Jeremiah 5:3

5:1-9 None could be found who behaved as upright and godly men. But the Lord saw the true character of the people through all their disguises. The poor were ignorant, and therefore they were wicked. What can be expected but works of darkness, from people that know nothing of God and religion? There are God's poor, who, notwithstanding poverty, know the way of the Lord, walk in it, and do their duty; but these were willingly ignorant, and their ignorance would not be their excuse. The rich were insolent and haughty, and the abuse of God's favours made their sin worse.

O Lord, are not thine eyes upon the truth?.... That is, thou hast no regard to such deceitful men, such hypocritical worshippers and formal professors, but to true and upright men: God looks not at outward appearances, but to the heart; he can see through all masks and vizards, there is no deceiving of him; he desires truth in the inward parts, and his eyes are on that; he has respect to men that have the truth of grace, the root of the matter in them, oil in their vessels, together with the lamps of an outward profession: his eyes are on such as have a true inward sense of sin, a genuine repentance for it, and that make a sincere, hearty, and ingenuous confession of it; to this man he looks, that is poor, and of a contrite spirit; he is nigh to such, and dwells with them; when he has no regard to the sad countenances and disfigured faces of Pharisees; to the tears of a profane Esau, or to the external humiliations and concessions of a wicked Pharaoh: his eyes are upon the internal graces of his own Spirit; to love, that is in deed and in truth; to hope, that is without dissimulation, and to faith unfeigned: and so the Septuagint, Vulgate Latin, Syriac, and Arabic versions render it, "thine eyes are unto faith"; or, respect faith (p); the faith of Christians, as Jerom interprets it.

Jeremiah 5:3-5 . O Lord, are not thine eyes upon the truth — Dost thou not approve of truth and faithfulness? And dost thou not search men’s hearts, and clearly discern their real dispositions from their hypocritical pretences? Thou hast stricken them — With one affliction after another; but they have not grieved — They have remained insensible as stocks or stones: they have not been humbled, and made truly penitent. Thou hast consumed them — Not chastised them lightly, but wasted them by several enemies: but they have refused to receive correction — To accommodate themselves to, and answer thy design in, correcting them. They have not been instructed or amended by it. They have made their faces harder than a rock, &c. — They have been obstinate and impudent in their evil practices, and have wilfully rejected thy counsel, and disregarded thy judgments. Therefore I said, These are poor, &c. — I thought at first, says the prophet, that such insensibility and want of concern respecting the duties of religion could be only charged upon the rude and ignorant vulgar, who, through the ignorance and poverty of their parents, were not sufficiently instructed when young, and afterward had neither leisure nor opportunity of learning their duty. I will get me to the great men — And see if I can find them better acquainted with, and regardful of, the providence and word of God.

For — I thought, rarely they have been better educated, and have had all opportunities and means of instruction and improvement, and therefore they must have known the way of the Lord, &c. But these have altogether broken the yoke, &c. — These are more refractory than the others; no law of God is able to hold them.

O LORD, are not thy eyes upon the {c} truth? thou hast {d} stricken them, but they have not grieved; thou hast consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction: they have made their faces harder than a rock; they have refused to return. (c) Do you not love uprightness and faithful dealing? (d) You have often punished them, but all is in vain, Isa 9:13.

Are not thine eyes upon the truth? The prophet, observing the obstinacy of this people, abruptly turns himself to God, yet emphatically insinuates their incorrigibleness. This may refer either to God’s discerning and knowing truth from falsehood, as being impossible that any thing should be hid from him, Psalm 11:4 ; or rather, (more agreeably to the phrase,) to God’s approving; and this some again refer to persons, as men of truth for true men, so man of wisdom for a wise man , Micah 6:9 ; but others, better, to truth and faithfulness, as that which God hath a great respect for, and delight in, Psalm 51:6 , and was not to be found among these people. Though none of these senses be improper, this seems the most genuine. They have not grieved; they have been under sore grievances that God hath laid them under, yet they seem unconcerned, Proverbs 23:35 Isaiah 42:25 ; or it is probable they were grieved at their sufferings, but they have not repented, thereby to turn away the causes of his just displeasure: see 2 Corinthians 7:9,10 . Thou hast consumed them; God had not only lightly chastised them, but wasted them by several enemies, as the Assyrian, Isaiah 10:5,6 36:1 , and Pharaoh-nechoh, 2 Kings 23:33 , and the Chaldees, Syrians, Moabites, and the Ammonites, 2 Kings 24:2 , and Nebuchadnezzar, 2 Kings 24:13 , &c.

All these he made use of as the rod of his indignation, yet they refused to receive correction; see Jeremiah 2:30 ; a metonymy of the effect; they have profited nothing by it, not at all reformed, Isaiah 1:5,16 Am 4:6,8-11 . They have made their faces harder than a rock; noting their obstinacy and impudence, laying aside all sense of judgments, as past feeling, Proverbs 21:29 Zechariah 7:12 . They have refused to return; wilfully rejected counsel, and slighted correction, resolving to persist in their obstinacy.