And there shall be no remnant of them: for I will bring evil upon the men of Anathoth, even the year of their visitation.
And there shall be no remnant ... - (Jeremiah 23:12).
The year of their visitation - Septuagint translate, 'in the year of their,' etc. - i:e., at the time when I shall visit them in wrath. Jerome supports the English version. "Year" often means a determined time.
Remarks:
(1) The covenant which God makes with His people has privileges on the one hand attached to it, and obligations on the other. As He promises to be "our God," and to make us "His people," if we "obey His voice" (Jeremiah 11:4), so also He declares explicitly, "Cursed be the man that obeyeth not the words of this covenant" (Jeremiah 11:3). The remembrance of the "iron furnace" (Jeremiah 11:4) from which He has delivered His people, and the prospect of the heavenly land of promise, flowing with spiritual milk and honey (Isaiah 55:1), are considerations well calculated to stimulate believers to heartfelt gratitude to their loving Redeemer, and to diligent following after that "holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord."
(2) God's long-suffering toward the ungodly, and His earnest entreaties by His ministers, "rising early and protesting to them" (Jeremiah 11:7), are the most grievous aggravations of their guilt in "refusing to hear." Sinners are leagued in a foul and monstrous "conspiracy" (Jeremiah 11:9) against Him whom of all in the universe they have reason to love most, their Maker, their Preserver, their King, their Supreme Benefactor, Redeemer, and Lord. When therefore God at last is constrained to execute judgment on them, what "escape" can there be for them? (Jeremiah 11:11.) Their earthly confidences can no longer avail them (Jeremiah 11:12); their once pleasant sins now cause them unspeakable remorse; they cry to God at last in their time of trouble; but it is now the day of vengeance, and the day of grace is forever past. God will not any longer "hearken" now to those who would not hear Him then (Jeremiah 11:11). The godly must not any longer compassionate or intercede for those finally given over to wrath (Jeremiah 11:14). Past spiritual privileges cannot now avail, except to fill the abusers of them with the tormenting self-reproach that by their wicked neglect they have suffered "the holy flesh to pass from" them, and though once the favoured "green olive tree" (Jeremiah 11:16) in the house of God, they have become dead branches, doomed to be blasted forever with the ligh tning of God's righteous vengeance. Surely it is well said that the evil which sinners do is "against themselves" (Jeremiah 11:17). "Woe unto their soul" is their just sentence (Isaiah 3:9), "for they have rewarded evil unto themselves."
(3) They who form a "conspiracy" against the Lord (Jeremiah 11:9) will not scruple to conspire against their fellow-men (Jeremiah 11:18-19). The righteous torment the earthly-minded (Revelation 11:10), because they reprove their ungodly course both by precept and by example. The carnal hate to hear the truth concerning themselves and their ways, and like only to hear "smooth things" from ministers (Jeremiah 11:21). Therefore, they bear a grudge toward, and plot against those who tell them the unwelcome truth. How suicidal, that they should hate their truest friends! The righteous result is, whereas God knows and averts from His servants the evil designed against them by the ungodly, He will "punish and bring evil upon" the latter, "even the year of their visitation" (Jeremiah 11:22-23).