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 (Jer. 10:1, 2), for their astrology and idolatry are both foolish things (Jer. 10:3-5), and the worshippers of idols brutish, Jer. 10:8, 9. So it will appear in the day of their visitation, Jer. 10:14, 15. They are likewise exhorted to adhere firmly to the God of Israel, for there is none like him, Jer. 10:6, 7. He is the true God, lives for ever, and has the government of the world (Jer. 10:10-13), and his people are happy in him, Jer. 10:16. II. To those that yet remained in their own land. They are cautioned against security, and told to expect distress (Jer. 10:17, 18) and that by a foreign enemy, which God would bring upon them for their sin, Jer. 10:20-22. This calamity the prophet laments (Jer. 10:19) and prays for the mitigation of it, Jer. 10:23-25.