Holy Bible

Run ye...and see...if ye can find a man. Jeremiah 5:1-9 A man; or, The Divine ideal unrealised Homilist. I. THE DIVINE IDEA OF A MAN. One "that executeth Judgment, that seeketh the truth." This involves — 1. A righteous working out of the Divine will so far as it is apprehended. 2. An earnest endeavour for further knowledge of the Divine will. 3. How different is the Divine ideal of a man from that which popularly prevails. (1) The ideal of the muscular force. (2) That of the secular — wealth. (3) That of the intellectual — knowledge. (4) That of the vain — show. II. THE LAMENTABLE RARITY OF A MAN. 1. A sad revelation of the moral condition of Jerusalem in the days of the prophet. Such corruption amongst a people who had such religious privileges, and in the very scene where the temple stood, shows the wonderful forbearance of God and the terrible perversity of the human heart! 2. The condition of our own age. Verily, we are a fallen people. III. THE SOCIAL VALUE OF A MAN. "And I will pardon it." For the sake of a man, God promises to pardon Jerusalem. The value of a man to society, to the race, is everywhere represented in the Bible. 1. A man is a condition on which God favours the race. Sodom and Gomorrah. 2. A man is an agent by which God improves the condition of the race. He educates, purifies, saves man by man. ( Homilist. ) The sinfulness of Jerusalem W. Reading, M. A. 1. Deliberate and wilful perjury (ver. 2). So familiarised with oaths as not to care whether the matter sworn to was true or false. 2. Idolatry. Strange to see how madly this people ran after the lying vanities of the Gentiles, after they had received such manifold and undeniable proofs of the power, wisdom, and goodness of a living God, who was present with them; after so many laws enacted against idolatry, so many signal judgments inflicted on them for falling into this sin, such a hedge set about them to keep them from mingling with other nations, lest they should learn their ways. 3. Adulteries and fornications. This was a crime of a high nature, a complication of sins, and productive of so many sad consequences that death was the just punishment allotted to it. 4. Their shameful prevaricating with God's Word, and torturing it to make it speak contrary to its genuine meaning. To this end they encouraged false prophets, who would prophesy smooth things, etc. 5. They were very unthankful to God, and insensible of His blessings conferred upon them. 6. They were very fraudulent in their dealings one with another, both in word and deed. 7. That which portended the extirpation of these Jews was, that not only all the fore cited iniquities were notorious in practice, but were moreover approved of, as it were, and settled among them by common consent. 8. This is enough to prove that it was fit for nothing but the fire, and it hath received that just recompense of reward. And the history of it is recorded for the instruction of all other cities who have the sacred Scriptures to instruct them. They may hear Jerusalem warning them, saying, "Look upon me, and learn to fear God. Will ye steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, and sacrifice to the idols of your own imagination, and hope to escape the wrath of God better than I have done? Let my calamities conduce to your salvation, and put away those sins from among you which have laid me in ruinous heaps, and turned me into a monument of the Divine fury. Look upon me, and learn to fear God." 9. Those who are enemies to religion, and help to banish the fear of God out of the world, by denying the authority of His Word, or by putting a wrong sense and construction upon it, are as bad members as can be found in any society of men, because they do what they can to subvert the very foundations of truth, and deprive us of the last remedy which is left to repair the breaches of piety and virtue in a sinful world. ( W. Reading, M. A. ) A man J. R. Mitford Mitchell, D. D. We all know the two meanings of the word man — the one which distinguishes a human being from a beast, the other which is applied only to those who possess the highest qualities of manhood. Such are the salt of the earth, such would have been the saviours of Jerusalem. Ay, such an one was the Saviour of this world, the man Christ Jesus. A union of qualities is needed to make up a man in this high but true sense. These qualities are partly physical, partly mental, and partly spiritual. We know what false ideas are attached to manliness. It is often entirely associated with brute strength. He is a man, think many, who has the greatest strength of arm and power of body. But though beneficial, and often beautiful, this manly strength does not make the man. In some of the most splendid specimens of bodily physique you have the mind of a child and the weakness of a fool, or, still worse, the unrestrained appetites of the beast, or the desperate wickedness of a fiend. How often, too, are the views of men taken as the stamp of manhood. Too often the youthful ideal of manliness is not self-restraint, but self-indulgence, to abandon duty, to pursue pleasure, to wreck the happiness of others, to be lord of one's self, that heritage of woe — how many cherish these as the highest functions of a man! There may be other false ideals, but I wish to come to the scriptural ideal of the man who, if he could be found, would have saved the city and state of Jerusalem. What are the leading characteristics? To do justly, to seek truth. How commonplace, how stripped of the glory and pride dear to young imaginations, how possible for all to reach. I. The first test, whether we are worthy to be called men, is THE RIGHTNESS OF OUR ACTIONS, THE INTEGRITY OR JUSTICE OF OUR DOINGS. What is our conduct in life? Are we conforming ourselves to the Divine standard? Let us look at detail in right-doing in the different positions which we are called to fill. A deal of our lives is spent in our homes. There, if anywhere, we are genuine. We cannot seem to be what we are not before those who know us best, and who can read us through and through. How often there we fail to be men! The man who does justly is eminently tender, willing to enter into the feelings of others, to deal justly with them, to extend to them the sympathy of his strong nature. He is also helpful. The very presence of some men is helpful; you may not ask their advice, but to know they are near you is in itself a strength; and in the home relationships is it not the special province of the father, the husband, the son, the brother, to be helpful, to lift burdens, to smooth difficulties, to unravel the knots of this tangled existence? Do you not know homes where they who should be helpful only hinder the family life, where they are burdens and disgraces, taxing not only the family love, but wasting means all too narrow, and depriving their own kindred of their due share of life's blessings? Such are not men, still less are they men who presume on others' weakness. Many a husband shelters himself under his wife's love from the penalties of his neglect, if not of worse treatment. Many a lad, who, above all, wants to be thought manly, takes advantage of his parents' fondness, and wastes their hard-earned money in riotous living, while they believe it is being usefully spent on his education or advancement in life. Such men will never save a State, will never rise to such a height of nobility that they can leaven with the true spirit of goodness and righteousness the mass around them. II. The second test of manhood is SEEKING TRUTH. Truth is, in the Old Testament, not only mental but moral, is not only intellectual knowledge, but the knowledge of God and of His will. We need in this present day men equally ready to seek truth in all spheres of knowledge — in science, in philosophy, in politics, in religion. We cannot be too earnest in seeking all light, wherever it comes from. We should remember the words of the poet: "Truth is the strong thing; let man's life be true," and we should pursue our search in humility, in reverence, and in faith — above all, in regard to Divine things. That is a duty laid upon us all — to seek God, who is truth; to cleave to Him at all costs; to do His will, whatever it be. We may be mistaken as to what His will is; we may be troubled by doubts and difficulties, moral or intellectual; but we must remember that if we try to do justly we shall know the doctrine whether it be of God. III. In doing justly, in seeking truth, you will be men because you will be FOLLOWERS OF THE MAN CHRIST JESUS. When we think of Christ as man we too often think only of His sorrow, of His persecution, of His death. True man He was in all these points, and nothing soothes us more in our time of trouble than that blessed knowledge. But I wish you to realise Him as man not only in the weakness but in the strength of humanity. I wish you to recognise in Him the ideal man, who did justly and sought truth. Think of His life, of His tenderness to His mother, of His helpfulness to His friends. Think of the ideal which He set before men. "Is not the life more than meat, and the body more than raiment?" is His counsel to the multitude eager for the outward. "Lay not up treasure upon earth" is His warning to the rich and over-careful. "One thing is needful" is His reply to the cumbered housewife. Read these Gospels, and tell me if there ever breathed a purer, more righteous, more unselfish spirit. ( J. R. Mitford Mitchell, D. D. ) The courage of the true prophet Dean Farrar. "It is difficult," says a great historian, "to conceive any situation more painful than that of a great man condemned to watch the lingering agony of an exhausted country, to tend it during the alternate fits of stupefaction and raving which precede its dissolution; and to see the symptoms of vitality disappear, one by one, until nothing is left but coldness, darkness, and corruption." Such was the fate of Jeremiah. His writings are among the saddest in Scripture. He was no Elijah, no Isaiah, no John the Baptist, no Savonarola, not a man of mighty thunderings, whose strong spirit can face corrupted nations and never quail. There are some men whose courage seems to rise in proportion as they have to face insensate fury of opposition. Such was the spirit of Phocion. "Have I said anything wrong then?" he exclaimed, when the Athenians cheered his speech. Such was the spirit of Coriolanus. Such was the spirit of the great Scipio. Christians who believe that Christ really did mean something when He said, "Woe unto you when all men shall speak well of you," — Christians, a few of them, have also believed that there is a beatitude of insolence and of malediction. "Heavens! what mistake have I made!" was the answer of a strong governor when told that he was beginning to get popular. But Jeremiah was not naturally a man of this strong fibre. Timid, shrinking, sensitive, he was yet