Commentary on Jeremiah Volume 1 John Calvin (continued)
JOHN CALVIN
3. And they bend their tongues like their bow for lies; but they are not valiant for the truth upon the earth; for they proceed from evil to evil, and they know not me, saith the LORD.
3. Et jaculati sunt lingua (quidam vertunt, Et jaculare fecerunt; alii, intenderunt linguas suas) arcum suum ad mendacia (alii vertunt, arcum mendacii; sed male;) et non ad veritatem roborati sunt (aut, invaluerunt) in terra; quia a malo ad malum egressi sunt, et me non cognoscunt, dicit Jehova.
Jeremiah confirms what he had said of the near destruction of the people; for, as we have said, the Jews ridiculed threatenings while they thought themselves far from every danger. But the Prophet shews, from the nature of God himself, that they must necessarily perish in a short time; for since God is the judge of the world, and as they were continually advancing in impiety and wickedness, they could no longer be tolerated. This is the meaning.
He first says, that they stretched their tongues as a bow for falsehoods The verb
means to walk, and often occurs in this sense; but; it means also to stretch, to bend, and is frequently applied to bows. As it is here in Hiphil, some take it in a transitive sense. It ought in this case to have {,}יiod; but such defect is often found in other places. This sense is the most suitable; that is, that they shot with their tongues falsehood as with a bow. Others improperly construe {,}שקרshikor, in the genitive case, as though he had said, ``the bow of falsehood, but this gives no meaning; and therefore ``the bow of falsehood'' cannot be admitted here. The sense is, that they shot falsehood with their tongue as with a bow, or that they made their tongue to go to falsehood, or that they stretched their tongue like a bow for falsehood. If the last rendering be approved, --- that they stretched their tongue, etc., then the Prophet compares their tongues to bows and falsehoods to arrows. As to the subject itself, there is no difference, whether we read that they shot lies with their tongues, or that they stretched their tongues for lies: for the Prophet simply means that their tongues, as he will hereafter tell us, were so pointed that they pierced one another with slanders and falsehoods, as though one stretched a bow and shot an arrow. He then intimates, that all their words were deadly, for they were intent on slanders and falsehoods, so that there was no intercourse without a mortal wound.
He then adds, that they were not strong for the truth Some read, ``They have been strong, but not for the truth;'' others, ``They have been strong as to the truth,'' or for the truth: but I think that the Prophet's meaning is different, --- that having checked the truth, they took more liberty for themselves, as though he had said that they triumphed when all faithfulness and rectitude were destroyed; for by the word, {}אמונהamune, the Prophet no doubt means that fidelity by which men ought to carry on their concerns one with another. Since, then, there was no uprightness among them, he says, that they marched forth as victorious when they trod under foot what was just and right. It is indeed a proof of extreme impiety, when men, trampling upon faithfulness and equity, allow themselves every kind of licentiousness. Some give this explanation, --- that they ruled, not through their faithfulness or virtues, for they had crept into and obtained honors by wicked and deceitful arts.