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<TITLE>Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary on the Whole Bible [Jeremiah XVI].</TITLE>
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Matthew Henry<BR><I>Commentary on the Whole Bible</I> (1712)
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<!-- (Begin Body) -->
<CENTER>
<BR><FONT SIZE=+3><B>J E R E M I A H.</B></FONT>
<BR>
<BR><FONT SIZE=+2>CHAP. XVI.</FONT>
<HR SIZE=1 WIDTH=50>
</CENTER>
<FONT SIZE=-1>
<P> &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;
In this chapter,
I. The greatness of the calamity that was coming upon the Jewish nation
is illustrated by prohibitions given to the prophet neither to set up a
house of his own
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Jer+16:1-4">ver. 1-4</A>)
nor to go into the house of mourning
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Jer+16:5-7">ver. 5-7</A>)
nor into the house of feasting,
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Jer+16:8,9">ver. 8, 9</A>.
II. God is justified in these severe proceedings against them by an
account of their great wickedness,
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Jer+16:10-13">ver. 10-13</A>.
III. An intimation is given of mercy in reserve,
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Jer+16:14,15">ver. 14, 15</A>.
IV. Some hopes are given that the punishment of the sin should prove
the reformation of the sinners, and that they should return to God at
length in a way of duty, and so be qualified for his returns to them in
a way of favour,
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Jer+16:16-21">ver. 16-21</A>.</P>
</FONT>
<A NAME="Jer16_1"> </A>
<A NAME="Jer16_2"> </A>
<A NAME="Jer16_3"> </A>
<A NAME="Jer16_4"> </A>
<A NAME="Jer16_5"> </A>
<A NAME="Jer16_6"> </A>
<A NAME="Jer16_7"> </A>
<A NAME="Jer16_8"> </A>
<A NAME="Jer16_9"> </A>
<A NAME="Sec1"> </A>
<TABLE WIDTH="100%" BORDER=0>
<TR><TD><FONT SIZE=+1><I>Prohibitions Given to Jeremiah.</I></FONT></TD>
<TD ALIGN=RIGHT><FONT SIZE=-1>B. C.</FONT> 605.</TD></TR>
<TR><TD COLSPAN=2><HR SIZE=1></TD></TR>
</TABLE>
<P> &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;
<FONT SIZE=+1>1 The word of the L<FONT SIZE=-1><B>ORD</B></FONT> came also unto me, saying,
&nbsp; 2 Thou shalt not take thee a wife, neither shalt thou have sons
or daughters in this place.
&nbsp; 3 For thus saith the L<FONT SIZE=-1><B>ORD</B></FONT> concerning the sons and concerning
the daughters that are born in this place, and concerning their
mothers that bare them, and concerning their fathers that begat
them in this land;
&nbsp; 4 They shall die of grievous deaths; they shall not be
lamented; neither shall they be buried; <I>but</I> they shall be as
dung upon the face of the earth: and they shall be consumed by
the sword, and by famine; and their carcases shall be meat for
the fowls of heaven, and for the beasts of the earth.
&nbsp; 5 For thus saith the L<FONT SIZE=-1><B>ORD</B></FONT>, Enter not into the house of
mourning, neither go to lament nor bemoan them: for I have taken
away my peace from this people, saith the L<FONT SIZE=-1><B>ORD</B></FONT>, <I>even</I>
lovingkindness and mercies.
&nbsp; 6 Both the great and the small shall die in this land: they
shall not be buried, neither shall <I>men</I> lament for them, nor cut
themselves, nor make themselves bald for them:
&nbsp; 7 Neither shall <I>men</I> tear <I>themselves</I> for them in mourning,
to comfort them for the dead; neither shall <I>men</I> give them the
cup of consolation to drink for their father or for their mother.
&nbsp; 8 Thou shalt not also go into the house of feasting, to sit
with them to eat and to drink.
&nbsp; 9 For thus saith the L<FONT SIZE=-1><B>ORD</B></FONT> of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold,
I will cause to cease out of this place in your eyes, and in your
days, the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of
the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride.
</FONT></P>
<P> &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;
The prophet is here for a sign to the people. They would not regard
what he said; let it be tried whether they will regard what he
<I>does.</I> In general, he must conduct himself so, in every thing, as
became one that expected to see his country in ruins very shortly. This
he foretold, but few regarded the prediction; therefore he is to show
that he is himself fully satisfied in the truth of it. Others go on in
their usual course, but he, in the prospect of these sad times, is
forbidden and therefore forbears marriage, mourning for the dead, and
mirth. Note, Those that would convince others of and affect them with
the word of God must make it appear, even in the most self-denying
instances, that they do believe it themselves and are affected with it.
