King James Version
Jeremiah 13
27 verses with commentary
The Linen Belt
Thus saith the LORD unto me, Go and get thee a linen girdle, and put it upon thy loins, and put it not in water.
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KJV Study Commentary
This verse begins a symbolic action: 'Thus saith the LORD unto me, Go and get thee a linen girdle, and put it upon thy loins, and put it not in water.' God commands Jeremiah to acquire an ezor pishtim (אֵזוֹר פִּשְׁתִּים, linen waistband/undergarment). The instruction is specific: wear it but 'put it not in water' (lo-tavi'ehu bamayim)—don't wash it. This creates a dirty, sweaty garment clinging t...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(1) **A linen girdle.**—The point of comparison is given in Jeremiah 13:11. Of all garments worn by man the girdle was that most identified with the man’s activity, nearest to his person. The “linen girdle” was part of Jeremiah’s priestly dress (Exodus 28:40; Leviticus 16:4), and this also was significant in the interpretation of the symbolic act. Israel, represented as the girdle of Jehovah, had ...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**15. creator of Israel--**(Is 43:1).
**your--**proved to be specially yours by delivering you.
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
Chapter 13
The glory of the Jews should be marred. (Jr 13:1-11) All ranks should suffer misery, An earnest exhortation to repentance. (Jr 13:12-17) An awful message to Jerusalem and its king. (Jr 13:18-27)
**Verses 1-11** It was usual with the prophets to teach by signs. And we have the explanation, Jr 13:9-11. The people of Israel had been to God as this girdle. He caused them to cleave to ...
Read full commentary →So I got a girdle according to the word of the LORD, and put it on my loins.
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KJV Study Commentary
This verse reports obedience: 'So I got a girdle according to the word of the LORD, and put it on my loins.' The Hebrew phrase kidbar YHWH (כִּדְבַר יְהוָה, according to the word of the LORD) indicates exact obedience. Jeremiah acquired and wore the garment as commanded. The unwashed girdle against skin for extended time would become dirty, sweaty, clinging—representing intimate relationship now c...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
16-17. Allusion to the deliverance of Israel and overthrow of Pharaoh in the Red Sea, the standing illustration of God's unchanging character towards His people (Ex 14:21, 22, 27, 28).
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
Chapter 13
The glory of the Jews should be marred. (Jr 13:1-11) All ranks should suffer misery, An earnest exhortation to repentance. (Jr 13:12-17) An awful message to Jerusalem and its king. (Jr 13:18-27)
**Verses 1-11** It was usual with the prophets to teach by signs. And we have the explanation, Jr 13:9-11. The people of Israel had been to God as this girdle. He caused them to cleave to ...
Read full commentary →And the word of the LORD came unto me the second time, saying,
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KJV Study Commentary
This verse introduces second command: 'And the word of the LORD came unto me the second time, saying.' The phrase 'second time' (shenith) indicates a subsequent revelation after initial wearing period. The girdle has been worn; now comes the next stage of the sign-act. The two-stage process—first wearing, then hiding—will illustrate both intimacy and judgment, relationship and ruin.
Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(3) **The second time.**—No dates are given, but the implied interval must have been long enough for the girdle to become foul, while the prophet apparently waited for an explanation of the strange command.
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
16-17. Allusion to the deliverance of Israel and overthrow of Pharaoh in the Red Sea, the standing illustration of God's unchanging character towards His people (Ex 14:21, 22, 27, 28).
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
Chapter 13
The glory of the Jews should be marred. (Jr 13:1-11) All ranks should suffer misery, An earnest exhortation to repentance. (Jr 13:12-17) An awful message to Jerusalem and its king. (Jr 13:18-27)
**Verses 1-11** It was usual with the prophets to teach by signs. And we have the explanation, Jr 13:9-11. The people of Israel had been to God as this girdle. He caused them to cleave to ...
Read full commentary →Take the girdle that thou hast got, which is upon thy loins, and arise, go to Euphrates, and hide it there in a hole of the rock.
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KJV Study Commentary
This verse commands concealment: 'Take the girdle that thou hast got, which is upon thy loins, and arise, go to Euphrates, and hide it there in a hole of the rock.' The Hebrew Perath (פְּרָת) is usually 'Euphrates' (major river in Mesopotamia) but some suggest Parah, a town near Anathoth. 'Hide it' (tamnenu, from taman—bury, conceal) in 'hole of the rock' (neqiq hasela) indicates placing it where ...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(4) **Go to Euphrates.**—The Hebrew word *Phrath *is the same as that which, everywhere else in the O.T., is rendered by the Greek name for the river, Euphrates. It has been suggested (1) that the word means “river” generally, or “rushing water,” applied by way of pre-eminence to the “great river” and therefore that it may have been used here in its general sense; and (2) that it may stand here fo...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
18. So wonderful shall be God's future interpositions in your behalf, that all past ones shall be forgotten in comparison. Plainly the future restoration of Israel is the event ultimately meant. Thus the "former things" are such events as the destruction of Sennacherib and the return from Babylon. "Things of old" are events still more ancient, the deliverance from Egypt and at the Red Sea, and ent...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
Chapter 13
The glory of the Jews should be marred. (Jr 13:1-11) All ranks should suffer misery, An earnest exhortation to repentance. (Jr 13:12-17) An awful message to Jerusalem and its king. (Jr 13:18-27)
**Verses 1-11** It was usual with the prophets to teach by signs. And we have the explanation, Jr 13:9-11. The people of Israel had been to God as this girdle. He caused them to cleave to ...
