Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Jeremiah 13:22
And if thou say in thine heart, Wherefore come these things upon me? For the greatness of thine iniquity are thy skirts discovered, [and] thy heels made bare.
Made bare – Rather, ill-used, treated with violence. The long flowing robes worn by ladies of rank, are to be laid aside, that they might do menial work, bare-legged, like slaves. The ill-usage to the heels is the having to tramp barefoot, a thing very painful to women accustomed to the seclusion of the female apartments.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 22. Are thy skirts discovered] Thy defenceless state is every where known; thou art not only weak, but ignominiously so. It is thy scandal to be in so depressed a condition; thou art lower than the basest of thy adversaries, and thou art so because of thy sin.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Hypocrites will rarely confess their own shame and Gods righteousness, but are ready to expostulate and dispute with God, and to call him to account why he hath dealt so with them, as if God had dealt unjustly. But (saith God) if thou shouldst have any such thoughts in thine heart, do but remember thine iniquities, how many and how great they have been, thy nakedness is discovered because of these, and for these thou art exposed to contempt and shame. Probably these phrases are fetched from the usual practice of soldiers, when they have conquered a place and taken prisoners, to strip them, and leave those of either sex, either no clothes to cover their nakedness, or nothing but their own rags, not sufficient to cover their nakedness. By skirts is meant the lower part of their bodies covered with the lower part of their garments.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
22. if thou sayconnectingthis verse with “What wilt thou say” (Jer13:21)?
skirts discoveredthatis, are thrown up so as to expose the person (Jer 13:26;Isa 3:17; Nah 3:5).
heels made bareThesandal was fastened by a thong above the heel to the instep. TheHebrew, is, “are violently handled,” or “tornoff”; that is, thou art exposed to ignominy. Image from anadulteress.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And if thou say in thine heart,…. Not daring to express it with the mouth; and which, notwithstanding, God, that knows the heart, was privy to, and could discern all the secret workings of it; putting such a question as this:
wherefore come these things upon me? all these calamities, the invasion and siege of the enemy, famine, sword, captivity, c.: the answer returned is,
for the greatness of thine iniquity the enormous crimes the Jews were guilty of, such as idolatry, blasphemy, c. which were attended with aggravated circumstances: or, “for the multitude of thine iniquity” h their sins being so many, as well as great:
are thy skirts discovered, and thy heels made bare; being obliged to walk naked and barefoot, their buttocks uncovered, and their legs and feet naked, without stockings or shoes, as captives used to be led, to their great shame and disgrace; see Isa 20:2. The phrases are expressive of captivity, and the manner of it; the cause of which was the greatness and multitude of their sins. The Targum is,
“because thy sins are multiplied, thy confusion is revealed, thy shame is seen.”
h “propter multitudinem iniquitatis tuae”, Pagninus, Montanus, Vatablus, Schmidt.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
This will befall the daughter of Zion for her sore transgressions. Therefore will she be covered with scorn and shame. The manner of her dishonour, discovery of the skirts (here and esp. in Jer 13:26), recalls Nah 3:5, cf. Isa 47:3; Hos 2:5. Chr. B. Mich. and others understand the violent treatment of the heels to be the loading of the feet with chains; but the mention of heels is not in keeping with this. Still less can the exposure of the heels by the upturning of the skirts be called maltreatment of the heels; nor can it be that, as Hitz. holds, the affront is simply specialized by the mention of the heels instead of the person. The thing can only mean, that the person will be driven forth into exile barefoot and with violence, perhaps under the rod; cf. Psa 89:52.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| Punishment Predicted; Causes of Jerusalem’s Ruin. | B. C. 606. |
22 And if thou say in thine heart, Wherefore come these things upon me? For the greatness of thine iniquity are thy skirts discovered, and thy heels made bare. 23 Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil. 24 Therefore will I scatter them as the stubble that passeth away by the wind of the wilderness. 25 This is thy lot, the portion of thy measures from me, saith the LORD; because thou hast forgotten me, and trusted in falsehood. 26 Therefore will I discover thy skirts upon thy face, that thy shame may appear. 27 I have seen thine adulteries, and thy neighings, the lewdness of thy whoredom, and thine abominations on the hills in the fields. Woe unto thee, O Jerusalem! wilt thou not be made clean? when shall it once be?
