Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Jeremiah 5:3
O LORD, [are] not thine eyes upon the truth? thou hast stricken them, but they have not grieved; thou hast consumed them, [but] they have refused to receive correction: they have made their faces harder than a rock; they have refused to return.
3. do not thine eyes look upon, etc.] Dost thou not look for faithfulness in men?
they have made their faces harder than a rock ] Cp. Eze 3:7 ff.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Upon the truth – God looks to the faith, the upright purpose of the heart, and without it the nominal fealty of an oath is an abomination.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Jer 5:3-8
O Lord, are not Thine eyes upon the truth?
Truthfulness
The allusion is not to doctrinal truth, or truth in the abstract, but to practical truth as it should exist in the hearts and lives of men. The Lord bade them produce a single truthful man in all Jerusalem, and Jeremiah answers that if truth were to be found the Lord Himself best knew where it was, for His eyes were ever upon it. Look well at this picture of the progress of the deceitful. They begin with being dishonest to their fellow men, and at last they become Satans commission agents, trappers for the devil, fowlers who ensnare men as bird catchers take the winged fowl. This was the state of affairs in Jeremiahs time. We have not, I trust, quite such a condition of things among us today, as a plague universally prevalent, but we have much of the disease of deceit in all quarters, high and low, and to what a head it may come time alone can show.
I. The utter folly of all pretence.
1. Hypocrisy is useless altogether, for God sees through it. The instantaneous imagination which flits across the mind like a stray bird, leaving nor track nor trace, God knows it altogether.
2. Nor is it only useless: it is injurious. You spoil your sacrifice if there be any tincture of the odious gall of hypocrisy about it. Everything about you and me that is unreal God hates, and hates it more in His own people than anywhere else.
3. Moreover, pretence is deadening, for he that begins with tampering with truth will go on from bad to worse. Once begin to sail by the wind of policy and trickery and you must tack, and then tack again and again; and as surely as you are alive, you will yet have to tack again; but if you have the motive force of truth within you, as a steamboat has its own engine, then you can go straight in the teeth of wind and tempest.
4. Falsehood and pretence before God are damnable. I cannot use a less forcible word than that. I have constantly seen almost all sorts of people converted–great blasphemers, pleasure seekers, thieves, drunkards, unchaste persons, and hardened reprobates,–but rarely have I seen a man converted who has been a thorough-paced liar. The heart which is crammed with craft and treachery seems as if it had passed out of the reach of grace.
II. The great value of truthfulness. The great value of it is this–that it alone is regarded by God in matters of religion: His eyes are upon that which is truthful about us. For instance, suppose I say I repent. The question is–Do I really and from my heart sorrow for sin! The same holds good in reference to faith. A man may say, I believe, as thousands say their creed,–I believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, and so on. Ah, but do you trust in God with your whole heart! Are you sincerely believing in God and Gods Word, and Gods Son, and Gods Gospel?–refer, if not, all your professed faith is useless. As to love to Christ, you know how very easy it is to sing sweet hymns about love to Jesus, and yet how few are living so as to prove their attachment to the Redeemer. The same truth bears upon all the ordinances of religion. When we professed to worship God, how much praise was there in the song? As much as the heart made. As to prayer. A large prayer meeting. Yes, but the largeness of the number of attendants is not always a gauge of the quantity and power of prayer. The quantity of heart in the prayer decides its quality. This is equally true of all your private worship. That daffy reading of the chapter is a very excellent thing; but do you read with your soul as well as with your eyes? That morning prayer and that evening prayer, those few minutes snatched in the middle of the day–these are good. I will not wish you to alter the regularity of your devotion, but still it may all be clockwork, godliness with no life in it. Oh, for one single groan from the heart!
III. The influence of truthful men.
1. It is so great with God that one of them can save a city from destruction. Hence the value of good men in bad localities. When you go into a hamlet or village where there is no religion, do not be so very sorry at your position, for God may have great ends to be served by you. All light must not be stored up in the sun; scatter it over earths poor lands that need it, lest all the trees of the field die in perpetual night. God blesses us to make us blessings. Ask of God that you may be so sincere, so truthful, that He may bless those round about you for your sake.
2. This influence is such that it never was attributed to any man on account of his riches. No. The Lord is no respecter of persons, and He seeth not as man seeth. Sincerity before God is approved; true reliance upon Christ the Lord accepts: and for this He blesses us, and others through us.
3. And, mark you one other thing. If you are upright before God, and you should happen to fall among people that despise you and reject you–it is a sad thing to have to say, but it is true, and a proof of the great influence of truthful men,–your word, when you speak for God, shall be like fire, and those round about you shall be wood, and it shall devour them. If you are not a savour of life to life to men, you will be a savour of death to death to them.
