Commentary on Jeremiah Volume 1 John Calvin
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.
JOHN CALVIN
own private feelings, but that he defended the doctrine which he had announced, that the Jews might know that God was angry with them, and that they were not to expect that he would always conceal himself, though he for a time connived at them.
How long, he says, shall the land mourn? or, How long should the land mourn? for thus it ought to be rendered; and should every herb become dry? ``What!'' he says, ``is not God's judgment visible in herbs and flocks and beasts and birds? Since it is so, and the whole fault is in you, shall ye be spared? Will God pour forth his whole wrath on herbs, on sheep, and on cattle? and shall you be at the same time exempted from his judgment?''
And more clearly still does he express his meaning, when he says, Because they have said, He shall not see our end Here the Prophet briefly shews that the wrath of God was seen in herbs as well as in brute animals, because he was despised by the people. Since then evil proceeded from them, should it not return on their own heads? It could not surely be otherwise. But he speaks expressly of the end; for the Jews were so stupified by their prosperity, that they thought that God was no longer adverse to them: ``Ha! what have we to do with God? we are already beyond the reach of danger.'' As then they thus perversely rejected God, he upbraids them with the thought, that they were to give no account to God. It is not indeed probable that they openly, or with a full mouth, as they say, vomited forth such a blasphemy; but we know that Scripture often speaks in this manner, ``God shall not see;'' ``God will not look on Jacob.'' Though the ungodly did not speak so insolently, yet they no doubt thought thati they could set up many hinderances to prevent God's hand from reaching them. Hence Jeremiah, according to the usual manner of Scripture, justly lays this to their charge, --- that they thought that they were now as it were unknown to God and beyond the reach of his care, so that he would not see their end; in other words, that they had no concern with God, because they were on all sides so well fortified, that the hand of God could not reach them. 314
PRAYER
Grant, Almighty God, that though the same hardness is inbred in us as in thine ancient people, we may not become rooted in it; but do thou rouse us by thy Spirit, that we may suffer ourselves to be gently governed by thyi word, and be so touched by thy threatenings, that we may not defer the time whenever thou an --- nouncest to us thy judgment, but strive to be immediately reconciled to thee: and as there is no other way of being reconciled except through thine only --- begotten Son, may we in true faith embrace the favor which thou offerest to us in thy gospel, and also devote ourselves wholly to thee, being truly penitent of our sins; and as we ought to make progress to the end of life, may we strive more and more to put off all the lusts of our flesh, until we shall at length be made partakers of that glory which thine only
314Both Gataker and Venema regard the meaning of the last clause differently. Here ends the expostulation of Jeremiah; and they consider that he mentions here what his persecutors said of him, that he would not see their end, or their ruin, which he had foretold. Were {,{כיas in the first verse, rendered ``though,'' the connnection would be more natural, --- How long shall mourn the land And the grass of every field wither? For the evil of those who dwell in it, Swept away has been the beast and the bird, Though they have said, ``Hewill not see our end.'' The third line connects better with what follows than with what precedes it; and it is so rendered in the Syriac.
The word for ``beast,'' though in a plural form, is used elsewhere as a singular, Psalm 73:22; and so it is here, and so rendered by the Vulgate and the Targum. --- Ed.