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He repeats in other words what we have already stated, but for the purpose of giving fuller support to trembling and wavering minds. God then promises that he would be present with his people to save them. Now as this could not easily be believed, and as the Jews looking only on their state at that time could not but despair, the Prophet added this comparison between them and the Gentiles. The Chaldeans and the Assyrians flourished seventy years in every kind of wealth, in luxuries, in honor — in short, they possessed every thing necessary for an earthly happiness. What, then, could the Jews have thought, but that unbelievers and God’s enemies were happy, but that they were miserable, being oppressed by hard servitude and loaded with many reproaches, and living also in poverty, and counted as sheep destined for the slaughter? When, therefore, all these things were plain before their eyes, what but despair must have laid hold on their minds? Therefore God obviates this evil; ⁷⁷     There is no verb in the first clause, “Because I with thee.” The context shews that the future is meant; then the rendering ought to be, “Because I shall be with thee;” that is, at the restoration of the people to their own land, mentioned in the preceding verse. So Calvin understood the clause, though the early versions, like our own, gave the verb in the present tense, which is by no means correct. — Ed.

And he says that he would make a consummation among the nations, as though he had said, “When I begin to punish the Gentile nations, I will destroy them with an utter destruction, no hope will remain for them. But as to thee, I will not make a consummation.” Thus he makes a difference between the punishment inflicted on the reprobate and ungodly and that by which he would chastise the sins of his people; for the punishment he would inflict on the wicked would be fatal, while the punishment by which he would chastise his Church would be only for a time; it would therefore be to it for medicine and salvation.

We now, then, perceive what the Prophet had in view: he mitigated the bitterness of grief as to the faithful, for God would not wholly cast them away. And he shews that their scourges ought to be patiently borne, because they were to hope for an end of them; but that it would be different when he visited the reprobate, because he would leave them without any hope. In short, he says, that he would be a severe judge to the last degree as to the unbelieving, but that he would chastise his own people as a Father.

Other passages seem, however, to militate against this view; for God declares that he would make a consummation as to his chosen people, as in Isaiah 10:23, and in other places. But the explanation is obvious; for there he refers to the whole body of the people, which were alienated from him; but here his word is addressed to the faithful,

“the remnant of grace,”

as Paul calls them, (Romans 11:5) We ought, therefore, ever to consider who those are whom the Prophets address; for at one time they refer to the promiscuous mass, and at another time they address apart the faithful, and promise them salvation. Thus, then, we have before seen that God would make a consummation as to his people, that is, the reprobate; but the Prophet here turns his discourse to the Church and the seed which God would preserve in safety among a people apparently cut off and lost. Whenever, therefore, the devil would drive us to despair, whenever we are harassed in our minds when God deals with us more severely than we expect, let this consolation be remembered, that God will not make a consummation with us; for what is here said of the Church may and ought to be applied to every individual believer. God, indeed, handles them often roughly when he sees it necessary for them, but he never wholly consumes them.

I will not make, he says, a consummation with thee, but I will chastise thee in judgment Here the copulative ought to be taken as an adversative particle, and “judgment” has the sense of moderation, as we have seen in Jeremiah 10:24,

“Chastise me, O Lord, but not in thy wrath;”

he had mentioned “judgment” before. In this sense is judgment used here, that is, for that moderation which God adopts towards his chosen, for he is ever mindful of his mercy, and regards not what they deserve, but what they can bear. When, therefore, God withholds his hand and gently chastises his people, he is said to punish them in judgment, that is, moderately. For judgment is not to be taken here for rectitude, because God never exceeds due limits so as to be subject to the charge of cruelty; judgment is also opposed to just rigor, and it is often opposed to injustice; but in this place we are to understand that the contrast is between judgment and the just rigor of God. Then judgment is nothing else but the mitigation of wrath.

