Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The calamity over which the people mourns is drawing near, ver. 22. Already is heard the tremendous din of a mighty host which approaches from the north to make the cities of Judah a wilderness. TOW b\\) is an exclamation: listen to the rumour, it is coming near. From a grammatical point of view the subject to u comes " is u rumour," but in point of sense it is that of which the rumour gives notice. Graf weakens the sense by gathering the words into one assertory clause: " They hear a rumour come." The " great commotion" is that of an army on the march, the clattering of the weapons, the stamping and neighing of the war-horses; cf. vi. 23, viii. 16. From the land of midnight, the north, cf. i. 14, iv. 6, etc. " To make the cities," etc., cf. iv. 7, ix. 10.— The rumour of the enemy's approach drives the people to prayer, vers. 23-25. The prayer of these verses is uttered in the name of the congregation. It begins with the confession: Not with man is his way, i.e. it is not within man's power to arrange the course of his life, nor in the power of the man who walks to fix his step (I before p?n merely marking the connection of the thought; cf. Ew.' § 348, a). The antithesis to DTO and &*b is mrv6, with God; cf. Ps. xxxvii. 23, Prov. xvi. 9: Man's heart deviseth his way/ but Jahveh established! the steps. The thought is not: it is not in man's option to walk in straight or crooked, good or evil ways, but: the directing of man, the way by which he must go, lies not in his own hut in God's power. Ilitz. justly finds here the wisdom that admits: M Mit unsrrrr Maeht ist nichtsgetan" — man's destiny is ordained not by himself, hut hy God. Upon this acquiescence in God's dispensation of events follows the petition: ('hasten me, for I hi deserved punishment, but chasten i2z^:z. acc. to right, not in Thine anger; cf. Ps. vi. 2, xxxviii. 2, A chastening in anger is the judgment of wrath that shall fall on obstinate sinn and destroy them. A chastening acCt to right is one such as is demanded by right (judgment), as the issue of God's justice, in order to the reclamation and conversion of the repentant sinner. M Lest Thou make me little/1 insignificant, puny; not merely, diminish me, make me smaller than I now am. For such a decrease of the people would result even from a gentle chastisement. There is no comparative' force in the words. To make Bmall, in oth< r words, reduce to a small, insignificant pie. This would he at variance with " right," with God's ordained plan in regard <»f His people. The expression is not equivalent to: not to make an ad, \\\. 11, etc. The pie had no call to pray that they might escape being made an utter rnd uf; thus much had keen promised hy God, iv. 27, v. Id. God is asked to pour forth His fury upon the heathen who know not the Lord nor call upon His name, because they tirpate Jacob (the people of brael) as the people of

(. d, at this time found in Judah alone. The so\a ral words in ver the fury with which the heathen proceed to the destruction of Israel. Th< g is reproduced in Ps.

lxxix. ik 7, a psalm written during the exile, or at least after the destruction of Jerusalem hy the Chaldeans; hut in the reproduction the energetic expansion of the u devoured" is omitted.

In the first part of this compilation of discourses (eh. xi. 1-17) Judah is upbraided for disloyalty to the covenant, on account of which people and kingdom are threatened with sore

In the second part (xi. 18-xii. 17), the murderous attempt of the people of Anathoth against the prophet's life,xi- hs; -;; ion for a description of Judah's irre-

God as to the prosperity of godless men, and the reproof therefor received by him from God (xii. 1-6), call forth an anouncement that, in spite of I uffering, judgment on Judah and all nations will not be for ever deferred (xii. 7-17). Finally, in the third part, ch. xiii., we have first a further account, by means of a symbolical anion to be performed by the prophet, of the abasement of Judah's pride in banishment to the Euphrates (vers. L— 11); and next, an account of the judgment about to fall on Judah in the destruction of Jerusalem, and this both in figurative and in direct language (Vers. 12-27).

