Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary
Jeremiah 18:13

Clarke's Commentary

Verse Jeremiah 18:13. The virgin of Israel — Instead of ישראל Yisrael, three of Kennicott's and De Rossi's MSS., with the Alexandrian copy of the Septuagint, have ירושלם Yerushalem, Jerusalem.

Bridgeway Bible Commentary

Lessons from the potter (18:1-23)

A potter can make a lump of clay into whatever shape he wants. He can also change the kind of vessel he is making, if he thinks that conditions require it (18:1-4). As a potter determines the kind of vessel he makes, so God determines the destinies of nations, and this is the lesson that the people of Judah must learn (5-6). He may announce judgments on a nation, but he may withdraw those judgments if the nation repents. On the other hand, he may promise blessings to a nation, but he may withdraw those blessings if the nation rebels (7-10). Jeremiah assures Judah that it can be saved from the coming destruction if it returns to God (11). Judah, however, refuses to change its ways (12).
In turning from God to idols, Judah has done something that is almost unbelievable. Such action is as unnatural as that of a virgin who suddenly turns prostitute, or of a snow-fed mountain stream that suddenly dries up (13-15). Onlookers shake their heads in amazement at Judah’s folly. It can lead only to calamity (16-17).

Some of the Judeans plotted mischief against Jeremiah because of his outspoken criticisms. They refused to acknowledge him as God’s spokesman. They comforted themselves in the assurance that they were loyal followers of the official priests, wisdom teachers and prophets, who, of course, approved of their sinful ways (18). Jeremiah reminds God that he has prayed for these people, and now they are returning evil for good (19-20). As he asks God to fight for him, he prays that God will destroy the plotters and their followers, according to the curse that the law of Moses pronounced upon the rebellious (21-23; cf. Deuteronomy 28:15-68).

Coffman's Commentaries on the Bible

THE FOLLY OF JUDAH’S CHOICE

“Therefore thus saith Jehovah: Ask ye now among the nations, who hath heard such things?; the virgin Israel hath done a very horrible thing. Shall the snow of Lebanon fall from the rock of the field? or shall the cold waters that flow down from afar be dried up?”

“The willfulness of Israel in forsaking Jehovah their God was without parallel in the ancient world, as Jeremiah had already mentioned in Jeremiah 2:9-13; Jeremiah 5:20-25, and in Jeremiah 8:7. The horror is heightened by calling her a virgin. She had indeed been a virgin hedged about by the Lord to protect her sanctity.”Charles Lee Feinberg in Ezekiel (Chicago: Moody Press), p. 492.

There are no known examples of where ancient peoples ever forsook their ancestral or tribal gods; but Israel indeed had denied the very God who delivered them from slavery and made a mighty nation of them.

Israel had forsaken her status as a virgin and had prostrated herself abjectly before the sensuous fertility gods of ancient Canaan, the worship of which was a key factor in God’s proscribing and displacing the Canaanites in order to give the land to Israel! It was not merely horrible, but incredible as well. “Their sin was as irrational as it was tragic.”The New Bible Commentary, Revised, p. 639.

With reference to Jeremiah 18:14, Thompson said: “All translations of this verse are conjectural; but while certainty is not possible the main thrust of the passage is clear.”J. A. Thompson, The Bible and Archeology (Grand Rapid, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1972) p. 437. The view preferred by this writer is that God is here comparing the irrational and almost incredible behavior of Israel to that of a foolish farmer who would desert a farm watered by the melting snows of Lebanon’s Mount Hennon, in favor of an arid, rocky desert farm! Feinberg accepted this same understanding of the passage, saying that, “Nature does not change its course, but Judah has. Nature’s reliability puts to shame Israel’s instability.”Charles Lee Feinberg in Ezekiel (Chicago: Moody Press), p. 492.

Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible

The contrast between the chaste retirement of a virgin and Judah’s eagerness after idolatry, serves to heighten the horror at her conduct.

Calvin's Commentary on the Bible

God shews here that the Jews were become wholly irreclaimable, for they arrived at the highest pitch of impiety, when they were so daring as to reject the salvation offered to them; for what had the Prophet in view but, to extricate them from ruin? God himself by his Prophet wished to secure their safety. How great then was their ingratitude to reject God’s paternal care, and not to give ear to the Prophet who was to be a minister of salvation to them? Now as they were extremely deaf and stupid: God turns to the Gentiles.

Enquire, or ask, he says, among the Gentiles, Has any one heard such a thing? as though he had said, “I will no more contend with those brute animals, for there is no reason in them; but the Gentiles, destitute of the light of knowledge, can be made witnesses of so gross an impiety.” And he says the same thing in Jeremiah 2:10,

“Go, pass through the isles and survey the whole world, has any nation forsaken its own gods, and yet they are no gods?”

