Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Jeremiah 6:1
O ye children of Benjamin, gather yourselves to flee out of the midst of Jerusalem, and blow the trumpet in Tekoa, and set up a sign of fire in Beth-haccerem: for evil appeareth out of the north, and great destruction.
1. ye children of Benjamin ] Jeremiah was himself a Benjamite (ch. Jer 1:1), and Jerusalem was in Benjamin, the boundary between that tribe and Judah lying in the valley of Hinnom, to the south of the city.
and blow Beth-haccherem ] these two clauses interrupt the inah measure, and break into the context which deals with Jerusalem only. Hence Du. and Co. (not so Gi.) consider them a later insertion. “Blow the trumpet” and the proper name Tekoa involve a play on words in the Heb. ( tik‘, tkoa‘). Tekoa ( Tek’a) is about twelve miles S. of Jerusalem, on a hill forming part of the range which stretches from Hebron towards the Dead Sea. St Jerome writing in Palestine speaks of it as daily before his eyes. It was the birthplace of Amos (Amo 1:1), and it or its inhabitants are mentioned on several other occasions. The ruins which are found there, however, are probably all of Christian times. It is in the direction which would be naturally taken by the inhabitants in the event of flight before an invading host from the north.
a signal ] Though the Hebrew word has no necessary reference to fire, a word ( Mass’ah) closely connected with this one is used in later Hebrew to denote the fire lighted to give notice of the appearance of the new moon. The word used here occurs in Jdg 20:38; Jdg 20:40, to denote a pillar of smoke agreed upon as a signal. In this clause also a play on words seems intended between the imperative and its object.
Beth-haccherem ] (House of the vineyard) mentioned elsewhere only in Neh 3:14, and to be identified in position with a conical-shaped hill called the Frank mountain, between Bethlehem and Tekoa, so named as having been used for military purposes in the Crusades; a very suitable spot for a beacon station.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Jeremiah addresses the men of Benjamin, either as being his own tribesmen, or as a name appropriate to the people of Jerusalem, which also was situate in the tribe of Benjamin.
Gather yourselves to flee – Gather your goods together to remove them to a place of safety.
Blow the trumpet in Tekoa – The name of Tekoa is almost identical with the verb to blow: but it was not chosen merely for the alliteration, but because it was the last town in Judaea (about 11 miles south of Jerusalem), upon the very border of the desert, where the fugitives would halt.
A sign – Rather, a signal.
Beth-haccerem – Or, the Vineyard-House, which was situated halfway between Jerusalem and Tekoa.
Appeareth – Is bending over; is bending forward in eagerness to seize its prey.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Jer 6:1-9
Arise, and let us go up at noon.
Christian effort
That spirit-stirring call of the text, so needful to arouse the Chaldeans on their march to the ancient, is as needful for us on our pilgrimage to the new, Jerusalem.
1. In other passages, the early years of childhood and youth are pointed out as the special time for Gods service. While the heart is warm and pliant. Ere the hardening influence of a selfish world, having closed it to the Saviours call, has swept and garnished it for tenantry of evil.
2. Arise, and let us go up at noon. It is midday with you, to whom the text is speaking. It is the period for active endeavour. Now the calls of the world are dinned most loudly into your ears. In the earlier hours, and at the close of your passing day, you were and will be alike incapable of prolonged toil. Now the requirement is made of you, and to what behests does it bid you attend? Make the most of your time. Are you poor? Strive for independence. Are you rich? Strive for place and power. Are you intellectual? Seek a sphere for display, a stage for self-glorification. Thus speaks the world, and were some of its directions pursued in moderation, pursued subordinate to higher and nobler motive, there might be wisdom in our chastened regards. But, alas! how many go to extreme in these observances, and become the slaves of time and sense. Apply those misdirected energies to a nobler cause. The rewards of time are not worth such care as this. In themselves, they are of scarce more value than the withered leaves which crowned the victor in the ancient games. Arise, and go up at noon to seek the incorruptible crown. Ye are soldiers engaged in warfare. The sword is drawn. The banner is spread. Its emblem is the Cross. Your weapons are not carnal. The din of military music shall not spur you to the dangerous assault; but strains of sweetest melody shall speak to you of peace, peace on earth, goodwill to men; peace which the world can neither give nor take away.
3. But have you passed that period of activity, and in your retrospect of its busy hours do you feel how prodigally your energies have been wasted? Have ungodly habits become so confirmed, that now at your journeys end, being dead to the enticements of the present, you are not alive to the requirements of the future? Shall an appeal, which might impress a heart yet warm and flexible, fall coldly on the worn and weary conscience of the aged? The gracious and long-suffering Master has still this call to summon you, Arise, and let us go by night. Ye have heard and disregarded the call throughout the day, and therefore may not be as those who, having never been hired earlier, received every man a penny, but whatsoever is right, that shall ye receive. Go by prayer and penitence, by sought and found spiritual guidance, or soon the light of life will be extinguished in outer darkness.
4. But ye have been watchful and faithful. Ye arose, and went up at noon. It is not woeful to you that the day goeth away. It is no cause of regret that the shadows of evening are stretched out. Behold! I come quickly, the Saviour says to you; and joyfully ready is your reply, Even so, come, Lord Jesus. All things are yours: love and reverence from all without, peace unspeakable from all within. Ye shall arise and go. The shadows stretched before you shall be dispelled forever, and the brightness of that noon which shall fade no more shall rest upon you. (F. Jackson.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
CHAPTER VI
Jeremiah, in the spirit of prophecy, seeing the Chaldeans on
their march, bids his people set up the usual signals of
distress, and spread the general alarm to betake themselves to
flight, 1.
Then, by a beautiful allusion to the custom of shepherds moving
their flocks to the richest pastures, Jerusalem is singled out
as a place devoted to be eaten up or trodden down by the armies
of the Chaldeans, who are called up against her, and whose
ardour and impatience are so great that the soldiers, when they
arrive in the evening, regret they have no more day, and desire
to begin the attack without waiting for the light of the
morning, 2-5.
God is then represented as animating and directing the
besiegers against this guilty city, which sinned as incessantly
as a fountain flows, 6, 7,
although warned of the fatal consequence, 8.
He intimates also, by the gleaning of the grapes, that one
invasion should carry away the remains of another, till their
disobedience, hypocrisy, and other sins should end in their
total overthrow, 9-15.
And to show that God is clear when he judgeth, he mentions his
having in vain admonished and warned them, and calls upon the
whole world to witness the equity of his proceedings, 16-18,
in punishing this perverse and hypocritical people, 19, 20,
by the ministry of the cruel Chaldeans, 21-23.
Upon this a chorus of Jews is introduced expressing their fears
and alarm, 24, 25;
to which the prophet echoes a response full of sympathy and
tenderness, 26.
The concluding verses, by metaphors taken from the process of
refining gold and silver, represent all the methods hitherto
used to amend them as wholly ineffectual, 27-30.
NOTES ON CHAP. VI
Verse 1. O ye children of Benjamin, gather yourselves to flee] As the invading armies are fast approaching, the prophet calls on the inhabitants of Jerusalem to sound an alarm, and collect all the people to arm themselves and go against the invaders. They are called the children of Benjamin, because Jerusalem was in the tribe of Benjamin.
Tekoa] Was a city about twelve miles to the south of Jerusalem.
Beth-haccerem] Was the name of a small village situated on an eminence between Jerusalem and Tekoa. On this they were ordered to set up a beacon, or kindle a large fire, which might be seen at a distance, and give the people to understand that an enemy was entering the land.
Out of the north] From Babylon. The Scythians. – Dahler.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Children of Benjamin: he means either the inhabitants of Jerusalem, because part of it stood in the lot of Benjamin, Jos 18:28; or else he means all Judah, because when the ten tribes fell off, the tribe of Benjamin adhered to Judah, and was incorporated into them. If it be asked why the prophet rather speaks here to Benjamin than to Judah, the reason probably may be, because he being of Anathoth was of that tribe, and therefore mentions them as his own countrymen.
Gather yourselves to flee; spoken either ironically, that they should set themselves in array, and make head against the enemy, that is now at hand; or rather, that they should flee away together at once, make haste out of Jerusalem in troops, as the next expressions intimate; not counselling them what they should do, viz. for succour, Jer 4:5,6, but rather telling them what they must expect, viz. to be forced to flee out of it, if they may escape.
Blow the trumpet in Tekoa: q.d. Gather yourselves together by the sound of the trumpet at Tekoa, possibly alluding to the name, which signifies trumpeting; or rather, it being one of those fenced cities twelve miles from Jerusalem that Rehoboam built, and made exceeding strong for and with his warlike provisions, 2Ch 11:6,11,12, and being built upon the advantage of a hill toward the north of Judea in the way that the Babylonians were to come, q.d. There furnish yourselves out of that armoury, and see if you can make head against them: an irony. A place noted in Scripture, where dwelt that Tekoitish woman that interceded with David for Absalom by the subornation of Joab, 2Sa 14:2; and also for the herdsmen of whom Amos was, Amo 1:1, and (it is probable) a place where in time of danger their were wont, by the sound of the trumpet, to summon the people together.
Setup a sign of fire: the word used is of very large extent; maset is used for any thing that is lifted up, neither is there any more in the text. The LXX also render it only a sign and the sign of fire possibly is mentioned rather than any other, by a metonymy of the subject, because, partly in time of danger of invasion it is the most usual and commodious sign, being seen, in regard of its lifting or raising up of itself, at once afar off; q.d. fire a beacon; and a sign whereby the Benjamites themselves once found they were surprised, Jdg 20:38,40
2. It is a sign soonest given of any.
3. Possibly as being a more proper sign than any other would be to the vine-dressers, that they should secure themselves in some safe place, which seems to be pointed at by the next word, Beth-haccerem. It signifies the house of the vineyard, probably some high tower built among the vineyards for the keeper or keepers of them to watch them, that no damage came to them, this seeming to be usual, Isa 5:2. Or it may be the name of a town, such a one as some report to lie between Jerusalem and Tekoa, the same mentioned Neh 3:14, though that seems to be adjoining to Jerusalem. Whichsoever it be, it is probable it relates to some place noted for vineyards, which were wont to be planted upon hills, and lying in the way that the Chaldeans were to come; and by these two we are to understand all other places that lie in that coast. Evil appeareth out of the north; that they may know whence their misery will come, he doth as it were point it out with the finger: see Jer 1:14; 4:6.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
1. BenjaminJerusalem wassituated in the tribe of Benjamin, which was here separated from thatof Judah by the valley of Hinnom. Though it was inhabited partly byBenjamites, partly by men of Judah, he addresses the former as beinghis own countrymen.
blow . . . trumpet . . .TekoaTikehu, Tekoa form a play on sounds. Thebirthplace of Amos.
Beth-hacceremmeaningin Hebrew, “vineyard-house.” It and Tekoa were a fewmiles south of Jerusalem. As the enemy came from the north, theinhabitants of the surrounding country would naturally fleesouthwards. The fire-signal on the hills gave warning of dangerapproaching.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
O ye children of Benjamin,…. The tribe of Benjamin was with the tribe of Judah, and continued with that in the pure worship of God when the ten tribes revolted; and in the land of Israel, when they were carried captive; and besides, Jerusalem, at least part of it, was in the tribe of Benjamin, and particularly Anathoth, which was Jeremiah’s native place, was in that tribe; and this altogether is a reason why the children of Benjamin are so distinctly addressed:
gather yourselves to flee out of the midst of Jerusalem; where some of this tribe lived, or had betaken themselves for safety: or the Jews in general may be meant; for, as Ephraim is often put for the ten tribes, so Benjamin may be put for the two tribes, as Judah frequently is: or the words may be rendered, “be ye strong” i “out of the midst of Jerusalem”; as by the Septuagint, and others; and the sense may be, gather together in bodies out of Jerusalem, and form yourselves into companies, and into an army, and be prepared to meet the enemy, and fight him, who is near at hand; quit yourselves like men, and be strong; show courage and valour; perhaps this is spoken ironically, as Kimchi thinks it is; though he interprets the word, “flee ye”; that is, if ye can find a place to flee to; and the Targum is,
“remove out of the midst of Jerusalem;”
but it seems rather to be a direction to go forth and meet the enemy, by what follows:
and blow the trumpet in Tekoa; as an alarm of war, to give the people notice of an invasion; that the enemy was at hand, and therefore should provide themselves with armour, and gather together to meet and oppose him. Tekoa was a city in Judah, 2Ch 11:5, famous, for a wise woman in it, in the times of David, 2Sa 14:2. Jerom says it was twelve miles from Jerusalem, and might be seen with the eye; so that probably it was built on a very high hill, and for that reason chosen to blow the trumpet on, that it might be heard far and near; and which may be confirmed from its being said k to be the chief place in the land of Israel for the best oil, since olives grow on hills and mountains. There is in the clause a beautiful play on words l, which those, who understand the Hebrew language, will easily observe:
and set up a fire in Bethhaccerem. This place, as Jerom says, lay between Jerusalem and Tekoa; one of this name is mentioned in Ne 3:14. The Targum renders it,
“the house of the valley of the vineyards;”
and in the Misnah m mention is made of the valley of Bethhaccerem, the dust of which was red, and, when water was poured upon it, became hard; and this valley perhaps took its name from the town, which might be built upon a hill, and was famous for vines, from whence it was so called; and here might be a very high tower; for, as Kimchi and Ben Melech observe, it signifies a high tower, for the keepers of the vines to sit and watch the vines all about; and this was a very proper place to set up the sign of fire in, to give notice to the country all around; for it was usual with all nations, Persians, Grecians, and Romans, to signify in the night, by signs of fire, by burning torches, and the like, either the approach of an enemy, or help from friends; the former was done by shaking and moving their torches, the latter by holding them still n; see Jud 20:38:
for evil appeareth out of the north; Nebuchadnezzar and his army out of Babylon, which lay north of Jerusalem: and great destruction; see Jer 1:14.
i , Sept. “confortamini”, V. L. “fortes estote”, Tigurine version. k Misn. Menachot c. 8. sect. 3. l . m Misna Nidda, c. 2. c. 5. & Maimon. & Bartenora in ib. n Vid. Lydium de re Militari, l. 5. c. 3. p. 185, 186. & Van Tillin ib. p. 52.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The Judgment is Irrevocably Decreed. – A hostile army approaches from the north, and lays siege to Jerusalem, in order to storm the city (Jer 6:1-8). None is spared, since the people rejects all counsels to reform (Jer 6:9-15). Since it will not repent, it will fall by the hands of the enemy, in spite of the outward sacrificial service (Jer 6:16-21). The enemy will smite Zion without mercy, seeing that the trial of the people has brought about no change for the better in them (Jer 6:22-30).
Jer 6:1-2 The judgment breaking over Jerusalem. – Jer 6:1. “Flee, ye sons of Benjamin, out of the midst of Jerusalem, and in Tekoa blow the trumpet, and over Beth-haccerem set up a sign; for evil approaCheth from the north, and great destruction. Jer 6:2. The comely and the delicate – I lay waste the daughter of Zion. Jer 6:3. To her come shepherds with their flocks, pitch their tents about her round about, and devour each his portion. Jer 6:4. Sanctify war against her; arise, let us go up at noon. Woe unto us! for the day declineth; for the shadows of evening lengthen. Jer 6:5. Arise, let us go up by night, and destroy her palaces. Jer 6:6. For thus hath Jahveh of hosts spoken, Hew down wood, and pile up against Jerusalem a rampart; she is the city that is (to be) punished, she is all full of oppression in her midst. Jer 6:7. As a fountain pours forth its water, so pours she forth her wickedness: violence and spoiling is heard in her; before my face continually, wounds and smiting. Jer 6:8. Be warned, Jerusalem, lest my soul tear herself from thee, lest I make thee a waste, a land uninhabited.”
In graphic delineation of the enemy’s approach against Jerusalem, the prophet calls on the people to flee. As regarded its situation, Jerusalem belonged to the tribe of Benjamin; the boundary between the tribal domain of Judah and Benjamin passed through the valley of Ben-hinnom on the south side of Jerusalem, and then ran northwards to the west of the city (Jos 15:8; Jos 18:16.). The city was inhabited by Judeans and Benjamites, 1Ch 9:2. The summons is addressed to the Benjamites as the prophet’s fellow-countrymen. Tekoa lay about two hours’ journey southwards from Bethlehem, according to Jerome, on a hill twelve Roman miles south of Jerusalem; see on Jos 15:59. This town is mentioned because its name admits of a play on the word . The alarm is given in the country south of Jerusalem, because the enemy is coming from the north, so that the flight will be directed southwards. Beth-haccerem, acc. to Jerome, was a hamlet ( vicus) between Jerusalem and Tekoa, qui lingua Syra et Hebraic Bethacharma nominatur, et ipse in monte positus , apparently on what is now called the Frank’s Hill, Jebel Fureidis ; see on Neh 3:14. , the lifting up, that which raises itself up, or is raised; here a lofty beacon or signal, the nature of which is not further made known. The meaning, fire-signal, or ascending column of smoke, cannot be made good from Jdg 20:38, Jdg 20:40, since there is appended; nor from the statements of classical authors (in Ros.), that in time of war bodies of troops stationed in different places made their positions known to one another by masses of rising flame during the night, and by columns of smoke in the day time. As to the last clause, cf. Jer 1:14. “Great destruction,” as in Jer 4:6. – In Jer 6:2 the impending judgment is further described. It falls on the daughter of Zion, the capital and its inhabitants, personified as a beautiful and delicately reared woman. , defectively written for , contracted from , lovely, beautiful. The words are not vocatives, O fair and delicate, but accusatives made to precede their governing verb absolutely, and are explained by “the daughter of Zion,” dependent on “I destroy:” the fair and the delicate, namely, the daughter of Zion, I destroy. as in Hos 4:5. The other meaning of this verb, to be like, to resemble, is wholly unsuitable here; and, besides, in this signification it is construed with or . Ew.’s translation, I mean the daughter of Zion, is not justifiable by the usage of the word, the Piel only, and not the Kal, being capable of this interpretation.
Jer 6:3 The destruction comes about by means of shepherds with their flocks, who set up their tents round the city, and depasture each his portion. We need hardly observe that the shepherds and their flocks are a figure for princes, who with their peoples besiege and sack Jerusalem; with this cf. Jer 1:15. The figure does not point to a nomad swarm, or the Scythian people, as Ew. supposes. “Each his hand,” i.e., what lies to his hand, or next him.
Jer 6:4-7 The description passes from figure to reality, and the enemies appear before us as speaking, inciting one another to the combat, encouraging one another to storm the city. To sanctify a war, i.e., prepare themselves for the war by religious consecration, inasmuch as the war was undertaken under commission from God, and because the departure of the army, like the combat itself, was consecrated by sacrifice and other religious ceremonies; see on Joe 3:9. , to go up against a place as an enemy, not, go up upon, in which case the object, them (the city or walls), could not be omitted. It is plainly the storming or capture of the town that is meant by the going up; hence we may understand what follows: and we will destroy her palaces. We have a rousing call to go up at noon or in clear daylight, joined with “woe to us,” a cry of disappointment that they will not be able to gain their ends so soon, not indeed till night; in these we see the great eagerness with which they carry on the assault. , the day turns itself, declines towards its end; cf. Psa 90:9. The enemies act under a commission from God, who has imposed on them the labour of the siege, in order to punish Jerusalem for her sins. Jahveh is here most fittingly called the God of hosts; for as God of the world, obeyed by the armies of heaven, He commands the kings of the earth to chastise His people. Hew wood, i.e., fell trees for making the siege works, cf. Deu 20:20, both for raising the attacking ramparts,
(Note: Agger ex terra lignisque attollitur contra murum, de quo tela jactantur . Veget. de re milit. iv. 15.)
and for the entire apparatus necessary for storming the town. is not a collective form from , like from ; but the is a suffix in spite of the omission of the Mappik, which is given by but a few of the codd., eastern and western, for we know that Mappik is sometimes omitted, e.g., Num 15:28, Num 15:31; cf. Ew. 247, d. We are encouraged to take it so by Deu 20:19, where are the trees in the vicinity of the town, of which only the fruit trees were to be spared in case of siege, while those which did not bear eatable fruit were to be made use of for the purposes of the siege. And thus we must here, too, read , and refer the suffix to the next noun (Jerusalem). On “pile up a rampart,” cf. 2Sa 20:5; Eze 4:2, etc. is used as passive of Kal, and impersonally. The connection with is to be taken like in Isa 29:1: the city where it is punished, or perhaps like Psa 59:6, the relative being supplied: that is punished. is not to be joined, contrary to the accents, with (Ven., J. D. Mich.), a connection which, even if it were legitimate, would give but a feeble thought. It belongs to what follows, “she is wholly oppression in her midst,” i.e., on all sides in her there is oppression. This is expanded in Jer 6:7. lxx and Jerome have taken from , and translate: like as a cistern keeps its water cool ( , frigidam facit ), so she keeps her wickedness cool. Hitz. has pronounced in favour of this interpretation, but changes “keep cool” into “keep fresh,” and understands the metaphor thus: they take good care that their wickedness does not stagnate or become impaired by disuse. But it would be a strange metaphor to put “keep wickedness cool,” for “maintain it in strength and vigour.” We therefore, along with Luth. and most commentators, prefer the rabbinical interpretation: as a well makes its water to gush out, etc.; for there is no sufficient force in the objection that from , dig, is not a spring but a well, that has still less the force of making to gush forth, and that wholly excludes the idea of causing to spring out. The first assertion is refuted by Jer 2:13, , fountain of living water; whence it is clear that the word does mean a well fed by a spring. It is true, indeed, that the word , a later way of writing (cf. 1Ch 11:17. 22 with 2Sa 23:15. 20), means usually, a pit, a cistern dug out; but this form is not substantially different from , well, puteus, which is used for in Ps. 55:24 and Psa 69:16. Accordingly, this latter form can undoubtedly stand with the force of , as has been admitted by the Masoretes when they substituted for it ; cf. the Arab. bi’run . The noun puts beyond doubt the legitimacy of giving to , from , to dig a well, the signification of making water to gush forth.
The form is indeed referable to , but only shows, as is otherwise well known, that no very strict line of demarcation can be drawn between the forms of verbs ‘ and ‘ ; , again, is formed regularly from . Violence and spoiling; cf. Jer 20:8, and Amo 3:10; Hab 1:3. “Before my face,” before mine eyes, corresponds to “is heard,” as wounds and smitings are the consequences of violence. On that head, cf. Psa 55:10-12.
Jer 6:8 If Jerusalem cease not from these sins and crimes, the Lord must devote it to spoliation. Let thyself be corrected, warned; cf. Psa 2:10; Lev 26:23. from , tear oneself loose, estrange oneself, as in Eze 23:17. “A land uninhabited” is an apposition giving greater expressiveness to “a waste,” Jer 22:6.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| Judgments Threatened against Israel; The Doom of Israel. | B. C. 608. |
1 O ye children of Benjamin, gather yourselves to flee out of the midst of Jerusalem, and blow the trumpet in Tekoa, and set up a sign of fire in Beth-haccerem: for evil appeareth out of the north, and great destruction. 2 I have likened the daughter of Zion to a comely and delicate woman. 3 The shepherds with their flocks shall come unto her; they shall pitch their tents against her round about; they shall feed every one in his place. 4 Prepare ye war against her; arise, and let us go up at noon. Woe unto us! for the day goeth away, for the shadows of the evening are stretched out. 5 Arise, and let us go by night, and let us destroy her palaces. 6 For thus hath the LORD of hosts said, Hew ye down trees, and cast a mount against Jerusalem: this is the city to be visited; she is wholly oppression in the midst of her. 7 As a fountain casteth out her waters, so she casteth out her wickedness: violence and spoil is heard in her; before me continually is grief and wounds. 8 Be thou instructed, O Jerusalem, lest my soul depart from thee; lest I make thee desolate, a land not inhabited.
Here is I. Judgment threatened against Judah and Jerusalem. The city and the country were at this time secure and under no apprehension of danger; they saw no cloud gathering, but every thing looked safe and serene: but the prophet tells them that they shall shortly be invaded by a foreign power, an army shall be brought against them from the north, which shall lay all waste, and shall cause not only a general consternation, but a general desolation. It is here foretold,
1. That the alarm of this should be loud and terrible. This is represented, v. 1. The children of Benjamin, in which tribe part of Jerusalem lay, are here called to shift for their own safety in the country; for the city (to which it was first thought advisable for them to flee, Jer 4:5; Jer 4:6) would soon be made too hot for them, and they would find it the wisest course to flee out of the midst of it. It is common, in public frights, for the people to think any place safer than that in which they are; and therefore those in the city are for shifting into the country, in hopes there to escape out of danger, and those in the country are for shifting into the city, in hopes there to make head against the danger; but it is all in vain when evil pursues sinners with commission. They are told to send the alarm into the country, and to do what they can for their own safety: Blow the trumpet in Tekoa, a city which lay twelve miles north from Jerusalem. Let them be stirred up to stand upon their guard: Set up a sign of fire (that is, kindle the beacons) in Beth-haccerem, the house of the vineyard, which lay on a hill between Jerusalem and Tekoa. Prepare to make a vigorous resistance, for the evil appears out of the north. This may be taken ironically: “Betake yourselves to the best methods you can think of for your own preservation, but all shall be in vain; for, when you have done your best, it will be a great destruction, for it is in vain to contend with God’s judgments.”
2. That the attempt upon them should be bold and formidable and such as they should be a very unequal match for. (1.) See what the daughter of Zion is, on whom the assault is made. She is compared to a comely and delicate woman (v. 2), bred up in every thing that is nice and soft, that will not set so much as the sole of her foot to the ground for tenderness and delicacy (Deut. xxviii. 56), nor suffer the wind to blow upon her; and, not being accustomed to hardship, she will be the less able either to resist the enemy (for those that make war must endure hardness) or to bear the destruction with that patience which is necessary to make it tolerable. The more we indulge ourselves in the pleasures of this life the more we disfit ourselves for the troubles of this life. (2.) See what the daughter of Babylon is, by whom the assault is made. The generals and their armies are compared to shepherds and their flocks (v. 3), in such numbers and in such order did they come, the soldiers following their leaders as the sheep their shepherds. The daughter of Zion dwelt at home (so some read it), expecting to be courted with love, but was invaded with fury. This comparing of the enemies to shepherds inclines me to embrace another reading, which some give of v. 2, The daughter of Zion is like a comely pasture-ground and a delicate land, which invite the shepherds to bring their flocks thither to graze; and as the shepherds easily make themselves masters of an open field, which (as was then usual in some parts) lies common, owned by none, pitch their tents in it, and their flocks quickly eat it bare, so shall the Chaldean army easily break in upon the land of Judah, force for themselves a free quarter where they please, and in a little time devour all. For the further illustration of this he shows, [1.] How God shall commission them to make this destruction even of the holy land and the holy city, which were his own possession. It is he that says (v. 4), Prepare you war against her; for he is the Lord of hosts, that has all hosts at his command, and he has said (v. 6), Hew you down trees, and cast a mount against Jerusalem, in order to the attacking of it. The Chaldeans have great power against Judah and Jerusalem, and yet they have no power but what is given them from above. God has marked out Jerusalem for destruction. He has said, “This is the city to be visited, visited in wrath, visited by the divine justice, and this is the time of her visitation.” The day is coming when those that are careless and secure in sinful ways will certainly be visited. [2.] How they shall animate themselves and one another to execute that commission. God’s counsels being against Jerusalem, which cannot be altered or disannulled, the councils of war which the enemies held are made to agree with his counsels. God having said, Prepare war against her, their determinations are made subservient to his; and, notwithstanding the distance of place and the many difficulties that lay in the way, it is soon resolved, nemine contradicente–unanimously. Arise, and let us go. Note, It is good to see how the counsel and decree of God are pursued and executed in the devices and designs of men, even theirs that know him not, Isa 10:6; Isa 10:7. In this campaign, First, They resolve to be very expeditious. They have no sooner resolved upon it than they address themselves to it; it shall never be said that they left any thing to be done towards it to-morrow which they could do to-day: Arise, let us go up at noon, though it be in the heat of the day; nay, (v. 5), Arise, let us go up at night, though it be in the dark. Nothing shall hinder them; they are resolved to lose no time. They are described as men in care to make despatch (v. 4): “Woe unto us, for the day goes away, and we are not going on with our work; the shadows of the evening are stretched out, and we sit still, and let slip the opportunity.” O that we were thus eager in our spiritual work and warfare, thus afraid of losing time, or any opportunity, in taking the kingdom of heaven by violence! It is folly to trifle when we have an eternal salvation to work out, and the enemies of that salvation to fight against. Secondly, They confidently expect to be very successful: “Let us go up, and let us destroy her palaces and make ourselves masters of the wealth that is in them.” It was not that they might fulfill God’s counsels, but that they might fill their own treasures, that they were thus eager; yet God thereby served his own purposes.
II. The cause of this judgment assigned. It is all for their wickedness; they have brought it upon themselves; they must bear it, for they must bear the blame of it. They are thus oppressed because they have been oppressors; they have dealt hardly with one another, each in his turn, as they have had power and advantage, and now the enemy shall come and deal hardly with them all. This sin of oppression, and violence, and wrong-doing, is here charged upon them, 1. As a national sin (v. 6): Therefore this city is to be visited, it is time to make inquisition, for she is wholly oppression in the midst of her. All orders and degrees of men, from the prince on the throne to the meanest master of a shop, were oppressive to those that were under them. Look which way you might, there were causes for complaints of this kind. 2. As a sin that had become in a manner natural to them (v. 7): She casts out wickedness, in all the instances of malice and mischievousness, as a fountain casts out her waters, so plentifully and constantly, the streams bitter and poisonous, like the fountain. The waters out of the fountain will not be restrained, but will find or force their way, nor will they be checked by laws or conscience in their violent proceedings. This is fitly applied to the corrupt heart of man in his natural state; it casts out wickedness, one evil imagination or other, as a fountain casts out her waters, naturally and easily; it is always flowing, and yet always full. 3. As that which had become a constant practice with them; Violence and spoil are heard in her. The cry of it had come up before God as that of Sodom: Before me continually are grief and wounds–the complaint of those that find themselves aggrieved, being unjustly wounded in their bodies or spirits, in their estates or reputation. Note, He that is the common Parent of mankind regards and resents, and sooner or later will revenge, the mischiefs and wrongs that men do to one another.
III. The counsel given them how to prevent this judgment. Fair warning is given now upon the whole matter: “Be thou instructed, O Jerusalem! v. 8. Receive the instruction given thee both by the law of God and by the prophets; be wise at length for thyself.” They knew very well what they had been instructed to do; nothing remained but to do it, for till then they could not be said to be instructed. The reason for this counsel is taken from the inevitable ruin they ran upon if they refused to comply with the instructions given them: Lest my soul depart, or be disjoined, from thee. This intimates what a tender affection and concern God had had for them; his very soul had been joined to them, and nothing but sin could disjoin it. Note, 1. The God of mercy is loth to depart even from a provoking people, and is earnest with them by true repentance and reformation to prevent things coming to that extremity. 2. Their case is very miserable from whom God’s soul is disjoined; it intimates the loss not only of their outward blessings, but of those comforts and favours which are the more immediate and peculiar tokens of his love and presence. Compare this with that dreadful word (Heb. x. 38), If any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him. 3. Those whom God forsakes are certainly undone; when God’s soul departs from Jerusalem she soon becomes desolate and uninhabited, Matt. xxiii. 38.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
JEREMIAH – CHAPTER 6
WARNING OF A COMING SIEGE OF
JERUSALEM
Vs. 1-8: A CALL TO FLEE
1. The children of Benjamin are called upon to flee for safety out of the midst of Jerusalem, (vs. 1-2).
a. A trumpet of alarm is to be sounded in Tekoa, located about 12 miles south of Jerusalem, and the hometown of the prophet Amos, (Amo 1:1).
b. A fire signal is to be set up on Beth-haccerem (“house of the vineyard,” about 3 miles northeast of Tekoa, and overlooking the Dead Sea) to guide the fugitives in their flight, (vs. Neh 3:14).
c. Evil is seen peeping out of the north – intent on destruction, (vs. 22; Jer 1:14; Jer 4:6).
d. Destruction awaits the beautiful and luxurious Daughter of Zion, (vs. 2; Jer 4:31; Isa 1:8).
2. The enemy from the north is likened to the coming of a shepherd and his grazing flock – eating up all the green grass and devouring everything before them, (vs. 3; Jer 12:10-11; Jer 4:17; Jer 52:13; Isa 32:14; 2Ki 25:1; comp. Luk 19:43).
3. In preparation for their campaign against the once-holy city, they offer sacrifice to their gods, (vs. 4a; comp. 1Sa 7:8-10).
4. The zeal of the enemy is evident in the fact that the attack on Jerusalem is to be an incessant one -day and night, (vs. 4b-5; Jer 15:8).
5. It is Jehovah of Hosts Himself that calls for judgment upon Jerusalem, (vs. 6-7).
a. She must be punished, for she is full of oppression, (Jer 22:17).
b. As a well keeps its water cool, so does she keep her wickedness fresh, (Jas 3:10-12); within her is the cry of “Outrage! ROBBERY!” (Jer 20:8; comp. Psa 55:9-11; Eze 7:11; Eze 7:23).
c. Through her very wickedness, sickness and wounds are ever before the Lord, (Jer 30:12-13; comp. Jer 14:19).
6. Thus, Jerusalem is called upon to receive the instruction of moral discipline, (vs. 8; Jer 7:28; Jer 17:23).
a. Otherwise the soul of the Almighty will be alienated from her, (Psa 78:58-61; Psa 106:40-41; Jer 12:8).
b. And her end will be such utter desolation that her land will be uninhabited.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
WE have already seen that oftentimes punishment is not only mentioned by this Prophet as being nigh at hand, but is also set as it were before our eyes; and we have shewn the reason for this, — because men are not only deaf, but wholly thoughtless, whenever God threatens them. As reproofs make no impressions, and even threatenings are not sufficient to arouse and awake them, it is necessary to set before them vivid descriptions, and to represent the event as present. Jeremiah continues this mode of teaching; he addresses the tribe of Benjamin; for one half of Jerusalem was in the territory of that tribe; And as he was from Anathoth, he addresses his own people and kindred rather than others, as he could use greater freedom. Had he directly reproved the Jews, they might not have so well borne with him; but as he begins with his neighbors, the tribe of Benjamin, it became more easy to bear his reproofs.
Some understand the words, “Be ye assembled, and flee;” others read, “Go ye in haste, “but for what reason I know not. I do not think that flight is meant here; but I rather regard the Prophet as ironically encouraging the citizens of Jerusalem and their neighbors to go forth, as it is usual, to meet their enemies; and this we may easily learn from the context: Be ye assembled, he says, from the midst of Jerusalem; that is, Be aroused and go forth. And he indirectly condemns their indulgences, for they had been lying as it were in the bosom of their mother. Like infants in the womb, the Jews were not apprehensive of any danger; they indulged themselves, and were wholly secure and thoughtless. Hence he says, “From the midst of Jerusalem be ye assembled.” (160)
Then he says, Blow ye the trumpet in Tekoa. They were wont, no doubt, when any danger was at hand, to blow the trumpet in that town; and then the citizens of Jerusalem went forth in large bodies to resist their enemies: for the Prophet follows the usual custom, and speaks as of things well known. And set up a sign on the house of Haccerem, הכרם. No doubt this place was so called, because many forces were planted there. It means literally the house of the vineyard. It is, indeed, a proper name; but its etymology ought to be borne in mind; for as vines were usually planted on hills, it is probable that this place stood high; and a sign might have been thence given to many around. He therefore says, “Set up a sign, משאת, meshat, a word derived from נשא, nesha, which is also found here: but some interpreters render it “fire” or bonfire; others “banner;” and others “tower.” They who render it tower or citadel have no reason in their favor; for towers could not have been suddenly raised up. But it is probable, as I have already said, that thence a sign was given to those around, as from a watch — tower, whenever there was any cause of fear. I am therefore inclined to take the word as meaning a sign; for the word “banner” would have been too restricted. Literally it is, “Elevate an elevation.” The word “sign, “then, is the most suitable. (161)
For an evil, he says, from the north has appeared (162) The Prophet points out whence ruin would soon come, even from the Chaldeans, for God had appointed them as the ministers and the executioners of his vengeance in destroying Jerusalem and the whole tribe of Judah. We hence see what the Prophet means: he ridicules the Jews, who were asleep in their vices, promising to themselves impunity, and despising all the judgments of God: “Be now assembled, “he says, “from the midst of Jerusalem;” as though he said, that they could not be safe in the city, without going forth to meet their enemies: “Blow ye the trumpet in Tekoa;” and then he adds, “Let the inhabitants of Bethhaccerem, “that is, of the house of the vineyard, “set up signals; for an evil is nigh at hand, and a great distress;” from whom? from the Chaldeans. The prediction was more likely to be believed, when he thus pointed out their enemies, as it were, by his finger. It afterwards follows —
(160) See note on Jer 4:6. The meaning of the verb is, no doubt, to haste, or to hasten. It is singular that the Septuagint render it in Jer 4:6, “Haste ye,” and here, “Be ye strong.” The Targum renders it “migrate,” or, remove ye. The idea of assembling it never has. The line rightly rendered is, —
Hasten, ye sons of Benjamin, from the midst of Jerusalem.
Where Blayney got the phrase, “Retire in a body,“ it is difficult to say. — Ed.
(161) “Raise ye a sign ( σήμειον)” is the Septuagint and the Targum; “Raise ye a banner ( vexillum)” is the Vulgate and the Syriac. The word has no connection with “fire,“ as mentioned in our version, which has been derived from the Rabbins. Blayney’s rendering is, “light up a fire-beacon;” but the words admit of no such meaning. It is a general expression, and may be rendered, “Raise ye a signal;” there is no definition as to what the signal was to be. — Ed
(162) Literally, “For evil is seen from the north.” So the Vulgate and the Targum. The verb in Kal, Niphal, and Hiphil, is rendered “look” in our version. See Gen 19:28; Jud 5:28; Deu 26:15. But in Niphal, as it is found here, it may be rendered passively, “is seen;” and also in Psa 85:12; and in Son 6:10, and in most other places. Blayney renders it, “is seen coming onwards,“ which is a paraphrase. — Ed.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
CRITICAL AND EXEGETICAL NOTES.1. Chronological and Historical position of this chapter the same. (Comp. notes on 3, 4, 5.)
2. Geographical References.Jer. 6:1. Tekoa: a small town of defence in Judah (2Ch. 11:6), six Roman miles from Bethlehem (Jerome), lies on the range of hills which stretch from near Hebron eastward; about eleven miles due south of Jerusalem. Its ruins scarcely cover five acres: they consist of walls of houses, broken columns, cisterns, &c. Birthplace of Amos (Jer. 7:14). Tekoites helped in rebuilding walls of Jerusalem after Captivity (Neh. 3:5; Neh. 3:27). Town now called Tekua. Beth-haccaress means vineyard house; situate halfway between Tekoa and Jerusalem, on a mountain, probably Herodium, the site of Herods castle; known now as Frank Mountain. Town had a ruler in Nehemiahs time (Neh. 3:14). This verse indicates that it was used as a beacon station. Jerome, who wrote at Bethlehem, says, Every one knows that Jerusalem is situated in the tribe of Benjamin As for Tekoa, we see every day with our own eyes that it is a little town upon a hill about twelve [Roman] miles from Jerusalem. Between these is a other village, called in the Hebrew and Syriac tongues Bethacharma, which also is placed upon a hill. Jer. 6:20. Sheba: the kingdom of Sheba in Southern Arabia, embracing the greater part of the Yemen (Dr. W. Smith), Arabia Felix; or the chief city of Yemen, the principal province of Arabia (Kalisch). Arabic, Seb. (Comp. Eze. 27:22.) The tribe and home of the Sabaens in Southern Arabia (Naeg.). A far country: India; cane, brought thence in the caravans. Jer. 6:22. Sides of the earth; i.e., most remote regions; the scenes of their captivity; and from whence they would return (Jer. 31:8); Chaldea, therefore.
3. Personal Allusions.Jer. 6:1. Children of Benjamin: Jeremiahs fellow-countrymen, he being of that tribe, Anathoth being one of the cities of Benjamin. Originally the tribal territory was bounded on the north by Ephraim, and south by the hills of Jerusalem; but the limits were soon extended southward to the valley of Hinnom.
4. Natural History.Jer. 6:20. Sweet cane: probably the Calamus aromaticus, native of Central India, remarkable for its fragrance (Dr. Royle); or it may be the lemon grass of India and Arabia (Dr. W. Smith). The sweet cane, or calamus (Exo. 30:23), when dried and pulverised, is richly fragrant (so Dioscorides informs us); while according to Strabo its origin must be traced to Sheba in Arabia. Pliny says it was common to India and Syria. The best came from India.
5. Manners and Customs.Jer. 6:1. Set up a sign of fire: when the enemy approached, the besieged made their peril known and summoned assistance by raising a column of smoke in the daytime, or piling a blazing fire in the night. Or a lighted torch was lifted up and waved violently as a sign of pressing danger. Here it may mean, kindle a fire on the heights, mountain tops. Jer. 6:4. Go up at noon: the noon was generally too hot for aught but rest; but the eagerness of the Chaldean army is such that they are alert even at midday. Jer. 6:6. Hew trees and cast a mount: the besiegers in all ancient sieges ruthlessly cut down the trees around the city, and with them filled up ditches and constructed embankments. From these mounts they attacked the city (2Sa. 20:15; Jer. 32:24). The Jews were emphatically forbidden to hew down fruit-bearing trees (Deu. 20:19-20). (See Addenda on Jer. 6:6.) Jer. 6:9. Turn back thine hand: the gleaner is to bring his hand back again along the branches, and go carefully once more over the tendrils, lest any clusters escape: thus would Nebuchadnezzar repeat his invasions till the land was swept clean of inhabitants. Jer. 6:17. Watchmen: sentinels (1Sa. 14:16). The watchmen patrolled the city during the night and called the hours. In times of alarm and danger, watchmen were posted i. towers over the citys gates (Isa. 21:8; Isa. 62:6). They were menaced with heaviest punishments if faithless to their trust (Eze. 33:2-6). Metaphorically, this was the office of prophets (see refs. above, and Hab. 2:1). Bow and spear: for bow see notes on Jer. 4:29, Jer. 5:16. Spear: a javelin for hurling at the enemy; or lance (Jer. 50:42), used by mounted soldiers, rushing upon the enemy at full speed with lances levelled against their foe. Layards Mon. of Nin. show this the ordinary weapon of war used by the Babylonians. Jer. 6:26. Wallow thyself in ashes: to throw ashes upon the head, the symbol of intense grief (2Sa. 13:19); but to sit down in them (Job. 2:8) is a more desperate manifestation of misery and sorrow: to wallow in ashes indicates a grief wholly unbearable; a superlative figure of wretchedness. Jer. 6:27-30. A tower and fortress to try, &c. (For correct rendering of words see Lit. Crit. below.) Metaphorical language taken from metallurgy; smelting and proving ore; brass, iron, lead, silver. In ancient times, ere the use of quicksilver was known, lead was employed as a flux to assist the silver to melt; its action being so penetrating that it ran through other metals, dissolving them, and gathering to itself the alloy, thus separating the precious metals from dross. But in Judahs case the smelter or assayer could obtain no pure silver at all; the refiners art in their case failed.
6. Literary Citicisms.Jer. 6:1. Gather yourselves to fee: same word as in Jer. 4:6, translated retire: see notes in loc. Hend., Flee for refuge; Keil and Lange, simply flee; Blayney, Retire in a body. Blow in Tekoa: an alliteration, surely not a literary vanity, having no design beyond producing a paronomasia (as Keil conceives), but because Tekoa was the most southerly town where the fugitives would halt when driven by alarm of war from Jerusalem. Jer. 6:2. I have likened, &c. In Hos. 4:5, this word is rendered destroy; i.e., reduced to silence by destroying. Keil, I lay waste. Speakers Com. retains likened. Comely and delicate: Speakers Com. takes as in Isa. 65:10. fold; Jer. 23:3, folds; i.e., a pasture on which the shepherds (Jer. 6:3.) have made a temporary encampment; so that the verse stands in full, To a pasturage, yea, a luxuriant, have I likened the daughter of Zion. With this interpretation Jer. 6:3 naturally coincides. Lange, Thou art like the meadow, the tenderly cared for. Sharpe, I will destroy the comely and delicate daughter of Zion. Jer. 6:3. In his place; lit. They shall pasture each his hand; i.e., what lies to hand, close beside him (2Sa. 14:30). Jer. 6:4. Prepare war: sanctify war; i.e., prepare by religious inaugurations (cf. Deu. 20:2; Eze. 21:21-23; Isa. 13:3). Woe unto us; this is an outcry, not of the assailed but the assailing armies, which lament being held back from attack till noon heat subsides (see Manners,&c., on verse above), that time sped faster than their designs; so eager were they to execute the overthrow of Judea. Jer. 6:5. Gives the answer of the military commanders to this impatient outcry of the Chaldean soldiery. Jer. 6:10. Word made unto them a reproach: a mockery, the theme of their ridicule and contempt. Jer. 6:14. Slightly: LXX. = making nothing of it; triflingly, as but a frivolous matter; as if there were nothing serious or dangerous. Jer. 6:15. Were they ashamed, &c.: not interrog. They were put to shame; nevertheless they are not ashamed. Jer. 6:16. The good way: Keil urges that cannot be accus. appended to, but is genit. dependent on ; hence way of the good; leads to the good, to salvation; but he is alone in suggesting this. Jer. 6:18. What is among them; or, what happens in their midst, what befalls them. Vulg., what great things I will do to them. Jer. 6:25. Fear on every side. Magor-Missabib (Jer. 20:3); an ever-recurring phrase in Jeremiahs preaching (Jer. 20:10; Jer. 46:5; Jer. 49:29). This text, so frequently reiterated, he took from Psa. 31:13; effectively expounded in his discourses, and certainly suited to his age. Jer. 6:27. Tower: , from , to search out, to prove, especially metals (Gesen.) (comp. Jer. 9:7 and Job. 23:10), whence the derived noun , a trier, assayer of metals. Fortress: , from , to cut off, cut out, dig out, used of metals , (ore of gold and silver (Job. 22:24); the metal as cut out or dug out from mines). Although is an irregular form to be derived from this root, and might have as its origin , to fortify, yet the previous word seems to determine its connection with metallurgy. Hence Ewald, a cutter of ores, i.e., in order to separate bad metal from good. I have set thee an assayer and tester of ores. Jer. 6:28. Grievous revoltert: ; paronomasia; superlative form of sentence; rebels of rebels (Speakers Com.); lebels so the rebellious (Hitzig). Jer. 6:29. Bellows are burned; , either Niphil of , to burn, or the root , to snort (cf. Jer. 8:16), i.e., blow furiously in the process of smelting the ore. Lange, Speakers Com., and Keil prefer the former; the very bellows are burned with the intense heat of the fire. Hend., Rosen., Umbriet, &c., the latter; the roaring noise occasioned by blowing the bellows. Wicked are not plucked away; i.e., separated; the dross cannot be removed by all the smelters arts. Nothing satisfactory results the ore is hopelessly and irremediably base.
HOMILIES ON SECTIONS OF CHAPTER 6
Section
Jer. 6:1-9.
A vision of retributive war.
Section
Jer. 6:10-17.
Gods messenger baffled and repudiated.
Section
Jer. 6:18-26.
Bitter issues of impious effrontery.
Section
Jer. 6:27-30.
A frustrated ministry of grace.
Jer. 6:1-9. A VISION OF RETRIBUTIVE WAR
As yet no invader had set foot on the land; the city apprehended no assault: this forewarning cry (Jer. 6:1) sounded, therefore, like a groundless alarm. But the improbable quickly glides into the actual in common life, and emphatically so in Divine providence. To ignore a warning cry is to invite the sword. God never foreshadows evil too soon, never sends a seer with message of terror without the danger being imminent, and always gives forewarning that the imperilled may escape. (See Addenda to chap. 6. Jer. 6:1, Set up a sign of fire.)
I. Vivid portrayal of imminent calamity. Clearly and forcibly delineated, so that none could plead ignorance of danger. Nor can any now hide themselves under the excuse that they knew not the calamities which menace sin. 1. Zion offers a choice prize to the foe (Jer. 6:2-3). 2. The enemy is impatient to conquer (Jer. 6:4-5). 3. God commissions and commands the assault (Jer. 6:4; Jer. 6:6), even as He did the attack on Job (Jer. 2:3-7), and on Paul (2Co. 12:7); but in their case with how different a design and result! 4. From the destroyers hand none would escape (Jer. 6:9). (See Manners and Customs, above on Jer. 6:9.) Thus the daughter of Zion would find the threatened evil not imaginary, or easily avoided. When God commands vengeance on those who defy or despise Him, who shall stay His hand? Where escape be found? Behold, ye despisers, and wonder and perish.
II. Urgent appeals to seek safety in retreat. Hide ere calamity comes, not delay until destruction overtakes, (a.) Their defenced city, Zion, though the strongest fortress in the land, was condemned to overthrow; therefore flee! (Jer. 6:1). Equally, (b.) the strongholds of sinners will be overthrown; by affliction, calamity, ruthless changes which befall men in this life, and certainly by the final judgment: forsake them; flee for refuge to the hope set before you.
1. They would need shelter themselves (Jer. 6:1); though they might deem Jerusalem secure, as sinners do their refuge of lies, God forewarned them that they would want a more safe retreat; and He knew. 2. They should warn and rally their neighbours (Jer. 6:1), for they were involved in like doom, and needed like salvation. 3. Timely wisdom might propitiate God and obtain mercy (Jer. 6:8).
III. Pathetic denunciations of their hardened impiety. No appeals, however plaintive and powerful, could rouse this guilty people to fear the evil or seek defence. 1. Delineation of appalling guilt. It was (a.) Everywhere prevalent; wholly oppression (Jer. 6:6); every social grade lost to all except extortion and worldly aggrandisement. (b.) Spontaneous and ceaseless (Jer. 6:7), like a stream of foul and poisonous waters which would not cease. 2. Announcement of consequent doom, (a.) Attendant sufferings (Jer. 6:7), grief and wounds; yet alas! these did not dispose them to seek the Divine remedy, the one Physician. (b.) Abandonment by God (Jer. 6:8). Pitifully God pleads, and expostulates, and warns (Jer. 6:8); but the nation is unimpressionable; desolation therefore follows. How lamentable the contrast in Zions condition! (Jer. 6:3, comp. Jer. 6:8). Sinners who despise Gods warnings and mercy entail on themselves the saddest desolations.
Jer. 6:10-17. GODS MESSENGER BAFFLED AND REPUDIATED
A heavy burden of the Lord to carry; it wearied the prophets spirit. Who would not sorrow to prophesy evil against his own people? Patriotism and philanthropy alike shrink. Yet, when only by prophesying evil can the people be aroused to realise their peril and flee, both patriotism and philanthropy urge to the sorrowful task. Then, even the meek and gentle Jesus must reiterate His woes, and the noble-hearted Paul must with many tears portray his nations spiritual blindness and doom.
I. A prophet in despair for an audience (Jer. 6:10). To whom shall I speak? &c. None who either could or would hear. 1. Deaf; ear uncircumcised; closed with a foreskin; a suggestive figure to Jews; shutting out the sound. 2. Derisive (see Lit. Crit. on verse). 3. Depreciating; no delight in it; lost all regard and desire for communications from God. Prophet found none heedful (Isa. 53:1).
II. A prophet irresistibly constrained to preach (Jer. 6:11). Silence was not optional or possible; speak he must, whether men would hear or forbear. 1. A mighty inspiration filled him. 2. His weakness compelled him to yield; he grew weary with keeping silence and restraining the sorrowful message. 3. The whole truth must be outpoured. 4. For it refers to all, and all must be forewarned. Messages for every one, all ages included, from children to aged. Gods messenger must utter the truths he brings.
III. A prophet bearing evil tidings (Jer. 6:11-12). Bethink 1. How unwilling is the gracious God to send them. 2. How dreadful is mans rebellion which necessitates them. 3. How beautifully the Gospel reverses them. 4. How, in every case, timely repentance of sin averts them (cf. Jon. 3:5).
IV. A prophet defeated by lying messengers (Jer. 6:13-15). Forgery and falsehood tread upon the heels of truth; the enemy with tares follows the footsteps of the sower who carries good seed. Lying spirits are ever in conflict with prophets of truth. 1. Willing dupes. The people were more prepared for the false than for the true (Jer. 6:13). Sordid hearts set on this world love flattery, care not for Divine communications. 2. Plausible teachers (Jer. 6:14). They abound; trifle with human wrong; heal slightly; their influence is disastrous; delude sufferers, but not deliver them. 3. Shameless ungodliness (Jer. 6:15). The effect of resisting Divine messages and warnings is to harden sinners in their iniquity. Jeremiah saw that his ministry was neutralised by the false teachings which abounded, and by the impious indifference of the people.
V. A prophet treated with open repudiation (Jer. 6:16-17). Here is suggested, 1. A preachers varied modes of appeal. (a.) He appealed to their judgment: Stand in ways and see; examine whether the old paths are not safest and happiest. (b.) To their self-love, their spiritual advantage: Rest to your souls. (c.) To their fears and apprehensions: Hearken to sound of trumpet; the threatenings of evil. 2. The hostile attitude of sinners. (a.) They will not stir themselves to action (Jer. 6:16), either to test whether their way is good or leads to good, nor yet to gain the rest of soul which God offers and they truly need: We will not walk therein. (b.) They will not listen to the voice of sacred teachers (Jer. 6:17); they have no desire to learn their malady, to be healed thoroughly, to be guided into the good way, to gain the precious rest which Jesus gives; and they fearlessly answer all appeals from Gods servants with We will not hearken.
Jer. 6:18-26. BITTER ISSUES OF IMPIOUS EFFRONTERY
Rejecters of Gods Word imprecate His wrath (Jer. 6:19). Defiance of His warnings and pleadings merits but brief forbearance. Insulted mercy interposes no longer between the guilty and their doom. God has other resources at command when His messages are despised. He would persuade to repentance; but, that failing, He can summon calamities and subdue those who revolt (Jer. 6:22-26). Yet is He slow to anger, and never calls for judgment till defiance is not alone outspoken (Jer. 6:16-17), but incorrigible (Jer. 6:28). Even then God treats their case, not vengefully and imperiously, but judicially; calls them to trial and judgment, and appeals to the universe concerning the equity of His proceedings.
I. The court of witness (Jer. 6:18-19). God calls upon the nations, Gentiles; the congregation, probably counsellors of state; the earth, i.e., all humanity, to observe His procedure with these Jewish criminals. It foreshadows another judgment, to be conducted in the sight of the whole universe. How appalling the event! how solemnly does God conduct the sinners trial!
II. The offender arraigned. Who is the criminal? (Jer. 6:19), this people. God emphasises the identity: this people. Not a people without a history, without national distinction, without a noble ancestry, without religious advantages, without inducements to piety. Every item relating to this people formed a reason for faithful, loving allegiance with their God, and a protest against their sin.
