Jeremiah 2:19 | |
19. Thine own wickedness shall correct thee, and thy backslidings shall reprove thee: know therefore, and see, that it is an evil thing and bitter, that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God, and that my fear is not in thee, saith the Lord God of hosts, | 19. Castigabit to malitia tua, et aversiones tuae, (vel, defectiones tuae) poenam de to exigent; et cognosces et scies, quod malum et amarum tuum derelinquere (ad verbum, hoc est, quod reliqueris) Jehovam Deum tuum, et quod timor meus super to non fuerit, dixit Dominus Jehova exeercitum. |
Here again, the Prophet confirms what I have before stated, -- that the people would at length find, willing or unwilling, what it was to deport from God; as though he had said, "As thou hast not hitherto learnt by so many evidences, that thy perfidy is the cause of all thy evils, God will heap evils on evils, that thou mayest at length know, even against thy will, that thou receivest, a reward due to thy wickedness." This is the sum of the whole.
But he says first, chastise
"Stand;" he says, "against thee shall thy wickedness,"
(Isaiah 3:9; Isaiah 59:12)
as though God had said, "If I were even to be silent and not to take upon me the office of a judge, and if there were no other accuser, and no one to plead the cause, yet stand against thee will thy wickedness, and fill thee with shame." To the same purpose is what is said here,
But we must consider the reason why the Prophet said this. There were then, we know, complaints in the mouths of many, -- that God was too rigid and severe. Since then they thus continually clamored against God; the Prophet repels such calumnies, and says that their wickedness was sufficient to account for the vengeance executed upon them. He says the same of their
He afterwards adds,
He says,
And afterwards the person is changed,
PRAYER
Grant, Almighty God, that as thou hast hitherto shewn to us so many favors, since the time thou hast been pleased to adopt us as thy people, -- O grant, that we may not forget so great a kindness, nor be led away by the allurements of Satan, nor seek for ourselves inventions, which may at length turn to our ruin; but that we may continue fixed in our obedience to thee, and daily call on thee, and drink of the fullness of thy bounty, and at the same time strive to serve thee from the heart, and to glorify thy name, and thus to prove that we are wholly devoted to thee, according to the great obligations under which thou hast laid us, when it had pleased thee to adopt us in thine only -- begotten Son. -- Amen.
1 Blarney renders it "adversity." That the word sometimes means that, is true, but most commonly wickedness; and this is the sense required by the context: it must be that which corresponds in character with the word that follows-apostasy, or turning aside. " Wickedness" is the meaning sanctioned by all the early versions, as well as modern.-Ed.
2 The word is singular in all the early versions. It is rendered "apostasy-
3 The verse literally is as follows,-
19.Chastise thee shall thy wickedness, And thy apostasy, it shall correct thee; Know then and see, That evil and bitter shall be Thy forsaking of Jehovah thy God; And my fear is not in thee, Saith the Lord, Jehovah of hosts.
The future is spoken of. They were warned; they were to know and see, or consider, that the forsaking of God, "the apostasy," would be afflictive and bitter: and then the cause of the "wickedness" first mentioned is stated, no "fear" of God. How "wickedness" was to chastise them, and "apostasy" to correct them, is signified,-they would turn out to be "evil"-afflictive-hurtful, and "bitter"-grievous-painfully distressing. Hence Grotfius's exposition cannot be right-"Thy wickedness shall be a proof that thou art justly punished." The reference is to the very evils and miseries to which their "wickedness" and "apostasy" would inevitably lead them. Their foreign alliances were eventually the means of their degradation and misery; and in seeking them, they forsook God as their protector; and by adopting idols, they forsook him as the object of their worship.-Ed.