God blesses the Rechabites for

CHAPTER XXXV.

their obedience to their father.

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A. M. 3398. fear of the army of the Syrians: soling them, saying, Return ye now A. M. 3398. we dwell at Jerusalem. every man from his evil way, and 12 Then came the word of the LORD unto amend your doings, and go not after other gods Jeremiah, saying, to serve them, and ye shall dwell in the land which I have given to you and to your fathers: but ye have not inclined your ear, nor hearkened unto me.

13 Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Go and tell the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, Will ye not receive instruction to hearken to my words? saith the LORD.

14 The words of Jonadab the son of Rechab, that he commanded his sons not to drink wine, are performed; for unto this day they drink none, but obey their father's commandment: notwithstanding I have spoken unto you, h rising early and speaking; but ye hearkened

16 Because the sons of Jonadab the son of Rechab have performed the commandment of their father, which he commanded them; but this people hath not hearkened unto me:

17 Therefore thus saith the LORD God of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will bring upon Judah and upon all the inhabitants of Jerusalem all the evil that I have pro15 I have sent also unto you all my ser-nounced against them; because I have spoken vants the prophets, rising up early and send- unto them, but they have not heard; and

not unto me.

1 Chap. xxxii. 33.

xxv. 3.

2 Chron. xxxvi. 15.-
Chap. vii. 25; xxv. 4.

Chap. vii. 13; * Chap. xviii. 11; xxv. 5, 6.- Proverbs i. 24; Isa. lxv. 12; lxvi. 4; Chap. vii. 13.

been, and most probably was, joined by the Syrians || and had only the wisdom and power of a man, and in his first expedition against Jerusalem, after the was only the father of their flesh; but the Jews were defeat of the Egyptians at Carchemish, which || disobedient to the infinite and eternal God, that had brought on the submission of Syria. And, 2d, Ne- an absolute authority over them, as the father of buchadnezzar does not appear to have come in per- their spirits. 2d, Jonadab was long since dead, and son a second time, at least till after Jehoiakim was was ignorant of his posterity, and could neither take taken prisoner, and his generals had closely invested || cognizance of their disobedience to his orders, nor Jerusalem." So we dwell at Jerusalem-Having give any correction for it; but God lives for ever to retired to Jerusalem upon the Chaldean invasion, see how his laws are observed, and is in readiness they were forced to continue there during the siege to punish all disobedience. 3d, The Rechabites of the place. In such an extraordinary case, they were probably seldom or never put in mind of their did not think themselves obliged to a strict observ- obligations to their progenitor; but God often sent ance of the injunction of Jonadab respecting dwell- || his prophets to his people, to remind them of, and ing in tents, because all human laws admit of an excite to, their duty to him, yet they would not equitable construction, and may be superseded in comply with it. This is insisted on here as a great cases of necessity, or when the observance of them aggravation of their disobedience, verses 14, 15. is attended with such great inconveniences as the 4th, Jonadab had not conferred, nor could confer, lawgiver himself, if he could have foreseen them, any such favours on his seed as God had bestowed would probably have excepted. on his people, nor had laid them under any such Verses 12-16. Then came the word of the Lord obligations, from duty and interest, to obey him, as unto Jeremiah-As the trial of the constancy of the God had laid Israel and Judah under to observe his Rechabites was only intended for a sign, so now we laws. 5th, God did not oblige his people to so much have the application of it made by God himself. || hardship, and to such instances of self-denial and Tell the men of Judah, Will ye not receive instruc- || mortification, as Jonadab enjoined to his seed, and yet tion? &c.-Will nothing enlighten or affect you? || Jonadab's orders were obeyed, and God's were not. Will nothing prevail to make you sensible of your Verse 17. Therefore thus saith the Lord, Besin and duty? You see how obedient the Rechab- || hold, &c.-Because they have not obeyed the preites are to their father's commandment; but you have cepts of my word, I will therefore perform the not hearkened unto me-Though it might have been threatenings of it. I will bring upon Judah, &c.— more reasonably expected that my people should Namely, by the Chaldean army; all the evil that I have obeyed me, than that the sons of Jonadab || have pronounced against them-Both in the law should have obeyed him. Thus the Rechabites' ob- and in the prophets; because I have spoken unto servance of their father's charge to them is made || them, and called unto them-Tried all ways and use of by God as an aggravation of the disobedience of the Jews to him: and the aggravation was certainly very high. For, 1st, The Rechabites were obedient to one that was but a man like themselves, ||

means to convince and reduce them; spoken by my word, called by my providence, and both in order to the same end; and yet all to no purpose: they have not heard nor answered.

