Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Jeremiah 10:16
The portion of Jacob [is] not like them: for he [is] the former of all [things]; and Israel [is] the rod of his inheritance: The LORD of hosts [is] his name.
16. The parallelism of clauses is improved by the LXX’s omission (probably therefore rightly) of two words in MT. The LXX render accordingly, “For the former of all things is his inheritance.”
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
The portion, of Jacob – i. e., Yahweh. He is not like gods made by a carpenter and goldsmith.
Of all things – literally, of the all, the universe.
The rod of his inheritance – See Psa 74:2; compare Isa 63:17. The rod is the scepter, and Israel the people over whom Yahweh especially rules.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 16. The Portion of Jacob is not like them] Every nation had its tutelary god; this was its portion; in reference to this God says De 4:19, “He has divided the sun, moon, and stars, to all the nations under the heaven.” And the Lord had taken the Israelites to be his portion; for “the Lord’s portion is his people,” De 32:9, and David says, “The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance,” Ps 16:5; Ps 119:57. And hence Isaiah terms the smooth stones of the brook, to which Divine honours were paid, the portion of those idolaters, Isa 57:6. But in the text he says, “The PORTION, i.e., the God of Jacob is not like them; for he is the former of all things,” and they are formed by their foolish worshippers.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
The portion of Jacob; a periphrasis for the true God, who vouchsafeth to be the portion of his people and to be so called, Deu 32:9; Psa 16:5, and many other places, because he is in covenant with his people in the Messiah, whose co-heirs are as dear to him as a portion is that descends to a man by inheritance; and he tells you his name in the close of the verse, Isa 47:4, one who hath the whole host of heaven and earth at his disposal.
He is the former of all things; idols are things framed and formed, but God is the former of all things, the Maker of heaven and earth.
Israel is the rod of his inheritance; so called, because the portions and inheritances of Israel were measured by a line, reed, or rod, and therefore called the
rod of his inheritance, Deu 32:9; Psa 74:2, and because they were his by a continual line of succession; beside Israel is schebet, the rod or sceptre of his inheritance, because God did set up his kingdom in Israel.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
16. portionfrom a Hebrewroot, “to divide.” God is the all-sufficient Good ofHis people (Num 18:20; Psa 16:5;Psa 73:26; Lam 3:24).
not like themnot likethe idols, a vain object of trust (De32:31).
former of all thingstheFashioner (as a potter, Isa 64:8)of the universe.
rod of his inheritanceTheportion marked off as His inheritance by the measuring rod(Eze 48:21). As He is theirportion, so are they His portion (De32:9). A reciprocal tie (compare Jer 51:19;Psa 74:2, Margin). Othersmake “rod” refer to the tribal rod or scepter.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
The portion of Jacob is not like them,…. Like those idols, vain, and the work of errors, or shall perish; even the true God, who is the portion of his people, of Jacob, whom he has chosen and redeemed; who call themselves by the name of Jacob, and are Israelites indeed, and plain hearted ones; and who have seen the insufficiency of all other portions, and the excellency of this; for there is none like it, none so large, so rich, so satisfying, and so durable; for God is the portion of his, in all the perfections of his nature, which all, some way or other, are for their good and advantage; and in all his persons, and under every character; even all he has is theirs, now and hereafter:
for he is the former of all things: which idols are not, being the maker of creatures themselves; wherefore the Creator must be a better portion than they; and as he has all things at his dispose, he bestows them on his people, and they cannot want:
and Israel is the rod of his inheritance; chosen and possessed by him, and dear unto him; and wonderful this is, that on the one side he should be the portion of his people; and, on the other, that they should be his portion and his inheritance, when so few in number, and despised by and among men, and but sinful dust and ashes; and especially when what follows is considered:
the Lord of hosts is his name: his title is the Lord of armies, above and below; he rules both in heaven and in earth, and has the inhabitants of both worlds, angels and men, at his command; and yet he chooses a handful of people to be his possession and inheritance.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
We have said before, that superstitions cannot be from the heart and boldly rejected, except the true God be known; for the heathens, even when they disapproved of the opinions of the vulgar, yet reasoned on both sides, and knew nothing certain, and had no sure faith. It is, therefore, necessary that we should have previously a knowledge of the true God. Hence the Prophets, whenever they spoke of idols, spoke also of the true God; for it would have been to little purpose to condemn these follies, except they represented God in his own real dignity. For this reason the Prophet says again, that God, who is the portion of Israel, is not like idols.