Read full commentary →So I went, and hid it by Euphrates, as the LORD commanded me.
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KJV Study Commentary
This verse reports second obedience: 'So I went, and hid it by Euphrates, as the LORD commanded me.' Again, exact obedience (ka'asher tsivvani YHWH, as the LORD commanded me). Whether literal Euphrates journey or local Parah trip, Jeremiah complied fully. The girdle—representing Judah's intimate relationship with God—is now buried near symbol of Babylon. Time will demonstrate decay's effects. The ...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**19. new--**unprecedented in its wonderful character (Is 42:9).
**spring forth--**as a germinating herb: a beautiful image of the silent but certain gradual growth of events in God's providence (Mr 4:26-28).
**way in ... wilderness--**just as Israel in the wilderness, between the Red Sea and Canaan, was guided, and supplied with water by Jehovah; but the "new" deliverance shall be attended wi...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
Chapter 13
The glory of the Jews should be marred. (Jr 13:1-11) All ranks should suffer misery, An earnest exhortation to repentance. (Jr 13:12-17) An awful message to Jerusalem and its king. (Jr 13:18-27)
**Verses 1-11** It was usual with the prophets to teach by signs. And we have the explanation, Jr 13:9-11. The people of Israel had been to God as this girdle. He caused them to cleave to ...
Read full commentary →And it came to pass after many days, that the LORD said unto me, Arise, go to Euphrates, and take the girdle from thence, which I commanded thee to hide there.
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KJV Study Commentary
This verse introduces third stage: 'And it came to pass after many days, that the LORD said unto me, Arise, go to Euphrates, and take the girdle from thence.' 'After many days' (miqets yamim rabbim) indicates sufficient time for decay. Now Jeremiah must retrieve what he buried. The revelation comes progressively: wear, bury, wait, retrieve. 'Many days' allows water, moisture, and organic decay to ...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(6) **After many days.**—Here again the interval is undefined, but it must have been long enough (we may conjecture, perhaps, seventy days) to be an adequate symbol of the seventy years’ exile which the act of placing the girdle by Euphrates represented. So in Hosea 3:3 we have “many days” for the undefined duration of the exile of the Ten Tribes.
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**20. beast--**image of idolaters, defiled with blood and pollutions, dwelling like dragons, &c., in the wastes of Gentile ignorance: even they shall be converted. Or else, literally, such copious floods of water shall be given by God in the desert, that the very beasts shall (in poetic language) praise the Lord (Psa 148:10) [Jerome].
**dragons--**"serpents," or else jackals (see on Is 13:22...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
Chapter 13
The glory of the Jews should be marred. (Jr 13:1-11) All ranks should suffer misery, An earnest exhortation to repentance. (Jr 13:12-17) An awful message to Jerusalem and its king. (Jr 13:18-27)
**Verses 1-11** It was usual with the prophets to teach by signs. And we have the explanation, Jr 13:9-11. The people of Israel had been to God as this girdle. He caused them to cleave to ...
Read full commentary →Then I went to Euphrates, and digged, and took the girdle from the place where I had hid it: and, behold, the girdle was marred, it was profitable for nothing.
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KJV Study Commentary
This verse reveals decay: 'Then I went to Euphrates, and digged, and took the girdle from the place where I had hid it: and, behold, the girdle was marred; it profited for nothing.' 'Digged' (chapharthi) indicates excavation; 'took' (eqqach) retrieves the buried garment. 'Behold' (hinneh) creates dramatic revelation—'the girdle was marred' (nishchath ha'ezor). The Hebrew shachath (שָׁחַת) means ru...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(7) **The girdle was marred.**—The symbolism is explained in Jeremiah 13:9. The girdle stained, decayed, worthless, was a parable of the state of Judah after the exile, stripped of all its outward greatness, losing the place which it had once occupied among the nations of the earth.
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**21. This people--**namely, The same as "My people, My chosen" (see Is 43:1, 7; Psa 102:18).
**my praise--**on account of the many and great benefits conferred on them, especially their restoration.
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
Chapter 13
The glory of the Jews should be marred. (Jr 13:1-11) All ranks should suffer misery, An earnest exhortation to repentance. (Jr 13:12-17) An awful message to Jerusalem and its king. (Jr 13:18-27)
**Verses 1-11** It was usual with the prophets to teach by signs. And we have the explanation, Jr 13:9-11. The people of Israel had been to God as this girdle. He caused them to cleave to ...
Read full commentary →Then the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
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KJV Study Commentary
This verse transitions to interpretation: 'Then the word of the LORD came unto me, saying.' Having completed the three-stage symbolic action (wear, bury, retrieve), God now explains the meaning. The dramatic visual has captured attention; now comes the theological interpretation. Sign-acts were not self-interpreting—prophets explained their meaning. The pattern of action followed by interpretation...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**22. But--**Israel, however, is not to think that these divine favors are due to their own piety towards God. So the believer (Tit 3:5).
