Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Jeremiah 11:5

That I may perform the oath which I have sworn unto your fathers, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey, as [it is] this day. Then answered I, and said, So be it, O LORD.

5. your fathers ] Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, as ancestors of those who entered upon the enjoyment of the land.

flowing with milk and honey ] For the expression cp. Jer 32:22; Exo 3:8; Exo 3:17, and elsewhere.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

As it is this day – God had kept the terms of the covenant. Whether the promised land would permanently remain the property of the Jews would depend upon their observance of their part of the covenant.

So be it, O Lord – Or, Amen, Yahweh. The prophet was literally obeying the command given in Deu 27:14-26, and the same word should be kept in both places.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Jer 11:5

Then answered I, and said, So be it, O Lord.

The souls Amen

Jeremiah was naturally gentle, yielding, and pitiful for the sins and sorrows of his people. Nothing was further from his heart than to desire the evil day. Nothing would have given him greater pleasure than to have played the part of Isaiah in this decadent period of his peoples history. But what was possible to the great evangelic prophet in the days of Hezekiah was impossible now. In Isaiahs case the noblest traditions of the past, the patriotic pride of his people, and the promises of God all pointed in the same direction. But for Jeremiah there was an inevitable divorce between the trend of popular feeling led by the false prophets, and his clear conviction of the Word of God. It must, indeed, have been hard to prove that the prophets were wrong, and he was right; they simply reiterated what Isaiah had said a hundred times. And yet, as he utters the terrible curses and threatenings of Divine justice, and predicts the inevitable fate of his people, he is so possessed with the sense of the Divine rectitude that his soul rises up, and though he must pronounce the doom of Israel, he is forced to answer and say, Amen, O Lord!

I. The souls affirmation.

1. In Providence. It is not possible at first to say Amen in tones of triumph and ecstasy. Nay, the word is often choked with sobs that cannot be stifled, and soaked with tears that cannot be repressed. And as these words are read by those who lie year after year on beds of constant pain; or by those whose earthly life is tossed upon the sea of anxiety, over which billows of care and turmoil perpetually roll–it is not improbable that they will protest as to the possibility of saying Amen to Gods providential dealings. In reply, let all such remember that our blessed Lord in the garden was content to put His will upon the side of God. Dare to say Amen to Gods providential dealings. Say it, though heart and flesh fail; say it, amid a storm of tumultuous feeling, and a rain of tears. What thou knowest not now, thou shalt know hereafter.

2. In revelation there are mysteries which baffle the clearest thinkers. It must be so whilst God is God. There is no fathoming line long enough, no parallax fine enough, no standard of mensuration, though the universe itself be taken as our unit, by which to measure God. But though we cannot comprehend, we may affirm the thoughts of God. That we cannot understand is due to the immaturity of our faculties. But when He who has come straight from the realms of eternal day steadfastly affirms that which He knows, and bears witness to what He has seen, we receive His witness and say reverently, Amen, Lord!

3. In judgment. Gods judgments on the wicked are a great deep. Did we know more of sin, of holiness, of the love of God, of the yearning pleadings of His Spirit with men, we should probably understand better how Jeremiah was able to say, Amen, Lord!

II. The ground of the souls peace. Yea, Father! When face to face with the mysteries of the atonement, of substitution and sacrifice, of predestination and election, of the unequal distribution of Gospel light, be sure to turn to God as the Father of light, in whom is no darkness, no shadow of unkindness, no note inconsistent with the music of perfect benevolence.

III. The triumph of the affirming soul. Amen, Hallelujah! Mark the addition of Hallelujah to the Amen. Here the Amen, and not often the Hallelujah; there the two–the assent and the consent; the acquiescence and the acclaim; the submission to the win of God, and the triumphant outburst of praise and adoration (Rev 15:3, R.V.). (F. B. Meyer, B. A.)

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

Verse 5. So be it, O Lord] Let thy promises be fulfilled; and let the incorrigible beware of thy threatenings!

