Exposition of the Whole Bible

9,10. his is mentioned, not only. to ‘fhew the time of this vifion, which was a little after this captivity, in the beginning of Zedekiab’s reign; but to let us know who the captives were; fignified by the good figs. The carpenters and /miths were carried away with the king and the princes, partly that they might be ferviceable to the king of Babylon in his country; and partly that they might not be affifting to their own country in repairing their fortifications, and making inftruments of war for them. ‘There were a ¢hou/and of this fort carried captive, 2 Kings xxiv. 16. where the, former of thefe are called craft/men. Farchi interprets both of the fcholars of the wife-men; and Kimchi, of counfellors and wife-men. ‘The word for carpenters, is ufed both of carpenters and. black- {miths; and that for /miths, may be -rendered in- ‘clofers, or foutters up, which the Targum underftands of porters or fhutters of gates; and fome think goldfimiths are meant, that fet or inclofe precious itones in gold; and others are of opinion, that mafons are intended, fo called from the building of walls for the inclofing of places. ‘The Syriac.verfion renders it, /oldiers; but thofe are diftinguifhed from them, 2 Kings xxiv. 14, 16. The Septuagint verfion tranflates it, prifoners, but fo all the captives might be called; and it adds, what is not in the text, and. the rich, and the Arabic verfion following that; tho’ it is true they were carried captive; for it is faid, none remained fave the pooreft fort of the people of the land, 2 Kings xxiv.14. This, according to bifhop User *, was in the year of the world 3405, and before Chrift 599; and fo the authors of the Univerfal Hijtory ’ place it; and Mr. Whifton * alfo; and Mr. Bedford’ a year later; and in the fame year that this captivity began was Cyrus the Perfian born, who was the deliverer of the Fews from it.

¥. 2. One bafket had very good figs, even like the figs that are firft ripe, &c.] As there are fome figs that are ripe fooner than others, and which are always the moft defirable and acceptable; and fuch were they that were prefented to the Lord, Mic. vii. 1. Deut. xxvi. 2. thefe fignified thofe that were carried captive into Babylon with Feconiah, among whom were fome very good men, as Ezekiel, and others; and all might be faid to be fo, in comparifon of thofe that were at Ferujalem, who were very wicked, and grew worfe and worfe: and the other bafeet had very naughty figs, which could not be eaten they were fo bad; as nothing is more weet, and lufcious, and agreeable to the tafte than a found ripe fig, and efpecially a firft ripe one; fo nothing is more naufeous than a naughty rotten one: thefe fignified the wicked Fews at Ferufalem indulging themfelves in all manner of fin; fo thofe who feemed to be the worift, thro’ their being carried captive, were the beft; and thofe who feemed to be the beft, by their profperity, were the wortt. This is to be underftood in a comparative fenfe, as Calvin obferves; tho’ this does not fo much defien the quality of.perfons, as the iffue of things, with refpect unto them. The captivity of the one would iffue in their good, and fo are compared to good figs; when the fins of the other would bring very, and thereforé compared to bad figs that carinot be eaten. "

¥. 3. Ihen faid the Lord unto me, what feeft thou, Jeremiah? &c.) This queftion is put, in order, that upon his anfwer to it; he might have an explication of the vifion: and I faid, figs: the good

