Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Jeremiah 18:13
Therefore thus saith the LORD; Ask ye now among the heathen, who hath heard such things: the virgin of Israel hath done a very horrible thing.
13. Ask ye now among the nations ] Cp. ch. Jer 2:10 f., Jer 5:30.
the virgin of Israel ] The people collectively (see on Jer 4:11), tended with the utmost care by the Almighty, have in spite of it all broken through the sanctity which hedged them around. Cp. Jer 14:17 for the collective use of the expression.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
The contrast between the chaste retirement of a virgin and Judahs eagerness after idolatry, serves to heighten the horror at her conduct.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 13. The virgin of Israel] Instead of Yisrael, three of Kennicott’s and De Rossi’s MSS., with the Alexandrian copy of the Septuagint, have Yerushalem, Jerusalem.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
God was moved at this desperate obstinacy and hardness of this peoples hearts, he appeals to the world whether ever any heathens behaved themselves so towards their idols, which were no gods, as this people had, behaved themselves towards him. He calls Israel a
virgin; it is a term given to Zidon, Isa 23:12, and to Babylon, Isa 47:1. The horrible thing which they had done was their forsaking God, their God, a thing not usual amongst the heathens, as God tells them, Jer 2:11.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
13. (Jer 2:10;Jer 2:11). Even among the heathenit was a thing unheard of, that a nation should lay aside its godsfor foreign gods, though their gods are false gods. But Israelforsook the true God for foreign false gods.
virgin of Israel (2Ki19:21). It enhances their guilt, that Israel was the virginwhom God had specially betrothed to Him.
horrible thing (Jer5:30).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Therefore thus saith the Lord,…. This being the case of the people of the Jews, and they so resolutely bent on their own ways:
ask ye among the Heathen; inquire among the nations of the world, the Gentiles that know not the true God, and have not the external revelation of his will, only the dim light of nature to guide them; and see if anything like this is to be found among them, as with this people, favoured with the law of God, his word and ordinances to direct them, and his prophets to teach and instruct them; suggesting that they were worse than the Heathens, and that it would be more tolerable for them, one day, than for these people:
who hath heard such things? as expressed in the preceding verses; such desperate words, such bold and daring expressions, such impious resolutions; for generally, when persons are reproved and threatened for sin, they promise amendment; or what is after related concerning their idolatries; intimating that nothing like it was ever heard of among the Gentiles; see Jer 2:10;
the virgin of Israel hath done a very horrible thing; the congregation of Israel, as the Targum; the people of the Jews, ironically so called; because they had been espoused to the Lord as a chaste virgin, and ought to have remained so, pure and incorrupt in the worship of him; but had committed spiritual adultery, that is, idolatry; even very gross acts of it; horrible to hear and think of; enough to make a man’s hair stand an end to be told of; or what was very filthy and abominable, and to be loathed and detested, which is explained,
Jer 18:15; unless it can be thought to refer to what goes before, concerning their dreadful resolution to continue in their evil ways.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Va. 13-17: JUDAH’S SIN IS CONTRARY TO NATURE
1. Jeremiah often protests the UNNATURALNESS of Judah’s attitude toward the Lord, (Jer 2:11; Jer 2:32; Jer 5:22-23; Jer 8:7).
2. The horrible things that have become the habitual practice of “the virgin of Israel” is UNPRECEDENTED AMONG THE NATIONS! (vs. 13; comp. Jer 5:30; Jer 23:14; Hos 6:10).
3. While the course of nature moves, from age to age, according to unchanging principles, the actions of this people have become both inconsistent and IRRATIONAL! (vs. 14). ,
4. In their transgression, they have utterly forsaken the ancient path and the covenant wherein they once enjoyed the fellowship of Jehovah their God – forgetting the true and living God, that they may burn incense before stocks and stones! (vs. 15a).
5. What may they, then, expect, but that the curses of a broken covenant shall fall upon them? (vs. 15b-17; Isa 65:6-7).
a. Having stumbled, they no longer follow the highway of holiness, but rush headlong down the path that leads to destruction, (vs. 15a).
b. The covenant LAND also suffers, in – consequence of Judah’s sin; such is her desolation that those who pass through shake their heads, in astonishment, at the stupidity of a people who would forfeit so much to lavish their affections upon that which is NO-GOD! (vs. 16; Jer 25:9; comp. Jer 50:13; contrast: Isa 37:21-22).
c. The Sirocco (a hot, dry, scorching, suffocating and destructive east wind) symbolizes the nature of their scattering before the enemy, (vs. 17; Jer 13:24-25; Jer 2:27; Jer 32:23; comp. Pro 1:24-31).
