The Book of the Prophet Jeremiah
Jeremiah 10
Chapter X · Vol. III, pp. 1244–1245
1 The great disparity between God and idols. 17 The prophet exhorteth to flee from the calamity to come. 19 He lamenteth the spoil of the tabernacle by foolish pastors. 23 He maketh an humble supplication.
2 Thus saith the LORD, cLearn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them.
c Le.18.3; 20.23. De.18.10,14. Is.44.25; 47.12,13.
3 For the 1customs of the people are vain: for done cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe:
1 Heb. statutes or ordinances are vanity.
d Is.40.19,20; 44.10-17.
4 Theye deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not.
5 They are upright as the palm-tree, gbut speak not; hthey must needs be borne, because they cannot go. Be not afraid of them; ifor they cannot do evil, neither also is it in them to do good.
6 Forasmuch as jthere is none like unto thee, O LORD; thou art great, and thy name is great in might.
7 Whok would not fear thee, O King of nations? for to thee2 doth it appertain:3 forasmuch as among all the wise men of the nations, and in all their kingdoms, there is none like4 unto thee.
8 But they are 5altogether lbrutish and foolish; the stock6 is a doctrine of vanities.
5 Heb. in one or at once.
l Is.41.29; 44.9,10,20. Hab.2.18,19. Zec.10.2. Ps.115.4-8; 135.15-18. Ro.1.21,22.
6 Stock. The very timber being a rebuker of idols, viz.: by its deadness and corruptibility.—C.
9 Silvern spread into plates is brought from Tarshish,o and gold from pUphaz, the work of the workman, and of the hands of the founder: blue and purple is their clothing; they are all the work of cunning men.7
n ver.4. Ps.115.4; 135.15. Is.46.6; 40.19,20.
o 1 Ki.10.22. Is.23.6.
p Da.10.5. Job 28.17, or 1 Ki.9.28.
7 Then not makers, or creators, or gods, ver.11. C.—How admirably is this whole passage fitted to demonstrate to thoughtful men the utter folly of idolatry. The prophet, as it were, anatomizes the whole system. He dissects the stocks which are called gods, and he thus shows not merely that they cannot aid others, but they are themselves helpless. That such discourses as this failed to reclaim the Jews proves how grievously they had fallen, how reason itself had left them. So it is in all ages, among all people. When men wilfully reject the truth, systematically turn aside from the commands and ordinances of the Lord, his Spirit ceases to strive with them: they are given over to a reprobate mind.—P.
10 Butq the LORD is the true God,8 he is the living God, and an everlasting 9King: rat his wrath the earth shall tremble, and the nations shall not be able to abide his indignation.
11 Thus shall ye say unto them, The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth, even sthey shall perish from the earth, and from under these heavens.
12 He thath made the earth by his power, he hath established the world by his wisdom, and hath stretched out the heavens by his discretion.
13 When he uttereth his voice,1 there is a multitude2 of waters in the heavens, and uhe causeth the vapours to ascend from the ends of the earth: he maketh lightnings with3 rain, and bringeth forth the wind out of his treasures.
1 Thunders, Job 37.4,5. Ps.29.3-9; 18.13; 68.33.
2 Or, noise, 1 Ki.18.41.
u Ps.135.6,7. Job 37.6; 36.27-32; 38.22-37. Ps.147.8.
3 Or, for.
14 Every man is vbrutish in his 4knowledge: every founder is confounded by the graven image: xfor his molten image is falsehood, and there is no breath in them.
v Ps.92.6; 94.8. ch.51.17,18. Is.44.9-11,20; 42.17; 45.16. Ps.115.8; 135.18; 97.7. Ro.1.22,23. 1 Co.1.19-21.
4 Or, more brutish than to know.
x ver.8. Hab.2.18,19. Ps.135.17; 115.7.
15 Theyy are vanity, and the work of errors: in the time of their visitation they shall perish.
y ver.5,8,14; 51.18. Ps.115.4-8. Hab.2.18,19. Is.41.29; 44.9-20; 45.20; 46.1,2,7.
