Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Jeremiah 48:10
Cursed [be] he that doeth the work of the LORD deceitfully, and cursed [be] he that keepeth back his sword from blood.
10. negligently ] lit. with slackness, better than mg. deceitfully.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Deceitfully – Better as in the margin.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Jer 48:10
Cursed be he, that doeth the work of the Lord deceitfully.
The sin of lukewarmness in acquiring, and advancing, a knowledge of Christ
I. As it concerns our religious belief and resolution. Some, professedly earnest in their search of truth, make no other use of the light that is given them than to dispute and philosophise about it. Others, acknowledging the testimonies advanced in favour of it, are discouraged by the difficulties which it presents: consulting, yet dreading to be instructed; the slaves of their appetites, more than of their errors, rejecting truth manifested to them, because it would break the fetters which they love. Others again, still more deceitful in their work, convinced, in a great degree, of religious truth in their own minds, yet judge not of it by the light which it leaves there, but by its effect on the rest of mankind. The knowledge of Divine truth must spring from penitence and humility. Cease to have an earthly interest in wishing to find religion false, and you will soon perceive it to be true. Humble yourself before the mighty hand of God; His grace shall then be sufficient for you, and will lead you into all truth. But cursed is he that doeth any work of that God deceitfully, who, whilst He giveth His grace to the humble and sincere, has always scorned the prevaricating and the proud.
II. The silence which we observe in defence of Christ, amidst the clamours of the profane against Him. God wants not your aid to support His truth. But He wants to see His pretended servants not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ: and, although He actually wants not your aid, if He choose to adopt any other method of preserving His truth in the world, yet it appears to be the method, which in His wisdom He has adopted, to disseminate it by means of man to man. Your silence will be taken advantage of by the enemies of your Saviour: and they will think that he, who says nothing, has nothing to say. He, that is not with Me, saith our Saviour, is against Me. Let it not be said that the world has its defenders, and that Jesus Christ has none.
III. An accommodation of the solemn truths of the Gospel to the wishes or prejudices of those with whom we are concerned. Thousands are the miseries that might have been spared this world if the professed believers in God had all been true to their trust. How many a brother might have been prevented from imbruing his hands in a brothers blood, if they, to whom the cause of dispute was referred, had been firm to the dictates of truth. But the false notions of honour which their friends felt in the moment of anger, they in their cool moments will sanction and applaud: and, palliating, by every modification, the sin of murder, will deliberately second a black and wicked passion, and calmly behold two fellow-creatures, who trusted to their decision, attempting to hurl each other into the presence of their eternal Judge! (G. Mathew, M. A.)
Of lukewarmness and zeal
I. Here then is the duty of us all.
1. He that serves God with the body without the soul serves God deceitfully. My son, give Me thy heart; and though I cannot think that nature was so sacramental as to point out the holy and mysterious Trinity by the triangle of the heart, yet it is certain that the heart of man is Gods special portion, and every angle ought to point towards Him.
(1) For to worship God with our souls confesses one of His glorious attributes; it declares Him to be the searcher of hearts.
(2) It advances the powers and concernments of His providence, and confesses all the affairs of men to be overruled by Him; for what He sees He judges, and what He judges He rules, and what He rules must turn to His glory; and of this glory He reflects rays and influences upon His servants, and it shall also turn to their good.
(3) This service distinguishes our duty towards God from all our conversation with man, and separates the Divine commandments from the imperfect decrees of princes and republics.
(4) He that secures the heart, secures all the rest; because this is the principle of all the moral actions of the whole man.
(5) That I may sum up many reasons in one: God, by requiring the heart, secures the perpetuity and perseverance of our duty, and its sincerity, and its integrity, and its perfection: for so also God takes account of little things; it being all one in the heart of man, whether maliciously it omits a duty in a small instance or in a great; for although the expression hath variety and degrees in it, in relation to those purposes of usefulness and charity whither God deigns it, yet the obedience and disobedience are all one, and shall be equally accounted for.
2. He that serves God with the soul without the body, when both can be conjoined, doth the work of the Lord deceitfully. Paphnutius, whose knees were cut for the testimony of Jesus, was not obliged to worship with the humble flexures of the bending penitents; and blind Bartimeus could not read the holy lines of the law, and therefore that part of the work was not his duty; and God shall not call Lazarus to account for not giving alms, nor St. Peter and St. John for not giving silver and gold to the lame man, nor Epaphroditus for not keeping his fasting days when he had his sickness. But when God hath made the body an apt minister to the soul, and hath given money for alms, and power to protect the oppressed, and knees to serve in prayer, and hands to serve our needs, then the soul alone is not to work.
