--- title: "Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible · Volume 1: Genesis to Jeremiah" author: "Adam Clarke" languages: [en] shelf: "Commentaries" section: 909 of 914 url: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/909/ cite: "Adam Clarke, Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible · Volume 1: Genesis to Jeremiah, section 909. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/909/" --- # 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. ## 909. Jeremiah · 50 of 55 Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/909/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/909/#p-N [¶0] 4. They shall ask the way to Zion. - Real penitents are the most inquisitive of all mortals; but their inquiries are limited to one object, they ask the way to Zion. What shall we do to be saved? How shall we shun the perdition of ungodly men, etc. [¶1] 5. With their faces thitherward. - They have turned from sin, and turned To God. They have left the paths of the destroyer, and their hearts are towards God, and the remembrance of his name. Thus they are profiting by that light which has convinced them of sin, righteousness, and judgment. [¶2] 6. Come, and let us join ourselves to the Lord. - Religion is a social principle, and begets a social feeling in the soul. No man who feels his own sore, and the plague of his heart, wishes to venture alone in the way to heaven. He feels he wants counsel, support, comfort and the company of those who will watch over him in love. Like David, the true penitent is a companion of all those who fear the Lord. These heavenly feelings come from one and the same Spirit, and lead to the same end; hence they say, - [¶3] 7. Let us join ourselves to the Lord in a perpetual covenant. It is said, that to be undecided, is to be decided. They who are not determined to go to heaven, will never reach it. If the heart be not laid under obligation, it will do nothing. "I hope I am in earnest; I trust I shall be in earnest about the salvation of my soul, it is very proper I should be so;" and such like, show an irresolute soul. Such persons are ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. [¶4] Let us therefore bind ourselves. We have trifled too long; been indecisive too long; have halted too long between two opinions. We know now that Jehovah is God; let us, therefore, enter into a covenant with him. Let this covenant be a perpetual one: let us not make it for a day, for any particular time, but for ever; and let it never be broken. Let our part be kept inviolable: we Are and Will Be thy people; and God's part will never fail, I Am and Will Be your God. [¶5] The covenant requires a sacrifice. - Hence ברית berith signifies both. Christ crucified is the great covenant sacrifice. By him God becomes united to us, and through him we become united to God. ### Verse 6 [¶7] My people hath been lost sheep - He pities them; for their pastors, kings, and prophets have caused them to err. [¶8] They have gone from mountain to hill - In all high places they have practiced idolatry. ### Verse 7 [¶10] Their adversaries said, We offend not - God has abandoned them; we are only fulfilling his designs in plaguing them. ### Verse 8 [¶12] Remove out of the midst of Babylon - The sentence of destruction is gone out against it; prepare for your flight, that ye be not overwhelmed in its ruin. [¶13] Be as the he-goats before the flocks - Who always run to the head of the flock, giving the example for others to follow. This may be addressed to the elders and persons of authority among the people. ### Verse 9 [¶15] An assembly of great nations - The army of Cyrus was composed of Medes, Persians, Armenians, Caducians, Sacae, etc. Though all these did not come from the north; yet they were arranged under the Medes, who did come from the north, in reference to Babylon. [¶16] Their arrows - They are such expert archers, that they shall never miss their mark. ### Verse 10 [¶18] Chaldea shall be a spoil - She has been a spoiler, and she shall be spoiled. They had destroyed Judea, God's heritage; and now God shall cause her to be destroyed. ### Verse 11 [¶20] As the heifer at grass - Ye were wanton in the desolations ye brought upon Judea. ### Verse 12 [¶22] Your mother - Speaking to the Chaldeans: Babylon, the metropolis, or mother city, shall be a wilderness, a dry land, a desert, neither fit for man nor beast. ### Verse 15 [¶24] Shout against her round about - Encompass her with lines and with troops; let none go in with relief, none come out to escape from her ruin. ### Verse 16 [¶26] Cut off the sower - Destroy the gardens and the fields, that there may be neither fruits nor tillage. ### Verse 17 [¶28] Israel - All the descendants of Jacob have been harassed and spoiled, first by the Assyrians, and afterwards by the Chaldeans. They acted towards them as a lion to a sheep which he has caught; first he devours all the flesh, next he breaks all the bones to extract the marrow. ### Verse 18 [¶30] As I have punished the king of Assyria - The Assyrians were overthrown by the Medes and the Chaldeans. The king is here taken for all their kings, generals, etc., Tiglath-pileser, Shalmaneser, Sennacherib, Esar-haddon, etc. To them succeeded the Chaldean or Babylonish kings. Nebuchadnezzar came against Judea several times; and at last took the city and burnt it, profaned and demolished the temple, wasted the land, and carried the princes and people into captivity. ### Verse 19 [¶32] I will bring Israel again - This seems to refer wholly to the ten tribes; for Carmel, Bashan, Mount Ephraim, and Gilead, were in their territories. ### Verse 20 [¶34] In those days and in that time - This phrase appears to take in the whole of an epoch, from its commencement to its end. See [Jer 50:4]. [¶35] I will pardon them - So as to deliver them from their captivity, and exact no more punishment from them whom I reserve, namely, the remnant left in the Babylonish captivity. ### Verse 21 [¶37] Go up against the land of Merathaim - and against the inhabitants of Pekod - No such places as these are to be found any where else; and it is not likely that places are at all meant. The ancient Versions agree in rendering the first as an appellative, and the last as a verb, except the Chaldee, which has Pekod as a proper name. Dr. Blayney translates: - "Against the land of bitternesses, go up: [¶38] Upon it, and upon its inhabitants, visit, O sword!" [¶39] Dr. Dahler renders thus: - "March against the country doubly rebellious, [¶40] And against its inhabitants worthy of punishment." [¶41] The latter of these two versions I take to be the most literal. The words are addressed to the Medes and Persians; and the country is Chaldea, doubly rebellious by its idolatry and its insufferable pride. In these two, it was exceeded by no other land. ### Verse 23 [¶43] The hammer of the whole earth - Nebuchadnezzar dashed to pieces the nations against whom he warred. He was the scourge of the Lord.