--- title: "Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible · Volume 1: Genesis to Jeremiah" author: "Adam Clarke" languages: [en] shelf: "Commentaries" section: 883 of 914 url: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/883/ cite: "Adam Clarke, Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible · Volume 1: Genesis to Jeremiah, section 883. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/883/" --- # 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. ## 883. Jeremiah · 24 of 55 Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/883/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/883/#p-N [¶0] Where shall I find such a mother? - 'Ah my mother, my mother!'" [¶1] From the above we may conclude that the funeral lamentations, to which the prophet refers, generally ended in this way, in each of the verses or interrogatories. [¶2] There is another intimation of this ancient and universal custom in [1Kgs 13:30], where the old prophet, who had deceived the man of God, and who was afterwards slain by a lion, is represented as mourning over him, and saying, הוי אחי hoi achi, "Alas, my brother!" this being the burden of the lamentation which he had used on this occasion. Similar instances may be seen in other places, [Jer 30:7]; [Eze 6:11]; [Joe 1:15]; and particularly [Amo 5:16], [Amo 5:17], and [Rev 18:10-19]. ### Verse 19 [¶4] With the burial of an ass - Cast out, and left unburied, or buried without any funeral solemnities, and without such lamentations as the above. ### Verse 20 [¶6] Go up to Lebanon - Probably Anti-Libanus, which, together with Bashan and Abarim, which we here translate passages, were on the way by which the captives should be led out of their own country. ### Verse 21 [¶8] I spake unto thee in thy prosperity - In all states and circumstances I warned thee by my prophets; and thou wilt only be ashamed of thy conduct when thou shalt be stripped of all thy excellencies, and reduced to poverty and disgrace, [Jer 22:22]. ### Verse 22 [¶10] The wind shall eat up all thy pastors - A blast from God's mouth shall carry off thy kings, princes, prophets, and priests. ### Verse 23 [¶12] How gracious shalt thou be - A strong irony. ### Verse 24 [¶14] Though Coniah - Called Jeconiah, probably on ascending the throne. See on [Jer 22:10] (note). [¶15] The signet upon my right hand - The most precious seal, ring, or armlet. Though dearer to me than the most splendid gem to its possessor. ### Verse 26 [¶17] I will cast thee out, and thy mother - See all this fulfilled, [2Kgs 24:12], [2Kgs 24:13]. All were carried by Nebuchadnezzar into captivity together. ### Verse 28 [¶19] Is this man Coniah a despised broken idol? - These are probably the exclamations of the people, when they heard those solemn denunciations against their king and their country. ### Verse 29 [¶21] O earth - These are the words of the prophet in reply: O land! unhappy land! desolated land! Hear the judgment of the Lord! ### Verse 30 [¶23] Write ye this man childless - Though he had seven sons, [1Chr 3:17], yet having no successor, he is to be entered on the genealogical tables as one without children for none of his posterity ever sat on the throne of David. ### Introduction [¶25] Sequel of the discourse which commenced in the preceding chapter. The prophet denounces vengeance against the pastors of Israel who have scattered and destroyed the flock of the Lord, [Jer 23:1], [Jer 23:2]. He concludes with gracious promises of deliverance from the Babylonish captivity, and of better times under the Messiah, when the converts to Christianity, who are the true Israel of God, shadowed forth by the old dispensation, shall be delivered, by the glorious light of the Gospel, from worse than Chaldean bondage, from the captivity of sin and death. But this prophecy will not have its fullest accomplishment till that period arrives which is fixed in the Divine counsel for the restoration of Israel and Judah from their various dispersions, of which their deliverance from the Chaldean domination was a type, when Jesus the Christ, the righteous Branch, the Root and Offspring of David, and the only legitimate Heir to the throne, shall take unto himself his great power, and reign gloriously over the whole house of Jacob, [Jer 23:3-8]. At the ninth verse a new discourse commences. Jeremiah expresses his horror at the great wickedness of the priests and prophets of Judah, and declares that the Divine vengeance is hanging over them. He exhorts the people not to listen to their false promises, [Jer 23:9-22]; and predicts the utter ruin that shall fall upon all pretenders to inspiration, [Jer 23:23-32], as well as upon all scoffers at true prophecy, [Jer 23:33-40]. ### Verse 1 [¶27] Wo be unto the pastors - There shall a curse fall on the kings, princes, priests, and prophets; who, by their vicious conduct and example, have brought desolation upon the people. ### Verse 2 [¶29] Ye have scattered my flock - The bad government both in Church and State was a principal cause of the people's profligacy. ### Verse 5 [¶31] I will raise unto David a righteous Branch - As there has been no age, from the Babylonish captivity to the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans, in which such a state of prosperity existed, and no king or governor who could answer at all to the character here given, the passage has been understood to refer to our blessed Lord, Jesus Christ, who was a branch out of the stem of Jesse; a righteous king; by the power of his Spirit and influence of his religion reigning, prospering, and executing judgment and justice in the earth. ### Verse 6 [¶33] In his days Judah shall be saved - The real Jew is not one who has his circumcision in the flesh, but in the spirit. The real Israel are true believers in Christ Jesus; and the genuine Jerusalem is the Church of the first-born, and made free, with all her children, from the bondage of sin, Satan, death, and hell. All these exist only in the days of the Messiah. All that went before were the types or significators of these glorious Gospel excellencies. [¶34] And this is his name whereby he shall be called The Lord Our Righteousness - I shall give the Hebrew text of this important passage: וזה שמו אשר יקראו יהוה צדקנו vezeh shemo asher yikreo Yehovah tsidkenu, which the Septuagint translate as follows, Και τουτο το ονομα αυτον ὁ καλεσει αυτον Κυριος, Ιωσεδεκ, "And this is his name which the Lord shall call him Josedek." Dahler translates the text thus: - [¶35] Et voici le nom dont on l'appellera: [¶36] L'Eternel, Auteur de notre felicite. "And this is the name by which he shall be called; [¶37] The Lord, the Author of our happiness." [¶38] Dr. Blayney seems to follow the Septuagint; he translates thus, "And this is the name by which Jehovah shall call him, Our Righteousness." [¶39] In my old MS. Bible, the first English translation ever made, it is thus: - [¶40] And this is the name that thei schul clepen him: oure rigtwise Lord. [¶41] Coverdale's, the first complete English translation of the Scriptures ever printed, (1535), has given it thus: - [¶42] And this is the name that they shall call him: even the Lorde oure rightuous Maker. [¶43] Matthews (1549) and Becke (1549) follow Coverdale literally; but our present translation of the clause is borrowed from Cardmarden, (Rouen, 1566), "Even the Lord our righteousness." [¶44] Dr. Blayney thus accounts for his translation: - "Literally, according to the Hebrew idiom, 'And this is his name by which Jehovah shall call, Our Righteousness;' a phrase exactly the same as, 'And Jehovah shall call him so;' which implies that God would make him such as he called him, that is, our Righteousness, or the author and means of our salvation and acceptance. So that by the same metonymy Christ is said to 'have been made of God unto us wisdom, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption,' [1Cor 1:30]. "I doubt not that some persons will be offended with me for depriving them, by this translation, of a favourite argument for proving the Divinity of our Savior from the Old Testament. But I cannot help it; I have done it with no ill design, but purely because I think, and am morally sure, that the text, as it stands, will not properly admit of any other construction. The Septuagint have so translated before me, in an age when there could not possibly be any bias or prejudice either for or against the fore-mentioned doctrine, a doctrine which draws its decisive proofs from the New Testament only."