3. They are deceitful in the Lords work, that reserve one faculty for sin, or one sin for themselves; or one action to please their appetite, and many for religion. We reprove a sinning brother, but do it with a pompous spirit; we separate from scandal, and do it with glory, and a gaudy heart; we are charitable to the poor, but will not forgive our unkind enemies; or, we pour relief into their bags, but please ourselves and drink drunk, and hope to commute with God, giving the fruit of our labours or effluxes of money for the sin of our souls: and upon this account it is, that two of the noblest graces of a Christian are to very many persons made a savour of death, though they were intended for the beginning and the promotion of an eternal life; and those are faith and charity.
4. There is one deceit more yet, in the matter of the extension of our duty, destroying the integrity of its constitution: for they do the work of God deceitfully, who think God sufficiently served with abstinence from evil, and converse not in the acquisition and pursuit of holy charity and religion. Many persons think themselves fairly assoilzied, because they are no adulterers, no rebels, no drunkards, not of scandalous lives: in the meantime, like the Laodiceans, they are naked and poor; they have no catalogue of good things registered in heaven, no treasures m the repositories of the poor, neither have t e poor often prayed concerning them, Lord, remember Thy servants for this thing at the day or judgment.
5. Hither are to be reduced as deceitful workers, those that promise to God, but mean not to pay what they once intended; people that are confident in the day of ease, and fail in the danger; they that pray passionately for a grace, and if it be not obtained at that price, go no farther, and never contend in action for what they seem to contend in prayer; such as delight in forms and outsides, and regard not the substance and design of every institution; that pretend one duty to excuse another; religion against charity, or piety to parents against duty to God, private promises against public duty, the keeping of an oath against breaking of a commandment, honour against modesty, reputation against piety, the love of the world in civil instances to countenance enmity against God; these are the deceitful workers of Gods work; they make a schism m the duties of religion, and a war in heaven worse than that between Michael and the dragon; for they divide the Spirit of God and distinguish His commandments into parties and factions; by seeking an excuse, sometimes they destroy the integrity and perfect constitution of duty, or they do something whereby the effect and usefulness of the duty is hindered: concerning all which this only can be said, they who serve God with a lame sacrifice and an imperfect duty–a duty defective in its constituent parts–can never enjoy God; because He can never be divided.
II. The next inquiry is into the intention of our duty. Cursed is he that doeth the work of the Lord negligently, or remissly: as our duty must be whole, so it must be fervent; for a languishing body may have all its parts, and yet be useless to many purposes of nature. And you may reckon all the joints of a dead man, but the heart is cold, and the joints are stiff and fit for nothing but for the little people that creep in graves: and so are very many men; if you lure up the accounts of their religion, they can reckon days and months of religion, various offices, charity and prayers, reading and meditation, faith and knowledge: catechism and sacraments, duty to God, and duty to princes, paying debts and provision for children, confessions and tears, discipline in families, and love of good people; and, it may be, you shall not improve their numbers, or find any lines unfilled in their tables of accounts; but when you have handled all this, and considered, you will find at last you have taken a dead man by the hand, there is not a finger wanting, but they are stiff as icicles, and without flexure as the legs of elephants.
1. In every action of religion God expects such a warmth and a holy fire to go along, that it may be able to enkindle the wood upon the altar, and consume the sacrifice; but God hates an indifferent spirit. Earnestness and vivacity, quickness and delight, perfect choice of the service, and a delight in the prosecution, is all that the spirit of a man can yield towards his religion. The outward work is the effect of the body; but if a man does it heartily and with all his mind, then religion hath wings, and moves upon wheels of fire; and therefore, when our blessed Saviour made those capitulars and canons of religion, to love God, and to love our neighbour, besides that the material part of the duty, love, is founded in the spirit, as its natural seat, he also gives three words to involve the spirit in the action, and but one for the body: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and, lastly, with all thy strength. If it be in motion, a lukewarm religion is pleasing to God; for God hates it not for its imperfection, and its natural measures of proceeding; but if it stands still and rests there, it is a state against the designs, and against the perfection of God: and it hath in it these evils:
(1) It is a state of the greatest imprudence in the world; for it makes a man to spend his labour for that which profits not, and to deny his appetite for an unsatisfying interest: he puts his moneys in a napkin, and he that does so, puts them into a broken bag; he loses the principal for not increasing the interest.
(2) The second appendant evil is, that lukewarmness is the occasion of greater evil; because the remiss easy Christian shuts the gate against the heavenly breathings of Gods Holy Spirit.
