Jeremiah 17:4

Jer 17:4 And thou, even thyself, shalt discontinue from thine heritage that I gave thee; and I will cause thee to serve thine enemies in the land which thou knowest not: for ye have kindled a fire in mine anger, [which] shall burn for ever.

Ver. 4. And thou, even thyself, shalt discontinue.] Or intermit, scil., the tillage of thy land. See Exo 23:11 Lev 26:33-34. It shall keep her Sabbaths.

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.

17:4 The wonderful possession, the Promised Land, would slip from Judah’s hands when the people were taken as captives to Babylon.

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

Because thou wouldest not give the land rest, at such times, days, and years as I appointed, thou shalt hereafter be carried away, and it shall rest for lack of laborers.

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

even thyself--rather, "owing to thyself," that is, by thy own fault (Jer 15:13).

discontinue from--be dispossessed of. Not only thy substance, but thyself shall be carried off to a strange land (Jer 15:14).

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

Here, as it is a concise mode of speaking, there seems to be some obscurity; but as to the subject handled, the meaning of the Prophet is evident, that they would be dismissed from their inheritance, and as it were from their own bowels. Hence he says, You shall be dismissed from your inheritance; that is, though ye think yourselves to be beyond the reach of danger, because as yet the city remains safe, and ye continue in it; yet ye shall perish, as they say, living and seeing. There shall then be a dismissal from the inheritance even as to thee; that is, “Though the Lord should delay the time and suffer you to remain, yet ye shall be like the dead, for God will destroy you, though he may leave you a pining life.” It seems an emphatical expression when the Prophet says that there would be at length a dismissal even as to herself: he intimates, that though some of the people would remain alive, they would yet be given up to exile and dispersion. And it was a condition worse than death for the Jews to have their lives continued and to be scattered among their enemies.

And he says, From the inheritance which I gave to thee; and he says this that they might not expostulate with him, that their own was taken away from them. “How has the land,” he says, “become your inheritance? even because ye have obtained it through my bounty. And now, since ye are so ungrateful, why should I be blamed for taking away what I had given you? or what wrong is done to you? and what can ye object to me? for it has always been my heritage, though for a time I granted it to you. Had ye been thankful to me it would have been yours perpetually; but now when I deprive you of it, this you must ascribe to your own fault.”

For the same purpose he adds, I will make thee to serve thine enemies: and this was much more grievous than to serve their neighbors by whom they were not hated. But he shews here how dreadful would be their calamity, they being constrained to serve their enemies. He adds, In a land which thou knowest not. This is a repetition of what has been said before, and it requires no remark. He in the last place confirms what he had said of their wickedness; Burn, he says, shall fire in my nostril: but אף, aph, may be taken for God’s countenance, though it often means anger. As however he says, “Ye have kindled a fire,” it seems better to render it here, In my face. Further, by the word I never, he intimates that God would be implacable to the Jews, for they had so deserved.

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.

(4) Thou, even thyself.—Literally, in or by thyself, an emphatic form for expressing loneliness and abandonment.

Shalt discontinue . . .—The word was a half-technical one, used to describe the act of leaving lands untilled and releasing creditors in the sabbatical year (Exo_23:11; Deu_15:2). The land would have its rest now, would “enjoy its Sabbaths” (Lev_26:34; 2Ch_36:21), though Judah had failed in obedience to the Law which prescribed them. For the rest of the verse, see Note on Jer_15:14.

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

4. and thou, even of thyself, shalt discontinue] i.e. shalt cease to retain a hold upon thy country. We should rather read, and thou shalt let thine hand fall, adopting J. D. Michaelis’s emendation, suggested by Deu_15:3, where the same Hebrew verb in immediate connexion with “thy hand” is used to indicate the cancelling of a debt. Du. and Co. needlessly reject this part of the v., for metrical reasons and as prosaic in expression.

I will cause thee to serve thine enemies] So in all probability we should read in Jer_15:14, according to the second of the alternative margins there.

