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4. Unfaithful Israel

¹ “If you, Israel, will return,
   then return to me,” declares the LORD.
“If you put your detestable idols out of my sight
   and no longer go astray,
² and if in a truthful, just and righteous way
   you swear, ‘As surely as the LORD lives,’
then the nations will invoke blessings by him
   and in him they will boast.”

³ This is what the LORD says to the people of Judah and to Jerusalem:

   “Break up your unplowed ground
   and do not sow among thorns.
⁴ Circumcise yourselves to the LORD,
   circumcise your hearts,
   you people of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem,
or my wrath will flare up and burn like fire
   because of the evil you have done—
   burn with no one to quench it.

Disaster From the North

    ⁵ “Announce in Judah and proclaim in Jerusalem and say:
   ‘Sound the trumpet throughout the land!’
Cry aloud and say:
   ‘Gather together!
   Let us flee to the fortified cities!’
⁶ Raise the signal to go to Zion!
   Flee for safety without delay!
For I am bringing disaster from the north,
   even terrible destruction.”

    ⁷ A lion has come out of his lair;
   a destroyer of nations has set out.
He has left his place
   to lay waste your land.
Your towns will lie in ruins
   without inhabitant.
⁸ So put on sackcloth,
   lament and wail,
for the fierce anger of the LORD
   has not turned away from us.

    ⁹ “In that day,” declares the LORD,
   “the king and the officials will lose heart,
the priests will be horrified,
   and the prophets will be appalled.”

¹⁰ Then I said, “Alas, Sovereign LORD! How completely you have deceived this people and Jerusalem by saying, ‘You will have peace,’ when the sword is at our throats!”

¹¹ At that time this people and Jerusalem will be told, “A scorching wind from the barren heights in the desert blows toward my people, but not to winnow or cleanse; ¹² a wind too strong for that comes from me. Now I pronounce my judgments against them.”

    ¹³ Look! He advances like the clouds,
   his chariots come like a whirlwind,
his horses are swifter than eagles.
   Woe to us! We are ruined!
¹⁴ Jerusalem, wash the evil from your heart and be saved.
   How long will you harbor wicked thoughts?
¹⁵ A voice is announcing from Dan,
   proclaiming disaster from the hills of Ephraim.
¹⁶ “Tell this to the nations,
   proclaim concerning Jerusalem:
‘A besieging army is coming from a distant land,
   raising a war cry against the cities of Judah.
¹⁷ They surround her like men guarding a field,
   because she has rebelled against me,’” declares the LORD.
¹⁸ “Your own conduct and actions
   have brought this on you.
This is your punishment.
   How bitter it is!
   How it pierces to the heart!”

    ¹⁹ Oh, my anguish, my anguish!
   I writhe in pain.
Oh, the agony of my heart!
   My heart pounds within me,
   I cannot keep silent.
For I have heard the sound of the trumpet;
   I have heard the battle cry.
²⁰ Disaster follows disaster;
   the whole land lies in ruins.
In an instant my tents are destroyed,
   my shelter in a moment.
²¹ How long must I see the battle standard
   and hear the sound of the trumpet?

    ²² “My people are fools;
   they do not know me.
They are senseless children;
   they have no understanding.
They are skilled in doing evil;
   they know not how to do good.”

    ²³ I looked at the earth,
   and it was formless and empty;
and at the heavens,
   and their light was gone.
²⁴ I looked at the mountains,
   and they were quaking;
   all the hills were swaying.
²⁵ I looked, and there were no people;
   every bird in the sky had flown away.
²⁶ I looked, and the fruitful land was a desert;
   all its towns lay in ruins
   before the LORD, before his fierce anger.

²⁷ This is what the LORD says:

   “The whole land will be ruined,
   though I will not destroy it completely.
²⁸ Therefore the earth will mourn
   and the heavens above grow dark,
because I have spoken and will not relent,
   I have decided and will not turn back.”

    ²⁹ At the sound of horsemen and archers
   every town takes to flight.
Some go into the thickets;
   some climb up among the rocks.
All the towns are deserted;
   no one lives in them.

    ³⁰ What are you doing, you devastated one?
   Why dress yourself in scarlet
   and put on jewels of gold?
Why highlight your eyes with makeup?
   You adorn yourself in vain.
Your lovers despise you;
   they want to kill you.

    ³¹ I hear a cry as of a woman in labor,
   a groan as of one bearing her first child—
the cry of Daughter Zion gasping for breath,
   stretching out her hands and saying,
“Alas! I am fainting;
   my life is given over to murderers.”

As the royal dignity still continued with the Jews, though their power was greatly diminished, they, relying on that distinction, hoped that they had a sufficient protection: hence it was, that they were not moved by any denunciation; for the royal power, which remained not altogether secure, and yet so in some degree, was to them like a shield. We also know what pride filled the courtiers; for they extolled their kings, and thus made a show of their prudence and magnanimity. Since, then, this foolish notion of the chief men respecting their king, and their delusive boasting, deceived the Jews, the Prophet says, In that day perish shall the heart of the king, and the heart of the princes

By heart he no doubt means the understanding or the mind, as the word is to be taken in many other places. Moses says,

“God has not yet given you a heart to understand.”
(Deuteronomy 29:4.)

The Latins also call men “hearted” (cordatos) who excel in intelligence and wisdom. ¹⁰⁵¹⁰⁵ Though the most common meaning of לב, heart, is what is here stated, yet it means also strength, firmness, courage. See Deuteronomy 20:2, 3; 2 Samuel 17:10; Psalm 22:14; Psalm 73:26. And this meaning is most suitable to this passage. — Ed So, then, the Prophet shews, that it was a vain and deceptive fancy for the people to expect that the king would be an invincible defense to them; for “the king, “he says, “shall then be deprived of understanding and reason; and the counselors, who lay claim to understanding, shall be found then to be wholly foolish: there is, then, no ground for that vain confidence which deceives you.” The Prophet briefly intended to shake off that false confidence, by which the Jews were inebriated, when they thought that there was a sure safety in the intelligence of the king and princes.

He says the same thing respecting the priests as well as the prophets, as much glory belonged to the priestly order; for the tribe of Levi had not taken that honor to itself, but God himself had set priests over the people. Hence an opinion prevailed, that the priests could not be without understanding and wisdom. With regard to the prophets, Jeremiah no doubt conceded the name to impostors, who falsely professed the name of God; and this way of speaking is common in the writings of the prophets. He does not, then, mean those true and faithful ministers of God, who duly executed their office, but those who boasted of the name and title: and he says of these, that they would be astonished ¹⁰⁶¹⁰⁶     The verse is as follows, —
   And it shall be in that day, saith Jehovah, That perish shall the heart of the king And the heart of the princes, And confounded shall be the priests, And the prophets shall be astonished.
   “Confounded,” that is, like persons at their wit’s end, not knowing what to do, or what course to take. “Astonished,” or amazed, that is, at witnessing the reverse of what they had prophesied; being filled with stunning and stupefying amazement. — Ed.

He, in short, deprives the people of that false confidence, through which they hardened themselves, so as not to fear God’s judgment.

But this passage is entitled to special notice, because it shews that God’s grace is not to be tied either to ranks of men or to titles. The prophetic office had always been in high repute; nor was the priestly without honor, for it was founded on God’s command; but Jeremiah nevertheless declares, that there would be no understanding in the priests and in the prophets, because they would become stupefied and astonished. And with regard to the king, we know that he was the representative of Christ; and yet he pronounces the same thing of the king, and also of his counselors, — that they would be made blind by the just vengeance of God, so as not to see anything. he afterwards adds —