Jeremiah 13

Jeremiah 13:4

4. — arise, go to Euphrates.] God commanded the Prophet to hide the girdle by the bank of the Euphrates, Before CHRIST about 608. about 602. God foretelleth the destruction of his people, and their great misery. Before CHRIST about 602.

Jeremiah 13:11

11. — for a name, and for a praise.] That they might have the honour of being called by my name, and that I might be glorified by their shewing forth my truth and praises to the world: see chap. xxxiii. 9. W. Lowth.

Jeremiah 13:12

12. — Every bottle shall be filled with wine: &c.] My people is like to an earthen bottle; and every bottle shall be filled up to the brim with wine. Then shall the hearers take this prophecy in scorn, and say, What wonders are these thou tellest us? As if we knew not that the use of bottles is to be filled with wine. Bp. Hall.

Jeremiah 13:13

13. — Behold, I will fill all the inhabitants &c.] Even thus every inhabitant of this land shall be filled up with the wine of God’s wrath; and shall be, as it were, drunken therewith. Bp. Hall.

God’s judgments are often represented under the figure of a cup full of intoxicating liquor: see this metaphor at large pursued, chap. xxv. 15, &c. W. Lowth. See Bp. Lowth’s note on Isa. ii. 17.

Jeremiah 13:14

14. And I will dash them one against another.] I will

unto them this word; Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Every bottle shall be filled with wine: and they shall say unto thee, Do we not certainly know that every bottle shall be filled with wine?

Jeremiah 13:16

16. Give glory to the Lord your God, &c.] Confess your faults, (compare Josh. vii. 19.) and humble yourselves under his mighty hand, before He bring upon you the night of affliction. Light is the emblem of joy, and happy times are expressed by bright and pleasant days: as, on the contrary, troubles and calamities are represented by the night and darkness, when every thing looks melancholy and dismal: see chap. iv. 23; xv. 9; Isa. v. 30; viii. 22; Joel ii. 10; Amos viii. 9, 10. W. Lowth.

— the dark mountains.] Before the time comes, when ye shall be forced to fly by night upon the mountains, for fear of your enemies. See chap. xvi. 16; Ps. xi. 1; Ezek. vii. 16; Matt. xxiv. 16. W. Lowth.

Jeremiah 13:18

18. — Humble yourselves, sit down:] That sitting was a posture of humiliation under circumstances of affliction and distress, see Judges xx. 26; Job ii. 8; Isa. iii. 26. Dr. Blayney.

Jeremiah 13:19

19 The cities of the south shall be shut up.] Judah lying south in respect of Chaldea, which in the next verse is characterized by the name of “the north,” the “cities of the south” may mean the cities of Judah in general. Or, they may mean those cities in particular which lay in the southern parts of Judah, at the greatest distance from the enemy; which yet were subjected to the common calamity, as well as those which were nearer at hand. Dr. Blayney.

Before CHRIST about 602. against his brother. destroying them. a Isa. 8. 22. b I am. 1. 2, 16. 2. 18. stubbornness. Their abominations the cause thereof. Before CHRIST about 602. Or, head tires. upon. c Chap. 5. 19. & 16. 10. Or, shall be violently taken away.

Jeremiah 13:20

20. — where is the flock that was given thee.] Judah seems here to be addressed as a person, being asked with a sarcastical sneer what was become of all the numerous multitudes, which God had given her formerly, constituting, like flocks of sheep, the national wealth and glory? Dr. Blayney.

Jeremiah 13:21

21. — for thou hast taught them to be captains, &c.] Some have understood the alliances, contracted heretofore with the Assyrians by Ahaz, and the conduct of Hezekiah towards the ambassadours of the king of Babylon, to be here alluded to, as having paved or pripared the way for the future invasion of the country by the Chaldeans. But I rather think the irrchigious and 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. Dr. Blayney. 22. — are thy skirts discovered, and thy heels made bare.] Thine enormous crimes deserve no less punishment than that of captivity; when thou shalt be carried away unto a strange country, stripped and bare, without any covering to thy nakedness; for such was the barbarous cruelty of conquerors to their captives: see Isa. iii. 17; xx. 4; xlvii. 3; Lam. i. 8; iv. 21; Nahum iii. 5. W. Lowth.

Jeremiah 13:23

23. — then may ye also do good, &c.] The meaning of this is, that they who are accustomed to do evil will find the work of repentance and reformation to be, not indeed impossible, but extremely difficult. The genius of sublime and figurative language requires such lively expressions, and describes things which are hard to be accomplished as quite impossible. That the words are to be thus understood appears from the whole chapter, which contains terrible denunciations against the Jews, of evils which should come upon them for their impiety.

Jeremiah 13:24

24. — the wind of the wilderness.] See Bp. Lowth’s note on Isa. xxi. 1.

Jeremiah 13:25

25. — thy lot, the portion of thy measures from me,] Or, “of thine inheritance,” as the Chaldee paraphrase explains it. The expression is taken from the division of the land of Canaan, by line or measure. W. Lowth. — trusted in falsehood.] In false gods, who cannot help men in their troubles. See chap. x. 14. W. Louth. Chap. XIV. It may be presumed, that this prophecy was delivered in the beginning of Jehoiakim’s reign, not long after the foregoing. The six first verses of this chapter foretel great distress that should be occasioned in Judah by means of a long drought. The Prophet in the name of the people makes a confession of sins, and supplicates the Divine mercy, ver. 7—9. God declareth his resolution to punish, and will not be entreated, ver. 10—12. Jeremiah complains of false prophets, who amuse the people with contrary predictions; God disclaimeth them, and threatens both them, and the people who listen to them, with sword and famine, ver. 13—18. The Prophet renews his supplications in the people’s name and behalf, ver. 19, to the end of the chapter. Dr. Blayney. Ver. 1. — concerning the dearth.] Or, “the drought;” so the word is rendered by the Greek, Chaldee, and Syriack versions; and so it is rendered by our translators also in chap. xvii. 8. The Hebrew word signifies restraint; that is, “when the heaven is shut up, that A grievous dearth. The Lord will not be intreated for the people.

thereof languish; they are black unto the ground; and the cry of Jerusalem is gone up.