Jeremiah 42

Then all the captains of the forces, and Johanan the son of Kareah, and Jezaniah the son of Hoshaiah, and all the people from the least even to the greatest came near After that this Captain Iohanan (who now had made himself head of the Jews) had fixed their abode in the habitation of Chimham in the way to Egypt. with thoughts of going down to inhabit there for fear of the Caldeans, coming to revenge the death of Gedaliah upon all the remainder of the Jews, both these Captains and many of the people, or some of all sorts of the people, (for it cannot be imagined that every particular person came) made their address to the Prophet Ieremiah who probably was with them, carried away by I hmael and rescued by this Captain..

And said unto Jeremiah the prophet, Let we beseech thee our supplication be accepted before thee These men (though wretched Hypocrites) yet come to the Prophet with great respect, and reverence, first desiring that he would allow them to make their request to him, probably the evidence they had had so lately of his being a Prophet of the Lord, by the fulfilling of all that he had foretold against both the City and the Temple might in some measure occasion this., and pray for us, unto the LORD thy God, even for all this remnant, (for we are left but a few of many as thine eyes do behold us Their request was that he would put up his prayer to God for the remnant, for now there was but a small remnant of Jews left, a few of many..)

That the LORD thy God may show us the way wherein we may walk, and the thing that we may do The thing they would have him pray to God for was direction, what they should do in this desolate stare into which God had brought them. What could be more pious? A practice founded upon a divine precept, and encouraged by a promise, Prov. 3.6. Acknowledge him in all thy wayes, and he shall direct steps. But we may well apply here what God had said to their forefathers, Deut. 5.29. when they had so freely promised their obedience to the Law of God. O that there were such an hear in them, &c..

Then Jeremiah the Prophet said unto them, I have heard you That is I will do for you according as you desire., behold I will pray unto the LORD your God, according to your words, and it shall come to pass that whatsoever thing the LORD shall answer you, I will declare it unto you, I will keep nothing back from you And I will be faithful in giving you an account of what God shall reveal to me to be his will on your behalf. They called God Ieremi hs God, here Ieremiah calls him their God both to mind them of Gods relation to them and their duty towards him..

Then they said to Jeremiah, The LORD be a true and faithful witness between us, if we do not according to all things, for the which the LORD thy God shall send thee to us.

Whether it be good, or whether it be evil f, we will obey the voice of the LORD our God to whom we send thee; that it may be well with us, when we obey the voice of the LORD our God The preceding words are a perfect Oath, the form of which lies in a calling of God to witness the sincerity of the heart of those that swear, for a security to those to whom the Oath is given, which also includeth a secret challenging God, to take vengeance upon the persons that give that security, if they should not do accordingly as they promise, which speaketh the Atheism of the Heart of the false swearer, for did a man believe that there is a God, and that the divine being is infinite in power, and a true and faithful witness, it were impossible that he should challenge him to be revenged on him for not doing what he never seriously intends to do, which was the case of these wicked men, The thing they promise is a perfect obedience to Gods will, whether grateful or ingrateful to them, and they further declare a conviction, that if they did it, it should be well with them according to that, Deut. 5.29. which shows the mighty power of lusts in unregenerate hearts, and the mighty operations of the evil spirit in the children of disobedience, Eph. 2.3. That although they be convinced that if they did obey the voice of God it would be well with them; yet they will not do it in things which they have a power to do..

¶ And it came to pass after ten days, that the word of the LORD came unto Jeremiah The word mentioned chap. 40.1. To which all that we have met with from the beginning of chap. 40. is but an historical preface..

Then called he Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the forces which were with him, and all the people from the least even to the greatest.

And said unto them, Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, unto whom ye sent me to present your supplication before him The Prophet after ten days, all which time some (but upon what ground I know not) think he spent in Prayer, receiveth an answer from God, which he presently communicates to the Princes and People, with a preface that containeth in it many arguments to have induced this compliance with it. 1. Because it came from the Lord. 2. From that God who as he was in Covenant with Israel so in all the course of his Providence had so carried himself to them, as they had no just reason to suspect either his kindness or his power. 3. From their imploying of him to seek God upon their behalf..

