25 matching verse commentaries
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
INTRODUCTION TO Jeremiah 18 This chapter expresses the sovereign power of God ever his creatures, and his usual methods of dealing with them; it threatens destruction to the Jews for their idolatry; and is closed with the prophet's complaint of his persecutors, and with imprecations upon them. The sovereign power of God is expressed under the...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying. The word of prophecy, as the Targum: this is a distinct prophecy from the former, though it may be connected with it; it referring to the destruction threatened in the latter part of the preceding chapter.
Matthew Henry - Complete Commentary - Matthew Henry
In this chapter we have, I. A general declaration of God's ways in dealing with nations and kingdoms, that he can easily do what he will with them, as easily as the potter can with the clay (ver. 1-6), but that he certainly will do what is just and fair with them. If he threaten their ruin, yet upon their repentance he will return in mercy to...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Arise, and go down to the potter's house,.... Which, no doubt, was well known to the prophet; but where it was is not certain. Some think Jeremiah was in the temple, and this house was beneath it, and therefore he is bid to go down to it; but of this there is no certainty, nor even probability: it is most likely that this house was without the...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Then I went down to the potter's house,.... He did as the Lord commanded him; he was obedient to the divine will; he went to hear what the Lord had to say to him there, and to observe such things, from whence he might learn instruction for himself and others: and, behold, he wrought a work on the wheels; the Targum renders it "upon a seat"; or...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And the vessel that he made of clay,.... Which is the matter the vessel is made of: was marred in the hand of the potter; while he was working it; either it fell, as the Septuagint version renders it, out of his hands, or from the beam on which it was laid; or was spoiled by some means or other, so that it was not fit for the purpose he first...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Then the word of the Lord came unto me, saying. While he was in the potter's house, and after he had observed his manner of working, and the change he had made in his work, the Lord spoke to him, and applied it in the following manner.
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the Lord,.... Make, and mar, and remake at pleasure? certainly he could. God is a sovereign Being, and has a sovereign and uncontrollable power over his creatures; he has an indisputable right unto them, and can dispose of them as he pleases; he has as good a right to them, and as great...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
[At what] instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom,.... By way of threatening: or, "the moment I shall speak" (s), c as soon as ever I have declared concerning any people whatever, Jews or Gentiles; that if they go on in their sins, and remain impenitent, and do not turn from them, that they must expect I will quickly...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
If that nation against whom I have pronounced,.... Such a sentence as this, should immediately, upon the above declaration, do as Nineveh did: turn from their evil; their evil of sin, their evil ways and works, as an evidence of the truth of their repentance for former sins: I will repent of the evil that one thought to do unto them; as they...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And [at what] instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom,.... By way of promise on the other hand: or, "and the moment I shall speak", c. as in Jeremiah 18:7 in favour to a people; signifying, that if they do that which is right and good, and continue therein, it may be expected that I will appear for and among such a...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
If it do evil in my sight,.... What is sinful, contrary to the law and will of God, openly and publicly, in a bold and daring manner: that it obey not my voice: in my word, and by my prophets, but turn a deaf ear to them, and slight and despise all instructions, admonitions, and reproofs: then I will repent of the good wherewith I said I would...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Now therefore go to,.... This is the application of the above general rules of procedure to the people of the Jews, and particularly that which relates to the destruction of a nation or kingdom, and the declaration of it in order to reclaim them: speak to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, thus saith the Lord; or, "to...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And they said, there is no hope,.... Or, "but they said" (w); not that there was no hope of the grace and mercy of God, upon their repentance and reformation, for that is before declared; but that they were so hardened in their sins, so fixed in their wicked courses, and so determined to go on in them, that there was no room for the prophet to...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Therefore thus saith the Lord,.... This being the case of the people of the Jews, and they so resolutely bent on their own ways: ask ye among the Heathen; inquire among the nations of the world, the Gentiles that know not the true God, and have not the external revelation of his will, only the dim light of nature to guide them; and see if anything...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Will a man leave the snow of Lebanon, [which cometh] from the rock of the field?.... Lebanon was a mountain on the borders of Judea, the top of which was covered in the summertime with snow, from the whiteness of which it had its name, Lebanon; as the Alps, for the same reason, which lie between France and Italy: now, the snow being dissolved by...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Because my people hath forgotten me,.... Or, "that they have forgotten me" (z); this is the horrible thing they have done, which was unheard of among the Gentiles, who were always tenacious of their gods, and the worship of them; and that foolish and unwise thing, which was like leaving pure flowing streams of water for dirty puddles. This is to...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
To make their land desolate,.... Not that this was the intention either of those that led them out of the right way into those wrong paths, or of them that went into them; but so it was eventually; this was the issue of things; their idolatry and other sins were the cause of their land being desolate; through the ravage of the enemy, let in upon...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
I will scatter them as with an east wind before the enemy,.... As the east wind, which is generally strong and boisterous, drives the chaff and stubble, and anything that is light, before it, and scatters it here and there; so the Lord threatens to scatter the people of the Jews over the face of the earth, before their enemies, whom they should...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Then said they, come, and let us devise devices against Jeremiah,.... Being enraged at the judgments threatened them, they propose to enter into a confederacy and consultation together, to think of ways and means to stop the mouth of the prophet, and even to take away his life; since he had told them that God had devised a device against them,...