At last he adds, By cleansing I will not cleanse thee, or, “by cutting down I will not cut thee down.” The verb, נקה, nuke, means sometimes to cleanse, or to render innocent; and it means also intransitively to be pure and harmless; but it is to be taken here transitively. It cannot, then, be rendered otherwise than “by cleansing I will not cleanse thee,” or, “I will not cut thee down;” for it has also this meaning, and either of the two senses is suitable. If we read, “I will not cut thee down,” it is the continuation of the same subject; “I will chastise thee in judgment, and I will not therefore cut thee down,” that is, I will not make a consummation. It would then be, as it is evident, a very suitable connection, and it would run smoothly were we to read, “I will not cut thee down.” But the other version is also appropriate, though it may admit of a twofold meaning; some take it adversatively, “Though I shall not make thee innocent;” that is, though I shall not spare thee, but chastise thee moderately; and this intimation was very seasonable; for the flesh ever seeks impunity. Now God sees that it is not good for us to escape unpunished when we offend; it is then necessary to bear in mind this doctrine, that though God will not allow us to be exempt from punishment, nor indulge us, but smite us with his rods, he is yet moderate in his judgment towards us. But others refer to this passage in Isaiah,

“I made thee to pass through the furnace and refined thee, but not as silver, otherwise thou wouldest have been consumed.”
(Isaiah 48:10)

God then tries his people, or cleanses them with chastisements; but how? or, how long? — not as silver and gold, for that would wholly consume them. For when silver is purged from its dross, and also gold, the purer and clearer portion remains; but men, as there is nothing in them but vanity, would be wholly consumed, were God to try them as silver and gold. But as this interpretation is too refined, I am more disposed to adopt one of the two first, that is, that God would not wholly cut them down, though he would chastise them, or, that though he would not count or regard them wholly innocent, nor so indulge them as to let them go unpunished, he would yet be merciful and propitious to them, as he would connect judgment with his chastisements, that they might not be immoderate. ⁸⁸     This clause is rendered by the Vulg., “that thou mayest not seem to thyself innocent;” by the Syr., “but I will not suffer thee to be wholly unpunished;” and by the Targ., “and destroying I will not destroy thee.” Both Venema and Blayney follow the meaning of the Targum; the later version is, “And will not make thee altogether desolate.” The phrase occurs in Jeremiah 25:29, and also in Exodus 34:7; Numbers 14:18; Nahum 1:3; in which places the idea of the verb is, to hold guiltless or innocent, to acquit, to let go unpunished, and not to make desolate, to cut off or to destroy. That the former is its meaning in Exodus 34:7, is evident from the explanation which follows, “holding guiltless he will not hold guiltless, visiting the iniquity of the fathers,” etc.; visiting the fathers’ iniquity proves that it is not held guiltless or suffered to go unpunished. The verb, נקה means to be free, or to count one free, from pollution, crime, guilt, or punishment. To let free from punishment, is the idea most suitable here; God would chastise them in some measure, and would not suffer them to be wholly unpunished. — Ed.

The design of the Prophet is first to be noticed: he was fighting with those impostors who gave hope of a return in a short time to the people, while seventy years, as it has been said, were to be expected. The Prophet then wished to shew to the people how foolishly they hoped for an end to their evils in so short a time. And this is what ought to be carefully observed, for it was not without reason that the Prophet dwelt much on this point; for nothing is more difficult than to lead men to a serious acknowledgment of God’s judgment. When any thing adverse happens, they are tender and sensitive as to the evils they endure; but at the same time they look not to God, and comfort themselves with vain imaginations. It was therefore necessary for the Prophet to dwell on his doctrine at large; for he saw that the Israelites promised to themselves a return after two years, though they had been warned by the Prophets that they were to bear the scourge of God for seventy years.

This is the reason why the Prophet speaks here of the grievousness of evils, not because the Israelites were insensible, but because they had been credulous, and were still hoping for a return, so that they deceived themselves with false comfort. He therefore says, that the breaking was grievous; some give this rendering, “Unhealable, or hopeless, is thy bruising.” But אנוש, anush, is here a substantive, for it is followed by the preposition ל, lamed; nor can what the Prophet says be rendered otherwise than in this manner, “Grievousness is to thy bruising,” or breaking. He afterwards adds that the wound was grievous, that is, difficult to be healed; for so I understand the passage. ⁹⁹     The ל in Hebrew is sometimes the, κατὰ in Greek; it means, as to, with regard to; so here, —
   Incurable as to thy bruise, Grievous has been thy stroke.
   Or we may give this rendering, inverting the order, —
   As to thy bruise, it is incurable; Grievous has been thy stroke.
   The “bruise” occasioned by the “grievous stroke” was incurable, that is, by human means. The effect is mentioned first, “the bruise;” then the cause, “the stroke.” — Ed. But the end was to be hoped for; yet the people were not to think it near at hand; they were, on the contrary, to prepare themselves for patient waiting until the end prescribed by God had come. It follows, —

