Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Jeremiah 6:29

The bellows are burned, the lead is consumed of the fire; the founder melteth in vain: for the wicked are not plucked away.

29. The figure from refining metals is continued from Jer 6:27. “In refining, the alloy containing the gold or silver is mixed with lead, and fused in a furnace on a vessel of earth or bone-ash: a current of air is turned upon the molten mass (not upon the fire); the lead then oxidizes, and acting as a flux, carries away the alloy, leaving the gold or silver pure (I. Napier, The Ancient Workers in Metal, 1856, pp. 20, 23). In the case here imagined by the prophet, so inextricably is the alloy mixed with the silver, that, though the bellows blow, and the lead is oxidised by the heat, no purification is effected; only impure silver remains.” Dr. p. 39.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

The bellows are burned – Worn out by continual blowing. The prophet has exhausted all his efforts. His heart, consumed by the heat of divine inspiration, can labor no more. Others translate The bellows snort, i. e., blow furiously. More probably, The bellows glow with the strong heat of the fire.

Plucked away – Separated. The smelters object is to separate the metal from the dross.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Jer 6:29-30

The bellows are burnt.

The bellows burnt

Apply to–

I. The prophet himself. The prophet was exhausted before the people were impressed. So also with Noah, Isaiah, John the Baptist, Jesus Himself. 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.

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. 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 thereby–e.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. The chastisements which God sends upon His own people. The great Refiner will have His gold pure, and will utterly remove our tin. 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. 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? (C. H. Spurgeon.)

The prophets consuming zeal and the peoples unresponsiveness

He 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 spake with such pathos, such energy, such 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; 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 the people from their sins, and separate the precious from the vile. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

The lead is consumed of the fire.

Refining fire

We mean precisely the same thing as the Hebrew prophet meant when we say, as nowadays we are so apt to say, that life is a school. People still are puzzled by the punishments of life. The discipline is strict. The rules are rigid. Oftentimes we suffer. It is not by any means all play. But there are lessons to be learned, and forbearance to be used, and suffering to be borne. It seems to us narrow and foolish of Jeremiah to have fancied that the Lord raised up those great Assyrian and Babylonian nations simply for the purpose of trying and testing the Jewish people. It was narrow also of the Jews to fancy themselves the chosen people, whom God particularly loved and wished to save. Yet all of us today are similarly narrow in one sense, and we have to be. We cannot free ourselves, you and I and others like us, from the conviction that we, as men and women, by virtue of the very life that is in us, are the centre and meaning of this entire universe. Believe this in some degree we must. Doubt it, and the very heavens are bleak and bare. Every system in philosophy, every article of religious faith, every discovery in science, is based, more or less directly, upon the supposition of this distinct relationship between the outer universe and the life of man. Let us use, for convenience sake, the analogy of the prophet. We will suppose that we are placed here as the crude ore is thrown into the furnace, in order to be refined. Along what lines should the process of refinement work? Nothing is more familiar than the claim that sorrow chastens us, and hardships strengthen, and trials test. As Goethe said, Talent is perfected in retirement, but character only in the stream of life. They tell this concerning Wendell Phillips. Whenever the great orator tended to become a little prosy in his speeches, and to lose some of his customary fire, certain young Abolitionists used to get together near the door and start a hiss. The note of disapproval never failed to arouse the lion in the speaker, and he was electrified at once into matchless eloquence. The worlds agencies of trial and toil and difficulty are indeed in vain, the bellows of life are consumed most uselessly, if you and I are not made more courageous and calm and self-reliant by the process. And yet the hard things of this world ought not to be the only ones to have this refining influence. We are weak and ungrateful, and made of anything but precious metal, if we are not purified by the privileges of life, hallowed by its happiness, humbled by success. In everyday life most of us are not deficient in gratitude. We appreciate the kindness and generosity of our friends. But how few of us in comparison fall to our knees in an hour of newborn joy, or reverently think of lifes higher meaning, and resolve on a rigider performance of our duties, when success has bathed us in its golden sunshine! There is no much surer test of character than this: What effect has good fortune had? If the person is innately weak to whom some power or privilege has come, he answers it by pride and selfishness and vain indulgence. He feels himself exalted; and, instead of looking up in reverence and humility to his God, he looks down with coldness on his fellow men. Shall I tell you what is to me one of the most inspiring, beautiful sights in all the wide range of human activity and character? It is to see and know of anyone truly great who has been humbled by success, and touched into infinite modesty by the consciousness of superlative ability. It is to find people refined into simplicity and gentle devoutness by the worlds blandishments and distinctions and honours. And this has been the refining influence to which the noblest and the truest ones have answered. You all know, too, the saying of the distinguished, world-honoured discoverer, Sir Isaac Newton,–that he was nothing but a helpless child gathering pebbles on a boundless shore, with the great ocean of undiscovered truth stretching away beyond him. I have spoken of sorrow and of joy–the two extremes of existence–as having properly this purifying influence on life. Let, me now speak broadly of certain phases of refinement which ought to appear as the result of the worlds great processes.

