Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Lamentations 2:14
Thy prophets have seen vain and foolish things for thee: and they have not discovered thine iniquity, to turn away thy captivity; but have seen for thee false burdens and causes of banishment.
14. The thought that the false prophets are worthy of condemnation for buoying the people up with vain hopes is distinctly in Jeremiah’s manner (cp. Eze 12:24; Eze 13:6 f., Eze 22:28). It is true that we here wholly lack the vehement rebukes which he administered to the people and the priests for their disloyalty to Jehovah. But it is not necessarily fatal to the prophet’s authorship that the writer bestows unqualified pity on his fellow-countrymen. We can hardly look for invective in a sorrowful lament.
foolishness ] i.e. what is meaningless, worthless.
discovered ] uncovered, revealed (to thee), a sense now obsolete. Cp.
“Go, draw aside the curtains, and discover
The several caskets to this noble prince.”
Merch. of Ven. Act II. Sc. 7.
to bring again thy captivity ] See on Jer 29:14.
burdens (better as mg. oracles) of vanity ] i.e. false oracles. See on Jer 23:33 ff.
causes of banishment ] or (less well) mg. things to draw thee aside, i.e. from Jehovah to idols. The Heb. word for “banishment” is not elsewhere found. It here points to the consequences which followed the teaching of the false prophets. Cp. Jer 27:10; Jer 27:15.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Thy prophets have seen vain and foolish things for thee – The Septuagint and Vulgate give the true meaning, stupidity (see Jer 23:13 note).
To turn away thy captivity – The right sense is, They have not disclosed to thee thy sins, that so thou mightest repent, and I might have turned away thy captivity.
Burdens – Applied contemptuously to predictions which proved false or empty, i. e. failed of accomplishment. On the deduction to be drawn from this, see Jer 28:9.
Causes of banishment – The result of the teaching of the false prophets would be that God would drive out the Jews from their land.
Some render the words false … banishment by oracles of falsehood and seduction.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Lam 2:14
Thy prophets have seen vain and foolish things for thee.
Prophetic fidelity
The crying fault of the prophets is their reluctance to preach to people of their sins. Their mission distinctly involves the duty of doing so. They should not shun to declare the whole counsel of God. It is not within the province of the ambassador to make selections from among the despatches with which he has been entrusted in order to suit his own convenience. One of the gravest possible omissions is the neglect to give due weight to the tragic fact of sin. All the great prophets have been conspicuous for their fidelity to this painful and sometimes dangerous part of their work. If we would call up a typical picture of a prophet in the discharge of his task, we should present to our minds Elijah confronting Ahab, or John the Baptist before Herod, or Savonarola accusing Lorenzo de Medici, or John Knox preaching at the court of Mary Stuart. He is Isaiah declaring Gods abomination of sacrifices and incense when these are offered by blood-stained hands, or Chrysostom seizing the opportunity that followed the mutilation of the imperial statues at Antioch to preach to the dissolute city on the need of repentance, or Latimer denouncing the sins of London to the citizens assembled at Pauls Cross. The shallow optimism that disregards the shadows of life is trebly faulty when it appears in the pulpit. It falsifies facts in failing to take account of the stern realities of the evil side of them; it misses the grand opportunity of rousing the consciences of men and women by forcing them to attend to unwelcome truths, and thus encourages the heedlessness with which people rush headlong to ruin; and at the same time it even renders the declaration of the gracious truths of the Gospel, to which it devotes exclusive attention, ineffectual, because redemption is meaningless to those who do not recognise the present slavery and the future doom from which it brings deliverance. (W. F. Adeney, W. A.)
False teachers
1. False teachers are as grievous a plague as can be laid upon a people. They bring with them inevitable destruction (Mat 15:14).
2. They that refuse to receive the true ministers, God will give them over to be seduced by false teachers and to believe lies (2Ch 36:15; Pro 1:24; 2Th 2:10-12).
3. It is a certain note of a false prophet, to speak such things in the name of the Lord as are untrue, or misalleged to please the carnal desires of the people (Jer 14:13-15).
4. It is not sufficient for a true minister not to flatter; he must also discover the peoples sins unto them (Eze 13:4; 1Ki 18:18; Mat 3:7; Luk 3:8; Mat 14:4).
5. The only way to avoid Gods plagues is gladly to suffer ourselves bitterly to be reproved by Gods ministers.
6. The falsehood that is taught by false prophets, and believed by a seduced people, is the cause of all Gods punishments that light upon them. (J. Udall.)
False spiritual guides lead to ruin
A short time back the papers told of a vessel that had a most unfortunate trip. The captain became blind three days after leaving St. Pierre-Martinique and no one on board was capable of navigating the ship. The mate did his best and after drifting about for twenty-seven days came in sight of Newfoundland, where some fishermen saw her signals of distress and piloted her into port. If a ship with a blind captain is poorly off, what of a nation, a church, a village, where blind men are in charge: some born blind and by nature unqualified: others blind through worldly interests and a false learning! Blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch. (Footsteps of Truth.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 14. They have not discovered thine iniquity] They did not reprove for sin, they flattered them in their transgressions; and instead of turning away thy captivity, by turning thee from thy sins, they have pretended visions of good in thy favour, and false burdens for thy enemies.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Not the Lords prophets in thee, but those prophets to whom you chose rather to hearken, and whom you believed rather than me and others sent by God to reveal his will unto you, came and told you idle and vain stories, that those who were carried into captivity should after two years return, &c. And by telling you such smooth and pleasant things, tickled your humours instead of discovering your sins, which were bringing these judgments upon you; whereas they ought to have dealt freely and faithfully with you, and have made you sensible of your sins, and this might have prevented your miserable captivity. But they rather spent their breath in telling you false stories to encourage you in your sinful courses, and so proved to you the causes of your banishment; or else they told you false stories, which they pretended to be the causes of the captivity of your brethren, in the mean time concealing the true causes, and suffering you to run on in the same errors, till you came to be more miserable than those that went into captivity before you.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
14. Thy prophetsnot God’s(Jer 23:26).
vain . . . for theetogratify thy appetite, not for truth, but for false things.
not discovered thineiniquityin opposition to God’s command to the true prophets(Isa 58:1). Literally, “Theyhave not taken off (the veil) which was on thine iniquity,so as to set it before thee.”
burdensTheirprophecies were soothing and flattering; but the result of them washeavy calamities to the people, worse than even what theprophecies of Jeremiah, which they in derision called “burdens,”threatened. Hence he terms their pretended prophecies “falseburdens,” which proved to the Jews “causes of theirbanishment” [CALVIN].
