Behold, I am against thee, O inhabitant of the valley, and rock of the plain, saith the LORD; which say, Who shall come down against us? or who shall enter into our habitations?
Though the whole nation was corrupt in the time of the Prophet, yet Jerusalem was the head and seat of all evils, especially as there was there more licentiousness; and then they thought that the Prophets had no liberty there, as though the citizens were, by a peculiar privilege, exempt from all reproof; and, lastly, the very situation of the city gave them courage, for...
By the civil message which the king sent to Jeremiah it appeared that both he and the people began to have a respect for him, which it would have been Jeremiah's policy to make some advantage of for himself; but the reply which God obliges him to make is enough to crush the little respect they begin to have for him, and to exasperate them against him more than ever.
Commenting on Jeremiah 21:8-14
Behold, I am against thee,.... Or, "behold, I unto thee" (s); to be supplied either thus, "behold, I say unto thee" (t); what follows; and therefore take notice of it, attend unto it: or, "behold, I come unto thee" (u); who bid defiance to all their enemies to come near them, as in the latter part of the verse.