Commentary on Jeremiah Volume 1 John Calvin (continued)
JOHN CALVIN
his word; by which his majesty, as I have said, is dishonored, and his goodness, by which he would secure the salvation of men, is treated with the basest ingratitude.
He afterwards adds ---
Jeremiah 6:20
20. To what purpose cometh there to me incense from Sheba, and the sweet cane from a far country? your burnt offerings are not acceptable, nor your sacrifices sweet unto me.
20. Ad quid hoc mihi thus e Sabeis venit, et calamus bonus e terra longinqua? holocausta vestra non sunt ad beneplacitum (hoc est, non placent, neqne grata sunt,) et sacrificia vestra non sunt suavia (aut, jucunda) mihi.
The Prophet here replies to those hypocrites, who thought that they made an expiation when they had offered incense and sacrifices, as though that was all that was necessary in serving God: and hence we shall hereafter see, that the Temple had become the den of thieves; for when they sedulously offered incense every day and performed other ceremonies, they thought that God was pacified. Thus hypocrites ever mock God with their fopperies and regard God as extremely cruel, when not satisfied with external display. This was a perpetual evil, with which the prophets had to contend: and hence the notion is often found referred to by our Prophet, ``I desired not sacrifices; I commanded not your fathers, when I stretched forth my hand to bring them out of Egypt, to offer burnt --- offerings to me, but only to obey my voice,'' (Jeremiah 7:21, 22)
So we find in other prophets: the Psalmist says, ``If I hunger, I will not tell thee,'' (Psalm 50:12)
It is said also by Micah,
does God require of thee, but to humble thyself before him? He seeks not thousands of rams nor thousands of oxen from thy herds,'' (Micah 6:7)
And we see at this day, that men cannot be rightly taught, except we carry on war against that external splendor with which they will have God to be satisfied. As then men deceive themselves with such trifles, it is necessary to shew that all those things which hypocrites obtrude on God, without sincerity of heart, are frivolous trumperies. This is the import of what is here taught.
There is, then, no doubt but that the Jews punctually offered their sacrifices, and observed the legal rites. All this might have appeared very commendable; but God gives this answer, To what purpose does frankincense come to me from the Sabeans, and a sweet cane 180 (that is, odoriferous) from a far country? Thus the Prophet here anticipates hypocrites, that he might not leave them --- what they might have objected: for while they spent a large sum of money on their forms of worship, they thought that God was as it were bound to them: and where they also bestowed much
180It is rendered "cinnamon" by the Septuagint and Arabic, "a sweet smelling reed" by the Vulgate, and "an aromatic reed" or cane by the Syriac and Targum. The literal rendering of the verse is as follows, — 20. For what purpose is this done to me? Incense, from Sheba it comes, And the precious reed, from a distant land: Your burnt-offerings, they are not acceptable, And your sacrifices, they are not pleasing to me. The reed or cane was dried and powdered, and formed a part of the incense. The latter is mentioned first, and then one of its ingredients. Sheba and the distant land are the same. The same order is to be observed in the burnt-offerings and sacrifices; the finished act first, and then the previous act of presenting a sacrifice. — Ed.