Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Jeremiah 32:23
And they came in, and possessed it; but they obeyed not thy voice, neither walked in thy law; they have done nothing of all that thou commandedst them to do: therefore thou hast caused all this evil to come upon them:
Possessed – See Jer 8:10 note.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Jer 32:23
They have done nothing of all that Thou commandedst them to do.
Sins of omission
Omissions cannot be trivial, if we only reflect what an influence they would have upon an ordinary commonwealth, if they were perpetrated as they are in Gods commonwealth. If one person has a right to omit his duty, another has and all have. Then the watchman would omit to guard the house, the policeman would omit to arrest the thief, the judge would omit to sentence the offender, the sheriff would omit to punish the culprit, the government would omit to carry out its laws; then every occupation would cease, and the world die of stagnation; the merchant would omit to attend to his calling, the husband-man would omit to plough his land: where would the commonwealth be? The kingdom would be out of joint; the machine would break down, for no cog of the wheel would act upon its fellow. How would societies exist at all? And surely if this is not to be tolerated in a society of men, much less in that great commonwealth of which God is king. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
In the former passage he acknowledged Gods goodness, here he owns his truth and faithfulness, in so conducting this people by his providence, that they came into the Promised Land and possessed it. Having acknowledged Gods power, omniscience, goodness, truth, and faithfulness, he comes to own his justice, confessing that this people for whom God had done so much had very ill requited him, not obeying his voice, which he expounds by not walking in his law; for the law was Gods voice to them. This he aggravateth by saying they had done nothing of what he had commanded, not breaking some particular law, but the whole law of God. Therefore God was righteous in bringing this sword, pestilence, and famine upon them.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
23. all . . . thou commandedst . . .all this evilTheir punishment was thus exactly commensuratewith their sin. It was not fortuitous.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And they came in and possessed it,…. After forty years travel in the wilderness; they entered into it with Joshua at the head of them, and the Lord with them; giving victory over the Canaanites, who were soon subdued; and the Israelites with little trouble settled in their land, which was divided to them by lot, and possessed as their inheritance:
but they obeyed not thy voice; though they promised at Sinai they would, and though they were so much obliged by the goodness of God to them; this shows great ingratitude in them:
neither walked in thy law; moral, ceremonial, and judicial, given at Harsh as the rule of their obedience; but they walked not according to it:
they have done nothing of all that thou commandedst them to do; they were not only deficient in some things, but in everything; they not only broke some of the laws of God, but all of them; there was not one law, one command, observed by them as it ought to have been; and yet these people were always prone to establish their own righteousness, and seek for justification by it:
therefore thou hast caused all this evil to come upon them; the Chaldean army, now besieging them; and the famine and pestilence among them; which, the prophet serves, were but the righteous judgments of God upon them for their sins.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
These wonders of grace which the Lord wrought for His people, Israel requited with base unthankfulness. When they had got into possession of the land, they did not listen to the voice of their God, and did the reverse of what He had commanded. (The Kethib might be read as a plural. But since in the plural is always written elsewhere (cf. Gen 26:5; Exo 16:28; Exo 18:20; Lev 26:46, etc.), and the omission of the in plural suffixes is unusual (cf. Jer 38:22), the word rather seems to have been incorrectly written for (cf. Jer 26:4; Jer 44:10, Jer 44:23), i.e., the w seems to have been misplaced. Therefore the Lord brought on them this great calamity, the Chaldean invasion ( for ); cf. Jer 13:22, Deu 31:29. With this thought, the prophet makes transition to the questions addressed to the Lord, into which the prayer glides. In Jer 32:24, the great calamity is more fully described. The ramparts of the besieging enemy have come to the city ( with acc.), to take it, and the city is given ( , prophetic perfect) into the hands of the Chaldeans. “Because of the sword;” i.e., the sword, famine, and pestilence (cf. Jer 14:16; Jer 25:16, etc.) bring them into the power of the enemy. “What Thou spakest,” i.e., didst threaten through the prophets, “is come to pass; and, behold, Thou seest it (viz., what has happened), and yet ( adversative) Thou sayest to me, ‘Buy the field,’ ” etc. The last clause, ‘ , is a “circumstantial” one, and is not a part of God’s address, but is added by Jeremiah in order to give greater prominence to the contrast between the actual state of matters and the divine command regarding the purchase. The prayer concludes with this, which is for men an inexplicable riddle, not (as Ngelsbach thinks) for the purpose of leaving to the reader the solution of the problem, after all aids have been offered him – for Jeremiah would not need to direct his question to God for that purpose – but in order to ask from God an explanation regarding the future. This explanation immediately follows in the word of the Lord, which, from Jer 32:26 onwards, is addressed to the prophet.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
The Prophet in this verse confesses that. God’s vengeance was just, when the people were cast out of the land and driven into exile, because they, after having entered into the land, did not obey the voice of God. The very sight of the land ought to have made the people obedient to God; for they could not have eaten a crumb of bread, without being always reminded whence their food came, even because God had expelled the Gentiles from that land. When, therefore, they were filled with all kinds of good things, and at the same time despised God, no excuse could have been pretended; for if they made ignorance their pretense, the very land itself was before their eyes, which recalled them to the fear of God. This, then, is the reason why the Prophet joins those two things together, that the Israelites entered into the land, and that they disobeyed the voice of God
Now, by this clause he intimates that they had not fallen through ignorance, because God had sufficiently made known his will. God had indeed spoken, but it was to the deaf. The Prophet then here shews that there was no other cause for the sin of the people, but that they obstinately refused to attend to the voice of God.
