Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Jeremiah 13:21
What wilt thou say when he shall punish thee? for thou hast taught them [to be] captains, [and] as chief over thee: shall not sorrows take thee, as a woman in travail?
21. The construction and order in MT. are difficult, and the Hebrew words seem to have suffered some dislocation in the course of transmission. The general sense is: Those whom thou considerest to be thy friends (meaning Babylon, and perhaps the lesser neighbouring nations) are now to be thy harsh masters. This however is not clearly expressed in either text or mg. It is better, therefore, with Dr., to render “What wilt thou say, when he shall set over thee as head those whom thou hast thyself taught to be friends unto thee?” Cp. Eze 23:22 ff., where the “lovers” are enumerated.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Translate, What wilt thou say, O Jerusalem, when He, Yahweh, shall set over thee for head those whom thou hast taught to be thy bosom friends? The foreign powers, whose friendship she has been courting, will become her tyrants.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Jer 13:21
What wilt thou say when He shall punish thee?
A question to the impenitent
It was in view of certain threatened calamities that were to come on Judah from the hand of the Lord, that this question is asked of her. I put this question to each individual who is not obeying the Gospel of Christ. What wilt thou say, dying as thou art living, appearing before God in judgment as thou appearest to Him now, continuing impenitent, persisting in disobedience to the Gospel, if the character thou carriest into eternity be that which you are now forming for it? But perhaps you have no faith in future punishment; perhaps you do not believe that you, or any sinner will ever be brought into these circumstances. Then you have no faith in the veracity of God, or in the Bible as His Word. You are fulfillers of prophecy, for it is said (1Pe 3:1-22) there should be such as you. But you say, the belief is unreasonable; it conflicts with all our ideas of benevolence and justice. What! that a righteous moral Governor should punish incorrigible offenders, rebels that refuse to be reconciled to Him, though often invited, and the meanwhile most kindly dealt with by their injured Sovereign, and when the terms of reconciliation are easy as they could be made, and the whole expense of bringing it about is borne by God! The question is not, what now you have to say, for now you imagine you have a great deal to say. And some can speak long and fluently in a strain of self-exculpation; but then, when confronted with your Maker and Judge; and when all things are seen by the clear and searching light of eternity; then, what wilt thou say?
1. You will not be able to say that you were ignorant of the existence of the law, for the transgression of which you are condemned.
2. Nor can you say that this law is unintelligible. Whatever obscurity attaches to the doctrines of the Bible, none rests on its precepts.
3. Nor, again, can you reasonably complain of the character of this law. The law is holy, and the commandment holy, lust, and good. Its spirit is love; its tendency happiness.
4. Nor can you complain of any want of adaptation in this law; that it transcends your capacities, exceeds your natural powers of performance. No; you want no new faculty to obey it perfectly. You want only a rectified heart. You want but the will.
5. You cannot plead ignorance of its penalty. You cannot say that you were not warned of the consequences of disobedience; and that God strikes, before He speaks. What has not been done to deter you from sinning? What obstructions have not been thrown in your way to destruction! But you surmount them all. What then wilt thou say, when He shall punish thee? That you have never transgressed this law, or only once, or but seldom, and then inadvertently, through infirmity? This you will not say; you cannot. Who has not sinned many times, and deliberately? Will you say that your sin did no harm, injured no one, no one but God? But you must allow the Lawgiver to be the judge of that. The consequences of a particular sin He alone is able to trace out. Will you be able to say, that, when you had sinned, God hastened the execution of the sentence against you; waited not for a second offence, and gave you no opportunity to evade the stroke; that as soon as you found you had sinned, you were sorry, and penitently sought His face, but was spurned away; and that, seeing your case to be hopeless, you went on sinning in despair? What will you say? That there was an irreversible Divine decree that stood an insurmountable obstruction in your way to heaven, and even impelled you in the downward direction? You will see by the light of eternity that that was not the case, nor indeed the doctrine of those who were supposed to hold it. What then wilt thou say, when He shall punish thee? I can think of nothing, nothing exculpatory, nothing extenuating. You will be speechless, not through intimidation, but from conviction, not as unable to speak, but as having nothing to say; self-condemned, as well as condemned by your Judge; conscience confirming the decision against you, and your own self through all eternity reproaching you, and thus nourishing a worm gnawing within worse than the fire that shall burn about you. And shall it come to this? Shall this be the issue of life? (W. Nevins, D. D.)
