Jeremiah · Chapter 13

Verse 1. Thus saith the Lord unto me] This discourse is supposed to have been delivered under the reign of Jeconiah, the son and successor of Jehoiakim, who came to the throne in the eighteenth year of his age; when the Chaldean generals had encamped near to Jerusalem, but did not besiege it in form till Nebuchadnezzar came up with the great body of the army. In these circumstances the prophet predicts the captivity; and, by a symbolical representation of a rotten girdle, shows the people their totally corrupt state; and by another of bottles filled with wine, shows the destruction and madness of their counsels, and the confusion that must ensue. Go and get thee a linen girdle] This was either a vision, or God simply describes the thing in order that the prophet might use it in the way of illustration.

Put it not in water.] After having worn it, let it not be washed, that it may more properly represent the uncleanness of the Israelites; for they were represented by the girdle; for “as the girdle cleaveth to the loins of a man, so have I caused to cleave unto me the whole house of Israel, and the whole house of Judah.” And as a girdle is as well for ornament as use; God took them for a name, and for a praise, and for a glory, Jeremiah 13:11.

Verses 1, 2. Thus saith the Lord unto me — The prophet here begins a new discourse. Go and get thee a girdle, &c. — “God explains, at verse 11, what was meant by the symbol of the girdle, or sash, worn about the loins, namely, his people Israel, whom he redeemed of old, and attached to himself by a special covenant; that as a girdle served for an ornament to the wearer, so they should be subservient to the honour and glory of his name. But it is added, They would not hear, or conform to his intentions; therefore, being polluted with the guilt of their disobedience, they were, in that state, and on that very account, to be carried into captivity; conformably to which the prophet was commanded not to put the girdle in water, that is, not to wash it, but to leave it in that state of filthiness which it had contracted in wearing.” So I got the girdle, according to the word of the Lord — That is, according to God’s command. And put it on my loins — Used it as God directed me, not disputing the reason why God commanded me to do such a thing.

Verse 1. Get thee a linen girdle, or “buy thee,” as the Chaldaic reads; which this priest and prophet wore unwashed till it became offensive, and began to excite attention and talk. The priest’s girdle was the brightest ornament of his costume; and the soldier’s girdle the first mark of honour. 2 Samuel 18:11.

1. Linen girdle — “Linen,” as being the appointed dress of the priestly order, and so appropriately symbolical of God’s holy people whom he had selected for his service. Put it not in water — That is, do not wash it, but carry it a soiled and filthy thing, and hence fitly symbolical of a people covered with the filth of their sins.

Verses 1, 2. Thus saith the Lord unto me — The prophet here begins a new discourse. Go and get thee a girdle, &c. — “God explains, at verse 11, what was meant by the symbol of the girdle, or sash, worn about the loins, namely, his people Israel, whom he redeemed of old, and attached to himself by a special covenant; that as a girdle served for an ornament to the wearer, so they should be subservient to the honour and glory of his name. But it is added, They would not hear, or conform to his intentions; therefore, being polluted with the guilt of their disobedience, they were, in that state, and on that very account, to be carried into captivity; conformably to which the prophet was commanded not to put the girdle in water, that is, not to wash it, but to leave it in that state of filthiness which it had contracted in wearing.” So I got the girdle, according to the word of the Lord — That is, according to God’s command. And put it on my loins — Used it as God directed me, not disputing the reason why God commanded me to do such a thing.

Verse 4. Go to Euphrates, and hide it there] Intending to point out, by this distant place, the country into which they were to be carried away captive.

Verse 4. Arise, go to Euphrates — God commanded the prophet to go and hide the girdle on the bank of the Euphrates, to signify that the Jews should be carried captive over that river, called the waters of Babylon, Psalm 137:1. In the margin of our ancient English Bibles, it is observed, that, “because this river Perath, or Euphrates, was far from Jerusalem, it is evident that this was done in a vision.” And the generality of the best commentators have been of this opinion; it not being probable that the prophet should have been sent twice upon a journey of such considerable length and difficulty, to the very great loss of his time, merely upon the errands here mentioned, namely, to carry the girdle to the Euphrates, and to fetch it back, when, it seems, every purpose would have been answered altogether as well if the transaction had been represented in vision. Several things, it must be observed, are related in Scripture as actually done, which yet were certainly only performed in visions. One instance we have Jeremiah 25:15-29, where Jeremiah is commanded to take a cup of wine in his hand, and to cause several kings and nations, there enumerated, to drink of it: for it would be a perfect absurdity to believe that he actually went round to all those kings and nations, and made them drink of the contents of his cup. And yet he makes no more distinction in this latter case, than in that now before us, between mental and bodily action. Another remarkable instance we have Genesis 15:5, where the text says, that God brought Abraham forth abroad, and bid him tell the stars; and yet it appears, by a subsequent verse, that the sun was not then gone down. Indeed, in all these cases, and in many more that might be mentioned of a similar kind, it made no difference as to the end God had in view, whether the transactions related were visionary or real; for either way they served equally to represent the events which it was God’s pleasure to make known. See Lowth and Blaney.