From the contents of the discourses it appears unquestionable that we have here, gathered into the unity of a written record, various oral addresses of Jeremiah, together with some of the experiences that befell him in the exercise of his calling. There is no foundation for the assertion, that xii. 7-17 is a selfcomplete prophetic discourse (Ilitz.), or a supplement to the rest, written in the last years of Jehoiakim (Graf); nor for the assumption of several commentators, that the composition of ch. xiii. falls into the time of Jehoiachin, — as will be shown when we come to expound the passages referred to. The discourse throughout contains nothing that might not have been spoken or have happened in the time of Josiah; nor have we here any data for determining precisely the dates of the several portions of the whole discourse.

Chap. xi. 1-17. Judah's disloyalty to the covenant, with the consequences theeeof. — In vers. 2-8 is a short summary of the covenant made with the fathers; in vers. 9-13 is an account of the breaking of this covenant by Judah, and of the calamity which results therefrom; and in vers. 14-17 further description of this calamity.

Vers. 1-8. iC The word which came to Jeremiah from Jahveh, saving: Ver. 2. Hear ve the words of this covenant, and speak to the men of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem,

Ver. 3. And say thou to them: Thus hath Jahveh, the God of Israel, said: Cursed is the man that heareth not the words of this covenant, Ver. 4. Which I commanded your fathers in the day that I brought them forth out of the land of Euvpt, out of the iron furnace, saying: Hearken to my voice, and do them according to all which I command you; so shall ye be my people, and I will be your God; Ver. 5. That I may perform the oath which I have sworn unto your fathers, to <iive them a hind flowing with milk and honey, as it is this day. And I answered and said: So be it, Jahveh. Ver. (>. Then said Jahveh to me: Proclaim all these words in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, saying: Hear ve the words of this covenant and do them. Ver. 7. For I have testified to your fathers in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt unto this day, testifying from early morning on: Hearken to my voice] Ver. 8. But they hearkened not, nor inclined their car. but walked each in the stubbornness of their evil heart: and so I brought on them all the words of this enant which I have commanded them to do, and they have not done them."

