Jeremiah 7:20

Jer 7:20 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, mine anger and my fury shall be poured out upon this place, upon man, and upon beast, and upon the trees of the field, and upon the fruit of the ground; and it shall burn, and shall not be quenched.

Ver. 20. Mine anger and mine fury.] A very dreadful doom, denounced against these daring monsters. Those that provoke God to anger shall soon have enough of it. It is a fearful thing to fall into the punishing hands of the living God {Heb 10:31} Oh keep out of 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 7:20. Therefore thus saith the Lord — And what he saith he will not unsay, nor can all the world withstand its execution. Hear it therefore and tremble. Behold, mine anger and my fury shall be poured out upon this place — As the flood of waters was poured upon the old world, or the shower of fire and brimstone upon Sodom; since they will provoke me, let them feel the effects of their conduct. They shall soon find, 1st, That there is no escaping this deluge of wrath, either by fleeing from it, or fencing against it. It shall be poured out on this place — Though it be a holy place, the Lord’s house. It shall reach both man and beast — Like the plagues of Egypt; and, like some of them, shall destroy the trees of the field and the fruit of the ground — Which they had designed and prepared for Baal, and of which they had made cakes to the queen of heaven. They shall find, 2d, That there is no extinguishing it: it shall burn and shall not be quenched — Prayers and tears, forms and ceremonies of worship, and ritual observances of whatever kind, shall then avail nothing, to prevent that total destruction which it shall produce.

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

7:20-23 The people’s offerings and sacrifices meant nothing to the Lord if disobedience ruled in their hearts. Their sacrifices did not manipulate God into doing something he would rather not do. Rather, they embodied the people’s trust in God’s gracious forgiveness. When the people tried to use the sacrificial system to manipulate God while living self-serving lives, it only infuriated him (Isa 1:10-16; Amos 5:21-27). Obedience to God allows for a personal relationship between God and his people that provides the basis for a wonderful future (Hos 6:6).

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

beast . . . trees . . . ground--Why doth God vent His fury on these? On account of man, for whom these were created, that the sad spectacle may strike terror into him (Rom 8:20-22).

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 proceeds still with the same subject, and explains more at large what we have noticed in the preceding lecture, that the ruin of Mount Sion and of the Temple was nigh at hand, according to what God had before done to Shiloh, where the Ark had long been kept. But that his threatening might have more weight, he introduced God as the speaker, —

Behold, he says, my wrath, even mine indignation, has been poured down on this place He refers to the metaphor he had before used; and hence is confirmed what I then said, — that God spoke not of prophetic teaching, but of the punishments which he had already inflicted and was prepared to inflict. On this account he says, that his wrath, or vengeance (the cause is put for the effect) had been poured down on the city Jerusalem, so as to bring destruction on the cattle as well as men, and also on the fruit of the land. It is indeed certain that brute animals, as well as trees and the productions of the earth, were innocent; but as the whole world was created for man and for his benefit, it is nothing strange that God’s vengeance should extend to innocent animals and to things not endued with reason: for God does not inflict punishment on brute animals and on the fruits of the earth, except for the purpose of shewing, by extending the symptoms of his wrath to all the elements, how much displeased he is with men. The whole world, we know, bears at this day in some measure the punishment which Adam deserved: and hence Paul says, that all the elements labor in pain, aspiring after a deliverance; and he says also, that all creatures have been subjected to corruption, though not willingly, that is, not through their own fault, but through the sin and transgression of man. (Romans 8:20-22.) It is no wonder, then, that God, wishing to terrify men, should daily set before their eyes the various forms of his vengeance as manifested towards animals, as well as trees and the fruits of the earth.

The meaning then is, — that God was so angry, that he purposed to destroy, not only the Jews, but the land itself, in order that posterity might know how grievously they had sinned, against whom God’s just vengeance had thus kindled. There is therefore no need for us curiously to inquire why God shewed his displeasure towards trees and brute animals: for it is enough for us to know that God does not in a strict sense punish brute animals and trees, but that this is done on account of man, that such a sad spectacle may fill them with fear. He afterwards 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.

(20) Shall be poured out.—The word is used in Exo_9:33 of the plague of rain; here, of the great shower of the fire of the wrath of Jehovah (comp. Nah_1:6). It is significant that it had been used by Josiah on hearing of the judgments denounced in the new-found copy of the Law (2Ch_34:21).

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

Therefore thus saith the Lord God,.... Since these are their thoughts, and this the fruit of their doings:

behold, my anger and my fury shall be poured out upon this place; like fire, to consume and destroy it; meaning Jerusalem, which was burned with fire; as an emblem of God's wrath, and an instance of his vengeance upon it, for sins; which came down in great abundance, like a storm or tempest:

upon man and upon beast; upon beasts for the sake of man, they being his property, and for his use; otherwise they are innocent, and do not deserve the wrath of God, nor are they sensible of it:

and upon the trees of the field, and upon the fruit of your ground; which should be blighted by nipping winds, or cut down and trampled upon by the Chaldean army:

and it shall burn, and shall not be quenched; that is, the wrath of God shall burn like fire, and shall not cease until it has executed the whole will of God in the punishment of his people.

