20

Go up to Lebanon, and cry; and lift up thy voice in Bafhan, and cry from the paffages: for all thy lovers are destroyed; thy allies, especially the Egyptians, 21 have failed thee. I fpake unto thee in thy prosperity; [but] thou faidft, I will not hear. This [hath been] thy manner from thy youth, that thou obeyedft not 22 my voice. The wind fhall eat up all thy, paftors, and thy lovers fhall go into captivity; thy civil and ecclefiaftical governors fhall be destroyed as fruit is by a blasting wind: furely then shalt thou be afhamed and con23 founded for all thy wickedness. O inhabitant of 1ebanon, that makeft thy neft in the cedars, how gracious fhalt thou be, how humble and fubmiffive, when pangs come upon thee, the pain as of a woman in 24 travail! [As] I live, faith the LORD, though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah were the fignet upon my right hand, (a proverbial expreffion for a thing that is very dear and valuable,) yet would I pluck thee 25 thence; And I will give thee into the hand of them that feek thy life, and into the hand [of them] whose face thou feareft, even into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of the Chal26 deans. And I will caft thee out, and thy mother that bare thee, into another country, where ye were not 27 born; and there ye fhall die. But to the land whereunto they defire to return, thither fhall they not. 28 return. [Is] this man Coniah a despised broken idol? [is he] a veffel wherein [is] no pleafure? tho' once he was worshipped like an idol, he fhall be broken down, stripped of his royalty, trodden under foot, and despised as a broken pitcher: wherefore are they caft out, who would have thought he should come to fuch a condition, he and his feed, that is, the royal family, or the children born to him in Babylon,

k

i The jewish nation is here compared to a woman living in luxury, in a splendid palace, wainscoted with cedar; but, as the fineft houfe would not prevent her pain when travail came upon her, fo God would bring fuch pains upon them, that all their grandeur, magnificence, and pride fhould not fupport their hearts under it.

* As his mother was probably concerned in hardening him against the meffages of God, fo they fhould be a grief of heart to each other.

Babylon, (for he had none before the captivity) and are caft 29 into a land which they know not? O earth, earth,

earth, O land of Judah, hear the word of the LORD. 30 Thus faith the LORD, Write ye this man childless, a man [that] fhall not profper in his day for no man of his feed fhall profper, fitting upon the throne of David, and ruling any more in Judah; that is, he shall have no child to be his fucceffor in the kingdom.'

1.

W

REFLECTION S.

HEN good men die, and leave wicked children behind them, there is more reason to weep for the children than for the fathers, v. 10. Jofiah was much lamented; yet there is little reason to lament the death of fuch men; for they are gone to reft, are taken from the evil to come, and received to glory, beyond the reach of fin and forrow; but let us weep over their degenerate children, whofe guilt is aggravated by the instructions and examples of their pious parents. They bring more difhonour on religion, and do more mischief to others, than thofe who have not fuch advantages; they are feldom reclaimed, but generally go on to treasure up to themselves wrath against the day of wrath, and the revelation of the righteous judgment of God. Their cafe is indeed truly pitiable.

2. See the wickedness of injuftice and oppreffion. The fources of it are pride and covetoufnefs. Jehoiakim could not be content with his father's palace, but must have a better. Yet he loved his money too well to part with it, and therefore never paid his workmen, or not so much as was their due. Thus many are fond of making a figure in life, who yet have not wherewith to fupport it: they get rich by the gains of oppreflion, and by fcrewing their workmen and fervants, in order to increase their wealth, or fupport their extravagance. But we here fee that God takes notice of and will punish the wrong which is done by rich

and

1 Zedekiah, his fucceffor, being his uncle, none of his pofterity ever fat upon the throne: tho' his grandfon Zerubbabel was a governor, yet the royal power was gone; and he could not be Taid to fit upon the throne of David, as he was appointed by the king of Perfia.

and great men to their poor workmen and labourers; for their cry cometh into the ears of the Lord God of hofts.

3. It would be more for the honour and happiness of children to imitate their father's virtues, than to exceed them in wealth and grandeur. Jehoiakim is reminded of his father's piety and integrity, and of the profperity and honour which attended him. There are many perfons who, when they inherit their fathers' substance, despise their old notions, and fashions, and way of living; while they are destitute of their excellencies. They make those inroads on justice and charity, which their fathers durft not have done they are neither fo juft in their dealings, fo charitable to the poor, nor fo generous for the fupport of religion, as their ancestors were. Yet they think it is enough that they are richer than they. A fad exchange! Let us confider what was truly excellent in our predeceffors, and imitate that; and if our circumftances are better than theirs, let us be more generous and charitable than they were. All the comfort they had in religion, fhould recommend it to us; and we fhould be followers of them, that it may be well with us now and for ever, as it undoubtedly is with those who lived and died under its influence.