The Prophet speaks first without a figure, then he illustrates the simple truth by a metaphor. He says that there was no one to undertake the cause of the people; as though he had said, that they were destitute of every aid. This was, indeed, in a measure already evident; but so supine was the security of the people, that they daily formed for themselves some new hopes. Then Jeremiah declared what had already in part happened and was still impending; and thus he proved the folly of the people, who still flattered themselves while they were involved in evils almost without a remedy. “Thou seest,” he says, “that there is no one to stretch forth a hand to thee, or who is ready to help thee; and yet thou thinkest that thou wilt soon be free: whence is this vain expectation?” He then comes to a metaphor, There is no one to apply medicine for thy healing In one sentence he includes the whole first chapter of Isaiah, who handles the subject, but explains more fully his meaning. There is, however, nothing obscure when the Prophet says that there was no one to heal the evils of the people. ¹⁰¹⁰     According to Calvin, the verse reads thus, —
   No one undertakes thy cause; For a cure, medicines and healing thou hast not.
   This division is made by the Sept., though not by the other versions, nor the Targ. Venema adopts it. The word מזור, rendered above “cure,” means evidently a wound. It only occurs here, and Obadiah 7, and twice in Hosea 5:13, where it is rendered “wound.” It comes from זור, in the sense of compressing or binding up; but the noun taken passively, signifies what is compressed or bound up, and that is a wound. Then the literal rendering would be —
   None is pleading thy cause; As to the wound, medicatives, binding up, none to thee;
   or in other words, —
   As to the wound, thou hast no medicatives, no binding up.
   The word רפאות means medicatives or medicaments, rather than medicines, as it designates here, and in most places, outward applications to wounds and bruises. The order, as in the foregoing verse, is reversed, the medicaments are put before the binding up. See Ezekiel 30:21. — Ed.

We must ever bear in mind his object, that is, that the people were too easily deceived, when they hoped to return shortly to their own country. But we may hence gather a general truth, — that men never understand the favor of God until they are subdued by many and severe reproofs: for they always shun God’s judgment, and then they become blind to their own sins, and foolishly flatter themselves. And, further, when they only in words confess that they have sinned, they think that they have done abundantly enough. They ought therefore to be urged to the practice and duty of repentance. It afterwards follows —

The Prophet again repeats, that nothing remained for Israel as coming from men, for no one offered to bring help. Some, indeed, explain the words as though the Prophet had said, that friends, as it is usually the case, concealed themselves through shame on seeing the condition of the people hopeless: for as long as friends can relieve the sick, they are ready at hand, and anxiously exert themselves, but when life is despaired of, they no longer appear. But the Prophet, I have no doubt, condemns here the Jews for the false confidence with which they had been long fascinated; for we know, that at one time they placed hope in the Egyptians; at another in the Assyrians; and thus it happened that they brought on themselves many calamities. And we have seen elsewhere, in many passages, that these confederacies are compared to impure lusts; for when the people sought at one time the friendship of the Egyptians, at another, that of the Assyrians, it was a kind of adultery. God had taken the Jews under his care and protection; but unbelief led them astray, so that. they sought to strengthen themselves by the aid of others. Hence, everywhere in the Prophets the Egyptians and the Assyrians are compared to lovers. And this view will suit well here; for it was not enough to point out the miseries of the people, without making known the cause of them.

Then the Prophet refers to those false counsels which the Jews had adopted, when they thought themselves secure and safe while the Egyptians, or the Assyrians, or the Chaldeans were favorable to them. For this reason he says, that all their friends had forgotten them, and also that they did not inquire for them, that is, that they had cast off every care for them. And he adds the reason, because God had smitten, the people with an hostile wound Here the Prophet summons them again to God’s tribunal, that they might learn to consider that these evils did not happen by chance, but that they were the testimonies of God’s just wrath. God then comes forth here, and declares himself the author of all those calamities; for the Prophet would have spoken to no purpose of the miseries of the people, had not this truth been thoroughly impressed on their minds, — that they had to do with God.

Now, that God calls himself an enemy, and compares himself to a cruel enemy, must not be so understood as that the covenant had been abolished by which he had adopted the children of Abraham as his own; for he, through his mercy, always reserved some remnants. Nor ought we to understand that there was excess in God’s severity, as though he raged cruelly against his people, when he executed his judgments: but this ought to be understood according to the common perceptions of men. God also calls elsewhere the Israelites his enemies, but not without lamentation,

“Alas!” he says, “I will take vengeance on my enemies.” (Isaiah 1:24)

He assumed there the character of one grieving, as though he had said, that he unwillingly proceeded to so much rigor, for he would have willingly spared the people, had not necessity forced him to such severity. But, as I have already said, when God calls himself the enemy of his people, it ought to be understood of temporal punishment, or it ought to be explained of the reprobate and lost, who had wholly alienated themselves from God’s favor, and whom God had also cut off from the body of his Church as putrid members. But as the Prophet here addresses the faithful, there is no doubt but that God calls himself an enemy, because, according to the state of things at that time, the Jews could not have otherwise thought than that God was angry with them.

