Commentary on Jeremiah and Lamentations Volume 2 John Calvin (continued)
JOHN CALVIN
a time overwhelmed, is compared to a sleep. 274 He now adds, ---
Jeremiah 31:27
27. Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man, and with the seed of beast.
27. Ecce dies veniunt, dicit Jehova, et seminabo domum Israel et domum Jehudah semine hominis et semine animalis.
We see that the Prophet brings forward nothing new, but only animates the Jews with confidence as to their deliverance and their return. He yet employs another similitude, even that God would again sow Judah in the land, that he might produce an increase of men, and also of cattle, and of all kinds of animals. We have said that the land was to be for a time dreary and forsaken. As God then thus condemned as it were the land, that all might regard it as given up to desolation and solitude, the Prophet says that God would cause it to be inhabited again by both men and beasts.
But the similitude sets forth still more fully the favor of God. There is to be understood a contrast between a cultivated and a deserted land. It is as though one should say, ``They shall sow and reap on mountains, where corn has never been, where a plough has never been seen.'' Were any one then to promise a sowing and a harvest in a desert land, it would be a new thing, and could hardly be believed.
Even so does the Prophet now say, I will sow, etc., as though he said, ``The land indeed shall for a time be accursed, so that it will not sustain either men or beasts; but it shall be sown again.'' I will sow it, he says, with the seed both of, men and of animals: and thus he meets a question, which might have been asked, ``How can it be that the land will be again inhabited, since it is now deserted by its inhabitants?'' even because God will sow it. In this way then, the Prophet answers the question.
But at the same time he exalts the favor of God, as though he had said, that there would be no other remedy for the barrenness of the land, until God should cultivate it himself, and scatter seed on it: which is the same as to say, that the restoration of the land would not be the work of human industry or power, but of the wonderful power of God. 275 It follows, ---
Jeremiah 31:28
28. And it shall come to pass, that like as I have watched over them, to pluck up, and to break down, and to throw down, and to destroy, and to afflict; so will I watch over them, to build, and to plant, saith the LORD.
28. Et erit, sicuti vigilavi super eos ad evellendum et conterendum, et ad confringendum et ad perdendum, et ad affligendum, sic vigilabo super eos ad aedificandum et ad plantandum, dicit Jehova.
By these words the Prophet confirms what he had said; for the Israelites and the Jews might have ever made this objection, ``Why should God promise to be the 274It is difficult to see exactly the purport of this verse: what does "beheld," or saw mean? May not the verb be considered as in Hophal, "I was made to see," or, had a vision? The verb is often used in this sense: see Zechariah 3:1. Then we may give this version, — Hereupon I awoke and had a vision; And my sleep had been pleasant to me. Visions were of two kinds, given in sleep, and given to persons awake: the previous vision was given to the Prophet while he was asleep. — Ed.
275I am disposed to render the latter part of this verse according to the Syriac, — That I will sow, as to the house of Israel and the house of Judah, The seed of man and the seed of beast. I take {{אתas a preposition, which it often is. --- Ed.