42 matching verse commentaries
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
INTRODUCTION TO Jeremiah 10 This chapter shows that there is no comparison to be made between God and the idols of the Gentiles; represents the destruction of the Jews as near at hand; and is closed with some petitions of the prophet. It begins by way of preface with an exhortation to hear the word of the Lord, and a dehortation not to learn the...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Hear ye the word which the Lord speaketh unto you, O house of Israel. Or, "upon you"; or, "concerning you" (k); it may design the judgment of God decreed and pronounced upon them; or the prophecy of it to them, in which they were nearly concerned; or the word of God in general, sent unto them by his prophets, which they were backward of hearing;...
Matthew Henry - Complete Commentary - Matthew Henry
We may conjecture that the prophecy of this chapter was delivered after the first captivity, in the time of Jeconiah or Jehoiachin, when many were carried away to Babylon; for it has a double reference:—I. To those that were carried away into the land of the Chaldeans, a country notorious above any other for idolatry and superstition; and they are...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
Hear ye the word which the Lord speaketh unto you, O house of Israel: Thus saith the LORD, Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them. Among the heathen, if certain stars were in conjunction, it was considered unlucky; and certain days of the week were also regarded as...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Thus saith the Lord, learn not the way of the Heathen,.... Of the nations round about them, particularly the Chaldeans; meaning their religious ways, their ways of worship, their superstition and idolatry, which they were very prone unto, and many of which they had learned already; and were in danger of learning more, as they were about to be...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
For the customs of the people are vain,.... Or, "their decrees", or "statutes" (o), their determinations and conclusions, founded upon the observation of the stars; or, their "rites and ceremonies" (p) in religion, in the worship of the sun and moon, and the hosts of heaven. The Syriac version is, "the idols of the people are nothing"; and which...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
For the customs of the people are vain: for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe. They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not. Those ancient prophets seemed to take delight in heaping scorn upon the god-making of the heathen. Even the...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
They deck it with silver and with gold,.... Cover it with plates of silver and gold, for the sake of ornament, that it may look grand, majestic, and venerable; and by this means draw the eye and attention, and so the devotion of people to it: they fasten it with nails and hammers, that it move not. The sense is, either that the idol was fastened...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
They are upright as the palm tree,.... Being nailed to a post, or fastened to a pillar, or set upon a pedestal, and so stand erect without bending any way; and are like a palm tree, which is noted for its uprightness; hence the church's stature is compared to it, So 7:7, here it is a sarcasm, and a bitter one: but speak not; man, that is of an...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
They are upright as the palm tree, but speak not: they must need be borne, because they cannot go. Pretty gods they must be, cannot move, and cannot even stand till they are nailed up, and cannot stir unless they are carried from place to place.
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
Be not afraid of them; for they cannot do evil, neither also is it in them to do good. Forasmuch as there is none like unto thee, O LORD; thou art great, and thy name is great in might. Who would not fear thee, O King of nations? for to thee doth it appertain: forasmuch as among all the wise men of the nations, and in all their kingdoms, there is...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Forasmuch as there is none like unto thee, O Lord,.... None like him, for the perfections of his nature, for the works of his hands, and for the instances of his kindness and beneficence, both in a way of grace and providence; there is none like him for doing good, or doing evil; that is, for bestowing favours, or inflicting punishments; there is...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Who would not fear thee, O King of nations?.... Not that the fear of him among the nations was general, or that he was owned by them as their King; but inasmuch as of right he was their King, so he ought to have been feared and reverenced by them; and it was an instance of great stupidity and ingratitude not to do it. The Targum renders it, "King...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
But they are altogether brutish and foolish,.... In comparison of the Lord, there is no knowledge and wisdom in them, this is a certain fact; they are verily brutish and foolish; or they are one and all so, there is not a wise man among them: or, "in one thing they are brutish" (r), c. namely, in their idolatry; however wise they may be in other...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Silver spread into plates is brought from Tarshish,.... In Cilicia, where the Apostle Paul was born; according to Josephus, as Jerom says, it was a country in India. The Targum renders it, from Africa, and calls it silver "rolled up", or "covered"; so the Vulgate Latin; such was beaten with a hammer into plates, and might be rolled up for better...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
Silver spread into plates is brought from Tarshish, and gold from Uphaz, 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. Step into any Roman Catholic Joss-house in England, or on the Continent or, for the matter of that, into any Anglican Joss-house, for they are...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
But the Lord is the true God,.... In opposition to all nominal and fictitious deities, which are not by nature God, only by name, and in the foolish imagination of the people: or, "the Lord God is truth" (t); that cannot lie, is true to his covenant and promises, and will never deceive those that worship and serve him, and rely upon him: he is the...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
But the LORD is the true God, he is the living God, and an everlasting king: at his wrath the earth shall tremble, and the nations shall not be able to abide his indignation. Thus shall ye say unto them, The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth, even they shall perish from the earth, and from under these heavens. He hath made the...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Thus shall ye say unto them,.... The godly Jews to the idolatrous Chaldeans; and therefore this verse alone is written in the Chaldee language. The Targum prefaces it thus, "this is the copy of the letter, which Jeremiah the prophet sent to the rest of the elders of the captivity in Babylon; and if the people among whom you are should say unto...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
He hath made the earth by his power,.... The Targum considers these words as a continuation of the answer of the Jews to the Chaldeans, paraphrasing them thus, "and so shall ye say unto them, `we worship him who hath made the earth by his power':'' who stands opposed to the gods that made not the heavens and the earth, that had no title to deity,...