It will happen when you say, ‘Why has Yahweh our God done all these things to us?’ Then you shall say to them, ‘Just as you have forsaken me and served foreign gods in your land, so you will serve strangers in a land that is not yours.’
Parallel Translations
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It will happen when you say, ‘Why has Yahweh our God done all these things to us?’ Then you shall say to them, ‘Just as you have forsaken me and served foreign gods in your land, so you will serve strangers in a land that is not yours.’
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And it shall come to pass, when ye shall say, Wherefore doeth the LORD our God all these things unto us? then shalt thou answer them, Like as ye have forsaken me, and served strange gods in your land, so shall ye serve strangers in a land that is not yours.
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And it shall come to pass, when ye shall say: 'Wherefore hath the LORD our God done all these things unto us?' then shalt Thou say unto them: 'Like as ye have forsaken Me, and served strange gods in your land, so shall ye serve strangers in a land that is not yours.'
Cross-references (12)
Passages linked to Jeremiah 5:19 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- 1 Kings 9:8-9 Though this house is so high, yet everyone who passes by it will be astonished and hiss; and they will say, ‘Why has Yahweh done this to this land, and to this house?’ and they will answer, ‘Because they abandoned Yahweh their God, who brought their fathers out of the land of Egypt, and embraced other gods, and worshiped them, and served them. Therefore Yahweh has brought all this evil on them.’ ”
- Deuteronomy 28:47-48 Because you didn’t serve Yahweh your God with joyfulness and with gladness of heart, by reason of the abundance of all things; therefore you will serve your enemies whom Yahweh sends against you, in hunger, in thirst, in nakedness, and in lack of all things. He will put an iron yoke on your neck until he has destroyed you.
- Jeremiah 22:8-9 “Many nations will pass by this city, and they will each ask his neighbor, ‘Why has Yahweh done this to this great city?’ Then they will answer, ‘Because they abandoned the covenant of Yahweh their God, worshiped other gods, and served them.’ ”
- Jeremiah 13:22 If you say in your heart, “Why have these things come on me?” Your skirts are uncovered because of the greatness of your iniquity, and your heels suffer violence.
- Jeremiah 16:13 Therefore I will cast you out of this land into the land that you have not known, neither you nor your fathers. There you will serve other gods day and night, for I will show you no favor.’
- Deuteronomy 29:24-28 Even all the nations will say, “Why has Yahweh done this to this land? What does the heat of this great anger mean?” Then men will say, “Because they abandoned the covenant of Yahweh, the God of their fathers, which he made with them when he brought them out of the land of Egypt, and went and served other gods and worshiped them, gods that they didn’t know and that he had not given to them. Therefore Yahweh’s anger burned against this land, to bring on it all the curses that are written in this book. Yahweh rooted them out of their land in anger, in wrath, and in great indignation, and thrust them into another land, as it is today.”
- Jeremiah 16:10-11 It will happen, when you tell this people all these words, and they ask you, ‘Why has Yahweh pronounced all this great evil against us?’ or ‘What is our iniquity? or ‘What is our sin that we have committed against Yahweh our God?’ then you shall tell them, ‘Because your fathers have forsaken me,’ says Yahweh, ‘and have walked after other gods, have served them, have worshiped them, have forsaken me, and have not kept my law.
- Deuteronomy 4:25-28 When you shall father children and children’s children, and you shall have been long in the land, and shall corrupt yourselves, and make a carved image in the form of anything, and shall do that which is evil in Yahweh your God’s sight to provoke him to anger, I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that you will soon utterly perish from off the land which you go over the Jordan to possess it. You will not prolong your days on it, but will utterly be destroyed. Yahweh will scatter you among the peoples, and you will be left few in number among the nations where Yahweh will lead you away. There you shall serve gods, the work of men’s hands, wood and stone, which neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell.
- 2 Chronicles 7:21-22 This house, which is so high, everyone who passes by it shall be astonished, and shall say, ‘Why has Yahweh done this to this land and to this house?’ They shall answer, ‘Because they abandoned Yahweh, the God of their fathers, who brought them out of the land of Egypt, and took other gods, worshiped them, and served them. Therefore he has brought all this evil on them.’ ”
- Jeremiah 2:13 “For my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the spring of living waters, and cut out cisterns for themselves: broken cisterns that can’t hold water.