If we would rouse others out of their security, and persuade them to
sit loose to the world, we must ourselves be mortified to present
things and show that we expect the dissolution of them.</P>
<P> &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;
I. Jeremiah must not marry, nor think of having a family and being a
housekeeper
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Jer+16:2"><I>v.</I> 2</A>):
<I>Thou shalt not take thee a wife,</I> nor think of <I>having sons and
daughters in this place,</I> not in the land of Judah, not in
Jerusalem, not in Anathoth. The Jews, more than any people, valued
themselves on their early marriages and their numerous offspring. But
Jeremiah must live a bachelor, not so much in honour of virginity as in
diminution of it. By this it appears that it was advisable and
seasonable only in calamitous times, and times of <I>present
distress,</I>
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=1Co+7:26">1 Cor. vii. 26</A>.
That it is so is a part of the calamity. There may be a time when it
will be said, <I>Blessed is the womb that bears not,</I>
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Lu+23:29">Luke xxiii. 29</A>.
When we see such times at hand it is wisdom for all, especially for
prophets, to keep themselves as much as may be from being <I>entangled
with the affairs of this life</I> and encumbered with that which, the
dearer it is to them, the more it will be the matter of their care, and
fear, and grief, at such a time. The reason here given is because the
<I>fathers</I> and <I>mothers, the sons and the daughters, shall die of
grievous deaths,</I>
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Jer+16:3,4"><I>v.</I> 3, 4</A>.
As for those that have wives and children,
1. They will have such a clog upon them that they cannot flee from
those deaths. A single man may make his escape and shift for his own
safety, when he that has a wife and children can neither find means to
convey with them nor find in his heart to go and leave them behind him.
2. They will be in continual terror for fear of those deaths; and the
more they have to lose by them the greater will the terror and
consternation be when death appears every where in its triumphant pomp
and power.
3. The death of every child, and the aggravating circumstances of it,
will be a new death to the parent. Better have no children than have
them brought forth and bred up <I>for the murderer</I>
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ho+9:13,14">Hos. ix. 13, 14</A>),
than see them live and die in misery. Death is grievous, but some
deaths are more grievous than others, both to those that die and to
their relations that survive them; hence we read of <I>so great a
death,</I>
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=2Co+1:10">2 Cor. i. 10</A>.
Two things are used a little to palliate and alleviate the terror of
death as to this world, and to sugar the bitter pill--bewailing the
dead and burying them; but, to make those deaths grievous indeed, these
are denied: <I>They shall not be lamented,</I> but shall be carried
off, as if all the world were weary of them; nay, they <I>shall not be
buried,</I> but left exposed, as if they were designed to be monuments
of justice. <I>They shall be a dung upon the face of the earth,</I>
not only despicable, but detestable, as if they were good for nothing
but to manure the ground; being <I>consumed,</I> some <I>by the
sword</I> and some <I>by famine, their carcases shall be meat for the
fowls of heaven and the beasts of the earth.</I> Will not any one say,
"Better be without children than live to see them come to this?" What
reason have we to say,<I>All is vanity and vexation of spirit,</I> when
those creatures that we expect to be our greatest comforts may prove
not only our heaviest cares, but our sorest crosses!</P>
<P> &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;
II. Jeremiah must not go to the house of mourning upon occasion of the
death of any of his neighbours or relations
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Jer+16:5"><I>v.</I> 5</A>):
<I>Enter thou not into the house of mourning.</I> It was usual to
condole with those whose relations were dead, to <I>bemoan them,</I> to
<I>cut themselves,</I> and <I>make themselves bald,</I> which, it
seems, was commonly practised as an expression of mourning, though
forbidden by the law,
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=De+14:1">Deut. xiv. 1</A>.
