Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadLange Commentary - Jeremiah 29:24 - 29:32
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Jer_29:24-32
Jer_29:24-28. Thus shalt thou … eat the fruit of them. We might indeed translate àֵì here, as in Jer_29:16; Jer_29:21, of [Shemaiah] instead of to, but Jer_29:25 contains a direct address to Shemaiah. Neither he nor his birth-place is mentioned elsewhere.—The letter, communicated in Jer_29:26-28, is addressed specially to the priest Zephaniah. When notwithstanding, in Jer_29:25, letters are spoken of which were addressed to all the prophets and all the priests besides Zephaniah, this may be explained in two ways; either there really were letters with the three addresses mentioned, the principal letter only being communicated to Zephaniah; or this letter was the only one, but designated in Jer_29:25 as intended to be communicated to a wider circle. Both explanations are grammatically possible. For letters ( ñôøéí ) may be a general plural. (Comp. ôֹèåֹú , yokes, Jer_28:13 and Isa_37:14; Isa_39:1).—Zephaniah, the son of Maaseiah, was ëֹּäֵï îִùְׁðֶä , second priest, Jer_52:24. Comp. Jer_21:1 and Jer_37:3.—Officers ( ô÷éãéí ). This also might in itself be a general plural, if the mention of the predecessor did not require us to refer it to both officers.—That is mad. Here the expression involves an insult to Jeremiah. Zephaniah was not to restrain all those who prophesied, but only those who were deranged and presumed to prophesy, and Jeremiah is reckoned among these.—In prison. Comp. Jer_30:2.—This is long. By this the 70 years are meant (Jer_29:10), which, in comparison with the time predicted by the false prophets, would be a very long period.
Jer_29:29-32. And Zephaniah … against Jehovah. The words of Jer_29:29 do not clearly indicate whether Zephaniah read the letter of Jeremiah alone or in the presence of others. We may conclude from the two embassies (Jer_21:1; Jer_37:3) that he was probably not personally hostile towards Jeremiah. We also find no indication that Shemaiah’s letter was at that time of any injury to Jeremiah. It is indeed possible that Zephaniah, though unable to keep the purport of the letter altogether secret, yet acted with the utmost possible consideration toward the prophet. At any rate Jeremiah was not intimidated. Shemaiah receives a reproving answer from the Lord’s prophet: his race shall be extirpated (the phrase “dwelling among his people” signifies a peaceful, secure existence, 2Ki_4:13) and he himself will not have his eyes gladdened by the prosperity of his people.
Footnotes:
Jer_29:26.— îùׁðà . Only the Part. Pual and Part. and Inf. Hiphil of this word are found. The radical meaning is to be astray. (Comp. ùָׁðָà , ùָׁðַð , ùָׁðָä ). The Hiphil is used of raving in general, 1 Sam. 21:15,16; îְùֻðָà likewise in Deu_28:34 and 1 Sam. 21:16; elsewhere only of prophets and always in a bad sense; Hos_9:7; 2Ki_9:11.
Jer_29:26.— öéð÷ . The word is ἅð . ëåã . The root öָðַ÷ also does not occur elsewhere in Hebrew. From the dialects the most suitable comparison is afforded by the Arabic zinäg, collar, ring (Hitzig). According to the older Rabbis in Kimchi öéð÷ = ìéãéí îñðø , ëìé as îäôëú = ìàåֹàø îñðø Symm.: ìü÷ëïò lever, pole, bar. Ges. Thes., p. 1175. Hitzig rightly supposes that both instruments formed the complete instrument of torture, one serving to confine the neck, the other the hands and feet.
Jer_29:27.— ðòøú . Properly to chide (comp. Gen_37:10) then to interfere, to stop any one (Rth_2:16; Mal_3:11).
Jer_29:28.— ëé òìÎëï . In itself these particles might be taken in the most natural sense; for on this account (viz., on account of defective control); but elsewhere they always designate the reason supposed as the object or result; Jer_38:4; Gen_18:5; Gen_19:8; Gen_33:10; Gen_38:26. Comp. Redslob, lexical. Erürterunyen. Stud. u. Krit., 1841, S 983 sqq.
Jer_29:28.— àָøֹêְ , of extension in time (2Sa_3:1), and in space (Job_11:9). On the neuter significance of the feminine, comp. Naegelsb. Gr., § 60, 6 b.
Jer_29:31.—On åéáִèç comp. Jer_28:15.
Jer_29:32.— øàä with áְ . Comp. Naegelsb. Gr., § 112, 5, a; Ps. 37:34; 54:9; 118:7.
