A Warning against Idolatry.
The Nothingness of Idols
1Hear ye the word which the Lord speaketh unto you, O house of Israel! the entire family of descendants of Jacob being addressed here. 2Thus saith the Lord, Learn not the way of the heathen, by becoming accustomed to their idolatrous worship, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven, filled with the fear which caused the heathen to associate various perils with the constellations and with eclipses; for the heathen are dismayed at them, having this fear because they did not know the Lord, the true God. 3For the customs of the people are vain, literally, “the precepts of the nations,” that which they fixed for people to follow, their religious customs, “are vapor, nothingness”; for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, or, “for wood it is,” that is, the idol is nothing but wood, the work of the hands of the workman, with the ax. 4They deck it with silver and with gold, with ornaments made of precious metals; they fasten it with nails and with hammers that it move not, that it will not fall over, that the shaky image may remain standing. 5They, the idols, are upright as the palm-tree, they are like a statue “of turned work, resembling a palm-tree,” but speak not; they must needs be borne, carried from one place to another, because they cannot go. Be not afraid of them, for they cannot do evil, neither also is it in them to do good, they are like a scarecrow in a cucumber-patch. Over against these evidences of the nothingness of idols the prophet now sets forth the majesty of Jehovah.
6Forasmuch as there is none like unto Thee, O Lord, none that will compare with Him, none that can be placed on the same level with Him; Thou art great, and Thy name is great in might. 7Who would not fear Thee, O King of nations? For to Him, as the Ruler of the world, belong the fear and reverence of all men. For to Thee doth it appertain, namely, that He is feared; forasmuch as among all the wise men of the nations, all those who were considered the wisest among the heathen, and in all their kingdoms, there is none like unto Thee. There was not one who could even in the remotest degree be compared to Him. 8But they are altogether brutish and foolish, the heathen are all alike in this respect, that their ways are foolishness and stupidity; the stock is a doctrine of vanities, the wood of the idol being a precept of vanities, of nothingnesses, that is, an idol is a teacher of lies. 9Silver spread into plates is brought from Tarshish, from Tartessus in Spain, one of the chief markets of the ancient world, and gold from Uphaz, or Ophir, 1 Kings 9, 27. 28; Dan. 10, 5, the work of the workman and of the hands of the founder; blue and purple is their clothing; they are all the work of cunning men, men skilful in making idols. 10But the Lord, Jehovah, the God of the covenant, is the true God, literally, “the God of truth”; He is the living God and an everlasting King; at His wrath the earth shall tremble, quaking with terror, and the nations shall not be able to abide His indignation, His anger over their wickedness. 11Thus shall ye say unto them, in reproving the idolatry of the heathen, The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth, even they shall perish from the earth and from under these heavens. This verse, fitting the sense of the context so well, is written in Aramaic and may have been a marginal note from the pen of Jeremiah. 12He hath made the earth by His power, He hath established the world by His wisdom, and hath stretched out the heavens by His discretion. 13When He uttereth His voice, when He causes it to thunder, there is a multitude of waters in the heavens, or, “a heaving of waters in the heavens,” as the clouds roll up in heavy masses, and He causeth the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth, to form the clouds of the storm; He maketh lightnings with rain and bringeth forth the wind out of His treasures, out of His storehouses. Thus thunder, lightning, clouds, rain, and storm are named as evidences of Jehovah’s almighty powers in the tempest. 14Every man is brutish in his knowledge, they are all stupid in their skill and understanding, as they fashion their idols; every founder is confounded by the graven image, every artist who makes idols is put to shame by the work of his own hands; for his molten image is falsehood, their casting, what they fashion, is a lie, and there is no breath in them, they lack all evidence of life. 15They are vanity, a vapor, nothingness, and the work of errors, of deceit and mockery, causing their worshipers to be mocked and derided when the nothingness of the idols becomes evident; in the time of their visitation they shall perish, that is, when God shall punish the idol-worshipers, the idols themselves shall likewise perish. 16The Portion of Jacob is not like them, that is, Jehovah, the Portion of the true Church forever, does not in any way resemble the dead idols against which He warns His people; for He is the Former of all things, the Fashioner of the universe, and Israel is the rod of His inheritance, the tribe or nation which He has chosen as His possession. “The Lord of hosts” is His name, He alone is the almighty God, to whom the armies of the heavens, the angels and all the heavenly host, are subject, the Lord and Ruler of the whole world from everlasting to everlasting.
The Prophet’s Lamentation and Prayer
17Gather up thy wares out of the land, O inhabitant of the fortress, literally, “Collect thy bundle from the earth, thou that sittest in the distress of the siege,” the summons being issued to the entire nation of the Jews, in preparation for their being led into exile. 18For thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will sling out the inhabitants of the land at this once, both the suddenness and the violence of their removal to Babylon being brought out, and will distress them, bring them into dire straits, that they may find it so, feel and experience the bitterness of His oppression. 19Woe is me for my hurt! so the prophet cries out in the name of Judah, bewailing its calamity. My wound is grievous, incurable! But I said, Truly, this is a grief, the desolation of the land and the captivity of the people being the suffering which Judah now had to endure, and I must bear it. This is a yielding to the inevitable, not a frank declaration of guilt. 20My tabernacle is spoiled, and all my cords are broken, the picture being that of a tent which is being ruined, due to the fact that its guy-ropes are torn, all setting forth the desolation of the land; my children are gone forth of me, and they are not, this bereavement being the height of Judah’s visitation on the part of the Lord; there is none to stretch forth my tent any more and to set up my curtains, the reference being to the pitching of the tent by extending and coupling its individual covers, a further description of the desolation of the land. 21For the pastors, the rulers and leaders of the people, are become brutish, gone down to the level of irrational beasts, and have not sought the Lord, this fact explaining their growing stupidity; therefore they shall not prosper, they could not rule or effect any reforms with the proper wisdom, and all their flocks shall be scattered, their subjects dispersed in exile. 22Behold, the noise of the bruit is come, the report that the threatened invasion is about to begin, and a great commotion out of the north country, the tumult of an advancing army, to make the cities of Judah desolate and a den of dragons, a habitation of jackals. With this situation facing Judah, the prophet utters a prayer in the name of the congregation. 23O Lord, I know that the way of man is not in himself, it is not in the power of any person to determine his way and manner of living nor the trend of his life’s vicissitudes; it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps. The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord directs it; man proposes, but God disposes. 24O Lord, correct me, but with judgment, with a moderation guided by the exact demands of the case, in order to lead the repentant sinner on the way of righteousness; not in Thine anger, as in the case of obstinate sinners, lest Thou bring me to nothing. 25Pour out Thy fury upon the heathen that know Thee not, although they are now God’s instruments in the punishment of Israel, and upon the families that call not on Thy name, all the nations which have joined hands against Israel; for they have eaten up Jacob and devoured him and consumed him, the heaping of synonyms picturing the intense hatred with which they set about to destroy the Lord’s people, and have made his habitation desolate. Believers will at all times humble themselves under the chastisement of the Lord, trusting firmly that He intends not their destruction, but their salvation.