Commentary on Jeremiah Volume 1 John Calvin (continued)
COMMENTARY ON JEREMIAH
mitigation this was added, ``I will not yet make a consummation,'' that is, there will be some remaining. And the prophets are wont thus to speak, when they intend to shew that some seed will ever remain, so that the Church shall not wholly be destroyed. Thus also do the same interpreters explain this passage, as though God had said, that the ruin of Jerusalem would be such that the Church would still continue, for there would be no consummation. But others take {,}כלהcale, as signifying an end: and this meaning is more suitable; for God in this verse severely threatens the Jews with destruction. It is no objection, that it is said elsewhere, that the consummation would not be complete; for it is quite evident that the prophets do not always adopt the same mode in speaking: when they denounce vengeance on the reprobate, they leave no hope; and so this mode of speaking often occurs, ``I will make an end:'' but when they address the faithful, they moderate the severity of their threatenings by saying, ``God will not make a consummation.'' I am therefore disposed to take their view, whom regard consummation here as signifying an end; and {,}כללcalal, means to finish. The meaning then is, ``Demolish the city, and let there be no end,`` that is, destroy it entirely. 139
To the same purpose is what immediately follows, Take away her shoots, or her branches, or the teeth of her walls, as some render the word. I think, however, that the Prophet refers to the width of the walls in their foundations; for we know that walls are so built, that the foundation is wider than the upper structure. The word which the Prophet uses, means shoots, which spread far and wide. They who render it, the wings of the walls, seem not to me to understand what the Prophet means; for he speaks not here of the top of the walls, but of the foundations, as though he had said, ``Overthrow or demolish from the foundation the walls of the city: ``and why? They are not Jehovah's, he adds. The Jews were inflated with this empty confidence, --- that they were safe under the protection of God; for they imagined that God was the guardian of the city, because the sanctuary and the altar were there. Hence the Prophet declares, that the walls or the foundations were not God's. 140 Nor could it have been objected, that it is said elsewhere, that the city had been founded by the Lord: God had indeed chosen his habitation and his throne there; but on this condition --- that the people should faithfully worship him. When Jerusalem was made a den of thieves, God departed thence, according to what is said by Ezekiel in chapter 14 (Ezekiel 14). Here then the Prophet reproves that foolish confidence, by which the Jews deceived themselves, when they thought that God was in a manner bound never to forsake the defense of the city. He denies that their walls and foundations were God's; for the Jews by their sins had so polluted the whole place, that God could not dwell in such filth. It follows ---
Jeremiah 5:11
11. For the house of Israel and the house of Judah have dealt very treacherously against me, saith the Lord.
139See Note on Jeremiah 4:27. 140It is true the word means shoots or branches; but as the root means to spread, it evidently signifies here battlements, bulwarks, or ramparts. It is rendered "{ὑποστηρίγματα} --- props, pillars,'' by the Septuagint; ``propagines --- shoots,'' by the Vulgate; ``foundations,'' by the Syriac and Arabic; and ``palaces, or towers,'' by the Targum. Our version has the most suitable word --- ``battlements.'' Blayney has ``branches,`` and thinks that the cities of Judea are meant; but this is not suitable to the context. --- Ed.