placed by God in the forefront of a forlorn hope, in which he was, as it were, predestined to failure and to martyrdom. In this chapter Jeremiah is striving to bring home to his people that things are not as they should be. Diogenes, in Athens, searched the streets with a lantern at noonday to find a man; Jeremiah, in Jerusalem, says that neither in its streets, nor in its broad places, can he find one man, one just, strong servant of the Lord. He thought, perhaps, that had there been such, God might pardon Jerusalem as He had once pardoned Sodom. But he could not find them. He found profession, but not sincerity; chastisement, but not amendment; remorse, but not repentance. Then he thought, "I have been too much among the multitude, who are ignorant and foolish; I will go to the upper strata of society; I will get me to the great men, to the priests, the statesmen, the men of culture; they surely have had leisure to learn the way of the Lord and the judgment of their God." But the prophet was utterly disappointed; the upper thousands were worse and more helpless than the lower myriads; they had altogether broken the yoke and burst the bands, and so he adds — "Wherefore a lion out of the forest shall slay them, a wolf of the evening shall spoil them, a leopard shall watch over their cities." What was the exact idea of the threatened punishment we do not know. The general meaning is clear; the days were evil alike among high and low; there were carelessness, unbelief, self-seeking, insincerity, and, amid all, men were completely at their ease; they were quite secure that no evil could happen to them. Jeremiah thought differently; he knew that greed, falsity, unreality, corruption, cannot last. God cannot forever bear with them; men cannot forever endure their burden; they may be long-lived, but doomsday comes to them in the end. Has it not always been so? The great world empires of idolatry — what could once have seemed more secure than they were in cruel strength? Where are they now? In any age, whenever any true prophet has spoken, the world has always been thrown into violent antagonism; it denies him every quality he possesses; he may be the humblest of men, but he will assuredly be charged with pride, Whom makest thou thyself? If he be hopeful, he will be called Utopian and unpractical; if he be despondent, he will be called maudlin; if he feels strongly, he is excited and an enthusiast; if he speaks strongly, he is gushing and hysterical; in the one case he is a Samaritan, and in the other "he has a devil." A sneer has been made on the very name of the prophet of whom we are speaking, and the world thinks it has effectually depreciated any warning about present evil or future peril, when it has called it a Jeremiad. Neither the world nor the Church can tolerate a prophet until they have killed him: kings cannot away with him. Ahab imprisons Micaiah, Joash kills Zechariah, Herod slays John in prison, Eudoxia banishes , Sigismund burns Huss . Priests hate him with still more perfect hatred; the priests of Jerusalem ridicule Isaiah; the priest Pashur put Jeremiah into the stocks; the priest Amaziah expels Amos; the priests Annas and Caiaphas slew the Lord of glory; the priest Ananias bid them smite Paul over the mouth. The true prophet, if God ever give us one again, must face all this. He, like St. Paul, must be weak and despised for Christ's sake. But, besides this, he will especially have to bear the one charge which has always been brought against all prophets since the world began — that what he says is exaggerated, and that what he says is uncharitable. Doubtless, the impatient Amaziahs and the Pashurs of Jeremiah's day said, "What business has this man to bring such sweeping accusations? Look at our priests, how active they are, how many services they have, how careful they are to burn exactly the two kidneys with the fat; look at the scribes, how accurate they are in counting the very letters of Scripture; look at all the eminently respectable persons who go to church and pay their tithes of mint and of anise and of cumin. And as for danger, that is all hysterical nonsense. This is not the Lord's messenger; evil shall not come upon us." Yes, but it did come before Jeremiah was hurried to his death; it came as with a deluge; it came as with a thunder crash; it came as with a hurricane. On these conventional priests, on these careless aristocrats, on these money-making middle classes, on these immoral multitudes the flash fell, and the glory and freedom of Israel were hurled forever into the dust. Thousands who are not prophets might draw a very flattering picture of this age, which might be represented as nearly all that could be wished; they could point to its placid comfort, its domestic virtues, its slightly expanded egotism, and say there never was an age so respectable; they would point to all the threepenny pieces, and even to all the shillings in the plate, and say there never was an age so charitable; they would point to the endless multiplication of sermons and services, and say there never was an age so deeply religious they would point to the mushroom growth of fussy organisations, and say that the Church never was so vigorously, zealous. I fear that the truth would force the prophet to speak; he would point out the great gulf fixed between true religion and sentimental formalism; he would say that the sums that the nation dribbles in charity are in relation to its wealth no proof of our magnanimity, but the measure of our indifference; he might say that in spite of all our organisation, all the religious machinery in London is put into play on Hospital Sunday with the result of collecting some £20,000, which you will see perhaps in the paper the next day has been given in a two days' sale for china and bric-a-brac. He might say that sermons and services, day after day, may perhaps only be treading into deader callosity the self-satisfaction of Pharisaic hearts; he might say that the praise of our languid virtues was the best opiate to lull our souls into indifference and let them rot asleep into the grave. ( Dean Farrar. ) True manhood H. Allon, D. D. We are to set before us an ideal of manly character and life, and practically to seek its realisation. Of the elements of true manhood, let us specify the following: — I. INTEGRITY. There are statesmen who tell us that morals have no place in politics. But the true statesman makes a conscience of politics. Again, there is perhaps a higher moral sentiment developing in business; yet one still hears of an undue advantage being taken of profiting by a man's ignorance or necessities, and that even by religious tradesmen. II. PURITY. Some men boast of foul passions as the marks of manhood. It is effeminate to be pure. Initiation into vice is the baptism of manhood. But moral determination is altering that. A total abstainer is no longer jeered at. III. RELIGION. I do not mean the religion of monks, or of ecclesiastics, or of sentimentalists, but the religion of Jesus Christ, a reverent recognition of God, of holiness, of human life. Can anything be more noble than fidelity to the noblest things we know T Has the world any nobleness like the nobleness of holy character? ( H. Allon, D. D. ) Right kind of men G. Brooks. I. IN THE ESTIMATION OF GOD THE TRUE EXCELLENCE OF MAN IS MORAL AND RELIGIOUS. 1. A strict obedience to the Divine will as far as it is known. 2. An earnest endeavour to attain an accurate acquaintance with the Divine Word. II. THERE ARE STATES OF SOCIETY IN WHICH MEN OF THIS DESCRIPTION ARE EXCEEDINGLY RARE. 1. They may be removed by death. 2. They may be withdrawn into concealment. 3. They may be reduced in numbers by the progress of degeneracy. III. IN THE WORST STATES OF SOCIETY SUCH MEN ARE VERY VALUABLE. 1. They avert Divine judgments 2. Draw down Divine blessings. 3. Promote the work of reformation. ( G. Brooks. ) Wanted -- A man M. C. Peters. Philosophers in all ages have complained that human creatures are plentiful, but men are scarce. But philosophers made their ideal too high, their conception of what man ought to be too lofty. I have no sympathy with the cynic of whom history informs us, that, being ordered to summon the good men of the city before the Roman censor, proceeded immediately to the graveyard, called to the dead below, saying he knew not where to find a good man alive; or that gloomy sage, that prince of grumblers, Thomas Carlyle, who described the population of his country as consisting of so many millions, "mostly fools," and who could speak in praise of no one but himself and Mrs. Carlyle, the latter deserving all the praise she got for enduring him. When anyone complains, as Diogenes did, that he has to hunt the streets with candles at noonday to find an honest man, we are apt to think that his nearest neighbour would have quite as much difficulty as himself in making the discovery. If you think there is not a ,true man living, you had better, for appearance, put off saying it until you are dead yourself. In looking for a man, look for a man with a conscience — a man who, like Longfellow's honest blacksmith, can "look the whole world in the face, and fear not any man." Look for a being that has a heart. A warm, loving nature is true manliness. In looking for a man, look for a magnanimous man; a broad mind, that not only observes what passes in the limited range of its own sphere, but is not afraid to look abroad; is far-sighted and not afraid of excellence in others. In your search for "a man," look for a being that has a soul — the capability of solemn thought. Thousands today worship Bacchus and Venus. Their hearts are set on "having a good time." Others apply themselves so intensely to their business that they find pleasure only in worshipping the mighty dollar. The man who so inordinately loves money for its own sake, and becomes insensible to all refined enjoyments, after a while ceases to be a man. Faith in Jesus Christ makes manly men. He is our model — a model containing all the elements of true manhood; a model of sympathy and love; a model of purity and uprightness. Christ-men are wanted. ( M. C. Peters. ) A man J. S. Drummond. Two things, according to this text, are needed to make a man: practice and principle — principle sought out with a view to practice, practice conform to principle, and both according to what is right and true; both are morally, mutually helpful, both are necessary. You may be as strong as a lion, fleet as a deer, brave as a bulldog, beautiful as a gazelle, clever as Satan, but unless you seek the truth, and do the right first and foremost in the face of day, you have not yet come up to the mark of a man. Is that what the world says and thinks? Oh no. Its heroes, perhaps yours, are too often not the morally good, but daring adventurers, successful soldiers, lithe athletes, quick-witted speculators, fortune-making merchants, subtle-tongued