In this chapter we have, 1. The title of the book, with the time of the continuance of Jeremiah's public ministry, ver. 1—3. 2. His call to the prophetical office, ver. 4—10. 3. The visions of an almand-rud and a feathing pat, signifying the approaching ruin of Judah and Jerusalem by the Chaldeans, ver. 11—16. 4. Encouragement given to the prophet to go on undauntedly in his work, in an assurance of God's presence with him, ver. 17—19. a Joh. vii. 1b. 1 Chron. v. 6b. Chron. xxii. 2, &c. 617. b Chap. xxv. 3. c Chap. xxx v. 6. d Chap. 3d. 1b. e 1 Kings xxv. 2. 1. THE words of Jeremiah the son of Hilkiah, of the priests that were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin: 2. To whom the word of the LORD came in the days of Josiah the son of Amon king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign. 3. It came also in the days of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah, unto the end of the eleventh year of Zedekiah the son of Josiah king of Judah, unto the carrying away of Jerusalem captive in the fifth month. We have here an account of the prophet's parentage, and the time of his prophecy. 1. He was of the farerdoral race, the son of Hilkiah, not the high-priest, nor of that family, but probably a defendant from Ithamar, of whose line Abiathar was the last high-priest, whose possessions were at Anathoth, see 1 Kings ii. 26. a city about three miles from Jerusalem, in the tribe of Benjamin. 2. He began to prophesy in the thirteenth year of Josiah, and, no doubt, was a great encourager of that pious king in his work of reformation, and countenanced by him in his labours to bring Israel to repentance: but the attempts of both were fruitless; the people continued hypocritical, even when they pretended to reform, and thus filled up the measure of their iniquities, and brought down those judgments Jeremiah was commissioned to denounce against them. He continued to prophesy during the wicked reigns of Josiah's successors, when the destruction of the people was hastening apace, till he saw Jerusalem, under Zedekiah, miserably destroyed, and the people enslaved. Note, (1.) All attempts to save a people devoted to ruin come too late. (2.) They who will not be reformed, must be destroyed. 4. Then the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, 5. Before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb, I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations. 6. Then said I, Ah, Lord GOD, behold, I cannot speak, for I am a child. 7. But the LORD said unto me, Say not, I am a child: for thou shalt shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee thou shalt speak. 8. Be not afraid of their faces: for I am with thee to deliver thee, faith the LORD. 9. Then the LORD put forth his hand, and touched my mouth, and the LORD said unto me, Behold, I have put my words in thy mouth. 10. See, I have this day set thee over the nations, and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build, and to plant. 9. 4—10. The designation of the prophet to his office, and God's encouragement of him to proceed in it, are here set forth. 1. His designation. God, before he formed him in the month, had foreknown and predelineated him in his eternal counsels to be his servant, and fanciled or separated him for this peculiar service, in which he was to be employed, as a prophet to the nations; not only to the Jews, but to other nations alike, against whom his word should go forth. Note, (1.) God from eternity knoweth these that are his. (2.) What he predileanates us to, must infallibly take place. (3.) The eternal delight of God's mercy towards us are known by his word coming unto us, and calling us to the work and office he hath appointed us. (4.) None can mindly acceptably before God, whom he hath not first fanciled and ordained. 2. His defects, under the apprehension of his own insufficiency. 10. Lord God! I consent, or I know not how to speak, as such an office requires; for I am a child, in weakness, probably also in years, it being certain he began to prophesy very early. Note, (1.) The work of the ministry is an arduous task; they may well resemble for themselves who are called to undertake it. (2.) It becomes young men especially to entertain a diffidence of their own abilities. No rock to fatal to youth as self-control. 3. God encourages him for his work. Say not, I am a child; though never to insufficient of ourselves, we may not draw back when we have God's mission and promise of support: his strength shall be perfected in our weakness. Three arguments he urges: (1.) I find thee; and under a divine call we may be assured of divine help. (2.) I will infract thee; what I command thee thou shalt speak; and therefore he should never be at a loss for matter or words. (3.) I am with thee, to uphold thee with my arm, to comfort thee with my presence, to deliver thee from all danger; be not afraid of their faces. He might expect opposition; to be brow-beat, threatened, and inflicted on account of his ministry; but he need not fear when God's omnipotence is engaged for him. Note, (1.) If God pleases, out of the mouth of babes and fucklings he can shew forth his praise. (2.) A faithful opponent must expect to meet a frowning word; but we must not fear the faces of men; nor need we, if God's power protect, and his love comfort us, what can man do against us? 4. God gives him a sign to confirm his word to him. The Lord put forth his hand; the Lord Jesus, the God of his holy prophets, who appeared now in a human form; and touched my mouth, intimating that it was fanciled, and fitted for his service; and the Lord said unto me, Behold, I have put my words into thy mouth, that he might with freedom and boldness deliver the message he had received from his Master; and an awful one it was! See, I have set thee over the nations, and over the kingdoms, as a prophet, whose word concerning them would infallibly come to pass; to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down; to pronounce their doom, and foretell the judgments that should overturn them, as a house or a tree rooted up and thrown down by the whirlwind: and to build, and to plant; to prophesy the refraction of the Jews after their captivity; or to call them to repentance, that when others perished, they might be preserved. Note, (1.) The sword of God's word in the mouth of his ministers is more to be feared than the glittering spear. (2.) The same prophetic word which is to some a favour of death unto death, because they harden their hearts against the warning, becomes, through Divine Grace, to the penitent a favour of life unto life. 11. Moreover, the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, Jeremiah, what iseth thou? and I said, I see a nod of an almond-tree. 12. Then said the LORD unto me, Thou hast well seen: for I will hasten my word to perform it. 13. And the word of the LORD came unto me the second time, saying, What iseth thou? and I said, I see a seething pot, and the face thereof may towards the north. 14. Then the LORD said unto me, Out of the north an evil shall break forth upon all the inhabitants of the land. 15. For lo, I will call all the families of the kingdoms of the north, faith the LORD, and they shall come, and they shall set every one his throne at the entering of the gates of Jerusalem, and against all the walls thereof round about, and against all the cities of Judah. 16. And I will utter my judgments against them touching all their wickedness, who have forsaken me, and have burnt in- cense unto other gods, and worshipped the works of their own hands. 17. Thou therefore: give up thy loins and arise, and speak unto them all that I con- nund thee: be not dismayed at their faces, left I confound thee before them. 18. For behold, I have made thee this day a defenced city, and an iron pillar, and brazen walls against the whole land, against the kings of Judah, against the princes thereof, against the priests thereof, and against the people of the land. 19. And they shall fight against thee, but they shall not prevail against thee: for I am with thee, faith the LORD, to deliver thee. 9. 11—10. Jeremiah having received his mission, hath here a general view of the most inherent of his prophecy, the de- ftruction of the Jews for their sins. 1. Their sum is represented by two signs, shewing how speed- ly and terribly it approached. The first is an almond red, which is pre-vented to his view, and which God explains, as signifying that the defenceless of the Jews should be very dear, as the almond-tree hastens before any other tree to put forth like blooms. The other is a pride; it is, with its fair means the north. This pot is Jerusalem, and the fire under it the Chaldeans, as God explains it, assembling out of the north, un- der the conduct of Nebuchadnezzar, called of God, e. 15. to execute his judgments, coming under the divine direction, and the entire turn to prevail. They shall set up not only their tents as befieging foes, but their thrones as triumphant conquerors, in the gels of Jerusalem, having fathdled it, with all the de- fenced cities of Judah. Note, (1.) God will never want ar- mies to execute his vengeance against a devoted people: at his summons infirmity they assemble. (2.) Ministers clearly in the Bible foresee the ruin of sinners, and forewarn them; but they will not believe, till too late they feel their doom inevitable. 2. The cause of their ruin is their sins, especially their idel- laty. I will utter my judgments against them, pass sentence up- on them, and execute it, teaching all their unchancels, which was great and aggravated, who have forsaken me, apollutated from God's worship and service, and have burnt in- cely to other gods; they have not shipped the words of their own hands; gods of their own fancy, and the images of their own making; which argued their fluidity and ignorance, strange as their impiety and ingratitude. 3. God directs him how to proceed, and encourages him to be faithful. Gird up thy sins; alluding to the long garments they wore in the calf, which, when they went in halfe, they girt about their wall. He must be expediteous and diligent; arise, and spent unto them boldly and inflicately, not intimidated by any fears or danger, all that I mean to him, without adding thereto, or diminishing therefrom, however effective and pro- voking the message might appear, and however great the per- tonages to whom it would be delivered, to the kings, princes, priests, and people. The dignity of the magistrates doth not let them above myself, nor the farcishers of the farcishers of the farcishers of the farcishers of the farcishers of the farcishers of the farcishers of the farcishers of the farcishers of the farcishers of the farcishers of the farcishers of the farcishers of the farcishers of the farcishers of the farcishers of the farcishers of the farcishers of the farcishers of the farcishers of the farcishers of the farcishers of the farcishers of the farcishers of the farcishers of the farcishers of the farcishers of the farcishers of the farcishers of the farcishers of the farcishers of the farcishers of the farcishers of the farcishers of the farcishers of the farcishers of the farcishers of the farcishers of the farcishers of the farcishers of the farcishers of the farcishers of the farcishers of the farcishers of the farcishers of the farcishers of the farcishers of the farcishers of the farcishers of the farcishers of the farcishers of the farcishers of the farcishers of the farcishers of the farcishers of the farcishers of the farcishers of the farcishers of the farcishers of the farcishers of the farcishers of the farcishers of the farcishers of the farcishers of the farcishers of the farcishers of the farcishers of the farcishers of the farcishers of the farcishers of the farcishers of the farcishers of the farcishers of the farcishers of the farcishers of the farcishers of the farcishers of the farcishers of the farcishers of the farcishers of the farcishers of the farcishers of the farcishers of the farcishers of the farcishers of the farcishers of the farcishers of the farcishers of the farcishers of the farcishers of the farcishers of the farcishers of the farcishers of the farcishers of the farcishers of the farcishers of the farcishers of the farcishers of the farcishers of the farcishers of the farcishers of the farcishers of the farcishers of the farcishers of the farcishers of the farcishers of the farcishers of the farcishers of the farcishers of the farcishers of the farcishers of the farcishers of the farcishers of the farcishers of the farcishers of the farcishers of the farcishers of the farcishers of CHAP. Benedict Hill. Jeremiah here opens his ministry with a most pathetic discourse on the soil and danger of their fires, and particularly of their shameful idolatries. They are told, 1. That this was ungrateful to God, who had been so kind to them, ver. 1—8. 2. That it was without precedent, that a nation should change their zeal, ver. 9—13. 3. That hereby they had disparaged and ruined themselves, ver. 14—19. 4. That they had broken their covenants, and degenerated from their good beginnings, ver. 20, 21. 5. That their wickedness was too plain to be concealed, and too had to be revealed, ver. 22, 23, 25. 6. That they were irresistable and indefatigable in their idolatries, ver. 24, 25, 33, 36. 7. That they shamed themselves by their idolatry, and should shortly be made ashamed of it, ver. 26—29, 37. 8. That they had not been reformed by the rebules of providence, ver. 30, 9. That they had put a great contempt upon God, ver. 31, 32. 10. That with their idolatries they had mixed the most unnatural murders, ver. 34. And O that by meditating as this chapter we might be brought to repent of our spiritual idolatries, giving that place in our souls to the world and the flesh, which should have been reserved for God only. 1. MOREOVER the word of the LORD came to me, saying, 2. Go, and cry in the ears of Jerusalem, saying, Thus faith the LORD, I remember thee, the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine spous, when thou wentest after me in the wilderness, in a land that was not fown. 3. Israel was holiness unto the LORD, and the first fruits of his increase: all that devour him, shall offend; evil shall come upon them, faith the LORD. 4. Hear ye the word of the LORD, O house of Jacob, and all the families of the house of Israel. 5. Thus faith the LORD, What iniquity have your fathers found in me, that they are gone far from me, and have walked after vanity, and are become vain? 6. Neither said they, Where is the LORD, that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, that led us through the wilderness, through a land of defects, and of pits, through a land of drought, and of the shadow of death, through a land that no man passed through, and where no man dwelt? 7. And I brought you into a plentiful country to eat the fruit thereof, and the goodness thereof; but when ye entered, ye defiled my land, and made mine heritage an abomination. 8. The priests said not, Where is the LORD? and they that handle the law, knew me not: the paltors also transgressed against me, and the prophets prophesied by Baal, and walked after things that do not profit. Being ordained a prophet to the Lord, Jeremiah hath his meddle delivered to him, and is commanded to go to Jerusalem from Anathoth, the place of his residence, and there publicly declare the word of God, that all may hear, and either repent of their iniquities, or be left inaccessible in their unbelief and hardness of heart. 1. He reminds them of their own former professions, and God's dealing with them; when by every instance of kindness he had engaged their affections, and they had given such fair expectations of their making a suitable return. I remember thee, the kindness of thy youth; either God's kindness to them in their early days, or rather their affectionate regard to him; the love of thine spous, when their warm hearts, filled with affection, as a new-married bride, sought only how to please their Lord; when thou wantest after me in the wilderness, trusting on his guidance, and depending on his providence; in a land that was not fown, and where none of the necessaries of life were to be obtained, but they were fed by daily miracles. Israel was holiness to the Lord, separated for him, consecrated to him, and in the bonds of his covenant solemnly engaged to be his, and his alone; and the first fruits of his increase, presenting themselves, bodies, souls, and spirits, as the first fruits at the temple, a holy offering unto him. Thus they did run well, and God's blessing was in the midst of them: all that devour him shall offend, or be guilty; God protected them, they were as the apple of his eye dear to him, none dared touch them with impunity; evil shall come upon them, faith the Lord; God will be the averger of their wrongs, and their enemies shall perish. From Egypt's iron bondage he brought them, led them through the wilderness by his pillar of a cloud and fire; through a land of abusers, and of pits, where venomous creatures lodged, scorpions, and fiery living serpents; through a land of drought, where no water could be found, and of the shadow of death, dismal and lonely; through a land that no man passed through, and where no man dwelt, pattlels, without inhabitants, and yet amidst difficul- ties so insurmountable by human power, God safely conducted them, covered them with the shadow of his cloud from the scorching sun, fed them with plenty of the richest food, opened streams from the rock, protected them from every danger, and brought them safe at last to his promised rest, to a plentiful country, to eat the fruit thereof, and the goodness thereof, to a land flowing with milk and honey, the glory of all lands; for which unfeasible favours he justly might expect from them the deepest returns of duty, love, and service. Note, (1.) Our first love should be often remembered, to humble us for our departure from God, and to lustre our return to him, Rev. xi. 4, 5. (2.) God takes pleasure in beholding the affections of his people placed upon him. (3.) Where we love God in sincerity, we shall follow him implicitly, and fear no dangers even in the wilderness. (4.) God's Israel are a holy people; they who answer not this character, have no lot our portion among them. (5.) They who persecute God's choice, will find him the averger of their quarrel. (6.) The wee to heaven lies through difficulties impalliable for mortal strength; and if ever our souls are safely led to the heavenly Causan. we must acknowledge ourselves utterly indebted to his everlasting arms of power and love. (7.) The greater our trials, the more is the grace of God magnified in our deliverance. (8.) For all the wonders of his grace, God hath the deepest and most just demands of love and service from us. (9.) The promising beginnings we have shewn, and the fair professions we have made, will greatly aggravate our guilt, should we begin in the spirit and end in the flesh. 2. He upbraids them with their black ingratitude. Thus faith the Lord, What iniquity have your fathers found in me? Had he done them injustice, been a hard master, or unsatisfied to any of his promises? No; there is no unrighteousness in him: they who forsake him, forsake their own unceven, and not of their own mouths will be condemned—that they are gone far from me, apostates from his service and worship; for those who depart from a religious profession, become usually viler than those who never pretended to it; and have walked after vanity, after idols, which are the greatest vanities, and are become none of corrupt in their practice, as dark in their imagination; defiling the good land, into which the Lord had brought them, with their abominations, and which they held only on condition of their fidelity. God was utterly forgotten, even said, Where is the Lord? notwithstanding all his miracles of mercy shewn them: nay, the priests, who should have been the first to refrain others, were chief in the transgression; the priests said not, Where is the Lord? and if they, who were their guides, took no pains to acquaint themselves with him, no marvel the people forgot God: and they that handle the law knew me not; pretending to instruct others, but totally ignorant themselves, and strangers to all experimental knowledge of God and his truth. The paltors also transgressed against me, civil, as well as ecclesiastical, cutting off all fear of God; and the prophets prophesied by Baal, pretending inspiration from their idols to contradict the prophets of the Lord, and supported by the princes and priests in their iniquity; and walked after things that do not profit, their false gods, from whom no blessing could be derived. Note, When blind priests lead a blind people, no marvel they perish together. 9. Wherefore I will yet plead with you, faith the LORD, and with your children's children will be plead. 10. For I pass over the idles of Chittim, and see; and send unto Kedar, and consider diligently, and see if there be such a thing. 11. Hath a nation changed their gods, which are yet no gods? but my people have changed their glory for that which don't not profit. 12. Be astonished, O ye heavens, at this, and be horribly afraid, be ye very desolate, faith the LORD. 13. For my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water. Having rebuked their ingratitude, God pleads against them the unprecedented folly of their conduct. He desires to convince sinners, and therefore he uses every argument, and at least will leave them inexcusable in their impenitence. 1. They were in this respect more false and feeble, even than the idolatrous nations they affected to resemble. They retained a veneration for their fathers gods: has as the idols were which they worshipped, nothing could prevail with them to forsake the religion of their ancestors. Go to the idles of Chittim, Greece, or Italy, or to Kedar in Arabia, and not an instance would be found of a nation that had changed their gods; but my people have changed their glory, have forsaken the living, true, and only God, which serves they should have accounted their highest honour, and their distinguished separation for him their most exalted glory; for that which and not profit; for idols, for Baal, in whole worship neither honour nor advantage could be found, but the very contrary. behold this scene of aggravated guilt and folly. Be aforesaid, O ye however, at this, the inhabitants of them, or the very ten eminent creation might well be amazed, and be ye terribly afraid, trembling for sins so great, and that must bring down judgments so heavy: be ye very defiates, faith the Lord, as if the sin should refuse his light to such milcramps, the clouds thicken with thunder and lightning over them, and sweep them from the earth with the hedon of destruction. For my people, separated for God, once professives of his truth, and thereby every departure from him being rendered more infamous and exceeding sinful; my people have committed two evils, their transgressions are numberless, but these the capital sins, and the sources of all the rest: they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, repelling his government, neglecting his ordinances, and leaving him for above, out of their sight; and in so doing, have cut themselves off from the fountain of living waters, from that God of all grace and consolation, in whom they might have for ever found a rich supply for all their wants; and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water; hath never their idols, that after all the pains and expence bestowed on them, did not afford the least consolation, not even the miserable relief of a deep of putrid stagnating water, to quench the thrift of their votaries. Note, (1.) They who forsake God, forsake their own mercies. (2.) As long as our souls come to John the living fountain, so long shall we find the waters of his grace within us a well of water, springing up to everlasting life. (3.) Whatever creature enjoyments may promise, they will deceive our expectations: if we seek our happiness from wealth, honour, or indulgence, toil as we can to secure the bliss, we shall find the cisterns empty; but one portion can adequately satisfy an immortal soul, and that is, the love of the eternal God. 1. 1st. I Israel a servant? 2. 1st. The young lions round upon him, and I yelled, and they made his land waite: His cities are burnt without inhabitant. 16. Also the children of Noph and 'Tahapanes I have broken the crown of thy head. 17. 1st. I had thou not procured this unto thyself, in that thou hast forsaken the LORD thy God, when he led thee by the way? 18. And now what hath thou to do in the way of Egypt, to drink the waters of Sihor? or what hath thou to do in the way of Affyria, to drink the waters of the river? 19. Thine own wickedness shall correct thee, and thy backslidinge shall reprove thee: know therefore and see, that it is an evil thing and bitter, that thou hast forsaken the LORD thy God, and that my fear is not in thee, faith the LORD God of hosts. 14. ¶ D Israel a servant? 2. 1st. The young lions round upon him, and I yelled, and they made his land waite: His cities are burnt without inhabitant. 16. Also the children of Noph and 'Tahapanes I have broken the crown of thy head. 17. 1st. I had thou not procured this unto thyself, in that thou hast forsaken the LORD thy God, when he led thee by the way? 18. And now what hath thou to do in the way of Egypt, to drink the waters of Sihor? or what hath thou to do in the way of Affyria, to drink the waters of the river? 