Jeremiah 6

Jeremiah 6:1-8

In this chapter, as before, we have, (1.) A prophecy of the invading of the land of Judah, and the besieging of Jerusalem by the Chaldean army, ver. 1—6. with the plain they should make of the country, ver. 9. and the terror which all should be issued with on that occasion, ver. 22—26. (2.) An account of these sins of Judah and Jerusalem, which provoked God to bring this desirability judgment upon them. Their oppression, ver. 7. Their contempt of the word of God, ver. 1—12. Their worldliness, ver. 13. The treachery of their prophets, ver. 14. Their impudence in sin, ver. 15. Their idylight against repiters, ver. 18, 19. Which made their sacrifices unacceptable to him, ver. 20. and for which he gave them up to ruin, ver. 21. But tried them first, ver. 27. And then rejected them as irredeemable, ver. 28—30. (3.) Good counsel given them in the midst of all this, but in vain, ver. 8, 16, 17.

1. O Ye children of Benjamin, gather yourselves to fire out of the midst of Jerusalem, and blow the trumpet in Tekoa: and let up a sign of fire in Beth-hacerem: for ye evil appeareth out of the north, and great destruction. 2. I have likened the daughter of Zion to a comely and delicate woman. 3. The shepherds with their flocks shall come unto her: they shall pitch their tents against her round about: they shall feed every one in his place. 4. Prepare ye war against her: arise and let us go up at noon: wo unto us, for the day goeth away, for the shadows of the evening are stretched out. 5. Arise, and let us go by night, and let us destroy her palaces. 6. ¶ For thus hath the LORD of hosts said, Ilew ye down trees, and ¶ call a mount against Jerusalem: this is the city to be visited, she is wholly oppression in the midst of her. 7. As a fountain calleth out her waters, so she calleth out her wickedness: violence and spoil is heard in her, before me continually is grief and wounds. 8. Be thou instructed, O Jerusalem, lest my soul depart from thee: lest I make thee desolate, a land not inhabited.

We have here,

1. An alarm spread of the approaching foe coming from the north, and spreading destruction before him. The trumpet is blown in Tekoa, the beacon lighted in Beth-hacerem, a place between Tekoa and Jerusalem, as a signal for their flight, if they hoped to escape, Jerusalem being ready to be besieged, v. 1.

2. Their weakness, and the formidable power of their foes, is described. The daughter of Zion is as helpless, and unable to make restfulness, as a comely and delicate woman. Some ridicule of woman read pasture, in correspondence with the following similitude, where their invaders are compared to shepherds with their flocks, who would pitch their tent there, and eat up the land as easily, and make it bare, as the Ox licks up the grass of the field. Note, To have been brought up delicately makes every hardship more acutely felt.

3. In pursuance of God’s commission their enemies hasten to the attack. Prepare ye war against her, and press the large, soon ye down trees, and cast a mount against Jerusalem, to batter the walls, and, as soon as the breach is practicable, give the assault. Vol. II.

With mutual encouragements they quicken each other boldly to storm the place; arise, let us go up at noon, and, as if some delay had prevented their design from being immediately executed, they regret that the shadows of the evening are advancing, v. 4. yet resolved to carry their point, and confident of success, the time of Jerusalem’s visitation being come, v. 6. they are too impatient to wait for the morning, and resolve that night to attempt the breach, v. 5. Some refer the words, we write us, &c. to the besieged, lamenting their desperate case, the day of their prosperity being at an end, and the dark night of their distress approaching. Note, (1.) When God’s day of visitation is come, the sinner can be no longer late. (2.) If they are so eager to storm the city and seize the wealth of Jerusalem, shall we chew less zeal and earnestness to enter the kingdom of heaven and obtain the unfeasible riches of glory. (3.) Nothing encourages the heart so much as confidence of success. And thus it is, in our spiritual warfare, that faith enables us to overcome. Puffout quia puffi evidenter.

4. The cause of all these judgments is their sins. Jerusalem was become a sink of wickedness: it flowed incessantly and abundantly, as the waters of a fountain; and all rocks and degrees of men were tainted; and particularly the whole city was a form of oppression, where, like fishes in the sea, the great preyed upon the latter, violence and spoil is heard in every corner, and grief and wounds, the blood and the cries of the oppressed, are continually before God, calling for vengeance. Note, There is a day when the wrongs of the oppressed will be examined and avenged.

5. A fair admonition is once more given, if they have yet ears to hear. Be thou instructed, O Jerusalem: at last attend to understand and obey the calls to repentance, lest my soul depart from thee, or be evidently plucked away from thee; his favour utterly departing from them: and his love to them turned into abhorrence; lest I make thee desolate, a land not inhabited. Note, (1.) God is unwilling to give up the sinner, and therefore he is patient, and pleads with him at last, though late, to return. (2.) When all his offers of mercy are obstinately rejected, at last God will depart, and leave the sinner to his ruin; and then wo, wo unto him.

