---
title: "Clarke"
description: "Verse Jeremiah 10:1. Hear ye the word which the Lord speaketh unto you — Dr. Dahler supposes this discourse to have been delivered in the fourth year of t"
image: "/images/missing.jpg"
url: "https://realbiblebelievers.com/commentaries/clarkes-commentary/jeremiah/10"
---

Verse [Jeremiah 10:1](../../../kjv/jeremiah/10/1). ***Hear ye the word which the Lord speaketh unto you*** — Dr. *Dahler* supposes this discourse to have been delivered in the *fourth* year of the reign of *Jehoiakim*. It contains an invective against idolatry; showing its absurdity, and that the Creator alone should be worshipped by all mankind.

Verse [Jeremiah 10:2](../../../kjv/jeremiah/10/2). ***Learn not the way of the heathen*** — These words are more particularly addressed to the ten tribes scattered among the heathen by the Assyrians, who carried them away captive; they may also regard those in the land of Israel, who still had the customs of the former heathen settlers before their eyes.
***Be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are**********dismayed*** — The Chaldeans and Egyptians were notoriously addicted to astrology; and the Israelites here are cautioned against it. The *signs* of the heavens may mean either the *sun, moon, planets*, and particular *stars* or *constellations*; or the *figures* or *characters* by which they represented these heavenly bodies.

Verse [Jeremiah 10:3](../../../kjv/jeremiah/10/3). ***The customs of the people*****are*****vain*** — חקות *chukkoth*; the statutes and principles of the science are vain, empty, and illusory. They are founded in nonsense, ignorance, idolatry, and folly.
**One*****cutteth a tree out of the forest*** — [Isaiah 40:19](../../../kjv/isaiah/40/19), and *"*[Isaiah 44:9](../../../kjv/isaiah/44/9)*"*, &c., which are all parallel places and where this conduct is strongly ridiculed.

Verse [Jeremiah 10:5](../../../kjv/jeremiah/10/5). ***They are upright as the palm tree*** — As straight and as stiff as the trees out of which they are hewn.

Verse [Jeremiah 10:7](../../../kjv/jeremiah/10/7). ***Who would not fear thee*** — Who would not *worship* thee as the Author and Giver of all good? The *fear of God* is often taken for the whole of true *religion*.
***Among all the wise*****men*****of the nation*** — Not even the wisest and most cultivated of the nations have ever found out any one equal to thee; but so exalted and holy art thou, that in all their wisdom and research they have never been able to find out the *true* *God*.

Verse [Jeremiah 10:8](../../../kjv/jeremiah/10/8). ***The stock*****is*****a doctrine of vanities.*** — Dr. *Blayney* translates,-"The wood itself is a rebuker of vanities." The very tree out of which the god is hewn demonstrates the vanity and folly of the idolaters; for, can all the art of man make out of a log of wood an animate and intelligent being?

Verse [Jeremiah 10:9](../../../kjv/jeremiah/10/9). ***Brought from Tarshish*** — Some suppose this to be *Tartessus* in *Spain*, from which the Phoenicians brought much silver. *Uphaz, Calmet* thinks to be the river *Pison*; some think *Ophir* is intended.
***Blue and purple*****is*****their clothing*** — These were the most precious dyes; very rare, and of high price.

Verse [Jeremiah 10:10](../../../kjv/jeremiah/10/10). ***But the Lord*** — The original word should be preserved, however we agree to pronounce it: יהוה *Yehovah is the true God*. He is without beginning, and without end. This is *true* of no being else.
***He*****is*****the living God*** — His being is underived; and he gives *life* to all. He is the very *Fountain* whence all *life* is derived.
***And an everlasting king*** — As he has *made*, so he *governs*, all things. His *sway* is felt both in the heavens and in the earth.
***At his wrath the earth shall tremble*** — All storms, tempests, tornadoes, and earthquakes are the effects of his power; and when the *nations* are destroyed, or turned upside down, it is the effect of his displeasure.

