Commentary on Jeremiah Volume 1 John Calvin (continued)
JOHN CALVIN
hardened against thy chastisements, but may we with a submissive and tractable neck learn to take thy yoke, and be so obedient to thy government, that we may testify our repentance, not for one day only, and give no fallacious evidence, but that we may really prove through the whole course of our life the sincerity of our conversion to thee, by regarding this as our main object, even to glorify thee in Christ Jesus our Lord. --- Amen.
Lecture Twenty-Seventh
Jeremiah 7:5-7
5. For if ye throughly amend your ways and your doings; if ye throughly execute judgment between a man and his neighbour;
5. Certe si bonas faciendo bonas feceritis vias vestras (bonificando bonificaveritis, ad verbum, si ita vertere liceret) et studia vestra; si faciendo feceritis judicium inter virum et inter proximum ejus; 6 If ye oppress not the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and shed not innocent blood in this place, neither walk after other gods to your hurt:
6. Peregrinum, pupillum et viduam non oppresseritis; et sanguinem innoxium non effuderitis in hoc loco; et post deos alienos non ambulaveritis in malum vobis (in malum vestrum;)
7. Then will I cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers, for ever and ever.
7. Tunc habitare faciam vos in hoc loco, in terra quam dedi patribus vestris, a seculo usque in seculum.
Interpreters do not agree as to the meaning of this passage. Some render {}כי,}אם{ki am, ``But rather, ``or, ``But.'' I indeed allow that it is so taken in many places; but they are mistaken who read {,}כי{ }אםki am, as one word; for the Prophet, on the contrary, repeats what he had said, and that is, that God would not be propitious to the Jews except their life proved that they had really repented.
The words are sometimes taken as one in Hebrew, and mean ``but;'' yet in other places they are often taken as separate words, as we found in the second chapter, ``Though thou washest thyself with nitre;'' and for the sake of emphasis the particle ``surely, ``is put before ``though.'' But in this place the Prophet simply means, that the Jews were deceived in seeking to prescribe a law for God according to their own will, as it belongs only to him either to approve or to reject their works. And this meaning is confirmed by the latter part of the verse, for we read not there {,}כי{ }אם ki am, but {,}אםam; ``If by doing ye shall do judgment;'' and then in the same form he adds, ``If ye will not oppress the stranger, the orphan, and the widow;'' and at last he adds, ``Then (a copulative I allow is here, but it is to be taken as an adverb)
I will make you to dwell in this place.''
The purport of the whole is, --- that sacrifices are of no importance or value before God, unless those who offer them wholly devote themselves to God with a sincere heart. The Jews sought to bind God as it were by their own laws: he shews that he was thus impiously put under restraint. He therefore lays down a condition, as though he had said, ``it belongs to me to prescribe to you what is right. Away, then, with your ceremonies, by which ye think to expiate your sins; for I regard them not,
COMMENTARY ON JEREMIAH
and esteem them as nothing.'' What then is to be done? He now shews then, ``If you will rightly order your life, ye shall dwell in this place.''
For yesterday the Prophet exhorted the people to repent; and he employed the sentiment which he now repeats. He commanded the people to come to God with an upright and pure mind; he afterwards added another sentence, ``Trust not in words of falsehood, saying, The Temple of the Lord, ``etc. He now again repeats what he had said, ``If ye will make your ways good.'' He shews now more clearly that no wrong was done to the people when God repudiated their ceremonies; for he required a pure heart, and external rites without repentance are vain and useless.
This then is what the Prophet had in view: ``Though God seems to treat you with great severity, he yet promises to be kind to you, if you order your lives according to his law: is this unjust? Can the condition which is proposed to you by God be liable to any calumnies, as though God treated you cruelly!'' This then is the meaning of the Prophet.
If ye will make good your ways, that is, if your life be amended; and if ye will do judgment, etc. He now comes to particulars; and first he addresses the judges, whose duty it was to render to every one his right, to redress injuries, to pronounce what was just and right when any contention arose. If then, he says, ye will do justice between a man and his neighbor, that is, if your judgments be right, without favor or hatred, and if no bribes lead you from what is right and just, while pronouncing judgment on a case between a man and his brother.
Then he adds, if ye will not oppress the stranger and the orphan and the widow
This also belonged to the judges: but God no doubt shews here generally, that injustice greatly prevailed among the people, as he condemns the cruelty and perfidy of the judges themselves.
As to strangers and orphans and widows, they are often mentioned; for strangers as well as orphans and widows were almost destitute of protection, and were subject to many wrongs, as though they were exposed as a prey. Hence, whenever a right government is referred to, God mentions strangers and orphans and widows; for it might hence be easily understood of what kind was the public administration of justice; for when others obtain their right, it is no matter of wonder, since they have advocates to defend their cause, and they have also the aid of friends. Thus every one who defends his own cause, obtains at least some portion of his right. But when strangers and orphans and widows are not unjustly dealt with, it is an evidence of real integrity; for we may hence conclude, that there is no respect of persons among the judges. But as this subject has been handled elsewhere, I only touch on it lightly here.
And if ye will not shed, he says, innocent blood in this place Here the Prophet accuses the judges of a more heinous crime, and calls them murderers. They had, however, no doubt some plausible pretences for shedding the blood of the innocent. But the Prophet, speaking here in the name of God and by the dictates of his Spirit, overlooks all these as altogether vain, though the judges might have thought them sufficient excuses. By saying, in this place, he shews how foolish was their confidence in boasting of God's worship, sacrifices, and Temple, while yet they had