16. I will scatter them also among the heathen, whom neither they nor their fathers have known; and I will send a sword after them, till I have consumed them.

16. Et dispergam eos inter gentes, quas non noverunt ipsi, neque patres eorum, et mittam post eos gladium, donec consumpsero ipsos.

As he had said that the Jews were following what theyhad received from their fathers,so he says now that God would scatter them among nations,which had been unknown to them and to their fathers. He then alludes to their mischievous tradition; for the fathers had imbued their children with ungodly errors, and had withdrawn them from God, that their doctrine might become altogether familiar to them. There is then a contrast to be noticed between the knowledge with which the fathers had inebriated their children, and their ignorance of the language of the nations.

And then as he had said, that they were walking after the hardness of their own heart and after Baalim, he says, I will send a sword after them We hence see that the Prophet in both clauses alludes to the defection of which he had spoken. And he adds, Until I shall have consumed them; and this is added, that they might not promise themselves a temporary or a moderate chastisement. Jeremiah then declares, that as they had abused God's forbearance, destruction was nigh them, and that God would contimle to consume them, until he had wholly destroyed them. It follows --