III. The accusation against Judah (Jer. 6:19). It was not so much practical irreligion, though practices were evil and loathsome (Jer. 6:13; Jer. 6:15); it was the alienation of the intelligence and heart, expressed here as fruit of their thoughts. An evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God. This showed itself in their effrontery,meeting Gods pleadings with an unblushing refusal (Jer. 6:16-17): Paid no heed to My words, and My law have they spurned. Insolent indifference to God.
IV. The mocking pretence of piety (Jer. 6:20). They made a fair show of religion, though their heart had revolted. To obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams. God repudiates a religion of ritual: He looketh at the heart. This blatant hypocrisy, keeping up a parade of loyalty to God while their thoughts were estranged and hostile, made them more criminal and offensive. It amounted to a confession that they knew Jehovah deserved worship, yet, knowing the Lords will, they did it not.
V. The sentence of retribution (Jer. 6:21). 1. The Author of calamity: I will lay. &c. 2. The form of calamity: stumbling-blocks, i.e., incursions of Babylonians. 3. The distresses of calamity: they shall fall, shall perish. 4. The devastations of calamity: totality is implied in the enumeration of fathers and sons together, neighbour and friend.
VI. The avenging scourge (Jer. 6:22-23). 1. Remote: north, sides of earth. 2. Mighty: great nation. 3. Warlike: lay hold on bow, &c. 4. Barbarous: cruel, no mercy. 5. Ferocious: voice roareth, &c. 6. Determined: ride on horses, set in array as men for war, &c. Consider, therefore, that a messenger with gracious words from God being rejected, emissaries with avenging wrath from God will follow.
VII. The consternation of the condemned (Jer. 6:24-25). 1. The terror of anticipation (Jer. 6:24) suggests the sinners anguish of fear, dreading death, and meeting the Judge, and enduring the dire sentence beyond. 2. Hiding from destruction (Jer. 6:25), even as in Rev. 6:15 et seq.
VIII. The anguish of punishment (Jer. 6:26). 1. Abject wretchedness: wallow in ashes. 2. Excruciating grief: most bitter lamentation. 3. Melancholy loss: as for only son, for spoiler come upon us. The loss of Gods love, the sacred inheritance, inward peace, all comfort; and the endurance of shame, misery, and bitter oppression. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Oh, that the mourning were timely,not after the ruin as a fruitless consequence, but before the ruin as a preventative. For penitential tears might avert the doom. Weeping for suffering brings no remedy, but weeping for sin ere judgment comes, prepares the mourner to welcome the Saviour.
Jer. 6:27-30. A FRUSTRATED MINISTRY OF GRACE.
(See Lit. Crit, on verses.) In language of metallurgy, God sets forth the design of Jeremiahs ministry in the midst of Judah, and the hopeless moral condition of the nation; for not even the most earnest efforts to call them back to true religion could regenerate or restore a people so irremediably debased. (See Addenda to chap. Jer. 6:30, Reprobate silver.)
I. A tentative ministry (Jer. 6:27). An assayer and tester of metals. Gods preachers prove their hearers, test their real state, their thoughts and aims, their spiritual attitude. Even as with our Lord (Mat. 3:12); and the Word of God (Heb. 4:12-13).
II. Base material (Jer. 6:28). Either (1.) their ignoble quality; mere copper and iron, not silver and gold; or (2.) their obduracy; hard and defiant. Described as revolters; i.e., they resist good: walk with slanders; i.e., they deprecate good; all corrupters; i.e., they mar and spoil whatever good they hear or find; communicate their own badness to others.
III. Unavailing remedies. 1. Intense zeal effected nothing. Jeremiahs fervour, metaphorically suggested in the bellows which became burned by the very fierceness of the heat produced, indicates the prophets self-consuming earnestness to reform Judah. 2. Prolonged endeavours proved impotent. The smelter continued his toils and kept the heat at full glow till the very lead was consumed. 3. Evil was inseparable. The founders work could not effect a separation of Judah from her corruptions and idolatries (Joh. 3:19; Mat. 23:37).
IV. Hopeless abandonment. 1. God despairs of them; gives over any further effort to restore them to piety. 2. God surrenders them; as worthless: no longer will He claim them, or own them. None of His, is the sentence of their irrevocable doom. They are cast away. All divine grace and forbearance became lost upon them; they frustrated every effort on Gods part for their good. He came seeking fruit, yet found not. Regenerative aids were applied (Luk. 13:8); opportunity was patiently allowed for utilising advantages; all failed, and the tree was cut down, for it cumbered the ground. The lesson: Except repent, likewise perish (Luk. 13:5).
HOMILIES AND OUTLINES ON VERSES OF CHAPTER 6
Jer. 6:1. Theme: IRONICAL CALLS TO SALVATION.
Impossible that the prophet could encourage hope that they would escape the foe by quitting Jerusalemthe fortress most capable of resisting the Chaldean armyand securing themselves in Tekoa and Bethhaccerem. The call is full of irony: Seek a secure refuge from the advancing enemy, and evade Gods threatened judgments if any method of escape avail: none shall be found, destructions will be great. Let the soul who is without Christ, defenceless against death and judgment, see well to his resources of safety when sudden destruction cometh upon him.
I. Mocking challenges. Having refused Gods salvation, save yourselves! Desert the Rock of Ages; shelter yourselves in a more secure fortress. Rejecting Divine grace, take care of your own spiritual interests. Apply to rejecters of Christ, self-righteous, fatalists.
1. Leave your impregnable fortress, on whose strength you complacently relied: Flee out of Jerusalem. When the peril and panic come, men will see at once they must surrender their old defences, their cherished delusions, their refuted theories, their failing hopes.
2. Find a safe retreat, if you can. Tekoa is the remotest city of defence, most distant from the foe who advances from the north; flee to that. Or, if you deem a mountain height safer, hasten to Bethhaccerem. Is there no sure refuge for the soul which finds itself suddenly driven forth from its complacent assurances, its falling strongholds? Oh where can rest be found?
3. Defend yourselves against assault. Blow a trumpet; muster all your forces of resistance. Struggle with the foe ere you yield: do not let death easily vanquish you; will not courage serve you in that emergency? will not your righteousness save you from the charges of the foe? When the enemy cometh in like a flood, when Justice calls the sinner to Gods bar, let him summon to his aid all his resources of self-sufficiency, and stand in his own integrity if he can.
4. Rally others to resistance of the foe. Set up sign, &c. Warn them of peril, point them to safety; for none should limit his efforts to self-salvation. Let those who can save themselves lend aid also to others. Each is his brothers keeper; owes duties of help and deliverance to those in peril. Will they who are secure in their own religious theories and refuges rescue the perishing, and save him that bath no helper? That is a poor substitute for Christianity which leaves a soul so impotent that it has no hope or help to spare for others in danger. A Christian is both saved himself, and he can save a soul from death (Jas. 5:20).
II. Menacing realities. Mans resources of salvation are mere fictions, but the perils from which he needs salvation are appalling facts.
1. Insecure defences. Zion would become a retreat at the first (Jer. 4:6); yet here the refugees and residents within Jerusalem are forwarned that its fortifications would not protect them. The stoutest stronghold would fail. No security in which the sinner intrenches himself will prove a source of safety when the evil comes. Our defences cannot keep out sorrow, nor conscience, nor terror of an outraged God, nor death, nor the punishments of sin.
2. Invincible foes. Irresistible in their force, and Divinely authorised in their assault, certain therefore to conquer. Ours is an unequal war with powers mightier than we, a hopeless struggle against the evils which God lets loose upon those who refuse His salvation. Confront them not; brave not rashly the fearful issues. A prudent man foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself. Flee for refuge, &c.
3. Inevitable ruin. A great destruction. Great in what it destroys: Gods nation; the human soul; precious hopes. Great in the completeness of the overthrow: dire devastation; irremediable ruin. For no ray of light illumes the profound gloom of mans final appalling overthrow. Seek ye the Lord; seek righteousness, seek meekness; it may be ye shall be hid in the day of the Lords anger.
Jer. 6:2. Theme: DELICACY AND DESIRABLENESS OF ZION.
(a.) As a possession of Gods people. No spot so sacred, so restful, so longed for, so beloved. Type of the Christians home.
(b.) As a prize for the spoiler. Every nation coveted it, and fought for it. Even asif Milton be rightSatan conspired to grasp the Eternal City of light, and as sinners still crave to secure it; for every man eyes the splendid prize. Blessed are they that have right to enter through the gates into the city. (cf. Rev. 22:14-15). Contemplate the:
I. Pre-eminent graces Divinely lavished upon her. Beautiful for situation, &c. Her temple the perfection of beauty. The pride and glory of Gods people. Glorious things are spoken of thee, O city of God. Suggests the Celestial City, the realm and home of Christs redeemed people (Revelation 21).
II. Honours and privileges enjoyed within her.
To ascend the hill of the Lord, and stand within His holy place, was the rapturous dream of Jewish youths, the holiest joy of devout Israelites. Thither the tribes go up. With songs to Zion: Lift up your heads, O ye gates, &c. There realised in Thy presence fulness of joy.
III. Sacred facts attested by her history.
That God will in very deed dwell with man upon the earth; that He has desired to dwell amid His people; that propitiation may be made before Him, and offerings presented for His acceptance; that streams make glad the city of God,
Streams of mercy never ceasing;
that there may be blessed communication between God who is in heaven, and man upon the earth; that the High Priest enters into the holy place for us, and we are free to seek Gods face.
IV. Glorious promises encircling her future.
Nations shall gather there; Gods light shine thence; millennial glories centre there (Isa. 2:2-4). And when the first earth shall have passed away (Rev. 21:1), then the New Jerusalem shall descend out of heaven from God, having the glory of God, and the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it; while the glory and honour of the nations shall be accumulated within it.
Within that holy city only they can have a place who are written in the Lambs book of life.
Note: The word woman is not in the Hebrew text; some supply the word pasturage:I have likened the daughter of Zion to an inviting and luxuriant pasturage.
1. Where only the flock of God may feed. 2. Where green pastures and still waters abound. 3. Where the Good Shepherd guards the sheep He knows. 4. Wherein no ravening wolf may intrude. 5. Where blessed rest of soul may be enjoyed.
Jer. 6:3. Comments:
Shepherds, i.e., hostile leaders; with their flocks, i.e., armies (cf. Jer. 1:15; Jer. 4:17; Jer. 49:20; Jer. 50:45); pitch their tents, besiege; feed every one in his place, consume all that is near him; so abundant is the pasturage, the treasures, that each one is satiated with the booty he plunders. The Chaldean princes with their armies would sack Jerusalem, consuming and appropriating all her rich possessions.
Jer. 6:4-5. Theme: IMPATIENCE TO POSSESS JERUSALEM.
The sentences arrange themselves thus:
I. A royal proclamation of war.
This emanates from the palace at Babylon: Prepare ye war against her. Yet it originates with the King of kings, whose will Nebuchadnezzar works out. Prepare: properly sanctify war. Religious solemnities always preceded war in ancient times. This royal summons implied a set purpose, due preparation, and prompt action.
Christ calls His army to war against spiritual wickedness in high places; and on their part there must be (a.) set purpose; (b.) religious preparation; (c.) prompt action.
Soldiers of Christ, arise!
The King of kings calls His forces to conflict (Eph. 6:11 et seq.).
II. The eagerness of invading armies. No sooner commissioned than they encourage each other to instant and concerted action. Arise, and let us go up at noon!
(a.) Their impatience of conquest; would make assault at once.
(b.) Their indifference as to convenience or comfort; at noon, though the scorching sun usually led to suspension of hostility until the fierce heat was gone.
All this should have analogy in our efforts to win the kingdom; delaying not an hour, disregarding all thought of a more convenient season. The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force. Arise, and let us go up!
III. A cry of restless disappointment. Woe unto us, for the day goeth away, &c. (See Addenda to chap. Jer. 6:4, Propitious opportunities lost.)
(a.) Propitious hours for acquiring conquest soon end. They set to the task promptly, yet the day went away all too quickly; the shadows of evening fell upon them with their designs incomplete. The night cometh! What thou doest, do quickly. Nevertheless, the light fades too soon, our plans are not accomplished so easily or so early as we had thought. Redeem the time.
(b.) Delay in conquest lamented as a grievous loss. Alas! for us. They feel themselves seriously to be losers by even a temporary postponement of victory. And are we not sufferers, lamentably losers, by the delay of spiritual conquests? Every hour which interposes between us and the accomplishment of our aims, in seeking victory over sin and hostile forces, and in attempting to possess ourselves of the Divine heritage, is a painful loss, a personal calamity. With alacrity let us besiege the kingdom, losing not an hour.
IV. No obstacle should defer their assault. Arise, let us go by night! Not even the darkness should stay their zeal.
(a.) Their dauntless purpose; nothing deters or defeats them. The kings business requires haste. Determination despises difficulties.
(b.) The unfavourable season. How many have their night season, all dark and bewildering: yet keep on vigorously, not suspending your efforts to gain victory over evil, to seize the prize, to secure the precious spoils of the kingdom. Wrestle on, as did Jacob, through the night.
(c.) Rewards encouraged their persistence; palaces. These contained rare treasures and vast wealth; hence their zeal. But who wins the kingdom of heaven by determined assault gains unsearchable riches and many mansions. Arise! let us claim those palaces.
Jer. 6:6. Theme: SET APART FOR JUDGMENT. This is the city to be visited.
God points out Jerusalem to the invaders: their stroke must not miss its true mark; judgment shall not miscarry. He leads forth the guilty one to her merited doom; He leads on His ministers of justice to the right transgressor. How terrifying this thought: a soul branded, set apart, delivered over to the due reward of sin!
I. Individuality of the transgressor. This is the city. Each stands out distinct in the Divine gaze. We are not massed together in a general estimate by God. Every one shall give account of himself to God. Each sinner dwells alone in Gods thoughts. Therefore, though hand join in hand, God does not lose sight of the individuality of each; He discriminates. You are distinctively watched by the EYE which never errs.
II. Definiteness of human sin. She is wholly oppression. All sin is not alike, either in nature or degree. The Judge of all distinguishes; associates the special iniquity with the individual transgressor. He sets our secret sin in the light of His countenance. Jerusalem is oppression; that is her distinctive crime: she is wholly oppression; that marks the extent of her criminality. Your sin is known to God; and be sure your sin will find you out.
III. Public presentation of the criminal. This is the city. God exposes her to view; of angels, that they may know how righteous are His judgments; of men, fellow-sinners, that they may be warned, lest they come into like condemnation; of foes, that their assault may be directed to the right object; for every one shall bear his own iniquity. The great judgment of men will be public, and the transgressor will be placed in the open gaze of the universe.
IV. Deliberate consignment to punishment. The city to be visited, punished. What! so fair a city, so delicate (Jer. 6:2), so long honoured by God, the joy of the whole earth, the city of the great King! Ask you incredulously, Can a soul, so noble, formed for God, long privileged with sacred favours, be abandoned to foes? Look for answer on Jerusalem, ravaged and consumed with fire! Beauty only intensified her loathsomeness when linked to villany. Nobleness adds to the horrors of degradation when it becomes prostituted to baseness. Shall God spare Jerusalem, or us, because of an historic dignity? That fact increases our guilt, for we abused our birthright, sold it for a mess of pottage. The righteousness of the righteous shall not deliver him in the day of his transgression (Eze. 33:12). Depart from Me, all ye workers of iniquity. If any man draw back, My soul shall have no pleasure in him (Heb. 10:38).
Jer. 6:7. Theme: SPONTANEITY AND SPOLIATIONS OF GUILT. As a fountain casteth out her waters, &c.
Within ourselves is such a fountain. From the fount of evil, even in childhood, flows such waters as disobedience, passion, falsehood, &c. In youth, they flow more abundantly, increase unto more ungodliness; impurity, vanity, wilfulness, outraging conscience, wronging Christ, &c. In maturity the streams pour forth in steady, habitual wrong: All the imaginations of the heart are only evil continually. Such the case of a depraved heart, into which no purifying grace enters. Yet, as the tree cast into the bitter waters made them sweet (Exo. 15:25), so Divine love can make all the outgoings of the human heart pure and good.
I. The exhaustless outflow of sin.
1. As something which is natural to us: Casteth out her waters, her wickedness. Leave ourselves free, and sin follows naturally.
2. As something which easily gratifies itself: the waters flow forth spontaneously, without effort. We enjoy the pleasures of sin. Wrong-doing is congenial, gratifying. Out of the heart proceed (easily and pleasurably) evil thoughts, &c.
3. As something which has a perennial source. Its waters never pause. The more we sin, the more copious our capacity and versatile our resources of sinning. Guilt never runs dry. As a fountain, whose waters ceaselessly flow, sin will not be restrained; it will find and force a way out.
4. As something which pours itself out in plenitude. Good and gracious thoughts and deeds come forth even from the best of us in feeble quantities; but the heart casts out her wickedness in full flow: Out of the abundance of the heart. What copious streams of evil flow forth from one sinner! What magnitude of sins in one life, one day! If they could be reckoned up! (See Addenda to chap. Jer. 6:7, Continuity of sin.)
II. The woful outrages of sin. Violence and spoil, &c.
The outflow of sin is pleasurable to the sinner; it is gratifying as being natural. It costs no effort or restraint. But it works direful ravages on otherse.g., drunkenness, libertinism, extortion malice, &c., destroys homes, breaks hearts. Like deadly blight across fair plantation, or fire over golden harvest fields. Look on the disease and death in the world, all the bitter effects of sin.
1. The external wrongs done by sin. Violence and spoil.
2. The internal wounds suffered by the sinner. Grief and wounds.
Man estimates the external ravages of sin above the internal miseries; he cries out because of violence, &c.; he laments the misfortunes, the spoil, which sin brings upon his life.
But God looks within. Before Me continually is grief and wounds. What a spectacle of inward corruption does the eye of God behold! Oh, the hidden griefs of sinners! How dreadful the spoliations of conscience, of affections, of the godlike soul!
There avails for us the healing, redeeming grace of Jesus. He is acquainted with grief, our grief; and He can heal our wounds, for He was wounded for our transgressions, and with His stripes we are healed.
Jer. 6:8. Theme: GODS UNWILLING SEPARATION FROM JUDAH. Lest my soul depart from thee.
It implies Gods soul was knit to, fixed upon His people. Depart, is a strongly expressive word; be torn from thee. God was tenderly attached to the holy city, had chosen to put His name there, and nothing but the extreme wickedness of its inhabitants could have moved Him to withdraw His affection from itHenderson.
Note: 1. The God of mercy is loth to depart even from a provoking people, and is earnest with them by true repentance and reformation to prevent things from coming to that extremity. 2. Their case is very miserable from whom Gods soul is disjoined; it intimates the loss not only of outward blessings, but of those comforts and favours which are the more immediate and peculiar tokens of His love and presence. 3. Those who forsake God are certainly undone; when Gods soul departs from Jerusalem she soon becomes desolate and uninhabited (Mat. 23:38).M. Henry.
i. The infinite goodness and patience of God towards a sinful people, and His great unwillingness to bring ruin upon them.
ii. The proper and effectual means of preventing the misery and ruin of a sinful people. Be thou instructed.
iii. The miserable case and condition of a people when God takes off His affection from them.Tillotson. (See Addenda to chap. Jer. 6:8, Gods withdrawment from man.)
Jer. 6:9. Comments:
The Jews are the grapes, too choice to let any remain unplucked; the Chaldeans are the unsparing gleaners, intent on thoroughly cleansing the vine of all its valuable produce.
As the vintagers return again and again to the vine so long as any clusters can be gathered, so would the Babylonians renew their invasions till all Judah was carried into captivity, and the land left bare: They shall thoroughly glean, &c.
This is Gods address to the Chaldeans, Turn back thine hand, &c.; and they literally obeyed the Divine bidding (cf. Jer. 52:28-30). (See Addenda to chap. Jer. 6:9, Glean Israel as a vine.)
Jer. 6:10. Theme: PREACHING RENDERED USELESS.
This is marvellous, that words from God could become void of effect. For bethink:
1. That preaching is Gods chosen method of awakening and conversion.
2. That preaching is the appropriate and established agency by which the Holy Spirit works in quickening human souls.
3. That there is a conscience in man upon which Divine messages act with startling force.
4. That the Word of God is itself quick and powerful.
5. That manifold Divine promises guarantee the preacher against failure when speaking for God. Yet text.
I. A bearer of tidings from Heaven finds none to whom to address them. He stands like one who arrives with a proclamation on the borders of an uninhabited desert, bewildered to discover no hearers. What is he to do? The case is no better when a preacher finds hearers, but they refuse him a hearing, or let him preach on without the slightest heed. The prophet is:
1. In distress that none were prepared to regard his warnings; amazed at their stolidity, defiant unconcern, immovable complacency, indifference to peril. Men still obdurate and frivolous.
2. In perplexity as to what course to adopt to enlist their attention. He could, of course, speak and give warning; but he wished so to do this that they may hear. Always the preachers perplexity, how to arouse mens serious heed to the things he speaks. Without this responsive attention, the preacher warns to no purpose, without hope of success. Paul tried all resources (1Co. 9:20-23). Yet what solemn tidings Jeremiah brought! What glad tidings the Christian preacher brings! (Isa. 52:7-10).
II. Men who need these tidings from Heaven are without capacity for hearing Divine truths. Other sounds can enter their ears, but not sounds from Heaven. A whisper from earth concerning earthly things is instantly and eagerly heard, but the thunders roar from the skies concerning heavenly things finds them deaf to sound. Why? Their ear is uncircumcised.
1. They do not want to hear: hearing disquiets them.
2. They do not intend to hear: have resolved to hear nothing from God, nothing against themselves or their sins. Thus they cannot hearken. Prejudice deafens men; unbelief deafens; wilful ignorance deafens (comp. Gal. 3:1). Hence men hear from God and of Christ in vain. Yet THEY NEED these tidings. Judah did, so as to escape destruction which was imminent. We need tidings from Heaven, for they announce the only salvation available, the Jesus our souls want.
III. Divine messages repelled by men with antipathy and scorn.
Note: The prophets cry of amazement and fear. Behold the word, &c. It fills him with alarm. To trifle with words from Jehovah! To throw from us the saving truths of the Gospel! How astounding mans conduct in putting aside with heedlessness the invaluable messages of Heaven! (See Addenda to chap. Jer. 6:10, Gods Word; no delight in it.)
1. Gods chiding words are resented as a calumny, as an undeserved reproach; they felt themselves aggrieved and affronted by the remonstrances and condemnations Jeremiah brought. What blinding pride, what besotting vanity this reveals! They determine not to hearken to Gods Word because it lashes their sins.
2. Gods pleading words are received with contumely; depreciated and derided as being uncalled for. What had they to fear? They saw no danger, recognised no urgency in propitiating God. They have no delight in it, means they turn away with aversion, they appreciate not the Divine mercy which sends the Word; they believe not in the necessity for such a message. Hence they scorn. They would none of my counsel; they despised all my reproof (Pro. 1:30). Jerome remarks: Inability [they cannot hearken] which proceeds from scorn and unbelief is not exempted from punishment. God must rebuke such wilful insensibility (comp. Jer. 6:19).
Jer. 6:11-13. PREACHING MADE INEVITABLE.
If men repudiate the preachers word (see above on Jer. 6:10), may he keep silence? Silence is impossible, he cannot restrain himself; speech is imperative, for God commands him to speak: Pour it out. Gods communications to him must be communicated to men. We cannot but speak the things we have seen and heard. Woe is unto me if I preach not the Gospel. Thus utterance is necessitated:
I. By the irresistible force of inward Divine impulse. I am full of the fury of the Lord; I am weary with holding in.
1. How unwilling to proclaim the evil tidings! Sad task for Gods messenger. Tell you even weeping.
2. How exhausting the burden of the Lord! Wearies the heart. Painful to have to utter sad truths; more painful to refrain.
Gods anger at the wickness of the people had been, as it were, poured into Jeremiahs heart, and he tried to restrain it in vain.Speakers Com.
This fury was not Jeremiahs holy ardour, which was irrepressible in him, but burning displeasure Divinely awakened in him towards the insensate nation. The fury of the Lord, which did not refer to or reflect upon himself, therefore must not be kept to himself, but poured out.
II. By the necessity of society to hear the Divine threatenings. 1. Whether they wish to hear them or not. 2. Whether they regard and act upon them or not. 3. Whether they profit by their hearing, or, by abusing warning, increase their condemnation. God (a.) allows none to dwell in ignorance; He sets before us life and death; (b.) leaves man without excuse; if he despise warning and perish, his blood is upon his own head. But, whether as life unto life, or death unto death, men must hear.
III. By the inclusive application of the solemn messages. They relate to all ages and sexes. (See Addenda to chap. Jer. 6:11.)
1. The inclusive consequences of sin. From child to aged, man and wife, all had sinned,all condemned. So death passed upon all, for that all have sinned. Disease of sin is upon all.
2. The comprehensive displeasure of God. Pour it out (the fury of the Lord), upon the children, young men, parents, of ripe years, and very aged. This anger of God is justified by Jer. 6:13.
IV. By the terrible character of the nearing woes (Jer. 6:12).
1. The merciless severity of the invading foe. Less severe than our adversary the devil (1Pe. 5:8; Rev. 12:12; Luk. 12:5).
2. The clear and emphatic predictions of these woes. (See Deu. 28:30.) Possessions greatly prized, houses and fields; treasures jealously guarded, wives. Homes seized, affections disregarded, lifes dearest ties severed. So in the judgment to come, sinners will lose all they had, and be sundered from all they love. Our woe, if unsaved, is clearly foretold (Heb. 10:26-29).
3. The hand of God will accomplish the sinners overthrow. For I will stretch out my hand, &c. (cf. Heb. 10:30-31).
V. By the appalling corruptions which invoked the judgments (Jer. 6:13). Against such sinfulness the preacher must protest and pronounce. Amid such a corrupted society, Gods messenger can only utter woes. He has no promise or pleading for men sunk in wilful and defiant iniquity. (See Addenda to chap. Jer. 6:13. Covetousness.)
Knowing the terrors of the Lord, we persuade men.
Jer. 6:14. Theme: HEALING OUR WOUNDS SLIGHTLY. (See Addenda to chap. Jer. 6:14. Peace where no peace.)
Accommodating prophets, who taught delusions, because corrupt hearers said, Prophesy unto us smooth things; prophesy deceits. Thus lulled to sleep in their sins, while heaviest judgments of God impended. Lament such delusive ministrations (Eze. 13:22; Deu. 29:19-20). Yet men love to deceive themselves, to silence convictions of conscience. Show:
I. What need we all have of healing. Sin has affected all the powers of our souls. 1. Asserted in Scriptures. 2. Confirmed by experience. But, as many think themselves healed whilst in perishing condition, show:
II. Who they are that heal their wounds slightly. 1. They who rely on the uncovenanted mercy of God, fatally deceive their souls by expecting mercy contrary to Gospel. 2. They who take refuge in a round of duties; no attainments can stand in the place of Christ (Php. 3:9). 3. They who rest in a faith that is unproductive of good works; but the faith that apprehends Christ will work by love, and purify the heart, and overcome the world.
III. How we may have them healed effectually.
1. The Lord Jesus has provided a remedy for sin (Isa. 53:5). 2. That remedy applied by faith shall be effectual for all who trust in it (Isa. 1:18).
Address: i. Those who feel not their need of healing. Christianity is a remedy, and presupposes a deep malady, which nothing finite can heal. ii. Those who, after having derived some benefits from Christ, have relapsed into sin. If continue thus, last end worse than first (Jer. 3:12). iii. Those who are enjoying health in their souls. A man under power of sin feels spiritual duties irksome; but he whose soul prospers, and is in health, finds the ways of God full of delight.Simeon.
Theme: EVILS OF FALSE SECURITY.
Though people live thoughtlessly about their souls, they generally satisfy themselves with some maxim of security: on the strength of this they hush within them every alarm of conscience. A large class of such slender and sentimental religionists, who profess reverence, maintain outward decencies, are visited with occasional tender thoughts of its solemnities, would be shocked at infidel opinion, and have their minds comfortably made up. Yet in their tranquillity there is not a single ingredient of the Gospel, joy and peace in believing.
This deceitful complacency needs salutary alarm. How is it persons reach this state of easy confidence?
1. There is a disposition to acknowledge, in a general way, that they are sinners, though also to palliate the enormity of sin, and to gloss it over with the gentle epithet of an infirmity.
2. Then to make all right, and secure, and comfortable, the sentiment is cherished that God is a merciful God, and will overlook our infirmities.
A slight hurt needs but a slight remedy; being but gently alarmed, a gentle application avails to pacify.
I. This mercy, so slenderly spoken of and vaguely trusted in, is not the mercy which has been made the subject of an actual offer from God to man. He has stepped forth to relieve us from the debt of sin; but He has taken His own way of it (Joh. 3:36).
II. The evils of such a false confidence.
1. It casts an aspersion on the character of God. Those who find their way to comfort without any reference to Christ, ignore Gods truth or His righteousness; His threatenings, purposes, the everlasting distinction between obedience and sin, &c., become a meaningless parade.
2. It is hostile to the cause of practical righteousness. Though a man confess to infirmities, he will smother all apprehensions, and regale his fancy with the smile of an indulgent God. It tends to obliterate all restraints, on the specious plea of all-availing mercy, and leaves every man to sin just as much as he likes. Thus peace, where there is no peace, spreads its deadly poison over the face of society, and a sentiment of deep and fatal tranquillity concerning salvation and Gods demands on the soul takes up its firm residence in a world which sends up a cry of rebellion against Him. This is a sore evil.Chalmers.
Jer. 6:15. Theme: SHAMELESSNESS IN SIN THE CERTAIN FORERUNNER OF DESTRUCTION.
He who has thus sinned himself past feeling, may be justly supposed to have sinned himself past grace.
i. Extraordinary guilt. They had committed abomination.
ii. Their deportment under their guilt. They were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush.
iii. Gods high resentment of their monstrous shamelessness, implied in the vehement interrogation, Were they ashamed?
iv. The judgment consequent thereupon. Therefore shall they fall, &c.
I. Show what shame is, and its influence upon mens manners.
II. By what ways men come to cast off shame, and grow impudent in sin. 1. By the commission of great sins. 2. Custom in sinning. 3. Criminal example of great persons. 4. General and common practice. 5. To have been once greatly and irrecoverably ashamed.
III. The several degrees of shamelessness in sin. 1. Showing respect to sinful persons. 2. Defending sin. 3. Glorying in it.
IV. Why it brings down judgment and destruction upon the sinner. 1. Because shamelessness in sin presupposes a long course of sin. 2. Because of its destructive influence upon the government of the world.
V. What those judgments are by which it procures the sinners destruction. Scripture supplies instances of judgment on shameless sinners. 1. A sudden and disastrous death: e.g., Zimri, slain by sword of Phinehas. 2. War and desolation: e.g., Benjamites (Jdg. 19:20). 3. Captivity: e.g., Judah, whom the prophet here denounces.
Where there is no place for shame, there can be no place for repentance. Shamelessness means impenitence, and impenitence, destruction.R. South, D.D.
Jer. 6:16. Theme: THE OLD PATHS.
I. The denomination: Old paths, i.e., way of obedience, worship, piety. Old, because: 1. Ordained from eternity. 2. Herein all the saints have walked. 3. Tried, and found pleasant and profitable.
II. The description: Good way. A path may be old, yet not good; this is both. When may a path be called good? 1. When safe. 2. Direct. 3. Frequented. 4. Pleasant. 5. Firm and passable.
III. The directions: Stand, see, ask, walk. None can find this path at random, none walk in it ignorant of where they are. They who seek this path should be: 1. Cautious in their observations. 2. Earnest in their inquiries. 3. Prompt in entering thereon.
IV. The destination: Ye shall find rest to your souls. 1. In the journey many blessings of rest will be enjoyed, as contentment, satisfaction, cheerfulness, security. 2. Afterwards there will be fulness of rest: the path leads to eternal repose, happiness, glory.
It is the path of faith; they who tread it first journey to the cross; then, leaning on arm of the Beloved, travel to home of saints. Christ beckons to all who inquire, and says, I am the Way.Sermon Framework.
Theme: THE GOOD OLD WAY.
Whatever bears stamp of antiquity upon it finds favourable reception; innovations are distrusted. Inquire:
I. What is that old and good way? Not holiness alone, but, 1. A penitential affiance in God, through Christs mediation (Joh. 14:6). 2. A cheerful obedience to Him: Take my yoke, &c. (Mat. 11:29). Both of these bear mark of antiquity, from righteous Abel downwards. And they must be good, for (a.) Appointed by God Himself. (b.) Approved by all His saints. (c.) Tend to the perfecting of our nature; and (d.) To the adornment of our religion.
II. What is our duty respecting it? It becomes us, 1. To inquire after it; not presume we are right, but stand and see; ask those whom God has appointed as guides, search sacred oracles, implore teaching of Holy Spirit. 2. To walk in it. Knowledge useless without practice. Come into it, renouncing every other: continue in it.
III. Encouragement given to us. They who walk herein shall find: 1. Rest in their way (Rom. 5:1-2). The work of righteousness is peace, &c. 2. Rest in their end. Rest remaining to the people of God.Hannum.
I. The way. This cannot be the way of the wicked (Psa. 36:4). It is the way of scriptural piety; the course of faith and love. Called a way, because leads to enjoyment of eternal life (Mat. 7:4); is the certain way to it (Rom. 2:7), and the only way (Heb. 12:14).
1. Called the old way. Moses was actuated by faith (Heb. 11:24-27); and taught the way of love (Deu. 6:4-5). Old as the days of Noah (Heb. 11:7) and Enoch (Gen. 5:24). Certainly for us as old as Christianity (Joh. 14:1; Joh. 15:12).
2. Called the good way; for those walking in it are good (Jas. 3:17); and do goodto their families (Deu. 5:29), their country (Pro. 14:34), and to the world (Mat. 5:13-14). And the way itself is good; in its origin (Psa. 143:10), and its tendency (Pro. 19:23).
II. Gods command.
1. Stand ye in the ways and see. (1.) Some facts are here assumed: that though but one good way, there are many evil ways; that all men are walking in evil ways (Isa. 53:6); that we are naturally ignorant of the good old way (Jer. 10:23); yet we are capable of discovering and walking in it. (2.) Some duties are here enjoined: make an immediate pause for purposes of examination; stand (Hag. 1:5); seriously examine in what way you are walking; see (2Co. 13:5); observe well the tendency of evil ways (Rom. 6:21).
2. Ask for the old paths, where is the good way. Inquire by searching Scriptures (Joh. 5:39); asking direction of God (Jas. 1:5); associating with the pious (Pro. 13:20).
3. And walk therein. (1.) Get into it: not remain out of it, by delay (Job. 22:21; Job. 36:18); not stop short of it, by resting in deficient attainment, merely talking of, thinking about, or desiring it (Mat. 11:29; Joh. 14:6). (2.) Keep in it: by resisting temptation (1Pe. 5:8-9; Luk. 21:36), by improving in piety (2Co. 7:1).
III. The promise. Rest for your souls.
1. The blessing promised. (1.) In this world: from anguish of guilt (Isa. 12:5); from oppression of Satan (Mat. 11:28); from torturing fears (Psa. 34:4); from inward defilement (Joh. 15:2; 1Co. 1:9). (2.) Glorious rest in heaven: from all temptation (Job. 3:17), suffering (Rev. 21:4), danger (Mat. 6:20). Rest for your souls; the consciousness of enjoyment in this life (Rom. 8:1-2), and after death (Rev. 7:14; Rev. 7:17). Rest such as souls require: eternal (Psa. 16:11).
2. Its certainty. Ye shall find. Seek it as God requires you, and it is certain. (1.) From His all-sufficiency (Gen. 14:22); His kindness (Isa. 45:19); His truth (1Th. 5:24).
Application: Falsehood of some objections to a course of piety
1. That this strict religion is a new way. Nay; sin is Satans novelty. 2. That it is an injurious way; unfavourable to the interests of men. Rather, the good way, most beneficial (1Ti. 4:8). 3. That it is a melancholy way. No; peace through life (Luk. 1:78-79), peace in death (Psa. 37:37), and rest for ever (Rev. 14:13).Sketches of Four Hundred Sermons.
Theme: RESOLUTE SPIRITUAL INACTION. Walk therein; but they said, We will not walk therein.
It is more than an invitation from God; an imperative demand.
I. The summons to spiritual exertion. Ruin may ensue from mere sloth: neglect of salvation. Need not be active resistance, only inactive indifference. Therefore he saith, Awake, thou that sleepest, arise from the dead, &c. We are called to exertion
1. To discover the right. 2. To gain the good. 3. To find the sacred rest.
Indolence is disastrous in itself and issues, offensive to God, and prohibited alike by the Gospel of Christ and the cravings of our soul.
II. The necessity of personal effort. Never yet did a soul glide passively and insensibly into salvation, from death unto life. 1. An erroneous and wandering life is one of activity. We have turned every one to his own way. 2. Our spiritual return demands both our volition and endeavour: repentance and reformation must be done by us, cannot be done for us. 3. No force from without ourselves will set us right. God commands, persuades, and calls; Christ invites and pleads; the Spirit strives; but no power forces. We must walk. Active, earnest concurrence.
III. The defiance of godless inaction. We will not walk! 1. No disposition to leave the evil: prefer wrong ways. 2. No effort to find the good way: Men love darkness rather than light; Ye will not come unto Me that ye might have life. 3. No appreciation of the offered rest: enjoy rioting and pleasures of sin. 4. No apprehension of the awful issues: eternal unrest of soul. No peace to wicked, tribulation and anguish, &c. (Rom. 2:9). It is high time to awake out of sleep. Strive to enter in at the straight gate. Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest (Heb. 4:11). (See Addenda to chap. Jer. 6:16. Rest for your souls.)
Jer. 6:17. Theme: RECKLESS INATTENTION TO WARNING.
Watchmen, used of sentinels (1Sa. 14:16), but metaphorically of prophets (Isa. 52:8; Eze. 3:17; Hab. 2:1). Sound of trumpet was the signal for flight (see Jer. 6:1; cf. Amo. 3:6).
I. Approaching calamity (Jer. 6:19).
1. Merited. 2. Devastating. 3. Long-delayed. 4. Unrecognised. 5. Imminent. Compare the nearing invasion by Babylonish foes to the subtle yet terrible spiritual disasters approaching the sinner.
II. Reiterated forewarnings. Not one watchman, but many, through the successive years of Judahs (and our) decline. 1. Gods reluctance. 2. Mans opportunities. 3. None left unwarned. 4. All called to escape.
III. Rousing alarms. Sound of trumpet. The case is too urgent for gentle means, the peril too appalling! 1. Clearly heard by all. 2. Easy to understand. 3. Startling calls from God. 4. Offers of propitious interval. Escape possible, if men will but listen and hide.
IV. Deliberate inattention. We will not hearken. 1. Incredulity: Surely a false alarm. 2. Insensibility: We have nothing to fear; deserve no judgments. 3. Wilful delusion: Have no desire or intention to be disturbed in our sins. 4. Ruinous infatuation: meanwhile the northern foe speeds towards his unsuspecting prey (Jer. 6:22). So likewise do death and doom hasten to the Christless: and how shall ye escape if ye neglect so great salvation?
Jer. 6:18. Comments.
Hear, ye nations. As the Jewish Church refuses to hear Gods voice speaking by the prophets, He now summons the Gentiles to witness its condemnation.Speakers Com.
And know, O congregation, i.e., the few godly souls in the midst of apostate Judah forming the congregation of My people; or else the statesmen and counsellors of surrounding nations, who are called to observe in Judahs overthrow that verily there is a God that judgeth in the earth.
What is among them, i.e., what deeds are committed by Judah, and what punishments (righteous and inevitable) are to be inflicted upon them.
Jer. 6:18-21. Theme: THE RIGHTEOUS JUDGMENTS OF GOD.
i. They do not shun publicity, but rather appeal to the moral sense of the whole world. ii. They bring upon men their merited recompense. iii. They can be averted, not by outward worship, but by honest submission to Gods Word (Jer. 6:19-20).Lange.
Jer. 6:19. Comments.
Hear, O earth. A decree so solemnly proclaimed can be of no light importance; and, therefore, the Fathers, not without reason, understood it of the rejection of the Jews from being the ChurchSpeakers Com.
God appeals to the whole world as to the equity of His proceedings. Observe what is doing among those of Judah and Jerusalem; you hear of the desolations brought upon them; the earth rings with it, trembles under it; you all wonder that I should bring evil upon this people that are in covenant with Me, profess relation to Me, have worshipped Me, and been highly favoured by Me. Know, then:
i. That it is the natural product of their devices. The evil is the fruit of their thoughts. They thought to strengthen themselves by alliance with foreigners, and by these forbiden alliances shall they be overthrown.
ii. That it is the just punishment of their disobedience and rebellion: because they have not hearkened, &c. They would never have been ruined thus by the judgments of Gods hand if they had not refused to be ruled by the judgments of His mouth.M. Henry.
Jer. 6:20. Theme: SUBSTITUTES FOR PIETY REPUDIATED.
The text reads literally, To what purpose is this to me that incense cometh from Sheba, &c. God wanted what was nearer home, their faithful allegiance and their hearts love; and what was of greater value, truth in the inward parts.
Note that God repudiated this ritual homage at a time when Josiah was engaged on temple restoration; thus emphatically refusing the most elaborate and devoutly arranged ceremonialism as a substitute for personal holiness and practical piety.
I. The resources of religious insincerity. Incense from Sheba; sweet cane from a far country.
1. Costly substitutes. 2. Foreign importations. 3. Fragrant offerings. So the modern innovations in Christian sanctuaries: ritualism is costly, foreign in its origin, and not a little fragrance mingles with its sensational services. So the theological vagaries of our age, theories which cost the sacrifice of precious truths, foreign speculations which intrude upon the simple Word of God, fragrant to many who have lost all enjoyment of the things of Christ. Men take great trouble to substitute the true.
II. The performance of superficial worship.
1. The outward forms of religion may be continued where inward homage has perished; burnt-offerings and sacrifices. 2. Externals are frequently multiplied as an extenuation of conscious inward defalcations. 3. Outward homage it proper and pleasing to God as an expression of heart allegiance: show faith by works. 4. Mere external piety it a solemn mockery and a hollow pretence: their altar offerings and personal sacrifices were both a lie unto God.
III. The rejection of heartless piety. Not acceptable, nor sweet unto Me. Sacrifice and incense were asked by God as suggestive of repentance, and an incentive to their faith in a Mediator; but they became an abomination and outrage when used to cover and excuse sin. 1. Acceptable offerings necessitate truth in the offerer. To obey is better than sacrifice. 2. Sacrifices are only sweet as they express the hearts true love of God. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, &c. He prizes the oblations of contrition, affection, and faith; these are in the sight of God of great price. Let all our sacrifices bear to God the sweet savour of Christ, being offered in dependence on His merits and mediation; for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.
Jer. 6:21. Comments.
Stumbling-blocks. The Babylonian invaders (so Keil, Hend.), who would be instruments of Judahs utter overthrow, eventuating in indiscriminate ruin. But another meaning may be given: The Jews having established themselves in courses of insincerity towards God, would sink into such general habits of insincerity among themselves (for the step is natural from falsity with God to falsity one with another), as to lead to utter social hypocrisy, anarchy, recrimination, antagonism, ruin. Every tie of family and friendship severed by the prevailing deceitfulness which wrecked all honour and alienated all affection. This is indeed but the fulfilment of a natural and moral law; the ultimate overthrow of deceivers, taken in their own nets; Haman hanged on the gallows he made for Mordecai.
I will lay stumbling-blocks; for it is Gods punitive law which works this infliction on the sinner of his own sin. With what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.
Jer. 6:22-26. See Homily on section, supra.
1. How furious the foe (Jer. 6:22-23). 2. How terrifying their attitude (Jer. 6:23). Set in array, &c. 3. How indefensible and weak the assailed. Against thee, O daughter of Zion. Hide me, O my Saviour, hide! 4. How paralysed with apprehension (Jer. 6:24). 5. How encompassed by the merciless adversary (Jer. 6:25). To flee (Jer. 6:1) is now impossible. What a literal foreshadowing and exposition is here of events at the day of the Lord! (comp. 1Th. 5:2-3). Then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.
Jer. 6:26. Theme: A WOFUL SPECTACLE OF RUIN.
On the coming disasters the prophets eye now gazed; he foresaw it in all its vivid details, and from his pallid lips rose a wail of consternation, a cry of anguish over Zion.
I. A sight for patriotic anguish. O daughter of my people! He loved his nation, felt her woes, pitied her very weakness, lamented the dreadful spoliation at hand; yet could not interpose or save. How distressing this helpless pity! A father watches his dearest daughter agonise and die; but can do nothingonly writhe and weep. A patriot sees his nation wounded, wronged; yet is powerless to rescue or avenge. A pastor beholds the tender ones of his flock fall a prey to the despoiler; cannot deliver, only deplore. But Jesus saw humanity perishing; with infinite pity He sorrowed, and with infinite power He saved.
II. Judah abandoned to misery. Gird with sackcloth, and wallow in ashes. Yet this was not repentant anguish; for she still loved the sins which wrought her woe. Nor was it remedial anguish; for now rescue and redemption were for ever gone; her day of hope had passed. The spoiler is come! 1. It was permanent abandonment to misery. Gird thee with sackcloth; not merely clothe thee with it as if for a day only, but fasten it to thee as thine unchangeable attire; for the woe will not be transient.
2. It was extreme abandonment. Wallow thyself in ashes. To cast ashes upon the head showed deep grief; to sit down in ashes, yet deeper distress; but to wallow in them expresses unbearable anguish and intense self-abhorrence. Oh, how dreadful this condition for the tender and delicate daughter of Zion! (Jer. 6:2); how fearful the degradation and misery with which a sinful career closes!
III. The woful grief of despair. Make thee mourning, as for an only son; most bitter lamentation. Lit. a lamentation of bitternesses (plural): suggesting the many and aggravated occasions for her grief. 1. For her wilful career of rebellion against her patient God. 2. For the depths and intensity of her iniquities. 3. For the repudiation of her many opportunities of escape. 4. For the shameful and excruciating ruin into which she has fallen. 5. For the utter loss of all her honour and happiness. 6. For the dishonours which her conduct and ruin cast upon Jehovahs name. 7. For the most bitter thought that hope and redemption were finally and irretrievably forfeited. Oh, that thou hadst known, even thou, in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes (Luk. 19:41-44).
IV. Merciless spoliation of the foe. The spoiler shall suddenly come upon thee. Contrast Zionthe perfection of beauty before Nebuchadnezzar laid hand upon her; and the wild wasteblackened with fire, temple and walls demolished, and all her people carried awayto which she was reduced. How rightly called the spoiler! Contrast manin image of God, redeemed by Jesus, visited by the Holy Spirit; with what he becomes when earthly, sensual, devilish; and when the soul is finally surrendered to the arch-spoilers ruin.
Is there no hope? None was left for Judah; but for us it is written, God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ!
Jer. 6:27. Comments.
I have set thee for a tower; rather for a prover or refiner of metals. (Comp. Jer. 9:7.) I will melt them and try them (same verb). The prophet was set by God to be a touchstone to try the people, and prove what manner of spirit they were of. If they received his word, they were sterling ore; if not, they were reprobate silver, mere dross. In a larger sense, the Written Word, and also the Incarnate Word, are set for the trial of the world, that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.Wordsworth.
The power dwells in Christs word generally to compel men to separation and decision; for no one can remain neutral towards Him long. He makes manifest the real condition of the heart.Naeg.
Jer. 6:28. This gives the issue of the testing; the moral character of the people is hopelessly, irremediably bad; Jeremiahs ministry had made that evident; they were like brass and iron, base and obdurate.
Jer. 6:29. Bellows, the prophets: are burned, consumed, worn out by continual blowing. Prophecy has exhausted all its fervour upon Judah. Jeremiahs heart, consumed by the intensity and heat of divine inspiration, can labour no longer.
As the bellows of the refiner are burnt in the midst of the fire, so the voice of the prophet is silenced which said, Turn ye to My law! And as the lead which melts in the fire, so the words of the prophets who prophesy to them are made of none effect, and the people are not profited by the teaching of their preacher, and do not repent of their sins.Targum.
The lead is consumed of the fire. Anciently, instead of quicksilver, lead was used for the liquefaction of silver, so as to separate the base ingredients from the precious metal. When goldsmiths wish to purify the silver, they add lead to it. When preachers would try their hearers, they must apply the law. The fire is Gods Word (Jer. 23:29); the bellows, the Holy Spirit in the mouth of the teacher; the metal, the hearers.Cramer.
The wicked are not plucked away. The bad are not separated, i.e., the base ingredients, the bad principles and habits which prevail so much, and adhere so closely, that all the endeavours and pains of the refiner prove ineffectual, so that nothing remains but to throw them aside as a metal disallowed and cried down (Jer. 6:30) by authority, as counterfeiting silver, but not capable of being brought to the sterling standard.Dr. Blayney. (See Addenda to chap. Jer. 6:27-30.)
i. Gods dealings and messages are designed to separate sinners from their sins. ii. He uses all means to qualify sinners for salvation ere He consigns them to destruction. iii. God proclaims them reprobate and castaway upon whom the energies of His grace are spent in vain.
Jer. 6:29. Theme: THE BELLOWS BURNED.
Prophets spoke in parables to excite attention, to illuminate a doctrine, to fix truth on the memory. The bellows are burned. Words apply:
I. To the prophet himself. He complains that he spake with such pathos, energy, force of heart, that he exhausted himself without being able to melt the peoples hearts; so hard was the ore that the bellows were burned before the metal was melted; the prophet was exhausted before the people were impressed. So also with Noah, Isaiah, John the Baptist, Jesus Himself, though never man spake like that Man. Nor since, by apostles, confessors, zeal-consuming preachers has the iron-hearted world become melted; but they themselves have suffered and perished amid their work. Bellows burned.
1. It is the preachers business to continue labouring till he is worn out. 2. The Gospel he preaches is the infallible test between the precious and the vile.
II. To the afflictions which God sends upon ungodly men. Sent to see if they will melt in the furnace or not. But where there is no grace in affliction the afflictions are sooner exhausted than the sinners heart is made to melt under the heat caused therebye.g., Pharaoh, not softened by all the plagues. Ahaz, when he was afflicted, he sinned yet more and more. Jerusalem, often chastised, yet incorrigible. Sinners, upon whom Gods judgments exert no melting power.
III. To the chastisements which God sends upon His own people. The Great Refiner will have His gold pure, and will utterly remove our tin. There are unloving children, who will even rebel till they draw down blows upon themselves. Do not let it be said that the bellows are used till they are worn out before our afflictions melt us to repentance and cause us to let go our sins.
IV. The time is coming when the excitement of ungodly men will fail them. Many activities are kept up by outward energies inciting men. 1. Excitement in pursuit of wealth. Yet how little will the joys of wealth stimulate you in your last moments! 2. Excitement in pursuing fame. Alas! men burn away their lives for the approbation of fellow-creatures; and these fires will die down into darkness. 3. Living for pleasure; but satiety follows, and the flame of joy goes out. 4. Hypocrisy is with some their bellows; but this feigned zeal and pretended piety will end in black despair.
V. To those excitements which keep alive the Christians zeal. In certain Churches we have seen great blazings of enthusiasm, misnamed revivals, mere agitations. Genuine revivals I love; but these spurious things are fanaticism. Why was it the fire soon went out? The man who blew the bellows left the scene of excitement, and darkness ensued. Our earnestness is worthless which depends on such special ministrations. Is the fire in our soul burning less vehemently than in years past? Our obligations to live for Christ are the same; our Masters claims on our love are as strong; the objects for which we served God in the past are as important. Should we grow less heavenly the nearer we come to the New Jerusalem? Of the true excitements of a Christians zeal it can never be said the bellows are burned; but if zeal is flagging, some other motive than a heavenly must have acted at the first. Examine yourselves whether ye be in the faith; if not, no wonder your piety declines.
Let every flying hour confess
We bring Thy Gospel fresh renown;
And when our lives and labours cease
May we possess the promised crown.
C. H. Spurgeon.
NOTICEABLE TOPICS IN CHAPTER 6
Topic: DIFFICULTIES OF OLD AGE WITHOUT RELIGION. Text: Woe unto us! for the day goeth away; for the shadows of the evening are stretched out (Jer. 6:4).
A painful subject, but one to which it is necessary to call the attention of procrastinating man: the difficulties and sorrows of old age without a vital union with Christ and the comforts of His love.
I. That period of life during which the Saviour grants to men the privileges of the Gospel is known under the appellation of a day of grace; a day in which He waits for the sinners repentance, and is peculiarly ready to aid his efforts.
The great object to attain during continuance of this day is reconciliation to God. They who seek Him early are promised they shall find Him. If man be wise in the morning of that day of privilege, the way of return to God is filled with encouragement. In old age this reconciliation is rendered painful and embarrassing by this difficulty, The day goeth away. Period of grace almost come to a close. The aged sinner must necessarily reflect on long duration of mercy passed unimproved. Every privilege of the Gospel brought individual responsibility; render account therefore to holy God.
Day goeth away: it has been enjoyed in the fulness of its privileges; but since unimproved, tended only to increase the guilt and danger of the soul. For fifty years the Redeemer has called you, angels of mercy have watched for conversion, Divine Providence crowned your way with loving-kindness and tender mercy. How hard and difficult now to arouse your soul; or, if aroused, how difficult to combat your fears of being too late, of hope being lost through long delay!
II. Second difficulty to prevent the return of the aged sinner to Christ is, the short period of grace now left to him. The shadows of evening are stretched out.
Many wasted years gone; very few now remain for the souls salvation. As life passes away, the work to be done increases, yet time is diminished. Death now stands at the door. Aged sinner is tempted to despair of escaping the ruin so close upon him. Satan uses this difficulty which his own heart presents, and allures him to quiet himself under the load of his sins: there is now no opportunity for any slow work of grace.
III. Third difficulty in the way of aged sinners arises from the increased hardness of their hearts.
When young, conviction agitated their minds: solemn proclamation of Divine truth awoke attention; their eyes could weep under gospel preaching; affections could be attracted by hopes and promises; often felt excited towards a life of holiness and peace. Now, no such feelings. Unmoved. This hardness of heart, the necessary accompaniment of age, and of a long continuance in an unconverted state, forms a serious difficulty to returning to God.
IV. Fourth difficulty, as hedging up the aged sinners return, is the pride of character which attends the advanced periods of life.
Heart may be moved, conscience awakened, desire roused to lay down burden and find peace; but an assumed dignity and coldness of manner, are drawn over a broken and bleeding spirit, because the acknowledgment would be humiliating to the age and station of the individual. Yet soul must humble himself, if find rest. Age furnishes no exception; rather requires deeper abasement. This acknowledgment of sin and misery, to children, domestics, and friendsconfession that all these years he has been wrong, is painful and repulsive.
