“If you will return, Israel,” says Yahweh, “if you will return to me, and if you will put away your abominations out of my sight; then you will not be removed; and you will swear, ‘As Yahweh lives,’ in truth, in justice, and in righteousness. The nations will bless themselves in him, and they will glory in him.”
For Yahweh says to the men of Judah and to Jerusalem, “Break up your fallow ground, and don’t sow among thorns. Circumcise yourselves to Yahweh, and take away the foreskins of your heart, you men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem; lest my wrath go out like fire, and burn so that no one can quench it, because of the evil of your doings.
John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv1–4 The Prophet no doubt requires here from the people…
The Prophet no doubt requires here from the people a sincere return to God, inasmuch as they had often pretended to confess their sins, and had given many signs of repentance, while they were acting deceitfully with him. As then they had often dealt falsely with God and with his prophets, Jeremiah bids them to return to God without any disguise and in good faith. With regard to what is here substantially taught, this is the Prophet’s meaning; but there is some ambiguity in the words.
Some read thus, “If thou returnest, Israel, to me, saith Jehovah, “connecting “to me, אלי, “with the first clause, then they read separately “תשוב, teshub, thou shalt rest;” and so they think that what follows is the repetition of the same thing, “If thou wilt take away thine abominations from before me, thou shalt not migrate;” that is, I will not cast thee out as I have threatened. Others take the verb תשוב, teshub, in the same sense, (for it is the same verb repeated,) “If thou wilt return, Israel, return to me.” The Prophet doubtless bids the Israelites to return to God in sincerity, and without any disguise, and not to act falsely with him, as they had often done.
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I have as yet mentioned only what others have thought; but, in my judgment, the most suitable rendering is, “If thou wilt return, Israel, rest in me, “arrete toi, as we say in French. Rest then in me; and then a definition is given, If thou wilt take away thine abominations (for the copulative is to be taken as expletive or explanatory) from my sight, and wilt not wander What some of those I have referred to have given as their rendering, “If thou wilt return to me, Israel, thou shalt rest,” I wholly reject, as it seems forced: but I allow this reading, “If thou wilt return, Israel, thou shalt rest in me;” or this, “If thou wilt return, Israel, return to me;” for the difference is not great. The Prophet here evidently condemns the hypocrisy which the Israelites had practiced; for they had often professed themselves as ready to render obedience to God, and afterwards proved that they had made a false profession. Since then deceit and emptiness had been so often found in them, the Prophet demands here, in the name and by the command of God, that they should in truth and sincerity return to him.
If this reading be approved, “Israel, return to me,” the intimation is, that they ever took circuitous courses, that they might not return directly to God: for it is usual with hypocrites to make a great show of repentance and at the same time to shun God. If then we follow this reading, the Prophet means this, “Israel, there is no reason for thee hereafter to think that thou gainest anything by boasting with thy mouth of thy repentance; return to me; know that thou hast to do with God, who is not deceived, as he never deceives any: return then faithfully to me, and let thy conversion be sincere and in no way deceptive.”
But if the verb, תשוב, teshub, be taken in the other sense, there would be no great difference in the meaning; “If thou wilt return, Israel, thou shalt rest in me;” that is, thou shalt hereafter have nothing to do with idols and with thy perverted ways. Thus the Prophet briefly shews that the return of Israel would be nothing, except they acquiesced in God alone, and wandered not after vain objects, as they had often done. And with this view corresponds what follows, “Even if thou takest away (for the copulative, as I have said, is to be taken as explanatory) thine abominations from my sight, and wilt wander no more, ולא תנוד, vela tanud.” For the vice which Jeremiah meant especially to condemn was this, — that Israel, while pretending a great show of religion, yet vacillated and did not devote themselves with all their heart to God, but were changeable in their purpose. This vice then is what Jeremiah justly condemns; and hence I am disposed to embrace this view “Israel, if thou wilt return, rest in me;” that is, continue constantly faithful to me: but how can this be done? “Even if thou wilt take away thy abominations, and if thou wilt not wander;” for thy levity and inconstancy hitherto has been well known.
Whatever view we may take, this passage deserves to be noticed as being against hypocrites, who dare not openly to reject prophetic warnings; but while they shew some tokens of repentance, they still by windings shun the presence of God. They indeed testify by their mouth that they seek God, but yet have recourse to subterfuges: and hence I have said that this passage is remarkably useful, so that we may know that God cannot be pacified by those fallacious trifles which hypocrites bring forward, but that he requires a sincere heart, and that he abominates all dissimulation. It is therefore expressly said, If thou wilt take away thy abominations from my sight For hypocrites ever regard display and seek to be approved by men, and are satisfied with their approbation; but God calls their attention to himself. It must at the same time be observed, that he cannot be deceived; for he is the searcher of hearts. It follows —
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, 2, 4 That is, wholly, and without hypocrisy, Joel 2:12, not…
That is, wholly, and without hypocrisy, Joel 2:12, not dissembling to turn and serve God as they do which serve him by halves, as Hos. 7:16.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv1–4 Jer 4:1 If thou wilt return, O Israel, saith…
Jer 4:1 If thou wilt return, O Israel, saith the LORD, return unto me: and if thou wilt put away thine abominations out of my sight, then shalt thou not remove.
Ver. 1. If thou wilt return, O Israel.] As thou seemest willing to do, and for very good reason. {Jer 2:22-24} Thou art but a beaten rebel, and to stand it out with me is to no purpose; thou must either turn or burn. Neither will it help thee to return fainly, for I love truth in the inward parts, and hate hypocrisy, halting, and tepidity. If therefore thou wilt return,
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Return unto me.] Return as far as to me; not from one evil course to another, {Jer 2:36} for that is but to be tossed as a ball from one of the devil’s hands to the other, but "to me with thy whole heart," seriously, sincerely, and zealously; for Non amat, qui non zelat. To a tyrant thou shalt not turn, but to one that will both assist thee, {Pro 1:23} and accept thee. {Zec 1:2}
And if thou wilt put away thine abominations out of my sight,] i.e., Thine idols out of thine house and out of thine heart. {Eze 14:3-4}
Then shalt thou not remove.] But still dwell in the land and do good; feeding on faith, as Tremellius rendereth that Psa 37:3.
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Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv1–4 Return unto me: this seems to be a continuation…
Return unto me: this seems to be a continuation of the former sermon; so that Israel having promised repentance, they are here directed how it must be qualified, viz. it must not be hypocritical and reigned, but real and hearty, Jer 24:7, as Josiah’s was, 2Ki 23:25; and it must be unto the Lord; not to this idol and that idol, hither and thither, shifting their way; but unto me; see Jer 2:36; or to my worship, and as thou hast promised, Jer 3:22. And this sense agrees best with the coherence. Or it maybe all emphatical, short, peremptory expression; If thou wilt return, return; make no longer demur or delay about it; like that Isa 21:12. The Hebrew read the words in the future tense, if thou wilt return, thou shalt return; and so they may be taken partly as a promise, and that with reference either to their returning into their own land; and so they concern Israel; thus Deu 30:2-5; see Jer 3:14. But if the word be taken in the notion of resting, not returning, as some do, and as it is taken Isa 30:15, then it rather concerns Judah: q. d. Thou shalt abide quietly where thou art, and shalt not wander into captivity; and this may agree with the last expression in the verse,
not remove. Or else with reference to the assistance that God would give them to return unto him; partly, and that rather, as a direction (for in the Hebrew, though the word return be in the future tense, yet it is often used imperatively).
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Abominations, viz. idols, a metonymy of the adjunct, which are so abominable in God’s sight, Deu 27:15; Eze 20:7,8; called dungy gods, Deu 29:17. See 2Ch 15:8.
Out of my sight; though God’s eye be every where; and hence implieth that idols are no where to be admitted, either in private or public; yet it doth particularly relate to the place of his more immediate presence, as their land and temple, 1Ki 9:3, and spiritually to our hearts, hypocrites thinking it enough if they conceal their wickedness from man’s eye.
Then shalt thou not remove: if this be read imperatively, then it is,
remove not, as it may be read; and so it agrees with Israel, Depart not away from me to thy idols upon the mountains and hills: if read in the future tense, then it agrees with Judah, Thou shalt not go out of thine own land into exile. See the first clause of the verse.
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 vv1, 3 When God called to backsliding Israel to return (Jer…
When God called to backsliding Israel to return (Jer 3:22) they immediately answered, Lord, we return; now God here takes notice of their answer, and, by way of reply to it,
I. He directs them how to pursue their good resolutions: "Dost thou say, I will return?" 1. "Then thou must return unto me; make a thorough work of it. Do not only turn from thy idolatries, but return to the instituted worship of the God of Israel." Or, "Thou must return speedily and not delay (as Isa 21:12, If you will enquire, enquire you); if you will return unto me, return you: do not talk of it, but do it." 2. "Thou must utterly abandon all sin, and not retain any of the relics of idolatry: Put away thy abominations out of my sight," that is, out of all places (for every place is under the eye of God), especially out of the temple, the house which he had in a particular manner his eye upon, to see that it was kept clean. It intimates that their idolatries were not only obvious, but offensive, to the eye of God. They were abominations which he could not endure the sight of; therefore they must be put away out of his sight, because they were a provocation to the pure eyes of God's glory. Sin must be put away out of the heart, else it is not put away out of God's sight, for the heart and all that is in it lie open before his eye. 3. They must not return to sin again; so some understand that, Thou shalt not remove, reading it, Thou shalt not, or must not, wander. "If thou wilt put away thy abominations, and wilt not wander after them again, as thou hast done, all shall be well." 4. They must give unto God the glory due unto his name (Jer 4:2): "Thou shalt sear, The Lord liveth. His existence shall be with thee the most sacred fact, than which nothing can be more sure, and his judgment the supreme court to which thou shalt appeal, than which nothing can be more awful." Swearing is an act of religious worship, in which we are to give honour to God three ways: - (1.) We must swear by the true God only, and not by creatures, or any false gods, - by the God that liveth, not by the gods that are deaf and dumb and dead, - by him only, and not by the Lord and by Malcham, as Zac 1:5. (2.) We must swear that only which is true, in truth and in righteousness, not daring to assert that which is false, or which we do not know to be true, nor to assert that as certain which is doubtful, nor to promise that which we mean not to perform, nor to violate the promise we have made. To say that which is untrue, or to do that which is unrighteous, is bad, but to back either with an oath is much worse. (3.) We must do it solemnly, swear in judgment, that is, when judicially called to it, and not in common conversation. Rash swearing is as great a profanation of God's name as solemn swearing is an honour to it. See Deu 10:20; Mat 5:34, Mat 5:37.
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II. He encourages them to keep in this good mind and adhere to their resolutions. If the scattered Israelites will thus return to God, 1. They shall be blessed themselves; for to that sense the first words may be read: "If thou wilt return to me, then thou shalt return, that is, thou shalt be brought back out of thy captivity into thy own land again, as was of old promised," Deu 4:29; Deu 30:2. Or, "Then thou shalt rest in me, shalt return to me as they rest, even while thou art in the land of thy captivity." 2. They shall be blessings to others; for their returning to God again will be a means of others turning to him who never new him. If thou wilt own the living Lord, thou wilt thereby influence the nations among whom thou art to bless themselves in him, to place their happiness in his favour and to think themselves happy in being brought to the fear of him. See Isa 65:16. They shall bless themselves in the God of truth, and not in false gods, shall do themselves the honour, and give themselves the satisfaction, to join themselves to him; and then in him shall they glory; they shall make him their glory, and shall please, nay, shall pride, themselves in the blessed change they have made. Those that part with their sins to return to God, however they scrupled at the bargain at first, when they go away, then they boast.
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 If thou wilt return, O Israel, saith the Lord,....…
If thou wilt return, O Israel, saith the Lord,.... To which they had been encouraged, and as they had promised they would, and said they did, Jer 3:14,
return unto me; with thy whole heart, and not feignedly and hypocritically, as Judah did, Jer 3:10. Some render the words (and the accents require they should be rendered so) "if thou wilt return to me, O Israel, saith the Lord, thou shalt return" (l); that is, to thine own land, being now in captivity; or, "thou shalt rest" (m); or "have rest"; so Kimchi interprets the last word; see Jer 30:10, and these words may very well be considered as the words of Christ, and as spoken by him, when he entered upon his ministry, who began it with calling the people of the Jews to repentance, and promising to give them rest; and all such who return to God by repentance, and come to Christ by faith, find spiritual rest for their souls now, and shall have an eternal rest hereafter, Mat 4:17,
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and if thou wilt put away thine abominations out of my sight; not only their sins, but their self-righteousness, and dependence upon it; the rites and ceremonies of the old law abolished by Christ, together with the traditions of the elders, by which they made void the commandments of God; all which were abominations in the sight of the Lord, Isa 1:13,
then shalt thou not remove; from thine own land again when restored, or further off, into more distant countries, for they were now in captivity; or rather the words may be rendered, not as a promise, but as a continuation of what is before said,
and not move to and fro (n); or be unstable and wavering, tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine, and precept of men; but be established in the faith of the Gospel, and steadfast and immovable in every good work. The Targum is:
"if thou wilt return, O Israel, to my worship, saith the Lord, thy return shall be received before thy decree is sealed; and if thou wilt take away thine abominations from before me, thou shalt not be moved;''
or wander about.
(l) "si reverteris ad me, O Israel, dicit Jehovah, reverteris", Gataker, (m) "quiescas", Vatablus; "quiesce apud me", Calvin. (n) "et non vagaberis", Gatatker; "et non instabilis fueris", Cocceius,
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 An invitation to true repentance, by promises, ver. 1-4.…
An invitation to true repentance, by promises, ver. 1-4. And judgments coming on them by the Babylonians, contrary to the predictions of their false prophets, for their sins, ver. 5-18. A grievous lamentation for the miseries of Judah, ver. 19-31.
If - If thou wilt return, return; make no longer delay. Remove - Thou shalt not go out of thine own land into exile.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv1–4 Sequel of the exhortations and promises addressed to Israel…
CHAPTER IV
Sequel of the exhortations and promises addressed to Israel in
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the preceding chapter, 1, 2.
The prophet then addresses the people of Judah and Jerusalem,
exhorting to repentance and reformation, that the dreadful
visitation with which they were threatened might be averted,
3, 4.
He then sounds the alarm of war, 5, 6.
Nebuchadnezzar, like a fierce lion, is, from the certainty of
the prophecy, represented to be on his march; and the
disastrous event to have been already declared, 7-9.
And as the lying prophets had flattered the people with the
hopes of peace and safety, they are now introduced, (when their
predictions are falsified by the event,) excusing themselves;
and, with matchless effrontery, laying the blame of the
deception upon God, ("And they said," c., so the text is
corrected by Kennicott,) 10.
The prophet immediately resumes his subject and, in the person
of God, denounces again those judgments which were shortly to
be inflicted by Nebuchadnezzar, 11-18.
The approaching desolation of Jerusalem lamented in language
amazingly energetic and exquisitely tender, 19-21.
The incorrigible wickedness of the people the sole cause of
these calamities, 22.
In the remaining verses the prophet describes the sad
catastrophe of Jerusalem by such a beautiful assemblage of the
most striking and afflictive circumstances as form a picture of
a land "swept with the besom of destruction." The earth seems
ready to return to its original chaos; every ray of light is
extinguished, and succeeded by a frightful gloom; the mountains
tremble, and the hills shake, under the dreadful apprehension
of the wrath of Jehovah; all is one awful solitude, where not a
vestige of the human race is to be seen. Even the fowls of
heaven, finding no longer whereon to subsist, are compelled to
migrate; the most fruitful places are become a dark and dreary
desert, and every city is a ruinous heap. To complete the
whole, the dolorous shrieks of Jerusalem, as of a woman in
peculiar agony, break through the frightful gloom; and the
appalled prophet pauses, leaving the reader to reflect on the
dreadful effects of apostasy and idolatry, 23-31.
NOTES ON CHAP. IV
Verse 1. Shalt thou not remove.] This was spoken before the Babylonish captivity; and here is a promise that if they will return from their idolatry, they shall not be led into captivity. So, even that positively threatened judgment would have been averted had they returned to the Lord.
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 4:1. If thou wilt return, O Israel, return…
Jer 4:1. If thou wilt return, O Israel, return unto me — Israel having promised repentance in the latter part of the preceding chapter, they are here directed what sort of a repentance it must be; that it must not be hypocritical and feigned, but real and hearty; not deferred to another time, but immediate, without any delay; the words being not improperly interpreted, as they are by many, If thou wilt return, return now. Repentance, if it be delayed from time to time, is seldom ever put in execution; and therefore there cannot be a more useful admonition than to put our good resolutions immediately in practice. Blaney, who considers the clause as being principally intended to assure them “that upon their conversion they should be accepted and received again into the bosom of God’s church, from which they had before apostatized,” translates it very literally, thus, “If thou wilt turn again, O Israel, saith Jehovah, unto me shalt thou return.” And if thou wilt put away thine abominations — Thine evil practices, and especially thine idolatries, as the word שׁקציםcommonly signifies: out of my sight — Hebrew, מפני, from before me: though God’s eye be everywhere, and therefore, as is implied, idols are nowhere to be admitted, either in public or private, yet the expression particularly relates to the place of his more immediate presence, as their land and the place of his solemn worship. Then shalt thou not remove — Thou shalt be restored to thine ancient inheritance, and shalt be established in the peaceable possession of it. As if he had said, If thou wilt remove thy idols, thou shalt not be removed. The Hebrew, ולא הנוב, may be properly rendered, Then thou shalt not wander, that is, be an unsettled, fugitive, and vagabond people. “In the former part,” says Houbigant, “the conversion of their morals is spoken of; in the latter, the stability of their republic.”
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, 3, 4 Return - The repentance of Israel described in Jer…
Return - The repentance of Israel described in Jer 3:21-25 was a hope, and not a reality. The return, literally, would be their restoration to their land; spiritually, their abandoning their sins.
Jer 4:1-2 should be translated as follows:
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If thou wouldst return, O Israel, saith Yahweh.
Unto Me thou shalt return:
And if thou wouldst remove thy abominations from before Me,
And not wander to and fro,
But wouldst swear truly, uprightly; and justly
By the living Yahweh;
Then shall the pagan bless themselves ... -
In him - In Yahweh. Two great truths are taught in this verse;
(1) that the Gentiles were to be members of the Church of the Messiah;
(2) that Israel’s special office was to be God’s mediator in this great work.
Thus, Jeremiah is in exact accord with the evangelical teaching of Isaiah.
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 vv1–4 Blocks; idols, (Calmet) and other occasions of sin. (Haydock)
Blocks; idols, (Calmet) and other occasions of sin. (Haydock)
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 1 If thou returnest, O Israel, saith Jehovah,
4. THE CALL TO RETURN IN THE PRESENT
Jer_4:1-4
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1 If thou returnest, O Israel, saith Jehovah,
Return unto Me.
And if thou puttest away thine abominations out of my sight,
Then waver not,1
2 But swear ‘As Jehovah liveth!’
In truth and justice and righteousness,
So that the nations bless themselves in him,2
And boast of him.
3 For thus saith Jehovah to the men of Judah and Jerusalem,
Break up your fallow-ground3
And sow not among thorns.
4 Circumcise yourselves to the Lord,
And take away the foreskin of your heart,
Ye men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem;
Lest my fury break forth like fire,
And burn, and there be no quencher,—
On account of the wickedness of your doings.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
The fundamental thought of the whole discourse (Return) is distinctly stamped on the head of this section. True and honest conversion is the indispensable condition of present life. All that the prophet has previously said, partly in severe rebuke, partly in friendly invitation, was to serve as an exhortation to procure an entrance into this life. If the people do not heed this exhortation, they fall inevitably under the just judgment of God.
Jer_4:1. If thou returnest … waver not. These words point back to Jer_3:7; Jer_3:10. The call “Return to me” according to Jer_3:7, had been addressed to Israel in vain. Judah on the other hand, according to Jer_3:10, had been obedient to the call “Return,” but not to the “to me,” for their return was not hearty but hypocritical. We have shown above that by this is meant the reform of Josiah. A hypocritical return is the same as one which is not to the Lord, for the hypocrite avoids indeed the forms in which his sins have hitherto been manifested, but he does not turn positively with his heart to the Lord. The Lord does not therefore allow the conversion occasioned by the reformation under Josiah to be regarded as unto Him. And hence the prophet thus addresses the people: if you would answer the call “Return to me” (Jer_3:7), it must not be done by a return “with falsehood” which is no return to me at all, but by such a conversion as may be truly thus designated.—Comp. Hos. 6:14. An example of such a conversion, “not unto the Lord” is also the reformation of Jehu, 2Ki_9:10 Comp. especially 2Ki_10:31. In the reformation of Josiah, Judah did outwardly put away their abominations out of God’s sight (2Ki_23:4 sqq.) but they were far from directing their hearts fixedly and alone to God. Instead of this they wavered, wishing partly to serve the Lord and partly also their idols. Comp. Zep_1:5. How ambiguous the conduct of the people must then have been is clear from 2Ki_22:14 sqq.; Jer_23:25-27; 2Ch_34:22-28. Comp. Herzog, Real-Enc. VII. 36.—In translating נוּד by “waver” I appeal to the radical signification of the word, “to oscillate,” by virtue of which it is used of the waving of a reed (2Ki_14:15), the flapping of wings (Psa_11:1; Pro_26:2), of the wandering of a fugitive (Gen_4:12) and of the shaking of the head, (Jer_18:16; Psa_44:15). From the meaning of commiserari which it has in several places (Jer_16:5; Jer_48:17, etc.) it is evident that the word is also capable of being transferred to the sphere of spiritual relations.
Jer_4:2. But swear … and boast of him. In swearing by Jehovah in truth, justice and righteousness is included not only that they swear the truth (Lev_19:12; Num_30:3; Jer_5:2 coll. Mat_5:33) but also that they swear by Jehovah alone and not also by idols, as according to Zep_1:5. they then did. To refer בּוֹ to Israel, and then to assume either a change of person or a quotation from Gen_18:18, (coll. Jer_12:3; Jer_22:18; Jer_26:4; Jer_28:14) or to read בְּךָ (as ex. gr.E. Meier) is arbitrary. The reference to God is perfectly justified by the connection. The moral course of Israel is to win over the heathen to God, who is the source of that power by which they pursue this course (1Pe_3:1-2), as on the other hand the sin of Israel is designated as causing the heathen to blaspheme (Rom_2:24, coll. Eze_36:20; Eze_36:23). As in Isa_65:16, so also here התברך בי׳ signifies to recognize God as the source of all blessing, and therefore to seek all blessing only through him. “And boast of him,” refers to the possession of the desired blessing. For they justly boast in a dispenser of blessing, who causes those who bless themselves in his name to appear really blessed. Comp. Isa_41:16; Jer_9:22-23; Psa_34:3; Psa_105:3.
Jer_4:3. For thus saith Jehovah … sow not among thorns. כּי here is not causative but explicative. The words return unto Me, waver not and swear by Jehovah in truth are so explained in what follows as to show plainly that the prophet has in view the hypocritical half-heartedness with which the people submitted to the reformation of Josiah. Break up your fallow-ground is from Hos_10:12. Israel is not to sow on the unemployed field of his heart, but to break it up, as is done with wild land, which is cleansed from weeds only by deep and repeated ploughing. It was just in this that the people failed in Josiah’s reformation. It was a sowing among thorns. Comp. Luk_8:7.
