Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary
Jeremiah 13:24

Clarke's Commentary

Verse Jeremiah 13:24. The wind of the wilderness. — Some strong tempestuous wind, proverbially severe, coming from the desert to the south of Judea.

Bridgeway Bible Commentary

A nation useless and disgraced (13:1-27)

In an effort to emphasize God’s warnings to Judah more forcefully, Jeremiah gave them an illustration that they could all see. He took a piece of clean new cloth, put it around his waist, then walked to a distant river where he buried the cloth in the river bank. Some time later he returned to the river and brought back the cloth for all to see. It was now rotten and useless (13:1-7). The meaning is that Judah, the nation that was supposed to be morally pure and tied closely to God, has now become rotten and useless. Because it has rebelled against Yahweh and served other gods, it too will be taken to a distant land (8-11).
God then instructed Jeremiah to give a second illustration of warning to the people of Judah. To them there was nothing unusual in the sight of wine jars filled with wine, for they liked to enjoy their wrongly gained prosperity to the full. Jeremiah explains that wine, instead of symbolizing pleasure, now symbolizes wrath, God’s wrath. The nation will drink that wrath till it becomes drunk and unable to save itself from disaster (12-14).
Jeremiah has a sincere love for his country and will be deeply grieved to see such a catastrophe occur. He urges the proud nation to humble itself and turn to God, otherwise judgment will overtake it, as darkness overtakes a frightened traveller in dangerous hill country (15-17). The king and others of the royal family will suffer the humiliation of being stripped of their royalty and taken to Babylon as common prisoners, along with citizens from the farthest areas of the kingdom (18-19).

Judah had once been friends with Babylon (2 Kings 20:12-19). How great, then, will be Judah’s surprise when it sees Babylon’s armies descending upon it from the north. They will attack Judah with the ruthlessness of wolves attacking sheep or a rapist attacking a woman (20-22). Judah’s sin is so deeply embedded that reform is now impossible. The nation will be driven off into captivity, just as chaff is driven away by the desert wind (23-25). It has acted like a prostitute, and will be punished with public disgrace like a prostitute (26-27).

Coffman's Commentaries on the Bible

"And if thou say in thy heart, Wherefore are these things come upon me? for the greatness of thine iniquity are thy skirts uncovered and thy heels suffer violence. Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil. Therefore will I scatter them, as the stubble that passeth away, by the wind of the wilderness."

"For the greatness of thine iniquity" This is God's blunt answer to the question of why? all these things happened to Israel.

"Thy skirts uncovered" See under Jeremiah 13:26. below, for comment on this.

"Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots" A negative answer is required for both of these questions; and the meaning is simply that it is too late for Israel to change her ways. She has persistently wallowed in sin such a long time that there is no longer any hope of her changing. Such a condition came about because of (1) the deliberate rebellion of Israel against her God, and (2) the consequent judicial hardening of the apostate nation so frequently mentioned in Isaiah (See Isaiah 6:9-10, etc).

Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible

Stubble - Broken straw separated from the wheat after the grain had been trampled out by the oxen. Sometimes it was burned as useless; at other times left to be blown away by the wind from the desert.

Calvin's Commentary on the Bible

This is an inference which Jeremiah draws from the last verse. As long as there is any hope of repentance, there is also room for mercy; God often declares that he is long-suffering. Then the most wicked might object and say, that God is too rigid, because he waits not until they return to a sound mind. Now the Prophet had said that it was all over with the people: here therefore he meets the objection, and shews that extreme calamity was justly brought on them by God, because the Jews had obstinately hardened themselves in their vices and wickedness.

After having shewn, therefore, that corruption was inherent in them, as blackness in the skin of an Ethiopian, and as spots in panthers, he now comes to this conclusion — I will scatter them as stubble which passes away by the wind of the desert This scattering denotes their exile; as though he had said, “I will banish them, that they may know that they are deprived of the inheritance in which they place their safety and their happiness.” For the Jews gloried in this only — that they were God’s people, because the Temple was built among them, and because they dwelt in the land promised to them. They then thought that God was in a manner tied to them, while they possessed that inheritance. Hence Jeremiah declares, that they would become like stubble carried away by the wind.

