John Calvin: Commentary on Jeremiah and Lamentations - Volume 3

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Jeremiah 23:40

40. And I will bring an everlasting reproach upon you, and a perpetual shame, which shall not be forgotten.

40. Et ponam super vos opprobrium aeternum, et opprobria (est quidem aliud verbum, dedecora) aeterna, quod oblivioni non tradetur (potest referri ad utrunque membrum: nam in plurali numero ponit כלמות, ¹²¹¹²¹     It is singular in three MSS., and in all the early Versions, and the Targum; and the verb which follows requires it to be so, —
   40. And I will bring on you a perpetual reproach, And a perpetual shame, which shall not be forgotten.
   The word for “shame” is stronger than that for “reproach,” as Parkhurst tells us; but shame is the feeling, and is rendered sometimes confusion, and reproach is what is outwardly disgraceful. The Sept. and Vulg. have reproach and disgrace, by which the distinction is not marked. The reproach or disgrace was to be such as to create such a shame as would never be forgotten. The outward reproach is mentioned first, and then the shame that it would occasion. — Ed et postea addit verbum singulare, oblivioni non tradetur; sed potest, quemadmodum dixi, hoc extendi ad totum complexum.

What is here contained is, that though the Jews justly gloried for a time in being the peculiar people of God, yet this would avail them nothing, as they had divested themselves of that honor in which they had excelled, by the abnegation of true religion. Here then the Prophet strips the Jews of that foolish boasting with which they were inflated when they said that they were the people of God, and threatens that God having taken away their glory would make them lie under perpetual shame.

We at the same time know, that such threatenings are to be restricted as to time, they extend only to the coming of Christ; for the Church of God could not have been doomed to eternal reproach. But as to hypocrites, as there was no repentance, so they never obtained pardon; but God delivered his own from eternal reproach when Christ the Redeemer appeared; yet these words are to be understood as rightly addressed to the ungodly despisers of God. Now follows, —

¹²¹     It is singular in three MSS., and in all the early Versions, and the Targum; and the verb which follows requires it to be so, —
   40. And I will bring on you a perpetual reproach, And a perpetual shame, which shall not be forgotten.
   The word for “shame” is stronger than that for “reproach,” as Parkhurst tells us; but shame is the feeling, and is rendered sometimes confusion, and reproach is what is outwardly disgraceful. The Sept. and Vulg. have reproach and disgrace, by which the distinction is not marked. The reproach or disgrace was to be such as to create such a shame as would never be forgotten. The outward reproach is mentioned first, and then the shame that it would occasion. — Ed

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Jeremiah 23:40

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