Commentary on Jeremiah Volume 1 John Calvin
COMMENTARY ON JEREMIAH
with the subject to-morrow.
PRAYER
Grant, Almighty God, that as so many of the people who have been gathered by thee, that they might be the body of thine only-begotten Son, have fallen away, and have by their ingratitude alienated themselves from the hope of eternal salvation, --- O grant, that they may again at this day be united together, and hold with us the true unity of faith, so that with one heart and one mouth we may profess thee as our God and Father, and so learn to swear by thy name, that we may acknowledge thee as our Judge, and ascribe to thee all power over us, until we shall at length enjoy that eternal inheritance, into the hope of which thou hast called us and daily invitest; us, through Christ Jesus our Lord. --- Amen.
Lecture Fifty-Second
Jeremiah 13:10
10. This evil people, which refuse to hear my words, which walk in the imagination of their heart, and walk after other gods, to serve them, and to worship them, shall even be as this girdle, which is good for nothing.
10. Populus hic malus 330 renuentes audire verba mea, ambulantes in pravitate cordis sui; et ambulant post deos alienos ut serviant ipsis et adorent ipsos; eterunt (collectivum nomen populi est singulare) tanquam baltheus hic, quiad nihilum prodest (qui ad quiquam non est utilis)
The Prophet said, according to what we observed yesterday, that the people would be like the belt which he had hidden in a hole and found putrified: but now the cause is expressed why God had resolved to treat them with so much severity. He then says that he would be an avenger, because the Jews had refused to obey his voice, and preferred their own inventions in walking after the hardness, or the wickedness of their own heart We hence see that the cause of this calamity was, that the people had rejected the teaching of the prophets. This indeed was far more grievous than if they had fallen away through mistake or ignorance, as we often see that men go miserably astray when the teaching of the truth is taken away. But when God shews the way, and prescribes what is right, when by his servants he exhorts his people, it is an inexcusable hardness if men repudiate such a kindness. But as this subject has been elsewhere largely treated, I shall only touch on it now briefly.
We see then that God threatens his people with extreme calamity, because they would not. bear to be taught by his prophets. Then he adds, that they had walked after the wickedness of their own heart, and had walked after foreign gods He in the first place complains that they had been so refractory as to prefer to obey their own impious inclinations than to be ruled by good and salutary counsels. But it was necessary to specify their crime; for had the Prophet only spoken of their hardness, they might have had their objections ready at hand; but when he said that they had 330These words are in the Septuagint and the Vulgate put in apposition with the last words of the preceding verse; but in the Syriac and Targum they form the nominative case to the verb "shall be," as in our version, near the end of the verse, the {{וbefore it being omitted; but the simpler mode of construction is to consider the substantive verb, is, to be understood in the first clause; then the whole verse would run thus, --- This is a wicked people, Who refuse to hear my words, Who walk in the resolutions of their own heart, And walk after foreign gods, To serve them and to bow down to them; And they shall be as this girdle, Which will not be good for anything. On ``the resolutions,'' see vol. 1. ``For anything,'' the {}כלhere evidently means ``anything,'' as it means in some other places ``any,'' or any one --- Ed.