Jeremiah 5:22-24 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Fear ye not me? saith the Lord He ascribes their stupidity and foolishness to their want of the fear of God. As if he had said, If you would but call to mind God's almighty power, and your own weakness, and keep an awe of him upon your minds, you would be more observant of his commands, and be afraid to disobey them. Which have placed the sand for the bound of the sea Who need not place rocks or walls to keep it in; but can give an effectual check to it by a little despicable sand. “The keeping of the waters within bounds, so that they cannot overflow the earth, is often mentioned in Scripture as an immediate effect of God's overruling power and providence. For water being specifically lighter than earth, by the common laws of gravitation it should rise above it, and overflow it. And then the adjusting the proportion of the tides, that they rise no higher, to the prejudice of the lower grounds, is another remarkable instance of God's special providence.” Lowth. But this people are more ungovernable than the unruly waves of the sea: they have a revolting and a rebellious heart They have not only revolted from me and gone back, but they continue obstinate, and will not return. They persist in their evil courses, and are determined so to do: they are gone quite away, and are irreclaimable. Neither say they in their heart They are so careless that they never trouble themselves about any thing of the kind; or are so obdurate that they never lay it to heart, nor consider that it is God, who disposeth of all things according to his own pleasure, both in the great deep and on dry land. Let us now fear the Lord our God Or, worship and obey him; all acceptable service to God being both performed in his fear, and proceeding from it. That giveth rain Without which the earth could produce no fruits. By this the true God is distinguished from all false gods, Jeremiah 14:22; and in this appears not only his power in appointing and preparing it, (Psalms 147:8,) and his sovereignty in withholding it, (Amos 4:7,) but his general goodness in bestowing it, (Deuteronomy 28:12,) and his special providence in distributing it according as there is need. As in the former instance God shows how insensible his people were of his power and glorious greatness in taming such an unruly element as the sea; so here he further sets forth their inattention to, and disregard of, his providence and goodness; implying that they were grown so stupid, unfeeling, and obstinate, that they neither stood in awe of him for his greatness, nor feared to offend him for his goodness. “The vicissitudes of seasons, of cold and heat, of drought and moisture, so wisely fitted for the growth of the fruits of the earth, and other uses of human life, are so remarkable a proof of the being and attributes of God and his providence, as to be obvious to the meanest capacity, and on this account they are frequently insisted on by the inspired writers.” Lowth. Concerning the former and latter rain, see note on Deuteronomy 11:14; and Proverbs 16:15. He reserveth, &c., the appointed weeks of the harvest He gives seasonable harvests, according to his appointment. The sum is: the prophet would let them know what a foolish as well as wicked thing it was to set themselves against that God who kept, as he still keeps, the whole order of nature at his disposal, governing and changing it as he sees men behave toward him.