of forsaking the idolatries of their fathers, they keep them up (Jer 7:18). This is given as proof that their sin is "graven upon . . . altars" (Jer 17:1), that is, is not merely temporary. They corrupt their posterity after them. CASTALIO less probably translates, "They remember their altars as (fondly as) they do their children."
groves--rather, "images of Astarte," the goddess of the heavenly hosts, represented as a sacred tree, such as is seen in the Assyrian sculptures (Kg2 21:7; Ch2 24:18). "Image of the grove." The Hebrew for "grove" is Asherah, that is, Assarak, Astarte, or Ashtaroth.
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by the green trees--that is, near them: the sacred trees (idol symbols) of Astarte being placed in the midst of natural trees: "green trees" is thus distinguished from "groves," artificial trees. HENDERSON, to avoid taking the same Hebrew particle in the same sentence differently, "by . . . upon" translates "images of Astarte on the green trees." But it is not probable that images, in the form of a sacred tree, should be hung on trees, rather than near them.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon1874 · Public DomainOn vv1–4JUDAH’S SIN INEFFACEABLY RECORDED, Jer_17:1-4.
JUDAH’S SIN INEFFACEABLY RECORDED, Jer_17:1-4.
1. Sin of Judah — Namely, that very sin set forth in the previous chapter, of which even the Gentiles would become ashamed. Origen and Isidore understood by “Judah,” here, Judas Iscariot!
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Pen of iron — A sharp-pointed iron stylus, or chisel, used for making inscriptions on tables of wood or stone. Exo_32:16; Job_19:24. Of course when this was used it was for the purpose of graving it very deeply, so that it could not be easily effaced.
Point of a diamond — In Eze_3:9, and Eze_7:12, the original of diamond is rendered adamant; in every other place it is translated thorn. The sense here is correctly given. Pliny says the ancients were acquainted with the cutting powers of the diamond.
Table of their heart… horns of your altars — The inward seat of sin and its outward expression. God would have his law written on their hearts, but they had written sin instead. The “altars” here are the idolatrous altars which the Jews had set up to Baalim. True, Josiah had destroyed these; but doubtless many of them had been rebuilt and were now standing as the visible proof of Israel’s idolatry, answering to the writing on their hearts. The change of person — their heart… your altars — is such as is common, especially with Jeremiah, and serves to charge home their guilt more directly and personally.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges1878 · Public DomainOn vv1–41. a pen of iron] used for making permanent…
1. a pen of iron] used for making permanent marks on a hard surface, e.g. on rocks (Job_19:24).
diamond] as used now by glaziers on account of its extreme hardness. Pliny tells us (Hist. Nat. Jer_37:15) that the ancients were well acquainted with the cutting powers of the diamond, and used to set it in iron. Judah’s guilt is, as it were, indelibly engraved upon their utterly hard hearts.
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the table of their heart] their inward nature. Cp. Pro_3:3; Pro_7:3.
horns] probably metal projections from the corners (Exo_27:2).
your] better read, as in mg. (with LXX) their.
Jer_17:1-4. See introd. summary to section.
The vv. are omitted in LXX, either (as St Jerome suggests) from unwillingness that the lasting condemnation here expressed should be put on permanent record against them, or because a translator’s eye accidentally wandered from the last word of Jer_16:21 to the same (“the Lord”) in Jer_17:5. Jer_17:3 f. are repeated from Jer_15:13 f., where the LXX rendering exists. The passage is doubtless genuine, though the text is difficult and probably not free from corruption.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers1878 · Public DomainOn vv1–4(1) A pen of iron.—i.e., a stylus, or graving…
XVII.
(1) A pen of iron.—i.e., a stylus, or graving tool, as in Job_19:24, chiefly used for engraving in stone or metal. In Psa_45:1 it seems to have been used of the instrument with which the scribe wrote on his tablets.
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With the point of a diamond.—The word expresses the idea of the hardness rather than the brilliancy of the diamond, and is rendered “adamant” in Eze_3:9; Zec_7:12. (For the diamond as a precious stone a different word is used in Exo_28:18.) Strictly speaking, it was applied only to the diamond-point set in iron used by engravers. Such instruments were known to the Romans (Pliny, Hist. Nat. xxxvii. 15), and may have been in use in Phœnicia or Palestine. The words describe a note of infamy that could not be erased, and this was stamped in upon the tablets of the heart (comp. 2Co_3:3), and blazoned upon the “horns of the altars” of their false worship, or of the true worship of Jehovah which they had polluted and rendered false. The plural “altars” points probably to the former.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary1880 · Public DomainOn vv1–4Vers. 1-18 are closely connected with the preceding chapter.…
Vers. 1-18 are closely connected with the preceding chapter. We have just been pointed to the striking contrast between the conduct of the heathen and that of the backsliding men of Judah. The inspired orator"s indignation swells as he thinks of the inveterateness and indelibleness of Judah"s sin (vers. 1-4 are, however, omitted in the Septuagint). Then he passes to a subject immediately suggested by the policy of the court, viz. the true source of safety in dangerous times. Trust in man brings a curse; trust in Jehovah a blessing (vers. 5-13). From this portion of the prophecy we can venture to fix the date of the whole. Ver. 11 is, in fact, a shorter form of the denunciation in Jer_22:13-19, which is directly addressed to Jehoiakim; and the most natural view of vers. 5-10 is to regard them as a warning against the negotiations with Egypt entered into by Jehoiakim after his revolt from Nebuchadnezzar (see Ewald, "History of Israel," 4:261). The emphasis on the deceitfulness of the heart, in ver. 9, is readily intelligible in this connection; it reminds us of the woe pronounced by Isaiah against those who "seek deep to hide their counsel from Jehovah", (Jer_29:15) and which undoubtedly refers to a projected Egyptian alliance.
The sin of Judah, etc. "Judah"s sin" is not merely their tendency to sin, but their sinful practices their idolatry. This is said to be graven upon the table of their heart, for it is no mere form, but carried on with passionate earnestness, and as indelible as if engraved with an iron pen. How unlike, however, is this record to that of which the same expression is used in Job_19:24. With the point of a diamond; or, with a point of adamant . (harder than flint, as Eze_3:9 says) Fragments of adamant, says Pliny ("Hist. Nat.," 37:15), are sought out by engravers and enclosed in iron; they easily overcome every hardness. Upon the horns of your altars. First of all, what altars are referred to? Those erected for the worship of idols or the two in the temple of Jehovah, which had been defiled by idolatry? And why is the sin of Judah said to be engraved upon the horns of the altars? Probably because the "horns," i.e. the projections at the four upper corners (Exo_28:2) were smeared with the blood of the victims. The direction in Exo_29:12 and Lev_4:7 was doubtless not peculiar to the ritual of the Law.
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Ver. 1. Engraved sin.
I SIN LEAVES A RECORD OF ITSELF. It is not an isolated act. It begets consequences plants memories, creates guilt. The record remains even if we do not read it. God still notes it, and will some day confront us with it. Hence it is not enough to amend our ways for the future. We need to have past transgressions blotted out if we are to be restored to peace with God.
II THE RECORD OF SIN IS ENGRAVED ON HEART OF THE SINNER.
1. It is written on the memory. Men who have forsaken the scenes of their evil deeds cannot shake off the clinging burden of the memory of them. The criminal is haunted by his crimes. They people his dreams with horrors; they overshadow his waking hours with gloom. Even when sin is put out of mind it is probably buried in the secret chamber of memory, to be ultimately brought to the light of consciousness. The experience of those who have been recovered from drowning and from delirium suggests the idea that forgotten memories can be revived, and that probably the whole of the soul"s experience is indelibly written upon the memory. No other recording-angel may be wanted. The soul carries its own indictment in the record it bears of its own conduct.
2. This is also written on the affections. Sin begets the passion for sin. Vice springs from the heart, and it corrupts the heart. That which is first committed under the stress of temptation comes at length to be sought with the hunger of a natural appetite.
III THE RECORD OF SIN IS ENGRAVED ON THE ALTAR OF SACRIFICE. Judah desecrated the altar of Jehovah with idolatrous rites. We desecrate Divine things by sinful conduct.
1. We cannot leave our guilt behind us when we enter the temple of worship. If it is not repented of it will vitiate the worship. The sin of the week-day renders worthless the offerings of the Sunday.
2. Sin directly connected with religion is peculiarly wicked. The altar is defiled. Thus the offering of gifts from base motives, deceit, and unholiness in worship, stamps our sins with peculiar guilt on the altar of God.
IV THIS RECORD OF SIN IS NATURALLY INDELIBLE. It is graven with an adamant.
1. It is, therefore, useless to ignorant.
2. It is vain to try to wash it away by any effort of our own.
3. It is foolish to expect peace with God till this terrible hindrance has been removed out of the way.
4. We have every motive to seek in penitence and in faith that God should blot out our sin, not only from his book of remembrance, but also from our hearts, even though it is so deeply written there that nothing short of the creation of a new heart will remove it. (Psa_51:10)
HOMILIES BY A.F. MUIR Vers. 1, 2. Sin"s record.
I THE RECORD IS INEFFACEABLE. This is contrary to the notions of very many. Sin, when it is committed, wears the aspect of insignificance and triflingness. It is the gratification of a momentary impulse, of a personal and individual character; and it is not supposed that any one else, or at any rate any large number of persons, can be affected by it. The sinner supposes that he himself will be able to condone it, and that, when the active prompting of which he is conscious retires into the background, he will be as he was before. All sins, e.g. idolatry, which deeply engage the affections and the highest capacities of men, have a lasting influence upon their character. And when they are systematized into a religion they exert a daily influence which at last fixes itself. But the same is true, in a very serious degree, with all sins. They are contradictions of conscience and the Law of God, and can only be repeated without scruple by inverting and hardening the moral nature. In this sense we are all guilty before God. Our every sin has had its influence upon us, and has left its indelible impress. Conscience stores the guilty memory in its archives; habit perpetuates the evil impulse in conduct; and our relations and associations are involved in the wicked practices which ensue.
II HOW USELESS, THEREFORE, ATTEMPTING TO EXCULPATE OURSELVES! This arrangement, by which sin leaves its impress upon the character and life, is of God. It is a law of nature, and cannot be set aside by private understanding. Even where it appears to be inoperative, its effects are only accumulating themselves in a more hidden manner, and some day they will be the more overwhelming in their manifestation. It is the common question of the sinner, when addressed by the ministers of God, "Wherein have we sinned?" But this only shows a dullness of spiritual self-knowledge and a general lowering of the moral standard. Others are not so oblivious to the fact. They have witnessed the excesses and been involved in the complications of their immorality. In this case the children whose companions had been sacrificed to Moloch looked on the horns of the altars with aversion and loathing. It was a memory of horrid cruelty never to be effaced. There is every reason to believe that the sin we commit does not cease its work when its immediate outward effects take place. An ever deepening and widening circle of influence results. And, just as now it is impossible for us to plead innocence with so many proofs of our guilt staring us in the face, in the great day of judgment the secret sins will be set in the light of God"s countenance, and the thoughts and intents of the heart revealed. Our character will be our condemnation, and many witnesses will rise on every side to swell its testimony.
III HOW NECESSARY, TOO, THAT THE PRINCIPLE OF SALVATION SHOULD BE RADICAL AND THOROUGH. The sinner needs a saving power that can penetrate to his inmost nature, cleansing the conscience, rectifying the character, and making the weaknesses and defects created by sin a means of grace. And this is supplied by the gospel, which furnishes a new motive and principle to the character and a new law to the conduct. So profound is its effect that it may be said by the saved sinner, "Old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new," It is as a character-power that the "cross" asserts its preeminence over every other principle of reformation. There is nothing superficial, partial, or one-sided about it. M.
HOMILIES BY S. CONWAY Ver. 1. "The sin of Judah.
That which the prophet has to say concerning it in this part of his prophecy is in answer to the question of Jer_16:10, Jer_16:11, where Judah inquires what their sin is. In reply, the prophet
I RECITES THEIR INIQUITIES. (Vers. 11, 12)
II DENOUNCES GOD"S JUDGMENTS. (Vers. 13-18)
III CITES WITNESSES AGAINST THEM. C.
HOMILIES BY D. YOUNG Vers. 1-4. The profound impression of Judah"s sin.
I THERE IS IMPLIED JUDAH"S OWN INDIFFERENCE TO ITS SIN. With supernatural clearness of vision, the prophet saw the sin of Judah; and he spoke concerning that sin with words which Jehovah had put into his mouth. And yet it is evident the people would not admit his representations as being correct and as needing urgent attention. The great bulk of them thought that he was inventing or at least exaggerating. They had lived so long amongst evils as to have become quite used to them; nay, more, they made a pleasure and a profit of them. And this is just one of the great difficulties in preaching the gospel and trying to persuade men to repentance. They cannot be brought to see that there is anything to repent of; that, as far as the east is from the west, so far are they from being in a right state.
II Over against this evident indifference there must be set the prophet"s EMPHATIC STATEMENT OF THE HOLD WHICH SIN HAS UPON THE PEOPLE. That we do not see the evil of our life proves one of two things either that there is no evil to see or that we are spiritually blind and cannot see the evil which there is. Now, spiritual blindness has for its usual concomitant spiritual pride; and the man spiritually blind is the very last who will admit that he is so. If we are left to ourselves we shall never discover the original cause and fountain of all our troubles; something outside of ourselves must come in and lead to an altered view of the purposes and possibilities of life. This is not the place to speak of all that is required to produce that alteration of view; but it is very plain that statements such as that of the prophet here must be helpful to produce it. Is it not a great matter for preachers to be able to fall back upon the thorough going, uncompromising statements of the Word of God? For, though these may find no present practical response in the consciousness of the hearer, yet this very failure is a reason for repeating them over and over again, until in some critical hour the faculty is given of seeing ourselves as God sees us, which is a faculty much more to be desired than the one so often commended of seeing ourselves as others see us. Two things are here referred to the inscribing instrument and the substance on which the inscription is made. There is a necessity for both in order to make a deep, abiding, noticeable impression. A pencil may make upon a stone a mark of some sort, but it is a mark very easily rubbed out; a pen of iron may write some great truth upon the sand of the seashore, but one wash of the rising wave sweeps it all away. But when you have the materials for a deep inscription, then something is produced which can only be destroyed by destroying that on which it is written. Little wonder was it that these people of Judah would not face the task of inspecting their hearts. Sin is so intimately mixed with the heart that you cannot get it away save by a process tantamount to the removal of the old inward life and the substitution of a new one. Hence the fitness of the petition, "Create in me a dean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me." But there is something more to show the hold which sin has on these people, and that is the terrible effect upon their children. A great many details might have been heaped up to show the reality of Judah"s idolatry, but one crowning illustration was better still. Not even the most hostile to the prophet could well deny that the force which compelled them to inflict such cruelties on their children in the name of religion was a hideous force. Every evil, in default of ability immediately to see its real nature, must be measured by its worst visible effects. And this is just what the prophet does herd, when he puts in the front of his accusation the sufferings of the little ones of Judah. As if these little ones had not enough of unavoidable rain to suffer, without suffering being sought out for them.
III THE EFFECT OF ALL THIS DEEPLY ROOTED EVIL AS SEEN IN JEHOVAH"S CONSEQUENT INFLICTIONS. (Vers. 3, 4) The people may cry, in professed amazement, "Why all these sufferings? What have we done that we should be treated in this way?" The answer is that all this spoiling, all this turning of the promised inheritance into a place not worth having, all this bitterness of exile, were not produced in some arbitrary, incomprehensible way. The prophet was not astonished at these judgments coming; he saw them approaching, and knew why they came. Great effects always have great and appropriate causes; and great causes, left to operate freely, will produce great and proper effects. Every human heart holds within it enough to make indescribable misery; and unless that greater cause which God offers to put in certain operation comes in with its counteracting force, we may be sure that indescribable misery will be produced. Wherefore let us pray that more and more we may have eyes to see and perceive, ears to hear and understand. Y.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator1887 · Public DomainOn v1The sin of Judah is written with a pen…
Jer_17:1
The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron, and with the point of a diamond.
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The deep seated character of sin
I. What is sin? If you ask the Pharisee of old what sin was--Well, he said, it is eating without washing your hands; it is drinking wine without having first of all strained out the gnats, for those insects are unclean, and if you should swallow any of them they will render you defiled. Many in these days have the same notion, with a variation. We have read of a Spanish bandit, who, when he confessed before his father confessor, complained that one sin hung with peculiar weight upon his soul that was of peculiar atrocity. He had stabbed a man on a Friday, and a few drops of the blood of the wound had fallen on his lips, by which he had broken the precepts of holy Church, in having tasted animal food on a fast day. The murder did not seem to arouse in his conscience any feeling of remorse at all--not one atom--he would have done the same tomorrow; but an accidental violation of the canons of mother Church excited all his fears. Singular, indeed, are the ideas which many men have of transgression. But such is not Gods view of sin. Sin is a want of conformity to the will of God; sin is disobedience to Gods command; sin is a forgetfulness of the obligations of the relation which exists between the creature and the Creator. This is the very essence of sin. Injustice to my fellow creature is truly sin, but its essence lies in the fact that it is sin against God, who constituted the relation which I have violated. It is a great and intolerable wrong that, being created by God, we yet refuse to yield to His will. It is right that He who is so good to us should have our love: it is sin that, living upon Gods goodness, we do not return to Him our hearts affection. It is right that, being sustained by Divine beneficence from day to day, we should give to Him constant thankfulness; but, being so sustained, we do not thank Him, and herein lies the very soul of sin. Now, in the light of this truth, let me ask the believer to humble himself very greatly on account of sin. That I have not loved my God with all my heart; that I have not trusted Him with all my confidence; that I have not given to Him the glory due unto His name; that I have not acted as a creature should do, much less as a new creature is bound to do; that, receiving priceless mercies, I have made so small a return--let me confess this in dust and ashes, and then bless the name of the Atoner who, by His precious blood, hath put even this away, so that it shall not be mentioned against us any more forever.
II. How is the fixedness of sin which is declared in the text proved? The prophet tells us that mans sinfulness is as much fixed in him as an inscription carved with an iron pen in granite. How is this fixedness proved? It is proved in two ways in the text, namely, that it is graven upon the table of their heart, and secondly, upon the horns of their altar. It clearly proves how deeply evil is fixed in man, when we reflect that sin is in the very heart of man. When a sin becomes intertwisted with the roots of the affections, you cannot uproot it; when the leprosy eats deep into the heart of humanity, who can expel it? It becomes henceforth a hopeless case, so far as human power is concerned. Since sin reigns and rules in mans affections, it is deep ingrained indeed. The second proof the prophet gives of the infixedness of human sin is, that it was written on the horns of their altars. These people sinned by setting up idols and departing from Jehovah: we sin in quite another way. When you get the unconverted man to be religious--which is a very easy thing--what form does the religion take? Frequently he prefers that which most gratifies his taste, his ears, or his sight. If your heart is touched, that is the worship of God; if your heart is drawn to God, that is the service of God; but if it is the mere ringing of the words, and the falling of the periods, and the cadence of the voice that you regard, why, you do not worship God, but on the very horns of your altars are your sins. You are bringing a delight of your own sensuous faculties and putting that in the place of true faith and love, and then saying to your soul, I have pleased God, whereas you have only pleased yourself. When men become serious in religion, and look somewhat to the inward, they then defile the Lords altar by relying upon their own righteousness. Man is much like a silkworm, he is a spinner and weaver by nature. A robe of righteousness is wrought out for him, but he will not have it; he will spin for himself, and like the silkworm, he spins, and spins, and he only spins himself a shroud. All the righteousness that a sinner can make will only be a shroud in which to wrap up his soul, his destroyed soul, for God will cast him away who relies upon the works of the law. In other ways men stain the horns of their altars. Some do it by carelessness. Those lips must be depraved indeed which even in prayer and praise still continue to sin. The horns of our altars are defiled by hypocrisy. You may have seen two fencers practising their art, and noticed how they seem to be seeking each others death; how they strike and thrust as though they were earnestly contending for life; but after the show is over, they sit down and shake hands, and are good friends. Often so it is in your prayers and confessions; you will acknowledge your sins, and profess to hate them, and make resolutions against them, but it is all outward show--fencing, not real fighting--and when the fencing bout is over, the soul shakes hands with its old enemy, and returns to its former ways of sin. Oh, this foul hypocrisy is a staining of the horns of the altar with a vengeance!
III. What is the cause of this? First, we must never forget the fall. We are none of us today as God made us. The human judgment is out of balance, it uses false weights and false measures. It puts darkness for light and light for darkness. The human will is no longer supple, as it should be, to the Divine will; our neck is naturally as an iron sinew, and will not bow to Jehovahs golden sceptre. Our affections also are twisted away from their right bent. Whereas we ought to have been seeking after Jesus, and casting out the tendrils of our affections towards Him, we cling to anything but the right, and climb upon anything but the true. The whole head is sick, and the whole heart is faint. Human nature is like a magnificent temple all in ruins. In addition, however, to our natural depravity, there come in, in the second place, our habits of sin. Well may sin be deeply engraven in the man who has for twenty, forty, fifty, or perhaps seventy years, continued in his iniquity. Put the wool into the scarlet dye, and if it lie there but a week, the colour will be so ingrained in the fabric that you cannot get it out; but if you keep it there for so many years, how shall you possibly be able to bleach it? You must recollect, in addition to this, that sin is a most clinging and defiling thing. Who does not know that if a man sins once, it is much easier to sin that way the next time, nay, that he is much more inclinable towards that sin? I may add that the prince of the power of the air, the evil spirit, takes care, so far as he can, to add to all this. He chimes in with every suggestion of fallen nature. He will never let the tinder lie idle for want of sparks, nor the ground lie waste for want of the seeds of thorns and thistles.
IV. What is the cure for all this? Sin thus stamped into us, thus ingrained into our nature, can it ever be got out? It must be got out, or we cannot enter heaven, for there shall by no means enter within those pearly gates anything that defileth. We must be cleansed and purified, but how can it be done? It can only be done by supernatural process. Your only help lies in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who became the Son of Man that He might lift the sons of men up from their natural degradation and ruin. How does Jesus Christ then take away these deeply-inscribed lines of sin from human nature? I answer, He does it first in this way. If our heart be like granite, and sin be written on it, Christs ready method is to take that heart away. A new heart also will I give you, and a right spirit will I put within you. Next to that, inasmuch as the guiltiness of sin is as permanent as sin itself, Jesus Christ is able to take our guilt away. His dying upon the Cross is the means by which the blackest sinner out of hell can be made white as the angels of God, and that, too, in a single instant. The Holy Spirit also comes in: the new nature being given and sin being forgiven, the Holy Ghost comes and dwells in us, as a Prince in his palace, as a God in his temple. Do I hear any say, Then, I would to God that I may experience the Divine process--the new nature given, which is regeneration, the washing away of sin, which constitutes pardon and justification, and the indwelling of the Holy Ghost, which insures final perseverance and complete sanctification. Oh, how can I have these precious things? Thou mayst have them, whoever thou mayst be, by simply believing in Jesus. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The iron pen recording sins
When Bishop Latimer was on trial for his life, a trial which ended in his being burned at the stake, he at first answered without duly considering how much a single unguarded word might cost him. Presently he heard the pen of a secretary, who was seated behind the tapestry, taking down every expression which fell from his lips. It would be well for us all to remember that there is a pen now recording behind the curtain of the skies, our every evil deed and word and thought and that for all these things God will bring us into judgment. The iron pen suggests two thoughts.
1. The record which it makes is deep and indelible. So, also, with the items which are filling up page after page in the book of Gods remembrance. A wealthy English landlord was once guilty of an act of tyrannical injustice to a poor, helpless widow, who rented a small cottage from him. The widows son, whose blood boiled with indignation when he witnessed this, grew up to be a distinguished painter, and he portrayed the scene, and placed it where the eye of the cruel landlord must rest upon it. When the hard-hearted oppressor saw it, he turned pale, and trembled, and offered any sum for it, that the terrible picture might be destroyed.
2. The iron pen with its diamond point does not wear out. Be the record of ones sins as long as it may, that record will assuredly be made. It is a moment of profound interest in the life of an antiquarian, when he drags forth from the sands of Egypt some ancient obelisk, on which the iron pen has engraved, so many ages ago, the portraits of those who, in the shadowy past, acted their part on the crowded theatre of a bustling world. This, however, is as nothing, compared with the disclosures of that day, when, from the stillness and silence of the grave, shall be brought out into the dazzling light of noon, tablets covered with the sculptured history of the soul; a history which no power nor skill can then erase. And thus the prophet would teach us, by the striking figure of the iron pen with its diamond point, that sin is no trifling thing; that one single violation of the Divine law does not pass unnoticed; and that they who die with the guilt of sins unrepented of, and unpardoned, resting on their souls, have nothing to expect but the outpouring of Gods terrible wrath. Vainly do we apologise for our shortcomings, on the ground of our natural bias to sin; or that the power of temptation proved too strong for us to resist. Forewarned, we ought to have been forearmed. Alas! who can contemplate his own sins against light and knowledge, against the strivings of conscience and the earnest pleadings of the Holy Spirit; who can count up his broken vows, and his contradictions of solemn confessions before God, and not tremble at the thought of the black catalogue which the iron pen has been writing down against him! When the great plague raged in London, in 1666, it was common to write over every infected house, Lord, have mercy upon us! Should the same inscription now be made over every abode where the plague of sin has entered, which of our habitations would not require to be thus labelled? (J. N. Norton, D. D.)
The inward registrar
Manton says: If conscience speaketh not, it writeth; for it is not only a witness, but a register, and a book of record: The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron, and the point of a diamond (Jer_17:1). We know not what conscience writeth, being occupied and taken up with carnal vanities, but we shall know hereafter, when the books are opened (Rev_20:12). Conscience keepeth a diary, and sets down everything. This book, though it be in the sinners keeping, cannot be razed and blotted out. Well, then, a sleepy conscience will not always sleep; if we suffer it not to awaken here, it will awaken in hell; for the present it sleepeth in many, in regard of motion, check, or smiting, but not in regard of notice and observation. Let those who forget their sins take note of this. There is a chiel within you taking notes, and he will publish all where all will hear it. Never say, nobody will see me, for you will see yourself, and your conscience will turn kings evidence against you. What a volume Mr. Recorder Conscience has written already! How many blotted pages he has in store, to be produced upon my trial. O Thou who alone canst erase this dreadful handwriting, look on me in mercy, as I now look on Thee by faith. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Sin ineradicable
The mind of man has been compared to a white sheet of paper. Now it is like a white sheet of paper in this, that whatever we write upon it, whether with distinct purpose or no, nay, every drop of ink we let fall upon it, makes an abiding mark, a mark which we cannot rub out, without much injury to the paper; unless, indeed, the mark has been very slight from the first, and we set about erasing it while it is fresh. In one of the grandest tragedies of our great English poet, there is a scene which, when one reads it, is enough to make ones blood run cold. A woman, whose husband had made himself King of Scotland by means of several murders, and who had been the prompter and partner of his crimes, is brought in, while in her sleep, and continually rubbing her hands, as though she were washing them, crying ever and anon, Yet heres a spot . . . What! will these hands neer be clean?. . .heres the smell of blood still: all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand. In these words there is an awful power of truth. We can stain our souls; we can dye them, and double dye them, and triple dye them; we can dye them all the colours of halls rainbow; but we cannot wash them white. All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten them, all the fountains of the great deep will not wash one little spot out of them. The usurping Queen of Scotland had been guilty of murder; and the stain of blood, it has been very generally believed, cannot be washed out. But it is not the stain of blood alone; every stain soils the soul; and none of them can be washed out. Every little speck of ink eats into the paper; every sin, however small we may deem it, eats into the soul. If we try to write over it, we make a deeper blot; if we try to scratch it out, the next letters which we write on the spot are blurred. Therefore is it of such vast importance that we should be very careful of what we write. In the tragedy which I was quoting just now, the queen says, Whats done cannot be undone. This amounts to the same thing as what I have written, in the sense in which I am now calling upon you to consider these words. Whats done cannot be undone. You know that this is true. You know you cannot push back the wheels of time, and make yesterday come again, so as to do over afresh what you did wrongly then. That which you did yesterday, yesterday will keep: you cannot change it; you cannot make it less or greater; if it was crooked, you cannot make it straight. You cannot turn back the leaves in the book of life, and read the lesson you have grabbed over again. That which you have written, you have written: that which you have done, you have done; and you cannot unwrite or undo it. (J. C. Hare.)
Sin leaves its marks
Even pardoned sins must leave a trace in heavy self-reproach. You have heard of the child whose father told him that whenever he did anything wrong a nail should be driven into a post, and when he did what was good he might pull one out. There were a great many nails driven into the post, but the child tried very hard to get the post cleared of the nails by striving to do right. At length he was so successful in his struggles with himself that the last nail was drawn out of the post. The father was just about to praise the child, when, stooping down to kiss him, he was startled to see tears fast rolling down his face. Why, my boy, why do you cry? Are not all the nails gone from the post? Oh yes! the nails are all gone, but the marks are left. That is a familiar illustration, but dont despise it because of that. It illustrates the experience of many a grey old sire, who, looking upon the traces of his old sins, as they yet rankle in his conscience, would give a hundred worlds to live himself back into young manhood, that he might obliterate the searing imprint of its follies. Have you never heard of fossil rain? In the stratum of the old red sandstone there are to be seen the marks of showers of rain which fell centuries and centuries ago, and they are so plain and perfect that they clearly indicate the way the wind was drifting, and in what direction the tempest slanted from the sky. So may the tracks of youthful sins be traced upon the tablet of the life when it has merged into old age,--tracks which it is bitter and sad remorse to look upon, and which call forth many a bootless longing for the days and months which are past. (A. Mursell.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary1892 · Public DomainOn v1CRITICAL AND EXEGETICAL NOTES.—1. Chronology of the Chapter. Jer_17:1-18…
CRITICAL AND EXEGETICAL NOTES.—1. Chronology of the Chapter. Jer_17:1-18 continue the prophecy of chap. 16. A distinct break in the continuity of the book is noticeable at Jer_17:19. [Keil seems alone in suggesting that this section “may very well be joined with the preceding general reflections as to the springs of mischief and of well-being; inasmuch as it shows how the way of safety appointed to the people lies in keeping the decalogue, as exemplified in one of its fundamental precepts.” This is so far true, but is not sufficient to decide the connection with the antecedent prophecy when this section, Jer_17:19-27, stands out so manifestly distinct and complete in itself.] At what date must this section, 19–27, be placed? Plainly, before the guilty relapse under Jehoiakim; for the tone of the message is not condemnatory: It is, as Dr. Payne Smith says, “dissuasive of future neglect” rather than objurgatory’ of past misconduct. Henderson suggests Josiah’s reign, “delivered in connection with and shortly after his reformation.” Hitzig assigns it to the period of Jeconiah, or that immediately following Jehoiakim’s death. But Eichorn, Rosenmüller, Maurer, Naegelsbach, Payne Smith, and Jamieson agree that its deliverance was at the outset of Jehoiakim’s reign, before he began the evil course by which he undid the good effected by Josiah’s reformation. Its similarity to chap. Jer_22:1-5 makes it probable that the two messages were contemporaneous, and this latter was doubtless delivered in Jehoiakim’s reign also. Usher assigns Jer_17:1-18 to B.C. 605; and Jer_17:19-27 to B.C. 600. Hales: B.C. 601 and 599 respectively. (See Chronological Note of chap. 7)
For 2. Contemporary Scriptures; 3. National Affairs; 4. Contemporaneous History, see also Notes on chap. 7.
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5. Geographical References.—Jer_17:3. “My mountain (Jerusalem) in the field:” the surrounding country. Jer_17:6. A salt land (see Deu_29:23; comp. Job_39:6, Psa_107:34). Salt regions suggest, as a figure, total want of the means of life. Jer_17:19. “Gate of the children of the people:” described further as that “whereby the kings of Judah come in:” most probably the Gate of David, now called the Joppa Gate. Denominated the People’s Gate, as being the principle thoroughfare for the tribes coming from the south, south-west, and north-west. Jer_17:26. “Cities of Judah:” that part of the country bordering on Jerusalem. “Land of Benjamin:” the northern province of Judah, and south of Ephraim. “The plain:” the low country between Joppa and Gaza (Jos_9:1; Jos_12:8; Jos_15:21; Jos_15:33). The mountains: the hill country of Judea (Jos_15:48 sq.) “South:” southern district of Judah. “The verse is interesting,” says Dr. Payne Smith, “as specifying the exact limits of the dominions of the Davidic kings, now confined to Judah and Benjamin. These two tribes are divided, according to their physical conformation, into the Shefêlah, or low country, lying between the mountains and the Mediterranean; the mountains, which formed the central region, extending to the wilderness of Judah, on the Dead Sea; and the Negeb, or arid region, which lay to the south of Judah.”
6. Personal Allusions.—Jer_17:5. “Cursed be the man that trusteth in man.” Many commentators find here reference to the perfidious character and tyrannical conduct of Jehoiakim. So also Maurer recognises in Jer_17:9 an allusion to Jehoiakim’s cupidity.
7. Natural History.—Jer_17:6. “Heath in the desert:” עַרְעָר is generally accepted as describing the juniper tree, which (says Henderson) is found in the vicinity of the Arabah, or the Great Valley to the south of the Dead Sea, and doubtless the same “desert” which Jeremiah here calls הָעֲרָבָּה; the image, therefore, being a solitary juniper in an arid desert. Pliny says that the “heath” was one of the plants excluded from religious uses, because it is neither sown nor planted, and has neither fruit nor seed. (See Lit. Crit. below on “Heath”). Jer_17:11. “Partridge sitteth on eggs:” קירֵא; the Arabs apply this name, Korea, to a bustard. It is not true of the partridge that she stole the eggs of other birds and hatched them as her own; but the ancients believed she did. Henderson cites in proof EPIPHAN. Physiol, cap. ix.; ISID. Origg. ii. 7. But Jamieson urges that “it is not needful to make Scripture allude to an exploded notion as if it were true,” and therefore states that the name “Korea,” from a root, to call, alluding to its cry, is now applied to a bustard—heavy birds of slow flight, like the ostrich.
8. Manners and Customs.—Jer_17:1. “Pen of Iron:” (See Note on chap. Jer_8:8, under Manners and Customs. Comp. Job_19:24, Psa_45:1, Isa_8:1.) The iron stylus was used only for writing or carving letters in a hard material. “Point of a diamond:” indicating the very hardest substance on which the graving was wrought. “Upon the horns of your altars:” the names of the gods, to whom sacrifices were devoted, were inscribed on the horns of the altars (comp. Act_17:23). Jer_17:2. “Altars and groves,” &c. (comp. Note in loc. chap. Jer_2:20). Groves should be Asherahs, in all probability images of Astarte, the goddess of the heavenly hosts, represented under the imagery of a “tree.” Jer_17:3. High places:” on which it was their custom to erect idolatrous altars. Jer_17:21. “Bear no burden on the Sabbath day:” Probabilities are that the country people brought their agricultural produce into Jerusalem with them when they came ostensibly to worship on the Sabbath; and that the residents of Jerusalem “carried forth burdens out of their houses” (Jer_17:22), i.e., took their wares to the city gates, and bartered or exchangea with the villagers for their goods (comp. Neh_13:15-22).
9. Literary Criticisms.—Jer_17:1-4 are omitted by the LXX., and Bleek coincides in their omission; but all the other Greek versions and authorities retain the verses. Jer_17:2. “Groves by the green trees:” instead of “by” read “upon.” The sense seems to require under; but the LXX. have ἐπί. Jer_17:3. “Thy high places for sin:” Text obscure here: Ewald recalls the similar phrase in chap. Jer_15:13, and renders, without price for thy sins. The reading may however be, “I will give thy substance, all thy treasures, and thy high places to the spoil on account of (for) sin throughout (committed throughout) all thy borders.” Jer_17:4. “And thou, even thyself:” וּבְךָ Lit., even with thyself, i.e., with thy bare life; or (Henderson) and through thee, by means of thine own wickedness; or (Jamieson) owing to thyself, by thy own fault; or (Vulgate) and that with thyself, alone. Jer_17:6. “Heath:” עַרְעָר. The word in the same form appears in Psa_102:17, destitute. Like a destitute man; and Speaker’s Com. insists that the verbs, he shall see (or fear), and shall inhabit, plainly show that a man is here meant, and not a plant. But surely the “heath” is not the nominative of these verbs? Rather the man (Jer_17:5) of whom Jer_17:6 recounts, “He shall be like the heath,” &c. There is in this verse a contrast of the solitary pining juniper tree [see Natural History above] and “the tree planted by the waters” (Jer_17:8). Jer_17:9. “Deceitful:” עָקֹב, from עָקַב, to lie in wait for, trip, act insidiously—the word from which Jacob took his name. “Desperately wicked:” wofully sick (Jer_17:16): אָנֻשׁ, incurable, malignant, desperate. Mentally sick, as in chap. Jer_15:18. Jer_17:11. “Sitteth on eggs and hatcheth them not:” Lit., gathereth young which she hath not brought forth. Jer_17:12. “A glorious high throne,” &c. Most probably this verse should read on continuously with the next, thus: “Thou throne of glory, on High from the beginning; thou place of our sanctuary, thou hope of Israel, the Lord! So Ewald, Graf, Keil, Payne Smith. Jer_17:16. “Not hastened:” i.e., sought to escape. “From being a pastor;” Hitzig and Graf: “from following lovingly after thee.” Umbreit reads: “I have not forced myself forward to follow Thee as a shepherd.” But Speaker’s Com. gives, From being a shepherd (see on. Jer_2:8, ruler) after thee; i.e., as one invested with authority by God to guide and direct the political course of the nation. Naegelsbach thinks Jeremiah means he was literally a pastor, a shepherd lad tending his flock when God called him, and pleads that priests had pasture land (comp. Joshua 21 and 1 Chronicles 6) intended expressly for the cattle (Num_35:4), and Anathoth had its pasture (Jos_21:18). But Henderson and Wordsworth suggest: I have not hastened away, or backward, from being a shepherd. Jer_17:21. “Take heed to yourselves:” in your souls, i.e., conscientiously. Naegelsbach: “Care with foresight for your souls.” Jer_17:25. “This city shall remain for ever:” be inhabited; not mere continuance, but populousness.
HOMILETIC OUTLINES ON SECTIONS OF CHAPTER 17
Section
Jer_17:1-4.
Judah’s guilt flagrantly manifest.
Section
Jer_17:5-11.
Spiritual corruption traced to its root-causes.
Section
Jer_17:12-18.
Safety and vindication sought in God.
Section
Jer_17:19-27.
Exhortation to hallow the Sabbath.
Section 1–4.—JUDAH’S GUILT FLAGRANTLY MANIFEST
The denial of having sinned against Jehovah (Jer_16:10) must mean that the fact of idolatry is by them denied. Against such a bold and shameless assertion, the prophet rises here with visibly increasing indignation. He says that—
I. Judah’s sin is forcibly certified, and, as it were, recorded in the archives.
1. In their own consciences; in which the memory of their idolatrous abominations is fixed like an ineffaceable brand. And—
2. Externally, on the horns of the altars, where the blood of the slaughtered children adheres as an equally ineffaceable memorial (Jer_17:1).
II. Judah’s sin is inerradicably remembered. While the two testimonies (in their own consciences and on the horns of the altars) were deep and inextinguishable to them, the actors present at their idolatrous barbarities, it was also true that—
1. Their children would never lose the impression of that horrible cult which had snatched so many from their midst. The horror of the sight of those frightful holocausts would remain unforgetable.
2. So deep was this impression, that the mere sight of green trees and high hills was sufficient to refresh the revolting memory continually (Jer_17:2).
III. Judah’s sin therefore would be severely punished. On the basis of the facts thus certified, the prophet—
1. Repeats the announcement of the Divine punishments. These will consist in (a) plunder of substance; (b) desolation of the land, according to the analogy of the year of release; and (c) deportation into an unknown land (Jer_17:3-4).
2. Bewails the desolations which Judah must endure. A cry of grief escapes the prophet’s lips as he describes the ravages with which Judah’s crimes will be punished. “Oh my mountain in the field!” His patriotic soul bemoans the catastrophe which sin invokes. (Comp. Naegelsbach in Lange.)
The people had asked (Jer_16:10), What is our iniquity, and what is our sin? Here we have a reply to their challenge.
I. The indictment is fully proved. Both the fact and the fault. Their sin is too plain to be denied, and too bad to be excused.
1. They cannot plead not guilty, for their sins are upon record in the book of God’s omniscience and their own conscience; nay, they are obvious to the eye and observation of the world (Jer_17:1-2).
(a.) They are written before God, and in most legible and indelible characters, and sealed among His treasures, never to be forgotten (Deu_32:34).
(b.) What is so written will never be worn out by time. “With a pen of iron,” &c. “Graven in the rock for ever.” Sin is never forgotten till it is forgiven. It is “graven on the heart,” and though covered for a time, cannot be rubbed out, and will be produced in evidence when the books shall be opened. If they will not own the conviction of their consciences, then the horns of their altars will witness against them. And their own “children” shall be witness against them: “they remember the altars and the groves” to which their parents took them when they were little (Jer_17:2).
2. They cannot plead that they repent, or are come to a better mind. For as their guilt is undeniable, so their inclination to sin is invincible and incurable. In this sense many understand Jer_17:1-2.
(a.) Their sin is deeply engraven in their hearts. It is inwrought into their very natures; and is as dear to them as that is of which we say, It is engraven on our hearts!
(b.) They had pledged themselves to their idols; bound themselves as “with cords to the horns of their altars;” and given up their names to their idols.
(c.) They remember their idolatries with affection. For Jer_17:3 may be rendered thus: As they remember their children, so remember they their altars and their groves—they are fond of them, and loth to part with them, as men with their children.
II. The judgment is affirmed and the sentence ratified. Inasmuch as they were thus wedded to their sins and will not part with them—
1. They shall be made to part with their treasures (Jer_17:3). Both the stores of the city and the products of the country will be seized by the Chaldeans. Justly are men stripped of that with which they have served their idols, and made the food and fuel of their lusts. What we make for a sin (Jer_17:3), God will make for a spoil.
2. They shall be made to part with their inheritance (Jer_17:4).
(a.) God owns it was their “heritage,” and that He gave it them. It was an aggravation of their folly in throwing themselves out of the possession of it.
(b.) Their discontinuance in occupancy of the land should give it rest. The word here used, discontinue, is the word used in the appointment (Exo_23:11) that the laud should rest one year in seven. They did not observe that law, and now God would compel them to let it rest. But it should be no rest to them, for “they should serve their enemies in a land they knew not.”
Observe (i.) Sin works a discontinuance of our comforts; deprives us of the enjoyment of that which God has given us.
Observe (ii.) A discontinuance of the possession is not a defeasance of the right. It is intimated that upon their repentance they should recover possession again.—M. Henry.
Section 5–11.—SPIRITUAL CORRUPTION TRACED TO ITS ROOT-CAUSES
All this outward perfidy and prostitution are but manifestations of inward and spiritual apostasy. The whole affections and dispositions of the soul have gone astray from God, and therefore their moral conduct has become degraded, and their religious behaviour disloyal. This section delineates three radical defects, and to each is attached its corresponding and appropriate judgment.
I. A perverse disposition.
1. Its action. It rests not in Jehovah, but regards flesh as its better confidence, seeking in man the spring and supply of good (Jer_17:5).
2. Its judgment. The forlorn and deserted picture of Jer_17:6 supplies an idea of the consequences of deserting God. This desolate result is further emphasised by the contrast presented in Jer_17:7-8.
II. Perfidiousness of heart. Total faithlessness, and illimitable trickery.
1. The depths of its deceptiveness human thought fails to reckon (Jer_17:9).
2. God’s reckoning and punishment will rest upon His complete knowledge of the heart’s wickedness (Jer_17:10).
III. Impetuous avarice.—Jer_17:11.
1. It cruelly, acquires that for which it restlessly craves. Seizes as its own the treasures of others.
2. It forcibly relinquishes the spoil it has violently seized. Brief years are threatened, and a fool’s end.
Section 12–18.—SAFETY AND VINDICATION SOUGHT IN GOD
Here the prophet turns from the corruption of his people, saddened and sickened at heart, to meditate on his God and his personal safety in Him. This was the realisation of the Psalmist’s prayer: “When my heart is overwhelmed, lead me to the Rock that is higher than I.” Then there arise before his contemplation—
I. Majestic guarantees for the godly soul.—Jer_17:12-13. He apostrophises God. [See Lit. Crit. on verse.]
1. He celebrates the power and glory of God. “Thou Throne,” symbol of royal power and supreme sway. “Throne of Glory,” language expressive of highest majesty, surpassing all powers, most glorious in royalty, dominion, and dignity.
2. The eternal excellency of God. “On high from the beginning.” Exalted on high, since loftiest glory is His; yet also highest in excellency; for who in grace and glory can be compared to God? And “from the beginning”—“or ever Thou hadst formed the earth and the world,” or from the outset of Israel’s national existence, God has been supreme; supreme in personal majesty, supreme as Israel’s Lord.