- Jeremiah 2:35 “Yet you said, ‘I am innocent. Surely his anger has turned away from me.’ “Behold, I will judge you, because you say, ‘I have not sinned.’
- Lamentations 5:8 Servants rule over us. There is no one to deliver us out of their hand.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (15 sources)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain It hence appears that what I have said is…
It hence appears that what I have said is true, — that the Prophet did not soften what was severe in the threatenings which we have noticed, but that he treated the Jews according to their perverseness; for he saw that they were untamable; and the Spirit had taught him that such would be their obstinacy, that until they were wholly broken down, they would not bend their necks to receive the yoke. He further assigns the cause here, that they might not contend with God, as hypocrites are wont to do, whenever God sharply chastises them; for they murmur against him, and complain and demand reasons why he treats them so severely, as though they were wholly innocent. As, then, hypocrites made such complaints, the Prophet here replies to them.
It shall be, he says, when ye shall say: he addresses the Jews in the person of God. He then immediately turns God’s address to himself, Why has Jehovah our God done to us all these things? He ascribes here to hypocrites what is ever in their mouths whenever they are summoned to judgment; for they are so well prepared to contend, as though their cause was the best that could be; and, could God be constrained to render an account, they would prove him guilty of cruelty and of immoderate rigor. We hence see how graphically the Prophet describes refractory men, who will not yield nor acknowledge their fault, but with an iron front rise up against God: and the same thing we find in other passages in the prophets, especially in the first chapter of Malachi; for there the Prophet often repeats the words of the people, “In what? In what? What means this?” So also here Jeremiah says, When ye shall say, Why has Jehovah done all these things to us? as though they were innocent: for the reprobate, as though they had washed away all their sins by having wiped their mouths, boldly come forth and demand a reason why God chastises them. So also in this place they hesitate not to call God their God, as though they had not denied God, according to what we have seen yesterday. For so gross an impiety prevailed among them, that they imagined that all things were ruled by chance, and that God unjustly punished them. Though then they had perfidiously forsaken God, yet the Prophet here, in order to expose their petulancy, introduces them here as saying that they regarded God as connected with them.
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Then, he says, thou shalt say God one while addresses the people, and at another time the Prophet. When, therefore, they shall begin thus to murmur, then thou mayest reply, Because ye have forsaken me That what was said might have more weight, God would have the Prophet to speak in his name, “because ye have forsaken me, “as though Jeremiah did not himself say the words, but God by his mouth; and have served the gods of the alien, that is, of aliens, in your land God shews here briefly what the Jews deserved; and he thought it sufficient to mention one kind of sin only. We shall see elsewhere, as we have often seen, that they were in other respects wicked and guilty before God. But the Prophet observes brevity here, and charges them only with one sort of sin. Ye shall serve tyrants, he says, in a strange land, who shall cruelly oppress you, because ye have served their gods in your own land
God reproves them here for having abused his kindness; for he had expelled the heathen nations from Canaan, and gave that land, which was so pleasant and fruitful, as an inheritance to them, so as to be to them a perpetual rest. God called the land his own rest, because he protected the Jews there, and appointed them as the legitimate heirs of the land even to the end of the world. Hence he says now, your land The reminding them of this kindness was doubtless intended to amplify their guilt; for they possessed the land by the best title, though they had not acquired it themselves.
In your land, he says, ye worshipped gods; he does not say, “strange gods, “but “the gods of the stranger, “or of strangers. The prophets often speak thus; they call them the gods of the strangers, or of strange people: but the expression is emphatical; for it was very base and less excusable for the Jews, while they had God dwelling among them, to seek gods here and there, and as it were to entreat heathens for gods, and say, “Give us your gods.” It was then this base conduct that the Prophet now points out as with the finger, Because ye have served the gods of strangers.
He afterwards adds, Ye shall serve strangers; he does not mean, as I think, strange gods; and it seems to me that those who introduce “gods” here, pervert the meaning. He speaks of tyrants, according to what is said elsewhere,
“I had given you my good laws, which if any one keeps he shall live in them; and ye would not obey: I will therefore give you laws which are not good,” (Ezekiel 20:21, 25:)
that is, “I will lay on you a tyrannical yoke, and conquerors, and those barbarians whose language shall be unknown to you, shall plunder you and your possessions, because ye have been disobedient and unteachable.” 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 Meaning, the Prophet Jeremiah.