Samech.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Thy prophets have seen vain and foolish things for thee,…. Not the prophets of the Lord; but false prophets, as the Targum; which were of the people’s choosing, and were acceptable to them; prophets after their own hearts, because they prophesied smooth things, such as they liked; though in the issue they proved “vain” and “foolish”, idle stories, impertinent talk, the fictions of their own brains; and yet they pretended to have visions of them from the Lord; as that within two years Jeconiah, and all the vessels of the temple carried away by the king of Babylon, should be returned; and that he would not come against Jerusalem, nor should it be delivered into his hands; see
Jer 28:2;
and they have not discovered thine iniquity: they did not tell them of their sins; they took no pains to convince them of them, but connived at them; instead of reproving them for them, they soothed them in them; they did not “remove” the covering that was “over [their] iniquity” u, as it might be rendered; which they might easily have done, and laid their sirs to open view: whereby they might have been ashamed of them, and brought to repentance for them. The Targum is,
“neither have they manifested the punishment that should come upon thee for thy sins;”
but, on the contrary, told them it should not come upon them; had they dealt faithfully with them, by showing them their transgressions, and the consequences of them, they might have been a means of preventing their ruin: and, as it here follows,
to turn away thy captivity; either to turn them from their backslidings and wanderings about, as Jarchi; or to turn them by repentance, as the Targum; or to prevent their going into captivity:
but have seen for thee false burdens, and causes of banishment; that is, false prophecies against Babylon, and in favour of the Jews; prophecies, even those that are true, being often called “burdens”, as the “burden of Egypt”, and “the burden of Damascus”, c. and the rather this name is here given to those false prophecies because the prophecies of Jeremiah were reproached by them with it, Jer 23:33, c. and because these proved in the issue burdensome, sad, and sorrowful ones though they once tickled and pleased and were the cause of the people’s going into exile and captivity they listening to them: or they were “depulsions” or “expulsions” w drivings, that drove them from the right way; from God and his worship; from his word and prophets; and, at last, the means of driving them out of their own land; of impelling them to sin, and so of expelling them from their own country. The Targum renders it,
“words of error.”
u “et non revelarunt [legmen] pravitati tuae impositum”, Christ. Ben. Miehaelis. w , Sept. “et expulsiones”, Montanus, Vatablus, Calvin; “et ad depulsionem spectantium”, Junius Tremellius “depulsiones, expulsiones”, Stockius, p. 649.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
From her prophets, Jerusalem can expect neither comfort nor healing. For they have brought this calamity upon her through their careless and foolish prophesyings. Those meant are the false prophets, whose conduct Jeremiah frequently denounced; cf. Jer 2:8; Jer 5:12; Jer 6:13., Jer 8:10; Jer 14:14., Jer 23:17, Jer 23:32; Jer 27:10, Jer 27:15. They prophesied vanity, – peace when there was no peace, – and , “absurdity,” = , Jer 23:13. They did not expose the sin and guilt of the people with the view of their amendment and improvement, and thereby removing the misery into which they had fallen by their sin; nor did they endeavour to restore the people to their right relation towards the Lord, upon which their welfare depended, or to avert their being driven into exile. On , cf. Jer 32:44. The meaning of this expression, as there unfolded, applies also to the passage now before us; and the translation, captivitatem avertere (Michaelis, Ngelsbach), or to “ward off thy captivity” (Luther, Thenius), is neither capable of vindication nor required by the context. Instead of healing the injuries of the people by discovering their sins, they have seen (prophesied) for them , “burdens,” i.e., utterances of threatening import (not effata ; see on Jer 23:33), which contained , “emptiness,” and , “rejection.” The combination of “emptiness” with “burdens” does not prevent the latter word from being applied to threatening oracles; for the threats of the false prophets did not refer to Judah, but were directed against the enemies of Israel. For instance, that they might promise the people speedy deliverance from exile, they placed the downfall of the Chaldean power in immediate prospect; cf. Jer 28:2-4, Jer 28:11. , is . . as a noun, and is also dependent on “burdens” (cf. Ewald, 289, c): it signifies ejection from the land, not “persecution” (Rosenmller, Gesenius, Ewald, etc.), for Jeremiah uses (in Niph. and Hiph.) always in the sense of rejection, expulsion from the country; and the word has here an unmistakeable reference to Jer 27:10, Jer 27:15: “They prophesy lies to you, that they may eject you from your country.”
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
Vs. 14-17: PROPHETS: TRUE AND FALSE
1. Jeremiah had pleaded with Judah to reject the lying prophets who catered to their sinful ways and encouraged them in that which -turning them aside from the obligations of their covenant-relationship with Jehovah – could only lead to the out-pouring of His wrath upon their sins, (vs. 14; Jer 14:14-16; Jer 23:25-32; Jer 29:8-9).
a. The prophet OUGHT to so expose the iniquities of a self deceived people as to turn them from their wickedness! (Isa 58:1; Mic 3:8; Eze 23:36-42).
b. This could have led to national health, (Isa 58:6-9).
2. There was a time when the “City of David” (Jerusalem, “the city of the great king’, Psa 48:2; Mat 5:35) was viewed as “the perfection of- beauty” and “the joy of the whole earth”, (Psa 50:2; Psa 48:2); now that she lies prostrate in the dust, the long-smoldering resentment of her enemies finds expression in malicious and humiliating taunts of mockery and ridicule (vs. 15-16; Jer 19:8; Jer 18:16; Lam 3:46).
3. The purpose of Jehovah upon a persistently rebellious nation has now been fulfilled; His threatened judgment upon unrepented iniquity has fallen upon the sinners of Zion! (vs. 17; Lev 26:1-45).
a. The significant role of HUMAN CHOICE (freely expressed) in the out-working of God’s purpose, for weal or woe, is clearly revealed in the CONDITIONAL NATURE of many Old Testament prophecies.
b. Divine judgment upon Judah was long suspended – while the Lord waited for her to repent and return to the fold; thus, averting the threatened calamity, (Eze 33:10-16, etc.).
c. Because Judah has IGNORED the threats of divine judgment, and the pleadings for her to turn from her wickedness – to resume a walk in covenant fellowship with her Maker, the Lord has been UNSPARRING in His visitation of fiery indignation upon her wantonness, (Deu 28:15; Jer 4:28; Jer 18:11).
d. And, exalting the horn of her adversaries, He has caused them to rejoice over her humiliation, (Lam 1:5; comp. Psa 89:41-46; Psa 35:24 -26).