2. On Jer_26:6. “Deus nulli loco præcise alligatus est ita, ut ecclesiam suam et doctrinam cœlestem inde dimovere nequeat propter hominum ingratitudinem. Vehementer igitur errant Romanenses, dum ex auctoritate urbis Romæ suæ ecclesiæ ac religionis auctoritatem evincere satagunt. Multo rectius Hieronymus in hoc memorabili dicto, quod etiam allegatur in Jure Canon. Dist. Jeremiah 19 : Non facile est stare loco Pauli et tenere gradum Petri cum Christo regnantium. Non enim Sanctorum filii sunt, qui tenent loca Sanctorum, sed qui exercent opera eorum.” Förster.
3. On Jer_26:8 sqq. “Scarcely has Jeremiah done speaking than they take him to task, and threaten his life. What does Jeremiah do? Instead of vindicating himself he says: ‘Reform your life, and hearken to the voice of the Lord, and it will be better for you,’ Jer_26:13. You do not wish me to thunder away at you; reform then and I can let it alone. This preaching was seasonable, and produced an admirable effect. The priests and elders contradicted the priests, the parrhesia [free-spokenness, Act_4:13] of the man filled them with astonishment. ‘He is not worthy of death,’ Jer_26:16. A brief illustration of the saying ‘We need not our senses lose, when our enemies accuse.’ Jeremiah has to thank his honesty for this presence of mind, his profound meditation, his constrained calling, the necessity, the ardor, which urged him to preach, for no personal inclination had any share in it. I know in more recent times a man, who has unaffectedly practised Jeremiah’s behavior, a pastor, a teacher, I might say a prophet of many thousand people. Whenever he had to vindicate himself (which happened now and then) he preached, he repeated to the commissioners the very things of which he was accused, confessed and denied not, but pressed them on their hearts, and showed aliud agendo his innocence, his mind, his steadfastness, and all at the same time so plainly that they always returned with full conviction and knew not whether they had gone forth to see a prophet or were sent to examine a culprit? ‘Never man,’ they said, ‘spake like this man.’ That cannot be counterfeited. One must be just as full of the matter, as absorbed in the subject, as pressed at heart, kindled with the same ardor in order to explain himself with the same indifference, repose and plainness, when there is a knife at his throat.” Zinzendorf.
4. On Jer_26:12 sqq. “Si injuriam deposueris penes Deum, ultor est; si damnum, restitutor est; si dolorem, medicus est; si mortem, resuscitator est.” Tertullian. [“Those that persecute God’s ministers hurt not them so much as themselves.” Henry.—S. R. A.]
5. On Jer_26:7-8; Jer_26:11; Jer_26:16. “Auctores persecutionis plerumque esse solent ii, qui in ordine ecclesiastico eminent.” Förster. “Especially are the priests and men-pleasing prophets mad with Jeremiah, for if he is right they have lied.” Diedrich.
6. On Jer_26:18 [“By this it appears that a man may be a true prophet of the Lord and yet may prophesy the destruction of Zion and Jerusalem. When we threaten secure sinners with the taking away of the Spirit of God, and declining churches with the removal of the candle-stick, we say no more than what has been said many a time, and what we have warrant from the word of God to say.” Henry.—S. R. A.]
7. On Jer_26:20 sqq. “Urias, a true prophet, preached like Jeremiah, therefore the king wished to kill him, so he fled to Egypt but could not escape. Jeremiah did not flee and was spared … Our running and anxiety are of no use. The wickedness of the world must for its judgment be displayed on God’s servants, and these must yield to it; but on whom it is to come first God has in His own hand; and we may spare ourselves all our care and flight.” Diedrich. [“Nothing more is known of Urijah than is here related; but this incident suggests that God mercifully strove with His people by the ministry of many prophets whom He sent, rising up early and sending them (Jer_26:5) whose names are written in the Book of Life and are canonized in God’s Martyrology, but do not appear in the pages of any earthly history.” Wordsworth.—S. R. A.]
8. On Jer_26:24. “Monemur hic, Deum servis suis fidelibus subinde largiri quosdam patronos, ut Jeremiæ hic Achikamum et infra cap. 38 Ebedmelechum, Eliæ et prophetis óõã÷ñüíïéò Obadiam 1 Reg. 18, Luthero Electores Saxoniæ Fridericum sapientem, Johannem pium, Johannem-Fridericum constantem.” Förster.
9. On Jer_27:2-11. Historical times are preceded by a long series of centuries which present themselves to us as altogether obscure or only in the dubious twilight of tradition. Accredited history also comprises only a relatively small portion of the human race, for the nations which are added as ciphers to the factors of history form the majority. A universal ruler in the biblical sense is not one whose dominion actually extends over the entire globe—for there is none such—but he who represents the leader in the concert of history. This part is here given to Nebuchadnezzar. Among all the universal monarchies that represented by him appears richest in noble capacity. It is therefore compared to the golden head of the image in Daniel 2. Comp. Auberlen, der Prophet Daniel, S. 41 sqq.
