Commentary on Jeremiah Volume 1 John Calvin (continued)
JOHN CALVIN
reconciliation has been testified to us in thy gospel, we yet cease not daily to provoke thy wrath, --- O grant, that we may at least groan, and undissemblingly so condemn our vices, that we may be touched with real and deep sorrow, and thus learn to flee, not only once in our life, but every moment, to thy mercy, that thou mayest be reconciled to us, and not deal with us according to our merits; but since thou hast been once pleased to embrace us with paternal love, for the sake of thy only --- begotten Son, continue this favor to us, until having at length been cleansed from all filth and pollution, we shall become partakers of thy celestial glory, through Christ our Lord. --- Amen.
Lecture Fifty-Eighth
Jeremiah 14:21
21. Do not abhor us, for thy name's sake, do not disgrace the throne of thy glory: remember, break not thy covenant with us.
21. Ne rejicias propter nomen tuum, ne rejieias {)}לבנsignificat interdum respuere, floccipendere, significat etiam projicere, et eadem est fere signicatio alterius verbi ,{}ףאנsignificat enim projicere, et pro nihilo ducere et vilipendere; ne ergo projicias vel vilipendas) solium gloriae tuae; recordare, ne irritum facias (alii vertunt, dissolvas) foedus tuum nobiscum.
Jeremiah goes on with the same prayer; and he made it from love, and also for the purpose of encouraging the faithful, who remained among the people, to seek forgiveness; for he undertakes here to represent the true Church, which was then very small. All indeed boasted that they were the children of God, and gloried in the covenant made with Abraham; but hardly one in a thousand called on God in truth and from the heart. The Prophet then represented the common feeling of a very small number; and yet he proceeded, as I have said, with his prayer.
Hence he says, Reject not, overthrow not, the throne of thy glory; or the meaning of the two verbs may be the same, which seems to me more probable. 381 But the Prophet joined together two verbs, not so much for the sake of ornament as rhetoricians do, as for the purpose of expressing the intenseness of his concern and anxiety; for he saw that the kingdom of Judah was in extreme danger. He then did not in an ordinary way try to turn aside God's vengeance, but he hastened as one to extinguish a fire; for the obtaining of pardon was difficult.
He calls Jerusalem the throne of God's glory, because God had chosen that city where he was to be worshipped, not that he was confined to the Temple, but because the memorial of his name was there, according to what had been usually said, 381The versions differ as to the two verbs: "Cease for thy name's sake, and destroy not," etc., is the Septuagint and the Arabic; "Reproach us not, etc., nor dishonor," etc., is the Vulgate; "Be not angry, etc., nor dishonor," etc., is the Syriac; "Cast us not away, etc., nor make vile," etc., is the Targum. Neither of these renderings is correct. The two verbs here used have a similar meaning, though they are different, with those in the 19th verse (Jeremiah 14:19); the first signifies the rejection of a thing as worthless, and the second as vile, or filthy. They may be thus rendered, — Scorn not, for thy name's sake, Abominate not, the throne of thy glory. The same form is adopted in what follows; two verbs are used, which have the same objective case, — Remember, break not, thy covenant with us. Which means, Remember thy covenant, and break it not, or annul it not. Blayney renders the first two lines thus, — Spurn us not for thy name's sake. Dishonor not the throne of thy glory. But "us" is not in the original, nor do the versions give it, except the Vulgate; and dishonor has also been borrowed from that version, and is not the meaning of the verb. No doubt the two verbs refer to the throne. — Ed.