Meaning, the Prophet Jeremiah.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Jer 5:19 And it shall come to pass, when…
Jer 5:19 And it shall come to pass, when ye shall say, Wherefore doeth the LORD our God all these [things] unto us? then shalt thou answer them, Like as ye have forsaken me, and served strange gods in your land, so shall ye serve strangers in a land [that is] not yours.
Ver. 19. Wherefore doeth the Lord our God all these things unto us?] Why? Could not they yet tell? And had they not been oft enough (if anything were enough) told wherefore? But they were never willing to hear on that ear. Some of our hearers turn the deaf ear, and say, What tell you us of these terrible things, &c. Many sit before us as senseless as the seats they sit on, the pillars they lean to, the dead bodies they tread upon.
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So shall ye serve strangers.] God loves to retaliate.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain Wherefore doeth the Lord our God all these things…
Wherefore doeth the Lord our God all these things unto us? this speaks either their unparalleled insolency, in a manner challenging God, as if they had not deserved such dealing at his hands, they might have expected better usage from him; the Jews were good at these kinds of challenging of God, Isa 58:3. Or gross stupidity, as being such sots as not to be sensible of what they had done to provoke him; like to that Jer 16:10.
Served strange gods, Heb. gods of the stranger; he doth not say strange gods, but gods of the stranger, which aggravated their crime, that while they lived in their own land, and the true God among them, they would precariously go fetch in gods from the heathens.
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Serve strangers in a land that is not yours: here the prophet,
1. Opposeth strange lords to rule over them to those strange gods that they had served, which God calls a forsaking of him.
2. He opposes a land not theirs to their own land; so that by this the prophet shows what resentments God had of their sin; for it implies that their sin was much greater, that they served strange gods in their own land, than if they had done it in another, under the tyrannical imposition of a stranger; and therefore he would accordingly suit their punishment, that they should serve in a strange land, which should be worse than to be servants in their own. This is a dreadful but a just retaliation.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain And it shall come to pass, when ye shall…
And it shall come to pass, when ye shall say,.... That is, the people of the Jews, to whom the prophet belonged, after they had been spoiled by the enemy, and carried captive:
wherefore doth the Lord our God all these things unto us? as if they were innocent and guiltless, and had done nothing to provoke the Lord to anger; and it may be observed, that they professed to know the Lord in words, and call him their God, though in works they had denied him; and they own the hand of the Lord in all those evils that would now be come upon them; though before they had said they were not spoken by the Lord, nor would they befall them, Jer 5:12,
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thou shalt then answer them; that is, the Prophet Jeremiah, in the name of the Lord:
like as ye have forsaken me, and served strange gods in your land; when they were in their own land they forsook the worship and ordinances of God, and served the idols of the Gentiles, as the Targum rightly explains it:
so shall ye serve strangers in a land that is not yours: which some understand of strange gods; but rather it designs strange lords, as the Chaldeans in the land of Babylon, a land not theirs; and so it is measure for measure, a just retaliation in righteous judgment upon them.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Jer 5:19. And when ye shall say, Wherefore doeth…
Jer 5:19. And when ye shall say, Wherefore doeth the Lord our God all these things? — Those that fall under the severity of God’s judgments are apt to think so favourably of themselves, as to wonder why they should be singled out for examples of the divine vengeance, and of terror to others. And particularly the Jews were very apt to think themselves innocent, however guilty they were, and to contend they did not deserve the punishments inflicted on them; and that this severe proceeding was not consistent with those many gracious promises which God had made to their nation. Then shalt thou answer them, &c. — God doth not execute these judgments upon you without cause. All his promises were made to you, to be fulfilled upon condition of your obedience, which, when you withheld, you had reason to expect that his threatenings, instead of his promises, as he had repeatedly warned you, would take effect. Like as ye have forsaken me — I only retaliate upon you your own conduct: you have forsaken me, therefore I forsake you. You, in that good land which I gave you, have served strange gods, to whom you owed nothing; as being, indeed, the work of your own hands, of mere imaginary beings that had no existence; so will I make you to serve strange masters and lords in a land that is not yours — And where you shall not be able to call any thing your own. You have loved strangers, and to strangers you shall go. Or, as some paraphrase the words, “As you have refused to have me for your God, your Master, and your King, you shall have other kings and masters in a strange land, and shall experience the difference between my dominion and that of these severe and tyrannical masters.”