declaimers, gifted writers, skilful artists, politic statesmen, wearers of titles, and so on. These are the men that too often the world takes its praises and its prizes to, heedless of character and principles, pleading its own large-mindedness in putting truthful and righteous men behind and below mere physical and intellectual power and agility. These are the favourites that the base and meaner sort go gaping after and copying, and thus it is that it often happens that real men are comparatively rare and hard to find. ( J. S. Drummond. ) The value of one true man to the State J. S. Drummond. What have men and women to look to for the defence and prosperity of nations? Astute diplomatists, enlarged navies and armies, and forts and guns, scientific discoveries, commercial treaties, cultivation of art, legislative enactments? Think of these what you please. I tell you that these are not, any nor all of them, the true shields and saviours of nations; these do not form the backbone and centre of a strong body politic. It is not for these that God is sending upon us any blessing; not the providing of such that will lead Him to say, "I will pardon Jerusalem and scatter the swollen storm clouds" What was it then? It was a man. Goethe says no greater good can happen to a town than for several educated men thinking in the same way about what is good and true living in it. But Goethe's standard is insufficient; it falls short of the Divine. The defenders and the benefactors of nations and of their fellow men are the morally and religiously good in them; men whose lives are regulated by the teachings of God; men who seek to act as Christ did are the men that are worthy, and that are looked upon by God as blessings to the nations. Ay, and even one such is a mighty pillar, and on occasion even one such may be the saviour and mainstay of the State. ( J. S. Drummond. ) Make yourself a man When President Garfield was a boy, and was asked what he would be, his reply was: "Well, first of all, I must make myself a man; for, if I do not succeed in that, I shall not succeed in anything." Godly men the preservative of society James Hamilton, D. D. One of the greatest services which a man can render society is to believe the truths of God sincerely, and maintain them steadfastly. It is the happiest state for a community when there exists within it a vigorous Christianity — a phalanx of strong minds, fully persuaded as to the revealings and requirements of the Most High. Like the willows by the water courses which are not only green, but whose roots, penetrating and interlacing in the soft and spongy soil, prevent it from being swept away by the rushing torrent, these men of gentle manners, but profound convictions, are the living network, the rampart of roots unnoticed and unthanked, who keep society from crumbling piecemeal into the gulf of licentiousness and atheism and crime, which is forever surging and foaming past it Like the metallic clamps and rivets, the bands and girders, which, in a region of earthquake, keep the precarious houses from tumbling to pieces, law and police magistracy are a mere mud masonry, and but for the binding power of such consciences, but for the fastening force of their convictions who believe in God, in the upheavings of man's passions, in the volcanic throes of his lust and violence, the framework of society would soon be shaken all to pieces. Like the fragments of iron in a mass of stone, which draw it towards the magnet, it is the "faith which He finds in the earth," which at any period draws the earth towards its Maker, or makes a community "a people near to God." ( James Hamilton, D. D. ) A hero is a real man Great Thoughts. What is it to be a "hero"? A "hero" is simply the English form of the Greek " heros ," which primarily meant a "man," a real man, a separate and unmistakable man, as distinct from "anthropos," or mankind in general. By a recognition of this very truth, that a man's distinctness as a man among men works and measures his exceptional character and capabilities, the Greeks came to call a grand man, or a great or preeminent man, a hero, as another way of saying that he was "distinguished" man. "Dost thou know what a hero is?" asks Longfellow and then gives answer, "Why, a hero is as much as one should say — a hero." A hero is a man. There is heroism in all real manliness. A real man is a real hero. This it is which gives force to Carlyle's question, "If hero means sincere man, why may not every one of us be a hero?" The answer is, that it requires character, exceptional character, to make one willing to be a man. Most men are afraid to be themselves. They shrink from being "distinguished." Their preference is to conform themselves to the common standard of their sphere — to be like others, rather than to be like themselves alone. Where this feeling prevails, heroism is an impossibility. One acting on this preference cannot be distinguished. He who is unwilling to exercise and assert his character, in spite of all the world, cannot be recognised as the possessor of character. He cannot be measured apart from the common standard to which he, of choice, conforms himself. ( Great Thoughts. ) Manliness H. F. Henderson, M. A. Ask a young woman what quality in a man she admires most, and the answer you are sure to get is manliness. The answer is highly creditable to the feminine taste. God also puts a great value on true manhood. I. TRUE MANHOOD. Many spurious standards of manhood are met with in the world. By many young men, unfortunately, it is thought manly to be a proficient in swearing, in gambling, in drinking, in forbidden pleasure Not to "toe the line" in these evil customs is to be pronounced no man at all According to this breed of youth, piety is held at a considerable discount; it is not a thing for men, however it may suit parsons, Sunday school children, and old women of both sexes. Now look at the type of manhood spoken of in our text. According to our text a man is one who doeth righteousness and seeketh after the truth. Not the man of great muscularity and great physical power. Not the man who has seen much of the world, so called, which too often means a man who has worked for the wages of sin, which is death; neither of these is the true type of manhood according to Scripture. Let no one, misled by a popular confusion of ideas, dislike our text because it brings a man's own imperfect righteousness before our attention. It is most true that no measure of human righteousness can ever avail the sinner as a substitute for the righteousness of Christ by faith. A sinner's heart resembles Lady Macbeth's hands, stained beyond all human cleansing. We cannot and we need not by our own efforts establish a righteousness able to justify and make reconciliation for the ungodly. Yet that does not mean that we may be callous about the sovereign claims of God's eternal laws of righteousness. It is of the essence of Christian duty and Christian manhood to love righteousness and hate wickedness. The true man is he that executeth judgment, that seeketh the truth. See where the true man should be found, in the broad places, in the streets, in the thoroughfares, the market places; the spot where the struggle of daffy life is fought out. In other words, the true man is contemplated under the character of a man right in the whirl of the stream — a merchant, a craftsman, a trader. And as every varied situation in life has its own special temptations and virtues — as the virtue of the soldier is courage and his temptation faint-heartedness. There are graces and virtues that belong to the home, domestic virtues, cloister graces — gentleness, forbearance, devoutness; and these, too, form part of a true man's outfit in life. But the virtue of the marketplace is right dealing and integrity, and he who in the competition of the marketplace, in its barterings and changes, keeps his hands clean, his name honourable, his character honest, is, according to the verdict of Scripture, a true man. From these words it would appear that such men were scarce in Jeremiah's day. Are they more plentiful now? Yes, I believe they are. A dreadful state of society. Multitudes of males, but not one mare Multitudes of gentlemen, but not one honest man. Yes, surely we are better today, thank God. Yes, we all know men who would rather empty their pockets of shillings than fill their mouths with lies. And what are they? They are men. They are the saviours of society, they are the salt of the earth. But unrighteousness is still, as it ever has been, man's chiefest sin. II. THE VALUE OF TRUE MANHOOD. The value of true manhood is seen, not in its scarceness, but in the splendour of its reward. What is true manhood's reward? God does a wonderful thing, all because a true man or two are found in the wicked city. What is that? He forgives the wickedness of the corrupt and unfaithful city ( Jeremiah 5:7-9, 23-31 ). Could it be easy for God to overlook the errors Of such a people? You think so? Easy for God Almighty, though not for us. Well, perhaps you are right. If so, why stand aloof from such a forgiving and merciful God? Let us not fail to see that here in Jeremiah's time God expresses Himself willing to pardon the wicked for the sake of the righteous few, as He undertook to do in the time of the patriarch Abraham ( Genesis 18:23 ). See, then, the nature of true manhood's rewards. God does not promise that when the true man is found He will honour and reward him. Surely in being a true man he has honours and rewards that cannot be exceeded. Jerusalem is to enjoy the reward. She is to be spared for his sake. Something like this happens in the experience of our great military heroes, our Wellingtons, our Wolseleys, our Robertses. No doubt some of these splendid captains have, at duty's call, covered the battlefield with their men and scored brilliant fighting victories that had very little meaning or importance to us as a nation But putting aside these cases — take the case of wars in which both great heroism has been shown and the cause has been worth fighting for when the great captain comes home, what does he find awaiting him: stars and stripes, treasure and titles? Ay, all that, but more than that. Not only has his heroism won all these more or less precious honours for himself, but what is better, because it concerns more people than himself, he has secured for his country a standing, a place, a position, which it may be she never enjoyed before. And that to a true man is reward more sweet and satisfying than all the poor personal honours that can be put upon his head. The worst calamity to a people is not when its trade and commerce decline, but when its supply of true men fails. Our thoughts, when we think of truest manhood, canno