Future punishment
I. The punishment supposed.
1. Sometimes it commences in the present world.
2. It will assuredly be inflicted after death.
3. It will be consummated at the judgment day.
4. It will be proportionate (Mat 19:27; Rom 2:6; Rev 2:23).
5. That it will be everlasting.
II. The interrogation presented.
1. Will you say it is unrighteous?
2. Will you say it is severe?
3. Will you say that you were not warned?
4. Will you plead for a further period of trial?
5. Will you confess your guilt, and seek mercy?
6. Will you endeavour to resist the almighty arm? (Isa 27:4; Nah 1:5)
7. Will you endeavour to meet your doom with firmness? (Pro 1:27; Rev 6:17.)
Application–
1. Future punishment may be averted. Bless God that you are favoured with time and opportunities; with mercy, and with gracious invitations.
2. Timely repentance, and sincere faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, will infallibly preserve you from the wrath to come. (J. Burns, D. D.)
The justice of future punishment
I. Offer three general remarks.
1. All the afflictions to the wicked have the nature of punishment: they are not salutary. Grace turns the serpent into a rod; but sin turns the rod into a serpent. The former turns poison into a remedy; the latter, the remedy into poison.
2. Punishment is the natural and necessary consequence of sin. If we drink of the cup of abominations, God will give us the cup of trembling (Psa 75:8).
3. Whoever are the immediate instruments of inflicting punitive evils, God is the author of them.
II. Consider the solemn inquiry in our text. What wilt thou say when He shall punish thee?
1. Wilt thou charge God with injustice, or say that the punishment is undeserved? To admit such a thought betrays the greatest insolence and pride, as well as an entire ignorance of all the principles of truth and righteousness (Rom 3:5-6; Rev 15:3; Rev 16:7).
2. Wilt thou say that God is severe and that though punishment be deserved, yet it is too great for the offence? (2Th 1:6-10.)
3. Wilt thou say that thou wast taken by surprise, without being warned; and that, therefore, judgments came unlooked for? The very heathens cannot say this; for as the creatures instruct them, so conscience warns them.
4. Wilt thou desire a further time of trial, that judgment may be deferred, and a longer season of probation be afforded thee? Instead of wishing for a greater extension of Divine forbearance, God might say to the dying and desponding sinner, The measure of thine iniquities is already full, and further forbearance would only make it run over. Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe.
5. Wilt thou say that thou hast sinned by an inevitable necessity, and that thy ruin was predetermined? But if this be the language of sinners in this world, it will not be so in the world to come. They will then know that if they were the slaves of sin and Satan, they were so voluntarily, and by choice; that if they were sold to commit iniquity, like Ahab, they sold themselves; and that if any spiritual blessing were withheld, it was that to which they had no claim and for which they had no desire (Jer 7:10; Isa 63:17; Mat 23:37 Joh 5:40; Act 2:23; Joh 12:39; Joh 15:22; Rom 9:19-20).
6. The question proposed in the text implies that the sinner will have nothing to say when he falls into the hands of God. (B. Beddome, M. A.)
A serious question
I. The punishment referred to. A freethinker once said, I am seventy years old, and have never seen such a place as hell, after all that has been said about it. A child at once replied, But have you ever been dead yet?
1. The punishment itself. This is brought before us–
(1) By express declarations.
(2) In figurative forms.
2. Its infliction.
(1) God, faithful to promises, must also be to threatenings.
(2) Graded, in accordance with degree of crime.
II. The persons on whom it will be inflicted.
1. Atheists.
2. Unbelievers.
3. Hypocrites.
4. Persecutors.
5. Backsliders.
III. The question, What wilt thou say? Many can talk now, revile, question, sneer. What will you say then? (Homiletic Magazine.)
No appeal
Advert to the time when, in the order of the Divine government, ungodly sinners will be punished according to law. What wilt thou say in extenuation of thy guilt, and against the justice of the punishment that He shall inflict upon thee?
1. Will you say that you did not know the law which you had broken? Whose fault was that? Had you not a Bible as your own? Had you not a law in your conscience which acquitted or accused you in the actions of life?