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
Here the Prophet condemns the Jews for that wantonness by which they had, as it were, designedly destroyed themselves, as though they had willfully drunk sweet poison. They had been inebriated with those fallacies which we have seen, when impostors promised them a prosperous condition; for we have seen that false prophets often boldly declared that whatever Jeremiah threatened was of no account. Since, then, the Jews were inebriated with such flatteries, and disregarded God’s judgment, and freely indulged themselves in their vices, the effect was, that God’s wrath had been always and continually kindled by them. Now, then, Jeremiah reproves them for such wantonness, even because they willfully sought to be deceived, and with avidity cast themselves into snares, by seeking for themselves flatterers as teachers. Micah also reproves them for the same thing, that they sought prophets who promised them a fruitful vintage and an abundant harvest. (Mic 2:10.) The meaning of Jeremiah is the same.
He says that prophets had prophesied, or had seen vanity for them; but the verb refers to prophecies, as prophets are called seers. He then says that the prophets had seen vanity and insipidity (162) This availed not to extenuate the fault of the people; and Jeremiah does not here flatter the people, as though they had perished through the fault of others; and yet this was a common excuse, for most, when they had been deceived, complained that they had fallen through being led astray, and also that they had not been sufficiently cautious when subtle men were laying snares for them. But the Prophet here condemns the Jews, because they had been deceived by false prophets, as it was a just reward for their vainglory and ambition. For they had very delicate ears, and free reproofs could not be endured by them; in a word, when they rejected all sound doctrine, the devil must have necessarily succeeded in the place of God, as also Paul says,
“
that those were justly punished who were blinded by God so as to believe a lie, because they received not the truth.” (2Th 2:11.)
We now perceive the design of the Prophet: he says that the Jews had indeed been deceived by the false prophets; but this had happened through their own fault, because they had not submitted to obey God, because they had rejected sound doctrine, because they had been rebellious against all his counsels. At the same time, not only their crime seems to have been thus exaggerated, but also their shame was brought before them, — because they had dared to set up these impostors against Jeremiah as well as other servants of God; for they had boasted greatly of these their false prophets whenever they sought to exult against God. How great was this presumption! When the false prophets had promised them security, they immediately triumphed in an insolent manner over Jeremiah, as though they were victorious. As, then, their wickedness and arrogance had been such against God, the Prophet justly retorts upon them, “Behold now as to your false prophets; for when they lately promised to you prosperity of every kind, I was inhumanly treated, and my calling was disdainfully repudiated by you; let now your false prophets come forward: be wise at length through your evils, and acknowledge what it is to have acted so haughtily against God and against his servants.” We now understand why the Prophet says, “They have seen for you vanity and insipidity.”
He adds, they have not opened, or revealed, &c. The preposition על, ol, is here redundant; the words are, “they have not revealed upon thine iniquity.” There is, indeed, a suitableness in the words in that language, that they had not applied their revelations to the iniquities of the people, for they would have been thus restored to the right way, and would have thus obviated the vengeance of God.
Now, this passage ought to be carefully noticed: Jeremiah spoke of the fallacies of the false prophets, which he said were insipid: he now expresses how they had deceived the people, even because they disclosed not their iniquities. Let us then know that there is nothing more necessary than to be warned, that being conscious of our iniquities we may repent. And this was the chief benefit to be derived from the teaching of the prophets. For the other part, the foretelling of future things would have had but little effect had not the prophets preached respecting the vengeance of God, — had they not exhorted the people to repentance, — had they not bidden them by faith to embrace the mercy of God. Then Jeremiah in a manner detects the false doctrines of those who had corrupted the prophetic doctrine, by saying that they had not disclosed iniquities. Let us then learn by this mark how to distinguish between the faithful servants of God and impostors. For the Lord by his word summons us before his tribunal, and would have our iniquities discovered, that we may loathe ourselves, and thus open an entrance for mercy. But when what is brought before us only tickles our ears and feeds our curiosity, and, at the same time, buries all our iniquities, let us then know that the refined things which vastly please men are insipid and useless. Let, then, the doctrine of repentance be approved by us, the doctrine which leads us to God’s tribunal, so that being cast down in ourselves we may flee to his mercy.
He afterwards adds, that they might turn back thy captivity; some prefer, “thy defection” — and this meaning is not unsuitable; but the Prophet, I have no doubt, refers to punishment rather than to a crime. Then the captivity of the people would have been reversed had the people in time repented; for we obviate God’s wrath by repentance: “If we judge ourselves,” says Paul, “we shall not be judged.” (1Co 11:31.) As, then, miserable men anticipate God’s judgment when they become judges of themselves, the Prophet does not without reason say that the false prophets had not disclosed their iniquities, so that they might remain quiet in their own country, and never be driven into exile. How so? for God would have been thus pacified, that is, had the people willingly turned to him, as it is said in Isaiah,
“
And be converted, and I should heal them.” (Isa 6:10.)
Conversion, then, is said there to lead to healing; for as fire when fuel is withdrawn is extinguished, so also when we cease to sin fuel is not supplied to God’s wrath. We now, then, perceive the meaning of the Prophet; he, in short, intimates that people had been destroyed because they sought falsehoods, while the false prophets vainly flattered them; for they would have in due time escaped so great evils, had the prophets boldly exhorted the people to repentance. (163)
He then adds, And they saw for thee prophecies of vanity and expulsions. Though the word משאת, meshat, is often taken in a bad sense for a burden, that is, a hard prophecy which shews that God’s vengeance is nigh, yet it is doubtful whether the Prophet takes it now in this sense, since he speaks of prophecies which gave hope of impunity to the people; and these were not משאות, meshaut, that is, they were not grievous and dreadful prophecies. But when all things are well considered, it will be evident that Jeremiah did not without reason adopt this word; for he afterwards adds an explanation. The word, משאה, meshae, is indeed taken sometimes as meaning any kind of prophecy, but it properly means what is comminatory. But now, what does Jeremiah say? They saw for thee burdens which thou hast escaped. For to render odious the doctrine of the holy man, they called whatever he taught, according to a proverbial saying, a burden. Thus, then, they created a prejudice against the holy man by saying that all his prophecies contained nothing but terror and trouble. Now, by way of concession, the Prophet says, “They themselves have indeed been prophets to you, and they saw, but saw at length burdens.”
While, then, the false prophets promised impunity to the people, they were flatterers, and no burden appeared, that is, no trouble; but these prophecies became at length much more grievous than all the threatenings with which Jeremiah had terrified them; and corresponding with this view is what immediately follows, expulsions. For the Prophet, I doubt not, shews here what fruit the vain flatteries by which the people had chosen to be deluded had produced: for hence it happened, that they had been expelled from their country and driven into exile. For if the reason was asked, why the people had been deprived of their own inheritance, the obvious answer would have been this, because they had chosen to be deceived, because they had hardened themselves in obstinacy by means of falsehoods and vain promises. Since, then, their exile was the fruit of false doctrine, Jeremiah says now that these impostors saw burdens of vanity, but which at length brought burdens; and then they saw, מדוחים meduchim, (164) expulsions, even those things which had been the causes of expulsion or exile.