19. Thine own wickedness shall correct thee, and thy backslidinge shall reprove thee: know therefore and see, that it is an evil thing and bitter, that thou hast forsaken the LORD thy God, and that my fear is not in thee, faith the LORD God of hosts. 9. 14—19. The miseries coming upon them for their sins are spoken of as already present, because they were so near and certain. 1. By their iniquities they had brought themselves into slavery, were defeated by their enemies, and their country ravaged. Is Israel a servant? Is he a home-born slave? whence comes this grievous change, how is their glorious liberty lost? Why is he justice? Surely some awful provocation hath brought on him this calamity, for terrible are his defoliations. The young lions round upon him, and yelled, and they made his land waite; his invading fire, the King of Affyria with his army, forces and cruel as these ravenous beasts, roaring and yelling with all the horrid sin of war, hath plundered the country, and his cities are burnt without inhabitant; all led captives, or slain by the sword, and none left to restore them from their ruins. All the children of Noph and Tahapanes have broken the crown of thy head, the Egyptians, whose chief cities there were, as well as the Affyrians, contributed to their ruin, Judah being slain by Pharaoh Wichah, his son dethroned, Jerusalem plundered, and a tribute for upon them, 2 Kings xxiii. 20—25. Hath thou not procured this unto thyself? yea, verily; none but themselves had they to blame for their sufferings, in that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God; him, who was so able to protect them, who stood in a relation to them so glorious, and from whom it was so foolish as well as wicked, to depart: him they forsook for idols, and human confidences, changing a rock for a reed; when he led thee by the way, the right way, the path of duty; in which had they abode, they would have certainly found it the way of safety, but they refused his guidance, and rushed on their own ruin. Note, Whatever miseries a sinner is involved in, whether in time or eternity, this bitter reflection will sharpen their edge, Hath thou not procured this unto thyself? 2. The sinful methods they took to extricate themselves from their troubles, served but to hasten their destruction. Instead of seeking unto God for help against their enemies, they fought other supports. When threatened by Affyria, they ran to Egypt for licences; when invaded by Egypt, they courted the Affyrian help. What hath thou to do with these, who in their turn will deceive, oppress, and plunder thee? Thine own wickedness in general, or this in particular, of trusting on these vain helpers, VOL. II. shall correct thee, bring severe chaffishment upon them, and thy backslidinge, their treacherous departure from God, shall reprove thee. Know therefore, and see, that it is an evil and bitter thing, that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God, and that my fear is not in thee, faith the Lord God of hosts. The event would prove to their terrible conviction, the evil and misery of the ways which they had chosen, and sinners will find this truth universally verified. Observe, (1.) The root of all sin. My fear is not in thee; there is deep unbelief in the natural heart, God's warnings make no imposition, and the practice can rise no higher than the principle. Hence, (2.) The effect produced. Thou hast forsaken the Lord; when the heart is not restrained by his fear, corrupt nature, prone to sin, easily hurries on the soul to all the forbidden indulgence of sin and spirit. (3.) The issue of sin is evil and bitter. It is not only evil in its own nature, as opposite to God's purity and perfection, but the consequences are ever evil and bitter to the soul; the curse follows the sinner closer than his shadow; his miseries and disappointments are many, his enjoyments embittered; and death, eternal death, shares him in the face, the terrible wages of sin. (4.) It is happy for those who are brought to see and know this, before it is too late; and all God's violations have this design to lead us to repentance for our sins, that we may not perish in them. 20. ¶ For of old time I have broken thy yoke, and burnt thy hands, and 'thou faith, I will not ye transigree; when upon every high hill, and under every green tree, thou wanderest, playing the harlot. 21. Yet I had 'planted thee a noble vine wholly a right seed; how then art thou turned into 'the degenerate plant of a strange vine unto me? 22. For though thou 'wash thee with nitre, and take thee much sope, yet 'thine iniquity is marked before me, faith the Lord GOD. 23. 'How canst thou say, I am not polluted, I have not gone after Baalim? 'see thy way in the valley, know what thou hast done: thou art a loath dronedary traversing her ways. 24. 'A wild ash I used to the wilderness, that is suffeat up the wind at her pleasure, in her occasion who can't turn her away? all they that feed her, will not weary themselves, in her month they shall find her. 25. Withhold thy foot from being unshoud, and thy throat from thirst: but 'thou faith, I there is no hope. No, for I have loved strangers, and after them will I go. 26. As the thief is ashamed when he is found: so is the house of Israel ashamed; they, their kings, their princes, and their priests, and their prophets, 27. Saying to a flock, Thou art my father; and to a stone, Thou hast 'brought me forth: for they have turned their back unto me, and not their face: but 'in the time of their trouble they will say, Arise, and save us. 28. But 'where are thy gods that thou hast made thee? let them arise, 'if they can save thee in the time of thy trouble: for 'according to the number of thy cities are thy gods, O Judah. 9. 20—28. The prophet prosecutes his charge against this rebellious people. 1. Their crying for was idolatry; and when they had left the one true God, their wanderinge were enslife, and their idols innumerable; every city had its god and tutelate deity, 9. 28. On every hill their idols stood thick, and not a spreading tree or grove was there, where their instable had not brooded, and where they had not played the barrier, committing quizzed adultery, 9. 20. Nor was this the crime of the crisis of the people only; their kings, princes, priests and prophet, horrible to tell! these were the patrons of idolatry, and the most bigoted votaries, saying to the flock, thou art my father; and to the stone, thou hast brought me forth; and whilst infatuated, and more fentelets than the images they worshipped, to these they ascribed divine honours, they turned their back on God, with insolent contempt of his worship and service. Note, When a sinner is given up to his own heart, there are no lengths of folly, iniquity, and impiety to which he may not run. 2. Their attempts to deny it were vain, and the methods they used to enquire their sins useless. Like the adulteress, Prov. xxx. 20. they disowned the charge of idolatry, when the evidence was so notorious. In the valley, probably of Husson, where they burnt their children to Moslech, the monuments of their sin testified against them, 9. 25. And their excuses were frivolous when God had, in his omnificence, marked their iniquities with a brand they never could wash out, or rather, as 9. 25. may legally, their ceremonial ablution and sacrifices to which they had recourse, could never cancel the guilt of their sins, or remove the stain of them from their omnificence. Note, (1.) To deny, or seek to palliate the evil of our sins, is the sure sign of an impenitent heart. (2.) Nothing can wash D d out Before Christ will 9. 1st. I had. vii. 9. 1st. I had. vii. 9. 1st. I had. vii. 9. 1st. I had. vii. 9. 1st. I had. vii. 9. 1st. I had. vii. 9. 1st. I had. vii. 9. 1st. I had. vii. 9. 1st. I had. vii. 9. 1st. I had. vii. 9. 1st. I had. vii. 9. 1st. I had. vii. 9. 1st. I had. vii. 9. 1st. I had. vii. 9. 1st. I had. vii. 9. 1 Before Christ feal. out the stain of sin's black guilt, but the blood of Jesus; every other method will but fix the dye deeper and stronger. 3. Their sins were abundantly aggravated by the mercies they had received, and the fair promises they had made. Of old God had delivered them from the Egyptian yoke, v. 20. planted them in the promised land as a noble wine wholly a right food, v. 21. both with respect to their worthy ancestors, and their own gracious conduct on their first possessing their inheritance, Jop. xxiv. 31. nor could there be more solemn engagements, than they had repeatedly made of their perpetual fidelity, v. 20. Hand. xix. 8. xxiv. 7. yet like a broken bow they had feared aside, degenerated from their primitive piety, and became as wild gourds, not only useless but noxious. Note, (1.) The greatness of God's mercies aggravates our guilt and ingratitude. (2.) We need often reflect with shame on the promises we have made not to transgress, and on our repeated unfathfulness. 4. They are represented as purifying their idolatries with determined waywardness in spite of all warnings, as the dromedary and wild ass, when in their scurfism they are looking the males, are to eager in running from place to place to find them, that every attempt to restrain them is vain, and will only weary those that pursue them, till their month comes, when big with young, they might more easily be found and caught: so were this people raging in their idolatrous luth, and no hope remained of reclaiming them, till the judgments of God were heavy upon them, and stopped their career. Note, (1.) Nothing so lawless as brutal lull; vain are all the restraints of reason, conscience, honour, when appetite foieses the veins. (2.) However headstrong in the vigour of health men are in the pursuit of their forbidden gratifications, the hours will come of deep remorse, when their career will be stopped; and when the joys of sin no more inebriate, the sting of sin, like a scorpion, will torment the guilty conscience. 5. Fair warning is given them of the issue of their ways, and they are admonished by repentance to prevent their captivity. Restrain thy feet from being unfound, and thy throat from thirst, for unless they repented of their evil ways, and turned from them, this would be the consequence, that barefoot, and ready to be choked with thirst in the journey, they should be led captives into a distant land. Some understood it as an admonition, not to wear out the shoes of their messengers, and be at the pains of sending to Egypt or Affyria for help, since these foresees would be of no use to them; but the former sense seems best. 6. Their obstinacy, or their despair, is rebuked. But thou faidst, there is no hope; bidding the prophets cease their attempts, for they would never attend to them, either to quit their idolatries, or to desist from seeking the help of their heathen neighbours; they liked, and would pursue their own inventions. Or this is the language of despair, as if their case was past hope either for God to pardon, or their corruptions so strong, that to attempt to resist them was vain, therefore they desperate to abandon themselves to their iniquities. Note, Nothing so effectually enslaves the soul to sin, as despair; and therefore whilst Satan is ever a preacher of preemption to the careful, he fails not to be a preacher of despair to the awakened, as if their iniquities were too great to be forgiven, or their corruptions too strong to be subdued; and therefore that it were best to banish their convictions, and abandon themselves to their luth, but he was a liar from the beginning. We do not be too great for sovereign grace to pardon, on corruption so strong, that Almighty grace cannot subdue. Let us take to us words, and return unto the Lord, and then there is surely yet hope in our end. 7. If they persisted in their ways, confusion would cover them in the day of their calamity, as a chief detected in the fact, when their false gods cannot relieve them; and the true God, whom they have forsaken, will refute to hear their prayer, v. 27, 28. Note, (1.) In the day of calamity, many who never thought of him before, are driven to God in cry, love us; but when the fear of hell merely, not the sense of the evil of sin, dictazes the prayer, no marvel it is rejected. (2.) Whatever the impenitent sinner places his comfort or confidence in, the day will come when it will prove a refuge of lies. 29. Wherefore will ye plead with me? ye all have transgressed against me, saith the LORD. 30. In vain have? I smitten your children, they received no correction: your own sword hath devoured your prophes, like a destroying lion. 31. O generation, see ye the word of the LORD: have I been a wilderness unto life? a land of darkness? wherefore say my people, We are lords, we will come no more unto line? 32. Can a maid forget her ornaments, or a bride her attire? yet my people have forgotten me days without number. 33. Why trimmed thou thy way to seek love? therefore hast thou also taught the wicked ones thy ways. 34. Also in thy skirts is found the blood of the souls of the poor innocents: I have not found it by a secret search, but upon all these. 35. Yet thou sayest, Because I am innocent, surely his anger shall turn from me: behold, I will plead with thee, because thou sayest, I have not sinned. 36. Why gadeest thou about so much to change thy way? thou also shalt be ashamed of Egypt, as thou wast ashamed of Affyria. 37. Yea, thou shalt go forth from him, and thine hands upon thine head: for the LORD hath rejected thy confidences, and thou shalt not prosper in them. whom they truffed, and thou shalt not proper in them, but he gives them up for a prey to their enemies. Nere, (1.) The foul that leaves God wanders endlessly, flecking rest, and finding none. (2.) Human confidences and comforts in the day of evil will prove a broken reed, unable to support the foul. It is the folly and wickedness of sinners that they complain against God, as if his punishments were severe, and his ways unequal; when they alone are the authors of their own misery, and their punishment less than their iniquities deserve. 1. God vindicates his justice. Wherefore will ye plead with me? when their case was so indefensible; ye all have transgressed against me, and therefore could neither exculpate themselves from guilt, nor justly complain of their sufferings. Note, We are all sinners at God's bar; every mouth must be stopped; we have nothing to do but to confess our guilt, justly as judgments, and call ourselves wholly on his mercy. 2. He charges upon them their incorrigishness. In vain had been all the afflictions he had brought upon them; hardened under the rod, they received no correction, were not brought to any repentance. Nay, as it exasperated by what they suffered, when he seconded the rebukes of his providences by the word of his prophets, like furious lions they rushed on these ministers of God, and cruelly shed their blood for their fidelity, v. 30. Note, (1.) They who will be zealous in rebuking men's sins, must put their life in their hands. (2.) It is the sign of a desperate state when afflictions harden, instead of softening the heart. 3. He repudiates with them on their ingratitude. Had he shown them unkindness, or brought them into darkness and distress, they might have had some plea for their result; but his conduct to them in the wilderness, the rich provision he made for them, the light with which he led them, and the land in which he placed them, all evidenced his unutterable kindness; and the least attention to his dealings with them might convince them of it: how ungrateful then was their rebellion, thus to cut off his government, and reject his worship and service? v. 31. Note, (1.) They who cleave to God, find all his ways pleasantly and peace: if sinners are entangled in a wilderness, or enveloped with darkness, it is because of their departures from him. (2.) They who affect to emancipate themselves from God's government, only exchange his service, which is perfect freedom, for the base and tyrannical servitude of their luth. 4. He accuses them of sundry crimes against him. (1.) Forgetfulness of him. It would be counted strange if a maid forgot her ornaments, and a bride her attire; but, stranger far! my people have forgotten me days without number. They were his professing people, and therefore the more criminal their neglect of him, and equicially when so long persisted in. (2.) They were corrupters of others. Like a lewd harlot that dresses and paints, to inveigle men into her fiasco, so had they sought to engage their heathen neighbours to become their confederates, and join in their idolatries: therefore kept them also sought the wicked ones thy ways, instructing them in their superstitions; and vile as they were before, making them worse by the connection. Note, (1.) They who entice others into sin, will have most aggravated guilt on their heads. (2.) Fellowship with the workers of iniquity is dangerously infectious, and diligently to be avoided. (3.) They were polluted with innocent blood, v. 34. of the children whom they sacrificed to Malachi; or of innocent persons, especially the prophets and faithful men, who were murdered for removing their impatience, 2 Kings xxx. 16. and this openly and notoriously; it needed no search, nor deep enquiry; these skirts were dyed with blood, and the corpses cried for vengeance against them. And therefore, (4.) Their plea of innocence, v. 35. was presumptuous, and their expectation of God's wrath being removed, vain. Behold, I will plead with thee, because thou sayest, I have not sinned, which was an aggravation of their sin, and provoked God the more to arise in judgment against them. Note, (1.) If we say we have not sinned, we make God a liar. (2.) Until a sinner is brought to acknowledge the justice of God's wrath, it will never depart from him. 5. Their confidences should at last fail them, and they be led into a miserable captivity. Like an adulteress that gads about to gratify her lewdness, so had they gone to Affyria and Egypt, making leagues with them in turn for their assistance, as they were pressed by either, but they would disappoint them. Affyria had distressed them formerly as allies, 2. Chow. xxviii. 20. and the Egyptians would alike be their confusion, as they afterwards proved, when against Nebuchadnezzar, they promised help in vain; so that thou shalt go forth with these hands upon thine head, as a mourner, led into a shameful capivity; for the Lord hath rejected thy confidences, their allies, in whom Before Christ feal. Lutheran ? Heal. Dignity. ? Exult. rel. no. ? Prov. res. no. Vir. ex. ? Chap. xxx. xx. ? Ill. ex. ? 2 Chow. xxxix. 16. no. ? 2 Ex. vol. 19. The foregoing chapter was wholly taken up with reproach and threatening, against the people of God for their appalling from him; but in this chapter gracious invitations and encouragements are given them to repent and turn, notwithstanding the multitude and grounds of their provocations. Here, 1. It is further shown how had they had been, and how well they deserved to be abandoned, and yet how ready God was to receive them into his favour, ver. 1—5. 2. The impenetracy of Judah is aggravated from the judgments of God upon Israel, ver. 6—11. 3. Great encouragements are given to these backfidders to repent; and promises made of great mercy which God had in afters for them, ver. 12—19. 4. The charge removed against them for their appalling from God, and the invitation repeated to repent, to which are added the words which they should make use of in their return to God, ver. 20—25. 1. THEY say, If a man put away his wife, and the go from him, and become another man's, shall he return unto her again? shall not that land be greatly polluted? but 'thou hast played the harlot with many lovers; yet return again to me, faith the LORD. 2. Lift up thine eyes unto the high places, and see where thou hast not been lien with: 'in the ways hast thou far for them, as the Arabian in the wilderness, and thou hast polluted the land with thy whoredoms, and with thy wickedness. 3. Therefore the flowers have been withholden, and there hath been no latter rain, and thou hastst a whore's forehead, thou refuse'st to be ashamed. 4. Wilt thou not from this time cry unto me, My Father, thou art 'the guide of my youth? 5. Will he reserve his anger for ever? will he keep it to the end? Behold, thou hast spoken and done evil things as thou couldst. When for our sins we deserve to be abandoned, our God is merciful, and not willing that any should perish, as here most eminently appears. 1. Their iniquities were great, numberless, and aggravated. Like the most infamous prostitute, thou hast played the harlot with many lovers, multiplying their idols as their sister, chap. ii. 28. and not an high place was in the land where their spiritual adulteries had not been committed, v. 2. Nay, they had courted others to join them, as a prostitute sits by the way, cultivating the traveller; or as the Arabian robber, lying in wait for his prey. Brazen against reproof, with a whore's forehead they blushed at none of their abominations; but as if trying how wicked they could be, thou hast spoken and done evil things as thou couldst; they gloried in their wickedness, and studied to provoke God to the uttermost. Nere, (1.) Lewdness indulged by degrees banishes shame; and this last relic of virtue lost, there is no hope of recovery. (2.) The thief that lies in wait for our purse is innocent, compared with the temptor, that by leading us into sin, would rob us of our fools. (3.) They are advanced to the summit of wickedness, who give an unbounded loose to all their appetites, and know no restraint from sin, but the want of ability. 2. God would be perfectly justified in giving them up to destruction. The law was express in case of an adulteress divorced, that she could no more be restored to her husband's bed, for the land would have been polluted thereby. God might therefore well treat them in the same manner, by an utter rejection, especially after he had in vain chastised them, by withholding their rain in its season; and instead of repenting, they continued hardened under his judgments, v. 3. Nere, (1.) If sinners had to do with man instead of God, all reconciliation must be defeated of. (2.) When the heart is stubborn under the rod of correction, it is much to be feared the stroke of final judgment is near. 3. Notwithstanding all that was past, God invites them to return, and directs them in the way. Return again and not, faith the Lord, which contains a gracious intimation that he was yet ready to receive them. And the chief of sinners may be assured, whenever they in penitence cry to him, he will yet speak to them pardon; and therefore will then not from this time cry to me? after so long and treacherous departures, it is high time at last, though late, to begin; and now is the accepted time, when the invitations of mercy are pleading, and without delay to be embraced. And least, confounded at their guilt, they should not know what to say, God puts words in their mouth, My Father, thou art the guide of my youth; as returning prodigals, unworthy to be called children, yet hoping to find in God a merciful father; and as those, that since they have left him, have ever erred and wandered to and fro in misery, and therefore desire to be taken under his care; and henceforward, as in the days of youth, to be guided by his will and word. Will he reserve his anger for ever? will he keep it to the end? No; he is God, and not man, and as his majesty is, faith is his mercy. Nere, (1.) If a sense of God's grace does not engage the sinner's heart to return, nothing can. (2.) They who begin to be sensible of their departures from God, will be importunate on their knees, to be restored to his forfeited favours. (3.) Whatever fears unbelief may suggest, God is a father, whose tender compassions fail not, and we may confidently trust in his mercy. 6. The LORD said also unto me in the days of Josiah the king, 'Halt thou seers dear which backfisting Israel hath done?' she is gone up upon every high mountain, and under every green tree, and there hath played the harlot. 7. And I said, after the land done all these things, 'Turn thou unto me; but the returned not: and her treacherous sister Judah saw it. 8. And I saw, when for all the causes whereby backfisting Israel committed adultery, I had put her away, and given her a bill of divorce: yet her treacherous sister Judah feared not, but went and played the harlot also. 9. And it came to pass through the highlands of her whoredom, that she defiled the land, and committed adultery with stones and with flocks. 10. And yet for all this, her treacherous sister Judah hath not turned unto me with her whole heart, but I feignedly, faith the LORD. 11. And the LORD said unto me, 'The backfisting Israel hath justified herself more than treacherous Judah, Josiah heartily laboured after the reformation of the people, and the prophet, with his sermons, seconded his pious design; but we find the labours of both were ineffectual. The kingdom of Judah was become apolitic as the kingdom of Israel, and must shortly share her fate. 1. The sin and ruin of backfisting Israel are observed. The prophet, in the history of that kingdom, had seen their miserable end about ninety years before. They first revolted from David's successors, and then left God's worship for adultery; not only in Dan and Bethel, but on every mountain and under every green tree their spiritual adulteries were committed, v. 6. In vain the prophets warned, in vain the patience of God waited, in vain were all his gracious invitations to return; they persisted in their impenetrics, v. 7. and that produced their ruin: God gave them a divorce; thrust out of his protection, and then they were quickly enshrined, and became a prey to their enemies, v. 8. Nere, Backfidders shall sooner or later be filled with their own ways, and cut their choice. 