Jeremiah Bible Notes Chapters 3-4

Hope for the Faithful: Prophecies of the Restoration and of the Coming of Christ [Jer. 3:11-20; 23:1-8; cc. 30-33] ("Exploring the Old Testament" by C. E. Demaray, PhD, Donald S. Metz, D.R.E. and Maude A. Stuneck, PhD; edited by W. T. Purkiser, PhD; published 1967 by Beacon Hill Press of Kansas City)
The prophecies of Jeremiah are so closely associated with the fall of Judah and the destruction of the Holy City that the pervading atmosphere is necessarily one of gloom. But against this dark background of threat and punishment there appear some of the most glorious Messianic prophecies of the entire Old Testament. These promises are not divorced from the background of warning, but issue naturally from the prophet's pleadings with the nation to repent. For example, in the third chapter, after reasoning with His rebellious people, the LORD through the mouth of the prophet pleads with them thus: "Turn, O backsliding children, saith the LORD" (3:14). Then follows the promise:

And it shall come to pass, when ye be multiplied and increased in the land, in those days, saith the LORD, they shall say no more, The ark of the covenant of the LORD: neither shall it come to mind...At that time they shall call Jerusalem the throne of the LORD; and all the nations shall be gathered unto it...neither shall they walk any more after the imagination of their evil heart" (3:16-17).

In this passage, as commonly in the Old Testament prophets, we have a promise of the restoration of Israel combined with a prophecy of the gospel age in which Jew and Gentile will have equal share in the kingdom of GOD.

A more distinctly Messianic passage is to be found in chapter 23:1-8, where in contrast to the false prophets who have scattered the flock, true shepherds are promised that will gather the flock and feed them until the coming of the Righteous Branch, the Son of David, to rule over them:

Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth. In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely: and this is his name whereby he shall be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS (23:5-6).

The principal prophecies, however, dealing with the restoration and the coming of the Gospel Age are to be found in chapters 30-33. These oracles were delivered during the darkest hour of the history of Judah. The city of Jerusalem was under siege and soon to be destroyed. Jeremiah himself was held in custody in the prison court. Under these circumstances he received the command of the LORD to write down words of comfort for the people.

If we may paraphrase the message in chapter 30, it runs somewhat like this: Fear now wrings every heart. Never have we known such calamities. But they shall not last forever. GOD will break the galling yoke of the conqueror and deliver His people from their painful servitude. They shall again be united in their own land and GOD will raise up a king of the house of David to rule over them (30:5-9). Fear not the hand of correction. Your many sins make it necessary for GOD to punish you; but when He has chastened you and you have learned to follow Him, He will raise up for you again the ruined city of Jerusalem and there shall be joy within her walls as in the olden time. Then you will again be GOD's people and He will be your GOD (30:10-22).

The heart of Jeremiah's message of hope is in chapter 31, where in a beautiful poetic passage he describes the New Covenant which GOD will made with His people, a covenant which will be written, not on stone, but on fleshly tables of the heart.

Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: not according to the covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt...After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their GOD, and they shall be my people...for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more (31:31-34).

If we understand the implications of this passage, we realize that Jeremiah has given here the gist of the gospel message which Jesus came to reveal in its fullness, and which was based upon the atonement that He should make, as explained in the Book of Hebrews (8:6-13; 9:13-15; 10:14-22).

In chapter 32 the prophet tells us how GOD directed him to give tangible proof of his faith in the restoration of Jerusalem by purchasing an ancestral inheritance at Anathoth. He had the deed made out in full legal fashion and deposited it for safe-keeping in a strong vessel of pottery, as was the custom in those days. For he was assured that, although the city would certainly fall, according to the word he had received from the LORD, it was as certain to be restored, and houses and fields and vineyards possessed again in the land of Judah (32:15).

In the final chapter of this section Jeremiah makes it clear that, while the restoration of Judah at the end of the seventy years (25:12) was the immediate event in prospect, there was to be a more complete fulfillment in the setting up of Christ's kingdom in the more distant future.

Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not. In those days, and at that time, will I cause the Branch of righteousness to grow up unto David...For thus saith the LORD; David shall never want a man to sit upon the throne of the house of Israel (33:3,15,17).

Jer. 3:1 Return again to me: Formulated in terms of a direct interrogation, "Will you return to me?"

Jer. 3:1-5 (Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible)
How basely this people had forsaken God and gone a whoring from him. The charge runs very high here.

1. They had multiplied their idols and their idolatries. To have admitted one strange God among them would have been bad enough, but they were insatiable in their lustings after false worships: Thou hast played the harlot with many lovers, Jer. 3:1. She had become a common prostitute to idols; not a foolish deity was set up in all the neighbourhood but the Jews would have it quickly. Where was a high place in the country but they had had an idol in it? Jer. 3:2. Note, In repentance it is good to make sorrowful reflections upon the particular acts of sin we have been guilty of, and the several places and companies where it has been committed, that we may give glory to God and take shame to ourselves by a particular confession of it.

2. They had sought opportunity for their idolatries, and had sent about to inquire for new gods: In the high - ways hast thou sat for them, as Tamar when she put on the disguise of a harlot (Gen. 38:14), and as the foolish woman, that sits to call passengers, who go right on their way, Pro. 9:14, Pro. 9:15. As the Arabian in the wilderness - the Arabian huckster (so some), that courts customers, or waits for the merchants to get a good bargain and forestall the market - or the Arabian thief (so others), that watches for his prey; so had they waited either to court new gods to come among them (the newer the better, and the more fond they were of them) or to court others to join with them in their idolatries. They were not only sinners, but Satan's, not only traitors themselves, but tempters to others.