Benson Commentary Jeremiah 5:1 Run ye to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now, and know, and seek in the broad places thereof, if ye can find a man, if there be any that executeth judgment, that seeketh the truth; and I will pardon it. Jeremiah 5:1 . Run ye to and fro, &c. — In this chapter, which seems to be a continuation of the preceding discourse, God justifies the severity of the judgments denounced in the foregoing chapter. The expressions are strong, but not to be taken strictly in the letter, signifying only the extreme degeneracy of the times, and the great want of justice and piety in Jerusalem. And see now and know, &c. — Search here and there, and in every part of the city. The words, saith the Lord, should be supplied; for it is plain that the first and second verses are the words of God. In Jeremiah 5:3 the prophet speaks, and goes on to Jeremiah 5:7 , where God speaks again. And seek in the broad places thereof — The word ??????? , thus rendered, means, no doubt, the market-places, and other spacious areas, where citizens used to meet to do business with each other. If ye can find a man — Namely, a man fearing God, and working righteousness. If there be any that executeth judgment — That in the magistracy rightly administers justice. That seeketh the truth — Any one among the commonality that deals faithfully and uprightly. The universal corruption of manners was such, that a man might walk the streets of Jerusalem long enough before he could meet with any one that was truly religious. And I will pardon it — Namely, the city of Jerusalem. The strong expressions of this verse, if they were taken strictly, would imply that Jerusalem was now worse than Sodom, in the days of Lot: for, in offering pardon to Sodom and Gomorrah, God came no lower than ten, but, according to the literal meaning of these expressions, he promises to pardon Jerusalem if there should be one righteous man found. But it seems evident that, as we have intimated above, they are not to be taken in so strict a sense as if, in so great a city, there was not one good man; for certainly the prophet could not be reckoned among the number of the wicked, and there were besides, Baruch his disciple, and Ebed-melech, and, without doubt, some others that were truly pious. So that the meaning can be no more than that there were very few good men compared with the number of the wicked. Jeremiah 5:2 And though they say, The LORD liveth; surely they swear falsely. Jeremiah 5:2 . And though they say, The Lord liveth, &c. — Though, when they swear, they use the common form of an oath, and say, The Lord liveth, or, as the Lord liveth, or, by the living God. Surely, or rather, nevertheless, they swear falsely — That is, either, 1st, They are not sincere in the profession they make of respect to God, but are false to him; they honour him with their lips, but their hearts are far from him, nor have they any proper conviction or sense that he lives and sees them, Genesis 16:13-14 . Or, 2d, Though they appeal to God only, they make no conscience of calling him to witness a lie: though they do not swear by idols, they forswear themselves, which is no less an affront to Jehovah, as the God of truth, than the other is to him, as the only true God. Jeremiah 5:3 O LORD, are not thine eyes upon the truth? thou hast stricken them, but they have not grieved; thou hast consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction: they have made their faces harder than a rock; they have refused to return. Jeremiah 5:3-5 . 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. Jeremiah 5:4 Therefore I said, Surely these are poor; they are foolish: for they know not the way of the LORD, nor the judgment of their God. Jeremiah 5:5 I will get me unto the great men, and will speak unto them; for they have known the way of the LORD, and the judgment of their God: but these have altogether broken the yoke, and burst the bonds. Jeremiah 5:6 Wherefore a lion out of the forest shall slay them, and a wolf of the evenings shall spoil them, a leopard shall watch over their cities: every one that goeth out thence shall be torn in pieces: because their transgressions are many, and their backslidings are increased. Jeremiah 5:6 . Wherefore a lion, &c. — Nebuchadnezzar and the Chaldean army are here pointed at under the metaphor of beasts of prey, of three kinds: being powerful, courageous, and violent as a lion; rapacious, greedy, and devouring as a wolf; and swift, lively, and active as a leopard. The word ????? , rendered evenings in the text, is translated deserts in the margin of our Bibles, which probably is the sense here intended. “And those wide and extensive plains, or unenclosed commons, seem to be meant, which were used only for sheep-walks and pasturage, and were, of course, most likely to be infested with wolves.” — Blaney. Jeremiah 5:7 How shall I pardon thee for this? thy children have forsaken me, and sworn by them that are no gods: when I had fed them to the full, they then committed adultery, and assembled themselves by troops in the harlots' houses. Jeremiah 5:7-9 . How shall I pardon thee for this? — How canst thou expect that the holy God, the righteous Governor and Judge of the world, should connive at, or bear with, such iniquitous conduct in his intelligent and accountable creatures. He appeals to themselves, whether they can think it consistent with his justice to let such enormous offences as he mentions go unpunished. Thy children — Thy people, both in city and country; have forsaken me — Have apostatized from my worship and service; and have sworn by them that are no gods — Have made their appeals to them, as if they were omniscient and their proper judges. This is here put for all acts of religious worship which are due to God only, but with which they honoured their idols, thereby robbing God of his essential attributes, and ascribing them to creatures of their own fancy. When I fed them to the full — Gave them temporal blessings in abundance; then they committed adultery — Such is the natural effect of unsanctified prosperity. Shall I not visit for these things? — Do not such crimes as these call for some remarkable judgments as their chastisement? Can you yourselves suppose that Jehovah, whose name is Holy and Jealous, will let them go unpunished? Shall not my soul be avenged? &c. — God’s anger and vengeance signify, in Scripture, the execution of his justice, the effects of which are as terrible against obstinate sinners as if they proceeded from the highest resentment. Jeremiah 5:8 They were as fed horses in the morning: every one neighed after his neighbour's wife. Jeremiah 5:9 Shall I not visit for these things ? saith the LORD: and shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this? Jeremiah 5:10 Go ye up upon her walls, and destroy; but make not a full end: take away her battlements; for they are not the LORD'S. Jeremiah 5:10-13 . Go ye up upon her walls, &c. — Ye Babylonians, go, execute my vengeance on them; and destroy — I commission you not only to take the city, but to make havoc of its inhabitants. But make not a full end — Leave a remnant. Thus he sets bounds to the destroying sword, beyond which it must not go. Take away her battlements — Lay her fortifications level with the ground. For they are not the Lord’s — I disown them, and take away my protection from them. For the house of Israel and the house of Judah — The two tribes of Judah and Benjamin, as well as the ten; have dealt very treacherously — Have acted perfidiously beyond measure. They have belied the Lord — Given the lie to his threatenings in the mouth of his prophets: or have disbelieved and denied his providence, justice, and power, and his government of human affairs, ascribing his judgments to chance or fortune, or mere second causes. And have said, It is not he — Hebrew, ?? ??? , “not he:” that is, he hath not spoken, or he wilt not do as the prophets have threatened in his name; or, he hath no hand in these affairs. Thus the wicked are represented as speaking, Psalm 94:7 , “The Lord shall not see: neither shall the God of Jacob regard it.” Neither shall we see sword or famine — The dreadful judgments which the prophet speaks of shall not befall us. And the prophets shall become wind — A proverbial expression, implying that the prophecies of the prophets were vain, and to no purpose; and that all their threats should come to nothing. And the word is not in them — That is, the word of true prophecy; the prophets’ words are not from God. Thus shall it be done unto them — Nay, the very evils which they denounce upon others shall happen to themselves. So said the infidels. Jeremiah 5:11 For the house of Israel and the house of Judah have dealt very treacherously against me, saith the LORD. Jeremiah 5:12 They have belied the LORD, and said, It is not he; neither shall evil come upon us; neither shall we see sword nor famine: Jeremiah 5:13 And the prophets shall become wind, and the word is not in them: thus shall it be done unto them. Jeremiah 5:14 Wherefore thus saith the LORD God of hosts, Because ye speak this word, behold, I will make my words in thy mouth fire, and this people wood, and it shall devour them. Jeremiah 5:14-18 . Wherefore, thus saith the Lord God of hosts — The prophet now, in the name of God, answers the blasphemous speeches of these infidels, ascribing to Jehovah that power and supremacy which were calculated to give his words the greater influence. Because you speak this word — because these scoffers express themselves in this manner; I will make my words in thy mouth fire, &c. — Thy words shall take effect, and thy predictions begin to be accomplished suddenly and unexpectedly, irresistibly and fiercely, (as fire is wont to kindle upon and consume dry wood,) to their utter overthrow and ruin. They shall be but fuel to my wrath, which shall be executed upon them by the Chaldean army. I will bring a nation upon you from far — The prophet, in the two following verses, “marks out the Chaldeans by their distance; by their power and valour; by their antiquity; by their language, unknown to the Jews; by their arms, their might, and their cruelty.” And they shall eat up thy harvest — In the field; and thy bread — In the house; which thy sons and thy daughters should eat — Necessary for the sustenance of thy own offspring. They shall consume all, leaving thee no supports of life, but bringing an utter famine upon thee. Here is a plain allusion to the predictions of Moses, Deuteronomy 28:49-51 . They shall eat up thy flocks and thy herds — Out of which thou hast taken sacrifices for thine idols. They shall eat up thy vines and thy fig-trees — They shall leave thee no part of the produce of thy vineyards or fields. They shall empoverish thy fenced cities, &c. — After besieging, they shall take and destroy thy cities, though defended by high and strong walls; wherein thou trustedst — For the protection of the country; slaying the garrisons and inhabitants thereof with the sword, and leaving them desolate. See