With regard to cruel one, we have already said, that excess is thereby denoted, as though too much rigor or severity were ascribed to God: but the Jews could not have been otherwise awakened to consider their sins, nor be sufficiently terrified so as to be led seriously to acknowledge the judgment of God. And God himself, in what follows, sufficiently proves, that though he compares himself to a severe or cruel man, yet nothing wrong could be found in his judgments.

For he adds, for the multitude of thine iniquity, because thy sins have prevailed Though the Jews thought that God acted severely, when he threatened them with long exile, here their mouth was closed by the multitude of their iniquity; as though he had said, “Set in a balance on one side, the weight of the punishment of which ye complain, and on the other side the heap of sins by which ye have often, and for a long time, provoked my wrath against you.” God then, by multitude of iniquity, shews that it could not be ascribed to him as a fault that he so severely punished the Jews, because they deserved to be so punished. And he confirms the same thing in other words, not that there was anything ambiguous in what he had said, but because the Prophet saw that he had to do with perverse men. That he might then reprove their indifference, he says, that their sins had grown strong ¹¹¹¹     It is better to retain the literal word “lovers,” than “friends,” as rendered by the Sept., the Syr., and the Targ., though not by the Vulg. The particle על is commonly a preposition, but not when preceding a verb, as here; and that רב is a verb here is proved by the sentence which follows, which is in apposition; and it is so rendered by Blayney. The verse may be thus rendered —
   14. All thy lovers have forgotten thee, Thee they seek not: Verily with the stroke of an enemy have I struck thee, — With a violent correction; Because multiplied had thine iniquity, Grown strong had thy sins, etc.
   The word for “violent,” or cruel, is so construed in the early versions; the Targ. alone countenances our version. The last line conveys a different idea from the preceding. The verb, indeed, means strong in number as well as strong in power; but as number is expressed in the previous line, we may justly consider that power is meant here: their sins were not only many, but strong and vigorous, so strong as to resist all exhortations and all threatenings. — Ed. It follows —

The Prophet now anticipates an objection, lest the Jews should expostulate with God; for it sufficiently appears that they always complained of God’s extreme severity, when they indulged themselves in their vices. As soon then as God treated them as they deserved, they became exasperated and enraged against him. Hence the Prophet now meets their perverse and unjust complaints, and asks, why they cried out for their bruising, as though he had said, that these clamors were much too late, when they had passed by the season for repentance. For God had suspended his extreme threatenings until the people had betrayed so much obstinacy, that there was no room for mercy. When, therefore, the people’s wickedness had become unhealable, the Prophet, as we have seen, proclaimed their exile.

Now, indeed, he derides their late crying, for they had been too long torpid in their contempt of God: Why, then, dost thou cry for thy bruising? grievous is thy sorrow, or, grievousness is to thy sorrow; ¹²¹²     Rather “sore,” or wound. The word מכאב indeed means sometimes the soreness or wound of the mind, that is, sorrow or grief; but here, no doubt, it retains its primary idea, correspondently with stroke, bruise, and wound. The Targ. retains this meaning, while the versions go all astray. Then it is, “Miserable is thy sore.” The rest of the verse is as follows, —
   Because multiplied had thine iniquity,
Grown strong had thy sins,
Have I done these things to thee.
   — Ed. but for the multitude of thine iniquity, and because thy sins have grown strong, have I done these things to thee Here God frees himself from the calumnies of the people, and shews that those who murmured or made a clamor, acted unjustly, having not considered what they merited: for they were worthy of the heaviest punishment, because they not only in one way brought ruin on themselves, and more and more kindled God’s vengeance, but had also for many years hardened themselves in their sins; and they had, besides, given themselves up, in various ways, to every kind of wickedness, so that the Prophet justly upbraided them with a multitude of iniquity, and also with a mass of sins. God then says, that he had not exceeded the limits of moderation in the punishment he inflicted on the people, because their desperate wickedness and perverseness compelled him. But consolation is immediately subjoined, —