Chapter 21:
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| Geneva
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| Jamieson Faussett Brown
| Matthew Henry
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Introduction 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 isaiah lamentations
Jeremiah 21
Complete Concise
It is plain that the prophecies of this book are not placed here
in the same order in which they were preached; for there are chapters after this
which concern Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, and Jeconiah, who all reigned before
Zedekiah, in whose reign the prophecy of this chapter bears date. Here is, I.
The message which Zedekiah sent to the prophet, to desire him to enquire of the
Lord for them (v. 1, 2). II. The answer which Jeremiah, in God's name, sent to
that message, in which, 1. He foretels the certain and inevitable ruin of the
city, and the fruitlessness of their attempts for its preservation (v. 3-7). 2.
He advises the people to make the best of bad, by going over to the king of
Babylon (v. 8-10). 3. He advises the king and his family to repent and reform
(v. 11, 12), and not to trust to the strength of their city and grow secure (v.
13, 14).
Verses 1-7
Here is, I. A very humble decent message which king Zedekiah,
when he was in distress, sent to Jeremiah the prophet. It is indeed charged upon
this Zedekiah that he
humbled not himself before Jeremiah the prophet,
speaking from the mouth of the Lord (2 Chr. 36:12); he did not always humble
himself as he did sometimes; he never humbled himself till necessity forced him
to it; he humbled himself so far as to desire the prophet's assistance, but
not so far as to take his advice, or to be ruled by him. Observe,
1. The distress which king Zedekiah was now in:
Nebuchadrezzar
made war upon him, not only invaded the land, but besieged the city, and had
now actually invested it. Note, Those that put the evil day far from them will
be the more terrified when it comes upon them; and those who before slighted God's
ministers may then perhaps be glad to court an acquaintance with them.
2. The messengers he sent—
Pashur and Zephaniah, one
belonging to the fifth course of the priests, the other to the twenty-fourth, 1
Chr. 24:9, 18. It was well that he sent, and that he sent persons of rank; but
it would have been better if he had desired a personal conference with the
prophet, which no doubt he might easily have had if he would so far have humbled
himself. Perhaps these priests were no better than the rest, and yet, when they
were commanded by the king, they must carry a respectful message to the prophet,
which was both a mortification to them and an honour to Jeremiah. he had rashly
said (ch. 20:18),
My days are consumed with shame; and yet here we find
that he lived to see better days than those were when he made that complaint;
now he appears in reputation. Note, It is folly to say, when things are bad with
us, "They will always be so." It is possible that those who are
despised may come to be respected; and it is promised that those who
honour
God he will honour, and that those who have
afflicted his people shall
bow to them, Isa. 60:14.
3. The message itself:
Enquire, I pray thee, of the Lord for
us, v. 2. Now that the Chaldean army had got into their borders, into their
bowels, they were at length convinced that Jeremiah was a true prophet, though
loth to own it and brought too late to it. Under this conviction they desire him
to stand their friend with God, believing him to have that interest in heaven
which none of their other prophets had, who had flattered them with hopes of
peace. They now employ Jeremiah, (1.) To consult the mind of God for them:
"Enquire
of the Lord for us; ask him what course we shall take in our present strait,
for the measures we have hitherto taken are all broken." Note, Those that
will not take the direction of God's grace how to get clear of their sins
would yet be glad of the directions of his providence how to get clear of their
troubles. (2.) To seek the favour of God for them (so some read it):
"Entreat
the Lord for us; be an intercessor for us with God." Note, Those that
slight the prayers of God's people and ministers when they are in prosperity
may perhaps be glad of an interest in them when they come to be in distress.
Give
us of your oil. The benefit they promise themselves is,
It may be the
Lord will deal with us now
according to the wondrous works he wrought for
our fathers, that the enemy may raise the siege and
go up from us.
Observe, [1.] All their care is to get rid of their trouble, not to make their
peace with God and be reconciled to him—"That our enemy may
go up from
us," not, "That our God may return to us." Thus Pharaoh (Ex.
10:17):
Entreat the Lord that he may take away this death. [2.] All their
hope is that God had done wondrous works formerly in the deliverance of
Jerusalem when Sennacherib besieged it, at the prayer of Isaiah (so we are told,
2 Chr. 32:20, 21), and who can tell but he may destroy these besiegers (as he
did those) at the prayer of Jeremiah? But they did not consider how different
the character of Zedekiah and his people was from that of Hezekiah and his
people: those were days of general reformation and piety, these of general
corruption and apostasy. Jerusalem is now the reverse of what it was then. Note,
It is folly to think that God should do for us while we hold fast our iniquity
as he did for those that held fast their integrity.