3. They had grown very impudent in sin. They not only polluted themselves, but their land, with their whoredoms and with their wickedness (Jer. 3:2); for it was universal and unpunished, and so became a national sin. And yet (Jer. 3:3), “Thou hadst a whore's forehead, a brazen face of thy own. Thou refusedst to be ashamed; thou didst enough to shame thee for ever, and yet wouldst not take shame to thyself.” Blushing is the colour of virtue, or at least a relic of it; but those that are past shame (we say) are past hope. Those that have an adulterer's heart, if they indulge that, will come at length to have a whore's forehead, void of all shame and modesty.

4. They abounded in all manner of sin. They polluted the land not only with their whoredoms (that is, their idolatries), but with their wickedness, or malice (Jer. 3:2), sins against the second table: for how can we think that those will be true to their neighbour that are false to their God? “Nay (Jer. 3:5), thou hast spoken and done evil things as thou couldst, and wouldst have spoken and done worse if thou hadst known how; thy will was to do it, but thou lackedst opportunity.” Note, Those are wicked indeed that sin to the utmost of their power, that never refuse to comply with a temptation because they should not, but because they cannot.

Jer. 3:2 High places: Sites of pagan worship. You sat alongside the roads: Reminiscent of Tamar's action (Gen. 38:14); the relationship with prostitution clarifies Ezekiel (16:25).

Jer. 3:3 As part of GOD's exemplary punishment, the waters have been withheld (see 14:1-6; Amos 4:7). The latter rain is the spring rain (see Joel 2:23).

Jer. 3:4 My father The title of Father assigned to GOD is much rarer in the Old Testament than in the New Testament. See v.19; Psalms 2:7; 89:26; Isaiah 63:16; 64:8; Malachi 2:10.

Jer. 3:6-6:30 Judah's Alternatives:
Repentance or Destruction
A Call for Repentance (HBH) Idolatrous Judea was even more corrupt than their sister, the Northern Kingdom, had been. Though the LORD had swept the Northern Kingdom away into exile, Judah had not learned from their northern sister's example. The time for decision had come. Judah's only hope was to repent. The LORD appealed to His faithless people to confess their sins, turn from their idols, and commit themselves to the LORD with renewed devotion. He promised to give them godly leaders and make Jerusalem the focal point of His worldwide rule. Nations would travel to the city to worship the LORD. Judah would be reunited with the exiled Northern Kingdom and would possess the promised land.

Jer. 3:6 Have you seen what rebellious (KJV-backsliding) Israel has done?: A reference to the northern kingdom, Israel (Samaria, destroyed by Assyria in 722 B.C.

Jer. 3:7 Her rebellious sister (KJV-treacherous): The southern kingdom of Judah.

Jer. 3:8 I had divorced her: Alludes to the exile, true process of divorce which included handing over a bill of divorce.

Jer. 3:9 And committed adultery with stones and a log: She offered worship to pagan gods. See the note for 2:27.

Jer. 3:10 Falsely: Judah's response to the reforms instituted by Josiah was superficial and insincere.

Jer. 3:11 Has justified herself: Judah had before her the example of Israel, her "older sister", but that didn't deter her from following the same path.

Jer. 3:12 North: The direction towards which Israel marched when it was led into captivity.

Jer. 3:14 I am your husband: The root of this verb is ba'al, being "husband or owner". Instead of treating Jehovah as a spouse, His people ran after "the baals" (2:23; See 31:32). One...two: The remnant (see Isaiah 10:20-22).

LITERARY RICHES

Jer. 3:15 intelligence, sachal; Strong #7919: To be wise, behave wisely, to understand, to be instructed, to deliberate, to be prudent and intelligent. Sachar describes the complete intellectual process that occurs when one observes, deliberates, reasons, understands and comes to a conclusion. Occasionally, the word is translated as "to prosper". In I Kings 2:3, David urges Solomon to obey the divine instructions, so that he may prosper (literally the Hebrew word means "to do wisely") in all that he undertakes. A derivative of sachal is maschil: "to give instruction, make wise or able". The thirteen psalms of didactic character are called Maschil. The maschil psalms (32; 42; 44; 45; 52; 53; 54; 55; 74; 78; 88; 89) have the purpose of making the reader wise.

Jer. 3:15 Pastors: Governors (see 2:8). According to my heart: Like David (see I Sam. 13:14).

Jer. 3:16 In those days: The moment when these and other prophecies will be fulfilled; probably in the Messianic age (v.18). See the note for Obadiah 15. Ark of the Covenant of Jehovah: Symbolizes GOD's presence among His people (see I Sam. 4:3,7). when the Messiah is present, the symbol no longer has relevance.

Jer. 3:18 Judah and Israel will once more be united in the land. See the note for Ezekiel 37:15-28.

Jer. 3:19 My father: See verse 4. The image of a father and his son replaces that of the husband and wife, which reappears in the following verse.

Jer. 3:20 The unfaithful wife abandons (KJV-wife treacherously departeth): Explained in detail in Hosea 1-3.

Jer. 3:21 The combined voices of the prophet and the people who weep and confess their sins according to the account in verses 22-25. Upon the high places: See verse 2.

Jer. 3:22 Be converted (KJV-return): The Hebrew root of this word appears several times in this prophecy (3:6-4:4) and forms part of a play-on-words here; rebellious, rebellions [KJV-backsliding(s)] and convert originates from it.

Jer. 3:25 From our youth: Represented historically by the period of the Judges, in view of Israel's collective personality.

Jer. 4:1-4 GOD's response to the confession of the people. The blessing is on the doorstep when the repentance is genuine and sincere; but rages like fire when it's deceptive.

Jer. 4:2 In truth, in judgment and in righteousness underlines the characteristics of genuine repentance.

Jer. 4:3 The first image utilized by Jeremiah is taken from agriculture. Judah should plow the land, that is, prepare it for sowing (see Hosea 10:22). Care should also be taken that it won't be sown among thorns (see Matt. 13:7,22).

