--- title: "Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible" author: "Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset and David Brown" languages: [en] shelf: "Commentaries" section: 398 of 927 url: https://scriptura.si/works/jamieson-fausset-brown-commentary-critical-and-explanatory-on-the-whole-bible/398/ cite: "Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset and David Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, section 398. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/jamieson-fausset-brown-commentary-critical-and-explanatory-on-the-whole-bible/398/" --- # 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. ## 398. Jeremiah · 22 of 56 Source: https://scriptura.si/works/jamieson-fausset-brown-commentary-critical-and-explanatory-on-the-whole-bible/398/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/jamieson-fausset-brown-commentary-critical-and-explanatory-on-the-whole-bible/398/#p-N [¶0] discontinue from--be dispossessed of. Not only thy substance, but thyself shall be carried off to a strange land ([Jr 15:14]). [¶1] 5. Referring to the Jews' proneness to rely on Egypt, in its fear of Assyria and Babylon ([Is 31:1], ). [¶2] trusteth--This word is emphatic. We may expect help from men, so far as God enables them to help us, but we must rest our trust in God alone ([Psa 62:5]). [¶3] 6. heath--In [Psa 102:17]; [Is 32:11]; [Ha 3:9], the Hebrew is translated, "bare," "naked," "destitute"; but as the parallel in [Jr 17:8] is "tree," some plant must be meant of which this is the characteristic epithet ([Jr 48:6], Margin), "a naked tree." Robinson translates, "the juniper tree," found in the Arabah or Great Valley, here called "the desert," south of the Dead Sea. The "heath" was one of the plants, according to Pliny (13.21; 16.26), excluded from religious uses, because it has neither fruit nor seed, and is neither sown nor planted. [¶4] not see ... good--([Job 20:17]). [¶5] salt land--([De 29:23]), barren ground. [¶6] 7. ([Psa 34:8]; [Pr 16:20]; [Is 30:18]). Jeremiah first removed the weeds (false trusts), so that there might be room for the good grain [Calvin]. [¶7] 8. ([Psa 1:3]). [¶8] shall not see--that is, feel. Answering to [Jr 17:6]; whereas the unbelievers "shall not see (even) when good cometh," the believer "shall not see (so as to be overwhelmed by it even) when heat (fiery trial) cometh." Trials shall come upon him as on all, nay, upon him especially ([He 12:6]); but he shall not sink under them, because the Lord is his secret strength, just as the "roots spread out by a river" (or, "water-course") draw hidden support from it ([2Co 4:8-11]). [¶9] careful--anxious, as one desponding ([Lu 12:29]; [1Pe 5:7]). [¶10] drought--literally, "withholding," namely, of rain ([Jr 14:1]); he here probably alludes to the drought which had prevailed, but makes it the type of all kinds of distress. [¶11] 9. deceitful--from a root, "supplanting," "tripping up insidiously by the heel," from which Jacob ([Ho 12:3]) took his name. In speaking of the Jews' deceit of heart, he appropriately uses a term alluding to their forefather, whose deceit, but not whose faith, they followed. His "supplanting" was in order to obtain Jehovah's blessing. They plant Jehovah for "trust in man" ([Jr 17:5]), and then think to deceive God, as if it could escape His notice, that it is in man, not in Him, they trust. [¶12] desperately wicked--"incurable" [Horsley], ([Mi 1:9]). Trust in one's own heart is as foolish as in our fellow man ([Pr 28:26]). [¶13] 10. Lest any should infer from [Jr 17:9], "who can know it?" that even the Lord does not know, and therefore cannot punish, the hidden treachery of the heart, He says, "I the Lord search the heart," &c. ([1Ch 28:9]; [Psa 7:9]; [Pr 17:3]; [Re 2:23]). [¶14] even to give--and that in order that I may give ([Jr 32:19]). [¶15] 11. partridge--([1Sa 26:20]). Hebrew, korea, from a root, "to call," alluding to its cry; a name still applied to a bustard by the Arabs. Its nest is liable, being on the ground, to be trodden under foot, or robbed by carnivorous animals, notwithstanding all the beautiful manoeuvres of the parent birds to save the brood. The translation, "sitteth on eggs which it has not laid," alludes to the ancient notion that she stole the eggs of other birds and