Jeremiah 13:22

This will befall the daughter of Zion for her sore transgressions. Therefore will she be covered with scorn and shame. The manner of her dishonour, discovery of the skirts (here and esp. in Jer 13:26), recalls Nah 3:5, cf. Isa 47:3; Hos 2:5. Chr. B. Mich. and others understand the violent treatment of the heels to be the loading of the feet with chains; but the mention of heels is not in keeping with this. Still less can the exposure of the heels by the upturning of the skirts be called maltreatment of the heels; nor can it be that, as Hitz. holds, the affront is simply specialized by the mention of the heels instead of the person. The thing can only mean, that the person will be driven forth into exile barefoot and with violence, perhaps under the rod; cf. Psa 89:52.

Here is, I. Ruin threatened as before, that the Jews shall go into captivity, and fall under all the miseries of beggary and bondage, shall be stripped of their clothes, their skirts discovered for want of upper garments to cover them, and their heels made bare for want of shoes, Jer 13:22. Thus they used to deal with prisoners taken in war, when they drove them into captivity, naked and barefoot, Isa 20:4. Being thus carried off into a strange country, they shall be scattered there, as the stubble that is blown away by the wind of the wilderness, and nobody is concerned to bring it together again, Jer 13:24. If the stubble escape the fire, it shall be carried away by the wind. If one judgment do not do the work, another shall, with those that by sin have made themselves as stubble. They shall be stripped of all their ornaments and exposed to shame, as harlots that are carted, Jer 13:26. They made their pride appear, but God will make their shame appear; so that those who have doted on them shall be ashamed of them. II. An enquiry made by the people into the cause of this ruin, Jer 13:22. Thou wilt say in thy heart (and God knows how to give a proper answer to what men say in their hearts, though they do not speak it out; Jesus, knowing their thoughts, replied to them, Mat 9:4), Wherefore came these things upon me? The question is supposed to come into the heart, 1. Of a sinner quarrelling with God and refusing to receive correction. They could not see that they had done any thing which might justly provoke God to be thus angry with them. They durst not speak it out; but in their hearts they thus charged God with unrighteousness, if he had laid upon them more than was meet. They seek for the cause of their calamities, when, if they had not been willfully blind, they mig…