Ver. 4. Go to Euphrates, and hide it there. After three months he there found it, mildewed, rotten, and good for nothing. Just so were the people of Judah and of Jerusalem marred, and become incorrigible. Jeremiah was commanded to go to the Euphrates, (called in Hebrew trp perath, or fruitfulness, Genesis 2:14) because the Chaldean army was coming in that direction to punish their sins. All these strong figures were wisely calculated to impress the more deeply, a scornful and brutish people.

4. Euphrates — The future scene of the captivity. In most other places in the Bible (Jeremiah 51:63; 2 Chronicles 35:20, and perhaps Genesis 2:14, being the only exceptions) this name is associated with Nahar, (rhn,) hence some have conjectured that the name is here used in a special sense. For instance, some have conjectured that it is used for Ephrath — Bethlehem, with the first weak letter omitted, so that the command would be, Go to Bethlehem. But this is violent and without warrant, and misses the significance of the locality. Ewald conjectures that the word is from the Arabic for water-fissure; “a view,” says Keil, “requiring no serious refutation.”

V. 5. So-Most think Jeremiah did this in a vision, for it was a very long journey from Anathoth to Euphrates.

Verse 7. And behold, the girdle was marred; it was profitable for nothing.] This symbolically represented the state of the Jews: they were corrupt and abominable; and God, by sending them into captivity, “marred the pride of Judah, and the great pride of Jerusalem,” Jeremiah 13:9.

7. Digged — Showing that Jeremiah had filled in with gravel or earth above the girdle, and so concealed it.

Verse 9. After this manner will I mar the pride of Judah, &c. — Or, as some translate the verse, “Will I mar the glory of Judah, and the great honour of Jerusalem.” I will bring down their pride and stubbornness, by making them slaves and vassals to strangers, Lamentations 5:8, 13. Or, alluding to the transaction about the girdle, “I will transport them beyond the Euphrates; I will bide them in Babylon, as in the hole of a rock, whence they cannot come out. They shall be marred in the midst of the nations, without temple, without sacrifice, without priests, without external worship. I will humble their presumption, and teach them to acknowledge and adore my mercy.”

9. Mar the pride of Judah — This was fulfilled in her physical decay — the loss of her temporal greatness.

10. Good for nothing — In themselves, and to outward appearance, but really more fit for God’s high purposes than before. Their political existence was virtually terminated; but as instruments of preparation for the coming reign of Messiah they were still to serve an important use.

Verse 11. For as the girdle cleaveth to the loins of a man — Here God shows the prophet why he commanded him to put the girdle about his loins. So have I caused — Rather, had I caused; to cleave unto me the house of Israel — I had betrothed them to myself in righteousness, and entered into a marriage covenant with them, that they might cleave to me as a wife cleaveth to her husband. By the laws I gave them, the prophets I sent among them, and the favours which, in my providence, I showed them, I brought them near to myself, and allowed them access to me, and intercourse with me, above every other nation. That they might be unto me for a people — A peculiar people; that they might have the honour of being called by my name; and for a praise and a glory — That I might be glorified by their showing forth my power, goodness, and faithfulness, and all my other glorious perfections to the world, so that I might be honoured and praised through them.

11. A people… a name… a praise… a glory — Observe again here, as in so many other places, the piling up of epithets, as if language must be taxed to the utmost to express what this people are to God. This mode of expressing emphasis illustrates the genius of the Hebrew language, and is specially characteristic of Jeremiah.

V. 12. Do we not know-This is no strange thing.

Verse 12. Every bottle shall be filled with wine?] The bottles were made for the purpose of being filled with wine; and it is likely, from the promising appearance of the season and the grapes, that there was a great likelihood of a copious vintage; and this made them say, “Do we not certainly know that every bottle shall be filled with wine? Have we not every prospect that it will be so? Do we need a revelation to inform us of this?”

Verse 12. Therefore — Because the end intended by my goodness has not been answered upon them; thou shall speak unto them this word — Thou shall show them the destruction coming upon them by another emblem. Thus saith the Lord, Every bottle shall be filled with wine — God’s judgments are often represented under the figure of a cup full of intoxicating liquor: see this metaphor pursued at large, Jeremiah 25:15, &c. To the same purpose God tells them here that as they have all sinned, so should every one have his share in the punishment. And they shall say unto thee, &c. — “God, who knew the profaneness of their hearts, foretels the reply they would make to this threatening, that, taking it in a literal sense, they would make a jest of it, as if the words were intended to encourage intemperance, for either they did not or would not understand the drift of them.” Thus Lowth. But Blaney thinks their answer, Do we not know, &c., implies that, by a wilful mistake, they construed his words as “meant to tell them of a plentiful vintage that was coming on, which would fill all their wine-vessels; and of this they claimed to be as good judges as he, from the promising appearance of the vineyards. As if they said, Do you tell us this as a piece of news, or a supernatural discovery? Is it not evident to us as well as to you? The prophet is therefore directed to deal more plainly with them, and to tell them that the wine he meant was not such as would exhilarate, but such as would intoxicate; being no other than what would be poured out of the wine-cup of God’s fury, to the subversion of all ranks and orders of men among them.”