Your time is short, difficulties are many. Yet nothing impossible with God. Immediately turn to Christ. Flee for refuge!Rev. Stephen H. Tyng, Philadelphia.
Topic: THE GOOD WAY. Childrens Sermon. Text: Ask for the good way (Jer. 6:16).
A dream of children who went through gate, regardless of placard warning of danger, because bright and smiling flowers grew among the tall grass. Went on picking them; merry voices rang with glee; unconsciously went further into the tangled wood, lost all knowledge of way out, and terrified to find among the thick grass loathsome and poisonous snakes; hurrying from them they slipped down over hidden rocks into deep stagnant water, and lost. Turn ye from evil ways, for why will ye die? (See Isa. 30:31.) Keep in the old paths, where taught to tread, though others invite.
I. Wrong ways are not so happy as they promise to be.
We do not deny that ways look inviting and seem right, even promise to prove good, but are evil and end in death. Pleasures of sin, although wages of sin is death. Very inviting, or not so many go. Excursion train dashed off gaily; but line insecure, and dreadful disaster ensued: would so many have gone had they known the way was dangerous? If you leave old paths because you think new ways not disastrous and more enjoyable.
1. Inviting ways do not always prove good. Do not judge that to be best which looks most attractive. Flowers not sweetest which are gayest. Nor fruit. You find out the delusion by trying them. Yes; you say, We should like to try for ourselves the different ways, even those forbidden! Rather prove for yourselves than take the word of others. But on a bottle at home is a label Poison: will you take the word of others, or try for yourselves? On rocks a lighthouse, warning ships of ruin: will any captain be so rash as try for himself, and steer ship to death? (Pro. 14:12.) Scenes of amusement, self-indulgences, courses of irreligion, neglect of sanctuary and prayer: these invite you from old paths; but remember the degradation and misery of the prodigal son!
2. Your own way is not always happiest or best (Pro. 13:15). We all like to have our own way. Many of us did for years, but heard Voice of Mercy call Repent! Remember that having their own way is just what the world of sinners is doing! (Isa. 53:6.) As silly sheep. Will you do as the doomed world? Why, all home and Sabbath teaching is to warn you from that! (Comp. text with Jer. 6:7.) By doing this you grieve the Spirit, set yourself against Christ, allow yourself to be led captive by devil, and court doom. In Pilgrims Progress, Christian got out of Slough, but, instead of going to Wicket Gate, turned aside and wandered into terrors and troubles. But Evangelist met him, and put him in right way again. Who is Evangelist? Read Bible; obey text; hear Jesus, I am the Way! Follow Me!
II. The good way is happier far than it looks.
False thought that Christian life means sadness, all joy darkened. Yet true that Jesus says, Take up cross and come after Me.
1. Why is not the Christian way all easy? Bird teaching young to fly, how distressed the young seem! She might have spared them. Would it have been kindest? No; better they should learn to soar, though not easy. So child learns to walk; youth to breast the stream; boy brave the ordeals and trials of school. Nobler men. Boy with every fancy gratified, no hardships or self-denials, becomes selfish, self-willed, ruined. Crosses are rugged blessings.
2. Though not so attractive as other paths, the Christian way is really best. Two heaps of coins: new bright copper, old dull gold: yet the gold, though smaller and duller, the best.
3. The Christian way brings rest to those who tread it. Walking through open country, became lost amid different paths; worried and wearied; at length right, and soon at rest; for knew it was the one right way, and led safe home. Not wait till home (heaven) before have rest. Peace within now (Pro. 12:28).
Think how many have gone that good way to heaven! B.C. 612 Jeremiah called it old. Now nearly A.D. 1900. Yet millions tread therein (Mat. 7:13-14). Take your place with the Christian followers. Ways of pleasantness, and paths all peace.
Topic: THE ANCIENT PATHS. Text: Ask for the old paths (Jer. 6:16).
In Palestine paths are the only thoroughfares; through indolence or selfishness even these became obliterated; then men who went from tribe to tribe were obliged to thread their way through thickets and over rocks in the most inconvenient way. Transition is easy from an outward physical path to a moral meaning: roads men walk with their feet suggest the road mens thoughts habitually walk in, the path in which their feelings are accustomed to move, the way in which their conduct naturally flows.
In this secondary sense use text to point out the necessity, in all who would go right, of keeping upon the old ways, the ascertained ways, which, in the experience of mankind, have been proved beneficial. We are not to hold on to anything as if it were the perfect form of thought, or the final form of principle; but we are to hold on to all those things which long and ripe experience had shown to be beneficial until something more beneficial can be put in their place.
I. Our boast of novelty, our glorying in our newness, as if we were in advance of everybody and everything else, is a fanciful mistake. Our thoughts, and all the channels of our thoughts, are the result of the thought and experience of thousands of years that are gone by. Political habits and customs, knowledge of right and equitythese have been gradually unfolded through ages past. Combinations are new, elements are old. We did not first dig up the precious gold, nor first unlock the secrets of philosophy. Yet we congratulate ourselves that we do not belong to the old, slowly-moving ages; are proud of our progressiveness, and it is fashionable to make it a matter of boasting.
II. The present time is noticeable for an extraordinary outbreak of activity along new lines of thought and belief. Historic researches, disclosures of truths of the past, scientific discoveries and prophecies, have set imagination on fire; and men feel as though old things were passing away, and all becoming new. The consequences are
(a.) Men are inclined to doubt generally the social and moral results of past experience, to repudiate long accepted social maxims and customs. (b.) General distrust is being thrown upon religious teachings: not positive unbelief, but uncertainty. And by shaking confidence in religion its real power is destroyed. Thus thousands are abandoning old pathsold thoughts, usages, customs, habits, convictions, virtues. Tendency developed in this direction in art and literature. Leading men in history and science are tending away from the old grounds of Christianity. This is a fact of profound importance, and should command the attention of those who believe Christianity to be of God.
III. Consider that there are certain great permanencies of thought, character, and custom, especially necessary in our time. Note: (a.) That moral and social progress can never be so rapid as physical developments. Men cannot be changed in their principles, feelings, and inner life in the same ratio as external changes go on. Progress is always fastest in the lowest stages. You can teach men to accomplish great physical results, as in steam, telegraphy, &c.; but if you go higher and teach them to be more just, merciful, and pure, the process is slower. There is no proportion between the rapidity with which we develop in physical things and the rapidity with which we develop in that part of our manhood which is highest and divinest. (b.) There is danger in giving up any belief or custom which has been entwined in our moral sense. Regard as sacred the first principles of truth. What would be thought of a man who considered it necessary to perfection in literature that he should despise the alphabet? It was as necessary to Isaac Newton when he was fifty as when he was five years of age. It goes on with a man all his life long. It is not safe to remove even the imperfect things of mans earlier life until they are superseded by something higher. Better the Parsee should worship light than by astronomical proofs to destroy his delusions, and so leave him with no God. So with heathenism; with those who slavishly bow their souls to authority of the Church; with votaries of Romish error,it is not safe to take away a mans view because it is inaccurate, unless you give him a more accurate view. You thereby destroy his faith, however faulty, and thus have destroyed the life that was in him, and left him a desert. (c.) In the transition from a lower to a higher form of belief there is peril. Dangerous to pass from one religion espoused in youth, to another espoused in manhood. Many have sailed out of the harbour of Popery, and been wrecked ere they reached the harbour of Protestantism. Thousands have deserted the orthodoxy in which early taught, and never got into any other religion at all. Hence, we are not to think it our duty in a headlong way to change mens belief simply because they are erroneous. As if changing from one mode of belief to another was going to change the conscience, reason, moral susceptibility, and character.
IV. The relinquishment of trust or of practice should always be from worse to better. If a man has a poor way of looking at religion, care less to convince him of his poverty than quietly to convince him of a better way. If you want a traveller to have a better road, make that better road, and then he will need no argument to persuade him to walk in it. If you are teaching that one intellectual system is better than another, and that one religious organisation, church, or creed, is better, prove it by presenting better fruit than the other, and men will need little argument beyond. The first proof that a man holds a better system of religion than his neighbour, should be in himself: the life will be the evidence. If a Church breeds meekness, fortitude, love, courage, disinterestedness; if it makes noble menuncrowned but undoubted princesthen it is a Church, a living epistle which will convince men. What we want is not change, except for betterment.
V. All new truths, like new wines, must have a period of fermentation. Daring leaders in scienceI believe them to be men who are throwing out ore which, when it is smelted and purified, is to be precious indeed. Germs of truth are in their moral teaching. But, shall men abandon old beliefs, and take these germs of truth that lie in the heavens like mere nebulous clouds?
(a.) All truths are at first on probation; must be scrutinised, persecuted, ransacked, vindicated. We are not wise if we follow these new lights before knowing what they are, their extent and practical application.
(b.) Guard against wild and unreasonable urgency in throwing off traditional faiths and truths, for those you can discover for yourselves. Accept what other men construct for you. This is a factor in civilisation. Yet when men come to questions of religious belief they deem it unmanly that others should think for them! We are so related, by the laws of God, one to another, that no man can think out everything for himself. Is it then wiser to plunge into the realm of nothingness or the unknown, to give up your belief at once when its validity is questioned? or is it not wiser to hold on to the faith of your father and mother till you can see something better still? It is wiser for man to abide by the truths and laws of God till better ones can be substituted.
VI. We do well to look cautiously at new truths and those who advocate them. There is a tendency to praise scientific men as though they were the only persons who applied themselves to find out facts. But remember scientific men are no better than other men; no more likely to be right in spirit, just as likely to be vain and arrogant. They are all human; are to be absolute authorities for nobody. There is a conceit, a dogmatism, a bigotry of science, as really as there is of religion. Application:
1. That all the tendencies which narrow the moral sense and enlarge the liberty of the passions are dangerous. 2. All tendencies which increase self-conceit are to be suspected and disowned. Seest thou a man wise in his own conceit? There is more hope of a fool than of him. 3. Those tendencies which extinguish in a man all spiritual elements, such as arise from faith in God, in our spirituality and immortality, must inevitably degrade our manhood. No heroism ever grows out of abnegation of these great truths. 4. All tendencies which take away your hope of and belief in another world, take away your motive for striving to reach a higher life. Without this hope men will have a weary pilgrimage in a world of unbelief.
Make better paths if you will, but abandon not the old: and least of all abandon that one which leads straight to Jerusalem. For along that way the ransomed of the Lord shall return with songs unto Zion.H. Ward Beecher.
ADDENDA TO CHAPTER 6 ILLUSTRATIONS AND SUGGESTIVE EXTRACTS
Jer. 6:1. Set up a sign of fire. Fire signs are used as a telegraph in some parts of the South Seas. A native at Tanna, in giving me the news one morning, said, There will be a party over from the island of Anciteum to-day or to-morrow. How do you know? Because we saw a great bonfire rising there last night. The natives of heathen islands are also in the habit of kindling fires as a smoke signal to attract the notice of a vessel which may be off their shore. Sometimes, when we are wondering whether there are any natives among the dense bush which we see from the ship, up goes a column of smoke and removes all doubt.Turners Polynesia.
Jer. 6:4. Woe unto us, for the day goeth away.
Propitious opportunities lost. Opportunities are the golden spots of time, like the pearl in the oyster-shell, of much more value than the shell that contains it. There is much time in a short opportunity.Flavel.
The proverb, Take time by the forelock, had its origin in the old pictures of Father Time, who appeared as bald-headed, excepting a lock of hair upon his forehead. Our fathers were accustomed to bury an hour-glass with the dead, as a symbol of time and opportunity utterly past away.J. G. Pilkington.
Grotius, the laborious scholar, had for his motto, Hora ruit. Seneca taught that time was the only thing of which it is a virtue to be covetous.
In the city of Basle, Switzerland, it was the custom to have all the clocks of the city an hour a-head of time, for the following reason: Once an enemy was moving upon the city, and their stratagem was to take the city at 12 oclock; but the cathedral clock, by mistake, struck 1 instead of 12, and so the enemy thought that they were too late to carry out the stratagem, and gave up the assault, and the city was saved.Talmage.
Jer. 6:6. Hew ye down trees. The importance of preserving fruit-bearing trees from destruction in sieges [cf. Deu. 20:19-20] is evident, when we remember how much larger a proportion of mans subsistence than in our climates is, in the East, derived from fruit-bearing trees. Among the Syro-Arabian nations, their destruction is regarded as a sacrilege. It is related that in one of his wars, Mohammed cut down the date-trees of the Ben Nadi (a tribe of Jews in Arabia); and, in order to justify this act to his own indignant followers, he had to produce a pretended revelation sanctioning the deed: This revelation came down: What palm-trees ye cut down, or left standing on their roots, were so cut down or left by the will of God, that He might disgrace the evil-doers. Plutarch says that similar regulations restrained the Egyptians from destroying fruit-trees. Other nations were less scrupulous, as among them the Assyrians (and, doubtless, the Babylonians also); for, in at least one instance, we have noticed a palm-tree being cut down outside a besieged city. Josephus expressly records the destruction of trees by the Romans. So completely has this prophecy been fulfilled, that the neighbourhood of Jerusalem has become entirely divested of trees in the course of the successive sieges to which the city has been exposed. When the Crusaders under Godfrey commenced their siege, no timber could be found for the construction of their engines.Kitto.
Jer. 6:7. Continuity of sin. If you commit one sin, it is like the melting of the lower glacier upon the Alps, the others must follow in time. Set the coral insect at work, you cannot decree where it shall stay its work. It will not build its rock just as high as you please, it will not stay until an island be created.Spurgeon.
Jer. 6:8. Lest my soul depart from thee.
Gods withdrawment from man. Think of God sending a famine upon the soul, of minds pining and dying because Divine messages have been withdrawn! We know what the effect would be if God were to withdraw the dew, or to trouble the air with a plague, or to avert the beams of the sun; the garden would be a desert, the fruitful field a sandy plain, the wind a bearer of death, summer a stormy night, and life itself a cruel variation of death: so penetrating, so boundless is the influence of God in nature. Is it conceivable that the withdrawment of Gods influence would be less disastrous upon the spirit of man?Joseph Parker.
Jer. 6:9. Glean Israel as a vine.God has two kinds of vintage: one is in grace, when He plucks His glorious grapes, the fruit of good works, and says, Destroy it not, for there is a blessing with it (Isa. 65:8). But where He finds only poisonous berries (Isa. 5:2), He employs other vintagers with iron gloves, and presses them out in His anger (Rev. 14:20), till neither stem nor stalk is left.Cramer.
Jer. 6:10. Gods Word: no delight in it. A wealthy gentleman invited his servants, on a festive occasion, into his house to receive presents. What will you have? said he, addressing the groom, this Bible, or a twenty-dollar note? I would take the Bible, sir, but I cannot read; so I think the money will do me more good. And you? he asked the gardener. There is illness at home, sir, and I sadly want the money. You can read, said the old man, turning to the cook, will you have this Bible? I can read, was her reply, but I never have time to look into a book, and I need fresh garments most. Last came the errand-boy. My lad, said his kind benefactor, will you take these twenty dollars, for you surely want new clothes, or would you like the Bible? Thank you, sir, my mother has taught me that the law of the Lord is better than thousands of gold and silver, I will have the good book, if you please. As the boy received the Bible and unclasped its covers, a bright gold piece rolled on the floor. Quickly turning its pages, he found them interleaved with bank notes, while his fellow-servants, discovering the mistake of their worldly covetousness, hastily departed in chagrin.Dictionary of Illustrations.
Jer. 6:11. A classification of society. Children, young men, &c. Five stages of human life are successively marked out. The children, with no higher object in life than a game of play in the streets (Zec. 8:5). The youths, in what in modern phrase we should call their clubs, for such is the meaning of the word rendered assembly, whether they meet there for friendly converse (Psa. 89:7), for merriment (Jer. 15:17), or for that love of secret combination so natural at their age (Pro. 15:22, cf. Psa. 55:14). Next comes middle age, represented by the husband with his wife. Then the elder, the man who has grown-up children (here called the aged), but is strong and vigorous. Lastly, the man whose days are full, whose work is done, and who has but one thing leftto die.Speakers Com.
Jer. 6:13. Every one given to covetousness. As the dog in sops fable lost the real flesh for the shadow of it, so the covetous man casts away the true riches for the love of the shadowy.Adams.
Jer. 6:14. Peace, where there is no peace. It is a lamentable fact that, without any hireling shepherd to cry Peace, men will cry that for themselves. They need not the syren song to entice them to the rocks of presumption and rash confidence. There is a tendency in their own hearts to put sweet for bitter,to think well of their evil estate and foster themselves in proud conceit. Let men alone, let no deluder seek to deceive them, bush for ever every false and tempting voice, they will themselves, impelled by their own pride, run to an evil conceit, and make themselves at ease, though God Himself is in arms against them. To be tormented on account of sin is the path to peace, and happy shall I be if I can hurl a firebrand into your hearts.Spurgeon.
Jer. 6:16. Old path: good way. The case assumed is that of a traveller, who, on his journey, finds himself at the opening of many ways, and knows not with any assurance which of them leads by the safest and most direct road to his resting-place. He seeks a most ancient city, the way to which men have traversed in all ages. That fresh footpath, through the flowery meadowsthat bridle-path round by the marshesthis fresh cutting through the hills,these will not do for him: he must ask for the old path. But there may be more old paths than one. The broad and pleasant way that leadeth to destruction is as old as the straight road that leadeth unto life, and far better frequented. It is, therefore, necessary to seek not only the old path, but the good way. Although every old way may not be good, the good way is certainly old; if, therefore, the traveller finds and follows the way that is both old and good, he is safehe shall without fail reach his home at last, and find rest for his soul.Kitto.
Jer. 6:16. Rest for your souls. St. Augustine, after having given himself to every form of pleasure and gratification which the world provided, was at length brought to repose in the faith, and began his Confessions with the words, Thou, O Lord, hast created us for Thyself, and restless is our heart until it finds rest in Thee. Dryden used to avow himself contented when sitting under the statue of Shakespeare; and Buffon, the naturalist, spoke of the happiness he felt when sitting at the feet of Sir Isaac Newton; but we know Him who invites us to sit at His feet, thus choosing, as Mary did, the good part, and says, Learn of me, and ye shall find rest to your souls.
Jer. 6:27-30. The prophet, in the first figure, represents himself as a trier of metals, who first takes the rough ore in hand in order mineralogically to distinguish its constituent parts. In the second figure, the ore is exposed to fire, in order in that way to test its metallic value (Jer. 6:29). In what follows, he makes use of a third figure: Israel is here definitely presented as silver ore; but in the smelting, it appears that the silver is so mingled with the stone that the production of clear, pure silver is impossible.Naeg.
Jer. 6:30. Reprobate silver. This, then, is the end: The Lord hath rejected them. The smelter is Gods prophet, the bellows the breath of inspiration; the flux, his earnestness in preaching. But in vain does the fervour of prophecy essay to melt the hearts of the people. They are so utterly corrupt that no particle even of pure metal can be found in them. All the refiners art is in vain. They have rejected all Gods gifts and motives for their repentance, and, therefore, Jehovah has rejected them as an alloy too utterly adulterate to repay the refiners toils.Speakers Com.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
D. Approach of Judgment Jer. 6:1-30
Chapter 6 contains a dramatic description of the advance of the foe against Jerusalem (Jer. 6:1-5) and the subsequent siege of that city (Jer. 6:6-8). The enemy will be completely successful in destroying the city (Jer. 6:9-15). At this point in. the chapter Jeremiah offers to the people a prescription of deliverance from impending judgment (Jer. 6:16-21). Then he reverts to a description of the coming conqueror (Jer. 6:22-26). The chapter concludes with an indication of the hopeless task of the prophet of God (Jer. 6:27-30).
1. The advance of the foe (Jer. 6:1-5)
TRANSLATION
(1) Seek refuge, O children of Benjamin, from the midst of Jerusalem and in Tekoa blow a trumpet! At Beth-Hakkerem rise up a signpost! for calamity peers down from the north, great destruction. (2) The beautiful and dainty one, the daughter of Zion, I will cut off. (3) Unto her shall come shepherds with their flocks; they shall pitch against her tents round about; they shall graze each man what is at his hand. (4) Sanctify against her war. Rise up! Let us go up at noontime. Woe to us when the day turns for the shadows of evening are stretching out. (5) Rise up that we may go up by night, that we may destroy her palaces.
COMMENTS
Projecting himself mentally into the future Jeremiah describes the scene as the foe from the north sweeps toward Jerusalem. In Jer. 4:6 the people of the countryside are exhorted to flee to Jerusalem. But the capital now no longer appears to be safe and the prophet can see refugees streaming southward from her gates. Being himself a Benjaminite, Jeremiah calls for his fellow tribesmen to get out of the midst of Jerusalem. The city of Jerusalem was actually located on the border between Judah and Benjamin and hence many Benjaminites made that city their home. In Tekoa, twelve miles south of Jerusalem, a trumpet is sounded to assemble the people in their flight to the wilderness of southwestern Judah. At BethHakkerem, thought to be a hill east of Bethlehem, a sign post or fiery beacon is set up to give further guidance to fugitives. This flight is wise and necessary because the ugly monster of calamity is peering down (lit., bending forward) from the north (Jer. 6:1). By means of the ruthless armies of Nebuchadnezzar God will cut off or destroy the beautiful and dainty daughter of Zion, i.e., the inhabitants of Jerusalem (Jer. 6:2). Zion was the hill chosen by the Lord as His earthly abode and was part of the city of Jerusalem. No longer will the delicate lady, the bride of God and daughter of Jerusalem, receive the loving and tender treatment of the past. Instead, foreign commanders with their armies will come up against Jerusalem like shepherds with their flocks. Each shepherd will allow his flock to graze that part of Judah which is at his hand i.e., which has been assigned to his jurisdiction. As sheep graze a pasture land until nothing but bare soil remains so will these shepherds and their flocks utterly depasture and devastate the land of Judah (Jer. 6:3). Jer. 6:4 opens with an exhortation addressed to the invading force. Sanctify against her war! War in antiquity was a sacred undertaking. Sacrifices were frequently offered before battle (e.g., 1Sa. 7:9; 1Sa. 13:9) and inspirational addresses were given (e.g., Jdg. 7:18). Following the exhortation which he addresses to the enemy, Jeremiah takes his audience into the very camp of the enemy. The enemy is planning a surprise attack at noontime, a time when usually both sides in a conflict rested. As the shadows of evening lengthen the enemy forces lament the fact that they have not been able to complete their work of destruction (Jer. 6:4). Rather than retire to the camp for rest and refreshment the enemy commanders urge their men forward in a daring and decisive night attack designed to bring them within the walls of Jerusalem. They will not wait till morning for the final assault (Jer. 6:5).
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
VI.
(1) The new discourse, or section of a discourse, deals more locally with the coming desolation of Jerusalem.
O ye children of Benjamin.The city, though claimed as belonging to Judah, was actually on the border of the two tribes, the boundary running through the valley of Ben-Hinnom (Jos. 15:8; Jos. 18:16), and its northern walls were in that of Benjamin. It was natural that the prophet of Anathoth should think and speak of it as connected with his own people.
Blow the trumpet in Tekoa.i.e., give the signal for the fugitives to halt, but not till they have reached the southernmost boundary of Judah. Tekoa was about twelve miles south of Jerusalem (2Ch. 11:6). The Hebrew presents a play upon the name Tekoa, as nearly identical with its sound is the verb blow, and the town is probably mentioned for that reason. The play upon the name is analogous to those that meet us in Mic. 1:10-16.
Sign of fire.Better, signal. The word, though applied to a fire or smoke signal in Jdg. 20:38; Jdg. 20:40, does not necessarily imply it. Such signals were, however, in common use in all ancient warfare.
Beth-haccerem.i.e., the house of the vineyard, halfway on the road from Jerusalem to Tekoa. There, too, the signal was to be raised that the fugitives might gather round it. Jerome states (Comm. on Jeremiah 6) that it was on a mountain, and was known in his time as Bethacharma. It has been identified with the modern Jebel Fureidis, or Hill of the Franks.
Evil appeareth out of the north.Literally, is bending over us, as looking down on its prey. The word is that used of righteousness looking down from heaven in Psa. 85:11.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
COMING OF THE INVADING ARMY, Jer 6:1-5.
1. Children of Benjamin Mentioned either because they were the prophet’s countrymen, or as a designation of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the city being situated in the territory of Benjamin. Tekoa lies about eleven miles south of Jerusalem, and is mentioned because it would be a natural rallying point for fugitives fleeing before an enemy coming from the north.
Sign of fire Rather, set up a signal. The idea of fire is not in the original.
Beth-haccerem A beacon station, situated, according to Jerome, between Jerusalem and Tekoa; perhaps the modern Frank Mountain.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
His People Are To Prepare For Action Because The Invasion Is Upon Them ( Jer 6:1-8 ).
As the enemy approached from the north the tribe of Benjamin (his own tribe), who were to the north of Jerusalem, had fled for refuge to Jerusalem, and to help to defend the city. But now they are commanded to leave Jerusalem because its case is hopeless, and continue their southward journey in order to bring the southern cities to a state of readiness. Benjamin were well known as doughty fighters, and their skills would be needed there. And all this was because Jerusalem was no longer a safe place to be. She had prided herself on being ‘the comely and delicate one’ but now she was to be cut off without mercy.
As a result the call then goes out to prepare for war, because the approaching enemy are filled with an eagerness that brooks no delay. This eagerness is because it is YHWH Who has ordered them into action, as a result of the corruption and waywardness of His people. But there is a touch of mercy here also, as He calls His people to learn and repent, lest this desolation come upon them. It is apparent that if only they will receive His instruction they may yet be saved.
Jer 6:1
“Flee for safety, you children of Benjamin,
Out of the midst of Jerusalem,
And blow the ram’s horn in Tekoa,
And raise up a signal on Beth-haccherem,
For evil looks down from the north,
And a great destruction.”
The children of Benjamin, having come southwards seeking refuge in Jerusalem are now advised to move on for safety’s sake. Jerusalem is no longer a safe place to be. But it will not be an act of cowardice, for the point is made that it will be their duty to warn and help the southern cities to prepare for what is coming. The Benjaminites were renowned fighters.
Thus in Teqo‘a, (a city sixteen or so kilometres (ten miles) south of Jerusalem) they are to tiqe‘u the ram’s horn. Note the wordplay. The name is simply chosen for its assonance, not because Tekoa was of special importance. And in Beth-haccherem (the house of the vineyard) they are to set up the war signal, indicating that war has come to YHWH’s vineyard. The fact that evil ‘looks down’ from the north may indicate that the enemy have taken over a high point overlooking the doomed city, so that its ‘great destruction’ is about to take place.
Some relate the mention of Benjamin to the fact that Jeremiah was a Benjaminite, with the thought being that he would feel more at home addressing his own tribe who would be more to receive his words in a friendly spirit, but the mention of safety makes our first suggestion more likely.
Jer 6:2-3
“The comely and delicate one, the daughter of Zion, will I cut off,
Shepherds with their flocks will come to her,
They will pitch their tents against her round about,
They will feed every one in his place.”
‘The comely and delicate one.’ YHWH is possibly here citing Jerusalem’s verdict on itself as ‘the comely and delicate one, the daughter of Zion’ (note the contrast with Jer 4:31 where she is the destitute mother with child). This may well have been their view of themselves in terms of the Song of Solomon (Jer 1:5; Jer 1:8-10; Jer 1:15-16; Jer 2:14; Jer 6:4; Jer 7:1-6). Note especially Jer 6:4, ‘comely as Jerusalem’. The idea then is that her view of herself will not save her, for she is to be cut off (compare Isa 1:8; Lam 1:6) to such an extent that she will become a pasturage for sheep. Her lovers have evidently turned against her. (She will, however, one day be restored (Isa 52:2), but that is not in mind here). In Deu 28:56 the woman suffering under siege was also described as ‘tender and delicate’, and this may be in mind here, linking the coming destruction with the curses in Deuteronomy.
Others, however, see this instead as YHWH’s benevolent view of Jerusalem, which would tie in with the description of Judah/Israel as His ‘beloved’ in Jer 11:15; Jer 12:7, and the thought that she was once His lover (Jer 2:1-3). But unless it is meant at least partially sarcastically (compare how her being called YHWH’s ‘beloved’ in Jer 11:15 is also probably partially sarcastic), it is incompatible with the descriptions that have already been given of her and also with the judgment immediately described. Jerusalem has in fact been revealed as far from tender and delicate.
“Shepherds with their flocks will come to her; they will pitch their tents against her round about; they will feed every one in his place.” This may be seen as a follow up of the ‘great destruction’ in Jer 6:1, being seen as a picture of what would follow her ‘great destruction’. She would become so desolated that she would no longer be inhabited, shepherds would feed their flocks there, and pitch their tents around her, and each would feed his flock in his chosen place (compare Jer 33:12-13). This would provide a vivid contrast with Jer 6:2. “Having been ‘cut off’ ‘the comely and delicate one’ will become a ruined waste”.
Alternately it may be seeing the commanders of the invading army as shepherds over their sheep, pitching their war tents around Jerusalem expecting to partake of her spoils. But while elsewhere invaders are sometimes likened to shepherds, they are nowhere spoken of in terms of sheep (see Jer 12:10; Isa 31:4; Isa 44:28; Mic 5:5; Nah 3:18). Invaders are more thought of in terms of lions. This fact in itself would appear to support the first suggestion.
Jer 6:4-5
“Prepare you war against her,
Arise, and let us go up at noon.
Woe to us! for the day declines,
For the shadows of the evening are stretched out.
Arise, and let us go up by night,
And let us destroy her palaces.”
In rather slick phrases Jeremiah conveys the idea of the invaders being ready to act by both day and night. It is made clear that nothing will be allowed to hold them back or delay them. They attack during the heat of the day, and then again at nightfall, even though a night raid of such a type during a siege would normally be unlikely, for they see the declining of the day as tragic because it might hinder their activity. They are so determined that nothing can be allowed to stop them that even the approach of night does not matter. No delay can be countenanced.
The word for ‘prepare’ means ‘sanctify, make holy’. War was looked on very much as a religious venture. The omens would be consulted (Eze 21:21), the gods would be called on (Isa 36:10), the priests would pray over the army, the guidance of astrologers would be sought to see if the portents were good. It is intended to be ironic that it was the enemies of Jerusalem, and not ‘God’s people’, who ‘made themselves holy’, and who were so eager to obey their gods.
Jer 6:6
‘For thus has YHWH of hosts said,
“Hew you down trees,
And cast up a mound against Jerusalem,
This is the city to be visited,
She is wholly oppression in the midst of her.”
And the reason for their haste is that they are acting under YHWH’s orders. It is YHWH Who has told them to hew down the trees and cast up a siege mound against Jerusalem, seeking to bring the attackers on a level with the defenders, because this is the city that He desires to visit in judgment, and that because she is so full of oppression. Note that the whole city is in fact seen by Him as filled with oppression. The judgment is not arbitrary. She is being ‘visited’ by design. The detailed description of the siege tallies with what is depicted in inscriptions
Jer 6:7
“As a cistern (pit) casts forth its waters,
So does she cast forth her wickedness,
Violence and destruction is heard in her,
Before me continually is sickness and wounds.”
Indeed just as a cistern (compare Gen 37:24; Lev 13:36) pours forth its somewhat soiled water (the rare verb indicates water obtained by digging – 2Ki 19:24), so does Jerusalem pour forth iniquity, in terms of wickedness, violence and destruction. Evil has so taken over the city that as YHWH surveys it, all He can see continually is sickness and wounds. The city as a whole is like a sick and wounded man. Compare for this idea Isa 1:5-6.
Jer 6:8
“Be you instructed, O Jerusalem,
Lest my soul be alienated from you,
Lest I make you a desolation,
A land not inhabited.”
But even in spite of Judah’s continued wickedness God would not give them up unless there was no alternative. So He calls on them to let Him instruct them and teach them so that they might return to Him and seek His face. He does not want to be permanently alienated from them. And one reason for this (apart from His great love and compassion) is that if that alienation takes place then they will become a desolation and their land will become uninhabited. So once again at the end of a message of judgment we find a message of hope, an appeal to Judah to respond, something which could solve all their problems, with the alternative being total desolation.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
In View Of Judah’s Failure To Respond To His Warnings YHWH Stresses That The Invasion Is Now Imminent ( Jer 6:1-30 ).
Chapter 4 had predicted that invasion was coming, and chapter 5 had given the reasons why it was coming. Now it is the imminence of the invasion that is stressed. It is seen as almost upon them, and it will be an invasion that is violent and complete, because YHWH has now finally rejected His people.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
SECTION 1. An Overall Description Of Jeremiah’s Teaching Given In A Series Of Accumulated, Mainly Undated, Prophecies, Concluding With Jeremiah’s Own Summary Of His Ministry ( Jer 2:4 to Jer 25:38 ).
From this point onwards up to chapter 25 we have a new major section (a section in which MT and LXX are mainly similar) which records the overall teaching of Jeremiah, probably given mainly during the reigns of Josiah (Jer 3:6) and Jehoiakim, although leading up to the days of Zedekiah (Jer 21:1). While there are good reasons for not seeing these chapters as containing a series of specific discourses as some have suggested, nevertheless they can safely be seen as giving a general overall view of Jeremiah’s teaching over that period, and as having on the whole been put together earlier rather than later. The whole commences with the statement, ‘Hear you the word of YHWH O house of Jacob, and all the families of the house of Israel, thus says YHWH —.’ It is therefore directed to Israel as a whole, mainly as now contained in the land of Judah to which many northerners had fled for refuge. We may divide up the main subsections as follows, based partly on content, and partly on the opening introductory phrases:
1. ‘Hear you the word of YHWH, O house of Jacob and all the families of the house of Israel —’ (Jer 2:4). YHWH commences by presenting His complaint against Israel/Judah because they have failed to continue to respond to the love and faithfulness that He had demonstrated to them in the wilderness and in the years that followed, resulting by their fervent addiction to idolatry in their losing the water of life in exchange for empty cisterns. It ends with a plea for them to turn back to Him like an unfaithful wife returning to her husband. This would appear to be mainly his initial teaching in his earliest days, indicating even at that stage how far, in spite of Josiah’s reformation, the people as a whole were from truly obeying the covenant, but it also appears to contain teaching given in the days of Jehoiakim, for which see commentary (Jer 2:4 to Jer 3:5).
2. ‘Moreover YHWH said to me in the days of King Josiah –’ (Jer 3:6). This section follows up on section 1 with later teaching given in the days of Josiah, and some apparently in the days of Jehoiakim. He gives a solemn warning to Judah based on what had happened to the northern tribes (‘the ten tribes’) as a result of their behaviour towards YHWH, facing Judah up to the certainty of similar coming judgment if they do not amend their ways, a judgment that would come in the form of a ravaged land and exile for its people. This is, however, intermingled with a promise of final blessing and further pleas for them to return to YHWH, for that in the end is YHWH’s overall purpose. But the subsection at this time ends under a threat of soon coming judgment (Jer 3:6 to Jer 6:30).
3. ‘The word that came to Jeremiah from YHWH –’ (Jer 7:1). In this subsection Jeremiah admonishes the people about the false confidence that they have in the inviolability of the Temple, and in their sacrificial ritual, and warned that like Shiloh they could be destroyed. He accompanies his words with warnings that if they continued in their present disobedience, Judah would be dispersed and the country would be despoiled (Jer 7:1 to Jer 8:3). He therefore chides the people for their obstinacy in the face of all attempts at reformation (Jer 8:4 to Jer 9:21), and seeks to demonstrate to them what the path of true wisdom is, that they understand and know YHWH in His covenant love, justice and righteousness. In a fourfold comparison he then vividly brings out the folly of idolatry when contrasted with the greatness of YHWH. The section ends with the people knowing that they must be chastised, but hoping that YHWH’s full wrath will rather be poured out on their oppressors (Jer 9:22 to Jer 10:25).
4. ‘The word that came to Jeremiah from YHWH –’ (Jer 11:1). He now deprecates their disloyalty to the covenant, and demonstrates from examples the total corruption of the people, revealing that as a consequence their doom is irrevocably determined (Jer 11:1 to Jer 12:17). The section closes with a symbolic action which reveals the certainty of their expulsion from the land (13).
5. ‘The word that came from YHWH to Jeremiah –’ (Jer 14:1). “The word concerning the drought,” gives illustrative evidence confirming that the impending judgment of Judah cannot be turned aside by any prayers or entreaties, and that because of their sins Judah will be driven into exile. A promise of hope for the future when they will be restored to the land is, however, once more incorporated (Jer 16:14-15) although only with a view to stressing the general judgment (Jer 14:1 to Jer 17:4). The passage then closes with general explanations of what is at the root of the problem, and lays out cursings and blessings and demonstrates the way by which punishment might be avoided by a full response to the covenant as evidenced by observing the Sabbath (Jer 17:5-27).
6. ‘The word that came to Jeremiah from YHWH –’ (Jer 18:1). Chapters 18-19 then contain two oracles from God illustrated in terms of the Potter and his handiwork, which bring out on the one hand God’s willingness to offer mercy, and on the other the judgment that is about to come on Judah because of their continuance in sin and their refusal to respond to that offer. The consequence of this for Jeremiah, in chapter 20, is severe persecution, including physical blows and harsh imprisonment. This results in him complaining to YHWH in his distress, and cursing the day of his birth.
7. ‘The word that came to Jeremiah from YHWH –’ (Jer 21:1). This subsection, which is a kind of appendix to what has gone before, finally confirming the hopelessness of Jerusalem’s situation under Zedekiah. In response to an appeal from King Zedekiah concerning Judah’s hopes for the future Jeremiah warns that it is YHWH’s purpose that Judah be subject to Babylon (Jer 21:1-10). Meanwhile, having sent out a general call to the house of David to rule righteously and deal with oppression, he has stressed that no hope was to be nurtured of the restoration of either Shallum, the son of Josiah who had been carried off to Egypt, nor of Jehoiachin (Coniah), the son of Jehoiakim who had been carried off to Babylon. In fact no direct heir of Jehoiachin would sit upon the throne. And the reason that this was so was because all the current sons of David had refused to respond to his call to rule with justice and to stamp down on oppression. What had been required was to put right what was wrong in Judah, and reign in accordance with the requirements of the covenant. In this had lain any hope for the continuation of the Davidic monarchy. But because they had refused to do so only judgment could await them. Note in all this the emphasis on the monarchy as ‘sons of David’ (Jer 21:12; Jer 22:2-3). This is preparatory to the mention of the coming glorious son of David Who would one day come and reign in righteousness (Jer 23:3-8).
Jeremiah then heartily castigates the false shepherds of Judah who have brought Judah to the position that they are in and explains that for the present Judah’s sinful condition is such that all that they can expect is everlasting reproach and shame (Jer 23:9 ff). The subsection then closes (chapter 24) with the parable of the good and bad figs, the good representing the righteous remnant in exile who will one day return, the bad the people who have been left in Judah to await sword, pestilence, famine and exile.
8. ‘The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah –’ (Jer 25:1). This subsection contains Jeremiah’s own summary, given to the people in a sermon, describing what has gone before during the previous twenty three years of his ministry. It is also in preparation for what is to follow. He warns them that because they have not listened to YHWH’s voice the land must suffer for ‘seventy years’ in subjection to Babylon, and goes on to bring out that YHWH’s wrath will subsequently be visited on Babylon, and not only on them, but on ‘the whole world’. For YHWH will be dealing with the nations in judgment, something which will be expanded on in chapters 46-51. There is at this stage no mention of restoration, (except as hinted at in the seventy year limit to Babylon’s supremacy), and the chapter closes with a picture of the final desolation which is to come on Judah as a consequence of YHWH’s anger.
While the opening phrase ‘the word that came from YHWH to Jeremiah’ will appear again in Jer 30:1; Jer 32:1; Jer 34:8; Jer 35:1; Jer 40:1 it will only be after the sequence has been broken by other introductory phrases which link the word of YHWH with the activities of a particular king (e.g. Jer 25:1; Jer 26:1; Jer 27:1; Jer 28:1) where in each case the message that follows is limited in length. See also Jer 29:1 which introduces a letter from Jeremiah to the early exiles in Babylon. Looking at chapter 25 as the concluding chapter to the first part, this confirms a new approach from Jer 26:1 onwards, (apparent also in its content), while at the same time demonstrating that the prophecy must be seen as an overall unity.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Subsection 2). YHWH’s Solemn Warning To Judah In The Days Of Josiah ( Jer 3:6 to Jer 6:30 ).
This section can be divided into four parts:
Jer 3:6 to Jer 4:2. Israel is held up as an example to Judah, both of faithlessness and of hope for the future. For because of what they had done Israel were in exile, and were ashamed of their ways, but if only they would turn to Him in their exile they would be restored. For them there was hope. It was very different with ‘treacherous Judah’. They were without shame and without repentance.
Jer 4:3-31. YHWH warns Judah that if they will not repent invasion by a fierce adversary is threatening and will undoubtedly come because of their sins, something which calls to mind the vision of a world returned to its original unformed condition, and a nation in anguish.
Jer 5:1-31. YHWH presents the reasons why the invasion is necessary. It is because there are no righteous people in Jerusalem, and they are full of adultery (both spiritual and physical), and have grown fat and sleek, whilst they also appear to be unaware of Who He is, and their prophets and priests are untrustworthy.
Jer 6:1-30. YHWH stresses the imminence of the invasion which will be violent and complete, because He has rejected His people.
YHWH now gives a solemn warning to Judah based on what had happened to the northern tribes (‘the ten tribes’) as a result of their behaviour towards YHWH, thereby facing Judah up to the certainty of coming judgment if they do not amend their ways, a judgment that would come in the form of a ravaged land and exile for its people (Jer 3:6 to Jer 6:30). Included, however, within this warning, almost as an appetiser, is a brief glimpse of the everlasting kingdom, which was being offered to Israel, when YHWH will be seated on His throne, and all His people will look to Him as Father (Jer 3:12-18). Like Hosea, Isaiah, and other prophets before him Jeremiah balances his message of doom with promises of future blessing. Whatever Israel and Judah did, he knew that God’s purposes would not fail in the end.
In the words found in Jer 3:6 to Jer 6:30 we have now come to the only passage in chapters 1-20 which is specifically said to have been a revelation given, at least in part, during the days of a particular king, and in this case it is in the days of King Josiah. This is probably intended to underline the fact that Jeremiah’s early teaching, while giving an overall coverage, includes words spoken during that reign, and it is thus of prime importance as continually stressing that even during Josiah’s reign things were not well in Judah.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Jer 6:1 O ye children of Benjamin, gather yourselves to flee out of the midst of Jerusalem, and blow the trumpet in Tekoa, and set up a sign of fire in Bethhaccerem: for evil appeareth out of the north, and great destruction.
Jer 6:1
Comments The town of Tekoa is of little renown in Israel’s history. From there Joab fetched a wise woman to help him reconcile King David with Absalom (2Sa 14:2). It became a city of fortification under the reign of Rehoboam (2Ch 11:6, Josephus, Antiquities 8.10.1), for which reason Jeremiah would later prophecy concerning this southern outpost, “blow the trumpet in Tekoa” as a warning of approaching danger to Israel (Jer 6:1). In the wilderness of Tekoa Jehoshaphat stopped to encourage the children of Israel before their battle with the Moabites and Ammonites, and where he appointed singers to lead in battle array (2Ch 20:20). Finally, it was known as the home of the prophet Amos.
Jer 6:1 Word Study on “Bethhaccerem” Strong says the Hebrew name “Bethhaccerem” “Beyth hak-Kerem” ( ) (H1021) means, “house of the vineyard.” The Enhanced Strong says it is found two times in the Old Testament, being translated in the KJV as “Bethhaccerem 2.” It is also found in Neh 3:14.
Neh 3:14, “But the dung gate repaired Malchiah the son of Rechab, the ruler of part of Bethhaccerem; he built it, and set up the doors thereof, the locks thereof, and the bars thereof.”
Comments – Bethhaccerem was a town in Judah that may have built a beacon station.
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
The Advice to Flee from Jerusalem
v. 1. O ye children of Benjamin, v. 2. I have likened the daughter of Zion to a comely and delicate woman, v. 3. The shepherds with their flocks shall come unto her, v. 4. Prepare ye war against her, v. 5. Arise and let us go by night, v. 6. For thus hath the Lord of hosts said, v. 7. As a fountain casteth out her waters, v. 8. Be thou instructed, O Jerusalem,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
EXPOSITION
A prophecy, in five stanzas or strophes, vividly describing the judgment and its causes, and enforcing the necessity of repentance.
Jer 6:1-8
Arrival of a hostile army from the north, and summons to flee from the doomed city.
Jer 6:1
O ye children of Benjamin. The political rank of Jerusalem, as the capital of the kingdom of Judah, makes it difficult to realize that Jerusalem was not locally a city of Judah at all. It belonged, strictly speaking, to the tribe of Benjamin, a tribe whose insignificance, in comparison with Judah, seems to have led to the adoption of a form of expression not literally accurate (see Psa 128:1-6 :68). The true state of the ease is evident from an examination of the two parallel passages, Jos 15:7, Jos 15:8, and Jos 18:16, Jos 18:17. As Mr. Fergusson points out, “The boundary between Judah and Benjamin ran at the foot of the hill on which the city stands, so that the city itself was actually in Benjamin, while, by crossing the narrow ravine of Hinnom, you set foot on the territory of Judah” (Smith’s ‘Dictionary of the Bible,’ 1.983). It is merely a specimen of the unnatural method of early harmonists when Jewish writers tell us that the altars and the sanctuary were in Benjamin, and the courts of the temple in Judah. The words of “the blessing of Moses” are clear (Deu 33:12): “The beloved of the Lord! he shall dwell in safety by him, sheltering him continually, and between his shoulders he dwelleth;” i.e. Benjamin is specially protected, the sanctuary being on Benjamite soil. And yet these highly favored “children of Benjamin” are divinely warned to flee from their sacred homes (see Jer 7:4-7). Gather yourselves to flee; more strictly, save your goods by flight. In Jer 4:6 the same advice was given to the inhabitants of the country districts. There, Jerusalem was represented as the only safe refuge; here, the capital being no longer tenable, the wild pasture-land to the south (the foe being expected from the north) becomes the goal of the fugitives of Jerusalem. In Tokoa. Tokoa was a town in the wild hill-county to the south of Judah, the birthplace of the prophet Amos. It is partly mentioned because its name seems to connect it with the verb rendered blow the trumpet. Such paronomasiae are favorite oratorical instruments of the prophets, and especially in connections like the present (comp. Isa 10:30; Mic 1:10-15). A sign of fire in Beth-hakkerem; rather, a signal on Beth-hakkerem. The rendering of Authorized Version was suggested by Jdg 20:38, Jdg 20:40; but there is nothing in the present context (as there is in that passage) to favor the view that a fiery beacon is intended. Beth-hakkerem lay, according to St. Jerome, on an eminence between Jerusalem and Tekoa; i.e. probably the hill known as the Frank Mountain, the Arabic name of which (Djebel el-Furaidis, Little Paradise Mountain) is a not unsuitable equivalent for the Hebrew (Vineyard-house). The “district of Beth-hakkerem” is mentioned in Neh 3:14. The choice of the locality for the signal was a perfect one. “There is no other tell,” remarks Dr. Thomson, “of equal height and size in Palestine.” Appeareth; rather, bendeth forward, as if it were ready to fall.
Jer 6:2
I have likened a comely and delicate woman. This passage is one of the most difficult in the book, and if there is corruption of the text anywhere, it is here. The most generally adopted rendering is, “The comely and delicate one will I destroy, even the daughter of Zion,” giving the verb the same sense as in Hos 4:5 (literally it is, I have brought to silence, or perfect of prophetic certitude). The context, however, seems to favor the rendering “pasturage” (including the idea of a nomad settlement), instead of “comely;” but how to make this fit in with the remainder of the existing text is far from clear. The true and original reading probably only survives in fragments.
Jer 6:3
The shepherds with their flocks, etc.; rather, To her came shepherds with their flocks; they have pitched their tents round about her; they have pastured each at his side. The best commentary on the last clause is furnished by Num 22:4, “Now shall this company lick up all that are round about us, as the ox licketh up the grass of the field.”
Jer 6:4
Prepare ye war; literally, sanctify (or, consecrate) war. The foes are dramatically described as urging each other on at the different stages of the campaign. The war is to be opened with sacrifices (comp. Isa 13:3 with 1Sa 13:9); next there is a forced march, so as to take the city by storm, when the vigilance of its defenders is relaxed in the fierce noontide heat (comp. Jer 15:8); evening surprises the foe still on the way, but they press steadily on, to do their work of destruction by night. The rapidity of the marches of the Chaldeans impressed another prophet of the reign of JosiahHabakkuk (see Hab 1:6, Hab 1:8). Woe unto us! for the day goeth away; rather, Alas for us! for the day hath turned.
Jer 6:5
Let us go; rather, let us go up. “To go up” is the technical term for the movements of armies, whether advancing (as here and Isa 7:1) or retreating (as Jer 21:2; Jer 34:21; Jer 37:5, Jer 37:11).
Jer 6:6
Hew ye down trees; rather, her trees. Hewing down trees was an ordinary feature of Assyrian and Babylonian expeditions. Thus, Assurnacirpal “caused the forests of all (his enemies) to fall” (‘Records of the Past,’ 3.40, 77), and Shalmaneser calls himself “the trampler on the heads of mountains and all forests “. The timber was partly required for their palaces and fleets, but also, as the context here suggests, for warlike operations. “Trees,” as Professor Rawlinson remarks, “were sometimes cut down and built into the mound” (see next note); they would also be used for the “bulwarks” or siege instruments spoken of in Deu 20:20. Cast a mount; literally, pour a mount (or “bank,” as it is elsewhere rendered), with reference to the emptying of the baskets of earth required for building up the “mount” (mound). Habakkuk (Hab 1:10) says of the Chaldeans, “He laugheth at every stronghold, and heapeth up earth, and taketh it” (comp, also 2Sa 20:15; Isa 37:33). The intention of the mound was not so much to bring the besiegers on a level with the top of the walls as to enable them to work the battering-rams to better advantage (Rawlinson, ‘Ancient Monarchies,’ 1.472). She is wholly oppression, etc.; rather, she is the city that is punished; wholly oppression is in the midst of her.
Jer 6:7
As a fountain casteth out; rather, as a cistern keepeth fresh (literally, cool). The wickedness of Jerusalem is so thoroughly ingrained that it seems to pass into act by a law of nature, just as a cistern cannot help always yielding a supply of cool, fresh water. Violence and spoil; rather, injustice and violence (so Jer 20:8; Amo 3:10; Hab 1:3). Before me, etc.; rather, before my face continually is sickness and wounding. The ear is constantly dinned with the sounds of oppression, and the eye pained with the sight of the bodily sufferings of the victims. The word for” sickness” is applicable to any kind of infirmity (see Isa 53:3, Isa 53:4), but the context clearly limits it here to bodily trouble.
Jer 6:8
Be thou instructed; rather, Let thyself be corrected (Authorized Version misses the sense, a very important one, of the conjugation, which is Nifal tolerativum (comp. Psa 2:10; Isa 53:12). The phrase equivalent to “receive correction” (Jer 2:30; Jer 5:3), and means to accept the warning conveyed in the Divine chastisement. Lest my soul, etc.; rather, lest my soul be rent from thee (Authorized Version renders the same verb in Eze 23:17, “be alienated”).
Jer 6:9-15
It is an all but complete Judgment, which Jehovah foreshows. Unwilling as the people are to hear it, the disclosure must be made.
Jer 6:9
They shall thoroughly glean, etc. “Israel” has already been reduced to a “remnant;” the ten tribes have lost their independence, and Judah alone remains (Jer 5:15). Even Judah shall undergo a severe sifting process, which is likened to a gleaning (comp. Isa 24:13; Oba 1:5; Jer 49:9). The prospect is dark, but believers in God’s promises would remember that a few grapes were always left after the gathering (comp. Isa 17:6). Turn back thine hand. If the text is correct, the speaker here addresses the leader of the gleaners. Keil thinks this change of construction is to emphasize the certainty of the predicted destruction. But it is much more natural (and in perfect harmony with many other similar phenomena of the received text) to suppose, with Hitzig, that the letter represented in the Authorized Version By “thine” has arisen by a mistaken repetition of the first letter of the following word, and (the verbal form being the same for the infinitive and the imperative) to render turning again the hand. In this case the clause will be dependent on the preceding statement as to the “gleaning” of Judah. Into the baskets; rather, unto the shoots. The gleaners will do their work with a stern thoroughness, laying the hand of destruction again and again upon the vine-shoots.
Jer 6:10
Their ear is uncircumcised; covered as it were with a foreskin, which prevents the prophetic message from finding admittance. Elsewhere it is the heart (Le 26:41; Eze 44:7), or the lips (Exo 6:12) which are said to be “circumcised;” a passage in Stephen’s speech applies the epithet both to the heart and to the ears (Act 7:51).
Jer 6:11
Therefore I am full; rather, But I am full. I will pour it out. The text has “pour it out.” The sudden transition to the imperative is certainly harsh, and excuses the conjectural emendation which underlies the rendering of the Authorized Version. If we retain the imperative, we must explain it with reference to Jeremiah’s inner experience. There are, we must remember, two selves in the prophet (comp. Isa 21:6), and the higher prophetic self here addresses the lower or human self, and calls upon it no longer to withhold the divinely communicated burden. All classes, as the sequel announces, are to share in the dread calamity. Upon the children abroad; literally, upon the child in the street (comp. Zec 8:5). The assembly of young men. It is a social assembly which is meant (comp. Jer 15:17, “the assembly of the laughers”).
Jer 6:12
Shall be turned; i.e. transferred. Their fields and wives. Wives are regarded as a property, as in Exo 20:17 (comp. Deu 5:21).
Jer 6:13
Given to covetousness; literally, gaineth gain; but the word here rendered “gain” implies that it is unrighteous gain (the root means “to tear”), Unjust gain and murder are repeatedly singled out in the Old Testament as representative sins (comp. Eze 33:31; Psa 119:36; Isa 1:15; Jer 2:34; and see my note on Isa 57:17). There is a special reason for the selection of “covetousness” here. Land was the object of a high-born Jew’s ambition, and expulsion from his land was his appropriate punishment (comp. Isa 5:8, Isa 5:9).
Jer 6:14
They have healed, etc. The full force of the verb is, “they have busied themselves about healing” (so Jer 8:11; Jer 51:9). Of the daughter. Our translators evidently had before them a text which omitted these words, in accordance with many Hebrew manuscripts and the Septuagint; Van der Hooght’s text, however, contains them, as also does the parallel passage (Jer 8:11). Slightly; or, lightly; Septuagint, . Saying, Peace, peace. Always the burden of the mere professional prophets, who, as one of a higher orderthe bold, uncompromising Micahfittingly characterizes them,” bite with their teeth, and cry, Peace;” i.e. draw flattering pictures of the state and prospects of their country, in order to “line their own pockets” (Mic 3:5).
