PUBLIC-DOMAIN CHRISTIAN BOOK
The Pulpit Commentary — Jeremiah — Volume 2
Thomas Kelly Cheyne, 1841–1915 · 355,481 words · 309 reading sections
The Pulpit Commentary — Jeremiah — Volume 2 — Section 121
Ver. 1. — In the seventh month ; te. two months after the destruction of Jerusalem and the appointment of Gedaliah. It seems strange, however, that the occurrences re- lated in oh. xl. and xli. should have taken so short a time. Gratz calls in qnestion the accnraoy of the chronological statement. He quotes Ezek.…
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Ver. 17.— And dwelt in the habitation of Chimham. Chimham was the son of the rich Gileadite Barzillai (2 Sam. xix. 37 — 10), who probably founded this " habitation," or rather "hospice" ("khan," "caravanserai"), for the accommodation of travellers — a characteristic mark of public-spirited liber- ality. JosephuB…
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Vers. 1 — 10. — Devils incarnate. 1. If ever tliere was such a one, this Ishmael was of whom these verses tell. His atrocities remind us of the Indian Mutiny, its leader, and the well at Cawnpore (cf. ver. 9). Treachery, ingratitude, murder, massacre, greed, cowardice, — all are gathered in this detestable character…
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V. Does God, then, do nothing to oheok the sinneb and to encoubage the obedient? Yes; much. 1. He causes the way of transgressors to be hard. Loss of peace, of hope, ol Divine favour, of purity, of strength, of sympathy with and from the good, often of present and visible good ; conscience is deadened, and the soul …
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It, has been from that time forth and to this day observed as a nntional fast. It seemed to he the final revocation of the advantages of the Exodus. By this breach in their local-continuity a chasm was made in the history, which for good or evil was never filled up." Yes ; they who will go so near temptation will go…
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III. Christian men siuuld pray fob others. Every Christian has now the privi- lege of being a propliet (Joel ii. 28) and a priest (Rev. i. 6). Every Christian, there- fore, has the responsibility which accompanies his privilege, and is required to act as the intercessor for others. Are we not too selfish in our pray…
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II. The limitation or implicit obedience. The highest obligation is to ao right. If, therefore, we could be required by a supreme being to do what we knew was wrong, it would be our plain duty to disobey his will. The being who laid such a mandate upon 08 could not be God. He would be an almighty demon. Were such a …
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III. What assubances the people had that it would be thus well with teem IF THEY EBMAIKED IN THEIB LAND. 1. They Were assurcd of the pres nee of God. " I am with you " (ver. 11). If God is with us, we can dispense with the patronage of a Pharaoh, even though a Nebuchadnezzar is thundering at our gates. 2. They were …
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III. The dangers to which it is exposed. Notwithstanding all their profession, we can detect : 1. Signs of systematic neglect of Ood and religious ordinances. The expression " came near " suggests a previous habitual distance from Jehovah, They appear more anxious to conciliate the prophet tlian him whom he served. …
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IV. What are the results ok bitoh pbaters? They grieve the Spirit of God. They harden the heart, and tend to make men of a reprobate mind. Cf. our Lord's words to tlie Pharisees — the pattern dissemblers of his day. They pave the way to " the damnation of hell." Therefore — thus let us conclude — be our prayer, " Se…
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Vers. 7 — 12. — Divine cmnforte for those in doubt and fear. I. The meaning of THE nJTBEVAL. There are ten days to wait between the prayer of Jeremiah and the answer of Jehovah. Why.this waiting ? It must have been in some way for the sake of the people. They had said very emphatically they would be obedient ; would…
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The flight to Egypt; Jeremiah's predic- tion of Nebnchadnezzar's conquest of Egypt, Ver. 2, — ^All the proud men. It would seem as if the " proud men " were dis- tinguished from others. Jeremiah had called the whole people together (oil. xliL 8) ; but a few domineering men assumed to represent the rest. Ver. 3.…
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II. The pride of man. We are expressly told that they were " proud men " who rejected the prophet's message. The rest of the people seem to have been willing to acquiesce in it. There is nothing so blinding as pride. Your proud man is an inevit- able bigot. By undue assurance of knowledge he closes the avenues of fr…
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VI. Companions in quilt will be companions in doom. The Jews who fled to Egypt were to share the punishment of that nation. The Egyptians who haiboured the Jews were to bring upon themselves the fate that followed the refugeaii HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHOEa Vers. 8 — 13. — The stones of Tahpanhes. Great uncertainty a…
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I. They that think to establish themselves by wicked ways. II. Those that rely upon men and not on God. III. Those that trust to uncertain riches. IV. Those that think saying " Lord, Lord," whilst living ungodly lives, will aavt them. — C. Ver. 1. — The view of a prophefs complete work, I. A prophet ib onb who has…
