14 And I will make thee to pass H5674 with thine enemies H341 into a land H776 which thou knowest H3045 not: for a fire H784 is kindled H6919 in mine anger, H639 which shall burn H3344 upon you.
Therefore will I cast H2904 you out of this land H776 into a land H776 that ye know H3045 not, neither ye nor your fathers; H1 and there shall ye serve H5647 other H312 gods H430 day H3119 and night; H3915 where I will not shew H5414 you favour. H2594
For a fire H784 is kindled H6919 in mine anger, H639 and shall burn H3344 unto the lowest H8482 hell, H7585 and shall consume H398 the earth H776 with her increase, H2981 and set on fire H3857 the foundations H4144 of the mountains. H2022
And thou, even thyself, shalt discontinue H8058 from thine heritage H5159 that I gave H5414 thee; and I will cause thee to serve H5647 thine enemies H341 in the land H776 which thou knowest H3045 not: for ye have kindled H6919 a fire H784 in mine anger, H639 which shall burn H3344 for H5704 ever. H5769
Thou shalt make H7896 them as a fiery H784 oven H8574 in the time H6256 of thine anger: H6440 the LORD H3068 shall swallow them up H1104 in his wrath, H639 and the fire H784 shall devour H398 them.
The LORD H3068 shall bring H3212 thee, and thy king H4428 which thou shalt set H6965 over thee, unto a nation H1471 which neither thou nor thy fathers H1 have known; H3045 and there shalt thou serve H5647 other H312 gods, H430 wood H6086 and stone. H68
And the LORD H3068 shall scatter H6327 thee among all people, H5971 from the one end H7097 of the earth H776 even unto the other; H7097 and there thou shalt serve H5647 other H312 gods, H430 which neither thou nor thy fathers H1 have known, H3045 even wood H6086 and stone. H68
Therefore will I cause you to go into captivity H1540 beyond H1973 Damascus, H1834 saith H559 the LORD, H3068 whose name H8034 is The God H430 of hosts. H6635
The mountains H2022 quake H7493 at him, and the hills H1389 melt, H4127 and the earth H776 is burned H5375 at his presence, H6440 yea, the world, H8398 and all that dwell H3427 therein. Who can stand H5975 before H6440 his indignation? H2195 and who can abide H6965 in the fierceness H2740 of his anger? H639 his fury H2534 is poured out H5413 like fire, H784 and the rocks H6697 are thrown down H5422 by him.
And ye shall perish H6 among the heathen, H1471 and the land H776 of your enemies H341 shall eat you up. H398 And they that are left H7604 of you shall pine away H4743 in their iniquity H5771 in your enemies' H341 lands; H776 and also in the iniquities H5771 of their fathers H1 shall they pine away H4743 with them.
If I go forth H3318 into the field, H7704 then behold the slain H2491 with the sword! H2719 and if I enter H935 into the city, H5892 then behold them that are sick H8463 with famine! H7458 yea, both the prophet H5030 and the priest H3548 go about H5503 into a land H776 that they know H3045 not.
Circumcise H4135 yourselves to the LORD, H3068 and take away H5493 the foreskins H6190 of your heart, H3824 ye men H376 of Judah H3063 and inhabitants H3427 of Jerusalem: H3389 lest my fury H2534 come forth H3318 like fire, H784 and burn H1197 that none can quench H3518 it, because H6440 of the evil H7455 of your doings. H4611
For, behold, the LORD H3068 will come H935 with fire, H784 and with his chariots H4818 like a whirlwind, H5492 to render H7725 his anger H639 with fury, H2534 and his rebuke H1606 with flames H3851 of fire. H784 For by fire H784 and by his sword H2719 will the LORD H3068 plead H8199 with all flesh: H1320 and the slain H2491 of the LORD H3068 shall be many. H7231
Therefore he hath poured H8210 upon him the fury H2534 of his anger, H639 and the strength H5807 of battle: H4421 and it hath set him on fire H3857 round about, H5439 yet he knew H3045 not; and it burned H1197 him, yet he laid H7760 it not to heart. H3820
And that the whole land H776 thereof is brimstone, H1614 and salt, H4417 and burning, H8316 that it is not sown, H2232 nor beareth, H6779 nor any grass H6212 groweth H5927 therein, like the overthrow H4114 of Sodom, H5467 and Gomorrah, H6017 Admah, H126 and Zeboim, H6636 which the LORD H3068 overthrew H2015 in his anger, H639 and in his wrath: H2534
The LORD H3068 shall cause H5414 thee to be smitten H5062 before H6440 thine enemies: H341 thou shalt go out H3318 one H259 way H1870 against them, and flee H5127 seven H7651 ways H1870 before H6440 them: and shalt be removed H2189 into all the kingdoms H4467 of the earth. H776
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible » Commentary on Jeremiah 15
Commentary on Jeremiah 15 Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
CHAPTER 15
Jer 15:1-21. God's Reply to Jeremiah's Intercessory Prayer.
