Jeremiah 20:23

18 Therefore thus saith Jehovah, Of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah the king of Judea, They shall not bewail him, — "Ah, my brother! Ah, sister!" They shall not bewail him, — "Ah, Lord! Ah, his glory!" 19 With the burial of an ass shall he be buried, Drawn out and cast forth Beyond the gates of Jerusalem. 20 Ascend into Lebanon and cry, And on Bashan lift up thy voice, And cry all around, For destroyed are all thy lovers. 21 I spake to thee in thy tranquillity, Thou saidst, "I will not hear:" It has been thy manner from thy youth That thou didst not hear my voice. 22 Thy pastors shall the wind consume, And thy lovers, into exile shall they go: Surely ashamed shalt thou then be, And blush for all thy wickedness. 23 Thou hast set thy seat on Lebanon, Thou hast made thy nest among the cedars: How gracious wilt thou be When come on thee shall sorrows, The pain as of one in travail! 24 Live do I, saith Jehovah; Were Coniah the son of Jehoiakim the king of Judah A sealing ring on my right hand, I would thence pluck thee off: 25 And I will deliver thee Into the hand of those who seek thy life, And into the hand of those whose face thou dreadest, Even into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar The king of Babylon, And into the hand of the Chaldeans: 26 And I will cast thee and thy mother who bare thee Into a foreign land where ye were not born, And there shall ye die; 27 And into the land they set their mind to return, Thither they shall not return. 28 Is this man Coniah a despised and broken statue?

Micah and Isaiah, a little later, speak of such opposition, in Judah, as habitual Micah 2:6; Isaiah 30:10-11; much more in Israel, where the opposition to God's law was more fundamental, and where God's prophet's had been all but exterminated. Even Asa, in his degenerate days, imprisoned Hanani for prophesying that he would "have wars" 2 Chronicles 16:7, 2 Chronicles 16:10; Joash killed Zechariah son of Jehoiada 2 Chronicles 24:20-21; Amaziah silenced the prophet who rebuked him, "Art thou made of the king's council? forbear. Why shouldest thou be smitten?" 2 Chronicles 25:15-16. Jehoiakim sent even into Egypt to fetch Uriah and killed him Jeremiah 26:20-23. Jeremiah's life was one continuous encounter with false accusations Jeremiah 20:10; Jeremiah 37:13; Jeremiah 38:4, contradictions by false prophets (Jeremiah 23:17 ff; Jeremiah 27:9-10, Jeremiah 27:14-16; Jeremiah 28; Jeremiah 29), hatred Jeremiah 15:10, mockery Jeremiah 17:15; Jeremiah 20:7-8; Jeremiah 23:33, persecution Jeremiah 17:18, imprisonment Jeremiah 20:2; Jeremiah 32:3; Jeremiah 33:1; Jeremiah 37:15-21; Jeremiah 38:6-13, attempts to destroy him (Jeremiah 11:18-21; Jeremiah 18:18, Jeremiah 18:20-23; Jeremiah 26:8 ff; Jeremiah 36:26). The complaint was, as here, "wherefore dost thou prophesy?" Jeremiah 32:3.

All the sinners of My people shall perish - At the last, when the longsuffering of God has been despised to the uttermost, His Providence is exact in His justice, as in His love. As not "one grain should fall to the earth," so not one sinner should escape. Jerome: "Not because they sinned aforetime, but because they persevered in sin until death. The Aethiopians are changed into sons of God, if they repent; and the sons of God pass away into Aethiopians, if they fall into the depth of sin." Which say, The evil shall not overtake nor prevent us - Their security was the cause of their destruction. They perished the more miserably, being buoyed up by the false confidence that they should not perish. So it was in both destructions of Jerusalem. Of the first, Jeremiah says to the false prophet Hananiah, "Thus saith the Lord, Thou hast broken the yokes of wood; but thou shalt make for them yokes of iron" Jeremiah 28:13; and to Zedekiah, "Obey, I beseech thee, the voice of the Lord, which I speak unto thee; so shall it be well unto thee, and thy soul shall live. But if thou refuse to go forth - thou shalt not escape out of their hand, but shalt be taken by the hand of the king of Babylon, and thou shalt burn this city with fire" (Jeremiah 38:20, Jeremiah 38:23; add Jeremiah 27:9-10, Jeremiah 27:19).

