View Jeremiah 5 in the note window.
None godly in Judah, ver. 1.
They swear falsely, tho' God be a God us truth; they are incorrigible
and senseless, and know not the law, or else wilfully violate it,
ver. 1 - 6.
Their idolatry, adultery, ver. 7 - 9.
Contempt of God's word and prophets, which should be sadly verified,
ver, 10 - 18.
They forsake, forget, and fear not God, whose power is so great,
ver. 19 - 24.
They are rich through deceit and violence; their false prophets,
ver. 25 - 31.
1: Run - God gives leave to all the earth to look into the state of
Jerusalem, by which he vindicates himself in the face of the whole world
from all severity towards his people, whatever he brings upon them.
In the broad places - Even there, where men meet from all quarters.
A man - It seems worse than Sodom and Gomorrah, for God condescends
to pardon Jerusalem, if there be but one righteous man found in it;
there he came no lower than ten. A man might walk the streets of
Jerusalem long enough before he could meet with any one truly religious.
Executeth - Among the magistracy. Seeketh - Among the commonalty, that
deal faithfully and uprightly.
2: Though - Though when they swear, they use the form of an oath,
and say, the Lord liveth, or by the living God: yet it is neither in
truth nor righteousness.
3: O Lord - Dost not thou approve truth and faithfulness.
Grieved - They have not repented. Consumed - God had not only lightly
chastised them, but wasted them by several enemies, yet they have
profited nothing by it.
4: Poor - The vulgar, that understand but little, of less conscience
than the better sort. Judgment - The methods or ways of his providence.
5: But - These are more refractory than the other; no law of God is
able to hold them.
6: A lion - Nebuchadnezzar and the Chaldean army are here
pointed at under the metaphor of beasts of prey of three kinds;
compared to a lion, which denotes his great power, courage, and
pride. A wolf - For their greediness and unsatiableness.
A leopard - The Chaldean army is compared to a leopard, not for
its speed only, but for its vigilancy and subtilty.
7: They then - Such is the natural effect of unsanctified prosperity.
10: Ye - Ye Babylonians, go execute my vengeance on them.
Battlements - Lay her and all her fortifications level with the ground.
For - I disown them.
12: Belied - Not believing that these words of the prophet were God's
word.
13: Became wind - A proverbial expression, all the prophet's threats
shall come to nothing. The word - The prophet's words are not from God.
Thus - It shall fall upon their own heads that have thus threatened us.
14: It - The Chaldean army, shall consume and eat them up like
fire.
15: Israel - By these are meant Judah; for Israel were in
captivity before: called the house of Israel, not only because
they descended from Jacob, but because they were the chief of
that stock.
18: Nevertheless - I have not done with you yet.
20: Judah - By Judah and Jacob we are to understand the two
tribes only.
21: And hear not - They are wilfully blind, and obstinately deaf,
will neither see, nor hear the word, will, or works of God, of which
he giveth two instances in the two following verses.
22: The sand - That need not make rocks for walls unto it, but can
give a check to it by so small a matter as the sand.
23: Gone - From me.
24: The former rain - The former to prepare the ground for sowing,
and the latter to prepare the corn for ripening. Reserveth - He gives
seasonable harvests according to his appointment. God would let them
know what a foolish, as well as wicked thing it is to set themselves
against that God, that keeps the whole order of nature at his own
disposal, which he can order as he sees men behave towards him.
26: They catch - Such a trap did Jezebel lay for Naboth,(1Ki 21:9,10). Such an one was that conspiracy of more
than forty men against Paul, (Ac 23:13-15).
27: Their houses - They fill their houses with the goods of those
they deceive, and over - reach.
28: Overpass - They go beyond the Heathens themselves in wickedness.
30: The land - Heb. This land: aggravating the greatness of the
wonder, that such a thing should be in such a land.
