John Calvin Commentary Jeremiah 1:17

"Thou therefore gird up thy loins, and arise, and speak unto them all that I command thee: be not dismayed at them, lest I dismay thee before them." — Jeremiah 1:17 (ASV)

God first commands His prophet to be the herald of the dreadful judgment, which we have already noticed. For it was not His purpose to speak only, as it were, in a corner, or secretly, to Jeremiah, but He committed to him what He intended should be proclaimed publicly to the whole people.

Thus it follows, And you, and so on. We therefore see that the Prophet had been taught by the Lord, so that he might confidently and boldly declare what we will later see. These things should then be connected—that God would ascend His tribunal to execute the vengeance He had delayed, and also that Jeremiah would be the herald of that vengeance He was prepared to inflict.

You then—an inferential particle should be understood here, for the connecting word is to be taken this way in this place—You then; that is, since you have heard that I will now be the avenger of the people’s sins, and that the time of vengeance is near; and also since you know that this has been told you so that you might warn them to make them more inexcusable—You then, gird your loins.

We see why God addressed His servant Jeremiah privately: it was so that he might publicly exercise his office as a teacher.

And from this we learn that all who are called to rule the Church of God cannot be free from blame unless they honestly and boldly proclaim what has been committed to them. Thus Paul says that he was free from the blood of all people, because he had from house to house and publicly declared whatever he had received from the Lord (Acts 20:26–27); and he says in another place:

“Woe is to me if I do not preach the Gospel,
for it has been committed to me.” (1 Corinthians 9:16)

God commands the Prophet to gird his loins. This is to be understood from the kind of dress that Eastern peoples used and continue to use, for they wear long garments; and when they undertake any work, or when they go on a journey, they gird themselves. Therefore, when God says, gird your loins, it means, “Undertake this task which I entrust to you.” At the same time, He requires activity, so that the work might be promptly undertaken.

God also says, “Arise, and speak to them whatever I command you.” In short, God implies in these words that He was unwilling to proceed to extremes until He had still tried whether there was any hope of repentance for the people. He indeed knew that they were utterly beyond reform, but He intended to reveal their perverseness more fully by commanding Jeremiah, in the last place, to pronounce the extreme sentence of condemnation.

He now again repeats what He had said before: “Fear not their faces.” This exhortation was very necessary, as Jeremiah undertook an office that was highly unpopular, for it was as if he were a herald proclaiming war in the name of God.

Since, then, Jeremiah had to clearly declare that it was all over for the people—because their perverseness had been so great that God would no longer be pleaded with—it was a very hard message, not likely to be heeded, especially when we consider the great pride the Jews had. They gloried in their holy descent and also thought, as we will later see, that the Temple was an impregnable fortress even against God Himself. Since, then, their temper was so stubborn, it was necessary that the Prophet should be confirmed by God more than once, so that he might boldly undertake his office. The exhortation is, therefore, repeated: Fear not before them.

He afterwards adds, “lest I make you to fear.” But the word חת, chet, means sometimes “to fear” and sometimes “to break in pieces.” Jerome perverts the meaning of the Prophet by rendering the phrase, “I will never make you to fear.”

It is indeed a pious truth that God would give courage to His Prophet so as to make him invincible against his enemies; and doubtless His exhortation would be in vain if He did not supply us with fortitude by His Spirit. This is indeed true, but the word פן, pen, does not allow us to explain the passage this way.

What then does God mean? We must render the verb either “to break” or “to fear.” The verb אחתך, achetak, is transitive, and either meaning would be suitable. For God, after having commanded the Prophet to be of a courageous and invincible mind, now adds:

“Be careful; for if you are timid, I will cause you really to fear, or, I will break you down before them.”

He then implies, in these words, that the Prophet should be sufficiently fortified, as he knew that he was sent by God and thus acted, as it were, under the authority of the highest power, and that he should not fear any mortal man.

A threatening is also to be understood here: “See, if you conduct yourself courageously, I will be present with you, and however formidable your opponents may be at first sight, they will not yet prevail. But if you are timid and faint-hearted, I will make you an object of contempt. You will not only be timid in heart, but I will make you to be despised by all, so that you will be contemptuously treated; for in that case you will not be worthy that I should fight for you and supply you with any courage and power to put your enemies to flight.”

Thus we see what this means: “Fear not, lest I should make you fear.” That is, “Be courageous and ready, lest you be justly exposed to shame; and do not fear them, lest you should really fear them, and lest they should even tear you to pieces and tread you under their feet. For if you fear them, you will be unworthy of being supported by the strength of My Spirit.”

This passage contains a useful doctrine, from which we learn that strength will never be lacking to God’s servants while they derive courage from the conviction that God Himself is the author of their calling and thus become magnanimous. For God will then supply them with invincible strength and courage, so as to make them formidable to the whole world.

But if they are unsettled and timid, and turn here and there, and are influenced by the fear of humans, God will make them base and contemptible, and cause them to tremble at the least breath of air, and they will be completely broken down. And why? Because they are unworthy that God should help them, that He should stretch out His hand and fortify them by His power, and supply them, as has already been said, with that fortitude by which they might terrify both the Devil and the whole world.

Prayer:

Grant, Almighty God, that as You have once been pleased to fortify Your servant Jeremiah with the invincible power of Your Spirit—O grant that his doctrine may at this day make us humble, and that we may learn willingly to submit to You, and so to receive and even cordially to accept what You offer to us by Your servant—to sustain us by Your hand; and that we, relying on Your power and protection, may fight against the world and against Satan, while each of us, in his vocation, so relies on Your power as not to hesitate, whenever necessary, to expose our very life to dangers: and may we manfully fight and persevere in our warfare to the end, until having finished our course we will finally come to that blessed rest which is reserved for us in heaven, through Christ our Lord. — Amen.