Jeremiah 11:17

11:11-17 Evil pursues sinners, and entangles them in snares, out of which they cannot free themselves. Now, in their distress, their many gods and many altars stand them in no stead. And those whose own prayers will not be heard, cannot expect benefit from the prayers of others. Their profession of religion shall prove of no use. When trouble came upon them, they made this their confidence, but God has rejected it. His altar shall yield them no satisfaction. The remembrance of God's former favours to them shall be no comfort under troubles; and his remembrance of them shall be no argument for their relief. Every sin against the Lord is a sin against ourselves, and so it will be found sooner or later.

For the Lord of hosts that planted thee,.... As a green olive tree, and gave thee all thy verdure, fruitfulness, happiness, and prosperity; when he first put thee into the possession of the good land, and distinguished thee by so many favours and blessings; as he is able to take them away, so he will: for he hath pronounced evil against thee; he hath determined it in his mind, and he hath declared it by his prophets: for the evil of the house of Israel; the ten tribes, who had committed sin, and for which the evil pronounced had been executed on them already, being some time ago carried captive: and of the house of Judah; who had taken no warning by them, but had followed them in their iniquities, and even exceeded them; and therefore must expect the like punishment for their sins: which they have done against themselves; for sin is not only against God, his nature, will, and law; but it is against the sinner himself, and is to his hurt and ruin, both temporal and eternal: to provoke me to anger in offering incense unto Baal; this particularly was the evil which was so provoking to God; and therefore he determined to bring the evil of punishment upon them; and shows the cause and reason of it; and which is a sufficient vindication of his justice.

Verse 17. - The Lord of hosts, that planted thee ; He who "planted" Israel (comp. Jeremiah 2:21 ) could also uproot it; and though, for the sake of his covenant with Abraham, he would not destroy it utterly, yet he could not but interpose as Judge to punish its manifold transgressions. Israel and Judah are mentioned together; for the prophets, so far as we know them from their works, did not recognize the separation of the two kingdoms. Against themselves ; rather, for themselves ; i . e . to please themselves. Jeremiah 11:17

This verse expounds what was metaphorically expressed in the former verse, viz. that God had declared his will to his prophet; that he would destroy his people, the blame of which must lie upon themselves, for they had by idolatry most highly provoked him, and had therein done against themselves, as indeed all sinning is but an acting against ourselves. God is invulnerable, we cannot hurt him, though we may provoke his justice to take vengeance upon us for our iniquities. And the prophet tells them that the Lord that planted them would do this, thereby hinting to them both his power to do it, and also that they had no reason to be confident, that because God had made them, he would not destroy them; or because he had planted them in that good land, therefore he would not pluck them up and throw them out of it: see Isaiah 27:11 .

This idea is carried on in Jeremiah 11:16 , Jeremiah 11:17 . Judah (Israel) was truly a noble planting of God's, but by defection from the Lord, its God and Creator, it has drawn down on itself this ruin. Jahveh called Judah a green olive with splendid fruit. For a comparison of Israel to an olive, cf. Hosea 14:7 , Psalm 52:10 ; Psalm 128:3 . The fruit of the tree is the nation in its individual members. The naming of the name is the representation of the state of the case, and so here: the growth and prosperity of the people. The contrasted state is introduced by לקול ה' without adversative particle, and is thus made to seem the more abrupt and violent (Hitz.). Noise of tumult (המלּה, occurring besides here only in Ezekiel 1:24 as equivalent to המון), i.e., of the tumult of war, cf. Isaiah 13:4 ; not: roar of the thunderstorm or crash of thunder (Ng., Graf). עליה for בּהּ (OT:871a), cf. Jeremiah 17:27 ; Jeremiah 21:14 , etc. The suffix is regulated by the thing represented by the olive, i.e., Judah as a kingdom. Its branches brake; רעע, elsewhere only transitive, here intransitive, analogously to רצץ in Isaiah 42:4 . Hitz. renders less suitably: its branches look bad, as being charred, robbed of their gay adornment. On this head cf. Ezekiel 31:12 . The setting of fire to the olive tree Israel came about through its enemies, who broke up one part of the kingdom after the other, who had already destroyed the kingdom of the ten tribes, and were now about to destroy Judah next.

That the words apply not to Judah only, but to Israel as well, appears from Jeremiah 11:17 , where the Lord, who has planted Israel, is said to have spoken, i.e., decreed evil for the sin of the two houses, Israel and Judah. דּבּר is not directly equals decree, but intimates also the utterance of the decree by the prophet. להם after עשׂוּ is dat. incomm.: the evil which they have done to their hurt; cf. Jeremiah 44:3 , where the dative is wanting. Hitz. finds in להם an intimation of voluntary action, as throwing back the deed upon the subject as an act of free choice; cf. Ew. 315, a.

## For they have eaten up Jacob, and devoured him, and consumed him, and have made his habitation desolate: here he gives a reason as a motive to God why he should do so; which words see explained on Psa_79:5-7, whence they are taken, and possibly Jeremiah himself was the author of that Psalm after the city was destroyed, and he carried into Egypt; and for the phrase of devouring him , see Jer_8:16. ## Jeremiah 11:1 JEREMIAH CHAPTER 11