Ver. 12. Every bottle shall be filled with wine. This plain assertion, which from the advanced state of the vintage everyone knew to be correct, made way for the people’s reply, Do we not certainly know that every vessel shall be filled with new wine? This reply also made way for the prophet’s illustration to come with double force; viz. that he meant the more intoxicating wine, the wrath of God—the invasion of the Chaldean army. This proves to us that the holy prophets often preached in the way of public disputation. So did our Saviour in the temple. John 7. 8.

12. Every bottle — Rather, jar. The same term is used in Isaiah 30:14, and is rendered potter’s vessel. This remark is in the form of a proverb, as if the more certainly to arrest attention.

V. 13. Behold-There is a wine of astonishment and confusion, Psalm 60:3. With that wine, saith God, I will fill all orders of persons, kings, priests, prophets, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

Verse 13. Behold, I will fill all the inhabitants of this land—with drunkenness.] You pretend to take this literally, but it is a symbol. You, and your kings, and priests, and prophets, are represented by these bottles. The wine is God’s wrath against you, which shall first be shown by confounding your deliberations, filling you with foolish plans of defense, causing you from your divided counsels to fall out among yourselves, so that like so many drunken men you shall reel about and jostle each other; defend yourselves without plan, and fight without order, till ye all fall an easy prey into the hands of your enemies. The ancient adage is here fulfilled:—

Quos Deus vult perdere, prius dementat.

“Those whom God determines to destroy, he first renders foolish.”

Verses 13, 14. Behold, I will fill all the inhabitants with drunkenness — There is a wine of astonishment and confusion, Psalm 60:3. With that wine, saith God, I will fill all orders of persons, kings, priests, prophets, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And I will dash them one against another — I will permit an evil spirit of strife and division to arise among them, as Judges 9:23, so that they shall be set one against another, fathers against their sons, and sons against their fathers, and family against family; so that, having no union among themselves, or friendly co-operation, they shall become an easy prey to their enemies. Thus I will confound and destroy them, as earthen vessels are broken to pieces when they are dashed one against another. The words allude to the earthen bottles which were to be filled with wine, verse 12. I will not pity nor spare, but destroy, &c. — For they will not pity, nor spare, nor have mercy, but destroy one another: see Habakkuk 2:15, 16. Therefore let them not presume upon my mercy, for I am resolved to show them no mercy, but to bring them to utter ruin, unless a thorough reformation take place.

13. Kings, etc. — Four kings in succession were destroyed in the downfall of Jerusalem. Drunkenness — Such impotence as comes from “the wine of the wrath of God.”

Verses 13, 14. Behold, I will fill all the inhabitants with drunkenness — There is a wine of astonishment and confusion, Psalm 60:3. With that wine, saith God, I will fill all orders of persons, kings, priests, prophets, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And I will dash them one against another — I will permit an evil spirit of strife and division to arise among them, as Judges 9:23, so that they shall be set one against another, fathers against their sons, and sons against their fathers, and family against family; so that, having no union among themselves, or friendly co-operation, they shall become an easy prey to their enemies. Thus I will confound and destroy them, as earthen vessels are broken to pieces when they are dashed one against another. The words allude to the earthen bottles which were to be filled with wine, verse 12. I will not pity nor spare, but destroy, &c. — For they will not pity, nor spare, nor have mercy, but destroy one another: see Habakkuk 2:15, 16. Therefore let them not presume upon my mercy, for I am resolved to show them no mercy, but to bring them to utter ruin, unless a thorough reformation take place.

Ver. 14. I will dash them one against another. The Chaldaic, the LXX, the Vulgate, and the Syriac read, “I will disperse them,” one from another: andra kai ton adelfon autou, virum a fratre suo, a man from his brother. I will break up and scatter their families.

14. Dash them one against another — See Psalm 2:9, and Revelation 2:27. Not civil war, but indiscriminate destruction, is here foretold.

Verses 15-17. Hear ye, &c. — The prophet proceeds to give them good counsel, which, if it had been taken, the desolation and destruction threatened would have been prevented. Be not proud — Pride was one of the sins for which God had a controversy with them, verse 9. Let them mortify and forsake this and their other sins, and God will let fall his controversy with them. Give glory to the Lord your God — Glorify God by an humble confession of your sins, by submitting yourselves to him, humbling yourselves under his word, and under his mighty hand; before he cause darkness — Before he bring upon you the night of affliction, even his great and heavy judgments. Light is the emblem of joy, and happy times are expressed by bright and pleasant days. On the contrary, calamities and troubles are represented by night and darkness, when every thing looks melancholy and dismal. And before your feet stumble, &c. — Before the time come when ye shall be forced to flee by night unto the mountains for fear of your enemies. Or, more generally, before you find yourselves overtaken by the pursuing judgments of God, notwithstanding all your endeavours to outrun and escape from them. And while ye look for light — That is, for relief and comfort; he turn it into the shadow of death — Involve you in most dismal and terrible calamities, out of which you shall be utterly unable to extricate yourselves. But if ye will not hear — Will not submit to and obey the word, but continue to be refractory; my soul shall weep in secret places for your pride — Your haughtiness, stubbornness, and vain confidence; and mine eye shall weep sore, &c. — Not chiefly, nor so much, because my relations, friends, and neighbours are involved in trouble and distress, but because the Lord’s flock — His people, and the sheep of his pasture; are carried away captive — Observe, reader, that should always grieve us most by which God’s honour suffers, and the interest of his kingdom is weakened.