this also foretold, Deuteronomy 28:52 . Jeremiah 5:15 Lo, I will bring a nation upon you from far, O house of Israel, saith the LORD: it is a mighty nation, it is an ancient nation, a nation whose language thou knowest not, neither understandest what they say. Jeremiah 5:16 Their quiver is as an open sepulchre, they are all mighty men. Jeremiah 5:17 And they shall eat up thine harvest, and thy bread, which thy sons and thy daughters should eat: they shall eat up thy flocks and thine herds: they shall eat up thy vines and thy fig trees: they shall impoverish thy fenced cities, wherein thou trustedst, with the sword. Jeremiah 5:18 Nevertheless in those days, saith the LORD, I will not make a full end with you. Jeremiah 5:19 And it shall come to pass, when ye shall say, Wherefore doeth the LORD our God all these things unto us? then shalt thou answer them, Like as ye have forsaken me, and served strange gods in your land, so shall ye serve strangers in a land that is not yours. Jeremiah 5:19 . And when ye shall say, Wherefore doeth the Lord our God all these things? — Those that fall under the severity of God’s judgments are apt to think so favourably of themselves, as to wonder why they should be singled out for examples of the divine vengeance, and of terror to others. And particularly the Jews were very apt to think themselves innocent, however guilty they were, and to contend they did not deserve the punishments inflicted on them; and that this severe proceeding was not consistent with those many gracious promises which God had made to their nation. Then shalt thou answer them, &c. — God doth not execute these judgments upon you without cause. All his promises were made to you, to be fulfilled upon condition of your obedience, which, when you withheld, you had reason to expect that his threatenings, instead of his promises, as he had repeatedly warned you, would take effect. Like as ye have forsaken me — I only retaliate upon you your own conduct: you have forsaken me, therefore I forsake you. You, in that good land which I gave you, have served strange gods, to whom you owed nothing; as being, indeed, the work of your own hands, of mere imaginary beings that had no existence; so will I make you to serve strange masters and lords in a land that is not yours — And where you shall not be able to call any thing your own. You have loved strangers, and to strangers you shall go. Or, as some paraphrase the words, “As you have refused to have me for your God, your Master, and your King, you shall have other kings and masters in a strange land, and shall experience the difference between my dominion and that of these severe and tyrannical masters.” Jeremiah 5:20 Declare this in the house of Jacob, and publish it in Judah, saying, Jeremiah 5:21 Hear now this, O foolish people, and without understanding; which have eyes, and see not; which have ears, and hear not: Jeremiah 5:21 . Hear this, O foolish people — Ignorant and imprudent, as blind to your interest as to your duty; and without understanding — Hebrew, ???? ?? , and there is no heart, or without heart, stupid and regardless of all counsel, wisdom, and common sense. Which have eyes and see not, &c. — Wilfully blind, and obstinately deaf, who will neither see nor hear the word, will, or works of God; of which he gives two instances in the two following verses. Jeremiah 5:22 Fear ye not me? saith the LORD: will ye not tremble at my presence, which have placed the sand for the bound of the sea by a perpetual decree, that it cannot pass it: and though the waves thereof toss themselves, yet can they not prevail; though they roar, yet can they not pass over it? Jeremiah 5:22-24 . Fear ye not me? saith the Lord — He ascribes their stupidity and foolishness to their want of the fear of God. As if he had said, If you would but call to mind God’s almighty power, and your own weakness, and keep an awe of him upon your minds, you would be more observant of his commands, and be afraid to disobey them. Which have placed the sand for the bound of the sea — Who need not place rocks or walls to keep it in; but can give an effectual check to it by a little despicable sand. “The keeping of the waters within bounds, so that they cannot overflow the earth, is often mentioned in Scripture as an immediate effect of God’s overruling power and providence. For water being specifically lighter than earth, by the common laws of gravitation it should rise above it, and overflow it. And then the adjusting the proportion of the tides, that they rise no higher, to the prejudice of the lower grounds, is another remarkable instance of God’s special providence.” — Lowth. But this people are more ungovernable than the unruly waves of the sea: they have a revolting and a rebellious heart — They have not only revolted from me and gone back, but they continue obstinate, and will not return. They persist in their evil courses, and are determined so to do: they are gone quite away, and are irreclaimable. Neither say they in their heart — They are so careless that they never trouble themselves about any thing of the kind; or are so obdurate that they never lay it to heart, nor consider that it is God, who disposeth of all things according to his own pleasure, both in the great deep and on dry land. Let us now fear the Lord our God — Or, worship and obey him; all acceptable service to God being both performed in his fear, and proceeding from it. That giveth rain — Without which the earth could produce no fruits. By this the true God is distinguished from all false gods, Jeremiah 14:22 ; and in this appears not only his power in appointing and preparing it, ( Psalm 147:8 ,) and his sovereignty in withholding it, ( Amos 4:7 ,) but his general goodness in bestowing it, ( Deuteronomy 28:12 ,) and his special providence in distributing it according as there is need. As in the former instance God shows how insensible his people were of his power and glorious greatness in taming such an unruly element as the sea; so here he further sets forth their inattention to, and disregard of, his providence and goodness; implying that they were grown so stupid, unfeeling, and obstinate, that they neither stood in awe of him for his greatness, nor feared to offend him for his goodness. “The vicissitudes of seasons, of cold and heat, of drought and moisture, so wisely fitted for the growth of the fruits of the earth, and other uses of human life, are so remarkable a proof of the being and attributes of God and his providence, as to be obvious to the meanest capacity, and on this account they are frequently insisted on by the inspired writers.” — Lowth. Concerning the former and latter rain, see note on Deuteronomy 11:14 ; and Proverbs 16:15 . He reserveth, &c., the appointed weeks of the harvest — He gives seasonable harvests, according to his appointment. The sum is: the prophet would let them know what a foolish as well as wicked thing it was to set themselves against that God who kept, as he still keeps, the whole order of nature at his disposal, governing and changing it as he sees men behave toward him. Jeremiah 5:23 But this people hath a revolting and a rebellious heart; they are revolted and gone. Jeremiah 5:24 Neither say they in their heart, Let us now fear the LORD our God, that giveth rain, both the former and the latter, in his season: he reserveth unto us the appointed weeks of the harvest. Jeremiah 5:25 Your iniquities have turned away these things , and your sins have withholden good things from you. Jeremiah 5:25-29 . Your iniquities have turned away these things — See note on Jeremiah 3:3 . For among my people are found wicked men — I need not search for such among the heathen nations, for they are easily found among them that are called by my name. They lay wait, &c. — They use all the arts of fraud and cunning, that they may overreach others, and make a prey of them and their substance. They set a trap, they catch men — Such a trap did Jezebel lay for Naboth, 1 Kings 21:9-10 . Such a one was that conspiracy of more than forty men against Paul, Acts 23:13-15 . As a cage is full of birds, &c. — As in the foregoing words they were compared to a hunter, or a fowler, who takes beasts or birds in snares; so here, carrying on the same similitude, he describes their houses as cages full of birds, that is, of goods gotten by robbery and fraudful arts. They are waxen fat, they shine — Or, so fat that they shine. By living at ease, and bathing themselves in all the delights of sense, they look so fair and gay that every body admires them. Yea, they overpass the deeds of the wicked — “They exceed the common instances of injustice and oppression, and make no conscience of enriching themselves with the spoils of the fatherless, and those who have most need of their charity and kindness.” — Lowth. Waterland renders the clause, “Yea, they have exceeded all expression of wickedness; or, have been wicked beyond expression.” Shall I not visit, &c. — See note on Jeremiah 5:9 . Jeremiah 5:26 For among my people are found wicked men : they lay wait, as he that setteth snares; they set a trap, they catch men. Jeremiah 5:27 As a cage is full of birds, so are their houses full of deceit: therefore they are become great, and waxen rich. Jeremiah 5:28 They are waxen fat, they shine: yea, they overpass the deeds of the wicked: they judge not the cause, the cause of the fatherless, yet they prosper; and the right of the needy do they not judge. Jeremiah 5:29 Shall I not visit for these things ? saith the LORD: shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this? Jeremiah 5:30 A wonderful and horrible thing is committed in the land; Jeremiah 5:30-31 . A wonderful and horrible thing is committed — So stupendous a crime, that it is beyond the apprehension of man to conceive, much more to express, its greatness; and so abominable, that a man ought even to loathe the thoughts of it. What this is, we have in the next verse; in the land — That is, this land, which aggravates the greatness of the wonder that such a thing should exist in such a land! The prophets prophesy falsely, &c. — Both priests and prophets agree to speak pleasing things to the people, thereby to keep up their interest and authority with them. And my people love to have it so — They are well enough pleased to be thus misled. If the prophets and priests will let them alone in their sins, they will give them no disturbance in theirs. They love to be held and governed by a loose rein, and like those rulers very well that will not restrain their lusts, and those teachers that will not reprove them: see note on Isaiah 30:10 . And what will ye do in the end thereof — And what can this end in, but a total corruption of manners? The consequence of which must be the utter ruin of the state. Jeremiah 5:31 The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means; and my people love to have it so: and what will ye do in the end thereof? Benson Commentary on the Old and New Testaments Text Courtesy of BibleSupport.com . Used by Permission.