Jer_4:4. Circumcise yourselves to the Lord … your doings. Circumcision to the Lord is opposed to that which is done only in accordance with outward ordinance or custom. The latter is done merely on the body, the former on the heart also, of which sin is the real defiling foreskin. Comp. Lev_26:41; Jer_9:25, coll. Exo_6:12 (Jer_4:10); Jer_6:13. The expression “take away the foreskin of your heart” is a reminiscence from Deu_10:16; Deu_30:6. Comp. Kueper, S. 10.—Men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem, a frequent formula in Jeremiah (Comp. Jer_11:2; Jer_11:12; Jer_17:20; Jer_18:11; Jer_25:2; Jer_35:17, etc.) in which a certain prerogative of the citizens of Jerusalem is recognizable. Comp. Jer_8:1; Jer_13:13; Jer_19:3.—My fury, etc. Comp. Amo_5:6; Jer_7:20.—The words on account of the wickedness, etc. (coll. 21:22; Jer_23:2; Jer_26:3; Jer_44:22) are from Deu_28:20. The prophet in these words prepares the way for the transition to the second main division. Israel obeys not the call, the fury of the Lord must therefore break forth. The manner in which this will take place is described in section second.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. On Jer_4:1. Mere turning from earthly things without positive returning to God, the pole of the soul, is not true repentance. So long as the prodigal son, after the loss of all earthly goods, had not formed the resolution of returning to his father, he was not yet in a penitent condition. A man, who should denounce this or that sin, but yet not devote himself wholly and decidedly to God, would thus give no guarantee of the genuineness or permanence of his conversion. Comp. what is said of following Jesus, Mat_19:16; Luk_9:59 sqq. For repentance to be honest, it must have the right object, i. e. it must be towards God.—Cramer.
2. On Jer_4:2. Swearing by Jehovah involves the acknowledgment of His deity. For no one would swear by Him who was not convinced that He is the witness of truth and the avenger of false-hood. But when one swears by others he robs God of His glory and gives it to idols; Isa_42:8.
3. On Jer_4:3. Rooting out weeds from the field of the heart is the most difficult part of repentance. Many would receive the gospel gladly if they were permitted to leave the thorns and sow the seed of the gospel among them. Comp. Mat_6:24; 1Ki_18:21.
4. On Jer_4:4. We Christians also know of a double circumcision, a bodily and a spiritual, which however are not related to each other, as the bodily and spiritual circumcision of Judaism. For according to Col_2:11 baptism corresponds to conversion as the περιτομὴ ἀχειροποιητός, as the ἀπέκδυσις τοῦ σώματος τῆς σαρκός. Thus the sacrament of baptism is the spiritual and bodily basis of the περιτομὴ τῆς καρδίας, which is spoken of in Php_3:3, coll. Rom_2:29; Rom_6:1 sqq.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
1. Origen treats this passage in his peculiar style in his fifth homily on Jeremiah. Vide S. 149 and 164 sqq., ed. Lommatzsch.
2. On Jer_4:3. “We Christians also, like the Jews, love to sow under the hedges. We allow the divine word to be strewn on the field of our heart, we hear and read God’s word on week-days and Sundays, but we also allow the thickets of evil passions and sinful habits to grow on.”—Hochstetter, 12 Parables (12 Gleichnisse, etc., S. 10).
3. True repentance consists (a) in decided turning away from evil (not sowing among the thorns but breaking up new ground); (b) in decided turning to God (positive devotion to God alone, Jer_4:1, so that He alone is served and worshipped, Jer_4:2).
Footnotes:
[1]Jer_4:1.—[Blayney renders “thou shalt not be removed from before me.” Movers and Hitzig also connect the words “out of my sight” with what follows: neque a facie mea oberraveris. Henderson and Noyes following De Wette, have “Thou shalt not be a fugitive (wanderer).” Umbreit renders as in the text.—S. R. A].
[2]Jer_4:2.—והתברכו בו The Perfect with Vau consec., expresses intended result. Comp. Naegelsb. Gr. § 84, h. sqq. [The usual rendering is the simple future].
[3]Jer_4:3.—[Blayney renders well “Break up your ground in tillage.” The German Commentators have Brechet euch Neubruch for which we have no exact equivalent.—S. R. A].
SECOND DIVISION
Jer_4:5 to Jer_6:26
Threatening of punishment for neglecting to return
The call, “return” was unheeded. The prophet therefore now proceeds to announce the punishment. He does this in three sections: in the first (chap. 4) he announces the approaching calamity; in the second (chap. 5) he shows particularly its causes in the moral corruption of the people; in the third (Jer_6:1-26) he recapitulates the main thought of the discourse, adding to the repeated proof of the incorrigibility of the people, a repeated admonition and a threatening of still severer judgments
Description of the expected judgment (Jer_4:5-31)
1. This is described as future under a triple emblem (Jer_4:5-18)
a. The first emblem: the Lion.
Jer_4:5-10
5 Declare it in Judah and publish it in Jerusalem,
And speak—and blow the trumpet in the land,
Cry with a loud voice and say:
Assemble yourselves, that we may go into the fortified cities.
6 Raise banners towards Zion,
Flee! stand not!
For I am bringing calamity from the North,
And great destruction.
7 A lion cometh up from his thicket,4
And a destroyer of nations hath broken up.
He is come forth from his place
To make thy land a desert:
Thy cities shall be desolate,5—without inhabitant.
8 For this gird on sackcloth, lament and howl!
For the heat of Jehovah’s anger hath not turned from us.
9 And it shall come to pass in that day, saith Jehovah,
The heart of the king shall fail and the heart of the princes,
The priests shall be amazed and the prophets full of horror.
10 And I said: Ah Lord Jehovah,
Surely thou hast prepared6 deception for this people and Jerusalem,
Saying: “ye shall have peace,”
And yet the sword reacheth even to the soul.7
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
Jer_4:5. Declare it in Judah … fortified cities. The prophet speaks, and indeed as the mouth of God. This is seen from the אנכי, “I,” Jer_4:6. The persons addressed are primarily those who dwell on the border, who are to inform those in the interior, even as far as the capital, of the invasion of the enemy. That which is declared is not the command to blow the trumpet, and to cry “assemble,” etc. For why should not those first addressed themselves at once cry to their next neighbors, “assemble.” etc.? Accordingly all that comes after the general sentence, “declare—Jerusalem,” is only introductory to “assemble.” Thus it is evident that the Chethib וְתִקְעוּ is not incorrect, and the Keri, which is followed by the ancient commentators and many MSS. is therefore unnecessary. “Assemble,” etc., should have come after the first וְאִמְרוּ. But the prophet (1) according to well-known linguistic usage adds an accompanying circumstance paratactically, (2) he distributes the command to cry into three parts, of which the two first refer to the form, the last to the contents.—On the construction comp. Jer_13:18; 1Sa_2:3; Naegelsb.Gr. § 95, g. Anm.
Jer_4:6. Raise banners towards Zion … great destruction. The signal is to be so arranged that it will indicate to the inhabitants the direction of flight. הֵעִיז only in the Hiphil =to fly to (Exo_9:19), and to make flight, i.e. to flee (thus only besides here in Jer_6:1; Isa_10:31).—From the north points back to Jer_1:13-14. Compare the remarks there made.
Jer_4:7. A lion cometh up … without inhabitants. The enemy is here represented by the emblem of a lion as in Jer_49:19; Jer_50:44; Jer_50:17.—Without inhabitant. Comp. Jer_2:15, and the remarks thereon.
Jer_4:8. For this gird on … turned from us. This last sentence points back to Jer_2:35. The people had expected a return of God to graciousness on the ground of their hypocritical return under Josiah.
Jer_4:9. And it shall come to pass … full of horror. After the prophet in Jer_4:8 has summoned them to general lamentation, he describes the effect of the calamity on those who are called by their position to provide means and ways of defence; they are helpless, and lose their presence of mind. לֵב in the sense of understanding, ex. gr.Pro_28:26; Pro_15:32; Hos_4:11; Hos_7:11; Jer_5:21. Comp. Delitzsch, Psychol. IV., § 12.—Shall be amazed. Comp. Eze_4:17; Job_17:9; Job_18:20.
Jer_4:10. And I said … even to the soul. The prophet here declares what impression was made by the denunciatory prophecy upon himself, after he had previously in Jer_4:9 described the impression which its fulfilment will make on the chiefs of the people. This denunciatory prophecy does not at all harmonize with that earlier and exceedingly glorious one in Jer_3:12-25. This was correctly perceived by Jerome, who says: “Quia supra dixerat: in illo tempore vocabunt Jerusalem solium Dei, etc. (Jer_3:17), et nunc dicit: peribit cor regis (Jer_4:9), turbatur propheta et in se Deum putat esse mentitum; nec intelligit, illud multa post tempora repromissum, hoc autem vicino futurum tempore.”—Following the example of Theodoret very many commentators refer prepared deception to the false prophets, coll. 1Ki_22:22. But is it conceivable that a true prophet like Jeremiah would have traced back false prophecy so directly to the Lord? Comparison with 1Pe_1:11 renders it conceivable that Jeremiah may himself have been deceived as to the difference of the times.
Footnotes:
[4]Jer_4:7.—סֻבְּכוֹ with Dag. forte, to emphasize the sharpening from סבְֹךְ (Ewald, § 255, d.) or סבֶֹךְ (Olshausen, § 155, b.) The word is ἁ̔παξ λεγ. Comp. the related forms from סְבִךְ Isa_9:17; Isa_10:31; Gen_22:13; Psa_74:5.
[5]Jer_4:7.—תִּצֶינָה is certainly Kal from נָצָה, which must here be taken in an intransitive sense. Comp. Jer_9:11; Isa_37:26; 2Ki_19:25.
[6]Jer_4:10.—השׁא with לְ as in Jer_29:8; 2Ki_18:29.
[7]Jer_4:10.—[Or even to the life, as Henderson, etc.—S. R. A.]
B. THE SECOND EMBLEM: THE TEMPEST
Jer_4:11-13
11 About this time it will be said to this people and Jerusalem,
A hot wind of the bare heights in the deserts
Comes thence against the daughters of my people—
Not to winnow and not to cleanse.
12 With full cheeks comes a wind to me from those.
Now will I also contend with them.
13 Behold, as clouds he ascends,
And as the stormwinds his chariots,
Swifter than eagles are his horses.
Woe to us, for we are destroyed!
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
Jer_4:11. About this time … not to cleanse. As the invasion of the lion-like enemy, so also the approach of the destructive desert-wind is to be announced in Jerusalem. The prophet alludes to the custom of signalizing those who are threatened by a hurricane or flood. דֶּרֶךְ (Acc. loci. xxxix. 4) seems also to point to this. עַח (besides here also in Isa_18:4; Isa_32:4; Son_5:10) if we compare the words radically related to it (צִחֵהIsa_5:13; צְחִיחָהPsa_68:7; צִחִיחִיםNeh_4:7; צַחְצָחוֹתIsa_58:11), appears to unite the meanings calidus, candidus, aridus, and to designate the brilliant clearness of the air heated by the hot-wind. So also Jerome (ventus urens), Aquila (ventus fulgoris), Symmachus (v. æstus). On the position of צַח between the nomen regens and rectum, comp. Naegelsb. Gr., § 63, 4 f.—Bareheights. Comp. Jer_3:2; Jer_3:21. The bare rocky mountains of the eastern desert are meant, over which the dry, hot east wind blows (קָדִים the “wind of the wilderness,” Jer_13:24). Comp. Winer, R-B-W., s. v. Winde. The expression is found also in Jer_12:12.—Not to winnow, etc. It is not one of the winds, which is favorable to human industry, but a hostile, destructive wind.
Jer_4:12. With full cheeks … contend with them. מָלֵא here is fundamentally the same as in Jer_4:5; Jer_12:6. The idea of “full” we are accustomed to apply to wind only as expressed in the translation. As hot wind denotes the quality so full denotes the quantity—from those refers to bare heights. The Lord says, the wind comes to me, because it is in His service. לִי is Dat. commodi.—I also refers to Jer_2:5; Jer_2:29. The prophet of Israel according to these passages really contended with the Lord. Comp. the remarks on Jer_2:29. The sense is this: after they have presumed to contend with the Lord (or, to use His pretended fault as a pretext of revolt, comp. Jer_44:18), He contends with them, i.e. He punishes them, and His instrument is he, who is understood by the wind. Comp. Jer_1:16.
Jer_4:13. Behold as clouds … we are destroyed. The prophet still retains his emblem in the region of the air, but he modifies it. The total impression of the hostile masses is now compared with threatening storm-clouds, the chariots in the rapidity of their motion and power of their impetus are like the storm-blast, the riders are like swift eagles. The prophet seems to have had Hab_1:8 generally in mind. Comp. Kueper, S. 76.
C. THE THIRD EMBLEM: THE KEEPERS
Jer_4:14-18
14 Wash thy heart from wickedness, Jerusalem,
In order that thou mayest be delivered.
How long do thy sinful thoughts tarry within thee?
15 For a loud call sounds from Dan,
A message of misfortune from Mount Ephraim.
16 Announce it to the nations!
Behold, call it out over Jerusalem:
Watchmen [Besiegers] are coming from a distant land,
They raised their cry over the cities of Judah.
17 For like keepers of a field are they over her from all sides,
For against me hath she rebelled, saith Jehovah.
18 Thy walk and thy works bring this upon thee;
This is thy wickedness, that a bitter thing (comes upon thee),
That it reaches even to thine heart.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
The first emblem was from the animal kingdom, the second from the region of the air, the third is taken from the sphere of human life. The third appeals most strongly to the moral consciousness of the people; this calamity is held up before them as the punishment of their sin, and acknowledgment and renunciation of this as the only means of escape.
Jer_4:14. Wash thy heart … tarry within thee?—Wash [Cleanse]. Comp. Jer_2:22.—Comp. the beginning and end of the strophe: the idea of wickedness forms the frame-work. It is quite unnecessary to take תָּלִין, with Vatable and others, as causative. Comp. Naegelsb. Gr. § 105, 4 b.אוֹנֵךְ from אָוֶן in the sense of sin, while אָוֶן, Jer_4:15, means calamity. Comp. Gen_35:18; Deu_26:14; Psa_55:4.
Jer_4:15. For a loud call … Ephraim. It is high time to comply with the admonition contained in Jer_4:14 (comp. “how long,” etc.), for the news is already received of the approach of the avenger. The prophet’s mention of Dan and Mount Ephraim is a confirmation of the view expressed concerning from the north in Jer_1:14. Comp. the remarks there made.
Jer_4:16-17. Announce it to the nations … saith Jehovah. הַזְכִּירוּ ו׳ verbally: cause זֵכֶר to the nations, that is, cause that these reflecting upon it are deeply impressed by the significance of the fact. From the meaning, to penetrate, to bore in (comp. Fuerst, Handwb.), is developed the meaning of to remember, which is the common one, to consider, to reflect (Lam_1:9; Psa_103:14; Job_7:7). This call to the nations is made only incidentally, not with a friendly purpose, but only to denote the greatness and importance of the event. The invasion of this enemy is something so great that it cannot be cried out loud enough, and this the rather since the nations round about Israel are implicated with them. Comp. Jeremiah 25.—It is therefore unnecessary to follow Hitzig as he follows the LXX. Kimchi and others, in taking לְ=from or E. Meier and others in rendering גוים=tribes (of Israel).—The business of watchmen, keepers of a field, is usually to protect from robbery and violence. But the prophet has such keepers in mind who do not remove their gaze from him to whom it is directed, as, ex. gr., those who beset a fox, a weasel or a polecat, so that the animal may either perish in his hole or be killed when he comes out. In short the prophet here means the same thing as he expressed in Jer_1:15 by setting seats before the gates. Comp. 2Sa_11:16, שְׁמוֹר אֵל־הָעִיר; Jer_5:6; Jer_6:25.—These raised their cry, etc. It is announced to Jerusalem, that the cry of these keepers has already sounded over the other cities of Judah. Jerusalem alone is still in the power of the enemy. Hence it is also said in Jer_4:17 that they are over her from all sides.—As in the beginning of the strophe, Jer_4:14, the exhortation to repentance as the only means of escape is prominent, so in Jer_4:17 b and Jer_4:18 is ungodliness as the self inflicted cause of the punitive judgments.
Jer_4:18. Thy walk and thy works … reaches even to thy heart. Comp. Jer_2:19.—Both this parallel passage and the parallelism in the verse itself prove that hemistich 2 is a subjective sentence (comp. Naegelsb. Gr. § 109, 1). The two sentences with for represent the subject, this thy wickedness is the predicate. The bitter thing which comes upon thee is nothing more than thine own wickedness, here developing its own true nature.—The conclusion of the strophe reminds us of Jer_4:10, and in such a way as to show that the prophet intended a similarity in diversity.
2. THE PROPHET HEARS AND SEES THE ENEMY PRESENT
Jer_4:19-26
19 My bowels, my bowels! Cramp8 in the chambers9 of the heart!
My heart palpitates! I cannot be silent,
For the trumpet’s sound thou hearest,10 ray soul,
The cry of battle.
20 Blow upon blow is reported,
For desolated is the whole land;
Suddenly my huts are desolated,
In a twinkling my tents.
21 How long shall I see the banner,
Hear the sound of the trumpet?
22 For my people are foolish, they know me not;
Silly children are they and undiscerning:
They are wise to do evil,
But doing good they understand not.
23 I look at the earth and behold—desolation and emptiness!
And up towards heaven, and its light is gone.
24 I look at the mountains and behold they quake,11
And all the hills are shaken.
25 I look and behold, man is gone,
And all the birds of heaven are fled.
26 I look and behold, the fertile field has become a waste,
And all its cities are desolated12—
Before Jehovah, before the fury of his anger.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
This entire strophe describes the desolation of the country from the standpoint of the present. The prophet places himself in spirit in that mournful future, and describes in the liveliest colors what he hears, sees and feels, as one who is present.
Jer_4:19. My bowels … cry of battle. LXX.: τὴν κοιλίαν μου ἀλγῶ. So also the authors of the Syro-Hexapla. Hitzig has “my belly.” The prophet in these and the following verses describes in a most drastic style the physical sensation which is produced by the immediate perception of the calamity.—Passages related in subject are Isa_16:11; Isa_21:2-4; Jer_48:36.—I cannot be silent (comp. Hab_1:13; Job_41:4) expresses that the prophet would relieve the inward pain, which he has just described, by speech. He does this by enumerating the occurrences which have so excited him.—The expression: hearest thou, my soul, seems to intimate that the prophet heard it not with the outward but the inward ear.
Jer_4:20. Blow upon blow is reported … my tents. The exposition, which, following the Chaldee and Syriac, takes נקרא for נקרה (destruction meets destruction) is not correct, because the prophet in Jer_4:20-21 mentions what he hears, while in Jer_4:23 sqq. he relates what he sees. If, moreover, we consider that the prophet is here speaking of messages or signals, which report disasters, we see that the existence of a middle point is presupposed, to which these reports of misfortune proceed. We shall not then err, if we refer Jer_4:20 to the laying waste of the country surrounding the capital.
Jer_4:21. How long shall I … trumpet. נֵם the signal, Jer_4:6. Although this is seen it is mentioned among the things which the prophet hears because it also brings news, or a message.
Jer_4:22. For my people are foolish … they understand not. This verse contains the answer to the question of the prophet, how long? Still long, is the answer of course, for the people are still as they were. So Kimchi.—With Hemist. 2 comp. Jer_2:8; Mic_7:3.
Jer_4:23-26. I look at the earth … fury of his anger. ראיתי four times repeated shows plainly that the prophet would here render expressly prominent what he has seen, in antithesis to Jer_4:19-20, where he narrates what he has heard. But there is also a climax in the progress from the one to the other. While that which the prophet hears is only the herald and preliminary stage of the main catastrophe, in Jer_4:23-26 he portrays the condition of the country after the occurrence of this catastrophe. In spirit he beholds in the place of the once so fruitful land a dismal waste, over which the heavens veil themselves in mourning, and with which even lifeless and unintelligent creatures sympathize.
Jer_4:23, reminds us of Gen_1:2; Gen_1:14, and therefore presupposes the existence of this passage. The land has, as it were, returned to chaos. Comp. Isa_34:11.—The fruitful field a waste [lit., the Carmel the desert], a free reminiscence from Isa_32:15; Isa_29:17. That Carmel here denotes not the mountain, but the fruitful field (comp. Jer_2:7), follows (a) from the connection, which declares the desolation not of a small strip, but of the whole country, (b) from all its cities, which evidently cannot be referred to that single mountain but only to the whole land. The article before Carmel and waste has a general significance, not a waste, but the waste had the fruitful field become, that is, the genus Carmel had passed over into the genus desert. Comp. Naegelsb. Gr. § 71, 4.—Before, etc. Comp. Jer_23:9; Jer_25:37.—On the general subject compare Joel 2:10; 4:15; Nah_1:5; Isa_13:10; Isa_13:13; Psa_18:8.
Footnotes:
[8]Jer_4:19.—אוחולה. The form of the Chethibh אוֹחוּלָה is a grammatical anomaly and therefore certainly incorrect. The Keri reads אוֹחִילָה. This however would mean: I wait, expect (2Sa_18:14; Mic_7:7), which does not well suit the connection. The reading אָחוּלָה or אָחִילָה which is expressed in the LXX, and is found in very many MSS. and editions (Steph., Jos. Athias., Bibl. Mant.) should therefore be preferred. חוּל (or חיל, comp. Fuerst, s. v.) is to twist one’s self, to, quiver with pain, grief or terror. Comp. Jer_5:3; Eze_30:16.—As to the construction we may (a) divide after מעי ,ומהל בי ,ק׳ לבי ,אחולה, (so Graf), or (b) after א חרשׁ ,הומה־לי ,אחולה ,מעי (see Hitzig, E. Meier), (c) מעי, אחרשׁ, לבי, לבי. I would give the preference to the last division, since חול declared of קירות־לב (the expression here only) designates very appropriately the cramp of the heart, while לֵב הוֹמֶה evidently denotes the palpitation of the heart. The cohortative form in אחולה as in אשׁמעה, Jer_4:21, is not to be insisted on. Comp. Naegelsb. Gr. § 89, 3 a.
[9]Jer_4:19.—קירוֹת is the accusative of more exact definition. Comp. Naegelsb. Gr. § 70 f.
[10]Jer_4:19.—שָׁמַעַתְּי, 2 Pers. fem. Comp. Jer_2:20; Jer_2:33; Jer_3:4-5. Ewald, Hitzig, E. Meier, read with the Cod. Regiomont. 1. שֹׁמַעַת, which is unnecessary. [Comp. Green’s Heb. Gr. § 86, b.]
[11]Jer_4:24.—רֹעֲשִׁים. On the absence of the subject comp. Naegelsb. Gr. § 97, 1, a Anm.
[12]Jer_4:26.—נִתְּצוּ Niph. from נָתַץ. Comp. Nah_1:6. LXX,: ὲμπεπυρισμἑναι, confounded with נִצְתוּ, Jer_9:9.
3. THE JUDGMENT IS IRREVOCABLY DETERMINED, BUT IT AIMS NOT AT ABSOLUTE DESTRUCTION
Jer_4:27-31.
27 For thus hath Jehovah spoken:
The whole land shall be waste,
But I will not utterly make an end of it.
28 For this the whole land keeps lamenting,
And the heaven above wears the garment of mourning;
For this namely, that I have spoken and determined,13
And I repent not, nor draw back from it.
29 Before the tumult of the horsemen and archers
The whole city is fled,
They are in their hiding-places, up on the rocks;
The whole city is abandoned, not an inhabitant therein.
30 But thou, destroyed one,14 what art thou doing?
That thou clothest thyself in purple,
That thou puttest on cloth of gold,
That thou rendest thine eyes with paint?
In vain dost thou beautify thyself;
Thy lovers despise thee, they seek thy soul.
31 For I hear a cry like that of a parturient,15
The call of anguish, like one who bears for the first time:
The voice of the daughter of Zion,
Who panteth and spreadeth forth her hands:
Woe is me, for my soul succumbs16 to the murderers!
