universally used after verbis dicendi alone, but frequently stands after very various antecedent verbs, in which case it must be very variously expressed in English; <.</. in Josh. xxii. 11 it nomes all'!' ^,:-\ they heard: as follows, or these words; in "J Sam. iii. 12 we have it twice, once after the words, he sent messengers to David t and cause them say to him,:i belong to what precedes, I istitute the beginning of the next discourse (chap, iii.-vi.). rests upon an en \ iew of the train of thought in this.'.. ii meagre BUpport a.- n obtains involves a violation of usage in interpreting »?N 2". nn to me, and needs further the arbitrary critical assertion that the heading in iii. (J: and Jahveh said to me in the days:i put by a copyist in the wrong place, and that it ought to stand before ver. 1. — Nor is there any reason for the assumption of.). D. Mich, and Graf, that at ver. 1 the text has been mutilated, and that by an oversight *7R mrp "CI \T1 has dropped out; and this assumption also contradicts the fact that vers. 1-0 can neither contain nor be^in any new prophetic utterance.
manner analogous to this: he announces to thee, makes known to thee.— The comparison with the divorced wife is su "tested by the law in Dent. xxiv. 1-4. Here it is forbidden that a man shall take in marriage again his divorced wife after she has been married to another, even although she has been separated from her second husband, or even in the case of the death of the latter; and re-marriage of this kind is called an abomination before the Lord, a thing that makes the land sinful. The question, May lie yet return to her? corresponds to the words of the law: her husband may not again (21Bv) take her to be his wife. The making of the land sinful is put by Jer. in stronger words: this land is polluted; making in this an allusion to Lev. xviii. 25, "J 7, where it is said of similar sins of the flesh that they pollute the land.
With "and thou hast whored" comes the application of this law to the people that had by its idolatry broken its marriage vows to its God. HJJ is construed with the accus. as inEzek. xvi. 28. E'>n, comrades in the sense of paramours; cf. Hos. ill - 1. D'Sri, inasmuch as Israel or Judah had intrigued with the gods of many nations. vK iSW) is infin. abs., and the clause is to be taken as a question: and is it to be supposed that thou mayest return to me? The question is marked only by the accent; cf. Ew. § 328, a. and Gesen. § 131, 4, b. Syr., Targ., Jerome, etc. have taken 3i&n as imperative: return again to me; but wrongly, since the continuity is destroyed. This argument is not answered by taking i copuL adversatively with the sig. yet<; it is on the contrary strengthened by this arbitrary interpretation. The call to return to God is incompatible with the reference in ver. 2 to the idolatry which is set before the eyes of the people to show it that God has cause to be wroth. " Look but to the bare-topped hills." DSB^, bald hills and mountains (cf. Isa. xli. 18), were favoured spots for idolatrous worship; cf. Hos. iv. 13. When hast not thou let thyself be ravished? i.e. on all sides. For njw the Masoretes have here and everywhere substituted roW/see Deut. xxviii. 30, Zech. xiv. 2, etc. The word is here used for spiritual ravishment by idolatry; here represented as spiritual fornication. Upon the roads thou sattest, like a prostitute, to entice the passers-by; cf. Gen. xxxvin. 14, Prov. vii. 12. This figure corresponds in actual fact to the erection of idolatrous altars at the corners of tlie streets and at the gates: 2 Kings xxiii. 8; Ezek. xvi. 25. Like an Aral) in the desert, i.e. a Bedouin, who lies in wait for travellers, to plunder them. The Bedouins wore known to the ancients, cf. Diod. Sic. ii. 48, Plin. Hist. Nat. vi. 28, precisely as they are represented to this day by travellers. — By this idolatrous course Israel desecrated the land. The plural form of the Buffix with the singular nui | i be explained by the resemblance borne both in sound and meaning (an abstract) by the termination rw to the plural nl | cf. ver. 8, Zeph. iii. 20, and K\v. § 259, l>. T]n>n refers to the moral enormities bound up with idolatry, e.g. the shedding of innocent blood, ii. 3 The sheddinc of blood is represented as defilement of the land in Num. xxxv. 33. — Ver.."). But the idolatrous race was not to be brought to reflection or turned from its evil ways, even when judgment fell upon it. (> 1 chastised it by withholding the rain, by drought; cf. xiv. 1 ft'., Amos iv. 7 ft'. MW, rain-showers | Deut. xxxii.: a not Stand for the early rain (rr:^), but denotes any fall of rain; and the late rain (shortly before harvest) is mentioned along with it, as in Hos. vi. 3, Zech. x. 1. lint. affliction male no impression. The people persisted in its sinful courses \\ itli unabashed effrontery: v(. \.;;. Ezek. iii. 7 f. — Ver. 4. Henceforward, forsooth, it calls upon its God, and expects that His wrath will abate; but this calling on Him is hut lip-service. for it goes on in its sins, amends not its life, N'Cn, nonni, has usually the i f a confident assurance, introducing in the form of a question that which is held not to he in the least doubtful. ~~ -\ forward, the antithesis to ~"r:. ii. 20, 27, is rightly referred by Chr. B, Mich, to the time of the reformation in public worship, begun by Josiah in the twelfth year of his reign, and finally completed in the eighteenth year, 2 Chron. xxxiv. '.)-■ ( llearly we cannot suppose a reference to distress and anxiety excited by the drought; since, in ver. 3, it is express] v said that this had made no impression on the people. On *3K, cf. ii. 27. njH q&M (cf. Prov. ii. 17), the familiar friend of my youth, is the dear beloved God, i.e. Jahveh, who has espoused Israel when it was a young nation (ii. 2). Of Him it expects that He will not bear a £rud<:e for ever. ItM, "uard, then like Ti-jpelv, cherish ill-will, keep up, used of anger; see on Lev.
*ix. IS, Ps, ciii. 9, etc. A like meaning lias ib^;, to which •>\ iVam, is to supplied from the context; cf. Amos i. 11.— Thus the people speaks, but it dors evil. Wja^ like vwnjj in ver. 4, I pers. inn.: see in ii. 20. Hitz. connects W:m so closely with *JW as to make nijnn the object to the former verb also: thou hast spoken and done the evil; but this is plainly contrary to the context. " Thou speakest" refers to the people's saying quoted in the first half of the verse: Will God be angry for ever? What they do is the contradiction of what they thus say. If the people wishes that God be angry no more, it must give over its evil life, ntynn, not calamity, but misdeeds, as in ii. 33. 'r^n, thou hast managed it, properly mastered, i.e. carried it through; cf. 1 Sam. xxvi. 25, 1 Kings xxii. 22. The form is 2d pers. fern., with the fern, ending dropped on account of the \ar consec. at the end of the discourse; cf. E\v. § 191, b. So long as this is the behaviour of the people, God cannot withdraw His anger.
These four chapters form a lengthy prophetic discourse of the time of Josiah, in which two great truths are developed: that Israel can become a partaker of promised blessing only through conversion to the Lord, and that by perseverance in apostasy it is drawing on itself the judgment of expulsion amongst the heathen. In the first section, chap. iii. 6-iv. 2, we have the fate of the ten tribes displayed to the faithless Judah, and the future reception again and conversion of Israel announced. In the second section, chap. iv. 3-31, the call to Judah to repent is brought home to the people by the portrayal of the judgment about to fall upon the kingdom, the destruction of Jerusalem and the devastation of the land. In the third section, chap, v., a further description is given of the people's persistence in unrighteousness and apostasy. And in the fourth section, chap, vi., the impending judgment and its horrors are yet more fully exhibited to a generation blinded by its selfrighteous confidence in the external performance of the sacrificial worship.
Eichhorn and Hitz. have separated chap. iii. 6-iv. 2 from what follows as being a separate oracle, on tlie ground that at chap. iv. 3 a new series of oracles begins, extending to x. 25. These oracles, they say, " are composed under the impressions created by an invasion of a northern nation, looked for with dread and come at last in reality;" while they find no trace of this invasion in chap. iii. G-iv. 2. This latter section they hold rather to be the completion to chap. ii. 1 — III. 5, seeing that the severe retort (iii. 5) upon repentant Judah is justified here (iii. 10) by the statement that this is no true repentance; that the harsh Baying: thou hast thyself wrought out thy misfortunes, cannot be the prophet's last word; and that the final answer to ■fern D^> in v is not found before D^ TtoH *6 in vex. 12. By Dahler, Umbreit, Neumann, chap. iii. is taken as an independent discourse; but they hold it to extend to iv. 4, because *| in iv.;; cannot introduce a new discourse. The two views are equally untenable. It is impossible that a new discourse should begin with ufor thussaith Jahveh;" and it i^ as impossible that the threatening of judgment beginning with iv. in Jahveh," should be torn apart,
Slated from the call: u plow up a new soil; circumcise the foreskins of your hearts, that my wrath go not forth like fire and burn," etc. (iv. 3, 1). Against the separation and for the unity we have arguments in the absence of any heading and of any n a new commencement in chap, iv., and in the connection of the subject-matter of all the sections of these chapters.1 \\'e have no ground for the disjunction of one part of the discourse from the other in the fact that in chap. iii. 6— iv. '2 apostate Israel (of the ten tribes) is summoned to return to the Lord, and invited to repentance by the promise of acceptance and rich blessing for those who in penitence return again to God; while in iv. 3— vi. the devastation of the land and dispersion amongst the heathen are held out as punishment of a people (Judah) persisting in apostasy (see comment, on iii. »jff.). The supposed connection between the discourse, iii. 6— iv. 2 and ii. 1-iii. 5, is not so close as Hitz. would have
1 By Roscnm. has been justly urged: " Cum nucriptio hie (3, 0) et c. 7, 1, ohvia, qua concionis habitis temptu notatur, turn jnanijesta omnium partimu indU a c.;>. 6, usque o<l finem cap. G cohaerentia, et orationis tenor sine alto interstitio ac aovai eoncionit signo decurrens."
it. The relation of chap. iii. 6 ff. to ii. 1 ff. is not that the prophet desires in chap. iii. 6-iv. 2 to explain or mitigate the harsh utterance in iii. 5, because his own heart could not acquiesce in the thought of the utter rejection of his people, and because the wrath of the seer was here calming down ao-ain. This opinion and the reference of the threatened judgment in chap, iv.-vi. to the Scythians are based on unscriptural views of the nature of prophecy. But even if, in accordance with what has been said, these four chapters form one continuous prophetic discourse, yet we are not justified by the character of the whole discourse as a unity in assuming that Jeremiah delivered it publicly in this form before the people at some particular time. Against this tells the indefiniteness of the date given: in the days of Josiah; and of still greater weight is the transition, which we mark repeated more than once, from the call to repentance and the denunciation of sin, to threatening and description of the judgment about to fall on people and kingdom, city and country; cf. iv. 3 with v. 1 and vi. 1, 16. From this we can see that the prophet continually begins again afresh, in order to bring more forcibly home to the heart what he has already said. The discourse as we have it is evidently the condensation into one uniform whole of a series of oral addresses which had been delivered by Jeremiah in Josiah's times.