2. That you meant no wrong in what you had done? Then why do wrong? For pleasure? For profit? Was this any justification of wrong-doing?
3. That your sins had not done such evil as to deserve such punishment? Can you be a judge in this?
4. That God might have prevented you sinning, and the results of your sins, if He had been so disposed? Yes, had He destroyed your free agency. But did not God use means to prevent you, and you would not?
5. That you sinned only a short time in comparison with the duration of your punishment? Punishment is not given in its duration according to the time taken in the act of transgression. The act of murder, and its punishment.
6. That you have only done as others have done? A thousand doing wrong is no justification or extenuation of one doing a similar or the same wrong that they have committed.
7. That you have not been so bad as others? The law knows nothing of degrees in crime, so far as exempting from punishment. Besides, he that offends in one point is guilty of all.
8. That while you have done many things that have been wrong, you have done others that have been right? Doing a right will not save you from the punishment of doing a wrong.
9. That you had great temptations to do as you have done? But there were at your command resources of help sufficient to keep you from their power.
10. That you were led into sin by bad examples? There were good examples to follow as well as bad, why did you not follow them?
11. That you were never educated? Education has nothing to do with moral principles and actions.
12. That you were never warned or admonished against sin? Can this be true? If you were not, whose fault was it? Had you not warnings and admonitions of conscience and of the Spirit of God?
13. That the Spirit of God never strove with you? This is false, or Gods Word is, and human experience. Perhaps you so quenched the Spirit as to harden your heart.
14. That you were born into the world with a sinful nature, and could not help sinning? But God made every provision to meet your case in this respect.
15. That the inconsistencies of Christians were a stumbling block to you? If one man walk awry, or if he stumble, is that any reason why you should do so
16. That you were preordained by God to do as you have done? This is false, both in reason and in Scripture.
17. That your punishment is too severe? It is no wonder you should say this. Is it undeserved? Is it against law and justice?
18. That your punishment is more than you can bear? You should have thought of this before. Did you in committing sin think of how others could bear the wrong you were doing them? How God could bear your sins? (Local Preachers Treasury.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 21. Thou hast taught them to be captains, and as chief over thee] This is said of their enemies, whether Assyrians or Chaldeans: for ever since Ahaz submitted himself to the king of Assyria, the kings of Judah never regained their independence. Their enemies were thus taught to be their lords and masters.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
That is, thou wilt have nothing to say, but be wholly confounded and ashamed when God shall visit thee with this sore judgment, or when Nebuchadnezzars army sent by God shall visit thee; for thou, either by thy commerce and trading with them, or by thy so often calling them to thy assistance, or by thy idolatry borrowed from them, and other nations, hast taught them to be captains over thee; thy sorrows and affliction will come upon thee suddenly and terribly, as pain cometh upon a woman in travail; yea, and as certainly also.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
21. captains, andas chiefliterally, “princes as to headship”; or”over thy head,” namely, the Chaldeans. Rather, translate,”What wilt thou say when God will set them (the enemies, Jer13:20) above thee, seeing that thou thyself hast accustomed them(to be) with thee as (thy) lovers in the highest place(literally, ‘at thy head’)? Thou canst not say God does thee wrong,seeing it was thou that gave occasion to His dealing so with thee, byso eagerly courting their intimacy.” Compare Jer 2:18;Jer 2:36; 2Ki 23:29,as to the league of Judah with Babylon, which led Josiah to marchagainst Pharaoh-necho, when the latter was about to attack Babylon[MAURER].