Jigs very good, and the evil very evil, that cannot

be eaten they are fo evils or fo bad, or becaufe of badnefs »; which may be applied to mankind in general; who may be diftinguifhed into good and bad: thofe that are good, who are made fo by the grace of God; for none are fo by nature, or of themfelves; they are very good: they have many good things in them; they have a good heart, a new and a clean heart, and a right fpirit created in them; they have a good underftanding of {piritual things; they have a good will to that which is good, and good affections for God and Chrift, and divine things; they have the good Spirit of God and his graces in them, and Chrift and his word dwelling in them: and they do good things; and are. prepared for every good work; they are good to others; pleafantly and acceptably good to God. thro’ Chrift; and profitably good to their fellow-faints and fellow-creatures. On the: other hand, thofe that are bad, are exceeding bad; as they, are. by nature, children of wrath, unclean, corrupt, loathfome and abominable in the fight of God; fo they are from their youth upward, and continue fo, and are never otherwife; all in them, and that comes from them, are evil; their hearts are defperately wicked; the thoughts and imaginations of. their hearts are evil continually; their words are idle, corrupt and filthy, and all’ their actions finful; there’s no» good in them, ‘nor any done by them; they are good for: nothing; they are of no ufe to God, to: themfelves, or others 5 fin has smade them like itfelf, exceeding finful: and. now between thefe two forts there’s: no ‘medium; tho’ all fins are not alike; and fome in a comparative fenfe may be.called greater or’ lefier finners; yet all are exceeding bad, even the leaft: they are all of the fame nature, and have the fame wicked hearts; tho’ fome may be outwardly righteous before men; and hypocrites and formak proteffors are worlt of all. ‘There never were but two forts of perfons in the world; the feed of the woman, and the feed of the ferpent; the children of God, and the children of: the devil; and fo things will appear hereafter at the great day; the one will be placed at. Chrift’s right-hand as good and righteous men, the other at his left-hand as wicked, and will have feparate ftates to all eternity: and fo thofe figs are explained in the Talmud‘; the’ good figs, they are the perfect righteous; the bad’ figs, they are the perfect wicked.

¥. 4. Again the word of the Lord came unto me, faying,| As follows;. where an explanation is given of the above vifion, to which this is a tranfition.

¥.5. Thus faith the Lord, the God of Ifracl, 8c.} Of all the tribes of J/rae/,; of the ten tribes that™

Afpria; and of the other twovtribes, part of whom were in Babylon, and the other:in Fudea, who were not wholly cut off by the Lord; but he ftill had’ a regard for them; and therefore introduces what upon them utter ruin and deftruction without recohe was about to fay in this manner: like thofe good had been carried captive long ago by the king of figs, fo will I acknowledge them that are carried away captive of Fudab; that they are good men, and like.thofe good figs, even thofe that were; and tho’ they are carried captive: or, I will know them *, take notice of them; fhew an affectionate love to them, and care of them; make himfelf known unto them, and own them for his, in the furnace of affliction: whom I have fent out of this place into the land of the Chaldeans for their good; or, for good things, as the Septuagint, and other verfions; for their temporal good; fome were raifed to great honours, as Daniel, and his affociates; others got and poffefied eftates in Babylon, and fome returned with favours and riches: and. this was alfo for their fpiritual good; to bring them toa fenfe of their fins, to repentance for them, and acknowledgment of them; and particularly to cure them of idolatry, which it effectually did; fo the Lord makes all things to work together for good, to them that love him, Rom. viii. 28. and it may be obferved, that tho’ the Chaldeans carried the Jews captive out of their own land, and the city of Zerufalem, meant by this place, into the land of Babylon, yet they were only inftruments; it'was the Lord’s doing; he fent them thither. archi connects the phrafe, for good, with the word acknowledge, fappofing a tranfpofition of the words, thus, I will acknowledge them for good.

¥. 6. For I will fet mine eyes upon them for good, &c.] His eyes of omnifcience, providence and gracé; to communicate good things to them; to take care of them in the furnace of affliction, that they were not loft, but made the better;- to watch ever them, protect and defend them; to deliver them out of their troubles, and to bring them into their own land; as follows: and I will bring them again into this land; the land of Fudea, and city of Ferufalem, where Feremiah now was; and faw this vifion: this was accomplifhed when the feventy years captivity was ended: aud I will build them, and net pull them down; and I will plant them, and not pluck them up; alluding to the building of houfes, and planting of vineyards; fignifying that they and their families fhould be built up and continue; yea, that they fhould be an habitation for God, and the vineyard of the Lord of hofts, of his planting, and which fhould remain: this will be more fully accomplifhed in the latter day’; thd’ it had in part a fulfilment upon the Fews return from captivity.

