Jeremiah 5:12 | |
12. They have belied the Lord, and said, It is not he; neither shall evil come upon us; neither shall we see sword nor famine: | 12. Negarunt Jehovam (alii vertunt, mentiti sunt Jehovae,) et dixerunt, Non est, et non veniet super nos malum; et gladium et famem non videbimus. |
He expresses more clearly and fully what he had previously said. Their perfidy was, that they had
The reason which follow requires special notice:
We then see what Jeremiah alleges against them, even their contempt and also their perverseness. They felt themselves safe notwithstanding the prophetic threatenings. The Prophet says, this is nothing less than wholly to deny God. Were we judges, this declaration might appear too severe: but let us pause, and acquiesce in what the Holy Spirit has pronounced.
And this is a remarkable passage, whence we may learn how abhorred by God is their indifference, who harden themselves against his threatenings, and wholly disregard his judgment. For if we acknowledge him as God, his power as a judge ought not to be taken away. What does God's name mean? Doubtless they who imagine that God remains quiet in heaven and enjoys his leisure and his rest, though they may not in words deny God, yet treat him with mockery: there is in them at the same time no religion and no thought of a divine being. Let us then carefully notice this passage, in which the Prophet testifies that God is denied by us, except we be moved by his threatenings; for the torpidity in which we indulge ourselves, when God denounces his judgment on us, is the same as the denial of him; nor is there anything by which they can extenuate their sin who thus despise the vengeance of God. For the Holy Spirit has once for all declared, that all who trifle with the prophets do in their hearts say, that there is no God, inasmuch as they deprive him of his power and of his office, and leave him only a naked essence; nay, they make him only a creature of the imagination or a mere phantom.
We now then understand the meaning of the Prophet: he more fully explains the perfidy with which he had charged the Jews; for he says that they
1 According to all the instances in which the verb occurs, followed by
12. And they deny Jehovah, And say, "It is not he, And come upon us shall not evil, And the sword and the famine we shall not see."
Then the following verse, which is a continuation of what they said, proves clearly what the meaning of this is,-
13. "And the prophets shall be wind, For the word is not in them: Thus shall it happen to them,"
or,
Thus shall it be done to them.
That is, they shall be found out to be like the wind, having spoken nothing real, such as shall be accomplished. Indeed the last line may be translated thus,-
Thus shall he do to (or, deal with) them.
The reference in this case is to God, who, they thought, would render abortive, or turn as it were into wind, what the prophets had threatened. Their blindness and presumption appear to us to have been extreme.-Ed.