--- title: "Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible · Volume 1: Genesis to Jeremiah" author: "Adam Clarke" languages: [en] shelf: "Commentaries" section: 875 of 914 url: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/875/ cite: "Adam Clarke, Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible · Volume 1: Genesis to Jeremiah, section 875. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/875/" --- # Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible · Volume 1: Genesis to Jeremiah *Adam Clarke* Clarke's learned notes on the Hebrew and Greek, verse by verse, from Genesis to Revelation: volume 1 of 2. ## 875. Jeremiah · 16 of 55 Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/875/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/875/#p-N ### Verse 21 [¶1] Thou hast taught them to be captains, and as chief over thee - This is said of their enemies, whether Assyrians or Chaldeans: for ever since Ahaz submitted himself to the king of Assyria, the kings of Judah never regained their independence. Their enemies were thus taught to be their lords and masters. ### Verse 22 [¶3] Are thy skirts discovered - Thy defenseless state is every where known; thou art not only weak, but ignominiously so. It is thy scandal to be in so depressed a condition; thou art lower than the basest of thy adversaries, and thou art so because of thy sin. ### Verse 23 [¶5] Can the Ethiopian change his skin - Can a black, at his own pleasure, change the color of his skin? Can the leopard at will change the variety of his spots? These things are natural to them, and they cannot be altered; so sin, and especially your attachment to idolatry, is become a second nature; and we may as well expect the Ethiopian to change his skin, and the leopard his spots, as you to do good, who have been accustomed to do evil. It is a matter of the utmost difficulty to get a sinner, deeply rooted in vicious habits, brought to the knowledge of himself and God. But the expression does not imply that the thing is as impossible in a moral as it is in a natural sense: it only shows that it is extremely difficult, and not to be often expected; and a thousand matters of fact prove the truth of this. But still, what is impossible to man is possible to God. See the note on [Jer 13:27]. ### Verse 24 [¶7] The wind of the wilderness - Some strong tempestuous wind, proverbially severe, coming from the desert to the south of Judea. ### Verse 25 [¶9] Trusted in falsehood - In idols, and in lying prophets. ### Verse 26 [¶11] Therefore will I discover thy skirts upon thy face - It was the custom to punish lewd women by stripping them naked, and exposing them to public view; or by throwing their clothes over their heads, as here intimated. Was this the way to correct the evil? ### Verse 27 [¶13] I have seen thine adulteries - Thy idolatries of different kinds, practiced in various ways; no doubt often accompanied with gross debauchery. [¶14] Wo unto thee, O Jerusalem wilt thou not be made clean? - We see from this, that though the thing was difficult, yet it was not impossible, for these Ethiopians to change their skin, for these leopards to change their spots. It was only their obstinate refusal of the grace of God that rendered it impossible. Man cannot change himself; but he may pray to God to do it, and come to him through Christ, that he may do it. To enable him to pray and believe, the power is still at hand. If he will not use it, he must perish. ### Introduction [¶16] This chapter begins with foretelling a drought that should greatly distress the land of Judea, the effects of which are described in a most pathetic manner, [Jer 14:1-6]. The prophet then, in the people's name, makes a confession of sins, and supplication for pardon, [Jer 14:7-9]. But God declares his purpose to punish, forbidding Jeremiah to pray for the people, [Jer 14:10-12]. False prophets are then complained of, and threatened with destruction, as are also those who attend to them, [Jer 14:13-16]. The prophet, therefore, bewails their misery, [Jer 14:17], [Jer 14:18]; and though he had just now been forbidden to intercede for them, yet, like a tender pastor, who could not cease to be concerned for their welfare, he falls on the happy expedient of introducing themselves as supplicating in their own name that mercy which he was not allowed to ask in his, [Jer 14:19-22]. ### Verse 1 [¶18] The word - that came - concerning the dearth - This discourse is supposed to have been delivered, after the fourth year of Jehoiakim. Concerning the dearth. We have no historic record of any dearth that may fall in with the time of this prophecy, and perhaps it does not refer to any particular dearth: but this was a calamity to which Judea was very liable. They had ordinarily very dry summers, for scarcely any rain fell from April to the middle of October; and during much of this time, the rivers were generally either very low or entirely dry. They kept the rain of the winter in tanks and reservoirs; and if little fell in winter, a dearth was unavoidable. See an account of a dearth in the time of Elijah, [1Kgs 18:5], through which almost all the cattle were lost. ### Verse 2 [¶20] The gates thereof languish - The gates being the places of public resort, they are put here for the people. [¶21] They are black unto the ground - Covered from head to foot with a black garment, the emblem of sorrow and calamity. ### Verse 3 [¶23] Their nobles have sent their little ones - So general was this calamity, that the servants no longer attended to their lords, but every one was interested alone for himself; and the nobles of the land were obliged to employ their own children to scour the land, to see if any water could be found in the tanks or the pits. In the dearth in the time of Elijah, Ahab the king, and Obadiah his counselor, were obliged to traverse the land themselves, in order to find out water to keep their cattle alive. This and the three following verses give a lively but distressing picture of this dearth and its effects. ### Verse 4 [¶25] The ground is chapt - The cracks in the earth before the descent of the rains are in some places a cubit wide, and deep enough to receive the greater part of a human body. ### Verse 6 [¶27] Snuffed up the wind like dragons - תנים tannim here probably means the hippopotamus, who, after feeding under the water, is obliged to come to the surface in order to take in fresh draughts of air; or it may mean the wild asses. ### Verse 7 [¶29] O Lord, though our iniquities testify against us - We deeply acknowledge that we have sinned, and deserve nothing but death. Yet act for thy name's sake - work in our behalf, that we perish not. ### Verse 8 [¶31] O the hope of Israel - O thou who art the only object of the hope of this people. [¶32] The Savior thereof in time of trouble - Who hast never yet abandoned them that seek thee. [¶33] Why shouldest thou be as a stranger in the land - As one who has no interest in the prosperity and safety of the country. [¶34] And as a way-faring man - A traveler on his journey. [¶35] That turneth aside to tarry for a night? - Who stays the shortest time he can; and takes up his lodging in a tent or caravanserai, for the dead of the night, that he may pursue his journey by break of day. Instead of dwelling among us, thou hast scarcely paid the most transient visit to thy land. O come once more, and dwell among us. ### Verse 9 [¶37] Yet thou, O Lord, art in the midst of us - Thy ark, temple, and sacred rites, are all here; and thou thyself, who art every where present, art here also: but alas! thou dost not reveal thyself as the Father of mercies, who forgivest iniquity, transgression, and sin. [¶38] We are called by thy name; leave us not - Let us call thee our Father, and say thou to us, "Ye are my sons and daughters!" O leave us not! ### Verse 10 [¶40] Thus have they loved to wander - And the measure of your iniquity being now full, ye must be punished. ### Verse 11 [¶42] Pray not for this people - They are ripe for destruction, intercede not for them. O, how dreadful is the state of that people in reference to whom the Lord says to his ministers, Pray not for them; or, what amounts nearly to a prohibition, withholds from his ministers the spirit of prayer and intercession in behalf of the people! ### Verse 13 [¶44] Ah, Lord God! behold, the prophets say unto them - True, Lord, they are exceedingly wicked; but the false prophets have deceived them; this is some mitigation of their offense. This plea God does not admit; and why? the people believed them, without having any proof of their Divine mission.