Ver. 5. Declare ye in Judah.] As if the prophet should say, I do but lose my labour in calling upon you to mortify your corruptions and to cast away all your transgressions. Uncircumcised ye are in heart and ears, and so will be. Now therefore stand upon your guard against the approaching enemy, and defend yourselves, if at least you are able, from the evil that is coming upon you. Moat up yourselves against God’s fire. (Jeremiah 4:4)

Ver. 6. Set up the standard towards Zion.] All this seemeth to be ironically spoken. [as Jeremiah 4:5] For I will bring evil from the north,] i.e., From Babylon. Ab aquilone nihil boni. There is also another Babylon spoken of in the Revelation, which to the true Church hath of long time been lerna malorum; and so the poor persecuted Protestants in Poland feel at this day. Roma radix omnium malorum.

Ver. 7. The lion is come up from his thicket,] i.e., Nebuchadnezzar from Babylon, where he lieth safe, sicut leo in vepreto, and will shortly show himself for a mischief to many people, who shall feel his force and fierceness.

Ver. 8. For this, gird you with sackcloth.] Repent, if at least it be not too late, as the next words hint that now it was. For the fierce wrath of the Lord is not turned back from us.] Or, Because the fierce wrath of the Lord will not turn from us; it will have its full forth. See Zephaniah 2:2. [See Trapp on “Zec 2:2”]

Ver. 9. The heart of the king shall perish.] His courage shall be quailed, and he shall be strangely crestfallen. This was fulfilled in Zedekiah, who sought to save himself by flight, but could not.

Ver. 10. Surely thou hast greatly deceived this people,] sc., By those false prophets. (Jeremiah 4:9) Compare 1 Kings 18:22-29 Eze 14:9. This God doth as a just judge, punishing sin with sin. The words may be rendered as a question, “Hast thou indeed thus deceived this people?” Is it possible that thou shouldst have an active, or so much as a permissive, hand in such a business? Whenas the sword reacheth unto the soul,] i.e., To the heart, it goes as far as it can. Capulo tenus abdidit ensem. See Psalms 69:11.

Ver. 11. A dry wind of the high places.] Ventus urens et exsiccans, as the north wind is. Understand hereby the King of Babylon, [as Jeremiah 4:6] blasting and wasting all before him. Not to fan, nor to cleanse.] But to dissipate and destroy.

Ver. 12. Even a full wind from those places.] An impetuous and stiff wind, such as shall carry away chaff, and grain, and all. Now also will I give sentence against them.] Heb., Utter judgments with them— i.e., I will speak no more by my prophets, but by my judgments.

Ver. 13. Behold, he shall come up as clouds.] Swiftly and numerously. His horses are swifter than eagles.] Which, though the biggest of all fowls, yet fly with greatest speed. Woe unto us, for we are spoiled.] This he premiseth fitly to his exhortation to repentance; (Jeremiah 4:14) q.d., We are utterly undone, if repentance prevent not. “ Currat ergo paenitentia, ne praecurrat sententia. ”

Ver. 14. O Jerusalem, wash thine heart from wickedness.] Which defileth it worse than any leprosy, or jakes, doth the body. (Mark 7:19,20,23) Thy hands thou often washest, and other outward parts, placing therein no small religion, thou canst not wash them in innocence; wash them therefore in tears, and when thou hast so done, cry to God with Augustine, Lava lachrymas meas Domine: ipsae enim lachrymae sunt lachrymabiles; Wash my very tears, Lord, for they are lamentable ones. Beg of him to bathe thy soul in the blood of his Son, to wash thee thoroughly from thine iniquity, and to cleanse thee from thy sin. (Psalms 51:2) That thou mayest be saved,] i.e., Have safety here, and salvation hereafter. How long shall thy vain thoughts lodge within thee?] Heb., In the midst of thee, in the very heart of thee. Creep in they will, but why should they lodge there? why should the devil be at inn with us? be any man’s bedfellow, as he is the angry man’s? (Ephesians 4:26) David oft “communed with his own heart, and his spirit made diligent search” for such vagrants. (Psalms 77:6) Scopabam spiritum meum, so some render it, I swept out my spirit. Carnal hearts are stews of unclean thoughts, slaughter houses of cruel and bloody thoughts, exchanges and shops of vain and vile thoughts, a very forge and mint of false political undermining thoughts, yea, oft a little hell of confused and black imaginations. They had need therefore to be carefully cleansed, and kept with all custody. Grace beginneth at the centre, and from thence goeth to the circumference. God and nature begin at the heart; art begins with the face and outward lineaments; so doth hypocrisy at outward paintings and expressions; it cleanseth the outside of the cup and platter, when the inside is full of ravening and wickedness. (Luke 11:39) Frustra sunt lavamenta, ubi nulla est innocentia. -Oecol. Hic mora cogitationis redarguitur et eius adlubescentia. -Oecol. Vulgate.

Ver. 15. For a voice declareth from Dan.] Which was first called Laish, then Dan, and after that, in honour of Tiberius Caesar, Caesarea Philippi. It was the utmost bound of Israel northward; and therehence came a rumour of the enemy entering and making his first impression into the land, and so, by Mount Ephraim, to the Jews of Jerusalem. This Jeremiah, by a spirit of prophecy, foretelleth long before, against their vain confidence of better. And publisheth affliction.] The same Hebrew word signifieth vanity or iniquity in the verse aforegoing. Sin is the mother of misery and molestation. Joseph. Antiq., lib. xviii.

