Jeremiah 6:30

Reprobate silver shall men call them, because the LORD hath rejected them.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(30) Reprobate silver.—Better, as in the margin, refuse silver; the dross and not the metal; so worthless that even Jehovah, as the great refiner, rejects it utterly, as yielding nothing. The adjective and the verb have in the Hebrew the emphasis of being formed from the same root, Refuse silver . . . because Jehovals had refused them.

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

Reprobate - See the margin; not really silver, but the dross.

The Lord hath rejected them - This then is the end. The smelter is God's prophet: the bellows the breath of inspiration: the flux his earnestness in preaching. But in vain does the fervour of prophecy essay to melt the hearts of the people. They are so utterly corrupt, that no particle even of pure metal can be found in them. All the refiner's art is in vain. They have rejected all God's gifts and motives for their repentance, and therefore Yahweh has rejected them as an alloy too utterly adulterate to repay the refiner's toil.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

30. Reprobate—silver so full of alloy as to be utterly worthless (Isa 1:22). The Jews were fit only for rejection.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Reprobate silver; or, Refuse silver; such as will be rejected in payments; they are not to be purged or reformed.

Shall men call them; or, be called, i.e. they shall be esteemed such as will not pass for current before God or good men, Lamentations 3:45.

Because the Lord hath rejected them; the prophet gives the reason of their being accounted such refuse stuff, viz. because God, who knew their hypocrisy in boasting of themselves, had rejected them, Lamentations 5:22; therefore every one else would.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Reprobate silver shall men call them,.... Or, "call ye them" (i), as the Targum; so the Septuagint, Vulgate Latin, and Arabic versions; by whom are meant the Jews, who thought themselves of some account, as silver; being the seed of Abraham, and having the law, the covenant and promises, and service of God; when those that tried them, as the prophets, found them to be nothing but dross; and therefore, if they must be called silver, they could call them no other than reprobate silver; or what is of no account and value; and which is confirmed by the following reason, which contains the judgment and conduct of him that cannot err:

for the Lord hath rejected them; from being his people; and therefore cast them out of their own land, and caused them to go into captivity.

(i) , "vocate eos": V. L. Pagninus.

Geneva Study Bible

Reprobate silver shall men call them, because the LORD hath rejected them.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

30. Refuse … rejected] There is a play on the words in the Hebrew. Refuse—refused.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 30. - Reprobate silver... rejected them; rather, refuse silver (as the margin)... refused them. The verbal root is the same.



Jeremiah 6:30

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The final statement of the case: They call them (the whole people) rejected silver, i.e., they are recognised as such; for Jahveh has rejected them, has given over trying to make anything of them.