If ye will still abide in this land That is if you will not go into the Land of Egypt, as you are thinking, but abide where you are, or in any part of Iudah, under subjection to the King of Babylon into whose power I have given you., then will I build you and not pull you down, and I will plant you, and not pluck you up Then I will see to your security, and prosperity, and make you an happy people, the happiness and prosperity of people is in Scripture often set out under the notion of building, and planting, as on the contrary their misery or destruction is expressed under the metaphorical notions of pulling down, and plucking up.: for I repent me of the evil that I have done unto you For I am satisfied with the punishment your Nation has undergone, and as to the remainder, if they do not destroy themselves by new disobedience, I will change the course of my providence..

Be not afraid of the king of Babylon, of whom ye are afraid: be not afraid of him, says the LORD I know whom you are afraid of, you fear that the King of Babylon will come and utterly root you out, because one of your Nation has murdered his Vice-Roy Gedaliah, suffer not your passion of fear to rise too high in this case, and to make you fly into Egypt.: for I am with you to save you, and to deliver you from his hand For you shall have my presence with you, to preserve and deliver you from his power it shall not be in his power to do you any harm..

And I will show mercies unto you, that he may have mercy upon you We are beholden to God for all the pity, and compassion which we meet with from men, God inclineth their Hearts, though we receive the kindness from their hands., and cause you to return from own land The mercy which God here promiseth these men, is that the King of Babylon, should give them a liberty to go every one of them to their own inheritances, for at present they were banished by their own fear, from their own houses, though not from their own Countrey..

But if ye say, we will not dwell in this land, neither obey the voice of the LORD your God Our Translation a little darkens the sense, translating the Heb. particle neither which signifies no more then not or by no means, Numb. 14.16. 1 Sam. 2.2. and 20.26. Hos. 13.4. and it is certain here is but one thing spoken of, for the thing wherein hey disobeyed the voice of the Lord, was not continuing in their own land, but going into the Land of Egypt..

Saying, No, but we will go into the land of Egypt, where we shall see no war, nor hear the sound of the trumpet, nor have hunger of bread, and there will we dwell The sense of the words is obvious, they thought that their life in the Land of Iudah, would be at best an uneasie Life, where they should be continually allarum'd, with the noise of War, and though they could not fear the want of Bread in a Land that flowed with milk and hony, yet they also considered, that Egypt was a very fruitful Country, by the overflowing of Nilus, and the prospect of this made them quit that usual fondness which people have of their Native Country. From whence appears that their great sin was unbelief, they would not take the promise of God for a security to them for a quiet, and peaceable abode in Iudah, but would fancy noises of Drums, and Trumpets, and fear here no fear was; the Prophet saw, they were resolved into Egypt they would go to live a more certain easie Life (as they fansied) he therefore tells them, that if after their sending him to God to inquire for them, and promising a compliance with his will, and hearing now what that will was, this were their resolution he had another word from God to them..

(And now therefore hear the word of the LORD, ye remnant of Judah, Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, if ye wholly set your faces to enter into Egypt, and go to sojourn there This verse is wholly prefatory to what followeth. If, says God, all your mind be upon Egypt, and you be resolved thither you will go..)

Then it shall come to pass, that the sword which ye feared shall overtake you there, in the land of Egypt, and the famine whereof ye were afraid shall follow close after you there in Egypt, and there ye shall dye In the general the Prophet threatneth them, that in Egypt they should meet with the very same evils the fear of which made them flee out of their own Countrey, the Sword and Famine. The Sword of Nebuchadnezzar who, after this, fully conquered Egypt, and a Famine through want of Bread, for although Egypt was a fruitful Countrey, yet we know there was a Famine there, against which Ioseph provided, besides that scarcity of victuals commonly followeth great Armies. Those who shun dangers or think to shun them by acts of disobedience to God, ordinarily are suffered by God to take such courses as they fall into the same or worse dangers then what they labour to avoid..

