Jeremiah 50:6

50:1-7 The king of Babylon was kind to Jeremiah, yet the prophet must foretell the ruin of that kingdom. If our friends are God's enemies, we dare not speak peace to them. The destruction of Babylon is spoken of as done thoroughly. Here is a word for the comfort of the Jews. They shall return to their God first, then to their own land; the promise of their conversion and reformation makes way for the other promises. Their tears flow not from the sorrow of the world, as when they went into captivity, but from godly sorrow. They shall seek after the Lord as their God, and have no more to do with idols. They shall think of returning to their own country. This represents the return of poor souls to God. In true converts there are sincere desires to attain the end, and constant cares to keep in the way. Their present case is lamented as very sad. The sins of professing Christians never will excuse those who rejoice in destroying them.

My people hath been lost sheep,.... like lost sheep, without a shepherd, going astray the fold, wandering from place to place, having none to take care of them, guide and direct them, or to go in and out before them, and lead them into suitable pastures; so it was with the Jews in the Babylonish captivity, and so it is with them now, and yet the Lord's people still in some sense; he has a design of grace concerning them, a store of mercy for them, and thoughts of peace towards them, which will take place in due time; and such is the case of all God's elect in a state of nature, they are sheep, but lost sheep, and yet his people; their shepherds have caused them to go astray; from God and his worship, from the true religion; so their civil and ecclesiastical governors, their kings, princes, priests, and prophets, were the causes of leading them into errors, by their laws, doctrines, and examples; so Jarchi and Kimchi interpret it of their kings; but the Targum seems to understand it of other kings, that carried them captive, "kings carried them away, rulers spoiled them;'' so their priests and Rabbins now cause them to err from the true Messiah, his Gospel and ordinances, as their false Christs and false prophets have done in all ages since the times of Christ; they have turned them away on the mountains; or, "to" them (e); where idols were worshipped, as Jarchi; this was their case before and at the Babylonish captivity, though never since: or, "from the mountains" (f); from

Jeremiah 50:6-7. My people hath been lost sheep — All men are compared to sheep that go astray, Isaiah 53:6 . Here this character is applied to the Jews, whom God calls his people, because of the ancient covenant made with their fathers. They are said to have been lost, either on account of their captivity, being cast out of the land which God gave them, as sheep are lost out of their pasture, or in respect of their idolatries and other sins. Their shepherds have caused them to go astray — Their civil and ecclesiastical governors have been the principal causes of their sins and miseries: the former, by their wicked commands and example, the latter also by example as well as doctrine. They have turned them away on the mountains — They have turned them aside from the right worship of God, performed at the temple, to sacrifice to idols upon the mountains and high places. He alludes to sheep straying hither and thither, through the windings and turnings of the mountains. They have gone from mountain to hill — From one species of idolatry to another. They have forgotten their resting place — Or, their fold, namely, they have forgotten me, in whose love and service, in whose favour, protection; and care they could only find rest, safety, and comfort. All that found them have devoured them — They have been a prey to their enemies on all sides. And their adversaries said, We offend not — “In making them captives.

Jeremiah introduces the Chaldeans speaking thus by the truest prosopopœia; for it could not be but the Chaldeans must have known those things which the prophets had foretold concerning the future captivity of the Jews; Nebuchadnezzar is a witness, who gave his captains orders to preserve Jeremiah:” see Houbigant. Because they have sinned against the Lord, the habitation of justice — A refuge and protection for those that are just and good, and consequently one that would not have cast off the Jews if they had not first forsaken him. This interpretation supposes God to be here called, The habitation of justice, which he undoubtedly is, but whether the Chaldeans would term him so may be a question. Others, therefore, think the preposition in is understood, making this the aggravation of the Jews’ sins, that they were committed in a land which ought to have been a habitation of justice. Thus it is said, ( Isaiah 26:10 ,) that the wicked man will deal unjustly in a land of uprightness.

Verse 6. - Lost sheep. Not merely with reference to the scattering of the Captivity (as in Isaiah 27:13 , where the Authorized Version has "ready to perish"), but to the transgressions of the Law of God, of which the Jews had been constantly guilty (comp. Psalm 119:176 ; Isaiah 53:6 ). Their shepherds... mountains. This is the marginal correction in the Hebrew Bible; the text has, "Their shepherds have caused them to go astray upon the seducing mountains" - a strange expression, which is, however, defended by Naegelsbach on the ground of Jeremiah 2:20 ; Jeremiah 3:2, 23 ; Jeremiah 17:2 . Their resting place; literally, their couching place ; i.e. their pasture, Jehovah, at once their Pasture (ver. 7) and their true Shepherd ( Psalm 23:1 ). Jeremiah 50:6

6 . they have turned them away on the mountains ] The consonants of the MT. should be rendered on the seducing or apostate mountains , but the variant (as in E.VV.) is probably right. It may refer to idolatrous worship, the mountains furnishing its favourite seats. But it is perhaps better to make the expression a metaphorical one, and consider mountains to be contrasted with fertile pastures representing safe and pious lives in Jehovah’s favour. Their guides have led them to bleak, barren, dangerous regions, where they have lost themselves.

My people have been lost sheep: their {f} shepherds have caused them to go astray, they have turned them away on the mountains: they have gone from {g} mountain to hill, they have forgotten their restingplace. (f) Their governors and ministers by their examples have provoked them to idolatry. (g) They have committed idolatry in every place.

(6) My people hath been lost sheep . . . —We note as interesting the dominance of this imagery here as in Isaiah 53:6 ; Ezekiel 34:5 . The “shepherds” are, as ever, the kings and civil rulers of the people. In the “mountains” and “hills” we see partly the natural surroundings of the imagery, partly a special reference to the idolatrous worship of the high places ( Jeremiah 3:2 ; Jeremiah 3:6 ). The Hebrew text as it stands gives, they have led them on seducing mountains, i.e., the “high places” which had so strange a fascination for them. The Authorised version follows the marginal reading of the Hebrew. The “forgotten resting place,” or, perhaps, the fold, is, as in Jeremiah 50:7 , the “habitation of justice,” the true pasturage, the righteousness which is found in fellowship with Jehovah Himself.

My people hath been lost sheep: all men are compared to sheep that go astray, Isaiah 53:6 ; here it is applied to the Jews, who are called the Lord’s people, by reason of the ancient covenant God made with their fathers; they are said to be lost, either with respect to their captivity, being cast out of the land which God gave them for pastures, or in respect of their idolatry. Their shepherds have caused them to go astray; their civil and ecclesiastical governors have been a cause of it. The former by their wicked commands forcing them to idolatry and superstition, or at least by their wicked example setting them an example, and by their ill government conniving at them in their idolatrous practices, for which they are gone into captivity. Their priests, and ecclesiastical governors, teaching them such practices, and encouraging them by their own examples, and promising them impunity and security in them. They have turned them away on the mountains; either they have been a cause of their offering sacrifices to idols upon the mountains, or of their being carried into captivity over the mountains. They have gone from mountain to hill ; either wandering up and down in a strange land, or in their way thither, or running from one species of idolatry to another.

6. (Isa 53:6). on the mountains—whereon they sacrificed to idols (Jer 2:20; 3:6, 23). resting-place—for the "sheep," continuing the image; Jehovah is the resting-place of His sheep (Mt 11:28). They rest in His "bosom" (Isa 40:11). Also His temple at Zion, their "rest," because it is His (Ps 132:8, 14).