Bible Commentaries

Run ye to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now, and know, and seek in its broad places, if ye can find a man, if there is [any] that executeth judgment, that seeketh the truth; and I will pardon ^a it.

(a) That is, the city.

And though they say, The ^b LORD liveth; surely they swear falsely.

(b) Though they pretend religion and holiness, yet all is but hypocrisy: for under this kind of swearing is contained the true religion.

O LORD, [are] not thy eyes upon the ^c truth? thou hast ^d stricken them, but they have not grieved; thou hast consumed them, [but] they have refused to receive correction: they have made their faces harder than a rock; they have refused to return.

(c) Do you not love uprightness and faithful dealing?

(d) You have often punished them, but all is in vain, (Isaiah 9:13).

I will go to the ^e great men, and will speak to them; for they have known the way of the LORD, [and] the judgment of their God: but these have altogether broken the yoke, [and] burst the bonds.

(e) He speaks this to the reproach of them who would govern and teach others, and yet are farther out of the way than the simple people.

Wherefore a ^f lion from the forest shall slay them, [and] a wolf of the evenings shall spoil them, a leopard shall watch over their cities: every one that goeth out from there shall be torn in pieces: because their transgressions are many, [and] their backslidings are increased.

(f) Meaning, Nebuchadnezzar and his army.

How shall I pardon thee for this? thy children have forsaken me, and ^g sworn by [them that are] no gods: when I had fed them to the full, then they committed adultery, and assembled themselves by troops in the harlots' houses.

(g) He shows that to swear by anything other than by God is to forsake him.

^h Go ye up upon her walls, and destroy; but make not a full end: ⁱ take away her battlements; for they [are] not the LORD'S.

(h) He commands the Babylonians and enemies to destroy them.

(i) Read (Jeremiah 4:27).

They have ^k lied about the LORD, and said, [It is] not he; neither shall evil come upon us; neither shall we see sword nor famine:

(k) Because they gave no credit to the words of his prophets, as in (Isaiah 28:15).

And the prophets shall become ^l wind, and the word [is] ^m not in them: thus shall it be done to them.

(l) Their words will be of no effect, but vain.

(m) They are not sent from the Lord, and therefore that which they threaten to us will come on them.

Wherefore thus saith the LORD God of hosts, Because ye speak this word, behold, I will make my words in ⁿ thy mouth fire, and this people wood, and it shall devour them.

(n) Meaning, Jeremiah.

Lo, I will bring a nation upon you ^o from far, O house of Israel, saith the LORD: it [is] a mighty nation, it [is] an ancient nation, a nation whose language thou knowest not, neither understandest what they say.

(o) That is, the Babylonians and Chaldeans.

Their quiver [is] as an ^p open sepulchre, they [are] all mighty men.

(p) Who will kill many with their arrows.

Nevertheless in those days, saith the LORD, I will not make a full end with ^q you.

(q) Here the Lord declares his unspeakable favour toward his Church, as in (Jeremiah 4:27).

And it shall come to pass, when ye shall say, Why doeth the LORD our God all these [things] to us? then shalt ^r thou answer them, As ye have forsaken me, and served foreign gods in your land, so shall ye serve strangers in a land [that is] not yours.

(r) Meaning, the prophet Jeremiah.

Your ^s iniquities have turned away these [things], and your sins have withheld good [things] from you.

(s) If there is any stay, that we receive not God's blessings in abundance, we must consider that it is for our own iniquities, (Isaiah 59:1-2).

They have become fat, they shine: yea, they exceed the deeds of the wicked: they judge not the cause, the cause of the fatherless, yet they ^t prosper; and the right of the needy do they not judge.

(t) They feel not the plague of God for it.

The ^u prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means; and my people love [to have it] so: and what will ye do in its end?

(u) Meaning that there could be nothing but disorder, where the ministers were wicked and corrupt.