Jeremiah 13:15

(Verse 15.) Hear and perceive with your ears: Do not be lifted up, because the Lord has spoken. Because he said above, every vessel shall be filled with wine: so that even kings, and priests, and prophets, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem may be filled with drunkenness, therefore he joins and says: Hear and perceive with your ears, both externally and internally, both in mind and body; and do not be lifted up with pride, considering your own weakness, and that there is no one who is without this drunkenness according to the extent of their sin.

Now that the one section has been circumscribed, let us see also what the other teaches us: "Hear and give ear, and be not lifted up, for the Lord has spoken. Give glory to the Lord our God before it grows dark, and before your feet stumble upon dark mountains; and you will wait for light, and there will be a shadow of death there, and they will be set in darkness. But if you do not hear secretly, your soul will weep before the face of insolence, and your eyes will bring down tears, because the flock of the Lord has been crushed." He wishes these same people to hear and to give ear, being satisfied neither with their merely hearing nor with their merely giving ear. Therefore he says: "Hear and give ear." Then, after this, he commands them not to be lifted up, and teaches what must be done. What, then, is "to hear" and what is "to give ear," let us consider from the very wording. The "give ear" is "receive into the ears," and the "hear," if it is said in contradistinction to the "give ear," perhaps is "receive into the understanding." And among the things said in the Scriptures, some are more secret and more mystical, but others are useful straightaway to those who understand. Concerning the more secret things, I think, the "hear" is said, but concerning the things that are useful straightaway and able to benefit the hearer without interpretation, the "give ear"; if, then, we examine the whole of Scripture, we shall say, "having become approved money-changers": this, on the one hand, hear; this, on the other hand, give ear to. Then, when we have heard and given ear, he commands us: "And be not lifted up." For "everyone who exalts himself shall be humbled." And the Savior too, in saying: "Learn from me, that I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you shall find rest for your souls," teaches us not to be lifted up. […]

Hear ye, and give ear,.... Both to what goes before, and what follows after.

He is to convince them that it is for their obstinacy and incorrigibleness that the judgments of God are so prolonged and brought to extremity,

IN this chapter Jeremiah had proclaimed the judgment of God against His sinful people under two very striking figures. Israel had been to God what a sash is to a man—the people had been bound closely about Him in His great love and favor. But on account of their sin, the Lord would put them away and they should be hidden by the Euphrates till their beauty was marred—until, in fact, like a rotten sash, their whole state had become decayed.