Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadPaul Kretzmann Commentary - Jeremiah 15:1 - 15:9
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
The Lord Refuses help the Second Time
v. 1. Then said the Lord unto me, Though Moses and Samuel, who are hereby affirmed to be historical persons, stood before Me, the high regard in which He held these His servants tending to have Him look upon them with favor, yet My mind could not be toward this people, their intercession could not save the people from the threatened destruction. Cast them out of My sight and let them go forth, since Jehovah utterly repudiates His chosen people.
v. 2. And it shall come to pass, if they say unto thee, Whither shall we go forth? then thou shall tell them, in a very harsh answer, as befitted the occasion, Thus saith the Lord, Such as are for death, to death; and such as are for the sword, to the sword; and such as are for the famine, to the famine; and such as are for the captivity, to the captivity. The Lord's previous sentence, in which He names three scourges, 14:12, is here strengthened and intensified in order to bring out the inevitable certainty of the impending destruction.
v. 3. And I will appoint over them four kinds saith the Lord, four varieties of death: the sword to slay, so that their carcasses would lie on the ground, and the dogs to tear, and the fowls of the heaven, and the beasts of the earth, to devour and destroy, the last three agencies completing the judgment upon the dead bodies.
v. 4. And I will cause them to be removed into all kingdoms of the earth, Cf Deu_28:25, there being a great many countries making up the Babylonian Empire, because of Manasseh, the son of Hezekiah, king of Judah, for that which he did in Jerusalem, in introducing and practicing the abominations of idolatry. Cf 2Ki_21:11 ff.
v. 5. For who shall have pity upon thee, O Jerusalem, or who shall bemoan thee? in a feeling of sympathy for the various punishments which were about to strike her. Or who shall go aside to ask how thou doest? in a neighborly form of inquiry concerning her welfare. By the dispensation of Jehovah, men were simply ignoring her and her plight, letting her alone in her misery.
v. 6. Thou hast forsaken Me, saith the Lord, rejecting the God of the covenant, thou art gone backward, away from Him and His Word; therefore will I stretch out My hand against thee and destroy thee, in one mighty stroke of punishment; I am weary with repenting, since His gracious offers had so often been abused and rejected, He would now no longer show mercy.
v. 7. And I will fan them with a fan in the gates of the land; even as a man at the opening of a threshing-floor makes use of every gust of wind to remove the chaff from the wheat, so the Lord would stand at the entrance of the land and let its inhabitants pass through a sifting process. I will bereave them of children, by causing the flower of their youth to fall in battle; I will destroy My people since they return not from their ways, persisting in their rejection of Jehovah.
v. 8. Their widows are increased to Me above the sand of the seas, beyond the possibility of counting them; I have brought upon them against the mother of the young men, the wife in the fullness of her strength, a spoiler at noonday, the enemy hordes; I have caused him to fall upon it, the city with all its inhabitants, suddenly, and terrors upon the city, so that she was filled With anguish.
v. 9. She that hath borne seven, the woman usually in her best years and strength, languisheth, she hath given up the ghost, despairing because not one of her sons remained; her sun is gone down while it was yet day, her good fortune leaving her just at a time when she should have been at the height of her prosperity; she hath been ashamed and confounded, put to shame on account of the disappointment over the loss of her children; and the residue of them, those still remaining at the time when Jerusalem was taken, will I deliver to the sword before their enemies, saith the Lord. Cf Mic_6:14. Thus the fate of the city was determined upon in every respect, as the Lord proceeded to carry out His sentence upon its inhabitants.