Nay, sometimes, in a passion of grief, they did <I>tear themselves for
them</I>
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Jer+16:6,7"><I>v.</I> 6, 7</A>),
partly in honour of the deceased, thus signifying that they thought
there was a great loss of them, and partly in compassion to the
surviving relations, to whom the burden will be made the lighter by
their having sharers with them in their grief. They used to mourn with
them, and so <I>to comfort them for the dead,</I> as Job's friends with
him and the Jews with Martha and Mary; and it was a friendly office to
<I>give them a cup of consolation to drink,</I> to provide cordials for
them and press them earnestly to drink of them for the support of their
spirits, give wine to those that are of heavy heart <I>for their father
or mother,</I> that it may be some comfort to them to find that, though
they have lost their parents, yet they have some friends left that have
a concern for them. Thus the usage stood, and it was a laudable usage.
It is a good work to others, as well as of good use to ourselves, to
<I>go to the house of mourning.</I> It seems, the prophet Jeremiah had
been wont to abound in good offices of this kind, and it well became
his character both as a pious man and as a prophet; and one would think
it should have made him better beloved among his people than it should
seem he was. But now God bids him not lament the death of his friends
as usual, for
1. His sorrow for the destruction of his country in general must
swallow up his sorrow for particular deaths. His tears must now be
turned into another channel; and there is occasion enough for them all.
2. He had little reason to lament those who died now just before the
judgments entered which he saw at the door, but rather to think those
happy who were seasonable <I>taken away from the evil to come.</I>
3. This was to be a type of what was coming, when there should be such
universal confusion that all neighbourly friendly offices should be
neglected. Men shall be in deaths so often, and even dying daily, that
they shall have no time, no room, no heart, for the ceremonies that
used to attend death. The sorrows shall be so ponderous as not to admit
relief, and every one so full of grief for his own troubles that he
shall have no thought of his neighbours. All shall be mourners then,
and no comforters; every one will find it enough to bear his own
burden; for
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Jer+16:5"><I>v.</I> 5</A>),
"<I>I have taken away my peace from this people,</I> put a full period
to their prosperity, deprived them of health, wealth, and quiet, and
friends, and every thing wherewith they might comfort themselves and
one another." Whatever peace we enjoy, it is God's peace; it is his
gift, and, <I>if he give quietness, who then can make trouble?</I> But,
if we make not a good use of his peace, he can and will take it away;
and where are we then?
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Job+34:29">Job xxxiv. 29</A>.
"I will take away my peace, <I>even my loving-kindness and
mercies;</I>" these shall be shut up and restrained, which are the
fresh springs from which all their fresh streams flow, and then
farewell all good. Note, Those have cut themselves off from all true
peace that have thrown themselves out of the favour of God. All is gone
when God takes away from us his lovingkindness and his mercies. Then it
follows
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Jer+16:6"><I>v.</I> 6</A>),
<I>Both the great and the small shall die,</I> even <I>in this
land,</I> the land of Canaan, that used to be called the <I>land of the
living.</I> God's favour is our life; take away that, and <I>we die, we
perish, we all perish.</I></P>
<P> &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;
III. Jeremiah must not go to the house of mirth, any more than to the
house of mourning,
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Jer+16:8"><I>v.</I> 8</A>.
It had been his custom, and it was innocent enough, when any of his
friends made entertainments at their houses and invited him to them, to
<I>go and sit with them,</I> not merely to drink, but <I>to eat and to
drink,</I> soberly and cheerfully. But now he must not take that
liberty,
1. Because it was unseasonable, and inconsistent with the providences
of God in reference to that land and nation. God called aloud to
<I>weeping, and mourning, and fasting;</I> he was coming forth against
them in his judgments; and it was time for them to <I>humble
themselves;</I> and it well became the prophet who gave them the
warning to give them an example of taking the warning, and complying
with it, and so to make it appear that he did himself believe it.
Ministers ought to be examples of self-denial and mortification, and to
show themselves affected with those terrors of the Lord with which they
desire to affect others. And it becomes all the sons of Zion to
sympathize with her in her afflictions, and not to be merry when she is
perplexed,
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Am+6:6">Amos vi. 6</A>.
