Commentary on Jeremiah Volume 1 John Calvin
COMMENTARY ON JEREMIAH
I therefore give this explanation: God had before put on, as it were, the character of one in grief and sorrow, and kindly exhorted the people to repent, and testified that he would be ready to pardon them, and at the same time shewed in general that he would be propitious, as he is by nature inclined to mercy. After having set forth these things, he now adds, that he despaired of that people, because they gloried in their own wickedness: for to speak and to do means the same as if he had said, that the people were so impudent, that they boasted of their rebellion against God, and dared to call darkness light; for the superstitious, we know, glory against God without any shame. Now, such was the state of the people; for God, by his prophets, condemned this especially in them — that they had corrupted the pure worship of the law; but they with a meretricious front dared to set up against him their own devotions and good intentions, as they are commonly called. As then, they thus presumptuously defended their wicked deeds, God here complains that they were in no way healable, and so he leaves them as past remedy. This I regard as the real meaning of the Prophet: and of similar import is the verb
"thou hast put forth all thy might," he says, that is, thou hast observed no limits in sinning, but, on the contrary, hast given thyself up to unbridled licentiousness. It now follows —
Jeremiah 3:6-8 6. The LORD said also unto me in the days of Josiah the king, Hast thou seen that which backsliding Israel hath done? she is gone up upon every high mountain and under every green tree, and there hath played the harlot.
6. Et dixit Jehova ad me in diebus Josiae regis, An vidisti quid fecerit aversatrix (alii vertunt, rebellis) Israel? Profecta est ipsa super omnem montem excelsum, et subtus omnem arborem frondosam, et scortata est illic:
7. And I said after she had done all these things, Turn thou unto me. But she returned not. And her treacherous sister Judah saw it
7. Et dixi, Post facere ipsam (hoc est, postquam fecit omnia haec,) Ad me revertere (alii in tertia persona reddunt, Revertatur;) et non reversa est: et vidit perfida ejus soror Jehudah.
8. And I saw, when for all the causes whereby backsliding Israel committed adultery I had put her away, and given her a bill of divorce; yet her treacherous sister Judah feared not, but went and played the harlot also.
8. Et vidi, quod super his omnibus (hoc est, quod propter haec, nempe
occasiones vel causas,) quia scortata erat rebellis Israel, dimiserim ipsam (repudiaverim,) et dederim librum repudiorum ejus (repudii ejus) illi, et non timuit perfida Jehudah soror ejus, et scortata est etiam ipsa.
this, and yet followed their superstitions. This is the view which Gataker seemed most disposed to take. Horsley thus paraphrases the last line, — "Thou hast persisted incorrigibly in doing evil." The Septuagint give "called," in the past tense; the Vulgate, in the imperative, "voca — call;" the Syriac, the Arabic, and the Targum, in the future tense, "Wilt thou not call," etc. The received text has {,{קראתיwhich is no doubt wrong; the iod is not found in very many MSS., and all the early versions agree in giving the verb in the second person. The same is to be said of ,{}דברתיit ought to be ,{}דברתthough Horsley prefers the former; but neither the early versions nor the context favor it. The phrase {}מעתהis rendered by the Septuagint, ``{ὡσ}
{οἰκόν} --- as a house,'' and by the Arabic, ``ut filia --- as a daughter.'' How such mistakes could have been made, it is difficult to say. The Syriac has ``hereafter;'' and the Targum, ``from this time.'' --- Ed