Commentary on Jeremiah Volume 1 John Calvin
JOHN CALVIN
word of God, in which their safety was involved, the Prophet justly alleges, that their wisdom availed them nothing. Others read, ``What is their wisdom, ``when there is no fear of God? And doubtless it ever remains a truth, that the fear of God is the beginning and the chief part of wisdom. (Proverbs 1:7; Proverbs 9:10; Psalm
111:10.) Since then they had basely despised God's word, rightly does the Prophet ask, ``What is their wisdom?'' But there is a third meaning which is suitable, even this, And wisdom, what to them? So it is literally, --- What is wisdom to them? He still speaks to them ironically, as though he said, ``They are indeed wise, but in their own esteem; they have therefore no need of being taught: What then is wisdom to them!'' The meaning is, that they were so swollen with pride that they received no instruction. How so? They refused wisdom through the false conceit with which they were inflated. Let, however, every one choose for himself; my object is to shew what I mostly approve. There will be no lecture to --- morrow, as a consistory is to be held.
PRAYER
Grant, Almighty God, that since thou ceasest not daily to rouse us, as also our sloth requires continual warnings, --- O grant, that we may not be unteachable, and that our perverseness may not hinder us to return immediately and willingly to thee, from whom we have, through our own fault, alienated ourselves: and may we not only feel some desire to repent, but persevere so constantly in the exercise of penitence, that through the whole course of our life we may contend with our lusts, until having at length subdued them all, we shall reach the goal which has been set before us, and enjoy in heaven that eternal inheritance, which has been procured for us by the blood of thine only --- begotten Son. --- Amen.
Lecture Thirty-Third
Jeremiah 8:10
10. Therefore will I give their wives unto others, and their fields to them that shall inherit them: for every one from the least even unto the greatest is given to covetousness, from the prophet even unto the priest every one dealeth falsely.
10. Propterea dabo uxores eorum alienis, et agros eorum possessoribus; quia a parvo usque ad magnum omnes cupiditatem concupiverunt (vel, cupiditate concupiverunt;) a propheta usque ad sacerdotem omnes egerunt fallaciter.
GOD here threatens punishment, because he found that he effected nothing, and that he had to do with an obstinate people, having before tried whether they were reclaimable. Having seen that exhortations were of no avail, he now comes to extreme severity, I will give, he says, their wives to strangers. He sets forth, by a particular instance, the evils which usually accompany wars: and nothing is more distressing than when the wife is snatched away from her husband; for if husbands had their option, they would prefer instant death than to bear such a disgrace. Jeremiah then shews that the most atrocious thing that happens to conquered nations was nigh the Jews, --- that their men would be deprived of their wives. He afterwards says the same thing of their fields; God declares that he would give the fields to their possessors. By this mode of speaking he intimates, that they would be deprived of their fields, not for a short time, but perpetually.
There is, indeed, a contrast here implied: for it sometimes happens, that enemies