Jeremiah 13:19

13:18-27 Here is a message sent to king Jehoiakim, and his queen. Their sorrows would be great indeed. Do they ask, Wherefore come these things upon us? Let them know, it is for their obstinacy in sin. We cannot alter the natural colour of the skin; and so is it morally impossible to reclaim and reform these people. Sin is the blackness of the soul; it is the discolouring of it; we were shapen in it, so that we cannot get clear of it by any power of our own. But Almighty grace is able to change the Ethiopian's skin. Neither natural depravity, nor strong habits of sin, form an obstacle to the working of God, the new-creating Spirit. The Lord asks of Jerusalem, whether she is determined not be made clean. If any poor slave of sin feels that he could as soon change his nature as master his headstrong lusts, let him not despair; for things impossible to men are possible with God. Let us then seek help from Him who is mighty to save.

The cities of the south shall be shut up, and none shall open them,.... Meaning the cities of Judah, which lay in the southern part of the land of Israel, and to the south of Babylon; which might be said to be shut up, and not in the power of any to open, when besieged by the Chaldean army; or rather when destroyed, that there were none to go in and out; though some think the cities of Egypt are intended, which lay south of Judea, from whence the Jews should not have the relief they expected, and where they should find no refuge; but the former sense seems best: Judah shall be carried away captive all of it; it was in part carried away in Jehoiachin's time, and wholly in Zedekiah's; which seems to be here respected: it shall be wholly carried away captive; or, in perfections (e); most perfectly and completely; the same thing is meant as before, only in different words repeated, to express the certainty of it. (e) "perfectionibus", Vatablus, Montanus. It is by Schmidt left untranslated, "Schelomim", which he takes to be the city of Jerusalem, sometimes called "Solyma"; the inhabitants of which were carried captive when Judah was; and so Junius and Tremellius translate it; "civita, pacatorum", and understand it of Jerusalem; which has the signification of peace in its name.

Jeremiah 13:19-21 . The cities of the south, &c. — The cities of Judah, which lay in the southern part of Canaan, shall be straitly besieged by the enemy, so that there shall be no going in and out; or shall be deserted by the inhabitants. Or, as some think, the cities of Egypt are intended, from whence the Jews expected succour. These should fail them, and they should find no access to them. Lift up your eyes, &c. — He speaks as if their enemies were even then upon their march, nay, so near, that if they did but lift up their eyes and look, they might see them coming. Where is the flock that was given thee? — He streaks to the king, representing him under the idea of a shepherd, and the people under that of a flock. Or rather, as the pronouns are feminine, he addresses the daughter of Judah, that is, the city or state. “What wilt thou say, when the Lord shall demand of thee an account of the people committed to thy trust? What wilt thou answer when the sovereign monarch shall see dissipated, diminished, weakened, destroyed, thy beautiful flock,” or, as צאן תפארתךְ rather signifies, the flock of thy glory. In the multitude of people, says Solomon, is the king’s honour. What wilt thou say when he shall punish thee? — Thou wilt have nothing to say, but be wholly confounded, when God shall visit thee by this sore judgment. Or, when Nebuchadnezzar’s army, sent by God, shall visit thee.

For thou hast taught them to be captains, &c. — Houbigant renders it, “Since thou hast made them expert against thee, and hast drawn them upon thine own head;” and Blaney, more literally, “Seeing it is thou that teachest them to be rulers in chief over thee.” “Thou hast frequently called them to thy succour, and taught them the way to thy country, whereof they dreamed not before; and not only thus, but by accumulating crimes upon crimes, and filling up the measure of thine iniquity, thou hast drawn down the vengeance of heaven, and put thyself in the power of the Chaldeans.” See Calmet. Some have understood the alliances, contracted heretofore with the Assyrians by Ahaz, and the conduct of Hezekiah toward the ambassadors of the king of Babylon, to be here alluded to. “But I rather think,” says Blaney, “that the wicked manners of the people are principally designed; which put them out of the protection of Almighty God, and rendered them an easy conquest to any enemy that came against them. Thus they taught their enemies to oppress, and to be lords over them; against whom, but for their own faults, they might have maintained their security and independence.”