(3) A state of lukewarmness is more incorrigible than a state of coldness; while men flatter themselves that their state is good, that they are rich and need nothing, that their lamps are dressed, and full of ornament. These men are such as think they have knowledge enough to need no teacher, devotion enough to need no new fires, perfection enough to need no new progress, justice enough to need no repentance; and then, because the spirit of a man, and all the things of this world, are in perpetual variety and change, these men decline, when they have gone their period; they stand still, and then revert; like a stone returning from the bosom of a cloud, where it rested as long as the thought of a child, and fell to its natural bed of earth, and dwelt below for ever.
2. It concerns us next to inquire concerning the duty in its proper instances, that we may perceive to what parts and degrees of duty it amounts; we shall find it especially in the duties of faith, of prayer, and of charity.
(1) Our faith must be strong, vigorous, active, confident, and patient, reasonable and unalterable, without doubting, and fear and partiality.
(2) Our prayers and devotions must be fervent and zealous, not cold, patient, easy, and soon rejected; but supported by a patient spirit, set forwards by importunity, continued by perseverance, waited on by attention and a present mind, carried along with holy, but strong desires; and ballasted with resignation, and conformity to the Divine will; and then it is as God likes it, and does the work to Gods glory and our interest effectively.
(3) Our charity also must be fervent: He that follows his general with a heavy march, and a heavy heart, is but an ill soldier. But our duty to God should be hugely pleasing, and we should rejoice in it; it must pass on to action, and do the action vigorously; it is called in Scripture the labour and travail of love. He that loves passionately, will not only do all that his friend needs, but all that himself can; for although the law of charity is fulfilled by acts of profit, and bounty, and obedience, and labour, yet it hath no other measures but the proportions and abundance of a good mind; and according to this, God requires that we be abounding, and that always, in the work of the Lord. (Bp. Jeremy Taylor.)
Cursed laziness
These words form a scriptural bomb which might with advantage be thrown into the midst of a great many of our Churches, where everything pertaining to the service is gone through in a precise and proper manner, but where there is an utter absence of zeal, enthusiasm, and Christlike earnestness. In the A.V. this passage does not attract much attention. That a curse should be hurled at the head of the traitor who does the work of the Lord deceitfully surprises no one. But to find a curse aimed at the merely negligent worker makes us pause, and think, and ask ourselves questions. The persons here referred to are amongst those who are doing the work of the Lord.–They profess and call themselves Christians. They have entered the kingdom of God, and by so doing they have enrolled themselves as servants of Christ, and are pledged to do His will. For be it never forgotten, the two must go together–namely, salvation and service. When in the sixteenth century Martin Luther blew the reveille of the Reformation, the slumbering Churches were roused and rallied by the call; and breaking off the fetters of delusion and superstition which had previously bound them, they joyously inscribed on their banner Salvation by faith. And for three centuries that blessed truth has been floating before the eyes of reformed Europe. But Truth though it is, it is not the whole truth. The time has more than come for the uplifting of another banner with an inscription completing and explaining the first, by declaring that Faith without works is dead. Soul-saving faith makes soul-saving men. I do not think that any man is ever saved except by the direct or indirect intervention of some other man. Christ alone can call the Lazarus forth, but there is a stone to be rolled away before, and there are wrappings to be removed after the miracle is wrought. And hence God is but working out His own economy in demanding that every member of His kingdom shall be a servant and a worker. Through all time the test of saintship is service. But this is not all. The Divine claim is not exhausted by the mere demand for work. It is declared again and again that no service is acceptable unless it be rendered with the whole heart. Partial, perfunctory, half-hearted service He sternly rejects; and upon those who mock Him by offering it He pours His righteous wrath. What think you is the greatest of all the obstacles which impede the progress of the kingdom of Christ? It is the negligence or laziness of its members. To be an idler in the world is bad enough, but to be an idler in the Church is ten thousand times worse. It is an act of impious and audacious hypocrisy, and he who is guilty of it stands before God and man self-branded as an impostor. We often Bear and speak of Church work, but if we would speak correctly that phrase must be discarded. There is no such thing as Church work. The work in question is Gods work, and as such if for no other reason claims our best energies. If any of us were commissioned to do work for the king would we not tax our powers to the very uttermost in order to present it as perfect as possible? Much more should we do so when the commission comes from the Court of heaven. The Kings business requireth haste, and all who are engaged in it must acquit themselves as servants of the Most High God. Dull sloth must be shaken off, and with hearts aglow with zeal and eyes aflame with earnestness we must give ourselves to the task committed to our care. Remember also the intrinsic importance of the work itself. Have you ever been present at a critical surgical operation? What earnestness, what concentrated attention, what careful precautions against the dreaded possibility! How is all this tension of faculties brought about? It is created by the importance of the work in hand. It is a case of life or death, in which negligence would mean murder. Ay! and when the Christian worker is alive to his duty, and all that it involves, negligence is impossible. It is fraught with possibilities which cannot be told. Its issues belong not to time but eternity. Look around you and see how active and earnest are the forces arrayed against us. From centre to circumference the kingdom of darkness thrills and throbs with earnestness. Every subject is a soldier, and being s soldier he fights. Every subject is a servant, and being a servant he serves. There is no dilly-dallying or make-believe in the enemys camp. Then why should there be any in ours? Has the Cross no longer its power? Has the sacred passion exhausted its inspirations? Does the love of Christ no longer constrain and the Holy Ghost no longer energise? (Joseph Muir.)