(162) So it means when applied to eatables, but folly or absurdity when applied to words. It comes from נפל, to fall, in the sense of decaying or degenerating. It is what is neither wise nor true. Hence it is rendered “foolishness” by the Sept. ; “foolish” by the Vulg. ; and “without substance” by the Targ. —
Thy prophets, they have seen vanity and folly.
What they had seen were both “vain,” useless, and “foolish,” absurd. — Ed.
(163) The verb rendered “turn back,” means also to turn away or aside, and this is the meaning given it here by the Syr., and most suitable to the passage, —
And they discovered not thine iniquity, to turn aside thy captivity.
That is, as the Syr. Expresses it, to avert it. — Ed.
(164) There seems to be a mistake in this word of a ד for an ר, two letters very similar; for the Targ., the Syr., and the Arab. , must have so read the word, as they render it in the sense of what is deceptive, fallacious, or imaginary. It is in the last rendered “phantasms.” The word occurs in Jer 22:14, and is applied to chambers through which air or wind passed freely. It may be rendered here winds or airy things. Such was the character of their prophecies. This is far more suitable to the passage than expulsions or rejections, as given by the Sept. and Vulg. — Ed
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
EXEGETICAL NOTES.
() Lam. 2:14. The Book of Jeremiah contains ample evidence as to who those miserable comforters were. It shows that, during the period just preceding the overthrow of Juda, there were a number of persons who were accustomed glibly to say, The burden of Jehovah, but who were mere pretenders to divine visions, who gave chaff and not wheat. The reason lay in the character of the people, that formed its own instruments in politics and religion. If a people prefer to have sensational statesmen, such statesmen will appear. If prophets prophecy falsely, it is because the people love to have it so. They say unto the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits. They got what they wanted. Thy prophets have seen for thee, and the result is vanity and foolishness, unreal and unreasonable things. They did not make known the will of God so as to expose the evil ways and doings of the people, and prepare for amendment. They have not uncovered thine iniquity to turn away thy captivity. Instead of that, their boasted visions tended to produce burdens of vanity and causes of banishment. They prophesy a lie unto you, to remove you far from your land, and that I should drive you out.
HOMILETICS
FALSE PROPHETS
(Lam. 2:14)
I. Are self-deluded. Thy prophets have seen vain and foolish things for thee. Thy prophetsthey were certainly not Gods prophets. Their authority was self-assumed, and they ingratiated themselves into the favour of the people by prophesying only what was agreeable to their hearers. They indulged so lavishly in lies and deceit, that they almost persuaded themselves that what they uttered was truth. But they were deluded, and their delusion was self-induced. An inveterate habit of lying vitiates the moral sense; it becomes difficult to appreciate what is true. A lie poisons the atmosphere wherever it circulates. It has no legs and cannot stand, but it has wings and can fly far and wide.
II. Have no insight into the real cause of national calamities, and their teaching is powerless to prevent them. They have not discovered thine iniquity, to turn away thy captivity. The Syriac renders the words thus: They have not disclosed to thee thy sins, that so thou mightest repent, and I might have turned away thy captivity. They were so demoralised by the habitual practice of falsehood, that they were incompetent to judge the cause and drift of the national troubles. They could not see that disobedience to God was at the root of the general distress; or, if they did, they saw so little evil in it, or danger from it, that they did not deem it necessary to alarm the people by any words of warning. Had they been able to read the signs of the times and to act with promptness and fidelity in urging the people to repentance, Israels chastisement might have been averted. When responsible leaders are unfaithful, and abuse their trust by deceiving others, the misguided nation rushes on to its doom.
III. Invent messages full of deceit. But have seen for thee false burdens and causes of banishment. The word burdens does not mean here prophecies of a minatory character, for evidently the false prophets assured the people of prosperity and deliverance. The word is used in a contemptuous sense. The burdens, so different from the Divine message laid as a burden on the conscience of the genuine prophet, were, in this case, mere pretence, false, empty, and utterly inadequate to remove the causes of banishment. The false prophets, in their attempt to account for the captivity, invented any cause but the real onethe apostasy of the people. Deceit produces darker shades of deceit. One lie must be quickly thatched with another, or it will soon rain through. The way of falsehood is tortuous. A deaf and dumb boy being asked, What is truth? replied by thrusting his finger forward in a straight line. When asked, What is falsehood? he made a zigzag motion with his finger. The result of false teaching is disintegration, banishment, a driving out. Every lie, great or small, is the brink of a precipice, the depth of which nothing but Omniscience can fathom. The poet Campbell calls it, The torrents smoothness, ere it dash below.
LESSONS.
1. The true prophet receives his commission directly from God.
2. While the prophet is faithful to his Divine calling he is preserved from error.
3. The false prophet deceives himself as well as others.
ILLUSTRATIONS.A false prophet.
The bigot theologian, in minute
Distinctions skilled, and doctrines unreduced
To practice; in debate how loud! how long!
How dexterous! in Christian love, how cold!
His vain conceits were orthodox alone.
The immutable and heavenly truth revealed
By God was nought to him; he had an art,
A kind of hellish charm, that made the lips
Of truth speak falsehood; to his liking turned
The meaning of the text; made trifles seem
The marrow of salvation;
Proved still his reasoning best, and his belief,
Though propped on fancies wild as madmens dreams,
Most rational, most Scriptural, most sound;
With mortal heresy denouncing all
Who in his arguments could see no force.
He proved all creeds false but his own, and found
At last his own most falsemost false, because
He spent his time to prove all others so.
Pollok.
False doctrine. A man holding false and pernicious doctrines preached at a village chapel, and endeavoured to convince a large congregation that there is no punishment after death. At the close of the discourse he informed the people he would preach there again in four weeks, if they wished. A respectable merchant rose and said, Sir, if your doctrine is true, we do not need you; and if it is false, we do not want you.
False teaching dangerous when mixed with truth. Falsehood is never so successful as when she baits, her hook with truth. No opinions so fatally mislead us as those that are not wholly wrong, as no watches so effectually deceive the wearer as those that are sometimes right.Colton.
Error is never so dangerous as when it is the alloy of truth. Pure error would be rejected; but error mixed with truth makes use of the truth as a pioneer for it, and gets introduction where otherwise it would have none. Poison is never so dangerous as when mixed up with food; error is never so likely to do mischief as when it comes to us under the pretensions and patronage of that which is true.Cumming.
