Commentary on Jeremiah Volume 1 John Calvin
COMMENTARY ON JEREMIAH
He confirms here the same truth. The verb which I have rendered in the future may be rendered in the past tense, but I still think it to be a prediction of what was to come. But as to what follows, I have bereaved, I have destroyed, it must, I have no doubt, be referred to time past.
He then says, I will fan or scatter them, for the verb. {}זרהzare, means to scatter, but as with a fan follows, (the word is derived from the same root) I wish to retain the repetition. Then it is, I will fan them with a fan through all the gates of the earth Many give the meaning, ``through the cities,'' which I do not approve, as it seems a frigid explanation. On the contrary the Prophet means by ``the gates of the earth,'' all countries, for the Jews thought that they should be always safe and quiet in their own cities. By taking a part for the whole, gates do indeed, as it appears elsewhere, signify cities; but as the Jews trusted in their own defences, and thought that they could never be drawn out from these quiet nests, the word gates is in a striking manner transferred to signify any kind of exit; I will fan you, says God, but where? through all gates of the earth, or through all countries and through all deserts; wherever there is a region open for you there you must pass through. Ye are wont to pass in and out through your gates, and ye have there your quiet homes, but there shall be hereafter to you other cities, other gates, even all countries and all deserts, all ways, and, in short, every sort of passage. 391
Then follows, I have bereaved, I have destroyed my people; they have not returned from their own ways Here no doubt he condemns the Jews for their sottishhess, because they had not repented after having been warned by grievous judgments, which God had executed partly on them and partly on their brethren. For the kingdom of Israel had been cut off: when they saw the ten tribes driven into exile ought they not to have been terrified by such an example? Hence also another
Prophet says,
is no one who mourns for the bruising of Joseph.'' (Amos 6:6)
God had set before their eyes a sad and dreadful spectacle; they ought then to have acknowledged in the destruction of Israel what they themselves deserved, and to have turned to God. It is then this extreme hardness that God upbraids them with, for though he had bereaved his people, the ten tribes, and destroyed them, and though also the kingdom of Judah had been in a great measure depressed, yet they returned not from their own ways. It hence appeared more fully evident that they deserved the severest judgments, as they were become wholly irreclaimable.
He then adds ---
Jeremiah 15:8
8. Their widows are increased to me above the sand of the seas: I have brought upon them against the mother of the young men a spoiler at noonday: I have caused him to fall upon it suddenly, and terrors upon the city.
8. Multiplicatae sunt mihi viduae ejus supra arenam maris, (prae arena maris;) immisi illis (venire feci illis) super matrem juvenis (id est, super turmam, vel, multi-
391Though Calvin has many on his side in his view as to "the gates," yet the most suitable meaning is that presented in our version. God is represented as a fanner, standing in "the gates of the land," that is, in the gates of the cities of the land, and thence fanning or scattering the inhabitants to all parts of the world. — Ed.
JOHN CALVIN
tudinem juvenum) vastatorem in meridie; et projeci (cadere feci, ad verbum) super ipsam repente tumultum et terrores, (quanquam de his vocibus postea erit aliquid dicendum.)
He says first, Multiplied have been his widows; because the men had been almost all kined, in battle. If the Prophet is the speaker, the particle {}ליli, is redundant, but if the words be referred to God, we know that the people were in such a way under the government of God that he calls the widows his, as he calls the children his who were born Israelites. But in this there is no great importance, only that if we consider
God to be speaker the sense will be this, ``Behold, it is by no means unknown to me how numerous his widows are: as then I am merciful I have not heedlessly and without reason suffered such slaughters among the people.'' The Prophet intended to shew that so great was the obstinacy of the Jews that they struggled against all the judgments of God; and it is a proof of dreadful impiety when men rush on heedlessly and pay no attention to any punishments. And this is what the Prophet means when he says that the widows were multiplied. And he adds, More than the sand of the sea This was surely a strange thing; so many slaughters were presented to their view that their great perverseness might become more evident, and yet he says that they were not moved.
What follows must be applied to God, I have made to come to them, on the troop of youths, a waster 392 This is an explanation of the former clause, as though he had said, ``The reason why there are so many widows is, because God has destroyed all the men.'' As the Jews might have ascribed this to their enemies, God declares that he was the author of all the slaughters which they had suffered. He then shews that these slaughters were not fortuitous as men suppose who think that fortune prevails mostly in war, for they do not ascribe so much to the wisdom and valor of men as to fortune, being ignorant of the Providence of God. Here then God shews that the whole of the flower of the people had been indeed cut off by the swords of enemies, but that the Chaldeans or the Assyrians had not come of their own accord, or by an impulse of their own, but by a hidden impulse, and that of God, who had resolved to punish that irreclaimable people. This then is the reason why God not only speaks of a waster, but also intimates that the enemies were impelled by his influence, and carried on the war as it were under his banner, authority, and guidance.
He says, at mid-day, even when the Jews might have exercised greater watchfulness. But he shews that he was against them, for they were not taken by the craft of their enemies, as had often been the case, nor were they surprised by secret designs, but their enemies attacked them openly and boldly, even at the time when many of their cities were fortified, and the people thought that they had sufficient defences. As the enemies then dared to assail them in the middle of the day, (for such is the meaning of the Hebrew word) and during the clearest light, it was certainly a 392This rendering is the Targum; "the mother (and) the youths," is the Septuagint; "the mother of a youth," the Vulgate; "both mother and youths," the Syriac; "the mother and the youths," the Arabic, Junius and Tremellius, Piscator, and Gataker take the "mother" for the chief city, the metropolis, and consider the "youth," or "the chosen one," to be the "waster," signifying Nebuchadnezzar, — "And I will bring to them, against the mother-city, a chosen one, a waster at mid-day." So Blayney substantially, only he renders the verb in the past tense. — Ed.