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Jeremiah
Chapter Twenty-one
Jeremiah 21
Chapter Contents
The only way of deliverance is to be surrendering to the
Babylonians. (1-10) The wickedness of the king and his household. (11-14)
Commentary on Jeremiah 21:1-10
(Read Jeremiah 21:1-10)
When the siege had begun
Zedekiah sent to ask of Jeremiah
respecting the event. In times of distress and danger
men often seek those to
counsel and pray for them
whom
at other times
they despise and oppose; but
they only seek deliverance from punishment. When professors continue in
disobedience
presuming upon outward privileges
let them be told that the Lord
will prosper his open enemies against them. As the king and his princes would
not surrender
the people are exhorted to do so. No sinner on earth is left
without a Refuge
who really desires one; but the way of life is humbling
it
requires self-denial
and exposes to difficulties.
Commentary on Jeremiah 21:11-14
(Read Jeremiah 21:11-14)
The wickedness of the king and his family was the worse
because of their relation to David. They were urged to act with justice
at
once
lest the Lord's anger should be unquenchable. If God be for us
who can
be against us? But if he be against us
who can do any thing for us?
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on Jeremiah》
Jeremiah 21
Verse 2
[2] Enquire
I pray thee
of the LORD for us; for
Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon maketh war against us; if so be that the LORD
will deal with us according to all his wondrous works
that he may go up from
us.
Enquire — Zedekiah
as he was none of the best
so he was none
of the worst of the kings of Judah. Having some reverence of God
he sends the
prophet to enquire of the Lord.
Verse 8
[8] And unto this people thou shalt say
Thus saith the
LORD; Behold
I set before you the way of life
and the way of death.
Behold — I tell you the way you should take
if you would save
your lives.
Verse 9
[9] He that abideth in this city shall die by the sword
and
by the famine
and by the pestilence: but he that goeth out
and falleth to the
Chaldeans that besiege you
he shall live
and his life shall be unto him for a
prey.
His life — This is a proverbial expression
signifying a man's
possession of his life as a prey
or booty recovered from the enemy.
Verse 12
[12] O house of David
thus saith the LORD; Execute judgment
in the morning
and deliver him that is spoiled out of the hand of the
oppressor
lest my fury go out like fire
and burn that none can quench it
because of the evil of your doings.
Execute judgment — That is
justice
without partiality
and do it quickly.
Verse 13
[13] Behold
I am against thee
O inhabitant of the valley
and rock of the plain
saith the LORD; which say
Who shall come down against
us? or who shall enter into our habitations?
Of the valley — The inhabitants of the city of
Jerusalem are here intended. Jerusalem itself was built in part upon the rocky
mountain of Zion
but a great part was in the valley
and the higher mountains
about mount Zion
made that mountain itself
in comparison with them
as a
valley.
The plain — Though also a rock of the plain
that is
near to the plain. Which situation of this place
made the Jews think
it to be impregnable.
Verse 14
[14] But I will punish you according to the fruit of your
doings
saith the LORD: and I will kindle a fire in the forest thereof
and it
shall devour all things round about it.
The forest — By the forest he either means the
forest of Lebanon or their houses
made of wood cut out of that forest.
And it — And this fire shall not end in the destruction of this
city
but in the total destruction of all the country round Jerusalem.
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on Jeremiah》
21 Chapter 21
Verses 1-10
Verse 1-2
Inquire
I pray thee
of the Lord for us.
A distressed king seeks Divine counsel
Of Galba the emperor
as also of our Richard III
it is recorded
that they were bad men but good princes. We cannot say so much of Zedekiah. Two
things he is chiefly charged with--
1. That he brake his oath and faith plighted to the King of Babylon (Ezekiel 17:16).
2. That he humbled not himself before Jeremiah
speaking from the
mouth of the Lord. Hitherto he had not: but now in his distress he seeketh to
this prophet; yea
sendeth an embassage. Kings care not for soldiers
said a
great commander
till their crowns hang on the one side of their heads. Sure it
is that some of them slight God’s ministers till they cannot tell what to do
without them. (John Trapp.)
Kings have their cares
Kingdoms have their cares
and thrones their thorns. Antigonus
cried of his diadem
“O base rag
” not worth taking up at a man’s feet. Julian
complained of his own unhappiness in being made emperor. Diocletian laid down
the empire as weary of it. Thirty of the ancient kings of this our land
said
Capgrave
resigned their crowns; such were their cares
crosses
and
emulations. Zedekiah now could gladly have done as much. But since that might
not be
he sendeth to Jeremiah
whom in his prosperity he had slighted
and
to
gratify his wicked counsellors
wrongfully imprisoned. (John Trapp.)
