--- title: "Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible" author: "Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset and David Brown" languages: [en] shelf: "Commentaries" section: 393 of 927 url: https://scriptura.si/works/jamieson-fausset-brown-commentary-critical-and-explanatory-on-the-whole-bible/393/ cite: "Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset and David Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, section 393. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/jamieson-fausset-brown-commentary-critical-and-explanatory-on-the-whole-bible/393/" --- # 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. ## 393. Jeremiah · 17 of 56 Source: https://scriptura.si/works/jamieson-fausset-brown-commentary-critical-and-explanatory-on-the-whole-bible/393/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/jamieson-fausset-brown-commentary-critical-and-explanatory-on-the-whole-bible/393/#p-N [¶0] wherein thou trustedst, they wearied thee--English Version thus fills up the sentence with the italicized words, to answer to the parallel clause in the first sentence of the verse. The parallelism is, however, sufficiently retained with a less ellipsis: "If (it is only) in a land of peace thou art confident" [Maurer]. [¶1] swelling of Jordan--In harvest-time and earlier (April and May) it overflows its banks ([Jos 3:15]), and fills the valley called the Ghor. Or, "the pride of Jordan," namely, its wooded banks abounding in lions and other wild beasts ([Jr 49:19]; ; [Zec 11:3]; compare [2Ki 6:2]). Maundrell says that between the Sea of Tiberias and Lake Merom the banks are so wooded that the traveller cannot see the river at all without first passing through the woods. If in the champaign country (alone) thou art secure, how wilt thou do when thou fallest into the wooded haunts of wild beasts? [¶2] 6. even thy brethren--as in Christ's case ([Psa 69:8]; [Joh 1:11]; ; compare [Jr 9:4]; , ; [Mt 10:36]). Godly faithfulness is sure to provoke the ungodly, even of one's own family. [¶3] called a multitude after thee--([Is 31:4]). Jerome translates, "cry after thee with a loud (literally, 'full') voice." [¶4] believe ... not ... though ... speak fair--([Pr 26:25]). [¶5] 7. I have forsaken--Jehovah will forsake His temple and the people peculiarly His. The mention of God's close tie to them, as heretofore His, aggravates their ingratitude, and shows that their past spiritual privileges will not prevent God from punishing them. [¶6] beloved of my soul--image from a wife ([Jr 11:15]; [Is 54:5]). [¶7] 8. is unto me--is become unto Me: behaves towards Me as a lion which roars against a man, so that he withdraws from the place where he hears it: so I withdrew from My people, once beloved, but now an object of abhorrence because of their rebellious cries against Me. [¶8] 9. speckled bird--Many translate, "a ravenous beast, the hyena"; the corresponding Arabic word means hyena; so the Septuagint. But the Hebrew always elsewhere means "a bird of prey." The Hebrew for "speckled" is from a root "to color"; answering to the Jewish blending together with paganism the altogether diverse Mosaic ritual. The neighboring nations, birds of prey like herself (for she had sinfully assimilated herself to them), were ready to pounce upon her. [¶9] assemble ... beasts of ... field--The Chaldeans are told to gather the surrounding heathen peoples as allies against Judah ([Is 56:9]; [Eze 34:5]). [¶10] 10. pastors--the Babylonian leaders (compare [Jr 12:12]; [Jr 6:3]). [¶11] my vineyard--([Is 5:1], ). [¶12] trodden my portion--([Is 63:18]). [¶13] 11. mourneth unto me--that is, before Me. Eichorn translates, "by reason of Me," because I have given it to desolation ([Jr 12:7]). [¶14] because no man layeth it to heart--because none by repentance and prayer seek to deprecate God's wrath. Or, "yet none lays it to heart"; as in [Jr 5:3] [Calvin]. [¶15] 12. high places--Before, He had threatened the plains; now, the hills. [¶16] wilderness--not an uninhabited desert, but high lands of pasturage, lying between Judea and Chaldea ([Jr 4:11]). [¶17] 13. Description in detail of the devastation of the land ([Mi 6:15]). [¶18] they shall be ashamed of your--The change of persons, in passing from indirect to direct address, is frequent in the prophets. Equivalent to, "Ye shall be put to the shame of disappointment at the smallness of your produce." [¶19] 14-17. Prophecy as to the surrounding nations, the Syrians, Ammonites, &c., who helped forward Judah's calamity: they shall share her fall; and, on their conversion, they shall share with her in the future restoration. This is a brief anticipation of the predictions in the forty-seventh, forty-eighth, and forty-ninth chapters. [¶20] touch--([Zec 2:8]). [¶21] pluck them out ... pluck out ... Judah--(Compare end of [Jr 12:16]). During the thirteen years that the Babylonians