Jeremiah 9

Jeremiah 9:12-23

John Chaff

Sons. 1. 1—11. With bitter grief the prophet beheld the fins of his people, and the ruin they provoked.

1. He wishes that his head were waters, and his eyes a fountain of tears, that ftræate incriffant might run down his cheeks for the miseries he forefave, v. 1. Wray of dwelling amidft fo polluted a people, and that he might give full vent to his furrows, or be removed from the dreadful (peftacle before him, he wishes for some defeat lonely cave); preferring the company of the favages of the wood, to fo wicked a nation; and falte amidft the lions of the foreth, than his own treacherous and cruel countrymen. Note, (1.) A good man muft be a patron, and cannot unmoved behold the ruin of his country. (2.) In this vale of misery we may expect to have many a caufe for weeping over our own fins, as well as others. They who fuffer nothing to interrupt their carnal joy, may never hope to receive the birdishords promised to thole that mount. (3.) It is a dreadful symptom of the wickedness, and a sign of the approaching ruin of a people, when the fouls of God’s prophets, like Los, are wared with their abomination, and weary of dwelling in the midst of them.

2. The caufe of thefe complaints is,

(1.) The fins of his people. They were all adulterers, corporally and spiritually; an assembly of treacherous men, apostates from God and his worship, v. 2. and falte and foothold one to another; bending their tongue like their bow for lies, delirate of all zeal for truth, yea, rather opposing it with all their power; proceeding from evil to worfe, infested of repenting and reforming; ignorant of God, and defining to remain fo, v. 3. Not a neighbour, no, not a brother could be truffled, fo felfish and perfidious were they grown, v. 4. Lies were become familiar to their tongue, and flunder the constant topic of their conversation, and no truth was to be expected from them. They fhuft at no pains to compafe their ends; they weary themselves to commit iniquity, fo eagerly were they bent on it, v. 5. In the midst of such a people the prophet dwelt, and therefore need be on his guard against them; nor marvel if they acted deceitfully with him, when they acted hypocritically towards God, as the latter claufe of v. 6. may be interpreted. Through the delusions of their falfe prophets they refuted to receive the knowledge of God: no arrow was sharper than their bitter and lying words: and, whilft the guife of friendship and peace seemed to breathe in all their difourite, mischief was in their hearts, and they lay in wait to make a prey of thole they had deluded. Note, (1.) Lewdnefs and lying are among the most deadly and prevailing iniquities. (2.) To be silent, and refute to efpocite the fuffering caufe of God and truth, is highly criminal. (3.) They who have accustomed themselves to a habit of lying, will not speak truth, even when they have no purpofe or defign to serve, but lye for lying fake. (4.) The fervive of fin is usually a weanlome tafk; and yet fo enflaved are finners to the love of it, that though the pain exceeds the pleafure, they pursue it yet again, and take more pains to go to hell, than was required to carry them to heaven. (5.) There is no flopping in the way of wickednefs; every fin indulged opens a way for a greater. (6.) In a wicked and deceitful world we need be ever on our guard.

(2.) The fufferings of his people. They fhuft be put in the hurted furnace of affliction, to melt and try them, flour all other methods have proved ineffectual, v. 7. The sword fhuft be bathed in blood, v. 1. the country wafted, the villages burnt, the lowing herds and blearing flory no more be heard on the mountains, plundered and carried off by the Chaldom army; nor a living creature seen paffing through the defolate land; even the wild beafts and the fowls of heaven fhuft defier it, unlike to find food for their hunger, v. 10. except the dragons, who take up their abode in the ruined palaces of Jerusalem; and fo utter will be the overthrow, that not an inhabitant fhuft remain in all the cities of Judah, v. 11. Thus will God wife for their iniquities, and his foul be avenged on such a people as this, v. 9. Note, (1.) In the feverft of the afflictions God lays upon any land, he intends to make the fame fire which confunts the wicked, a means of purifying the remnant of his chosen, and separating them as silver from the drofs. (2.) The Iniquitie of the people have often turned a fruitful land into barrennefs. (3.) The prophet who beholds thefe defolations cannot withhold the tear of pity; yea, his eyes are fountains to bewail them; and when we look round upon the world that lurth in wickednefs, and fee that great day of the perdition of ungodly men approach, need we not be more affeciled at a fight fo unfeekably more terrible!

them: 15. Therefore thus faith the LORD of hofts, the God of Israel, Behold, I will feed them, ease this people, with wormwood, and give them water of gall to drink. 16. I will fcarter them alfo among the heathen, whom neither they nor their fathers have known; and I will fend a fword after them, till I have confumed them. 17. ¶ Thus faith the LORD of hofts, Confidier ye, and call for the mourning women, that they may come, and fend for cunning women, that they may come. 18. And let them make haffe, and take up a wailing for us, that our eyes may run down with tears, and our eye-lids gulfs out with waters. 19. For a voice of wailing is heard out of Zion, Hsw are we fpoiled! we are greatly confounded, becaufe we have forsaken the land, becaufe our dwellings have caft us out. 20. Yet hear the word of the LORD, O ye women, and let your ear receive the word of his mouth, and teach your daughters wailing, and every one her neighbour lamentation. 21. For death is come up into our windows, and is entred into our palaces, to cut off the children from without, and the young men from the streets. 22. Speak, Thus faith the LORD, Even the carcasses of men fhuft fall as dung upon the open field, and as the handful after the harvest-man, and none fhuft gather them.

If the people perith, it is not for want of awful and repeated warnings.