1. First, there is the refining fire of glory, which is so abundant in the outward world. It is for us to answer it by what is known as reverence. We have not the pure metal which is sought, if we are not so refined by the wonders of the world as to kneel in worship, and uplift our souls in awe. This world is not for him who does not worship, said an ancient Persian sage; and our kindred souls give back the truth across the centuries, This world is not for him who does not worship.

2. Again, there is the burning fact of law. All things around us are done with persistency. Everything is regular. The smallest function is precise. Surely the knowledge of such constancy should have its influence on us. It should take what is pure within us. It should appeal to the clear metal of our better selves, and make us trust.

3. Finally, the fire of utter impartiality surrounds us. The world is laid at each ones feet. The Divine bounty is not given to this person, and denied to that one; but all of us receive. And the answering refinement which should come from receptive human beings, who may doubt its nature or its need? A suggestive legend comes to us from Mohammedan writings. Abraham, it is said, once received an old man in his tent, who, in sitting down to eat, neglected to repeat a grace. My custom, he said, in explanation, is that of the fire worshipper.–Whereupon the Jewish patriarch in wrath undertook to drive him from his door. But suddenly God appeared to him, and, restraining the churlish impulse, cried: Abraham, for one hundred years the Divine bounty has flowed out to you in sunshine and in rain; and is it for you to deny shelter to this man because his worship is not thine? Even thus does nature speak a silent yet severe rebuke to our narrowness, our lack of sympathy, our petty distinctions and rivalries in social life. Be broad, she cries. Let love control your acts; to those who need, extend a helping hand. (P. R. Frothingham.)

.

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

The bellows are burned: the prophet prosecutes his metaphor taken from refining of metals, intimating herein that the prophets had spent their lungs to no purpose; see the like Psa 22:15; 69:3; and their strength was consumed by their so much labour and pains: q.d. The terror of the Lord is as a fire in my throat.

The lead is consumed; some read it, the lead was entire, viz. their dross did still remain in them, the lead put for their dross; but I see no reason for nor need of this reading, but rather hereby is understood either that means which was used to prevail with them, his words compared to lead for the weight of them, and the use of them; or the judgments, which were heavy as lead, that God mixed among them, the more easily to prevail with them; it was all upon them; as lead is used in melting silver, that it may melt the easier; it is all wasted, and doth no good.

The founder melteth in vain; let the artist use his greatest skill and industry, yet is it all in vain; He can make nothing of it: the prophets did but lose their labour in all the pains they took, Psa 58:5, after they had wearied themselves.

The wicked are not plucked away, or drawn away, as the word is, Jos 8:16; Jdg 20:32. Their dross and corruption, their wickedness and filthiness, is not removed, Isa 32:6; for wicked may be read wickedness.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

29. bellows . . . burnedSointense a heat is made that the very bellows are almost set on fire.ROSENMULLER translates notso well from a Hebrew root, “pant” or “snort,”referring to the sound of the bellows blown hard.

leademployed toseparate the baser metal from the silver, as quicksilver is now used.In other words, the utmost pains have been used to purify Israel inthe furnace of affliction, but in vain (Jer 5:3;1Pe 1:7).

consumed of the fireInthe Chetib, or Hebrew text, the “consumed” issupplied out of the previous “burned.” Translating asROSENMULLER, “pant,”this will be inadmissible; and the Keri (Hebrew Margin)division of the Hebrew words will have to be read, to get “isconsumed of the fire.” This is an argument for the translation,”are burned.”

founderthe refiner.

wicked . . . not pluckedawayanswering to the dross which has no good metal to beseparated, the mass being all dross.