Verse [Jeremiah 10:11](../../../kjv/jeremiah/10/11). ***Thus shall ye say unto them*** — This is the message you shall deliver to the Chaldean idolaters.
***The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth***, even *they* *shall perish*] Both they and their worshippers shall be destroyed; and idolatry shall finally be destroyed from the earth; and the heavens shall look no more on so great an abomination. It is suffered for a *while*: but in the *end* shall be destroyed. This verse is written in a sort of *Hebraeo-Syriaco-Chaldee*; such a dialect as I suppose was spoken at that time in Babylon, or during the captivity. As it is a message to the Babylonians, therefore, it is given in their own language. The *Chaldee* makes it the beginning of the copy of the epistle which the Prophet Jeremiah sent to the rest of the elders of the captivity who were in Babylon. All the ancient Versions acknowledge this verse; and it is found in all MSS. hitherto collated, except one of Dr. *Kennicott's* numbered 526; and he has included it between lines, as doubting its authenticity. Dr. *Blayney* supposes that some public teacher during the captivity, deducing it by direct inference from the prophet's words, had it inserted in the margin, and perhaps usually read together with this section, in the assemblies of the people, in order that they might have their answer always ready, whenever they were molested on the point of religion, or importuned to join the idolatrous worship of the Chaldeans.
*Dahler* has left it entirely out of the text, and introduces it in a note thus: - "After [Jeremiah 10:10](../../../kjv/jeremiah/10/10) the Hebrew text is interrupted by a verse written in the Chaldean or Babylonish tongue. It is thus expressed: -
As a curiosity I shall insert it in *Hebrew*, which the reader may compare with the *Chaldee* text, which I also subjoin.
כזאת תאמרו להם האלהים אשר לא עשו השמים והארץ יאבדו מן הארץ ומן תחת השמים אלה
*cazoth tomeru lahem; haelohim asher lo asu hashshamayim* *vehaarets, yobedu min haarets, umin tachath hashshamayim elleh*.

כדנא תאמרון להון אלהיא די שמיא וארקא לא עבדו יאבדו מארעא ומן תחות שמיא אלה
*kidna temerun lehon; elahaiya di shemaiya vearka la* *abadu, yebadu meara umin techoth shemaiya elleh*.

The *Hebrew* is the translation of *Leusden*; the *Chaldee* is that of the common text. Had not *all the ancient Versions* acknowledged it, I also, principally on account of the *strangeness* of the language, as being neither *Chaldee* nor *Syriac*, should have doubted its authenticity.

Verse [Jeremiah 10:13](../../../kjv/jeremiah/10/13). ***When he uttereth his voice*****, there is*****a multitude of**********waters*** — This is a plain allusion to a storm of thunder and lightning, and the abundance of rain which is the consequence. Water is composed of two *gases, hydrogen* and *oxygen*: the electric or galvanic spark decomposes them, and they become *air*; when recomposed, they form *water*. The lightning acts upon the *hydrogen* and *oxygen*, which are found In the atmospheric air: they are decomposed, and water or rain is the consequence; which, being heavier than the air falls down in the form of rain.
This verse and the *three* following are the same in substance, and nearly in words, as [Jeremiah 51:16](../../../kjv/jeremiah/51/16), and following.

Verse [Jeremiah 10:14](../../../kjv/jeremiah/10/14). ***Every man is brutish*** — נבער *nibar*, is a boor, acts as a brute, who may suppose that a *stock* of a *tree*, formed *like a* *man*, may be an intellectual being; and therefore shuns the *form* as though it had *life*. See [Isaiah 44:10-11](../../../kjv/isaiah/44/10-11). Of which verses, by the way, Dr. *Blayney* gives the following version to correct that of Bishop *Lowth*: -
[Isaiah 44:10](../../../kjv/isaiah/44/10); [Isaiah 44:10](../../../kjv/isaiah/44/10). Who hath formed a god?
Or set up a graven image that profiteth not?
[Isaiah 44:11](../../../kjv/isaiah/44/11). Behold, all that are connected with it shall be
ashamed,
And the artificers, they above all men!
They shall assemble all of them; they shall stand
forth;
They shall fear; they shall be ashamed at the same
time.

"That is, while they stand before the image they have set up, and worship it with a *religious dread*, the glaring absurdity of their conduct shall lead to their *shame* and *disgrace*."
With due deference to this learned man, I think this interpretation too refined.

