Jeremiah 5:3-5 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

O Lord, are not thine eyes upon the truth Dost thou not approve of truth and faithfulness? And dost thou not search men's hearts, and clearly discern their real dispositions from their hypocritical pretences? Thou hast stricken them With one affliction after another; but they have not grieved They have remained insensible as stocks or stones: they have not been humbled, and made truly penitent. Thou hast consumed them Not chastised them lightly, but wasted them by several enemies: but they have refused to receive correction To accommodate themselves to, and answer thy design in, correcting them. They have not been instructed or amended by it. They have made their faces harder than a rock, &c. They have been obstinate and impudent in their evil practices, and have wilfully rejected thy counsel, and disregarded thy judgments. Therefore I said, These are poor, &c. I thought at first, says the prophet, that such insensibility and want of concern respecting the duties of religion could be only charged upon the rude and ignorant vulgar, who, through the ignorance and poverty of their parents, were not sufficiently instructed when young, and afterward had neither leisure nor opportunity of learning their duty. I will get me to the great men And see if I can find them better acquainted with, and regardful of, the providence and word of God. For I thought, rarely they have been better educated, and have had all opportunities and means of instruction and improvement, and therefore they must have known the way of the Lord, &c. But these have altogether broken the yoke, &c. These are more refractory than the others; no law of God is able to hold them.