John Calvin Commentary Jeremiah 13:25

"This is thy lot, the portion measured unto thee from me, saith Jehovah; because thou hast forgotten me, and trusted in falsehood." — Jeremiah 13:25 (ASV)

The Prophet no doubt wished to strip the Jews of their vain confidence, through which they acted arrogantly and presumptuously towards God, even while they professed His name and claimed His favor. They said that they had obtained that land by an hereditary right, because it had been promised to their father Abraham.

This indeed was true. They also said that the land was God’s rest, and they derived this from the prophets. They said further that God was their heritage, and this also was true. But since they had wickedly profaned God’s name, He takes from them these false boastings and says, This is thy lot. But still they said, when God divided the nations, His lot fell on Israel, for so says Moses (Deuteronomy 32:8). Since they were accustomed to say that God afterwards deceived them, the Prophet here, on the other hand, reminds them that they foolishly confided in that lot, because God had rejected them and did not acknowledge them now as His children, as they had become degenerate and perfidious. This, he says, is thy lot.

We see that a contrast is to be understood here: God was the lot of the people, and they were also the lot of God, according to the passages to which we have referred. They were the heritage of God, and they boasted that God was their heritage; the land was a symbol and a pledge of this heritage. The Prophet now says: “This lot shall be to thee the portion of thy measures from me.” He alludes to an ancient custom, for they were accustomed to divide fields and meadows by lines, as they afterwards used poles; and we call such measures in the present day perches (perticas.)

We now understand what the Prophet means. He intimates that the Jews vainly, presumptuously, and foolishly boasted that God was their heritage, for He no longer owned them as His children. He also declares that another lot was prepared for them, far different from that of heritage: God would banish them from the promised land, which they had polluted by their vices.

Thus we see that we ought not presumptuously and falsely to pretend or profess the name of God. For though He has been pleased to choose us as His people, it is still required of us to be faithful to Him. If we forsake Him, the same reward for our impiety will no doubt await us as Jeremiah threatens here to his own nation.

Let us then so use the favor of God and of Christ, and all the blessings which are offered to us by the gospel, that we may not have to fear that vengeance which happened to the Jews.

He adds the reason: Because thou hast forgotten me and trusted in falsehood. By falsehood the Prophet means not only the superstitions in which the Jews involved themselves, but also the false counsels which they adopted, when they sometimes resorted to the Egyptians, at other times to some other ungodly nations, in order to get aid in opposition to the will of God.

For wherever there was any danger, they thought they had a remedy at hand by having the favor and help of the Egyptians, or of the Assyrians, or of the Chaldeans. In the word falsehood, then, the Prophet includes those perverse designs which they formed when they sought to defend themselves against God, who would have protected them by His power, had it not been necessary to punish them for their sins.

What Jeremiah then condemned in the people was that they placed their trust in falsehood; that is, they sought here and there vain help and at the same time disregarded God. Indeed, they thought themselves safer when God was displeased with them, and hence He says, Thou hast forgotten me.

For the Jews could not have sought deliverance from the Egyptians or from other heathen nations, or from their idols, without having first rejected God. For if this truth had been really fixed in their minds—that God cared for their safety—they would no doubt have been satisfied with His protection.

Their ingratitude was therefore very manifest in thus adopting vain and impious hopes, for they thereby dishonored God and distrusted His power, as though He were not sufficient to preserve them.

It now follows—