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
The theme of this strophe is contained in Jer_4:27. This has two parts: 1. The destruction is founded in an irrevocable divine decree. This is the main point which is expressed still more emphatically, Jer_4:28-29, and in Jer_4:30, etc., placed in the light of a contrast (what can Israel’s feeble attempts effect in opposition to the divine counsel?). 2. The second point, “but I will not utterly make an end,” is briefly stated and not further discussed, but is for this purpose twice repeated in the course of the prophecy, Jer_5:10; Jer_5:18.
Jer_4:27. For thus hath Jehovah spoken … make an end of it. The certainty of the statement in the previous strophe is found in the fact that Jehovah has thus spoken.—I will not utterly, etc., is, as we have said, a briefly stated parenthetical thought, which is only to give a correct limitation to the declaration of the first clause. Comp. Lev_26:44.
Jer_4:28. For this the whole land keeps lamenting … draw back from it. Comp. Hos_4:3, whence the words תֶּֽאֱבַל הא׳ are taken.—This refers to the following I have spoken. The mourning posture of the earth and heavens mentioned in Jer_4:23 sqq. is here designated as the result of a divine decree. Not by chance, nor by the power of idols, did it take place, but by the power of the Lord. It should moreover be remarked that this strophe forms the transition to the following section, in which also the cause of the judgment is spoken of, but in another sense. While here only the immediate cause, the causa efficiens, of the calamity is mentioned, the prophet in what follows goes more deeply into the matter and designates the corruption of the people as the immediate, deepest provocative cause.—That is a repetition of for this. LXX., διότι ἐλάλησα καὶ οὐ μετανοήσω, ὡ̔ρμησα καὶ οὐκ ἀποστρέψω ἀπ́ αὐτῆς. We must first take spoken independently. Then the external, announcement which is made to men through the prophet, is set over against the inner cause, which has a positive (determined) and a negative side (repent not). The last point is designated also by nor draw back from it, in order that the prophet may connect this declaration of God with the same made by Israel (Jer_3:7 sqq.; Jer_4:1).
Jer_4:29. Before the tumult … not an inhabitant therein. This verse seems to interrupt the connection. Yet it may be justified as a brief and condensed description of the calamity which has been described at length in the previous strophes, and only hinted at in Jer_4:28. We might regard it as the explanation of from it, with which Jer_4:28 closes. On the neutral rendering of this VideNaegelsb. Gr., § 60, 6 b.—It is not necessary to render (with Graf and others) כָּל־הָעִיר=every city. It is, as the rule requires, the whole city. But the prophet understands the whole city, supposing this to be the general fate of all the cities. This collective rendering explains also therein in the plural.—עָבִים are obscure hiding-places. כֵּפִים comp. Job_30:6.
Jer_4:30. But thou, destroyed one … seek thy soul. שָׁדוּד (comp. נָטוּי רַגְלַי, Psa_73:2, inclinatum aliquid pedes mei) is to be rendered as neuter: Thou, as good as destroyed, a thing devoted to destruction. The expression is contemptuous. VideNaegelsb. Gr., § 60, 4. [Green’sGr., § 275, 5].—It can neither mean: if thou art destroyed, for then Israel can no more paint; nor: if thou shalt be attacked, for the word does not mean to attack. (Comp. שְׁדוּדָה, Psa_137:8). The prophet has in view the present attempts of Israel to procure assistance by coquetting with foreign nations (comp. Jer_2:18; Jer_2:36-37), which are foolish in opposition to the decree of Jehovah, solemnly announced in Jer_4:28, according to which Israel is already destroyed.—Thine eyes with paint. The effect of paint is to make the eyes look not only more fiery, but larger. Comp. Herzog’sReal Enc., Art. Schminke. XIII. S. 607 [Smith, Dict. II., 657].—2Ki_9:30; Eze_23:40.
Jer_4:31. For I hear a cry … my soul succumbs to the murderers.—For refers to seek thy soul. On this account Israel cries: Wo is me, I succumb to the murderers. 31b.—עיפה ל׳constr. prægnans; my soul is weary, i.e. as one who succumbs to murderers. Comp. Naegelsb.Gr., § 112, 7. [Green, 156, 1].
Footnotes:
[13]Jer_4:28.—E. Meier reads זִמֹּתַי instead of זַמֹּתִי. But the Masoretic reading being the more difficult has the presumption of genuineness.
[14]Jer_4:30.—[Noyes translates correctly ad sensum, “destined to perish.”—S. R. A.]
[15]Jer_4:31.—חוֹלה, Part. like בּוֹסִים in Zec_10:5, קוֹמִים in 2Ki_16:7, etc. Fuerst s. v. חוּל; Ewald, § 151, 6.
[16]Jer_4:31.—[Henderson: My soul fainteth because of murderers; Noyes, more freely: I am dying of murderers.—S. R. A.]
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. On Jer_4:10. It is not here a matter for consideration, how God may be said to deceive men (comp. 1Ki_22:20; Job_12:24; 2Th_2:11), for it was only the opinion of the prophet, who here interrupts the discourse revealed to him by the expression of a subjective view, just as Paul in 1Co_7:10; 1Co_7:12; 1Co_7:25; 1Co_7:40, inserts his view of the λόγος κυρίου.
2. On Jer_4:14. Aristotle (De partibus animal. II. 4) and Pliny (Hist. nat. XI. 37) remark that the heart alone of all the internal organs will not bear any injury. The latter says “solum cor viscerum vitiis non maceratur, nee supplicia vitæ trahit; læsumque mortem illico affert.” The heart also in a spiritual sense will not bear the least injury, as the fall shows. Yet though every sin is a death-germ, a poison, yet all poison is not equally rapid in its effects. Bernhard of Clairvaux says in his Sermo de triplici genere cogitationum nostrarum (sub fin.) as follows: “Et primum quidem genus cogitationum otiosarum scil. ad rem non pertinentium lutum est, sed lutum simplex, id est non inhærens, nec fœtens, nisi forte diutius immoretur in nobis, et per incuriam ac negligentiam nostram in alterum genus cogitationum vertatur, quod quotidie experimur. Dum enim otiosa tamquam minima spernimus, ad turpia atque inhonesta dilabimur. Secundum vero cogitationum genus non lutum simplex, sed viscosum ac limosum est. Nam tertium quidem sic cavendum est, non tamquam lutum aut limus, sed tamquam immundissimum ac fœtidissimum cœnum.” He explains what he understands by this tertium genus in the words: “Dico autem cogitationes illas immundas penitus et fœtidas, quæ ad luxuriam, ad invidiam et vanam gloriam pertinent, cæteraque vitia detestanda.”—He further says of the conflicts with sinful thoughts: “Quid ergo agendum, cum limosa cogitatio mentem subierit? Plane exclamandum nobis est cum sancto Jacobo: Ruben, primogenito meus, non crescas, ascendisti enim cubile patris tui (Gen_49:3). Ruben enim carnalis atque sanguinea hujus modi concupiscentia est, quæ tunc cubile nostrum ascendit, cum non solum memoriam tangit cogitatione, sed et ipsum voluntatis stratum ingreditur et polluit prava cogitatione.” Ghisler.
3. On Jer_4:22. (They are wise to do evil, but do not understand well-doing.) The Israelites are here designated as children of the world, for it is the manner of the world to be wise in worldly matters, but foolish in spiritual, as our Lord says (Luk_16:8) the children of this world are wiser in their own generation than the children of light in theirs, and Paul (1Co_2:14) says the natural man perceiveth nothing of the Spirit of God, for it is foolishness to him, and he cannot know it, for it must be spiritually discerned.—The blind man understands nothing about color. Every one is at home in his own element. But this is the greatest misery that the world knows, that man, the image of God, is not at home in His house, but in the Devil’s, and that the greatest labor the world knows, scarcely suffices to bring him back into his Father’s house.
4. On Jer_4:27. How wonderfully do the anger and love of God here touch! How proportionate appear both! How is one the limit of the other! God does not so love that He cannot be angry; and He is not so angry that He cannot love. He leaves room for His anger in order that justice may be preserved and the sinner reformed. Thus His anger is also guided by love, yea, in a certain sense it is a manifestation of love. Comp. Schöberlein, Grundlehren des Heils, S. 50, 51. “Anger is the energy of love towards the sinner, the expression, namely, of its pain, that he himself has become untrue to his better self, and he who cannot be angry has no hearty love for this true I of another. … For the very reason that God in holy self-preservation places Himself in opposition to him, man is not really forsaken of God, but love is still with him in the might of its anger.” Jer_10:24; Jer_30:11; Jer_46:28; Isa_27:8.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
1.The first eight verses of this chapter are part of the text of the fifth homily of Origen (the whole text is Jer_3:21 to Jer_4:8).
2. Förster remarks: “ex versu 31 haberi potest concio in funere mulieris, quæ in partu, vel post partum obiit.”
3. True repentance Isaiah 1. a true return from evil (not a sowing among remaining thorns, not a merely external circumcision, but a circumcision of the heart and removal of abominations); 2. a true return to God (right and holy swearing, as a symptom of right and holy disposition); 3. a source of blessing for ourselves and others (thou shalt not be exiled—the heathen shall be blessed in thee).
4. On Jer_4:10. Warning against false peace. This Isaiah 1. a lie, for men say there is peace when the sword reaches even to the soul; 2. a misfortune, for it will disappoint the heart of those who cherish it.
5. On Jer_4:22. Since Scripture distinguishes a wisdom that is from above from a wisdom that is from below (Jam_3:13-18), the question arises, wherein consists the difference between the two? 1. The wisdom from below is a wisdom in evil doing (a. unbelief, b. destruction, α. of self, β. of others—consequently absolute folly); Wisdom from above is wisdom in well-doing (a. faith, b. observing God’s word in love—consequently blessing).
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 And thou--rather, "And if (carried on from Jer 4:1)…
And thou--rather, "And if (carried on from Jer 4:1) thou shalt swear, 'Jehovah liveth,' in truth, &c.", that is, if thou shalt worship Him (for we swear by the God whom we worship; compare Deu 6:13; Deu 10:20; Isa 19:18; Amo 8:14) in sincerity, &c.
and the nations--Rather, this is apodosis to the "if"; then shall the nations bless themselves in (by) Him" (Isa 65:16). The conversion of the nations will be the consequence of Israel's conversion (Psa 102:13, Psa 102:15; Rom 11:12, Rom 11:15).
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, 3 THE CALL TO RETURN, Jer_4:1-18.
THE CALL TO RETURN, Jer_4:1-18.
The chapter-division here, as in the last instance, is peculiarly unfortunate. There is the closest relation between the concluding verses of the preceding chapter and the beginning of this. The words contained in the first two verses of the present chapter are Jehovah’s answer to the words of shame and penitence in the last verse of the preceding, and cannot be fully appreciated except this relation is kept in mind.
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1, 2. Return unto me — This second “return” is a mere repetition of the former, and falls into the same relation. The protasis extends so as to include the word righteousness, making the reading of the first two verses as follows: If thou wilt return, O Israel,… wilt return unto me; saith Jehovah, and if thou wilt put away abominations from before me, and shalt not wander to and fro, and shall swear, as Jehovah liveth, in truth, and right, and uprightness: then shall the nations bless themselves in him, and in him shall they make their boast.
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The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv1–4 1. If thou wilt return, etc.] The best rendering…
1. If thou wilt return, etc.] The best rendering is perhaps as follows: If thou wilt return, O Israel, saith the Lord, yea, return unto me, continuing (with mg.), and if thou wilt put … and wilt not wander, and wilt swear … then shall the nations, etc.
abominations] detestable things, idolatrous worship, mingled, as it often was, with impure rites.
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be removed] wander (from God). By a change of one Hebrew letter we get the word rendered “broken loose” in Jer_2:31. This is to be preferred, as it is doubtful whether the verb in MT. can have a moral connotation.
Jer_4:1-4. If Israel will sincerely repent and mend her ways, her prosperity will be the ideal for all nations. Let Judah dedicate herself in heart to Jehovah, otherwise heavy judgement shall be her portion.
In Jer_4:1-4 a severer mode of address is used towards Judah (3, 4) than towards Israel (1, 2).
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) If thou wilt return.—The “if” implies a return…
IV.
(1) If thou wilt return.—The “if” implies a return from the hopes with which Jeremiah 3 ended to the language of misgiving, and so, inferentially, of earnest exhortation.
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Abominations.—Literally, things of shame, as in Jer_3:24; the idols which Israel had worshipped.
Then shalt thou not remove.—Better, as continuing the conditions of forgiveness, if thou wilt not wander.
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The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv1–4 Vers. 1, 2. The form and structure of the…
Vers. 1, 2. The form and structure of the translation require a change. Render, If thou wilt return, O Israel, saith Jehovah, wilt return unto me; and if thou wilt put away, etc., and not wander; and wilt swear, As Jehovah liveth, with good faith, with justice, and with righteousness; then shall the nations bless themselves by him, and in him shall they glory. The clause, "and not wander," seems too short; the Septuagint had a choicer reading, "and put away, etc., from his thy mouth, and not wander from before me." It is the close of the prophecy which we have here. The prophet subjoins a promise which he has heard from Jehovah. True, it does not appeal to Israel"s self-love, (as Isa_48:18, 19 Psa_81:13-16) but to a nobler feeling of responsibility for the world"s welfare. Israel has been entrusted with a mission, and on the due performance of this mission hangs the weal or woe of humanity. Hence Jehovah"s longing for Israel"s repentance. If Israel will but "return," and obey God"s commandments, all nations will be attracted to the true religion. The form of expression used for the latter statement is borrowed probably from Gen_22:18 Gen_26:4. (it is less closely parallel with Gen_12:3 Gen_18:18) To "bless by" any one is to use his name in the benediction formula. Seeing Israel so blessed through his allegiance to Jehovah, all nations shall wish themselves a similar blessing. (the reverse of the process Jer_29:22; comp. Isa_65:16) To "swear, As Jehovah liveth," means to call Jehovah to witness to the truth of a statement. This is to be done "with good faith," etc., i.e. the object of the oath must be consistent with honesty and probity. Abominations; i.e. idols, as often. (see 2Ki_23:24)
HOMILIES BY A.F. MUIR Vers. 1-4. The duty of reality in religious profession.
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The reformations of Jehu and Josiah were superficial and short-lived. Something more thorough was required. A real, immediate return to Jehovah was demanded.
I THE SIGNS OF UNREALITY.
1. Retention of the memories and symbols of the guilty past. They may not be used, but they are there. There has not been strength of will to remove them, or the fear of man has produced vacillation. Externally the heathen temple stands side by side with the house of God, and may claim equal respect with it.
2. An uncertain and wavering attitude. Blowing hot and blowing cold. Compromising with existent evils. Postponing needed reforms.
3. Unrighteousness of life. This is one of the gravest evils. A creed which does not affect conduct must be either untrue or not heartily believed. An enigma of the anti-slavery times was the fact that amongst the pro-slavery advocates were many of the most orthodox clergy, whereas the leaders of the agitation for freedom were secularists, Unitarians, and men of vague or heterodox religious opinions.
II EVILS ATTENDANT UPON UNREALITY.
1. Confusion is created between the true and the false religions.
2. A constant temptation exists in the relics and practices of evil that are retained.
3. Moral influence upon unbelievers is lost, and unrighteousness encouraged.
4. Spiritual growth is seriously impeded. It is a "sowing among thorns, or upon the exhausted and unfruitful soil of superficial emotion and fancy." As Wild land can be cleansed from weeds only by deep and repeated plowing, so the spiritual nature must be thoroughly moved by penitence and steadfast resolution.
III GOD"S FEELING TOWARDS UNREAL WORSHIPPERS. He cannot accept their penitence. Their services are an abomination to him. His anger is represented as a smoldering fire ready to break forth in destruction. M.
HOMILIES BY D. YOUNG Ver 1. The kind of return which Jehovah requires,
In Jer 3 there has been much spoken concerning return. There is the impossibility pointed out of a divorced wife returning to her husband; yet Jehovah"s own people, whose conduct has been even worse, he presses to return. The fact is mentioned that Israel had been told to turn, yet had not turned. There is also the fact that Judah had made a feigned turning. A true return is seen to be the prime condition of all the glorious future which God bad. shadowed forth, first for Israel, and then for all nations. And then the chapter concludes with a touching outburst of penitential emotion. From all which it will be clearly seen how timely and needful is the exhortation which introduces Jer 4. Return of a certain kind is, after all, not so difficult, if only there be certain conspiring circumstances. The most undemonstrative and unlikely man may have his feelings roused up, and then comes decided utterance. Right words are spoken, right purposes declared. But what of the carrying of them out? What about the difficulties in the future the fightings without and the fears within? The return which God desires is a permanent return, just as when, after a long frost, there comes a complete thaw, and, with genial warmth following, renewed life, growth, and fruitfulness.
I OBSERVE HOW GOD RECOGNIZES THE INSTABILITY OF THE APOSTATE PEOPLE. It is not simply that he apprehends instability in their resolutions towards himself. Their very apostasy is itself an unstable thing. With all the hold which idolatry seems to have upon them, they are not thoroughly fixed in it. Evidently there are ways of appealing to them which draw forth a resolve to make some sort of turning. Never should we forget that sinners, even the most persistent of them, are unstable in their ways. Instability there of course is from the common fluctuations of life; but, more than that, the very purposes of the sinner are more unstable than he thinks. A thick-skinned conscience is often more in appearance than in reality; the penetrable point has not been discovered that is all. Even when to all outward appearance a man seems quite contented with the life which others condemn, he may have very trying dialogismoi within him. Hence the strange anomaly sometimes presented of wicked men doing deeds of helpfulness to others. Gamblers, out of their unrighteous gains, are known to indulge in most eccentric acts of beneficence. After all, the powers of evil have a most uncertain tenure over those who may seem most their slaves.
II THE ONLY TURNING FROM EVIL WHICH CAN BE COMPLETE AND PROFITABLE IS THE TURNING TOWARDS GOD. Not only from sin, but towards God. That is the only way of keeping clear both of Scylla and Charybdis. To turn from a life that is self-condemned, by trying to make another path of one"s own, may seem to be successful for a while, but in truth it is only travelling in a circle. The man whose springs of knowledge and strength are in himself, or in the counsels of men, will come back to where he started. Think, for instance, of those drunkards who have taken pledges of total abstinence, and set their feet towards a manlier and purer life, only to find very soon that appetite and habit are not so easily mastered. At last, after many failures, a permanent keeping comes. There is a struggle, crowned with Victory, because the soul, having lost all its self-confidence, has really turned to God. The departure into sin is from God, and to him must be the only satisfactory return.
III THE FORSAKING OF SIN MUST BE A COMPLETE FORSAKING. Into this demand for completeness there must be put the utmost significance of the word. God"s people might visit all the high places in turn, and laboriously erase every outward vestige of idolatry. On everything like an approach to idolatry the most rigorous penalties might be imposed. There might be a domiciliary visitation, and a ransacking of every house from garret to basement, lest there should be anything hidden away, such as Laban"s seraphim which Rachel stole. But what of all such exertions? They could only end in the taking of abominations out of the sight of man. The essential thing was to take them out of the sight of God. The high places and groves in every heart must be purged of their idolatries. Here the edicts of a king and the vigilance of reforming enthusiasts were of no avail. By the very necessity of the case, the putting away must be an individual act. Forth from the heart proceed the outward visible abominations, and the only way of stopping the procession was by a thorough cleansing of the source whence it came. Such prayers are wanted as for the creating of a clean heart, and the setting of one"s secret sins in the light of God"s countenance. The heart, deceitful and desperately wicked, only God can know, and only God can cleanse. He himself must be besought to direct affections, purposes, iron, nations, towards things pure, holy, and Divine. Remember, then, that a thing may be out of man"s sight and yet right over against the eyes of God. Even that which may not at present disturb your conscience may yet be very offensive to him. Thus it will be seen that a real turning to God is very difficult, and needs much submission and humility. One has to walk very circumspectly. Wavering is one of the greatest perils, and may very soon be fatal. He who wavers, vacillates, and turns to look round to the things that are left, loses the direction; and that direction, once lost, who knows how much else may be lost before it can be recovered? 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 If thou wilt return,. . .and if thou wilt…
Jer_4:1-4
If thou wilt return,. . .and if thou wilt put away thine abominations . . . then shalt thou not remove.
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The pleadings of God
A strange ministry is that of Almightiness. It is almightiness--almost. So we come upon a mysterious if in all the history of Gods administration. If thou wilt return--why not make them return? Here man is stronger than God. We have seen in innumerable instances how true it is that God, who can handle universes, can do nothing with the heart He has made except with the hearts consent. Behold God, then, as a pleader. If thou wilt return, O Israel, saith the Lord, return unto Me: and if thou wilt put away thine abominations out of My sight,--if thou wilt swear, The Lord liveth, in truth, in judgment, and in righteousness,--if thou wilt do these things, the issue will be glorious; it will also be beneficent, it will have an evangelistic effect upon the world. The meaning is, the heathen nations round about shall see thy return, and they will begin to own the power of God. That is the converting force that must be brought to bear upon the whole of the nations. The Church must be so beautiful as to attract attention. When Christians do right, pagans will believe; when Christians claim their uniqueness of quality and exemplify it, the men who get up arguments against Christianity will be ashamed of their own ingenuity, and run away from the things their hands have piled, saying, We cannot build fortresses against such quality of character. This is true missionary work. (J. Parker, D. D.)
Putting away of sin
A great warrior was once persuaded by his enemies to put on a beautiful robe which they presented him. Not suspecting their design, he wrapped himself tightly in it, but in a few moments found that it was coated on the inside with a deadly poison. It stuck to his flesh as if it had been glued. The poison entered into his flesh, so that in trying to throw off the cloak, he was left torn and bleeding. But did he for that reason hesitate about taking it off? Did he stop to think whether it was painful or not? Did he say, Let me wait and think about it awhile? No! he tore it off at once, and threw it from him, and hastened away from it to the physician. This is the way you must treat your sins if you would be saved. They have gone into your soul. If you let them alone you perish. You must not fear the pain of repentance. You must east them from you as poison, and hasten away to Jesus Christ. Do this, or your sins will consume you like fire. (T. Meade.)
And thou shalt swear.
On swearing
I. The command. Did Christ countermand this? (Mat_5:34.) The Son forbid in the Gospel what the Father bids in the law? God bids thee swear, so thy oath be truthful and needful; Christ forbids swearing which is truthless and needless.
II. The form. God bade us swear; now He tells us how. The Lord liveth. It is, then, impiety to swear by creatures. God prevents all evasion by the name He here gives--the Lord; not any god the swearer would substitute, as some swear by angels, called in Scripture Elohim, and superstition worships them as gods.
III. Three particulars.
1. In truth. Perjury is impious--makes that which is the sign and seal of truth, the cloak of falsehood.
2. In judgment. Swear not upon guess only.
3. In righteousness. To any act against right or religion bind not thyself, let not any bind thee. (R. Clerke, D. D.)
Break up your fallow ground, and sow not among thorns.--
Soul agriculture
I. Proper attention to the soil.
1. Variety of condition.
2. Capability of improvement.
II. Proper attention to the seed.
1. Care in selection of true spiritual seed. The Gospel--
(1) Perfect in itself.
(2) Fitted to grow in all climates.
(3) It does not sow itself.
(4) It is the support of life.
2. Attention must also be paid to its growth.
III. Proper attention to the season.
1. Youth.
2. The season of moral seriousness, when the heart has been softened. (Homilist.)
The life of the sinner a foolish agriculture
The people referred to as sowing among thorns are those, perhaps, who are endeavouring by religious study and effort to get the seeds of Divine good into them when their hearts remain full of worldly things.
