Jeremiah 5

Chap. V. Ver. 1—31. The wickedness of the nation, and the awfulness of God’s judgments.—The prophet, having described the judgments impending over his countrymen, enlarges (in this and the next chapter) on the corruptions which prevailed among them, and which were the cause of their approaching calamities.—More particularly, God is introduced complaining of the general core of the people, insomuch that if one righteous person could save Jerusalem, in Jerusalem one righteous person was not to be found; all the profession of religion among them was false and hypocritical. The prophet then carries on the complaint in his own person, adding, that though they were corrected, they were not amended, but persevered in their crimes; and that this was not the case with the low and ignorant only; but more especially so with those of the higher order, from whence education and opportunities better things might have been expected; and then, in God’s name, appeals to themselves,

if they should be permitted to practise such sins unpunished, (ver. 7.) The Lord issues orders to their enemies to break down the walls of Jerusalem, that devoted city, whose inhabitants added to all their other sins, the highest contempt of God’s word and prophets, whom they ridiculed as inflated by the wind: wherefore God declares that his word, in the mouth of his prophet, shall be as fire to consume them. The approaching enemy are now announced (ver. 15,) as a distant, ancient, mighty, numerous people, and of a foreign language, all which circumstances agree to the Chaldeans, and the other instruments of divine judgments on the nation.

Notes on the verses

Chap. V. Ver. 1. Find a man.—That is, a good man. This may remind us of Diogenes, who is said to have searched the city with a lantern at noonday, to find an honest man. But compare (Genesis 18:28-32). Ver. 3. Harder than a rock.—Compare (Jeremiah 3:3). Ver. 4. These are poor.—Or, “These, the poor,” are foolish. Ver. 7. In the harlots’ houses.—It should seem that this must here be understood literally, though the crimes of whoredom and idolatry were closely connected. The chief recommendation of the latter seems to be, that it gave full toleration to vice. Ver. 8. As fed horses.—That is high fed stallions. Ver. 12. They have belied.—Blayney, “Denied” the word of the Lord’s true prophets, and treated them as empty air; therefore shall their word be as fire, to consume them.

Ver. 13. Become wind.—Blayney, “Be as wind;” more literally, “to the wind,” which we understand as spoken in ridicule: “They shall be prophets to the wind!” having no word from God, no divine oracle. Ver. 15. Bring a nation, &c.—[The Babylonians, whose antiquity was great; the empire being founded by Nimrod, soon after the flood.]—Bagster. Whose language, &c.—[The Chaldee, which, though a dialect of the Hebrew, is so very different in its words and construction, that in hearing it spoken they could not possibly understand it.]—Bagster. Ver. 16. Their quiver an open sepulchre.—A poetical phrase, meaning, that their arrows were fatal. Compare (Psalms 5:9). Ver. 22. Placed the sand for the bound.—[Should ye not fear me?

who confine the restless and impetuous waves of the ocean, that immense mass of waters, and prevent them from overflowing the earth; not by immense mountains and rocks, but by the sand; no particle of which is in cohesion with another; and yet the most tremendous waves cannot displace, or overstep, this simple barrier.]—Bagster. Ver. 24. Appointed weeks.—[Dr. Blayney, with the LXX. and Vulgate, renders, “a sufficiency (reading sevaath, instead of shevwoth,) of the appointed things of harvest He secureth us.” But the present reading, which is that of the Masoretic — to be greatly preferable. God appoints “the weeks of harvest,” and, in his good providence, he generally gives harvest weather.]—Bagster. Ver. 27. Their cage.—Margin, “coop” is full of birds; That is, of poultry, which they have ensnared, as in ver. 26.—[This is without doubt a reference to a decoy, or trap-cage, as Dr. Blayney renders; in which fowlers place several tame birds, to decoy the others into the snare prepared for them. (Revelation 18:2).]—Bagster. The passage means, that the rich and great had ensnared the poor and ignorant. Ver. 31. The priests bear rule by their means.—See margin; i.e. the priests combine with the rich to see [get] the poor.