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 thou, even thyself,.... Or, "thou, and in thee" (l); that is, thou and those that are in thee, all the inhabitants of Jerusalem and Judea; or, "thou even through thyself" (m); through thine own fault, by reason of thy sins and iniquities:

shalt discontinue from thine heritage that I gave thee; be removed from it, and no longer enjoy it: or, "shalt intermit from thine heritage" (n); shall not till the land, plough and sow, and reap, and gather the fruits of it: this was enjoined on every seventh year, when the land was to have its rest, or sabbath, Exo 23:10, but this law they did not observe; and now, therefore, whether they would or not, the land should be intermitted, and not tilled and enjoyed by them. The Targum takes in the whole of the sense,

"and I will bring an enemy upon your land; and it shall be desolate as in the year of intermission: and I will take vengeance of judgment upon you, until I remove you from your inheritance which I have given unto you;''

the land of Canaan, which was given them for an inheritance:

I will cause thee to serve thine enemies in the land which thou knowest not; the Babylonians in Chaldea; or, as Jerom thinks; the Romans. Of the different reading of these words; see Gill on Jer 15:13,

for ye have I kindled a fire in mine anger; or by their sins had caused the anger of the Lord to burn like fire:

which shall burn for ever; as it will in hell, and therefore called everlasting fire: here it only means until these people and their country were consumed by the enemy; perhaps some reference is had to the burning of the city and temple by the Babylonians, or Romans, or both. These first four verses are left out by the Septuagint interpreters, Jerom thinks, to spare their own people.

(l) "qui sunt apud te", Junius & Tremellius. (m) "Per te", Piscator. (n) "ita intermissionen facies", Junius & Tremellius; so Schmidt.

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

The verb rendered “discontinue” is that used of letting the land rest Exo 23:11, and of releasing creditors Deu 15:2 in the sabbatical year. As Judah had not kept these sabbatical years she must now discontinue the tillage of God’s inheritance until the land had had its rest. “Even thyself may mean and that through thyself,” through thine own fault.

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

Be left. Protestants, "discontinue from thine," &c. (Haydock) --- The land shall have its sabbaths, which thou wouldst not allow. (Chaldean) (Exodus xxii. 11., and Leviticus xxvi. 34.)

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).

In the word

discontinue there is a secret promise that they should again come and possess and inherit their land; they should not lose their inheritance, but only discontinue their possession and occupation of it. Some learned authors considering that the same word is here used which is used Exo 23:11, in the law concerning the sabbatical rest, when they were to let the land rest, and lie still, Lev 26:34, think this text hath a reference to that, and the meaning is, Thou shalt discontinue thy ploughing and tilling the land; and go into thine enemies’ country, and serve them in a land of which thou hast no knowledge; because by thine idolatry and other sins thou hast increased my wrath into such a fire, as shall burn for a long time, for so the word for ever is oft taken, Exo 21:6; Deu 15:17; Psa 89:1; Isa 34:10.

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

4. Shalt discontinue — That is, be dispossessed of. Even thyself — By thine own fault, and by that only.

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

Comp. Jer_15:14 Even thyself; literally, even with thyself, i.e. with thy bare life (if the text, which is here evidently rather out of order, is correct). Shalt discontinue. The word involves an allusion to the Law in Exo_23:11 and (especially) Deu_15:2 (see the Hebrew). The latter passage suggests a correction of the difficult "even with thyself," just preceding, into "thy hand." Thus we get for the opening of this verse, "And thou shalt let loose thy hand" (i.e. as Authorized Version, "shalt discontinue").

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

For ever - For a long time; so the word ever is often taken.

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

And you shall release Perforce you will release your land for the time that it did not rest on your Sabbaths, which I said to you (Lev. 25:2), “And the land shall rest a Sabbath for the Lord.”

of you I will avenge Myself of you because of your heritage that I gave you, that you did not perform My will to release it. Another explanation: even of you, from your heritage; I will avenge Myself of you from your heritage, that I will exile you from it.

for you have kindled fire in My nostrils Heb. קְדַכְתֶּם.

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.