John Wesley

No food will be offered to comfort those who mourn the dead; not even a cup of consolation will be given for the loss of a father or mother.

“Deal bread - It was a custom among them, when they had any friend, that had lost his relations, to send them some meat (for among the Hebrew all things they ate were called bread) and then to go and sup with them, and speak…”

And I will first repay them double their iniquity and their sin, because they have defiled My land with the carcasses of their detestable idols, and they have filled My…

“I will recompense - Before I will restore them, I will plentifully punish them, (for so double here signifies, not the double of what their sins deserve.) Defiled - By their idolatry, blood and cruelty.”

Does the snow of Lebanon ever leave its rocky slopes? Or do its cool waters flowing from a distance ever run dry?

“Of Lebanon - Lebanon had rocks, and also fruitful valleys; snow fell upon these rocks, and upon a thaw ran down into the lower places.”

I will scatter them before the enemy like the east wind. I will show them My back and not My face in the day of their calamity.”

“East wind - The east wind was in those parts the fiercest wind. As the east-wind scatters the chaff, so saith God, I will scatter them.”

Therefore, hand their children over to famine; pour out the power of the sword upon them.

“Therefore - But is it lawful for God's servants to pray for evil against their enemies? It is not lawful for Christians. It is doubtless our duty, to pray for the conversion, forgiveness, and eternal salvation of our worst enemies.”

They have built high places to Baal on which to burn their children in the fire as offerings to Baal—something I never commanded or mentioned, nor did it even enter…

“The sin in the general was idolatry, but a most barbarous species of it, mentioned also chap. vii, 31; xxxii, 35, where it is said, they made their sons and their daughters pass thro' the fire to Molech; the place where they did it is…”

Then Jeremiah returned from Topheth, where the LORD had sent him to prophesy, and he stood in the courtyard of the house of the LORD and proclaimed to all the…

“Then - Jeremiah had now dispatched the errand upon which God had sent him to Tophet, coming back by God's direction, he stands in the court, which was common to all people, where the most might hear.”

But the LORD is with me like a fearsome warrior. Therefore, my persecutors will stumble and will not prevail.

“Ashamed - That they should be ashamed of what they had done, or be brought to shame for what they had done; for prosper they should not: or they acted like fools, and did not deal prudently for themselves (so this word is translated, Isaiah…”

May that man be like the cities that the LORD overthrew without compassion. May he hear an outcry in the morning and a battle cry at noon,

“The cities - Sodom and Gomorrah; by the cry in the morning and shouting at noon, he means the shouts and noises that enemies make when they break in upon a place.”

“Please inquire of the LORD on our behalf, since Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon is waging war against us.

“Inquire - Zedekiah, as he was none of the best, so he was none of the worst of the kings of Judah. Having some reverence of God, he sends the prophet to inquire of the Lord.”

Behold, I am against you who dwell above the valley, atop the rocky plateau—declares the LORD—you who say, “Who can come against us? Who can enter our dwellings?”

“Of the valley - The inhabitants of the city of Jerusalem are here intended. Jerusalem itself was built in part upon the rocky mountain of Zion, but a great part was in the valley, and the higher mountains, about Mount Zion, made that mountain itself…”

I will punish you as your deeds deserve, declares the LORD. I will kindle a fire in your forest that will consume everything around you.’”

“The forest - By the forest he either means the forest of Lebanon or their houses, made of wood cut out of that forest.”

For this is what the LORD says concerning the house of the king of Judah: “You are like Gilead to Me, like the summit of Lebanon; but I will surely…

“Gilead - Gilead was a country fertile for pastures; upon which account the Reubenites and Gadites, being men whose estate lay in cattle, begged it of Moses for their portion.”

For this is what the LORD says concerning Shallum son of Josiah, king of Judah, who succeeded his father Josiah but has gone forth from this place: “He will never…

“Shallum - Most think that this Shallum was Jehoahaz. Went forth - He was carried away from Jerusalem presently after he was set up, imprisoned at Riblah, and died in Egypt.”

Go up to Lebanon and cry out; raise your voice in Bashan; cry out from Abarim, for all your lovers have been crushed.

“Lebanon - Jerusalem was the place to which this speech is directed: the inhabitants of which the prophet calls to go up to Lebanon. Both Lebanon and Bashan were hills that looked towards Assyria, from whence the Jews looked for help.”

The wind will drive away all your shepherds, and your lovers will go into captivity. Then you will be ashamed and humiliated because of all your wickedness.

“Pastors - Thy rulers and governors, they shall be blasted by my judgments, as plants are blasted by winds. Thy lovers - And those that have been thy friends, Syria and Egypt.”

“As surely as I live,” declares the LORD, “even if you, Coniah son of Jehoiakim king of Judah, were a signet ring on My right hand, I would pull you…

“Coniah - By Coniah he means Jehoiakim, whose name was Jeconiah, 1 Chron. iii, 13, (for all Josiah's sons had two names, and so had his grandchild Jeconiah) here in contempt called Coniah.”

Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and He will reign wisely as King and will administer justice and…

“Behold - Even the Jewish doctors, as well as the Christian interpreters, understand this as a prophecy of the Messiah who is called the branch, Isaiah iv, 2; liii, 2.”

In His days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. And this is His name by which He will be called: The LORD Our Righteousness.

“And this - The name wherewith this branch shall be called, shall be, The Lord our righteousness. This place is an eminent proof of the Godhead of Christ, he is here called Jehovah, and what is proper to God alone, namely to justify, is here…”

For the land is full of adulterers—because of the curse, the land mourns and the pastures of the wilderness have dried up—their course is evil and their power is misused.

“Swearing - By false-swearing, or by idle and profane swearing. The pleasant places - The wrath of God was extended to all places whether more or less inhabited.”

This is what the LORD of Hosts says: “Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you. They are filling you with false hopes.

“Hearken not - People are under no religious obligation to hear any thing but the revealed will of God, and are not to obey those that call to them for what that doth not call to them.”

But which of them has stood in the council of the LORD to see and hear His word? Who has given heed to His word and obeyed it?

“For who - Which of those prophets, that prophesy such terrible things against this city is a privy-counsellor to God? The words seem to be the words of the false prophets.”

The anger of the LORD will not turn back until He has fully accomplished the purposes of His heart. In the days to come you will understand this clearly.

“The anger - The prophet speaks of the judgment as of a messenger, which should not return till it had done its errand, and executed what God had resolved it should effect.”

As for the prophet or priest or anyone who claims, ‘This is the burden of the LORD,’ I will punish that man and his household.

“That shall say - That is, that shall in derision say thus, mocking at my threatenings. And his house - I will not only punish him, but his whole family.”

But when seventy years are complete, I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation, the land of the Chaldeans, for their guilt, declares the LORD, and I will…

“Accomplished - Counted from the time that the Jews were carried away in the time of Jeconiah or Jehoiakim, 2 Kings xxiv, 15, 16. Desolations - This was fulfilled by Darius, the king of Persia, Dan.”