Jeremiah 5:24 | |
24. Neither say they in their heart, Let us now fear the LORD our God, that giveth rain, both the former and the latter, in his season: he reserveth unto us the appointed weeks of the harvest. | 24. Et non dixerunt in corde suo, Timeamus agedum Jehovam, Deum nostrum, qui dat pluviam et imbrem matutinum et serotinum (diximus de his verbis alibi) tempore suo; hebdomadas perpetuas messis (hoc est, ad messem) custodit nobis. |
The Prophet in other words proves here that the Jews had been justly charged with perverseness: he says, that it did not come to their minds, that they did not think, to fear God. We hence see that all that is said is designed to shew, that the people were no less senseless and stupid, than if they were lifeless elements; nay, that there was more stupidity and more furious madness in their hearts than in any created thing.
To
PRAYER
Grant, Almighty God, that since thou daily invitest us to thyself with so much kindness and benevolence, and since thy word continually sounds in our ears, -- O grant, that we may not become deaf through the depravity of our flesh, but be attentive to hear the doctrine of salvation, and become so teachable and obedient, that we may be willing to be turned wherever thou pleasest, and to be guided in the way thou pointest out to us, until we shall at length reach that blessed rest, which has been prepared for us in heaven by Jesus Christ our Lord. -- Amen.
Lecture Twenty-Second
Yesterday was exhibited the senselessness of those who were not induced by God's blessings to serve him. The Prophet indeed mentioned the benefits which God usually bestows on the good and the bad without distinction, -- that he gives rain and spring and autumn, and so regulates all the year as to ripen all the fruit; for by the
We now then understand the Prophet's object: He shews that the Jews had been extremely thoughtless; for they did not regard the paternal favor of God as to their daily food, so as to be thereby moved to worship and serve Him. Paul, also, when addressing heathens, adduced this reason,
"God," he says, "never left himself
(Acts 14:17)
that is, he so arranged the seasons, that the care he takes of mankind may be thus seen as in a mirror. But it was the Prophet's object here to condemn the Jews for their ingratitude, because they did not consider how bountifully God had ever dealt with them and beyond what was common. For he had not only in an ordinary way allured them to himself by his benefits; but his object had been to attach them to himself by singular and unusual means. Since then he had shewn to them singular favors, the more base was their ingratitude; for they did not consider, that the many benefits which God conferred on them, were so many motives or allurements, by which he bound them as it were to himself.
We now then see the Prophet's meaning, when he says,
1 Blayney, following the Septuagint and the Vulgate, has rendered the latter clause thus,-
A sufficiency of the appointed things of harvest he secureth to us.
But the Targum agrees with our version; and Gataker, Grotius, Venema, and others, take the same view, which is more expressive and more accordant with the passage,-
The weeks, the appointed seasons of harvest,
He preserves for us.
The word