The form of address, ver. 2: hear ye ^"~-"). and speak ye (D5")?'!!)j 's noteworthy, since we are not told who are to hear and speak; while at \ in r"-Ni Jeremiah receives the commission to declare the words of the covenant to the people, and to make known in the cities of, Judah, etc. (ver. 6). The difficulty is not removed by the plan adopted by Ilitz. and Graf from the LXX., of changing Dmafl into Em 31V " and speak them;M for the WDB* remains to be dealt with. To whom, then, is it addressed I Schleussner proposed to change it into nyD^ — a purely arbitrary change. In ver. 4 "hearing"' is used in the sense of giving ear to, obeying. And in no other sense can it be taken in ver. 1. " The words of this covenant" are, as is clear from the succeeding context, the words of the covenant recorded in the Pentateuch, known from the reading of the Torah. The call to hear the words thereof can only have the meaning of: to give ear to them, take them to heart. Hence Chr. B. Mich, and Schnur. have referred the words to the Jews: Listen, ye Jews and ye citizens of Jerusalem, to the words of the covenant, and make them known to one another, and exhort one another to observe them. But this paraphrase is hardly consistent with the wording of the verse Others fancied that the priests and elders were addressed; but if so these must Qecessarily have been named. Clearly it is to the prophets in general that the words are spoken, as Kimclii Observed; and we must not take « hear ye" as if the covenant was unknown to the pn.phets, but as intended to remind the prophets ot them, that they might enforce them upon the people. Taken thus, this introductory verse serves to exalt the importance of the truths mentioned, to mark them out as truths which God had commanded all the prophets to proclaim. If it be the prophets in general who are addressed in ver. 2, the transition to " and say thou" is easily explained. Jeremiah, too, must himself do that which was the bounden duty of all the prophets, must make the men of Judah and Jerusalem call to mind the curse overhanging transgressors of the covenant. The words: Cursed is the man, etc., are taken from Deut. xxvii. 26, from the directions for the engagement to keep the covenant, which the people were to solemnise upon their entry into Canaan, and which, ace. to Josh. viii. 30 ff., they did solemnise. The quotation is made freely from memory. Instead of " that heareth not the words of this covenant," we find in Deut. I.e.: " that confirmeth not (D^) the words of this law to do them." The choice there of the word D"»pJ is suggested by its connection with the act of solemnisation enjoined. The recitation and promulgation of the law upon Mount Gerizim and Ebal (Deut. xxvii.) had no other aim than that of solemnly binding the people to keep or follow the law; and this is what Jeremiah means by " hearing." The law to be established is the law of the covenant, i.e. the covenant made by Jahveh with Israel, and spoken of in Deut. xxviii. 69 and xxix. 8 as the " words of this covenant." This covenant, which Moses had made with the sons of Israel in the land of Moab (Deut. xxviii. 69), was but a renewal of that solemnly concluded at Sinai (Ex. xxiv.). And so Jeremiah speaks of this covenant as the one which Jahveh commanded the fathers in the day, i.e. at the time, of their leaving Egypt. " In the day that," etc., as in vii. 22. "Out of the iron furnace;" this metaphor for the affliction endured by Israel in Egypt is taken from Deut. iv. 20. The possess this precious land. The assenting reply of the prophet: rrtrv,%:n. yea, or so he it (yhfovrot LXX.), Lord, corresponds to the |DK with which the people, ace. to Deut. xxvii. 15 ff., re to take on themselves thi - attached to the breaking of the law, corsef which they did take on themselve8 when the law was promulgated in Canaan. As the whole congregation did on that i prophet, by his H yea," expresses bis adherence to the covenant, and admits that the engagement is yet in full force for the congregation of God; and at the sain- time indicates that he, on his part, is ready to labour for the fulfilment of the covenant, so that the people may not become liable to the curse of the law. — Vers. G-S. Having set forth the CUTSe to which tram PS of the law are exposed, God commands the prophet to proclaim the words of the covenant to the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem, and to call upon them to do these. " All these words" are those subsequently specified, Le* the commandments of the law (cf. ver. 2), Jeremiah is to proclaim these, because, in spite of unremitting exhortation to hear and give heed to the voice of the Lord, the fathers had paid no regard thereto. S^P, not: read aloud (Ilitz., Graf), but: proclaim, make known, as in ii. 2, iii. 12, etc. T^H with 3, to testify against any one, equivalent to: solemnly to enforce on one with importunate counsel and warning; cf. Deut. xxx. 19, Ps. 1. 7, etc. On "1J.™ D3B71, see at vii. 13. — But they have not hearkened, ver. 8a, running almost literally in the words of vii. 24. " And I brought upon them," etc., i.e. inflicted upon them the punishments with which transgressors of the law were threatened, which curses had been, in the case of the greater part of the people, the ten tribes, carried to the extreme length, Le, to the length of their banishmenl from their own land into the midst of the heathencf. i' Kings xvii. L3 ff.

spiracy is found among the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. Ver. 10. They are turned back to the iniquities of their forefathers, which refused to give ear to my words and they are gone after other gods to serve them; the house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken my covenant which I made with their fathers. Ver. 11. Behold, I bring evil upon them, from which they cannot escape; and though they cry to me, 1 will not hear them. Ver. 12. And the cities of Judah ami the inhabitants of Jerusalem shall go and cry unto the gods unto whom they offer incense, but they shall not help them in the time of their trouble. Ver. 13. For as many a- are thy cities, so many are thy gods become, O Judah; and as many as are the streets of Jerusalem, so many altars have ye set up to Shame, altars to offer odours to Baal."

