--- title: "Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible" author: "Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset and David Brown" languages: [en] shelf: "Commentaries" section: 387 of 927 url: https://scriptura.si/works/jamieson-fausset-brown-commentary-critical-and-explanatory-on-the-whole-bible/387/ cite: "Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset and David Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, section 387. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/jamieson-fausset-brown-commentary-critical-and-explanatory-on-the-whole-bible/387/" --- # Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible *Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset and David Brown* The Victorian standard commentary, critical and practical, from Genesis to Revelation. ## 387. Jeremiah · 11 of 56 Source: https://scriptura.si/works/jamieson-fausset-brown-commentary-critical-and-explanatory-on-the-whole-bible/387/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/jamieson-fausset-brown-commentary-critical-and-explanatory-on-the-whole-bible/387/#p-N [¶0] that they may provoke me--implying design: in worshipping strange gods they seemed as if purposely to provoke Jehovah. [¶1] 19. Is it I that they provoke to anger? Is it not themselves? ([De 32:16], ; [Job 35:6], ; [Pr 8:36]). [¶2] 20. beast ... trees ... ground--Why doth God vent His fury on these? On account of man, for whom these were created, that the sad spectacle may strike terror into him ([Ro 8:20-22]). [¶3] 21. Put ... burnt offerings unto ... sacrifices ... eat flesh--Add the former (which the law required to be wholly burnt) to the latter (which were burnt only in part), and "eat flesh" even off the holocausts or burnt offerings. As far as I am concerned, saith Jehovah, you may do with one and the other alike. I will have neither ([Is 1:11]; [Ho 8:13]; [Am 5:21], ). [¶4] 22. Not contradicting the divine obligation of the legal sacrifices. But, "I did not require sacrifices, unless combined with moral obedience" ([Psa 50:8]; , ). The superior claim of the moral above the positive precepts of the law was marked by the ten commandments having been delivered first, and by the two tables of stone being deposited alone in the ark ([De 5:6]). The negative in Hebrew often supplies the want of the comparative: not excluding the thing denied, but only implying the prior claim of the thing set in opposition to it ([Ho 6:6]). "I will have mercy, and not sacrifice" ([1Sa 15:22]). Love to God is the supreme end, external observances only means towards that end. "The mere sacrifice was not so much what I commanded, as the sincere submission to My will gives to the sacrifice all its virtue" [Magee, Atonement, Note 57]. [¶5] 23. ([Ex 15:26]; ). [¶6] 24. hearkened not--They did not give even a partial hearing to Me ([Psa 81:11], ). [¶7] imagination--rather, as Margin, "the stubbornness." [¶8] backward, &c.--([Jr 2:27]; 32:33; [Ho 4:16]). [¶9] 25. rising ... early--([Jr 7:13]). [¶10] 26. hardened ... neck--([De 31:27]; [Is 48:4]; [Ac 7:51]). [¶11] worse than their fathers--([Jr 16:12]). In [Jr 7:22] He had said, "your fathers"; here He says, "their fathers"; the change to the third person marks growing alienation from them. He no longer addresses themselves, as it would be a waste of words in the case of such hardened rebels. [¶12] 27. Therefore--rather, "Though thou speak ... yet they will not hearken" [Maurer], ([Eze 2:7]), a trial to the prophet's faith; though he knew his warnings would be unheeded, still he was to give them in obedience to God. [¶13] 28. unto them--that is, in reference to them. [¶14] a nation--The word usually applied to the Gentile nations is here applied to the Jews, as being east off and classed by God among the Gentiles. [¶15] nor receiveth correction--([Jr 5:3]). [¶16] truth ... perished--([Jr 9:3]). [¶17] 29. Jeremiah addresses Jerusalem under the figure of a woman, who, in grief for her lost children, deprives her head of its chief ornament and goes up to the hills to weep ([Jud 11:37], ; [Is 15:2]). [¶18] hair--flowing locks, like those of a Nazarite. [¶19] high places--The scene of her idolatries is to be the scene of her mourning ([Jr 3:21]). [¶20] generation of his wrath--the generation with which He is wroth. So [Is 10:6]; "the people of My wrath." [¶21] 30. set their abominations in the house--([Jr 32:34]; [2Ki 21:4], ; ; [Eze 8:5-14]). [¶22] 31. high places of Tophet--the altars [Horsley] of Tophet; erected to Moloch, on the heights along the south of the valley facing Zion. [¶23] burn ... sons--([Psa 106:38]). [¶24] commanded ... not--put for, "I forbade expressly" ([De 17:3]; ). See on [Jr 2:23]; [Is 30:33]. [¶25] 32. valley of slaughter--so named because of the great slaughter of the Jews about to take place at Jerusalem: a just retribution of their sin in slaying their children to Moloch in Tophet. [¶26] no place--no room, namely, to bury in, so many shall be those slain by the Chaldeans ([Jr 19:11]; [Eze 6:5]). [¶27] 33. fray--scare or frighten ([De 28:26]). Typical of the last great battle between the Lord's host and the apostasy ([Re 19:17], [18, 21]). [¶28] 34. Referring to the joyous songs and music with which the bride and bridegroom were escorted in the procession to the home of the latter from that of the former; a custom still prevalent in the East ([Jr 16:9]; [Is 24:7], ; [Re 18:23]). ### Chapter 8 ### Jr 8:1-22. The Jew's Coming Punishment; Their Universal and Incurable Impenitence [¶31] 1. The victorious Babylonians were about to violate the sanctuaries of the dead in search of plunder; for ornaments, treasures, and insignia of royalty were usually buried with kings. Or rather, their purpose was to do the greatest dishonor to the dead ([Is 14:19]). [¶32] 2. spread ... before the sun, &c.--retribution in kind. The very objects which received their idolatries shall unconcernedly witness their dishonor. [¶33] loved ... served ... after ... walked ... sought ... worshipped--Words are accumulated, as if enough could not be said fully to express the mad fervor of their idolatry to the heavenly host ([2Ki 23:5]). [¶34] nor ... buried--([Jr 22:19]). [¶35] dung--([Jr 9:22]; [Psa 83:10]). [¶36] 3. The survivors shall be still worse off than the dead ([Job 3:21], ; [Re 9:6]). [¶37] which remain in all the places--"in all places of them that remain, whither I ... that is, in all places whither I have driven them that remain [Maurer]. [¶38] 4. "Is it not a natural instinct, that if one falls, he rises again; if one turns away (that is, wanders from the way), he will return to the point from which he wandered? Why then does not Jerusalem do so?" He plays on the double sense of return; literal and metaphorical ([Jr 3:12]; ). [¶39] 5. slidden ... backsliding--rather, as the Hebrew is the same as in [Jr 8:4], to which this verse refers, "turned away with a perpetual turning away." [¶40] perpetual--in contrast to the "arise" ("rise again," [Jr 8:4]). [¶41] refuse to return--in contrast to, "shall he ... not return" ([Jr 8:4]; [Jr 5:3]). [¶42] 6. spake not aright--that is, not so as penitently to confess that they acted wrong. Compare what follows. [¶43] every one ... his course--The Keri reads "course," but the Chetib, "courses." "They persevere in the courses whatever they have once entered on." Their wicked ways were diversified. [¶44] horse rusheth--literally, "pours himself forth," as water that has burst its embankment. The mad rapidity of the war horse is the point of comparison ([Job 39:19-25]).