3. The devout soul’s hiding-place. “Thou place of our sanctuary”—for security, rest, reverence, and bliss.
4. Israel’s covenanted Hope. “O Jehovah!” name of God in which He is pledged to His people. “The Hope of Israel;” never having failed them through all their past history. Their enduring Hope, notwithstanding all they have done to alienate Thee. Their sole Hope, for, losing Thee, what have they left? Their future Hope; for after mournful desertion of Thee, they will return to the Lord as their “everlasting strength.”
5. The living spring of refreshing. “Fountain of living waters.” (See Notes on chaps. Jer_2:13, Jer_9:1.)
Thereupon Jeremiah utters his assertion, that forsaking Him will eventuate in shame while they live, and contemptuous oblivion as the end!
II. Fearless appropriation of Divine graciousness.—Jer_17:14-18. Jeremiah lays his claim to all that he knows God to be. Treasures of grace are valueless s far as we are concerned, unless they become ours. The prophet appeals to God for—
1. Present tranquillity and safety (Jer_17:14). This appeal for healing suggests the troubled and aggrieved state of his spirit (Psa_6:3; Psa_30:3). For salvation; that his life was encompassed with perils—from scorners and unbelievers, who rejected his word and his claim to prophetic mission. He bases his appeal on what God was to him—“my praise:” he had boasted in God, and had occasion to rejoice in God; and more, Jehovah had delighted him with favours, and distinguished him with honours as His servant.
2. Official vindication. He was ridiculed (Jer_17:15). He had been faithful (Jer_17:16). God was his witness—“Thou knowest;” and that guaranteed that God would make others know the verity of the words he had spoken in God’s name.
3. Future refuge. A “day of evil” was coming; full of “terror” to evil-doers (Jer_17:17). But in that evil time God would discriminate between the persecutors and the persecuted, confounding them but sheltering the prophet; and God would fulfil His predictions in their complete destruction. Refutation of his foes, refuge for himself.
“Double destruction;” i.e., sharing in the national ruin which was impending and suffering for their sin in persecuting and deriding God’s messenger.
Section 19–27.—EXHORTATIONS TO HALLOW THE SABBATH
A sermon which the prophet received from the Lord, and was ordered to deliver in the most solemn and public manner—proclaimed in all the places of concourse, “the gates.” First at the court-gate, whereby “the kings of Judah” enter: let them be told their duty first, and particularly this duty. Then also in all the gates of Jerusalem, as being a matter of great and general concern.
I. How the Sabbath is to be sanctified, and what is the law concerning it.
1. They must rest from their worldly employ. “Bear no burdens” into the city, nor carry any out of their houses.
2. They must apply themselves to the proper business of the day. “Hallow ye the Sabbath-day,” &c. (Jer_17:22). Consecrate it to the service of God.
3. They must herein be very circumspect. “Take heed to yourselves” (Jer_17:20). Where God is jealous, we must be cautious.
4. They must observe the statute made and provided. This was no new imposition, but what “I commanded your fathers.”
II. How the Sabbath had been profaned—Jer_17:23. Their fathers’ disobedience in this respect is mentioned to show—
1. That there needed a reformation in Sabbath conduct.
2. That God had a just controversy with them, for the long transgression of this law.
3. And because they disregarded this law with the intent to evade all instruction on other commands. Where Sabbaths are neglected, all religion sensibly goes to decay.
III. With what blessings God would reward Sabbath sanctification. Though their fathers had been guilty of its desecration, yet if (Jer_17:24) they would make conscience of Sabbath sanctification—
1. The court shall flourish (Jer_17:25). The honour of the government is the joy of the kingdom; and the support of religion would contribute greatly to both.
2. The city shall flourish (Jer_17:25). “This city shall remain for ever.” Whatever supports religion tends to establish the civil interests of a land.
3. The country shall flourish (Jer_17:26). The cities of Judah and the land of Benjamin shall be replenished with inhabitants, abounding in plenty and living in peace, which shall appear in the multitude and value of their offerings to God. By this the flourishing of a country may be judged of: What does it for the honour of God?
4. The church shall flourish (Jer_17:24). “Meat offerings,” &c. Everything shall go in the right channel.
V. With what judgments God would punish Sabbath profanation.—Jer_17:27.
1. The enemy would besiege their city, “kindle a fire in the gates.” And justly shall those gates be fired that are not used to shut out sin, and to keep the people in to an attendance on their duty.
2. The fire should destroy their palaces—where the princes and nobles dwell; who did not use their power and interest, as they ought to have done, to keep up the honour of God’s Sabbaths.
3. The fire shall not be quenched, until it has laid the whole city in ruins. Fulfilled by the army of the Chaldeans (chap. Jer_52:13). The profanation of the Sabbath is a sin for which God has often contended with a people by fire.—Comp. M. Henry.
HOMILIES AND COMMENTS ON VERSES OF CHAPTER 17
Jer_17:1. Theme: SINS HOLD ON THE INMOST MAN. “It is graven upon the table of their heart.”
Suggestions:—
i. Sin indelibly impresses itself upon sinners. Its mark is deep. Its influence is not superficial or evanescent, but ineffaceable and perpetual.
ii. Sin had become inwrought into their affections. Worked into the very texture of the heart.
iii. Hid in the deepest secrecy of their being. The heart is a profound hiding-place. It is the citadel and secret chamber of the entire man.
iv. It cannot be ignored in their own consciousness. Every movement—affection and action—of the heart would make the presence therein of sin evident. It would testify its presence by the force of feeling.
v. Cannot be erased by their own efforts. If sin was ever to be removed, “a new heart” must be given. And only God can “create in us a clean heart.”
See Addenda: INDELIBLE RECORDS OF SIN.
Theme: THE DEEP-SEATED CHARACTER OF SIN. The hardness of Judah’s heart is repeated in the stubbornness of barbarian, Roman, Greek, Scythian; seen indeed in ourselves.
I. Answer the question, What is sin? Always hearing about it, from preacher; and reading about it, in every Scripture page. What is it?
Pharisee says: “It is eating with un-washen hands,” &c. But to break some of the commandments, especially the ecclesiastical commandments, of men, may be virtuous, and indicate enlightenment!
Sin is the repudiation of our obligations to God. “Against Thee have I sinned.”
II. How is the fixedness of sin proved?
1. It is in the very heart of man. Deep ingrained.
2. They sinned in their very religion. “On the horns of their altars.” Converted men frequently prefer the form of religion most gratifying to their tastes, ears, and sight. Or they stain the horns of God’s altars by their own righteousness, by carelessness, by vain thoughts, by hypocrisy,—as Demas and Judas.
III. What is the cause of this? How did sin get such a firm footing in humanity? The answer is—
1. We must never forget the Fall. We are none of us as God made us. “We are born in sin,” &c.
2. Our habits of sin. Well may sin be deeply engraven in the man who has continued in his iniquity for twenty, forty, perhaps seventy years. “Can the Ethiopian change,” &c. Use is second nature.
3. Sin is a most clinging and defiling thing. One license renders us easily enslaved.
4. The prince of the powers of darkness allies himself with sin. He will never let the tinder lie idle for want of sparks.
IV. What is the cure for all this? Can sin, thus ingrained, ever be got out? It must be got out if we are ever to enter heaven. Only done by supernatural processes.
1. Christ Jesus does take away these deeply-inscribed lines of sin from human nature. It is part of the covenant of grace and part of His Gospel that Jesus can give to us hearts free from tendency to sin.
2. And since the guiltiness of sin is as permanent as sin itself, Jesus Christ is able to take our guilt away. “The blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth us from all sin.” And the vilest sinner may be “made partakers of the Divine nature, having escaped the corruption which is in the world through lust.”—Spurgeon: “Metropolitan Pulpit,” No. 812.
Jer_17:2. Theme: OUR CHILDREN’S RECOLLECTION OF OUR SIN. “Whilst their children remember their altars,” &c.
Probably we here have—
i. An allusion to their sacrifice of children to Molech.
ii. The horrors of such blood-stained rites would be for ever engraven upon the memory of any who were present to witness them.
I. Our evil deeds vividly impress our children.
II. Fixed upon their memory, our children may keep alive recollections we fain would obliterate.
III. Parental sins will reappear in our children’s lives. The horrid ghosts of our old iniquities resuscitated!
IV. Remembrancers of old iniquities crowd around our life. We may shun suggestive scenes that bring up dark memories, but our “children remember the groves,” &c., and will point them out to us. We cannot clear the world of these accusers.
V. Children may thus become witnesses against us.
1. By their inability to forget what we would gladly consign to oblivion;
2. By their reproduction of our evil habits, continuing the wicked ways they learned from us; and
3. Before God in the last day of account, when we, and our children with us, stand in the judgment.
Jer_17:3-4. See note in Geog. References; also Lit. Crit. on these verses; also Homilies and Comments on chap. Jer_15:13-14.
Comments—“My mountain in the field:” Jerusalem or Zion; called “the Rock of the plain” in chap. Jer_21:13, and “Mountain of Jehovah,” Mic_4:2.
“Being the place which Jehovah had chosen as the residence of His visible glory, He claims it as His; just as He frequently calls it ‘My holy mountain’ (Isa_11:9; Isa_56:7).”—Henderson.
Jer_17:5. Theme: THE ACCURSED TRUST.
The Jews, in looking now to the Assyrians and then to the Egyptians, thought to gain sufficient defence against God Himself. This false confidence was a hindrance to their relying on the favour of God, and kept them from repentance.
I. Men are variously deceived while trusting in men.
1. They begin with themselves. Every one is inflated with vain confidence, either in his own prudence, dexterity, or power. There is no one, even the most wretched, who does not trust in himself before he trusts in others; no one so contemptible but that he swells with some secret pride.
2. They take aids to themselves from every quarter. This is the out-working of what they deem their own prudence. Yet their goings round are useless; and not only so, but they turn out to their own destruction.
II. God derides the folly of such delusive trust in men.
1. He declares that they who so trust are “cursed.” This curse of God ought to strike us with terror; for we hence learn that God is highly displeased with all those who seek their own salvation in the world and in creatures.
2. He charges such with estrangement of heart from Himself. When confidence is reposed in flesh, God is deprived of His own honour. These two things cannot be connected—confidence in flesh, and reliance on God. When water is blended with fire, both perish. To attempt to unite trust in man with trust in God is like mixing heaven and earth together. It is to confound the order of nature, when men imagine that they have two objects of trust, and ascribe half of their salvation to God and half to themselves or to other men.
3. All are apostates and deserters from God who fix their hope on men. True in the present life; twofold a madness in respect of eternal things.—Arranged from Calvin.
Comments—
Jer_17:5. “There is great occasion for this cursed dependence on flesh, when one, from the hope of good personal protection, gives up the work of the Lord to the powers of the earth. It is true the Church is to have foster-parents who are kings, but, nevertheless, neither kings nor princes are its tutelar deities, much less lords and commanders of the Church; but One is our Master, One our Judge, One our King—the Crucified.”—Zinzendorf.
Jer_17:5-8. Theme: THE DUTY OF TRUSTING IN GOD.
Every created being derives its existence and support from God. Yet man is prone to depend on the creature rather than on Him. Though constantly disappointed, he still leans on an arm of flesh. But such conduct is justly reprobated.
I. The characters that are contrasted.
(a.) Every man by nature trusts in man, makes flesh his arm, and in his heart departs from the Lord. We need not go to heathens or infidels to find persons of this description. We need only search the records of our own conscience. In temporal things we never think of looking above the creature. If they be prosperous, we trust in uncertain riches, and take the glory to ourselves. If adverse, we lean to our own understanding and exertions, or rely for succour on our friends. In spiritual things we seek to establish a righteousness of our own. We expect to repent and serve God by our own strength.
(b.) The true Christian “trusts in the Lord, and makes the Lord his hope.” He trusts in the Lord Jesus Christ as the God of providence. He commits his affairs to Him, expecting His promised aid. He trusts also in Jesus as the God of grace. He renounces all hope in his own goodness or resolutions. These marks afford a sure line of distinction between the nominal and real Christian. Nor is this difference between them of trifling import.
II. Their respective conditions. Men’s eternal state will be fixed with perfect equity. The conditions of the characters before us are strongly contrasted:—
1. Simply: “blessed,” &c.; “cursed,” &c. What can be more important than these declarations? They are not the dictates of enthusiasm, but the voice of God. “Thus saith the Lord.” God has given His Son to be our Saviour; but while some confide in Him, others, by not trusting in Him, reject Him. How reasonable then is it that a curse should attach to these and a blessing to those! Such a difference in their conditions seems the necessary result of their own conduct. Let every one inquire which of these conditions he has reason to expect.
2. Figuratively: “heath in desert,”—“tree planted by the waters.” To mark the contrast more clearly, it is further observed that both the blessing and the curse shall be—
(a.) Abundant. The unbeliever “shall be like the heath in the desert.” He shall be left in a state of extreme barrenness and wretchedness; and this, too, amidst all his boasted fulness (Job_20:22). The believer “shall be as a tree planted by the waters,” &c. He shall be made flourishing and happy by rich supplies of grace (Php_4:9).
(b.) Unmixed. The unbeliever “shall not see when good cometh.” He receives none of the heavenly dew that falls around him. The believer “shall not see when heat cometh, but his leaf shall be green, nor shall he be careful in the year of drought.” He may experience heat and drought, i.e., he shall, however, not be injured, but benefited by them (Heb_12:11).
(c.) Eternal. The unbeliever “shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt laud, and not inhabited.” He shall be an outcast from God in the regions of misery. The believer “shall not cease from yielding fruit.” His present enjoyments are the pledge and earnest of eternal happiness.
Infer (1.) How glorious a person must Christ be! If He were a mere creature, it would be ruinous in the extreme to trust in Him. (2.) How are we all concerned to trust in Christ. God regards, not merely our outward conduct, but the frame of our hearts. On this our present and everlasting happiness depends.—Simeon.
See also NOTICEABLE TOPICS.
Jer_17:5-6. Theme: THE HEATH IN THE DESERT. “Thus saith the Lord, Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord. For he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good cometh; but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land and not inhabited.”
The Jews had withdrawn dependence from God, and trusted to themselves and Egypt. They were delivered to the Babylonians. To this the text refers primarily. But it may apply to all.
Two definitions of a heath. A shrub growing in barren places, and a sandy barren plain of Arabia seldom rained upon. These plains and the shrubs they produce do not “see when good cometh.” The trees of Canaan by the rivers are refreshed by nightly dews. God’s vineyard is as a watered garden, and yields the rose of Sharon and the lily of the valley, but the wastes of Arabia, doomed to barrenness, never “see when good cometh.”
I. Let us learn against whom this curse is denounced, and trace resemblances between them and the heath, &c. They are those who disclaim dependence on God—idolators, infidels, and the profane.
1. Those who do not realise their dependence on God for all true happiness, but think it lies in worldly gain. They make no daily petition to God for it. The prayerless, stupid, and worldly inherit the curse in the text.
2. Those who trust in man and make flesh their arm, and neglect to fix all dependence on Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. They do not feel they are hopeless and helpless, or they would cast themselves upon Christ as the only hope of sinners; they are therefore under the curse against those who trust in man.
3. There is yet another class under this curse. Some are in the Church; some are not. Punctual perhaps on ordinances, they depend upon a form of godliness without the power, and, excepting a little animal sympathy, remain cold as ever. They are a numerous class even in the Church of Christ. “Five were wise, and five were foolish.”
II. How do these resemble the heath in the desert?—the prayerless, stupid, and worldly.
1. In barrenness and deformity. God gave them powers to bear fruit, but He comes year after year and finds nothing, and worse—a crop of misshapen shrubs. After so many benefits, they refuse to serve Him.
2. They are like the heath in being desolate, forsaken, and unblest. No voice of joy or song is heard on the heath, while those who wait on God are refreshed like Eden. Those who are like the heath in barrenness and deformity shall resemble it in desolation and woe.
3. While the holy land is refreshed with dew from heaven, the desert remains parched as before. This feature of resemblance exists at this time. Showers of grace fall on some, but the barren sands know not “when good cometh.”
4. Showers falling on desert heath only promote the growth of deformed shrubs; and the influence of heaven falling on this class calls forth a more fatal resistance of the Holy Spirit.
5. The heath cannot be made fruitful, and all God’s visitations fall unregarded upon many.
6. It is plain that, while many obey the Gospel call, others remain desolate and uncheered by any heavenly influence.
7. Some of the awakened may say, “I cannot change my own heart; I do the best I can”—Do you? even for a day? Drop these excuses, and cry, “God be merciful to me a sinner.”
8. Others resemble the heath in deformity and barrenness. They resort to sacraments, but yield no fruit, and so will they remain till death.
APPLICATION—
(a.) I address those who cast off fear and restrain prayer. Waste not out, I pray you, your life, seeking independent happiness. Return and seek happiness in God alone, and become rich for eternity.
(b.) I warn you who are awakened. Trust not in ministers or Christians. Only Christ can give the mighty blessing. Let Calvary’s Voice draw you to Him.
(c.) I speak to those who think they love God better than father, mother, or life, yet are chained to earth—these are the most discouraging of all men. It is easy to alarm the humble, but a task to destroy false hopes.
(d.) Let the dear loved children of God receive the precious promises succeeding the text: “Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is.”—Edward Griffin, D.D.
Jer_17:7. Theme: MAKING GOD OUR TRUST.
Man, sensible of his weakness, requires for his happiness some object without himself in which he can trust. In what do men trust? God alone furnishes an object adequate to the requirements of our trust. All lesser objects are frail, variable, uncertain.
I. The soul’s right and only trust.
1. We owe it to the supremacy of the divine nature.
2. Entire resignation to God’s wisdom and will.
3. Entire withdrawal of our trust from all inferior things.
4. Sincere acceptance of Christ as our Saviour.
5. Sincere effort to live a holy and pious life.
II. The blessedness with which godly trust is crowned. This will be seen in the following contrast of believer and unbeliever.
1. The objects of the unbeliever’s trust are uncertain and insignificant; the believer’s, certain and glorious.
2. The one inadequate and perishing, the other all-sufficient and abiding (1Pe_1:4).
3. The one bears a burdened conscience and a character ill at ease, the other enjoys peace and rest (Mat_11:28-30).
4. The one regards God as his foe, and resembles the inferior objects of his trust; the other regards God as his friend, enjoys His protection and fellowship, and resembles Him.
Learn—
1. Not to be deluded by inferior things.
2. Seek this blessing by submission to God’s will in a crucified Saviour.—E. Jerman.
Comments—
“Blessed are those teachers, who have betaken themselves to His protection, who once promised His Church that even the gates of hell should not prevail against it. Who has ever been put to shame who trusted in Him?”—Zinzendorf.
Jer_17:8. Theme: VERDURE IN THE MIDST OF DESOLATION. “He shall not see when heat cometh.”
Nothing in nature more admirable than the strange and unlikely circumstances in which we often see plants and trees retaining their sap and verdure, and manifesting the most luxuriant fruitfulness. By a wonderful instinct of their nature, they adapt themselves each to their appointed place, and thus continue to live and flourish abundantly where another would perish in an hour. No natural influence more fatal to vegetable life than extreme drought; yet, even that in some favoured instances may prove innocuous. Some plants and trees “do not see when heat cometh, but their leaf is green,” &c.
This beautiful fact the prophet transfers from the natural world to the spiritual by way of illustration and analogy. There, too, often verdure appears in midst of desolation—life in midst of death. True happiness and true holiness depend, not on outward advantages, but on inward state.
Let us consider further this interesting and instructive phenomenon.
I. The fact itself. Meets us everywhere in the natural world. So also in the kingdom of grace. Spiritual health depends not alone or mainly on our circumstances, but on the temper and state of our souls. In the cottage, the palace; in want, in affluence; in retirement, on busy Exchange; in youth, in age; in health, in disease and sickness, God’s Enochs have “walked with God.” Every situation not equally favourable to soul’s life, but none utterly unfavourable; e.g., Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Joseph, Caleb, Samuel, Elijah, Jeremiah, Daniel, Esther, and others; are witnesses to this truth. Look, then, within for source of weakness, decay, low spiritual state.
II. The explanation. The man “trusteth in the Lord, and his hope the Lord is.”
1. He lives in constant believing communion with God.
2. He improves what advantages he possesses. They may be few, but he aspires after and improves them. If Jesus is “passing by,” he, like Zaccheus, will be on the sycamore-tree.
3. He retains the good he receives. Careful to retain the fruits of opportunities after they are gone. Those who make rich are not only they who get much, but who keep what they get.
4. He sedulously improves and turns to account the grace he has. The surest way alike to confirm and to strengthen any holy principle is to carry it into action. Talents are increased by trading. The idle Christian is a feeble, drooping, pining Christian.
Such is the secret of a holy, happy walk with God, in any times and in the worst times. Get truly planted by the waters of salvation, and your roots stretched out by the rivers of God.—Rev. Islay Burns, Dundee: “Family Treasury,” 1859.
Comments—
“The Musorites changed the word FEAR into ‘shall not see when the heat cometh,’ in order to make it correspond with Jer_17:6. But the change is not merely unauthorised, but meaningless. God’s people see the heat when it comes; they feel trouble as much as other people, but they do not fear it, because they know—
“i. That it is for their good, and
“ii. That God will give them strength to bear it.”—Dr. Payne Smith.
“The servants of God are planted, as it were, in a moist soil, irrigated continually by streams of water. The prophet intimates that God’s children are not exempt from adversities: the ‘heat cometh,’ and they feel the heat of the sun, being, like trees, exposed to it; but moisture is supplied, and the juice diffuses itself through all the branches. Though they feel great heats as well as the unbelieving, for this is common to both, God’s children shall yet be kept safe: there is a remedy for them—their root has moisture. The word rendered ‘see’ דאג, dag, means to fear and to be careful; also to grieve, and so some render it here, It will not grieve; but the better meaning is, It shall not be afraid of heat.”—Calvin.
Jer_17:9. Theme: THE FALSITY AND FOULNESS OF MAN’S HEART.
The Bible reveals what man would have failed to discern, that the heart is the root of character, the seat of the moral quality attaching to the thoughts and actions of men. This truth, plainly taught in Scripture, accords with reason, and finds irrefutable proof in man’s career. There are three aspects of the heart here suggested:—
I. Surpassing deceptiveness. “Deceitful above all things.”
1. Its cruel delusions. It often prompts a man to evil, promising joy and reward, then leaves him befooled by his desires; allures him to follow passion, then leaves him to the tortures of conscience; assures him of courage in difficult hours, then, at the crisis, leaves him trembling in fear, &c. It flatters its dupes; is a false syren.
2. Its religious frauds. Fosters hypocrisy in the superficial, urges men to assume a religious profession, and walk as if God were being reverently served; and then, in secret, craves and impels towards hidden vice and subtle indulgences. Flatters a man into a belief in his own goodness when life is pleasant and easy; and then, in death, mocks and chides him for his sin.
3. Its supreme falsity. “Above all things.” Above the desert mirage?—Yes. Above gold?—Yes. Above pleasure?—Yes. Above fickle beauty?—Yes. For the heart is the cause of all deceits; it supplies the fantasy in us which makes the illusion possible.
II. Malignant guiltiness. “Desperately wicked.”
1. Its action in the region of common life. To what detestable iniquities would it impel men! Judge of this by considering the filthy, atrocious, idolatrous customs and social habits which prevailed in Oriental scenes. Where the passions are left unrestrained by civilisation and religion, what a foul life is man’s! Nearer home: what revolting, sensual, brutal careers men live amongst us where neither fear of God nor regard of man rule! What are the furious schemes of the assassin, the usurper, the traducer, the felon, the adulterer, but illustrations of the heart’s unbridled lusts! “Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders,” &c.
2. Its action in the sphere of religion.
We expect of the heart that it responds to love; but how does it respond to “the great love wherewith God hath loved us”? How does it keep outside its closed doors Him who long has knocked there in vain, yet “who first loved us”? And after having avowedly, in discipleship of Christ, given Him our heart, how does “an evil heart of unbelief” lead us to “depart from the living God,” and urge us by fervent cravings to fall back into sin!
III. Profound inscrutableness. “Who can know it?” Having used the strongest language to describe it, yet words fail to tell its depths of iniquity.
Looking on the loathsome sights of vice, squalor, villany, and woe around us, and asking, “Whence came these?” Christ replies, “Out of the heart.” The heart’s wilfulness “brought death into the world, and all our woe.” It still can prompt brutal cruelty to requite tender love; it still stirs the lascivious to decoy innocence into ruin worse than death, &c.
“Who can know” his own heart? We cry, “Is thy servant a dog that he should do this thing?” yet we do it, and worse far.
“Who can know” the hearts of others?
Is there a bound which the heart’s impulses will not pass? Is there a thought, at whose horribleness the mind staggers, and of which we exclaim, “Surely, it could never be that a man is capable of it!” Yet greater enormities are being wrought: cold-blooded, sinister, vengeful, devilish! “Who can know it?”
If this be so between man and man, oh, how shall we fathom the depths of man’s great criminality to God—slaying His Son; to Jesus—“crucifying Him afresh and putting Him to open shame;” to the Holy Spirit—“grieving the Holy Spirit of God”!
(a.) Do you think this description exaggerated? But this is the deceitfulness of your heart, flattering you that you cannot be so bad, or are not so bad as others.
(b.) Should not this urge you to self-abasement before the Cross? Boasting no more your self-righteousness, and hastening to the Fountain opened for sin and uncleanness, crying, “Create in me a clean heart,” &c.
See Addenda on Jer_17:9-10. FALSITY OF HEART, and SEARCHING THE HEART.
Theme: THE HEART’S DECEITFULNESS TOWARDS ITSELF.
There is great deceit in the dealings of men in the world, in their counsels and contrivances, in their private and public affairs, in their words and actings; the world is full of deceit and fraud. But all this is nothing as compared with the deceit in a man’s heart towards himself (for that is the meaning of the expression here), and not towards others.
This deceitfulness of the heart, whereby it is exceedingly advantaged in its harbourings of sin, lies chiefly in two things: that—
I. It abounds in contradictions, so that it is not to be dealt with on any constant rule.
The frame of the heart is ready to contradict itself every moment. None know what to expect of it. Facile now, then obstinate; open, then reserved; gentle, then revengeful.
This ensues from the disorder wrought upon our faculties by sin. God created all in perfect harmony. The mind’s subjection to God was the spring of the orderly and harmonious motion of the soul. This being disturbed by sin, the rest of the faculties move cross and contrary one to another; the will chooseth not what the mind discovers good, the affections delight not in what the will chooseth, &c.
II. Its deceit lies in its full promisings upon the first appearance of things.
Sometimes the affections are wrought upon, and the whole heart appears in a fair frame, and all promises well: suddenly all is reversed. Who can mention the treacheries which lie in the heart of man? Uncertain in what it doth; false in what it promises.
1. Never let us think our work, in contending against indwelling sin, is ended. The place of its habitation is unsearchable. There are still new stratagems and wiles to be dealt withal. Many conquerors have been ruined by their carelessness after a victory. David was so. Many decline into sin in old age: they gave over the task of mortifying sin before their work was at an end.
2. The fact that the heart is inconstant calls for perpetual watchfulness. An open enemy, that deals by violence only, always gives some respite; but against adversaries that deal by treachery nothing but perpetual watchfulness will give security. The heart bath a thousand deceits, and if we are the least off in our watch we are sure to be surprised (Pro_28:6).
3. Commit the whole matter therefore to Him who searcheth the heart. Here lies our safety. There is no deceit in our hearts but He can disappoint it. David takes this course (Psa_139:8-10; Psa_139:23).—Dr. John Owen.
Theme: THE DECEITFULNESS OF THE HEART. “The heart is deceitful above all things” (Jer_17:9).
I. Men impose on themselves respecting their own character. The heart practises deception in regard to its natural tendency and disposition.
1. Men do not attribute to themselves the character given of the human heart in the Bible. The Christian does.
2. Is it not possible that your heart deceives you? If the Bible be true, there is no such native excellence of character as you suppose that you possess. Multitudes who once had the same view of themselves have been convinced of their error.
3. Nothing easier than self-deception.
II. Men deceive themselves in regard to their real attachments.
III. The heart is deceitful in regard to its power of resisting temptation.
IV. In its promises of reformation and amendment.
IMPROVEMENT—
1. There is a danger of losing the soul.
2. You have a heart which is not to be trusted.
3. Wake from all delusions to the reality of your condition.—Albert Barnes.
Theme: DECEITFULNESS OF MAN’S HEART.
Nothing so mean as deceit. The text calls attention to the deceitfulness of our hearts.
I. A difficult subject to deal with, because—
1. The examination is made by the guilty party into his own character.
2. Nothing more humiliating and painful to man’s pride.
II. No deception like that of the heart. The garden—the cornfield—the mercantile speculation—the youth—may promise well and deceive, but the heart is deceitful above all.
1. It is the fountain of deceit.
2. Deceives its owner and best friends often.
3. Its deceit is in a very large measure voluntary.
4. Its deceitfulness is insidious in its growth.
5. Will be terrible in its consequences. Its possessor is travelling in a dangerous path, but fancies all well. His character is being fixed in evil. The future must be terrible in the circumstances of its misery, and its disappointment and despair.
III. The examples of Scripture bear this out. Old prophet, 1Ki_13:11-18; Gehazi, 2Ki_5:22-27; Hazael, 2Ki_8:7-15; Ananias and Sapphira, Act_5:5-10.
IV. The heart deceives its possessor continually. With regard to—
1. Its motives. 2. Its inclinations. 3. Its safety amidst temptations. 4. Its power of reformation.
Learn—
1. To distrust and watch it. 2. To trust in Christ and His word.—E. Jerman.
Theme: THE HEART’S DECEPTIVENESS AND WICKEDNESS.
This truth is not difficult to illustrate and prove. It requires no penetrating genius to bring it up from the depths. As illustrative of—
I. The heart’s deceptiveness, we point—
i. To the mistakes into which it falls relative to religion. Scripture declares it “the one thing needful”; the heart deems it not needful at all, or only of secondary consequence. Or, if it heeds religion, it mistakes its forms for the reality of Christianity.
ii. Further apparent in its pursuit of pleasure. The Source of true happiness is God; but the heart supposes that pleasure must be found in things seen and temporal. “A deceived heart has turned them aside.”
iii. Still further seen in the fact, that God has not left it to be its own guide. A Law has been given for its conduct, and a Gospel for its faith, while “line upon line,” &c., has been added to guide its commonest actions. The ant wants no guide, for its instincts are safe and sufficient. But the heart’s tendencies are wholly untrustworthy.
iv. Further proved by the declaration of the Lord, that the heart must be renewed. The mariner when voyaging never thinks of changing his compass, knowing that the one he has is faithful and true. But man’s heart is so wrong that a new heart is demanded.
But the heart is not the only deceitful thing in the world: other things are deceitful, though NOT EQUALLY SO. “The heart is deceitful above all things.”
It surpasses all other things in two particulars—
1. In its extent.
2. In its fatality.
Other things may deceive a few men; this deceives every man. Other things may so deceive as to ruin man’s temporal interests; this ruins man’s eternal interests.
II. The proof of the heart’s wickedness is equally easy:
i. It is at enmity with God—the best and most gracious of beings.
ii. Utterly opposed to the holy law of God: ignores its claims, &c.
iii. Sternly rejects the Gospel; flings aside God’s greatest Gift, and costliest Sacrifice.
iv. Wilfully disregards the warnings and threatenings of God.
v. Notwithstanding all the culture the heart receives from education, preaching, and literature, it brings forth nothing but the briers and thorns of unrighteousness.
vi. Its desperate wickedness is further seen in the fearful punishment with which its wickedness will be visited. The “undying worm,” the “unquenchable fire.” Only greatest criminals are punished with direst punishments.
1. As this truth rests upon Divine testimony, to deny it is to make God a liar, and prove the heart’s self-deceivings.
2. How different is the new heart from the old! “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”—Rev. D. Pledge.
Theme: THE HEART INSCRUTABLE. “Who can know it?”
It is extremely difficult for sinners to know their hearts.
I. What is implied in their knowing their own hearts?
It implies: 1. A knowledge of their selfishness. 2. Of their desperate incurable wickedness. 3. Of their extreme deceitfulness.
II. Why is it so extremely difficult for them to know their own hearts?
Because: 1. They are unwilling to know them. 2. Because of the deceitfulness of sin. They love or hate, as they appear friendly or unfriendly to their cherished feelings,—(a) God, (b) Christ, (c) good men, (d) the world, (e) their own hearts, (f) the means of grace, (g) their convictions, (h) heaven.
III. Application—
1. The only way to know the heart is to inquire whether it loves God or not.
2. Saints can more easily ascertain their true characters than sinners can.
3. All changes of life are trials of the heart.—Emmons.
See also NOTICEABLE TOPICS on the HUMAN HEART.
Jer_17:10. Theme: GOD’S RULE OF JUDGMENT. “I the Lord search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.”
None but God can explore the depths of iniquity in the human heart. As He will judge the world at the last day, He must have access to the inmost recesses of the soul, and be able to bring forth to judgment all its hidden abominations.
Accordingly God is employed noticing and recording everything, that He may then reward “every man according to his ways.” We here see—
I. The preparation God is making for the future judgment. God is not an unconcerned spectator of what is done upon earth.
1. He continually marks the ways of men.
(a.) All their actions He observes, according to the principles from which they proceed, and the ends for which they are done.
(b.) Our words, also, and our very thoughts (Psa_11:4, Pro_16:2).
Hezekiah evinced the mixture of motives and principles which lay behind actions (2Ch_32:31); and these need to be analysed and distinguished. God “tries the reins,” as a philosopher assays gold.
2. He records everything in the book of His remembrance. The thoughts as well as the words of men (Mal_3:16). All will be educed in the judgment (Job_14:17). Nothing escapes His attention; certainly not any “good thing” eludes His sight (1Ki_14:13).
II. The rule by which the judgment shall be determined.
1. The sentence will be according to every man’s works (Gal_6:7-8; 2Co_9:6).
2. Rightly understood, this strongly declares the equity of God’s future judgments. Everything that can affect the quality of an action will be taken into account.
Behold then—
i. What an awful prospect is here opened to the ungodly!
ii. What an encouragement is here afforded to the righteous!
Moses looked to “the recompense of reward.” Paul anticipated “the far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.”—Chas. Simeon.
Theme: GOD’S INTEREST IN MAN.
I. Respects “Fruit” in men’s lives.
II. Deals with men “according to Fruit.”
III. Where Fruit is to be found—(in the heart).
IV. The Search for Fruit.—J. Farren.
See Addenda: SEARCHING THE HEART.
Comments—
Jer_17:11. “As the partridge hath gathered eggs which it laid not.” Epiphanius says: “The partridge is not satisfied with the fruit of her own womb, but steals the eggs of other birds and carries them to her nest” (Phisiol. 9).
“This notion might easily be taken for the great number of eggs which the partridge lays. Another interpretation is given by Hippolytus, who says that ‘the partridge calls to it the young belonging to other broods, and gathers them under its wings, but when they hear the cry of the true parent they leave the false one.’ The general sense is that the covetous man is as sure finally to reap only disappointment as the partridge which piles up eggs not of her own laying, and is unable to hatch them.”—Dr. Payne Smith.
“As Jehoiakim is described by Jeremiah as a covetous tyrant (chap. Jer_22:17), and as he died at the age of thirty-six, he is supposed by some to be referred to in these words.”—Ibid.
Jer_17:11. Theme: WEALTH UNJUSTLY ACQUIRED. Violence and fraud had been reigning in Jerusalem.
I. Unlawful means used to acquire wealth may win success.
1. Opportunities to acquire money tempt to oppression and fraud.
2. A temporary prosperity is realised in the possession of ill-gotten gains.
3. The rich toil to gather wealth, and then sit brooding over it, like the partridge; but it never gives comfort or satisfaction. They are always anxious and uneasy; for their sinful projects may miscarry.
4. Treasures acquired by wrong methods leave an unquiet conscience. The rich man may say, I am innocent (Hos_12:8), but that only mocks his conscience.
II. Wealth when acquired cannot long be retained. “He shall leave them in the midst of his days.”
1. God shall cut him off by some surprising stroke (Luk_12:19-20).
2. Gathered riches cannot be taken into eternity: “He shall leave them.”
3. His impoverished death shows him to be a miserable “fool.” He was “not rich towards God,” only had “ill-gotten gains,” and had to “leave” all in death; went into eternity “poor indeed”—“poor and miserable, and blind and naked.”
III. Parting with his wealth in death is a great vexation to a worldly man.
1. It naturally frets him to leave to another, who may squander all, the treasures he has wasted his life in accumulating.
2. It justly appals him to go into God’s presence with nothing but the memory of unjustly-accumulated gains. “He shall be a fool:” the laughing-stock of death.
Jer_17:12-13. See HOMILETIC OUTLINES ON SECTIONS.
Theme: THE CHURCH OF THE LORD.
i. What it is in itself. Peace of sanctuary; throne of divine glory; house of Him who is Israel’s Hope.
ii. What it will be. It will ever remain firm (Mat_16:18).
iii. What they find who forsake it. Shame, oblivion, unsatisfied thirsts.—Naegelsbach.
Jer_17:14. Theme: A CRY FOR HEALING AND SAVING GRACE. “Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed,” &c.
One great proof of the experience of converting grace is the disposition to vindicate God and condemn ourselves. “That Thou might be justified,” &c. Here Jeremiah justifies divine dispensations.
I. That sin is the disease of the soul, and is so felt. All its symptoms are dreaded by the Christian. The worldling does not fear nor dread them. He is like a man in consumption, whose case is seen and dreaded by all but himself. But the Christian dreads the evil as well as punishment of sin. He knows the plague of his own heart. All the symptoms are dangerous. Sin like a venomous disease.
There is the loss of rest—“no peace.”
There is the depravation of taste—he feedeth on ashes. Want of appetite.
There is the loss of sight—but the Christian prays, “Open Thou mine eyes.”
There is the loss of hearing—the wicked is like a deaf adder. But the Christian says, “The hearing ear and seeing eye, the Lord hath made both.”
II. That Christ is the only physician, the Good Physician. Other physicians are prodigal of the patient’s blood, and sparing of their own; but Christ shed His own blood to save our souls. “When justice calls for sinners’ blood, the Saviour shows His own.”
Never was the disease known yet that mocked His skill. The blind, the dumb, the maimed, the deaf, the very dead—owned His power; and, behold, the Lord’s arm is not shortened. There are seasons in which nothing short of this conviction of the infinite ability of Christ to pardon and to save can bring peace to the mind.
i. Consider the infinite efficacy of Christ’s atonement, as showing God’s readiness as well as ability to pardon. What pledge of God’s delight in mercy could He give like this, “He spared not his own Son”?
ii. Consider, has not God inculcated unlimited forgiveness on us? (Mat_18:21; Luk_17:4.) If God requires forgiveness of us without bounds, will not He extend forgiveness without bounds?
iii. Consider the direct statements of Scripture: “I, even I, am He that blotteth out,” &c.; “All sins in depth of sea.”
iv. From great instances of mercy.
III. That prayer is our only refuge.
It is the appointed means. It has never failed. Your desire for the benefit of purity and pardon is a proof it shall be extended. He will fulfil desire.
IV. That praise should be our truest delight. “Thou art my praise.” Our praises should be renewed, for past mercies, with prayers for new ones.—Samuel Thodey, A. D. 1841.
Theme: PRAYER FOR SALVATION BASED UPON PRAISE. “Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed,” &c.
I. The blessings sought.
1. Health. What temporal blessing greater. The health of the soul is the highest form of health.
2. Salvation. (Explain the term.)
II. How they are sought. By prayer.
1. Confession of need.
2. Seeking in right way; of right source.
3. Sincerity of prayer, shown in use of right means to preserve health and obtain salvation.
III. The ground of the prayer for these blessings. “Thou art my praise.”
What does this mean but that he who rightly offers this prayer is living in the service of God, seeking to please Him, rejoicing in His favour, acknowledging His mercy?—“The Hive,” vol. viii., 1875.
Theme: THE PENITENT’S PRAYER. The words express—
I. An earnest desire for salvation.
II. He applies to Almighty God for it.
III. Through the medium of prayer.
IV. With confidence that He will be heard.—Dr. A. Thomson, of Edinburgh, from Lange.
Jer_17:14-15. Theme: A PREACHER’S CRY FOR HELP. He is tempted on account of the truth.
i. The temptation (Jer_17:13).
ii. The demonstration of innocence (Jer_17:16).
iii. The cry for help.
(a.) Negative (Jer_17:17-18).
(b.) Positive (Jer_17:19).—Naegelsbach.
Comments—
Jer_17:14. “Thou art my praise.” “When a teacher confines himself to the praise of the Cross, and lets all other matters of praise go which might adorn a theologian of these times, and adheres immovably to this: ‘I am determined not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified’—amid all the shame of His Cross, He is victorious over the rest.”—Zinzendorf.
Jer_17:15. “Where is the word of the Lord? let it come, now!” “This taunt shows that this prophecy was written before any signal fulfilment of Jeremiah’s words had taken place, and prior therefore to the capture of Jerusalem at the close of Jehoiakim’s life.”—Dr. Payne Smith.
Jer_17:16. “From being a pastor.” See Lit. Crit. on this verse.
“Desired the woful day:” i.e., the day on which Jerusalem was to be destroyed and the temple burnt. Though these calamities would verify Jeremiah’s word and vindicate him against scorners, yet his patriotic soul recoiled from the nearing desolation of his country and ruin of his people.
Jer_17:16. “That which I have preached was right before Thee.” “It is not difficult to know in these times what is right before the Lord. There is His Word: he who adheres to this strictly, knows in this that he is right. In all this it is the teacher’s chief maxim, not to make use of the application without need, but to make the truth so plain in his discourses that the hearers must necessarily make the application to themselves. ‘Thus saying, Thou reproachest us also,’ said the lawyer (Luk_11:45). Others went away convicted in their consciences.”—Zinzendorf.
Jer_17:17. Theme: THE SOUL’S HOPE IN A TIME OF TERROR. “Be not a terror unto me. Thou art my hope in the day of evil.”
Jeremiah had forewarned. It was a painful duty. He now looks forward to the “woful day” with deep anxiety for his people. And as one who sees the storm pending, and looks around for hiding-place, he draws near and appeals to God, sure that amid the terrors of the “day of evil” He would preserve his soul.
Our case is sadly accordant with that of Judah.
1. The heartless rebellion of Judah did not exceed the iniquity of many of us who have trifled with grace.
2. The judgments pronounced were not heavier than those standing against the impenitent sinner who despises the great salvation.
3. The mission of the preacher is still to rush in among men “whose hearts have departed from the Lord,” and protest, warn, and call to repentance.
4. And the consolations of the righteous are as true as with the prophet; for he knows God is his “Hope” in the day of evil.
I. A day comes when God will be a terror. God would take from Judah all this world’s “heritage” they prized, and all the spiritual benefits they failed to profit by.
“Days of evil”—
(a.) Come suddenly. Sweep down on us like unexpected storms.
(b.) Find us desolate. “While we say, Peace, peace, sudden destruction cometh upon us.” When our “desolation cometh like a whirlwind,” it is then too late to be seeking a sure refuge.
In these “days of evil,” which come on the soul of the guilty, we must include—
1. The day of the sinner’s conviction and anguish. When God arrests the soul and confronts him with his guilt. Oh, what agony! “Woe is me, I am undone!” God is a “terror” to him. “Whither can I go from Thy presence?” “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!”
2. The day when death calls the guilty soul from earth. Comes “as a thief in the night.” How terrible is the death of the wicked! How the soul shudders to be hurrying before God unreconciled, unsaved!
3. The day when the spirits of men will be arraigned for judgment. We shall meet God! No exaggeration of facts in the description of men “calling on mountains and rocks to hide” them. God will be a “terror” to the guilty. “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”
II. In the day of terror God may be found our Hope. God is not necessarily a terror to the soul in the day of calamity. The righteous prophet knew He would be his “Hope.”
1. This is the known character of God. He is called “the Hope of Israel” (Jer_17:13). See also Jer_14:8. It is on this well understood character of God that the exhortation is given, “Let Israel hope in the Lord, for with the Lord is forgiveness: and He shall redeem Israel from all her iniquities.” God is not willingly a “terror” to any soul. Listen to His Name declared amid Sinai. Read Gospel statement, “God so loved the world.” Watch His ways in providence: “His tender mercies over all His works.” When He becomes a “terror,” it is through a dire necessity.
2. He will become the Hope of every soul who seeks Him. Calls: “Turn ye to the Stronghold, ye prisoners of hope;” bids us “lay hold on the hope set before us.” “We have a strong consolation who have fled for refuge,” &c. Every soul may find the same.
Observe here the way by which God is made a “terror” (Jer_17:13); and the way by which He will become as our “Hope” (Jer_17:14).
3. The confident reliance and expectation of the believer.
(a.) How unwavering the repose. “Thou art my hope.” David, “I will fear no evil.”
(b.) How personal this appropriation! “Thou art my hope.” (Comp. Jer_17:18.)
(c.) How single is the soul’s trust. “Thou art.” God only: God Himself (Psa_91:1-2).
i. Unless this Hope is ours before terror comes, He will not be so in the day of evil.
ii. As the day of evil is uncertain and may be near, we should promptly seek the Lord (Jer_17:7). If “without Christ,” “no hope in the world.”