**but--**rather, "for."
**weary of me--**(Am 8:5, 6; Mal 1:13), though "I have not wearied thee" (Is 43:23), yet "thou hast been weary of Me."
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
Chapter 13
The glory of the Jews should be marred. (Jr 13:1-11) All ranks should suffer misery, An earnest exhortation to repentance. (Jr 13:12-17) An awful message to Jerusalem and its king. (Jr 13:18-27)
**Verses 1-11** It was usual with the prophets to teach by signs. And we have the explanation, Jr 13:9-11. The people of Israel had been to God as this girdle. He caused them to cleave to ...
Read full commentary →Thus saith the LORD, After this manner will I mar the pride of Judah, and the great pride of Jerusalem.
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KJV Study Commentary
This verse begins interpretation: 'Thus saith the LORD, After this manner will I mar the pride of Judah, and the great pride of Jerusalem.' 'After this manner' (kakah) connects sign to meaning. 'Mar' (ashchith) uses the same root as the girdle's 'marred' condition (v. 7)—God will do to Judah what happened to the garment. 'Pride' (ge'on, גְּאוֹן) of both Judah and Jerusalem will be ruined. Pride—na...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(9) **The pride of Judah.**—As the girdle was the part of the dress on which most ornamental work was commonly lavished, so that it was a common gift among princes and men of wealth (1Samuel 18:4; 2Samuel 18:11), it was the natural symbol of the outward glory of a kingdom. As Jeremiah was a priest, we may, perhaps, think of the embroidered girdle “for glory and for beauty “of the priestly dress (E...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**23. small cattle--**rather, the "lamb" or "kid," required by the law to be daily offered to God (Ex 29:38; Nu 28:3).
**sacrifices--**offered any way; whereas the Hebrew for "holocaust," or "burnt offering," denotes that which ascends as an offering consumed by fire.
**I have not caused thee to serve--**that is, to render the the service of a slave (Mt 11:30; Ro 8:15; 1Jo 4:18; 5:3).
**offe...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
Chapter 13
The glory of the Jews should be marred. (Jr 13:1-11) All ranks should suffer misery, An earnest exhortation to repentance. (Jr 13:12-17) An awful message to Jerusalem and its king. (Jr 13:18-27)
**Verses 1-11** It was usual with the prophets to teach by signs. And we have the explanation, Jr 13:9-11. The people of Israel had been to God as this girdle. He caused them to cleave to ...
Read full commentary →This evil people, which refuse to hear my words, which walk in the imagination of their heart, and walk after other gods, to serve them, and to worship them, shall even be as this girdle, which is good for nothing. imagination: or, stubbornness
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KJV Study Commentary
This verse specifies the sins: 'This evil people, which refuse to hear my words, which walk in the imagination of their heart, and walk after other gods, to serve them, and to worship them, shall even be as this girdle, which is good for nothing.' The indictment has three elements: refusing to hear (me'anim lishmoa), following stubborn hearts (sheriruth libbam), and serving other gods. These summa...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(10) **Imagination.**—Better, as before, *stubbornness.*
**Shall even be as this girdle.**—The same thought is reproduced in the imagery of the potter’s vessel in Jeremiah 18:4. On the other hand there is a partial reversal of the sentence in Jeremiah 24:5, where the “good figs” represent the exiles who learnt repentance from their sufferings, and the “bad” those who still remained at Jerusalem un...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**24. bought--**for "sweet cane" (aromatic calamus) was not indigenous to Palestine, but had to be bought from foreign countries (Jr 6:20). It was used among the Hebrews to make the sacred ointment (Ex 30:23). It is often offered as a mark of hospitality.
**filled--**satiated (Jr 31:14). God deigns to use human language to adapt Himself to human modes of thought.
**made me to serve--**though "...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
Chapter 13
The glory of the Jews should be marred. (Jr 13:1-11) All ranks should suffer misery, An earnest exhortation to repentance. (Jr 13:12-17) An awful message to Jerusalem and its king. (Jr 13:18-27)
**Verses 1-11** It was usual with the prophets to teach by signs. And we have the explanation, Jr 13:9-11. The people of Israel had been to God as this girdle. He caused them to cleave to ...
Read full commentary →For as the girdle cleaveth to the loins of a man, so have I caused to cleave unto me the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah, saith the LORD; that they might be unto me for a people, and for a name, and for a praise, and for a glory: but they would not hear.
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KJV Study Commentary
This verse explains the girdle symbolism: 'For as the girdle cleaveth to the loins of a man, so have I caused to cleave unto me the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah, saith the LORD.' The verb davaq (דָּבַק, cleave, cling) describes intimate attachment—same word used for marriage in Genesis 2:24. God made Israel 'cleave' to Him with intimate closeness like an undergarment against ...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(11) **The whole house of Israel.**—The acted parable takes in not only, as in Jeremiah 13:9, Judah, to whom the warning was specially addressed, but the other great division of the people. The sense of national unity is still strong in the prophet’s mind. Not Judah only, but the whole collective Israel had been as the girdle of Jehovah, consecrated to His service, designed to be, as the girdle wa...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**25. I, even I--**the God against whom your sin is committed, and who alone can and will pardon. (Is 44:22).
