Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Jeremiah 21:14
But I will punish you according to the fruit of your doings, saith the LORD: and I will kindle a fire in the forest thereof, and it shall devour all things round about it.
14. and I will kindle, etc.] Cp. on Jer 17:27.
in her forest ] i.e. Jerusalem, which is likened to a forest about to be wholly consumed by fire. For the same figure, representing in that case the people of Israel, cp. Isa 9:18. The expression does not mean literal trees, of which there was nothing like a forest in the neighbourhood of the city, but denotes either the houses clustering together like a forest, or, more generally, the beauty and grandeur of the place. Cp. for the general sense note on Gilead, etc. ch. Jer 22:6; also Isa 10:34, where Sennacherib, king of Assyria, is likened to “the thickets of the forest,” and to “Lebanon.”
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
The forest – This suggested to the Jew the idea of everything grand and stately.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 14. I will kindle a fire in the forest thereof] I will send destruction into its centre, that shall spread to every part of the circumference, and so consume the whole.
The beginning of the thirty-fourth chapter should follow here. See the arrangement on Jer 21:1.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
I will punish you; in the Hebrew it is, I will visit upon you. Gods visitations are either of mercy, Psa 80:14; 106:4, or of judgment; therefore the sense is here rightly given by our translators punish. According to the fruit of your doings; the fruit of mens doings is the product of their actions; God punisheth the fruit of our doings. In showing mercy, he acts from prerogative; in punishments, he doth but fill men with their own ways, and give them according to the fruit of their doings; so Jer 21:12.
I will kindle a fire in the forest thereof; by the forest he either meaneth the forest of Lebanon, or their houses made up of wood cut out of that forest, or their idolatrous groves.
And it shall devour all things round about it; and this fire he saith should not determine in the destruction only of this city, but in the total destruction of all the country adjacent to Jerusalem.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
14. fruit of your doings(Pro 1:31; Isa 3:10;Isa 3:11).
forest thereofnamelyof your city, taken from Jer21:13. “Forest” refers to the dense mass of housesbuilt of cedar, c., brought from Lebanon (Jer 22:7Jer 52:13; 2Ki 25:9).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
But I will punish you according to the fruit of your doings,
saith the Lord,…. The situation of their city, and the strength of its fortifications, however sufficient they might be thought to keep out an enemy from annoying them; yet it was impossible to hinder the Lord’s coming among them, as he here threatens to do; and “visit” them, as the word signifies, in a way of wrath and justice, according to the demerit of their sins, expressed by “the fruit of their doings”; their punishment was the reward of their unrighteousness, the effect of their sinful practices; and, though this was dreadful and terrible, they could not but own it was just and equitable:
and I will kindle a fire in the forest thereof; not in the forest of Lebanon, but in the city of Jerusalem; whose houses stood as thick as trees in a forest, and which many of them, at least the most stately, might be built or ceiled with cedars from Mount Lebanon and its forest; though some understand this of the cities and towns about Jerusalem; and so the Targum renders it, “in its cities”; and the Syriac version, “its towns”; but these seem rather meant in the following clause:
and it shall devour all things round about it; the mountains and trees upon them, the cities and towns adjacent.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
But God, on the contrary, says, Behold I will come to thee, or against thee, and will visit thee. There is, indeed, a change of number; for he says, I will visit you, for he had begun by saying, “Ye who say,” האמרים, eamrim. I will visit upon you, he says, the fruit of your doings; that is,
“
I will deal with you according to what you have done, as your works deserve.” Merit is to be taken for reward. Then God threatens that he would render to the Jews what they merited, because they had not ceased to provoke his wrath.
He adds, lastly, I will kindle a fire in its forest Some take “forest” metaphorically for the neighboring towns; but this seems foreign to the Prophet’s meaning. I do not, indeed, deny but that there is a metaphor in the words; but then the word forest is not to be applied to towns and villages, but to the buildings of the city itself, according to a mode of speaking elsewhere used by the Prophets. As their houses were built of a large quantity of wood, of tall and most choice trees, the Prophet compares this mass of wood to a forest. We may, however, give a simpler explanation, and I know not whether it be more suitable that the Prophet points out Lebanon. He then means by the forest of the city the trees of Lebanon, which we know were particularly fine, for their loftiness were everywhere known; and we know also that they were very large. As, then, a part of their false glory was Mount Lebanon, the Prophet distinctly intimates that it would serve as a help to burn the city itself; for when God burned Jerusalem, he would take from the vicinity materials for the purpose. (31)
Now, as we understand the meaning of the Prophet, let us learn how to apply this passage. We have said elsewhere that nothing is more hateful to God than false confidence; when men, relying on their own resources, promise to themselves a happy and a safe condition, they become torpid in their own security. Thus it comes, that they despise God, and never flee to him; they scorn his judgments, and at length are carried away by a mad impulse to every kind of insolence. This is the reason why the Prophets so often and so sharply reprove secure men, for they become presumptuous towards God when they are touched by no regard for him, and with no fear of him. They then not only dishonor God by transferring the hope of their safety to mere means or such helps as they foolishly depend on, but they also think that they are not under the authority of God. Hence it is, that they promise themselves impunity, and thus become wholly hardened in their sins. Now follows —
(31) “The Word ‘forest’ is often metaphorically taken for a city in the prophetical writings, because its stately buildings, or its principal inhabitants, resemble tall cedars standing in their several ranks. See Jer 22:7; Isa 37:24; Eze 20:46; Zecheriah. 11:1.” — Lowth.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(14) I will kindle a fire in the forest thereof.The forest thus referred to may be either literally the woods, then covering a larger surface than in later times, at Kirjath-jearim (Psa. 132:6; 1Sa. 7:2), or the wood of the lone wilderness of Ziph (1Sa. 23:15), or the valley of Rephaim (2Sa. 5:22), or, figuratively, the royal palace, which, from its cedar columns (1Ki. 7:2; 1Ki. 10:21), was known as the house of the forest of Lebanon. (Comp. the comparison of the kings house to Gilead and the head of Lebanon, in Jer. 22:6.) The desolation wrought by an invading army such as that of Nebuchadnezzar, cutting down the choice fir-trees of Lebanon and the forest of Carmel (2Ki. 19:23), showed itself in this destruction of forests in its most conspicuous form, and explains the comparative scarcity of trees in modern Palestine. So Assur-nasirpal narrates, in the history of his conquests, how he had cut down the pine, box, cypress, and other trees of the forest (Records of the Past, iii. p. 74).
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
14. In answer to the self-secure question of the preceding verse, “Who shall come down against us?” the terrible answer comes, the Lord! The strong city has no defences against Him, and he it is who will accomplish its overthrow.
Forest The dense mass of houses, built, many of them, of the Lebanon cedar. Hence the expressions in Jer 22:6, “Gilead” and “head of Lebanon.”
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
REFLECTIONS
READER! let you and I learn from the perusal of this Chapter; how needful it must be in times of trouble to have first learnt, and to have known the Lord in times of safety. What a sad state was Zedekiah and his army in when the King of Babylon’s army made war against them. But what a more awful and tremendous state is that man in, when death draweth near, and the Lord is departed from him! Oh! Reader! think, and let the thought never be parted with, until grace hath followed it up to the means of safety in Christ! how truly overwhelmed with sorrow must every man be in by nature, whose conscience then condemns, and there is no whisper of Jesus to speak peace? There is no discharge in that war!
Lamb of God! oh by every endearing name let me adjure thee to be thyself the safety to all thy redeemed, in thy blood and righteousness! Lord! when a more formidable foe, than even the Chaldean army, comes up upon this people, and there is no way in man to escape; do thou take up our person and our cause, and deliver for thy name’s sake, according to the multitude of thy tender mercies! Amen.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Jer 21:14 But I will punish you according to the fruit of your doings, saith the LORD: and I will kindle a fire in the forest thereof, and it shall devour all things round about it.
Ver. 14. But I will punish you. ] a And if I take you once to do, you are sure of your full payment. Heb., I will visit upon thee according to the fruit of your actions, i.e., I will lay upon you a punishment answerable to your sins; the sin being as the seed, and the punishment as the fruit that cometh of it – q.d., ” Ye have sown the wind, and ye shall reap the whirlwind.”
And I will kindle a fire in the forest thereof,
a Puniam vos pro meritis.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
kindle a fire, &c. Reference to Pentateuch (Deu 32:22). App-92.
the forest thereof = her forest. Put by Figure of speech Metonymy (of Cause), App-6, for the timber from Lebanon used in the buildings.
it shall devour. Fulfilled in Jer 52:13.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
punish: Heb. visit upon, Jer 9:25, Jer 11:22, Isa 10:12, Isa 24:21, *marg.
according: Jer 6:29, Jer 17:10, Jer 32:19, Pro 1:31, Isa 3:10, Isa 3:11, Gal 6:7, Gal 6:8
in the: Jer 22:7, Isa 10:18, Isa 10:19, Isa 27:10, Isa 27:11, Isa 37:24, Eze 20:46-48, Zec 11:1
shall: Jer 52:13, 2Ch 36:19
Reciprocal: Jer 17:27 – then Jer 22:6 – surely Jer 50:32 – kindle Lam 4:11 – kindled Eze 20:47 – I will kindle Mic 7:13 – for
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Jer 21:14. This verse is a mingling of literal and figurative language, The houses were literally burned and many of the inhabitants were slain. We have no direct history of material destruction of the forests, but they did boast of their great wooded territories. Moreover, they used trees from the foreBt in their service of idolatry and the captivity was to put an end to that practice.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
21:14 But I will punish you according to the fruit of your doings, saith the LORD: and I will kindle a fire {h} in its forest, and it shall devour all things around it.
(h) That is, in the houses of it, which stood as thick as trees in the forest.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Nevertheless, the Lord promised to punish the residents for their evil deeds (cf. Jer 21:5). He would kindle a fire in its forest, perhaps a reference to the House of the Forest of Lebanon, one of the palace complex buildings (1Ki 7:2). The fire would spread to other buildings in Jerusalem.
"Not only will the Divine Warrior fight against them, but also their Dwelling Place will destroy their dwelling places!" [Note: Drinkard, p. 294.]
"All her surroundings, how much more than the city itself!" [Note: Keil, 1:332.]
The subject of the next oracle is, again, a Davidic king of Judah, but which one is unknown.