See Addenda: THE SOUL’S HOPE.
Theme: DIVINE WRATH AN OBJECT OF FEAR.
Every believer can adopt the former of these expressions, but not the latter. Why so? Words spoken in an evil time—a time of corruption, calamity, ruin. Jeremiah himself was in great danger. How appropriate then.
Notice—I. The petition. II. The expression of confidence.
I. The petition. “Be not a terror unto me.”
1. God’s majesty is in itself an object of fear and dread (Heb_12:21, Isa_6:5, Hab_3:16, Hos_3:5).
2. Divine chastisements are to be feared (Jer_10:24, Psa_6:1, Job_9:34).
3. God’s wrath is still more dreadful.
4. The prophet prays for support and comfort in the time of trial.
II. The expression of confidence. “Thou art my Hope in the day of evil.”
1. The grace exercised is hope. Though troubled, he is not destroyed. (2Co_4:8, &c.; Rom_8:24).
(1.) God is the object of His people’s hope (Psa_71:5; Psa_78:5).
(2.) God is the end of their hope. They need no more (Psa_16:11; Psa_17:15).
2. Observe the time when this grace is exercised: “Day of evil.”
(1.) Sin and sorrow make every day an evil day, still let us hope (Psa_62:8; Psa_71:14).
(2.) Yet there are peculiar days of evil: National calamity; reverses in business; disappointments; affliction; old age (Psa_73:26, 2Ti_1:12).
LEARN—
1. That hopes and fears are blended together in the experience of the godly (Psa_147:11).
2. If God is sometimes a terror to His own people, how much more to the wicked? (Deu_28:65-67).
From “Short Discourses,” by B. Beddome.
Jer_17:19 to end, on SABBATH CONSECRATION, see HOMILIES ON SECTIONS.
Jer_17:21. Theme: SABBATH REST. “Take heed to yourselves, and bear no burden on the Sabbath-day.”
The Sabbath argument is easy to the devout. Like exhorting a hungry man to take refreshment, or a mother to love her child, or the slave to enjoy freedom.
“Welcome, sweet day of rest,” etc.
The early Christians called it the Day of Light, and the Queen of Days. The ancient Church had it in great veneration. It was a badge of their religion, for when asked, “Keepest thou the Sabbath?” the answer was, “I am a Christian, and dare not omit the celebration of the Lord’s day.”
I. Motives for the observance of the Sabbath. There should be rest of body, with a view to the sanctity of the soul; and such a withdrawal from all worldly and sinful pursuits as may conduce to our spiritual advancement. We urge this—
1. From the Divine command. Twice given by God himself in Eden, twice inserted in the Decalogue, and twice engraved on stone by God and given to Moses.
2. From the nature and reason of the case. Intended to give opportunity of rest from toil; to be a commemoration of the wisdom, power, and goodness of God in the creation of the universe; to furnish encouragement to acquire holiness and obtain salvation. The day is needful for rest and devotion.
3. From the blessings necessary to form a truly religious character. Absorbed by the business and vanities of this world, the recollections of the other world would be blotted out but for the return of the Sabbath. In the absence of our usual occupations, and in seasons of leisure, conscience regains her empire, and the mind is turned inwardly upon itself, and the voice of God is heard.
4. From the consequences of disobedience to the claims of the day. Further from God; hardened in worldliness; left godless, and led Christless, to sink into ever increasing alienation from all that is holy, and hopeful, and heavenly.
II. Some of the burdens which should be laid aside.
1. The burden of needless toil (Exo_31:15). Surely the anointing of Christ was commendable work, yet Mary Magdalene waited till the Sabbath was past (Luk_23:56). God forbade manna to be gathered on the Sabbath.
2. The burden of wilful sin. Abstain from amusements, convivial parties, needless journeys, unprofitable conversations, &c.
3. The burden of anxious care. “Cast thy burden on the Lord.” Do it by faith and prayer. Think—who cared for Noah in deluge, for Moses in bulrushes, for Daniel with lions, for Paul in storm?
4. The burden of desponding apprehensions for the future. Commit thy way unto the Lord and trust in Him. Oh, rest in the Lord, &c.—Samuel Thodey, A. D. 1845.
See Addenda: SABBATH REST
Theme: THE SABBATH AND THE LORD’S DAY.
I. What they have in common. The weekly holyday is in both cases—
1. A monument of the loving care of our God.
(a.) For our body; (b.) for our soul.
2. A right of God, which forms a holy obligation towards—
(a.) God, (b.) ourselves, (c.) our neighbour.
II. The differences which distinguish them.
1. The day of Jehovah is founded on the creation of the perishable world; the day of the Lord is founded on the resurrection of Christ, as of a new, eternal world.
2. The observance of the day of Jehovah was only legal; i.e. (a) imposed by external compulsion, (b) by requirements to be fulfilled with outward ceremonies: the observance of the day of the Lord is to be more and more an evangelical one; i.e. (a) a free, (b) a spiritually free one, satisfying the right as well as the obligation of personality.—Naegelsbach.
See also NOTICEABLE TOPICS: On the Sabbath.
NOTICEABLE TOPICS IN CHAPTER 17
Topic: THE BLESSED AND THE CURSED. (Jer_17:5-8)
Great is the distinction between the godly and the ungodly (Psa_1:6; Psa_7:11; Psa_11:5) in their characters, in their practice, in their experience, in their end. This distinction will appear in the day of judgment (Mat_25:34-41).
I. The characters here contrasted. Specially descriptive of the situation of Judah at the time. Threatened with invasion, they trusted in Egypt as a rival with Babylon; or in their own strength—artificial fortifications (Psa_48:12-13); or in their individual accomplishments, as wise, rich, and powerful (Jer_9:23).
This may apply to us as a nation. We form alliances, raise armies and navies; but woe to us if we trust in them so that our heart departeth from the Lord! (Psa_20:6-8.)
1. The character of the wicked is stated (Jer_17:5).
(a.) The root of all ungodliness is perversion of heart from God. The sinner will not have the Lord to reign over him. “The carnal mind is enmity against God.”
(b.) The wicked trust in human means for success and prosperity, and even for the salvation of their souls. They rely on wisdom and skill; on riches (Pro_18:11), in their fortitude and heroism, to the pleasurable diversions invented; to their actions as meritorious for salvation.
Such procedure indicates: (1.) Ignorance—of God, law, themselves as depraved; (2.) Contempt—of Providence, and Christ’s redemption; (3.) Presumption.
2. The character of the righteous is stated (Jer_17:7).
(a.) The righteous trust in the Lord from a conviction that vain is the help of man. They have a knowledge of the human heart that it is “deceitful above all things,” &c. Self-confidence is, therefore, also abandoned.
(b.) They trust in the God of salvation alone. They can say of Christ, “He loved me, and gave Himself for me.”
(c.) They trust Him when they cannot trace Him; know that He will do all things well; and God is their hope in all their troubles, difficulties, fears—in prospect of death and eternity.
II. The conduct determining the blessing, i.e., whether we trust in man or in the name of the Lord.
1. As we trust the wisdom of men, or the revealed will of God, we are under the curse or the blessing. Some avowedly reject revelation, others admit only what accords with their own reason: the Christian takes the Scriptures.
2. As to righteousness, the determining question is whether we trust the righteousness of man, or the righteousness which is of God.
3. Though we trust in the Saviour Himself, yet if we consider Him only as a man, we incur the denunciation of the text. If Christ be only a man, to trust in Him is to trust in an arm of flesh. If His Divinity be denied, there is no ground for trust. (Comp. 1Ti_1:12, 1Jn_1:9.)
III. The consequences of the conduct of these contrasted characters.
1. As to those who trust in man. “He shall be like the heath in the desert” (Jer_17:6).
(a.) Barrenness. He must remain destitute of God’s. fertilising and refreshing grace—unholy, fruitless, worthless.
(b.) Wretchedness. “Heath in desert;” “inhabit parched places.”
(c.) Loss of all good. “Not see when good cometh.” It comes in a preached Gospel, in offers of salvation, in affliction, in the testimony of conscience, in the Spirit’s influence, but they see it not! “Good” comes upon the Church in the dew of heaven: “Great grace is upon them all;” upon believers even in their trials, and even when Christ comes to judgment; but the godless see it not, share it not.
2. As to the righteous. The result of trusting in the Lord is permanent fruitfulness (Jer_17:8). (Comp. Psa_1:3; Psa_92:13-15). Indicates—
(a.) Enjoyment. “A tree planted by the waters,” drawing in pleasure and refreshment.
(b.) Growth, or prosperity—progress. The Christian flourishes, “grows in grace.”
(c.) Security. “He shall not see (not fear) when heat cometh,” &c. “He is kept by the power of God unto salvation,” &c.
(d.) Permanent beauty and fruitfulness. “Her leaf shall be green, neither cease yielding fruit.” Is there anything more beautiful than a Christian’s life—a Christian’s deeds—a Christian’s death—a Christian’s entrance into heaven?—Altered from “Helps for the Pulpit.”
Topic: DECEITFULNESS OF THE HUMAN HEART. (Jer_17:9.)
Many have been the laboured panegyrics indulged, in the endeavour to establish on a firm footing the dignity of human nature. One eminent preacher has not scrupled to affirm—first, that men in general (if not every individual) are very wise; secondly, that men in general are very virtuous; and thirdly, they are very happy.
A charitable person once discovered that there was no sinner in the world but the devil. “For,” was the argument, “he forces men to act as they do, therefore they are not accountable. The blame lights on Satan.”
But whatever baptized or unbaptized infidels may say concerning the innocence of mankind, He that made man, and best knows what He has made, gives a very different account of him. He informs us “that the heart of man”—of every man born into this world—“is desperately wicked,” and that it is “deceitful above all things,” so that we may well ask, “Who can know it?”
I. The wickedness of man’s heart. It is “desperately wicked.” In considering this—
1. We have no need to refer to any particular sins. When Satan had once transferred his own self-will and pride into the parents of mankind, together with a new species of sin, love of the world, the loving the creature more than the Creator, all manner of wickedness soon rushed in. The earth soon became a field of blood. Injustice in ten thousand forms—hatred, envy, malice, blood-thirstiness, falsehood—rode triumphant, till the Creator, looking down from heaven, would be no more entreated for an incorrigible race, but swept them off the face of the earth.
2. God having created us gratuitously of His own mere mercy (for we could merit nothing of Him before we had a being), has laid us under obligation to yield Him our obedience.
3. From the devil, the spirit of independence, self-will, and pride, productive of all ungodliness and unrighteousness, quickly infused themselves into the hearts of our first parents in Paradise, and, through them, their posterity, alienating us from God, making way for idolatry, atheism, &c.
4. Melancholy truth, that all mankind now “have corrupted their ways before the Lord,” unless when the Spirit of God has made the difference.
5. But if this be the case, how is it that every one is not conscious of it? For this plain reason—because the heart is not only “desperately wicked,” but “deceitful above all things.”
II. The deceitfulness of man’s heart.
1. It is “deceitful above all things,”—that is, in the highest degree, above all that we can conceive. So deceitful that the generality of men are continually deceiving both themselves and others. Imagining themselves to be abundantly better than they are.
2. And if men thus deceive themselves, is it any wonder that they deceive others also, and that we seldom find “an Israelite indeed in whom there is no guile”?
3. This is one of the sorts of desperate wickedness, which cleaves to the nature of every man, proceeding from those fruitful roots—self-will, pride, and independence of God.
4. Hence there is in the heart of every child of man an inexhaustible fund of ungodliness and unrighteousness, deeply and strongly rooted in the soul, that nothing less than Almighty grace will cure.
5. There are exceptions as to the wickedness of man’s heart. “He that is born of God keepeth himself, and the wicked one toucheth him not.” His heart is purified by faith. His wickedness is departed from him. “Old things are passed away, all things (in him) are become new.”
III. Lessons—
1. “He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool.” For who that is wise would trust one whom he knows to be desperately wicked?
2. That when thou seest a man “wise in his own conceit, there is more hope of a fool than of him.” For at what distance from wisdom must that man be who never suspected his want of it?
3. Wisdom of the caution, “Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.” How firmly soever he may stand, he has still a deceitful heart. In how many instances has he been deceived already?
4. Is it not wisdom for him that is now standing, continually to cry to God, “Search me, O Lord, and prove me: Let me not think of myself more highly than I ought to think; but let me always think soberly, according as Thou hast given me the measure of faith”?—John Wesley.
Topic: THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH. “Hallow ye the Sabbath day” (Jer_17:22).
The awful desecration of the Lord’s day which everywhere presents itself to our view, in scenes of pleasure, business, and dissipation, is at once a foul blot upon our national character, and a source of humiliation and sorrow to the sincere Christian.
The Sabbath is an institution both of divine origin and permanent obligation.
I. The Sabbath, as a day appropriated to rest and religious duties, is an original institution, coeval with the existence of man. (See Gen_1:31; Gen_2:1-3.) Thus the Sabbath dates its origin from the completion of creation, and was designed to commemorate that great event. This was the day God sanctified, setting it apart from all the rest It is an original institution, as ancient as the law of love itself, and, like that law, is intended to remain in force until mortality is swallowed up of life, until the earthly Sabbath gives place to the perpetual and uninterrupted rest of the heavenly world. It is a remarkable fact, that in almost all nations men have divided time into septenary periods, or periods of seven days. Josephus says (Against Apion, book ii.) that “there is not a city of the Grecians, nor any of the Barbarians, nor any nation whatsoever, whither our custom of resting on the seventh day hath not come.”
II. That the Sabbath, when re-enacted from Sinai, was not enjoined as a temporary institution, but as a moral duty. The law of the Sabbath holds its place among the moral precepts. (See Exo_20:8-11.) Engraven by the finger of God on the tables of stone, and deposited in the ark of the covenant—all indicative of its permanent character and obligation. As a moral precept, it is an original and universal duty, belonging to Gentile as well as Jew, to the Christian dispensation as well as the Levitical economy. Not a Jewish ceremony, but a moral duty, and as such cannot be set aside. Christ came not to destroy the law, but to fulfil and honour it. Command repeated many times, is enjoined in text, “Hallow ye the Sabbath day.”
III. The Saviour has expressly taught that “the Sabbath was made FOR MAN;” and not for man in any particular nation or age, but without limitation for man; and, therefore, it is of universal and perpetual obligation. “And He said unto them, The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath” (Mar_2:27). “For man,” as a duty incumbent upon him; “for man,” as a privilege conferred upon him. Sabbath was made for all men without distinction. The Levitical law was designed to be temporary in its duration. In its extent it was confined to the Hebrew nation, and in its duration was limited to the Jewish dispensation. But the Sabbath was not made merely for the Hebrew nation, but for man, without distinction or restriction. And now the Levitical economy is abolished, it continues a moral law binding upon the conscience of the Christian in all parts of the world.
IV. Does the Christian ask what are the obligations of the Sabbath upon him?
(a.) Let your mind be established with a thorough conviction of the Divine authority and obligation of the Sabbath, and let your sense of duty be based on this conviction.
(b.) Let your example correspond with your profession. We profess to be God’s people; let us show it by our works. Our duty to God requires our observance of the Sabbath as a part of our obedience.
(c.) In addition to our example, our influence must be employed to promote the sanctity of the Sabbath. It is the Lord’s day. As Eusebius remarks, “Before our Lord’s death, it was always called the first day; but now it was called the Lord’s day.” To us it is, therefore, the Sabbath of the Lord our God, and it is our duty to keep it holy.—William Cooke, D.D.
ADDENDA TO CHAPTER 17 ILLUSTRATIONS AND SUGGESTIVE EXTRACTS
Jer_17:1. INDELIBLE RECORDS OF SIN. “The great stone book of Nature reveals many records of the past. In the red sandstone there are found, in some places, marks which are clearly the impressions of showers of rain, and these so perfect that it can even be detected in which direction the shower inclined, and from what quarter it proceeded; and this, ages ago. Even so sin leaves its track behind it, and God keeps a faithful record of all our sins.”—Biblical Treasury.
“If you cut a gash in a man’s head, you may heal it; but you can never rub out, nor wash out, nor cut out the scar. It may witness against you in his corpse; still it may be covered by the coffin or hidden in the grave; but then it is not till decomposition shall take place that it shall entirely disappear. But if you smite a soul, the scar remains; no coffin or grave shall hide it; no revolution, not even the upturning of the physical universe, shall obliterate it; no fire, not even the eternal fires of hell, shall burn it out.”—Dr. Thomson.
Like as Queen Mary, when she died, told those about her that the loss of Calais had so impressed her, that its image would be found indelibly engraven on her heart.
Jer_17:9. FALSITY AND FOULNESS OF THE HEART. “I am more afraid of my own heart than of the Pope and all his cardinals. I have within me the great pope—self.”—Luther.
“All our actions take
Their hues from the complexion of the heart,
As landscapes their variety of light”
—Bacon.
“A soil which breeds
Or sweetest flowers or vilest weeds;
Flowers lovely as the morning’s light,
Weeds deadly as the aconite;
Just as his heart is trained to bear
The poisonous weed or flow’ret fair.”
—Bowring.
“As soon as we are born and receive the care of our parents, we engage in all kinds of depravity; so much, that we seem to suck in error with our nurse’s milk.”—Cicero.
The student should specially consult “Secular Annotations on Scripture Texts,” by Francis Jacox, second series, p. 122. Or, “The Heart Inscrutably Deceitful.”
Jer_17:10. SEARCHING THE HEART
“Who made the heart, ‘tis He alone
Decidedly can try us;
He knows each chord—its various tone,
Each spring—its various bias;
Then at the balance let’s be mute,
We never can adjust it;
What’s done we partly may compute,
But know not what’s resisted.”
—Burns.
Jer_17:17. THE SOUL’S HOPE. “Our hope is not hung upon such an untwisted thread as ‘I imagine so,’ or, ‘It is likely;’ but the cable, the strong rope of our fastened anchor, is the oath and promise of Him who is eternal verity; our salvation is fastened, with God’s own hand and Christ’s own strength, to the strong stake of God’s unchangeable nature.”—Rutherford.
“Be not a terror to me.” Let me have fair weather overhead, however foul soever it be under foot.”—Trapp.
“Hope is the last thing that dies in man.”
—Diogenes.
“Though at times my spirit fails me,
And the bitter teardrops fall;
Though my lot is hard and lonely,
Yet I hope—I hope through all.”
—Mrs. Norton.
“With eyes turned upward, whence her help descends,
Hope waits expecting till the tempest ends.”
—Holmes.
Jer_17:21. SABBATH REST. “Had not Jeremiah expressly said, ‘Bear no burden on the Sabbath day?” Yes; but why? Because the Sabbath was an ordinance of mercy intended to protect the underlings and the oppressed from a life of incessant toil; because it was essential to save the serfs and labourers of the nation from the over measure of labour which would have been exacted of them in a nation afflicted with the besetting sin of greed; because the setting apart of one day in seven for sacred rest was of infinite value to the spiritual life of all.”—Farrar.
Captain Scoresby remarks, in his “Voyage to Greenland,” on the good effects of Sabbath-keeping on the health and spirits of his men; “That if others who did not so sedulously keep it gained some benefits (as in fishing), we always gained extra advantage over them in course of the week. Independently of the Divine blessing, I found the restraint on the natural inclinations of the men for pursuing the fishery at all opportunities acted as an extra stimulus on their exertions when next sent after the whales. But our success, who refrained, was so much greater than those who indulged fishing, that there was not a man in the ship who did not consider it the effect of a Divine blessing.”
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Sermon Bible1900 · Public DomainOn v1I. The Bible has nothing to say against a…
Jer 17:11
I. The Bible has nothing to say against a man’s getting rich by just and honourable means. The need of money, and a moderate desire for it, form a most valuable incentive to industry. We would not be assured that the blessing of the Lord maketh rich, if wealth were necessarily an evil. To be altogether indifferent to material profit, so far from being a recommendation, betokens an unmanly and defective character. You ought to wish to increase your substance, if God will give you grace to use it well.
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II. We learn from the text that riches unrighteously gotten are no blessing. It is our Maker’s design that wealth should be begotten of industry: real hard work. There is no royal road to opulence; and, as Solomon said nearly three thousand years ago, "he that maketh haste to be rich shall not be innocent." To make money rapidly, even by honest means, is perilous; how much more so by questionable methods?
III. As the text teaches, the penalty on the acquisition of unrighteous gain generally follows even in this life. Perhaps this does not hold so markedly in our times as under the Old Dispensation, because immortality with its just retribution is now more clearly revealed. Still, no thoughtful person can fail to see how often a terrible Nemesis pursues the fraudulent man even in "the midst of his day," and how, at his end, even the world styles him a fool. Some unexpected time comes, some monetary crisis, some commercial disaster, and all his hoarded gains take wing and fly away; the unprincipled man is left, like the silly partridge, to sit disconsolate in an empty nest.
J. Thain Davidson, Forewarned—Forearmed, p. 61.
References: Jer 17:12-14.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxx., No. 1786. Jer 17:14.—G. Brooks, Outlines of Sermons, p. 26; Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxviii., No. 1658.
Jer 17:12
I. Man’s Refuge. No creature so much needs the shelter and defence of a safe hiding-place as man. His sources of danger are more than can be numbered, and with an infected nature he travels an infested road. Beset with foes, he is in constant need of shelter, and often cries out for deliverance.
II. Man’s refuge is a sanctuary. A refuge is no place to rest or abide in. A place which is only a refuge furnishes but a temporary shelter. But a refuge, which is also a sanctuary, a Divine house, affords not only shelter, but rest, repose, and satisfaction for all we need or can desire. The house of God may well be a home for man. And he who enters such a refuge soon discovers that it will be to him all his desire.
III. Man’s refuge is not only sacred, but royal. "A glorious high throne." The house of God is also the seat and source of all rule, authority, and power. It is a throne. From which we learn that the house of God, which is man’s refuge and home, is its own defence. A throne incapable of its own defence is no longer a throne.
IV. This sanctuary-refuge-throne is spoken of as an exalted throne. Man needs a high defence. Our refuge towers above all, not only covering the need of our present station, but of all its future possibilities of growth.
V. And this exalted throne is glorious in the history of its exaltation. Its exaltation has not been by might but by right. That the throne became a refuge has given a hallowed joy to the universe. The refuge crowns the throne.
VI. Our refuge has been set up from the beginning. The provision for the requirements of man’s fallen nature was no after-thought, but a forethought. His refuge-sanctuary-throne was "set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was."
VII. Note the personality of the refuge. (1) An impersonal refuge could never afford shelter and defence for man against his personal foes. (2) An impersonal refuge could never afford rest to, nor become a home for, man. Man needs man, a human security, a human joy, a human home, a warm maternal bosom on which to rest; not even God as God, but God as man.
W. Pulsford, Trinity Church Sermons, p. 161.
References: Jer 17:14.—Spurgeon, Evening by Evening, p. 245. Jer 17:17.—Ibid., Morning by Morning, p. 120. Jer 18:1-4.—Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxv., p. 152.
Jer 18:1-6
Consider what Jeremiah’s business was, and how the potter might help him in understanding and performing it.
I. Jeremiah sees a man engaged in a task to which he is devoting all his thoughts. He designs to make some clay into a vessel of a certain shape; the form or pattern is present to his mind; he is fully resolved that the material with which he is working shall come forth in that form and no other. But apparently it disappoints him. One piece of clay after another is marred in his hands; he has to break his vessel again and again; he goes on perseveringly till he has done the thing which he intended to do. If there is any force or worth in the analogy at all, it must mean that there is a form according to which God is seeking to mould men and nations. It must imply that He is patiently, continually, working for the accomplishment of this purpose. Here, then, was the mystery of a people’s repentance. If they acknowledged the will which was working upon them, if at any time they yielded to it and desired to be formed by it, this was that conversation and inward change which He was seeking to produce.
II. The prophet looks upon this symbol as teaching him the principle of God’s government of a people. I apprehend that we shall learn some day that the call to individual repentance and the promise of individual reformation has been feeble at one time; productive of turbulent, violent, transitory effects at another; because it has not been part of a call to national repentance, because it has not been connected with a promise of national reformation. We must speak again the ancient language that God has made a covenant with the nation, and that all citizens are subjects of an unseen and righteous King, if we would have a hearty, inward repentance which will really bring us back to God.
III. Jeremiah could not bring the image of the potter’s work to bear with its proper force upon Israelites at that moment if he confined the purpose of God within the limits which they had fixed for it As he gazed on the potter and saw how one piece of clay after another was marred, and yet how the thing he designed was at last done; it came with an awful vision of what was preparing for his land, with a bright vision of what must ultimately follow from every judgment. That which seemed now compact, and yet which consisted of elements that were always ready to separate from each other, might split into fragments: but the vessel must be made: not after some different type, but after the original and perfect type which dwelt not in the dead matter but in the living mind of Him who was shaping it.
F. D. Maurice, Prophets and Kings of the Old Testament, p. 395.
Reference: Jer 18:1-10.—E. H. Plumptre, Expositor, 1st series, vol. iv., p. 469.
The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren1905 · Public DomainOn v1Jer 17:1. - 2Co 3:3. - Col 2:14.
Jeremiah
SIN’S WRITING AND ITS ERASURE
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Jer 17:1. - 2Co 3:3. - Col 2:14.
I have put these verses together because they all deal with substantially the same metaphor. The first is part of a prophet’s solemn appeal. It describes the sin of the nation as indelible. It is written in two places. First, on their hearts, which reminds us of the promise of the new covenant to be written on the heart. The ‘red-leaved tablets of the heart’ are like waxen tables on which an iron stylus makes a deep mark, an ineradicable scar. So Judah’s sin is, as it were, eaten into their heart, or, if we might so say, tattooed on it. It is also written on the stone horns of the altar, with a diamond which can cut the rock {an illustration of ancient knowledge of the properties of the diamond}. That sounds a strange place for the record of sin to appear, but the image has profound meaning, as we shall see presently.
Then the two New Testament passages deal with other applications of the same metaphor. Christ is, in the first, represented as writing on the hearts of the Corinthians, and in the second, as taking away ‘the handwriting contrary to us.’ The general thought drawn from all is that sin’s writing on men’s hearts is erased by Christ and a new inscription substituted.
I. The handwriting of sin.
Sin committed is indelibly written on the heart of the doer.
‘The heart,’ of course, in Hebrew means more than merely the supposed seat of the affections. It is figuratively the centre of the spiritual life, just as physically it is the centre of the natural. Thoughts and affections, purposes and desires are all included, and out of it are ‘the issues of life,’ the whole outgoings of the being. It is the fountain and source of all the activity of the man, the central unity from which all comes. Taken in this wide sense it is really the whole inner self that is meant, or, as is said in one place, ‘the hidden man of the heart.’ And so the thought in this vigorous metaphor may be otherwise put, that all sin makes indelible marks on the whole inward nature of the man who does it.
Now to begin with, think for a moment of that truth that everything which we do reacts on us the doers.
We seldom think of this. Deeds are done, and we fancy that when done, they are done with. They pass, as far as outward seeming goes, and their distinguishable consequences in the outward world, in the vast majority of cases, soon apparently pass. All seems evanescent and irrecoverable as last year’s snows, or the water that flowed over the cataract a century ago. But there is nothing more certain than that all which we do leaves indelible traces on ourselves. The mightiest effect of a man’s actions is on his own inward life. The recoil of the gun is more powerful than the blow from its shot. Our actions strike inwards and there produce their most important effects. The river runs ceaselessly and its waters pass away, but they bring down soil, which is deposited and makes firm land, or perhaps they carry down grains of gold.
This is the true solemnity of life, that in all which we do we are carrying on a double process, influencing others indeed, but influencing ourselves far more.
Consider the illustrations of this law in regard to our sins.
Now the last thing people think of when they hear sermons about ‘sin’ is that what is meant is the things that they are doing every day. I can only ask you to try to remember, while I speak, that I mean those little acts of temper, or triflings with truth, or yieldings to passion or anger, or indulgence in sensuality, and above all, the living without God, to which we are all prone.
{a} All wrong-doing makes indelible marks on character. It makes its own repetition easier. Habit strengthens inclination. Peter found denying his Lord three times easier than doing it once. It weakens resistance. In going downhill the first step is the only one that needs an effort; gravity will do the rest.
It drags after it a tendency to other evil. All wrong things have so much in common that they lead on to one another. A man with only one vice is a rare phenomenon. Satan sends his apostles forth two by two. Sins hunt in couples, or more usually in packs, like wolves, only now and then do they prey alone like lions. Small thieves open windows for greater ones. It requires continually increasing draughts, like indulgence in stimulants. The palate demands cayenne tomorrow, if it has had black pepper to-day.
So, whatever else we do by our acts, we are making our own characters, either steadily depraving or steadily improving them. There will come a slight slow change, almost unnoticed but most certain, as a dim film will creep over the peach, robbing it of all its bloom, or some microscopic growth will steal across a clearly cut inscription, or a breath of mist will dim a polished steel mirror.
{b} All wrong-doing writes indelible records on the memory, that awful and mysterious power of recalling past things out of the oblivion in which they seem to lie. How solemn and miserable it is to defile it with the pictures of things evil! Many a man in his later years has tried to ‘turn over a new leaf,’ and has never been able to get the filth out of his memory, for it has been printed on the old page in such strong colours that it shines through. I beseech you all, and especially you young people, to keep yourselves ‘innocent of much transgression,’ and ‘simple concerning evil’-to make your memories like an illuminated missal with fair saints and calm angels bordering the holy words, and not an Illustrated Police News. Probably there is no real oblivion. Each act sinks in as if forgotten, gets overlaid with a multitude of others, but it is there, and memory will one day bring it to us.
And all sin pollutes the imagination. It is a miserable thing to have one’s mind full of ugly foul forms painted on the inner walls of our chamber of imagery, like the hideous figures in some heathen temple, where gods of lust and murder look out from every inch of space on the walls.
{c} All wrong-doing writes indelible records on the conscience. It does so partly by sophisticating it-the sensibility to right and wrong being weakened by every evil act, as a cold in the head takes away the sense of smell. It brings on colour-blindness to some extent. One does not know how far one may go towards ‘Evil! be thou my good’-or how far towards incapacity of distinguishing evil. But at all events the tendency of each sin is in that direction. So conscience may become seared, though perhaps never so completely as that there are no intervals when it speaks. It may long lie dormant, as Vesuvius did, till great trees grow on the floor of the crater, but all the while the communication with the central fires is open, and one day they will burst out.
The writing may be with invisible ink, but it will be legible one day. So, then, all this solemn writing on the heart is done by ourselves. What are you writing? There is a presumption in it of a future retribution, when you will have to read your autobiography, with clearer light and power of judging yourselves. At any rate there is retribution now, which is described by many metaphors, such as sowing and reaping, drinking as we have brewed, and others-but this one of indelible writing is not the least striking.
Sin is graven deep on sinful men’s worship.
The metaphor here is striking and not altogether clear. The question rises whether the altars are idolatrous altars, or Jehovah’s. If the former, the expression may mean simply that the Jews’ idolatry, which was their sin, was conspicuously displayed in these altars, and had, as it were, its most flagrant record in their sacrifices. The altar was the centre point of all heathen and Old Testament worship, and altars built by sinners were the most conspicuous evidences of their sins.
So the meaning would be that men’s sin shapes and culminates in their religion; and that is very true, and explains many of the profanations and abominations of heathenism, and much of the formal worship of so-called Christianity.
For instance, a popular religion which is a mere Deism, a kind of vague belief in a providence, and in a future state where everybody is happy, is but the product of men’s sin, striking out of Christianity all which their sin makes unwelcome in it. The justice of God, punishment, sinfulness of sin, high moral tone, are all gone. And the very horns of their altars are marked with the signs of the worshippers’ sin.
But the ‘altars’ may be God’s altars, and then another idea will come in. The horns of the altar were the places where the blood of the sacrifice was smeared, as token of its offering to God. They were then a part of the ritual of propitiation. They had, no doubt, the same meaning in the heathen ritual. And so regarded, the metaphor means that a sense of the reality of sin shapes sacrificial religion.
There can be no doubt that a very real conviction of sin lies at the foundation of much, if not all, of the system of sacrifices. And it is a question well worth considering whether a conviction so widespread is not valid, and whether we should not see in it the expression of a true human need which no mere culture, or the like, will supply.
At all events, altars stand as witnesses to the consciousness of sin. And the same thought may be applied to much of the popular religion of this day. It may be ineffectual and shallow but it bears witness to a consciousness of evil. So its existence may be used in order to urge profounder realisation of evil on men. You come to worship, you join in confessions, you say ‘miserable sinners’-do you mean anything by it? If all that be true, should it not produce a deeper impression on you?
But another way of regarding the metaphor is this. The horns of the altar were to be touched with the blood of propitiation. But look! the blood flows down, and after it has trickled away, there, deep carven on the horns, still appears the sin, i.e. the sin is not expiated by the sinner’s sacrifice. Jeremiah is then echoing Isaiah’s word, ‘Bring no more vain oblations.’ The picture gives very strikingly the hopelessness, so far as men are concerned, of any attempt to blot out this record. It is like the rock-cut cartouches of Egypt on which time seems to have no effect. There they abide deep for ever. Nothing that we can do can efface them. ‘What I have written, I have written.’ Pen-knives and detergents that we can use are all in vain.
II. Sin’s writing may be erased, and another put in its place.
The work of Christ, made ours by faith, blots it out.
{a} Its influence on conscience and the sense of guilt. The accusations of conscience are silenced. A red line is drawn across the indictment, or, as Colossians has it, it is ‘nailed to the cross.’ There is power in His death to set us free from the debt we owe.
{b} Its influence on memory. Christ does not bring oblivion, but yet takes away the remorse of remembrance. Faith in Christ makes memory no longer a record which we blush to turn over, or upon which we gloat with imaginative delight in guilty pleasures past, but a record of our shortcomings that humbles us with a penitence which is not pain, but serves as a beacon and warning for the time to come. He who has a clear beam of memory on his backward track, and a bright light of hope on his forward one, will steer right.
{c} Its influence on character.
We attain new hopes and tastes. ‘We become epistles of Christ known and read of all men,’ like palimpsests, Homer or Ovid written over with the New Testament gospels or epistles.
Christ’s work is twofold, erasure and rewriting. For the one, ‘I will blot out as a cloud their transgressions.’ None but He can remove these. For the other, ‘I will put My law into their minds and will write it on their hearts.’ He can impress all holy desires on, and can put His great love and His mighty spirit into, our hearts.
So give your hearts to Him. They are all scrawled over with hideous and wicked writing that has sunk deep into their substance. Graven as if on rock are your sins in your character. Your worship and sacrifices will not remove them, but Jesus Christ can. He died that you might be forgiven, He lives that you may be purified. Trust yourself to Him, and lean all your sinfulness on His atonement and sanctifying power, and the foul words and bad thoughts that have been scored so deep into your nature will be erased, and His own hand will trace on the page, poor and thin though it be, which has been whitened by His blood, the fair letters and shapes of His own likeness. Do not let your hearts be the devil’s copybooks for all evil things to scrawl their names there, as boys do on the walls, but spread them before Him, and ask Him to make them clean and write upon them His new name, indicating that you now belong to another, as a new owner writes his name on a book that he has bought.
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow1909 · Public DomainOn v11-4. The sin of Judah is indelible. Hence the…
1-4. The sin of Judah is indelible. Hence the severity of the punishment.
2. Groves] RV 'Asherim,' wooden pillars, or monuments, set up in honour of Astoreth (Astarte), generally near altars (e.g. Jdg_6:25). The Law ordered them to be pulled down (Exo_34:13).
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3. O my mountain in the field] The hill on which Jerusalem is built rises high above the plain. On the other hand, it is lower than the surrounding mountains, hence can be spoken of as a 'valley' in Jer_21:13. For sin] i.e. because of sin.
5-8. God alone is worthy of trust.
6. The heath] RM 'a tamarisk.' The figure is that of a barren, profitless life.
7, 8. Note the parallels to Psalms 1. But which has been influenced by the other is a question more difficult than important.
8. See] RV 'fear.'
Careful] i.e. anxious.
9-11. God searches out and punishes evil.
11. RV 'As the partridge that gathereth young which she hath not brought forth,' and which will soon fly away—a popular belief of which Jeremiah avails himself to illustrate the truth that riches unlawfully gotten are a precarious possession.
12-18. God is the Saviour of the faithful.
12, 13. Connected with the preceding v. The covetous man will be disappointed; and all they who forsake Jehovah and His sanctuary shall not endure.
12. Place of our sanctuary] i.e. Zion, where Jehovah's glory abode.
13. Shall be written in the earth] i.e. shall disappear—a natural simile, a board covered with sand being used for writing lessons in Eastern schools to this day, owing to the scarcity of writing materials.
15. See intro. to Jeremiah 16.
16. I have not hastened, etc.] I have not sought to resign the office of assistant shepherd for Thy people. The woeful day] when his predictions would be fulfilled.
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield1917 · Public DomainOn v1The Lord
The Lord
Or, JEHOVAH. Psa 83:18.
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein1922 · Public DomainOn v11. Judah’s sin (Jer 17:1-4)
CHAPTER 17
1. Judah’s sin (Jer 17:1-4)
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2. The curse and the blessing (Jer 17:5-11)
3. The worship of Jeremiah (Jer 17:12-18)
4. Concerning the Sabbath (Jer 17:19-27)
Jer 17:1-4. The sin of Judah was idolatry, engraven with a pen of iron, the point of a diamond, upon their heart (from whence it proceeded) and upon the horns of their altars. They had destroyed but a few years before the asherim (translated groves, a kind of sacred post), and now their children turned back to the abominable heathen cults. His anger and judgment must now be their portion.
Jer 17:5-11. A curse is pronounced upon him who trusteth in man, who departeth from the Lord. For such a one there is no hope; he shall not see good; he must be an outcast, like the heath in the desert. And such is the natural condition of man, his heart is departed from the Lord, he trusteth in himself, making flesh his arm to defend and to uphold. But blessing is for the man who trusteth in the Lord, whose hope the Lord is. Jer 17:8 contains the same truth as Psa 1:3. It is a description of the God-fearing in Israel, who knew the Lord, trusted and hoped in Him. He had called them to this place of blessing; He had encouraged them to trust in Him; He had manifested His glory and His power in their midst. But they turned away from Him, they leaned not on Him, but on the arm of flesh, on Egypt. The heart is the source of it, deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. The question, “Who can know it?” is answered, “I the LORD search the heart.” He has sounded the depths of it and in His omniscience knew the shameful history of Israel, and all their backsliding. So He knew and knows what we are, yet in sovereign love and grace He has loved us and bears with His own.
Jer 17:12-18. The worship of the prophet stands here also for the worship and soul exercise of the godly remnant of the Lord’s people. The sanctuary of the godly is the glorious high throne, that throne which we know as the throne of grace. In Jer 17:14 there is expressed by the prophet in behalf of the God-fearing the need of His salvation. They mocked the prophet, “Where is the Word of the LORD? Let it come.” So they will hate the remnant of the future Isa 66:5. And we know the prediction in Peter’s second Epistle 2Pe 3:1-18. Jer 17:18 corresponds to the imprecatory psalms. What Jeremiah prays, was fulfilled upon that evil generation; and some day the imprecatory psalms will be fulfilled when the Lord deals again in judgment with the nation.
Jer 17:19-27. Kuenen and other critics deny the Jeremianic authorship of this passage. It is not out of keeping with the message of the prophet. The Sabbath of which he is commanded to speak is the standard of Israel’s spiritual condition, for it is the weekly reminder of Israel’s covenant relation with Jehovah. If they neglected the divine command, as they always did in their departure from the Lord, it was the outward evidence that they had broken the covenant. If they really returned to the Lord they would show it by keeping the solemn Sabbaths and the Lord would bless them. But they obeyed not. This passage as well as others is used by the pernicious Seventh Day Adventistic cult, which denies grace and turns back to the law. But the Sabbath has nothing to do with the Church, nor has the Church anything to do with the Sabbath. The Sabbath is an institution of the law in connection with Israel. The great documents addressed to the church, the Epistles, never mention the Sabbath once, nor is there anywhere in the Epistles an exhortation to keep the Sabbath.
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann1924 · Public DomainOn v1The Reason for Judah’s Rejection
The Reason for Judah’s Rejection
v. 1. The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron, as with a stylus which was used for writing on wax tablets in ancient times, and with the point of a diamond, which was used for etching words into metal surfaces; it is graven upon the table of their heart, deep and ineradicable, with a lasting impression, and upon the horns of your altars, where they wrote the names of their idols,
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v. 2. whilst their children, the entire nation, remember their altars and their groves by the green trees upon the high hills, that is, they were so deeply steeped in idolatry that the mere sight of a green tree and of a high hill awoke in them the remembrance of those terrible altars and of the Asherah images which they had erected there.
v. 3. O my mountain in the field, Jerusalem, and especially Zion and the Temple, I will give thy substance and all thy treasures to the spoil, into the possession of the enemies, and thy high places for sin, on account of the wickedness of the people, because they had been used for idolatrous sacrifices, throughout all thy borders.
v. 4. And thou, even thyself, shall discontinue from thine heritage that I gave thee, disowned, cast out of their land; and I will cause thee to serve thine enemies in the land which thou knowest not; for ye have kindled a fire in Mine anger which shall burn forever. Thus the Jews would lose their inheritance by their own fault, and those who persisted in their godless ways would be subject to the eternal wrath of a holy God, in the same way in which the idolaters of our days will experience it.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0On vv1, 3General Information:
General Information:
Jeremiah often wrote prophecy in the form of poetry. Hebrew poetry uses different kinds of parallelism. (See: Poetry and Parallelism)
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The sin of Judah is written ... on the horns of your altars
Yahweh speaks of Judah's sins being so great that they cannot stop committing them as if someone had engraved their sin permanently. (See: Metaphor)
The sin of Judah is written
Here the word "Judah" represents the people of Judah. This may be expressed in active form. AT: "Someone has written the sin of Judah" (See: Active or Passive)
It is engraved
This may be expressed in active form. AT: "Someone has engraved it" (See: Active or Passive)
engraved on the tablet of their hearts
The sinful habits of the people are spoken of as if their sins had been engraved on their own hearts. The word "hearts" refers to the whole person: their thoughts, emotions, and actions. AT: "engraved in their very beings" (See: Synecdoche)
on the horns of your altars
The word "horns" refers to the projections on the corners of the altars.
Tyndale Open Study Notes2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0On vv1–417:1-4 The families of Judah were committed to Baal…
17:1-4 The families of Judah were committed to Baal worship; once again, the Lord listed the sins that justified their judgment.
17:1 A stone mason used an iron chisel or a diamond point to permanently inscribe images and texts on stones. Idol worship had so hardened the thoughts, emotions, and will of the people that it seemed impossible for them to change. • In Old Testament times, the corners of . . . altars had projections called “horns” (e.g., Exod 27:1-2). According to covenant rules, when an animal sacrifice was offered, blood was applied to these horns. How Baal worshipers treated them is unknown.
John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv1–4 The Prophet teaches us here in other words what…
The Prophet teaches us here in other words what we have often already seen, — that the Jews in vain sought refuges, for their sin had so much accumulated that it was very apparent. It indeed often happens, that men fall; but God, who is ever inclined to mercy, forgives them; and they are also often led astray through levity, and thus their sins are not engraven on their hearts. But Jeremiah says, that nothing remained for that nation but to be entirely swept away, because their iniquity was past recovery. Had they been lightly besprinkled with vices, there might have been still a remedy for them; but when their iniquities were engraven on their hearts, on their marrow and bones, what more remained for them? He had said before,
“Can the Ethiop change his skin?” (Jeremiah 13:23)
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though the Ethiop may change his skin, and also the panther, yet thou art still like thyself. They had so completely imbibed a contempt for God, and also perverseness, that they could not by any means be restored to a right mind. We now then perceive the meaning of the Prophet in this passage.
He says that the sin of Judah was written with an iron pen, with the point of adamant; as though he had said, “They are not only slightly imbued with iniquity, for then there might be some healing; but iniquity is engraven on their inmost feelings, as though one had graven it with adamant or with an iron pen.” It hence appears, that they were wholly unworthy of pardon, as they were in no way capable of receiving mercy, how much soever God might have been inclined to receive them into favor; for their obstinacy had closed the way of salvation; nor could they apply to themselves the promises, for they require repentance in sinners.
He then adds, It is graven on the table of their heart; as though he had said, that they were so addicted to iniquity, that all their inward parts bore the impressions of it. It hence follows that the Jews were so proved to be guilty, that they in vain contrived evasions, for their own conscience condemned them. At the same time, I consider the Prophet as speaking not only of guilt, but also of sin itself, and of their propensity to evil. He means then that the Jews had not only sinned and transgressed God’s law in a way not common, but that they were also so given up to wickedness as to delight in the iniquity that was graven on their hearts. He calls by a metaphor the affections or feelings the tables of the heart: For he compares the heart to tables; as writing appears when cut in stone or brass, so when a sinful impression is made on the hearts of men, iniquity itself may be said to be graven on the tables of the heart.
