Introduction:
| Darby
| Geneva
| Gill
| Jamieson Faussett Brown
| Matthew Henry
| Matthew Henry Concise
| Wesley
| Index
| Bible Gateway |
Chapter 1:
| Darby
| Geneva
| Gill
| Jamieson Faussett Brown
| Matthew Henry
| Matthew Henry Concise
| Wesley
| Index
| Bible Gateway |
Introduction 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 isaiah lamentations
Introduction to Jeremiah
The spirit of the book
The Book of the Prophet
Jeremiah has a different character from that of Isaiah.
It does not contain the same development of the counsels
of God respecting this earth that Isaiah does. It is we,
that we are told many things in it concerning the
nations; but it is principally composed of testimony
addressed immediately to the conscience of the people, on
the subject of their moral condition at the time the
prophet speaks, and with an eye to the judgment with
which they were threatened. Judah had forsaken Jehovah;
for their repentance under Josiah was but a fair
appearance, and under the kings that succeeded him their
degradation was complete. The prophet's heart was
overwhelmed with grief, because of his love for the
people; at the same time that he was filled with a deep
sense of their relationship with the Lord. The sense of
this produced a continual conflict in his soul between
the thought of the value of the people as the people of
God, and a holy jealousy for the glory of God and His
rights over His people—rights which they were
trampling under foot. This was an incurable wound to his
heart. He had pleaded for the people, he had stood in the
breach for them before Jehovah; but he saw that it was
all in vain: the people rejected God and the testimony
that He sent them. God Himself would no longer hearken to
prayer made for Israel. Jeremiah prophesies under this
impression: a sorrowful task, indeed, and one which made
the prophet truly a man of sorrow. And although he could
always say that, if the people repented, they would be
received in grace, he well knew that the people had even
no thought of repenting. Two things sustained him in this
painful service: (for what could be more painful than to
announce judgment for their iniquities, to a people
beloved of God?) first of all, the energy of the Spirit
of God, which filled his heart and compelled him to
announce the judgment of God, in spite of contradiction
and persecution; and then the revelation of the people's
final blessing according to the unchangeable counsels of
God. After this brief notice of the spirit of the Book of
Jeremiah, the proofs and details of which we shall find
in going through his prophecies, let us now examine these
in succession.
The order of the
porphecies in the Septuagint and Hebrew Bible
It is well known that the
order of the prophecies in the Septuagint is different
from that in the Hebrew Bible. But I see no reason for
not receiving the latter. There is no doubt that it does
not preserve the chronological order. The names of the
kings [
1] in the successive chapters clearly
prove this. But it appears to me that, where there is
chronological confusion, the subjects are classed, and
that according to the mind of the Spirit.
The general
contents of the Book
The first twenty-four
chapters have rather a different character from those
that follow. To the end of chapter 24 it is a reasoning,
a moral pleading with the people. In chapter 25 there is
a formal prophecy of judgment on divers nations by the
hand of Nebuchadnezzar. And afterwards we find prophecies
much more distinct from each other, and connected with
historical details.
Chapters 30-33 contain
promises of assured blessing for the last days. From
chapter 39 it is the history of that which followed the
taking of Jerusalem, and the judgment of Egypt and
Babylon.
The different
prophecies
We will now state the
different distinct prophecies; chapter 1, chapters 2-6,
chapters 7-10, chapters 11-13, chapters 14, 15, chapters
16, 17, chapters 18-20, chapters 21-24, chapter 25,
chapter 26, chapter 27 (v. 1, read Zedekiah instead of
"Jehoiakim"), chapter 28, chapter 29, chapters
30, 31, chapter 32, chapter 33 (this last, however, is
connected with the preceding one), chapter 34, chapter
35, chapter 36, chapters 37, 38, chapter 39, chapters
40-44, chapter 45, chapter 46, chapter 47, chapter 48,
chapter 49, verses 1-6, 7-22, 23-27, 28, 29, 30-33,
34-39; chapters 50,51. Chapter 52 was not written by
Jeremiah.
The prophet's
expression of the anguish of the remnant
]There can be nothing more
striking in the way of deep affliction than that of the
prophet. He is distressed; his heart is broken. One sees
too that God has made choice of a naturally feeble heart,
easily cast down and discouraged (even while filling it
with His own strength), in order that the anguish, the
complaints, the distress of soul, the indignation of a
weak heart that resents oppression while unable to throw
it off or overcome it, being all poured out before Him,
should bear testimony against the people whose inveterate
wickedness called for His vengeance. The affliction of
Christ, whose Spirit wrought that of Jeremiah, was
infinitely deeper; but His perfect communion with His
Father caused all the anguish, that in Jeremiah's case
broke out into complaints, to be in secret between Jesus
and His Father. It is very rarely expressed in the
Gospels. He is entirely for others in grace. [
2] In the Psalms we see more of His
feelings. In Jeremiah's case, it was proper that the
anguish of the faithful remnant should be expressed
before God. The absolute perfection of the Lord Jesus,
and the calmness which, through the presence of God,
accompanies His perfection in all His ways, allowed of no
complaint, whatever might be the inward anguish of His
heart. He thanks in the same hour that He can justly
upbraid. Sympathy for others became the position of
Jesus. We see that our precious Lord never failed in
this.
