Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Jeremiah 3:4
Wilt thou not from this time cry unto me, My father, thou [art] the guide of my youth?
4. Wilt thou not from this time cry ] Hast thou not but now cried. Judah, at the very time that she is deserting Jehovah, is using to Him the language of wheedling affection.
guide ] mg. companion. The same word is used of a husband in Pro 2:17.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Or, Hast thou Not from this time called me, My Father, thou art the husband of my youth? i. e., from the time of Josiahs reforms in his eighteenth year, in opposition to of old time Jer 2:20.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Jer 3:4
Writ thou not from this time cry unto Me, My Father, Thou art the guide of my youth?
The Divine Guide
We are all travellers, but are not all travelling in the tame direction. We need a guide. There is only One to be relied upon.
I. Why we need a guide.
1. Because of our ignorance of the way.
2. Because of our liability to take the wrong path.
3. Because of our liability to leave the right path after we have chosen it.
II. We should take God as our guide.
1. Because He knows the way.
2. Because He knows the trials that will befall us.
3. Because He knows the perils that we shall encounter.
4. Because He is our Father, and therefore kind and considerate.
III. We should ask God to guide us now.
1. Because the present time is the best.
2. Because the present time is the safest.
3. Because the present may be the only time. (Homilist.)
Taking God as our Guide in youth
I. It is due to God.
1. He is your Maker, who gives you all things; therefore He has a supreme and sole right to you.
2. He has bought you at a vast expense, that you might be delivered from the curse of sin and the wrath to come. If an artist pays a large sum of money to get back his own painting from some one into whose hands it has fallen, and then labours to improve it, would you not say that he has a good title to such painting? Thus with the ransomed children of God.
II. It will be good for yourselves.
1. You need a guide.
(1) Consider your character. Ignorance of the future, and without experience, should you not tremble to go alone?
(2) Consider your situation. The road is beset with dangers, infested with robbers, filled with bypaths!
(3) Consider the importance of your steps. Begin to wander, and who shall tell the issue? Worn out with fatigue, benighted in that trackless wilderness, you fall a prey to the forest beast, or are dashed in pieces over a hidden precipice. One evil habit may lead you to ruin, must cause you pain and trouble. One false step in youth may mar you forever.
2. God is infinitely the best Guide. That He is a sure and safe Guide, none can doubt. He is wise, knows all things, and can proportion trials to your strength. He never fails. You live in a world of changes; but He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. But He is also a pleasant Guide. He is powerful to bring you out of trouble; He is gracious in it. In the day of the east wind He stays His rough wind, and tempers the wind to the shorn lamb. (J. C. Herdman, M. A.)
Gods tender expostulation with the young
I. The particulars of the proposal.
1. That you should make God your Father; to love honour, and obey.
2. To choose God for the Guide of your youth; to regard His authority, follow His will, and comply with His directions.
(1) By His Word.
(2) By His Spirit.
3. To do these things instantly, without delay.
II. Motives for co-reliance.
1. The grace and condescension of the proposal.
2. The reasonableness of such a proceeding. Refuse the offer of His heavenly guidance, and you will be like a vessel in a boisterous sea without a pilot to direct your course.
3. The seasonableness of the proposal. From this time. The time past cannot be recalled. You may deeply regret that you have hitherto neglected to make God your Father, and to choose Him for the Guide of your youth. But regret will not recover the time which is past. Opportunities lost are gone forever. Your business is to improve those which remain. The present time is still your own. (E. Cooper, M. A.)
God the Guide of youth
I. The proposal.
1. It requires penitence. You must feel your depravity and lament your guilt.
2. It includes prayer. A life of communion with God.
3. It implies yielding yourself up to God, to walk in His ways, be guided by His counsel, and glorify His name.
II. Your obligations. To whom will you give your affections if you withhold them from Him?
III. Advantages to be gained by compliance.
1. Safety. While leaning on your own wisdom, and walking in your own strength, you are liable to stray, stumble, fall.
2. Happiness. In His favour is life. No peace to the wicked.
3. Honour. Associated with the servants of God, angels, archangels, etc. Yes, and with Christ Himself, whose meat was to do Gods will.
IV. Combat objections.
1. Sins too great for pardon. Christs grace sufficient.
2. So weak. He takes by the hand, helps, upholds.
3. What need for being so religious? But you have no religion at all, if not wholly in earnest.
4. Not yet. This is impious as well as foolish. Every day and hour you are on the brink of death.
V. Your reply. Only two answers: will, or will not. Turn not away. (J. Wooldridge.)
The importance of early dedication to God
I. The assumption. That the person is in a state of unregeneracy. Multitudes are thus. Refusing to listen to God. In the neglect of the claims of God there is an amount of daring of which we can hardly form a conception, especially in the case of the child of many prayers.