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
God shews here that the Jews were become wholly irreclaimable, for they arrived at the highest pitch of impiety, when they were so daring as to reject the salvation offered to them; for what had the Prophet in view but, to extricate them from ruin? God himself by his Prophet wished to secure their safety. How great then was their ingratitude to reject God’s paternal care, and not to give ear to the Prophet who was to be a minister of salvation to them? Now as they were extremely deaf and stupid: God turns to the Gentiles.
Enquire, or ask, he says, among the Gentiles, Has any one heard such a thing? as though he had said, “I will no more contend with those brute animals, for there is no reason in them; but the Gentiles, destitute of the light of knowledge, can be made witnesses of so gross an impiety.” And he says the same thing in Jer 2:10,
“
Go, pass through the isles and survey the whole world, has any nation forsaken its own gods, and yet they are no gods?”
As though he had said, “Religion so much prevails among wretched idolaters, that they continue steadfast in their superstitions; as they consider it a dreadful thing to change their god, they therefore shun it as a monstrous thing. Hence it is, that they are devoted to their superstitions, for the god whom they have once received, they think it the highest impiety to forsake, while yet they are no gods; but my people have forsaken me, who am the fountain of living water.” Jeremiah repeats now the same thing in other words, that such an example could not be found among heathens.
He then adds, A base thing has the virgin of Israel done. Some indeed render שעררת, shorret, “a monstrous thing,” and it may be thus taken metaphorically, for the verb שער shor, means to count, to think; and this meaning may be adopted here; but as in many places it signifies baseness, I will not depart from that common meaning. (198) He says then, that it was an extremely base thing for the people to forsake him. He does not call the people the virgin of Israel by way of honor, but to augment their reproach. For God, as we have before seen, had espoused the people to himself; and so it was their duty to observe conjugal fidelity, as a virgin espoused by a husband, who ought not to regard any other, for she is not to look for any other after she has pledged her faith. But the people of Israel, who ought to have been as it were the bride of God, sinned most basely, yea, most disgracefully and infamously, when they prostituted themselves to wicked counsels as well as to superstitions. He now adds comparisons, by whichlte more fully exposes their wickedness, —
(198) It is rendered in the Septuagint and Vulgate as a noun in the plural number, and more suitably in this place, —
13. Therefore thus saith Jehovah, Enquire I pray among the nations, Who hath heard such things as these — The horrible things which she hath fully done, The virgin of Israel.
The particle מאד, much, very much, etc., must from its position be construed with the verb, and not with “horrible.” It may be rendered, “which she hath done excessively.” — Ed
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
D. The Accusation Against the Nation Jer. 18:13-15
TRANSLATION
(13) Therefore thus says the LORD: Ask now among the nations who has heard such things. An exceedingly horrible thing has the virgin of Israel done! (14) Does the snow of Lebanon depart from the rock of the field? Shall the strange, cold flowing waters be dried up?[211] (15) Yet My people have forgotten Me; they offer incense to vanities which caused them to stumble in their ways, the paths of old, to walk in by-paths, a way that is not built up.
[211] The Hebrew says plucked up. The reading dried up, which is followed by the American Standard Version, necessitates reversing two letters in the word in question.
COMMENTS
In Jer. 18:13-15 Jeremiah presses the point that the nation has a serious flaw of which the divine Potter is acutely aware. Judahs horrible sin, unheard of among foreign nations, is that she has rejected her God. A virgin should keep herself undefiled for her future husband; but the virgin of Israel has defiled herself with the worship of heathen deities (Jer. 18:13). That this national apostasy is unnatural is brought out by two rhetorical questions in Jer. 18:14. Does the snow of Lebanon depart from the rock of the field? The summit of Lebanon is snowcapped the year around. The snow does not leave the mountain even in the hottest weather. Shall the strange, cold flowing waters be dried up? The reference here is probably to the mountain streams which perpetually flow down the slopes of the Lebanon mountains. These waters are called strange or foreign because they are not of Israel. The basic implication of the two questions is that nature pursues her course unchanged whereas Judah has unnaturally changed her course. They have offered incense to vanities or nothingness, i.e., nonentities. These idols have been major stumbling blocks in the paths of the men of Judah. The people of God have forsaken the old paths (cf. Jer. 6:16) to walk in by-paths. A great deal of effort went into preparing a first class roadway in antiquity (see Isa. 40:3-4). But the people of Judah preferred to travel a way that is not built or cast up. i.e., a road that was not properly constructed but just carelessly trodden down. Instead of the ancient, well-marked paths of righteousness the people of God had chosen rather to walk in footpaths which were not clearly defined and led to no place. Such paths are unfit for any child of God to trod!