Expositor's Bible Commentary Jeremiah 5:1 Run ye to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now, and know, and seek in the broad places thereof, if ye can find a man, if there be any that executeth judgment, that seeketh the truth; and I will pardon it. { e-Sword Note: In the printed edition, this material appeared near the end of 2 Kings.} JEREMIAH AND HIS PROPHECIES Jereremiah 1:1 - Jeremiah 5:31 "Count me o’er earth’s chosen heroes-they were souls that stood alone, While the men they agonized for hurled the contumelious stone; Stood serene, and down the future saw the golden beam incline To the side of perfect justice, mastered by their faith divine, By one man’s plain truth to manhood and to God’s supreme design." - LOWELL TRULY Jeremiah was a prophet of evil. The king might have addressed him in the words with which Agamemnon reproaches Kalchas. "Augur accursed! denouncing mischief still: Prophet of plagues, forever boding ill! Still must that tongue some wounding message bring, And still thy priestly pride provoke thy king." Never was there a sadder man. Like Phocion, he believed in the enemies of his country more than he believed in his own people. He saw "Too late" written upon everything. "He saw himself all but universally execrated as a coward, as a traitor, as one who weakened the nerves and damped the courage of those who were fighting against fearful odds for their wives and children, the ashes of their fathers, their altars, and their hearths. It had become his fixed conviction that any prophets-and there were a multitude of them-who prophesied peace were false prophets, and ipso facto proved themselves conspirators against the true well-being of the land Jeremiah 6:14 ; Jeremiah 8:11 Ezekiel 13:10 . In point of fact, Jeremiah lived to witness the death struggle of the idea of religion in its predominantly national character. {Jer 7:8-16; Jer 6:8} The continuity of the national faith refused to be bound up with the continuance of the nation. When the nation is dissolved into individual elements, the continuity and ultimate victory of the true faith depends on the relations of Jehovah to individual souls out of which the nation shall be bound up." And now a sad misfortune happened to Jeremiah. His home was not at Jerusalem, but at Anathoth, though he had long been driven from his native village by the murderous plots of his own kindred, and of those who had been infuriated by his incessant prophecies of doom. When the Chaldaeans retired from Jerusalem to encounter Pharaoh, he left the distressed city for the land of Benjamin, "to receive his portion from thence in the midst of the people"-apparently, for the sense is doubtful, to claim his dues of maintenance as a priest. But at the city gate he was arrested by Irijah, the son of Shelemiah, the captain of the watch, who charged him with the intention of deserting to the Chaldaeans. Jeremiah pronounced the charge to be a lie; but Irijah took him before the princes, who hated him, and consigned him to dreary and dangerous imprisonment in the house of Jonathan the scribe. In the vaults of this house of the pit he continued many days. {Jer 37:11-15} The king sympathized with him: he would gladly have delivered him, if he could, from the rage of the princes; but he did not dare. Meanwhile, the siege went on, and the people never forgot the anguish of despair with which they waited the re-investiture of the city. Ever since that day it has been kept as a fast-the fast of Tebeth. Zedekiah, yearning for some advice, or comfort-if comfort were to be had-from the only man whom he really trusted, sent for Jeremiah to the palace, and asked him in despicable secrecy, "Is there any word from the Lord?" The answer was the old one: "Yes! Thou shalt be delivered into the hands of the King of Babylon." Jeremiah gave it without quailing, but seized the opportunity to ask on what plea he was imprisoned. Was he not a prophet? Had he not prophesied the return of the Chaldaean host? Where now were all the prophets who had prophesied peace? Would not the king at least save him from the detestable prison in which he was dying by inches? The king heard his petition, and he was removed to a better prison in the court of the watch where he received his daily piece of bread out of the bakers’ street until all the bread in the city was spent. For now utter famine came upon the wretched Jews, to add to the horrors and accidents of the siege. If we would know what that famine was in its appalling intensity, we must turn to the Book of Lamentations. Those elegies, so unutterably plaintive, may not be by the prophet himself, but only by his school but they show us what was the frightful condition of the people of Jerusalem before and during the last six months of the siege. "The sword of the wilderness"-the roving and plundering Bedouin-made it impossible to get out of the city in any direction. Things were as dreadfully hopeless as they had been in Samaria when it was besieged by Benhadad. {Lam 5:4} Hunger and thirst reduce human nature to its most animal conditions. They obliterate the merest elements of morality. They make men like beasts, and reveal the ferocity which is never quite dead in any but the purest and loftiest souls. They arouse the least human instincts of the aboriginal animal. The day came when there was no more bread left in Jerusalem. {Jer 37:21; Jer 38:9; Jer 52:6} The fair and ruddyNazarites, who had been purer than snow, whiter than milk, more ruddy than corals, lovely as sapphires, became like withered boughs, {Lam 4:7-8} and even their friends did not recognize them in those ghastly and emaciated figures which crept about the streets. The daughters of Zion, more cruel in their hunger than the very jackals, lost the instincts of pity and motherhood. Mothers and fathers devoured their own little unweaned children. There was parricide as well as infanticide in the horrible houses. They seemed to plead that none could blame them, since the lives of many had become an intolerable anguish, and no man had bread for his little ones, and their tongues cleaved to the roof of their mouth. All that happened six centuries later, during the siege of Jerusalem by Titus, happened now. Then Martha, the daughter of Nicodemus ben-Gorion, once a lady of enormous wealth, was seen picking the grains of corn from the offal of the streets; now the women who had fed delicately and been brought up in scarlet were seen sitting desolate on heaps of dung. And Jehovah did not raise His hand to save His guilty and dying people. It was too late! And as is always the case in such extremities, there were men who stood defiant and selfish amid the universal misery. Murder, oppression, and luxury continued to prevail. The godless nobles did not intermit the building of their luxurious houses, asserting to themselves and others that, after all, the final catastrophe was not near at hand. The sudden death of one of them-Pelatiah, the son of Benaiah-while Ezekiel was prophesying, terrified the prophet so much that he flung himself on his face and cried with a loud voice, "Ah, Lord God! wilt Thou make a full end of the remnant of Israel?" But on the others this death by the visitation of God seems to have produced no effect; and the glory of God left the city, borne away upon its cherubim-chariot. {Eze 11:22} Even under the stress of these dreadful circumstances the Jews held out with that desperate tenacity which has often been shown by nations fighting behind strong walls for their very existence, but by no nation more decidedly than by the Jews. And if the rebel-party, and the lying prophets who had brought the city to this pass, still entertained any hopes either of a diversion caused by Pharaoh Hophrah, or of some miraculous deliverance such as that which had saved the city from Sennacherib years earlier, it is not unnatural that they should have regarded Jeremiah with positive fury. For he still continued to prophesy the captivity. What specially angered them was his message to the people that all who remained in Jerusalem should die by the sword, the famine, and the pestilence, but that those who deserted to the Chaldaeans should live. It was on the ground of his having said this that they had imprisoned him as a deserter; and when Pashur and his son Gedaliah heard that he was still saying this, they and the other princes entreated Zedekiah to put him to death as a pernicious traitor, who weakened the hands of the patriot soldiers. Jeremiah was not guilty of the lack of patriotism with which they charged him. The day of independence had passed forever, and Babylon, not Egypt, was the appointed suzerain. The counseling of submission-as many a victorious chieftain has been forced at last to counsel it, from the days of Hannibal to those of Thiers-is often the true and the only possible patriotism in doomed and decadent nations. Zedekiah timidly abandoned the prophet to the rage of his enemies; but being afraid to murder him openly as Urijah had been murdered, they flung him into a well in the dungeon of Mal-chiah, the king’s son. Into the mire of this pit he sank up to the arms, and there they purposely left him to starve and rot. But if no Israelite pitied him, his condition moved the compassion of Ebed-Melech, an Ethiopian, one of the king’s eunuch-chamberlains. He hurried to the king in a storm of pity and indignation. He found him sitting, as a king should do, at the post of danger in the gate of Benjamin; for Zedekiah was not a physical, though he was a moral, coward. Ebed-Melech told the king that Jeremiah was dying of starvation, and Zedekiah bade him take three men with him and rescue the dying man. The faithful Ethiopian hurried to a cellar under the treasury, took with him some old, worn fragments of robes, and, letting them down by cords, called to Jeremiah to put them under his arm-pits. He did so, and they drew him up into the light of day, though he still remained in prison. It seems to have been at this time that, in spite of his grim vaticination of immediate retribution, Jeremiah showed his serene confidence in the ultimate future by accepting the proposal of his cousin Hanameel to buy some of the paternal fields at Anathoth, though at that very moment they were in the hands of the Chaldaeans. Such an act, publicly performed, must have caused some consolation to the besieged, just as did the courage of the Roman senator who gave a good price for the estate outside the walls of Rome on which Hannibal was actually encamped. Then Zedekiah once more secretly sent for him, and implored him to tell the unvarnished truth. "If I do, " said the prophet, "will you not kill me? and will you in any case hearken to me?" Zedekiah swore not to betray him to his enemies; and Jeremiah told him that, even at