He calls God the portion of Israel, that he might preserve the people in the pure truth of the law which they had learnt, and with which they had been favored; and thus he draws away the attention of the Israelites from all the inventions of men or of the heathens. The portion then of Israel is not like idols — how so? For he is the former of all things, that is, the creator of heaven and earth. Then he says, Israel is the rod of his inheritance (16) Rod may be taken for a measuring rod; and I think it ought to be so taken, for he mentions inheritance: for he took the comparison from common practice; as men are wont to measure fields and possessions by a rod. He therefore says, Israel is the rod, that is, the measuring rod of his inheritance He concludes by saying, Jehovah of hosts is his name
(16) This clause is left out in the Septuagint, but retained by the Vulgate, the Targum, and the Syriac, though “rod’ is rendered “tribe” in the last; and so it may be rendered, for שבט means a tribe as well as a rod or scepter: and this meaning is the most suitable. God was the portion of Israel, and Israel was the tribe or nation whom God inherited or possessed as his inheritance, there being no other nation so favored. — Ed.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(16) The portion of Jacob.As in Psa. 16:5; Psa. 119:57, God is described as the portion, i.e., as the treasure and inheritance of His people. He is no powerless idol, but the former, i.e., the creator, of all things, or more literally of the all, i.e., of the universe.
The rod of his inheritance.The phrase was familiar in the poetry of Israel (Psa. 74:2; Isa. 63:17Heb.), but its exact meaning is not clear. The word may be rod in the sense of sceptre, as in Gen. 49:10; Mic. 7:14. Israel is that over which, or by means of which, God rules. But the other meaning in which it stands for stem, division, tribe (as in Isa. 19:13; Exo. 28:21), is equally tenable.
The Lord of hosts is his name.The time-honoured and awful name is obviously brought in as in emphatic contrast to all the names of the gods of the heathen. Among them all there was no name like Jehovah Sabaoth, the Lord of the armies of heaven, of the stars in their courses, of the angels in their ordered ranks, and of the armies of Israel upon earth.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
Jer 10:16. The Portion of Jacob Upon the principles of heathen theology, every nation was committed to the care and superintendency of its own tutelary god, which was styled its portion, on account of the peculiar relation which was supposed to subsist between them. The portion of Jacob, therefore, is the same as the God of Jacob, he who had taken upon himself the guardianship and protection of that family. But he was distinguished from all the rest, who were falsehood and vanity all of them, having no other existence than as lifeless images, the work of deluded men; whereas he was the creator of the universe, of all that exists; and that there might be no room to mistake the Being intended, he is farther characterized as he who had made choice of Israel for the special object of his concern, had marked him out for his own possession, as with a measuring rod; and to whom the name of JEHOVAH belonged. Oh, how little did they know or value their privileges!
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Jer 10:16 The portion of Jacob [is] not like them: for he [is] the former of all [things]; and Israel [is] the rod of his inheritance: The LORD of hosts [is] his name.
Ver. 16. The Portion of Jacob is not like them. ] God is his people’s “portion”; they are his “possession.” Oh their dignity and security! This the cock on the dunghill understands not.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Jeremiah
POSSESSING AND POSSESSED
Jer 10:16
Here we have set forth a reciprocal possession. We possess God, He possesses us. We are His inheritance, He is our portion. I am His; He is mine.
This mutual ownership is the very living centre of all religion. Without it there is no relation of any depth between God and us. How much profounder such a conception is than the shallow notions about religion which so many men have! It is not a round of observance; not a painful effort at obedience, not a dim reverence for some vague supernatural, not a far-off bowing before Omnipotence, not the mere acceptance of a creed, but a life in which God and the soul blend in the intimacies of mutual possession.
I. The mutual possession.
That thought presupposes the possibility of our possessing God. It presupposes the fact that He has given Himself to us, and the answering fact that we have taken Him for ours.
We are God’s inheritance.
We give ourselves to Him-we do so where we apprehend that He has given Himself to us; it is His giving love that moves men to yield themselves to God. He takes us for His. What a wonderful thought that He delights in possessing us! The all-sufficiency of our portion is guaranteed because He is ‘the former of all things.’ The safety of His inheritance is secured because ‘the Lord of Hosts is His name.’ And that name accentuates the wonder that He to whom all the ordered armies of the universe submit and belong should still take us for His inheritance.
Mark the contrast of this true possession with the false and merely external possessions of the world. Those outward things which a man has stand in no real relation with him. They fade and fleet away, or have to be left, and, even while they last, are not his in any real sense. Only what has indissolubly entered into, and become one with, our very selves is truly ours.
Our possession of God suggests a view of our blessedness and our obligation. It secures blessedness-for we have in Him an all-sufficient object and a treasure for all our nature. It imposes the obligation to let our whole nature feed upon, and be filled by, Him, to see that the temple where He dwells is clean, and not to fling away our treasure.
His possession of us suggests a corresponding view of our blessedness and our obligation.
We are His-as slaves are their owners’ property. So we are bound to submission of will. To be owned by God is an honour. The slave’s goods and chattels belong to the master.
His possession of us binds us to consecrate ourselves, and so to glorify Him in ‘body and spirit which are His.’
It ensures our safety. How constantly this calming thought is dwelt on in Scripture-that they who belong to Him need fear nothing. ‘Fear not, I have called thee by thy name, them art Mine.’ God does not hold His possessions with so slack a grasp as to lose them or to suffer them to be wrenched away. A psalmist rose to the hope of immortality by meditating on what was involved in his being God’s possession here and now. He was sure that even Death’s bony fingers could not keep their hold on him, and so he sang, ‘Thou wilt not suffer Thine Holy One to see corruption.’ The seal on the foundation of God which guarantees its standing sure is, ‘The Lord knoweth them that are His.’ ‘They shall be Mine in the day that I do make, even a peculiar treasure,’ is His own assurance, on which resting, a trembling soul may ‘have boldness in the day of judgment.’