II. The imitation. Why should you from this time say, Thou art the Guide of my youth?
1. The claims of Him who asks it.
2. The dangers of delay.
3. The final consequences of refusal. (D. E. Ford.)
God condescending to be the Guide of youth
I. Has not God already acted a most wise and friendly part?
1. Review your general privileges. Who formed you from nothing into being? who assigned you a rank among human creatures? who prepared in a parents heart the affections which welcomed and nourished the helpless stranger? who reared you up to youth? who kindled the dawn of mason? whose hand opened for you the warm and widening circle of friendship?
2. You are bound by peculiar obligations. It is no small thing that an heritage has been found for you in Britain. You are not the children of savages, mingling in their barbarous manners.
II. Is not God able to fill up, through all future periods, the relations to which He invites your notice? He offers Himself as a Father and as a Guide. His power, His wisdom, and His goodness will support the titles.
III. Does not the season of youth need such a Father and such a Guide? What can preserve the morals of youth? Shall the frail bark live in the tempest? Shall flames surround a military magazine, and not produce an explosion? Can a lamb make its way through a herd of wolves?
IV. May not the season of youth be the only one that shall display such advantages as are attached to it? You know not that you shall survive this age; that you are under sentence is felt by yourselves, and sometimes lamented. Can you charm death away? Can you obtain a momentary respite? (Evangelist.)
An address to youth
I. Youth needs a guide.
1. We are expressly assured by the prophet, That the way of man is not in himself; it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps. And if this be true of old travellers who have long been moving Zion-ward, how much more of those who are only beginning to start!
2. There is one kind of knowledge in which the young must be deficient–that which is derived from trial, and which we call experience.
3. Now, too, the passions and appetites begin to rage in their violence. These becloud the understanding, and prevent reflection; and rendering them averse to reproof and impatient of control, urge them on, and plunge them into a thousand improprieties and embarrassments.
II. God is ready to become your leader, and it is your duty and privilege to place yourselves under His direction. He is infinitely wise, and cannot lead you astray. He has conducted millions; and the wayfaring man, though a fool, has not erred under His direction. He is infinitely powerful. He can support you under the heaviest burdens, deliver you from every adversary, and make all things work together for your good. He is infinitely kind. He will bear with your infirmities, and sympathise with you in all your troubles. And He is infinitely faithful: not a word shall fail of all that He has spoken.
III. How you are to engage His attention. Cry unto Him. This familiar expression intends prayer and supplication; and it prevents you from using as an excuse for the omission of the duty–that you are not masters of words, and cannot deliver yourselves in proper language. For what is prayer? Is it not the desire of the heart towards God? If you cannot pray–cannot you cry unto Him?
IV. There are particular seasons in which He expects to be sought after by the young, and from which He dates the expostulation–Wilt thou not from this time, etc.
1. When they leave the house of their friends, and the wing of their relations.
2. When bereaved of their parents.
3. At the commencement of a new period of life.
4. When the young see friends or companions carried off by a premature death.
5. At times of peculiar convictions and impressions. (W. Jay.)
Youth encouraged to seek unto God
I. The import of this language.
1. Gratitude.
2. Confidence.
3. Prayer.
4. A determined compliance with Gods will.
II. The force of the appeal made by God.
1. Tender expostulation.
2. Seasonable admonition.
3. As arising from events which point out most clearly your need of an interest in the Divine favour. (R. Winter, D. D.)
God to be chosen as a Guide by the young
I. You greatly need some faithful and effective guidance in the shaping of your lives.
1. Because the path of duty and of safety is often exceedingly difficult to find. Often, when determining what you are bound to accept as duty or to receive as truth, you have many circumstances to consider, many probabilities to estimate, many opposing arguments to weigh. While the general direction in which you are to move, if you intend to live wisely, is obvious enough, you may still find perplexities at every point, to extricate yourself from which will try, perhaps baffle, your utmost wisdom, who is sufficient for these things?
2. Because your own strong impulses are likely to mislead you. It is easy to believe that to be right or useful which accords with inclination. It is hard to think that to be obligatory, or best, to which the feelings are averse, and which involves the necessity of self-denial.
3. Because there are many who will studiously seek your ruin.
(1) There are found even in the best conditions of society, the openly debased and vicious.
