View Jeremiah 15 in the note window.
The Jews rejection, and judgments, especially of four kinds; the
sins which procured them, ver. 1 - 9.
The prophet complains, that the people curse and persecute him for
these prophecies; they are threatened, and he instructed and comforted,
ver. 10 - 21.
1: Cast them out - I am not able to abide the sight of them,
therefore let them go forth.
4: Manasseh - Manasseh is here named as the son of Hezekiah
for his shame, because of his degeneracy from so good a parent;
it is expressly said, (2Ki 23:26),
that not withstanding Josiah's reformation, yet the Lord turned
not from the fierceness of his wrath, kindled against Judah, for
the provocations of Manasseh.
6: I am weary - I am resolved to bear no longer.
7: A fan - Not a purging fan by affliction, to separate their
chaff and dross from them, but a scattering fan. In the gates - This
is added in pursuit of the metaphor of fanning, men usually chusing
barn - doors to fan at, that they may have the advantage of the wind.
8: Their widows - The prophet still speaks of things to come as if
present. In Jehoiakim's time we read of no such plenty of widows; they
were multiplied when the city was besieged and taken in Zedekiah's time,
to a great number, hyperbolically compared to the sands of the sea.
The mother - Jerusalem was the mother of the Jewish people, against
whom, Nebuchadnezzar the spoiler, at noon - day, was sent.
9: Seven - Seven signifies many: the prophet complains, that the
country of Judah, that had been very numerous in people, now grew feeble.
While - In the midst of her prosperity. Confounded - A part of them were
confounded by the judgments of God which came upon them before their
captivity.
10: I have not - I have done them no wrong, yet they speak of me all
manner of evil.
11: Thy remnant - The latter words of the verse expound the former;
for by remnant is meant the remnant of days that Jeremiah had to
live.
12: The northern iron - As the northern iron and steel is the
hardest, and no iron could break that, so God having edged and
hardened their enemies, the Chaldeans, all opposition to them
would signify nothing.
13: The substance - All thy precious things shall be spoiled, there
shall be no price taken for the redemption of them.
15: Thou knowest - My sincerity, or my sufferings. Visit me - With
thy love.
16: Thy words - The words which from time to time thou didst reveal
to me, were by me greedily digested. I am called - I became a prophet by
thy authority, therefore, do thou own and defend me.
17: I sat not - God had all along filled his mouth with such dreadful
messages, that his whole prophetical life had been to him a time of mourning
and solitude, a time when he sat alone, mourning and weeping in secret for
the wrath of God revealed to him against his people.
18: Why - Jeremiah, though a great prophet, was (as Elijah) a
man subject to like passions with other men.
19: If thou - These are God's words to the prophet, rebuking his
distrust in God, and promising him, that if he did return from his
distrust in God's providence, he would restore him to the former
favour he had with him, and he should be his prophet to reveal his
mind to the people; and that if he would separate the precious truths
of God from the vile conceits of men, then God would continue him as
his prophet, to speak in his name to the people. But - He charges the
prophet to keep his ground, and not to go over to wicked men.
21: The wicked - The wicked Jews. The terrible - And the power
of the terrible Chaldeans.