So shall it be with all the men that set their faces to go into Egypt to sojourn there, they shall die by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence, and none of them shall remain, or escape from the evil, that I will bring upon them Those words that set their faces to go may reasonably be interpreted as a limitation of the universal particle all, for as eventually we can hardly conceive that every individual person that went into Egypt did thus perish, so it can hardly be thought that the just God should order an equal punishment to those who were the ringleaders in this design, and those who were forced or overruled by them, or perhaps knew not how to live when the rest were gone, but says God, for those who drive on this design, and go with their whole heart resolvedly against the contrary Revelation of my will, there shall none of them escape, one or other of my sore judgements, Sword, Pestilence or Famine. They shall not be the lot of one or two, but of all such persons..

For thus says the LORD of hosts the God of Israel, As mine anger and my fury has been poured forth upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem; so shall my fury be poured forth upon you, when ye shall enter into Egypt: and ye shall be an execration, and an astonishment, and a curse, and a reproach, and ye shall see this place no more If you would see your doom in a glass look upon Ierusalem, whom according to my word I have dealt so severely with, that amongst men it would be called fury, though in me it was but deliberate Justice, that my wrath declared against them, like liquid things melted diffused it self into all the parts of it: I will deal so with you soon after you shall have entred into that Land, where you promise your selves so much ease, rest, and prosperity, and as I threatned to make Ierusalem a curse, an astonishment, and a reproach, chap. 24.9. and 29.18. so I will deal with you, and in this I will (says God) deal worse with you, that whereas those of your Brethren, that were carried from Ierusalem to Babylon, shall some of them come back again after 60 years, you shall see this place no more. There was this aggravation of the Jews to whom God was now by his Prophet speaking. They had lately seen the words of the Lord spoken by the same Prophet verified, and yet would take no warning, but ran into the same sin of Unbelief..

¶ The LORD has said concerning you, O ye remnant of Judah, Go ye not into Egypt: know certainly that I have admonished you this day The good Prophet knowing how much it concerned this people to listen unto him, and to believe and obey what he said repeats again the same thing which he had said before assuring them that it was the Lord commanded him to say this to them, Criticks note that the word which we translate admonish, in this form, signifieth to admonish before witnesses..

For ye dissembled in your hearts Or you have used deceit, either towards God, dealing falsly with him, calling him to be a witness to your sincerity in what you never intended any sincerity in, or towards me, sending me to enquire of God for you, and promising to do according to what I should reveal to you from God as his Will, when as you never intended it. Or towards your own Souls, as every sinner does but deceive his own Soul. You made a pretence of what was not in your heart., when ye sent me unto the LORD your God, saying, Pray for us unto the LORD our God, and according to all that the LORD our God shall say, so declare unto us, and we will do it When you sent me to pray Gods direction for you and made me such a firm promise to do whatsoever I should reveal to you from God as his will in this case..

And now I have this day declared it to you I have been faithful to you, I went according o your desire to enquire of God for you, I had his will revealed to me in your case, and now I have as faithfully told you what it is., But ye have not obeyed the voice of the LORD your God, nor any thing for the which he has sent me unto you But ye have not obeyed. How did Ieremiah know this, for they had not yet declared their minds to him? he had either learned it from their discourses, during the ten days which God had made him to wait for the Revelation, or he had learned it from some contemptuous behaviour of them, when he delivered it, or (which is most probable) God had aforehand told it to him..

Now therefore know certainly, that ye shall dye by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence, in the place whither ye desire to go, and to sojourn The Prophet ascertaineth that doom unto them, which ver. 14, 15, 16. he had threatned them with, in case they were resolved to go into Egypt, we must expect nothing but utmost disappointments upon actions done in disobedience to the revealed will of God: you think to avoid death by going thither for a little time to sojourn, but you shall dy there, and that by those very deaths which by going thither you seek to avoid..