John Calvin Commentary Jeremiah 22:20

"Go up to Lebanon, and cry; and lift up thy voice in Bashan, and cry from Abarim; for all thy lovers are destroyed." — Jeremiah 22:20 (ASV)

Jeremiah triumphs over the Jews and derides their presumption in thinking that they would be safe, even though God was against them. He then shows that they were deceived in promising themselves impunity. But he tells them to ascend Mount Lebanon, and cry aloud on Mount Bashan, so that they might know that there would be no aid for them when God’s judgment came. But the whole verse is ironical; for they would cry and howl in vain. Indeed, the Prophet treated them this way because he saw that they were utterly incorrigible. They were then not worthy of his counsel or his faithful warnings. He therefore had to deride ironically their madness in promising themselves safety, while they continued to provoke God’s vengeance against themselves.

But at the same time, he accommodates what he says to their intentions, for there is no doubt that they continually looked either to Egypt or to Assyria for any aid they might need. Hence he says, Ascend Mount Lebanon, and cry, and then cry on Mount Bashan, and cry all around (for by sides he means all parts); but you will gain nothing, he says, for consumed are all thy lovers. We learn from the end of the verse that the Prophet said, Ascend, and cry, by way of derision.

By lovers he means the Egyptians and the Assyrians, and other neighboring nations. For the Jews, when they feared any danger, usually fled to their neighbors, and God was neglected by them in the meantime; and for this reason they were called lovers. God had espoused the people as his own, and for this reason he often called them his wife, and he speaks here in the feminine gender. Thus, the people are compared to a wife, and God assumes the character of a husband. When, therefore, the people, according to their own will and whims, wandered here and there, this fickleness was called adultery.

For the simplicity of faith is our spiritual chastity. Just as a wife who is devoted to her husband alone maintains conjugal fidelity and chaste conduct, so when we continue to cleave to God alone, we are, in a spiritual sense, chaste as he requires us to be. But when we seek our safety from one place and another, we violate the fidelity which we owe to God. As soon, then, as we cast our thoughts here and there, it is to act like a woman who seeks vagrant and unlawful connections.

We now see the reason why the Prophet compares the Egyptians and Assyrians to lovers, for he intimates that the people of Israel committed adultery in this manner, as has been stated in other places.