Jer 6:15
Were they ashamed? The Authorized Version certainly meets the requirements of the context; there seems to be an implied interrogation. Most, however, render, “They are brought to shame;” in which ease it seems best to take the verb as a perfect of prophetic certitude, equivalent to “they shall surely be brought to shame.” When; rather, because. Nay, they were not at all ashamed; rather, nevertheless they feel no shame (i.e. at present). They shall be cast down; rather, they shall stumble.
Jer 6:16-21
Without hearty repentance, there is no hope of escape. But hitherto Judah has rejected all admonitions. What availeth mere ceremonial punctuality?
Jer 6:16
Stand ye in the ways; literally, station yourselves on (or, by) roads, i.e. at the meeting-point of different roads. There (as the following words state) the Jews are to make inquiry as to the old paths. Antiquity gives a presumption of rightness; the ancients were nearer to the days when God spoke with man; they had the guidance of God’s two mighty “shepherds” (Isa 63:11); they knew, far better than we, who “are but of yesterday, and know nothing” (Job 8:9), the way of happiness. For though there are many pretended “ways,” there is but “one way” (Jer 32:39) which has Jehovah’s blessing (Psa 25:8, Psa 25:9).
Jer 6:17
Also I set; rather, and I kept raising up (the frequentative perfect). Watchmen; i.e. prophets (Eze 3:17, and part of Isa 52:8; Isa 56:10). Hearken, etc. probably the words of Jehovah. Standing on their high watch-tower (Hab 2:1), the prophets scrutinize the horizon for the first appearance of danger, and give warning of it by (metaphorically) blowing a trumpet (so Amo 3:6).
Jer 6:18
Therefore hear, etc. Remonstrance being useless, the sentence upon Israel can no longer be delayed, and Jehovah summons the nations of the earth as witnesses (comp. Mic 1:2; Isa 18:3; Psa 49:1). O congregation, what is among them. The passage is obscure. “Congregation” can only refer to the foreign nations mentioned in the first clause; for Israel could not be called upon to hear the judgment “upon this people” (Jer 6:19). There is, however, no other passage in which the word has this reference. The words rendered “what is among them,” or “what (shall happen) in them,” seem unnaturally laconic, and not as weighty as one would expect after the solemn introduction. If correct, they must of course refer to the Israelites. But Graf’s conjecture that the text is corrupt lies near at hand. The least alteration which will remove the difficulties of the passage is that presupposed by the rendering of Aquila (not Symmachus, as St. Jerome says; see Field’s ‘Hexapla’) and J. D. Michaelis, “the testimony which is against them.”
Jer 6:19
The fruit of their thoughts. That punishment is the ripe fruit of sin, is the doctrine of the Old as well as of the New Testament (Jas 1:15).
Jer 6:20
To what purpose incense from Sheba? This is the answer to an implied objection on the part of the Jews, that they have faithfully fulfilled their core-menial obligations. “To obey is better than sacrifice” (1Sa 15:22); “And what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?” (Mic 6:8; comp. Isa 1:11; Amo 5:21-24; Hos 6:6; Mic 6:6-8). All these passages must be read in the light of the prophets’ circumstances. A purely formal, petrified religion compelled them to attack the existing priesthood, and a holy indignation cannot stop to measure its language. Incense from Sheba; frankincense from south-west Arabia. This was required for the holy incense (Exo 30:34), and as an addition to the minkhah, or “meal offering.” Sweet cane. The “sweet calamus” of Exo 30:23, which was imported from India. It was an ingredient in the holy anointing oil (Exodus, loc. cit.). Not to be confounded with the sugar-cane.
Jer 6:21
I will lay stumbling-blocks, etc, Of the regenerate Israel of the future it is prophesied (Isa 54:15) that his enemies shall “fall upon him [or, ‘by reason of him’].” Of the unregenerate Israel of the present, that he shall “fall” (i.e. come to ruin) upon the “stumbling-blocks” presented, not without God’s appointment, by the terrible northern invader.
Jer 6:22-30
The enemy described; the terror consequent on his arrival; a rumored declaration of the moral cause of the judgment.
Jer 6:22
From the north country (so Jer 1:14 (see note); Jer 4:6). Shall be raised; rather, shall be aroused. The sides of the earth; rather, “the recesses (i.e. furthest parts) of the earth” (so Jer 35:1-19 :32; Isa 14:13).
Jer 6:23
Spear; rather, javelin (or, lance). They are cruel. The cruelty of the Assyrians and Babylonians seems to have spread general dismay. Nahum calls Nineveh “the city of bloodshed” (Nah 3:1); Habakkuk styles the Chaldeans “bitter and vehement, terrible and dreadful” (Hab 1:6, Hab 1:7). The customs brought out into view m the monuments justify this most amply, though Professor Rawlinson thinks we cannot call the Assyrians naturally hard. hearted. “The Assyrian listens to the enemy who asks for quarter; he prefers making prisoners go slaying.; he is very terrible in the battle and the assault, but afterwards he forgives and spares” (‘Ancient Monarchies,’ 1.243). Their voice roareth. The horrid roar of the advancing hosts seems to have greatly struck the Jews (comp. Isa 5:30; Isa 17:12, Isa 17:13).
Jer 6:24
We have heard the fame thereof. The prophet identifies himself (comp; for the same phenomenon, Jer 4:19-21; Jer 10:19, Jer 10:20) with his people, and expresses the general feeling of anxiety and pain. The phraseology of the closing lines reminds us of Isa 13:7, Isa 13:8.
Jer 6:25
Go not forth into the field. The “daughter of Zion” (i.e. the personific population of Jerusalem) is cautioned against venturing outside the walls. The sword of the enemy; rather, the enemy hath a sword. Fear is on every side; Hebrew, magor missabib; one of Jeremiah’s favorite expressions (see Jer 20:3, Jer 20:10; Jer 46:5; Jer 49:29; and comp. Psa 31:13 [14].). Naturally of a timid, retiring character, the prophet cannot help feeling the anxious and alarming situation into which at the Divine command he has ventured.
Jer 6:26
Wallow thyself in ashes; rather, sprinkle thyself with ashes, a sign of mourning (2Sa 13:19; so Mic 1:10). Mourning, as for an only son. The Septuagint renders . Possibly this was to avoid a supposition which might have occurred to some readers (it has, in fact, occurred to several modern critics) that the “only son” was Adonis, who was certainly “mourned for” by some of the Israelites under the name of Thammuz (Eze 8:14), and whose Phoenician name is given by Philo of Byblus as (i.e. probably Yakhidh, only begotten, the word used by Jeremiah; comp. , equivalent to Berith). M. Renan found a vestige of the ancient festival of Adonis at Djebeil (the Phoenician Gebal) even at the present day. There would be nothing singular in the adoption of a common popular phrase by the prophet, in spite of its reference to a heathen custom (comp. Job 3:8), and the view in question gives additional force to the passage. But the ordinary explanation is perfectly tenable and more obvious. The phrase, “mourning [or, ‘lamentation’] for an only begotten one,” occurs again in Amo 8:10; Zec 12:10. In the last-mentioned passage it is parallel with “bitter weeping for a firstborn.”
Jer 6:27
I have set thee, etc.; literally, as an assayer have I set thee among my people, a fortress. Various attempts have been made to avoid giving the last word its natural rendering, “a fortress.” Ewald, for instance, would alter the points, and render “a separator [of metals],” thus making the word synonymous with that translated “an assayer;” but this is against Hebrew usage. Hitzig, assuming a doubtful interpretation of Job 22:24, renders ” among my people without gold,” i.e. “without there being any gold there for thee to essay” (a very awkward form of expression). These are the two most plausible views, and yet neither of them is satisfactory. Nothing remains but the very simple conjecture, supported by not a few similar phenomena, that mibhcar, a fortress, has been inserted by mistake from the margin, where an early glossator had written the word, to remind of the parallel passage (Jer 1:18, “I have made thee this day a fortress-city,” ‘it mibhcar). In this and the following verses metallurgic phraseology is employed with a moral application (comp. Isa 1:22, Isa 1:25).
Jer 6:28
Grievous revolters; literally, rebels of rebels. Walking; rather, going about, as a peddler with his wares (so Pro 11:13; Pro 20:19; Le Pro 19:16). Jeremiah had good reason to specify this characteristic of his enemies (see Jer 18:18). Brass and Iron; rather, copper and iron, in short, base metal,
Jer 6:29
The bellows are burned. The objection to this rendering is that the burning of the bellows would involve the interruption of the process of assaying. We might, indeed, translate “are scorched” (on the authority of Eze 15:4), and attach the word rendered “of the fire” to the first clause; the half-verse would then run: “The bellows are scorched through the fire; the lead is consumed,” i.e. the bellows are even scorched through the heat of the furnace, and the lead has become entirely oxydized. But this requires us to alter the verb from the masculine to the feminine form of third sing. perf. (reading tammah). It is better, therefore, to give the verb (which will be Kal, if the nun be radical) the sense of “snorting,” which it has in Aramaic and in Arabic, and which the corresponding noun has in Hebrew (Jer 8:16; Job 39:20; Job 41:12). The masculine form of the verb rendered “is consumed” is still a difficulty; but we have a better right to suppose that the first letter of tittom was dropped, owing to its identity with the second letter, than to append (as the first view would require us) an entirely different letter at the end. This being done, the whole passage becomes clear: “The bellows puff, (that) the lead may be consumed of the fire.” In any case, the general meaning is obvious. The assayer has spared no trouble, all the rules of his art have been obeyed, but no silver appears as the result of the process. Lead is mentioned, because, before quicksilver was known, it was employed as a flux in the operation of smelting, Plucked away; rather, separated, like the dross from the silver.
Jer 6:30
Reprobate silver rejected them; rather, refuse silver refused them. The verbal root is the same.
HOMILETICS
Jer 6:7
Wells of wickedness.
I. IF WICKEDNESS IS ABUNDANT AND PERSISTENT, IF MUST COME FROM A DEEP SOURCE. The wickedness of Israel is constantly renewedever fresh and abundant, like water in a well. Such water must flow out of deep fountains. The continuity of a course of sin proves that its origin is deep seated. The sin of hasty temper is less than that of deliberate calculation, the fall before sudden temptation more excusable than the willful choice of evil, the occasional slip less culpable than the continuous habit of wickedness. This habitual sin must be rooted. in a man’s nature. Springing out under all circumstances, it is seen to be, not an outside defect, but a fruit of his own inner life. Constantly flowing in spite of all restraints of law, social influence, and conscience, it shows how thoroughly corrupt the heart must be (Mat 15:18).
II. IF WICKEDNESS IS DEEP–SEATED IN THE HEART, IT MUST FLOW OUT IN FREQUENT ACTS. The spring cannot restrain its waters; the heart cannot repress its imaginations. These must come forth and express themselves in deeds. Men may aim at living two livesan inner life of sin and an outer life of propriety; but the attempt must ultimately fail. The greater the evil of the heart, the more completely must this color the life.
III. DEEP–SEATED AND EVER–FLOWING WICKEDNESS PROVOKES THE SEVEREST JUDGMENT FROM GOD. Jeremiah points to this as the terrible justification for the approaching desolation of the land.
1. In itself it is most heinous, and carries the greatest guilt.
2. It is so radically evil that it impregnates the whole nature of the people in whom it dwells, so that they cannot be regarded as doers of wickedness only, but as wicked; not as those who have committed acts of dishonesty, untruth, violence, etc; but as thieves, liars, murderers, etc.
3. Ever-flowing, it promises no better things for the future. If left to itself, it will but repeat the sickening tale of the past with aggravated depravity.
4. It is the source of evil to others. The sin flows out. It must be checked for the protection of all who come under its influence.
Jer 6:10, Jer 6:11
The indifference of men and the burden of truth.
We have here revealed to us a conflict in the mind of the prophet. At first it seems vain for him to speak, for none heed his warnings (Jer 6:10); but then he feels the awful burden of his message compelling utterance. While he looks at his audience he loses heart and sees little good in attempting to influence them; but when he looks within at his trust he finds that this has claims and powers before which he must bow obediently. Thus the teacher of high truth is often discouraged when he considers the unfitness of men to receive it, until he realizes more fully the majesty of the truth itself which possesses him and is not simply a treasure to be regarded as his property, but a Lord demanding his faithful service.
I. THE INDIFFERENCE OF MEN. Here was the source of Jeremiah’s discouragement, and we can sympathize with him. What is the use of uttering truths that men are not fit to receiveonly to waste our powers, create misunderstandings, and provoke opposition?
1. The reception of truth depends on the condition of the receiving mind. Language requires ears as well as tongues. Outward ears are useless without the inward ears of an understanding mind. An ass has no lack of ears, but what are a prophet’s words to him? There are people to whom the solemn utterance of the most awful truths is but so much noise. Therefore
(1) it behooves men to beware of mocking at the supposed folly of any teaching till they have ascertained whether the fault lies with the teacher or with the taught. And
(2) it is not enough to utter truth; we should seek for men the right preparation for receiving itthe plowing of the hard soil in readiness for the sowing of the seed.
2. When the mind is in a wrong condition for the reception of truth this may meet with ridicule and dislike. Truth may meet with ridicule. The word of Jehovah was “a mockery to the Jews.” Ridicule may be both a result of misunderstanding the truth and a cause of further mistakes. Truth may also meet with dislike. The Jews had “no delight” in the Divine Word. This was a proof of their not understanding it; for to know it is to love it (Psa 119:16). It was also a cause of their not rightly receiving it; for dislike to truth Minds the eye to the nature of it.
II. THE BURDEN OF TRUTH. In spite of all these grounds for discouragement, Jeremiah feels that he must utter his message when once he considers its origin and character.
1. Truth is a trust from God. It is “the fury of the Lord ‘ that possesses the prophet, not the mere passion of his own thoughts. He who holds a Divine truth is a steward of an oracle of God. Woe to him if he consult his own convenience and rely only on his own judgment when, as a steward, he is called to be faithful to his Master’s will. His duty is to speak; the consequences may be left to God.
2. Truth is an inspiration from God. Jeremiah is “full of the fury of Jehovah.” The Spirit of God has possessed him; he is brought into sympathy with the thought and feeling of God: he must needs utter this. If men feel the inspiration of truth they will be carried away by it and poor considerations of worldly expediency will be swept on one side by the flood of a Divine passion.
3. Truth is a burden on the soul which cries for utterance. Jeremiah exclaims, “I am weary with holding in! Woe is me!” cries St. Paul, as he thinks of the suggestion to restrain his preaching the gospel. Under great passions men do not speak measured words, chosen in strict consideration for their hearers; they speak to give vent to their own souls. The grandest utterances of humanity, in prophecy and in poetry, are free from all calculations as to the reception of them by an audience. They are unrestrainable expressions of the soul; like the songs of birds flowing from the very fullness of the heart.
4. Truth is for the good of mankind. Jeremiah must speak, for what he utters concerns others than himself. No one has a right to the monopoly of any great truth. It is common property, and he who hides it steals it. If his excuse is that men cannot understand it, let him remember
(1) that he is not an infallible judge of the capacities of other men; and
(2) that his duty is to bear his testimony, whether men will hear or no, and to leave all further responsibility with them.
Jer 6:14
False peace.
I. THE CRAVING FOR PEACE IS NATURAL. These false prophets gained their influence by professing to satisfy a natural instinct. The Jews dreaded war with their great neighbors.
1. All wicked men are at heart in a stats of unrest. The soul that sins is at war with God, with the law and order of the universe, with its own nature.
2. This condition is distressing. The outward warfare begets inward unrest. Then, above all things, peace is the great want of the soul. Wealth success, happiness, can be spared if but this jewel is still preserved. All great philosophies and all earnest religions set themselves to the task of discovering or creating it.
II. THE PRETENSIONS OF FALSE PEACE ARE PLAUSIBLE. The prophets dissuaded their hearers from attending to the warning words of Jeremiah, and endeavored to make them believe that they were in no danger. There is much that is very popular in arguments such as theirs.
1. They agree with the wishes of the hearers. Men are always inclined to believe what they wish.
2. They flatter the pride of the populace. The people are told that they are too great and too favored of Heaven to suffer any serious calamity, and they are only too ready to believe it.
3. They claim the merits of charity. They promise pleasant things. This looks more charitable than the threatening language of stern censors. Hence the prophets win favor for their apparent geniality and liberal sentiments.
4. They require no sacrifices from those who accept them. The doctrine is popular because the practice flowing from it is easy. The flattering prophets called to no reformation of character.
5. They have appearances in their favor. At present all looks fair. Is not this a presumption that the future will be happy? The sun is rising in gold and crimson; why, then, prophesy the approach of a storm?
III. THE PRETENSIONS OF FALSE PEACE ARE RUINOUS.
1. These pretensions do nothing to secure the peace. They simply lead men to believe that they are to enjoy it. Such a belief cannot alter facts. If there is no peace we do not make peace by crying, “Peace, peace!” This is the language of folly and indolence.
2. These delusions only aggravate the danger. They prevent men from preparing for the calamity by blinding them to the near advent of it.
IV. THERE IS A WAY BY WHICH THE NATURAL CRAVING FOR PEACE MAY BE SATISFIED. The deceiving prophets do not make peace; they only talk of it. Bat in the teaching of true prophets and apostles the way to secure solid peace is revealed.
1. This is shown to be not immediate. Jeremiah was right in saying that the people must suffer before they enjoyed peace. Christ, the Prince of peace, came to “send a sword” (Mat 10:34). The gospel does not preach “peace at any price,” but peace after victory in warfare, rest after patient endurance of tribulation.
2. This is shown to be through repentance and renewal of life. The deceiving prophets promise peace to the people as they are. While we are in sin we cannot have true peace (Isa 48:22). Peace follows the advent of the Spirit of Christ (Joh 14:26, Joh 14:27).
Jer 6:16
The old paths.
I. CONSIDER THE RECOMMENDATION TO FOLLOW THE OLD PATHS.
1. The course of life should be determined after thoughtful deliberation. Jeremiah is to “stand in the ways and see.” It is foolish to go with the multitude without individual convictions of what is right, or to follow our own private impulses blindly and aimlessly.
2. The choice should fall on a good way. Other ways may be smooth, pleasant, flowery at the starting, only to lose themselves in the pathless wilderness, while this may look more rugged and steep at first; but it should not be the present attractiveness, but the direction, the whole course and the end of a way, which should determine our choice of it.
3. There are old paths of right. Religion has not to be made anew. It is not left for the latest saint to discover the way of holiness.
4. Having found the right way, we should forthwith “walk therein.” Knowledge is useless without practice; nay, guilt is aggravated if, knowing the right, we follow the wrong.
5. In the right way is rest for the soul. Even while on the earthly pilgrimage many quiet resting-places may be found (Psa 23:2), through all the course an inward peace may be enjoyed (Pro 3:17), and at the end will be found the perfect rest of the home of God (Heb 4:9).
II. CONSIDER THE GROUNDS ON WHICH THIS RECOMMENDATION IS BASED.
1. Old ways have been tested by experience. We choose for a guide one who has already traversed the country. In an unknown land we naturally turn to beaten tracks in preference to following stray footprints across the wild, or striking out for ourselves a pathless way. If others have done rough pioneer work, why should not we avail ourselves of it? If they have reached the goal, they have proved that it is attainable by their way. This is fact; that a new way will be easier or shorter is conjecture. There is, therefore, a presumption in favor of the old.
2. Old ways in religion are nearer to the original fountains of inspiration. Israel was referred back to the old ways marked out by Moses, the great founder of the Jewish faith. Christians are referred back to primitive Christianity, to the teaching of the apostles, to the life and example of Christ. Christianity is not a speculation, a creation of the spirit of the age. It is a tradition, a following of those Divine counsels which are indicated in the New Testament.
III. CONSIDER THE LIMITATIONS TO THE APPLICATION OF THIS RECOMMENDATION.
1. The old ways are to be followed only in so far as they are good. Still we must judge by our own conscience. Antiquity must not be taken as a despotic master. There are bad old ways. The first-born man struck out an evil way; it was left to Abel, the second-born, to show the better course.
2. In considering the character of an old way, we must take note of the character and light of those who founded it. There have been dark ages in the past. Corruption soon crept in. Things are not good just in proportion to their age. Christians must look, not to the Puritans, the Reformers the mediaeval Church, the Fathers, but, passing numerous errors and corruptions, reach back to Christ himself for the true old way. He is the Way (Joh 14:6).
3. We must ever progress beyond the attainments of the past. We are to follow those old ways that are good; we are to build on the one foundation. But we are not to be content with having the foundation. The fabric must rise higher and higher (1Co 3:11-15). Christianity is a religion of progress. It is not to be subject to revolutions. Progress must follow the lines laid down by Christ and his apostles. Christianity is not strengthened nor adorned, but only burdened and hidden, by a mere accretion of human ideas and institutions; yet it is a seed which grows, developing larger, fuller life out of its own essential principles (Mat 13:31). Jeremiah himself took a great stride forward beyond the limits attained by antiquity, though in the direction of the old path, i.e. in the spirit of the religion of his fathers (Jer 31:31-34). “These times are the ancient times, when the world is ancient, and not those which we count ancient, ordine retrogrado, by a computation backwards from ourselves” (Francis Bacon).
Jer 6:17
Watchmen.
I. THE MISSION OF THE WATCHMEN.
1. They are appointed by God. God raises up prophets, preachers, teachers of righteousness. Unless they have a Divine call they are usurping a position to which they have no right (Gal 1:1, Gal 1:15). Hence see
(1) the authority of the watchmen;
(2) the merciful kindness of God in providing warning and instruction.
2. They are to observe what goes on around them. The prophets are seers of spiritual truths, observers of events of history in the light of those truths, and thus, as watchmen, able to discern approaching dangers. The Christian teachers must not be wrapped up in abstract truth. They must see the application of this, note the condition and needs of men, discern the “signs of the times.” The prophets were political leaders. They discoursed on subjects which in our day would be discussed in the newspaper.
3. They are to blow the trumpet. The seer is to be a prophet. He who knows truth must make it known to others. The watchman must not simply “let his light shine;” he must blow a trumpet, demand attention, compel men to hear. The enemy is at the gate. This is no time for mild disquisitions on military tactics; it is a moment when men must be awaked from their sleep and summoned to arms. The Christian preacher speaks to men who are asleep and in great danger. His duty is not simply to let the truth be known. He must arouse, urge, “compel” men to hear his message.
II. THE RECEPTION OF THE MISSION OF THE WATCHERS. The watchman has done his duty in sounding the trumpet. If none will hear, he is free.
1. Men must hearken to the Divine message before they can profit by it. To be warned is not to be saved. If men refuse to accept the truths of Christianity these can do them no good, and they are left free to follow or to neglect them.
2. Men must obey the Divine message before they can profit by it. It is nothing to tremble at the warning of judgment unless we are moved to actions of precaution. Felix trembled, and was none the better for this proof of the powerful effect of the preaching of St. Paul (Act 24:25).
3. If the Divine message is heard and disregarded, the folly, guilt, and ruin will only be aggravated. The plea of ignorance is gone. Indifference is converted into obstinate rebellion (Jer 6:19).
Jer 6:20
Worthless sacrifices.
I. SACRIFICES ARE WORTHLESS WHEN THEY ARE NOT OFFERED IN THE RIGHT SPIRIT. The mere gifts are of no use to God-(Psa 50:8-13). They are only valuable as expressing the thoughts and feelings of the giver. Religious services are simply good as the outward expression of worship.
1. Sacrifices are worthless when they are not prompted by spiritual devotion; religious services are unacceptable when they are only external performances. The true sacrifice must be of the will, i.e. self-dedication.
2. Sacrifices are worthless when they are accompanied by immorality of conduct. Worship at church is a mockery if daily conduct in the world is corrupt (Isa 1:15).
II. WORTHLESS SACRIFICES MAY HAVE ALL THE EXTERNAL CHARACTERISTICS OF ACCEPTABLE SACRIFICES.
1. They may be offered to God. There may be a real intention to approach God, yet this is vain if the heart is wrong.
2. They may be according to prescribed order. The formally obedient Jews were rigidly subservient to the ordinance of the authorized ritual.
3. They may be costlyincense from Sheba, sweet cane from India. But men cannot buy acceptance with God by signing heavy checks.
III. THE OFFERING OF WORTHLESS SACRIFICES IS A SERIOUS FAULT.
1. It is an insult to God. Better offer nothing than the worthless gift when all he really asks for, the heart, is withheld.
2. It is a source of self-delusion. The offering being given, the conscience feels relieved, false pride is stimulated, and the real spiritual condition is hidden. People have a vague feeling that they have done a good thing in attending church, in sitting out a service, in mechanically following the forms of worship. Yet, as this is really utterly worthless, the impression of self-complacency it produces is highly injurious,
Jer 6:27-30
Testing fires.
Under the image of an assayer and his fire, Jeremiah is led to regard his mission, and the troubles of Israel, with which this is so much concerned, as means for testing the character of the Jews.
I. THE STANDARD OF MEASUREMENT IS DIVINE TRUTH. The prophet is to be an assayer. Men are to be judged by the truths of righteousness which he is inspired to see and to declare. God has revealed standards of judgment. We are not free to shape our lives according to fancy, taste, or unaided private judgment. The truths of Scripture constitute the standard by which we shall be measured. This will be applied according as it is known. Jeremiah was the watchman before he was the assayer. He blew the trumpet, preached the truth he saw. They who have not received the fuller revelation will be judged by what light they possess (Rom 1:18-20; Rom 2:12).
II. THE TEST IS APPLIED IN THE FIRES OF AFFLICTION. Trouble is not only sent for discipline and chastisement; it is a test, a revealer of character. It reveals a man to himself and to others. If he has any true spiritual life, any precious metal, it must come out when, one after another, the worthless ideas and feelings fail before the searching flames of the baptism of fire. Trouble shows:
1. Whether religion is real and heartfelt, or formal and superficial.
2. How far faith is a practical trust, and how far it is a barren conviction.
3. Whether love and devotion to God are deep enough to stand against the temptation to rebel or despair.
III. THEY ARE UTTERLY WORTHLESS WHO DISPLAY NO GOOD QUALITIES AFTER THE SEARCHING TRIAL OF AFFLICTION. This follows from the preceding statements. It was terribly applicable to Israel. We should ask how far it applies to ourselves, and beware of two delusions, viz.:
1. The delusion that merit may be still, hidden after God has applied his most thorough test. A religion which is completely secret, never discoverable, must be a poor and worthless thing. The heart cannot be right if it never gives proof of good qualities when tested in all ways.
2. The delusion that trial can destroy spiritual worth. The silver is not burnt if it is not forthcoming. True religion will survive the hardest test that may be applied to it. It is only the superficial, unreal sentiment of religion that is scorched up by persecution and affliction; the growth on the barren rock, not that in the good soil (Mat 13:5, Mat 13:20, Mat 13:21).
IV. GOD WILL REJECT NONE WITHOUT FULL TRIAL. Character is to be assayed. God judges before he condemns. The reprobate silver has been well tried. No soul is reprobated by God till every means has been used to search for some good in it. See, then, the merciful intention of trial. The fires are fierce because the intention is to discover some small good thing hidden from every milder test, if only this exists. God is not anxious to find the evil, but to find the good, in men, as the assayer is searching for silver. He will gladly welcome the faintest indication of the least good. No genuine silver can miss the Assayer after his most searching tests. God will abandon no soul till he has sought for all that can be brought in its favor. He is loath to give his children up (Hos 11:8).
HOMILIES BY A.F. MUIR
Jer 6:4-8
The apostate city that cannot be let alone.
Godlessness is condemned by its impracticableness as a universal and thorough-going principle of human life. It is also an evil that defies ordinary restraints, and constantly becomes worse. “This is the strongest and most dangerous mining-powder of cities and fortresses when sin, shame, vice, and wantonness get the upper hand” (Cramer). The city that has forsaken God is
I. A SOURCE OF MISCHIEF AND UNCLEANNESS. It is likened to a fountain casting forth wickedness. It is an originative agent of evil. Its private, social, and public life multiplies occasions and causes of sin. There is no power within itself sufficient to restrain or purify. Its very laws and regulations tend to foster vice. As of the natural heart our Savior said that out of it “proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, etc.,” so, where there are multitudes of such, there will be an exaggeration of the individual tendency and influence. As the leader of fashion, and dominant authority in new customs and ideas, there is an eclat transferred from it to what is evil. Its existence becomes, therefore
II. AN OCCASION OF INJURY AND DANGER TO ALL WHO HAVE TO DO WITH IT. It is as a fire that has broken out amidst combustible material. By-and-by “the wicked city” is felt to be an intolerable evil. It is a menace to the peace and good government of its neighbors. They cannot afford to ignore it. No time must be lost in bringing it to reason. Its excitements and dissipations wax madder and more widespread. No time can be lost. Hence the avengers come from all quarters in baste and eagerly. “Sanctify war against her! Arise, let us go up at noon!”the heat being no barrier to their setting out; “Arise, and let us go up in the night!”the darkness and weariness being forgotten in their hatred and vengeance. For the same reason no terms can be made with it. The Mosaic regulations in warfare are set aside (Deu 20:19, Deu 20:20). There is no chivalrous respect inspired by it, and as it shows no mercy, none is accorded to it.
III. IT IS A CONTINUAL OFFENCE TO GOD. God’s love for it had been great, and he had purposed to make it a center of redeeming love. This aim had been thwarted. So it has been with the city life of man everywhere. As a natural development, and a providential result in human history, the city is intended to enlarge the powers of doing good and to bless the world. But how seldom has this been the case! The centralization of life has but intensified its corruption. Is there any place where the salvation of society seems more hopeless than in our great cities? And God’s patience threatens to give out. He cannot bear the noisomeness of its evil. He is about to turn from it in utter loathing and final abandonment. But not yet. Warning is given; a prophet is sent. Nay, the Son himself, if haply they will hear him, in whom alone a sufficient antidote is found. In him is salvation, for of the holy city, the New Jerusalem, the scene of regenerated society, he is Center and Lord. He is the “Fountain opened for sin and for all uncleanness”M.
Jer 6:13
The ministry of deceit.
The extent to which corruption prevailed is suggested when even the prophets and priests share the general apostasy: “Every one dealeth falsely.”
I. THE DUTY IT HAD TO FULFIL. The priest dealt with ritual, the prophet with moral and doctrinal questions in religion. They had to act as the spiritual guides and overseers of the people of God. Here they are represented as behaving like quack doctors in cases of grave injury or disease. They were appointed for the spiritual health and well-being of men. Circumstances in the condition of their flocks would determine the manner in which they should exercise their functions, and the special direction in which their attention should be directed. Israel had fallen into serious wickedness. It was no isolated acts of transgression of which she was guilty; her whole spiritual state was one of alienation from God. In such a case the utmost faithfulness and severity were required; as the surgeon has to probe the wound, and use sharp instruments for excising the part that is diseased; or the physician has to make a thorough diagnosis of a patient, and in desperate sickness to use desperate remedies. Here an opposite course had been pursued. The gravity of the “hurt” was overlooked or ignored, and merely outward signs of amendment were regarded as complete reconciliation with God.
1. That which separates men from God is no slight matter. It is a deadly thing. If it continues, it must inevitably destroy. The observances of religion will be nullified until it is put fight. Men must be told of their sin, not merely in a round and general manner, but judiciously, and according to the specialties of individual or class peculiarities. The unbelief of the natural man is the parent of his misdeeds and sin, and keeps him from any real communion with God.
2. The minister of religion is bound to be discerning and faithful.
3. It is only through a real and spiritual repentance that reconciliation can be effected. At such a juncture spiritual religion ought to have been insisted on, and the enormity of the offence exposed. Preliminary acts of contrition; experiences and discoveries of the heart such as conviction of sin, etc.; the necessity of love, obedience, and faith ought not to be slurred over.
II. FAILURE IN THIS DUTY AND ITS CAUSES. The root-cause is undoubtedly the share which the religious teachers had in the general depravity. There was also a consequent lack of spiritual discernment. The greatness of the fall from the former position occupied by Israel was not appreciated, and the nature of true religion was not understood. A ministry under court patronage and a merely popular ministry are alike subject to the temptations to please rather than to deal honestly with the evils of individuals, society, and the state, and to rectify them. “They who live to please must please to live.” There is such a thing always as a making of religion too easy either in its moral conditions or its doctrinal realizations. It is fearfully wrong to say a man is a Christian when he is not a Christian; or so to deal with him in pastoral relations that he fancies himself in possession of salvation and spiritually secure when he is in heart and life far from God. Flattery has a thousand forms, and there is no falsehood to which it contributes that is more insidious or wide-reaching than this.
III. THE RESULTS. These are terrible in the extreme. From the authority of office they are credited in their declarations, and national and individual offences are condoned and perpetuated. Possible for a man to be deceived on this most vital question; to think himself a child of God when he is in reality a child of Satan. Death-bed repentances.
1. The divorce of morality from religion.
2. The intensified wrath of God at hypocrisy and sham religion.
3. Eternal death and irretrievable loss.M.
Jer 6:16
The old paths.
Men are surrounded from their earliest years with various religious systems, the claims of which conflict. To a conscientious mind, intellectual disquietude is the first result of this; in those less in earnest it produces and justifies indifference. All religious tend, under these circumstances, to assume the aspect of speculative questions, and the moral life is increasingly detached from religious sanctions. Morality must thereby be impaired, if it do not ultimately disappear. The prophet, therefore, recalls the people to the consideration of religion as a practical question. It is with him a question not of pure theory, but of conduct and experience. He urges the settlement of the conflict upon these grounds, and furnishes certain criteria by which to determine it.
I. ANTIQUITY IS A TEST OF TRUE RELIGION. Man is a religions being by nature, and God has never left himself without a witness in the world. There has been no generation in which some have not sought and found him. From the very first, therefore, there must have been religions conditions observed, which from their nature must be, as they were intended to be, permanent. The argument for the existence of God, for instance, is greatly strengthened by the evidence of the recognition of him by primitive and ancient peoples. Even in their errors and mistakes, when their views and observances are collated and compared, witness is given to fundamental truths. But the argument is stronger still when the people appealed to are those who, like Israel, have an historical faith. Ages of faith were behind them, illustrated by mighty heroes and saintly men of God, For ages a certain communion had been observed between the nation and its theocratic Head. What was the secular character of those’ ages? Were they marked by political strength, social order and purity, and commercial prosperity? Were the leaders of the people men whose ideal of life and actual behavior commended themselves to the general conscience of the world? Was it to be supposed that any essential truth for the spiritual guidance of men had to be discovered thus late in the day? Were men to be always on tiptoe to learn what the last finding of research might be? There were paths that had been tried by holy men. When the nation was at its best, it acknowledged God in these ways. The vast majority of those who were holiest and best had tried them and found them satisfactory.
II. BUT DISCRIMINATION IS REQUIRED, The children of Israel were to “stand in the ways,” i.e. to examine the different systems of religion and morals that laid claim to their attention. Critical and historical judgment had to be exercised. It is not simply the oldest religion that is to be retained and followed, but that in the religious history of the past which has most evidently conduced to noble action, spiritual health, and well-being. The’ heathenisms of the world are self-condemned; immorality has ever tended to destruction. The Englishman, therefore, is not to look to the Druids for infallible teaching; nor Christians to the saints of the Old Testament times. The dictum of Ignatius is sound: Nobis vera antiquitas est Jesus Christus. But the teaching and personality of Jesus were commended by their essential agreement with Mosaicism in its most ancient form; as that in turn was but a confirmation and elaboration of patriarchal convictions, experiences, and revelations. The truth that has been held in all ages is retained in each new development of revelation and history, but it is spiritualized and grounded upon deeper and wider sanctions.
III. THE NATURAL HUMAN DESIRE FOR MERE NOVELTY HAS TO BE OVERCOME. True religion is not to be despised because it is old. The truth, when carefully studied and spiritually realized, is ever new and fresh. And the “new truths” to which advancing time introduces us are justified only as we can organically and spiritually evolve them from their archaic predecessors. Obligations which are merely relative will change or disappear with the relations upon which they are founded, but the cardinal truths of heart and life must ever retain their authority, and new experience will but tend to deepen and strengthen their hold upon the religious nature. If, on the other hand, the teachings of experience and the warnings of prophets are despised, new heinousness will be added to the wickedness of the wicked. It will be willful disobedience, and as such will be more severely punished.
IV. OBEDIENCE TO THESE DOCTRINES OF EXPERIENCE WILL CONFIRM AND SATISFY THE SOUL. If, in spite of these corroborations, the doctrines were productive of misery and spiritual unrest, then they would go for nothing. But this is the final and absolute criterionDo they tend to the welfare and increase of spiritual life, and to the satisfaction of the deepest longings of the soul?M.
Jer 6:18-20
The reasonableness of the Divine judgments.
The language employed suggests publicity. The world is called into solemn councila “congregation“ for judgment.
1. Not that upon questions of this nature the carnal mind is any authority of and by itself. “Who art thou that judgest?” might well be asked of any who assumed such an office. It is only as confirming and justifying the action taken by God. Thus understood, the testimony of the world is most valuable, being different from what might be expected. It is a great mystery, this judgment of God’s apostate people by the heathen nations.
2. And yet we must not understand it as a mere figure of speech. There is a real endorsement of the righteous judgments of God in the mind of the worldone of those revealing circumstances which show “the Law of God written upon their heart.” When the question is a broad, simple, and evident one, even the most perverted soul will affirm the sentence of Heaven. Unbelief is only superficial. Beneath the crust of hardened consciences there still remains a primitive sense of justice; and to this will the final sentence of condemnation appeal, when we shall give account of the deeds done in the body. The sinner will not only hear the decision from the great white throne, but he will stand self-condemned; and the universal assembly will confirm the verdict.
3. How fearful, too, must have been the guilt of God‘s people that on this occasion such umpires could have been so confidently appealed to! The features of their criminality that are emphasized are these: obstinacy and hypocrisy. The latter is but the abettor of the former. The unreality of Israel’s repentance was especially abhorrent to Jehovah. It vitiates all the costly articles and enhancements of their worship, and is but the cloak of a real continuance in sin. If, then, they do in heart refuse to obey God, what more reasonable than that he should suffer the laws of his universe to deal with them, and punish them with “the fruit of their thoughts?” The angels of vengeance that wait upon sin, licentiousness, luxury, and waste, will be suffered to do their work; and they shall learn by experience that “the way of transgressors is hard.” But the instant that the spirit of reality and sincerity revisits their hearts, his ear will be open to their cry, and his mercy will redeem.M.
Jer 6:27-30
The prophet a spiritual assayer.
Of interest as a description of process of refining precious metals among ancient peoples. The grinding and washing of the ore to discover and separate the precious metals, the fusing of the silver with lead in order to its further purification, and the repetition of this under severer heat, are processes which are used to illustrate the influence of the words of revelation upon the human heart. These words
I. REVEAL CHARACTER. “Some believed, and some believed not,” is the consequence always following upon the faithful preaching of the truth. “It is a hard saying; who can hear it?” How instantaneous were the results in this way attendant on the proclamations of Biblical prophets and preachers! They addressed the conscience, the affection, and the will, and pressed for a verdict and practical following up of opinion in action. Much more is this the case with the gospel, because of its deeper and more spiritual force. It is by hearing the Word, and looking into the mirror it affords, that a man is discovered to himself.
II. DETERMINE DESTINY. Sometimes in a good, sometimes in a bad sense. In the case before us it is wholly the latter, As there was no reality or earnestness in Israel, so there was no point at which a commencement could be made towards reformation. They are all concluded guilty and worthless. It was a severe judgment, but was meant in mercy to the people themselves. They were thereby warned of the need of radical change, and the supernatural, saving grace of God. It is by the determinations and effects produced by the hearing of the Word that the future is influenced. There is a distinct moral responsibility incurred each time the truth is proclaimed in our hearing. Nothing else so searches into and potently affects the moral nature, because the conscience is most vividly aroused and reality in all its naked force bursts upon the soul. The furthest developments of personal character, interest, and occupation may be thus conditioned: “See, then, how ye hear!”
III. ARE CAREFULLY ADAPTED, BY INCREASINGLY SEVERE PROCESSES, TO EFFECT THEM. They result in rejection, and this is rendered inevitable by the utter worthlessness of character and work exhibited. If there is any good in a man, the truth will discover it, and sympathetically develop and reinforce it; if not, it will only the more utterly and unquestionably condemn him. The ear does not try words more delicately or decisively than words of God try the heart. According to their spiritual state will men be condemned, approved; received or rejected by the hearing of the gospel. Some men have been tried and condemned by it already; to others it opens more and more widely the door of hope.M.
HOMILIES BY S. CONWAY
Jer 6:1-8
A dreadful onlook.
Such was the vision of Jeremiah which he saw concerning the coming wrath upon Judah and Jerusalem. It was the sad sight which the sinners in Jerusalem never, but the seer ever, saw clearly, vividly, heart-brokenly. The vision of Jeremiah for Jerusalem was the forerunner of our Lord’s in substance, spirit, and result. Now, with regard to this awful onlook of the prophet which is here related, note
I. HOW SOLITARY IT WAS. The people of Judah and Jerusalem were in no fear, and for forty years and more this vision was not realized. Other eyes saw nothing to be troubled about, and men generally were at ease in Zion. It was only the purged vision of the prophet that pierced the future and portrayed the dread realities of that fast-coming day. He saw clearly what others saw not at all. And so it is always. But why is this? Why do sinners not see? Take an answer from those senseless exhibitions in which the performers place themselves in positions of frightful peril, so that a moment’s unsteadiness of nerve, the slightest slipping of hand or foot, would lead to their immediate inevitable and dreadful death; running all this risk to amuse the gaping, shameless crowds, who stare, stamp, and shout their applause at what never ought to be done. But let these performers provide us a reply to the question we have asked. They will tell you that at first they approached those dangerous places with great fear; how it was long ere they could walk with ease along that slender cord, or stand fearless on that dizzy height. But they got at length so used to these things that now they go through their perilous performances without the slightest fear. And so is it with grievous sinners against God. They have got so used to the threatening of his anger that they think nothing of it after a while, and go on unconcernedly until almost the moment of his vengeance bursts upon them. “Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore,” etc. Their heart wishes that there may be naught to fear. The long-suffering and forbearance of God are perverted, by the deceitfulness of sin, to foster that belief, and so they at length persuade themselves that what God’s servants see so clearly and warn them of so faithfully has no real existence, and “as it was in the days of Noah, so is it also in the days when the Son Of man cometh.” Oh, what need for the prayer, “From all the deceits of the world, the flesh, and the devil, good Lord, deliver us”!
II. How VIVIDLY SEEN. Jeremiah sees the hurried flocking of the Benjamites (see Exposition), the terrified inhabitants of Jerusalem, to some common center in the city, and then their hasting away out of the southern gates towards Tekoa, one of the southernmost cities of the land, and furthest off from the dread invaders, who were speeding from the north. The alarm-trumpet sounding its shrill notes amid the quiet streets of Tekoa; he sees the signal-fires blazing froth the height of Beth-hakkerem, and answered by other like fires, all telling of distress; and then, from hill-summits yet further away, he sees the never-ending train of fierce and victory-flushed soldiers marching ruthlessly on in all the pride and pomp of war, streaming along the great northern roads, the open highway whereby they entered the holy land. He sees the various encampments, the spoliation of the whole district round, the eager haste of the foe to attack the great fortress of Jerusalem, the goal of all their hopes and the prize of their arduous campaign; he sees the varied preparations for war, the building of the engines of attack, the burning of her palaces; in short, the whole dread details of a city doomed to destruction at the hands of a besieging army. Thus vivid was the vision. And such clearness of onlook is given to God’s seers that they may thereby more deeply impress and more surely move the minds of those they are sent to. It is well to muse over things unseen and eternal until they become real to us, until our faith becomes the evidence of the things not seen, and gives substance, shape, and body to the things hoped for. Then as those who have tasted and handled and felt the powers of the world to come, we shall speak with unwonted power, and men through us will also see what they have never seen before. But
III. HOW WELL FOUNDED THIS VISION WAS. For the prophet came to the conviction of the coming wrath upon his country, not on any light grounds, but on such as in all ages may lead to a like conviction.
1. There was the extreme importance of Jerusalem, as an almost impregnable mountain fortress. In the frequent wars between Egypt and Assyria this fortress was the object of much solicitude to either side. And besides her strength there was her wealth and her fame, so that Jerusalem became a coveted possession to one great monarchy after another. Jeremiah (verse 2) compares her to a beautiful and luxuriant pasturage (cf. Exposition). And as shepherds would covet such pasturage for their flocks, so the enemies of Jerusalem would covet her. So attractive, so desirable was she in their esteem. This fact, then, of the worth of Jerusalem to Assyria was one reason wherefore Jeremiah knew that that lawless and rapacious nation would certainly attack her.
2. The “delight in war“ which characterized Assyria. Verses 4, 5 represent the language of their soldiers, their eagerness to be led to the attack, their impatience at every hindrance, their disregard both of the heat of noon or darkness of night. They were a people ever on the look out for plunder and aggrandizement, and seized on the very first pretext that offered for invasion and capture.
3. The prophet‘s clear perception that God was on the side of Israel‘s foes. Verse 6, “Thus hath the Lord of hosts said.” It was, therefore, his will. It had been borne in upon his mind that God’s wrath was ready to be poured out. He had been told so by the Spirit of God; he “spiritually discerned” the dark facts of the future, so that they stood out vivid and clear before the eye of his soul.
4. And his conviction that such was God‘s will could not but be deepened by the constant presence before him of the atrocious wickedness of the doomed city. Verse 7, “As a fountain,” perpetually, copiously freely, irresistibly, “casts out her waters, so did Jerusalem cast out,” etc. The moral corruption of the people made him certain that the holy God of Israel would not suffer it to go on unpunished. And it is ever so. Let a nation, a family, a Church, an individual, give themselves up to wickedness and gross violation of the commands of God, it is certain that sentence of death is on them. Execution may be deferred, but unless there be repentance it will certainly be carried out. There were special features about the vision that was given to Jeremiah, but every believer in God sees in substance the very same. The deep-felt conviction of the godly is the expression of the will of God. What such a one binds on earth is bound in heaven, and whose sins such retain they are retained. It is a terrible fact, then, when any come under the grave moral condemnation of the people of God, for their condemnation is but the echo of those thunders they have heard reverberating around the throne of God.
IV. How MERCIFULLY SENT. Their purpose was obvious. Many years God would yet wait. Thus he gave this call to repentance, and waited long to see if it would be needed. The most loving words of Jesus are those which make our hearts tremble and our spirits quake with fear; those which tell of the everlasting fire and the never-dying worm. For these awful declarations are the expedients of love to drive, to terrify, to force away from the edge of the precipice of ruin those whom no other means will withdraw therefrom. And that this is the intent of these awful representations of God’s wrath is seen in verse 8, where God pathetically pleads with Jerusalem to be “instructed” by his words, “lest his soul depart from” her. Remember, then:
1. It is only the eye, purged by the Spirit of truth, that can see the truth as to ourselves or others. Until thus cleansed, we may be going down to our graves with a lie in our right hand.
2. Praise and bless God for his loving warnings to the wicked. Pray that they may be heeded, and be careful not to disguise or diminish them by prophesyings of peace when there is no peace.
3. Hasten to be yourself and to bring others to be safe within the shelter of the love of God, where no evil can befall and no plague ever come nigh.C.
Jer 6:1
Signal-fires.
“Set up a sign of fire in Beth-haccerem.” Introduction. Illustrate from Homer’s description of such signal-fires, or from Macaulay’s poem, “Defeat of the Spanish Armada.’ Take them as illustrative of the warnings of God against sin.
I. REVIEW SOME OF THESE SIGNAL–FIRES.
1. The Bible.
2. The ministers of God’s truth.
3. Conscience.
4. Present judgments upon men’s sin.
II. NOTE WHEREFORE THEY SHOULD BE SET UP.
1. Men are living in grievous sin.
2. God’s judgments are near at hand.
3. Men are in a state of false security.
4. They will rally the good to increased exertion.
5. They will arouse and arrest the wicked.
6. That like fires may be enkindled by the faithful, who have seen them and taken the warning, and will therefore send it on.
7. God’s sore judgment will come upon those who do not set them up.
III. How THIS MAY BE DONE.
1. By faithful preaching.
2. By living in the fear of God.
3. By separation from the ungodly.
4. By seeking to save all over whom you have influence from the wrath to come.
IV. WHEN DONE, LET THESE WARNINGS BE AS SIGNAL–FIRES.
1. Such as all must observe.
2. Such as all will understand.
3. Set up from sense of the reality both of the threatened danger and the people’s need.
4. Kept burning steadily in spite of all that would quench them.
V. THE SIGNAL–FIRES THAT GOD SETS UP HAVE THESE CHARACTERISTICS.
1. The Bible.
2. Conscience.
3. Present judgments.
VI. LET OURS HAVE THE SAME.C.
Jer 6:2, Jer 6:3
The Lord’s pasture.
Patterns of things spiritual and eternal are scattered broadcast over God’s universe. Nothing is more pleasant than to trace these resemblances out. Our Lord was ever “likening” things in the kingdom of heaven to things he saw around him in the world. His own word, “parables,” tells of things “placed by the side” of others for comparison of their likenesses or contrasts. The prophet in these verses “likens” Jerusalemthe daughter of Zionto a beautiful and luxuriant pasturage (cf. Exposition). He was speaking of the material city. But that daughter of Zion leads our thoughts to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of God, the Church, “which he has purchased with his own blood.” Now, that may be fitly likened to such a pasture; it is the Lord’s pasture. For
I. THESE THE SHEEP OF THE GOOD SHEPHERD FIND REST AND REFRESHMENT AFTER THE OFTEN WEARY JOURNEY OVER THE WAYS OF THE WORLD. (Cf. Psa 23:1-6; Psa 84:1-12.) See the many testimonies to the spiritually refreshing and restful influence of the worship of the Church. “He maketh me to lie down in green pastures,” etc.
II. THERE HIS SHEEP FIND PASTURE. I will abundantly bless her provision: I will feed her poor with bread.” By the ministry of God’s truth, by the application, through the Holy Spirit’s grace, of the things of Christ. Christ’s people are fed as with the Bread of life.
III. THE COMELINESS AND BEAUTY OF THE CHURCH OF CHRIST JUSTIFY THIS COMPARISON. True, the Church has not yet put on her “beautiful garments.” The prophetic visions of her glory and majesty still wait to be realized. “The bride” has not yet” made herself ready.” But even as she is, in her garments of humiliation, treading her painful way as a weary pilgrim, who is like unto her? Where are moral beauty and grace to be found such as she possesses, and has shownyea, is showing stillin spite of all imperfections? Even nowoh, how much more by-and-by!the Church of Christ, the Lord’s pasture, is the fairest, loveliest scene this poor sin and sorrow stricken earth presents. Even now she is Christ’s bride, and all spiritual beauty and comeliness are summed up in that.
IV. FOR ATTRACTIVENESS. Cf. Jer 6:3, which tells how other shepherds were irresistibly drawn to this pasturage, and how eagerly they led their flocks there. As concerned the earthly Jerusalem this had no happy meaning, but as concerns Christ’s Church its meaning is happy and blessed indeed. It is good that the fowls of the air should lodge in the branches of the great tree, which has sprung from the tiny seed planted by the Lord. And it is good that “nations, and peoples, and tribes, and tongues” should, as many already have been, and as all others will be, drawn by the attractiveness of the rich and luxuriant pasturage which the Lord’s pasture offers. It is a weary world; self and sin are cruel taskmasters; they have no green pastures into which they lead their sheep, The opened ear of those whose hearts are touched with Christ’s sympathy perpetually hears the cry for help, the longing to be led into the pasture of the Lord. It is a reproach to every professed disciple of Christ if he do not, by what he is and by the spirit of his life, attract others to the Lord’s pasture, and lead them to say, “We will go with you, for we see that the Lord is with you.”
V. IT IS THERE WHERE THE LORD LEADS HIS SHEEP. Many think they can be Christ’s without uniting themselves to his people, keeping amid the world’s ways and standing aloof from the Lord’s pasture. But this is wrong. There is a sense in which the old saying, “Nulla salus extra ecclesiam,” is true, and nothing casts graver doubt on the reality of our discipleship than absence of sympathy with other disciples, and no liking for their companionship. Love for “the brethren” is given as one note of having “passed from death unto life,” It is the Lord’s will that his people should be banded together in their several folds, and the instinct of the renewed heart almost certainly leads it to desire this pasturage. Hence, as a fact, there are scarce any, if any, of the disciples of Christ who are not found in one or other of the folds into which the one flock of the Good Shepherd is divided.
CONCLUSION. Ask two questions:
1. Of those who are not Christ‘s. Do you find that the ways of the world are really better than the Lord’s pasture? is it better to serve sin and self than Christ? We are sure that there can be but one answer. Why, then, do you not hear the voice of the Good Shepherd and “follow” him?
2. Of those who are his. Are you careful not to blotch and blur that likeness? Many do this, so that the likeness cannot be traced, and the world turns away from it, not drawn by what it sees. Strive to let men see in you somewhatmuchof that spiritual grace and beauty which will lead men greatly to desire to enter the Lord’s pasture for themselves.C.
Jer 6:4
Sorrow because of eventide.
“Woe unto us! for the day goeth away, for the shadows of the evening are stretched out.” It is not thus that we are wont to welcome the going away of the day, the quiet peaceful hours of eventide. How beautiful, even in its outward aspect, is oftentimes the evening hour, the gradual subsidence of the varied sounds of the busy day, the glorious sunsets, the rich radiance of the evening sky, the exquisite tints and colorings of the hills as the mellow light of evening falls upon them, the ruby glow which adorns, glorifies, and almost transfigures the sun-clad peaks of mountainous lands! Yes, eventide is an hour of beauty, in which Nature puts on her almost loveliest garb now that the “garish day” has gone. It is a scene on which the eye delightedly rests. And it is the hour of reunion also. From the scattered districts where one and another have pursued their daily toil, the members of the family, the household, the village, come home, and in pleasant converse talk over the events of the day, and forecast the events of tomorrow. The hearts of the children turn to the fathers, and the heart of the fathers to the children, in the happy intercourse which is only possible on the blessed Sunday or at the evening hour. And it is the hour of rest. The plough stands still in the furrow, for the ploughman has gone home; the toil-worn horse roams in his pasture or feeds peacefully in his stable. The man of business has shut up his ledger, and left the city and the office, and rests quietly amid his family at home. The night has come, in which no man can work. And if we take the symbolic meaning of the day and regard it as telling of the day of life, even then the ideas of calm, rest, and serene quiet gather around it. What a beautiful old age is that described in the seventy-first psalmbeautiful for its confidence in God, for its humility and meekness, for the vigor of its desire for God’s glory, and for its bright onlook into the future! And such beauty often belongs to old age, so that “at eventide there is light.” We probably all of us know of some on whom the shadows of evening are falling fast, because the day of their life “goeth away;” but how calm, how serene, how peaceful, how bright, is their old age! They do not say, nor I do others say concerning them, “Woe unto us for the day,” etc. But in the text we have a precisely opposite feeling, one of dismay and sore grief because of the day’s departure. And this lamentation is one uttered, not alone by those of whom the prophet wrote, but by many others also. Therefore let us
I. LISTEN TO THOSE WHO MAKE THIS LAMENTATION. And:
1. There were those o whom Jeremiah wrote. The Chaldeans, who were about to invade Judaea and Jerusalem. The text occurs in a vivid description of the troubles they would bring upon his people. He is representing their eagerness, their furious haste to assail and capture the doomed city. Hence the interruption of nightfall is fiercely resented by them. They would lengthen out the day if but they could. Like as Joshua bade the sun stand still (Jos 10:1-43.), that he might complete the overthrow of his enemies, so would these Chaldeans like that the sun should stand still, that they might complete the overthrow of theirs. And because that cannot be, therefore they exclaim, “Woe unto us!” etc. What a lesson these Chaldean soldiers give to the professed soldiers of Christ! Would that we had the like zeal in our endeavor to win the kingdom of heaven! But it is only the violent, those who are in real earnest and put forth all their “force,” who shall take it.