He mentions the wind of the desert, that is, the wind of the south, which was the most violent in that country. The south wind, as we know, was also pestilential; the air also was more disturbed by the south wind than by any other, for it raised storms and tempests. Therefore the Scripture, in setting forth any turbulent movement, often adopts this similitude. Some think that Jeremiah alludes to the Egyptians; but I see no reason to seek out any refined explanation, when this mode of speaking is commonly adopted. Then by this similitude of south wind God intimates the great power of his vengeance; as though he had said, “Even if the Jews think that they have a firm standing in the promised land, they are wholly deceived, for God will with irresistible force expel them.” And he compares them to stubble, while yet they boasted that they were like trees planted in that land; and we have before seen that they had been planted as it were by the hand of God; but they wanted the living root of piety, they were therefore to be driven far away like stubble. ⁽⁹⁷⁾

Let us then learn from this passage not to abuse the patience of God: for though he may suspend for a time the punishment we deserve, yet when he sees that we go on in our wickedness, he will come to extreme measures, and will deal with us without mercy as those who are past remedy. It follows —

(97) Our version begins with “therefore,” giving this meaning to ו, vau, but Gataker considers this verse as connected with the 22d, and regards the 23d as parenthetic; and then he renders the vau “and.” The literal rendering of the latter part is, “Passing to the wind of the desert,” that is, the stubble which is exposed to that violent wind. The meaning may be thus given, —

And I will scatter them like the stubble That is subject to the wind of the desert.

To pass over to a thing is to become within its range, or to its possession. The sense would be given by the following version, —

That is carried away by the wind of the desert.

The meaning is not what the Septuagint give, “carried by the wind to the desert;” nor what the Vulgate presents, “carried by the wind in the desert;” but what is meant is, “the wind of the desert,” or, as Calvin says, the south wind. When the stubble was exposed to that, it is carried away with the greatest violence: such would be the scattering of the Jews. — Ed.

Smith's Bible Commentary

Chapter 13

Thus saith the LORD unto me, Go down and buy a linen girdle, and put it on, but don't wash it. So I got a girdle according to the word of the LORD, and I put it on. And the word of the LORD came unto me the second time, saying, Take the girdle that you have purchased, which you have been wearing, and go to Euphrates, and hide it there under a rock. So I hid it by Euphrates, as the LORD commanded me. And it came to pass after many days, that the LORD said unto me, Arise, go to Euphrates, and take the girdle from there, which I commanded you to hide. And I went to the river Euphrates, and digged, and I took the girdle from the place where I had hid it: and, behold, the girdle was marred, it was profitable for nothing ( Jeremiah 13:1-7 ).

As you can imagine, if you take a linen girdle and put it under a rock and you know, the whole thing when you go back later and get the thing, the bugs have eaten holes in it and the thing is just good for nothing as he said. Now God says, "Put it on and wear it back to the streets again and preach to the people." Now they saw him when he first had this beautiful linen girdle. "Oh wow, look at that." One to draw attention. But now as he wears the thing again, "Yuck, what's he wearing the holey, filthy thing for?" But this was an illustrated sermon.

Then the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, Thus saith the LORD, After this manner will I mar the pride of Judah, and the great pride of Jerusalem. This evil people, which refuse to hear my words, which walk in the imagination of their heart, and walk after other gods, to serve them, and worship them, shall even be as this girdle, which is good for nothing. 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, saith the LORD; that they might be unto me for a people, and for a name, and for a praise, and for a glory: but they would not hear. Therefore thou shalt speak unto them this word; Thus saith the LORD God of Israel ( Jeremiah 13:8-12 ),

So he goes into the next thing. But the idea with the girdle was that the nation was once bound to God. And as it was bound to God, it was a beautiful thing. A people worshipping God, serving God, bound to God. But when they have turned from God, that which was once beautiful and glorious has become ugly and repulsive. That same nation that once was the glory of the earth, as God's love and blessings were showered upon it, has now become the curse of the earth as they have removed themselves from that place of nearness to God and they've become good for nothing.

