*H Arise, and go down into the potter's house, and there thou shalt hear my words.
Ver. 2. Potter's. Thus God would shew his dominion over all. Rom. ix. 21.
*H And I went down into the potter's house, and behold he was doing a work on the wheel.
Ver. 3. Wheel. Heb. "stones." Sept. "seats;" or "wheel." Chal. Ex. i. 16. See Eccle. xxxviii. 32. C.
*H And the vessel was broken which he was making of clay with his hands: and turning he made another vessel, as it seemed good in his eyes to make it.
Ver. 4. Broken. So Providence ordered it. S. Jer. — How should this idea humble man! C. — A potter may mould afresh the clay as long as it is soft, but God can change the hardest heart. W.
* Footnote * Isaias 45 : 9
Woe to him that gainsayeth his maker, a sherd of the earthen pots: shall the clay say to him that fashioneth it: What art thou making, and thy work is without hands?* Footnote * Romans 9 : 20
O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it: Why hast thou made me thus?*H If that nation against which I have spoken, shall repent of their evil, I also will repent of the evil that I have thought to do to them.
Ver. 8. Shall repent, having free-will, though prevented by grace. S. Jer.
* Footnote * 4_Kings 17 : 13
And the Lord testified to them in Israel, and in Juda, by the hand of all the prophets and seers, saying: Return from your wicked ways, and keep my precepts, and ceremonies, according to all the law which I commanded your fathers: and as I have sent to you in the hand of my servants the prophets.* Footnote * Jonas 3 : 9
Who can tell if God will turn, and forgive: and will turn away from his fierce anger, and we shall not perish?*H And they said; We have no hopes: for we will go after our own thoughts, and we will do every one according to the perverseness of his evil heart.
Ver. 12. Hopes. C. ii. 25. Sept. "we are valiant men." H.
*H Therefore thus saith the Lord: Ask among the nations: Who hath heard such horrible things, as the virgin of Israel hath done to excess?
Ver. 13. Virgin. The disorders of Israel are thus enhanced. C.
*H Shall the snow of Libanus fail from the rock of the field? or can the cold waters that gush out and run down, be taken away?
Ver. 14. Snow. It continues on Libanus seven or eight months, (La Roque quoted. Univ. Hist. ii. p. 363) or all the year; (Tacit. Hist. v. 6.) and hence the mountain is justly denominated "white," as the Alps and Albion are from albon. Bochart. Parkhurst, p. 155. H. — Away. Yet my people abandon me, to serve idols! Heb. may have many other senses to the same purpose. Sept. "Shall the mountain springs fail, or snow from Libanus? Shall a stream forcibly driven by the wind, turn aside?" H. — The laws of nature are observed by inanimate things, and shall my people be so foolish as to follow mere vanity.
*H Because my people have forgotten me, sacrificing in vain, and stumbling in their ways, in ancient paths, to walk by them in a way not trodden:
Ver. 15. Ancient; followed by the patriarchs. C. vi. 16.
*H That their land might be given up to desolation, and to a perpetual hissing: every one that shall pass by it, shall be astonished, and wag his head.
Ver. 16. Head, through contempt (C.) and pity. Lam. ii. 15.
*H As a burning wind will I scatter them before the enemy: I will shew them the back, and not the face, in the day of their destruction.
Ver. 17. Burning. Heb. kadim, "eastern," (H.) coming from Desert Arabia. Ex. x. 13. C. — Back. Thus the Lord now treats the synagogue. S. Jer.
*H And they said: Come, and let us invent devices against Jeremias: for the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet: come, and let us strike him with the tongue, and let us give no heed to all his words.
Ver. 18. Prophet. Jeremias will not cease to upbraid us with our transgressions; or we have guides as good as him, and we shall not be left destitute, as he would intimate. — Tongue, detraction; or make him suffer for what he says. In all the transactions of this prophet, Christ was foreshewn; (C.) and here, particularly, the Jews demand the crucifixion. S. Jer. W.
*H Shall evil be rendered for good, because they have digged a pit for my soul? Remember that I have stood in thy sight, to speak good for them, and to turn away thy indignation from them.
Ver. 20. Remember, &c. This is spoken in the person of Christ, persecuted by the Jews, and prophetically denouncing the evils that should fall upon them in punishment of their crimes. Ch. — Jeremias had prayed earnestly for the people. C. xiv. 17. H.
*H Therefore deliver up their children to famine, and bring them into the hands of the sword: let their wives be bereaved of children and widows: and let their husbands be slain by death: let their young men be stabbed with the sword in battle.
Ver. 21. Therefore. He foretells of the event, and approves of the chastisement of the impenitent, (C.) whose "impurity might be a bad precedent for others. S. Jer. See C. xvii. 18.
*H Let a cry be heard out of their houses: for thou shalt bring the robber upon them suddenly: because they have digged a pit to take me, and have hid snares for my feet.
Ver. 22. For. Prot. "when." H. — Robber. So Nabuchodonosor and all professional conquerors are styled. C.
*H But thou, O Lord, knowest all their counsel against me unto death: not their iniquity, and let not their sin be blotted out from thy sight: let them be overthrown before thy eyes, in the time of thy wrath do thou destroy them.
Ver. 23. Destroy. Heb. "with them." Use them as vessels of ignominy: abutere. H.