(14) I will make thee to pass with thine enemies . . .--The Hebrew text is probably corrupt, and a slight variation of the reading of one word brings the verse into harmony with the parallel passage of Jeremiah 17:4, and gives a better meaning, I will make thee serve thine enemies in a land thou dost not know. As it stands without the pronoun "thee" in the Hebrew we may take it, with some commentators, as meaning, I will make them (the "treasures" of Jeremiah 15:13) pass with thine enemies . . . A fire is kindled in mine anger.--Another quotation from Deuteronomy (Deuteronomy 32:22). 15:10-14 Jeremiah met with much contempt and reproach, when they ought to have blessed him, and God for him. It is a great and sufficient support to the people of God, that however troublesome their way may be, it shall be well with them in their latter end. God turns to the people. Shall the most hardy and vigorous of their efforts be able to contend with the counsel of God, or with the army of the Chaldeans? Let them hear their doom. The enemy will treat the prophet well. But the people who had great estates would be used hardly. All parts of the country had added to the national guilt; and let each take shame to itself.And I will make thee to pass with thine enemies,.... Not Jeremiah, but the Jews, to whom these words are continued. The meaning is, that they should go along with the Chaldeans out of their own land into theirs:into a land which thou knowest not; the land of Babylon; and there is another reading of the words in the margin, "I will cause thee to serve thine enemies (o), in a land that thou knowest not"; which is followed by the Targum, Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic versions. Some render the words, "I will bring thine enemies from, or through, a land that thou knowest not" (p); the place from whence they came, and those through which they came, being at a great distance: for a fire is kindled in mine anger, which shall burn upon you; meaning the wrath of God, compared to fire, which was kindled and excited by their sins, and which would continue upon them until it had destroyed them. (o) "et servire faciam". (p) "Et adducam inimicos tuos de terra quam nescis", V. L. "et transire faciam hostes tuos per terram quam nescis", De Dieu; so Cocceius. |