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Vers. 15 — 19. — The reply of tlie people. The special mention of the women su^'gi sts that the occasion of the gatliering was a festival ill honour of the Queen of Heaven. Ver. 1 5. — Had burned incense ; rather, wen burning incenm. The pr.Actice was still goiuK on. Ver. 17.— Whatsoever thing goeth forth ; rat…
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IV Self-will is an evil will. In rejecting the Divine message the idolatrous Jews insolently add, "We will certainly do the whole word which hath gone forth out of our own mouth" (see ver. 17). 1. Self-will even in r.gar.l to things innocent in themselves is nevertheless an evil will. For we are not our iwn masters.…
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V«r. 22. — The limit of Go6P» forbearance. I. Gk>D'B roitBEABANoa n liuited. There is no limit to his love. His mercy " endureth for ever." There is no limit to bis patience, his endurance of the most provoking wickedness. But there is a limit to God's forbearance. Consider what determines this. \. Justice. There is…
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V. At first but a remnant of a remnant abb saved bt Christ. The question whether few were to be saved was not to be answered for the satisfaction of idle curiosity (Luke xiii. 23). But that only a few sought the grace of Christ at first is a historical fact. The number has grown wonderfully, and yet how large a part…
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L It has been guarded by awful sanctions. Frequently in Old Testament history the death-penalty was inflicted upon spiritual pretenders, false prophets, and idolatrous worshippers of Jehovah. The warning of the text is very significant; a time was to come when no Jew would any more swear by Jehovah in Egypt, for the…
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Vers. 1 — 30. — The end of Jeremiah; or, going dotvn in eJoitds. With this chapter Jeremiah disappears from view. The sadness which surrounded his iirst ministry accompanies it to the last and deepens at its close ; like a sunset in clouds, going down in darkness and storrn. The path along which he had been led had …
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III. Of what the obace of God can do? Did the prophet of God endure and contend so nobly, and was he faithful unto death ? But is not " Jesus Christ the same yesterday," etc. ? Then he who so strengthened his servants in days gone by will do the same still. Let us, therefore, go forward without fear. IV. Of the nec…
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perhaps, when it is too late, all your old feara will be awakened. You may send to your minister upon that bed of death, and he may come, but by your bedside he may be speechless; his very power to pray may depart from him, and in trying to ask mercy for you all his utterances may be choked ; and you may go from tha…
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Vers. 1 — 10. — A severe lesson unlearned. L OrtoBTUNiTT to learn thb lesson. The suffering had not happened a long way off and to a people of strangers. Those who were to be taught had seen fur themselves. The suffering was the very cause that prompted them to seek a home in Egypt, and even at this moment it was no…
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Vers. 15 — 19. — Supposed and reed reasons for calamity. I. A supposed beason. What is the calamity V gword and famine. Ceitainly a calamity to be removed and as far as possible averted for the future. And casting about to discover a reason for the calamity, the men of Judah, or rather the women, for it is they who …
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THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [oh. xur. 1—6. he itrengthens and establishea even to the end. And that faith which makes men themselves to utter confident dogmatic words will not be shakea all at once. Time is to try all things — the wisdom of the wise and the folly of the fools, the result ol that which is sown…
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II. God has a eight to destboy his own work. There is no property so clearly belonging to a person as the work of his own hands. All things that exist were made by God, and all belong to him. Wliat he gave us he has a right to withdraw. His gifts are loans, talents to be used for a season and then returned. No creat…
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II. It ministered to his personal comfort and peaok of mutd. The anxiety and fear which weighed upon Baruch aie thereby dissipated. God loves to see bis cbildreu cheerful and in sympathy with his will. It is just from the " sorrow of the world that worketh death," he seeks to deliver us. The work of Baruch would be …
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▼•r. 6. — Amhition prohibited. " Seekest thou great things," etc. ? God searches the heart, and probably discovered that, lurking secretly there, there was somcwliat of an unhallowed ambition. Had he been other than one of God's chosen messengers, such ambition would have been natural and reasonable (cf. former homi…
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Ver. 2. — Against Egypt, against the army ; ruther, concerning h'gypt, concerning the army. Pharaoh-necho. Necho II., a mem- ber of the twenty-sixth Bsyptian dynasty, son of Psametik I. (PsMmraetichus), who had for a time revived the declining power of Egypt. Herodotus (ii. 15S) credits him with being the first …
