Commentary on Jeremiah Volume 1 John Calvin (continued)
COMMENTARY ON JEREMIAH
Enquire, or ask, he says, among the Gentiles, Has any one heard such a thing? as though he had said, ``I will no more contend with those brute animals, for there is no reason in them; but the Gentiles, destitute of the light of knowledge, can be made witnesses of so gross an impiety.'' And he says the same thing in Jeremiah 2:10, ``Go, pass through the isles and survey the whole world, has any nation forsaken its own gods, and yet they are no gods?''
As though he had said, ``Religion so much prevails among wretched idolaters, that they continue steadfast in their superstitions; as they consider it a dreadful thing to change their god, they therefore shun it as a monstrous thing. Hence it is, that they are devoted to their superstitions, for the god whom they have once received, they think it the highest impiety to forsake, while yet they are no gods; but my people have forsaken me, who am the fountain of living water.'' Jeremiah repeats now the same thing in other words, that such an example could not be found among heathens.
He then adds, A base thing has the virgin of Israel done. Some indeed render
monstrous thing,'' and it may be thus taken metaphorically, for the verb {}שערshor, means to count, to think; and this meaning may be adopted here; but as in many places it signifies baseness, I will not depart from that common meaning. 455 He says then, that it was an extremely base thing for the people to forsake him. He does not call the people the virgin of Israel by way of honor, but to augment their reproach. For God, as we have before seen, had espoused the people to himself; and so it was their duty to observe conjugal fidelity, as a virgin espoused by a husband, who ought not to regard any other, for she is not to look for any other after she has pledged her faith. But the people of Israel, who ought to have been as it were the bride of God, sinned most basely, yea, most disgracefully and infamously, when they prostituted themselves to wicked counsels as well as to superstitions. He now adds comparisons, by whichlte more fully exposes their wickedness, ---
Jeremiah 18:14-15
14. Will a man leave the snow of Lebanon which cometh from the rock of the field? or shall the cold flowing waters that come from another place be forsaken?
14. Ar relinquet e rupe agri nivem Libani? an relinquentur aquae alienae et frigidae fluentes?
15. Because my people hath forgotten me, they have burnt incense to vanity, and they have caused them to stumble in their ways from the ancient paths, to walk in paths, in a way not cast up;
15. Quia oblitus est mei populus meus, frustra suffitum faciunt (vel, adolent,) dum corruere eos fecerunt (copula enim explicitive accipitur, vel causaliter) in viis suis (vel, ipsorum,) semitis saeculi, ut ambularent per semitas viam non calcatam (quamquam {}כשלsignificat etiam impingere, vel, offendere, ideo verti posset, et eos impingere fecerunt in viis suis.)
455It is rendered in the Septuagint and Vulgate as a noun in the plural number, and more suitably in this place, — 13. Therefore thus saith Jehovah, Enquire I pray among the nations, Who hath heard such things as these — The horrible things which she hath fully done, The virgin of Israel. The particle {,{מאדmuch, very much, etc., must from its position be construed with the verb, and not with ``horrible.'' It may be rendered, ``which she hath done excessively.'' --- Ed