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(13) Ask ye now among the heathen.The appeal of Jer. 2:10-11 is renewed. Judah had not been true, even as heathen nations were true, to its inherited faith and worship. The virgin daughter of Israel (Isa. 1:8; Jer. 14:17)the epithet is emphasised, as contrasted with the shame that followshad fallen from a greater height to a profounder depth of debasement.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
13. Heathen Literally, nations. The word is steadily used as standing over against Israel. Hence the version is good.
Virgin of Israel See on Isa 1:8; Jer 14:17.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
What a striking expostulation is in the opening of these verses? The Lord sends his people to ask of the heathen, among whom it was never known, of such apostasy from their dunghill gods, as Israel manifested in backsliding from the true God. In hot sultry climates, how grateful is the cold flowing water to the traveller? And was it ever known to be rejected? Whereas Israel revolted continually from the Lord. Reader! let us not confine this subject to Israel of old: but pause and enquire whether the Israel of God now, manifest a closer walking with the Lord? Alas! how disposed are we to leave the fountain of living waters, and to be hewing out to ourselves cisterns, broken cisterns, wherein is no water! Jer 2:13 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Jer 18:13 Therefore thus saith the LORD; Ask ye now among the heathen, who hath heard such things: the virgin of Israel hath done a very horrible thing.
Ver. 13. Therefore thus saith the Lord. ] God himself seemeth here to wonder at the desperate obstinace of this people, as not to be matched again. Like as our Saviour marvelled at the unbelief of the Nazarites, and could do for them no mighty work. Mar 6:5-6 See Trapp on “ Mar 6:5 “ See Trapp on “ Mar 6:6 “
The virgin of Israel hath done a very horrible thing.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Jer 18:13-17
13Therefore thus says the LORD,
‘Ask now among the nations,
Who ever heard the like of this?
The virgin of Israel
Has done a most appalling thing.
14Does the snow of Lebanon forsake the rock of the open country?
Or is the cold flowing water from a foreign land ever snatched away?
15For My people have forgotten Me,
They burn incense to worthless gods
And they have stumbled from their ways,
From the ancient paths,
To walk in bypaths,
Not on a highway,
16To make their land a desolation,
An object of perpetual hissing;
Everyone who passes by it will be astonished
And shake his head.
17Like an east wind I will scatter them
Before the enemy;
I will show them My back and not My face
In the day of their calamity.’
Jer 18:13-17 This strophe describes the horrible and unique situation of a nation changing her god/gods (cf. Jer 2:9-13). YHWH formed/created them but now they have forgotten (BDB 1013, KB 1489, Qal PERFECT, cf. Jer 2:32; Jer 3:21; Jer 13:25) Him, the only true God (see Special Topic: Monotheism ), the One who brought them into existence, protected them, provided for them, was personally present with them!
How could this happen?
1. They burned incense to worthless gods.
2. They stumbled from God’s clearly revealed way (i.e., ancient paths, cf. Jer 6:16; Psa 16:11; Psa 139:24).
3. They walked in bypaths that were not YHWH’s path.
What are the consequences of their choices/actions?
1. The land of promise will be a desolation.
2. It will be a sign of shame and scorn (lit. shake the head, cf. Jer 48:27).
3. They will be scattered (cf. Lev 26:33; Jer 9:16; Jer 13:24; Jer 31:10).
4. YHWH will show them His back and not His face (this is a revocalization of the MT).
Jer 18:13 a most appalling thing This phrase is used of a nation changing gods. The word appalling (BDB 1045 III, KB 1619 III) has several forms.
1. = horrible things, cf. Jer 5:30; Jer 23:14
2. = something horrible, cf. Jer 18:13; Hos 6:10
3. = rotten figs, cf. Jer 29:17
Jer 18:14 This verse (a parenthetical statement) is difficult to translate. It obviously describes that which normally or expectedly occurs. Here apparently, the snow stays on Mt. Hermon and its melted waters continually flow down. Nature can be predicted with regularity, but not the seed of Abraham!
Jer 18:15 worthless gods See Special Topic following.
SPECIAL TOPIC: EMPTY, VAIN, FALSE, NOTHINGNESS
Not on a highway Jer 18:15 resumes the theme of Jer 18:13. The theme of a special highway is recurrent in Isaiah.