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Ver. 9. — A call to the army, particular- izing its two grand divisions, viz the war- riors in chariots, and the light and lieavy armed infantry. M. Pierret, of the Ej;yp- tian Museum at the Louvre, writes thus: " The array was composed (1) of infantry equipped with a cuirass, a buckler, a pike or an axe, and a …
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Ver. 13. — The word, etc. This verse is the heading of a new prophecy, which, however, for the reason already' mentioned (see introducticin to this chapter), is not to be regarded as entirely independent of the pre- ceding prophecy, but rather as a supplement (just as Isa. xviii., though not in strict se- quence…
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PoSTSOMPT. — The above note is left pre- cisely as it was written, February, 1881, in ignorance of Wiedemann's then recent dis- covery of a contemporary hieioglypbic in- scription which, as the report of the German Oriental Society expresses it, " ratifies the hitherto universally doubted fact of an in- vasion o…
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Ver. 17. — They did cry there, etc. ; rather, they cry there, viz. the following words. But why should attention be called to the place where the cry is made ? and why should the mercenaries (the subject of the preceding verb, and theretbre presumably of this verb) have theilr exclamation re- corded? Alter the v…
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Ver. 23.— They shaU cut down; better, they eut doum. The prophet is describing • picture which passes before his inner eye. Though it cannot he searched ; rather, for it cannot be tearehed out. The subject of the verb is uncertain. De Dieu's explanation is, " Because the forest is so dense, so intri- cate, it is…
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V. Egypt was the ally of Israel. The alliance of the Church is no safeguard when the Church herself is eiTJng. Companionship in sin with men who have been accounted Christians will do nothing to lighten the weight of guilt. They will have to suffer for their share in the wickedness, and if their previous reputation …
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XL Uttered tooetheb at one time. There is a question as to which order ought to l»e observed in mentioning them. 1. But the selection is made upon an evident principle, viz. that of (nearly) contemporaneous relation to Israel. And whatever their relations amongst themselves or toward Israel at any given time, in gen…
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after another of whom are told of in the chapters that succeed this, and ending with the judgment on Babylon. Egypt and Babylon were the two great empires between which unhappy Judaea was " like a nut between the forceps," so that when these two drew together it went ill with the little kingdom that lay between. Now…
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III. Note what mischief it works. These are seen strewn over every pathway along which this spirit hath been ; like the bleached bones in the desert show the trikck of the caravan. IV. Consider, therefore, some sapequarus against it. God himself at times under- takes its cure. He did so with Peter. He let him go hi…
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II. What is a oountby'b safeouabd ? There is but one answer, and that is righteousness. It, and it alone, exalteth a nation. The form of government, whether monarchical or republican, matters not, whether political power be in the hands of en. XLVi. 1— 28.J THE BOOK OF THE fKOPHUiX JEREMIAH. 219 the many or the few…
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n. The kbbd foe asking why they abb swept away. 1. Because of tJieir magnifi- cent appearance. They look strong, and according to a certain standard they are strong. This Egypiian army had been gathered together to do a certain work. It was known that they liad to meet no common and easily conquered foe. Therefore t…
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gratuitously embarrassing one's self to giv* as much historical weight to the statement of a heading ets to a clear inference from the contents of a prophecy. No doubt Provi- dence watched over the movements of the editors ; they must even be credited with a degree of inspiration, so far as moral and religious t…
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and ii generally applied to distant and (accidentally) maritime countries. " Caph- tor " was und^'i'-stood by the old versions to be Cappadocia. But as the remains of the Cappadooian language point to a Persian origin of the pi ipulation which spoke it, and as the Caphtorim originally came from Egypt, it is more…
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IV. A DESTBUCTIVE JUDGMENT. " Baldncss is come upon Gaza ; Ashkelon ia cut off." Chreat cities are overthrown, the ruins of them testifying to this day to the violence they have undergone. The end of the broad way is destruction, " The wages of sin is death." Whatever be the exact character of the destruction and de…
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Vers. 6, 7. — Uie sword of Jehovah. L A fersonifioation of Divine weath. " Sword of Jehovah ■"' is an expression that seems to suggest the Philistines as the speakers ; " for, though not bad Hebrew, it has a foreign sound, and makes the impres- sion that the speakers attribute the sword raging against them only unwi…
