*H Now Phassur the son of Emmer, the priest, who was appointed chief in the house of the Lord, heard Jeremias prophesying these words.
Ver. 1. Son, or descendant. His father was Melchia. C. xxi. 1. and 1 Par. ix. 12. C. — Chief: high priest, (Theod.) or rather a chief officer, (C. xxix. 25.) or prince, (Matt. xxvi. 27. Tolet. Grot.) whose duty it was to take up impostors. He treated Jeremias in this light. C. — See Lu. xxii. 52. H.
*H And Phassur struck Jeremias the prophet, and put him in the stocks, that were in the upper gate of Benjamin, in the house of the Lord.
Ver. 2. Struck, or seized. Grot. — Upper gate, nearer the temple. C.
*H And when it was light the next day, Phassur brought Jeremias out of the stocks. And Jeremias said to him: The Lord hath not called thy name Phassur, but fear on every side.
Ver. 3. Phassur. This name signifies, increase and principality; and therefore is here changed to Magor-Missabib, or "fear on every side," to denote the evils that should come upon him in punishment of his opposing the word of God. Ch. — Aquila renders Posseur, "a stranger," and S. Jer. "blackness of visage." H. — It may also mean, "one who causes paleness." C. — Mogur may signify "fear or distress." Sept. and Syr. "an exile." H. — He deserved to be thus treated. v. 6. C. — He would be terrified by many enemies. W.
*H But thou Phassur, and all that dwell in thy house, shall go into captivity, and thou shalt go to Babylon, and there thou shalt die, and there thou shalt be buried, thou and all thy friends, to whom thou hast prophesied a lie.
Ver. 6. Lie. He was therefore a false prophet, and vexed that Jeremias should contradict him. C.
*H Thou hast deceived me, O Lord, and I am deceived: thou hast been stronger than I, and thou hast prevailed. I am become a laughingstock all the day, all scoff at me.
Ver. 7. Thou hast deceived, &c. The meaning of the prophet is not to charge God with any untruth; but what he calls deceiving, was only the concealing from him, when he accepted of the prophetical commission, the greatness of the evils which the execution of that commission was to bring upon him. Ch. — Heb. "thou hast enticed me," when I declined the office. T. — God never promised that he should suffer no persecution. H. — Jeremias might also have supposed that he was to be sent to the Gentiles. C. i. 5. S. Jer. in C. xxv. 18. — The oriental languages are much more lofty than ours, and express common things in the strongest manner. C. — We may perceive the different emotions of fear and joy (D.) with which the prophet was actuated, like S. Paul, and our Saviour himself. The saints evince the weakness of man and the power of divine grace. C. — Heb. "If thou, Lord, hast deceived me, I am," &c. Tournemine.
*H For I am speaking now this long time, crying out against iniquity, and I often proclaim devastation: and the word of the Lord is made a reproach to me, and a derision all the day.
Ver. 8. Day. They keep asking where are these enemies from the north, the plagues? &c. C. — He is sorry to see the word of God despised, (Theod.) and is guilty of a venial pusillanimity, concluding that his words had no good effect. M.
*H Then I said: I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name: and there came in my heart as a burning fire, shut up in my bones, and I was wearied, not being able to bear it.
Ver. 9. And there, or "for," &c. I was grieved continually. Sanctius. — I could not however refrain from speaking. Acts xvii. 16. and 1 Cor. ix. 16. Job xxxii. 18.
*H For I heard the reproaches of many, and terror on every side: Persecute him, and let us persecute him: from all the men that were my familiars, and continued at my side: if by any means he may be deceived, and we may prevail against him, and be revenged on him.
Ver. 10. Side, seeking an opportunity to ruin me, as the Pharisees did our Saviour. Ps. xl. 10. C. — Prot. "familiars watched for my halting, saying, peradventure he," &c. H.
*H And thou, O Lord of hosts, prover of the just, who seest the reins and the heart: let me see, I beseech thee, thy vengeance on them: for to thee I have laid open my cause.
Ver. 12. Let me see, &c. This prayer proceeded not from hatred or ill-will, but zeal of justice. Ch. — He expresses in a human manner a future punishment.
*H Sing ye to the Lord, praise the Lord: because he hath delivered the soul of the poor out of the hand of the wicked.
Ver. 13. Sing. God having shewn that his prayer should be heard, he gives thanks, (C.) and thus shews that what he is going to say proceeds not from impatience. Theod.
*H Cursed be the day wherein I was born: let not the day in which my mother bore me, be blessed.
Ver. 14. Cursed, &c. In these and the following words of the prophet, there is a certain figure of speech to express with more energy the greatness of the evils to which his birth had exposed him. Ch. — The wicked would deem the day of his birth cursed, or unlucky. M. — Jeremias was now in prison, (Grot.) and people in pain express themselves forcibly, particularly in the East. v. 7. Job iii. 2. C. — Perhaps no man had announced the tidings of his birth, or he might be no longer living to feel the effects of a curse: as the day was certainly irrevocably past. H.
* Footnote * Job 3 : 2
And he said:*H Let that man be as the cities which the Lord hath overthrown, and hath not repented: let him hear a cry in the morning, and howling at noontide:
Ver. 16. Repented, his decree for the ruin of Sodom being fixed. — Noon. This is more extraordinary than at midnight. Let him always be terrified with dismal sounds. C.
*H Who slew me not from the womb, that my mother might have been my grave, and her womb an everlasting conception.
Ver. 17. Who. Sept. "because he (the Lord. D. T.) slew me not in my mother's womb." H. — Syr. Grot. &c. explain the Heb. in the same sense, though it may also agree with the Vulg. from the womb, or as soon as I was born. O that I had never seen the light! C. — He abstracts from the effects of original sin. T. — It is better not to exist than to be in constant misery. Mat. xxvi. S. Jer. W. — The prophet bewailed the abuse which was made of God's word, by unbelievers. v. 8. H.