besieged Tyre, Nebuchadnezzar, after subduing Coelo-Syria, brought Ammon, Moab, &c., and finally Egypt, into subjection [Josephus, Antiquities, 10:9.7]. On the restoration of these nations, they were to exchange places with the Jews. The latter were now in the midst of them, but on their restoration they were to be "in the midst of the Jews," that is, as proselytes to the true God (compare [Mi 5:7]; [Zec 14:16]). "Pluck them," namely, the Gentile nations: in a bad sense. "Pluck Judah": in a good sense; used to express the force which was needed to snatch Judah from the tyranny of those nations by whom they had been made captives, or to whom they had fled; otherwise they never would have let Judah go. Previously he had been forbidden to pray for the mass of the Jewish people. But here he speaks consolation to the elect remnant among them. Whatever the Jews might be, God keeps His covenant. ### Chapter 13 ### Jr 13:1-27. Symbolical Prophecy (Jr 13:1-7) [¶24] Many of these figurative acts being either not possible, or not probable, or decorous, seem to have existed only in the mind of the prophet as part of his inward vision. [So Calvin]. The world he moved in was not the sensible, but the spiritual, world. Inward acts were, however, when it was possible and proper, materialized by outward performance, but not always, and necessarily so. The internal act made a naked statement more impressive and presented the subject when extending over long portions of space and time more concentrated. The interruption of Jeremiah's official duty by a journey of more than two hundred miles twice is not likely to have literally taken place. [¶25] 1. put it upon thy loins, &c.--expressing the close intimacy wherewith Jehovah had joined Israel and Judah to Him ([Jr 13:11]). [¶26] linen--implying it was the inner garment next the skin, not the outer one. [¶27] put it not in water--signifying the moral filth of His people, like the literal filth of a garment worn constantly next the skin, without being washed ([Jr 13:10]). Grotius understands a garment not bleached, but left in its native roughness, just as Judah had no beauty, but was adopted by the sole grace of God ([Eze 16:4-6]). "Neither wast thou washed in water," &c. [¶28] 4. Euphrates--In order to support the view that Jeremiah's act was outward, Henderson considers that the Hebrew Phrath here is Ephratha, the original name of Beth-lehem, six miles south of Jerusalem, a journey easy to be made by Jeremiah. The non-addition of the word "river," which usually precedes Phrath, when meaning Euphrates, favors this view. But I prefer English Version. The Euphrates is specified as being near Babylon, the Jews future place of exile. [¶29] hole--typical of the prisons in which the Jews were to be confined. [¶30] the rock--some well-known rock. A sterile region, such as was that to which the Jews were led away (compare [Is 7:19]) [Grotius]. [¶31] 6. after many days--Time enough was given for the girdle to become unfit for use. So, in course of time, the Jews became corrupted by the heathen idolatries around, so as to cease to be witnesses of Jehovah; they must, therefore, be cast away as a "marred" or spoiled girdle. [¶32] 9. ([Le 26:19]). [¶33] 10. imagination--rather, "obstinacy." [¶34] 11. ([Jr 33:9]; [Ex 19:5]). [¶35] glory--an ornament to glory in. [¶36] 12. A new image. [¶37] Do we not ... know ... wine--The "bottles" are those used in the East, made of skins; our word "hogshead," originally "oxhide," alludes to the same custom. As they were used to hold water, milk, and other liquids, what the prophet said (namely, that they should be all filled with wine) was not, as the Jews' taunting reply implied, a truism even literally. The figurative sense which is what Jeremiah chiefly meant, they affected not to understand. As wine intoxicates, so God's wrath and judgments shall reduce them to that state of helpless distraction that they shall rush on to their own ruin ([Jr 25:15]; ; [Is 51:17], 21, 22; ). [¶38] 13. upon David's throne--literally, who sit for David on his throne; implying the succession of the Davidic family ([Jr 22:4]). [¶39] all--indiscriminately of every rank. [¶40] 14. dash--([Psa 2:9]). As a potter's vessel ([Re 2:27]). [¶41] 15. be not proud--Pride was the cause of their contumacy, as humility is the first step to obedience ([Jr 13:17]; [Psa 10:4]). [¶42] 16. Give glory, &c.--Show by repentance and obedience to God, that you revere His majesty. So Joshua exhorted Achan to "give glory to God" by confessing his crime, thereby showing he revered the All-knowing God. [¶43] stumble--image from travellers stumbling into a fatal abyss when overtaken by nightfall ([Is 5:30]; , ; [Am 8:9]). [¶44] dark mountains--literally, "mountains of twilight" or "gloom," which cast such a gloomy shadow that the traveller stumbles against an opposing rock before he sees it ([Joh 11:10]; ).