3 My mountain in the field, I will give your substance and all your treasures for a spoil, (and) your high places, because of sin, throughout all your borders.
*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.
The Prophet again repeats, that punishment was nigh the Jews, and that it availed them nothing to seek for themselves recesses and lurking-places, for God would draw them forth from the mountains and expose them as a prey to their enemies. Some render hrry, erri, "O my mountain," etc.; and at the first view this meaning seems appropriate; but as the context requires this to be understood of the Israelites and the Jews, who always resorted to their recesses, when any fear of enemies assailed them, I prefer another rendering. Since then at times of distress they betook themselves to their hiding-places, the Prophet says, that they would in vain attempt to escape, for the mountains would be like the fields: I will expose, he says, as in the field, or the plain, your riches and treasures, that they may become a prey to your enemies. The meaning is, that the Prophet denounces vengeance on the Jews, and at the same time shakes off their foolish confidence, which rendered them secure, so as to despise all the threatenings of God: "Ye think," he says, "that there will be a safe refuge for you on the mountains; but God will draw forth from thence all your possessions, and expose them on the open field, so that they may become an easy prey." He again repeats what he had said, that God would inflict a just punishment on the Jews, because they had sinned very greatly on their high places. By high places he doubtless means all their ungodly and corrupt modes of worship. For God had chosen for himself a Temple on Mount Sion; he designed sacrifices to be offered there: but they, carried away by a foolish zeal, had built for thenlselves many altars, so that there was no hill where they had not set up some altar or another. By stating then a part for the whole, the Prophet here refers to every thing that was inconsistent with the law of God: and in order to amplify their sin, he says, In all thy borders; that is, their impiety was widely and extensively diffused, so that no part of the land was free from their corrupt superstition. Since then the land was throughout contaminated, justly does the Prophet say, "In all thy borders;" he declares that there would be no refuge for them, to preserve them and their treasures from becoming a prey to their enemies. It follows --
O my mountain in the field - i. e., Jerusalem or Zion, called the Rock of the Plain in Jeremiah 21:13. "The field" is the open unenclosed country, here contrasted with the privileged height of Zion.
Or sin - i. e., because of thy sin.
O my mountain in the field - The prophet here addresses the land of Judea, which was a mountainous country, Deuteronomy 3:25; but Jerusalem itself may be meant, which is partly built upon hills which, like itself, are elevated above the rest of the country.
(e) O my mountain in the field, I will give thy substance [and] all thy treasures to the spoil, [and] thy high places for sin, throughout all thy borders.
(e) Zion that was my mountain, will now be left as a waste field.
O my mountain in the midst of the field,.... Meaning either the temple, called the mountain of the house, and of the Lord's house, Micah 3:12, or else Jerusalem, which stood on a hill in the midst of a plain, surrounded with fruitful fields and gardens; or in the midst of a land like a field. The Targum is,
"because thou worshippest idols upon the mountains in the field:''
I will give thy substance and all thy treasures to the spoil; all the riches of the city and temple to be the spoil and plunder of the enemy; See Gill on Jeremiah 15:13.
and thy high places for sin, throughout all thy borders. The sense is, that all their substance and treasure throughout their borders, the riches of the whole land, as well as of the city and temple, Jeremiah 15:13 and all their high places throughout the land, which were used for sin, for idolatrous practices, on account thereof, should become the spoil of the enemy.
mountain--Jerusalem, and especially Zion and the temple.
in the field--As Jerusalem was surrounded by mountains (Psalm 125:2), the sense probably is, Ye rely on your mountainous position (Jeremiah 3:23), but I will make "My mountain" to become as if it were in a plain (field), so as to give thy substance an easy prey to the enemy [CALVIN]. "Field" may, however, mean all Judea; it and "My mountain" will thus express the country and its capital. (GESENIUS translates, "together with," instead of "in"; as the Hebrew is translated in Jeremiah 11:19; Hosea 5:6; but this is not absolutely needed), "the substance" of both of which God "will give to the spoil."
thy high places--corresponding in parallelism to "My mountain" (compare Isaiah 11:9), as "all thy borders," to "the field" (which confirms the view that "field" means all Judea).
for sin--connected with high places" in English Version, namely, frequented for sin, that is, for idolatrous sacrifices. But Jeremiah 15:13 makes the rendering probable, "I will give thy substance . . . to . . . spoil . . . on account of thy sin throughout all thy borders."
My mountain - Jerusalem stood at the foot of an hill, and part of it on the side of it, upon the top of which hills, were many pleasant fields.
*More commentary available at chapter level.