He afterwards adds, And on the horns of your altars. He had spoken of the heart, he now proceeds farther, — that there appeared openly an evidence of hidden iniquity. Had he spoken only of their hearts, the Jews might have objected and said, “How canst thou penetrate into our hearts? Art thou God, to examine and try our inward emotions?” But the Prophet adds, that their iniquity was sufficiently known by their altars. He at the same time intimates, that they in vain alleged the name of religion; for under that pretense they especially sinned against God; for they had vitiated his pure worship. And to confirm this very thing he adds —
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv1–4 The remembrance of their contempt of God cannot pass,…
The remembrance of their contempt of God cannot pass, albeit for a time he defer the punishment, for it shall be manifest to men and Angels.
Instead of the Law of God, they have written idolatry and all abominations in their heart.
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Your sins appear in all the altars that you have erected to idols.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv1–4 Jer 17:1 The sin of Judah [is] written with…
Jer 17:1 The sin of Judah [is] written with a pen of iron, [and] with the point of a diamond: [it is] graven upon the table of their heart, and upon the horns of your altars;
Ver. 1. The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron.] The four first verses of this chapter are left out by the Septuagint. Jerome saith they omitted them in gratiam et honorem papuli sui, in favour, and for the honour of their countrymen the Jews; but that was no just reason. "For ever, O Lord, thy word is settled in heaven," {Psa 119:89} though there were not a Bible left on earth. These sinners against their own souls had their idolatry so deeply engraven on their hearts, that they could not get out the stamp, and the guilt thereof stuck so fast to their consciences, that they could hardly get off either the sting or the stain thereof.
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It is graven upon the tables of their hearts.] Their sin lay there, where the law should have lain. {Jer 31:33} Like as Queen Mary, when she died, told those about her that the loss of Calais lay at her heart, a place far fitter for Jesus Christ.
And upon the horns of your altars,] Whereon the blood of your sacrifices are sprinkled, and so your sin proclaimed.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv1–4 There is much arguing amongst those that are critical…
There is much arguing amongst those that are critical about the true signification of words, what is here signified by שטיד which we translate a diamond; most agree that it doth not signify a diamond, (not used in engraving,) but that by the pen of iron, and the point of a diamond, are meant some tools with which they were wont to engrave things upon hard substances; it may be made in a figure resembling the claw of a bird, as the word seemeth to import.
It is graven upon the table of their heart; it is graven in their hearts; they are so accustomed to sin, so inured to idolatry, that there is no hope of any reclaiming them. For how can they that are accustomed to do evil, do well?
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And upon the horns of your altars; nor is it a thing done in secret, but it is written, or painted, or engraven upon the horns of their altars. God’s altar was foursquare, and at each corner there was a rising part made of brass something high, these were called the horns of the altar. See Exo 27:2; Eze 43:15,16. Now their sin is either said to be engraven or published upon the horns of the altar, because the blood of the sacrifices which they offered to idols was sprinkled there, or because their altars had some inscription upon them, declaring to what idol that altar was consecrated, as the altar of Athens had.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On v1 The people had asked (Jer 16:10), What is our…
The people had asked (Jer 16:10), What is our iniquity, and what is our sin? as if they could not be charged with any thing worth speaking of, for which God should enter into judgment with them; their challenge was answered there, but here we have a further reply to it, in which,
I. The indictment is fully proved upon the prisoners, both the fact and the fault; their sin is too plain to be denied and too bad to be excused, and they have nothing to plead either in extenuation of the crime or in arrest and mitigation of the judgment. 1. They cannot plead, Not guilty, for their sins are upon record in the book of God's omniscience and their own conscience; nay, and they are obvious to the eye and observation of the world, Jer 17:1, Jer 17:2. They are written before God in the most legible and indelible characters, and sealed among his treasures, never to be forgotten, Deu 32:34. They are written there with a pen of iron and with the point of a diamond; what is so written will not be worn out by time, but is, as Job speaks, graven in the rock for ever. Note, The sin of sinners is never forgotten till it is forgiven. It is ever before God, till by repentance it comes to be ever before us. It is graven upon the table of their heart; their own consciences witness against them, and are instead of a thousand witnesses. What is graven on the heart, though it may be covered and closed up for a time, yet, being graven, it cannot be erased, but will be produced in evidence when the books shall be opened. Nay, we need not appeal to the tables of the heart, perhaps they will not own the convictions of their consciences. We need go no further, for proof of the charge, than the horns of their altars, on which the blood of their idolatrous sacrifices was sprinkled, and perhaps the names of the idols to whose honour they were erected were inscribed. Their neighbours will witness against them, and all the creatures they have abused by using them in the service of their lusts. To complete the evidence, their own children shall be witnesses against them; they will tell truth when their fathers dissemble and prevaricate; they remember the altars and the groves to which their parents took them when they were little, v. 2. It appears that they were full of them, and acquainted with them betimes, they talked of them so frequently, so familiarly, and with so much delight. 2. They cannot plead that they repent, or are brought to a better mind. No, as the guilt of their sin is undeniable, so their inclination to sin is invincible and incurable. In this sense many understand Jer 17:1, Jer 17:2. Their sin is deeply engraven as with a pen of iron in the tables of their hearts. They have a rooted affection to it; it is woven into their very nature; their sin is dear to them, as that is dear to us of which we say, It is engraven on our hearts. The bias of their minds is still as strong as ever towards their idols, and they are not wrought upon either by the word or rod of God to forget them and abate their affection to them. It is written upon the horns of their altars, for they have given up their names to their idols and resolve to abide by what they have done; they have bound themselves, as with cords, to the horns of their altars. And Jer 17:2 may be read fully to this sense: As they remember their children, so remember they their altars and their groves; they are as fond of them and take as much pleasure in them as men do in their own children, and are as loth to part with them; they will live and die with their idols, and can no more forget them than a woman can forget her sucking child.
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II. The indictment being thus fully proved, the judgment is affirmed and the sentence ratified, Jer 17:3, Jer 17:4. Forasmuch as they are thus wedded to their sins, and will not part with them, 1. They shall be made to part with their treasures, and those shall be given into the hands of strangers. Jerusalem is God's mountain in the field; it was built on a hill in the midst of a plain. All the treasures of that wealthy city will God give to the spoil. Or, My mountains with the fields, thy wealth and all thy treasures will I expose to spoil; both the products of the country and the stores of the city shall be seized by the Chaldeans. Justly are men stripped of that which they have served their idols with and have made the food and the fuel of their lusts. My mountain (so the whole land was, Psa 78:54, Deu 11:11) you have turned into your high places for sin, have worshipped your idols upon the high hills (Jer 17:2), and now they shall be give for a spoil in all your borders. What we make for a sin God will make for a spoil; for what comfort can we expect in that wherewith God is dishonoured? 2. They shall be made to part with their inheritance, and shall be carried captives into a strange land (Jer 17:4): Thou, even thyself (or thou thyself and those that are in thee, all the inhabitants), shall discontinue from thy heritage that I gave thee. God owns that it was their heritage, and that he gave it to them; they had an unquestionable title to it, which was an aggravation of their folly in throwing themselves out of the possession of it. It is through thyself (so some read it), through thy own default, that thou art disseised. Thou shalt discontinue, or intermit, the occupation of thy land. The law appointed them to let their land rest (it is the word here used) one year in seven, Exo 23:11. They did not observe that law, and now God would compel them to let it rest (the land shall enjoy her sabbaths, Lev 26:34); and yet it shall be not rest to them; they shall serve their enemies in a land they know not. Observe, (1.) Sin works a discontinuance of our comforts and deprives us of the enjoyment of that which God has given us. Yet, (2.) A discontinuance of the possession is not a defeasance of the right, but it is intimated that upon their repentance they shall recover possession again. For the present, you have kindled a fire in my anger, which burns so fiercely that it seems as if it would burn for ever; and so it will unless you repent, for it is the anger of an everlasting God fastening upon the immortal souls, and who knows the power of that anger?
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv1–4 The sin of Judah is written with a pen…
The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron,.... Or an iron tool, such as engravers use in working on hard matter:
and with the point of a diamond; such as glaziers use in cutting their glass; though this is not the word used for a diamond in Exo 28:18, this word is elsewhere translated an adamant, Eze 3:9. Bothart (h) takes it to be the smiris, which jewellers use in polishing their gems. Jarchi makes mention of a Midrash, or exposition, which explains the iron pen of Jeremiah, and the point of the adamant, or diamond, of Ezekiel, because of what is said of them, Jer 1:18. Kimchi thinks the word "shamir", rendered "diamond", is expressive of the subject matter on which their sin is said to be written, and not of the instrument with which; and then it is to be read thus,
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"the sin of Judah is written with an iron pen (with an iron claw, or nail, of which mention is made in some Jewish writings) upon "shamir", or an adamant stone;''
which is no other than their stony heart, as it follows:
it is graven upon the table of their heart; where it is so fixed that it cannot be rooted out, and will never be forgotten by them, but always remembered and desired; for which they have the strongest affections, having a place, and having made deep impressions there: or this may denote the evidence of it in their own consciences, which bore witness to it, and which they could not deny:
and upon the horns of your altars; on which the names of their idols were engraven or inscribed, Act 17:23, so that their idolatry was notorious; their consciences within, and their altars without, were testimonies of it and besides, the blood of the sacrifices was poured upon the horns of the altar, Lev 4:7 and which, as it was done at the offering of sacrifices appointed of God, so very probably at the offering of sacrifices to idols, and which made their sin notorious; yea, even all the sacrifices of the ceremonial law were a standing testimony of their being sinners, and carried in them a confession of sin, and that they were deserving of death, and so were a handwriting against them; for there is no need to limit the sin of Judah here to idolatry, but it may include all their sins; and so the Targum expresses it in the plural number,
"the sins of Judah;''
though, if any particular sin is intended, it seems to be idolatry, by what follows.
(h) Hierozoic. par. 2. l. 6. c. 11, col. 842. of which stone, see Dioseorides, Hesychius, & Stephanus in ib.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv1–4 The captivity of Judah for her sin, ver. 1-4.…
The captivity of Judah for her sin, ver. 1-4. Trust in man cursed: in God, blessed, ver. 5-8. The deceitful heart and most secret practices are known to God, ver. 9-11. The salvation of God, ver. 12-14. The prophet complains of the mockers of his prophecies, ver. 15-18. Of keeping the sabbath, ver. 19-27.
Graven - Nor is it a thing done in secret, but it is engraven upon the horns of their altars. God's altar was four-square, and at each corner there was a rising part made of brass, these were called the horns of the altar. Now their sin is said to be engraven upon the horns of the altar, because the blood of the sacrifices which they offered to idols was sprinkled there, or because their altars had some inscription upon them, declaring to what idol that altar was consecrated.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv1–3 This chapter begins with setting forth the very strong…
CHAPTER XVII
This chapter begins with setting forth the very strong bias
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which the people of Judah had to idolatry, with the fatal
consequences, 1-4.
The happiness of the man that trusted in Jehovah is then
beautifully contrasted with the opposite character, 5-8.
God alone knows the deceitfulness and wretchedness of the heart
of man, 9, 10.
The comparison of a bird's hatching the eggs of another of a
different species, which will soon forsake her, is highly
expressive of the vanity of ill-acquired riches, which often
disappoint the owner, 11.
The prophet continues the same subject in his own person,
appeals to God for his sincerity, and prays that the evil
intended him by his enemies may revert on their own heads,
12-18.
The remaining part of the chapter is a distinct prophecy
relating to the due observance of the Sabbath, enforced both by
promises and threatenings, 19-27.
NOTES ON CHAP. XVII
Verse 1. The sin of Judah] Idolatry.
Is written with a pen of iron] It is deeply and indelibly written in their heart, and shall be as indelibly written in their punishment. Writing with the point of a diamond must refer to glass, or some vitrified substance, as it is distinguished here from engraving with a steel burine, or graver. Their altars show what the deities are which they worship. There may be reference here to the different methods of recording events in those days: -
1. A pen or stile of iron, for engraving on lead or wood.
2. A point of a diamond, for writing on vitreous substances.
3. Writing on tables of brass or copper.
4. Writing on the horns of the altars the names of the deities worshipped there. This is probable.
In several parts of India, and all through Ceylon, an iron or steel pen is used universally; with these the natives form the letters by incisions on the outer rind of the palm leaf. Books written in this way are very durable. This pen is broad at the top, has a very fine sharp point, and is sharp at one side as a knife, to shave and prepare the palm leaf. A pen of this description now lies before me.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv1, 3 Jer 17:1-2. The sin of Judah is written with…
Jer 17:1-2. The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron — Many of the Jews, though living in the habitual commission of the grossest crimes, were, nevertheless, self-righteous, and thought they did not deserve that God should enter into judgment with them in any such way as Jeremiah foretold he would do. Wherefore, said they, hath the Lord pronounced all this great evil against us? What is our iniquity? What is our sin? chap. Jer 16:10. Here the prophet tells them their sin was too plain to be denied, and too bad to be excused: that it was written in indelible characters, not only before God, to whose omniscience it lay continually open, but in their own hearts and consciences; as if written with a pen of iron, or an engraving instrument, or the point of a diamond; instruments employed to make durable inscriptions on hard substances. As if he had said, Their sins are as manifest, and the remembrance of them as durable, as the memorable actions which have been engraven on pillars of stone, or tablets of brass, to give them notoriety, and preserve them from oblivion. The expression, it is graven upon the table of their hearts, may also be intended to signify the rooted affection which they had to sin, especially to the sin of idolatry; that it was woven into their very nature, and was as dear to them as that is to us, of which we say, It is engraven on our hearts. In like manner, their idolatrous altars and other monuments of their heathenish superstitions, were undeniable tokens of the corrupt inclinations of their hearts, which were altogether estranged from God and his true worship. Or their sin might be said to be engraven on the horns of their altars, because the blood of the sacrifices which they offered to their idols was sprinkled there, or because their altars had some inscription upon them, declaring to what idol each altar was consecrated. Whilst their children remember their altars — This shows how inveterate they were in this sin of idolatry, that they taught it to their children.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv1–4 This section Jer 17:1-4 is inseparably connected with the…
This section Jer 17:1-4 is inseparably connected with the preceding. Judah’s sin had been described Jer 16:19 as one of which the very Gentiles will become ashamed. and for which she will shortly be punished by, an intervention of God’s hand more marked than anything in her previous history. Jeremiah now dwells upon the indelible nature of her sin.
A pen of iron - i. e., an iron chisel for cutting inscriptions upon tables of stone.
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The point of a diamond - The ancients were well acquainted with the cutting powers of the diamond.
Altars - Not Yahweh’s one altar, but the many altars which the Jews had set up to Baalim Jer 11:13. Though Josiah had purged the land of these, yet in the eleven years of Jehoiakim’s reign they had multiplied again, and were the external proofs of Judah’s idolatry, as the table of her heart was the internal witness.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 4 The. Grabe (de Vit. p. 8.) observes that the…
The. Grabe (de Vit. p. 8.) observes that the four first verses were omitted in the Septuagint by some careless transcriber, long before the days of Origen, who restored them from the Hebrew and the other Greek versions. On such occasions his work was very useful; but the marks being soon neglected, great confusion ensued. (St. Jerome) (Kennicott, Dis. ii.) --- Grabe has restored these verses in his edition. (Haydock) --- Eusebius (Dem. x.) and Theodoret acknowledged them; and Nobilius found the first verse thus expressed in many copies, (Calmet) as it is in Grabe: "The sin of Juda is expressed in writing with a finger nail of adamant, cleaving to the breast of," &c. (Haydock) --- Altars, to appear more conspicuously to the latest times. This excited God’s indignation. (Calmet) --- These figurative expressions shew the inveterate malice of the people. (Worthington)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On v1 Jeremiah 17
Jeremiah 17
4. Refutation of the objection (Jer_16:10) that the people had not generally served idols
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Jer_17:1-4
1 The sin of Judah is written with an iron stylus,1
Graven with a diamond point on the tablet of their heart,
On the horns of their altars;
2 As their children remember their altars,
And their images of Baal2 by3 the green trees, by the high hills.
3 My mountain together with4 the fields,
Thy substance and all thy treasures will I give up to spoil,
Thy heights!—for thy sin in all thy borders.
4 And thou shalt withhold thy hand from the inheritance which I have given thee;
And I cause thee to serve thy enemies in a land that thou knowest not:
For ye have kindled a fire in my nostrils that shall burn forever.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
The denial of having sinned against Jehovah (Jer_16:10) must mean that the fact of idolatry is denied. Against such a bold and shameless assertion the prophet rises here with visibly increasing indignation. He says that the sin of Judah is certified, and as it were, recorded in the archives, viz. (a in their own conscience, in which the memory of their idolatrous abominations is fixed like an ineffaceable brand, and (b) externally, on the horns of the altars, where the blood of the slaughtered children adheres as an equally ineffaceable memorial (Jer_17:1). These two testimonies were just as deep and inextinguishable to them, the actors present, as to the children the impression of that horrible cult which had snatched away so many from their midst would remain unforgetable. And so deep was this impression, that the mere sight of green trees and high hills was sufficient to refresh it continually (Jer_17:2). On the basis of the facts thus certified, the prophet repeats the announcement of the divine punishments, which will consist in plunder of substance, desolation of the land, according to the analogy of the year of release, and deportation into an unknown land (Jer_17:3-4).
Jer_17:1; Jer_2:5 The sin of Judah … high hills.Origen (Hom. XVI. ed. Lommatzsch., S. 301), Isid. Hisp. (De Pass. Dom., Jeremiah 22). Ghisler (ad h. l.) by Judah here understand Judas Iscariot.—Iron stylus. Comp. Job_19:24.—diamond point, שָׁמִיר, which occurs besides, in this sense, only in Eze_3:9; Zec_7:12, appears to designate especially the diamond, which serves as a pointed cutting instrument, since everywhere else (Isa_5:9; Isa_7:23-25; Isa_9:17; Isa_10:17; Isa_27:4) it is used in the meaning of “thorn.” Comp. Herzog, Real-Enc. III., S. 642; Winer, R.-W.-B. I., S. 284.—On the tablet, etc. Passing momentary events make only a superficial impression. But whatever has exercised a long-continued and intensive activity is deeply graven. In opposition to the assertion (Jer_17:10) that Israel has not sinned against the Lord, the prophet points to the continuance of idolatry among the people, and the deep, inextinguishable traces, which it has left behind. These are double; of an external and internal sort. Internally is the conscience, the remembrance, the whole spiritual habitus, which keeps before Israel the fact of the long practised idolatry. Externally are the idol-altars, with the blood of the children offered upon them, crying towards heaven, which testify of the sin to all the world. It is therefore audacity on the part of the people to pretend that they have forgotten the fact. The expression write on the table of the heart is found also in Pro_3:3; Pro_7:3.—horns of the altars. That the idol-altars are meant is evident 1, from the plural, for there was but a single altar of Jehovah (J. D. Michaelis); 2, from the connection, for Israel’s sin was to be read only on the idol-altars, not on the altar of the Lord,—or on the latter only in so far as they had perhaps used it for idolatrous worship (comp. 2Ch_15:3; Winer, s. v. Brandopferaltar). The altars in Jer_17:2 are doubtless also those of the idols, and identical with those mentioned in Jer_17:1.—On the horns of the altar of burnt offering and the sprinkling of these with the blood of the guilt offering, comp. Exo_27:2 (coll. Psa_118:27); Jer_29:12; Lev_4:18; Lev_4:25; Lev_4:30; Lev_4:34; Lev_8:15; Lev_9:9. That the idol-altars also had such horns is clear from Amo_3:14. Comp. Winer, R.-W.-B. s. v. Hörner.—Their altars, lit., youraltars. On the change of person comp. rems. on Jer_5:14; Jer_12:13.—remember. We may reject at the outset the ungrammatical explanations which either take כְּ=לְ (so that their children remember, Luther, Zwingle, substantially Calvin) or understand God as the subject of remember (Seb. Schmidt, Clericus, Ch. B. Michaelis). All those interpretations are at least very harsh, which regard the Jews as the subject, (ut recordantur filiorum suorum ita altarium, etc., i.e., their altars are as dear to their hearts as their children, R. Salomo, D. Kimchi, Abarbanel, Diodatus, Maurer; remembering their children, they remember also the altars on which they offered them, Hitzig) or which take כְּ in the sense of because, if, (Jerome, Chald., Arab., and many later) or which find the apodosis in Jer_17:3 (Ewald, Umbreit). Since in Jer_17:1 there is evidently likewise the idea of a monumentum, a record assuring a perpetual remembrance, the reciprocal relation of Jer_17:1-2 is indicated at the outset. There is a third memorial of the sin denied by the Israelites, the testimony of which is the more unexceptionable as it proceeds from the mouth of children (Psa_8:3; Mat_21:16): the remembrance by the children of that horrible worship to which so many from their midst fell a sacrifice. The prophet points to an effect of that horrid ritual, which is not indeed elsewhere expressly testified, but is in itself entirely natural. Why should not Moloch have been the terror of the Israelitish children, when there was such real and sad ground for it, as is wanting in other bugbears which terrify the children of the present day?—Their children is therefore the subject of remember, and the construction is as ex. gr., Jer_5:26; Jer_6:7. Comp. Naegelsb. Gr., § 95, 2.—Images, etc. The אֲשֵׁרִים are the masculine images of Baal [not of Astarte, as Henderson.—S. R. A.] (comp. 1Ki_14:23; 2Ki_17:10; 2Ki_23:14, etc.) as אֲשֵׁרוֹת are primarily and in general the images corresponding to the female principle of Baal. What was their form is still undecided, also whether they had special relation to the service of Moloch. Should the latter not be the case, yet their relation to the murderous rites of child-sacrifice is beyond a doubt. For children were offered to Baal in all his forms, comp. Jer_7:31; Jer_19:5; Jer_32:35. Herzog, Real-Enc. I. S. 638; IX., S. 715.—By the green trees, על־עץ. Hitzig and Graf rightly take עַל here in a causal sense connecting it with remember, not with altars. If the place was to be designated where the altars and images stood, we cannot conceive why the prophet should write “on green trees,” and deviate from the stereotyped form of “under every green tree.” It is accordingly more probable that it is to express that the mere sight of green trees and high hills awoke in the Israelite children the remembrance of those terrible altars and images. We can certainly show no passage in which עַל is used, after a verb of remembrance, of that which occasioned the remembrance. But all those passages are analogous in which עַל designates the occasioning circumstances in general, ex. gr., Gen_26:7; Gen_26:9; Ps. 44:32; 1Sa_4:13. Comp. עַל־מָה, Jer_9:11; Job_13:14.
Jer_17:3. My mountain … in all thy borders. The words הררי בשׂדה are either connected with the preceding context in various ways (Jerome: Sacrificantes in agro; Syr.: in montibus et in deserto; Chald.: Super montes in agro; Arab.: in montibus et in agris;R. Salomo, Abarbanel, Kimchi: O mons mi, qui in agro es, as a designation of Jerusalem, to which the previous context is addressed; Zwingli: ut filii recordantur ararum … collium, montium et agrorum;Ewald, Meier: הַרְרֵי בַשָּׂדֶה as in apposition to גְּבָעוֹת), or with the following, when it is either rendered as in the vocative, and Zion, as the high place of the country και’ ἐξοχήν, or Israel as sacrificing on mountains, or fleeing to mountains (Calvin), is understood by it, or it is connected with thy heights (Luther), or as an accusative with thy substance (montem meum una cum agro … dabo, Gesenius, Gaab, Rosenmueller, Umbreit). Hitzig calls attention to Jer_18:14; Jer_21:13, where Zion is designated as צוּר שָׂדַי and צוּר הֵמִּישֹׁר. But here the connection is quite different. In this place the prophet would evidently say that all property, movable and immovable, divine and human, dedicated to the service of God and the service of idols will be given up to plunder on account of their intensive (Jer_17:1-2), as extensive and universally diffused sin (in all thy borders). For this reason also I do not believe that mountain is to be rendered as in the vocative. It is rather accusative, dependent on I will give, and the explanation already mentioned as that of Gesenius, Gaab, Rosenmueller and Umbreit, is the correct one. The mountain of the Lord also is desecrated; it therefore, in so far as it contains property that can be so treated, will also, like the fruitful field, be given up to plunder. The prophet says fields, because he wishes to designate only the land, which produces substance and treasures, or things that may be plundered. Thy substance and all, etc., is a more particular explanation of my mountain. It tells us how a mountain and fields can be plundered. Thy substance, thy treasures have primary reference to fields. But that also which the mountain contained belonged in a certain respect to the people, and they were likewise despoiled of it. On the subject comp. Jer_27:16; Jer_28:3; Jer_52:17 sqq.—Thy heights is in antithesis to my mountain. Even the sanctuaries dedicated to the idols were to be objects of spoliation. It is clear that thy heights is governed by give, but its abrupt position is strange. If we could connect exclusively with for thy sin, this difficulty would be removed. But not only the high places, but all that has been previously mentioned is given up on account of their sin. Syrus and the Arabic (MS. Oxon), omit thy heights altogether. Hitzig translates “for atonement,” comparing Zec_14:17; Deu_29:11, and with respect to the construction, Deut. 21:29. But the expression in all thy borders would then be quite feeble and superfluous. Graf after Gesenius, De Wette and others:—Thy heights with the sin cleaving thereto I give up. But was it necessary to guard against the thought that the Lord would give up the heights without the sin, or that He would omit the latter? How is such a separation of the heights and the sin even conceivable? Thy heights may then be regarded as an emphatic asyndeton.—For thy sin. Comp. Mic_1:5; 2Ki_24:3.—In all thy borders. This addition corresponds exactly to the previously stated extent of the punishment: Since the sin has been universally diffused, so all the possessions in the whole land will be made the means of punishment.
Jer_17:4. And thou shalt … forever. In this verse ובך causes the only difficulty. It has been either entirely passed over (Syrus, Arab., Luther), or explained in a more or less forced manner, as unfreely (Vatable), by thy iniquity, naked and bare, alone (so Jerome, on the ground of which Ewald would alter to לְבָדָד). But it is evident that Jeremiah had in view Deu_15:2-3. This has been recognized by many expositors. Some (ex. gr., Seb. Schmidt, Rosenm.) supply, therefore, יָדְֽךָ from Deu_15:2. J. D. Michaelis was the first to suppose that יָדְֽךָ alone should be read. Graf expresses this distinctly, and without doubt correctly. For on the one hand וּבְךָ, however interpreted, yields no satisfactory meaning. On the other hand the expression שׁמטּ יד מן ו׳, withhold thy hand, etc., corresponds perfectly to the connection. The year of release (comp. Deu_15:1-13), so called from the שְׁמִטָּה, the release of the debtor from the oppressive hand of the creditor, coincides with the Sabbatic year (comp. Exo_23:10-11; Lev_25:1-7), in which the land is to remain uncultivated (comp. Saalschuetz, Mos. Recht., S. 162 ff.; Herzog, R-Enc. XIII., S. 204 ff.). The state of desolation, in which the land will be in consequence of the destined exile of the people is in Lev_26:24-25 expressly compared with that Sabbatic year, or year of release, and is called the Sabbath-time of the land (שַׁבְתֹתֶיהָ). In 2Ch_36:21 (comp. 3 Esdr. 1:58) it is expressly set forth that the Babylonian captivity was the fulfilment of the divine word proclaimed by Jeremiah, according to which the land was promised its holiday (שָׁבָּתוֹת). But in no other place than this does Jeremiah intimate this thought. If now it is undoubted that this passage, with reference to Deu_15:2 coll. Lev_26:34-35, designates the exile as a period of release for the land, we cannot avoid perceiving in וּבְךָ an altered form of the יָדְֽךָ of Deuteronomy. On I cause thee to serve, vide supra, on Jer_15:14.—For ye have kindled, etc. The words are a free quotation from Deu_32:22, while those in Jer_15:14, at least in their first part, agree verbatim with the original passage.
Footnotes:
[1]Jer_17:1.—צפרן. This word, which occurs besides only in Deu_21:12 is the nail, unguis, but since the finger-nail cannot be used for the engraving of ineffaceable writing, the word must mean a sharp, cutting instrument in general, in correspondence with the fundamental meaning of the root (= incidere, insculpere. Comp. Aram. טְפַר).
[2]Jer_17:2.—[A. V.: their groves; De Wette: their Astartes (but comp. Exeget. Notes).—S. R. A.]
[3]Jer_17:2.—Explanations which render עַל as local = with, together with (אֵצֶל, R. Sal.), or cumulative = una cum (Seb. Schmidt and others) are as unsatisfactory as the reading בָּל־עֵץ, which is found in the Chald., Syr., and in 16 Codd. of Kennicott and 9 of De Rossi.
[4]Jer_17:3.—בִּ = in the midst, but in the sense of accompaniment, together with. Comp. Jer_11:19; Naegelsb. Gr., § 112, 5, a.
[5] The LXX. does not contain verses 1–4. Without doubt Jerome is correct in saying, forsitan pepercerunt populo suo. Origen in the Hexapla gives under asterisks the following translation, which he found in other translators: Jer_17:1. Ἁμαρτια Ἰούδα γεγραπται ἐν γραφείῳ σιδηρῷ·, ἐν ὄνυχι ἀδαμαντίῳ, έγκεκολαμμἐνη ἐπἰ τοῦ στήθους τῆς καρδίας αὑτῶν, καὶ τοῖς κέρασι τῶν θυσιαστηρίων αὐτῶν.
Jer_17:2. H̔νἰκα ἀναμνησθῶσιν οἱ υὶοὶ αὐτῶν τἀ θυσιαστήρια αὐτῶν καὶ τὰ ἄλοη αύτῶν ἐπὶ ξύλου δασέος, ἐπἰ βουμῶν μετεὠρων, ὀρέων ἐν ἀγωρῷ.
Jer_17:3. Ἰσχύν σου καὶ πάντας θησαυρούς σου εἰς προνοὴνδώσω, τὰ ὐψηλά σου ἐν ἀμαρτίᾳ ἐν πᾶσι τοῖς ὁρίοις σου.
Jer_17:4. Kαὶ ἁφαιρθήσεται (αι. ἀφαιρεθήσῃ), καὶ ταπεινωθήσεται (αι. ταπεινωθήσῃ) ἀπὸ τῆς κληρονοηίσς σου, ἧς ἔδωκάσοι, καὶ ἀναβιβάσω σε ἐν τοῖς εχθροῖς σου ἐν τῃ γῆ ῇ οὐκ έ̓γνως· ὄτι πῦρ ἐγκἐκαυσται ἐν τῷ θυμῷ ηου, ἔως αιῶνος καυσθἤσεται. Τάδε λἐγει κύριος. Τhus in Montfaucon, Hexapl. Tom. II., p. 210.—Eusebius also, Dem. Ev. X. 5 (comp. Jer_2:25), communicates the words, remarking that he found them ἀν ταῖς τῶν λοιπῶν ἑρμηνευτῶν ἐκδόσεσι, ετι μετὰ παραδόσεως άστεμίσκων ἐν τοῖς ακριβἐσι τῶν παρα τοῖς Ο. ἀντιγρἀφοις Drusius remarks that in nonnullis codd. græcis et in uno Vaticano leguntur sub asteriscis.
CONCLUSION (Jer_17:5-18)
1. Retrospective glance at the deep roots of the corruption
Jer_17:5-13
5 Thus saith Jehovah: Cursed the man, who trusts in men,
And makes flesh his arm, and whose heart departs from Jehovah.
6 He will be like one forsaken6 in the desert
And will not see when good comes,
And will dwell in the arid places in the wilderness,
In a land salt and uninhabited.
7 Blessed the man who trusts in Jehovah,
And whose confidence Jehovah is!
8 He is like a tree planted by water,
And which stretches forth7 its roots to8 the river,
And will not fear9 when the heat comes, and its leaf is green,
And in the year of drought it will not have care nor cease from fruit-bearing.
9 The heart is more deceitful than anything
And profoundly corrupt Who can know it?
10 I, Jehovah, search the heart, try the reins,
Even10 to give every one according to his way,
According to the fruit of his doings.
11 A partridge, which fosters without having laid,
Is he who accumulates riches not by right.
In the half of his days he will leave them,
And at his end he will be a fool.
12 O throne of glory, height11 of beginning, place of our sanctuary!
13 Hope of Israel, Jehovah!
All who forsake thee are put to shame!
Those who depart12 from me must be written in the earth,
Because they have forsaken the fountain of living water, Jehovah.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
This long discourse ends with a concluding address in two parts, the first of which relates to general, the second to personal matters. In the first (Jer_17:5-13) the prophet indicates the most inward and hidden roots of the spiritual and physical corruption of his people. He mentions three chief moral defects, attaching to each the corresponding punishment. At the head he places the perverse disposition, which regards not the Lord, but flesh as the source and treasure of all blessing (Jer_17:5). The punishment of this sin is mentioned in Jer_17:6, the shadow being further deepened in Jer_17:7-8 by the contrast there presented. The second radical defect, designated in Jer_17:9, is the perfidiousness of the heart in connection with its weakness. In consequence of this habitus, the human heart is unfathomable to human sight, yet the Lord is in a position to look through and to judge it (Jer_17:10). Avarice is designated as the third destructive root to which every means is right, to which, however, poverty and shame must follow as a just recompense (Jer_17:11).—The last two verses express once more in a comprehensive manner, and after a solemn invocation of Jehovah, the judgment of destruction on all those who have forsaken Jehovah, the fountain of living water (Jer_17:12-13).
Jer_17:5-6. Thus saith Jehovah … salt and uninhabited. The prophet had in the previous context repeatedly designated the Lord as his and Israel’s only safety: Jer_14:8; Jer_14:22; Jer_15:20-21; Jer_16:19. He, however, expressly intimated in Jer_16:19, that the Israel of those times was wanting in confidence in this Saviour. Here he renders this sin of unbelief strongly prominent, portraying it according to its positive and its negative side. He mentions the positive side first. Man and flesh designate the totality of all earthly visible forces in antithesis to the spiritual power of the invisible God. It is precisely their visibility which withdraws the carnal mind from the invisible things to be apprehended by faith alone. The mind is first taken captive by things visible. Then having gained a firm footing in these, it breaks loose from the Invisible. It was so in the Fall. This confidence in things visible, however, is idolatry (comp. Luther’s explanation of the first commandment). Hence the curse may well be an allusion to Deu_27:15 coll. deut 11:28.—Man and flesh. (אָדָם and בָּשָׂר) synonymous also in Isa_31:3 coll. Job_10:4; Psa_56:5. [“The Hebrew language, having three distinct words for man, has the advantage of our English in the finer shades of a passage like this, ‘cursed is the man (strong man) who trusteth in man (frail man of the earth) who maketh flesh (mere weakness) his arm.’ ” Cowles.—S. R. A.]—His arm, זְרוֹעַ, the organ for the exhibition of physical force. He who delivers over this function to another, i.e. makes him his arm, has him for his assistant, for protection and deliverance Comp. Isa_33:2; Psa_83:9.—A land salt, etc. Comp. Job_39:6; Psa_107:34.—Will dwell. תשׁב intransitive, as in Jer_17:25; Jer_30:18; Jer_50:13; Jer_50:39; Isa_13:20.
Jer_17:7-8. Blessed the man … fruit bearing. We might, suppose that these verses were so co-ordinate with the two preceding that the two pairs would constitute an independent, self-contained whole. But then the following verses would be entirely disconnected. I therefore think that verses 7 and 8 are to serve as a foil to the thought expressed in Jer_17:5-6, which is shown to be the main thought by its position—As a tree. Comp. Psa_1:3.—Drought. Comp. Jer_14:1.
Jer_17:9-10. The heart is more deceitful … his doings. Were the hearts of men, and especially of the Israelites, upright and directed to the true and the good, they must agree in word and deed with that which the prophet has declared in Jer_17:5-8. But there is nothing in the world so deceitful as the human heart, which understands the art thoroughly of pursuing the evil under the appearance of wishing the right (comp. Jeremiah 5 and Jer_9:2-8). This deceitfulness is however only a symptom of the deep depravity, the incurable sickness by which the heart is possessed.—Deceitful, עקב. Comp. on Jer_9:3. The word occurs here only as an adjective with this meaning.—Corrupt, אנשׁ. The meaning “desperate” is not contained in the word. It is everywhere = severely sick, incurable (Jer_15:18; Jer_30:12; Jer_30:15; Isa_17:11; Mic_1:9; Job_34:6), full of the deepest pain (Jer_17:16). No man is in a condition to see through the deceitful hypocrisy of the human heart, but the Lord can do it, and founds on this His knowledge, His strict and righteous judgment. Comp. Jer_11:20; Jer_12:3; Jer_20:12.—Even to give. Separating the statement of the object from the fundamental declaration, the word even sets forth the independence of the latter. God is not omniscient merely for the purpose of judging, but in His essential nature. Comp. besides comm. on Jer_6:2.
Jer_17:11. A partridge … be a fool. As the third root of spiritual and bodily corruption the prophet names avarice, which is the root of all evil (1Ti_6:10). The selfish inquire not about the right (comp. Jer_5:1; Jer_5:26 sqq.; Jer_6:6-7; Jer_13:8; Jer_13:10), therefore the blessing of God is also denied them. Lightly come lightly go. Forsaken and put to shame the unrighteous man is at last like the bird, of which it is said that it collects the young of others and fosters them, but is forsaken by them as soon as they perceive that a stranger has usurped a mother’s rights over them. The form of comparison is like that in Pro_10:20; Pro_11:22; Pro_16:24, etc. It is doubtful what bird is to be understood by קֹרֵא. The word is found besides only in 1Sa_16:20. The ancient translators and most of the Comm. understand the partridge, and the dialects also favor this rendering. Only natural history does not confirm this peculiarity of the partridge. Comp. Winer s. v. Rebhuhn. [“The ancients believed that she stole the eggs of other birds and hatched them as her own. See Epiphan. Physiol. cap. 9.; Isid.Origg. Jer_12:7.” Henderson.—S. R. A.].—Fosters. דָּגָר occurs besides only in Isa_34:15. It is there expressly distinguished from בקע, to hatch, and can mean only the gathering together and cherishing by warmth of the newly hatched young. Winer quotes inter al. a passage from Olympiodorus: ὁ πέρδιξ * * * τοὺς ἀλλοτρίους προσκαλε͂ιται νεοτ τούς οἵτινες γνόντες ὕστερον, ὅτι οὐκ εἰσὶν αὐτο̄υ, καταλιμπάνουσιν αὐτόν. This agrees admirably with the sense and connection of the passage, though it must still remain undecided whether we have here a real popular opinion existing at the time of Jeremiah, or only one deduced from this passage.—Shall leave them refers to the riches. On fool comp. Jer_10:8; Jer_10:14.
Jer_17:12-13. O throne of glory … Jehovah. Comprehensive conclusion in the form of a brief but solemn invocation of Jehovah. From Hope of Israel it is evident that the words of the prophet were addressed in the last instance to the person of the Lord. But he mentions first the exteriora, which are the places and bearers of His glory: his throne, the place where His throne stands, the sanctuary which surrounds it, for he wishes to set forth distinctly how foolish and criminal it is to do that, which he has censured in Jer_17:5; Jer_17:9; Jer_17:11 and which he afterwards comprises in one word, “forsake the Lord.” Israel has given up the truly real and eternal sanctuaries for the miserable high-places of idolatry. I do not therefore hold the view that Jer_17:12 is addressed to Jehovah Himself, for the reason given by Graf, that the Lord cannot possibly be called place of sanctuary.—O throne of glory. Comp. 1Sa_2:8; Isa_22:23; Jer_14:21. The Lord’s throne appears in the Old Test in three degrees. First, Jerusalem is thus named (Jer_3:17), second, the ark of the covenant (Exo_25:22; Psa_80:2; Psa_99:1), third, the proper, so to speak, and transcendent throne (Isa_6:1; Eze_1:26; Dan_7:9; Psa_9:5; Psa_11:3; Psa_47:9; Psa_110:1). These three degrees are however so connected, that he who forsakes one does the same to the other. The prophet has primarily in view here, as at any rate in Jer_14:21, the visible throne of the Lord.—Height of beginning. The idea expressed by מָרוֹם has also several gradations. 1. Mt. Zion is called הַרֹ מְרוֹם ישׂראל, Eze_17:23; Eze_20:40 coll. Eze_34:14; Jer_31:12. 2. It is very often used to designate the transcendent abode of Jehovah, Isa_33:5; Isa_57:15; Mic_6:6; Jer_25:30; Psa_93:4; Psa_68:19, etc. The expression מראשׁון, which occurs here only (comp. מֵרֹאשׁ, Pro_8:23) agrees with מרום in both senses. For that transcendent abode is from the beginning, eternally existing (comp. Psa_93:2), and Zion also as chosen from eternity is in idea the eternal dwelling-place of God. (Comp. Psa_132:13-14 coll. Exo_15:17; Exo_20:24; Deu_5:12).—Place of our sanctuary. Comp. Isa_60:13; Dan_8:11. Even the sanctuary of Israel (מקדש) is a double one, an earthly and a heavenly. The former is made according to the type of the latter (Exo_25:8-9; Exo_25:40; Exo_26:30). Thus though the expression refers primarily to the earthly sanctuary the heavenly is not excluded. There is no objection to the impersonal rendering of these three substantives in the prophet’s addressing words of prayer to them. For what the prophet declares with respect to them: “All who forsake thee are put to shame,” would be quite unprejudicial even if “Hope of Israel,” etc., did not come between. But the three former are entirely sunk in this last conception, since it is only in and by Jehovah that they have any existence or meaning. Hence also the singular suffix in עֹזְבֶיךָ. The older commentators render throne of glory as nominative, either taking the first and the last three words together (solium gloriæ excelsum, ab initio locus sanctuarii nostri, Calvin), or regarding throne (thronus, qui est altitudo ab æterno, est locus sanctuarii, Seb. Schmidt), or height (a throne in glory is the height of beginning, the place of our sanctuary, Neumann) as the nominative. According to these renderings however it is scarcely possible to find a suitable connection.—Hope of Israel. Comp. Jer_14:8; Jer_50:7.—Written in the earth. In the earth (in the dust, Job_14:8), where what is written will be speedily effaced, shall those who depart from me be written. The antithesis on the one hand would be to Jer_17:1 (the sin in brass, the sinners in dust), on the other hand to the book of life (Exo_32:32; Psa_69:29; Dan_12:1; Mal_3:16; Luk_10:20; Php_4:3; Rev_3:5; Rev_13:8; Rev_17:8; Rev_21:27). Meier reads: they vanished away in the laud (Job_15:30), all who are recorded in it (Jer_17:1; Jer_22:30) that they have forsaken the fountain, etc. This exegesis also is exposed to several objections: 1. that סוּר must be taken in the sense of vanish away: 2. the imperf. יִבָּתֵבוּ I therefore prefer to adhere to the reading of the Chethibh. The rapid change of person forms no objection to this. Comp. on Jer_5:14; Jer_9:7; Jer_12:13; Jer_17:1. The Lord then continues in confirmation of the prophet’s address.—Fountain, etc. Comp. Jer_2:13; Psa_36:10.
Footnotes:
[6]Jer_17:6.—כערער. The ancient translations all express here, doubtless on the ground of the antithesis in Jer_17:8, the name of a tree or shrub, while in Psalms 102 where alone the word occurs a second time, they all, in accordance with the context, express the idea of miser. Since now עַרְעָר is formed after the analogy of כַּבְכָּב ,זַלְזַל ,דַּרְדַּר ,נַלְנַל (כּוֹכָב), etc. (comp. Olsh. § 189, a; Naegelsb. Gr., § 42, a, S. 87), since, further, the corresponding verbal root is given by Jer_51:58 (עַרְעֵר תִּתְעַרְ עַר) unquestionably with the meaning denudare (comp. Isa_23:13; Isa_32:11; Hab_3:9. מָעוֹר nuditas, עָרם nudus, עָרִירִי nudus, solitarius; Gen_15:2; Lev_20:20-21; Jer_22:30), the meaning of “naked, destitute, wretched,” is assured also in this passage. [Henderson: “I acquiesce in the opinion of Dr. Robinson, that it is the same as the Arab. ׁׁ Arar, the juniper-tree which is found in the vicinity of the Arabah, or the Great Valley, to the south of the Dead Sea. See Bibl. Res. II., 506. Thus De Wette: Wacholderbaum. The same form of the word occurs Psa_102:18, where the idea conveyed is that of naked, destitute. The point of comparison in the two passages of our prophet is the forlorn appearance of a solitary juniper, deprived of all nourishment in the arid desert.”—Hitzig referring to the composition of Psalms 102, after the flight of Jonathan into the desert of Tekoa, and the connection with Jer_48:6, where also flight is spoken of, decides that the word designates one who has flet or been driven into the desert, or one who has come into misfortune as starved or perishing.—S. R. A.]. On the words in Jer_48:6, כַּעֲרוֹעֵר בַּפדְבָּר, comp. rems. there.
[7]Jer_17:8.—יובל. ἄπ. λεγ., synonymous with יבל, Isa_30:25; Isa_44:4.
[8]Jer_17:8.—עַל for אֵל as frequently in Jer. Comp. on Jer_10:1.
[9]Jer_17:8.—ולא ירא. The Keri reads יִרְאֶח after Jer_17:6. The Chethibh should be punctuated יִרָא (Imperf. from יָרֵא), corresponding to יִרְאַנ, and is at any rate to be preferred; as also the ancient translations express it, with the exception of the Chaldee.
