6 You have rejected me, says Yahweh, you are gone backward: therefore have I stretched out my hand against you, and destroyed you; I am weary with repenting.
But they didn't listen nor turn their ear, but walked in [their own] counsels [and] in the stubbornness of their evil heart, and went backward, and not forward.
I will stretch out my hand against Judah, and against all the inhabitants of Jerusalem. I will cut off the remnant of Baal from this place: the name of the idolatrous and pagan priests,
But they refused to listen, and turned their backs, and stopped their ears, that they might not hear.
I will ransom them from the power of Sheol. I will redeem them from death! Death, where are your plagues? Sheol, where is your destruction? Compassion will be hidden from my eyes.
therefore, behold, I have stretched out my hand on you, and will deliver you for a spoil to the nations; and I will cut you off from the peoples, and I will cause you to perish out of the countries: I will destroy you; and you shall know that I am Yahweh.
Therefore I am full of the wrath of Yahweh; I am weary with holding in: pour it out on the children in the street, and on the assembly of young men together; for even the husband with the wife shall be taken, the aged with him who is full of days.
Yahweh relented concerning this. "It shall not be," says Yahweh. Thus the Lord Yahweh showed me and, behold, the Lord Yahweh called for judgment by fire; and it dried up the great deep, and would have devoured the land. Then I said, "Lord Yahweh, stop, I beg you! How could Jacob stand? For he is small." Yahweh relented concerning this. "This also shall not be," says the Lord Yahweh. Thus he showed me and, behold, the Lord stood beside a wall made by a plumb line, with a plumb line in his hand. Yahweh said to me, "Amos, what do you see?" I said, "A plumb line." Then the Lord said, "Behold, I will set a plumb line in the midst of my people Israel. I will not again pass by them any more.
For Israel has behaved extremely stubbornly, like a stubborn heifer. Then how will Yahweh feed them like a lamb in a meadow.
But he, being merciful, forgave iniquity, and didn't destroy them. Yes, many times he turned his anger away, And didn't stir up all his wrath. He remembered that they were but flesh, A wind that passes away, and doesn't come again. How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness, And grieved him in the desert!
Again the word of Yahweh came to me, saying, Son of man, behold, they of the house of Israel say, The vision that he sees is for many day to come, and he prophesies of times that are far off. Therefore tell them, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: There shall none of my words be deferred any more, but the word which I shall speak shall be performed, says the Lord Yahweh.
If I say, I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name, then there is in my heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I am weary with forbearing, and I can't [contain].
Hear, earth: behold, I will bring evil on this people, even the fruit of their thoughts, because they have not listened to my words; and as for my law, they have rejected it.
Your own wickedness shall correct you, and your backsliding shall reprove you: know therefore and see that it is an evil thing and a bitter, that you have forsaken Yahweh your God, and that my fear is not in you, says the Lord, Yahweh of Hosts.
For my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the spring of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.
I will utter my judgments against them touching all their wickedness, in that they have forsaken me, and have burned incense to other gods, and worshiped the works of their own hands.
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).