2. Judah took no warning by the Judgment. She is called her treacherous sister, sprung from the same flock of Jacob, and though affecting to cleave to God's temple and worship, false and faithless in her professions, v. 7. Instead of being awed, or reformed by her sister's ruin, she plunged unto the same sins, and played the harlot also, v. 8. As abominable as ever Israel had been, she defiled the land, and with such bare gods as flocks and stones committed adultery, v. 9. Yes, notwithstanding the efforts made by the gracious monarch Josiah, and those who afflicted him in the work, though for a time the people outwardly appeared reformed, their hearts were an unrenewed as ever, and their professions utterly hypocritical, v. 10. Nere, (1.) Appearances may impede upon men, but God trieth the heart. (2.) Hypocrisy is among the greatest sins, and the false-hearted professor may expect to meet an avenging God, as much as the abandoned prodigate. (3.) They who will not take warning by others falls, are harrowing to their own ruin. 3. God justifies backfisting Israel more than treacherous Judah. They had greater means, greater warnings, and made greater professions, therefore their guilt was more aggravated. This does not excuse Israel, but it adds to Judah's iniquities. Nere, The more we have received from God of mercies and means, the heavier will be our judgment, if we have neglected and abused them. 12. Go, and proclaim these words towards the north, and say, Return, thou backfisting Israel, faith the LORD, and I will not cause mine anger to fall upon you: for I am merciful, faith the LORD, and I will not keep anger for ever. 13. Only acknowledge thine iniquity that thou hast transgressed against the LORD thy God, and hath scattered thy ways to the strangers under every green tree, and ye have not obeyed my voice, faith the LORD. 14. Turn, O backfisting children, faith the LORD, for I am married unto you and children as they had been, and promises to heal their backfiddings and refrain them again to his grace and favour. Note, (1.) God is more willing to hear than we to pray, and not a tear falls from the eye of his penitents but it is noted in his book. (2.) The finner's backfiddings are then healed, when God pardons the pails, and by his grace renews the heart, and prevents it from relashing again into sin. 3. God's children earnestly and instantly accept his call, and echo back. Behold we come unto thee, without delay, without reserve: for thou art the Lord our God; late our offended but now our reconciled God, in which favour we have a sure interest, to which service we devote ourselves, and on whom alone our dependence is placed. Truly in vain is salvation hoped for from the fish, and from the multitude of mountains: their idol gods and human confidences they now renounce, convinced of their vanity and insufficiency. Truly in the Lord our God is the salvation of Israel: out of him there is no salvation; in him there is all insufficiency to save to the uttermost; and as our God we may be assured of his power and grace to interpose on our behalf. We fulfil thus they express their confidence in him, they won their sin and shame, especially their idolatry, which they and their fathers had committed, and the dreadful consequences of which they felt to their confusion, in the curse of God upon all the labour of their hands, on their families and possessions; and own that the visitation was altogether righteous, because they obeyed not the voice of the Lord their God, v. 24, 25. Note, (1.) Penitent sinners ever take shame and confusion of face to themselves, and justify God in his judgments. (2.) The sense of our own great unworthiness must not discourage us from exercising faith on the divine promises. (3.) There is a salvation wrought out for Israel, by which the most desperate may fall find mercy through a Redeemer, and a reconciled God. (4.) When we return to Christ, we must renounce all other confidences, and make mention of his strength and righteousness only. The true first verses, as the foregoing chapter, are directed to Israel, the rest of the chapter concerns Judah and Jerusalem. 1. They are called to repent and reform, ver. 3, 4. 2. They are warned of the advance of Nebuchadnezzar against them, and said that it is for their fate, from which they are again rebutted to with themselves, ver. 5—18. 3. To affect them the more with the prurings of the definition that was coming, the prophet himself bitterly sincerely is, as a reduction of the world to its first chaos, ver. 19—31. 1. If thou wilt return, O Israel, faith the LORD, return unto me: and if thou wilt put away thine abominations out of my sight, then shall thou not remove. 2. And thou shalt swear, The LORD liveth: in truth, in judgment, and in righteousness: and the nations shall bless themselves in him, and in him shall they glory. 2. Israel had made penitent professions of returning: God accepts them, and directs them in the way. If thou wilt return, O Israel, faith the Lord, return unto me, or, if thou wilt return unto me, thou shalt return; either is them immediately execute their purpose; or it is promised that, on their doing so, God will bring them back from their dispersion; and if thou wilt put away thine abominations out of my sight, all their idolatrous practices and images, then shall thou not remove into captivity again; or, if thou shalt not move to and fro, be fickle and wavering, but steadfast in their adherence to God, then his blessing would be upon them. And thou shalt swear, The Lord liveth, making no more mention of their false gods, in truth, in judgment, and in righteousness; solemnly, and with strictest regard to truth. And the nations shall bless themselves in him; being called into communion with God's Israel, and counting themselves happy in the pardon, grace, and glory, revealed in the Redeemer: and in him shall they glory, renouncing all other confidences, and glorying in the fulness of the Lord Jesus Christ. Note, (1.) They who truly turn to God must put away all their abominations, and no allowed sin be spared. (2.) An oath is an act of religious worship, and therefore to swear by any creature is blasphemy against God. (3.) Every oath should be taken in truth, with scrupulous adherence to it, asserting nothing of which we have not the fullest assurance, nor promising might we do not really intend to perform: in judgment, when called upon before a magistrate; or solemnly, not rashly, or in common conversation, but where the importance of the subject makes such an appeal to God lawful: and in righteousness, that justice may be done, and God glorified. 3. For thou faith the LORD to the men of Judah and Jerusalem, Break up your fellow ground, and show not among thorns. 4. Circumcise yourselves to the LORD, and take away the forefaction of your heart, ye men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem: lest my fury come forth like fire, and burn that none can quench it, because of the evil of your doings. v. 3, 4. The prophet, having discharged his message to the men of Israel, and set forth their repentance, here addresses himself to the men of Judah and Jerusalem, whom he would provoke to jealously by their example, and excite to the like repentance. We have, 1. Their Duty. This is represented to them by two familiar images. (1.) Break up your fellow ground, and sew not among thorns. Not that of their own ability they could do this. What God calls them to, he would enable them by his grace to perform. This is a striking image of man's natural heart, bringing forth to fruit to God, barren of all grace, hard and competent; unfenced, where every lawless appetite ranges uncontrolled; overgrown with the brism and thorns of sole and corrupt affections; and therefore nigh unto burning, Heb. vi. 7, 8. This fellow ground must be broken up before it can produce fruit; and this is done by the word of God, convincing the sinner's conscience, and opening his heart to receive the lead of the gospel, as the plough divides the soul, Heb. iv. 12. and the brism and thorns being rooted up, the seed is not choated, but brings forth fruit unto perfection. (2.) Circumcise yourselves to the Lord, and take away the forefaction of your heart. They placed great dependence on circumcision: but without the circumcision of the heart, and cutting off their corrupt affections, that which was outward in the flesh signified nothing. Note, All inflections and forms, however strictly adhered, can profit us nothing, if the Spirit and power of Godliness be wanting within: nay, they serve but to delude and deceive the soul that trusts in them. 2. Their danger great and imminent. Left my fury come forth like fire, and burn that none can quench it, because of the evil of your doings. Delays are dangerous. To day, whilst it is called to day, they are warned not to harden their hearts. Note, (1.) It is sin that provokes God's wrath, and kindles the unquenchable flames of hell. (2.) Nothing is to terrible as falling impatient into the hands of that God who is a confining fire. (3.) The moment of delay God affords us should be eagerly firmed, before the flames kindle round us; for then it would be too late to call or return. 5. Declare ye in Judah, and publish in Jerusalem, and say, Blow ye the trumpet in the land: cry, gather together, and lay, 'Assemble yourselves, and let us go into the defenced cities. 6. Set up the standard towards Zion: 'retire, stay not; for I will bring evil' from the north, and a great destruction. 7. The lion is come up from his thicket, and the destroyer of the Gentiles is on his way; he is gone forth from his place to make thy land delobate, and thy cities shall be laid waite, without an inhabitant. 8. For this 'gird you with sackeloth, lament and howl: for the fierce anger of the LORD is not turned back from us. 9. And it shall come to pass at that day, faith the LORD, that the heart of the king shall perish, and the heart of the princes: and the priests shall be astonished, and the prophets shall wonder. 10. Then said I, Ah LORD God, 'forely thou hast greatly deceived this people, and Jerusalem, saying, Ye shall have peace; whereas the sword reacheth unto the soul. 11. At that time shall it be said to this people, and to Jerusalem, 'A dry wind of the high places in the wilderness toward the daughter of my people, not to fan, nor to cleanse. 12. Even a full wind from those places shall come unto me: now also will I give sentence against them. 13. Behold, he shall come up as clouds, and his chariots shall be as a whirlwind: 'his horses are swifter than eagles: wo unto us, for we are spoiled. 14. O Jerusalem, 'wath thine heart from wickedness, that thou mayst be saved: how long shall thy vain thoughts lodge within thee? 15. For 'a voice declareth from Dan, and publisheth affliction from mount Ephraim. 16. Make ye mention to the nations, behold, publish against Jerusalem, that watchers come from a far country, and give out their voice against the cities of Judah. 17. As keepers of a field are they against her round about; because she hath been rebellious against me, faith the LORD. 18. 'Thy way and thy doings have procured these things unto thee, this is thy wickedness, because it is bitter; because it reacheth unto thine heart. 1. AT that time, faith the LORD, they shall bring out the bones of the kings of Judah, and the bones of his princes, and the bones of the priests, and the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem out of their graves. 2. And they shall spread them before the sun, and the moon, and all the lofty of heaven whom they have loved, and whom they have served, and after whom they have walked, and whom they have fought, and whom they have worshipped: they shall not be gathered, nor be buried, they shall be for dung upon the face of the earth. 3. And death shall be chosen rather than life, by all the residue of them that remain of this evil family, which remain in all the places whither I have driven them, hath the LORD of hoffs. In the derafful desitations before described, the unburied corpses lie exposed; here these savage invaders suffer not the dead to enjoy quiet repose. 1. The graves and sepulchres of Judah's kings and princes shall be opened, either thus' covetousness to search for treasures; or to show insult even to their allies; or as a just judgment of God, who suffered the bones of the kings, priests, prophets, and people, who had so rebailed against him, to be exposed with infamy before those luminaries of heaven whom they had worshipped, loved, served, and fought; they had walked in the most abominable idolatries, and set up these to their gods, as if their favour was to be desired, and their blessing to be obtained: foolish and impious the service! and now it appeared so, when they could not afford the least help, nor so much as collect their scattered bones, spread for dung upon the face of the earth, v. 1, 2. Note, In the day of judgment the sinner's loathsome carcase will be more shamefully exposed, fix. lavi. 24. 2. Death, the most dreaded of human evils, now shall be covered; not that it hath left ought of its horrors, but because life is become intolerable; not from a hope of happiness in the exchange, but from despair of risk or este-below. The survivors of this evil family, for to so small a number will they be reduced, shall be so harassed and consented in every place whither they are driven, that they shall look with envy on those who have perished by famine and the sword, and count their lot more eligible than their own, v. 3. Note, That case is ter-Vol. II. rible, indeed, when life becomes a burden, and the finder is kept to prefer fleringling and death. 4. Moreover, thou shalt say unto them, Thou faith the LORD, Shalt they fall, and not arise? Shalt he turn away, and not return? 5. Why then is this people of Jerusalem hidden back, by a perpetual backfinding? they hold fast deceit, they refuse to return. 6. I hearkned and heard, but they spake not aright: no man repeated him of his wickedness, saying, What have I done? every one turned to his course, as the horfe ruffeth into the battle. 7. Yes, the florik in the heaven's knoweth her appointed tirren, and the turtle, and the crane, and the swallow observe the time of their coming, but my people know not the judgment of the LORD. 8. How do ye say, We are wife, and the law of the LORD is with us? Lo, certainly in vain made he it, the pen of the scribes is in vain. 9. The wife men are ashamed, they are dismayed and taken; Lo, they have rejected the word of the LORD, and what wisdom is in them? 10. Therefore will give their wives unto others, and their fields to them that shall inherit them: for every one from the least even unto the greatest is given to covetousness, from the prophet even unto the priest every one deserts falsely. 11. For they have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace, when there is no peace. 12. Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore shall they fall among them that fall, in the time of their visitation they shall be cast down, faith the LORD. Never was people so insinuated to their ruin. 1. They persevered in their evil ways. In general, when a man fails, he decks immediately to recover himself; and if he loses his way, he is solicitous to return into the right path, v. 4. Why then is this people of Jerusalem hidden back by a perpetual backfinding? and instead of any desire to amend, they hold fast deceit; obstinate against every means of conviction, they refuse to return. Note, (1.) They who backfiske from God, wonder endlessly and perpetually, unless his grace plucks them from ruin. (2.) Nothing is so great a deceit as sin; it promises so much enjoyment, and ever produces so much misery. 2. They disappointed God's expectations from them. He patiently waited and hearkned, if so he they might at last be prevailed upon to change their note, and learn the language of penitence: but not one spake might, nor reported of his wickedness, reflecting with shame upon his conduct: but just the very revuade; they urged on their mad career in sin with such determined waywardness and fearlessness, as the horfe ruffeth into the battle. Note, (1.) God is long-suffering to usward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come unto repentance. (2.) The first step to real penitence is serious reflection upon the evil of our past ways, What have I done? (3.) The daring sinner that mocks at the terrors of the Lord, as chimeras, and fearless rushes into the depths of iniquity, will find them fearful realities, and that half was not told him. 3. They were more stupid and irrational than the fowls of heaven, whilst they made the highest pretensions to wisdom, v. 7—9. The birds of passage by inflicted know the proper season for their coming and going, and how to direct their flight; but my people know not the judgment of the Lord; neither how to improve the calls of mercy in God's word, nor the corrections of affliction, nor his visitations on others, and yet they say, We are wife, and the law of the Lord is with us. How shameless their pretensions! when their whole conduct appeared so contradictory. In vain had they the law, and the pen of the scribes to write out copies or comments upon it; their expositions were false, or at least they paid no regard to them, if true. Their wife men themselves are confounded at calamities they could neither foresee nor avert: nor can it be wondered, when, is! they have rejected the word of the Lord, sent by his prophets; and what wisdom is in them, when they reject the counsel of God, and refuse to be instructed! Note, (1.) Many enjoy plenty of means, have libiles of ministers, and yet are never the wiser for them. (2.) Whatever pretenses to wisdom they may make, who reject God's revealed word, they will be confounded in the day of judgment at their own egregious folly. 4. For their sins they shall suffer. Their sins are before charged on them, chap. vi. 13—15. Love of filthy lures, most scandalous in those who are so preach, and be examples to others of deadness to the world. Infanterity; their professions were false, and their doctrine disinclined, tending to lull the sinner's soul into fatal security, instead of stealing him to a sense of his danger; and daring impudence, that knew not to blush, though convicted of their lies, and upbraided for their The judgments coming upon Judah and Jerusalem are foretold, as an awakening motive to their speedy repentance. 1. The alarm is spread through the land of the invading foe coming from the north, and they who are dispersed in the country are called to flee his safety to the defenced cities; slight being thought their only resource where resistance was van, v. 5, 6. E. c. 2. The Before Christ Set. 2. The approach of the Chaldeans, with Nebuchadnezzar at their head, is described by a variety of images, expressive of the great defraction and ravages which would enlist. As a law, v. 7, pinched with hunger, fallers furiously from his thicket on the defenceless flocks, to herce, to cruel, would the king of Babylon come at the head of his armies, the defrayer of the Gentiles, and now of the Jews, to spread desolations on every side; as a dry wind, sharp and piercing, violent and raging, that, instead of flaming or cleansing the grain, would sweep with reinflicted fury all before it, v. 11, 12. Thick as cloud they advance, and twirl as the wilchwood: their berets are fusifer than eagles; and therefore flight as impracticable as opposition was vain. From Zion, the most northern border, the first alarm is spread, v. 15: that the nations may hear who were to drink of the fame cup, and especially Jerusalem, against whom this armament is intended, behold watchers come from a fair country, or belayers, threatening ruin to all the cities of Judah; and shouting, as confident of victory, v. 16. As keepers of a field, who guard the corn, and prevent all entrance into it, so should their cut off from Jerusalem all Gipshen, and suffer none to escape. See 2 Kings 1.20 v. 3. The cause of these judgments is their sin. They half been rebellious against me, soith the Lord, v. 17. Thy way and thy doings have prepared their things unto thee: they had none to blame but themselves for what they suffered; it was the just recompense of these iniquities: this is thy wankership, the fruit of it, brought it to bitter, both the sin and the punishment; because it reacheeth in the heart, a mortal blow, an utter destruction. Note, (1.) Whatever we suffer, we have only ourselves to blame; our sins are our tormentors. (2.) If we feel not the bitterness of sin to myne of it, we shall feel the bitterness of the punishment when repentance will come too late. 4. If the terrible consequences of these judgments are described, Their hearts fall them. The king and princes, that should have reused the people to a brave defence, have left all spirits, and cannot conceal their coward fears; the people, whose office it was to animate them to the battle, are themselves affomished, and unable to sound a blast from the silver trumpets; and the false prophets, who had deceived them with visions of peace, are dumb with horror and amazement. Every warrior is sunk in defiance, every face gathers blackneck, and one universal geese is heard, we write us, for we are spoiled, v. 13. In vain then will they plead themselves with foothills, lament and insult; their desolations are determined, and the fierce anger of the Lord is not turned back; the decree of their ruin is gone forth, I will give sinuous enough them, and their destruction is inevitable, because the sacrifice of their iniquities is full. Note, (1.) A state of guilt makes men cowards. (2.) Wicked priests and false prophets, who deceived the people with visions of peace, in a judgment-day will find God's service around them. 5. The prophet laments the deceptions of the people through their false prophets, v. 10. to believe whose lies God in just judgment gave them up, which was among the forest of their visitations. They had promised them peace; but may the forest reached unto the soul, drenched in the blood of the Suis. Note, (1.) Among the heaviest curses of God this may be justly reckoned, which he gives up the heart to devotion, and suffers the blind to land the blind. (2.) The faithful ministers of God behold with deep concern those who pretend to be teachers of God's word reading their false doctrines, and baling the fruits of sinners into a fatal security, endeavouring to prejudice them against the truth, and prevent every unpleasant imposition which the zealous and wise preachers seek to make upon their hearts. 6. He seeks to foreth them as a brand from the burning. O' Torydodors, with their heart from thy wankership, that they may be saved. He deals faithfully; not as the false prophets, gloffing over their iniquities, but charging them home upon their confessions. Their heart was wicked; these the deep rest of butterness lay; and from that they must be cleansed, if they would be loved. And he expoundates on the folly and danger of delaying their repentance, How long shall vain thoughts lodge within thee? too long had they done so; 'was high time to awake out of sleep, the judgments of God were hurrying on; in a moment it would be too late to prevent them. Note, (1.) Whilst wickedness continues indulged in the heart, there can be no salvation hoped for. (2.) There is but one fountain that is capable of washing the sinner's heart from his iniquities, and that was opened in the Redeemer's side, of blood and water: blood, to pardon the deepest guilt of sin; water, to purify from every stain of corruption. The pardoning and sanctifying grace of Jesus are inseparable. (3.) Vain thoughts are sinful; and if our hearts are not purged from these imaginations, our ways will be quickly pervade. (4.) When we consider how short our life is, how much is past, how uncertain the moment yet to come, it should be an awakening admonition to feize the present man, and seek to God to day, whilst it is called to day. 19. ¶ My bowels, my bowels, I am pained at + my very heart, my heart maketh a noise in me, I cannot hold my peace, because thou hast heard, O my soul, the forest of the trumpets, the alarm of war. 10. De-steuction upon destruction is cried, for the whole land is spoiled: suddenly are my tents spoiled, and my curtains in a moment. 21. How long shall I see the standard, and hear the sound of the trumpet? 22. For my people it foolish, they have not known me, they are foolish children, and they have none understanding: 'they are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge. 23. 'I beheld the earth, and lo, it was without form, and void: and the heavens, 'and they had no light. 24. I beheld the mountains, and lo, 'they trembled, and all the hills moved lightly. 25. I beheld, and lo, there was no man, and 'all the birds of the heavens were fled. 26. I beheld, and lo, the fruitful place was a wilderness, and all the cities thereof were broken down; 'at the presence of the LORD, and by his fierce anger. 