John Wesley (NT Notes)

“Of Jerusalem - The inhabitants of Jerusalem, under Zedekiah, during all which time Jeremiah prophesied. Captive - This does not terminate the time of his prophecies; for he prophesied also both in Judea, and in Egypt afterwards: but only relates to what he pro…”

“I sanctified - I ordained thee for this public service. He speaks thus to Jeremiah, not to the other prophets, because he stood in need of greater encouragement than they, both in respect of the tenderness of his years, and the difficulties which he was to enc…”

“Then - God having excited the prophet by command and promise, now in a vision confirms him, either by the hand of an angel, or by himself in some visible shape.”

“The kingdoms - Having now received his commission, he is directed to whom he is to go; to the greatest, not only single persons, but whole nations, as the Babylonians, Persians, and Egyptians.”

“Came unto me - This and the boiling caldron, ver. 13, is thought to be at the same time, and in the same vision, when he was first appointed to the work.”

“Well seen - Or thou hast seen and judged right. Hasten - Word for word, I will almond-tree it, that is, I will be upon them speedily, in a short time.”

“Seething-Pot - I see a pot coming, meaning the Babylonian army, who would besiege Jerusalem as a fire plays round the pot, when it is to be made boil; and reduce the inhabitants to miserable extremities. Face - Or front of the pot, or furnace, the place where …”

“The families - Those nations that were under one Lord. Kingdoms - The Babylonians, and their assistants; the Medes also being in confederacy with them, whose king's daughter Nebuchadnezzar married.”

“Gird up - It is a speech taken from the custom of the countries where they wore long garments; and therefore they girt them up about them, that they might not hinder them in any work that required expedition.”

“Devour - All that were injurious to him. Offend - Were liable to punishment. Evil - Evil was inflicted on them from the Lord, as upon the Egyptians, Amalekites, Midianites, Canaanites.”

“They - They that should have taught others, knew as little as they, or regarded as little, who are said here to handle the law, the priests and Levites, who were the ordinary teachers of the law. Pastors - Either teachers, or kings and princes. Prophets - They…”

“Plead - By his judgments, and by his prophets, as he did with their fathers, that they may be left without excuse. Children - God often visits the iniquities of the parents upon the children, when they imitate their parents.”

“Of Chittim - All the isles in the Mediterranean sea, with the neighbouring coasts; for the Hebrew call all people, that separated from them by the sea, islanders, because they came to them by shipping.”

“Their glory - The true God, who was their glory; and who always did them good, giving them cause to glory in him.”

“O ye heavens - A pathetical expression, intimating that it is such a thing, that the very inanimate creatures, could they be sensible of it, would be astonished. Be desolate - Lose your brightness, as the sun seemed to do when Christ suffered.”

“Of living waters - A metaphor taken from springs, called living, because they never cease, or intermit; such had God's care and kindness been over them. Cisterns - Either their idols, which are empty vain things, that never answer expectation, or the Assyrians…”

“A slave - Slave is here added to home-born to express the baseness of his service, because the master had power to make those slaves who were born of slaves in his house. Why - Why is he thus tyrannized over, as if strangers had the same right over him as owne…”

“Noph was sometimes called Memphis, now Cairo. Tahapanes probably took its name from Taphanes queen of Egypt, 1 Kings xi, 19, called also Hanes: Isaiah xxx, 4. The inhabitants of these cities are called here their children.”

“And now - What business hast thou there? Sihor - The Nile: it signifies black, called Melas by the Greeks, either from the blackness of the land it passed through, or of the soil it casts up. The waters - Here and by the same words before is meant, to seek hel…”

“Tree - Under these shades idolaters thought there lay some hidden deity. Wanderest - The word properly signifies, making hast from one tree to another, or from one idol to another. Playing - Committing idolatry, which is a spiritual harlotry, chap. iii, 1, 2.”

“The blot of this people is by no art to be taken out; nor expiated by sacrifices; it is beyond the power of all natural and artificial ways of cleansing. Marked - Thy filthiness is so foul that it leaves a brand behind which cannot be hid or washed out, but wi…”

“In her occasion - That is, when she has an occasion to run impetuously to her male, she bears down all opposition. In her month - Perhaps the sense is, though Jerusalem be now madly bent upon going after her idols, that there is no stopping her, yet the time m…”

“Withhold - Take not those courses that will reduce thee to poverty, to go bare foot, and to want wherewith to quench thy thirst. No hope - We care not since there is no remedy.”

“Brought me forth - Or begotten me; so is the word used, Gen. iv, 18. This denotes the sottish stupidity of this people, to take a lifeless stock or stone to be their maker, and to give the honour of God unto them, Isaiah xliv, 17.”

“O generation - O ye men of this generation. See - You shall see the thing with your eyes, because your ears are shut against it. A wilderness - Have I been like the wilderness of Arabia, have not I accommodated you with all necessaries?”