**for mine own sake--**(Is 48:9, 11). How abominable a thing sin is, since it is against such a God of grace! "Blotted out" is an image from an account-book, in which, when a debt is paid, the charge is cancelled or blotted out.
**not remember ... sins--**(Jr 31:34). When God forgives,...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
Chapter 13
The glory of the Jews should be marred. (Jr 13:1-11) All ranks should suffer misery, An earnest exhortation to repentance. (Jr 13:12-17) An awful message to Jerusalem and its king. (Jr 13:18-27)
**Verses 1-11** It was usual with the prophets to teach by signs. And we have the explanation, Jr 13:9-11. The people of Israel had been to God as this girdle. He caused them to cleave to ...
Read full commentary →Wineskins and Drunkenness
Therefore thou shalt speak unto them this word; Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Every bottle shall be filled with wine: and they shall say unto thee, Do we not certainly know that every bottle shall be filled with wine?
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KJV Study Commentary
This verse begins a new oracle: 'Therefore thou shalt speak unto them this word; Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Every bottle shall be filled with wine.' The Hebrew nevel (נֶבֶל) is a pottery vessel, a wineskin or jug. The statement 'every bottle filled with wine' sounds positive—abundance! 'And they shall say unto thee, Do we not certainly know that every bottle shall be filled with wine?' The...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(12) **Every bottle shall be filled with wine.**—Another parable follows on that of the girdle. The germ is found in the phrase “drunken, but not with wine” (Isaiah 29:9), and the thought rising out of that germ that the effect of the wrath of Jehovah is to cause an impotence and confusion like that of drunkenness (Psalm 60:3; Isaiah 51:17). The “bottle” in this case is not the “skin” commonly use...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**26. Put me in remembrance--**Remind Me of every plea which thou hast to urge before Me in thy defense. Image from a trial (Is 1:18; 41:1). Our strongest plea is to remind God of His own promises. So Jacob did at Mahanaim and Peniel (Ge 32:9, 12). God, then, instead of "pleading against us with His great power," "will put His strength" in us (Job 23:6); we thus become "the Lord's remembrancers" (...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 12-17** As the bottle was fitted to hold the wine, so the sins of the people made them vessels of wrath, fitted for the judgments of God; with which they should be filled till they caused each other's destruction. The prophet exhorts them to give glory to God, by confessing their sins, humbling themselves in repentance, and returning to his service. Otherwise they would be carried into ot...
Read full commentary →Then shalt thou say unto them, Thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will fill all the inhabitants of this land, even the kings that sit upon David's throne, and the priests, and the prophets, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, with drunkenness.
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KJV Study Commentary
This verse reveals the true meaning: 'Then shalt thou say unto them, Thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will fill all the inhabitants of this land, even the kings that sit upon David's throne, and the priests, and the prophets, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, with drunkenness.' The 'filling' isn't wine blessing but divine judgment of drunken confusion. The list is comprehensive: all inhabitants,...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(13) **The kings that sit upon David’s throne.—**Literally, *that sit for David *(*i.e., *as his successors and representatives) *on his throne. *The plural is probably used in pointing to the four—Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin, and Zedekiah—who were all of them involved in the sufferings that fell on Judah.
**With drunkenness.**—The intoxication of the “strong drink”—here, probably, palm-wine—r...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**27. first father--**collectively for "most ancient ancestors," as the parallelism ("teachers") proves [Maurer]. Or, thy chief religious ministers or priests [Gesenius]. Adam, the common father of all nations, can hardly be meant here, as it would have been irrelevant to mention his sin in an address to the Jews specially. Abraham is equally out of place here, as he is everywhere cited as an exam...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 12-17** As the bottle was fitted to hold the wine, so the sins of the people made them vessels of wrath, fitted for the judgments of God; with which they should be filled till they caused each other's destruction. The prophet exhorts them to give glory to God, by confessing their sins, humbling themselves in repentance, and returning to his service. Otherwise they would be carried into ot...
Read full commentary →And I will dash them one against another, even the fathers and the sons together, saith the LORD: I will not pity, nor spare, nor have mercy, but destroy them. one: Heb. a man against his brother but: Heb. from destroying them
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KJV Study Commentary
This verse intensifies judgment: 'And I will dash them one against another, even the fathers and the sons together, saith the LORD.' The Hebrew naphats (נָפַץ, dash, shatter) applies to pottery broken by smashing against surfaces or each other. Filled vessels dashed together produce mutual destruction. 'Fathers and sons together' (avoth ubanim yachdav) indicates generational destruction without me...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(14) **One against another.**—The rendering answers to the Hebrew idiom, but that idiom, as in the margin, *a man against his brother, *has a force which is lacking in the English, and forms a transition from the symbol to the reality. The words point to what we should call the “crash” of a falling kingdom, when all bonds that keep society together are broken.
