Jeremiah 15

Jer 15:1-21.

GOD'S

REPLY TO

JEREMIAH'S

INTERCESSORY

PRAYER.

1. Moses . . . Samuel--eminent in intercessions

(Ex 32:11, 12;

1Sa 7:9;

Ps 99:6).

be toward--could not be favorably inclined toward them.

out of my sight--God speaks as if the people were present before

Him, along with Jeremiah.

2. death--deadly plague

(Jer 18:21; 43:11;

Eze 5:2, 12;

Zec 11:9).

3. appoint--

(Le 26:16).

kinds--of punishments.

4. cause . . . to be removed--

(De 28:25;

Eze 23:46).

Rather, "I will give them up to vexation," I will cause them to wander

so as nowhere to have repose [CALVIN];

(2Ch 29:8,

"trouble;" Margin, "commotion").

because of Manasseh--He was now dead, but the effects of his sins

still remained. How much evil one bad man can cause! The evil fruits

remain even after he himself has received repentance and forgiveness.

The people had followed his wicked example ever since; and it is implied

that it was only through the long-suffering of God that the penal

consequences had been suspended up to the present time (compare

1Ki 14:16;

2Ki 21:11; 23:26; 24:3, 4).

5. go aside . . . how thou doest--Who will turn aside

(in passing by) to salute thee

(to wish thee "peace")?

6. weary with repenting--

(Ho 13:14; 11:8).

I have so often repented of the evil that I threatened

(Jer 26:19;

Ex 32:14;

1Ch 21:15),

and have spared them, without My forbearance moving them to repentance,

that I will not again change My purpose (God speaking in condescension

to human modes of thought), but will take vengeance on them now.

7. fan--tribulation--from tribulum, a threshing instrument,

which separates the chaff from the wheat

(Mt 3:12).

gates of the land--that is, the extreme bounds of the land through

which the entrance to and exit from it lie.

MAURER translates, "I will

fan," that is, cast them forth "to the gates of the land"

(Na 3:13).

"In the gates"; English Version draws the image from a man

cleaning corn with a fan; he stands at the gate of the threshing-floor

in the open air, to remove the wheat from the chaff by means of the

wind; so God threatens to remove Israel out of the bounds of the land

[HOUBIGANT].

8. Their widows--My people's

(Jer 15:7).

have brought--prophetical past: I will bring.

mother of the young men--"mother" is collective; after the "widows,"

He naturally mentions bereavement of their sons ("young men"), brought

on the "mothers" by "the spoiler"; it was owing to the number of men

slain that the "widows" were so many

[CALVIN]. Others take "mother," as

in

2Sa 20:19,

of Jerusalem, the metropolis; "I have brought on them, against the

'mother,' a young spoiler," namely, Nebuchadnezzar, sent by his father,

Nabopolassar, to repulse the Egyptian invaders

(2Ki 23:29; 24:1),

and occupy Judea. But

Jer 15:7

shows the future, not the past, is referred to; and "widows" being

literal, "mother" is probably so, too.

at noonday--the hottest part of the day, when military operations

were usually suspended; thus it means unexpectedly, answering to the

parallel, "suddenly"; openly, as others explain it, will not suit

the parallelism (compare

Ps 91:6).

it--English Version seems to understand by "it" the mother city,

and by "him" the "spoiler"; thus "it" will be parallel to "city."

Rather, "I will cause to fall upon them (the 'mothers' about to be

bereft of their sons) suddenly anguish and terrors."

the city--rather, from a root "heat," anguish, or consternation.

So the Septuagint.

9. borne seven--

(1Sa 2:5).

Seven being the perfect number indicates full fruitfulness.

languisheth--because not even one is left of all her sons

(Jer 15:8).

sun is gone down while . . . yet day--Fortune deserts her at the

very height of her prosperity

(Am 8:9).

she . . . ashamed--The mothers (she being collective) are put to

the shame of disappointed hopes through the loss of all their children.

10.

(Jer 20:14;

Job 3:1,

&c.). Jeremiah seems to have been of a peculiarly sensitive

temperament; yet the Holy Spirit enabled him to deliver his message at

the certain cost of having his sensitiveness wounded by the enmities of

those whom his words offended.

man of strife--exposed to strifes on the part of "the whole earth"

(Ps 80:6).

I have neither lent, &c.--proverbial for, "I have given no cause for

strife against me."

11. Verily--literally, "Shall it not be?" that is, "Surely it shall

be."

thy remnant--the final issue of thy life; thy life, which now

seems to thee so sad, shall eventuate in prosperity

[CALVIN]. They who

think that they shall be the surviving remnant, whereas thou shalt

perish, shall themselves fall, whereas thou shalt remain and be

favored by the conquerors

[JUNIUS],

(Jer 40:4, 5; 39:11, 12).

The Keri reads, "I will set thee free (or as

MAURER, 'I will establish thee') for good"

(Jer 14:11;

Ezr 8:22;

Ps 119:122).

to entreat thee well--literally, "to meet thee"; so "to be placable,

nay, of their own accord to anticipate in meeting thee with

kindness" [CALVIN]. I prefer this translation as according with the

event

(Jer 39:11, 12; 40:4, 5).

GESENIUS, from

Jer 7:16; 27:18;

Job 21:15,

translates (not only will I relieve thee from the enemy's vexations,

but) "I will make thine enemy (that now vexeth thee) apply to thee

with prayers"

(Jer 38:14; 42:2-6).

