Jeremiah 6:11

Therefore I am full of the fury of the LORD; I am weary with holding in: I will pour it out upon the children abroad, and upon the assembly of young men together: for even the husband with the wife shall be taken, the aged with him that is full of days.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(11) I am full of the fury . . .—The prophet feels himself filled, frail vessel as he is, with the righteous wrath of Jehovah. It will not be controlled.

I will pour it out.—Better, as the command coming from the mouth of Jehovah, Pour it out. The words that follow describe the several stages of man’s life, upon all of which that torrent of wrath is to flow forth—the children abroad, i.e., playing in the streets (as in Zechariah 8:5); the assembly, or gathering of young men, whether in their natural mirth (Jeremiah 15:17) or for secret plans (Proverbs 15:22); the husband and wife in full maturity; the “aged,” i.e., the elder, still active as well as venerable; lastly, the man “full of days,” whose time is nearly over and his sand run out.

Benson Commentary

Jeremiah 6:11-12. Therefore I am full of the fury — את חמת, the anger, or wrath, as it should rather have been rendered; of the Lord — An expression which is to be understood of that divine justice which is worthy of God, and which inflicts most heavy, and yet most just, punishment on the obstinately wicked, after having a long time waited for their repentance. I am weary with holding in — Or, as the words may be rendered, I have laboured to hold it in. They are the words of the prophet, who was unwilling to declare to the people the avenging justice which was ready to fall upon them. I will pour it out — The word in the Hebrew, שׁפךְ, is imperative, Pour it out: God, as it seems, commanding his prophet not to delay to denounce his judgments, about to be inflicted on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, of all ages and orders. The prophets are said to do things, when they declare God’s purpose of doing them, as hath been observed on Jeremiah 1:10; upon the children abroad — Or, in the streets, where they are wont to play: the sword of the merciless Chaldeans shall not spare them, Jeremiah 9:21. The children perish in the calamity, which the sins of their fathers have procured. And upon the assembly of young men — Who meet together for diversion or conversation. The husband with the wife shall be taken — One sex, as well as the other, shall be a prey to the enemy. The aged with him that is full of days — From hence it appears, says Blaney, that the word, זקן, here and elsewhere rendered aged, “means only a man that has passed a certain time of life, which may be considered as his zenith, so as from thenceforth to be upon the decline. In contradistinction to whom is placed one who is arrived at what is esteemed the full period of human life; in respect to which the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, David, and Job, are said to have died full of years, or days. See the same distinction made Isaiah 65:20.” No age or condition shall escape. And their houses shall be turned unto others, &c. — According to the threatening denounced by Moses, Deuteronomy 28:30.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

6:9-17 When the Lord arises to take vengeance, no sinners of any age or rank, or of either sex escape. They were set upon the world, and wholly carried away by the love of it. If we judge of this sin by God's word, we find multitudes in every station and rank given up to it. Those are to be reckoned our worst and most dangerous enemies, who flatter us in a sinful way. Oh that men would be wise for their souls! Ask for the old paths; the way of godliness and righteousness has always been the way God has owned and blessed. Ask for the old paths set forth by the written word of God. When you have found the good way, go on in it, you will find abundant recompence at your journey's end. But if men will not obey the voice of God and flee to his appointed Refuge, it will plainly appear at the day of judgment, that they are ruined because they reject God's word.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Or, But I am filled with "the fury of Yahweh: I am weary with holding" it "in." Pour it out "upon the children" in the street, and upon the company of youths "together;" for both man and "wife shall be taken;" the older and he whose days are full. With emphatic abruptness Jeremiah bids himself give full utterance to God's message. And the message is to reach all. Five stages of human life are successively marked out.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

11. fury of … Lord—His denunciations against Judah communicated to the prophet.

weary with holding in—(Jer 20:9).

I will pour—or else imperative: the command of God (see Jer 6:12), "Pour it out" [Maurer].

aged … full of days—The former means one becoming old; the latter a decrepit old man [Maurer] (Job 5:26; Isa 65:20).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Therefore. Heb. And; which seems to be a better connexion; for that which putteth him upon this work seems rather to be that Spirit of prophecy that is in him than any consideration drawn from them.

