John Calvin Commentary Jeremiah 5:23

"But this people hath a revolting and a rebellious heart; they are revolted and gone." — Jeremiah 5:23 (ASV)

Here the previous verse is completed, for what is said here is connected with the question that we have noted. But God now proves more clearly why He brought forward what He said of the sea. The conjunction ו , vau, is to be taken here as an adversative and should be rendered this way: But this people have a perverse heart: for סורר , surer, means “perverse;” some render it “revolting, ” but incorrectly, as it appears from many other passages that it is something more. Moreover, the other meaning is more suitable to the context here, for he says first that the people had a perverse heart, and then that they had a rebellious or an untamable heart. He undoubtedly compares the obstinacy with the obedience of the sea, or sets one in contrast with the other, and simply conveys this truth: that there was more fury and stupidity in this people than in the raging sea.

And He proves that the people had a perverse heart by the effect, for they had fallen away and departed. Had He said only that they had fallen away, the proof would not have been so complete; but by adding “departed,” He points out their obstinacy, as if He had said that their corruption was permanent, like entrenched diseases that no remedies can heal. They have then fallen away and departed; that is, “I could not bring them back.” God had indeed often tried through His servants to restore them to a right course, but their perverseness only revealed itself more and more and showed itself to be irreclaimable; for they departed, so that there was no prospect of repentance.