I. A grand evil. Sowing precious seed in bad soil involves three things.
1. Loss of seed. The precious grain has been thrown away.
2. Loss of labour. All the efforts employed go for nothing.
3. Loss of hope. All the bright anticipations of a glorious future frustrated.
II. An urgent duty. Break up your fallow ground. This means in one word evangelical repentance for sin.
1. This in moral, as well as material, agriculture is hard work. A skilful ploughman, a strong plough and a vigorous team are necessary. It is hard work to repent.
2. This in moral, as well as in material, agriculture is indispensable work. (Homilist.)
The fallow ground broken
I. The necessity of fallowing the ground is obvious to all who are practically acquainted with tillage: and such as are experimentally informed on the subject of the evil and barrenness of their own hearts, will admit the absolute requirement of a similar mental process. All your carnal hopes, and criminal opposition to the Divine will, must be completely eradicated.
II. The nature of this part of a farmers business will well Illustrate the correspondent toil of a believer. No attempt to cleanse the heart, however disagreeable, is intentionally neglected by the sincere believer--no effort is relied upon; all is subservient to the expected influences of heaven.
III. The advantages of this procedure. Those who make thorough work with their own hearts, will find that their religious joys and better hopes, though delayed, shall be most vigorous; their subsequent sufferings from the grieving thorn and pricking brier shall be fewer; and a richer harvest shall at length crown their toil.
1. If you desire permanent prosperity and joy in the Holy Ghost, break up the fallow ground--sow not among thorns.
2. Be personal in this labour. Turn your eyes from others to yourself.
3. Remember your own unworthiness, and the poverty of your unassisted endeavours. (W. Clayton.)
Ploughing and sowing
This season of spring, with its ploughing, and sowing, and opening of life, typifies the time which God has given for forming in us enlightened principles and virtuous habits, holy motives and pure desires, and for becoming possessed of the grace and goodness which Jesus has to impart, in order that we may grow up into the Divine life of God, which shall abide with us through old age as the source of true enjoyment, and as the first beginnings of eternal glory. The ploughshare of the Divine Word must pierce into us, and break up our hardness and indifference, and make us impressible and movable, to fit us for bringing forth the fruits of righteousness. For example, the seedtime of life, like that of spring, regulates and determines the moral results which the future shall unfold, whether in time or in eternity. Our life on earth is the scene of moral causes and operations--the sowing time of our spirit--the period for the earnest cultivation of our moral nature; and it is to us all the more important, because it is far-reaching in its effects, stretching beyond the present earthly existence into eternity, bearing the flowers and blossoms of spiritual beauty and grace, a manifestation of Deity in humanity. And if these moral causes do not operate--if the seed time of life be wasted--if the cultivation of the moral nature be neglected, equally true the effects of such a life are eternal, stretching beyond the present earthly existence, and bearing into eternity the fruits of moral depravity and corruption. Now, this cultivation of our moral nature is no easy task. Even in matters connected with this life, if we neglect any duty from time to time, or if we delay entering upon any employment necessary to our material or social well-being, indolence increases, disinclination to perform the duty strengthens, dislike to the employment springs up, until habit entirely unfits us for action. In the same way, to ignore religious truth in its relation to our heart, and to neglect religious duties, is to deepen false impressions, strengthen ignorant prejudices, and confirm evil habits. This also is certain, that if good seed is not germinating in our hearts, thorns of evil are, do what we will. If, for instance, our mind is not exercised with religious truth, and no effort made on our part to understand intelligently the revelation which God has made of human salvation; or if the heart be unopened to the power of the Divine Spirit and the moral impressions of Divine truth; and if we continue to refuse accepting Christ as the Saviour of our soul; then our mental and moral nature will become as hard-baked fallow ground, almost impenetrable to the ploughshare of heaven. The indifference of the mind to religious truth keeps the heart spiritually cold, and the coldness of the heart induces in the mind a distaste for spiritual things. On the other hand, any powerful awakening in connection with religion or religious truth, whether it affect the mind alone, or the heart alone, or both together, is in the highest sense beneficial to our soul. Whatever acts on the mind so as to turn it in upon itself, whatever makes the soul depend upon God, and believe in an invisible spiritual world as a reality, though accompanied with strong excitement or inward conflict, is good, and leads to spiritual power. Besides, the precise form of treatment that does good to one spiritual nature, is not always successful with every other, even in like circumstances, any more than the same culture would be successful with different soils in the same climate. We cannot, therefore, project our own feelings and experience into the mind and soul of others, as if we were examples of the only way in which Divine grace and power plough all human souls for the seed of salvation. This breaking up of our moral nature is nothing else than the softening of our hearts under the influence of Divine truth--a humble, penitent spirit, a constant sense of the evil of sin, a willingness to be reconciled to God, whom our transgressions have offended, and an earnest desire after a holier life in God. It is only in such a heart as this that Divine truth will take root, and grow up and bring forth fruit. As the ground must be broken before the tiny fibrils of the root can descend into the earth, which they do, as by a sensitive instinct, in search of vegetable nourishment and life; so the spiritual nature must be humbled and made penitent--broken under a sense of sin, and under the operation of Divine law--in order that the seed of the Divine Word may hide itself deep down into the subsoil of the soul, until it establishes itself firmly there. While the tangled threads of the root are shooting themselves downwards, and gathering strength and nourishment from the soil, the blade in spiral form shoots itself upwards to the light, and the leaf opens, then comes the ear, and then the full corn in the ear, ripe for the sickle of harvest. In the same way Divine truth and heavenly principles, spiritual thought, emotion, and life descend and ascend, as by an unchangeable law. In every truly spiritual life there is this two-fold operation--a movement upwards and downwards, a working within and without, a meditative disposition expressing itself in active habits, believing prayer, conjoined with earnest effort in doing good. (W. Simpson.)
The duty of moral cultivation
Our nature at its largest is but a small farm, and we had need to get a harvest out of every acre of it, for our needs are great. Have we left any part of our small allotment uncultivated? If so, it is time to look into the matter and see if we cannot improve this wasteful state of things. What part of our small allotment have we left fallow? We should think very poorly of a farmer who for many years allowed the best and richest part of his farm to lie altogether neglected and untilled. An occasional fallow has its benefits in the world of nature; but, if the proprietor of rich and fruitful land allowed the soil to continue fallow, year after year, we should judge him to be out of his wits. The wasted acres ought to be taken from him and given to another husbandman who would worthily cherish the generous fields, and encourage them to yield their harvests. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
A fallow field
Do you know what happens to a fallow field? how it becomes caked and baked hard as though it were a brick? All the friable qualities seem to depart, and it hardens as it lies caked and unbroken; I mean, of course, if year succeed year, and the fallow remains untouched. And then the weeds! If a man will not sow wheat, he shall have a crop for all that, for the weeds will spring up, and they will sow themselves, and in due time the multiplication table will be worked out to a very wonderful extent; for these seeds, multiplying a hundredfold, as evil usually does, will increase and increase again, till the fallow field shall become a wilderness of thorns and briars and a thicket of dock nettle and thistle. If you do not cultivate your heart, Satan will cultivate it for you. If you bring no crop to God, the devil will be sure to reap a harvest. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain On v3 Jeremiah 4:3 - Jeremiah 6:30
CHAPTER IV
THE SCYTHIANS AS THE SCOURGE OF GOD
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Jeremiah 4:3 - Jeremiah 6:30
IF we would understand what is written here and elsewhere in the pages of prophecy, two things would seem to be requisite. We must prepare ourselves with some knowledge of the circumstances of the time, and we must form some general conception of the ideas and aims of the inspired writer, both in themselves, and in their relation to passing events. Of the former, a partial and fragmentary knowledge may suffice, provided it be true so far as it goes; minuteness of detail is not necessary to general accuracy. Of the latter, a very full and complete conception may be gathered from a careful study of the prophetic discourses.
The chapters before us were obviously composed in the presence of a grave national danger; and what that danger was is not left uncertain, as the discourse proceeds. An invasion of the country appeared to be imminent; the rumour of approaching war had already made itself heard in the capital; and all classes were terror stricken at the tidings.
As usual in such times of peril, the country people were already abandoning the unwalled towns and villages, to seek refuge in the strong places of the land, and, above all, in Jerusalem, which was at once the capital and the principal fortress of the kingdom. The evil news had spread far and near; the trumpet signal of alarm was heard everywhere; the cry was, "Assemble yourselves, and let us go into the fenced cities!" {Jer_4:5}
The ground of this universal terror is thus declared: "The lion is gone up from his thicket, and the destroyer of nations is on his way, is gone forth from his place; to make thy land a desolation, that thy cities be laid waste, without inhabitant" (Jer_4:7). "A hot blast over the bare hills in the wilderness, on the road to the daughter of my people, not for winnowing, nor for cleansing; a full blast from those hills cometh at My beck" (Jer_4:11). "Lo, like clouds he cometh up, and, like the whirlwind, his chariots; swifter than vultures are his horses. Woe unto us! We are verily destroyed" (Jer_4:13). "Besiegers" {lit. "watchmen," Isa_1:8} "are coming from the remotest land, and they utter their cry against the cities of Judah. Like keepers of a field become they against her on every side" (Jer_4:16-17). At the same time, the invasion is still only a matter of report; the blow has not yet fallen upon the trembling people. "Behold, I am about to bring upon you a nation from afar, O house of Israel, saith Iahvah; an inexhaustible nation it is, a nation of old time it is, a nation whose tongue thou knowest not, nor understandest (lit. hearest) what it speaketh. Its quiver is like an opened grave; they all are heroes. And it will eat up thine harvest and thy bread, which thy sons and thy daughters should eat; it will eat up thy flock and thine herd; it will eat up thy vine and thy figtree; it will shatter thine embattled cities, wherein thou art trusting, with the sword." {Jer_5:15-17} "Thus hath Iahvah said: Lo, a people cometh from a northern land, and a great nation is awaking from the uttermost parts of earth. Bow and lance they hold; savage it is, and pitiless; the sound of them is like the sea, when it roareth; and on horses they ride; he is arrayed as a man for battle, against thee, O daughter of Zion. We have heard the report of him; our hands droop; anguish hath taken hold of us, throes, like hers that travaileth". {Jer_6:22 sq.} With the graphic force of a keen observer, who is also a poet, the priest of Anathoth has thus depicted for all time the collapse of terror which befell his contemporaries, on the rumoured approach of the Scythians in the reign of Josiah. And his lyric fervour carries him beyond this; it enables him to see with the utmost distinctness the havoc wrought by these hordes of savages; the surprise of cities, the looting of houses, the flight of citizens to the woods and the hills at the approach of the enemy; the desertion of the country towns, the devastation of fields and vineyards, confusion and desolation everywhere, as though primeval chaos had returned; and he tells it all with the passion and intensity of one who is relating an actual personal experience. "In my vitals, my vitals, I quake, in the walls of my heart! My heart is murmuring to me; I cannot hold my peace; for my soul is listening to the trumpet blast, the alarm of war! Ruin on ruin is cried, for all the land is ravaged; suddenly are my tents ravaged, my pavilions in a moment! How long must I see the standards, must I listen to the trumpet blast?" {Jer_4:19-21} "I look at the earth, and lo, tis chaos: at the heavens, and their light is no more. I look at the mountains, and lo, they rock, and all the hills sway to and fro. I look, and lo, man is no more, and the birds of the air are gone. I look, and 1o, the fruitful soil is wilderness, and all the cities of it are overthrown". {Jer_4:23-26} "At the noise of horseman and archer all the city is in flight! They are gone into the thickets, and up the rocks they have clomb: all the city is deserted" (Jer_4:29). His eye follows the course of devastation until it reaches Jerusalem: Jerusalem, the proud, luxurious capital, now isolated on her hills, bereft of all her daughter cities, abandoned, even betrayed, by her foreign allies. "And thou, that art doomed to destruction, what canst thou do? Though thou clothe thee in scarlet, though thou deck thee with decking of gold, though thou broaden thine eyes with henna, in vain dost thou make thyself fair; the lovers have scorned thee, thy life are they seeking." The "lovers"-the false foreigners-have turned against her in the time of her need; and the strange gods, with whom she dallied in the days of prosperity, can bring her no help. And now, while she witnesses, but cannot avert the slaughter of her children, her shrieks ring in the prophets ear: "A cry, as of one in travail, do I hear; pangs as of her that beareth her firstborn; the cry of the daughter of Zion, that panteth, that. spreadeth out her hands: Woes me! my soul swooneth for the slayers!" (Jer_4:30-31)
Even the strong walls of Jerusalem are no sure defence; there is no safety but in flight. "Remove your goods, ye sons of Benjamin, from within Jerusalem! And in Tekoah" (as if Blaston or Blowick or Trumpington) "blow a trumpet blast and upon Bethhakkerem raise a signal (or beacon)! for evil hath looked forth from the north, and mighty ruin". {Jer_6:1-2} The two towns mark the route of the fugitives, making for the wilderness of the south; and the trumpet call, and the beacon light, muster the scattered companies at these rallying points or halting places. "The beautiful and the pampered one will I destroy-the daughter of Sion." (Perhaps: "The beautiful and the pampered woman art thou like, O daughter of Sion!" 3d fem. sing. in i.) "To her come the shepherds and their flocks; they pitch the tents upon her round about; they graze each at his own side" (i.e., on the ground nearest him). The figure changes, with lyric abruptness, from the fair woman, enervated by luxury (Jer_6:2) to the fair pasture land, on which the nomad shepherds encamp, whose flocks soon eat the herbage down, and leave the soil stripped bare (Jer_6:3); and then, again, to an army beleaguering the fated city, whose cries of mutual cheer, and of impatience at all delay, the poet-prophet hears and rehearses. "Hallow ye war against her! Arise ye, let us go up" (to the assault) "at noontide! Unhappy we! the day hath turned; the shadows of eventide begin to lengthen! Arise ye, and let us go up in the night, to destroy her palaces!" (Jer_6:4-5).
As a fine example of poetical expression, the discourse obviously has its own intrinsic value. The authors power to sketch with a few bold strokes the magical effect of a disquieting rumour; the vivid force with which he realises the possibilities of ravage and ruin which are wrapped up in those vague, uncertain tidings; the pathos and passion of his lament over his stricken country, stricken as yet to his perception only; the tenderness of feeling; the subtle sweetness of language; the variety of metaphor; the light of imagination illuminating the whole with its indefinable charm; all these characteristics indicate the presence and power of a master singer. But with Jeremiah, as with his predecessors, the poetic expression of feeling is far from being an end in itself. He writes with a purpose to which all the endowments of his gifted nature are freely and resolutely subordinated. He values his powers as a poet and orator solely as instruments which conduce to an efficient utterance of the will of Iahvah. He is hardly conscious of these gifts as such. He exists to. "declare in the house of Jacob and to publish in Judah" the word of the Lord.
It is in this capacity that he now comes forward, and addresses his terrified countrymen, in terms not calculated to allay their fears with soothing suggestions of comfort and reassurance, but rather deliberately chosen with a view to heightening those fears, and deepening them to a sense of approaching judgment. For, after all, it is not the rumoured coming of the Scythian hordes that impels him to break silence. It is his consuming sense of the moral degeneracy, the spiritual degradation of his countrymen, which flames forth into burning utterance. "Whom shall I address and adjure, that they may hear? Lo, their ear is uncircumcised, and they cannot hearken; lo, the word of Iahvah hath become to them a reproach; they delight not therein. And of the fury of Iahvah I am full; I am weary of holding it in." Then the other voice in his heart answers: "Pour thou it forth upon the child in the street, and upon the company of young men together!". {Jer_6:10-11} It is the righteous indignation of an offended God that wells up from his heart, and overflows at his lips, and cries woe, irremediable woe, upon the land he loves better than his own life.
He begins with encouragement and persuasion, but his tone soon changes to denunciation and despair. {Jer_4:3 sq.} "Thus hath Iahvah said to the men of Judah and to Jerusalem, Break you up the fallows, and sow not into thorns! Circumcise yourselves to Iahvah, and remove the foreskins of your heart, ye men of Judah, and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem! lest My fury come forth like fire, and burn with none to quench it, because of the evil of your doings." Clothed with the Spirit, as Semitic speech might express it, his whole soul enveloped in a garment of heavenly light-a magical garment whose virtues impart new force as well as new light-the prophet sees straight to the heart of things, and estimates with God-given certainty the real state of his people, and the moral worth of their seeming repentance. The first measures of Josiahs reforming zeal have been inaugurated; at least within the limits of the capital, idolatry in its coarser and more repellent forms has been suppressed; there is a show of return to the God of Israel. But the popular heart is still wedded to the old sanctuaries, and the old sensuous rites of Canaan; and, worse than this, the priests and prophets, whose centre of influence was the one great sanctuary of the Book of the Law, the temple at Jerusalem, have simply taken advantage of the religious reformation for their own purposes of selfish aggrandisement. "From the youngest to the oldest of them, they all ply the trade of greed; and from prophet to priest, they all practise lying. And they have repaired the ruin of (the daughter) of my people in light fashion, saying, It is well, it is well! though it be not well". {Jer_6:13-14} The doctrine of the one legitimate sanctuary, taught with disinterested earnestness by the disciples of Isaiah, and enforced by that logic of events which had demonstrated the feebleness of the local holy places before the Assyrian destroyers, had now come to be recognised as a convenient buttress of the private gains of the Jerusalem priesthood and the venal prophets who supported their authority. The strong current of national reform had been utilised for the driving of their private machinery; and the sole outcome of the self-denying efforts and sufferings of the past appeared to be the enrichment of these grasping and unscrupulous worldlings who sat, like an incubus, upon the heart of the national church. So long as money flowed steadily into their coffers, they were eager enough to reassure the doubting, and to dispel all misgivings by their deceitful oracle that all was well. So long as trading in things Divine, to the utter neglect of the higher obligations of the moral law, was simply appalling to the sensitive conscience of the true prophet of that degenerate age. "A strange and a startling thing it is, that is come to pass in the land. The prophets, they have prophesied in the Lie, and the priests, they tyrannise under their direction; and My people, they love it thus; and what will ye do for the issue thereof?". {Jer_5:30-31} For such facts must have an issue; and the present moral and spiritual ruin of the nation points with certainty to impending ruin in the material and political sphere. The two things go together; you cannot have a decline of faith, a decay of true religion, and permanent outward prosperity; that issue is incompatible with the eternal laws which regulate the life and progress of humanity. One sits in the heavens, over all things from the beginning, to whom all stated worship is a hideous offence when accompanied by hypocrisy and impurity and fraud and violence in the ordinary relations of life. "What good to me is incense that cometh from Sheba, and the choice calamus from a far country? your burnt offerings" (holocausts) "are not acceptable, and your sacrifices are not sweet unto Me." Instead of purchasing safety, they will ensure perdition: "Therefore thus hath Iahvah said: Lo, I am about to lay for this people stumbling blocks, and they shall stumble upon them, fathers and sons together, a neighbour and his friend; and they shall perish." {Jer_6:20 sq.}
In the early days of reform, indeed, Jeremiah himself appears to have shared in the sanguine views associated with a revival of suspended orthodoxy. The tidings of imminent danger were a surprise to him, as to the zealous worshippers who thronged the courts of the temple. So then, after all, "the burning anger of Iahvah was not turned away" by the outward tokens of penitence, by the lavish gifts of devotion; this unexpected and terrifying rumour was a call for the resumption of the garb of mourning and for the renewal of those public fasts which had marked the initial stages of reformation. {Jer_4:8} The astonishment and the disappointment of the man assert themselves against the inspiration of the prophet, when, contemplating the helpless bewilderment of kings and princes, and the stupefaction of priests and prophets in face of the national calamities, he breaks out into remonstrances with God. "And I said, Alas, O Lord Iahvah! of a truth, Thou hast utterly beguiled this people and Jerusalem, saying, It shall be well with you; whereas the sword will reach to the life." The allusion is to the promises contained in the Book of the Law, the reading of which had so powerfully conduced to the movement for reform. That book had been the text of the prophet preachers, who were most active in that work; and the influence of its ideas and language upon Jeremiah himself is apparent in all his early discourses.
The prophets faith, however, was too deeply rooted to be more than momentarily shaken; and it soon told him that the evil tidings were evidence not of unfaithfulness or caprice in Iahvah, but of the hypocrisy and corruption of Israel. With this conviction upon him he implores the populace of the capital to substitute an inward and real for an outward and delusive purification. "Break up the fallows!" Do not dream that any adequate reformation can be superinduced upon the mere surface of life: "Sow not among thorns!" Do not for one moment believe that the word of God can take root and bear fruit in the hard soil of a heart that desires only to be secured in the possession of present enjoyments, in immunity for self indulgence, covetousness, and oppression of the poor. "Wash thine heart from wickedness, O Jerusalem! that thou mayst be saved. How long shall the schemings of thy folly lodge within thee? For hark! one declareth from Dan, and proclaimeth folly from the hills of Ephraim". {Jer_4:14 sq.} The "folly" (awen) is the foolish hankering after the gods which are nothing in the world but a reflection of the diseased fancy of their worshippers; for it is always true that man makes his god in his own image, when he does make him, and does not receive the knowledge of him by revelation. It was a folly inveterate and, as it would seem, hereditary in Israel, going back to the times of the Judges, . and recalling the story of Micah the Ephraimite and the Danites who stole his images. That ancient sin still cried to heaven for vengeance; for the apostatising tendency, which it exemplified, was still active in the heart of Israel. The nation had "rebelled against" the Lord, for it was foolish and had never really known Him; the people were silly children, and lacked insight; skilled only in doing wrong, and ignorant of the way to do right. {Jer_4:22} Like the things they worshipped, they had eyes, but saw not; they had ears, but heard not. Enslaved to the empty terrors of their own imaginations, they, who cowered before dumb idols, stood untrembling in the awful presence of Him whose laws restrained the ocean within due limits, and upon whose sovereign will the fall of the rain and increase of the field depended. {Jer_5:21-24} The popular blindness to the claims of the true religion, to the inalienable rights of the God of Israel, involved a corresponding and ever-increasing blindness to the claims of universal morality, to the rights of man. Competent observers have often called attention to the remarkable influence exercised by the lower forms of heathenism in blunting the moral sense; and this influence was fully illustrated in the case of Jeremiahs contemporaries. So complete, so universal was the national decline that it seemed impossible to find one good man within the bounds of the capital. Every aim in life found illustration in those gay, crowded streets, in the bazaars, in the palaces, in the places by the gate where law was administered, except the aim of just and righteous and merciful dealing with ones neighbour. God was ignored or misconceived of, and therefore man was wronged and oppressed. Perjury, even in the Name of the God of Israel, whose eyes regard faithfulness and sincerity, and whose favour is not to be won by professions and presents; a self-hardening against both Divine chastisement and prophetic admonition; a fatal inclination to the seductions of Canaanite worship and the violations of the moral law, which that worship permitted and even encouraged as pleasing to the gods; these vices characterised the entire population of Jerusalem in that dark period. "Run ye to and fro in the streets of Jerusalem, and see now, and know, and seek ye in the broad places thereof, if ye can find a man, if indeed there be one that doeth justice, that seeketh sincerity; that I may pardon her. And if they say, By the life of Iahvah! Even so they swear falsely. Iahvah, are not thine eyes toward sincerity? Thou smotest them, and they trembled not; Thou consumedst them, they refused to receive instruction; they made their faces harder than a rock, they refused to repent. And for me, I said" (methought), "These are but poor folk; they behave foolishly, because they know not the way of Iahvah, the justice" (Jer_5:1) "of their God: let me betake myself to the great, and speak with them; for they at least know the way of Iahvah, the justice of their God: but these with one consent had broken the yoke, had burst the bonds in sunder". {Jer_5:1-5}
Then, as now, the debasement of the standard of life among the ruling classes was a far more threatening symptom of danger to the commonwealth than laxity of principle among the masses, who had never enjoyed the higher knowledge and more thorough training which wealth and rank, as a matter of course, confer. If the crew turn drunken and mutinous, the ship is in unquestionable peril; but if they who have the guidance of the vessel in their hands follow the vices of those whom they should command and control, wreck and ruin are assured.
