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<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "//www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="//www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" /><meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1"><title>Jeremiah 10 Pulpit Commentary</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="/5001com.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="../spec.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 4800px), only screen and (max-device-width: 4800px)" href="/4801.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 1550px), only screen and (max-device-width: 1550px)" href="/1551.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 1250px), only screen and (max-device-width: 1250px)" href="/1251.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 1050px), only screen and (max-device-width: 1050px)" href="/1051.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 900px), only screen and (max-device-width: 900px)" href="/901.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 800px), only screen and (max-device-width: 800px)" href="/801.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 575px), only screen and (max-device-width: 575px)" href="/501.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-height: 450px), only screen and (max-device-height: 450px)" href="/h451.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="/print.css" type="text/css" media="Print" /><script type="application/javascript" src="https://scripts.webcontentassessor.com/scripts/8a2459b64f9cac8122fc7f2eac4409c8555fac9383016db59c4c26e3d5b8b157"></script><script src='https://qd.admetricspro.com/js/biblehub/biblehub-layout-loader-revcatch.js'></script><script id='HyDgbd_1s' src='https://prebidads.revcatch.com/ads.js' type='text/javascript' async></script><script>(function(w,d,b,s,i){var cts=d.createElement(s);cts.async=true;cts.id='catchscript'; 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for the heathen are dismayed at them.</div><div class="comm"><span class="cmt_sub_title">Verse 2.</span> - <span class="cmt_word">The way of the heathen</span>. "Way" equivalent to "religion" (comp. <span class="greek">ὁδὸς</span>, <a href="/acts/9-2.htm">Acts 9:2</a>, etc.). <span class="cmt_word">Be not dismayed at the signs of heaven</span>; alluding to the astrological calculations based upon extraordinary appearances in the sky. Diodorus Siculus remarks 2:30) - and his statement is fully confirmed by the Babylonian cuneiform tablets - that "the appearance of comets, eclipses of the sun and moon, earthquakes, and in fact every kind of change occasioned by the atmosphere, whether good or bad, both to nations and to kings and private individuals [were omens of future events]." A catalogue of the seventy standard astrological tablets is to be found in the third volume of the British Museum collection of inscriptions. Among the items we read, "A collection of twenty-five tablets of the signs of heaven and earth, according to their good presage and their bad;" and again, "Tablets [regarding] the signs of the heaven, along with the star (comet) which has a corona in front and a tail behind; the appearance of the sky," etc. There can hardly be a doubt that the prophetic writer had such pseudo-science as this in his eye (see Professor Sayce, 'The Astronomy and Astrology of the Baby. Ionians, with translations of the tablets,' ere, in the <span class="accented">Transactions of the Society of Biblical Archaeology</span>, 3:145-339). </div> <div class="versenum"><a href="/jeremiah/10-3.htm">Jeremiah 10:3</a></div><div class="verse">For the customs of the people <i>are</i> vain: for <i>one</i> cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe.</div><div class="comm"><span class="cmt_sub_title">Verse 3.