Chap. iii. 6-iv. 2. The rejection and restoration of Israel (of the Ten Tribes). — Hgstb. speaks of this passage as the announcement of redemption in store for Israel. And he so speaks not without good cause; for although in iii. 6-9 the subject is the rejection of Israel for its backsliding from the Lord, yet this introduction to the discourse is but the historical foundation for the declaration of good news (iii. 12-iv. 2), that rejected Israel will yet return to its God, and have a share in the glory of the Messiah. From the clearly drawn parallel between Israel and Judah in iii. 8-11 it is certain that the announcement of Israel's redemption can have no other ami than " to wound Judah." The contents of the whole discourse may be summed up in two thoughts: 1. Israel is not to reimim alway rejected, as pharisaic Judah imagined; 2. Judah is not to be alway spared. When Jeremiah entered upon his office
Israel had been in exile for 94 years, and all hope for the restoration of the banished people seemed to have vanished. But Judah, instead of taking warning by the judgment that had fallen upon the ten tribes, and instead of seeing in the downfall of the sister people the prognostication of its own, was only confirmed by it in its delusion, and held its own continued existence to be a token that against it, as the people of God, no judgment of wrath could come. This delusion must be destroyed by the announcement of Israel's future reinstatement.
Vers. 6-10. hraeV* backsliding and rejection a learning for Jvdak.— Ver. 6. "And Jahveh spake to me in the days of King Josiah, Bast thou seen what the backsliding one, Israel, hath done \ she went up on every high mountain, and under every green tree, and played the harlot there. Ver. 7. And I thought: After she hath done all this, she will return to me; but she returned not. An 1 the faithless one, her sister Judah, saw it. Ver. 8, And I saw that, because the backsliding one, Israel, had committed adultery, and I had put her away, and had given her a bill of divorce, yet the faithless one, Judah, her sister, feared not even on this account, an I went and played the harlot also. Ver. 9. And it befell that for the noise of her whoredom the land was defiled, and she committed adultery with stone and wood. Ver. 1". And yet with all this, the faithless one, her sister Judah, turned not to me with her whole heart, but with falsehood, saith Jahveh." The thought of these verses is this: notwithstanding that Judah has before its eyes the lot which Israel (of the ten tribes) has brought on itself by its obdurate apostasy from the covenant God, it will not be moved to true fear of God and real repentance. Viewing idolatry as spiritual whoredom, the prophet developes that tram of thought by representing the two kingdoms as two adulterous sisters, calling the inhabitants of the ten tribes na»D, the backsliding, those of Judah rnfoa, the faithless. On these
names Venema well remarks: " Sorores propter unam eandemque stirpem, wide uterque popidus fuit, et arctam ad se invicem relatione™ appellantur. Utraque fuit adultem propter idololatriam et foederis violationem; sed Israel vocatur uxor aversa; Juda vero perjida, quia Israel non tantum religionis sed et regni et
civitatis respect n, a palam erat a Deo alienata, Juda vero
tdi regni ac religionis adfixa, sed nihilominus a Deo et cultu ejus d ', et sub externa specie populi Dei fcedus ejus
fregerat, quo ipso gravius peccaverat." This representation
Ezekiel has in chap, xxiii. expanded into an elaborate allegory. The epithets —"- and rnfaa or nnn (ver. 11) are coined into proper names. This is shown by their being set without articles before the names; as mere epithets they would stand after the substantives and have the article, since Israel and Judah as being nomm. propr. are definite ideas, rn^p is elsewhere an abstract substantive: apostasy, defection (viii. 5; Hos. xi. 7, etc.), here concrete, the apostate, so-called for her many niz'J'^, ver. 22 and ii. 19. 'TJ^?> the faithless, used of perfidious forsaking of a husband; cf. ver. 20, Mai. ii. 14. K*n rota, going was she, expressing continuance. Cf. the same statement in ii. 20. Wrt, 3d pers. fern., is an Aramaizing form for n;:n or |W?5; cf. Isa. liii. 10. — Ver. 7. And I said, sc. to myself, i.e. I thought. A speaking by the prophets (Rashi) is not to be thought of; for it is no summons, turn again to me, but only the thought, they will return. It is true that God caused backsliding Israel to be ever called again to repentance by the prophets, yet without effect. Meantime, however, no reference is made to what God did in this connection, only Israel's behaviour towards the Lord being here kept in view. The diet. nsini is the later usage; the Keri substitutes the regular contracted form N"irn. The object, it (the whoredom of Israel), may be gathered from what precedes.— Ver. 8. Many commentators have taken objection to the fcHW, because the sentence, "I saw that I had therefore given Israel a bill of divorce," is as little intelligible as " and the faithless- Judah saw it, and I saw it, for," etc. Thus e.g. Graf, who proposes with Ew. and Syr. to read *™, " and she saw," or with Jerome to omit the word from the text. Against both conjectures it is decisive that the LXX. translates nal elSov, and so must have read *n«}. To this we may add, that either the change or the omission destroys the natural relation to one another of the clauses. In either case we would have this connection: " and the faithless one, her sister Judah, saw that, because the backslider Israel had committed adultery, I had put her away...
yet the faithless one feared not." But thus the gist of the thing, what Judah saw, namely, the repudiation of Israel, would be related but cursorily in a subordinate clause, and the 7th verse would be shortened into a half verse; while, on the other hand, the 8th verse would be burdened with an unnaturally long protasis. Kos. is right in declaring any change to be unnecessary, provided the two halves of vers. 7 and 8 are connected in this sense: vidi quod quum adulteratn Tsraelitidem dxmiseram^ tameu noil. time ret ejus j ><')•/!< la soror Judo. If we compare vers. 7 and 8 together, the correspondence bet ween the two comes clearly out. In the first half of either verse Israel is spoken of, in the second Judah; while as to Israel, both verses state how Go 1 regarded the conduct of Israel) and as to Judah, how it observed and imitated Israel's conduct. KW\ corresponds to ~'-Nl in ver. 7. God thought the backsliding Israel will repent, and it did not, and this Judah saw. Thus, then, (iud saw that even the repudiation of the backsliding Israel tor her adultery incited no fear in Judah, but Judah went and did whoredom like Israel. The true sense of ver. S is rendered obscure or difficult by the external co-ordination to one another of the two thoughts, that (Jod has rejected Israel just because it has committed adultery, and, that. I udah nevertheless feared not; the second thought being introduced by Yav. In reality, however, the 6 ret should be subordinated to the second thus: that although 1 had to reject Israel, Judah yet feared not. What (i"d saw is not the adultery and rejection or divorce of Israel, but that Judah nevertheless had no fear in committing and persisting in the self-same sin. The ^3 belongs properly to nRV fi& but this relation is obscured by the length of the prefixed grounding clause, and so WV N7 is introduced by }. 'U1 nns"7l"?y, literally: that for all the reasons, because the backslider had committed adultery, I put her away and gave her a bill of divorce; yet the faithless Judah feared not. In plain English: that, in spite of all my putting away the backsliding Israel, and my giving her... because she had committed adultery, yet the faithless Judah feared not. On rnnns 1DD, cf. Deut. xxiv. 1, 3.
In ver. 9 Judah's fornication with the false gods is further described. Here nn^T?^o is rather stumbling, since ob vocem cannot well be simply tantamount to ob famosam scortationem; for itfp, voice, tone, sound, din, noise, is distinct from D» or yOf, fame, rumour. All ancient translators have taken bp from 7?p, as being formed analogously to Dh, Dn, ft; and a Masoretic note finds in the defective spelling f>p an indication of the meaning?. Yet we occasionally find ^p,. written defectively, e.g. Ex. iv. 8, Gen. xxvii. 22, xlv. ic! And the derivation from 9?p gives no very suitable sense; neither lightness nor despisedness is a proper predicate for whoredom, by which the land is polluted; only shame or shameful would suit, as it is put by Ew. and Graf. But there is no evidence from the usage of the language that b'p has the meaning of ivp. Yet more inadmissible is the conjecture of J. D. Mich., adopted by Ilitz., that of reading 5>j9D, stock, for??P, a stock being the object of her unchastity; in support of which, reference is unfairly made to Hos. iv. 12. For there the matter in hand is rhabdomancy, with which the present passage has evidently nothing to do. The case standing thus, we adhere to the usual meaning of?p: for the noise or din of her whoredom, not, for her crying whoredom (de Wette). Jeremiah makes use of this epithet to point out the open riotous orgies of idolatry, ^nn is neither used in the active signification of desecrating, nor is it to be pointed ^l^nrii (Hiph.). On the last clause cf. ii. 27. — Ver. 10. But even with all this, i.e. in spite of this deep degradation in idolatry, Judah returned not to God sincerely, but in hypocritical wise. " And yet with all this," Ros., following Rashi, refers to the judgment that had fallen on Israel (ver. 8); but this is too remote. The words can bear reference only to that which immediately precedes: even in view of all these sinful horrors the returning was not " from the whole heart," i.e. did not proceed from a sincere heart, but in falsehood and hypocrisy. For (the returning being that which began with the abolition of idolatrous public worship in Josiah's reformation) the people had returned outwardly to the worship of Jahveh in the temple, but at heart they still clave to the idols. Although Josiah had put an end to the idolworship, and though the people too, in the enthusiasm for the service of Jahveh, awakened by the solemn celebration of the passover, had broken in pieces the images and altars of the false gods throughout the land, yet there was imminent danger that the people, alienated in heart from the living God, should take the suppression of open idolatry for a true return to God, and, vainly admiring themselves, should look upon themselves as righteous and pious. Against this delusion the prophet takes his stand.
Vers. 11-18. TsraeVs return, pardon, and blessedness. — Ver. 11. -"And Jahveh said to me, The backsliding one, Israel, is justified more than the faithless one, Judah. Ver. 12. Go and proclaim these words towards the north, and say, Turn, thou backsliding one, Israel, saith Jahveh: 1 will not look darkly on you, for 1 am gracious, saith Jahveh: I will not always be wrathful. Ver. 13. Onlv acknowledge thy euilt for from Jahveh thy God art thou fallen away, and hither and thither hast thou wandered to strangers under every green tr
B tnrn, backsliding tith Jahveh; for 1 have wedded you to me.:md will take you, om- cut of a city and two out of a race, and will bring you to Zion; Ver. 1">. And will give you shepherds according to my heart, and they will feed vou with knowledge and wisdom. Ver. 16. And it comes to pass, when ye increase and are fruitful in the land, in those days, saith Jahveh, they will no more say, 'The ark of the covenant of Jahveh;1 and it will no more come to mind, and ye will no longer remember it nor miss it, and it shall not be made again. \ r. 17. In that time they shall call Jerusalem the throne of Jahveh; and to it all peoples shall gather themselves, because the name of Jahveh is at.Jerusalem: and no longer shall they walk after the stubbornness of their evil heart. Ver. 1 B. In those days shall the house of Judah go along with the house of Israel, and together out of the land of midnight shall they come into the land which I have given for an inheritance unto your fathers."' In ver. 11, from the comparison of the faithless Judah with the backsliding Israel, is drawn the conclusion: Israel stands forth more righteous than Judah. The same is said in other words by Ezekiel, xvi. 51 f.; cf. (Ezek.) xxiii. 11. pTO in Piel is to show to be righteous, to justify. RPM, her soul, i.e. herself. Israel appears more righteous than Judah, not because the apostasy and idolatry of the Israelites was less than that of the people of Judah; in this they are put on the Bame footing in vers. 6-10; in the like fashion both have ed the harlot, U. stained themselves with idolatry (while i rhetorical amplification the apostasy of Judah is in ver. 9 represented as not greater than that of Israel). But it is inasmuch as, m the first place, Judah had the warning example of i 1 before its eyes, but would not be persuaded to repentance by [srael's punishment; then again, Judah had more notable pledges than the ten tribes of divine grace, especially in the temple with its divinely-ordained cultus, in the Levitical priesthood, and in its race of kings chosen by God. Hence its fall into idolatry called more loudly for punishment than did that of the ten tribes; for these, after their disruption from Judah and the Davidic dynasty, had neither a lawful cultus, lawful priests, nor a divinely-ordained kingship. If, then, in spite of these privileges, Judah sank as far into idolatry as Israel, its offence was greater and more grievous than that of the ten tribes; and it was surely yet more deserving of punishment than Israel, if it was resolved neither to be brought to reflection nor moved to repentance from its evil ways by the judgment that had fallen upon Israel, and if, on the contrary, it returned to God only outwardly and took the opus operatum of the temple-service for genuine conversion. For " the measure of guilt is proportioned to the measure of grace." Yet will not the Lord utterly cast off His people, ver. 12 ff. He summons to repentance the Israelites who had now long been living in exile; and to them, the backsliding sons, who confess their sin and return to Him, He offers restoration to the full favours of the covenant and to rich blessings, and this in order to humble Judah and to provoke it to jealousy. The call to repentance which the prophet is in ver. 12 to proclaim towards the region of midnight, concerns the ten tribes living in Assyrian exile. n:h)i, towards midnight, i.e. into the northern provinces of the Assyrian empire the tribes had been carried away (2 Kings xvii. 6, xviii. 11). nntfP, return, sc. to thy God. Notwithstanding that the subject which follows, n2B>», is fern., we have the masculine form here used ad sensum, because the faithless Israel is the people of the ten tribes. *3B haK N?, I will not lower my countenance, is explained by Gen. iv. 5, Job xxix. 24, and means to look darkly, frowningly, as outward expres- sion of anger; and this without our needing to take *3Q for *DP3 as Kimchi does. For I am "P?n, gracious; cf. Ex. xxxiv. 6. As to *ritM?, see on ver. 5. — Ver. 13. An indispensable element of the return is: Acknowledge thy guilt, thine offence, for grievously hast thou offended; thou art fallen away (W?B), and Tprni-riK *MBfi, lit. hast scattered thy ways for strangers; i.e. hither and thither, on many a track, hast thou run after the strange gods: cf. ii. 23.
