John Calvin Commentary Jeremiah 23:9

"Concerning the prophets. My heart within me is broken, all my bones shake; I am like a drunken man, and like a man whom wine hath overcome, because of Jehovah, and because of his holy words." — Jeremiah 23:9 (ASV)

The Prophet here again denounces the wickedness of the people. But as the prophets by their flatteries had then led astray the king and his princes, as well as the people, the Prophet directed his discourse to them, and says that his heart was troubled on account of the prophets. We know that people think themselves half absolved when no one severely reproves them.

When, therefore, the prophets ceased from their work, there was such great complacency among the whole people that they had no fear of God. This is why the Prophet now says that his heart was troubled on account of so much indifference. For the prophets were, as it is said elsewhere, like dumb dogs; they overlooked the most grievous and atrocious sins, and they made no effort to restore the people to the right way.

Troubled, then, he says, is my heart for the prophets. A heavier judgment awaited them, for they ought to have been the instruments of God’s Spirit, the heralds of His judgments. They ought to have undertaken His cause by using exhortations, reproofs, and threatenings.

Yet there is no doubt that what is said should be extended to the whole body of the people. But Jeremiah wished to begin with the prophets, as though he had said that it was monstrous that the prophets boasted they were God’s ministers, and yet were dumb in the midst of so much wickedness.

On account of the prophets, he says, broken is my heart. Then he says that his bones were disjointed. In the first chapter of Genesis, when Moses speaks of the Spirit as moving on the waters, he uses the same verb, but in a different conjugation. However this may be, it is most suitable to say that his bones were disjointed.

And we know that the bones are tied together by sinews, so that they are not moved from their places; for the loosening of one bone renders the whole body almost useless. By this manner of speaking, then, he meant to express the most painful distress of mind, as though he had said that what he possessed as the firmest and strongest part of him had become weak and altogether feeble.

He then compares himself to a drunken man, by which metaphor he conveys that he was completely stunned, and that all his senses were taken from him. And he adds, over whom wine has passed. The verb עבר, ober, means to pass beyond; but to pass over is its meaning here.

One who is overcome by excessive drinking seems as though he has drowned; for when one falls under the water, he is as submerged as one who drowns his brain with wine. Drunkenness is like a grave, as it holds the whole person under its power.

Yet the Prophet meant nothing other than that this monstrous situation astonished those who were of a sane and sound mind, and that it also shook and disjointed all their limbs, and terrified and confounded minds otherwise quiet and tranquil.

Certainly, Jeremiah was a wise man and was also endowed with courage, so that he would not have recoiled from every evil, however great; nor could he have been easily overwhelmed with stupor like a drunken man. Hence by these comparisons he shows how dreadful and monstrous it was that the prophets were so unconcerned as not to say a word, when they saw that impiety and contempt of God were so rampant, and when they saw the whole land defiled with every kind of wickedness, as we will soon see.

Then he says, On account of Jehovah, and on account of the words of his holiness. By saying, on account of Jehovah, he brings God before them as a judge and avenger, as though he had said: “If they believe that there is a God in heaven, it is a wonder that they are so brutish as to dare to boast of His name, and yet silently to allow heaven and earth to be thrown into confusion.

Where, then, is their reason, when they dare so carelessly to profess a name so fearful and awe-inspiring? For whenever God’s name is mentioned, it ought to bring to their minds not only His goodness and mercy, but also His severity, and then His power, which is dreadful to all the wicked.

Since then these men dare to trifle with God in this way, must not their stupidity be monstrous?” What the Prophet means, then, is this: it was a wonder that the prophets undertook their office and yet had no concern for the glory of God.

And he adds, On account of the words of his holiness. People would seek ease if God did not rouse them by His word.

But the Law had been written for the Jews. These false prophets knew that if they wished to perform their work rightly, they ought to have been expounders of the Law. Since these things were sufficiently known, the Prophet justly refers here to the word of God, as if to put a bridle in their mouths, so that they would not, in their usual manner, evade what a mere profession of God’s name implied.

Since, then, God had testified in His Law how He would have His people governed, how was it that these prophets were not terrified by God’s words?

And as hypocrites not only despise God Himself and diminish His glory, but also disregard the teaching of His law, the Prophet adorns God’s words with remarkable praise, calling His words the words of his holiness.

And he thus calls God’s words holy, and therefore inviolable, so that the ungodly might know that a dreadful vengeance was near them, because they disregarded both God and His holy words.