Jeremiah is directed

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A. M. 3398. I have called unto them, but they || all his precepts, and done according A. M. 3398. have not answered. unto all that he hath commanded you: 19 Therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; 2 Jonadab the son of Rechab shall not want a man to stand before me

18 T And Jeremiah said unto the house of the Rechabites, Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Because ye have obeyed the commandment of Jonadab your father, and kept || for ever.

Heb. There shall not a man be cut off from Jonadab

Verses 18, 19. Jeremiah said unto the house of the Rechabites, &c.-Mercy is here promised to the family of the Rechabites for their steady and unanimous adherence to the laws of their house. Though it was only for the shaming of Israel that their constancy was tried, yet, being unshaken, God takes occasion from it to tell them that he had blessings in reserve for them. Jonadab shall not want a man to stand before me for ever-"The meaning of this promise," says Blaney," in its full extent, seems to be, not only that the race of Jonadab should never

the son of Rechab to stand, &c.- m Chap. xv. 19.

fail or be extinct, but that some of the family should ever be found among the worshippers of the true God. For to stand in the presence of a prince, implies an attendance, in some degree, upon his person and service. So the queen of Sheba, speaking of Solomon's court, says, Happy are thy men, happy are these thy servants, which stand continually before thee, 1 Kings x. 8; and therefore, to stand before God, must denote at least the privilege of treading his courts, and of worshipping him among the train of his chosen servants and people."

CHAPTER XXXVI.

In this chapter we have an account of another expedient tried, but tried in vain, to awaken and reform this heedless and refractory people. (1,) By divine appointment a roll of a book is provided, and Jeremiah causes Baruch to write therein all his preceding prophecies, 1-4. (2,) Baruch, by Jeremiah's order, reads this roll to all the people publicly on a fası day, 5-10. (3,) The princes are informed of it, and send for Baruch, who reads the roll before them, at the contents of which they are greatly alarmed, and advise Jeremiah and Baruch to hide themselves, 11–19. (4,) They acquaint the king with these things, who sends for the roll, and having heard a part of it read, he cuts it in pieces and burns it, 20-26. (5,) God commands Jeremiah to write it anew, and to denounce the judgments of God against King Jehoiakim, 27–31. (6,) Baruch writes a new copy, with additions, 32.

when Jehoiakim was escaped from the hand of Nebuchadnezzar. It seems probable from what follows, particularly from verse 9, that it happened at or near the end of the fourth year, when Nebuchadnezzar was retired. For Jeremiah says nothing of the siege, and he orders Baruch to read his prophecies before an assembly of the people who had come to Jerusalem out of their cities, verse 6, which certainly im-plies that Jerusalem was not then in a state of siege. See Calmet.

Verse 1. And it came to pass, &c.—Jeremiah here inserts a history of some things which related to, or had a connection with, his prophecies; (as we find Isaiah did with regard to his;) and, accordingly, we are here informed how they came to be written, namely, by the express order of God, that they might || stand upon record before the things foretold came to pass; so that there might be no room to say he had never prophesied such and such things, or that the prophecies were made after the things they pretend- Verse 2. Take thee a roll of a book-Compare ed to foretel had happened. In the fourth year of Isa. viii. 1; Ezek. ii. 9; Zech. v. 1. The ancient Jehoiakim this word came unto Jeremiah-It is un- manner of writing was upon long scrolls of parchcertain whether what is related in this chapter hap-ment, which they afterward rolled upon sticks. On pened during the siege of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, (for the city was besieged in the fourth year of Jchoiakim, 2 Kings xxiv. 1, 2,) or after the siege,

these words it is remarked by Harmer, (vol. iv. chap. || 7, obs. 122,) "Many things were rolled up, much in the shape of an ancient Jewish manuscript, which

Jeremiah directs Baruch

CHAPTER XXXVI.

to read them publicly.

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f

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A. M. 3398. 3 It may be that the house of || 5 And Jeremiah commanded Ba- A. M. 3398. Judah will hear all the evil which I ruch, saying, I am shut up, I cannot purpose to do unto them; that they may re-go into the house of the LORD: turn every man from his evil way; that I may forgive their iniquity and their sin.

6 Therefore go thou and read in the roll, which thou hast written from my mouth, the words of the LORD in the ears of the people in the LORD's house upon the fasting day: and also thou shalt read them in the ears of all Judah that come out of their cities.

h Chapter xlv. 1.

i

Leviticus xvi. 29; xxiii. 27-32; Acts xxvii. 9.