10. On Jer_27:5 sqq. [“The things of the world are not the best things, for God often gives the largest share of them to bad men, that are rivals with him and rebels against him. Dominion is not founded in grace. Those that have not any colorable title to eternal happiness may yet have a justifiable title to their temporal good things.” Henry.—S. R. A.] “Great lords sit indeed on high thrones, but not firmly, for they are only God’s vassals. And when they do not please Him and act accordingly, he can easily transfer the fief to another; Dan_2:21; Dan_4:14; Dan_4:22.” Cramer.
11. On Jer_27:12. [“The conduct of Jeremiah, counselling Zedekiah and Jerusalem to submit to Nebuchadnezzar, has been represented as an act of political prudence to be imitated by Statesmen and Ecclesiastics, who are thereby justified in making large concessions of national rights and national independence in times of public emergency (Stanley, Lect. 534).
But was it not rather one of religious duty?
God had revealed to the prophet that He had given the Nation into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, ‘His servant,’ on account of their sins, and they must submit to Him as the Minister and Vicegerent of God.” Wordsworth. “Many might have prevented destroying providences by humbling themselves under humbling providences. It is better to take up a lighter cross in our way, than pull a heavier on our own head.” Henry.—S. R. A.]
12. On Jer_27:14. “It is one sign of our depraved nature that we are more ready to believe lies than the truth. For when Jeremiah and his colleagues preached, no one believed. But no sooner did the false prophet come and open their mouths, than all their discourses must be spoken directly from heaven, and what they said, must pass current on earth (Psa_73:9). But not what Jeremiah said. Take for example our mother Eve; what God said was of no account, but what the serpent said was something purely excellent.” Cramer.
13. On Jer_27:18. “True prayer is a certain sign of Godliness and a fruit of faith and the Holy Ghost, which cries in our hearts: Abba, dear Father. Therefore he who cannot or will not pray is not a good Christian.” Cramer.
14. On Jer_27:18. “If they be prophets let them supplicate the Lord. This was the great demonstration of Elias, to which Jeremiah adheres. It is infallibly the case that a false teacher has no heart for the Saviour, and goes out of His way. A heretic, who has a heart to pray (and that too in secret) is certainly not far from the truth.” Zinzendorf.
15. On Jer_27:22. [“We are apt to set our clock before God’s dial, and then to quarrel because they do not agree, but the Lord is a God of judgment, and it is fit that we should wait for Him.” Henry.—S. R. A.]
16. On Jer_28:1 sqq. “Wherever the dear lord builds His church, the devil has a chapel near by.” Cramer. This Hananiah (comp. Jer_28:2; Jer_28:11) shows us plainly what it is to lie or deceive in the name of God.
“O Lord, and must Thy glorious name
Thus be a cover to their shame?” Förster.
17. On Jer_28:6. “Amen! the Lord do so. Quite a different attitude of the prophet from the preceding. A false prophet, a miserable comforter disputes with him, brings good news and appeals to an oracle, a voice which he had perhaps heard more lately than Jeremiah. Jeremiah without getting warm about it, says I shall be heartily glad if it be so: but take care that you have understood it correctly. His opponent is encouraged and goes further, he breaks off the prophetic yoke from Jeremiah’s neck. Jeremiah, with the same indifference, which he has shown from the beginning, goes his way … I dare not speak of anything, says Paul, which Christ hath not wrought by me (Rom_15:18).” Zinzendorf.
18. On Jer_28:10-11. “Chananias hic præbet exemplum impudentiæ Jesuwilicæ, cujus magistrum non abs re appellaveris Eumundum Campianum (1580) qui epistola quadum Theologos Angliæ provocare non erubuit, ponens inter alia verba hæc fere thrasonica: Si præstitero cœlos esse, divos esse, Christum esse, fidem esse, causam obtinui: hic non animosus ero? Occidi quidem possum, superari non possum. Pari impudentia Jesuwitas ante Colloquium Ratisbonense scriplitasse legimus: The Prædicantes should come, if they had a heart in their body, they would catch them alive: if they would bring a syllogism, which is in Bocardo, they would throw it at one’s head and say it was in Bocallo.” Förster.
19. On Jer_29:7. “Monemur hic, orandum esse pro magistratibus et non tantum iis, qui nostræ religioni addicti et veræ ecclesiæ membra, sed etiam pro iis, qui extra ecclesiam adeoque gentiles ut Nebuchadnezzar et Nero tyrannus (2Ti_2:2). Nam ex salute reipublicæ etiam salus et incolumitas ecclesiæ constat. Et Lutherus pereleganter: Politia, inquit, servit ecclesiæ, ecclesia servat politiam.” Förster. “Quod pastori hoc et ovibus.” The symbol of the Emperor Charles the Bald.
