Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Jeremiah 11:11
Therefore thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will bring evil upon them, which they shall not be able to escape; and though they shall cry unto me, I will not hearken unto them.
11 13. Gi. from considerations of style makes these vv. the work of a later hand. The last two vv. much resemble ch. Jer 2:27 f.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
I will bring – Or, am bringing.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Evil upon them which they shall not be able to escape; a judgment from which they shall by no means be delivered, by any counsels of their own, or assistance of their friends and allies.
And though they shall cry unto me, I will not hearken unto them; and though prayer to me hath been their usual course in such cases, and I have delivered them, yet I will no more hear them, though they cry unto me, Pro 1:28,29; Zec 7:11,13. God will not hear them crying to him in their adversity, who refuse to hear him speaking to them in their prosperity.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
11. cry unto mecontrastedwith “cry unto the gods,” (Jer11:12).
not hearken (Psa 18:41;Pro 1:28; Isa 1:15;Mic 3:4).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Therefore thus saith the Lord, behold, I will bring evil upon them,…. The evil of punishment for the evil of their sins, such as famine, the sword, captivity, which latter is the evil more especially designed; and there is no evil of this nature but what is of God; it is of his sending and bringing; see Am 3:6:
which they shall not be able to escape; they should not have wisdom enough to form a scheme, nor power enough to put one in execution when formed, whereby they could extricate themselves out of the difficulties they would be in; doubtless reference is had to their being besieged by the Chaldean army, the evil that should come out of the north, Jer 1:14, which should so closely surround them, that none should escape:
and though they shall cry unto me, I will not hearken unto them: because their prayers were hypocritical, and not attended with faith and true repentance; otherwise, when men cry to God, under a sense of sin, being truly sorry for it, and put their trust in him, he hears them, and delivers them; but these would be concerned only for the evil that was come upon them, and not the evil they had been guilty of; and such sinners, when they pray to him, the Lord hears not. The Targum is,
“and they shall pray before me, and I will not receive their prayers.”
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
| Deplorable Condition of Judah. | B. C. 606. |
11 Therefore thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will bring evil upon them, which they shall not be able to escape; and though they shall cry unto me, I will not hearken unto them. 12 Then shall the cities of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem go, and cry unto the gods unto whom they offer incense: but they shall not save them at all in the time of their trouble. 13 For according to the number of thy cities were thy gods, O Judah; and according to the number of the streets of Jerusalem have ye set up altars to that shameful thing, even altars to burn incense unto Baal. 14 Therefore pray not thou for this people, neither lift up a cry or prayer for them: for I will not hear them in the time that they cry unto me for their trouble. 15 What hath my beloved to do in mine house, seeing she hath wrought lewdness with many, and the holy flesh is passed from thee? when thou doest evil, then thou rejoicest. 16 The LORD called thy name, A green olive tree, fair, and of goodly fruit: with the noise of a great tumult he hath kindled fire upon it, and the branches of it are broken. 17 For the LORD of hosts, that planted thee, hath pronounced evil against thee, for the evil of the house of Israel and of the house of Judah, which they have done against themselves to provoke me to anger in offering incense unto Baal.
This paragraph, which contains so much of God’s wrath, might very well be expected to follow upon that which goes next before, which contained so much of his people’s sin. When God found so much evil among them we cannot think it strange if it follows, Therefore I will bring evil upon them (v. 11), the evil of punishment for the evil of sin; and there is no remedy, no relief: the decree has gone forth and the sentence will be executed.
I. They cannot help themselves, but will be found too weak to contest with God’s judgments: it is evil which they shall not be able to escape, or to go forth out of, by any evasion whatsoever. Note, Those that will not submit to God’s government shall not be able to escape his wrath. There is no fleeing from his justice, no avoiding his cognizance. Evil pursues sinners and entangles them in snares out of which they cannot extricate themselves.
II. Their God will not help them; his providence shall no way favour them: Though they shall cry unto me, I will not hearken to them. In their affliction they will seek the God whom before they slighted, and cry to him whom before they would not vouchsafe to speak to. But how can they expect to speed? For he has plainly told us that he that turns away his ears from hearing the law, as they did, for they inclined not their ear (v. 8), even his prayer shall be an abomination to him, as the word of the Lord was now to them a reproach.
III. Their idols shall not help them, v. 12. They shall go, and cry to the gods to whom they now offer incense, and put them in mind of the costly services wherewith they had honoured them, expecting they should now have relief from them, but in vain. They shall be sent to the gods whom they served (Jdg 10:14; Deu 32:37; Deu 32:38), and what the better? They shall not save them at all, shall do nothing towards their salvation, nor give them any prospect of it; they shall not afford them the least comfort, nor relief, nor mitigation of their trouble. It is God only that is a friend at need, a present powerful help in time of trouble. The idols cannot help themselves; how then should they help their worshippers? Those that make idols of the world and the flesh will in vain have recourse to them in a day of distress. If the idols could have done any real kindness to their worshippers, they would have done it for this people, who had renounced the true God to embrace them, had multiplied them according to the number of their cities (v. 13), nay, in Jerusalem, according to the number of their streets. Suspecting both their sufficiency and their readiness to help them, they must have many, lest a few would not serve; they must have them dispersed in every corner, lest they should be out of the way when they had occasion for them. In Jerusalem, the city which God had chosen to put his name there, publicly in the streets of Jerusalem, in every street, they had altars to that shameful thing, that shame, even to Baal, which they ought to have been ashamed of, with which they did reproach the Lord and bring confusion upon themselves. But now in their distress their many gods, and many altars, should stand them in stead. Note, Those that will not be ashamed of their commission of sin as a wicked thing will be ashamed of their expectations from sin as a fruitless thing.
