Commentary on Jeremiah Volume 1 John Calvin (continued)
COMMENTARY ON JEREMIAH
they themselves were the authors of all their calamities. 115 He then adds ---
Jeremiah 4:19
19. My bowels, my bowels! I am pained at my very heart; my heart maketh a noise in me; I cannot hold my peace, because thou hast heard, O my soul, the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war.
19. Viscera mea, viscera mea doleo, parietes cordis mei (ad verbum, hoc est, praecordia mea,) cor meum tumultuatur mihi (hoc est, intra me;) non tacebo, quoniam vocem tubae (vel, clangorem tubae) audivit (vel audivisti) anima mea; et clamor belli auditus est (vel, clamourem belli audivit anima mea.)
Some interpreters think that the Prophet is here affected with grief, because he saw that his own nation would soon perish; but I know not whether this is a right view. It is indeed true, that the prophets, though severe when denouncing God's vengeance, did not yet put off the feelings of humanity. Hence they often bewailed the evils which they predicted; and this we shall see more clearly in its proper place.
The prophets then had two feelings: when they were the heralds of God's vengeance, they necessarily forgot their own sensibilities; but this courage did not prevent them from feeling sorrow for others; for they could not but sympathize with their brethren, when they saw them, even their own flesh, doomed to ruin. But in this place the Prophet seems not so much to mourn the calamities of the people, but employs figurative terms in order to awaken their stupor, for he saw that they were torpid, and that they neither feared God nor were touched with any shame. Since then there was so much insensibility in the people, it was necessary for Jeremiah and other servants of God to embellish their discourses, so as not simply to teach, but also forcibly and strongly to rouse their dormant minds.
He therefore says, My bowels, my bowels! We shall see that the Prophet in other places thus laments, when he speaks of Babylon, of Edom, and of other enemies of his people, and why? The Prophet was not indeed affected with grief when he heard that the Chaldeans would perish, and when God declared to him the same thing respecting other heathen nations, who had cruelly persecuted the holy people; but since thoughtless men, as I have said, take no notice of what God from heaven threatens them with, it is necessary to use such expressions as may rouse them from their torpor. So I interpret this place: the Prophet does not express his own grief for the calamities of his people, but by the prophetic spirit enlarges on what he had previously said; for he saw that what he had stated had no effect, or was not sufficient to rouse their minds. My bowels! he says. He had indeed grief in his bowels, for he was a member of the community; but we now speak of his object or the purpose he had in view in speaking thus. It is not then the expression of his own
115Blayney, contrary to all the early versions, renders {,{`` אלהa curse,`` instead of ``these,`` but there is no sufficient reason for the change. It is difficult to see what is the precise idea intended in our version as to the latter part of the verse. The meaning given by Calvin seems to be this, --- that though the visitation was bitter and reached to the heart, it was yet to be ascribed to their wickedness. Blayney's version is this, --- Such is thy calamity; for it is bitterness; for it is a plague even unto thy heart. The latter words are taken as explanatory of the calamity. The word {}רעהdoes indeed mean sometimes a calamity; but all the early versions, as well as the Targum, render it here ``wickedness.'' Hence the most suitable rendering would be, --- Such is thy wickedness! Though bitter, though reaching to thy heart. That {}כיmay be rendered ``though'' is evident from Joshua 17:18; and it ought to be so rendered in Exodus 34:9; and in other places. But we may take the first in{}כיits primary sense, surely, certainly, truly, and the second as a causative, for, because; an instance of a similar kind we meet in Exodus 13:17: the first precedes{}כיan adjective, and is rendered ``Although;'' and the second ,{}כיa verb, and is rendered ``for.'' Then our version would be, --- Such is thy wickedness (that is, its effect)! Surely, bitter; for it reaches to thy heart. --- Ed.