This word is rendered "governors" in Daniel 2:48 (see the note at that place), and in Daniel 3:3, Daniel 3:27; Daniel 6:7. It does not elsewhere occur. The Hebrew word corresponding to this - סגנים segânı̂ym - occurs frequently, and is rendered "rulers" in every place except Isaiah 41:25, where it is rendered "princes:" Ezra 9:2; Nehemiah 2:16; Nehemiah 4:14 (7); Nehemiah 5:7, Nehemiah 5:17; Nehemiah 7:5; Jeremiah 51:23, Jeremiah 51:28, Jeremiah 51:57; Ezekiel 23:6, Ezekiel 23:12, Ezekiel 23:23, et al. The office was evidently one that was inferior to that of the "satrap," or governor of a whole province. And the captains - פחותא pachăvâtâ'. This word, wherever it occurs in Daniel, is rendered "captains," Daniel 3:2-3, Daniel 3:27; Daniel 6:7; wherever else it occurs it is rendered governor, Ezra 5:3, Ezra 5:6, Ezra 5:14; Ezra 6:6-7, Ezra 6:13. The Hebrew word corresponding to this (פחה pechâh) occurs frequently, and is also rendered indifferently, "governor" or "captain:" 1 Kings 10:15; 2 Chronicles 9:14; Ezra 8:36; 1 Kings 20:24; Jeremiah 51:23, Jeremiah 51:28, Jeremiah 51:57, et al. It refers to the governor of a province less than satrapy, and is applied to officers in the Assyrian empire, 2 Kings 18:24; Isaiah 36:9; in the Chaldean, Ezekiel 23:6, Ezekiel 23:23; Jeremiah 51:23; and in the Persian, Esther 8:9; Esther 9:3. The word "captains" does not now very accurately express the sense.

2 . Jehovah’s indignation is aroused; and He swears (cf. Amos 6:8 , Amos 8:7 ), that retribution will overtake them for such selfishness and cruelty. hath sworn by his holiness ] God’s holiness is made the pledge of the validity of the oath: so Psalm 89:35 ; cf. Jeremiah 44:26 . behold, days are coming &c.] The expression implies a sudden and unexpected reversal of what at present prevails: it occurs besides, Amos 8:11 , Amos 9:13 ; 1 Samuel 2:31 ; 2 Kings 20:17 (= Isaiah 39:6 ), and fifteen times in Jeremiah ( Jeremiah 7:32 ; Jeremiah 9:24 ; Jeremiah 16:14 ; Jeremiah 19:6 ; Jeremiah 23:5 ; Jeremiah 23:7 ; Jeremiah 30:3 , &c.). he will take you away with hooks &c.] rather, ye shall be taken &c. The image is one partly of ignominy, partly of helplessness. The women of Samaria are no longer like fat cattle, proudly disdainful of all who may approach them: they are dragged violently by the foe out of the ease and luxury of their palaces, like fishes out of their native element, the water. your posterity ] your residue (R.V.),—any of you who happen to escape the ‘hooks’ of the preceding clause. It is a total destruction which the prophet contemplates.

So in Jeremiah 7 the men of Judah point to the material Temple in their midst as the palladium of their security; but the prophet retorts in a similar strain, that, if they desire to merit Jehovah’s protection, and wish Jerusalem to escape the fate of Shiloh, they must ‘amend their ways,’ and practise more consistently than they have done hitherto the ordinances of civil righteousness ( Jeremiah 7:3-15 ). punish you for ] R.V. more lit., visit upon you , as the same phrase is often rendered, Amos 3:14 ; Exodus 20:5 ; Jeremiah 5:9 ; Jeremiah 5:29 ; Jeremiah 23:2 (but punish , Jeremiah 11:22 , Jeremiah 25:12 , Jeremiah 29:32 , &c.). The expression is particularly frequent in Jeremiah. iniquities ] the conventional, and sufficient rendering of ‘âwôn . Etymologically, however, as Arabic shews (where the corresponding verb ghawâ means to err , or go astray ), the idea expressed by it is that of deviation from the right track, error: so the corresponding verb, 2 Samuel 7:14 ; 2 Samuel 24:17 ; 1 Kings 8:47 al. Comp. the writer’s Notes on the Hebrew Text of Samuel , on 1 Samuel 20:30 .