IV. Jeremiah’s prayers shall not help them, v. 14. What God had said to him before (ch. vii. 16) he here says again, Pray not thou for this people. This is not designed for a command to the prophet, so much as for a threatening to the people, that they should have no benefit by the prayers of their friends for them. God would give no encouragement to the prophets to pray for them, would not stir up the spirit of prayer, but cast a damp upon it, would put it into their hearts to pray, not for the body of the people, but for the remnant among them, to pray for their eternal salvation, not for their deliverance from the temporal judgments that were coming upon them; and what other prayers were put up for them should not be heard. Those are in a sad case indeed that are cut off from the benefit of prayer. “I will not hear them when they cry, and therefore to not thou pray for them.” Note, Those that have so far thrown themselves out of God’s favour that he will not hear their prayers cannot expect benefit by the prayers of others for them.
V. The profession they make of religion shall stand them in no stead, v. 15. They were originally God’s beloved, his spouse, he was married to them by the covenant of peculiarity; even the unbelieving Jews are said to be beloved for the fathers’ sake, Rom. xi. 28. As such they had a place in God’s house; they were admitted to worship in the courts of his temple; they partook of God’s altar; they ate of the flesh of their peace-offerings here called the holy flesh, which God had the honour of and they had the comfort of. This they gloried in, and trusted to. What harm could come to those who were God’s beloved, who were under the protection of his house? Even when they did evil yet they rejoiced and gloried in this, made a mighty noise of this. And when their evil was (so the margin reads it), when trouble came upon them, they rejoiced in this, and made this their confidence; but their confidence would deceive them, for God has rejected it, they themselves having forfeited the privileges they so much boasted of. They have wrought lewdness with many, have been guilty of spiritual whoredom, have worshipped many idols; and therefore, 1. God’s temple will yield them no protection; it is fit that the adulteress, especially when she has so often repeated her whoredoms and has grown so impudent in them and irreclaimable, should be put away, and turned out of doors: “What has my beloved to do in my house? She is a scandal to it, and therefore it shall no longer be a shelter to her.” 2. God’s altar will yield them no satisfaction, nor can they expect any comfort from that: “The holy flesh has passed from thee, that is, an end will soon be put to thy sacrifices, when the temple shall be laid in ruins; and where then will the holy flesh be, that thou art so proud of?” A holy heart will be a comfort to us when the holy flesh has passed from us; an inward principle of grace will make up the want of the outward means of grace. But woe unto us if the departure of the holy flesh be accompanied with the departure of the Holy Spirit.
VI. God’s former favours to them shall stand them in no stead, Jer 11:16; Jer 11:17. Their remembrance of them shall be no comfort to them under their troubles, and God’s remembrance of them shall be no argument for their relief. 1. It is true God had done great things for them; that people had been favourites above any people under the sun; they had been the darlings of heaven. God had called Israel’s name a green olive-tree, and had made them so, for he miscalls nothing; he had planted them (v. 17), had formed them into a people, with all the advantages they could have to make them a fruitful and flourishing people, so good was their law and so good was their land. One would think no other than that a people so planted, so watered, so cultivated, should be, as the olive-tree is, ever green, in respect both of piety and prosperity, Ps. lii. 8. God called them fair and of goodly fruit, both good for food and pleasant to the eye, both amiable and serviceable to God and man, for which the greenness and fatness of the olive both are honoured, Judg. ix. 9. 2. It is as true that they have done evil things against God. He had planted them a green olive, a good olive, but they had degenerated into a wild olive, Rom. xi. 17. Both the house of Israel. and the house of Judah had done evil, had provoked God to anger in burning incense unto Baal, setting up other mediators between them and the supreme God besides the promised Messiah; nay, setting up other gods in competition with the true and living God, for they had gods many, as well as lords many. 3. When they have conducted themselves so ill they can expect no other than that, notwithstanding what good he has done to them and designed for them, he should now bring upon them the evil he has pronounced against them. He that planted this green olive-tree, and expected fruit from it, finding it barren and grown wild, has kindled fire upon it, to burn it as it stands; for, being without fruit, it is twice dead, plucked up by the roots (Jude 12), it is cut down and cast into the fire, the fittest place for trees that cumber the ground, Matt. iii. 10. The branches of it, the high and lofty boughs (so the word signifies), are broken are broken down, both princes and priests cut off. And thus it proves that the evil done against God, to provoke him to anger, is really done against themselves; they wrong their own souls; God is out of their reach, but they ruin themselves. See ch. vii. 19. Note, Every sin against God is a sin against ourselves, and so it will be found sooner or later.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
The Prophet now denounces on them a calamity; for it is probable that for many years he had been as their teacher threatening them, but all in vain. Hence he now confirms what we have before observed, — that their impious conspiracy was fully known and proved, so flint they were not now to be called or drawn before the judge’s tribunal, as they had so openly procured for themselves their own ruin.
