Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

“Why should I forgive you? Your children have forsaken Me and sworn by gods that are not gods.

“It would not be consistent with God's holiness to let such wickedness pass unpunished. sworn by-- (Jer 5:2; Jer 4:2); that is, worshipped. no gods-- (De 32:21). fed . . . to the full--so the Keri (Hebrew Margin) reads.”

Go up through her vineyards and ravage them, but do not finish them off. Strip off her branches, for they do not belong to the LORD.

“Abrupt apostrophe to the Babylonians, to take Jerusalem, but not to destroy the nation utterly (see on Jer 4:27).”

The prophets are but wind, for the word is not in them. So let their own predictions befall them.”

“Continuation of the unbelieving language of the Jews. the prophets--who prophesy punishment coming on us. the word--the Holy Spirit, who speaks through true prophets, is not in them [MAURER]. Or else, "There is no word (divine communication) in them" (Ho 1:2) [ROSENMULLER].”

Behold, I am bringing a distant nation against you, O house of Israel,” declares the LORD.

“HENDERSON refers it to the original language of the Babylonians, which, he thinks, they brought with them from their native hills, akin to the Persic, not to the Aramaic, or any other Semitic tongue, the parent of the modern Kurd.”

“Run for cover, O sons of Benjamin; flee from Jerusalem! Sound the ram’s horn in Tekoa; send up a signal over Beth-haccherem, for disaster looms from the north, even great…

“Though it was inhabited partly by Benjamites, partly by men of Judah, he addresses the former as being his own countrymen. blow . . . trumpet . . . Tekoa--Tikehu, Tekoa form a play on sounds. Beth-haccerem--meaning in Hebrew, "vineyard-house."”

For this is what the LORD of Hosts says: “Cut down the trees and raise a siege ramp against Jerusalem.

“The "trees" were also used to make warlike engines. this--pointing the invaders to Jerusalem. visited--that is, punished. wholly oppression--or join "wholly" with "visited," that is, she is altogether (in her whole extent) to be punished [MAURER].”

This is what the LORD says: “Stand at the crossroads and look. Ask for the ancient paths: ‘Where is the good way?’

“Image from travellers who have lost their road, stopping and inquiring which is the right way on which they once had been, but from which they have wandered. old paths--Idolatry and apostasy are the modern way; the worship of God the old way.”

“I have appointed you to examine My people like ore, so you may know and try their ways.

“The Hebrew for "assayer" (English Version, "tower") is from a root "to try" metals. "Explorer" (English Version, "fortress") is from an Arabic root, "keen-sighted"; or a Hebrew root, "cutting," that is, separating the metal from the dross [EWALD].”

But go now to the place in Shiloh where I first made a dwelling for My Name, and see what I did to it because of the wickedness of My…

“Shiloh was situated between Beth-el and Shechem in Ephraim. at the first--implying that Shiloh exceeded the Jewish temple in antiquity. But God's favor is not tied down to localities (Ac 7:44).”

therefore what I did to Shiloh I will now do to the house that bears My Name, the house in which you trust, the place that I gave to you…

“I gave--and I therefore can revoke the gift for it is still Mine (Le 25:23), now that ye fail in the only object for which it was given, the promotion of My glory.”

This is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: Add your burnt offerings to your other sacrifices and eat the meat yourselves!

“Put . . . burnt offerings unto . . . sacrifices . . . eat flesh--Add the former (which the law required to be wholly burnt) to the latter (which were burnt only in part), and "eat flesh" even off the holocausts or burnt offerings.”

For when I brought your fathers out of the land of Egypt, I did not merely command them about burnt offerings and sacrifices,

“"I will have mercy, and not sacrifice" (1Sa 15:22). Love to God is the supreme end, external observances only means towards that end.”

When you tell them all these things, they will not listen to you. When you call to them, they will not answer.

“Therefore--rather, "Though thou speak . . . yet they will not hearken" [MAURER], (Eze 2:7), a trial to the prophet's faith; though he knew his warnings would be unheeded, still he was to give them in obedience to God.”