12. steel--rather, brass or copper, which mixed

with "iron" (by the Chalybes near the Euxine Pontus, far north of

Palestine), formed the hardest metal, like our steel. Can the

Jews, hardy like common iron though they be, break the still

hardier Chaldees of the north

(Jer 1:14),

who resemble the Chalybian iron hardened with copper? Certainly not

[CALVIN]. HENDERSON

translates. "Can one break iron, (even) the northern iron, and

brass," on the ground that English Version makes ordinary

iron not so hard as brass. But it is not brass, but a particular

mixture of iron and brass, which is represented as harder than

common iron, which was probably then of inferior texture, owing

to ignorance of modern modes of preparation.

13. Thy substance . . . sins--Judea's, not Jeremiah's.

without price--God casts His people away as a thing worth naught

(Ps 44:12).

So, on the contrary, Jehovah, when about to restore His people, says,

He will give Egypt, &c., for their "ransom"

(Isa 43:3).

even in all thy borders--joined with "Thy substance . . . treasures,

as also with "all thy sins," their sin and punishment being commensurate

(Jer 17:3).

14. thee--MAURER supplies "them," namely, "thy treasures."

EICHORN,

needlessly, from Syriac and the Septuagint, reads, "I will

make thee to serve thine enemies"; a reading doubtless interpolated

from

Jer 17:4.

fire--

(De 32:22).

15. thou knowest--namely, my case; what wrongs my adversaries have

done me

(Jer 12:3).

revenge me--(See on

Jer 11:20).

The prophet in this had regard to, not his own personal feelings of

revenge, but the cause of God; he speaks by inspiration God's will

against the ungodly. Contrast in this the law with the gospel

(Lu 23:34;

Ac 7:60).

take me not away in thy long-suffering--By Thy long-suffering towards

them, suffer them not meanwhile to take away my life.

for thy sake I have suffered rebuke--the very words of the antitype,

Jesus Christ

(Ps 69:7, 22-28),

which last compare with Jeremiah's prayer in the beginning of this

verse.

16. eat--

(Eze 2:8; 3:1, 3;

Re 10:9, 10).

As soon as Thy words were found by me, I eagerly laid hold of and

appropriated them. The Keri reads, "Thy word."

thy word . . . joy--

(Job 23:12;

Ps 119:72, 111;

compare

Mt 13:44).

called by thy name--I am Thine, Thy minister. So the antitype, Jesus

Christ

(Ex 23:21).

17. My "rejoicing"

(Jer 15:16)

was not that of the profane mockers

(Ps 1:1; 26:4, 5)

at feasts. So far from having fellowship with these, he was expelled

from society, and made to sit "alone," because of his faithful

prophecies.

because of thy hand--that is, Thine inspiration

(Isa 8:11;

Eze 1:3; 3:14).

filled me with indignation--So

Jer 6:11,

"full of the fury of the Lord"; so full was he of the subject (God's

"indignation" against the ungodly) with which God had inspired him, as

not to be able to contain himself from expressing it. The same

comparison by contrast between the effect of inspiration, and

that of wine, both taking a man out of himself, occurs

(Ac 2:13, 15, 18).

18.

(Jer 30:15).

"Pain," namely, the perpetual persecution to which he was exposed, and

his being left by God without consolation and "alone." Contrast his

feeling here with that in

Jer 15:16,

when he enjoyed the full presence of God, and was inspired by His

words. Therefore he utters words of his natural "infirmity" (so David,

Ps 77:10)

here; as before he spoke under the higher spiritual nature given him.

as a liar, and as--rather, "as a deceiving (river)

. . . waters that are not sure (lasting)"; opposed to "living

(perennial) waters"

(Job 6:15).

Streams that the thirsty traveller had calculated on being full in

winter, but which disappoint him in his sorest need, having run dry in

the heat of summer. Jehovah had promised Jeremiah protection from his

enemies

(Jer 1:18, 19);

his infirmity suggests that God had failed to do so.

19. God's reply to Jeremiah.

return . . . bring . . . again--Jeremiah, by

his impatient language, had left his proper posture towards God; God

saith, "If thou wilt return (to thy former patient discharge of

thy prophetic function) I will bring thee back" to thy former position:

in the Hebrew there is a play of words, "return

. . . turn again"

(Jer 8:4; 4:1).

stand before me--minister acceptably to Me

(De 10:8;

1Ki 17:1; 18:15).

take . . . precious from . . . vile--image from metals: "If thou

wilt separate what is precious in thee (the divine graces imparted)

from what is vile (thy natural corruptions, impatience, and hasty words),

thou shall be as My mouth": my mouthpiece

(Ex 4:16).

return not thou unto them--Let not them lead you into their profane

ways (as Jeremiah had spoken irreverently,

Jer 15:18),

but lead thou them to the ways of godliness

(Jer 15:16, 17).

Eze 22:26

accords with the other interpretation, which, however, does not so well

suit the context, "If thou wilt separate from the promiscuous mass the

better ones, and lead them to conversion by faithful warnings," &c.

20, 21. The promise of

Jer 1:18, 19,

in almost the same words, but with the addition, adapted to the present

attacks of Jeremiah's formidable enemies, "I will deliver thee out of

. . . wicked . . . redeem . . .

terrible"; the repetition is in order to assure Jeremiah that God is

the same now as when He first made the promise, in opposition to

the prophet's irreverent accusation of unfaithfulness

(Jer 15:18).