that eleventh hour, if he would go out and make submission to the Babylonians, the city should not be burnt, and he should save the lives of himself and of his family. Zedekiah believed him, but pleaded that he was afraid of the mockery of the deserters to whom he might be delivered. Jeremiah assured him that he should not be so delivered, and, that, if he refused to obey, nothing remained for the city, and for him and his wives and children, but final ruin. The king was too weak to follow what he must now have felt to be the last chance which God had opened out for him. He could only "attain to half-believe." He entrusted the result to chance, with miserable vacillation of purpose; and the door of hope was closed upon him. His one desire was to conceal the interview; and if it came to the ears of the princes-of whom he was shamefully afraid-he begged Jeremiah to say that he had only entreated the king not to send him back to die in Jonathan’s prison. As he had suspected, it became known that Jeremiah had been summoned to an interview with the king. They questioned the prophet in prison. He told them the story which the king had suggested to him, and the truth remained undiscovered. For this deflection from exact truth it is tolerably certain that, in the state of men’s consciences upon the subject of veracity in those days, the prophet’s moral sense did not for a moment reproach him. He remained in his prison, guarded probably by the faithful Ebed-Melech, until Jerusalem was taken. Let us pity the dreadful plight of Zedekiah, aggravated as it was by his weak temperament. "He stands at the head of a people determined to defend itself, but is himself without either hope or courage." ; Jeremiah 5:1-31 ; Jeremiah 6:1-30 CHAPTER IV THE SCYTHIANS AS THE SCOURGE OF GOD Jeremiah 4:3 - Jeremiah 6:30 IF we would understand what is written here and elsewhere in the pages of prophecy, two things would seem to be requisite. We must prepare ourselves with some knowledge of the circumstances of the time, and we must form some general conception of the ideas and aims of the inspired writer, both in themselves, and in their relation to passing events. Of the former, a partial and fragmentary knowledge may suffice, provided it be true so far as it goes; minuteness of detail is not necessary to general accuracy. Of the latter, a very full and complete conception may be gathered from a careful study of the prophetic discourses. The chapters before us were obviously composed in the presence of a grave national danger; and what that danger was is not left uncertain, as the discourse proceeds. An invasion of the country appeared to be imminent; the rumour of approaching war had already made itself heard in the capital; and all classes were terror stricken at the tidings. As usual in such times of peril, the country people were already abandoning the unwalled towns and villages, to seek refuge in the strong places of the land, and, above all, in Jerusalem, which was at once the capital and the principal fortress of the kingdom. The evil news had spread far and near; the trumpet signal of alarm was heard everywhere; the cry was, "Assemble yourselves, and let us go into the fenced cities!" { Jeremiah 4:5 } The ground of this universal terror is thus declared: "The lion is gone up from his thicket, and the destroyer of nations is on his way, is gone forth from his place; to make thy land a desolation, that thy cities be laid waste, without inhabitant" ( Jeremiah 4:7 ). "A hot blast over the bare hills in the wilderness, on the road to the daughter of my people, not for winnowing, nor for cleansing; a full blast from those hills cometh at My beck" ( Jeremiah 4:11 ). "Lo, like clouds he cometh up, and, like the whirlwind, his chariots; swifter than vultures are his horses. Woe unto us! We are verily destroyed" ( Jeremiah 4:13 ). "Besiegers" {lit. "watchmen," Isaiah 1:8 } "are coming from the remotest land, and they utter their cry against the cities of Judah. Like keepers of a field become they against her on every side" ( Jeremiah 4:16-17 ). At the same time, the invasion is still only a matter of report; the blow has not yet fallen upon the trembling people. "Behold, I am about to bring upon you a nation from afar, O house of Israel, saith Iahvah; an inexhaustible nation it is, a nation of old time it is, a nation whose tongue thou knowest not, nor understandest (lit. ‘hearest’) what it speaketh. Its quiver is like an opened grave; they all are heroes. And it will eat up thine harvest and thy bread, which thy sons and thy daughters should eat; it will eat up thy flock and thine herd; it will eat up thy vine and thy fig tree; it will shatter thine embattled cities, wherein thou art trusting, with the sword." { Jeremiah 5:15-17 } "Thus hath Iahvah said: Lo, a people cometh from a northern land, and a great nation is awaking from the uttermost parts of earth. Bow and lance they hold; savage it is, and pitiless; the sound of them is like the sea, when it roareth; and on horses they ride; he is arrayed as a man for battle, against thee, O daughter of Zion. We have heard the report of him; our hands droop; anguish hath taken hold of us, throes, like hers that travaileth". { Jeremiah 6:22 sq.} With the graphic force of a keen observer, who is also a poet, the priest of Anathoth has thus depicted for all time the collapse of terror which befell his contemporaries, on the rumoured approach of the Scythians in the reign of Josiah. And his lyric fervour carries him beyond this; it enables him to see with the utmost distinctness the havoc wrought by these hordes of savages; the surprise of cities, the looting of houses, the flight of citizens to the woods and the hills at the approach of the enemy; the desertion of the country towns, the devastation of fields and vineyards, confusion and desolation everywhere, as though primeval chaos had returned; and he tells it all with the passion and intensity of one who is relating an actual personal experience. "In my vitals, my vitals, I quake, in the walls of my heart! My heart is murmuring to me; I cannot hold my peace; for my soul is listening to the trumpet blast, the alarm of war! Ruin on ruin is cried, for all the land is ravaged; suddenly are my tents ravaged, my pavilions in a moment! How long must I see the standards, must I listen to the trumpet blast?" { Jeremiah 4:19-21 } "I look at the earth, and lo, ‘tis chaos: at the heavens, and their light is no more. I look at the mountains, and lo, they rock, and all the hills sway to and fro. I look, and lo, man is no more, and the birds of the air are gone. I look, and 1o, the fruitful soil is wilderness, and all the cities of it are overthrown". { Jeremiah 4:23-26 } "At the noise of horseman and archer all the city is in flight! They are gone into the thickets, and up the rocks they have clomb: all the city is deserted" ( Jeremiah 4:29 ). His eye follows the course of devastation until it reaches Jerusalem: Jerusalem, the proud, luxurious capital, now isolated on her hills, bereft of all her daughter cities, abandoned, even betrayed, by her foreign allies. "And thou, that art doomed to destruction, what canst thou do? Though thou clothe thee in scarlet, though thou deck thee with decking of gold, though thou broaden thine eyes with henna, in vain dost thou make thyself fair; the lovers have scorned thee, thy life are they seeking." The "lovers"-the false foreigners-have turned against her in the time of her need; and the strange gods, with whom she dallied in the days of prosperity, can bring her no help. And now, while she witnesses, but cannot avert the slaughter of her children, her shrieks ring in the prophet’s ear: "A cry, as of one in travail, do I hear; pangs as of her that beareth her firstborn; the cry of the daughter of Zion, that panteth, that. spreadeth out her hands: Woe’s me! my soul swooneth for the slayers!" ( Jeremiah 4:30-31 ) Even the strong walls of Jerusalem are no sure defence; there is no safety but in flight. "Remove your goods, ye sons of Benjamin, from within Jerusalem! And in Tekoah" (as if Blaston or Blowick or Trumpington) "blow a trumpet blast and upon Bethhakkerem raise a signal (or ‘beacon’)! for evil hath looked forth from the north, and mighty ruin". { Jeremiah 6:1-2 } The two towns mark the route of the fugitives, making for the wilderness of the south; and the trumpet call, and the beacon light, muster the scattered companies at these rallying points or halting places. "The beautiful and the pampered one will I destroy-the daughter of Sion." (Perhaps: "The beautiful and the pampered woman art thou like, O daughter of Sion!" 3d fem. sing. in i.) "To her come the shepherds and their flocks; they pitch the tents upon her round about; they graze each at his own side" ( i.e., on the ground nearest him). The figure changes, with lyric abruptness, from the fair woman, enervated by luxury ( Jeremiah 6:2 ) to the fair pasture land, on which the nomad shepherds encamp, whose flocks soon eat the herbage down, and leave the soil stripped bare ( Jeremiah 6:3 ); and then, again, to an army beleaguering the fated city, whose cries of mutual cheer, and of impatience at all delay, the poet-prophet hears and rehearses. "Hallow ye war against her! Arise ye, let us go up" (to the assault) "at noontide! Unhappy we! the day hath turned; the shadows of eventide begin to lengthen! Arise ye, and let us go up in the night, to destroy her palaces!" ( Jeremiah 6:4-5 ). As a fine example of poetical expression, the discourse obviously has its own intrinsic value. The author’s power to sketch with a few bold strokes the magical effect of a disquieting rumour; the vivid force with which he realises the possibilities of ravage and ruin which are wrapped up in those vague, uncertain tidings; the pathos and passion of his lament over his stricken country, stricken as yet to his perception only; the tenderness of feeling; the subtle sweetness of language; the variety of metaphor; the light of imagination illuminating the whole with its indefinable charm; all these characteristics indicate the presence and power of a master singer. But with Jeremiah, as with his predecessors, the poetic expression of feeling is far from being an end in itself. He writes with a purpose to which all the endowments of his gifted nature are freely and resolutely subordinated. He values his powers as a poet and orator solely as instruments which conduce to an efficient utterance of the will of Iahvah. He is hardly conscious of these gifts as such. He exists to. "declare in the house of Jacob and to publish in Judah" the word of the Lord. It is in this capacity that he now comes forward, and addresses his terrified countrymen, in terms not calculated to allay their fears with soothing suggestions of comfort and reassurance, but rather deliberately chosen with a view to heightening those fears, and deepening them to a sense of approaching judgment. For, after all, it is not the rumoured coming of the Scythian hordes that impels him to break silence. It is his consuming sense of the moral degeneracy, the spiritual degradation of his countrymen, which flames forth into burning utterance. "Whom shall I address and adjure, that they may hear? Lo, their ear is uncircumcised, and they cannot hearken; lo, the word of Iahvah hath become to them a reproach; they delight not therein. And of the fury of Iahvah I am full; I am weary of holding it in." Then the other voice in his heart answers: "Pour thou it forth upon the child in the street, and upon the company of young men together!". { Jeremiah 6:10-11 } It is the righteous indignation of an offended God that wells up from his heart, and overflows at his lips, and cries woe, irremediable woe, upon the land he loves better than his own life. He begins with encouragement and persuasion, but his tone soon changes to denunciation and despair. { Jeremiah 4:3 sq.