Jer. 4:4 A second image is taken from religious practice. The people are told to remove the foreskin of the heart, a reference to spiritual willingness and internal change, not mere formal obedience.

Jer 4:4 Circumcise yourselves to the Lord (John Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible)
Or, "be ye circumcised", as the Septuagint and Vulgate Latin versions render it. This is to be understood of the circumcision of the heart, as Kimchi observes; and as appears from the following words:

and take away the foreskins of your heart, ye men of Judah, and inhabitants of Jerusalem; this is the true spiritual circumcision; and they that are possessed of it are the circumcision, the only truly circumcised persons; and they are such who have been pricked to the heart, and thoroughly convinced of sin; who have had the hardness of their hearts removed, and the impurity of it laid open to them; which they have beheld with shame and loathing, and have felt an inward pain on account of it; and who have been enabled to deny themselves, to renounce their own righteousness, and put off the body of the sins of the flesh: and though men are exhorted to do this themselves, yet elsewhere the Lord promises to do it for them, Deut. 30:6, and indeed it is purely his own work; or otherwise it could not he called, as it is, "circumcision without hands", and "whose praise is not of man, but of God", Col. 2:11, and the reason of this exhortation, as before, is to convince those Jews, who were circumcised in the flesh, and rested and gloried in that, that their hearts were not circumcised, and that there was a necessity of it, and they in danger for want of it; as follows:

lest my fury come forth like fire; to which the wrath of God is sometimes compared, Nah. 1:6 and is sometimes signified by a furnace and lake of fire, even his eternal wrath and vengeance:

and burn that none can quench it; such is the fire of divine wrath; it is unquenchable; it is everlasting, Mark 9:43; because of the evil of your doings; which are so provoking to the eyes of his glory; the sins of men are the fuel to the fire of his wrath, and cause it to burn to the lowest hell, without the least degree of mercy. The Targum is, "turn to the worship of the Lord, and take away the wickedness of your hearts, lest my fury burn as fire, and consume without mercy, because of the evil of your doings.''

Invasion from the North (Holman Bible Handbook; David S. Dockery, General Editor; pub. by Holman Bible Publishers)
The alternative to repentance was destruction. If Judah persisted in its sin, the LORD would bring a mighty army down from the north to devastate the land. Reference is made to the Babylonians, who would attack with the ferocity of a lion, the power of a whirlwind, and the swiftness of an eagle. The people would flee for their lives; and Jerusalem, abandoned to its doom by its idol-gods, would cry out in panic. Conditions in the ruined and deserted land would resemble those prior to creation, when the earth was formless, empty, and shrouded in darkness.

Throughout the chapter dramatic speeches and vivid imagery are used to emphasize the urgency of the hour. Calls to alarm (4:5-8,15-17), lamentations (4:10,13b,19-21,31b), denunciations (4:18,22), a taunt (4:30), and an impassioned appeal for repentance (4:14) are combined with striking descriptions of the invaders (4:7,11-13a,15-17) and their effect upon the land (4:20,21-31).

Jer. 4:5 Trumpet: Used to alert the people of any danger. Fortified cities: The people living in rural areas should move to walled cities to protect themselves from invaders.

Jer. 4:5-18 (Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible)
The lamentable cause of this judgment. How is it that Judah and Jerusalem come to be thus abandoned to ruin? See how it came to this.
1. They sinned against God; it was all owing to themselves: She has been rebellious against me, saith the Lord, Jer. 4:17. Their enemies surrounded them as keepers of a field, because they had taken up arms against their rightful Lord and sovereign, and were to be seized as rebels. The Chaldeans were breaking in upon them, and it was sin that opened the gap at which they entered: Thy way and thy doings have procured these things unto thee (Jer. 4:18), thy evil way and thy doings that have not been good. It was not a false step or two that did them this mischief, but their way and course of living were bad. Note, Sin is the procuring cause of all our troubles. Those that go on in sin while they are endeavouring to ward off mischiefs with one hand are at the same time pulling them upon their own heads with the other.
2. God was angry with them for their sin. It is the fierce anger of the Lord that makes the army of the Chaldeans thus fierce, thus furious; that is kindled against us, and is not turned back from us, Jer. 4:8. Note, In men's anger against us, and the violence of that, we must see and own God's anger and the power of that. If that were turned back from us, our enemies could not come forward against us.
3. In his just and holy anger he condemned them to this dreadful punishment: Now also will I give sentence against them, Jer. 4:12. The execution was done, not in a heat, but in pursuance of a sentence solemnly passed, according to equity, and upon mature deliberation. Some read it, Now will I do execution upon them, according to the doom formerly passed; and we are sure that the judgment of God is according to the truth, and the execution of that judgment.

The lamentable effects of this judgment, upon the first alarm given of it.
1. The people that should fight shall quite despair and shall not have a heart to make the least stand against the enemy (Jer. 4:8): “For this gird yourself with sackcloth, lament and howl,” that is, “you will do so. When the cry is made through the kingdom, Arm, arm! all will be seized with a consternation, and all put into confusion. Instead of girding on the sword, they will gird on the sackcloth; instead of animating one another to a vigorous resistance, they will lament and howl, and so dishearten one another. While the enemy is yet at a distance they will give up all for gone, and cry, Woe unto us! for we are spoiled, Jer. 4:13. We are all undone, the spoilers will certainly carry the day, and it is in vain to make head against them.” Judah and Jerusalem had been famed for valiant men; but see what is the effect of sin: by depriving men of their confidence towards God, it deprives them of their courage towards men.
2. Their great men, who should contrive for the public safety, shall be at their wits' end (Jer. 4:9): At that day the heart of the king shall perish, both his wisdom and his courage. Despairing of success, he shall have no spirit to do any thing, and, if he had, he will not know what to do. His princes and privy-counselors, who should animate and advise him, shall be as much at a loss and as much in despair as he. See how easily, how effectually, God can bring ruin upon a people that are doomed to it, merely by dispiriting them, taking away the heart of the chief of them (Job 12:20, Job 12:24), cutting off the spirit of princes, Psa. 76:12. The business of the priests was to encourage the people in the time of war; they were to say to the people, Fear not, and let not your hearts faint, Deut. 20:2, Deut. 20:3. They were to blow the trumpets, for an assurance to them that in the day of battle they should be remembered before the Lord their God, Num. 10:9. But now the priests themselves shall be astonished, and shall have no heart themselves to do their office, and therefore shall not be likely to put spirit into the people. The prophets too, the false prophets, who had cried peace to them, shall be put into the greatest amazement imaginable, seeing their own guilty blood ready to be shed by that sword which they had often told the people there was no danger of. Note, God's judgments come with the greatest terror upon those that have been most secure. Our Saviour foretells that at the last destruction of Jerusalem men's hearts should fail them for fear, Luke 21:26. And it is common for those who have cheated and flattered people into a carnal security not only to fail them, but to discourage them, when the trouble comes.