27. For thus hath the LORD said, The whole land shall be desolate; 'yet will I not make a full end. 28. For this shall the earth mourn, and 'the heavens above be black: because I have spoken it, I have purposed it, and will not repent, neither will I turn back from it. 29. The whole city shall flee for the noise of the horsemen, and bowmen, 'they shall go into thickets, and climb up upon the rocks: every city shall be forsaken, and not a man dwell therein. 30. And when thou art spoiled, what wilt thou do? Though thou clothed thyself with crimson, though thou deckelt thee with ornaments of gold, 'though thou tenest! thy I face with painting, in vain shalt thou make thyself fair, thy lovers will despise thee, they will seek thy life. 31. For I have heard a voice 'as of a woman in travail, and the anguish as of her that bringeth forth her first child, the voice of the daughter of Zion: that bewaileth herself, 'that бросadeth her hands, saying, Who is me now, for my soul is wearied, because of 'murderers. With deep concern and anguish the prophet beheld the miseries coming upon his people: his bowels yearned over the distress of his country, and his heart shrouded with bitter anguish. 1. For their sins: My people is foolish. This is the character God gives them; for sin is the greatest folly. Yet not abandoned: he acknowledges them for his people still, though they have not known me. In many and in我们的 they had moved him, but had no experimental knowledge of him as their God. They are foolish children, stupid and unshakable; and they have no understanding, respecting their true happiness, or the means of attaining it. They are wise to do evil; cunning to contrive and accomplish their fistful schemes; a wisdom which is their curse; but to do good they have no knowledge, nor desire to know; their inclination is arent to it. Such is the character of every natural man, till God takes away the blindness, and cures the perversion, of his heart, by bestowing on him the wisdom and grace which come from above. 2. For their sufferings; and these are enlarged upon and strongly described. The trumpet spreads the abuse of war, v. 19. Swift and sudden the destruction spreads, and, successive as Job's messengers of evil, the dreadful rulings fly, of one city taken after another, till the whole land is spoiled, and all the country where the Shepherds pitched their tents ravaged, v. 20. no end of the calamity appears. The banners of the invading foe are displayed, and their warlike instruments are heard on every side, v. 21. The country, utterly wafted, appears like the first chaos, when the earth was without form and void, and darkneck upon the face of the deep; or it may be applied to the utter confusion of their affairs, political and ecofedistical: and the heavens, as if unwilling to look upon their abominations, veil their bright luminaries with darkness: or to darkened and bewildered were their kings and princes, not knowing what course to take, v. 23. The mountains trembled and the hills fled before the face of the offended God; such terrors seized the most flour-hearted warriors, v. 24. Universal desolation seems to reign through that once populous and fruitful land: the cities, without an inhabitant, lye in ruins; the country is wafted and barren as a rock; the very birds are fled, no food remaining for them: and all this arising from God's fierce anger, which is itself the heaviest part of the judgment, v. 25, 26. And this is not the side with one city or part of the country, the whole is utterly ruined, v. 27, 28. Affrighted at the horsemen and bowmen, they file to rocks and thickets to bide themselves: the cities are defeated and destroyed, and not a living food, remains in them, v. 29. and, but for one word of mercy, v. 27. they might expect a total extirpation, and their very cause to be bloated out from under heaven: but God will not make a full end, a remnant shall escape. Note, (1.) These awful images of Judah's destruction give some faint description of that great and terrible day of the Lord, when his wrath shall finally be poured out on the anguish, the bowmen be defeated, the earth hunts up, and all created nature return to its original chaos. (2.) Whate- (1) In all God's judgments below some mercy is mingled with vengeance; but hereafter there will be judgment without mercy. 2. Their sufferings are remedied. God will not help them; they cannot deliver themselves; and their human confidences will fail, and leave them in despair. If the earth mourn, and the heavens are black with storms of wrath, 'tis because God hath broken their doom. His purpose is fixed; his business irrevocable: since they refused to repent of their sins, he will not repent of his judgments for them, v. 28. He being against them, what can they do, whither can they go. Their own force is insufficient to resist the invading fire, and as vain their hope in their confidences. Though like a prostitute, that by painting and dress for a general, he will not be able to do it, and he will not be able to do it, and he will not be able to do it, and he will not be able to do it, and he will not be able to do it, and he will not be able to do it, and he will not be able to do it, and he will not be able to do it, and he will not be able to do it, and he will not be able to do it, and he will not be able to do it. Reprofs for sin and threatenings of judgment are interwoven in this chapter. (1.) The sin they are charged with are, Injustice, ver. 1. Hypocrisy in religion, ver. 2. Inverisskinesis, ver. 3. Both poor and rich are corrupt, ver. 4, 5. History and adultery, ver. 9, 8. Transcerous departures from God, ver. 11. An impudent defiance of him, ver. 12, 13. And that which is at the bottom of all this, worst of the fear of God, ver. 20-24. Vitriens and oppression, ver. 26-28. And a combination of those to debauch the nation that should have been alive to reform it, ver. 30, 31. (2.) The judgments they are threatened with are very terrible: In general, they shall be reckoned with, ver. 9, 29. A foreign enemy shall be brought in upon them, ver. 15-17. Shall let guards upon them, ver. 6. Shall destroy their Jerusalem, ver. 18. Shall carry them away into oppression, ver. 19. And keep all good things from them, ver. 25. And barren the word of God's prophets shall be fulfilled, ver. 14. But, (3.) Here is an injunctions their grieve that God would in the midst of wrath remember mercy, and not utterly destroy them, ver. 10, 18. 1. FUN ye to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now, and know, and look in the broad places thereof, if ye can find a man, if there be any that execuents judgment, that seeketh the truth, and I will pardon it. 2. And though they say, The LORD liveth, surely they swear fally. 3. O LORD, are not thine eyes upon the truth? thou hast thicken them, but they have not grieved: thou hast confessed them, but they have refused to receive correction: they have made their faces harder than a rock, they have refused to return. 4. Therefore I said, surely these are poor, they are foolish; for they know not the way of the LORD, nor the judgment of their God. 5. I will get me unto the great men, and will speak unto them; for they have known the way of the LORD, and the judgment of their God: but these have altogether broken the yoke, and burth the bonds. 6. Wherefore a lion out of the fared shall slay them, and a wolf of the evenings shall spail them, a leopard shall watch over their cities: every one that goeth out thence shall be torn in pieces: because their transgressions are many, and their backslating are increased. 7. How shall I pardon thee for this? thy children have forsaken me, and I sworn by these that are no gods: where I had fed them to the full, they then committed adultery, and assembled themselves by troops in the harlots houses. 8. They were at fed houses in the morning: every one weighed after his neighbour's wife. 9. Shall I not wise for these things? faith the LORD: and shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this? 9. 1-9. God will ever be justified in his judgments: and when he visits, vestly there is a cause. We have here, 1. Their many and aggravated sins. (1) All truth and harmless were banished. Search Jerusalem throughout, in all the places of concourse, and neither a magistrate could be found upright, nor a man faithful, such a universal corruption was spread through all ranks and degrees. To spare Sodom ten righteous were required; to spare Jerusalem one would have suffered, and is not found; at least no such was to be met in the places of public resort, where, if a few remained, they dared not appear. (2.) They were false-hearted hypocrites. Some indeed made profusion of religion, and pretended a regard for truth, but they were perjured wretches, and zathies in all their vows of fidelity to God, whose eye was upon them, and from whom they could not be concealed, v. 2, 3. Note, (1.) Perjury is a crying sin, and there is an avenging God who hears. (2.) They who are infamous in their profession of Godilords, are more guilty than the openly abandoned. (3.) They were abominately hardened. All God's vibrations produced no humiliation: they neither grieved for the sins that provoked him, nor fought to answer the end of his corrections; but daringly barred the divine rest, cause, or neither ashamed of their wickedness nor afraid of the punishment, and infidelity refused to return. Note, When judgments have no effect, and men grow impudent in sin, their case appears desperate. (4.) They were shamefully ignorant, v. 4. They knew not the way of the Lord, nor the judgment of their God. They understood neither his word, the manner of his worship, or the designs of his providence. But the prophet was willing to hope these were foolish, because poor, and might have less opportunities of improvement: yet he found the case no way mened with their betters. Note, (1.) Prevailing ignorance of the things of God cannot but be accompanied with abounding iniquity. (2.) The high attainments of knowledge may not be in their power, all truths needful to salvation the poorest may learn. So that they are without excuse: for wilful ignorance is wilful sin. (5.) The great had utterly call off the divine government. Among the princes, the priests, and the elders, at least, he expected wisdom and piety, and that they would pay attention to his word. But just the reverse: whatever their knowledge was, their practice was avowed unguiltiness; breaking the yoke, and burthing the bonds of God's commands. Note, in a corrupted state, the higher men's stations are, we may expect to find in them the greater abominations. (6.) Their idolatries were infamous. Forsaking God, they paid their worship to shack and shores, and swore by them that were no gods. Well might he therefore say, How shall I pardon thee for this? v. 7. (7.) They gave full hope to their bestial lusts, abused the plenty God bestowed to pamper their bodies, and, having made provision for the flesh, to impudent and harassed were they in their indulgences, that in troops they assembled in the harlots houses; and, infallible in their raging lusts, like fed horses in the morning, they weighed after their neighbour's wife, and added adultery to whoredom, to kill up the measure of their iniquities. Note, They who would keep from gentle pollutions much bristle their appetites, and than idleness. If the fuel be prepared, the fire will quickly kindle. 2. Their defractions is threatened by Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. As a lion, resistless in strength; as an evening wolf, fierce with hunger; and as a leopard, watching, darte on his prey; so irresistible, ravening, and swift, shall he come to execute God's judgments, to besiege their cities, and tend in pieces those who either come forth to oppose him, or seek to escape: and this because their transgressions are so many, and their backslating so increased. 3. God appeals to them for the justice of this procedure. Shall I not wise for these things? The honour of his government, as well as the bestands of his nature, requires that requisition should be made, and judgment pass upon such offenders. And shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this? His vindictive justice is essential to his nature; and national sins call for national judgments. Note, Sin must be avenged, and visited either on the sinner's person or his surety. 10. ¶ Go ye up upon her walls, and destroy, but make not a full end: take away her battlements, for they are not the LORD's. 11. For the house of Israel and the house of Judah have dealt very treacherously against me, faith the LORD. 12. They have belied the LORD, and said, 'It is not he, neither shall evil come upon us, neither shall we fee fowl nor famine: 13. And the prophets shall become wind, and the word is not in them: thus shall it be done unto them. 14. Wherefore thus faith the LORD God of hosts, because ye speak this word, behold, I will make my words in thy mouth fire, and this people wood, and it shall devour them. 15. Lo, I will bring a nation upon you from far, O house of Israel, faith the LORD; it is a mighty nation, it is an ancient nation, a nation whose Before Chall 6.12. 1. Chap. 2. Chap. 10. 3. Chap. 10. 4. Chap. 10. 5. a Chron. 6. chap. 10. 7. Chap. 10. 8. chap. 10. 9. 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Before God 8th. 4. Let, e.g., 16. Don. seven, 37. 13. 4. Chap. ix. 8. 4. Chap. xii. 8. &ex. 10. 4. Don. seven, 42. 48. whoe langu-se thou knowest not, neither understandest what they say. 16. Their quiver is as an open sepulchre, they are all mighty men. 17. And they shall eat up these harvest, and thy bread, which thy Son and thy taughters should eat: they shall eat up thy flocks and thine herds; they shall eat up thy vines and thy fig-trees: they shall impoverish thy fenced cities, wherein thou trustedit, with the sword. 18. Nevertheless in those days, faith the LORD, 'I will not make a full end with you. 19. ¶ And it shall come to pass when ye shall lay, 'Wherefore doth the LORD our God all these things unto us? then shall thou answer them, Like as ye have freedom me, and served strange gods in your land; so 'shall ye serve strangers in a land that is not yours. 4. 10—19. The subject of these verses is nearly the same as the foregoing. 1. The provocations they have given. Israel and Judah, alike rebellions, have treacherously departed from God's ways and worthing, v. 11. fearless of God's warnings, yea daring to give the lie to his word in the mouth of his prophets, and vainly proming themselves peace and plenty: as if the threatenings they abounded were melancholy thanks to their own brains, v. 12. and would prove but as a puff of wind; and as if their own false prophets were rather to be regarded, returning their circumstances upon them, thus shall it be dear unto them, or let it be dear, giving orders to punish the true prophets with the famine and the sword, for presuming to predict such judgments against them, v. 13. Note, (1.) It is at the bottom of the flower's presumption and fecurite, that he does not believe God as so holy as his word declares, and flatters himself there are some reserves of mercy, or that his faithful servants are too severe, and misrepresent his word. (2.) Many now scoff at the preaching of God's prophets as folly, and treat them as visionary enthusiasts, who will shortly find that what they despise as belown, construed to frighten the minds of the superstitious, are fearful realities. 2. The punishment threatened for their impenitence. That word of God's prophets they had despised should fearfully be fulfilled: as for it should burn, and they be fuel to the flame, v. 14. Those proud battlements, in which they relied, deserted of God their only sure defence, shall be easily thrown down by the belaying fire, v. 10. From far, a mighty nation, an ancient nation, to whom they were utter strangers, marches at God's command against them, v. 15. Their arrows devouring as the grave, and their warriors so mighty that they cannot stand before them, v. 16. Their country shall be forraged, wasted, and plundered; their corn and cattle seized, and themselves and children left to pine with hunger; their cities ruined, and their garrisons flare with the sword, v. 17. Note, (1.) God will make sinners know at last whose word shall stand, his or theirs. (2.) Vain are all our confidences, when God hath foreseen us. (3.) The God of hosts hath all nations at his beck, and soon can make one fearful nation a courage to its neighbour. 3. In wrath God remembers mercy. For the like of the remmant according to the election of grace, a full end shall not be made of this brutal nation, v. 18. Note, When God gives a commision to the sword, he prescribes the bounds; hitherto shall thou come, and no further. 4. God's justice will appear in his judgments. Many of them quarreling with their punishment would charge God foolishly; and, as if underserving of this treatment, expeditate with him thereupon: wherefore doth the Lord our God (to whom they hypocritically pinched relation) all these things unto us? The reason is obvious, and the uprightness of his procedure clear: thus shall answer them, Like as ye have foreseen me, my worship and service, and served strange Gods in your land, ye shall ye serve strangers, the Chaldeans, in a land which is not yours: and this a most just rerelation. Note, (1.) It is a sure sign of an unhumbled heart, when we murmur against and find fault with the severity of our corrections. (2.) They who make themselves servants of sin shall, sooner or later, be made sick of the service. 20. Declare this in the house of Jacob, and publish it in Judah, saying, 21. Hear now this, O' foolish people, and without 3 understanding, which have eyes and see not, which have ears and hear not: 22. 'Fear ye not me? faith the LORD: will ye not tremble at my presence, which have placed the land for' the bound of the sea, by a perpetual decree that it cannot pass it; and though the waves thereof tois themselves, yet can they not prevail; though they rose, yet can they not pass over? 23. But this people hath a trembling and a rebellions heart: they are revolted and gone. 24. Neither say they in their hearts, Let us now fear the LORD our God' that governs rain, 'both the former and the latter in his reason: he rebreveth unto us the appointed weeks of the harvest. When the prophet had to do with a people so obflunate and perverse, he had need cry aloud and spree: not. He charges them. 1. With their stupidity and tonsilence. They neither used their ears to attend to God's word, nor their eyes to contemplate his works; but, as if blind and deaf, continued void of understanding. Note, None so blind as those who will not see, or deal as they who refuse to hear; and none so criminal as those that, in the midst of means and mercies, chute darkness rather than light. 2. They were destitute of God's fear, notwithstanding the displays of majesty and mercy they behold and experienced. They saw the raging seas arise, and threaten to rush another deluge; yet, by his mighty power shut up as with gates of adament, the proud waters are flared, and their linens fixed by a perpetual decree; and Fear ye not me? faith the Lord; will ye not tremble at my presence? Surely this must prove them more feofeless, perverse, and disobedient, than these foaming hollows. Yet, if his majesty moved them not, his mercy should engage them to fear the Lord and his goodness; who, with such confitant providential care, causeth the rain to descend; the former, which in Judea was in part of October and November, after the sowing; and the latter one, in part of March and April; in his fealon, as would be most conducive to produce a plemish; which he graciously bestowed on them. Yet in ungrateful and inferible were they, that all this kindness wrought not on their obdurate souls, nor engaged them to lay in their hearts, Let us now fear the Lord our God. Note, (1.) If the Lord put out his fear in our hearts, neither the works of his power nor the wonders of his providence will affect us: yet will they leave us inexcusable. (2.) Where the fear of God is not, there must be confusion and every evil work. 3. They were obstinately rebellious, and revolted from God: their hearts were applause from him: and not for a season merely, but they went on in one continued course of iniquity, daily widening the breath, and hiling up the measure of their iniquities. Note, Such others are we all by nature, so foolish, fearless, and revolted: at comity against God, and hating the restraints of his law, till he by his grace spree our eyes, put his fear in our hearts, and reduce them to the obedience of Christ. 25. ¶ "Your iniquities have turned away these things, and your sins have withholden good things from you. 26. For among my people are found wicked men: 'they 'lay wait as he that feterth foams, they set a trap, they catch men. 27. As a cage is full of birds, so are their houses full of deceit: therefore they are become great, and waxen rich. 28. They 'are waxen fat, they shine: yea, 'they overpass the deeds of the wicked: 'they judge not the cause, the cause of the fatherless, 'yet they prosper: and the right of the needy and they not judge. 29. 'Shall I not visit for these things? faith the LORD: shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this? 30. ¶ A wonderful and horrible thing is committed in the land. 31. 'The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means, and 'my people love to have it so: and what will ye do in the end thereof? We have here, 1. The militias their sins had already brought upon them: Your iniquities have turned away these things, and your sins have holden good things from you. The heavens had been shut up, the earth unfruitful, the seasons unkindly, and their harmless had failed. Note, Lefter visitations, slighted, prepare the way for heavier judgments. 2. Their provocations continued as bad as ever, yea grew worse and worse. Their general character was wickedness, and that the more aggravated as being in profession God's people. They were deceitful, treacherous, oppressive, covetous. They had shares to outrage and destroy those who any ways interfered with their interests, or were become the objects of their resentment for reproving them for their sins, v. 26. As a cage with birds set for a decree, that is filled with those that are caught, so are their houses filled with the gain of fraud and deceit. Thus they become great, v. 27. and, indulging their appetites out of their ill-gotten wealth, wax fat and shine. They overpass the deeds of the wicked, are worse than the heathens around them; or, though pretending to religion, they exceed in iniquity the most abandoned predilection. In vain the fatherless and needy cry for their affections, to vindicate them from oppression, or relieve them from their distresses; their ears are deaf to their cry; neither as advocates for them, or magistrates, do they regard right or justice; and yet, astonishing to tell they proper, v. 28. Yet surely they fatten but for the slaughter. But, above all other crimes, a unadvised and horrible thing is committed as the land, enough to make the ears of every one that heareth it to tingle, and be amazed at the pitch of impiety to which they are arrived; The prophets prophesy falsely, see lying divinations, and visions of ¶ PC. rev. 10. Ill. 14. 1. 11. 17. Or prs. w fowlers lay in wari. 6. Don; seven, 17. Zach. v. 6, 7. Ills. 1, 15. Zach. 10. 10. Ills 10, 6. Pl. 3000. 12. Chap. xii. 1. War. 9. In this chapter, as before, we have, (1.) A prophecy of the invading of the land of Judah, and the besieging of Jerusalem by the Chaldean army, ver. 1—6. with the plain they should make of the country, ver. 9. and the terror which all should be issued with on that occasion, ver. 22—26. (2.) An account of these sins of Judah and Jerusalem, which provoked God to bring this desirability judgment upon them. Their oppression, ver. 7. Their contempt of the word of God, ver. 1—12. Their worldliness, ver. 13. The treachery of their prophets, ver. 14. Their impudence in sin, ver. 15. Their idylight against repiters, ver. 18, 19. Which made their sacrifices unacceptable to him, ver. 20. and for which he gave them up to ruin, ver. 21. But tried them first, ver. 27. And then rejected them as irredeemable, ver. 28—30. (3.) Good counsel given them in the midst of all this, but in vain, ver. 8, 16, 17. 1. O Ye children of Benjamin, gather yourselves to fire out of the midst of Jerusalem, and blow the trumpet in Tekoa: and let up a sign of fire in Beth-hacerem: for ye evil appeareth out of the north, and great destruction. 2. I have likened the daughter of Zion to a comely and delicate woman. 3. The shepherds with their flocks shall come unto her: they shall pitch their tents against her round about: they shall feed every one in his place. 4. Prepare ye war against her: arise and let us go up at noon: wo unto us, for the day goeth away, for the shadows of the evening are stretched out. 5. Arise, and let us go by night, and let us destroy her palaces. 6. ¶ For thus hath the LORD of hosts said, Ilew ye down trees, and ¶ call a mount against Jerusalem: this is the city to be visited, she is wholly oppression in the midst of her. 7. As a fountain calleth out her waters, so she calleth out her wickedness: violence and spoil is heard in her, before me continually is grief and wounds. 8. Be thou instructed, O Jerusalem, lest my soul depart from thee: lest I make thee desolate, a land not inhabited. We have here, 1. An alarm spread of the approaching foe coming from the north, and spreading destruction before him. The trumpet is blown in Tekoa, the beacon lighted in Beth-hacerem, a place between Tekoa and Jerusalem, as a signal for their flight, if they hoped to escape, Jerusalem being ready to be besieged, v. 1. 