II. A very startling cutting reply which God, by the prophet,
sent to that message. If Jeremiah had been to have answered the message of
himself we have reason to think that he would have returned a comfortable
answer, in hope that their sending such a message was an indication of some good
purposes in them, which he would be glad to make the best of, for he did not
desire the woeful day. But God knows their hearts better than Jeremiah does, and
sends them an answer which has scarcely one word of comfort in it. He sends it
to them in the name of
the Lord God of Israel (v. 3), to intimate to them
that though God allowed himself to be called the
God of Israel, and had
done great things for Israel formerly, and had still great things in store for
Israel, pursuant to his covenants with them, yet this should stand the present
generation in no stead, who were Israelites in name only, and not in deed, any
more than God's dealings with them should cut off his relation to Israel as
their God. It is here foretold,
1. That God will render all their endeavours for their own
security fruitless and ineffectual (v. 4): "I will be so far from teaching
your hands to war, and putting an edge upon your swords, that I will
turn
back the weapons of war that are in your hand, when you sally out upon the
besiegers to beat them off, so that they shall not give the stroke you design;
nay, they shall recoil into your own faces, and be turned upon yourselves."
Nothing can make for those who have God against them.
2. That the besiegers shall in a little time make themselves
masters of Jerusalem, and of all its wealth and strength:
I will assemble
those
in the midst of this city who are now surrounding it. Note, If that
place which should have been a centre of devotion be made a centre of
wickedness, it is not strange if God make it a rendezvous of destroyers.
3. That God himself will be their enemy; and then I know not who
can befriend them, no. not Jeremiah himself (v. 5): "I will be so far from
protecting you, as I have done formerly in a like case, that
I myself will
fight against you." Note, Those who rebel against God may justly expect
that he will make war upon them, and that, (1.) With the power of a God who is
irresistibly victorious:
I will fight against you with an outstretched hand,
which will reach far, and
with a strong arm, which will strike home and
wound deeply. (2.) With the displeasure of a God who is indisputably righteous.
It is not a correction in love, but an execution
in anger, in fury, and in
great wrath; it is upon a sentence sworn in wrath, against which there will
lie no exception, and it will soon be found what a fearful thing it is to fall
into the hands of the living God.
4. That those who, for their own safety, decline sallying out
upon the besiegers, and so avoid their sword, shall yet not escape the sword of
God's justice (v. 6):
I will smite those that abide in the city (so it
may be read),
both man and beast, both the beasts that are for food and
those that are for service in war, foot and horse;
they shall, die of a great
pestilence, which shall rage within the walls, while the enemies are
encamped about them. Though Jerusalem's gates and walls may for a time keep
out the Chaldeans, they cannot keep out God's judgments. His arrows of
pestilence can reach those that think themselves safe from other arrows.
5. That the king himself, and people that escape the
sword,
famine, and
pestilence, shall fall
into the hands of the
Chaldeans, who shall cut them off in cold blood (v. 7): They
shall not spare
them, nor
have pity on them. Let not those expect to find mercy with
men who have forfeited God's compassions, and shut themselves out from his
mercy. Thus had the decree gone forth; and then to what purpose was it for
Jeremiah to
enquire of the Lord for them?
Verses 8-14
By the civil message which the king sent to Jeremiah it appeared
that both he and the people began to have a respect for him, which it would have
been Jeremiah's policy to make some advantage of for himself; but the reply
which God obliges him to make is enough to crush the little respect they begin
to have for him, and to exasperate them against him more than ever. Not only the
predictions in the foregoing verses, but the prescriptions in these, were
provoking; for here,
I. He advises the people to surrender and ??desert to the
Chaldeans, as the only means left them to save their lives, v. 8-10. This
counsel was very displeasing to those who were flattered by their false prophets
into a desperate resolution to hold out to the last extremity, trusting to the
strength of their walls and the courage of their soldiery to keep out the enemy,
or to their foreign aids to raise the siege. The prophet assures them,
"The
city shall be given into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall not
only plunder it, but
burn it with fire, for God himself hath
set his
face against this city for evil and not for good, to lay it waste and not to
protect it,
for evil which shall have no good mixed with it, no
mitigation or merciful allay; and therefore, if you would make the best of bad,
you must beg quarter of the Chaldeans, and surrender prisoners of war." In
vain did Rabshakeh persuade the Jews to do this while they had God for them (Isa.
36:16), but it was the best course they could take now that God was against
them. Both the law and the prophets had often set before them life and death in
another sense—life if they obey the voice of God, death if they persist in
disobedience, Deu. 30:19. But they had slighted that life which would have made
them truly happy, to upbraid them with which the prophet here uses the same
expression (v. 8):
Behold, I set before you the way of life and the way of
death, which denotes not, as that, a fair proposal, but a melancholy
dilemma, advising them of two evils to choose the less; and that less evil, a
shameful and wretched captivity, is all the life now left for them to propose to
themselves.