There's an interesting book called The Light and the Glory in which they trace the historic roots of the United States and show how that God had a very definite hand in the founding of this nation, even as He did in the founding of the nation of Israel. God's hand was upon the founding fathers. And it's a beautiful book, The Light and the Glory, giving you historic insights to our nation that you don't find in the public textbooks in your school system. Because they don't want you to know the spiritual roots of the nation. They like to hide that from you. But this nation was born of God as a light to the world and God's blessing is upon it. They wrote the song, "America, America, God shed His grace on thee. And crown thy good with brotherhood from sea to shining sea." And songs that reflected the nation's relationship to God. And men were conscious that it was God that had blessed and made our nation great. But they're trying to hide that truth from the children today. And they're trying to hold up the god of capitalism, free enterprise. And they're saying it's free enterprise that has made us strong. Now fight for free enterprise. Fight for the capitalistic system. They can't inspire me to fight for free enterprise or the capitalistic system. I'll fight for the freedom that we have been given by God to worship Him, to serve Him. I love that.

But it's tragic that we've turned from the basic roots upon which the nation was founded. We were once beautiful before the world. God's blessing was upon our land. But we like the linen girdle are becoming good for nothing in the eyes of the world.

Even in... I was in Canada. I was in a radio talk show in Canada. You'll be amazed at how many called in and were angry at me just because I was from the United States. All of the bitterness that they have towards the U.S. Over in England we found a lot of bitterness just because I'm from the U.S. We were once the glory of the world, but now we're becoming hated throughout the world. We travel in some parts of the world where the people look at you and just spit at you. They don't even know you. But they recognize you as because the way you dress. Nobody dresses like Americans. And they can spot you a mile away. When they get near you they just spit at you, which is an oriental sign of disgust and disdain. Oh, it's sad when a nation turns from God to find its fulfillment and satisfaction in something other than God. Once a beautiful garment.

Now in verse Jeremiah 13:12 , the second thing. Speak this to them, the proverb sort of. Thus saith the Lord God of Israel,

Every bottle shall be filled with wine: and they will say unto you, Don't we know that every bottle is going to be filled with wine? ( Jeremiah 13:12 )

Because they were preaching a message of prosperity, two cars in every garage.

Then shalt thou say unto them, Thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will fill all the inhabitants of the land, even the kings that sit upon David's throne, and the priests, and the prophets, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, with drunkenness. And I will dash them one against another, even as the fathers and the sons together, saith the LORD: I will not pity, nor spare, nor have mercy, but destroy them. Hear ye, and give ear; be not proud: for the LORD hath spoken. Give glory to the LORD your God, before he causes darkness, and before your feet stumble upon the dark mountains, and, while ye look for light, he turns it into the shadow of death, and make it gross darkness. But if you will not hear it, my soul shall weep in secret places for your pride; and mine eye shall weep sore, and run down with tears, because the LORD'S flock is carried away captive ( Jeremiah 13:13-17 ).

Now Jeremiah was known as the weeping prophet, and this is one of his references to his weeping. God is giving them a message of warning, "If you won't hear it," then he said, "in the secret place my eye will weep sore and run down with tears." You know, this is an interesting thing. We look at a minister and we're prone to just say, "He's just a hell-fire-damnation, fire-brimstone preacher." And we're prone to just... if a man comes and pronounces the judgment of God that is coming, we're prone to just sort of say, "Ah, he's filled with hatred and everything else." Well, that may be the case in some. But here with Jeremiah, here he's pronouncing the horrible judgment of God but he's weeping. He's not smacking his lips and saying, "Boy, God's going to smack you, brother! Hardly wait." But he's going and weeping over the condition of the people because they will not respond to the message of God.

