Jeremiah 6:15

Jer 6:15 Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore they shall fall among them that fall: at the time [that] I visit them they shall be cast down, saith the LORD.

Ver. 15. Were they at all ashamed] Their shamelessness was no small aggravation of their sin. Ita licet multas abominationes commiserunt Papistae sine verecundia, verecundari tamen non possunt, saith Dr John Raynolds. {a} Papists are frontless and shameless. Dr Story, for instance: - I see nothing, said he, before the parliament in the beginning of Queen Elizabeth, to be ashamed of, so less I see to be sorry for; but rather because I have done no more, &c.; wherein he said there was no default in him, but in the higher powers, who much against his mind had laboured only about the young and little sprigs and twigs, whiles they should have struck at the root and rooted it out, meaning thereby the Lady Elizabeth, whom also he afterwards daily cursed in his grace before his meal. And concerning his persecuting and burning the Protestants, he denied not but that he was once at the burning of an earwig (for so he termed it) at Uxbridge (Mr Denley, martyr), where he tossed a faggot at his face as he was singing psalms, and set a spiny evergreen bush of thorns under his feet, a little to prick him, &c. {b}

{a} De Idolat. Rom., p. 85.

{b} Acts and Mon., fol. 1925.

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_6:15

They were not at all ashamed.

Shamelessness in sin, the certain forerunner of destruction

He who has thus sinned himself past feeling, may be justly supposed to have sinned himself past grace.

1. Extraordinary guilt. Committed abomination.

2. Deportment under guilt. Not at all ashamed, etc.

3. Gods high resentment of their monstrous shamelessness. Were they ashamed?

4. The consequent judgment. Therefore shall they fall, etc.

I. What shame is and what influence it has upon the government of mens manners.

1. Shame is a grief of mind springing from the apprehension of some disgrace brought upon a man. And disgrace consists properly in mens knowledge or opinion of some defect, natural or moral, belonging to them. So that when a man is sensible that anything defective or amiss, either in his person, manners, or the circumstances of his condition, is known, or taken notice of, by others; from this sense or apprehension of his, there naturally results upon his mind a certain grief or displeasure, which grief properly constitutes the passion of shame.

2. From this, that shame is grounded upon the dread man naturally has of the ill opinion of others, and that chiefly with reference to the turpitude or immorality of his actions, it is manifest that it is that great and powerful instrument in the soul of man whereby Providence both preserves society and supports government, forasmuch as it is the most effectual restraint upon him from the doing of such things as more immediately tend to disturb the one and destroy the other.

3. He whom shame has done its work upon, is, ipso facto, stripped of all the common comforts of life. The light is to him the shadow of death; he has no heart nor appetite for business; his very food is nauseous to him. In which wretched condition having passed some years, first the vigour of his intellectuals begins to flag and dwindle away, and then his health follows; the hectic of the soul produces one in the body, the man from an inward falls into an outward consumption, and death at length gives the finishing stroke, and closes all with a sad catastrophe.

II. By what ways men come to cast off shame and grow impudent in sin.

1. By the commission of great sins. For these waste the conscience, and destroy at once. They are, as it were, a course of wickedness abridged into one act, and a custom of sinning by equivalence. They steel the forehead, and harden the heart, and break those bars asunder which modesty had originally fenced and enclosed it with.

2. Custom in sinning never fails in the issue to take away the sense and shame of sin, were a person never so virtuous before. First, he begins to shake off the natural horror and dread which he had of breaking any of Gods commands, and so not to fear sin; next, finding his sinful appetites gratified by such breaches of the Divine law, he comes to like his sin and be pleased with what he has done; and then, from ordinary complacencies, heightened and improved by custom, he comes passionately to delight in such ways. Finally, having resolved to continue and persist in them, he frames himself to a resolute contempt of what is thought or said of him.

3. The examples of great persons take away the shame of anything which they are observed to practise, though never so foul and shameful in itself. Nothing is more contagious than an iii action set off with a great example; for it is natural for men to imitate those above them, and to endeavour to resemble, at least, that which they cannot be.

4. The observation of the general and common practice of anything takes away the shame of that practice. A vice a la mode will look virtue itself out of countenance, and it is well if it does not look it out of heart too. Men love not to be found singular, especially where the singularity lies in the rugged and severe paths of Virtue.

5. To have been once greatly and irrecoverably ashamed renders men shameless. For shame is never of any force but where there is some stock of credit to be preserved. When a man finds that to be lost, he is like an undone gamester, who plays on safety, knowing he can lose no more.