hatched them as her own; and that the young birds when grown left her for the true mother. It is not needful to make Scripture allude to an exploded notion, as if it were true. Maurer thinks the reference is to Jehoiakim's grasping cupidity ([Jr 22:13-17]). Probably the sense is more general; as previously He condemned trust in man ([Jr 17:5]), He now condemns another object of the deceitful hearts' trust, unjustly gotten riches ([Psa 39:6]; , ; ). [¶16] fool--([Pr 23:5]; [Lu 12:20]); "their folly" ([Psa 49:13]). He himself, and all, shall at last perceive he was not the wise man he thought he was. [¶17] 12. throne--the temple of Jerusalem, the throne of Jehovah. Having condemned false objects of trust, "high places for sin" ([Jr 17:3]), and an "arm of flesh," he next sets forth Jehovah, and His temple, which was ever open to the Jews, as the true object of confidence, and sanctuary to flee to. Henderson makes Jehovah, in [Jr 17:13], the subject, and this verse predicate, "A throne of glory, high from the beginning, the place of our sanctuary, the hope of Israel is Jehovah." "Throne" is thus used for Him who sits on it; compare thrones ([Col 1:16]). He is called a "sanctuary" to His people ([Is 8:14]; [Eze 11:16]). So Syriac and Arabic. [¶18] 13. me--"Jehovah." Though "Thee" precedes. This sudden transition is usual in the prophetic style, owing to the prophet's continual realization of Jehovah's presence. [¶19] all that forsake thee--([Psa 73:27]; [Is 1:28]). [¶20] written in the earth--in the dust, that is, shall be consigned to oblivion. So Jesus' significant writing "on the ground (probably the accusers' names)" ([Joh 8:6]). Names written in the dust are obliterated by a very slight wind. Their hopes and celebrity are wholly in the earth, not in the heavenly book of life ([Re 13:8]; , ). The Jews, though boasting that they were the people of God, had no portion in heaven, no status before God and His angels. Contrast "written in heaven," that is, in the muster-roll of its blessed citizens ([Lu 10:20]). Also, contrast "written in a book," and "in the rock for ever" ([Job 19:23], ). [¶21] living waters--([Jr 2:13]). [¶22] 14-18. Prayer of the prophet for deliverance from the enemies whom he excited by his faithful denunciations. [¶23] Heal ... save--not only make me whole (as to the evils of soul as well as body which I am exposed to by contact with ungodly foes, [Jr 15:18]), but keep me so. [¶24] my praise--He whom I have to praise for past favors, and therefore to whom alone I look for the time to come. [¶25] 19-27. Delivered in the reign of Jehoiakim, who undid the good effected by Josiah's reformation, especially as to the observance of the Sabbath [Eichorn]. [¶26] gate of ... children of ... people--The gate next the king's palace, called the gate of David, and the gate of the people, from its being the principal thoroughfare: now the Jaffa gate. It is probably the same as "the gate of the fountain" at the foot of Zion, near which were the king's garden and pool ([Jr 39:4]; [2Ki 25:4]; [Ne 2:14]; ; 12:37). ### Chapter 18 ### Jr 18:1-23. God, as the Sole Sovereign, Has an Absolute Right to Deal with Nations According to Their Conduct towards Him; Illustrated in a Tangible Form by the Potter's Moulding of Vessels from Clay [¶29] 2. go down--namely, from the high ground on which the temple stood, near which Jeremiah exercised his prophetic office, to the low ground, where some well-known (this is the force of "the") potter had his workshop. [¶30] 3. wheels--literally, "on both stones." The potter's horizontal lathe consisted of two round plates, the lower one larger, the upper smaller; of stone originally, but afterwards of wood. On the upper the potter moulded the clay into what shapes he pleased. They are found represented in Egyptian remains. In [Ex 1:16] alone is the Hebrew word found elsewhere, but in a different sense. [¶31] 4. marred--spoiled. "Of clay" is the true reading, which was corrupted into "as clay" (Margin), through the similarity of the two Hebrew letters, and from [Jr 18:6], "as the clay." [¶32] 6. Refuting the Jews' reliance on their external privileges as God's elect people, as if God could never cast them off. But if the potter, a mere creature, has power to throw away a marred vessel and raise up other clay