2. Their weakness, and the formidable power of their foes, is described. The daughter of Zion is as helpless, and unable to make restfulness, as a comely and delicate woman. Some ridicule of woman read pasture, in correspondence with the following similitude, where their invaders are compared to shepherds with their flocks, who would pitch their tent there, and eat up the land as easily, and make it bare, as the Ox licks up the grass of the field. Note, To have been brought up delicately makes every hardship more acutely felt. 3. In pursuance of God's commission their enemies hasten to the attack. Prepare ye war against her, and press the large, soon ye down trees, and cast a mount against Jerusalem, to batter the walls, and, as soon as the breach is practicable, give the assault. Vol. II. With mutual encouragements they quicken each other boldly to storm the place; arise, let us go up at noon, and, as if some delay had prevented their design from being immediately executed, they regret that the shadows of the evening are advancing, v. 4. yet resolved to carry their point, and confident of success, the time of Jerusalem's visitation being come, v. 6. they are too impatient to wait for the morning, and resolve that night to attempt the breach, v. 5. Some refer the words, we write us, &c. to the besieged, lamenting their desperate case, the day of their prosperity being at an end, and the dark night of their distress approaching. Note, (1.) When God's day of visitation is come, the sinner can be no longer late. (2.) If they are so eager to storm the city and seize the wealth of Jerusalem, shall we chew less zeal and earnestness to enter the kingdom of heaven and obtain the unfeasible riches of glory. (3.) Nothing encourages the heart so much as confidence of success. And thus it is, in our spiritual warfare, that faith enables us to overcome. Puffout quia puffi evidenter. 4. The cause of all these judgments is their sins. Jerusalem was become a sink of wickedness: it flowed incessantly and abundantly, as the waters of a fountain; and all rocks and degrees of men were tainted; and particularly the whole city was a form of oppression, where, like fishes in the sea, the great preyed upon the latter, violence and spoil is heard in every corner, and grief and wounds, the blood and the cries of the oppressed, are continually before God, calling for vengeance. Note, There is a day when the wrongs of the oppressed will be examined and avenged. 5. A fair admonition is once more given, if they have yet ears to hear. Be thou instructed, O Jerusalem: at last attend to understand and obey the calls to repentance, lest my soul depart from thee, or be evidently plucked away from thee; his favour utterly departing from them: and his love to them turned into abhorrence; lest I make thee desolate, a land not inhabited. Note, (1.) God is unwilling to give up the sinner, and therefore he is patient, and pleads with him at last, though late, to return. (2.) When all his offers of mercy are obstinately rejected, at last God will depart, and leave the sinner to his ruin; and then wo, wo unto him. 9. ¶ Thus such the LORD of hosts, 'They shall thoroughly glean the remnant of Israel as a vice: turn back thine hand as a grape gatherer into the baskets. 10. To whom shall I speak and give warning, that they may hear? behold, their ear is uncircumcised, and they cannot hear: behold the word of the LORD is unto them a reproach: they have no delight in it. 11. Therefore I am full of the fury of the LORD: I am weary with holding in: I will pour it out upon the children abroad, and upon the assembly of young men together: for even the husband with the wife shall be taken, the aged with him that is full of days. 12. And their houses shall be turned unto others, with their fields and wives together: for I will therein our my hand upon the inhabitants of the land, saith the LORD. 13. For from the least of them, even unto the greatest of them, every one is given to coverhouses; and from the prophet even unto the priest, every one deaieth taillly. 14. They have healed also the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace, when there is no peace. 15. Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore they shall fall among them that fall: at the time that I visit them, they shall be cast down, saith the LORD. 16. Thus saith the LORD, Stand ye in the ways and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls: but they said, We will not walk therein. 17. Also I let watchmen over you, saying, Hearken to the sound of the trumpet: but they said, We will not hear. Farther iniquities are here discovered, and farther judgments denounced. 1. Their transgressions were multiplied. (1.) They were deaf to all the warnings of the prophets. To whom shall I speak and give warning, that they may hear? Intimating the universal disregard paid to his message. Their ear is uncircumcised. At first they would not hear, and now they are left to the hardness of their hearts, and they cannot hear. Nay, they counted God's word, that rebuked their sins, a reproach to them; and treated it, and those who delivered it, with insult and contempt. They have no delight in it, but the very contrary, a loathing and aversion to it. Note, (1.) The fidelity of God's ministers, in rebuking men's sins, is often confirmed into personal abude. (2.) We are not to wonder that the word of the gospel is looked upon as a reproach; it was so from the beginning. (3.) They who have no delight in the Bible, have no name in the book of life. (2.) They were slaves to the love of money. High and low, rich and poor, priest and prophet, all were given to covetousness, and cared not by what fasthoods or means they enriched themselves, so they could but secure the mansion of unrighteousness. Note, Nothing more fatally hardens the heart against God's word, than this rooted attachment to gain. (3.) The prophets and priests, who by profession and office should have endeavoured to stop the torrent of ungodliness, contributed to make the disease more desperate and incurable by their lying visions, false glosses, and smooth discourses, suited to lull the sinner's conscience into a fatal security, crying, Peace, peace, when there is no peace. Note, There is no later mark of a false prophet than this, that he avoids those alarming expression of God's word, that are suited to slarize the sinner; that he is seditious to soften what are counted harsh sayings; that is his study not to offend, and his labour to lull those to their will, who may have been made untruly by more faithful advocates for the truth. (4.) They were shameless in their abominations. The preachers of lies refused to blush, when never so clearly detected in their false doctrines and flattering divinations; and the people, alike hardened, neither were ashamed of their sins, nor afraid of the threatened punishments, v. 15. Note, Those faces that would not blush at rebukes, shall soon be pale as flames, when the terrors of God shall seize them. (5.) The kindest admonitions of God had no influence on them. He would have gathered them, but they would not. Thus faith the Lord, Stand ye on the way and see; consider your path, and whether it will lead you, to heaven or to hell; and ask for the old paths; consult your Bibles, enquire the way wherein the holy patriarchs walked. Where is the good way, the good old way of faith and holiness, which was revealed in the first promise, and which all God's saints have tried from the beginning; and ye shall find rest unto your path, from all your fears; but they said, He will not wait therein, as if determined to rush on their destruction. Every method had God taken to deter and divert them from so fatal a resolution. I set watchmen over you, faithful ministers of the sanctuary, saying, Hordees to the sound of the trumpet, breathing the voice of peace and mercy, or spreading the tremendous alarm of the guilt and punishment of sin. But they said, He will not borrow; it is being every method God had taken to save them, and, faithless and fearless of his judgments, perishing in their impenitence. Note, (1.) The importance of that eternity which depends thereon, should engage us to a frequent and serious consideration of our ways, what we are doing, and whether we are going. (2.) The paths of life and truth are easily found of those who are at pains to enquire after them. (3.) The good way to heaven is Christ, his righteousness and grace, and he is the old way; for from the beginning the gospel was preached, and the saints of old were loved, even as we. (4.) They who are found in this way will obtain rest to their souls, peace with God, internal confessions, and comfortable confidence of arriving late at their journey's end in heaven. (5.) God's faithful ministers must lead men in this way, and cry aloud to invite sinners to walk in it. (6.) They who will not be persuaded by God's word, must be left to their own delusions; and miserable, eternally miserable, will be the end of those men. 2. The terrible punishment of the Jewish people is foretold. Because they are thus oblivious and hardened, the prophet declares, I am full of the fury of the Lord; the revelation made to him of the wrath ready to be revealed, was so awful, that it filled his heart with terrible apprehension for them; I am so very cold holding it; as if unwilling to be the misfiring of evil, he had refrained, till like a fire within him, it forced a passage, and he was constrained to speak. And fearful indeed are the devasations threatened; I will pour out my fury upon the little children playing in the streets, upon the assemblies of young men associated for mirth and pleasure, husband and wife shall be taken captives, and the most decrepit with age and no reverence, or pity, v. 11. Their houses are given to their enemies, with their fields; and what is still more bitter, their wives are profiling to their lulls: upon the whole land the hand of God's vengeance is stretched out, v. 12. Their lying prophets shall then meet their doom, and fall among them that fall, in spite of all their vain confidence; as the time that I wish them shall they be soft drawn, faith the Lord, v. 15. Thus shall their enemies plunder and destroy them; and as if solicitous to leave none to escape, they shall thoroughly pleas the remnant of Israel as a wise, as the poor after the vintage picked off every berry which was left. Furs and thine hand as a grape-gatherer into the lights, till all the spoil is collected, and every Israelite led captive, v. 9. Note, It is the most unpleading part of our office to be the messenger of evil; but it is absolutely necessary that by the terrors of the Lord we should persuade men: and however tremendous the subject, they who hear ought not to be defended with the servants who barely report what they have received of the Lord. 18. ¶ Therefore hear, ye nations, and know, O congregation, what is among them. 19. Hear, O earth, behold, I will bring evil upon this people, even the fruit of their thoughts, because they have not hearkened unto my words, nor to my law, but rejected it. 20. To what purpose cometh there to me incense? from Sheba? and the sweet cane from a far country? your burnt-offerings are not acceptable, nor your sacrifices sweet unto me. 21. Therefore thus faith the LORD, behold, I will lay thornbling-blocks before this people, and the fathers and the sons together shall fall upon them: the neighbour and his friend shall perish. 22. Thus faith the LORD, behold, a people cometh, from the north-country, and a great nation shall be raised from the sides of the earth. 23. They shall lay hold on bow and spear: they are cruel, and have no mercy: their voice roareth like the fog, and they ride upon horses, set in array as men for war against thee, O daughter of Zion. 24. We have heard the same thereof: our hands was feeble: a anguish hath taken hold of us, and pain, as of a woman in travail. 25. Go not forth into the field, nor walk by the way; for the sword of the enemy, and tear to an every side. 26. ¶ O daughter of my people, a girl thee with fackelush, and a wallow thyself in afters: make thee mourning as for an only sin, most bitter lamentation: for the lynder shall suddenly come upon us. 27. I have set thee for a tower, and a fortress among my people, that thou mayest know and try their way. 28. They are all grievous revolters, walking with slanders: they are brats and iron, they are all corrupters. 29. The bellows are burnt, the lead is condemned of the fire, the founder melterth in vain; for the wicked are not plucked away. 30. ¶ Reprobate silver shall men call them: because the LORD hath rejected them. We have here. 1. God's appeal to the whole world for the equity of his procedure. When tidings of what was done among them, judgments so terrible and strange, were reported, it mightาชem them that God should thus deal with his once so favoured people; but the wonder will cease when their provocations are known. Their sufferings are the necessary fruit of their thoughts; evil, and only evil, and that continually; and the consequence of their wicked ways, as disobedient against all the warnings of God's prophets, and rebellious against all the restraints of his law. Note, If men will not be ruled by God's word, they will justly be ruined by his wrath. 2. The safety of their pretended services. Their incense and perfumes, their offerings and sacrifices, however rich, expensive, and numerous, when brought with an hypocritical heart, as a means of purchasing God's favour, with the hopes of expiring unrepented sins, or to obtain a licence to abide in them; so far were they from being pleading and acceptable, they were his detestation and abhorrence, v. 20. 3. The destruction God would bring upon them. Stumbling-blocks should be set in their ways, their false prophets permitted to delude them, or the Chaldeans, by whom they should be dashed to pieces, both father and son; for sinners together must suffer together; the neighbour and his friend; for those who have walked in evil fellowship, will be involved in the same calamity, v. 21. From the north, a far distant country, the mighty enemies come, v. 22. armed with bow and spear; fierce and cruel, they show no mercy; their voice terrible as the roaring of the sea; their cavalry swift and strong; advancing in battle array against thee, O daughter of Zion. 4. Terrible consternation will seize the Jewish people at their approach. Frightened at the very report, like a woman with child, that falls into travailing pangs, anguish will seize them, their hearts fall them, and their hands be feeble and incapable of resistance, v. 24. In terror they shut themselves up within their city, not daring to flie, to face the foe, or carry on their husbandry, or attempt to travel, for the sword of the enemy, or because the enemy hath a sword ready drawn to say; and fear is an every side, no place being safe. Note, (1.) The sinner's terrors will seize him suddenly and severely, as the pains of a travailing woman. (2.) When God sends his panic unto the heart, the mighty are feeble, and the brave turn cowards. 5. The prophet calls them to lamentation and bitter mourning, to lie in fackelush and afters, as one under the most afflicting anguish for the loss of an only son; and this either as a token of repentance for their sin, or as a perverse of their desperate sorrows under their sudden desiccations, v. 26. Note, How much water is it to prevent the judgment by speedy humiliation, than by impenitence provoke the scourge, when our anguish will come too late to profit us? The prophet having in God's name reproved the people for their sins, and given them warning of the judgments of God that were coming upon them, in this chapter precludes the same intention for their bombination and awakening. 1. He shows them the vanity of revolver as their privileges and performances, ver. 1—11. 2. He mends them of the deliations of Shiloh; and forests that such should be the deliations of Jerusalem, ver. 12—16. 3. God represents to the prophet their abominable idolatries, for which he was thus incensed against them, ver. 17—20. 4. He efforts the people, that to obey is better than sacrifice, and that God would not accept the sacrifices of those that abominantly perplexed in disobedience, ver. 21—28. 5. He threatens to say the land at- tirely waste for their idolatry and impiety, and is multiply their sin- 3. 8. Ver. 19. § Chap. xxviii. 6. § Heb. 11 is good and right in your eyes. 1. Ver. 12. 7. So the priests, and the prophets, and all the people, heard Jeremiah speaking these words in the house of the LORD. 8. ¶ Now it came to pass, when Jeremiah had made an end of speaking all that the LORD had commanded him to speak unto all the people, that the priests, and the prophets, and all the people took him, saying, 'Thou shalt surely die. 9. Why hast thou prophesied in the name of the LORD, saying, This house shall be like Shiloh, and this city shall be defolate without an inhabitant? and all the people were gathered against Jeremiah, in the house of the LORD. 10. ¶ When the princes of Judah heard these things, then they came up from the king's house unto the house of the LORD, and sat down in the entry of the new gate of the LORD's body. 11. Then spake the priests, and the prophets unto the princes, and to all the people, saying, 'This man is worthy to die, for he hath prophesied against this city, as ye have heard with your ears. 12. ¶ Then spake Jeremiah unto all the princes, and to all the people, saying, the LORD sent me to prophesy against this house, and against this city, all the words that ye have heard. 13. Therefore now I amend your ways, and your doings, and obey the voice of the LORD your God, and the LORD will repent him of the evil that he hath pronounced against you. 14. As for me, behold, I am in your hand: do with me as I seemeth good and meet unto you. 15. But know ye for certain, that if ye put me to death, ye shall surely bring innocent blood upon yourselves, and upon this city, and upon the inhabitants thereof: for of a truth the LORD hath sent me unto you, to speak all these words in your ears. The plainest and most reasonable admonitions, delivered with the tenderest affection, and urged with the most solemn weight of God's authority, have no effect upon the hardened sinner but to exasperate his corruptions, as it here appears. 1. Jeremiah is arrested for his preaching, and dragged before the magistrates, that he may be condemned and executed. The ungodly priests and false prophets, that in all ages and places have been the bitterest enemies and persecutors of the few faithful, arose, exasperated at what they heard, and the people, at their instigation, readily followed them; they seize the poor prophet, and threaten him with immediate death, either in the rage of pretended zeal, or by form of law, v. 8. The charge against him is for falsehood, and blasphemous words spoken against that holy place, because in the name of the Lord he had said, this house shall be like Shiloh, and this city shall be defolate without inhabitants. Such an uproar raided a vast tumult, and all the people run together, the tidings of which soon brought up the princes from the king's house into the temple, and before them as judges the criminal is produced, at the entry of the new gate of the Lord's body, where they sat to hear the cause. The false prophets and priests, who had been a great man in the transgression of opposing the ministers of truth, stand forth to accuse him, and shewning but to gain a verdict in their favour, appealing for the truth of their charge to all the people who had heard Jeremiah's discourse, and demanding judgment against him as much worthy to him. Nate, They who will be reckless for God must have been put their lives in their hand. Now when Jesus who have the true preachers of Christ been in danger by tumultuous mobs, instigated by apolloste priests! 2. Jeremiah vindicates himself from the charge, not by denying it, but by maintaining the truth of what he had spoken. The words were not his own. God had sent him, and how could he then be silent? Besides, the threatening only affected the impenitent. So far therefore from desisting, he urges the admonition he had given; Therefore now amend your ways and your charge, and obey the voice of the Lord your God, who yet did not disclaim the relation, and was ready instantly, on their repentance, to recede the threatening issued against them. What was urged with so kind an intention surely deferred our punishment, but praise. However, he submits to whatever firmness they thought fit to pronounce, but warns them of the danger of shedding the blood of an innocent man, which would cry for vengeance; and the still more atrocious guilt of flaying a prophet purely for delivering the words which of a truth the Lord had just him to speak, who would not fall confidently to avenge such a flagrant inflict upon himself, as well as such cruel injustice done to his servant. Nate, (1.) To preach boldly, and suffer patiently for well-doing, is the true spirit of a Christian minister. (2.) We must abide by God's word, nor ever recede a step, though the greatest loss and damage, yea though death itself, threatens us for our fidelity. 16. ¶ Then said the princes, and all the people unto the priests, and to the prophets, This man is not worthy to die: for he hath spoken to us in the name of the LORD our God. 17. Then rose up certain of the elders of the land, and spake to all the assembly of the people, saying, 18. Mica the Morathite prophesied in the days of Hezekiah king of Judah, and spake to all the people of Judah, saying, Thus saith the LORD of hosts, Zion shall be plowed like a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house, at the high places of the forest. 19. Did Hezekiah king of Judah, and all Judah put him at all to death? did he not fear the LORD, and he thought? the LORD, and the LORD repented him of the evil which he had pronounced against them? Thus might we procure great evil against our souls. 20. And there was also a man that prophesied in the name of the LORD, Urijah the son of Shemaiah of Kirjath-jarim, who prophesied against this city, and against this land, according to all the words of Jeremiah. 21. And when Jehoiakim the king, with all his mighty men, and all the princes heard his words, the king sought to put him to death; but when Urijah heard it, he was afraid, and fled, and went into Egypt. 22. And Jehoiakim the king sent men into Egypt, namely, Elnathan the son of Achbor, and certain men with him into Egypt. 23. And they set forth Urijah out of Egypt, and brought him unto Jehoiakim the king, who saw him with the sword, and cast his dead body into the graves of the common people. 24. Nevertheless the hand of Ahikam the son of Shaphan was with Jeremiah, that they should not give him into the hand of the people to put him to death. With like abominations they had offended God, and equally deaf to the repeated admonitions of God's prophets had they been, v. 13. therefore the temple and city of Jerusalem shall become as Shiloh, a deliation, v. 14. and God will cast off the whole people of Judah, as he had already done by their brethren of Israel, who were gone long since into captivity, Note, (1.) God's judgments on others are warnings to us Before Christ (2.) They who follow sinners examples will surely suffer with them. (3.) They who are cut off from God are truly miserable, and must, as the necessary consequences, be shortly cast down into hell. 16. Therefore I pray not thou for this people, neither lift up cry nor prayer for them, neither make intercellion to me; for I will not hear thee. 17. ¶ Soult thou not what they do in the cities of Judah, and in the Streets of Jerusalem? 18. The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead their dough to make cakes to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink-offerings unto other gods, that they may provoke me to anger. 19. Do they provoke me to a ger? Sath the LORD: do they not provoke themselves to the confusion of their own faces? 20. Therefore thus Sath the Lord GOD, Behold, mine anger, and my fury shall be poured out upon this place, upon man and upon beall, and upon the trees of the field, and upon the fruit of the ground; and it shall burn, and shall not be quenched. 9. 16—20. Their own prayers and services, were so hypocrised, and abominable, no good could be expected from them; but the prophet still continued their advocate, and his prayers were usually awaiting; but God will cut off from them every resource. 1. He is forbid to pray for them. Much as the prophet had their salvation at heart, God's decree is fixed, prayer comes too late, their ruin is determined, &c. 16. Note, (1.) They who preach to sinners must pray for them; yea, though they revile and persecute. (2.) In a desperate state is that people, concerning whom God refutes to be intracted, and dusts up the mouths of his prophets. 