John Calvin Commentary Jeremiah 42:19-21

"Jehovah hath spoken concerning you, O remnant of Judah, Go ye not into Egypt: know certainly that I have testified unto you this day. For ye have dealt deceitfully against your own souls; for ye sent me unto Jehovah your God, saying, Pray for us unto Jehovah our God; and according unto all that Jehovah our God shall say, so declare unto us, and we will do it: and I have this day declared it to you; but ye have not obeyed the voice of Jehovah your God in anything for which he hath sent me unto you." — Jeremiah 42:19-21 (ASV)

Here the Prophet explains their sin more fully, for their punishment might have appeared extreme if their impiety had not been more clearly unfolded. He then says that this punishment should not be regarded as too severe, because God had not only protested against the Jews and admonished them solemnly and before witnesses on one occasion; but to the very end, they not only despised His counsel and warnings but also proudly rejected them. And he adds that they dealt falsely and treacherously with God. They pretended they would be obedient as soon as God's will was known. However, they showed that in reality they had no such purpose, for their own vanity and deceit took full possession of them when the Prophet answered them in God’s name; nor did they have any desire to obey God.

Let us now consider the words: Jehovah has spoken against you, the remnant of Judah. He again calls them a remnant, so that they might remember that they had no reason any longer to be proud. We know how the Jews disregarded the Prophets while in prosperity, for they were intoxicated with their good fortune. But God had dispelled this pride with which they were previously filled. The Prophet had also set before them the favor through which they had been liberated, so that they might learn in the future to submit to God and His word.

For this reason, then, he called them a remnant, to make them more attentive and teachable. But it was done without any benefit. For though their affairs were nearly hopeless, and they were reduced almost to nothing, they still had not laid aside their arrogant spirits. They were then still swollen with false confidence. This warning, however, served to make them more inexcusable.

If you enter into Egypt, he says, it means knowing you know, or, knowing you shall know. The verb is in the future tense, though it may be taken as an imperative. But the future tense is the most suitable: knowing you shall know. That is, the event itself will teach you, but too late, as the foolish are never wise until after the evil has taken place.

Knowing you shall know that I have protested against you this day. God says that He had left nothing undone to bring the Jews to a right mind, for a protest is usually made in a solemn manner, with witnesses being called, so that no one can plead that he has gone astray through ignorance.

To take away then every ground of excuse, witnesses were usually called. Hence God speaks according to the common practice and in a forensic sense, and says that He had protested against the Jews, lest they should offend by chance through want of knowledge. It then follows that they knowingly perished, as though they had sought their own destruction.

He now adds another circumstance: that they had sent him under the pretense of rare piety, as though they were in every way ready to render obedience to God. But he first says that they had deceived themselves, or had been deceived. The verb תעה, toe, from which the Hithpael comes, means to err or go astray.

But interpreters do not agree, for some give this explanation: that they deceived the Prophet in their hearts, that is, that they craftily retained their perverse design of going to Egypt and at the same time professed that they were ready to obey. But as the Prophet’s name is not mentioned here, this explanation seems unnatural.

I therefore prefer the other explanation: that they deceived themselves (and ב, beth, is here redundant, as in many places): You deceived, then, your own souls, when you sent me, he says, to Jehovah. The Prophet intimates that when they sought to act craftily, they were deceived, for God usually uncovers the astute. When they devise this or that, they only weave snares and toils for themselves; and we see that craftiness always brings the ungodly to ruin.

The Prophet, according to this sense, derides that perverse affectation of astuteness when the ungodly seek to deceive God, and he says that they deceived themselves, as we also see daily. Then he says that they themselves had been the authors of the evil, for they had brought themselves to ruin by their astute and crafty counsel when they sent him to Jehovah. The כי, ki, is to be taken here as an adverb of time: When you sent me to Jehovah your God, saying, Pray for us.

He rebukes them not only for treachery but also for sacrilege, because they wickedly profaned the name of God. For it was not to be endured that they should pretend a regard for religion, testify that they would be obedient to God, and at the same time cherish in their hearts that perverse intention which they afterwards revealed. And hence he not only relates that he had been sent but also that he had been solicited to intercede for them. It was then a twofold sacrilege: for they had asked what would please God and afterwards disregarded the prophecy—and then they offered a prayer, and when God gave them an answer by His servant, they counted it as nothing! We now perceive why Jeremiah so expressly mentioned these two things.

Pray for us to our God, and according to all that Jehovah our God shall say, relate to us: the people seemed to act with wonderful sincerity. They exhorted the Prophet to conceal nothing, to add nothing, and to diminish nothing. What better can be wished than that men should lay aside all ambiguity and all evasions, and not wish God’s words to be corrupted? And this the Jews expressed in strong terms: Whatever Jehovah our God shall answer, declare to us. Here they seemed to have more zeal than Jeremiah himself, for they enjoined a law on him that he should add nothing and diminish nothing, but that he should be a faithful interpreter of God’s will. They seemed then to be half-angels. They afterwards testified that they would do whatever God should command them.

He at length adds, And I have this day declared it to you. Here he sets forth his own fidelity, not for the sake of boasting, but so that their impiety might be rebuked, who at length despised the oracle of God, which they had boasted they would obey. You have not listened, he says, to the voice of Jehovah your God, nor to all the things for which He has sent me to you. The Prophet again confirms the truth that it was their own fault that the Jews did not follow what was right and also what was for their good, for he had faithfully delivered to them what God had commanded. He now adds—