Jeremiah 10:15

10:1-16 The prophet shows the glory of Israel's God, and exposes the folly of idolaters. Charms and other attempts to obtain supernatural help, or to pry into futurity, are copied from the wicked customs of the heathen. Let us stand in awe, and not dare provoke God, by giving that glory to another which is due to him alone. He is ready to forgive, and save all who repent and believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ. Faith learns these blessed truths from the word of God; but all knowledge not from that source, leads to doctrines of vanity.

They are vanity,.... They are the fruit of the vain imagination of men; to worship them shows the vanity of the human mind; and they are vain things to trust to: and the work of errors; of erroneous men, and which lead men into errors; and are worthy to be laughed at, as the Targum paraphrases it. In the time of their visitation they shall perish; or in the time that I shall visit upon them their sins, as the Targum; that is, when Babylon should be destroyed by the Medes and Persians, as Kimchi interprets it; when their idols were destroyed also; see Isaiah 46:1.

(15) The work of errors. —Better, a work of mockery, i.e., worthy of that and of that only, the word being apparently substituted, after Jeremiah’s manner, for the technical word, not unlike in sound, which is translated “image work” in 2Chronicles 3:10 . In the time of their visitation.—i.e., in the time when they are visited with punishment, as in 1Peter 2:12; Isaiah 10:3, and Luke 19:44.

They are vanity, and the work of errors; either in their rise, as springing from men of corrupt minds, or the foundation of them; a metonymy of the effect; teachers and encouragers of lies , Habakkuk 2:18 ; things rather to be scoffed at and derided, than adored and worshipped; and it is expressed in the plural number, to note the multiplicity of them. In the time of their visitation they shall perish; when God shall have a controversy with them, shall come to reckon with Babylon and her idols, they and their worshippers shall be destroyed, alluding possibly to the manner of the pagan conquests, who were wont to carry away both persons and the idols of the country, and either break them to pieces, or burn them; thus were they served by, the Persians: see on Isaiah 46:1 . This possibly may be spoken by way of encouragement to the Jews, that took offence at the Chaldean idols that were set up in their sight; that God may strengthen their patience he tells them he visits them in mercy , and their enemies in judgment ; he will destroy those idols.

In presence of such marvels of divine power and wisdom, all men seem brutish and ignorant (away from knowledge equals without knowledge), and all makers of idols are put to shame "because of the image" which they make for a god, and which is but a deception, has no breath of life. נסך, prop. drink-offering, libamen, cf. Jeremiah 7:15 ; here molten image equals מסּכה, as in Isaiah 41:29 ; Isaiah 48:5 ; Daniel 11:8 . Vanity they are, these idols made by the goldsmith. A work of mockings, i.e., that is exposed to ridicule when the nullity of the things taken to be gods is clearly brought to light. Others: A work which makes mockery of its worshippers, befools and deludes them (Hitz., Ng.). In the time of their visitation, cf. Jeremiah 6:15 .

8 . But thou, thyself , shalt , etc.] The emphatic thou is necessary after the intrusion of the previous v . return ] If this be meant in a spiritual sense, the like does not elsewhere occur in Deut.; but is found in Isaiah 10:21 ; Isaiah 19:22 , Jeremiah 3:1 ; Jeremiah 3:7 ; Jeremiah 3:12 ; Jeremiah 3:22 ; Jeremiah 4:1 ; Jeremiah 15:19 ; Jeremiah 18:11 (= Jeremiah 35:15 ), Jeremiah 23:14 , Jeremiah 24:7 , Jeremiah 36:3 , Ezekiel 18:23 , etc. For the rest of this v erse see above Deuteronomy 15:5 , Deuteronomy 28:1 ; Deuteronomy 28:15 .