Jer. 15 The Jews’ rejection, and judgments, especially of four kinds; the sins which procured them, Jer. 15:1–9. The prophet complaineth that the people curse and persecute him for these prophecies; they are threatened, and he instructed and comforted, Jer. 15:10–21.

We are (though in another chapter) yet in the same prophecy, or discourse betwixt God and this prophet. Jeremiah having been once denied, solicited God again, as we had it in the four last verses of the former chapter.

If they say unto thee, Whither shall we go forth? if they ask thee what thou meanest by going forth; which being a term of motion, implieth a term to which the motion should be.

Four kinds of destroyers; the enemies’ swords shall slay them, and so make meat for the dogs, who shall tear their carcasses, and for the birds of prey, who shall prey upon their dead bodies that shall lie unburied.

Though the body of the people were removed into Babylon, yet as it is more than probable that many of them fled into other countries to save themselves, so there is no doubt but the king of Babylon removed them into several kingdoms belonging to his large empire.

The sum of this is, that this people should be in a most miserable, pitiless state and condition; none should regard them in the day of their calamity, nor so much as once inquire after them, or how they fared, or what they did.

God here, by more phrases of the same import with many that we have before met with, declareth his steady resolution to destroy them for their apostacy from him; and sets out himself to them as angry princes or parents, that had been often provoked against a subject or a child, and often resolved…

I will fan them with a fan in the gates of the land; not a purging fan by affliction, to separate their chaff and dross from them, but a scattering fan.

The prophet speaking in the name of that God who calleth things that are not as if they were, still continueth his style, speaking of things to come as if present.

Seven signifies many, 1 Sam. 2:5, Job 5:19. The prophet complains that Jerusalem, or the country of Judah, that had been very numerous in people, now grew feeble, neither able to maintain those she had borne, nor yet to bear more.

The prophet in this verse cannot be excused from a great measure of passion and human infirmity; he almost curseth the day of his birth, denouncing himself a woeful, miserable man, to be born a man of strife and contention to the whole world, that is, those nations in it against which God sent him…

The latter words of the verse expound the former; for by remnant is here meant the residue or remnant of days Jeremiah had yet to live, not the remnant of the people who should come out of Babylon.

There is a great variety among interpreters as to this verse also, some interpreting this as a prophecy that none should break the prophet, whom God would make as the northern iron and steel, which was the hardest of all iron, the Chalybes (from whom steel had its name Chalybs) being northern…

All thy riches and precious things shall be spoiled, I will have no regard. saith God, to loss or gain in it, or there shall be no price taken for the redemption of them; for what shall be done shall be by me done for all the sins which thou hast been guilty of in all the parts of the country.

As the former verse, so this also, must be understood, not of the prophet, for he was not carried into Babylon, but of the people, whose captivity is threatened in this place, and the cause of it declared, the wrath of the Lord against them for their sins, the effects of Which are compared to a…

O Lord, thou knowest; either thou knowest my sincerity, how faithfully I have revealed thy will; so Ps. 139:1, Ps. 139:23; or thou knowest my sufferings, how wickedly they deal with me; or thou knowest what thou hast to do, what is in thy purpose and resolution to dc; I will say no more unto thee;…

Either the words which from time to time thou didst reveal to me were by me greedily digested; and though some of them were dreadful and terrible words, yet because they proceeded from thee, I was glad to hear them, and to be thy instrument to communicate them to thy people; or, (which better…

I sat not in the assembly of the mockers, nor rejoiced, some, and those the most, interpret these words as an argument the prophet useth with God to obtain his favour, because though the country was full of wicked men, such as scoffed at the denouncings of God’s judgments, yet he had no share with…

The words are judged to be the words of Jeremiah, and that with relation unto himself, complaining of the hard task which God had put upon him, continually filling his mouth With such bitter words of evil against the people, as exposed him to their most implacable rage against him, and persecution…

If thou return, then will I bring thee again, and thou shalt stand before me: at the first reading of these words, one would take them to be a promise of God to restore this people to their former state, if they would reform; but upon a more wise and diligent consideration of what follows, both in…

And I will make thee unto this people a fenced brazen wall: these words are expounded by those that follow. They shall fight against thee, but they shall not prevail against thee: look, as men may throw stones or strike at a brazen wall, but do it no hurt; so, saith God, though thou shalt have…

I will deliver thee out of the hand of the wicked; the wicked Jews; and out of the hand of the terrible; and the power of the terrible Chaldeans, into whose hands thou shalt come, but be preserved from any harm by the workings of my providence for thee.