---
title: "Clarke"
description: "Verse Jeremiah 13:1. Thus saith the Lord unto me — This discourse is supposed to have been delivered under the reign of Jeconiah, the son and successor of"
image: "/images/missing.jpg"
url: "https://realbiblebelievers.com/commentaries/clarkes-commentary/jeremiah/13"
---

Verse [Jeremiah 13:1](../../../kjv/jeremiah/13/1). ***Thus saith the Lord unto me*** — This discourse is supposed to have been delivered under the reign of *Jeconiah*, the son and successor of Jehoiakim, who came to the throne in the *eighteenth* year of his age; when the Chaldean generals had encamped near to Jerusalem, but did not besiege it in form till Nebuchadnezzar came up with the great body of the army. In these circumstances the prophet predicts the captivity; and, by a symbolical representation of a rotten girdle, shows the people their totally corrupt state; and by another *of bottles filled with wine*, shows the destruction and madness of their counsels, and the confusion that must ensue.
***Go and get thee a linen girdle*** — This was either a vision, or God simply describes the thing in order that the prophet might use it in the way of illustration.
***Put it not in water.*** — After having worn it, let it not be washed, that it may more properly represent the uncleanness of the Israelites; for *they* were represented by the *girdle*; for "as the girdle cleaveth to the loins of a man, so have I caused to cleave unto me the whole house of Israel, and the whole house of Judah." And as a girdle is as well for *ornament* as *use*; God took them *for* *a name*, and *for a praise*, and *for a glory*, [Jeremiah 13:11](../../../kjv/jeremiah/13/11).

Verse [Jeremiah 13:4](../../../kjv/jeremiah/13/4). ***Go to Euphrates, and hide it there*** — Intending to point out, by this distant place, the *country* into which they were to be carried away captive.

Verse [Jeremiah 13:7](../../../kjv/jeremiah/13/7). ***And behold, the girdle was marred; it was profitable**********for nothing.*** — This symbolically represented the state of the Jews: they were corrupt and abominable; and God, by sending them into captivity, "marred the pride of Judah, and the great pride of Jerusalem," [Jeremiah 13:9](../../../kjv/jeremiah/13/9).

Verse [Jeremiah 13:12](../../../kjv/jeremiah/13/12). ***Every bottle shall be filled with wine?*** — The bottles were made for the purpose of being filled with wine; and it is likely, from the promising appearance of the *season* and the *grapes*, that there was a great likelihood of a *copious* *vintage*; and this made them say, "Do we not certainly know that every bottle shall be filled with wine? Have we not every prospect that it will be so? Do we need a revelation to inform us of this?"

Verse [Jeremiah 13:13](../../../kjv/jeremiah/13/13). ***Behold, I will fill all the inhabitants of this**********land - with drunkenness.*** — You pretend to take this *literally*, but it is a *symbol*. *You*, and your *kings*, and *priests*, and *prophets*, are represented by these bottles. The *wine* is God's *wrath* against you, which shall first be shown by *confounding* your deliberations, filling you with foolish plans of defense, causing you from your divided counsels to fall out among yourselves, so that like so many drunken men you shall reel about and jostle each other; defend yourselves without plan, and fight without order, till ye all fall an easy prey into the hands of your enemies. The ancient adage is here fulfilled: -
Quos Deus vult perdere, prius dementat.

"Those whom God determines to destroy, he
first renders foolish."

Verse [Jeremiah 13:16](../../../kjv/jeremiah/13/16). ***Give glory to - God*** — Confess your sins and turn to him, that these sore evils may be averted.
***While ye look for light*** — While ye expect *prosperity*, he turned it into the *shadow of death* - sent you adversity of the most *distressing* and *ruinous kind*.
***Stumble upon the dark mountains*** — Before you meet with those great *obstacles*, which, having no *light* - no proper understanding in the matter, ye shall be utterly unable to surmount.

Verse [Jeremiah 13:17](../../../kjv/jeremiah/13/17). ***My soul shalt weep in secret places*** — If you will not hearken to the Lord, there is no remedy: destruction must come; and there is nothing left for me, but to go in secret, and mourn and bewail your wretched lot.

