Commentary on Jeremiah Volume 1 John Calvin (continued)
JOHN CALVIN
have said, reminded God of his covenant; and he does the same here, Why hast thou smitten, so that there is no healing? For the punishment which God inflicts on his Church would be, as he declares, a kind of medicine; but when there is no hope of healing, God seems to render void what he had promised. Hence Jeremiah goes on in drawing his argument from what is inconsistent, as though he had said, that it was not possible that God should so severely smite his people as not to allow a place for forgiveness, but that he would at length be intreated and heal the wound inflicted.
We have expected peace, and there is no good; and the time of healing, and behold trouble, or terror. 379 This latter part of the verse confirms what I just stated, that the Prophet had partly a reference to God in this mode of prayer, and that he partly reproved the Jews, because they thought, being deceived by false confidence, that they were beyond the reach of danger, inasmuch as God had consecrated
Jerusalem, that his name might be there called upon, and that the Temple might be his perpetual habitation. As then he saw that his nation were inebriated, as it were, with this foolish notion, he intended briefly to shew to them that God would Ilave an unknown way by which he would retain his faithfulness, and yet punish the ungodly and the transgressors; for by saying, ``We expected peace, and there is no good,'' he certainly does not commend the fidelity of the people; for relying on God's promises, they sought comfort in evils, and hoped that God would at length be exorable and propitious. The word expecting is not to be taken in a good sense; but he on the contrary reproves the Jews, because they put too much faith in false prophets.
We hence see that he condemns that false expectation by which they had been deceived. Hence also we learn what has been before stated, that the Jews foolishly promised to themselves impunity, because God had chosen his habitation among them; for he shews that God had not in vain threatened their ruin by his servants.
This then is also the meaning when he says, We expected the time of healing, and behold terror It now follows ---
Jeremiah 14:20
20. We acknowledge, O LORD, our wickedness, and the iniquity of our fathers: for we have sinned against thee.
20. Cognoscimus, Jehova, scelus nostrum, et iniquitatem patrum nostrorum; quoniam scelerate egimus in te ({,}חטאנוquanquam {}רשעet {}חטאidem fere sunt, tamen simpliciter concludit, quod scelerate egerint adversus Deum.)
The Prophet here prescribes no doubt to the Jews the way of appeasing God.
He before uttered a prayer, partly in order to reprove the people for their wicked obstinacy, and partly to shew to the godly and the elect that there remained some hope. But now he uses a simple form of prayer, when he says, O Lord, we know, etc Hardly one in a thousand then did know; but the Prophet does not assume the character of the whole people; and why not? He doubtless knew that the faithful among the people were very few; but he dictates for posterity a right form of prayer, 379The proper construction of these lines, and of the preceding, is not commonly given. The "why" before "smitten" is to be understood here, — Why hast thou smitten us, and there is for us no healing? Why has there been hope for peace, and there is no good? And for the time of healing, and behold terror? The word for "hope," or longing, or looking for, is a participial noun, but rendered by the versions as though it were a verb in the first person plural. As "smitten" is in the past tense, so has been is to be understood before "hope." — Ed.