We may conjecture that the prophecy of this chapter was delivered after the first captivity, in the time of Jeconiah or Jehoiachin, when many were carried away to Babylon; for it has a double reference:--I. To those that were carried away into the land of the Chaldeans, a country notorious above any other for idolatry and superstition; and they are here cautioned against the infection of the place, not to learn the way of the heathen (ver. 1, 2), for their astrology and idolatry are both foolish things (ver. 3-5), and the worshippers of idols brutish, ver. 8, 9. So it will appear in the day of their visitation, ver. 14, 15. They are likewise exhorted to adhere firmly to the God of Israel, for there is none like him, ver. 6, 7. He is the true God, lives for ever, and has the government of the world (ver. 10-13), and his people are happy in him, ver. 16. II. To those that yet remained in their own land. They are cautioned against security, and told to expect distress (ver. 17, 18) and that by a foreign enemy, which God would bring upon them for their sin, ver. 20-22. This calamity the prophet laments (ver. 19) and prays for the mitigation of it, ver. 23-25.
Solemn Charge to Israel; The Folly of Idolatry. (b. c. 606.)