Jeremiah is once more to enforce the words of the covenant upon the people, because they have broken the covenant, returned to the idolatry of the fathers. Conspiracy is found, is to be seen. The people's defection from Jahveh, their breach of faith towards the covenant God, is called conspiracy, because it had become as universal as if it had been initiated by a formal preconcertment. " The former fathers," forefathers of the people, are the Israelites under Moses, who broke the covenant by idolatry while still at Sinai, and those of the time of the Judges. With nam the subject is changed; " they" are not the forefathers, but the prophet's contemporaries. In the last clause of ver. 10 is comprehended the apostasy of the whole people: Like Israel, Judah too has broken the covenant. Israel has been punished for this by being cast out among the heathen, the like doom awaits Judah. — Ver. 11. Because of the covenant broken, the Lord will bring on Judah and Jerusalem evil out of which they shall not come forth, i.e. not merely, from which they shall not escape safely, but: in which they shall find no way of rescue; for if in this calamity they cry to the Lord, He will not hear them. Xor will the £ods whom they serve, i.e. the false gods, help them then. As to " as many as are," etc., see on ii. 28. " (The) Shame," i.e. Baal, as at iii. 24.

Vers. 14-17. Neither entreaty on their behalf nor their h>/pocritical worship will avert judgment. — Ver. 14. "But thou, pray not for this people, neither lift up for them cry or prayer; for I hear them not in the time that they cry unto me for their trouble. Ver. 15. What would my beloved in my house? they who practise guile I Shall vows and holy flesh remove thv calamity from thee.' then mavest thou exult. Ver. It). A green olive, fair for its goodly fruit, Jahveh called thy name; with the noise of great tumult He set lire to it, and its branches bra! V P. 17. And Jahveh of hosts, that planted thee, hath decreed evil against thee, for the evil of the house of Israel and of the Iioum' of Judah which they themselves have done, to provoke me, in that they have off' red odours to Baal/1

We have already, in chap. vii. III. met with the declaration that the Lord will not accept any intercession for the covenantbreaking people (ver. 11); the termination of this verse differs slightly in the turn it takes. — ErUH ^±2 the ancient commentators have almost unanimously rendered: tempore mali eorum, as if they had read TO3 (this i>, in fact, the reading of some codd.); but hardly on sufficient grounds. "TO gives a suitable sense, with the force of the Greek djjL<f)i, which, like the German >nn. passes into the en} as the English ahout passes into that of i ning. — In vers. 15-17 we have the reason why the Lord will hear neither the prophet's supplication nor the people's cry in their time of need. Ver. lo is very obscure; and from the Masoretic text it is hardly possible to obtain a suitable sense. u The beloved'' of Jahveh is Judah, the covenant people; cf. Dent, xxxiii. 12, where Benjamin is so called, and Jer. xii. 7, where the Lord calls His people *8?M riVTT. "What is to my beloved in my house?" i.e. what has my people to do in my house — what does it want there? u My house " is the temple of the Lord in Jerusalem, as appears from the mention of holy flesh in the second clause. The main difficulty lies in the words ttSHfl WlSTon nniry. Hitz.

takes rirntPX) to be the subject of the clause, and makes the suffix point back to *W, which, as collective, is to be construed;'rui.: what should the accomplishment of his plans be to my beloved in my house! But as adverse to this we must note, a. the improbability of VT as used of the people beinofeminine; A. the fact that even if we adopt Hitz.'s change of rpn into nteTtpn, yet the latter word does not mean plans or designs to bring offerings. The phrase is clearly to betaken by itself as a continuation of the question; and the suffix to be regarded, with Ew., Umbr., etc., as pointing, in the Aramaic fashion, to the object following: they who practise guile. nrattD, a thinking out, devising, usually of hurtful schemes, here guile, as in Ps. exxxix. 20, Job xxi. 27. What is meant is the hypocrisy of cloaking their apostasy from God by offering sacrifices in the temple, of concealing their idolatry and passing themselves off as worshippers of Jahveh. On the form HJ1BTD, see Ew. § 17o, g, Gesen. § 80, Kern. 2,/. 0\snn makes no sense. It belongs manifestly to the words which follow; for it can neither be subject to "-"'. nor can it be joined to nnsTEri as its genitive. The LXX. render: /i?] zvyal koli tcpea ayia afaXovcnv airo aov ra^ KaKias gov; and following this, Dathe, Dahl., Ew., Ilitz. hold E'n7^ to be the original reading. On the other hand, Maur., Graf, and Nag. think we should read D^"jn (after Ps. xxxii. 7) or D*3"in, crying, loud supplication; on the ground of Buxtorfs hint, Antkrit. p. 661, that probably the Alexandrians had Win in their text, but, changing the 3 for 3, read D*nn. We must make our choice between these two conjectures: for even if D*mn did not stand in the codex used bv the Alexandrians, it cannot have been the original word. The form D*rj is, indeed, sufficiently attested by BJ? TJ, Ps. xxxii. 7: but the meaning of exultation which it has there is here wholly out of place. And we find no case of a plural to nri, which means both exultation and piteous, beseeching cry (e.g. vii. 16). So that, although nj-j is in the LXX. occasionally rendered by Birjai^ (xi. 14, xiv. 12, etc.) or irpoaevxn (1 Kings viii. 28), we prefer the conjecture Oman; for " vow" is in better keeping with " holy flesh," i.e. flesh of sacrifice, Hag. ii. 12, since the vow was generally carried out by offering sacrifice.— Nor do the following words, 'Ul ^?0 njR, convey any meaning, without some alteration. As quoted above, they may be translated:

shall pass away from thee, lint this can mean neither: they shall be torn from thee, nor: they shall disappoint thee. And D if this force did lie in the words, no statement can begin with the following '-">'"> *3. H this be a protasis, the verb is wanting. \\ e shall have to change it, after the manner of the LXX., to Win *yb%Q rQ£: Bhftll vows and holy flesh avert thine evil from thee I For the form najr Hiph. (•;. t~~\ |x, 2, " Thine evil" with the double fore thy sin and shame, and the disaster impending, i.e. sin and (judicial) suffering! There is no on for any further changes. fcj, rendered >) by the 1. X X., and bo read is by them, may be completely vindicated: then, i.e. if this were th< if thou coul rt calamity by sacrifice, then mightest thou exult. ThlU we obtain the following as th of the whole

What mean my people in my temple with their hypocritical sacrifices 1 ("an vows ami i ■■nted by you the] alamitv from you1 If it could be so, well might you sllOUl for j"V.

Thi i^ carried on in vers. 16, 17. Judah (Israel) was truly a noble planting of Qod's, but by defection from the Lord, its I nd Cl drawn down If this ruin.

Jahveh called Judah a with splendid fruit. For a comparison of [srael to an olive,.11. \iv. 7. Ps. lii. 10, cxwi.i..'». The fruit of the: the nation in its individual members. The naming of the name is the representation of the state of the cas—, and so here: th rtll and prosperity of the people. The contracted state is introduced by 'fl ^"ipp without advei:iid is thus mad 'in the n; abrupt and violent (Hitz.). x of tumult (n?W, occurring besides here only in Bzek. i. 24 as equivalent to |to«J), i.e. of the tumult of war, cf. Lsa..ia. 1: not: roar of the thunderstorm or crash of thunder X... I rraf). *?79 f°r r,:?> c^ xvn« 27,.wi. 11. etc. The suffix is regulated by the thing represented by the olive... Judah as a kingdom. Its branches brake: PJH, elsewhere only transitive, here intransitive, analogously to IT) in lsa. xlii. 4. Hitz. renders less suitably: its branches look bad, as being charred, robbed of their gay adornment. On this head cf. Ezek. xxxi. 12. The setting of fire to the olive tree Israel came about through its enemies, who

Judah only, but I! as well, appears from ver. 17 where the L.»d, who has planted [srael, is said to have spoken, i.e.

i not directly =. but intimates also the utterance of the decree by the prophet, err? after VJ7 is dat. incomm.: the evil which they haw done to their hurt; cf. xliv. 3, where the dative is wanting. Hit/, finds in Dr6 an intimation of voluntary

CLAIMABLE, AM) THAT THE SORE J UDGMENTS THREATENED CANNOI BE AVERTED.— As a practical proof of the people's determination not to reform, we have in

