Jeremiah 4:4 - Exposition

Circumcise yourselves to the Lord . A significant passage. All the Jews were circumcised, but not all were "circumcised to the Lord." There were but too many who were "circumcised in uncircumcision" ( Jeremiah 9:25 ), and the prophet sternly reduces ouch circumcision to the level of the heathenish rite of cutting off the hair ( Jeremiah 9:26 ; comp. Herod. 3.8). Jeremiah seems to have been specially anxious to counteract a merely formal, ritualistic notion of circumcision, sharing in this, as in other points, the influence of the Book of Deuteronomy, so lately found in the temple (comp. Deuteronomy 10:16 ). To him the venerable rite of circumcision (older, certainly, than Abraham) is a symbol of the devotion of the heart to its rightful Lord (comp. St. Paul in Romans 2:28 , Romans 2:29 ; Colossians 2:11 ; Philippians 3:3 ).