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**28. profaned the princes--**(Psa 89:39; La 2:2, 6, 7). I have esteemed, or treated, them as persons not sacred. I have left them to suffer the same treatment as the common people, stripped of their holy office and in captivity.
**princes of the sanctuary--**"governors of" it (1Ch 24:5); directing its holy services; priests.
**curse--**Hebrew, cherim, a "solemn anathema," or "excommunication....
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 12-17** As the bottle was fitted to hold the wine, so the sins of the people made them vessels of wrath, fitted for the judgments of God; with which they should be filled till they caused each other's destruction. The prophet exhorts them to give glory to God, by confessing their sins, humbling themselves in repentance, and returning to his service. Otherwise they would be carried into ot...
Read full commentary →Hear ye, and give ear; be not proud: for the LORD hath spoken.
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KJV Study Commentary
This verse calls for humility: 'Hear ye, and give ear; be not proud: for the LORD hath spoken.' Three imperatives: shim'u (hear), ha'azinu (give ear), al-tigbe'u (be not proud). The required response to judgment warning is humility, not pride. 'For the LORD hath spoken' (ki YHWH dibber) establishes authority—divine speech demands response. Pride that dismisses warning leads to destruction. Humilit...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(15) **Be not proud.**—With special reference to the besetting sin of Judah, as described in Jeremiah 13:9; perhaps also to the character of the symbols applied—the marred girdle and the broken jar—as being in themselves humiliating, and therefore a trial to their pride.
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 12-17** As the bottle was fitted to hold the wine, so the sins of the people made them vessels of wrath, fitted for the judgments of God; with which they should be filled till they caused each other's destruction. The prophet exhorts them to give glory to God, by confessing their sins, humbling themselves in repentance, and returning to his service. Otherwise they would be carried into ot...
Read full commentary →Give glory to the LORD your God, before he cause darkness, and before your feet stumble upon the dark mountains, and, while ye look for light, he turn it into the shadow of death, and make it gross darkness.
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KJV Study Commentary
This verse urges repentance before darkness: 'Give glory to the LORD your God, before he cause darkness, and before your feet stumble upon the dark mountains.' 'Give glory' (tenu kavod) means acknowledge God's authority, repent, worship properly. 'Before darkness' (beterem yachshikh) indicates approaching but not yet arrived judgment—window remains open. 'Dark mountains' (harei nesheph) picture tr...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(16) **Give glory to the Lord your God.**—Probably in the same sense as in Joshua 7:19 and John 9:24, perhaps also in Malachi 2:2, “give glory by confessing the truth, even though that truth be a sin that involves punishment.” “Confess your guilt ere it be too late for pardon.” This fits in better with the context than the more general sense of “ascribing praise to God.”
**Before your feet stumble...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
CHAPTER 44 Is 44:1-28. Continuation of the Previous Chapter.
**1-5. Yet--**Though thou hast sinned, yet hear God's gracious promise as to thy deliverance.
**chosen--**(Is 41:8).
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 12-17** As the bottle was fitted to hold the wine, so the sins of the people made them vessels of wrath, fitted for the judgments of God; with which they should be filled till they caused each other's destruction. The prophet exhorts them to give glory to God, by confessing their sins, humbling themselves in repentance, and returning to his service. Otherwise they would be carried into ot...
Read full commentary →But if ye will not hear it, my soul shall weep in secret places for your pride; and mine eye shall weep sore, and run down with tears, because the LORD'S flock is carried away captive.
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KJV Study Commentary
This verse reveals Jeremiah's grief: 'But if ye will not hear it, my soul shall weep in secret places for your pride.' Conditional 'if you will not hear' (im lo tishme'uha) indicates their choice remains. 'My soul shall weep' (tivkeh nafshi) reveals the prophet's emotional investment—he genuinely grieves their stubborn refusal. 'In secret places' (bemistarim) suggests private weeping, hidden tears...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(17) **My soul shall weep in secret places for your pride.**—The words present no difficulty that requires explanation, but deserve to be noted in their exquisite tenderness as characteristic of the prophet’s temperament (comp. Lamentations 1:16), reminding us of the tears shed over Jerusalem (Luke 19:41) and of St. Paul’s “great heaviness and continual sorrow” (Romans 9:2). Nothing remained for o...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
CHAPTER 44 Is 44:1-28. Continuation of the Previous Chapter.
**1-5. Yet--**Though thou hast sinned, yet hear God's gracious promise as to thy deliverance.
**chosen--**(Is 41:8).
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 12-17** As the bottle was fitted to hold the wine, so the sins of the people made them vessels of wrath, fitted for the judgments of God; with which they should be filled till they caused each other's destruction. The prophet exhorts them to give glory to God, by confessing their sins, humbling themselves in repentance, and returning to his service. Otherwise they would be carried into ot...