II. The human response by which God becomes ours and we His.
All must commence with recognition of His free gift of Himself to us in Christ. We come empty-handed. That gift recognised and accepted moves us to give ourselves to Him. When we give ourselves to Him we find that we possess Him.
Further, there must be continuous communion. This mutual possession depends on our occupation of mind and heart with Him. We possess Him and are possessed by Him, when our wills are kept in harmony with, and submission to, Him, when our thoughts are occupied with Him and His truth, when our affections rest in Him, when our desires go out to Him, when our hopes are centred in Him, when our practical life is devoted to Him.
III. The blessedness of this mutual possession.
How marvellous that into the narrow room of one poor soul He should come whom the heaven of heavens cannot contain! Solomon said, ‘How much less this house which I have built,’-well may we say the same of our little hearts. But He can compress Himself into that small compass and expand His abode by dwelling in it.
Nor is the blessedness of being possessed by Him less than the blessedness of possessing Him. For so long as we own ourselves we are burdens to ourselves, and we only own ourselves truly when we give ourselves away utterly. Earthly love, with its blessed mysteries of mutual possession, teaches us that. But all its depth and joy are as nothing when set beside the liberty, the glad peace, the assured possession of our enriched selves, which are ours when we give ourselves wholly to God, and so for the first time are truly lords of ourselves, and find ourselves by losing ourselves in Him.
Nor need we fear to say that God, too, delights in that mutual possession, for the very essence of love is the desire to impart itself, and He is love supreme and perfect. Therefore is He glad when we let Him give Himself to us, and moved by ‘the mercies of God, yield ourselves to Him a sacrifice of a sweet smell, acceptable to God.’
Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren
The Portion of Jacob. Reference to Pentateuch (Num 18:20. Deu 32:9).
Jacob. Not Israel, because the natural seed is spoken of as in Deu 32:9. See notes on Gen 32:28; Gen 43:6.
Former = Framer.
The LORD of hosts. See note on Jer 6:6.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
portion: Jer 51:19, Psa 16:5, Psa 16:6, Psa 73:26, Psa 119:57, Psa 142:5, Lam 3:24
former: Jer 10:12, Pro 16:4, Isa 45:7
Israel: Exo 19:5, Deu 32:9, Psa 74:2, Psa 135:4, Isa 47:6
The Lord: Jer 31:35, Jer 32:18, Jer 50:34, Isa 47:4, Isa 51:15, Isa 54:5
Reciprocal: Gen 2:1 – Thus Exo 15:11 – like unto thee Exo 34:9 – take us 1Sa 10:1 – his inheritance 2Sa 22:32 – For who 1Ki 8:23 – no God 1Ki 8:53 – thine inheritance 2Ch 6:14 – no God 2Ch 32:13 – were the gods Psa 28:9 – bless Psa 33:12 – his own Psa 86:8 – Among Psa 94:14 – forsake Isa 40:18 – General Isa 46:5 – General Isa 48:2 – The Lord Jer 27:4 – Thus Amo 4:13 – The Lord Zec 2:12 – inherit Gal 4:7 – heir Heb 11:3 – faith
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Jer 10:16. The original for portion is defined ”allotment In the lexicon and refers to the favors that Jacob or the people descended from him wiil enjoy. He is a pronoun for God who is the former of all things and who can bestow actual blessings on his people. Hosts is from tsebaaii and Strong defines it, “A mass of persons (or figuratively things), especially regularly organized for war (an army). Name is from smbm, which Strong defines as follows: “A primitive word . . .through the idea of definite and conspicuous position. An appellation I name], as a mark or memorial of individuality; by implication honor, authority, character.” A name that signifies all these important, characteristics is certainly one that is properly given to Him who made and rules the universe.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Jer 10:16. The portion of Jacob is not like them There is no comparison between senseless idols and the great Creator of all things, who has chosen the posterity of Jacob for his peculiar people, and has promised to be their God, and that they should always have an especial interest in his favour, if they continued steadfast in their worship of, and obedience to, him. The rod of his inheritance Is an expression taken from the first division of the land of Canaan, when the inheritance of each tribe and family was meted out with a line or rod.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
10:16 The {i} portion of Jacob [is] not like them: for he [is] the former of all [things]; and Israel [is] the rod of his inheritance: The LORD of hosts [is] his name.
(i) By these words, portion and rod, he signifies their inheritance, meaning that God would be all sufficient for them: and that their happiness consisted in him alone, and therefore they ought to renounce all other help and comfort as of idols, etc. De 32:9, Psa 16:5 .
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Yahweh, the God who gave Himself in a special relationship to such an unworthy person as Jacob, is not like the idols because He is the Creator. He adopted Israel as His special treasure among the nations (Exo 19:5-6). He is Yahweh Almighty.