John Calvin Commentary Jeremiah 17:23

"But they hearkened not, neither inclined their ear, but made their neck stiff, that they might not hear, and might not receive instruction." — Jeremiah 17:23 (ASV)

Here the Prophet stresses their crime: that the Jews had not just begun for the first time to violate this precept of the Law, for he reminds them that the Sabbath had been previously violated by their forefathers. We have said elsewhere that people are less excusable when children follow the bad examples of their forefathers.

This is indeed what the world does not commonly think. For we see today that most people boast of the examples of their forefathers when they wish to reject the Law, the Prophets, and the gospel. They think themselves to be defended by a strong shield when they can object to us, saying that their forefathers had done otherwise. But we have seen from many passages how frivolous such a defense is, and Jeremiah here confirms the same thing by saying that the people's crime was all the more atrocious because their forefathers had long before begun to despise this command of God.

But they heard not, he says, nor inclined their ear, but hardened their neck. By these words he shows most clearly that their forefathers had not sinned through inadvertence or ignorance, but because they had hardened themselves in contempt of God.

It often happens that people, when rightly taught, go astray through ignorance, as their lack of knowledge may prevent them from understanding what they hear: but when people do not incline their ear but harden their neck, their obstinacy becomes manifest, for they knowingly and willfully reject God. Jeremiah then sets forth such perverseness here with the various expressions he employs, as we have seen in other places.

As to the hardening of the neck, it is a metaphor, as stated elsewhere, taken from untamable oxen. God compares his law to a yoke, and for the best reason: for as oxen are tamed so that they may labor and are trained to obey when the yoke is laid on them, so also God proves our obedience when he rules us by his law, for we otherwise wander after our lusts.

Therefore, as God corrects and checks in us by his law all the unruly passions of the flesh, he is said to lay his yoke on us. Now, if we are intractable and do not submit to the authority of God, we are said to harden our neck.

Jeremiah later speaks without a metaphor and says, That they heard not, nor received instruction, or correction. The word מוסר musar means teaching or correction. The meaning of all this is that the Jews were not only unteachable when the will of God was plainly made known to them, but they were also refractory and perverse in their spirit. For when exhortations were added to teaching to stimulate them further, and when threats were added to these, God still could not by any means subdue their wantonness. It now follows.