6. ¶ Thus such the LORD of hosts, ‘They shall thoroughly glean the remnant of Israel as a vice: turn back thine hand as a grape gatherer into the baskets. 10. To whom shall I speak and give warning, that they may hear? behold, their ear is uncircumcised, and they cannot hear: behold the word of the LORD is unto them a reproach: they have no delight in it. 11. Therefore I am full of the fury of the LORD: I am weary with holding in: I will pour it out upon the children abroad, and upon the assembly of young men together: for even the husband with the wife shall be taken, the aged with him that is full of days. 12. And their houses shall be turned unto others, with their fields and wives together: for I will therein our my hand upon the inhabitants of the land, saith the LORD. 13. For from the least of them, even unto the greatest of them, every one is given to coverhouses; and from the prophet even unto the priest, every one deaieth taillly. 14. They have healed also the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace, when there is no peace. 15. Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore they shall fall among them that fall: at the time that I visit them, they shall be cast down, saith the LORD. 16. Thus saith the LORD, Stand ye in the ways and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls: but they said, We will not walk therein. 17. Also I let watchmen over you, saying, Hearken to the sound of the trumpet: but they said, We will not hear.

Jeremiah 6:9-17

Farther iniquities are here discovered, and farther judgments denounced.

1. Their transgressions were multiplied.

(1.) They were deaf to all the warnings of the prophets. To whom shall I speak and give warning, that they may hear? Intimating the universal disregard paid to his message. Their ear is uncircumcised. At first they would not hear, and now they are left to the hardness of their hearts, and they cannot hear. Nay, they counted God’s word, that rebuked their sins, a reproach to them; and treated it, and those who delivered it, with insult and contempt. They have no delight in it, but the very contrary, a loathing and aversion to it. Note, (1.) The fidelity of God’s ministers, in rebuking men’s sins, is often confirmed into personal abude. (2.) We are not to wonder that the word of the gospel is looked upon as a reproach; it was so from the

Jeremiah 6:18-30

beginning. (3.) They who have no delight in the Bible, have no name in the book of life.

(2.) They were slaves to the love of money. High and low, rich and poor, priest and prophet, all were given to covetousness, and cared not by what fasthoods or means they enriched themselves, so they could but secure the mansion of unrighteousness. Note, Nothing more fatally hardens the heart against God’s word, than this rooted attachment to gain.

(3.) The prophets and priests, who by profession and office should have endeavoured to stop the torrent of ungodliness, contributed to make the disease more desperate and incurable by their lying visions, false glosses, and smooth discourses, suited to lull the sinner’s conscience into a fatal security, crying, Peace, peace, when there is no peace. Note, There is no later mark of a false prophet than this, that he avoids those alarming expression of God’s word, that are suited to slarize the sinner; that he is seditious to soften what are counted harsh sayings; that is his study not to offend, and his labour to lull those to their will, who may have been made untruly by more faithful advocates for the truth.

(4.) They were shameless in their abominations. The preachers of lies refused to blush, when never so clearly detected in their false doctrines and flattering divinations; and the people, alike hardened, neither were ashamed of their sins, nor afraid of the threatened punishments, v. 15. Note, Those faces that would not blush at rebukes, shall soon be pale as flames, when the terrors of God shall seize them.

(5.) The kindest admonitions of God had no influence on them. He would have gathered them, but they would not. Thus faith the Lord, Stand ye on the way and see; consider your path, and whether it will lead you, to heaven or to hell; and ask for the old paths; consult your Bibles, enquire the way wherein the holy patriarchs walked. Where is the good way, the good old way of faith and holiness, which was revealed in the first promise, and which all God’s saints have tried from the beginning; and ye shall find rest unto your path, from all your fears; but they said, He will not wait therein, as if determined to rush on their destruction. Every method had God taken to deter and divert them from so fatal a resolution. I set watchmen over you, faithful ministers of the sanctuary, saying, Hordees to the sound of the trumpet, breathing the voice of peace and mercy, or spreading the tremendous alarm of the guilt and punishment of sin. But they said, He will not borrow; it is being every method God had taken to save them, and, faithless and fearless of his judgments, perishing in their impenitence. Note, (1.) The importance of that eternity which depends thereon, should engage us to a frequent and serious consideration of our ways, what we are doing, and whether we are going. (2.) The paths of life and truth are easily found of those who are at pains to enquire after them. (3.) The good way to heaven is Christ, his righteousness and grace, and he is the old way; for from the beginning the gospel was preached, and the saints of old were loved, even as we. (4.) They who are found in this way will obtain rest to their souls, peace with God, internal confessions, and comfortable confidence of arriving late at their journey’s end in heaven. (5.) God’s faithful ministers must lead men in this way, and cry aloud to invite sinners to walk in it. (6.) They who will not be persuaded by God’s word, must be left to their own delusions; and miserable, eternally miserable, will be the end of those men.