I am full of the fury of the Lord; I am, as it were, filled with the fire of God’s wrath and curses against this people, which I am forced to discharge myself of; a metonymy of the subject. See Ezekiel 3:3 Jeremiah 4:19. He doth not only complain of their stupidity, as in the former verse, but stirs up his indignation against them.

I am weary with holding in; but he can contain himself no longer, which implies his great unwillingness to denounce these curses: q.d. The wrath of God, by the impulse of his Spirit, acting so violently with mine, that it will break out: see the like Job 32:18,19. Whereby it appears the prophet is not carried on by his own private spirit, but by the Spirit of God; he hath no delight in it, but is forced to be the messenger himself of his wrath; therefore if he be sharp against them, they must not impute; it to him, but to the Spirit of God, that constrains him thus to speak.

I will pour it out, viz. in prophesying, noting the great plenty of it; a metaphor from violent rains, that we say do pour down upon the earth, Jeremiah 7:20 Revelation 16:1.

Upon the children abroad; the streets being the places where usually little children are wont to sport themselves, Zechariah 8:5. The same word used Psalm 8:2.

Upon the assembly of young men together; their secret meetings, whether in harlots’ houses, Jeremiah 5:7, or for mirth and jollity, or to join either their strength or counsel together, which children are not capable of; for the Hebrews do not only call them youths that are past their childhood, possibly at fifteen or sixteen years of age, but men of twenty or thirty, grown to their full strength and maturity, in the flower of their years; yet it shall advantage them nothing.

The husband with the wife, Heb. man with woman; the wife shall be taken as well as the husband, one sex as well as the other shall be a prey to the enemy.

The aged with him that is full of days; not only men that may be termed old, as they may be from fifty to eighty, which are then said to be waxing old; but such as had upon the point filled up the number of their days, at the edge of the grave, Isaiah 65:20, called very aged, as Barzillai, 2 Samuel 19:32,34,35. The sense is, that all sorts, from the children to the decrepit old man, had so corrupted their ways, see Jeremiah 6:13, that their condition was desperate, and God would bring an enemy upon them should spare or pity none, of what sex or age soever.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Therefore I am full of the fury of the Lord,.... Either of zeal for the Lord, for the glory of his name, and the honour of his word; or rather of the prophecy of the Lord, as the Targum interprets it, concerning the wrath of God, that should come upon this people for their sins:

I am weary with holding it; the prophecy, the message he was sent with to them, to pronounce the judgments of God upon them; which being a disagreeable task to him, he refrained from doing it as long as he could; but being highly provoked with the sins of the people, and particularly with their contempt of the word of God, and especially he being obedient to the divine will, he could forbear no longer making a full declaration of it; see Jeremiah 20:9.

I will pour it upon the children abroad; or, "in the street" (u); that are playing there:

and upon the assembly of young men together; that are met together for their pleasure and diversion; and the sense is, that the prophet would declare in a prophetic manner, and denounce, according to his office and commission, the wrath of God, which should come upon persons of every age, and of every relation in life, as follows: though the words may be rendered, "pour it upon the children", &c. (w); and so it is a prayer of the prophet's to the Lord, that he would execute the vengeance on them which he had threatened them with by him:

for even the husband with the wife shall be taken; and carried captive:

the aged with him that is full of days; the old and the decrepit, such as are advanced in years, and also those that are just upon the brink of the grave, ready to die: the meaning is, that children should not be spared for their tender age, nor young men for their strength, nor husbands and wives on account of their relation, nor any because of their hoary hairs; seeing the corruption was so general, and prevailed in persons of every age, and of every station.

(u) "in platea", Montanus, Schmidt. (w) "effunde in puerum", Cocceius; "super infantem", Schmidt; so V. L. "effundere", Montanus.

Geneva Study Bible

Therefore I am full of the fury of the LORD; I am weary with holding in: {l} I will pour it out upon the {m} children abroad, and upon the assembly of young men together: for even the husband with the wife shall be taken, the aged with him that is full of days.

(l) As the Lord had given him his word to be as a fire of his indignation to burn the wicked, Jer 5:14 so he kindles it now when he sees that all remedies are past.