20. On Jer_29:11. “God always has compassion, and His heart breaks for us (Jer_31:20), for he exercises guardianship over His elect (Wis_4:15). And he knows how, in all that he does, to mitigate His justice with His mercy, so that we may see how richly His mercy is diffused over all His works; that even when He punishes, He straightway has mercy again according to His great goodness, and causes His mercy to be the more richly dispensed, because He knows our frame (Psa_103:14), viz., that we are flesh, a wind which passeth away and returneth not again (Psa_78:40). Cramer.
21. On Jer_29:10-11. “The waiting of the righteous has always something to depend upon, namely, the promise, and it is a duty to God to believe the promises, but an insult and dishonor to the name of the Lord when no faith is put in them. Is it not enough that ye injure men, will ye also insult the Lord my God? (Isa_7:13).” Zinzendorf.
22. On Jer_29:11. “God gives a happy ending; He also tells us beforehand, that we may honor Him by hoping; but He deals with us according to His wisdom and His righteousness, so that He chastens us as long as we need it. We cannot, therefore, do otherwise than place ourselves in His hands.” Diedrich.
23. On Jer_29:12. “Let this be firmly established among the brethren, that there is no sham about the hearing of prayer. I remember that once a great minister said across the table: My pastor wrote me that he had settled it with the dear Lord that my wife should live; I should be comforted. My wife died. Now my pastor congratulates me and says, I could now indeed see that she lived. No wonder. The Bible has a nose or wax; and gentlemen also can explain their own words. … Is it then to be in vain that the Lord Jesus has said; whatever ye ask believing that ye shall receive, shall be given unto you (Mar_11:24; Joh_16:23; Mat_7:7; Jam_4:4)? … Test it as often as it is necessary; ask however in faith, and doubt not. I know most assuredly that you will be heard. But I regard it as a matter for consideration, whether one is to ask.” Zinzendorf.
24. On Jer_29:15-16. “A heavy cross often frees us from a heavier, which would otherwise have come upon us. The best way, therefore, is to be satisfied with God’s ways, who can bring good out of evil (1Pe_4:19; Gen_50:20). ” Starke.
25. On Jer_29:24-32. “Those who seek their own consolation without God must be eternally deprived of the true consolation, which God grants to those who at this time humble themselves under Him. Those who preach false consolation confirm the resistance of men to the divine guidance and thus preach revolt, though intending to act conservatively. But in their blindness they do not see what sort of a time it is.” Diedrich.
2. On Jer_27:1-22. How the Lord’s servants are to treat Politics.—1. They are to point out to the people that it is the Lord who raises and overthrows the kingdoms of this world (Jer_27:2-8). 2. They are to admonish the people to do what the Lord commands (Jer_27:12-13). 3. They are to warn against those who speak their own thoughts to the people (Jer_27:9-11; Jer_27:14-17). 4. They are to admonish to prayer and intercession (Jer_27:18 sqq).
3. On Jer_28:1-17. Of false and true prophets. 1. False prophets, (a) publish on their own responsibility what the people like to hear (Jer_28:2-4); (b) boldly contradict the true word of God (Jer_28:10-11); (c) come to shame, by the non-fulfilment of their predictions (Jer_28:8-9) and by their personal destruction (Jer_28:15-17). 2. True prophets (a) proclaim faithfully the true word of God, (b) fearlessly oppose the lusts of men and the lies of the false prophets; (c) They are honored ( á ) by the fulfilment of their prophecies, ( â ) by martyrdom, i.e., honor with God and posterity.
4. On 28. [This year thou shalt die. Dwight:—A Sermon on the New Year.—S. R. A.]
5. On Jer_29:7. The best Christians the best citizens: 1. They know that the prosperity of the whole is their own prosperity (they do not, therefore, seek selfishly their own personal advantage); 2. They actually labor with all diligence for the furtherance of the common good; 3. They employ for this end the power of Christian prayer. [A. Fuller:—Christian patriotism, or the duty of religious people towards their country. Christianity a religion of peace.—S. R. A.]
6. On Jer_29:11. The thoughts of the Lord concerning us. 1. They are thoughts of peace and not of evil; 2, we must wait for their realization, for the Lord delays this, but he does not forget it.
7. On Jer_29:11. Sermon at the funeral service of the Grand Hereditary Prince of Russia, delivered by Prof. Christiani, in Dorpat, 14 April, 1865: 1. Of the thoughts of peace which the Lord has had in this death; 2. Of the fruits and effects of these thoughts of peace.
8. On Jer_29:11-14. Whereupon is our hope of peace based? 1. Objectively upon this, that the Lord Himself has thoughts of peace concerning us. 2. Subjectively on this, that we (a) call upon and seek the Lord with all our hearts, (b) patiently wait for the time of hearing.