16 Thez portion of Jacob is not like them: for he is the aformer of all things; and Israel is bthe rod of his inheritance: the LORD of hosts is his name.5
z ch.51.19. De.32.31. Ps.16.5,6; 73.26; 119.157; 142.5.
b De.32.9. Ps.74.2. Ex.19.5,6. Ps.135.4. Is.47.4.
5 The comparison here drawn between the false gods of the heathen and the Jehovah God of Israel is sublime. The Creator of all things is contrasted with the helpless, senseless stock which is modelled by the hand of a poor frail creature. It seems strange that the Israelites should have been so grievously deluded as to turn from the living God, to whose almighty power and infinite mercy their national history bore such striking testimony, and to have given homage to idols.—P.
17 Gatherc up thy wares6 out of the land, O inhabitant7 of the fortress:
c ch.4.5; 8.14, or 6.1. Eze.12.3,4,11,12. Mat.24.11. Lu.17.31.
6 Thy wares—collected into Jerusalem for safety.—C.
7 Heb. inhabitress, ch.21.13.
18 For thus saith the LORD, Behold, dI will sling out the inhabitants of the land at this once, and will distress them, that they emay find it 8so.
d 1 Sa.25.29. ch.16.13; 15.1,2. De.4.27; 28.35,63,64.
e Zec.1.6. ch.23.20. Eze.12.15,25,28; 6.10. Is.26.11.
8 That they may experience in fact the distress they would not believe in prophecy.—C.
19 Woeg is me for my hurt! my wound is grievous: but I said, Truly this is a grief, and I hmust bear it.
20 My tabernacle9 is spoiled, and all my cords are broken: my children are gone forth of me, and they are not; there is none to stretch forth my tent any more, and to set up my curtains.
9 Jewish state, ch.4.20. La.i.-v. De.28.32,41. 2 Ch.36.17. Eze.5.11-17; 7.20-22.
21 For the pastors1 are become brutish, and have not sought the LORD: therefore they shall not prosper, and all their flocks shall be scattered.
22 Behold, ithe noise of the bruit2 is come, and a great commotion out of the north country, to make the cities of Judah desolate, and a den of dragons.
23 O LORD, I know that the jway of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps.3
j Pr.16.1; 20.24. Ps.37.23; 32.8. Ac.17.28. Ro.11.36.
A.M. cir. 3396. B.C. cir. 608.
3 This appears to be the sad and humiliating inference which the prophet draws from his thoughtful survey of the state of Israel. Total depravity, utter helplessness, is the natural condition of fallen humanity. No power but the power of God can raise it up; no life save that which the Divine Spirit imparts can quicken it.—P.
Notes
Ver. 17-22. Bring all your goods out of the country, where they are exposed to plunder, into the strongholds; for quickly will I, in a furious manner, drive out the inhabitants of this land by death and captivity. Alas! almost insupportable is my grief, that the whole Jewish church and nation should be quite unhinged, and none able in the least to help them! The rulers of both are ignorant and wicked; therefore shall they and their people be ruined or dispersed. For, behold, the Chaldean army cometh, with great noise and fury, to render Judea utterly desolate.
Ver. 2. Learn not, &c. A special warning against imbibing the religious principles of the Egyptians, to whom they were inclined to go; or the Babylonians, who were destined to lead them captive.—Signs. Eclipses, comets, or meteors; or the high-sounding and imposing doctrines of astrology, concerning the planetary houses and signs of the zodiac. C.
Ver. 5. Upright. A most graphic description of the attitude of Egyptian idols, and probably of all idols, until Grecian sculpture gave everything but life to the marble, and induced the learned but most foolish Athenians to exclaim, when they looked upon a statue of Jupiter, That is no statue, that is the very god himself! How melancholy, alas! that science and art may attain their highest perfection, while religion sinks into the utmost degradation of idolatry! C.
Ver. 9. Blue—the colour of the unclouded eastern sky, the emblem of Deity; purple—the colour of kings, the emblem of royalty and dominion. C.