[10]Jer_17:10.—ולתת. Comp. Jer_32:19. The Vau, which the ancient translations and many Codd. omit, is not so superfluous as Graf supposes.
[11]Jer_17:12.—מרום might grammatically be in the accusative, but as בָּבוֹד appears to be contrasted with בּשֶׁת (Jer_3:24; Jer_11:13), so does מרום ו׳ with בּמוֹת.
[12]Jer_17:13.—יסורי. The Chethibh יְסוּרַי would be formed like יְתוּר ,יְקוּם ,יָרִיב, (Olsh. § 212). The form יַסוּר as a noun, does not, however, occur elsewhere, and the sudden change of person is strange. The Keri reads וְסוּרַי. The meaning is the same (= those departing from me. Comp. קָמַי, Jer_51:1); the form is likewise a rare one. (Yet comp. Jer_2:21; Isa_49:21; Olsh. § 172, b.) Meier reads יָסיּרוּ.
2. PETITION OF THE PROPHET FOR THE SAFETY OF HIS PERSON AND THE HONOR OF HIS OFFICIAL MINISTRATIONS
Jer_17:14-18
14 Heal me, Jehovah, that I may be healed;
Deliver me that I may be delivered, for thou art my praise!
15 Behold, they say to me: Where is the word of Jehovah? Let it come now.
16 But I have not hastened away from being a pastor after thee;
And the calamitous day I have not desired, thou knowest.
That which went forth from my lips was from thee.
17 Be not13 a terror to me, my refuge in the day of distress!
18 My persecutors must be put to shame,
But I must not be put to shame;
They must be dismayed, but I must not be dismayed!
Bring14 upon them the day of calamity,
And doubly15 with destruction destroy them!
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
The second, personal half of the conclusion. The prophet prays for safety and deliverance for himself (Jer_17:14). In opposition to the scornful doubt in the fulfilment of his predictions, expressed in Jer_17:15, he prays on the ground of the fact that he had not hastened into the prophetic office, or declared his own inventions (Jer_17:16), that the Lord, his refuge, would not be a terror to him or suffer him to be put to shame, but his persecutors, and bring upon them the day of calamity and double destruction (Jer_17:17-18).
Jer_17:14. Heal me … thou art my praise. The prophet begins with a prayer for safety and deliverance in general.—Heal me. Deu_32:39; Psa_6:3; Psa_30:3.—My praise, the object of my confident boasting. Comp. Deu_10:21;. Psa_71:6.
Jer_17:15-16. Behold, they say … was from thee. The prophet resumes the thought in Jer_15:10; Jer_15:15-19 (coll. Jer_20:7-12).—Where, etc. Comp. Isa_5:19; Eze_12:22 sqq. It is used ironically also in Psa_42:4; Psa_42:11; Psa_79:10; 2Ki_18:34, etc.—On Let it come now, comp. Jer_28:8, Jeremiah 9 : Deu_18:21-22 coll. Jer_13:2.—But I have not, etc. The prophet would deserve such scorn, if he had taken the word of the Lord into his mouth in his own strength, or deceitfully, as others did, Jer_14:14-15.—But he is not a pseudo-prophet, but a prophet against his will. Comp. Jer_1:6 sqq.; Jer_20:7.—The words I have not hastened (לא אצתי מ׳) have been variously explained. But all the commentators (when they do not alter the reading, as the Syr., which reads מֵרָעָה) concur in understanding רֹעֶה of the spiritual pastorate. The thought that he had not hastened from the pastoral office or spiritual pasture after Jehovah does not however suit the connection. For he can wish only to defend himself against the imputation of having hurried. It is very remarkable that not a single comm. has yet thought of taking רֹעֶה in a physical sense; doubtless because the knowledge of Jeremiah’s priestly descent has seemed to preclude the thought of his having been a shepherd. But why may not Jeremiah, who was called as a נַעַר to the prophetic office, have previously tended his father’s sheep? The shepherd’s state was rendered sacred to the Israelites by the example of their fathers, and kings as well as prophets had proceeded from it (comp. Amo_1:1; Amo_7:14 coll. Exo_3:1). Moreover the מִנְרָשׁ [pasture, common], which was possessed by every priestly and levitical city (comp. Joshua 21. and 1 Chronicles 6.), was according to Num_35:4 expressly intended “for the cattle.” Anathoth also had its מִגְרָשׁ (Jos_21:18). Comp. Herzog, R.-Enc. VI. S. 150. How well now it suits the connection if Jer. says: They scorn me as a prophet and yet I did not hurry away from being a shepherd (מִהִיוֹת רֹעֶה=מִרֹעֶה. Comp. Jer_2:25; Jer_48:2; Psa_83:5; 1Sa_15:23; 1Sa_15:26) after thee.—אוּץ = to press, to haste:Exo_5:13; Jos_10:13; Pro_19:2; Pro_21:5; Pro_28:20.—אהריך. Comp. Jer_2:2; Jer_3:19. Going after Jehovah is in antithesis to going after the flock (comp. 1Ch_17:7). [Hitzig: “I have not hastened away not to keep after thee. In אוּץ is the idea of wilfulness, following one’s own impulse in any direction. ‘I did not struggle away so that I should not be pasturing,’ etc.אחריד does not suit the usual rendering of רעח as the trade of the shepherd, but leads to this, that Jahve is the shepherd, leader, and Jeremiah the lamb, Psa_23:1. Willingly following him (comp. 1Sa_7:2; Num_14:24) he allowed himself to be fed by Jahve (comp. Pro_10:21) with words of truth and with revelation Jer_15:16.” Henderson appears to follow Hitzig in this rendering.—Wordsworth: “Rather, I have not hastened backward from being a shepherd (a prophet) after thee. When I was called by Thee, I did not withdraw myself hastily from Thy service (see Gesen. 23), but I obeyed Thy call without delay: and I did not desire the woful day.”—So also Cowles.—S. R. A.]
And the calamitous day. Comp. rems. on Jer_17:9. From the connection the prophet can mean only the day of his entrance into the prophetic office. (Comp. Jer_20:7 sqq.; Jer_15:10-11). For he needed not to give the assurance that he did not desire the day of calamity for the whole people. He might indeed have been reproached with loving to prophesy evil, but there is nothing of this in the text.—Thou knowest. Comp. Jer_15:15.—That which went forth, etc. That which has gone forth from his lips, since he has been a prophet, God knows and approves, he has nothing then to fear from the criticism of men. Comp. Pro_5:21; Lam_2:19.
Jer_17:17-18. Be not a terror … destroy them. The negative petition, comp. Jer_17:14.—persecutors, pursuers. Comp. Jer_15:15; Jer_20:11.—doubly with destruction. Comp. Jer_16:18.
Footnotes:
[13]Jer_17:17.—תּהְיֵה, comp. Ewald, § 224 c; Naegelsb. Gr., § 38, Anm. 2.
[14]Jer_17:18.—חביא, a rare form instead of חָבִא, but comp. 1Sa_20:40; Olsh., § 256 b, S. 569.
[15]Jer_17:18.—כִשְׁנֶה (not מִשְׁנֵה) is accus. modi. Comp. Naegelsb. Gr., § 70 g.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. On Jer_14:7. “Medicina erranti confessio, qua de re Psa_32:3-4 et Ambrosius eleganter: Confessio verecunda suffragatur Deo, et pœnam, quam defensione vitare non possumus, pudore revelamus (lib. de Joseph., c. 36), et alibi idem: Cessat vindicta divina, si confessio præcurat humana. Etsi enim confessio non est causa meritoria remissionis peccatorum, est tamen necessarium quoddam antecedens.” Förster.
2. “In earnest and hearty prayer there is a conflict between the spirit and the flesh. The flesh regards the greatness of the sins, and conceives of God as a severe Judge and morose being, who either will not help further or cannot. The spirit, on the other hand, adheres to the name of God, i. e., to His promise; he apprehends God by faith as his true comfort and aid, and depends upon Him.” Cramer.
3. On Jer_14:9 a. “Ideo non vult Deus cito dare, ut discas ardentius orare.” Augustine.
4. On Jer_14:9 b. “Quia in baptismo nomen Domini, i. e., totius SS. et individuæ Trinitatis super nos quoque invocatum est, eo et ipso nos in fœdus Dei recepti sumus et inde populus Dei salutamur.” Förster.
5. On Jer_14:10. “So long as the sinner remains unchanged and uncontrite God cannot remove the punishment of the sin (Jer_26:13).” Starke.—“Quotidie crescit pœna, quia quotidie crescit et culpa.” Augustine.
6. On Jer_14:11-12. [“We further gather from this passage that fasting is not in itself a religious duty or exercise, but that it refers to another end. Except then they who fast have a regard to what is thereby intended—that there may be a greater alacrity in prayer—that it may be an evidence of humility in confessing their sins,—and that they may also strive to subdue all their lusts;—except these things be regarded, fasting becomes a frivolous exercise, nay, a profanation of God’s worship, it being only superstitious. We hence see that fastings are not only without benefit except when prayers are added, and those objects which I have stated are regarded, but that they provoke the wrath of God as all superstitions do, for His worship is polluted.” Calvin.—S. R. A.] “Unbelief is a mortal sin, so that by it the good is turned into evil. For fasting or praying is good; but when the man who does it has no faith it becomes sin (Psa_109:7).” Cramer.
7. On Jer_14:14. “He who would be a preacher must have a regular appointment. In like form for all parts of divine worship we must have God’s word and command for our support. If we have it not all is lost.” Cramer.
8. On Jer_14:14 (I have not sent them). “This does not come at all into the account now-a-days; and I do not know, whether to such a preacher, let him have obtained his office as he may, in preaching, absolution, marrying and exorcising, or on any other occasion, when he appeals to his calling before the congregation or against the devil, the thought once occurs, whether he is truly sent by God. Thus the example of the sons of Sceva (Act_19:14; Act_19:16) is no longer considered, and it appears that the devil is not yet disposed by such frightful occurrences to interrupt the atheistical carelessness of the teachers.” Zinzendorf.
9. On Jer_14:15. “The example of Pashur and others shortly afterwards confirms this discourse. This is an important point. One should however, with that modesty and prudence, which Dr. Wiesmann (Prof. of Theol. in Tübingen), who seems called of God to be a writer of church history, in his Introd. in Memorabilia historiæ sacræ N. T. (1731 and 1745) which I could wish were in the hands of all teachers, repeatedly recommends, have regard to this also, when so-called judgments on the wicked are spoken of, that when the Lord in His wisdom and omnipotence exercises justice on such transgressors by temporal judgments, these are often a blessing to them and the yet remaining means of their salvation. It is related that a certain clergyman in a Saxon village, about the year 1730, felt such a judgment upon himself and his careless ministry, and after happy and humble preparation on a usual day of fasting and prayer, presented himself before his church as an example, and exercised on himself what is called church discipline, whereupon he is said to have fallen down dead with the words,
‘My sin is deep and very great,
And fills my heart with grief.
O for thy agony and death,
Grant me, I pray, relief.’
He is no doubt more blessed, and his remembrance more honorable, than thousands of others, who are praised by their colleagues in funeral discourses as faithful pastors, and at the same time, or already before, are condemned in the first but invisible judgment as dumb dogs, wolves or hirelings.” Zinzendorf.
10. On Jer_14:16. “Although preachers lead their hearers astray, yet the hearers are not thus excused. But when they allow themselves to be led astray, the blind and those who guide them fall together into the ditch (Luk_6:39).” Cramer. [“When sinners are overwhelmed with trouble, they must in it see their own wickedness poured upon them. This refers to the wickedness both of the false prophets and the people; the blind lead the blind, and both fall together into the ditch, where they will be miserable comforters one to another.” Henry.—S. R. A.]
11. On Jer_14:19. Chrysostom refers to Rom_11:1 sqq., where the answer to the prophet’s question is to be found.
12. On Jer_14:21. “Satan has his seat here and there (Rev_2:13). I should like to know why the Saviour may not also have His cathedral. Assuredly He has, and where one stands He knows how to maintain it, and to preserve the honor of the academy.” Zinzendorf.
[“Good men lay the credit of religion, and its profession in the world, nearer their hearts than any private interest or concern of their own; and those are powerful pleas in prayer which are fetched from thence, and great supports to faith. We may be sure that God will not disgrace the throne of His glory, on earth; nor will He eclipse the glory of His throne by one providence, without soon making it shine forth, and more brightly than before, by another. God will be no loser in His honor in the long run.” Henry.—S. R. A.]
13. On Jer_14:22. “Testimony to the omnipotence of God, for His are both counsel and deed (Pro_8:14). Use it for consolation in every distress and for the true apodictica [demonstration] of all articles of Christian faith, however impossible they may appear.” Cramer.—[“The sovereignty of God should engage, and His all-sufficiency encourage, our attendance on Him, and our expectations from Him, at all times.” Henry.—“Hence may be learned a useful doctrine—that there is no reason why punishments, which are signs of God’s wrath, should discourage us so as to prevent us from venturing to seek pardon from Him; but on the contrary a form of prayer is here prescribed for us; for if we are convinced that we have been chastised by God’s hand, we are on this very account encouraged to hope for salvation; for it belongs to Him who wounds to heal, and to Him who kills to restore to life.” Calvin.—S. R. A.]
14. On Jer_15:1. On the part of the Catholics it is maintained that “hoc loco refellitur hæreticorum error … orationes defunctorum sanctorum nihil prodesse vivis. Contrarium enim potius ex hisce arguendum suggeritur, nempe istiusmodi sanctorum mortuorum orationes et fieri coram Deo solere pro viventibus, et quando viventes ipsi non posuerint ex semet obicem, illas esse iis maxime proficuas. Ghisl. Tom. II. p. 296). To this it is replied on the part of the Protestants. 1. Enuntiatio isthæc plane est hypothetica. 2. Eo tantum spectat, ut si Moses et Samuel in vivis adhuc essent, adeoque in his terris pro populo preces interponerent suas, perinde ut ille, Exodus 32. hic vero 1 Samuel 7. (Förster, S. 86).” He also adds two testimonies of the fathers against the invocation of saints. One from Augustine, who (contra Maximin., L. 1), calls such invocation sacrilegium, the other from Epiphanius who (Hæres 2) names it an error seductorum, and adds “non sanctos colimus, sed sanctorum dominum.”—That the intercession of the living for each other is effective, Cramer testifies, saying “Intercession is powerful, and is not without fruit, when he who prays and he for whom he prays are of like spirit.” Comp. Rom_15:30; 2Co_1:11; Eph_6:18-19; 1Ti_2:1-2; 1Jn_5:16. [To the same effect also Calvin and Henry.—S. R. A.]
15. On Jer_15:4 b. “Scilicet in vulgus manant exempla regentum, utque ducum lituos, sic mores castra sequuntur.”—“Non sic inflectere sensus humanos edicta valent ut vita regentum.”—“Qualis rex talis grex.” Förster.
16. “God keeps an exact protocol [register] of sins, and visits them to the third and fourth generation.” Cramer. [“See what uncertain comforts children are; and let us therefore rejoice in them as though we rejoiced not.” Henry.—S. R. A]
17. On Jer_15:5. “When God abandons us we are abandoned also by the holy angels, and all creatures. For as at court when two eyes are turned away the whole court turns away; so when the Lord turns away all His hosts turn away also.” Cramer.
18. On Jer_15:7. “God as a faithful husbandman has all kinds of instruments for cleaning His grain. He has two kinds of besoms and two kinds of winnowing-fan. With one He cleanses, winnows the grain and sweeps the floor, so that the chaff may be separated from the good wheat. This is done by the Fatherly cross. But if this does not avail He takes in hand the besom of destruction.” Cramer.
19. On Jer_15:10. “The witnesses of Jesus have the name among others of being hard and rough people, from whom they cannot escape without quarreling. It is not only a reproach which Ahab and such like make to Elijah, ‘Art thou he that troubleth Israel?’ (1Ki_19:17). But even true-hearted people like Obadiah do not thoroughly trust to them; every one has the thought, if they would only behave more gently it would be just as well and make less noise. Meanwhile the poor Elijah is sitting there, knowing not what to do; a Jeremiah laments the day of his birth … why am I then such a monster? Why such an apple of discord? What manner have I? How do I speak? ‘For when I speak, they are for war’ (Psa_120:7). He does not at once remember that they called the master Beelzebub, and persecuted all the prophets before him; that his greatest sin is that he cares for the interests of Jesus in opposition to Satan.” Zinzendorf. [“Even those who are most quiet and peaceable, if they serve God faithfully, are often made men of strife. We can but follow peace; we have the making only of one side of the bargain, and therefore can but, as much as in us lies, live peaceably.” Henry.—S. R. A.]
20. On Jer_15:10 b. (I have neither lent nor borrowed at usury). “My dear Jeremiah! Thou mightest have done that; that is according to the custom of the country, there would be no such noise about that. There is no instance of a preacher being persecuted because he cared for his household. But to take payment in such natural products as human souls, that is ground of distrust, that is going too far, that thou carriest too high, and thou must be more remiss therein, otherwise all will rise up against thee; thou wilt be suspended, removed, imprisoned or in some way made an end of, for that is pure disorder and innovation, that smacks of spiritual revolutionary movements.” Zinzendorf.
21. On Jer_15:15 a. (Thou knowest that for thy sake I have suffered reproach). “This is the only thing that a servant of the Lamb of God should care for, that he does indeed suffer not the least in that he has disguised and disfigured the doctrine of God and his Saviour. … It might be wished that no servant of the Lord, especially in small cities and villages, would now and then make a quarrel to relieve the tedium, which will occupy the half of his life, and of which it may be said in the end: vinco vel vincor, semper ego maculor.” Zinzendorf.
22. On Jer_15:16. “The sovereign sign of a little flock depending on Christ is such a hearty, spiritual tender disposition towards the Holy Scriptures, that they find no greater pleasure than in their simple but heart-searching truths. I, poor child, if I but look into the Bible, am happy for several hours after. I know not what misery I could not alleviate at once with a little Scripture.” Zinzendorf. [On Jer_17:17. “It is the folly and infirmity of some good people that they lose much of the pleasantness of their religion by the fretfulness and uneasiness of their natural temper, which they humor and indulge instead of mortifying it.” Henry.—S. R. A.]
23. On Jer_15:19, a. (And thou shalt stand before me: [Luther: thou shalt remain my preacher]) “Hear ye this, ye servants of the Lord! Ye may be suspended, removed, lose your income and your office, suffer loss of house and home, but ye will again be preachers. This is the word of promise. * * * And if one is dismissed from twelve places, and again gets a new place, he is a preacher to thirteen congregations. For in all the preceding his innocence, his cross, his faith preach more powerfully than if he himself were there.” Zinzendorf.
Note.—On this it may be remarked that in order to be the mouth of the Lord it is not necessary to have a church.
24. On Jer_15:19 b. (Before thou return to them) “We can get no better comfort than this, that our faithful Lord Himself assures us against ourselves. I will make thee so steady, so discreet, so well-founded, so immovable, that, hard as the human heart is, and dead and opposed, yet it will be rather possible that they all yield to thee, than that thou shouldest be feeble or slack and go over to them.” Zinzendorf.
25. On Jer_15:20. “A preacher must be like a bone, outwardly hard, inwardly full of marrow.” Förster. [“Ministers must take those whom they see to be precious into their bosoms, and not sit alone, as Jeremiah did, but keep up conversation with those they do good to, and get good by.” Henry.—S. R. A.]
26. On Jer_16:2. “It is well-known that in no condition is celibacy attended by so many evils as in that of the clergy and that this condition entails in a certain measure a present necessity of marrying. For if any one needs a helpmeet to be by his side, it is the man who must be sacrificed to so many different men of all classes. But all this must be arranged according to circumstances. Ye preachers! Is it made out that ye marry only for Jesus? … that you have the church alone as your object? and that you subject yourselves to all the hardships of this condition with its tribulations only for the profit of many? First, then, examine maturely in your offices, whether there is no word of the Lord, whether circumstances do not show, whether there is not an exception from the rule in your case, that you are to take no wife; whether Paul does not call to you in spirit, ‘I would that thou wert as I.’ May it not sometimes be said? ‘Take no wife at this time or at this place!’ or ‘Take not another!’ How does the matter look on closer examination? The rather, as it is known to the servants of Christ to be no hyperbolical speech, when it is said, ‘The minister has slain his thousands, but the minister’s wife her ten thousands.’ He that loves anything more than Christ is not worthy of Him. If it cannot be cured endure it. But see to it the more, that those who have wives be as those who have them not (1Co_7:29). Lead your wife in prayer diligently and plainly, as Moses with Zipporah (Exo_4:25, Surely a bloody husband art thou to me). If they would not have you dead they must leave you your Lord. I know not when anything was so pleasing to me as when I saw a certain minister’s wife weeping sorely from apprehension that her husband would not endure a certain trial. She saw clearly that he would retain his charge, but she feared the Saviour would make it hard to him.”Zinzendorf.
27. On Jer_16:2. “Ridiculi sunt Papicolæ, qui ex hoc typo articulum religionis suæ de cœlibatu saceraotum exstruere conantur. Nam. 1. tota hæc res fuit typica. Typica autem et symbolica theologia non est argumentativa juxta axioma Thomæ. 2. Non simpliciter interdicitur conjugium prophetæ in omni loco, sed tantum in hoc loco.” Förster.
28. On Jer_16:7. This passage (as also Isa_58:7) is used by the Lutheran theologians to prove that panem frangere may be equivalent to panem distribuere, as also Luther translates: “They will not distribute bread among them.” This is admitted by the Reformed, who, however, remark that it does not follow from this that frangere et distribuere also “in Sacramento æquipollere, quod esset a particulari ad particulare argumentari.” Comp. Turretin., Inst. Theol. Elencht. Tom. III., p. 499.
29. On Jer_16:8. “When people are desperately bad and will not be told so, they must be regarded as heathen and publicans (Mat_17:18; Tit_3:10; 1Co_5:9).” Cramer.
30. On Jer_16:19. “The calling of the heathen is very consolatory. For as children are rejoiced at heart when they see that their parents are greatly honored and obtain renown and praise in all lands, so do all true children of God rejoice when they see that God’s name is honored and His glory more widely extended.” Cramer.—This passage is one of those which predict the extension of the true religion among all nations, and are therefore significant as giving impulse and comfort in the work of missions. Comp. Deu_32:21; Hos. 2:1, 25; Joe_3:5; Isa_49:6; Isa_65:1; Rom_10:12 sqq.
31. On Jer_16:21. “Nothing can be learned from God without God. God instructs the people by His mouth and His hand, verbis et verberibus.” Cramer.
32. On Jer_17:1. “Scripta est et fides tua, scripta est et culpa tua, sicut Jeremias dixit: scripta est Juda culpa tua graphio ferreo et ungue adamantino. Et scripta est, inquit, in pectore et in corde tuo. Ibi igitur culpa est ubi gratia; sed culpa graphio scribitur, gratia spiritu designatur.” Ambros. de Sp. s. III. 2.
33. On Jer_17:1. “The devil is God’s ape. For when he sees that God by the writing of His prophets and apostles propagates His works and wonders to posterity, he sets his own pulpiteers to work, who labor with still greater zeal, and write not only with pens and ink, but also with diamonds, that such false religion may have the greater respect and not go down.” Cramer.
34. On Jer_17:5.
“O man in human help and favor
Trust not, for all is vanity,
The curse is on it,—happy he,
Who trusts alone in Christ the Saviour.”
[“When water is blended with fire, both perish; so when one seeks in part to trust in God and in part to trust in men, it is the same as though he wished to mix heaven and earth together, and to throw all things into confusion. It is then to confound the order of nature, when men imagine that they have two objects of trust, and ascribe half their salvation to God and the other half to themselves or to other men.” Calvin.—S. R. A.]
35. On Jer_17:5. “A teacher is commanded to be the first to honor the authorities, to pray for them and be subject to them as God’s servants… But since the authorities, in all which pertains to the concerns of the soul, have part only as members, there is great occasion for this cursed dependence on flesh … when one from the hope of good personal protection … gives up the work of the Lord to the powers of the earth. … It is true the church is to have foster-parents who are kings. But nevertheless neither kings nor princes are its tutelar deities, much less lords and commanders of the church, but one is our Master, one our Judge, one our King, the Crucified.” Zinzendorf.
36. On Jer_17:5. Reformed theologians, ex. gr., Lambertus Danæus (ob. 1596) have applied this passage in the sense of Joh_6:63, in their controversies against the Lutheran doctrine of the Supper. But as Calvin declared, it is not the flesh of Christ, but only earthly flesh and that per contemtum which is here spoken of Comp. Förster, S. 97.
37. On Jer_17:7. “Blessed are those teachers, who have betaken themselves, to His protection, who once promised His Church, that even the gates of hell should not prevail against it …… Who has ever been put to shame who trusted in Him?” Zinzendorf.
38. On Jer_17:9. “This is a spiritual anatomy of the heart. Examples: Manasseh (2 Chronicles 33.); Hezekiah (38:39); the children of Israel (Numbers 14.). Alii sumus dum lætamur et omnia in vita nobis secundo vento succedunt; alii vero in temporibus calamitosis, ubi quid præter sententiam acciderit. Comp. Ser. Jer 11:27.” (MS. note in my copy of Cramer’s Bibel).
39. On Jer_17:9. Νᾶφε καὶ μέμνασο ἀπιστεῖν. This applies with respect to ourselves and others. For the defiant it avails as an extinguisher (Rom_12:3); but the despairing may be reassured by it (1Jn_3:19-20).
40. On Jer_17:14. (Thou art my praise)…… “When a teacher confines himself to the praise of the cross and lets all other matters of praise go, which might adorn a theologian of these times, and adheres immovably to this: ‘I am determined to know nothing among you but Jesus Christ the crucified’ (1Co_2:2),—amid all the shame of His cross He is victorious over the rest.” Zinzendorf.
41. On Jer_17:16. (That which I have preached was right before thee). “It is not difficult to know in these times what is right before the Lord. There is His word; he who adheres to this strictly, knows in thesi that he is right …… In all this it is the teacher’s chief maxim, not to make use of the application without need, but to make the truth so plain in his public discourse, that the hearers must necessarily make the application to themselves. … ‘Thus saying, thou reproachest us also,’ said the lawyer (Luk_11:45).… Others went away convicted in their consciences.” Zinzendorf.
42. On Jer_17:17. “That is a period which straitens the hearts of witnesses, when their rock, their protection, their consolation, their trust is a terror to them. But under this we must bow and faithfully endure, and we shall have a peaceable fruit of righteousness. Discipline always ends gloriously.” Zinzendorf.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
On Jer_14:7-9. Jeremiah a second Israel, who wrestles with the Lord in prayer. 1. In what the Lord is strong against the prophet: the sin of the people. 2. In what the prophet is strong against the Lord: the Name of the Lord (a) in itself. This compels him to show that He is not a desperate hero, or giant, who cannot help; (b) in that His name is borne by Israel. Thus the Lord is bound to show Himself as He who is in Israel (not a guest or stranger), and consequently the Comforter and Helper of Israel.—Heim und Hoffmann, The Major Prophets (Winnenden, 1839). As Daniel (Jer_9:6) prayed, We have sinned and committed iniquity, etc., so Jeremiah took his share in the sin and guilt of his people.—This is true penitence, when one no longer wishes to contend with God in tribulation, but confesses his sin and condemnation, when he sees that if God should treat us according to our misdeeds, He could find no ground for grace. But for His name’s sake He can show us favor. He Himself is the cause of the forgiveness of sin.—Calwer Handbuch [Manual]. Notwithstanding the ungodliness of the people the prophet may still say, “Thou art among us,” because the temple of the Lord and His word were still in the land, and the pious have never all died out. [On Jer_14:7-9. “Prayer hath within itself its own reward. The prayer of the prophet consists of confession and petition. 1. Confession fitly begins. It is the testimony of iniquity, and that this iniquity is against God. When we are to encounter any enemy or difficulty, it is sin weakens us. Now confession weakens it, takes off the power of accusation, etc. 2. Petition: For Thy name’s sake. This is the unfailing argument which abides always the same and hath always the same force. The children of God are much beholden to their troubles for clear experiences of themselves and God. Though thou art not clear in thy interest as a believer, yet plead thy interest as a sinner, which thou art sure of.” Leighton.—S. R. A.]
2. On Jer_14:13-16. Against false prophets. 1. They tell the world what it likes to hear (Jer_17:13); 2. The Lord denies them (Jer_17:14); 3. The Lord punishes them (Jer_17:15); 4. The Lord also punishes those who allow themselves to be deceived by them (Jer_17:16).—Tüb. Bibelw.: To enter the preacher’s office without divine calling, what an abomination is that! But mark this, ye hirelings! the sentence of condemnation is already pronounced over you (Jer_23:21; Mat_7:15).—Osiander Bibl.: God avenges the deception of false teachers most severely, if not in this world in the next (Act_13:10-11).—Starke: God punishes both deceivers and deceived, the latter cannot then lay all the guilt on the former (Jer 27:45).
3. On Jer_14:19-22. The church’s distress and consolation. 1. The distress is (a) outward (Jer_17:19), (b) inward (Jer_17:20, the reason of the outward, confession). 2. The consolation (a). The Lord’s Name, [α] It is called and is One (Jer_17:22): [β] His glory and that of the church (throne of glory) are one; (b) the Lord’s covenant (Jer_17:21).—What in the present circumstances should be our position towards God? 1. The divine providence, in which we are at present: 2. Our confession, which we make before God: 3. Our petition, which we should address to Him. Voelter in Palmer’s Ev. Casual-Reden. [Occasional Discourses], 4th Ed., 1865.
4. On Jer_15:16. Sermon on a Reformation or Bible-Anniversary. The candlestick of the Gospel has been rejected by more than one church. We therefore pray: Preserve to us Thy word (Ps. 109:43). 1. Why we thus pray (Thy Word is our hearts’ joy and comfort); 2. Why we hope to be heard (for we are named by Thy name).
5. On Jer_15:19. Caspari (Installation-sermon at Munich, Adv., 1855). These words treat; 1, of the firm endurance; 2, of the holy zeal; 3, of the joyful confidence, with which a preacher of God must come to an evangelical church.
6. Homilies of Origen are extant on Jer_15:5-6; (Hom. XII., Ed. Lommatzsch); Jer_15:10-19 (Hom. XIV.); Jer_15:10; Jer_17:5 (Hom. XV.). [On Jer_15:20. “I. God’s qualification to be an overseer of the church. The metaphor of a wall implies, (1) courage, (2) innocence and integrity, (3) authority. II. The opposition a church-governor will be sure to meet with, (1) by seditious preaching and praying, (2) by railing and libels; (3) perhaps by open force. III. The issue and success of such opposition (they shall not prevail).” South.—S. R. A.]
7. On Jer_16:19-21. Missionary Sermon. The true knowledge of God. 1. It is to be had in Christianity (Jer_17:19, a). 2. It will also make its way to the heathen, for (a) It is God’s will that they should be instructed (Jer_17:21); (b) they are ready to be instructed (Jer_17:19 b. 20).
8. On Jer_17:5-8. The blessing of faith and the curse of unbelief (comp. Ebal und Gerizim). 1. Why does the curse come upon the unbeliever? (He departs in his heart from the Lord). 2. Wherein this curse consists (Jer_17:6). 3. Why must blessing be the portion of the believer? (Jer_17:7). 4. Wherein this blessing consists (Jer_17:8).
9. On Jer_17:5-8, and Jer_18:7-10. Schleiermacher (Sermon on 28 Mar., 1813, in Berlin): We regard the great change (brought about by the events of the period) on the side of our worthiness before God. 1. What in this respect is its peculiar import and true nature. 2. To what we must then feel ourselves summoned.
10. On Jer_17:9-10. The human heart and its Judges 1. The antithesis in the human heart. 2. The impossibility of fathoming it with human eyes. 3. The omniscient God alone sees through it; and 4, judges it with justice. [“The heart is deceitful—it always has some trick or other by which to shuffle off conviction.” Henry.—“It is extremely difficult for sinners to know their hearts. I. What is implied in their knowing their own hearts. 1. It implies a knowledge of their selfishness. 2. Of their desperate incurable wickedness. 3. Of their extreme deceitfulness. II. Why it is so extremely difficult for them to know their own hearts. 1. They are unwilling to know them. 2. Because of the deceitfulness of sin. They love or hate, as they appear friendly or unfriendly to them: (a) God, (b) Christ, (c) good men, (d) one another, (e) the world, (f) their own hearts, (g) the means of grace, (h) their convictions, (i) heaven—Improvement. The only way to know the heart is to inquire whether it loves God or not, etc. 2. Saints can more easily ascertain their true character than sinners Song of Solomon 3. All changes in life are trials of the heart,” etc., etc. Emmons.—“I. The human heart exhibits great fraud and treachery. 1. We are changeable by that connection which the soul has with the body. 2. By its connection with external objects by our senses. 3. By its love of novelty and variety. 4. By its hasty resolutions. 5. By its self-love. II. Its excessive malice is seen in history and experience. III. Its deep dissimulation and hypocrisy render it inscrutable. Inferences: 1. We should entertain a sober diffidence of ourselves. 2. We should not be surprised when men use us ill or disappoint us. 3. We should take care and give good principles and a good example to those young persons under our guidance. 4. We should be ready to confess our offences to God. 5. We should bear in mind that we are under the inspection of one who searcheth the hearts,” etc. Jortin.—See also two Sermons by Jer. Taylor.—S. R. A.].
11. Rud. Kœgel (Court and Cathedral preacher at Berlin, 1865). Sermon on Jer_17:9; Jer_17:19, and Heb_13:9 : Two pictures: 1, the unregenerate; 2, the regenerate heart.
12. On Jer_17:12-13. Sermon for the dedication of a church, the anniversary of the Reformation, or on Whitsunday. The church of the Lord. 1. What it is in itself (place of sanctuary, throne of divine glory, house of Him, who is Israel’s hope). 2. What it will be (it will ever remain firm, Mat_16:18): 3. What they find who forsake it (Jer_17:19).
13. On Jer_17:14-18. Cry for help of a preacher tempted on account of the truth. 1. The temptation (Jer_17:15). 2. The demonstration of innocence (Jer_17:16). 3. The cry for help, (a) negative (Jer_17:17-18), (b) positive (Jer_17:19). [On Jer_17:14. The penitent’s prayer. 1. The words express an earnest desire for salvation. 2. He applies to Almighty God for it. 3. Through the medium of prayer. 4. With confidence that he will be heard. Dr. A. Thomson of Edinburgh.—S. R. A.].
6. THE SIXTH DISCOURSE
(Jer_17:19-27.)
This short passage is closely connected neither with what precedes nor with what follows. Many commentators have, indeed, devised an extensive frame, so as to include this passage in it together with the previous or subsequent context, but these artificial expedients are not satisfactory. The previous discourse is, as shown above, complete in itself, and requires no further addition. The following passages are also as peculiar and independent as this. This forms a small but important and in form a finished whole. Why should not the prophet have addressed short speeches to the people?
As to the date, all is in favor of the reign of Jehoiakim. 1. The state still exists in unenfeebled independence; no trace betrays that the power of the Chaldeans had become predominant, or that they were immediately threatening. 2. The censure of the transgression of so important a command corresponds rather with the times of the godless Jehoiakim, than of the pious Josiah. The great similarity with Jer_22:1-5, which passage indubitably pertains to the reign of Jehoiakim, is in favor of referring this discourse to the same period. [Henderson: “Eichhorn, Rosenmüller and Maurer, are of opinion that this portion of the chapter belongs to the reign of Jehoiakim, who rapidly undid all the good which had been effected by Josiah, and among other evils encouraged the profanation of the Sabbath, with the due observance of which the prosperity of the State was bound up. The language of the prophet, however, is not objurgatory, as we should have expected, if the profanation in question had actually existed. It is rather that of caution and warning, with a promise of prosperity in case of obedience, and a threatening of destruction to the city in case of disobedience. It would seem, therefore, to belong to the time of Josiah, and to have been delivered in connection with or shortly after his reformation.”—Hitzig refers this passage together with chapter 18, to the period of Jeconiah, or that immediately following the death of Jehoiakim.—S. R. A.]
Exhortation To Hallow The Sabbath
Jer_17:19-27
19Thus saith the Lord [Jehovah] unto me; Go and stand in the gate of the children of the people,16 whereby the kings of Judah come in, and by the which they20go out, and in all the gates of Jerusalem; And say unto them, Hear ye the word of the Lord [Jehovah], ye kings of Judah and all Judah, and all the inhabitants21of Jerusalem that enter in by these gates: Thus saith the Lord [Jehovah]; Take heed ye to yourselves [Care with foresight for your souls],17 and bear no burden on 22the Sabbath-day, nor bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem; neither carry forth a burden out of your houses on the Sabbath day, neither do ye any work, but hallow23ye the Sabbath-day, as I commanded your fathers. But they obeyed [heard] not, neither inclined their ear, but made their neck stiff, that they might not hear18 nor24receive instruction. And it shall come to pass, if ye diligently hearken unto me, saith the Lord [Jehovah] to bring in no burden through the gates of this city on the Sabbath-day, but hallow the Sabbath day to do [by doing] no work therein;19 25then shall there enter into [through] the gates of this city kings and princes20 sitting upon [who sit on] the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, they and their princes, the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and this city26shall remain [be inhabited] forever. And they shall come from the cities of Judah and from the places about [environs of] Jerusalem and from the land of Benjamin, and from the plains and from the mountains, and from the south, bringing [people who bring] burnt offerings and sacrifices and meat-offerings and incense, and bringing27sacrifices of praise unto the house of the Lord [Jehovah]. But if ye will not hearken unto me to hallow the Sabbath day, and not to bear a burden, even entering [or enter] into the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath-day; then will I kindle a fire in the [your] gates thereof, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem and it shall not be quenched.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
Jeremiah is to go under the gate of the city and there warn all the people from the king downwards against the desecration of the Sabbath by bearing burdens and laboring as their fathers had done (Jer_17:18-23). If they would sanctify the Sabbath, their city should remain forever, and their gate should be witnesses of a lively traffic, of importance to the king’s house, the city and the temple (Jer_17:24-26). But if they should continue to desecrate the Sabbath, an inextinguishable fire should consume the gates and palaces of the city (Jer_17:27). Accordingly three parts may be distinguished in this passage.
Jer_17:19-23. Thus saith Jehovah … nor receive instruction.—Go, etc. Comp. Jer_2:2; Jer_3:12; Jer_19:1.—Gate of the children of the people. This gate is mentioned here only. It is, therefore, difficult to determine its position with certainty, as according to Von Raumer (Paläst., 4th Ed., S. 291), not two interpreters agree as to its position. The first question is whether it was a gate of the city or of the temple. Graf correctly remarks that, with respect to a gate of the city יצאו must stand first and יבאו last (comp. 2Ch_23:8). The name בני־העם would also be a very strange one for a city gate. The expression occurs with three meanings. 1. It designates the difference between strangers and natives, although in this sense עם is found in the Old Testament not with the article, but only with suffixes: Gen_23:11; Jdg_14:16; Lev_19:18; Eze_3:11; Num_22:5; Lev_20:17.—2. It designates a difference in rank among the people themselves, and in two degrees, the mass of the people in opposition to the king and the princes (2Ch_35:7 coll. 8), and again the commonalty in opposition to the more respectable classes (Jer_26:23; 2Ki_23:6).—3. The expression designates the difference between priests and not priests, in which sense it corresponds to our term “laity” (2Ch_35:5; 2Ch_35:12-13). It occurs only in the passages cited. Since now nothing is known of a gate of the city through which strangers might not pass, or of one through which only the kings and the dregs of the people, or only the kings and the rest of their subjects to the exclusion of the priests might pass, it follows that the gate must have been a gate of the temple through which only the laity went in and out, since special entrances were reserved for the priests. What gate it was it is difficult to say. The expression was probably not one in general use, but employed only by the priests, since according to the second explanation it included a somewhat dishonorable side-meaning. The rarity of the expression also justifies the conclusion that it was a temporary expression, i. e., in use only in those times, since as is well-known the city gates of Jerusalem bore successively different names. Comp. Raumer’sPaläst. S. 290, 1.—When in 2Ch_23:5, the high-priest Jehoiada posted a third of his people at the שַׁעַר הַיְסוֹד, it is natural to suppose that this was the gate through which he expected Athaliah to pass. It is then further probable that this gate was identical with the one mentioned in our passage “whereby the kings of Judah went in and out.” [Henderson:—“The gate of the mass of the people … was in all probability the gate of David, corresponding to what is now called the Jaffa Gate, and was called the ‘people’s’ gate from the circumstance of its being the principal thorough fare for the tribes in the South, the West, and the North-West.”—S. R. A.] That this gate, even were it a gate of the temple, was adapted to the proclamation of this divine message, is evident if we reflect (a), that this gate also might by the purchase and sale of temple-necessaries (comp. Mat_21:12) be the scene of Sabbath-desecrating traffic; (b) that even if this was not the case, at any rate the gate was one which was much frequented, perhaps more than all the rest.—Not do any work. Comp. Exo_12:16; Exo_20:8 sqq.; Deu_5:12 sqq.—The Sabbath was the day of Jehovah (comp. the passages quoted) a monimentum temporale for his service, hence the observance of this day stood or fell with the worship of Jehovah.—But they obeyed not. The first half of Jer_17:23 is taken verbatim from Jer_7:26.
Jer_17:23 is parenthetical, suggested by as I commanded, etc.
Jer_17:24-26. And it shall come … Jehovah Sitting upon the throne. Comp. Jer_13:13; Jer_22:4.—Shall remain. Comp. rems. on Jer_17:6.—Men of Judah. Comp. Jer_32:44; Jer_33:13; coll. Jos_10:40; Jdg_1:9; Deu_1:7; Zec_7:7.—The plains.שְׁפֵלָה is the low country between Joppa and Gaza, Jos_9:1; Jos_12:8; Jos_15:33 sqq.; 1Ki_10:27; Oba_1:19; Raumer, Paläst. S. 51.—South, נֶגֶב is the southern, as שְׁפֵלָה the western, מִרְבָּד the eastern, הָחָר the northern, parts of the tribe of Judah, separating the two last mentioned. Comp. Jos_15:55 sqq.; 2Sa_24:7.
Jer_17:27. But if ye will not … not be quenched. The negation before to bear must also be referred to enter. Comp. Jer_17:21.—Will I kindle. Comp. Jer_21:14; Jer_49:27; Amo_1:14.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. On Jer 17:30. “It is no derogation to the sagacity of a teacher if he directs his public instructions, admonitions and warnings with some special adaptation to the rulers of the country. Only he must guard against offensive or abusive expressions, and see to it that he carefully distinguish between their office and their life, and be sure of his case, that he is not following the motions of nature, but the calling of the Lord. Act_23:3; 1Ki_14:7-8.” Starke.
2. Man in this earthly life needs, besides work, rest also for body and soul. It would be inept to have one rest day for the body and another for the soul. It would be equally so to have more or fewer holidays than God has ordained by sanctification of the Seventh day, whereby He who is the creator of time has at the same time given us the fundamental principles of its division. As the rest of the body is both negative and positive (abstinence from labor and recuperation of forces) so also is that of the soul. The soul is from God, and must on its day of rest be freed from earthly cares and brought into the element of its heavenly origin, as it were into a cleansing and invigorating bath. The observance by Christians of the first, instead of the Seventh day, as a weekly holiday is well founded in the fact that the day of Christ’s resurrection is also a day of creation, and so much the more glorious as the new and imperishable world is more glorious than the old and perishable world.
3. “Neglect not church going. For though the unbelieving heathen thought it a foolish course to spend the day in idleness, yet temporal subsistence will not therefore fail, but rather will the weekly work of other days flourish the more. Mat_6:33.” Cramer.
4. [“God did not regard the external rite only, but rather the end, of which He speaks in Exo_31:13, and in Eze_20:12. In both places He reminds us of the reason why He commanded the Jews to keep holy the Seventh day, and that was that it might be to them a symbol of sanctification. ‘I have given My Sabbaths,’ He says, ‘to you, that ye might know that I am your God who sanctifieth you.’… And it appears from other places that this command was typical—Christ being the substance. Col_2:16.” Calvin.—S. R. A.]
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
The weekly holiday as the day of Jehovah and as the day of the Lord. 1. What they have in common. The weekly holiday is in both cases (a) a monument of the loving care of our God (a) for our body (β) for our soul; (b) a right of God which forms on our part a holy obligation towards God, ourselves, and our neighbor. 2. The differences. (a) The day of Jehovah is founded on the creation of the perishable world; the day of the Lord is founded on the resurrection of Christ, as of a new, eternal world; (b) the observance of the day of Jehovah was only legal, i. e., (a) imposed by external compulsion, (β) by requirements to be fulfilled by outward observance;—the observance of the day of the Lord is to be more and more an evangelical one, i. e. (a) a free, (b) a spiritually free one, i. e., satisfying the right as well as the obligation of personality.