As though he had said, “Religion so much prevails among wretched idolaters, that they continue steadfast in their superstitions; as they consider it a dreadful thing to change their god, they therefore shun it as a monstrous thing. Hence it is, that they are devoted to their superstitions, for the god whom they have once received, they think it the highest impiety to forsake, while yet they are no gods; but my people have forsaken me, who am the fountain of living water.” Jeremiah repeats now the same thing in other words, that such an example could not be found among heathens.

He then adds, A base thing has the virgin of Israel done. Some indeed render שעררת, shorret, “a monstrous thing,” and it may be thus taken metaphorically, for the verb שער shor, means to count, to think; and this meaning may be adopted here; but as in many places it signifies baseness, I will not depart from that common meaning. ⁽¹⁹⁸⁾ He says then, that it was an extremely base thing for the people to forsake him. He does not call the people the virgin of Israel by way of honor, but to augment their reproach. For God, as we have before seen, had espoused the people to himself; and so it was their duty to observe conjugal fidelity, as a virgin espoused by a husband, who ought not to regard any other, for she is not to look for any other after she has pledged her faith. But the people of Israel, who ought to have been as it were the bride of God, sinned most basely, yea, most disgracefully and infamously, when they prostituted themselves to wicked counsels as well as to superstitions. He now adds comparisons, by whichlte more fully exposes their wickedness, —

(198) It is rendered in the Septuagint and Vulgate as a noun in the plural number, and more suitably in this place, —

13.Therefore thus saith Jehovah, Enquire I pray among the nations, Who hath heard such things as these — The horrible things which she hath fully done, The virgin of Israel.

The particle מאד, much, very much, etc., must from its position be construed with the verb, and not with “horrible.” It may be rendered, “which she hath done excessively.” — Ed

Smith's Bible Commentary

Chapter 18

Now in chapter 18:

The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying, Arise, and go down to the potter's house, and there I will cause thee to hear my words. Then I went down to the potter's house, and, behold, he wrought a work on the wheels. And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it. Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying, O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the LORD. Behold, as the clay is in the potter's hand, so are ye in my hand, O house of Israel ( Jeremiah 18:1-6 ).

Here, again, as with Isaiah, the figure of the potter and the clay, showing God's awesome sovereignty over man's destiny. God can make of you whatever He pleases. And as Paul the apostle said in Romans 9:1-33 , "Who art thou, O man, who says unto the Lord, 'Why has Thou made me thus?' Hath not the potter the power over the clay, to make of it whatever kind of a vessel He desires?" ( Romans 9:20-21 ) In those chapters nine, ten and eleven of Romans where Paul speaks of this awesome sovereignty of God over man, he uses the same figure of the potter and the clay.

Now with Jeremiah it is interesting God said, "Go down to the potter's house and I'm going to speak to you there." He went down to the potter's house. He saw him as he was working a work on the wheels. So the three objects-the potter, the wheel, the clay-speak of God's dealing and working with man. The clay, a common worthless material in its native state, and yet a material that has a potential of great value and utility, according to the skill of the potter. The potter, his total control over the clay to make of it whatever he desires--God's awesome power over our lives. The wheels--the circumstances of our lives by which God molds and shapes us.

Now in this case as he watched the potter, the vessel was marred in the hands of the potter. He was making this vessel on the wheel, but suddenly the vessel took a wrong shape. It maybe had a hard lump in the clay or something. The vessel was marred. And so the potter just took and crumbled the clay again or compacted it again and then made of it a vessel as was good unto him to make. And God spoke and said, "Is not Israel, the nation Israel, like clay in My hands?" And though Israel had been marred, yet God would remake them. He would work in them again a new work. The vessel had been marred, but not to be discarded. God would work yet again in making them that which He desires and intended them to be.

At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy it ( Jeremiah 18:7 );

Now you remember in chapter 1 when God called Jeremiah He said, "I have called you over the nations. I've called you." And his ministry was to pluck up, to pull down and to destroy. Now that's quite a ministry to be called to. "Uproot things, Jeremiah. Pluck them up. Destroy them." You see, there comes a time when the system gets so corrupt there's no renewing it. There's no reformation possible. It's gone too far. So before you can rebuild and plant and rebuild, you got to just get rid of everything that is there. And that is what God is saying. They've gotten so bad we're just going to have to get rid of it. Go back to zero and then we'll start all over again. But you've got to tear down, root out, destroy that which exists. So He brings him back to the first calling in chapter 1.