The profligacy allowed by heathenism, against which the prophets cried in vain, is forcibly depicted in the words: "Why should I pardon thee? Thy sons have forsaken Me, and have sworn by them that are no gods: though I had bound them" (to Me) "by oath, they committed" (spiritual) "adultery, and into the house of the Fornicatress" (the idols temple, where the harlot priestess sat for hire) "they would flock. Stallions roaming at large were they; neighing each to his neighbours wife. Shall I not punish such offences, saith Iahvah; and shall not My soul avenge herself on such a nation as this?" The cynical contempt of justice, the fraud and violence of those who were in haste to become rich, are set forth in the following: "Among My people are found godless men; one watcheth, as birdcatchers lurk; they have set the trap, they catch men. Like a cage filled with birds, so are their houses filled with fraud: therefore they are become great, and have amassed wealth. They are become fat, they are sleek; also they pass {Isa_40:27} cases {Exo_22:9; Exo_24:14; cf. also 1Sa_10:2} of wickedness-neglect to judge heinous crimes; the cause they judge not, the cause of the fatherless, to make it succeed; and the right of the needy they vindicate not". {Jer_5:26-28}
"She is the city doomed to be punished! she is all oppression within. As a spring poureth forth its waters, so she poureth forth her wickedness; violence and oppression resound in her; before Me continually is sickness and wounds". {Jer_6:6-7} There would seem to be no hope for such a people and such a city. The prophet, indeed, cannot forget the claims of kindred, the thousand ties of blood and feeling that bind him to this perverse and sinful nation. Thrice, even in this dark forecast of destruction, he mitigates severity with the promise, "yet will I not make a full end." The door is still left open, on the chance that some at least may be won to penitence. But the chance was small. The difficulty was, and the prophets yearning tenderness towards his people could not blind him to the fact that all the lessons of Gods providence were lost upon this reprobate race: "They have belied the Lord, and said, it is not He; neither shall evil come upon us; neither shall we see sword and famine." The prophets, they insisted, were wrong both in the significance which they attributed to occasional calamities, and in the disasters which they announced as imminent: "The prophets will become wind, and the Word of God is not in them; so will it turn out with them." It was, therefore, wholly futile to appeal to their better judgment against themselves: "Thus said Iahvah, Stop on the ways, and consider, and ask after the eternal paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and find rest for your soul: and they said, We will not walk therein. And I will set over you watchmen" (the prophets); "hearken ye to the call of the trumpet!" (the warning note of prophecy) "and they said We will not hearken." For such wilful hardness and impenitence, disdaining correction and despising reproof, God appeals to the heathen themselves, and to the dumb earth, to attest the justice of His sentence of destruction against this people: "Therefore, hear, O ye nations, and know, and testify what is among them! Hear, O earth! Lo, I am about to bring evil upon this people, the fruit of their own devisings; for unto My words they have not hearkened, and as for Mine instruction, they have rejected it." Their doom was inevitable, for it was the natural and necessary consequence of their own doings: "Thine own way and thine own deeds have brought about these evils for thee; this is thine own evil; verily, it is bitter, verily, it reacheth unto thine heart." The discourse ends with a despairing glance at the moral reprobation of Israel. "An assayer did I make thee among My people, a refiner," {reading mecaref, Mal_3:2-3} "that thou mightest know and assay their kind" (lit. way). Jeremiahs call had been to "sit as a refiner and purifier of silver" in the name of his God: in other words, to separate the good elements from the bad in Israel, and to gather around himself the nucleus of a people "prepared for Iahvah." But his work had been vain. In vain had the prophetic fire burnt within him; in vain had the vehemency of the spirit fanned the flame; the Divine word-that solvent of hearts-had been expended in vain; no good metal could come of an ore so utterly base. "They are all the worst" {1Ki_20:43} "of rebels" (or, "deserters to the rebels"), "going about with slander; they are brass and iron; they all deal corruptly. The bellows blow; the lead" (used for fining the ore) "is consumed by the fire; in vain do they go on refining" (or, "does the refiner refine"); "and the wicked are not separated. Refuse silver are they called, for Iahvah hath refused them."
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On v1 CRITICAL AND EXEGETICAL NOTES.—Chronology of the chapter, Contemporary Scriptures,…
CRITICAL AND EXEGETICAL NOTES.—Chronology of the chapter, Contemporary Scriptures, Historic Facts, Contemporary History as in chap. 3. 1. Geographical References. Jer_4:5. “Defenced cities.” Some existed in Canaan before Israelites took possession (Num_13:28). Solomon erected others:—Tadmor, Gezer, Hazor, Bethlehem, Megiddo, &c. (1Ki_9:15-19). But Jerusalem, fortified by David (2Sa_5:7; 2Sa_5:9-10), was the chief stronghold of the nation (Jer_4:6). When Titus, later in history, besieged Jerusalem, he viewed with amazement, and expressed his admiration of, its impregnable strength (see Josephus Wars, Book vi: ch. 9 § 1). Jer_4:11. “High places in the wilderness: ranges of bare hills by which the sandy deserts to the east of Palestine are intersected (Hend.). Jer_4:15. “Dan and Mount Ephraim.” Dan, the most northern landmark of Palestine, the border town, at the foot of Mount Lebanon, near source of Jordan. Its original name, Laish (cf. Jos_18:7; Jos_19:47); captured by a detachment of the tribe of Dan, who went thither to colonise, because the limited area assigned to the tribe was too strait for them: these gave the name Dan to the town. Mount Ephraim, a range of high lands, rounded limestone hills, broken up by intersecting luxuriant valleys, running through the territory allotted to the tribe of Ephraim: the name specially denoted the mountainous district ranging from Ebal and Gerizim southward to Bethel, in length about twenty miles. Thus Dan was the northern frontier of Palestine: Mount Ephraim, the northern boundary of Judea. Their connection here denotes that scarcely would news that the enemy had appeared at Dan (where the northern invaders would first show themselves) be published, ere the foe would, in rapid march, have penetrated to the very centre of the Holy Land, and scaled the frontier of Judea. Jer_4:29. “Climb up upon the rocks.” The fastnesses of mountainous rocks proved secure asylums from hostile invaders; where also, unable to resist them in the open field, the Israelites made unconquerable resistance (Jdg_6:2; Jdg_20:47, 1Sa_13:6; 1Sa_14:4 sq., Isa_2:19; Isa_33:16).
2. Natural History. Jer_4:3. “Fallow-ground:” land left untitled, not touched by plough or sown with seed, for the Sabbatical year; hence hard, needing to be “broken up,” and overgrown with thorns, which must be cleansed away. Jer_4:11. “Dry wind:” the E. wind which was dry or withering (Eze_19:12), or the Simoom, frequently mentioned in Old Testament, which blew from the Arabian desert, blasting vegetation and human life; “not to fan and cleanse” the grain, but ravage and destroy. Jer_4:13. “Clouds and whirlwind:” the Simoom raises “clouds” of sand and dust, which whirl up and cover the sky: these are the “chariots,” and the hurricanes the “swift horses” suggested by the simile. “Horses:” the Chaldean cavalry, which were exceeding Swift. “Eagles:” Xenophon tells us that the Assyrian armies (ergo, the Chaldean) bore the eagle with wings outspread as a military ensign upon their banners (cf. Hab_1:8; Isa_8:8; Jer_48:40; Hos_8:1). So also the Persians, and the Romans after them. In Lev_11:13, the eagle is ranked among the unclean birds.
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3. Manners and Customs. Jer_4:6. “Set up the standard:” to rally the inhabitants of the country around to the defenced cities for refuge from invaders. Not a military standard (דֶּגֶל) but a signal (נֵס) a flag, some well-understood beacon to warn or summon the people. Jer_4:13. “Chariots:” formed a marked feature of Nebuchadnezzar’s army (Eze_23:24; Eze_26:7). Their invention has been attributed to Ericthonius of Athens, B.C. 1486; but Scripture shows that Egyptians used them earlier than that (Exo_14:7; cf. 2Ki_18:24). Solomon imported them from Egypt (1Ki_10:28-29). Jer_4:16. “Give out their voice against,” &c.: the war-shout raised by armies when about to give battle. Instance in Jdg_7:20. This was the custom with Hebrews, who also sometimes sang a war song (2Ch_20:21) immediately before the attack. Greek armies did the same. Jer_4:17. “Keepers of a field.” Watch was kept over pasturing flocks (Luk_2:8) and over cultivated fields and plantations: these “keepers” constructed, for shelter from sun by day and security by night, booths (Job_27:18); probably then, as now, a simple framework covered with branches of trees, and raised on four poles. These fields were surrounded by keepers placed at given distances, one of whom raised the cry on danger appearing, which the others in turn took up, till echoing voices sounded around the whole scene. With these booths are compared the tents of besiegers, and their cry over danger, with the war-shout of the foe. Jer_4:20. “Tents:” the ordinary habitations of Israelites (2Sa_18:17): not only did the nomads like the Rechabites live in them, but the mass of the population engaged in pastoral pursuits (Speaker’s Com.). Jer_4:30. “Crimson,” a rich shade of scarlet, a deeper dye: “ornaments of gold,” rings in nose and ears, anklets, embroidered girdles, &c. “Rentest thy face with painting:” “face” should be “eyes.” Among Eastern females then, and now, the custom prevailed of using a metallic ore, reduced to an impalpable powder, stibium, cohol, antimony, mixed into a paste with oil or vinegar, for darkening the eyes. A smooth cylindrical piece of silver, ivory, or wood, shaped like a quill, about two inches long, was dipped into the stibium, and drawn horizontally through between the closed eyelids. This increased the lustre of the eyes, imparted a jetty blackness to the edges of the lids, showing off the whiteness of the eyes to great advantage. Frequent use injured the eyes, making them look as if “rent.” The eyebrows and outer angles of the eyes were by this “painting” artificially extended across the face, and the eyes apparently enlarged. Large dark eyes are regarded as essential to Oriental beauty.
“There with a tiring pin their eyebrows dye,
Till the full arch gives lustre to the eye
That, trembling, darts lascivious glauces.”
—JUVENAL’S SATIRE II. 137–40.
Xenophon describes it as a custom among the Medes in the time of the elder Cyrus: so great the antiquity and prevalence of this device of vanity. The earliest record of this custom is in 2Ki_9:30, Jezebel.
4. Literary Criticisms. Jer_4:1. “Not remove:” Hend. Noyes and De Wette, “not be a fugitive,” Lange, “then waver not.” But Keil, Ewald, Hitzig, and Speaker’s Com. regard the words as a second condition, “and strayest, or wanderest not:” i.e., “if thou put away abominations, and wanderest not, and swearest by Jehovah, then shall the nations,” &c. It requires abandonment of idols, the end of wanderings, the oath of fidelity. Jer_4:5. “Cry, gather together:” rather, make full, meaning “cry with full voice,” aloud. Jer_4:6. “Retire, stay not.” Hend. “flee for refuge, stand not still” Speaker’s Com. “gather your goods together, linger not:” the same verb in Exo_9:19 used for removing property to a safe place. Keil, “save yourselves by flight.” Sharpe, “flee in haste, stay not.” “I will bring.” I am bringing. Jer_4:12. “A full wind:” i.e., a stronger wind than that which comes to winnow: “shall come unto me:” rather for me, as my instrument, to effect my purpose. Jer_4:14. “Vain thoughts;” i.e., idolatrous, iniquitous thoughts. אָוֶן = sin of idolatry: cf. Hos_4:15; Hos_5:8, and the Heb. of Amo_5:5, where Beth-el (the house of Jehovah) is called Beth-aven (the house of idolatry). Jer_4:15. “Publish affliction:” the same word as in Jer_4:14. אָוֶן here meaning calamity: this use of the same word links together iniquity and calamity. Jer_4:19. “At my very heart:” translated as if the Hebrew words were idiomatic: but literally, “at the walls of my heart.” Jer_4:23. “Without form and void:” the same phrase as in Gen_1:2. תֹּהוּ וָבֹהוּ; the primeval chaos reproduced. Jer_4:24. “Hills moved lightly:” rather, vehement motion. הִתְקֵלְקָלוּ, the violent agitations of mountains during earthquake. Jer_4:29. “The whole city:” should read, either the whole land (Targum and Lxx), or every city (Keil, Speaker’s Com., &c). Jer_4:30. “And when thou art spoiled,” &c. Omit italics in A.V. “And thou spoiled,” i.e., “And thou, O spoiled one:” viz. Jerusalem: addressed as a woman who decks herself in her best attire to attract lovers; although the masculine form שָׁדוּד is used: but Keil suggests, “it is to be regarded as adverbial, and so is without inflection;” Hend. suggests that עָם, people, denoting the inhabitants, is to be understood. Jer_4:31. “My soul is wearied because of murderers:” Keil, “sinketh powerless beneath murderers.” Speaker’s Com., “sinks exhausted before them.” Noyes, “I am dying of murderers.”
HOMILIES AND OUTLINES ON SECTIONS OF CHAPTER 4
Section
Jer_4:1-4.
Return to God would recover favours for Israel, and avert doom from Judah.
Section
Jer_4:5-18.
Judah refusing to return, her doom is graphically portrayed.
Section
Jer_4:19-26.
Jeremiah beholds the beautiful land utterly devastated.
Section
Jer_4:27-31.
Abandoned to judgment, yet not consigned to destruction.
Jer_4:1-4. RETURN TO GOD RECOVERS FAVOURS, AND AVERTS DOOM
Jehovah requires of the sinful more than return to good habits, or to religious observances: they must obey the call “Return to ME!” Man must come back to God Himself. It is possible: God desires it: and the Way we know.
I. Securing God’s acceptance must precede possession of God’s inheritance. “If thou wilt return [to thy inheritance in Canaan], O Israel, return unto Me, saith the Lord.” Enemies cannot occupy God’s cherished possession. It is a gift of grace, dependent on man’s loyalty and love. Sin forfeits all right to it; surrenders even the occupancy (as Israel). 1. Reconciliation is the pathway to privileges. 2. Repentance is the door to reconciliation. 3. God’s favour is the qualification for Canaan.
II. Surrounding nations won to God by the event of Israel’s conversion. This is portrayed in Scripture as—1. A great prophetic fact. Israel’s return will inaugurate the millennial glory, the ingathering of the nations to Christ. The world cannot become the Lord’s until this event is realised. “All nations shall be blessed in Him:” when He “the God of Israel doth wondrous things” (cf. Psa_72:17-19; Rom_11:12-15). 2. A grand perennial principle. The same truth is constantly working itself out in present experience: society is awakened to seek Christ in seasons of revival of the Church; circles of acquaintance are impressed religiously by the conversion of one of their company; homes are won to Jesus by the return of a single member to the Lord. If true that “one sinner destroyeth much good;” equally true that one conversion effects wide and salutary results.
III. Gathering fury against sin may be arrested by true Repentance (Jer_4:3-4). Clearly it is affirmed that—1. Divine anger accumulates as human sin grows. Thus prolonged guilt and excessive guilt “heaps up wrath against the day of wrath.” Man feeds the fire, and heats its fury, by every act of sin. 2. Divine anger may be appeased by sincere human contrition. “God is angry with the wicked,” but only as long as they persist in wickedness. That ended, anger ceases. It is not anger with the man apart from this evil quality; it is the man plus his sin who entails the displeasure. Sorrow in man’s heart at once quenches the fire of God’s displeasure. Horrifying as had been Judah’s criminality, contrition would avert its just retribution. Hence, the sinner’s escape is conditional upon himself. Will he deplore and desert his sin? God may desire to save; may provide salvation; but nothing avails until sorrow awakes in the soul of man. The yearning father forbears to embrace his boy until he “comes to himself” and returns.
IV. Impenitence will eventually be punished with woful destruction. There are three aspects of God’s anger denoted: 1. It is fiery; “like fire,” held in restraint now, but to “come forth,” and burn with “fury” (Heb_12:29). 2. It is unquenchable: i.e., when once God lets it loose; it “will burn that none can quench it” (Mat_3:12). 3. It is merited; “because of the evil of your doings.” This will create in the sufferer’s heart “the worm that dieth not,” and occasion the “wailing and guashing of teeth.” Comp. Eze_33:17-20.
Jer_4:5-18. JUDAH IMPENITENT: HER DOOM PORTRAYED
Lange points out “Three Emblems” under which the coming disasters are here represented: First Emblem, the Lion (Jer_4:5-10): Second Emblem, the Tempest (Jer_4:11-13): Third Emblem, the Keepers (Jer_4:14-18). Modern German criticism has attempted to fix this prophecy on a Scythian, not Chaldean, invasion; which is affirmed, but wholly without historic proof, to have occurred in the 7th or 8th year of Josiah. It is the outcome of a rationalistic dislike of the supernatural element in prophecy: hence these critics first fix on an imaginary event, and then proceed to show that the prophet’s words are mere “disguised descriptions of historical events” already past, or menaces of events clearly within the sight of a sagacious observer. [See Eichhorn, Ewald, Hitzig, Dahler, &c.] There is no historical evidence of a Scythian invasion of Judea. Heroditus (i. 103–105) records that the Scythians invaded Media, and dominated for 28 years over Asia: that they came to Syrian Palestine, on their way against Egypt, and that Psammeticus, king of Egypt, induced their withdrawal by giving them presents; and that they committed no violence beyond plundering the temple of Ascalon. There is abundant proof against even this having occurred in Josiah’s reign. All the description is minutely suggestive of the Chaldean invasion; this was the Divinely-employed agent of Judah’s overthrow. Her doom
i. Solemnly forewarned (Jer_4:5-6) throughout the whole land; loudly and clearly; measures of defence counselled; haste and precautions advised.
ii. Appallingly real (Jer_4:7-8; Jer_4:13; Jer_4:15-16), whence (“the north;”) savage (Jer_4:7); swift (13); approaching (15); for war (16 “give out their voice”).
iii. Paralysing all resources of help and counsel (Jer_4:9-10); surpassing all expectation; rendering powerless all opposition; refuting all false promises.
iv. Effecting God’s purposes (Jer_4:11-12). It would be in effect God’s “sentence;” righteous therefore and irrevocable.
v. Bitterly retributive (Jer_4:17-18), the fruit of her severing herself from God’s favour and protection; the penalty of her sin; bitter as death.
vi. Salvation yet possible (Jer_4:14). “Out of the heart are the issues of life.” A cleansed heart would ensure salvation.
Jer_4:19-26. A MOURNFUL VISION: THE HOLY LAND UTTERLY DEVASTATED
The insensate nation foresaw no calamity, feared no foe. Vivid as all was to the prophet’s perception they dreamed on heedlessly; sleeping amid iniquity while sudden destruction sped towards them. He saw the sword, they mocked at his warnings. So Noah in his generation: so every prophet: so our Divine Lord: so the preacher of God to-day. His eye is open to nearing woe: but the people mock, despise and reject, repudiate warning, and betake themselves, besotted and blinded, to iniquity.
I. The Seer’s anguish constrains him to speak (Jer_4:19). This throws light on
i. The Seer’s sufferings. He feels what he foresees: his whole nature is wrong with grief at the vision which none but himself can perceive. The finer the man’s nature, the keener his anguish. The clearer his penetrations, the more intense his sufferings. The nobler his patriotism, the heavier lies the burden of his nation’s woe upon his heart. The higher his piety, the more bitter his grief over all.
ii. The Seer’s mission. Inwardly constrained, he speaks out of a full and an agonising heart: “I cannot hold my peace.” Divinely enlightened, he sees what is hid from the people, and “cannot but speak the things he has seen and heard.” Loving his people, he would fain shield them from the woe he forecasts, and “snatch them as brands out of the burning.”
II. The miseries of the perishing become the prophet’s own (Jer_4:20-21). “My tents spoiled!” &c. This suggests the true attitude of God’s messenger.
1. Identification of interests (Rom_11:1): himself bound up with them: suffering what they suffer. This is the real shepherding of the flock.
2. Intense sympathy of soul. He hears and sees all as if he were involved. There is no proud distinguishing and justifying of himself. He and his people are one. [Addenda Jer_4:19. Prophet’s distress.]
III. Rejection of God’s messenger, the act of madness (Jer_4:22). No uncommon incident. Every age rejects and ignores its benefactors, teachers, and saviours. The more evidently these bear the seal and dignity of God’s messengers, the more “the world hates them.” “If it hated Me,” says Jesus, “it will you.”
1. Suicidal folly: “My people is foolish, they have not known Me:” they frivolously ignored this man whom God had sent to speak to them.
2. Besotted blindness: “they are sottish children,” &c. Their intelligence, discernment, and religious education, all were darkened by sin (2Co_4:3-4).
3. Spiritual perversity: “wise to do evil,” not naturally witless; “but to do good they have no knowledge,” their religious nature brutalised.
IV. The horrifying vision of gathering calamity described (Jer_4:23-26). 1. Appalling disorder and gloom (Jer_4:23); i.e., the withdrawal of all peace and privilege in which God has established Judah. 2. Terrifying overthrow (Jer_4:24); i.e., the casting down utterly and hopelessly of every natural stronghold in which Judah had been wont to trust, and thought to flee. 3. All life perished (Jer_4:25); i.e., none should escape; calamity would fall on every one. 4. Sacrilege and ruin (Jer_4:26); nothing, however beautiful, cultured or revered, spared: lovely gardens, noble and wealthy cities, all gone. Nothing left of all human trusts and treasures: if, therefore, “without God,” total loss (see Rev_6:12-17).
Jer_4:27-31. ABANDONED TO JUDGMENT, YET NOT CONSIGNED TO DESTRUCTION
There is a reserve of mercy in all God’s strokes; He softens the severity, keeps open the door of hope, makes a “way of escape.” Stars shine, though obscured, through the stormiest night: and a promise may be heard even amid God’s heaviest denunciations (Gen_3:14-15).
I. Merciless forces are under the Divine restraint (Jer_4:27). Though the land should be desolated, yet “I will not make a full end.” The overthrow of Judah by the Chaldeans was God’s work: and the limitation of the Chaldean policy of extermination was equally of the Lord.
1. Their reckless implacability. Look at the Chaldean army, it promised little restraint: it menaced with heedless, merciless destruction. Nebuchadnezzar seems to have organised into a consolidated army wild hordes of freebooters, mere relics of those nations Assyria had overthrown and absorbed. These he gathered together, and with them swept the lands (2Ki_24:1-2, cf. Hab_1:5-12). Little consideration or mercy from them!
2. There it use even for them in God’s Providence. They are His scourge of rebellious Judah. So Habakkuk avers (Jer_1:12); these very Chaldeans God “ordained them for judgment,” &c. He maketh the wrath of man to praise Him.
3. There is a limit to their power and fury. “Yet will I not make a full end” (Comp. Jer_3:14). The ten tribes are lost, without national existence; greater nations than Judah disappear for ever—Nineveh, Babylon (Jer_51:64), the Assyrians, Greeks, Romans. But the Jews are not annihilated. “Hitherto shalt thou come and no further,” &c. God is mightier than mightiest forces; merciful even when using merciless agencies; while “the end of the Lord is very pitiful” (Jas_5:11).
II. Divine plans lie behind all great events. The rise and fall of empires, the downfall and enthronement of kings; all are according to the mind of Him who is King of kings, and doeth according to His will among the inhabitants of the earth. Here is shown that God regulates—1. Even disasters: such as to make heaven and earth mourn (Jer_4:28). 2. Even victories of the wicked: He permits these to triumph over the people whom God had once chosen; as Chaldeans over Judah “the house of David.” 3. Even the punishment of God’s people: sore afflictions, humiliations, and disasters which overtake us (Jer_4:29). 4. Even the ruin of sinners: God allows it; purposes it; and “will not repent:” so Judah was ruined!