[“What blessings God has in store for those who make conscience of Sabbath sanctification. 1. The court shall flourish. The honor of the government is the joy of the kingdom, and the support of religion would contribute greatly to both. 2. The city shall flourish. Whatever supports religion tends to establish the civil interests of a land. 3. The country shall flourish. By this the flourishing of a country may be judged of. What does it do for the honor of God? Those who starve their religion either are poor, or are in a fair way to be Song of Solomon 4. The church shall flourish. It is a true observation which some have made, That the streams of all religion run either deep or shallow, according as the banks of the Sabbath, are kept up or neglected.” Henry.—S. R. A.]
Footnotes:
[16]Jer_17:19.—[Hitzig: Of the common man]. The Chethibh reads בני־עם, but this does not make any difference in the sense. If the absence of the article is not due to an oversight, it may be explained by the later, less exact use of language, of which we repeatedly find traces in Jeremiah (comp. Jer_3:2; Jer_6:16; Jer_14:18).
[17]Jer_17:21.—בנפשׁובים. The construction is like Mal_2:15-16, בְּרוּחֲכֶם. But בִּ is not = by, per, after verbs of petition or conjuration (by your life not. Vid. Gesen., Thes. III., S. 1443), or=for the sake of (Meier), but the Niphal involves the meaning of having regard to, observing, and בְּ depends on this. Comp. שִׁמְרוּ־מִי בַנֵּעַר, 2Sa_18:12. That this is the sense of the connection follows plainly from 2Sa_20:10, “took no heed to the sword;” Deu_24:8, “take heed to the plague.” Comp. Naegelsb. Gr., § 100, 3.
[18]Jer_17:23.—שׁומע [Chethibh, שׁמוע] Hiller in Arcano Kri et K’tib, remarks that the Masoretes, when they wished to indicate the Scriptio plena, in order that the difference of their reading might be remarked, set the mater lectionis in another place in the word. So also in Jer_2:25; Jer_9:7; Jer_27:1; Jer_29:23; Jer_32:23. Comp. the Explicatio lectionum masoret. in the Hebrew Bible of Simonis, Halle, 1752.
[19]Jer_17:24.—On the form בֹּה. Comp. Ewald, § 84, b; 247, d. Olsh. § 96, c; 40, h.
[20]Jer_17:25.—וְשָׂרִים is strange. Graf not without reason, assumes an oversight, caused by the frequent juxtaposition of the two words. Comp. Jer_49:38; Hos_13:10; 2Sa_18:5; 1Ch_24:6; 2Ch_28:21; 2Ch_29:30; 2Ch_30:12; Est_1:16; Est_1:21, etc.
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv2–4 children remember--Instead of forsaking the idolatries of their fathers,…
children remember--Instead of forsaking the idolatries of their fathers, they keep them up (Jer 7:18). This is given as proof that their sin is "graven upon . . . altars" (Jer 17:1), that is, is not merely temporary. They corrupt their posterity after them. CASTALIO less probably translates, "They remember their altars as (fondly as) they do their children."
groves--rather, "images of Astarte," the goddess of the heavenly hosts, represented as a sacred tree, such as is seen in the Assyrian sculptures (Kg2 21:7; Ch2 24:18). "Image of the grove." The Hebrew for "grove" is Asherah, that is, Assarak, Astarte, or Ashtaroth.
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by the green trees--that is, near them: the sacred trees (idol symbols) of Astarte being placed in the midst of natural trees: "green trees" is thus distinguished from "groves," artificial trees. HENDERSON, to avoid taking the same Hebrew particle in the same sentence differently, "by . . . upon" translates "images of Astarte on the green trees." But it is not probable that images, in the form of a sacred tree, should be hung on trees, rather than near them.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv1–4 JUDAH’S SIN INEFFACEABLY RECORDED, Jer_17:1-4.
JUDAH’S SIN INEFFACEABLY RECORDED, Jer_17:1-4.
1. Sin of Judah — Namely, that very sin set forth in the previous chapter, of which even the Gentiles would become ashamed. Origen and Isidore understood by “Judah,” here, Judas Iscariot!
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Pen of iron — A sharp-pointed iron stylus, or chisel, used for making inscriptions on tables of wood or stone. Exo_32:16; Job_19:24. Of course when this was used it was for the purpose of graving it very deeply, so that it could not be easily effaced.
Point of a diamond — In Eze_3:9, and Eze_7:12, the original of diamond is rendered adamant; in every other place it is translated thorn. The sense here is correctly given. Pliny says the ancients were acquainted with the cutting powers of the diamond.
Table of their heart… horns of your altars — The inward seat of sin and its outward expression. God would have his law written on their hearts, but they had written sin instead. The “altars” here are the idolatrous altars which the Jews had set up to Baalim. True, Josiah had destroyed these; but doubtless many of them had been rebuilt and were now standing as the visible proof of Israel’s idolatry, answering to the writing on their hearts. The change of person — their heart… your altars — is such as is common, especially with Jeremiah, and serves to charge home their guilt more directly and personally.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv1–4 1. a pen of iron] used for making permanent…
1. a pen of iron] used for making permanent marks on a hard surface, e.g. on rocks (Job_19:24).
diamond] as used now by glaziers on account of its extreme hardness. Pliny tells us (Hist. Nat. Jer_37:15) that the ancients were well acquainted with the cutting powers of the diamond, and used to set it in iron. Judah’s guilt is, as it were, indelibly engraved upon their utterly hard hearts.
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the table of their heart] their inward nature. Cp. Pro_3:3; Pro_7:3.
horns] probably metal projections from the corners (Exo_27:2).
your] better read, as in mg. (with LXX) their.
Jer_17:1-4. See introd. summary to section.
The vv. are omitted in LXX, either (as St Jerome suggests) from unwillingness that the lasting condemnation here expressed should be put on permanent record against them, or because a translator’s eye accidentally wandered from the last word of Jer_16:21 to the same (“the Lord”) in Jer_17:5. Jer_17:3 f. are repeated from Jer_15:13 f., where the LXX rendering exists. The passage is doubtless genuine, though the text is difficult and probably not free from corruption.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv1–4 (1) A pen of iron.—i.e., a stylus, or graving…
XVII.
(1) A pen of iron.—i.e., a stylus, or graving tool, as in Job_19:24, chiefly used for engraving in stone or metal. In Psa_45:1 it seems to have been used of the instrument with which the scribe wrote on his tablets.
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With the point of a diamond.—The word expresses the idea of the hardness rather than the brilliancy of the diamond, and is rendered “adamant” in Eze_3:9; Zec_7:12. (For the diamond as a precious stone a different word is used in Exo_28:18.) Strictly speaking, it was applied only to the diamond-point set in iron used by engravers. Such instruments were known to the Romans (Pliny, Hist. Nat. xxxvii. 15), and may have been in use in Phœnicia or Palestine. The words describe a note of infamy that could not be erased, and this was stamped in upon the tablets of the heart (comp. 2Co_3:3), and blazoned upon the “horns of the altars” of their false worship, or of the true worship of Jehovah which they had polluted and rendered false. The plural “altars” points probably to the former.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv1–4 Vers. 1-18 are closely connected with the preceding chapter.…
Vers. 1-18 are closely connected with the preceding chapter. We have just been pointed to the striking contrast between the conduct of the heathen and that of the backsliding men of Judah. The inspired orator"s indignation swells as he thinks of the inveterateness and indelibleness of Judah"s sin (vers. 1-4 are, however, omitted in the Septuagint). Then he passes to a subject immediately suggested by the policy of the court, viz. the true source of safety in dangerous times. Trust in man brings a curse; trust in Jehovah a blessing (vers. 5-13). From this portion of the prophecy we can venture to fix the date of the whole. Ver. 11 is, in fact, a shorter form of the denunciation in Jer_22:13-19, which is directly addressed to Jehoiakim; and the most natural view of vers. 5-10 is to regard them as a warning against the negotiations with Egypt entered into by Jehoiakim after his revolt from Nebuchadnezzar (see Ewald, "History of Israel," 4:261). The emphasis on the deceitfulness of the heart, in ver. 9, is readily intelligible in this connection; it reminds us of the woe pronounced by Isaiah against those who "seek deep to hide their counsel from Jehovah", (Jer_29:15) and which undoubtedly refers to a projected Egyptian alliance.
The sin of Judah, etc. "Judah"s sin" is not merely their tendency to sin, but their sinful practices their idolatry. This is said to be graven upon the table of their heart, for it is no mere form, but carried on with passionate earnestness, and as indelible as if engraved with an iron pen. How unlike, however, is this record to that of which the same expression is used in Job_19:24. With the point of a diamond; or, with a point of adamant . (harder than flint, as Eze_3:9 says) Fragments of adamant, says Pliny ("Hist. Nat.," 37:15), are sought out by engravers and enclosed in iron; they easily overcome every hardness. Upon the horns of your altars. First of all, what altars are referred to? Those erected for the worship of idols or the two in the temple of Jehovah, which had been defiled by idolatry? And why is the sin of Judah said to be engraved upon the horns of the altars? Probably because the "horns," i.e. the projections at the four upper corners (Exo_28:2) were smeared with the blood of the victims. The direction in Exo_29:12 and Lev_4:7 was doubtless not peculiar to the ritual of the Law.
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Ver. 1. Engraved sin.
I SIN LEAVES A RECORD OF ITSELF. It is not an isolated act. It begets consequences plants memories, creates guilt. The record remains even if we do not read it. God still notes it, and will some day confront us with it. Hence it is not enough to amend our ways for the future. We need to have past transgressions blotted out if we are to be restored to peace with God.
II THE RECORD OF SIN IS ENGRAVED ON HEART OF THE SINNER.
1. It is written on the memory. Men who have forsaken the scenes of their evil deeds cannot shake off the clinging burden of the memory of them. The criminal is haunted by his crimes. They people his dreams with horrors; they overshadow his waking hours with gloom. Even when sin is put out of mind it is probably buried in the secret chamber of memory, to be ultimately brought to the light of consciousness. The experience of those who have been recovered from drowning and from delirium suggests the idea that forgotten memories can be revived, and that probably the whole of the soul"s experience is indelibly written upon the memory. No other recording-angel may be wanted. The soul carries its own indictment in the record it bears of its own conduct.
2. This is also written on the affections. Sin begets the passion for sin. Vice springs from the heart, and it corrupts the heart. That which is first committed under the stress of temptation comes at length to be sought with the hunger of a natural appetite.
III THE RECORD OF SIN IS ENGRAVED ON THE ALTAR OF SACRIFICE. Judah desecrated the altar of Jehovah with idolatrous rites. We desecrate Divine things by sinful conduct.
1. We cannot leave our guilt behind us when we enter the temple of worship. If it is not repented of it will vitiate the worship. The sin of the week-day renders worthless the offerings of the Sunday.
2. Sin directly connected with religion is peculiarly wicked. The altar is defiled. Thus the offering of gifts from base motives, deceit, and unholiness in worship, stamps our sins with peculiar guilt on the altar of God.
IV THIS RECORD OF SIN IS NATURALLY INDELIBLE. It is graven with an adamant.
1. It is, therefore, useless to ignorant.
2. It is vain to try to wash it away by any effort of our own.
3. It is foolish to expect peace with God till this terrible hindrance has been removed out of the way.
4. We have every motive to seek in penitence and in faith that God should blot out our sin, not only from his book of remembrance, but also from our hearts, even though it is so deeply written there that nothing short of the creation of a new heart will remove it. (Psa_51:10)
HOMILIES BY A.F. MUIR Vers. 1, 2. Sin"s record.
I THE RECORD IS INEFFACEABLE. This is contrary to the notions of very many. Sin, when it is committed, wears the aspect of insignificance and triflingness. It is the gratification of a momentary impulse, of a personal and individual character; and it is not supposed that any one else, or at any rate any large number of persons, can be affected by it. The sinner supposes that he himself will be able to condone it, and that, when the active prompting of which he is conscious retires into the background, he will be as he was before. All sins, e.g. idolatry, which deeply engage the affections and the highest capacities of men, have a lasting influence upon their character. And when they are systematized into a religion they exert a daily influence which at last fixes itself. But the same is true, in a very serious degree, with all sins. They are contradictions of conscience and the Law of God, and can only be repeated without scruple by inverting and hardening the moral nature. In this sense we are all guilty before God. Our every sin has had its influence upon us, and has left its indelible impress. Conscience stores the guilty memory in its archives; habit perpetuates the evil impulse in conduct; and our relations and associations are involved in the wicked practices which ensue.
II HOW USELESS, THEREFORE, ATTEMPTING TO EXCULPATE OURSELVES! This arrangement, by which sin leaves its impress upon the character and life, is of God. It is a law of nature, and cannot be set aside by private understanding. Even where it appears to be inoperative, its effects are only accumulating themselves in a more hidden manner, and some day they will be the more overwhelming in their manifestation. It is the common question of the sinner, when addressed by the ministers of God, "Wherein have we sinned?" But this only shows a dullness of spiritual self-knowledge and a general lowering of the moral standard. Others are not so oblivious to the fact. They have witnessed the excesses and been involved in the complications of their immorality. In this case the children whose companions had been sacrificed to Moloch looked on the horns of the altars with aversion and loathing. It was a memory of horrid cruelty never to be effaced. There is every reason to believe that the sin we commit does not cease its work when its immediate outward effects take place. An ever deepening and widening circle of influence results. And, just as now it is impossible for us to plead innocence with so many proofs of our guilt staring us in the face, in the great day of judgment the secret sins will be set in the light of God"s countenance, and the thoughts and intents of the heart revealed. Our character will be our condemnation, and many witnesses will rise on every side to swell its testimony.
III HOW NECESSARY, TOO, THAT THE PRINCIPLE OF SALVATION SHOULD BE RADICAL AND THOROUGH. The sinner needs a saving power that can penetrate to his inmost nature, cleansing the conscience, rectifying the character, and making the weaknesses and defects created by sin a means of grace. And this is supplied by the gospel, which furnishes a new motive and principle to the character and a new law to the conduct. So profound is its effect that it may be said by the saved sinner, "Old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new," It is as a character-power that the "cross" asserts its preeminence over every other principle of reformation. There is nothing superficial, partial, or one-sided about it. M.
HOMILIES BY S. CONWAY Ver. 1. "The sin of Judah.
That which the prophet has to say concerning it in this part of his prophecy is in answer to the question of Jer_16:10, Jer_16:11, where Judah inquires what their sin is. In reply, the prophet
I RECITES THEIR INIQUITIES. (Vers. 11, 12)
II DENOUNCES GOD"S JUDGMENTS. (Vers. 13-18)
III CITES WITNESSES AGAINST THEM. C.
HOMILIES BY D. YOUNG Vers. 1-4. The profound impression of Judah"s sin.
I THERE IS IMPLIED JUDAH"S OWN INDIFFERENCE TO ITS SIN. With supernatural clearness of vision, the prophet saw the sin of Judah; and he spoke concerning that sin with words which Jehovah had put into his mouth. And yet it is evident the people would not admit his representations as being correct and as needing urgent attention. The great bulk of them thought that he was inventing or at least exaggerating. They had lived so long amongst evils as to have become quite used to them; nay, more, they made a pleasure and a profit of them. And this is just one of the great difficulties in preaching the gospel and trying to persuade men to repentance. They cannot be brought to see that there is anything to repent of; that, as far as the east is from the west, so far are they from being in a right state.
II Over against this evident indifference there must be set the prophet"s EMPHATIC STATEMENT OF THE HOLD WHICH SIN HAS UPON THE PEOPLE. That we do not see the evil of our life proves one of two things either that there is no evil to see or that we are spiritually blind and cannot see the evil which there is. Now, spiritual blindness has for its usual concomitant spiritual pride; and the man spiritually blind is the very last who will admit that he is so. If we are left to ourselves we shall never discover the original cause and fountain of all our troubles; something outside of ourselves must come in and lead to an altered view of the purposes and possibilities of life. This is not the place to speak of all that is required to produce that alteration of view; but it is very plain that statements such as that of the prophet here must be helpful to produce it. Is it not a great matter for preachers to be able to fall back upon the thorough going, uncompromising statements of the Word of God? For, though these may find no present practical response in the consciousness of the hearer, yet this very failure is a reason for repeating them over and over again, until in some critical hour the faculty is given of seeing ourselves as God sees us, which is a faculty much more to be desired than the one so often commended of seeing ourselves as others see us. Two things are here referred to the inscribing instrument and the substance on which the inscription is made. There is a necessity for both in order to make a deep, abiding, noticeable impression. A pencil may make upon a stone a mark of some sort, but it is a mark very easily rubbed out; a pen of iron may write some great truth upon the sand of the seashore, but one wash of the rising wave sweeps it all away. But when you have the materials for a deep inscription, then something is produced which can only be destroyed by destroying that on which it is written. Little wonder was it that these people of Judah would not face the task of inspecting their hearts. Sin is so intimately mixed with the heart that you cannot get it away save by a process tantamount to the removal of the old inward life and the substitution of a new one. Hence the fitness of the petition, "Create in me a dean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me." But there is something more to show the hold which sin has on these people, and that is the terrible effect upon their children. A great many details might have been heaped up to show the reality of Judah"s idolatry, but one crowning illustration was better still. Not even the most hostile to the prophet could well deny that the force which compelled them to inflict such cruelties on their children in the name of religion was a hideous force. Every evil, in default of ability immediately to see its real nature, must be measured by its worst visible effects. And this is just what the prophet does herd, when he puts in the front of his accusation the sufferings of the little ones of Judah. As if these little ones had not enough of unavoidable rain to suffer, without suffering being sought out for them.
III THE EFFECT OF ALL THIS DEEPLY ROOTED EVIL AS SEEN IN JEHOVAH"S CONSEQUENT INFLICTIONS. (Vers. 3, 4) The people may cry, in professed amazement, "Why all these sufferings? What have we done that we should be treated in this way?" The answer is that all this spoiling, all this turning of the promised inheritance into a place not worth having, all this bitterness of exile, were not produced in some arbitrary, incomprehensible way. The prophet was not astonished at these judgments coming; he saw them approaching, and knew why they came. Great effects always have great and appropriate causes; and great causes, left to operate freely, will produce great and proper effects. Every human heart holds within it enough to make indescribable misery; and unless that greater cause which God offers to put in certain operation comes in with its counteracting force, we may be sure that indescribable misery will be produced. Wherefore let us pray that more and more we may have eyes to see and perceive, ears to hear and understand. Y.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On v1 The sin of Judah is written with a pen…
Jer_17:1
The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron, and with the point of a diamond.
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The deep seated character of sin
I. What is sin? If you ask the Pharisee of old what sin was--Well, he said, it is eating without washing your hands; it is drinking wine without having first of all strained out the gnats, for those insects are unclean, and if you should swallow any of them they will render you defiled. Many in these days have the same notion, with a variation. We have read of a Spanish bandit, who, when he confessed before his father confessor, complained that one sin hung with peculiar weight upon his soul that was of peculiar atrocity. He had stabbed a man on a Friday, and a few drops of the blood of the wound had fallen on his lips, by which he had broken the precepts of holy Church, in having tasted animal food on a fast day. The murder did not seem to arouse in his conscience any feeling of remorse at all--not one atom--he would have done the same tomorrow; but an accidental violation of the canons of mother Church excited all his fears. Singular, indeed, are the ideas which many men have of transgression. But such is not Gods view of sin. Sin is a want of conformity to the will of God; sin is disobedience to Gods command; sin is a forgetfulness of the obligations of the relation which exists between the creature and the Creator. This is the very essence of sin. Injustice to my fellow creature is truly sin, but its essence lies in the fact that it is sin against God, who constituted the relation which I have violated. It is a great and intolerable wrong that, being created by God, we yet refuse to yield to His will. It is right that He who is so good to us should have our love: it is sin that, living upon Gods goodness, we do not return to Him our hearts affection. It is right that, being sustained by Divine beneficence from day to day, we should give to Him constant thankfulness; but, being so sustained, we do not thank Him, and herein lies the very soul of sin. Now, in the light of this truth, let me ask the believer to humble himself very greatly on account of sin. That I have not loved my God with all my heart; that I have not trusted Him with all my confidence; that I have not given to Him the glory due unto His name; that I have not acted as a creature should do, much less as a new creature is bound to do; that, receiving priceless mercies, I have made so small a return--let me confess this in dust and ashes, and then bless the name of the Atoner who, by His precious blood, hath put even this away, so that it shall not be mentioned against us any more forever.
II. How is the fixedness of sin which is declared in the text proved? The prophet tells us that mans sinfulness is as much fixed in him as an inscription carved with an iron pen in granite. How is this fixedness proved? It is proved in two ways in the text, namely, that it is graven upon the table of their heart, and secondly, upon the horns of their altar. It clearly proves how deeply evil is fixed in man, when we reflect that sin is in the very heart of man. When a sin becomes intertwisted with the roots of the affections, you cannot uproot it; when the leprosy eats deep into the heart of humanity, who can expel it? It becomes henceforth a hopeless case, so far as human power is concerned. Since sin reigns and rules in mans affections, it is deep ingrained indeed. The second proof the prophet gives of the infixedness of human sin is, that it was written on the horns of their altars. These people sinned by setting up idols and departing from Jehovah: we sin in quite another way. When you get the unconverted man to be religious--which is a very easy thing--what form does the religion take? Frequently he prefers that which most gratifies his taste, his ears, or his sight. If your heart is touched, that is the worship of God; if your heart is drawn to God, that is the service of God; but if it is the mere ringing of the words, and the falling of the periods, and the cadence of the voice that you regard, why, you do not worship God, but on the very horns of your altars are your sins. You are bringing a delight of your own sensuous faculties and putting that in the place of true faith and love, and then saying to your soul, I have pleased God, whereas you have only pleased yourself. When men become serious in religion, and look somewhat to the inward, they then defile the Lords altar by relying upon their own righteousness. Man is much like a silkworm, he is a spinner and weaver by nature. A robe of righteousness is wrought out for him, but he will not have it; he will spin for himself, and like the silkworm, he spins, and spins, and he only spins himself a shroud. All the righteousness that a sinner can make will only be a shroud in which to wrap up his soul, his destroyed soul, for God will cast him away who relies upon the works of the law. In other ways men stain the horns of their altars. Some do it by carelessness. Those lips must be depraved indeed which even in prayer and praise still continue to sin. The horns of our altars are defiled by hypocrisy. You may have seen two fencers practising their art, and noticed how they seem to be seeking each others death; how they strike and thrust as though they were earnestly contending for life; but after the show is over, they sit down and shake hands, and are good friends. Often so it is in your prayers and confessions; you will acknowledge your sins, and profess to hate them, and make resolutions against them, but it is all outward show--fencing, not real fighting--and when the fencing bout is over, the soul shakes hands with its old enemy, and returns to its former ways of sin. Oh, this foul hypocrisy is a staining of the horns of the altar with a vengeance!
III. What is the cause of this? First, we must never forget the fall. We are none of us today as God made us. The human judgment is out of balance, it uses false weights and false measures. It puts darkness for light and light for darkness. The human will is no longer supple, as it should be, to the Divine will; our neck is naturally as an iron sinew, and will not bow to Jehovahs golden sceptre. Our affections also are twisted away from their right bent. Whereas we ought to have been seeking after Jesus, and casting out the tendrils of our affections towards Him, we cling to anything but the right, and climb upon anything but the true. The whole head is sick, and the whole heart is faint. Human nature is like a magnificent temple all in ruins. In addition, however, to our natural depravity, there come in, in the second place, our habits of sin. Well may sin be deeply engraven in the man who has for twenty, forty, fifty, or perhaps seventy years, continued in his iniquity. Put the wool into the scarlet dye, and if it lie there but a week, the colour will be so ingrained in the fabric that you cannot get it out; but if you keep it there for so many years, how shall you possibly be able to bleach it? You must recollect, in addition to this, that sin is a most clinging and defiling thing. Who does not know that if a man sins once, it is much easier to sin that way the next time, nay, that he is much more inclinable towards that sin? I may add that the prince of the power of the air, the evil spirit, takes care, so far as he can, to add to all this. He chimes in with every suggestion of fallen nature. He will never let the tinder lie idle for want of sparks, nor the ground lie waste for want of the seeds of thorns and thistles.
IV. What is the cure for all this? Sin thus stamped into us, thus ingrained into our nature, can it ever be got out? It must be got out, or we cannot enter heaven, for there shall by no means enter within those pearly gates anything that defileth. We must be cleansed and purified, but how can it be done? It can only be done by supernatural process. Your only help lies in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who became the Son of Man that He might lift the sons of men up from their natural degradation and ruin. How does Jesus Christ then take away these deeply-inscribed lines of sin from human nature? I answer, He does it first in this way. If our heart be like granite, and sin be written on it, Christs ready method is to take that heart away. A new heart also will I give you, and a right spirit will I put within you. Next to that, inasmuch as the guiltiness of sin is as permanent as sin itself, Jesus Christ is able to take our guilt away. His dying upon the Cross is the means by which the blackest sinner out of hell can be made white as the angels of God, and that, too, in a single instant. The Holy Spirit also comes in: the new nature being given and sin being forgiven, the Holy Ghost comes and dwells in us, as a Prince in his palace, as a God in his temple. Do I hear any say, Then, I would to God that I may experience the Divine process--the new nature given, which is regeneration, the washing away of sin, which constitutes pardon and justification, and the indwelling of the Holy Ghost, which insures final perseverance and complete sanctification. Oh, how can I have these precious things? Thou mayst have them, whoever thou mayst be, by simply believing in Jesus. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The iron pen recording sins
When Bishop Latimer was on trial for his life, a trial which ended in his being burned at the stake, he at first answered without duly considering how much a single unguarded word might cost him. Presently he heard the pen of a secretary, who was seated behind the tapestry, taking down every expression which fell from his lips. It would be well for us all to remember that there is a pen now recording behind the curtain of the skies, our every evil deed and word and thought and that for all these things God will bring us into judgment. The iron pen suggests two thoughts.
1. The record which it makes is deep and indelible. So, also, with the items which are filling up page after page in the book of Gods remembrance. A wealthy English landlord was once guilty of an act of tyrannical injustice to a poor, helpless widow, who rented a small cottage from him. The widows son, whose blood boiled with indignation when he witnessed this, grew up to be a distinguished painter, and he portrayed the scene, and placed it where the eye of the cruel landlord must rest upon it. When the hard-hearted oppressor saw it, he turned pale, and trembled, and offered any sum for it, that the terrible picture might be destroyed.
2. The iron pen with its diamond point does not wear out. Be the record of ones sins as long as it may, that record will assuredly be made. It is a moment of profound interest in the life of an antiquarian, when he drags forth from the sands of Egypt some ancient obelisk, on which the iron pen has engraved, so many ages ago, the portraits of those who, in the shadowy past, acted their part on the crowded theatre of a bustling world. This, however, is as nothing, compared with the disclosures of that day, when, from the stillness and silence of the grave, shall be brought out into the dazzling light of noon, tablets covered with the sculptured history of the soul; a history which no power nor skill can then erase. And thus the prophet would teach us, by the striking figure of the iron pen with its diamond point, that sin is no trifling thing; that one single violation of the Divine law does not pass unnoticed; and that they who die with the guilt of sins unrepented of, and unpardoned, resting on their souls, have nothing to expect but the outpouring of Gods terrible wrath. Vainly do we apologise for our shortcomings, on the ground of our natural bias to sin; or that the power of temptation proved too strong for us to resist. Forewarned, we ought to have been forearmed. Alas! who can contemplate his own sins against light and knowledge, against the strivings of conscience and the earnest pleadings of the Holy Spirit; who can count up his broken vows, and his contradictions of solemn confessions before God, and not tremble at the thought of the black catalogue which the iron pen has been writing down against him! When the great plague raged in London, in 1666, it was common to write over every infected house, Lord, have mercy upon us! Should the same inscription now be made over every abode where the plague of sin has entered, which of our habitations would not require to be thus labelled? (J. N. Norton, D. D.)
The inward registrar
Manton says: If conscience speaketh not, it writeth; for it is not only a witness, but a register, and a book of record: The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron, and the point of a diamond (Jer_17:1). We know not what conscience writeth, being occupied and taken up with carnal vanities, but we shall know hereafter, when the books are opened (Rev_20:12). Conscience keepeth a diary, and sets down everything. This book, though it be in the sinners keeping, cannot be razed and blotted out. Well, then, a sleepy conscience will not always sleep; if we suffer it not to awaken here, it will awaken in hell; for the present it sleepeth in many, in regard of motion, check, or smiting, but not in regard of notice and observation. Let those who forget their sins take note of this. There is a chiel within you taking notes, and he will publish all where all will hear it. Never say, nobody will see me, for you will see yourself, and your conscience will turn kings evidence against you. What a volume Mr. Recorder Conscience has written already! How many blotted pages he has in store, to be produced upon my trial. O Thou who alone canst erase this dreadful handwriting, look on me in mercy, as I now look on Thee by faith. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Sin ineradicable
The mind of man has been compared to a white sheet of paper. Now it is like a white sheet of paper in this, that whatever we write upon it, whether with distinct purpose or no, nay, every drop of ink we let fall upon it, makes an abiding mark, a mark which we cannot rub out, without much injury to the paper; unless, indeed, the mark has been very slight from the first, and we set about erasing it while it is fresh. In one of the grandest tragedies of our great English poet, there is a scene which, when one reads it, is enough to make ones blood run cold. A woman, whose husband had made himself King of Scotland by means of several murders, and who had been the prompter and partner of his crimes, is brought in, while in her sleep, and continually rubbing her hands, as though she were washing them, crying ever and anon, Yet heres a spot . . . What! will these hands neer be clean?. . .heres the smell of blood still: all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand. In these words there is an awful power of truth. We can stain our souls; we can dye them, and double dye them, and triple dye them; we can dye them all the colours of halls rainbow; but we cannot wash them white. All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten them, all the fountains of the great deep will not wash one little spot out of them. The usurping Queen of Scotland had been guilty of murder; and the stain of blood, it has been very generally believed, cannot be washed out. But it is not the stain of blood alone; every stain soils the soul; and none of them can be washed out. Every little speck of ink eats into the paper; every sin, however small we may deem it, eats into the soul. If we try to write over it, we make a deeper blot; if we try to scratch it out, the next letters which we write on the spot are blurred. Therefore is it of such vast importance that we should be very careful of what we write. In the tragedy which I was quoting just now, the queen says, Whats done cannot be undone. This amounts to the same thing as what I have written, in the sense in which I am now calling upon you to consider these words. Whats done cannot be undone. You know that this is true. You know you cannot push back the wheels of time, and make yesterday come again, so as to do over afresh what you did wrongly then. That which you did yesterday, yesterday will keep: you cannot change it; you cannot make it less or greater; if it was crooked, you cannot make it straight. You cannot turn back the leaves in the book of life, and read the lesson you have grabbed over again. That which you have written, you have written: that which you have done, you have done; and you cannot unwrite or undo it. (J. C. Hare.)
Sin leaves its marks
Even pardoned sins must leave a trace in heavy self-reproach. You have heard of the child whose father told him that whenever he did anything wrong a nail should be driven into a post, and when he did what was good he might pull one out. There were a great many nails driven into the post, but the child tried very hard to get the post cleared of the nails by striving to do right. At length he was so successful in his struggles with himself that the last nail was drawn out of the post. The father was just about to praise the child, when, stooping down to kiss him, he was startled to see tears fast rolling down his face. Why, my boy, why do you cry? Are not all the nails gone from the post? Oh yes! the nails are all gone, but the marks are left. That is a familiar illustration, but dont despise it because of that. It illustrates the experience of many a grey old sire, who, looking upon the traces of his old sins, as they yet rankle in his conscience, would give a hundred worlds to live himself back into young manhood, that he might obliterate the searing imprint of its follies. Have you never heard of fossil rain? In the stratum of the old red sandstone there are to be seen the marks of showers of rain which fell centuries and centuries ago, and they are so plain and perfect that they clearly indicate the way the wind was drifting, and in what direction the tempest slanted from the sky. So may the tracks of youthful sins be traced upon the tablet of the life when it has merged into old age,--tracks which it is bitter and sad remorse to look upon, and which call forth many a bootless longing for the days and months which are past. (A. Mursell.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On v1 CRITICAL AND EXEGETICAL NOTES.—1. Chronology of the Chapter. Jer_17:1-18…
CRITICAL AND EXEGETICAL NOTES.—1. Chronology of the Chapter. Jer_17:1-18 continue the prophecy of chap. 16. A distinct break in the continuity of the book is noticeable at Jer_17:19. [Keil seems alone in suggesting that this section “may very well be joined with the preceding general reflections as to the springs of mischief and of well-being; inasmuch as it shows how the way of safety appointed to the people lies in keeping the decalogue, as exemplified in one of its fundamental precepts.” This is so far true, but is not sufficient to decide the connection with the antecedent prophecy when this section, Jer_17:19-27, stands out so manifestly distinct and complete in itself.] At what date must this section, 19–27, be placed? Plainly, before the guilty relapse under Jehoiakim; for the tone of the message is not condemnatory: It is, as Dr. Payne Smith says, “dissuasive of future neglect” rather than objurgatory’ of past misconduct. Henderson suggests Josiah’s reign, “delivered in connection with and shortly after his reformation.” Hitzig assigns it to the period of Jeconiah, or that immediately following Jehoiakim’s death. But Eichorn, Rosenmüller, Maurer, Naegelsbach, Payne Smith, and Jamieson agree that its deliverance was at the outset of Jehoiakim’s reign, before he began the evil course by which he undid the good effected by Josiah’s reformation. Its similarity to chap. Jer_22:1-5 makes it probable that the two messages were contemporaneous, and this latter was doubtless delivered in Jehoiakim’s reign also. Usher assigns Jer_17:1-18 to B.C. 605; and Jer_17:19-27 to B.C. 600. Hales: B.C. 601 and 599 respectively. (See Chronological Note of chap. 7)
For 2. Contemporary Scriptures; 3. National Affairs; 4. Contemporaneous History, see also Notes on chap. 7.
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5. Geographical References.—Jer_17:3. “My mountain (Jerusalem) in the field:” the surrounding country. Jer_17:6. A salt land (see Deu_29:23; comp. Job_39:6, Psa_107:34). Salt regions suggest, as a figure, total want of the means of life. Jer_17:19. “Gate of the children of the people:” described further as that “whereby the kings of Judah come in:” most probably the Gate of David, now called the Joppa Gate. Denominated the People’s Gate, as being the principle thoroughfare for the tribes coming from the south, south-west, and north-west. Jer_17:26. “Cities of Judah:” that part of the country bordering on Jerusalem. “Land of Benjamin:” the northern province of Judah, and south of Ephraim. “The plain:” the low country between Joppa and Gaza (Jos_9:1; Jos_12:8; Jos_15:21; Jos_15:33). The mountains: the hill country of Judea (Jos_15:48 sq.) “South:” southern district of Judah. “The verse is interesting,” says Dr. Payne Smith, “as specifying the exact limits of the dominions of the Davidic kings, now confined to Judah and Benjamin. These two tribes are divided, according to their physical conformation, into the Shefêlah, or low country, lying between the mountains and the Mediterranean; the mountains, which formed the central region, extending to the wilderness of Judah, on the Dead Sea; and the Negeb, or arid region, which lay to the south of Judah.”
6. Personal Allusions.—Jer_17:5. “Cursed be the man that trusteth in man.” Many commentators find here reference to the perfidious character and tyrannical conduct of Jehoiakim. So also Maurer recognises in Jer_17:9 an allusion to Jehoiakim’s cupidity.
7. Natural History.—Jer_17:6. “Heath in the desert:” עַרְעָר is generally accepted as describing the juniper tree, which (says Henderson) is found in the vicinity of the Arabah, or the Great Valley to the south of the Dead Sea, and doubtless the same “desert” which Jeremiah here calls הָעֲרָבָּה; the image, therefore, being a solitary juniper in an arid desert. Pliny says that the “heath” was one of the plants excluded from religious uses, because it is neither sown nor planted, and has neither fruit nor seed. (See Lit. Crit. below on “Heath”). Jer_17:11. “Partridge sitteth on eggs:” קירֵא; the Arabs apply this name, Korea, to a bustard. It is not true of the partridge that she stole the eggs of other birds and hatched them as her own; but the ancients believed she did. Henderson cites in proof EPIPHAN. Physiol, cap. ix.; ISID. Origg. ii. 7. But Jamieson urges that “it is not needful to make Scripture allude to an exploded notion as if it were true,” and therefore states that the name “Korea,” from a root, to call, alluding to its cry, is now applied to a bustard—heavy birds of slow flight, like the ostrich.
8. Manners and Customs.—Jer_17:1. “Pen of Iron:” (See Note on chap. Jer_8:8, under Manners and Customs. Comp. Job_19:24, Psa_45:1, Isa_8:1.) The iron stylus was used only for writing or carving letters in a hard material. “Point of a diamond:” indicating the very hardest substance on which the graving was wrought. “Upon the horns of your altars:” the names of the gods, to whom sacrifices were devoted, were inscribed on the horns of the altars (comp. Act_17:23). Jer_17:2. “Altars and groves,” &c. (comp. Note in loc. chap. Jer_2:20). Groves should be Asherahs, in all probability images of Astarte, the goddess of the heavenly hosts, represented under the imagery of a “tree.” Jer_17:3. High places:” on which it was their custom to erect idolatrous altars. Jer_17:21. “Bear no burden on the Sabbath day:” Probabilities are that the country people brought their agricultural produce into Jerusalem with them when they came ostensibly to worship on the Sabbath; and that the residents of Jerusalem “carried forth burdens out of their houses” (Jer_17:22), i.e., took their wares to the city gates, and bartered or exchangea with the villagers for their goods (comp. Neh_13:15-22).
9. Literary Criticisms.—Jer_17:1-4 are omitted by the LXX., and Bleek coincides in their omission; but all the other Greek versions and authorities retain the verses. Jer_17:2. “Groves by the green trees:” instead of “by” read “upon.” The sense seems to require under; but the LXX. have ἐπί. Jer_17:3. “Thy high places for sin:” Text obscure here: Ewald recalls the similar phrase in chap. Jer_15:13, and renders, without price for thy sins. The reading may however be, “I will give thy substance, all thy treasures, and thy high places to the spoil on account of (for) sin throughout (committed throughout) all thy borders.” Jer_17:4. “And thou, even thyself:” וּבְךָ Lit., even with thyself, i.e., with thy bare life; or (Henderson) and through thee, by means of thine own wickedness; or (Jamieson) owing to thyself, by thy own fault; or (Vulgate) and that with thyself, alone. Jer_17:6. “Heath:” עַרְעָר. The word in the same form appears in Psa_102:17, destitute. Like a destitute man; and Speaker’s Com. insists that the verbs, he shall see (or fear), and shall inhabit, plainly show that a man is here meant, and not a plant. But surely the “heath” is not the nominative of these verbs? Rather the man (Jer_17:5) of whom Jer_17:6 recounts, “He shall be like the heath,” &c. There is in this verse a contrast of the solitary pining juniper tree [see Natural History above] and “the tree planted by the waters” (Jer_17:8). Jer_17:9. “Deceitful:” עָקֹב, from עָקַב, to lie in wait for, trip, act insidiously—the word from which Jacob took his name. “Desperately wicked:” wofully sick (Jer_17:16): אָנֻשׁ, incurable, malignant, desperate. Mentally sick, as in chap. Jer_15:18. Jer_17:11. “Sitteth on eggs and hatcheth them not:” Lit., gathereth young which she hath not brought forth. Jer_17:12. “A glorious high throne,” &c. Most probably this verse should read on continuously with the next, thus: “Thou throne of glory, on High from the beginning; thou place of our sanctuary, thou hope of Israel, the Lord! So Ewald, Graf, Keil, Payne Smith. Jer_17:16. “Not hastened:” i.e., sought to escape. “From being a pastor;” Hitzig and Graf: “from following lovingly after thee.” Umbreit reads: “I have not forced myself forward to follow Thee as a shepherd.” But Speaker’s Com. gives, From being a shepherd (see on. Jer_2:8, ruler) after thee; i.e., as one invested with authority by God to guide and direct the political course of the nation. Naegelsbach thinks Jeremiah means he was literally a pastor, a shepherd lad tending his flock when God called him, and pleads that priests had pasture land (comp. Joshua 21 and 1 Chronicles 6) intended expressly for the cattle (Num_35:4), and Anathoth had its pasture (Jos_21:18). But Henderson and Wordsworth suggest: I have not hastened away, or backward, from being a shepherd. Jer_17:21. “Take heed to yourselves:” in your souls, i.e., conscientiously. Naegelsbach: “Care with foresight for your souls.” Jer_17:25. “This city shall remain for ever:” be inhabited; not mere continuance, but populousness.
HOMILETIC OUTLINES ON SECTIONS OF CHAPTER 17
Section
Jer_17:1-4.
Judah’s guilt flagrantly manifest.
Section
Jer_17:5-11.
Spiritual corruption traced to its root-causes.
Section
Jer_17:12-18.
Safety and vindication sought in God.
Section
Jer_17:19-27.
Exhortation to hallow the Sabbath.
Section 1–4.—JUDAH’S GUILT FLAGRANTLY MANIFEST
The denial of having sinned against Jehovah (Jer_16:10) must mean that the fact of idolatry is by them denied. Against such a bold and shameless assertion, the prophet rises here with visibly increasing indignation. He says that—
I. Judah’s sin is forcibly certified, and, as it were, recorded in the archives.
1. In their own consciences; in which the memory of their idolatrous abominations is fixed like an ineffaceable brand. And—
2. Externally, on the horns of the altars, where the blood of the slaughtered children adheres as an equally ineffaceable memorial (Jer_17:1).
II. Judah’s sin is inerradicably remembered. While the two testimonies (in their own consciences and on the horns of the altars) were deep and inextinguishable to them, the actors present at their idolatrous barbarities, it was also true that—
1. Their children would never lose the impression of that horrible cult which had snatched so many from their midst. The horror of the sight of those frightful holocausts would remain unforgetable.
2. So deep was this impression, that the mere sight of green trees and high hills was sufficient to refresh the revolting memory continually (Jer_17:2).
III. Judah’s sin therefore would be severely punished. On the basis of the facts thus certified, the prophet—
1. Repeats the announcement of the Divine punishments. These will consist in (a) plunder of substance; (b) desolation of the land, according to the analogy of the year of release; and (c) deportation into an unknown land (Jer_17:3-4).
2. Bewails the desolations which Judah must endure. A cry of grief escapes the prophet’s lips as he describes the ravages with which Judah’s crimes will be punished. “Oh my mountain in the field!” His patriotic soul bemoans the catastrophe which sin invokes. (Comp. Naegelsbach in Lange.)
The people had asked (Jer_16:10), What is our iniquity, and what is our sin? Here we have a reply to their challenge.
I. The indictment is fully proved. Both the fact and the fault. Their sin is too plain to be denied, and too bad to be excused.
1. They cannot plead not guilty, for their sins are upon record in the book of God’s omniscience and their own conscience; nay, they are obvious to the eye and observation of the world (Jer_17:1-2).
(a.) They are written before God, and in most legible and indelible characters, and sealed among His treasures, never to be forgotten (Deu_32:34).
(b.) What is so written will never be worn out by time. “With a pen of iron,” &c. “Graven in the rock for ever.” Sin is never forgotten till it is forgiven. It is “graven on the heart,” and though covered for a time, cannot be rubbed out, and will be produced in evidence when the books shall be opened. If they will not own the conviction of their consciences, then the horns of their altars will witness against them. And their own “children” shall be witness against them: “they remember the altars and the groves” to which their parents took them when they were little (Jer_17:2).
2. They cannot plead that they repent, or are come to a better mind. For as their guilt is undeniable, so their inclination to sin is invincible and incurable. In this sense many understand Jer_17:1-2.
(a.) Their sin is deeply engraven in their hearts. It is inwrought into their very natures; and is as dear to them as that is of which we say, It is engraven on our hearts!
(b.) They had pledged themselves to their idols; bound themselves as “with cords to the horns of their altars;” and given up their names to their idols.
(c.) They remember their idolatries with affection. For Jer_17:3 may be rendered thus: As they remember their children, so remember they their altars and their groves—they are fond of them, and loth to part with them, as men with their children.
II. The judgment is affirmed and the sentence ratified. Inasmuch as they were thus wedded to their sins and will not part with them—
1. They shall be made to part with their treasures (Jer_17:3). Both the stores of the city and the products of the country will be seized by the Chaldeans. Justly are men stripped of that with which they have served their idols, and made the food and fuel of their lusts. What we make for a sin (Jer_17:3), God will make for a spoil.
2. They shall be made to part with their inheritance (Jer_17:4).
(a.) God owns it was their “heritage,” and that He gave it them. It was an aggravation of their folly in throwing themselves out of the possession of it.
(b.) Their discontinuance in occupancy of the land should give it rest. The word here used, discontinue, is the word used in the appointment (Exo_23:11) that the laud should rest one year in seven. They did not observe that law, and now God would compel them to let it rest. But it should be no rest to them, for “they should serve their enemies in a land they knew not.”
Observe (i.) Sin works a discontinuance of our comforts; deprives us of the enjoyment of that which God has given us.
Observe (ii.) A discontinuance of the possession is not a defeasance of the right. It is intimated that upon their repentance they should recover possession again.—M. Henry.
