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He afterwards adds, And I brought you in, etc. Here Jeremiah introduces God as the speaker; for God had, as with his hand stretched forth, brought in the children of Abraham into the possession of the promised land, which they did not get, as it is said in Psa_44:3, by their own power and by their own sword; for though they had to fight with many enemies, yet it was God that made them victorious. He could then truly say, that they did not otherwise enter the land than under his guidance; inasmuch as he had opened a way and passage for them, and subdued and put to flight their enemies, that they might possess the heritage promised to them. I brought you in, he says, into the land, into Carmel Some consider this to be the name of a place; and no doubt there was the mount Carmel, so called on account of its great fertility. As then its name was given to it because it was so fertile, it is nothing strange that Jeremiah compares the land of Israel to Carmel. Some will have the preposition כ, c aph, to be understood, “ have brought you into a land like Carmel.” But there is no need laboriously to turn in all directions the Prophet’ words. It is, as I think, a common noun, meaning fruitful, and used here to shew that the Israelites had been brought by God’ hand into a fertile land; for its fertility is everywhere celebrated, both in the Law and in the Prophets. (31)
That ye might eat its fruit and its abundance; that is, “ wished you to enjoy the large and rich produce of the land.” By these words God intimates that the Israelites ought to have been induced by such allurements cordially to serve him; for by such liberal treatment he kindly invited them to himself. The greater, then, the bounty of God towards the people, the greater was the indignity offered by their defection, when they despised the various and abounding blessings of God.
Hence he adds, And ye have polluted my land, (32) and mine heritage have ye made an abomination; as though he had said, “ is the reward by which my bounty towards you has been compensated. I indeed gave you this land, but on this condition, that ye serve me faithfully in it: but ye have polluted it.” He calls it his own land, as though he had said, that he had so given the land to the Israelites, that he remained still the lord of it as a proprietor, though he granted the occupation of it to them. He hence shews that they impiously abused his bounty, in polluting that land which was sacred to his name. For the same purpose he calls it his heritage, as if he said that they possessed the land by an hereditary right, and yet the heritage belonged to their Father. They ought, therefore, to have considered, that they had entered into the land, because it had been given to Abraham and to his children for an heritage, — by whom? By God, who was the fountain of this bounty. The more detestable, then, was their ingratitude, when they made the heritage of God an abomination It follows —
(31) That the word means a fruitful field or country is evident from Isa_10:18; Isa_16:10; Jer_4:26, etc. there was also a city bearing this name, situated in the tribe of Judah, Jos_15:55, and also a mountain belonging to the tribe of Manasseh, Jos_19:26. — Ed.
(32) “ ye came” is left out. The same verb in a causative sense is used at the beginning of the verse, rendered, “ brought.” It would be more striking to retain the same verb, and not to use “ when” in the latter instance, as in our version, —
And I caused you to come into a fruitful land, To eat its fruit and its rich produce; And ye came and polluted my land, And made mine heritage an abomination.
The whole runs thus much better, and has the conciseness of poetry: and the idea intended to be conveyed is more apparent — God caused them to come, and they came. — Ed.