\ ers. Is 23 an account of the designs of the inhabitants of Anathoth against the prophets life, inasmuch as it was their illwill towards his prophecies that led them to this crime. They are determined not to hear the word of God, chiding and punishing them for their sins, and so to put the preacher of this word out of the way. — Ver. 18. "And Jahveh gave me knowledge of it, and I knew it; then showedst Thou me their doings. Ver. 19. And I was as a tame lamb that is led to the slaughter, and knew not that they plotted designs against me: Let us destroy the tree with the fruit thereof, and cut him off out of the land of the living, that his name may be no more remembered. Ver. 20. But Jahveh of hosts, that jndgeth justly, trieth reins and heart — I shall see Thy vengeance on them, for to Thee have I confided my cause. Ver. 21. Therefore thus hath Jahveh spoken against the men of Anathoth, that seek after thy life, saying, Thou shalt not prophesy in the name of Jahveh, that thou die not by our hand. Ver. 22. Therefore thus hath Jahveh of hosts spoken: Behold, I will punish them; the young men shall die by the sword, their sons and daughters shall die by famine. Ver. 23. And a remnant shall not remain to them; for I bring evil upon the men of Anathoth, the year of their visitation."

Jeremiah had not himself observed the designs of the people of Anathoth against his life, because the thing was carried on in secret; but the Lord made it known to him. TS, then, sc. when I knew nought of their murderous intent; cf. ver. 19. "Their doings," i.e. those done in secret. Ver. 19. *]W C*33, annus mansuetus, a tame pet-lamb, such as the Arabs used to keep, such as the Hebrews too, 2 Sam. xii. 3, kept: familiar with the household, reared by them in the house, that does not suspect when it is being taken to be killed. In like manner Jeremiah had no suspicion that his countrymen were' harbouring evil designs against him. These designs are quoted directly without ~*-N<\ The saving is a figurative or proverbial one: we will destroy the tree "-""-. This word is variously taken. The ordinary meaning, food for men and beasts, usually br 'ins not to be suitable. And SO Hit/., wishes to read Wlj in its sap (cf. Dent, xxxiv. 7, Ezek. xxi. B), because Drp may mean grain, but it does not mean fruit. Nag. justly remarks against tins view: What is here essential is simply the produce of the tree, furnished for the use of man. The word of the prophet was a food which they abhorred (cf. ver.:M/>). A Drt originally meant food, we here understand by it the edible product of the tree, that is, its fruit, in opposition to sap, wood, leaves. This interpretation is confirmed by tree, see ill. in Rosonm. SehoL ail It. I. The proverbial saving i- given in plain words in the next clause. We will cut him. the prophet) off. etc. — Ver. 20. Therefore Jeremiah calls upon the Lord, as the righteous judge and omniscient searcher of hearts, to punish his enemies. This verse is repeated almost verbally in xx. 12, and in substance in xvii. 10. Who trieth reins and heart, and therefore knows that Jeremiah has done no evil. ^K^X is future as expressing certainty that God will interfere to punish: for to Him he has wholly committed his cause, ^yf^ Pi. of n^s. is taken by Hitz., Ew., etc. in the sense of iv? * on Thee have 1 rolled over my cause; in support of this they adduce Ps. xxii. 9, xxxvii. 5, Prov. xvi. 3, as parallel passages. It is true that this interpretation can be vindicated grammatically, for W>3 might have assumed the form of m

(Ew. 5 121, a). But the passages quoted are not at all decisive, since Jeremiah very frequently gives a new sense to quotations by making slight alterations on them; and in the passage cited we read 3n n« »|. We therefore adhere, with Grot, and Eos., to the usual meaning of nfo; understanding that in making known there is included the idea of entrusting, a force su^t isted by the construction with S>K instead of h. nn controversy cause.— The prophet declares God's vengeance to the.instigators of the plots against his life, vers. 21-23. The introductory formula in ver. 21 is repeated in ver. 22, on account of the long intervening parenthesis. "That thou diest not " is introduced by the ] of consecution. The punishment is to fall upon the entire population of Anathoth; on the young men of military age (^Tinii), a violent death in war; on the children, death by famine consequent on the siege. Even though all had not had a share in the complot, yet were they at heart just as much alienated from God and ill-disposed towards His w owl. - Year of their visitation " is still dependent on " bring.'' This construction is simpler than taking rUB* for accus. adverb., both here and in xxiii. 12.