The repeated call 12VJJ, ver. 14, is, like that in ver. 12, addressed to Israel in the narrower sense, not to the whole covenant people or to Judah. The "backsliding sons'' are "the backsliding Israel n of vers. 7, <s, 11 f., and of ver. 22. In ver. 18 also Judah is mentioned only as it is in connection with Israel. CD3 WP3, here and in x\xi. 32, is variously explained. There is n<> evidence for the meaning loathe, despise, which (i s. and Diet, in the I -•.-.. following the example of Jos.
vfjL&v); it cannot be proved from I I, \\\i. 13. sV2 means only, own, possess; whence come the meanings, take to wife, have oneself married, which are to he maintained here and in xxxi. 32. In this view Jerome translates, quia ego fir outer; Luther, denn i<-h will ruck mir oertrauen; Ilgsth., denn irhtraue,h mir an; — the reception anew of the people being given under the figure of a new marriage. This acceptation is, however, not suitable to the peri. *r~V-. for this, even if taken prophetically, cannot refer to a renewal of marriage which is to take place in the future. The perf. can be referred only to the marriage of Israel at the conclusion of the covenant on Sinai, and must be translated accordingly: I am your husband, or: I have wedded you to me. This is demanded by the grounding *3; for the summons to repent cannot give as its motive some future act of God, but must point to that covenant relationship founded in the past, which, though suspended for a time, was not wholly broken up.1 The promise of what
1 Calvin gives it rightly: " Dixcrat enim, se dedisse libellum repudii h. e. quasi publicis tabulis se testatum fuisse, nihil amplius sibi esse conjunctionis cum populo illo. Nam exilium erat iustar dicortii. Jam dicit: Eyo sum
God will do if Israel repents is given only from ttnph (with ■«•■•• •) onwards. The words, I take you, one out of a city two ('llf oi a race, are not with Kimchi to be so turned • if even a single [sraelite dwelt in a heathen city; but thus: if from amongst the inhabitants of a city there returns to me but one and.t out of a whole race there return but two, I will gather even these few and bring them to Zion. Quite aside from the point is Hitz.'s remark, that in Mic. v. 1, too, a city is called *|fe and is equivalent to nnstfb. The numbers one and two them" selves show us that nnnb js a Jarger community than the inhabitants of one town, i.e. that it indicates the great subdivisions into which the tribes of Israel were distributed. The thought, then, is this: Though but so small a number obey the call to repent, yet the Lord will save even these; He will exclude from salvation no one who is willing to return, but will increase the small number of the saved to a great nation. This promise is not only not contradictory of those which declare the restoration of Israel as a whole; but it is rather a pledge that God will forget no one who is willing to be saved, and shows the greatness of the divine compassion.— As to the historical reference, it is manifest that the promise cannot be limited, as it is by Theodrt. and Grot., to the return from the Assyrian and Babylonian exile; and although the majority of commentators take it so, it can as little be solely referred to the Messianic times or to the time of the consummation of the kingdom of God. The fulfilment is accomplished gradually. It begins with the end of the Babylonian exile, in so far as at that time individual members of the ten tribes may have returned into the land of their fathers; it is continued in Messianic times during the lives of the apostles, by the reception, on the part of the Israelites, of the salvation that had appeared in Christ; it is carried on throughout the whole history of the Church, and attains its completion in the final conversion of Israel. This Messianic reference of the- words is here the ruling one. This we may see from "bring you to Zion," which is intelligible
man t us vester. Nam etiamsi ego tarn graviter Isesus a vobis fuerim, quia ft'fellistis Jidem mihi datam, tamen maneo in propositi), ut sim vobis maritus;... et perinde ac si mihi semper Jidem prsestitissetis, iterum assuman vost inquit."
only when we look on Zion as the seat of the kingdom of God; and yet more clearly is it seen from the further promise, vers. 15-17, I will give you shepherds according to my heart, etc. By shepherds we are not to understand prophets and priests, hut the civil authorities, rulers, princes, kings (cf. ii. 8, 21')). This may not only be gathered from the parallel passant, chap, xxiii. 4, but is found in the *2OT, which is an unmistakeable allusion to 1 Sam. xiii. 14, where David is spoken of as a man whom Jahveh has sought out for Himself after His heart (V3373), and has sit to be prince over His people. They will feed you ^3^1 r>n. Both these words are used adverbially. HJFI is a noun, ami?s-"'^ an infin.: deal wisely, possess, and show wisdom: the latter is as noun generally ^—'~, Han. i. 17, Prov. i. 3, xxi. Ik hut is found also as infin. absol. i.\. 23. A direct contrast to th< pherda is found in the earlier kings, irt, of whom the Lord Baid I y 1 losea, They have set up kings (to themselves), but not by me (viii. 4); kings who seduced the people <»f ( lod to a], and encouraged them in it. u lu n expected, for the foundation of the throne of Israel was insurrection" (Hgstb.). But if I I will return to the Lord, He will give it rulers according to His heart, like David | cf. Ezek. xxxiv. 23, Hos. iii. 5), who did wisely (^SbD) in all his ways, and with whom Jahveh was (1 Sam. xviii. 11 f.; cf. 1 Kings ii. 3). The knowledge and wisdom consists in the keeping and doing of the law of God, Deut. iv. 6, xxix. 8. As regards form, the promise attaches itself to the circumstances of the rlier times, and is not to be understood of particular historical rulers in the period after the exile; it means simply that the Lord will give to Israel, when it is converted to Him, good and faithful governors who will rule over it in the spirit of David. But the Davidic dynasty culminates in the kingship of the Messiah, who is indeed named David by the prophets; cf. xxii. 4.
In vers. 16 and 17 also the thought is clothed in a form characteristic of the Old Testament. AVhen the returned Israelites shall increase and be fruitful in the land, then shall they no more remember the ark of the covenant of the Lord or feel the ™t0f *' becauf Jerusalem.ill then be the throne of the Lord, 1 lie fruitfulness and increase of the saved remnant is a constant feature in the picture of Israel's Messianic future • ef «u»-.3>^ek.xxxvi.ll,Hos.ii.l. This promise rests on the blessing given at the creation, (Jen. i. 28. God as creator and preserver of the world increases mankind together with the creatures; ever, so, as covenant God, He increases His people Israel. 1 hus He increased the sons of Israel in Egypt to be a numerous nation, Ex. i. 12; thus, too, He will again make fruittnl and multiply the small number of those who have been saved from the judgment that scattered Israel amongst the heathen. In the passages which treat of this blessing m3 generally precedes ran; here, on the contrary, and in^Ezek. xxxvi. 11, the latter is put first. The words 'Ul W?^ *6 must not be translated: they will speak no more of the'ark of the covenant; nDK,-. accus. never has this meaning. They must be taken as the substance of what is said, the predicate being omitted for rhetorical effect, so that the words are to be taken as an exclamation. Hgstb. supplies: It is the aim of all our wishes, the object of our longing. Mov. simply: It is outmost precious treasure, or the glory of Israel, 1 Sam. iv. 21 f.; Ps. Ixxvm. Gl. And they will no more remember it. Ascend into the heart, i.e. come to mind, joined with "OJ here and in Isa. lxv. 17; cf. Jer. vii. 31, xxxii. 35, li. 5o/l Cor. ii. 9. Vipa; Nbl, and they will not miss it; cf. Isa. xxxiv. 16, 1 Sam. xx. 6, etc. This meaning is called for by the context, and especially by the next clause: it will not be made again. Hitz.'s objection against this, that the words cannot mean this, is an arbitrary dictum. Non fiet amplius (Chr. B. Mich.), or, it will not happen any more, is an unsuitable translation, for this would be but an unmeaning addition; and the expansion, that the ark will be taken into the battle as it formerly was, is such a manifest rabbinical attempt to twist the words, that it needs no further refutation. Luther's translation, nor offer more there, is untenable, since nBW by itself never means offer. The thought is this: then they will no longer have any feeling of desire or want towards the ark. And wherefore ' The answer is contained in ver. 17a: At that time will they call Jerusalem the throne of Jahveh. The ark was the throne of Jahveh, inasmuch as Jahveh, in fulfilment of His promise in Ex. xxv. 22, and as covenant God, was ever present to His people in a cloud over the extended wings of the two cherubim that were upon the covering of the ark of the law; from the mercy-seat too, between the two cherubs, lie spake with His people, and made known to them His gracious presence: Lev. xvi. 2; cf. 1 Chron. xiii. 6, Vs. lxxx. 2, 1 Sam. iv. 4. The ark was therefore called the footstool of God, 1 Chron. xxviii. ~ \ I'-, zcix. 5, exxxii. 7; Lam. ii. 1. But in future Jerusalem is to be, and to be called, the throne of Jahveh: and it is in such a manner to take the place of the ark, that the people will neither miss it nor make any more mention of it.
or wrote this prophecy the ark was no longer in existence; " was gone out of sight in some mysterious manner/' as Mo\< C/n ■ S. L39j and Hit/., suppose)1 but only that it will be lost or destroy This could happen only at and along with the destruction of Jerusalem: and history testifies that the temple after the exile had no ark. Hence it is justly concluded that the ark hail perished in the destruction of Jerusalem by the Chaldean^, and that upon the rebuilding of the temple after the exile, the ark was not restored, because the nucleus of it, the tables of the law written by the linger of God, could not be constructed by the hand of man. Without the ark the second temple was also without the gracious presence of.Jahveh, the Shechinah or dwelling-place of God; so that this temple was no longer the throne of God, but only a seeming temple, without substance or reality. And thus the Old Testament covenant
1 Against this Hgstb. well says, that this allegation springs from the incapacity of modern accommodate itself to the prophetic anticipation of the future; and that we might as well infer from iii. IS, that at the time these won! the house of.Jinlah rnustalready in some mysterious manner have come into the land of the north. '1 Chron. xxxv. 3 furnishes unimpeachable testimony to the existence of the ark in the 18th year of Josiah. And even Graf says he cannot find anything to justify Movers' conclusion, since from the special stress laid on the fact that at a future time they will have the ark no longer, it might more naturally be inferred that the ark was still in the people's possession, and was an object of care to them.
