6 For he will be like the brushwood in the upland, and will not see when good comes; but his living-place will be in the dry places in the waste land, in a salt and unpeopled land.
And that all the land is a salt and smoking waste, not planted or giving fruit or clothed with grass, but wasted like Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, on which the Lord sent destruction in the heat of his wrath:
Go in flight, get away with your lives, and let your faces be turned to Aroer in the Arabah.
They are bent down, they give birth to their young, they let loose the fruit of their body.
And all that day Abimelech was fighting against the town; and he took it, and put to death the people who were in it, and had the town pulled down and covered with salt.
And that captain said to the man of God, Even if the Lord made windows in heaven, would such a thing be possible? And he said to him, Your eyes will see it, but you will not have a taste of the food. And such was his fate; for he was crushed to death under the feet of the people, in the doorway into the town.
Will the river-plant come up in its pride without wet earth? will the grass get tall without water? When it is still green, without being cut down, it becomes dry and dead before any other plant. So is the end of all who do not keep God in mind; and the hope of the evil-doer comes to nothing:
He does not come out of the dark; his branches are burned by the flame, and the wind takes away his bud. Let him not put his hope in what is false, falling into error: for he will get deceit as his reward. His branch is cut off before its time, and his leaf is no longer green. He is like a vine whose grapes do not come to full growth, or an olive-tree dropping its flowers. For the band of the evil-doers gives no fruit, and the tents of those who give wrong decisions for reward are burned with fire.
The evil-doers are not so; but are like the dust from the grain, which the wind takes away.
When the sinners come up like the grass, and all the workers of evil do well for themselves, it is so that their end may be eternal destruction.
Let them be like the grass on the house-tops, which is dry before it comes to full growth. He who gets in the grain has no use for it; and they do not make bands of it for the grain-stems. And those who go by do not say, The blessing of the Lord be on you; we give you blessing in the name of the Lord.
For you will be like a tree whose leaves have become dry, and like a garden without water.
The wet places and the pools will not be made sweet; they will be given up to salt.
For this cause, by my life, says the Lord of armies, the God of Israel, truly Moab will become like Sodom and the children of Ammon like Gomorrah, given up to waste plants and salt pools and unpeopled for ever: the rest of my people will take their property, the overflow of my nation will take their heritage.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Keil & Delitzsch Commentary » Commentary on Jeremiah 17
Commentary on Jeremiah 17 Keil & Delitzsch Commentary
Judah's sin is ineffaceably stamped upon the hearts of the people and on their altars. These four verses are closely connected with the preceding, and show why it is necessary that Judah be cast forth amidst the heathen, by reason of its being perfectly stepped in idolatry. Jeremiah 17:1. "The sin of Judah is written with an iron pen, with the point of a diamond graven on the table of their hearts and on the horns of your altars. Jeremiah 17:2 . As they remember their children, so do they their altars and their Astartes by the green tree upon the high hills. Jeremiah 17:3 . My mountain in the field, thy substance, all thy treasures give I for a prey, thy high places for sin in all thy borders. Jeremiah 17:4 . And thou shalt discontinue, and that of thine own self, from thine inheritance that I gave thee, and I cause thee to serve thine enemies in a land which thou knowest not; for a fire have ye kindled in mine anger, for ever it burneth."