Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Jeremiah 10:10
But the LORD [is] the true God, he [is] the living God, and an everlasting king: at his wrath the earth shall tremble, and the nations shall not be able to abide his indignation.
10. LXX omit, but there is more to be said for MT. here than in the cases above. As Jer 10:11 is clearly a gloss, Jer 10:12 would be very abrupt without an introduction of this kind.
the true God ] better (as mg.) God in truth.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Verse 10. But the Lord] The original word should be preserved, however we agree to pronounce it: Yehovah is the true God. He is without beginning, and without end. This is true of no being else.
He is the living God] His being is underived; and he gives life to all. He is the very Fountain whence all life is derived.
And an everlasting king] As he has made, so he governs, all things. His sway is felt both in the heavens and in the earth.
At his wrath the earth shall tremble] All storms, tempests, tornadoes, and earthquakes are the effects of his power; and when the nations are destroyed, or turned upside down, it is the effect of his displeasure.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
The Lord is the true God: q. d. All these are but false gods: Jehovah is the alone true God; they are but lies, and the teachers of lies. God is truth itself, and that both in regard of his essence, as it is ascribed to Christ, 1Jo 5:20; and also in regard of his faithfulness, Num 23:19; Psa 31:5.
He is the living God; these are all but dead stocks and stones, Jehovah is the only living God, having life in himself, and giving life to all things else, Joh 5:21,26. Hence these idols are not only more base than any other creature, but even viler than the matter itself of which they are made.
An everlasting King: these, though accounted kings, and countenanced by kings, yet both they and their kings do all perish; time devours them all with worm or rust, or by injuries and violence offered to them, as in the next verse; but none of these or any thing else can affect the true God, he is
everlasting.
At his wrath the earth shall tremble; he can with his look or frown make the foundations of the heaven and the earth to shake, whereas these stocks can move them no more than they can themselves, which is not one hairs breadth from their stations.
The nations shall not be able to abide his indignation; not able either to stop it or bear it, but must stoop and fall under it, Psa 76:7; the wicked will not be able to stand in judgment, Psa 1:5.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
10. true Godliterally, “GodJehovah is truth”; not merely true, that is, veracious,but truth in the reality of His essence, as opposed to the”vanity” or emptiness which all idols are (Jer 10:3;Jer 10:8; Jer 10:15;2Ch 15:3; Psa 31:5;1Jn 5:20).
living God (Joh 5:26;1Ti 6:17). He hath life inHimself which no creature has. All else “live in Him”(Ac 17:28). In contrast todead idols.
everlasting (Ps10:16). In contrast to the temporary existence of allother objects of worship.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
But the Lord is the true God,…. In opposition to all nominal and fictitious deities, which are not by nature God, only by name, and in the foolish imagination of the people: or, “the Lord God is truth” t; that cannot lie, is true to his covenant and promises, and will never deceive those that worship and serve him, and rely upon him:
he is the living God; that has life in himself, and is the author and giver of life to others; to all men natural life, to some men spiritual and eternal life; whereas the gods of the Gentiles have no life in themselves; are either dead men, or lifeless and inanimate things, stocks and stones, and can give no life to others. The words are in the plural number, “he is the living Gods”; not for the sake of honour and glory, as Kimchi observes; but as denoting a trinity of Persons in the unity of the divine essence: for though the words , “living Gods”, that is, living divine Ones, or Persons, are in the plural number, yet , “he”, is in the singular; which is worthy of observation. The Syriac version renders it, “the God of the living”; and so an Oxford Arabic MS, see Mt 22:32.
And an everlasting King; from everlasting to everlasting; he is King of old, even from eternity, and will ever be so; his kingdom is an everlasting one, and his throne for ever and ever, and he will always have subjects to reign over; nor will he have any successor, as mortal kings have, even such who have been deified by their idolatrous subjects.
At his wrath the earth shall tremble; that is, the inhabitants of it, when it is poured forth in judgments in the present life, and in the everlasting destruction of soul and body hereafter; and then shall they fear him, though now they do not.
And the nations shall not be able to abide his indignation; especially at the day of judgment; see Re 6:16.
t “Deus veritas”, Pagninus, Montanus, Coceeius.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The Prophet here exults and triumphs in the name of his God, as though he had overcome and put to flight the erroneous notions of the heathens: for he had spoken, as it appears, contemptuously of their gross errors, and shewed that the wise men of the world were extremely sottish, who were so charmed with wood and stone. He now highly extols the glory of God, and says, But Jehovah is God; that is, let the nations worship their gods, let them recite fables as to their power, and falsely ascribe to them many miracles; but Jehovah, he says, is God When all things are faithfully examined, it will appear evident that He is the only true God, and all the gods of the heathens will of themselves vanish into nothing. This then is the meaning of the Prophet, as though he had said, God himself is sumcient to put to flight all the errors of the heathens, when his majesty appears; for so great is its brightness that it will reduce to nothing whatever the world admires.
