Commentary on Jeremiah and Lamentations Volume 2 John Calvin (continued)
JEREMIAH AND LAMENTATIONS
It is, indeed, true what Moses says, that men are like mettlesome and wanton horses when they become fat. (Deuteronomy 32:15.) So fatness and tranquillity have such effect as to render us more refractory. Yet this cannot avail for an excuse when God kindly invites us, and connects with his doctrine kind and paternal benevolence, and confirms it by the effects when we are teachable and yield him willing obedience. Thus the Prophet closed the mouths of the Jews, for they would have sought probably to make this objection, --- that vengeance was too vehemently denounced on them, and that God suddenly assailed them; but he shews that when in tranquillity and prosperity they might have acknowledged God's paternal kindness, they had yet been rebellious and had abused the indulgence of God.
I spoke to thee, he says, in thy tranquillity, and thou didst say, I will not hear It is not, indeed, probable that the Jews had spoken so insolently as to say openly and in such plain words, that they would not be obedient; but the Prophet regards their life and not their words. Though, then, the Jews did not express these words, --- that they would not obey God; yet such language might have been clearly inferred from their conduct, for they were so perverse as not to render obedience to God and to his counsels.
He adds, in the third place, that it had been the custom of the people from their childhood not to hear the voice of God. It is the height of impiety when we are not only refractory for one day or a short time, but when we pursue wickedness continually. God in the meantime intimates that he had from the beginning been solicitous for the safety of his people, but in vain. It sometimes happens that he who has become hardened in his vices, begins to be taught after the thirtieth or fortieth: year, but he is not very pliable; for men become hard by long usage; we see that old men are less teachable than the young; and why? because age in a manner makes them sturdy, so that they cannot bear to be turned and ruled. But God shews here, that such was the wickedness of his people, that they had been rebellious from their childhood; as though he had said, ``Thou canst not make this excuse, that thou hast been for a long time without a teacher that thou hast been without any wisdom and understanding, and that on this account thou hast become hardened in evils; no, because I have found thee wholly unteachable from thy very childhood; it was thy custom, or manner, not to hear my voice,'' or, ``This has been thy custom, that thou didst not hear my voice;'' literally, ``because thou didst not hear my voice;'' but it ought to be rendered as above, for {,}כיis not here a connective, but all expletive or an exegetical particle. 61 It follows, ---
Jeremiah 22:22
22. The wind shall eat up all thy pastors, and thy lovers shall go into captivity: surely then shalt thou be ashamed and confounded for all thy wickedness.
22. Omnes pastores tuos depascet ventus, et amatores tui in exilium migrabunt; certe tunc pudefies et erubesces ab omni malitia tua (hoc est, propter cunctam mali-
61The {{כיis omitted in the Sept., and the clause is given as in apposition with the former, which seems to be the meaning; ``the way'' was not to hear God's voice. Blayney, very unsuitably, connects the last line with the following verse. I render the verse thus, --- 21. I spoke to thee in thy quiet times; Thou didst say, ``I will not hear:'' This has been thy way from thy childhood; For thou didst not hear my voice. It has been usual with many to render ``hear,'' ``obey;'' but not rightly. The complaint against the people was, that they would not ``hear'' the voice of God, much less obey it. The answer here was that they would not ``hear.''
The complaint, or the charge against them is the same, and the verb ought to be so rendered. --- Ed.