And at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, [verse Jeremiah 18:9 ] to build and to plant it ( Jeremiah 18:9 ).

So in verse Jeremiah 18:7 he speaks of the plucking up, pulling down, destroying.

Now if that nation, against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, and repent of that which I thought to do unto them. And at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it. If you do evil in my sight, that it not obey my voice, then I will repent of the good, wherewith I said I would benefit them. Now therefore go and speak to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith the LORD; Behold, I frame evil against you, and devise a device against you: return you now every one from his evil way, and make your ways and your doings good. And they said, There is no hope: but we will walk after our own devices, and we will every one do the imagination of his evil heart ( Jeremiah 18:8-12 ).

So they would not listen to Jeremiah. They said, "There's no hope, you know. We're all going to go for it at this point."

Therefore thus saith the LORD; Ask ye now among the heathen, who has heard such things: the virgin of Israel hath done a very horrible thing. Will a man leave the snow of Lebanon which cometh from the rock of the field? or shall the cold flowing waters that come from another place be forsaken? ( Jeremiah 18:13-14 )

That beautiful, crystal-clear snow water that comes out of the ground at the base of a mountain there in Lebanon. Will a man leave that beautiful crystal snow water?

Because my people hath forgotten me, they have burned incense to vanity ( Jeremiah 18:15 ),

This is forsaking Me, that fountain of living water. They have forgotten Me; they have burned incense to vanity.

and they have caused them to stumble in their ways from the ancient paths, to walk in paths, in a way not cast up; To make their land desolate, and a perpetual hissing; every one that passes by shall be astonished, and wag his head. I will scatter them as with an east wind before the enemy; I will show them my back, and not my face, in the day of their calamity. Then said they ( Jeremiah 18:15-18 ).

Jeremiah delivered this message to them. And then they responded saying,

Come, and let us devise devices against Jeremiah; for the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. Come, and let us smite him with the tongue, and let us not give heed to any of his words ( Jeremiah 18:18 ).

And so Jeremiah said,

Give heed to me, O LORD, and hearken to the voice of them that contend with me. Shall evil be recompensed for good? for they have digged a pit for my soul. Remember that I stood before thee to speak good for them, and to turn away thy wrath from them ( Jeremiah 18:19-20 ).

Now here Jeremiah said, "I have been interceding. I have been praying for them and now they're devising to do me in, God. Remember how good I was, Lord, and remember how evil they are."

Therefore deliver up their children to the famine, and pour out their blood by the force of the sword; and let their wives be bereaved of their children, and be widows; and let their men be put to death; let the young men be slain by the sword in battle ( Jeremiah 18:21 ).

In other words, I'm not going to intercede for them anymore, God. Go ahead and give it to them.

Let a cry be heard ( Jeremiah 18:22 )

He was a melancholy, no doubt, if you'd done any personality type of analysis. A great melancholy, and it will show up even more forcibly as we move on into chapter 20. We see the melancholy at his classic height. Verse Jeremiah 18:23 :

LORD, you know all their counsel against me to slay me: forgive not their iniquity, neither blot out their sin from thy sight, but let them be overthrown before thee; deal thus with them in the time of thine anger ( Jeremiah 18:23 ).

So the prophet is really upset with them. Heard again that they're plotting to get him and all. And this time he's had it. "God, just take care of them. Do whatever You want. Wipe them out. I'm not going to pray for them any longer." How different this is from Moses. You remember Moses as he interceded. "O God, forgive their sin. And if not, blot, I pray Thee, my name out of Thy book of remembrances." I have a hard time identifying with Moses. I find a very easy time identifying with Jeremiah. I come to my car and I find someone has ripped off something from my car, boy, I pray, "God, get them. Smite them, Lord. Let them fall and break their legs. Just really do them in, Lord." I have no mercy for thieves and people that go around ripping people off. It just really upsets me. "Let the angel of the Lord pursue them and just give them a bad time, Lord." So I would classify more with Jeremiah than I would with Moses.

"

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

Yahweh indicted the people of Judah through His prophet, asking if any other nation had ever done what Israel had done. As a virgin, she had done something appalling. She had polluted herself with the practices of pagan religion-including sexual immorality. She had played the harlot.

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

Israel’s unnatural behavior and its consequences 18:13-17

In this message, Jeremiah contrasted the unnatural apostasy of the people with the constancy of nature (cf. Jeremiah 2:10-13).

Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

Therefore thus saith the Lord,.... This being the case of the people of the Jews, and they so resolutely bent on their own ways:

ask ye among the Heathen; inquire among the nations of the world, the Gentiles that know not the true God, and have not the external revelation of his will, only the dim light of nature to guide them; and see if anything like this is to be found among them, as with this people, favoured with the law of God, his word and ordinances to direct them, and his prophets to teach and instruct them; suggesting that they were worse than the Heathens, and that it would be more tolerable for them, one day, than for these people:

who hath heard such things? as expressed in the preceding verses; such desperate words, such bold and daring expressions, such impious resolutions; for generally, when persons are reproved and threatened for sin, they promise amendment; or what is after related concerning their idolatries; intimating that nothing like it was ever heard of among the Gentiles; see Jeremiah 2:10;

the virgin of Israel hath done a very horrible thing; the congregation of Israel, as the Targum; the people of the Jews, ironically so called; because they had been espoused to the Lord as a chaste virgin, and ought to have remained so, pure and incorrupt in the worship of him; but had committed spiritual adultery, that is, idolatry; even very gross acts of it; horrible to hear and think of; enough to make a man's hair stand an end to be told of; or what was very filthy and abominable, and to be loathed and detested, which is explained,

Jeremiah 18:15; unless it can be thought to refer to what goes before, concerning their dreadful resolution to continue in their evil ways.

Henry's Complete Commentary on the Bible

      11 Now therefore go to, speak to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith the LORD; Behold, I frame evil against you, and devise a device against you: return ye now every one from his evil way, and make your ways and your doings good.   12 And they said, There is no hope: but we will walk after our own devices, and we will every one do the imagination of his evil heart.   13 Therefore thus saith the LORD; Ask ye now among the heathen, who hath heard such things: the virgin of Israel hath done a very horrible thing.   14 Will a man leave the snow of Lebanon which cometh from the rock of the field? or shall the cold flowing waters that come from another place be forsaken?   15 Because my people hath forgotten me, they have burned incense to vanity, and they have caused them to stumble in their ways from the ancient paths, to walk in paths, in a way not cast up;   16 To make their land desolate, and a perpetual hissing; every one that passeth thereby shall be astonished, and wag his head.   17 I will scatter them as with an east wind before the enemy; I will shew them the back, and not the face, in the day of their calamity.

      These verses seem to be the application of the general truths laid down in the foregoing part of the chapter to the nation of the Jews and their present state.

      I. God was now speaking concerning them to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy; for it is that part of the rule of judgment that their case agrees with (Jeremiah 18:11; Jeremiah 18:11): "Go, and tell them" (saith God), "Behold I frame evil against you and devise against you. Providence in all its operations is plainly working towards your ruin. Look upon your conduct towards God, and you cannot but see that you deserve it; look upon his dealings with you, and you cannot but see that he designs it." He frames evil, as the potter frames the vessel, so as to answer the end.

      II. He invites them by repentance and reformation to meet him in the way of his judgments and so to prevent his further proceedings against them: "Return you now every one from his evil ways, that so (according to the rule before laid down) God may turn from the evil he had purported to do unto you, and that providence which seemed to be framed like a vessel on the wheel against you shall immediately be thrown into a new shape, and the issue shall be in favour of you." Note, The warnings of God's word, and the threatenings of his providence, should be improved by us as strong inducements to us to reform our lives, in which it is not enough to turn from our evil ways, but we must make our ways and our doings good, conformable to the rule, to the law.

      III. He foresees their obstinacy, and their perverse refusal to comply with this invitation, though it tended so much to their own benefit (Jeremiah 18:12; Jeremiah 18:12): They said, "There is no hope. If we must not be delivered unless we return from our evil ways, we may even despair of ever being delivered, for we are resolved that we will walk after our own devices. It is to no purpose for the prophets to say any more to us, to use any more arguments, or to press the matter any further; we will have our way, whatever it cost us; we will do every one the imagination of his own evil heart, and will not be under the restraint of the divine law." Note, That which ruins sinners is affecting to live as they list. They call it liberty to live at large; whereas for a man to be a slave to his lusts is the worst of slaveries. See how strangely some men's hearts are hardened by the deceitfulness of sin that they will not so much as promise amendment; nay, they set the judgments of God at defiance: "We will go on with our own devices, and let God go on with his; and we will venture the issue."