had come to in end. u We have here then before us," H^stb. truly observes, "the announcement of an entire overthrow of tlu- earlier form of the kingdom; but it is such an overthrow of the form that it is at the same time the highest perfection of the substance — a process like that in seed-corn, which only dies in order to bring forth much fruit; like that in the body, which i> sown a corruptible that it may rise an incorruptible." For the dwelling and enthronement of the Lord amidst His people was again to come about, but in a higher form. Jerusalem is to become the throne of Jahveh, i.e. Jerusalem is to be for the renewed Israel that which the ark had been for the former Israel, the holy dwelling-place of God. Under the old covenant Jerusalem had been the city of Jahveh, of the great King (Ps. xlviii. 3); because Jerusalem had possessed the temple, in which the Lord sat enthroned in the holy of holies over the ark. If in the future Jerusalem is to become the throne of the Lord instead of the ark, Jerusalem must itself become a sanctuary of God; God the Lord must fill all Jerusalem with I lis glory (^3), as Isaiah prophesied He would in chap, lx., of which prophecy we have the fulfilment portrayed in Apoc. xxi. and xxii. Jeremiah does not more particularly explain how this is to happen, or how the raising of Jerusalem to be the throne of the Lord is to be accomplished; for he is not seeking in this discourse to proclaim the future reconstitution of the kingdom of God. His immediate aim is to clear away the false props of their confidence from a people that set its trust in the possession of the temple and the ark, and further to show it that the presence of the temple and ark will not protect it from judgment; that, on the contrary, the Lord will reject faithless Judah, destroying Jerusalem and the temple; that nevertheless He will keep His covenant promises, and that by receiving again as His people the repentant members of the ten tribes, regarded by Judah as wholly repudiated, with whom indeed He will renew His covenant.
As a consequence of Jerusalem's being raised to the glory of being the Lord's throne, all nations will gather themselves to her, the city of God; cf. Zech. ii. 15. Indeed in the Old Testament every revelation of the glory of God amongst His people attracted the heathen; cf. Jos. ix. 9 ff. WP D#, not, to the name of Jahveh towards Jerusalem (Hitz.), bat, because of the name of Jahveh at Jerusalem (as in Jos. ix. 9), i.e. because Jahveh reveals His glory there; for the name of Jahveh is Jahveh Himself in the making of His glorious being known in deeds of almighty power and grace. tWHVj prop, belonging to Jerusalem, because the name makes itself known there; cf. xvi. 19, Mic. iv. 2, Zech. viii. 22. — The last clause, they will walk no more, etc., refers not to the heathen peoples, but to the Israelites as being the principal Bubject of the discourse (cf. v. 16), sin:e -" HWip [g nsed of Israel in all the cases (vii. 24, ix. 1"), \i. 8, xiii. lOj xvi. 12, xviii. 12, xxiii. 17, and Ps. lxxxi. 13), thus corresponding to the original in Dent. xxix. 18, whence it is taken. rrnT-,7 prop, firmness, but in Hebr. always B€H8U malo l obstinacy, obduracy of heart, see in I) -lit. I.e.; hero strengthened by the adjective JHfJ belonging to M?. — Ver, 1 N. In those days when Jerusalem is glorified by being made the tin-one of the Lord, Judah along with Israel will come out of the north into the land which the Lord gave to their fathers. As the destruction of Jerusalem and of the temple is foretold implicite in ver. ll>, so here the expulsion of Judah into exile is assumed as having already taken place, and the return not of [srael <>nly, hut of Judah too is announced, as in IIos. ii. 2. and more fully in Ezek. xxvii. 16 ff. We should note the arrangement, the house of Judah with (/£, prop, on) the house of Israel; this is as much as to say that Israel is the first to resolve on a return and to arise, and that Judah joins itself to the house of Israel. Judah is thus subordinated to the house of Israel, because the prophet is here seeking chiefly to announce the return of Israel to the Lord. It can surely not be necessary to say that, as regards the fulfilment, we are not entitled hence to infer that the remnant of the ten tribes will positively be converted to the Lord and redeemed out of exile
Vers. 19-25. The return of Israel to its God.— Ver. 19. "I thought, O how I will put thee among the sons, and give thee a delightful land, a heritage of the chiefest splendour of the nations! and thought, l My Father,' ye will cry to me, and not turn yourselves away from me. Ver. 20. Truly as a wife faith- house of [srael, saith Jahveh. Ver. 21. A voice upon the bare- topped hills is heard, suppliant weeping of the sons of Israel; for that they have made their way crooked, forsaken Jahveh your backslidings.' Behold, we come to thee; for Thou Jahveh art our God. Ver. 23. Truly the sound from the hills, from the mountains, is become falsehood: truly in Jahveh our God is the salvation of Israel. Ver. 24. And shame hath devoured the gains of our fathers from our youth on; their sheep and their oxen, their sons and their daughters. Ver. 25. Let us lie down in our shame, and let our disgrace cover us; for against
Jahveh our God have we sinned, we and our fathers, from our youth even unto this day, and have not listened to the voice of an opinion on WDN ^3?1- Ew. joins ver. 19 to the preceding, and begins a new strophe with ver. 21. Neither assumption can be justified. With ver. 18 closes the promise which formed the burden of the preceding strophe, and in ver. 19 there begins a new train of thought, the announcement as to how Israel comes to a consciousness of sin and returns penitent to the Lord its
God (vers. 21-25). The transition to this announcement is formed by vers. 19 and 20, in which the contrast between God's fatherly designs and Israel's faithless bearing towards God is brought prominently forward; and by ^IDS "OJtfl it is attached to the last clause of the 18th verse. His having mentioned the land into which the Israelites would again return, carries the prophet's thoughts back again to the present and the past, to the bliss which Jahveh had designed for them, forfeited by their
(Graf). " I thought," refers to the time when God gave the land to their fathers for an inheritance. Then spake, i.e. thought,
I; cf. Ps. xxxi. 23. How I will set thee or place thee among the sons! i.e. how I will make thee glorious among the sons (rTy' against this is founded by Hitz.'s plea that in that case we must read WV$, and that by Jeremiah, the teacher of morals, no heathen nation, or any but Israel, can ever be regarded as a son of God (xxxi. 9, 20). The fern. W?«: is explained by the personification of Judah and Israel as two sisters, extending throughout the whole prophecy. The other objection is erroneous as to the fact. In xxxi. 9 Jahveh calls Ephraim, = Israel, his first-born son, as all Israel is called by God in Ex. iv. 2 2. But the conception of first-born has, as necessary correlate, that of other "sons." Inasmuch as Jahveh the God of Israel is creator of the world and of all men, all the peoples of the earth are His D*33; and from amongst all the peoples He has made choice of Israel as TOD, or chosen him for His first-born son. Hitz.'s translation: how will I endow thee with children, is contrary to the usage of the language. — The place which God willed to give Israel amongst His children is specified by the next clause: and I willed to give thee a delightful land («^On px as in Xeeh. vii. 11, Ps. cvi. 24). TiiNZi '2V, ornament of ornaments /.<•. the greatest, most splendid ornament. For there can no doubt that H^NZV does not come from NZV. but, with Kimclli after the Targum, is to be derived from *3V; for the plural D*3S from *3S may pa- into IFIttV, Cf. Q i. § 93. 6b, as Ew., too, in ^ 1 80, -, admits, though ho takes our niSDV from K3V, and strains the meaning into: an heirloom-adornment amidst the hosts of heathen. After Mich proofs of a fatll love, God expected that [srael would by a true cleaving to Him.show some return of filial affection. To cry, "My father," is a token of a child's love and adhereni The ( let. W}pn and ONWJ are not to be impugned; the Keris are unnecessary alterations.— Ver. 20. But Israel did not meet the expectation. Like a faithless wife from her husband, Israel fell away from its God. The particle of comparifl D ~'-"NZ is omitted before the verb, as in Isa.lv. 9, cf. lOand 11. PI does not precisely mean husband, nor vet paramour, but friend and companion, and so here is equal to wedded husband. "tt3 c. IP, withdraw faithlessly from one, faithlessly forsake, — c. 3, be faithless, deal faithlessly with one. Yet Israel will come to a knowledge of its iniquity, and bitterly repent it, ver. 21. From the heights where idolatry was practised, the prophet already hears in spirit the lamentations and supplications of the Israelites entreating for forgiveness.;V D"2ir points back to ver. 2, when the naked heights were mentioned as the scenes of idolatry. From these places is heard the supplicating cry for pardon. *tgn *3, because (for that) they had made their way crooked, U. had entered on a crooked path, had forgotten their God.— Ver. 22. The prophet further overhears in spirit, as answer to the entreaty of the Israelites the divine invitation ami promise: Return, ye backsliding children (cf. ver. 1 1), I will heal your backslidings. nana for n-=~n\ Backslidin mischief which backsliding has brought the wounds inflicted by apostasy from God; cf. Hos. xiv. 5, a age which was in the prophet's mind; and for the figure of healing, cf. Jer. \.\x. 17, xxxiii. 6. To this promise they answer: Behold, we come to Thee (una for HNDN from NDK, Isa xxi 12 for nn«), for Thou art Jahveh, art our God. Of this confession they further state the cause in vers. 23-25. — Ver. 23. From the false gods they have gained but disgrace; the salvation of Israel is found only in Jahveh their God. The thought now given is clearly expressed in the second clause of the verse; less clear is the meaning of the first clause, which tells what Israel had got from idolatry. The dilHculty lies in Dnn jion, which the early commentators so joined together as to make p£H stat. constr. (iV-H). LXX.: ek tyevSos yaav ol fiovvol ical r) SiW/xt? riov opecov. Jerome: mendaces erant colles et multitudo (s. fortitude) montium. Similarly Ilitz. and Graf: from the hills the host (or tumult) of the mountains is (for) a delusion; Ilitz. understanding by the host of the mountains the many gods, or the numerous statues of them that were erected at the spots where they were worshipped, while Graf takes the tumult of the mountains to mean the turmoil of the pilgrims, the exulting cries of the celebrants. But it is as impossible that "the sound of the hills'' should mean the multitude of the gods, as that it should mean the tumult of the pilgrims upon the mountains. Besides, the expression, " the host or tumult of the mountains comes from the hills," would be singularly tautological. These reasons are enough to show that D^n cannot be a genitive dependent on \)K7\, but must be taken as coordinate with rtap, so that the preposition I» will have to be repeated before D*nn. But fton must be the subject of the clause, else there would be no subject at all. |ton means bustle, eager crowd, tumult, noise, and is also used of the surging mass of earthly possessions or riches, Ps. xxxvii. 10, Isa. Ix. Schnur., Iios., Maur., de W., have preferred the last meaning, and have put the sense thus: vana est ex collibus, vana ex montibw* affluentia, or: delusive is the abundance that comes from the hills, from the mountains. This view is not to be overthrown by Graf's objection, that we cannot here entertain the idea of abundance, however imaginary, acquired by the Israelites through idolatry, seeing that in the next verses it is declared that the false gods have devoured the wealth which the Israelites had inherited and received from God. For in the present connection the abundance would be not a real but expected or imagined abundance, the delusiveness of which would be shown in the next verse by the statement that the false gods had devoured the acquisitions of Israel. But to take jteTl in the se of affluentia seems questionable here, when the context makes no reference to wealth or earthly riches, and where the abundance of the hills and mountains cannot be understood to mean their produce; the abundance is that which the idolatry practised upon the hills and mountains brought or was expected to bring to the people. Hence, along with Ew., we take this word in the sig. tumult or noise, and by it we understand the wild uproarious orgies of idolatry, which, acccording to vers. 2 and 6, were practised on the hills and mountains (nrvi:T 7^, ver. 9). Thus we obtain the already given by the Targ.: invanum coluimus super eollibus et /<<>" in utilitatem congregavimus nos (s:_-:~rs. prop, tumultuati sumus) super montibu8} i.e. delusive and profitless were our idolatrous observances upon the height-. In ver. 24 we are told in what particulars idolatry became to them 1B?V« "-'-?? the shame, opprobrious expression for ^>-i, equal to shame-god, cf. xi. 13 and IIos. ix. 10; since the worship of Baal, i.e. of the false gods, resulted in disgrace to the people. He devoured the wealth of our fathers, namely, their sheep and oxen, mentioned as a specimen of their wealth, and their sons and daughters. The idols devoured this wealth, not in respect that sheep and oxen, and, on Moloch's altar, children too. were sacrificed, for sheep and oxen were offered to Jahveh; but because idolatry drew down judgments on the people and brought about the devastation of the land by enemies who devoured the substance of the people, and slew sons and daughters, Deut. xxviii. 30, 33. From our youth on; — the youth of the people is the period of the judges. — Ver. 25. The people does not repudiate this shame and disgrace, but is willing to endure it patiently, since by its sin it has fully deserved it. ™-:. not: we lie, but: we will lay us down in our shame, as a man in pain and grief throws himself on the ground, or on his couch (et*. 1} Sam. xii. 16, xiii. 31, 1 Kings xxT. 4), in order wholly to give way to the feelings that crush him down. And let our disgrace cover us, i.e. enwrap us as a mourning robe or cloak; et*. Ps. \.\w. 26, cix. L,(.), Mic. vii. 10, Obad. ver. 10.