15. Hear ye, etc. — The earnest words of the prophet entreating attention. Be not proud — Because pride would keep them from profiting by the humbling lessons he had given.

V. 16. Give glory-Glorify God, by an humble confession of your sins, by submitting yourselves to God, humbling yourselves under his word, and under his mighty hand, before God brings upon you, his great and heavy judgments.

Verse 16. Give glory to-God] Confess your sins and turn to him, that these sore evils may be averted.

While ye look for light] While ye expect prosperity, he turned it into the shadow of death-sent you adversity of the most distressing and ruinous kind.

Stumble upon the dark mountains] Before you meet with those great obstacles, which, having no light—no proper understanding in the matter, ye shall be utterly unable to surmount.

Verses 15-17. Hear ye, &c. — The prophet proceeds to give them good counsel, which, if it had been taken, the desolation and destruction threatened would have been prevented. Be not proud — Pride was one of the sins for which God had a controversy with them, verse 9. Let them mortify and forsake this and their other sins, and God will let fall his controversy with them. Give glory to the Lord your God — Glorify God by an humble confession of your sins, by submitting yourselves to him, humbling yourselves under his word, and under his mighty hand; before he cause darkness — Before he bring upon you the night of affliction, even his great and heavy judgments. Light is the emblem of joy, and happy times are expressed by bright and pleasant days. On the contrary, calamities and troubles are represented by night and darkness, when every thing looks melancholy and dismal. And before your feet stumble, &c. — Before the time come when ye shall be forced to flee by night unto the mountains for fear of your enemies. Or, more generally, before you find yourselves overtaken by the pursuing judgments of God, notwithstanding all your endeavours to outrun and escape from them. And while ye look for light — That is, for relief and comfort; he turn it into the shadow of death — Involve you in most dismal and terrible calamities, out of which you shall be utterly unable to extricate yourselves. But if ye will not hear — Will not submit to and obey the word, but continue to be refractory; my soul shall weep in secret places for your pride — Your haughtiness, stubbornness, and vain confidence; and mine eye shall weep sore, &c. — Not chiefly, nor so much, because my relations, friends, and neighbours are involved in trouble and distress, but because the Lord’s flock — His people, and the sheep of his pasture; are carried away captive — Observe, reader, that should always grieve us most by which God’s honour suffers, and the interest of his kingdom is weakened.

Ver. 16. Give glory to the Lord, by true repentance, before he cause darkness, by the cloud of war; and before your feet stumble on the dark mountains, fleeing in vain from the Chaldeans. The word, stumble, often used, designates the action of the body after it receives a mortal wound. The prophet knew that by a fast of unfeigned repentance they might yet be saved.

16. Before he cause darkness — Make haste to seize the path of safety, lest nightfall overtake you and make it impossible. Dark mountains — Literally, mountains of twilight; a double metaphor, suggesting in one figure sin and danger. Mountains were apt to be dangerous to travel, and in the gloom of gathering night especially so. He turn it into the shadow of death — For this is not the twilight which grows into day, but that which goes out in utter darkness.

Verse 17. My soul shalt weep in secret places] If you will not hearken to the Lord, there is no remedy: destruction must come; and there is nothing left for me, but to go in secret, and mourn and bewail your wretched lot.

Verses 15-17. Hear ye, &c. — The prophet proceeds to give them good counsel, which, if it had been taken, the desolation and destruction threatened would have been prevented. Be not proud — Pride was one of the sins for which God had a controversy with them, verse 9. Let them mortify and forsake this and their other sins, and God will let fall his controversy with them. Give glory to the Lord your God — Glorify God by an humble confession of your sins, by submitting yourselves to him, humbling yourselves under his word, and under his mighty hand; before he cause darkness — Before he bring upon you the night of affliction, even his great and heavy judgments. Light is the emblem of joy, and happy times are expressed by bright and pleasant days. On the contrary, calamities and troubles are represented by night and darkness, when every thing looks melancholy and dismal. And before your feet stumble, &c. — Before the time come when ye shall be forced to flee by night unto the mountains for fear of your enemies. Or, more generally, before you find yourselves overtaken by the pursuing judgments of God, notwithstanding all your endeavours to outrun and escape from them. And while ye look for light — That is, for relief and comfort; he turn it into the shadow of death — Involve you in most dismal and terrible calamities, out of which you shall be utterly unable to extricate yourselves. But if ye will not hear — Will not submit to and obey the word, but continue to be refractory; my soul shall weep in secret places for your pride — Your haughtiness, stubbornness, and vain confidence; and mine eye shall weep sore, &c. — Not chiefly, nor so much, because my relations, friends, and neighbours are involved in trouble and distress, but because the Lord’s flock — His people, and the sheep of his pasture; are carried away captive — Observe, reader, that should always grieve us most by which God’s honour suffers, and the interest of his kingdom is weakened.