      IV. He upbraids them with the monstrous folly of their obstinacy, and their hating to be reformed. Surely never were people guilty of such an absurdity, never any that pretended to reason acted so unreasonably (Jeremiah 18:13; Jeremiah 18:13): Ask you among the heathen, even those that had not the benefit of divine revelation, no oracles, no prophets, as Judah and Jerusalem had, yet, even among them, who hath heart such a thing? The Ninevites, when thus warned, turned from their evil ways. Some of the worst of men, when they are told of their faults, especially when they begin to smart for them, will at least promise reformation and say that they will endeavour to mend. But the virgin of Israel bids defiance to repentance, is resolved to go on frowardly, whatever conscience and Providence say to the contrary, and thus has done a horrible thing. She should have preserved herself pure and chaste for God, who had espoused her to himself; but she has alienated herself from him, and refuses to return to him. Note, It is a horrible thing, enough to make one tremble to think of it, that those who have made their condition sad by sinning should make it desperate by refusing to reform. Wilful impenitence is the grossest self-murder; and that is a horrible thing, which we should abhor the thought of.

      V. He shows their folly in two things:--

      1. In the nature of the sin itself that they were guilty of. They forsook God for idols, which was the most horrible thing that could be, for they put a most dangerous cheat upon themselves (Jeremiah 18:14; Jeremiah 18:15): Will a thirsty traveller leave the snow, which, being melted, runs down from the mountains of Lebanon, and, passing over the rock of the field, flows in clear, clean, crystal streams? Will he leave these, pass these by, and think to better himself with some dirty puddle-water? Or shall the cold flowing waters that come from any other place be forsaken in the heat of summer? No; when men are parched with heat and drought, and meet with cooling refreshing streams, they will make use of them, and not turn their backs upon them. The margin reads it, "Will a man that is travelling the road leave my fields, which are plain and level, for a rock, which is rough and hard, or for the snow of Lebanon, which, lying in great drifts, makes the road impassable? Or shall the running waters be forsaken for the strange cold waters? No; in these things men know when they are well off, and will keep so; they will not leave a certainty for an uncertainty. But my people have forgotten me (Jeremiah 18:15; Jeremiah 18:15), have quitted a fountain of living waters for broken cisterns. They have burnt incense to idols, that are as vain as vanity itself, that are not what they pretend to be nor can perform what is expected from them." They had not the common wit of travellers, but even their leaders caused them to err, and they were content to be misled. (1.) They left the ancient paths, which were appointed by the divine law, which had been walked in by all the saints, which were therefore the right way to their journey's end, a safe way, and, being well-tracked, were both easy to hit and easy to walk in. But, when they were advised to keep to the good old way, they positively said that they would not, Jeremiah 6:16; Jeremiah 6:16. (2.) They chose by-paths; they walked in a way not cast up, not in the highway, the King's highway, in which they might travel safely, and which would certainly lead them to their right end, but in a dirty way, a rough way, a way in which they could not but stumble; such was the way of idolatry (such is the way of all iniquity--it is a false way, it is a way full of stumbling-blocks) and yet this way they chose to walk in and lead others in.

      2. In the mischievous consequences of it. Though the thing itself were bad, they might have had some excuse for it if they could have promised themselves any good out of it. But the direct tendency of it was to make their land desolate, and, consequently, themselves miserable (for so the inhabitants must needs be if their country be laid waste), and both themselves and their land a perpetual hissing. Those deserve to be hissed that have fair warning given them and will not take it. Every one that passes by their land shall make his remarks upon it, and shall be astonished, and way his head, some wondering, others commiserating, others triumphing in the desolations of a country that had been the glory of all lands. They shall wag their heads in derision, upbraiding them with their folly in forsaking God and their duty, and so pulling this misery upon their own heads. Note, Those that revolt from God will justly be made the scorn of all about them, and, having reproached the Lord, will themselves be a reproach. Their land being made desolate, in pursuance of their destruction, it is threatened (Jeremiah 18:17; Jeremiah 18:17), I will scatter them as with an east wind, which is fierce and violent; by it they shall be hurried to and fro before the enemy, and find no way open to escape. They shall not only flee before the enemy (that they might do and yet make an orderly retreat), but they shall be scattered, some one way and some another. That which completes their misery is, I will show them the back, and not the face, in the day of their calamity. Our calamities may be easily borne if God look towards us, and smile upon us, when we are under them, if he countenance us and show us favour; but if he turn the back upon us, if he show himself displeased, if he be deaf to our prayers and refuse us his help, if he forsake us, leave us to ourselves, and stand at a distance from us, we are quite undone. If he hide his face, who then can behold him?Job 34:29. Herein God would deal with them as they had dealt with him (Jeremiah 2:27; Jeremiah 2:27), They have turned their back unto me, and not their face. It is a righteous thing with God to show himself strange to those in the day of their trouble who have shown themselves rude and undutiful to him in their prosperity. This will have its full accomplishment in that day when God will say to those who, though they have been professors of piety, were yet workers of iniquity, Depart from me, I know you not, nay, I never knew you.