</span> - <span class="cmt_word">The customs of the people</span>. "People" should, as usual, be corrected into <span class="accented">peoples</span> - the heathen nations are referred to. The Hebrew has "the statutes;" but the Authorized Version is substantially right, customs having a force as of iron in Eastern countries. It seems to be implied that the "customs" are of religious origin (setup. <a href="/2_kings/17-8.htm">2 Kings 17:8</a>, where "the statutes of the heathen" are obviously the rites and customs of polytheism. <span class="cmt_word">For one cutteth a tree</span>, etc. This is intended to prove the foregoing statement of the "vanity," or groundlessness, of idolatry. The order of the Hebrew, however, is more forcible, for <span class="accented">as wood out of the forest one cutteth it</span>, <span class="accented">viz</span>. the idol. </div> <div class="versenum"><a href="/jeremiah/10-4.htm">Jeremiah 10:4</a></div><div class="verse">They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not.</div><div class="comm"><span class="cmt_sub_title">Verse 4.</span> - <span class="cmt_word">They deck it... that it move not</span>. The close resemblance of this verse to <a href="/isaiah/40-19.htm">Isaiah 40:19, 20</a>; <a href="/isaiah/41-7.htm">Isaiah 41:7</a>, will strike every reader. "Move" should rather be <span class="accented">totter</span>. </div> <div class="versenum"><a href="/jeremiah/10-5.htm">Jeremiah 10:5</a></div><div class="verse">They <i>are</i> upright as the palm tree, but speak not: they must needs be borne, because they cannot go. Be not afraid of them; for they cannot do evil, neither also <i>is it</i> in them to do good.</div><div class="comm"><span class="cmt_sub_title">Verse 5.</span> - <span class="cmt_word">They are upright as the palm tree</span>; rather, <span class="accented">they are like a pillar</span> (i.e. a <span class="accented">scarecrow</span>) <span class="accented">in a field of cucumbers</span>. This is the interpretation given to our passage in Ver. 70 of the apocryphal Epistle o! Jeremiah (written in the Maccabean period, evidently with reference to our prophecy), and is much more striking than the rival translation, "like a palm tree of turned work," <span class="accented">i</span>.<span class="accented">e</span>. stiff, immovable (comp. Virgil, 'Georg.,' 4:110, 111; Horace, 'Sat.,' 1. 8, 1-4). <span class="cmt_word">They must needs be borne... they cannot do evil</span>; a reminiscence, apparently, of <a href="/isaiah/46-7.htm">Isaiah 46:7</a>; <a href="/isaiah/41-23.htm">Isaiah 41:23</a>. </div> <div class="versenum"><a href="/jeremiah/10-6.htm">Jeremiah 10:6</a></div><div class="verse">Forasmuch as <i>there is</i> none like unto thee, O LORD; thou <i>art</i> great, and thy name <i>is</i> great in might.</div><div class="comm"><span class="cmt_sub_title">Verse 6.</span> - <span class="cmt_word">Forasmuch as there is none</span>; rather, <span class="accented">so that</span>, etc. But practically it is merely a strengthened negative. There is none like unto thee; none, that is, among those who claim to have Divine power (comp. the phrase, "God of gods," <a href="/deuteronomy/10-17.htm">Deuteronomy 10:17</a>; <a href="/psalms/136-2.htm">Psalm 136:2</a>). It would appear from some passages, however, as if the heathen did not worship mere nonentities (though idols are sometimes called "things of naught," <span class="accented">e.g.</span>, ten times by Isaiah) by comparison with Jehovah, but that there was a dark background of awful personal or quasi-personal reality (<span class="accented">e.g.</span>, <a href="/deuteronomy/4-7.htm">Deuteronomy 4:7</a>; <a href="/2_chronicles/28-23.htm">2 Chronicles 28:23</a>). </div> <div class="versenum"><a href="/jeremiah/10-7.htm">Jeremiah 10:7</a></div><div class="verse">Who would not fear thee, O King of nations? for to thee doth it appertain: forasmuch as among all the wise <i>men</i> of the nations, and in all their kingdoms, <i>there is</i> none like unto thee.</div><div class="comm"><span class="cmt_sub_title">Verse 7.</span> - <span class="cmt_word">O King of nations</span>. As time went on, the sacred writers became more and more distinct in their assertions of the truth that Jehovah, the Self-revealing God, is not Israel's King only, but also of the world (comp. <a href="/psalms/22-28.htm">Psalm 22:28</a>; <a href="/psalms/47-7.htm">Psalm 47:7, 8</a>; <a href="/psalms/96-10.htm">Psalm 96:10</a>). <span class="cmt_word">To thee doth it appertain</span>; viz. that men should fear thee. Forasmuch as, etc. (see above, on Ver. 6). <span class="cmt_word">Among all the wise men</span>. "Men" is supplied, but doubtless rightly. It is a contest - how unequal a one! - between Jehovah and the sages of the heathen (comp. "Yet he also is wise," <a href="/isaiah/31-2.htm">Isaiah 31:2</a>). </div> <div class="versenum"><a href="/jeremiah/10-8.htm">Jeremiah 10:8</a></div><div class="verse">But they are altogether brutish and foolish: the stock <i>is</i> a doctrine of vanities.