Notes from Jeremiah 11

In this chapter,

I. God by the prophet puts the people in mind of the covenant he had made with their fathers, and how much he had insisted upon it, as the condition of the covenant, that they should be obedient to him (v. 1-7).
II. He charges it upon them that they, in succession to their fathers, and in confederacy among themselves, had obstinately refused to obey him (v. 8-10).
III. He threatens to punish them with utter ruin for their disobedience, especially for their idolatry (v. 11, 13), and tells them that their idols should not save them (v. 12), that their prophets should not pray for them (v. 14); he also justifies his proceedings herein, they having brought all this mischief upon themselves by their own folly and wilfulness (v. 15-17).
IV. Here is an account of a conspiracy formed against Jeremiah by his fellow-citizens, the men of Anathoth; God's discovery of it to him (v. 18, 19), his prayer against them (v. 20), and a prediction of God's judgments upon them for it (v. 21-23).

(Source: MHC)

Notes from Jeremiah 10

In this chapter the prophet goes on faithfully to reprove sin and to threaten God's judgments for it, and yet bitterly to lament both, as one that neither rejoiced at iniquity nor was glad at calamities.

I. He here expresses his great grief for the miseries of Judah and Jerusalem, and his detestation of their sins, which brought those miseries upon them (v. 1-11).
II. He justifies God in the greatness of the destruction brought upon them (v. 9-16).
III. He calls upon others to bewail the woeful case of Judah and Jerusalem (v. 17-22).
IV. He shows them the folly and vanity of trusting in their own strength or wisdom, or the privileges of their circumcision, or any thing but God only (v. 23-26).

(Source: MHC)

Notes from Jeremiah 9

In this chapter the prophet goes on faithfully to reprove sin and to threaten God's judgments for it, and yet bitterly to lament both, as one that neither rejoiced at iniquity nor was glad at calamities.

I. He here expresses his great grief for the miseries of Judah and Jerusalem, and his detestation of their sins, which brought those miseries upon them (v. 1-11).
II. He justifies God in the greatness of the destruction brought upon them (v. 9-16).
III. He calls upon others to bewail the woeful case of Judah and Jerusalem (v. 17-22).
IV. He shows them the folly and vanity of trusting in their own strength or wisdom, or the privileges of their circumcision, or any thing but God only (v. 23-26).

Notes from Jeremiah 8

The prophet proceeds, in this chapter, both to magnify and to justify the destruction that God was bringing upon this people, to show how grievous it would be and yet how righteous.

I. He represents the judgments coming as so very terrible that death should appear so as most to be dreaded and yet should be desired (v. 1-3)
II. He aggravates the wretched stupidity and wilfulness of this people as that which brought this ruin upon them (v. 4-12).
III. He describes the great confusion and consternation that the whole land should be in upon the alarm of it (v. 13-17).
IV. The prophet is himself deeply affected with it and lays it very much to heart (v. 18-22).

Notes from Jeremiah 7

The prophet having in God's name reproved the people for their sins, and given them warning of the judgments of God that were coming upon them, in this chapter prosecutes the same intention for their humiliation and awakening.

I. He shows them the invalidity of the plea they so much relied on, that they had the temple of God among them and constantly attended the service of it, and endeavours to take them off from their confidence in their external privileges and performances (v. 1-11).
II. He reminds them of the desolations of Shiloh, and foretels that such should be the desolations of Jerusalem (v. 12-16).
III. He represents to the prophet their abominable idolatries, for which he was thus incensed against them (v. 17-20).
IV. He sets before the people that fundamental maxim of religion that "to obey is better than sacrifice' (1 Sa. 15:22), and that God would not accept the sacrifices of those that obstinately persisted in disobedience (v. 21-28).
V. He threatens to lay the land utterly waste for their idolatry and impiety, and to multiply their slain as they had multiplied their sin (v. 29-34).

Notes from Jeremiah 6

In this chapter, as before, we have,

I. A prophecy of the invading of the land of Judah and the besieging of Jerusalem by the Chaldean army (v. 1-6), with the spoils they should make of the country (v. 9) and the terror which all should be seized with on that occasion (v. 22-26).
II. An account of those sins of Judah and Jerusalem which provoked God to bring this desolating judgment upon them. Their oppression (v. 7), their contempt of the word of God (v. 10-12), their worldliness (v. 13), the treachery of their prophets (v. 14), their impudence in sin (v. 15), their obstinacy against reproofs (v. 18, 19), which made their sacrifices unacceptable to him (v. 20), and for which he gave them up to ruin (v. 21), but tried them first (v. 27) and then rejected them as irreclaimable (v. 28-30).
III. Good counsel given them in the midst of all this, but in vain (v. 8, 16, 17).

Notes from Jeremiah 5

Reproof for sin and threatenings of judgment are intermixed in this chapter, and are set the one over against the other: judgments are threatened, that the reproofs of sin might be the more effectual to bring them to repentance; sin is discovered, that God might be justified in the judgments threatened.

I. The sins they are charged with are very great:-Injustice (v. 1), hypocrisy in religion (v. 2), incorrigibleness (v. 3), the corruption and debauchery of both poor and rich (v. 4, 5), idolatry and adultery (v. 7, 8), treacherous departures from God (v. 11), and impudent defiance of him (v. 12, 13), and, that which is at the bottom of all this, want of the fear of God, notwithstanding the frequent calls given them to fear him (v. 20-24). In the close of the chapter they are charged with violence and oppression (v. 26-28), and a combination of those to debauch the nation who should have been active to reform it (v. 30, 31).
II. The judgments they are threatened with are very terrible. In general, they shall be reckoned with (v. 9, 29). A foreign enemy shall be brought in upon them (v. 15-17), shall set guards upon them (v. 6), shall destroy their fortification (v. 10), shall carry them away into captivity (v. 19), and keep all good things from them (v. 25). Herein the words of God's prophets shall be fulfilled (v. 14). But,
III. Here is an intimation twice given that God would in the midst of wrath remember mercy, and not utterly destroy them (v. 10, 18).

This was the scope and purport of Jeremiah's preaching in the latter end of Josiah's reign and the beginning of Jehoiakim's; but the success of it did not answer expectation.

Notes from Jeremiah 4

It should seem that the first two verses of this chapter might better have been joined to the close of the foregoing chapter, for they are directed to Israel, the ten tribes, by way of reply to their compliance with God's call, directing and encouraging them to hold their resolution (v. 1, 2). The rest of the chapter concerns Judah and Jerusalem.

I. They are called to repent and reform (v. 3, 4).
II. They are warned of the advance of Nebuchadnezzar and his forces against them, and are told that it is for their sins, from which they are again exhorted to wash themselves (v. 5-18).
III. To affect them the more with the greatness of the desolation that was coming, the prophet does himself bitterly lament it, and sympathize with his people in the calamities it brought upon them, and the plunge it brought them to, representing it as a reduction of the world to its first chaos (v. 19-31).