11 "So now then, speak to the men of Judah and against the inhabitants of Jerusalem saying , 'Thus says the Lord , "Behold , I am fashioning calamity against you and devising a plan against you. Oh turn back , each of you from his evil way , and reform your ways and your deeds ."' 12 "But they will say , 'It's hopeless ! For we are going to follow e our own plans , and each of us will act according to the stubbornness of his evil heart .' 13 "Therefore thus says the Lord , ' Ask now among the nations , Who ever heard the like of this ? The virgin of Israel Has done a most appalling thing . 14 'Does the snow of Lebanon forsake the rock of the open country ? Or is the cold flowing water from a foreign land ever snatched away ? 15 'For My people have forgotten Me, They burn incense to worthless gods And they have stumbled from their ways , From the ancient paths , To walk in bypaths , Not on a highway e , 16 To make their land a desolation , An object of perpetual hissing ; Everyone who passes by it will be astonished And shake his head . 17 'Like an east wind I will scatter them Before the enemy ; I will show them My back and not My face In the day of their calamity .' "
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Jeremiah 18:11-17
Commentary on Jeremiah 18:11-17
(Read Jeremiah 18:11-17)
Sinners call it liberty to live at large; whereas for a man to be a slave to his lusts, is the very worst slavery. They forsook God for idols. When men are parched with heat, and meet with cooling, refreshing streams, they use them. In these things men will not leave a certainty for an uncertainty; but Israel left the ancient paths appointed by the Divine law. They walked not in the highway, in which they might travel safely, but in a way in which they must stumble: such was the way of idolatry, and such is the way of iniquity. This made their land desolate, and themselves miserable. Calamities may be borne, if God smile upon us when under them; but if he is displeased, and refuses his help, we are undone. Multitudes forget the Lord and his Christ, and wander from the ancient paths, to walk in ways of their own devising. But what will they do in the day of judgment!