23 A God near `am' I -- an affirmation of Jehovah, And not a God afar off?
To the Overseer. -- A Psalm by David. Jehovah, Thou hast searched me, and knowest. Thou -- Thou hast known my sitting down, And my rising up, Thou hast attended to my thoughts from afar. My path and my couch Thou hast fanned, And `with' all my ways hast been acquainted. For there is not a word in my tongue, Lo, O Jehovah, Thou hast known it all! Behind and before Thou hast besieged me, And Thou dost place on me Thy hand. Knowledge too wonderful for me, It hath been set on high, I am not able for it. Whither do I go from Thy Spirit? And whither from Thy face do I flee? If I ascend the heavens -- there Thou `art', And spread out a couch in Sheol, lo, Thee! I take the wings of morning, I dwell in the uttermost part of the sea, Also there Thy hand doth lead me, And Thy right hand doth hold me.
And the servants of the king of Aram said unto him, `Gods of hills `are' their gods, therefore they were stronger than we; and yet, we fight with them in the plain -- are we not stronger than they?
And that which is going up on your mind, It is not at all -- in that ye are saying: We will be as the nations, as the families of the lands, To serve wood and stone. I live -- an affirmation of the Lord Jehovah, Do not I, with a strong hand, And with a stretched-out arm, And with fury poured out -- rule over you? And I have brought you forth from the peoples, And assembled you from the lands In which ye have been scattered, With a strong hand and with a stretched-out arm, And with fury poured out. And I have brought you in unto the wilderness of the peoples, And have been judged with you there face to face.
And Jonah riseth to flee to Tarshish from the face of Jehovah, and goeth down `to' Joppa, and findeth a ship going `to' Tarshish, and he giveth its fare, and goeth down into it, to go with them to Tarshish from the face of Jehovah. And Jehovah hath cast a great wind on the sea, and there is a great tempest in the sea, and the ship hath reckoned to be broken;
And there cometh nigh a man of God, and speaketh unto the king of Israel, and saith, `Thus said Jehovah, Because that the Aramaeans have said, God of hills `is' Jehovah, and He `is' not God of valleys -- I have given the whole of this great multitude into thy hand, and ye have known that I `am' Jehovah.'
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Commentary on Jeremiah 23 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 23
In this chapter the prophet, in God's name, is dealing his reproofs and threatenings,
When all have thus corrupted their way they must all expect to be told faithfully of it.
Jer 23:1-8
Jer 23:9-32
Here is a long lesson for the false prophets. As none were more bitter and spiteful against God's true prophets than they, so there were none on whom the true prophets were more severe, and justly. The prophet had complained to God of those false prophets (ch. 14:13), and had often foretold that they should be involved in the common ruin; but here they have woes of their own.
Jer 23:33-40
The profaneness of the people, with that of the priests and prophets, is here reproved in a particular instance, which may seem of small moment in comparison of their greater crimes; but profaneness in common discourse, and the debauching of the language of a nation, being a notorious evidence of the prevalency of wickedness in it, we are not to think it strange that this matter was so largely and warmly insisted upon here. Observe,