Ver. 16. Make ye mention to the nations,] i.e., To the Jews, who haply are called the nations, because once better accounted of than all nations. Thus the saints are called “All things,” (Colossians 1:18) and the Rabbis have a saying, that those seventy souls which came down to Egypt with Jacob, were more worth than all the seventy nations of the world besides. That watchers are come.] Nebuchadnezzar’s body guard, say some. Heb., Notserim — i.e., Nebuchadnezzarenes. Others give a better reason of the word from the next verse. And give out their voice against the cities of Judah.] While they invade them cum barritu militari, with a horrid and horrible noise, such as the Turks use today also when they set upon any city to storm it. Sicut a Caesare Caesariani, a Praetore Praetoriani.

Ver. 17. As keepers of a field, are they against her.] They have straitly besieged her, so that there is no escaping their hands.

Ver. 18. Thy way and thy doings have procured these things unto thee.] This is like as we use to say to our children when they have taken cold or got any harm, This is your gadding and dabbling in the dirt, your going in the snow, your eating of fruit, &c. This is thy wickedness,] i.e., Merces malitlae; the wages of thy wickedness, the fruit of thy folly. Because it is bitter.] Thou hast given God a bitter pill, as it were, that went to his heart; and now he hath given thee as bitter a potion, that reacheth unto thine heart.

Ver. 19. My bowels, my bowels!] So, “My head, my head”; (2 Kings 4:19) “My leanness, my leanness.” (Isaiah 24:16) Thus the prophet here, to express his inexpressible grief for the calamities of his people. I am pained.] As a woman in travail; Doleo instar parturientis. At the very heart.] Heb., At the walls of my heart; scil., to see, in spirit, the city walls surprised. My heart maketh a noise in me.] Saltitat et palpitat, ut in pavidis et perculsis fieri solet, leaps and throbs. I cannot hold my peace.] Heb., I will not. Because thou hast heard,] i.e., I have heard in the spirit, and am affected with it, as if already come.

Ver. 20. Destruction upon destruction.] Fluctus fluctum trudit; one mischief upon another, the sword after famine, captivity after a siege. For the whole land is spoiled.] Or, Plundered; which word we first heard of in the Swedish wars.

Ver. 21. How long shall I see the standard?] Sad sights and doleful ditties are common in times of war. And hear the sound of the trumpet.] Tubam turbamque hostiurn.

Ver. 22. For my people is foolish, they have not known me.] To know and to worship God aright, is the only true wisdom, saith Lactantius. They are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge.] In terrenis lyncei, in caelestibus talpae. Wise the wicked are in their generation, subtle and sly; but so is the serpent, or the fox. The swine that wandereth can make better shift to get home than the sheep can to the fold. They have received “the spirit of this world”; (1 Corinthians 2:12) the devil also worketh effectually in them, as a smith in his forge. (Ephesians 2:2) Hence they are “wise to do evil.” Elymas was a sorcerer, subtle fellow, but the devil’s child, and so the more dangerous. (Acts 13:10) Magnum ingenium et magna tentatio, saith Vincentius Lirinensis, concerning Origen, who had a great wit, but proved a great scandal to the Church. The devil covets to be adorned by thee, said Augustine to one that was wittily wicked. Surely as jet gathereth dross and refuse things to itself, but lets go gold and precious things; so do the world’s wizards. Lib. iii. cap. 30.

Ver. 23. I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was without form, and void.] Tohu vabohit [as Genesis 1:2] sightless and shapeless. Sermo est hyperbolicus, all was in a confusion. What shall it, then, be at the last day?

Ver. 24. I beheld the mountains, and, lo, they trembled.] War is a woe that no words, how wide soever, can sufficiently utter. And all the hills moved lightly.] As being lightened of their burden, saith a Rabbi, trees and houses.

Ver. 25. I beheld, and, lo, there was no man.] But all killed, captived, or fled. Judaea lay utterly waste for seventy years; insomuch that after the slaughter of Gedaliah, when all, men, women, and children, fled into Egypt, there was not a Jew left in the country. And all the birds of the heavens were fled.] Birds were given men for food, medicine, and delight, as companions of his life; therefore it is reckoned, both here and Jeremiah 9:10, as a judgment to lose them.

Ver. 26. At the presence of the Lord, &c.] Who was the chief agent; as Titus the Roman emperor also acknowledged after be had destroyed Jerusalem: Non se id fecisse dixit, sed Deo iram suam declaranti manus suas accommodasse; he said it was not he that had done it, but that he had only lent his hands to God, justly displeased at that nation. Suidas.

Ver. 27. Yet I will not make a full end.] God kept the room empty all those seventy years, till the return of the natives.

Ver. 28. Because I have spoken it, &c.] Quod scrips; scrips, said Pilate, I will not alter it. See the like, Ezekiel 24:13,14.

Ver. 29. Every city shall be forsaken.] See Jeremiah 4:25.

Ver. 30. Though thou rendest thy face with paint.] Jezebel-like, (2 Kings 9:30 Ezekiel 23:40) In vain shalt thou make thyself fair,] i.e., Seek to ingratiate with the Chaldees, by submitting to them, and worshipping their idols. Thy lovers will despise thee.] As an old withered strumpet, and now out of date. See Ezekiel 16:36 23:22.

Ver. 31. As of her that bringeth forth her first child.] Primiparae: such have greatest pains, and least patience oft. For my soul is wearied because of murderers.] Once her paramours, her sweethearts. There is nothing got by comporting with idolaters. The Duke of Medina’s sword knew no difference between Papists and Protestants in 1588, and that they should have found had the Spaniard then prevailed.

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