Half-and-half religion
If you are not to make religion the principal thing in your lives, dont go in for it. It is better, and much easier, to go in for it entirely, than half and half–merely flirting with it. It was the saying of a shrewd thinker: If it is worth while being a Christian at all, it is better to he a downright Christian
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 10. Cursed be he that doeth the work of the Lord deceitfully] Moab is doomed to destruction, and the Lord pronounces a curse on their enemies if they do not proceed to utter extirpation. God is the Author of life, and has a sovereign right to dispose of it as he pleases; and these had forfeited theirs long ago by their idolatry and other crimes.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
These words seem like the words of the prophet to the Chaldeans, inciting them to go on valiantly against the Moabites, calling it
the work of the Lord, which he would have done, and to which he had called them. There is a time to withhold our hands from shedding blood, and that is always when we have not a special authority and call from God to it; and there is a time when God will curse those that do so withhold their hands, that time is when God doth require the shedding of it.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
10. work of . . . Lordthedivinely appointed utter devastation of Moab. To represent howentirely this is God’s will, a curse is pronounced on the Chaldeans,the instrument, if they do it negligently (Margin) orby halves (Jud 5:23); compareSaul’s sin as to Amalek (1Sa 15:3;1Sa 15:9), and Ahab’s as to Syria(1Ki 20:42).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Cursed [be] he that doeth the work of the Lord deceitfully,…. Which is said with respect to the Chaldeans, who were enjoined to destroy the Moabites; which is called the work of the Lord, because he had given them a commission to do it; and which was to be done by them, not by halves, or in a remiss and negligent manner, but fully and faithfully; they were not to spare them, as Saul did the Amalekites, and Ahab Benhadad. This is a general rule, which may be applied to all divine work and service; every man has work to do for God; some in a more public, others in a more private way; all should be done in uprightness and sincerity, with all faithfulness and integrity: it is done deceitfully when men play the hypocrite; and negligently when they are backward to it, lukewarm in it, and infrequent in the performance of it; which brings upon them the curse of God; and which is not a curse causeless, but a legal one; and is no other than the wrath of God in strict justice:
and cursed [be] he that keepeth back his sword from blood; from shedding the blood of the Moabites, when God had given command to do it. The curse is repeated, as Kimchi observes, to confirm the matter, that it might be most assuredly expected; since it would certainly come, if the Lord’s work was not done aright.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The Prophet here encourages the Chaldeans to severity, so as to make no end until they destroyed that nation. We have said that the prophets assumed different characters, so that what they said might be more impressive. The Chaldeans were not indeed the disciples of Jeremiah; nor was this exhortation intended for them, but that the Israelites might know that what they heard from the mouth of Jeremiah was certain. He then turns to address the Chaldeans; as he before spoke to any who might be present, “Give wings to Moab;” so now another apostrophe follows, Cursed, etc., — to whom does he speak? to the Chaldeans; and yet the Prophet did not address them as though he could effect anything; but, as I have said, he had a regard to the Jews.
This passage has been very absurdly explained, and it is commonly quoted as though the Prophet had said, that special care ought to be taken by us, not to omit anything of what God commands. But they thus misrepresent the meaning. We ought therefore to bear in mind what I have already said, that these words are addressed to the Chaldeans, as though he had said, “Spare not, but shed blood, and let no humanity move you, for it is the work of God; God has armed you, that ye might fully execute his judgment and spare no blood: ye shall then be accursed, except ye execute his vengeance.” It is not indeed a common mode of speaking; but as to the subject and the meaning there is no ambiguity. It is the same thing as though he had said, “Go on courageously, and boldly execute God’s vengeance, inasmuch as punishment has been denounced on them.” As when soldiers idly delay, the leader when present not only exhorts them but also urges them on with reproofs and threatenings, in order to rouse their alacrity; so the Prophet here shews that God, as though present with the Chaldeans, would chide their sloth, “Why do ye give over? cursed is every one who will not shed blood, and who will not destroy them from the least to the greatest.”