Jer. 4:6 Raise the flag: A flag hoisted on the flagpole served as a warning of danger or a gathering place. Evil from the north: The Babylonians came from the north and brought great destruction with them (see 1:14).

Jer. 4:7 Lion: A metaphor to represent Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon (see 2:15, where lions represent the Assyrians.

Jer. 4:8 Sackcloth: Vestment that was used to express sorrow, mourning or repentance.

Jer. 4:10 You have greatly deceived: By means of false prophets, pretending to speak in the name of GOD, the people were misled. The falsely announced peace (see 14:13; 23:17).

Jer. 4:10 (Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary)
The prophet's complaint of the people's being deceived: It is expressed strangely, as we read it: Ah! Lord God, surely thou hast greatly deceived this people, saying, You shall have peace. We are sure that God deceives none. Let no man say, when he is tempted or deluded, that God has tempted or deluded him. But,
1. The people deceived themselves with the promises that God had made in general of his favour to that nation, and the many peculiar privileges with which they were dignified, building upon them, though they took no care to perform the conditions on which the accomplishment of those promises and the continuance of those privileges did depend; and they had no regard to the threatenings which in the law were set over-against those promises. Thus they cheated themselves and then wickedly complained that God had cheated them.
2. The false prophets deceived them with promises of peace, which they made them in God's name. Jer_23:17; Jer_27:9. If God had sent them, he had indeed greatly deceived the people, but he had not. It was the people's fault that they gave them credit; and here also they deceived themselves.
3. God had permitted the false prophets to deceive, and the people to be deceived by them, giving both up to strong delusions, to punish them for not receiving the truth in the love of it. Herein the Lord was righteous; but the prophet complains of it as the sorest judgment of all, for by this means they had been hardened in their sins.
4. It may be read with an interrogation, “Hast thou indeed thus deceived this people? It is plain that they are greatly deceived, for they expect peace, whereas the sword reaches unto the soul; that is, it is a killing sword, abundance of lives are lost, and more likely to be.” Now, was it God that deceived them? No, he had often given them warning of judgments in general and of this in particular; but their own prophets deceive them, and cry peace to those to whom the God of heaven does not speak peace. It is a pitiable thing, and that which every good man greatly laments, to see people flattered into their own ruin, and promising themselves peace when war is at the door; and this we should complain of to God, who alone can prevent such a fatal delusion.

The prophet's endeavour to undeceive them. When the prophets they loved and caressed dealt falsely with them, he whom they hated and persecuted dealt faithfully.
1. He shows them their wound. They were loath to see it, very loath to have it searched into; but, if they will allow themselves the liberty of a free thought, they might discover their punishment in their sin (Jer. 4:18): “This is thy wickedness because it is bitter. Now thou seest that it is a bitter thing to depart from God, and will certainly be bitterness in the latter end, Jer. 2:19. It produces bitter effects, and grief that reaches unto the heart, touches to the quick, and in the most tender part; the sword reaches to the soul,” Jer. 4:10. God can make trouble reach the heart even of those that would lay nothing to heart. “And by this thou mayest see what is thy wickedness, that it is a bitter thing, a root of bitterness, that bears gall and wormwood, and that it has reached to the heart; it is the corruption of the soul, of the imagination of the thought of the heart.” If the heart were not polluted with sin, it would not be disturbed and disquieted as it is with trouble.
2. He shows them the cure, Jer. 4:14. “Since thy wickedness reaches to the heart, there the application must be made. O Jerusalem! wash thy heart from wickedness, that thou mayest be saved.” By Jerusalem he means each one of the inhabitants of Jerusalem; for every man has a heart of his own to take care of, and it is personal reformation that must help the public. Every one must return from his own evil way, and, in order to that, cleanse his own evil heart. “And let the heart of the city too be purified, not the suburbs only, the outskirts of it.” The vitals of a state must be amended by the reformation of those that have the commanding influence upon it. Note, (1.) Reformation is absolutely necessary to salvation. There is no other way of preventing judgments, or turning them away when we are threatened with them, but taking away the sin by which we have procured them to ourselves. (2.) No reformation is saving but that which reaches the heart. There is heart-wickedness that is defiling to the soul, from which we must wash ourselves. By repentance and faith we must wash our hearts from the guilt we have contracted by spiritual wickedness, by those sins which begin and end in the heart and go no further; and by mortification and watchfulness we must suppress and prevent this heart-wickedness for the future. The tree must be made good, else the fruit will not. Jerusalem was all overspread with the leprosy of sin. Now as the physicians agree with respect to the body when afflicted with leprosy that external applications will do no good, unless physic be taken inwardly to carry off the humours that lurk there and to change the mass of the blood, so it is with the soul, so it is with the state: there will be no effectual reformation of the manners without a reformation of the mind; the mistakes there must be rectified, the corruptions there must be mortified, and the evil dispositions there changed. “Though thou art Jerusalem, called a holy city, that will not save thee, unless thou wash thy heart from wickedness.” In the latter part of the verse he reasons with them: How long shall thy vain thoughts lodge within thee? He complains here [1.] Of the delays of their reformation: “How long shall that filthy heart of thine continue unwashed? When shall it once be?” Note, The God of heaven thinks the time long that his room is usurped, and his interest opposed, in our souls, Jer. 13:27. [2.] Of the root of their corruption, the vain thoughts that lodged within them and defiled their hearts, from which they must wash their hearts. Thoughts of iniquity or mischief, these are the evil thoughts that are the spawn of the evil heart, from which all other wickedness is produced, Matt. 15:19. These are our own, the conceptions of our own lusts (James 1:15), and they are the most dangerous when they lodge within us, when they are admitted and entertained as guests, and are suffered to continue. Some read it thoughts of affliction, such thoughts as will bring nothing but affliction and misery. Some by the vain thoughts here understand all those frivolous pleas and excuses with which they turned off the reproofs and calls of the word and rendered them ineffectual, and bolstered themselves up in their wickedness. Wash thy heart from wickedness, and think not to say, We are not polluted (Matt. 2:23), or, “We are Jerusalem; we have Abraham to our father,” Matt. 3:8; 3:9.