Here is, I. Ruin threatened as before, that the Jews shall go into captivity, and fall under all the miseries of beggary and bondage, shall be stripped of their clothes, their skirts discovered for want of upper garments to cover them, and their heels made bare for want of shoes, v. 22. Thus they used to deal with prisoners taken in war, when they drove them into captivity, naked and barefoot, Isa. xx. 4. Being thus carried off into a strange country, they shall be scattered there, as the stubble that is blown away by the wind of the wilderness, and nobody is concerned to bring it together again, v. 24. If the stubble escape the fire, it shall be carried away by the wind. If one judgment do not do the work, another shall, with those that by sin have made themselves as stubble. They shall be stripped of all their ornaments and exposed to shame, as harlots that are carted, v. 26. They made their pride appear, but God will make their shame appear; so that those who have doted on them shall be ashamed of them.
II. An enquiry made by the people into the cause of this ruin, v. 22. Thou wilt say in thy heart (and God knows how to give a proper answer to what men say in their hearts, though they do not speak it out; Jesus, knowing their thoughts, replied to them, Matt. ix. 4), Wherefore came these things upon me? The question is supposed to come into the heart, 1. Of a sinner quarrelling with God and refusing to receive correction. They could not see that they had done any thing which might justly provoke God to be thus angry with them. They durst not speak it out; but in their hearts they thus charged God with unrighteousness, if he had laid upon them more than was meet. They seek for the cause of their calamities, when, if they had not been willfully blind, they might easily have seen it. Or, 2. Of a sinner returning to God. If there come but a penitent thought into the heart at any time (saying, What have I done? ch. viii. 6, wherefore am I in affliction? why doth God contend with me?) God takes notice of it, and is ready by his Spirit to impress the conviction, that, sin being discovered, it may be repented of.
III. An answer to this enquiry. God will be justified when he speaks and will oblige us to justify him, and therefore will set the sin of sinners in order before them. Do they ask, Wherefore come these things upon us? Let them know it is all owing to themselves.
1. It is for the greatness of their iniquities, v. 22. God does not take advantage against them for small faults; no, the sins for which he now punishes them are of the first rate, very heinous in their own nature and highly aggravated–for the multitude of thy iniquity (so it may be read), sins of every kind and often repeated and relapsed into. Some think we are more in danger from the multitude of our smaller sins than from the heinousness of our greater sins; of both we may say, Who can understand his errors?
2. It is for their obstinacy in sin, their being so long accustomed to it that there was little hope left of their being reclaimed from it (v. 23): Can the Ethiopian change his skin, that is by nature black, or the leopard his spots, that are even woven into the skin? Dirt contracted may be washed off, but we cannot alter the natural colour of a hair (Matt. v. 36), much less of the skin; and so impossible is it, morally impossible, to reclaim and reform these people. (1.) They had been long accustomed to do evil. They were taught to do evil; they had been educated and brought up in sin; they had served an apprenticeship to it, and had all their days made a trade of it. It was so much their constant practice that it had become a second nature to them. (2.) Their prophets therefore despaired of ever bring them to do good. This was what they aimed at; they persuaded them to cease to do evil and learn to do well, but could not prevail. They had so long been used to do evil that it was next to impossible for them to repent, and amend, and begin to do good. Note, Custom in sin is a very great hindrance to conversion from sin. The disease that is inveterate is generally thought incurable. Those that have been long accustomed to sin have shaken off the restraint of fear and shame; their consciences are seared; the habits of sin are confirmed; it pleads prescription; and it is just with God to give those up to their own hearts’ lusts that have long refused to give themselves up to his grace. Sin is the blackness of the soul, the deformity of it; it is its spot, the discolouring of it; it is natural to us, we were shapen in it, so that we cannot get clear of it by any power of our own. But there is an almighty grace that is able to change the Ethiopian’s skin, and that grace shall not be wanting to those who in a sense of their need of it seek it earnestly and improve it faithfully.
3. It is for their treacherous departures from the God of truth and dependence on lying vanities (v. 25): “This is thy lot, to be scattered and driven away; this is the portion of thy measures from me, the punishment assigned thee as by line and measure; this shall be thy share of the miseries of this world; expect it, and think not to escape it: it is because thou hast forgotten me, the favours I have bestowed upon thee and the obligations thou art under to me; thou hast no sense, no remembrance, of these.” Forgetfulness of God is at the bottom of all sin, as the remembrance of our Creator betimes is the happy and hopeful beginning of a holy life. “Having forgotten me, thou hast trusted in falsehood, in idols, in an arm of flesh in Egypt and Assyria, in the self-flatteries of a deceitful heart.” Whatever those trust to that forsake God, they will find it a broken reed, a broken cistern.
