Jeremiah 5:29

Shall I not visit for these things? saith the LORD: shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

5:19-31 Unhumbled hearts are ready to charge God with being unjust in their afflictions. But they may read their sin in their punishment. If men will inquire wherefore the Lord doeth hard things unto them, let them think of their sins. The restless waves obeyed the Divine decree, that they should not pass the sandy shores, which were as much a restraint as lofty mountains; but they burst all restraints of God's law, and were wholly gone into wickedness. Neither did they consider their interest. While the Lord, year after year, reserves to us the appointed weeks of harvest, men live on his bounty; yet they transgress against him. Sin deprives us of God's blessings; it makes the heaven as brass, and the earth as iron. Certainly the things of this world are not the best things; and we are not to think, that, because evil men prosper, God allows their practices. Though sentence against evil works is not executed speedily, it will be executed. Shall I not visit for these things? This speaks the certainty and the necessity of God's judgments. Let those who walk in bad ways consider that an end will come, and there will be bitterness in the latter end.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Fatness is admired in the East as a sign of wealth.

They shine - This word is used of the sleekness of the skin, soft and smooth as ivory.

They overpass the deeds of the wicked - literally, "They have overpassed words of wickedness," i. e., they go to excess in wickedness.

Yet they prosper - Or, that they (the orphans) may prosper, enjoy their rights.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

29. (Jer 5:9; Mal 3:5).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

It is expressed as a thing taken for granted, he certainly will. Can I be a God, and wink at such things? It cannot be. See this explained Jeremiah 5:9.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Shall I not visit for these things?.... See Gill on Jeremiah 5:9.

Geneva Study Bible

Shall I not visit for these things? saith the LORD: shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

29. The refrain taken up again from Jeremiah 5:9.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 29. - A repetition of ver. 9 in the manner of a refrain. Jeremiah 5:29

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Jeremiah 5:29 is a refrain-like repetition of Jeremiah 5:9. - The Jeremiah 5:30 and Jeremiah 5:31 are, as Hitz. rightly says, "a sort of epimetrum added after the conclusion in Jeremiah 5:29," in which the already described moral depravity is briefly characterized, and is asserted of all ranks of the people. Appalling and horrible things happen in the land; cf. Jeremiah 2:12; Jeremiah 23:14; Jeremiah 18:13; Hosea 6:10. The prophets prophesy with falsehood, בּשּׁקר, as in Jeremiah 20:6; Jeremiah 29:9; more fully בּשׁמי לשׁקר, Jeremiah 23:25; Jeremiah 27:15. The priests rule על, at their (the prophets') hands, i.e., under their guidance or direction; cf. 1 Chronicles 25:2., 2 Chronicles 23:18; not: go by their side (Ges., Dietr.), for רדה is not: go, march on, but: trample down. My people loves it so, yields willingly to such a lead; cf. Amos 4:5. What will ye do לאחריתהּ, as to the end of this conduct? The suff. faem. with neuter force. The end thereof will be the judgment; will ye be able to turn it away?