John Calvin Commentary Jeremiah 8:4-5

"Moreover thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith Jehovah: Shall men fall, and not rise up again? Shall one turn away, and not return? Why then is this people of Jerusalem slidden back by a perpetual backsliding? they hold fast deceit, they refuse to return." — Jeremiah 8:4-5 (ASV)

Though God had reminded His prophet of the event, He still invited the Jews to repentance. This was not because there was any hope of restoring them to a right mind (for He had said that they were wholly irreclaimable), but so that their perverseness might be less excusable. It was also His object to afford some relief to the small number of the godly who still remained, for they had not all fallen away into impiety, though the great body of the people had become corrupt.

God then, partly to aggravate the sin of the ungodly and partly to provide for His faithful people, exhorted those to repentance who were still wholly intractable. And here we ought to consider that God’s goodness, when abused, brings a much heavier judgment. God here, in a manner, contends with the wickedness of His people by setting before them the hope of pardon if they repented.

You shall then say to them; that is, “Though I have already testified to you that your labor would be in vain, yet you shall not give over your work.” Shall they who have fallen rise again? This sentence is variously explained. Most interpreters confine it to the Jews only: “Shall the Jews who have fallen rise again?”

As to the second clause, some give this explanation: “If Israel returns, will not God also return?” (that is, from His wrath, or, “Will He not be propitious?”). Or, “If Israel turns away, will not God also turn away?” Others understand both parts of the sentence as referring to the people: “If the people have once turned away, will they not yet return to God?”

For the verb שוב, shub, has contrary meanings: it means to fall away, to rebel, to go back; and it also means to return. But after having maturely considered the words and the design of the prophet, I think it to be a general statement, as if he had said, “When anyone falls, he immediately thinks of recovering from his fall. When anyone deviates from the right course, being warned of his going astray, he immediately looks for the road.”

This is what is usually done. What then does this great stupidity mean, that the people of Jerusalem do not repent, when they ought to have long ago acknowledged their fall and their wanderings?

Whoever impartially considers the prophet’s discourse must see that this is the real meaning; for, in the second of these verses, he says, Why is this people of Jerusalem, etc.; he now first speaks of the people, as it clearly appears. It then follows that the former verse should not be applied to the people; but it contains only a general statement.

In short, Jeremiah here condemns the madness of the people because they did not follow the example of those who have either fallen or deviated from the way by mistake. For it is naturally implanted in everyone that they do not willingly perish in their misfortunes. He who falls, then, immediately strives to rise again; and he who leaves the right way tries, if possible, to return to it.

This, then, is what even the most foolish will do. Why then, Jeremiah asks, does not this people imitate such an example? He therefore shows by this comparison that their conduct was monstrous, for they obstinately adhered to their vices and never thought that there was a hope of reconciliation if they returned to God from the heart.

And he emphatically mentions Jerusalem. For if such obstinacy had prevailed among the Chaldeans or the Egyptians, it would indeed have been inexcusable, but not so strange as among a people to whom the law had been given and to whom God had plainly revealed the way of salvation. When, therefore, this people so hardened themselves as to reject all warnings, was it not monstrous?

Then he says that they were rebellious with a pertinacious rebellion; that is, they forsook God not only through levity, thoughtlessness, or some sudden impulse, but so pertinaciously that the prophets spent their labor in vain teaching and exhorting them. Hence he calls it a strong rebellion, though the word may be taken here, as in other places, in the sense of perpetual.

And he assigns the cause: because they laid hold on deception, that is, they held fast to deception. But the prophet means by deception not that by which a neighbor is deceived or circumvented, but hypocrisy, by which people so blind themselves that they are unwilling either to attend to God’s word or to open their eyes to see the light. When, therefore, people through willful obstinacy bury themselves in darkness, they may be said to lay fast hold on deception.

David says, in Psalm 32:2, that the man is blessed in whose spirit there is no guile: he entertains no guile, as we commonly do. Now, to entertain guile is to possess a deceitful heart. He had before said that they are blessed whose sins are forgiven and to whom iniquity is not imputed: he adds by way of explanation, provided there be no guile in the spirit; and why?

Because wicked people seem to themselves to be blessed, for they do not perceive their own misery, because they are enveloped in their own coverings; and this is the guile of which David speaks. According to the same meaning, our prophet says that those laid fast hold on deception who were so involved in darkness or so blinded by their lusts as to seek to deceive God; but they deceive themselves.

This then is the cause why those whom God corrects and chastises feel no penitence: for they are willfully blind, they close their eyes and deafen their ears, and seek to be deceived by the devil. They do not attend to the holy warnings given them for their salvation.

If, then, we wish to be healed of our vices, let us always begin in this way: let us carefully examine our thoughts and our motives, and not please ourselves nor deceive ourselves by empty flatteries, but strive to shake off whatever is reprehensible and vicious. The very beginning of true repentance is to renounce all deceptions and fallacies and to seek the light, which can alone discover to us our evils.