Attributed commentary excerpt
John Gill's Exposition on Jeremiah 4:10
A historical reference excerpt for this verse. Read it alongside the biblical text and other available sources.
Exposition of the Old and New Testament
John Gill (1697–1771) · 18th-century historical commentary
Source: BibleWord.ai's local reference edition of this named work.
Then said I, ah, Lord God! etc.] Expressing great sorrow and concern: this “ah” is by way of lamentation. The Targum interprets it as a petition, “and I said, receive my prayer, O Lord God:” surely thou hast greatly deceived this people and Jerusalem: what the false prophets did, that God is said to do, because he suffered them to deceive the people; (see <112220>1 Kings 22:20-23). The Targum ascribes the deception to the false prophets, and not to God, “surely behold the false prophets deceive this people, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem;” or this may be ironically said, because the false prophets pretended to speak in the name of the Lord; wherefore Jeremiah says, “surely thou hast greatly deceived”, etc. “saying, ye shall have peace”; as the false prophets did, (<240614>Jeremiah 6:14): whereas the sword reacheth unto the soul; takes away the life, many are slain by it; so the Targum, “and now behold the sword killeth among the people;” great slaughter is made by it. L’Empereurf93 observes that the word here used signifies, in the Arabic language, to educate or bring up; and then the sense is, “ah, Lord, thou hast brought up this people with great tenderness, and promised them all manner of happiness; but now thou thunderest out threatenings of calamities of all sorts, and death itself; and assigned a place for the sword to enter into their very souls;” so the Arabic word <Arabic> used in the version of (<442202>Acts 22:2 <540406>1 Timothy 4:6).
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