Jeremias 4

¹ If thou wilt return, O Israel, saith the LORD,That is, wholly and without hypocrisy, not dissembling to turn and serve God as they do who serve him by halves, (Hos_7:16).return to me: and if thou wilt put away thy abominations out of my sight, then shalt thou not be removed.

² And thou shaltYou will detest the name of idols, (Psa_16:4) and will with reverence swear by the living God, when your oath may advance God's glory, and profit others: and here by swearing he means the true religion of God.swear, The LORD liveth, in truth, in judgment, and in righteousness; and the nations shall bless themselves in him, and in him shall they glory.

³ For thus saith the LORD to the men of Judah and Jerusalem, Break upHe wills them to pluck up the impiety and wicked affection and worldly respects out of their heart, that the true seed of God's word may be sown in it, (Hos_10:12) and this is the true circumcision of the heart, (Deu_10:16; Rom_2:29; Col_2:11).your fallow ground, and sow not among thorns.

⁴ Breake vp your fallowe ground, and sowe not among the thornes: be circumcised to the Lord, & take away the foreskinnes of your hearts, ye men of Iudah, and inhabitants of Ierusalem, lest my wrath come foorth like fire, and burne, that none can quenche it, because of the wickednesse of your inuentions.

⁵ He warns them of the great dangers that will come on them by the Chaldeans, unless they repent and turn to the Lord.Declare ye in Judah, and proclaim in Jerusalem; and say, Blow ye the trumpet in the land: cry, confirm, and say, Assemble yourselves, and let us go into the fortified cities.

⁶ Set up the standard toward Zion:He speaks this to admonish them of the great danger when every man will prepare to save himself, but it will be too late, (2Ki_25:4).retire, stay not: for I will bring evil from the north, and a great destruction.

⁷ TheMeaning Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, (2Ki_24:1).lion is come up from his thicket, and the destroyer of the Gentiles is on his way; he is gone forth from his place to make thy land desolate; thy cities shall be laid waste, without an inhabitant.

⁸ Wherefore girde you with sackecloth: lament, and howle, for the fierce wrath of the Lord is not turned backe from vs.

⁹ And it shall come to pass at that day, saith the LORD, [that] the heart of the king shall perish, and the heart of the princes; and the priests shall be astonished, and theThat is, the false prophets who still prophesied peace and security.prophets shall wonder.

¹⁰ Then said I, Ah, Lord GOD! surely thou hast greatlyBy the false prophets who promised peace and tranquillity: and thus you have punished their rebellious stubbornness by causing them to hearken to lies who would not believe your truth, (1Ki_22:23; Eze_14:9; 2Th_2:11).deceived this people and Jerusalem, saying, Ye shall have peace; though the sword reacheth to the soul.

¹¹ At that time shall it be said to this people and to Jerusalem, A dryThe north wind by which he means Nebuchadnezzar.wind of the high places in the wilderness toward the daughter of my people, notBut to carry away both corn and chaff.to fan, nor to cleanse,

¹² A mightie winde shall come vnto me from those places, and nowe will I also giue sentence vpon them.

¹³ Behold, he shall come up asMeaning that Nebuchadnezzar would come as suddenly as a cloud that is carried with the wind.clouds, and his chariots [shall be] as a whirlwind: his horses are swifter than eagles.This is spoken in the person of all the people, who in their affliction would cry thus.Woe to us! for we are laid waste.

¹⁴ O Ierusalem, wash thine heart from wickednes, that thou maiest be saued: how long shall thy wicked thoughtes remaine within thee?

¹⁵ For a voice declareth fromWhich was a city in the utmost border of Israel north toward Babylon.Dan, and proclaimeth affliction from mountWhich was in the middle between Dan and Jerusalem.Ephraim.

¹⁶ Make ye mention of the heathen, and publish in Ierusalem, Beholde, the skoutes come from a farre countrey, and crie out against the cities of Iudah.

¹⁷ As keepers of aWho keep the fruits so straitly, that nothing can come in or out so would the Babylonians compass Judah.,field, they are against her on all sides; because she hath been rebellious against me, saith the LORD.

¹⁸ Thy wayes and thine inuentions haue procured thee these things, such is thy wickednesse: therefore it shall be bitter, therefore it shall perce vnto thine heart.

¹⁹ My distress, myHe shows that the true ministers are lively touched with the calamities of the Church, so that all the parts of their body feel the grief of their heart, even though with zeal to God's glory they pronounce his judgments against the people.distress! I am pained at my very heart; my heart maketh a noise in me; I cannot hold my peace, because thou hast heard, O my soul, the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war.

²⁰ Destruction upon destruction is cried; for the whole land is laid waste: suddenly are myMeaning, the cities which were as easily cast down as a tent.tents ruined, [and] my curtains in a moment.

²¹ Howe long shall I see the standert, and heare the sounde of the trumpet?

²² For my people [are] foolish, they have not known me; they [are] silly children, and they have no understanding:Their wisdom and policy tend to their own destruction and pulls them from God.they [are] wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge.

²³ I beheld the earth, and, lo, [it was] without form, andBy this manner of speech he shows the horrible destruction that would come on the land and also condemns the obstinacy of the people who do not repent at the fear of these terrible kings, seeing that the insensible creatures are moved therewith, as if the order of nature would be changed, (Isa_13:10, Isa_24:23; Eze_32:7; Joe_2:31, Joe_3:15).void; and the heavens, and they [had] no light.

²⁴ I behelde the mountaines: and loe, they trembled and all the hilles shooke.

²⁵ I behelde, and loe, there was no man, and all the birdes of the heauen were departed.

²⁶ I behelde, and loe, the fruitfull place was a wildernesse, and all the cities thereof were broken downe at the presence of the Lorde, and by his fierce wrath.

²⁷ For thus hath the LORD said, The whole land shall be desolate; yet will IBut for his mercies sake, he will reserve himself a residue to be his Church, and to praise him in earth, (Jer_5:18).not make a full end.

²⁸ Therefore shall the earth mourne, and the heauens aboue shall be darkened, because I haue pronounced it: I haue thought it, and will not repent, neither will I turne backe from it.

²⁹ The whole citie shall flee, for the noyse of the horsemen and bowemen: they shall goe into thickets, and clime vp vpon the rockes: euery citie shall be forsaken, and not a man dwell therein.

³⁰ And [when] thou [art] laid waste, what wilt thou do? Though thouNeither your ceremonies nor rich gifts will deliver you.clothest thyself with crimson, though thou deckest thee with ornaments of gold, though thou enlarge thy eyes with painting, in vain shalt thou make thyself fair; [thy] lovers will despise thee, they will seek thy life.

³¹ For I have heard a voice as of a woman in travail, [and] the anguish as of her that bringeth forth her first child, the voice of the daughter of Zion, [that] bewaileth herself, [that] spreadeth her hands, [saying],As the prophets were moved to pity the destruction of their people, so they declared it to the people to move them to repentance, (Isa_22:4; Jer_9:1).Woe [is] me now! for my soul is wearied because of murderers.