Verse 6
They shall die of a great pestilence.
Pestilence
In a romance
“The End of an Epoch
” by A. Lincoln Green
the
hero
Adam Godwin
makes the acquaintance of a German professor
bearing the
ominous name of Azrael Falk
who comes to London
bringing with him a large
quantity of an active and deadly germ poison
which would depopulate any
country where it might be turned loose. His idea is to make an enormous fortune
by selling it to either Russia or Germany
between whom at the time discords
had arisen. The catastrophe is brought on in a simple way. The professor
with
his jars in his possession (he is too jealous and suspicious ever to part from
them)
carries out a long-cherished fancy to see the Derby
and on Epsom Downs
is taken for a welsher
and set upon by the mob. His precious jars are broken
and he himself is removed insane and dying to a neighbouring asylum. The death
dealing contents of the jars rise in a brown mist and float in the air. Adam
Godwin knows that London is in mortal peril
but he has not been told the
secret of the anti-toxin
and Falk dies without recovering his reason. The most
exciting pages are those in which we watch the slow creeping of the plague over
London. It attacks all except aged persons
and there is no remedy. The
calamity which in this book is merely fictitious was
in dire fact
to befall
Jerusalem Disobedience
stubbornness
and impenitence were the deadly germ
poison by which the inhabitants of the city were to be swept away.
Verse 7
He shall not spare them
neither have pity
nor have mercy.
No mercy in war
The exploits of Surrey in Scotland are thus recorded in a letter
of Wolsey: “The Earl of Surrey so devastated and destroyed all Tweedale and
March
that there is left neither house
fortress
village
tree
cattle
corn
nor other succour for man; insomuch that some of the people that fled from the
same
afterward returning and finding no sustenance
were compelled to come
into England begging bread
which oftentimes when they do eat they die
incontinently for the hunger passed. And with no imprisonment
cutting off
their ears
burning them in the faces
or otherwise
can be kept away.” (Knight’s
England.)
Verse 8
I set before you the way of life
and the way of death.
God’s message of life and death
I. It is God’s
prerogative to mark the path in which He would have us go for both worlds.
1. In His written Word.
2. By providence and mercies: examples and instances.
II. The path to
life is clothed with many attractions.
1. It is a plain way
though narrow. Only difficult and perplexed to
those who are reluctant to renounce the burden of their sins and the corruption
of this evil world
or would fain invent some method to reconcile the
discordant claims of God and mammon
earth and heaven.
2. It is an old way
and well trodden. From Abel’s time.
3. It is a safe way; for
though much contested
it is Divinely
guarded.
4. It is a pleasant way.
III. We are daily
advancing in one or other of these paths. There can be amidst the diversities
to the race but two broad divisions: wise and foolish; wheat and tares. A
worldly man is one that has his chief treasure upon earth
while God and
eternity are forgotten. Whereas the Christian is one who has been converted
from the error of his ways; his mind has been enlightened to discern the evil
of sin and the love and loveliness of Christ
and he is anxious to lay up his
treasure and hopes in heaven.
IV. The doom on the
impenitent will be aggravated by weighty considerations.
1. The path of life and death was clearly set before you
and
rejected by deliberate choice.
2. The solemn providences and warnings you have abused.
3. The vanity and worthlessness of pursuits for which salvation was
rejected.
4. The changeless eternity of the state to which you go. (S.
Thodey.)
Verse 12
Execute Judgment ill the morning.
Justice must be prompt
“Execute judgment in the morning
” as David your progenitor and
pattern did (Psalms 101:8). Be up and be at it
bedtime
and make quick despatch of causes
that poor men may go home about
their business
who have other things to do besides going to law. It is a
lamentable thing that a suit should depend ten or twenty years in some courts
through the avarice of some pleaders
to the utter undoing of their poor
clients. This made one such (when he was persuaded to patience by the example
of Job) to reply
“What do you tell me of Job? Job never had suits in
chancery.” Jethro adviseth Moses (Exodus 18:1-27) to dismiss those timely
whom he cannot despatch presently. (John Trapp.)
──《The Biblical Illustrator》