2. But if we take the day as referring to the day of life, we shall often hear in Holy Scripture the like lamentation. The saints of the Old Testament, how they shrank from death: “Oh, spare me, that I may recover strength, before I go hence, and be no more;” “The dead praise not thee, neither any that go down into silence;” “The living, the living, shall praise thee, as I do this day.” The overflowing gratitude of the hundred and sixteenth psalm is because of deliverance from the dreaded death. How Hezekiah (Isa 38:1-22.) piteously wept and prayed that he might not die! They knew not that to depart was far better; death was to them only gloomy, silent, dark, and where fellowship with God was not. Hence this “Woe unto us!” etc; expresses the common feeling of Old Testament times at the going away of the day of life.
3. But there are those who still make like lamentation. Let us listen to them.
(1) Those from whom the day of opportunity is going away. We none of us like to miss opportunities. Even to miss a train vexes us. How much more when we see slipping fast from us the power of gaining and doing great good! The scholar who has let slip the opportunities of winning the knowledge which would fit him for his life’s work, but now must go forth all ill equipped, and so must with shame take a lower place. The youth or man who has failed to win the confidence of those about him, and now has to leave them without the great advantage which their confidence would have given him. The professed disciple of Christ who has some child, some companion, some one over whom he had influence, leaving him for a distance, or, more grievous still, by death, and he has never used his opportunity of speaking to him on behalf of Christ. This is a woe indeed, a reflection bitter to have resting upon one’s conscience. The brother or sister, the husband or wife, the companion or friend, who have let go opportunities of showing kindness, of comforting and helping those who looked to them for such comfort and help, and now it is too late. Ah! that is a dreadful thought, to think of what you might have done for them and ought to have done but did not, and now can never do. All these are instances in which those from whom the day of opportunity is going away will often lament, “Woe unto us!” It is with a bitter pang that we see “the shadows” of that “evening stretched out.”
(2) Those from whom the day of prosperity is going away. Listen to the patriarch Job (Job 29:3): “Oh that I were as in months past, as in the days when God preserved me!” And all through the chapter he continues his sad lament over happy days gone by. And so now to see the like befall ourselveshealth, wealth, friends, dear children, or those even dearer still, all going from us, what wonder that such say, “Woe is us 1” etc.? But sometimes it is on account of the going away of the day of spiritual prosperity. The mournful retrospect of days of purity, peace, strength, enjoyment of God, delight in his worship, usefulness in his service; but these now all gone or fast disappearing. Ah! the backslider, the man who suffers himself to lose his religion, has many bitter moments of regret and remorse. How he curses the sinful folly which led him to lend-an ear to the deceitful suggestions of the wicked one, and which have brought him to this wretched pass! Yes, it is a terrible thing to see the day of spiritual prosperity going away and the shadows of its evening stretched out.
(3) Those from whom the day of a life lived without God is going away. This must be dreadful indeed. They have drunk up all that the cup of this world has to give them; there is not a drop left, and there is no provision made for the eternity to which they are hastening. With what intensity of bitterness will the “Woe unto us!” of such be uttered! For though such perceive that eternity is near, and God’s awful judgment bar, yet how difficult, how all but impossible do they find it to hurry on their preparations as they would fain do! The lips unused to pray cannot pray. The habits of unbelief and worldliness won’t be broken. Faith will not come. They have so long turned away from Christ that now they cannot turn to him. Pride holds back the confession which their repentance would make, that all their past life has been one melancholy mistake. Such are some of the great difficulties which stand in the way of him who, at the close of a long life lived without God, would then turn to God. And as he sees that now this world is lost to him, and the next not won and all but impossible to be won, how inevitable the exceeding bitter cry, “Woe unto us!” etc.! But now
II. LET US ENDEAVOR TO LIGHTEN THIS LAMENTATION, AND TO COMFORT THOSE WHO SAY, “WOE UNTO US!”
1. Those who lament the going away of the day of opportunity. Remember that all opportunity is not gone. “Why should a living man complain?” “A live dog is better than a dead lion.” (Illustrate from Foster’s essay on ‘Decision of Character.’ Story of a spendthrift who had lost a vast estate suddenly resolving that he would regain it, and at once setting about to earn money, though ever so little, and at length, by dint of prolonged, hard, and often degrading toil and of rigid economy, accomplishing his resolve. Such victories have been won in spite of temporal loss.) Remember all is not gone. And where spiritual opportunities have been let got sad as such loss is, others yet remain. “Sleep on now, and take your rest;” that was our Savior’s way of telling his unwatchful disciples that they had lost the opportunity of ministering to him as he had asked them. But in the next breath he says, “Rise, let us be going: behold, he that betrayeth,” etc.; that was his way of telling them that there were opportunities for other service yet awaiting them. Peter, when he went out after his denial of his Lord, and wept bitterly, thought that nevermore would he have opportunity of doing aught for that dear, dear Lord whom he had so shamefully denied. But ’twas after that the Lord said to him, “Feed my lambs,” “Feed my sheep.” Therefore waste not time in mere brooding over lost opportunities. Confess your faithlessness, and seek forgiveness, and then ask the Lord to show you what yet remains that you may do for him. And be sure that he will graciously deal with you as he did with his apostle of old.
2. Those who lament the going away of the day of prosperity. If you are. not a believer in Christone born again of the Holy Ghost unto him, then I know not how to comfort you or how to lighten your lamentation. I can only counsel you to kneel and pray that this loss of temporal good may lead you to him who waits to give you eternal good, in the gain of which all earthly loss will be forgotten. God grant you may follow this counsel. But if you are a child of God, then remember Christ will be with you in your trial. Was there not another with the three Hebrew youths in the furnace of fire, so that its fierce flames burned them not, and they walked up and down as if beneath the cool shade of the trees of Paradise? Manifold and great good to you and through you is undoubtedly designed by letting such trial come to you. To give you holy skill and blessed tenderness in ministering to other troubled souls; to impart to you deeper knowledge of yourself; to make you the means of making known to others what Divine grace can do. This was why God suffered Job to be so tried, and why the Lord pat the faith of the Syro-phoenician woman to so severe a strain. Did not our Lord himself become the “Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief?” What do we not all owe to that? And so through his people becoming more or less men of sorrows and acquainted with grief, large blessing shall flow down to others. Then do not think it all “woe” if the day of your earthly prosperity does seem to be “going away,” and the shadows of its evening be stretched out.
3. Those who lament the going away of the day of a life lived without God. To such we would say that it is a rare mercy that they are distressed at all. For many die as they have lived, indifferent and unconcerned about God and things eternal. But if alarm and fear have been awakened, that is a token of mercy. The dying robber on the cross beside our Lord, at that last hour turned to him, and was not refused the mercy he craved. Christ “saves to the uttermost all that come unto God by him.” Give glory to him by even now turning to him, as he bids you do. But let none presume on the possibilities of such repentance at the very last. “The Gospels tell of one such, that none may despair; but of only one, that none may presume.” “Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth.”
“To Jesus may we fly
Swift as the morning light,
Lest life’s young golden beams should die
In sudden endless night.”
If we be found in him, then the exceeding bitter cry of our text will never be heard from us. The day of opportunity will not leave us. If the day of earthly prosperity do leave us, then it will be because the Lord hath provided some better thing for us. And- when the day of life goeth away and we with it, it will be but “to depart and be with Christ, which is far better.”C.
Jer 6:4, Jer 6:5
How the kingdom of heaven is to be taken.
“Prepare ye war,” etc. It is lawful to learn from the children of this generation, who are wiser in their affairs than the children of light. Therefore, from the way in which the enemies of Judah should assail her, we may learn how the kingdom of heaven is to be won. There is
I. THE RECOGNITION OF THE REALITY OF THE STRUGGLE. “Prepare ye war,” etc.
II. CASTING ASIDE OF ALL SUGGESTIONS OF EASE, “Let us go up at noon;” the burning heat did not matter.
III. IMPATIENCE OF HINDRANCES. “Woe unto us! for the day,” etc.
IV. RESOLVE TO ENCOUNTER ANY AND EVERY PERIL RATHER THAN BE PUT BACK FROM THEIR ENTERPRISE. “Let us go up by night.”
V. DETERMINATION NOT TO BEST TILL THE POWER OF THE FOE BE UTTERLY DESTROYED. “Let us destroy her palaces,” etc.C.
Jer 6:6
The real director of human affairs.
“For thus hath the Lord of hosts said, Hew ye down trees,” etc. Nothing could seem a more purely human affair than the invasion of Judah and Jerusalem by the armies of Babylon. Its motives, methods, means, results, were all just such as were perfectly comprehensible and according to the manners of that age and the peoples concerned. One event followed another in natural sequence, and was fully explained, so men would say, by what went before. And so in reference to a still more notable eventthe crucifixion of our Lord Jesus Christ. To the eye of an ordinary historian, that supreme event was brought about in altogether a common and ordinary way. But as concerning that event;, so concerning this of which Jeremiah tells it is distinctly declared that God was overruling and directing all that took place. Not that God was the author of the wickedness which seemed triumphant in these eventsespecially in the “wicked hands ‘ by which our Lord was “crucified and slain.” No, but just as, when a fire has broken forth and is threatening to devour and destroy on all hands, wise and skilful firemen, when they cannot quench it, will contrive to lead it in a given direction, will order the path it shall take as seems to them best, so God, when he sees the raging fire of wickedness has broken forth, guides and orders the path it shall take, the work it shall do. Wickedness is never attributable to God, but the development and form it shall assume are so. Hence in the text, the Lord of hosts is represented as the real Commander of the armies that were to invade Judah and Jerusalem; it was his orders they were in fact obeying, though nothing was further from their thoughts than this. And so we are taught that God is behind all human affairs, ordering and directing them according to his will.
“There’s a divinity that shapes our ends,
Rough-hew them how we will.”
And now we ask
I. WHY SHOULD NOT THIS BE SO? Many reply that if you find an adequate cause for any given effect, there is no need to look for any other. But, in answer, see, I let this book fall; what causes it to fall? The law of gravity will adequately explain it. But was that the real cause? Was not my will to let it fall that real cause? And so in human affairs, we may see the immediate antecedent, but we have a right to ask, “What lies behind that?” You say, “Sufficiently plain motives led to such and such conduct;” but we ask,” Who brought these motives into action? who or what set them at work so that these results have come about?” Further
II. GOD IS A PERFECTLY HOLY BEING, AND THEREFORE MUST DESIRE TO HAVE ALL MORAL NATURES MADE LIKE UNTO HIMSELF. “Good and upright is the Lord, therefore will he teach sinners in the way.” “The righteous Lord loveth righteousness;” hence we are bidden, “Give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness.” Hence it is certain that he will employ all means consistent with the nature he has given us to bring our wills into harmony with his own. Therefore when we see a whole system of things, an entire course of events, tending to and actually producing this resultfor the Captivity did cure Israel of their idolatry, they went no more after false gods, nor have they done so ever sincewe at once put it down to him whose nature and whose will we know.
III. AND OUR INDIVIDUAL CONSTITUTION SUPPORTS THIS VIEW. There are Divine laws for the body, the mind, the affections. And to bring us into harmony with his laws, which are the expression of his will, he has “begirt us round” with safeguards and guides which, if we heed, happy are we, but if we neglect, we suffer. It is certain that the health of our whole nature follows obedience to these laws; and, on the other hand, the misery which results from disobedience declares plainly his will, and shows that he is behind all those facts which we call the causes of these results, and is himself the Cause of them all. Now, this is true in the case of each single person. May it not, therefore, be true in the case of the world at large, and in regard to what we call “causes and effects?” Then note further
IV. THE UNITY OF PURPOSE WHICH IS SEEN THROUGHOUT THE ORDERING OF THE UNIVERSE, SO FAR AS WE CAN TRACE, SEEMS TO INDICATE ONE MIND GOVERNING ALL. Read history, or such a book as Creasy’s ‘Decisive Battles of the World,’ and note how each great struggle has helped forward the advance of humanity, has bettered the condition Of mankind, so that it is terrible to think what, in many instances, would have been the consequences had the events fallen out in an opposite way. The hand of God in history is clearly discernible by all who believe heartily in the living, all-holy, all-loving God.
V. And, of course, THE WHOLE AUTHORITY OF SCRIPTURE SUPPORTS THIS DOCTRINE. (Cf. the story of Joseph, and his answer to his brethren, “It was not you that sent me hither, but God.”)
VI. Learn in CONCLUSION:
1. To cast out from your minds every idea or thought of chance, fate, or any mere haphazard coming about of events.
2. How seriously we ought to look at the events of our own lives, and inquire God’s meaning in regard to his dealings with us. We are not to be drawn off from this by the imagination that our little lives are far too insignificant for God to care for or direct. Does not God paint the roadside flower, the wing of the moth? Is there anything minute or insignificant in his esteem?
3. Rejoice and be exceeding glad. “Our Father’s at the helm.” “What we know not now we shall know hereafter.” Therefore “rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for him.”C.
Jer 6:7
Sin compared to a fountain.
I. THE COMPARISON JUST. For:
1. Naturalness. A fountain or spring bursting out on the hillside excites no surprise as if it were an unheard-of, an extraordinary thing. Nor does the outflow of sin from the human heart.
2. Continence. The streams of each may sing
“But men may come and men may go,
But we flow on forever.”
3. Having their source “from within.” Out of the depths both alike come.
4. Unchangeableness in character. What they were once they are always.
5. Spontaneousness. No force is needed to draw forth their streams.
6. Copiousness.
7. Effectiveness. The course of a stream is ever discernible by its effects. It tells on all that it touches, it leaves nothing as it was before it came.
8. Force. The fountain will have way given to it. It will break all barriers that block its way.
II. THE LESSON IS OBVIOUS. Shall we divert its streams, and compel them to run only in quiet safe places where they will cause us no worldly harm? This is what most men try to do, and very often succeed in doing. But this is not God’s plan. His charge is, “Make the fountain good.” And this he can do; he can create a clean heart and renew a right spirit within us. “He that believeth in me,” said our Savior, “from within him shall flow rivers of living water;” not, as now, rivers of death, O Christ
“Thou of life the Fountain art,
Freely let me take of thee:
Spring thou up within my heart,
Rise to all eternity.”
C.
Jer 6:8
The worst woe of the wicked.
“Be thou instructed, O Jerusalem, lest my soul depart from thee.”
I. THERE ARE MANY WOES WHICH ACCOMPANY SIN. “Many sorrows shall be to the wicked.” All observation attests the truth of this word.
II. BUT THERE IS ONE WHICH MAY FITLY BE SPOKEN OF AS THE WORST OF ALL. It is thisGod’s soul departing from the sinner. This indeed is terrible. It is so amongst men. We hear at times of those who have worn out the love even of those who loved them most tenderly. They have made the soul of those who loved them to depart from them. Sons have done this for fathers and mothers, friends for friends, husbands for wives and wives for husbands; and to have thus driven away a deep and earnest love is a depth of ruin than which none in this world can be more terrible. But to have worn out the love of Godto have made his soul to depart from us, what woe can compare to that? His providential favor may depart from us, and that is sad. Our realization of his love in our hearts may depart from us, and that is sadder still. But for his love itself to depart, that is the worst of all.
III. WHAT, THEN, CAN CAUSE SO GREAT A CALAMITY TO COME UPON A MAN? It is his refusing instruction (cf. Pro 1:1-33; “Seeing thou hatest knowledge,” etc.). This Judah and Jerusalem were doing; this all too many are doing now.
IV. BUT THIS GOD DEPRECATES GREATLY, AND IMPLORES US NOT TO BE GUILTY OF. “Be thou instructed, O Jerusalem” (cf. our Savior’s tears over Jerusalem). Appeal.C.
Jer 6:9
Turn back thine hand.
The text, no doubt, tells of the utter and complete desolation which would result from the Chaldean invasion of Judah and Jerusalem. In vivid dramatic form Jehovah is represented as bidding the invading armies go over their ruthless work again, and make the desolation yet more awful, Like as the grape-gatherer, after he had to all appearances stripped the vine of its clusters, would “turn back his hand” amongst the tendrils, and search once more over the whole branch to see that no solitary cluster had escaped him (“tendrils,” rather than “baskets,” are what is meant; see Exposition); so, if there were a solitary village or homestead which had escaped the fury of the foe, they are bidden go back on their work, that none whatever might escape. Such the meaning, and it was ruthlessly fulfilled. But the form of expression may be applied, not merely to the ministers of God’s vengeance, as in the text, but to those who serve him in ways far more acceptable and ordinary. We, therefore, take the charge, “Turn back thine hand as a grape-gatherer,” and address it
I. To THOSE WHO ARE AT WORK FOR GOD. The self-satisfied, who look at their work with too much content, as if it could not be bettered,these need this charge. And the discouraged, who are for throwing up their work, abandoning it in sorrow and despair, believing they can do nothing more,to them God would say,” Turn back thine hand.” To those who desire to do their work thoroughly. Go over it again. See how Paul was constantly in the habit of “turning back his hand,” i.e. going over the Churches that he had established, revisiting them, in order that he might “confirm“ them in the faith (cf. Acts, passim). “Line upon line, line upon line,” is God’s counsel to us in this matter.
II. To THE STUDENTS OF HIS WORD. To none more than to these is this charge necessary, if they are to keep a living interest in God’s Word. We come to be so familiar with the main themes, and the forms in which they are expressed, that reading of the Bible comes to be a work in which no thought is aroused, or attention arrested, and we weary of it terribly. Now, it is to the diligent searcher, who will “turn back his hand,” go over his work again, and not be content with the truths which lie only on the surface and which every eye can see,to him shall there be revealed clusters of precious truths which he had never seen before, and the Word of God shall yield to him what it yields only to searchers like himself.
III. TO THOSE ANXIOUS FOR THE FRUITS OF GOD‘S GRACE IN THEMSELVES. To true-hearted believers it is often a cause of regret that their fruits seem so few and so poor. How often the confession is made of this spiritual fruitlessness! But we need not, ought not, to stay in complaints and confessions. “Turn back thine hand,” and search if there may not be more fruit found, and of a better kind. “In me is thy fruit found,” says God, and it may be we have been looking in the wrong places and to wrong sources for that which we so earnestly desire to see. We may “go on unto perfection,” for so bids us the Word of God. Our “whole body, soul, and spirit may be preserved blameless,” and we maybe “the sons of God without rebuke;” for Christ “is able [has power] to save to the uttermost,” and therefore we may be “filled with all the fullness of God.” So, Christian brother,” turn back thine hand as a grape-gatherer,” and think not thou hast gathered all the fruits of the Spirit that may he borne by thee. Thou hast not.
In conclusion, note how the subject tells of:
1. The worth of those objects which we search after. The action of the grape-gatherer, in carefully going over the branch again, testifies to his sense of the value of that for which he searches. And so here in I; II; III.
2. And what is yet left to be gathered will be more readily found because of the others that have been gathered. The solitary remaining clusters are seen more easily now that the others which hid them are cleared away. And he who desires to do more work for God, to know more of the truth of God, to bear more fruit unto God, shall find that his former work has been for his help, and on account thereof he is more sure of success. “Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit;” therefore “turn back thine hand.”C.
Jer 6:9-17
The preacher’s bitter cry.
Profound distress marks the prophet’s utterances in this section. The lament over the incorrigible wickedness of men and his own baffled work is loud and long and bitter exceedingly (cf. Christ’s tears over Jerusalem; Paul’s sorrow over his countrymen).
I. WHAT CAUSED THIS BITTER CRY? His perception of the judgment of God drawing nigh (Jer 6:9,Jer 6:12, Jer 6:15). The obstinacy of the people (Jer 6:10, Jer 6:16, Jer 6:17). The hopelessness of reformation (Jer 6:13). All were corrupt, and the prophets and priests were even leaders in sin (Jer 6:14). Even the Lord’s voice had been despised (Jer 6:16). Now, when facts like these occur, the judgment of God threatening but those exposed to them obstinately refusing warning; and when those who should have warned them and been their guides in the ways of God are themselves godless, and the voice of God has been heard and deliberately despised, then, as the faithful servant of God sees this awful guilt and its sure, inevitable, and swift-approaching judgment,then it is that a sense of despair, a deep grief fills the soul, as well it may.
II. WHAT IS A PREACHER TO DO UNDER SUCH CIRCUMSTANCES? The first thought is to turn away from the doomed people and to speak no more to them in God’s Name. But it is better to take example from the prophet, who was verily as one of those servants who, when those called to the prepared feast would not come, but “made light ‘ of the gracious invitation, each saying, “I pray thee have me excused,” went out, at his lord’s bidding, into the highways and the hedges and compelled them to come in. So did Jeremiah now (verse 11). It grieved him to the heart that God’s Word should be despised, and he became “full of the fury of the Lord” (cf. Jer 20:9). Hence he poured out his full heart upon young and old, men, women, and children, wherever he found opportunity of unburdening his soul on this great theme. He was inspired by God to do this, and the fact teaches us that preaching, which may seem to be of no use for the accomplishment of one result, may yet be of much use in regard to another. Jeremiah’s testimony, though it did not save the people from captivity, was of great service to them there, and to the whole Jewish people ever after. His words, which seemed as idle tales when he spoke them, became mighty through God in after days. The neglect, therefore, of our message now should not lead us to cease delivering it, but should muse us to more zeal, and make us “weary with holding in” (verse 11). We may be sure that whenever God moves us to speak earnestly his Word, he intends to make our message a means of blessing some when and somewhere.
III. WHAT THE PREACHER‘S GRIEF REVEALS. It tells much:
1. Of God.
(1) Of his love; for it is ever he who inspires his servants with deep solicitude for men’s salvation: it is he who through them is saying, “How can I give thee up?”
(2) Of his righteousness; for the vivid realization of the coming judgment which his servants have is given them that they may impress upon the impenitent and the ungodly the sure issue of their sins. The prophets who see and declare God’s love are they who declare his righteousness also.
2. Of the preacher himself. How truly he is sent of God! It is the Spirit of God speaks through him, the love of God leading him to deep love for his fellow-men. If our hearts are greatly filled with a yearning for men’s souls, if “rivers of water run down our eyes because men keep not God’s law,”such solicitude is a sure sign of the presence of God with us, and a pledge of his help in delivering our message.
3. Of men. How desperately set they are against God! how absolute their need of the renewing power of the Holy Ghost! See what the prophet says (verse 10): “Their ear is uncircumcised, and they cannot hearken.” The habit of sin has caused their ear to be overgrown, and its power of hearing stopped, “so that,” etc. How should the preacher ever remember this, and supplicate the mighty aid of the Divine Spirit if his message is to do any good!
IV. QUESTIONS IT SUGGESTS.
1. For preachers and teachers. Do we know anything of the prophet’s grief? Facts all too plentiful and too closely resembling those which filled Jeremiah with the fury of the Lord (verse 11) abound in our day. Do they excite any similar feeling in ourselves? What need we have to pray and watch against becoming used to sin! and for sympathy with the prophets of God and yet more with Christ, their Lord and ours!
2. For those who hear the Word of God. Are you becoming the cause of such grief to any of God’s servants? Remember theirs is but the foreshadowing of your own, which will be far greater if you heed not their word. Rather heed that Word, and so become not their bitter grief but their joy now, and their cause of rejoicing in the day of the Lord.C.
Jer 6:10
The uncircumcised ear.
I. WHAT IS THIS? Not a physical defect, although the figure employed seems to tell of some fleshly growth which has formed over the cavity of the ear, and so destroyed the power of hearing. Nor a mental defect. They were acute enough; they readily understood the prophet’s meaning when he spoke to them. Their minds were at that very time busy about all sorts of plots and schemes, which they hoped to carry out. Nor was it a moral defect. They knew the right, the true, the good. Conscience was still at work and goading them with her reproaches. Hence they devise means (Jer 6:14) to lull and quiet it. And they had the power of choice, and deliberately chose ways of their own rather than those of God. True, it is said in the text, “And they cannot hearken.” But that tells only of what is the perpetual result of refusing continuously to hear God’s Word. Let a man tie his arm to his side for six months, and see what power of using it he has left after that. It will have become atrophied. And so in like manner do the functions of the soul, the limbs of our spiritual nature. The “will not” in regard to their use darkens down into the dreadful “cannot” of the judgment of God. There is no more awful fact for the faithless servant of God, nor more blessed one for the faithful, than this law of habit. The utterance of it concerning the wicked is, as here, “They cannot hearken;” but concerning the good, “My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed: I will sing and give praise.” But it is a spiritual defect. It is the result of “the alienated will,” that which the Bible calls “the unrenewed heart,” “the carnal mind,” “the unregenerate nation.” All such expressions tell of the will of man turned away from God, and having no higher motive than to please and gratify self. That is the radical defect of us all, and it is that which the prophet here terms “the uncircumcised ear.” It by no means always involves the outrageous wickedness which is told of in their prophecies; it can exist and yet never “commit abomination,” as did these to whom Jeremiah spoke. It is found in company with much outward religiousness, much moral propriety, much amiability of character; but wherever it is, Christ’s word concerning all such is, “Ye must be born again.” It is in its nature fierce, savage, unsubdued still. It often seems to be tamed, and moves about soft-footed and gently as if it never could do harm; but let some lure be held out to it, some provocation be given, and then its ferocity and all its hideous evil will reveal itself at once. Accustomed as we are to see this evil nature held in check by the usages of society, the habits of civilized life and a refined selfishness, we are often blind to its true character, and “marvel” much at our Savior’s reiterated word, “Ye must be born again.”
II. ITS EFFECTS.
1. Disregard of and dislike to the Word of God. “To whom shall I speak?” said the prophet. He could get no one to listen to him. And this is the too frequent experience of our own day. How deserted the churches are, and where they are better attended, what kind of listening is it that prevails? Granted the intolerable dullness of many preachers, but the evil is not probed when this is said. The true cause is “the uncircumcised ear” that Jeremiah tells of. But not only have men “no delight in” the Word of God, they count it “a reproach.” They come to be ashamed of its being thought that they should regard it with interest or have any real care for it. The tone adopted regarding those who do delight in God’s Word is one of scorn and contempt.
2. Men go on unchecked in sin (cf. verses 13, 15, and passim). Surely it is a question not merely for the Church, but for thoughtful men of the world, whether it be well for any community or people to be throwing aside all the restraints of God’s Word, as so many are doing. The history of Israel of old is a beacon-light, warning the people of our day of what comes from despising the Word of the Lord.
3. God’s judgments come upon such people (verse 12).
4. Men become shameless and hardened (verse 15).
5. The heart of God’s faithful servants is sorely troubled (cf. verse 10). Here the prophet mourns over their “uncircumcised ears.”
III. ABETTORS AND MINISTERS TO THIS EVIL.
1. Unfaithful priests and prophets (verse 13).
2. The hardening effects of the people’s own sin.
IV. THE REMEDY. Yet more impassioned and earnest ministry of the Word. There must be no giving up of work or abandoning it in despair. Butas verse 11more intense devotedness in the endeavor, futile as it may appear, to save men from death.
2. The fiery disciplines of God. He is “a consuming fire;” and the fire of his love will burn fiercely on until the evil on which it fastens is burnt out of the soul, the Church, the nation, he loves. Oh, the awfulness of the love of God! If God were not love, there might be a possibility of a soul being allowed to perish in its sins and to go its own way to death unchecked; but as the fondest mother will subject her child to terrible suffering for the saving of its life, so, too, will God.
CONCLUSION. What a summons comes to us from these truths:
(1) to seek the renewing grace of the Spirit of God;
(2) to take heed how we hear!C.
Jer 6:14
The vampires of the soul.
There is a hideous creature called the vampire bat, that is said to destroy its victims by sucking their life-blood. Whilst thus destroying them, it gently fans them with its wings, and so keeps them in a profound slumber, from which the probabilities are that they will never wake. And what other are they who lull the souls of sinful men to the sleep of death by “saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace?” No greater crime can be imagined than this of which our text tells. The physician who should pamper a man in his disease, who should feed his cancer or inject continual poison into the system, whilst at the same time he promised sound health and a long life,such a physician would not be one-half so criminal as the professed religious teacher who should knowingly bid those entrusted to his charge to be at ease and to take comfort, when he ought to be crying, “Woe unto them that are at ease in Zion!” The pilot who should pretend to steer a ship toward its proper haven, but all the while was of intent driving her upon unseen rocks, would not be a worse traitor than the man into whose hands the helm of human souls is entrusted, and whose professed duty it is to steer them towards Christ, but who, instead of so doing, was guiding them to utter ruin, by flattering them that all was welt when all was ill. In the great day, when all shall render up their account to God, what awfulness of doom will not be reserved for him who has been chargeable with blood-guiltiness like this? We observe
I. THAT IT IS AN ALL TOO FREQUENT SIN.
1. The prophets of Judah and Jerusalem were guilty of it, notwithstanding that
(1) they knew the truth;
(2) they professed the truth;
(3) they were ordained to teach the truth.
Still, out of all manner of evil motive they were guilty of this sin. Oh, let all who teach, whether in the pulpit, the home circle, or in the school, remember that their sacred charge and duty may not merely be imperfectly fulfilledthat it ever is; nor even neglected merely, sad as that is; but it may be utterly perverted, and that which was designed to be for our own and others’ great good may become the means of our and their more terrible condemnation. From this may God save teachers and taught alike!
2. And there are now those who are bidding men be at peace when there is no peace.
(1) They who bid men be at peace on the ground of their moral integrity, their respectability of character, and of the righteousness with which they are credited amongst their fellow-men. God forbid that we should decry or depreciate the value of character, reputation, and integrity amongst men. go, indeed; but all the same we feel that it is a plea all too feeble, and one that cannot avail such as we are before the bar of the all-holy God.
(2) They who teach men to trust in sacraments or Church ordinances of any kind. These, too, are precious in their proper place, but regarded as a valid claim to eternal life, apart from the disposition of the heart Godwards, they will save no man, and he who trusts them or teaches others to trust them, is guilty of saying, “Peace, peace,” etc.
(3) They who rely on a faith which is fruitless in love to God and man. This is the characteristic of all forms of Antinomianism, and though that be “a way which seemeth right unto many men, the end thereof is death.”
3. But let us remember that we may practically be preaching this fatal peace. Christian men and women, who do nothing for the salvation of those around you; who are eager about amusements, business, worldly position, and all such things, but who are unmoved or but very little moved at the ungodliness in the midst of which you live; what is the conclusion that others draw from this unconcern? Why, that you don’t believe what you profess, and that therefore they need not either. And so you encourage them to say, “Peace, peace,” etc. Whose conscience is there that does not smite him here? and who of us is there that has no need of the prayer, “Deliver me from blood-guiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation?” And all who are unconcerned about their own eternal welfare. Fathers and mothers who have not sought the Lord, you will die in your sins if you repeat not; but you will die not to yourselves merely; you will drag your children down with you, for you are teaching them to be unconcerned and indifferent, when neither you nor they possess any true peace at all.
4. But after all, those who are the most guilty of saying, “Peace, peace,” etc; are sinful men to themselves. The devil taught men the way very early in the history of our race. “Ye shall not surely die;” so he lyingly declared to our first mother, and she, all too willing to believe that there would be peace though she did disobey God, ruined herself, her husband, and all her children by that one deed. And ever since men who love to disobey have encouraged themselves in their sin by this fatal flattery of their souls of which our text tells. They did so in the days of Noah,” until the flood came and took them all away.” See also Belshazzar’s feast at the height of merriment, when the handwriting appeared on the wall, and that night Babylon was taken and her king slain. So has it been with the Jewish peoplein Jeremiah’s time, and so in our Lord’s. The Captivity shattered that first false peace, and the utter destruction of Jerusalem the second. And we are told it will be so at the last, in that “day when the Son of man cometh.” Observe, then, some of the deceits whereby men beguile themselves into saying, “Peace, peace,” etc. They are such as these:
(1) The infinite mercy of God.
(2) “I am no worse than those who make a religious profession. If they are saved, I shall be too.”
(3) “Yes, I am going to repent and turn to God; I certainly mean to one day.”
(4) Religious profession: “I am baptized and take the sacrament.”
(5) Denying the truth of the Bible: “I have no proof that there is a God, a heaven, or indeed that I have a soul. It is all a ‘ perhaps; ‘”so men say. And there are many other such deceits. But now
II. NOTE HOW THE LIE THAT IS IN ALL SUCK SAYING OF “PEACE, PEACE,” ETC; MAY BE DETECTED. A man may hold up a phial of liquid that is colorless, clear, – sparkling, that seems in all respects like pure, wholesome water. But the skilled chemist drops into it the fitting test, and at once the poisonous substance is precipitated, and thus is made evident to all. Now, with all these deceits of which we have been telling, their true nature may be made manifest if we apply those tests which only the true peace of God will endure. For, if the peace in which we are trusting be a true one and not a deception, it will:
1. Always tend to the making of us holier, purer, more Christ-like. God’s peace always does this. It “keeps our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus,” it “rules” in our hearts.
2. Stand under the hardest blows of misfortune and earthly sorrow. Listen to its voice: “Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him;” “The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the Name of the Lord.” Now, will peace such as springs from such sources as those told of help a man in straits like those of Job?
3. Be with him in death.
III. SAFEGUARD IS NOT IN OUR BEING ABLE TO DETECT THE FALSE PEACE, BUT IN POSSESSING THE TRUE. That is ours when we surrender our souls to Christ. Then we shall have peace indeed.
(1) Peace from fear of God’s condemnation;
(2) peace from dread of guilt;
(3) peace from the tyranny and oppression of “the evil one;”
(4) peace from the crushing power of earthly sorrow;
(5) peace from the terror of the grave and the judgment day;
(6) peace in the conscious possession of the love of God.
Such is the true “peace of God.” Oh, how foolish, then, to barter that for the false and fatal pretences of peace which are forever beguiling the hearts of sinful men! May he who is “our Peace,” even Christ, cause us to give heed to his own loving call, “Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest!”C.
Jer 6:15
The sin against the Holy Ghost.
I. THIS SIN IS SET FORTH HERE. For the sin is no one definite act, but a condition of mind which renders repentance hopeless and persistence in sin certain. But is not this the condition described in the text, described vividly, accurately? They had hardened themselves till repentance, yea, even shame, on account of “abomination” was utterly absent from them. “‘ They were not at all ashamed,’ no tinge of it, not the least ‘ blush ‘ was visible. Was it not certain that such people who would go on, as they did, in sin, were in danger of eternal sin?” Hence they had never forgiveness, and the prophet was forbidden (see Jer 7:16) even to pray for them (cf. 1Jn 5:16).
II. OTHER INSTANCES OF IT OR APPROXIMATIONS TO IT.
1. Those who with unblushing effrontery ascribed Christ’s holy ministry and his deeds of merciful might to Satanic power. They cried out,” Show us a sign from heaven,” implying that thus far he had only shown them signs from hell.
2. Those who were responsible for the cry,” His blood be on us, and on our children!” And there are instances now. The condition of shamelessness in sin and of helplessness as to repentance may be, and we fear at times is, reached. Therefore note
III. THE STEPS BY WHICH MEN REACH THIS CONDITION.
1. By disregard of the rebukes of conscience, stifling them, instead of going, as they would prompt, to the mercy-seat, and there confessing the sin.
2. By persistence in sin.
3. By the commission of great sins.
4. By loss of self-respect.
5. By forfeiture of character and the esteem of men.
IV. ITS DOOM. “It hath never forgiveness.” “They shall fall among them that fall; they shall be cast down, saith the Lord” Wherefore this?
1. Because sin and sorrow are linked together by a chain that cannot be broken. Therefore where there is eternal sin there must be eternal punishment. The latter keeps pace with the former, and dogs its footsteps forever. It cannot but be so.
2. Because such men are murderers of other men’s souls. They are centers of rebellion against God, of deadly spiritual contagion. Blood-guiltiness is upon them, yea, they are steeped therein. 3. Because God could not be God and not abhor such condition of soul as this sin betrays.
V. ITS SOLEMN LESSONS.
1. Cherish a holy hatted of sin, for its tendency is ever to reproduce itself, and so to become eternal.
2. Beware of disregarding the monitor withinconscience, God’s voice in our souls. To do so is to drive away the trusty sentinel who guards the approaches of the soul against its deadly foes; to pierce and undermine those blessed walls which keep back the inrush of the ocean upon the whole land. Let us not do aught like this. But pray.
“Quick as the apple of the eye,
O God, my conscience make,
Swift to discern when sin is nigh,
And keep it still awake.”
3. Is sin upon your conscience now? At once confess it, and so find from your Lord forgiveness for it, and moredeliverance from it and from all possibility of that dread sin which the text describes and which hath never forgiveness.C.
Jer 6:16
The good old paths.
It is noticeable in the order of nature how God has secured the true adjustment and hence the highest well-being of his universe by means of the action of contrasted and opposite forces. By means of that power which the mighty mass of the sun has to draw everything to itselfif this were left alone to operate, the whole of those innumerable orbs that now circle round the sun as their center would be drawn in upon it and perish. But this is prevented by the action of an opposite force, called the centrifugal, as the first-mentioned is called the centripetal. This opposite force tends, by the velocity with which the planets revolve around the sun, to drive them off and away from it: thus, by the effect of these opposite forces, that perfect harmony and unerring order of the whole stellar universe, which has been the admiration of all observers in all ages, are preserved. Chemistry also can furnish illustrations not a few of the beneficent action of opposite forces, where either left alone would work only harm. In the great law of sex, the constitution of all life, plant life as well as animal, as male and female, this in all its aspects is another marked instance of the same Divine method. In political life, the two great tendencies, monarchial and democratic, or the rule of the one versus the rule of the manythe mutual strugglings of these twokeep the world in such equilibrium as we see. In religion, the Catholic principle which makes self nothing, and the Protestant principle which makes self all-important, each man having to give an account of himself to God,these are both designed to contend the one against the other, and whilst Catholicism is to cheek the selfish individualism into which Protestantism is apt to lapse, Protestantism is in its turn to struggle against that servility of mind into which the principle of self-abnegation, the essential principle of Catholicism, is prone to degenerate. It is in the resultant of these two forces that the purest form of religious life is found. And in regard to the life of obedience to God, the life which he would have us live here on earth, that, too, is governed by the action of opposed laws. There is the law which works through our bodily nature, and which if left alone would make us, not in body only but in soul, of the earth earthy, forever “groveling here below.” But there is the opposed law which works through our spiritual nature; but, blessed as it is, it needs to be disciplined and made perfectly healthful to us by means of the salutary necessity of giving heed in due measure to the lesser law just spoken of. The first preserves us from being mere enthusiasts, the second from the far greater peril of enslavement to the world, the flesh, and the devil acting through them. And in those two tendencies, one of which is plainly referred to in this sixteenth verse and the other implied, the love of the old is contrasted with the love of the new. Here, again, we have set before us two great forces in humanity, which by their mutual contentions preserve it in tolerable health and comfort, and ensure its steady, onward progress. Conservatism and liberalism are not the products of any one national revolution, like our own in 1688, but they are two God-implanted tendencies of the human mind, each of which has its appropriate and most useful function, and neither of which can be dispensed with without harm to the whole body politic’ in every nation under the sun. To lie like a log on the ocean of human life, useless and despised amid the nationalities of the world, is the doom of those who will blindly close their eyes to the fresh light and truth which are forever breaking forth upon the world; to run upon the rooks and make shipwreck of everything is the doom of those who despise the teachings of experience, and care only to be forever finding out some new way and to follow some new guide. But let these two act and react each on the otherthe love of the old upon the love of the new, the tendency to be always looking back upon the tendency to be always looking forward, and then the result is that men will come generally to practically act upon that prudent, though to many minds most prosaic, maxim which counsels
“Be not the first by whom the new is tried,
Nor yet the last to lay the old aside.”
But in regard to the way in which God would have us go, our text teaches
I. THAT THERE ARE NO NEW WAYS. From the beginning that which the Lord God hath required of man has been, even as it yet is, that we should “do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with our God.” The gospel of the Lord Jesus is not to supersede or make void this eternal law, but to establish it as it never had been or could have been before. “What the Law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh,” did, “that the righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us.” For this end, by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the burden of guilt is taken off from us, and a new heart and a right spirit given. But the law of life is ever the same. It is the old and good way.
II. NEVERTHELESS, MEN ARE CONTINUALLY DEVISING NEW WAYS. It was so in Jeremiah’s time; it is so in our own. By denials of truths most surely believed amongst us for many generations, or by additions thereto, or by substitutions of other forms of faith, men have done to-clay as in the days of old. Every magazine and newspaper, besides innumerable volumes ever issuing from the press,all alike are popular as they throw over old ideas and propound “some new thing.” Science and secularism and superstition between them would, lung ere this, have destroyed the good old way, had it not been so firmly constructed that all these powers combined are not adequate for such a task.
III. IN THESE NEW WAYS WHAT IS TRUE WILL BE FOUND TO BE OLD, AND WHAT IS NOT OLD WILL BE FOUND TO BE NOT TRUE. For there are tests by which new teachings may be tried, and ought to be tried, and by which the prophets of God tried the new teachings of their day.
1. The test of conscience. The human conscience confesses God. It is borne in upon the human heart that God is. Nothing can permanently stifle or destroy that confession, which Conscience, left to herself, would ever make. The very word “conscience” implies the recognition of some other being as with us, in us, around and about us. It confesses God. All teachings, therefore, that deny God, or explain him away as a blind force or law, or identify him with his universe, the pantheist’s God,these teachings by this sure test are tried, and found wanting.
2. The test of result. Note what is the result of any professed truth upon personal happiness. God, who has given us so many things richly to enjoy, must from his very nature purpose the blessedness of his children. But if a system be offered us, the inevitable result of which is to blot out hope, to shut us up to this often most miserable life, as all they would do who would take from us the Christian hope. then its drear and dread effect upon the heart of man proclaims it false. See, too, how any teaching tells upon character. Here is a surer test still. Whatever else is dark and obscure, goodness and truth must ever be right. But if any new doctrines tend to deteriorate character, as many of them do, to make sin easier and virtue more difficult; if they throw the reins upon our lower nature; if they take away the great motives to nobleness of life;then again they are demonstrated false. And note their effect upon society generally. Can the denial of God’s existence, of the religious basis of morality, as Mr. Herbert Spencer denies it, of the authority of Holy Scripture, of the sanctity of the sabbath, of the Divine mission of the Son of God, of the resurrection of the dead, the judgment and future blessedness or woe depending upon our lives here;can the denial of any of these things, which, alas! is common enough now, tend to the good of society? Must not the general well-being of mankind be greatly threatened if such doctrines be generally accepted? But doctrines that would thus destroy good are ipso facto declared to have no part nor lot in the kingdom of truth. By these tests of conscience and result let the new ways be tried, and it will be seen that what in them is true is old, and what is not old is not true.
IV. WHEREFORE, THEN, DO MEN DEVISE THESE NEW WAYS? The causes are sometimes:
1. Intellectual. Mental restlessness on the part of some will lead men, even in the most perilous matters, to be doubting the old and devising what is new. And God often suffers them to wander in the far and drear country of mental unrest, and to feed upon its husks, and so come to themselves, and arise and go back to their Father’s heart and home, from whence it had been better had they never strayed.
2. Sometimes, and more often, moral. Religion is that which binds. It is a ligature, a restraining cord upon the evil propensities of our nature. If, therefore, doctrines be offered which will relax that little-loved bond, they will be eagerly welcomed. A faith that will give not true liberty, but “license,” men will ever love.
3. And always spiritual. Where the heart is surrendered to Christ the mind will not be ensnared by these subtleties of the evil one. If the Holy Spirit of God have wrought in us the great regenerating change, we shall have liberty and deliverance from all these. Safety from the wanderings of the intellect, as well as from the worse wanderings of our sinful nature, are alike ensured to him who has given himself up unreservedly to God.
V. BUT THOSE WHO WOULD WALK IN THE WAY GOD WOULD HAVE THEM GO MAY KNOW THE WAY BY ITS BEING “OLD” AND GOOD. All old ways are not good, but the way of God is both. It is old, therefore familiar to many; has been often described, is well marked out; its different stages are well known. “The wayfaring man, though a fool, need not err therein.” And it is good. It leads to him who is the supreme GoodGod. It has been the chosen way of all the good. It makes those good who walk therein. He who alone on this earth of ours was perfectly goodour Lord Jesuswalked in it, and lives to enable us to walk therein also. It is the will of God that we should walk therein. “Its ways are all ways of pleasantness, and all its paths are peace.” “Ye shall find rest to your souls.” For all these reasons it is the good way as well as the old; therefore let us “stand,” “see,” and “ask” for this way, and this way alone.C.
Jer 6:16
At the meeting of the ways.
“Stand ye in the ways,” etc.
I. THIS IS WHERE VERY MANY ARE. The young especially. Paths stretch out on either hand, some of them inviting, some repelling. But for the young, and for many others beside who have not yet fully chosen their path, the present is a time when a decided choice must be made. If the matter were to be settled according to the inviting or other aspect of the beginning of the ways, the one we should choose would soon be fixed upon. But we have to take into consideration the progress of the way, and, above all, the end of the way. Here the text gives
II. GOOD COUNSELS FOR ALL WHO HAVE COME TO THIS MEETING OF THE WAYS. We are bidden:
1. Pause a while. “Stand ye in the ways.” Oh, if we could but secure this thoughtful pause! if we could but induce those we are now contemplating to “ponder” a while the paths before them! if it were but realized that the way we take is a matter for consideration, add that only a fool would rush heedlessly on!
2. Investigate. As one at the meeting of the ways, but not certain which was the right one for him, would look along each way in turn, and “see” which appeared to be the most likely to bring him to his desired destination. Therefore we are bidden, not only “stand,” but “see.”
3. Inquire. Other travelers come alongmen who are familiar with the district, who have traversed one or other of these roads themselves. Then let us avail ourselves of their knowledge and experience, and “ask” as to these ways.
4. And let your mind be made up as to the character of the way you desire to walk in. Let there be no mere vague, listless looking over all the paths without much concern which of them you take; but we are bidden, “Ask for the old paths the good way”
“The way the holy prophets went,
The way that leads from banishment,
The King’s highway of holiness.”
All the “old” paths are not also “good ways;” far from it. But there is an old, am! therefore well-known, well-trodden, and hence unmistakable way, which also is the good way. One purpose of the lives of God’s faithful people is that, by the observation in the record of them, men may be led to ask for the paths in which these walked, feeling sure the way they took must be a good, the good way. Happy they who have been led to resolve they will find out the secret of such men’s lives and make it their own. These will ask, not for any way, but for the old paths, the good way.
III. GREAT ENCOURAGEMENTS TO FOLLOW THIS COUNSEL.
1. It is implied that if such guidance be asked it will be given. For, if that guidance were not given, how could any walk in these paths? That it is open to them to do so proves that the guidance asked has been given. And so it ever will be.
2. It is promised that, if we walk in the old and good way, we shall find “rest” to our souls. After all, this is everything. If a man has inward rest and peace, heaven for him has begun below. What matters it what we have if this rest be not? What matters what we have not if this rest be ours? And it is a true restnot a mere lethargy of the soul or sleep of conscience, but that “rest which remaineth for the people of God,” the rest of faith, the rest promised by the Lord Jesus when he said,” Come unto me, and I will,” etc.
IV. CHRIST HIMSELF IS THAT WAYTHE OLD, THE GOOD WAY. Let the will be utterly surrendered to him; let our faith daily look to him; then “he shall be made to us of God, wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.” This is what he meant when he said, “I am the Way.”
“This is the way I long had sought,
And mourned because I found it not;
Till late I heard my Savior say,
‘Come hither, soul, I am the Way.'”
And so we shall find rest to our souls.C.
Jer 6:18-30
God’s appeal for vindication of his vengeance.
Note
I. THE CHALLENGE. (Jer 6:18.) God summons the nations, the Congregations, the earth, to serve as on a grand jury, and to vindicate by their verdict the righteousness of his procedure. Now, from this challenge we learn:
1. The universality of conscience. There is a moral sense, a knowledge of right and wrong, implanted in all men by God. It is “the light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world.”
2. That God desires to have this universal conscience approving what he has done.
(1) He takes for granted that his procedure wilt be scanned and judged by men.
(2) But this he desires and approves.
(3) He asks only for a true deliverance upon the ease before them.
3. God desires us to regard his actions, not as right because they are his, but as his because they are right. It is a perilous thing to defend the rectitude of Divine actionsas they have been defended, e.g. the massacres of the Canaaniteson the ground that his will makes them right. That is not the method whereby we are to “vindicate the ways of God to man.” Abraham did not so, but asked, “Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” Not make right, but do it. But what condescension on the part of God, thus to submit himself to our judgment! But he does this because he so yearns for our love, and because love cannot be apart from moral approval.
II. THE STATEMENT OF THE MATTER ON THE PART OF GOD.
1. God declares what he will do (Jer 6:19-21).
2. How he will accomplish his purpose (Jer 6:22, Jer 6:23).
3. How terrible its accomplishment will be (Jer 6:24-26). And then he gives:
4. The grounds of his procedure (Jer 6:19, Jer 6:28, Jer 6:29).
III. THE CALLING OF THE WITNESS. (Jer 6:27; cf. Exposition.) Jeremiah was to observe and declare the guilt of those whom God condemned.
IV. THE VERDICT ANTICIPATED. (Verse 30.) Men shall call them “reprobate silver.”
CONCLUSION. Let us tremble at that righteousness of God which the whole earth will confess when he condemns the sinner. Let us lay hold on that righteousness of God Which is for us in Christ.C.
Jer 6:19
The fruit of thought.
I. THOUGHT HAS FRUIT. In all departments of life its fruit is seenscientific, political, social, moral, religious. Thoughts are born in some one mind. Sown by words spoken or written, and by the influence of the lives of those in whom they are born; they germinate by contact with other minds; they appear above ground in the tendencies of any given age; they bear fruit in the achievements of the age.
II. THOUGHT BEARS GOOD FRUIT OR EVIL, ACCORDING AS THE LAW OF GOD IS HEEDED OR REJECTED. “Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed thereto according to that Word.”
III. THE CHIEF PARTAKER OF THE FRUIT OF THOUGHT WILL BE THE THINKER. (Cf. text.) And it is true both of good thoughts and ill. As a man thinketh so is he.
CONCLUSION. Let it be our prayer that we may come into full sympathy with him who said, “How precious are thy thoughts unto me, O God!” So shall the fruit of our thoughts be precious likewise.C.
Jer 6:20
Abhorred sacrifices.
I. THERE ARE SUCH. (Cf. text; Psa 1:1-6.; etc.)
II. THEY MAY HAVE MANY OF THE CHARACTERISTICS OF ACCEPTABLE SACRIFICES.
1. Costly “Incense from Sheba.”
2. Regular.
3. Correct.
III. BUT YET THEY ARE ABHORRED OF GOD. “To what purpose,” etc.? (Cf. our Lord’s denunciations of hypocrites.) This because
1. They lack sincerity.
2. They yield no fruit in holy obedience.
3. They cause the Name and worship of God to be hated of men.
4. They render more hopeless the true repentance of the offerer.
IV. WHEREFORE ARE THEY OFFERED?
1. Conscience will not allow men to throw off all regard for religion.
2. Custom demands it.
3. Worldly interests are served by it.
4. There is a secret reliance upon them as furthering their good before God.
V. WHAT DO SUCH FACTS TEACH US? Not to throw aside outward forms of worship: many do this on the ground of insincerity often associated with them. But to see that whilst we worship outwardly we worship also in spirit and in truth. To measure the worth of our worship by its power over our conduct. To join on all our poor, marred offerings, which is all that at the best they are, with the perfect sacrifice which Christ has offered for us all.C.
Jer 6:29
The bellows are burned.
The text is a homely and unusual one, but its graphic force may help all the more to impress the truth taught by it. “The prophet likens the people of Israel to a mass of metal. This mass of metal claimed to be precious ore, such as gold or silver. It was put into the furnace, the object being to fuse it, so that the pure metal should be extracted from the dross. Lead was put in with the ore to act as a flux (that being relied upon by the ancient smelters as quicksilver now is in these more instructed days). A fire was kindled, and then the bellows were used. to create an intense heat, the bellows being the prophet himself. He complains that he spoke with much pathos, much energy, much force of heart, that he exhausted himself, without being able to melt the people’s hearts; so hard was the ore that the bellows were burned before the metal was meltedthe prophet was exhausted before the people were impressed; he had worn out his lungs, his powers of utterance; he had exhausted his mind, his powers of thought; he had broken his heart, his powers of emotion; but he could not divide his people from their sins, and separate the precious from the vile” (C.H. Spurgeon). Now, from the text learn
I. IT IS THE PURPOSE OF GOD SO TO MELT AND SUBDUE THE HEART OF MAN THAT HE MAY MOULD IT AFRESH, AND ACCORDING TO HIS OWN GRACIOUS WILL. NOW to this end there are needed:
1. A Divine fire which shall bear upon the heart of man. But the Holy Spirit is such a fire, which, if it be quenched, woe is unto us!
2. That that fire shall glow with fervent heat.
II. To SECURE THIS HE MAKES USE OF MANY AND VARIED APPLIANCES WHICH THE PROPHET HERE LIKENS TO “BELLOWS.”
1. The prophets own ministry in the case of Judah and Jerusalem at that time.
2. The faithful ministry of his truth by his prophets now.
3. His Law, his Word, the varied means of grace.
4. His mercies, especially the mercy of God in Christ.
5. His chastisements and judgments. These more especially referred to here. Such are some of these appliances.
III. Now, IT IS POSSIBLE FOR ALL THESE TO BECOME UTTERLY INEFFECTUAL. This is what is here meant. God’s messengers, Law, faeries, chastisements,all in vain. And such things happen now. There are those whom naught can move. What is the cause? Not that the Divine heat did not bear upon the heart that was to be melted. Not that those appliances were left unused whereby the understanding, the conscience, the affections, and the win might be rendered more susceptible of the Divine influences. But the obduracy of the heart. The perversity and evil of that baffled all the earnest endeavors of God’s grace in regard to that heart.
