Jeremiah 11:8

Jer 11:8 Yet they obeyed not, nor inclined their ear, but walked every one in the imagination of their evil heart: therefore I will bring upon them all the words of this covenant, which I commanded [them] to do; but they did [them] not.

Ver. 8. Yet they obeyed not.] See Jer 7:24.

Therefore I will bring.] Heb., And I brought upon them.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Jer_11:8

They obeyed not.

Sins of omission

I. The great commonness of sins of omission.

1. In a certain sense all offences against the law of God come under the head of sins of omission. Every sin is a breach of the all-comprehensive law, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and thy neighbour as thyself. How multitudinous our omissions in respect to this command! Too often we have had other gods beside Him. So, too, in regard to our neighbour. What sins of omission daily occur in our various relationships--our neighbours, our children, our household.

2. Sins of omission are seen in all who neglect to perform the first and all-essential Gospel command: Repent and be converted; Repent and be baptized; Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.

3. Sins of omission in religious duties. Multitudes neglect the outward worship of God. But others show religious regard; yet what omissions as to prayer; how lax in devotion are the most of us! As to the Bible: left unread! As to service: talents wrapped up in napkin! Our omissions lie upon the horizon of memory like masses of storm clouds accumulating for a horrible tempest.

II. The cause of this excessive multiplicity of sins of omission.

1. The great cause lies in our evil hearts. Absence of clean heart and right spirit is at the root: Ye must be born again.

2. The conscience of man is not well alive to sins of omission. While conscience will chastise men for direct acts of wrong, not awake to sins of neglect.

3. These sins are multiplied through indolence. In the face of eternity, life, death, heaven, and hell, multitudes are simply ruined because they neglect the great salvation, and are absolutely too idle to concern themselves.

4. Ignorance. With many ignorance is wilful; have Bible, conscience; yet sin against light and knowledge.

5. Men excuse themselves so readily about these sins of omission. A more convenient season is anticipated for repentance, faith, prayer.

6. Many neglect because of the prevalence of the like conduct. To omit to love and serve the Lord is the custom. But enlightened conscience warns us that custom is no excuse for sin: it will be no plea at the bar of God.

III. The sinfulness of sins of omission. They cannot be trivial, for--

1. Consider what would be the consequences if God were to omit His mercies to us for one moment! Suppose Jesus had left an omission in His plan of salvation; the whole would have failed, and humanity left without remedy or hope.

2. Reflect what an influence they would have upon an ordinary commonwealth. If one person has a right to omit his duty, another has, and all have--watchman, judge, merchant, husbandman; society soon collapse, kingdom break to pieces.

3. Think how you would judge of omissions towards yourselves. In the case of your servant, you instantly resent it. So in a soldier. Even in your child: to neglect your command is regarded as equally criminal as to commit offence.

4. Consider what God thinks of omissions. Saul was ordered to kill the Amalekites--not one to escape: he saved Agag and best of the cattle; therefore the Lord said, I have put thee away from being king over Israel! Ahab was commanded to kill Benhadad on account of great criminality: Ahab only captured him; therefore, Because thou hast let this man go, thy life shall be for his life! The man with one talent was condemned because he neglected to sue it.

IV. The result and punishment of sins of omission.

1. They will condemn us. The King shall say, I was hungered and ye gave Me no meat, etc. The absence of virtue rather than the presence of vice condemned them. Without holiness no man shall see the Lord.

2. If persevered in, they will effectually shut against us the possibilities of pardon. He that believeth not--is there pardon, rescue for him? No; he is condemned already, because he hath not believed on the Son of God. Will the mercy of God blot out sins uurepented of? Nay; sins will cling to us as the leprosy to the house of Gehazi. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

11:8 The Old Testament books of Numbers, Judges, Samuel, and Kings describe how the people of Israel repeatedly violated the covenant right up to Jeremiah’s time.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

According to his own fantasy, and not as my word appointed him.

Meaning, the menaces and curses contained in the Law, Lev. 26:14; Deut. 28:16.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

imagination--rather, "stubbornness."

will bring--The words, "even unto this day" (Jer 11:7), confirm English Version rather than the rendering of ROSENMULLER: "I brought upon them."

words--threats (Jer 11:3; Deu 27:15-26).

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

It afterwards follows, Yet they heard not, and bent not, or inclined not their ear Here the Prophet does not accuse a few men of perverseness, but says that, from the time they had been redeemed, they had been rebellious against God: and he exaggerates their sin by saying that they inclined not their ear; for this was no doubt added for the sake of emphasis, as though the Prophet had said, — that it was only their own fault that the right way was not quite evident to them, for they deigned not to give ear to God. Now, it is a proof of extreme contempt, when we not only repudiate what God says to us, and refuse to obey his authority and advice, but when we close up every avenue, and, as Tar as we can, forbid him to speak to us; this is surely an extremity of insolence. It may indeed be, that one will hear another speaking, and yet will not do what he says; he still will shew some courtesy, lest a complaint of inattention be made; but it is an intolerable barbarity when we do not listen to the words of another. God here complains that the Israelites had not only been disobedient to him, after having been instructed, but that they had been so refractory, that they insolently rejected all the words of the prophets; which was not only a proof of base impiety, but also of barbarous perverseness. We now then understand what the Prophet means.

