Or, But I am filled with "the fury of Yahweh: I am weary with holding" it "in." Pour it out "upon the children" in the street, and upon the company of youths "together;" for both man and "wife shall be taken;" the older and he whose days are full. With emphatic abruptness Jeremiah bids himself give full utterance to God's message. And the message is to reach all. Five stages of human life are successively marked out.

I am full of the fury of the Lord - God has given me a dreadful revelation of the judgments he intends to inflict: my soul is burdened with this prophecy. I have endeavored to suppress it; but I must pour it forth upon the children, on the young people, on husbands and wives, on the old and the super-annuated. All must partake in these judgments.

Therefore I am full of the fury of the Lord,.... Either of zeal for the Lord, for the glory of his name, and the honour of his word; or rather of the prophecy of the Lord, as the Targum interprets it, concerning the wrath of God, that should come upon this people for their sins:

I am weary with holding it; the prophecy, the message he was sent with to them, to pronounce the judgments of God upon them; which being a disagreeable task to him, he refrained from doing it as long as he could; but being highly provoked with the sins of the people, and particularly with their contempt of the word of God, and especially he being obedient to the divine will, he could forbear no longer making a full declaration of it; see Jeremiah 20:9.

I will pour it upon the children abroad; or, "in the street" (u); that are playing there:

and upon the assembly of young men together; that are met together for their pleasure and diversion; and the sense is, that the prophet would declare in a prophetic manner, and denounce, according to his office and commission, the wrath of God, which should come upon persons of every age, and of every relation in life, as follows: though the words may be rendered, "pour it upon the children", &c. (w); and so it is a prayer of the prophet's to the Lord, that he would execute the vengeance on them which he had threatened them with by him:

for even the husband with the wife shall be taken; and carried captive:

the aged with him that is full of days; the old and the decrepit, such as are advanced in years, and also those that are just upon the brink of the grave, ready to die: the meaning is, that children should not be spared for their tender age, nor young men for their strength, nor husbands and wives on account of their relation, nor any because of their hoary hairs; seeing the corruption was so general, and prevailed in persons of every age, and of every station.

(u) "in platea", Montanus, Schmidt. (w) "effunde in puerum", Cocceius; "super infantem", Schmidt; so V. L. "effundere", Montanus.

Therefore I am full of the fury of the LORD; I am weary with holding in: {l} I will pour it out upon the {m} children abroad, and upon the assembly of young men together: for even the husband with the wife shall be taken, the aged with him that is full of days.

(l) As the Lord had given him his word to be as a fire of his indignation to burn the wicked, Jer 5:14 so he kindles it now when he sees that all remedies are past.

(m) No one will be spared.

6:11 I am full - I am, as it were, filled with the fire of God's wrath, which I am forced to discharge myself of. Abroad - The streets being the places where children are wont to sport. The husband - One sex as well as the other, shall be a prey to the enemy. Full of days - Such as had filled up the number of their days, as were at the edge of the grave.

11. fury of . Lord-His denunciations against Judah communicated to the prophet.

weary with holding in-(Jer 20:9).

I will pour-or else imperative: the command of God (see Jer 6:12), "Pour it out" [Maurer].

aged . full of days-The former means one becoming old; the latter a decrepit old man [Maurer] (Job 5:26; Isa 65:20).

6:9-17 When the Lord arises to take vengeance, no sinners of any age or rank, or of either sex escape. They were set upon the world, and wholly carried away by the love of it. If we judge of this sin by God's word, we find multitudes in every station and rank given up to it. Those are to be reckoned our worst and most dangerous enemies, who flatter us in a sinful way. Oh that men would be wise for their souls! Ask for the old paths; the way of godliness and righteousness has always been the way God has owned and blessed. Ask for the old paths set forth by the written word of God. When you have found the good way, go on in it, you will find abundant recompence at your journey's end. But if men will not obey the voice of God and flee to his appointed Refuge, it will plainly appear at the day of judgment, that they are ruined because they reject God's word.