IV. NOW, WHEN “THE BELLOWS ARE BURNED,” WHEN ALL MEANS HAVE BEEN TRIED AND FAILED TO WIN THE HEART FOR GOD, NO CONDITION CAN BE MORE AWFUL OR DEPLORABLE.
1. It is sad for God‘s ministers. Jeremiah, Paul, Christ, and thousands of his ministers since have prayed and wept over obdurate hearts.
2. But it is far more sad for these hard-hearted ones themselves.
(1) They are without excuse.
(2) There is no hope of their repentance.
(3) They are in danger of eternal sin.
CONCLUSION.
1. Christ’s ministers must expect that, so far as they can see, they will, at times, labor in vain in regard to the salvation of souls. The bellows will be burned, and the ore remain unmelted still.
2. They are to be sustained by the thought that God will deal with them, not according to the results of their work, but according to its fidelity.
3. Let the impenitent be warned.C.
HOMILIES BY J. WAITE
Jer 6:16
The good way.
The prophet here employs the memory of the past as a motive to repentance. He would fain persuade the people to return to the better ways in which their fathers walked. The calamities that were falling so heavily upon them were the result of their having forsaken those good old ways. Let them consider how they have fallen, search out the real causes of the trouble and sorrow they endure, retrace their wandering steps, and the old prosperity shall come back to them again. Note here
I. THE DIVERSE WAYS MEN TAKE, diverse as regards their moral quality and issues. “Stand ye in the ways.” Think of the various kinds of moral life that men are leading. Amid the social conditions and relations of this world we are as travelers with many paths branching out in different directions before them, who must choose their own. We may know little of the internal experiences of our associates in the pilgrimage of life, but the broad types of character, the general tendencies of moral habit, are open enough to our view. The “ways” are many, but there is only one path of eternal rectitude and blessedness. There is the way of reckless transgression, of thoughtless indifference, of base avarice, of exclusive devotion to earthly ambitions, of mere virtuous respectability, of religious indecision, etc.; and there is the way of faith and piety, “the path of the just which is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.” Men cannot help to some extent revealing outwardly the tenor of the life within them. Every one of us bears more or less clearly upon him the stamp of a certain distinctive character. Whatever the bent of his spirit may be, it will always betray itself, in look, manner, speech, conduct, by the books he reads, the friendships he forms, the places he frequents, the gratifications in which be delights, through a thousand channels of self-revelation. We are all “living epistles” of somethingsome type of character, some order of moral life”known and read of men.”
II. THE THOUGHTFUL OBSERVATION THESE CONDITIONS DEMAND. “Stand in the ways, and see.” It is a great thing to know how to “see” There are those who “seeing, see not.” One of the first lessons in the moral science of life, as in physical science, is observationto know how to note facts and trace laws and draw conclusions, to know how to learn and to turn what is learnt to good account. The characters and lives of others are not to be to us mere matters of amusement or philosophic speculation, much less ill-natured criticism; but sources of instruction, teachers of practical truth. They all have their admonitory and exemplary use. The higher advantages of social life have never been reaped, the very rudiments of our duty as social beings have not been mastered, till we thoroughly apprehend this. Let the young specially lay the lesson to heart. Their position is favorablethe plain of life before them, not yet entangled in a network of circumstantial difficulties, nothing to undo that ought never to have been done, no false steps to retrace that were rashly taken. But how soon may they be drawn into forbidden and dangerous paths if they do not consider! As the ship glides imperceptibly from the open sea into the broad mouth of the river, whose distant banks are hidden, so easily are they led captive to the power of evil if they allow themselves to drift with the tide of outward influence and inward impulse, and will not think. At the same time, enlarged experience of life may be expected to give added force to its moral lessons. Beset as a man may be with associations that seem to determine his course for him in spite of himself, it is always possible for him to pause and consider his way. The darkness and confusion of the storm may be too great to allow the sailor to take his observations and find out his real place on the pathless ocean; not so with any man as concerns his relation to the heavenly powers and the eternal realities. He has always light enough to “discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not” (Mal 3:18). The true way of life is clearly revealed to those who are willing to “see.” “The wayfaring man, though a fool, shall not err therein” (Isa 35:8).
III. THE PRACTICAL RESULT TO WHICH SUCH OBSERVATION MUST LEAD. “Ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein.” Asking and acting, inquiry after the right way, and a resolute determination to follow it; when these conditions are supplied there can be little doubt as to the issue. A life of practical godliness, based on faith in revealed truth, springing from the inspiration of the spirit of truth and purity in the secret soul,this is the way. It is the “old way.” New as regards the light Christianity has shed upon it, new as regards the revelation of him in whose redeeming work its deep foundations have been laid, it is “old“ as regards its essential principles of faith and righteousness. The martyrs, prophets, and holy men of every age have left their glowing footprints upon it. Elijah ascended from it in his chariot of fire. David made the statutes of the Lord his delight as he pursued his pilgrimage along it. Abraham trod the same path, led on by the star of promise. Upon it Enoch walked in lowly fellowship with God. It is stained with the blood of righteous Abel.
“Our glorious Leader claims our praise
For his own pattern given;
While the long cloud of witnesses
Show the same path to heaven.”
The way is as plain as Divine teaching and human experience can make it; let us gird up the loins of our minds to “walk in it.”
IV. THE REWARD OF PRACTICAL OBEDIENCE. “Ye shall find rest unto your souls.” “Rest,” for beings such as we are, is the repose of the mind in discovered truth, the pacification of the conscience in the assurance of Divine forgiveness, the satisfaction of the heart in the embrace of real good, the balance of all our powers in a holy service. In the life of faith and godliness, the life Christ gives to all who come to him, can such rest alone be found. “Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me and ye shall find rest unto your souls” (Mat 11:29).W.
HOMILIES BY D. YOUNG
Jer 6:7
Jerusalem like a fountain casting forth evil.
A fountain, as mentioned in Scripture, is generally suggestive of a most gracious and abundant supply of the highest good; even as in Jer 2:13 and Joh 4:14. How very noteworthy, then, to find that the fountain, which naturally suggests all that is bright, beautiful, and refreshing, should be so turned away from its common place in poetic use as to become the most impressive illustration of Jerusalem’s polluted heart! Indeed, an imaginative writer would probably get severely criticized if he used the figure of a fountain for such a purpose; and yet, when one thinks it over, this very unexpectedness makes the figure more instructive. The poetry of a prophet must, above all things, have arresting power in it. Think, then, of the fountain. Think of it, first of all, in its usual aspect, pouring forth a bright, pleasant-sounding stream, as inspiring to the mind as it is refreshing to the thirsty mouth. But all this view must be instantly and decidedly put away. Instead of the clear, sparkling water there must come into the mind the thought of a feculent, poisonous flood, and of the force that lies behind it, some deep inward energy hidden in the secret places of the earth. A continuity of most pestiferous evil comes from these secret places, and even by such an image as this is the actual wickedness of Jerusalem set forth. The hearts of its people are gathering-places for a destructive stream, always flowing forth and always replenished. They never get tired of their wickedness and never repent of it. Then one remembers that the hearts of men were destined for a very different purpose. Just as the devout heart perceives that God meant these crevices and great caverns in the earth to gather and pour forth the refreshing streams of water, so he meant the hearts of the children of men to gather and pour forth all manner of loving, hopeful, patiently pursued projects for the good of others and for the glory of God. The woman of Samaria evidently came to Jesus with a heart that was indeed a fountain casting out wickedness, but she heard the delightful news that Jesus could give her water which should be in her “a well of water springing up into eternal life.” There is another Jerusalem besides this earthly and polluted one. Jeremiah was not the only one who told people to fly out of it because of impending destruction. Jesus, in his prophetic words, spoke with even greater emphasisa thing to be expected. The earthly Jerusalem, great and glorious as it once was, is now called spiritually Sodom and Egypt, for it is the place where our Lord was crucified (Rev 11:8). The Jerusalem to be thought of henceforth is the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God. It has many glories, many beauties, many surpassing gifts of grace for needy men, and not the least is this, that there is “a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.” And may we not say that this river is constituted by the numberless fountains that flow out of every renewed heart? The glory of the river is God’s, but the service and dedication which bring that river into existence are the privilege of God’s people. We are to let our thoughts dwell on the deplorable fountain Jeremiah speaks of here, only that we may see more clearly and gratefully the spring of true and abiding goodness which he can put in its place.Y.
Jer 6:13
Covetousness a universal sin.
It is not so much of covetousness in itself that the prophet is here speaking, as of the universality of it. From the least even to the greatest the spirit of the spoiler is in the hearts of the people. The words, of course, are not to be taken literally as to individuals; but there is this universality about them, that they apply to every class. That a man is rich, and increased with goods, and that he has, indeed, a great deal more than he can ever enjoy in his own person, is far from being a general ground for supposing that he will be contented with his possessions. The more he has and the higher he stands, the more he may want to have and the higher he may want to get. And so all the way up the ladder from the lowest round, men are continually struggling with one another. It is a ladder, the lowest round of which will hold a great multitude, but it ever narrows as it ascends; and the covetous who happen to be also strong and consequently victorious over their feebler competitors, go clambering on as long as one’s eye rests upon them. No one ever seems to reach the top of the ladder; and it may be said moreover that, though there seem many who are free from the spoiling spirit, it simply arises from this, that there has been nothing to bring the dormant germ into life and activity. No one can tell what possibilities of evil lie within him. And may not the essential element in covetousness be a strong motive force even when it is hidden away under the appearance of something else? One thing is very certain, that covetousness prevailed from the least even to the greatest in Jerusalem; it will also do so in every other human society. It is in human nature to have strong desires of the heart, strong and imperative even as hunger and thirst; and these desires will go out after things that can be seen and felt, enjoyed with the senses. To whom these things may of right belong is, alas! a secondary consideration with many men. They simply do not reflect upon it at all. Life resolves itself into a struggle between him who wants and him who has, and, if the truth must be spoken, the victor in such a struggle is practically a robber. There may be no physical violence, no shedding of blood; but if there is the enriching of one’s self at the expense of another, then the essential wrong is present. Let us allow the covetous man whatever credit there may be in this, that he does not form his covetous designs for any pleasure that he has in rapacity, but rather that he is rapacious in order to carry out his covetous designs. He wants to be rich and strong, and the only way he can do it is by crushing others into poverty. Hence this is reckoned an unavoidable accompaniment. It never strikes men of this sort that there is a more excellent way to satisfy and exhilarate the heart. God‘s eye is upon this universal desire for large possessions, and he can make a Divine and truly wise use of the desire. He turns our thoughts to the heavenly, the unseen, the eternal. Man does well in having the largest views as to possessions; he does well in looking to an immense increase of goods. It is a grand thing when he can pull down his barns and build greater, if it is only spiritual wealth that he is heaping up. In this gathering of goods there is no spoiling of the brethren, leaving them hungry, naked, and unsheltered. The spiritual wealth of the godly man makes poverty to none. Nay, ratherbeautiful contrast-the richer he becomes, the richer he makes all with whom he comes in living contact.Y.
Jer 6:14
Healing the hurt slightly.
There is here an illustration of the false dealing referred to in the previous versean illustration from the prophets in particular, and, as might be expected, the specimen given shows how seriously this false dealing affected the prospects of the nation. There is, it will be observed, a plain statement of the matter wherein the prophets were deceivers; and there is also a figure setting forth the practical result of the deception.
I. CONSIDER THE PLAIN STATEMENT OF THAT WHEREIN THE PROPHETS ARE FOUND LIARS. They say, “Peace, peace; when there is no peace.” The plain statement comes later than the figure, but it is needful to consider it first. War, invasion, humiliating conquest,these had been threatened by the true prophet, but the false prophets come in and declare that there shall be peace. The word “peace’ was probably one of the ordinary mutual salutations of the people; and these prophets, going out into the public places when war had been threatened, may have thrown into the salutation a special emphasis, as much as to say, “This Jeremiah speaks a lie when he prophesies war.” And this word of the prophets showed that they did not comprehend where the hostility really lay. The hostile relations between the invading human hosts and Israel amounted to the merest trifle compared with the hostility between Jehovah and those who had been named as his people. The essence of the struggle lay, not in its being a struggle between invader and invaded, but between rightful Master and rebellious servants. The invader indeed may not have been conscious of any particular enmity against Israel. The chief passion in his heart may have been nothing more than savage lust for the exercise of force and the acquirement of spoil. But between God and his people there was a deep breach in all right relations. God wars against them, and therefore they were not to suppose that peace was secured, even if they kept on amicable terms with foreign nations. But, in truth, no amount of finessing, parading, and boasting could keep them permanently right with foreign nations. To suppose this was to suppose that they could pluck the weapons of God’s chastening anger from his firm grasp. When God takes the wicked to become his sword, his sword they are, to be wielded with no uncertain efficacy. Men make the blunder of thinking there is peace, when they have only conciliated what enemies they can see and hear into invisibility and silence.
II. CONSIDER THE FIGURE WHICH ADDS TO THE FORCE OF THE PLAIN STATEMENT. It is a figure, which does much to bring to the individual Israelite the serious consequences of this false dealing on the part of the prophets. War, while always a national disaster and anxiety, may leave individuals unscathed; nay, there are always a few who manage to build up some sort of prosperity and renown by successful war. But here is a figure, which speaks of healing and of hurt, and of these who have to heal the hurt. The prophet is set forth as the surgeon, whose business it is to enter the home and put fight again the malady that may be afflicting some member of it. This figure, too, it will be observed, tells us something of the feeling of the people, and thereby goes beyond the plain statement as to the false dealing of the prophets.
1. There is a consciousness that all is not right. There is a hurt. There is something to be healed. There is a sense of uneasiness, a sense which somehow must be taken away. The words of Jeremiah inflict superficial wounds and bruises at the least. There is a pain in the inward consciousness which is like the slashing of a whip upon the tender skin. Such messages as those which God put into the prophet’s mouth were sure to hurt the pride of a nation, and rouse its patriotism into egotistic fury. Then we may be sure that some of the people would feel that the prophet might be speaking the truth. Some things he said were undeniable. The idol-worship was plain; so were the trickery and oppression which abounded in the common life of the people. And all this sense of uneasiness, which is really the sign that conscience is not utterly dead, only needs to be treated rightly in order to be roused into a vigorous life.
2. The nature of the hurt is misunderstood. This is the least that can be said. It may have been understood by some of the prophets, and yet, for their own base purposes, misrepresented. Jeremiah describes the hurt by its true name. The word in the Hebrew is a very strong word, meaning something very serious, something which demands great skill and effort, if it is to be put right. Who can exaggerate the seriousness of the crisis, when some malady going to the very heart of a man seems to awaken no corresponding alarm, either in his own mind or in the mind of his physician? And what a serious charge to bring against a physician if he seeks to lull alarm by making out the trouble to be a mere trifle! Yet this is just what many do. When the sense of unrest gets into the life, it is counted but as a physical illness. Change of air and scene are prescribed for symptoms which can only be permanently removed by change of heart. The more worldly and unspiritual a man is, the more dogmatism, recklessness, and overbearing arrogance he will show in lecturing those who have become disturbed in their consciences.
3. There is thus declared to be healing, when there is not the slightest possibility of it. Assurances are given which have no real foundation in anything the assurer knows or has done. He has been giving great attention to the visible cuts and bruises, and the deep, internal, organic injury is more firmly fixed than ever. Men will thus play the physician, try to get credit for their skill, and do untold harm, when they ought rather, in all humility and modesty, to confess their ignorance.Y.
Jer 6:16
The ancient paths to be sought and walked in.
I. THE ADDRESS IS TO THOSE WHO ARE ALREADY WALKING IN A CERTAIN WAY. There is activity of the whole life, a conscious and chosen activity. We are sometimes spoken of as being asleep and needing to be awakened out of sleep, and even as being dead and needing to be renewed to life; but here there is rather an approach to the other extreme in the aspect of sinful man that is presented. One kind of movement in human life lies beyond choice. Man must move on, from birth, through time, into eternity. This is a movement which, as he does not produce it, so neither can he in the least retard it. But now we are called to notice another kind of movement, that which man choosesemphatically choosesand into which he throws oftentimes his whole energy. Thus there is no man but what is in a path which he has chosen. However much he may seem to be the sport of circumstances, yet it will be found, in the complete inspection of his heart, that he loves to have circumstances moving him rather than that he should do what he can towards controlling circumstances. Moreover, the address is to those who are walking in a wrong way. Evidently they are persisting in it. And it is not only wrong, but seriously, even fatally, wrong. Yet, though the address is to those in the wrong way, there is every reason why those who happily are in the right way should also consider the appeal. If it is very difficult to turn from the wrong way into the right, it is very easy to make some divergence, at first imperceptible, from the right way, and so become most dangerously entangled in the wrong one.
II. THERE IS AN APPEAL TO THOSE ADDRESSED, TO GIVE THE MATTER IN QUESTION MOST EARNEST CONSIDERATION. There is surely a great deal in these two words, see and ask. The difference between right and wrong is also the difference between the soul’s highest bliss and deepest misery; but it is a difference only to be comprehended when the soul is thoroughly in earnest to get to the bottom of all that is involved in the difference Hence we are told to look; and we must be sure that we see as we ought to see. It is quite possible to have eyes and to look towards a thing, and yet to be practically blind, not discerning the real nature of it. A man’s ways may be right in his own eyes; he may think the warnings of others, or the differing course that they take, to be mere scrupulosity, ending in nothing. Wherefore a man is to distrust his eyes, and add to what they may tell him the information to be gotten by the hearing of the ear. It is interesting to notice how sometimes the eye confirms the ear, and sometimes the ear the eye. Here the man is to make the tongue follow the eye, asking to follow upon seeing; so that he may get information on a matter of the utmost moment from authorities on whom he may depend with the utmost confidence. We must not dare to blame any one but ourselves if we make some gross error in the conduct of our life. God knows how easily the children of men wander; and so he expects them to do all they can by way of making sure that they are in the right road. Consider how alert some people are, in travelling by rail, lest perchance an omitted inquiry may send them in a wrong direction. A prudent man will never miss his way for want of asking. Yet these very people, who are reckoned prudent in such a small matter as finding their way from one place to another on the surface of the earth, are indifferent to an event which it is awful to contemplate, when they are told to see and ask if they be in the right way for eternity.
III. OBSERVE THE DEFINITENESS WHICH IS GIVEN TO THE LOOKING AND THE ASKING. Man is not sent out on a vague quest, with nothing to guide and to limit him. If he will look where God points, and ask the questions which God puts into his mouth, his quest will soon be at an end. The right path is indicated by infallible signs. It is the ancient one; the way which began to he trodden, not one or two generations back, but as far back as the record of human relations extends. The right way is older than the wrong. The way appointed for the first progenitors of mankind, when they stepped out where none had been before them, is the way for us. As to essentials, Christ points out no different way from that which Adam was set to travel. Adam’s path was to be the path of strict attention, so that he might understand God’s will; of strict obedience in doing the will when understood; and of perfect trust in God, feeling that his commandments for his dependent and finite creatures were the best, even though reasons for them might not be given. The most ancient of all paths prescribed for men is that of a willing handing over of one’s life to the will of that wise, loving, and holy One who is supreme. All that Christ has told us, all he has done for us, is for the purpose of leading us into an effectual compliance with the requirement. Does not the experience of Enoch show that the right path is an ancient one? What more can be said of the most devoted Christian, rich in all the resources of grace, than that he has walked with God? What else can there be but true good and rest undisturbed when one is under the immediate influence of that God whose own peace knows not the slightest invasion amid all the commotion of the universe? Real rest, a rest to the heart, was wanted by these people of Israel, and all that was so much wanted would surely come if only the ancient paths were found and once more frequented.Y.
Jer 6:20
Sweet and fragrant things made abominable to God.
I. OBSERVE THE TROUBLE WHICH MEN WHO ARE REALLY UNGODLY MAY TAKE IN CONNECTION WITH RELIGION. Real religion means, of course, a great deal of trouble and self-denial, watchfulness and prayer. But when there is only the appearance of religion, there may also be much trouble, considerable time may be appropriated, and there may be considerable expenditure of money. So it was here. Materials for holy service were brought from a far country, and, being probably expensive in themselves, they would become more expensive still by the distance they had to be brought. The expense would also look greater because it was on articles which were not manifestly a necessity of life. Men must spend money for food and raiment and a roof to shelter them, and out of the money so spent they plainly get something; but here, in return for all the trouble and cost of getting the incense, etc; to Jerusalem, there is a very plain intimation that the offering of it does not effect the slightest good, does not in the least improve the position of those who offer. And this very rejection by Jehovah makes us see more clearly the trouble these people took. For we may be sure that the word through Jeremiah would not stop them in their offerings, useless as they were. The less there is of intelligent and pure devotion in religion, the more there is of superstitious, terrified clinging to habitual outward forms; and the same kind of action continues still, in many ways and in all communions. People without any real love to God in their hearts, or real submission to him, go through a great deal in the way of forms and ceremonies, and delude themselves with the notion that somehow they will be the better for it all.
II. OBSERVE THE CERTAINTY THAT THIS TROUBLE IS ALL IN VAIN. Those who bring the offerings are not left in even the slightest doubt. They have not the excuse of being able to say that in some way or other, which they do not understand, there will come a benefit out of their offerings. There is a refusal in the most decided and solemn way. Although these gifts may find their way into the house of God, and the altar itself be used in connection with them, they are not therefore accepted. They are just as much refused as a gift would be if the bringer of it had the door of the house where he brought it slammed in his face.
III. THE REASON OF THE REFUSAL. Though not here expressed, the reason, from what is said elsewhere, is perfectly plain. These gifts, sweet and fragrant as they are in themselves, become an insult because of the men who bring them Growing in their natural place, they play their part in adding to the beauty and perfume of God’s world; but now the fragrant has become as it were stinking, because of the defiled hands through which it has passed. What men bring to God they must bring with clean hands and a pure heart. The great use of these gifts with their pleasant qualities was to signify what was sweet and fragrant and devoted in the hearts of the people. But when God knew that the gifts were bestowed through superstition or formality, or through the fear lest neglect might bring disaster on some cherished scheme, how could he accept these gifts? Consider further how, in many instances at least, the money was got that procured these gifts. They were the fruits of robbery, fraud, and oppression. When we read how some of the spoils of conquest in ancient times not infrequently went to enrich an idol temple, how thankful we should be that in God’s Word there is such plain dealing with those who think that some great gift to religious uses can condone their wickedness. Then, of course, in such cases the greater the expense of a man’s religion the greater also was the amount that had to be gotten in wrongful ways. The Pharisee extortioner had to give several extra turns to the screw in order that he might get just that special sum which was needed to keep up his reputation as a religious man.Y.
Jer 6:30
Reprobate silver.
Two important things are to be remembered with regard to the meaning of the words in this verse.
1. That Jeremiah uses the same Hebrew verb where we have the two different words, “reprobate” and “rejected.” What Jeremiah really says is that the silver hears the name “rejected silver,” because Jehovah has rejected it.
2. The verb employed is commonly used to signify the action which is opposed to choosing; e.g. in Isa 7:15 the time is spoken of when a child becomes able to reject the evil and to choose the good, and in Isa 41:8, Isa 41:9 there is a still more striking instance, because of its bearing on the words now under consideration. These are the words: “Thou, Israel, art my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, the seed of Abraham my friend. Thou whom I have taken from the ends of the earth, and called thee from the chief men thereof, and said unto thee, Thou art my servant; I have chosen thee, and not rejected thee.” Thus it will be seen that we are not simply to think of rejection over against approval. Silver ore, being put through the most searching test possible, may respond to the test by coming out approved silver. But he who is thus able to approve is not necessarily in the position which requires him to choose. He may only have the duty of an assay agent, which stops with reporting the result of his test; he who has employed is the man to make the choice. Now, God tries in order that he may decide for himself whether to choose or reject; e.g. he rejected Saul from reigning over Israel, which of course means that, from the hour of rejection, Saul’s throne was considered vacant. We can now proceed to point out the truths implied in this verse.
1. There can be no adequate discernment of the merit or demerit of any man unless by God himself. Only when God rejects can the stamp “rejected” be put on any one. Men may set up their canons of approval; they may apply their tests, philosophical, or political, or literary, or even theological. They may reject and excommunicate, pursuing with fiercest hatred all who are not approved according to their tests. Thus there will be a partial and temporary rejection, but since it comes from no adequate inquiry, the rejection itself will be rejected by a higher authority. Of this we have a conspicuous, we may even say the supreme, instance in Psa 118:22, “The stone which the builders rejected [the same Hebrew word as Jeremiah uses, be it observed] is become the head of the corner.” It may be, indeed, that he whom some men reject may in the end be rejected by God also, but it will be for very different reasons.
2. The reasons for rejection we must try to discover. The Lord rejects those who claim to be accepted. He will reject the claim when it is that of mere national descent, as when Jesus said to the proud Jews who opposed him, that out of the stones he could make children to Abraham. God rejects all mere formal acknowledgment of him; it is not enough to say, “Lord, Lord.” He rejects all that is the mere exercise and effort of intellectual faculties. In short, he rejects all that does not begin with a complete acceptance of Christ, and hence go on in the spirit of entire submission to him. Illustrations of what prompts to rejection are furnished both before and after this verse, e.g. in verse 20, where the incense, etc; is rejected, i.e. of course, the men who offer the incense, and in Jer 7:14, where the admired temple is threatened with overthrow. A mere building is shown to be nothing in God’s sight unless it is frequented by such as are themselves acceptable to him. Observe also, in ascertaining the reason for rejection, how the word “silver” is kept. The thing tested is rejected, not because it is counterfeit, but because it is persistently impure. It will not yield up those baser elements which are so intimately blended with it, and effectually destroy the value and hide the luster of the pure silver. And yet remember how high rejected man rises above rejected silver. Man in his freedom may relent from his stubbornness and submit to those renewing and purifying processes which will result in the silver being approved and chosen.
3. There is no chance of establishing and commending what the Lord rejects. Saul did his best to struggle against the Divine decision, but there is no more pitiable sight in all the records of kingship than that which he presents in the struggle. We also must reject those whom God rejects; and there can be no mistake about it that we must reject those who reject Godsuch as are spoken of in 2Ki 17:15, those who rejected the statutes of God and the covenant that he had made with their fathers, and the testimonies which he testified against them.Y.
Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary
Jer 6:1. O ye children of Benjamin Jeremiah continues to inveigh against the disorders of the Jews; he addresses himself to the tribe of Benjamin, to prepare to defend themselves and their city against the Chaldeans; and for that purpose to flee out of the city, and erect their standards in Tekoa, and Beth-haccerem. The Benjamites were always remarkable for their skill and address in war. Jerusalem belonged to this tribe, as well as to that of Judah. Tekoa was a village about twelve miles from Jerusalem; and Beth-haccerem was a village between Tekoa and Jerusalem. It was built upon a mountain situate in the way which led to Jerusalem from Chaldea.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
III. Recapitulation, consisting of a combination of the points already presented: the call to return, announcement of punishment and its reasons
(Jer 6:1-26)
1. Exhortation to flee from Jerusalem
Jer 6:1-8
1Flee, ye children of Benjamin, out of Jerusalem,
And in Blow1 (Tekoa) blow the trumpet,
And over the vineyard (Beth-hakkerem) erect the signal,2
For calamity threatens from the north and great ruin.
2Thou art like the meadow, the tenderly cared for,
O daughter of Zion.
3Against her shall come shepherds and their flocks
And pitch their tents against her round about,
And depasture each his spot.
4Sanctify war against her!
Arise, let us go up at noon!
Wo to us, for the day has turned,
For the shadows of evening are lengthening.
5Arise, and let us go up in the night
And destroy her palaces!
6For thus saith Jehovah Zebaoth,
Fell her trees,3 and raise a rampart4 against Jerusalem!
She is the city of which it is ascertained
That nothing but rude violence is found in her.
7As a spring5 poureth forth its waters
So she poureth forth her wickedness.
Injustice and desolation are heard of in her,
Sickness and wounds are continually before me.
8Be warned, O Jerusalem, lest my soul be forced from thee,
Lest I make thee desolate, a land uninhabited.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
That Jer 6:1-8 form a strophe is seen partly from their close connection (Jer 6:6 traces the undertaking of the besiegers to a divine command), partly from the fact that the eight verses contain the complete cycle of the fundamental thought of the prophet, announcement of judgment, statement of reasons (Jer 6:6-7) and call to reform (Jer 6:8). At the same time however a climax is evident on a comparison with the preceding context. For the prophet here sees the judgment upon Jerusalem so near its accomplishment that he already earnestly admonishes to flight those who live to the south of this city.
Jer 6:1. Flee, ye children of Benjamin . . great ruin.Flee, comp. Jer 4:6.Children [sons] of Benjamin is explained without doubt by the circumstance that Benjaminites formed a part (probably the principal part. Comp. Graf, Winer, R W. B., s. v., Jerusalem) of the inhabitants of Jerusalem. According to the original settlement of boundaries (Jos 15:8; Jos 18:16) Jerusalem belonged entirely to Benjamin. But even before Davids time it was inhabited by Ju-deans (Jos 15:63) and Benjaminites (Jdg 1:21). Since Davids time, being the capital of the whole country, it also belonged to the whole people (comp. Raumer, Palst. S. 339) and doubtless had inhabitants from all the tribes, which would not however exclude Judeans and Benjaminites from forming the bulk of the population. Jeremiahs mentioning only the latter may be explained by the fact that he himself was of the tribe of Benjamin (Jer 1:1).From [from the midst] is an antithesis to towards Zion, 4. 6. While there they were called upon to flee to Jerusalem, where at first they would find safety, now they are exhorted to flee from Jerusalem. (to blow, blow, Germ, stossen, Stoss. Comp. the place named Stoss in Appenzell, Switz.) is mentioned partly for the sake of the paronomasia and partly because it is a prominent point to the south of Jerusalem; for after the capital, the bulwark of the South, has fallen, this also is threatened and must think of flight. Tekoa lay 9 to 12 m. p. south from Jerusalem. It is mentioned in 1Sa 14:2; Amo 1:1, etc. Jerome says on this passage, Thecuam quoque viculum esse in rnonte situm, et 12 millibusab Hierosolyrnis separatum quotidie oculis cernimus. According to Robinson (II. 406) [Thomson, The Land and the Book, II. p. 424] the place is stilli called Tekua, and is situated on a mountain covered with ruins.For a similar paronomasia Vid. Mic 1:10 sqq. is mentioned; only here and in Neh 3:14. Jerome testifies : that it was a considerable elevation, near to Tekoa.According to Pococke it is the Frank mountain, an insulated, lofty cone. Comp. Raumer, Palst., S. 223 [Robinson, Bill. Res. II., pp. 174, 182184. Ritter, Geog. III., p. 96.S. R, A.] from its radical meaning of elatio obtains a variety of derivative significations. See the Lexicons. Here as in Jdg 20:38; Jdg 20:40, it denotes the sign raised high aloft, (else where ).For calamity, comp. 4. 6.
Jer 6:2. Thou art like the meadow . . . daughter of Zion. The passage is difficult, and has been very variously explained. is taken in the sense of meadow (Luther, Neumann) ; habitatrix (Venema) ; shepherdess (Seb. Schmidt). Most commentators render it = (Son 2:14; Son 4:3; Son 5:3) pulchra, formosa. from delicate vixit (Pual here only) is without doubt = delicate habita, which is always well cared for, spared, never roughly handled, comp. Deu 28:56; Isa 47:1. 1. assimilavi (Vulg., Kimcai, Abarb., Pagn., Tremell., Pisoator, etc.); 2. similis facta es (Syr.); 3. similis sum (Seb. Schmidt) ; 4. periisti mihi (Venema) ; 5. as fair and luxurious have I imagined the daughter of Zion (derived from the meaning to compare, comp. Son 2:17; Son 8:14; Fuerst) ; 6. the fair and luxuriousI mean the daughter of Zionto her come, etc. (Ewald, Meier) ; 7. I make still (Neumann), exterminate (so most recent commentators). The connection requires without doubt the meaning of gay, well-tended and well-preserved meadow. For after, in Jer 6:1, a grievous calamity in general is set in immediate prospect before Jerusalem, we see from Jer 6:3 more particularly that this calamity will consist in a visitation of rough shepherds, who will ruthlessly depasture and desolate Jerusalem with their flocks. In contrast with its later condition, Jerusalem before its desolation can be represented under no more suitable figure than that of a meadow well-preserved and tended by its owner with special predilection. designates not only a visitation generally, but also a pastoral visitation in particular (caula cum pascuo, Fuerst), as is clear from Job 8:6; coll. Zep 2:6. Comp. Jer 9:9; Jer 23:10; Jer 25:36. is indisputably = similis fuit (Psa 89:7; Psa 52:7; Psa 144:4, etc.) It is usually construed with (see the passages cited) or with (Eze 31:8). But that it may also have the subject compared, without a preposition, in the nominative is seen from Eze 32:2, where it reads , i. e., a lion among the nations art thou compared. Comp. Isa 38:13. The meanings of Niphal and Kal intrans. here, as frequently, coincide. The construction is explained thus, that , properly signify: to be as a comparison, as a thing compared; Egypt is (in Ezek. l. c.) compared; i. e., by way of comparison, figuratively designates, a lion. Israel (in this passage) is as a figure or comparison a meadow I take as the Syriac did, according to the frequent usage in Jeremiah (comp. on Jer 2:20) as 2 Pers. Fem.The Masoretes have not added in the Keri the regular form here as in the other passages, which may be explained by the circumstance that they took as the 1st person. The article before is generic as in Jer 4:25; comp. Naegelsb., 71, 4, a. before is epexegetical = and indeed, comp. Naegelsb.Gr., 111, 1 a.
Jer 6:3. Against her shall come shepherds each his spot. The enemies are compared with shepherds, who break in with flocks and ruthlessly depasture and tread down. Comp. Mic 5:4-5.And pitch their tents, etc., comp. Jer 1:15. side, place, spot. Comp. Lev. 2:17; Deu 23:13; Isa 56:5.
Jer 6:4. Sanctify war against her . . the shadows of evening are lengthening.Sanctify as in Joel 4:9; Mic 3:5; Zep 1:7; Jer 22:7; Jer 51:27. The expression refers to the solemn ceremonies attending the proclamation and commencement of war. Comp. Eze 21:26 sqq.This and the following are calls made from the midst of the enemy.The expressions exhibit the zeal of the enemy with dramatic liveliness. This zeal is so great that the unfavorable time of the day even cannot detain them. At noon, when the heat usually compels all to rest they depart, and when the evening comes they deplore it, but instead of going to rest prepare at once for the assault.Has turned. Comp. Psa 90:9, [all our days turn away].
Jer 6:5. Arise, and let us go up destroy her palaces, is translated by Schnurrer and Ewald, here and in Jer 9:20, by lofty buildings, in order to comprise the fortifications. But here, as frequently, the expression denotes the final object, the completion of the work of destruction. Comp. Jer 17:27; Amo 1:4.
Jer 6:6. For thus saith Jehovah .. found in her. The besieging of Jerusalem by its enemies is not a baseless, vain undertaking. It rests on a double, solid ground: 1. Immediately on a divine command (); 2. mediately on the ungodliness of Israel, which provokes the vengeance of Jehovah ( to Jer 6:7, fin.)Fell her trees is evidently an allusion to Deu 20:19-20, where it is commanded that Israel when they besiege a city, are not to cut down all the trees for the purposes of the siege (walls and machines.Comp. Winer, R. W. B., and HerzogReal-Enc. Art. Festungen). Here the enemy is commanded to do the exact contrary. Thus it is rendered evident how savage the enemy is and what Israel has to expect. The latter are so ungodly that the enemy is excused from those considerations which were imposed on the Israelites themselves in war. If this passage is thus based on Deu 20:19-20, we are then justified in regarding as a verbal reminiscence.The following sentence is construed in three ways: 1. Hc illa urbspunitur quantaquanta estoppressio in ea; 2. hc est urbs in quam animadvertitur,tota illa oppressio in ea; 3. urbs istaexploratum est, quod non est nisi oppressio in ea.Of these interpretations the first must be unconditionally rejected, for is as unnecessary with , as it is necessary to what follows. The second is the most generally adopted. But the abrupt is flat; we expect a stronger word and the imperfect, since the visitation is impending. I therefore prefer the third interpretation, adopted by Abarbanel and Seb. Schmidt. Since =explorare (comp. Psa 17:13; Job 7:18) may well mean exploratum est. This agrees excellently with what follows: that their inward part is full of thoughts of violence is confirmed by the fact that, they well forth these like a spring its waters; the cry thereof is heard, the effects there-of are visible (Jer 6:7). Levit. 5:23 also evidently hovered before the mind of the prophet. Since there only besides the Hophal occurs, though with another meaning; so there also is found the idea of . For the restoration is there alluded to of that which any one has appropriated by violence () or by illegal retention of property entrusted to him. Though the thought in general is a very different one, yet a comparison of this passage explains (a) why the prophet here designates the sin of Israel as (b) the choice of the singular word ; also (c) the article in is satisfactorily explained, if the prophet refers to a former utterance. is a confusio duarum constructionum, and .
Jer 6:7. As a spring. continually before me.The Inf. points to a root , from which besides only (2Ki 19:24; Isa 37:25). The following presupposes a root , from which no verbal form occurs in the Old Test. Yet by virtue of the relationship of the verbs and it not rarely happens that the same word derives forms from both conjugations. Comp. Ewald, 114, a.The interpretation is difficult of and means: to dig (2Ki 19:24), but means (after , coldness, fresh), to be cold, fresh. The meaning to pour forth therefore seems to suit neither the one nor the other of these two roots. Hence after the example of the LXX. and Jerome many commentators have interpreted the passage thus: As the cisterns keep their water cool, so Jerusalem keeps its wickedness constantly fresh (Graf). This rendering seems to be supported by meaning not spring, but pit, cistern. I cannot nevertheless regard this explanation as correct; for 1. the connection is opposed to it, according to our explanation, but also aside from this are heard of and before me afterwards require the meaning of to bring forth, reveal. 2. Although the root in the single passage where it occurs has the meaning to dig, yet even in this place it is used of digging for water, and must include a reference to springing water, while the only noun derived from it is , which certainly does not denote a pit or cistern, but a spring or fountain, since, as it is generally used only in a poetic and figurative sense (comp. fountain of blood, Lev 12:7; Lev 20:18; fountain of tears, Lev 8:23) it expresses the idea of a spring in its highest and most original sense. Accordingly this meaning of to spring, to pour forth, is certainly not ascribed to without reason. As to , it certainly does in itself denote a pit or cistern. But in the later books it also designates a pit, in which water is springing, a well-spring (puteus):Pro 5:16 : Ecc 12:6.Injustice and desolation [Violence and spoil] is a standing formula; Jer 20:18; Eze 45:9; Amo 3:10; coll. Hab 1:3are heard (comp. Isa 60:18) and the following before me are explained by the preceding poureth forth, as all three members of the sentence afford proof of the fact ascertained, Jer 6:6.In are continually before me there is a climax; not only are deeds of violence heard of, but their most palpable effects are continually being witnessed.
Jer 6:8. Be warned, O Jerusalem a land uninhabited. Here also as above (Jer 3:1; Jer 3:7; Jer 3:12-22; Jer 4:1; Jer 4:3-4; Jer 4:14, etc.) the prophet uses the threatening of punishment as a support for a call to repentance. The Lords heart is still towards Jerusalem, though it is to be feared that it will be alienated from the stiff-necked, impenitent people. from (to be thrust away, to turn away) occurs only in the imperfect, while the perfect forms are formed from . Comp. Eze 23:17-18.
Footnotes:
[1]Jer 6:1[It is singular that the Sept. render this in Jer 4:6, Haste ye, and here Be ye strong. The Targum renders it migrate or, remove ye. The idea of assembling it never has.Where Blayney got the phrase, Retire in a body it is difficult to say. Ed. of Calvin.S. R. A.]
[2]Jer 6:1[The word has no connection with fire, as mentioned in our version, which has been derived from the Rabbins Blayneys rendering is light, up a firebeacon, but the words admit of no such meaning. Ed. of Calvin.S. R. A.]
[3]Jer 6:6 is not to be regarded as a fem. collective form (comp. ) which does not occur elsewhere, but is the suffix without mappik, as frequently (Exo 9:18; Num 15:28; Psa 48:14; Ew. 247, d; Olsh. 40, c; Naegelsb. 44, 4, Anm.) The LXX. Vulg. Syr. and several Codd. in De Rossi also express the suffix.
[4]Jer 6:6. is the standing mode of expression, so much so that occurs only in this connection, 2Sa 20:15; 2Ki 19:32; Isa 37:33; Eze 4:2; Eze 17:17; Eze 21:27; Eze 26:8; Dan 11:15.
[5]Jer 6:7.It is probable that here stands for , as the Masoretes suppose to have happened, vice versa, in 2Sa 23:15-16; 2Sa 23:20. This is also proved by the fem. suffix in . For , pit is masc., while is fem. This change of gender between the noun and the suffix is probably also the ground of the Keri , which does not occur elsewhere. On the construction comp. Jer 5:16, and Naegelsb. Gr., 95, 2.
2. THE PROPHET IS COMPELLED BY AN INWARD PRESSURE TO ANNOUNCE THE JUDGMENT OF EXTERMINATION, NOTWITHSTANDING THE UNWILLINGNESS TO HEAR ON ACCOUNT OF THE UNIVERSAL HORRIBLE CORRUPTION
Jer 6:9-15
9Thus saith Jehovah Zebaoth:
They shall glean the remnant of Israel as a vine.
Turn again and again thine hand6 as a grape-gatherer to the baskets.
10To7 whom shall I speak and testify, that they may hear?
Behold their ear is uncircumcised, and they cannot hearken.
Behold the word of Jehovah is a mockery to them;
They have no delight in it.
11But I am full of the fury of Jehovah,
I cannot longer restrain myself.8
Pour out over the child in the street
And over the company of youths together;
For both man and wife shall be taken,
The aged with him that is full of days.
12And their houses shall come to others,
Fields and wives together,
For I will stretch out my hand against the inhabitants of the land,
Saith Jehovah.
13For from the least to the greatest all are given to covetousness,
And from the prophet to the priest they practice deceit.
14And healed the hurt of the daughter9 of my people most slightly,
Saying: Peace, Peace! And10 there is no peace.
15They are put to shame,11 for they wrought abominations,
Yet they blush not, nor12 know how to be ashamed.13
Therefore will they fall with them that fall.
At the time that I visit them, they will be overthrown,
Saith Jehovah.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
This strophe reproduces with some modification one side of the fundamental thought of the discourse: under a new figure (that of gleaning) the prophet announces the entire destruction of the people (Jer 6:9). Here however the thought occurs to him that he is really speaking in vain, because nobody wishes to hear him (Jer 6:10). This objection is removed by the fact that the prophet cannot be silent. He therefore gives free course to the prophetic impulse to pour out upon the whole people the fulness of the divine wrath (Jer 6:11-12), which they have so richly deserved by their sins, (pre-eminently of covetousness, deceit and shamelessness, Jer 6:13-15).
Jer 6:9. Thus saith Jehovah to the baskets. Not hastily but carefully is the divine judgment executed: thorough work is done, as in gleaning (Isa 24:13; Oba 1:5; Jer 49:9). These words seem also to refer to a precept of the Law, namely, to that which expressly forbade the Israelites to glean (Lev 19:10; Deu 24:21). The case is the same here as with Fell her trees, Jer 6:6. This gleaning does not of course contradict what was said in Jer 4:27; Jer 5:10; Jer 5:18.I will not utterly make an end. Even in gleaning something may be left. Comp. Isa 6:11 sqq.; Zec 13:8-9. here only. Ewald, Hitzig, Graf, Meier, appealing to Isa 18:5 coll. Son 5:11, Son 7:9, would give it the meaning of branches, tendrils, which they also regard as favored by the connection, since denotes to turn the hand against any one with a hostile intention (comp. Amo 1:8; Isa 1:25; Psa 81:15). But in the first place the plucking of grapes is not a hostile act, but a kindness to the vine. Secondly, the connection requires the idea of repetition, so that the phrase must not be taken in the sense of the passages cited, but much more according to the analogy of Psa 72:10; 2Ki 3:4; 2Ki 17:3; as to turn back again and again. Thirdly, the mention of the basket portrays much more vividly the fate of the grapes than the mention of the branch would; for the former sets before us the grapes as definitively separated from the vine. Fourthly, the linguistic relations are in favor of the rendering basket, for the word most nearly related, , decidedly has this meaning (Gen 40:16-17 : Levit. 29:3).
Jer 6:10. To whom shall I speak delight in it. After in Jer 6:9 he has presented to their view the extremity to which they would be reduced, the objection occurs to the prophet that all his speaking is in vain.Uncircumcised is used in the Old Test. of the ear in this place only. In the New Test. comp. Act 7:51. Of the heart, Lev 26:41; Deu 10:16; Jer 9:25; Eze 44:7; Eze 44:9. Of the lips, Exo 6:12; Exo 6:30. We see from and they cannot hearken that it designates a substantial incapability, which, however, is guilty, as hardness of heart and perversity. Amockery, comp. Jer 20:7-8.
Jer 6:11. But I am full of the fury full of days. The objection raised in Jer 6:10 is removed by the impossibility of keeping silence. On the subject comp. Jer 20:9.The prophet feels as though the Lords fury were his own, and he is so full of it that it is with him as in Mat 12:34 [out of the abundance of the heart, etc.].Pour, etc. The change of the person is here just as in Turn, etc., Jer 6:9. The Lord, whose fury he cannot restrain, calls to him to pour it out. With Ewald then to change to is quite unnecessary. The fury shall be poured over the whole people, irrespective of sex or age. Comp. Jer 18:21; Lam 2:21.On company of youth comp. Jer 15:17. is to be taken in the wider sense=to be caught, comp. Jos 7:15. is the aged man without respect to his vigor, the man full of days is he who is superannuated and decrepit.
Jer 6:12-13. And their houses practice deceit. Comp. Jer 8:10 sqq. as in 1Ki 2:15; Num 36:7-8. The prophet seems to be thinking of this latter passage in the same antithetical way, as of the passages from the Law in Jer 6:6; Jer 6:9. Comp. also Deu 28:30.I will stretch. Comp. Jer 15:6.In Jer 6:13 begins a repeated enumeration of the sins of the people as forming a motive for the fury described in Jer 6:11. The faults of covetousness, deceit and wantonness which smothered shame, are here rendered prominent. It seems as though the prophet as in Jeremiah 5. has still in mind the antithesis of given to covetousness. The prophet seems to have thought of Isa 56:11. Comp. Kueper, S. 144. The same expression also in Pro 1:19; Pro 15:27; Hab 2:9; Eze 22:27.
Jer 6:14. And healed the hurt no peace. This is the deceit, or at least one and a very important kind of deceit, which the priests and prophets practised, that they designated (as was certainly to their material interest.) the course adopted by the people and the princes as true and saving. Comp. Jer 14:14 sqq.; Jer 23:9-40; Jer 27:14-15; Jer 28:1-10.healed is intended ironically. The aorist denotes that they have done this hitherto.And there is no peace. Comp. Mic 3:5; Eze 13:10 and supra, Jer 4:10.
Jer 6:15. They are put to shame will be overthrown, saith Jehovah. (comp. Jer 8:9; Jer 10:14, etc.) means likewise to make a shameful figure, as , to make fat, i. e., to become fat, i. e., to bring forth whiteness, i. e., to become white. Comp. Naegelsb. Gr. 18, 3.They are put to shame, says the prophet, because those false predictions of peace have already been frequently falsified. And this could not be otherwise, since their prophecy was an abomination. The Lord therefore in respect to them does just the contrary of that which He does in respect of true prophecy (Jer 1:12).But notwithstanding this, that they were put to shame, yet they were not ashamed.Not know how reminds us of Isa 56:11.fall with them, etc. When the victims of their false guidance fall, they will not, as they have hoped, escape scot-free, but will be overthrown. Comp. the expression in Jer 51:49.
Footnotes:
[6]Jer 6:9. . It is quite unnecessary with Hitzig and Graf to explain the suffix by the reduplication of the following (in ). The discourse is rather dramatically vivid as in Jer 6:3-6. is to turn back as the grape-gatherer does his hand with respect to the basket, therefore=to turn again and again.
[7]Jer 6:10. here as frequently in Jer. (comp. Jer 19:15; Jer 25:2; Jer 26:15; Jer 27:19; Jer 28:8; Jer 44:20) has almost the meaning of , except that here the proximate idea of hostility may be detected in it.
[8]Jer 6:11.[Henderson: I am weary of containing it; the A. V. better: I am weary of holding in.] Comp. Isa 1:14 Jer 9:4; Jer 15:6.
[9]Jer 6:14.[, daughter, is omitted in thirty-eight MSS. and twenty-four printed editions. The combination , the daughter of my people, however, meaning the people themselves, is not foreign to Jeremiah. See Jer 8:21-22. Henderson.S. R. A.]
[10]Jer 6:14. comp. (Lev. 5:22), (Psa 31:24).
[11]Jer 6:15.[Henderson translates: They ought to have been ashamed. He says: Verbs in Heb. express sometimes, not the action, but the duty or obligation to perform it. Comp. , which ought not to be done, Gen 20:9. , should keep, Mal 2:7.S. R. A.]
[12]Jer 6:15. =neithernor. Comp. Naegelsb. Gr. 110, 3.
[13]Jer 6:15. elsewhere Niph. (Jer 8:12; Jer 31:19). The Hiphil here as in .
3. BECAUSE ISRAEL WOULD NOT HEAR THE PROPHET ANNOUNCES TO ALL LANDS AND NATIONS THE IMPENDING JUDGMENT, TO BE EXECUTED BY A PEOPLE FROM THE NORTH.
Jer 6:16-26
16Thus has Jehovah spoken:
Stand in the ways14 and look around
And inquire for15 the paths of ancient times,
Which is the way of salvation;16
And walk therein and find a resting place17 for your souls!
But they said: We will not walk therein.
17Then I set18 watchmen over you, saying:
Hearken to the sound of the trumpet!
But they said: We will not hearken thereto.
18Therefore hear, ye nations,
And know, O congregation, what is among them.
19Hear, O earth! Behold I bring evil upon this people,
The fruit of their counsels.
For they have not heeded my words,
And my lawthey despised it.19
20To what purpose should incense come to me from Sheba,
And the sweet cane from a far country?
Your burnt offerings are not grateful to me,
And your sacrifices are not pleasant to me.
21 Therefore thus saith Jehovah:
Behold I lay stumbling-blocks against the people,
And the fathers and sons together shall fall over them;
The inhabitant and his companion shall perish.20
22Thus saith Jehovah: Behold, a people comes from the north country,
And a great nation arises from the ends of the earth.
23Bow and lance they bear,
Cruel are they and have no mercy.
Their voice roars like the sea,
And they ride upon horses,
Equipped as a man for war, against thee, thou daughter of Zion.
24We have heard the report of them; feeble are our hands,
Anguish has seized us, and trembling as a parturient.
25Go not forth into the field, nor walk in the way,
For the sword of the enemy21fear on every side.
26Daughter of my people, gird thee in sackcloth,
And wallow thyself in ashes.
Make mourning as for an only sonbitter lamentation;
For suddenly will the destroyer come upon us.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
This last strophe of the discourse forms two parts. In the first part (Jer 6:16-20) the prophet shows the genesis of the calamity. The Lord had at first kindly directed Israel in the right way (Jer 6:16), but when they had refused to walk in it, He had solemnly threatened them with His punishment (Jer 6:17). Since they regarded not this also, He turns now with His announcement of punishment to all nations, calling them as it were to witness to the justice of His cause (Jer 6:18-19). He refutes a nugatory objection of Israels (Jer 6:20). In the second part the merited destruction is announced to the people of Israel directly (Jer 6:21-26), first in general (Jer 6:21), then its execution is described in detail (Jer 6:22-25), so that (a) the nation from the North is again mentioned as the instrument of this execution, with more particular features; (b) the experience of the punishment is presented in the words of the suffering people. Finally the prophet calls upon the people to do that which alone remains to them, namely, to humble themselves in deepest mourning.
Jer 6:16. Thus has Jehovah spoken we will not walk therein. compared with the progress of time in Jer 6:17 sqq. is to be regarded as preterite.As the absence of the article is not to be pressed we translate: stand in the ways, i. e., not in any or some, but in all. They are to compare by examination all the ways ( here as in Psa 139:24; Amo 8:14=religion, cultus). A criterion is at the same time given them, by which to recognize the right way, viz., antiquity. The oldest is the true religion. Let them examine the different religions of the primitive period, in order to find the oldest among the old ways, which is then the way of good or well-being.
Jer 6:17. Then I set watchmen over you we will not hearken thereto.Watchmen, used frequently by the prophet for seers and warners. Comp. Eze 3:17; Eze 33:7, coll. Isa 21:11-12; Jer 31:6.Hearken to the sound, etc. Observe the climax: after Israel had rejected the friendly admonition in Jer 6:16, the prophets standing on the walls like watchmen must strike wholesome terror into their hearts by sounding the trumpet of their denunciatory prophecies. But even this is in vain.
The words hearken, etc., may be regarded as spoken by Jehovah or by the prophets themselves; for even the latter might admonish the Israelites to respect the warning, which they brought to them. Yet this admonition certainly seems more appropriate in the mouth of Jehovah. Comp. Jer 2:25.
Jer 6:18. Therefore hear, ye nations what is among them. After the Lord had found among the Israelites a hearing neither for friendly admonition nor for severe warning, He turns to the other nations, in order that they may learn Jehovahs judgment on His people and its true motives.Concerning opinions are much divided. According to the connection and the unquestioned Masoretic reading it can mean neither testimony (Aqu.) nor troop (Hitzig) nor congregation in the sense of the Israelites, for an address to the whole or a part of the Israelite nation would form a most violent interruption in the parallelism and connection. I do not see why it should not denote the totality of the heathen nations, united as it were into a grand jury. It is true, no passage can be produced, where has exactly this meaning, but it is a word of such general signification, that it may fairly have this sense. For if in Jdg 14:8 it signifies a swarm of bees, in Job 15:34 and Psa 22:16 an assembly of the wicked, and in Num 16:5, the company of Korah, no one can say that it may not in certain circumstances be used of the assembly of the heathen. Since now according to the idea of the connection previously stated, the prophet turns in Jer 6:18 right diligently to the heathen, because Israel would not hear him, can denote no other than the totality of the heathen in antithesis to the single nations, who were addressed as ; thus singuli et omnes. At the same time it is not improbable, that (comp. ad judicium citare, Jer 49:19; Jer 50:44) might also designate a judicialis conventus (so Venema, Rosenm., J. D. Mich.)The phrase is also variously interpreted. Some (Leiste, Rosenm.) translate: qu in iis faciam, which presupposes an impossible ellipsis; Ewald would read instead of , Graf changes into . I find no difficulty in the text, as it exists. The heathen assembled, as it were for a jury, are first to know what thoughts Israel cherishes within. For this purpose a glance into their heart is afforded them by what is said in Jer 6:16-17. On the basis of this state of the facts it is then disclosed to them in Jer 6:19, what the Lord will bring as a punishment upon Israel. In I bring evil upon, upon is in antithesis to among in Jer 6:18.