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

I required their obedience for their own good; I had sworn to their fathers that I would give their posterity a land abounding with plenty of all good things, the best and choicest things, upon supposition of their obedience. I have performed that oath, I have brought them into such a land, and showed myself faithful to them. So be it, O Lord: God having ended his speech, the prophet saith, Amen, either asserting the truth of what God had said, or wishing that the people would do according to their covenant, or assenting to the curse according as God had commanded, Deu 27:26.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

5. oath (Psa 105:9;Psa 105:10).

a land flowing with milk andhoney(See on Nu 14:8).

as it is this dayTheseare the concluding words of God to the Israelites when formerlybrought out of Egypt, “Obey . . . that I may at this timemake good the promise I made to your fathers, to give,” &c.[MAURER]. EnglishVersion makes the words apply to Jeremiah’s time, “Asye know at this time, that God’s promise has been fulfilled,”namely, in Israel’s acquisition of Canaan.

So be itHebrew,Amen. Taken from De27:15-26. Jeremiah hereby solemnly concurs in the justice of thecurses pronounced there (see Jer11:3).

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

That I may perform the oath which I have sworn unto your fathers,…. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob:

to give them a land flowing with milk and honey: that is, abounding with plenty of all kind of provisions; see Ex 3:8:

as it is this day; the land of Canaan continued to those times a very fruitful country; it was as it was promised it should be, and which was a clear thing; their eyes saw it, and the day bore witness to it:

then answered I, and said; that is, the Prophet Jeremiah, to whom the above order was given:

so be it, O Lord; or, “Amen, Lord” f; either agreeing to publish what the Lord commanded him; or as wishing that the land of Canaan might continue the same fruitful land it was, and the people of the Jews in it, they keeping the words of this covenant; or else as assenting that the curse might fall upon the men that did not observe them, alluding to De 27:15. This is the sense of Abarbinel; Jarchi and Kimchi observe, that the word “Lord” is vocative, and in the language of prayer.

f “Amen, Domine”, Pagninus: Montanus; “Amen, O Jehovah”, Schmidt, Cocceius.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

He adds, That I may establish the oath which I have sworn to your fathers, to give them a land abounding in milk and honey, according to what it is at this day Here he does not refer to the chief part of their happiness; but only the land of Canaan is mentioned as the pledge or the earnest of God’s favor; for his promise had regard to something much higher than to the land of Canaan. God had indeed promised this as an inheritance to the Israelites: but when he says, that he would be their God and they his people, the promise of eternal life and of celestial glory is included, according to what is said elsewhere, that he is not the God of the dead but of the living. (Mat 22:31) And we must ever bear in mind what is said by the Prophet Habakkuk,

“

Thou art our God, we shall not die.” (Hab 1:12)

God then promised to the Israelites something far greater than the possession of the land, when he said, that he would be their God But that land was a symbol, an earnest and a pledge of his paternal favor. All these things well agree together.

And to the same purpose is what the Prophet adds, that God had formerly sworn to their fathers, that he would give them that land by an hereditary right: and this promise had been fulfined to their posterity. Were any to lay hold on this only, — that God’s favor was seen in the land of Canaan, because they had obtained it through the expulsion of the heathens by God’s kindness, the view would be frigid, and the Prophet would diminish much from that promise which far exceeds all that man can conceive. Hence, as I have said, in speaking of the land of Canaan, he accommodates himself no doubt to the comprehension of a rude and ignorant people, and mentions the earnest and the pledge, that they alight see by their eyes, exhibited to them even in this world and in this frail life some evidence of that favor, which far surpasses all that can be desired in the world.

Now, when he says, That I may establish (33) the oath which I have sworn to your fathers, God doubtless shews that though the Jews should obey him, they had not yet deserved by their obedience the inheritance promised before they were born. God then here proves that it was through his gratuitous kindness that; they became heirs of the land. How so? because they were not created when God sware to Abraham that he would give that land to him and to his posterity. As then the promise had been given long before, it follows that it could not be ascribed to the merits of the people, that they had at length in due time obtained the land. As to the oath, God by referring to it extols his favor; for he not only promised the land for an heritage to the children of Abraham, but he also added an oath, that the covenant might appear more sure. But the Prophet at the same time intimates, that they, if ungrateful to God, might justly be deprived of the promised inheritance; as though he had said, “There is no ground for you to expostulate with God, as though he defrauded you, were he to cast you out of the land; for God himself does not disinherit you, but your own wickedness; and ye are now unworthy, for God regards you not as his children.” While then the Prophet takes away every ground for boasting, that the Jews might not think that they possessed the land as a reward for their merits, he also reminds them that they might be justly deprived of their land, and that on account of their own fault, as they rendered not to God the service they owed to him. Hence he says, that I might establish the oath which I have sworn to your fathers

