13 The prophets shall become wind, and the word is not in them. Thus shall it be done to them."
*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.
The Prophet goes on with the same subject; and this passage is worthy of especial notice, as it commends to us in no common way the public preaching of the truth. For what can be imagined more abominable than to deny God? yet if his word is not allowed to have authority, it is the same as though its despisers attempted to thrust God from heaven, or denied his existence. We hence see how the majesty of God is, as it were, indissolubly connected with the public preaching of his truth. The design of this verse is the same, in which Jeremiah refers to the contempt manifested by the people. He introduces the Jews as saying, The prophets shall become wind, there is not in them the word, and the evil with which they have threatened us, shall come upon their own heads It may have been, that the Jews did not openly give vent to such a blasphemous language; but so gross was the contempt they shewed towards the prophets, that this impiety was sufficiently conspicuous in their whole life. It was not then without reason that the Prophet charged them with so base an impiety, that they said, that the prophets would become wind. The same is the case now; the greater part, when God thunders and gives proofs of his vengeance by his servants, ridicule everything, and heedlessly cast away every fear, -- "Oh, they are mere words; for the preachers fulminate boldly and terribly in the pulpit; but the whole vanishes, and whatever they denounce on us will fall on their own heads." We see at this day that many ungodly and profane men use such a bantering language as this. Though it might not have been, as I have said, that the Jews dared thus openly to shew their contempt towards God; yet the Holy Spirit, who extends his authority over the hearts, minds, and feelings of men, justly charged them with this gross impiety. It may also be learnt from other places, that they made such advances in audacity, that they hesitated not to treat with scoffs the threatenings announced by the prophets. However this may have been, the Prophet sets forth by a striking representation how great was the contemptuous perverseness of the people towards God: for there is here a vivid description, by which he sets as it were before our eyes how impious the Jews had become; inasmuch as they dared openly to assault the prophets and willfully to charge them with declaring what was vain, The prophets, they said, shall become wind; and farther, There is not in them the word By these words the Jews denied that the prophets were to be believed, however they might pretend God's name, for they boasted falsely that this or that was committed to them from above. Thus it was, as we see, that every instruction was trodden under foot, and the same we find to be the case in the present day; for what reverence is manifested anywhere for God's word? This passage then ought to be especially noticed by us; for it shews as in a mirror to what extent of audacity and madness men will break forth when they begin to discredit God's word. They afterwards add, Thus shall it be done to them; or, "May it be thus done to them;" for some regard the words as an imprecation, as though the wicked had said, "Let the prophets find to their own destruction what the sword, the famine, and the pestilence are; as they cease not continually to stun our ears with these terrible things, may they themselves experience these scourges of God." But we may retain the form of the verb, Thus shall it be done to them; [1] as though they set themselves in opposition to God's servants, and pretended that they were God's prophets, "Oh! we have a prophecy too: they terrify us by announcing the sword, the famine, and the pestilence; we can in our turn retaliate on them, and declare that the pestilence, the war, and the famine are nigh them; for what authority have they thus to assail us? Have we not authority to do the same to them?" We now then perceive what is meant in this last clause. It now follows --
1 - This sentence is left out in the Septuagint, the Syriac, and the Arabic, but retained by the Vulgate, -- "Haec ergo evenient illis -- These things shall therefore come to them." This meaning the original will hardly bear. The reference seems to be to the Prophets becoming wind, being so proved by the event. -- Ed
Word - Rather, speaker. Literally, And he who speaketh is not in them, i. e., there is no one who speaketh in them; what the prophets say has no higher authority than themselves.
Thus - i. e., May the evil which the prophets threaten fall upon their head.
And the prophets shall become wind - What are the prophets?
Empty persons. Their words are wind; we hear the sound of their threatening but of the matter of the threatenings we shall hear no more.
And the word is not in them - There is no inspirer, but may their own predictions fall on their own heads! This seems the natural sense of this passage.
And the prophets shall become (l) wind, and the word [is] (m) not in them: thus shall it be done to them.
(l) Their words will be of no effect, but vain.
(m) They are not sent from the Lord, and therefore that which they threaten to us will come on them.
And the prophets shall become wind,.... Their prophecies shall vanish into air; they shall become of no effect; they shall never be accomplished:
and the word is not in them; not the word of the Lord; he never spoke by them; they speak of themselves; they never were inspired or commissioned by him to say what they do: thus shall it be done unto them; the same evils they say shall befall us shall come upon them; they shall perish by the sword or famine; we have reason to believe that our predictions are as good as theirs, and will be fulfilled: or, "thus let it be done to them" (y); as they have prophesied shall be done to us; and so are an imprecation. The Targum interprets the whole of the false prophets, as if they were the words of the Lord concerning them, which is,
"but the false prophets shall be for nothing, and their false prophecy shall not be confirmed; this revenge shall be taken of them;''
and so Kimchi interprets it of the prophets that prophesied peace to them, and said that the above mentioned should not come upon them; and Jarchi takes the last clause to be the words of the prophet to them that say the above words; namely, that thus it shall be done to them, what the Lord has said.
(y) "sic fiat illis"; so some in Vatablus; "sic eveniat ipsis", Cocceius.
Continuation of the unbelieving language of the Jews.
the prophets--who prophesy punishment coming on us.
the word--the Holy Spirit, who speaks through true prophets, is not in them [MAURER]. Or else, "There is no word (divine communication) in them" (Hosea 1:2) [ROSENMULLER].
thus, &c.--Their ill-omened prophecies shall fall on themselves.
Became wind - A proverbial expression, all the prophet's threats shall come to nothing. The word - The prophet's words are not from God. Thus - It shall fall upon their own heads that have thus threatened us.
*More commentary available at chapter level.