John Calvin Commentary Jeremiah 7:33

"And the dead bodies of this people shall be food for the birds of the heavens, and for the beasts of the earth; and none shall frighten them away." — Jeremiah 7:33 (ASV)

Jeremiah threatens them with something more severe than death itself — that God would impress the marks of His wrath even on their dead bodies. It is indeed true what a pagan poet says:

"That the loss of a grave is not great," (Virgil, Aeneid).

But we must, on the other hand, remember that burying has been held as a sacred custom in all ages, for it was a symbol of the last resurrection.

Barbarous then were the words: "Give me a stick, if you fear that birds will eat my dead body." This was the response of the cynic who, having ordered his body to be cast into the field, derided what was said to him: "The wild beasts and birds will devour you." "Oh," he said, "let me have a stick, and I will drive them away," suggesting by such a saying that he would then be without any feeling. But he showed that he entertained no hope of immortality.

It was God’s will that the custom of burying should prevail among all nations, so that in death itself there might be some evidence or intimation of the last resurrection. Therefore, when the Prophet declares here and in other places that the Jews would be without a burial, he doubtless enhances the vengeance of God.

We indeed know that some of the most holy men had not been buried; for the prophets were sometimes exposed to wild beasts and birds. The whole Church complains in Psalm 79:2, that the dead bodies of the saints were exposed and became food for birds and wild beasts.

This has sometimes happened, for God often mixes the good with the evil in temporal punishments, just as He makes His sun to rise on the good and the evil. Yet, in itself and for the most part, it is evidence of a curse when a man’s body is cast away without any burial.

This, then, is what the Prophet means when he says, The carcass of this people shall be meat for the birds of the air and for the beasts of the earth, and there will be none to terrify them; that is, there will be no one to perform the humane duty of driving the beasts away, the very thing that nature itself would lead one to do.

If anyone now objects and says that in this case the faithful could not be distinguished from the reprobate, the answer is plainly this — that when the honor of a burial is denied to the faithful, God will become their avenger.

But this does not prove that God does not in this way inflict a visible punishment on the reprobate, and thus expose to reproach those by whom He has been despised. He afterwards adds—