Ver. 1. Now these are the words of the letter.] Heb., Of the book. It is taken for any manner of writing, whether longer, as a book, or shorter, as a letter, an epistle, cuius ornamentum est ornamentis carere, saith Politian; the two chief commendations whereof, say others, are shortness and plainness. Here we have both, and should therefore highly prize it, not as apocryphal Baruch’s letter, but as parcel of holy writ, worthy of all acceptation. Which were carried away captive.] And longed for deliverance; but are advised to have patience, and not to antedate the promises, which in their due time should be accomplished. As till then obediendum est etiam dyscolis, obedience must be yielded to the Babylonians, now their masters, and “not only to the good and gentle, but also to the froward; for this is thankworthy.” (1 Peter 2:18)
Ver. 2. After that Jeconiah the king, and the queen, and the eunuchs.] Angusta et eunuchi. These eunuchs were chamberlains to queens; but not always so bold with them as Stephen the Persian presumed to be with the queen mother of the emperor Justinian II: quam flagellis sicuti servam castigavit whom he corrceted with a whip just as a servant. See Jeremiah 24:1,2. Func.
Ver. 3. By the hand of Elasah the son of Shaphan, &c.] Zedekiah, having heard by Hananiah the prophet, that within two full years Jeconiah and the captives should come back to Jerusalem, and knowing that if that should be so, he must give place and part with his royal dignity, sendeth an embassy to Nebuchadnezzar to show his obsequiousness, and is content that his messenger should carry Jeremiah’s letters (of whom, haply, he had a better conceit after the death of Hananiah) to those of the captivity, to persuade them to live quietly in Babylon, and not yet to think of returning to his disturbance. Calvin.
Ver. 4. Thus saith the Lord of hosts.] It was God, then, that dictated this letter to the prophet; neither is it of private, that is, of human interpretation, but the holy man wrote it as he was moved thereunto by the Holy Ghost. (2 Peter 1:20,21)
Ver. 5. Build ye houses, and dwell in them.] Mitigate the extremity of your captivity, which is likely to be long, by all honest means. Levius fit patientia quicquid corrigere est nefas; patience, as a paring knife, cutteth the cross less and less till it comes to nothing. It teacheth a man, in case he cannot bring his estate to his mind, to bring his mind to his estate, and that is as well; but impatiens quisque bis affligitur; the bullock under the yoke gets nothing by wriggling but galling.
Ver. 6. Take ye wives, and beget sons.] First get ye houses and gardens, and then take wives. So in the last commandment house is set before wife; and nature teacheth the birds to build their nests before they come together for copulation.
Ver. 7. And seek the peace of the city.] Do not tumultuate or seek to break prison, as those seedsmen of sedition, your false prophets, would persuade you, but frame to a peaceable and patient behaviour. “In returning and rest shall ye be saved, in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength” (Isaiah 30:15) And pray unto God for it,] sc., That in it you may “lead a peaceable and quiet life, in all godliness and honesty.” (1 Timothy 2:2) Christians should improve their waiting months upon the King of saints, to pray for kings and all that are in authority, though to them they had been tyrants, since it seemeth good to God that they should live under them. The Dutch have a proverb, “ Arbor honoretur, cuius nos umbra tuetur. ”
Ver. 8. Let not your prophets and your diviners.] Your deceivers, indeed, which were also in Babylon as well as at Jerusalem; for all places are full of them, aud so is hell too. But “beware of these dogs, beware of evil workers”; (Philippians 3:2) three of them, the most active, no doubt, are here noted and noticed (Jeremiah 29:21,23) with a charge in this text, Ne committitote ut decipiant vos; see that they deceive you not. The body should be kept, say physicians, in habitu athletico, in a vigorous and healthy temper, able to oppose infections. Think the same of the soul. Neither hearken to your dreams.] “Yours,” because you itch after them, listen to them, pay dearly for them.
Ver. 9. For they prophesy falsely.] As Jeremiah 27:15 28:15.
Ver. 10. For thus saith the Lord.] Or, But this hath the Lord said, whatever these impostors say to the contrary. Set truth against falsehood, and it will silence it, like as if a lamp be hanged over a ditch where frogs are croaking, they are forthwith hushed and made quiet.
Ver. 11. For I know the thoughts that I think.] God’s thoughts run upon his children, the children of affliction especially, as a father’s do upon his dear children. Omnis in Ascanio, &c. To give you an expected end.] Heb., An end and expectation— i.e., An end of evils past, and expectation of better for the future.
