Commentary on Jeremiah Volume 1 John Calvin (continued)
COMMENTARY ON JEREMIAH
the perpetual streaming of waters. 167 It follows ---
Jeremiah 6:8
8. Be thou instructed, O Jerusalem, lest my soul depart from thee; lest I make thee desolate, a land not inhabited.
8. Erudire Jerusalem, ne discedat (vel, avellatur) anima mea abs to; ne ponam to desertum (vel, solitudinem) et terram inhabitabilem (hoc est, quae non habitatur.)
Though the Prophet had spoken as though there was no remedy for the evils of Jerusalem, he yet exhorts it to seek peace with God, and addresses men past remedy in his name. It is then the same as though God was stopping in the middle course of his wrath, and saying, ``What is to be done? Shall I destroy the city which I have chosen?'' He then attributes here to God a paternal feeling, as we also find in several other places: God appeared as unwilling to proceed to extreme rigor in punishing his people.
I will now take vengeance on mine enemies,'' he says by Isaiah. (Isaiah 1:24)
He called them enemies, and justly too; for as it was said before, they ceased not to carry on war against him; but he spoke with grief: ``Alas! must I take vengeance on mine enemies; I would, however, willingly spare them, were it possible.'' God is not indeed subject to grief or to repentance; but his ineffable goodness cannot be otherwise expressed to us but by such mode of speaking. So also, in this place, we see that God as it were restrains himself; for he had previously commanded the enemies to ascend quickly the walls, to overturn the towers, and to destroy the whole city; but now, as though he had repented, he says, Be instructed, 168 Jerusalem; that is, ``Can we not yet be reconciled?'' It is like the conduct of an offended father, who intends to punish his son, and yet desires to moderate his displeasure, and to blend some indulgence with rigor. Be then instructed; that is, ``There is yet room for reconciliation, if thou wishest; provided thou shewest thyself willing to relinquish that perverseness by which thou hast hitherto provoked me, I will in return prove myself to be a father.''
There is no doubt but the object of the threatenings of the prophets was to lead the people to know their sins, and suppliantly to seek pardon; for why were the unbelieving threatened, except that God thereby proved whether they were healable?
It is indeed true that the reprobate are known by God, and that God does not try or seek to find what is in their hearts, as though he did not know their obstinacy; but as 167The verse, literally rendered, is as follows: — 7. As cast forth does a spring its waters, So cast forth is her wickedness: Violence and plunder are heard of in her; Before me continually are wounding and smiting. The first verb is in Hiphil, the second is in Huphal. "Violence" was the visible act; "plunder" or spoiling was the object or the motive; "wounding" was the effect; "smiting" was the cause. Such is often found to be the way of stating things observed by the Prophets. Blayney renders the two last words "sickness and smiting," and adds, that the two words are a Hendiadis, and signify "sickness occasioned by blows." The true reason for the order is what has been stated: it is according to what is commonly done in Scripture; what is found often is not the progressive, but the retrogressive order. The Septuagint and the Targum have strangely rendered this verse in a manner wholly inconsistent with the context; nor are the other versions much better. The Hebrew is plain enough. — Ed.
168Or, "Be warned," or, "Be reformed." The verb in Niphal is found in four other places, Leviticus 26:23; Psalm 2:10; Proverbs 29:19; Jeremiah 31:18, and rendered reformed, instructed, corrected, and chastised. It is the same as to receive correction and to become reformed. — Ed.