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

Upon man, and upon beast - All creation in some mysterious way shares in man’s fall and restoration Rom 8:19-22.

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

Mine anger; put for his revenge, by a metonymy of the cause for the effect.

My fury: this expresseth his anger boiled up to the height, Jer 4:4.

Poured out; a metaphor taken from violent rains; see Jer 6:11; and may in particular allude to those showers of fire that were poured out upon Sodom, Gen 19:24.

Upon the trees of the field, and upon the fruit of the ground: these particulars are enumerated to express an utter desolation and ruin; see Jer 4:25; and it is threatened against those creatures which are innocent, because they were made for the use of man, partly that it might show how greatly God is offended, and that it should work upon them not only a greater fear of his judgments, but a greater shame for their sin, that they should occasion such sufferings upon the innocent creature, Rom 8:20,22.

Shall not be quenched: he follows the threatening with showing the irresistibleness of it; his resolution is not to be revoked, Jer 4:4; and this is suitable to the charge he gave the prophet, Jer 7:16.

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

Upon man, and upon beast. That all creation shares in the curse of man is repeatedly affirmed in the Old Testament as well as the New. Inferentially, this doctrine appears from the narrative of the Fall, and still more clearly from Isaiah"s description of Paradise regained. (Isa 11) Hosea speaks of sufferings of the animals arising out of the guilt of Israel, (Hos_4:3) and a consciousness of the "solidarity" of all living creatures is ascribed to a Ninevite king in the Book of Jonah. (Jon_3:7, Jon_3:8) In general, the origin of this community of suffering is left mysterious, but in Gen_6:12 it is expressly stated as the cause of the Deluge, that "all flesh i.e. both man and beast. had corrupted its way upon the earth;" i.e. apparently, that contact with man had led to a corruption of the original innocence of the lower animals. It is a common experience that intercourse between Christianized (not to say civilized) man and the domestic animals produces a sometimes pathetic change in the psychic phenomena of the latter. Is the reverse process utterly inconceivable?

The innocent victims of sin.

I THERE ARE MANY SUCH. All forms of life are mentioned here human, animal, plant from the stateliest trees down to the lowliest herb and all shall suffer because of the sin of but a portion of them. How many, even of men, were innocent! And the young children what had they done? Yet none were to escape, though it was but a portion of the men of the day who had done such wrong.

II HENCE SOME SAY, "THE WAY OF THE LORD Is NOT EQUAL." But:

1. The summing up of all life in one head, constituting it a corporate unity, giving a solidarity to all life, especially to all human life, is the Divine order.

2. And though sin and sorrow come by means of it, yet a far larger balance of good is produced by it. What do we not owe to our all being members one of another? True, evil comes, but good yet more. Were we all isolated, separated, independent, there would be no guarantee for our good even then, but there would be certainty of infinite loss. If the sins of the fathers are visited on the children unto the third and fourth generation, the mercy of the Lord is unto thousands of generations "of them that love him and keep his commandments" (Exo_20:6)

3. And though because of it "n Adam all died," yet because of it also in Christ shall all be made alive. This interlinking, of one with all and all with one is, therefore, a matter for great thankfulness, and, though attended with present evils, not at all of complaint.

III AND THE THOUGHT OF THESE INNOCENT VICTIMS OF SIN IS MOST SALUTARY.

1. It often holds back from sin. This is one way in which God "out of the mouth of babes and sucklings has ordained strength." How often fathers and mothers will, for the sake of their children, that they might not be harmed, keep back from sin, to which but for such motive they might have yielded!

2. It deepens repentance for sin. (Cf. 2Sa_24:17)

3. It makes sin more hateful to us. What must that be which destroys not us only, but our children, innocent of all sin? And it may be that the thus furnishing of additional safeguards against sin, and of additional motives to obedience, was one reason in the Divine mind for constituting us all "members one of another.

IV AND THE THOUGHT OF THE INNOCENT "VICTIM OF SIN, OUR LORD JESUS, IS THE MOST SALUTARY OF ALL. For he transforms us from victims into victors victors over the condemning, the attractive, the defiling, the enslaving power of sin. And it is as we "look unto" him, as our souls habitually trust him to do all this for us, that we cease to be victims of sin, and become victors over it. Let us give glory to him by accepting his off, red grace. C.

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

Shall not be quenched - He follows the threatening with shewing his resolution is not to be revoked.

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

reaches Heb. נתכת, falls and reaches. Comp. (Exodus 9:33) “and rain did not reach (נתּך) the earth”; did not reach.

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.