III. The several degrees of shamelessness in sin.

1. A showing of the greatest respect, and making the most obsequious applications and addresses to lewd and infamous persons; and that without any pretence of duty requiring it, which yet alone can justify and excuse men in it.

2. To extenuate or excuse a sin is bad enough, but to defend it is intolerable. Such are properly the devils advocates.

3. Glorying in sin. Higher than this the corruption of mans nature cannot possibly go. This is publicly to set up a standard on behalf of vice, to wear its colours, and avowedly to assert and espouse the cause of it, in defiance of all that is sacred or civil, moral or religious.

IV. Why it brings down judgment and destruction upon the sinner.

1. Because shamelessness in sin always presupposes those actions and courses which God rarely suffers to go unpunished.

2. Because of the destructive influence which it has upon the government of the world. It is manifest that the integrity of mens manners cannot be secured, where there is not preserved upon mens minds a true estimate of vice and virtue, that is, where vice is not looked upon as shameful and opprobrious, and virtue valued as worthy and honourable. But now, where vice walks with a daring front, and no shame attends the practice or the practisers of it, there is an utter confusion of the first dividing and distinguishing properties of mens actions; morality falls to the ground, and government must quickly follow. And whenever it comes to fare thus with any civil State, virtue and common honesty seem to make their appeal to the supreme Governor of all things, to take the matter into His own hands, and to correct those clamorous enormities which are grown too big and strong for law or shame, or any human coercion.

V. What those judgments are.

1. A sudden and disastrous death; and, indeed, suddenness in this can hardly be without disaster.

2. War and desolation.

3. Captivity. (R. South, D. D.)

The shamelessness of sinners

The legend says that, a sinner being at confession, the devil appeared, saying, that he came to make restitution. Being asked what he would restore, he said, Shame; for it is shame that I have stolen from this sinner to make him shameless in sinning; and now I have come to restore it to him, to make him ashamed to confess his sins.

Neither could they blush.

Blushing

(with Ezr_9:6):--Just fancy, said Tom, who had been doing a bit of word study by the aid of his newly-acquired Skeat, to blush is, in its origin, the same word as to blaze, or to blast, and a blush in Danish means a torch. And a very good origin too, said his sister, who got red in the face and hot all over on the slightest provocation. Yes, youth is the blushing time of life. Said Diogenes to a youth whom he saw blushing: Courage, my boy, that is the complexion of virtue.

I. There is the blush of guilt. Who broke the window? All were silent; but one boy looked uneasy. His blush was the blast of his red-hot conscience, condemning the dumb tongue.

II. There is the blush of shame. It was such a mean thing to tell that lie to ones own father. It was a shabby trick I played my chum. And that nasty word I spoke yesterday to a girl, too, it makes me sick-ashamed of myself to think of it. Yes; you ought to think shame. But the man that blushes is not quite a brute.

III. There is the blush of modesty. Tom said nothing about his splendid score at the match, until his sister read aloud at breakfast next morning the flattering report given in the newspaper, at which Tom blushed like a girl. He had his revenge, however, when more than one letter came to Shena from Dr. Barnardo, and Tom protested that he knew now why she had no money to spend on sweets, and poor Shena got very red in the face and went out of the room.

IV. There is the blush of honest indignation at the meanness of the cheat, the cruelty of the bully, the greed of the glutton, and the indifference of selfish souls. This blush of virtuous anger must have come into the meek face of Christ, when He rebuked the disciples for keeping the mothers from bringing their children to Him.

V. Just twice, I think, do we read of blushing in the Bible, and the solemn thing is that the blush in both cases is not before men, but under the eye of God.

1. One of the most remarkable prayers in the Bible is the prayer of Ezra, the scribe--the brave, good, holy man who led a company of his Israelite brethren from Babylon to Jerusalem. It rises hot and passionate out of his very heart; for, like all priestly souls, he makes all the sins of the people his own. O my God, I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face to Thee, my God. He loved his people so dearly that their faults seemed to be his own, and he blushed before the Holy God for shame of them.

2. Quite at the opposite pole of feeling is the other place in the Bible where blushing is spoken of. For Jeremiah, the broken-hearted prophet of the Lord, uses it when he has to describe the utter callousness of the people, in spite of all their sins and sorrows. They were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush. That is surely the most hopeless state of all, when one has lost the very power to feel shame and sorrow before God. The Florentines used to point to Dante in the street, whispering, Theres the man who has been in hell. But hell has come into the heart of the man who cannot blush. Oh, it is better, as Mahomet said in his old age, to blush in this world than in the next. St. John of the eagle eye and loving heart tells us that in the great day of judgment we shall either have the boldness or liberty and confidence of children, or we shall shrink away with shame like a guilty thing surprised. (A. N. Mackray, M. A.)

