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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=1.0;"/><title>Jeremiah 4 Matthew Poole's Commentary</title><link rel="canonical" href="https://biblehub.com/commentaries/poole/jeremiah/41.htm" /><link href='//fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Cardo&subset=greek-ext' rel='stylesheet' type='text/css'><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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and judgments coming on them by the Babylonians, contrary to the predictions of their false prophets, for their sins, <span class="bld"><a href="/context/jeremiah/4-5.htm" title="Declare you in Judah, and publish in Jerusalem; and say, Blow you the trumpet in the land: cry, gather together, and say, Assemble yourselves, and let us go into the defended cities....">Jeremiah 4:5-18</a></span>. A grievous lamentation for the miseries of Judah, <span class="bld"><a href="/context/jeremiah/4-19.htm" title="My bowels, my bowels! I am pained at my very heart; my heart makes a noise in me; I cannot hold my peace, because you have heard, O my soul, the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war....">Jeremiah 4:19-31</a></span>. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span> <span class="bld">Return unto me:</span> this seems to be a continuation of the former sermon; so that Israel having promised repentance, they are here directed how it must be qualified, viz. it must not be hypocritical and reigned, but real and hearty, <span class="bld"><a href="/jeremiah/24-7.htm" title="And I will give them an heart to know me, that I am the LORD: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God: for they shall return to me with their whole heart.">Jeremiah 24:7</a></span>, as Josiah’s was, <span class="bld"><a href="/2_kings/23-25.htm" title="And like to him was there no king before him, that turned to the LORD with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his might, according to all the law of Moses; neither after him arose there any like him.">2 Kings 23:25</a></span>; and it must be unto the Lord; not to this idol and that idol, hither and thither, shifting their way; but unto me; see <span class="bld"><a href="/jeremiah/2-36.htm" title="Why gad you about so much to change your way? you also shall be ashamed of Egypt, as you were ashamed of Assyria.">Jeremiah 2:36</a></span>; or to my worship, and as thou hast promised, <span class="bld"><a href="/jeremiah/3-22.htm" title="Return, you backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings. Behold, we come to you; for you are the LORD our God.">Jeremiah 3:22</a></span>. And this sense agrees best with the coherence. Or it maybe all emphatical, short, peremptory expression; If thou wilt return, return; make no longer demur or delay about it; like that <span class="bld"><a href="/isaiah/21-12.htm" title="The watchman said, The morning comes, and also the night: if you will inquire, inquire you: return, come.">Isaiah 21:12</a></span>. The Hebrew read the words in the future tense, <span class="ital">if thou wilt return, thou shalt return</span>; and so they may be taken partly as a promise, and that with reference either to their returning into their own land; and so they concern Israel; thus <span class="bld"><a href="/context/deuteronomy/30-2.htm" title="And shall return to the LORD your God, and shall obey his voice according to all that I command you this day, you and your children, with all your heart, and with all your soul;...">Deu 30:2-5</a></span>: see <span class="bld"><a href="/jeremiah/3-14.htm" title="Turn, O backsliding children, said the LORD; for I am married to you: and I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion:">Jeremiah 3:14</a></span>. But if the word be taken in the notion of <span class="ital">resting</span>, not <span class="ital">returning</span>, as some do, and as it is taken <span class="bld"><a href="/isaiah/30-15.htm" title="For thus said the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel; In returning and rest shall you be saved; in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength: and you would not.">Isaiah 30:15</a></span>, then it rather concerns Judah: q. d. Thou shalt abide quietly where thou art, and shalt not wander into captivity; and this may agree with the last expression in the verse, <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="bld">not remove.</span> Or else with reference to the assistance that God would give them to return unto him; partly, and that rather, as a direction (for in the Hebrew, though the word <span class="ital">return</span> be in the future tense, yet it is often used imperatively). <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="bld">Abominations, </span> viz. idols, a metonymy of the adjunct, which are so abominable in God’s sight, <span class="bld"><a href="/deuteronomy/27-15.htm" title="Cursed be the man that makes any graven or molten image, an abomination to the LORD, the work of the hands of the craftsman, and puts it in a secret place. And all the people shall answer and say, Amen.">Deu 27:15</a> <a href="/ezekiel/20-7.htm" title="Then said I to them, Cast you away every man the abominations of his eyes, and defile not yourselves with the idols of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.">Ezekiel 20:7</a>,8</span>; called <span class="ital">dungy gods</span>, <span class="bld"><a href="/deuteronomy/29-17.htm" title="And you have seen their abominations, and their idols, wood and stone, silver and gold, which were among them:)">Deu 29:17</a></span>. See <span class="bld"><a href="/2_chronicles/15-8.htm" title="And when Asa heard these words, and the prophecy of Oded the prophet, he took courage, and put away the abominable idols out of all the land of Judah and Benjamin, and out of the cities which he had taken from mount Ephraim, and renewed the altar of the LORD, that was before the porch of the LORD.">2 Chronicles 15:8</a></span>. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="bld">Out of my sight; </span> though God’s eye be every where; and hence implieth that idols are no where to be admitted, either in private or public; yet it doth particularly relate to the place of his more immediate presence, as their land and temple, <span class="bld"><a href="/1_kings/9-3.htm" title="And the LORD said to him, I have heard your prayer and your supplication, that you have made before me: I have hallowed this house, which you have built, to put my name there for ever; and my eyes and my heart shall be there perpetually.">1 Kings 9:3</a></span>, and spiritually to our hearts, hypocrites thinking it enough if they conceal their wickedness from man’s eye. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="bld">Then shalt thou not remove:</span> if this be read imperatively, then it is, <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="bld">remove not, </span> as it may be read; and so it agrees with Israel, Depart not away from me to thy idols upon the mountains and hills: if read in the future tense, then it agrees with Judah, Thou shalt not go out of thine own land into exile. See the first clause of the verse. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><A name="2"></a> <div class="versenum"><a href="/jeremiah/4-2.htm">Jeremiah 4:2</a></div><div class="verse">And thou shalt swear, The LORD liveth, in truth, in judgment, and in righteousness; and the nations shall bless themselves in him, and in him shall they glory.</div> <span class="bld">And thou shalt swear:</span> this is to be understood, partly by way of command, as <span class="bld"><a href="/deuteronomy/10-20.htm" title="You shall fear the LORD your God; him shall you serve, and to him shall you hold, and swear by his name.">Deu 10:20</a></span>; and partly by way of direction, if thou swear, or when thou swearest: it is put here synecdochically for the whole worship of God, hereby acknowledging and owning God as the only God. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="bld">The Lord liveth, in truth, in judgment, and in righteousness:</span> here he prescribes, <span class="p"><br /><br /></span>1. The form of the oath. viz. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="bld">The Lord liveth, </span> or, <span class="ital">By the life of God</span>, which was that form which they did use in swearing, <span class="bld"><a href="/1_samuel/14-39.htm" title="For, as the LORD lives, which saves Israel, though it be in Jonathan my son, he shall surely die. But there was not a man among all the people that answered him.">1 Samuel 14:39</a>,45</span>, and many other places; so Joseph sware <span class="ital">by the life of Pharaoh</span>, <span class="bld"><a href="/genesis/42-15.htm" title="Hereby you shall be proved: By the life of Pharaoh you shall not go forth hence, except your youngest brother come here.">Genesis 42:15</a>,16</span>; and Elisha very frequently useth this form, <span class="bld"><a href="/2_kings/2-2.htm" title="And Elijah said to Elisha, Tarry here, I pray you; for the LORD has sent me to Bethel. And Elisha said to him, As the LORD lives, and as your soul lives, I will not leave you. So they went down to Bethel.">2 Kings 2:2</a>,4,6 3:14 5:16</span>; which is also to be understood exclusively; q.d. not by any idol, as Baal, &c., or any creature, <span class="bld"><a href="/jeremiah/5-7.htm" title="How shall I pardon you for this? your children have forsaken me, and sworn by them that are no gods: when I had fed them to the full, they then committed adultery, and assembled themselves by troops in the harlots' houses.">Jeremiah 5:7</a> <a href="/context/matthew/5-34.htm" title="But I say to you, Swear not at all; neither by heaven; for it is God's throne:...">Matthew 5:34-36</a> <a href="/james/5-12.htm" title="But above all things, my brothers, swear not, neither by heaven, neither by the earth, neither by any other oath: but let your yes be yes; and your no, no; lest you fall into condemnation.">Jam 5:12</a></span>, but by God alone, <span class="bld"><a href="/isaiah/65-16.htm" title="That he who blesses himself in the earth shall bless himself in the God of truth; and he that swears in the earth shall swear by the God of truth; because the former troubles are forgotten, and because they are hid from my eyes.">Isaiah 65:16</a></span>; see <span class="bld"><a href="/hosea/2-17.htm" title="For I will take away the names of Baalim out of her mouth, and they shall no more be remembered by their name.">Hosea 2:17</a></span>; for by this indeed we declare the Godhead of him whom we worship, <span class="bld"><a href="/isaiah/19-18.htm" title="In that day shall five cities in the land of Egypt speak the language of Canaan, and swear to the LORD of hosts; one shall be called, The city of destruction.">Isaiah 19:18</a>2</span>. The qualification of it, in which indeed are comprised all the requisites to a religious oath and worship of God, both in our general and particular calling, with respect to God, ourselves, our neighbours, <span class="p"><br /><br /></span>1. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="bld">In truth, </span> that the matter and substance of it be really true in itself, <span class="bld"><a href="/romans/9-1.htm" title="I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost,">Romans 9:1</a></span>, that which agrees with the intent of the mind, <span class="bld"><a href="/psalms/24-4.htm" title="He that has clean hands, and a pure heart; who has not lifted up his soul to vanity, nor sworn deceitfully.">Psalm 24:4</a></span>, and with the intent of him that administers it; not doubtful, feigned, or deceitful, as they did, <span class="bld"><a href="/isaiah/48-1.htm" title="Hear you this, O house of Jacob, which are called by the name of Israel, and are come forth out of the waters of Judah, which swear by the name of the LORD, and make mention of the God of Israel, but not in truth, nor in righteousness.">Isaiah 48:1</a> <a href="/jeremiah/5-2.htm" title="And though they say, The LORD lives; surely they swear falsely.">Jeremiah 5:2</a></span>, but as true as the Lord lives. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span>2. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="bld">In judgment, </span> i.e. either in matter or places of judicature, for the decision of controversies, deliberately, advisedly, and reverently, well considering both of the form and matter of the oath, <span class="bld"><a href="/leviticus/5-4.htm" title="Or if a soul swear, pronouncing with his lips to do evil, or to do good, whatever it be that a man shall pronounce with an oath, and it be hid from him; when he knows of it, then he shall be guilty in one of these.">Leviticus 5:4</a></span>, that God’s name be neither taken in vain customarily, or in matters trivial, <span class="bld"><a href="/deuteronomy/5-11.htm" title="You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain: for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that takes his name in vain.">Deu 5:11</a></span>, nor abused by oaths the are rash and precipitant, such as Saul’s was, <span class="bld"><a href="/1_samuel/14-39.htm" title="For, as the LORD lives, which saves Israel, though it be in Jonathan my son, he shall surely die. But there was not a man among all the people that answered him.">1 Samuel 14:39</a></span>, and as Herod’s, <span class="bld"><a href="/matthew/14-7.htm" title="Whereupon he promised with an oath to give her whatever she would ask.">Matthew 14:7</a></span>, and without necessity. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span>3. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="bld">In righteousness, </span> that none be injured by it, that the things we engage be, <span class="p"><br /><br /></span>1. Both lawful and possible; see <span class="bld"><a href="/1_samuel/25-21.htm" title="Now David had said, Surely in vain have I kept all that this fellow has in the wilderness, so that nothing was missed of all that pertained to him: and he has requited me evil for good.">1 Samuel 25:21</a>,22 28:10 <a href="/1_kings/19-2.htm" title="Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, So let the gods do to me, and more also, if I make not your life as the life of one of them by to morrow about this time.">1 Kings 19:2</a></span>; and, <span class="p"><br /><br /></span>2. That we look to the performance, <span class="bld"><a href="/psalms/15-4.htm" title="In whose eyes a vile person is contemned; but he honors them that fear the LORD. He that swears to his own hurt, and changes not.">Psalm 15:4</a> <a href="/matthew/5-33.htm" title="Again, you have heard that it has been said by them of old time, You shall not forswear yourself, but shall perform to the Lord your oaths:">Matthew 5:33</a></span>; the want of either of which circumstances makes it a bond of iniquity, <span class="bld"><a href="/ecclesiastes/5-4.htm" title="When you vow a vow to God, defer not to pay it; for he has no pleasure in fools: pay that which you have vowed.">Ecclesiastes 5:4</a>,5</span>. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="bld">The nations shall bless themselves in him; </span> this shall be a means to work upon the heathen nations, and prevail with them to come into the same way of worship, that now scorn both you and me, because I am forced to make them the rod of my anger against you, in regard of your provocations, <span class="bld"><a href="/psalms/47-8.htm" title="God reigns over the heathen: God sits on the throne of his holiness.">Psalm 47:8</a>,9 Jer 3:17</span>. They shall think themselves happy to be incorporated with thee, that it may be with them according to that promise, <span class="bld"><a href="/genesis/12-3.htm" title="And I will bless them that bless you, and curse him that curses you: and in you shall all families of the earth be blessed.">Genesis 12:3</a> 22:17,18</span>. They shall, as it were, bless themselves in such like form; <span class="ital">The Lord make me and mine as Israel; blessed be Israel, and the God of Israel</span>. Or rather, <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="bld">in him shall they glory; </span> whereas before they gloried in their idols, now, being taken into the true church, among God’s Israel, they shall glory in God alone, <span class="bld"><a href="/psalms/106-5.htm" title="That I may see the good of your chosen, that I may rejoice in the gladness of your nation, that I may glory with your inheritance.">Psalm 106:5</a></span>, who indeed alone is the glory of his people, <span class="bld"><a href="/psalms/89-17.htm" title="For you are the glory of their strength: and in your favor our horn shall be exalted.">Psalm 89:17</a> 148:14</span>. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><A name="3"></a> <div class="versenum"><a href="/jeremiah/4-3.htm">Jeremiah 4:3</a></div><div class="verse">For thus saith the LORD to the men of Judah and Jerusalem, Break up your fallow ground, and sow not among thorns.</div> <span class="bld">To the men, </span> Heb. <span class="ital">man</span>, i.e. to each man; I speak to every individual among you, <span class="bld"><a href="/ezekiel/20-7.htm" title="Then said I to them, Cast you away every man the abominations of his eyes, and defile not yourselves with the idols of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.">Ezekiel 20:7</a>,8</span>. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="bld">Of Judah and Jerusalem:</span> the Lord having spoke what he had to say at present to Israel, turns now his speech from Israel to Judah, and so continues it; which consists of several subjects, and first begins with repentance. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="bld">Break up your fallow ground, </span> i.e. prepare your hearts by making them soft, tender, and pliable, fit to embrace my word; a metaphor taken from ploughmen, that do either prepare the ground that hath lain some time waste and untilled, by tearing up the surface of the earth, making it mellow and soft to receive the seed; (for the Hebrew word <span class="ital">nir</span> seems to be of larger extent than bare preparation; God useth the same word when he speaks to the same purpose to Israel, <span class="bld"><a href="/hosea/10-13.htm" title="You have plowed wickedness, you have reaped iniquity; you have eaten the fruit of lies: because you did trust in your way, in the multitude of your mighty men.">Hosea 10:13</a></span>; and so it is used <span class="bld"><a href="/proverbs/13-23.htm" title="Much food is in the tillage of the poor: but there is that is destroyed for want of judgment.">Proverbs 13:23</a></span>) or it may relate to both, that every thing that may be injurious to the seed may be stubbed up. Or rather, From such as plough the ground. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="bld">Sow not among thorns; </span> rid you hearts and hands of what may hinder you of embracing my word; grub up all those briers, and thorns, and mischievous weeds that will not suffer my counsels to take, or my graces to thrive, with you; such as use to overrun the sluggard’s field, <span class="bld"><a href="/proverbs/24-30.htm" title="I went by the field of the slothful, and by the vineyard of the man void of understanding;">Proverbs 24:30</a>,31</span>. Here the Lord begins to call upon them to repent. The phrase seems to intimate that the Jews had been wont to mix the truths of God among their own inventions, as seed among thorns, and so corrupted it; as also, that they retained many secret and hidden sins, like hypocrites, which he exhorts them to eradicate. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><A name="4"></a> <div class="versenum"><a href="/jeremiah/4-4.htm">Jeremiah 4:4</a></div><div class="verse">Circumcise yourselves to the LORD, and take away the foreskins of your heart, ye men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem: lest my fury come forth like fire, and burn that none can quench <i>it</i>, because of the evil of your doings.</div> <span class="bld">Circumcise yourselves; </span> put away your natural corruptions; which was signified by the sacrament of circumcision, <span class="bld"><a href="/colossians/2-11.htm" title=" In whom also you are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ:">Colossians 2:11</a></span>; see <span class="bld"><a href="/1_peter/3-21.htm" title="The like figure whereunto even baptism does also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ:">1 Peter 3:21</a></span>; the same thing with the other, but expressed in other words. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="bld">To the Lord; </span> or, to me, viz. so as I will approve. Take away the fore-skins of your heart; let it be inward, not outward, viz. in the flesh only, (in which you so much glory in the sight of men,) but take away that brawniness and obstinacy that (having to do with God, who hath respect unto the heart) is upon your hearts, <span class="bld"><a href="/deuteronomy/10-16.htm" title="Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiff necked.">Deu 10:16</a> <a href="/ezekiel/44-9.htm" title="Thus said the Lord GOD; No stranger, uncircumcised in heart, nor uncircumcised in flesh, shall enter into my sanctuary, of any stranger that is among the children of Israel.">Ezekiel 44:9</a> <a href="/acts/7-51.htm" title="You stiff necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do you.">Acts 7:51</a> <a href="/romans/2-29.htm" title="But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.">Romans 2:29</a></span>. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="bld">Lest my fury come forth like fire, and burn that none can quench it; </span> not only fierce and consuming, like fire, <span class="bld"><a href="/deuteronomy/4-24.htm" title="For the LORD your God is a consuming fire, even a jealous God.">Deu 4:24</a></span>; but unquenchable, especially when it gets among your thorns, <a href="/jeremiah/4-3.htm" title="For thus said the LORD to the men of Judah and Jerusalem, Break up your fallow ground, and sow not among thorns.">Jeremiah 4:3</a>, which are very apt to kindle, <span class="bld"><a href="/isaiah/10-17.htm" title="And the light of Israel shall be for a fire, and his Holy One for a flame: and it shall burn and devour his thorns and his briers in one day;">Isaiah 10:17</a></span>; lest you proceed so far in your obstinacy that I will not be appeased, <span class="bld"><a href="/jeremiah/21-12.htm" title="O house of David, thus said the LORD; Execute judgment in the morning, and deliver him that is spoiled out of the hand of the oppressor, lest my fury go out like fire, and burn that none can quench it, because of the evil of your doings.">Jeremiah 21:12</a> <a href="/amos/5-6.htm" title="Seek the LORD, and you shall live; lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph, and devour it, and there be none to quench it in Bethel.">Amos 5:6</a></span>; there being nothing that stirs up God to anger but sin, as in the next clause, which is an explication of those metaphors of thorns and foreskins. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><A name="5"></a> <div class="versenum"><a href="/jeremiah/4-5.htm">Jeremiah 4:5</a></div><div class="verse">Declare ye in Judah, and publish in Jerusalem; and say, Blow ye the trumpet in the land: cry, gather together, and say, Assemble yourselves, and let us go into the defenced cities.</div> The Lord being now about to bring enemies upon them, he bespeaks them in martial language, by stirring them to a speedy provision, and warning of them of the nature of their approaching judgment; not famine or plague within them, but a foreign enemy from without, <span class="bld">Jeremiah 6 1</span>, viz. the coming of Nebuchadnezzar and the Chaldeans. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="bld">Cry, </span> that your voice may be heard afar off, that all may hear. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="bld">Gather together; </span> either to unite your forces, or to take counsel what to do, that you may be in safety; the same thing with <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="bld">Assemble yourselves; </span> implying that the calamity was general. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="bld">Let us go into the defenced cities, </span> to secure from these invasions that are coming upon us. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><A name="6"></a> <div class="versenum"><a href="/jeremiah/4-6.htm">Jeremiah 4:6</a></div><div class="verse">Set up the standard toward Zion: retire, stay not: for I will bring evil from the north, and a great destruction.</div> <span class="bld">Set up the standard, </span> i.e. for them to resort to, as is usual in war; and it is therefore said to he towards Zion or Jerusalem, as being a signal to show them whither they should repair; see <span class="bld"><a href="/jeremiah/1-5.htm" title="Before I formed you in the belly I knew you; and before you came forth out of the womb I sanctified you, and I ordained you a prophet to the nations.">Jeremiah 1:5</a></span>; Jerusalem being their principal place of strength, and Zion the strongest part of it, <span class="bld"><a href="/2_samuel/5-6.htm" title="And the king and his men went to Jerusalem to the Jebusites, the inhabitants of the land: which spoke to David, saying, Except you take away the blind and the lame, you shall not come in here: thinking, David cannot come in here.">2 Samuel 5:6</a>,7</span>. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="bld">Retire; </span> or, <span class="ital">strengthen</span>; fortify or strengthen yourselves for the fight. Or rather, make haste away, as men use to do in a great fight, viz. for your security: such a use there is of the word <span class="bld"><a href="/isaiah/10-31.htm" title="Madmenah is removed; the inhabitants of Gebim gather themselves to flee.">Isaiah 10:31</a> <a href="/jeremiah/6-1.htm" title="O you children of Benjamin, gather yourselves to flee out of the middle of Jerusalem, and blow the trumpet in Tekoa, and set up a sign of fire in Bethhaccerem: for evil appears out of the north, and great destruction.">Jeremiah 6:1</a></span>, which sense is confirmed by the next words, <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="bld">stay not, </span> or, as some, <span class="ital">stay not yourselves in sin</span>, where you promise yourselves security. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="bld">I will bring evil from the north, and a great destruction, </span> i.e. I am about to bring a great destruction upon you from Chaldea, <span class="bld"><a href="/context/jeremiah/1-13.htm" title="And the word of the LORD came to me the second time, saying, What see you? And I said, I see a seething pot; and the face thereof is toward the north....">Jeremiah 1:13-15</a></span>. Some take this and the former verse to be spoken ironically. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><A name="7"></a> <div class="versenum"><a href="/jeremiah/4-7.htm">Jeremiah 4:7</a></div><div class="verse">The lion is come up from his thicket, and the destroyer of the Gentiles is on his way; he is gone forth from his place to make thy land desolate; <i>and</i> thy cities shall be laid waste, without an inhabitant.</div> <span class="bld">The lion is come up from his thicket, </span> i.e. Nebuchadnezzar, called here a lion from his fierceness and strength, <span class="bld"><a href="/proverbs/30-30.htm" title="A lion which is strongest among beasts, and turns not away for any;">Proverbs 30:30</a></span>; a metaphor; especially in this expedition; see <span class="bld"><a href="/context/isaiah/5-27.htm" title="None shall be weary nor stumble among them; none shall slumber nor sleep; neither shall the girdle of their loins be loosed, nor the lace of their shoes be broken:...">Isaiah 5:27-29</a></span> shall come up from Babylon, where his chief seat is, <span class="bld"><a href="/daniel/4-30.htm" title="The king spoke, and said, Is not this great Babylon, that I have built for the house of the kingdom by the might of my power, and for the honor of my majesty?">Daniel 4:30</a></span>; as lions are principally among the thickets of the forest, in coverts; this place being so remote and hid from them, that they least expected trouble to arise from thence. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="bld">The destroyer of the Gentiles; </span> another description of the same person, of whose destroying armies the nations have had woeful experience, <span class="bld"><a href="/isaiah/14-16.htm" title="They that see you shall narrowly look on you, and consider you, saying, Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms;">Isaiah 14:16</a>,17</span>, called <span class="ital">the hammer of the whole earth</span>, <span class="bld"><a href="/jeremiah/50-23.htm" title="How is the hammer of the whole earth cut asunder and broken! how is Babylon become a desolation among the nations!">Jeremiah 50:23</a></span>: q.d. And how shall you think to escape him? <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="bld">Is on his way, </span> i.e. as it is expressed in the next clause, he is gone forth from his place, he is already upon his march. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="bld">To make thy land desolate, </span> i.e. with a resolution so to do. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="bld">Shall be laid waste, without an inhabitant, </span> i.e. as places uninhabited soon lie waste, and are overgrown with grass, as the notation of the word seems to import. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><A name="8"></a> <div class="versenum"><a href="/jeremiah/4-8.htm">Jeremiah 4:8</a></div><div class="verse">For this gird you with sackcloth, lament and howl: for the fierce anger of the LORD is not turned back from us.</div> <span class="bld">Gird you with sackcloth; </span> the usual habit of mourners, especially in those days, <span class="bld"><a href="/isaiah/22-12.htm" title="And in that day did the Lord GOD of hosts call to weeping, and to mourning, and to baldness, and to girding with sackcloth:">Isaiah 22:12</a> <a href="/jeremiah/6-26.htm" title="O daughter of my people, gird you with sackcloth, and wallow yourself in ashes: make you mourning, as for an only son, most bitter lamentation: for the spoiler shall suddenly come on us.">Jeremiah 6:26</a></span>: it is a calling upon them to repent. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="bld">Lament and howl:</span> probably these expressions do import the several ways that men have to set forth their bitter complaints and sorrows of the mind, both by the gestures of the body, <span class="bld"><a href="/jeremiah/2-37.htm" title="Yes, you shall go forth from him, and your hands on your head: for the LORD has rejected your confidences, and you shall not prosper in them.">Jeremiah 2:37</a> <a href="/luke/18-13.htm" title="And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes to heaven, but smote on his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner.">Luke 18:13</a></span>, and expressions of the tongue, <span class="bld"><a href="/psalms/32-3.htm" title="When I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long.">Psalm 32:3</a> <a href="/isaiah/59-11.htm" title="We roar all like bears, and mourn sore like doves: we look for judgment, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far off from us.">Isaiah 59:11</a></span>. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="bld">Is not turned back from us; </span> neither will it, until it have accomplished its ends, <span class="bld"><a href="/jeremiah/30-24.htm" title="The fierce anger of the LORD shall not return, until he has done it, and until he have performed the intents of his heart: in the latter days you shall consider it.">Jeremiah 30:24</a></span>. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><A name="9"></a> <div class="versenum"><a href="/jeremiah/4-9.htm">Jeremiah 4:9</a></div><div class="verse">And it shall come to pass at that day, saith the LORD, <i>that</i> the heart of the king shall perish, and the heart of the princes; and the priests shall be astonished, and the prophets shall wonder.</div> <span class="bld">The heart of the king shall perish; </span> the king, viz. of Judah, and the great men, that should have encouraged the people in such a calamitous day, and been their great support, shall not only be afraid, but their own hearts shall melt within them, they shall be even at their wits’ end; see <span class="bld"><a href="/joshua/5-1.htm" title="And it came to pass, when all the kings of the Amorites, which were on the side of Jordan westward, and all the kings of the Canaanites, which were by the sea, heard that the LORD had dried up the waters of Jordan from before the children of Israel, until we were passed over, that their heart melted, neither was there spirit in them any more, because of the children of Israel.">Joshua 5:1</a></span>; they shall have no heart at all to do any thing; they shall not be able to help their people, either by their counsel or arms; their courage will utterly fail, and their counsel perish. See <span class="bld"><a href="/psalms/73-26.htm" title="My flesh and my heart fails: but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever.">Psalm 73:26</a></span>. This was fulfilled in Zedekiah, <span class="bld">Jeremiah 39 Jer 42</span>, whose flight would not advantage him. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="bld">Shall be astonished; </span> shall be in such a consternation, that they shall not know what course to take. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="bld">The prophets, </span> viz. false prophets, that had nothing but visions of peace for them, <span class="bld"><a href="/ezekiel/13-16.htm" title="To wit, the prophets of Israel which prophesy concerning Jerusalem, and which see visions of peace for her, and there is no peace, said the Lord GOD.">Ezekiel 13:16</a> <a href="/zechariah/13-3.htm" title="And it shall come to pass, that when any shall yet prophesy, then his father and his mother that begat him shall say to him, You shall not live; for you speak lies in the name of the LORD: and his father and his mother that begat him shall thrust him through when he prophesies.">Zechariah 13:3</a>,4 Jer 8:11</span>. See <span class="bld"><a href="/jeremiah/4-10.htm" title="Then said I, Ah, Lord GOD! surely you have greatly deceived this people and Jerusalem, saying, You shall have peace; whereas the sword reaches to the soul.">Jeremiah 4:10</a></span>. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="bld">Shall wonder, </span> not so much at the disappointment of their prophecies, for they knew well enough they were false, <span class="bld"><a href="/jeremiah/23-26.htm" title="How long shall this be in the heart of the prophets that prophesy lies? yes, they are prophets of the deceit of their own heart;">Jeremiah 23:26</a>,27</span>, as that they should be possessed with the same horror and frights with the rest, not knowing where to show, or rather to hide, their heads for the shame that would fall upon them; when their lies should be discovered, they would be put to shame, and perish with the rest, and whither shall they cause their shame to go. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><A name="10"></a> <div class="versenum"><a href="/jeremiah/4-10.htm">Jeremiah 4:10</a></div><div class="verse">Then said I, Ah, Lord GOD! surely thou hast greatly deceived this people and Jerusalem, saying, Ye shall have peace; whereas the sword reacheth unto the soul.</div> <span class="bld">Ah, Lord God:</span> the Hebrew <span class="ital">aha</span> is a word both of admiration and lamentation together; they are Jeremiah’s words and complaint breathed out in the great sorrow and. sighing of soul, which he expresseth more emphatically <span class="bld"><a href="/jeremiah/23-9.htm" title="My heart within me is broken because of the prophets; all my bones shake; I am like a drunken man, and like a man whom wine has overcome, because of the LORD, and because of the words of his holiness.">Jeremiah 23:9</a></span>. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="bld">Surely thou hast greatly deceived this people; </span> either hast suffered them to be thus deluded by these false prophets, <span class="bld"><a href="/isaiah/63-17.htm" title="O LORD, why have you made us to err from your ways, and hardened our heart from your fear? Return for your servants' sake, the tribes of your inheritance.">Isaiah 63:17</a> <a href="/ezekiel/14-9.htm" title="And if the prophet be deceived when he has spoken a thing, I the LORD have deceived that prophet, and I will stretch out my hand on him, and will destroy him from the middle of my people Israel.">Ezekiel 14:9</a></span>; compare <span class="bld"><a href="/context/1_kings/22-21.htm" title="And there came forth a spirit, and stood before the LORD, and said, I will persuade him....">1 Kings 22:21-23</a> <a href="/2_thessalonians/2-11.htm" title="And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:">2 Thessalonians 2:11</a></span>; or possibly it may be read better by way of interrogation: q.d. How can it possibly be that thou shouldst suffer thy people to be thus deluded by their false prophets, <span class="bld"><a href="/numbers/23-19.htm" title="God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: has he said, and shall he not do it? or has he spoken, and shall he not make it good?">Numbers 23:19</a></span>, thou being a God that canst not lie? <span class="bld"><a href="/titus/1-2.htm" title="In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began;">Titus 1:2</a></span>. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="bld">Ye shall have peace:</span> under the word peace is comprised and intended all good, intimating all things should go on prosperously with them. <span class="bld"><a href="/genesis/37-14.htm" title="And he said to him, Go, I pray you, see whether it be well with your brothers, and well with the flocks; and bring me word again. So he sent him out of the vale of Hebron, and he came to Shechem.">Genesis 37:14</a></span>; and seems the rather to be thus expressed, because it was the common language and phrase of the false prophets, <span class="bld"><a href="/jeremiah/8-11.htm" title="For they have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.">Jeremiah 8:11</a> 23:17</span>. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="bld">Whereas the sword reacheth unto the soul:</span> to persuade them it should be well with them, when the sword is at the door, not only ready to take away the comforts of life, but even life itself, <span class="ital">soul</span> being put for <span class="ital">life</span>, <span class="bld"><a href="/jeremiah/4-30.htm" title="And when you are spoiled, what will you do? Though you clothe yourself with crimson, though you deck you with ornaments of gold, though you rend your face with painting, in vain shall you make yourself fair; your lovers will despise you, they will seek your life.">Jeremiah 4:30</a> <a href="/psalms/69-1.htm" title="Save me, O God; for the waters are come in to my soul.">Psalm 69:1</a> <a href="/matthew/16-25.htm" title="For whoever will save his life shall lose it: and whoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.">Matthew 16:25</a>,26</span>. It may intimate also a great cutting off and slaughter among them, especially their great ones; they being, as it were, the soul of the people. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><A name="11"></a> <div class="versenum"><a href="/jeremiah/4-11.htm">Jeremiah 4:11</a></div><div class="verse">At that time shall it be said to this people and to Jerusalem, A dry wind of the high places in the wilderness toward the daughter of my people, not to fan, nor to cleanse,</div> <span class="bld">At that time, </span> viz. when Nebuchadnezzar is upon this expedition, <span class="bld"><a href="/jeremiah/4-7.htm" title="The lion is come up from his thicket, and the destroyer of the Gentiles is on his way; he is gone forth from his place to make your land desolate; and your cities shall be laid waste, without an inhabitant.">Jeremiah 4:7</a></span>, shall it be said to this people and to Jerusalem; there shall be tidings brought both to the country and city, <span class="bld"><a href="/jeremiah/4-5.htm" title="Declare you in Judah, and publish in Jerusalem; and say, Blow you the trumpet in the land: cry, gather together, and say, Assemble yourselves, and let us go into the defended cities.">Jeremiah 4:5</a></span>. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="bld">A dry wind:</span> the meaning is, a drying wind, such as shall blast and scorch where it comes, without any rain or moisture, or any other way for use or refreshment, as the last word in the verse intimates; and it may also allude unto the coast from whence this wind comes, viz. from Babylon, or the north, which drives away rain, <span class="bld"><a href="/proverbs/25-23.htm" title="The north wind drives away rain: so does an angry countenance a backbiting tongue.">Proverbs 25:23</a></span>; for it points at the stormy and furious irruption of the Babylonian army, destroying all before them, a metaphorical allegory, <span class="bld"><a href="/jeremiah/23-19.htm" title="Behold, a whirlwind of the LORD is gone forth in fury, even a grievous whirlwind: it shall fall grievously on the head of the wicked.">Jeremiah 23:19</a> 30:23,24</span>. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="bld">In the wilderness; </span> or, in the plain, where there is no stop or obstacle in the way to hinder the wind, or to break its fury, <span class="bld"><a href="/isaiah/21-1.htm" title="The burden of the desert of the sea. As whirlwinds in the south pass through; so it comes from the desert, from a terrible land.">Isaiah 21:1</a> <a href="/jeremiah/13-24.htm" title="Therefore will I scatter them as the stubble that passes away by the wind of the wilderness.">Jeremiah 13:24</a></span>. <span class="bld">See Poole "<a href="/isaiah/63-13.htm" title="That led them through the deep, as an horse in the wilderness, that they should not stumble?">Isaiah 63:13</a>"</span>. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="bld">Toward, </span> i.e. directly and designedly, coming along in the way leading to my people; for so we are to understand this expression, <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="bld">the daughter of my people, </span> as the <span class="ital">daughter of Zion</span>, <span class="bld"><a href="/isaiah/1-8.htm" title="And the daughter of Zion is left as a cottage in a vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city.">Isaiah 1:8</a></span>, or rather, the <span class="ital">daughter Zion</span>, which is as comely and beautiful in my eyes and tender to me as a daughter, <span class="bld"><a href="/jeremiah/9-1.htm" title="Oh that my head were waters, and my eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!">Jeremiah 9:1</a></span>. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="bld">Not to fan, nor to cleanse; </span> not such a gentle wind which is made choice of to separate the chaff from the wheat, the bad from the good; but so boisterous and violent, that it shall depopulate, sweep away, and lay waste all together, <span class="bld"><a href="/jeremiah/51-1.htm" title="Thus said the LORD; Behold, I will raise up against Babylon, and against them that dwell in the middle of them that rise up against me, a destroying wind;">Jeremiah 51:1</a> <a href="/ezekiel/21-3.htm" title="And say to the land of Israel, Thus said the LORD; Behold, I am against you, and will draw forth my sword out of his sheath, and will cut off from you the righteous and the wicked.">Ezekiel 21:3</a></span>. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><A name="12"></a> <div class="versenum"><a href="/jeremiah/4-12.htm">Jeremiah 4:12</a></div><div class="verse"><i>Even</i> a full wind from those <i>places</i> shall come unto me: now also will I give sentence against them.</div> <span class="bld">A full wind from those places, </span> Heb. <span class="ital">fuller than they</span>. A wind too strong for them. This is a further description of the former wind; it shall be full, even a fuller wind, that shall do its work thoroughly. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="bld">Shall come unto me:</span> these are either God’s words: q. d. It shall presently come to me, to receive my commission, and be at my beck, and do my will, <span class="bld"><a href="/psalms/148-8.htm" title="Fire, and hail; snow, and vapors; stormy wind fulfilling his word:">Psalm 148:8</a></span>. Or they relate, as it were, what will be the language of the people at that time <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="bld">unto me, </span> for <span class="ital">against me.</span> <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="bld">Now also will I give sentence:</span> q.d. The coming of this terrible wind shall in effect speak the execution of my judgment upon them, which is pointed at by this word now, viz. at the time of the coming of this terrible storm from Chaldea. Heb. <span class="ital">utter judgment</span>, viz. not by word, but by deed; my judgments shall speak as well as my prophets. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><A name="13"></a> <div class="versenum"><a href="/jeremiah/4-13.htm">Jeremiah 4:13</a></div><div class="verse">Behold, he shall come up as clouds, and his chariots <i>shall be</i> as a whirlwind: his horses are swifter than eagles. Woe unto us! for we are spoiled.