IV. The necessity and the means of our being true and sincere before Him whose eyes behold truthfulness.
1. These times require it. This is an age of tricks and policies. Oh, the lying puffs you meet with everywhere in books and broadsides innumerable. Meet the prince of darkness with the light; he cannot stand against it. Our times require our sincerity.
2. So does our God also require it. I have already spoken to this, and I need not repeat the solemn strain.
3. So do our souls require it. Our eternal welfare demands it. Oh, there must be no mistake about our being true before God, for when it comes to dying work, nothing will stand us then but sincerity. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Thou hast stricken them, but they have not grieved.
Gods chastisements designed for mans conversion
I. Turning to the Lord presupposes a deep conviction that you have gone astray, both from way of duty and of safety. That all your highest interests have been neglected.
1. The exceeding sinfulness of sin.
2. The purity and strictness of Gods law, the equity and terror of its penalty.
3. Your obligations to Him as Creator, Preserver, Redeemer.
II. Turning to God supposes a pull conviction of the necessity of immediate response.
1. If you die in your present condition, you will certainly be lost.
2. You have no time for delay.
3. It will wound your heart to think this work has not been done long ago.
III. If afflictions should prove the means of turning you to God, they will rouse you to most earnest persevering endeavours that you may truly find Him.
1. Pray without ceasing.
2. Accustom yourself to solemn meditation.
3. Seek the society of those who know the Lord.
IV. If afflictions should turn you to God, you will be made deeply sensible of your inability and the necessity of the Holy Spirits grace to your conversion.
1. Your endeavours avail to avoid hindrances and seek helps.
2. Yet your own heart is against you, and the disease of sin is irrecoverable but by Divine grace.
V. If ever you turn to the Lord, you will realise that Christ is the only way of access to God. You will come as criminals upon the footing of grace, not merit; will renounce all your righteousness; a broken-hearted rebel. Till then, you have nothing to do with Jesus.
VI. If you are turned to God, you will experience a great change in temper and conduct.
1. Heart and mind will take a new bias; thoughts and affections towards God; aspirations towards heaven; Jesus dear to you; all things become new.
2. Your practices will follow the inward impulse and principle of religion.
VII. If turned to the Lord, your mind will habitually retain that turn. Your religion not a transient fit, but permanent and persevering. (President Davies.)
Unsanctified affliction
I. Some of the forms of unsanctified affliction.
1. Insensibility.
2. Hardihood.
II. Some of the means by which this evil may be kept away.
1. By seeking ascertain and to accomplish the design of our affliction.
2. By repressing every tendency to murmuring or impatience.
3. By avoiding immoderate sorrow. (G. Brooks.)
Fruitless chastisement
Chastisement is designed by God to bear fruit in a purged and penitent heart; but it may be so neglected, resisted, or abused, as to become fruitless.
I. The sign of fruitless chastisement is impenitence.
1. Chastisement is the red lamp warning of danger, and urging us to stop in the course we are pursuing.
2. But, that it may serve this purpose, there must be–
(1) Reflection;
(2) Sorrow for sin;
(3) Return.
II. The cause of fruitless chastisement is hardness of heart.
1. Insensitiveness. The sufferer may feel the smart of the lash on his back, and yet be dead to the sting of shame in his heart.
2. Wilful resistance. The evil is in the will that refuses to yield to the mercy that comes disguised in bitterness.
III. The consequence of fruitless chastisement is an aggravation of future evils. The rebellious sufferer may imagine that he is free to do as he will with his sufferings; but even they are talents for which he will be called to account. For observe–
1. Gods searching watchfulness. O Lord, are not Thine eyes, etc. God searches the heart He chastises. He sees the rebellious thought, the stubborn self-will.
2. Mans increased guilt. The more there is done to awaken a consciousness of sin, the more culpable is the indifference still persisted in.
IV. The remedy for fruitless chastisement is to be found in the grace of the Gospel. This will give–
1. The new heart;
2. The promise of forgiveness. Christ brings love and hope, and thus He brings also the tears of repentance. (W. F. Adeney, M. A.)
Unsanctified affliction
This might not unfitly be called one of the lamentations of Jeremiah. The words may suggest to us the consideration of a subject more or less belonging to all of us, namely, the danger of unsanctified or unimproved afflictions. The remedies of heaven cannot be inoperative; they must aggravate the maladies which they are not allowed to heal, and will make the face harder than a rock, if they induce not a tender and softened heart.
