Jeremiah 6:19

Hear, O earth: behold, I will bring evil upon this people, even the fruit of their thoughts, because they have not hearkened unto my words, nor to my law, but rejected it.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

6:18-30 God rejects their outward services, as worthless to atone for their sins. Sacrifice and incense were to direct them to a Mediator; but when offered to purchase a license to go on in sin, they provoke God. The sins of God's professing people make them an easy prey to their enemies. They dare not show themselves. Saints may rejoice in hope of God's mercies, though they see them only in the promise: sinners must mourn for fear of God's judgments, though they see them only in the threatenings. They are the worst of revolters, and are all corrupters. Sinners soon become tempters. They are compared to ore supposed to have good metal in it, but which proves all dross. Nothing will prevail to part between them and their sins. Reprobate silver shall they be called, useless and worthless. When warnings, corrections, rebukes, and all means of grace, leave men unrenewed, they will be left, as rejected of God, to everlasting misery. Let us pray, then, that we may be refined by the Lord, as silver is refined.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The fathers understood this to be the decree rejecting the Jews from being the Church.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

19. (Isa 1:2).

fruit of … thoughts—(Pr 1:31).

nor to my law, but rejected it—literally, "and (as to) My law they have rejected it." The same construction occurs in Ge 22:24.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Hear, O earth; the inhabitants of the earth; or else God having spoken to the rational, he now speaks to the very senseless creatures to observe his proceedings, Ezekiel 36:4.

I will bring evil; the Chaldean army, with all the direful effects of it. The fruit of their thoughts: q.d. They may thank themselves for what is come upon them, being the fruit of all these contrivances and wicked imaginations that their hearts were full of, Proverbs 1:29-31; see Isaiah 59:7 Jeremiah 4:14; by which phrase is also intimated that their sins were not some slight oversights, but meditated and digested wickedness; and therefore God will bring upon them the just punishment for their doings.

My words; those messages that I so frequently and earnestly sent unto them by my prophets, Proverbs 1:24,25.

But rejected it; as it were bidding open defiance to me, scorning to be ruled by me.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Hear, O earth: behold, I will bring evil upon this people,.... The people of the Jews; the evil of punishment, for the evil of sin committed by them; wherefore the earth, and the inhabitants of it, are called upon to bear witness to, the righteousness of such a procedure:

even the fruit of their thoughts; which they thought of, contrived, and devised; which shows that they did not do what they did inadvertently, but with thought and design. Kimchi interprets it of sinful deeds and actions, the fruit of thoughts; but his father, of thoughts themselves. The Talmudists, (y) comment upon it thus,

"a thought which brings forth fruit, the holy blessed God joins it to an action; but a thought in which there is no fruit, the holy blessed God does not join to action;''

that is, in punishment; very wrongly. For the sense is, that God would bring upon them the calamities and distresses their thoughts and the evil counsels of their minds deserved. The Targum renders it,

"the retribution or reward of their works.''

Because they have not hearkened unto my words; spoken to them by the prophets:

nor to my law, but rejected it; neither hearkened to the law, nor to the prophets, but despised both. The Targum is,

"because they obeyed not the words of my servants, the prophets, and abhorred my law.''

(y) T. Bab. Kiddushin, fol. 40. 1.

Geneva Study Bible

Hear, O earth: behold, I will bring evil upon this people, even the fruit of their thoughts, because they have not hearkened unto my words, nor to my law, but rejected it.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

19. The conclusion of the threefold appeal. Thus God pledges Himself as it were in the sight of the whole world, that He will no longer forbear.

the fruit of their thoughts] the results of their rebelliousness. Cp. Proverbs 1:31.

my law] See on Jeremiah 8:8.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 19. - The fruit of their thoughts. That punishment is the ripe fruit of sin, is the doctrine of the Old (Isaiah 3:10; Psalm 58:11, margin) as well as of the New Testament (James 1:15). Jeremiah 6:19

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

In Jeremiah 6:19 the evil is characterized as a punishment drawn down by them on themselves by means of the apposition: fruit of their thoughts. "Fruit of their thoughts," not of their deeds (Isaiah 3:10), in order to mark the hostility of the evil heart towards God. God's law is put in a place of prominence by the turn of the expression: My law, and they spurned at it; cf. Ew. 344, b, with 309, b.