Chap. iv. 1, 2. The answer of the Lord.— •Ver. 1. "If thou returnest, Israel, saith Jahveh, returnest to me; and if thou puttest away thine abominations from before my face, and stray est not, Ver. 2. And swearest, As Jahveh liveth, in truth, with right, and uprightness; then shall the nations bless themselves in Him, and in Him make their boast." Graf errs in taking these verses as a wish: if thou wouldst but repent... and swear... and if they blessed themselves. His reason is, that the conversion and reconciliation with Jahveh has not yet taken place, and are yet only hoped for; and he cites passages for ON with the force of a wish, as Gen. xiii. 3, xxviii. 13, where, however, NJ or & is joined with it. But if we take all the verbs in the same construction, we get a very cumbrous result; and the reason alleged proceeds upon a prosaic misconception of the dramatic nature of the prophet's mode of presentation from iii. 21 onwards. Just as there the prophet hears in spirit the penitent supplication of the people, so here he hears the Lord's answer to this supplication, by inward vision seeing the future as already present. The early commentators have followed the example of the LXX. and Vulii. in construing the two verses differently, and take vS -Vj'n and Ton iib) as apodoses: if thou returnest, Israel, then return to me; or, if thou, Israel, returnest to me, then shalt thou return, sc. into thy fatherland; and if thou puttest away thine abominations from before mine eyes, then shalt thou no longer wander; and if thou swearest... then will they bless themselves. But by reason of its position after nirv DKJ it is impossible to connect ^« with the protasis. It would be more natural to take niPPI ^N as apodosis, the »?« being put first for the sake of emphasis. But if we take it as apodosis at all, the apodosis of the second half of the verse does not rightly corre- spond to that of the first half. "i^n &6 would need to be translated, "then shalt thou no longer wander without fixed habitation/1 and so would refer to the condition of the people as exiled. Bat for this t: is not a suitable expression. Besides, it is difficult to justify the introduction of DX before ryz'S':^ since an apodosis has already preceded. For these 3 we are hound to prefer the view of Ew. and Hit/., that vers. 1 and 2a contain nothing hut protases. The removal of the abominations from before God's face i< the utter extirpation of idolatry, the negative moment of the return to the Lord; and the Bwearing by the lite of Jahveh is added as a positive expression of their acknowledgment of the true God. TOJJ is the wandering of the idolatrous people after this and the other strengthen k' pnttest away thine abomination A sincere return I i God demanded not only the destruction of imai and the Suppression of idol-worship, but also the giving up of all wandering after idol ng or longing after other go
N3, in truth, not deceptively ("W^, v. 2), and with right and Uprights in a just Cause, and with honest intention-. — following.Jerome, suppose, a direct citation of these, and certainly not "a learned quotation from a bunk" (Ew.), in which case ta would be referable, as in those promises, to Israel, the seed of Abraham, and would Btand for 13. This is put out of the que8tk>n by the parallel IV to, which never occurs but with the sell f glorying in God the Lord; cf. Isa. xli. lb, Ps. xxxiv. i), Ixiv. 1 1, cv..">. and Jer. ix. 22. Hence it follows that i3 must be referred, as Calv. refers it, to m.T, just as in Isa. Ixv. 16: the nations will bless themselves in or with Jahveh, i.e. will desire and appropriate the blessing of Jahveh and glory in the true God. Even under this acceptation, the only one that can be justified from an exegetical point of view, the words stand in manifest relation to the patriarchal blessing. If the heathen peoples bless themselves in the name of Jahveh, then are they become partakers of the salvation that comes from Jahveh; and if this blessing comes to them as a consequence of the true conversion of Israel to the Lord, as a fruit of this, then it has come to them through Israel as the channel, as the patriarchal blessings declare disertis verbis. Jeremiah does not lay stress upon this intermediate agency of [srael, but leaves it to be indirectly understood from the unmistakeable allusion to the older promise. The reason for the application thus given by Jeremiah to the divine promise made to the patriarchs is found in the aim and scope of the present discourse The appointment of Israel to be the channel of salvation for the nations is an outcome of the calling grace of God, and the fulfilment of this gracious plan on the part of God is an exercise of the same grace — a grace which Israel by its apostasy does not reject, but helps onwards towards its ordained issue. The return of apostate Israel to its God is indeed neeessarv ere the destined end be attained; it is not, however the ground of the blessing of the nations, but only one means towards the consummation of the divine plan of redemption, a plan which embraces all mankind. Israel's apostasy delayed this consummation; the conversion of Israel will have for its issue the blesbiiiii of the nations.
Chap. iv. 3-31. Threatening of judgment upon Jerusalem and Judah. — If Judah and Jerusalem do not reform, the wrath of God will be inevitably kindled against them (vers. 3, 4). Already the prophet sees in spirit the judgment bursting in upon Judah from the north, to the dismay of all who were accounting themselves secure (vers. 5-10). Like a hot tempest-blast it rushes on, because of the wickedness of Jerusalem (vers. 11-18), bringing desolation and ruin on the besotted people, devastating the whole land, and not to be turned aside by any meretricious devices (vers. 19-31).
Ver. 3. " For thus hath Jahveh spoken to the men of Judah and to Jerusalem: Break up for yourselves new ground, and sow not among thorns. Ver. 4. Circumcise yourselves to Jahveh, and take away the foreskins of your heart, men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem, lest my fury break forth like fire and burn unquenchably, because of the evil of your doings." The exhortation to a reformation of life is attached by '3, as being the ground of it, to the preceding exhortation to return. The i*'j*ri OK, ver. 1, contained the indirect call to repent. In ver. 1 this was addressed to Israel. In ver. 3 the call comes to Judah, which the prophet had already in his eye in chap. ili.; cf. iii. 7, 8, 10, 11. The transition from Israel to Judah in the phrase: for thus saith Jahveh, is explained by the introduction of a connecting thought, which can without difficulty be supplied from the last clause of ver. 2; the promise that the nations bless themselves in Jahveh will come to be fulfilled. The thought to be supplied is: this conversion is indispensable for Judah also, for Judah too must begin a new life. Without conversion there is no salvation. The evil of their doings brings nought but heavy judgments with it. t'"N,;is often, in col. Since the plural of this word was little in use,
•.1 li. ix. 6. TO W TO, as in IIos. x. 12, plough up new land, to brine new untilled soil under cultivation — a figure for the reformation of life; as much as to say, to prepare new ground for living on, to begin a new life. Sow not among thorns. The seed-corns are the good resolutions which, when they have sunk into the soil of the mind, should spring up into deeds (Ilitz.). The thorns which choke the good seed as it grows (Mat. xiii. 7) are not mala P< ludia (Ros.), but the evil inclinations of the unrenewed heart, which thrive luxuriantly like thorns. u Circumcise you to the Lord" is explained by the next clause: remove the foreskins of your heart. The Stress lies in FTCTvj in this is implied that the circumcision should not be in the flesh merely. In the ilesh all Jews were circumcised. If they then are called to circumcise themselves to the Lord, this must be meant spiritually, of the putting away of the spiritual impurity of the heart, i.e. of all that hinders the sanctifying of the heart; see in Deut. x. 1(3. The plur. rii7"W is explained by the figurative use of the word, and the reading n?"W, presented by some codd., is a correction from Deut. x. 1G. The foreskins are the evil lusts and longings of the heart. Lest my fury break forth like fire; cf. vii. 20, Amos v. 6, Ps. Ixxxix. 47. '£ P*l V.SP as in Deut. xxviii. 20. This judgment of wrath the prophet already in spirit sees breaking on Judah.