Then he adds for the same purpose, that they had not walked in his Law The Law is often compared to a way; for except God prescribes to us what his will is, and regulates all the actions of our life according to a certain rule, we should be perpetually going astray. God’s Law, then, is justly said to be like a way, according to what Moses also speaks,
“
This is the way, walk ye in it.” (Deu 5:33; see also Isa 30:21)
Then Jeremiah, after having shewn that the people had been taught, mentions this, — that the way had been made known to them, so that they went astray knowingly and wilfully; for they could not have turned aside either to the right hand or to the left without being called back by the doctrine of the Law.
He says, in the third place, What thou hast commanded them to do they did not He explains here the same thing more clearly and without any figurative expression, even that they had been unwilling to obey God, while yet they sufficiently understood what was right; for the Law suffered them not to go astray, and God had included in it everything necessary to be known. The Prophet then shews that they had not turned aside except through perverseness, because they knew what God required. As a certain Lacedaemonian said, that the Athenians knew what was right, but were unwilling to do it; so the Prophet in this place distinguishes the open impiety and contempt of the people from ignorance and inadvertence, and does not mean that the people did not satisfy all the precepts of the Law.
And this passage also Jerome explains very absurdly; for he says that the Israelites did not stand to their promises, because they had said that they would do whatever God commanded. But the Prophet here does not condemn them as to one thing only, as though he had said that there had been some defect, but he says that they had been wholly disobedient, for they had not despised only one precept of the Law, but had as it were designedly cast aside the whole Law, and obeyed none of God’s commandments. Then this negative sets forth the defection of the people as to the whole law, and as to every precept of it.
And this passage is worthy of special notice, because the Prophet advisedly repeats the same thing, — that the people had not walked in the Law, — that they had not obeyed the voice of God, — that they had done nothing of what had been commanded; (67) for a heavier condemnation and vengeance await those who have been faithfully taught what pleases God and what is right, and yet follow their own will, and are carried away by the passions and lusts of the flesh. In a word, Jeremiah points out the highest pitch of impiety, that is, when people clearly and familiarly know what the will of God is, and yet disregard it and shake off the yoke, and thus shew manifestly a contempt for the whole Law.
It follows, Therefore thou hast made to come on them all this evil The Prophet here testifies that whatever had happened to the people, was not by chance, but that a reward was rendered to their sins. Men in some measure acknowledge God’s judgments, but this acknowledgment presently vanishes. Wisely then does the Prophet here shew that God’s vengeance is evident in adversities, and that the people thus received the reward which they had deserved. It now follows, —
(67) There is this difference between these three things: the “voice” was that of God by his prophets, — the “law” was the ten commandments, — and “all which” had been “commanded” were the statutes and ordinances, the civil and ceremonial appointments. To “hearken to his voice,” rather than to obey it, is what is meant: so far from obeying it, they would not hear the Prophets. This had been throughout their sin. — Ed.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
23. Law Literally, in Hebrew text, laws; but the text here is probably corrupt.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Jer 32:23 And they came in, and possessed it; but they obeyed not thy voice, neither walked in thy law; they have done nothing of all that thou commandedst them to do: therefore thou hast caused all this evil to come upon them:
Ver. 23. See Trapp on “ Jer 32:21 “
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
law. Hebrew text has “laws” in margin, with some codices and three early printed editions.
evil. Hebrew. ra’a’. App-44.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
possessed: Neh 9:15, Neh 9:22-25, Psa 44:2, Psa 44:3, Psa 78:54, Psa 78:55, Psa 105:44, Psa 105:45
but: Jer 7:23, Jer 7:24, Jer 11:7, Jer 11:8, Jdg 2:11-13, Jdg 10:6-18, Ezr 9:7, Neh 9:26-30, Eze 20:8, Eze 20:18, Eze 20:21, Dan 9:4-6, Dan 9:10-14, Zec 1:2-4
they have: Luk 17:10, Joh 15:14, Gal 3:10, Jam 2:10
therefore: Lev 26:14-46, Deu 28:15-68, Jos 23:16, Ezr 9:7, Lam 1:8, Lam 1:18, Lam 5:16, Lam 5:17, Dan 9:11, Dan 9:12
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Jer 32:23. This verse is an acknowl-edgement of the sins of the nation. It also accounts for the sad condition into which it was plunged.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Jer 32:23-25. And they came in and possessed it In the former two verses he acknowledges Gods goodness to Israel, here he owns his truth and faithfulness in bringing them into the land which he had promised them. But they obeyed not thy voice Having borne testimony to Gods power, wisdom, and faithfulness, he comes now to own his justice, confessing that this people for whom he had done so much, had very ill requited him. They have done nothing at all that thou commandedst them, &c. They have not only broken some particular laws, but thy whole law. Therefore thou hast caused all this evil, &c. Therefore thou art righteous in bringing these judgments upon them. Behold the mounts The ramparts raised against the walls for placing battering engines on, and engines to cast weapons against the defenders, or for the purpose of making a general assault and taking the city. And the city is given Is ready to be given; into the hand of the Chaldeans, because of the sword, &c. Such is the havoc that the sword, the famine, and the pestilence make among the people, that they cannot make head against the besiegers, but must be overcome by them. And thou hast said unto me, Buy thee the field for money In this posture of affairs, when the city, and the country round about it, are in the power of the enemy, thou hast commanded me to make this purchase, which I have no prospect of ever enjoying. As if he had said, Lord I expound thy meaning to me, why thou shouldest set me to make purchases for thine enemies to possess.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
The Israelites had taken possession of the land but had not obeyed the Lord: whether in spoken messages from prophets, or in the written Torah (instruction). Consequently all the calamities that the Israelites were facing had come upon them.