Commentary on Jeremiah and Lamentations Volume 2 John Calvin
JEREMIAH AND LAMENTATIONS
God is present with us by his word; for we have a sure testimony of his presence whenever true and faithful teachers rise up.
He adds, to receive correction He intimates by the word {}מוסרmusar, that the Jews had not sinned through ignorance, but that they had been intractable, for they refused to be corrected. The word is, indeed, taken sometimes for doctrine, but it means here correction, even when any one, who generally holds a right course, deviates from the right way, but being warned, repents. We hence see what the Prophet means, even that the Jews had not only closed their eyes against the clear light which shone forth in the Law, but that they had been wholly refractory, so that they could not be subdued when God called them to repentance, that when he sought to heal their diseases, they showed such stubbornness that they cast aside all correction and discipline. 299 We hence learn that the time of vengeance had come, because God had tried all means to promote their welfare, and had lost, as the common saying is, both pains and cost. It follows, ---
Jeremiah 32:34
34. But they set their abominations in the house, which is called by my name, to defile it.
34. Et posueruut abominationes suas in domo super quam invocatum est nomen meum, ad poiluendum ipsam.
There was here, as it were, an extreme wickedness, for the Jews had profaned the Temple itself. It was a grievous offense, when every one had, as we have seen, private services at home, where they burned incense on the roofs, and poured libations to foreign gods; but when impiety had gone so far, that even the Temple itself was polluted with idols, what hope was there of repentance?
He says that they had set their abominations in the Temple. It is called, indeed, a house after the manner of the Hebrews, but it is afterwards distinguished from private buildings, when he says, on which my name is called 300 and then, that they might defile it God here shews that the Temple had been dedicated to him; it was then a sacrilegious profanation when they offered their sacrifices to idols. They were, indeed, already apostates; but such a sacrilege was not so notorious in their private superstitions as in the Temple; for this was to deprive God of his own honor. Though it was not right in them to abandon themselves to all kind of wickedness when they came forth from the Temple; yet the Temple itself ought to have continued, as it were, safe and free from every defilement. For this reason, therefore, he says that it was called by his name, and then that the Temple itself had been defiled, so that they did not spare his sacred name. The rest I shall defer till to-morrow.
PRAYER
Grant, Almighty God, that as thou stretchest forth thy hand to us daily, and invitest us also by continual exhortations to repentance, --- O grant, that we may not be so ungrateful as by our obstinacy to reject such and so great a benefit; but that, if at 299It is true that the word means correction as well as instruction; but as "teaching" is what was previously mentioned, our version, which gives the latter word, seems to present the true meaning here. It is so rendered by Blayney. — Ed.
300The Vulg. and the Targ. very incorrectly render the words, "In which my name is called." The Sept. and the Syr. are the same as our version. It was, no doubt, a house of prayer; but what is here meant is, that it was called God's house. — Ed.