Wesley Corpus

The northern iron - As the northern iron and steel is the hardest, and no iron could break that, so God having edged and hardened their enemies, the Chaldeans, all opposition to them would signify nothing. The substance - All thy precious things shall be spoiled, there shall be no price taken for the redemption of them. Thou knowest - My sincerity, or my sufferings. Visit me - With thy love. Thy words - The words which from time to time thou didst reveal to me, were by me greedily digested. I am called - I became a prophet by thy authority, therefore, do thou own and defend me. I sat not - God had all along filled his mouth with such dreadful messages, that his whole prophetical life had been to him a time of mourning and solitude, a time when he sat alone, mourning and weeping in secret for the wrath of God revealed to him against his people. Why - Jeremiah, though a great prophet, was (as Elijah) a man subject to like passions with other men. If thou - These are God's words to the prophet, rebuking his distrust in God, and promising him, that if he did return from his distrust in God's providence, he would restore him to the former favour he had with him, and he should be his prophet to reveal his mind to the people; and that if he would separate the precious truths of God from the vile conceits of men, then God would continue him as his prophet, to speak in his name to the people. But - He charges the prophet to keep his ground, and not to go over to wicked men. The wicked - The wicked Jews. The terrible - And the power of the terrible Chaldeans.