Jeremiah 11
PATrepository, where they had been laid up till he had occasion for them.
Jeremiah 11:4
Out of the land of Egypt, from the iron furnace. The use of an iron furnace is to melt and purify metals, and is a proper representation of any sore affliction, wherein God.tries his servants, in order to purge them of their dross. (See Gen. xv. 17. Psal. Ixvi. 10. Isa. xlviii. 10. and ix. 7; of this prophecy.) Saying, Obey my voice.’] See vii. 23.
Jeremiah 11:5
Then answered I, and said, So be it, O Lord. The prophet confirms the words of this curse, according to the form prescribed, Deut. xxvii. 25, &c. and thereby approves the justice of it.. *
Jeremiah 11:9
A conspiracy is found among the men ofJudali — they are turned back to the iniquity of their forefathers. They made some steps towards a reformation in the time of Josiah, but now they have agreed or conspired together to return back to their former idolatries. (Compare Ezeluxxii. 25. Hos. vi. 9.).
Jeremiah 11:11
Thotigh they should cry unto me, I will not hearken unto them. Their destruction was irreversible, upon supposition of their continuance in their evil ways, which God foresaw they would do. (See the notes upon iv. 28. vii. 16.)
Jeremiah 11:12
Then shall the cities ofJudah — go and cry unto the gods to whom they offer incense, &c. When great calamities threaten men, their fears suggest all possible ways of seeking for succour: and when they find themselves forsaken of God, they betake themselves to idols: but will find all applications vain, and to no purpose. (See 2Chron. xxviii.23.)
Jeremiah 11:13
For according to the number of thy cities were thy gods, O Judah. See ii. 28. Have ye set up altars to that shameful thing— unto BaaW] Bosheth, shame, was a nickname lor BaaL’ (See Hos. ix.10.) So, Jerubbaal is called Jerubbesheth, 2 Sam. • xi. 21. (See the note on lsa. xix. 18.)
Jeremiah 11:14
Every man is brutish in his knowledge; every founder is confounded by the graven image. The founders or makers of idols may be convinced of their sottishness, by their own art or skill, who must needs know/what material idols are made of, and that they are perfectly without life or sense. (Compare Isa. xliv. 9. 11. 18^20.) The former part of the verse may be thus rendered, Every man is brutish for want of knotaledge: thus the particle minjs taken, xlviii. 45. Psal. cix. 21. Lam. iv. 9. where our old translation rightly renders the words, My strength is dried up for tvant of fatness. - For the molten image is falsehood, and thereis no breath in them.] They pretend to life and understanding, when they have none. (See Ver; 8.) Therefore pray thou not for this people^ &c] Sec vii. 16. xiv. 11, 12.
Jeremiah 11:15
They are vanity. See Isa. xli. 24. 29. [and the tvork of errors.] The making of them is owing to men’s wrong notions concerning the nature of God. (See ver. 8.) ^ In the time of their visitation they shall perish.] The time will come when God shall execute his vengeance upon them, and destroy them utterly. (See ver. 11.). What hath my beloved to do in my house, seeing she hath committed lewdness with many.] Why; doth this my chosen and peculiar people, as they love to call themselves, make their appearance before me in my house, since they Jiave gone a whoring after several idols of the nations round about them, and thereby have disowned me, and broken the marriage-contract, or covenant, that was between us? (See the note on ii. 2. and compare xiii. 27.) God calls the Jews his beloved people, because they called themselves so, and because they were still beloved for their fathers’ sakes, (Rom. xi. 28.) and he would not cast them off utterly, for the sake of the covenant he had made with their progenitors. (See xii. 7. Hos. iii. 1.) The holy flesh is parsed from thee? when thou doest evil, tlien thou rejoicest.] The flesh of thy sacrifices which thou orfferest up to me, as an atonement for thy sins, doth not at all profit thee, being polluted and rendered. unacceptable to me, through those many and great sins, in which thou continuest without remorse, and even takest a pride in committing them. (See above, vi. 20. and compare Hag. ii. The LXX. and Vulgar Latin give a more easy sense of this “verse, IVJiy hath my beloved committed lewdness in my house? can vows or the holy flesh take away thine iniquities from thee? It is probable that the Hebrew copy they made. I use pf,instead of harabbiirt\ivith many] f^ad hanedubitn/or haneddarim;; free-will-offerings, or vows.