1. A fummons is given to the wife men among them to underfland and declare the caufe of thefe calamities, v. 12. but as no fuch are found, the prophet humbif is commissioned to proclaim both the reason of God’s judgments and the terriblencs of the vengeance he is about to execute. Their fin is apotacy from the worthip and fervor of God commanded in the law, and disobedience against all the warnings and notices he had forer unto them, v. 13. to direct opposition to which, they followed the imaginations of their own wicked hearts, and ferved Baalim, a multitude of falfe gods, plunging into idolatry after their fathers example, and filling up the meafure of their iniquities, v. 14. Molt righteous therefore, and juft as fearful, are God’s judgments upon them. They fhuft be fed with bread of wormwood, and water of gall, the bitterest afflictions, v. 15. The fword and the famine fhuft devour them, and their carcasses lie unburied on the plain as dung, or as a handful dropped after the harvest-man, which is not regarded or gathered up, v. 22. and if a few efcape the general maffacre, they fhuft be fcartered in heathen lands, which their fathers never knew, and even there fhuft find no reft, the fword of vengeance fhuft purfusing them till they are confumed, v. 16. Note, (1.) Every ftep of departure from God tends only to misery. (2.) Wherever the future fives, or is driven, the curfe of God follows him clofer than his shadow.

2. A fummons is fent to the mourning women. It was customary among the Jews, as well as other nations, to hire fuch on the deceale of their relations, who, by their cries, their foleful plaints, and melancholy dieters, awakened afeeft the forrows of the furvivors. There would now be abundant occasion for thefe, when the multitude of deaths by famine and the fword fhould fill every houfe with lamentation, v. 17, 18. and caufe not merely fictitious, but real anguifh, when out of Zion the voice of wailing is heard, Ifon we see fpoiled! we are greatly confounded, at fceing their city fhorned and taken, themfelves captives, driven from their dwellings, and forced from their own, are led into a ftrange land, v. 19. Under fuch a dire calamity God calls on them, as moft befitting their circumstances, to weep and wail. The word is adderfied to the women, whofe hufbands probably had fallen in the fege; and the men being cheefly flare, none but they remained to lament the defolations. They are enjoined to teach their daughters wailing, and every one her neighbour lamentation. So univerfal would be the misery, that none would be exempted from feeling it, and therefore all are called to bewail it. For death is come up into our windows, like an enemy that fcules the walls, though the gates are fhuft; and is entred into our palaces: the king on the throne, as well as the beggar on the dunghill, is exposed to the famine and the fword; and even the children in the streets are murdered; and the young men, unable to make refillance, are flare by their cruel enemies, who have fhorned the city, v. 21. Note, (1.) This is a vale of tears, where death continually fpreads his ravages, and wksens up our forrows. (2.) No palaces can keep out this invader: kings and princes are dying worms. (3.) To grieve for the dead is natural, humane, pious; only let us not be fowllowed up with immoderate forrow. (4.) Many lament their lofles and croffes bitterly, who never lament their fins, which are the occultion of them; and this is the ferrow of the world that warketh death.

3. Hib. Cut off into con-ning, in having the means of their hole pulled.

4. ¶ Thus faith the LORD, ‘Let not the wife man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might; let not the rich man glory in his riches. 24. ‘But let him that glorieth, glory in this, that he undefeandeth and knoweth me, that I am the LORD which eatereth loving-kindness, judgment and righteousness in the earth: for in these things I delight, faith the LORD. 25. ¶ Behold, the days come, faith the LORD, that I will punish all them which are circumcised with the uncircumcised; 26. Egypt, and Judah, and Edom, and the children of Ammon, and Moab, and all that are in the utmost corners, that dwell in the wilderness: for all these nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in the heart.

5. 23—26. Having foretold their impending calamities, the prophet concludes with a warning to them, not to have recourse to those vain confidences, which would prove a refuge of lies; but to take that only method which remained of preventing their ruin, returning to the knowledge of God, and obedience to his will.

6. He warns them against depending on their own wisdom, power, and wealth, to protect them, and directs them to the only face refuge. Let not the wife man glory in his wisdom; as if by his politics he could avert the storm: neither let the mighty man glory in his might, which would afford no safety when fighting against God. Let not the rich man glory in his riches; as if the could bribe the invaders, or hire auxiliaries to defend them; for vain would these things prove. If therefore any man would have solid grounds for glorying, it must be in this, that he underfundeth and knoweth me, the only object in whom a sinner can glory; that I am, the Lord, the only hope, help, and Saviour of the guilty, which exercise loving-kindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth; shewing mercy to the miserable, pardoning the sinful, strengthening the weak, just in all his providences, and righteous in all his ways; for in their things I delight, faith the Lord. Note, (1.) Worldly supports are often a dangerous thare. Wisdom, strength, and riches are yet to swell the heart with pride and self-importance, and then they prove our ruin. (2.) Christ is our only glory. In ourselves we have nothing but what we need be ashamed of, and renounce; in him there is all fulness. (3.) What is God’s delight, should be ours; and to be partakers of his compassions, to walk in his judgments, and be found in the practice of righteousness and true holiness, will be infinitely more profitable than the highest attainment of worldly wisdom, or the greatest possessions of worldly wealth.

7. He warns them against trusting on their peculiar privileges as promising themselves, because of the covenant of circumcision, that they should be preserved from evil; for this would stand them in no stead which their hearts were uncircumcised, and they continued devoted to the service not of the Lord, but of their lusts; therefore they would share with Egypt, and Edom, and the neighbouring uncircumcised nations, in their punishment, and find no distinction in the day when God arose to judgment. Note, Our partaking of the outward privileges and seals of the covenant will stand us in no stead, if we are desirous of the inward and spiritual graces; yea, will rather aggravate our guilt. The baptized, uncovered, and unhumbled sinner will meet even a heavier doom than the unhappiness of the man.