Read full commentary →Say unto the king and to the queen, Humble yourselves, sit down: for your principalities shall come down, even the crown of your glory. principalities: or, head tires
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KJV Study Commentary
This verse addresses the royal house: 'Say unto the king and to the queen, Humble yourselves, sit down: for your principalities shall come down, even the crown of your glory.' 'King and queen' (melek vegebirah) are the ruling monarch and queen mother (who held significant power). 'Humble yourselves' (hashpilu) means to bring low, descend. 'Sit down' (shevu) from exalted position to low status. 'Cr...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(18) **The queen.**—Not the usual word, the Hebrew feminine of king, but literally “the great lady” (“*dominatrix*” Vulg.), the title of a queen-mother (in this case, probably, of Nehushta, the mother of Jehoiachin, 2Kings 24:8), sharing the throne during her son’s minority. The same word is used of Maachah, the mother of Asa (1Kings 15:13; 2Kings 10:13; 2Chronicles 15:16), and meets us again in J...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
CHAPTER 44 Is 44:1-28. Continuation of the Previous Chapter.
**1-5. Yet--**Though thou hast sinned, yet hear God's gracious promise as to thy deliverance.
**chosen--**(Is 41:8).
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 18-27** Here is a message sent to king Jehoiakim, and his queen. Their sorrows would be great indeed. Do they ask, Wherefore come these things upon us? Let them know, it is for their obstinacy in sin. We cannot alter the natural colour of the skin; and so is it morally impossible to reclaim and reform these people. Sin is the blackness of the soul; it is the discolouring of it; we were sh...
Read full commentary →The cities of the south shall be shut up, and none shall open them: Judah shall be carried away captive all of it, it shall be wholly carried away captive.
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KJV Study Commentary
This verse announces southern devastation: 'The cities of the south shall be shut up, and none shall open them: Judah shall be carried away captive all of it, it shall be wholly carried away captive.' 'Cities of the south' (arei hanegev) refers to the Negev region, southern Judah's dry zone. 'Shut up' (suggeru) means closed, with no one to open—depopulated, abandoned. 'Judah carried away captive a...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(19) **The cities of the south.**—The term thus rendered (the *Negeb*) is throughout the Old Testament used for a definite district, stretching from Mount Halak northward to a line south of Engedi and Hebron. The strategy of Nebuchadnezzar’s attack (as it had been of Sennacherib’s, 2Kings 18:13) was to blockade the cities of this region, and then, when they were cut off from sending assistance, to...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
CHAPTER 44 Is 44:1-28. Continuation of the Previous Chapter.
**1-5. Yet--**Though thou hast sinned, yet hear God's gracious promise as to thy deliverance.
**chosen--**(Is 41:8).
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 18-27** Here is a message sent to king Jehoiakim, and his queen. Their sorrows would be great indeed. Do they ask, Wherefore come these things upon us? Let them know, it is for their obstinacy in sin. We cannot alter the natural colour of the skin; and so is it morally impossible to reclaim and reform these people. Sin is the blackness of the soul; it is the discolouring of it; we were sh...
Read full commentary →Lift up your eyes, and behold them that come from the north: where is the flock that was given thee, thy beautiful flock?
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KJV Study Commentary
This verse personifies Jerusalem: 'Lift up your eyes, and behold them that come from the north.' The command addresses Jerusalem (feminine singular) to observe approaching enemy. 'Them that come from the north' identifies Babylon. 'Where is the flock that was given thee, thy beautiful flock?' The Hebrew eder (עֵדֶר, flock) represents Judah's population, Jerusalem's 'beautiful flock' (tson tiph'art...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(20) **Lift up your eyes.**—The Hebrew verb is feminine and singular, the possessive pronoun masculine and plural. Assuming the reading to be correct, the irregularity may have been intended to combine the ideal personification of Jerusalem, the daughter of Zion, as the natural protectress of the other cities, with the concrete multitude of her inhabitants. The “beautiful flock” of those cities ha...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
CHAPTER 44 Is 44:1-28. Continuation of the Previous Chapter.
**1-5. Yet--**Though thou hast sinned, yet hear God's gracious promise as to thy deliverance.
**chosen--**(Is 41:8).
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 18-27** Here is a message sent to king Jehoiakim, and his queen. Their sorrows would be great indeed. Do they ask, Wherefore come these things upon us? Let them know, it is for their obstinacy in sin. We cannot alter the natural colour of the skin; and so is it morally impossible to reclaim and reform these people. Sin is the blackness of the soul; it is the discolouring of it; we were sh...
Read full commentary →What wilt thou say when he shall punish thee? for thou hast taught them to be captains, and as chief over thee: shall not sorrows take thee, as a woman in travail? punish: Heb visit upon
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KJV Study Commentary
This verse announces unexpected reversal: 'What wilt thou say when he shall punish thee? for thou hast taught them to be captain, and as chief over thee.' When punishment comes, what excuse will remain? 'Thou hast taught them' (limmadt otham)—Jerusalem trained her own destroyers! Those she cultivated as 'captain' (alluf, chief, leader) and 'chief' (rosh, head) now rule over her as conquerors. The ...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(21) **What wilt thou say?**—The verse is difficult, and requires an entire retranslation. *What wilt thou *(the daughter of Zion) *say? for He *(Jehovah) *shall set over thee as head those whom thou taughtest *(=tried to teach) *to be thy familiar friends. *This was to be the end of the alliance in which Judah had trusted. She had courted the Chaldean nobles as her lover-guides and friends (the w...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
6. Here follows an argument for Jehovah, as the only God, and against the idols, as vanity (see on Is 41:4; Is 43:1; Is 43:10-12).
