Jeremiah 1:4-19

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Jeremiah 1:6

I cannot speak - Being very young, and wholly inexperienced, I am utterly incapable of conceiving aright, or of clothing these Divine subjects in suitable language. Those who are really called of God to the sacred ministry are such as have been brought to a deep acquaintance with themselves, feel their own ignorance, and know their own weakness. They know also the awful responsibility that attaches to the work; and nothing but the authority of God can induce such to undertake it. They whom... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Jeremiah 1:7

Whatsoever I command thee - It is my words and message, not thine own, that thou shalt deliver. I shall teach thee; therefore thy youth and inexperience can be no hinderance. read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Jeremiah 1:8

Be not afraid of their faces - That is, the Jews, whom he knew would persecute him because of the message which he brought. To be fore-warned is to be half armed. He knew what he was to expect from the disobedient and the rebellious, and must now be prepared to meet it. read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Jeremiah 1:10

I have - set thee over the nations - God represents his messengers the prophets as doing what he commanded them to declare should be done. In this sense they rooted up, pulled down, and destroyed - declared God's judgments, they builder up and planted - declared the promises of his mercy. Thus God says to Isaiah, Isaiah 6:10 ; : "Make the heart of this people fat - and shut their eyes." Show them that they are stupid and blind; and that, because they have shut their eyes and hardened their... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Jeremiah 1:11

A rod of an almond tree - שקד shaked , from שקד shakad , "to be ready," "to hasten," "to watch for an opportunity to do a thing," to awake; because the almond tree is the first to flower and bring forth fruit. Pliny says, Floret prima omnium amygdala mense Januario; Martio vero pomum maturat . It blossoms in January, when other trees are locked up in their winter's repose; and it bears fruit in March, just at the commencement of spring, when other trees only begin to bud. It was... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Jeremiah 1:12

I will hasten my word - Here is a paronomasia. What dost thou see? I see שקד shaked , "an almond," the hastening tree: that which first awakes. Thou hast well seen, for ( שקד shoked ) I will hasten my word. I will awake, or watch over my word for the first opportunity to inflict the judgments which I threaten. The judgment shall come speedily; it shall soon flourish, and come to maturity. read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Jeremiah 1:13

A seething pot - toward the north - We find, from Ezekiel 24:3 , etc., that a boiling pot was an emblem of war, and the desolations it produces. Some have thought that by the seething pot Judea is intended, agitated by the invasion of the Chaldeans, whose land lay north of Judea. But Dr. Blayney contends that צפונה מפני mippeney tsaphonah should be translated, From the face of the north, as it is in the margin; for, from the next verse, it appears that the evil was to come from the... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Jeremiah 1:14

Shall break forth - תפתח tippathach , shall be opened. The door shall be thrown abroad, that these calamities may pass out freely. read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Jeremiah 1:15

Shall set every one his throne at the entering of the gates - As the gates of the cities were the ordinary places where justice was administered, so the enemies of Jerusalem are here represented as conquering the whole land, assuming the reins of government, and laying the whole country under their own laws; so that the Jews should no longer possess any political power: they should be wholly subjugated by their enemies. read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Jeremiah 1:16

I will utter my judgments - God denounced his judgments: the conquest of their cities, and the destruction of the realm, were the facts to which these judgments referred; and these facts prove that the threatening was fulfilled. Worshipped the works of their own hands - Idolatry was the source of all their wickedness and was the cause of their desolations. For למעשי lemaasey , the works, more than a hundred MSS. of Kennicott's and De Rossi's, with many editions, have למעשה ... read more

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