2. The terrible punishment of the Jewish people is foretold. Because they are thus oblivious and hardened, the prophet declares, I am full of the fury of the Lord; the revelation made to him of the wrath ready to be revealed, was so awful, that it filled his heart with terrible apprehension for them; I am so very cold holding it; as if unwilling to be the misfiring of evil, he had refrained, till like a fire within him, it forced a passage, and he was constrained to speak. And fearful indeed are the devasations threatened; I will pour out my fury upon the little children playing in the streets, upon the assemblies of young men associated for mirth and pleasure, husband and wife shall be taken captives, and the most decrepit with age and no reverence, or pity, v. 11. Their houses are given to their enemies, with their fields; and what is still more bitter, their wives are profiling to their lulls: upon the whole land the hand of God’s vengeance is stretched out, v. 12. Their lying prophets shall then meet their doom, and fall among them that fall, in spite of all their vain confidence; as the time that I wish them shall they be soft drawn, faith the Lord, v. 15. Thus shall their enemies plunder and destroy them; and as if solicitous to leave none to escape, they shall thoroughly pleas the remnant of Israel as a wise, as the poor after the vintage picked off every berry which was left. Furs and thine hand as a grape-gatherer into the lights, till all the spoil is collected, and every Israelite led captive, v. 9. Note, It is the most unpleading part of our office to be the messenger of evil; but it is absolutely necessary that by the terrors of the Lord we should persuade men: and however tremendous the subject, they who hear ought not to be defended with the servants who barely report what they have received of the Lord.

3. ¶ Therefore hear, ye nations, and know, O congregation, what is among them. 19. Hear, O earth, behold, I will bring evil upon this people, even the fruit of their thoughts, because they have not hearkened unto my words, nor to my law, but rejected it. 20. To what purpose cometh there to me incense? from Sheba? and the sweet cane from a far country? your burnt-offerings are not acceptable, nor your sacrifices sweet unto me. 21. Therefore thus faith the LORD, behold, I will lay thornbling-blocks before this people, and the fathers and the sons together shall fall upon them: the neighbour and his friend shall perish. 22. Thus faith the LORD, behold, a people cometh, from the north-country, and a great nation shall be raised from the sides of the earth. 23. They shall lay hold on bow and spear: they are cruel, and have no mercy: their voice roareth like the fog, and they ride upon horses, set in array as men for war against thee, O daughter of Zion. 24. We have heard the same thereof: our hands was feeble: a anguish hath taken hold of us, and pain, as of a woman in travail. 25. Go not forth into the field, nor walk by the way; for the sword of the enemy, and tear to an every side. 26. ¶ O daughter of my people, a girl thee with fackelush, and a wallow thyself in afters: make thee mourning as for an only sin, most bitter lamentation: for the lynder shall suddenly come upon us. 27. I have set thee for a tower, and a fortress among my people, that thou mayest know and try their way. 28. They are all grievous revolters, walking with slanders: they are brats and iron, they are all corrupters. 29. The bellows are burnt, the lead is condemned of the fire, the founder melterth in vain; for the wicked are not plucked away. 30. ¶ Reprobate silver shall men call them: because the LORD hath rejected them.

We have here.

1. God’s appeal to the whole world for the equity of his procedure. When tidings of what was done among them, judgments so terrible and strange, were reported, it mightาชem them that God should thus deal with his once so favoured people; but the wonder will cease when their provocations are known. Their sufferings are the necessary fruit of their thoughts; evil, and only evil, and that continually; and the consequence of their wicked ways, as disobedient against all the warnings of God’s prophets, and rebellious against all the restraints of his law. Note, If men will not be ruled by God’s word, they will justly be ruined by his wrath.

2. The safety of their pretended services. Their incense and perfumes, their offerings and sacrifices, however rich, expensive, and numerous, when brought with an hypocritical heart, as a means of purchasing God’s favour, with the hopes of expiring unrepented sins, or to obtain a licence to abide in them; so far were they from being pleading and acceptable, they were his detestation and abhorrence, v. 20.

3. The destruction God would bring upon them. Stumbling-blocks should be set in their ways, their false prophets permitted to delude them, or the Chaldeans, by whom they should be dashed to pieces, both father and son; for sinners together must suffer together; the neighbour and his friend; for those who have walked in evil fellowship, will be involved in the same calamity, v. 21. From the north, a far distant country, the mighty enemies come, v. 22. armed with bow and spear; fierce and cruel, they show no mercy; their voice terrible as the roaring of the sea; their cavalry swift and strong; advancing in battle array against thee, O daughter of Zion.

4. Terrible consternation will seize the Jewish people at their approach. Frightened at the very report, like a woman with child, that falls into travailing pangs, anguish will seize them, their hearts fall them, and their hands be feeble and incapable of resistance, v. 24. In terror they shut themselves up within their city, not daring to flie, to face the foe, or carry on their husbandry, or attempt to travel, for the sword of the enemy, or because the enemy hath a sword ready drawn to say; and fear is an every side, no place being safe. Note, (1.) The sinner’s terrors will seize him suddenly and severely, as the pains of a travailing woman. (2.) When God sends his panic unto the heart, the mighty are feeble, and the brave turn cowards.

5. The prophet calls them to lamentation and bitter mourning, to lie in fackelush and afters, as one under the most afflicting anguish for the loss of an only son; and this either as a token of repentance for their sin, or as a perverse of their desperate sorrows under their sudden desiccations, v. 26. Note, How much water is it to prevent the judgment by speedy humiliation, than by impenitence provoke the scourge, when our anguish will come too late to profit us?