Commentary on Jeremiah Volume 1 John Calvin (continued)
JOHN CALVIN
and more, we may at least be warned by thy threatenings and the words of thy prophets, and may not continue obstinate in evil nor pertinaciously resist thy will, but that we may on the contrary learn to anticipate thy judgment and thus receive thy corrections, so that our sins may be hated by us, and that we may become judges of ourselves, in order that we may obtain pardon, and that having obtained it we may not doubt ever to call on thee as our Father, until thou at length gatherest us unto that blessed inheritance, which has been procured for us by the blood of thine only
Son. --- Amen.
Lecture Thirty-Sixth
Jeremiah 9:10
10. For the mountains will I take up a weeping and wailing, and for the habitations of the wilderness a lamentation, because they are burned up, so that none can pass through them; neither can men hear the voice of the cattle; both the fowl of the heavens and the beast are fled; they are gone.
10. Super montes tollam (vel assumam) fletum et lamentationem, et super pascua (vel, loca amoena; alii vertunt, tuguria) deserti planctum; quia vastata sunt (alii vertunt, incensa;) ita non sit vir transiens, et non audiunt vocem pecudum; ab ave coelorum (hoc est, ab avibus) usque ad bestiam migrarunt, abierunt.
The Prophet had exhorted others to lament and to bewail. He now comes forth as though none had ears to attend to his admonition. As then he himself undertakes to mourn and to lament, he no doubt indirectly condemns the insensibility of the whole people. He saw by the spirit of prophecy, that all the rest thought what he said incredible and therefore fabulous. For though the kingdom of Judah was at that time much wasted, and the kingdom of Israel wholly fallen, they yet continued secure and heedless when they ought to have expected God's vengeance every day, and even every hour. Since then there was such insensibility in the people, the Prophet here prepares himself for lamentation and mourning.
I will take up, he says, mourning and lamentation for the mountains The words may be explained, ``I will take up mourning, which shall ascend as far as the mountains;'' but the cause of mourning seems rather to be intended; for it immediately follows, and weeping for the pastures of the desert Had not this clause been added, the former meaning might be taken, that is, that mourning would be so loud as to penetrate into the mountains or ascend into the highest parts. But as Jeremiah connects the two clauses, for the mountains, and for the pastures of the desert, the other meaning is much more appropriate, --- that the confidence of the people was very absurd, as they thougilt themselves beyond danger, dwelling as they did on the plains; for the enemies, he says, shall leave nothing untouched; they shall come to the mountains and to the pastures of the desert. It hence follows, that they were foolish who promised themselves quietness on the plains, where the enemy could easily come.
We now then understand the Prophet's meaning: he sets here his own fear and solicitude in contrast with the stupor of the whole people. I will raise, he says, weeping and lamentation for the mountains: but others remained secure and thoughtless in their pleasures. He then shews, that while they were blind, his eyes were open,