Jeremiah 5:3 Komentář

Reproof for sin and threatenings of judgment are intermixed in this chapter, and are set the one over against the other: judgments are threatened, that the reproofs of sin might be the more effectual to bring them to repentance; sin is discovered, that God might be justified in the judgments threatened. I. The sins they are charged with are very great: - Injustice (Jer 5:1), hypocrisy in religion (Jer 5:2), incorrigibleness (Jer 5:3), the corruption and debauchery of both poor and rich (Jer 5:4, Jer 5:5), idolatry and adultery (Jer 5:7, Jer 5:8), treacherous departures from God (Jer 5:11), and impudent defiance of him (Jer 5:12, Jer 5:13), and, that which is at the bottom of all this, want of the fear of God, notwithstanding the frequent calls given them to fear him (Jer 5:20-24). In the close of the chapter they are charged with violence and oppression (Jer 5:26-28), and a combination of those to debauch the nation who should have been active to reform it (Jer 5:30, Jer 5:31). II. The judgments they are threatened with are very terrible. In general, they shall be reckoned with (Jer 5:9, Jer 5:29). A foreign enemy shall be brought in upon them (Jer 5:15-17), shall set guards upon them (Jer 5:6), shall destroy their fortification (Jer 5:10), shall carry them away into captivity (Jer 5:19), and keep all good things from them (Jer 5:25). Herein the words of God's prophets shall be fulfilled (Jer 5:14). But, III. Here is an intimation twice given that God would in the midst of wrath remember mercy, and not utterly destroy them (Jer 5:10, Jer 5:18). This was the scope and purport of Jeremiah's preaching in the latter end of Josiah's reign and the beginning of Jehoiakim's; but the success of it did not answer expectation.

INTRODUCTION TO JEREMIAH 5 This chapter contains a further account of the destruction of the Jews by the Chaldeans, and the causes of it, the sins of the people, as want of justice and truth; being so corrupt, that a just and faithful man was not to be found among them; could there, the city would have been pardoned for his sake, Jer 5:1, their swearing falsely by the name of the Lord, Jer 5:2, their incorrigibleness by chastisements, which was the case not only of the lower, but higher rank of people, Jer 5:3, wherefore the enemy, who for his cruelty is compared to a lion, a wolf, and a leopard, is threatened to be let in among them, Jer 5:6, then other sins are mentioned as the cause of it, as idolatry and adultery, Jer 5:7 hence the enemy has a commission to scale their walls, take away their battlements, though not to make a full end, the Lord disowning them for his, Jer 5:10, because of their perfidy against him, their belying of him, contradicting what he had said, and despising the word sent by his prophets, Jer 5:11, wherefore it is threatened, that his word like fire should devour them; and that a distant, mighty, and ancient nation, of a foreign speech, should invade them; who, like an open sepulchre, would devour them, and eat up the increase of their fields, vineyards, flocks, and herds, and impoverish their cities, yet not make a full end of them, Jer 5:14, and in just retaliation should they serve strangers in a foreign country, who had served strange gods in their own, Jer 5:19 then a declaration is published, and an expostulation is made with them, who are represented as foolish, ignorant, and blind, that they would fear the Lord; which is pressed by arguments taken from the power of God, in restraining the sea, which had no effect upon them; and from the goodness of God, in giving the former and latter rain, and the appointed weeks of the harvest, which their sins turned away and withheld from them, Jer 5:20, and then other sins are mentioned as the cause of God's visiting them in a way of vengeance, as the defrauding of men in trade, and the oppression of the fatherless and the poor in judgment; and false prophesying, to the advantage of the priests, and the king of the people, Jer 5:26.