But the whole import of the passage is found in the expression, that the destruction of that ungodly nation was the work of Jehovah; as if he had said, “Though the Chaldeans shall lay waste the land of Moab, and shall do this, not in order to obey God, but from avarice and ambition, yet it will be the work of God; for God has hired the Chaldeans for this end, that they might destroy the Moabites, though they may think of no such thing.” It follows, —
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(10) Cursed be he . . .To the prophet the destruction of the tyrannous haughtiness was a righteous retribution in which he saw the work of Jehovah, and he could not wish that it should be done otherwise than effectually. The thought rests on the belief in the Divine government that works through war as well as through pestilence and famine (Jer. 25:31; Jer. 46:10). (Comp. like utterances in Jdg. 5:23; 1Sa. 15:3; 1Sa. 15:18; 1Ki. 20:42.) Even Christian nations fighting against slave-traders or pirates might legitimately echo the same prayer. It has been used, with less justification, in the religious wars of our own and other countries.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
10. Deceitfully Rather, negligently. The meaning is, that God will require the ministers of judgment upon Moab to do thorough work.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Jer 48:10. Cursed be he, &c. “Cursed is he who doth not execute with fidelity and the greatest exactness the orders of the Lord; cursed will ye be, O Chaldeans, if you spare Moab, if you treat her not with the utmost severity, since God hath appointed her to destruction, and you are only the executors of his just vengeance.” Calmet.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Jer 48:10 Cursed [be] he that doeth the work of the LORD deceitfully, and cursed [be] he that keepeth back his sword from blood.
Ver. 10. Cursed be he that doeth the work of the Lord deceitfully. ] Or, Slackly, or hastingly, to the halves: Late pater haec sententia. The work of destroying Moab is here mainly meant. But the text taketh in all lawful employments; these are God’s works, and must be done vigorously, with all our might, in obedience to God, and for his greatest glory. Not soldiers only that have a good cause and in a good calling must likewise take a good courage, and do execution lustily, but magistrates also, who are keepers of both tables of the law, must do right to all without partiality, accounting it better to be counted a busy justice than an honest gentleman. Ministers must look to the ministry which they have received of the Lord, to fulfil the same. a Every man in his particular place and station must be “not slothful in business, but fervent in spirit, serving the Lord”: non tanquam canis ad Nilum, sed ut Cygnus ad Thamesin: in God’s immediate service especially men must stir up themselves to take hold of him, minding the work, and not doing it in a customary, formal, bedulling way. A very heathen b could say, Ignavia in rebus divinis est nefaria, Dulness in divine duties is abominable. And Numa, king of the Romans, made a law that none should be careless or cursory in the service of God; and appointed an officer to cry oft to the people at such a time, Hoc agite, Mind what ye are about, and do it to your utmost. He that is ambitious of God’s curse, let him do otherwise.
a “Verbi minister es; hoc age”: Perkinsi hoc erat symbolum.
b Aristides.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
deceitfully = negligently: i.e. this work of judgment.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Cursed: Jer 50:25, Num 31:14-18, Jdg 5:23, 1Sa 15:3, 1Sa 15:9, 1Sa 15:13-35, 1Ki 20:42
deceitfully: or, negligently
Reciprocal: Gen 27:12 – and I shall Num 31:15 – General Deu 20:17 – thou shalt Jos 10:19 – stay ye Jdg 1:27 – the Canaanites Jdg 17:2 – cursedst Jdg 21:5 – a great oath 1Sa 15:33 – hewed 1Sa 28:18 – obeyedst 1Ki 18:40 – slew them there Jer 50:21 – and do Mal 1:14 – cursed
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Jer 48:10. God had decreed the pun-ishment of Moab at the hands of another country, and the work to be done by it (Babylon) would be the work of God. If the swordsman of Babylon should be negligent in using the sword against the victims of God’s wrath, the divine curse will be upon him.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
48:10 {h} Cursed [be] he that doeth the work of the LORD deceitfully, and cursed [be] he that keepeth back his sword from blood.
(h) He shows that God would punish the Chaldeans if they did not destroy the Egyptians, and that with a courage, and calls this executing of his vengeance against his enemies, his work though the Chaldeans sought another end, Isa 10:11 .
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
The Lord uttered a curse on any of the soldiers that would not carry out His will against Moab as He had ordered. Christians often use this verse, appropriately, as a challenge to serve the Lord diligently. The last word in the AV rendering of the first line is "slackness" rather than "deceit."