Jeremiah 20

Jeremiah 20:1-11

Ver. 14. 4. Heb. Dn. 10.

1. IN the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim the son of Judah king of Judah, came this word unto Jeremiah from the LORD, saying, 2. Thus faith the LORD to me, Make thee bonds and yokes, and put them upon thy neck, 3. And feud them to the king of Edom, and to the king of Moab, and to the king of the Ammonites, and to the king of Tyur, and to the king of Zidon, by the hand of the messengers which come to Jerusalem unto Zedekiah king of Judah; 4. And command them to say unto their masters, Thus faith the LORD of hofts, the God of Israel, thus shall ye say unto your masters, 5. I have made the earth, the man and the beast that are upon the ground, by my great power, and by my outfreshed arm, and have given it unto whom it seemed more unto me. 6. And now I have given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon; my servant, and the bezzles of the field have I given him also to serve him. 7. And all nations shall serve him and his son, and his son’s son, until the very time of his land come, and then many nations and great kings shall serve themselves of him. 8. And it shall come to pass, that the nation and kingdom which will not serve the same Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, and that will not put their neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, that nation will I punish, faith the LORD, with the sword, and with the famine, and with the pestilence, until I have conformed them by his hand. 9. Therefore hearken not ye to your prophets, nor to your diviners, nor to your s dreamers, nor to your enchanters, nor to your sorcerers, which speak unto you, saying, Ye shall not. 10. Vol. II.

serve the king of Babylon: 16. For they prophesy a lie unto you, to remove you far from your land, and that I should drive you out, and ye should perish. 11. But the nations that bring their neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, and serve him, those will I let remain still in their own land, faith the LORD, and they shall till it, and dwell therein.

The date of this prophecy is in the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim; then probably the yokes were made in token of Judah’s subjection, which soon began, though only sent to the neighbouring nations several years after, in the reign of Zedekiah, when the time of their captivity drew nearer.

1. The sign given is the making bonds and yokes, and the putting one on his own neck, in token of the bondage to which the people should be delivered; and this he wore many years, as appears chap. xxviii. 1—10.

2. He is commanded to find one of these to all the neighbouring nations, v. 3. by the hand of the messengers who came to Jerusalem to congratulate Zedekiah on his accession, or to make a lague with him to oppose the growing power of the king of Babylon, and, in case of invasion, to unite their forces. A vain design which God had determined to disappoint; and therefore they are enjoined to sell their antlers from God, when they delivered the prophetic symbol of their captivity, that the Lord of hofts, at whose back are the means of heaven and earth; the God of Israel, in a covenant of peculiar grace, the great Creator of all, and who therefore had an absolute right to dispose of all the creatures of his hand, v. 5. had given these lands, with all their produce, into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, his servant, raised up to be his minister of wrath, v. 6. and under his dominion they must continue, and under his son, and his son’s son, he chap. xxv. 14. till the seventy years should be completed, during which the captivity should last, and then other majestic kings and nations should destroy this monarchy, and raise another on its name, v. 7. Resilience to the divine decree would but aggravate their misery, and expose them to more horrid defeatism, and divorce kinds of death, v. 8. nor must they give heed to their diviners and sorcerers, who should flatter them with lying hopes, which would infallibly disap point them, and, by encouraging them to refill, exasperate their conquerors more fearfully to destroy them, v. 9. 10. which those who patiently submitted and surrendered themselves should find favour in the sight of their enemies, and be suffered quietly to remain under tribute, and not be carried away captive into a strange land. Note, (1.) The earth is the Lord’s, and he doth as pleas him with it, and none have reason to murmur against his disposal of his own. (2.) The wicked frequently enjoy the greatest share of this world’s good. (3.) To struggle against God’s providence is to kick against the pricks; for when he judges he will overcome. (4.) Patience will alleviate the burthens which perversences but aggravates.

