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John Calvin

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - Jeremiah 14:5

Verse 5 Jeremiah now comes to animals: he said before, that men would be visited with thirst, and then that the ground would become dry, so theft husbandmen would be ashamed; he now says that the wild asses and the hinds would become partakers of this scarcity. The hind, he says, has brought forth in the field, which was not usual; but he says that such would be the drought, that the hinds would come forth to the plains. The hinds, we know, wander in solitary places and there seek their food,... read more

John Calvin

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - Jeremiah 14:6

Verse 6 The same thing is said of the wild asses, And the wild asses, he says, stood on the rocks: and yet this animal, we know, can endure want for a long Lime. But the Prophet, as I have said, intended to shew that there would be in this scarcity some remarkable evidences of God’s vengeance. Stood then did the wild asses on the rocks, and thence drew in wind like serpents: for great is the heat of serpents; on account of inward burning they are constrained to draw in wind to allay the heat... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Jeremiah 14:1-6

A plague of drought. I. A PLAGUE OF DROUGHT IS AN INSTANCE OF A NATURAL CALAMITY OCCASIONING GREAT DISTRESS . Jeremiah gives a vivid picture of the trouble such a plague causes. Men of all classes, from the noble to the ploughman, suffer under it; the animal world is driven from its natural instincts; universal desolation and agony prevail. Yet this is all natural . It is not the result of war nor of any human interference; it is a natural calamity. Nature is... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Jeremiah 14:1-6

The miseries produced by lack of water. I. THE BITTER CONSCIOUSNESS THAT AN IMPERATIVE NEED CANNOT BE SATISFIED . Well might there be mourning, languishing, and crying. When we are speaking of need, one of the first questions to be asked is whether the need is natural or artificial. An artificial need, by continued self-indulgence, may come to be very keenly felt; and yet, when circumstances arise which prevent the satisfying of the need, the artificiality of it is... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Jeremiah 14:1-9

Thankfulness through contrast: a harvest sermon. These verses are a terrible picture of drought and famine. Our thankfulness for what God has done for us in the bounteous harvest he has given may be called forth the more by considering the contrast with our happy lot which these verses present. Contrast is a great teacher. It is the black board on which the teacher's white markings are more clearly seen, the dark background of the sky on the face of which the stars shine out the more. Now,... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Jeremiah 14:3

Their nobles —i.e. the upper classes of Judah and Jerusalem— have sent their little ones ; rather, their mean ones ; i.e. their servants, or perhaps (as Naegelsbach and Payne Smith) simply, "the common people;" it was not a matter concerning the rich alone. To the pits ; i.e. to the cisterns. Covered their heads ; a sign of the deepest mourning ( 2 Samuel 15:30 ; 2 Samuel 19:4 ; Esther 6:12 ). read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Jeremiah 14:4

The ground is chapt . Perhaps: but it is more obvious to render, is dismayed , according to the usual meaning of the word. Words which properly belong to human beings are often, by a "poetic fallacy," applied to inanimate objects (as in Jeremiah 14:2 ). In the earth ; rather, in the land . read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Jeremiah 14:5

Even the animals starve. Yea, the hind also . The hind, contrary to that intense natural affection for which she was famous among the ancients, abandons her young. read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Jeremiah 14:6

The wild asses … in the high places ; rather, on the bare heights . " The wild asses," says a traveler cited by Rosenmüller," are especially fond of treeless mountains." Like dragons ; render rather, like jackals ( as Jeremiah 9:11 ; Jeremiah 10:22 ). The allusion is to the way jackals hold their head as they howl. We are told that even the keen eyes of the wild asses fail, because there was [is] no grass ; rather, herbage . They grow dim first with seeking it so long... read more

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