Vers. 5-10. From the north destruction approaches. — Ver. 5. 11 Proclaim in Judah, and in Jerusalem let it be heard, and say,
Blow the trumpet in the land; cry with a loud voice, and say, Assemble, and le1 as go into the defenced cities. Ver. 6. Raise a standard toward Zion: save yourselves by flight, linger not; for from the north I bring evil and great destruction. Ver. 7. A lion comes up from his thicket, and a destroyer of the nations is on his way, comes forth from his place, to make thy land a waste, that thy cities be destroyed, without an inhabitant. Ver. <s. For this gird you in sackcloth, lament and howl, for the heat o( Jahveh's anger hath not turned itself from us. Ver. 9. And it cometh to pass on that day, saith Jahveh, the heart of the king and the heart of the princes shall perish, and the priests shall be confounded and the prophets amazed." The invasion of a formidable foe is here represented with poetic animation; the inhabitants being called upon to publish the enemy's approach throughout the land, so that every one may hide himself in the fortified cities.1 The 1 before VJj?fi
1 By this dreaded foe the older commentators understand the Chaldeans; but Borne of the moderns will have it that the Scythians are meant. Among the hitter arc Dahler, II itz., Ew., Bertheau (z. Gesch. der Isr.), Movers, and others; and they have been preceded by Eichhorn (Hebr. Proph.ii. 96/), Cramer (in the Cumin, on Zephaniah, under the title ScytJiische Denkmaler in Palastina, 1777). On the basis of their hypothesis, M. Duncker (Gesch. ties Alu rth. S. 701 ff.) has sketched out a minute picture of the inundation of Palestine by hordes of Scythian horsemen in the year 626, according to the prophecies of Jeremiah and Zephaniah. For this there is absolutely no historical support, although Roesch in his archaeological investigations on Nabopolassar (Deutsch-morgld. Ztschr. xv. S. 502 ff.), who, according to him, was a Scythian king, alleges that " pretty nearly alj (?) exegetical authorities " understand these prophecies of the Scythians (S. 536). For this view can be neither justified exegetically nor made good historically, as has been admitted and proved by A. Kueper (Jerem. llbr. ss. int. p. 13 sq.), and Ad. Strauss ( Vaticin. Zeph. p. xviii. sq.), and then by Tholuck (die Propheten it. Hire Weiss, S. 94 ff.), Graf (Jer. S. 16 ff.), Nag., and others. On exegetical grounds the theory is untenable; for in the descriptions of the northern foe, whose invasion of Judah Zephaniah and Jeremiah threaten, there is not the faintest hint that can be taken to point to the Scythian squadrons, and, on the contrary, there is much that cannot be suitable to these wandering hordes. The enemies approaching like clouds, thenchariots like the whirlwind, with horses swifter than eagles (Jer. iv. 13), every city fleeing from the noise of the horsemen and of the bowmen (iv. 29), and the like, go to form a description obviously founded on Dent. xxviii. 49 ff., and on the account of the Chaldeans (nnfett) ™ Hab. i. 7-11, a fact which leads Roesch to suppose Habakkuk meant Scythian by D*lbB in the diet, has evidently got into the text through an error in transcription, and the Keri, according to which all the old versions translate, is the only correct reading. u Blow the trumpet in the land," is that which is to be proclaimed or published, and the blast into the far-sounding IBiP is the siernal of alarm by which the people was made aware of the danger that threatened it; cf. Joel ii. 1, IIos. v. 8. The second clause expresses the same matter in an intensified form and
All the ' world-powers had horsemen, war-chariots, and archers, and we do not know that the Scythians fought on chariots. Nor was it at all according to the plan of Scythian hordes to besiege cities and carry the vanquished people into exile, as Jeremiah prophesies of these enemies.
in, in chap. x\\\. where he expressly names Nebuchadneasax the king of Babel a- the fulfiller of judgment foretold. Jeremiah mentions the enemy in the same words as in L 15, riM rrtnBtPD"^3 (xxv. 9). and represents the
•mpliflhment of judgment by Nebuchadnezzar as the fulfilment of all the words he had beeo prophesying sine the 13th year of Josiah. This mak nble that Jeremiah regarded the Chaldeans as the families of the j of the north who were to lay.hidah waste, conquer e, also, the Scythian theory is quite unfounded. The account in Herod, i. 103-105 of the incursion ^i the Scythians into Media and of dominion exercU by them, does say thai they came to Syrian Palestine and advanced on Egypt, but by means <>f pr irere induced by King Psammetichus to withdraw, that they marched hack again without committing any violence, and that only c'/..;y>' -/>=,- mvrmw plundered the temple of Venus Urania at A n the way back. But these accounts taken at their I value, tell US nothing more than that one swarm of the Scythian. which overspread Media and Am'» Minor entered Palestine and penetrated to the borders of Egypt, passing by the ancient track of armies across the Jordan at Hethshan. and through plain of Jezreel along the Philii. thai here they were bought off by Psammetichis and retired without even so much as touching on the kingdom of Judah on their way. The historical books of the Old Testament have no knowledge whi I any incursion into Judah of Scythians or other northern nations during the reign of Josiah. On the other hand we give no weight to the argument that the march of the Scythians through:a against Egypt had taken place in the 7th or 8th year of Josiah, a few years before Jeremiah's public appearance, and so could be no subject for his prophecies (Thol., Graf, Nag.). For the chronological data of the ancients as to the Scythian invasion are not so definite that we can draw confident conclusions from them; cf. M. v. Niebuhr, Ges. Assurs u Babels S. 67 ff.
with plainer words. Cry, make full (the crying), i.e. cry with a full clear voice; gather, and let us go into the' fortified cities; cf. viii. 1 1. This was the meaning of the trumpet blast. Raise a banner pointing towards Zion, i.e. showing the fugitives the way to Zion as the safest stronghold in the kingdom. W a lofty pole with a waving Hag (lsa. xxxiii. 23; Ezek. xxvii. 7) ited upon mountains, spread the alarm farther than even the sound of the pealing trumpet; see in lsa. v. 26. OTn
. wanting, the supporters of this hypothesis can make nothing of any | save the Greek name Scythopolis for Bethshan, which Dunck. calls ua memorial for Judah of the Scythian raid." We find the name in Judges i -• °* the 1 X \. Bcttfoxv ',', tort IkvQuv ~o7.i;, and from this come the.,- of Judith iii. 10, 2 Mace. xii. 29, and in Joseph. Antt. v. 1. 22, xii- s- •~)- etc. Even if we do not hold, as Reland, Pal ill. p. 992, does, that the _ 3 i. 27, has been interpolated late into the LXX.; even if we admit that it originated with the translator, the that the author of the LXX., who lived:\\H) years after Josiah, interpreted 1.,- by 'Sx.vduv sro'A/j, does by no means prove that the city had received this Greek name from a Scythian invasion of Palestine, or from a colony of those Scythians who had settled down there. The Greek derivation of the name shows that it could not have originated before the extension of Greek supremacy in Palestine — not before Alexander the Great. But there is no historical proof that Scythians dwelt in Bethshan. Duncker e.g. makes the inference simply from the name IkvQuu
- and 2xt/0o5roA/V<*/, 2 Mace. xii. 29 f. His statement: "Josephus (Antt. xii. 5. 8) and Pliny (Hist. n. v. 16) affirm that Scythians had settled down there," is wholly unfounded. In Joseph. I.e. there is no word of it; nor will a critical historian accept as sufficient historical evidence of an ancient Scythian settlement in Bethshan, Pliny's I.e. aphoristic notice: Scythopolin (antea Nysam a Libero Patrc, sepulta nutrice ibi) Scythis deductis. The late Byzantine author, George Syncellus, is the firsl to derive the name Scythopolis from the incursion of the Scythians into Palestine; cf. Reland, p. 993. The origin of the name is obscure, but is not likely to be found, as by Reland, Gesen., etc., in the neighbouring Succoth. More probably it comes from a Jewish interpretation of the prophecy of Ezekiel, chap, xxxix. 11, regarding the overthrow of Gog in the valley of the wanderers eastwards from the sea. This is Havernick's view, suggested by Bochart.
Taking all into consideration, we see that the reference of our prophecy to the Scythians is founded neither on exegetical results nor on historical evidence, but wholly on the rationalistic prejudice that the proph" the biblical prophets are nothing more than either disguised descriptions of historical events or threatenings of results that lay immediately before the prophet's eyes, which is the view of Hitz., Ew., and others.
secure your possessions by flight; cf. Isa. x. 31. The evil which Jahveh is bringing on the land is specified by /H| "OP, after Zeph. i. 10, but very frequently used by Jeremiah; cf. vi. 1, xlviii. 3, 1. 22, li. 54. 13?, breaking (of a limb), Lev. xxi. 19, then the upbreaking of what exists, ruin, destruction. In ver. 7 the evil is yet more fully described. A lion is come up from his thicket p-rD with dag, forte dirim., from SJ3D [!|ltiP, 2 Sain, xviii. 9], or from!pD, Ps. lxxiv. 5; cf. Ew. § 255, a\ and Olsh. § 155, l>), going forth for prey. This lion is a destroyer of the nations (not merely of individual persons as the ordinary lion); he has started (V?J, of striking tents for the march), and is come out to waste the land and to destroy the cities. The infin. is continued by the temp. Jin,,"1f^n, and the Kal of nvj i< here used in a passive destroyed by war. —
V P. B. For this calamity the people was to inonrn deeply. For the description of the mourning, cf. Joel i. 13, Mic. i. 8. For the wrath of the Lord has not turned from us as in blind selfdelusiOD ye imagine, ii. The heat of Jahveh's anger is the burning wrath on account cf the sins of Manasseh, with which the people has be n threatened by the prophets. This wrath has not turned itself away, because even under Josiah the people has not sincerely returned to its God. — Ver. 9. When this wrath bursts over them, the rulers and leaders of the people will be perplexed and helpless. The heart, /.>'. the mind, is lost. For this use of - s, vL Job xii. 3, xxxiv. 10, Prow vii. 7, etc. •':-"-". paralyzed by terror, like the Kal in ii. 12. The prophets are mentioned last, because ver. 10 cites a word of prophecy whereby they seduced the people into a falsi' security. Ver. 1»>. "Then said 1, Ah, Lord Jahveh, truly Thou hast deceived this people and.Jerusalem in saying, Peace shall be to you, and the sword is reaching unto the soul." This verse is to be taken as a sigh addressed to God by Jeremiah when he heard the announcement of the judgment about to fall on Judah, contained in vers. 5-9. The Chald. has well paraphrased""1'^) thus: etdiri: snscipc deprecationem meam, Jahveh, Deus. But Ilensler and Fw. wish to have 1EN) changed to i^si, " so that they say," quite unnecessarily, and indeed unsuitably, since ru^'n, thou hast deceived, is out of place either in the mouth of the people or of the lying prophets. That the word quoted, "Peace Bhall be to you," is the saying of the false prophets, may be gathered from the context, and this is directly supported by xiv. L3, xxiii. 17. The deception of the people by such discourse from the false prophets is referred back to
I: " Lord, Thou hast deceived," inasmuch as God not only permits these lying spirits to appear and work, but has ordained them and brought them forth for the hardening of "the people's heart: as He once caused the spirit of prophecy to inspire as a lying spirit the prophets of Ahab, so that. by promises of victory they prevailed upon him to march to that war in which, as a punishment for his godlessness, he was to perish; 1 Kings xxii.
23. I'mbr. takes the words less correctly as spoken in the name of the people, to whom the unexpected turn affairs had now taken seemed a deception on the part of God; and this, although it was by itself it had been deceived, through its revolt from God. For it is not the people's opinion that Jeremiah expresses, but a truth concerning which his wish is that the people may learn to recognise it, and so come to reflect and repent before it be too late. On the use of the perf. consec. TO}], see Ew. § 342, b. As to the fact, cf. v. 18, Ps. lxix. 2.
