Jeremiah 13:21

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.

What will thou say when he shall punish thee?.... Or, "visit upon thee" (f); that is, either when God shall punish thee for thy sins, thou canst bring no charge of injustice against him, or murmur and repine at the punishment inflicted on thee; so Jarchi; to which agrees the Targum, "when he shall visit on thee thy sin;'' or else, to which the following words seem to incline, when the enemy shall visit upon thee; so Kimchi and Abarbinel, when the Chaldeans shall come upon thee, and pay thee a visit, an unwelcome one; yet who wilt thou have to blame but thyself?

so the Septuagint and Arabic versions render it, "when they shall visit thee"; these words are directed, not to the king, nor to the queen neither; but to the body of the people, the Jewish state, represented as a woman; who, upon consideration of things past, would have a great deal of reason to reflect upon themselves for what they had done in former times, which had led on to their ruin and destruction: (for thou hast taught them to be captains, and as chief over thee;) the Jews showed the Assyrians the way into their country, used them to come thither, and taught them how to conquer them, and be masters over them; or, "hast taught them against thee" (g); to thy hurt and detriment, to be captains or governors; for an head, to have the rule over them: this was done by Ahaz, when he sent to Tiglathpileser king of Assyria to come and save him out of the hands of the kings of Syria and Israel, 2 Kings 16:7 and by Hezekiah, when he showed the messengers of the king of Babylon all his treasures; these were invitations and temptations to come and plunder them: shall not sorrows take thee as a woman in travail? denoting the suddenness of their calamities; the sharpness and severity of them; and that they would be inevitable, and could not be prevented. (f) "quando visitabit super te"; Cocceius; "quum visitaverit super te", Schmidt. (g) "docuisti istos contra te", Piscator.

Verse 21. - What wilt thou say , etc.? The rendering of the verse is uncertain, though the Authorized Version undoubtedly requires correction. The alternatives are, What wilt thou say when he shall appoint over thee ( but thou thyself hast trained them against thee ) familiar friends as thy head? and , What wilt thou say when he shall appoint over thee those whom thou hast taught thy familiar friends as thy head? The rendering "familiar friends" is justified by Psalm 55:13 ; Proverbs 16:28 ; Proverbs 17:9 ; Micah 7:5 . The "captains" of Authorized Version, or rather "tribal chiefs," is unsuitable. Jeremiah 13:21

21 . The construction and order in MT. are difficult, and the Hebrew words seem to have suffered some dislocation in the course of transmission. The general sense is: Those whom thou considerest to be thy friends (meaning Babylon, and perhaps the lesser neighbouring nations) are now to be thy harsh masters. This however is not clearly expressed in either text or mg. It is better, therefore, with Dr., to render “What wilt thou say, when he shall set over thee as head those whom thou hast thyself taught to be friends unto thee?” Cp. Ezekiel 23:22 ff., where the “lovers” are enumerated.

(21) What wilt thou say? —The verse is difficult, and requires an entire retranslation. What wilt thou (the daughter of Zion) say? for He (Jehovah) shall set over thee as head those whom thou taughtest (=tried to teach) to be thy familiar friends. This was to be the end of the alliance in which Judah had trusted. She had courted the Chaldean nobles as her lover-guides and friends (the word is the same as in Jeremiah 3:4 ; Psalm 55:13 ; Proverbs 2:17 ; Proverbs 16:28 ). Another possible construction gives, shall set over thee those whom thou delightest to be thy friends as head over thee, i.e., those whose supremacy Judah had acknowledged in order that she might court their alliance. What could come then but that which was to the Hebrew the type of extremest anguish ( Isaiah 13:8 ; Isaiah 21:3 ; Psalm 48:6 ), the travail-pangs which were followed by no joy that a man was born into the world ( John 16:21 )?

That is, thou wilt have nothing to say, but be wholly confounded and ashamed when God shall visit thee with this sore judgment, or when Nebuchadnezzar’s army sent by God shall visit thee; for thou, either by thy commerce and trading with them, or by thy so often calling them to thy assistance, or by thy idolatry borrowed from them, and other nations, hast taught them to be captains over thee; thy sorrows and affliction will come upon thee suddenly and terribly, as pain cometh upon a woman in travail; yea, and as certainly also.

21. captains, and as chief—literally, "princes as to headship"; or "over thy head," namely, the Chaldeans. Rather, translate, "What wilt thou say when God will set them (the enemies, Jer 13:20) above thee, seeing that thou thyself hast accustomed them (to be) with thee as (thy) lovers in the highest place (literally, 'at thy head')? Thou canst not say God does thee wrong, seeing it was thou that gave occasion to His dealing so with thee, by so eagerly courting their intimacy." Compare Jer 2:18, 36; 2Ki 23:29, as to the league of Judah with Babylon, which led Josiah to march against Pharaoh-necho, when the latter was about to attack Babylon [Maurer]. sorrows—pains, throes.

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.