</div> <span class="bld">He shall come up as clouds; </span> either noting the vast number of them, <span class="bld"><a href="/isaiah/60-8.htm" title="Who are these that fly as a cloud, and as the doves to their windows?">Isaiah 60:8</a> <a href="/hebrews/12-1.htm" title="Why seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which does so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,">Hebrews 12:1</a></span>; or the suddenness of them, when not expected, clouds often rising on a sudden, and overspreading the whole face of the heavens; or rather, the great speed and swiftness with which Nebuchadnezzar shall march against them, <span class="bld"><a href="/isaiah/19-1.htm" title="The burden of Egypt. Behold, the LORD rides on a swift cloud, and shall come into Egypt: and the idols of Egypt shall be moved at his presence, and the heart of Egypt shall melt in the middle of it.">Isaiah 19:1</a></span>, hyperbolically described by the swiftness of eagles in this verse, <span class="bld"><a href="/jeremiah/48-8.htm" title="And the spoiler shall come on every city, and no city shall escape: the valley also shall perish, and the plain shall be destroyed, as the LORD has spoken.">Jeremiah 48:8</a></span>. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="bld">His chariots shall be as a whirlwind; </span> which beside the swiftness, notes also the confusion and amazement that they will cause, <span class="bld"><a href="/isaiah/66-15.htm" title="For, behold, the LORD will come with fire, and with his chariots like a whirlwind, to render his anger with fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire.">Isaiah 66:15</a></span>. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="bld">Woe unto us! for we are spoiled:</span> the dreadful apprehensions that the people have of their woeful condition, or possibly the words of the prophet lamenting their misery. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><A name="14"></a> <div class="versenum"><a href="/jeremiah/4-14.htm">Jeremiah 4:14</a></div><div class="verse">O Jerusalem, wash thine heart from wickedness, that thou mayest be saved. How long shall thy vain thoughts lodge within thee?</div> <span class="bld">O Jerusalem, wash thine heart; </span> cleanse your inward parts, O ye men of Jerusalem; not your hands only, as hypocrites do, but your hearts, <span class="bld"><a href="/james/4-8.htm" title="Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double minded.">Jam 4:8</a></span>. The same exhortation with <span class="bld"><a href="/jeremiah/4-3.htm" title="For thus said the LORD to the men of Judah and Jerusalem, Break up your fallow ground, and sow not among thorns.">Jeremiah 4:3</a>,4</span>, only in another metaphor of washing, which seems to be taken from such potions first physicians give to clear away the inward parts from noxious humours. See <span class="bld"><a href="/isaiah/1-16.htm" title="Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before my eyes; cease to do evil;">Isaiah 1:16</a>,17</span>. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="bld">From wickedness; </span> viz. from all filthiness of flesh and spirit, <span class="bld"><a href="/2_corinthians/7-1.htm" title="Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.">2 Corinthians 7:1</a> <a href="/james/1-21.htm" title="Why lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.">Jam 1:21</a></span>. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="bld">That thou mayest be saved:</span> this hath reference in this place to temporal salvation; it is prescribed as a means to prevent the judgments that are impending on them, as is plainly expressed, <span class="bld"><a href="/jeremiah/4-4.htm" title="Circumcise yourselves to the LORD, and take away the foreskins of your heart, you men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem: lest my fury come forth like fire, and burn that none can quench it, because of the evil of your doings.">Jeremiah 4:4</a></span>, yet not exclusive of spiritual salvation, <span class="bld"><a href="/2_thessalonians/2-13.htm" title="But we are bound to give thanks always to God for you, brothers beloved of the Lord, because God has from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth:">2 Thessalonians 2:13</a> <a href="/titus/3-5.htm" title="Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;">Titus 3:5</a></span>. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="bld">Vain thoughts; </span> wicked thoughts, or rather hopes or expectation from any helps, <span class="bld"><a href="/jeremiah/2-5.htm" title="Thus said the LORD, What iniquity have your fathers found in me, that they are gone far from me, and have walked after vanity, and are become vain?">Jeremiah 2:5</a>,37</span>; pleasing thyself with vain fancies of safety and security, which thoughts of thine will assuredly bring ruin and misery upon thee, which is inevitably coming, as in the next verse. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><A name="15"></a> <div class="versenum"><a href="/jeremiah/4-15.htm">Jeremiah 4:15</a></div><div class="verse">For a voice declareth from Dan, and publisheth affliction from mount Ephraim.</div> <span class="bld">A voice, </span> i.e. either the voice of the prophets, that is still sounding it in your ears, and declaring it unto you; or rather, the rumour and noise of this army is already come through your land; you have the heavy tidings of this great affliction, <span class="bld"><a href="/jeremiah/8-16.htm" title="The snorting of his horses was heard from Dan: the whole land trembled at the sound of the neighing of his strong ones; for they are come, and have devoured the land, and all that is in it; the city, and those that dwell therein.">Jeremiah 8:16</a></span>, to note the near approach of it. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="bld">Declareth from Dan:</span> this is said to come from Dan and Ephraim, because Dan was the first place these Chaldeans must come to, it being the utmost boundary of Canaan northward, and Ephraim the innermost border of Israel in the north of Judea, intimating the march of the Babylonians through all Israel toward Jerusalem. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><A name="16"></a> <div class="versenum"><a href="/jeremiah/4-16.htm">Jeremiah 4:16</a></div><div class="verse">Make ye mention to the nations; behold, publish against Jerusalem, <i>that</i> watchers come from a far country, and give out their voice against the cities of Judah.</div> <span class="bld">Make ye mention to the nations:</span> these are either the nations in Judea; or these words are a proclamation, summoning in the nations by the Chaldeans, as it were, in pursuance of a commission from God, to bring great armies together against Jerusalem; or they are the prophets turning away from Judah, as despairing of doing any good upon them, and calling for the nations to execute God’s sentence. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="bld">Publish; </span> let her be acquainted with what is coming upon her, let her have public notice beforehand, that she may be warned. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="bld">Watchers; </span> military watchers, i.e. the Chaldean soldiers, that shall so carefully and watchfully encompass Jerusalem, that none shall escape; possibly a metaphor from hunters, that in hunting their prey lay wait at every passage, that the game may not escape. See <span class="bld"><a href="/2_kings/25-4.htm" title="And the city was broken up, and all the men of war fled by night by the way of the gate between two walls, which is by the king's garden: (now the Chaldees were against the city round about:) and the king went the way toward the plain.">2 Kings 25:4</a>,5</span>. Or possibly there may be an allusion to Nebuchadnezzar’s name; the Hebrew word for watchers being <span class="ital">notscrim</span>, which comes from <span class="ital">natser</span>, the end of his name, as if they were termed Nebuchadnezzartans, as the keepers or guards of his person; as they were called Caesarcans from Caesar. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="bld">Come; </span> they are now at hand, you may as it were see them. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="bld">From a far country; </span> from Chaldea. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="bld">Give out their voice; </span> they will proclaim war against them; or a shout, either encouraging soldiers to the battle, or triumphing after the victory; or the outcries that they will make, such as the Turks now make in their onsets, <span class="bld"><a href="/jeremiah/2-15.htm" title="The young lions roared on him, and yelled, and they made his land waste: his cities are burned without inhabitant.">Jeremiah 2:15</a></span>. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><A name="17"></a> <div class="versenum"><a href="/jeremiah/4-17.htm">Jeremiah 4:17</a></div><div class="verse">As keepers of a field, are they against her round about; because she hath been rebellious against me, saith the LORD.</div> They will strictly besiege her, as keepers of a field will be careful who go in and who go out, <span class="bld"><a href="/zechariah/12-2.htm" title="Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling to all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem.">Zechariah 12:2</a></span>; they will watch that none go in to relieve them, and also that none get out to escape: see <span class="bld"><a href="/2_chronicles/16-1.htm" title="In the six and thirtieth year of the reign of Asa Baasha king of Israel came up against Judah, and built Ramah, to the intent that he might let none go out or come in to Asa king of Judah.">2 Chronicles 16:1</a></span>. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="bld">Because she hath been rebellious:</span> God doth not threaten his judgments only, but he labours to convince them that there is a sufficient reason for it, both here and in the next verse. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><A name="18"></a> <div class="versenum"><a href="/jeremiah/4-18.htm">Jeremiah 4:18</a></div><div class="verse">Thy way and thy doings have procured these <i>things</i> unto thee; this <i>is</i> thy wickedness, because it is bitter, because it reacheth unto thine heart.</div> <span class="bld">Thy way; </span> thy manner of life, and particularly thy idolatries. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="bld">Have procured these things unto thee:</span> q.d. Thou canst not lay any blame upon me. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="bld">This is thy wickedness, because it is bitter; </span> thy wickedness hath been the cause of this thy grievous affliction, <span class="bld"><a href="/isaiah/1-1.htm" title="The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.">Isaiah 1:1</a> <a href="/jeremiah/2-17.htm" title="Have you not procured this to yourself, in that you have forsaken the LORD your God, when he led you by the way?">Jeremiah 2:17</a>,19</span>, of this thy bitterness of bringing such a bitter enemy against thee, a metonymy of the efficient, which hath reached unto thy very heart, as the sword is said to reach unto the soul, <span class="bld"><a href="/jeremiah/4-10.htm" title="Then said I, Ah, Lord GOD! surely you have greatly deceived this people and Jerusalem, saying, You shall have peace; whereas the sword reaches to the soul.">Jeremiah 4:10</a></span>. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><A name="19"></a> <div class="versenum"><a href="/jeremiah/4-19.htm">Jeremiah 4:19</a></div><div class="verse">My bowels, my bowels! I am pained at my very heart; my heart maketh a noise in me; I cannot hold my peace, because thou hast heard, O my soul, the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war.