</div><div class="comm"><span class="cmt_sub_title">Verse 8.</span> - <span class="cmt_word">Brutish and foolish</span>. In fact, the original meaning of the idolatrous religions had begun, probably, to fade, and the worship of Bel and Nebo had become (as the worship of the Egyptian gods became at a later period) increasingly formal and ritualistic. T<span class="cmt_word">he stock is a doctrine of vanities</span>; rather, <span class="accented">an instruction of vanities</span>; <span class="accented">i</span>.<span class="accented">e</span>. all that the idols can teach is vanities. Against this is the plural ("vanities," not vanity); it is more natural (and also more in accordance with usage; comp. <a href="/genesis/41-26.htm">Genesis 41:26</a>, Hebrew) to render, <span class="accented">the instruction of the vanities is wooden</span> ("vanities" has the constant technical sense of "idols;" see <a href="/jeremiah/8-19.htm">Jeremiah 8:19</a>; <a href="/jeremiah/14-22.htm">Jeremiah 14:22</a>; <a href="/deuteronomy/32-21.htm">Deuteronomy 32:21</a>; <a href="/psalms/31-6.htm">Psalm 31:6</a>). The clause then furnishes a reason for the folly of the heathen; how should they attain to more than a "wooden" knowledge, when the idols themselves are but wood? A bitter truth in an ironical form. </div> <div class="versenum"><a href="/jeremiah/10-9.htm">Jeremiah 10:9</a></div><div class="verse">Silver spread into plates is brought from Tarshish, and gold from Uphaz, the work of the workman, and of the hands of the founder: blue and purple <i>is</i> their clothing: they <i>are</i> all the work of cunning <i>men</i>.</div><div class="comm"><span class="cmt_sub_title">Verse 9.</span> - This verse apparently once followed Ver. 5. Like Vers. 7 and 8, it is omitted in the Septuagint. <span class="cmt_word">Silver spread into plates</span>, etc. The silver and gold were meant for the coating of the wooden image (comp. <a href="/isaiah/30-22.htm">Isaiah 30:22</a>; <a href="/isaiah/40-19.htm">Isaiah 40:19</a>). <span class="cmt_word">Tarshish</span>; <span class="accented">i</span>.<span class="accented">e</span>. Tartessus, in south-west Spain, between the two mouths of the Baetis, or Guadal-quivir. <span class="cmt_word">Gold from Uphaz</span>. A place bearing this name, or anything like it, is not known from other sources than the Old Testament writings; and hence a corruption of the text has naturally been suspected (Ophir into Uphaz). As, however, r and z are not easily confounded, either in the earlier or the later Hebrew characters, this view must be abandoned, though it has the authority of several ancient versions of this passage (including the Peshite and the Targum). The name occurs again in <a href="/daniel/10-5.htm">Daniel 10:5</a>. The Peshite, moreover, curiously enough, translates <span class="accented">zahab mufaz</span> in <a href="/1_kings/10-18.htm">1 Kings 10:18</a> (Authorized Version, "the best gold") by "gold from Ophir." <span class="cmt_word">Blue and purple</span>. The Hebrew has no word, strictly speaking, for either "blue" or "purple." Both these words here used probably express coloring matter rather than colors (this is certain of the latter word, which properly designates a kind of mussel, the shell of which yielded dye). The first produced a violet purple, the second a reddish purple. </div> <div class="versenum"><a href="/jeremiah/10-10.htm">Jeremiah 10:10</a></div><div class="verse">But the LORD <i>is</i> the true God, he <i>is</i> the living God, and an everlasting king: at his wrath the earth shall tremble, and the nations shall not be able to abide his indignation.</div><div class="comm"><span class="cmt_sub_title">Verse 10.