Ver. 1. Go, get thee a linen girdle.] Or, Belt, or swath. And put it not in water.] Or, Lye, to wash it or whiten it; but take it as it is first made, Ut sorditiem magis contrahat, to show, say some, that the Jewish nation, when first chosen, was black by sin and nothing amiable; better skilled and exercised in making mortar and bricks in Egypt than in the worship of God and in good manners. Or put it not in water,] i.e., Keep it from being rotted, as a type of God’s care of, and kindness to, that people.
Ver. 2. So I got a girdle.] God is to be obeyed readily, and without questioning.
Ver. 3. And the word of the Lord came to me.] Heb., Was to me. “At sundry times,” or piecemeal, God spake to his servants the prophets. (Hebrews 1:1) πολυμερως per gradus et momenta, non simul et semel.
Ver. 4. Arise, go to Euphrates.] A river which ran by Babylon, six hundred and fourscore miles from Jerusalem. The prophet’s journey therefore thither seemeth to have been but visional, as was Isaiah’s going barefoot, Hosea’s marriage with a whore, Ezekiel’s lying on one side three hundred and ninety days together; his journey from Chaldea to Jerusalem. (Ezekiel 8:3,4)
Ver. 5. So I went and hid it by Euphrates.] In the cliff of a rock, where it might lie dry, never once asking the reason. This was simple and acceptable obedience, far beyond that of the Popish novices, who yet if their padres or superiors send them to China or Peru, without dispute or delay they do presently set forward.
Ver. 6. And it came to pass after many days.] See on Jeremiah 13:3.
Ver. 7. Then I went to Euphrates.] See on Jeremiah 13:4. Those that are for an actual journey allege that Jeremiah might do this without danger in the days of Jehoiakim, who was the King of Babylon’s vassal, and paid him tribute. And, behold, the girdle was rotted, it was profitable for nothing.] This showed that the Jews should in that country lie rotting, as it were, in baseness, and servility, and sin together many years, so that God might justly have left them there still in misery, as a man leaves his rotten girdle to become dung.
Ver. 8. Then the word, &c.] Adaptat simile. fit simile, See Jeremiah 13:3.
Ver. 9. After this manner will I mar the pride.] Their pomp and power, wherein they pride themselves.
Ver. 10. This evil people.] Populus ille pessimus; these Poneropolitans, who are naught all over, nequitia cooperti. Walk in the imagination of their heart.] See Jeremiah 9:13 11:8.
Ver. 11. So have I caused to cleave unto me.] For nearness and dearness; the loins are the seat of strongest desires and affections. And for a name and for a praise.] That I might be magnified and glorified in them, and for them also, among other nations.
Ver. 12. Therefore.] Or, Moreover. Thou shalt speak unto them this word.] This other paradigm or parable; an excellent way of teaching, and much used in both Testaments. Every bottle shall be filled with wine.] Wine they loved well, and a great vintage they now expected. They shall have it, saith God; but of another nature than they look for. Their heads (not altogether unlike bottles for roundness and emptiness of all good) shall be filled with a dry drunkenness, even with errors and terrors, a spirit of giddiness, &c. Do we not certainly know? &c.] This they seem to speak insolently and jeeringly— q.d., you should tell us some news.
Ver. 13. Behold, I will fill.] Heb., Lo, I am filling; but the liquor is such as whereof you shall have small joy. See Jeremiah 13:12.
Ver. 14. And I will dash them one against another.] As so many earthen bottles, brittle and soon broken. Si collidimur frangimur, If smashed and broken said those in the fable.
Ver. 15. Hear, and give ear.] Or, Hear and hearken, be not naughty. Here the prophet calleth upon them again to repent, and to that end to listen diligently, and to lay aside the highness of their hearts and the stoutness of their stomachs, since it is the Lord that speaketh. “The lion roareth; who can but fear?” (Amos 3:8) Repentance is the Removens prohibens, as being founded in humility, and wrought by the word preached. (Jonah 3:4-10 Acts 2:37-41)
Ver. 16. Give glory to the Lord your God.] Confess your sins; (Joshua 7:19) one part of repentance put for the whole. Jeremiah was as constant a preacher of repentance, as Paul, and after him Augustine, were of the free grace of God. The impenitent person robbeth God of his right; the penitent man sarcit iniuriam Deo irrogatam, seemeth to make some kind of amends to God, whom he had wronged, by restoring him his glory, which he had run away with, while he putteth himself into the hands of justice, in hope of mercy. Before he cause darkness,] scil., Of calamity and captivity. Currat poenitentia, ne praecurrat sententia. Before your feet stumble.] So, before ye fall upon the dark and dangerous crags and precipices of eternal perdition. Which, to prevent, work while the light lasteth; walk while it is yet day. Modestissima explicatio infaelicitatis.