2. Because he must thus show the people what sad times were coming upon
them. His friends wondered that he would not meet them, as he used to
do, in the house of feasting. But he lets them know it was to intimate
to them that all their feasting would be at an end shortly
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Jer+16:9"><I>v.</I> 9</A>):
"<I>I will cause to cease the voice of mirth.</I> You shall have
nothing to feast on, nothing to rejoice in, but be surrounded with
calamities that shall mar your mirth and cast a damp upon it." God can
find ways to tame the most jovial. "This shall be done <I>in this
place,</I> in Jerusalem, that used to be the <I>joyous city</I> and
thought her joys were all secure to her. It shall be done <I>in your
eyes,</I> in your sight, to be a vexation to you, who now look so
haughty and so merry. It shall be done <I>in your days;</I> you
yourselves shall live to see it." The voice of praise they had made to
cease by their iniquities and idolatries, and therefore justly God made
to cease among them <I>the voice of mirth and gladness.</I> The voice
of God's prophets was not heard, was not heeded, among them, and
therefore no longer shall <I>the voice of the bridegroom and of the
bride,</I> of the songs that used to grace the nuptials, be heard among
them. See
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Jer+7:34"><I>ch.</I> vii. 34</A>.</P>
<A NAME="Jer16_10"> </A>
<A NAME="Jer16_11"> </A>
<A NAME="Jer16_12"> </A>
<A NAME="Jer16_13"> </A>
<A NAME="Sec2"> </A>
<TABLE WIDTH="100%" BORDER=0>
<TR><TD><FONT SIZE=+1><I>Causes of Divine Judgments.</I></FONT></TD>
<TD ALIGN=RIGHT><FONT SIZE=-1>B. C.</FONT> 605.</TD></TR>
<TR><TD COLSPAN=2><HR SIZE=1></TD></TR>
</TABLE>
<P> &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;
<FONT SIZE=+1>10 And it shall come to pass, when thou shalt shew this people
all these words, and they shall say unto thee, Wherefore hath the
L<FONT SIZE=-1><B>ORD</B></FONT> pronounced all this great evil against us? or what <I>is</I> our
iniquity? or what <I>is</I> our sin that we have committed against the
L<FONT SIZE=-1><B>ORD</B></FONT> our God?
&nbsp; 11 Then shalt thou say unto them, Because your fathers have
forsaken me, saith the L<FONT SIZE=-1><B>ORD</B></FONT>, and have walked after other gods,
and have served them, and have worshipped them, and have forsaken
me, and have not kept my law;
&nbsp; 12 And ye have done worse than your fathers; for, behold, ye
walk every one after the imagination of his evil heart, that they
may not hearken unto me:
&nbsp; 13 Therefore will I cast you out of this land into a land that
ye know not, <I>neither</I> ye nor your fathers; and there shall ye
serve other gods day and night; where I will not shew you favour.
</FONT></P>
<P> &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;
Here is,
1. An enquiry made into the reasons why God would bring those judgments
upon them
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Jer+16:10"><I>v.</I> 10</A>):
<I>When thou shalt show this people all these words,</I> the words of
this curse, they will say unto thee, <I>Wherefore has the Lord
pronounced all this great evil against us?</I> One would hope that
there were some among them that asked this question with a humble
penitent heart, desiring to know what was the sin for which God
contended with them, that they might cast it away and prevent the
judgment: "Show us the Jonah that raises the storm and we will throw it
overboard." But it seems here to be the language of those who
quarrelled at the word of God, and challenged him to show what they had
done which might deserve so severe a punishment: "<I>What is our
iniquity? Or what is our sin?</I> What crime have we even been guilty
of, proportionable to such a sentence?" Instead of humbling and
condemning themselves, they stand upon their own justification and
insinuate that God did them wrong in pronouncing this evil against
them, that he <I>laid upon them more than was right,</I> and that they
had reason to <I>enter into judgment with God,</I>
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Job+34:23">Job xxxiv. 23</A>.
Note, It is amazing to see how hardly sinners are brought to justify
God and judge themselves when they are in trouble, and to own the
iniquity and the sin that have procured them the trouble.
2. A plain and full answer given to this enquiry. Do they ask the
prophet why, and for what reason, God is thus angry with them? He shall
not stop their mouths by telling them that they may be sure there is a
sufficient reason, the righteous God is never <I>angry without
cause,</I> without good cause; but he must tell them particularly what
is the cause, that they may be convinced and humbled, or at least that
God may be justified. Let them know then,
(1.) That God visited upon them the iniquities of their fathers
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Jer+16:11"><I>v.</I> 11</A>):
<I>Your fathers have forsaken me, and have not kept my law.</I> They
shook off divine institutions and grew weary of them (they thought them
too plain, too mean), and then they <I>walked after other gods,</I>
whose worship was more gay and pompous; and, being fond of variety and
novelty, they <I>served them and worshipped them;</I> and this was the
sin which God had said, in the second commandment, he would <I>visit
upon their children,</I> who kept up these idolatrous usages, because
they received them <I>by tradition from their fathers,</I>
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=1Pe+1:18">1 Pet. i. 18</A>.
