Jeremiah 36

Jeremiah 36:2

Ye - Ye Babylonians, go execute my vengeance on them. Battlements - Lay her and all her fortifications level with the ground. For - I disown them.

Jeremiah 36:4

Belied - Not believing that these words of the prophet were God’s word.

Jeremiah 36:5

Became wind - A proverbial expression, all the prophet’s threats shall come to nothing. The word - The prophet’s words are not from God. Thus - It shall fall upon their own heads that have thus threatened us.

Jeremiah 36:6

It - The Chaldean army, shall consume and eat them up like fire.

Jeremiah 36:7

Israel - By these are meant Judah; for Israel were in captivity before: called the house of Israel, not only because they descended from Jacob, but because they were the chief of that stock.

Jeremiah 36:10

Nevertheless - I have not done with you yet.

Jeremiah 36:12

Judah - By Judah and Jacob we are to understand the two tribes only.

Jeremiah 36:13

And hear not - They are wilfully blind, and obstinately deaf, will neither see, nor hear the word, will, or works of God, of which he giveth two instances in the two following verses.

Jeremiah 36:14

The sand - That need not make rocks for walls unto it, but can give a check to it by so small a matter as the sand.

Jeremiah 36:15

Gone - From me.

Jeremiah 36:16

The former rain - The former to prepare the ground for sowing, and the latter to prepare the corn for ripening. Reserveth - He gives seasonable harvests according to his appointment. God would let them know what a foolish, as well as wicked thing it is to set themselves against that God, that keeps the whole order of nature at his own disposal, which he can order as he sees men behave towards him.

Jeremiah 36:18

They catch - Such a trap did Jezebel lay for Naboth, 1 Kings 21:9,10. Such an one was that conspiracy of more than forty men against Paul, Acts 23:13 - 15.

Jeremiah 36:19

Their houses - They fill their houses with the goods of those they deceive, and over - reach.

Jeremiah 36:20

Overpass - They go beyond the Heathens themselves in wickedness.

Jeremiah 36:22

The land - Heb. This land: aggravating the greatness of the wonder, that such a thing should be in such a land.

Jeremiah 36:25

Benjamin - Judah, when the ten tribes fell off, the tribe of Benjamin adhered to Judah, and was incorporated into them; if it be asked why the prophet rather speaks to Benjamin than to Judah, the reason probably may be, because he being of Anathoth was of that tribe, and therefore mentions them as his own countrymen. Gather - Gather yourselves together by the sound of the trumpet at Tekoa, one of those fenced cities twelve miles from Jerusalem that Rehoboam built. A sign - Fire a beacon. Beth - haccerem - Signifies the house of the vineyard, probably some high tower built among the vineyards for the keepers of them to watch them.

Jeremiah 36:27

The shepherds - The Chaldean princes, with their armies, as so many flocks, shall come into this pleasant land. In his place - Each one in his quarter or station.

Jeremiah 36:28

Prepare - These seem to be the words of God calling them to this work. Arise - This shews how ready they will be to obey God’s call. The day goeth - We delay, and tarry too long, and the day spends apace. The shadows - They were so eagerly set upon it, that they watched the lengthening of the shadow, which shews the approach of the evening.

Jeremiah 36:29

This night - They would lose neither day nor night; which shews that, they were extraordinarily stirred up by God in this expedition.

Jeremiah 36:30

Said - To the Chaldeans: God would have the Jews to know, that they have not so much to do with the Chaldeans as with him; that they are his rod to scourge them for their sins. And thus God is said to hiss for such whom he will employ in such work, Isaiah 5:26 7:18. And he styles himself the Lord of hosts, to shew that it is in vain to contend in battle with them, whom he sends forth. Trees - Such as you may have need of to raise up works against the strong places. Cast a mount - Throw up one continued trench, as a mount round about it. Oppression - There are found in her all kinds of oppression and injustice.

Jeremiah 36:32

Be thou instructed - I would yet willingly spare them if it might be. Depart - Heb. be disjointed, a most emphatical metaphor, whereby God would express how great grief it is to him to withdraw himself from them, even like the separating one limb from another.