Commentary on the Old Testament Volume 2-4, Biblical commentary 7 · Jeremiah · Chapter 4
CHAP. IV.
IF thou returnest (O Israel) saith the Lord, Return to me. Because they were Vers. 1.brought in Chap. 3. 23. professing their penitency, and turning to the Lord; now he encourageth them in their doing thus, and cals upon them to do it in sincerity, because amongst them that turn to the Christian profession there be many hypocrites, who think to be accepted of for their outward shew, although they go on still in their sins. Against this he exhorteth them to shew their turning to be unfeigned, by their putting away of all their abominations, which whoso doth not, his turning is nothing else but hypocrisie. But whoso thus turneth shall never be moved, he rests upon the Lord and his grace in Christ, which shall be as a Rock unto him, so that let the winds blow, the rain Matth. 7. 24.fall and the waves beat, yet he fals not.
And thou shalt swear, The Lord liveth in truth, &c. Here swearing is put Vers. 2.for the whole worship of God, of which it is a part, because in swearing his name is called upon, and faith in God is shewed, that he both heareth and hath power to take revenge upon him that presumes to swear falsly by him, yea and that he cannot for his honour but do it, seeing otherwise he should expose himself to the calumny of evil tongues, which would be ready to say, either he is so high in heaven above, that he heareth not, or he cares not for truth or falshood. Therefore swearing, The Lord liveth, if it be in truth, argueth one that is truly faithfull, believing all the things before-spoken of, and whatsoever else God hath set forth in his holy Word, and therefore living and doing accordingly. If any man sweareth thus, but doth not believe thus to do as God requireth, he sweareth not in truth, but in abominable hypocrisie, forsomuch as he makes a shew of a true believer, but in his heart is not. And because that in judgement men shew themselves whether they swear thus or no, by each ones dealing justly and righteously with his neighbour, or contrariwise, it is added, in judgement and righteousnesse. And to denote the time to which this is most properly to be referred, he saith further, The Gentiles shall blesse themselves in him; a like passage to which is Isa. 65. 16. in speaking of the times of the Gospel. Yet I do not hold that this, or that which went before Chap. 3. 22, 23, &c. doth so properly belong to the time of the Gospel, but that it was useful for Israel then to teach them how to demean themselves towards the Lord, whom they had so greatly provoked, both by confessing and professing a serious return, that Gods judgements already sent might be removed, and his judgements threatned further to come, prevented. And for Israel, it was necessary that serious and hearty turning in truth should be pressed unto them, because they had many times turned only feignedly, for turning to the doing of good duties outwardly, and sometimes putting away Baalim, thinking to be highly accepted of, and to enjoy peace. And this Note. is also our case in England, for which we have need to hearken to, and put this precept in practice, before that Gods judgements come as a floud upon us, and there will be no stopping of the course of them till we be quite destroyed.
Break up your fallow ground, and sow not amongst thorns. Circumcise your Vers. 3.selves. Having prophesied of the conversion of the Jews and calling of the Gentiles, from vers. 12. Chap. 3. hitherto, now he returns again to his former Prophecy of judgements to come from the North, exhorting them by true repentance to prevent them. One of the evil grounds upon which the sower soweth good seed, Matth. 13. is said to be thorny, setting forth men worldly-minded and covetous, to the end therefore that they might not be hindred by worldly cares from profiting by his heavenly instructions, he bids them not to have such hearts, but to break them by contrition for their sins past, for thus the heart is made capable of good instruction to profit thereby, even as the fallow hard ground before overgrown with thorns, when they are stubbed up, and it is broken with the plough to bring forth good seed sown thereupon with plentifull encrease. And he meaneth not only the evil quality of covetousness, but also all vices accompanying it, injustice, fraud, lying, oppression, and the neglect of divine duties for mammon.
And circumcise, Take away the foreskin of your hearts. Here he sheweth Vers. 4more plainly what he meant by breaking up their fallow ground, viz. the ground of their hearts, hardened in sinne through a custom of sinning like ground lying long unplowed. For as the ground is cut with the plough, so was the foreskin with a sharp knife, for a sign of the Covenant betwixt God and Abraham. But when this was commanded to be done without fail from time to time, it was not the Lords meaning that they should rest herein, as if Circumcision of the flesh had been prescribed for any complacency that God had therein, but that by it as by a figure they might be stirred up to circumcise their hearts, and cast away the foreskins of them, that is, not only the vices before-mentioned, but also all other evils first conceived within, and then coming out by actual adultery, murder, theft, &c. Matth. 15. 19. of which see before Deut. 10. and after Rom. 2. 29. And for the heart circumcision he calleth, and that unto the Lord, intimating, that in their circumcision before men, they gloried, as being for this more excellent then other Nations; but if they would become such indeed, as was intended by God, when he commanded circumcision to them, that is, circumcised in heart by putting away their evil doings, as is further explained by the last words of this verse, then they should be excellent in Gods esteem, and recover his favour, so that the fire of his wrath should not break forth against them, as otherwise it should do.