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 18-27** Here is a message sent to king Jehoiakim, and his queen. Their sorrows would be great indeed. Do they ask, Wherefore come these things upon us? Let them know, it is for their obstinacy in sin. We cannot alter the natural colour of the skin; and so is it morally impossible to reclaim and reform these people. Sin is the blackness of the soul; it is the discolouring of it; we were sh...
Read full commentary →And if thou say in thine heart, Wherefore come these things upon me? For the greatness of thine iniquity are thy skirts discovered, and thy heels made bare. made: or, shall be violently taken away
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KJV Study Commentary
This verse addresses internal response: 'And if thou say in thine heart, Wherefore come these things upon me?' The internal question represents confused self-justification—why is this happening to me? 'For the greatness of thine iniquity are thy skirts discovered, and thy heels made bare.' The Hebrew imagery is of shameful exposure—skirts lifted, heels exposed. This represents the shame of captivi...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(22) **Are thy skirts discovered.**—The “skirts,” or flowing train, worn by women of rank, the removal of which was the sign of extremest degradation (Isaiah 20:4; Isaiah 47:2; Ezekiel 23:29; Hosea 2:3; Nahum 3:5).
**Thy heels made bare.**—Better, *outraged, *or *disgraced, *made to walk barefoot, like menial slaves; possibly, like the outcast harlot. Compare Isaiah’s walking “naked and barefoot” ...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
7. Who but God can predict future events and declare also the order and time of each (see on Is 41:22, 23; Is 45:21)?
**call--**"openly proclaim" (Is 40:6) things to come [Maurer]. Or, "call forth" the event; command that it happen (Is 46:11; 48:15), [Barnes].
**set ... in order--**There is no chance or confusion; all events occur in the order best fitted to subserve God's plans.
**for me--*...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 18-27** Here is a message sent to king Jehoiakim, and his queen. Their sorrows would be great indeed. Do they ask, Wherefore come these things upon us? Let them know, it is for their obstinacy in sin. We cannot alter the natural colour of the skin; and so is it morally impossible to reclaim and reform these people. Sin is the blackness of the soul; it is the discolouring of it; we were sh...
Read full commentary →Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil. accustomed: Heb. taught
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KJV Study Commentary
This verse uses powerful imagery for sin's fixedness: 'Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots?' Two rhetorical questions expect negative answer: the Ethiopian (Cushite) cannot change his dark skin; the leopard cannot remove its spots. These are fixed, inherent characteristics. 'Then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil.' The Hebrew limudei hara (לִמֻּדֵי הָרַע) ...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(23) **Can the Ethiopian . . .?**—Literally, *the Cushite. *The meaning of the question is obvious. The evil of Judah was too deep-ingrained to be capable of spontaneous reformation. There remained nothing but the sharp discipline of the exile. The invasion of Tirhakah and Pharaoh-nechoh, the presence of Ethiopians among the servants of the royal household (Jeremiah 38:10), the intercourse with th...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**8. be afraid--**literally, "be astounded," or "distracted with fear."
**from that time--**namely, from the time that "I appointed the ancient people" (Is 44:7). From the time of Abraham's call, his family were the depositories of the predictions of the Redeemer, whereas the promise of Cyrus was not heard of till Isaiah's time; therefore, the event to the prediction and accomplishment of which ...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 18-27** Here is a message sent to king Jehoiakim, and his queen. Their sorrows would be great indeed. Do they ask, Wherefore come these things upon us? Let them know, it is for their obstinacy in sin. We cannot alter the natural colour of the skin; and so is it morally impossible to reclaim and reform these people. Sin is the blackness of the soul; it is the discolouring of it; we were sh...
Read full commentary →Therefore will I scatter them as the stubble that passeth away by the wind of the wilderness.
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KJV Study Commentary
This verse announces scattering: 'Therefore will I scatter them as the stubble that passeth away by the wind of the wilderness.' 'Stubble' (qash) is the lightweight chaff left after threshing—blown away by wind. 'Wind of the wilderness' (ruach midbar) is the hot, dry desert wind that carries stubble away completely. Israel will be scattered (patsats) like worthless chaff, carried away by judgment'...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(24) **Stubble.**—Our English word means the “stalks of the corn left in the field by the reaper” (Johnson). The Hebrew word is applied to the broken straw left on the threshing-floor after the oxen had been driven over the corn, which was liable to be carried away by the first gale (Isaiah 40:24; Isaiah 41:2).
**The wind of the wilderness.**—i.e., the *simoom *blowing from the Arabian desert (Jer...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
9. (Is 40:18, 20; 41:29).
**delectable things--**the idols in which they take such pride and delight.
**not profit--**(Ha 2:18).
**they are their own witnesses--**contrasted with, "Ye are My witnesses" (Is 44:8). "They," that is, both the makers and the idols, are witnesses against themselves, for the idols palpably see and know nothing (Psa 115:4-8).