17. My soul shall weep in secret places — Most characteristic language! In it how clearly do we see reflected the heart of this man of God! A true “jeremiad” is not so much the language of gloom and hopelessness as of tenderness and earnest remonstrance. “Secret places” may, perhaps, suggest the present enforced privacy of the prophet.

Verse 18. Say unto the king and to the queen] Probably Jeconiah and his mother, under whose tutelage, being young when he began to reign, he was left, as is very likely.

Sit down] Show that ye have humbled yourselves; for your state will be destroyed, and your glorious crown taken from your heads.

Verse 18. Say unto the king and queen — That is, to Jehoiachin, called also Coniah, and his mother, who were carried captives to Babylon at the first coming of Nebuchadnezzar; see Jeremiah 22:26; 2 Kings 24:12. Some indeed suppose that Zedekiah and his mother are intended, which does not appear so probable. Humble yourselves — By true repentance, and so both give glory to God, and set a good example to your subjects; and sit down — Sit down and consider what is coming; sit down and lament your condition. For your principalities shall come down — The honour and power by which you value yourselves, and in which you confide, even the crown of your glory — For when you are led away captive, where will the badges of your power and pre-eminence be then? Blessed be God, there is a crown of glory which shall never come down, and which they who humble themselves before God, in true repentance, shall in due time inherit.

Ver. 18. Say unto the king and to the queen— your principalities shall come down. Joachin and his mother are here intended, according to Jerome; and they were carried captives to Babylon at the first coming of Nebuchadnezzar. 2 Kings 24:15.

18. Queen — Rather, queen-mother. It seems to have been the custom among many Oriental peoples for the king’s mother to take precedence of his wife. Principalities — The marginal reading is better, your head-tires, even the crown of your glory, shall come down.

V. 19. The cities-The cities of Judah lay southward from Chaldea.

Verse 19. The cities of the south shall be shut up] Not only the cities of the north, the quarter at which the Chaldeans entered, but the cities of the south also; for he shall proceed from one extremity of the land to the other, spreading devastation every where, and carrying off the inhabitants.

Verses 19-21. The cities of the south, &c. — The cities of Judah, which lay in the southern part of Canaan, shall be straitly besieged by the enemy, so that there shall be no going in and out; or shall be deserted by the inhabitants. Or, as some think, the cities of Egypt are intended, from whence the Jews expected succour. These should fail them, and they should find no access to them. Lift up your eyes, &c. — He speaks as if their enemies were even then upon their march, nay, so near, that if they did but lift up their eyes and look, they might see them coming. Where is the flock that was given thee? — He streaks to the king, representing him under the idea of a shepherd, and the people under that of a flock. Or rather, as the pronouns are feminine, he addresses the daughter of Judah, that is, the city or state. “What wilt thou say, when the Lord shall demand of thee an account of the people committed to thy trust? What wilt thou answer when the sovereign monarch shall see dissipated, diminished, weakened, destroyed, thy beautiful flock,” or, as Ëtrapt ˆax rather signifies, the flock of thy glory. In the multitude of people, says Solomon, is the king’s honour. What wilt thou say when he shall punish thee? — Thou wilt have nothing to say, but be wholly confounded, when God shall visit thee by this sore judgment. Or, when Nebuchadnezzar’s army, sent by God, shall visit thee. For thou hast taught them to be captains, &c. — Houbigant renders it, “Since thou hast made them expert against thee, and hast drawn them upon thine own head;” and Blaney, more literally, “Seeing it is thou that teachest them to be rulers in chief over thee.” “Thou hast frequently called them to thy succour, and taught them the way to thy country, whereof they dreamed not before; and not only thus, but by accumulating crimes upon crimes, and filling up the measure of thine iniquity, thou hast drawn down the vengeance of heaven, and put thyself in the power of the Chaldeans.” See Calmet. Some have understood the alliances, contracted heretofore with the Assyrians by Ahaz, and the conduct of Hezekiah toward the ambassadors of the king of Babylon, to be here alluded to. “But I rather think,” says Blaney, “that the wicked manners of the people are principally designed; which put them out of the protection of Almighty God, and rendered them an easy conquest to any enemy that came against them. Thus they taught their enemies to oppress, and to be lords over them; against whom, but for their own faults, they might have maintained their security and independence.”

Ver. 19. The cities of the south shall be shut, to assume the state of a siege, and to stop the fugitives from flying into Egypt.

19. Cities of the south — The region south of Jerusalem. Shut up — Not necessarily by siege, nor by ruins which shall block up the entrances, but by being uninhabited.

V. 20. Where-The prophet speaks to the king, or to the rulers. In the multitude of the people is the king’s honour.

Verse 20. Where is the flock-thy beautiful flock?] Jerusalem is addressed. Where are the prosperous multitudes of men, women, and children? Alas! are they not driven before the Babylonians, who have taken them captive?