4. We are taught the danger of profperity. These unhappy princes are melancholy inftances how fadly wealth and power may be abufed; but the worst effect of profperity is, that it puffs up men's minds, v. 21. They think themselves too wife to need advice; defpife the word of God, and its preachers; and take fire at the moft diftant hint of reproof. It is a wretched thing when profperity hardens the mind against religious impreffions; when men's hearts rife with their fortunes, and they proceed to contemn God, as well as man. The cafe may foon be altered with them; and they will then be as abject and mean, as they were before infolent, v. 23. It is well if adverfity makes them truly humble and penitent. Let us take heed, brethren, left we forget God and our duty in profperous feafons; and therefore, not be high minded, but fear.

VOL. V.

I i

CHAP.

CHA P. XXIII.

The prophecy goes on to threaten the rulers and guides of the people, but concludes with promifes of deliverances from captivity, of better times under the Messiah, and of a future restoration of the jews to their own land, v. 1-8: the ninth verfe begins another fubject; Jeremiah exhorts the people not to listen to false prophets, and threatens the pretenders to infpiration and the fcoffers at true prophecy.

I

W

OE be unto the pastors that deftroy and scatter the fheep of my pafture! faith the LORD; that 2 is, to the ecclefiaftical and civil governors. Therefore thus faith the LORD God of Ifrael against the pastors that feed, or should have fed, my people; Ye have scattered my flock, and driven them away by your ill example and want of care, and have not vifited them: behold, I will vifit upon you the evil of your doings, faith the 3 LORD. And I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all countries whither I have driven them, and will bring them again to their folds; and they shall be 4 fruitful and increase. And I will fet up fhepherds over them which fhall feed them, that is, governors after the captivity, or rather, in the latter days: and they fhall fear no more, nor be difmayed, neither fhall they be lacking, faith the LORD,

5

Behold, the days come, faith the LORD, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a king fhall reign and profper, and fhall execute judgment and justice in the earth; he shall impartially reward the 6 righteous and the wicked. In his days Judah fhall be faved, and Ifrael fhall dwell fafely and this [is] his name whereby he fhall be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS; or, this is the name by which Jehovah fhall call him, OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS, that 7 is, the means of our juftification and falvation. Therefore, behold, the days come, faith the LORD, that is, the latter days, that they fhall no more fay, The LORD liveth, which brought up the children of Ifrael out of

See Dr. BLAYNEY's note on this paffage.

m

the

8 the land of Egypt; But, The LORD liveth, which brought up and which led the feed of the house of Ifrael out of the north country, and from all countries whither I had driven them: and they fhall dwell in their own land; this last deliverance hall eclipse the former, and be as life from the dead.

9

Mine heart within me is broken because of the prophets; all my bones fhake; I am like a drunken man; and like a man whom wine hath overcome, because of the LORD, and because of the words of his holiness, which they have profaned; I am deeply affected with their 10 horrible fin, and tremble to deliver my meffage. For the land is full of adulterers; for becaufe of fwearing, or perjury, the land mourneth; the pleafant places of the wilderness are dried up, and their courfe is evil, and their force [is] not right; their zeal is not to promote reII ligion, but wickedness. For both prophet and priest are profane; yea, in my houfe have I found their wickednefs, faith the LORD; I have found their idolatries there. 12 Wherefore their way fhall be unto them as flippery [ways] in the darkness: they fhall be driven on, and fall therein; they promise others peace and light, but they Jhall mifs of both themselves, and fall and mifcarry in their defigns: for I will bring evil upon them, [even] the 13 year of their vifitation, faith the LORD. And I have feen folly in the prophets of Samaria; they have prophefied in Baal, and caufed my people Ifrael to err; I 14 have feen this comparatively as a small matter.

I have feen alfo in the prophets of Jerufalem an horrible thing they commit adultery, and walk in lies: they strengthen also the hands of evil doers, that none doth return from his wickedness; calling their own fancies divine oracles, and promifing impunity: they are all of them unto me as Sodom, and the inhabitants thereof 15 as Gomorrah. Therefore thus faith the LORD of hosts concerning the prophets; Behold, I will feed them with wormwood, and make them drink the water of gall: for from the prophets of Jerufalem is profaneness gone forth into all the land; they have made others vile by their counfels and examples. Thus faith the LORD of I i2

hosts,