Say to the king and to the queen, Humble yourselves, sit down: for your principalities shall come down, even the crown of your glory. The cities of the south shall be shut up, and none of them will be open ( Jeremiah 13:18-19 ):

That is, they'll be shut up into a siege.

Judah shall be carried away captive all of it, it shall be wholly carried away captive. Lift up your eyes, and behold them that come from the north: where is the flock that was given thee, thy beautiful flock? What will you say when he will punish you? for you have taught them to be captains, and as chief over thee: shall not sorrows take thee, as a woman who is in travail? And if you say in your heart, Wherefore come these things upon me? For the greatness of thine iniquity are thy skirts discovered, and thy heels made bare. Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or a leopard his spots? then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil ( Jeremiah 13:19-23 ).

No, a man cannot change his nature. Only God can change a man's nature by the Holy Spirit. A leopard can't change his spots. You are what you are by nature. And if you have not received Jesus Christ, you're a sinner by nature. You can't be righteous even though you try. It's impossible. You need a new nature. I don't care. You can take a pig out of the pigsty, give him a bath with deodorant soap, spray him with perfume, put a bow around his neck and let him go and he will go right back to the mud. He'll just roll over and wallow in it. That's his environment. He loves it. That's his nature. Loving to just wallow in the mud. And that's the nature of some people. You can clean them up, give them a new act, and you can say, "Oh, it's their environment, you know. Let's bring them out of that environment and let's clean them up and all." Hey, but it's their nature. Let them go, they'll go right back. You need a change of nature.

That's why Jesus said, "Don't be surprised when I say don't marvel when I say you've got to be born again." That's the answer. A change of nature, that's what's accomplished by the Spirit of God. He changes my nature. People say, "I could never be a Christian. I don't want to be... I don't want to be hypocrite, but I can never live that life." They don't accept the Lord because they say, "I could never do it." Of course you can't do it. And no one expects you to do it. You can't do it apart from the power and the work of the Holy Spirit in giving you a new nature. But God, that's what He does. He gives me a whole new nature. A nature that is after Him.

So God speaks about the fact that a man is what he is by nature. He cannot change except by God's power.

Therefore will I scatter them as the stubble that passes away by the wind of the wilderness. This is thy lot, the portion of thy measures from me, saith the LORD; because you have forgotten me ( Jeremiah 13:24-25 ),

This is what's going to happen because you've forgotten me.

and trusted in a lie. Therefore will I discover thy skirts upon thy face, that thy shame may appear. I have seen your adulteries, the neighings, the lewdness of thy whoredoms, and the abominations on the hills in the fields. Woe unto thee, O Jerusalem! wilt thou not be made clean? when shall it once be? ( Jeremiah 13:25-27 ) "

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

Jerusalem’s incurable wickedness 13:20-27

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

Because of their inveterate sinning, the Lord would scatter the people from their land, like straw blown by the wind. Like the straw, they would end up in desert lands, namely: Babylonia.

Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

Therefore will I scatter them as the stubble that passeth away,.... Because of their many sins, and continuance in them, their habits and custom of sinning, they are threatened with being carried captive into other nations, where they should be dispersed and separated one from another, which would make their state and condition very uncomfortable; and this would be as easily and as swiftly done as the light stubble which is blown away by every puff of wind; nor would they be able any more to resist the enemy, and help themselves, than the stubble is to stand before the wind; as follows:

by the wind of the wilderness; which blows freely and strongly; so the Chaldean army is compared to a dry wind of the high places in the wilderness, even a full wind that should scatter and destroy, Jeremiah 4:11; or, "to the wind of the wilderness" u; and so may denote the wilderness of the people, or the land of Babylon, whither they should be carried captive, and from whence the wind should come that should bring them thither. Kimchi and Ben Melech make mention sea wilderness between Jerusalem and Babylon, as what may be intended.

u לרוח מדבר "ad ventum deserti", Pagninus, Montanus, Vatablus, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Cocceius.

