Jeremiah 22:21

22:20-30 The Jewish state is described under a threefold character. Very haughty in a day of peace and safety. Very fearful on alarm of trouble. Very much cast down under pressure of trouble. Many never are ashamed of their sins till brought by them to the last extremity. The king shall close his days in bondage. Those that think themselves as signets on God's right hand, must not be secure, but fear lest they should be plucked thence. The Jewish king and his family shall be carried to Babylon. We know where we were born, but where we shall die we know not; it is enough that our God knows. Let it be our care that we die in Christ, then it will be well with us wherever we die, thought it may be in a far country. The Jewish king shall be despised. Time was when he was delighted in; but all those in whom God has no pleasure, some time or other, will be so lowered, that men will have no pleasure in them. Whoever are childless, it is the Lord that writes them so; and those who take no care to do good in their days, cannot expect to prosper. How little is earthly grandeur to be depended upon, or flourishing families to be rejoiced in! But those who hear the voice of Christ, and follow him, have eternal life, and shall never perish, neither shall any enemy pluck them out of his almighty hands.

I spake unto thee in thy prosperity,.... Or "prosperities", or "tranquillities" (y); when in their greatest affluence, in the height of it; this he did, when he sent to them his servants the prophets, as the Targum, and by them exhorted, reproved, and advised them: but thou saidst, I will not hear; this was the language of their hearts and actions, though not of their mouths: this hath been thy manner from thy youth; from the time they came out of Egypt, and first became a church and body politic; while they were in the wilderness; or when first settled in the land of Canaan: this was the infancy of their state; and from that time it was their manner and custom to reject the word of the Lord, and turn a deaf ear to it: that thou obeyest not my voice; in his law, and by his prophets. (y) "in tranquillitatibus fuis", Vatablus, Cocceius, Schmidt; "felicitatibus tuis", Pagninus; "securitatibus tuis", Montanus.

Jeremiah 22:21 . I spake unto thee in thy prosperity — Spake by my servants the prophets, in reproofs, admonitions, counsels; but thou saidst, I will not hear — Didst manifest by thy conduct that thou wouldest not obey. Such is too often the effect of prosperity. It puffs men up with pride and high-mindedness, and makes them despise the word of God, thinking themselves too wise to stand in need of advice, and therefore they defer attending to it, till they are in extremities, when it becomes of little or no benefit to them. The word שׁלוה , however, which we translate prosperity, properly signifies security, and may be spoken of the false security in which the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem lived in times when they were threatened with the most grievous calamities, and which had been denounced to them by the prophets, from the time of Hezekiah on account of the idolatries and various other acts of wickedness of their kings and people; who nevertheless continued in their vices without any amendment. This hath been thy manner from thy youth — From thy being first formed into a people. See the margin.

(21) In thy prosperity. —Literally, prosperities. The word is used, as in Proverbs 1:32 ; Ezekiel 16:49 ; Psalm 30:6 , in reference to what in old English was called “security,” the careless, reckless temper engendered by outward prosperity. The plural is used to include all the forms of that temper that had been manifested in the course of centuries.

I, by my prophets, spake to thee while all things went well with thee, so as thou hast not sinned ignorantly or without warning; I have not surprised thee with my judgments, but thou refusedst to hearken and obey my admonitions and precepts. From the time that I brought thee out of the land of Egypt, thou hast been thus a rebellious people.

21. I admonished thee in time. Thy sin has not been a sin of ignorance or thoughtlessness, but wilful. prosperity—given thee by Me; yet thou wouldest not hearken to the gracious Giver. The Hebrew is plural, to express, "In the height of thy prosperity"; so "droughts" (Isa 58:11). thou saidst—not in words, but in thy conduct, virtually. thy youth—from the time that I brought thee out of Egypt, and formed thee into a people (Jer 7:25; 2:2; Isa 47:12).

The cause of this calamity: because Judah in its prosperity had not hearkened to the voice of its God. שׁלות, from שׁלוה, security, tranquillity, state of well-being free from anxiety; the plur. denotes the peaceful, secure relations. Thus Judah had behaved from youth up, i.e., from the time it had become the people of God and been led out of captivity; see Jeremiah 2:2 ; Hosea 2:17 . - In Jeremiah 22:22 תּרעה is chosen for the sake of the word-play with רעיך, and denotes to depasture, as in Jeremiah 2:16 . As the storm-wind, especially the parching east wind, depastures, so to speak, the grass of the field, so will the storm about to break on Judah sweep away the shepherds, carry them off; cf. Jeremiah 13:24 , Isaiah 27:8 ; Job 27:21 . The shepherds of the people are not merely the kings, but all its leaders, the authorities generally, as in Jeremiah 10:21 ; and "thy shepherds" is not equivalent to "thy lovers," but the thought is this: Neither its allies nor its leaders will be able to help; the storm of calamity will sweep away the former, the latter must go captive. So that there is no need to alter רעיך into רעיך (Hitz.). With the last clause cf. Jeremiah 2:36 . Then surely will the daughter of Zion, feeling secure in her cedar palaces, sigh bitterly. The inhabitants of Jerusalem are said to dwell in Lebanon and to have their nests in cedars in reference to the palaces of cedar belonging to the great and famous, who at the coming destruction will suffer most.

As to the forms ישׁבתּי and מקנּנתּי, see on Jeremiah 10:17 . The explanation of the form נחנתּי is disputed. Ros., Ges., and others take it for the Niph. of חנן, with the force: to be compassionated, thus: who deserving of pity or compassion wilt thou be! But this rendering does not give a very apt sense, even if it were not the case that the sig. to be worthy of pity is not approved by usage, and that it is nowhere taken from the Niph. We therefore prefer the derivation of the word from אנץ, Niph. נאנח .hpi, contr. ננח, a derivative founded on the lxx rendering: τὶ καταστενάξεις, and Vulg. quomodo congemuisti. The only question that then remains is, whether the form נחנתּ has arisen by transposition from ננחתּ, so as to avoid the coming together of the same letter at the beginning (Ew., Hitz., Gr.); or whether, with Bttch. ausf. Gramm. 1124, B, it is to be held as a reading corrupted from ננחתּי. With "pangs," etc., cf. Jeremiah 13:21 ; Jeremiah 6:24 .

8 . But thou, thyself , shalt , etc.] The emphatic thou is necessary after the intrusion of the previous v . return ] If this be meant in a spiritual sense, the like does not elsewhere occur in Deut.; but is found in Isaiah 10:21 ; Isaiah 19:22 , Jeremiah 3:1 ; Jeremiah 3:7 ; Jeremiah 3:12 ; Jeremiah 3:22 ; Jeremiah 4:1 ; Jeremiah 15:19 ; Jeremiah 18:11 (= Jeremiah 35:15 ), Jeremiah 23:14 , Jeremiah 24:7 , Jeremiah 36:3 , Ezekiel 18:23 , etc. For the rest of this v erse see above Deuteronomy 15:5 , Deuteronomy 28:1 ; Deuteronomy 28:15 .