Jeremiah 11:6-8 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Proclaim all these words in the cities of Judah, &c. That all may hear, for all are concerned; saying, Hear ye the words, &c., and do them Let it be thy work to call upon this people, not only to hear, but to do the things which I have commanded them, and which they have engaged to do. For I earnestly protested Hebrew, in protesting I protested; a way of speaking by which the Hebrews expressed the seriousness and earnestness wherewith any thing was done: by protesting, he means the same with charging and solemnly enjoining, with promises annexed to obedience, and threatenings denounced in case of disobedience. This, God says, he had done with a great deal of patience and diligence, even from the time that this people were brought by him out of the land of Egypt to the present period. Yet they obeyed not And, because they were resolved not to be subject to God's commandments, they would not so much as incline their ears to them, but walked every one in the imagination of his evil heart, following their own inventions; and each one acting as his fancy or humour led him, both in their devotions and in their conversations. Therefore I will bring upon them all the words of this covenant That is, all the threatenings contained in it. Observe, reader, the words of God's covenant shall not fall to the ground. If we do not by our obedience qualify ourselves for the blessings of it, we shall, by our disobedience, bring ourselves under the curses of it.