Commentary on Jeremiah Volume 1 John Calvin (continued)
COMMENTARY ON JEREMIAH
laid waste, most of them had been led into exile, but a few had sought hiding --- places for a time: and he says that they were like gleanings: ``though, ``he says, ``there be a few grapes, yet these shall follow.'' In short, the Prophet sets before the Jews that vengeance of God, which was known already to them as much as to the Israelites, the ten tribes: and yet he shews that God's vengeance was not completed, for there were still a few remaining, a gleaning: ``What then shall come of you? What indeed! ye have seen that your brethren have been plundered, ye have seen that they and their children have been slain; ye have seen that all kinds of cruelty have been exercised towards them; and yet after the name of Israel has been obliterated, and their country now deserted, has become a waste, God will still punish the remnant, and ye shall see that his judgment will shortly overtake them; and what do ye, wretched beings, yet look for? and how great is your torpidity, which never comes to an end? why do you not seek to be reconciled to God, when such an opportunity is offered to you?''
We now then apprehend the Prophet's object. And then he says, Return thy hand as a vintager to the baskets; that is, ``Behold the vintagers, they stimulate one another; so that there is no end of gleaning, as they ever return to their baskets, until they gather everything, until there remains not a grape on the vine.'' 170
PRAYER
Grant, Almighty God, that since thou kindly invitest us to repentance, and urgest us also by setting before us examples of thy wrath, --- O grant, that we may not continue perversely disobedient, but render ourselves tractable and submissive to thee, so that we may not meet with that dreadful severity which thou didst threaten to thine ancient people, but anticipate the wrath which thou didst formerly denounce on them; and may we thus with a pious heart return to thee, that we may find by experience that thou art ever a propitious Father to sinners, whenever with a sincere heart and without dissimulation they return to thee, through Christ Jesus our Lord.
LECTURE TWENTY-FOURTH
Jeremiah 6:10
10. To whom shall I speak, and give warning, that they may hear? behold, their ear is uncircumcised, and they cannot hearken: behold, the word of the Lord is unto them a reproach; they have no delight in it.
10. Ad quem loquar? et quem contestabor ut audiant? Ecce incircumcisa auris
170Blayney's version is, — Turn again thine hand, like a grape-gatherer, unto the baskets. "That is, Take thou again into thine hand, and begin the work of gathering or gleaning anew." He takes it as God's address to the Chaldeans, in which they are exhorted repeatedly to return and to carry away captives the remaining inhabitants. But this does not comport with the simile of the vintager returning the hand to the baskets. It seems to be a command to put in safe custody those whom they took or gleaned, as a vintager, who, when he plucks a grape or a cluster, puts it safely in a basket to be carried away. The "hand" is put here for what the hand holds-the grapes or clusters. It is then the same as though he had said, "Lay up, as a vintager, what you glean, in baskets." The Jews were gathered, not to be destroyed, but to be carried away into captivity. This seems to have been the intimation here, — Return thine hand, like a vintager, unto the baskets. That is, Throw not away what you gather, but let the hand, that is stretched forth to reach the grapes, bring back what it gleans into the baskets. The Vulgate is, "Turn (converte) thine hand as a vintager to his basket." The Septuagint. "Turn ye ({ἐπιστρέψατε}) as a vintager to his basket.'' The Syriac is the same with the Vulgate, except that it has ``gleaning'' instead of ``basket.'' The Arabic corresponds with the Septuagint. The Targum has an unintelligible paraphrase. --- Ed