3. I spake also to Zedekiah king of Judah, according to all these words, saying, Bring your necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon, and serve him and his people, and live. 13. “Why will you die, thou and thy people, by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence, as the LORD hath spoken against the nation that will not serve the king of Babylon?” 14. Therefore hearken not unto the words of the prophets that speak unto you, saying, Ye shall not serve the king of Babylon: for they prophesy a lie unto you. 15. For I have not sent them, faith the LORD, yet they prophesy a lie in my name, that I might drive you out, and that ye might perish, ye, and the prophets that prophesy unto you. 16. Also I spake to the priests, and to all this people, saying, Thus faith the LORD, Hearken not to the words of your prophets, that prophesy unto you, saying, Behold the vessels of the LORD’s house shall now shortly be brought again from Babylon; for they prophesy a lie unto you. 17. Hearken not unto them, serve the king of Babylon and live: wherefore should this city be laid waft? 18. But if they be prophets, and if the word of the LORD be with them, let them now make intercession to the LORD of hofts, that the vessels which are left in the house of the LORD, and in the house of the king of Judah, and at Jerusalem, go not to Babylon. 19. For thus faith the LORD of hofts, concerning the pillars, and concerning the sea; and concerning the bales, and concerning the residue of the vessels that remain in this city. 20. Which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon took not, when he carried away captive Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah, from Jerusalem to Babylon, and all the nobles

Before Christ 19. 20. Ver. 14.

Jeremiah 20:14-18

Such plain-dealing as Jeremiah used in the foregoing chapter, our might reply for yea, if it did not convince and humble men, would provide and confiscate them, and so it did; for here we find, 1. Jeremiah persecuted by Paltus, for preaching that sermon, vers. 1, 2. 2. Paltus threatened for so doing, and the word which Jeremiah had preached confirmed, vers. 3—6. 3. Jeremiah complaining to God concerning the ill visage he had met with force he began to be a prophet, vers. 7—10. encouraging himself to God, and lodging his appeal with him, vers. 11—13, and yet provably carving the day of his birth, vers. 14—18. by which it appears he had said

Babam Chord a great relief to have a gracious God, into whose compassionate bosom we can pour out our complains.

6. He rejoices in the confidence, that God will hear and grant his requets. Sing unto the Lord, praise ye the Lord; the few faithful in Zion are called upon to join in his thanksghrings, for he hath delivered the sault, or life of the poor, from the hand of evil dams; he means himself, now rescued from the hands of Pashon; or, since he can by faith embrace God’s promise, he exults in the performance of them as equally sure as if already fulfilled. Nor, They who trust on God, and are sincere before him, may rejoice always in the confidence that he will never leave nor forsake them.

7. ¶ 1. 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 shooting at noon-ride: 17. Because he saw me not from the womb; or that my mother might have been my grave, and her womb is he always great with me. 18. Wherefore came I forth out of the womb to see labour and sorrow, that my days should be consumed with shame?

Dire is the change between the notes of praise wherewith the former verses closed, and the melancholy sounds which here fucceed. Some have supposed, that this is here recorded as the humbling acknowledgment of what pasied in his mind, during his confinement in the stocks, from which sad prevalence of impatience he was now recovered, but remembers to his shame how ill he had borne it. He utters imprecations,

1. On the day of his birth, that ushered him into a world of misery. Instend of celebrating its return with joy, he regards it as ominous, and brands it with a curse.

2. On the messenger who carried the tidings to his father, and made him glad with the news that a son was born; he wishes that he might be destroyed as the inhabitants of Sodom, and be in perpetual terrors, as in the agonies of death, from some invading son: an imprecation shockingly sever and unthatly able. Into such unbecoming extravagances may passion, when prevailing, transport even good men, and leave them derp eaute to repeat their rashinels.

3. He wishes the messenger of his birth had been his mursever, as his mother’s womb never resmailed from its burden; which must have been highly criminal to the one, and a perpetual and intolerable pain to the other: wishes unnatural, as they were wicked and wilful.

4. He expeditates with God Why came I for his act of my mother’s womb? as if God had done him injustice in bringing him into the world, that my days should be consumed with shame, exposed to a continued series of insult, derssion, and contempt; and herein he shewed much, very much of human infirmity, so weak are the best of men when left to themselves. Let it serve to warn us against such a hasty spirit; that it is not only highly criminal before God, but makes us appear absurd and brusish, and must expose us to just censure from men.