A wonderful and horrible thing is committed in the land. What may justly raise admiration in some, and horror in others, or both in all: it is so amazing that it can hardly be conceived of, and so shameful and filthy as not to be expressed; what it is follows: read more
The prophets prophesied falsely ,.... That the people would have peace and prosperity, and not be carried captive into Babylon, as Jeremiah and other true prophets of the Lord had predicted: and the priests bear rule by their means ; or rather "the princes"; for the word signifies princes as well as priests, and to the former government more properly belongs; and so Jarchi interprets it of the judges of the people, and their exactors; these governed the people according to the words of... read more
A wonderful and horrible thing is committed on the land - Dahler translates: "Strange crimes and horrible trespasses have been committed in the land." These have been already detailed; but this may refer to what follows. read more
The prophets prophesy falsely - The false prophets predict favorable things, that they may please both the princes and the people. The priests bear rule by their means - The false prophets affording them all that their influence and power can procure, to enable them to keep their places, and feed on the riches of the Lord's house. And my people love to have it so - Are perfectly satisfied with this state of things, because they are permitted to continue in their sins without reproof... read more
Verse 30 The Prophet, being not satisfied with the reproof which we have observed, speaks still more strongly against the wickedness of the people. He then says, that so deplorable was their state as to make all to feel amazed. A stupendous thing, he says, has happened, which exceeds all human conception, and cannot be comprehended. By the two words he uses, he intimates that the impiety of the people could not be expressed in words or could not be conceived by the mind; for it was a monstrous... read more
Verse 31 Let us now see what was this monstrous thing which the Prophet here refers to, and which he abhorred. The prophets, he says, prophesy falsely It was no doubt enough to make all astonished, when these impostors assumed the name of prophets at Jerusalem, where God had chosen his habitation and his sanctuary: how great and how base a profanation was it of God’s name? There were indeed at that time impostors everywhere, who boasted that they were God’s prophets, who in many places passed... read more
A wonderful and horrible thing , etc.; rather, an appalling and horrible thins hath happened in the land . The word rendered "appalling" (or stupefying) has a peculiar force, it only occurs again in Jeremiah 23:14 , though a cognate adjective is found in Jeremiah 18:13 (comp. on Jeremiah 2:11 ). read more
The result of the prophet's examination of the moral condition of the people. read more
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Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Jeremiah 5:25-31
Here, I. The prophet shows them what mischief their sins had done them: They have turned away these things (Jer. 5:25), the former and the latter rain, which they used to have in due season (Jer. 5:24), but which had of late been withheld (Jer. 3:3), by reason of which the appointed weeks of harvest had sometimes disappointed them. ?It is your sin that has withholden good from you, when God was ready to bestow it upon you.? Note, It is sin that stops the current of God's favour to us, and... read more