Verse 7
The lion is come up - Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. "The king (Nebuchadnezzar) is come up from his tower." - Targum.
The destroyer of the Gentiles - Of the nations: of all the people who resisted his authority. He destroyed them all.
Verse 8
Lament and howl - הילילו heililu. The aboriginal Irish had a funeral song called the Caoinian, still continued among their descendants, one part of which is termed the ulaloo: this is sung responsively or alternately, and is accompanied with a full chorus of sighs and groans. It has been thought that Ireland was originally peopled by the Phoenicians: if so, this will account for the similarity of many words and customs among both these people.
Verse 9
The heart of the king shall perish - Shall lose all courage.
Verse 10
Ah, Lord God! surely thou hast greatly deceived this people - The Targum paraphrases this verse thus: "And I said, Receive my supplication, O Lord God; for, behold, the false prophets deceive this people and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, Ye shall have peace." The prophet could not reconcile this devastation of the country with the promises already made; and he appears to ask the question, Hast thou not then deceived this people in saying there shall be peace, i.e., prosperity?
Whereas the sword reacheth unto the soul - That is, the life; the people being generally destroyed.
Verse 11
A dry wind - a fall wind - as clouds - as a whirlwind - All these expressions appear to refer to the pestilential winds, suffocating vapors, and clouds and pillars of sand collected by whirlwinds, which are so common and destructive in the east, (see on [Isa 21:1] (note)); and these images are employed here to show the overwhelming effect of the invasion of the land by the Chaldeans.
Verse 13
Wo unto us! - The people, deeply affected with these threatened judgments, interrupt the prophet with the lamentation - Wo unto us, for we are spoiled! The prophet then resumes: -
Verse 14
O Jerusalem, wash thine heart - Why do ye not put away your wickedness, that ye may be saved from these tremendous judgments? How long shall thy vain thoughts of safety and prosperity lodge within thee? Whilst thou continuest a rebel against God, and provokest him daily by thy abominations!
Verse 15
For a voice declareth from Dan - Dan was a city in the tribe of Dan, north of Jerusalem; the first city in Palestine, which occurs in the way from Babylon to Jerusalem.
Affliction from Mount Ephraim - Between Dan and Jerusalem are the mountains of Ephraim. These would be the first places attacked by the Chaldeans; and the rumor from thence would show that the land was invaded.
Verse 16
Watchers come from a far country - Persons to besiege fortified places.
Verse 17
As keepers of a field - In the eastern countries grain is often sown in the open country; and, when nearly ripe, guards are placed at different distances round about it to preserve it from being plundered. Jerusalem was watched, like one of these fields, by guards all round about it; so that none could enter to give assistance, and none who wished to escape were permitted to go out.
Verse 19
My bowels - From this to the twenty-ninth verse the prophet describes the ruin of Jerusalem and the desolation of Judea by the Chaldeans in language and imagery scarcely paralleled in the whole Bible. At the sight of misery the bowels are first affected; pain is next felt by a sort of stricture in the pericardium; and then, the heart becoming strongly affected by irregular palpitations, a gush of tears, accompanied with wailings, is the issue. - "My bowels, my bowels! I am pained at my very heart, (the walls of my heart); my heart maketh a noise in me; I cannot hold my peace." Here is nature, and fact also.
Verse 20
Destruction upon destruction - Cities burnt, and their inhabitants destroyed.
My tents spoiled - Even the solitary dwellings in the fields and open country do not escape.
Verse 23
I beheld the earth, (the land), and lo it was without form and void - תהו ובהו tohu vabohu; the very words used in Genesis to denote the formless state of the chaotic mass before God had brought it into order.
Verse 24
The mountains - hills - Princes, rulers, etc., were astonished and fled.
Verse 25
The birds of the heavens were fled - The land was so desolated that even the fowls of heaven could not find meat, and therefore fled away to another region. How powerfully energetic is this description!
See [Zep 1:3].
Verse 30
Though thou rentest thy face with painting - This probably refers to the custom of introducing stibium a preparation of antimony, between the eye and the lids, in order to produce a fine lustre, which occasions a distension of the eye-lid in the time of the operation. In order to heighten the effect from this some may have introduced a more than ordinary quantity, so as nearly to rend the eye-lid itself. Though thou make use of every means of address, of cunning, and of solicitation, to get assistance from the neighboring states, it will be all in vain. Reference is here particularly made to the practice of harlots to allure men.
Verse 31
Bringeth forth her first child - In such a case the fear, danger, and pain were naturally the greatest.
Spreadeth her hands - The gesture indicated by nature to signify distress, and implore help. We have met with this figure in other parts, and among the classic writers it is frequent.
Introduction
The prophet, having described the judgments impending over his countrymen, enlarges on the corruptions which prevailed among them. Their profession of religion was all false and hypocritical, [Jer 5:1], [Jer 5:2]. Though corrected, they were not amended, but persisted in their guilt, [Jer 5:3]. This was not the case with the low and ignorant only, [Jer 5:4]; but more egregiously so with those of the higher order, from whose knowledge and opportunities better things might have been expected, [Jer 5:5]. God therefore threatens them with the most cruel enemies, [Jer 5:6]; and appeals to themselves if they should be permitted to practice such sins unpunished, [Jer 5:7-9]. He then commands their enemies to raze the walls of Jerusalem, [Jer 5:10]; that devoted city whose inhabitants added to all their other sins the highest contempt of God's word and prophets, [Jer 5:11-13]. Wherefore his word, in the mouth of his prophet, shall be as fire to consume them, [Jer 5:14]; the Chaldean forces shall cruelly addict them, [Jer 5:15-17]; and farther judgments await then as the consequence of their apostasy and idolatry, [Jer 5:18], [Jer 5:19]. The chapter closes with a most melancholy picture of the moral condition of the Jewish people at that period which immediately preceded the Babylonish captivity, [Jer 5:20-31].
Verse 1
Broad places - Market-places, and those where there was most public resort.
If ye can find a man - A certain philosopher went through the streets of Athens with a lighted lamp in his hand; and being asked what he sought, answered, "I am seeking to find a Man." So in Jerusalem none was found, on the most diligent search, who acted worthy the character of a rational being.
I will pardon it - I will spare the city for the sake of one righteous person. So at the intercession of Abraham, God would have spared Sodom if there had been ten righteous persons found in it; [Gen 18:26].