</span> - <span class="cmt_word">The true God</span>; literally, a God in truth, the accusative of apposition being chosen instead of the usual genitive construction, to emphasize the idea of "truth." </div> <div class="versenum"><a href="/jeremiah/10-11.htm">Jeremiah 10:11</a></div><div class="verse">Thus shall ye say unto them, The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth, <i>even</i> they shall perish from the earth, and from under these heavens.</div><div class="comm"><span class="cmt_sub_title">Verse 11.</span> - <span class="cmt_word">Thus shall ye say</span>, etc. This verse is, unlike the rest of the chapter, written in Chaldee, and greatly interrupts the connection. Whether it is a fragment of a Targum (or Chaldee paraphrase) representing a Hebrew verse really written by Jeremiah, or whether it is a marginal note by some scribe or reader which has found its way by accident into the text, cannot be positively determined. What is certain is that it is not in its right place, though it already stood here when the Septuagint Version of Jeremiah was made. To argue, with the 'Speaker's Commentary,' that the latter circumstance is decisive of the correctness of the passage in its present position, implies a view of the unchangeableness of the text in the early centuries which few leading scholars will admit. </div> <div class="versenum"><a href="/jeremiah/10-12.htm">Jeremiah 10:12</a></div><div class="verse">He hath made the earth by his power, he hath established the world by his wisdom, and hath stretched out the heavens by his discretion.</div><div class="comm"><span class="cmt_sub_title">Verses 12-16.</span> - Repeated with a slight variation in <a href="/jeremiah/51-15.htm">Jeremiah 51:15-19</a>. <span class="cmt_sub_title">Verse 12.</span> - <span class="cmt_word">He hath made the earth</span>, etc. (comp. the frequent references to the Divine creatorship in the latter part of Isaiah (<a href="/isaiah/40-22.htm">Isaiah 40:22</a>; <a href="/isaiah/42-5.htm">Isaiah 42:5</a>; <a href="/isaiah/44-24.htm">Isaiah 44:24</a>; <a href="/isaiah/45-12.htm">Isaiah 45:12, 18</a>; <a href="/isaiah/51-13.htm">Isaiah 51:13</a>). <span class="cmt_word">By his discretion</span>; rather, by <span class="accented">his understanding</span>. </div> <div class="versenum"><a href="/jeremiah/10-13.htm">Jeremiah 10:13</a></div><div class="verse">When he uttereth his voice, <i>there is</i> a multitude of waters in the heavens, and he causeth the vapours to ascend from the ends of the earth; he maketh lightnings with rain, and bringeth forth the wind out of his treasures.</div><div class="comm"><span class="cmt_sub_title">Verse 13.</span> - <span class="cmt_word">When he uttereth his voice</span>, etc. The phrase is difficult, but the Authorized Version probably gives the right sense. God's "voice" is the thunder (<a href="/psalms/29-3.htm">Psalm 29:3</a>), which is accompanied by the gathering of heavy clouds ("His pavilion round about him," <a href="/psalms/18-11.htm">Psalm 18:11</a>). <span class="cmt_word">He causeth the vapors to ascend,</span> etc.; the storm-clouds coming up more and more thickly from the horizon. From this point the verse agrees with <a href="/psalms/135-7.htm">Psalm 135:7</a> (the psalm is full of such reminiscences, and is obviously very late). <span class="cmt_word">Lightning's with rain;</span> rather, <span class="accented">for the</span> rain. The lightning's are, as it were, the heralds or attendants of the rain. <span class="cmt_word">The wind out of his treasures</span>; a noble figure, used elsewhere of the snow and hail (<a href="/job/38-22.htm">Job 38:22</a>), and of the waters of the sea (<a href="/psalms/33-7.htm">Psalm 33:7</a>). </div> <div class="versenum"><a href="/jeremiah/10-14.htm">Jeremiah 10:14</a></div><div class="verse">Every man is brutish in <i>his</i> knowledge: every founder is confounded by the graven image: for his molten image <i>is</i> falsehood, and <i>there is</i> no breath in them.</div><div class="comm"><span class="cmt_sub_title">Verse 14.</span> - Before these natural miracles, all men, except those who have been enlightened by revelation, are <span class="accented">without knowledge</span> (so, and not <span class="cmt_word">in his knowledge,</span> we ought to render); <span class="accented">i</span>.