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

The bellows are burnt,…. Which Kimchi interprets of the mouth and throat of the prophet, which, through reproving the people, were dried up, and become raucous and hoarse, and without any profit to them; and so the Targum,

“lo, as the refiner’s blower, that is burnt in the midst of the fire, so the voice of the prophets is silent, who prophesied to them, turn to the law, and they turned not;”

or the judgments and chastisements of God upon the Jews may be meant, which were inflicted upon them to no purpose:

the lead is consumed of the fire; lead being used formerly, as is said f, instead of quicksilver, in purifying of silver; which being consumed, the refining is in vain: or it may be rendered,

out of the fire it is perfect lead g; or wholly lead, a base metal, no gold and silver in it, to which the Jews are compared:

the founder melteth in vain; to whom either the prophet is likened, whose reproofs, threatenings, and exhortations, answered no end; or the Lord himself, whose corrections and punishments were of no use to reform this people:

for the wicked are not plucked away; from their evil way, as Jarchi; or from good men, they are not separated the one from the other; or, “evils (sins) are not plucked away” h; from sinners: their dross is not purged away from them; neither the words of the prophet, nor the judgments of God, had any effect upon them. The Targum of the latter part of the verse is,

“and as lead which is melted in the midst of the furnace, so the words of the prophets which prophesied to them were nothing in their eyes; and without profit their teachers taught them and they did not leave their evil works.”

f By Mathiolus, Agricola and others, in Poli Synops. g “ab igne, et integrum est plumbum”, Munster, Calvin, Tigurine version. h “et mala non sunt evulsa”, Piscator, so some in Vatablus; “mala avelli non pussunt”, Junius & Tremellius.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

The trial of the people has brought about no purification, no separation of the wicked ones. The trial is viewed under the figure of a long-continued but resultless process of smelting. , Niph. from , to be burnt, scorched, as in Eze 15:4. is to be broken up, as in the Keri, into two words: and (from ). For there does not occur any feminine form from , nor any plural (even forms the plur. ), so as to admit of our reading or . Nor would the plur., if there were one, be suitable; Ew.’s assertion that means flames of fire is devoid of all proof. We connect with what precedes: Burnt are the bellows with fire, at an end is the lead. Others attach “by the fire” to what follows: By the fire is the lead consumed. The thought is in either case the same, only is not the proper word for: to be consumed. Sense: the smelting has been carried on so perseveringly, that the bellows have been scorched by the heat of the fire, and the lead added in order to get the ore into fusion is used up; but they have gone on smelting quite in vain. with indefinite subject, and the infin. absol. added to indicate the long duration of the experiment. In the last clause of the verse the result is mentioned in words without a figure: The wicked have not been separated out (prop., torn asunder from the mass).

Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament

He says, that the bellows was consumed by the fire and without any advantage. The whole sentence is metaphorical. Interpreters refer it simply to what was taught; and hence they consider the mouth of the Prophet to be the bellows, by which the fire was kindled. So the meaning would be, — that the Prophet was as it were burnt, through his incessant crying, like the bellows, which by being continually used is at length consumed, especially when the fire burns fiercely. They then suppose that the Prophet complains that his throat had dried up, like the bellows, which being burnt by the fire can no longer do its work. But what if we refer this to the punishments and judgments by which God had chastised his people, and yet without benefit? For so he complains in the first chapter of Isaiah, and in other places.

“

In vain, “he says, “have I chastised thee:”

and Jeremiah has before said,

“

In vain have I chastised my children; they have not received correction.” (Jer 2:30)

So also it is said by Isaiah,

“

Alas! vengeance must I take on my enemies,” (Isa 1:24)

but to what purpose? He afterwards adds, that it was without any benefit, because their wickedness was incurable.

The first meaning, however, is not to be rejected, for it was not unsuitable to say, that the tongue of the Prophet was worn out with constant crying, that his throat was nearly dried up. But I approve more of what I have just stated. Let each make his own choice. If we consider prophetic teaching to be here intended, we may also draw another meaning, — that the Prophet’s mouth was consumed by God’s terrors; for it was like burning, whenever God threatened the people with final destruction. The Prophet then does not without reason say, that his throat was burnt by fire, even the threatenings of God.