Henry's Complete Commentary on the Bible

      22 And if thou say in thine heart, Wherefore come these things upon me? For the greatness of thine iniquity are thy skirts discovered, and thy heels made bare.   23 Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil.   24 Therefore will I scatter them as the stubble that passeth away by the wind of the wilderness.   25 This is thy lot, the portion of thy measures from me, saith the LORD; because thou hast forgotten me, and trusted in falsehood.   26 Therefore will I discover thy skirts upon thy face, that thy shame may appear.   27 I have seen thine adulteries, and thy neighings, the lewdness of thy whoredom, and thine abominations on the hills in the fields. Woe unto thee, O Jerusalem! wilt thou not be made clean? when shall it once be?

      Here is, I. Ruin threatened as before, that the Jews shall go into captivity, and fall under all the miseries of beggary and bondage, shall be stripped of their clothes, their skirts discovered for want of upper garments to cover them, and their heels made bare for want of shoes, Jeremiah 13:22; Jeremiah 13:22. Thus they used to deal with prisoners taken in war, when they drove them into captivity, naked and barefoot,Isaiah 20:4. Being thus carried off into a strange country, they shall be scattered there, as the stubble that is blown away by the wind of the wilderness, and nobody is concerned to bring it together again, Jeremiah 13:24; Jeremiah 13:24. If the stubble escape the fire, it shall be carried away by the wind. If one judgment do not do the work, another shall, with those that by sin have made themselves as stubble. They shall be stripped of all their ornaments and exposed to shame, as harlots that are carted, Jeremiah 13:26; Jeremiah 13:26. They made their pride appear, but God will make their shame appear; so that those who have doted on them shall be ashamed of them.

      II. An enquiry made by the people into the cause of this ruin, Jeremiah 13:22; Jeremiah 13:22. Thou wilt say in thy heart (and God knows how to give a proper answer to what men say in their hearts, though they do not speak it out; Jesus, knowing their thoughts, replied to them,Matthew 9:4), Wherefore came these things upon me? The question is supposed to come into the heart, 1. Of a sinner quarrelling with God and refusing to receive correction. They could not see that they had done any thing which might justly provoke God to be thus angry with them. They durst not speak it out; but in their hearts they thus charged God with unrighteousness, if he had laid upon them more than was meet. They seek for the cause of their calamities, when, if they had not been willfully blind, they might easily have seen it. Or, 2. Of a sinner returning to God. If there come but a penitent thought into the heart at any time (saying, What have I done?Jeremiah 8:6; Jeremiah 8:6, wherefore am I in affliction? why doth God contend with me?) God takes notice of it, and is ready by his Spirit to impress the conviction, that, sin being discovered, it may be repented of.

      III. An answer to this enquiry. God will be justified when he speaks and will oblige us to justify him, and therefore will set the sin of sinners in order before them. Do they ask, Wherefore come these things upon us? Let them know it is all owing to themselves.

      1. It is for the greatness of their iniquities, Jeremiah 13:22; Jeremiah 13:22. God does not take advantage against them for small faults; no, the sins for which he now punishes them are of the first rate, very heinous in their own nature and highly aggravated--for the multitude of thy iniquity (so it may be read), sins of every kind and often repeated and relapsed into. Some think we are more in danger from the multitude of our smaller sins than from the heinousness of our greater sins; of both we may say, Who can understand his errors?

