--- title: "Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible" author: "Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset and David Brown" languages: [en] shelf: "Commentaries" section: 404 of 927 url: https://scriptura.si/works/jamieson-fausset-brown-commentary-critical-and-explanatory-on-the-whole-bible/404/ cite: "Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset and David Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, section 404. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/jamieson-fausset-brown-commentary-critical-and-explanatory-on-the-whole-bible/404/" --- # 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. ## 404. Jeremiah · 28 of 56 Source: https://scriptura.si/works/jamieson-fausset-brown-commentary-critical-and-explanatory-on-the-whole-bible/404/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/jamieson-fausset-brown-commentary-critical-and-explanatory-on-the-whole-bible/404/#p-N [¶0] 23. Let not the false prophets fancy that their devices ([Jr 23:25]) are unknown to Me. Are ye so ignorant as to suppose that I can only see things near Me, namely, things in heaven, and not earthly things as being too remote? [¶1] 24. ([Psa 139:7], &c.; [Am 9:2], ). [¶2] fill heaven and earth--with My omniscience, providence, power, and essential being ([1Ki 8:27]). [¶3] 25. dreamed--I have received a prophetic communication by dream ([Nu 12:6]; [De 13:1], &c. [Joe 2:28]). [¶4] 26. prophets--a different Hebrew form from the usual one, "prophesiers." "How long," cries Jeremiah, impatient of their impious audacity, "shall these prophecy-mongers go on prophesying lies?" The answer is given in [Jr 23:29-34]. [¶5] 27. They "think" to make My people utterly to forget Me. But I will oppose to those dreamers my true prophets. [¶6] fathers ... for Baal--([Jud 3:7]; , ). [¶7] 28. God answers the objection which might be stated, "What, then, must we do, when lies are spoken as truths, and prophets oppose prophets?" Do the same as when wheat is mixed with chaff: do not reject the wheat because of the chaff mixed with it, but discriminate between the false and the true revelations. The test is adherence to, or forgetfulness of, Me and My law ([Jr 23:27]). [¶8] that hath a dream--that pretends to have a divine communication by dream, let him tell it "faithfully," that it may be compared with "my word" ([2Co 4:2]). The result will be the former (both the prophets and their fictions) will soon be seen to be chaff; the latter (the true prophets and the word of God in their mouth) wheat ([Psa 1:4]; [Ho 13:3]). [¶9] 29. As the "fire" consumes the "chaff," [Jr 23:28], so "My word" will consume the false prophets ([Mt 3:12]; [He 4:12]). "My word" which is "wheat" [Jr 23:28], that is, food to the true prophet and his hearers, is a consuming "fire," and a crushing "hammer" ([Mt 21:44]) to false prophets and their followers ([2Co 2:16]). The Word of the false prophets may be known by its promising men peace in sin. "My word," on the contrary, burns and breaks the hard-hearted ([Jr 20:9]). The "hammer" symbolizes destructive power ([Jr 50:23]; [Na 2:1], Margin). [¶10] 30. steal my words--a twofold plagiarism; one steals from the other, and all steal words from Jehovah's true prophets, but misapply them (see [Jr 28:2]; [Joh 10:1]; [Re 22:19]). [¶11] 31. use--rather, "take" their tongue: a second class (compare [Jr 23:30]) require, in order to bring forth a revelation, nothing more than their tongues, wherewith they say, He (Jehovah) saith: they bungle in the very formula instead of the usual "Jehovah saith," being only able to say "(He) saith." [¶12] 32. Third class: inventors of lies: the climax, and worst of the three. [¶13] lightness--wanton inventions ([Zep 3:4]). [¶14] not profit--that is, greatly injure. [¶15] 33. What is the burden--play on the double sense of the Hebrew: an oracle and a burden. They scoffingly ask, Has he got any new burden (burdensome oracle: for all his prophecies are disasters) to announce (Mal 1:1)? Jeremiah indignantly repeats their own question, Do you ask, What burden? This, then, it is, "I will forsake you." My word is burdensome in your eyes, and you long to be rid if it. You shall get your wish. There will be no more prophecy: I will forsake you, and that will be a far worse "burden" to you. [¶16] 34. The burden--Whoever shall in mockery call the Lord's word "a burden," shall be visited (Margin) in wrath. [¶17] 35. The result of My judgments shall be, ye shall address the prophet more reverentially hereafter, no longer calling his message a burden, but a divine response or word. "What hath the Lord answered?" [¶18] 36. every man's word ... his burden--As they mockingly call all prophecies burdens, as if calamities were the sole subject of prophecy, so it shall prove to them. God will take them at their own word. [¶19] living God--not lifeless as their dumb idols, ever living so as to be able to punish. [¶20] 39. I will ... forget you--just retribution for their forgetting Him ([Ho 4:6]). But God