John Calvin Commentary Jeremiah 10:20

"My tent is destroyed, and all my cords are broken: my children are gone forth from me, and they are not: there is none to spread my tent any more, and to set up my curtains." — Jeremiah 10:20 (ASV)

This metaphor may have been taken from shepherds, and it seems suitable here; yet the prophets often compare the Church to a tent. Although it is indeed said elsewhere that the Church is built on the holy mountains (Psalms 87:1), and great firmness is ascribed to it, yet, regarding its external condition, it may justly be said to be like a tent. This is because there is no fixed residence for God's children on earth, for they are often forced to change their place; and for this reason, Paul speaks of the faithful as unsettled (1 Corinthians 4:11).

However, since shepherds are mentioned in the next verse, the Prophet seems here to refer to the tents of shepherds. Although he later uses the comparison more generally, or in a wider sense, there is no reason why he should not allude to the shepherds whom he later mentions, and yet retain the metaphor that so often occurs in all the prophets.

He then says that his tent was pulled down, and that all his cords were broken. Some interpret the tent as the city of Jerusalem, but this is a strained and unsuitable view. We have already said that the Prophet speaks here in the name of the whole people; it is as though he compared the people to a man dwelling with his family in a tent.

He adds, My children are gone forth from me. The people then complain that they were deprived of all their children; nor was this all, but they were scattered here and there, which was worse than if they had been taken away by death. He later says, And there is no one to extend my tent, and to set up my curtains. Jeremiah shows that the people would be so bereaved as to have no one to bring them any assistance, even though they were in great need of it.

No one then thought that such a thing would take place, and Jeremiah was held in contempt, and some raged against him; yet He showed what would happen. So that what he said might be more forceful and produce a stronger effect, he speaks in their name. This is like a poet in a play who describes a miser, mentioning things suitable to his character and using such words and actions that the miser cannot help but see his own disposition and conduct, as if in a mirror.

The Prophet does the same here. For when He saw that the stupid people could not be moved by the simple truth, he told them what they all ought to have felt in their hearts and testified with their mouths: that they were solitary, deserted by all who belonged to them, and that there was no one to bring them any help. But he pursues, as we have said, the same metaphor.