Jeremiah 52:3

So the Lord punished sin by sin, and gave him up to his rebellious heart, till he had brought the enemy upon him to lead him away and his people.

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

Verse 3. Through the anger of the Lord] Here is a king given to a people in God's anger, and taken away in his displeasure.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

For through the anger of the Lord it came to pass in Jerusalem and Judah,.... Or, "besides the anger of the Lord that was in", or "against Jerusalem and Judah" (n); for their many sins and transgressions committed against him:

till he had cast them out from his presence; out of the land of Judea; out of Jerusalem, and the temple, where were the symbols of his presence; so the Targum,

"till he removed them from the land of the house of his Shechinah;''

or majesty:

that Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon: acted a very perfidious part, and broke a solemn covenant made with him by an oath, which was highly displeasing to God, and resented by him; the oath being made in his name, and by one that professed to worship him: this was an additional sin to those of the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem, which provoked the Lord to anger. According to our version the sense is, that because of the anger of the Lord for the sins of the Jews, God suffered Zedekiah to rebel against the king of Babylon, that so he might be provoked to come against them, and take vengeance on them; or for his former sins he suffered him to fall into this, to his own and his people's ruin.

(n) "nam praeter iram Jehovae, quae fuit contra Hierosolymam", Schmidt.

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

It - i. e., Zedekiah’s evil doing.

Presence, that Zedekiah - Or, punctuate; “presence. And Zedekiah” etc.

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

Revolted, breaking his oath, which greatly offended God.

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).

It is generally thought that what we have in this chapter was not penned by the prophet Jeremiah, who it is not probable would have so largely repeated what he had related before, Jer 39, and could not historically relate what happened after his time, as some things did, which are mentioned towards the end of the chapter, from Jer 52:31 to the end. They therefore rather think it penned by some or other of those in Babylon, and put in here as a preface to the Book of Lamentations. What we have in the three first verses is entirely taken out of 2Ki 24:18-20. See the notes there.

Here the wicked actions of Zedekiah, and particularly his rebellion against the king of Babylon, who had made him king, as 2Ki 24:17, and to whom he had given an oath of fealty, is ascribed to the wrath of the Lord; God not putting any such wickedness into his heart, but suffering him so to miscarry, having a design to send Judah into captivity. Princes are often by God suffered to miscarry for the sins of their people, which should oblige us, when we think we have cause to complain of the errors of our rulers, to consider whether we have not by some sinful courses provoked God, which hath made him leave our rulers so to miscarry in order to our ruin and punishment.

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

It came to pass. The implied subject of the verb is Zedekiah"s evil doing. That Zedekiah rebelled. There ought to be a full stop before these words, and "that" should rather be "And.

The Lord creating evil.

This is one of the passages of Scripture the meaning of which does not lie on the surface. It seems to represent God as instigating sin. For "through the anger of the Lord" it is said "that Zedekiah rebelled." But it was for that very rebellion he was so sorely punished, and yet it is said it was "through the Lord." Note

I THERE ARE OTHER PASSAGES LIKE THIS. Cf. "the Lord hardening Pharaoh"s heart." The history of Judas. "None of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the Scripture might, be fulfilled". (Joh_17:12) Again," Is there evil in the city and I have not done it?". (Amos Isa_45:7) And St. Peter"s word to the Jews on the day of Pentecost. (Act_2:23) They wickedly did what nevertheless God had determined before to be done. And there are yet other Scriptures besides these.

II THEY GIVE ELSE TO GREAT DIFFICULTY. It is not difficult to understand that men should do wrong, or even the particular wrong which is charged against them and for which they are punished; but the difficulty is that the sin should be seemingly ascribed to God. And the Jews seem to have believed that God did prompt men to sin; cf. Joh_9:1, "Who did sin, this man or his parents in order that (ina ) he should be born blind?" The effect, the man"s blindness, they looked on as designed and intended by God, and hence the cause producing that effect must have been designed also. As we read over Scriptures like these, the question of Abram starts immediately to our lips, "Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?". (cf. Rom_3:5-8) God "may and must transcend our understanding. He will by the very nature of the case dazzle and confound our imagination by the unsuspected riches and glory of his many mansions; but he must not trouble our sense of right if he would retain our homage and our love." But it is this sense of right that is troubled by what seems to be the teaching of Scriptures like these. They seem to teach that God prompts men to sin and then punishes them for it. Some who reasoned with St. Paul appear to have suggested (cf. Romans 3) that in such cases God was "unrighteous who took "vengeance." The apostle does not attempt to argue the matter, but treats the suggestion with a sort of "Get thee behind me, Satan," which is what his mh genoito really amounts to. And where the suggestion is made from mere captious motives, or with the intent only to support a foregone conclusion and determination to disregard God, then such a reply is the proper one to make. But it can never be other than right to endeavour to meet the honest difficulties which some of the utterances of God"s Word and some of the actings of his providence do unquestionably give rise to. If the suggestion were true that God made men to sin and then damned them for it, nothing could be more horrible, and no possible force could make men trust, love, or sincerely worship a God who would act so. But the suggestion is not true; for