Verse [Jeremiah 10:16](../../../kjv/jeremiah/10/16). ***The Portion of Jacob*****is*****not like them*** — Every nation had its tutelary god; this was its *portion*; in reference to this God says [Deuteronomy 4:19](../../../kjv/deuteronomy/4/19), "He has divided the sun, moon, and stars, to all the nations under the heaven." And the Lord had taken the Israelites to be his *portion*; for "the Lord's portion is his people," [Deuteronomy 32:9](../../../kjv/deuteronomy/32/9), and David says, "The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance," [Psalms 16:5](../../../kjv/psalms/16/5); [Psalms 119:57](../../../kjv/psalms/119/57). And hence Isaiah terms the *smooth stones of the brook*, to which Divine honours were paid, the *portion* of those idolaters, [Isaiah 57:6](../../../kjv/isaiah/57/6). But in the text he says, "The PORTION, i.e., the God of Jacob is not like them; for he is the former of all things," and they are formed by their foolish worshippers.

Verse [Jeremiah 10:17](../../../kjv/jeremiah/10/17). ***Gather up thy wares*** — Pack up your goods, or what necessaries of life your enemies will permit you to carry away; for,-

Verse [Jeremiah 10:18](../../../kjv/jeremiah/10/18). ***I will sling out the inhabitants of the land*** — I will *project* you with *violence* from your country. I will send you all into captivity. This discourse, from [Jeremiah 10:17](../../../kjv/jeremiah/10/17), is supposed to have been delivered in the *eleventh year* of Jehoiakim.

Verse [Jeremiah 10:19](../../../kjv/jeremiah/10/19). ***This*****is*****a grief, and I must bear it.*** — Oppressive as it is, I have deserved it, and worse; but even in this *judgment* God remembers *mercy*.

Verse [Jeremiah 10:20](../../../kjv/jeremiah/10/20). ***My tabernacle is spoiled*** — The city is taken, and all our villages ruined and desolated.

Verse [Jeremiah 10:21](../../../kjv/jeremiah/10/21). ***The pastors are become brutish*** — The king and his counsellors, who, by refusing to pay the promised tribute to Nebuchadnezzar, had kindled a new war.

Verse [Jeremiah 10:22](../../../kjv/jeremiah/10/22). ***The noise of the bruit is come*** — How this silly French word *bruit*, which signifies *noise*, got in here, I cannot imagine. The simple translation is this: "The voice of the report! behold, it is come; yea, great commotion from the land of the north; (Chaldea;) to make the cities of Judea a desolation, a habitation of wild beasts." That is, the *report* we had heard of the projected invasion of Judea by Nebuchadnezzar is confirmed. He has entered the land; the Chaldeans are at the doors, and the total desolation of Judea is their sole object.

Verse [Jeremiah 10:23](../../../kjv/jeremiah/10/23). ***O Lord, I know that the way of man*****is*****not in himself*** — I will not pretend to dispute with thee; thou dost every thing wisely and justly; we have sinned, and thou hast a right to punish; and to choose that sort of punishment thou thinkest will best answer the ends of justice. We cannot choose; thou hast appointed us to captivity; we must not repine: yet,

Verse [Jeremiah 10:24](../../../kjv/jeremiah/10/24). ***Correct me, but with judgment*** — Let not the punishment be to the uttermost of the demerit of the offence; else *we shall* *be brought to nothing*-totally and irrecoverably ruined.

Verse [Jeremiah 10:25](../../../kjv/jeremiah/10/25). ***Pour out thy fury upon the heathen*** — Even those who are now the executors of thy justice upon us will, in their turn, feel its scourge; for if judgment begins at us, who have been called *thy house* and *thy people*, shall they who have *not acknowledged* *thee* escape? It is impossible. The families and tribes which invoke thee not shall have thy fury poured out upon them, and especially they who "have eaten up Jacob and consumed him, and have made his habitation desolate." This was fulfilled in the *Chaldeans*. Nebuchadnezzar was punished with madness, his son was slain in his revels, and the city was taken and sacked by Cyrus; and the Babylonish empire was finally destroyed! This verse has been often quoted against those ungodly families who set not up the worship of God in their houses. These are spiritual *Chaldeans*, worse indeed than the Chaldeans ever were: they acknowledge God and his Christ; and yet neither worship nor serve him. How can that family expect the blessing of God, where the worship of God is not daily performed? No wonder their servants are wicked, their children profligate, and their goods cursed! What an awful reckoning shall such heads of families have with the Judge in the great day, who have refused to petition for that mercy which they might have had for the asking.

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