Verses 19-21. The cities of the south, &c. — The cities of Judah, which lay in the southern part of Canaan, shall be straitly besieged by the enemy, so that there shall be no going in and out; or shall be deserted by the inhabitants. Or, as some think, the cities of Egypt are intended, from whence the Jews expected succour. These should fail them, and they should find no access to them. Lift up your eyes, &c. — He speaks as if their enemies were even then upon their march, nay, so near, that if they did but lift up their eyes and look, they might see them coming. Where is the flock that was given thee? — He streaks to the king, representing him under the idea of a shepherd, and the people under that of a flock. Or rather, as the pronouns are feminine, he addresses the daughter of Judah, that is, the city or state. “What wilt thou say, when the Lord shall demand of thee an account of the people committed to thy trust? What wilt thou answer when the sovereign monarch shall see dissipated, diminished, weakened, destroyed, thy beautiful flock,” or, as Ëtrapt ˆax rather signifies, the flock of thy glory. In the multitude of people, says Solomon, is the king’s honour. What wilt thou say when he shall punish thee? — Thou wilt have nothing to say, but be wholly confounded, when God shall visit thee by this sore judgment. Or, when Nebuchadnezzar’s army, sent by God, shall visit thee. For thou hast taught them to be captains, &c. — Houbigant renders it, “Since thou hast made them expert against thee, and hast drawn them upon thine own head;” and Blaney, more literally, “Seeing it is thou that teachest them to be rulers in chief over thee.” “Thou hast frequently called them to thy succour, and taught them the way to thy country, whereof they dreamed not before; and not only thus, but by accumulating crimes upon crimes, and filling up the measure of thine iniquity, thou hast drawn down the vengeance of heaven, and put thyself in the power of the Chaldeans.” See Calmet. Some have understood the alliances, contracted heretofore with the Assyrians by Ahaz, and the conduct of Hezekiah toward the ambassadors of the king of Babylon, to be here alluded to. “But I rather think,” says Blaney, “that the wicked manners of the people are principally designed; which put them out of the protection of Almighty God, and rendered them an easy conquest to any enemy that came against them. Thus they taught their enemies to oppress, and to be lords over them; against whom, but for their own faults, they might have maintained their security and independence.”

20 Lift up — The verb is feminine, indicating Jerusalem as the object of address. The flock are the dependent cities lying about her.

V. 21. What wilt thou say-Thou wilt have nothing to say, but be wholly confounded when God shall visit thee with this sore judgment, for by thy so often calling them to thy assistance, thou hast taught them to be captains over thee.

Verse 21. Thou hast taught them to be captains, and as chief over thee] This is said of their enemies, whether Assyrians or Chaldeans: for ever since Ahaz submitted himself to the king of Assyria, the kings of Judah never regained their independence. Their enemies were thus taught to be their lords and masters.

Verses 19-21. The cities of the south, &c. — The cities of Judah, which lay in the southern part of Canaan, shall be straitly besieged by the enemy, so that there shall be no going in and out; or shall be deserted by the inhabitants. Or, as some think, the cities of Egypt are intended, from whence the Jews expected succour. These should fail them, and they should find no access to them. Lift up your eyes, &c. — He speaks as if their enemies were even then upon their march, nay, so near, that if they did but lift up their eyes and look, they might see them coming. Where is the flock that was given thee? — He streaks to the king, representing him under the idea of a shepherd, and the people under that of a flock. Or rather, as the pronouns are feminine, he addresses the daughter of Judah, that is, the city or state. “What wilt thou say, when the Lord shall demand of thee an account of the people committed to thy trust? What wilt thou answer when the sovereign monarch shall see dissipated, diminished, weakened, destroyed, thy beautiful flock,” or, as Ëtrapt ˆax rather signifies, the flock of thy glory. In the multitude of people, says Solomon, is the king’s honour. What wilt thou say when he shall punish thee? — Thou wilt have nothing to say, but be wholly confounded, when God shall visit thee by this sore judgment. Or, when Nebuchadnezzar’s army, sent by God, shall visit thee. For thou hast taught them to be captains, &c. — Houbigant renders it, “Since thou hast made them expert against thee, and hast drawn them upon thine own head;” and Blaney, more literally, “Seeing it is thou that teachest them to be rulers in chief over thee.” “Thou hast frequently called them to thy succour, and taught them the way to thy country, whereof they dreamed not before; and not only thus, but by accumulating crimes upon crimes, and filling up the measure of thine iniquity, thou hast drawn down the vengeance of heaven, and put thyself in the power of the Chaldeans.” See Calmet. Some have understood the alliances, contracted heretofore with the Assyrians by Ahaz, and the conduct of Hezekiah toward the ambassadors of the king of Babylon, to be here alluded to. “But I rather think,” says Blaney, “that the wicked manners of the people are principally designed; which put them out of the protection of Almighty God, and rendered them an easy conquest to any enemy that came against them. Thus they taught their enemies to oppress, and to be lords over them; against whom, but for their own faults, they might have maintained their security and independence.”

