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For I will no more pity - I have determined to deliver them into the hands of the Chaldeans.

For I will no more pity - Therefore were they a “flock of the slaughter,” because God would “have no pity” on those who went after shepherds “who had no Pity” upon them, but corrupted them; who “entered not in themselves, and those who were entering in, they hindered” Luke 11:52.

The inhabitants of the land - “That land, of which he had been speaking,” Judaea. “And lo.” God, by this word, “lo,” always commands heed to His great doings with man; I, I, Myself, visibly interposing, “will deliver man,” the whole race of inhabitants, “every one into his neighbor‘s hand,” by confusion and strife and hatred within, “and into the hand of his king,” him whom they chose and took as their own king, when they rejected Christ as their King, repudiating the title which Pilate gave Him, to move their pity. Whereas He, their Lord and God, was their King, they formally “denied Him in the presence of Pilate, when he was determined to let Him go; they denied the Holy One and the Just” Acts 3:13-14, and said, “We have no king but Caesar” John 19:15.

And they - The king without and the wild savages within, “shall smite,” bruise, crush in pieces, like a broken vessel, “the land, and out of their hand I will not deliver” them. Their captivity shall be without remedy or end. Holy Scripture often says, “there is no deliverer Judges 18:28; 2 Samuel 14:6; Job 5:4; Psalm 7:3; Psalm 50:22; Psalm 71:11; Isaiah 5:29; Isaiah 42:22; Hosea 5:14, Micah 5:7-8, or “none can deliver out of My hand” Deuteronomy 32:39; Job 10:7; Psalm 50:22; Psalm 71:11; Isaiah 43:13; Daniel 8:4, Daniel 8:7, or, since God delighteth in doing good, I Exodus 6:6; 2 Kings 20:6; Jeremiah 15:21; Jeremiah 39:17; Ezekiel 34:27, He 1 Samuel 7:3; Psalm 18:15; Psalm 72:12; 2 Kings 17:39; Isaiah 19:20; Isaiah 31:5; Job 5:19, will deliver, or delivered Exodus 18:10; Joshua 24:10; Judges 6:9; 1 Samuel 10:18; 1 Samuel 14:10; 2 Samuel 22:1; Psalm 34:5, Psalm 34:18; 54:9; Ezra 8:31; Jeremiah 20:13 from the hands of the enemy, or their slavery, or their own fears, or afflictions, or the like. God nowhere else says absolutely as here, “I will not deliver”. “Hear, O Jew,” says Jerome, “who holdest out to thyself hopes most vain, and hearest not the Lord strongly asserting, “I will not deliver them out of their hands,” that thy captivity among the Romans shall have no end.” In the threatened captivity before they were carried to Babylon, the prophet foretold the restoration: here only it is said of Judah, as Hosea had said of lsrael, that there should be no deliverer out of the hand of the king whom they had chosen.

Christ came into this world for judgment to the Jewish church and nation, which were wretchedly corrupt and degenerate. Those have their minds wofully blinded, who do ill, and justify themselves in it; but God will not hold those guiltless who hold themselves so. How can we go to God to beg a blessing on unlawful methods of getting wealth, or to return thanks for success in them? There was a general decay of religion among them, and they regarded it not. The Good Shepherd would feed his flock, but his attention would chiefly be directed to the poor. As an emblem, the prophet seems to have taken two staves; Beauty, denoted the privileges of the Jewish nation, in their national covenant; the other he called Bands, denoting the harmony which hitherto united them as the flock of God. But they chose to cleave to false teachers. The carnal mind and the friendship of the world are enmity to God; and God hates all the workers of iniquity: it is easy to foresee what this will end in. The prophet demanded wages, or a reward, and received thirty pieces of silver. By Divine direction he cast it to the potter, as in disdain for the smallness of the sum. This shadowed forth the bargain of Judas to betray Christ, and the final method of applying it. Nothing ruins a people so certainly, as weakening the brotherhood among them. This follows the dissolving of the covenant between God and them: when sin abounds, love waxes cold, and civil contests follow. No wonder if those fall out among themselves, who have provoked God to fall out with them. Wilful contempt of Christ is the great cause of men's ruin. And if professors rightly valued Christ, they would not contend about little matters.