III. Rebellion reduced to ultimate defeat and despair (Jer_4:30-31). Slow indeed to yield to God, yet yield it shall.
1. Even in her overthrow Judah sought other helpers, not God (Jer_4:30). She sought by skilful and foolish appliances to win favour, to gain lovers, and so do without God, and avoid submission and repentance. Sinners will hold out against God to the last. Yes, even in the hour of affliction, of disaster and death, the “rebellious” will refuse to seek the Lord, or cry to the Crucified One to save.
2. She realised at length her absolute and completed misery (Jer_4:31). “The daughter of Zion bewaileth herself,” &c. Observe: her grief and anguish is not for her sin, but for “herself”—“woe is me now!” for her misery; and also her helpless, hopeless ruin: “my soul wearied because of murderers.” Such are the issues of rebellion: such the shame and woe to which the guilty are abandoned. God has reserved to Judah a last hope (Jer_4:27); just so, He calls to us “after so long a time.” Heed Jer_4:14. [Addenda Jer_4:31. Woe-stricken.]
HOMILIES AND COMMENTS ON VERSES OF CHAPTER 4
Jer_4:1. Theme: GOD GAINED OR HEAVEN LOST. “If thou wouldst return [to thine inheritance, thou must first] return unto Me.”
I. The alien outcast may return to God. By conversion; renewal of heart; prayer for pardon and acceptance; humble faith.
II. The far-off banished one may find God. None too distant from Him to pray, to be heard, to be assured of acceptance, to be restored to the long lost love and peace and bliss. Israel in a strange country, removed from her land and altars and temple, could nevertheless seek Him in spirit.
III. The returning soul shall be brought home. When God is found, the soul back again in His love, heaven is sure to follow. God kept Canaan for Israel, keeps it still empty awaiting her return. Seek Him, not heaven; He will give that. Our sole concern is to find the Father. “It is His good pleasure to give us the kingdom.” “Jesus said, I am the way, &c.: no man cometh unto the Father but by Me.”
Theme: SIN BANISHED, OR THE SOUL BANISHED. “If put away abominations, thou shalt not remove;” i.e. (as some render it), no longer be a wanderer, an outcast in a far-off land. (Addenda Jer_4:1. Banished recalled.)
I. Sin cannot dwell where God is. And God dwelt amid Israel when she was “holiness” (Jer_2:3). Becoming guilty she was banished; remaining guilty she must keep afar from God. Our guilt separates us necessarily from Him (Isa_59:2). See instances of conscious unworthiness (Isa_6:5; Luk_5:8).
II. Sinners cannot possess God’s heritage (cf. 1Co_6:9, sq. Rev_21:27). Retaining sin in the heart ensures exclusion: for it creates unfitness, and would incur the frown of God and the horror of the holy ones—thus depriving heaven of all heavenliness to the condemned soul. Any defilement, even hidden, would destroy in the soul the sense of fitness for God’s glorious heritage, and make his existence self-condemned; this would desolate heaven of joy. Only “the pure in heart can see God.”
III. Sin may be separated from the soul. “Put away abomination” (cf. Isa_1:18; Zec_3:4; Zec_13:1-2; Mat_1:21; 1Co_6:11). Other methods have been tried: but “who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?” Jesus only. (Addenda Jer_4:1. Sin banished, or no heaven.)
IV. Sinners may then have a right to the Divine presence.
1. A right to enter through the gates (comp. Rev_22:14), where the proper reading is, “Blessed are they that have washed their robes, that, they may have right,” &c.
2. Fitness to abide in God’s sight (Rev_14:4-5).
3. Assured of endless rest therein. “To go no more out.” “Thou shalt not remove.” “And so shall they be for ever with the Lord.”
NOTE. If the words “thou shalt not remove” be rendered as with Henderson, “not be a fugitive,” (comp. Gen_4:12-14). i. The horrors of banishment; ii. The conditions on which that state may be reversed. “Put away,” &c.
Or if rendered, “then waver not” (Lange & Wordsworth) i.e., be steadfast in thy repentance, or be prompt and firm and thorough in thy conversion. i. Sin cannot be put away partially: it is dishonest, revolting to God. ii. Only resolute and entire repentance will avail before God. He will accept us only then.
Observe how God views idols: “abominations.” He would have everything which interposes between the soul and Himself “put out of His sight.” His love of man is such that He cannot consent to divided allegiance. His loathing of sin is so intense that He cannot allow it to remain under His eye.
Comments: Jer_4:2. Concerning SWEARING BY OATH. “And thou shalt swear, the Lord liveth,” &c.
The A.V. makes this verse unintelligible. The phrase, The Lord liveth, is the regular form of the Jewish oath, and means, not the thing sworn to, but the thing sworn by—By the life of Jehovah. But every nation swears by the highest object of its worship (Deu_10:20, &c.), and the prophecy that Egyptians should swear to Jehovah (Isa_19:18), implied their conversion to the true faith. Here, similarly, the oath is a confession of faith in Jehovah, as the true God. (Speaker’s Com.)
To swear by Jehovah, means to bind one’s self by a solemn profession to adhere to His worship and service (comp. Deu_6:13; Deu_10:20; Isa_19:18; Amo_8:14). And the profession should be not alone, or merely that of the lips, but accompanied with uprightness of heart and strictest rectitude of conduct.—Henderson.
Thou shalt swear, not by thine idols (Amo_8:14; Zep_1:5), but by the Lord; not with vain oaths, but for such causes, and with such conditions, as constitute a righteous oath (Wordsworth). A good oath has always these three concomitants—truth, judgment, and justice. If these are wanting, an oath becomes a perjury (Jerome). [Addenda Jer_4:2. Thou shalt swear.]
That we may not take God’s name in vain, we must swear in:
1. “Truth:” commanded Lev_19:12 : we must not swear falsely to perjure ourselves, in assertion, either in cognito, when we know, or in dubio, when we know not, nor in promission, when either we resolve not to perform, or do not perform.
2. “Justice;” which requires that we only swear in honestis et possibilibus, in things honest and possible; for that which is dishonest is not just, and an impossible matter is not at all to be sworn to. A thing impossible or dishonest is so, either from the very beginning, or cometh to be so afterwards. Thus Herod’s oath was unlawful both in the making and the keeping of it; for in keeping it he added two other sins to that of rash swearing: manslaughter and foolish superstition. “When an evil thing is promised, cut the thread:” as David did (1Sa_25:22; 1Sa_25:32).
3. “Judgment:” which requireth three things of us. (α.) That we take an oath reverently, not rashly, Ecc_5:2. (β.) To take it as a holy thing, and therefore not make it common. (γ.) We must account it a matter spiritual, and not say, juravi lingua, mentem injuratam gero, I swore with my tongue, my mind and intention were not sworn; for God will take that sense which the words carry. God so understands an oath as he who propounds it.—Bishop Andrewes.
Swearing by Jehovah involves the acknowledgment of His deity. For no one would swear by Him who was not convinced that He is the witness of truth and the avenger of falsehood. But to swear by others robs God of His glory and gives it to idols (Isa_42:8).—Lange.
Theme: ISRAEL’S RETURN SHALL ALLURE THE GENTILES TO THE LORD. If Israel repents, it will become the means of making the Gentiles partakers of the patriarchal promise (Gen_22:18). Two great truths taught: i. That the Gentiles were to be members of the Church of the Messiah; ii. That Israel’s peculiar office was to be God’s mediator in this great work.—Speaker’s Com.
i. If the heathen “bless themselves” in Jehovah, they are become partakers of the salvation which comes from Him. ii. If this blessing comes to them in consequence of Israel’s conversion, then Israel is the channel of their salvation. Israel’s apostasy has delayed this: Israel’s conversion is necessary to the completion of the Divine plan of universal redemption.—Comp. Keil.
When the long-deluded and spiritually-oppressed heathen come to “know the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom He has sent,” they will indeed “bless themselves,” for Christianity blesses its possessor; but they will “glory in Him,” for it is a worthy fact for glorying that not vain idols are our gods, but that Jehovah is ours,—ours to trust, and claim, and love: that Jesus has redeemed, loved, and acknowledged us as His!
M. Henry says, If the scattered Israelites will thus return to God,—i. They shall be blessed themselves, for so ver. i. may read—brought back out of captivity to their own land (Deu_4:29; Deu_30:2), or, shall return to Me as their rest even while in exile. ii. They shall be blessings to others; for their return shall be a means of others turning to Him who never knew Him; Israel would influence the nations, among whom scattered, to “bless themselves in Him,” i.e., shall find their blessedness in Him, shall join themselves to Him, and “shall glory” in the blessed change they have made.
Jer_4:3. Theme: SOUL AGRICULTURE. “Break up your fallow ground, and sow not among thorns.”
Frequent Scripture use of imagery of tillage as illustrative of soul-training. Agriculture, perhaps the oldest, most necessary, and best understood of all the arts: also, most suggestive of the moral culture of the human soul.
Three things essential to successful agriculture:
I. Proper attention to the SOIL. Analogy between the material soil and the human soul in two respects: there is—
1. Variety of condition. Christ speaks of the “wayside” soil, “stony places,” “thorny ground,” and “good ground.” Their counterpart in men.
2. Capability of improvement. Farmer changes the character of the soil, bad into good: pulverises stones, mollifies the hard clay, burns weeds, &c. So hardened heart must be broken, thorny cleansed. Unless hearts thus prepared for truth, precious grain is wasted on them. But can men alter soil of their hearts? Yes: Commanded in text, “Break up,” &c.
II. Proper attention to the SEED. In its selection and its growth. Soil might be good, yet if seed bad, harvest bad.
1. Care in selection of true spiritual seed. It is the Gospel: (a.) perfect in itself; (b.) fitted to grow in all climates; (c.) but it does not sow itself; (d.) it is the support of life.
2. Attention must be also paid to its growth. Carefully the farmer watches, specially the first stages; uproots weeds, scares off fowls of heaven. (Compare Mat_13:25; Hos_8:7.)
III. Proper attention to the SEASON. There “is a time to sow;” a season when the earth has its fecund power, and a time when it departs. And there are seasons for spiritual culture: 1. Youth. 2. The season of moral seriousness, when the heart has been softened. Many try when faculties are shattered, in old age, on dying beds. The time comes when the heart cannot grow Christianity.
Con.: Earnest in work of soul-tillage. Why? (a.) The field is in a deplorable condition (Pro_24:31). (b.) No work will prove so remunerative, (c) There is no time to lose: “Go, work to-day in my vineyard.”—Condensed from “Homilist.”
Comments:
“To the men of Judah;” the word is sing., to each man. Every one is called to personal contrition. Repentance, reformation, religion, is imperative with each man singly: every one must prepare his heart and come back himself to God.
“Break up fallow.” The seeds of contrition must not be sown yet. Preparation is essential; it must engage anxious and watchful concern: not be done offhand; let it be attempted with utmost painstaking and seriousness. There must not be left one foul and thorny sin in the heart; it must be cleaused thoroughly. Only then will the repentance be real and permanent, and accepted by God.
Jer_4:4. Theme: THE FIRE OF GOD’S WRATH. “Lest my fury come forth like fire, and burn,” &c.
Sin ignites the unquenchable fire. Impenitence invites it.
I. God’s fury is a terrible and a consuming reality. Not a shadowy menace, not a mere figure of speech, not an extravagance of fancy, but an appalling fact. The necessary counterpart and consequence of insulted and incensed love. It is a “fire;” it is a “burning” fire; it is a “furious” fire. It must be a fearful thing to encounter and endure!
II. God’s fury is restrained that men may avert and escape it. “Lest my fury come forth.” 1. God Himself is slow to let loose the terrors of His anger against sin. 2. Man has it in his own power to prevent its direful ravages. 3. Solemn forewarnings and appeals are Divinely sent that the wicked may escape. Compare text and Nineveh’s conduct (Jon_3:5-10).
III. God’s fury will eventually overtake the defiant transgressors. Disobey God’s call to repent, abuse the opportunity of escape, and “the fury will come forth like fire.” 1. Historic occurrences show this to be true (Gen_19:24-25; Lev_10:2; Num_16:31-35). 2. Prophetic warnings point to the same issues of sin (Mat_11:21-24; Mat_25:41; Heb_10:26-27).
IV. God’s fury once kindled can never more be quenched. Fire is the symbol of destruction. The declaration that “none can quench it,” implies hope gone for ever,—ameliorations and escape utterly lost,—irretrievably past. From that burning there will be no Saviour to snatch us as brands. Nothing can assuage its terrors,—none can quench its flames. Christ’s redeeming work avails now, not then.
V. God’s fury is the inevitable consequence of man’s iniquity. “God is love;” and “loves the world” (1Jn_4:16). The Divine displeasure is created by man. God’s fury is the necessary indignation caused by sin. And it must fall on the resolute sinner; for his sin has reversed the love, and left only this just anger. Alienated love means incurred wrath. Not that God wills it so (2Pe_3:9); it is the issue of an inevitable law,—God’s love estranged by guilt (for He cannot love where guilt is cherished), leaves nothing but the indignation against sin in the Divine heart towards the relentless sinner.
When, therefore, at the last, the sinner meets God, he calls forth, not love—he has estranged that—but the wrath he has kindled: “because of the evil of his doings.” “Flee from the wrath to come.” (Addenda, Jer_4:4, “Unquenchable fire.”)
Jer_4:5-8. ALARM SOUNDED: FLEE TO THE STRONGHOLDS. (Addenda, Jer_4:7, “The lion.”)
i. The enemy advances (Jer_4:7). The lion is rousing himself; already he has left his lair. He is a “destroyer.” He comes to “desolate” and to “devour” (1Pe_5:8).
ii. Strongholds are accessible (Jer_4:5). Leave the open country. Do not expose yourselves to the spiritual foe. Fortify yourselves in Divine securities. Mount the watch-tower; “strengthen the things that remain;” pray always; have faith in God; “resist the devil.”
iii. Zion the refuge from danger (Jer_4:6). It was the strongest and best fortified of all the cities. Fugitives from the world, from sin, from pursuing foes, may hide themselves in Zion. The Church is a place of defence, of security, of peace: for God guards the walls, and the King reigns within. (Addenda, Jer_4:6, “Zion a refuge.”)
iv. The summons to safety (Jer_4:5-6). This the preacher’s work. “And let him that heareth say, Come!” Everywhere perils menace the souls of men. 1. The importunity of the call (Jer_4:5). 2. The inclusiveness of the summons,—none excluded. All may hear and hide themselves from evil. 3. The way of safety clearly pointed out. “Set up standard towards Zion;” visible, unmistakable, direct. 4. Urgent haste. “Retire, stay not.” “Now is the day of salvation.” “Escape for thy life; tarry not in all the plain, flee to the mountains, lest thou be consumed.”
v. Bitter wailing over ruin (Jer_4:8). Their fortresses are useless if God be not propitiated. In vain to hide from peril if God be ignored. 1. Defences are delusions unless Christ is our Saviour. 2. Salvation is impossible unless Divine anger is averted by repentance. 3. Woful the overthrow of the spoiler. 4. We may “turn back the Lord’s anger” by fleeing to Christ (Isaiah 12).
Comments.
Jer_4:9. i. Ruin surpasses all anticipation. The terror of the event paralyses all with amaze and dismay. Is there no forewarning in this? Will the future overthrow of transgressors be less appalling?
ii. Helpers are found helpless in the day of calamity. The rulers and leaders to whom the people looked prove their impotency when their aid is most needed, and their perplexity when their devices and resources should have been most ready. “Cursed is the man that trusteth in man,” &c.
iii. Religious advisers whom God does not warrant and ordain are seen to be mockers and delusions in the judgment,—“priests and prophets.” The people despised the true prophet, God’s messenger, and preferred their own idolatrous priests and temporising teachers. They “believed a lie,” and “the storm shall sweep away the refuges of lies.” Alas! this is still done (2Ti_4:3-4); and the dire result is ever the same (2Th_2:10-12).
Jer_4:10. Theme: GOD REPROACHED AS THE AUTHOR OF MAN’S DELUSIONS. “Ah, Lord God! surely Thou hast greatly deceived this people, saying, Ye shall have peace; whereas the sword reacheth unto the soul.”
Frequently in Scripture the immediate cause and occasions of events are overlooked, and occurrences are unhesitatingly traced to the Divine First Cause. This is only in keeping with bold Oriental modes of expression. Thus God is said to have hardened Pharaoh’s heart (Exo_4:21; Exo_7:3; Exo_7:13; Exo_9:12); yet it is as emphatically recorded that Pharaoh himself hardened his own heart (Exo_8:15; Exo_8:32; Exo_9:34). So concerning Christ’s crucifixion (cf. Rom_8:32; Act_2:23), and equally concerning the delusions of Antichrist (cf. Jer_4:11 with Jer_4:12 of 2 Thessalonians 2; their own hostile minds predisposed them to entertain delusions).
Inquire: By whom had God said, “Ye shall have peace?” Henderson suggests, by the false prophets who had prophesied, “Peace, peace, when there was no peace.” Supporting this view, Keil appeals to the striking passages, chap. Jer_14:13, Jer_23:17, and explains that God not only permitted these lying spirits to appear and work, but ordained and brought them forth for the hardening of the people’s hearts; as in Ahab’s case, that he might perish for his ungodliness (1Ki_22:20-23). Most commentators prefer this view.
Dr. Payne Smith (Speaker’s Commentary) prefers to refer the words of peace to real prophecies of future blessedness promised to the Jews, and suggests that Jeremiah was perplexed with the twofold (and seemingly contradictory) aspects of prophecy, at times bright with promises of glory and power, at others dark with threatenings of national humiliation; and could not now reconcile the doom he now pronounced with his own previous prophecy, or with the predictions of his inspired predecessors. Prophets did not understand their own messages (1Pe_1:10-11).
Lange remarks, this is only the opinion of the prophet (that God had deceived the people), who here interrupts the discourse revealed to him by the expression of his own subjective view.
Theme: WARNING AGAINST FALSE PEACE.
It is—(i.) A lie, for men say there is peace when the sword reaches even to the soul. (ii.) A misfortune, for it will disappoint the heart of those who cherish it.—Naeg. in Lange.
Theme: SORROW AND SURPRISE AT THE OUTBREAK OF WAR.
These words express deep disappointment at the frustration of a nation’s hopes of peace, and at the mysteriousness of the Divine purposes. God cannot lie nor deceive, but His purposes go forward with a vastness of design and comprehension as to surpass the grasp of human calculation, thus deceiving those who had prejudged them. We find our wisdom to have been a phantom, our prophetic discernment a delusion.
I. Sadly, but truly, these words point out the real nature of war.
“The sword reacheth,” &c. So it is wherever the consequences of war are felt. 1. It sweeps away the young and promising, cuts down the nation’s bravest sons. 2. It discourages enterprise, and increases penury and want. 3. It blunts the moral feelings, deadens the conscience, and does violence to the gentlest and noblest inspirations of Christianity. 4. It depopulates and desolates the scenes over which it sweeps; as Nineveh, Babylon, Carthage.
II. How should we as Christians and patriots meet a time of war?
1. Implore God’s blessings on our armies and our fleets, that they may be instruments in His hands for His ends. 2. Let prayer be accompanied by deep humiliation before God; for our sins, and the sins of our age, bring war. 3. Active and special benevolence should awake; for the calamities of the time will call for special succour. 4. Let us be found waiting God’s will, not depressed by reverses, nor unduly elated by victory; but humbling ourselves under His mighty hand, that He may exalt us in due time.—Part of Quebec Sermon, by Henry Alford, B.D., A.D. 1854.
i. The delusive prophecy. Guilesome voices speak flattery to sinners.
ii. The agonising discovery. “Sword pierceth,” &c. Experience at length disperses delusions.
iii. The reproach against God. Unfounded; for He has clearly menaced evil with punishment. (Comp. Jer_4:18.)
Jer_4:11-13. Theme: THE BLAST OF THE ALMIGHTY.
Winds, God created (Amo_4:13), holds in His fist (Pro_30:4), rideth upon them (Psa_104:3), lets loose (Jer_10:13), Christ can quell (Mat_8:26; Mat_14:32). (Addenda, Jer_4:11, “Blast of the Almighty.”)
I. Winds can fulfil Divine behests. “Stormy winds fulfilling His word” (Psa_148:8).
1. They travel where He directs. “Towards the daughter of My people” (Jer_4:11).
2. They awake to serve God’s designs. “Shall come unto, i.e., for Me” (Jer_4:12).
3. They carry out His sentence upon man. “Now, I will give sentence,” &c. (Jer_4:12). Winds are God’s judicial agents.
II. Winds are typical of human agencies.
The simoom was a figure of the mighty Babylonian conqueror. The “clouds” (Jer_4:13), were His armies; the “whirlwind” His cavalry; suggesting that the Chaldean forces would be numerous (as clouds), invincible (as whirlwind), swift to overtake and seize the prey (as eagles).
Winds typify human agencies, in that they are:—
1. Variable; some “to fan and cleanse,” others work “woe and spoil.”
2. Wilful, yet controlled; “blowing where it listeth,” as men obey their own impulses; as Nebuchadnezzar did in rising against Judea; yet obeying a Higher law and will.
3. Powerful, yet easily restrained by God. Mighty was this “full wind,” yet Nebuchadnezzar (like Pilate) “could have no power at all, except it were given him from above.” (Comp. 2Ki_19:7; 2Ki_19:35.)
Stand in awe of Him whom “even the winds obey” Rejoice that “all power” is intrusted to Jesus, over nature, over men. Safe from harm, even amid mightiest agencies, are those He keeps. He is a refuge from wind, and all hostile powers. Not befriended by Him, “woe unto us” (Jer_4:13).
Jer_4:14. Theme: PURITY NECESSARY TO SALVATION.
“Wash heart,” &c. Apply primarily to Jews, but equally to mankind universally.
I. The natural depravity of the human heart. “Wash thine heart from wickedness,” suggests the total corruption of human nature.
1. This doctrine requires definition. Depravity of the heart includes—(a.) The entire absence of the Divine image. (b.) A natural aversion to God and godliness, (c.) A universal propensity or disposition to evil.
2. This doctrine demands evidence. Cannot be denied without violation of conscience, contempt of reason, rejection of Scripture, (a.) It is divinely revealed. (b.) Practically exemplified. (c.) Deeply lamented.
II. The spiritual purity which the Lord requires. “O Jerusalem, wash thine heart from wickedness; how long vain thoughts,” &c.? Implies—
I. The possibility of obtaining purity of heart. This appears—(a.) From the design of redemption (Heb_9:13-14). (b.) The ability of the Saviour (Joh_1:16; 1Co_1:30). (c.) The promises of Scripture (Eze_36:26-27; 1Pe_1:3-4). (d.) The experience of believers (Rom_6:22; 1Jn_1:7).
2. The important duty of seeking purity of heart. This exhortation simply inculcates an immediate and diligent use of the means of grace necessary to salvation (Eze_18:31). (a.) We must repent of our sins (Isa_55:7; Act_3:19). (b.) Believe in Jesus Christ (Act_26:18; Heb_12:24). (c.) Give ourselves unto prayer (Psa_51:10; 1Th_5:23). (d.) Seek the Lord without delay. For “how long,” saith God, “shall thy vain,” wicked, unbelieving, impenitent “thoughts lodge within thee?” (Isa_55:6; 2Co_6:2).
III. The absolute necessity of personal holiness. “That thou mayest be saved.” “If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with Me:” purity and salvation go together.
