Jeremiah 13:11

13:1-11 It was usual with the prophets to teach by signs. And we have the explanation, ver. 9-11. The people of Israel had been to God as this girdle. He caused them to cleave to him by the law he gave them, the prophets he sent among them, and the favours he showed them. They had by their idolatries and sins buried themselves in foreign earth, mingled among the nations, and were so corrupted that they were good for nothing. If we are proud of learning, power, and outward privileges, it is just with God to wither them. The minds of men should be awakened to a sense of their guilt and danger; yet nothing will be effectual without the influences of the Spirit.

For as the girdle cleaveth to the loins of a man,.... Being girt tight unto him: so have I caused to cleave unto me the whole house of Israel, and the whole house of Judah; whom he chose above all people, and caused to approach unto him, and dwell in his courts; whom he favoured with his presence, and encouraged them to follow after him, and cleave to him in faith and affection, and with full purpose of heart; so that they were a people near unto him as a man's girdle is to his loins: and the end of this was, and would have been, had they continued so, that they might be unto me for a people; his own people, a special and peculiar people above all others, peculiarly favoured and blessed by him, and continue so, and in the enjoyment of all good things: and for a name, and for a praise, and for a glory; for a famous and renowned people, that should be to the praise and glory of God, and an honour to him, and an ornament to the profession of him; whereas they were the reverse: but they would not hear; the words of the Lord, nor obey his voice; but served other gods, departed from the Lord, to whom they should have cleaved, and so became like this rotten girdle.

Jeremiah 13:11 . For as the girdle cleaveth to the loins of a man — Here God shows the prophet why he commanded him to put the girdle about his loins. So have I caused — Rather, had I caused; to cleave unto me the house of Israel — I had betrothed them to myself in righteousness, and entered into a marriage covenant with them, that they might cleave to me as a wife cleaveth to her husband. By the laws I gave them, the prophets I sent among them, and the favours which, in my providence, I showed them, I brought them near to myself, and allowed them access to me, and intercourse with me, above every other nation. That they might be unto me for a people — A peculiar people; that they might have the honour of being called by my name; and for a praise and a glory — That I might be glorified by their showing forth my power, goodness, and faithfulness, and all my other glorious perfections to the world, so that I might be honoured and praised through them.

(11) The whole house of Israel. —The acted parable takes in not only, as in Jeremiah 13:9 , Judah, to whom the warning was specially addressed, but the other great division of the people. The sense of national unity is still strong in the prophet’s mind. Not Judah only, but the whole collective Israel had been as the girdle of Jehovah, consecrated to His service, designed to be, as the girdle was to man, a praise and glory ( Deuteronomy 26:19 ).

Here God openeth to the prophet why he commanded him to put the girdle about his loins, viz. to show that he of his singular favour had used the Jews as a man useth girdle, which he fasteneth about his loins; and as a man weareth his girdle, made up of some costly materials, for an honour and praise to him, so God’s design in honouring this people, wearing them as a girdle, was, that they might bring him honour and glory, living to his praise, in the obedience of his commands, especially such commands as resisted to his worship. But they would not hear; but they would not answer God’s designs, nor hearken to any counsels of that nature which he gave them, and therefore he resolved to pluck them from his loins, and to suffer them to rot and consume as that girdle was rotted: see Psalm 81:8-16 , which the author of the English Annotations saith well is an excellent comment on this text.

After the course of many days - these are the seventy years of the captivity - the prophet is to fetch the girdle again. He went, digged (חפר, whence we see that the hiding in the cleft of the rock was a burying in the rocky soil of the Euphrates bank), and found the girdle marred, fit for nothing. These words correspond to the effect which the exile was designed to have, which it has had, on the wicked, idolatrous race. The ungodly should as Moses' law, Leviticus 26:36 , Leviticus 26:39 , declared, perish in the land of their enemies; the land of their enemies will devour them, and they that remain shall pine or moulder away in their iniquities and in the iniquities of their fathers. This mouldering (ימּקּוּ) is well reproduced in the marring (נשׁחת) of the girdle. It is no contradiction to this, that a part of the people will be rescued from the captivity and brought back to the land of their fathers. For although the girdle which the prophet had put on his loins symbolized the people at large, yet the decay of the same at the Euphrates sets forth only the physical decay of the ungodly part of the people, as Jeremiah 13:10 intimates in clear words: "This evil people that refuses to hear the word of the Lord, etc., shall be as this girdle." The Lord will mar the גּאון of Judah and Jerusalem. The word means highness in both a good and in an evil sense, glory and self-glory. Here it is used with the latter force.

This is shown both by the context, and by a comparison of the passage Leviticus 26:19 , that God will break the נּאון of the people by sore judgments, which is the foundation of the present Jeremiah 13:9 . - In Jeremiah 13:11 the meaning of the girdle is given, in order to explain the threatening in Jeremiah 13:9 and Jeremiah 13:10 . As the girdle lies on the loins of a man, so the Lord hath laid Israel on Himself, that it may be to Him for a people and for a praise, for a glory and an adornment, inasmuch as He designed to set it above all other nations and to make it very glorious; cf. Deuteronomy 26:19 , whither these words point back.

should be sent to Caesar in Italy," etc. The Latin Vulgate and the Arabic also read "he" instead of "we."] It occurs ## only in the following places: 1 Sa 18:25; Esther 8:3; 9:24,25; Isaiah 33:8; Jeremiah 49:20; 50:45; Lamentations 2:8; 2 Sa 14:14; Jeremiah 49:30; Genesis 1:20; Job 35:2; 2 Sa 14:13; Ezekiel 38:10; Jeremiah 18:8 Psalms 21:11; 140:2,4; Jeremiah 11:19; 48:2; Amos 6:5; Psalms 10:2; Isaiah 53:3, Jeremiah 26:3; Micah 2:3; Nahum 1:11; Jeremiah 18:11; Job 13:24; 41:27,29, Psalms 32:2; 35:5; Isaiah 10:7; Job 19:11; 33:10; Genesis 15:6; 38:15; 1 Sa 1:13; Psalms 52:2; Jeremiah 18:18; Zechariah 7:10; Job 6:26; 19:11; Isaiah 13:17; 1 Ki 10:21; Numbers 18:27,30; Psalms 88:4; Isaiah 40:17; Lamentations 4:2; Isaiah 40:17; Lamentations 4:2; Isaiah 40:15; Genesis 31:15. I have examined all the passages, and, as the result of my examination, have come to the conclusion, that there is not one in which the word is used in the sense of reckoning or imputing to a man that which does not strictly belong to him; or of charging on him that which ought not to be charged on him as a matter of personal right. The word is never used to denote imputing in the sense of transferring , or of charging that on one which does not properly belong to him. The same is the case in the New Testament. The word occurs about forty times, (see Schmidius' Concord .,)and in a similar significa