Section 5–11.—SPIRITUAL CORRUPTION TRACED TO ITS ROOT-CAUSES
All this outward perfidy and prostitution are but manifestations of inward and spiritual apostasy. The whole affections and dispositions of the soul have gone astray from God, and therefore their moral conduct has become degraded, and their religious behaviour disloyal. This section delineates three radical defects, and to each is attached its corresponding and appropriate judgment.
I. A perverse disposition.
1. Its action. It rests not in Jehovah, but regards flesh as its better confidence, seeking in man the spring and supply of good (Jer_17:5).
2. Its judgment. The forlorn and deserted picture of Jer_17:6 supplies an idea of the consequences of deserting God. This desolate result is further emphasised by the contrast presented in Jer_17:7-8.
II. Perfidiousness of heart. Total faithlessness, and illimitable trickery.
1. The depths of its deceptiveness human thought fails to reckon (Jer_17:9).
2. God’s reckoning and punishment will rest upon His complete knowledge of the heart’s wickedness (Jer_17:10).
III. Impetuous avarice.—Jer_17:11.
1. It cruelly, acquires that for which it restlessly craves. Seizes as its own the treasures of others.
2. It forcibly relinquishes the spoil it has violently seized. Brief years are threatened, and a fool’s end.
Section 12–18.—SAFETY AND VINDICATION SOUGHT IN GOD
Here the prophet turns from the corruption of his people, saddened and sickened at heart, to meditate on his God and his personal safety in Him. This was the realisation of the Psalmist’s prayer: “When my heart is overwhelmed, lead me to the Rock that is higher than I.” Then there arise before his contemplation—
I. Majestic guarantees for the godly soul.—Jer_17:12-13. He apostrophises God. [See Lit. Crit. on verse.]
1. He celebrates the power and glory of God. “Thou Throne,” symbol of royal power and supreme sway. “Throne of Glory,” language expressive of highest majesty, surpassing all powers, most glorious in royalty, dominion, and dignity.
2. The eternal excellency of God. “On high from the beginning.” Exalted on high, since loftiest glory is His; yet also highest in excellency; for who in grace and glory can be compared to God? And “from the beginning”—“or ever Thou hadst formed the earth and the world,” or from the outset of Israel’s national existence, God has been supreme; supreme in personal majesty, supreme as Israel’s Lord.
3. The devout soul’s hiding-place. “Thou place of our sanctuary”—for security, rest, reverence, and bliss.
4. Israel’s covenanted Hope. “O Jehovah!” name of God in which He is pledged to His people. “The Hope of Israel;” never having failed them through all their past history. Their enduring Hope, notwithstanding all they have done to alienate Thee. Their sole Hope, for, losing Thee, what have they left? Their future Hope; for after mournful desertion of Thee, they will return to the Lord as their “everlasting strength.”
5. The living spring of refreshing. “Fountain of living waters.” (See Notes on chaps. Jer_2:13, Jer_9:1.)
Thereupon Jeremiah utters his assertion, that forsaking Him will eventuate in shame while they live, and contemptuous oblivion as the end!
II. Fearless appropriation of Divine graciousness.—Jer_17:14-18. Jeremiah lays his claim to all that he knows God to be. Treasures of grace are valueless s far as we are concerned, unless they become ours. The prophet appeals to God for—
1. Present tranquillity and safety (Jer_17:14). This appeal for healing suggests the troubled and aggrieved state of his spirit (Psa_6:3; Psa_30:3). For salvation; that his life was encompassed with perils—from scorners and unbelievers, who rejected his word and his claim to prophetic mission. He bases his appeal on what God was to him—“my praise:” he had boasted in God, and had occasion to rejoice in God; and more, Jehovah had delighted him with favours, and distinguished him with honours as His servant.
2. Official vindication. He was ridiculed (Jer_17:15). He had been faithful (Jer_17:16). God was his witness—“Thou knowest;” and that guaranteed that God would make others know the verity of the words he had spoken in God’s name.
3. Future refuge. A “day of evil” was coming; full of “terror” to evil-doers (Jer_17:17). But in that evil time God would discriminate between the persecutors and the persecuted, confounding them but sheltering the prophet; and God would fulfil His predictions in their complete destruction. Refutation of his foes, refuge for himself.
“Double destruction;” i.e., sharing in the national ruin which was impending and suffering for their sin in persecuting and deriding God’s messenger.
Section 19–27.—EXHORTATIONS TO HALLOW THE SABBATH
A sermon which the prophet received from the Lord, and was ordered to deliver in the most solemn and public manner—proclaimed in all the places of concourse, “the gates.” First at the court-gate, whereby “the kings of Judah” enter: let them be told their duty first, and particularly this duty. Then also in all the gates of Jerusalem, as being a matter of great and general concern.
I. How the Sabbath is to be sanctified, and what is the law concerning it.
1. They must rest from their worldly employ. “Bear no burdens” into the city, nor carry any out of their houses.
2. They must apply themselves to the proper business of the day. “Hallow ye the Sabbath-day,” &c. (Jer_17:22). Consecrate it to the service of God.
3. They must herein be very circumspect. “Take heed to yourselves” (Jer_17:20). Where God is jealous, we must be cautious.
4. They must observe the statute made and provided. This was no new imposition, but what “I commanded your fathers.”
II. How the Sabbath had been profaned—Jer_17:23. Their fathers’ disobedience in this respect is mentioned to show—
1. That there needed a reformation in Sabbath conduct.
2. That God had a just controversy with them, for the long transgression of this law.
3. And because they disregarded this law with the intent to evade all instruction on other commands. Where Sabbaths are neglected, all religion sensibly goes to decay.
III. With what blessings God would reward Sabbath sanctification. Though their fathers had been guilty of its desecration, yet if (Jer_17:24) they would make conscience of Sabbath sanctification—
1. The court shall flourish (Jer_17:25). The honour of the government is the joy of the kingdom; and the support of religion would contribute greatly to both.
2. The city shall flourish (Jer_17:25). “This city shall remain for ever.” Whatever supports religion tends to establish the civil interests of a land.
3. The country shall flourish (Jer_17:26). The cities of Judah and the land of Benjamin shall be replenished with inhabitants, abounding in plenty and living in peace, which shall appear in the multitude and value of their offerings to God. By this the flourishing of a country may be judged of: What does it for the honour of God?
4. The church shall flourish (Jer_17:24). “Meat offerings,” &c. Everything shall go in the right channel.
V. With what judgments God would punish Sabbath profanation.—Jer_17:27.
1. The enemy would besiege their city, “kindle a fire in the gates.” And justly shall those gates be fired that are not used to shut out sin, and to keep the people in to an attendance on their duty.
2. The fire should destroy their palaces—where the princes and nobles dwell; who did not use their power and interest, as they ought to have done, to keep up the honour of God’s Sabbaths.
3. The fire shall not be quenched, until it has laid the whole city in ruins. Fulfilled by the army of the Chaldeans (chap. Jer_52:13). The profanation of the Sabbath is a sin for which God has often contended with a people by fire.—Comp. M. Henry.
HOMILIES AND COMMENTS ON VERSES OF CHAPTER 17
Jer_17:1. Theme: SINS HOLD ON THE INMOST MAN. “It is graven upon the table of their heart.”
Suggestions:—
i. Sin indelibly impresses itself upon sinners. Its mark is deep. Its influence is not superficial or evanescent, but ineffaceable and perpetual.
ii. Sin had become inwrought into their affections. Worked into the very texture of the heart.
iii. Hid in the deepest secrecy of their being. The heart is a profound hiding-place. It is the citadel and secret chamber of the entire man.
iv. It cannot be ignored in their own consciousness. Every movement—affection and action—of the heart would make the presence therein of sin evident. It would testify its presence by the force of feeling.
v. Cannot be erased by their own efforts. If sin was ever to be removed, “a new heart” must be given. And only God can “create in us a clean heart.”
See Addenda: INDELIBLE RECORDS OF SIN.
Theme: THE DEEP-SEATED CHARACTER OF SIN. The hardness of Judah’s heart is repeated in the stubbornness of barbarian, Roman, Greek, Scythian; seen indeed in ourselves.
I. Answer the question, What is sin? Always hearing about it, from preacher; and reading about it, in every Scripture page. What is it?
Pharisee says: “It is eating with un-washen hands,” &c. But to break some of the commandments, especially the ecclesiastical commandments, of men, may be virtuous, and indicate enlightenment!
Sin is the repudiation of our obligations to God. “Against Thee have I sinned.”
II. How is the fixedness of sin proved?
1. It is in the very heart of man. Deep ingrained.
2. They sinned in their very religion. “On the horns of their altars.” Converted men frequently prefer the form of religion most gratifying to their tastes, ears, and sight. Or they stain the horns of God’s altars by their own righteousness, by carelessness, by vain thoughts, by hypocrisy,—as Demas and Judas.
III. What is the cause of this? How did sin get such a firm footing in humanity? The answer is—
1. We must never forget the Fall. We are none of us as God made us. “We are born in sin,” &c.
2. Our habits of sin. Well may sin be deeply engraven in the man who has continued in his iniquity for twenty, forty, perhaps seventy years. “Can the Ethiopian change,” &c. Use is second nature.
3. Sin is a most clinging and defiling thing. One license renders us easily enslaved.
4. The prince of the powers of darkness allies himself with sin. He will never let the tinder lie idle for want of sparks.
IV. What is the cure for all this? Can sin, thus ingrained, ever be got out? It must be got out if we are ever to enter heaven. Only done by supernatural processes.
1. Christ Jesus does take away these deeply-inscribed lines of sin from human nature. It is part of the covenant of grace and part of His Gospel that Jesus can give to us hearts free from tendency to sin.
2. And since the guiltiness of sin is as permanent as sin itself, Jesus Christ is able to take our guilt away. “The blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth us from all sin.” And the vilest sinner may be “made partakers of the Divine nature, having escaped the corruption which is in the world through lust.”—Spurgeon: “Metropolitan Pulpit,” No. 812.
Jer_17:2. Theme: OUR CHILDREN’S RECOLLECTION OF OUR SIN. “Whilst their children remember their altars,” &c.
Probably we here have—
i. An allusion to their sacrifice of children to Molech.
ii. The horrors of such blood-stained rites would be for ever engraven upon the memory of any who were present to witness them.
I. Our evil deeds vividly impress our children.
II. Fixed upon their memory, our children may keep alive recollections we fain would obliterate.
III. Parental sins will reappear in our children’s lives. The horrid ghosts of our old iniquities resuscitated!
IV. Remembrancers of old iniquities crowd around our life. We may shun suggestive scenes that bring up dark memories, but our “children remember the groves,” &c., and will point them out to us. We cannot clear the world of these accusers.
V. Children may thus become witnesses against us.
1. By their inability to forget what we would gladly consign to oblivion;
2. By their reproduction of our evil habits, continuing the wicked ways they learned from us; and
3. Before God in the last day of account, when we, and our children with us, stand in the judgment.
Jer_17:3-4. See note in Geog. References; also Lit. Crit. on these verses; also Homilies and Comments on chap. Jer_15:13-14.
Comments—“My mountain in the field:” Jerusalem or Zion; called “the Rock of the plain” in chap. Jer_21:13, and “Mountain of Jehovah,” Mic_4:2.
“Being the place which Jehovah had chosen as the residence of His visible glory, He claims it as His; just as He frequently calls it ‘My holy mountain’ (Isa_11:9; Isa_56:7).”—Henderson.
Jer_17:5. Theme: THE ACCURSED TRUST.
The Jews, in looking now to the Assyrians and then to the Egyptians, thought to gain sufficient defence against God Himself. This false confidence was a hindrance to their relying on the favour of God, and kept them from repentance.
I. Men are variously deceived while trusting in men.
1. They begin with themselves. Every one is inflated with vain confidence, either in his own prudence, dexterity, or power. There is no one, even the most wretched, who does not trust in himself before he trusts in others; no one so contemptible but that he swells with some secret pride.
2. They take aids to themselves from every quarter. This is the out-working of what they deem their own prudence. Yet their goings round are useless; and not only so, but they turn out to their own destruction.
II. God derides the folly of such delusive trust in men.
1. He declares that they who so trust are “cursed.” This curse of God ought to strike us with terror; for we hence learn that God is highly displeased with all those who seek their own salvation in the world and in creatures.
2. He charges such with estrangement of heart from Himself. When confidence is reposed in flesh, God is deprived of His own honour. These two things cannot be connected—confidence in flesh, and reliance on God. When water is blended with fire, both perish. To attempt to unite trust in man with trust in God is like mixing heaven and earth together. It is to confound the order of nature, when men imagine that they have two objects of trust, and ascribe half of their salvation to God and half to themselves or to other men.
3. All are apostates and deserters from God who fix their hope on men. True in the present life; twofold a madness in respect of eternal things.—Arranged from Calvin.
Comments—
Jer_17:5. “There is great occasion for this cursed dependence on flesh, when one, from the hope of good personal protection, gives up the work of the Lord to the powers of the earth. It is true the Church is to have foster-parents who are kings, but, nevertheless, neither kings nor princes are its tutelar deities, much less lords and commanders of the Church; but One is our Master, One our Judge, One our King—the Crucified.”—Zinzendorf.
Jer_17:5-8. Theme: THE DUTY OF TRUSTING IN GOD.
Every created being derives its existence and support from God. Yet man is prone to depend on the creature rather than on Him. Though constantly disappointed, he still leans on an arm of flesh. But such conduct is justly reprobated.
I. The characters that are contrasted.
(a.) Every man by nature trusts in man, makes flesh his arm, and in his heart departs from the Lord. We need not go to heathens or infidels to find persons of this description. We need only search the records of our own conscience. In temporal things we never think of looking above the creature. If they be prosperous, we trust in uncertain riches, and take the glory to ourselves. If adverse, we lean to our own understanding and exertions, or rely for succour on our friends. In spiritual things we seek to establish a righteousness of our own. We expect to repent and serve God by our own strength.
(b.) The true Christian “trusts in the Lord, and makes the Lord his hope.” He trusts in the Lord Jesus Christ as the God of providence. He commits his affairs to Him, expecting His promised aid. He trusts also in Jesus as the God of grace. He renounces all hope in his own goodness or resolutions. These marks afford a sure line of distinction between the nominal and real Christian. Nor is this difference between them of trifling import.
II. Their respective conditions. Men’s eternal state will be fixed with perfect equity. The conditions of the characters before us are strongly contrasted:—
1. Simply: “blessed,” &c.; “cursed,” &c. What can be more important than these declarations? They are not the dictates of enthusiasm, but the voice of God. “Thus saith the Lord.” God has given His Son to be our Saviour; but while some confide in Him, others, by not trusting in Him, reject Him. How reasonable then is it that a curse should attach to these and a blessing to those! Such a difference in their conditions seems the necessary result of their own conduct. Let every one inquire which of these conditions he has reason to expect.
2. Figuratively: “heath in desert,”—“tree planted by the waters.” To mark the contrast more clearly, it is further observed that both the blessing and the curse shall be—
(a.) Abundant. The unbeliever “shall be like the heath in the desert.” He shall be left in a state of extreme barrenness and wretchedness; and this, too, amidst all his boasted fulness (Job_20:22). The believer “shall be as a tree planted by the waters,” &c. He shall be made flourishing and happy by rich supplies of grace (Php_4:9).
(b.) Unmixed. The unbeliever “shall not see when good cometh.” He receives none of the heavenly dew that falls around him. The believer “shall not see when heat cometh, but his leaf shall be green, nor shall he be careful in the year of drought.” He may experience heat and drought, i.e., he shall, however, not be injured, but benefited by them (Heb_12:11).
(c.) Eternal. The unbeliever “shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt laud, and not inhabited.” He shall be an outcast from God in the regions of misery. The believer “shall not cease from yielding fruit.” His present enjoyments are the pledge and earnest of eternal happiness.
Infer (1.) How glorious a person must Christ be! If He were a mere creature, it would be ruinous in the extreme to trust in Him. (2.) How are we all concerned to trust in Christ. God regards, not merely our outward conduct, but the frame of our hearts. On this our present and everlasting happiness depends.—Simeon.
See also NOTICEABLE TOPICS.
Jer_17:5-6. Theme: THE HEATH IN THE DESERT. “Thus saith the Lord, Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord. For he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good cometh; but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land and not inhabited.”
The Jews had withdrawn dependence from God, and trusted to themselves and Egypt. They were delivered to the Babylonians. To this the text refers primarily. But it may apply to all.
Two definitions of a heath. A shrub growing in barren places, and a sandy barren plain of Arabia seldom rained upon. These plains and the shrubs they produce do not “see when good cometh.” The trees of Canaan by the rivers are refreshed by nightly dews. God’s vineyard is as a watered garden, and yields the rose of Sharon and the lily of the valley, but the wastes of Arabia, doomed to barrenness, never “see when good cometh.”
I. Let us learn against whom this curse is denounced, and trace resemblances between them and the heath, &c. They are those who disclaim dependence on God—idolators, infidels, and the profane.
1. Those who do not realise their dependence on God for all true happiness, but think it lies in worldly gain. They make no daily petition to God for it. The prayerless, stupid, and worldly inherit the curse in the text.
2. Those who trust in man and make flesh their arm, and neglect to fix all dependence on Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. They do not feel they are hopeless and helpless, or they would cast themselves upon Christ as the only hope of sinners; they are therefore under the curse against those who trust in man.
3. There is yet another class under this curse. Some are in the Church; some are not. Punctual perhaps on ordinances, they depend upon a form of godliness without the power, and, excepting a little animal sympathy, remain cold as ever. They are a numerous class even in the Church of Christ. “Five were wise, and five were foolish.”
II. How do these resemble the heath in the desert?—the prayerless, stupid, and worldly.
1. In barrenness and deformity. God gave them powers to bear fruit, but He comes year after year and finds nothing, and worse—a crop of misshapen shrubs. After so many benefits, they refuse to serve Him.
2. They are like the heath in being desolate, forsaken, and unblest. No voice of joy or song is heard on the heath, while those who wait on God are refreshed like Eden. Those who are like the heath in barrenness and deformity shall resemble it in desolation and woe.
3. While the holy land is refreshed with dew from heaven, the desert remains parched as before. This feature of resemblance exists at this time. Showers of grace fall on some, but the barren sands know not “when good cometh.”
4. Showers falling on desert heath only promote the growth of deformed shrubs; and the influence of heaven falling on this class calls forth a more fatal resistance of the Holy Spirit.
5. The heath cannot be made fruitful, and all God’s visitations fall unregarded upon many.
6. It is plain that, while many obey the Gospel call, others remain desolate and uncheered by any heavenly influence.
7. Some of the awakened may say, “I cannot change my own heart; I do the best I can”—Do you? even for a day? Drop these excuses, and cry, “God be merciful to me a sinner.”
8. Others resemble the heath in deformity and barrenness. They resort to sacraments, but yield no fruit, and so will they remain till death.
APPLICATION—
(a.) I address those who cast off fear and restrain prayer. Waste not out, I pray you, your life, seeking independent happiness. Return and seek happiness in God alone, and become rich for eternity.
(b.) I warn you who are awakened. Trust not in ministers or Christians. Only Christ can give the mighty blessing. Let Calvary’s Voice draw you to Him.
(c.) I speak to those who think they love God better than father, mother, or life, yet are chained to earth—these are the most discouraging of all men. It is easy to alarm the humble, but a task to destroy false hopes.
(d.) Let the dear loved children of God receive the precious promises succeeding the text: “Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is.”—Edward Griffin, D.D.
Jer_17:7. Theme: MAKING GOD OUR TRUST.
Man, sensible of his weakness, requires for his happiness some object without himself in which he can trust. In what do men trust? God alone furnishes an object adequate to the requirements of our trust. All lesser objects are frail, variable, uncertain.
I. The soul’s right and only trust.
1. We owe it to the supremacy of the divine nature.
2. Entire resignation to God’s wisdom and will.
3. Entire withdrawal of our trust from all inferior things.
4. Sincere acceptance of Christ as our Saviour.
5. Sincere effort to live a holy and pious life.
II. The blessedness with which godly trust is crowned. This will be seen in the following contrast of believer and unbeliever.
1. The objects of the unbeliever’s trust are uncertain and insignificant; the believer’s, certain and glorious.
2. The one inadequate and perishing, the other all-sufficient and abiding (1Pe_1:4).
3. The one bears a burdened conscience and a character ill at ease, the other enjoys peace and rest (Mat_11:28-30).
4. The one regards God as his foe, and resembles the inferior objects of his trust; the other regards God as his friend, enjoys His protection and fellowship, and resembles Him.
Learn—
1. Not to be deluded by inferior things.
2. Seek this blessing by submission to God’s will in a crucified Saviour.—E. Jerman.
Comments—
“Blessed are those teachers, who have betaken themselves to His protection, who once promised His Church that even the gates of hell should not prevail against it. Who has ever been put to shame who trusted in Him?”—Zinzendorf.
Jer_17:8. Theme: VERDURE IN THE MIDST OF DESOLATION. “He shall not see when heat cometh.”
Nothing in nature more admirable than the strange and unlikely circumstances in which we often see plants and trees retaining their sap and verdure, and manifesting the most luxuriant fruitfulness. By a wonderful instinct of their nature, they adapt themselves each to their appointed place, and thus continue to live and flourish abundantly where another would perish in an hour. No natural influence more fatal to vegetable life than extreme drought; yet, even that in some favoured instances may prove innocuous. Some plants and trees “do not see when heat cometh, but their leaf is green,” &c.
This beautiful fact the prophet transfers from the natural world to the spiritual by way of illustration and analogy. There, too, often verdure appears in midst of desolation—life in midst of death. True happiness and true holiness depend, not on outward advantages, but on inward state.
Let us consider further this interesting and instructive phenomenon.
I. The fact itself. Meets us everywhere in the natural world. So also in the kingdom of grace. Spiritual health depends not alone or mainly on our circumstances, but on the temper and state of our souls. In the cottage, the palace; in want, in affluence; in retirement, on busy Exchange; in youth, in age; in health, in disease and sickness, God’s Enochs have “walked with God.” Every situation not equally favourable to soul’s life, but none utterly unfavourable; e.g., Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Joseph, Caleb, Samuel, Elijah, Jeremiah, Daniel, Esther, and others; are witnesses to this truth. Look, then, within for source of weakness, decay, low spiritual state.
II. The explanation. The man “trusteth in the Lord, and his hope the Lord is.”
1. He lives in constant believing communion with God.
2. He improves what advantages he possesses. They may be few, but he aspires after and improves them. If Jesus is “passing by,” he, like Zaccheus, will be on the sycamore-tree.
3. He retains the good he receives. Careful to retain the fruits of opportunities after they are gone. Those who make rich are not only they who get much, but who keep what they get.
4. He sedulously improves and turns to account the grace he has. The surest way alike to confirm and to strengthen any holy principle is to carry it into action. Talents are increased by trading. The idle Christian is a feeble, drooping, pining Christian.
Such is the secret of a holy, happy walk with God, in any times and in the worst times. Get truly planted by the waters of salvation, and your roots stretched out by the rivers of God.—Rev. Islay Burns, Dundee: “Family Treasury,” 1859.
Comments—
“The Musorites changed the word FEAR into ‘shall not see when the heat cometh,’ in order to make it correspond with Jer_17:6. But the change is not merely unauthorised, but meaningless. God’s people see the heat when it comes; they feel trouble as much as other people, but they do not fear it, because they know—
“i. That it is for their good, and
“ii. That God will give them strength to bear it.”—Dr. Payne Smith.
“The servants of God are planted, as it were, in a moist soil, irrigated continually by streams of water. The prophet intimates that God’s children are not exempt from adversities: the ‘heat cometh,’ and they feel the heat of the sun, being, like trees, exposed to it; but moisture is supplied, and the juice diffuses itself through all the branches. Though they feel great heats as well as the unbelieving, for this is common to both, God’s children shall yet be kept safe: there is a remedy for them—their root has moisture. The word rendered ‘see’ דאג, dag, means to fear and to be careful; also to grieve, and so some render it here, It will not grieve; but the better meaning is, It shall not be afraid of heat.”—Calvin.
Jer_17:9. Theme: THE FALSITY AND FOULNESS OF MAN’S HEART.
The Bible reveals what man would have failed to discern, that the heart is the root of character, the seat of the moral quality attaching to the thoughts and actions of men. This truth, plainly taught in Scripture, accords with reason, and finds irrefutable proof in man’s career. There are three aspects of the heart here suggested:—
I. Surpassing deceptiveness. “Deceitful above all things.”
1. Its cruel delusions. It often prompts a man to evil, promising joy and reward, then leaves him befooled by his desires; allures him to follow passion, then leaves him to the tortures of conscience; assures him of courage in difficult hours, then, at the crisis, leaves him trembling in fear, &c. It flatters its dupes; is a false syren.
2. Its religious frauds. Fosters hypocrisy in the superficial, urges men to assume a religious profession, and walk as if God were being reverently served; and then, in secret, craves and impels towards hidden vice and subtle indulgences. Flatters a man into a belief in his own goodness when life is pleasant and easy; and then, in death, mocks and chides him for his sin.
3. Its supreme falsity. “Above all things.” Above the desert mirage?—Yes. Above gold?—Yes. Above pleasure?—Yes. Above fickle beauty?—Yes. For the heart is the cause of all deceits; it supplies the fantasy in us which makes the illusion possible.
II. Malignant guiltiness. “Desperately wicked.”
1. Its action in the region of common life. To what detestable iniquities would it impel men! Judge of this by considering the filthy, atrocious, idolatrous customs and social habits which prevailed in Oriental scenes. Where the passions are left unrestrained by civilisation and religion, what a foul life is man’s! Nearer home: what revolting, sensual, brutal careers men live amongst us where neither fear of God nor regard of man rule! What are the furious schemes of the assassin, the usurper, the traducer, the felon, the adulterer, but illustrations of the heart’s unbridled lusts! “Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders,” &c.
2. Its action in the sphere of religion.
We expect of the heart that it responds to love; but how does it respond to “the great love wherewith God hath loved us”? How does it keep outside its closed doors Him who long has knocked there in vain, yet “who first loved us”? And after having avowedly, in discipleship of Christ, given Him our heart, how does “an evil heart of unbelief” lead us to “depart from the living God,” and urge us by fervent cravings to fall back into sin!
III. Profound inscrutableness. “Who can know it?” Having used the strongest language to describe it, yet words fail to tell its depths of iniquity.
Looking on the loathsome sights of vice, squalor, villany, and woe around us, and asking, “Whence came these?” Christ replies, “Out of the heart.” The heart’s wilfulness “brought death into the world, and all our woe.” It still can prompt brutal cruelty to requite tender love; it still stirs the lascivious to decoy innocence into ruin worse than death, &c.
“Who can know” his own heart? We cry, “Is thy servant a dog that he should do this thing?” yet we do it, and worse far.
“Who can know” the hearts of others?
Is there a bound which the heart’s impulses will not pass? Is there a thought, at whose horribleness the mind staggers, and of which we exclaim, “Surely, it could never be that a man is capable of it!” Yet greater enormities are being wrought: cold-blooded, sinister, vengeful, devilish! “Who can know it?”
If this be so between man and man, oh, how shall we fathom the depths of man’s great criminality to God—slaying His Son; to Jesus—“crucifying Him afresh and putting Him to open shame;” to the Holy Spirit—“grieving the Holy Spirit of God”!
(a.) Do you think this description exaggerated? But this is the deceitfulness of your heart, flattering you that you cannot be so bad, or are not so bad as others.
(b.) Should not this urge you to self-abasement before the Cross? Boasting no more your self-righteousness, and hastening to the Fountain opened for sin and uncleanness, crying, “Create in me a clean heart,” &c.
See Addenda on Jer_17:9-10. FALSITY OF HEART, and SEARCHING THE HEART.
Theme: THE HEART’S DECEITFULNESS TOWARDS ITSELF.
There is great deceit in the dealings of men in the world, in their counsels and contrivances, in their private and public affairs, in their words and actings; the world is full of deceit and fraud. But all this is nothing as compared with the deceit in a man’s heart towards himself (for that is the meaning of the expression here), and not towards others.
This deceitfulness of the heart, whereby it is exceedingly advantaged in its harbourings of sin, lies chiefly in two things: that—
I. It abounds in contradictions, so that it is not to be dealt with on any constant rule.
The frame of the heart is ready to contradict itself every moment. None know what to expect of it. Facile now, then obstinate; open, then reserved; gentle, then revengeful.
This ensues from the disorder wrought upon our faculties by sin. God created all in perfect harmony. The mind’s subjection to God was the spring of the orderly and harmonious motion of the soul. This being disturbed by sin, the rest of the faculties move cross and contrary one to another; the will chooseth not what the mind discovers good, the affections delight not in what the will chooseth, &c.
II. Its deceit lies in its full promisings upon the first appearance of things.
Sometimes the affections are wrought upon, and the whole heart appears in a fair frame, and all promises well: suddenly all is reversed. Who can mention the treacheries which lie in the heart of man? Uncertain in what it doth; false in what it promises.
1. Never let us think our work, in contending against indwelling sin, is ended. The place of its habitation is unsearchable. There are still new stratagems and wiles to be dealt withal. Many conquerors have been ruined by their carelessness after a victory. David was so. Many decline into sin in old age: they gave over the task of mortifying sin before their work was at an end.
2. The fact that the heart is inconstant calls for perpetual watchfulness. An open enemy, that deals by violence only, always gives some respite; but against adversaries that deal by treachery nothing but perpetual watchfulness will give security. The heart bath a thousand deceits, and if we are the least off in our watch we are sure to be surprised (Pro_28:6).
3. Commit the whole matter therefore to Him who searcheth the heart. Here lies our safety. There is no deceit in our hearts but He can disappoint it. David takes this course (Psa_139:8-10; Psa_139:23).—Dr. John Owen.
Theme: THE DECEITFULNESS OF THE HEART. “The heart is deceitful above all things” (Jer_17:9).
I. Men impose on themselves respecting their own character. The heart practises deception in regard to its natural tendency and disposition.
1. Men do not attribute to themselves the character given of the human heart in the Bible. The Christian does.
2. Is it not possible that your heart deceives you? If the Bible be true, there is no such native excellence of character as you suppose that you possess. Multitudes who once had the same view of themselves have been convinced of their error.
3. Nothing easier than self-deception.
II. Men deceive themselves in regard to their real attachments.
III. The heart is deceitful in regard to its power of resisting temptation.
IV. In its promises of reformation and amendment.
IMPROVEMENT—
1. There is a danger of losing the soul.
2. You have a heart which is not to be trusted.
3. Wake from all delusions to the reality of your condition.—Albert Barnes.
Theme: DECEITFULNESS OF MAN’S HEART.
Nothing so mean as deceit. The text calls attention to the deceitfulness of our hearts.
I. A difficult subject to deal with, because—
1. The examination is made by the guilty party into his own character.
2. Nothing more humiliating and painful to man’s pride.
II. No deception like that of the heart. The garden—the cornfield—the mercantile speculation—the youth—may promise well and deceive, but the heart is deceitful above all.
1. It is the fountain of deceit.
2. Deceives its owner and best friends often.
3. Its deceit is in a very large measure voluntary.
4. Its deceitfulness is insidious in its growth.
5. Will be terrible in its consequences. Its possessor is travelling in a dangerous path, but fancies all well. His character is being fixed in evil. The future must be terrible in the circumstances of its misery, and its disappointment and despair.
III. The examples of Scripture bear this out. Old prophet, 1Ki_13:11-18; Gehazi, 2Ki_5:22-27; Hazael, 2Ki_8:7-15; Ananias and Sapphira, Act_5:5-10.
IV. The heart deceives its possessor continually. With regard to—
1. Its motives. 2. Its inclinations. 3. Its safety amidst temptations. 4. Its power of reformation.
Learn—
1. To distrust and watch it. 2. To trust in Christ and His word.—E. Jerman.
Theme: THE HEART’S DECEPTIVENESS AND WICKEDNESS.
This truth is not difficult to illustrate and prove. It requires no penetrating genius to bring it up from the depths. As illustrative of—
I. The heart’s deceptiveness, we point—
i. To the mistakes into which it falls relative to religion. Scripture declares it “the one thing needful”; the heart deems it not needful at all, or only of secondary consequence. Or, if it heeds religion, it mistakes its forms for the reality of Christianity.
ii. Further apparent in its pursuit of pleasure. The Source of true happiness is God; but the heart supposes that pleasure must be found in things seen and temporal. “A deceived heart has turned them aside.”
iii. Still further seen in the fact, that God has not left it to be its own guide. A Law has been given for its conduct, and a Gospel for its faith, while “line upon line,” &c., has been added to guide its commonest actions. The ant wants no guide, for its instincts are safe and sufficient. But the heart’s tendencies are wholly untrustworthy.
iv. Further proved by the declaration of the Lord, that the heart must be renewed. The mariner when voyaging never thinks of changing his compass, knowing that the one he has is faithful and true. But man’s heart is so wrong that a new heart is demanded.
But the heart is not the only deceitful thing in the world: other things are deceitful, though NOT EQUALLY SO. “The heart is deceitful above all things.”
It surpasses all other things in two particulars—
1. In its extent.
2. In its fatality.
Other things may deceive a few men; this deceives every man. Other things may so deceive as to ruin man’s temporal interests; this ruins man’s eternal interests.
II. The proof of the heart’s wickedness is equally easy:
i. It is at enmity with God—the best and most gracious of beings.
ii. Utterly opposed to the holy law of God: ignores its claims, &c.
iii. Sternly rejects the Gospel; flings aside God’s greatest Gift, and costliest Sacrifice.
iv. Wilfully disregards the warnings and threatenings of God.
v. Notwithstanding all the culture the heart receives from education, preaching, and literature, it brings forth nothing but the briers and thorns of unrighteousness.
vi. Its desperate wickedness is further seen in the fearful punishment with which its wickedness will be visited. The “undying worm,” the “unquenchable fire.” Only greatest criminals are punished with direst punishments.
1. As this truth rests upon Divine testimony, to deny it is to make God a liar, and prove the heart’s self-deceivings.
2. How different is the new heart from the old! “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”—Rev. D. Pledge.
Theme: THE HEART INSCRUTABLE. “Who can know it?”
It is extremely difficult for sinners to know their hearts.
I. What is implied in their knowing their own hearts?
It implies: 1. A knowledge of their selfishness. 2. Of their desperate incurable wickedness. 3. Of their extreme deceitfulness.
II. Why is it so extremely difficult for them to know their own hearts?
Because: 1. They are unwilling to know them. 2. Because of the deceitfulness of sin. They love or hate, as they appear friendly or unfriendly to their cherished feelings,—(a) God, (b) Christ, (c) good men, (d) the world, (e) their own hearts, (f) the means of grace, (g) their convictions, (h) heaven.
III. Application—
1. The only way to know the heart is to inquire whether it loves God or not.
2. Saints can more easily ascertain their true characters than sinners can.
3. All changes of life are trials of the heart.—Emmons.
See also NOTICEABLE TOPICS on the HUMAN HEART.
Jer_17:10. Theme: GOD’S RULE OF JUDGMENT. “I the Lord search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.”
None but God can explore the depths of iniquity in the human heart. As He will judge the world at the last day, He must have access to the inmost recesses of the soul, and be able to bring forth to judgment all its hidden abominations.
Accordingly God is employed noticing and recording everything, that He may then reward “every man according to his ways.” We here see—
I. The preparation God is making for the future judgment. God is not an unconcerned spectator of what is done upon earth.
1. He continually marks the ways of men.
(a.) All their actions He observes, according to the principles from which they proceed, and the ends for which they are done.
(b.) Our words, also, and our very thoughts (Psa_11:4, Pro_16:2).
Hezekiah evinced the mixture of motives and principles which lay behind actions (2Ch_32:31); and these need to be analysed and distinguished. God “tries the reins,” as a philosopher assays gold.
2. He records everything in the book of His remembrance. The thoughts as well as the words of men (Mal_3:16). All will be educed in the judgment (Job_14:17). Nothing escapes His attention; certainly not any “good thing” eludes His sight (1Ki_14:13).
II. The rule by which the judgment shall be determined.
1. The sentence will be according to every man’s works (Gal_6:7-8; 2Co_9:6).
2. Rightly understood, this strongly declares the equity of God’s future judgments. Everything that can affect the quality of an action will be taken into account.
Behold then—
i. What an awful prospect is here opened to the ungodly!
ii. What an encouragement is here afforded to the righteous!
Moses looked to “the recompense of reward.” Paul anticipated “the far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.”—Chas. Simeon.
Theme: GOD’S INTEREST IN MAN.
I. Respects “Fruit” in men’s lives.
II. Deals with men “according to Fruit.”
III. Where Fruit is to be found—(in the heart).
IV. The Search for Fruit.—J. Farren.
See Addenda: SEARCHING THE HEART.
Comments—
Jer_17:11. “As the partridge hath gathered eggs which it laid not.” Epiphanius says: “The partridge is not satisfied with the fruit of her own womb, but steals the eggs of other birds and carries them to her nest” (Phisiol. 9).
“This notion might easily be taken for the great number of eggs which the partridge lays. Another interpretation is given by Hippolytus, who says that ‘the partridge calls to it the young belonging to other broods, and gathers them under its wings, but when they hear the cry of the true parent they leave the false one.’ The general sense is that the covetous man is as sure finally to reap only disappointment as the partridge which piles up eggs not of her own laying, and is unable to hatch them.”—Dr. Payne Smith.
“As Jehoiakim is described by Jeremiah as a covetous tyrant (chap. Jer_22:17), and as he died at the age of thirty-six, he is supposed by some to be referred to in these words.”—Ibid.
Jer_17:11. Theme: WEALTH UNJUSTLY ACQUIRED. Violence and fraud had been reigning in Jerusalem.
I. Unlawful means used to acquire wealth may win success.
1. Opportunities to acquire money tempt to oppression and fraud.
2. A temporary prosperity is realised in the possession of ill-gotten gains.
3. The rich toil to gather wealth, and then sit brooding over it, like the partridge; but it never gives comfort or satisfaction. They are always anxious and uneasy; for their sinful projects may miscarry.
4. Treasures acquired by wrong methods leave an unquiet conscience. The rich man may say, I am innocent (Hos_12:8), but that only mocks his conscience.
II. Wealth when acquired cannot long be retained. “He shall leave them in the midst of his days.”
1. God shall cut him off by some surprising stroke (Luk_12:19-20).
2. Gathered riches cannot be taken into eternity: “He shall leave them.”
3. His impoverished death shows him to be a miserable “fool.” He was “not rich towards God,” only had “ill-gotten gains,” and had to “leave” all in death; went into eternity “poor indeed”—“poor and miserable, and blind and naked.”
III. Parting with his wealth in death is a great vexation to a worldly man.
1. It naturally frets him to leave to another, who may squander all, the treasures he has wasted his life in accumulating.
2. It justly appals him to go into God’s presence with nothing but the memory of unjustly-accumulated gains. “He shall be a fool:” the laughing-stock of death.
Jer_17:12-13. See HOMILETIC OUTLINES ON SECTIONS.
Theme: THE CHURCH OF THE LORD.
i. What it is in itself. Peace of sanctuary; throne of divine glory; house of Him who is Israel’s Hope.
ii. What it will be. It will ever remain firm (Mat_16:18).
iii. What they find who forsake it. Shame, oblivion, unsatisfied thirsts.—Naegelsbach.
Jer_17:14. Theme: A CRY FOR HEALING AND SAVING GRACE. “Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed,” &c.
One great proof of the experience of converting grace is the disposition to vindicate God and condemn ourselves. “That Thou might be justified,” &c. Here Jeremiah justifies divine dispensations.
I. That sin is the disease of the soul, and is so felt. All its symptoms are dreaded by the Christian. The worldling does not fear nor dread them. He is like a man in consumption, whose case is seen and dreaded by all but himself. But the Christian dreads the evil as well as punishment of sin. He knows the plague of his own heart. All the symptoms are dangerous. Sin like a venomous disease.
There is the loss of rest—“no peace.”
There is the depravation of taste—he feedeth on ashes. Want of appetite.
There is the loss of sight—but the Christian prays, “Open Thou mine eyes.”
There is the loss of hearing—the wicked is like a deaf adder. But the Christian says, “The hearing ear and seeing eye, the Lord hath made both.”
II. That Christ is the only physician, the Good Physician. Other physicians are prodigal of the patient’s blood, and sparing of their own; but Christ shed His own blood to save our souls. “When justice calls for sinners’ blood, the Saviour shows His own.”
Never was the disease known yet that mocked His skill. The blind, the dumb, the maimed, the deaf, the very dead—owned His power; and, behold, the Lord’s arm is not shortened. There are seasons in which nothing short of this conviction of the infinite ability of Christ to pardon and to save can bring peace to the mind.
i. Consider the infinite efficacy of Christ’s atonement, as showing God’s readiness as well as ability to pardon. What pledge of God’s delight in mercy could He give like this, “He spared not his own Son”?
ii. Consider, has not God inculcated unlimited forgiveness on us? (Mat_18:21; Luk_17:4.) If God requires forgiveness of us without bounds, will not He extend forgiveness without bounds?
iii. Consider the direct statements of Scripture: “I, even I, am He that blotteth out,” &c.; “All sins in depth of sea.”
iv. From great instances of mercy.
III. That prayer is our only refuge.
It is the appointed means. It has never failed. Your desire for the benefit of purity and pardon is a proof it shall be extended. He will fulfil desire.
IV. That praise should be our truest delight. “Thou art my praise.” Our praises should be renewed, for past mercies, with prayers for new ones.—Samuel Thodey, A. D. 1841.
Theme: PRAYER FOR SALVATION BASED UPON PRAISE. “Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed,” &c.
I. The blessings sought.
1. Health. What temporal blessing greater. The health of the soul is the highest form of health.
2. Salvation. (Explain the term.)
II. How they are sought. By prayer.
1. Confession of need.
2. Seeking in right way; of right source.
3. Sincerity of prayer, shown in use of right means to preserve health and obtain salvation.
III. The ground of the prayer for these blessings. “Thou art my praise.”
What does this mean but that he who rightly offers this prayer is living in the service of God, seeking to please Him, rejoicing in His favour, acknowledging His mercy?—“The Hive,” vol. viii., 1875.
Theme: THE PENITENT’S PRAYER. The words express—
I. An earnest desire for salvation.
II. He applies to Almighty God for it.
III. Through the medium of prayer.
IV. With confidence that He will be heard.—Dr. A. Thomson, of Edinburgh, from Lange.
Jer_17:14-15. Theme: A PREACHER’S CRY FOR HELP. He is tempted on account of the truth.
i. The temptation (Jer_17:13).
ii. The demonstration of innocence (Jer_17:16).
iii. The cry for help.
(a.) Negative (Jer_17:17-18).
(b.) Positive (Jer_17:19).—Naegelsbach.
Comments—
Jer_17:14. “Thou art my praise.” “When a teacher confines himself to the praise of the Cross, and lets all other matters of praise go which might adorn a theologian of these times, and adheres immovably to this: ‘I am determined not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified’—amid all the shame of His Cross, He is victorious over the rest.”—Zinzendorf.
Jer_17:15. “Where is the word of the Lord? let it come, now!” “This taunt shows that this prophecy was written before any signal fulfilment of Jeremiah’s words had taken place, and prior therefore to the capture of Jerusalem at the close of Jehoiakim’s life.”—Dr. Payne Smith.
Jer_17:16. “From being a pastor.” See Lit. Crit. on this verse.
“Desired the woful day:” i.e., the day on which Jerusalem was to be destroyed and the temple burnt. Though these calamities would verify Jeremiah’s word and vindicate him against scorners, yet his patriotic soul recoiled from the nearing desolation of his country and ruin of his people.
Jer_17:16. “That which I have preached was right before Thee.” “It is not difficult to know in these times what is right before the Lord. There is His Word: he who adheres to this strictly, knows in this that he is right. In all this it is the teacher’s chief maxim, not to make use of the application without need, but to make the truth so plain in his discourses that the hearers must necessarily make the application to themselves. ‘Thus saying, Thou reproachest us also,’ said the lawyer (Luk_11:45). Others went away convicted in their consciences.”—Zinzendorf.
Jer_17:17. Theme: THE SOUL’S HOPE IN A TIME OF TERROR. “Be not a terror unto me. Thou art my hope in the day of evil.”
Jeremiah had forewarned. It was a painful duty. He now looks forward to the “woful day” with deep anxiety for his people. And as one who sees the storm pending, and looks around for hiding-place, he draws near and appeals to God, sure that amid the terrors of the “day of evil” He would preserve his soul.
Our case is sadly accordant with that of Judah.
1. The heartless rebellion of Judah did not exceed the iniquity of many of us who have trifled with grace.
2. The judgments pronounced were not heavier than those standing against the impenitent sinner who despises the great salvation.
3. The mission of the preacher is still to rush in among men “whose hearts have departed from the Lord,” and protest, warn, and call to repentance.
4. And the consolations of the righteous are as true as with the prophet; for he knows God is his “Hope” in the day of evil.
I. A day comes when God will be a terror. God would take from Judah all this world’s “heritage” they prized, and all the spiritual benefits they failed to profit by.
“Days of evil”—
(a.) Come suddenly. Sweep down on us like unexpected storms.