O Lord, are not thine eyes upon the truth?.... That is, thou hast no regard to such deceitful men, such hypocritical worshippers and formal professors, but to true and upright men: God looks not at outward appearances, but to the heart; he can see through all masks and vizards, there is no deceiving of him; he desires truth in the inward parts, and his eyes are on that; he has respect to men that have the truth of grace, the root of the matter in them, oil in their vessels, together with the lamps of an outward profession: his eyes are on such as have a true inward sense of sin, a genuine repentance for it, and that make a sincere, hearty, and ingenuous confession of it; to this man he looks, that is poor, and of a contrite spirit; he is nigh to such, and dwells with them; when he has no regard to the sad countenances and disfigured faces of Pharisees; to the tears of a profane Esau, or to the external humiliations and concessions of a wicked Pharaoh: his eyes are upon the internal graces of his own Spirit; to love, that is in deed and in truth; to hope, that is without dissimulation, and to faith unfeigned: and so the Septuagint, Vulgate Latin, Syriac, and Arabic versions render it, "thine eyes are unto faith"; or, respect faith (p); the faith of Christians, as Jerom interprets it. Faith is a grace well pleasing to God, and everything that is done in faith is so, and nothing else; it is a grace that gives glory to God, and on which he has put much honour, in making it the receiver of all the blessings of grace, and connecting salvation with it; he has so great a regard for it, that whatever it asks it has of him. In short, the sense is, that the eyes of the Lord, of his love, favour, good will, and delight, are upon such whose hearts are upright towards him; who draw nigh to him in truth, worship him in spirit and in truth, and are hearty to his cause and interest, and faithful to his word and ordinances; who are lovers of truth; of Christ, who is the truth itself; and of his Gospel, the word of truth, and the doctrines of it; see Sa1 16:7. Thou hast stricken them, but they have not grieved; that is, the Lord had courted and chastised them with afflictive providences; he had brought his judgments upon them, and had smitten them with the sword, or famine, or pestilence, or some such sore calamity, and yet it had not brought them to a sense of their sin, and to a godly sorrow for it: thou hast consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction; God had by his judgments consumed or swept away many of them, yet the rest did not take warning thereby, but went on in their sins; or they were brought near to consumption, as Kimchi interprets it; nevertheless remained obstinate and incorrigible, refused to receive any correction or instruction by such providences: they have made their faces harder than a rock; becoming more impudent in sinning, not blushing at, or being ashamed for it, and unmoved by judgments and chastising providence: they have refused to return; to the Lord, and to his worship, from which they revolted; or by repentance, and unto faith and truth, from which they had swerved. (p) "oculi tui respiciunt fidem", V. L. "ad fidem" Justius & Tremellius, Cocceius, and some in Vatablus.

(Verse 3) Lord, your eyes look upon faith: you struck them, and they did not hurt; you crushed them, and they refused to accept discipline. They hardened their faces like rock, and they refused to turn back. After the words of the Lord, in which he commanded, saying: Go around the streets of Jerusalem, etc., the Prophet speaks to the Lord: Lord, your eyes look upon faith, which in Hebrew is called Emuna: not the works of the Jews, in which they rejoiced according to the ceremonies of the Law; but the faith of the Christians, through which we have been saved by grace. In this chapter, we learn that punishments are inflicted in order to correct vices. Finally, it says, 'You have struck them, and they have not felt pain; you have crushed them, and they have refused to accept discipline.' Through all the torments and whips, Jerusalem is corrected, and yet they did not even have shame for their vices; but like a stone hardening their foreheads, they refused to be converted to better things.

THE CAUSE OF THE JUDGMENTS TO BE INFLICTED IS THE UNIVERSAL CORRUPTION OF THE PEOPLE. (Jer. 5:1-31) a man--As the pious Josiah, Baruch, and Zephaniah lived in Jerusalem at that time, Jeremiah must here mean the mass of the people, the king, his counsellors, the false prophets, and the priests, as distinguished from the faithful few, whom God had openly separated from the reprobate people; among the latter not even one just person was to be found (Isa 9:16) [CALVIN]; the godly, moreover, were forbidden to intercede for them (Jer 7:16; compare Gen 18:23, &c.; Psa 12:1; Eze 22:30). see . . . know--look . . . ascertain. judgment--justice, righteousness. pardon it--rather, her.

eyes upon the truth-- (Deu 32:4; Ch2 16:9). "Truth" is in contrast with "swear falsely" (Jer 5:2). The false-professing Jews could expect nothing but judgments from the God of truth. stricken . . . not grieved-- (Jer 2:30; Isa 1:5; Isa 9:13). refused . . . correction-- (Jer 7:28; Zep 3:2).