1. Moses … Samuel—eminent in intercessions (Ex 32:11, 12; 1Sa 7:9; Ps 99:6).
be toward—could not be favorably inclined toward them.
out of my sight—God speaks as if the people were present before Him, along with Jeremiah.
2. death—deadly plague (Jer 18:21; 43:11; Eze 5:2, 12; Zec 11:9).
3. appoint—(Le 26:16).
kinds—of punishments.
4. cause … to be removed—(De 28:25; Eze 23:46). Rather, "I will give them up to vexation," I will cause them to wander so as nowhere to have repose [Calvin]; (2Ch 29:8, "trouble;" Margin, "commotion").
because of Manasseh—He was now dead, but the effects of his sins still remained. How much evil one bad man can cause! The evil fruits remain even after he himself has received repentance and forgiveness. The people had followed his wicked example ever since; and it is implied that it was only through the long-suffering of God that the penal consequences had been suspended up to the present time (compare 1Ki 14:16; 2Ki 21:11; 23:26; 24:3, 4).
5. go aside … how thou doest—Who will turn aside (in passing by) to salute thee (to wish thee "peace")?
6. weary with repenting—(Ho 13:14; 11:8). I have so often repented of the evil that I threatened (Jer 26:19; Ex 32:14; 1Ch 21:15), and have spared them, without My forbearance moving them to repentance, that I will not again change My purpose (God speaking in condescension to human modes of thought), but will take vengeance on them now.
7. fan—tribulation—from tribulum, a threshing instrument, which separates the chaff from the wheat (Mt 3:12).
gates of the land—that is, the extreme bounds of the land through which the entrance to and exit from it lie. Maurer translates, "I will fan," that is, cast them forth "to the gates of the land" (Na 3:13). "In the gates"; English Version draws the image from a man cleaning corn with a fan; he stands at the gate of the threshing-floor in the open air, to remove the wheat from the chaff by means of the wind; so God threatens to remove Israel out of the bounds of the land [Houbigant].
8. Their widows—My people's (Jer 15:7).
have brought—prophetical past: I will bring.
mother of the young men—"mother" is collective; after the "widows," He naturally mentions bereavement of their sons ("young men"), brought on the "mothers" by "the spoiler"; it was owing to the number of men slain that the "widows" were so many [Calvin]. Others take "mother," as in 2Sa 20:19, of Jerusalem, the metropolis; "I have brought on them, against the 'mother,' a young spoiler," namely, Nebuchadnezzar, sent by his father, Nabopolassar, to repulse the Egyptian invaders (2Ki 23:29; 24:1), and occupy Judea. But Jer 15:7 shows the future, not the past, is referred to; and "widows" being literal, "mother" is probably so, too.
at noonday—the hottest part of the day, when military operations were usually suspended; thus it means unexpectedly, answering to the parallel, "suddenly"; openly, as others explain it, will not suit the parallelism (compare Ps 91:6).
it—English Version seems to understand by "it" the mother city, and by "him" the "spoiler"; thus "it" will be parallel to "city." Rather, "I will cause to fall upon them (the 'mothers' about to be bereft of their sons) suddenly anguish and terrors."
the city—rather, from a root "heat," anguish, or consternation. So the Septuagint.
9. borne seven—(1Sa 2:5). Seven being the perfect number indicates full fruitfulness.
languisheth—because not even one is left of all her sons (Jer 15:8).
sun is gone down while … yet day—Fortune deserts her at the very height of her prosperity (Am 8:9).
she … ashamed—The mothers (she being collective) are put to the shame of disappointed hopes through the loss of all their children.
10. (Jer 20:14; Job 3:1, &c.). Jeremiah seems to have been of a peculiarly sensitive temperament; yet the Holy Spirit enabled him to deliver his message at the certain cost of having his sensitiveness wounded by the enmities of those whom his words offended.
man of strife—exposed to strifes on the part of "the whole earth" (Ps 80:6).
I have neither lent, &c.—proverbial for, "I have given no cause for strife against me."
11. Verily—literally, "Shall it not be?" that is, "Surely it shall be."
thy remnant—the final issue of thy life; thy life, which now seems to thee so sad, shall eventuate in prosperity [Calvin]. They who think that they shall be the surviving remnant, whereas thou shalt perish, shall themselves fall, whereas thou shalt remain and be favored by the conquerors [Junius], (Jer 40:4, 5; 39:11, 12). The Keri reads, "I will set thee free (or as Maurer, 'I will establish thee') for good" (Jer 14:11; Ezr 8:22; Ps 119:122).
to entreat thee well—literally, "to meet thee"; so "to be placable, nay, of their own accord to anticipate in meeting thee with kindness" [Calvin]. I prefer this translation as according with the event (Jer 39:11, 12; 40:4, 5). Gesenius, from Jer 7:16; 27:18; Job 21:15, translates (not only will I relieve thee from the enemy's vexations, but) "I will make thine enemy (that now vexeth thee) apply to thee with prayers" (Jer 38:14; 42:2-6).