Faith in falsehood disastrous.When the English army under Harold, and the Norman under William the Conqueror, were set in array for that fearful conflict which decided the fate of the two armies and the political destinies of Great Britain, William, perceiving that he could not by a fair attack move the solid columns of the English ranks, had recourse to a false movement in order to gain the victory. He gave orders that one flank of his army should feign to be flying from the field in disorder. The officers of the English army believed the falsehood, pursued them, and were cut off. A second time a false movement was made in another part of the field. The English again believed, pursued, and were cut off. By these movements the fortunes of the day were determined. Although the English had the evidence of their senses, yet they were led to believe a falsehood. They acted in view of it. The consequence was the destruction of a great part of their army, and the establishment of the Norman power in England. It is an incontrovertible fact that the whole heathen world, ancient and modern, have believed in and worshipped unholy beings as gods. In consequence of believing falsehood concerning the character of God, all heathendom at the present hour is filled with ignorance, impurity, and crime.J. B. Walker.
Falsehood.
I scorn this hated scene
Of masking and disguise,
Where men on men still gleam
With falseness in their eyes:
Where all is counterfeit,
And truth hath never say;
Where hearts themselves do cheat,
Concealing hopes decay.Motherwell.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
(14) Thy prophets have seen vain and foolish things.The words are eminently characteristic of Jeremiah, whose whole life had been spent in conflict with the false prophets (Jer. 2:8; Jer. 5:13; Jer. 6:13; Jer. 8:10; Jer. 14:14; Jer. 28:9, and elsewhere), who spoke smooth things, and prophesied deceit. They did not call men to repent of their iniquity.
False burdens.The noun is used, as in Jer. 23:33, with a touch of irony, as being that in which the false prophets delighted. What they uttered, however, as a vision of God, did not tend to restoration, but was itself a cause of banishment, and tended to perpetuate and aggravate the miseries of exile.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
14. Thy prophets This is in continuation of the preceding verse. The false prophets had indeed cried “Peace, peace,” but there was no peace.
False burdens The term burden is often technical in the sense of prophecies of a minatory character, but this is not the easiest sense in this place. True, as Keil suggests, it may mean threatening of evil against the enemies of Israel, but this would be no burden to the Jews. It is better to regard this word here as used in a more general sense, “oracles of deceit.”
Causes of banishment Literally, expulsions. The original is a single word.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Lam 2:14. False burdens Burdens of vanityfalse prophesies. See Isa 13:1.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
“Handfuls of Purpose”
For All Gleaners
“Thy prophets have seen vain and foolish things for thee: and they have not discovered thine iniquity, to turn away thy captivity; but have seen for thee false burdens and causes of banishment.” Lam 2:14
The prophets had degenerated into professional flatterers. Prophets soon come to understand what the people want for their own gratification, and soon come to understand whether the people are in quest of God’s truth or the satisfaction of their own taste. When this discovery is made the prophet must be a strong man if he does not fall into the temptation to please the people rather than to obey God. People being pleased will return flattery for flattery, and probably the prophet will find his immediate compensation in the gifts and applause of the populace, rather than the testimony of a good conscience. The action between prophet and people is reciprocal: where the prophet is in dead earnest the people will be compelled to listen to his prophecies; where the people are more earnest than the prophet the man of God will be tempted to turn aside that he may gratify rather than instruct or correct. The charge made in this passage is the most serious accusation that can be urged against any trustee or steward or minister. Prophets have perverted their function; they have seen what they have looked for; they have gone in quest of things to please rather than of things to profit and educate, and in their delusion they have seen what will delight or amuse the people whom they ought to have instructed. One sign of a degenerate race of prophets is to be found in the turning aside of the prophetic mind from the deep consideration of moral subjects. Who is not tempted to give himself up to intellectual delights rather than to the study and application of moral discipline? Surely it is human to accept the suggestion that the mind should wander in courses where delights grow abundantly rather than turn into directions where the rod and the sword meet the eye on every hand? God complains that the prophets have not discovered the iniquity of Zion, or told her plainly to her face that she owes her punishment to her sin. “A wonderful and horrible thing is committed in the land; the prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means,” but this is not the whole explanation: not the prophets alone are to be blamed: the explanation is given in the words which immediately follow, “and my people love to have it so.” Thus there was a process of buying and selling as between the prophets and the people: the people wanted pleasure, and the prophets sold it; the people wished to be flattered, and flattery was to be had for money; men asked for restful speeches, such as should calm their fever-stricken life, such as should bring back sleep to their throbbing brains, and the prophets hearkened to this moaning cry, and instead of delivering the rousing messages of God they lulled with opiates of human invention the life which they ought to have chastised and humbled. The great want of every age is a succession of faithful prophets. The prophets themselves may not reach their own ideal, may indeed expose themselves to much reproachful and condemnatory criticism; yet it is necessary that the age should hear great words, listen to grand appeals, and be continually reminded that there is more than the bodily eye has yet seen, and infinitely more than the mere reason has yet comprehended. Whilst we need intellectual prophets to stir up our highest nature, we especially need moral prophets who will recite in our hearing the commandments of God, and urge upon us in our dilatoriness and self-considerateness our duty as subjects of the great King. Exhortation to moral obedience ought never to be regarded as a mere commonplace. Unless we put ourselves strictly on our guard, this word “commonplace” will become a danger and a stumbling-block to us. Men say they know the commandments, and they declare they are well aware of their duties, and they show signs of impatience under the teaching that would incite them to a closer following of the letter of the divine law: they crave for excitement, for originality, for a kind of stimulus that brings no strength; all this craving is not to be set down to the credit of the age, but is rather to be looked upon with suspicion and positive dislike. Woe unto the foolish prophets that follow their own spirit, and have seen nothing; woe also unto those who have sought the priest’s office for a morsel of bread: blessings be upon those heroic and noble souls who, without reference to their own promotion or comfort, declare the word of the Lord with a noble voice, not the less noble because it is in many tones restrained by a consciousness of self-defect.
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
Lam 2:14 Thy prophets have seen vain and foolish things for thee: and they have not discovered thine iniquity, to turn away thy captivity; but have seen for thee false burdens and causes of banishment.
Ver. 14. Thy prophets. ] Thine, and not mine; for thou art miserable by thine own election, accessary to thine own ruin.
Have seen vain and foolish things for thee.
And they have not discovered thine iniquity.