Blow the trumpet, Set up a standard towards Zion, Gather your selves into defenced Vers. 5.Cities. Here he doth ironically bid them stand upon their guard against the evil that was coming, as if they were able to defend themselves against it, as one who knew that his former exhortation to circumcise themselves would not take effect with them. But do what they could by their warlike preparations Vers. 6, 7.to save themselves, he threatneth, That evil should come out of the North, the King of Babylon like a roaring and devouring Lion, whom they should not be able to resist, no more then other beasts the Lion, vers. 6, 7, &c. But it may be said, Why are they bidden to circumcise themselves in heart? who can do this but God only? Answ. He meaneth, That they should seek it of God by praying for his grace that they might be inabled to this work, and not resist the motions of his Spirit stirring them up in the preaching of his word hereunto.
Ah Lord God, thou has… …reatly deceived this people, saying, Ye shall have Vers. 10.peace. Having prophesied …ow cruelly they should be destroyed, now he speaks to the Lord, by whose just judgement it should thus happen unto them, as they would doubtless say, when they should be under this dreadful judgement by the Caldees. For there were false prophets amongst them, that cried Peace, peace, whom they took rather to be the Prophets of the Lord then Jeremiah, because he spake harshly to them, and they slatteringly to curry favour with them. The meaning then is, It grieveth me (O Lord) to think that when the evils threatned come upon this people, they should lay the fault upon thee, as if thou hadst dealt otherwise with them then thou promisedst them by the Prophets, forsomuch as some coming in thy name, and by thee permitted so to do, made them such fair promises. But they were worthy indeed for their obstinate going on in sinne against the true Prophets admonitions to be so deceived. And this he speaks to the Lord, because they would not hear nor believe him giving them warning against such flattering false prophets. To this effect also Calvin, but Jerom understands it as spoken by Calvin. Hieronym.Jeremiah, looking back to the promises of Chap. 3. 12, 13, &c. which he not understanding to be of times to come so long after, and now being bidden to prophesie of present destruction to Judah; and therefore not seeing how those promises could be true, he crieth out, Ah Lord thou hast deceived, &c. that is, hast made me, by propounding such gracious promises of peace and prosperity, to deceive them. To Jerom subscribeth Rabanus and Thomas Aquinas. For that of Calvin stands Lyra, Theodoret, Hugo, Caldee Paraphrast, I cannot think with Jerom, that Jeremy knew not that his former Prophecie of so great good pertained to times to come long after, this of destruction to the times at hand: for the Spirit, whereby he prophesied doubtless enlightened him so, that he knew to what time each prophecie did pertain, or else he should have been like heathen Prophets cast as it were into an exstasie by the devil, as then prophesying they themselves knew not what, not they, but the devil speaking in them; whereas God spake not in his Prophets, using their tongues only as his organs, but by them, first telling them what they should say, and to what end, and then speaking by their Ministry. Wherefore I conclude, as I began, it is said, The Lord greatly deceived them, because they thought that which was spoken by false prophets in his name, to come from the Lord, unless it shall seem best to follow Jerom in another way, which he toucheth upon also, viz. that they were deceived, as it were, by the Lord, because he promising good unto them, Cha. 3. was by them understood, as absolutely promising it, whereas he did it only conditionally upon their consenting together to turn to him.
A dry winde upon the high places of the deserts, not to purge, nor to fanne, a fuller Vers. 11.winde then those shall come to me. Hereby is meant, that the judgements of God by the Caldees coming by the sword, spoken of vers. 10. shall also be as a mighty strong winde, for which it is said to come by the high places of the wilderness, being advantaged by the height of the place, and the openness of it, there being no trees to break the force of it, The daughter of my people, that is, Judah, not to purge, &c. as some winds are made use of in winnowing of corn, the chaff being thereby blown from it, A fuller winde then those, that is, more impetuous, bearing down all things, Shall come to me] They be the words of the Lord, and he meaneth, that this winde shall come at his call; for Nebuchadnezzar, although most proud, imputing all his Conquests to himself, was but the Lords servant to execute his judgements, as he is elswhere called, and is here intimated by the words added, And I will speak judgments to them, that is, I will speak no more by my Prophets, but by my judgments carrying them away, as by a whirlwinde, into Babylon. By the winde purging the floor he meaneth lighter chastisements, whereby he had sought to amend them before, but this winde of the North blowing more full should carry chaff and corn, bad and good all away.