(2) Besides these, there are many–corrupt in heart–who will seek to reach you with influences fitted to destroy your virtuous sentiments, and principles, and ultimate well-being.
4. Because so many are continually ruined. Where many fall, there is reason that all should fear.
II. The reasonableness, the wisdom, of making God your guide.
1. You owe it to God Himself thus to honour Him with your confidence. It is His right.
2. God alone can afford you a sufficient guidance. Where can you find another to whose care and leading you can safely and without anxiety, commit the infinitely precious interests of your being?
III. When should Gods offered guidance be accepted? From this time.
1. The present is a practicable time–a time in which without hindrance God may be intelligently and cordially accepted as a guide.
2. The present is the very time that God Himself proposes. Remember now thy Creator.
3. It is at the present time that your need of the blessing in question is becoming manifest and urgent.
4. The present may not improbably be the only time in which you will have it in your power to secure the Divine guidance (Pro 1:24-29). (Ray Palmer, D. D.)
Divine guidance for lifes journey
Rev. Mark Guy Pearse says: I have read somewhere of one of our naval officers who sailed from Mexico round the Cape Horn to Rio, a distance of eight thousand miles, and for ninety days neither touched land nor scarcely saw a sail. At last he judged himself to be some twenty miles from Rio, and lay-to for the night. The next morning it was a dense fog, and he came on very cautiously, and when the fog suddenly lifted there in front of them rose the well-known Sugar-loaf Rock at the entrance of Rio Harbour. Thus it is that in spite of the great and wide sea where no landmarks or guide marks are, where are restless tides and currents and changeful winds, yet heaven stoops to teach men if they will be taught. The sun in the heavens gives every day its unerring counsel, the stars come out at night to whisper their cheery assurance. So He bringeth men to their desired haven. Now, if men can believe that, and so believe it as to trust themselves to it, I do not wonder that any can doubt that heaven bends over us to teach us where we are and whither we are going. If it is scientific to believe that heaven can grade us over the great sea, it does seem to be just simple common sense to think that heaven can lead us safe.
God the best Guide
The sailor, out on the restless sea, has one unfailing star to which he can always look with confidence, knowing that it will always be found at the same place. He may perhaps admire the brilliancy of Venus, or look with wonder at the ever-changing moon, but when he wants to take his bearings he looks at the unfailing, unchangeable polar star. Thank God that we have an unfailing Guide that will remain the same when the heavens have passed away. He, our Lord and Master, is the one absolutely unfailing star of hope to which we can look with implicit confidence.
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 4. Wilt thou not – cry unto me, My father] Wilt thou not allow me to be thy Creator and Preserver, and cease thus to acknowledge idols? See on Jer 2:27.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Wilt thou not from this time, viz. that I have withholden showers? Some refer this,
1. To the time to come; Wilt thou not yet be wise, and for the future seek to me, having found all thy other ways successless? Isa 9:13; Jer 8:14.
2. To the time present; How canst thou challenge me for my present severity, and continuing it towards thee, when thou still retainest thy filthiness, thy whores forehead, Jer 3:3. Thou still continuest worshipping idols, and yet fanciest thyself faithful to me.
3. To the time past, i.e. Hast thou not all along pretended kindness to me, and as if thou hadst walked close with me? 2Ki 17:32,33; Eze 23:39.
Cry unto me, My father; wilt thou not as a child call upon, me, whom thou hast thus greatly provoked, and own me as a father? Jer 3:19; for such have I been to thee, Psa 103:13; Mal 1:6; 3:17.
The guide of my youth; either on whom I have depended, as being brought up by thee; or the submissive expression of a wife seeking to be reconciled to her husband, that God would be to her as he had been in the days of her youth; such a case as is expressed 1Co 7:11; words of flattery usual with hypocrites: or rather, being married to thee in thy youth; a periphrasis for husband, Pro 2:17; which argues great tenderness towards her, Jer 3:2. Thus the tenderness of this relation is expressed Mal 2:14, and so God is said to espouse them to himself Eze 16:8.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
4. from this timenotreferring, as MICHAELISthinks, to the reformation begun the year before, that is, thetwelfth of Josiah; it meansnow at once, now at last.
mecontrasted with the”stock” whom they had heretofore called on as “father”(Jer 2:27; Luk 15:18).
thou artrather, “thouwast.”