But have seen for thee false burdens,
And causes of banishment,
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
prophets, &c. Compare Eze 12:24; Eze 13:1-16, Eze 13:23; Eze 21:29; Eze 22:28.
turn away thy captivity = cause thy captives to return. See note on Deu 30:3.
burdens = oracles.
causes of banishment. Here, the Figure of speech Metonymy (of Effect), App-6, is translated. Hebrew = expulsions, which is put for the effect of listening to those who brought about the expulsion (Jer 2:8; Jer 5:31; Jer 14:14; Jer 23:16).
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
prophets: Isa 9:15, Isa 9:16, Jer 2:8, Jer 5:31, Jer 6:13, Jer 6:14, Jer 8:10, Jer 8:11, Jer 14:13-15, Jer 23:11-17, Jer 27:14-16, Jer 28:15, Jer 29:8, Jer 29:9, Jer 37:19, Eze 13:2-16, Mic 2:11, Mic 3:5-7, 2Pe 2:1-3
they have: Isa 58:1, Jer 23:22, Eze 13:22
false: Jer 23:14-17, Jer 23:31, Jer 23:32, Jer 27:9, Jer 27:10, Eze 22:25, Eze 22:28, Mic 3:5, Zep 3:4
Reciprocal: Jer 14:14 – and the Jer 20:6 – thy friends Jer 23:17 – Ye Jer 28:13 – Thou hast Jer 29:21 – which Lam 4:13 – the sins Eze 12:24 – General Eze 13:3 – foolish Eze 13:5 – gaps Eze 13:6 – have seen Eze 13:12 – Where Eze 21:29 – to bring Hos 9:7 – the prophet Hos 9:8 – but Zec 10:2 – the diviners Zec 11:15 – a foolish Zec 12:1 – burden Eph 5:13 – reproved
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
PROPHESIERS OF SMOOTH THINGS
Thy prophets have seen visions of vanity and they have not discovered thine iniquity, to bring again thy captivity.
Lam 2:14 (R.V.)
I. This lament of Jeremiah over his city might be repeated still.To ministers of religion, to teachers, and to all who are eager to save their friends from the downward path, these words are abundantly applicable. Too often we see visions of vanity, and do not deal faithfully with the question of sin that lies at the root of all the misery which we are endeavouring to combat. We can only turn away captivity when we dare to draw aside the veil by which a man hides himself from himself, as Nathan when he said to David: Thou art the man.
II. We must remember our own sins.It is only when we have detected and removed the beam which is in our eye, that we can see clearly how to remove the mote which is in our brothers eye. It is only when we consider ourselves, and how we have been tempted and have yielded to temptation, that we can restore those who are tempted. We need to gird ourselves with the towel of the deepest humility before he can wash the feet of our brethren.
III. We must have an invincible optimism.It is useless to disclose a mans iniquities unless we know of the Balm in Gilead and the Physician there, and can speak brightly and hopefully of that perfect cure which is within the reach of every soul. The sinner himself has seen all the blackness and poison of his sin; it is needless to speak further of it; it is essential to unfold the possibilities of pardon.
IV. We must be full of the tenderness of the Divine Comforter.The wounds that sin has made are so sore that the sinner winces from the touch, and we must be very sweet and gentle. The publicans and sinners drew near to Jesus because He would not break the bruised reed or quench the smoking flax.
Illustration
Preachers, so soothing, are smooth-preachers and dumb dogs, who bring great and irreparable injury to a whole country, for the sun shall go down over such prophets and the day shall be dark over them (Mic 3:6). And although they may receive for a long time goodwill and favour, money and encouragement from men, yet they lose, together with their hearers who delight in such accommodating ministers, all favour from the living God.
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
Lam 2:14. Thy prophets refers to the false prophets among the people who offered lying assurances of peace for them. (See Jer 6:14.) By thus delivering these flattering visions they prevented the people from feeling any fear of disaster, and consequently they did not make the reformation in their lives that might have turned away their captivity if they had started in time; now it was too late.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Lam 2:14. Thy prophets have seen vain and foolish things The prophets, to whom thou didst choose to hearken, and whom thou didst believe, rather than those whom God sent to reveal his will, came and told thee idle tales, the fancies of their own minds, deluding thee with hopes of not being carried into captivity, or of a speedy return therefrom. They have not discovered thine iniquity, &c. They have not given thy people a just sense of their iniquities, in order that, by being humbled and brought to true repentance, they might avert Gods judgments, but they have rather flattered them in their sins, and thereby have hastened on their ruin: see the margin. But have seen for thee false burdens They have amused thee with false and fallacious prophecies, and that even after, as well as before, they were carried into captivity; (see Jer 29:8, &c.;) and causes of banishment Hebrew, , of casting out, of expulsion, as the word properly signifies: that is, their pretended revelations, promising peace, and giving hopes of impunity to thy people continuing in sin, were so far from profiting thee, that they were in a great measure the causes of thy captivity. Why prophecies are termed , burdens, see notes on Isa 13:1, and Jer 23:33.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
2:14 Thy prophets have {k} seen vain and foolish things for thee: and they have not revealed thy iniquity, to turn away thy captivity; but have seen for thee false burdens and causes of banishment.
(k) Because the false prophets called themselves seers, as the others were called, therefore he shows that they saw amiss because they did not reprove the people’s faults, but flattered them in their sins, which was the cause of their destruction.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
The false prophets had misled the people (cf. Jer 2:5; Jer 10:15; Jer 14:13; Jer 16:19). They had not told them the truth that would have led them to return to God and spared them from captivity. Jerusalem was a place of perverted leadership.
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
PROPHETS WITHOUT A VISION
Lam 2:9; Lam 2:14
IN deploring the losses suffered by the daughter of Zion the elegist bewails the failure of her prophets to obtain a vision from Jehovah. His language implies that these men were still lingering among the ruins of the city. Apparently they had not been considered by the invaders of sufficient importance to require transportation with Zedekiah and the princes. Thus they were within reach of inquirers, and doubtless they were more than ever in request at a time when many perplexed persons were anxious for pilotage through a sea of troubles. It would seem, too, that they were trying to execute their professional functions. They sought light; they looked in the right direction-to God. Yet their quest was vain: no vision was given to them; the oracles were dumb.
