The bellows are burned, the lead is consumed of the fire; the founder melteth in vain: for the wicked are not plucked away.
Ver. 29. The bellows are burnt.] The prophet's lungs are spent; all their pains spilt upon a perverse people. See Ezekiel 24:6; Ezekiel 24:12,13. Jeremiah had blowed hard, as a smith or metallary doth with his bellows; he had suffered, as it were, by the heat of a most ardent fire in trying and melting his ore; he had used his best art also by casting in lead, as today they do quicksilver, to melt it the more easily, and with less loss and waste; but all to no purpose at all. Let us, to the wearing of our tongues to the stumps, preach never so much, men will on in sin, said Bradford. a
The lead is consumed.] All the melting judgments which, as lead is cast into the furnace to make it the hotter, God added to the ministry of the prophets to make the Word more operative, they will do no good.
The founder melteth in vain.] Whether God, the master founder, or the prophets, God's co-founders or fellow workmen, as the apostle calleth them. 1Co 6:1
The wicked are not plucked away.] Or, Their wickednesses; they will not part with their dross, or be divorced from their dilecta delicta, beloved sins. The vile person will speak villany, and his heart will work iniquity, to practise hypocrisy, and to utter error against the Lord. Isa 32:6
a Mr Case's Treatise of Afflictions.