Therefore pray not thou for this people, neither lift up cry nor prayer for them, neither make intercession to me: for I will not hear thee.
Ver. 16. Therefore pray not thou for this people.] For I am unchangeably resolved upon their ruin, and I would not have thy prayers, those honeydrops, spilt upon them. Their day of grace is past, their sins are full, the decree is now gone forth, and it is irreversible, therefore pray not for this deplored people; there is a sin unto death, and who knows but their sin was such? Sure it is the prophet was silenced here, and that was a sad symptom.
Neither lift up cry.] Verbum aptum precibus est; lift up is a very fit expression, and the word rendered cry comes from a root a that signifieth clamare voce contenta et efficaci, to set up the note to some tune, as we say.
Neither make intercession to me.] Interdicit ei ne intercedat. Here and elsewhere God flatly forbids the prophet to pray. See Jeremiah 14:7; Jeremiah 14:11; and yet he is at it again. Jer 7:19-22 So Exodus 32:11,13, Let me alone, saith God. The Chaldee there hath it, Cease thy prayer; but Moses would not. These were men of prayer, and could truly say of themselves, as David once did, Psa 109:4 But I gave myself to prayer. Where the Hebrew hath it, But I, prayer; as if he had been made up of it, and had minded little else. The Lord also, they knew, was a prayer hearing God. "Oh thou that art hearing prayers" - so the Hebrew hath it Psa 65:2 - always hearing some, and ready to hear the rest. Our God is not like Jupiter of Crete, that had no ears; nor as those other heathen deities of whom Cicero sadly complaineth to his brother Quintus in these words: I would pray to the gods for those things, but that they have given over to hear my prayers. Jeremiah could upon better ground pray, than ever he in Plato did,
“ Zευ βασιλευ τα μεν εσθλα, ” b &c.
In English thus:
"Great God, the good thou hast to give,
Whether we ask't or no,
Let's still receive: no mischief thrive
To work our overthrow."
a Ranan; unde ranae, ut aliqui volunt.
b Plat. in Alcibiad.