Jer. 4:11 Dry wind: The chamsin (I'm not sure of the spelling here) or sirocco, a dry, hot and devastating wind that blows from the desert.

Jer. 4:12 More vehement wind (KJV-full wind): The gentle breeze that blew in from the Mediterranean was used to winnow the grain from the chaff or to clean the dust from the grain.

Jer. 4:15 Dan: It was on the northern border of Israel, while Mount Ephraim was a few km north of Jerusalem. This could indicate the rapid advance of the enemy (see v.13).

Jer. 4:16 Far land: Babylon (see Is. 39:3).

Jer. 4:19-26 Personal lament that expresses the agony that Jeremiah feels for the destruction of his people.

Jer. 4:21 Flag and trumpet: See verses 5,6.

Jer. 4:22 GOD speaks: See Isaiah 1:3; Hosea 4:1.

Jer. 4:23-26 These verses have the typical reiterative style with which Isaiah writes. Each verse begins with the words, I saw.

Jer. 4:23 Devastated and empty (KJV-without form and void): The phrase only appears here and in Genesis 1:2. Jeremiah saw his land in ruins. His vision expresses the frightening extent of the destruction caused by the Babylonians as instruments of the divine judgment upon Judah; something like a cosmic cataclysm and a return to the primordial chaos. They had no light: The prevailing state before the first day of Creation (see Gen. 1:2,3).

Jer. 4:25 There was no man: See Genesis 2:5. The work of creation is unfinished.

Jer. 4:27 But I will not destroy everything (KJV-Will I not make a full end): GOD's judgment is tempered by mercy (see 5:10,18; 30:11; 46:28).

Jer. 4:28 Neither will I desist: Repentance brings mercy, but judgment will come inexorably if the people don't repent.

Jer. 4:30,31 Jeremiah personifies Judah and Jerusalem first as a prostitute (v.30), then later as a woman who is in labor (v.31).

Jer. 4:30 Paint: Antimony is a black powder used to make the eyes look bigger and more attractive (decorate: KJV-make thyself fair). See II Kings 9:30; Ezekiel 23:40.

2. The Person of the Prophet (Keil and Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament)

Concerning the life and labours of the prophet Jeremiah, we have fuller information than we have as to those of many of the other prophets. The man is very clearly reflected in his prophecies, and his life is closely interwoven with the history of Judah. We consider first the outward circumstances of the prophet's life, and then his character and mental gifts. a. His Outward Circumstances - Jeremiah was the son of Hilkiah, one of the priests belonging to the priest-city Anathoth, situated about five miles north of Jerusalem, now a village called Anâta. This Hilkiah is not the high priest of that name, mentioned in 2Ki. 22:4. and 2Ch. 34:9, as has been supposed by some of the Fathers, Rabbins, and recent commentators. This view is shown to be untenable because it is hardly likely that the high priest could have lived with his household out of Jerusalem, as was the case in Jeremiah's family (Jer. 32:8; Jer. 37:12.); and we learn from 1Ki.2:26 that it was priests of the house of Ithamar that lived in Anathoth, whereas the high priests belonged to the line of Eleazar and the house of Phinehas (1Ch. 24:3). Jeremiah, called to be prophet at an early age (Jer. 1:6), laboured in Jerusalem from the thirteenth year of Josiah's reign (b.c. 629) until the fall of the kingdom; and after the destruction of Jerusalem he continued his work for some years longer amidst the ruins of Judah, and in Egypt amongst those of his countrymen who had fled thither (Jer. 1:2., Jer. 25:3; Jer. 40:1). His prophetic ministry falls, consequently, into the period of the internal dissolution of the kingdom of Judah, and its destruction by the Chaldeans. He had himself received a mission from the LORD to peoples and kingdoms, as well to break down and destroy, as to build and plant (Jer. 1:10). He was to fulfill this mission, in the first place, in the case of Judah, and then to the heathen peoples, in so far forth as they came in contact with the kingdom of GOD in Judah. The scene of his labours was Jerusalem. Here he proclaimed the word of the LORD in the courts of the temple (e.g., Jer. 7:2; Jer. 26:1); at the gates of the city (Jer. 17:19); in the king's palace (Jer. 32:1; Jer. 37:17); in the prison (Jer. 32:1); and in other places (Jer. 18:1., Jer. 19:1., Jer. 27:2). Some commentators think that he first began as prophet in his native town of Anathoth, and that he wrought there for some time ere he visited Jerusalem; but this is in contradiction to the statement of Jer. 2:2, that he uttered almost his very first discourse "before the ears of Jerusalem." Nor does this assumption find any support from Jer. 11:21; Jer. 12:5. All that can be gathered from these passages is, that during his ministry he occasionally visited his native town, which lay so near Jerusalem, and preached the word of the LORD to his former fellow-citizens.

