Jeremias 10

¹ Heare ye the worde of the Lord that he speaketh vnto you, O house of Israel.

² Thus saith the LORD, Learn not the way of the nations, and be not dismayed at theGod forbids his people to give credit or fear the constellations and conjunctions of stars and planets which have no power of themselves but are governed by him, and their secret motions and influences are not known to man and therefore there can be no certain judgment of it, (Deu_18:9).signs of heaven; for the nations are dismayed at them.

³ For theMeaning not only in the observation of the stars, but their laws and ceremonies by which they confirm their idolatry, which is forbidden, (Deu_12:30).customs of the people [are] vain: for [one] cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe.

⁴ They deck itThe prophets use thus plainly and simply to set forth the vile absurdity of the idolaters that men might learn to be ashamed of that to which their corrupt nature is most subject, (Isa_44:12).with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it may not move.

⁵ The idoles stande vp as the palme tree, but speake not: they are borne because they cannot go feare them not, for they cannot do euill, neither can they do good.

⁶ Forasmuch as [there is] none like thee, O LORD;He teaches the people to lift up their eyes to God, who has all power and therefore ought only to be feared: and in this he shows them not only the evil that they ought to hate: but the good which they ought to follow, (Rev_15:4).thou [art] great, and thy name [is] great in might.

⁷ Who would not feare thee, O King of nations? For to thee appertaineth the dominion: for among all the wise men of the Gentiles, and in al their kingdomes there is none like thee.

⁸ But they are altogether senseless and foolish: the stock [is] aBecause the people thought that to have images was a means to serve God, and to bring them to the knowledge of him, he shows that nothing more displeases God, nor brings man into greater errors and ignorance of God: and therefore he calls them the doctrine of vanity, the work of errors, (Jer_10:15). (Hab_2:18) calls them the teachers of lies: contrary to that wicked opinion, that they are the books of the lay people.doctrine of vanities.

⁹ Silver beaten into plates is brought from Tarshish, and goldWhere they found the best gold; showing that they thought nothing too dear for their idols, some read Ophir as in (1Ki_9:28).from Uphaz, the work of the craftsman, and of the hands of the goldsmith: blue and purple [is] their clothing: they [are] all the work of skilful [men].

¹⁰ But the Lord is the God of trueth: he is the liuing God, and an euerlasting King: at his anger the earth shal tremble, and the nations cannot abide his wrath.

¹¹ Thus shall ye say to them, The godsThis declares that all that has been spoken of idols in this chapter, was to arm the Jews when they would be in Chaldea among the idolaters, and now with one sentence he instructs them both how to protest their own religion against the idolaters and how to answer them to their shame who would exhort them to idolatry, and therefore he writes this sentence in the Chaldean tongue for a memorial while all the rest of his writing is in Hebrew.that have not made the heavens and the earth, [even] they shall perish from the earth, and from under these heavens.

¹² He hath made the earth by his power, and established the worlde by his wisedome, and hath stretched out the heauen by his discretion.

¹³ Hee giueth by his voyce the multitude of waters in the heauen, and he causeth the cloudes to ascend from the endes of the earth: he turneth lightnings to rayne, and bringeth forth the winde out of his treasures.

¹⁴ Every man isThe more man thinks to do anything well by his own wisdom, and not as God instructs him, the more he proves himself to be a vile beast.senseless in [his] knowledge: every goldsmith is confounded by the graven image: for his molten image [is] falsehood, and [there is] no breath in them.

¹⁵ They are vanitie, and the worke of errours: in the time of their visitation they shall perish.

¹⁶ TheBy these words, portion and rod, he signifies their inheritance, meaning that God would be all sufficient for them: and that their happiness consisted in him alone, and therefore they ought to renounce all other help and comfort as of idols, etc. (Deu_32:9; Psa_16:5).portion of Jacob [is] not like them: for he [is] the former of all [things]; and Israel [is] the rod of his inheritance: The LORD of hosts [is] his name.

¹⁷ The prophet wills the Jews to prepare themselves for this captivity, showing that it was now at hand that they would feel the things of which he had told them.Gather up thy wares out of the land, O inhabitant of the fortress.

¹⁸ For thus sayth the Lorde, Beholde, at this time I will throwe as with a sling the inhabitants of the lande, and will trouble them, and they shal finde it so.

¹⁹ Woe is me for my hurt! my wound is grievous: but I said, Truly thisIt is my just plague, and therefore I will take it patiently: by which he teaches the people how to behave themselves toward God.[is] a grief, and I must bear it.

²⁰ He shows how Jerusalem will lament.My tabernacle is laid waste, and all my cords are broken: my children are gone from me, and they [are] not: [there is] none to stretch forth my tent any more, and to set up my curtains.

²¹ For the shepherdsThe governors and ministers.have become senseless, and have not sought the LORD: therefore they shall not prosper, and all their flocks shall be scattered.

²² Behold, the sound of a rumour is come, and a great commotion from theRead (Jer_4:15).north country, to make the cities of Judah desolate, [and] a den of dragons.

²³ O LORD, I know thatHe speaks this because Nebuchadnezzar purposed to have made war against the Moabites and Ammonites, but hearing of Zedekiah's rebellion he turned his power to go against Jerusalem, (Eze_21:21) therefore the prophet says that this was the Lord's direction.the way of man [is] not in himself: [it is] not in man that walketh to direct his steps.

²⁴ O LORD, correct me, but withConsidering that God had revealed to him the certainty of their captivity (Jer_7:16) he only prays that he would punish them with mercy which Isaiah calls in measure, (Isa_27:8) measuring his rods by their infirmity (1Co_10:13) for here by judgment is meant not only the punishment but also the merciful moderation of the same as in (Jer_30:11).judgment; not in thy anger, lest thou bring me to nothing.

²⁵ Pour outAs God cannot only be known and glorified by his mercy that he uses toward his Church, but also by his justice in punishing his enemies, he prays that this glory may fully appear both in the one and the other, (Psa_79:6).thy fury upon the nations that know thee not, and upon the families that call not on thy name: for they have eaten up Jacob, and devoured him, and consumed him, and have made his habitation desolate.