He that abides in the city, and trusts to that to secure him,
shall certainly die either by
the sword without the walls or
famine
or
pestilence within. But he that can so far bring down his spirit, and
quit his vain hopes, as to go out, and fall
to the Chaldeans, his life shall
be given him for a prey; he shall save his life, but with much difficulty
and hazard, as a prey is taken from the mighty. It is an expression like that,
He
shall be saved, yet so as by fire. He shall escape but very narrowly, or he
shall have such surprising joy and satisfaction in escaping with his life from
such a universal destruction as shall equal theirs that divide the spoil. They
thought to make a prey of the camp of the Chaldeans, as their ancestors did that
of the Assyrians (Isa. 33:23), but they will be sadly disappointed; if by
yielding at discretion they can but save their lives, that is all the prey they
must promise themselves. Now one would think this advice from a prophet, in God's
name, should have gained some credit with them and been universally followed;
but, for aught that appears, there were few or none that took it; so wretchedly
were their hearts hardened, to their destruction.
II. He advises the king and princes to reform, and make
conscience of the duty of their place. Because it was the king that sent the
message to him, in the reply there shall be a particular word for
the house
of the king, not to compliment or court them (that was no part of the
prophet's business, no, not when they did him the honour to send to him), but
to give them wholesome counsel (v. 11, 12):
"Execute judgment in the
morning; do it carefully and diligently. Those magistrates that would fill
up their place with duty had need rise betimes. Do it quickly, and do not delay
to do justice upon appeals made to you, and tire out poor petitioners as you
have done. Do not lie in your beds in a morning to sleep away the debauch of the
night before, nor spend the morning in pampering the body (as those princes,
Eccl. 10:16), but spend it in the despatch of business. You would be delivered
out of the hand of those that distress you, and expect that therein God should
do you justice; see then that you do justice to those that apply to you, and
deliver
them out of the hand of their oppressors, lest my fury go out like fire
against you in a particular manner, and you fare worst who think to escape best,
because of the evil of your doings." Now, 1. This intimates that it
was their neglect to do their duty that brought all this desolation upon the
people. It was the
evil of their doings that kindled the fire of God's
wrath. Thus plainly does he deal even with the
house of the king; for
those that would have the benefit of a prophet's prayers must thankfully take
a prophet's reproofs. 2. This directs them to take the right method for a
national reformation. The princes must begin, and set a good example, and then
the people will be invited to reform. They must use their power for the
punishment of wrong, and then the people will be obliged to reform. He reminds
them that they are
the house of David, and therefore should tread in his
steps, who executed judgment and justice to his people. 3. This gives them some
encouragement to hope that there may yet be a lengthening of their tranquillity,
Dan. 4:27. If any thing will recover their state from the brink of ruin, this
will.
III. He shows them the vanity of all their hopes so long as they
continued unreformed, v. 13, 14. Jerusalem is an
inhabitant of the valley,
guarded with mountains on all sides, which were their natural fortifications,
making it difficult for an army to approach them. It is a
rock of the plain,
which made it difficult for an enemy to undermine them. These advantages of
their situation they trusted to more than to the power and promise of God; and,
thinking their city by these means to be impregnable, they set the judgments of
God at defiance, saying,
"Who shall come down against us? None of
our neighbours dare make a descent upon us, or, if they do,
who shall enter
into our habitations?" They had some colour for this confidence; for it
appears to have been the sense of all their neighbours that no enemy could force
his way into Jerusalem, Lam. 4:12. But those are least safe that are most
secure. God soon shows the vanity of that challenge,
Who shall come down
against us? when he says (v. 13),
Behold, I am against thee. They had
indeed by the wickedness driven God out of their city when he would have tarried
with them as a friend; but they could not by their bulwarks keep them out of
their city when he came against them as an enemy. If God be for us, who can be
against us? But, if he be against us, who can be for us, to stand us in any
stead? Nay, he comes against them not as an enemy that may lawfully and with
some hope of success be resisted, but as a judge that cannot be resisted; for he
says (v. 14),
I will punish you, by due course of law,
according to
the fruit of your doings, that is, according to the merit of them and the
direct tendency of them. That shall be brought upon you which is the natural
product of sin. Nay, he will not only come with the anger of an enemy and the
justice of a judge, but with the force of a consuming fire, which has no
compassion, as a judge sometimes has, nor spares any thing combustible that
comes in its way. Jerusalem has become a forest, in which God will
kindle a
fire that shall consume all before it; for our God is himself
a consuming
fire; and
who is able to stand in his sight when once he is angry?
Chapter 21:
| Darby
| Geneva
| Gill
| Jamieson Faussett Brown
| Matthew Henry
| Matthew Henry Concise
| Wesley
| Index
| Bible Gateway |
Introduction 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 isaiah lamentations
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