} "Thus hath Iahvah said to the men of Judah and to Jerusalem, Break you up the fallows, and sow not into thorns! Circumcise yourselves to Iahvah, and remove the foreskins of your heart, ye men of Judah, and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem! lest My fury come forth like fire, and burn with none to quench it, because of the evil of your doings." Clothed with the Spirit, as Semitic speech might express it, his whole soul enveloped in a garment of heavenly light-a magical garment whose virtues impart new force as well as new light-the prophet sees straight to the heart of things, and estimates with God-given certainty the real state of his people, and the moral worth of their seeming repentance. The first measures of Josiah’s reforming zeal have been inaugurated; at least within the limits of the capital, idolatry in its coarser and more repellent forms has been suppressed; there is a show of return to the God of Israel. But the popular heart is still wedded to the old sanctuaries, and the old sensuous rites of Canaan; and, worse than this, the priests and prophets, whose centre of influence was the one great sanctuary of the Book of the Law, the temple at Jerusalem, have simply taken advantage of the religious reformation for their own purposes of selfish aggrandisement. "From the youngest to the oldest of them, they all ply the trade of greed; and from prophet to priest, they all practise lying. And they have repaired the ruin of (the daughter) of my people in light fashion, saying, It is well, it is well! though it be not well". { Jeremiah 6:13-14 } The doctrine of the one legitimate sanctuary, taught with disinterested earnestness by the disciples of Isaiah, and enforced by that logic of events which had demonstrated the feebleness of the local holy places before the Assyrian destroyers, had now come to be recognised as a convenient buttress of the private gains of the Jerusalem priesthood and the venal prophets who supported their authority. The strong current of national reform had been utilised for the driving of their private machinery; and the sole outcome of the self-denying efforts and sufferings of the past appeared to be the enrichment of these grasping and unscrupulous worldlings who sat, like an incubus, upon the heart of the national church. So long as money flowed steadily into their coffers, they were eager enough to reassure the doubting, and to dispel all misgivings by their deceitful oracle that all was well. So long as trading in things Divine, to the utter neglect of the higher obligations of the moral law, was simply appalling to the sensitive conscience of the true prophet of that degenerate age. "A strange and a startling thing it is, that is come to pass in the land. The prophets, they have prophesied in the Lie, and the priests, they tyrannise under their direction; and My people, they love it thus; and what will ye do for the issue thereof?". { Jeremiah 5:30-31 } For such facts must have an issue; and the present moral and spiritual ruin of the nation points with certainty to impending ruin in the material and political sphere. The two things go together; you cannot have a decline of faith, a decay of true religion, and permanent outward prosperity; that issue is incompatible with the eternal laws which regulate the life and progress of humanity. One sits in the heavens, over all things from the beginning, to whom all stated worship is a hideous offence when accompanied by hypocrisy and impurity and fraud and violence in the ordinary relations of life. "What good to me is incense that cometh from Sheba, and the choice calamus from a far country? your burnt offerings" (holocausts) "are not acceptable, and your sacrifices are not sweet unto Me." Instead of purchasing safety, they will ensure perdition: "Therefore thus hath Iahvah said: Lo, I am about to lay for this people stumbling blocks, and they shall stumble upon them, fathers and sons together, a neighbour and his friend; and they shall perish." { Jeremiah 6:20 sq.} In the early days of reform, indeed, Jeremiah himself appears to have shared in the sanguine views associated with a revival of suspended orthodoxy. The tidings of imminent danger were a surprise to him, as to the zealous worshippers who thronged the courts of the temple. So then, after all, "the burning anger of Iahvah was not turned away" by the outward tokens of penitence, by the lavish gifts of devotion; this unexpected and terrifying rumour was a call for the resumption of the garb of mourning and for the renewal of those public fasts which had marked the initial stages of reformation. { Jeremiah 4:8 } The astonishment and the disappointment of the man assert themselves against the inspiration of the prophet, when, contemplating the helpless bewilderment of kings and princes, and the stupefaction of priests and prophets in face of the national calamities, he breaks out into remonstrances with God. "And I said, Alas, O Lord Iahvah! of a truth, Thou hast utterly beguiled this people and Jerusalem, saying, It shall be well with you; whereas the sword will reach to the life." The allusion is to the promises contained in the Book of the Law, the reading of which had so powerfully conduced to the movement for reform. That book had been the text of the prophet preachers, who were most active in that work; and the influence of its ideas and language upon Jeremiah himself is apparent in all his early discourses. The prophet’s faith, however, was too deeply rooted to be more than momentarily shaken; and it soon told him that the evil tidings were evidence not of unfaithfulness or caprice in Iahvah, but of the hypocrisy and corruption of Israel. With this conviction upon him he implores the populace of the capital to substitute an inward and real for an outward and delusive purification. "Break up the fallows!" Do not dream that any adequate reformation can be superinduced upon the mere surface of life: "Sow not among thorns!" Do not for one moment believe that the word of God can take root and bear fruit in the hard soil of a heart that desires only to be secured in the possession of present enjoyments, in immunity for self indulgence, covetousness, and oppression of the poor. "Wash thine heart from wickedness, O Jerusalem! that thou mayst be saved. How long shall the schemings of thy folly lodge within thee? For hark! one declareth from Dan, and proclaimeth folly from the hills of Ephraim". { Jeremiah 4:14 sq.} The "folly" ( ‘awen ) is the foolish hankering after the gods which are nothing in the world but a reflection of the diseased fancy of their worshippers; for it is always true that man makes his god in his own image, when he does make him, and does not receive the knowledge of him by revelation. It was a folly inveterate and, as it would seem, hereditary in Israel, going back to the times of the Judges, . and recalling the story of Micah the Ephraimite and the Danites who stole his images. That ancient sin still cried to heaven for vengeance; for the apostatising tendency, which it exemplified, was still active in the heart of Israel. The nation had "rebelled against" the Lord, for it was foolish and had never really known Him; the people were silly children, and lacked insight; skilled only in doing wrong, and ignorant of the way to do right. { Jeremiah 4:22 } Like the things they worshipped, they had eyes, but saw not; they had ears, but heard not. Enslaved to the empty terrors of their own imaginations, they, who cowered before dumb idols, stood untrembling in the awful presence of Him whose laws restrained the ocean within due limits, and upon whose sovereign will the fall of the rain and increase of the field depended. { Jeremiah 5:21-24 } The popular blindness to the claims of the true religion, to the inalienable rights of the God of Israel, involved a corresponding and ever-increasing blindness to the claims of universal morality, to the rights of man. Competent observers have often called attention to the remarkable influence exercised by the lower forms of heathenism in blunting the moral sense; and this influence was fully illustrated in the case of Jeremiah’s contemporaries. So complete, so universal was the national decline that it seemed impossible to find one good man within the bounds of the capital. Every aim in life found illustration in those gay, crowded streets, in the bazaars, in the palaces, in the places by the gate where law was administered, except the aim of just and righteous and merciful dealing with one’s neighbour. God was ignored or misconceived of, and therefore man was wronged and oppressed. Perjury, even in the Name of the God of Israel, whose eyes regard faithfulness and sincerity, and whose favour is not to be won by professions and presents; a self-hardening against both Divine chastisement and prophetic admonition; a fatal inclination to the seductions of Canaanite worship and the violations of the moral law, which that worship permitted and even encouraged as pleasing to the gods; these vices characterised the entire population of Jerusalem in that dark period. "Run ye to and fro in the streets of Jerusalem, and see now, and know, and seek ye in the broad places thereof, if ye can find a man, if indeed there be one that doeth justice, that seeketh sincerity; that I may pardon her. And if they say, By the life of Iahvah! Even so they swear falsely. Iahvah, are not thine eyes toward sincerity? Thou smotest them, and they trembled not; Thou consumedst them, they refused to receive instruction; they made their faces harder than a rock, they refused to repent. And for me, I said" (me thought), "These are but poor folk; they behave foolishly, because they know not the way of Iahvah, the justice" ( Jeremiah 5:1 ) "of their God: let me betake myself to the great, and speak with them; for they at least know the way of Iahvah, the justice of their God: but these with one consent had broken the yok