<span class="accented">e</span>. without insight into their origin and meaning (compare the overwhelming series of questions in the sublime theophany in Job, ch. Job 38, 39.). <span class="cmt_word">Every founder is confounded by</span>, etc.; rather, <span class="accented">every goldsmith is brought to shame by the graven image</span>; for how can the work which has needed all the resources of his skill deliver him? </div> <div class="versenum"><a href="/jeremiah/10-15.htm">Jeremiah 10:15</a></div><div class="verse">They <i>are</i> vanity, <i>and</i> the work of errors: in the time of their visitation they shall perish.</div><div class="comm"><span class="cmt_sub_title">Verse 15.</span> - <span class="cmt_word">The very essence of idols is</span> <span class="cmt_word">vanity</span>; they are unreal as "a breath;" they are, not so much <span class="cmt_word">the work of errors</span> <span class="accented">as a work of mockery</span>, <span class="accented">i</span>.<span class="accented">e</span>. not <span class="accented">opus rise dignum</span>, but a work which rewards the efforts bestowed upon its production by disappointment. </div> <div class="versenum"><a href="/jeremiah/10-16.htm">Jeremiah 10:16</a></div><div class="verse">The portion of Jacob <i>is</i> not like them: for he <i>is</i> the former of all <i>things</i>; and Israel <i>is</i> the rod of his inheritance: The LORD of hosts <i>is</i> his name.</div><div class="comm"><span class="cmt_sub_title">Verse 16.</span> - <span class="cmt_word">The portion of Jacob</span>; <span class="accented">i</span>.<span class="accented">e</span>. Jehovah. The phrase appears to have been coined at a lower level of religion, when every nation was supposed to have its own patron deity; just as the prophet says, ironically, to the fetish-worshippers of Israel, "Among the smooth stones of the stream is thy portion" (<a href="/isaiah/57-5.htm">Isaiah 57:5</a>), and Moses, in Deuteronomy (<a href="/deuteronomy/4-19.htm">Deuteronomy 4:19</a>), speaks of the host of heaven as having been "divided [<span class="accented">i</span>.<span class="accented">e</span>. assigned] unto all nations under the whole heaven." But, of course, the phrase is susceptible of a high, spiritual application (comp. <a href="/psalms/16-5.htm">Psalm 16:5</a>; <a href="/psalms/142-5.htm">Psalm 142:5</a>). God's people are, by their very conception, an <span class="greek">ἐκλογὴ</span>, chosen out by God, and choosing him, and not the world, for their portion. "Making the best of both worlds" is an object implicitly condemned by this consecrated phrase. <span class="cmt_word">The former of all things</span>. How much more forcible is the original phrase: "... of the whole," <span class="accented">i</span>.<span class="accented">e</span>. the universe! "To form" is a phrase constantly used of God in the second part of Isaiah. <span class="cmt_word">The rod of his</span> <span class="cmt_word">inheritance</span>. "Rod" should rather be <span class="accented">tribe</span>. The twelve tribes had an inner unity, as contrasted with other peoples; comp. <a href="/psalms/74-2.htm">Psalm 74:2</a> and <a href="/isaiah/63-17.htm">Isaiah 63:17</a> ("tribes"). </div> <div class="versenum"><a href="/jeremiah/10-17.htm">Jeremiah 10:17</a></div><div class="verse">Gather up thy wares out of the land, O inhabitant of the fortress.</div><div class="comm"><span class="cmt_sub_title">Verses 17-22.</span> - This passage connects itself immediately with <a href="/jeremiah/9.htm">Jeremiah 9</a>, where the invasion of Judah and the dispersion of its inhabitants have been foretold. Here, after describing dramatically the departure of the latter into exile, the prophet reports a distinct revelation of the same fact, so that this can no longer be assumed to be mere imaginative rhetoric. The Jewish people is then introduced, lamenting her sad fate, but expressing resignation. <span class="cmt_sub_title">Verse 17.