cannot possibly forget His children ([Is 49:15]). Rather for "forget" translate, "I will altogether lift you up (like a 'burden,' alluding to their mocking term for God's messages) and cast you off." God makes their wicked language fall on their own head [Calvin]. Compare [Jr 23:36]: "every man's word shall be his burden." [¶21] 40. not be forgotten--If we translate [Jr 23:39] as English Version, the antithesis is, though I forget you, your shame shall not be forgotten. ### Chapter 24 ### Jr 24:1-10. The Restoration of the Captives in Babylon and the Destruction of the Refractory Party in Judea and in Egypt, Represented under the Type of a Basket of Good, and One of Bad, Figs [¶24] 1. Lord showed me--[Am 7:1], [4, 7]; , contains the same formula, with the addition of "thus" prefixed. [¶25] carried ... captive Jeconiah--([Jr 22:24]; [2Ki 24:12], &c.; [2Ch 36:10]). [¶26] carpenters, &c.--One thousand artisans were carried to Babylon, both to work for the king there, and to deprive Jerusalem of their services in the event of a future siege ([2Ki 24:16]). [¶27] 2. figs ... first ripe--the "boccora," or early fig (see on [Is 28:4]). Baskets of figs used to be offered as first-fruits in the temple. The good figs represent Jeconiah and the exiles in Babylon; the bad, Zedekiah and the obstinate Jews in Judea. They are called good and bad respectively, not in an absolute, but a comparative sense, and in reference to the punishment of the latter. This prophecy was designed to encourage the despairing exiles, and to reprove the people at home, who prided themselves as superior to those in Babylon and abused the forbearance of God (compare [Jr 52:31-34]). [¶28] 5. acknowledge--regard with favor, like as thou lookest on the good figs favorably. [¶29] for their good--Their removal to Babylon saved them from the calamities which befell the rest of the nation and led them to repentance there: so God bettered their condition ([2Ki 25:27-30]). Daniel and Ezekiel were among these captives. [¶30] 6. ([Jr 12:15]). [¶31] not pull ... down ... not pluck ... up--only partially fulfilled in the restoration from Babylon; antitypically and fully to be fulfilled hereafter ([Jr 32:41]; ). [¶32] 7. ([Jr 30:22]; ; ). Their conversion from idolatry to the one true God, through the chastening effect of the Babylonish captivity, is here expressed in language which, in its fulness, applies to the more complete conversion hereafter of the Jews, "with their whole heart" ([Jr 29:13]), through the painful discipline of their present dispersion. The source of their conversion is here stated to be God's prevenient grace. [¶33] for they shall return--Repentance, though not the cause of pardon, is its invariable accompaniment: it is the effect of God's giving a heart to know Him. [¶34] 8. in ... Egypt--Many Jews had fled for refuge to Egypt, which was leagued with Judea against Babylon. [¶35] 9. removed, &c.--([Jr 15:4]). Calvin translates, "I will give them up to agitation, in all," &c.; This verse quotes the curse ([De 28:25], ). Compare [Jr 29:18], ; [Psa 44:13], . ### Chapter 25 ### Jr 25:1-38. Prophecy of the Seventy Years' Captivity; and after That the Destruction of Babylon, and of All the Nations That Oppressed the Jews [¶38] 1. fourth year of Jehoiakim--called the third year in [Da 1:1]. But probably Jehoiakim was set on the throne by Pharaoh-necho on his return from Carchemish about July, whereas Nebuchadnezzar mounted the throne January 21, 604 B.C.; so that Nebuchadnezzar's first year was partly the third, partly the fourth, of Jehoiakim's. Here first Jeremiah gives specific dates. Nebuchadnezzar had previously entered Judea in the reign of his father Nabopolassar. [¶39] 3. From the thirteenth year of Josiah, in which Jeremiah began to prophesy ([Jr 1:1]), to the end of Josiah's reign, was nineteen years ([2Ki 22:1]); the three months 2 Kings 23. 31) of Jehoahaz' reign, with the not quite complete four years of Jehoiakim ([Jr 25:1]), added to the nineteen years, make up twenty-three years in all. [¶40] 4. rising early--(See on [Jr 7:13]). "The prophets" refer to Urijah, Zephaniah, Habakkuk, &c. It aggravates their sin, that God sent not merely one but many messengers, and those messengers, prophets; and, that during all those years specified, Jeremiah and his fellow prophets spared no effort, late and early. [¶41] 5. Turn ... dwell--In Hebrew there is expressed by sameness of sounds the correspondence between their turning to God and God's turning to them to permit them to dwell in their land: Shubu ... shebu, "Return" ... so shall ye "remain." [¶42] every one from ... evil--Each must separately repent and turn from his own sin. None is excepted, lest they should think their guilt extenuated because the evil is general. [¶43] 6. He instances one sin, idolatry, as representative of all their sins; as nothing is dearer to God than a pure worship of Himself. [¶44] 7. Though ye provoke Me to anger ([De 32:21]), yet it is not I, but yourselves, whom ye thereby hurt ([Pr 8:36]; ).