¥. 7. And I will give them an heart to know me, that Iam the Lord, &c.| God, gracious and merciful, flow to anger, abundant in goodnefs and truth, pardoning iniquity, tranfgreffion and fin; the unchangeable Jehovah; the everlafting I AM; a covenant-keeping God; faithful and true to his promifes; able and willing to perform them; and does all things well and wifely; and was their Lord and God. This knowledge defigns not the firft knowledge of the Lord, but an increafe of it; and not head-knowledge, but heart-knowledge; a knowledge of God, joined with love and affection to him, high efteem, and approbation of him; and including communion with him, and an open profeffion and acknowledgment of him: and it is an appropriating knowledge alfo; a knowing him for themfelves, and as their own; and fuch a knowledge or heart to know the Lord is a pure gift of his, and without which ‘none can have it: and it may be obferved, that in captivity it was given

them; afflictions were the means of it; and happy it is when hereby men come to havea knowledge of God, and to be better acquainted with him, Pf. xcii. 12: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God; that is, it fhall appear that they are fo, by the above bleflings of grace amd goodnefs beftowed upon them; the Lord hereby owning them for his people, and they hereby coming to know that he is their God: for, or when ® they feall return unto me with their whole heart; affectionately, fincerely and unfeignedly. It fuppofes that they had backflidden from God, his ways and worfhip; but now fhould return by fincere repentance to him, and to his worfhip, and obedience to his commands; fo the Targum, * for they thall “< return to my worfhip with their whole heart;” all this will have an entire accomplifhment in the latter day, when the Fews will be converted and turn to the Lord, and fear him and his good-'

¥.8. And as the evil figs which cannot be eaten, they are fo evil, &c.] Here follows an explication of the evil figs, and an application of them to the wicked Jews: (furely, thus faith the Lord) fo will I give Zedekiah the king of Fudab; who was then the reigning king of Fudah, Feconiak’s father’s brother; whom the king of Babylon had made king in his ftead, and changed his name from Mattaniah to Zedekiah, 2 Kings xxiv. 17. him the Lord threatens to give up to ruin and deftruction, or to deliver into the hands of the enemy: and bis princes, and the refidue of them, that remain ih this land; the reft of the inhabitants of Yerufalem that continued in the land of Fudea, and were not carried captive: and them that dwell in the land of Egypt; who had fed thither for fafety upon the invafion of their land, and befieging their city; all thefe being like. to the bad figs, exceeding evil and wicked, are threatened to be delivered into the hands of their enemies, tho’ they might think themfelves fafe and fecure where they were.

y¥.9. And I will deliver them to be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth for their burt, &c.] Feconiah and the captives with him were only carried into Babylon; but thefe fhould be feattered one from another into the feveral parts of the world. The former were carried captive for their good, and it iflued in that; but thefe were carried away for their hurt; to the injury of their perfons and |properties, and without having any ‘effect upon them to the good of their fouls: tho’ this might | begin to be fulfilled by the feventy years captivity in Babylon; yet it had a more complete fulfilment in the deftruction of this people by the Romans, to which thefe and the following words feem more particularly to refer: to be a reproach, and a pro- joall drive them; their names to be ufed as a pro-. verb for their riches if] gotten, their falfhood and tricking; and under the curfe of God, and the reproach of man, as they are this day; fee Deut.

the peftilence among them, 8cc.) Meaning not in other lands, where they fhould be d but whilft in their own Iand, by which many fhould perifh; and the reft that efcaped theie judgments fhould be carried captive. The Targum is, “ I will fend thofe that kill with the fword,” ésc. till they be confumed from off the land that I

+ ty Jw °D quam reverfi fuerint ad me, Junius & Tremefiiass wed gave unto them, and to their fathers; fo that none of them fhould be left there to inhabit it, which is now their cafe; and it is an aggravation of their calamity and punifhment, that they are no mort the inhabitants of that good land, which was God’s gift to them, and to their fathers before them.

r i \HIS chapter contains a prophecy of the deftruction. of Fudea by the king of Babylon; and alfo of Babylon itfelf, after the Fews captivity of feventy years; and likewife of all the nations round about.. The date of this prophecy is in y. 1. when the prophet puts the Yecws in mind of the prophecies that had been delivered unto them by himfelf and others, for fome years paft, without effect, ¥. 2, 3, 4,.5, 6, 7.. wherefore they are threatened with the king of Babylon, that he fhould come againft them, and ftrip them of all their defirable things; make their land defolate, and them captives for feventy. years, ¥. 8,9, 10, 11. at the expiration of which he in his turn fhall be ‘punifhed, and the land of Cha/dea laid wafte, and become fubject to other nations and kings, ¥. 12, 13,14. and by a cup of wine given to all the nations round about, is fignified the utter ruin of them, and who are particularly mentioned by name, y¥. 15——26. which is confirmed by beginning with the city of Ferufalem, and the deftruction of that, ¥. 27, 28,29. wherefore the prophet is bid to prophefy againft them, and to declare the Lord’s controverfy with them, and that there fhould be a flaughter of them from one end of the earth to the other, ¥. 30, 31, 32, 33. upon which the fhepherds, kings and rulers of them are called to Iamentation and howling, y. 34——38.