</span> - <span class="cmt_word">Gather up thy wares</span>. "Wares" should rather be <span class="accented">bundle</span>. There is no allusion to trafficking. <span class="cmt_word">O inhabitant of the fortress</span>; rather, <span class="accented">thou that dwellest besieged</span>. </div> <div class="versenum"><a href="/jeremiah/10-18.htm">Jeremiah 10:18</a></div><div class="verse">For thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will sling out the inhabitants of the land at this once, and will distress them, that they may find <i>it so</i>.</div><div class="comm"><span class="cmt_sub_title">Verse 18.</span> - <span class="cmt_word">I will sling out</span>; a forcible image, to express the violence of the expulsion; comp. <a href="/isaiah/22-17.htm">Isaiah 22:17, 18</a> (Ver. 17 needs correcting). <span class="cmt_word">At this once</span>; rather, <span class="accented">at this</span> time (comp. <a href="/jeremiah/16-21.htm">Jeremiah 16:21</a>). Invasion was no novelty to the Jews, but had hitherto merely produced loss of goods rather than of personal liberty. <span class="cmt_word">That they may find it so</span>; better, <span class="accented">that they may feel it</span>. Others supply as. the subject "Jehovah," comparing <a href="/psalms/32-6.htm">Psalm 32:6</a>, "In a time of finding (Authorized Version, "When thou mayest be found"). Jeremiah himself says, "Ye shall seek me, and shall find, when ye shall search for me with all your heart" (<a href="/jeremiah/29-13.htm">Jeremiah 29:13</a> - <a href="/deuteronomy/4-29.htm">Deuteronomy 4:29</a>). Still, these passages are hardly quite parallel, as the object of the verb can be easily supplied from the connection. The Vulgate apparently reads the text with different vowels, for it renders <span class="accented">ut inveniantur</span>; the Septuagint has "that thy stroke may be found." </div> <div class="versenum"><a href="/jeremiah/10-19.htm">Jeremiah 10:19</a></div><div class="verse">Woe is me for my hurt! my wound is grievous: but I said, Truly this <i>is</i> a grief, and I must bear it.</div><div class="comm"><span class="cmt_sub_title">Verse 19.</span> - It is rather doubtful (as in the parallel passage, <a href="/jeremiah/4-19.htm">Jeremiah 4:19-21</a>) whether the speaker here is the prophet, or "the daughter of my people," who, in <a href="/jeremiah/6-26.htm">Jeremiah 6:26</a>, is called upon to "make most bitter lamentation." Of course, the prophet cannot dissociate himself from his people; and we rosy therefore, perhaps, consider both references united. <span class="cmt_word">Hurt</span>; literally, <span class="accented">breach</span>; <span class="accented">a</span> term so used for political calamities. <span class="cmt_word">A grief</span>; rather, my <span class="accented">grief</span>; but "grief" is meant to include both physical and mental sufferings (literally, my <span class="accented">sickness</span>). </div> <div class="versenum"><a href="/jeremiah/10-20.htm">Jeremiah 10:20</a></div><div class="verse">My tabernacle is spoiled, and all my cords are broken: my children are gone forth of me, and they <i>are</i> not: <i>there is</i> none to stretch forth my tent any more, and to set up my curtains.</div><div class="comm"><span class="cmt_sub_title">Verse 20.</span> - <span class="cmt_word">My tabernacle</span>; rather, <span class="accented">my tent</span>. It is very striking how present to the minds of the Israelites was the consciousness of their pastoral origin. Hence the cry, "To your tents, O Israel" (<a href="/1_kings/12-16.htm">1 Kings 12:16</a>); comp. also, "And the children of Israel dwelt in their tents, as aforetime" (<a href="/2_kings/13-5.htm">2 Kings 13:5</a><span class="cmt_word">). My cords ... my curtains.</span> The "cords ' are those which, by being fastened to poles and stakes, keep the tent steady; the "curtains," of course, are the covering of the tent (comp. <a href="/isaiah/54-2.htm">Isaiah 54:2</a>). </div> <div class="versenum"><a href="/jeremiah/10-21.htm">Jeremiah 10:21</a></div><div class="verse">For the pastors are become brutish, and have not sought the LORD: therefore they shall not prosper, and all their flocks shall be scattered.</div><div class="comm"><span class="cmt_sub_title">Verse 21.</span> - <span class="cmt_word">The pastors</span>; <span class="accented">i</span>.