sorrowspains, throes.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
What will thou say when he shall punish thee?…. Or, “visit upon thee” f; that is, either when God shall punish thee for thy sins, thou canst bring no charge of injustice against him, or murmur and repine at the punishment inflicted on thee; so Jarchi; to which agrees the Targum,
“when he shall visit on thee thy sin;”
or else, to which the following words seem to incline, when the enemy shall visit upon thee; so Kimchi and Abarbinel, when the Chaldeans shall come upon thee, and pay thee a visit, an unwelcome one; yet who wilt thou have to blame but thyself? so the Septuagint and Arabic versions render it, “when they shall visit thee”; these words are directed, not to the king, nor to the queen neither; but to the body of the people, the Jewish state, represented as a woman; who, upon consideration of things past, would have a great deal of reason to reflect upon themselves for what they had done in former times, which had led on to their ruin and destruction:
(for thou hast taught them to be captains, and as chief over thee;) the Jews showed the Assyrians the way into their country, used them to come thither, and taught them how to conquer them, and be masters over them; or, “hast taught them against thee” g; to thy hurt and detriment, to be captains or governors;
for an head, to have the rule over them: this was done by Ahaz, when he sent to Tiglathpileser king of Assyria to come and save him out of the hands of the kings of Syria and Israel, 2Ki 16:7 and by Hezekiah, when he showed the messengers of the king of Babylon all his treasures; these were invitations and temptations to come and plunder them:
shall not sorrows take thee as a woman in travail? denoting the suddenness of their calamities; the sharpness and severity of them; and that they would be inevitable, and could not be prevented.
f “quando visitabit super te”; Cocceius; “quum visitaverit super te”, Schmidt. g “docuisti istos contra te”, Piscator.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
As the Prophet observed that the Jews were in no way moved, he addressed them still further, and set before them what seemed then incredible, even the calamity, from which they thought they were able easily to defend themselves by means of their auxiliaries.
He then adds, What wilt thou then say? For the false teachers made a clamor, and whenever Jeremiah began to speak, they violently assailed him, and the common people also wantonly barked at him. As then they thus petulantly resisted God and his truths, the Prophet intimates that the time would come when they should become mute through shame: What wilt thou say then? he says, “Ye are now very talkative, and God cannot obtain a hearing from you; but he will check your wantonness, when the enemy shall distress you.” It is the same as though he had said, “It will not be the time then for your loquacity, for the Lord will constrain you to be silent.”
Some refer to God what follows, When, he shall visit you; but it ought on the contrary to be applied to the Chaldeans; for he immediately adds, But thou hast accustomed them, etc. There is indeed a change or an anomaly of number, but this is common in the prophets. When he uses the singular, the head of the army is referred to, but afterwards the whole forces are included. What then wilt thou say, when the enemy shall visit thee? He then adds, But then, etc.; that is, “If thou seekest to cast blame on others, when the Assyrians and the Chaldeans shall overwhelm thee, thou wilt attempt it in vain? for thou hast opened a passage for them, and hast accustomed them to be thy leaders over thy head.” For the Assyrians had a long time before been sent for by the Israelites; and the Jews also had formed confederacies with the Chaldeans against the Assyrians, before these monarchies were united. As then they had called them in as auxiliaries, they had accustomed them to rule, and, as it were, had set them over themselves. The case was similar to that of the Turks at this day, were they to pass over to these parts and exercise their authority; for it might be asked the French kings and their counsellors, “Whose fault it is that the Turks come to us so easily? It is because ye have prepared for them the way by sea, because ye have bribed them, and your ports have been opened to them; and yet they have wilfully exercised the greatest cruelty towards your subjects. All these things have proceeded from yourselves; ye are therefore the authors of all these evils.” So also now the Prophet upbraids the Jews, because they had accustomed the Chaldeans to be their leaders; and as they had set them over their own heads, he says to them, that it was no wonder that they were now so troublesome and grievous to them. (91)
He afterwards says, Shall not sorrows lay hold on thee as on a woman in travail? By this comparison he intimates, that the Jews gained nothing by their vain hopes; for when they should say, peace and security, destruction, such as they by no means expected, would suddenly come upon them. This similitude we know often occurs, and it is a very apt one; for a woman with child may be very cheerful and quietly enjoying herself, and yet a sudden pain may seize her. So also it will be with the wicked; they cannot now bear to hear anything sad or alarming, and they drive from them every fear as far as possible; but the more they harden themselves, the heavier is God’s vengeance which follows them, and which will overtake them suddenly and unexpectedly. As then it was incredible to the Jews, that the Chaldeans would soon come to lay waste their land, he says to them, “Surely sorrows will take hold on you, though you look not for them. Though a woman with child thinks not of her coming pain, yet it comes suddenly and cannot be driven away; so you will gain nothing by heedlessly promising to yourselves continual peace and quietness.” I cannot finish what follows today if I go on farther; I shall therefore put it off to the next Lecture.
