Jeremiah 13:20

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.

Lift up your eyes, and behold them that come from the north,.... There are a Keri and a Cetib of the words "lift up" and "behold"; they are written in the singular number, and may be considered as directed to the king, as the words following are; and they are read in the plural number, the state and whole body of the people being called upon to observe the Chaldean army, which came from the north; and is represented as on the march, just at hand to invade, besiege, take, and carry them captive. The Septuagint version renders it, "lift up thine eyes, O Jerusalem"; and the Arabic version, "O Israel: where is the flock that was given thee, thy beautiful flock?" that is, the people, as the Targum interprets it, which were committed to the care and charge of the king, as sheep into the hands of a shepherd; and were a fine body of people, chosen of God and precious, distinguished above all others by wholesome and righteous laws and statutes, and special privileges; a people who were a kingdom of priests, a holy nation, and a peculiar people, the glory of the whole earth; but now carried, or about to be carried, captive. It is no unusual thing to represent a king as a shepherd, and his people as a flock, guided, governed, and protected by him, and who is accountable for his trust to the King of kings; see Psalm 78:71 .

Verses 20, 21. - The captivity being still (in spite of the perfect tense) a thing of the future, the prophet can seek to awaken the conscience of the careless under-shepherd by showing how serf-caused is his (or rather her) punishment. Verse 20. - Lift up your eyes . The verb is fern. sing., the pronoun (in suffix form) masc. plu, - a clear indication that the person addressed is a collective. Probably the "daughter of Zion" is intended, which, in a certain sense, might be called the "shepherd" or leader of the rest of the nation. From the north . Again this horror of the north as the source of calamity (see on Jeremiah 14). Jeremiah 13:20

20 . Lift up your eyes, and behold ] The verbs in MT. are fem. and sing., with a variant (Ḳ’ri) mas. and pl. The pronoun, probably by a slip, is pl. It is better to read with LXX, Lift up thine eyes, O Jerusalem . the north ] Cp. Jeremiah 4:6 , Jeremiah 6:1 ; Jeremiah 6:22 . the flock ] See on Jeremiah 13:17 . 20–27. Lament for the calamities brought about by Jerusalem’s sin See, O Jerusalem, the northern foe descends on thee. What has become of thy goodly nation? How wilt thou endure those who were erst thy friends, now become thy rulers? What shall be thy pangs? And dost thou ask, Wherefore? It is the penalty of thy sin. Evil, through inveterate custom, has become as immutable a thing with thee as is the Ethiopian’s skin or the leopard’s spotted hide. Scattered like the chaff that is whirled along by the desert wind, thou shalt have this for thy lot because of thy faithlessness. Shame and disgrace are the results of the lewd practices which thou hast openly carried on. Canst thou ever become clean again? The date may well be that of the battle of Carchemish (b.c. 605), which exposed Judah defenceless to Nebuchadnezzar. The foe spoken of cannot be the Scythians (see on Jeremiah 1:13 ), as they never were “friends,” whereas for the attempt to be on friendly terms with the Eastern powers we may cp. Jeremiah 2:36 , Jeremiah 4:30 .

(20) Lift up your eyes. —The Hebrew verb is feminine and singular, the possessive pronoun masculine and plural. Assuming the reading to be correct, the irregularity may have been intended to combine the ideal personification of Jerusalem, the daughter of Zion, as the natural protectress of the other cities, with the concrete multitude of her inhabitants. The “beautiful flock” of those cities had been committed to her care, and she is now called to give an account of her stewardship. Them that come from the north.—These are, of course, as in Jeremiah 1:14 and elsewhere, the invading army of the Chaldeans, and probably also their Scythian allies.

He speaks to them as if their enemy was even then upon their march, that if they did but look they might see him coming. Where is the flock that was given thee, thy beautiful flock? the prophet either speaks to the king, or to the rulers, or chief of the congregation of Judah. Proverbs 14:28 , In the multitude of the people is the king’s honour . So in the multitude of subjects, or of members, lies much of the honour of a church or state.

20. from … north—Nebuchadnezzar and his hostile army (Jer 1:14; 6:22). flock … given thee—Jeremiah, amazed at the depopulation caused by Nebuchadnezzar's forces, addresses Jerusalem (a noun of multitude, which accounts for the blending of plural and singular, Your eyes … thee … thy flock), and asks where is the population (Jer 13:17, "flock") which God had given her?

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.

Woe unto thee, Jerusalem! thou shalt not be made clean after how long a time yet!" From Jeremiah 13:18 on the prophet's discourse is addressed to the king and the queen-mother. The latter as such exercised great influence on the government, and is in the Books of Kings mentioned alongside of almost all the reigning kings (cf. 1 Kings 15:13; 2 Kings 10:13, etc.); so that we are not necessarily led to think of Jechoniah and his mother in especial. To them he proclaims the loss of the crown and the captivity of Judah. Set yourselves low down (cf. Gesen. 142, 3, b), i.e., descend from the throne; not in order to turn aside the threatening danger by humiliation, but, as the reason that follows show, because the kingdom is passing from you. For fallen is מראשׁתיכם, your head-gear, lit., what is about or on your head (elsewhere pointed מראשׁות, 1 Samuel 19:13; 1 Samuel 26:7), namely, your splendid crown. The perf. here is prophetic. The crown falls when the king loses country and kingship. This is put expressly in Jeremiah 13:19. The meaning of the first half of the verse, which is variously taken, may be gathered from the second. In the latter the complete deportation of Judah is spoken of as an accomplished fact, because it is as sure to happen as if it had taken place already. Accordingly the first clause cannot bespeak expectation merely, or be understood, as it is by Grotius, as meaning that Judah need hope for no help from Egypt.