Verse [Jeremiah 13:18](../../../kjv/jeremiah/13/18). ***Say unto the king and to the queen*** — Probably Jeconiah and his mother, under whose tutelage, being young when he began to reign, he was left, as is very likely.
***Sit down*** — Show that ye have *humbled* yourselves; for your state will be destroyed, and your glorious crown taken from your heads.

Verse [Jeremiah 13:19](../../../kjv/jeremiah/13/19). ***The cities of the south shall be shut up*** — Not only the cities of the *north*, the quarter at which the Chaldeans entered, but the cities of the *south* also; for he shall proceed from one extremity of the land to the other, spreading devastation every where, and carrying off the inhabitants.

Verse [Jeremiah 13:20](../../../kjv/jeremiah/13/20). ***Where*****is*****the flock - thy beautiful flock?*** — Jerusalem is addressed. Where are the prosperous multitudes of men, women, and children? Alas! are they not driven before the Babylonians, who have taken them captive?

Verse [Jeremiah 13:21](../../../kjv/jeremiah/13/21). ***Thou hast taught them*****to be*****captains*****, and*****as chief**********over thee*** — This is said of their enemies, whether Assyrians or Chaldeans: for ever since Ahaz submitted himself to the king of Assyria, the kings of Judah never regained their *independence*. Their enemies were thus taught to be their lords and masters.

Verse [Jeremiah 13:22](../../../kjv/jeremiah/13/22). ***Are thy skirts discovered*** — Thy defenceless state is every where known; thou art not only *weak*, but ignominiously so. It is thy *scandal* to be in so depressed a condition; thou art lower than the basest of thy adversaries, and thou art so because of thy sin.

Verse [Jeremiah 13:23](../../../kjv/jeremiah/13/23). ***Can the Ethiopian change his skin*** — Can a *black*, at his own pleasure, change the *colour* of his *skin*? Can the *leopard* at will change the *variety* of his *spots*? These things are natural to them, and they cannot be altered; so sin, and especially your attachment to idolatry, is become a *second nature*; and we may as well expect the Ethiopian to change his skin, and the leopard his spots, *as you to do good, who have been accustomed to do evil*. It is a matter of the utmost difficulty to get a sinner, deeply rooted in vicious habits, brought to the knowledge of himself and God. But the expression does not imply that the thing is as impossible in a *moral* as it is in a *natural* sense: it only shows that it is *extremely difficult*, and not to be often expected; and a thousand matters of fact prove the truth of this. But still, what is impossible to man is possible to God. [Jeremiah 13:27](../../../kjv/jeremiah/13/27).

Verse [Jeremiah 13:24](../../../kjv/jeremiah/13/24). ***The wind of the wilderness.*** — Some strong tempestuous wind, proverbially severe, coming from the desert to the south of Judea.

Verse [Jeremiah 13:25](../../../kjv/jeremiah/13/25). ***Trusted in falsehood.*** — In *idols*, and in *lying* *prophets*.

Verse [Jeremiah 13:26](../../../kjv/jeremiah/13/26). ***Therefore will I discover thy skirts upon thy face*** — It was the custom to punish lewd women by stripping them naked, and exposing them to public view; or by throwing their clothes over their heads, as here intimated. Was this the way to correct the evil?

Verse [Jeremiah 13:27](../../../kjv/jeremiah/13/27). ***I have seen thine adulteries*** — Thy *idolatries* of different kinds, practised in various ways; no doubt often accompanied with gross debauchery.
***Wo unto thee, O Jerusalem wilt thou not be made clean?*** — We see from this, that though the thing was difficult, yet it was not *impossible*, for these *Ethiopians* to change their *skin*, for these *leopards* to change their *spots*. It was only their obstinate refusal of the grace of God that rendered it impossible. Man cannot change himself; but he may pray to God to do it, and come to him through Christ, that he may do it. To enable him to pray and believe, the power is still at hand. If he will not use it, he must perish.

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