He then adds truth. He sets truth here in opposition to vanities. He had said that wood was the teaching of vanities; he now says, God is eternal truth; that is, he has no need of adventitious ornaments; they mask, he says, the idols of the heathens, they are clothed and adorned; but these things have nothing real in them: Jehovah is God the truth; that is, God borrows nothing from anything else, but is satisfied with himself, and his power possesses of itself sufficient authority. God then is truth, and God, he says, is life. After having said that God has real and solid glory in himself, he adds another proof, taken from what is known to men, even that God is life; for though God is in himself incomprehensible, yet he not only sets before our eyes evidences of his glow, but he also renders himself in a manner the object of feeling, as Paul says in Act 14:17. What he means is, that though men were blind, they could yet by feeling find out God. Though the blind have no sight, yet they can find their way by feeling; they go round a hall or a room, and by feeling find the door; and when they wish to enter into a room, they find the door by the same means. But there is no need, says Paul, for us to depart from ourselves; for whosoever will examine himself will find God within; for in him we live and move and have our being. (Act 17:28.) Were we then to object and say, that God is incomprehensible, and that we cannot ascend to the height of his glory, doubtless there is life in us, and as we have life, we have an evidence of his divinity; for who is so devoid of reason as to say that he lives through himself? Since then men live not of themselves, but obtain life as a favor from another, it follows that God dwells in them. (11)
Now, then, the Prophet, after having spoken of God’s essence, descends to what is more evident. And doubtless it is a real knowledge of God, not when we speculate in the air as philosophers do, but when we know by experience that there is one true God — how? because we exist. We exist not of ourselves, but in and through another, and that is, through the one true God. It hence follows that human life is a clear proof of one supreme God. God then is life and the King of ages For as the world has also been made, as years succeed years, and as there is in this revolution variety and yet such perfect order, who does not see in all this the glory of God? Now, then, we also perceive why the Prophet calls God the King of ages
He then adds, Through his fury tremble will the earth, and the nations will not sustain his wrath As he could not succeed with the heathens, He warns liere the Jews not to provoke the wrath of God, who will be the Judge of the whole world, and will destroy the unbelievers, however blind in darkness they may be. He then warns the Jews not to close their eyes to the glory, which had been more fully open to them. But the Gentiles might by the works of nature have known God, and were inexcusable; yet, the knowledge of him was made plain to the Jews by the law. For this reason Jeremiah says, “Even though unbelievers now boldly despise God, yet when he shall appear as the Judge of the world, the whole earth must of necessity tremble, and will not be able to bear his presence, though they now proudly reproach true religion.”
But it was not without reason that the Prophet took so much pains on this subject; for the ten tribes had been driven into exile, and the Assyrians and Chaldeans triumphed over God himself, as though he had been overcome, inasmuch as he did not defend the kingdom of Israel, which was under his care and protection; and the miserable Israelites could not but despond when they found themselves so distressed, and cruelly treated and oppressed by the most shameless tyranny; for what could they have thought, but that they had not been the objects of God’s care, and that his promises were vain, or that he possessed no sufficient power to preserve them? It is, then, for this reason that the Prophet now so highly extols the power and glory of God, that is, that their calamities might not deject them and lay prostrate the faith of those who thought that they were forsaken.
And this will be more evident from the following verse, where the Prophet uses the Chaldee language; and this is the only verse in the whole book written in Chaldee; and the Chaldee differs much from the Hebrew. We have seen before that Daniel wrote in Chaldee, when he spoke of things pertaining to the Chaldeans; but when he addressed his own people and announced prophecies, belonging especially to the Church of God, he wrote in Hebrew. Hence the book of Daniel is written in Hebrew, except in those parts which he wished to be understood by the Chaldeans; and so does the Prophet in this place.
(11) The verse, literally rendered, is as follows: —
“
But Jehovah, God the truth he, God the life and King eternal; At his wrath tremble will the earth, And not bear will the nations his indignation.”
It is usual in Hebrew to put nouns for adjectives; divested of this peculiarity, and the future being taken for the present, the verse would run thus:
“
But Jehovah, the true God is he, The living God and King eternal; At his wrath tremble does the earth, And the nations cannot bear his indignation.”
“
The true God,” and “the living God,” is the version of the Vulgate and of the Targum; but that of the Syriac and Arab., “the God of truth,” and “the God of the living,” but no doubt incorrect. — Ed.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(10) The Lord is the true God.Literally, Jehovah is the God that is Truth. The thought expressed is that for which St. John, as indeed the LXX. does here, uses the word althinos (Joh. 17:3; 1Jn. 5:20), Truth in its highest and most perfect form. So I am the way, the truth, and the life (Joh. 14:6).
An everlasting king.Here, as in other like passages, the English Version is not wrong, but the Hebrew idiom King of Eternity is far grander.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
Jer 10:10 But the LORD [is] the true God, he [is] the living God, and an everlasting king: at his wrath the earth shall tremble, and the nations shall not be able to abide his indignation.