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

Hebrew, them that fall.

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

ROSENMULLER translates, "They ought to have been ashamed, because . . . but," &c.; the Hebrew verb often expressing, not the action, but the duty to perform it (Gen 20:9; Mal 2:7). MAURER translates, "They shall be put to shame, for they commit abomination; nay (the prophet correcting himself), there is no shame in them" (Jer 3:3; Jer 8:12; Eze 3:7; Zep 3:5).

them that fall--They shall fall with the rest of their people who are doomed to fall, that is, I will now cease from words; I will execute vengeance [CALVIN].

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

Jeremiah turns now his discourse to the whole people. In the last verse he reproved only the priests and the prophets; he now speaks more generally, and says, that they had put off all shame. “Behold,” he says, “they are sufficiently proved guilty, their wickedness is manifest, and yet there is no shame. Their disgrace is visible to heaven and earth; angels and all mortals are witnesses of their corruption; but they have such a meretricious front that they are touched by no sense of shame.” He means, in these words, that the wickedness of the people was past all remedy; for they had arrived to that degree of stupor, of which Paul speaks, when he calls those ἀπηλγηκότας, who were obstinate in their vices, who saw no difference between right and wrong, between white and black. (Ephesians 4:19.)

This, then, is what the Prophet means when he says, Have they been ashamed? But a question is much more emphatical, than if it was a simple reprobation or affirmation. They have not been even ashamed, he says. In their very shame, they knew not what it was to be touched by any shamefacedness. This may be classed with those reproofs, by which they had not been subdued; as though he had said, “Efforts having been made to expose their effrontery, in not humbling themselves under the hand of God; they shall therefore fall among the fallen;” that is, “I will dispute no longer with them, nor contend in words, but will execute on them my judgment.” Fall, then, shall they among the fallen; as though he had said, “I have more than sufficiently denounced war on them: had they been healable it would have availed to their conversion, that they had been so often warned; and still more, that I have so sharply stimulated them to come to me: but I will now no more employ words, on the contrary, I will execute my vengeance, so that the calamity which they have derived may devour them.”

They shall wholly fall, he says, in the day of their visitation From this second clause we understand more clearly what it is or what he means when he speaks of falling among the fallen, which is, that they should wholly fall, when God would come as it were with a drawn sword to destroy them, having been wearied with giving them so many warnings.

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.

(15) Were they ashamed . . .?—The Hebrew gives an assertion, not a question—They are brought to shame (as in Jer_2:26), because they have committed abominations. And yet, the prophet adds, “they were not ashamed” (the verb is in a different voice). There was no inward feeling of shame even when they were covered with ignominy and confusion. They had lost the power to blush, and were callous and insensible. This was then, as always, the most hopeless of all states. To “fall among them that fall” was its inevitable sequel.

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

15. Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination?] They shall be put to shame, because they have committed abomination (so mg.). This part of the verse is made interrogative in the English in order to avoid the difficulty which the seeming contradiction contained in the following words produces. Co. and Du., however, omit the v., as failing both in metre and in harmony with its context.

nay, they were not at all ashamed] yea, they are not, etc.

among them that fall] They shall not escape, when their countrymen whom they have led astray suffer.

be cast down] better, as mg., stumble.

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.

Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination?.... This seems chiefly, and in the first place, to respect the false prophets and wicked priests; who when they committed idolatry, or any other sin, and led the people into the same by their doctrine and example, yet, when reproved for it, were not ashamed, being given up to a judicial hardness of heart:

nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush; they were men of impudent faces, they had a whore's forehead; there was not the least sign or appearance of shame in them; when charged with the foulest crimes, and threatened with the severest punishment, they were not moved by either; they had neither shame nor fear:

therefore they shall fall among them that fall; meaning that the prophets and priests should perish among the common people, and with them, who should be slain, and fall by the sword of the Chaldeans; the sacredness of their office would not exempt them; they should fare no better than the rest of the people:

at the time that I visit them they shall be cast down, saith the Lord; that is, when the city and temple should be destroyed by the Chaldeans, these would be cast down from their excellency, the high office in which they were, and fall into ruin, and perish with the rest.

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

They are brought to shame because

They have “committed abomination:”

Shame nevertheless they feel not;

To blush nevertheless they know not;

“Therefore they shall fall among” the falling;

“At the time” when “I visit them, they shall” stumble,

“Saith Yahweh.”

