Jeremiah 4

The four first verses contain an earnest exhortation to repentance, which should have been joined to the former chapter, as being a continuation of the same subject. Aftenvard the prophet gives a very pathetical description of the miseries of his country, when it should be made the seat of war.

Jeremiah 4:1

IF thou wilt return^ O Israel, saith the Lord, then return unto me, &c. By Israel may be here meant the whole body of the Jewish nation. (See ii. 4..iii. 20.) Or else the prophet addresses himself to Israel in this verse, and to Judah in the third. The words here exhort the people not to satisfy themselves with an outward profession of repentance, but to make proof of their sincerity, by quitting their evil practices, and particularly their idolatry: for so the word shikkutsim, abominations, commonly signifies. If thon dost this, saith God, thou shalt nevermore T>e removed out of thy land, or carried away captive.

Jeremiah 4:2

And thou shalt swear, The Lord liveth, in truth, in judgment, and in righteousness. Swearing by the name of God, is mentioned elsewhere as a solemn part of religious worship, and opposed to the custom of swearing by false gods, which was practised among idolaters. (See Isa. xlv. 23. xlviii. 1. lxv. 1G. Amos viii. 14. Zcph. i. 5.) But this religious invocation of the name of God, as the just judge of the world, must be used only for the manifestation of the truth, and the maintenance of right and justice. And the nations shall bless themselves in him, and in him shall they glory.] A prediction of the gospel-times, when the heathens should join with the true Israelites, in paying all solemn acts of worship and devotion to the true God alone; (see Isa. lxv. 1G.) and in ascribing all honour and glory to him and to his only Son, the Messias, in whom all nations were to be blessed. (See Gen. xxii. 18. Gal.iii. 8., and compare Isa. xlv. 25.)

Jeremiah 4:3

For [or surely. thus saith the Lord to the men of Judah and Jerusalem, Break up your fallow ground, and sow not among thorns.] In this verse the prophet addresses himself to the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem, and exhorts them to repentance and reformation, under the metaphor of ploughing up their fallow ground, which had lain a long while uncultivated, and clearing it from thorns, that it might be capable of receiving good seed. (Compare Hos. x; 12. Matt. xiii. 5.)

Jeremiah 4:4

Circumcise yourselves unto the Lord, and take away the foreskins of your hearts. Compare ix. 26. a metaphor taken from Moses, Dcut. x. 1G. xxx. G. From whence it appears, that this ceremony, as well as other rites of Moses’s law, had a spiritual signification implied in them. Accordingly the apostles make moral applications of several branches of the ceremonial law. (Sec Acts x. 14. 28. Rom. ii.28, 29. 1 Cor. ix. 0. 2 Cor. vi. 14. Colos. ii. 11.) The same reasons the Jewish writers assign for several parts of the Mosaical institutions, particularly Philo, and Joscphus, Antiq. lib. iv. cap. 8. and lib. ii. contra Appion.

Jeremiah 4:5

G. Blowyethe trumpet in the land, &c. The prophet hero begins a new discourse, and describes the dreadful preparations for war, such as blowing a trumpet, and setting up a standard, for the assembling men together, in order to their leaving the open country, and retiring with their families aud goods into the defended cities, both for their own safety, and that they might maintain those garrisons against the power of the enemy.

Jeremiah 4:7

A lion, is come up from his thicket, and the destroyer of the gentiles is on his way. Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, (compare v. 6.) whose monarchy is represented by a lion, Dan. vii.4. He is called here the destroyer of the gentiles \ or rather nations; Judea and all the neighbouring countries being given up into his hands by God’s decree. (See xxv. 9. xxvii. G.)

Jeremiah 4:9

And it shall come to pass in that day, that the heart of the king shall perish, and the heart of the prince. Great calamities often deprive men of their wonted courage, and that presence of mind which is necessary for the due management of their affairs; and sometimes a Divine infatuation accompanies God’s other judgments. (See Isa. xix. 11, 12.) The verb abad which is translated perish, does likewise signify to grow foolish or stupid; so it is taken, Deut. xxxii. 28. And the word still retains that signification in the Ethiopic language, as Ludolphus observes, in his Commentary in Historiam Ethiop. lib. i. n. 10G. The priests shall be astonished, and the prophets shall wonder.] Who have both agreed to make the people believe that none of these calamities should come upon them. (See the following verse.)

Jeremiah 4:10

Surely thou hast greatly deceived this people. i. e. Thou hast suffered them to be greatly deceived by their false prophets. (See the note on Isa. lxiii. 17.) These pretenders to prophecy studied only to speak pleasing things to the people, and soothe them up in their impenitency and carnal security; and thou hast in thy just judgment given them up to follow these delusions. (Compare 2Thess.iL 11,12.)

Jeremiah 4:11

A dry wind. The same with a destroying wind, li. 1. a hot pestilential wind, as the Arabic translates it in that place, which destroys great multitudes in a moment, as travellers relate. (See Dr. Prideaux, ad an. A.C. 710.) The prophet describes the Chaldean armies invading Judea, under the metaphor of a dry parching wind, which blasts the fruits of the earth, withers the leaves upon the trees, and makes every thing look naked and bare. Of the high places in the wilderness.] The word sephajim, here translated high places, sometimes signifies valleys or plains. (See the note on vii. 29.) In which sense it is fitly joined with the wilderness, which word is sometimes used for a plain or champaigne country. (See the note on ix. 10. xii. 12.)

Jeremiah 4:12

Even a full wind from those places. A strong wind, such as the drying cast, or north winds, which come over large plains or deserts, commonly are. (See the same metaphor applied to enemies and destroyers, xlix. 3G. M.l. Isa.. xxvii. 8. Ezek. xvii. 10. xix. 12. Hos. xiii. 15.) Shall come unto me.] At my commandment. (Compare Matt. viii. 9.) The winds, storms, and other meteors, are said to fulfil God’s word, and attend upon his commands. (See Psal. cxlviii. 8. Job xxxviii. 35.) Now also will I.give sentence against them.] Or, utter my