Ver. 10. But the Lord is the true God. ] Heb., Jehovah is God in truth, not in conceit only, or counterfeit.
He is the living God, and an everlasting king.
At his wrath the earth shall tremble.
And the nations shall not be able.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
the living God. Both words in plural, referring to the triune God.
everlasting king = king of the ages, or, of eternity.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
the Lord: 1Ki 18:39, 2Ch 15:3, Joh 17:3, 1Th 1:9, 1Jo 5:20
true God: Heb. God of truth, Deu 32:4, Psa 31:5, Psa 100:5, Psa 146:6
the living: Jer 23:36, Deu 5:26, 1Sa 17:26, 1Sa 17:36, Psa 42:2, Psa 84:2, Isa 37:4, Isa 37:17, Dan 6:26, Mat 16:16, Mat 26:63, Act 14:15, 1Ti 6:17, Heb 10:31
everlasting king: Heb. King of eternity, Psa 10:16, Psa 93:2, Psa 145:13, Isa 57:15, Dan 4:3, Dan 4:34, Dan 7:14, 1Ti 1:17
at: Jdg 5:4, Job 9:6, Psa 18:7, Psa 68:11, Psa 77:18, Psa 97:4, Psa 104:32, Psa 114:7, Mic 1:4, Nah 1:6, Hab 3:6, Hab 3:10, Mat 27:51, Mat 27:52, Rev 20:11
the nations: Psa 76:7, Psa 90:11, Joe 2:11, Nah 1:6, Mal 3:2
Reciprocal: Gen 1:6 – Let there Gen 21:33 – everlasting Deu 6:4 – the Lord Deu 33:27 – eternal Jos 3:10 – living Jdg 17:4 – two hundred 1Ki 8:60 – the Lord 2Ki 5:15 – now I know 2Ki 19:15 – thou hast made 1Ch 16:26 – all the gods 1Ch 29:11 – all that 2Ch 2:12 – that made heaven Ezr 1:3 – he is the God Ezr 10:9 – trembling Job 13:11 – Shall Psa 18:46 – Lord Psa 60:2 – made Psa 66:3 – How terrible Psa 89:7 – General Psa 95:3 – a great Psa 97:9 – far Psa 100:3 – Know Psa 135:5 – I know Isa 2:10 – for fear Isa 8:19 – for the living Isa 36:18 – Hath Isa 37:16 – thou hast Isa 40:15 – the nations Isa 40:28 – the everlasting Isa 65:16 – in the God Jer 4:24 – mountains Jer 27:4 – Thus Jer 46:18 – saith Jer 51:29 – the land Mal 1:14 – for Mar 12:32 – for Joh 5:26 – hath life Joh 6:57 – the living Act 4:24 – Lord Act 16:29 – and came Rom 1:19 – that which 1Co 8:4 – there is 2Co 3:3 – the living Eph 4:6 – who 1Ti 3:15 – the living 1Ti 6:15 – who Heb 9:14 – eternal Heb 12:22 – of the Rev 10:5 – lifted Rev 14:7 – worship
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Jer 10:10. The attractive appearance which the idolaters gave to their image did not. make it able to show even any signs of life, much less enable It to do anything. On the other hand the Lord of Israel Is the living God. He not only is a king but an everlasting king. Instead of being made out of earthly materials as was the idol god, the earth is altogether within the power of this living God. The heathen nations merely otter foolfsh and Ineffective service to their material god, while they tremble at the wrath of the God whom Jeremiah worshiped.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Jer 10:10. But the Lord Hebrew, Jehovah, is the true God A very different being from these idols. He is the living God Images are dead and senseless things; but Jehovah is life itself, and the author and fountain of life and understanding; and all creatures that live, live in and by him. And an everlasting King The absolute monarch over all creatures, their owner and ruler, having an incontestable right both to command and to dispose of them. And the counsels of his kingdom were from everlasting, and the continuance of it will be to everlasting. He is the king of eternity. The idols whom they call their kings are but of yesterday, and will soon be abolished; and the kings of the earth, that set them up to be worshipped, will themselves be in the dust shortly; but the Lord shall reign for ever, thy God, O Zion, unto all generations. At his wrath the earth shall tremble Even the strongest and stoutest of the kings of the earth, nay, the earth itself, as firmly as it is fixed, when he pleases, is made to quake, and the rocks to tremble. And the nations, though they join together to contend with him, and unite their force against him, shall be found utterly unable, not only to resist, but even to abide his indignation.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Yahweh is the true God; idols are false gods. He is alive; they are dead, really nonexistent. He is the King who lives forever; they are only temporary and destructible. He controls the earth and makes it quake when He is angry; they have no power at all. The nations are unable to endure His indignation when He manifests it; the idols have no indignation and are impotent to manifest any feelings whatsoever.