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Vers. 1 — 8. — The prophet foresees the calamity of Moab, and the attendant con- fusion and dismay. Yes ; flee, save your lives, if ye can; for your confidences have proved untrustworthy ; there is no hope left. Ver. 1. — Against Moab ; rather, concerning Moab. Nebo ! Kot, of course, the mountain range referred …
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Ver. 7. — In thy works ; i.e. either " in thy evil deeds" (comp. Isa. xxviii. 15) or "in thy idols" (frequently called "the work of men's hands," e.g. Deut. iv. 28, ami sometimes simply "works," e.g. Isa. xli. 29 ; Ivii. 12 ; comp. Isa. i. 31). Chemosh. In Numb. xxi. 29 Moab is called "penple of ChSmdsh," the pa…
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Ver. 18. — Dibon ; now Vihan, one of the chief towns of Moab, on two adjacent hills, now covered with ruins (Tiistram), in the plain of Medeba (Josli. xiii. 9), north of Aroer and the Amon. Here the famous Moabite Stone (on which see Dr. Gins- burg's exhaustive raonogMph), with the inscription of Kinj; Mesha (2 …
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Ver. 30. — But it shall not be so, etc. This is a case in which the accentuation must most decidedly be deviated from; it implies a faulty view of the word rendered in the Autho- rized Version, " his lies." But the rendering of our version is neither in itself tenable nor is it that intended by the accentuation. …
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Ver. 34.— Based on Isa. xv. 4—6. The ory of one town echoes to another, and is taken up afresh liy its terrified inhabitnntB. HeshboTi and Blealeh lay on eminences but a short distance apart, so that the shrill cry of lamentation would be heard far away in the south-east at Jahaz. Znar and Horonaim both lay in t…
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the Prologue, and ver. 2 is as far away from the passage before us as the Prologue of Job is from Job xix. 1?. Nor can we be absolutely certain that our prophecy is exactly as Jere- miah wrote it. Shall come forth ; rather, hafh tome forth (or, cometh forth), Trom the midst of Sihon. Sihon being, perhaps, regarde…
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III. A DANOEB OF FBIDE. Bich Moab is proud. The wealthy man is tempted to transfer his high estimation of his possessions to himself. Because he has much he is induced to think that he is much, and the world too often urges him to this mistake by its despicable sycophancy to mere money. Wlien will people learn to va…
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II. The etilb of a condition of base bulonq to all classes of life. 1. The nation, Moab had lived for ages amongst her hills and fertile fields beyond the surging tide of the world's restless changes which swept along the western side of the Jordan between Egypt and the northern nations. She was not the better for t…
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III. But their position is insecure, and destruction, though delated, wnx be the more certain and complete. The uncertainty of worldly prosi)erity is represented frequently and under many figures in Holy Writ. It is " that which moth and rust corrupt, and thieves steal ; " it " lakes to itself wings and flies away ;…
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n. But there is peril, whatever the work bb, of doiko it deceitfully Now, the work of the Lord is done deceitfully : 1. When it is not done thoroughly. When we shirk our work ; do no more than we can help ; get away from it as fast as we can. And how much of the " work " is thus done! Alas that it should be so! Evi…
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historv of the Church I What a checkered and often tumultuous and much-tried career was allotted to her I All these illustrations from God's Word, showing the determination of God that his people should not suffer the peril of overmuch ease and become as Mnab, and as they who because they have no changes, therefore,…
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Ver. 27. — Touching the apple of God?s eye. A father may chasten his bod, but will bo very wrotli if he sees another man so dealing with him. No one may punish the child but the child's father. Now, thus is it with the Lord and his people. He will, he does, punish them himself, but he allows none other to do so ; or…
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IIL Sous OF its occasions and excitements. 1. Birth is one of them ; as if a man chose his own father and mother. Men pride themselves that they come of a certain family, that they are "well bom." " We are Abraham's children; " what a multitude of sorrows did that notion originate 1 ' They who pride themselves on th…
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Yer. 7. — The eonsequenee ^a wrong confldenee. I. The oaptube was thbib own WAOUC, Not idl captMM k w. Thiim may be a goii^ into durance for conscience' sake ; 244 THE BOOK OP THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [oh. XLTm. 1— 47. there may be the necessary surrender to superior strength ; the captured one may be the victim for a…
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I. The possibilities of lifb. " Moab hath settled on his lees." Moab is, therefore, compared to wine. There are sour grapes with which nothing can be done ; but there are also grapes of splendid natural quality, that have had the best culture of the vine- yard and have come to all due ripeness. That which is to beco…
1,258 wordsSource & rights
Public-domain historical Pulpit Commentary. Text from OCR of an original historical scan; OCR may contain recognition errors.
Project Gutenberg source record →
Historical Christian writing; not Scripture.