Verse 19. - The rendering of the Authorized Version is substantially right, as the events referred to are obviously future. The tense, however, in the Hebrew, is the perfect - viz. that of prophetic certitude. Jeremiah sees it all in prophetic vision, as if it were actually taking place. The cities of the south ; i.e. of the dry, southern country of Judah, called the Negeb - shall be [are] shut up - i . e . blocked up with ruins (as Isaiah 24:10 ) - and none shall open them (openeth them), because all Judah will have been carried captive. (For fulfillment, see Jeremiah 34:7 .) Jeremiah 13:19

19 . the South ] Heb. the Negeb , a barren region in the S. of Judah (see Genesis 12:9 mg.), whose cities are named Joshua 15:21-32 . The sense is: none shall escape, not even those most remote from the point at which the invader from the north ( Jeremiah 13:20 ) enters the land. it is wholly, etc .] We may make a very probable correction in MT., and so (with LXX) render an entire captivity .

(19) The cities of the south. —The term thus rendered (the Negeb ) is throughout the Old Testament used for a definite district, stretching from Mount Halak northward to a line south of Engedi and Hebron. The strategy of Nebuchadnezzar’s attack (as it had been of Sennacherib’s, 2Kings 18:13 ) was to blockade the cities of this region, and then, when they were cut off from sending assistance, to attack Jerusalem. Shall be shut up . . . shall be carried away.—Both verbs should be in the present tense, are shut up, is carried away.

Shall be shut up - Rather, "are shut up, and no man openeth them." The cities of the Negeb, the southern district of Judah, are blockaded, with no one to raise the siege. The captivity was the inevitable result of the capture of the fortified towns. An army entering from the north would march along the Shefelah, or fertile plain near the seacoast, and would capture the outlying cities, before it attacked Jerusalem, almost inaccessible among the mountains. Judah shall be ... - Translate, "Judah is ..."

Either the cities of Judah which lay southward from Chaldea, and therefore their enemies in the next verse are said to come from the north, and this great evil is said to have come from the north; or (as some would have it) the cities of Egypt, which lay yet more southward, so as the Egyptians should neither come with sufficient force to raise the siege, nor should there be any sanctuary or refuge for them in Egypt, but they should certainly be wholly carried into captivity.

19. cities of the south—namely, south of Judea; farthest off from the enemy, who advanced from the north. shut up—that is, deserted (Isa 24:10); so that none shall be left to open the gates to travellers and merchants again [Henderson]. Rather, shut up so closely by Nebuchadnezzar's forces, sent on before (2Ki 24:10, 11), that none shall be allowed by the enemy to get out (compare Jer 13:20). wholly—literally, "fully"; completely.

The fall of the kingdom, the captivity of Judah, with upbraidings against Jerusalem for her grievous guilt in the matter of idolatry. - Jeremiah 13:18 . "Say unto the king and to the sovereign lady: Sit you low down, for from your heads falls the crown of your glory. Jeremiah 13:19 . The cities of the south are shut and no man openeth; Judah is carried away captive all of it, wholly carried away captive. Jeremiah 13:20 . Lift up your eyes and behold them that come from midnight! Where is the flock that was given thee, thy glorious flock? Jeremiah 13:21 . What wilt thou say, if He set over thee those whom thou hast accustomed to thee as familiar friends, for a head? Shall not sorrows take thee, as a woman in travail? Jeremiah 13:22 . And if thou say in thine heart, Wherefore cometh this upon me? for the plenty of thine iniquity are thy skirts uncovered, thy heels abused. Jeremiah 13:23 . Can an Ethiopian change his skin, and a leopard his spots? Then may ye also do good that are accustomed to doing evil. Jeremiah 13:24 . Therefore will I scatter them like chaff that flies before the wind of the wilderness. Jeremiah 13:25 . This is thy lot, thine apportioned inheritance from me, because thou hast forgotten me and trustedst in falsehood. Jeremiah 13:26 . Therefore will I turn thy skirts over thy face, that thy shame be seen. Jeremiah 13:27 . Thine adultery and thy neighing, the crime of thy whoredom upon the ills, in the fields, I have seen thine abominations.