(2.) That God reckoned with them for their own iniquities
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Jer+16:12"><I>v.</I> 12</A>):
"You have made your fathers' sin your own, and have become obnoxious to
the punishment which in their days was deferred, for <I>you have done
worse than your fathers.</I>" If they had made a good use of their
fathers' reprieve, and had been led by the patience of God to
repentance, they would have fared the better for it and the judgment
would have been prevented, the reprieve turned into a national pardon;
but, making an ill use of it, and being hardened by it in their sins,
they fared the worse for it, and, the reprieve having expired, an
addition was made to the sentence and it was executed with the more
severity. They were more impudent and obstinate in sin than their
fathers, <I>walked every one after the imagination of his own
heart,</I> made that their guide and rule and were resolved to follow
that, on purpose <I>that they might not hearken to God</I> and his
prophets. They designedly suffered their own lusts and passions to be
noisy, that they might drown the voice of their consciences. No wonder
then that God has taken up this resolution concerning them
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Jer+16:13"><I>v.</I> 13</A>):
"<I>I will cast you out of this land,</I> this land of light, this
valley of vision. Since you will not hearken to me, you shall not hear
me; you shall be hurried away, not into a neighbouring country which
you have formerly had some acquaintance and correspondence with, but
into a far country, <I>a land that you know not, neither you nor your
fathers,</I> in which you have no interest, nor can expect to meet with
any comfortable society, to be an allay to your misery." Justly were
those banished into a strange land who doted upon strange gods, which
neither they nor their fathers knew,
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=De+32:17">Deut. xxxii. 17</A>.
Two things would make their case there very miserable, and both of them
relate to the soul, the better part; the greatest calamities of their
captivity were those which affected that and debarred that from its
bliss.
[1.] "It is the happiness of the soul to be employed in the service of
God; but <I>there shall you serve other gods day and night;</I> that
is, you shall be in continual temptation to serve them and perhaps
compelled to do it by your cruel task-masters; and, when you are forced
to worship idols, you will be as sick of such worship as ever you were
fond of it when it was forbidden you by your godly kings." See how God
often makes men's sin their punishment, and <I>fills the backslider in
heart with his own ways.</I> "You shall have no public worship at all
but the worship of idols, and then you will think with regret how you
slighted the worship of the true God."
[2.] "It is the happiness of the soul to have some tokens of the
lovingkindness of God, but you shall go to a strange land, <I>where I
will not show you favour.</I>" If they had had God's favour, that would
have made even the land of their captivity a pleasant land; but, if
they lie under his wrath, the yoke of their oppression will be
intolerable to them.</P>
<A NAME="Jer16_14"> </A>
<A NAME="Jer16_15"> </A>
<A NAME="Jer16_16"> </A>
<A NAME="Jer16_17"> </A>
<A NAME="Jer16_18"> </A>
<A NAME="Jer16_19"> </A>
<A NAME="Jer16_20"> </A>
<A NAME="Jer16_21"> </A>
<A NAME="Sec3"> </A>
<TABLE WIDTH="100%" BORDER=0>
<TR><TD><FONT SIZE=+1><I>Judgment and Mercy; Restoration of the Jews; Deliverance from Babylon.</I></FONT></TD>
<TD VALIGN=BOTTOM ALIGN=RIGHT><FONT SIZE=-1>B.&nbsp;C.</FONT>&nbsp;605.</TD></TR>
<TR><TD COLSPAN=2><HR SIZE=1></TD></TR>
</TABLE>
<P> &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;
<FONT SIZE=+1>14 Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the L<FONT SIZE=-1><B>ORD</B></FONT>, that it
shall no more be said, The L<FONT SIZE=-1><B>ORD</B></FONT> liveth, that brought up the
children of Israel out of the land of Egypt;
&nbsp; 15 But, The L<FONT SIZE=-1><B>ORD</B></FONT> liveth, that brought up the children of Israel
from the land of the north, and from all the lands whither he had
driven them: and I will bring them again into their land that I
gave unto their fathers.
&nbsp; 16 Behold, I will send for many fishers, saith the L<FONT SIZE=-1><B>ORD</B></FONT>, and
they shall fish them; and after will I send for many hunters, and
they shall hunt them from every mountain, and from every hill,
and out of the holes of the rocks.