Jer 6:19. Hear, O earth! they despised it.Hear, etc., forms a climax in relation to Jer 6:18 : the whole earth is called to witness. Comp. Deu 32:1 (coll. Deu 30:19; Deu 31:28); Mic 1:2; Mic 6:1-2; Isa 1:2. After the Lord has granted a glance into the heart of Israel, He shows the punishment which is the result of this inward condition, and which is therefore designated as the fruit of their counsels (comp. Jer 2:19; Jer 4:18).
Jer 6:20. To what purpose should incense are not pleasant to me. the aromatic resin of a tree not yet definitely ascertained. Comp. Exo 30:31; Lev 2:1, etc.; Isa 60:6; Herzog, Real-Enc. XVII. S. 602; XII. S. 501. (not to be confounded with , i. e., Meroe) is the tribe and home of the Sabans in Southern Arabia. Comp. Isa 60:6; Eze 27:22; Joel 4:8; Psa 72:15. , comp. Exo 30:23 ( ); Isa 43:24; Eze 27:19; Son 4:14 = calamus, the root of which was used in the preparation of the anointing oil. Vid. Winer, R. W. B., Art. Kalamus.In these words the Lord meets an objection of the Israelites to the effect that they had not failed in outward worship. The sense of the reply coincides with 1Sa 15:22; Mic 6:8; Isa 1:11 sqq.; Psa 50:8 sqq.; Jer 51:18, etc.The juxtaposition of and is also found in several of the passages mentioned, comp. Jer 7:21; Drechsler, Jes. I. S. 63.
Jer 6:21. Therefore thus saith Jehovah and his companion shall perish. After the refutation of the vain objection in Jer 6:20 the prophet turns again to the people of Israel. He seems to presuppose that the people excited to jealousy by Jer 6:18-19, (comp. Rom 11:14) in opposition to their former disinclination even to hear the Lord, yet at least answer him. The answer is indeed worth nothing, and therefore now follows a direct announcement of judgment, addressed to the Israelites themselves, first, in this verse 21, in general.-Stumbling-blocks. Comp. Isa 8:14 : Eze 3:20.
Jer 6:22. Thus saith Jehovah ends of the earth. This and the following verses specify the calamity announced generally in Jer 6:21. For the third time the executioner is mentioned as a mighty nation from the North. (Comp. Jer 4:6 sqq.; Jer 5:15 sqq.)The passage repeated and applied to Babylon in Jer 50:41-43. extrema terr. Comp. Isa 14:13; Isa 14:15; Jer 25:32; Jer 31:8, etc.
Jer 6:23. Bows and lances they bear against thee, thou daughter of Zion. Comp. Hab 1:7.Like the sea. Comp Isa 5:30; Isa 17:12; Isa 24:14.On the question what nation, see the remarks above on Jer 1:14.Equipped as a man for war. The singular attaching to cruel are they. On the change of number, comp. Ewald, 317, b.As a man can neither denote one man, nor a hero. Rather do equipped and against thee (as the accents also denote) belong together and as a man for war declares how this preparation is made; not as a woman for peaceful labor, but as a man for war, is the enemy equipped against Zion.
Jer 6:24-25. We have heard the report fear on every side. A description of the feeling which Israel experiences on the incursion of the enemy, so that Jer 6:22-23 on the one hand, and Jer 6:24-25 on the other correspond to each other as objective and subjective, or as cause and effect.Anguish. Comp. Jer 4:31; Jer 49:24; Jer 50:43.Trembling as, etc. Comp. Psa 48:8; Mic 4:9; Jer 22:23; Jer 50:43.
Jer 6:25 is also related to Jer 6:24 as the effect to the cause: the not venturing out of Jerusalem is the consequence of what has been heard. The personification of Jerusalem as a woman lies at the basis of the forms ,, for which the way is prepared by as a parturient, and continued by daughter of my people Jer 6:26.Fear on every side, Psa 31:14; Jer 20:3; Jer 20:10; Jer 46:5; Jer 49:29; Lam 2:22; see especially remarks on Jer 20:10.
Jer 6:26. Daughter of my people come upon us.Gird thee, etc., comp. Jer 4:8,wallow, comp. Jer 25:34; Mic 1:10; Eze 27:30.Mourning, etc. Comp. Amo 8:10; Zec 12:10.Bitter lamentation. Comp. Jer 31:15; Hos. 12:15.The prophet in conclusion advises Jerusalem to do the only thing that remains to her; repent in sackcloth and ashes (comp. Isa 58:5; Jer 25:34; Eze 27:30; Dan 9:3) and deep, sincere mourning. For their sins or their destruction? Doubtless for both. For the former is occasioned by penitence, the latter by inevitable destruction. Penitence and mourning can no longer ward off the destruction (as might have been possible before, comp. Jer 4:1-4; Jer 14:6; Jer 14:8). The prophet indeed expresses this in the words for suddenly will the destroyer come upon us. But though the calamity cannot be warded off by penitence and mourning it may yet be thus mitigated, and the way may be thus prepared for subsequent restoration.
Footnotes:
[14]Jer 6:16. comp. Jer 3:2; Isa 49:9, where likewise the article is wanting. In Jer 3:2 the words , are also without the article, although in meaning they are definite. Comp. Gesen. 109; Naegelsb. Gr. 71, 3.
[15]Jer 6:16. (via boni, not bona, on account of the following ). Comp. Psa 139:24.
[16]Jer 6:16. with , Gen 26:7; Gen 32:30.
[17]Jer 6:16.. Comp. Naegelsb. Gr. 90, 2.. Comp. Mat 11:29.
[18]Jer 6:17.. The perfect is abnormal, and is a sign of the later idiom. Comp. Ewald, 343, c.2.
[19]Jer 6:19.On the construction comp. Naegelsb. Gr. 88, 7, c, et supra, iii.9.
[20]Jer 6:21.For the Keri has because the Masoretes connected as the subject with , which is however unnecessary and unjustifiable.
[21]Jer 6:25.To translate: the enemy hath a sword [as Henderson] is very flat. Better () , and as subject co-ordinate with the following [for the sword of the enemy and fear are, etc.]. Comp. Naegelsb. Gr. 67, 2.
4.Conclusion: object and result of the Discourse
Jer 6:27-30
27I have set thee a prover22 among my people, the ore,23
That thou mayest know and prove their way.
28They are all arch traitors,24 slanderers25brass and iron;
Profligate are they all!26
29The bellows glows,27 out of its fire comeslead;
In vain one28 melts and melts,
The base29 are not separated.
30Reprobate silver they are called,
For Jehovah has reprobated them.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
The prophets sermon by no means aimed at a general conversion, it was rather to serve only as a touch-stone. By it a separating process was to be instituted, by which it would be decided which was good and which base metal (Jer 6:27). Unfortunately the great mass proved to be common brass (Jer 6:28). In the smelting-process also (past and future) the same result is presented. In two further figures which express essentially the same thing, the Lord compares Israel with a piece of ore, which in the fire reduces lead, and again with one which contains silver, but unhappily so mixed, that the base cannot be separated from the true metal (Jer 6:29-30).
Jer 6:27. I have set. their way. The people are denominated the ore, because their value is to be ascertained by the process of assaying. The term () is also doubtless chosen with reference to Jer 1:18, where it is used of the prophet [a fortified (tried) city]. The nation is also tried, not as a fortress, but as ore which is yet to be proved.
Jer 6:28. They are all.Slanderers. The prophet here as elsewhere (comp. remarks on Jer 6:13 sqq.), in thus particularizing appears to have had the eighth commandment in mind. Comp. Luthers explanation: to betray, to backbite, or to make an evil report.Brass and iron. These words state, still figuratively, the result of the proving, Jer 6:27 : the ore contains not gold or silver, but only base metal.
Jer 6:29. The bellows glows separated. The bellows glows or is on fire. This refers of course to Israel: their fire is the fire in which they are melted, the fire of affliction, both of the past, the present and the future. Even the severest trials of affliction can produce from this people nothing but lead. It is seen that the prophet proceeds to a related figure, as immediately afterwards he also makes application of a third. The first figure represents the prophet as a trier of metals, who first takes the rough ore in hand in order mineralogically to distinguish its constituent parts. In the second figure the ore is exposed to fire, in order in this way to ascertain its metallic value. The result is lead. I find accordingly that the Keri , however explained, is an entirely necessary alteration.In what follows the prophet makes use of a third figure. Israel is here definitely presented as silver ore. But in the smelting-places it. appears that the silver is so mingled with the stone that the production of clear pure silver is impossible. Israel therefore remainsrefuse, impure silver, which, as unfit for noble uses, the Lord rejects.base [wicked]. The prophet passes from the figurative to the literal mode of speaking.
Jer 6:30. Reprobate silver Jehovah has reprobated them.The conclusion is sad. But this reprobate silver is not Israel in general, but only the Israel of the present time. Comp. Jer 3:11-25; Jer 4:27; Jer 5:10; Jer 5:18.
Footnotes:
Footnotes:
[22]Jer 6:27. (on the form comp. Ewald, 152, b) [Greens Gr. 185, 2, c] occurs here only. It is= (Jer 11:20; Jer 17:10).
[23]Jer 6:27., Durell., Gaab, Maurer, Hitzig=, i. e., without gold, being equivalent to (Job 36:19) and unreduplicated as in (Jdg 8:2). Ewald, Meier would punctuate (Separator) [Henderson: an explorer]. Yet both are unnecessary, if we take itself in the meaning of (Job 22:24) (Job 36:19) (Job 22:24) as also is used as of like meaning with (2Ch 35:4), with (Gen 15:2-3; Zep 2:9), with (Exo 6:6; Exo 7:4, etc.), with (according to its radical meaning), etc. would accordingly=, abscissum, a piece, in the sense of a piece of ore cut off (comp. Fuerst, s. v. and ). I would however prefer not to make dependent on , from which it is remotely, but on , with which it is immediately connected. The construction is then as in (Eze 16:27), (Eze 18:7). Comp. Naegelsb. Gr. 63, 4, g.
[24]Jer 6:28. is so expressed by the Vulg., Syr., Chald. and Aquila that it is evident they read , which is also actually found in Cod. Regiom. I. and II. as well as in 22 Codd. of Kennicott and in 18 of De Rossi. This reading may have been occasioned by the unusual construction and the similarity of the passages Isa 1:23; Hos 9:15. The construction is however not unusual in this, as substantives are not rarely thus connected. Comp. , etc. Vid. Naegelsb. Gr. 61, 3. moreover may be (comp. , 1Ki 20:43; 1Ki 21:4) Part. Kal from , so that from this form a double Part. Kal would be formed. [Henderson: desperate revolters.]
[25]Jer 6:28. . Comp. Jer 9:3; Eze 22:9. On the construction Vid. Naegelsb. Gr. 70, b. [Henderson renders: conversant with destruction.S. R. A.]
[26]Jer 6:28.. Comp. Isa 1:4 (on the direct causative signification of the Hiphil=to do a pernicious thing. Vid. Naegelsb. Gr. 18, 3).
[27]Jer 6:29. Niph: from (so most of the older translators and commentators) can mean only: the bellows is on fire, is red hot (Hitzig). This meaning is required by the connection, for it is to be declared, that an extreme degree of heat was applied, which is here denoted by the burning of the bellows. But even this degree of heat has extracted nothing from the ore butlead. The other explanation from (anhelat) is indeed well founded on the nominal forms ,, but it gives an unsatisfactory sense; for it is not declared generally that the bellows works, but that it has done its best. The Chethibh must be pronounced and presupposes a noun , which does not occur, but is formed quite normally. [Henderson: may either be the root of the verb, to snort, and designed in this place to express the sound produced by the continued blowing of the bellows; or it may be the Niphal of , to burn. The former best suits the connection. Thus Michaelis, Rosenmueller, Dahler, De Wette, Scholz and Umbreit.S. R. A.]
[28]Jer 6:29. . The third plur. sing. is employed to denote an independent subjectone. Comp. Naegelsb. Gr. 101, 2, b.
[29]Jer 6:29. never denotes the dross directly.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. On Jer 6:1 sqq. It is very difficult to believe the preaching of Gods anger and punishment, for we look at the powerful assistance, the watchmen, the towers and fortresses, and trust in them. But fortresses here, fortresses there! These cannot withstand human force, let alone the calamity which comes from God Himself. Cramer.
[On Jer 6:2. M. Henry: The more we indulge ourselves in the pleasures of this life, the more we disfit ourselves for the troubles of this life. On Jer 6:4. It is good to see how the counsel and decree of God are pursued and executed in the devices and designs of men, even theirs that know Him not, Isa 10:6-7.S. R. A.]
2. On Jer 6:6. This is the strongest and most dangerous mining-powder of cities and fortresses, when sin, shame, vice and wantonness get the upper hand. For instance, Sodom and Gomorrah. Cramer.
3. On Jer 6:7. Sin cries, rises and stinks up to heaven, so that God and the angels are obliged to shut mouth, nose and ears. Compare Gen 18:20; Jon 1:2. Frster.
4. On Jer 6:9. God has two kinds of vintage: one is in grace, when He plucks His glorious grapes, the fruits of good works, and says: Destroy it not, for there is a blessing in it (Isa 65:8). But where He finds only poisonous berries (Isa 5:2) and is as one who gleans in the vineyard (Mic 5:14) He employs other vintagers with iron gloves, and presses them out in His anger (Rev 14:20) till neither stem nor stalk is left. Cramer.
5. On Jer 6:10. Patience! Perhaps it is not long since the preaching was begun. But in the beginning it is just so with one. When one year or forty accustomed to office, things are more tractable, God grant, not too comfortable. We must tell our story with a simple heart, as it is. We must be violent enough to gain a hearing. This joyful, honest, ever-enduring testimony of the truth, which is in us, will excite attention in time, and moreover never returns void (Isa 55:11). Zinzendorf.
6. On Jer 6:10-11. Draw off thy shoes, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground, Exo 3:5. Moses, Elijah, Elisha, David, the prophet before the altar at Bethel, our Jeremiah in particular, and Paul, the evangelical Apostle, used the severest and most feeling methods against the mockers of their religion in the least and the greatest, and it is evident that God will not allow Himself to be mocked. Freely as the heart is treated, and little the violence that God does to it, yet the creature is often cut short when it comes to testifying. For there is a great difference between respect and love. Love is a grace, but respect is in accordance with a creatures nature; it is imbued in every one. For the devil himself, if his hands are bound in the least (as then more is granted him than any other), when it comes to respectmust tremble (Jam 2:19). The Lord teach the witnesses the right measure, that their threatenings and the feelings of men suitably concur, and that it may be with every witness for religion as with John, whom King Herod feared and heard him. Zinzendorf.
7. On Jer 6:14. How beautiful are the feet of them that announce true peace! (Isa 52:7; Nah 2:1.) In like measure destructive are the feet of those who preach false peace. The latter are Satan, who transforms himself into an angel of light (2Co 11:14).
8. On Jer 6:16. There are two kinds of patres. Some are the ancients, some the young. Of the young fathers Asaph says (Psa 78:8): that they were not as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation (comp. Eze 20:18). But as regards the ancient, original fathers, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, David, the Evangelists, Apostles and such like, these are the true fathers, who preserve Gods word for us, that by means of it we may follow them, and ask after the former ways. Thus we go right and safely. Cramer.
9. On Jer 6:16. Hic arripiunt Papicol semitas antiquas, indeque nobis persuadere conantur, ut et nos semitas antiquas quramus, i. e., ut religions Lutherana valere jussa nos adjungamus ecclesi papistic, quam omnium antiquissimam nusquam non superbe jactitant. Sed nos ipsis 1. obvertimus illud Ignatii: nobis vera antiquitas est Jesus Christus, cui nolle obedire manifestum est exitium. 2. Argumentum, quod isthinc consarcinare satagunt, hunc in modum invertimus: ea ecclesia pro vera habenda, qu omnium antiquissima. Atqui nostraest antiquissima. Cpit enim mox ab initio mundi in Paradiso cum Protevangelio (Gen 3:15, coll. Jer 15:6): Romanensium vero ecclesia, sicut ipsi haud diffitentur, circa a Chr. 606 cpit. Ergo. Frster.
10. On Jer 6:16. Those are the honest knaves, who tell the prophet to his face: we will not do it (Jer 44:16). But such the Lord will honestly punish. For the servant, who knew his Lords will and did it not, shall suffer double stripes (Luk 12:47). Cramer.
11. [Calvin: On Jer 6:19. We may learn from this passage that nothing is more abominable in the sight of God than the contempt of divine truth: for His majesty, which shines forth in His word, is thereby trampled under foot; and further, it is an extreme ingratitude in men when God Himself invites them to salvation, wilfully to seek their own ruin and to reject His favor. On Jer 6:20. And we see at this day, that men cannot be rightly taught, except we carry on war against that external splendor with which they will have God to be satisfied. As then men deceive themselves with such trifles, it is necessary to show that all those things which hypocrites obtrude on God, without sincerity of heart, are frivolous trumperies.S. R. A.]
12. On Jer 6:27 sqq. When goldsmiths wish to purify the silver, they add lead to it. When preachers would try their hearers, they must apply the law. The fire is Gods word (Jer 23:29), the bellows the Holy Spirit in the mouth of the teacher, the metals the hearers, of which some are objectionable, others are unobjectionable. Cramer.
13. On Jer 6:27. As Christ is called a sign which shall be spoken against, that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed (Luk 2:34-35), the power dwells in His word generally to compel men to separation and decision. For no one can remain neutral towards Him long. He is a touchstone which makes manifest the real condition of the heart, whether the man is of God, or not of God, Heb 4:12; Joh 8:47.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
1. Jer 6:6-8 may serve for the text of an exhortation to repentance. On the punitive justice of God. 1. With what it threatens us. 2. Why it threatens us. 3. How this threatening can be averted.
2. On Jer 6:6-7. We find such fountains of evil in our own perverted hearts. Original sin is the true fountain of evil, from which from childhood up much water of obstinacy, disobedience, indolence, envy, falsehood is poured forth. And such water flows every year more abundantly. Soon also flows the water of vanity, of impurity and excess, of reviling and cursing. How does man help himself? Either he will not allow others to observe what wickedness comes from his heart, and hides his sins, or he is himself grieved that so much sin flows from his heart, and begins to stop the flow, i. e., he makes good resolves and proposes no more to commit the old sins. But lo! the streams break forth again, and the fountain of a depraved heart ceases not to flow. Again others allow the stream free course and pollute the city and the country with their sins, as the Jewish people did. Where is help to be found against this fountain of a depraved heart? In the fountain of which Zechariah prophesies, Jer 13:1. Hochstetter, 12 Parables from the proph. Jer., S. 12, 13.
3. [Tillotson on Jer 6:8. 1. The infinite goodness and patience of God towards a sinful people, and His great unwillingness to bring ruin upon them. 2. The only proper and effectual means to prevent the misery and ruin of a sinful people. 3. The miserable case and condition of a people when God takes off His affection from them.S. R. A.]
4. On Jer 6:11-12. The double trouble of a preacher of the truth. 1. From without, (a) indisposition to hear, (b) scorn. 2. From within, irresistible necessity of announcing the word of the Lord.
5. On Jer 6:13-15. Warning against false prophets: 1. Their course: they teach false worship, i. e., they lead not to God but away from Him, by (a) being silent as to the real inconvenient truth, (b) putting the conscience to sleep by a falsehood. 2. Their motive: covetousness, selfishness (Jer 6:13). 3. Their end: they are put to shame (Jer 6:15).
6. On Jer 6:14. [Chalmers: The evils of false security. 1. It is not based on the mercy offered by God. 2. It casts an aspersion on the character of God. 3. It is hostile to the cause of practical righteousness.Spurgeon: I have heard of a city missionary who kept a record of two thousand persons who were supposed to be on their death-bed but recovered, and whom he should have put down as converted persons, had they died; and how many do you think lived a Christian life afterwards out of the two thousand? Not two. Positively he could only find one who was found to live afterwards in the fear of God. Is it not horrible that when men and women come to die they should cry, Comfort, comfort! and that hence their friends conclude that they are children of God, while after all they have no right to consolation, but are intruders on the enclosed grounds of the blessed God?S. R. A.]
7. On Jer 6:15. [South: Shamelessness in sin the certain forerunner of destruction. 1. What shame is more effectual than law. 2. How men cast off shame. 3. The several degrees of shamelessness. 4. Reasons why shamelessness is so destructive. 5. The destruction by which it procures the sinners ruin.S. R. A.]
8. On Jer 6:16. Which is the good way? That which has 1, the right starting point (the one, unalterable, ancient truth); 2 the right ending (rest for the soul). [Doolittle has a sermon with this text on the theme, Popery a novelty, and Calamy has two on the Trinity!S. R. A.]
9. On Jer 6:16. New Years Sermon. What does a retrospect of the ways of the past year show us? 1. That they have been under Gods wondrous guidance; 2. that they were intended to be only ways of salvation for our soul; 3. that we have often said, we will not walk in them; 4. that we should care best for our salvation, if we would henceforth walk in the good ways of God. Florey, 1863.
10. On Jer 6:18-21. The righteous judgments of God. 1. They do not shun publicity, but rather appeal to the moral sense of the whole world. 2. They bring upon men their merited recompense. 3. They can be averted, not by outward worship, but by honest submission to Gods word (Jer 6:19-20).
11. On Jer 6:27-30. The word of truth a touchstone for the human heart. 1. The good are attracted by it; 2. the bad turn away and are rejected.
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
CONTENTS
This Chapter is as the former, and but a continuation of the same sermon. It contains the Lord’s expostulation with his people for their sins and transgressions.
Jer 6:1
There is somewhat particular, and worth notice in this personal direction to Benjamin. Distinguishing mercies are sweet mercies. Beth-haccerem means the house of vineyards. The Church is called, a vineyard of red wine. Isa 27:1-2 . I do not say as much, but I would humbly ask, may not the expression without violence be supposed to refer to Christ as the defense?
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Old Paths (Thoughts for the New Year)
Jer 6:16
‘Ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls.’ Our Blessed Saviour knows that we want rest; His beautiful call comes right across the ocean of trouble, the oft-repeated call, ‘Come to Me, come to Me, and I will give you rest’. It is what you most want rest. So many people deviate from the old paths and try to get rest. Just look round about and see the number of religions there are bypaths; and people wander along these paths and think they will get rest. They do not. What are the old paths, that you and I are to walk therein and rest?
I. The old path, first of all, is the path of blood. Do not mistake that. All along the road you can trace drops of blood. It is the Blood of the Passion of the Saviour. How could we, you and I, face the judgment seat of Christ if it were not for the Blood of the Lamb? Our only hope of redemption is in the Blood of the Blessed Saviour. It is the old path. We have no other hope, no other rest than in the Sacrifice of our Blessed Saviour. Do not let any of the modern ideas of the twentieth-century religion allure you into bypaths.
II. And then I should say walk in the old paths in the day in which we live by accepting the Word of God. The Word of God is written, of course, for your souls; your soul shall find rest therein, and, if I were you, I would learn by heart your favourite texts, so that when you cannot read, and things are beginning to get a bit dim, you may have them within your heart.
III. Then there is this: keep in the old path of service. What I mean by this is that it is so very common nowadays to divide up the secular from the religious. We Christians must not have that. St. Paul says all is to be sacred, nothing secular. You would not call it ‘churchy’ to eat and to drink, but we are told whether we eat or drink, or whatsoever we do, we are to do all to the glory of God. We are to make no distinction. Paul was sent by the Saviour to preach the Gospel to men; he was an Apostle, and yet he was a tent-maker. Paul used to make tents to get a little money to live by. He sold his tents and earned money and lived by it, and lived for the glory of God. To those who love God, where do the secular and the profane come in at all? You are often told that we Christians ought to give a tenth of our income to the Church. A Jew gives a tithe. Well, if you give a tenth, you do what the Jews do, but that is not the rule of the Christian religion. The Christian religion is to give all. You must not divide up your money into secular purposes and religious purposes; that is not the old path, that is not the way of salvation. Every penny you spend you should spend as best you can to the glory of God. Do not let us be unreal; let us be perfectly true. We Christians must live and act as under God’s sight, and do everything for His sake, and the man who spends his money to bring up his family does right, he is acting in the sanctuary, the sanctuary of domestic life, which God Himself will bless.
IV. Another of the old paths is obedience to God’s Word; submission to God’s Word. ‘Ask for the old paths.’ ‘Teach me to do the thing that pleaseth Thee, for Thou art my God.’ That is the old path. Ask God to show you the way, that you may walk therein, and find rest for your soul. If you do your own will, you will never find lest, but if you do God’s will, it is perfect rest.
V. Last of all the paths, I should mention the beautiful pathway, when it draws towards what seems to be the end of the way altogether, the path of communion with God. ‘If Thy presence go not with us, carry us not up hence.’ You do not want to go away from Him. Confide yourselves bravely to Him and be happy, and ye shall find rest for your souls. If you have listened for His command, and your ear has become attuned to His Voice, you will hear His Voice in the storm, in the wind, in the night, and in the end you will hear Him call you to come to Him across the water, and you can say, like Peter, ‘Lord, teach Thou me to come to Thee across the water,’ and He will say, ‘Come’. Is not this really what we want, right deep down beyond everything, to rest in the Arms of God.
Steadfastness in the Old Paths
Jer 6:16
It is one great peculiarity of the Christian character to be dependent. Men of the world, indeed, in proportion as they are active and enterprising, boast of their independence, and are proud of having obligations to no one. But it is the Christian’s excellence to be diligent and watchful, to work and persevere, and yet to be in spirit dependent; to be willing to serve, and to rejoice in the permission to do so; to be content to view himself in a subordinate place; to love to sit in the dust. Though in the Church a son of God, he takes pleasure in considering himself Christ’s ‘servant and ‘slave’; he feels glad whenever he can put himself to shame. So it is the natural bent of his mind freely and affectionately to visit and trace the footsteps of the saints, to sound the praises of the great men of old who have wrought wonders in the Church and whose words still live; being jealous of their honour, and feeling it to be even too great a privilege for such as he is to be put in trust with the faith once delivered to them, and following them strictly in the narrow way, even as they have followed Christ. To the ears of such persons the words of the text are as sweet music: ‘Thus saith the Lord, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls’.
J. H. Newman.
References. VI. 16. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xlvii. No. 2748. H. D. M. Spence, Voices and Silences, p. 271. E. C. S. Gibson, Messages from the Old Testament, p. 238. “Plain Sermons” by contributors to the Tracts for the Times, vol. v. p. 157. Ibid. vol. x. pp. 307, 317. W. Brooke, Sermons, p. 50. VI. 16-19. W. Hay M. H. Aitken, Mission Sermons (3rd Series), p. 163. VI. 29. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xv. No. 890. VI. 29, 30. VII. 9, 10. T. Teignmouth Shore, The Life of the World to Come, p. 107. VII. 12. ” Plain Sermons “by contributors to the Tracts for the Times, vol. i. 168. VII. 18. W. Hay M. H. Aitken, Mission Sermons (3rd Series), p. 207. VII. 21. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxxix. No. 2301. VIII. Ibid. vol. xlii. No. 2491; vol. xlix. No. 2858. VIII. 6. Ibid. vol. iv. No. 169. VIII. 7. Ibid. vol. xlix. No. 2858. VIII. 11. Ibid. vol. xxviii. No. 1658. J. Wordsworth, The One Religion, Bampton Lectures, 1881, p. 217. VIII. 14. H. W. Webb-Peploe, Calls to Holiness, p. 175. VIII. 19, 20. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xi. No. 608. VIII. 20. Ibid. vol. xxvi. No. 1562. C. Perren, Revival Sermons in Outline, p. 154. S. A. Tipple, Sunday Mornings at Norwood, p. 39. J. Parker, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lxviii. 1905, p. 177.
Fuente: Expositor’s Dictionary of Text by Robertson
V
THE IMPEACHMENT, CALL, AND JUDGMENT
Jeremiah 2-6
This chapter is a discussion of the prophecies of Jeremiah during the reign of Josiah, chapters 2-6. They are abstracts from Jeremiah’s sermons, preached sometime between 626 B.C. and 608 B.C., eighteen years of his public ministry. Here we have the essential points of his discourses for that time, the best parts of the prophecies which he had uttered during that long period. Josiah was one of the best kings that Israel ever had. There are no sins recorded against him. The most complete reformation ever enacted in the nation was wrought under his direction. But it was an external reformation. It is true that he destroyed all the idols, all the high places and stopped the idolatrous worship throughout the entire realm, but he did not change the hearts of the people. “The serpent of idolatry was scorched but not killed.” The renovation was not deep enough; it was a reformation only. We cannot enforce religion by statutory law, legal authority, or royal mandate. It is a matter of the heart. During those years and following, the prophet Jeremiah was at work. His keen prophetic and penetrating mind was able to see deeper than Josiah. He perceived that the reformation and the revolution were external. He knew that many of the people, in fact, most of them, had never really repented. He knew that the nation was still inclined to idolatry, and ready to lapse into heathen worship; yea, he knew that as soon as the pressure was removed, the nation would fall back into the old life of wickedness and idol worship.
Now, the subject matter of these five chapters is this: Israel’s history one long apostasy which would bring on her inevitable destruction. For eighteen years Jeremiah sought to drill that into the people’s minds and hearts and produce the needed reformation which alone could save. Let us see how he went to work; how he brought this truth before them; how he appealed to them; what arguments he used; what threats he uttered against them, if possible to turn them from idolatry and bring them back to the true worship of Jehovah.
The subject of Jer 2 is this: Israel’s history a continual defection to idolatry. He is dealing with all Israel. He makes no distinction between Northern and Southern Israel. He is talking here to the whole race. He reviews their history, that is, their religious history and their present condition.
He has a very beautiful statement here in Jer 2:1-3 , picturing the former fulness of Israel. He says, “The word of Jehovah came unto me saying, Go, and cry in the ears of Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith Jehovah, I remember for thee the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals; how thou wentest after me in the wilderness, in a land that was not sown. Israel was holiness unto Jehovah.” Thus he introduces his arraignment with this reference to their former fidelity. Israel started out faithful and true. Hosea pictures her as a faithful bride. She was faithful and true at first. Israel was true to God, and God was true to Israel. Now that is the same picture here and it may be that he got it from Hosea. The relation between the nation and God was fidelity and love. It was the “honeymoon” of the nation’s life. That is how she started.
Since then Israel’s history has been one of repeated acts of unfaithfulness to her God. The prophet seeks to drive it home to their very hearts by a series of questions. We have this question in Jer 2:4-8 : “What unrighteousness have your fathers found in me, that they have gone from me?” Was it because they had found unrighteousness in God? Had they found Jehovah untrue? Had they discovered unfaithfulness in him? We might ask the backslider today, “Is it because there is something wrong with God that you turn from him?” There is a great sermon in that. He shows next that the leaders turned from him: “I brought you up into a plentiful land, to eat the fruit thereof.” I was kind to you; I gave you no occasion to turn from me; I never forsook you and left you in need; I cared for you. Still you and your leaders turned from me. “I brought you up into a land of plenty, to eat the fruit thereof; but when ye entered ye defiled my land and made my heritage an abomination. . . . They that handle the law knew me not; the rulers also transgressed against me, and the prophets prophesied by Baal, and walked after things that do not profit.”
A serious question is raised in Jer 2:9-13 : Has any other nation changed gods but you? “Pass over to the isles of Kittim and see; send unto Kedar, and consider diligently; and see if there hath been found such a thing.” Kittim here refers to the island of Cyprus and the isles of Greece. Go there and see if they have ever changed their gods. Has it ever been done in the world except as you have done it? Hath a nation changed its gods? “But my people have changed their glory for that which doth not profit.” Do you know of any nation in history that has ever done such a thing? These Hebrews had changed their God? Why had they done so? What reason could they give? Jeremiah says, You Israelites have changed to other gods, and in that you are an exception to the nations of the earth. The strange thing about it, too, is that you have changed from your true God to those that are not gods. “My people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.” Here we have for the first time in the history of religion, a statement that the idols of the nations are not gods. Verse 13 is one of the most beautiful passages in all the Bible. God is a fountain of living waters. That sounds like the words of Jesus to the woman of Samaria at Jacob’s well. Idolatry is pictured as cisterns that are broken; that cannot hold water. He means to say that every other form of religion but the worship of Jehovah is a false religion; there is no saving truth in it; it is dry; it will not hold water; it is man made. That is a true description of all false religions. Some scientists and men who study religions deny this; they say that there is a certain amount of truth in other religions as well as in Christianity. Well, so there is some truth in every one, but not saving truth. All other religions are man-made cisterns that will not hold water. This is one of the most suggestive texts in all the Bible, as to the comparative value of the religion of Jehovah and other religions; as to the value of Christianity as compared with heathen religions.
He says, in Jer 2:14-17 : “Is Israel a servant? is he a home-born slave?” Is he such that he must become a prey? “The young lions have roared upon him, and yelled.” Now it is only the slave in the household that is whipped to make him do his duty. Is that the case with Israel? Must he be whipped like a slave to compel him to do his duty? to obey Jehovah? Other nations have whipped him, they have chastised him, “They have broken the crown of his head.” Was Israel but a slave to be thus whipped and beaten? Is there no manhood in the nation? What a powerful appeal to national pride and honor is this? He raises another question in verses Jeremiah 18-19: “Now what hast thou to do in the way to Egypt, to drink the waters of the Shihor? or what hast thou to do in the way to Assyria, to drink the waters of the River?” What business have you turning from Jehovah to make alliances and seek help from Egypt? What business have you to be turning to Assyria for aid? We have seen that one of the causes of the destruction of both the Northern and the Southern Kingdoms was that they made alliances with Egypt rather than trust in Jehovah. It was an evil thing that they should turn from Jehovah to seek aid from human strength.
Other questions are raised in Jer 2:20-25 . He says, Jer 2:21-22 : “I planted thee a noble vine, wholly a right seed: how then art thou turned into the degenerate branches of a foreign vine?” That reminds one of Isa 5 . Here he is saying that they were bad to the heart: “Though thou wash thee with soap, with lye, yet is thine iniquity marked,” or ingrained, “before me.” In Jer 2:23-25 we see Israel trying to condone her sin. She has tried to make out that she has not done wickedly. Now can you say you have not been faithless? You are like the wild ass in the wilderness, snuffing up the wind in her desire who can turn her away? They, like an animal, were running hither and thither, wild with passion, raving with desire for other gods, crazed with eagerness for idolatry. It is not a very elegant figure, but a highly suggestive one.
Then the question of Jer 2:26-28 is, Why don’t you go to your idols in the time of trouble? As a thief is ashamed when found out, so is the house of Israel; priests, princes, and king, that say to a stock, Thou art my father; and to a stone, Thou art my mother. Now why do you come to me in trouble? Why don’t you let your gods help you? This passage tingles with sarcasm. It is a very striking arraignment, showing the helplessness of heathenism.
In Jer 2:22 he presents the impossibility of improving the internal nature by external applications. This is true because:
1. Of the nature of the operation. Wash and paint are applied only to the external.
2. They do not affect the diseased will.
3. They do not free one from fascinating and enslaving pleasure.
4. They do not affect a morbid appetite which increases with indulgence.
5. They have no power to break habit.
6. They cannot remove the blindness of the understanding.
7. They cannot purify a drugged conscience.
If this be true then why should we preach? Because:
1. There is a law that condemns and a gospel that liberates from the bondage of the law;
2. The only hope of a change lies in driving one from the conviction that he can change himself.
The following poem contains the whole story: O Endless Misery I labor still, but still in vain; The stains of sin I see Are woaded all, or dyed in grain, There’s not a blot will stir a jot, For all that I can do; There is no hope in fuller’s soap Though I add nitre, too. I many ways have tried; Have often soaked it in cold fears; And when a time I spied, Poured upon it scalding tears; Have rinsed and rubbed and scraped and scrubbed And turned it up and down; Yet can I not wash out one spot; It’s rather fouler grown. Can there no help be had? Lord, thou art holy, thou art pure: Mine heart is not so bad, So foul, but thou canst cleanse it sure; Speak, blessed Lord; wilt thou afford Me means to make it clean? I know thou wilt; thy blood was spilt; Should it run still in vain?
A sinner released from hell would repeat his sins.
There are yet other questions propounded in Jer 2:29-37 : Why do you plead with me when all the while you transgress against me? I have smitten you; I have smitten your children but they are incorrigible; they will not be corrected. You have killed the prophets that were sent unto you. Why then will you still plead with me? Why do you have anything to do with me? Go after those gods that you have made for yourselves.
Jer 2:31 : “O generation . . . have I been a wilderness unto Israel, or a land of thick darkness?” Now that is a question full of suggestion. You have turned away from me. Is it because my religion and my services have been like living in a wilderness where there is no light, no love, no joy, no food? Have I never been a blessing? Is that the reason you have left me? How suggestive! Many people think the services of God are like a wilderness. O Backslider, have God and his services been as a wilderness to you, that you have strayed away? You have not been a faithful bride. “Can a virgin forget her ornaments, or a bride her attire? Yet my people have forgotten me, days without number. How trimmest thou thy way to seek love!” Just like a married woman fixing up to make love to a man that is not her husband. See her as she adorns herself to look attractive that she may win favor of strange men. Now that is the picture here. “Why gaddest thou about?” This is the only place in the Bible where that word, “gad,” occurs.
Jehovah shows his love and faithfulness to Israel in spite of her sins (Jer 3:1-5 ). Though Judah has been faithless, there is a prospect of a better future for her: If a man put away his wife, can she return to him? No, “Yet return again to me, saith Jehovah.” I will take you back in spite of all. See what you have been doing; you have been like a watcher in the wilderness, watching for false gods and religions to come along that you might adopt them. They have betrayed you. “Wilt thou not now cry unto me, My father, thou art the guide of my youth?”
A special lesson by Jehovah is given to Judah (Jer 3:6-18 ). This is a contrast, unfavorable to Judah (Jer 3:6-10 ). Judah had taken no warning from the downfall of the Northern Kingdom. Notice especially Jer 3:10 : “And yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah hath not returned unto me with her whole heart, but feignedly, saith Jehovah.” Now that gives us some idea of the opinion of Jeremiah in relation to Josiah, the great king, in his work of reform. Josiah had touched only the outside of the matter. Judah was no better than Northern Israel, but rather worse. Her improvement was only feigned.
Note the comparison in Jer 3:11-13 . The promise was to Northern Israel first. In that promise was blessing on condition of return. Jer 3:12 : “Go, and proclaim these words toward the north. . . . I will not look in anger upon you; for I am merciful, saith Jehovah.” These blessings are going to come when Judah repents, Jer 3:18 : “In those days the house of Judah shall walk with the house of Israel, and they shall come together out of the land of the north to the land that I gave for an inheritance unto your fathers.” Observe that the blessing is to come when Judah and Israel walk together; when they are united again. By that statement he shows that Northern Israel was not more steeped in iniquity than Southern Israel. The Messiah’s advent is coming and Judah will come in with Israel.
Jehovah holds out hope of Judah in Jer 3:19-22 : “But I said, How I will put thee among the children, and give thee a pleasant land. . . . Ye shall call me My Father, and shall not turn away from following me. Surely as a wife treacherously departeth from her husband, so have ye dealt treacherously with me, saith the Lord. . . . Return, ye backsliding children, I will heal your backslidings.”
The prophet bases his hope for Israel on the fact that the perverted nation shall confess its sin Jer 3:23-25 , especially Jer 3:24 : “The shameful thing [the thing ye have been worshiping, Baal] hath devoured the labor of our fathers. . . . for we have sinned against Jehovah our God, we and our fathers.” Now that is a great confession. The prophet presumes to speak for the people by way of prediction that they will do this someday. He still has hope for Israel.
Jehovah makes a proposition to Israel in Jer 4:1-4 , that he will bless them if they will return: “If thou wilt return to me, and if thou wilt put away thine abominations out of my sight; then shalt thou not be removed.” But the change must be thorough (Jer 4:3-4 ) a very suggestive passage: “Thus saith Jehovah to the men of Judah and Jerusalem, Break up your fallow ground.” Finney, in his great book on revivals, has several sermons on this text. He says that every revival of religion ought to begin with preaching on this text. The fallow ground must be broken up. “Fallow ground” stands for two things: First, undeveloped possibilities; and, second, unused powers. The ground must be both broken up and sown with right kind of seed. “Sow not among thorns.” Every revival of religion has that object in view. Put the weeds and briers out and put the unused talents and powers to work. Sow the seed of righteousness and benevolence where the weeds of sin and waywardness have been. If we are going to be Christians, let us be wholehearted ones. Break up the fallow ground by putting sin out and service in. All this means that the change must be complete.
The following is a digest of the coming judgment of Jer 4:5-6:30 . In this description of the coming judgment he pictures it as advancing from the North. He had in mind the coming Babylonian invasion. Note these items:
1. They are told to get themselves to the fortified cities, Jer 4:5-10 : “Blow ye the trumpet in the land: cry aloud and say, Assemble yourselves, and let us go into the fortified cities. . . . flee for safety, stay not; for I will bring evil from the north.”
2. It is coming even to Jerusalem herself (Jer 4:11-18 ). Jeremiah now speaks of the invasion as a hot, withering blast from the desert. He sees the foe coming as a swift cloud; the watchers are at hand; he hears the snorting of their horses; he sees them enclose the cities.
3. The anguish of the prophet. Here we have the suffering of this magnificent patriot, Jer 4:19 : “My vitals, my vitals!”
4. The devastation is pictured Jer 4:23-26 : “The earth was waste and void.” The same expression is used in Genesis (Jer 1:2 ). The heavens had no light. The mountains trembled, the cities were broken down. The whole land was devastated. All this is a vision of the destruction to come.
5. The destruction is almost complete (Jer 4:27-31 ). Notice verse Jer 4:27 : “I will not make a full end.” There is a remnant to be left, the root, the stock, not the entire people. It is not to be utter destruction.
6. This is merited, for all are corrupt (Jer 5:1-9 ). Here is a striking statement: “Run to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and see if you can find a man, if there be any that doeth justly.” He means to say, You cannot find a true man in the whole city. There was not one manly man in Jerusalem. This reminds us of Diogenes, going through the streets of Athens with a lantern looking for a man. In Sodom there were not to be found ten righteous men, only one, and he was a poor specimen. So it is here in Jerusalem. All are corrupt. Verse Jer 4:5 : “I will get me unto the great men,” the leaders. But he finds that they were corrupt, too.
7. Jer 4:10-19 is a picture of the disaster. They are not to make a full end, but disaster is to come, Jer 5:16-17 : “Their quiver is an open sepulchre, . . . they shall eat up thy harvest, and thy bread, which thy sons and thy daughters should eat; . . . they shall eat up thy vines and thy fig-trees; they shall beat down thy city.” But remember they shall not make a full end. There shall be a remnant. The cause of all this is the corruption of the people (Jer 4:20-29 ). Both people and prophets are evil. He repeats these warnings and messages over and over again. He describes the moral condition of the people. A wonderful and horrible thing is come to pass in the land, Jer 5:30-31 : “The prophets prophesy falsely.” The preachers are deceiving the people. And the worst thing about it is that the people like to have it so.
8. The foe is still nearer. The capital is invested and must be prepared, for the enemy plans to storm it; another vivid picture, Jer 6:1-8 : “Flee for safety, ye men of Jerusalem.” Flee to Tekoa, flee to the wilderness, for evil is coming from the north. A great destruction is coming. Thus he goes on with his awful picture of the destruction hastening upon the city. The enemy says, We will take it by storm, at full noon; no, it is past noon; the shadows begin to decline; let us go up at night; let us take it by a night attack.
9. The doom is certain and fixed (Jer 4:9-21 ). Note Jer 4:14 : “They have slightly healed the hurt of my people, saying, Peace, peace; where there is no peace.” We are indebted to Jeremiah for that oft-quoted sentence. It is classic. Spurgeon preached a great sermon on that passage. His theme was a blast against false peace. Jer 4:16 : “Stand ye in the way and see, and ask for the old paths.” There has been many a sermon preached from that text, on the subject, “The Old Paths.”
10. In Jer 4:22-26 is a full description of the enemy. Note the minuteness of it, Jer 4:23 : “They have no mercy; their voice roareth like the sea; they ride upon horses; they are against the daughter of Zion.”
11. There is another picture of the nation. In Jer 6:28-30 : “They are as grievous revolters.” “Going about with slanders, they are brass and iron. . . . They are refuse silver, fit only to be thrown out in the street. As silver amalgamates with other metals and loses its value, so these people by amalgamated religion become refuse to be tossed aside into the dump pile of rubbish. This is a magnificent passage. It sums up what Jeremiah preached and taught for eighteen years.
QUESTIONS
1. When were these prophecies uttered and what the conditions under which they were spoken?
2. What is the subject matter of these chapters and what the general content?
3. What is the subject of Jer 2 and to whom addressed?
4. What is the picture of Jer 2:1-3 ?
5. What, in general, Israel’s history after the first love, what question raised in Jer 2:4-8 , and what the charge here brought against the leaders?
6. What question is raised in Jer 2:9-13 , what two sins charged against Israel and how illustrated?
7. What are the questions of Jer 2:14-19 and what their application?
8. What tare he other questions raised in Jer 2:20-25 , and what the application of each, respectively?
9. What is the question of Jer 2:26-28 and what its application?
10. What is the import of Jer 2:22 ?
11. If this be true, then why should we preach?
12. Can you recite from memory the poem based on Jer 2:22 ?
13. What are the questions propounded in Jer 2:29-37 and what are their application?
14. How does Jehovah show his love and faithfulness to Israel in spite of her sins (Jer 3:1-5 )?
15. What special lesson by Jehovah is given to Judah and what the result?
16. What hope does Jehovah hold out to Judah in Jer 3:19-22 ?
17. On what does the prophet base his hope for Israel and how is it signified?
18. What proposition does Jehovah make to Israel in Jer 4:1-4 and of what homiletic value is this section?
19. Give a digest of the coming judgment of Jer 4:5-6:30 .
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
Jer 6:1 O ye children of Benjamin, gather yourselves to flee out of the midst of Jerusalem, and blow the trumpet in Tekoa, and set up a sign of fire in Bethhaccerem: for evil appeareth out of the north, and great destruction.
Ver. 1. O ye children of Benjamin. ] These were the prophet’s countrymen, for Anathoth was in that tribe; so was also part of Jerusalem itself. He forwarneth them of the enemy’s approach, and bids them begone. The Benjamites were noted for valiant, but vicious. Jdg 19:16 ; Jdg 19:22-25 Hos 9:9 ; Hos 10:9
And blow the trumpet in Tekoah.
Set up a sign of fire.
a Life of Edward VI, by Sir F. Heywood.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Jeremiah Chapter 6
Jer 6
Fuente: William Kelly Major Works (New Testament)
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Jer 6:1-8
1Flee for safety, O sons of Benjamin,
From the midst of Jerusalem!
Now blow a trumpet in Tekoa
And raise a signal over Beth-haccerem;
For evil looks down from the north,
And a great destruction.
2The comely and dainty one, the daughter of Zion, I will cut off.
3Shepherds and their flocks will come to her,
They will pitch their tents around her,
They will pasture each in his place.
4Prepare war against her;
Arise, and let us attack at noon.
Woe to us, for the day declines,
For the shadows of the evening lengthen!
5Arise, and let us attack by night
And destroy her palaces!
6For thus says the LORD of hosts,
Cut down her trees
And cast up a siege against Jerusalem.
This is the city to be punished,
In whose midst there is only oppression.
7As a well keeps its waters fresh,
So she keeps fresh her wickedness.
Violence and destruction are heard in her;
Sickness and wounds are ever before Me.
8Be warned, O Jerusalem,
Or I shall be alienated from you,
And make you a desolation,
A land not inhabited.
Jer 6:1 Flee for safety Usually the ancients fled to their fortified cities for protection (cf. Jer 4:6, same VERB, same form). But here they are told to flee the walled city of Jerusalem.
sons of Benjamin This was Jeremiah’s tribe. Jerusalem was very close to the territory of Benjamin, or in it (cf. Jos 15:8; Jos 15:63; Jos 18:16; Jdg 1:21). Therefore, this is a literary way of addressing all the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
blow. . .Tekoa This is a play on the Hebrew words (blow, – , cf. Jer 4:5; Tekoa – ) which have the same consonants (also note , alienated is from the same root). Tekoa was a city south of Jerusalem.
raise a signal This refers to a fire signal (cf. Lachish Ostraca, cf. Jdg 20:38; Jdg 20:40), as the line above refers to an audible signal.
Beth-haccerem This means house of a vineyard (BDB 108 CONSTRUCT 501, cf. Neh 3:14). This city was southwest of Jerusalem.
evil looks down from the north Invaders from Mesopotamia had to follow the Euphrates to its head waters and then go south because of the desert east of Palestine. Here the invading army is personified as evil looks.
Jer 6:2
NASBThe comely and dainty one, the daughter of Zion, I will cut off
NKJVI have likened the daughter of Zion to a lovely and delicate woman
NRSVBeautiful, delicate as she is, I shall destroy the daughter of Zion
NJBI have likened the daughter of Zion to the loveliest pasture
LXXYour loftiness, O daughter of Zion, shall be removed
JPSOAFair Zion, the lovely and delicate, I will destroy
There are three descriptive terms.
1. comely – BDB 610
a. ADJECTIVE – Son 1:5; Son 2:14; Son 6:4
b. VERB (Piel) – Isa 52:7; Son 1:10
2. delicately bred – BDB 772, KB 851, Pual PARTICIPLE (only here)
3. daughter of Zion – common descriptive family phrase
See a good note on this difficult phrase in UBS Handbook, p. 180. The Tyndale commentary by R. K. Harrison takes the phrase as a question, Have I compared you to a pleasant pasture? (p. 80), like NJB.
Jer 6:2 Shepherds This is a title used of God (i.e., Psalms 23) and the leaders of God’s people (cf. Jer 2:8; Jer 3:15). Here it is a metaphor of the invaders who
1. surround the city
2. take over the surrounding lands
Jer 6:4-5 These are
1. the words of the invaders! They will attack again and again because of the command of YHWH (cf. Jer 6:6).
2. the words of the leaders of Jerusalem and Judah (which does not fit Jer 6:5, line 2).
Jer 6:4 Woe to us, for the day declines This expresses the desire of the invaders to attack by daylight, but even if it is night, they will continue the attack!
at noon. . .at night The enemy is so fierce that they attack even at unusual times.
Jer 6:5 palaces This is fortified towers or citadels (BDB 74, cf. Jer 17:27; Jer 49:27).
Jer 6:6 cut down her trees In Deu 20:19-20, trees were used to build siege instruments, ramps, firewood, etc., for invading armies. Also the destruction of all of the fruit trees is an idiom of total, complete desolation!
This is the city to be punished The UBS Text Project suggests a meaning to this Hebrew phrase, this is the city which has been investigated (p. 191). The VERB (BDB 823) in Hophal (BDB 824, #1) means to visit for either blessing or cursing. Here it is visitation by YHWH for the just destruction of an evil, idolatrous, unrepentant capital city (i.e., Jerusalem).
In whose midst there is only oppression See Jer 22:17.
Jer 6:7 Jerusalem is compared to a constantly flowing well. As UBS Handbook points out, the interpretive issue is, Does the VERB of line 1:
1. fresh – (lit. cold, cf NET Bible) reflect a moral indifference?
2. gushing/bubbling (JPSOA, flows) fit the context best (NIV)?
Number 2 fits the context best. Jerusalem is constantly evil!
Violence and destruction are heard in her Her violence (BDB 949) and destruction (BDB 994) were constant! YHWH knew this! He describes their sin as sickness and wounds (cf. Jer 30:12-13; Isa 1:5-6).
As sickness is used as a metaphor of sin, so healing is used as a metaphor for forgiveness. Notice the poetic parallelism of Psa 103:3.
Sickness and wounds This could refer to
1. the sin of Jerusalem (i.e., NIV, cf. Isa 1:4-5)
2. the evil of the leaders against the poor and powerless (cf. Jer 6:13)
are ever before Me YHWH knows what is happening, especially with the covenant people who are His instrument of revelation and salvation to a lost, ignorant world (see Special Topic at Jer 1:5). If they do not live out the covenant revelation of YHWH, then the world does not know Him! The same is now true for the Church.
Jer 6:8 Be warned This is literally accept for yourself discipline (BDB 415, KB 418, Niphal IMPERATIVE).
Or I shall be alienated from you This is literally torn away (BDB 429, KB 431, Qal IMPERFECT). It is the worst possible happening. This possibility may be alluded to in Jer. Jer 6:4, line 1, prepare, NASB, which is literally sanctify (BDB 872, KB 1073, Piel IMPERATIVE, which was a Holy War term. It was used to address the invaders in Jer 6:6, but here Judah hopes YHWH will be on her side!
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
children = sons.
Benjamin. Put by Figure of speech Synecdoche (of the Part), for the whole of Judah, on account of their close connection with the Gibeathites (Jdg 19:16. Hos 9:9; Hos 10:9).
flee out. In Jer 4:6 it was “flee to”. Now Jerusalem itself is to be taken.
blow . . . Tekoa. Figure of speech Paronomasia (App-6), for emphasis. Hebrew. bithko’ah . . . tik’u.
Tekoa. Now Khan Teku’a, five miles south of Bethlehem, ten from Jerusalem.
a sign of Are = a fire-signal.
Beth-haccerem = house of the vineyards. Not identified. Conder suggests such a house at ‘Ain Karim.
evil. Hebrew. ra’a’. App-44.
north. Because the armies from Assyria entered the land from the north. See note on Jer 3:12.
destruction = fracture, or damage, as in Jer 6:14.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Chapter 5
Run to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now, and know, and seek in the broad places, if you can find a man, if there be any that is executing judgment, and that is seeking truth; and I will pardon it ( Jer 5:1 ).
If you can find one man. You remember when the angels were going down to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, Abraham said, “Hey, Lord, shall not the God of the earth be fair? Would you destroy the righteous with the people? What if there are fifty righteous people in that city?” The Lord said, “I’ll spare for fifty righteous.” “Well, Lord, what if there’s forty? What if there’s thirty? What if there’s twenty? What if there’s ten?” Lord said, “I’ll spare for ten.” Now God is saying of Jerusalem, “Just search. Search through the whole city. Find one man, one man that is seeking to execute judgment, that is seeking the truth.”
And though they say, The LORD liveth; they swear falsely ( Jer 5:2 ).
People were still mouthing the right words, but it wasn’t coming from their hearts. “The Lord liveth,” a popular phrase in those days. “Oh, the Lord liveth.”