¥. 1. The word that came to Feremiah concerning all the people of Fudab, &c.} Not only in the city of Ferufalem, but in the whole land of Faudea. This prophecy concerns them all; their repentance and reformation, to which they are exhorted; or their invafion, defolation and captivity, with which they are threatened, | Before the prophet was fent to the king of Fudab only, ch. xxii. r. now to all the people; i the fourth year of. Feboiakim the fon Fofiah king of Judah; in the latter part of the third, and beginning of the fourth year of his reign; fee Dan. i. 1: this was the firft. year of Nebuchatrezzar king of Babylon; in which he began to reign with his father, for he reigned two years with him, who- is the Nabopolafjar of Ptolemy. ‘This was in the year of the world 3397, and before Chrift 607, according to bifhop Ujher *.

¥.'2. The which Feremiah the prophet fpake unto all the people of Judah, &c.| Perhaps at one of the three feafts, at which all the males appeared in Ferufalem, for it can’t be thought that he went up and down throughout all parts of the land to deliver this prophecy, but to as many of them as he found in Feru/alem in any place, at any time; and none fo likely as what is mentioned: and to ail the inbabitants of Ferufalem; to whom he had an op- y¥. 3. From the thirteenth year of Fofiab the fon of Amon king of Judah, even unto this day, &c.| The year in which Feremiah began to prophefy, ch. i. 2: (that is, the three and twentieth year), for Fofiab reigned one and thirty years;’ fo that Feremiah pro- _ phelied nineteen years in his reign, and now it was

| the fourth of Feboiakim’s, which make twenty-three years; fo long the prophet had been prophefying to this people: the word of the Lord hath come unto me from time to time, during that fpace of twenty-three years; and which he diligently, conflantly and faithfully delivered unto them; as follows: and I have {poken unto you, rifing early, and fpeaking; as foon as ever he had a word from the Lord, he brought it to them, and took the moft proper and feafonable time to inculcate it to them; in the morning, and after he had had a vifion or dream in the night from the Lord: dut ye have not hearkened they took no notice of it; turned a deaf ear to it; however did not obey, or act as they were directed and exhorted to.

¥. 4.And the Lord hath fent unto'you all his fervants the prophets, &c.| Not only him, but many others, as Micah, Nahum, Zephaniah, and others: rifing early and fending them, not only the prophet, but the Lord himfelf is faid to rife early, and fend his prophets to them; which denotes his great care and concern for this people for their good; fee ch. vii. 25: but ye have not hearkened, nor inclined your ear to bear; which is an aggravation of their fin; that whereas they had one prophet after another fent to them, and fent by the Lord himfelf; he rifing early, and fending them; and they rifing early, being fent to do their meflage; and yet were not hearkened and attended to,

¥. 5. They faid, &c.| The prophets: this was the fubftance of their difcourfes and prophecies, what follows: turn ye again now every one from bis evil way, and from the evil of your doings; repent of fins, and reform from them; particularly their idolatries, to which they were prone, and are aftermentioned: and dwell in the land that the Lord hath given unto you, and to your fathers for ever and ever; that is, the land of Cazagn, which was given to them, and their fathers before them by

|the Lord, for an everlafting inheritance, provided they behaved towards him aright; for they held ‘the poffeflion of it by their obedience to his. law;. ‘and now, notwithftanding all that they had done, ‘or had been threatened with; yet, if they repented.

and reformed, they fhould {till dwell in the land, and enjoy it, and all the bleflings and privileges

¥.6. And go not after other gods to fervé them, and to worfbip them, 8c.] So long as they ferved the Lord God, they continued in their own land, in the comfortable enjoyment of all the bleffings of it; for their government was a theocracy; God was their king; and as long as they ferved and worfhipped him only, he protected and defended them; but when they forfook him, and went after other gods, and ferved and worfhipped them; then they were threatened to be turned out of their land, and carried captive into other lands; and yet, after all,-if they returned from their idolatries, and left off worfhipping idols, the Lord was. ready to. receive them kindly, and continue his favours to them: and provoke me not to anger with the works of your bands; their idols, which their own hands made, Tet p. itg.

