Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadPaul Kretzmann Commentary - Jeremiah 6:16 - 6:30
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
The Impending Judgment Announced
v. 16. Thus saith the Lord, rather, "Thus has Jehovah spoken," namely, in the ancient days, when He had shown the children of His chosen people the way of salvation. Stand ye in the ways and see, looking around on all sides, and ask for the old paths, diligently inquiring for the paths traveled in ancient times, where is the good way, the path of salvation, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls, a secure resting-place, with protection from all injury. The picture is taken from the predicament of travelers who have lost the right road and are now anxiously inquiring for the path from which they have wandered. But they said, We will not walk therein, the Jews stubbornly and rebelliously refused to walk the way of salvation pointed out to them by Jehovah.
v. 17. Also I set watchmen over you, seers and prophets, whose duty it was to point out threatening calamities to the people and thus to lead them to repentance, saying, Hearken to the sound of the trumpet, which was blown for the purpose of rallying the children of Israel around the banner of the true God. But they said, We will not hearken, thus rejecting in the most stubborn fashion even the last warning of Jehovah.
v. 18. Therefore hear, ye nations, the Gentile people everywhere, and know, O congregation, either the entire assembly of the nations which are here summoned, or the faithful few in Israel who still formed the Church of Jehovah, what is among them, what punishment the Lord is about to inflict. And the prophet now addresses himself to a still greater circle of witnesses.
v. 19. Hear, O earth! Behold, I, Jehovah Himself, as He brings out with emphasis, will bring evil upon this people, even the fruit of their thoughts, the result of their counsels, the consequence of their evil scheming, because they have not hearkened unto My words nor to My Law, but rejected it.
v. 20. To what purpose cometh there to Me incense from Sheba, that from the coasts and islands of Southern Arabia, and the sweet cane, the calamus, from a far country? the root of which was used in the preparation of the anointing-oil. All external worship without faith of the heart and the obedience of love is an abomination to the Lord, who hates sham and hypocrisy in every form. Cf Isa_1:11; Amo_5:21. Your burnt offerings are not acceptable nor your sacrifices sweet unto Me, because the Lord was not deceived by outward appearances which were not in agreement with the true condition of the heart.
v. 21. Therefore, thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will lay stumbling-blocks before this people, the devices of the enemies which would bring about their ruin, and the fathers and the sons together, both being equally guilty, shall fall upon them; the neighbor and his friend shall perish, all the people without exception being doomed to feel Jehovah's sentence on account of the depravity which was so generally prevalent.
v. 22. Thus saith the Lord, Behold, a people cometh from the north country, and a great nation shall be raised from the sides of the earth, from its remotest regions, the expression being vague in agreement with the indefinite geographical notions to be found among the Jews at that time. The Chaldean hordes, of course, are meant.
v. 23. They shall lay hold on bow and spear, as weapons of offense, of powerful attack; they are cruel and have no mercy, giving no quarter, determined on merciless extinction; their voice roareth like the sea, in their angry or triumphant battle-cry; and they ride upon horses, set in array as men for war, fitted out most perfectly for the planned invasion, against thee, O daughter of Zion, against Jerusalem and the land of Judah.
v. 24. We have heard the fame thereof, the report which was spread about their prowess, our hands wax feeble, sinking down without a show of resistance; anguish hath taken hold of us and pain as of a woman in travail.
v. 25. Go not forth into the field, in venturing outside of the walls of Jerusalem, nor walk by the way, along the roads of Judah; for the sword of the enemy and fear is on every side. All these facts are set forth as the basis of another appeal.
v. 26. O daughter of My people, the nation which the Lord has chosen for His own, gird thee with sackcloth, the garment of repentance, and wallow thyself in ashes, in an excess of sorrow and grief; make thee mourning, as for an only son, most bitter lamentation, such as was expressed by beating the breast; for the spoiler shall suddenly come upon us.
v. 27. I have set thee for a tower and a fortress among My people, literally, "as a prover," or explorer, and an assayer, one who separates the metal from the dross, that thou mayest know and try their way, testing it out for truth and solid worth.
v. 28. They are all grievous revolters, mutineers and betrayers in the highest degree, walking with slanders, deliberately seeking opportunities to indulge in slandering and reviling others; they are brass and iron, debased and hardened in their opposition to the Lord; they are all corrupters, having only destruction in mind. The prophet continues his figure of the base metals.
v. 29. The bellows are burned, in the long process which was intended to purify the people and produce some amount of gold, the lead is consumed of the fire, or, "out of its fire comes lead," instead of the precious metal which the Lord had a right to expect; the founder melteth in vain, there were no such results as one might have expected; for the wicked are not plucked away, the great mass of the people are dross, worthless metal.
v. 30. Reprobate silver shall men call them, silver so thoroughly mixed with the baser metals as to be worthless for all ordinary purposes, because the Lord hath rejected them. All those whom the Lord has tried in the oven of His test, whom He has found wanting in the qualities which should be found in a true believer, will finally be cast out as base metal.