21. When he shall punish thee — This verse should read: What wilt thou (Jerusalem) say if he (Jehovah) shall set over thee, for a head, those whom thou accustomed to be thy bosom friends? The word “punish,” in our version, is quite incorrect. The thought is: You cannot complain of the divinely appointed visitation of these heathen enemies, since you have courted their intimacy.

V. 22. Thy skirts-Probably these phrases are fetched from the usual practice of soldiers when they have conquered a place and taken prisoners, to strip them. By skirts is meant the lower part of their bodies covered with the lower part of their garments.

Verse 22. Are thy skirts discovered] Thy defenceless state is every where known; thou art not only weak, but ignominiously so. It is thy scandal to be in so depressed a condition; thou art lower than the basest of thy adversaries, and thou art so because of thy sin.

Verse 22. If thou say, Wherefore come these things upon me? — Hypocrites will rarely confess their own shame and God’s righteousness, but are ready to expostulate with him, and to inquire why he hath dealt so with them, as if he had treated them unjustly. But, saith God, For the greatness of thine iniquity are thy skirts discovered, &c. — That is, thou art carried into captivity, stripped and bare, without covering to thy nakedness; it being the barbarous custom of conquerors, in ancient times, to treat their captives with such indignities in conducting them to the place of their intended residence: see note on Isaiah 3:17; and Nahum 3:5. Lowth thinks the words may also allude to the punishment that used to be inflicted upon common harlots and adulteresses, which was to strip them naked, and expose them to the eyes of the world: and thus God threatened he would deal with Jerusalem, upon account of her spiritual fornication.

22. Skirts discovered — Lifted so as to expose the person, expressive of ignominy and shame. Heels made bare — Driven into exile as captives and slaves, barefoot and with violence.

Verse 23. Can the Ethiopian change his skin] Can a black, at his own pleasure, change the colour of his skin? Can the leopard at will change the variety of his spots? These things are natural to them, and they cannot be altered; so sin, and especially your attachment to idolatry, is become a second nature; and we may as well expect the Ethiopian to change his skin, and the leopard his spots, as you to do good, who have been accustomed to do evil. It is a matter of the utmost difficulty to get a sinner, deeply rooted in vicious habits, brought to the knowledge of himself and God. But the expression does not imply that the thing is as impossible in a moral as it is in a natural sense: it only shows that it is extremely difficult, and not to be often expected; and a thousand matters of fact prove the truth of this. But still, what is impossible to man is possible to God. See Clarke on “Jeremiah 13:27”.

Verse 23. Can the Ethiopian change his skin, &c. — The word Cushi, here rendered Ethiopian, often signifies Arabian, in the Scriptures; Ethiopia being, by ancient writers, distinguished into Eastern (the same with Arabia) and Western Ethiopia. But here an inhabitant of the latter, that is, of Ethiopia properly so called, seems evidently to be meant, the people of that country, which lay south of Egypt, being much more remarkable than the Arabians for their black colour. It seems hardly necessary to observe to the reader, that Jeremiah does not intend to express here the absolute impossibility of a change taking place in the principles and practices of the ignorant and wicked. “To suppose this, would be to contradict the whole tenor of his writings, and to render insignificant and absurd all his invitations to repentance. Nay, it appears from the last verse of this chapter that he did not suppose the reformation even of this people to be an absolute impossibility. We are therefore to understand this as a proverbial expression, which, like many others in Scripture, is not to be taken in the strictness of the letter; the prophet designing only to express the extreme difficulty of a moral change in habitual sinners, and particularly in those presumptuous and obstinate sinners of Israel to whom his discourse is directed.” — Dodd.

Ver. 23. Can the Ethiopian change his skin? Hebrews the Cushite, descendants of Cush, the grandson of Noah in Ham’s line, whom it pleased God to cause to be born black, the better to distinguish the different nations of men. The LXX read, Ethiope, the Chaldaic, Hagarians, and the Syriac, Arabs. As we become more and more acquainted with the dialects and tongues of the Africans, we find that their language, as well as the Gothic and the Persic, abounds with Hebrew words, and their customs equally correspond. Language, more than monuments, demonstrates the unity of origin among all nations. It is therefore turpitude in Voltaire to say, “that the man must be blind who doubts of the Whites, the Negroes, the Albinos, the Hottentots, the Lapponese, the Chinese, and the American Indians being races of men entirely different.”—Il n’ est permis qu’ a un aveugle de douter que les blancs, les Negres, les Albinos, les Hottentots, les Lappons, les Chinois, les Americains, soient des races entierement différentes.—Ess. sur les Moeurs.

The Hebrew scriptures possess original excellence in calling all countries by the name of their first possessors; while the Greeks changed words to the fluency of their own tongue. Cicero eulogizes Pythagoras, whose extraordinary wisdom was the first, it would seem, to give names to all things. Aut quis primus, quod summae sapientiae Pythagorae visum est, omnibus rebus imposuit nomina.—Tuscul. 1.