made, and then. fell down to worfhip them; than ‘which nothing can be more provoking to God: ‘and I will do-you no burt; by {word, or famine, or peftilence, or captivity; fignifying the hurt he had threatened them with fhould not be done, provided they forfook their idolatrous worfhip;.God. does no hurt to his true worfhippers; yea, he makes all things work together for their good.

y¥. 7. Yet ye have not hearkened unto.me, faith the:

Lord, 8c.) Tho’ it was he that fpake unto them by his prophets; and tho’ it was fo much to their own good and advantage; and the neglect of him and his word were fo much to their difadvantage, and even ruin: that ye might provoke me to anger with the works of your hands, to your own burt; which, tho’ not defigned to do either, yet eventually did both; both provoked the Lord, and brought deftruction upon themfelves; for whatever is againft the glory of God, is to the hurt of man; and whatever provokes him, is pernicious to them in its confequences.

¥. 8. Therefore thus faith the Lord of bofts, &c.]

Of armies above and below; and fo can do what’

he pleafes in heaven and in earth: decaufe ye have not beard my words; by the prophets, fo as to obey them; they had heard them externally, but did not obferve to do them.

y¥.9. Behold, I will fend and take all the families of the north, faith the Lord, &c.] The Yargum is, the kingdoms of the north, the fame with thole in ch. i. 15. even all thofe kingdoms which were fubjeét to the king of Babylon, and lay north of Fudea: and Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon my fervant, tho’ a great king, he was a fervant of the Lord of hofts; his fervant, both as a creature of his make, and as a king that ruled under him; and as he was an inftrument in his hand to chaftize his people the Fews; tho’ it was not. knowingly and with intention that he ferved the Lord: and will bring them againft this land, and againft the inhabitants thereof; the land of Fudea, and its inhabitants; this was the Lord’s doing; it was he that ftirred up the king of Babylon, and by his: fecret inftinét and powerful providence brought him and his armies into Fudea to fpoil it, and the inhabitants of it; Jehovah as it were marched at the head of them, and led them on, and_ brought them againft the Jews, and delivered them into their hands: and againft all thefe nations round about; Egypt and others; fo that the Fews could have no help from them; nor would application to them, and alliance with them, fignify any thing: and will utterly deftroy them, and make them an aftonifoment, and an biffing, and perpetual defolations; both the Yews and their neighbours; who fhould be an aftonifhment to. fome, and an hiffing to others, and remain defolate for a long time; even till the feventy years were ended after-mentioned.