The fact is expressed that their conduct was a disgrace to them, though they did not feel it as such. “Abomination” has its usual meaning of idolatry Jer 4:1.

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

Were they, viz. the false prophets, ashamed? Some read it actively, as sometimes it is taken, Did they put the people to shame? but that is not so proper here; it rather notes how bold and confident, or rather impudent, they were in their flatteries, and deceiving the people, a great aggravation of their sin. The form of the interrogation chargeth them home with the guilt, as do also the next words,

neither could they blush; q.d. they had not the least show of shame, usually discovered by blushing.

Committed abomination; or, the thing to be abominated, (a metonymy of the effect,) both by encouraging the people, and joining with them in their idolatries. See Jer 3:3.

Therefore they shall fall among them that fall; therefore they shall perish with those whom they have deceived, as in the following expressions. To fall signifies to be slain, Psa 63:10; Luk 21:24. Visit them, viz. punish them, inflict punishment on them: see Jer 6:6.

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

15. The first sentence is not interrogative but declarative: “They are put to shame because they have done abomination, yet they take not shame to themselves,” etc.

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

Were they ashamed? The Authorized Version certainly meets the requirements of the context; there seems to be an implied interrogation. Most, however, render, "They are brought to shame;" in which ease it seems best to take the verb as a perfect of prophetic certitude, equivalent to "they shall surely be brought to shame." When; rather, because. Nay, they were not at all ashamed; rather, nevertheless they feel no shame (i.e. at present). They shall be cast down; rather, they shall stumble.

The sin against the Holy Ghost.

I THIS SIN IS SET FORTH HERE. For the sin is no one definite act, but a condition of mind which renders repentance hopeless and persistence in sin certain. (cf. Revised Version, Mar_3:29, where the true reading is as there given, "is guilty of an eternal sin But is not this the condition described in the text, described vividly, accurately? They had hardened themselves till repentance, yea, even shame, on account of "abomination" was utterly absent from them. were not at all ashamed," no tinge of it, not the least "blush" was visible. Was it not certain that such people who would go on, as they did, in sin, were in danger of eternal sin?" Hence they had never forgiveness, and the prophet was forbidden (see Jer_7:16) even to pray for them. (cf. 1Jn_5:16)

II OTHER INSTANCES OF IT OR APPROXIMATIONS TO IT.

1. Those who with unblushing effrontery ascribed Christ"s holy ministry and his deeds of merciful might to Satanic power. They cried out," Show us a sign from heaven," implying that thus far he had only shown them signs from hell.

2. Those who were responsible for the cry," His blood be on us, and on our children!" And there are instances now. The condition of shamelessness in sin and of helplessness as to repentance may be, and we fear at times is, reached. Therefore note

III THE STEPS BY WHICH MEN REACH THIS CONDITION.

1. By disregard of the rebukes of conscience, stifling them, instead of going, as they would prompt, to the mercy-seat, and there confessing the sin.

2. By persistence in sin.

3. By the commission of great sins.

4. By loss of self-respect.

5. By forfeiture of character and the esteem of men.

IV ITS DOOM. "It hath never forgiveness." "They shall fall among them that fall; they shall be cast down, saith the Lord" Wherefore this?

1. Because sin and sorrow are linked together by a chain that cannot be broken. Therefore where there is eternal sin there must be eternal punishment. The latter keeps pace with the former, and dogs its footsteps forever. It cannot but be so.

2. Because such men are murderers of other men"s souls. They are centers of rebellion against God, of deadly spiritual contagion. Blood-guiltiness is upon them, yea, they are steeped therein.

3. Because God could not be God and not abhor such condition of soul as this sin betrays.

V ITS SOLEMN LESSONS.

1. Cherish a holy hatted of sin, for its tendency is ever to reproduce itself, and so to become eternal.

2. Beware of disregarding the monitor within conscience, God"s voice in our souls. To do so is to drive away the trusty sentinel who guards the approaches of the soul against its deadly foes; to pierce and undermine those blessed walls which keep back the inrush of the ocean upon the whole land. Let us not do aught like this. But prayQuick as the apple of the eye, O God, my conscience make, Swift to discern when sin is nigh, And keep it still awake.

3. Is sin upon your conscience now? At once confess it, and so find from your Lord forgiveness for it, and more deliverance from it and from all possibility of that dread sin which the text describes and which hath never forgiveness. C.

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

Committed - Both by encouraging the people, and joining with them in their idolatries.

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

They should be ashamed Heb. הובישו, they should be ashamed [from Jonathan].

to feel disgrace Heb. הכלים, like להכלים.

Neither are they ashamed They are not ashamed of their evil deeds.

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.