(m) No one will be spared.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

11. Therefore] But.

the fury of the Lord] The wrath which He feels has been infused into me His prophet, that I may make it known to men.

pour it out] LXX (so A.V.) have I will pour, etc. The imperative of MT. is best taken not as a prayer by Jeremiah but as God’s command to the prophet. It is, however, harsh. The declaration is made without distinction of age, because the approaching punishment includes all alike. Five periods of life are mentioned.

in the street] at play. Cp. Zechariah 8:5.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 11. - Therefore I am full; rather, But I am full. I will pour it out. The text has "pour it out." The sudden transition to the imperative is certainly harsh, and excuses the conjectural emendation which underlies the rendering of the Authorized Version. If we retain the imperative, we must explain it with reference to Jeremiah's inner experience. There are, we must remember, two selves in the prophet (comp. Isaiah 21:6), and the higher prophetic self here addresses the lower or human self, and calls upon it no longer to withhold the divinely communicated burden. All classes, as the sequel announces, are to share in the dread calamity. Upon the children abroad; literally, upon the child in the street (comp. Zechariah 8:5). The assembly of young men. It is a social assembly which is meant (comp. Jeremiah 15:17, "the assembly of the laughers"). Jeremiah 6:11

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Well might Jeremiah warn the people once more (cf. Jeremiah 6:8), in order to turn sore judgment away from it; but it cannot and will not hear, for it is utterly hardened. Yet can he not be silent; for he is so filled with the fury of God, that he must pour it forth on the depraved race. This is our view of the progress of the thought in these verses; whereas Hitz. and Graf make what is said in Jeremiah 6:11 refer to the utterance of the dreadful revelation received in Jeremiah 6:9. But this is not in keeping with "testify that they may hear," or with the unmistakeable contrast between the pouring out of the divine fury, Jeremiah 6:11, and the testifying that they may hear, Jeremiah 6:10. Just because their ear is uncircumcised to that they cannot hear, is it in vain to speak to them for the purpose of warning them; and the prophet has no alternative left but to pour out on the deaf and seared people that fury of the Lord with which he is inwardly filled. The question: to whom should I speak? etc. (על for אל, as Psalm 111:2 and often), is not to be taken as a question to God, but only as a rhetorical turn of the thought, that all further speaking or warning is in vain. "Testify," lay down testimony by exhibiting the sin and the punishment it brings with it. "That they may hear," ut audiant, the Chald. has well paraphrased: ut accipiant doctrinam. Uncircumcised is their ear, as it were covered with a foreskin, so that the voice of God's word cannot find its way in; cf. Jeremiah 5:24; Jeremiah 4:4. The second clause, introduced by הנּה, adduces the reason of their not being able to hear. The word of God is become a reproach to them; they are determined not to hearken to it, because it lashes their sins. Jeremiah 6:11 comes in adversatively: But the fury of the Lord drives him to speak. חמת יהוה is not a holy ardour for Jahveh (Graf and many ancient comm.), but the wrath of God against the people, which the prophet cannot contain, i.e., keep to himself, but must pour out. Because they will not take correction, he must inflict the judgment upon them, not merely utter it. The imper. שׁפך is to be taken like השׁב, Jeremiah 6:9, not as an expression of the irresistible necessity which, in spite of all his efforts against it, compels the prophet to pour forth, in a certain sense, the wrath of the Lord on all classes of the people by the very publishing of God's word (Graf); but it is the command of God, to be executed by him, as is shown by "for I stretch out mine hand," Jeremiah 6:12. The prophet is to pour out the wrath of God by the proclamation of God's word, which finds its fulfilment in judgments of wrath; see on Jeremiah 1:10. Upon all classes of the people: the children that play in the street (cf. Jeremiah 9:20), the young men gathered together in a cheerful company, the men and women, old men and them that are full of days, i.e., those who have reached the furthest limit of old age. כּי tells why the prophet is so to speak: for upon the whole population will God's wrath be poured out. ילּכד, not, be taken captive, but, be taken, overtaken by the wrath, as in Jeremiah 8:9; cf. 1 Samuel 14:41.