¥.10. Moreover, I will take from them the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladnefs, &c.] At their feftivals, and nuptial folemnities: the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride, exprefling their mutual love unto, and delight in, each other; foragreeable to one another and their friends: or it may mean thofe epithalamies, or nuptial fongs, fung unto them by their friends: the found of the mill-ftones, ether the voice of thofe that fing at the mill while grinding; or rather the found of the ftones themfelves ufed in grinding; either in grinding {pices for the bride-cakes; or rather in grind- ing corn for common ufe; and fo denotes the — taking away of bread-corn from them,,and the want of that. The fenfe is, there fhould be no corn to grind, and fo no ufe of the mill: and the light of the candle; at their feafts and weddings, or rather. for common ufe; fignifying that houfes fhould be defolate without inhabitants, no light in them, nor work to be done. ‘The whole fhews, that they fhould be deprived of eyery thing both for neceffity. and pleafure. Yobx feems to have borrowed fome phrafes from hence, Rev, xviii. 22, 23. in which he appears to have followed the Hebrew text, and not the Greek verfion.. The Zargum of the laft claufe is, ** the voice of the com- ‘* pany of thofe that fing at the light of candles.” ¥.11. And this whole land fhall be a defolation, &c.] Not only the city of Ferufalem, but» all Judea without inhabitants, or very few, and fhall be uncultivated, and become barren and unfruitful: and an aftonifbment; to all other nations, and to all perfons that pais thro’, beholding the defolations of it; and other nations fhall ferve the king of Babylon feventy years; both the Fews, and other nations of Agypi, &cc. reckoning from the date of this prophecy, the fourth year of Fehoiakim’s reign, when Daniel and others were carried captive, Daa. i. I—6. to the firft year of Cyrus.. ¥.12. Aud it fhall come to pafs when feventy years are accomplifbed, &c.] Which were accomplifhed in the firft year of Cyrus: they began with the firft year of Nebuchadnezzar, who reigned two years and two months with his father Nabopolaffar; after that forty-three years by himfelf; Evil-merodach two years; Neriglifjar four years; Belfhazzar-or Nabonadius feventeen years; and Darius the Median two years; which all make fixty-nine years and two months; and if ten months more be added to compleat the faid feventy years, it will carry the end of them to the firft year of Cyrus*. Thefe. years are differently reckoned by others; by Spanhemius, from the firft of Nebuchadnezzar, or fourth - of Feboiakim, to the deftruction of the city under Zedekiah, nineteen years; thence to the death of Nebuchadnezzar twenty-four; then Evil-merodach two; then the reign of Nerig/iffar, including fome months of Laborofoarchod, five; then the years of Nabonadius or Belfhazzar feventeen; and from his death, or the taking of Babylon, to the death of Darius the Mede, two years; which make fixtynine, exclufive of the firft of Cyrus; and comes to much the fame as the former. By Fames Alting thus; from the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar complete, to his death, twenty-fix years; Evil-. merodach twenty-three; Bei/hazzar three; Darius. the Mede eighteen, after the deftruction of the Babylonifo empire; which feems very wrong; better, by Dr. Lightfoot thus; Nebuchadnezzar forty-five current; Evil-merodach twenty-three; and Bel- Joazzar three". So the Fewi/h chronicle ': J will punifh the king of Babylon and that nation, faith the Lord, for their iniquity, the king for his tyranny, and the nation for their idolatry; and both for thefe, and other fins they were guilty of; for tho” _ they did the will of God in carrying the Jews captive, they no doubt in their ufage of them ex~_ ceeded their commiffion, and were juftly punifhable for their iniquities. This is not to ftood. of the prefent king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar;, but of Nabonadius or Belfhazzar, whom the Lord punifhed by, Gyrus; who appears to ate been a very wicked man, and in the excefs of riot, prophaning the vefiels of the temple the night he was flain, Daw. v.1,2, 30: and the land of the Chaldeans, and will make it perpetual defolations; even as other nations had been made by them, j. 13. And I will bring upon that land all my words which I have pronounced againft it, &c.] By his prophets, and particularly by Yeremiah, as follows; for not one word that is fpoken by the Lord, either in a way of promife or threatning, fhall fail; his truth, power and faithfulnefs are engaged to accomplifh all: even all that is written in this book, which Feremiah hath prophefied againft all the nations; the Egyptians, Philiftines, Moabites, Edomites, Arabians, Perfians, and alfo the Baby- Jonians, in ch. xlvi. xlvii. xlviii. xlix. 1, li. which prophecies, in the Greek verfion, immediately follow here, tho’ in a confufed manner; where fome have thought they might be more regularly placed than as they are in the Hebrew copies, at the end of the book; but of this there feems to be no abfolute neceffity.

y. 14. For many nations and great kings fhall ferve ' themfelves of them alfo, &c.| Take their cities, feize upon the kingdom, fpoil them of their wealth and riches, and bring them into fervitude to them: thefe many nations, which fhould, and did do all this, were the Medes and Perfians, and thofe that were fubjecét to them, or were their allies and auxiliaries in this expedition; and the great kings were Gyrus and Darius, and thofe that were confederate with them: and I will recompenfe them according to their deeds, and according to the works of their own bands; as they have done to others, it fhall be done to them; as they have ferved themfelves of other nations, other nations fhall ferve themfelves of them; as they have cruelly ufed others, they fhall be ufed with cruelty themfelves; and as they have made other countries defolate, their land fhall become defolate alfo; not only their tyranny and cruelty, but all their other fins fhall receive a juft recompence of reward.

