He hath forsaken his covert, &c.— For who would have dared to approach it, if he had thought good to protect it? if Jerusalem, if the temple, if Judaea, are delivered into the hand of the Chaldeans, it is because He who guarded and protected them hath forsaken and abandoned them.
REFLECTIONS.—1st, This prophesy bears date in the first year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, and the fourth of Jehoiakim; and it is directed to the people in general, probably when assembled at Jerusalem on one of the three annual feasts. If the princes will not hear, perhaps the people may; at least it will leave both inexcusable.
1. The prophet reminds them how long and how earnestly God had been exhorting them, by his ministers and others, to turn from the evil of their ways. Three-and-twenty years he had preached, from the 13th of Josiah, to the 4th of Jehoiakim, rising early, and speaking diligently, constantly, faithfully, while Michah, Nahum, and Habakkuk, had just preceded him, and Zephaniah was his cotemporary; besides many others whom God in mercy had sent to warn them, unwilling they should perish, and accompanying his admonitions with the most gracious promises. They are plainly told of their sins, and exhorted to repent of them; if they would return from their shameful idolatries, and from all their other evil works, then God's threatenings should not light upon them, but they should long and peaceably enjoy their good land. Note; (1.) God will remember against the sinner all the means of grace that he has abused, as one of his greatest condemnations in the day of judgment. (2.) They who are sent on God's messages need be earnest and diligent in delivering them, that they may at least be free from the blood of all men. (3.) God doth not strike without warning; but if we will not hear, we must perish.
2. The prophet upbraids them with their impenitence and hardness of heart. They hearkened not, nor inclined their ear; they would not so much as pay a moment's attention to the message, their heart was so averse to it; they resolved to abide in their sins and provocations, let the consequence be never so much to their hurt; and thus, as all impenitent sinners do, destroyed themselves.
2nd, The judgment is pronounced on the rebellious people of Judah, and their destroyers shall not go unpunished.
1. Judah shall be destroyed by the king of Babylon, God's servant in this behalf to execute vengeance on this devoted nation. Around his standard the families of the north are summoned, his victorious army marches, and desolation marks their way; Judaea falls; and all her neighbours, so far from affording her assistance, are involved in the general ruin; and so terrible the ravages, that they shall be an astonishment and an hissing, and perpetual desolations: during seventy years that their miseries should last, the voice of joy be never heard in the city, no nuptial songs, no sound of mirth, no provision should be left, no candle burn in it, but melancholy silence reign; the land uncultivated, destitute of inhabitants, and swept with the besom of destruction. Note; (1.) They who will not be ruled by God's word, must be ruined. (2.) God often uses wicked instruments to chastise his own people; and they are made to do his work, when meaning only to aggrandize themselves.
2. Babylon, the destroyer of others, shall herself also, after seventy years, be destroyed for her iniquity, her tyranny, pride, and cruelty to God's Israel; and the land of the Chaldeans shall be made perpetual desolations, when all the evil pronounced by Jeremiah, chap. xlvi-li. shall come upon them; and as she hath served herself of other nations, subduing and plundering them, God will recompense her in kind, and raise up many nations and great kings, the Medea, Persians, and their allies, to lay her waste, and enrich themselves with her spoils.
3rdly, Judgment begins at the house of God, but it spreads far and near. The neighbouring nations must drink of the same cup, and at last Babylon herself take it in turn.
1. The judgment is represented under a wine-cup of fury. The sins of all these nations had provoked God's wrath, and heavy it falls on them; like men intoxicated with liquor, without wisdom or might, they should become an easy conquest, and the sword of God devour them. Nor would their reluctance to submit to their doom avail any thing. The prophet is commanded to make them drink, denouncing the judgments of God, which would quite overwhelm them and sink them into ruin, from which they should never, or at least not for a long while, recover. Note; It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God: then all resistance is vain.