(91) The best rendering of this clause is as follows: —
For thou hast taught them to be over the leaders in chief.
It is the feminine gender that is still used; and the queen or governess may be addressed as the representative of the ruling power in the land. — Ed.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(21) What wilt thou say?The verse is difficult, and requires an entire retranslation. What wilt thou (the daughter of Zion) say? for He (Jehovah) shall set over thee as head those whom thou taughtest (=tried to teach) to be thy familiar friends. This was to be the end of the alliance in which Judah had trusted. She had courted the Chaldean nobles as her lover-guides and friends (the word is the same as in Jer. 3:4; Psa. 55:13; Pro. 2:17; Pro. 16:28). Another possible construction gives, shall set over thee those whom thou delightest to be thy friends as head over thee, i.e., those whose supremacy Judah had acknowledged in order that she might court their alliance. What could come then but that which was to the Hebrew the type of extremest anguish (Isa. 13:8; Isa. 21:3; Psa. 48:6), the travail-pangs which were followed by no joy that a man was born into the world (Joh. 16:21)?
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
21. When he shall punish thee This verse should read: What wilt thou (Jerusalem) say if he (Jehovah) shall set over thee, for a head, those whom thou accustomed to be thy bosom friends? The word “punish,” in our version, is quite incorrect. The thought is: You cannot complain of the divinely appointed visitation of these heathen enemies, since you have courted their intimacy.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Jer 13:21. For thou hast taught them, &c. Houbigant renders it, Since thou hast made them expert against thee, and hast drawn-them upon thine own head. “Thou hast frequently called them to thy succour, and taught them the way to thy country, whereof they dreamed not before; and not only thus, but by accumulating crimes upon crimes, and filling up the measure of thine iniquity, thou hast drawn down the vengeance of heaven, and put thyself in the power of the Chaldeans.” See Calmet.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Jer 13:21 What wilt thou say when he shall punish thee? for thou hast taught them [to be] captains, [and] as chief over thee: shall not sorrows take thee, as a woman in travail?
Ver. 21. For thou hast taught them to be captains, and as chief over thee, ] scil., By thy crouching unto them, and craving their help, thou hast made the Chaldeans masters of all thou hast. So did the British princes Vortiger and Vortimer bring in the Saxons here, and the Greeks the Turks.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
wilt: Jer 5:31, Jer 22:23, Isa 10:3, Eze 28:9
punish: Heb. visit upon
for: 2Ki 16:7, Isa 39:2-4
shall not: Jer 4:31, Jer 6:24, Jer 30:6, Jer 48:41, Isa 13:8, Isa 21:3, 1Th 5:3
Reciprocal: Gen 3:16 – in sorrow Jer 4:30 – And when Jer 23:2 – I Jer 49:22 – the heart of the Jer 51:47 – do judgment upon Eze 22:14 – Thine heart Hos 13:13 – sorrows Amo 3:2 – punish Mar 13:8 – sorrows
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Jer 13:21. What wilt thou say means, what defence or answer can you offer when you see the condition about to be described? The pronoun he refers to God who Is going to punish thee (the people of Judah) by the hand of the Babylonians. For thou, hast taught them (the Babylonians); not literally, but by their devotion to the same kind of gods the Babylonians worshiped, these heathen people were encouraged to take the reins over the people of God (and this by His decree). The result will be that the people of Judah will be thrown into the terrors of national sorrow compared with the tremors or pains of a woman approaching childbirth.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
13:21 What wilt thou say when he shall punish thee? for thou hast {k} taught them [to be] captains, [and] as chief over thee: shall not sorrows take thee, as a woman in travail?
(k) By seeking to strangers for help, you have made them skilful to fight against you.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
What would the city say when the Lord appointed other rulers over her whom the leaders of Jerusalem had cultivated, namely, the Mesopotamians? This may be a reference to King Ahaz’s earlier request for Assyrian help against Israel and Aramea (2Ki 16:7; Isa 8:5-8). [Note: Kelley, p. 193.] However, there were many times when Judah had relied on and courted Mesopotamian powers in the past (cf. Jer 4:30). Jerusalem would be in agony over this situation, like a woman in labor pains.