**that they may be ashamed--**the cons...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 18-27** Here is a message sent to king Jehoiakim, and his queen. Their sorrows would be great indeed. Do they ask, Wherefore come these things upon us? Let them know, it is for their obstinacy in sin. We cannot alter the natural colour of the skin; and so is it morally impossible to reclaim and reform these people. Sin is the blackness of the soul; it is the discolouring of it; we were sh...
Read full commentary →This is thy lot, the portion of thy measures from me, saith the LORD; because thou hast forgotten me, and trusted in falsehood.
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KJV Study Commentary
This verse confirms desert: 'This is thy lot, the portion of thy measures from me, saith the LORD.' 'Lot' (goral) is the portion assigned by lot—destiny, fate. 'Portion of thy measures' (menath middayikh) indicates the measured-out share. God assigns exile as Judah's deserved portion. 'Because thou hast forgotten me, and trusted in falsehood.' The Hebrew shakach (שָׁכַח, forget) and batach basheqe...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(25) **The portion of thy measures.**—The meaning of the latter word is doubtful, but it is probably used, as in 1Samuel 4:12; Leviticus 6:11; 2Samuel 20:8; Ruth 3:15, for the “upper garment” or “lap” of the dress. In this sense the phrase is connected with those which speak of reward or punishment being given men “into their bosom” (Jeremiah 32:18; Psalm 79:12; Proverbs 21:14).
**In falsehood.**—...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**10. Who ... ?--**Sarcastic question: "How debased the man must be who forms a god!" It is a contradiction in terms. A made god, worshipped by its maker (1Co 8:4)!
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 18-27** Here is a message sent to king Jehoiakim, and his queen. Their sorrows would be great indeed. Do they ask, Wherefore come these things upon us? Let them know, it is for their obstinacy in sin. We cannot alter the natural colour of the skin; and so is it morally impossible to reclaim and reform these people. Sin is the blackness of the soul; it is the discolouring of it; we were sh...
Read full commentary →Therefore will I discover thy skirts upon thy face, that thy shame may appear.
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KJV Study Commentary
This verse announces shameful exposure: 'Therefore will I discover thy skirts upon thy face, that thy shame may appear.' 'Discover thy skirts' (chasaphti shulayikh) means to expose what should be covered—lifting garments over the face to expose genitals. 'That thy shame may appear' (nir'ah qeloneikh) makes humiliation public. This was how captors treated conquered women—stripping and humiliating. ...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(26) **Therefore will I discover . . .**—The threat is substantially the same as that in Jeremiah 13:22. The form is verbally identical with that of Nahum 3:5.
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**11. his fellows--**the associates of him who makes an idol; or of the idol (see De 7:26; Psa 115:8; Ho 4:17).
**they are of men--**They are mortal men themselves; what better, then, can the idol be than its maker?
**gathered together ... stand up--**as in a court of justice, to try the issue between God and them (see on Is 41:1; Is 41:21).
**yet--**wrongly inserted in English Version. The ...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 18-27** Here is a message sent to king Jehoiakim, and his queen. Their sorrows would be great indeed. Do they ask, Wherefore come these things upon us? Let them know, it is for their obstinacy in sin. We cannot alter the natural colour of the skin; and so is it morally impossible to reclaim and reform these people. Sin is the blackness of the soul; it is the discolouring of it; we were sh...
Read full commentary →I have seen thine adulteries, and thy neighings, the lewdness of thy whoredom, and thine abominations on the hills in the fields. Woe unto thee, O Jerusalem! wilt thou not be made clean? when shall it once be? when: Heb. after when yet?
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KJV Study Commentary
This verse concludes with accusation: 'I have seen thine adulteries, and thy neighings, the lewdness of thy whoredom, and thine abominations on the hills in the fields.' 'Adulteries' (ni'uphayikh) represents spiritual unfaithfulness/idolatry. 'Neighings' (mitzhaloth) compares Israel to horses in heat, lustfully pursuing idols (compare 5:8). 'Lewdness' (zimmah) and 'whoredom' (zenuth) continue the ...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(27) **Thine adulteries.**—The words refer primarily to the spiritual adultery of the idolatries of Judah. The “neighings,” as in Jeremiah 2:24; Jeremiah 5:8, express the unbridled eagerness of animal passion transferred in this passage to the spiritual sin. The “abominations on the hills” are the orgiastic rites of the worship of the high places, which are further described as “in the field” to e...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**12. tongs--**rather, "prepareth (to be supplied) an axe," namely, with which to cut down the tree designed as the material of the idol. The "smith" (Hebrew, "workman in iron") here answers to the "carpenter" (Hebrew, "workman in wood"). "He worketh it (the axe, not the idol, which was wood, not metal) in the coals," &c. The axe was wrought, not cast. The smith makes the axe for the carpenter...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 18-27** Here is a message sent to king Jehoiakim, and his queen. Their sorrows would be great indeed. Do they ask, Wherefore come these things upon us? Let them know, it is for their obstinacy in sin. We cannot alter the natural colour of the skin; and so is it morally impossible to reclaim and reform these people. Sin is the blackness of the soul; it is the discolouring of it; we were sh...
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