Or the leopard his spots. This metaphor represents the difficulty of converting habitual sinners, in hoary age. Our best critics send us to one of our Saviour’s metaphors for a solution. “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.”—Happy is the adjection: “but with God all things are possible.”

23. The hopelessness of Judah’s case consists in the fact that her sin has become her nature. Her momentum in evil is practically resistless. But with God all things are possible.

Verse 24. The wind of the wilderness.] Some strong tempestuous wind, proverbially severe, coming from the desert to the south of Judea.

Verses 24, 25. Therefore will I scatter them — Separate them from one another, and disperse them abroad in that strange and remote country to which they are carried captive; as the stubble, or chaff, rather, that passeth away by the wind — That is dissipated and carried far away by a fierce wind: he adds, of the wilderness, to render the declaration the more emphatical, the chaff being more easily and effectually scattered by the wind in an open place, where there are no houses. This is the portion of thy measures from me — What thou wilt receive of my hand; because thou hast forgotten me — The favours I have bestowed upon thee, and the obligations thou art under to me: of these thou hast no sense, no remembrance; and trusted in falsehood — In idols, in an arm of flesh, in the self-flatteries of a deceitful heart.

24. Stubble — The broken straw which has to be separated from the wheat after the threshing.

Verse 25. Trusted in falsehood.] In idols, and in lying prophets.

Verses 24, 25. Therefore will I scatter them — Separate them from one another, and disperse them abroad in that strange and remote country to which they are carried captive; as the stubble, or chaff, rather, that passeth away by the wind — That is dissipated and carried far away by a fierce wind: he adds, of the wilderness, to render the declaration the more emphatical, the chaff being more easily and effectually scattered by the wind in an open place, where there are no houses. This is the portion of thy measures from me — What thou wilt receive of my hand; because thou hast forgotten me — The favours I have bestowed upon thee, and the obligations thou art under to me: of these thou hast no sense, no remembrance; and trusted in falsehood — In idols, in an arm of flesh, in the self-flatteries of a deceitful heart.

25-27. A fearfully vivid statement of the apostasy and idolatry of the people, especially as to the unclean and debasing rites of that idolatry.

V. 26. Therefore-I will expose thee to shame and contempt.

Verse 26. Therefore will I discover thy skirts upon thy face] It was the custom to punish lewd women by stripping them naked, and exposing them to public view; or by throwing their clothes over their heads, as here intimated. Was this the way to correct the evil?

Verses 26, 27. Therefore will I discover thy skirts — Lay thee open to shame and disgrace. See on verse 22. I have seen thine adulteries — Thy idolatries; thy inordinate desire after strange gods, which thou hast been impatient to gratify: thy neighings — A metaphorical expression taken from horses neighing to each other; the lewdness of thy whoredoms — Thy impudence and unsatiableness in the worship of idols, on the hills, in the fields, upon the high places. Wo unto thee, O Jerusalem — Miserable art thou, and greater miseries await thee, as the fruit of such practices. Wilt thou not be made clean? — The prophet here expresses, in the strongest manner, his desire for the repentance and reformation of this people. The original, dw[ ytm, When once? is remarkably emphatical. The aposiopesis, as it is called, or form of speech, by which, through a vehement affection, the prophet suddenly breaks off his discourse, is remarkably beautiful and expressive.

25-27. A fearfully vivid statement of the apostasy and idolatry of the people, especially as to the unclean and debasing rites of that idolatry.

V. 27. Thy whoredom-Thy idolatries.

Verse 27. I have seen thine adulteries] Thy idolatries of different kinds, practised in various ways; no doubt often accompanied with gross debauchery.

Wo unto thee, O Jerusalem wilt thou not be made clean?] We see from this, that though the thing was difficult, yet it was not impossible, for these Ethiopians to change their skin, for these leopards to change their spots. It was only their obstinate refusal of the grace of God that rendered it impossible. Man cannot change himself; but he may pray to God to do it, and come to him through Christ, that he may do it. To enable him to pray and believe, the power is still at hand. If he will not use it, he must perish. JEREMIAH

Verses 26, 27. Therefore will I discover thy skirts — Lay thee open to shame and disgrace. See on verse 22. I have seen thine adulteries — Thy idolatries; thy inordinate desire after strange gods, which thou hast been impatient to gratify: thy neighings — A metaphorical expression taken from horses neighing to each other; the lewdness of thy whoredoms — Thy impudence and unsatiableness in the worship of idols, on the hills, in the fields, upon the high places. Wo unto thee, O Jerusalem — Miserable art thou, and greater miseries await thee, as the fruit of such practices. Wilt thou not be made clean? — The prophet here expresses, in the strongest manner, his desire for the repentance and reformation of this people. The original, dw[ ytm, When once? is remarkably emphatical. The aposiopesis, as it is called, or form of speech, by which, through a vehement affection, the prophet suddenly breaks off his discourse, is remarkably beautiful and expressive.

25-27. A fearfully vivid statement of the apostasy and idolatry of the people, especially as to the unclean and debasing rites of that idolatry.