To understand the situation we must recollect the normal place of prophecy in the social life of Israel. The great prophets whose names and works have come down to us in Scripture were always rare and exceptional men-voices crying in the wilderness. Possibly they were not more scarce at this time than at other periods. Jeremiah had not been disappointed in his search for a Divine message. {See Jer 42:4; Jer 42:7} The greatest seer of visions ever known to the world, Ezekiel, had already appeared among the captives by the waters of Babylon. Before long the sublime prophet of the restoration was to sound his trumpet blast to awaken courage and hope in the exiles. Though pitched in a minor key, these very elegies bear witness to the fact that their gentle author was not wholly deficient in prophetic fire. This was not an age like the time of Samuels youth, barren of Divine voices. {See 1Sa 3:1} It is true that the inspired voices were now scattered over distant regions far from Jerusalem, the ancient seat of prophecy. Yet the idea of the elegist is that the prophets who might be still seen at the site of the city were deprived of visions. These must have been quite different men. Evidently they were the professional prophets, officials who had been trained in music and dancing to appear as choristers on festive occasions, the equivalent of the modern dervishes; but who were also sought after like the seer of Ramah, to whom young Saul resorted for information about his fathers lost asses, as simple soothsayers. Such assistance as these men were expected to give was no longer forthcoming at the request of troubled souls.
The low and sordid uses to which everyday prophecy was degraded may incline us to conclude that the cessation of it was no very great calamity, and perhaps to suspect that from first to last the whole business was a mass of superstition affording large opportunities for charlatanry. But it would be rash to adopt this extreme view without a fuller consideration of the subject. The great messengers of Jehovah frequently speak of the professional prophets with the contempt of Socrates for the professional sophists; and yet the rebukes which they administer to these men for their unfaithfulness show that they accredit them with important duties and the gifts with which to execute them.
Thus the lament of the elegist suggests a real loss-something more serious than the failure of assistance such as some Roman Catholics try to obtain from St. Anthony in the discovery of lost property. The prophets were regarded as the media of communication between heaven and earth. It was because of the low and narrow habits of the people that their gifts were often put to low and narrow uses which savoured rather of superstition than of devotion. The belief that God did not only reveal His will to great persons and on momentous occasions helped to make Israel a religious nation. That there were humble gifts of prophecy within the reach of the many, and that these gifts were for the helping of men and women in their simplest needs, was one of the articles of the Hebrew faith. The quenching of a host of smaller stars may involve as much loss of life as that of a few brilliant ones. If prophecy fades out from among the people, if the vision of God is no longer perceptible in daily lift, if the Church as a whole, is plunged into gloom, it is of little avail to her that a few choice souls here and there pierce the mists like solitary mountain peaks so as to stand alone in the clear light of heaven. The perfect condition would be that in which “all the Lords people were prophets.” If this is not yet attainable, at all events we may rejoice when the capacity for communion with heaven is widely enjoyed, and we must deplore it as one of the greatest calamities of the Church that the quickening influence of the prophetic spirit should be absent from her assemblies. The Jews had not fallen so low that they could contemplate the cessation of communications with heaven unmoved. They were far from the practical materialism which leads its victims to be perfectly satisfied to remain in a condition of spiritual paralysis-a totally different thing from the theoretical materialism of Priestley and Tyndall. They knew that “man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God”; and therefore they understood that a famine of the word of God must result in as real a starvation as a famine of wheat. When we have succeeded in recovering this Hebrew standpoint we shall be prepared to recognise that there are worse calamities than bad harvests and seasons of commercial depression; we shall be brought to acknowledge that it is possible to be starved in the midst of plenty, because the greatest abundance of such food as we have lacks the elements requisite for our complete nourishment. According to reports of sanitary authorities, children in Ireland are suffering from the substitution of the less expensive and sweeter diet of maize for the more wholesome oatmeal on which their parents were brought up. Must it not be confessed that a similar substitution of cheap and savoury soul pabulum-in literature, music, amusements-for the “sincere milk of the word” and the “strong meat” of truth is the reason why so many of us are not growing up to the stature of Christ? The “liberty of prophesying” for which our fathers contended and suffered is ours. But it will be a barren heritage if in cherishing the liberty we lose the prophesying. There is no gift enjoyed by the Church for which she should be more jealous than that of the prophetic spirit.
As we look across the wide field of history we must perceive that there have been many dreary periods in which the prophets could find no vision from the Lord. At first sight it would even seem that the light of heaven only shone on a few rare luminous spots, leaving the greater part of the world and the longer periods of time in absolute gloom. But this pessimistic view results from our limited capacity to perceive the light that is there. We look for the lightning. But inspiration is not always electric. The prophets vision is not necessarily startling. It is a vulgar delusion to suppose that revelation must assume a sensational aspect. It was predicted of the Word of God incarnate that He should “not strive, or cry, or lift up His voice”; {Isa 42:2} and when He came He was rejected because He would not satisfy the wonder-seekers with a flaring portent-a “sign from heaven.” Still it cannot be denied that there have been periods of barrenness. They are found in what might be called the secular regions of the operation of the Spirit of God. A brilliant epoch of scientific discovery, artistic invention, or literary production is followed.by a time of torpor, feeble imitation, or meretricious pretence. The Augustan and Elizabethan ages cannot be conjured back at will. Prophets of nature, poets, and artists can none of them command the power of inspiration. This is a gift which may be withheld, and which, when denied, will elude the most earnest pursuit. We may miss the vision of prophecy when the prophets are as numerous as ever, and unfortunately as vocal. The preacher possesses learning and rhetoric. We only miss one thing in him-inspiration. But, alas! that is just the one thing needful.
Now the question forces itself upon our attention, what is the explanation of these variations in the distribution of the spirit of prophecy? Why is the fountain of inspiration an intermittent spring, a Bethesda? We cannot trace its failure to any shortness of supply, for this fountain is fed from the infinite ocean of the Divine life. Neither can we attribute caprice to One whose wisdom is infinite, and whose will is constant. It may be right to say that God withholds the vision, withholds it deliberately; but it cannot be correct to assert that this fact is the final explanation of the whole matter. God must be believed to have a reason, a good and sufficient reason, for whatever He does. Can we guess what His reason may be in such a case as this? It may be conjectured that it is necessary for the field to lie fallow for a season in order that it may bring forth a better crop subsequently. Incessant cultivation would exhaust the soil. The eye would be blinded if it had no rest from visions. We may be overfed; and the more nutritions our diet is the greater will be the danger of surfeit. One of our chief needs in the use of revelation is that we should thoroughly digest its contents. What is the use of receiving fresh visions if we have not yet assimilated the truth that we already possess? Sometimes, too, no vision can be found for the simple reason that no vision is needed. We waste ourselves in the pursuit of unprofitable questions when we should be setting about our business. Until we have obeyed the light that has been given us it is foolish to complain that we have not more light. Even our present light will wane if it is not followed up in practice.
But while considerations such as these must be attended to if we are to form a sound judgment on the whole question, they do not end the controversy, and they scarcely apply at all to the particular illustration of it that is now before us. There is no danger of surfeit in a famine; and it is a famine of the world that we are now confronted with. Moreover, the elegist supplies an explanation that sets all conjectures at rest.