1. Personal holiness is a necessary property of religion. Not consist of—(a.) Ceremonial observances (Gal_6:15). (b.) But dwells in the heart, sanctifying every power (1Co_6:19-20; 1Pe_1:15-16). (c.) Without internal piety and purity, profession of religion is empty parade and profitless (Rom_14:7).
2. Personal holiness is a necessary meetness for heaven. (a.) Reason assures us that there must be agreement between the faculty of enjoyment and the object enjoyed. God is holy; we must be to enjoy His presence. (b.) Scripture assures us that “without holiness no man can see the Lord” (Mat_5:8; 1Co_4:9-10).
These reflections should, (i.) excite deep humility and self-abasement in us as fallen sinners; (ii.) promote an earnest application to Jesus, whose “blood cleanseth from all sin.”—From “Sketclies of Four Hundred Sermons.”
Theme: CHARACTERISTICS AND CORRECTIVES OF VAIN THOUGHTS.
Vanity of thoughts may prevail in persons who would be appalled at one great substantial sin. Yet a month, year, a life of vain thoughts! in a being preparing for an eternity of seriousness and thought! it is truly an awful account! yet with many, this stands for little in comparison with some one or two very wrong external actions.
Observe: What a mighty amount of thinking there is in human spirits that does not come under the censure of the text. “Vain,” implies something trifling, insignificant, empty. 1. It does not include wicked thoughts; impious, malignant, evil schemings, &c., these are not trivial; yet how much of this order of thinking! A man’s thoughts are within his own jurisdiction, and may be concealed; he need not be exposed to censure and shame for them; unless, therefore, he govern himself in the fear of God, they will, in their mere animal play, run to vanity, if not worse. 2. If the thoughts are left unrestrained to commit folly, they will commit an immensity of it. The thinking power is never tired or exhausted in this frivolity. Never stagnant pool was more prolific of flies, nor the swarm about it more wild and worthless.
I. Characteristics of vain thoughts.
i. Those thoughts are “vain” from which we do not and cannot reap any good. Survey thoughts—excluding the noxious—and ask, Have they given me anything worth having; made me wiser; cleared away any previous ignorance; rectified any judgment; fixed or forwarded any purpose; or while ten thousand ideas have passed through my mind, might I as well have had none? These passing visitants have occupied his faculties and consumed his time; gone away and paid him nothing!
ii. Thoughts are “vain” which cannot associate in any agreement with useful and valuable ones. If serious and useful thoughts be admitted into a mind filled with frivolities, they are resisted and resented as intruders.
iii. Thoughts are “vain” which have to be kept out in order for the mind to attend to any serious or good purpose. Experienced this necessity and its difficulty. Like a man sitting down to study in a room filled with a moving, talking crowd. This mental mob has forced its way in, baffled and mocked you!
iv. Thoughts are “vain” which dwell largely and habitually on trifling things. Sad propensity to allow mind to waste itself on trifles; on personal display, fashion and routine, amusements, bubbling incidents on the stream of society. Would that some stern, alarming voice might break in upon such thoughts with, “What is all this to thee? hast thou nothing else to think of before thou die and appear before God?”
v. Thoughts are “vain” which trifle with important ones. Great things may be thought of idly as mere matters of curiosity and speculation, or to throw them into ludicrous and fanciful forms.
vi. Thoughts are “vain” which are fickle, not remaining with any continuance on a subject. In this ungoverned state, anything can divert thoughts: without regulated connection, no rational links, no leading to any ultimate object. Nothing is avoided, repelled, or selected.
vii. Thoughts are “vain” when the mind has some specially favourite trifle, some cherished idolised toy. Trifling in all but its power to fascinate and fasten itself upon a human soul! What shall we call this enslavement of the whole mind to some essentially worthless object of attention, but the magnetism of Satan!
viii. Thoughts are “vain” which continually return to things justly claiming a measure of attention when the thinking of them can be of no advantage. The mind wanders uselessly over the same enumeration, comparison, calculation; when nothing can be more useless.
ix. Thoughts are “vain” when the mind dwells on fancies of how things might be or might have been, when the reality of how they are is before us.
x. Thoughts are “vain” which men indulge concerning notions and schemings of worldly felicity.
Need of a corrective discipline; that we be earnest to have so pernicious an evil rectified, that our thinking and immortal spirits, which should be temples of the Most High, may not be the degraded recesses of every vanity with which the Spirit cannot dwell.
II. Correctives of vain thoughts. Evidently they—1. Waste the activity of the thinking principle; 2. They put us out of the relation we are placed in to the highest objects and interests—to God, Christ, eternity. 3. They unfit us for matters of practical duty, making life’s true work irksome.
Observe: The evil habits of vain thinking is utterly unsuited to the condition of an immortal spirit on earth, and fatally at variance with its high destiny. It might suit a creature whose utmost scope is to amuse away a few years on earth, and then sink in the dust wholly and for ever!
Conscious that this vanity of thought is a besetting evil, we should earnestly desire any corrective remedy. But this vice of the mind is but a symptom of general degeneracy, and cannot be remedied without the grand sources of our thoughts—the passions and affections—be in a rectified state. There are no expedients which can avail independently of resolute exertion,—no dexterous device can cure this habitual propensity,—no wand of enchantment can wave off the infesting swarm. But, as parts of a persevering discipline—
i. Have specified subjects of serious interest to turn to when thought reverts to these vanities: recollections of a perilous situation, a dying scene, providential interpositions. These memory will furnish. Conscience offers subjects; what a man regards as his greatest sin, &c.
ii. Make a sudden charge of guilt on your mind when vain thoughts prevail. Enforce the thought “God sees.” This will act as a lightning flash which arrests levity.
iii. Have recourse to the direct act of devotion. How will they appear when we confess and deplore them before God?
iv. Interrupt and stop them by the question, What is just now my most pressing duty? Judgment and conscience will then speak and chide for neglecting it.
v. Have recourse to some practical occupation, matter of business, or a visit to some house of mourning.
vi. Constrain our habitual thinking to go along with the thoughts of those who have thought the best, by reading the most valuable books. How lamentable the light reading of the age! Study the Bible.
vii. Think to a certain purpose,—towards a purposed end. What a number of things we need to aim at by a course of thought!
viii. Reflect on how many things we have to do with which “vain thoughts” interfere; and also, what would have been the result of good thoughts instead of so many vain?
ix. Discipline of the thoughts greatly depends on the company a man keeps (Pro_13:20). Society can be found or avoided in which every vanity of the soul may be indulged or confirmed.
x. If the complaint be urged that this discipline involves much that is hard and difficult, we answer, It is just as hard as to do justice to a rational and immortal spirit placed here a little while by God for its improvement, and then to go where God appoints. Hard, yet so indispensable. How welcome, then, the promises of the Spirit’s help,—the invitations to pray! We shall eagerly act on them if we care for our spiritual progress through this world, and our appointment and employments in the world to come.—Lectures by John Foster, A.D. 1822. (Addenda, Jer_4:14, “Vain thoughts.”)
Comments:
Jer_4:15. “A voice declareth from Dan,” &c. It is high time to set about personal cleansing, and for abandoning delusive thoughts, for already the calamity is announced,—it swiftly approaches,—it scales the heights which shelter Judah. (See Geographical References.) “The messenger comes from each successive place towards which the foe approaches.”—Hitzig. (Addenda, Jer_4:15, “Dan.”)
Jer_4:16. The words should probably read thus: “Proclaim ye to the heathen, Behold!” (Saint Jerome points out that the heathen are hereby summoned to witness the chastisement of Jerusalem.) Thus they would learn that the God of the Jews had ordained the overthrow of His people; that it was not the triumph of impious and idolatrous forces against God and His people, but that He had consigned Judah to spoliation on account of her treachery and neglect of Him. This would prove a solemn warning to the nations around (Jer_4:17), giving clearly the explanation why God permitted Judah’s foes to triumph.
Jer_4:18. The address reverts to Jerusalem: against her Jeremiah had to publish (Jer_4:16) that watchers, besiegers, were advancing; it throws on Jerusalem the whole blame of the calamities. Here consider:
I. That sinners have the power of awakening terrible forces of judgment. “Thy way and doings have procured these things;” brought mighty armies,—devastating powers! Truly sin is a dreadful and prodigious factor in human history.
II. That sinners inevitably entail retributive miseries. “Unto thee.” Sin awakes mighty forces—it can do that; but sinners bring those forces of misery against themselves, and they cannot evade them. The eagles will sweep down on the carcass they scent. (Addenda, Jer_4:18, “Bitter at last.”)
III. That the penalties of sin are unutterably distressing. “It is bitter” (comp. Jer_2:19). “The wages of sin is death.” The miseries of the siege and captivity were but faint foreshadowings of the woes consequent on rejecting Christ and losing heaven.
IV. That the wound and woe of sin reach to the very heart. Neither is superficial nor evanescent, but the rottenness and also the wretchedness goes to the very core (Jer_4:10).
Jer_4:19-21. Theme: A SEER’S ANGUISH OVER THE SINNER’S DOOM.
Henderson and Dr. Payne Smith, opposing all other commentators, regard these words as the outcry of the anguishstricken nation. And truly the lost soul may utter such an exclamation of terror and grief in the hour of his judgment. Yet the words are more naturally the lament of the prophet.
I. The occasion of these impassioned outcries.
1. His grief was patriotic; distressed over the national calamities which were coming upon his people and his land.
2. His grief was personal, for he felt individually the shame and woe which the people’s disloyalty to their God and their faith were entailing. By identification of interest he felt himself inculpated by their idolatries and vice; and by intensity of sympathy he felt the throes of anguish and ruin which ensued.
3. His grief was pious; the religious disasters looming over Zion filled him with amaze and sorrow. Temple defamed and razed; Judah reduced to captivity, land laid waste, sanctities of his nation profaned; and more, Jehovah contemned by the victorious heathen, who would scorn the God of the land they subdued, and of the people they oppressed.
II. The lessons of the prophet’s distress. Moses’s distress over sinning Israel as he descended Sinai, the Psalmist’s deeply troubled state over transgressors (Psa_119:136; Psa_119:158), our Lord’s pitying tears at the sight of doomed Jerusalem, Paul’s “great heaviness and continual sorrow of heart” for his kinsmen (Rom_9:2-3), and Jeremiah’s pathos of lamentation, encourage and summon us to godly sorrow over the guilty and the perishing.
1. There is enough of wrong around us to evoke saddest emotions.
2. Philanthropy and compassion for humanity should move us to deepest sorrow.
3. Fellowship with Christ will make us deplore the devastations of sin.
4. The keener our sense of right and our love of God, the more intense will be our repugnance towards, and our distress over, scenes of iniquity.
5. Memory of our own redemption will awake in us bitter regrets that others remain sunken in wrong and the woes of wrong.
6. Perception of the foul agency which triumphs in human overthrow will deepen our revulsion and horror. It was the king of Babylon in Judah’s case—imperious, blasphemous, implacable; it is the “adversary the devil” in our case now.
Hence: 1. The shamefulness of indifference towards others in peril. 2. The inarticulate call to our commiseration which comes from souls despoiled. 3. The urgency of faithful warning and friendly help, though it cost us suffering and sacrifices, as with Jeremiah 4. The grandeur of Christ’s mission; His love and redemption. 5. The inspiration which lies in the fact that there is hope of our doing good even to those who hate us while we seek their welfare.
They who feel for the woes of others, and seek to redress them, cannot fail to fulfil a ministry of amelioration, and shall not miss the reward of loving service and patient suffering (Mat_5:12).
Jer_4:22. Theme: JUDAH’S DIVINELYSENT TEACHER IGNORED.
I. Teachers are valueless unless men will be listeners. But “my people are foolish.” Indifference to the teachings of Jeremiah was suicidal, wilful, shameful. So is the disregard of the world.
II. Man’s heedless attitude frustrates God’s messengers. They would arouse men to their peril and point them to escape and redemption, but they put life and salvation from them.
III. The insensate spiritual condition of transgressors. (a.) Blinded—“not known me,” whom God in mercy sent. “Have no understanding” of their peril, value of Divine messages, urgency of seeking salvation. (b.) Debased—mentally, “foolish;” morally, “sottish;” foolish heart darkened (Rom_1:21-22). (c.) Perverted—their spiritual nature distorted, thrown into calamitous confusion and contrariety; wise in evil, witless respecting good.
Hence easily deluded, wilfully ignorant, lamentably degenerate. (Comp. Joh_3:21.)
Jer_4:23-26. A SOLEMNLY-SUGGESTIVE VISION.
The prophet sees bursting over Judah a visitation which convulses the whole world. In the vivid poetic language of this picture, the mind is led back to what earth was before creation, and led forward to what earth will become at the judgment. It suggests that sin gathers into the present the dreary desolations of the past and the terrible devastations of the future.
I. Chaos reproduced. (Comp. Jer_4:23 with Gen_1:2.) Thus—1. Sin defaces scenes of beauty (comp. Gen_1:31); alas! all again in chaos. 2. Sin despoils the Spirit’s work; He brooded over and beautified earth (Gen_1:2). 3. Sin enwraps the world in gloom—shuts out light, God, hope, and happiness.
II. Judgment depicted. (Comp. Jer_4:24-26 with Rev_6:12-17.)
Jeremiah glances again into the awful future, and—1. He beholds the material world in wild convulsion (Jer_4:24, comp. Rev_6:14). 2. Scenes of the living changed into sepulchral solitude (Jer_4:25, comp. Eze_38:20). 3. The works and memorials of man swept away: plantations and cities (Jer_4:26, comp. 2Pe_3:10). 4. God’s presence awakens a panic of terror (Jer_4:26, “at the presence,” lit. from the face of Jehovah, from the face of the heat of His nostril; comp. Rev_20:11; Rev_6:16-17).
It is as if the final judgment of the world had already arrived. Infer—1. Retribution must not necessarily be deferred till the distant judgment-day. 2. In a sinner’s downfall, the horrors of the final judgment are all realised. 3. If God be not propitiated, His presence will terrify us whenever it appears—in temporal calamities, hour of death, or day of retribution. 4. Flee now to God; not then from God. (Addenda, Jer_4:26, “Broken down at the presence of God.”) Lowth remarks: “These particular judgments are an earnest of the general judgment.”
Jer_4:27-29. Lest it should be thought the prophet has spoken only under strong poetic feeling, an extravagant imagination, there comes the emphatic, “Thus hath the Lord said.” It is not fancy, but solemn fact.
I. God’s irrevocable purpose (Jer_4:28). “I have spoken; not turn back.” The day of redemption past,—probation terminated,—escape impossible,—repentance no avail.
II. God’s avenging decision limited by His mercy (Jer_4:27). “Yet not make full end.” This always attested of Judah: the sword should not wholly destroy. (Comp. Lev_26:44; Amo_9:8.)
III. Earth clad in woful mourning (Jer_4:28). The heavens shrouded in sombre clouds in sympathy with earth’s misery. (Comp. Rev_6:12; Rev_1:7.)
IV. Hiding-places sought: strongholds abandoned in despair. Their refuges prove insufficient, insecure, as will all human strongholds. When these defenced “cities” fail, the recesses of forests and mountains will be sought. Implies: (a.) Great terror of the foe. (b.) Deliverance will then be craved, redemption sought too late. (c.) No evading the judgment; flight will not ensure escape.
V. Melancholy desertion of happy scenes (Jer_4:29). “Every city forsaken,” &c. Homes gone for ever. Scenes of plenty and pleasure abandoned perforce. Families driven from earth’s fond scenes into exile. So at the judgment—but worse.
Jer_4:30. SPOILED YET ADORNED. Jerusalem simulates the beauty which has been “spoiled” in the vain hope of attracting to her side the succour of Egypt against Chaldea. (Addenda, Jer_4:30. “Finery, Flattery.”)
i. Vain devices for covering misery. “Clothest with crimson,” “deckest with ornaments of gold,” paintest thine eyes. Real wealth never feels the necessity of gaudy parade. True beauty never resorts to artificial decorations. Implies conscious deformity and penury.
ii. Adversity transforms flatterers into foes. “Lovers seek thy life.” This shows the character, the worth, the treachery of ungodly confidences. Turn from God to them in prosperity, they will turn from or turn upon their dupes in their evil day.
iii. Forlorn attempts to regain love win loathing. “Despise thee.” Their “love” was only for self-aggrandisement; it was sordid and selfish; now nothing can accrue to them from Jerusalem she is contemned. Yes; and her despicable efforts hypocritically to hide her miserable plight create nausea and revulsion. Even the ungodly hate deceit, loathe decorated deformity.
Jer_4:31. The LXX., Syriac, Vulgate, &c., take the participle as passive, and render, My soul faints because of the slain. Better as in A. V.; or, My soul is overpowered before murderers.
“Spreadeth her hands.” A pleading gesture, expressing a prayer for protection: as she falls before assassins she beseeches help.
“Woe is me now!” Her full and irremediable wretchedness is at last realised by her; she cries out terrified by her perils and pains. Yet not to God. Therefore none befriends her. (Addenda to chap. 4 Jer_4:31, “Woe-stricken.”)
NOTICEABLE TOPICS IN CHAPTER 4
Jer_4:2. Topic: AN ANCIENT HOMILY “ON SWEARING.” Text: “Thou shalt swear, The Lord liveth,” &c.
I. The command. Did Christ countermand this? (Mat_5:34). The Son forbid in the Gospel what the Father bids in the law? Jerome says, “Oaths were permitted the Jews of policy, because they heard heathen swear by their gods.” But the explanation which accords both commands is: God bids thee swear, so thy oath be truthful and needful; Christ forbids swearing which is truthless and needless. Christ came not to destroy the law; He but forbids the gloss of the Pharisees, who taught oaths were not perjury though false, so that they swore not by God’s self directly. Yet, also, Christ would have His followers’ tongues so true as they shall not need to swear. Holy men’s words are oaths. The abuse of swearing God abominates, man abhors. But not everything that is abused by wicked men must therefore not be used by sober men. Schismatics are they who have refused oaths; Essenes among Jews, Anabaptists among Christians. Bullinger saith, “He is not worthy the name of Christian who refuseth to swear by the name of Christ.” For, what do I when I swear, but call on God to be either witness to my truth or avenger of my falsehood? I therein confess the Lord to be my God,—I acknowledge His truth, justice, and omniscience.
Precedents from Scripture:—Moses swore (Jos_14:5). David often—to Saul, to Jonathan. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob did—patriarchs before the law; and Paul, after the law and under the Gospel, swore. Christ used His “Amen, amen;” and God “swore by His own self.” What He bid, He did.
Oaths, public, as between princes and before magistrates, and private, as between man and man, are lawful, so the swearer take them with religious heart and in cause important. He takes God’s name in vain that swears when he needs not, and “God will not hold him guiltless.”
II. The form. God bade us “swear;” now He tells us how: “The Lord liveth!” It is, then, impiety to swear by creatures; grand sacrilege to swear by anything but God. The name of a strange god was not to be heard in the mouth of God’s people (Exo_23:13). Saith the old man in Aristophanes, “He but jests that swears by Jupiter.” To swear by anything but God lessens the religion of an oath. When the Jews swore by Baal, and the Gentiles by Jupiter, they thought them gods, for they prayed and sacrificed to them; yet Baal was but a beast, Jupiter but a man. God prevents all evasion by the name He here gives, “the Lord;” not any god the swearer would substitute,—as Papists swear by angels, called in Scripture, “Elohim,” and superstition worships them as gods. Many forms are used by men of Scripture variable from this form, but in all the meaning is, “The Lord liveth.”
III. Three particulars. “In truth.” Perjury is impious,—makes that which is the sign, ensign, and seal of truth, the cloak of falsehood. It was death with the Egyptians; St. Augustine would have it so with Christians too. “God will destroy,” saith David, “all that speak lies.” What will He do to them that swear lies? The Pope, Christ’s vicar, panders perjury! Swear promissorily fealty to thy sovereign, the Pope will assoil thee; forswear assertorily anything to the magistrate, the Pope will pardon thee. Faith is not to be kept with heretics. Equivocation is even commended. How dare thou dally with God before whom thou swearest? He is not mocked! An oath is a hedge to fence thy faith: break it not; thou betrayest thy truth: leap not over it; there is a pit behind it, without bottom,—it is hell.
“In judgment.” Swear not upon guess only,—oaths must not be adventured Some swear where no cause is, no gain is, no gainsayer is, but only of bad use. Augustine saith, “The world hath many evil customs, but this of swearing is bad above all that is bad.” It makes God’s holy name vile, and engenders perjury. Philo saith, “Oaths are no tenise balls to toss upon the tongue.”
“In righteousness.” To any act against right or religion bind not thyself, let not any bind thee. Oaths must not cross either piety towards God or charity towards men. Such an oath was Herod’s: much better had he broken his oath than slain a prophet. Bind not two sins together. It is sin to make it, not to break it. Saint Jerome saith of unlawful oaths, “It is condemnation if thou break them; it is damnation if thou keep them.”—Condensed from Sermons by Rev. Richard Clerke, D.D., one of the translators of the English Bible, preacher in Canterbury Cathedral. Dated A.D. 1637.
Jer_4:3. Topic: UNFIT SOIL PREPARED FOR THE BLESSING. Text: “Break up your fallow ground.”
A call to vigorous preparation for spiritual blessing. Many are conscious of earnest longing for salvation, more grace, spiritual renewal and revival; but “the desire of the slothful killeth him, for his hands refuse to labour.” A delusion to rest with desire.
I. Hardening forces have been acting on the soil. “Break up:” hard, therefore. “Your fallow ground;” seriously inquire to what this applies in you.
1. What is the fallow ground within man? 1. The heedless mind. 2. The callous heart. 3. The seared conscience. 4. The irreverent soul. 5. The formal Church: first love dead, flame extinct, sanctuary a garnished sepulchre. (Addenda, Jer_4:3. “Fallow ground.”)
2. How has your ground become fallow? 1. By neglect: becomes hard itself; need do nothing. 2. Action of time: years find you harder. 3. The cold of indifference. 4. Rains and sun cake the soil; the Saviour’s action, the Spirit’s influence make the unyielding soul more alien.
II. Sowers can only work on lands which are prepared. They are forced into inactivity by the ground being fallow.
1. The sowers are Christ, the Spirit, the preacher, the worker for human salvation. They can only sow the Gospel where they find the soil clean and ready. This is the husbandman’s command (Luk_10:10-12). Your stolid unconcern is an effectual obstacle.
2. All spiritual agencies are thwarted by unpreparedness. Seed may be the best, but useless on hard soil. Sun may shine, but not germinate. Rains fall, only to wash the seed off. Best Christian appliances, services, sermons, &c., no avail.
3. Therefore, where there is no readiness, the sacred blessings are withheld. “Christ did no mighty works because of unbelief.”
III. Sowing time is the season for gathering in the living seed. Do nothing to anticipate the auspicious hour of grace, and it will come and find you unfit to receive the Gospel, the salvation God would willingly give. Make ready for the Lord.
1. There is a special time of grace. 2. The season quickly passes by. 3. It may come to us in vain. It was now with Jerusalem; she was not ready to benefit by it. Later on, when Jesus “wept over the city,” she “knew not the day of her visitation.” We may awake to righteousness too late; the sowing-time past, the “convenient season” gone.
IV. The plough must be driven through the sterile soil. Sowers are waiting, seed is ready, season is here and passing (text). 1. Put the plough through your indifference; rouse yourself into attention. 2. Through your indecision; “How long halt ye?” 3. Through your inaction; bestir yourself; read, pray, repent, reform. 4. Through your habits of sin; weep for them, desert them; listen to chidings of conscience; open heart to the Saviour who knocks. “Seek ye the Lord while He may be found, call upon Him while near,” &c.
All this will not make you spiritually renewed. Ploughing does not ensure the harvest, yet it is preparation for it. It is your part; and God requires that part of you. “He hath commanded all men everywhere to repent;” “Break up,” &c. It will not be done for you; it must be done by you. “Prove me now herewith, and see if I will not open the windows of heaven,” &c.