<span class="accented">e</span>. the civil authorities (see on Jeremiah 2:8). <span class="cmt_word">They shall not prosper</span>; rather, <span class="accented">they have not prospered</span>; or, better still, <span class="accented">they have not acted wisely</span>, the notion of prospering being rather suggested than expressed (the same word is used in Isaiah lit. 13). </div> <div class="versenum"><a href="/jeremiah/10-22.htm">Jeremiah 10:22</a></div><div class="verse">Behold, the noise of the bruit is come, and a great commotion out of the north country, to make the cities of Judah desolate, <i>and</i> a den of dragons.</div><div class="comm"><span class="cmt_sub_title">Verse 22.</span> - <span class="cmt_word">Behold... is come</span>; rather; <span class="accented">Hark! Tidings! Behold</span>, <span class="accented">it cometh!</span> The tidings are that the foe is at hand, advancing <span class="cmt_word">with a great commotion</span>, with clashing spears, prancing horses, and all the hubbub of a great army. <span class="cmt_word">A den of dragons</span>; rather, <span class="accented">of jackals</span> (as <a href="/jeremiah/9-11.htm">Jeremiah 9:11</a>). </div> <div class="versenum"><a href="/jeremiah/10-23.htm">Jeremiah 10:23</a></div><div class="verse">O LORD, I know that the way of man <i>is</i> not in himself: <i>it is</i> not in man that walketh to direct his steps.</div><div class="comm"><span class="cmt_sub_title">Verses 23-25.</span> - These verses confirm the view taken above, of the speaker of this whole section. Jeremiah and the people, each is, in a sense, the speaker; but here the prophetic faith seems to run rather in advance of that of his fellow-countrymen. They form, however, a fitting sequel to the charges brought against the people in <a href="/jeremiah/9.htm">Jeremiah 9</a>. The speaker admits that he (either the People of Judah personified, or Jeremiah as a representative of its best portion) fully deserves chastisement for having attempted to go his own way (comp. <a href="/isaiah/57-17.htm">Isaiah 57:17</a>). He has now attained an insight into the truth that man's duty is simply to walk in the path which God has marked out for him. He only asks that Jehovah would chastise him <span class="cmt_word">with judgment</span>, or,, more clearly, <span class="accented">according to what is just</span>. The contrast is between punishment inflicted in anger, the object of which is to cause pain to the criminal, and that inflicted as a duty of justice, and of which the object is the criminal's reformation" (Payne Smith). The fear expressed, however, is not exactly <span class="cmt_word">lest thou bring me to nothing</span>, which is too strong for the Hebrew, but lest <span class="accented">thou make me small</span>. Israel was secured against annihilation by the promise of Jehovah, but feared he might possibly survive only as the shadow of his former self. </div> <div class="versenum"><a href="/jeremiah/10-24.htm">Jeremiah 10:24</a></div><div class="verse">O LORD, correct me, but with judgment; not in thine anger, lest thou bring me to nothing.</div><div class="comm"></div> <div class="versenum"><a href="/jeremiah/10-25.htm">Jeremiah 10:25</a></div><div class="verse">Pour out thy fury upon the heathen that know thee not, and upon the families that call not on thy name: for they have eaten up Jacob, and devoured him, and consumed him, and have made his habitation desolate.</div><div class="comm"><span class="cmt_sub_title">Verse 25.</span> - This verse is repeated, with slight differences, in <a href="/psalms/79-6.htm">Psalm 79:6, 7</a>. The fault of the heathen is that they exceeded their commission (<a href="/isaiah/10-6.htm">Isaiah 10:6, 7</a>; <a href="/isaiah/47-6.htm">Isaiah 47:6</a>; <a href="/zechariah/1-15.htm">Zechariah 1:15</a>), and aimed at destroying, instead of merely punishing, Jehovah's erring people. His habitation; rather, <span class="accented">his pasture</span> (comp. <a href="/jeremiah/12-10.htm">Jeremiah 12:10</a>) <span class="p"><br /><br /></span> <span class="p"><br /><br /></span> </div></div></div><div id="botbox"><div class="padbot"><div align="center">The Pulpit Commentary, Electronic Database. 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