4. It is for their idolatry, their spiritual whoredom, that sin which is of all sins most provoking to the jealous God. They are exposed to a shameful calamity (v. 26) because they have been guilty of a shameful iniquity and yet are shameless in it (v. 27): “I have seen thy adulteries (thy inordinate fancy for strange gods, which thou hast been impatient for the gratification of, and hast even neighed after it), even the lewdness of thy whoredoms, thy impudence and insatiableness in them, thy eager worshipping of idols on the hills in the fields, upon the high places. This is that for which a woe is denounced against thee, O Jerusalem! nay, and many woes.”
IV. Here is an affectionate expostulation with them, in the close, upon the whole matter. Though it was adjudged next to impossible for them to be brought to do good (v. 23), yet while there is life there is hope, and therefore still he reasons with them to bring them to repentance, v. 27. 1. He reasons with them concerning the thing itself: Wilt thou not be made clean? Note, It is the great concern of those who are polluted by sin to be made clean by repentance, and faith, and a universal reformation. The reason why sinners are not made clean is because they will not be made clean; and herein they act most unreasonably: “Wilt thou not be made clean? Surely thou will at length be persuaded to wash thee, and make thee clean, and so be wise for thyself.” 2. Concerning the time of it: When shall it once be? Note, It is an instance of the wonderful grace of God that he desires the repentance and conversion of sinners, and thinks the time long till they are brought to relent; but it is an instance of the wonderful folly of sinners that they put that off from time to time which is of such absolute necessity that, if it be not done some time, they are certainly undone for ever. They do not say that they will never be cleansed, but not yet; they will defer it to a more convenient season, but cannot tell us when it shall once be.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
The Prophet again declares that God’s judgment would be just, which he had previously foretold; for hypocrites, we know, do not cease to quarrel with God, except they are often proved guilty; and it is always their object, where they cannot wholly excuse themselves, to extenuate in some measure their fault. The Prophet therefore here removes every pretense for evasion, and declares that they were wholly worthy of such a reward.
But his manner of speaking ought to be noticed, If thou wilt say in thine heart, etc. Hypocrites do not only claim for themselves righteousness before the world, but they also deceive themselves, and the devil so dementates them with a false persuasion, that they seek to be counted just before God. This then is what the Prophet sets forth when he says, If thou wilt say in thine heart, Why have these evils happened to me? (92) that is, if thou seekest by secret murmuring to contend with God, the answer is ready, — Because of the multitude of thine iniquity, discovered are thy skirts, and thy heels are denuded.” The multitude of iniquity he calls that perverse wickedness which prevailed among the Jews; for they had not ceased for a long time to provoke the wrath of God. Had they only once sinned, or had been guilty of one kind of sin, there would have been some hope of pardon, at least God would not have executed a punishment so severe; but as there had been an uninterrupted course of sinning, the Prophet shews that it would not be right to spare them any longer.
As to the simile, it is a form of speaking often used by the prophets, that is, to denude the soles of the feet, and to discover the skirts. We know that; men clothe themselves, not only to preserve them from cold. but that they also cover the body for the sake of modesty: there is therefore a twofold use of garments, the one occasioned by necessity, and the other by decency. As then clothes are partly made for this end — to cover what could not be decently shewn or left bare without shame, the prophets use this mode of speaking when they have in view to shew that one is exposed to public reproaJeremiah (93) It afterwards follows —
(92) The verb is here in the singular, and is followed by a nominative in the plural; the very same anomaly exists in Welsh. The line would be literally the same in that language, —
(lang. cy) Pam y digwyddodd i mi y pethau hyn ?
But if “these things” preceded the verb, it would be in the plural. — Ed.
(93) The three last lines are as follows: —
For the number of thine iniquity Discovered have been thy skirts, Violently stripped off have been thy heels.