from the ground, a fortiori God, the Creator, can cast away the people who prove unfaithful to His election and can raise others in their stead (compare [Is 45:9]; ; [Ro 9:20], ). It is curious that the potter's field should have been the purchase made with the price of Judas' treachery ([Mt 27:9], : a potter's vessel dashed to pieces, compare [Psa 2:8], ; [Re 2:27]), because of its failing to answer the maker's design, being the very image to depict God's sovereign power to give reprobates to destruction, not by caprice, but in the exercise of His righteous judgment. Matthew quotes Zechariah's words ([Zec 11:12], ) as Jeremiah's because the latter ([Jr 18:1-19:15]) was the source from which the former derived his summary in [Zec 11:12], [Hengstenberg]. [¶33] 7. At what instant--in a moment, when the nation least expects it. Hereby he reminds the Jews how marvellously God had delivered them from their original degradation, that is, In one and the same day ye were the most wretched, and then the most favored of all people [Calvin]. [¶34] 8. their evil--in antithesis to, "the evil that I thought to do." [¶35] repent--God herein adapts Himself to human conceptions. The change is not in God, but in the circumstances which regulate God's dealings: just as we say the land recedes from us when we sail forth, whereas it is we who recede from the land ([Eze 18:21]; ). God's unchangeable principle is to do the best that can be done under all circumstances; if then He did not take into account the moral change in His people (their prayers, &c.), He would not be acting according to His own unchanging principle ([Jr 18:9], ). This is applied practically to the Jews' case ([Jr 18:11]; see [Jr 26:3]; [Jon 3:10]). [¶36] 11. frame evil--alluding to the preceding image of "the potter," that is, I, Jehovah, am now as it were the potter framing evil against you; but in the event of your repenting, it is in My power to frame anew My course of dealing towards you. [¶37] return, &c.--([2Ki 17:13]). [¶38] 12. no hope--Thy threats and exhortations are all thrown away ([Jr 2:25]). Our case is desperate; we are hopelessly abandoned to our sins and their penalty. In this and the following clauses, "We will walk after our own devices," Jeremiah makes them express the real state of the case, rather than the hypocritical subterfuges which they would have been inclined to put forth. So [Is 30:10], . [¶39] 13. ([Jr 2:10], ). Even among the heathen it was a thing unheard of, that a nation should lay aside its gods for foreign gods, though their gods are false gods. But Israel forsook the true God for foreign false gods. [¶40] virgin of Israel--([2Ki 19:21]). It enhances their guilt, that Israel was the virgin whom God had specially betrothed to Him. [¶41] horrible thing--([Jr 5:30]). [¶42] 14. Is there any man (living near it) who would leave the snow of Lebanon (that is, the cool melted snow water of Lebanon, as he presently explains), which cometh from the rock of the field (a poetical name for Lebanon, which towers aloft above the surrounding field, or comparatively plain country)? None. Yet Israel forsakes Jehovah, the living fountain close at hand, for foreign broken cisterns. [Jr 17:13]; 2:13, accord with English Version here. Maurer translates, "Shall the snow of Lebanon cease from the rock to water (literally, 'forsake') My fields" (the whole land around being peculiarly Jehovah's)? Lebanon means the "white mountain"; so called from the perpetual snow which covers that part called Hermon, stretching northeast of Palestine. [¶43] that come from another place--that come from far, namely, from the distant lofty rocks of Lebanon. Henderson translates, "the compressed waters," namely, contracted within a narrow channel while descending through the gorges of the rocks; "flowing" may in this view be rather "flowing down" ([So 4:15]). But the parallelism in English Version is better, "which cometh from the rock," "that cometh from another place." [¶44] be forsaken--answering to the parallel, "Will a man leave," &c. Maurer translates, "dry up," or "fail" ([Is 19:5]); the sense thus being, Will nature ever turn aside from its fixed course? The "cold waters" (compare [Pr 25:25]) refer to the perennial streams, fed from the partial melting of the snow in the hot weather.