6. cast--Hebrew, "pour out"; referring to the emptying of the baskets of earth to make the mound, formed of "trees" and earthwork, to overtop the city walls. The "trees" were also used to make warlike engines.
this--pointing the invaders to Jerusalem.
visited--that is, punished.
wholly oppression--or join "wholly" with "visited," that is, she is altogether (in her whole extent) to be punished [Maurer].
7. fountain--rather, a well dug, from which water springs; distinct from a natural spring or fountain.
casteth out--causeth to flow; literally, "causeth to dig," the cause being put for the effect ([2Ki 21:16], ; [Is 57:20]).
me--Jehovah.
8. Tender appeal in the midst of threats.
depart--Hebrew, "be torn away"; Jehovah's affection making Him unwilling to depart; His attachment to Jerusalem was such that an effort was needed to tear Himself from it ([Eze 23:18]; [Ho 9:12]; ).
9. The Jews are the grapes, their enemies the unsparing gleaners.
turn back ... hand--again and again bring freshly gathered handfuls to the baskets; referring to the repeated carrying away of captives to Babylon ([Jr 52:28-30]; [2Ki 24:14]; ).
10. ear is uncircumcised--closed against the precepts of God by the foreskin of carnality ([Le 26:41]; [Eze 44:7]; [Ac 7:51]).
word ... reproach--([Jr 20:8]).
11. fury of ... Lord--His denunciations against Judah communicated to the prophet.
weary with holding in--([Jr 20:9]).
I will pour--or else imperative: the command of God (see [Jr 6:12]), "Pour it out" [Maurer].
aged ... full of days--The former means one becoming old; the latter a decrepit old man [Maurer] ([Job 5:26]; [Is 65:20]).
12. The very punishments threatened by Moses in the event of disobedience to God ([De 28:30]).
turned--transferred.
13. ([Jr 8:10]; [Is 56:11]; [Mi 3:11]).
14. hurt--the spiritual wound.
slightly--as if it were but a slight wound; or, in a slight manner, pronouncing all sound where there is no soundness.
saying--namely, the prophets and priests ([Jr 6:13]). Whereas they ought to warn the people of impending judgments and the need of repentance, they say there is nothing to fear.
peace--including soundness. All is sound in the nation's moral state, so all will be peace as to its political state ([Jr 4:10]; ; ; ; [Eze 13:5], ; ).
15. Rosenmuller translates, "They ought to have been ashamed, because ... but," &c.; the Hebrew verb often expressing, not the action, but the duty to perform it ([Ge 20:9]; Mal 2:7). Maurer translates, "They shall be put to shame, for they commit abomination; nay (the prophet correcting himself), there is no shame in them" ([Jr 3:3]; ; [Eze 3:7]; [Zep 3:5]).
them that fall--They shall fall with the rest of their people who are doomed to fall, that is, I will now cease from words; I will execute vengeance [Calvin].
16. Image from travellers who have lost their road, stopping and inquiring which is the right way on which they once had been, but from which they have wandered.
old paths--Idolatry and apostasy are the modern way; the worship of God the old way. Evil is not coeval with good, but a modern degeneracy from good. The forsaking of God is not, in a true sense, a "way cast up" at all ([Jr 18:15]; [Psa 139:24]; Mal 4:4).
rest--([Is 28:12]; [Mt 11:29]).
17. watchmen--prophets, whose duty it was to announce impending calamities, so as to lead the people to repentance ([Is 21:11]; ; [Eze 3:17]; [Ha 2:1]).
18. congregation--parallel to "nations"; it therefore means the gathered peoples who are invited to be witnesses as to how great is the perversity of the Israelites ([Jr 6:16], ), and that they deserve the severe punishment about to be inflicted on them ([Jr 6:19]).
what is among them--what deeds are committed by the Israelites ([Jr 6:16], ) [Maurer]. Or, "what punishments are about to be inflicted on them" [Calvin].
19. ([Is 1:2]).
fruit of ... thoughts--([Pr 1:31]).
nor to my law, but rejected it--literally, "and (as to) My law they have rejected it." The same construction occurs in [Ge 22:24].
20. Literally, "To what purpose is this to Me, that incense cometh to Me?"
incense ... cane--([Is 43:24]; ). No external services are accepted by God without obedience of the heart and life ([Jr 7:21]; [Psa 50:7-9]; [Is 1:11]; [Mi 6:6], &c.).
sweet ... sweet--antithesis. Your sweet cane is not sweet to Me. The calamus.
21. stumbling-blocks--instruments of the Jews' ruin (compare [Mt 21:44]; [Is 8:14]; [1Pe 2:8]). God Himself ("I") lays them before the reprobate ([Psa 69:22]; [Ro 1:28]; ).
fathers ... sons ... neighbour ... friend--indiscriminate ruin.
22. north ... sides of the earth--The ancients were little acquainted with the north; therefore it is called the remotest regions (as the Hebrew for "sides" ought to be translated, see on [Is 14:13]) of the earth. The Chaldees are meant ([Jr 1:15]; 5:15). It is striking that the very same calamities which the Chaldeans had inflicted on Zion are threatened as the retribution to be dealt in turn to themselves by Jehovah ([Jr 50:41-43]).
23. like the sea--([Is 5:30]).
as men for war--not that they were like warriors, for they were warriors; but "arrayed most perfectly as warriors" [Maurer].
24. fame thereof--the report of them.
25. He addresses "the daughter of Zion" ([Jr 6:23]); caution to the citizens of Jerusalem not to expose themselves to the enemy by going outside of the city walls.