Commentary on Jeremiah Volume 1 John Calvin (continued)
COMMENTARY ON JEREMIAH
then prepare them for the day of slaughter 313
The last expression ought especially to be noticed. The Prophet indeed seems here in an excited feeling to imprecate ruin on the people; but there is no doubt but that he was here discharging the duty of his office, for he was the herald of God's vengeance. He therefore asks God to execute what he had commanded him to denounce on the people. He had often promulgated what God had resolved to do to them, but he had moved no one: he now then asks God to fulfin what he had foretold the Jews --- that they should shortly perish, because they refused to repent.
We may also learn from this passage, --- that when the ungodly accumulate wealth, they are in a manner fattened. When oxen plough, and sheep are fed that they may bear wool and bring forth young, they are not fed that they may grow fat, and a moderate quantity of food will suffice them; but when any one intends to prepare sheep or oxen for the slaughter, he fattens them. So then the feeding of them is nothing else than the fattening of them; and the fattening of them is a preparation for their slaughter. I have therefore said that a very useful doctrine is included in this form of speaking; for when we see that plenty of wealth and power abound with the ungodly and the despisers of God, we see that they are in a manner thus fined with good things, that they may grow fat: --- it is fattening or cramming. Let us then not bear it in that they are thus covered with their own fatness, for they are prepared for the day of slaughter. It follows ---
Jeremiah 12:4
4. How long shall the land mourn, and the herbs of every field wither, for the wickedness of them that dwell therein? the beasts are consumed, and the birds; because they said, He shall not see our last end.
4. Quousque lugebit terra.et herba omnis agri arescet prae malitia habitantium in ea? defecit bestiae (hoc est, consumptae sunt besiae) et avis (hoe est, aves, est enallage numeri tam in verbo quam in nomine;) quia dixerunt, Non videbit novissimum nostrum (vel, finem nostrum)
Jeremiah confirms the former sentence and more strongly reproves the Jews, who still continued obstinately to despise what he had said: ``What do you mean, he says? for God's judgment appears as to brute beasts and birds; and what have birds and sheep and oxen deserved? Ye know that there is no fault in miserable animals, and yet the curse of God is through them set before you; ye see that God is offended with brute animals, but the fault is doubtless in you. And will God spare you, when he has already begun, and long ago begun to inflict punishment on innocent animals? how can he hear with you to the end, who are full of so many and the most atrocious sins?'' This then is a confirmation of his former doctrine.
And hence we also learn that he did not speak for his own sake, nor express his 313This verse, according to the tenses of the verbs, is as follows: — But thou, Jehovah, thou hast known me; Thou seest me, and triest my heart towards thee: Pull them out as sheep for the sacrifice, And set them apart for the day of slaughter. It is evident that "seest," which is here in the future tense, is to be taken as expressing a present act. It would be so rendered in Welsh, — Ond ti Jehova, adwaenaist vi; Gweli vi, a phrovi, vy nghalon tuag atat. God had known him, he was still seeing him, and approved of his heart before him, as the Septuagint express the words. To prove here, or to "try," means a trial by which a thing is found to be genuine. Blayney gives the meaning by a paraphrase, — Thou canst discern by trial my heart to be with thee. — Ed.