Ver. 11. This verse is in the Chaldee, as if to prepare the Hebrews with an answer to their idolatrous masters, when tempting them to idolatry. It is not improbable that, like the sentences adduced by Paul, Ac. 17. 28, it may have been a quotation from some of the earlier writings of the Chaldeans before they were perverted by idolatry. C.
Ver. 13. When God speaks to the ear of reason by the voice of thunder, the clouds, by the agency of electricity, are converted into water—not into a mass which would bring ruin, but into multitudinous drops that shower down fertility.—By a wonderful process he causes vapours to ascend from 'the ends,' from all parts of the earth; or does the prophet allude to the almost continual vapours and fogs that hang around the polar regions, the literal 'ends of the earth?'—The winds are literally treasured up by the condensing power of cold, ready, at the will of their Lord, to be drawn out in the breeze or storm. C.
Ver. 14. Brutish in his knowledge. Every man is really 'brutish in knowledge'—in the knowledge of God—until he is 'born again of water and of the Spirit,' Jn. 3. 5. C.
Ver. 15. Of many, the very names have perished, many have been broken to fragments, many overwhelmed in earthquakes, or buried in rubbish and ruins. Can such things have ever been gods? Did learned nations ever worship them? Alas! for Egypt, Greece, and Rome, such were their gods! They are perished! but, alas! for the paintings and images, the idols that still are worshipped! Alas! for the second commandment, which Rome, to her confusion, hath blotted out, though written by the finger of God!—Note, This awful suppression of the second commandment may be witnessed in the Romish catechism called Christian Doctrine. C.
Ver. 16. Portion. The God from whom Jacob would not part until he should bestow a blessing. See Ge. 32. 26-30; Ps. 119. 57.—Rod. Is it the rod of measurement? or rather the sceptre of power, government, and protection, Ge. 49. 10; Ps. 23. 4. And Israel is literally that people 'by whom and for whom' all nations and kingdoms are still governed, until Christ shall 'inherit all things' in fact, as he already does in right. C.
Ver. 18. 'The inhabitant of the fortress,' ver. 17, is here introduced, bemoaning his grievous wound and the captivity and loss of his children. C.
Ver. 20. My tabernacle is spoiled. The union of the 'tabernacle' with the 'pastors and flocks,' ver. 21, seems to fix the allusion to the tabernacle of the congregation in the wilderness; and which was afterwards set up in Jerusalem by David, previous to the building of the temple. It is the legitimate emblem of all religious ordinances and assemblies for the public worship of Jehovah. C.
Ver. 22. Behold, the noise of the bruit is come! 'Hark! a noise—behold, it draws near!'—Dragons. There is perhaps no distinct species of animal to which the word 'dragon' can be applied: it seems here rather a generic name for all wild beasts frequenting solitary places. C.
Ver. 23. Man is neither wise enough to discover, nor steady enough to pursue, the way of safety and success; his wisdom, and strength, and success must be the gift of God, Ja. 1. 17. C.
Ver. 24. Correct me, but with judgment. 'With judgment,' to reform; not 'with anger,' to extirpate. C.
Reflections.—Amazing absurdities often prevail even among nations which are famed for worldly wisdom and knowledge. And it is very unreasonable and dangerous for those who have been taught of God to learn the ways of heathens. God's eternal power and Godhead are so manifest as to leave the most stupid idolaters without excuse; and the more we contemplate his unsearchable greatness and glory, the more we shall be filled with reverence and godly fear, and lost in admiration. If he be our King, let us show ourselves faithful subjects, dependent on his protection, and devoted to his service. If he be our Portion, we can wish nothing beyond him. But often men remain ignorant of his excellency, and of the vanity of idols, till it be too late, and till his word be verified in their irrevocable and tremendous destruction. Terrible is the prospect when both rulers and ruled are plunged in ignorance, and abandoned to atheistical neglect of prayer. Neglect of God's worship in families ranks men with heathens, and entails his curse upon them. But great is the mercy that, though God correct, yet he will not destroy his people; and that, though we may not pray against corrections, we may pray for the mitigation of them, and hope that the rod will be quickly turned from us.