He afterwards adds, that the lead was entire This sentence rather favors the view, that Jeremiah is speaking of the judgments by which God sought to humble the people and to lead them to repentance; for it cannot be suitably applied to doctrine or teaching, that the lead was unmixt. By lead I understand dross. Some consider it to be silver, and say that lead was mixed with silver, in order that the silver might more easily be melted. As I am not skillful in that art, I cannot say whether this is done or not. But the Prophet says that the lead was unmixt; that is, that nothing was found but dross and filth.

He then adds, In vain has the melter melted, for evils have not been purged away; that is, the dross had not been removed so as to leave behind the pure metal. He means, in short, that there was nothing but dross and filth in the people, and not a particle of pure silver. It hence followed, that they had been as it were in vain melted. Now, this applies more fitly to punishment than to teaching, as all must see. I hence do not doubt but that the Prophet shews here, that the Jews were not only wicked and apostates and despisers of God, but were also so obstinate that God had often tried in vain to purify them. And it is a kind of speaking, we know, which occurs often in the prophets and throughout Scripture, that God is said to melt, to purge, to refine men, when he chastises them. But the Prophet says that there was only filth in that people, that lead was found, and that they were not melted. And hence we learn how great was their hardness: though they were tried by fire, they yet melted not, but continued in their perverseness. (187) He afterwards adds —

(187) The true reading of the third word in this verse is מאש תם, according to the Keri, many MSS., the Septuagint and the Vulgate; and תם sometimes means “consumed.” Pliny says that they formerly used lead to separate the dross from the silver, as they use quicksilver now. Then the verse is to be thus rendered, —

Burnt has been the bellows by the fire, Consumed has been the lead; In vain has been the melting of the melted, For their evils have not been separated.

They had been in the furnace, but the lead intended to separate the dross from the silver, was consumed, and the melting did not succeed, for their evils, or their vices, were not separated from them. Hence in the next verse they are called reprobate silver. — Ed.

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

(29) The bellows are burned.Better, burn, or glow. In the interpretation of the parable the bellows answer to the life of the prophet as filled with the breath or spirit of Jehovah. He is, as it were, consumed with that fiery blast, and yet his work is faulty.

The lead is consumed . . .Better, from their fire is lead only. A different punctuation gives, The bellows burn with fire; yet lead is the only outcome. The point lies in the fact that lead was used as a flux in smelting silver ore. The founder in the case supposed went on with his work till the lead was melted, but he found no silver after all.

Plucked away.Better, separated or purified, as in keeping with the metaphor.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

29. The lead is consumed, etc. There is an uncertainty here as to the original text, and this has given rise to various renderings. That of the Authorized Version expresses the sense that the process is continued until the very lead used as a flux is consumed, and yet no silver is found. Keil translates, “Burned are the bellows by the fire; at an end is the lead; in vain they melt and melt; and wicked ones are not separated.” Nagelsbach, “The bellows glows; out of its fire comes lead! in vain one melts and melts; the base are not separated.” Of these the translation of Keil is to be preferred, though, in one place, it overrides the Masoretic accents, and, in another, breaks up one word of the Kethib into two.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Jer 6:29 The bellows are burned, the lead is consumed of the fire; the founder melteth in vain: for the wicked are not plucked away.

Ver. 29. The bellows are burnt. ] The prophet’s lungs are spent; all their pains spilt upon a perverse people. See Eze 24:6 ; Eze 24:12-13 . Jeremiah had blowed hard, as a smith or metallary doth with his bellows; he had suffered, as it were, by the heat of a most ardent fire in trying and melting his ore; he had used his best art also by casting in lead, as today they do quicksilver, to melt it the more easily, and with less loss and waste; but all to no purpose at all. Let us, to the wearing of our tongues to the stumps, preach never so much, men will on in sin, said Bradford. a

The lead is consumed. ] All the melting judgments which, as lead is cast into the furnace to make it the hotter, God added to the ministry of the prophets to make the Word more operative, they will do no good.

The founder melteth in vain. ] Whether God, the master founder, or the prophets, God’s co-founders or fellow workmen, as the apostle calleth them. 1Co 6:1

The wicked are not plucked away. ] Or, Their wickednesses; they will not part with their dross, or be divorced from their dilecta delicta, beloved sins. The vile person will speak villany, and his heart will work iniquity, to practise hypocrisy, and to utter error against the Lord. Isa 32:6

a Mr Case’s Treatise of Afflictions.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)