Jer_4:14. Topic: THE VANITY OF THOUGHTS. (Ancient Homily.) Text: “How long shall thy vain thoughts lodge within thee?”
Heart compared to house, to entertain and lodge guests; into which, before conversion, all the light, wanton thoughts that post up and down in the world have open access—lodgeth them; while they, like unruly gallants, revel day and night, and defile those rooms they lodge in. “How long?” whilst I, with my Spirit, and Son, and train of graces, stand and knock, and cannot find admittance? Those vain guests must be turned out or doors without warning; “the time past must suffice.” Kept out they cannot always be; yet if they enter, “lodge” they must not. “Let not the sun go down on your wrath,” or a worse guest may enter; “neither give place to the devil.” Bad thoughts may pass as strangers through a believer’s heart, making a thoroughfare of it, but not a lodging-place.
I. What is meant by thoughts.
i. The internal acts of the mind; reasonings, resolutions, consultations, desires, cares, &c. 1. The thinking, meditating, musing power in man, which enables him to conceive, apprehend, fancy. 2. Thoughts which the mind frames within itself (Pro_6:14; Jas_1:15; Isa_59:4-7). These differ from thoughts injected and cast in, which are children of another’s begetting, and which do not become ours unless we “lodge” them. 3. Thoughts which the mind in and by itself begets and entertains.
ii. Let us see what vanity is. 1. Unprofitableness (Ecc_1:2-3). 2. Lightness (Psa_62:9). 3. Folly (Pro_12:11). 4. Inconstancy (Psa_144:4; Psa_146:4). 5. Wicked and sinful (2Ch_13:7; Pro_24:9). Such qualities are linked to the word vanity. Vain thoughts are sins. 1. The law judgeth them (Heb_4:12; 1Co_14:25), and Christ rebukes them (Mat_9:4). 2. They are capable of pardon, and unless pardoned we cannot be saved (Act_8:22). 3. They are to be repented of (Isa_55:7; 2Co_10:4-5). 4. They defile a man (Mat_15:15-17). 5. They are abominable to the Lord (Pro_15:26). 6. They hinder and spoil all the good we should do (Isa_29:16). Our thoughts are the first motioners of all the evil in us.
II. The particulars wherein this vanity of the thinking, meditating power of man consists.
i. In regard to thinking what is good. 1. A want of ability to raise and extract holy and useful considerations and thoughts from the occurrences and occasions which surround us. (Comp. Psa_107:43 with Psa_92:4-6.) 2. A loathness to entertain holy thoughts. (Comp. Psa_119:59 with Rom_1:28.) 3. The mind will not long be intent on good thoughts. 4. If the mind doth think of good things, it doth so unseasonably; intrudes on prayer and interrupts it (Pro_16:3).
ii. The readiness of the mind to think on evil and vain things. 1. This vanity shows itself in foolishness (Mar_7:22), which proves itself in the unsettledness and independence of our thoughts. 2. On the other hand, if any strong lust or passion be up, our thoughts are too fixed and intent. 3. A restless curiosity concerning things not affecting us (1Ti_6:4; 1Ti_6:20; 1Ti_4:7; Pro_15:14). 4. Taking thought to fulfil the lusts of our flesh (Rom_13:14). 5. Representing, or acting over, sins in our imagination (Jud_1:8).
Having discovered the vanity of your thoughts and estate thereby—1. Be humbled for them (Isa_55:7). 2. Let us make conscience of them for ever (Pro_4:23), dreading the revelations of the judgment (1Co_4:5). After the judgment men’s thoughts will prove their greatest executioners.
III. Remedies against vain thoughts. (Addenda, Jer_4:2, “Thou shalt swear,”&c.)
1. Get the heart furnished and enriched with a good stock of sanctified and heavenly knowledge in spiritual truths (Mat_13:35; Pro_6:22; Deu_6:6-7).
2. Endeavour to preserve and keep up lively, holy, and spiritual affections in the heart (Mal_3:16; Psa_119:97).
3. Of all apprehensions else, get the heart possessed with deep and powerful apprehensions of God’s holiness, majesty, omniscience, and omnipresence (Psa_139:1-12).
4. In the morning when thou awakest, as did David (Psa_119:18), prevent the vain thoughts the heart naturally engenders by filling it with thoughts of God.
5. Have a watchful eye upon thy heart all day; though vain thoughts crowd in, let them know that they pass not unseen. Vagrant thoughts will not make their rendezvous where strict watch is kept. Complain of them; whip them if they will pass in.
6. Please not thy fancy too much with vanities and curious flights (Job_31:1; Pro_4:25).
7. Be diligent in thy calling (2Th_3:11; 1Ti_5:13); only encumber not the mind too much (Luk_10:41).
8. In thy calling and all thy ways commit thy goings to the Lord (Pro_16:3). A few thoughts of faith would keep us from many thoughts of cares and fears. When such waves toss and turmoil the heart, thoughts of faith bring calm and rest.—Condensation of a Homily by Rev. Thomas Goodwin, B.D. Dated A.D. 1638.
Jer_4:19. Topic: THE PROPHET’S LAMENTATIONS OVER HIS PEOPLE’S DOOM. (Ancient Homily.)
Jeremiah travails with the miseries and calamities of his people, and bemoans them, to draw his people to the same affections and dispositions with himself.
I. The complaint or lamentation itself. We have three particulars—i. The parts affected. Signify the soul and inward man. Gregory Myssen regards them as “the intellectual and discursive faculty of the soul.” Because of: 1. The secrecy of it, the mind and soul being inward and hidden. 2. Because the mind receives and digests the thoughts. 3. The mind is the mother of thoughts, conceiving and generating them. ii. The grief of those parts. “Heart is pained,” &c., both as to the kind (“pained”) and the effect of the grief (“heart maketh noise in me”). From which infer: 1. God need not go far for the punishment of wicked men; He can do it from within themselves; punish a man with his own affections and thoughts. 2. What good cause we have to regulate and control our affections, avoid passion and excess of emotion, take care to be pacific, and enjoy a sabbatic tranquillity in our spirits. iii. The passage or vent. “I cannot hold my peace.” Passion will make way, and force itself forth. It did here in: 1. The speech of discovery; for he cannot help revealing these workings of his own spirit. God’s ministers find a necessity in themselves to discover their thoughts to their people (Jer_20:9; Job_33:18-20). Moreover, love constrains him hereunto (Act_20:20), that his weeping and mourning might be a forerunner of theirs: also the consideration of his calling, as watchman and guide, urged him to give warnings of sin and judgment. 2. The speech of lamentation: he must bewail and utter complaint, his anguish was so great (as Job_7:11).
II. The ground or occasion of his lamentation. “Because,” &c. i. The tidings or report itself. “Sound of trumpet, alarm of war.” This not literally in a military case. 1. The trumpet of Providence. 2. The trumpet of the Word (Isa_58:1). 3. The trumpet of vision, or extraordinary prophetical revelation, ii. The conveyance of it to the prophet. “Thou hast heard, O my soul.” 1. The soul through the corporeal organ of hearing. 2. The soul immediately, as being that which had communion with God. 3. The soul emphatically; that is heard indeed which is heard by the soul. Hence (a.) God’s excellency: He speaks. (b.) Man’s duty: he hears. iii. The improvement or use he makes of it. 1. His meditations aroused his affections. (a.) This is the aim of a revelation. (b.) We should endeavour to bring revelations for others to our own spiritual advancement and profit. 2. What these affections were which the tidings aroused. (a.) Anger at his people’s obstinacy. (b.) Fear of the coming judgment. (c.) Grief at his people’s state and doom. Yet there was no such thing yet as war among them, nevertheless the certainty of it pained him. To shut up all: 1. We see how prophets and ministers should be affected in themselves by the threatenings and denunciations of judgment. 2. We learn how all should be affected by Divine warnings. If so dreadful in apprehension, what will it be in the infliction? 3. Let us endeavour to meet God by speedy and unfeigned repentance (Amo_4:12).—Abstract of Sermon by Rev. Thomas Horton, D.D. Dated A.D. 1679.
ADDENDA TO CHAPTER 4 ILLUSTRATIONS AND SUGGESTIVE EXTRACTS
Jer_4:1. Sin banished, or no heaven. “The first physic to recover our souls is not cordials, but corrosives; not an immediate stepping into heaven by a present assurance, but mourning, lamentation, and a bitter bewailing of our former transgressions. With Mary Magdalene, we must wash Christ’s feet with our tears of sorrow before we may anoint His head with the ‘oil of gladness.’ ”—Browning.
A poor man told Rowland Hill that the way to heaven comprised three steps: “Out of self, unto Christ, into heaven.”
When Ben’s master died, they told him he had gone to heaven. Ben shook his head. “I ’fraid massa no gone there.” “But why, Ben?” “’Cos when massa go North, or go journey to the Springs, he talk about it long time, and get ready. I never hear him talk about going to heaven, never see him get ready to go there.”
“I know the way to heaven,” said a little girl to her brother. “Do tell me,” the boy answered. “Well, just commence going up, and keep on going up all the time, and you’ll get there. But, Johnny, you must not turn back.”
The banished recalled:—
“Driven from their home, their pathway lost,
’Mid clouds that came upon the world’s fair morn,
By gloom and shadows cross’d,
Wandered a race forlorn.
“There sat One o’er heaven’s highest hall,
Who, in strange charity, to exile went
These exiles to recall
To that, His heavenly tent.
“He gave Himself, their staff and stay,
To feeble knees, strength to the sinking soul;
He was Himself the Way,
He was Himself the Goal.”
—FROM THE LATIN.
Jer_4:2. “Thou shalt swear,” &c. “Every time, whenever thou shalt find thyself to have let slip an oath, punish thyself for it by missing the next meal.”—Chrysostom.
“It is great sin to swear unto a sin,
But greater sin to keep a sinful oath.
Who can be bound by any solemn vow
To do a murderous deed, to rob a man,
To reave the orphan of his patrimony,
To wring the widow from her custom’d right;
And have no other reason for this wrong,
But that he was bound by solemn oath?”
—SHAKESPEARE, 2 Henry VI. Jer_4:1.
Jer_4:3. “Fallow ground.” Illustrates: 1. Culture of the Church (1Co_3:9). 2. Of the heart. The longer we leave the heart uncultivated the harder to break up. If we do the tilling, God will rain righteousness (Hos_10:12). Break it up with thought, soften it with repentance, plant it with truth.—Topics for Teachers.
“Have you ever read the ‘Ancient Mariner?’ I dare say you thought it one of the strangest imaginations ever put together, especially that part where the old mariner represents the corpses of all the dead men rising up to man the ship,—dead men pulling the ropes, dead men steering, dead men spreading sails. But I have lived to see that time: have seen it done. I have gone into churches and have seen a dead man in the pulpit, a dead man as a deacon, a dead man holding the plate, and dead men sitting to hear.”—Spurgeon.
Jer_4:4. Unquenchable fire. A finger of lightning will write on the sky, “For ever!” and the thunder-peal echo among the crags of death, “For ever!” O those fire-bells will never stop ringing, because the conflagration will never be done! (2Th_1:9.) It is not I, but God says it.
Sir Francis Newport, in his last moments, caught a glimpse of the eternal world; he looked into it before he entered it. The last words he uttered were, “Oh, the insufferable pangs of hell!” The lost soul will cry, “I cannot stand this; is there no way out?” And the echo will answer, “No way out for ever!”—De Witt Talmage.
Jer_4:6. Zion a refuge. “I wish they were within the enclosure where the boar out of the wood could not waste them nor the wild beast of the field devour them.”—H. Ward Beecher.
Jer_4:7. “The lion. Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, whose monarchy is represented by a lion (Dan_7:4). He is called “the destroyer of the Gentiles,” or rather “nations;” Judea and all the neighbouring countries being given up into his hands by God’s decree (Jer_25:9; Jer_27:6).—W. Lowth.
Jer_4:11. Blast of the Almighty. Thevenot mentions the death of 20,000 men who perished in one night by one of those burning winds. Sir J. Chardin describes this wind as making a great hissing noise; that it appears red and fiery, and kills those it strikes by stifling them. Maillet mentions its being felt in the desert between Egypt and Mecca, in part of which Israel wandered forty years.
A party of travellers in the desert were overtaken by the fierce simoom. Like blinding snow driven by the winds of March came the hot sand. Before the simoom had reached its height, they came suddenly upon a rude building of stone, well protected with roof and doors, which the hand of charity had erected there for shelter. With joy they rushed into it, closed the doors, and were safe. (Comp. Isa_26:20-21.)
Jer_4:14. “Vain thoughts.” “If the flow of a day’s mind-and-heart experiences were written, it would be a volume, and one’s life a Bodleian Library; but the ‘book of remembrance’ is yonder, and the life is daguerreotyped on the sensitive pages of the future.”—Beecher.
“In hotter climates, the locusts swarm so thickly in the air as sometimes to hide from the traveller the light of the sun, and cast a cold, dark shadow on his pathway. So it is in the world of mind: swarms of vain thoughts are ever floating over some minds, intercepting the beams of truth from falling on the heart, and thus keeping that heart barren of all virtue and goodness.”—Rev. R. Roberts.
“’Tis not in things o’er thought to domineer:
Guard well thy thought; our thoughts are heard in heaven.”
—YOUNG.
Jer_4:15. Dan. “In consequence of a large portion of the canton of Dan continuing in the possession of the Philistines, it was found too small for its population, and 600 Danites, with their families, emigrated to the northern extremity of Palestine, attacked Laish, a Zidonian city near Lebanon, took possession of it, and changed its name to Dan. This place is notorious in sacred history as the spot where Jeroboam established his golden calves (1Ki_12:29), and as the place which Nebuchadnezzar first seized on his invasion of Canaan.”—Paxton’s “Sacred Geography.”
Jer_4:18. “Bitter at heart.” On the walls of one of the Egyptian temples is said to be the inscription, “The impious shall commit iniquity without recompense, but not without remorse.”
“Through many a clime ’tis mine to go,
With many a retrospection curst;
And all my solace is to know,
Whate’er betides, I’ve known the worst.
What is that worst? Nay! do not ask;
In pity from the search forbear.
Smile on: nor venture to unmask
Man’s heart, and view the hell’s that there.”
—BYRON.
“ ’Tis very true, my grief lies all within;
And these external manners of lament
Are merely shadows of the unseen grief
That swells with silence in the tortured soul:
There lies the substance.”
—SHAKESPEARE.
Jer_4:19. Prophet’s distress. “God’s ministers must have their hearts fired, not with passion, but with love. The thunderbolt may crash, but the sun melts. It is better to love as a pastor than speak as an angel.”—Watson, A.D. 1649.
Jer_4:26. “Broken down at the presence of the Lord.” “Oh, that you might all be stirred by a dread of the Almighty! I announce to you the judgment to come; it shall break upon the earth, that day of wonder and of terror, when from the sea, and the mountain, and the desert shall swarm the buried families of the human kind, and the dead shall stand before their God: no shelter for the proud, no mask for the hypocrite, no standing-place for the presumptuous.”—Melvill.
Jer_4:30. Finery: Flattery.
“Ah! when the means are gone that buy this praise,
The breath is gone whereof this praise is made.
Feast-won, fast-lost; one cloud of winter showers,
These flies are couch’d.”—SHAKESPEARE.
“All that glitters is not gold;
Gilded tombs do worms unfold.”—Idem.
Jer_4:31. Woe-stricken. “The world affords not a sadder sight than a poor Christless soul shivering upon the brink of eternity. To see the poor soul that now begins to wake out of its long dream, at its entrance into the world of realities, shrinking back into the body and crying, O I cannot, I dare not die!”—Flavel.
“Come home, wandering, tired, grieved soul! Love where thy love shall not be lost. Love Him that will not reject thee, nor deceive thee, nor requite thee with injuries as the world doth. God will receive thee when the world doth cast thee off, if thou cast off the world for Him!”—Baxter.
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. There is a special lesson in our text,…
Jer 4:3
I. There is a special lesson in our text, because the facts of which it warns us are specially common. Hard and trodden soils, dull and heavy as the fool’s heart, there are; thin and shallow soils, on which only hunger-bitten and blighted harvests grow, there are; and thank God there are also soils rich and good and deep, which bring forth fruit to perfection; but commoner than any of these are those soils in which the tares and wheat grow side by side, and the crisis of time and of eternity depends on this—whether we suffer the tares or the wheat to prevail. The thorns of the parable, and of the prophet’s metaphor, are our evil nature; our evil impulses; the wrong which struggles within us, and which, if not suppressed, if not to the utmost of our power eradicated, will render it impossible for the good to grow.
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II. Break up your fallow ground. (1) Make your choice now and for ever. In the field of your life, which shall grow—wheat or tares? that is, shall it be life or death? shall it be good or evil? shall it be light or darkness? shall it be shame or peace? (2) Let the choice be absolute. No tampering with the accursed thing; no truce with Canaan; no weak attempts to serve two masters; no wretched and wavering wish to grow both tares and wheat.
F. W. Farrar, In the Days of Thy Youth, p. 169.
References: Jer 4:3.—W. Simpson, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xi., p. 284; G. Litting, Thirty Children’s Sermons, p. 141. Jer 4:10.—H. Alford, Quebec Chapel Sermons, vol. i., p. 267. Jer 4:14.—J. Foster, Lectures, 1st series, pp. 71, 85; Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxvi., No. 1573. Jer 4:20.—Ibid., vol. vii., No. 349, and vol. xxiii., No. 1363. Jer 4:30.—Ibid., vol. xxiii., No. 1363.
The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain On v1 1. True repentance and what it means (Jer 4:1-4)
CHAPTER 4
1. True repentance and what it means (Jer 4:1-4)
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2. The alarm sounded: judgment comes (Jer 4:5-13)
3. The doom of the rebellious people (Jer 4:14-22)
4. The desolation of Israel’s land through judgment (Jer 4:23-31)
Jer 4:1-4. A return must be a return unto Him, Jehovah; anything less is insufficient. Their abominations must be judged and put away. Every return of backsliders must be in the same way--a true return to the Lord with confession of sin, self-judgment, and abandonment of evil. The circumcision of the heart means regeneration. (See Jer 31:31-34, and Eze 36:26.)
Jer 4:5-13. This is the first definite announcement of the coming judgment from the north, which Jeremiah had seen in the vision of the boiling pot toward the north (chapter 1). The lion who comes, the destroyer of the Gentiles, who makes the land desolate, is Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon. It is a very vivid description of the approaching judgment. Jer 4:10 means not that Jeremiah is reproaching the Lord for having deceived the people. Jeremiah did not preach peace, but the false prophets did. They came and spoke in the name of Jehovah, that there should be peace; and Jehovah permitted as a judgment these prophets, and the message of these prophets. And thus they were deceived.
Jer 4:14-22. The doom of Jerusalem and Judah is sealed; there can be no escape. Their ways and their doings brought all upon them. And when Jeremiah hears it from the lips of the Lord, he breaks out in a lament: “My bowels, My bowels! I am pained at my very heart. My heart maketh a noise in me; I cannot hold my peace, because thou hast heard, O my soul, the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war.”
Jer 4:23-31. Then the prophet has a vision of what will happen to the land of Israel, when the judgment threatened above has passed over it. The unscriptural invention and wicked teachings of Seventh Day Adventism applies this passage to the whole earth and teaches that when the Lord comes the whole earth will be laid waste. Like Isa 24:1-23, only Israel’s land is in view. It must be not overlooked that the Lord said: “The whole land shall be desolate; yet will I not make a full end.” This is Israel’s hope.
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 A Last Call to Return
A Last Call to Return
v. 1. If thou wilt return, O Israel, saith the Lord, return unto Me, or, "if thou wilt return unto Me," the repetition serving to emphasize the anxious, merciful call of the Lord, and if thou wilt put away thine abominations out of My sight, so that they no longer fill Him with loathing, then shall thou not remove, no longer waver, no more be an unsettled wanderer, running from one sanctuary of idolatry to the next.
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v. 2. And thou shalt swear, The Lord liveth, in truth, not in hypocrisy, as formerly, in judgment, and in righteousness, in a just cause and with genuine uprightness of heart; and the nations, under the influence of this confession, shall bless themselves in Him, and in Him they shall glory, thereby becoming partakers of the blessings which were promised in the Messianic prophecies from the time of the patriarchs. The sincere conversion of Judah would have this effect upon the Gentiles, for such an open confession is a powerful argument for the truth. Cf Luk 22:32.
v. 3. For thus saith the Lord to the men of Judah and Jerusalem, the capital being mentioned particularly as the center of Jewish worship, Break up your fallow ground, that of their hearts, which is like wild land overgrown with weeds, where cleansing is effected only by deep and repeated plowing, and sow not among thorns, in not removing hypocrisy and other evil growths.
v. 4. Circumcise yourselves to the Lord and take away the foreskins of your heart, the natural corruption which seriously interfered with the proper attitude toward the Lord, Cf Deu 10:16; Deu 30:6; Rom 2:29; Col 2:11, ye men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem, a sincere repentance being required of all of them, lest My fury come forth like fire and burn that none can quench it, because of the evil of your doings. Just as the Lord required a circumcision of the heart in those days in addition to the circumcision of the body, so He insists upon the baptism with the Spirit in our days, lest we offend Him by insincerity.
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, 4 If you return, Israel
If you return, Israel
Here "return" is a metaphor for changing who they worship, and Israel is a metonym representing the people of Israel. The people had been worshiping idols rather than Yahweh. AT: "If you will come back, people of Israel" or "If you will change who you worship, people of Israel" (See: Metonymy and Metaphor)
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this is Yahweh's declaration
Yahweh speaks of himself by name to express the certainty of what he is declaring. See how you translated this in Jeremiah 1:8. AT: "this is what Yahweh has declared" or "this is what I, Yahweh, have declared" (See: First, Second, or Third Person)
then it should be to me that you return
Possible meanings are that 1) this is a command that emphasizes who they should return to. AT: "then come back to me" or "then worship me" 1) this is a repetition of the first phrase, which expresses a condition. AT: "if you will come back to me" or "if you will start worshiping me again" (See: Metonymy and Idiom)
If you remove your detestable things from before me
Here "detestable things" refers to idols, which God hates. AT: "If you remove your disgusting idols from my presence" (See: Metonymy)
do not wander from me again
Here "wander" is a metaphor for being unfaithful. AT: "if you remain faithful to me" (See: Metaphor)
As Yahweh lives
"As surely as Yahweh is alive." The people use this expression to show that what they say next is certainly true. This is a way of making a solemn promise. AT: "I solemnly swear" (See: Idiom)
the nations will bless themselves in him
Here "the nations" is a metonym for people of other nations. The word "him" refers to Yahweh. Since Yahweh is speaking, it can also be translated as "me." AT: "people of other nations will bless themselves in me" (See: Metonymy and First, Second, or Third Person)
the nations will bless themselves in him
Here "bless themselves in him" is a metonym for asking Yahweh to bless them. AT: "the people of the nations will ask Yahweh to bless them" (See: Metonymy)
in him they will glory
The word "him" refers to Yahweh. Since Yahweh is speaking, "him" can also be translated as "me." AT: "they will boast in me" or "they will praise me" (See: First, Second, or Third Person)
Plow your own ground, and do not sow among thorns
Yahweh tells the people to prepare their lives like a farmer prepares the ground for planting. (See: Metaphor)
translationWords
return
kingdom of Israel
Yahweh
declare
oath
true
just
righteous
nation
bless
glory
kingdom of Judah
Jerusalem
plant
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 4:1 The Lord saw that despite their lovely prayer,…
4:1 The Lord saw that despite their lovely prayer, the people did not intend to throw away their idols or change their lifestyle (15:19; Joel 2:12).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.