&nbsp; 17 For mine eyes <I>are</I> upon all their ways: they are not hid
from my face, neither is their iniquity hid from mine eyes.
&nbsp; 18 And first I will recompense their iniquity and their sin
double; because they have defiled my land, they have filled mine
inheritance with the carcases of their detestable and abominable
things.
&nbsp; 19 O L<FONT SIZE=-1><B>ORD</B></FONT>, my strength, and my fortress, and my refuge in the
day of affliction, the Gentiles shall come unto thee from the
ends of the earth, and shall say, Surely our fathers have
inherited lies, vanity, and <I>things</I> wherein <I>there is</I> no
profit.
&nbsp; 20 Shall a man make gods unto himself, and they <I>are</I> no gods?
&nbsp; 21 Therefore, behold, I will this once cause them to know, I
will cause them to know mine hand and my might; and they shall
know that my name <I>is</I> The L<FONT SIZE=-1><B>ORD</B></FONT>.
</FONT></P>
<P> &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;
There is a mixture of mercy and judgment in these verses, and it is
hard to know to which to apply some of the passages here--they are so
interwoven, and some seem to look as far forward as the times of the
gospel.</P>
<P> &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;
I. God will certainly execute judgment upon them for their idolatries.
Let them expect it, for the decree has gone forth.
1. God sees all their sins, though they commit them ever so secretly
and palliate them ever so artfully
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Jer+16:17"><I>v.</I> 17</A>):
<I>My eyes are upon all their ways.</I> They have not their eye upon
God, have no regard to him, stand in no awe of him; but he has his eye
upon them; neither they nor their sins are <I>hidden from his face,
from his eyes.</I> Note, None of the sins of sinners either can be
concealed from God or shall be overlooked by him,
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Pr+5:21,Job+34:21,Ps+90:8">Prov. v. 21; Job xxxiv. 21; Ps. xc. 8</A>.
2. God is highly displeased, particularly at their idolatries,
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Jer+16:18"><I>v.</I> 18</A>.
As his omniscience convicts them, so his justice condemns them: <I>I
will recompense their iniquity and their sin double,</I> not double to
what it deserves, but double to what they expect and to what I have
done formerly. Or I will recompense it <I>abundantly;</I> they shall
now pay for their long reprieve and the divine patience they have
abused. The sin for which God has a controversy with them is their
having <I>defiled God's land</I> with their idolatries, and not only
alienated that which he was entitled to as his inheritance, but
polluted that which he dwelt in with delight as his inheritance, and
made it offensive to him <I>with the carcases of their detestable
things,</I> the gods themselves which they worshipped, the images of
which, though they were of gold and silver, were as loathsome to God as
the putrid carcases of men or beasts are to us. Idols are <I>carcases
of detestable things.</I> God hates them, and so should we. Or he might
refer to the sacrifices which they offered to these idols, with which
<I>the land was filled;</I> for they had high places in all the coasts
and corners of it. This was the sin which, above any other, incensed
God against them.
3. He will find out and raise up instruments of his wrath, that shall
<I>cast them out of their land,</I> according to the sentence passed
upon them
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Jer+16:16"><I>v.</I> 16</A>):
<I>I will send for many fishers and many hunters</I>--the Chaldean
army, that shall have many ways of ensnaring and destroying them, by
fraud as fishers, by force as hunters. They shall find them out
wherever they are, and shall chase and closely pursue them, to their
ruin. They shall discover them wherever they are hid, in <I>hills</I>
or <I>mountains,</I> or <I>holes of the rocks,</I> and shall drive them
out. God has various ways of prosecuting a people with his judgments
that avoid the convictions of his word. He has men at command fit for
his purpose; he has them within call, and can send for them when he
pleases.
4. Their bondage in Babylon shall be sorer and much more grievous than
that in Egypt, their task-masters more cruel, and their lives made more
bitter. This is implied in the promise
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Jer+16:14,15"><I>v.</I> 14, 15</A>),
that their deliverance out of Babylon shall be more illustrious in
itself, and more welcome to them, than that out of Egypt. Their slavery
in Egypt came upon them gradually and almost insensibly; that in
Babylon came upon them at once and with all the aggravating
circumstances of terror. In Egypt they had a Goshen of their own, but
none such in Babylon. In Egypt they were used as servants that were
useful, in Babylon as captives that had been hateful.