He shall come up as clouds, his chariots shall be as a whirlwinde. Now he speaks Vers. 13.more plainly, whom he meant by the winde before-spoken of, viz. the King of Babylon, compared for his swiftness in coming, to the light clouds without rain, fleeing in the air; and for his violent bearing down of all things, to a whirlwinde; and hereupon he crieth, Woe to us we are undone, that hereby they might be moved to repentance, as he exhorteth vers. 14. Wash thy self (O Jerusalem,) as Isa. 1. 16. wash you, make you clean.
A voice is heard from Dan, and publisheth affliction from Ephraim. Vulgar Vers 15.Latine, The Idol from Ephraim, which Jerom expoundeth of Bel the Babylonians god, brought with them when they came against the Jews: Some, of Nebuchadnezzar their King, who would be worshipped as a god. But the word foreign here used, signifieth nothing but iniquity, or the punishment thereof; and according to this sense it is meant, that their punishment for sinne should first begin at Dan, which was furthest North, and then come on to Ephraim which was nearer to Jerusalem. And from these places should some flee to Jerusalem, to bring these evil tidings with crying and lamentation.
Remember to the Gentiles, behold publish against Jerusalem that watchers come. Vers. 16.Hebr. Besiegers shall make to hear or to be heard against Jerusalem coming from a farre countrey, they shall utter their voice against the cities of Judah. And thus the meaning will be plain, it being, as if it had been said, Speak no more of the judgements to come upon Judah to the Jews, for they have been enough spoken to already, but recount and speak of the same things to the Gentiles, for they are the men that shall make them hear the terrible sound of their coming from Babylon, which was far off, to do execution upon Jerusalem, when they had for a time besieged it, then breaking in and destroying both it and the Temple, as it is shewed that they did afterwards in this book, and 2 Kin. 25. 2 Chron. 36. Other Expositions are brought by some, of which Calvin Calv.makes mention, but rejecteth them, and concludeth with this, and so do I, not thinking it worth the while to name them to the further needless troubling of the Reader. Yet in the word foreign Besiegers, I think it worth the noting, that the Prophet may be thought to allude to the name Nebuchadnezzar, the last two syllables of whose name are foreign; as if he had said, Nebuchadnezzarens, or the men of Nebnchadnezzar. And the same are called, Keepers, as of a field, ver. 17. that is, keeping all the wayes in the fields about Vers. 17. Vers. 18.Jerusalem so, as that none of the Jews should be able to finde any way of escaping the destruction that hanged over their heads. And this he sheweth in the next words comes only through their own default, because they provoked the Lord, and had given him, as it were, a bitter pill that went to his heart.
My bowels, I am pained, my bowels. A like speech to this hath been before Vers. 19expounded, Isa. 16. 11. & 22. 4. wherefore see there in what sense it is spoken, Because thou hast heard (O my soul!) the sound of a trumpet, Vulg. My soul hath heard, but the word is of the first person, I have heard my soul, that is, I mean, My soul hath heard, that is, by or from the Spirit speaking to me within, although this sounding came not till divers years after to the bodily ears, yet now he heard it in his spirit, and was affected with it, as if already come.
Vers. 20, 21. are nothing else but an exaggeration of the same with more variety of expressions: So likewise is vers. 23, 24, 25, 26. it is an hyperbolical description of a most said time, and yet as if he could never say enough to deterre them from their sins, he plainly threatens them over again with utter ruine and desolation, v. 27, 28, 29.
Though thou cloathest thee with crimson, &c. As he began Chap. 3. 6. to impeach Vers. 30.Judah for whoredom: so he concludeth, speaking to her finally, as to an harlot decking her self in the richest and best manner that she can, to allure lovers to her, but the time being come that her beauty fadeth by grievous sufferings, none will now be allured unto her any more. Even so he sheweth that it should be with that harlot-like state. But he is not to be understood, as meant of that which Judah should do at the time of her destruction, for then they were so farre from trusting in Idols and decking them any more, that they began to see into their vanity, and how that no help was in them: but the words have reference to that was now done in hope of having help in time of need from these dumb and dead Idols, or at the least to be favoured the more by the Caldees by setting up such a worship as was used at Babylon. But he sheweth, that the Caldees being nothing inclined hereby to favour, should despise her, and seek her life, and be her murtherers, of whom she should therefore lamentably complain, as a woman in travel of her pangs, vers. 31. And the like measure may any Christian state look for, that to procure favour Note. of Papists, either to themselves, if need should require, or to those of our Religion amongst them, pleaseth them by conforming to their superstition, or tollerating it, as a Spanish Duke shewed anno 1588. when making just account with their Armado then prepared to over-run England, he asked his sword, whether it could distinguish betwixt Roman Catholicks in England and hereticks, that it might spare the one and kill the other, and said, it answered, No.