Jeremiah 20
PATUpon Pashur’s ill treatment of Jeremy, he falls into a grievous complaint of the hardships that attended the discharge of his prophetical office, which made him weary of his life. -Ver. 1. J\0W Pashur the son oflmmer the priest, who was also chief governor in the house of the Lord.] The family of Immcr was the sixteenth in order of the four-and-twenty courses of the priests. (See 1 Chron. xxiv. 14.) And this Pashur, by being head of his family, had a principal authority in ordering matters relating to tho temple, and keeping good orders there: and therefore is called chief governor, or a chief governor in the house of the Lord. (See there, ver. 5.) So Hilkiah, Zechariah, and Jehicl, are called chief nders of the house of God, 2 Chron. xxxv. 8. because the first of them was chief priest, and the two other probably heads of their courses. To the same sense we may understand the priests of the second order, mentioned 2 Kings xxiii. 4. If we suppose Pashur to have been, in a strict sense, chief or supreme governor in the house of God, he seems to be the same officer that is called captain of the temple, Acts iv. 1. he that was set over the several watches or guards of the priests and Levites: for they kept watch and ward in the temple, both day and night. (See Psal. exxxiv. 2. and Lightfoot upon Luke xxii. 4.)
Jeremiah 20:2
And put him in the stocks that was in the high gate ofBe?ijamin,&c. The Septuagint understand the word translated the stocks, of a dungeon, or house of correction, which was in one of the outer courts of the temple. This, the text says, was placed in the high gate of Benjamin, which Dr. Lightfoot explains of the upper gate in the tribe of Benjamin, that led to the temple; the mountain upon which the temple stood, being partly in the tribe of Benjamin, and partly in that of Judah. (Sec his Description of the Temple, chap. 27.)
Jeremiah 20:3
The Lord hath not called thy name Pashur, but Magor-missabib. The name which I give thee signifies/ear, or terror round about; and thou thyself shalt be a dreadful example of those calamities which arc coming upon, CHAP. XX.] UPON JEREMIAH. thy friends, and all the inhabitants of this city. (Compare vi. 25. xlvi. 5. xlix. 29. Lam. ii. 22.)
Jeremiah 20:5
Moreover I will deliver the strength of this city, and all the labours of it, &c. All its wealth, and all that the inhabitants have gotten by their industry, shall be a prey to their enemies. (Compare iii. 24. Ezek. xxiii. 29.) The word which we render strength, is elsewhere translated treasures. (See Prov.xv. 6. Ezek. xxii. 25.)
Jeremiah 20:6
To whom thou hast prophesied lies. False prophecies of peaee and deliverance. (See xiv. 14. xxviii. 15. xxix. 21.)
Jeremiah 20:7
O Lord, thou hast deceived me, &c. The following verses are Jeremy’s doleful reflections upon the ill success of his prophecies, which had little good effect upon others, and brought a great deal of harm to himself. The sense is, Thou hast promised to be my safeguard against mine enemies; but yet I find myself disappointed, and left exposed to their malice. (Compare xv. 18.) Some render the words, Tlioit hast persuaded me, and I was persuaded; that is, I was over-persuaded to undertake the office of a prophet. The following words favour this sense. TJiou art stronger than I, and hast prevailed, &c] It was sore against my will, that I undertook the prophetical office, which I would gladly have declined: (i. 6.) but thy commands and inspirations did, in a manner, constrain me to it. I could have no temptation tp run upon this errand without being sent, since it procures me nothing but ill usage.
Jeremiah 20:8
For since I spake, I cried out, I cried violence and spoil; because the ivord of the Lord was made a reproach unto me. Or, I cried out of violence, and complained aloud of spoil. Since I began to prophesy, I have reason to complain of the hardships I have undergone upon that account. (See xi. 19, &c. xv. 15. xviii. 18.) This verse may likewise be thus explained: Since I began to prophesy as God commanded me, I have freely expostulated with my countrymen, of the violence and oppression they have been guilty of: (sec vi. 7.) and therefore (so the particle ki often signifies) all the requital I have had for the faithful discharge of my office, has been contempt and ill usage.
Jeremiah 20:9
Then said I, I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name: but his word was in my heart as burning fire. This made me resolve not to prophesy any more, but I found myself pressed in spirit, (see Acts xviii. 5.) and unable to resist the impulses of God’s Spirit, urgiDg mc to execute his commands. (Compare Job xxxii. 19. Psal. xxxix. 3.)
Jeremiah 20:10
For I have heard the defaming of many, fear on every side. Or Magor-missabib. Many upbraided me with the ill usage I received from Pashur, and with my prophecy against him, by the name of Magor-missabib. If we follow the received translation, as the expression is the same with Psal. xxxi. 13. so the sense seems to be much the same in both places; viz. From the slanderous reports raised upon me, I had reason to apprehend some evil design against my life, as well from treacherous friends as from open enemies. Report, say they, and we will report it. All my familiars watched for my halting, &c] My pretended friends encourage one another in spreading false reports of me; or desire to hear from my mouth more prophecies, in hopes to find some matter of accusation against me, whereby they might take away my life, and so fulfil their revenge on me.
