written in the earth, because they have forsaken the LORD, the fountain of living waters. 14 Heal me, O LORD, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved: for thou art my praise. 15 Behold, they say unto me, Where is the word of the LORD? let it come now. 16 As for me, I have not hastened from being a pastor to follow thee: neither have I desired the woeful day,' thou knowest: that which came out of my lips was right before thee. 17 Be not a terror unto me: thou art my hope in the day of evil. : 18 Let them be confounded that persecute me, but let not me be confounded let them be dismayed, but let not me be dismayed: bring upon them the day of evil, and destroy them with double destruction. 19 Thus said the LORD unto me; Go, and stand in the gate of the children of the people, whereby the kings of Judah come in, and by which they go out, and in all the gates of Jerusalem; 20 And say unto them, Hear ye the word of the LORD, ye kings of Judah, and all Judah, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, that enter in by these gates. 21 Thus saith the LORD; Take heed to yourselves, and bear no burden on the sabbath day, nor bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem: 22 Neither carry forth a burden out CHAP. XVII. [of the sabbath. of your houses on the sabbath day, neither do ye any work; but hallow ye the sabbath day, as I commanded your fathers. 23 But they obeyed not, neither inclined their ear; but made their neck stiff, that they might not hear, nor receive instruction. 24 And it shall come to pass, if ye diligently hearken unto me, saith the LORD, to bring in no burden through the gates of this city on the sabbath day, but hallow the sabbath day, to do no work therein; 25 Then shall there enter into the gates of this city kings and princes, sitting upon the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses; they, and their princes, the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem: and this city shall remain for ever. 26 And they shall come from the cities of Judah, and from the places about Jerusalem, and from the land of Benjamin, and from the plain, and from the mountains, and from the south, bringing burnt offerings, and sacrifices, and meat offerings, and incense; and bringing sacrifices of praise, unto the house of the LORD. 27 But if ye will not hearken unto me to hallow the sabbath day, and not to bear a burden, even entering in at the gates of Jerusalem on the sabbath day; then will I kindle a fire in the gates thereof, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem, and it shall not be quenched. (R) EXPOSITION. (R) The bare-faced Idolatry of Judah, and their open profanation of the Sabbath.— This chapter, which connects with the preceding, exposes the growth of idolatry in the nation, and the folly of their trusting in human aid, instead of the God of Israel. The former, who trust in idols or in meu, are compared to the stinted heath or lichen of the northern mountains; the latter, whose hope is in the Lord, to the tree planted by the waters, that never withers, nor even fades. The comparison (ver. 11) of a bird's hatching eggs which are not her own, to the covetousness of a man who accumulates ill-gotten wealth, is beautiful and expres sive: such "riches " often "make to them selves wings and fly away." (Prov. xxiii. 5.) Ver. 12. The Prophet appeals to "the glorious high throne" of God for his integrity, and prays in harmony with the dispensation under which he lived, that all their designs against him might return upon their own heads. The remaining part of the chapter (ver. 19, &c.) is a distinct prophecy, relating to the due observance of the Sabbath, enforced both by promises and by threatenings. The date of it is unknown; but it must have been in a period of very relaxed morals. It is certain that idolaters paid little or no regard to the sabbath; and as to the Jewish rulers, while they enjoyed themselves in ease and luxury on that day, they obliged the poor to work for them. God's sovereign] CHAP. XVIII. JEREMIAH. THE word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying, 2 Arise, and go down to the pot ter's house, and there I will cause thee to hear my words. 3 Then I went down to the potter's house; and, behold, he wrought a work on the wheels. 4 And the vessel that he made of elay was marred in the hand of the potter so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it. 5 Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying, 6 O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the LORD. Behold, as the clay is in the potter's hand, so are ye in mine hand, O house of Israel. 