Ver. 17. My soul shall weep in secret places.] Good men are apt to weep, Et faciles motus mens generosa capit. Good ministers should be full of compassionate tears, weeping in secret for their people’s unprofitableness, and their danger thereby. The breast and right shoulder of the sacrifice belonged to the priest, to show that he should be a breast to love, and a shoulder to support the people in their troubles and burdens.
Ver. 18. Say to the king and to the queen.] Or Madam, the lady or mistress; that is, to the queen regent, even to Necustah, the mother of Jeconiah, say the Jews. When Beza, in the behalf of the reformed churches in France, made a speech at Possiacum before the young king and the queen mother, he spake so effectually, saith Rivet, that a great cardinal who heard it wished that either he had been dumb that day, or that they had all been deaf. This king and queen in the text might be as much convinced, though not thoroughly converted. Humble yourselves, sit down.] Heb., Humble, sit below. For your principalities.] Or, Your head attires. The crown of your glory.] Or, Your crown of glory; that is, your glorious crown, of which you shall have cause enough to say, as Antigonus did of his diadem, O vilis pannus, &c. Or, as another monarch, “ Nobilis es, fateor, rutilisque onerata lapillis, Innumeris curis sod comitata venis: Quod bene si nossent omnes expendere, nemo, Nemo foret quite tollere vellet humo.”
Ver. 19. The cities of the south shall be shut up,] i.e., The cities of Egypt, whither ye think to flee, shall be shut up against you, through fear of the Chaldees.
Ver. 20. Lift up your eyes, &c.] Still he bespeaketh the king and the queen. Where is the flock that was given thee?] Thee, O queen regent (for the pronoun is feminine), or thee, O state; Redde, Vare, legiones, said Augustus, bewailing the loss of so many gallant soldiers in Germany, under the command of Varus, who was there also slain. Thy beautiful flock.] Heb., Thy flock of goodliness. See Proverbs 14:28. [See Trapp on “Pr 14:28”]
Ver. 21. For thou hast taught them to be captains, and as chief over thee,] scil., By thy crouching unto them, and craving their help, thou hast made the Chaldeans masters of all thou hast. So did the British princes Vortiger and Vortimer bring in the Saxons here, and the Greeks the Turks.
Ver. 22. Are thy skirts discovered.] Thou art brought to most miserable shame and servitude, having scarce a rag to thy back, or a shoe for thy foot.
Ver. 23. Can the Ethiopian change his skin?] Proverbial speeches arguing a very great difficulty, if not an utter impossibility, Aethiopem abluo ut candidum reddam, said Diogenes, when he reproved an ill man to no purpose; I do but wash a blackamore. And the like said Nazianzen concerning Julian the apostate. It is said that the negroes paint the devil white, as being a colour contrary to their own, and which they less well affect. Will the Ethiopian change his skin? so the Hebrew hath it. Or the leopard his spots.] Sin is in us as the spots of a leopard, not by accident, but by nature, which no art can cure, no water wash off; because they are not in the skin, but in the flesh and bones, in the sinews and in the most inner parts. Where then is man’s freewill to good? &c. Then may ye also do good that are accustomed to do evil.] Custom in sin takes away the sense of it, and becomes a second nature; which, though expelled with a fork, as it were, will yet return again. It looks for continual entertainment where it hath once gotten a haunt, as humours fall toward their old issue. Canis qui semel didicerit edere corium, nunquam desistet, A dog who at times learns to eat flesh, will never stop, saith Lucian; an evil custom is not easy left. Nothing so weak as water; yet let much water (so sin, Satan, and custom) be joined together, and nothing stronger. It was not for nothing, therefore, that the Cretans, when they would curse their enemies with most bitter execrations, they wished that they might take delight in some or other evil custom. Modestoque voti genere efficacissimum ultionis genus reperiunt, saith the historian; by a modest kind of wish they sufficiently avenged themselves. Val. Max.
Ver. 24. Therefore I will scatter them.] This was no small aggravation of their misery, that they should be thus severed one from another. So the persecutors of the primitive times relegated and confined the poor Christians to isles and mines, where they could not have access one to another for mutual comfort and support, as Cyprian complaineth. Cyprian. Epist.
Ver. 25. This is thy lot.] Look for no better, since thou, by going after lying vanities, forsakest thine own mercies, being miserable by thine own election. Because thou hast forgotten me.] “ Esque oblita mei; vitiorumque oblita caeno. ”
Ver. 26. Therefore I will discover thy skirts.] Since thou hast discovered and prostituted thyseff to other lovers, I will shame thee before all men.
Ver. 27. Woe unto thee, O Jerusalem! wilt thou not be made clean?] He closeth with this emphatic and most affectionate contestation, pressing them to hearty and speedy repentance, as he had done oft before, but with little good success. The cock crowed, though Peter still denied his Master. Peter knocked still, though Rhoda opened not to him. He launched out into the deep, though he had laboured all night for nothing. So did good Jeremiah here, in obedience to God, and goodwill to his unworthy countrymen.