John Calvin Commentary Jeremiah 13:17

"But if ye will not hear it, my soul shall weep in secret for [your] pride; and mine eye shall weep sore, and run down with tears, because Jehovah`s flock is taken captive." — Jeremiah 13:17 (ASV)

The Prophet had indirectly threatened them; yet there was some hope of pardon, provided the Jews anticipated God’s judgment in time and humbled themselves before him. He now declares more clearly that a most certain destruction was near: If you will not hear, he says, weep will my soul in secret.

But much weight is in what the Prophet intimates: that he would cease to address them, as though he had said, “I have not until now stopped exhorting you, for God has so commanded me; but there will be no remedy, if you as usual harden yourselves against what I teach you. Nothing then remains for me now, except to hide myself in some secret place and there to mourn, for my prophetic office among you is at an end, as you are unworthy of such a favor from God.”

He does not state simply, If you will not hear, but he adds a pronoun, “this”—If you will not hear this, or “it”: for the Jews might have raised an objection and said that they were not disobedient to God and had prophets among them, as it appeared yesterday, for there were those who deceived them by their flatteries.

The Prophet then does not speak indistinctly, for that would have had no effect; instead, he expressly declares that they were to hear what he had said in the last verse: “Unless then,” he says, “you give glory to God, I will leave you or bid you farewell, and will hide myself in some corner, and there bewail your miseries.”

When the Prophet said that nothing remained for him but weeping, he intimated that it was all over with them and that their salvation was hopeless. The sum of the whole is that they were not to be always favored with what they were now despising—namely, to be warned by God’s servants. For if they continued to despise all the prophets, God would withdraw such a favor from them.

The Prophet at the same time shows with what feelings he exercised his prophetic office. For though he knew that he was to perform the part of a herald and boldly denounce to the Jews the calamity we have observed, he yet always felt so much pity in his soul that he bewailed the perverseness that would prove their ruin. The Prophet then connected the two feelings, so that with a bold and intrepid spirit he denounced vengeance on the Jews, and at the same time he felt commiseration and sympathy.

He then mentions the cause: For taken captive is the flock of Jehovah. Jeremiah might indeed also have had regard for his own blood. When, therefore, he saw the nation from which he himself sprang miserably perishing, he could not but mourn for their ruin.

But he had a special regard for the favor of God, as was also the case with Paul (Romans 9:2, 4, 5). For though Paul refers to his descent from the Israelites and assigns this as a reason why he wished to be an anathema from Christ on their account, there were yet other reasons why he spoke highly of them. He afterwards adds that the covenant was theirs, that they derived their origin from the fathers, and that from them Christ came according to the flesh, who is God, blessed forever.

Paul then so honored and valued the benefits with which the Jews were adorned that he wished, as it were, to die for their salvation, and even wished to be an anathema from Christ. There is not the least doubt that Jeremiah, for a similar reason, now adds that he would seek retirement or some hidden place where he might bewail the destruction of his people, for it was the flock of Jehovah.

We therefore see that it was God’s covenant that made him shed tears, for he saw that, in a way, it failed through the fault of the people.