“
Skirts” here stand for the parts covered by them, and “heels” for the sandals which were worn. Both the Septuagint and the Vulgate mention the parts, and not skirts — “the hinder parts,” “the uncomely parts,” but they retain the word “heels.” The metonomy exists, no doubt, as to both. The Syriac has “skirts” and “ankles.” The Targum gives the meaning, “confusion” and “ignominy.” The past time is used for the future. — Ed.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(22) Are thy skirts discovered.The skirts, or flowing train, worn by women of rank, the removal of which was the sign of extremest degradation (Isa. 20:4; Isa. 47:2; Eze. 23:29; Hos. 2:3; Nah. 3:5).
Thy heels made bare.Better, outraged, or disgraced, made to walk barefoot, like menial slaves; possibly, like the outcast harlot. Compare Isaiahs walking naked and barefoot as the symbol of the coming degradation of his people (Isa. 20:2-4).
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
22. Skirts discovered Lifted so as to expose the person, expressive of ignominy and shame.
Heels made bare Driven into exile as captives and slaves, barefoot and with violence.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Jer 13:22. Thy skirts discovered, &c. See Isa 20:4; Isa 47:2-3. Houbigant reads, And thy heels galled [with irons.]
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Jer 13:22 And if thou say in thine heart, Wherefore come these things upon me? For the greatness of thine iniquity are thy skirts discovered, [and] thy heels made bare.
Ver. 22. Are thy skirts discovered. ] Thou art brought to most miserable shame and servitude, having scarce a rag to thy back, or a shoe for thy foot.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
iniquity. Hebrew. ‘avah. App-44.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
if: Deu 7:17, Deu 8:17, Deu 18:21, Isa 47:8, Zep 1:12, Luk 5:21, Luk 5:22
Wherefore: Jer 5:19, Jer 16:10, Jer 16:11
the greatness: Jer 2:17-19, Jer 9:2-9, Hos 12:8
skirts: Jer 13:26, Isa 3:17, Isa 20:4, Isa 47:2, Isa 47:3, Lam 1:8, Eze 16:37-39, Eze 23:27-29, Hos 2:3, Hos 2:10, Nah 3:5
made bare: or, shall be violently taken away
Reciprocal: 2Ch 7:21 – Why Jer 2:25 – Withhold Jer 14:16 – for Eze 16:36 – and thy Eze 23:26 – strip Mic 1:11 – thou inhabitant of Saphir
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Jer 13:22. Judah might wonder why all this disgrace was brought upon her and will inquire about It. The answer is indicated by the latter part of this verse. All through the Bible idolatry Is likened to adultery and the various factors connected with such a life. A harlot could be punished by having her body exposed contrary to her desire and at a time when she did not wish to engage In her accustomed loose occupation. Such is the meaning of the threat to remove her skirts and expose her body to public scorn. This figurative prediction was to be fulfilled when Judah was taken into Babylon and there forcibly committed to a life of spiritual adultery (idolatry) with the nation that had practiced that iniquity from its beginning.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Jer 13:22. If thou say, Wherefore come these things upon me? Hypocrites will rarely confess their own shame and Gods righteousness, but are ready to expostulate with him, and to inquire why he hath dealt so with them, as if he had treated them unjustly. But, saith God, For the greatness of thine iniquity are thy skirts discovered, &c. That is, thou art carried into captivity, stripped and bare, without covering to thy nakedness; it being the barbarous custom of conquerors, in ancient times, to treat their captives with such indignities in conducting them to the place of their intended residence: see note on Isa 3:17; and Nah 3:5. Lowth thinks the words may also allude to the punishment that used to be inflicted upon common harlots and adulteresses, which was to strip them naked, and expose them to the eyes of the world: and thus God threatened he would deal with Jerusalem, upon account of her spiritual fornication.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
13:22 And if thou shalt say in thy heart, Why come these things upon me? For the greatness of thy iniquity are thy skirts {l} uncovered, [and] thy heels made bare.
(l) The cloak of hypocrisy will be pulled off, and your shame seen.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
If the people of the city asked themselves why such a state of affairs had overtaken them, they should remember that it was due to the greatness of their sins. The Lord would humiliate the city because it had humiliated Him. Lifting the skirt is a euphemism for sexual attack (cf. Lev 18:6-19; Lev 20:17; Deu 22:30; Deu 27:20; Isa 47:3; Nah 3:5), and exposing the heels seems to have been another one (cf. Deu 28:57; 1Sa 24:3; Isa 6:2). One scholar took the "exposed heels" to mean "driven into exile barefooted." [Note: Keil, 1:241.]