7 At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy it; 8 If that nation, against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them. 9 And at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it; 10 If it do evil in my sight, that it obey not my voice, then I will repent of the good, wherewith I said I would benefit them. [dominion illustrated the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith the LORD; Behold, I frame evil against you, and devise a device against you: return ye now every one from his evil way, and make your ways and your doings good. 12 And they said, There is no hope: but we will walk after our own devices, and we will every one do the imagination of his evil heart. 13 Therefore thus saith the LORD; Ask ye now among the heathen, who hath heard such things: the virgin of Israel hath done a very horrible thing. 14 Will a man leave the snow of Lebanon which cometh from the rock of the field? or shall the cold flowing waters that come from another place be forsaken? 15 Because my people hath forgotten me, they have burned incense to vanity, and they have caused them to stumble in their ways from the ancient paths, to walk in paths, in a way not cast up; 16 To make their land desolate, and a perpetual hissing; every one that passeth thereby shall be astonished, and wag his head. 17 I will scatter them with an east wind before the enemy; I will shew them the back, and not the face, in the day of their calamity. 18 Then said they, Come, and let us devise devices against Jeremiah; for the law shall not perish from the 11 Now therefore go to, speak to priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor NOTES. CHAP. XVIII. Ver. 3. A work on the wheels.-Dr. Blayney considers this machine of the potter as consisting of "a pair of circular stones, (so the Heb.) placed upon one another like mill-stones, of which the lower one was immoveable, but the upper one turned upon the foot of a spindle, or axis, and had motion communicated to it by the foot of the potier sitting at work, (as may be learned from Ecclesiasticus xxxviii. 29.) Upon the top of this upper stone, which was flat, the clay was placed, which the potter, having given the stone the due velocity, formed into shape with his hands." Ver. 4. Marred-that is, spoiled.-- Made it again -Heb. "Returned and made," &c. Ver. 14. Will a man leave, &c.-"The two similitudes in this verse are evidently designed to illustrate the unnatural and absurd conduct of the Jewish nation, in deserting their own God, and adopting the superstitions of a strange idolatry, in preference to the good old paths which God had ordained for them to walk in. As to the first, Lebanon was the highest mountain in Israel, and having its summit almost always covered with snow, (from the whiteness e which, it is supposed to have derived its name.!.... It would, therefore, be very unnatural, if the snow should quit the tops of Lebanon, while the rocks of less height were covered with it." Blayney. Ibid. Will men dig, &c.-" Strange waters" are waters brought from a distance by pipes, or other artificial means. See 2 Kings xix. 24. The sense of the prophet is, Will men bring waters from a distance, at great expense, while they have a good sapply at home? See the same Expositor. Ver. 15. My people have forsaken.-See chap. 13. To walk in paths-that is, in by-paths, where no road has been made. Ver. 16. Wag-Blayney, "Shake." Blayney (reading CHAP. XIX. by the power of the] 19 Give heed to me, O LORD, and hearken to the voice of them that contend with me. 20 Shall evil be recompensed for good? for they have digged a pit for my soul. Remember that I stood before thee to speak good for them, and to turn away thy wrath from them. 21 Therefore deliver up their children to the famine, and pour out their blood by the force of the sword; and let their wives be bereaved of their children, and be widows; and let their men be put to death; let their young men be slain by the sword in battle. 22 Let a cry be heard from their houses, when thou shalt bring a troop suddenly upon them: for they have digged a pit to take me, and hid snares for my feet. CHAP. XVIII. [potter over the clay... 23 Yet, LORD, thou knowest all their counsel against me to slay me: forgive not their iniquity, neither blot out their sin from thy sight; but let them be overthown before thee: deal thus with them in the time of thine anger. (S) CHAP. XIX. THUS saith the LORD, Go and get a potter's earthen bottle, and take of the ancients of the people, and of the ancients of the priests; 2 And go forth unto the valley of the son of Hinnom, which is by the entry of the east gate, and proclaim there the words that I shall tell thee; 3 And say, Hear ye the word of the LORD, O kings of Judah, and inhabitants of Jerusalem; Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will bring evil upon this place, the which whosoever heareth, his ears shall tingle. 