He says, that they walked every one in the wickedness of his own evil heart As he had before shewn that they had been in due time warned, it is clear that they followed not through mistake their impious superstitions, but because they rejected the true worship of God, and hearkened not to the teaching of the prophets. By saying that they walked every one, etc., the Prophet doubtless intended to include them all as it were in one bundle; as though he had said, that they had not been drawn away by a sudden impulse, as it is often the case when an agitation is made by a few, and when the most follow, being driven as it were by a storm, and think not what they do; for thus some terror often seizes on the minds of the many, so that they go here and there without knowing where they are going. But the Prophet here teaches us that every one followed his own counsel; as though he had said that the worship of God had not been thus rejected by the influence of the multitude, but that each one had his own object, and had concocted the wickedness and the great sin of rejecting God. There is then more meaning and force in this way of speaking, than if he had said that they all walked in the wickedness of their own hearts. He further shews that they were all, from the least to the greatest, implicated, as they say, in the same impiety.

He afterwards adds, that God had brought upon them the words, that is, the threatenings of the covenant By the words of the covenant he means not here the doctrine or precepts of the law. He indeed mentioned before the words of the covenant for the commands of God; but now, on finding that he had to do with refractory men, who were not capable of receiving any doctrine, he comes to threatenings. But God prescribes first in his law what he wins to be done, and then adds not only kind invitations, but also what is alluring, in order to conciliate the minds of men: but when there is no attention to obedience, and no care for it, he then comes to threatenings. Though the Prophet had omitted the promises, he had yet spoken previously of the law itself; but he says now that God had executed what he had denounced on them.

He further says, Which I have commanded to be done; and they did them not There seems indeed to be a confusion here; for by the words of this covenant, he no doubt means threatenings, as I have stated: then he immediately adds, which I have commanded to be done, and they did them not But, as I have already reminded you, the Prophet had previously, with sufficient clearness, taught them that the rule of a godly and holy life was set forth in the law; but he now refers especially to threatenings. It is then not strange that he speaks thus indistinctly, for the people had in a manner perverted the law. There were indeed in the law these two distinct things — doctrine, or a rule of life; and threatenings, which were added as stimulants to rouse the sloth of men, or rather to subdue their perverseness. But as the Israelite, and the Jews had not attended to the voice of God, the Prophet here blends threatenings with precepts.

We now understand what the Prophet means in this passage, when he says that he was sent by God to cry, Hear ye the words of this covenant; for they were forgetful of true religion; and such was their oblivion and impious’ contempt of the whole law, that they had need of being taught its first rudiments. This is one thing. He then shews how solicitous God had been about their welfare, so that he had not neglected any of the duties of the best of fathers, and that yet his labor had been all in vain; for they had not only been led away by their own lusts, but their inward wickedness had closed their ears, so that they deigned not to listen to God’s voice; and this had not been in one age only, but from the time they came out of Egypt to that day. It hence follows that they were justly punished, for God had tried all means before he had recourse to severity; but since he had adopted all kinds of ways to reform them, and all in vain, the only thing that remained was to punish them as men past all remedy. This is the import of the whole. He now adds —

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(8) Imagination.—Better, as before (Jer_3:17), stubbornness.

Therefore I will bring upon them.—Better, I have brought upon them. The words contain not a direct prediction, but an appeal to the experience of the past as in itself foreshadowing the future.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

8. stubbornness] Cp. ch. Jer_3:17.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And the Lord said unto me,.... After he had given him the order to publish and proclaim the words of the covenant, and exhort to obedience to them; he showed the prophet the reason of it, and opened to him a secret he was not acquainted with:

a conspiracy is found among the men of Judah, and among the inhabitants of Jerusalem; not against the king, and against the civil government, but against the King of kings, against God and his covenant, his word and his worship; some designs were forming to cashier these, and introduce a new religion, the idolatry of the Gentiles; and it was not a few only that were in the scheme, the combination was general, city and country were in it; the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the more polite part of the nation, and the country people, that dwelt in the several cities of Judah, were all united in this affair; and this was found out by him who sees and knows all things. It is common for innovators in religion to lay schemes privately, and secretly inculcate them, before things are ripe for the open introduction of them. The Syriac version renders it, "a rebellion"; and conspiracies often issue in open rebellion; and so the Targum,

"and it is found that the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, have rebelled against my word.''

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

I will bring - Rather, I have brought. The breach of the covenant upon their part had always brought temporal calamity. The last examples were the deportation of the ten tribes by Salmanezer, and the leading of Manasseh prisoner to Babylon in chains (2Ch 33:11).

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Brought; or "will bring," seems preferable. What does the history of God’s people till the captivity exhibit, but scenes of disorder and of succeeding misery? (Calmet)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

But had not hearkened unto his counsels, but every one had walked after the imaginations of his own heart. A phrase by which sin is often expressed in holy writ, Deu 29:19; Jer 3:17; 7:24; 9:14; 13:10; 16:12; 18:12; 23:17. The imaginations of man’s heart are only evil, Gen 6:5; 8:21. Hence holiness is set out by the notion of self-denying, not pleasing ourselves, mortifying our members, &c. For this God threateneth to bring upon them all his words of threatening annexed to the covenant of the law.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Did them not - For this God threatens to bring upon them all his words of threatening, annexed to the covenant of the law.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

And I brought upon them all the words of this covenant The curses stated in the covenant for the things that I commanded to do and they did not do.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.