Verse 4. Then Jeremiah called Baruch-Baruch was the most faithful disciple of this prophet: he served him as long as he lived in the capacity of his secretary, and never left him till his death. And Baruch wrote from the mouth of Jeremiah all the words, &c.-We need not ask how Jeremiah could remember all the prophecies that he had prophesied, for twenty-two years before, considering who it was that commanded him to put them in writing. God undoubtedly brought them to his remembrance, otherwise it would have been impossible for him to have recollected them all. The Spirit of God dictated to Jeremiah, and he to Baruch.

yet were not fit to write upon; the words then in this, and some other similar cases, may be understood to mean, Take thee a roll, or volume, fit to be made a book of, fit to be written on." And write therein all the words that I have spoken against Israel and Judah-Jeremiah prophesied against Israel as well as against Judah, chap. ii. 4; iii. 12, 14; xxiii. 13; xxxii. 30. The kingdom of Israel was indeed destroyed by Shalmaneser, before the time of Jeremiah; but yet the prophet was ordered to reprove their sins, both || to make the justice of God appear in punishing them so severely, and withal to warn the Jews by their example. Besides, there were some remains of these tribes still left, who joined themselves to the tribe of Judah. And against all the nations-Seeing, I am shut up-It is not said, that "he was shut chap. xxv. 15, 16. From the day I spake unto thee, up in prison" at this time: but barely that he was from the days of Josiah-Namely, all the revela- shut up, or confined, as my signifies, that is, under tions which he had had from God for twenty-two some such confinement, or restraint, as precluded years last past; for he began to prophesy in the thir- his going to the house of the Lord. Therefore go teenth year of Josiah, who reigned thirty-one years, thou and read in the roll, &c., upon the fasting day so that he prophesied eighteen years during Josiah's-Not the day of the yearly fast, mentioned Lev. life, and this was the fourth year of the reign of Je- || xxiii. 27, but on a day appointed for a national fast, hoiakim, his successor. God would have his prophecies recorded, that there might be a memorial of them, that so the truth of them might appear when God should bring them to pass; the time of which now drew near.

Verses 5, 6. Jeremiah commanded Baruch, say

of which we read more, verse 9, proclaimed by Jehoiakim, probably to avert the calamity hanging over them from the Chaldeans, or from the drought. And it was undoubtedly because of the concourse of people which the prophet knew would then be in the Verse 3. It may be that the house of Judah will temple that he chose that day, when some would be hear, &c.—That is, will hearken, and lay to heart, present from all parts of Judah. It was the opinion, all the evil, &c., that they may return, &c.-Blaney indeed, of Archbishop Usher and Dean Prideaux, translates the verse, "Peradventure the house of Ju- that the roll was twice read by Baruch in the temdah may hear all the evil which I purpose to do unto ple, and that the first reading was on the tenth day them, so as to return every one from his evil way, of the seventh month, being the great day of atoneand I may forgive their iniquity and their sin." See ment, in the fourth year of King Jehoiakim. "But the like expression, verse 7; chap. xxvi. 3; Ezek. this," says Blaney, "I am persuaded is a mistake; xii. 3; Am. v. 15; in which places God is introduced || and that the reasons urged by the latter of those two as speaking after the manner of men, and using such learned men, in support of this hypothesis, are by methods as, in human probability, might be most no means conclusive. I see no good reason for conlikely to prevail: compare chap. viii. 6. These, and cluding that the roll was read publicly in the temple expressions of the like kind, sufficiently indicate that more than once; nor does Josephus, who speaks of God's foreknowledge of future events lays no re- its being read in the ninth month of the fifth year, straint on the will of man, nor takes away the liberty (Antiquities, lib. x. cap. 6,) give the least hint of its of human actions. That I may forgive their iniquity having been read before; if it had been, I think and their sin-Forgiveness of sin in Scripture some- we might naturally expect to be informed how times signifies the acquitting of a sinner from the it was received by those who heard it the first time, obligation sin had laid him under to eternal death; as well as by those who heard it the second. From sometimes the remission of a temporal punishment: the utter silence on this head, the contrary may be it may here be understood as comprehending both, presumed, and we may fairly conjecture the case to though it is probable the latter is principally intended. I have been pretty nearly as follows. Toward the

||

The reading of the roll

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entry of the new gate of the LORD'S house, in the ears of all the people.

11

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A. M. 3398. 7 It may be they will present || scribe, in the higher court, at the A. M. 3398. their supplication before the LORD, and will return every one from his evil way: for great is the anger and the fury that the LORD hath pronounced against this people. 8 And Baruch the son of Neriah did according to all that Jeremiah the prophet commanded him, reading in the book the words of the LORD in the LORD's house.