He then says, that God was, as it were, armed to take vengeance; I will bring, he says, upon them an evil from which they shall not be able to go away (39) Then he adds, and they shall cry to me, but I will not hear them By this latter clause he shews that no hope remained, as they could get no pardon from God, for he would no longer be entreated by them. The import of the whole is, — that they were so given up to destruction, that it was in vain for them to expect God’s mercy. God had indeed often promised in his law that he would be reconciled to them; but the Prophet says now that every hope was cut off, because they had rejected God’s covenant. Hence, whatever God had promised respecting his kindness and mercy, belonged to them no longer.
Let us now learn also how to accommodate this doctrine to ourselves. And, first, we may remark, that there is a great difference between us, who have been plainly, and for a long time, taught what is the true and lawful worship of God, and those miserable people who were blind in darkness; hence much more atrocious is our sin and worthy of much heavier punishment. Then we may also add this, — that though God may for a time bear with us, the whole time of his forbearance will have to be accounted for. There is no day in which God does not accuse us; and thus he rises early, and thus he shews us what concern he has for our salvation; but if we remain asleep in our sloth, a threatening this day is suspended over our heads, and especially when we consider that God comes nearer, as it were, to us than to his ancient people. And hence we may also learn how much less tolerable is our ingratitude. It ought, therefore, to be carefully noticed, that God is armed against those before whom he has set his word, not only for one day but for many years, when he has found that he has labored in vain; and that when he is offended with their obstinate wickedness, there is no more any remedy.
But it may be asked here, How is it that God declares here that he would not be propitious to the Israelites, though they even cried to him, when yet this promise so often occurs,
“
Call on me, and I will hear thee?” (Psa 50:15)
Though God does not everywhere use such words, yet in many places he makes this promise. But still it may appear inconsistent that he closes up the door of mercy against those who flee to his mercy. But in the next verse he shews what this cry would be; for had they from the heart repented, doubtless his pardon would never have been denied: but we shall presently see that these cries would be rambling, vagrant, and confused; so that they would not direct their prayers to God, nor observe the way which is made known to us all; for they would cry Without repentance and faith, according to what follows; for the Prophet says —
(39) The literal rendering is as follows: —
11. Therefore thus saith Jehovah, — Behold, I will cause to come on them an evil, From which they shall not be able to go forth: And they shall loudly cry to me, But I will not hearken to them.
The third line in Welsh is literally the Hebrew, —
(lang. cy) Yr hwn his gallant vyned allan ohono. Which they will not be able to go forth from it.
The verb זעק is not merely to cry, but to cry loudly, or vehemently, or clamorously; the effect of great distress impatiently endured.Our version and Blayney are wrong in rendering ו And thought It is not what may have been, is meant, but what would be. It is expressly foretold what they would do; and corresponding with this are all the versions and the Targum. — Ed.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(11) I will bring evil.The Hebrew expresses immediate action, I am bringing.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
Jer 11:11 Therefore thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will bring evil upon them, which they shall not be able to escape; and though they shall cry unto me, I will not hearken unto them.
Ver. 11. Which they shall not be able to escape. ] To avert, avoid, or abide.
I will not hearken unto them.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Behold. Figure of speech Asterismos. App-6.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
I will bring: Jer 11:17, Jer 6:19, Jer 19:3, Jer 19:15, Jer 23:12, Jer 35:17, Jer 36:31, 2Ki 22:16, 2Ch 34:24, Eze 7:5
which: Jer 15:2, Pro 29:1, Isa 24:17, Amo 2:14, Amo 2:15, Amo 5:19, Amo 9:1-4, 1Th 5:3, Heb 1:3, Rev 6:16, Rev 6:17
escape: Heb. go forth of
cry: Jer 14:12, Psa 18:41, Psa 66:18, Pro 1:28, Isa 1:15, Eze 8:18, Mic 3:4, Zec 7:13, Luk 13:24-28
Reciprocal: Gen 6:3 – My Job 27:9 – Will God Job 35:13 – God Jer 11:14 – for Jer 14:2 – the cry Eze 14:3 – should Hos 5:6 – they Joh 9:31 – we know Jam 4:3 – and
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Jer 11:11. The evil which the Lord said he would bring on bis people was the Babylonian captivity and it was only a few years in the future when this was written. Not be able to escape means bis people cannot escape being taken into captivity; not that they never would be released from It, for they were.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
11:11 Therefore thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will bring evil upon them, which they shall not be able to escape; and though they shall cry to me, {g} I will not hearken to them.
(g) Because they will not pray with true faith and repentance, but for the pain and grief which they feel, Pro 1:28 .
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
The result of this conduct would be disaster for them all. The Lord would bring this upon them, and all their appeals to Him for relief would be of no avail. People who do not listen are not heard.