I. Unsanctified or unimproved chastening.
1. The first impression in the text seems to set forth that misuse of it which comes of insensibility. Thou has stricken them, but they have not grieved; Thou hast consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction. The language may be taken to describe, not so much the receiving of correction in the spirit of defiant and avowed contempt, as the act of setting lightly by affliction, of not bestowing upon it the attention it deserves, having no reverence for its Author, and no consideration for its design or end. A calamity may visit us, but we think only of its human author; sickness may lay us prostrate, but science is sufficient to explain how it came,–it is chance or a skilled hand that causeth the shaft to pierce between the joints of the harness, and there is some poison in the atmosphere which has caused the withering of our favourite gourd. Thus, placing secondary agencies before our eyes, we can see no further, and look no higher. We see, then, why God was angry with the Jews, and why He will be angry with us, when His chastisements are received with unreflecting indifference. It is that, whether avowedly or not, such insensibility amounts to atheism. On this view–unavowed, of course–is based the indifference of unconverted men under chastisement: they feel that it is not correction, but the natural result of some law which no one can help. Why should they grieve at that which comes of an unhindered, self-governing, moral necessity
2. But the text adverts to a yet more offending and presumptuous deportment under affliction, namely, when the chastisements of God are received in a stouthearted, rebellious, defying spirit. Not only have they refused to receive correction, but they have made their faces harder than a rock. In this case, as we see, God is net left out of sight. On the contrary, He is believed and felt to be the Author of all permitted sufferings. The awful impiety is, that He is regarded as the unjust Author. We stand amazed at the impiety of that Roman emperor, who, because the lightning flash interrupted the pleasures of his banquet, feared not to hurl his blasphemous reproach against the powers of heaven. But let us consider how much of the spirit of these men is in us, when we indulge in angry chafings at the arrangements of Divine Providence; full of fury, like a wild bull in the net, or fretting as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke. How often do you find people under bitter reverses angry and out of humour with everybody about them; with friends who have had nothing whatever to do with their trouble, nay, who perhaps are trying all in their power to lighten them; but the fire of anger is in their bosom, and it must vent itself somewhere; it would vent it on God if it dared, but this is too dreadful to think of; yet it is with Him that they are at anger, and the thought of the heart is as much theirs as ever it was Jonahs, that they do well to be angry. Extreme, therefore, as the ease of the text may seem to be, it is an extreme to which any rebellious thoughts may ultimately lead us, if not watched over and prayed against in their first beginnings.
II. How these dreadful effects may be prevented and the chastenings of God turned to a sanctified account.
1. First, we must he careful to acknowledge the design of God in sending our trials, and do all we can to bring that design about. Our trials may be of different kinds, one man being afflicted with this and another with that. Every heart has its own plague, and every soul its own leprous spot, and the Great Physician mixes our cup accordingly; that is, as pride lifts up the heart, or covetousness enslaves the will, or as vanity fills the mind, as human idols are exalted to Christs throne, or the love of this present world makes us slothful in the ways of God, does He apportion to each His remedial sorrow, to each His purging fire. Now this being so, can it be otherwise than displeasing unto God, if we take the smiting patiently, but still refuse the correction; if we submit to the discipline, but disregard the profit; if we allow the ploughshare of affliction to go over us, and yet cheek the springing up of those peaceable fruits of righteousness which chastisement yieldeth to them that are exercised thereby? The rod has a voice, and you must hear what it says.
2. Again, in order that chastening may be blessed to us, we must have a care that we do not become weary under it, however long it may continue. He who faints under the Divine correction first makes sure that he shall faint, and then, by casting off all effort, brings about the fulfilment of his own prophecy. He makes himself helpless. The feebleness of his graces arises from want of exorcise. He has hung up his shield of faith, he has cast off his helmet of hope, he wields the sword of the Spirit with an unsoldierly and trembling hand, and then he wonders that he faints in the day of battle. Chastisement thus received will yield no peaceable fruits of righteousness. So far from our trials being designed to supersede the exercise of our spiritual graces, the great battle of our faith is to be fought on this field.
3. In like manner we are in danger of losing the benefit of chastening, when, through immoderate grief, we unfit ourselves for the active duties of life. The connection between our bodily and mental states is so intimate, that long-continued disturbance of the one will always be followed by serious derangement of the other. Hence it is that protracted and cherished griefs are found to produce a general disturbance in our active and intellectual powers; duties are neglected, a state of apathy is induced, and all the higher demands of our social position are made to wait on a sinful and unprofitable grief. Conceive rightly of Him from whom that chastening comes, as of infinite holiness to do nothing unjust, of infinite love to do nothing unkind, of infinite wisdom to do nothing unsuitable to your best, truest, everlasting interests. And then conceive rightly of yourselves, as transgressors from the womb, as children of disobedience, as outcasts by nature from light and hope, and enemies by works from truth and godliness. And then consider what God sends trials for, and the certainty that, received aright, they shall all work together for good. The arrows of God can never miss their aim; with Him there are no bows drawn at a venture; His shafts speed home infallibly. Taken from the quiver of infinite love, winged with purposes of unerring mercy, they make no heart wounds which they do not more kindly heal, and kill nothing in us which were not better dead. (D. Moore, M. A.)
