Matthew Henry on Jeremiah 5:20-24
The prophet, having reproved them for sin and threatened the judgments of God against them, is here sent to them again upon another errand, which he must publish in Judah; the purport of it is to persuade them to fear God, which would be an effectual principle of their reformation, as the want of that fear had been at the bottom of their apostasy.
I. He complains of the shameful stupidity of this people, and their bent to backslide from God, speaking as if he knew not what course to take with them. For,
1. Their understandings were darkened and unapt to admit the rays of the divine light: They are a foolish people and without understanding; they apprehend not the mind of God, though ever so…
Read the whole note in the consoleJamieson-Fausset-Brown on Jeremiah 5:23
(Jer 6:28).
John Gill on Jeremiah 5:23
They are not so obedient as the sea and its waves; nor so firm and stable as the sand that is set for the bound of it. This is a reproof and an aggravation of the revoltings and rebellions of this people:
they are revolted and gone; they had departed from the ways of the Lord, and were gone back from his worship, as the Targum; and were gone into evil ways, and to a false worship; they not only had revolted, but they went on, they continued therein, and went further and further, off from God and his worship.
John Calvin on Jeremiah 5:23
Jeremiah 5:23
23. But this people hath a revolting and a rebellious heart; they are revolted and gone.
23. Atqui populo huic fuit cor perversum et rebelle; deflexerunt et abierunt
Here the previous verse is completed; for what is said here is connected with the question which we have noticed. But God now proves more clearly why he adduced what he said of the sea. The copulative v, vau, is to be taken here as an adversative, and to be thus rendered, But this people have a perverse heart: for svrr, surer, means "perverse;" some render it "revolting, "but improperly; for it appears from many other passages that it is something more: besides, the other meaning is more suitable to the context…
