Verse 13
The virgin of Israel - Instead of ישראל Yisrael, three of Kennicott's and De Rossi's MSS., with the Alexandrian copy of the Septuagint, have ירושלם Yerushalem, Jerusalem.
Verse 14
Will a man leave the snow of Lebanon - Lebanon was the highest mountain in Judea. Would any man in his senses abandon a farm that was always watered by the melted snows of Lebanon, and take a barren rock in its place? How stupid therefore and absurd are my people, who abandon the everlasting God for the worship of idols!
Verse 16
A perpetual hissing - שריקות sherikoth. a shrieking, hissing; an expression of contempt.
Verse 17
I will scatter them as with an east wind - It is the property of this wind, almost every where, to parch up, blast, and destroy grain and trees, and even cattle and men suffer from it. Hence the old metrical proverb: - "When the wind blows from the east, 'Tis good for neither man nor beast."
Verse 18
Come, and let us devise devices - Let us form a conspiracy against him, accuse him of being a false prophet, and a contradicter of the words of God, for God has promised us protection, and he says we shall be destroyed, and that God will forsake his people.
Let us smite him with the tongue - On the tongue; so it should be rendered. Lying and false testimony are punished in the eastern countries, to the present day, by smiting the person on the mouth with a strong piece of leather like the sole of a shoe. Sometimes a bodkin is run through the tongue. Blasphemy, calumny, and cursing of parents, are usually punished in that way among the Chinese.
Verse 20
They have digged a pit for my soul - For my life; this they wish to take away.
Stood before thee to speak good for them - I was their continual intercessor.
Verse 21
Therefore deliver up their children - The execrations in these verses should be considered as simply prophetic declarations of the judgments which God was about to pour out on them.
If we consider them in their grammatical meaning, then they are not directions to us to whom our Lawgiver has said, "Love your enemies."
Introduction
By the significant type of breaking a potter's vessel, Jeremiah is directed to predict the utter desolation of Judah and Jerusalem, [Jer 19:1-15]. The prophets taught frequently by symbolic actions as well as by words.
Verse 1
Go and get a potter's earthen bottle - This discourse was also delivered some time in the reign of Jehoiakim. Under the type of breaking a potter's earthen bottle or jug, Jeremiah shows his enemies that the word of the Lord should stand, that Jerusalem should be taken and sacked, and they all carried into captivity.
Ancients of the priests - The chiefs of the twenty-four classes which David had established. See [1Chr 24:4].
Verse 4
Estranged this place - Ye have devoted my temple to a widely different purpose from that for which it was erected.
Verse 5
Offerings unto Baal - A general name for all the popular idols; Baal, Moloch, Ashtaroth, etc.
Verse 7
I will make void the counsel of Judah - Probably this refers to some determination made to proclaim themselves independent, and pay no more tribute to the Chaldeans.
To be meat for the fowls - See on [Jer 7:33] (note).
Verse 9
I will cause them to eat the flesh of their sons - This was literally fulfilled when Jerusalem was besieged by the Romans. This also the prophet might have had in view.
Verse 11
Even so will I break this people and this city - The breaking of the bottle was the symbolical representation of the destruction of the city and of the state.
That cannot be made whole again - This seems to refer rather to the final destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans, than to what was done by the Chaldeans. Jerusalem was healed after 70 years: but nearly 1800 years have elapsed since Jerusalem was taken and destroyed by the Romans; and it was then so broken, that it could not be made whole again.
Verse 12
And even make this city as Tophet - A place of slaughter and destruction.
Verse 14
Then came Jeremiah from Tophet - He had probably gone to the valley of Hinnom, and there repeated the discourse which he had a little before delivered to the chief priests and elders.
Verse 15
Because they have hardened their necks - A metaphor taken from unruly and unbroken oxen, who resist the yoke, break and run away with their gears. So this people had broken and destroyed the yoke of the law.
Introduction
Jeremiah, on account of his prophesying evil concerning Judah and Jerusalem, is beaten and imprisoned by Pashur, chief governor of the temple, [Jer 20:1], [Jer 20:2]. On the following day the prophet is released, who denounces the awful judgments of God which should fall upon the governor and all his house, as well as upon the whole land of Judah, in the approaching Babylonish captivity, [Jer 20:3-6]. Jeremiah then bitterly complains of the reproaches continually heaped upon him by his enemies; and, in his haste, resolves to speak no more in the name of Jehovah; but the word of the Lord is in his heart as a burning flame, so that he is not able to forbear, [Jer 20:7-10]. The prophet professes his trust in God, whom he praises for his late deliverance, [Jer 20:11-13]. The remaining verses, which appear to be out of their place, contain Jeremiah's regret that he was ever born to a life of so much sorrow and trouble, [Jer 20:14-18]. This complaint resembles that of Job; only it is milder and more dolorous. This excites our pity, that our horror. Both are highly poetical, and embellished with every circumstance that can heighten the coloring. But such circumstances are not always to be too literally understood or explained. We must often make allowances for the strong figures of eastern poetry.
Verse 1
Pashur - chief governor - Pashur was probably one of the chief priests of the twenty-four classes.