7 . Thus righteousness belongs only to God: to the sinful people only confusion and shame. With Daniel 9:7-8 b , cf. Bar 1:15-17 . confusion of faces , &c.] Cf. Ezra 9:7 , ‘and for our iniquities have we, our kings, and our priests, been delivered … to confusion of face, as (it is) this day.’ Lit. ‘shame of face,’ as the same expression is rendered in 2 Chronicles 32:21 ; cf. Psalm 44:15 , ‘shame of my face;’ Jeremiah 7:19 , ‘the shame of their own faces’; also Psalm 69:7 . The meaning is the shame (i.e. disappointment) which is visible upon the face after a repulse, disaster, &c. as (it is) this day ] as experience shews is now the case. the men (lit. man ,—collectively) of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem ] A combination found otherwise only in Jer. (8 times),—e.g. Jeremiah 4:4 , Jeremiah 32:32 ,—and 2 Kings 23:2 (= 2 Chronicles 34:30 ). An evident reminiscence of the language of Jer.: cf. ‘all the countries whither thou hast driven them’ from Jeremiah 16:15 ; Jeremiah 23:3 ; Jeremiah 23:8 ; Jeremiah 32:37 . that are near and that are far off ] Jeremiah 25:26 ; cf. Isaiah 57:19 . their unfaithfulness wherein they have dealt unfaithfully against thee ] The idea of mâ‘al is disloyalty rather than ‘trespass.’ The same phrase Leviticus 26:40 ; Ezekiel 17:20 ; Ezekiel 18:24 ; Ezekiel 39:26 ; 1 Chronicles 10:13 .

Ezekiel 11:20 : Jeremiah 7:23 ; Jeremiah 11:4 ; Jeremiah 30:22 ), descriptive of the covenant relationship in which Jehovah stood towards Israel ( Exodus 19:5 ; Leviticus 26:12 ; Deuteronomy 26:17, 18 ), have been chosen by New Testament writers to set forth the relationship of God towards the Christian Church, first here on earth ( 2 Corinthians 6:16-18 ), and afterwards in the heavenly Jerusalem ( Revelation 21:3 ). Ezekiel 36:28

Therefore down at least to the building of the Temple in Jerusalem, it was the custom in Judah and Benjamin to worship Jehovah on such high places as those at which the Canaanites worshipped their gods, and this custom was continued in N. Israel by Elijah. By the 8th century Israel appears to have promiscuously adopted the Canaanite shrines, and the prophets complain of their apostasy and licentious rites on the headlands of the mountains and on the hills and under every spreading tree with special mention of oaks, poplars, and terebinths and predict the futility and disappointment of their trust in such places ( Hosea 4:12 f.; Isaiah 1:29 ; Jeremiah 2:20 ; Jeremiah 3:6 ; Jeremiah 3:8 ; Jeremiah 3:13 ; Jeremiah 3:23 ; Jeremiah 17:1 f.; Ezekiel 6:13 ; Ezekiel 18:5 f., Ezekiel 20:28 ; Isaiah 57:5 ; Isaiah 65:7 ). The prophets regard all this as a backsliding from the pure worship of earlier times. Israel ought to have known better than sink to such traitorous and degrading practices.

24–29. The Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, &c. 24 . Then the Lord , &c.] The destruction of the cities of the Plain is an event to which frequent allusion is made in Holy Scripture. The impressive features of the Dead Sea must have continually lent force to the terrible tradition of an overthrow in times of remote antiquity. The barrenness of the soil, the absence of life in the water, the deposits of salt, of bitumen, and of sulphur, helped to connect a region, which was within sight of Jerusalem, with the thought of a judicial visitation by Jehovah, more terrible in character, if less in magnitude, than the Deluge itself. For the prophetic use of this catastrophe, see especially Deuteronomy 29:23 . Cf. Jeremiah 20:16 ; Jeremiah 23:14 ; Jeremiah 49:18 ; Jeremiah 50:40 ; Lamentations 4:6 ; Amos 4:11 ; Zephaniah 2:9 . In the N.T. see Luke 17:29 ; 2 Peter 2:6 ; Jdg 1:7 . brimstone and fire ] It is unreasonable to subject the description of this overthrow to the close scrutiny of modern science. Geologists now tell us that, within recent geological periods, there is no sign of volcanic activity in the Dead Sea region. If, therefore, as is assumed, the cities of the Plain lay in the Dead Sea valley, their overthrow was not occasioned by lava or burning ashes, like Pompeii, or Herculaneum, or St Pierre.