y.15. For thus faith the Lord God of Ifrael unto me, &c.|] The prophet: take the wine-cup of this fury at my band, in a vifion the Lord appeared: to Feremiah with a cup of wine in his hand, which he bid him take of him. It is ufual in fcripture for the judgments of God on men to be fignified by a cup of hot and intoxicating liquor, // li. 17, 22. Ser. xlix. 12. particularly in P/- Ixxv. 8. to which reference may be had; as Yohn feems to refer to the paflage here in Rev. xiv. 10. and xvi. 1g. called a cup, becaufe they are in meafure, and but fmall in comparifon of what will be inflicted in the world to come; and a cup of fury, becaufe they proceed from the wrath of God, ftirred up by the fins of men. archi interprets this cup of the prophecy of vengeance, which the Lord delivered to Feremiah, and not amifs: and caufe all the nations, to whom I fend thee, to drink it; prophefy unto them what wrath and ruin fhall come upon them.

x. 16. And they fall drink, and be moved, and be mad, &c.] The judgments foretold fhall come upon them, whether they will or no; which will have fuch effects upon them, as intoxicating liquor has on drunken perfons; make them fhake and tremble, and reel to and fro, and tofs and tumble about, and behave like madmen: decaufe of the ford that I will fend among them; this explains what is'meant by the wine-cup of fury, ‘the {word of a foreign enemy that fhall enter among them and deftroy; and which would make them tremble, and be at their wits end like drunken and madmen.

¥.17. Then took I the cup at the Lord’s band, &c.] In a vifionary way, and did as he commanded, and prophefied, as he directed him. The prophet was obedient to the heavenly vifion, as became him: and made all the nations to drink, unto whom the Lord had fent me; not that he travelled thro’ the feveral nations with a cup in his hand, as an emblem of what wrath would come upon them, and they fhould drink deep of; but this was done in vifion, and alfo in prophecy; the prophet publifhing the will of God, denouncing his judgments upon the nations, and declaring to them what would befal them.

¥.18. To wit, Ferufalem, and the cities of Fudab, &c.| Which are mentioned firft, becaufe God’s judgments began with them, as they ufually do with the houfe of God, 1 Pet. iv. 17. and even now began; for this very year in which this prophecy was delivered, Nebuchadnezzar came up and befieged Ferufalem, and carried away fome captives, Dan.i.1. This was the beginning of what afterwards were more fully executed: and the kings thereof, and the princes thereof; the kings Febciakim, Feconiah and Zedekiah, with thofe of their families, the princes of the blood, and their nobles: ¢o make them a defolation, an aftonifhment, an biffing, and a curfe; to ftrip them of their crowns and kingdom, of their wealth, and riches, and honour, and bring them into flavery and bondage; fo that they became an aftonifhment to fome, to fee the change that was made in them; and were hiffed at, and curfed by others: (as it is this day); which is added, either becaufe of the certainty of it, or becaufe it began to take place this very year; tho’ more fully in Feconiah’s time, and ftill more in Zedekiah’s; or rather this claufe might be added by Feremiah afier the captivity; or by Baruch, or by Ezra, or whoever collected his prophecies, and put them into one volume; as the fifty-fecond chapter feems to be added by another hand.

¥.19. Pharaoh king of Egypt, &c.] Who is mentioned firft after the kings of Judah; not only becaufe the ews were in alliance with Egypt, and trufted to them; and therefore this is obferved to fhow the vanity of their confidence and dependance; but becaufe the judgments of God firft took place on the king of Egypt; for in this very year in which this prophecy was delivered, Pharaob Necho King of Egypt was {mitten by Nebuchadnezzar, Fer. xlvi. 2. tho’ the prophecy had a further accomplifhment in Pharaoh Hophra, who was given into the hands of his enemies, as foretold, ch. xliv. 30: and his fervants, and bis princes, and all bis people; his menial fervants, his domeftics, and his nobles and peers of the realm, and all his fubjects. It exprefiés an utter deftruction of the kingdom of Egypt; and the particulars of it may be the rather given to fhew the vain truft of the Fes in that people.

y. 20. And all the mingled people, &c.] Not the Arabians, who are mentioned afterwards, ¥. 24. but rather a mixed people in the land of Egypr, fuch as came out of it along with the [/rachies; or were near it, and bordered upon it, as the Zargum, which renders it, all the bordering kings; or rather a mixture of people of different nations that dwelt by the fea-coaits, either the Medsterranean, or the Red-fea, as others think: aad ail the kings of the land of Uz; not the country of