John Calvin Commentary Jeremiah 4:28

"For this shall the earth mourn, and the heavens above be black; because I have spoken it, I have purposed it, and I have not repented, neither will I turn back from it." — Jeremiah 4:28 (ASV)

Jeremiah proceeds here with the same subject and still introduces God as the speaker, so that what is said might produce a greater effect. For this, he says, the land shall mourn. The mourning of the land is to be understood as its desolation; but he refers to what he had said before.

He does not speak of the inhabitants of the land, for those who explain the passage this way greatly diminish the force of the expression. The Prophet here ascribes terror and sorrow to the very elements, which is much more striking than if he had said that all people would be in sorrow and grief. The same must also be thought of the heavens.

Indeed, the latter clause proves that he is not speaking of the inhabitants, but of the land itself, which, though without reason, yet seems to dread God’s vengeance. And so the Prophet rebukes people for their insensibility; for when God appeared as judge from heaven, they were not touched by any fear. Mourn then shall the land, and covered shall be the heaven with darkness; that is, though people remain senseless, yet both heaven and earth shall feel how dreadful God’s judgment will be.

He afterward adds, Because I have spoken. Some consider asher, meaning 'what,' to be understood between this sentence and the following verb: “Because I have spoken what I have purposed, and I have not repented.” But the concise phrase is not unsuitable.

God first intimates that he had pronounced the sentence, which would remain firm and unchangeable, as though he had said, “I have once for all declared by my servants what I will do.” For the prophets, we know, were the heralds of God’s vengeance. Just as their doctrine was often despised, so in the present day the world also obstinately rejects it; and just as it often now derides all threats, so it happened then.

But Jeremiah introduces God here as the speaker, as though he had said, “My servants have been despised by you, but they have said nothing but what I have commanded them. I am therefore the author of that sentence by which you should have been moved and roused.”

It is in this sense that God testifies that he had spoken, for he takes upon himself what the Jews thought proceeded from the prophets, and therefore supposed they were free to disregard what the prophets pronounced against them: “I myself am He,” says God, “who has spoken.” So we must understand a contrast here between God and the prophets, as though he had said that the Jews slumbered in their sins in vain, because they thought they were dealing only with mortals, since God himself had commanded his servants to denounce the ruin that was despised.

But so that they might not think that God had spoken this way to cause a false alarm (for hypocrites flatter themselves with this pretense: that God does not speak seriously, but frightens them with imaginary terrors, as children often are), he says that he had purposed.

He had said before that he had spoken (that is, by his prophets), but what he means now by this word is that the predictions he had made known concerning their destruction proceeded from his own secret counsel: “This,” he says, “has been decreed by me.”

He then adds, It has not repented me, and I will not turn from it. He briefly shows that the Jews were now given up to death, so that they might not think that God could be pacified as long as they continued in their vices. For God had decreed to destroy them, and he had not only declared this by his prophets but had also resolved within himself to do so.

By the term 'repent,' a change is to be understood, for God cannot, strictly speaking, repent, as nothing is hidden from him; but he speaks, as I have recently stated, in a human way. And every ambiguity is removed by the next phrase, when he says, I will not turn from it; that is, “I will not retract my sentence.”