      2. It is for their obstinacy in sin, their being so long accustomed to it that there was little hope left of their being reclaimed from it (Jeremiah 13:23; Jeremiah 13:23): Can the Ethiopian change his skin, that is by nature black, or the leopard his spots, that are even woven into the skin? Dirt contracted may be washed off, but we cannot alter the natural colour of a hair (Matthew 5:36), much less of the skin; and so impossible is it, morally impossible, to reclaim and reform these people. (1.) They had been long accustomed to do evil. They were taught to do evil; they had been educated and brought up in sin; they had served an apprenticeship to it, and had all their days made a trade of it. It was so much their constant practice that it had become a second nature to them. (2.) Their prophets therefore despaired of ever bring them to do good. This was what they aimed at; they persuaded them to cease to do evil and learn to do well, but could not prevail. They had so long been used to do evil that it was next to impossible for them to repent, and amend, and begin to do good. Note, Custom in sin is a very great hindrance to conversion from sin. The disease that is inveterate is generally thought incurable. Those that have been long accustomed to sin have shaken off the restraint of fear and shame; their consciences are seared; the habits of sin are confirmed; it pleads prescription; and it is just with God to give those up to their own hearts' lusts that have long refused to give themselves up to his grace. Sin is the blackness of the soul, the deformity of it; it is its spot, the discolouring of it; it is natural to us, we were shapen in it, so that we cannot get clear of it by any power of our own. But there is an almighty grace that is able to change the Ethiopian's skin, and that grace shall not be wanting to those who in a sense of their need of it seek it earnestly and improve it faithfully.

      3. It is for their treacherous departures from the God of truth and dependence on lying vanities (Jeremiah 13:25; Jeremiah 13:25): "This is thy lot, to be scattered and driven away; this is the portion of thy measures from me, the punishment assigned thee as by line and measure; this shall be thy share of the miseries of this world; expect it, and think not to escape it: it is because thou hast forgotten me, the favours I have bestowed upon thee and the obligations thou art under to me; thou hast no sense, no remembrance, of these." Forgetfulness of God is at the bottom of all sin, as the remembrance of our Creator betimes is the happy and hopeful beginning of a holy life. "Having forgotten me, thou hast trusted in falsehood, in idols, in an arm of flesh in Egypt and Assyria, in the self-flatteries of a deceitful heart." Whatever those trust to that forsake God, they will find it a broken reed, a broken cistern.

      4. It is for their idolatry, their spiritual whoredom, that sin which is of all sins most provoking to the jealous God. They are exposed to a shameful calamity (Jeremiah 13:26; Jeremiah 13:26) because they have been guilty of a shameful iniquity and yet are shameless in it (Jeremiah 13:27; Jeremiah 13:27): "I have seen thy adulteries (thy inordinate fancy for strange gods, which thou hast been impatient for the gratification of, and hast even neighed after it), even the lewdness of thy whoredoms, thy impudence and insatiableness in them, thy eager worshipping of idols on the hills in the fields, upon the high places. This is that for which a woe is denounced against thee, O Jerusalem! nay, and many woes."

      IV. Here is an affectionate expostulation with them, in the close, upon the whole matter. Though it was adjudged next to impossible for them to be brought to do good (Jeremiah 13:23; Jeremiah 13:23), yet while there is life there is hope, and therefore still he reasons with them to bring them to repentance, Jeremiah 13:27; Jeremiah 13:27. 1. He reasons with them concerning the thing itself: Wilt thou not be made clean? Note, It is the great concern of those who are polluted by sin to be made clean by repentance, and faith, and a universal reformation. The reason why sinners are not made clean is because they will not be made clean; and herein they act most unreasonably: "Wilt thou not be made clean? Surely thou will at length be persuaded to wash thee, and make thee clean, and so be wise for thyself." 2. Concerning the time of it: When shall it once be? Note, It is an instance of the wonderful grace of God that he desires the repentance and conversion of sinners, and thinks the time long till they are brought to relent; but it is an instance of the wonderful folly of sinners that they put that off from time to time which is of such absolute necessity that, if it be not done some time, they are certainly undone for ever. They do not say that they will never be cleansed, but not yet; they will defer it to a more convenient season, but cannot tell us when it shall once be.