Ver. 12. Then shall ye call upon me.] With mind and mouth, with spirit and speech, as Daniel did, (Daniel 9:3) and as but few others did, during the captivity, as is confessed. (Daniel 9:13) And go and pray unto me.] Go into your closets, or other oratories, where you shall pour out your hearts unto me. And I will hearken unto you.] Which shall be a surer seal of my love than your return from Babylon.
Ver. 13. When ye shall search for me with all your heart.] Not with a piece of your heart only, as do partialists and double minded men, qui in parabola ovis capras quaerunt. who search for a nanny goat instaed of sheep. Johannes Groppcrus, of Colen, refused a cardinalship, but forsook the gospel. So Luther did not, who, when he was offered to be cardinal if he would be quiet, replied, No, not if I might be Pope. Sleidan.
Ver. 14. And I will be found of you.] The best ευρημα. See Psalms 32:6 Isa 55:6 65:1. And I will gather you.] As my scattered jewels. See Jeremiah 13:7 24:6.
Ver. 15. Because ye have said.] From the heirs of the promises he turneth his speech to others, qui praesumendo sperant, et sperando pereunt.
Ver. 16. Know that thus saith the Lord.] Or, Therefore thus saith the Lord, whatever ye say, or your counterfeit prophets say, to the contrary.
Ver. 17. Behold, I will send upon them.] Jeremiah 24:10 27:8. And will make them like vile figs.] See Jeremiah 24:8.
Ver. 18. And will deliver them to be removed.] See Jeremiah 15:4 24:9.
Ver. 19. Because they have not hearkened.] See Jeremiah 7:23,26 11:7,8 13:11 17:23 25:4.
Ver. 20. Hear ye, therefore.] Or, Hear ye also; ye who have lost the fruit of your afflictions, and are little the better for your being so long in the iron furnace.
Ver. 21. Thus saith the Lord…of Ahab the son of Kolaiah.] These two—though not the two elders that assaulted Susanna, as some have fabled—are singled out, as arch-imposters and filthy adulterers, to be exemplarily punished; to whom also is added Shemaiah the Nehelamite. (Jeremiah 29:24) And he shall slay them before your eyes.] Vide autem iustam poenam martyrum diaboli, saith Oecolampadius. See here the just punishment of the devil’s martyrs: this evil couple had prophesied, like, the destruction of Babylon, bade the Jews put themselves in a posture to return home, promised to conduct them to Jerusalem, played many lewd pranks besides, and were therefore worthily put to a cruel death by Nebuchadnezzar, in the presence of their friends and followers.
Ver. 22. And of them shall be taken up a curse.] They had blessed themselves, though the Lord abhorred them, and sought to set up themselves in the hearts of the people, being gloriae animalia, popularis aurae vilissima mancipia, as Jerome saith of Crates the philosopher; they shall therefore “leave their names for a curse.” [as Isaiah 65:15] Whom the king of Babylon roasted in the fire.] Burnt them with a soft slow fire, as the Papists did John Huss, Bishop Ridley, and many other innocent martyrs; but should do rather these filthy Gergesites, their monks and friars, of whom it went for a proverb in Germany, as Luther witnesseth, Whosoever seeth any one of them, seeth the seven deadly sins.
Ver. 23. Because they have committed adultery with their neighbours’ wives.] As did Eli’s sons, (1 Samuel 2:22) those false prophets also at Jerusalem, (Jeremiah 23:14) Hetser, the great Anabaptist in Germany, who yet died penitently, and as do still the Imailers, an order of religious men among the Turks, who call them the religious brothers of love, and the Brahmins, successors to the Brachmanni, among the Indians, who are extremely impure and libidinous, claiming the first night’s lodging of every bride, &c., having nothing of a man but the voice and shape, and yet these are their priests. Even I know, and am a witness, saith the Lord.] Let them carry their villany never so cleanly and closely, with their si non caste, saltem caute, yet I know all, am now an eyewitness, and will be one day a swift witness against them. Utinam animadverterent haec principes, et ille qui non in sede Petri sed in prostibulo Priapi Lampsaceni sedens fornieationes tegit, sancta coniuga vetat, mera sorenia vendit, et Dei oculos claudit, saith one. Scultet. Annal. Turk. Hist., 477. Heyl., Cosmog.
