EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)
(9)
The pride of Judah.—As the girdle was the part of the dress on which most ornamental work was commonly lavished, so that it was a common gift among princes and men of wealth (
1Samuel 18:4;
2Samuel 18:11), it was the natural symbol of the outward glory of a kingdom. As Jeremiah was a priest, we may, perhaps, think of the embroidered girdle “for glory and for beauty “of the priestly dress (
Exodus 28:40;
Ezekiel 44:17).
Jeremiah 13:9.
After this manner will I mar the pride of Judah,&c. — Or, as some translate the verse, “Will I mar the glory of Judah, and the great honour of Jerusalem.” I will bring down their pride and stubbornness, by making them slaves and vassals to strangers,
Lamentations 5:8;
Lamentations 5:13. Or, alluding to the transaction about the girdle, “I will transport them beyond the Euphrates; I will bide them in Babylon, as in the hole of a rock, whence they cannot come out. They shall be marred in the midst of the nations, without temple, without sacrifice, without priests, without external worship. I will humble their presumption, and teach them to acknowledge and adore my mercy.”
13:1-11 It was usual with the prophets to teach by signs. And we have the explanation, ver. 9-11. The people of Israel had been to God as this girdle. He caused them to cleave to him by the law he gave them, the prophets he sent among them, and the favours he showed them. They had by their idolatries and sins buried themselves in foreign earth, mingled among the nations, and were so corrupted that they were good for nothing. If we are proud of learning, power, and outward privileges, it is just with God to wither them. The minds of men should be awakened to a sense of their guilt and danger; yet nothing will be effectual without the influences of the Spirit.
Many days - The seventy years' captivity.
9. (Le 26:19).
By this it appears that God commanded Jeremiah to do this, not only as a representation of the rotten and corrupt state of this people, but of his vengeance, which should suddenly be brought upon them, though they were a proud
people, lifted up and swelled in the opinion of themselves, from the favour which God had showed them, in making them a people near unto him, and as it were wearing them upon his loins; yet, they having corrupted themselves by mixing their streams with the streams of Euphrates, corrupting themselves with the superstitions, corruptions, and idolatries of heathens, God would make use of some of those nations to abate their pride and pluck their feathers, and they should rot amongst those people and in some of those nations with whom and by whose example they had sinned against the Lord. This sense of these words is much confirmed by the following words.
Thus saith the Lord, after this manner,.... As this girdle has been hid in Euphrates, and has been marred and rendered useless; so in like manner, and by such like means,
will I mar the pride of Judah, and the great pride of Jerusalem; or their glory, or excellency (t); that which they gloried in, and were proud of; their city which was burnt, and their temple which was destroyed by the Chaldeans; their king, princes, and nobles, who were carried captive into Babylon, by the river Euphrates, and stripped of all their grandeur, honour, and glory; and so the Targum,
"so will I corrupt the strength of the men of Judah, and the strength of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, which is much;''
and to which agrees the Syriac version, which renders it,
"the proud or haughty men of Judah, and the many haughty men of Jerusalem.''
(t) "excellentiam", Calvin, Piscator.
Thus saith the LORD, After this manner will I mar the pride of Judah, and the great pride of Jerusalem.