Jeremiah 11:16
The Portion of Jacob is not like them: for he is the former of all things; and Israel is the rod of his inheritance. There is no comparison between senseless idols and the great Creator of all things, who has chosen the posterity of Jacob for his peculiar people; [compare Deut. xxxii.- 9. Psal. lxxiv. 2.] and has promised to be their God: [see xi. 4.] and that they should always have an interest in his favour, if they continued steadfast in their obedience to him. (See Psal. xvi. 5. lxxiii. 26. cxix. 57. Lara.iii. 24.) The rod of his inheritance, is an expression taken from the first division of the land of Canaan, when the inheritance of each tribe and family was meted out with a line or a rod.. The Lord hath called thy name, A green olive-tree, fair, and of goodly fruit.] St. Paul plainly alludes to this verse, Rom. xi. 17. where, speaking of the gentiles being made members of the church in the room of the Jews, who were rejected, he saith, Jf some of the branches are broken off, and thou [gentile], being a wild olive-tree, art grafted in among them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive-tree. The Jewish nation, in its flourishing state, is sometimes compared to, a vine, sometimes to an olive-: tree, chiefly because of the fruits of good works which God might justly expect from them, after all the care and pains he had bestowed upon them, to make them thrive and fructify. (SeePsal. Iii. 8.) With the noise of a great tumult he hath kindled fire upon it, and the branches thereof are broken.] In pursuance of the same metaphor, the words express the desolation which the Chaldeans should bring upon Judea by fire and sword, (Ezek. xix. 14. Isa. xvi. 8.).*
Jeremiah 11:17
Gather up thy wares out of the land, O inha- 1 bitant of the fortress. The prophet here returns to his former denunciations against Jerusalem, and warns her to move her effects, and prepare for her going into captivity; (compare Ezek. xii. 3.) for though she thought herself secure, as dwelling in a place of great strength, and well fortified, yet her enemies should prevail and take it. For the Lord of hosts, that planted thee.] See the note on ii. 21.
Jeremiah 11:18
Behold, I will sling out the inhabitants of this land at this once. I will at one stroke remove the whole body of this people out of their native country. (Compare 1 Sam. xxv. 29.) And I will distress them, that they may find it so.] Or, That they may find ray threatenings to be true. And the Lord hath given me knowledge of it, &ci] This relates to the ill designs the men of Anathoth had contrived against the prophet, which he saith God had revealed to him. (See the following verses.),
Jeremiah 11:19
Woe is me for my hurt! my wound is grievous. Tho prophet sympathizes with the calamities of his people; as iv. 19. viii. 24. ix. 1. But I said, Truly this is a grief, and I must bear it.] But then I endeavoured to compose myself, and patiently submit to God’s afflicting hand. But I was like a lamb or an ox that is brought to the slaughter.] A proverbial speech, expressing a false security or insensibility of danger. (See Prov. vii. 22.) So Agamemnon’s” ghost in Homer describes his own death treacherously contrived by Egistheus at a feast. -5)£ tiq re Kariicrave fiovv ziri tparvy* “£2? Savov oticr/orqj SavaTty.- JSe died as an ox at the stall. Odyss. A. ver. 410. " That phrase, He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, Isa. liii. 7. is of a different importance. (See the note there.) Bocbart supposes the word alluph to be an adjec-” tive, and renders the former part of the sentence thus, I was brought as a tame sheep to the slaughter. But we may verywell admit of the common translation; the disjunctive particle being elsewhere understood, as Psal. Ixix. 31. Better than an ox [or] bullock, (Isa. xxxviii.14.) Like a crane [or] swallow. Let us destroy the tree with the fruit thereof] The letter of the Hebrew runs thus, Let us destroy the tree (or the stalk) with the bread thereof: (bread is sometimes used for the corn, of which it is made, v. 17.) i. e. Let us destroys the prophet and his doctrine. (See ver. 21.) Lud. de Dieu renders it, Let us destroy the wood in his flesh; i. e. Let us scourge him with rods, till they are broke, and the ends of them stick in his flesh. I take this to be a forced interpretation: forjhe Hebrew lehem, bread, is never put for flesh, but when it is spoken of the sacrifices offered up to God. The Septuagint render the words, Let us put wood into his bread, i. e. Let us give him wood instead of bread;, which the fathers generally apply to the crucifixion of Christ, whose sufferings were typified in the afflictions of all the saints and prophets of former times.
Jeremiah 11:20
My tabernacle is sjwiled, and all my cords are broken. The prophet personates his country, as bewailing herself in the following words. My cities and houses arc rifled and destroyed, as if they were so many shepherds* tents. (See the note on iv. 20.) My children are gone forth of me, and are not, &c] My inhabitants are gone into captivity, and will never return hither any more; so that they are the same to me as if they were dead: nor will they ever be able to contribute to the restoration of my former state. But, O Lord — that judgest righteously, that
Jeremiah 11:21
For the pastors are become brutish, and have not sought the Lord, &c. The prophet pursues the foregoing metaphor, and saith, that the reason why the tents are destroyed is, because the shepherds, meaning the governors, both civil and ecclesiastical, [see the note on ii. 8.] have, like so many brute beasts, forgotten God, and their duty to him; [compare Psal. xeiv. 8.] and thereby engaged the people committed to their charge in idolatry, and all manner of wickedness, which hath ended in ruin to themselves and their flocks.
Jeremiah 11:22
Behold, the noise of the bruit is come, &c. See vi.22.ix. 11.
Jeremiah 11:23
I know, O Lord, that the way of a man is not in himself, &c. Success does not depend upon human endeavours, but upon God’s good pleasure: [compare Psal., xxxvii. 23. Proy. xx. 24.] and therefore thou canst easily disappoint all the designs of our enemies.
O Lord, correct me, but with judgment, &c. If thou art determined to punish us, let it be with moderation:, (see xxx. 11.) not with such a degree of severity, as utterly t to destroy and consume us. (See Psal. vi. 1. xxxviii. 1.)
Pour out thine indignation upon the heathen that, haye not known thee, &e. Let thy justice be made known, by bringing an exemplary punishment upon the Chaldeans and their allies, (see i. 15.) who do not acknowledge thy providence, but ascribe all their successes to their idols. For they have eaten up Jacob, &c] See vi. 3.