Ver. 24. Thus shalt thou also speak to Shemaiah the Nehelamite.] Or, Dreamer, dream wright, enthusiast; such as were the Messalanian heretics of old, and some of the same stamp, loaves of the same leaven, today.
Ver. 25. Because thou hast sent letters in thy name.] Such as Sadoletus, a Popish bishop, sent to Geneva in Calvin’s absence, to bring them back again to the obedience of the see of Rome; and as we have many from the Romish factors sent hither, to the seducing of not a few, a subtle and shrewd way of deceiving the simple. And to Zephaniah.] The second under the high priest Seraiah, and successor likely to that Pashur (Jeremiah 20:1) who was deposed for some misdemeanour, like as Dr Weston was here in Queen Mary’s days, put by all his Church dignities for being taken in bed with a harlot. Of this Zephaniah, see 2 Kings 25:18, his office was to judge of prophecies, and to punish such as he found to be false prophets. And to all the priests.] Who were much too forward of themselves to bandy against God’s true prophets, (Jeremiah 26:8) and did as little need by letter to be excited thereunto, as Bishop Bonner did to be stirred up to persecute Protestants; and yet to him were letters sent from King Philip and Queen Mary, complaining that heretics were not so reformed as they should be, and exhorting him to more diligence, &c. Acts and Mon. Clarke’s Martyrol., 136.
Ver. 26. The Lord hath made thee priest instead of Jehoiada the priest.] That heroic reformer in the days of Joash (2 Kings 11:4,17) Therefore, as he did by Mattan the Baalite, so do thou by Jeremiah the Anathothite. But neither was Zephaniah a Jehoiada, nor Jeremiah a Mattan. Shemaiah himself was more like a Baalite, and better deserved that punishment which shortly after also befell him, as was foretold. (Jeremiah 29:32) A hot spirited man he was, and a firebrand, being therefore the more dangerous. He also seemed to himself to be so much the more holy, by how much the prophet whom he set against was more famous for his holiness. For every one that is mad.] Maniacus, arreptitius, fanaticus; so God’s zealous servants have always been esteemed by the mad world, ever beside itself in point of salvation. See 2 Kings 9:11 Ac 26:24 Jer 43:2. That thou shouldest put him in prison.] As Jeremiah 20:2.
Ver. 27. Now, therefore, why hast thou not reproved?] Or, Restrained Jeremiah? Alas! what had the righteous prophet done? He taxed their sin, he foretold their captivity; he desired it not, he inflicted it not, yet he must smart, and they are guilty. Zephaniah also is here blamed for his lenity, as bloody Bonner once was by the rest of the Popish bishops, who made him their slaughter slave.
Ver. 28. For therefore he sent to us in Babylon.] And is this all the thank he hath for his friendly counsel? Haec est merces mundi. This is the recompence of the world.
Ver. 29. And Zephaniah the priest read this letter.] For ill will, likely, and with exprobation. Ubi insignis elucit Dei tutela, saith an interpreter, where we may see a sweet providence of God in preserving his prophet from the rage and violence of the people so incensed.
Ver. 30. Then came the word of the Lord.] Or, Therefore came, &c. In the five former verses we had narrationem causae, an account of the reasons Shemaiah’s crime; in these three last, we have dictionem sententiae, the prediction of the sentence Shemaiah’s doom.
Ver. 31. Send to all them of the captivity.] Send the second time; let not so good a cause be deserted. Vincet aliquando pertinax bonitas, Truth will take place at length. Because Shemaiah hath prophesied unto you.] He hath rewarded evil thereby to himself, and to his seed after him; his posterity shall rue for it, saith Jeremiah, who was irrefracti plane animi orator, a man of an invincible courage, and might better have been called Doctor resolutus, than was afterwards Bacon the Carmelite.
Ver. 32. Behold, I will punish Shemaiah, and his seed.] As being part of his goods, and walking likely in his evil ways. He shall not have a man to dwell among this people,] viz., At the return from Babylon; but both he and his shall perish in this banishment, which he prophesied should be shortly at an end, but shall prove it otherwise. See the like, Amos 7:17. Neither shall he see the good.] He nor any of his. See the like threatened to that unbelieving prince, 2 Kings 7:2. Because he hath taught rebellion against the Lord.] So Jeremiah 28:16 Jer 23:27 Mt 5:19. To be tuba rebellionis trumpet of rebellion is no small fault. Luther was so secundum dici, sed non secundum esse; so may the best be; but let not the sins of teachers be teachers of sins, &c.