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The writings of the prophets are often as much historic as they are prophetic; historic of personal as well as national experiences, of inward thoughts and emotions as of outward incidents. In tracing the current of events, the writers disclose the workings of their own spirits, and in expounding and vindicating God's ways with Israel or with other nations, they indicate the method of his dealings with themselves. This was singularly true of Jeremiah, and we have here a striking illustration of it. This passage probably marks the time when the people of his own native city of Anathoth, and even his kindred, his "brethren of the house of his father," could no longer bear his faithful rebukes, and he was compelled to take refuge in Jerusalem (Jeremiah 11:21; Jeremiah 12:6). Consider

(1) the prophet's state of mind as here made manifest;

(2) the meaning and force of God's remonstrance.

I. THE PROPHET'S STATE OF MIND. It contains a singular mixture of good and evil, thoughts and emotions both noble and base. So conflicting and even contradictory sometimes are the voices of the truest human heart. This outburst of hostility from the men of Anathoth has plunged his spirit in confusion. Like a ship checked in its course, with its sails taken aback by a sudden squall, its guiding principles and powers are for a while disturbed, and its balance lost. Note different elements of feeling.

1. Deep perplexity. He cannot reconcile the events that are taking place and the seeming prosperity of the wicked with the known rectitude of the Divine character. "Righteous art thou, O Lord; ... yet let me talk with thee of thy judgments," etc. Why this "yet '? If he is thus convinced of God's righteousness, why this wish to reason with him? There is a conflict between unbelief and faith, between the disposition to judge by sensible appearances and the desire to judge by eternal principles. And the difficulty is aggravated by the fact that the designs of the wicked seem to succeed because God smiles on them. "Thou hast planted them, etc." This fact of successful wickedness under the wing of a Divine Providence is the deep and awful mystery that has been a source of perplexity and trouble to thoughtful men in every age. David felt the full force of it (Psalm 73.). His "feet had well-nigh slipped" because of it, "until he went into the sanctuary of God," and then the problem was solved. It is when we get away from our carnal reasonings into the sanctuary of spiritual contemplation and the realm of faith that we can alone hope to understand these things. When God's ways most perplex and confound us we must keep fast hold of right thoughts about himself. His judgments are a mighty deep. But as beneath the heaving, storm-tossed ocean there lie great mountains of the solid world, so does God's righteousness underlie all the agitations and conflicting phases of human history. Faith in that will give us rest and peace.

2. The sense of his own rectitude. "But thou, O Lord, knowest me," etc. This is not the utterance of vain self-righteousness. A "conscience void of offense," the persuasion that our purpose is pure and our hearts right with God, is never to be con founded with spiritual pride. Without a shadow of vain-glory you may know well that you are better than many around you, and could not do as they do. There are times in a man's history when nothing but the sense of personal rectitude can sustain him. When calamity comes upon him, when he falls, perhaps, from some high position and is cast forth upon the world homeless and friendless, what a bitter ingredient in his cup is an accusing conscience! On the other hand, he may defy everything to rob him of his peace, and, like Job, may preserve his soul in serenity in spite of blighted hopes and withered joys, a taunting world and scornful friends, if he can say, "My witness is in heaven, and my record is on high" (Job 16:19).

3. The spirit of revenge. "Pull them out," etc. He would fain antedate the day of slaughter. This may have been an unguarded, momentary outburst of impatient resentment. But it was none the less evil and irreligious. Why was he rebuked for it if it were not wrong? (Similar examples in Moses, Elijah, Jonah, the disciples James and John.) Let us beware how we take God's judgments into our own hands. "Vengeance belongeth unto me; I will recompense, saith the Lord" (Romans 12:19). Never let us speak as if the punishment of the wicked, which is the Lord's "strange work," were regarded, by us with complacency.

4. Human sympathy. "How long shall the land mourn, etc.? The prophet is true to himself here. He grieves for the misery inflicted on the innocent by the wrong-doing of others. The humane heart groans with the "groaning creation," and sighs for the time when all shall be renewed. He who" endured the contradiction of sinners against himself" teaches us to take upon ourselves, as he did, the sins and sorrows of the world.

II. THE DIVINE REMONSTRANCE. "If thou hast run with the footmen," etc. (For explanation of these references, see Exposition.) There is extreme gentleness in this rebuke. It is interesting to note how uniformly gentle the reproofs God administered to the prophets were. Two things are noticeable in this remonstrance.

1. It refers to Jeremiah's want of courage, and says nothing about his mental perplexity. We are reminded that the best cure for our morbid conditions of thought and feeling is that we should brace up the energies of our soul to bear whatever Providence may see fit to lay upon us, and valiantly to contend for the cause of truth and goodness in the face of all opposition.

2. It speaks of severer trials that are in store for him in the future. Life is for us all a course of Divine discipline, in which all lesser tests of faith and fortitude are intended to prepare us for sterner conflicts and nobler victories. - W.

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KJV: Righteous art thou, O LORD, when I plead with thee: yet let me talk with thee of thy judgments: Wherefore doth the way of the wicked prosper? wherefore are all they happy that deal very treacherously?

WEB: You are righteous, Yahweh, when I contend with you; yet I would reason the cause with you: why does the way of the wicked prosper? why are all they at ease who deal very treacherously?