When Michaiah the son of Gemariah, the son of Shaphan, had heard out of the book all the words of the LORD,

12 Then he went down into the king's house, into the scribe's chamber: and lo, all the princes sat there, even Elishama the scribe, and Delaiah the son of Shemaiah, and Elnathan the son of Achbor, and Gemariah the son of Shaphan, and Zedekiah the son of Hananiah, and all the princes.

13 Then Michaiah declared unto them all the words that he had heard, when Baruch read the book in the ears of the people.

14 Therefore all the princes sent Jehudi the son of Nethaniah, the son of Shelemiah, the son of Cushi, unto Baruch, saying, Take in thy

Verses 9, 10. In the fifth year, &c., they proclaimed a fast-"It was customary among the Jews to proclaim anniversary fasts upon certain days, in memo

latter end of Jehoiakim's fourth year, after Nebuchadnezzar had replaced him on the throne, and had left the city, it is possible that both king and people, freed from former apprehensions, began again to in-ry of some great calamities which had befallen them dulge their wicked inclinations; and therefore Jeremiah was ordered to lay before them at once all the evils that still threatened them, and from which nothing but speedy repentance could protect them. In consequence of this charge, he caused Baruch to write a collection of all his prophecies, and to have them in readiness to read at a fit opportunity. Perhaps the collection was not fully completed before the fifth year was already begun; but the season pitched on, as most convenient for reading this tremendous publication, was the day on which the people should assemble to deplore, before God, the calamity with which he had visited them just twelve months before. Accordingly, at that time Baruch read openly in the temple what he had written, and the immediate consequences of such reading are here related at large."

at that time. Of this kind were the fasts of the fourth, fifth, seventh, and tenth months, mentioned Zech. vii. 5, and viii. 19; the first instituted in remembrance of the city's being taken by Nebuchadnezzar; the second in memory of the temple's being burned in that month; the third for the murder of Gedaliah; the fourth in memory of the siege which then began. Then read Baruch the words of Jeremiah, in the house of the Lord-It has been before observed, that by the house of the Lord is meant all that is included within the sacred precincts of the temple; not only the sanctuary, or house properly so called, but all the out-buildings, and the courts around, both the inner court of the priests, and the outer court, which was open to all the people. In the chamber of Gemariah the scribe-This chamber was undoubtedly in the great outer court, either close to, or over the Verses 7, 8. It may be they will present their sup-|| gateway of the eastern gate; so that if he read, as is plications-Hebrew, mnnnn hon, perad- supposed, from a window, or balcony, he would be venture they may prostrate themselves in supplica- || heard by the concourse of people that came flocking tion before Jehovah; or, more literally, their suppli- || into the court through that gate: see chap. xxvi. 10. cation may fall before Jehovah, which, undoubtedly, Verses 11-15. When Michaiah, the son of Shasays Blaney, "respects the humble posture of the phan, had heard, &c.-Shaphan's family were all supplicant in presenting it :" see note on verse 3. In great men at court: see note on chap. xxvi. 24; the subsequent part of the verse, the words anger || he went down into the king's house, &c.—It is unand fury (or, wrath, as 7, should rather be ren- certain whether this Michaiah went to make this redered) are put by a metonymy for the effects of lation to the princes, who sat in the secretary's them, namely, the heavy judgments which, in con- chamber, as a piece of news only, or out of a malisequence thereof, Jehovah had denounced against cious design to accuse the prophet and Baruch, as this people. We learn from this verse that prayer persons guilty of a seditious practice, in what they and reformation are the most likely means that can had done. Then Michaiah declared unto them all be used to turn away God's wrath when it is ready the words that he had heard-That is, the substance to fall upon a sinful nation. of all the words, &c.; for none can imagine that a

CHAPTER XXXVI.

the reading of the roll. A. M. 3398. hand the roll wherein thou hast read || mouth, and I wrote them with ink A. M. 3398. in the ears of the people, and come. So Baruch the son of Neriah took the roll in his hand, and came unto them.

in the book.

19 Then said the princes unto Baruch, Go hide thee, thou and Jeremiah, and let no man know where ye be.

20 And they went in to the king into the court, but they laid up the roll in the chamber of Elishama the scribe, and told all the words in the ears of the king.

21 So the king sent Jehudi to fetch the roll: and he took it out of Elishama the scribe's chamber. And Jehudi read it in the ears of the king, and in the ears of all the princes which stood beside the king.

22 Now the king sat in the winter-house in the ninth month: and there was a fire

m Amos iii. 15.