1. a highway for the exiled Jews to return, Isa 11:16; Isa 57:14
2. a highway for Gentile worshipers to come, Isa 19:23
3. a highway of holiness, Isa 26:7; Isa 35:8; Isa 43:19; Isa 49:11; Isa 51:10
4. a Messianic highway, Isa 40:3; Isa 42:16
Jer 18:16-17 This is exactly opposite of what YHWH wanted to do for His covenant people who He settled in His land. They were to be a light to the nations, but they became an object of scorn and astonishment (cf. Eze 36:22-23).
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
heathen = nations.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Jer 18:13-17
Jer 18:13-14
THE FOLLY OF JUDAH’S CHOICE
Therefore thus saith Jehovah: Ask ye now among the nations, who hath heard such things; the virgin of Israel hath done a very horrible thing. Shall the snow of Lebanon fail from the rock of the field? [or] shall the cold waters that flow down from afar be dried up?
“The willfulness of Israel in forsaking Jehovah their God was without parallel in the ancient world, as Jeremiah had already mentioned in Jer 2:9-13; Jer 5:20-25, and in Jer 8:7. The horror is heightened by calling her a virgin. She had indeed been a virgin hedged about by the Lord to protect her sanctity.”
There are no known examples of where ancient peoples ever forsook their ancestral or tribal gods; but Israel indeed had denied the very God who delivered them from slavery and made a mighty nation of them.
Israel had forsaken her status as a virgin and had prostrated herself abjectly before the sensuous fertility gods of ancient Canaan, the worship of which was a key factor in God’s proscribing and displacing the Canaanites in order to give the land to Israel! It was not merely horrible, but incredible as well. “Their sin was as irrational as it was tragic.”
With reference to Jer 18:14, Thompson said: “All translations of this verse are conjectural; but while certainty is not possible the main thrust of the passage is clear.” The view preferred by this writer is that God is here comparing the irrational and almost incredible behavior of Israel to that of a foolish farmer who would desert a farm watered by the melting snows of Lebanon’s Mount Hennon, in favor of an arid, rocky desert farm! Feinberg accepted this same understanding of the passage, saying that, “Nature does not change its course, but Judah has. Nature’s reliability puts to shame Israel’s instability.”
Jer 18:15-17
CONSEQUENCES OF JUDAH’S CHOICE
For my people have forgotten me, they have burned incense to false [gods]; and they have been made to stumble in their ways, in the ancient paths, to walk in bypaths, in a way not cast up; to make their land an astonishment, and a perpetual hissing; every one that passeth thereby shall be astonished, and shake his head. I will scatter them as with an east wind before the enemy; I will show them the back, and not the face, in the day of their calamity.
The ancient ways…
(Jer 18:15). These were the way of loyalty to God’s covenant, the ‘good way’ mentioned in Jer 6:16. The false prophets, false priests, false rulers and false gods of Israel had mined the nation; and, as a consequence, God would scatter the nation as with an east wind; their land shall be destroyed, deserted, and an astonishment to all who see it! These were terrible words of denunciation, and such a prophecy as this was well calculated to arouse fierce and implacable opposition and hatred from the false community leaders.
The back, and not the face…
(Jer 18:17). This signifies God’s withdrawal of his favor from the people at the very time when their calamity would come and their need of him would be the most acute; but, after all, the people themselves had given their God this very same treatment (See Jer 2:27). Now it would be God’s turn to turn his back upon them.
The Accusation Against the Nation Jer 18:13-15
In Jer 18:13-15 Jeremiah presses the point that the nation has a serious flaw of which the divine Potter is acutely aware. Judahs horrible sin, unheard of among foreign nations, is that she has rejected her God. A virgin should keep herself undefiled for her future husband; but the virgin of Israel has defiled herself with the worship of heathen deities (Jer 18:13). That this national apostasy is unnatural is brought out by two rhetorical questions in Jer 18:14. Does the snow of Lebanon depart from the rock of the field? The summit of Lebanon is snowcapped the year around. The snow does not leave the mountain even in the hottest weather. Shall the strange, cold flowing waters be dried up? The reference here is probably to the mountain streams which perpetually flow down the slopes of the Lebanon mountains. These waters are called strange or foreign because they are not of Israel. The basic implication of the two questions is that nature pursues her course unchanged whereas Judah has unnaturally changed her course. They have offered incense to vanities or nothingness, i.e., nonentities. These idols have been major stumbling blocks in the paths of the men of Judah. The people of God have forsaken the old paths (cf. Jer 6:16) to walk in by-paths. A great deal of effort went into preparing a first class roadway in antiquity (see Isa 40:3-4). But the people of Judah preferred to travel a way that is not built or cast up. i.e., a road that was not properly constructed but just carelessly trodden down. Instead of the ancient, well-marked paths of righteousness the people of God had chosen rather to walk in footpaths which were not clearly defined and led to no place. Such paths are unfit for any child of God to trod!