(b.) Find us desolate. “While we say, Peace, peace, sudden destruction cometh upon us.” When our “desolation cometh like a whirlwind,” it is then too late to be seeking a sure refuge.
In these “days of evil,” which come on the soul of the guilty, we must include—
1. The day of the sinner’s conviction and anguish. When God arrests the soul and confronts him with his guilt. Oh, what agony! “Woe is me, I am undone!” God is a “terror” to him. “Whither can I go from Thy presence?” “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!”
2. The day when death calls the guilty soul from earth. Comes “as a thief in the night.” How terrible is the death of the wicked! How the soul shudders to be hurrying before God unreconciled, unsaved!
3. The day when the spirits of men will be arraigned for judgment. We shall meet God! No exaggeration of facts in the description of men “calling on mountains and rocks to hide” them. God will be a “terror” to the guilty. “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”
II. In the day of terror God may be found our Hope. God is not necessarily a terror to the soul in the day of calamity. The righteous prophet knew He would be his “Hope.”
1. This is the known character of God. He is called “the Hope of Israel” (Jer_17:13). See also Jer_14:8. It is on this well understood character of God that the exhortation is given, “Let Israel hope in the Lord, for with the Lord is forgiveness: and He shall redeem Israel from all her iniquities.” God is not willingly a “terror” to any soul. Listen to His Name declared amid Sinai. Read Gospel statement, “God so loved the world.” Watch His ways in providence: “His tender mercies over all His works.” When He becomes a “terror,” it is through a dire necessity.
2. He will become the Hope of every soul who seeks Him. Calls: “Turn ye to the Stronghold, ye prisoners of hope;” bids us “lay hold on the hope set before us.” “We have a strong consolation who have fled for refuge,” &c. Every soul may find the same.
Observe here the way by which God is made a “terror” (Jer_17:13); and the way by which He will become as our “Hope” (Jer_17:14).
3. The confident reliance and expectation of the believer.
(a.) How unwavering the repose. “Thou art my hope.” David, “I will fear no evil.”
(b.) How personal this appropriation! “Thou art my hope.” (Comp. Jer_17:18.)
(c.) How single is the soul’s trust. “Thou art.” God only: God Himself (Psa_91:1-2).
i. Unless this Hope is ours before terror comes, He will not be so in the day of evil.
ii. As the day of evil is uncertain and may be near, we should promptly seek the Lord (Jer_17:7). If “without Christ,” “no hope in the world.”
See Addenda: THE SOUL’S HOPE.
Theme: DIVINE WRATH AN OBJECT OF FEAR.
Every believer can adopt the former of these expressions, but not the latter. Why so? Words spoken in an evil time—a time of corruption, calamity, ruin. Jeremiah himself was in great danger. How appropriate then.
Notice—I. The petition. II. The expression of confidence.
I. The petition. “Be not a terror unto me.”
1. God’s majesty is in itself an object of fear and dread (Heb_12:21, Isa_6:5, Hab_3:16, Hos_3:5).
2. Divine chastisements are to be feared (Jer_10:24, Psa_6:1, Job_9:34).
3. God’s wrath is still more dreadful.
4. The prophet prays for support and comfort in the time of trial.
II. The expression of confidence. “Thou art my Hope in the day of evil.”
1. The grace exercised is hope. Though troubled, he is not destroyed. (2Co_4:8, &c.; Rom_8:24).
(1.) God is the object of His people’s hope (Psa_71:5; Psa_78:5).
(2.) God is the end of their hope. They need no more (Psa_16:11; Psa_17:15).
2. Observe the time when this grace is exercised: “Day of evil.”
(1.) Sin and sorrow make every day an evil day, still let us hope (Psa_62:8; Psa_71:14).
(2.) Yet there are peculiar days of evil: National calamity; reverses in business; disappointments; affliction; old age (Psa_73:26, 2Ti_1:12).
LEARN—
1. That hopes and fears are blended together in the experience of the godly (Psa_147:11).
2. If God is sometimes a terror to His own people, how much more to the wicked? (Deu_28:65-67).
From “Short Discourses,” by B. Beddome.
Jer_17:19 to end, on SABBATH CONSECRATION, see HOMILIES ON SECTIONS.
Jer_17:21. Theme: SABBATH REST. “Take heed to yourselves, and bear no burden on the Sabbath-day.”
The Sabbath argument is easy to the devout. Like exhorting a hungry man to take refreshment, or a mother to love her child, or the slave to enjoy freedom.
“Welcome, sweet day of rest,” etc.
The early Christians called it the Day of Light, and the Queen of Days. The ancient Church had it in great veneration. It was a badge of their religion, for when asked, “Keepest thou the Sabbath?” the answer was, “I am a Christian, and dare not omit the celebration of the Lord’s day.”
I. Motives for the observance of the Sabbath. There should be rest of body, with a view to the sanctity of the soul; and such a withdrawal from all worldly and sinful pursuits as may conduce to our spiritual advancement. We urge this—
1. From the Divine command. Twice given by God himself in Eden, twice inserted in the Decalogue, and twice engraved on stone by God and given to Moses.
2. From the nature and reason of the case. Intended to give opportunity of rest from toil; to be a commemoration of the wisdom, power, and goodness of God in the creation of the universe; to furnish encouragement to acquire holiness and obtain salvation. The day is needful for rest and devotion.
3. From the blessings necessary to form a truly religious character. Absorbed by the business and vanities of this world, the recollections of the other world would be blotted out but for the return of the Sabbath. In the absence of our usual occupations, and in seasons of leisure, conscience regains her empire, and the mind is turned inwardly upon itself, and the voice of God is heard.
4. From the consequences of disobedience to the claims of the day. Further from God; hardened in worldliness; left godless, and led Christless, to sink into ever increasing alienation from all that is holy, and hopeful, and heavenly.
II. Some of the burdens which should be laid aside.
1. The burden of needless toil (Exo_31:15). Surely the anointing of Christ was commendable work, yet Mary Magdalene waited till the Sabbath was past (Luk_23:56). God forbade manna to be gathered on the Sabbath.
2. The burden of wilful sin. Abstain from amusements, convivial parties, needless journeys, unprofitable conversations, &c.
3. The burden of anxious care. “Cast thy burden on the Lord.” Do it by faith and prayer. Think—who cared for Noah in deluge, for Moses in bulrushes, for Daniel with lions, for Paul in storm?
4. The burden of desponding apprehensions for the future. Commit thy way unto the Lord and trust in Him. Oh, rest in the Lord, &c.—Samuel Thodey, A. D. 1845.
See Addenda: SABBATH REST
Theme: THE SABBATH AND THE LORD’S DAY.
I. What they have in common. The weekly holyday is in both cases—
1. A monument of the loving care of our God.
(a.) For our body; (b.) for our soul.
2. A right of God, which forms a holy obligation towards—
(a.) God, (b.) ourselves, (c.) our neighbour.
II. The differences which distinguish them.
1. The day of Jehovah is founded on the creation of the perishable world; the day of the Lord is founded on the resurrection of Christ, as of a new, eternal world.
2. The observance of the day of Jehovah was only legal; i.e. (a) imposed by external compulsion, (b) by requirements to be fulfilled with outward ceremonies: the observance of the day of the Lord is to be more and more an evangelical one; i.e. (a) a free, (b) a spiritually free one, satisfying the right as well as the obligation of personality.—Naegelsbach.
See also NOTICEABLE TOPICS: On the Sabbath.
NOTICEABLE TOPICS IN CHAPTER 17
Topic: THE BLESSED AND THE CURSED. (Jer_17:5-8)
Great is the distinction between the godly and the ungodly (Psa_1:6; Psa_7:11; Psa_11:5) in their characters, in their practice, in their experience, in their end. This distinction will appear in the day of judgment (Mat_25:34-41).
I. The characters here contrasted. Specially descriptive of the situation of Judah at the time. Threatened with invasion, they trusted in Egypt as a rival with Babylon; or in their own strength—artificial fortifications (Psa_48:12-13); or in their individual accomplishments, as wise, rich, and powerful (Jer_9:23).
This may apply to us as a nation. We form alliances, raise armies and navies; but woe to us if we trust in them so that our heart departeth from the Lord! (Psa_20:6-8.)
1. The character of the wicked is stated (Jer_17:5).
(a.) The root of all ungodliness is perversion of heart from God. The sinner will not have the Lord to reign over him. “The carnal mind is enmity against God.”
(b.) The wicked trust in human means for success and prosperity, and even for the salvation of their souls. They rely on wisdom and skill; on riches (Pro_18:11), in their fortitude and heroism, to the pleasurable diversions invented; to their actions as meritorious for salvation.
Such procedure indicates: (1.) Ignorance—of God, law, themselves as depraved; (2.) Contempt—of Providence, and Christ’s redemption; (3.) Presumption.
2. The character of the righteous is stated (Jer_17:7).
(a.) The righteous trust in the Lord from a conviction that vain is the help of man. They have a knowledge of the human heart that it is “deceitful above all things,” &c. Self-confidence is, therefore, also abandoned.
(b.) They trust in the God of salvation alone. They can say of Christ, “He loved me, and gave Himself for me.”
(c.) They trust Him when they cannot trace Him; know that He will do all things well; and God is their hope in all their troubles, difficulties, fears—in prospect of death and eternity.
II. The conduct determining the blessing, i.e., whether we trust in man or in the name of the Lord.
1. As we trust the wisdom of men, or the revealed will of God, we are under the curse or the blessing. Some avowedly reject revelation, others admit only what accords with their own reason: the Christian takes the Scriptures.
2. As to righteousness, the determining question is whether we trust the righteousness of man, or the righteousness which is of God.
3. Though we trust in the Saviour Himself, yet if we consider Him only as a man, we incur the denunciation of the text. If Christ be only a man, to trust in Him is to trust in an arm of flesh. If His Divinity be denied, there is no ground for trust. (Comp. 1Ti_1:12, 1Jn_1:9.)
III. The consequences of the conduct of these contrasted characters.
1. As to those who trust in man. “He shall be like the heath in the desert” (Jer_17:6).
(a.) Barrenness. He must remain destitute of God’s. fertilising and refreshing grace—unholy, fruitless, worthless.
(b.) Wretchedness. “Heath in desert;” “inhabit parched places.”
(c.) Loss of all good. “Not see when good cometh.” It comes in a preached Gospel, in offers of salvation, in affliction, in the testimony of conscience, in the Spirit’s influence, but they see it not! “Good” comes upon the Church in the dew of heaven: “Great grace is upon them all;” upon believers even in their trials, and even when Christ comes to judgment; but the godless see it not, share it not.
2. As to the righteous. The result of trusting in the Lord is permanent fruitfulness (Jer_17:8). (Comp. Psa_1:3; Psa_92:13-15). Indicates—
(a.) Enjoyment. “A tree planted by the waters,” drawing in pleasure and refreshment.
(b.) Growth, or prosperity—progress. The Christian flourishes, “grows in grace.”
(c.) Security. “He shall not see (not fear) when heat cometh,” &c. “He is kept by the power of God unto salvation,” &c.
(d.) Permanent beauty and fruitfulness. “Her leaf shall be green, neither cease yielding fruit.” Is there anything more beautiful than a Christian’s life—a Christian’s deeds—a Christian’s death—a Christian’s entrance into heaven?—Altered from “Helps for the Pulpit.”
Topic: DECEITFULNESS OF THE HUMAN HEART. (Jer_17:9.)
Many have been the laboured panegyrics indulged, in the endeavour to establish on a firm footing the dignity of human nature. One eminent preacher has not scrupled to affirm—first, that men in general (if not every individual) are very wise; secondly, that men in general are very virtuous; and thirdly, they are very happy.
A charitable person once discovered that there was no sinner in the world but the devil. “For,” was the argument, “he forces men to act as they do, therefore they are not accountable. The blame lights on Satan.”
But whatever baptized or unbaptized infidels may say concerning the innocence of mankind, He that made man, and best knows what He has made, gives a very different account of him. He informs us “that the heart of man”—of every man born into this world—“is desperately wicked,” and that it is “deceitful above all things,” so that we may well ask, “Who can know it?”
I. The wickedness of man’s heart. It is “desperately wicked.” In considering this—
1. We have no need to refer to any particular sins. When Satan had once transferred his own self-will and pride into the parents of mankind, together with a new species of sin, love of the world, the loving the creature more than the Creator, all manner of wickedness soon rushed in. The earth soon became a field of blood. Injustice in ten thousand forms—hatred, envy, malice, blood-thirstiness, falsehood—rode triumphant, till the Creator, looking down from heaven, would be no more entreated for an incorrigible race, but swept them off the face of the earth.
2. God having created us gratuitously of His own mere mercy (for we could merit nothing of Him before we had a being), has laid us under obligation to yield Him our obedience.
3. From the devil, the spirit of independence, self-will, and pride, productive of all ungodliness and unrighteousness, quickly infused themselves into the hearts of our first parents in Paradise, and, through them, their posterity, alienating us from God, making way for idolatry, atheism, &c.
4. Melancholy truth, that all mankind now “have corrupted their ways before the Lord,” unless when the Spirit of God has made the difference.
5. But if this be the case, how is it that every one is not conscious of it? For this plain reason—because the heart is not only “desperately wicked,” but “deceitful above all things.”
II. The deceitfulness of man’s heart.
1. It is “deceitful above all things,”—that is, in the highest degree, above all that we can conceive. So deceitful that the generality of men are continually deceiving both themselves and others. Imagining themselves to be abundantly better than they are.
2. And if men thus deceive themselves, is it any wonder that they deceive others also, and that we seldom find “an Israelite indeed in whom there is no guile”?
3. This is one of the sorts of desperate wickedness, which cleaves to the nature of every man, proceeding from those fruitful roots—self-will, pride, and independence of God.
4. Hence there is in the heart of every child of man an inexhaustible fund of ungodliness and unrighteousness, deeply and strongly rooted in the soul, that nothing less than Almighty grace will cure.
5. There are exceptions as to the wickedness of man’s heart. “He that is born of God keepeth himself, and the wicked one toucheth him not.” His heart is purified by faith. His wickedness is departed from him. “Old things are passed away, all things (in him) are become new.”
III. Lessons—
1. “He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool.” For who that is wise would trust one whom he knows to be desperately wicked?
2. That when thou seest a man “wise in his own conceit, there is more hope of a fool than of him.” For at what distance from wisdom must that man be who never suspected his want of it?
3. Wisdom of the caution, “Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.” How firmly soever he may stand, he has still a deceitful heart. In how many instances has he been deceived already?
4. Is it not wisdom for him that is now standing, continually to cry to God, “Search me, O Lord, and prove me: Let me not think of myself more highly than I ought to think; but let me always think soberly, according as Thou hast given me the measure of faith”?—John Wesley.
Topic: THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH. “Hallow ye the Sabbath day” (Jer_17:22).
The awful desecration of the Lord’s day which everywhere presents itself to our view, in scenes of pleasure, business, and dissipation, is at once a foul blot upon our national character, and a source of humiliation and sorrow to the sincere Christian.
The Sabbath is an institution both of divine origin and permanent obligation.
I. The Sabbath, as a day appropriated to rest and religious duties, is an original institution, coeval with the existence of man. (See Gen_1:31; Gen_2:1-3.) Thus the Sabbath dates its origin from the completion of creation, and was designed to commemorate that great event. This was the day God sanctified, setting it apart from all the rest It is an original institution, as ancient as the law of love itself, and, like that law, is intended to remain in force until mortality is swallowed up of life, until the earthly Sabbath gives place to the perpetual and uninterrupted rest of the heavenly world. It is a remarkable fact, that in almost all nations men have divided time into septenary periods, or periods of seven days. Josephus says (Against Apion, book ii.) that “there is not a city of the Grecians, nor any of the Barbarians, nor any nation whatsoever, whither our custom of resting on the seventh day hath not come.”
II. That the Sabbath, when re-enacted from Sinai, was not enjoined as a temporary institution, but as a moral duty. The law of the Sabbath holds its place among the moral precepts. (See Exo_20:8-11.) Engraven by the finger of God on the tables of stone, and deposited in the ark of the covenant—all indicative of its permanent character and obligation. As a moral precept, it is an original and universal duty, belonging to Gentile as well as Jew, to the Christian dispensation as well as the Levitical economy. Not a Jewish ceremony, but a moral duty, and as such cannot be set aside. Christ came not to destroy the law, but to fulfil and honour it. Command repeated many times, is enjoined in text, “Hallow ye the Sabbath day.”
III. The Saviour has expressly taught that “the Sabbath was made FOR MAN;” and not for man in any particular nation or age, but without limitation for man; and, therefore, it is of universal and perpetual obligation. “And He said unto them, The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath” (Mar_2:27). “For man,” as a duty incumbent upon him; “for man,” as a privilege conferred upon him. Sabbath was made for all men without distinction. The Levitical law was designed to be temporary in its duration. In its extent it was confined to the Hebrew nation, and in its duration was limited to the Jewish dispensation. But the Sabbath was not made merely for the Hebrew nation, but for man, without distinction or restriction. And now the Levitical economy is abolished, it continues a moral law binding upon the conscience of the Christian in all parts of the world.
IV. Does the Christian ask what are the obligations of the Sabbath upon him?
(a.) Let your mind be established with a thorough conviction of the Divine authority and obligation of the Sabbath, and let your sense of duty be based on this conviction.
(b.) Let your example correspond with your profession. We profess to be God’s people; let us show it by our works. Our duty to God requires our observance of the Sabbath as a part of our obedience.
(c.) In addition to our example, our influence must be employed to promote the sanctity of the Sabbath. It is the Lord’s day. As Eusebius remarks, “Before our Lord’s death, it was always called the first day; but now it was called the Lord’s day.” To us it is, therefore, the Sabbath of the Lord our God, and it is our duty to keep it holy.—William Cooke, D.D.
ADDENDA TO CHAPTER 17 ILLUSTRATIONS AND SUGGESTIVE EXTRACTS
Jer_17:1. INDELIBLE RECORDS OF SIN. “The great stone book of Nature reveals many records of the past. In the red sandstone there are found, in some places, marks which are clearly the impressions of showers of rain, and these so perfect that it can even be detected in which direction the shower inclined, and from what quarter it proceeded; and this, ages ago. Even so sin leaves its track behind it, and God keeps a faithful record of all our sins.”—Biblical Treasury.
“If you cut a gash in a man’s head, you may heal it; but you can never rub out, nor wash out, nor cut out the scar. It may witness against you in his corpse; still it may be covered by the coffin or hidden in the grave; but then it is not till decomposition shall take place that it shall entirely disappear. But if you smite a soul, the scar remains; no coffin or grave shall hide it; no revolution, not even the upturning of the physical universe, shall obliterate it; no fire, not even the eternal fires of hell, shall burn it out.”—Dr. Thomson.
Like as Queen Mary, when she died, told those about her that the loss of Calais had so impressed her, that its image would be found indelibly engraven on her heart.
Jer_17:9. FALSITY AND FOULNESS OF THE HEART. “I am more afraid of my own heart than of the Pope and all his cardinals. I have within me the great pope—self.”—Luther.
“All our actions take
Their hues from the complexion of the heart,
As landscapes their variety of light”
—Bacon.
“A soil which breeds
Or sweetest flowers or vilest weeds;
Flowers lovely as the morning’s light,
Weeds deadly as the aconite;
Just as his heart is trained to bear
The poisonous weed or flow’ret fair.”
—Bowring.
“As soon as we are born and receive the care of our parents, we engage in all kinds of depravity; so much, that we seem to suck in error with our nurse’s milk.”—Cicero.
The student should specially consult “Secular Annotations on Scripture Texts,” by Francis Jacox, second series, p. 122. Or, “The Heart Inscrutably Deceitful.”
Jer_17:10. SEARCHING THE HEART
“Who made the heart, ‘tis He alone
Decidedly can try us;
He knows each chord—its various tone,
Each spring—its various bias;
Then at the balance let’s be mute,
We never can adjust it;
What’s done we partly may compute,
But know not what’s resisted.”
—Burns.
Jer_17:17. THE SOUL’S HOPE. “Our hope is not hung upon such an untwisted thread as ‘I imagine so,’ or, ‘It is likely;’ but the cable, the strong rope of our fastened anchor, is the oath and promise of Him who is eternal verity; our salvation is fastened, with God’s own hand and Christ’s own strength, to the strong stake of God’s unchangeable nature.”—Rutherford.
“Be not a terror to me.” Let me have fair weather overhead, however foul soever it be under foot.”—Trapp.
“Hope is the last thing that dies in man.”
—Diogenes.
“Though at times my spirit fails me,
And the bitter teardrops fall;
Though my lot is hard and lonely,
Yet I hope—I hope through all.”
—Mrs. Norton.
“With eyes turned upward, whence her help descends,
Hope waits expecting till the tempest ends.”
—Holmes.
Jer_17:21. SABBATH REST. “Had not Jeremiah expressly said, ‘Bear no burden on the Sabbath day?” Yes; but why? Because the Sabbath was an ordinance of mercy intended to protect the underlings and the oppressed from a life of incessant toil; because it was essential to save the serfs and labourers of the nation from the over measure of labour which would have been exacted of them in a nation afflicted with the besetting sin of greed; because the setting apart of one day in seven for sacred rest was of infinite value to the spiritual life of all.”—Farrar.
Captain Scoresby remarks, in his “Voyage to Greenland,” on the good effects of Sabbath-keeping on the health and spirits of his men; “That if others who did not so sedulously keep it gained some benefits (as in fishing), we always gained extra advantage over them in course of the week. Independently of the Divine blessing, I found the restraint on the natural inclinations of the men for pursuing the fishery at all opportunities acted as an extra stimulus on their exertions when next sent after the whales. But our success, who refrained, was so much greater than those who indulged fishing, that there was not a man in the ship who did not consider it the effect of a Divine blessing.”
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Sermon Bible 1900 · Public Domain On v1 I. The Bible has nothing to say against a…
Jer 17:11
I. The Bible has nothing to say against a man’s getting rich by just and honourable means. The need of money, and a moderate desire for it, form a most valuable incentive to industry. We would not be assured that the blessing of the Lord maketh rich, if wealth were necessarily an evil. To be altogether indifferent to material profit, so far from being a recommendation, betokens an unmanly and defective character. You ought to wish to increase your substance, if God will give you grace to use it well.
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II. We learn from the text that riches unrighteously gotten are no blessing. It is our Maker’s design that wealth should be begotten of industry: real hard work. There is no royal road to opulence; and, as Solomon said nearly three thousand years ago, "he that maketh haste to be rich shall not be innocent." To make money rapidly, even by honest means, is perilous; how much more so by questionable methods?
III. As the text teaches, the penalty on the acquisition of unrighteous gain generally follows even in this life. Perhaps this does not hold so markedly in our times as under the Old Dispensation, because immortality with its just retribution is now more clearly revealed. Still, no thoughtful person can fail to see how often a terrible Nemesis pursues the fraudulent man even in "the midst of his day," and how, at his end, even the world styles him a fool. Some unexpected time comes, some monetary crisis, some commercial disaster, and all his hoarded gains take wing and fly away; the unprincipled man is left, like the silly partridge, to sit disconsolate in an empty nest.
J. Thain Davidson, Forewarned—Forearmed, p. 61.
References: Jer 17:12-14.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxx., No. 1786. Jer 17:14.—G. Brooks, Outlines of Sermons, p. 26; Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxviii., No. 1658.
Jer 17:12
I. Man’s Refuge. No creature so much needs the shelter and defence of a safe hiding-place as man. His sources of danger are more than can be numbered, and with an infected nature he travels an infested road. Beset with foes, he is in constant need of shelter, and often cries out for deliverance.
II. Man’s refuge is a sanctuary. A refuge is no place to rest or abide in. A place which is only a refuge furnishes but a temporary shelter. But a refuge, which is also a sanctuary, a Divine house, affords not only shelter, but rest, repose, and satisfaction for all we need or can desire. The house of God may well be a home for man. And he who enters such a refuge soon discovers that it will be to him all his desire.
III. Man’s refuge is not only sacred, but royal. "A glorious high throne." The house of God is also the seat and source of all rule, authority, and power. It is a throne. From which we learn that the house of God, which is man’s refuge and home, is its own defence. A throne incapable of its own defence is no longer a throne.
IV. This sanctuary-refuge-throne is spoken of as an exalted throne. Man needs a high defence. Our refuge towers above all, not only covering the need of our present station, but of all its future possibilities of growth.
V. And this exalted throne is glorious in the history of its exaltation. Its exaltation has not been by might but by right. That the throne became a refuge has given a hallowed joy to the universe. The refuge crowns the throne.
VI. Our refuge has been set up from the beginning. The provision for the requirements of man’s fallen nature was no after-thought, but a forethought. His refuge-sanctuary-throne was "set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was."
VII. Note the personality of the refuge. (1) An impersonal refuge could never afford shelter and defence for man against his personal foes. (2) An impersonal refuge could never afford rest to, nor become a home for, man. Man needs man, a human security, a human joy, a human home, a warm maternal bosom on which to rest; not even God as God, but God as man.
W. Pulsford, Trinity Church Sermons, p. 161.
References: Jer 17:14.—Spurgeon, Evening by Evening, p. 245. Jer 17:17.—Ibid., Morning by Morning, p. 120. Jer 18:1-4.—Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxv., p. 152.
Jer 18:1-6
Consider what Jeremiah’s business was, and how the potter might help him in understanding and performing it.
I. Jeremiah sees a man engaged in a task to which he is devoting all his thoughts. He designs to make some clay into a vessel of a certain shape; the form or pattern is present to his mind; he is fully resolved that the material with which he is working shall come forth in that form and no other. But apparently it disappoints him. One piece of clay after another is marred in his hands; he has to break his vessel again and again; he goes on perseveringly till he has done the thing which he intended to do. If there is any force or worth in the analogy at all, it must mean that there is a form according to which God is seeking to mould men and nations. It must imply that He is patiently, continually, working for the accomplishment of this purpose. Here, then, was the mystery of a people’s repentance. If they acknowledged the will which was working upon them, if at any time they yielded to it and desired to be formed by it, this was that conversation and inward change which He was seeking to produce.
II. The prophet looks upon this symbol as teaching him the principle of God’s government of a people. I apprehend that we shall learn some day that the call to individual repentance and the promise of individual reformation has been feeble at one time; productive of turbulent, violent, transitory effects at another; because it has not been part of a call to national repentance, because it has not been connected with a promise of national reformation. We must speak again the ancient language that God has made a covenant with the nation, and that all citizens are subjects of an unseen and righteous King, if we would have a hearty, inward repentance which will really bring us back to God.
III. Jeremiah could not bring the image of the potter’s work to bear with its proper force upon Israelites at that moment if he confined the purpose of God within the limits which they had fixed for it As he gazed on the potter and saw how one piece of clay after another was marred, and yet how the thing he designed was at last done; it came with an awful vision of what was preparing for his land, with a bright vision of what must ultimately follow from every judgment. That which seemed now compact, and yet which consisted of elements that were always ready to separate from each other, might split into fragments: but the vessel must be made: not after some different type, but after the original and perfect type which dwelt not in the dead matter but in the living mind of Him who was shaping it.
F. D. Maurice, Prophets and Kings of the Old Testament, p. 395.
Reference: Jer 18:1-10.—E. H. Plumptre, Expositor, 1st series, vol. iv., p. 469.
The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain On v1 Jer 17:1. - 2Co 3:3. - Col 2:14.
Jeremiah
SIN’S WRITING AND ITS ERASURE
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Jer 17:1. - 2Co 3:3. - Col 2:14.
I have put these verses together because they all deal with substantially the same metaphor. The first is part of a prophet’s solemn appeal. It describes the sin of the nation as indelible. It is written in two places. First, on their hearts, which reminds us of the promise of the new covenant to be written on the heart. The ‘red-leaved tablets of the heart’ are like waxen tables on which an iron stylus makes a deep mark, an ineradicable scar. So Judah’s sin is, as it were, eaten into their heart, or, if we might so say, tattooed on it. It is also written on the stone horns of the altar, with a diamond which can cut the rock {an illustration of ancient knowledge of the properties of the diamond}. That sounds a strange place for the record of sin to appear, but the image has profound meaning, as we shall see presently.
Then the two New Testament passages deal with other applications of the same metaphor. Christ is, in the first, represented as writing on the hearts of the Corinthians, and in the second, as taking away ‘the handwriting contrary to us.’ The general thought drawn from all is that sin’s writing on men’s hearts is erased by Christ and a new inscription substituted.
I. The handwriting of sin.
Sin committed is indelibly written on the heart of the doer.
‘The heart,’ of course, in Hebrew means more than merely the supposed seat of the affections. It is figuratively the centre of the spiritual life, just as physically it is the centre of the natural. Thoughts and affections, purposes and desires are all included, and out of it are ‘the issues of life,’ the whole outgoings of the being. It is the fountain and source of all the activity of the man, the central unity from which all comes. Taken in this wide sense it is really the whole inner self that is meant, or, as is said in one place, ‘the hidden man of the heart.’ And so the thought in this vigorous metaphor may be otherwise put, that all sin makes indelible marks on the whole inward nature of the man who does it.
Now to begin with, think for a moment of that truth that everything which we do reacts on us the doers.
We seldom think of this. Deeds are done, and we fancy that when done, they are done with. They pass, as far as outward seeming goes, and their distinguishable consequences in the outward world, in the vast majority of cases, soon apparently pass. All seems evanescent and irrecoverable as last year’s snows, or the water that flowed over the cataract a century ago. But there is nothing more certain than that all which we do leaves indelible traces on ourselves. The mightiest effect of a man’s actions is on his own inward life. The recoil of the gun is more powerful than the blow from its shot. Our actions strike inwards and there produce their most important effects. The river runs ceaselessly and its waters pass away, but they bring down soil, which is deposited and makes firm land, or perhaps they carry down grains of gold.
This is the true solemnity of life, that in all which we do we are carrying on a double process, influencing others indeed, but influencing ourselves far more.
Consider the illustrations of this law in regard to our sins.
Now the last thing people think of when they hear sermons about ‘sin’ is that what is meant is the things that they are doing every day. I can only ask you to try to remember, while I speak, that I mean those little acts of temper, or triflings with truth, or yieldings to passion or anger, or indulgence in sensuality, and above all, the living without God, to which we are all prone.
{a} All wrong-doing makes indelible marks on character. It makes its own repetition easier. Habit strengthens inclination. Peter found denying his Lord three times easier than doing it once. It weakens resistance. In going downhill the first step is the only one that needs an effort; gravity will do the rest.
It drags after it a tendency to other evil. All wrong things have so much in common that they lead on to one another. A man with only one vice is a rare phenomenon. Satan sends his apostles forth two by two. Sins hunt in couples, or more usually in packs, like wolves, only now and then do they prey alone like lions. Small thieves open windows for greater ones. It requires continually increasing draughts, like indulgence in stimulants. The palate demands cayenne tomorrow, if it has had black pepper to-day.
So, whatever else we do by our acts, we are making our own characters, either steadily depraving or steadily improving them. There will come a slight slow change, almost unnoticed but most certain, as a dim film will creep over the peach, robbing it of all its bloom, or some microscopic growth will steal across a clearly cut inscription, or a breath of mist will dim a polished steel mirror.
{b} All wrong-doing writes indelible records on the memory, that awful and mysterious power of recalling past things out of the oblivion in which they seem to lie. How solemn and miserable it is to defile it with the pictures of things evil! Many a man in his later years has tried to ‘turn over a new leaf,’ and has never been able to get the filth out of his memory, for it has been printed on the old page in such strong colours that it shines through. I beseech you all, and especially you young people, to keep yourselves ‘innocent of much transgression,’ and ‘simple concerning evil’-to make your memories like an illuminated missal with fair saints and calm angels bordering the holy words, and not an Illustrated Police News. Probably there is no real oblivion. Each act sinks in as if forgotten, gets overlaid with a multitude of others, but it is there, and memory will one day bring it to us.
And all sin pollutes the imagination. It is a miserable thing to have one’s mind full of ugly foul forms painted on the inner walls of our chamber of imagery, like the hideous figures in some heathen temple, where gods of lust and murder look out from every inch of space on the walls.
{c} All wrong-doing writes indelible records on the conscience. It does so partly by sophisticating it-the sensibility to right and wrong being weakened by every evil act, as a cold in the head takes away the sense of smell. It brings on colour-blindness to some extent. One does not know how far one may go towards ‘Evil! be thou my good’-or how far towards incapacity of distinguishing evil. But at all events the tendency of each sin is in that direction. So conscience may become seared, though perhaps never so completely as that there are no intervals when it speaks. It may long lie dormant, as Vesuvius did, till great trees grow on the floor of the crater, but all the while the communication with the central fires is open, and one day they will burst out.
The writing may be with invisible ink, but it will be legible one day. So, then, all this solemn writing on the heart is done by ourselves. What are you writing? There is a presumption in it of a future retribution, when you will have to read your autobiography, with clearer light and power of judging yourselves. At any rate there is retribution now, which is described by many metaphors, such as sowing and reaping, drinking as we have brewed, and others-but this one of indelible writing is not the least striking.
Sin is graven deep on sinful men’s worship.
The metaphor here is striking and not altogether clear. The question rises whether the altars are idolatrous altars, or Jehovah’s. If the former, the expression may mean simply that the Jews’ idolatry, which was their sin, was conspicuously displayed in these altars, and had, as it were, its most flagrant record in their sacrifices. The altar was the centre point of all heathen and Old Testament worship, and altars built by sinners were the most conspicuous evidences of their sins.
So the meaning would be that men’s sin shapes and culminates in their religion; and that is very true, and explains many of the profanations and abominations of heathenism, and much of the formal worship of so-called Christianity.
For instance, a popular religion which is a mere Deism, a kind of vague belief in a providence, and in a future state where everybody is happy, is but the product of men’s sin, striking out of Christianity all which their sin makes unwelcome in it. The justice of God, punishment, sinfulness of sin, high moral tone, are all gone. And the very horns of their altars are marked with the signs of the worshippers’ sin.
But the ‘altars’ may be God’s altars, and then another idea will come in. The horns of the altar were the places where the blood of the sacrifice was smeared, as token of its offering to God. They were then a part of the ritual of propitiation. They had, no doubt, the same meaning in the heathen ritual. And so regarded, the metaphor means that a sense of the reality of sin shapes sacrificial religion.
There can be no doubt that a very real conviction of sin lies at the foundation of much, if not all, of the system of sacrifices. And it is a question well worth considering whether a conviction so widespread is not valid, and whether we should not see in it the expression of a true human need which no mere culture, or the like, will supply.
At all events, altars stand as witnesses to the consciousness of sin. And the same thought may be applied to much of the popular religion of this day. It may be ineffectual and shallow but it bears witness to a consciousness of evil. So its existence may be used in order to urge profounder realisation of evil on men. You come to worship, you join in confessions, you say ‘miserable sinners’-do you mean anything by it? If all that be true, should it not produce a deeper impression on you?
But another way of regarding the metaphor is this. The horns of the altar were to be touched with the blood of propitiation. But look! the blood flows down, and after it has trickled away, there, deep carven on the horns, still appears the sin, i.e. the sin is not expiated by the sinner’s sacrifice. Jeremiah is then echoing Isaiah’s word, ‘Bring no more vain oblations.’ The picture gives very strikingly the hopelessness, so far as men are concerned, of any attempt to blot out this record. It is like the rock-cut cartouches of Egypt on which time seems to have no effect. There they abide deep for ever. Nothing that we can do can efface them. ‘What I have written, I have written.’ Pen-knives and detergents that we can use are all in vain.
II. Sin’s writing may be erased, and another put in its place.
The work of Christ, made ours by faith, blots it out.
{a} Its influence on conscience and the sense of guilt. The accusations of conscience are silenced. A red line is drawn across the indictment, or, as Colossians has it, it is ‘nailed to the cross.’ There is power in His death to set us free from the debt we owe.
{b} Its influence on memory. Christ does not bring oblivion, but yet takes away the remorse of remembrance. Faith in Christ makes memory no longer a record which we blush to turn over, or upon which we gloat with imaginative delight in guilty pleasures past, but a record of our shortcomings that humbles us with a penitence which is not pain, but serves as a beacon and warning for the time to come. He who has a clear beam of memory on his backward track, and a bright light of hope on his forward one, will steer right.
{c} Its influence on character.
We attain new hopes and tastes. ‘We become epistles of Christ known and read of all men,’ like palimpsests, Homer or Ovid written over with the New Testament gospels or epistles.
Christ’s work is twofold, erasure and rewriting. For the one, ‘I will blot out as a cloud their transgressions.’ None but He can remove these. For the other, ‘I will put My law into their minds and will write it on their hearts.’ He can impress all holy desires on, and can put His great love and His mighty spirit into, our hearts.
So give your hearts to Him. They are all scrawled over with hideous and wicked writing that has sunk deep into their substance. Graven as if on rock are your sins in your character. Your worship and sacrifices will not remove them, but Jesus Christ can. He died that you might be forgiven, He lives that you may be purified. Trust yourself to Him, and lean all your sinfulness on His atonement and sanctifying power, and the foul words and bad thoughts that have been scored so deep into your nature will be erased, and His own hand will trace on the page, poor and thin though it be, which has been whitened by His blood, the fair letters and shapes of His own likeness. Do not let your hearts be the devil’s copybooks for all evil things to scrawl their names there, as boys do on the walls, but spread them before Him, and ask Him to make them clean and write upon them His new name, indicating that you now belong to another, as a new owner writes his name on a book that he has bought.
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain On v1 1-4. The sin of Judah is indelible. Hence the…
1-4. The sin of Judah is indelible. Hence the severity of the punishment.
2. Groves] RV 'Asherim,' wooden pillars, or monuments, set up in honour of Astoreth (Astarte), generally near altars (e.g. Jdg_6:25). The Law ordered them to be pulled down (Exo_34:13).
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3. O my mountain in the field] The hill on which Jerusalem is built rises high above the plain. On the other hand, it is lower than the surrounding mountains, hence can be spoken of as a 'valley' in Jer_21:13. For sin] i.e. because of sin.
5-8. God alone is worthy of trust.
6. The heath] RM 'a tamarisk.' The figure is that of a barren, profitless life.
7, 8. Note the parallels to Psalms 1. But which has been influenced by the other is a question more difficult than important.
8. See] RV 'fear.'
Careful] i.e. anxious.
9-11. God searches out and punishes evil.
11. RV 'As the partridge that gathereth young which she hath not brought forth,' and which will soon fly away—a popular belief of which Jeremiah avails himself to illustrate the truth that riches unlawfully gotten are a precarious possession.
12-18. God is the Saviour of the faithful.
12, 13. Connected with the preceding v. The covetous man will be disappointed; and all they who forsake Jehovah and His sanctuary shall not endure.
12. Place of our sanctuary] i.e. Zion, where Jehovah's glory abode.
13. Shall be written in the earth] i.e. shall disappear—a natural simile, a board covered with sand being used for writing lessons in Eastern schools to this day, owing to the scarcity of writing materials.
15. See intro. to Jeremiah 16.
16. I have not hastened, etc.] I have not sought to resign the office of assistant shepherd for Thy people. The woeful day] when his predictions would be fulfilled.
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On v1 The Lord
The Lord
Or, JEHOVAH. Psa 83:18.
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain On v1 1. Judah’s sin (Jer 17:1-4)
CHAPTER 17
1. Judah’s sin (Jer 17:1-4)
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2. The curse and the blessing (Jer 17:5-11)
3. The worship of Jeremiah (Jer 17:12-18)
4. Concerning the Sabbath (Jer 17:19-27)
Jer 17:1-4. The sin of Judah was idolatry, engraven with a pen of iron, the point of a diamond, upon their heart (from whence it proceeded) and upon the horns of their altars. They had destroyed but a few years before the asherim (translated groves, a kind of sacred post), and now their children turned back to the abominable heathen cults. His anger and judgment must now be their portion.
Jer 17:5-11. A curse is pronounced upon him who trusteth in man, who departeth from the Lord. For such a one there is no hope; he shall not see good; he must be an outcast, like the heath in the desert. And such is the natural condition of man, his heart is departed from the Lord, he trusteth in himself, making flesh his arm to defend and to uphold. But blessing is for the man who trusteth in the Lord, whose hope the Lord is. Jer 17:8 contains the same truth as Psa 1:3. It is a description of the God-fearing in Israel, who knew the Lord, trusted and hoped in Him. He had called them to this place of blessing; He had encouraged them to trust in Him; He had manifested His glory and His power in their midst. But they turned away from Him, they leaned not on Him, but on the arm of flesh, on Egypt. The heart is the source of it, deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. The question, “Who can know it?” is answered, “I the LORD search the heart.” He has sounded the depths of it and in His omniscience knew the shameful history of Israel, and all their backsliding. So He knew and knows what we are, yet in sovereign love and grace He has loved us and bears with His own.
Jer 17:12-18. The worship of the prophet stands here also for the worship and soul exercise of the godly remnant of the Lord’s people. The sanctuary of the godly is the glorious high throne, that throne which we know as the throne of grace. In Jer 17:14 there is expressed by the prophet in behalf of the God-fearing the need of His salvation. They mocked the prophet, “Where is the Word of the LORD? Let it come.” So they will hate the remnant of the future Isa 66:5. And we know the prediction in Peter’s second Epistle 2Pe 3:1-18. Jer 17:18 corresponds to the imprecatory psalms. What Jeremiah prays, was fulfilled upon that evil generation; and some day the imprecatory psalms will be fulfilled when the Lord deals again in judgment with the nation.
Jer 17:19-27. Kuenen and other critics deny the Jeremianic authorship of this passage. It is not out of keeping with the message of the prophet. The Sabbath of which he is commanded to speak is the standard of Israel’s spiritual condition, for it is the weekly reminder of Israel’s covenant relation with Jehovah. If they neglected the divine command, as they always did in their departure from the Lord, it was the outward evidence that they had broken the covenant. If they really returned to the Lord they would show it by keeping the solemn Sabbaths and the Lord would bless them. But they obeyed not. This passage as well as others is used by the pernicious Seventh Day Adventistic cult, which denies grace and turns back to the law. But the Sabbath has nothing to do with the Church, nor has the Church anything to do with the Sabbath. The Sabbath is an institution of the law in connection with Israel. The great documents addressed to the church, the Epistles, never mention the Sabbath once, nor is there anywhere in the Epistles an exhortation to keep the Sabbath.
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On v1 The Reason for Judah’s Rejection
The Reason for Judah’s Rejection
v. 1. The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron, as with a stylus which was used for writing on wax tablets in ancient times, and with the point of a diamond, which was used for etching words into metal surfaces; it is graven upon the table of their heart, deep and ineradicable, with a lasting impression, and upon the horns of your altars, where they wrote the names of their idols,
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v. 2. whilst their children, the entire nation, remember their altars and their groves by the green trees upon the high hills, that is, they were so deeply steeped in idolatry that the mere sight of a green tree and of a high hill awoke in them the remembrance of those terrible altars and of the Asherah images which they had erected there.
v. 3. O my mountain in the field, Jerusalem, and especially Zion and the Temple, I will give thy substance and all thy treasures to the spoil, into the possession of the enemies, and thy high places for sin, on account of the wickedness of the people, because they had been used for idolatrous sacrifices, throughout all thy borders.
v. 4. And thou, even thyself, shall discontinue from thine heritage that I gave thee, disowned, cast out of their land; and I will cause thee to serve thine enemies in the land which thou knowest not; for ye have kindled a fire in Mine anger which shall burn forever. Thus the Jews would lose their inheritance by their own fault, and those who persisted in their godless ways would be subject to the eternal wrath of a holy God, in the same way in which the idolaters of our days will experience it.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 3 General Information:
General Information:
Jeremiah often wrote prophecy in the form of poetry. Hebrew poetry uses different kinds of parallelism. (See: Poetry and Parallelism)
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The sin of Judah is written ... on the horns of your altars
Yahweh speaks of Judah's sins being so great that they cannot stop committing them as if someone had engraved their sin permanently. (See: Metaphor)
The sin of Judah is written
Here the word "Judah" represents the people of Judah. This may be expressed in active form. AT: "Someone has written the sin of Judah" (See: Active or Passive)
It is engraved
This may be expressed in active form. AT: "Someone has engraved it" (See: Active or Passive)
engraved on the tablet of their hearts
The sinful habits of the people are spoken of as if their sins had been engraved on their own hearts. The word "hearts" refers to the whole person: their thoughts, emotions, and actions. AT: "engraved in their very beings" (See: Synecdoche)
on the horns of your altars
The word "horns" refers to the projections on the corners of the altars.
translationWords
sin
kingdom of Judah
heart
horn
altar
children
Asherah
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1–4 17:1-4 The families of Judah were committed to Baal…
17:1-4 The families of Judah were committed to Baal worship; once again, the Lord listed the sins that justified their judgment.
17:1 A stone mason used an iron chisel or a diamond point to permanently inscribe images and texts on stones. Idol worship had so hardened the thoughts, emotions, and will of the people that it seemed impossible for them to change. • In Old Testament times, the corners of . . . altars had projections called “horns” (e.g., Exod 27:1-2). According to covenant rules, when an animal sacrifice was offered, blood was applied to these horns. How Baal worshipers treated them is unknown.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.