Jeremiah 20:11
But Xhe Lord is with me as a mighty terrible one; therefore my persecutors shall sUtmble. After having, given free vent to his melancholy reflections, (see the note on xv. 18.) he begins to recollect himself and cheer up his spirits by the comfortable remembrance of God’s promises to him, by which he was assured that his enemies should be disappointed in all their ill designs they had contrived against him. (See xi. 22, 23. xv. 20. xviii. 18;)
Jeremiah 20:12
But, O Lord of hosts, that triest the righteous. Who makest trial of his faith and patience by afflictions. (See Psal. xi.5.) Let me see thy vengeance on them.] See the note on xi.20.
Jeremiah 20:13
Praise ye the Lord; for he hath delivered the soul of the poor ^&c. In confidence of his deliverance, the prophet gives thanks beforehand, as we may observe many, of the Psalms that beg deliverance end in thanksgiving, as if it were already obtained. (See Psal. liv.36. Iviii. 1. 5, &c.) i
Jeremiah 20:14
Cursed be the day wherein I tvas born, &c. This, and the following verses, represent the melancholy thoughts which oppressed the mind of the prophet, while he was struggling with the reproach and malice of his enemies; and they are written in a poetical strain, as Job’s lamentation is, chap. iii. like a lessus, or mournful ditty; such as the prceficce, or mourning women,vse6 to sing. See ix. 17. wherein he expresses his wishes that he had never been born. (Compare xv. 10.) Let not the day wherein my mother bare me be blessed.) Let it not be celebrated with those good wishes and expressions of joy, which are wont to be used on birth-days. The heathens in like manner had their bona verba, good wishes, proper for their birth-days: so Tibullus, (lib. ii.- eleg. 2.) Dicamus bona verba, venit natalis: and which they abstained from using, when they were under great calamities, as Ovid speaks, Trist. lib. iii. cleg. 13. In tantis subeunt nee bona verba malis.
Jeremiah 20:15
Cursed be the man who brought tidings to my father, &c. I observed that this lamentation is written in poetical figures, like the ancient ncBnice, or funeral songs, wherein all the circumstances are brought in, that are proper to raise the passions; and therefore are not to be looked upon, as so many expressions of indignation or malice, but rather of mourning and sorrow. Just such are those figures we read in David’s funeral song upon Saul and Jonathan, 2 Sam. i. 21. " Ye mountains of Gilboa, let there be no dew, neither let there be rain upon you," &c. And as in the forms of rejoicing upon a birth-day, they blessed everyone concerned in the birth, and said, Blessed be the tvomb that bare thee, and the like: and he that brought the joyful news was always rewarded: so, in theforms of sorrow for the miserable, they used the quite contrary expressions. I must acknowledge myself indebted to the right reverend and learned Dr. Chandler, now deservedly promoted to the see of Coventry and Litchfield,’ for the explaining this and the foregoing verse;’ as likewise for his other judicious remarks upon several difficult texts in this prophecy, and that of Isaiah. Digitized toy Microsoft® G2s [chap. xxr.
Jeremiah 20:16
And let that man be as the cities which the Lord overthrew, and repented not.". O that he had hcen looked upon with aversion, as a token of ill luck, or a sad spectacle, such as Sodom and Gomorrah are: and let him bo esteemed as unfortunate, as ho would have been thought, if he had brought tidings of my death instead of my birth. Lethim°hear a cry in the morning.] Such aery as is made when an enemy comes to plunder the house, or murder the family. (Compare xviii. 22. xlviii. 3, 4.) And the shouting at noon-tide.’] The alarm of war, as the word is rendered, iv. 19. or such a rejoicing as the enemies make over the vanquished.’ To hear the cry in the morning, and shouting at noon-day, signifies being perpetually alarmed with the terrors of a hostile invasion. (Compare vi. 4.) The same learned person understands this verse of the lamentations made at funerals, which were performed not only with mournful voices, but likewise with instruments of music, implied in the word terunah, shoutingr (See Matt. ix. 23.) It was the* custom of the Jews/ upon a funeral-day, to begin their lamentations early in the morning, and continue them till the afternoon," when the body was carried out to be buried. (Sec Buxtorf Synagog. p. 49.) So the sense of the verso will be, Let this man have every day an occasion of lamentation.
Jeremiah 20:17
Because he slew me not from the womb, &c. Or, Because I was not slain from the womb. For the verb transitive is often. taken impersonally. (See the note on Isa.- xliv.>18.) I utter these wishes in the bitterness of my soul, when I consider how much better it had been that I had never been born; or given up the ghost immediately, than led a life of continual sorrow and misery. (Compare Job iii. 10, 11.)