They have refused to return.—
Decided ungodliness
I. Who have refused to return?
1. Those who have said as much. With unusual honesty or presumption, they have made public declaration that they will never quit their sinful ways.
2. Those who have made a promise to repent, but have not performed it.
3. Those who have offered other things instead of practical return to God–ceremonies, religiousness, morality, and the like.
4. Those who have only returned in appearance. Formalists, mere professors, hypocrites.
5. Those who have only returned in part. Hugging some sins while hanging others.
II. What this refusal unveils.
1. An intense love of sin.
2. A want of love to the great Father, who bids them return.
3. A disbelief of God: they neither believe in what He has revealed concerning the evil consequences of their sin, nor in what He promises as to the benefit of returning from it.
4. A despising of God: they reject His counsel, His command, and even Himself.
5. A resolve to continue in evil. This is their proud ultimatum, they have refused to return.
6. A trifling with serious concerns. They are too busy, too fond of gaiety, etc.
III. What deepens the sin of this refusal?
1. When correction brings no repentance.
2. When conscience is violated, and the Spirit of God is resisted. Repentance seen to be right, but yet refused: duty known, but declined.
3. When repentance is known to be the happiest course, and yet it is obstinately neglected against the plainest reasons.
4. When this obstinacy is long-continued, and is persevered in against convictions and inward promptings.
5. When vile reasons are at the bottom: such as secret sins, which the sinner dares not confess or quit; or the fear of man, which makes the mind cowardly.
IV. What is the real reason of this refusal?
1. It may be ignorance, but that can be only in part, for it is plainly a mans duty to return to his Lord. No mystery surrounds this simple precept–Return.
2. It may be self-conceit: perhaps they dream that they are already in the right road.
3. It is at times sheer recklessness. The man refuses to consider his own best interests. He resolves to be a trifler; death and hell and heaven are to him as toys to sport with.
4. It is a dislike of holiness. That lies at the bottom of it: men cannot endure humility, self-denial, and obedience to God.
5. It is a preference for the present above the eternal future. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Refusal to return
Lord Byron, a short time before death, was heard to say, Shall I sue for mercy? After a long pause he added: Come, come, no weakness; lets be a man to the last!
Surely these are poor;. . .I will get me unto the great.–
The ignorance of the poor and the insolence of the great
I. The character of many of the poor as here described.
1. Their obstinacy in sin was owing to their ignorance.
(1) Of religion.
(2) Of Gods providences.
2. Their ignorance was in great measure occasioned by their poverty.
(1) This deprived them of education.
(2) All their thoughts and cares are about their worldly wants.
(3) They absent themselves from Gods house because of poor attire.
(4) They associate with persons like-circumstanced and like-minded, who encourage one another in neglect of religion.
(5) They thereby lose all self-respect, sin impudently, and glory in their shame.
II. The character of the great as here described.
1. They had a better knowledge of religion than the poor.
2. They acted as bad as the poor, or worse.
3. Their conduct was chiefly owing to their greatness.
(1) Lifted up with pride, they resented admonition.
(2) They think religion is only to restrain the vulgar, not to bind those in rank.
(3) They shrink from showing reverence for God and being exact in religious observances.
(4) Worldly things have mischievous influence upon their hearts.
(5) Flattered by others, they forget or but formally pay homage to God.
(6) They mind earthly things, neglecting the culture and interests of the soul.
Application–
1. Learn what is the most important and profitable knowledge.
2. The advantages of being placed in the middle condition of life (Pro 30:8).
3. What an excellent charity it is to furnish the poor with the means of knowledge. (Job Orton, D. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Are not thine eyes upon the truth? The prophet, observing the obstinacy of this people, abruptly turns himself to God, yet emphatically insinuates their incorrigibleness. This may refer either to Gods discerning and knowing truth from falsehood, as being impossible that any thing should be hid from him, Psa 11:4; or rather, (more agreeably to the phrase,) to Gods approving; and this some again refer to persons, as men of truth for true men, so man of wisdom for a wise man, Mic 6:9; but others, better, to truth and faithfulness, as that which God hath a great respect for, and delight in, Psa 51:6, and was not to be found among these people. Though none of these senses be improper, this seems the most genuine.
They have not grieved; they have been under sore grievances that God hath laid them under, yet they seem unconcerned, Pro 23:35; Isa 42:25; or it is probable they were grieved at their sufferings, but they have not repented, thereby to turn away the causes of his just displeasure: see 2Co 7:9,10.
Thou hast consumed them; God had not only lightly chastised them, but wasted them by several enemies, as the Assyrian, Isa 10:5,6; 36:1, and Pharaoh-nechoh, 2Ki 23:33, and the Chaldees, Syrians, Moabites, and the Ammonites, 2Ki 24:2, and Nebuchadnezzar, 2Ki 24:13, &c. All these he made use of as the rod of his indignation, yet they refused to receive correction; see Jer 2:30; a metonymy of the effect; they have profited nothing by it, not at all reformed, Isa 1:5,16; Am 4:6,8-11.
They have made their faces harder than a rock; noting their obstinacy and impudence, laying aside all sense of judgments, as past feeling, Pro 21:29; Zec 7:12. They have refused to return; wilfully rejected counsel, and slighted correction, resolving to persist in their obstinacy.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
3. eyes upon the truth(Deu 32:4; 2Ch 16:9).”Truth” is in contrast with “swear falsely” (Jer5:2). The false-professing Jews could expect nothing butjudgments from the God of truth.
stricken . . . not grieved(Jer 2:30; Isa 1:5;Isa 9:13).
refused . . . correction(Jer 7:28; Zep 3:2).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
O Lord, are not thine eyes upon the truth?…. That is, thou hast no regard to such deceitful men, such hypocritical worshippers and formal professors, but to true and upright men: God looks not at outward appearances, but to the heart; he can see through all masks and vizards, there is no deceiving of him; he desires truth in the inward parts, and his eyes are on that; he has respect to men that have the truth of grace, the root of the matter in them, oil in their vessels, together with the lamps of an outward profession: his eyes are on such as have a true inward sense of sin, a genuine repentance for it, and that make a sincere, hearty, and ingenuous confession of it; to this man he looks, that is poor, and of a contrite spirit; he is nigh to such, and dwells with them; when he has no regard to the sad countenances and disfigured faces of Pharisees; to the tears of a profane Esau, or to the external humiliations and concessions of a wicked Pharaoh: his eyes are upon the internal graces of his own Spirit; to love, that is in deed and in truth; to hope, that is without dissimulation, and to faith unfeigned: and so the Septuagint, Vulgate Latin, Syriac, and Arabic versions render it, “thine eyes are unto faith”; or, respect faith p; the faith of Christians, as Jerom interprets it. Faith is a grace well pleasing to God, and everything that is done in faith is so, and nothing else; it is a grace that gives glory to God, and on which he has put much honour, in making it the receiver of all the blessings of grace, and connecting salvation with it; he has so great a regard for it, that whatever it asks it has of him. In short, the sense is, that the eyes of the Lord, of his love, favour, good will, and delight, are upon such whose hearts are upright towards him; who draw nigh to him in truth, worship him in spirit and in truth, and are hearty to his cause and interest, and faithful to his word and ordinances; who are lovers of truth; of Christ, who is the truth itself; and of his Gospel, the word of truth, and the doctrines of it; see 1Sa 16:7.
Thou hast stricken them, but they have not grieved; that is, the Lord had courted and chastised them with afflictive providences; he had brought his judgments upon them, and had smitten them with the sword, or famine, or pestilence, or some such sore calamity, and yet it had not brought them to a sense of their sin, and to a godly sorrow for it:
thou hast consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction; God had by his judgments consumed or swept away many of them, yet the rest did not take warning thereby, but went on in their sins; or they were brought near to consumption, as Kimchi interprets it; nevertheless remained obstinate and incorrigible, refused to receive any correction or instruction by such providences:
they have made their faces harder than a rock; becoming more impudent in sinning, not blushing at, or being ashamed for it, and unmoved by judgments and chastising providence:
they have refused to return; to the Lord, and to his worship, from which they revolted; or by repentance, and unto faith and truth, from which they had swerved.
p “oculi tui respiciunt fidem”, V. L. “ad fidem” Justius & Tremellius, Cocceius, and some in Vatablus.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Some give a strained exposition of the beginning of the verse, or rather pervert it, as though the Prophet had said, that God would not turn his eyes from what was right, because he would rigidly execute his vengeance on his people. But Jeremiah goes on here with the same subject, for there is no importance to be attached to the division of the verses. They who have divided them have often unknowingly perverted the meaning. The divisions then are not to be heeded, only the number is to be retained as a help to the memory; but as to the context, they often are a hindrance to readers; for it is preposterous to blend things which are separate, and to divide what is connected. This remark has just now occurred to me, and it is necessary, as this place calls for it; for the Prophet, after having said that the Jews were perfidious and guilty of duplicity, and destitute of all integrity, immediately adds, But the eyes of God regard fidelity; as though he had said, that they in vain pretended to avow God’s name, and made a shew of religion by ceremonies and by an outward display; for God searches the heart, and cares nothing for those external masks by which men’s eyes are captivated.
The Prophet very significantly turns his discourse to God, to shew that he was wearied in addressing the people, for he saw that he prevailed nothing with the obstinate; for had there been any teachable spirit in the Jews, he would no doubt have exhorted them to practice integrity. He might have said, “They are mistaken who swear falsely in God’s name, and persuade themselves that he will be their Father; for his eyes regard fidelity and uprightness of heart.” This would have been a regular way of proceeding, and this mode of teaching would have been most suitable: but Jeremiah abruptly breaks off his address, and leaves his own people; “O God, “he says, “thy eyes look on fidelity;” as though he had said, “What more can I have to do with this wretched people? I address words to rocks and stones: therefore I bid you adieu, and shall have no more to do with you; I will now turn to God.” We now see how much more forcible and striking is this turning from the people to God, than if the Prophet continued his address to the Jews, and sought to instruct them: for he now shews that he was broken down with weariness; for he saw that his labor was useless, and that all whom he had addressed were altogether refractory: nor did he, at the same time, intend to speak these words at random, and to no purpose; nay, his object was more sharply to touch those who were stupid, by letting them know that he left off addressing them, because he had no hope respecting them.
But what I have said elsewhere ought to be borne in mind, — that the Prophets did not write all that they preached, but collected the substance of what they had delivered to the people; and this collection now forms the prophetic books. There is therefore no doubt but that Jeremiah had spoken at large on repentance, — that he had exposed the sins of hypocrites, — that he had denuded the fallacious pretences of the people, — and that he had severely reproved their obstinacy. But after having done all these things, he found it necessary to desist from pursuing his course, for he saw that no fruit could be hoped from his labors and his preaching. Now, when the Jews knew this, they ought to have been deeply affected; and this ought to be the case with us now, when we see that God’s Spirit is provoked by our perverseness; and as this is a dreadful thing, it is what ought more than anything else to touch our hearts. Consider what it is: God daily invites us most kindly to himself; but when he sees that our hearts and heads are so extremely hard, he leaves us, because we grieve his Spirit, as it is said by Isaiah. (Isa 63:10.) It was not, then, an usual or common mode of teaching which the Prophet adopted; but it was calculated to have more effect than plain instruction; for he shews that the wickedness of the people could no longer be endured.
Jehovah, he says, thine eyes, are they not on the truth? In this address to God there is an implied contrast between God and men. The most wicked, we know, flatter themselves while they can retain the good opinion and applause of the world; and as long as they continue in honor, they slumber in their vices. This foolish confidence is what the Prophet evidently exposes; for he intimates that the eyes of God are different from those of mortals: men can see a very little way, hardly three fingers before them; but God penetrates into the inmost and the most hidden recesses of the heart: and the Prophet speaks thus of God’s eyes, in order to shew how worthless are the opinions of men, who regard only a splendid outward appearance. By truth, the Prophet means, as in the first verse, integrity of heart. Hence without reason do they philosophize here, who seek to prove from this passage that we are made acceptable to God by faith only; for the Prophet does not speak of the faith by which we embrace free reconciliation with God, and become members of Christ. The meaning indeed is in no way obscure, which is this — that God cares not for that external splendor by which men are captivated, according to what is said in 1Sa 16:7,
“
Man sees what appears outwardly; but God looks on the heart.”
There the Holy Spirit expresses the same thing by “heart” as he does here by fidelity or “truth.” For Samuel shews that David’s father was mistaken, because he brought forward his sons who excelled in their outward appearance: “Man sees, “he says, “what appears outwardly; but God looks on the heart.”
We now understand the true meaning of the Prophet, — that though hypocrites flatter themselves, and the whole world encourage them by their adulations, all this will not avail them; for they must at last come before the tribunal of God, and that before God truth only will be approved and honored.
He afterwards adds, Thou hast smitten them, and they have not grieved The Prophet reproves here the hardness of the people; for they had been smitten, but they repented not. Experience, as they say, is the teacher of fools; and it is an old proverb, that fools, when corrected, become wise. Both poets and historians have uttered such sayings. Since, then, the Jews had such a perverse disposition, that even scourges did not lead them to repentance, it was an evidence of extreme wickedness. And thus the Prophet here confirms what he had said before, that God would be merciful to them, if one just man could be found in the city: he confirms that declaration when he says, “Thou hast smitten them, but they have not grieved.” The Jews, no doubt, groaned under their scourges; yea, they howled and poured forth grievous complaints: for we know how petulantly they spoke evil of God. They then had grieved; but grief here is to be taken in a special sense, according to what Paul says of repentance, that its beginning is grief or sorrow. (2Co 7:9.) In this sense it is that the Prophet says here, that they who had disturbed minds grieved not, for they did not feel that they had to do with God. He then means by this word what another Prophet means, when he says, that they did not regard the hand of him who smote them. (Isa 9:13.) For he does not say that they were so senseless as not to feel the strokes; but that the hand of God was not seen by them; and yet this is the principal thing in our sorrow. For if we blindly and violently cry out in our troubles, and cry, Wo, a hundred times, what is it all? our lamentations are only those of brute animals: but when we regard the hand of him who smites us, our grief then is of the right kind. Jeremiah says, that the Jews did not grieve in this manner, for they did not perceive that they were justly chastened by God’s hand.
He afterwards enlarges on the subject, Thou hast consumed them he says, and they refused to receive correction By saying that they had been consumed, he proves them guilty of extreme perverseness; for when God lightly chides us, it is no great wonder if, through our tardiness and sloth, we are not immediately roused; but when God doubles his strokes, yea, when he not only smites us with his rods, but draws his sword to consume us entirely; yea, when he thus deals with us, and executes his vengeance by terrible judgments, if then we are still torpid in our sins, and feel not how dreadful it is to endure his judgments, must we not be indeed wholly blinded by the devil? This is then the stupor which the Prophet now deplores in the Jews; for not only were they without a right feeling of grief when God smote them, but when they were even consumed, they did not receive or admit correction. And in this second clause he shews what we have already said, — that the grief he speaks of is not to be taken for any sort of grief, but of that which regards God’s judgment, and proves that we fear him.
He adds, They have hardened their faces as a rock, and lastly, they have refused to return The Prophet means, that the Jews were not only refractory, but that they were also without any shame. If, indeed, they had given every evidence of being ashamed, it would have been still useless, except there was, as we have said, an integrity of heart. But it often happens, that even the worst, though inwardly full of impiety and of contempt towards God, and of perverseness, do yet retain some measure of shame. In order to shew that the Jews had arrived to extreme impiety, the Prophet says, that they had hardened their faces, that is, that they were wholly without shame; for they had cast away everything like reason, and made no difference between right and wrong, between honesty and baseness. As, then, they had put off every human feeling, he says that nothing remained to be done, but that God, as he had previously declared, should execute on them extreme vengeance. And he repeats what he had said, — that they refused to turn He means, that they sinned and went astray, not through mistake or want of knowledge, but that they disregarded their own safety through willful and deliberate wickedness, and that they knowingly and avowedly rejected God, so that they would not endure either his teaching or his corrections. (130)
(130) The literal rendering of this verse is as follows, —
Jehovah! thine eyes, are they not on faithfulness? Smitten them hast thou, but they have not grieved; Thou hast consumed them, — they have refused to receive correction; Harder have they made their faces than a rock; They have refused to return.
The “truth” here, and in the first verse, is regarded by Calvin and most commentators, as faithfulness towards men. But a right view of the context will shew that it refers to fidelity towards God. Of what does the preceding verse speak? Of unfaithfulness towards God — swearing falsely in his name; that is, making a false and hypocritical profession of him; and in this verse they are described as refusing to return to him. In the fifth and sixth verses they are represented as having “broken the yoke,“ and as having apostatized from him; and in the seventh their going after other gods is expressly mentioned.
The word “judgment” has been taken in the same way, but not, in my view, agreeably to the context. To do judgment, is to do what is just and right; and “the way of Jehovah,“ and “the judgment of God,“ in the next verse, are the same, and hence put in apposition; the word “nor,“ in our version, being improperly introduced. The way of the Lord is the way he has prescribed in his word; and it is called his judgment, because it is what he has determined and ordained, or what is just and right. God had not only revealed his law, but had also appointed and ordained it for the people of Israel. His law is called a way, because it points out the course which we are to take; and it is his judgment, because it is what God has determined, fixed, and appointed. Hence in the fifth verse they are said to have broken the yoke and burst the bonds. The yoke was the law, and the bonds were those of loyalty and obedience; or they were the bonds of justice, such as were justly ordained and imposed on them. — Ed.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(3) Upon the truth.The Hebrew word, which has no article, implies truth in the inward parts, faithfulness, as well as truth in words. The eyes of God looked for this, and He found the temper that hardens itself against discipline, and refuses to repent.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
3. Upon the truth This phrase stands over against the term “falsely,” in the preceding verse. If there is not first honesty, no other virtue is possible. Even the oath of fealty of those who are false at heart is an abomination.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Jer 5:3. Are not thine eyes upon the truth? The eyes turned upon, or towards an object, denote, not only a diligent inspection and nice discernment of it, but also an earnest expectation or looking after it. The phrase may here be taken in both senses, that God both seeth and discerneth the truth, and also expects it from others, especially from those who call upon his name in attestation of it.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Was there ever a more decisive testimony than what these verses afford, of the universal corruption, ignorance and ruined state of all men, as well rich as poor, and which the fall hath induced in the circumstances of mankind? All have sinned, and come short of God’s glory. Rom 3:19 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Jer 5:3 O LORD, [are] not thine eyes upon the truth? thou hast stricken them, but they have not grieved; thou hast consumed them, [but] they have refused to receive correction: they have made their faces harder than a rock; they have refused to return.
Ver. 3. O Lord, are not thine eyes upon the truth? ] And can these painted hypocrites hope ever to please thee? how much are they mistaken?
Thou hast stricken them, but they have not grieved.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
the truth = faithfulness. The same word as in Jer 5:1.
have not grieved = have felt no pain.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
are not thine: Jer 32:19, 2Ch 16:9, Psa 11:4-7, Psa 51:6, Pro 22:12, Rom 2:2
thou hast stricken: Jer 2:30, Jer 7:28, 2Ch 28:22, Pro 23:35, Pro 27:22, Isa 1:5, Isa 1:6, Isa 9:13, Isa 42:25, Eze 24:13, Zep 3:1, Zep 3:2, Zep 3:7
they have made: Pro 21:29, Isa 48:4, Eze 3:7-9, Zec 7:11, Zec 7:12, Rom 2:4, Rom 2:5, Heb 12:9
Reciprocal: Gen 19:34 – General Exo 7:23 – neither Lev 26:23 – General Deu 21:18 – will not Jdg 4:1 – did evil 1Ki 21:1 – after 2Ki 1:11 – Again Job 41:24 – as hard Pro 13:18 – Poverty Pro 15:32 – instruction Isa 24:2 – as with the people Isa 26:11 – will Isa 57:10 – therefore Isa 57:17 – and he Isa 59:12 – our transgressions Jer 3:3 – a whore’s Jer 8:5 – they refuse Jer 13:23 – Ethiopian Jer 15:7 – since Jer 31:18 – Thou hast Jer 32:3 – Zedekiah Jer 35:13 – Will Jer 36:24 – nor rent Jer 38:21 – if thou Lam 1:5 – for Eze 2:4 – they Eze 5:6 – for they Eze 22:24 – General Eze 24:12 – her great Dan 9:13 – made we not our prayer before Hos 4:6 – for Hos 5:2 – a rebuker Amo 4:6 – yet Amo 4:9 – yet Amo 6:12 – horses Hag 2:17 – yet Luk 7:32 – are Luk 8:6 – General Luk 15:15 – he went Luk 23:40 – seeing Rev 9:20 – yet Rev 16:9 – blasphemed
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Jer 5:3. This verse specifies the false professions referred to in the preceding verse. Every statement is the truth but it was not made wiih sincerity.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Jer 5:3-5. O Lord, are not thine eyes upon the truth Dost thou not approve of truth and faithfulness? And dost thou not search mens hearts, and clearly discern their real dispositions from their hypocritical pretences? Thou hast stricken them With one affliction after another; but they have not grieved They have remained insensible as stocks or stones: they have not been humbled, and made truly penitent. Thou hast consumed them Not chastised them lightly, but wasted them by several enemies: but they have refused to receive correction To accommodate themselves to, and answer thy design in, correcting them. They have not been instructed or amended by it. They have made their faces harder than a rock, &c. They have been obstinate and impudent in their evil practices, and have wilfully rejected thy counsel, and disregarded thy judgments. Therefore I said, These are poor, &c. I thought at first, says the prophet, that such insensibility and want of concern respecting the duties of religion could be only charged upon the rude and ignorant vulgar, who, through the ignorance and poverty of their parents, were not sufficiently instructed when young, and afterward had neither leisure nor opportunity of learning their duty. I will get me to the great men And see if I can find them better acquainted with, and regardful of, the providence and word of God. For I thought, rarely they have been better educated, and have had all opportunities and means of instruction and improvement, and therefore they must have known the way of the Lord, &c. But these have altogether broken the yoke, &c. These are more refractory than the others; no law of God is able to hold them.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
5:3 O LORD, [are] not thy eyes upon the {c} truth? thou hast {d} stricken them, but they have not grieved; thou hast consumed them, [but] they have refused to receive correction: they have made their faces harder than a rock; they have refused to return.
(c) Do you not love uprightness and faithful dealing?
(d) You have often punished them, but all is in vain, Isa 9:13 .
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Jeremiah acknowledged that even though the people of Jerusalem did not seek truth (Jer 5:1), the Lord did. The prophet knew that Yahweh’s discipline of the people had not yielded repentance. They had hardened themselves against Him and had refused to repent (Heb. shub).
"Jerusalem was to fall at the hands of the political enemy from without because of the spiritual enemies of God working from within." [Note: Jensen, p. 31.]