Jeremiah 6

Notes

Ver. 1-6. Flee out of your cities, particularly Jerusalem, for the Chaldeans are at hand to besiege it. And while the inhabitants are quite helpless, weak, and terrified, the enemies shall surround the city, and encourage one another, day and night, to give the assault, and destroy it. 9-11. By repeated murders and captivities they shall desolate the country. But to what purpose shall I warn this careless, ignorant, and hardened generation, who detest every message that comes from God, and reckon reproofs slanderous reproaches? Therefore my mind is so full of prophetic threatenings, and of zeal to utter them, that I cannot any longer forbear, but I must denounce destruction to persons of all ages, ranks, and relations. 14. The priests and prophets, instead of faithful reproofs for sin, and denunciation of approaching judgments, do, by their flattering and false predictions of peace, lull the people into a fatal security. 16,17. Inquire after, and walk in, the good old way of faith and holiness prescribed in paradise, and walked in by your pious ancestors; and thus shall you find both temporal and eternal happiness.—Hearken to the voice of God's ministers, charging you with your sins, and warning you of approaching judgments. 18. Let therefore the heathen nations around observe to what height of wickedness and ripeness for judgments they are arrived! 27-30. I have therefore, under my own infallible protection, set up Jeremiah to observe and reprove their conduct. But they are obstinately wicked, abandoned to lying, slander, and every other base and abominable thing, corrupting themselves and one another. The instructions and admonitions of prophets, and the rebukes of Providence, are of no avail to reform them. Therefore they must be utterly rejected of God and men, as useless and abominable.

Ver. 1. Children of Benjamin. Jerusalem was situated partly in the lot of Benjamin, partly in that of Judah. The exhortation seems directed to Benjamin, either because the supreme power and consequent misrule lay in the hands of Judah, or perhaps they were less depraved than their brethren, and therefore more likely to listen to advice; or, by selecting the tribe among whom he dwelt, the prophet may have hoped to stir up the other to a holy jealousy. See Ro. 10. 19; 11. 11. C.

Ver. 3. Several of the predatory nations of the East are still, not partially, but universally, both soldiers and shepherds. And even at this day the Arabs with their flocks occupy the best of the land of Judea, combining the fearful characters of robber and murderer with that of shepherd. C.

Ver. 4, 5. The first clause conveys God's commission of judgment; the second, the alacrity of the summoned host to 'go up at noon'—the usual time of repose; the third declares their grief that they have not arrived in time to see to do the work of destruction; while ver. 5 declares their impatience for a night attack— the ordinary time for the assault of fortresses. C.

Ver. 6. Cast a mount against Jerusalem. The original is not a raised mount to overlook the walls, but any missile cast against them. The ballista, the catapulta, and the scorpion were, in point of fact, enormous bows, variously contrived, by means of springs, ropes, and levers, for shooting arrows or stones against besieged places. C.

Ver. 14. The Jewish priests held the office of physician, as may be seen in the law of the leper, where the symptoms of the disease are most accurately described, and the completeness of the cure most imperatively required. But as the soul is more precious than the body, so is the effectual cure of its diseases proportionally important. To this neither prophet nor priest had attended; but contented themselves with inculcating a narrow and superficial morality, without insisting upon the bodies being presented 'living sacrifices,' and their hearts 'transformed' by 'the renewing' of the Holy Spirit, Ro. 12. 1, 2. C.

Ver. 16. Antiquity, as such, is entitled to no veneration in things civil or religious; for if it were, then were violence and oppression venerable institutions, Ge. 6. 5, 11, 13; then were unbelief and idolatry worthy of all acceptation, Ge. 6. 3; Jos. 24. 2. Antiquity is venerable and authoritative just so far as its records and practices are 'good,' that is, authorized of God; and so far as they give 'rest to the soul,' that is, lead men to Jesus, his righteousness and service, Mat. 11. 28. C.

Reflections.—Sinners must often be alarmed before they will awaken. But fixed is the connection between national sins and national judgments. And the more luxurious and delicate people have lived, their calamity is the more insupportable. When an angry God is the leader, eager and alert to follow are the instruments of his wrath. But, O! how he multiplies his kind, though severe, admonitions before he strikes the fatal blow that desolates the country! Yet no direction, no warning, no good pattern, will prevail with hardened despisers of Christ—the way, the truth, and the life. His judgments on such must therefore appear righteous to every rational beholder. Nor can any pretences to devotion or reformation avail while men continue abandoned to wickedness. Yea, dreadful and desperate must be the issue with those upon whom not all the repeated pains of prophets and providences make any suitable impression.