A ers. 11-18. Description of the impending ruin, from which nothing can save but speedy repentance. — Ver. 11. " At that time shall it be said to this people and to Jerusalem, A hot wind from the bleak hills in the wilderness cometh on the way toward the daughter of my people, not to winnow and not to cleanse. Ver. 12. A wind fuller than for this shall come to rue; now will I also utter judgments upon them. Ver. 13. Behold, like clouds it draws near, and like the storm are its chariots, swifter than eagles its horses. Woe unto us! for we are spoiled. Ver. 14. Wash from wickedness thy heart, Jerusalem, that thou mayest be saved. How long shall thine iniquitous thoughts lodge within thee? Ver. 15. For a voice declareth from Dan, and publisheth affliction from the Mount Ephraim. Ver. 16. Tell it to the peoples; behold, publish it to Jerusalem: Besiegers come from a far country, and let thenvoice ring out against the cities of Judah. Ver. 17. As keepers of a field, they are against her round about; for against me hath she rebelled, saith Jahveh. Ver. 18. Thy way and thy doings have wrought thee this. This is thy wickedness; yea, it is bitter, yea, it reacheth unto thine heart/'
A more minute account of the impending judgment is introduced by the phrase: at that time. It shall be said to this people; in other words, it shall be said of this people; substantially, that shall fall upon it which is expressed by the figure following, a hot wind blowing from the naked hills of the wilderness. HV1 is stat. co/tstr., and E^'J' its genitive, after which latter the adjective TO should be placed; but it is interpolated between the and the >/. rectum bv reason of its smallness, and partly, too, that it may not be too far separated from it while ~-~':- belongs to D*B*?. The wind blowing from the bleak hills in the wilderness, is the verv severe east wind of Palestine. It blows in incessant gusts, and cannot be used for winnowing or cleansing the grain, since it would blow away chaff and - ether; cf. Wetzst. in Del.. J '. S. 320.
is universally taken adverbially: is on the way, i.e. comes, moves in the direction of the daughter of Zion. The daughter <>f Zion i^ a personification of the inhabitants of Zion or Jerusalem. This hot blast is a figure for the destruction which is drawing near Jerusalem. It is not a chastisement to purify the people, but a judgment which will sweep away the whole people, carry away both wheat and chaff — a most effective figure for the approaching catastrophe of the destruction of Jerusalem, and the carrying away captive of its inhabitants. Hit/, and Graf have, however, taken T"1 as subject of the clause: the path, i.e. the behaviour of my people, is a k wind of the bare hills in the wilderness. Thus the conduct of the people would be compared with that wind as unprofitable, inasmuch as it was altogether windy, empty, and further as being a hurtful storm. lint the comparison of the people's behaviour with a parched violent wind is a wholly unnatural one. for the justification of which it is not sufficient to point to Hos. viii. 7: sow wind and reap storm. Besides, upon this construction of the illustration, the description: not to winnow and not to cleanse, is not only unmeaning, but wholly unsuitable. Who is to be winnowed and cleansed by the windy ways of the people? Jahvehl! Ver. 14 is indeed so managed by Hitz. and Graf that the tempestuous wind blows against God, u is directed against Jahveh like a blast of defiance and hostility." But this argument is sufficient to overthrow that unnatural view of the figure, which, besides, obtains no support from ver. 12. nJKD cannot refer to '•ttirnii: a full wind from these, i.e. the sons of my people; and 7 &ti3J? in spite of the passages, xxii. 23, 1. 26, li. 48,.lob iii. 25, does not mean: comes towards me, or: blows from them on me; for in all these passages v is dativ. commodi or incommodi. Here, too, y is dative, used of the originator and efficient cause. The wind comes for me, — in plainer English: from me. Properly: it comes to God, i.e, at His signal, to carry out His will.!"6sp frOE is comparative: fuller than these, namely, the winds useful for winnowino- and cleansing. Now will I too utter. The intensifying 23 does not point to a contrast in the immediately preceding clause: because the people blows against God like a strong wind, He too will utter judgment against it. The E3 refers back to the preceding v: the storm comes from me; for now will I on my side hold judgment with them. The contrast implied in D3 lies in the wider context, in the formerly described behaviour of the people, particularly in the sayings of the false prophets mentioned in ver. 10, that there will be peace. On D*DBK>D "i:n, cf. i. 1(5.
These judgments are already on the way in ver. 13. " Like clouds it draws near." The subject is not mentioned, but a hostile army is meant, about to execute God's judgments. " Like clouds/' i.e. in such thick dark masses; cf. ^zek. xxxviii. 1G. The war-chariots drive with the speed of the tempest; cf. Isa. v. 28, Ixvi. 15. The running of the horses resembles the flight of the eagle; cf. Hab. i. 8, where the same is said of the horsemen of the hostile people. Both passages are founded on Deut. xxviii. 49; but Jeremiah, while he had the expression W3H3 D"n»3D &J3, Hab. i. 8, in his mind, chose D^JM instead of leopards (Dnw), in this following the original in Deut.; cf. 2 Sam. i. 23 and Lam. iv. 19. Already is heard the cry of woe: we are spoiled; cf. ver. 20, ix. 18, xlvin. 1.- Ver. 14. If Jerusalem wishes to be saved, it must thoroughly turn from its sin, wash its heart clean; not merely abstain outwardly from wickedness, but renounce the evil desires of the heart. In the question: How long shall... remain? we have implied the thought that Jerusalem has already only too long cherished and indulged wicked thoughts. P/fi is 3d pers. imperf. Kal, not 2d pers. Hiph.: wilt thou let remain (Schnur. and others). For the Hiphil of fi? is not in use, and besides, would need to be **$*». The [W nix.*™ as in Prov. vi. 18, Isa.
lix. 7, refer chiefly to sins against one's neighbour, such as are reckoned up in vii. 5 f., 8 f. — Ver. 15. It is high time to cleanse oneself from sin, periculum in mora est; for already calamity 18 announced from Dan, even from the Mount Ephraim. pip T3D, the voice of him who gives the alarm, 8C, PBBO, is heard; cf. iii. 21, xxxi. 15. That of which the herald givefl warning is not given till the next clause, JJjJ, mischief, i.e. calamity. IT&PB i ^till dependent on b\p. " From Dan,'' i.e. the northern boundary of Palestine: see on Judg. xx. 1. "From Mount Ephraim/' i.e. the northern boundary of the kingdom of Judah, not far distant from Jerusalem. The alarm and the calamity draw ever nearer. kk The messenger comes from each suce sive place towards which the foe approaches'1 (Ilitz.). In ver. 1(> the BUDStance of the warning message is given, but in so animated a manner, that a charge is given to make the matter known to the peoples and in Jerusalem. Tell to the peoples, behold, cause to be heard. The njfl in the first clause points forward, calling attention to the message in the second clause. A similar charge is given in ver. 5, only " to the peoples" seems strange here. u The meaning would be simple if we could take 1 the peoples1 to be the Israelites," says Graf. But since Cril in this connection can mean only the other nations, the question obtrudes itself: to what end the approach of the besiegers of Jerusalem should be proclaimed to the heathen peoples. Jerome remarks on this: \~ult omnes in circuitu nationes Dei nosse senientiam^ ttflageUatd Jerusalem cunctos recipere disciplinam. In like manner, Chr. B. Mich., following Schmid: Gentibus, ut his quoque innoteseat severitatis divines ut Judceos exemplum. Hitz. and Gr. object, that in what follows there is no word of the taking and destruction of Jerusalem, but only of the siege; that this could form no such ezemplum, and that for this the issue must be awaited. But this objection counts for little. After the description given of the enemies (cf. ver. 13), there can be no doubt as to the issue of the siege, that is, as to the
Jerusalem. But if this be so, then the warning of the heathen as to the coming catastrophe, by holding the case of Jerusalem before them, is not so far-fetched a thought as that it should I' • si; aside by Ilitz.'s remark: " So friendly an anxiety on behalf of the heathen is utterly unnatural to a Jew, especially seeing that the prophet is doubly absorbed by anxiety for his own people." Jeremiah was not the narrow-minded Jew Hit/, takes him for. Besides, there is no absolute necessity for holding " Tell to the peoples" to be a warning of a.similar fare addressed to the heathen. The charge is but a rhetorical form, conveying the idea that there is no doubt about the matter to he published, and that it concerned not Jerusalem alone, hut* the nations too. This objection settled, there is no call to seek other interpretations, especially as all such are less easily justified. By changing the imper. WSTH and WWil into perfects, Ew. obtains the translation: " they say already to the peoples, behold, they come, already they proclaim in Jerusalem," etc.; but Hitz. and Graf have shown the change to be indefensible. Yet more unsatisfactory is the translation, 4* declare of the la athen," which Hitz. and Graf have adopted, following the LXX., Kimchi, Vat., and others. This destroys the parallelism, it is out of keeping with the narij and demands the addition (with the LXX.) of ^3 thereto to complete the sense. Graf and Hitz. have not been able to agree upon the sense of the second member of the verse. If we make 2^p de gentibus, then '131 flWDBrn ought to be: proclaim upon {i.e. concerning) Jerusalem. Hitz., however, translates, in accordance with the use of 5H?t?B in vers. 5 and 15: Cry it aloud in Jerusalem (prop, over Jerusalem, Ps. xlix. 12, Hos. viii. 1); but this, though clearly correct, does not correspond to the first part of the verse, according to Hitz.'s translation of it. Graf, on the other hand, gives: Call them (the peoples) out against Jerusalem— a translation which, besides completely destroying the parallelism of the two clauses, violently separates from the proclamation the thing proclaimed: Besiegers come, etc. Nor can flPDOT be taken in the sense: call together, as in I. 29, li. 27, 1 Kings xv. 22; for in that case the object could not be omitted, those who are to be called together would need to be mentioned; and it is too much to assume Dia from the DW an object. The warning cry to Jerusalem runs: B*")¥J, besiegers, (ace. to Isa. i. 8) come from the far country (cf. v. 15), and give their voice (cf. ii. 15); i.e. let the tumult of a besieging army echo throughout the cities of Judah. These besiegers will be like field-keepers round about Jerusalem (\>-V refers back to Jerus.), like field-keepers they will pitch their tents round the city (cf. i. 15) to blockade it. For against me (Jahveh) was she refractory (rno c. ace, per*., elsewhere with 3, llos. xiv. 1, Ps. v. 11, or with *B~JW, Num. XX. 2 i. and often). This is expanded in ver. 18. Thy way, i.e. thy behaviour and thy doings, have wrought thee this (calamity). This is thy wicked ■•'. the i r fruit of thy wickedness, yea, it is
\ rs. L9 26. Grief at die desolation of the land and the infatuation of tl. '»•. — Ver. 19. •• My bowels, my bowels]
within me] i cannot hold my peace] for thou nearest (the) sound of the trumpet, my soul, (the) war-cry. Ver. 20. Destruction upon destruction is called; for spoiled is the whole land: suddenly are my tents spoiled, my curtains in a moment. \ r. 21. How long shall I see (t; indard, hear (the) sound the trumpet I Ver. 22. For my people i> foolish, me they know not. children are they, and without understanding: wise are they to do evil, but to do good they know not. \ er. 23. 1 look on the earth, and, lo, it is waste and void; and towards the h(. and there is no light in them.
Ver. 24. I look on the mountains, and, lo, they tremble, and all the hills totter. Ver. 25. I look, and, lo, no man is there, and all the fowls of the heavens are fled. Ver. 26. I look, and, lo, Carmel is the wilderness, and all the cities thereof are destroyed before Jahveh, before the heat of His anger."