5. They shall be warned, and God shall be glorified, by these judgments
brought upon them. These judgments have a voice, and speak aloud,
(1.) Instruction to them. When God chastens them he teaches them. By
this rod God expostulates with them
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Jer+16:20"><I>v.</I> 20</A>):
"<I>Shall a man make gods to himself?</I> Will any man be so perfectly
void of all reason and consideration as to think that a god of his own
making can stand him in any stead? Will you ever again be such fools as
you have been, to make to yourselves gods which are no gods, when you
have a God whom you may call your own, who made you, and is himself the
true and living God?"
(2.) Honour to God; for he will be known by the judgments which he
executes. He will first recompense their iniquity
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Jer+16:18"><I>v.</I> 18</A>),
and then he will <I>this once</I>
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Jer+16:21"><I>v.</I> 21</A>)--
this once for all, not by many interruptions of their peace, but this
one desolation and destruction of it. "For <I>this once,</I> and no
more, <I>I will cause them to know my hand,</I> the length and weight
of my punishing hand, how far it can reach and how deeply it can wound.
<I>And they shall know that my name is Jehovah,</I> a God with whom
there is no contending, who gives being to threatenings and puts life
into them as well as promises."</P>
<P> &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;
II. Yet he has mercy in store for them, intimations of which come in
here for the encouragement of the prophet himself and of those few
among them that tremble at God's word. It was said, with an air of
severity
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Jer+16:13"><I>v.</I> 13</A>),
that God would banish them into a strange land; but, that thereby they
might not be driven to despair, there follow immediately words of
comfort.</P>
<P> &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;
1. <I>The days will come,</I> the joyful days, when the same hand that
dispersed them shall gather them again,
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Jer+16:14,15"><I>v.</I> 14, 15</A>.
They are cast out, but they are not cast off, they are not cast away.
They shall be <I>brought up from the land of the north,</I> the land of
their captivity, where they are held with a strong hand, <I>and from
all the lands whither they are driven,</I> and where they seemed to be
lost and buried in the crowd; nay, <I>I will bring them again into
their own land,</I> and settle them there. As he foregoing threatenings
agreed with what was written in this law, so does this promise. <I>Yet
will I not cast them away,</I>
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Le+26:44">Lev. xxvi. 44</A>.
<I>Thence will the Lord thy God gather thee,</I>
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=De+30:4">Deut. xxx. 4</A>.
And the following words
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Jer+16:16"><I>v.</I> 16</A>)
may be understood as a promise; God will send for fishers and hunters,
the Medes and Persians, that shall find them out in the countries where
they are scattered, and send them back to their own land; or
Zerubbabel, and others of their own nation, who should fish them out
and hunt after them, to persuade them to return; or whatever
instruments the Spirit of God made use of to <I>stir up their spirits
to go up,</I> which at first they were backward to do. They began to
nestle in Babylon; but, <I>as an eagle stirs up her nest and flutters
over her young,</I> so God did by them,
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Zec+2:7">Zech. ii. 7</A>.</P>
<P> &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;
2. Their deliverance out of Babylon should, upon some accounts, be more
illustrious and memorable than their deliverance out of Egypt was. Both
were the Lord's doing and marvellous in their eyes; both were proofs
that the Lord liveth and were to be kept in everlasting remembrance, to
his honour, as the living God; but the fresh mercy shall be so
surprising, so welcome, that it shall even abolish the memory of the
former. Not but that new mercies should put us in mind of old ones, and
give us occasion to renew our thanksgivings for them; yet because we
are tempted to think that the former days were better than these, and
to ask, <I>Where are all the wonders that our fathers told us of?</I>
as if God's <I>arm</I> had <I>waxed short,</I> and to cry up the age of
miracles above the later ages, when mercies are wrought in a way of
common providence, therefore we are allowed here comparatively to
forget the bringing of Israel out of Egypt as a deliverance outdone by
that out of Babylon. That was done <I>by might and power,</I> this
<I>by the Spirit of the Lord of hosts,</I>
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Zec+4:6">Zech. iv. 6</A>.
In this there was more of pardoning mercy (the most glorious branch of
divine mercy) than in that; for their captivity in Babylon had more in
it of the punishment of sin than their bondage in Egypt; and therefore
that which comforts Zion in her deliverance out of Babylon is this,
that <I>her iniquity is pardoned,</I>
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Isa+40:2">Isa. xl. 2</A>.