</div> <span class="bld">My bowels, my bowels!</span> here begins the woeful complaint of, and the great trouble the prophet was in, upon the consideration of these things, crying out as one even under great pain and torment, doubling his words for want of vent, thereby expressing the excess of his sorrow, which in words was inexpressible; the like <span class="bld"><a href="/2_samuel/18-33.htm" title="And the king was much moved, and went up to the chamber over the gate, and wept: and as he went, thus he said, O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! would God I had died for you, O Absalom, my son, my son!">2 Samuel 18:33</a></span>; which sorrow of his he expresseth <span class="bld"><a href="/jeremiah/9-1.htm" title="Oh that my head were waters, and my eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!">Jeremiah 9:1</a>,10</span>. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="bld">I am pained at my very heart, </span> Heb. <span class="ital">the walls of my heart</span>; or, my heartstrings, that surrounded and encompassed my heart, are ready to break. He may possibly allude to their encompassing the walls of Jerusalem. Or the proper meaning is, my heart is ready to break; the LXX. rendereth it <span class="ital">doth beat or pant. Maketh a noise</span>; is disturbed within me, I can have no rest nor quiet within, <span class="bld"><a href="/job/30-27.htm" title="My bowels boiled, and rested not: the days of affliction prevented me.">Job 30:27</a> <a href="/lamentations/1-20.htm" title="Behold, O LORD; for I am in distress: my bowels are troubled; my heart is turned within me; for I have grievously rebelled: abroad the sword bereaves, at home there is as death.">Lamentations 1:20</a></span>. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="bld">I cannot hold my peace; </span> I cannot forbear my complaints, I am so troubled and grieved, <span class="bld"><a href="/job/7-11.htm" title="Therefore I will not refrain my mouth; I will speak in the anguish of my spirit; I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.">Job 7:11</a> <a href="/isaiah/22-4.htm" title="Therefore said I, Look away from me; I will weep bitterly, labor not to comfort me, because of the spoiling of the daughter of my people.">Isaiah 22:4</a></span>. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="bld">Because thou hast heard, O my soul, the sound of the trumpet, </span> i.e. I have heard in the spirit of prophecy; it is as certain as if I now heard the trumpet sounding, and the alarm of war beating up. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><A name="20"></a> <div class="versenum"><a href="/jeremiah/4-20.htm">Jeremiah 4:20</a></div><div class="verse">Destruction upon destruction is cried; for the whole land is spoiled: suddenly are my tents spoiled, <i>and</i> my curtains in a moment.</div> <span class="bld">Destruction upon destruction; </span> a further expression of his bitter lamentation, redoubling his complaint; the end of one, but the beginning of another; q.d. worse and worse, <span class="bld"><a href="/deuteronomy/32-23.htm" title="I will heap mischiefs on them; I will spend my arrows on them.">Deu 32:23</a> <a href="/ezekiel/7-26.htm" title="Mischief shall come on mischief, and rumor shall be on rumor; then shall they seek a vision of the prophet; but the law shall perish from the priest, and counsel from the ancients.">Ezekiel 7:26</a></span>; good Josiah slain, and four of his successors carried away or slain, or both, <span class="bld">2 Chronicles 36</span>. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="bld">The whole-land is spoiled:</span> this is more particularly described <span class="bld"><a href="/context/jeremiah/4-23.htm" title="I beheld the earth, and, see, it was without form, and void; and the heavens, and they had no light....">Jeremiah 4:23-26</a></span>. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="bld">Suddenly are my tents spoiled; </span> the enemy makes no more of overthrowing my stately cities and magnificent palaces, sometimes described by tents, <span class="bld"><a href="/isaiah/54-2.htm" title="Enlarge the place of your tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of your habitations: spare not, lengthen your cords, and strengthen your stakes;">Isaiah 54:2</a></span>, than if he were plundering of a camp, or overturning of tents made of curtains, <span class="bld"><a href="/jeremiah/49-29.htm" title="Their tents and their flocks shall they take away: they shall take to themselves their curtains, and all their vessels, and their camels; and they shall cry to them, Fear is on every side.">Jeremiah 49:29</a></span>; either alluding to their ancient way of living, <span class="bld"><a href="/numbers/24-2.htm" title="And Balaam lifted up his eyes, and he saw Israel abiding in his tents according to their tribes; and the spirit of God came on him.">Numbers 24:2</a>,5</span>, or their wilderness condition, when they abode in tents: q.d. We are reduced to as mean a condition as then, and that suddenly, ere we are aware, and it is done with as much ease as overturning a poor shepherd’s cottage, <span class="bld"><a href="/lamentations/2-5.htm" title="The LORD was as an enemy: he has swallowed up Israel, he has swallowed up all her palaces: he has destroyed his strong holds, and has increased in the daughter of Judah mourning and lamentation.">Lamentations 2:5</a>,6</span>. Jeremiah possibly personating a shepherd, speaks in the shepherd’s style, and may here signify the destruction of their whole country, even all those places and fields where shepherds were wont to pitch their tents. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><A name="21"></a> <div class="versenum"><a href="/jeremiah/4-21.htm">Jeremiah 4:21</a></div><div class="verse">How long shall I see the standard, <i>and</i> hear the sound of the trumpet?</div> He seems to have these concomitants of war, both of Judea preparing for defence, and especially these of the enemy preparing for ruin and destruction. always in his eye and ear, <span class="bld"><a href="/jeremiah/4-19.htm" title="My bowels, my bowels! I am pained at my very heart; my heart makes a noise in me; I cannot hold my peace, because you have heard, O my soul, the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war.">Jeremiah 4:19</a></span>, and bewailing the continuance of it in taking city after city, with the several sackings of Jerusalem under her three last kings. The LXX. read, <span class="ital">How long shall I see them flying</span>? reading <span class="ital">nas, a refuge</span>, for <span class="ital">nes</span>, a banner, differing only in the points. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><A name="22"></a> <div class="versenum"><a href="/jeremiah/4-22.htm">Jeremiah 4:22</a></div><div class="verse">For my people <i>is</i> foolish, they have not known me; they <i>are</i> sottish children, and they have none understanding: they <i>are</i> wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge.</div> <span class="bld">For my people is foolish:</span> though God show them here that the cause of all these calamities is their folly, <span class="bld"><a href="/jeremiah/2-17.htm" title="Have you not procured this to yourself, in that you have forsaken the LORD your God, when he led you by the way?">Jeremiah 2:17</a>,19 Psa 38:3,5</span>, yet he owns them for his people, <span class="bld"><a href="/jeremiah/2-11.htm" title="Has a nation changed their gods, which are yet no gods? but my people have changed their glory for that which does not profit.">Jeremiah 2:11</a>,31,32</span>. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="bld">They have not known me; </span> which is indeed the only true wisdom; they have not studied my disposition or mildness toward them; they are so sottish, that they have neither regarded my counsels nor threats, but utterly stupid; they know not what is for their own good, have no understanding. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="bld">They have no knowledge, </span> i.e. their knowledge is as bad or worse than none, it is very ill employed in doing evil, only witty here, crafty and subtle. See <span class="bld"><a href="/2_samuel/13-3.htm" title="But Amnon had a friend, whose name was Jonadab, the son of Shimeah David's brother: and Jonadab was a very subtle man.">2 Samuel 13:3</a></span>. But how to do any good they know not, <span class="bld"><a href="/jeremiah/9-3.htm" title="And they bend their tongues like their bow for lies: but they are not valiant for the truth on the earth; for they proceed from evil to evil, and they know not me, said the LORD.">Jeremiah 9:3</a> <a href="/luke/16-8.htm" title="And the lord commended the unjust steward, because he had done wisely: for the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light.">Luke 16:8</a></span>: this the apostle dehorts from, <span class="bld"><a href="/1_corinthians/14-20.htm" title="Brothers, be not children in understanding: however, in malice be you children, but in understanding be men.">1 Corinthians 14:20</a></span>. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><A name="23"></a> <div class="versenum"><a href="/jeremiah/4-23.htm">Jeremiah 4:23</a></div><div class="verse">I beheld the earth, and, lo, <i>it was</i> without form, and void; and the heavens, and they <i>had</i> no light.</div> <span class="bld">I beheld; </span> either I Jeremiah saw all this in a vision, or I fancied and framed such an <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="bld">idea</span> of it in my mind; it seems to be impressed upon my thoughts <span class="ital">graphically, </span> as in a map, in such a rueful manner; for in this and the three following verses he doth, as one transported with sorrow, elegantly and hyperbolically describe the <span class="ital">phaenomenon</span>, face or appearance of it. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="bld">It was without form and void; </span> the land was so squalid and so ruined, that he fancieth it to be like the first chaos, for which reason possibly he calls Judea the earth, in allusion to <span class="bld"><a href="/genesis/1-2.htm" title="And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved on the face of the waters.">Genesis 1:2</a></span>; and herein implying that Judah’s sins were such, that they had even overturned the course of nature, being laid waste and desolate, not of inhabitants only, but of all things that might tend either to ornament or use, without men, without houses, without fruits, without beasts or birds for food or service, <span class="bld"><a href="/jeremiah/4-25.htm" title="I beheld, and, see, there was no man, and all the birds of the heavens were fled.">Jeremiah 4:25</a>,26</span>. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="bld">They had no light; </span> some say being obnubilated and darkened by the abundance of smoke that would ascend from the desolating fires of towns and cities, <span class="bld"><a href="/isaiah/9-18.htm" title="For wickedness burns as the fire: it shall devour the briers and thorns, and shall kindle in the thickets of the forest, and they shall mount up like the lifting up of smoke.">Isaiah 9:18</a>,19</span>, of which you may read in the history of this breaking in of the Chaldeans. But he seems to proceed rather in his metaphor of the chaos, it being an expression whereby the Scripture doth set forth the saddest desolations, <span class="bld"><a href="/isaiah/13-9.htm" title="Behold, the day of the LORD comes, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it.">Isaiah 13:9</a></span>, &c.; <span class="bld"><a href="/ezekiel/32-7.htm" title="And when I shall put you out, I will cover the heaven, and make the stars thereof dark; I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon shall not give her light.">Ezekiel 32:7</a></span>, &c.; <span class="bld"><a href="/joel/2-10.htm" title="The earth shall quake before them; the heavens shall tremble: the sun and the moon shall be dark, and the stars shall withdraw their shining:">Joel 2:10</a>,30,31</span>; every thing above and below seemed to be in a mournful posture, wrapt up in dismal blackness. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><A name="24"></a> <div class="versenum"><a href="/jeremiah/4-24.htm">Jeremiah 4:24</a></div><div class="verse">I beheld the mountains, and, lo, they trembled, and all the hills moved lightly.</div> He proceeds in his figurative elegancies: q.d. Behold how the mountains of Judea tremble! a like expression <span class="bld"><a href="/psalms/18-7.htm" title="Then the earth shook and trembled; the foundations also of the hills moved and were shaken, because he was wroth.">Psalm 18:7</a>,8 Isa 5:25</span>; as if the very senseless creatures were astonished at the greatness of God’s anger; and he mentions these as being the most stable part of the earth, yet shake before him. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="bld">All the hills moved lightly; </span> as easily as if they were some very light matter, or as dust or feathers in a whirlwind. See <span class="bld"><a href="/psalms/114-4.htm" title="The mountains skipped like rams, and the little hills like lambs.">Psalm 114:4</a>,6</span>. Or these may be said hyperbolically to tremble and move by reason of the multitudes of trampling and prancing horses and chariots furiously passing over them. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><A name="25"></a> <div class="versenum"><a href="/jeremiah/4-25.htm">Jeremiah 4:25</a></div><div class="verse">I beheld, and, lo, <i>there was</i> no man, and all the birds of the heavens were fled.</div> <span class="bld">There was no man; </span> quite depopulated and laid waste, all either slain, or carried captive, or fled; for after the flight of men, women, and children into Egypt, upon the death of Gedaliah, scarce a Jew was left in Judea. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="bld">All the birds of the heavens were fled; </span> such birds as are used to inhabited places, that live, feed, and build among men; (others indeed, both birds and beasts, would continue, which implies but the greater desolation and waste of the land, as is threatened against Babylon, <span class="bld"><a href="/context/isaiah/13-19.htm" title="And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees' excellency, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah....">Isaiah 13:19-22</a></span>) <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="bld">fled, </span> either to seek provisions, here being no food left for them, or frighted with the hideous noises and clatterings that do attend armies; as we have read, that such hath been the concussion of the air by the loud clamours and noises of armies, that birds have fallen down to the earth, <span class="bld"><a href="/jeremiah/9-10.htm" title="For the mountains will I take up a weeping and wailing, and for the habitations of the wilderness a lamentation, because they are burned up, so that none can pass through them; neither can men hear the voice of the cattle; both the fowl of the heavens and the beast are fled; they are gone.">Jeremiah 9:10</a> <a href="/zephaniah/1-2.htm" title="I will utterly consume all things from off the land, said the LORD.">Zephaniah 1:2</a>,3</span>. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><A name="26"></a> <div class="versenum"><a href="/jeremiah/4-26.htm">Jeremiah 4:26</a></div><div class="verse">I beheld, and, lo, the fruitful place <i>was</i> a wilderness, and all the cities thereof were broken down at the presence of the LORD, <i>and</i> by his fierce anger.</div> <span class="bld">The fruitful place, </span> Heb. <span class="ital">Carmel</span>, either properly, for that part of the land so called for its fruitfulness; or rather appellatively, for not only their most pleasant, but most fruitful lands, that were kept dressed and occupied for food, both for necessity and delight, <span class="bld"><a href="/jeremiah/4-27.htm" title="For thus has the LORD said, The whole land shall be desolate; yet will I not make a full end.">Jeremiah 4:27</a> <a href="/isaiah/29-17.htm" title="Is it not yet a very little while, and Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field, and the fruitful field shall be esteemed as a forest?">Isaiah 29:17</a> 33:9</span>. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="bld">All the cities thereof were broken down; </span> no place left for men to inhabit, <span class="bld"><a href="/isaiah/1-7.htm" title="Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire: your land, strangers devour it in your presence, and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers.">Isaiah 1:7</a></span>. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="bld">By his fierce anger; </span> that which the enemy could not have done with all his fury and fierceness, had it not been for the anger of the Lord, which by their great provocation they had brought upon them. selves, <span class="bld"><a href="/2_kings/24-3.htm" title="Surely at the commandment of the LORD came this on Judah, to remove them out of his sight, for the sins of Manasseh, according to all that he did;">2 Kings 24:3</a> <a href="/jeremiah/9-12.htm" title="Who is the wise man, that may understand this? and who is he to whom the mouth of the LORD has spoken, that he may declare it, for what the land perishes and is burned up like a wilderness, that none passes through?">Jeremiah 9:12</a>,13</span>. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><A name="27"></a> <div class="versenum"><a href="/jeremiah/4-27.htm">Jeremiah 4:27</a></div><div class="verse">For thus hath the LORD said, The whole land shall be desolate; yet will I not make a full end.</div> Some expound it, Neither shall this punishment suffice, nor my fury stop here; I will not thus have done with them; and so look to what they were further to endure in their long captivity. See <span class="bld"><a href="/leviticus/26-36.htm" title="And on them that are left alive of you I will send a faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies; and the sound of a shaken leaf shall chase them; and they shall flee, as fleeing from a sword; and they shall fall when none pursues.">Leviticus 26:36</a>,39</span>. But it seems rather to be a word of comfort, that they shall not be utterly extinct, he will preserve a remnant, <span class="bld"><a href="/jeremiah/5-10.htm" title="Go you up on her walls, and destroy; but make not a full end: take away her battlements; for they are not the LORD's.">Jeremiah 5:10</a> <a href="/isaiah/1-9.htm" title="Except the LORD of hosts had left to us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like to Gomorrah.">Isaiah 1:9</a> 24:13</span>: q.d. Though I am greatly moved with anger, yet I will not be inexorable, I will remember my covenant, <span class="bld"><a href="/jeremiah/30-11.htm" title="For I am with you, said the LORD, to save you: though I make a full end of all nations where I have scattered you, yet I will not make a full end of you: but I will correct you in measure, and will not leave you altogether unpunished.">Jeremiah 30:11</a></span>: in the midst of judgment he will remember mercy; after seventy years’ captivity he brought them back again. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><A name="28"></a> <div class="versenum"><a href="/jeremiah/4-28.htm">Jeremiah 4:28</a></div><div class="verse">For this shall the earth mourn, and the heavens above be black: because I have spoken <i>it</i>, I have purposed <i>it</i>, and will not repent, neither will I turn back from it.</div> <span class="bld">For this shall the earth mourn, and the heavens above be black; </span> expressions to set forth the dreadfulness of the judgment; he makes the elements to personate mourners, a sad face of things above and below, a metaphor, and therein to shame the stupidity of his people. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="bld">Because I have spoken it:</span> q.d. You would not believe either that my prophets spake, or what they said; now I tell you I speak myself, and what I have resolved upon I will not revoke; see <span class="bld"><a href="/ezekiel/24-13.htm" title="In your filthiness is lewdness: because I have purged you, and you were not purged, you shall not be purged from your filthiness any more, till I have caused my fury to rest on you.">Ezekiel 24:13</a>,14</span>, and <span class="bld"><a href="/jeremiah/15-6.htm" title="You have forsaken me, said the LORD, you are gone backward: therefore will I stretch out my hand against you, and destroy you; I am weary with repenting.">Jeremiah 15:6</a></span>; for I have purposed it; I have not spoken in my heat or fury, but upon mature deliberation; an anthropopathy; or, what the prophets have denounced I will ratify. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><A name="29"></a> <div class="versenum"><a href="/jeremiah/4-29.htm">Jeremiah 4:29</a></div><div class="verse">The whole city shall flee for the noise of the horsemen and bowmen; they shall go into thickets, and climb up upon the rocks: every city <i>shall be</i> forsaken, and not a man dwell therein.</div> <span class="bld">The whole city shall flee; </span> the inhabitants of all ranks and qualities shall seek to escape the fury of this Chaldean army, <span class="bld"><a href="/jeremiah/39-4.htm" title="And it came to pass, that when Zedekiah the king of Judah saw them, and all the men of war, then they fled, and went forth out of the city by night, by the way of the king's garden, by the gate between the two walls: and he went out the way of the plain.">Jeremiah 39:4</a></span>. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="bld">For the noise; </span> either upon the report of their coming, hereby as it were deriding their confidence; or rather at the approach of their vast armies, for they were close besieged before they fled, as appears, <span class="bld"><a href="/2_kings/25-4.htm" title="And the city was broken up, and all the men of war fled by night by the way of the gate between two walls, which is by the king's garden: (now the Chaldees were against the city round about:) and the king went the way toward the plain.">2 Kings 25:4</a></span>. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="bld">They shall go into thickets, and climb up upon the rocks; </span> such a consternation there shall be upon them, that they shall run into every hole to hide themselves: thus Manasseh was taken among the thorns, <span class="bld"><a href="/2_chronicles/33-11.htm" title="Why the LORD brought on them the captains of the host of the king of Assyria, which took Manasseh among the thorns, and bound him with fetters, and carried him to Babylon.">2 Chronicles 33:11</a></span>. The Hebrew is <span class="ital">abim</span>, the <span class="ital">clouds</span>, possibly alluding to dark places on the tops of hills, reaching as it were to the clouds, or among the cloudy shades of trees and groves that usually grew there. The LXX. render it <span class="ital">caves</span>, and so the rocks for shelter, or the clefts, caves, and hiding-places in the rocks. See <span class="bld"><a href="/isaiah/2-21.htm" title="To go into the clefts of the rocks, and into the tops of the ragged rocks, for fear of the LORD, and for the glory of his majesty, when he rises to shake terribly the earth.">Isaiah 2:21</a></span>. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="bld">Every city shall be forsaken, </span> and not a man dwell therein; there shall be an utter desolation, their cities quite forsaken, not any to inhabit them, <span class="bld"><a href="/jeremiah/4-25.htm" title="I beheld, and, see, there was no man, and all the birds of the heavens were fled.">Jeremiah 4:25</a>,26</span>. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><A name="30"></a> <div class="versenum"><a href="/jeremiah/4-30.htm">Jeremiah 4:30</a></div><div class="verse">And <i>when</i> thou <i>art</i> spoiled, what wilt thou do? Though thou clothest thyself with crimson, though thou deckest thee with ornaments of gold, though thou rentest thy face with painting, in vain shalt thou make thyself fair; <i>thy</i> lovers will despise thee, they will seek thy life.</div> <span class="bld">When thou art spoiled; </span> which will certainly come upon thee; or when this destruction shall come upon thee, which is very near thee. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="bld">What wilt thou do?</span> viz. when thou, O daughter of Zion, as <span class="bld"><a href="/jeremiah/4-31.htm" title="For I have heard a voice as of a woman in travail, and the anguish as of her that brings forth her first child, the voice of the daughter of Zion, that mourns herself, that spreads her hands, saying, Woe is me now! for my soul is wearied because of murderers.">Jeremiah 4:31</a></span>, art besieged by the Babylonians, what course wilt thou take? It is not to be avoided. A kind of an insulting way of speech, as it were upbraiding them with their pride and confidence: q.d. Your condition is desperate. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="bld">Crimson, </span> or scarlet, <span class="bld"><a href="/2_samuel/1-24.htm" title="You daughters of Israel, weep over Saul, who clothed you in scarlet, with other delights, who put on ornaments of gold on your apparel.">2 Samuel 1:24</a></span>: see on <span class="bld">See Poole "<a href="/isaiah/1-18.htm" title="Come now, and let us reason together, said the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.">Isaiah 1:18</a>"</span>. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="bld">Though thou deckest thee with ornaments; </span> though thou dost superinduce those ornaments, or jewels of gold, that may reader thy attire the most rich and splendid, <span class="bld"><a href="/2_samuel/1-24.htm" title="You daughters of Israel, weep over Saul, who clothed you in scarlet, with other delights, who put on ornaments of gold on your apparel.">2 Samuel 1:24</a></span>. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="bld">Though thou rentest thy face with painting:</span> it is observed that they that paint much make their skins withered. <span class="ital">Face</span>, Heb. <span class="ital">eyes</span>, the wantonness thereof being possibly set out more by painting; see <span class="bld"><a href="/isaiah/3-16.htm" title="Moreover the LORD said, Because the daughters of Zion are haughty, and walk with stretched forth necks and wanton eyes, walking and mincing as they go, and making a tinkling with their feet:">Isaiah 3:16</a></span>; or rather, face and eyes, being sometimes put one for the other see <span class="bld"><a href="/1_samuel/16-12.htm" title="And he sent, and brought him in. Now he was ruddy, and with of a beautiful countenance, and goodly to look to. And the LORD said, Arise, anoint him: for this is he.">1 Samuel 16:12</a> <a href="/isaiah/25-8.htm" title="He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth: for the LORD has spoken it.">Isaiah 25:8</a></span>, compared with <span class="bld"><a href="/revelation/21-4.htm" title="And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.">Revelation 21:4</a></span>. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="bld">In vain shalt thou make thyself fair; </span> all thy tricking up thyself, thinking thereby to ingratiate thyself with the Chaldeans, will be to no purpose, for they will work thy ruin, as in the close of the verse, and <span class="bld"><a href="/jeremiah/19-7.htm" title="And I will make void the counsel of Judah and Jerusalem in this place; and I will cause them to fall by the sword before their enemies, and by the hands of them that seek their lives: and their carcasses will I give to be meat for the fowls of the heaven, and for the beasts of the earth.">Jeremiah 19:7</a></span>. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="bld">Thy lovers will despise thee; </span> they will slight thee more than ever; they that have doted on time, thy unchaste paramours, their lust being satisfied, shall abhor thee; see <span class="bld"><a href="/2_samuel/13-15.htm" title="Then Amnon hated her exceedingly; so that the hatred with which he hated her was greater than the love with which he had loved her. And Amnon said to her, Arise, be gone.">2 Samuel 13:15</a></span>; and the pronoun, being not in the original, it may signify that no lovers at all will look after thee; thou shalt be cast off by all. See thus of Tyre, <span class="bld"><a href="/isaiah/23-15.htm" title="And it shall come to pass in that day, that Tyre shall be forgotten seventy years, according to the days of one king: after the end of seventy years shall Tyre sing as an harlot.">Isaiah 23:15</a>,16</span>. Those that were in confederacy with thee, and thy professed friends, <span class="bld"><a href="/hosea/2-5.htm" title="For their mother has played the harlot: she that conceived them has done shamefully: for she said, I will go after my lovers, that give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink.">Hosea 2:5</a></span>, shall not only forsake time, but join with thine enemies to destroy thee, <span class="bld"><a href="/lamentations/1-2.htm" title="She weeps sore in the night, and her tears are on her cheeks: among all her lovers she has none to comfort her: all her friends have dealt treacherously with her, they are become her enemies.">Lamentations 1:2</a></span>. And thus is Babylon to be dealt withal, <span class="bld"><a href="/revelation/17-16.htm" title="And the ten horns which you saw on the beast, these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire.">Revelation 17:16</a>,17</span>. The sense is, That notwithstanding all thy allurings and enticements, either to obtain the help of thy friends and allies the Egyptians, whom thou takest to be thy lovers, and didst forsake me to cleave to them, or to stop the fury of thine enemies, the Chaldeans; (possibly alluding to Jezebel’s practice, in painting herself to stop the fury of Jehu, <span class="bld"><a href="/2_kings/9-30.htm" title="And when Jehu was come to Jezreel, Jezebel heard of it; and she painted her face, and tired her head, and looked out at a window.">2 Kings 9:30</a></span> O yet shall it advantage thee nothing; thou shalt be no more regarded than a forsaken strumpet, <span class="bld"><a href="/ezekiel/16-36.htm" title="Thus said the Lord GOD; Because your filthiness was poured out, and your nakedness discovered through your prostitutions with your lovers, and with all the idols of your abominations, and by the blood of your children, which you did give to them;">Ezekiel 16:36</a>,37 Eze 23</span><A name="31"></a> <div class="versenum"><a href="/jeremiah/4-31.htm">Jeremiah 4:31</a></div><div class="verse">For I have heard a voice as of a woman in travail, <i>and</i> the anguish as of her that bringeth forth her first child, the voice of the daughter of Zion, <i>that</i> bewaileth herself, <i>that</i> spreadeth her hands, <i>saying</i>, Woe <i>is</i> me now! for my soul is wearied because of murderers.</div> <span class="bld">A voice as of a woman in travail:</span> when the Scripture would express any exquisite sorrow, exceeding all other pains, it doth it by a woman in travail, <span class="bld"><a href="/isaiah/13-8.htm" title="And they shall be afraid: pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them; they shall be in pain as a woman that travails: they shall be amazed one at another; their faces shall be as flames.">Isaiah 13:8</a>,9 Jer 6:24 30:6,7</span>. <span class="ital">The anguish as of her that bringeth forth her first child</span>, which of all seems to be the most painful, both from natural causes, and because they have less patience to bear, having not had former experience of the like. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="bld">The daughter of Zion, </span> viz. Jerusalem, <span class="bld"><a href="/isaiah/1-8.htm" title="And the daughter of Zion is left as a cottage in a vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city.">Isaiah 1:8</a></span>. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="bld">That spreadeth her hands; </span> in her great distress she either reacheth them out to God for some help, <span class="bld"><a href="/isaiah/1-15.htm" title="And when you spread forth your hands, I will hide my eyes from you: yes, when you make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood.">Isaiah 1:15</a></span>; or rather, according to the use of persons in great anguish, clapping or wringing their hands together, as both the former expression of bewailing herself, fetching of deep sighs and lamentations, and the following <span class="ital">woe is me</span>, intimates. See <span class="bld"><a href="/jeremiah/2-37.htm" title="Yes, you shall go forth from him, and your hands on your head: for the LORD has rejected your confidences, and you shall not prosper in them.">Jeremiah 2:37</a></span>. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="bld">Woe is me now!</span> or, the time of my woe is at hand; it draws near. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="bld">My soul is wearied because of murderers; </span> there is no more spirit left within me, I am ready to sink under my distress, considering not only that my destruction is so near, but that those of whom I have been so fond, and whose idols I have so zealously served, should become my murderers, <span class="bld"><a href="/jeremiah/4-30.htm" title="And when you are spoiled, what will you do? Though you clothe yourself with crimson, though you deck you with ornaments of gold, though you rend your face with painting, in vain shall you make yourself fair; your lovers will despise you, they will seek your life.">Jeremiah 4:30</a></span>, and that I should fall into the hands of such as will have no compassion, <span class="bld"><a href="/2_chronicles/36-17.htm" title="Therefore he brought on them the king of the Chaldees, who slew their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion on young man or maiden, old man, or him that stooped for age: he gave them all into his hand.">2 Chronicles 36:17</a></span>. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><div id="botbox"><div class="padbot"><div align="center">Matthew Poole's Commentary<br /><br />Text Courtesy of <a href="//biblesupport.com" target="_top">BibleSupport.com</a>. 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