The Devastation of the Land Jer 18:16-17
The inevitable result of abandoning the God-ordained way is desolation and destruction. All who pass by will be amazed, shocked and astonished at what has befallen the once proud little nation of Judah. They will wag their heads in a scornful sneer at the wicked and stupid folly of the people who had forsaken their God (Jer 18:16). God will scatter the men of Judah before their enemies just as men scatter and seek refuge when the torrid east wind, the so-called sirocco, begins to sweep in from the desert. God will turn his back upon them in that day of calamity and he will not listen to their cries for help (Jer 18:17) An alternate translation of the last Part of Jer 18:17 is: On their back and not their face I w1ll look in the day of calamity. In this case the meaning would be: When they flee before their enemies I will see their backs and will not intervene to save them.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
Ask: Jer 2:10-13
who: 1Sa 4:7, Isa 66:8, 1Co 5:1
virgin: Jer 2:13, Jer 14:17, Jer 31:4, Isa 36:22, Lam 1:15
a very: Jer 5:30, Jer 23:14, Hos 6:10
Reciprocal: 2Ki 19:21 – The virgin Son 4:15 – streams Amo 5:2 – virgin
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Jer 18:13. Virgin of Israel is a figurative way of designating the people of God because they were supposed to be pure in their religious conduct. However, they were not and God is going to shame them by comparing them to the nations that did not have half the advantages that the Lord’s people had.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Jer 18:13-14. Ask ye now among the heathen Such an apostacy as you are guilty of (see Jer 18:15) is not to be paralleled among the heathen. Compare Jer 2:10. Who hath heard such things When did people ever behave toward their idols, which yet were no gods, as my people have behaved toward me? The virgin of Israel That people who were dedicated to me as a chaste virgin, have since corrupted themselves, and gone a whoring after idols. Will a man leave the snow of Lebanon, &c. The two similitudes in this verse are evidently designed to illustrate the unnatural and absurd conduct of the Jewish nation in deserting their own God, and adopting the superstitions of a strange idolatry, in preference to the good old paths which God had ordained for them to walk in. As to the first, Lebanon, it must be observed, was the highest mountain in Israel, lying to the north of it, and having its summit almost always covered with snow; from the whiteness of which it is supposed to have derived its name. See Ancient Univ. Hist. vol. 1. book 1. p. 570, fol. The same circumstance is also recorded by Tacitus, Hist. lib. 5. c. 6. Prcipuum montium Libanum erigit, mirum dictu, tantos inter ardores opacum fidumque nivibus. If we follow the translation in our text, the sense is, It is as strange and unreasonable for men to forsake the true God for idols, as it would be for a thirsty traveller to forego the cold refreshing streams that come in his way, flowing from the melting snows of Lebanon, or the clear waters issuing from a pure spring, in order that he might drink of the stagnant waters of some muddy pool. But, it is to be observed, the words a man, and which cometh, are not in the Hebrew, but supplied by our translators, and considerably alter the sense, which literally is, Will the snow of Lebanon cease from the rock of the field? That is, Will it cease to flow, &c. And by the rock of the field, may be meant the rocks on the level ground on the very top of Lebanon; from which the snow, being melted, flowed down into the vales at the bottom of the mountain. Or, shall the cold overflowing waters, running down, fail? The Vulgate translates the verse to exactly the same sense, Nunquid deficiet de petra agri nix Libani; aut evelli possunt aqu erumpentes frigid, et defluentes? And the LXX. to nearly that sense, , ; ; Shall the breasts (that is, the springs) fail from the rock, or snow from Lebanon? Shall water, borne along violently by the wind, turn aside? The sense of the verse seems to be, that the Jews ought no more to have failed in their adherence to the true God, and his service, than the snow on mount Lebanon, or the waters which flow from that mountain into the fields under it, ever fail; in other words, That, as the works of nature preserve their order, and fail not of answering the ends for which they were appointed; so the Jews ought not to have failed of performing their duty to, and showing forth the praises of, Him who chose them to be his peculiar people, and conferred singular privileges upon them in order to these very ends.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Israel’s unnatural behavior and its consequences 18:13-17
In this message, Jeremiah contrasted the unnatural apostasy of the people with the constancy of nature (cf. Jer 2:10-13).
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Yahweh indicted the people of Judah through His prophet, asking if any other nation had ever done what Israel had done. As a virgin, she had done something appalling. She had polluted herself with the practices of pagan religion-including sexual immorality. She had played the harlot.