“At that time,” declares the LORD, “the bones of the kings of Judah, the bones of the officials, the bones of the priests, the bones of the prophets, and the…

“The victorious Babylonians were about to violate the sanctuaries of the dead in search of plunder; for ornaments, treasures, and insignia of royalty were usually buried with kings. Or rather, their purpose was to do the greatest dishonor to the dead (Isa 14:19).”

“For behold, I will send snakes among you, vipers that cannot be charmed, and they will bite you,” declares the LORD.

“I--Jehovah. cockatrices--basilisks (Isa 11:8), that is, enemies whose destructive power no means, by persuasion or otherwise, can counteract. Serpent-charmers in the East entice serpents by music, and by a particular pressure on the neck render them incapable of darting (Ps 58:4, 5).”

My sorrow is beyond healing; my heart is faint within me.

“The lamentation of the prophet for the impending calamity of his country. against sorrow--or, with respect to sorrow. MAURER translates, "Oh, my exhilaration as to sorrow!"”

Listen to the cry of the daughter of my people from a land far away: “Is the LORD no longer in Zion? Is her King no longer there?”

“In the latter half of the verse God replies that their own idolatry, not want of faithfulness on His part, is the cause. because of them that dwell in a far country--rather, "from a land of distances," that is, a distant land (Isa 39:3).”

Is there no balm in Gilead? Is no physician there? Why then has the health of the daughter of my people not been restored?

“The opobalsamum of PLINY; or else [BOCHART] the resin drawn from the terebinth. It abounded in Gilead, east of Jordan, where, in consequence, many "physicians" established themselves (Jer 46:11; 43:11). health . . . recovered--The Hebrew is literally, "lengthening out . . .”

Who is the man wise enough to understand this? To whom has the mouth of the LORD spoken, that he may explain it?

“Rather, "Who is a wise man? (that is, Whosoever has inspired wisdom, 2Pe 3:15); let him understand this (weigh well the evils impending, and the causes of their being sent); and he to whom the mouth of the Lord hath spoken (that is, whosoever is…”

For the sound of wailing is heard from Zion: ‘How devastated we are! How great is our shame!

“The cry of "the mourning women." spoiled--laid waste. dwellings cast us out--fulfilling Le 18:28; CALVIN translates, "The enemy have cast down our habitations."”

But let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the LORD, who exercises loving devotion, justice and righteousness on the earth—for I…

“Faithfulness to His promises to preserve the godly, as well as stern execution of judgment on the ungodly, is included in "righteousness." in the earth--contrary to the dogma of some philosophers, that God does not interfere in terrestrial concerns (Ps 58:11). in these . .”

But they are altogether senseless and foolish, instructed by worthless idols made of wood!

“Man divests himself of his true humanity, and sinks to the level of the brute, when he severs his connection with God (Ps 115:8; Jon 2:8).”

Hammered silver is brought from Tarshish, and gold from Uphaz—the work of a craftsman from the hands of a goldsmith.

“As the Septuagint in the Syrian Hexapla in the Margin, THEODOTUS, the Syrian and Chaldee versions have "Ophir," GESENIUS thinks "Uphaz" a colloquial corruption (one letter only being changed) for "Ophir." Ophir, in Ge 10:29, is mentioned among Arabian countries.”

Thus you are to tell them: “These gods, who have made neither the heavens nor the earth, will perish from this earth and from under these heavens.”

“This verse is in Chaldee, Jeremiah supplying his countrymen with a formula of reply to Chaldee idolaters in the tongue most intelligible to the latter.”

Woe to me because of my brokenness; my wound is grievous! But I said, “This is truly my sickness, and I must bear it.”

“Judea bewails its calamity. wound--the stroke I suffer under. I must bear--not humble submission to God's will (Mic 7:9), but sullen impenitence. Or, rather, it is prophetical of their ultimate acknowledgment of their guilt as the cause of their calamity (La 3:39).”