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 The reason why God so chastises His people. As…
The reason why God so chastises His people. As they in a land especially consecrated to Yahweh had served “strange” (i. e., foreign gods, so shall they in a land belonging to others be the slaves of strangers.
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 Own. You shall thus know the difference between the…
Own. You shall thus know the difference between the masters. (Calmet)
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).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain Retribution in kind. As ye have forsaken Me (Jer…
Retribution in kind. As ye have forsaken Me (Jer 2:13), so shall ye be forsaken by Me. As ye have served strange (foreign) gods in your land, so shall ye serve strangers (foreigners) in a land not yours. Compare the similar retribution in Deu 28:47-48.
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 JUDAH’S OBDURACY WILL CALL DOWN UPON HER RUIN, Jer_5:19-31.
JUDAH’S OBDURACY WILL CALL DOWN UPON HER RUIN, Jer_5:19-31.
19. Like as — The penalty answers to the sin. Because Judah in her own land served the gods of foreigners, so she must serve strangers in a foreign land.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 19. The punishment was to be severe, because the…
19. The punishment was to be severe, because the wickedness which had called it forth was gross.
in a land that is not yours] Referring to the approach of exile, and therefore belonging to the time of the Roll (b.c. 604). Cp. Jer_16:10-13, Jer_22:8 f.; Deu_29:24 ff.; 1Ki_9:8 f.
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 (19) When ye shall say.—The implied promise in Jer_5:18…
(19) When ye shall say.—The implied promise in Jer_5:18 is explained. Then there shall come the backward glance at the past, which brings with it questionings and repentance.
Strange gods.—Stronger than the “other gods” of Jer_1:16, “gods of an alien race.” The threats that they should “serve strangers” in a “land” that was not theirs points to the Chaldæan rather than to the Scythian invasion. With this ends the section which began in Jer_5:14.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain Vers. 19-29. Judah"s own obstinacy and flagrant disobedience are…
Vers. 19-29. Judah"s own obstinacy and flagrant disobedience are the causes of this sore judgment.
Like as ye have forsaken me, etc. The law of correspondence between sin and punishment pervades Old Testament prophecy. (comp. Isa 5) As the Jews served foreign gods in Jehovah"s land, they shall become the slaves of foreigners in a land which is not theirs.
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Suitable retribution.
In anticipation of their astonishment at the character of the retribution that is to fall upon them the Jews are to be shown that this is fitting and rightly corresponds to their conduct.
I THEY WHO FORSAKE GOD IN PROSPERITY WILL FEEL THE LOSS OF GOD IN ADVERSITY. According to the religious conduct in sunny days will be the condition of rest or ruin in dark days.
II THE FALSE GODS OF PROSPERITY PROVE WORTHLESS IN ADVERSITY. Israel served heathen gods in their own laud. In their captivity they are to be slaves to strange men. The gods are then nowhere. Men make gods of wealth, pleasure, fame, etc., and find that, though these may be worshipped, they can do nothing to deliver their devotees.
III THEY WHO THROW OFF THE SERVICE OF GOD MUST SUBMIT TO HARDER SERVICE. They think to be free, but they really are the slaves of sin. (Joh_8:34) They reject the easy yoke and light burden of Christ only to find themselves bound in the galling fetters of Satan.
IV THE ABUSE OF BLESSINGS IS NATURALLY PUNISHED BY THE LOSS OF THEM. In their own land the Jews had proved unfaithful to the God who had given it them. They are rightly punished by exile to a strange land, where they must miss his gracious government.
HOMILIES BY J. WAITE Vers. 20-24. Nature"s witness against blind eyes and rebellious hearts.
Three forms of evil are rebuked here.