12. steel—rather, brass or copper, which mixed with "iron" (by the Chalybes near the Euxine Pontus, far north of Palestine), formed the hardest metal, like our steel. Can the Jews, hardy like common iron though they be, break the still hardier Chaldees of the north (Jer 1:14), who resemble the Chalybian iron hardened with copper? Certainly not [Calvin]. Henderson translates. "Can one break iron, (even) the northern iron, and brass," on the ground that English Version makes ordinary iron not so hard as brass. But it is not brass, but a particular mixture of iron and brass, which is represented as harder than common iron, which was probably then of inferior texture, owing to ignorance of modern modes of preparation.
13. Thy substance … sins—Judea's, not Jeremiah's.
without price—God casts His people away as a thing worth naught (Ps 44:12). So, on the contrary, Jehovah, when about to restore His people, says, He will give Egypt, &c., for their "ransom" (Isa 43:3).
even in all thy borders—joined with "Thy substance … treasures, as also with "all thy sins," their sin and punishment being commensurate (Jer 17:3).
14. thee—Maurer supplies "them," namely, "thy treasures." Eichorn, needlessly, from Syriac and the Septuagint, reads, "I will make thee to serve thine enemies"; a reading doubtless interpolated from Jer 17:4.
fire—(De 32:22).
15. thou knowest—namely, my case; what wrongs my adversaries have done me (Jer 12:3).
revenge me—(See on Jer 11:20). The prophet in this had regard to, not his own personal feelings of revenge, but the cause of God; he speaks by inspiration God's will against the ungodly. Contrast in this the law with the gospel (Lu 23:34; Ac 7:60).
take me not away in thy long-suffering—By Thy long-suffering towards them, suffer them not meanwhile to take away my life.
for thy sake I have suffered rebuke—the very words of the antitype, Jesus Christ (Ps 69:7, 22-28), which last compare with Jeremiah's prayer in the beginning of this verse.
16. eat—(Eze 2:8; 3:1, 3; Re 10:9, 10). As soon as Thy words were found by me, I eagerly laid hold of and appropriated them. The Keri reads, "Thy word."
thy word … joy—(Job 23:12; Ps 119:72, 111; compare Mt 13:44).
called by thy name—I am Thine, Thy minister. So the antitype, Jesus Christ (Ex 23:21).
17. My "rejoicing" (Jer 15:16) was not that of the profane mockers (Ps 1:1; 26:4, 5) at feasts. So far from having fellowship with these, he was expelled from society, and made to sit "alone," because of his faithful prophecies.
because of thy hand—that is, Thine inspiration (Isa 8:11; Eze 1:3; 3:14).
filled me with indignation—So Jer 6:11, "full of the fury of the Lord"; so full was he of the subject (God's "indignation" against the ungodly) with which God had inspired him, as not to be able to contain himself from expressing it. The same comparison by contrast between the effect of inspiration, and that of wine, both taking a man out of himself, occurs (Ac 2:13, 15, 18).
18. (Jer 30:15). "Pain," namely, the perpetual persecution to which he was exposed, and his being left by God without consolation and "alone." Contrast his feeling here with that in Jer 15:16, when he enjoyed the full presence of God, and was inspired by His words. Therefore he utters words of his natural "infirmity" (so David, Ps 77:10) here; as before he spoke under the higher spiritual nature given him.
as a liar, and as—rather, "as a deceiving (river) … waters that are not sure (lasting)"; opposed to "living (perennial) waters" (Job 6:15). Streams that the thirsty traveller had calculated on being full in winter, but which disappoint him in his sorest need, having run dry in the heat of summer. Jehovah had promised Jeremiah protection from his enemies (Jer 1:18, 19); his infirmity suggests that God had failed to do so.
19. God's reply to Jeremiah.
return … bring … again—Jeremiah, by his impatient language, had left his proper posture towards God; God saith, "If thou wilt return (to thy former patient discharge of thy prophetic function) I will bring thee back" to thy former position: in the Hebrew there is a play of words, "return … turn again" (Jer 8:4; 4:1).
stand before me—minister acceptably to Me (De 10:8; 1Ki 17:1; 18:15).
take … precious from … vile—image from metals: "If thou wilt separate what is precious in thee (the divine graces imparted) from what is vile (thy natural corruptions, impatience, and hasty words), thou shall be as My mouth": my mouthpiece (Ex 4:16).
return not thou unto them—Let not them lead you into their profane ways (as Jeremiah had spoken irreverently, Jer 15:18), but lead thou them to the ways of godliness (Jer 15:16, 17). Eze 22:26 accords with the other interpretation, which, however, does not so well suit the context, "If thou wilt separate from the promiscuous mass the better ones, and lead them to conversion by faithful warnings," &c.
20, 21. The promise of Jer 1:18, 19, in almost the same words, but with the addition, adapted to the present attacks of Jeremiah's formidable enemies, "I will deliver thee out of … wicked … redeem … terrible"; the repetition is in order to assure Jeremiah that God is the same now as when He first made the promise, in opposition to the prophet's irreverent accusation of unfaithfulness (Jer 15:18).