When he began his work as prophet, King Josiah had already taken in hand the extirpation of idolatry and the restoration of the worship of Jahveh in the temple; and Jeremiah was set apart by the LORD to be a prophet that he might support the godly king in this work. His task was to bring back the hearts of the people to the GOD of their fathers by preaching GOD's word, and to convert that outward return to the service of Jahveh into a thorough turning of the heart to Him, so as to rescue from destruction all who were willing to convert and be saved. Encouraged by Manasseh's sins, backsliding from the LORD, godlessness, and unrighteousness had reached in Judah such a pitch, that it was no longer possible to turn aside the judgment of rejection from the face of the LORD, to save the backsliding race from being delivered into the power of the heathen.

Yet the faithful covenant GOD, in divine long-suffering, granted to His faithless people still another gracious opportunity for repentance and return to Him; He gave them Josiah's reformation, and sent the prophets, because, though resolved to punish the sinful people for its stiff-necked apostasy, He would not make an utter end of it. This gives us a view point from which to consider Jeremiah's mission, and looking hence, we cannot fail to find sufficient light to enable us to understand the whole course of his labours, and the contents of his discourses.

Immediately after his call, he was made to see, under the emblem of a seething cauldron, the evil that was about to break from out of the north upon all the inhabitants of the land: the families of the kingdoms of the north are to come and set their thrones before the gates of Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, and through them GOD is to utter judgment upon Judah for its idolatry (Jer. 1:13-16). Accordingly, from the beginning of his work in the days of Josiah onwards, the prophet can never be driven from the maintenance of his position, that Judah and Jerusalem will be laid waste by a hostile nation besetting them from the north, that the people of Judah will fall by the enemy's sword, and go forth into captivity; cf. Jer. 4:5, Jer. 4:13, Jer. 4:27; Jer. 5:15, Jer. 6:22, etc. This nation, not particularly specified in the prophecies of the earlier period, is none other than that of the Chaldeans, the king of Babylon and his hosts. It is not the nation of the Scythians, as many commentators suppose; see the comm. on Jer. 4:5. Nevertheless he unremittingly calls upon all ranks of his people to repent, to do away with the abominable idols, and to cease from its wickedness; to plough up a new soil and not sow among thorns, lest the anger of the LORD break forth in fire and burn unquenchably (Jer. 4:1-4; cf. Jer. 6:8, Jer. 6:16; Jer. 7:3., etc.). He is never weary of holding up their sins to the view of the people and its leaders, the corrupt priests, the false prophets, the godless kings and princes; this, too, he does amidst much trial both from within and from without, and without seeing any fruit of his labours (cf. Jer. 25:3-8). After twenty-three years of indefatigable expostulation with the people, the judgment of which he had so long warned them burst upon the incorrigible race. The fourth year of Jehoiakim's reign (b.c. 606) forms a turning point not only in the history of the kingdom, but also in Jeremiah's work as prophet. In the year in which Jerusalem was taken for the first time, and Judah made tributary to the Chaldeans, those devastations began with which Jeremiah had so often threatened his hardened hearers; and together with it came the fulfillment of what Jeremiah had shortly before foretold, the seventy years' dominion of Babylon over Judah, and over Egypt and the neighbouring peoples (Jer. 25:19). For seventy years these nations are to serve the king of Babylon; but when these years are out, the king and land of the Chaldeans shall be visited, Judah shall be set free from its captivity, and shall return into its own land (Jer. 25:11., Jer. 37:6., Jer. 29:10).