4 Because they have forsaken me, EXPOSITION. them; or, as it is sometimes expressed, "create all things new." Such is the ana between the potter aud himself; and, in consequence of this state of things again he threatens them with the judgments necessary to re-model them for his service. "As the clay is in the potter's hand, so are ye in my hands, O house of Israel!" (S) God's sovereign dominion illustrated by the power of the potter over his clay.logy the great Creator is pleased to draw The prophecies and transactions contained in this and the two following chapters, must, as Dr. Blayney conceives, be referred to the three first years of the reign of king Jehoiakim. The Prophet is shewn first, under the type of the Potter, God's absolute authority over nations and kingdoms, to regulate and alter their condition at his pleasure; that pleasure, we must recollect, however, is always in harmony with his justice and his truth. He can do what he pleases; but he can do no wrong. As respects the Jewish nation, God had dug them from the pit of human nature, and formed them for himself, that they might shew forth his glory. (Isa. li. 1. xliii. 21.) When they refused to do this, he returned them to the pit, and from another lump of clay be formed the Gentile church: still he hath not wholly given up his former people, but will at a future day new-mould What is said in this chapter of God's threatening nations for disobedience and revoking those threatenings upon repentance is perfectly wise and just. The master who threatens a disobedient servant, has certainly a right to pardon, and revoke those threatenings, upon repentance and reform. But the book of the Prophet Jonah will furnish the best illustration of NOTES. caph instead of beth) renders it, "Like an east wind." So the ancient versions. Ver. 18. Smite him with the tongue-that is, bring a charge against him but Blayney reads, "On the tongue:" i. e. stop his mouth. Ver. 21. Therefore, &c. See Psalm cix. 4, &c. -Pour out-Heb. "Pour them out;" i. e. perhaps their lives, as a libation to divine justice. and have estranged this place, and have burned incense in it unto other gods, whom neither they nor their fathers have known, nor the kings of Judah, and have filled this place with the blood of innocents; 5 They have built also the high places of Baal, to burn their sons with fire for burnt offerings unto Baal, which I commanded not, nor spake it, neither came it into my mind : 6 Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that this place shall no more be called Tophet, nor The valley of the son of Hinnom, but The valley of slaughter. 7 And I will make void the counsel of Judah and Jerusalem in this place; and I will cause them to fall by the sword before their enemies, and by the hands of them that seek their lives: and their carcases will I give to be meat for the fowls of the heaven, and for the beasts of the earth. 8 And I will make this city desolate, and an hissing; every one that passeth thereby shall be astonished and hiss because of all the plagues thereof. 9 And I will cause them to eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters, and they shall eat every one the flesh of his friend in the siege and straitness, wherewith their enemies, and they that seek their lives, shall straiten them. 10 Then shalt thou break the bottle in the sight of the men that go with thee, 11 And shalt say unto them, Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Even so will I break this people and this city, as CHAP. XIX. [for his fidelity. one breaketh a potter's vessel, that cannot be made whole again: and they shall bury them in Tophet, till there be no place to bury. 12 Thus will I do unto this place, saith the LORD, and to the inhabitants thereof, and even make this city as Tophet. 13 And the houses of Jerusalem, and the houses of the kings of Judah, shall be defiled as the place of Tophet, because of all the houses upon whose roofs they have burned incense unto all the host of heaven, and have poured out drink-offerings unto other gods. 14 Then came Jeremiah from Tophet, whither the LORD had sent him to prophesy; and he stood in the court of the LORD's house; and said to all the people, 15 Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will bring upon this city, and upon all her towns, all the evil that I have pronounced against it, because they have hardened their necks, that they might not hear my words. (T) CHAP. XX. NOW Pashur the son of Immer the priest, who was also chief governor in the house of the LORD, heard that Jeremiah prophesied these things. 