2. The nations who are the subjects of this prophesy are; first, Jerusalem and the cities of Judah: their sins being most aggravated, they suffer first. Egypt, on whom they placed dependence, next falls under the Babylonish yoke: then all the mingled people, the bordering nations; some, as Tyre and Zidon, that had been the friends; others, as Moab and Edom, who had been the inveterate foes of Judah, but now sink in the promiscuous ruin: far and wide the rapid conqueror spreads his arms, even to all the kingdoms of the then known world, at least to the whole extent of that great monarchy, which was termed, from its vast territory, universal. At last, the lofty queen of nations herself must be laid in the dust, and the king of Sheshach, or Babylon, must drink of the same cup, and perish as the kingdoms he had destroyed. It is added, as it is this day, in a parenthesis: probably that was inserted by Jeremiah, who lived to see the ruin of his country; or by him (whether Baruch or Ezra) who collected these prophesies when the event had verified the prediction.
3. If God spares not his own people, let not the rest of the nations of whom they have learned idolatry, think to go unpunished. His determination is fixed, and the accomplishment of it is inevitable. Note; (1.) When God arises to judge, the greatest nations are but as stubble before the whirlwind. (2.) Wherever sinners are, however many, however mighty, surely they shall not go unpunished.
4thly, The sword threatened is Nebuchadnezzar's; but the war is of God, who clothes him with his power, and ensures to him the victory. The terribleness of the judgment is described.
1. The tremendous voice of God shall be heard from on high in mighty thunderings. He shall roar upon his habitation, the earth in general, or Jerusalem in particular; or out of his habitation, from the heavens, where he hath placed his radiant throne. He shall give a shout, as when contending armies rush into the battle, and as those who tread the grapes at the vintage; and so loud the sound, that the most distant realms shall hear, even to the ends of the earth.
2. Righteous vengeance shall seize the wicked. The Lord hath a controversy with the nations for their wickedness, and he will plead with all flesh, will bring them to his tribunal; and he will give them that are wicked to the sword; from nation to nation the judge shall go in circuit. A great whirlwind shall be raised up from the coasts of the earth; the Chaldean army first, then the Medes, afterwards the Greeks, and lastly the Romans, all God's executioners of vengeance; and those who fall by their arms are the slain of the Lord, from one end of the earth to the other. Unlamented they shall fall for want of mourners, or because their friends and relations are so occupied with their own danger that they are insensible to every thing beside; unburied they shall lie as dung upon the earth, and no compassionate hand be found to gather the scattered corpses and hide them in a grave.
3. The shepherds are called upon to howl for these horrible desolations; either the kings of the earth in general, or the rulers of Judah in particular, to whom the words seem to be addressed. Wallow yourselves in the ashes, ye principal of the flock, in the deepest agony, most bitter sorrow, and hopeless misery, for the days of your slaughter and of your dispersions, are accomplished, like sheep before the wolf, torn, worried, and dispersed; and ye shall fall like a pleasant vessel, irreparably broken in pieces. Then flight will be vain, and all hope of escape desperate. See chap. Jeremiah 39:4-6. Shrieks shall ascend on every side, the heart of the mightiest fail, ruin and desolation universal be spread around, and even the peaceable habitations are cut down, the palaces where peace and plenty reigned; or, as is common in the ravages of war, they who lived inoffensively, and never provoked the scourge, share in the general calamity of the land, because of the fierce anger of the Lord, the cause of all these fearful judgments. He hath forsaken his covert as the lion; either God, going forth against the shepherds and their flocks to destroy them; or rather Nebuchadnezzar, roused up from Babylon; and the land is desolate, ravaged by his army, because of the fierceness of the oppressor, or oppressing sword, and because of his fierce anger; either the wrath of God or of the king of Babylon, rushing forth to the slaughter. Note; (1.) War is a dreadful scourge. (2.) The rulers, who were deepest in transgression, shall be chief in suffering. (3.) Woe unto the sinful soul against which God rises up as an enemy! May the judgment, of others be our warnings, that we may hear and fear, and do no more wickedly!