The progressive fulfillment of Jeremiah's warning prophecies vindicated his character as prophet of the LORD; yet, notwithstanding, it was now that the sorest days of trial in his calling were to come. At the first taking of Jerusalem, Nebuchadnezzar had contented himself with reducing Jehoiakim under his sway and imposing a tribute on the land, and king and people but waited and plotted for a favourable opportunity to shake off the Babylonian yoke. In this course they were encouraged by the lying prophecies of the false prophets, and the work done by these men prepared for Jeremiah sore controversies and bitter trials. At the very beginning of Jehoiakim's reign, the priests, the prophets, and the people assembled in the temple, laid hands on Jeremiah, because he had declared that Zion should share the fate of Shiloh, and that Jerusalem should be destroyed. He was by them found worthy of death, and he escaped from the power of his enemies only by the mediation of the princes of Judah, who hastened to his rescue, and reminded the people that in Hezekiah's days the prophet Micah had uttered a like prophecy, and yet had suffered nothing at the hand of the king, because he feared GOD. At the same time, Uriah, who had foretold the same issue of affairs, and who had fled to Egypt to escape Jehoiakim's vengeance, was forced back thence by an envoy of the king and put to death (Jer 26). Now it was that Jeremiah, by command of GOD, caused his assistant Baruch to write all the discourses he had delivered into a roll-book, and to read it before the assembled people on the day of the fast, observed in the ninth month of the fifty year of Jehoiakim's reign. When the king had word of it, he caused the roll to be brought and read to him. But when two or three passages had been read, he cut the roll in pieces and cast the fragments into a brasier that was burning before him. He ordered Jeremiah and Baruch to be brought; but by the advice of the friendly princes they had concealed themselves, and GOD hid them so that they were not found (Jer 36). It does not appear that the prophet suffered any further persecution under Jehoiakim and Jehoiachin. Two years after the fast above mentioned, Jehoiakim rose against Nebuchadnezzar. The result was, that Jerusalem was besieged and taken for the second time in the reign of the next king; Jehoiakim, the leading men, and the flower of the nation were carried into exile to Babylon; and so Jeremiah's prophecy was yet more strikingly affirmed. Jerusalem was saved from destruction this time again, and in Zedekiah, the uncle of the exiled king, who had, of course, to take the oath of fealty, the country had again a king of the old stock. Yet the heavy blow that had now fallen on the nation was not sufficient to bend the stiff neck of the infatuated people and its leaders. Even yet were found false prophets who foretold the speedy overthrow of Chaldean domination, and the return, ere long, of the exiles (Jer 28). In vain did Jeremiah lift up his voice in warning against putting reliance on these prophets, or on the soothsayers and sorcerers who speak like them (Jer. 27:9., Jer. 27:14). When, during the first years of Zedekiah's reign, ambassadors had come from the bordering nations, Jeremiah, in opposition to the false prophets, declares to the king that GOD has given all these countries into the hand of the king of Babylon, and that these peoples shall serve him and his son and his grandson. He cries to the king, "Put your necks into the yoke of the king of Babylon, and ye shall live; he that will not serve him shall perish by sword, famine, and pestilence" (Jer. 27:12.). This announcement had repeated before the people, the princes, and the king, during the siege by the Chaldeans, which followed on Zedekiah's treacherous insurrection against his liege lord, and he chose for it the particular time at which the Chaldeans had temporarily raised the siege, in order to meet the Egyptian king in the field, Pharaoh Hophra having advanced to the help of the Jews (Jer. 34:20.). It was then that, when going out by the city gate, Jeremiah was laid hold of, beaten by the magistrates, and thrown into prison, on the pretext that he wanted to desert to the Chaldeans. After he had spent a long time in prison, the king had him brought to him, and inquired of him secretly for a word of Jahveh; but Jeremiah had no other word from GOD to give him but, "Thou shalt be given into the hand of the king of Babylon." Favoured by this opportunity, he complained to the king about his imprisonment. Zedekiah gave order that he should not be taken back to the prison, but placed in the court of the prison, and that a loaf of bread should be given him daily until all the bread in Jerusalem was consumed (Jer 37). Shortly thereafter, however, some of the princes demanded of the king the death of the prophet, on the ground that he was paralyzing the courage of soldiers and people by such speeches as, "He that remains in this city shall die by sword, famine, and pestilence; but he that goeth out to the Chaldeans shall carry off his life as a prey from them." They alleged he was seeking the hurt and not the weal of the city; and the feeble king yielded to their demands, with the words: "Behold, he is in your hand, for the king can do nothing against you." Upon this he was cast into a deep pit in the court of the prison, in the slime of which he sank deep, and would soon have perished but for the noble-minded Ethiopian Ebed-melech, a royal chamberlain, who made application to the king on his behalf, and procured his removal out of the dungeon of mire. When consulted privately by the king yet again, he had none other than his former answer to give him, and so he remained in the court of the prison until the capture of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans (Jer 38). After this he was restored to freedom by Nebuzar-adan, the captain of Nebuchadnezzar's guard, at the command of the king; and being left free to choose his place of residence, he decided to remain at Mizpah with Gedaliah, appointed governor of the land, amongst his own people (Jer. 39:11-14, and Jer. 40:1-6). Now it was that he composed the Lamentations upon the fall of Jerusalem and Judah.

After the foul murder of Gedaliah, the people, fleeing through fear of Chaldean vengeance, compelled him to accompany them to Egypt, although he had expressly protested against the flight as a thing displeasing to GOD (Jer 41:17-43:7). In Egypt he foretold the conquest of the land by Nebuchadnezzar (Jer. 43:8-13); and, further on, the judgment of GOD on his countrymen, who had attached themselves to the worship of the Queen of Heaven (44). Beyond this we are told nothing else about him in Bible records. Neither the time, the place, nor the manner of his death is known. We cannot confidently assert from Jer 44 that he was still living in b.c. 570, for this last discourse of the prophet does not necessarily presume the death of King Hophra (b.c. 570). Only this much is certain, that he lived yet for some years in Egypt, till about 585 or 580; that his labours consequently extended over some fifty years, and so that, presuming he was called to be prophet when a youth of 20 to 25 years old, he must have attained an age of 70 to 75 years. As to his death, we are told in the fathers Jerome, Tertull, Epiph., that he was stoned by the people at Tahpanhes (Daphne of Egypt), and accordingly his grave used to be pointed out near Cairo. But a Jewish tradition, in the Seder ol. rabb. c. 26, makes him out to have been carried off with Baruch to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar at the conquest of Egypt, in the 27th year of Nebuchadnezzar's reign. The greater were the ignominy and suffering endured by Jeremiah in life, the higher was the esteem in which he was held by posterity, chiefly, doubtless, because of the exact fulfillment of his prophecy as to the seventy years' duration of the Babylonian empire (cf. Dan 9; 2; 2Ch. 36:20., Ezra 1:1). Jesus Sirach, in his Praise of the Prophets, Ecclus. c. xlix. 7, does not go beyond what we already know from Jer. 1:10; but was early as the second book of the Maccabees, we have traditions and legends which leave no doubt of the profound veneration in which he was held, especially by the Alexandrian Jews.

(Note: Thus the vision reported of Judas Maccabaeus in 2 Macc. 15:12ff., to the effect that in a dream a man appeared to him, standing beside the high priest Onias, while he prayed for his people-a man marked by his hoary hair and venerableness, engirded by wondrous and glorious majesty, and that Onias said: "This is the (man) that has prayed so much fore the people and the holy city, Jeremiah, the prophet of GOD;" that Jeremiah held out to Judas a golden sword, with the words, "Take this holy sword as a gift from GOD; therewith thou shalt smite the adversaries." Further, we have in 2 Macc. 2:4ff., that at the destruction of Jerusalem, Jeremiah hid the ark, the holy fire, the incense with its altar and the tabernacle, in a cave of the mountain from which Moses saw the promised land, and that this place will not be found again till the LORD gathers His people and is gracious to it. Hence arose the expectation which we find in Matt.16:14, that Jeremiah will appear again as the forerunner of the Messiah.)