To express the misery which the approaching siege of Jerusalem and the cities of Judah is about to bring, the prophet breaks forth into lamentation, vers. 19-21. It is a much debated question, whether the prophet is the speaker, as the Chald. has taken it, i.e. whether Jeremiah is uttering his own (subjective) feelings, or whether the people is brought before us speaking, as Grot., Schnur., Hitz., Ew. believe. The answer is this: the prophet certainly is expressing his personal feelings regarding the nearing catastrophe, but in doing so he lends words to the grief which all the godly will feel The lament of ver. 20, suddenly are my tents spoiled, is unquestionably the lament not of the prophet as an individual, but of the congregation, Le. of the godly among the people, not of the mass vi the blinded people. The violence of the grief finds vent in abrupt ejaculations of distress. "My bowels, my bowels!" is the cry of sore pain, for with the" Hebrews the bowels are the seat of the deepest feelings. The Chet. ninrox is a monstrosity, certainly a copyist's error for n^nx, as it is in many MSS. and odd., from ^n: I am driven to writhe in agony. The Keri Harris, 1 will wait (cf. Mic. vii. 7), yields no "good sense, and is probably suggested merely by the cohortative form, a cohortative being regarded as out of place in the case of hn. But that form may express also the effort to incite one's own volition, and so would here be rendered in English by: I am bound to suffer pain, or must suffer; cf. Ew. § 228, a. — ^ riiTp, prop, the walls of my heart, which quiver as the heart throbs in anguish. TTlDin is not to be joined with the last two words as if it were part of the same clause; in that case we should expect "'fin. 13ut these words too are an ejaculation. The subject of HDiri is the following *37; cf. xlviii. 36. In defiance of usage, llitz. connects *3? with ^"ins *6: my heart can I not put to silence. But this verb in Hiph. means always: be silent, never: put to silence. Not even in Job xi. 3 can it have the latter meaning; where we have the same verb construed with ace. rci, as in Job xli. 4, and where we must translate: at thy harangues shall the people be silent. The heart cannot be silent, because the soul hears the peal of the war-trumpet. W»B> is 2d pers. fern., as in ii. 20, 33, and freq., the soul being addressed, as in Ps. xvi. 2 (in rrjOK), Ps. xlii. 6, 12. This apostrophe is in keeping with the agitated tone of the whole verse. — Ver. 20. One destruction after another is heralded (on *QB>, see ver. 6j. Ew. translates loosely: wound upon wound meet one another. For the word does not mean wound, but the fracture of a limb; and it seems inadmissible to follow the Chald. and Syr. in taking *njM here in the sense of rnj», since the si£. " meet" does not suit "OP. The thought is this:
tidings are brought of one catastrophe after another, for the devastation extends itself over the whole land and comes suddenly upon the tents, i.e. dwellings of those who are lamenting. Covers, curtains of the tent, is used as synonymous with tents: cf. x.20, Isa. liv. 2. How long shall I see the standard, etc.! is the cry of despair, seeing no prospect of the end to the horrors of the war. The standard and the sound of the trumpet are, as in ver. 5, the alarm-signals on the approach of the enemy.
There is no pro-pert of an end to the horrors, for (ver. 22) the people is bo foolish that it understands only how to do the evil, but not the good; cf. for this v. 21, [sa. i. •">. Mic. vii. 3. \ p. 21 gives God's answer to the woful query, how long the ravaging of the land by war is t<» last. The answer is: as long a- the p ople ts in the folly of its rebellion against God, long will chastising judgments continue. To brine this answer of God home to the people's heart, the prophet, in vers. '. tells what he has sa D in the spirit. He has seen (\TN"i,
'inning of ereati d, <> a. i. 2, before the separation of the elements and before tl of organic and living beings.
In heaven no light was to I nth and h( awn seemed to have been thrown hack into a condition of chaOfl. The mountains and hills, these firm foundations of the earth, quivered and BWayed ("~"~~~. he put into a light motion, cf. Nah. i. ■ men had tied ami hidden themselves from the wrath of God (cf. Isa. ii. 19, 21). and all the birds had flown out of sight in terror at the dreadful I of the beginning catastrophe (ix.
The fruitful field was the wilderness, — not a wilderness, hut u changed into the wilderness with all its attributes" (Ilitz.). ^:~r" is not a /< I. as in ii. 7, but twm. prop. of the lower slopes of Carmel, famed for their fruitfulness; these being taken as representatives of all the fruitful districts of the land. The cities of the Carmel, or of the fruitful-field, are manifestly not to be identified with the store cities of 1 Kings ix. 19, as Ilitz. supposes, but the cities in the most fertile districts of the country, which, by reason of their situation, were in a prosperous condition, but now are destroyed. u Before the heat of His re, 27 31. The devastation of Judah, though not its utter annVtilation, is irrevocably </• and cannot be turned away by
A waste shall the whole land be, yet will I not make an utter end. Ver. 28. For this shall the earth mourn, and the heaven above darken, because 1 have said it, purposed it, and repent it not, neither will 1 turn back from it. Ver. 29. For the noise of the horseman and bowman every city flees; they come into thickets, and into clefts of the rock they go up; every city is forsaken, and no man dwells therein. Ver. 30. And thou, spoiled one, what wilt thou do? Though thou clothest thyself in purple, though thou deckest thee with ornaments of gold, though thou tearest open thine eyes with paint, in vain thou makest thyself fair; the lovers despise thee, they seek thy life. Ver. 31. For 1 hear a voice as of a woman in travail, anguish as of one who bringeth forth her first-born, the voice of the daughter of Zion; she sigheth, she spreadeth out her hands: Woe is mo! for my soul sinketh powerless beneath murderers." Vers. 27 and 26 confirm and explain what the prophet has seen in spirit in vers. 23-26. A waste shall the land become; but the wasting shall not be a thorough annihilation, not such a destruction as befell Sodom and Gomorrah. TO ITO, as in Nah. i. 8 f., Isa. x. 23, and freq. This limitation is yet again in v. 10, 18 made to apply to Jerusalem, as it has done already to the people at large. It is founded on the promise in Lev. xxvi. 44, that the Lord will punish Israel with the greatest severity for its stubborn apostasy from Him, but will not utterly destroy it, so as to break His covenant with it. Accordingly, all prophets declare that after the judgments of punishment, a remnant shall be left, from which a new holy race shall spring; cf. Amos ix. 8, Isa. vi. 13, xi. 11, 16, x. 20 ff., Mic. ii. 12, v. 6, Zeph. iii. 13, etc. "For this" refers to the first half of ver. 27, and is again resumed in the *3 78 following: for this, because Jahveh hath purposed the desolation of the whole land. The earth mourns, as in Hos. iv. 3, because her productive power is impaired by the ravaging of the land. The heaven blackens itself, i.e. shrouds itself in dark clouds
(1 Kings xviii. 45), so as to mourn over the desolated earth. The vividness of the style permits " have decreed it" to be appended as asyndeton to " I have said it," for the sake of greater emphasis. God has not only pronounced the desolation of the land, bnt God's utterance in this is based upon a decree which God does not repent, and from which He will not turn back. The LXX. have placed the *nb| after ^9??, and have thus obtained a neater arrangement of the clauses; but by this the force of expression in k' 1 have said it, decreed it,'' is weakened. In ver, 29 the desolation of the land is further portrayed, set forth in ver. 30 as inevitable, and exhibited in its sad consequences in ver. 31. On the approach of the hostile army, all the inhabitants dee into inaccessible places from the clatter or noise of the horsemen and archers. He that casts the bow, the bowman: cf. Ps. lxxviii. 9. "WPpS means, in spite of the article, not the whole city, but every city, all cities, aa may be gathered from the!'-, which points back to this. So frequently before the definite noun, especially when it is further defined by a relative clan.. Ex. i. 22, Deut. iv. 3, 1 have TTaaa // \o')^a, an 1 accordingly J. I). Mich., Hit/., and i. if pro] ' > amend to)'"N~""r. bo as to avoid kk the clumsy repetition." But we cannot be ruled here by aesthetic principles of taste, dearly the first "every city" means the populace of the cities, and so HC3 is: they (/.,•. the men) come, pouring forth. £'-> is not here clouds, but, according to its etymology, to be dark, means the dark thickets or woods; cf. the Syr. *ni, wood. D*D3, rocks, here clefts in the rocks, as is demanded by the 3. Fur this state of things, cf. Isa. ii. 19, 21, and the accounts of Judg. vi. 2, 1 Sam. xiii. 6, where the Israelites hide themselves from the invading Midianites in caves, ravines, thorn-thickets, rocks, and natural fastnesses. — Ver. 30. In vain will Jerusalem attempt to turn away calamity by the wiles of a courtesan. In ver. 31 the daughter of Zion is addressed, i.e. the community dwelling around the citadel of Zion, or the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the capital of the kingdom, regarded as a female personality (as to P!?~J">2, see on Isa. i. 8). " Spoiled one" is in apposition not to the *flK, but to the person in the verb; it is as adverbial, and so is without inflexion: if thou following clauses introduced by *3 are not so connected with the question, what wilt thou do l. as that ^ should mean that: what wilt thon do, devise to the end that thou mayest clothe thee? (Graf); the *3 means if on though, and introduces new clauses, the apodosis of which is: " in vain," etc. If thou even clothest thyself in purple. V-'\ the crimson dye, and stuffs or fabrics dyed with it, see in Ex. xxv. 4.!jia is a pigment for the eye, prepared from silver-glance, sulphur-antimony — the Cohol, yet much esteemed by Arab women, a black powder with a metallic glitter. It is applied to the eyelids, either dry or reduced to a paste by means of oil, by means of a blunt-pointed style or eyepencil, and increases the lustre of dark eyes so that they seem larger and more brilliant. See the more minute account in Hille, on the eye-paint of the East, in ref. to 2 Kings ix. 30. JTjjJ, tear asunder, not, prick, puncture, as Ew., following J. I). Mich., makes it. This does not answer the mode of using the eve-paint, which was this: the style rubbed over with the black powder is drawn horizontally through between the closed eyelids, and these are thus smeared with the ointment. This proceeding Jeremiah sarcastically terms rending open the eyes. As a wife seeks by means of paint and finery to heighten the charms of her beauty in order to please men and gain the favour of lovers, so the woman Jerusalem will attempt by like stratagems to secure the favour of the enemy; but in vain like Jezebel in 2 Kings ix. 30. The lovers will despise her. The enemies are called lovers, paramours, just as Israel's quest for help amongst the heathen nations is represented as intrigue with them; see on ii. 33, 36.— Ver. 31, as giving a reason, is introduced by *3. Zion's attempts to secure the goodwill of the enemy are in vain, for already the prophet hears in spirit the agonized cry of the daughter Jf Zion, who beseechingly stretches out her hands for help,^and falls exhausted under the assassin's strokes, n^in, partic. Kal fcem. from Wl; see Ew. § 151, b, and Gesen. § 72, Eem. 1. nnv, in parallelism with b\? and dependent on " 1 hear," means cry of anguish. nWin, breathe heavily, pant, sigh. fcnan is joined asynd. with the preceding word, hut is in sense subordinate to it: she sighs with hands spread out;
a pleading gesture expressing a prayer for protection. *|*tf, be exhausted, here = sink down, faint, succumb to the murderers.
Chap. v. TlTE CAUSES WHICH CALLED DOWN" THE JUDG- MENT PRONOUNCED: THE TOTAL CORRUPTION OF THE
PEOPLE. — Chr. V>. Mich, has excellently summed up thus the contents of this chapter: Deus judicia sua, <]u<v c<tj>. IV. prcedixerat, justificat ostenden. quamvis invitum, tamen non alii, r posse </uam punire Judceos propter prcefractam ipsorum malitiavu The train of thought in this chapter i^ the following: (Jed would pardon if there were to he found in Jerusalem hut one who practised righteousness and strove to keep good faith: hut high and low have forsaken God and His law, and serve the false gods. This the Lord must punish (vers. 1-9). Judah, like Israel, disowns the Lord, ami despises the words of His prophets: therefore the Lord must affirm His word by deeds of judgment (vers. LO-18). Because they serve the iat they may learn to fear Him as the Almighty G<>d and Lord of the world, who withholds His benefits from them ause their sius keep them far from Him (vers, 19 25); for wickedness and crime have acquired a frightful predominance (wis. 26 31).
ruption the Lord cannot pardon, — Ver. 1. ik Range through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now, and know, and seek upon her thoroughfare. find any, if any doth judgment,