guide of . . . youththatis, husband (Jer 2:2; Pro 2:17;Hos 2:7; Hos 2:15).Husband and father are the two most endearing of ties.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Wilt thou not from this time cry unto me,…. These words are either a confirmation and proof of that impudence with which these people are charged; for had they not been impudent, or had not a forehead like a whorish woman; or were they truly ashamed, they would have cried to the Lord henceforward; called upon him; claimed their relation to him; and owned his favours in time past: or, if they had not been impudent, they would not have dared from this time to have called God their Father and their guide, when they had so wickedly sinned against him; so that this is a charge of hypocrisy and deceit, calling God their Father and guide, when they were at the same time worshipping idols: or rather they are expressive of the wondrous grace and goodness of God towards this people, that had so highly offended him, yet he expostulates with them, puts words into their mouths to return unto him with, saying:
my father; I have sinned against thee, and am not worthy of the relation, yet receive me as a returning prodigal:
thou art the guide of my youth; or, “hast been”: I acknowledge the favours I have received in time past, which is an aggravation of my sin; reject me not, but receive me graciously into thy favour; see
Ho 14:2, so the Targum interprets the words as a prayer,
“wilt thou not from this time pray before me, saying, thou art my Lord, my Redeemer, which art of old?”
or else they point to them their duty, what they ought to do from henceforward; that seeing the Lord had withheld from them the former and latter rain for their idolatry, it became them to return to him by repentance; and to call upon him, who had been their Father and their guide in time past, to have mercy on them, and avert his judgments from them.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Henceforward, forsooth, it calls upon its God, and expects that His wrath will abate; but this calling on Him is but lip-service, for it goes on in its sins, amends not its life. , nonne, has usually the force of a confident assurance, introducing in the form of a question that which is held not to be in the least doubtful. , henceforward, the antithesis to , Jer 2:20, Jer 2:27, is rightly referred by Chr. B. Mich. to the time of the reformation in public worship, begun by Josiah in the twelfth year of his reign, and finally completed in the eighteenth year, 2 Chron 34:3-33. Clearly we cannot suppose a reference to distress and anxiety excited by the drought; since, in Jer 3:3, it is expressly said that this had made no impression on the people. On , cf. Jer 2:27. (cf. Pro 2:17), the familiar friend of my youth, is the dear beloved God, i.e., Jahveh, who has espoused Israel when it was a young nation (Jer 2:2). Of Him it expects that He will not bear a grudge for ever. , guard, then like , cherish ill-will, keep up, used of anger; see on Lev 19:18; Psa 103:9, etc. A like meaning has , to which , iram, is to be supplied from the context; cf. Amo 1:11. – Thus the people speaks, but it does evil. , like in Jer 3:4, is 2nd pers. fem.; see in Jer 2:20. Hitz. connects so closely with as to make the object to the former verb also: thou hast spoken and done the evil; but this is plainly contrary to the context. “Thou speakest” refers to the people’s saying quoted in the first half of the verse: Will God be angry for ever? What they do is the contradiction of what they thus say. If the people wishes that God be angry no more, it must give over its evil life. , not calamity, but misdeeds, as in Jer 2:33. , thou hast managed it, properly mastered, i.e., carried it through; cf. 1Sa 26:25; 1Ki 22:22. The form is 2nd pers. fem., with the fem. ending dropped on account of the Vav consec. at the end of the discourse, cf. Ew. 191, b. So long as this is the behaviour of the people, God cannot withdraw His anger.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
God, after having set forth the wickedness of his people, and severely reproved them as they deserved, now kindly invites them to repentance, Wilt thou not say to me hereafter, he says, My Father! Some incorrectly render the words, “Wilt thou say to me, My Father,” as though God would reject what they said: and they give the meaning, — that the Jews would act dishonestly in thus glorying in God’s name, from whom they were so alienated. But very different is the meaning of the Prophet: for God mitigates the severity of the reproof which we have observed, and shews that he would be ready to be reconciled to them, if they repented: nay, he waits not for their repentance, but of his own accord meets and allures these perfidious apostates: “What!” says God, “shall there be no more any union between us?” For God expresses here the feeling of one grieving and lamenting, when he saw the people perishing; and he seems anxious, if possible, to restore them.
It is with this design that he asks, “Will they not again call on me as their Father and the guide of their youth?” And by this periphrastic way of speaking, he intimates that he was the husband of that people; for most tender is that love which a youth has for a young virgin in the flower of her age. God, then, makes use now of this comparison, and says, that he still remembered the love which he had manifested towards his people. In short, he shews here that pardon was ready, if the people sought reconciliation; and he confirms the same thing when he adds —
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(4) Wilt thou not from this time cry unto me . . .?Better, Hast thou not from this time cried unto me . . .? The prophet paints with a stern irony the parade of the surface repentance of Josiahs reign. There had been a pathetic appeal to God as the forgiving husband of the faithless wife, but not the less had the wife returned to her wickedness.