The fault was in the prophets themselves. Although the poet does not connect the two statements together, but inserts other matter between them, we cannot fail to see that his next words about the prophets bear very closely on his lament over the denial of visions. He tells us that they had seen visions of vanity and foolishness. {Lam 2:14} This is with reference to an earlier period. Then they had had their visions; but these had been empty and worthless. The meaning cannot be that the prophets had been subject to unavoidable delusions, that they had sought truth, but had been rewarded with deception. The following words show that the blame was attributed entirely to their own conduct. Addressing the daughter of Zion the poet says: “Thy prophets have seen visions for thee.” The visions were suited to the people to whom they were declared-manufactured, shall we say?-with the express purpose of pleasing them. Such a degradation of sacred functions in gross unfaithfulness deserved punishment; and the most natural and reasonable punishment was the withholding for the future of true visions from men who in the past had forged false ones. The very possibility of this conduct proves that the influence of inspiration had not the hold upon these Hebrew prophets that it had obtained over the heathen prophet Balaam, when he exclaimed, in face of the bribes and threats of the infuriated king of Moab: “If Balak would give me his house full of silver and gold, I cannot go beyond the word of the Lord, to do either good or bad of mine own mind; what the Lord speaketh, that will I speak.”. {Num 24:13}
It must ever be that unfaithfulness to the light we have already received will bar the door against the advent of more light. There is nothing so blinding as the habit of lying. People who do not speak truth ultimately prevent themselves from perceiving truth, the false tongue leading the eye to see falsely. This is the curse and doom of all insincerity. It is useless to enquire for the views of insincere persons; they can have no distinct views, no certain convictions, because their mental vision is blurred by their long-continued habit of confounding true and false. Then if for once in their lives such people may really desire to find a truth in order to assure themselves in some great emergency, and therefore seek a vision of the Lord, they will have lost the very faculty of receiving it.
The blindness and deadness that characterise so much of the history of thought and literature, art and religion, are to be attributed to the same disgraceful cause. Greek philosophy decayed in the insincerity of professional sophistry. Gothic art degenerated into the florid extravagance of the Tudor period when it had lost its religious motive, and had ceased to be what it pretended. Elizabethan poetry passed through euphuism into the uninspired conceits of the sixteenth century. Dryden restored the habit of true speech, but it required generations of arid eighteenth-century sincerity in literature to make the faculty of seeing visions possible to the age of Burns and Shelley and Wordsworth.
In religion this fatal effect of insincerity is terribly apparent. The formalist can never become a prophet. Creeds which were kindled in the fires of passionate conviction will cease to be luminous when the faith that inspired them has perished; and then if they are still repeated as dead words by false lips the unreality of them will not only rob them of all value, it will blind the eyes of the men and women who are guilty of this falsehood before God, so that no new vision of truth can be brought within their reach. Here is one of the snares that attach themselves to the privilege of receiving a heritage of teaching from our ancestors. We can only avoid it by means of searching inquests over the dead beliefs which a foolish fondness has permitted to remain unburied, poisoning the atmosphere of living faith. So long as the fact that they are dead is not honestly admitted it will be impossible to establish sincerity in worship; and the insincerity, while it lasts, will be an impassable barrier to the advent of truth.
The elegist has laid his finger on the particular form of untruth of which the Jerusalem prophets had been guilty. They had not discovered her iniquity to the daughter of Zion. {Lam 2:14} Thus they had hastened her ruin by keeping back the message that would have urged their hearers to repentance. Some interpreters have given quite a new turn to the last clause of the fourteenth verse. Literally this states that the prophets have seen “drivings away”; and accordingly it has been taken to mean that they pretended to have had visions about the captivity when this was an accomplished fact, although they had been silent on the subject, or had even denied the danger, at the earlier time when alone their words could have been of any use; or, again, the words have been thought to suggest that these prophets were now at the later period predicting fresh calamities, and were blind to the vision of hope which a true prophet like Jeremiah had seen and declared. But such ideas are overrefined, and they give a twist to the course of thought that is foreign to the form of these direct, simple elegies. It seems better to take the final clause of the verse as a repetition of what went before, with a slight variety of form. Thus the poet declares that the burdens, or prophecies, which these unfaithful men have presented to the people have been causes of banishment.
The crying fault of the prophets is their reluctance to preach to people of their sins. Their mission distinctly involves the duty of doing so. They should not shun to declare the whole counsel of God. It is not within the province of the ambassador to make selections from among the despatches with which he has been entrusted in order to suit his own convenience. There is nothing that so paralyses the work of the preacher as the habit of choosing favourite topics and ignoring less attractive subjects. Just in proportion as he commits this sin against his vocation he ceases to be the prophet of God, and descends to the level of one who deals in obiter dicta, mere personal opinions to be taken on their own merits. One of the gravest possible omissions is the neglect to give due weight to the tragic fact of sin. All the great prophets have been conspicuous for their fidelity to this painful and sometimes dangerous part of their work. If we would call up a typical picture of a prophet in the discharge of his task, we should present to our minds Elijah confronting Ahab, or John the Baptist before Herod, or Savonarola accusing Lorenzo de Medici, or John Knox preaching at the court of Mary Stuart. He is Isaiah declaring Gods abomination of sacrifices and incense when these are offered by blood-stained bands, or Chrysostom seizing the opportunity that followed the mutilation of the imperial statues at Antioch to preach to the dissolute city on the need of repentance, or Latimer denouncing the sins of London to the citizens assembled at Pauls Cross.
The shallow optimism that disregards the shadows of life is trebly faulty when it appears in the pulpit. It falsifies facts in failing to take account of the stern realities of the evil side of them; it misses the grand opportunity of rousing the consciences of men and women by forcing them to attend to unwelcome truths, and thus encourages the heedlessness with which people rush headlong to ruin: and at the same time it even renders the declaration of the gracious truths of the gospel, to which it devotes exclusive attention, ineffectual, because redemption is meaningless to those who do not recognise the present slavery and the future doom from which it brings deliverance. On every account the rose-water preaching that ignores sin and flatters its hearers with pleasant words is thin, insipid, and lifeless. It tries to win popularity by echoing the popular wishes; and it may succeed in lulling the storm of opposition with which the prophet is commonly assailed. But in the end it must be sterile. When, “through fear or favour,” the messenger of heaven thus prostitutes his mission to suit the ends of a low, selfish, worldly expediency, the very least punishment with which his offence can be visited is for him to be deprived of the gifts he has so grossly abused. Here, then, we have the most specific explanation of the failure of heavenly visions; it comes from the neglect of earthly sin. This is what breaks the magicians wand, so that he can no longer summon the Ariel of inspiration to his aid.