2. God affirms the reason for his prohibition; their impudent is squints, and incorrigible oblivency. Openly in the cities of Judah, yea, in the very Streets of Jerusalem, under the prophet's eye, uncaved by his presence, and unaffected with his warning, they performed their idolatrous rites, offering meat-offerings and drink-offerings to the queen of heaven, the moon, confiscated for a godless, and to their other idols; and in the work all ages and feces joined, so universal was the corruption found. The very children gathered the wood, which they have been kindled the fire, and the women kneaded the cakes, to prevent God to anger, &c. 17, 18. See how carefully idolatrous initiated betimes their children in the service of their idols; shall we be less inflictious to inflict ours in the knowledge of the living God? Could they so freely part with their bread and wine in these decrible rites; and shall not we more liberally in God's service break our bread to the hungry, and up in our battle to the thrifty? 3. He threatens them with the dire consequences of this conduct. Do they provide me to anger? No: such perturbation as we feel, enters out into the eternal mind. Or don't be re-ever any damage by their wickedness? No: as their goodness could not add to his self-sufficient life and happiness, neither can their wickedness take from it. The hurt they do is only to themselves, bringing upon their own heads swift destruction. Therefore thus Sath the Lord God, Behold, mine anger and a fury shall be poured out upon this place; a deluge of wrath, such as tempt away the world of the ungodly, or which tell upon devout Sodom. The temple and city shall be utterly destroyed; both man and beall be consumed; and the very trees and fruits of the ground devoured by the fire of divine wrath. It shall burn with irresistible fury, and shall not be quenched. And herein we have an awful representation of the punishment of all the wicked in hell, who depart uncivil into everlasting fire. 21. ¶ Thus Sath the LORD of hosts the God of Israel, Put your burnt-offerings unto your sacrifices, and eat flesh. 22. For I I spake not unto your fathers, nor commanded them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt-offerings or sacrifices. 23. But this thing commanded I them, saying, 'Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be my people; and I walk ye in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well unto you. 24. But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear, but walked in the counsels and in the imagination of their evil heart, and I went backward, and not forward. 25. Since the day that your fathers came forth out of the land of Egypt unto this day, I have even sent unto you all my servants the prophets, daily I rising up early, and sending them. 26. Yet they hearkened not unto me, nor inclined their ear, but I hardened their neck, they did worfe than their fathers. 27. Therefore I thou shalt speak all their words unto them, but they will not hearken to thee: thou shalt also call unto them, but they will not answer thee. 28. But thou shalt say unto them, 'This is a nation, that obeyeth not the voice of the LORD their God, nor receiveth correction: truth is perished, and is cut off from their mouth. 9. 21—28. As they placed so much dependence on their sacrifices to procure their acceptance with God, God will have them know their are insignificant and vain, which they unfit their end, and prevented their inflictions. For your burnt-offerings unto your sacrifices, and eat flesh; either give over such vain oblations, and use them rather at your own tables; or add never so many or expensive offerings, and pretend never so religiously to eat them before the Lord; they are utterly unacceptable, which the love and power of sin remains unfounded in your hearts. For, 1. Obedience, not sacrifice, is the great thing God requires. The ten commandments were first delivered to their fathers in the wilderness; and though sacrifices were afterwards inflicted, it was not for their own sake, but in order to lead them by faith to the great Antitype, whose atonement was therein repelanted, exclusive of which, they were utterly inflicted and unacceptable. The principal part therefore of the Sinai covenant was, Obey my voice; and so this the possible was annexed, I will be your God, and ye shall be my people; protecting them from their enemies, and preserving them in the possession of the promised land; and as long as they thus carefully walked in all God's ways, so long it should be well with them, and prosperity continually attend them. 2. Disobedience to the moral law is their great offence, and this had been their case from their very coming out of Egypt to that day. Their fathers and they had together rejected God's law, to walk after the imaginations of their own evil hearts; and, instead of advancing in the ways of holiness and happiness, turned back into the paths of sin and misery, &c. 24. and this in opposition to long and repeated warnings, brought them from those divinely-appointed ministers, whom God from time to time raided up to admonish them of the evil and danger of their ways, &c. 25. Instead of astonishing every generation grew worse, and more hardened, till the measure of their iniquities now rose to the born, &c. 26. therefore the prophet is commanded to speak all their words unto them; those charges of their rebellion and oblivency, and those warnings of their impending ruin. Not that these would have any effect; God forereth him they would not hearken, nor answer to his calls: but, to leave them inexcusable in their wickedness, thou shalt say unto them, 'This is a nation that obeyeth not the voice of the Lord their God, which relation aggravated their disobedience, nor receiveth correction; they will not be taught by the word, nor reclaimed by the red: truth is perished, and is cut off from their mouth; they are false and faithful to God and man, and nothing, but lies, infelicity, and hypocrisy, is to be found amongst them, and therefore nothing but ruin to be expected. Note, We may not cease to admonish sinners, though we for no prospect of reclaiming them; we must speak, if but for a testimony against them. 20. ¶ Cut off thine hair, O Jerusalem, and cast it away, and take up a lamentation on high places; for the LORD hath rejected and forsaken the generation of his wrath. 30. For the children of Judah have done evil in my sight, Sath the LORD: they have for their abominations in the house which is called by my name, to pollute it. 31. And they have built the high places of Tophet, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, which I commanded them not, neither came it into my heart. 32. ¶ Therefore behold, the days come, Sath the LORD, that it shall no more be called Tophet, nor the valley of the son of Hinnom, but the valley of Slaughter: for they shall bury in Tophet, till there be no place. 33. And the carcasses of this people shall be meat for the sows of the heaven, and for the beasts of the earth, and none shall fray them away. 34. Then I will I cause to cease from the cries of Judah, and from the Streets of Jerusalem, the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride: for the land shall be idolatrous. 9. 29—34. Jerusalem, in the prospect of her approaching deliations, is called upon to cut off her hair, in token of deepest mourning, Job 1. 20. and on the high places, the scene of her abominations, to lift up an exceeding bitter cry, as rejected of God, devoted to wrath, and given up into the hands of her cruel enemies. 1. Her Before Chall him. 1. Has sin in exceeding fowls. They have done evil in my fight, faith the Lord; continued in a courts of open and daring impiety: particularly their abominable idolatries provoked him, which to such an enormous height they had carried, that in God's own house they had dared to set up their images, and near their altars, as if they designed on purpose to defile that holy place; and their sacrifices were as horrid and inhuman, as their deities were destillable. They built the high places of Tupha, where Moolich's hatred image stood, and, deaf to the cries of nature, and the thrieks of murdered infants, there parents, loft to every feeling of mutual affection, burnt their children in the fore. It is said, this was performed by hearing the brazen idol red hot, and then the parent laid the child on his arms, whilst the priests beat drums to drown the horrid thrieks and cries: sacrifices which God never commanded, and such as he never thought of enjoining his wordings. Note, When sin hath hardened the heart, it is amazing to what a pitch of barbarity and inhumanity men may go. 2. The vengeance denounced for this is exceeding terrible. Topher, the scene of their abominations; shall shortly change its name for the valley of Slaughter, or of the state; for there shall multitudes fall by the sword, or be carried thither to be buried; multitudes so great, that graves shall be warning for them, v. 32. and the unburied corpses lie for meat to the fowls of heaven, and beasts of the earth, and not a man be left to fray them away, v. 33. Deserted now are the Streets of Jerusalem; no voice of joy is heard; no congratulations of the bride or bridegroom; but either the sound of mournful lamentations, or the land so desolate, that none are left to weep, and more melancholy silence reigns. Note, God will soon change fowls with into everlasting mourning: we need rejoice with trembling. God knoweth how to deliver his people out of temptation, and, when their case appears most desperate, to rescue them from the jaws of the lion. 1. Jeremiah is acquitted, notwithstanding the malicious accusations of his enemies. Such an evidence attended his defence, such a noble simplicity appeared in it, such approved fidelity, and God himself put such an awe upon the princes and people, that though they strangely hardened their hearts against the admonition given, yet they own God's authority, and dare not condemn the innocent prophet. Nate, There are many on whom the word of God hath so far an influence as to extort their assent to its truth, who nevertheless continue unhumbled in their sins. 2. Some of the court, from among the princes, and perhaps Ahikam after-mentioned at their head, rose up in the prophet's defence, and, as a precedent, quoted the case of Mica, who a little before, in the days of Hezekiah, had prophesied as severe things as ever Jeremiah had done, that Jerusalem should become heaps, the city plagued as a field, and the temple utterly demolished, v. 18. yet so far were Hezekiah and his princes from condemning him to death for his fidelity, that they trembled at God's word, befought the Lord, repented of their evil deeds, and this was the lengthening of their prosperity, God accepting their repentance, and withholding the threewell judgment. And such conduct, they intimate, in the present case, would be most fit and becoming, whereas to act otherwise, in shedding innocent blood at the instigation of exasperated priests, incensed at leaving their pride, hypocrisy, and falsehood denuded, would preserve great evil against their fruits, lay them under heavy guilt, and expose them to God's awful vengeance. Note, (1.) The greatest men thwe their wisdom in hearing and obeying the admonitions of God. (2.) The dreadful consequences of sin, if nothing else, should deter us from it; if we have little sense of its evil and malignity, the fear of hell at least should restrain us. 3. Another instance is quoted of a prophet put to death in the present reign, which some suppose to be a case in point urged by Jeremiah's persecutors in reply to the former, and in order to obtain his condemnation. Others, that it is the continuation of the same person's discourse, urging the guilt already brought upon the law by the murder of one prophet, and that to increase it, by a repetition of the like crime, could not but hasten their destruction. Others suppose this story was added by Jeremiah himself, or whoever collected his prophecies, as an instance of God's extraordinary interposition in the present case, when his family, in the same reign, another holy man, Urulah, met his fate in the discharge of his office, and for the very same words Jeremiah had spoken. Provoked by his preaching, the king and his nobles fought to say him; and, to avoid it, the prophet either prudently abdicated, or rather immorally detested his poft; for men of true grace may at times be overcome with fear; though usually little is to be got by sight, as in the present case. Cowardice often exposes those to ruin whom courage might have extracted from danger. The king sent after him to Egypt, whether he had fled, got him delivered up as a flare-criminal, and drew him, probably with his own hand, at least commanded it to be done; and, to make the ignominy the greater, and his prophecies disregarded, and his dead body into the greater of the common people. 4. Notwithstanding all the pleas of his accusers, Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, 2 Kings xxii. 12. a man who had lived under pious Judah, a great man, yet a good man, and the prophet's friend, stood by him, and prevailed upon the princes not to deliver him into the hand of the enraged people, whom the priests had inflamed, and were ready to murder him, as soon as they could obtain permission. Note, God hath in his hands the hearts of all men, and can raise us up friends, in the day of trial, where we shall expected to find them. Before God (2). They who follow sinners examples will surely suffer with them. (3.) They who are cast off from God are truly miserable, and such, as the necessary consequence, be shortly cast down into hell. 16. Therefore pray not thou for this people, neither lift up cry nor prayer for them, neither make intercession to me; for I will not hear thee. 17. ¶ Seek thou not what they do in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem? 18. The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead they dough to make cakes to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink-offerings unto other gods, that they may provoke me to anger. 19. Do they provoke me to a ger? Sath the LORD: do they not pre-vele themselves to the confusion of their own faces? 20. Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, mine anger; and my fury shall be poured out upon this place, upon man and upon beall, and upon the trees of the field, and upon the fruit of the ground; and * it shall burn, and shall not be quenched. Their own prayers and services, were so hypocritical and abominable, no good could be expected from them; but the prophet still continued their advocacy, and his prayers were wholly waning; but God will cut off from them every resource. 1. He is forbid to pray for them. Much as the prophet had their salvation at heart, God's decree is fixed, prayer comes too late, their ruin is determined, v. 16. Note, (1.) They who preach to sinners must pray for them; yea, though they revile and periccate. (2.) In a desperate state is that people, concerning whom God refuses to be intreated, and shuts up the mouths of his prophets. 2. God alleges the reason for his prohibition; their impudent iniquities, and incorrigible obituary. Openly in the cities of Judah, yea, in the very streets of Jerusalem, under the prophet's eye, uncured by his pretences, and enuflected with his warning, they performed their idolatrics, they, offering me to offer a good drink-offering to the queen of heaven, the money, confecuted for a godless, and to their other idols; and in the work all ages and sexes joined, so universal was the corruption forced. The very children gathered the wood, whilst their fathers kindled the fire, and the women kneaded the cakes, to provide God to anger, v. 17, 18. See how carefully idolatrics initiated berimes their children in the service of their idols; shall we be less inflictious to instruct ours in the knowledge of the living God? Could they do freely part with their bread and wine in these detestable rites; and shall not we more liberally in God's service break our bread to the hungry, and op in our battle to the thrifty? 3. He threatens them with the dire consequences of this conduct. Do they provoke me to anger? No: such perturbation as we feel, enters not into the eternal mind. Or doth he receive any damage by their wickedness? No: as their goodness could not add to his self-sufficient life and happiness, neither can their wickedness take from it. The hurt they do is only to themselves, bringing upon their own heads swift destruction. Therefore thus saith the Lord God, Behold, mine anger and a fury shall be poured out upon this place; a deluge of wrath, such as except away the world of the ungodly, or which tell upon devoted Sodom. The temple and city shall be utterly destroyed; both man and beall be confused; and the very trees and fruits of the ground devoured by the fire of divine wrath. It shall burn with irresistible fury, and shall not be quenched. And herein we have an awful representation of the punishment of all the wicked in hell, who depart accursed into everlasting fire. 21. ¶ Thus saith the LORD of hosts the God of Israel, Put your burnt-offerings unto your sacrifices, and eat flesh. 22. For I speak not unto your fathers, nor commanded them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt-offerings or sacrifices. 23. But this thing commanded I them, saying, Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be my people; and walk ye in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well unto you. 24. But they hearkned not, nor inclined their ear, but walked in the counsels and in the imagination of their evil heart, and went backward, and not forward. 25. Since the day that your fathers come forth out of the land of Egypt unto this day, I have even sent unto you all my servants the prophets, daily rifing up early, and sending them. 26. ¶ Yet they hearkned not unto me, nor inclined their ear, but hardened their neck, they did worfe than their fathers. 27. Therefore * thou shalt speak all thefe words unto them, but they will not hearken to thee: thou shalt also call unto them, but they will not answer thee. 28. But thou shalt say unto them, This is a nation, that obeyeth not the voice of the LORD their God, nor receiveth correction: truth is perished, and is cut off from their mouth. As they placed so much dependance on their sacrifices to procure their acceptance with God, God will have them know their are insignificant and vain, whilst they unfit their end, and perverted their infiltration. For your heart-offerings unto your sacrifices, and eat flesh; either give over such vain obliations, and use them rather as your own tables; or add never so many or expensive offerings, and pretend never so religiously to eat them before the Lord; they are utterly unacceptable, whilst the love and power of sin remains unfounded in your hearts. For, 1. Obedience, not sacrifice, is the great thing God requires. The ten commandments were first delivered to their fathers in the wilderness; and though sacrifices were afterwards instituted, it was not for their own sake, but in order to lead them by faith to the great Antitype, whose atonement was therein repelerned, exclusive of which, they were utterly idileth and unacceptable. The principal part therefore of the Sinai covenant was, Obey my voice; and to this the promise was annexed, I will be your God, and ye shall be my people; protecting them from their enemies, and preserving them in the possession of the promoted land; and as long as they thus carefully walked in all God's ways, so long it should be well with them, and prosperity continually attend them. 2. Disobedience to the moral law is their great offence, and this had been their case from their very coming out of Egypt to that day. Their fathers and they had together rejected God's law, to walk after the imagination of their own evil hearts; and, instead of advancing in the ways of holiness and happiness, turned back into the paths of sin and misery, v. 24. and this in opposition to long and repeated warnings, brought them from those divinely-appointed ministers, whom God from time to time raided up to admonish them of the evil and danger of their ways, v. 25. Instead of amending, every generation grew worse, and more hardened, till the measure of their iniquities now rose to the form, v. 26. therefore the prophet is commanded to speak all thefe words unto them; those changes of their rebellion and obituary, and those warnings of their impending ruin. Not that these would have any effect; God foretells him they would not hearken, nor answer to his calls: but, to leave them inexcusable in their wickedness, thou shalt say unto them, This is a nation that obeyeth not the voice of the Lord their God, which relation aggravated their disobedience, nor receiveth not—O. 28. they will not be taught by the word, nor reclaimed by the red: truth is perished, and is cut off from their mouth; they are false and faithful to God and man, and nothing but lies, infancy, and hypocrisy, is to be found among them, and therefore nothing but ruin to be expected. Note, We may not cease to admonish sinners, though we for no prospect of reclaiming them; we must speak, if but for a testimony against them. 29. ¶ Cut off thine hair, O Jerusalem, and call it away, and take up a lamentation on high places; for the LORD hath rejected and forsaken the generation of his wrath. 30. For the children of Judah have done evil in my sight, saith the LORD: they have set their abominations in the house which is called by my name, to pollute it. 31. And they have built the high places of Tophet, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, which I commanded them not, neither came it into my heart. 32. ¶ Therefore behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that it shall no more be called Tophet, nor the valley of the son of Hinnom, but the valley of Slaughter: for they shall bury in Tophet, till there be no place. 33. And the carcasses of this people shall be meat for the fowls of the heaven, and for the beasts of the earth, and none shall fray them away. 34. Then * will I cause to cease from the cities of Judah, and from the streets of Jerusalem, the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride: for the land shall be destitute. Jerusalem, in the prospect of her approaching deliations, is called upon to cut off her hair, in token of deepest mourning, for i. no. and on the high places, the scene of her abomination, to lift up an exceeding honor cry, as rejected of God, devoted to wrath, and given up into the hands of her cruel enemies. 1. Her 1. Has sin is exceeding sinful. They have done evil in my fight, faith the Lord; continued in a course of open and daring impiety: particularly their abominable idolaters provoked him, which to such an enormous height they had carried, that in God's own house they had dared to set up their images, and rear their altars, as if they designed on purpose to defile that holy place; and their sacrifices were as horrid and inhuman, as their duties were detestable. They built the high places of Tuphat, where Malach's bared image stood, and, dear to the cries of nature, and the thickets of murdered infants, there parents, lost to every feeling of natural affections, burnt their children in the fire. It is said, this was performed by hearing the brazen idol red hot, and then the parent laid the child on his arms, whilst the priests beat drums to drown the horrid thickets and cries: sacrifices which God never commanded, and such as he never thought of enjoining his wordings. Note, When sin hath hardened the heart, it is amazing to what a pitch of barbarity and inhumanity men may go. 2. The vengeance denounced for this is exceeding terrible. Tuphat, the scene of these abominations, shall shortly change its name for the valley of Janghars, or of the state; for there shall multitudes fall by the sword, or be carried thither to be buried; multitudes so great, that grams shall be wanting for them, v. 32, and the unburied corpses lie for meat to the fowls of heaven, and beasts of the earth, and not a man be left to fray them away, v. 33. Deserved now are the fireers of Jerusalem; no voice of joy is heard; no congratulations of the bride or bridegroom; but either the sound of mournful lamentations, or the land so desolate, that none are left to weep, and more melancholy silence reigns. Note, God will soon change sinful mirth into everlasting mourning: we need rejoice with trembling. The prophet proceeds in this chapter both to magnify and to justify the destruction that God was bringing upon this people. 1. He represents the judgments coming in very terrible, that death, though detested, should be deferred, vers. 1—3. 2. He aggravates the stupidity and willfulness of the people, as what brought this ruin upon them, vers. 4—12. 3. He describes the great willfulness and confirmation that the whole land should be in upon the alarm of it, vers. 13—17. 4. The prophet is himself deeply affected with it, vers. 18—22. 1. AT that time, faith the LORD, they shall bring out the bones of the kings of Judah, and the bones of his princes, and the bones of the priests, and the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem out of their graves. 2. And they shall spread them before the sun, and the moon, and all the lusts of heaven whom they have loved, and whom they have served, and after whom they have walked, and whom they have fought, and whom they have worshipped; they shall not be gathered, nor be buried; they shall be for dung upon the face of the earth. 3. And death shall be chosen rather than life, by all the residue of them that remain of this evil family, which remain in all the places whither I have driven them, faith the LORD of holls. In the derastful desolations before described, the unburied corpses lie exposed; here these savage invaders suffer not the dead to enjoy quiet repose. 