His Character and Mental Qualities - If we gather together in one the points of view that are discovered in a summary glance over Jeremiah's work as a prophet, we feel the truth of Ed. Vilmar's statement at p. 38 of his essay on the prophet Jeremiah in the periodical, Der Beweis des Glaubens. Bd. v. Gütersloh 1869. "When we consider the prophet's faith in the imperishableness of GOD's people, in spite of the inevitable ruin which is to overwhelm the race then living, and his conviction, firm as the rock, that the Chaldeans are invincible until the end of the period allotted to them by Providence, it is manifest that his work is grounded in something other and higher than mere political sharp-sightedness or human sagacity." Nor is the unintermitting steadfastness with which, amidst the sorest difficulties from without, he exercised his office to be explained by the native strength of his character. Naturally of a yielding disposition, sensitive and timid, it was with trembling that he bowed to GOD's call (Jer. 1:6); and afterwards, when borne down by the burden of them, he repeatedly entertained the wish to be relieved from his hard duties. "Thou hast persuaded me, LORD," he complains in Jer. 20:7., "and I let myself be persuaded; Thou hast laid hold on me and hast prevailed. I am become a laughing-stock all the day long: the word of Jahveh is become a reproach and a derision. And I thought: I will think no more of Him nor speak more in His name; and it was in my head as burning fire, shut up in my bones, and I become weary of bearing up, and cannot." Though filled with glowing love that sought the salvation of his people, he is compelled, while he beholds their moral corruptness, to cry out: "O that I had in my wilderness a lodging-place of wayfarers! then would I leave my people, and go from them; for they are all adulterers, a crew of faithless men" (Jer. 9:1). And his assurance that the judgment about to burst on the land and people could not be turned aside, draws from him the sigh: "O that mine head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears! then would I weep day and night for the slain of my people" (8:23). "He was no second Elijah," as Hgstbg. Christol. ii. p. 370 happily puts it. "He had a soft nature, a susceptible temperament; his tears flowed readily. And he who was so glad to live in peace and love with all men, must needs, because he has enlisted in the service of truth, become a second Ishmael, his hand against every man, and every man's hand against him; he whose love for his people was so glowing, was doomed to see that love misconstrued, to see himself branded as a traitor by those who were themselves the traitors to the people." Experiences like these raised bitter struggles in his soul, repeatedly set forth by him, especially in Jer. 12:1 and Jer. 20:1. Yet he stands immovably stedfast in the strife against all the powers of wickedness, like "a pillar of iron and a wall of brass against the whole land, the kings of Judah, its rulers and priests, and against the common people," so that all who strove against him could effect nothing, because the LORD, according to His promise, Jer. 1:18., was with him, stood by his side as a terrible warrior (Jer. 20:11), and showed His power mighty in the prophet's weakness.

This character of Jeremiah is also reflected in his writings. His speech is clear and simple, incisive and pithy, and, though generally speaking somewhat diffuse, yet ever rich in thought. If it lacks the lofty strain, the soaring flight of an Isaiah, yet it has beauties of its own. It is distinguished by a wealth of new imagery which is wrought out with great delicacy and deep feeling, and by "a versatility that easily adapts itself to the most various objects, and by artistic clearness" (Ewald). In the management of his thoughts Jeremiah has more recourse than other prophets to the law and the older sacred writings (cf. Koenig, das Deuteronom u. der Proph. Jeremia, Heft ii. of the Alttstl. Studien; and A Küper, Jeremias librorum sacrr. interpres atque vindex). And his style of expression is rich in repetitions and standing phrases. These peculiarities are not, however, to be regarded as signs of the progressive decline of the prophetic gift (Ew.), but are to be derived from deeper foundations, from positive and fundamental causes. The continual recurrence to the law, and the frequent application of the prophetic parts of Deuteronomy, was prompted by the circumstances of the time. The wider the people's apostasy from GOD's law extended itself, so much the greater became the need for a renewed preaching of the law, that should point to the sore judgments there threatened against hardened sinners, now about to come into fulfillment. And as against the guile of false prophets whose influence with the infatuated people became ever greater, the true witnesses of the LORD could have no more effective means of showing and proving the divineness of their mission and the truth of their testimony than by bringing strongly out their connection with the old prophets and their utterances. On this wise did Jeremiah put in small compass and preserve the spiritual inheritance which Israel had received from Moses a thousand years before, and thus he sent it with the people into exile as its better self (E. Vilm. as above). The numerous repetitions do unquestionably produce a certain monotony, but this monotony is nothing else than the expression of the bitter grief that penetrates the soul; the soul is full of the one thought which takes entire possession of its elastic powers, and is never weary of ever crying out anew the same truth to the people, so as to stagger their assurance by this importunate expostulation (cf. Haevern. Introd. p. 196). From the same cause comes the negligence in diction and style, on which Jerome in Prol. in Jer. passed this criticism: Jeremias propheta sermone apud Hebraeos Jesaia et Osea et quibusdam aliis prophetis videtur esse rusticior, sed sensibus par est; and further in the Proaem. to lib. iv. of the Comment.: quantum in verbis simplex et facilis, tantum in majestate sensuum profundissimus. And unadorned style is the natural expression of a heart filled with grief and sadness. "He that is sad and downcast in heart, whose eyes run over with tears (Lam. 2:2), is not the man to deck and trick himself out in frippery and fine speeches" (Hgstb. as above, p. 372). Finally, as to the language, the influence of the Aramaic upon the Hebrew tongue is already pretty evident.