Jeremiah 4:17 | |
17. As keepers of a field, are they against her round about; because she hath been rebellious against me, saith the Lord. | 17. Sicuti custodes (est aliud nomen quam prius |
He intimates here that there would be no escape to the Jews when God brought the Chaldeans, for every egress, all the ways, would be closed up, so that they could not migrate to another land. It is the same as though he had said, that such a calamity was nigh them that they could not escape it by exile, it is indeed a sad thing when men flee away naked as from the fire, and seek a place among strangers, and live there in misery and want; but the Prophet declares here, that so grievous was the punishment prepared for the Jews, that it would not indeed be possible for them to save themselves by expatriation and flight, for God would close up every avenue, and would as it were set guards to prevent any to depart.
He afterwards assigns a reason for this,
1 Calvin has followed the Vulgate and the Syriac. The Septuagint and Arabic have, "thou hast neglected me, "which is very wide from the original. "Rebel" is the rendering of the Targum, which is the Hebrew, and there is no other reading. Literally it is,
For against me hath she rebelled, saith Jehovah.
And this is the rendering of Blayney.-Ed.