1. The graves and republics of Judah's kings and princes shall be opened, either their covetousness to search for treasures; or to show insult even to their allies; or as a just judgment of God, who suffered the bones of the kings, priests, prophets, and people, who had so rebuffed against him, to be exposed with infamy before those luminaries of heaven whom they had worshipped, loved, served, and fought; they had walked in the most abominable idolatries, and set up these to their gods, as if their favour was to be desired, and their blessing to be obtained: foolish and impious the service! and now it appeared so, when they could not afford the least help, nor so much as collect their scattered bones, spread for dung upon the face of the earth, v. 1, 2. Note, In the day of judgment the sinner's loathsome carcals will be more thanfully exposed, fol. lavi. 24. 2. Death, the most dreaded of human evils, now shall be courted; not that it hath lost ought of its horrors, but because life is become intolerable; not from a hope of happiness in the exchange, but from despair of evil or eats below. The survivors of this evil family, for to so small a number will they be reduced, shall be so harassed and contented in every place whither they are driven, that they shall look with envy on those who have perished by famine and the sword, and count their lot more eligible than their own, v. 3. Note, That case is ter-VoL. II. ribly indeed, when life becomes a burden, and the sinner is tempted to prefer strangling and death. 4. Moreover, thou shalt say unto them, Thou faith the LORD, Shalt they fall, and not arise? Shalt he turn away, and not return? 5. Why then is this people of Jerusalem hidden back, by a perpetual backfinding? they hold fast deceit, they refuse to return. 6. I hearkned and heard, but they quake not aright: no man repeated him of his wickedness, saying, What have I done? every one turned to his course, as the horse ruffeth into the battle. 7. Yes, the flock in the heaven knoweth her appointed tiress, and the turtle, and the crane, and the swallow observe the time of their coming, but my people know not the judgment of the LORD. 8. How do ye say, We are wide, and the law of the LORD is with us? Lo, certainly in vain made he it, the pen of the scribes is in vain. 9. The wide men are ashamed, they are dismayed and taken to Lo, they have rejected the word of the LORD, and what wisdom is in them? 10. Therefore will give their wives unto others, and their fields to them that shall inherit them: for every one from the least even unto the greatest is given to covetousness, from the prophet even unto the priest every one deaeth fastly. 11. For they have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace, when there is no peace. 12. Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore shall they fall among them that fall, in the time of their visitation they shall be cast down, faith the LORD. Never was people so insinuated to their ruin. 1. They persevered in their evil ways. In general, when a man fails, he seeks immediately to recover himself; and if he loses his way, he is solicitous to return into the right path, v. 4. Why then is this people of Jerusalem hidden back by a perpetual backfinding? and instead of any desire to amend, they hold fast deceit; obstinate against every means of conviction, they refuse to return. Note, (1.) They who backfolds from God, wonder endlessly and perpetually, unless his grace plucks them from ruin. (2.) Nothing is so great a deceit as sin; it promises so much enjoyment, and ever produces so much misery. 2. They disappointed God's expectations from them. He patiently waited and hearkn'd, if so he they might at last be prevailed upon to change their note, and learn the language of penitence: but not one quake might, nor repeated of his wickedness, reflecting with shame upon his conduct: but just the very reverse; they urged on their mad career in sin with such determined waywardness and fearlessness, as the horse ruffeth into the battle. Note, (1.) God is long-suffering to unward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come unto repentance. (2.) The first step to real penitence is serious reflection upon the evil of our past ways, What have I done? (3.) The daring sinner that mocks at the terrors of the Lord, as chimeras, and fearless ruffess into the depths of iniquity, will find them fearful realities, and that half was not told him. 3. They were more stupid and irrational than the fowls of heaven, whilst they made the highest pretensions to wisdom, v. 7—9. The birds of passage by inflict know the proper season for their coming and going, and how to direct their flight; but my people know not the judgment of the Lord; neither how to improve the calls of mercy in God's word, nor the corrections of affliction, nor his vibrations on others, and yet they say, We are wide, and the law of the Lord is with us. How shameless their pretensions! when their whole conduct appeared so contradictory. In vain had they the law, and the pen of the scribes to write out copies or comments upon it; their expositions were false, or at least they paid no regard to them, if true. Their wise men themselves are confounded at calamities they could neither foresee nor avert: nor can it be wondered, when, is they have rejected the word of the Lord, sent by his prophets; and what wisdom is in them, when they reject the counsel of God, and revise to be instructed? Note, (1.) Many enjoy plenty of means, have Bible and ministers, and yet are never the wiser for them. (2.) Whatever pretenses to wisdom they may make, who reject God's revealed word, they will be confounded in the day of judgment at their own egregious folly. 4. For their sins they shall suffer. Their sins are before charged on them, chap. vi. 13—15. Love of filthy lures, most scandalous in those who are to preach, and be examples to others of deadness to the world. Infanterity; their professions were false, and their doctrine dishonest, tending to lull the sinner's soul into fatal security, instead of rousing him to a sense of his danger; and daring impudence, that knew not to blush, though convicted of their lies, and upbraided for their John Chaff Sons. 1. 1—11. With bitter grief the prophet beheld the fins of his people, and the ruin they provoked. 1. He wishes that his head were waters, and his eyes a fountain of tears, that ftræate incriffant might run down his cheeks for the miseries he forefave, v. 1. Wray of dwelling amidft fo polluted a people, and that he might give full vent to his furrows, or be removed from the dreadful (peftacle before him, he wishes for some defeat lonely cave); preferring the company of the favages of the wood, to fo wicked a nation; and falte amidft the lions of the foreth, than his own treacherous and cruel countrymen. Note, (1.) A good man muft be a patron, and cannot unmoved behold the ruin of his country. (2.) In this vale of misery we may expect to have many a caufe for weeping over our own fins, as well as others. They who fuffer nothing to interrupt their carnal joy, may never hope to receive the birdishords promised to thole that mount. (3.) It is a dreadful symptom of the wickedness, and a sign of the approaching ruin of a people, when the fouls of God's prophets, like Los, are wared with their abomination, and weary of dwelling in the midst of them. 2. The caufe of thefe complaints is, (1.) The fins of his people. They were all adulterers, corporally and spiritually; an assembly of treacherous men, apostates from God and his worship, v. 2. and falte and foothold one to another; bending their tongue like their bow for lies, delirate of all zeal for truth, yea, rather opposing it with all their power; proceeding from evil to worfe, infested of repenting and reforming; ignorant of God, and defining to remain fo, v. 3. Not a neighbour, no, not a brother could be truffled, fo felfish and perfidious were they grown, v. 4. Lies were become familiar to their tongue, and flunder the constant topic of their conversation, and no truth was to be expected from them. They fhuft at no pains to compafe their ends; they weary themselves to commit iniquity, fo eagerly were they bent on it, v. 5. In the midst of such a people the prophet dwelt, and therefore need be on his guard against them; nor marvel if they acted deceitfully with him, when they acted hypocritically towards God, as the latter claufe of v. 6. may be interpreted. Through the delusions of their falfe prophets they refuted to receive the knowledge of God: no arrow was sharper than their bitter and lying words: and, whilft the guife of friendship and peace seemed to breathe in all their difourite, mischief was in their hearts, and they lay in wait to make a prey of thole they had deluded. Note, (1.) Lewdnefs and lying are among the most deadly and prevailing iniquities. (2.) To be silent, and refute to efpocite the fuffering caufe of God and truth, is highly criminal. (3.) They who have accustomed themselves to a habit of lying, will not speak truth, even when they have no purpofe or defign to serve, but lye for lying fake. (4.) The fervive of fin is usually a weanlome tafk; and yet fo enflaved are finners to the love of it, that though the pain exceeds the pleafure, they pursue it yet again, and take more pains to go to hell, than was required to carry them to heaven. (5.) There is no flopping in the way of wickednefs; every fin indulged opens a way for a greater. (6.) In a wicked and deceitful world we need be ever on our guard. (2.) The fufferings of his people. They fhuft be put in the hurted furnace of affliction, to melt and try them, flour all other methods have proved ineffectual, v. 7. The sword fhuft be bathed in blood, v. 1. the country wafted, the villages burnt, the lowing herds and blearing flory no more be heard on the mountains, plundered and carried off by the Chaldom army; nor a living creature seen paffing through the defolate land; even the wild beafts and the fowls of heaven fhuft defier it, unlike to find food for their hunger, v. 10. except the dragons, who take up their abode in the ruined palaces of Jerusalem; and fo utter will be the overthrow, that not an inhabitant fhuft remain in all the cities of Judah, v. 11. Thus will God wife for their iniquities, and his foul be avenged on such a people as this, v. 9. Note, (1.) In the feverft of the afflictions God lays upon any land, he intends to make the fame fire which confunts the wicked, a means of purifying the remnant of his chosen, and separating them as silver from the drofs. (2.) The Iniquitie of the people have often turned a fruitful land into barrennefs. (3.) The prophet who beholds thefe defolations cannot withhold the tear of pity; yea, his eyes are fountains to bewail them; and when we look round upon the world that lurth in wickednefs, and fee that great day of the perdition of ungodly men approach, need we not be more affeciled at a fight fo unfeekably more terrible! them: 15. Therefore thus faith the LORD of hofts, the God of Israel, Behold, I will feed them, ease this people, with wormwood, and give them water of gall to drink. 16. I will fcarter them alfo among the heathen, whom neither they nor their fathers have known; and I will fend a fword after them, till I have confumed them. 17. ¶ Thus faith the LORD of hofts, Confidier ye, and call for the mourning women, that they may come, and fend for cunning women, that they may come. 18. And let them make haffe, and take up a wailing for us, that our eyes may run down with tears, and our eye-lids gulfs out with waters. 19. For a voice of wailing is heard out of Zion, Hsw are we fpoiled! we are greatly confounded, becaufe we have forsaken the land, becaufe our dwellings have caft us out. 20. Yet hear the word of the LORD, O ye women, and let your ear receive the word of his mouth, and teach your daughters wailing, and every one her neighbour lamentation. 21. For death is come up into our windows, and is entred into our palaces, to cut off the children from without, and the young men from the streets. 22. Speak, Thus faith the LORD, Even the carcasses of men fhuft fall as dung upon the open field, and as the handful after the harvest-man, and none fhuft gather them. If the people perith, it is not for want of awful and repeated warnings. 1. A fummons is given to the wife men among them to underfland and declare the caufe of thefe calamities, v. 12. but as no fuch are found, the prophet humbif is commissioned to proclaim both the reason of God's judgments and the terriblencs of the vengeance he is about to execute. Their fin is apotacy from the worthip and fervor of God commanded in the law, and disobedience against all the warnings and notices he had forer unto them, v. 13. to direct opposition to which, they followed the imaginations of their own wicked hearts, and ferved Baalim, a multitude of falfe gods, plunging into idolatry after their fathers example, and filling up the meafure of their iniquities, v. 14. Molt righteous therefore, and juft as fearful, are God's judgments upon them. They fhuft be fed with bread of wormwood, and water of gall, the bitterest afflictions, v. 15. The fword and the famine fhuft devour them, and their carcasses lie unburied on the plain as dung, or as a handful dropped after the harvest-man, which is not regarded or gathered up, v. 22. and if a few efcape the general maffacre, they fhuft be fcartered in heathen lands, which their fathers never knew, and even there fhuft find no reft, the fword of vengeance fhuft purfusing them till they are confumed, v. 16. Note, (1.) Every ftep of departure from God tends only to misery. (2.) Wherever the future fives, or is driven, the curfe of God follows him clofer than his shadow. 2. A fummons is fent to the mourning women. It was customary among the Jews, as well as other nations, to hire fuch on the deceale of their relations, who, by their cries, their foleful plaints, and melancholy dieters, awakened afeeft the forrows of the furvivors. There would now be abundant occasion for thefe, when the multitude of deaths by famine and the fword fhould fill every houfe with lamentation, v. 17, 18. and caufe not merely fictitious, but real anguifh, when out of Zion the voice of wailing is heard, Ifon we see fpoiled! we are greatly confounded, at fceing their city fhorned and taken, themfelves captives, driven from their dwellings, and forced from their own, are led into a ftrange land, v. 19. Under fuch a dire calamity God calls on them, as moft befitting their circumstances, to weep and wail. The word is adderfied to the women, whofe hufbands probably had fallen in the fege; and the men being cheefly flare, none but they remained to lament the defolations. They are enjoined to teach their daughters wailing, and every one her neighbour lamentation. So univerfal would be the misery, that none would be exempted from feeling it, and therefore all are called to bewail it. For death is come up into our windows, like an enemy that fcules the walls, though the gates are fhuft; and is entred into our palaces: the king on the throne, as well as the beggar on the dunghill, is exposed to the famine and the fword; and even the children in the streets are murdered; and the young men, unable to make refillance, are flare by their cruel enemies, who have fhorned the city, v. 21. Note, (1.) This is a vale of tears, where death continually fpreads his ravages, and wksens up our forrows. (2.) No palaces can keep out this invader: kings and princes are dying worms. (3.) To grieve for the dead is natural, humane, pious; only let us not be fowllowed up with immoderate forrow. (4.) Many lament their lofles and croffes bitterly, who never lament their fins, which are the occultion of them; and this is the ferrow of the world that warketh death. 9. Hib. Cut off into con-ning, in having the means of their hole pulled. 13. ¶ Thus faith the LORD, 'Let not the wife man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might; let not the rich man glory in his riches. 24. 'But let him that glorieth, glory in this, that he undefeandeth and knoweth me, that I am the LORD which eatereth loving-kindness, judgment and righteousness in the earth: for in these things I delight, faith the LORD. 25. ¶ Behold, the days come, faith the LORD, that I will punish all them which are circumcised with the uncircumcised; 26. Egypt, and Judah, and Edom, and the children of Ammon, and Moab, and all that are in the utmost corners, that dwell in the wilderness: for all these nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in the heart. 0. 23—26. Having foretold their impending calamities, the prophet concludes with a warning to them, not to have recourse to those vain confidences, which would prove a refuge of lies; but to take that only method which remained of preventing their ruin, returning to the knowledge of God, and obedience to his will. 1. He warns them against depending on their own wisdom, power, and wealth, to protect them, and directs them to the only face refuge. Let not the wife man glory in his wisdom; as if by his politics he could avert the storm: neither let the mighty man glory in his might, which would afford no safety when fighting against God. Let not the rich man glory in his riches; as if the could bribe the invaders, or hire auxiliaries to defend them; for vain would these things prove. If therefore any man would have solid grounds for glorying, it must be in this, that he underfundeth and knoweth me, the only object in whom a sinner can glory; that I am, the Lord, the only hope, help, and Saviour of the guilty, which exercise loving-kindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth; shewing mercy to the miserable, pardoning the sinful, strengthening the weak, just in all his providences, and righteous in all his ways; for in their things I delight, faith the Lord. Note, (1.) Worldly supports are often a dangerous thare. Wisdom, strength, and riches are yet to swell the heart with pride and self-importance, and then they prove our ruin. (2.) Christ is our only glory. In ourselves we have nothing but what we need be ashamed of, and renounce; in him there is all fulness. (3.) What is God's delight, should be ours; and to be partakers of his compassions, to walk in his judgments, and be found in the practice of righteousness and true holiness, will be infinitely more profitable than the highest attainment of worldly wisdom, or the greatest possessions of worldly wealth. 2. He warns them against trusting on their peculiar privileges as promising themselves, because of the covenant of circumcision, that they should be preserved from evil; for this would stand them in no stead which their hearts were uncircumcised, and they continued devoted to the service not of the Lord, but of their lusts; therefore they would share with Egypt, and Edom, and the neighbouring uncircumcised nations, in their punishment, and find no distinction in the day when God arose to judgment. Note, Our partaking of the outward privileges and seals of the covenant will stand us in no stead, if we are desirous of the inward and spiritual graces; yea, will rather aggravate our guilt. The baptized, uncovered, and unhumbled sinner will meet even a heavier doom than the unhappiness of the man. We have here, 1. A caution given the Texas not to learn the way of the heathen, ver. 1, 2. Particularly their offending and idolatry, which are both faithful things, ver. 3—5, and the worshippers of idols brutish, ver. 8, 9. as will appear in the day of their visitation, ver. 14, 15. 2. They are exhorted to adhere firmly to the God of Israel, for there is none like him, ver. 6, 7. He is the true God, lives for ever, and governs the world, ver. 10—13. And his people are happy in him, ver. 16. 3. They are hid to respect distress, ver. 17, 18. And that by a foreign enemy, which God would bring upon them for their sin, ver. 20—22. 4. This calamity the prophet laments, ver. 19, and prays for the mitigation of it, ver. 23—25. 1. HEAR ye the word which the LORD speaketh unto you, O house of Israel. 2. Thus faith the LORD, 'Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven, for the heathen are dismayed at them. 3. For the customs of the people are vain: for one cateseth a tree out of the forest (the work of the hands of the workman) with the axe. 4. They deck it with silver and with gold, they falten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not. 5. They are upright as the palm-tree, 'but speak not: they must needs be borne, because they cannot go: be not afraid of them, for they cannot do evil, neither also is it in them to do good. 6. Forasmuch as there is none like unto thee, O LORD, thou art great, and thy name is great in might. 7. Who would not fear thee, O King of nations? for to thee doth it appertain: forasmuch as among all the wise men of the nations, and in all their kingdoms there is none like unto thee. 8. But they are altogether brutish and foolish: the flock is a doctrine of vanities. 9. Silver spread into plants is brought from Tarlhih, and 'gold from Uphaz, the work of the workman, and of the hands of the founder: blue and purple is their clothing: they are all the work of canning men. 10. But the LORD is the true God, he is the living God, and 'an everlasting king: at his wrath the earth shall tremble, and the nations shall not abide his indignation. 11. The shall ye say unto them, 'The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth, come they shall perish from the earth, and from under these heavens. 12. He hath made the earth by his power, he hath established the world by his wisdom, and hath stretched out the heavens by his discretion. 13. When he uttermith his voice there is a multitude of waters in the heavens, and he causeth the vapours to ascend from the ends of the earth: he maketh lightnings with rain, and bringeth forth the wind out of his treasures. 14. Every man is brutish in his knowledge: every founder is confronted by the graven image: for his molten image is fallhood, and there is no breath in them. 15. They are vanity, and the work of errors: in the time of their visitation they shall perish. 16. The portion of Jacob is not like them: for he is the former of all things, and 'Israel is the rod of his inheritance; the LORD of huts is his name. 0. 1—16. As they were shortly to be carried captives to Babylon, a place most remarkably given to idolatry, superfluous, and judicial astrology, need there was to guard them against the temptations to which they would be there reposed. 1. They must not learn their ways, nor follow their works. From the aspect of the heavens, from eclipses, and the conjunction of the planets, the astrologers pretended to forfeit the fate of kingdoms, and the destiny of men; and their predictions, heard with superfluous awe, terrified the heathen: but they must shew no regard to these prepositions, and much less pay divine honours to the fun, moon, and stars, as these men did, v. 2. Now must they join in their idolatry, and the none customs or ceremonies of religion which they used. A senseless log is the object of their abovation, can from the wood, and squared by the carpenter, v. 3. and however decked with gold and silver, and adorned with coffeed robes of blue and purple, v. 9. yet to unable to stand without being nailed and faltered, or to move without being carried. It can neither hear the prayer of its veterans, or speak a word in answer to their requests. Such a doctrine of vanities is the flock, v. 8. a word of errors and faltered, that must deceive and disappoint those who are so infatuated in to expect ought from it: unable alike to do good or evil, and therefore in no wise to be made the object either of fear or hope, v. 5. Brutish altogether and foolish are the worshippers, v. 8. and equally brutish the maker in his knowledge, who vainly conceits the work of his hands can be possessed of divinity, v. 14. Every founder is confounded, who, after all his pains to make his god, can receive no benefit from him: for how should they convey life, or any of the blessings of it, to others, who have no breath in them, inanimate themselves? v. 14. yea, so far from helping others, that they are unable to help themselves, and in the day of visitation, these gods, who have made neither the heaven nor the earth, shall perish, with their senseless devotees, v. 11. 