Jeremiah 13:9

9–11. These vv. have been thought (so Co.) to contain, as they stand, two explanations, mutually exclusive, of the symbol, Jer_13:9 making the marring to denote exile, but Jer_13:10-11 Judah’s disobedience and idolatry, and it has been concluded that the latter is the original application intended and that the supposed inconsistency has come about through the introduction of some modification of the text. Thus Co. omits the whole passage except from “as the girdle” to “house of Israel” (Jer_13:11). The omission, however, seems scarcely warranted. We should notice that it is in consequence of the prophet’s action that the girdle is spoiled, and that Jeremiah, as wearing the girdle, represents Jehovah, the action by which the girdle’s beauty is destroyed corresponding thus to exile (to which the mention of Euphrates as the place of hiding further alludes), but not to apostasy. Accordingly it is the pride of Judah and Jerusalem that shall be humbled by transportation, and it is this humbling that the symbol represents, and not moral corruption, although it is of course the latter (Jer_13:10) which is the cause of the humiliation.

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.

Jer 13:9 Thus saith the LORD, After this manner will I mar the pride of Judah, and the great pride of Jerusalem.

Ver. 9. After this manner will I mar the pride.] Their pomp and power, wherein they pride themselves.

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 13:9. After this manner will I mar the pride of Judah, &c. — Or, as some translate the verse, “Will I mar the glory of Judah, and the great honour of Jerusalem.” I will bring down their pride and stubbornness, by making them slaves and vassals to strangers, Lam 5:8; Lam 5:13. Or, alluding to the transaction about the girdle, “I will transport them beyond the Euphrates; I will bide them in Babylon, as in the hole of a rock, whence they cannot come out. They shall be marred in the midst of the nations, without temple, without sacrifice, without priests, without external worship. I will humble their presumption, and teach them to acknowledge and adore my mercy.”

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

(Lev 26:19).

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

As to the application of the Prophecy, the Prophet then distinctly describes it; but he sets forth with sufficient clearness the main point, when he says, Thus will I mar the stateliness (altitudinem, the altitude or height) of Judah and the great stateliness of Jerusalem Other interpreters unanimously render the word, pride; but as גאון gaun, may be taken in two senses, it means here, I have no doubt, excellency, and this will appear more fully from what follows. The word then signifies here that dignity with which God had favored the seed of Abraham, when he intended them to be an ornament to himself. So it is said in Exodus 15:7,

“In thy greatness thou wilt destroy the nations.”

And in Isaiah he says,

“I will make thee the excellency of ages.” (Isaiah 60:15)

There no doubt it is to be taken in a good sense. And these things harmonize together, — that God had prepared the Jews for himself as a belt, and then that he cast them from him into a cavern, where they would be for a time without any light and without any glory.

The import of this clause then is, “Though the dignity of Judah and Jerusalem has been great, (for the people whom God had adopted were renowned according to what is said in Deuteronomy 4) though then the stateliness of Judah and Jerusalem has been great, yet I will mar it.” We see how the Prophet takes from the Jews that false confidence by which they deceived themselves. They might indeed have gloried in God, had they acted truly and from the heart: but when they arrogated all things to themselves, and deprived God of his authority, whose subjects they were, how great was their vanity and folly, and how ridiculous always to profess his sacred name, and to say, We are God’s people? for he was no God to them, as they esteemed him as nothing; nay, they disdainfully and reproachfully rejected his yoke. We hence see that the word גאון gaun, is to be taken here in a good sense. The Prophet at the same time reproachfully taunts them, that they abused the name of God and falsely pretended to be his people and heritage. The rest we cannot finish; we shall go on with the subject to-morrow.

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.

(9) The pride of Judah.—As the girdle was the part of the dress on which most ornamental work was commonly lavished, so that it was a common gift among princes and men of wealth (1Sa_18:4; 2Sa_18:11), it was the natural symbol of the outward glory of a kingdom. As Jeremiah was a priest, we may, perhaps, think of the embroidered girdle “for glory and for beauty “of the priestly dress (Exo_28:40; Eze_44:17).

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

This evil people, which refuse to hear my words,.... Sent by the prophets, to whom they turned a deaf ear; and though they pressed them, and importunately desired them to give them a hearing, they refused it; and this showed them to be a bad people, very degenerate and wicked; and which further appears by what follows:

which walk in the imagination of their heart; which was evil, stubborn, and rebellious, see Jer 7:24,

and walk after other gods, to serve them, and to worship them; went to Egypt and Assyria to pay their adoration to those who were not by nature gods; and this was the cause of their ruin and destruction:

shall even be as this girdle, which is good for nothing: as they were corrupt in their practices, and were become useless and unserviceable to God; so they would be carried captive into a foreign country, where they would be inglorious, and unprofitable, uncomfortable in themselves, and of no use to one another.

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

Rot. I will bring them low. (Menochius) --- They shall see that all their dependance must be on the divine mercy.

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).

By this it appears that God commanded Jeremiah to do this, not only as a representation of the rotten and corrupt state of this people, but of his vengeance, which should suddenly be brought upon them, though they were a proud people, lifted up and swelled in the opinion of themselves, from the favour which God had showed them, in making them a people near unto him, and as it were wearing them upon his loins; yet, they having corrupted themselves by mixing their streams with the streams of Euphrates, corrupting themselves with the superstitions, corruptions, and idolatries of heathens, God would make use of some of those nations to abate their pride and pluck their feathers, and they should rot amongst those people and in some of those nations with whom and by whose example they had sinned against the Lord. This sense of these words is much confirmed by the following words.

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

9. Mar the pride of Judah — This was fulfilled in her physical decay — the loss of her temporal greatness.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.