Commentary on Jeremiah Volume 1 John Calvin
COMMENTARY ON JEREMIAH
intimates that the hatred entertained by their enemies towards the Jews would not be common. Wars are carried on sometimes in such a way, that the conquerors are satisfied with the spoils; but the Prophet intimates, that the cruelty of their enemies would be such, that they would seek the life of the whole people, and delight in slaughter; as though he had said, that they would be deadly enemies and altogether implacable. He will again repeat these words, and in the same sense.
He then adds, I will give your carcase to be meat to the birds of heaven, and to the beasts of the field 472 We have said elsewhere that it is deemed a punishment inflicted by heaven when the carcases of the dead remain unburied; for it is the last office of humanity to bury the dead. And this is a distinction which God would have to be between men and brute animals, for animals have not the honor of a burial. It has also been ever granted as a singular privilege to men to be buried, in order to set forth the hope of resurrection. When, therefore, a burial is denied, it is a proof of extreme dishonor. It has indeed often happened that the saints have been without a burial; but temporal punishment is ever turned to salvation to God's children. As to the reprobate it must be deemed a judgment from God, when he casts away their carcases, as then there is no difference between them and animals.
But I have treated this subject more fully elsewhere, and I shall not proceed with it now. It follows ---
Jeremiah 19:8
8. And I will make this city desolate, and an hissing; every one that passeth thereby shall be astonished and hiss because of all the plagues thereof.
8. Et ponam urbem hanc in stuporem et sibilum; quisquis transibit per eam stupebit et sibilabit super omnen plugam ejus.
Jeremiah proceeds with his denunciation, and it was necessary for him to add this amplification, that he might penetrate into their hard and perverse hearts; for had he employed only a single sentence, or a common mode of speaking, in describing their calamity and the ruin of the city, they would not have been at all moved. Hence he enlarges on the subject, and advances with greater vehemence, and always speaks in the person of God, that his denunciation might have greater weight.
I will set, etc. Here is to be noticed a second reason; for it was not enough that a calamity should be denounced on the Jews, without adding this, that it was inflicted by God's hand, and that thus the punishment of their wickedness was just. Then he says, I will set this city for an astonishment; for so in this place the word {}שמה sheme ought to be rendered, inasmuch as the reason afterwards follows, astonished shall be whosoever shall pass through it 473 He adds also, for a hissing, which is rather a mark of detestation than of scorn; yet the desolation of the whole land, and also the ruin of the holy city in which God had chosen an habitation for himself, might 472The words are in the singular number — "The bird of heaven and the beast of the field." — Ed.
473Blayney gives the same meaning, — "And I will make this city an object of astonishment and of hissing." The Vulgate and the Syriac are the same; but the Septuagint and the Targum have "desolation" instead of "astonishment." The word {{שמהsignifies both, as in Hebrew the same word often expresses the cause and the effect: desolation is the cause, astonishment is the effect. The primary meaning is what is given mostly by the Septuagint and very seldom the secondary. The literal rendering of the sentence is, --- ``And I will set this city for an astonishment and for a hissing.'' --- Ed.