III THE DIFFICULTY IS APPARENT, NOT REAL. God is never the author of sin. "The Lord is holy in all his ways, and righteous in all his works." "Let no man say when he is tempted," etc. (cf. Jam_1:13) But when sin has been Begotten in a man"s soul by his own evil desires, then the special form in which that sin shall manifest itself is very often ordered by God. This is how we understand all these passages. That very Babylon in connection with which this ver. 3 is written may supply an apt illustration. Isaiah calls Babylon "the desert of the sea," for when, by reason of the melting of the snows which fed the Euphrates and her many tributaries, the great river overflowed its hanks, the great plain on which Babylon stood became like a vast sea. But the great Assyrian lords cut their canals and constructed their massive dams and reservoirs so that the superabundant and otherwise destructive waters were directed into safe channels, and could do no further harm. Those monarchs were not the authors of the floods, but by their skill and wisdom they directed which way those floods should flow. On one of our great railways a little while ago, a signalman saw to his horror that an engine had somehow got away without its driver, and was rushing on with ever-increasing speed to its own destruction and that of the first unhappy passenger train and one was nearly due that it should meet. Quick as thought the signalman seized his levers and turned the runaway into a siding where it could harm no one but itself. In every large fire the firemen act in a similar way. And so God. When sin has broken out by no will of his, but altogether contrary to his will, he does not let it run riot, as it might, but he orders the way it shall take. Thence it came to pass "through the Lord" that "Zedekiah rebelled against the King of Babylon" (ver. 3).

IV THIS ORDERING OF SIN"S WAY ON THE PART OF GOD IS A THING MUCH TO BE REMEMBERED.

1. For our consolation and comfort. Mad and monstrous as sin is, it is yet under God"s control. Like as to the raging sea, he can say and does say to it, "Thus far shalt thou go, and no further," etc., and cf. Jer_5:22.

2. For the warning of the sinner. The flames of the eternal fire are lit within our own soul. Sin is ever twisting and knotting its own scourge. What a man soweth that shall he also reap. The seed of all our punishments was sown by our own hand, though we never intended the harvest. The way sin shall take is utterly out of our power. If it does somewhat that we did intend, it does for men that we never dreamt of nor desired.

3. For instruction to all thoughtful readers of God"s Word and beholders of his providence. God "does" the evil that is in the city, (Isa 45) but he does not originate it, and that which he does is but the ordering of its way. C.

Vers. 4-7. The siege and capture of Jerusalem.

I GENERAL LESSONS OF THE SIEGE.

1. God will perform his threats. The capture of Jerusalem had been long and frequently predicted. The accumulated prophecies were now fulfilled.

2. Delay of judgment is no reason for expecting it to be permanently withheld. The fate of Jerusalem seemed to be long postponed. But at length it came.

3. Previous immunity is no security for the future. The Jews fondly idolized Jerusalem as a charmed city. It seemed impossible that she should fall into the hands of her foes. We grow careless and confident through a series of fortunate escapes. But our confidence is irrational unless it has any deeper ground.

4. The favour of God is no protection against the punishment of sin. The Jews regarded themselves as Divine favourites. They had received many peculiar privileges. But these made the duty of fidelity only the more obligatory. For the most favoured people to be faithless was a great and terrible wickedness. Indeed, the favour of God, instead of mitigating punishment, makes a heavier penalty to be fitting for those who are so ungrateful as to sin against it.

II SPECIAL FEATURES OF THE SIEGE.

1. It was thorough. The great king Nebuchadnezzar came in person and "all" his army, and pitched a camp and built forts. Every effort was made to secure the city. The instruments of Divine vengeance are terrible, earnest, and vigorous.

2. It was protracted. It lasted for eighteen months How wearily those days and weeks and months must have dragged themselves along, every hour increasing the agony! But what is this period to the vast, dim reaches of the "punishment of the ages," which awaits lost souls?

3. It produced horrible sufferings. In the madness of famine, women devoured their own children. Thus God punished

a. "satiation and disgust towards his holy Word and soul food;

b. the terrible offering up of children to Moloch;

c. the loose discipline of children" (Cramer, quoted by Naegelsbach).

From a merely selfish position, who that knew and realized the frightful consequences of his sins would bring these upon his head for the sake of the poor pleasures of an hour?

4. It was successful. The siege ended in the capture of Jerusalem. The force of Nebuchadnezzar was great and terrible, but behind it was the judicial will of Heaven. To withstand this was certainly futile. All resistance to the decrees of Divine judgment must be vain. Our one hope is not in opposition, but in penitent cries for God"s mercy and unresisting submission to his will.

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