But it was equally
becoming that the outpouring of heart of the faithful,
who needed this sympathy, should be expressed by the Holy
Ghost. It is not that there was no weakness in the heart
that poured itself out; but if the Spirit lays it open,
it is evident that He must express it as it is; otherwise
it were useless and false. Consequently Jeremiah enters
much more personally into his prophecies than any other
prophet. [
3]
He represents the people in their true position before
God—such as God could recognise, as being before Him
in this character—in order to see whether, receiving
from God that which applied to this position, and
expressing the sentiments inspired by such a position, it
was possible to reach the conscience and win the heart of
the people; always remembering that these sentiments were
expressed according to the Spirit, and accompanied by the
most direct and positive prophecies of that which God
would bring upon the people. It is to be observed also,
that a great part of that which was written was not
addressed in the first instance to the people, but to
God. This position of Jeremiah's, as the representative
before God of the true interests of the people, or of the
remnant, causes him to be looked at sometimes as though
he were Jerusalem itself, and, at other times, as a
remnant separated from it and set apart for God.
The period of
Jeremiah's prophecies
But these points will be
better understood by examining the passages which bring
them into notice. The period during which Jeremiah
prophesied was of considerable length, and embraced the
whole time of Israel's decline, from the year after that
in which Josiah began to cleanse Jerusalem and all the
land, until the final destruction of Jerusalem by the
army of the Chaldeans; and even a little while after in
Egypt, a period of more than forty years—a period
throughout of distress and anguish. For although Josiah
was a godly king, the reformation of the people was only
an outward one, as we shall see. So that the anguish of
one who saw with God was so much the greater on account
of this appearance of piety. "And Jehovah was not
turned away from his fierce anger, because of the sins of
Manasseh." Nevertheless the prophet distinguishes
between the two periods, that is, the reign of Josiah,
and that of his successors.
Excepting in chapters
21-24 there are no dates for the first twenty-four
chapters. It is probable that they were mostly given
under Josiah's reign. They contain moral arguments, the
expression of the prophet's sorrow of heart, and solemn
warnings of the coming invasion from the north. The four
chapters I have specified have no chronological order,
and are probably composed of prophecies given at
different periods. They contain the judgment of the
different branches of the house of David successively, as
well as that of the false prophets who deceived the
people. They end by declaring the fate of the captives in
Babylon, and of those that remained with Zedekiah in
Jerusalem—the two very different from each other.
[1] In chapter 27
"Jehoiakim" should be "Zedekiah" (see
verse 12 and chapter 28: 1)
[2] Compare Matthew
26 where this is brought out in the most striking way. It
is very precious to see both this perfect result in
Christ and at the same time all that He felt in His heart
as man, both as sensible to circumstances without and so
deeply exercised within. Perfect exercises within produce
perfect quietness in walk without, for in both God is
fully brought in. If we avoid the full dealing with the
matter with God, the heart cannot act for Him as if all
were disposed of: and that is peace in action. Yet how
precious to see the reality of Christ's human nature in
all the intimate exercises of His spirit.
[3] There is something analogous in
Jonah. But there the circumstances of the prophet are an
episode, and are not connected with the testimony he
bore, unless by the single principle of grace.
Introduction:
| Darby
| Geneva
| Gill
| Jamieson Faussett Brown
| Matthew Henry
| Matthew Henry Concise
| Wesley
| Index
| Bible Gateway |
Chapter 1:
| Darby
| Geneva
| Gill
| Jamieson Faussett Brown
| Matthew Henry
| Matthew Henry Concise
| Wesley
| Index
| Bible Gateway |
Introduction 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 isaiah lamentations
This version of Darby's Synopsis of the Old Testament is a derivative of an electronic version, Copyright 1995 by L. Hodgett. Used by permission. The files of the Synopsis found on this site may not be reproduced without permission from L. J. L. Hodgett, Stem Publishing. A special thanks to L. J. L. Hodgett and Stem Publishing for permission to create and post this version of Darby's Synopsis of the Old Testament.
Genesis
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Esther
Job
Psalm
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Lamentations
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