Matthew Henry Commentary Jeremiah 18:11-17

"Now therefore, speak to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith Jehovah: Behold, I frame evil against you, and devise a device against you: return ye now every one from his evil way, and amend your ways and your doings. But they say, It is in vain; for we will walk after our own devices, and we will do every one after the stubbornness of his evil heart. Therefore thus saith Jehovah: Ask ye now among the nations, who hath heard such things; the virgin of Israel hath done a very horrible thing. Shall the snow of Lebanon fail from the rock of the field? [or] shall the cold waters that flow down from afar be dried up? For my people have forgotten me, they have burned incense to false [gods]; and they have been made to stumble in their ways, in the ancient paths, to walk in bypaths, in a way not cast up; to make their land an astonishment, and a perpetual hissing; every one that passeth thereby shall be astonished, and shake his head. I will scatter them as with an east wind before the enemy; I will show them the back, and not the face, in the day of their calamity." — Jeremiah 18:11-17 (ASV)

Sinners call it liberty to live without restraint, but for a person to be a slave to their lusts is the very worst slavery. They abandoned God for idols.

When people are parched with heat and encounter cooling, refreshing streams, they use them. In such matters, people will not exchange certainty for uncertainty; yet Israel abandoned the ancient paths appointed by divine law. They did not walk on the main road, where they could travel safely, but on a path where they were bound to stumble: such was the way of idolatry, and such is the way of iniquity.

This made their land desolate and themselves miserable.

Calamities can be borne if God smiles on us while we endure them; but if He is displeased and refuses His help, we are undone.

Multitudes forget the Lord and His Christ, and wander from the ancient paths to walk in ways they themselves have devised. But what will they do on the day of judgment!