I THE DULNESS OF SPIRITUAL SENSIBILITY THAT FAILS TO DISCERN THE DIVINE MEANING OF NATURE. Israel and Judah are addressed as a "foolish people, without understanding," etc. Their crimes and sorrows sprang in great part out of their blindness and thoughtlessness. (Isa_1:3 Isa_5:12, Isa_5:13) They would not use even the powers of spiritual discernment they possessed. They perceived not the Divine presence in natural things the sounding shore, the revolving seasons so as to bow with adoring reverence before it. Few things are stranger or sadder than the insensibility of the spirits of men to the Divine in nature. "They have eyes, but do not see" the "invisible things" of the Great Creator "through the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead." They must be startled into the recognition of the present God. When some event out of the ordinary course occurs, they stand in awe before it, but in the familiar round of nature they find nothing Divine. We are all more or less open to this charge. The earthquake, the lightning flash, the hurricane, set us thinking of the majesty of him who wields such mighty forces at his will; but we forget the still more marvelous exercise of power that maintains the silent harmony of the spheres, holds the due balance of earth and sea, chases away the darkness of the night by the gently spreading dawn of every new morning, brings the grass blades and the flowers up out of the cold sod, ripens the fruit upon the trees, and changes the green carpet of the springing corn into the golden glory of the harvest. Of course it cannot be expected that any incident in the familiar daily round of nature should produce precisely the same effect on us as some new and startling phenomenon. The glory of the setting sun, that we have gazed upon a thousand times before, must needs be less to us in this respect than that of some flaming meteor that bursts suddenly upon the darkness and is gone. But it is deeply significant of the dullness of our spiritual sensibility that we can gaze so often on the world of wonders around us without being solemnly impressed with the presence of the living God.
II THE SELF-WILL THAT SPURNS THE DIVINE CONTROL. A contrast is here drawn between the subjection of the great sea to the laws God"s will has imposed on it, and the bounds his hand has drawn around it, and the insubordination of the rebellious spirit of man. It is a grand expression of Divine power in the material realm that the sea-shore presents. We are impressed with the majestic force of the rolling tide, but, after all, there is something still more wonderful in the solid strength of the belt of sand that resists and restrains it. (Even as the moral strength of a man is seen not so much in the ungoverned fury of his passions, as in the calm resolution that controls them.) The sea is subject to restraint; not so the wayward spirit of man. The sea, in its wildest raging, obeys the laws that are imposed on it, and "its own appointed limits keeps;" but the rebellious heart of man defies all authority other than its own impulses. How deep the mystery of this difference between material and spiritual forces! How awful the prerogative of a being on whom God has conferred a moral freedom like his own! He will never violate that freedom in any of his dealings with us; that were to destroy the very nature he has given. But in proportion to the dignity of the self-determining power, so dreadful must be the penalty of abusing it.
III THE INGRATITUDE THAT YIELDS NO RETURN OF LOVE FOR THE DIVINE BENEFICENCE. It was an aggravation of the guilt of Israel that they were as unmoved by the perpetual manifestation of the goodness of God as they were by the revelations of his power. Even that did not lead them to repentance or teach them to fear him. Few evidences of the thoughtful goodness of God have been more conspicuous through all the ages than the beneficent round of the seasons. In spite of all the wickedness of man"s ways, "he left not himself without witness, in that he did good," etc. (Act_14:17) The appeal this great fact makes to the consciences and hearts of men is specially forcible as bearing on those whose calling is to be fellow-workers with God in developing the harvests of the earth. "Labor is a sublime necessity," not as a mere "necessity," but because of its moral meaning and moral uses. And of all physical labor, the husbandry of the earth is most rich in moral associations, as educating men to lowly dependence on God, and grateful devotion to him in response to his fatherly providence and long-suffering grace.
Learn As all Divine manifestations speak to us alike of infinite power and infinite beneficence, so the result in us should be the blended affections of fear and love. W.
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 When ye shall say, Wherefore doeth the Lord our…
Jer_5:19
When ye shall say, Wherefore doeth the Lord our God these things unto us?
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In the time of tribulation
I. Acknowledgment of God as that Supreme Ruler of all from whose hand afflictions come. It is one great secret of that peace which passeth all understanding to mark the hand of God in all the changes and sorrows of this ever-varying scene of things; the want of this it is which so frequently leaves the men of the world a prey to vexation and despair. Secondary causes are but the links in the chain of providence; follow them by the light of Gods Word and the guidance of a simple faith, and you will find that chain depending from the very throne of God Himself, held in His own hand; every part of it adjusted as He sees it best to permit, according to the counsel of His own will.
II. A conviction that when God sends affliction He has a reason for what He does.
1. God often uses affliction for the purpose of correcting His childrens faults, and bringing them to a sense of their guilt.
2. The promotion of our growth in grace is another reason of Gods afflictive dispensations. Holy men are by trial weaned from a vain and evil world; are brought more and more to realise experimentally what religion is; and are enabled to enjoy in a peculiar manner the consolation of the Gospel of Christ.
