John Calvin Commentary Jeremiah 6:14

"They have healed also the hurt of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace." — Jeremiah 6:14 (ASV)

This applies to the prophets and priests alone; they not only corrupted the people by their bad example, but also shook off every fear of God, and by their impostures and false boasting removed all regard and respect for the teaching of the true prophets. He then says that they healed to no purpose, or superficially, the wound of the people. He says, by way of concession, that they had healed the wounds of the people; but it was no cure, as the evil was increasing.

They were like the unskilled, who by rashly applying false remedies, cause inflammation, even when the disease is not serious; or like those who are only focused on easing pain, and cause the disease to worsen internally, which is all the more dangerous because it is hidden. This is not to heal, but to kill.

But the Prophet, as I have said, concedes to them the work of healing, and then states the issue: that they were executioners and not physicians. They have healed, he says, the wound of my people.

He takes the words, so to speak, from their mouths: “You are truly good physicians! For by your flatteries you have soothed my people. There was a need not only for sharp medicine to stimulate and to cause pain, but also for caustics and amputations; but you have only applied soothing remedies. This is your way of healing! You have thus healed the wound of my people, even by plasters and ointments that drive the disease inward; but what has been the effect?”

He then immediately shows what sort of healing it was: It was saying, Peace, peace. The evil, we know, is an old one, common to almost all ages; and no wonder, for no one wishes for anything other than to please himself; and what we observe daily regarding the ailments of the body is the same for the diseases of the soul.

No sick person willingly submits to his physician’s advice if it prohibits the use of those things he desires: “What am I then to do? It would be better to die than to follow this advice.” And then, if the physician tells him to take a bitter dose, he will say, “I would rather endure any pain a hundred times than drink that draught.” And when it comes to bleeding and other more painful operations, like caustics and things of this kind, oh, the sick man can stand it no longer and wishes his physicians almost any evil.

What experience then proves to be true regarding bodily diseases is also true, as I have said, regarding the vices of the mind. All wish to deceive themselves; and so it happens that they wish for prophets who promise them large vintages and an abundant harvest, according to what is said by the Prophet Micah:

“Behold,” says God, “you wish to have prophets who will speak to you of rich provisions and of every kind of affluence; and you do not wish them to prophesy evil; you would not have them to denounce on you the punishment which you fully deserve” (Micah 2:11).

Since, then, the despisers of God wished to be soothed by flatteries and to reject the best and most salutary remedies, God has therefore from the beginning given free rein to Satan, and thus impostors have gone forth, whose preaching has been, Peace, peace; but to no purpose; for there is nothing real in such healing, as the Lord says, there is no peace.

The bolder anyone who professes to heal is, if he is unskilled, the more disastrous the outcome will be. Therefore, the Prophet shows that the cause of the extreme calamity of the Jews was that they were deceived by their own priests and teachers.

He does not, at the same time, as has been elsewhere observed, excuse them, as if the whole blame belonged to their false teachers.

For how was it that the false prophets thus fascinated them? It was because they knowingly and willfully destroyed themselves, for they would not accept honest and skilled physicians; it was therefore necessary to give them up to those who killed them.