Commentary on Jeremiah and Lamentations Volume 2 John Calvin (continued)
JOHN CALVIN
would kindly treat the miserable.
He afterwards says, I will restore them For, as he had sent them away, it was in his power to restore them. As, then, he could heal the wound inflicted by his own hand, this promise ought to have been sufficient to dispel every doubt from the minds of the captives as to their return; and further, the Jews, who as yet remained in Jerusalem and in the land of Judah, ought to have known that they in vain boasted in their good lot, as though God treated them better than their captive brethren, for it was in his power to restore those whom he had banished.
And he adds, I will build and not pull them down, I will plant and not pluck them up
This mode of speaking would not be so significant either in Latin or in Greek; but such a repetition, as it is well known, often occurs in Hebrew. But whenever a negative is added to an affirmative, such form of expression is to be thus interpreted, ``I shall be so far from plucking them up, that I will plant them; I shall be so far from pulling them down, that I will build them up;'' or, ``since I had pulled them down, I will now build them up; since I had plucked them up, I will now plant them:'' or a perpetuity may be meant, as though God had said, ``I will plant them, so as not to pluck them again; I will build them, so as not to pull them down again.'' But the most frequent import of such expressions is what I first mentioned, ``I will not pull them down, but on the contrary build them up; I will not pluck them up, but on the contrary plant them.''
The meaning of the whole is, that however sad might be the calamities of the people in Chaldea, they being as exiles reduced to a desolate condition, yet God could collect them again, like one who plants a tree or builds a house. The metaphor of building is common in Scripture, and also that of planting. God is said to plant men, when he introduces a certain order among them, or when he allots to them a certain place to dwell in, or when he grants them peace and quietness. God is said in Psalm
44:2, to have planted his people; but I will not refer to the many passages which are everywhere to be met with. God often says that he had planted his vineyard. (Isaiah
5:2, etc.) And then well known is this passage, ``The branch of the Lord, and the planting for his glory.''
(Isaiah 60:21)
This is said of the preservation of the Church.
The meaning then is, that though God severely chastised the exiles who had been led into Chaldea, yet their condition was not to be estimated by one day, or a month, or a few years, but that a happy end was to be expected. And as God intended at length to shew himself reconcilable and propitious, it follows that the calamity which had happened to them was lighter than that which awaited the rest, who resolutely despised God and his prophets, and thus increased the vengeance which had been already denounced on them. It follows, ---
Jeremiah 24:7
7. And I will give them an heart to know me, that I am the LORD: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God: for they shall return unto me with their whole heart.
7. Et dabo illis cor ad cognoscendum me, quod ego sum Jehova; et erunt mihi in