Commentary on Jeremiah Volume 1 John Calvin
COMMENTARY ON JEREMIAH
the elect, to them who embraced by true faith the promises offered to them.
He now confirms the previous sentence, If they shall say, Whither shall we go forth? then shalt thou say to them, Those for death, to death; those for the sword, to the sword; those for the famine, to the famine; those for exile, to exile; as though he had said, ``In vain do they complain of their own miseries.'' For God, no doubt, had in view the clamorous complaints which prevailed everywhere among the people on account of their very heavy calamities. Thus indeed were hypocrites wont to do; for whenever God spared them, they haughtily insulted the prophets, and boastingly alleged their subsidies and fortresses; but when God's hand pressed hard on them, they became very eloquent in their complaints: ``Alas! how far will God go at length? is there to be never an end? and what does all this mean? why does he so severely afflict us? and why does he not at least relieve us in some measure from our ntiseries?'' As then the hypocrites were so querulous in their calamities, God anticipates all these expostulations, and says, ``If they say to thee, `Where shall we flee?' say to them, `Either to death, or to famine, or to the sword, or to exile;' it is all one with God, and it matters not; for there is no hope of mercy for you any longer, since God has rejected you: know then that it is all over with you, for there is no deliverance for you from God: either the sword, or famine, or some other kind of death will overtake you; ye are in every way past hope.''
PRAYER
Grant, Almighty God, that since thou art graciously pleased to exhort us to repent, and withholdest thine hand, yea, and allowest us the opportunity to repent, --- O grant, that we may not obstinately provoke against ourselves thy extreme vengeance, but render ourselves obedient to thee, so that thou mayest not only hear others praying for us, but that our own prayers may also obtain pardon from thee, espedally through the intercession of Christ, thine only --- begotten Son, who has once for all reconciled thee to us, and whose perpetual intercession is to continue to reconcile us to thee, until we shall appear at length before thee with all our spots and filth wholly washed away, and be made partakers of that glory which has been obtained for us by Christ our Lord. --- Amen.
Lecture Fifty-Ninth
Jeremiah 15:3
3. And I will appoint over them four kinds, saith the LORD: the sword to slay, and the dogs to tear, and the fowls of the heaven, and the beasts of the earth, to devour and destroy.
3. Et praeliciam super eos quatuor familias, dicit Jehova, gladium ad occidendum, et canes ad trahendum, et avem coelorum et bestiam terrae, ad comedendum et perdendum.
Jeremiah proceeds with the same subject. He said yesterday that the people were no longer cared for by God, and so that nothing remained for them but in various ways to perish, and that the last punishment would be exile. He now confirms the same thing, and says, that God would prepare against them ravenous birds as well as wild beasts, the sword and dogs 386 as though he had said, that all animals would 386Our version ascribes tearing to dogs, but the verb means to draw or drag about, as rendered