2. The prophet directs them to the only proper object of their worship, fear, and love; and that is the glorious Jehovah, the only living and true God. [1.] There is none like unto him. He is without a rival, and above all comparison: none can either be flown such mercies, or inflict such miseries as he. O Lord, thou art great, transcendently great and glorious in his adorable perfections, and all his works of creation, providence, and grace; and thy name is great, exalted far above all blessing and praise. Who would not fear thee, O King of nations? whose kingdom rideth over all, the work of whose hands the whole creation is, and therefore by right should be universally feared and worshipped: for to thee doth it appertain, and to thee alone: to place that love, and offer that worship elsewhere, argues both deep impiety, and senseless stupidity. For none in wisdom, none in power, among Among earth's mightiest sons with him can be compared, v. 7. Note, (1.) God's eternal power and deity by the works of creation are so declared to all the world, as to leave idolaters without excuse. (2.) The more we contemplate the unreachable greatness and glory of our God, the more we shall be filled with reverence and godly fear, and loft in wonder and adoration. [2.] He is the only true God, and all pretenders to deity besides are false and counterfeit. He is the loving God, or God, the entity in unity, having life in and of himself, whilst all creatures receive theirs from him, and idols are dead and insinuate. He is an everlasting king, subsidizing from all eternity, ruling over all, and of his dominion there is no end, whilst these are all the creatures of yesterday, and hourly running to decay. Note, If God be our king, it behoves us to for that we approve ourselves faithful subjects, dependent on his protection, devoted to his service. [3.] He is the Creator, Governor, and Judge of all. He hath made the earth by his power, independent in the soft separate, and yet so firm that it cannot be moved from the place where God hath appointed it to perform its revolutions; and in the beautiful disposition of all things in it his infinite wisdom as well as power appears; and hath stretched out the bottom by his effervescence, as a canopy over us, decked with thick bright luminaries that peculiarly display his glory. At his will, the whole machine is governed; he speaks, the heavens loot, the vapours rise, the lightnings flash, the thunders roll, the rain descends, the tempests roar, and all under his controul, v. 13. When he cometh forth in judgment, at his wrath the earth shall tremble, afraid to meet the judge upon his throne, and the nations shall not be able to abide his indignities; if his wrath be kindled, yea, but a little, it will burn to the nethermost hell. Mott justly therefore doth he claim, and we are bound to pay our worship, adoration, and service to him, and him alone. [4.] He is the portion of Jacob, and therefore they are under peculiar obligations to adore and serve him. He has choled and redeemed them; showered upon them his blessings on every side, and will be for ever their exceeding great reward: he is the favour of all things, and not like idol vanities, and friend is the end of his inheritance, separated for his peculiar people; the Lord of myth is his name, his distinguished title, forelometh as he doth whatsoever pleaseth him in the hush of heaven, as well as among the inhabitants of the earth. Note, (1.) They who have God for their portion, cannot wish for more, for he is able to do for them exceeding abundantly above all they can ask or think. (2.) God's lifeeth are his inheritance; for they who choke him for their God, in them he delighteth as his people, and his love and favour are better than the life itself. 17. ¶ 7. Gather up thy wares out of the land, O + inhabitant of the fortress. 18. For thus faith the LORD, Behold, I will fling out the inhabitants of the land at this once, and will distress them, that they may find it so. 19. ¶ Wo is me for my f hurt, my wound is grievous: but I said, Truly this is a grief, and I must bear it. 20. My tabernacle is spoiled, and all my cords are broken: my children are gone forth of me, and they are not: there is none to stretch forth my tent any more, and to set up my curtains. 21. For the pallors are become bruish, and have not fought the LORD; therefore they shall not prosper, and all their flocks shall be scattered. 22. Behold, the noise of the bruit is come, and a great commotion out of the north country, to make the cities of Judah defolate, and a den of dragons. 23. ¶ O LORD, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walkseth to direct his steps. 24. O LORD, I correct me, but with judgment, not in thine anger, left thou bring me to nothing. 25. Pour out thy fury upon the heathen that know thee not, and upon the families that call not on thy name: for they have eaten up Jacob, and devoured him, and consumed him, and have made his habitation defolate. We have here, 1. The threatened ruin of Judah and Jerusalem. To secure their goods from the Chaldean army, the Jews are here represented as gathering them together, and conveying them to the fortress of Zion, but they will find it no place of safety. As a three out of a fling, so easily, the violently should they be cast out of their land and city, and sink into the depths of distress, that they may find it so, as the prophets have spoken, to whose word they resided to attend. Note, They who have mocked at hell and damnation, as bugbears designed to awe the minds of the superstitious, will, to their cost, find it so, that these are dreadful realities. 2. A mournful lamentation is made over their calamities: which some regard as the language of Zion bemoaning herself, Vot. II. but rather seems to be the words of the prophet affected at the view of their malæous, and sympathizing with them. We are not for my hurt, or my breach, when the walls of Jerusalem were battered down, the Chaldeans entered, and terribly massacred the inhabitants; but I said, This is a grief, and I must bear it; it was bitter indeed, but he desired to submit with patience: my tabernacle is spoiled, both the city and temple, and all my cords are broken, so that the ruin is irreparable. My children are gone forth of me into captivity, and none left to repair the habitation, v. 20. And no marvel their affairs are so desperate, when the pallors are become bruish; the rulers in church and state, instead of attempting to prevent, haltered their ruin by their fin and folly; they have not fought the Lord in any of their distresses, but left him far above out of their legs; therefore they shall not proper, no attempts to secure themselves shall succeed, and all their flocks shall be scattered; their enemies shall prevail, and that suddenly, Behold, the noise of the bruit is come, intelligence of the Chaldean army advancing; a great commotion out of the north country, from Babylon, to make the cities of Judah defolate, and a den of dragons; a righteous retaliation upon those who made them a den of thieves. Note, (1.) In our afflictions God permits us to complain, but he forbids us to murmur. (2.) When the pallors are bruish, no marvel the people are blind. (3.) They who live without prayer, and fork out to God for counsel and help, must needn't err from the right way, and perish in their sins. 3. Though the people have no rate to bear his preaching, God hath an art to hear his prayer, and therefore to him the prophet looks up. (1.) He acknowledges God's over-ruling providence and guidance, in all the affairs of men. O Lord, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps; a superior power controuls his thoughts and designs; and an unseen hand guides his steps, as was the case of Nebuchadnezzar in this invasion, and more generally may be applied to all mankind. Whatever schemes we form, the event is not in our own power: when we mean only to purifier our own purposes, God leads us insensibly to fulfil his designs; therefore amidst all our contrivances we must entirely refer ourselves to him for the fortress, conscious that we have no power of ourselves to help ourselves. The Lord must dictate, guide, support, and protect us, and then we shall walk alight. (2.) In the name of the people, he entrants the criminal or alleviation of their heavy judgments. O Lord, correct me, for that they must expect, and acknowledge it to be their just desert, but with judgment, in measure; not in thine anger, as the wrath of an enemy; but in love, as the chastisement of a father, least thou bring me to nothing; for if his wrath be kindled, yea, but a little, who may abide it? Note, (1.) Correction from God is kindled, and this rest, however grievous for the time to the flesh, we may not wish to have removed till it hath done its work. (2.) God's afflictions on his people are designed not to bring them to nothing, but to bring them to himself and to glory. (3.) He beseeches God to remember their oppressors, and to recompense them according to the work of their hands. Pour out thy fury upon the heathen that know thee not; God's own people are corrected in mercy, his enemies are to be destroyed in wrath; and upon the families that call not upon the name of the Lord, the nations of the ungodly, who neither know nor worship the true God; for they have eaten up Jacob, and devoured him, and consumed him, and have made his habitation defolate, which though God hath permitted as their just punishment, doth not at all lessen the guilt and malice of their preferences. Note, (1.) Families who live without prayer, are to be accounted heathens. (2.) Ignorance of God is the inlet to all sin. (3.) When God hath corrected his people, he often turns the root, and leaves on the instruments he employs the severest marks of his indignation. In this chapter, 1. God, by the prophet, puts the people in mind of the covenant made with their fathers, and the condition of it, that they should be obedient to him, ver. 1—2. 2. He charges them with abominately refusing to obey him, ver. 8—10. 3. He threatens them with utter ruin for their disobedience, especially for their idolatry, ver. 11, 13. their idols shall not save them, ver. 12. nor their prophets pray for them, ver. 14. and justifies his proceedings herein, they having brought all this neighbor upon themselves by their own willfulness, ver. 15—17. 4. A conspiracy is formed against Jeremiah by the men of death, which God discovers to him, ver. 18, 19. His prayer against them, ver. 20. and a predilection of God's judgments upon them for it, ver. 21—23. 1. THE word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying, 2. Hear ye the words of this covenant, and speak unto the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, 3. And say thou unto H h them, to the man that obeyeth not the words of this covenant, 4. "Which I commanded your fathers in the day that I brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, "from the iron furnace, saying, "Obey my voice, and do them, according to all which I command you: so shall ye be my people, and I will be your God: 5. That I may perform the oath which I have sworn unto your fathers, 'to give them a land flowing with milk and honey, as it is this day. Then answered I, and said, "So be it, O LORD. 6. Then the LORD said unto me, Proclaim all these words in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem, saying, Hear ye the words of this covenant," and do them. 7. For I earnestly protested unto your fathers, in the day that I brought them up out of the land of Egypt, even unto this day, "rising early and protesting, saying, Obey my voice. 8. 'Yet they obeyed not, nor inclined their ear, but "walked every one in the 2 imagination of their evil heart: therefore I will bring upon them all the words of this covenant, which I commanded them to do, but they did them not. 9. And the LORD said unto me, 'A conspiracy is found among the men of Judah, and among the inhabitants of Jerusalem. 10. They are turned back to the iniquities of their forefathers, which refused to hear my words; and they went after other gods to serve them: the house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken my covenant which I made with their fathers. A new prophecy seems to begin at this chapter. Jeremiah is tent of God again to this rebellious house of Judah. 1. To remind them of the tenor of that covenant, by which they held the land of promise. The great condition of which was their obedience, v. 4. and this God earnestly pressed upon them to the one thing needful, charging their fathers to observe and do all his commandments, as the only means to secure his favour, and their relation to him, v. 4. promising that, in consequence of this, they should possess the land of Canaan flowing with milk and honey; and this was further enforced by the awful sanction of that terrible curse which would overtake the breakers of this covenant, v. 3. God had not ceased from that day to continue his admonitions to them, and urge that fidelity to which they were so strictly obliged, v. 7. And now this prophet must second those who went before in the same promotions and urgent calls to them, to hear and obey, v. 6. which that they may do, he earnestly prays, So be it, Lord! ver. 9. Note, (1.) They who withdraw themselves from God's service, have no right to expect his protection. (2.) The condition of the legal covenant is obedience, and a curse is denounced on every transgression. Bleffed be God for a covenant of grace, established on better promises, and secured for ever by a better obedience than our own. 2. To charge them with their gross violations of this covenant, by which they had forfeited all the binding prevailed, and incurred all the penalties annexed to it, They obeyed not, neither they, nor their fathers, nor inclined their ear to the divitory commissioned messengers, that from time to time God sent to admonish them, but walked every one in the imagination of their evil heart, without the least regard to God's law; therefore all the curses denounced against the disobedient lie at their door, v. 8. and God saw their secret as well as their open wickedness. A general conspiracy is formed among them, to discard God's worship and law, and to introduce the idols and customs of the heathens around them. The men of Judah, and inhabitants of Jerusalem, city and country, high and low, are engaged in it, v. 9. A little reformation had been made in the days of Judah, but they quickly turned back to the iniquities of their forefathers, and sunk again into idolatry. Israel first led the way, and Judah copied their abominations, so that the covenant God had made with their fathers was utterly broken, Note, (1.) They who will not be ruled by God's law, must be destroyed under his curse. (2.) Though hand join in hand, the wicked shall not go unpunished. Heb. To go forth of. PC. viii. 4. 1. Prov. I. 17. 10. I. 15. Chap. iv. 11. Ezek. viii. 12. Met. 13. 4. Zech. vi. 19. Dont. viii. 17. 9. Heb. Exa. Chap. d. 10. 4. Heb. Beame. Chap. ii. 14. Hal. ii. 10. 11. ¶ Therefore thus faith the LORD, Behold, I will bring evil upon them, which they shall not be able to escape; and "thought they shall cry unto me, I will not hearken unto them. 12. Then shall the cities of Judah, and inhabitants of Jerusalem go, "and cry unto the gods unto whom they offer incense; but they shall not save them at all in the time of their trouble. 13. For "according to the number of thy cities were thy gods, O Judah; and according to the number of the streets of Jerusalem, have ye set up altars to that frameful thing, even altars to burn incense unto Baal. 14. Therefore "pray not thou for this people, neither lite up a cry or prayer for them: for I will not hear them in the time that they cry unto me for their trouble. 15. ¶ What hath my beloved to do in mine house, saying the hath wrought lewdness with many? and the holy flesh is passed from thee: when thou dost evil, then thou rejoicest. 16. The LORD called thy name: A green olive-tree, fair and of goodly fruit: with the noise of a great tumult he hath kindled fire upon it, and the branches of it are broken. 17. For the LORD of hosts, "that planted thee, hath pronounced evil against thee, for the evil of the house of Israel, and of the house of Judah, which they have done against them, selves to provoke me to anger, in offering incense unto Baal. The curse follows sin as close as the shadow does the body. We have here, 1. Their miserable and helpless case. Therefore I will bring evil upon them, the evil of punishment for the evil of sin, which they shall themselves away, because of the fierce anger of the Lord; against which, all their policy and power were equally fruitless, and which was infinitely more to be feared than even the Chaldean army. Note, (1.) If we have God for our enemy, we can hope for no peace in time or eternity. (2.) Nothing can engage finners to lay to heart the evil of their ways, when God withdraws his spirit from them; even the heaviest judgments then but handen and exasperate. (3.) If God spared not his own pleasant land, let no other guilty land hope to escape. Zech. ii.8. Chap. xxiii. 37. ¶ 15c. xie. 12, 14. 14. ¶ Thus faith the LORD against all mine evil neighbours, that touch the inheritance which I have caused my people Israel to inherit, Behold, I will pluck them out of their land, and pluck out the house of Judah from among them. 15. And it shall come to pals after that I have plucked them out, I will return, and have compassion on them, and will bring them again every man to his heritage, and every man to his land. 16. And it shall come to pals, if they will diligently learn the ways of my people, to swear by my name, The LORD liveth (as they caught my people to swear by Baal) then shall they be built in the midst of my people. 17. But if they will not obey, I will utterly pluck up, and destroy that nation, faith the LORD. 9. 14—17. Jeremiah's commission extended not merely to his own people, but to the neighbouring nations. 1. God threatens them with destruction for their unkindness to Israel. They are called his evil neighbours, such as the Moabites, Ammonites, Philistines, &c. by their connections with whom God's people had been led into sin and idolatry, and that is the greatest evil that any can do us; that touch the inheritance that I have caused my people Israel to inherit, made inroads upon them, afflicted the Chaldeans to destroy them, and led away many captives: for this God will visit them. Behold, I will pluck them out of their land, they too shall be utterly wafted and destroyed; and pluck the house of Judah from among them; who, when their ruin came, would be released, and escape from their captivity. Note, (1.) It is a dangerous and infirm state to dwell in the midst of evil neighbours. (2.) They who have been our tempters, are often made our tormentors. (3.) If judgment begin at the house of God, let not the ungodly sin the finner think of escaping. 2. God still appears ready to have compassion on them, notwithstanding his judgments against them. Though cast out, and captives, he will bring them again every man to his heritage, and his own land, on this condition, that forsaking their former idolatries, they diligently learn the ways of my people, to worship and serve the true God, to swear by my name, The Lord liveth, and renounce all idols, in opposition to their former wicked conduct, when they taught my people to swear by Baal; then, not only shall their captivity be turned, but they shall be built in the midst of my people, become entitled to all the blessings and benesits of native Israelites, united with them in love, and admitted to the worship and service of God's temple. And this seems to look farther than the conversion of many to the Jewish religion, who returned with them from Babylon, and had most eminently its accomplishment when the Gentiles were gathered into the church, made fellow-hors, and of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ by the gospel, Eph. xi. 20, 21. when Jews and Gentiles became, without distinction, one told under one Shepherd. Note, (1.) The bitterest enemies of God and his people may yet be reconciled; there is ever hope for the returning finner. (2.) They who learn the ways of God's people, will have their happy lot with them. (3.) They who would be proficient in the school of Christ, must use all diligence; such and ignorance are inseparable. 3. Judgment is denounced on those who refused to obey the gospel, and return to God. I will utterly pluck up and destroy that nation, faith the Lord. Note, There is but one alternative; either we must turn to God, and he made happy in everlasting blessness, or by departing from God, and continuing impenitent, go down into everlasting burnings. 15. Ibid. xxv. 4 &xxvi. 33. Gen xixii. xx 7 Chap. xxiii. 14. Prov. v. 21. 15. ¶ Because ye have said, The LORD hath raised us up prophets in Babylon: 16. Know that thus saith the LORD, of the king that siteth upon the throne of David, and of all the people that dwelleth in this city, and of your brethren that are not gone forth with you into captivity; 17. Thus saith the LORD of hosts, Behold, I will send upon them, the sword, the famine, and the pestilence, and will make them like vile s' figs, that cannot be eaten, they are so evil. 18. And I will persecute them with the sword, with the famine, and with the pestilence, and will deliver them to be removed to all the kingdoms of the earth, to be a curse, and an astonishment, and an hissing, and a reproach among all the nations, whither I have driven them: 19. Because they have not hearkened to my words, saith the LORD, which I sent unto them by my servants the prophets, rising up early, and sending them, but ye would not hear, saith the LORD. 20. ¶ I fear ye therefore the word of the LORD, all ye of the captivity, whom I have sent from Jerusalem to Babylon: 21. Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, of Ahab the son of Kolaiah, and of Zedekiah the son of Maafeiah, which prophely a lie unto you in my name, Behold, I will deliver them into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and he shall stay them before your eyes. 22. ¶ And of them shall be taken up a curse by all the captivity of Judah, which are in Babylon, saying, The LORD make thee like Zedekiah, and like Ahab, whom the king of Babylon roiled in the fire. 23. Because they have committed villany in Israel, and have committed adultery with their neighbours wives, and have spoken lying words in my name, which I have not commanded them, even I know, and am a witness, saith the LORD. Though there were some gracious souls among the captives, yet were there many who paid no regard to the words of Jeremiah, but hearkened to the false prophets, and received them as sent from God; and boasted they needed not look to Judea for advice, when they had prophets of their own in Babylon, on whom they might depend. To these therefore the prophet addresses himself, 1. He warns them of the fasthood of the declarations of their prophets. They flattered the people with a speedy return to Judea; when, so far from it, the residue of those who were left in Jerusalem were doomed to the most grievous devastations by famine, pestilence, and the sword; and the few who survived, should be scattered into all kingdoms, and made the objects of derision, scorn, and deterlation in every place, like vile figs unfit to be eaten, and call as refuse on the dreadful; and this because of their impenitence and rejection of the repeated and earnest warnings which God, by his prophets, had vouchshed them, as had been threatened before, they saw. Note, (1.) They who flatter sinners with hopes contrary to God's word, are infallibly false prophets. (2.) When men make themselves vile by their sins, God, in just judgment, will make them viter in their sufferings. 2. He denounces judgment on two of the false prophets, Ahab and Zedekiah; whose abominable lives, as well as atrocious lies, called for vengeance. They were horrible adulterers, and yet dared to take God's name in their lips, and pretend he had sent them, when they knew he never commanded them; and under the cloak of profound hypocrisy practised every villany. But though men might not discover their wickedness, God fear, and will recompense them according to their deeds. Detected probably in some seditious practices, the king of Babylon would seize them, and burn them alive before their eyes for a terror to others. A catastrophe so dreadful, that when any would wish the heaviest curse on their enemies, they should not be able to conceive a worse imprecation, than the Lord make thee like Zedekiah, and like Ahab, whom the king of Babylon roiled in the fire. Note, (1.) They who live in the practice of lewdness and adultery, and the like villany themselves, must needs bely their pretensions to a mission from God, and will have no boldness to exhake the like practices in others. (2.) Secret as men's sins may be committed, the day is near when no darkness or shadow of death shall hide the workers of iniquity. (3.) Though wicked prophets and wicked men may escape the judgments of God in this life, there is a fire kindled for them where they must burn eternally, and none shall quench it. 15f. On Genesis. 2 Kings xxv. 12. 24. ¶ That shall thou also speak to Shemaiah the Nehelamite, saying, 25. Thus speaketh the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, saying, Because thou hast sent letters in thy name unto all the people that are at Jerusalem, and so * Zephaniah the son of Maafeiah the priest, and to all the priests, saying, 26. The LORD hath made thee priest in the stead of Jehoiada the priest, that ye should be officers in the house of the LORD, for every man that is mad, and maketh himself a prophet, that thou shouldst put him in prison and in the thacke. 27. Now therefore why hast thou not reproved Jeremiah of Anathoth, which maketh himself a prophet to you? 28. For therefore he sent unto us in Babylon, saying, This captivity is long, build ye houses and dwell in them, and plant gardens, and eat the fruit of them. 29. And Zephaniah the priest read this letter in the ears of Jeremiah the prophet. 30. ¶ Then came the word of the LORD unto Jeremiah, saying, 31. Send to all them of the captivity, saying, Thus saith the LORD, concerning Shemaiah the Nehelamite, Because that Shemaiah hath prophesied unto you, and I sent him not, and he caused you to trust in a lie: 32. Therefore thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will punish Shemaiah the Nehelamite and his seed: he shall not have a man to dwell among this people, * neither shall he behold the good that I will do for my people, saith the LORD, because he hath taught I rebellion against the LORD.