You remember when Elisha healed Naaman of his leprosy, the Syrian general, and he tried to give Naaman a lot of reward. A lot of silver and changes of clothes and so forth because he was healed. And Elisha said, “Aw, keep your stuff. I don’t want any of it. I don’t need it. You keep it.” Well, Gehazi, the servant of Elisha, saw all the loot. He thought, “Oh man, if I could have just a little bit of that, I could buy a field and I could plant a vineyard and I could have servants and I could plant some olive trees. Man, I could retire. That would be nice.” So as Naaman was going back, he got on his little donkey and he headed out after him. And they said to Naaman, “Hey, looks like someone’s chasing us.” They said, “Let’s stop and see who it is. It looks like the servant of the prophet.” And so as old Gehazi came up on his little donkey, he said, “Everything okay?” “Oh yeah, everything’s okay, except that my master Elisha had some sudden company come in, some young men and they needed some help. So he said he’ll take just a little bit of your silver and a few changes of garments and so forth.” So Naaman gladly gave him the stuff and he got back and his donkey went back and he hid all this stuff. Came whistling in, you know, and the prophet said, “As the Lord liveth.” You see it was a common term, spiritual term-it signified that you had it going spiritually. “As the Lord liveth, where have you been?” “As the Lord liveth, I haven’t been anywhere.” You see, all of the deceit and lying, but he was couching it in spiritual terms in order to sort of deceive.
And I’m afraid that many times people do couch themselves in spiritual terms for the purpose of deceiving. “Right on, brother! Praise the Lord! Bless God, man,” you know. And we use this spiritual jargon to deceive, and so Gehazi, “As the Lord liveth, I didn’t go anywhere.” “Wait a minute,” and then the prophet began to read his mind. “Is this the time to buy fields and to plant vineyards and olive trees and to hire servants?” That’s just what he was thinking, you see. He said, “Did not my heart go with you when you chased after that man and took those things? And now because of that, the leprosy that was upon him is going to come upon you.” And the guy turned white with leprosy and went out from the sight of the prophet. But yet he was using the spiritual. And God says, “Hey, they used the term, ‘As the Lord liveth’, but in that day, though they say, ‘The Lord liveth,’ surely they swear falsely.”
Jeremiah responds,
O LORD, are not thine eyes upon the truth? you have stricken them, but they have not grieved; you have consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction: they have made their faces harder than a rock; they have refused to return. Therefore I said, Surely these are poor; they are foolish: for they know not the way of the LORD, nor the judgment of their God. I will get me unto the great men, and will speak unto them; for they have known the way of the LORD, and the judgment of their God: but these have altogether broken the yoke, and burst the bonds. Wherefore a lion out of the forest shall slay them, and a wolf of the evenings shall spoil them, a leopard shall watch over their cities: every one that goeth out there shall be torn in pieces: because their transgressions are many, and their backsliding is increased. How shall I pardon thee for this? [God cries] thy children have forsaken me, and sworn by them that are no gods: when I had fed them to the full, they then committed adultery, and assembled themselves by troops in the harlots’ houses. They were as fed horses in the morning: every one was neighing after his neighbor’s wife. Shall I not visit for these things? saith the LORD: and shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this? Go ye up upon her walls, and destroy; but make not a full end: take away her battlements; for they are not the LORD’S. For the house of Israel and the house of Judah have dealt very treacherously against me, saith the LORD. They have belied the LORD, and said, It is not he; neither shall evil come upon us; neither shall we see the sword nor famine ( Jer 5:3-12 ):
And it won’t happen here.
And the prophets shall become wind, and the word is not in them. Wherefore thus saith the LORD God of hosts, Because ye speak this word, behold, I will make my words in thy mouth fire, and this people wood, and it shall devour them. Lo, I will bring a nation upon you from far, O house of Israel, saith the LORD: it is a mighty nation, it is an ancient nation, a nation whose language you do not know, neither understand what they say. Their quiver is as an open sepulchre, they are all mighty men. And they shall eat up your harvest, and your bread, which your sons and daughters should be eating: they shall eat up your flocks and your herds: they shall eat up your vines and your figs: and they shall impoverish your cities, wherein you have trusted, with the sword. Nevertheless in those days, saith the LORD, I will not make a full end with you ( Jer 5:13-18 ).
God promises He’s not going to cut the people off completely.
For it shall come to pass, when you will say, Wherefore doeth the LORD our God all these things against us? then shall you answer them, Like as you have forsaken me, and served strange gods in your land, so shall ye serve strangers in a land that is not yours. Declare this in the house of Jacob, and publish it in Judah, saying, Hear now this, O foolish people, you that are without understanding; which have eyes, but you see not; which have ears, but you hear not: Do you not fear me? saith the LORD: will you not tremble at my presence, for I have placed the sand for the boundaries of the sea by a perpetual decree, that it cannot pass over it: and though the waves thereof toss themselves against it, and they roar, they can not prevail. But this people has revolted and a rebellious heart; they are revolted and gone away. Neither say any of them in their heart, Let us now reverence the LORD our God, who gives us the rain, both the former and the latter, in his season: he reserveth unto us the appointed weeks of the harvest. Your iniquities have turned away these things, and your sins have withheld good things from you ( Jer 5:19-25 ).
Oh, the good things that God wants to do for you but He is hindered because of your sins. Jude says, “Keep yourself in the love of God” ( Jud 1:21 ). What does he mean? He means to keep yourself in the place where God can do all of the good things He wants to do for you because He loves you. It doesn’t mean keep yourself so sweet and beautiful that God can’t help but love you. Because God’s love for you is uncaused. It’s in His nature. God loves you good or bad. That’s just God’s nature. But because God loves you He wants to bless you. He wants to do good things for you. But as with Judah, your sins have withheld the good things from you. Those good things God wants to do for you.
For among my people are found wicked men: they lay wait, as he that sets a trap; and they set a trap for men to catch then. As a cage is full of birds, so are the houses full of deceit: therefore they are become great, and they have become very rich. They have become fat, they shine: they overpass the deeds of the wicked: they judge not the cause, the cause of the fatherless, and yet they prosper; and the right of the needy they do not take care of. Shall I not visit for these things? saith the LORD: shall not my soul be avenged on a nation like this? A [awesome] wonderful and horrible thing is committed in the land ( Jer 5:26-30 );
Wonderful in the sense that it causes wonder and amazement. “An amazing and horrible thing is committed in the land.”
For the prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests are bearing rule by their wealth; and my people love to have it that way: and what will you do in the end of such things? ( Jer 5:31 )
You see, there’s corruption. Those that are ruling are ruling corruptly. But the people love it that way. They’ll vote for them at the next election. Every election amazes me. When I see the people that are elected into office, those kind of things absolutely. Well, as God said, you can’t believe it. It’s awesome; it’s horrible. The priests are bearing rule by their own wealth, but the people love to have it that way. Rather than being shocked and arising in righteous indignation, people just seem to go along with it and love to have it that way. I can’t understand it. And God Himself couldn’t understand it. God speaks of it. It’s just, how can you believe it? How can you understand it? It’s just horrible.
But as we read Jeremiah, the real value of Jeremiah comes as you see a nation that is about to die and you observe the symptoms of that nation and the disease that has brought its death. And it will help you to understand very much as you look at the nation in which we live today and what’s happening.
Shall we pray.
Lord, help us that we shall not go the way of the world. God, that we would stand for righteousness, for truth, for justice. Oh God, help us that we would not turn away from Thee or that we would draw away from Thee in any wise to worship our own idols and the things of our flesh. But O God, may Thy love fill our hearts that our songs might be unto Thee day by day. That we will be praising Thee and worshipping You and thinking about You, Lord, through the day as our love for Thee increases and grows. Help us, Lord, not to wane in our devotion. Help us, Lord, that our love will not grow cold. Keep us from that lukewarm state lest You spew us out of Your mouth. In Jesus’ name, Lord. Amen.
May the Lord bless and give you a beautiful week. May His hand be upon your life and may the flame of love really begin to burn in your hearts towards God, that this will be a week in which you’re really in tune, in harmony with Him. And that love and commitment is restored and it’s just a glorious week of thinking of Him, worshipping Him, serving Him, loving Him. May God be pleased with you by your commitment and devotion to Him. In Jesus’ name. “
Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary
Jer 6:1
Jer 6:1-2
DESTRUCTION FROM THE NORTH;
THE SIEGE OF JERUSALEM;
DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM
A number of such titles as the ones cited here are assigned to this chapter by various authors. There is very little in the chapter that requires any extensive research; and we shall depart from our usual procedure by giving our own paraphrase of this tragic prophecy.
True to the pattern throughout Jeremiah, the three subjects treated here, namely, (1) a description of the tragic fate of the city, (2) the character and identification of the instrument (the destroyer) God would use in the execution of his judgment against the city, and (3) a summary of the reasons why God judged Jerusalem and Judah to be worthy of the penalty about to fall upon them, Jeremiah jumbled all of these topics together. In our paraphrase, we shall reorganize them topically.
THE AWFUL FATE TO BEFALL JUDAH AND JERUSALEM
The daughter of Zion (a poetic name for Jerusalem) shall be cut off (Jer 6:2); she shall be encircled with tents (Jer 6:3); the lengthening shadows mark the closing of the Day of God’s Favor upon racial Israel (Jer 6:4); her palaces shall be destroyed (Jer 6:5); the military shall cast up a mound against her (Jer 6:6); she shall be uninhabited, a desolation (Jer 6:8); the vine of Israel shall be stripped and gleaned (Jer 6:9); the wrath of God shall be poured out upon her children, the young men, the husbands and wives, and even upon all the old people (Jer 6:11); the houses, fields, and wives of the people shall be taken away from them and given to the invaders (Jer 6:12); the nation shall fall; it shall be cast down (Jer 6:25); God will bring evil upon her people (Jer 6:19); God will place stumblingblocks in their way; fathers and sons, friends and neighbors shall perish (Jer 6:21); the power of the defenders shall be feeble, and anguish shall overwhelm them (Jer 6:24); the people will fear to go outside, for the sword of the enemy will be everywhere (Jer 6:25); they shall clothe themselves in sackcloth and ashes, mourning as for an only son; destruction shall descend suddenly upon them (Jer 6:26).
CHARACTER AND IDENTITY OF INVADERS
This had been accomplished already by the specifics Jeremiah gave in the preceding chapter, which made it certain that God’s instrument in the fall of Jerusalem and the deportation of the people was to be Babylon; but some of the same clues are mentioned again.
It will be a military destruction from the north with tents, military equipment, trumpets, etc. (Jer 6:1; Jer 6:4; Jer 6:17, and Jer 6:22); the result shall be accomplished by a siege, as indicated by the tents and the mound against the city, earmarks of an all-out war (Jer 6:4); the great nation from the north will have skilled bowmen, cruel, merciless horsemen who shall bring death to thousands (Jer 6:23); their approach to Jerusalem shall be like the roaring sea-surge of a mighty hurricane (Jer 6:23); the merciless swords of the enemy, lurking everywhere, shall spare no one (Jer 6:25); they will strike suddenly (Jer 6:16), as already indicated in Jeremiah 5 by the comparison with the leopard, the swiftest of animals; they shall burn Israel as a refiner burns metal to remove the dross; only Israel is all dross (Jer 6:30).
WHY PUNISHMENT OF ISRAEL WAS REQUIRED
God made it perfectly clear why it was required by the Divine justice that punishment and destruction were to be meted out to racial Israel. Jerusalem was producing nothing but wickedness, violence, and oppression (Jer 6:7); they would not hear the Word of God (Jer 6:10); they hated the word of God (Jer 6:10); all of them were covetous and dealt falsely (Jer 6:13); they loved their false prophets who cried, Peace, peace, when there was no peace (Jer 6:14); they refused to be ashamed of their sins (Jer 6:15); they declared, “We will not listen to God” (Jer 6:17); their thoughts were evil, and as for God’s Law, they rejected it (Jer 6:19); their hypocritical and insincere offerings were not acceptable to God (Jer 6:21); Israel had become a nation of grievous revolters, all of them habitual slanderers, and dealing falsely (Jer 6:28); after God had repeatedly pleaded with and corrected his people, and after the exercise of near-infinite patience, and after it was perfectly clear that Israel had no intention of returning to God or in any sense mending their ways, God finally summarily rejected them and consigned their nation to destruction and captivity (Jer 6:30).
Jer 6:1-2
We shall now examine the text of this chapter.
“Flee for safety, ye children of Benjamin, out of the midst of Jerusalem. and blow the trumpet in Tekoa, and raise up a signal on Beth-haccherem; for evil looketh forth from the north, and a great destruction. The comely and the delicate one, the daughter of Zion, will I cut off.”
“Ye children of Benjamin …” (Jer 6:1). “The reason that Benjamin is mentioned here is that Jerusalem geographically belonged to the territory of Benjamin.
“Out of the midst of Jerusalem …” (Jer 6:1). In Jer 4:6, the people were warned to flee “to Jerusalem”; but here, they are warned to get out of Jerusalem. The capital of Judah is doomed to destruction. “The capital being doomed, and the destruction coming from the north, the only safety would have been toward the south. Also, it may be supposed that some sought the safety of the rugged mountains toward the Dead Sea.
“Tekoa… and Beth-haccherem …” (Jer 6:1) These towns in the vicinity of Jerusalem were mentioned to indicate the near approach of the enemy, Tekoa being “only ten or twelve miles south of Jerusalem, and Beth-haccherem being only “four and a half miles west of Jerusalem.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
This judgment the prophet now described. A fierce and relentless foe, acting under the word of Jehovah, is described as coming up against Jerusalem. The prophet declared that the city would be taken, and described the thoroughness of the judgment under the figure of gleaning. All ages would be affected, and the whole land as well as the city be involved.
Again he declared that the reason for this judgment was the complete corruption of the people, their false sense of security, and their utter lack of shame. He appealed to the past to bear witness, but they would not attend. He appealed directly to the present, and they would not hearken. Therefore the sentence was inevitable. Returning to what he had already said, he again announced the coming of the foe from the north and the suffering of the people which would follow.
This message concluded with an account of the word spoken to the prophet by Jehovah in order to strengthen him. His position among the people was like “a tower,” or, as the margin has it, “a trier,” that is, one who tested them, or ‘*a fortress.” His ministry would be fruitless, for the people were grievous revolters, and the ultimate verdict is declared to be that men would call them refuse silver because Jehovah had rejected them.
Fuente: An Exposition on the Whole Bible
To those entangled with religious corruption in our day the word is, “Let everyone that nameth the name of the Lord depart from iniquity” (2Ti 2:19). “Come out from among them, and be ye separate . . . touch not the unclean thing” (2Co 6:17). Later, to dwellers in the spiritual Babylon, the cry will go forth, “Come out of her, My people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues” (Rev 18:4).
The present is no time for temporizing.
He who has saved us, and is Lord of all, looks for clear-cut separation from all spiritual or ecclesiastical as well as carnal or fleshly evil, in sanctification to Himself. To Christendom as a whole, as to Judah then, there is little use to make appeals, nor does the Lord do it. “Their ear is uncircumcised, and they cannot hearken: behold, the word of the Lord is unto them a reproach; they have no delight in it” (Jer 6:10). So it has often been noted that after the days of Pergamos, in Revelation 2 and 3, the call is alone to the overcomer -not to the mass.
What made things all the more dreadful in Jeremiah’s time was the mockery of the false prophets, who stilled the fears of the guilty people and prophesied smooth things, thus turning aside the keen edge of the truth. Love of reward was at the bottom of their course. Can any be so charged today?
“From the least of them even unto the greatest of them every one is given to covetousness; and from the prophet even unto the priest everyone dealeth falsely. They have healed also the hurt of the daughter of My people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace” (Jer 6:13-14). So also in Ezekiel’s day (Eze 13:10-12), which was nearly contemporaneous with this.
But the truth rejected did not alter its character.
They would have to learn by judgment what they had no ears for by the word of the prophet. Meantime the call to any individual having a heart for GOD goes out; but there is no response.
“Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk therein. Also I set watchmen over you, saying, Hearken to the sound of the trumpet. But they said, We will not hearken” (Jer 6:16-17).
It is to “that which was from the beginning” (1Jn 1:1) GOD ever directs His people in times of failure. Man is continually running after something new, and thus away from GOD, for He is of old, from everlasting. Evolution there is none in the truth for the dispensation. It is always evil to turn from it. There is no restoration apart from turning back to it. There is no room for development outside the Book.
The message rejected, the nations are called on to acknowledge the justness of the Lord’s dealings with so rebellious a people (Jer 6:18-21), and the chapter closes with the judgment reaffirmed: “Reprobate silver shall men call them, because the Lord hath rejected them.” (Jer 6:30)
~ end of chapter 3 ~
Fuente: Commentaries on the New Testament and Prophets
Jer 6:16
I. We have in this text excellent general advice. Jeremiah says, “Stand and see and ask.” I take these words to be a call to thought and consideration. Now, to set men thinking is the great object which every teacher of religion should set before him. Serious thought is one of the first steps towards heaven.
II. We have here a particular direction. “Ask for the old paths.” The phrase meant the old paths of faith in which the fathers of Israel had walked for thirteen hundred years-the paths of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; the paths in which the rule of life was the Decalogue, and the rule of worship was that elaborate, typical, sacrificial system of which the essence was faith in a coming Redeemer. One chief medicine for the spiritual diseases of the nineteenth century is a bold and unhesitating inquiry for old paths, old doctrines, and the faith of the days that are past. Error, no doubt, is often very ancient; yet truth is always old. This age wants nothing new. What it wants is plain, distinct, unflinching teaching about the old paths. There has never been any spread of the Gospel, any conversion of nations or countries, any successful evangelistic work, except by the old-fashioned distinct doctrines of the early Christians and the Reformers.
III. Notice the precious promises with which our text concludes. “Walk in the old paths,” saith the Lord, “and ye shall find rest to your souls.” Rest for the labouring and heavy-laden is one of the chief promises which the Word of God offers to man, both in the Old Testament and the New. The rest that Christ gives in the “old paths” is no mere outward repose. It is rest of heart, rest of conscience, rest of mind, rest of affection, rest of will. Rest such as this the Lord Jesus gives to those who come to Him in the “old paths,” by showing them His own finished work on the Cross, by clothing them in His own perfect righteousness, and washing them in His own precious blood. Faith, simple faith, is the one thing needful in order to possess Christ’s rest.
Bishop Ryle, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxi., p. 200.
In what respect should we follow old times? Now here there is this obvious maxim: What God has given us from heaven cannot be improved; what man discovers for himself does admit of improvement; we follow old times, then, so far as God has spoken in them, but in those respects in which God has not spoken in them we are not bound to follow them.
I. The knowledge which God has not thought fit to reveal to us is (1) knowledge connected merely with this present world; (2) scientific knowledge.
II. The knowledge which God has given, and which does not admit of improvement by lapse of time, is religious knowledge. The inspired prophets of Israel are careful to prevent any kind of disrespect being shown to the memory of former times, on account of that increase of religious knowledge with which the later ages were favoured. As to the reverence enjoined and taught the Jews towards persons and times past, we may notice: (1) the commandment given them to honour and obey their parents and elders. (2) This duty was taught by such general injunctions (more or less express) as the text. (3) To bind them to the performance of this duty, the past was made the pledge of the future, hope was grounded upon memory; all prayer for favour sent them back to the old mercies of God. “The Lord hath been mindful of us; He will bless us”-this was the form of their humble expectation. (4) As Moses directed the eyes of his people towards the line of prophets which the Lord their God was to raise up from among them, ending in the Messiah, they in turn dutifully exalt Moses, whose system they were superseding. Our blessed Lord Himself sums up the whole subject, both the doctrine and the Jewish illustration of it, in His own authoritative words: “If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.
Plain Sermons by Contributors to “Tracts for the Times,” vol. v., p. 157; see also J. H. Newman, Parochial and Plain Sermons, vol. vii., p. 243.
References: Jer 6:16.-Plain Sermons by Contributors to “Tracts for the Times,” vol. x., pp. 307, 317; Spurgeon, My Sermon Notes: Ecclesiastes to Malachi, p. 273; G. Brooks, Outlines of Sermons’, p. 149; H. W. Beecher, Christian World Pulpit, vol. vii., p. 170. Jer 6:16, Jer 6:17.-Homiletic Magazine, vol. ix., p. 265. Jer 6:16-19.-W. Hay Aitken, Mission Sermons, vol. iii., p. 163. Jer 6:20.-Homiletic Magazine, vol. vii., p. 335. Jer 6:29.-Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xv., No. 890. Jer 7:5-7.-Preacher’s Monthly, vol. viii., p. 58.
Fuente: The Sermon Bible
CHAPTER 6
1. The call to the children of Benjamin (Jer 6:1-8)
2. Corruption and the deserved judgment (Jer 6:9-26)
3. The prophet addressed (Jer 6:27-30)
Jer 6:1-8. The children of Benjamin are exhorted to flee for safety on account of the evil from the north. There were probably among the Benjamites God-fearing men. Those who heeded the call fled and escaped. It is a warning message which follows: Be thou instructed, O Jerusalem, let my soul depart from thee; lest I make thee desolate, a land not inhabited. But they heeded it not.
Jer 6:9-26. They did not hear because they had uncircumcised ears, neither had they delight in the Word of the Lord. How true this is today of the great mass of professing Christians! The Lord will now no longer restrain His fury; He will pour it out upon them. Covetousness, the love of money, as it is in our day, was the controlling passion. Prophet and priest dealt falsely; their one message, like the one message of the prophet and priest today, was peace, peace, when there was no peace. Then once more the judgment from the north is announced (Jer 6:18-26) .
Jer 6:27-30. In the final paragraph of this chapter the Lord speaks intimately to the prophet. He is encouraged and strengthened. He is set as a tower and as a fortress. What a position of honor! May we consider it as we are as His believing people surrounded by the flood of apostasy; that we, too, are called to be a tower and fortress.
Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)
O ye: Jos 15:63, Jos 18:21-28, Jdg 1:21
gather: Jer 4:29, Jer 10:17, Jer 10:18
blow: Jer 4:5, Jer 4:6, Jer 4:19, Jer 4:20
Tekoa: 2Sa 14:2, 2Ch 11:6, Amo 1:1
Bethhaccerem: Neh 3:14
evil: Jer 6:22, Jer 1:14, Jer 1:15, Jer 4:6, Jer 10:22, Jer 25:9, Eze 26:7-21
Reciprocal: Num 10:9 – then ye shall 2Ch 20:20 – Tekoa Psa 74:4 – they set Jer 4:15 – a voice Jer 4:21 – shall I Jer 46:6 – toward Jer 46:14 – Stand Jer 49:8 – Flee Jer 51:27 – ye up Eze 1:4 – a whirlwind Eze 7:14 – have Eze 33:3 – he blow Hos 5:8 – Blow Hos 8:1 – the trumpet Amo 3:6 – a trumpet Zep 1:16 – day Zec 6:6 – the north Mat 24:16 – General Luk 21:21 – and let them
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Jer 6:1. The kingdom of Judah was composed of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin. The latter was one of the least and had its possession adjoining the former on the north. It is not commonly mentioned separately by the writers but does receive special notice in this verse. Gather yourselves to flee is a form of prediction that the people of that part of the kingdom were going to be taken away from their homes and from Jerusalem their capital city. Blow the trumpet is an allusion to the ancient practice of notifying the public that some move of importance was about to be made. Set up sign of fire was another practice for the same purpose (Jdg 20:38). The towns named were in the territory of Judali, but being near Jerusalem they were significantly mentioned in connection with the exile from the capital. Out of the north 1b explained by the historical quotation at Isa 14:31, Vol. 3 of this Commentary.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Jer 6:1. O ye children of Benjamin, &c. The prophet proceeds in his remonstrances, rebukes, and faithful warnings to the disobedient Jews. A great part of Jerusalem stood in the tribe of Benjamin, Jos 18:28; on which account, and because Jeremiah, being of Anathoth, was of that tribe, and probably lived therein, the inhabitants are here addressed by the name of the children of Benjamin, and are directed to leave the city, which God was about to destroy, and to take refuge in the mountains. Blow the trumpet in Tekoa One of those cities which Rehoboam built, 2Ch 11:6, twelve miles from Jerusalem. Set up a sign of fire A beacon; in Beth-haccerem A village between Tekoa and Jerusalem, built upon a mountain, situate in the way which led from Chaldea to Jerusalem. As the word signifies the house of the vineyard, it was probably at first some high tower, built among the vineyards, for the keepers of them to watch in, and that it afterward became a village of some note. The design of such signals of war as the prophet here mentions, is generally to assemble men together in order to their mutual defence; but, as he knew it was utterly in vain to attempt any thing of that kind, he seems only to have meant that by these means general notice should be given of the enemies approach, that the people might disperse, and escape from danger and destruction. For evil appeareth, &c. See note on Jer 1:14. Dr. Waterland reads this verse, Haste away the children of Benjamin out of, &c., and set up a signal in Beth-haccerem; for mischief threateneth out of the north.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Jer 6:1. Oh ye children of Benjaminflee out of the midst of Jerusalem. Many of this tribe lived in the city. Blow the trumpet [of alarm] in Tekoa, a village twelve miles from Jerusalem, according to Jerome. Kindle the beacon on Beth-haccerem; that is, the house of the vine; but tower is understood. It was a village, situate on one of the most conspicuous hills between Tekoa and Jerusalem. The prophet openly declared his ever- speaking vision; he would not have the blood of the city on his conscience.
Jer 6:2. I have likened the daughter of Zion to a comely woman, with meretricious ornaments. A similar comparison is made of Babylon by Isaiah, Isa 47:1; and helpless is her condition when the day of visitation comes, being equally unprepared for hardships or for war.
Jer 6:3. The shepherds with their flocks shall come upon her. The Assyrian kings with their armies shall prepare war against her, and surround the city with the lines of a siege. Isa 44:28.
Le premier des rois etait un heureux soldat.
Jer 6:4. Let us go up at noon. In hot climates this is a time of military repose; hence the expression marks the enemys eagerness to take the city. And the next verse, Let us go by night, the usual time of storming, is of like import.
Jer 6:6. Cast a mount. The original word signifies, a warlike engine used in sieges for casting stones or missiles, and which was placed upon a mount or eminence.
Jer 6:8. Be thou instructed, oh Jerusalem, lest my soul depart from thee. God speaks here by his prophet, with the sword of the Chaldeans in one hand, and the olive branch of peace in the other. Even to the last they might have been saved, if king Zedekiah would have obeyed Jeremiah, speaking from the mouth of the Lord, and gone out to the king of Babylon, and submitted to mercy. On the other hand, if God should depart, the sword of the invader would fall on their heads. Then their fields, their houses, and their wives should be given to others.
Jer 6:13. Every one is given to covetousness. The trumpet of jubilee had sounded indeed, but there was no land to be restored. The landed interest, taking advantage of poverty, and of all political changes, had wrested the lands of the poor into a perpetual possession. Woe to him that covets with an evil covetousness.
Jer 6:14. They have healed also the hurt of my people slightly. They have closed the wound by promises of peace, before it had suppurated. Ostervald reproaches Drelincourt for having, in his consolations against the fears of death, consoled before he sanctified. Isa 48:8.
Jer 6:16. Stand ye in the ways and see. Men who seek the truth must subdue evil propensities, and use the means of grace. They must ask of God in prayer, and of good men who have long walked in the ways of the Lord. They are encouraged to do so with the promises of peace of conscience, and repose in their country. Solomon, in his Ecclesiastes, after giving us the systems of the epicure, the stoick, the disgusted courtier, and the fool, concludes by saying, fear God and keep his commandments. The enquirer after truth should ask how the holy patriarchs walked, before and after the flood; and next how the apostates lived, after the pride of Babel. What was their character when they radiated from Asia as from a common centre; when they built strong cities for fear of their neighbours, as in Sodom, in Canaan, and in other places. We have their portrait drawn by St. Paul. Rom 1:20-32. Their passions made them like a troubled sea, in all the restless movements of strife and war.
Jer 6:17. I have set watchmen over you, as in Isaiah 58. l; and a succession of prophets who have sounded the alarm against the reigning vices of their age. Eze 3:17. The blame lay at their own door. Hos 9:13.
Jer 6:20. To what purpose comethincense from Sheba? Sheba formed part of Arabia Felix, and was celebrated for its incense and perfumes. See on Isa 1:13. The incense of worshippers in their sins is an abomination to the Lord. The sweet cane, the calamus aromaticus, is an ingredient often used in perfumes. Exo 30:23.
Jer 6:28. They are brass and iron. Their impudence resembles brass, and their obstinacy iron. GROTIUS.
Jer 6:29. The bellows are burnt, the lead is consumed of the fire. Not so indeed; the lead subsides by its superior gravity. Blaney relieves us a little here: the lead is entirely spent. If the ancients used lead in refining silver, the resources might be exhausted, as all arguments had failed in reforming Jerusalem. The difficulty yet remains. As the Hebrews had no word for quicksilver, but use ipereth both for lead and quicksilver, which their merchants brought from Spain, Eze 27:12, there can be no doubt but quicksilver is understood. It is contained in the ores of cinnabar, which abound in Spain, and is largely exported to refine the silver in Mexico. And as quicksilver readily combines with silver, and is evaporated in the fire, Jeremiah is correct in saying that the lead, that is, the quicksilver, is consumed in the fire. In our chemical laboratories, the fumes of quicksilver can be collected by a retort submerged in water.
REFLECTIONS.
This chapter associates with the preseding. Under the terrors of invasion, and of being treated not as a vanquished nation, but as rebels, the Lord calls them anew to repentance. Here we have, first, the base and degenerate state of the people. The daughter of Zion is compared to a fine but effeminate woman. The rulers had no resources in counsel, the priests had no influence with heaven, and the army had no courage to meet the enemy. So it is with bad men, and abandoned nations, when their day is come.
We have also the commission of the Chaldees to destroy the city. The Lord said, Prepare ye war against her: glean her as a vine. This shows that a nation cannot fall till it is first so determined in the court of heaven. The Jews had abused all their favours; therefore God would give their lands, their houses, and their wives to others.
They had attained to a pitch of depravity which extinguished modesty. They blushed not for their immodesty, but gloried in their shame; and no kind of wickedness is more provoking to God. They talked of their insults to religion, and of their daring immoralities, as subjects of adroitness and honour. Sad signs that the inhabitants of Zion resembled the inhabitants of hell; and we should be the more alarmed at it, if we had not in every town, circles of ungodly men in a similar situation.
We are more astonished at grace than at sin. Though Judah was thus most deeply depraved; yet God called them to repentance, and to accept of mercy. Be thou instructed, oh Jerusalem. Stand ye in the ways and see, and ask for the old paths. It is not the broad way that we are to seek, but the paths of a private humble walk with God, and with good men. Hence a national reform begins by sanctifying fear, by serious reflection, and by enquiring after the good way and worship of God.
We have next the contempt which Israel showed to the solemn charge of Almighty God. They said, we will not hearken; and again, we will not walk in the good and ancient way. Hence the Lord rejected the sweet incense of their sacrifice, and they were to him as base metal and as reprobate silver; for their apostasy was not the effect of error and ignorance, it was deliberate wickedness, and obstinate revolt. Hence refusing the cup of divine comfort, he resolved to drench them with the dregs and bitterness of their own crimes.
Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Jer 6:1-8. The Siege of the Sinful City.The prophet bids his kinsfolk (Anathoth, his birthplace, being in Benjamin) to abandon the capital, and to gather in the southern mountains; the northern peril is now nearer than ever, and the fair and luxurious city is to be destroyed. Her besiegers are around her, like shepherds with their flocks, ravaging the land. We hear the foe discussing their plansa surprise at noon when men are resting from the heat; then, when they lament the loss of this opportunity (Woe unto us!), a night attack. The trees around the city (Jer 6:6 mg.; cf. Deu 20:19-20) are cut down, and earthworks are thrown up as part of the enemys plan of attack. The city is visited, i.e. punished, because she keeps fresh (Jer 6:7 mg.) her wickedness, as a rock-cistern does its waters; let her be disciplined (Jer 2:30, Jer 5:3; for instructed) before Yahweh casts her off.
Jer 6:1. Tekoa: (p. 31, Amo 1:1) 10 miles S. of Jerusalem.Beth-haccerem: perhaps a height 3 miles NE. of Tekoa.
Jer 6:4 mg. refers to the sacrifices which began a campaign (pp. 99, 114); war and religion are in closest alliance amongst ancient peoples; cf. Deuteronomy 20.
Jer 6:7. The Rabbis found the middle letter of the OT in the word rendered cistern (Cornill).
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
6:1 O ye children of {a} Benjamin, gather yourselves to flee out of the midst of Jerusalem, and blow the trumpet in {b} Tekoa, and set up a sign of fire in {c} Bethhaccerem: for evil appeareth out of the north, and great destruction.
(a) He speaks to them chiefly because they should take heed by the example of their brethren the other half of their tribe, who were now carried away prisoners.
(b) Which was a city in Judah, six miles from Bethlehem, 2Ch 11:6 .
(c) Read Neh 3:14 .
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
The siege of Jerusalem predicted 6:1-8
"The striking feature of this chapter is its rapidity of movement leading to the gathering storm of invasion soon to engulf the capital and the land." [Note: Feinberg, p. 419.]
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
The Lord called the Benjamites, Jeremiah’s tribal kinsmen, to flee for safety from the coming invader from the north (cf. Jer 4:5-6). Jerusalem stood on the southern border of Benjamin. Benjamin’s tribal border was the Hinnom Valley, which was also the southern boundary of Jerusalem.
Tekoa, the prophet Amos’ birthplace (Amo 1:1), was a Judean town about 10 miles south of Jerusalem, and Beth-haccerem (lit. house of the vineyard) stood three miles south of Jerusalem. These representative villages needed to warn their inhabitants, with trumpets and signal fires, to flee in view of the destroyer’s advance toward Jerusalem. Tekoa, of all the northern Judean cities, may have been selected for literary reasons. In Hebrew its name, teqoa’, is very similar to the word translated "blow the trumpet," tiq’u. Beth-haccerem may have been chosen for the meaning of its name, since Jeremiah often referred to Judah as "Yahweh’s vineyard."
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
; Jer 5:1-31; Jer 6:1-30
CHAPTER IV
THE SCYTHIANS AS THE SCOURGE OF GOD
Jer 4:3 – Jer 6:30
IF we would understand what is written here and elsewhere in the pages of prophecy, two things would seem to be requisite. We must prepare ourselves with some knowledge of the circumstances of the time, and we must form some general conception of the ideas and aims of the inspired writer, both in themselves, and in their relation to passing events. Of the former, a partial and fragmentary knowledge may suffice, provided it be true so far as it goes; minuteness of detail is not necessary to general accuracy. Of the latter, a very full and complete conception may be gathered from a careful study of the prophetic discourses.
The chapters before us were obviously composed in the presence of a grave national danger; and what that danger was is not left uncertain, as the discourse proceeds. An invasion of the country appeared to be imminent; the rumour of approaching war had already made itself heard in the capital; and all classes were terror stricken at the tidings.
As usual in such times of peril, the country people were already abandoning the unwalled towns and villages, to seek refuge in the strong places of the land, and, above all, in Jerusalem, which was at once the capital and the principal fortress of the kingdom. The evil news had spread far and near; the trumpet signal of alarm was heard everywhere; the cry was, “Assemble yourselves, and let us go into the fenced cities!” {Jer 4:5}
The ground of this universal terror is thus declared: “The lion is gone up from his thicket, and the destroyer of nations is on his way, is gone forth from his place; to make thy land a desolation, that thy cities be laid waste, without inhabitant” (Jer 4:7). “A hot blast over the bare hills in the wilderness, on the road to the daughter of my people, not for winnowing, nor for cleansing; a full blast from those hills cometh at My beck” (Jer 4:11). “Lo, like clouds he cometh up, and, like the whirlwind, his chariots; swifter than vultures are his horses. Woe unto us! We are verily destroyed” (Jer 4:13). “Besiegers” {lit. “watchmen,” Isa 1:8} “are coming from the remotest land, and they utter their cry against the cities of Judah. Like keepers of a field become they against her on every side” (Jer 4:16-17). At the same time, the invasion is still only a matter of report; the blow has not yet fallen upon the trembling people. “Behold, I am about to bring upon you a nation from afar, O house of Israel, saith Iahvah; an inexhaustible nation it is, a nation of old time it is, a nation whose tongue thou knowest not, nor understandest (lit. hearest) what it speaketh. Its quiver is like an opened grave; they all are heroes. And it will eat up thine harvest and thy bread, which thy sons and thy daughters should eat; it will eat up thy flock and thine herd; it will eat up thy vine and thy fig tree; it will shatter thine embattled cities, wherein thou art trusting, with the sword.” {Jer 5:15-17} “Thus hath Iahvah said: Lo, a people cometh from a northern land, and a great nation is awaking from the uttermost parts of earth. Bow and lance they hold; savage it is, and pitiless; the sound of them is like the sea, when it roareth; and on horses they ride; he is arrayed as a man for battle, against thee, O daughter of Zion. We have heard the report of him; our hands droop; anguish hath taken hold of us, throes, like hers that travaileth”. {Jer 6:22 sq.} With the graphic force of a keen observer, who is also a poet, the priest of Anathoth has thus depicted for all time the collapse of terror which befell his contemporaries, on the rumoured approach of the Scythians in the reign of Josiah. And his lyric fervour carries him beyond this; it enables him to see with the utmost distinctness the havoc wrought by these hordes of savages; the surprise of cities, the looting of houses, the flight of citizens to the woods and the hills at the approach of the enemy; the desertion of the country towns, the devastation of fields and vineyards, confusion and desolation everywhere, as though primeval chaos had returned; and he tells it all with the passion and intensity of one who is relating an actual personal experience. “In my vitals, my vitals, I quake, in the walls of my heart! My heart is murmuring to me; I cannot hold my peace; for my soul is listening to the trumpet blast, the alarm of war! Ruin on ruin is cried, for all the land is ravaged; suddenly are my tents ravaged, my pavilions in a moment! How long must I see the standards, must I listen to the trumpet blast?” {Jer 4:19-21} “I look at the earth, and lo, tis chaos: at the heavens, and their light is no more. I look at the mountains, and lo, they rock, and all the hills sway to and fro. I look, and lo, man is no more, and the birds of the air are gone. I look, and 1o, the fruitful soil is wilderness, and all the cities of it are overthrown”. {Jer 4:23-26} “At the noise of horseman and archer all the city is in flight! They are gone into the thickets, and up the rocks they have clomb: all the city is deserted” (Jer 4:29). His eye follows the course of devastation until it reaches Jerusalem: Jerusalem, the proud, luxurious capital, now isolated on her hills, bereft of all her daughter cities, abandoned, even betrayed, by her foreign allies. “And thou, that art doomed to destruction, what canst thou do? Though thou clothe thee in scarlet, though thou deck thee with decking of gold, though thou broaden thine eyes with henna, in vain dost thou make thyself fair; the lovers have scorned thee, thy life are they seeking.” The “lovers”-the false foreigners-have turned against her in the time of her need; and the strange gods, with whom she dallied in the days of prosperity, can bring her no help. And now, while she witnesses, but cannot avert the slaughter of her children, her shrieks ring in the prophets ear: “A cry, as of one in travail, do I hear; pangs as of her that beareth her firstborn; the cry of the daughter of Zion, that panteth, that. spreadeth out her hands: Woes me! my soul swooneth for the slayers!” (Jer 4:30-31)
Even the strong walls of Jerusalem are no sure defence; there is no safety but in flight. “Remove your goods, ye sons of Benjamin, from within Jerusalem! And in Tekoah” (as if Blaston or Blowick or Trumpington) “blow a trumpet blast and upon Bethhakkerem raise a signal (or beacon)! for evil hath looked forth from the north, and mighty ruin”. {Jer 6:1-2} The two towns mark the route of the fugitives, making for the wilderness of the south; and the trumpet call, and the beacon light, muster the scattered companies at these rallying points or halting places. “The beautiful and the pampered one will I destroy-the daughter of Sion.” (Perhaps: “The beautiful and the pampered woman art thou like, O daughter of Sion!” 3d fem. sing. in i.) “To her come the shepherds and their flocks; they pitch the tents upon her round about; they graze each at his own side” (i.e., on the ground nearest him). The figure changes, with lyric abruptness, from the fair woman, enervated by luxury (Jer 6:2) to the fair pasture land, on which the nomad shepherds encamp, whose flocks soon eat the herbage down, and leave the soil stripped bare (Jer 6:3); and then, again, to an army beleaguering the fated city, whose cries of mutual cheer, and of impatience at all delay, the poet-prophet hears and rehearses. “Hallow ye war against her! Arise ye, let us go up” (to the assault) “at noontide! Unhappy we! the day hath turned; the shadows of eventide begin to lengthen! Arise ye, and let us go up in the night, to destroy her palaces!” (Jer 6:4-5).
As a fine example of poetical expression, the discourse obviously has its own intrinsic value. The authors power to sketch with a few bold strokes the magical effect of a disquieting rumour; the vivid force with which he realises the possibilities of ravage and ruin which are wrapped up in those vague, uncertain tidings; the pathos and passion of his lament over his stricken country, stricken as yet to his perception only; the tenderness of feeling; the subtle sweetness of language; the variety of metaphor; the light of imagination illuminating the whole with its indefinable charm; all these characteristics indicate the presence and power of a master singer. But with Jeremiah, as with his predecessors, the poetic expression of feeling is far from being an end in itself. He writes with a purpose to which all the endowments of his gifted nature are freely and resolutely subordinated. He values his powers as a poet and orator solely as instruments which conduce to an efficient utterance of the will of Iahvah. He is hardly conscious of these gifts as such. He exists to. “declare in the house of Jacob and to publish in Judah” the word of the Lord.
It is in this capacity that he now comes forward, and addresses his terrified countrymen, in terms not calculated to allay their fears with soothing suggestions of comfort and reassurance, but rather deliberately chosen with a view to heightening those fears, and deepening them to a sense of approaching judgment. For, after all, it is not the rumoured coming of the Scythian hordes that impels him to break silence. It is his consuming sense of the moral degeneracy, the spiritual degradation of his countrymen, which flames forth into burning utterance. “Whom shall I address and adjure, that they may hear? Lo, their ear is uncircumcised, and they cannot hearken; lo, the word of Iahvah hath become to them a reproach; they delight not therein. And of the fury of Iahvah I am full; I am weary of holding it in.” Then the other voice in his heart answers: “Pour thou it forth upon the child in the street, and upon the company of young men together!”. {Jer 6:10-11} It is the righteous indignation of an offended God that wells up from his heart, and overflows at his lips, and cries woe, irremediable woe, upon the land he loves better than his own life.
He begins with encouragement and persuasion, but his tone soon changes to denunciation and despair. {Jer 4:3 sq.} “Thus hath Iahvah said to the men of Judah and to Jerusalem, Break you up the fallows, and sow not into thorns! Circumcise yourselves to Iahvah, and remove the foreskins of your heart, ye men of Judah, and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem! lest My fury come forth like fire, and burn with none to quench it, because of the evil of your doings.” Clothed with the Spirit, as Semitic speech might express it, his whole soul enveloped in a garment of heavenly light-a magical garment whose virtues impart new force as well as new light-the prophet sees straight to the heart of things, and estimates with God-given certainty the real state of his people, and the moral worth of their seeming repentance. The first measures of Josiahs reforming zeal have been inaugurated; at least within the limits of the capital, idolatry in its coarser and more repellent forms has been suppressed; there is a show of return to the God of Israel. But the popular heart is still wedded to the old sanctuaries, and the old sensuous rites of Canaan; and, worse than this, the priests and prophets, whose centre of influence was the one great sanctuary of the Book of the Law, the temple at Jerusalem, have simply taken advantage of the religious reformation for their own purposes of selfish aggrandisement. “From the youngest to the oldest of them, they all ply the trade of greed; and from prophet to priest, they all practise lying. And they have repaired the ruin of (the daughter) of my people in light fashion, saying, It is well, it is well! though it be not well”. {Jer 6:13-14} The doctrine of the one legitimate sanctuary, taught with disinterested earnestness by the disciples of Isaiah, and enforced by that logic of events which had demonstrated the feebleness of the local holy places before the Assyrian destroyers, had now come to be recognised as a convenient buttress of the private gains of the Jerusalem priesthood and the venal prophets who supported their authority. The strong current of national reform had been utilised for the driving of their private machinery; and the sole outcome of the self-denying efforts and sufferings of the past appeared to be the enrichment of these grasping and unscrupulous worldlings who sat, like an incubus, upon the heart of the national church. So long as money flowed steadily into their coffers, they were eager enough to reassure the doubting, and to dispel all misgivings by their deceitful oracle that all was well. So long as trading in things Divine, to the utter neglect of the higher obligations of the moral law, was simply appalling to the sensitive conscience of the true prophet of that degenerate age. “A strange and a startling thing it is, that is come to pass in the land. The prophets, they have prophesied in the Lie, and the priests, they tyrannise under their direction; and My people, they love it thus; and what will ye do for the issue thereof?”. {Jer 5:30-31} For such facts must have an issue; and the present moral and spiritual ruin of the nation points with certainty to impending ruin in the material and political sphere. The two things go together; you cannot have a decline of faith, a decay of true religion, and permanent outward prosperity; that issue is incompatible with the eternal laws which regulate the life and progress of humanity. One sits in the heavens, over all things from the beginning, to whom all stated worship is a hideous offence when accompanied by hypocrisy and impurity and fraud and violence in the ordinary relations of life. “What good to me is incense that cometh from Sheba, and the choice calamus from a far country? your burnt offerings” (holocausts) “are not acceptable, and your sacrifices are not sweet unto Me.” Instead of purchasing safety, they will ensure perdition: “Therefore thus hath Iahvah said: Lo, I am about to lay for this people stumbling blocks, and they shall stumble upon them, fathers and sons together, a neighbour and his friend; and they shall perish.” {Jer 6:20 sq.}
In the early days of reform, indeed, Jeremiah himself appears to have shared in the sanguine views associated with a revival of suspended orthodoxy. The tidings of imminent danger were a surprise to him, as to the zealous worshippers who thronged the courts of the temple. So then, after all, “the burning anger of Iahvah was not turned away” by the outward tokens of penitence, by the lavish gifts of devotion; this unexpected and terrifying rumour was a call for the resumption of the garb of mourning and for the renewal of those public fasts which had marked the initial stages of reformation. {Jer 4:8} The astonishment and the disappointment of the man assert themselves against the inspiration of the prophet, when, contemplating the helpless bewilderment of kings and princes, and the stupefaction of priests and prophets in face of the national calamities, he breaks out into remonstrances with God. “And I said, Alas, O Lord Iahvah! of a truth, Thou hast utterly beguiled this people and Jerusalem, saying, It shall be well with you; whereas the sword will reach to the life.” The allusion is to the promises contained in the Book of the Law, the reading of which had so powerfully conduced to the movement for reform. That book had been the text of the prophet preachers, who were most active in that work; and the influence of its ideas and language upon Jeremiah himself is apparent in all his early discourses.
The prophets faith, however, was too deeply rooted to be more than momentarily shaken; and it soon told him that the evil tidings were evidence not of unfaithfulness or caprice in Iahvah, but of the hypocrisy and corruption of Israel. With this conviction upon him he implores the populace of the capital to substitute an inward and real for an outward and delusive purification. “Break up the fallows!” Do not dream that any adequate reformation can be superinduced upon the mere surface of life: “Sow not among thorns!” Do not for one moment believe that the word of God can take root and bear fruit in the hard soil of a heart that desires only to be secured in the possession of present enjoyments, in immunity for self indulgence, covetousness, and oppression of the poor. “Wash thine heart from wickedness, O Jerusalem! that thou mayst be saved. How long shall the schemings of thy folly lodge within thee? For hark! one declareth from Dan, and proclaimeth folly from the hills of Ephraim”. {Jer 4:14 sq.} The “folly” (awen) is the foolish hankering after the gods which are nothing in the world but a reflection of the diseased fancy of their worshippers; for it is always true that man makes his god in his own image, when he does make him, and does not receive the knowledge of him by revelation. It was a folly inveterate and, as it would seem, hereditary in Israel, going back to the times of the Judges, . and recalling the story of Micah the Ephraimite and the Danites who stole his images. That ancient sin still cried to heaven for vengeance; for the apostatising tendency, which it exemplified, was still active in the heart of Israel. The nation had “rebelled against” the Lord, for it was foolish and had never really known Him; the people were silly children, and lacked insight; skilled only in doing wrong, and ignorant of the way to do right. {Jer 4:22} Like the things they worshipped, they had eyes, but saw not; they had ears, but heard not. Enslaved to the empty terrors of their own imaginations, they, who cowered before dumb idols, stood untrembling in the awful presence of Him whose laws restrained the ocean within due limits, and upon whose sovereign will the fall of the rain and increase of the field depended. {Jer 5:21-24} The popular blindness to the claims of the true religion, to the inalienable rights of the God of Israel, involved a corresponding and ever-increasing blindness to the claims of universal morality, to the rights of man. Competent observers have often called attention to the remarkable influence exercised by the lower forms of heathenism in blunting the moral sense; and this influence was fully illustrated in the case of Jeremiahs contemporaries. So complete, so universal was the national decline that it seemed impossible to find one good man within the bounds of the capital. Every aim in life found illustration in those gay, crowded streets, in the bazaars, in the palaces, in the places by the gate where law was administered, except the aim of just and righteous and merciful dealing with ones neighbour. God was ignored or misconceived of, and therefore man was wronged and oppressed. Perjury, even in the Name of the God of Israel, whose eyes regard faithfulness and sincerity, and whose favour is not to be won by professions and presents; a self-hardening against both Divine chastisement and prophetic admonition; a fatal inclination to the seductions of Canaanite worship and the violations of the moral law, which that worship permitted and even encouraged as pleasing to the gods; these vices characterised the entire population of Jerusalem in that dark period. “Run ye to and fro in the streets of Jerusalem, and see now, and know, and seek ye in the broad places thereof, if ye can find a man, if indeed there be one that doeth justice, that seeketh sincerity; that I may pardon her. And if they say, By the life of Iahvah! Even so they swear falsely. Iahvah, are not thine eyes toward sincerity? Thou smotest them, and they trembled not; Thou consumedst them, they refused to receive instruction; they made their faces harder than a rock, they refused to repent. And for me, I said” (me thought), “These are but poor folk; they behave foolishly, because they know not the way of Iahvah, the justice” (Jer 5:1) “of their God: let me betake myself to the great, and speak with them; for they at least know the way of Iahvah, the justice of their God: but these with one consent had broken the yoke, had burst the bonds in sunder”. {Jer 5:1-5}
Then, as now, the debasement of the standard of life among the ruling classes was a far more threatening symptom of danger to the commonwealth than laxity of principle among the masses, who had never enjoyed the higher knowledge and more thorough training which wealth and rank, as a matter of course, confer. If the crew turn drunken and mutinous, the ship is in unquestionable peril; but if they who have the guidance of the vessel in their hands follow the vices of those whom they should command and control, wreck and ruin are assured.
The profligacy allowed by heathenism, against which the prophets cried in vain, is forcibly depicted in the words: “Why should I pardon thee? Thy sons have forsaken Me, and have sworn by them that are no gods: though I had bound them” (to Me) “by oath, they committed” (spiritual) “adultery, and into the house of the Fornicatress” (the idols temple, where the harlot priestess sat for hire) “they would flock. Stallions roaming at large were they; neighing each to his neighbours wife. Shall I not punish such offences, saith Iahvah; and shall not My soul avenge herself on such a nation as this?” The cynical contempt of justice, the fraud and violence of those who were in haste to become rich, are set forth in the following: “Among My people are found godless men; one watcheth, as birdcatchers lurk; they have set the trap, they catch men. Like a cage filled with birds, so are their houses filled with fraud: therefore they are become great, and have amassed wealth. They are become fat, they are sleek; also they pass {Isa 40:27} cases {Exo 22:9; Exo 24:14; cf. also 1Sa 10:2} of wickedness-neglect to judge heinous crimes; the cause they judge not, the cause of the fatherless, to make it succeed; and the right of the needy they vindicate not”. {Jer 5:26-28}
“She is the city doomed to be punished! she is all oppression within. As a spring poureth forth its waters, so she poureth forth her wickedness; violence and oppression resound in her; before Me continually is sickness and wounds”. {Jer 6:6-7} There would seem to be no hope for such a people and such a city. The prophet, indeed, cannot forget the claims of kindred, the thousand ties of blood and feeling that bind him to this perverse and sinful nation. Thrice, even in this dark forecast of destruction, he mitigates severity with the promise, “yet will I not make a full end.” The door is still left open, on the chance that some at least may be won to penitence. But the chance was small. The difficulty was, and the prophets yearning tenderness towards his people could not blind him to the fact that all the lessons of Gods providence were lost upon this reprobate race: “They have belied the Lord, and said, it is not He; neither shall evil come upon us; neither shall we see sword and famine.” The prophets, they insisted, were wrong both in the significance which they attributed to occasional calamities, and in the disasters which they announced as imminent: “The prophets will become wind, and the Word of God is not in them; so will it turn out with them.” It was, therefore, wholly futile to appeal to their better judgment against themselves: “Thus said Iahvah, Stop on the ways, and consider, and ask after the eternal paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and find rest for your soul: and they said, We will not walk therein. And I will set over you watchmen” (the prophets); “hearken ye to the call of the trumpet!” (the warning note of prophecy) “and they said We will not hearken.” For such wilful hardness and impenitence, disdaining correction and despising reproof, God appeals to the heathen themselves, and to the dumb earth, to attest the justice of His sentence of destruction against this people: “Therefore, hear, O ye nations, and know, and testify what is among them! Hear, O earth! Lo, I am about to bring evil upon this people, the fruit of their own devisings; for unto My words they have not hearkened, and as for Mine instruction, they have rejected it.” Their doom was inevitable, for it was the natural and necessary consequence of their own doings: “Thine own way and thine own deeds have brought about these evils for thee; this is thine own evil; verily, it is bitter, verily, it reacheth unto thine heart.” The discourse ends with a despairing glance at the moral reprobation of Israel. “An assayer did I make thee among My people, a refiner,” {reading mecaref, Mal 3:2-3} “that thou mightest know and assay their kind” (lit. way). Jeremiahs call had been to “sit as a refiner and purifier of silver” in the name of his God: in other words, to separate the good elements from the bad in Israel, and to gather around himself the nucleus of a people “prepared for Iahvah.” But his work had been vain. In vain had the prophetic fire burnt within him; in vain had the vehemency of the spirit fanned the flame; the Divine word-that solvent of hearts-had been expended in vain; no good metal could come of an ore so utterly base. “They are all the worst” {1Ki 20:43} “of rebels” (or, “deserters to the rebels”), “going about with slander; they are brass and iron; they all deal corruptly. The bellows blow; the lead” (used for fining the ore) “is consumed by the fire; in vain do they go on refining” (or, “does the refiner refine”); “and the wicked are not separated. Refuse silver are they called, for Iahvah hath refused them.”