Guide.The same word as in Pro. 2:17; the chief friend, as applied to the husband.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
4. Wilt thou not, etc. Rather, Hast thou not from this time called me, etc.? From this time, stands in contrast with “of old time,” in Jer 2:20.
Guide of my youth That is, husband. See Hos 2:7; Hos 2:13.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
This is a most beautiful and gracious observation of the Lord’s, to show, what might be reasonably expected, from the overwhelming kindness of the Lord. When grace becomes more abundant, it overpowers our sin, disarms the sinner, and constrains him, as the Prodigal in the parable, to return to his Father. Luk 15:17-19 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Jer 3:4 Wilt thou not from this time cry unto me, My father, thou [art] the guide of my youth?
Ver. 4. Wilt thou not from this time cry unto me? ] And is not this extreme impudence? Hast thou a face thus to collogue? Hypocritis nihil impudentius; hypocrites are impudent flatterers; they would, if they could, cheat God of his heaven.
Thou art the guide of my youth,
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Guide = Friend.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Wilt thou: Jer 3:19, Jer 31:9, Jer 31:18-20, Hos 14:1-3
My father: Jer 2:27
the guide: Jer 2:2, Psa 48:14, Psa 71:5, Psa 71:17, Psa 119:9, Pro 1:4, Pro 2:17, Hos 2:15, Mal 2:14
Reciprocal: Psa 71:6 – By thee Isa 42:23 – will give Joe 1:8 – the husband Gal 4:6 – crying Eph 1:5 – unto
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Jer 3:4. The comparison is changed in this verse to the relation of father and offspring. Israel is admonished to remember who it was that guided her all her life. All the good things she has ever enjoyed were provided by this kind Parent. But Israel has been acting the part of a child that was over-indulged. and seems to think there will be no limit to the patience of her Father.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Jer 3:4-5. Wilt thou not from this time Namely, that I have withholden showers, this time of conviction and correction; now that thou hast been made to see thy sins, and to smart for them, wilt thou not forsake them and return to me, saying, I will go and return to my first husband, for then it was better with me than now? Or from this time that thou hast had so kind an invitation to return, and an assurance that thou shalt be well received. Wilt thou not cry unto me, My father? Wilt thou not, as a child, humble thyself, and call upon me, whom thou hast greatly provoked, and own me as a father, for such I have been to thee? Psa 103:13; Mal 1:6; Mal 3:17. Wilt thou not beg pardon for thy undutiful carriage toward me, and hope to find in me the tender compassion of a father toward a returning prodigal? Wilt thou not come and make thy complaints to me as to a father, and confide in me for relief and succour? Thou art the guide of my youth The husband who didst espouse me, and become my guide in the days of my youth: alluding to the time when their manners had not been corrupted by idolatry. Though thou hast gone after many lovers, wilt thou not at length remember the love of thine espousals, and return to the husband of thy youth? Or the relation of a father may rather be referred to; as if he had said, Wilt thou not remember and lay to heart under whose eye and care thou wast brought up, and who was the guide of thy inexperienced years? In our return to God, we ought thankfully to remember that he was our guide when we were young in years, in the way of comfort; and we must faithfully covenant that he shall be our guide from henceforward in the way of duty, and that we will follow his guidance, and give ourselves up to his government. Will he reserve anger for ever? Surely he will not, for he hath proclaimed his name, gracious and merciful. They seem to be the words of the people reasoning thus with themselves, for their encouragement to return to God. Repenting sinners may encourage themselves with this, that though God chide, he will not always chide; though he be angry, he will not keep his anger to the end; but though he cause grief he will have compassion. Behold, thou hast spoken, &c. Or, as Blaney translates the clause, Behold, thou hast spoken and done; thou hast wrought wickedness, and hast prevailed. These are the words of God, or of the prophet speaking in Gods name, reminding them of, and reproving them for, their long and obstinate continuance in idolatry and other sins. The prophets had endeavoured to dissuade them from persevering in their evil courses, but their arguments had no weight with them; they continued to do as they had said, or resolved; they carried their wicked thoughts into execution, in spite of all that was urged to the contrary.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
3:4 Wilt thou not from this time cry {h} to me, My father, thou [art] the guide of my youth?
(h) He shows that the wicked in their miseries will cry to God and use outward prayer as the godly do, but because they do not turn from their evil, they are not heard, Isa 58:3-4 .
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Instead of repenting, they besought God to help them, calling Him their "Father," the friend who had guided them in their youth.