III. A wish to know what that reason is. Not that we may be satisfied that God is just in what He does. But that understanding what the reason of His dispensation is, we may ask ourselves, have, then, those dispensations wrought in us the result designed? But how is he to ascertain it? I apprehend that we shall generally be guided to it when depending on the Holy Spirit for direction; we simply look at the nature of the trial, and the state of our own hearts. (J. Harding.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain Blindness of Heart, Ingratitude, Deceit, and Violence
Blindness of Heart, Ingratitude, Deceit, and Violence
v. 19. And it shall come to pass, when ye shall say, Wherefore doeth the Lord, our God, all these things unto us? when they finally reach the point that they make inquiry concerning the punishment striking them, then shall thou answer them, Like as ye have forsaken Me and served strange gods in your land, in idolatrous worship, so shall ye serve strangers in a land that is not yours. Cf Deu 28:47-48. This was the Lord’s retribution, which repaid the idolatrous people in kind.
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v. 20. Declare this in the house of Jacob and publish it in Judah, saying, for the benefit of the whole nation,
v. 21. Hear now this, O foolish people and without understanding, lacking in spiritual insight, which have eyes and see not, which have ears and hear not, who are afflicted with spiritual blindness and dullness, who have hardened their hearts against every influence for good:
v. 22. Fear ye not Me? saith the Lord; will ye not tremble at My presence, standing in awe and reverence before Him, which have placed the sand for the bound of the sea, defining the shore-line, by a perpetual decree that it cannot pass it, being held in check by the barriers erected by the Creator; and though the waves thereof toss themselves, in rage and fury, yet can they not prevail; though they roar, yet can they not pass over it? The immense body of the ocean with its turbulent waves, the wildest and most irresistible force of nature, is yet held in check by the power of the one true God; who, then, will not fear Him?
v. 23. But this people hath a revolting and rebellious heart, not only apostate, but positively hostile to the Lord; they are revolted, breaking loose from their affiliation with the Lord, and gone, far away from Him who is the one Hope of their deliverance.
v. 24. Neither say they in their heart, in repenting of their evil ways. Let us now fear the Lord, our God, that giveth rain, both the former, shortly after the crop has been sown, from October to December, and the latter, which falls before harvest, in March and April, in his season; He reserveth unto us the appointed weeks of the harvest, whence it follows that His goodness ought to lead men to repentance and to a proper fear of Him.
v. 25. Your iniquities have turned away these things, the blessings of God’s goodness, and your sins have withholden good things from you, acting as a barrier against the flow of God’s gifts.
v. 26. For among My people are found wicked men, evil and godless persons; they lay wait, they spend their time in lurking, as he that setteth snares, as fowlers crouch when laying their snares; they set a trap, they catch men, namely, for the purpose of destroying them.
v. 27. As a cage is full of birds, so are their houses full of deceit, filled with treasures gained by fraud; therefore they are become great and waxen rich, their unrighteous wealth giving them a position of honor before the world.
v. 28. They are waxen fat, from a life of laziness and indulgence, they shine, with the sleekness due to their luxurious living; yea, they overpass the deeds of the wicked, exceeding the ordinary measure of wickedness, as presented in the case of the Gentiles; they judge not the cause, they do not carry out the principles of right and justice, the cause of the fatherless, although the care of widows and orphans was especially enjoined in Scripture, yet they prosper, and the right of the needy do they not judge, they not only prosecute the fatherless, but they take no steps to defend the rights of the poor. Therefore the Lord once more asks His searching question,
v. 29. Shall I not visit for these things? saith the Lord? Shall not My soul be avenged on such a nation as this? Cf v. 9.
v. 30. A wonderful and horrible thing is committed in the land, something fearful and horrible has happened, 18:13; 23:14; Hos 6:10.
v. 31. The prophets prophesy falsely, proclaiming lies, and the priests bear rule by their means, literally, "by their hands," that is, at their side, under the guidance of the false prophets, lording it over the people by such shady methods; and My people love to have it so, are altogether satisfied with such deception, their sound sense having left them to such an extent that they do not react against oppression and injustice; and what will ye do in the end thereof? Under such circumstances the judgment is inevitable, is bound to be the fatal issue of this sinful course; and who will be able to avert it? The attitude of the men of Noah’s time and of people in every crisis of the world’s history is found also in our days, in spite of the earnest warning which the Lord issues in so many passages of the Bible. Cf 1Co 10:1-13; 2Pe 3:5-10.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.