Note, God glorifies himself, and we must glorify him, in those mercies
that have no miracles in them, as well as in those that have. And,
though the favours of God to our fathers must not be forgotten, yet
those to ourselves in our own day we must especially give thanks
for.</P>
<P> &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;
3. Their deliverance out of captivity shall be accompanied with a
blessed reformation, and they shall return effectually cured of their
inclination to idolatry, which will complete their deliverance and make
it a mercy indeed. They had defiled their own land with their
<I>detestable things,</I>
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Jer+16:18"><I>v.</I> 18</A>.
But, when they have smarted for so doing, they shall come and humble
themselves before God,
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Jer+16:19-21"><I>v.</I> 19-21</A>.
(1.) They shall be brought to acknowledge that their God only is God
indeed, for he is a God in need--<I>"My strength</I> to support and
comfort me, <I>my fortress</I> to protect and shelter me, <I>and my
refuge</I> to whom I may flee <I>in the day of affliction.</I>" Note,
Need drives many to God who had set themselves at a distance from him.
Those that slighted him in the day of their prosperity will be glad to
flee to him in the day of their affliction.
(2.) They shall be quickened to return to him by the conversion of the
Gentiles: <I>The Gentiles shall come to thee from the ends of the
earth;</I> and therefore shall not we come? Or, "The Jews, who had by
their idolatries made themselves as Gentiles (so I rather understand
it), <I>shall come to thee</I> by repentance and reformation, shall
return to their duty and allegiance, even <I>from the ends of the
earth,</I> from all the countries whither they were driven." The
prophet comforts himself with the hope of this, and in a transport of
joy returns to God the notice he had given him of it: "<I>O Lord! my
strength and my fortress,</I> I am now easy, since thou hast given me a
prospect of multitudes that shall <I>come to thee from the ends of the
earth,</I> both of Jewish converts and of Gentile proselytes." Note,
Those that are brought to God themselves cannot but rejoice greatly to
see others coming to him, coming back to him.
(3.) They shall acknowledge the folly of their ancestors, which it
becomes them to do, when they were smarting for the sins of their
ancestors: "<I>Surely our fathers have inherited,</I> not the
satisfaction they promised themselves and their children, but <I>lies,
vanity, and things wherein there is no profit.</I> We are now sensible
that our fathers were cheated in their idolatrous worship; it did not
prove what it promised, and therefore what have we to do any more with
it?" Note, It were well if the disappointment which some have met with
in the service of sin, and the pernicious consequences of it to them,
might prevail to deter others from treading in their steps.
(4.) They shall reason themselves out of their idolatry; and that
reformation is likely to be sincere and durable which results from a
rational conviction of the gross absurdity there is in sin. They shall
argue thus with themselves (and it is well argued), <I>Should a man</I>
be such a fool, so perfectly void of the reason of a man, as to <I>make
gods to himself,</I> the creatures of his own fancy, the work of his
own hands, when they are really <I>no gods?</I>
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Jer+16:20"><I>v.</I> 20</A>.
Can a man be so besotted, so perfectly lost to human understanding, as
to expect any divine blessing or favour from that which pretends to no
divinity but what it first received from him?
(5.) They shall herein give honour to God, and make it to appear that
they know both his hand in his providence and his name in his word, and
that they are brought to know his name by what they are made to know of
his hand,
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Jer+16:21"><I>v.</I> 21</A>.
<I>This once,</I> now at length, they shall be made to know that which
they would not be brought to know by all the pains the prophets took
with them. Note, So stupid are we that nothing less than the mighty
hand of divine grace, known experimentally, can make us know rightly
the name of God as it is revealed to us.</P>
<P> &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;
4. Their deliverance out of captivity shall be a type and figure of
this great salvation to be wrought out by the Messiah, who shall
<I>gather together in one the children of God that were scattered
abroad.</I> And this is that which so far outshines the deliverance out
of Egypt as even to eclipse the lustre of it, and make it even to be
forgotten. To this some apply that of the <I>many fishers</I> and
<I>hunters,</I> the preachers of the gospel, who were <I>fishers of
men,</I> to enclose souls with the gospel net, to find them out <I>in
every mountain</I> and <I>hill,</I> and secure them for Christ. Then
the Gentiles came to God, some <I>from the ends of the earth,</I> and
turned to the worship of him from the service of dumb idols.</P>
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