Commentary on Jeremiah Volume 1 John Calvin (continued)
JOHN CALVIN
involved them in adversity, and as it were surrounded them with darkness, when they thought that prosperous fortune was slhining on them. He at last says, that they were confounded and ashamed; and at the same time he declares, that he would give all who remained to the sword before their enemies; as though he had said, ``They have not yet suffered all the punishment allotted to them, for they are not subdued, though I have heavily and severely chastised them; as then they are incurable, the sword shall destroy the remainder; for my vengeance shall not cease to pursue them, until I shall utterly consume them. 394
PRAYER
Grant, Almighty God, that we may not by our hardness so provoke thy judgment against us, as to constrain thee with an armed hand to assail us; but may we through a meek and submissive spirit be so influenced by thy threatenings as to anticipate that vengeance, by which we see that all the reprobate and the perverse have been visited; and may we so endeavor by true repentance to obtain thy favor, that we may receive thy daily blessings and benefits, until we shall at length come to the full and real enjoyment of all those blessings, which have been laid up for us in thy celestial kingdom, through Christ, our Lord. --- Amen.
Lecture Sixtieth
Jeremiah 15:10
10. Woe is me, my mother, that thou hast borne me a man of strife and a man of contention to the whole earth! have neither lent on usury, nor men have lent to me on usury; yet every one of them doth curse me.
10. Hei mihi! mater, mea, quod genueris me virum rixae et virum litis toti terrae: non foeneratus sum et non foenerati sunt mecum; quisque maledicit mihi.
The Prophet, when he saw that his labor availed nothing, or was not so fruitful as he wished, no doubt felt somewhat like a man, and shewed his own weakness.
It must however be observed, that he was so restrained by the secret power of the Holy Spirit, that he did not break forth intemperately, as is the case with many; but, he kept the right end so in view, that his sorrows had ever a regard to his object, even to render his labor useful to the people. A clear example of which is seen in these words.
But he addresses his mother, as though he counted his own life a curse; what does this mean? ``Why,'' he says, ``hast thou begotten me, my mother? Woe to 394The whole passage, including the 7th, 8th, and 9th verses (Jeremiah 15:7-9) presents difficulties as to the time intended. The verbs, from the middle of the 7th to the last clause in verse the 9th, are all in the past tense, and are so given in the Septuagint, Vulgate, and the Targum; but in the Syriac in the future tense. Our version is not uniform. It is better to give the tenses as they are, for the reference seems to be to God's past judgments; and at the end of the 9th verse, God speaks of what he would do, — 7. And I will fan them with a fan in the gates of the land. I have bereaved, I have destroyed my people; From their ways have they not turned: 8. Increased to me have their (people) widows More than the sand of the sea; I brought on them, on the mother of they youth, A disaster at mid-day; I caused to come upon her suddenly Tumult and terrors: 9. Languish did she who gave birth to seven, Pant for breath did her soul, Set did her sun during the day time, Ashamed has she been and confounded: And the remainder of them to the sword will I give, In the presence of their enemies, saith Jehova. As he speaks of bereavement, of widows, and of giving birth to seven, it seems evident, that "the mother of the youths," or of young men. Whether mother is to be taken here metaphorically for Jerusalem, is another question; but I think otherwise. The loss of mothers as to their children is what is spoken of. And from having mentioned the case of mothers in their bereavement, the Prophet in the next verse refers to his own mother, and to his own unhappy condition, — Ed.