A land, he says, flowing with milk and honey: this mode of speaking was often adopted by Moses, (Exo 3:8, Exo 3:17; Exo 13:5; Exo 33:3; Lev 20:24) The land was no doubt from the beginning very fertile; but it is probable that it became more fruitful after the people entered into it, for it was in a manner renewed; and it was God’s design to shew in a visible manner how great; Was the efficacy of his covenant. It was not then to no purpose that Moses said so often that it was a land flowing with milk and honey.

He afterwards adds, According as it is at this day He produces witnesses; as though he had said, “God has dealt faithfully with you, for he has performed the faith pledged to your fathers, and has fulfined his oath: but now since ye have polluted this land, and the memory of God’s favor is as it were buried among you, and ye even tread under your feet his law — since then such great impiety averts his blessing from you, what remains for him to do, but to drive you away into exile?” We hence see that there is here to be understood an implied threatening, when he says that God had performed what he had promised to the fathers, and promised with this condition — that they were to obey his commands.

We have already spoken of the Prophet’s answer. When he answered, Amen, he did not wait for what the people would say; for the greater part no doubt made a clamor and sought to make shifts with God. So great was their effrontery, that they often rose up insolently against the Prophets. Then as he knew that they were so refractory, he subscribed to the curse in his own name. It follows —

(33) “Establish — στήσω,” is the Septuagint; “awaken — suscitem,” is the Vulgate; “perform,” is the Syriac; “confirm,” is the Targum. “To make to stand” is the literal meaning of the verb. Hence the most correct word is “confirm.” The connection of this verse is not with the immediately preceding words, but with “Hearken” and “do,” etc., at the middle of the former verse. Hearken and do, that I may confirm the oath, etc. — Ed.

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

(5) A land flowing with milk and honey.The description appears for the first time in Exo. 3:8; Exo. 3:17. It rapidly became proverbial, and is prominent in Deu. 6:3 and Jos. 5:6. It points primarily, it may be noticed, to the plenty of a pastoral rather than an agricultural people (see Note on Isa. 7:22), and so far to the earlier rather than the later stages of the life of Israel.

So be it, O Lord.The Amen of the liturgies and litanies of Israel, brought probably into fresh prominence by Deu. 27:15-26, and uttered by princes and people in the solemn ceremonial of 2Ki. 23:3.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

5. Land flowing with milk and honey Who has not felt the difficulty of this description as applied to Palestine? Three considerations tend to relieve it: 1) Its contrast with Egypt, which the Israelites of that day would set up as a standard, it being the only land with which they were acquainted when this language was at first used. Now Egypt is literally the creation of the Nile. In the immediate vicinity of that river the country is exceedingly fertile, but elsewhere a sterile desert. Palestine, with its hills and valleys, its plains and its forests, its watercourses and its seacoasts, was indeed, especially to a pastoral people, a rich land in comparison. 2) Its contrast with the Sinaitic peninsula. Forty years of experience in Arabia Petrea would prepare the people fora very keen appreciation of such a land as Palestine, which was, as compared with this, almost as “the garden of the Lord.” 3) Its contrast with itself at the present time. Twenty centuries of neglect and abuse have doubtless materially changed the face of this land.

It is not doubtful that the Canaan of the Old Testament was a very different country from the Palestine of to-day. And putting with all the rest the character of Oriental speech, which delights in pictorial phrases, we shall not find it difficult to understand the expressions which seem to many so exaggerated.

Then answered I As though the old scene so graphically described in Deu 27:14-26, was being re-enacted. The answer of the prophet is the same as the people then made, and should be translated, as there, Amen, Jehovah.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments