Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Jeremiah 9:2
Oh that I had in the wilderness a lodging place of wayfaring men; that I might leave my people, and go from them! for they [be] all adulterers, an assembly of treacherous men.
2. a lodging place ] a caravanserai, hospice (khan). Shelter was all that they afforded. The most desolate spot is to the prophet’s mind better than the sights which thrust themselves upon him in Jerusalem.
adulterers ] See on last words of ch. Jer 2:20.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
From their punishment the prophet now turns to their sins.
Jer 9:2
The prophet utters the wish that he might be spared his daily striving, and in some lone wilderness give way to his sorrow, without restraint.
A lodging place – It was usual to build in the desert, either by private charity or at the public expense, caravanserais, to receive travelers for a single night, who had however to bring their own supplies with them.
An assembly – Or, a gang.
Treacherous – Faithless toward one another.
Jer 9:3
Rather, And they bend their tongue to be their bow of lies, i. e. just as men before a battle get their bows ready, so they of set purpose make ready to do mischief, only their arrows are lying words: neither do they rule faithfully in the land, i. e. Judaea.
Jer 9:4
In a state of such utter lawlessness, the bonds of mutual confidence are relaxed, and suspicion takes its place.
Utterly supplant – An allusion to the name of Jacob Gen 27:36. It might be rendered, every brother is a thorough Jacob.
Will walk with slanders – Or, slandereth.
Jer 9:6
A continuation of the warning given in Jer 9:4. Trust no one: for thou dwellest surrounded by deceit on every side. Their rejection of God is the result of their want of honesty in their dealings with one another 1Jo 4:20.
Jer 9:7
I will melt them, and try them – The punishment is corrective rather than retributive. The terms used are those of the refiner of metals, the first being the smelting to separate the pure metal from the ore; the second the testing to see whether the metal is pure, or still mixed with alloy. God will put the nation into the crucible of tribulation, that whatever is evil being consumed in the fire, all there is in them of good may be purified.
For how shall I do … – Rather, for how else could I act with reference to the daughter of my people?
Jer 9:8
An arrow shot out – Rather, a murderous arrow.
In heart he layeth his wait – Rather, inwardly he layeth his ambush.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Jer 9:2
Oh that I had in the wilderness a lodging place of wayfaring men.
Two prayers of Jeremiah
(with Jer 14:8-9):–In all the fellowship of, the prophets Jeremiah is by far the most unwilling and reluctant. If Isaiahs watchword was Here am I–send me, Jeremiahs might have been, I would be anywhere else but here–let me go. It was out of this besetting mood of his that the prayer rose which I have taken as the first of my texts, Oh that I had in the wilderness a lodging place of wayfaring men, that I might leave my people and go from them. That is not a prayer for solitude. It is some wayside caravanserai or hotel which Jeremiah longs for; and there he would have been far less alone than in his unshared home at Jerusalem. No, it is not a prayer for solitude, but a prayer to be set where a man can enjoy all the interest of life without having any of its responsibility. Oh, to have no other work in life than to watch the street from the balcony window, than to feel the interest and glitter of life, and achieve your duty towards your fellows, by a kindliness and a courtesy that are never put to the strain of prolonged acquaintance! But our prayers often outrun themselves in the very utterance; and Jeremiahs wish, too, carried within it its own denial Look at the words, That I might leave my people. Emphasise the last two–My people. They are the answer to Jeremiahs prayer. God had not sent him to earth to be as separate from the life of men as a musing man is from the river flowing past his feet; God had sent him, not to watch life from a balcony, but leaping down to share it; not to live in an inn where a man is not even responsible for the housekeeping, but has only his way to pay. God had begotten Jeremiah into a nation. He had made him a citizen. He had given him a patriots lot, with the patriots conscience and heart. So he stayed on where he was in Jerusalem, and the world may have lost certain studies in human life in the great caravanserai of the Lebanon or Arabian desert roads, for wherever he went Jeremiah would not have kept his brain and pen idle. We may even have lost a book, something between Job and Ecclesiastes, but we have gained the book of Jeremiah, the book of the citizen-prophet, and who, because he was a citizen-prophet, and not a caravanserai one, was also a citizen-priest, the first man who entered into the true meaning of vicarious suffering, and therefore stands out clear from all the shadows of the Old Testament–so clear a symbol of our Saviour Jesus Christ. Look now at the main elements of Jeremiahs experience as he thus stood to his post of prophet and priest at Jerusalem. I take these elements to be mainly three.
1. The first was the reality of sin. A prophet has got to begin there, or he had better not begin at all. And he has got to begin there not in order to satisfy some dogma or another, but because the facts are there. There is a kind of preaching about sin far too prevalent in our day, which treats of it doctrinally and not practically, which lays its strength to proving to a man that he must be a sinner, instead of touching his conscience with the knowledge that he is one. But Jeremiah laid his finger on the actual plague spots of the people. He was very definite with these. But there was another note which Jeremiah sounded equally with that on the reality of sin.
2. It was the note of the swiftness and irretrievableness of time where character and salvation are concerned. Live with men in the city, grow old with the same individuals and groups, and learn things–how inexorable habit is; how irrecoverable are the chances of youth; how short and swift is the summer granted to each mans character to ripen in; learn how even the Gospel of the grace of God is just like the sybil of old coming back each time: you have forced him to return with less power of promise and persuasion; and how even repentance–that great freedom of man, that joy of God and the angels–has its times and its places, which, being missed, are not found again, though we seek them with tears. Upon these thoughts the roll of Jeremiahs prophecy rises every now and again with a great sob. What distinguished Jeremiah from all the prophets who had gone before him was that he did not stand on the banks while all Israel rushed rapidly past him irretrievably to ruin, but that he was with the people, taking their reproach as his reproach, and sharing the penalty of their sins.
3. This suffering for the sins of others, being the sin-bearer as well as the conscience of his people, is the third element of Jeremiahs experience. How did he come to it? It is interesting to watch, for in Gods providence he was the first forerunner of Christ in this path. Well, first of all he loved his people; he had a very rich, tender heart, and he loved his people with the whole of it. And then God gave him a conscience about them, that conscience of their sin, and of the penalty to which it was leading. It was in the meeting of such a heart and such a conscience that Jeremiah knew how one man can suffer for others. Oh! it is a terrible fate to be the conscience of those you love, to be their only conscience, to feel their sins as you know they do not feel them themselves, and to be aware of the inevitable judgment to which they are so indifferent. Jeremiah often wondered at it. It perplexed him. After clearly stating the causes why God should smite Israel, he would suddenly turn round in his sympathy with the doomed people, and exclaim, like a beaten animal looking up in the face of his master, Why hast Thou smitten me? And again, that strange prayer of his, O Lord, Thou hast deceived me, and I am deceived. Thou art stronger than I. What can we answer to the perplexed prophet except this, that if a man have the Divine gift of a pure conscience and a more loving heart than his fellows, there comes with such gifts the necessary, the inevitable, obligation of suffering. The physical results of Israels sin Jeremiah did not bear for the people. He bore these with the people in the most heroic and self-denying patience, but he did not do so for or instead of his people. But the spiritual distress, the keener conscience, the agony of estrangement from God, the knowledge of His wrath upon sin–these Jeremiah did bear instead of the dull impenitent Israel. And is it too much to say that it was for his sake that in the end Israel was saved from utter extinction? Now, with this knowledge of what Jeremiah came through, look at his second prayer. The two chief words are exactly the same as before a wayfaring man: and Oh that I were in a lodge of wayfaring men; and the verb to spend the night, is the same word as the noun lodge or inn of wayfaring men–literally a place to pass the night. Jeremiahs second prayer, therefore, is just this, that God would be to the people what Jeremiah himself had tried to be. (Prof. G. A. Smith.)
Jeremiah, a lesson for the disappointed
No prophet commenced labours with greater encouragements than Jeremiah. A king reigned who was bringing back the times of the man after Gods own heart. This devout and zealous king was young. What might not therefore be effected in course of years? Schism, too, was at an end since Israels captivity. Kings of the house of David again ruled over the whole land. Idolatry was destroyed by Josiah in all the cities. Thus, at first sight, it seemed reasonable to anticipate further and permanent improvements.
I. Everyone begins with being sanguine. Jeremiah did. Gods servants entered on their office with more lively hopes than their after fortunes warranted. Very soon the cheerful prospect was overcast for Jeremiah, and he was left to labour in the dark.
1. Huldahs message fixed the coming fortunes of Judah: she foretold the early death of the good king and a fierce destruction to the unworthy nation. This prophecy came five years after Jeremiah entered office; so early in his course were his hopes cut away.
2. Or, the express word of God came to and undeceived him.
3. Or, the hardened state of sin in which the nation lay destroyed his hopes.
II. Resignation a more blessed state of mind than sanguine hope.
1. To expect great efforts from our religious exertions is natural and innocent, but arises from inexperience of the kind of work we have to do–to change the heart and will of men.
2. Far nobler frame of mind to labour, not with hope of seeing fruit, but for conscience sake, as matter of duty, and in faith, trusting good will be done though we see it not.
3. The Bible shows that though Gods servants began with success, they ended with disappointment. Not that Gods purposes or instruments fail, but because the time for reaping is not here, but hereafter.
III. The vicissitude of feeling which this transition from hope to disappointment produces. Affliction, fear, despondency, sometimes restlessness, even impatience under his trials, find frequent expression in Jeremiahs writings (Jer 5:3; Jer 5:30-31; Jer 12:1-3; Jer 15:10-18; Jer 20:7-14).
IV. The issue of these changes and conflicts of feeling was resignation. He comes to use language which expresses that chastened spirit and weaned heart which is the termination of all agitation and anxiety in religious minds. He, who at one time could not comfort himself, was sent to comfort a brother; and in comforting Baruch he speaks in that nobler temper of resignation which takes the place of sanguine hope and harassing fear, and betokens calm and clear-sighted faith and inward peace. (J. H. Newman, D. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 2. O that I had in the wilderness] In the eastern countries there are no such inns or houses of entertainment as those in Europe. There are in different places public buildings called caravanserais, where travellers may lodge: but they are without furniture of any kind, and without food. Indeed they are often without a roof, being mere walls for a protection against the wild beasts of the desert. I wish to hide myself any where, in the most uncomfortable circumstances, that I may not be obliged any longer to witness the abominations of this people who are shortly to be visited with the most grievous punishments. Several interpreters suppose this to be the speech of GOD. I cannot receive this. I believe this verse to be spoken by the prophet, and that God proceeds with the next verse, and so on to the ninth inclusive.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
He proceeds in his lamentation, which in the former verse he did, by way of compassion, in this in a way of indignation, Wishing for some retiring place, or sorry shed, or night cottage; See Poole “Isa 24:20“; though it were but some mean and sorry lint in the wilderness, as David, Psa 55:6,7, such as might but shelter him from the injuries of the weather: LXX., in some remotest station or corner, where he might not be an eye-witness of their miseries to grieve him so at the heart, Psa 119:136,158; see 2Pe 2:7,8; and where he might hope to find better entertainment from the savage beasts than from his own countrymen.
They be all adulterers, i.e. for the most part, Jer 5:8, both properly and metaphorically, being full of idolatrous practices; or, there is no integrity found among them.
An assembly of treacherous men; that deal perfidiously with God and man in all the concerns they are conversant about, Isa 1:4. And though the word here for assembly is most ordinarily used for a holy assembly, Lev 23:36; Num 29:35, which causeth some to understand it of their being most vile when they should be most devout; yet here it most naturally signifies a kind of combination among them, as such that have conspired one among another to act all manner of villanies.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
2. lodging-placeacaravanseral for caravans, or companies travelling in the desert,remote from towns. It was a square building enclosing an open court.Though a lonely and often filthy dwelling, Jeremiah would prefer evenit to the comforts of Jerusalem, so as to be removed from thepollutions of the capital (Psa 55:7;Psa 55:8).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Oh that I had in the wilderness a lodging place of wayfaring men,…. Such as travellers take up with in a desert, when they are benighted, and cannot reach a town or village. This the prophet chose, partly that he might have an opportunity to give vent to his grief, being alone; for which reason he did not desire to be in cities and populous places, where he might be amused and diverted while his people were in distress: and partly to show his sympathy, not being able to bear the sight of their misery; and also some degree of indignation at their impieties, which had brought ruin upon them; on account of which it was more eligible to dwell with the wild beasts of the desert than with them in his native country: wherefore it follows,
that I might leave my people, and go from them; which of itself was not desirable; no man chooses to leave his country, his own people, and his father’s house, and go into distant lands and strange countries; and especially into a wilderness, where there is neither suitable food nor agreeable company: wherefore this shows, that there must be something very bad, and very provoking, to lead him to take such a step as this: the reason follows,
for they be all adulterers; either in a literal or figurative sense; the latter seems rather intended; for though corporeal fornication and adultery might greatly prevail among them, yet not to such a height as that “all” of them were guilty; whereas idolatry did generally obtain among them: an assembly of treacherous men; not a few only, but in general they were apostates from God and from true religion, and treacherous to one another. The Septuagint calls them “a synod”; and Joseph Kimchi interprets it “a kingdom”; deriving the word from , as it signifies to have rule and dominion; denoting, that the kingdom in general was false and perfidious.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Here the Prophet entertains another wish: He had before wished that his head were waters, that he might shed tears, and he had wished his eyes to be the fountains of tears; but now, after having duly considered the wickedness of the people, he puts off every feeling of humanity, and as one incensed, he desires to move elsewhere, and wholly to leave the people; for their impiety had so prevailed that he could no longer live among them. It is indeed certain that the Prophet had no common grief, when he perceived that God’s dreadful vengeance was not far distant: it is also certain that he was moved and constrained by their detestable conduct to desire to be removed elsewhere. But he speaks not only for his own sake; for he regards his own nation, and expresses his feelings, that he might more effectually touch their hearts. We must then understand, that so great was the sympathy of the Prophet, that he was not satisfied with shedding tears, but that he wished that his whole head would flow into fearn It appears, also, that he was so moved with idignation, that he wished wholly to leave his own people. But, as I have said, his object was to try whether he could restore them to the right way.
He then shews, in this verse, that the Jews had become so detestable, that all the true servants of God wished to be removed far away from them: Who then will set me in the desert? He seeks not for himself another country; he desires not to dwell in a pleasant situation, or that some commodious asylum should be offered to him? but he desires to be placed in the desert, or in the lodging of travelers. He speaks not of those lodgings or inns, which were in villages and towns; but of a lodging in the desert; according to what is the case, when a long and tedious journey is made through forests, some sheds are formed, that when a traveler is over — taken by the darkness of night, he might be protected by some covering, and not He down in the open air. It is of this kind of lodging that the Prophet speaks: then he no doubt means a shed; but as to the word, we may retain, as I have said, its proper meaning. What is meant is, that to dwell in the desert alllong wild beasts was better than to be among that abominable people. By expressing this wish he inflamed no doubt the fury of the whole people, or at least of most of them; but it was necessary thus forcibly to address them: as they submitted to no kind and wholesome warnings and counsels, they were to be forcibly stimulated and urged by such reproofs as these.
I will leave my people This had an emphatic, bearing; for delightful to every one is his native soil, and it is also delightful to dwell among one’s own people. As then the Prophet wished to be removed into the desert,, and to leave his own people, all his relatives and the nation from which he sprang, and to depart frora them, it follows that they nmst have come to extremities.
And the reason is added, For all are adulterers I take the word מנאפים menaphim, adulterers, in a metaphorical sense, as meaning all those who had departed from God, and abandoned themselves to ungodly superstitions, or those who had become so vitiated and corrupt as to retain no integrity. He does not then call them adulterers, because they were given to whoredoms, but because they were immersed in all kinds of defilements. He afterwards calls them an assembly of apostates, or of perfidious men. The word עצר , otsar, means to prohibit, to restrain: hence the noun עצרת ostaret, means a summoned assembly, when, according to an oath or laws, men are forced to meet; and after the assembly is proclaimed, they dare not depart. Then the Prophet by this word points out the consent and union that existed among that people, as though he had said, that they no less clave to their sins, that if by a solemn rite or authority or ordinance they had been summoned together and were prohibited to depart. We hence see that he condemns the impious consent that was among the people, and also their pertinacity; for they could by no means be restored to a right mind. And for this reason he calls them also בגדים begadim, transgressors; for by this word the Hebrews mean, not every kind of sinners, but those who are wholly wicked: and hence the prophets, when, they speak of apostates and revolters, ever call them בגדים, begadim, as in this passage. (236) I shall not proceed farther.
(236) This verse may be rendered thus, —
O that I, had in the desert the lodging of travellers, Then I would go away from them; For all of them are adulterers, A company of hypocrites.
He preferred living in the temporary sheds of travellers, erected in the desert, rather than to live among his own people. How intolerably wicked they must have been! A company, or an assembly, a multitude: the word need not be deemed as retaining its primary idea. The meaning is, that the whole community, the whole people, were hypocrites; they pretended to worship and serve God, and at the same time were idolaters and treacherous and immoral in their conduct. The word for “hypocrites” is derived from one that means a garment, a cloak, a covering; and the verb means to act under a cover, to act deceitfully, or falsely, or hypocritically, or perfidiously. It is rendered “deceivers” by the Septuagint, “prevaricators” by the Vulgate, “liars” by the Syriac, “falsifiers” by the Targum, and “perfidious dealers” by Blayney. — Ed.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
II. NATIONAL CORRUPTION Jer. 9:2-26
Jeremiah does not allow himself to be overcome by his personal feelings regarding the gloomy future of his people. The destruction of Judah is a punishment well deserved. The prevailing corruption (Jer. 9:2-8) has brought into prospect the impending destruction (Jer. 9:9-21).
A. Prevailing Corruption Jer. 9:2-8
TRANSLATION
(2) Oh that I were in the wilderness in a travelers inn, that I might leave my people and depart from them because all of them are adulterers, and an assembly of treacherous men. (3) They bend their tongue, their bow, for deceit; they are mighty in the land but not for truth; for from evil to evil they proceed and they do not know Me (oracle of the LORD). (4) Be on guard each man from his friend and do not trust any brother; for every brother is very crooked and every friend is a slanderer. (5) Every man deceives his neighbor; they do not speak truth; their tongues have learned to speak lies. With iniquity they weary themselves. (6) Your dwelling is in the midst of deceit; in deceit they refuse the knowledge of Me (oracle of the LORD). (7) Therefore, thus says the LORD of hosts: Behold! I am about to refine them by fire and test them; for how else shall I do in view of the fact that she is the daughter of My people. (8) Their tongue is a sharp arrow, it speaks deceit; with his mouth he continues to speak peaceably with his friends; but in his heart he plans treachery.
COMMENTS
It is always nauseating for a righteous man to continue in daily contact with filthy and corrupt company. Jeremiah longs to leave the city with all its vices and take up residence in one of the desolate and dreary wayside shelters which dotted the major highways of antiquity. All of the people of Judah participate in spiritual and literal adultery at the Canaanite shrines. Even when gathered in their religious assemblies these men are treacherous, hypocritical and untrustworthy. The tender and sensitive Jeremiah would rather live the life of a monastic, sit in an isolated shack and meditate and bemoan the fate of his people. But God had called him to preach to that godless generation, and preach he must!
Jeremiahs description of the corruption of Judah is truly remarkable. The tongue of the men of Judah is a bow which hurls falsehood and deceit. These mighty warriors do not contend for truth but for its opposite, lawlessness and injustice. Their starting point is evil and their ultimate goal is evil. This deplorable situation has developed because they do not know or have regard for the living God (Jer. 9:3). A willful ignorance of God and His word was at the root of their national corruption. No one could be trusted, not even the members of ones own immediate family. Every brother was very crooked. The Hebrew phrase here means literally, to follow at the heel, assail insidiously, trip someone up. Everyone was out to defraud and cheat his brother. Friends went about carrying slanderous tales about friends (Jer. 9:4). Self-protection demanded that everyone be viewed with suspicion. These people had learned i.e., they had accustomed themselves, to speaking lies and falsehood. They actually weary themselves in sinning (Jer. 9:5). The sinner may have his wild fling but in the end he winds up exhausted, a physical, mental and moral wreck. The more abundant life is that of faithful and loving obedience to the divine will.
In Jer. 9:6 God addresses Jeremiah. He tells the prophet what he already knows viz., that he should trust no one since he is surrounded by deceit. Hypocritical men have no desire to really know God and so they deliberately, purposely shut the Lord out of their lives (Jer. 9:6). Only the knowledge of God will cure them of their hypocrisy; yet they refuse to know God because of their hypocrisy. The only alternative is a judgment which will serve to purify and refine the nation. God is about to purify His people in the fires of judgment even as silver is purified from dross by smelting. He will then test them to see if all the impurities have indeed been removed. How otherwise could God act? He has no other choice. God could not leave His people in their sin for they were intended to be a holy people. On the other hand because they are His people He cannot utterly destroy them. The only solution is to purge them through tribulation such as they had not hitherto experienced (Jer. 9:7). Such people who use their tongue as in arrow to smite their neighbors, who speak peace but plot treachery (lit., set an ambush) are the dross which must be removed through the judgment process (Jer. 9:8).
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(2) Oh, that I had . . .!Literally, as before, Who will give . . .?
A lodging place of wayfaring men.i.e., a place of shelter, a khan or caravanserai, such as were built for travellers, such, e.g., as the inn of Gen. 42:27, the habitation of Chimham (Jer. 41:17), which the son of Barzillai had erected near Bethlehem, as an act of munificent gratitude to his adopted country (2Sa. 19:40). In some such shelter, far from the cities of Judah, the prophet, with a feeling like that of the Psalmist (Psa. 55:6-8) would fain find refuge from his treacherous enemiesadulterers, alike spiritually and literally (Jer. 5:8).
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
2. From his own sorrows the prophet now turns to the people’s sins. He sighs for solitude rather than contact with the prevailing wickedness. Similarly has a modern poet spoken in a passage which is not merely an imitation, but almost a literal translation of this:
O for a lodge in some vast wilderness,
Some boundless contiguity of shade,
Where rumour of oppression and deceit,
Of unsuccessful or successful war,
Might never reach me more!
Wilderness An uninhabited place away from the homes and haunts of men.
Lodging place Caravansary. They were created on the route of caravans for their accommodation. They were often a mere enclosure, lonely and filthy, but preferred by the prophet to a dwelling among a corrupt people.
An assembly This word here has some suggestion of disparagement, like gang or crew.
Jer 9:2. A lodging-place of wayfaring men Travellers in the East are not, nor ever were, accommodated at inns on the road, after the manner of the European nations. In some places, indeed, there are large public buildings provided for their reception, which they call caravanseras: but these afford merely a covering, being absolutely without furniture; and the traveller must carry his own provisions and necessaries along with him, or he will not find any. Nor are even these empty mansions always to be met with; so that if the weary traveller at night comes into a town, where there is no caravansera, or , as it is called, Luk 10:34 he must take up his lodging in the street, unless some charitable inhabitant will be pleased to receive him into his house, as we find, Jdg 19:15. And if he passes through the desart, it is well for him if he can light upon a cave, or a hut, which some one before him may have erected for a temporary shelter. And this last is what I conceive to be here meant by melon orchim, a solitary, and not very comfortable, situation; but yet preferable to the chagrin of living continually in the society of men of profligate manners.
Jer 9:2 Oh that I had in the wilderness a lodging place of wayfaring men; that I might leave my people, and go from them! for they [be] all adulterers, an assembly of treacherous men.
Ver. 2. Oh that I had in the wilderness a lodging place. ] Some sorry shed, such as those worthies had who dwelt in dens and caves of the earth, Heb 11:38 such as Athanasius had, who lived, say some, six years in a well without the light of the sun, forsaken of friends, and everywhere hunted by enemies; such as the ancient hermits and monks had, who, because they lived in caves and subterranean holes, they were named Mandrites a and Troglodites. A godly man desireth to converse as much as may be with God, and as little as may be with men, unless they were better. Lot had little joy of Sodom; 2Pe 2:7-8 Aaron of the Israelites: “Thou knowest,” saith he to Moses, “that this people is wholly set upon wickedness”; Exo 32:22 and indeed so is the whole world. Job 5:19 ; Job 2:10 Hence good men are oft put upon David’s wish, “Oh that I had the wings of a dove.” Psa 55:6 Or if that “Oh” will not set them at liberty, they take up that “Woe” of his to express their misery, “Woe is me that I sojourn in Mesech.” Psa 120:5 Who will give me a traveller’s lodge in the wilderness, that I might leave my people, whose wicked courses are a continual eyesore and heartbreak unto me?
For they are all adulterers.
An assembly of treacherous. a Mandrae signifieth caves or holes.
Jer 9:2-9
Jer 9:2-3
Oh that I had in the wilderness a lodging-place of wayfaring men; that I might leave my people, and go from them! for they are all adulterers, an assembly of treacherous men. And they bend their tongue, [as it were] their bow, for falsehood; and they are grown strong in the land, but not for truth: for they proceed from evil to evil, and they know not me, saith Jehovah.
“The blatant sins Jeremiah described here are literal; society was shot through and through with wickedness. The first sin mentioned in this indictment was universal adultery. This is called ‘spiritual adultery,’ or the worshipping of idols; but in that worship gross immoralities were practiced.”
The speech of the people was loaded with falsehood, slander, and every evil; and Jeremiah here used the metaphor of a bow with arrows to describe it. The bow and arrow, of course, were weapons of warfare in that age. As Keil noted, “It was neither the tongue nor the bow which was lying, but that false speech which they shot with their tongue, as with a bow.”
There existed in that society at that time, “An utter want of upright dealing between man and man.”
Jer 9:4-6
Take ye heed every one of his neighbor, and trust ye not in any brother; for every brother will utterly supplant, and every neighbor will go about with slanders. And they will deceive every one his neighbor, and will not speak the truth: they have taught their tongue to speak lies; they weary themselves to commit iniquity. Thy habitation is in the midst of deceit; through deceit they refuse to know me, saith Jehovah.
Trust ye not in any brother…
(Jer 9:4). Some have been critical of advice such as this, pointing out such passages as 1Co 13:7, where the true man of God is represented as one who believeth all things! However, as Haley pointed out, There is no ‘command’ here regarding the trust of a brother, but ‘advice,’ equivalent to saying, Such is the state of public morals that if you trust any man you shall be deceived and betrayed. The explanation of this advice is given in Jer 9:6, where the whole society is referred to as a habitation in the midst of deceit.
Every brother will utterly supplant…
(Jer 9:4). The Hebrew here is a punning reference to Jacob (Gen 27:36). God had transformed Jacob into Israel; but his descendants insisted on living the life of the unregenerate. Cheyne did not accept this interpretation, affirming that, There is nothing in the context so suggest an allusion to Gen 27:36, or to Jacob; but, in our view, the only thing needed to suggest that connection is the word supplanter.
They weary themselves to commit iniquity…
(Jer 9:5). Lying, deceit, treachery, adultery, and idolatry were everyday sins in Judah, and the people had literally worn themselves out with perversions. The gross indulgence of physical passions can and does result in the debilitation and weakening of the body.
Jer 9:7-9
Therefore thus saith Jehovah of hosts, Behold, I will melt them, and try them; for how [else] should I do, because of the daughter of my people? Their tongue is a deadly arrow; it speaketh deceit: one speaketh peaceably to his neighbor with his mouth, but in his heart he layeth wait for him. Shall I not visit them for these things? saith Jehovah; shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?
Shall I not. shall not my soul …..
(Jer 9:9)? The very raising of such questions, Points up the legal aspects of breach of covenant. F10 The Jews of that period were just like the rest of humanity, no better, and no worse. Why, then, was God so outraged and disgusted with Judah? It all hinged upon the privileges of their covenant relationship with God! God had given them the Law of Moses; he had taught them the principles of truth and morality as carefully expounded in that Law; and God had every right to have expected a far better response to the privileges and blessings already conferred upon the nation than the indifference and disobedience which he actually received. It is impossible to understand anything in this prophecy without the perception of the breach of the holy covenant that was accomplished in the behavior of the Chosen People. Without that conception, God’s severe punishment of Israel amounted to no more than a capricious punishment of an unfortunate nation that was no worse than a dozen other peoples living in all directions from Israel!
Back in Jer 9:6, the prophet had revealed that “through deceit, the people refused to know the Lord”; and as Matthew Henry stated it, “Those who would not know the Lord as their lawgiver, would be compelled to know him as their judge!”
Jeremiah does not allow himself to be overcome by his personal feelings regarding the gloomy future of his people. The destruction of Judah is a punishment well deserved. The prevailing corruption (Jer 9:2-8) has brought into prospect the impending destruction (Jer 9:9-21).
Prevailing Corruption Jer 9:2-8
It is always nauseating for a righteous man to continue in daily contact with filthy and corrupt company. Jeremiah longs to leave the city with all its vices and take up residence in one of the desolate and dreary wayside shelters which dotted the major highways of antiquity. All of the people of Judah participate in spiritual and literal adultery at the Canaanite shrines. Even when gathered in their religious assemblies these men are treacherous, hypocritical and untrustworthy. The tender and sensitive Jeremiah would rather live the life of a monastic, sit in an isolated shack and meditate and bemoan the fate of his people. But God had called him to preach to that godless generation, and preach he must!
Jeremiahs description of the corruption of Judah is truly remarkable. The tongue of the men of Judah is a bow which hurls falsehood and deceit. These mighty warriors do not contend for truth but for its opposite, lawlessness and injustice. Their starting point is evil and their ultimate goal is evil. This deplorable situation has developed because they do not know or have regard for the living God (Jer 9:3). A willful ignorance of God and His word was at the root of their national corruption. No one could be trusted, not even the members of ones own immediate family. Every brother was very crooked. The Hebrew phrase here means literally, to follow at the heel, assail insidiously, trip someone up. Everyone was out to defraud and cheat his brother. Friends went about carrying slanderous tales about friends (Jer 9:4). Self-protection demanded that everyone be viewed with suspicion. These people had learned i.e., they had accustomed themselves, to speaking lies and falsehood. They actually weary themselves in sinning (Jer 9:5). The sinner may have his wild fling but in the end he winds up exhausted, a physical, mental and moral wreck. The more abundant life is that of faithful and loving obedience to the divine will.
In Jer 9:6 God addresses Jeremiah. He tells the prophet what he already knows viz., that he should trust no one since he is surrounded by deceit. Hypocritical men have no desire to really know God and so they deliberately, purposely shut the Lord out of their lives (Jer 9:6). Only the knowledge of God will cure them of their hypocrisy; yet they refuse to know God because of their hypocrisy. The only alternative is a judgment which will serve to purify and refine the nation. God is about to purify His people in the fires of judgment even as silver is purified from dross by smelting. He will then test them to see if all the impurities have indeed been removed. How otherwise could God act? He has no other choice. God could not leave His people in their sin for they were intended to be a holy people. On the other hand because they are His people He cannot utterly destroy them. The only solution is to purge them through tribulation such as they had not hitherto experienced (Jer 9:7). Such people who use their tongue as in arrow to smite their neighbors, who speak peace but plot treachery (lit., set an ambush) are the dross which must be removed through the judgment process (Jer 9:8).
The Call of Life
Oh that I had in the wilderness a lodging place of wayfaring men; that I might leave my people, and go from them!Jer 9:2.
Jeremiah is the most human of all the prophets. He takes us into the secrets of his inner life, and we are made to know his misgivings and questionings. He had to be a prophet of God in the saddest and darkest day. It fell to him to speak for God when Jerusalem was hastening to its doom. His ministry is as the bright evening sun, which amid the gathering darkness sheds a glory over Judah, as it sinks into the night. We cannot imagine a situation more pathetic and painful. He has to watch the lingering agony of his exhausted land, to tend it during the alternate fits of despair and futile hope which precede the end. He is as the minister who has to accompany the condemned criminal to the scaffold, and who knows that the criminal is his own brother, flesh of his flesh. His heart is at war with his duty. He is in the cruellest dilemma. He would give all he has to make Judah happy and Jerusalem prosperous, and yet he has to declare their inevitable fate. How thankful he would be if he had never known the truth and if it had not been his to speak it. He is full of pity for the miseries of the people and the unhappy fate of his beloved fatherland, and yet he foresees the end and must declare it; and, truest patriot who ever lived though he be, he must bear the stigma of a traitor to his country for the sake of God and of truth.
No wonder that in all the fellowship of the prophets Jeremiah is by far the most unwilling and reluctant. Other prophets, like Isaiah, with his Here am Isend me, stand boldly forward, exulting in their gifts; but Jeremiah is always shrinking, protesting, craving leave to retire. Unassisted by circumstance, by nature timid, easily wearied and impatient, distrustful of his own gifts, he was kept to his great career solely and wholly by the sense that God had called him and predestined him. And that sense was so generally one of unmixed labour and pain that he is almost constantly found praying to be released from it. If Isaiahs watchword was: Here am Isend me, Jeremiahs might have been, I would be anywhere else but herelet me go. It was out of this besetting mood that the cry arose: Oh that I had in the wilderness a lodging place of wayfaring men!
Let us look, first, at the prophets wish to escape from lifes stern demands; and, secondly, at the obligation to persevere in the path of duty.
I
The Wish to Escape
1. Oh that I had in the wilderness a lodging place of wayfaring men; that I might leave my people, and go from them! That is not a prayer for solitude. It is some wayside caravanserai or hotel that Jeremiah longs for; and there he would have been far less alone than in his unshared home at Jerusalem. No, it is not a prayer for solitude, but a prayer to be set where a man can enjoy all the interest of life without having any of its responsibility; where all men are wayfarers and come and go, like the river past the bank on which you lie the long summer afternoon, and rouse your pity and help you to muse and perhaps to sing, but never touch your conscience; where you may be an artist or a poet, or only a good fellow, but cannot possibly be required to be a prophet. It was so terrible to have to look below the surface of life, to know people long enough both to judge them with a keener conscience than themselves and to love them with a breaking heart. Oh, to have no other work in life than to watch the street from the balcony window, than to feel the interest and glitter of life, and to achieve your duty towards your fellows by a kindliness and a courtesy that are never put to the strain of prolonged acquaintance!
The trade-routes had such places dotted along their course, where travellers and traders could put up for the night. The caravanserai was often a busy place, for all its cheerless furnishing; there would be men coming and going, hurrying on their pleasure or their business, merchants, court-officials, or ordinary travellers, full of news and alive with interests of every kind. There, thought Jeremiah, I could feel at home; I could content myself with letting things go unchallenged. He wanted evidently to be no more than a looker-on at life. He was tired, not so much of human beings as of responsibility for any of them. Out on the steppes, in a khan, he could still keep in touch with some currents of existence, and yet be no more than a cool, indifferent spectator.
Thoreau, that singular American who has written some beautiful essays, who went and lived in the woods, says that he chose so to spend his days, on the promenade deck of the world, an outside passenger, where I have freedom in my thought and in my soul am free.1 [Note: A. Ramsay, Studies in Jeremiah, 61.]
Pythagoras was once asked contemptuously by a Greek tyrant who he was and what was his particular business in the world. The philosopher replied that at the Olympic games some people came to try for the prizes, some to dispose of their merchandise, some to enjoy themselves and meet their friends, and some to look on. I, said Pythagoras, am one of those who come to look on at life. Bacon, in telling the story, adds: But men must know that in this theatre of mans life it is reserved only for God and angels to be lookers-on.2 [Note: J. Moffatt, Reasons and Reasons, 45.]
2. What moved Jeremiah to harbour this wish?
(1) He tells us himself that it was because he was so out of touch with the people, and because they had, as by a national apostasy, departed from God. He felt often as if he alone stood for God amid a faithless generation. Run ye to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now, and know, and seek in the broad places thereof, if you can find a man, if there be any that doeth justly, that seeketh truth. And again he says, From the least of them even unto the greatest of them every one is given to covetousness; and from the prophet even unto the priest every one dealeth falsely. It was a terrible isolation in which he stood: in the crowded market-place this man was as much alone as in the widest solitudes. One faithful disciple we know he had, and a few there must have been who listened to his voice; but these were so few and far between, and they were so little in evidence, that they did not affect the universal antipathy with which he was regarded. None shared his ideals; none offered to God the worship of righteousness.
There are moments and moods when even a strong nature will feel tempted to escape, or to wish to escape, from the pressure of responsibility into a position where it would only be necessary to look on. Such was Jeremiahs case at this period of his career. He felt disappointed and disquieted with his age. He was at that critical phase of life when the first flush of enthusiasm, which throws men into eager contact with their fellows, has been succeeded by a profound sense of the corruption and self-will and greed which sometimes thwart an enterprise of religious or national reform. He had failed to carry the people with him; he was unpopular; and he was disheartened. At one moment he was ready to weep for his land. Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people. That is the anguish of a true patriot over evils which are being allowed to eat away the heart of a nation, over the rampant selfishness which forgets the rights and claims of God or of ones fellow-men, over the indifference of people to human pain and to Divine appeals.
When a preacher has to say, Who hath received our report? a true mans heart knows its own bitterness. The hopes of his day of ordination and the meagre results attained by all his labours go not well together.
In the glory of youth the young man went,
His heart with pride was stirred.
They should yield, he cried, to the message sent
And force of the burning word.
The long years passed, and a wearied man
Crept back to the old home door;
I have spoken my word and none has heard,
And the great world rolls as before.1 [Note: A. Ramsay, Studies in Jeremiah , 35.]
(2) He had none of the ordinary solaces by which such loneliness is relieved. He had neither wife nor child; he had not the interest of any occupation outside of his prophetic career; he was shut off from mingling in the social life of the people. Regretfully he tells us that he was not permitted to rejoice with the joyful or to sorrow with the sorrowful. What, then, is left to this lonely man? Is not this a moment of general dissolution and shipwreck, when the terrible cry may be raised, Let each man look to himself; let him save himself who can? The State was being broken up: monarchy, nation, ritual, temple were all being thrown into the whirlpool of ruin. The individual was being left to his own resources; the best that could be hoped was that men might escape with their lives.
We live in groups, in societies; but these, after all, touch only upon our upper levels. Rarely do they reach the realm where we dwell. We live in crowded cities, but you can be lonelier in Fleet Street than in the centre of Sahara. Nature introduces us, at different stages of our career, to successive phases and varieties of loneliness. With many of us she begins early. Is there an acuter experience than that of the boy, away from the home he has never before left, on his first night at school? To many a sensitive soul it has been the first night in hell. He will have many more nights thereto find what an excellent place hell is as a school of culture. Later on, he will meet his other lonelinesses. The higher his nature the more acute they will be. Think of the solitude of the man of genius; of the leader, the teacher in advance of his age! His followers have got a living personality in front of them; the sight of him warms their hearts, stirs their enthusiasm. But what has he in front of himLuther on his way to Worms, Jesus treading the road to Jerusalem? No visible leader for them; nothing for them but the invisible! Who is there to comprehend them, who to share their inmost thought? Their cry is that of Confucius of old: Alas! there is no one that knows me, but there is Heaventhat knows me. Solitude is the lot of all the teachers, of all the originals. Says Newman in one of his letters: God intends me to be lonely. He has so framed my mind that I am in a great measure beyond the sympathies of other people, and thrown upon Himself. There he speaks for all who have trodden the higher pathways.1 [Note: J. Brierley, Religion and To-Day, 153.]
3. We can all understand why such a wish, with all the power of an enchantment, should arise in this mans heart, for it has had a place in our own. Without a tithe of his reasons and excuse, there can be few of us who have not felt the impulse to a self-regarding life. Why should we not limit our interests to our own concerns? What hinders that we look only to our own ease and comfort and personal salvation? Kingdom of God, Church of Jesus Christ, nation, city, condition of the people, cause of freedom and righteousnessall this that stands for what is beyond the individual and the selfishwhy should we have a care for such things? Oh that I had in the wilderness a lodging place of wayfaring men!
(1) We yearn for an escape from the responsibilities of lifenot all the weary weight of this unintelligible world, but just the burdens that lie at our own door. For as life advancesif it is being well livedresponsibilities are bound to gather. Business increases, influence extends, the life of the home is larger and fuller and deeper. In hours of high courage, too, and when the heart is strong, men enter on the public service of their city, and that weight must be carried through many a thankless day. So again is the prophets mood begotten. Men long for releaseto lay the burden down. They think how supremely happy life would be without the black care that sits behind the horseman. That thought was not a stranger to Jeremiah.
(2) We long to escape from monotony. When day after day men rise to the same task, when morning by morningspring, summer, autumn, winterthe hands have to take up the same weary drudgery, then sooner or later comes the rebellious hour when the heart craves passionately for escape. That hour comes sometimes through the reading of books which bring home to us the rich and varied action of humanity; sometimes when other lives that seem so unrestrained are brought into bitter contrast with our own; and sometimes when the first signs of spring have come, when the awakening earth woos us to liberty, when the warmth of the sun and the breath of the wind are on us. In such ways the mood of rebellion is begotten. We fret and chafe at the dulness of our days. The dreary monotony of daily work grows odious. There surges within us the longing for release. That very longing surged in the noble heart of Jeremiah.
(3) There are hours when we wish to escape from ourselves. We begin by thinking that if we could change our lot we should be very happy and contented. We imagine that if we could only get away into new scenes, it would be infinitely restful. But as we grow older, and perhaps wiser, we discover that, go where we will, we carry our own hearts with us, and that what we really craved foralthough we did not know itwas not a change of scene but change of self. We come to know ourselves so well as life proceedsour weaknesses, our limitations. There are men who have everything to make them happy, yet somehow they have not the genius to be happy. Hence springs the strange rebellion of unrest; the wish for the wings of the morning that we may fly away, not merely from the burden of our lot, but from the heavier burden of ourselves.
Men often blind themselves to facts, and weave theories to make the burden lighter. They speak of sin and death and poverty and care in a way that is irreconcilable with facts. It is not truth they are seeking, it is ease. It is not actuality, it is relief. They want the world to be golden, and they make it so, though it is full of sorrow and leaden-eyed despairand remember, there is a cowardice of mind, no less than a cowardice upon the field of battle. When men turn away from the straight gaze of Christ, and when they run to philosophies and theories which have no cry in them, no cross, no bloodonly harmonious and flattering musicthat is another betrayal of the strange yet quenchless longing to escape.1 [Note: G. H. Morrison, The Unlighted Lustre, 109.]
I suppose that the most exalted and least casual of worldly joys consists in the adequate recognition by the world of high achievement by ourselves. Yet it is notorious that
It is by God decreed
Fame shall not satisfy the highest need.
It has been my lot to know not a few of the famous men of our generation, and I have always observed that this is profoundly true. Like all other moral satisfactions, this soon palls by custom, and as soon as one end of distinction is reached another is pined for. There is no finality to rest in, while disease and death are always standing in the background. Custom may even blind men to their misery so far as not to make them realize what is wanting; yet the want is there. I take it, then, as unquestionably true that this whole negative side of the subject proves a vacuum in the soul of man which nothing can fill save faith in God.2 [Note: G. J. Romanes, Thoughts on Religion.]
In the ancient orderly places, with a blank and orderly mind,
We sit in our green walled gardens and our corn and oil increase;
Sunset nor dawn can wake us, for the face of the heavens is kind;
We light our taper at even and call our comfort peace.
Peaceful our clear horizon, calm as our sheltered days
Are the lilied meadows we dwell in, the decent highways we tread.
Duly we make our offerings, but we know not the God we praise,
For He is the God of the living, but we, His children, are dead.
I will arise and get me beyond this country of dreams,
Where all is ancient and ordered and hoar with the frost of years,
To the land where loftier mountains cradle their wilder streams,
And the fruitful earth is blessed with more bountiful smiles and tears,
There in the home of the lightnings, where the fear of the Lord is set free,
Where the thunderous midnights fade to the turquoise magic of morn,
The days of man are a vapour, blown from a shoreless sea,
A little cloud before sunrise, a cry in the void forlorn
I am weary of men and cities and the service of little things,
Where the flamelike glories of life are shrunk to a candles ray.
Smite me, my God, with Thy presence, blind my eyes with Thy wings,
In the heart of Thy virgin earth show me Thy secret way!1 [Note: John Buchan, A Lodge in the Wilderness.]
II
The Obligation to Persevere
1. The day came when Jeremiah could gratify his wish. After Jerusalem was taken and everything was lost, a home in Babylon was offered to him. He could have had dignified ease. He had friends at court; the Babylonian general was ready to secure for him all his heart could wish. He could enjoy well-earned repose. Now at the end of the long day it was fitting that rest be appointed to the labourer. Twenty years before, the longing had been strong within him for just such an opportunity as this, and he had resisted it; but now at the long last, the chance has come his way. Will he put it past him, or will he eagerly seize it? He is dragged along as a prisoner, and there, while the manacles are struck off his wrists, this tempting future is opened up before him. And yet the issue is not for a moment in doubt. He cannot even now find it in his heart to leave his people. The bald narrative cannot hide from us the heroism and renunciation involved in the act. Then went Jeremiah unto Gedaliah the son of Ahikam to Mizpah, and dwelt with him among the people that were left in the land. In a passion of despair he broke out with the cry, Oh that I might leave my people! But he did not leave them. He was too noble and generous at heart to become a mere looker-on. For this craving is a moral weakness. The heroic natures in every age are not seated on the balcony; they are down among their fellow-men, bearing the strain and stress of their position, identifying themselves willingly with the people among whom it may have pleased God to cast their lot, and brave enough to meet
The fierce confederate storm
Of sorrow, barricaded evermore
Within the walls of cities.
There is a little childrens hymn which goes like this
Had I the wings of a dove I would fly,
Far, far away, far away.
If that is the use to which we would put our wings, it is an infinite mercy that they have never grown. We are here as stewards, and a steward must be faithful. We are called to be soldiers, not to be deserters. We are set here by an ordering God not to fly away, but to hold on and fight on and trust on to the end.1 [Note: G. H. Morrison, The Unlighted Lustre, 111.]
2. What was it that moored and anchored Jeremiah to his hard life in Jerusalem? Why could he not tear himself away from it? The whole secret is out when you emphasize these words that I might leave my people! There rested on his spirit a sense of his oneness with his people far more stringent than ever prophet had felt before, a sympathy with their sufferings which breaks forth in some of the most pathetic cries in all literature, a consciousness of their sins which makes him feel their guilt to the depths of his being.
God had not sent him to earth to be as separate from the life of man as a musing man is from the river flowing past his feet. God had sent him, not to watch life from a balcony, but leaping down to share it: not to live in an inn, where a man is not even responsible for the housekeeping, but has only his way to pay. God had begotten Jeremiah into a nation. He had made him a citizen. He had given him a patriots lot, with the patriots conscience and heart. Jeremiah had been forced to grow familiar with men, to find them out by living on their own level, to see habit slowly grow and falsehood surely betray itself, and fathers evil descend to children, and policies reap their fruits, and systems get tried by events, and, moreover, death come down. This was his destiny through all the mingled sin and pity of the linked generationsto feel at once his judgment upon men grow keener and more hopeless and his love for them deeper and more yearning.
Under the power of such a union Jeremiah lived all his days. He acknowledged it; he sought more and more to feel the force of it. He was an Israelite indeed. Israel in him struggled against its doom. The dumb, inarticulate mind of the people found a voice in him. He wept over them; he palliated their offences; he confessed for them their sins. He overflowed with human sympathies; he had a very rich and tender heart, and with all the wealth of love with which it was dowered he loved the people. These dull, impenitent people felt nothing; their sins, which drew hot, scalding tears from Jeremiah, did not cost them a thought; but the spiritual distress, the keener conscience, the agony of estrangement from God, the knowledge of His judgment upon sinall this was in Jeremiah heavy as lead, and he bore it for the people.
Sir Leslie Stephen contributes some interesting recollections as well as a sympathetic appreciation of his friend Lowell, whom he knew intimately for many years. Lowells patriotism, he writes, was not the belief that the country which had produced him must be the first in the world; or that the opinions which he happened to have imbibed in his childhood must be obviously true to every one but fools; or a simple disposition to brag, engendered out of sheer personal vanity by a thirst for popularity. It was clearly the passion which is developed in a pure and noble nature with strong domestic affections; which loves all that is best in the little circle of home and early surroundings; which recognizes spontaneously in later years the higher elements of the national life; and which, if it lead to some erroneous beliefs, never learns to overlook or to estimate too lightly the weaker and baser tendencies of a people. Most faiths, I fear, are favourable to some illusions, and I will not suggest that Lowell had none about his countrymen. But such illusions are at worst the infirmity of a noble mind, and Lowells ardent belief in his nation was, to an outsider, a revelation of greatness both in the object of his affections and in the man who could feel them.1 [Note: Letters of James Russell Lowell, ii. 497.]
It has been said that the Bible, especially the New Testament, does not recognize patriotism. M. Renan says that Christianity kills patriotism. Religion, he says, is the organization of self-devotement and renunciationthe State-patriotism is the organization of egoism.
One answer to this is by reference to facts. Have the most religious nations and times been the most unpatriotic? Or the most religious men? On the contrary, the grandest national movements have had the inspiration of religion. The Commonwealth and Puritans in England, the Covenanters in Scotland, Cromwell, Milton, Rutherfurd, James Guthrie, had an intense national feeling. The Cavaliers, with Church and King, associated the two. Abraham Lincoln was a religious man, and there was a deep feeling of religion in Stonewall Jackson. How it ranged them on opposite sides is another question; but that the sentiments can unite, and generally have done so, is written in all history.
It is quite true that religion gives a man something he cannot sacrifice to what some call patriotismmeaning by patriotism national pride or material advantage. But this is not patriotism. Unless a man loves something higher than these he cannot love his country wisely and worthily. He must do for his country what he would do for himself, love truth and justice most, seeking these for his country and himself at the cost of lower and passing interests.2 [Note: John Ker, Thoughts for Heart and Life, 115.]
3. This heroic identification of himself with the interests of a faulty people marks out Jeremiah as a prototype of Jesus. When our Lord was on earth, some of His contemporaries were reminded of Jeremiah. Whom do men say that I am? Some say, Jeremiah. Why, we are not told. But for us Jesus resembles Jeremiah in this at least, that He did identify Himself, though in a far deeper degree, with the interests of a self-willed and rebellious people. He, too, shared their reproach and put up with their misunderstandings and ingratitude, in order to carry out Gods purpose. He, too, had to meet and master the temptation to decline further association with their unfaithfulness. O faithless and perverse generation, He once broke out, how long shall I be with you? how long shall I bear with you? There were moments when the incredulity and obstinacy of men were almost too much even for His great patience. But He triumphed over all such inclinations to disavow responsibility for His race.
When Jesus set His face steadfastly to go to Jerusalem, He knew that He was going to be betrayed and crucified there, and He was speaking to His disciples about it all. And Peter said to Him, Be it far from thee, Lord: this shall not be unto thee. And Jesus, in a flash, turned upon PeterGet thee behind me, Satan. Why that intensity, that burning word as if from a heart stirred to its very centre? Why, but because Christ had been tempted like Jeremiah to throw the burden down and flee away: and the intensity and strength of the rebuke, which broke like a sea wave on Simons heart tells how the temptation to escape was crushed.
But thou wouldst not alone
Be saved, my father! alone
Conquer and come to thy goal,
Therefore to thee it was given
Many to save with thyself;
And, at the end of thy day,
O faithful shepherd! to come,
Bringing thy sheep in thy hand.
The Call of Life
Literature
Gillies (J. R.), Jeremiah: The Man and his Message, 104.
Matheson (G.), Rests by the River, 84.
Moffatt (J.), Reasons and Reasons, 45.
Morrison (G. H.), The Unlighted Lustre, 102.
Ramsay (A.), Studies in Jeremiah , 47.
Voysey (C.), Sermons, xxi, (1898), No. 1.
Williams (I.), The Characters of the Old Testament, 255.
British Weekly Pulpit, ii. 309 (G. A. Smith).
Christian World Pulpit, xxxvi. 273 (G. A. Smith); lxxxi. 301 (J. L. Munro).
Marylebone Presbyterian Church Pulpit, ii., No. 8 (G. C. Lorimer).
that I had: Psa 55:6-8, Psa 120:5-7, Mic 7:1-7
for: Jer 5:7, Jer 5:8, Jer 23:10, Eze 22:10, Eze 22:11, Hos 4:2, Hos 7:4, Jam 4:4
an assembly: Jer 12:1, Jer 12:6, Hos 5:7, Hos 6:7, Mic 7:2-5, Zep 3:4, Mal 2:11
Reciprocal: Jdg 16:6 – General 1Sa 15:35 – Samuel mourned 1Ki 19:9 – unto a cave Psa 12:2 – They Psa 36:4 – setteth Psa 55:7 – General Pro 21:19 – better Pro 26:25 – speaketh fair Ecc 4:3 – who Isa 59:13 – speaking Jer 2:29 – ye all have Jer 7:9 – steal Jer 13:22 – the greatness Eze 21:24 – your transgressions Hos 7:1 – they commit Hos 7:3 – General Mic 6:12 – spoken Hab 1:3 – General Luk 6:45 – and an Rom 2:22 – adultery
Jer 9:2. The deep grief of Jeremiah was not the kind that caused him to excuse the sins of the people. It was not mere sentiment or a fellow feeling for them in the suffering he knew they were destined to undergo, although he doubtless had that kind of grief also. But the chief motive for his sorrow was his disapproval of their sinful course. He was so disgusted with them that he wished he could get away out of their presence. So earnest was this feeling that he would have been willing to stay in a public lodging house in the wilderness in order to get away out of their sight. Overindulgent parents sometimes allow their personal feeling to cause them to excuse or try to explain away the mistakes of their children. Such was not the case with Jeremiah for he used strong language in describing and condemning the conduct of the people of Judah. Bend their tongues is a figure of speech based on the use of a bow. If one were eager to shoot an arrow to some distant point he would bend or pull back the bow in order to send the arrow’ on its mission of destruction. In like manner the people (especially the leaders) were so eager to use their tongues for sending lies that the illustration is drawn from the act of pulling back a bow in preparation for the discharge of a deadly weapon. Valiant means strong and the prophet describes the inconsistency of his people by the illustration just mentioned. Continuing the figure of a bow he shows them exerting themselves enough to pull back the instrument when an arrow of falsehood was to be discharged, but they would not use enough strength to bend it to send forth a truth. From evil to evil means they would go from one sinful practice to another; they were so devoted to the abominable way of life which they had adopted under the system of idolatry. Know is used in the sense of “recognition,” and the phrase know not me means the people of Judah were interested In the false gods of the heathen but refused to recognize the true God.
Jer 9:2. O that I had in the wilderness, &c. The prophet here wishes that he had a lodging-place, or tent, such as travellers in this country were wont to lodge in when they travelled over the deserts, professing that he would rather pass his days in such a habitation in some desert place, than at Jerusalem, which was filled with wicked men. That I may leave my people and go from them Not chiefly because of the ill usage he met with among them, but rather because his righteous soul was vexed from day to day, as Lots was in Sodom, with the wickedness of their conversation, 2Pe 3:7-8. It made him even weary of his life to see them dishonouring God and destroying themselves. Time was when the place where God had chosen to put his name, there were the desire and delight of good men. David, in the wilderness, longed to be again in the courts of Gods house; but now Jeremiah, in the courts of Gods house, (for there he was when he said this,) wishes himself in a wilderness! Those have made themselves very vile and very miserable, that have made Gods people and ministers weary of them, and desirous to get from among them. It may not be improper to observe here, that travellers in the East are not, nor ever were, accommodated at inns on the road, after the manner of the European nations. In some places indeed there are large public buildings provided for their reception, which they call caravansaries; but these afford merely a covering, being absolutely without furniture; and the traveller must carry his own provisions and necessaries along with him, or he will not find any. Nor are even these empty mansions always to be met with; so that if the weary traveller at night comes into a town where there is no caravansary, or , as it is called Luk 10:34, he must take up his lodging in the street, unless some charitable inhabitant will be pleased to receive him into his house, as we find Jdg 19:15. And if he passes through the desert, it is well for him if he can light upon a cave, or a hut, which some one before him may have erected for a temporary shelter. And this last is what I conceive to be here meant by , a solitary and not very comfortable situation, but yet preferable to the chagrin of living continually in the society of men of profligate manners. Blaney. For they be all adulterers The expression seems here to be metaphorical, implying that they were apostates from God, to whose service they were engaged by the most solemn covenant, like that which obliges a wife to be faithful to her husband. See note on Jer 2:2; and compare Mat 16:4; Jas 4:4.
Jer 9:2-22. Faithlessness and its Retribution: the Dirge of Death.The humblest caravanserai would be preferable to life among these evil men, with their calumnies and the unfaithful use of power by those in authority, their mutual deceit, and their untruthfulness (Jer 9:2-6). Yahweh will prove them in His furnace (Jer 6:29), because of the wickedness of His people (so read in Jer 9:7, with LXX, which continues preferably, after arrow, in Jer 9:8, the words of their mouth are deceit, and omits with his mouth). Jer 9:9 occurs in Jer 5:9, Jer 2:9 (Jer 9:7-9). The prophet raises (Jer 9:10-12) the mourners dirge for the devastated country and ruined towns; it is by Yahwehs hand that they have been laid waste (rather than burnt up), as the discerning recognise (Hos 14:9). Disobedience to the (Deuteronomic) law, seen in the worship of the local deities, brings the bitter result of exile and death (Jer 9:13-16). Let Zions sorrows be bewailed by the singers of dirges. Yahweh Himself supplies the dirge to be learnt and sung, i.e. Jer 9:21 f. (which are in the appropriate metre of the dirge), of which Cornill well remarks that more cannot be said in eight short linesthe dirge of the Reaper Death (Jer 9:17-22).
Jer 9:4. supplant: with a suggestion of the story of the supplanter (Gen 27:36).
Jer 9:10. wilderness: properly a place to which cattle are driven for pasturage, not a desert.
Jer 9:11. jackals often haunt the ruins of Syrian towns; cf. Isa 13:22; Isa 34:13.
Jer 9:15. wormwood: cf. Jer 23:15, Pro 5:4*; some bitter herb, always named figuratively.
Jer 9:17. Professional singers of dirges, as still employed at Syrian funerals; cunning is an archaism for skilful; cf. Amo 5:16.
Jer 9:21. without should be streets, and streets should be broad places.
Jer 9:22. The words Speak, Thus saith the Lord, which interrupt the metre of the dirge, should be omitted, with LXX. This prophecy is continued in Jer 10:17-25, the intervening sections being a later insertion; possibly Jer 9:13-16 also is not by Jeremiah.
9:2 O that I had in the wilderness a {b} lodging place of wayfaring men; that I might leave my people, and go from them! for they [are] all {c} adulterers, an assembly of treacherous men.
(b) He shows that there was more peace and greater safety for him to dwell among the wild beasts than among this wicked people except that God has given him this charge.
(c) Utterly turned from God.
Judah’s depravity 9:2-9
Jeremiah longed for a place of retreat in the wilderness where he could go to get away from his fellow countrymen. Their spiritual adultery and treachery repulsed him. A few recent commentators take the first five verses of this pericope to be the words of God rather than Jeremiah’s. [Note: E.g., Page H. Kelley, Jeremiah 1-25, pp. 143-45. Kelley wrote the commentary on 8:4-16:21 in this volume of the Word Biblical Commentary, which appears in the bibliography of these notes after Craigie, the writer of the first part of the book.]
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
Fuente: The Great Texts of the Bible
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)