2 Then Pashur smote Jeremiah the prophet, and put him in the stocks that were in the high gate of Benjamin, which was by the house of the LORD. 3 And it came to pass on the morrow, that Pashur brought forth Jere EXPOSITION. (T) The potter's vessel broken and its import." Under the type of breaking a potter's vessel, Jeremiah, in the presence of the elders, the priests and people, foresheweth the ruin and desolation of Judah and Jerusalem for their sins, and repeateth the like denunciations in the court of the temple." (Blayney.) Good Mr. Henry remarks on this chapter, "Whatever men may think to the contrary, the execution of God's providence will fully answer the predictions of his word; and God will appear as terrible against sin and sinners as the scriptures represent him. There is no way of escaping from his justice, but by fleeing to his mercy." NOTES-Chap. XIX. Con. Ver. 11. Cannot be made whole-Heb. "Cannot be healed." Dr. Blayney renders the whole of this, and the first six verses of the chapter following, in prose. and Pashur threatened] CHAP. XX. miah out of the stocks. Then said Jeremiah unto him, The LORD hath not called thy name Pashur, but Magormissabib. 4 For thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will make thee a terror to thyself, and to all thy friends: and they shall fall by the sword of their enemies, and thine eyes shall behold it: and I will give all Judah into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall carry them captive into Babylon, and shall slay them with the sword. 5 Moreover, I will deliver all the strength of this city, and all the labours thereof, and all the precious things thereof; and all the treasures of the kings of Judah will I give into the hand of their enemies, which shall spoil them, and take them, and carry them to Babylon. 6 And thou, Pashur, and all that dwell in thine house shall go into captivity and thou shalt come to Babylon, and there thou shalt die, and shalt be buried there; thou, and all thy friends, to whom thou hast prophesied lies. 7 O LORD, thou hast deceived me, and I was deceived: thou art stronger than I, and hast prevailed: I am in derision daily, every one mocketh me. 8 For since I spake I cried out, I cried violence and spoil; because the word of the LORD was made a reproach unto me, and a derision, daily. 9 Then I said, I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name: But his word was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay. [for his presumption. 10 For I heard the defaming of many; fear on every side. Report, suy they, and we will report it. All my familiars watched for my halting, saying, Peradventure he will be enticed, and we shall prevail against him, and we shall take our revenge on him. 11 But the LORD is with me as a mighty terrible one: therefore my persecutors shall stumble, and they shall not prevail'; they shall be greatly ashamed for they shall not prosper: their everlasting confusion shall never be forgotten. 12 But, O LORD of hosts, that triest the righteous, and seest the reins and the heart, let me see thy vengeance on them: for unto thee have I opened my cause. 13 Sing unto the LORD, praise ye the LORD: for he hath delivered the soul of the poor from the hand of evil doers. 14 Cursed be the day wherein I was born: let not the day wherein my mother bare me be blessed. 15 Cursed be the man who brought tidings to my father, saying, A man child is born unto thee; making him very glad. 16 And let that man be as the cities which the LORD overthrew, and repented not: and let him hear the cry in the morning, and the shouting at noon-tide; 17 Because he slew me not from the womb; or that my mother might have been my grave, and her womb to be always great with me. 18 Wherefore came I forth out of the womb to see labour and sorrow, NOTES. CHAP. XX. Ver, 7. Thou hast deceived me, and I was deceived.-On examining the original of this passage, we can find nothing to justify this version, so dishonourable to the prophet. Blayney and Boothroyd render it, "Thou didst allure me, and I was allured; but we prefer the version of Gataker, "Thou didst persuade me, and I was persuaded." Buxtorf and Schindler, Gataker and Ainsworth, Parkhurst and Gesenius, all agree that the word signifies to persuade; often, indeed. to evil, but sometimes to good, as in Gen. ix. 27; Marg. Hos. ii. 14. Ibid. Thou art stronger than 1. Blayney and Boothroyd, “Thou didst encourage (or strengthen) me, and didst prevail." Ver. 9. I could not stay.-The last word is stipplementary, and better omitted. See Ps. xxxix. 3, Ver. 10. All my familiars-Heb. “Every man of my peace." See Ps. xli. 9. Ver. 12. Let me see-Blayney, "I shall see," So also chap. xi. 20. The Hebrew is future. Ver. 14. Cursed be the day.-Compare Job iii, 3. Ver. 15. Cursed be the man. - This imprecation cannot be construed into personal hatred, but must be considered merely as a strong poetical expression of his present inisery. |