John Calvin Commentary Jeremiah 23:10

"For the land is full of adulterers; for because of swearing the land mourneth; the pastures of the wilderness are dried up. And their course is evil, and their might is not right;" — Jeremiah 23:10 (ASV)

Jeremiah now assigns the reason why he was so much horrified by the insensibility which he observed in the prophets. If things were in good order, or if, at least, they were tolerable, the prophets would have more calmly addressed the Jews; for what need is there to make a great fuss when people willingly follow what God commands? When, therefore, we are dealing with meek and modest people, vehemence is foolish; and those who thus exert themselves, and seek, through great ambition, to show very fervid zeal when there is no need, are nothing but mimics.

But when things are in disorder and confusion, then vehemence is needed. Jeremiah now declares that things were so extremely out of order that the prophets could not have been silent, unless they were like logs of wood.

These two things, then, ought to be connected together—that the prophets were silent, and that they were silent when there was the greatest necessity for speaking; for they saw the land filled with adulteries. Though he names adulterers, he yet condemns the crime. As then the land was polluted by adulteries and perjuries, as they all gave themselves up to do evil, it was by no means to be tolerated that the prophets should not be indignant, as if things were well ordered and peaceful.

Therefore, we see how much God abhors sloth in the ministers of his word, in those whom he appoints as teachers in his Church, while they connive at wickedness, and heedlessly pass by adulteries, and fornications, and perjuries, and frauds, and other kinds of wrongs. For if there were even the least particle of religion in their hearts, they would certainly have been moved and could not have been for a moment silent. For if that zeal which was in the Psalmist ought to be in all God’s children:

The zeal of your house has consumed me, and the reproaches of those who reproached you have fallen upon me (Psalms 69:10).

How inexcusable must be the indifference of prophets when they see God’s name exposed to mockery and when they see every kind of wickedness prevailing!

We now see not only what the Prophet teaches in this passage but also the usefulness of his doctrine and how it ought to be applied.

Let us then learn that the more liberty people take in sinning, and the more audaciously their impiety and contempt of God break out, the more sharply prophets and faithful teachers ought to reprove and condemn them. It is the time for fighting when the world thus presumptuously and furiously rises up against God.

The Prophet mentions some kinds of evil, and yet does not enumerate all kinds; but under adulteries and perjuries he includes also other crimes. As to the word ale (אלה), it properly means swearing; but as cursing often accompanies it, some translate it here “execration.” But I rather think that what is meant is perjury, and that swearing here is taken in a bad sense, signifying swearing falsely in the name of God.

Mourned, he says, has the land, and dried up have the pastures of the desert. Here the Prophet strikingly shows how shameful was that torpor of which he speaks, for the land itself cried out; not only the land which was cultivated and had many people on it, but also the very mountains and their recesses.

He says that the land was in mourning because God showed his judgments everywhere by rendering the fields barren and by other means he used as punishments.

It is a very striking mode of speaking when the Prophet mentions the mourning of the land, as if it assumed the character of a mourner when it saw God angry because of the wickedness of people. It is, indeed, a kind of personification, though he does not introduce the land as speaking; but he describes mourning as it appeared in the sterility of the land, and also in hail and storms, in unseasonable rains, in droughts, and in other calamities.

Whenever then God raises his hand to punish people for their sins, if they themselves do not perceive it, the very land, which is without sense and feeling, ought to fill them with shame for their madness; for mourning appears in the very land, as if it knew that God was displeased with it.

When, therefore, people sleep in their sins and thus disregard God’s vengeance, how monstrous must be their torpor! And if this is intolerable in the common people, what can be said of the prophets, who ought to proclaim such words as these—Cursed is he who has transgressed the precepts of this law—cursed is he who has corrupted the worship of God—or, who hath dealt unjustly with his neighbor,—and whatever else the law contains (Deuteronomy 27:26; Deuteronomy 28:47, 58)?

So we now perceive how emphatic are the words when the Prophet says, Mourned has the land. And he amplifies the same thing by saying, Dried up have the beautiful places of the desert. This is as if he had said that God’s judgments were seen in the remotest places.

Not only in the plains, where the greater number of people dwelt, did the land mourn; but if anyone ascended the mountains, where only shepherds with their flocks were to be found, even there the wrath of God was visible. The very mountains cried out that God was angry.

And yet people still deluded themselves—those who, at the same time, were expounders of the law, who were the mouth of God, and to whom he had committed the office of reproving. But they were silent! We now understand what these words contain and what is to be learned from them.

He adds that their course was evil, and that their strength was not right. By course he no doubt means their doings and all their actions, and also the aid which they proposed for themselves. For our life is called a course because God has not created us that we may lie down in one place, but he has set before us an end for which we are to live.

Therefore, by course, the Scripture means all our doings and the very end for which we are to live. He then says that all their strength had been perverted; that is, that they had applied all their powers to do evil.

It therefore appears that, unless the prophets had been treacherous, they would have thought it high time to cry out when people provoked God with so much audacity in their wicked courses.