Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Jeremiah 5:27
As a cage is full of birds, so [are] their houses full of deceit: therefore they are become great, and waxen rich.
27. cage ] The Hebrew word occurs elsewhere only in Amos (Jer 8:1), “a basket of summer fruit.” Here, however, Cheyne ( Pulpit Comm., ad loc.), quoting Hitzig, thinks that “the cage was at the same time a trap.” He quotes Sir 11:30 (see note in C.B.), “As a decoy partridge in a cage,” where the Greek word used is that with which LXX render “baskets” in Jer 6:9.
deceit ] riches won by craft, as birds by the fowler.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Verse 27. As a cage is full of birds] There is no doubt that the reference here is to a decoy or trap-cage, as Dr. Blayney has rendered it; in these the fowlers put several tame birds, which when the wild ones see, they come and light on the cage, and fall into the snare.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
As a cage is full of birds, so are their houses full of deceit, i.e. they fill up their houses with the goods and wealth of those that they deceive and overreach; ill-gotten goods; a metonymy of the efficient; as the fowler carries his cage along with him, wherein he puts the birds which he catcheth, to keep safe that they get not away, when once they are caught, as also by their appearance and singing to entice others.
Therefore they are become great, and waxen rich; showing how and in what manner they got their riches, therefore, or by this means; such as are gotten by a lying tongue, Pro 21:6, called the treasures of wickedness, Mic 6:10.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
27. full of deceitfull oftreasures got by deceit.
rich (Psa 73:12;Psa 73:18-20).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
As a cage is full of birds,…. Jarchi and Kimchi understand it of a place in which fowls, are brought up and fattened, what we call a “pen”; and, so the Targum renders it, a house or place of fattening. The word is rendered a “basket” in Am 8:1 and may here design one in which birds taken in snares, or by hawking, were put. The Septuagint version, and those that follow it, render it, “a snare”: which agrees with what goes before. It seems to intend a decoy, in which many birds are put to allure others; and, what with them, and those that are drawn in by them, it becomes very full; and this sense of the comparison is favoured by the rendition or application, which follows:
so are their houses full of deceit; of mammon, gathered by deceit, as Kimchi interprets it; ungodly mammon; riches got in a fraudulent way, by cozening and cheating, tricking and overreaching:
therefore they are become great; in worldly things, and in the esteem of men, and in their own opinion, though of no account with God:
and waxen rich; not with the true riches, the riches of grace, the unsearchable riches of Christ, his durable riches and righteousness; nor indeed with the riches of the world, honestly and lawfully gotten; but with unrighteous mammon.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Jeremiah goes on with the same subject. He made use, as we have said, of a similitude taken from fowling: he now applies this similitude to the Jews, — that their houses were full of fraud, as the cage (some render it basket (155)) is full of birds: for fowlers, when they go for game, carry with them either bags or cages or baskets. So then Jeremiah says, that they collected plunder on every side, so that their houses were full of frauds: but by fraud he means spoils, which they acquired by unjust means. It may at the first view seem an obscure language; but if we take the word מרמה, mereme, in a passive sense, there will be nothing ambiguous. The Prophet then does not use a language strictly correct when he says, that their houses were full of deceit or fraud; but they were full of spoils which they had acquired by deceit and fraud. Hence, what he means by fraud were the plunders by which they had become rich, as he afterwards explains.
We now perceive, that the meaning of the Prophet is, — that there was no longer a proof required, that the Jews circumvented the helpless and the poor, for their houses were filled with such spoils as made evident their wickedness: they had scraped together their riches by depriving the helpless and the poor of their substance. And hence he adds, By this have they increased and become rich It is probable that they gloried in their wealth, like thieves, whose trade is to plunder: for when they increased, they thought themselves raised above all danger. They were like courtiers, who by rapines and frauds and tyrannical violence, draw to themselves from all quarters the possessions of others, so that one got annually sixty thousands and another a hundred thousands; and then they became the more ferocious, because they thought that they could not be called to an account, being blinded by the splendor of their riches. But the Prophet here derides this besotted glorying, and says, “Behold, they are become great in the world, and they would have themselves to be on this account exalted;” increased have they, he says, and become rich; that is, “If any one will now search their houses, he will indeed find many things by which they make a display before the eyes of the simple; but they are nothing but rapines, plunders, frauds, spoils, thefts, and, in a word, robberies.” This is what he simply means. He afterwards adds —
(155) It is so rendered in Amo 8:1. This was no doubt a wicker-basket or cage for birds, to keep them, and not a trap-cage, as suggested by the Septuagint and Vulgate versions. The Targum is, “the house of feeding.” The comparison is between a cage full of birds, which had been caught by snares, nets, or traps, and houses filled with spoils, which had been procured by frauds. And were “full” rendered “filled, “as it might be, there would be no need of the metonymy supposed to be in the word “fraud,“ —
As the cage is filled with birds, So their houses are filled by means of fraud: Hence they have become great and grown rich.
—
Ed.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(27) A cage.The large wicker basket (Amo. 8:1-2) in which the fowler kept the birds he had caught, or, possibly, used for decoy-birds.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
Jer 5:27. As a cage is full of birds A trap-cage. kelub, comes from keleb, a dog; and this name was undoubtedly given to the trap-cage, because it served the same purpose as a dog in assisting to catch game. That sort of trap-cage also seems to be alluded to, in which tame birds are put to hop and fly about as a decoy to others.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Jer 5:27 As a cage is full of birds, so [are] their houses full of deceit: therefore they are become great, and waxen rich.
Ver. 27. As a cage is full of birds, so are their houses full of deceit, ] i.e., Of ill-gotten goods, which will prove no such catch in the close, as they count upon.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
cage: or, coop, This is, without doubt, a reference to a decoy or trap-cage, as Dr. Blayney renders; in which fowlers place several tame birds, to decoy the others into the snare prepared for them. Rev 18:2
so are: Pro 1:11-13, Hos 12:7, Hos 12:8, Amo 8:4-6, Mic 1:12, Mic 6:10, Mic 6:11, Hab 2:9-11
Reciprocal: Neh 9:25 – did eat Job 12:6 – tabernacles Psa 55:11 – deceit Isa 2:7 – land Isa 3:14 – ye have eaten Isa 59:14 – General Jer 17:11 – he that Eze 21:24 – your transgressions Eze 22:13 – thy dishonest Dan 8:8 – waxed Hos 4:2 – swearing Hab 1:4 – for 1Ti 6:10 – the love
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Jer 5:27. A cage full of birds is a figure to describe the completeness of the oppression suffered at the hands of these wicked leaders. Waxen rich gives the key to the deceptive procedure of these evil men. The love of money is not a corruption that was restricted to the days of Paul but was prominent in those of ancient Israel.