Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Jeremiah 10:20
My tabernacle is spoiled, and all my cords are broken: my children are gone forth of me, and they [are] not: [there is] none to stretch forth my tent any more, and to set up my curtains.
20. The land is likened to a tent overthrown and injured beyond repair.
curtains ] See on Jer 4:20.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Verse 20. My tabernacle is spoiled] The city is taken, and all our villages ruined and desolated.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
He proceeds in his prosopopoeia to bring in the land, or the inhabitants thereof, enumerating their calamities, and by a metaphor sets out the overthrow of the land, or Jerusalem, by the breaking of the
cords of a tabernacle, the use whereof is to fasten it on every side to stakes in the ground, which cords being broken the tabernacle falls, implying all the supports of city and country were gone, nothing but desolation to be expected. See Jer 4:20.
My children are gone forth of me; either the inhabitants of the land, or the lesser cities, being frequently called daughters, viz. the Chaldeans have snatched them away from me, and carried them into captivity.
They are not; of the phrase and meaning of it see Jer 31:15. There is none to stretch forth my tent any more, i.e. it is irrevocable, I am without all help, either for defence or beauty, or any thing to regain my pristine state, which he chooseth to describe hereby, continuing this metaphor rather than any other, of a shepherds tent; possibly insinuating the ground of it to arise principally from their pastors, the neglect both of their civil and ecclesiastical governors, which the next verse favours.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
20. tabernacle is spoiledmetaphorfrom the tents of nomadic life; as these are taken down in a fewmoments, so as not to leave a vestige of them, so Judea (Jer4:20).
cordswith which thecoverings of the tent are extended.
curtainstent-curtains.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
My tabernacle is spoiled,…. Not the temple at Jerusalem only, rather Jerusalem itself, as Kimchi; or the whole land, as the Targum,
“my land is wasted:”
the allusion is to the tents of shepherds, and denotes the unstable condition of the Jewish nation:
and all my cords are broken: all the rest of the cities of the land are destroyed, as Kimchi; and so the Targum,
“my cities are spoiled:”
as the cords are what the parts of the tabernacle or tent are fastened and kept together with, they may intend the strength of the nation, which lay in its wealth, its fortresses, and the numbers of its people, now weakened, loosed, and broke.
My children are gone forth of me; into captivity, as the Targum interprets it; the prophet, representing Jerusalem, and the cities of Judah. The Septuagint adds, “and my sheep”; keeping on the metaphor of a shepherd, his tent, and flock.
And they are not; either not in the world, being destroyed by one judgment or another; or rather not in their own land, being carried captive.
There is none to stretch forth my tent any more, and to set up my curtains; which shows the great destruction and desolation of the land, and its inhabitants, that there would be none to set up a shepherd’s tent; perhaps the rebuilding of Jerusalem, and the rest of the cities, may be meant.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
This metaphor may have been taken from shepherds, and it seems suitable here; yet the prophets often compare the Church to a tent. Though indeed it is said elsewhere that the Church is built on the holy mountains, (Psa 87:1) and great firmness is ascribed to it, yet, as to its external condition, it may justly be said to be like a tent, for there is no fixed residence for God’s children on earth, for they are often constrained to ehange their place; and hence Paul speaks of the faithful as unsettled. (1Co 4:11.) But as, in the next verse, mention is made of shepherds, the Prophet seems here to refer to the tents of shepherds. Though indeed he takes hereafter the similitude more generally, or in a wider sense, yet there is no reason why he should not allude to the shepherds of whom he afterwards speaks, and yet retain the metaphor which so often occurs in all the prophets.
He then says that his tent was pulled down, and that all his cords were broken Some take the tent for the city of Jerusalem, but this is a strained view, and unsuitable. We have already said that the Prophet speaks here in the name of the whole people; and it is the same as though he compared the people to a man dwelling with his family in a tent. He adds, My children are gone forth from me The people then complain that they were deprived of all their children; nor was this all, but they were scattered here and there, which was worse than if they had been taken away by death. He afterwards says, And there is no one to extend my tent, and to set up my curtains Jeremiah shews that the people would be so bereaved as to have none to bring them any assistance, though in much want of it.
No one then thought that such a thing would take place, and Jeremiah was held in contempt, and some raged against him, and yet He shewed what would be. And that what he said might be more forcible, and produce a stronger effect, he speaks in their name, like a poet in a play, who describes a miser, and mentions things suitable to his character, making use of such words and actions, so that he cannot but see, as it were in a mirror, his own disposition and conduct. So also the Prophet does here; for when He saw that the stupid people could not be moved by the simple truth, he told them what they all ought to have felt in their liearts, and to have testified by their mouths, — that they were solitary, deserted by all who belonged to them, and that there was no one to bring them any help. (19) But he pursues, as we have said, the same metaphor. It follows —
(19) I should render the verse as follows —
My tent, it is laid waste, And all my curtains, they are broken; My sons, they have left me, and there are none of them; No one extends any more my tent, and sets up my curtains.
When the noun precedes its verb in Hebrew, I consider that it ought commonly to be rendered as above. “There are none of them,” that is, with me; not that they “were not,” that is, that they were dead. — Ed.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(20) My tabernacle . . .The tent which had been the home of Israel is destroyed, the cords that fastened it to the ground are broken, the children that used to help their mother in arranging the tent and its curtains are not, i.e. (as in Gen. 42:36; Jer. 31:15; Mat. 2:18), they are either dead or in exile. There is something significant in the fact that the destruction of the city is represented under the imagery of that of a tent. The daughter of Zion has, as it were, been brought back to her nomadic state.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
20. Tabernacle As though even at this time the tent was the ordinary dwelling.
Cords Those which stayed the tent.
Children are not Mat 2:13.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Jer 10:20 My tabernacle is spoiled, and all my cords are broken: my children are gone forth of me, and they [are] not: [there is] none to stretch forth my tent any more, and to set up my curtains.
Ver. 20. My tabernacle is spoiled. ] I am irreparably ruined; like as when a camp is quite broken up, not any part of a tent or hut is left standing.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
tabernacle = tent, or dwelling.
children = sons.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
tabernacle: Jer 4:20, Isa 54:2, Lam 2:4-6
my children: Jer 31:15, Job 7:8, Pro 12:7, Isa 49:20-22
there: Jer 4:20, Isa 51:16
Reciprocal: Jer 49:29 – curtains
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Jer 10:20. Tabernacle and cords are used figuratively because the nation had not used that structure since the days of Solomon. The clause means the temple was about to be demolished and 2Ki 25:9-10 records the fulfillment of that prediction. My children has reference to the citizens of Jerusalem Who were taken by the Babylonians and 2Ki 24:14 shows us fulfillment. Tent and curtains are used In the same sense as tabernacle and cords in the beginning of the verse.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
10:20 {m} My tabernacle is laid waste, and all my cords are broken: my children are gone from me, and they [are] not: [there is] none to stretch forth my tent any more, and to set up my curtains.
(m) He shows how Jerusalem will lament.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Their homes lay in ruins, and there was no one to help them rebuild them. Jerusalem, as a pitiful tent-dwelling mother, had lost her home and her children.