Chap. xii. 1-6. The prophet's displeasure at the prosperity of the wicked, — The enmity experienced by Jeremiah at the hands of his countrymen at Anathoth excites his displeasure at the prosperity of the wicked, who thrive and live with immunity, lie therefore begins to expostulate with God, and demands from God's righteousness that they be cut off out of the land (vers. 1-4); whereupon the Lord reproves him for this outburst of ill-nature and impatience by telling him that he must patiently endure still worse. — This section, the connection of which with the preceding is unmistakeable, shows by a concrete instance the utter corruptness of the people; and it has been included in the prophecies because it sets before us__tha_great,ness._Qf GodVlcmg-sjxffe^ destruction.

Ver. 1. " Righteous art Thou, Jahveh, if I contend with Thee; yet will I plead with Thee in words. Wherefore doth the way of the wicked prosper, are all secure that deal faithlessly \ Ver. 2. Thou hast planted them, yea, they have taken root; grow, yea, bring forth fruit. Near art Thou in their mouth, yet far from their reins. Ver. 3. But Thou, Jahveh, knowest me, seest me, and triest mine heart toward Thee. Tear them away like sheep to the slaughter, and devote them for a day of slaughter. Ver. 4. How long is the earth to mourn and the herb of the field to wither? For the wickedness of them that dwell therein, gone are cattle and fowl; for they say: He B< not our end. — Ver. 5. If with the footmen thou didst run and they wearied thee, how couldst thou contend with the horses? and if thou trustest in the land of peace, how wilt thou do in the glory of Jordan. \:. 6. For even thy brethren and thy father's house, even they are faithless towards th L, they call after thee with full voice. Believe them not, though they speak friendly to thee.''

The prophet's complaint begins by acknowledging: Thou art righteous, Lord, if 1 would dispute with Thee, i.e. would accuse

Thee of injustice. I could convict Thee of no wrong; Thou wouldst appear righteous and prove Thyself in the right. Ps. li. 6; Job ix. 2ff. With ^ comes in a limitation: only he will speak pleas of right, maintain a suit with Jahveh, will set before Him something that seems incompatible with God's justice, namely the question: Why the way of the wicked pr why they that aet faithlessly are in and comfort I

Qtradiction between the prosperity of the wicked and the justice of God's providence. The way of the wicked is the course of their life, their conduct. God has planted them,

. has placed them in their circumstances of life; like a tree they have struck root into the ground; ti on, i.e. grow, and bear fruit, i.e. their undertakings succeed, although they have God in their mouth only, not in their heart. — Ver. 3. To show that he has cause for his question, Jeremiah appeals to the omniscience of the Searcher of hearts. God knows him, tries his heart, and therefore knows how it is disposed towards Himself (^X belongs to *3?, the UK indicating the relation — here, viz., fidelity — in which the heart stands to God; cf. 2 Sam. xvi. 17). Thus God knows that in his heart there is no unfaithfulness, and that he maintains to God an attitude altogether other than that of those hypocrites who have God on their lips only; and knows too the enmity which, without having provoked it, he experiences. How then comes it about that with the prophet it goes ill, while with those faithless w it goes well! God, as the righteous God, must remove this <•-ntnul.ct.on. And so his request concludes: Tear them out -: of the tearing out of roots, Ezek. xvii. 9); here Hiph. with the same force (pointing hack to the metaphor of their hein<r rooted, ver. 2), implying total destruction. Hence also the illustration: as sheep, that are dragged away out of the flock to be slaughtered. Devote them for the day of slaughter, like annuals devoted to sacrifice.— Ver. 4 gives the motive of his prayer: How Ion- shall the earth suffer from the wickedness of these hypocrites? he visited with drought and dearth for their sins? This question is not be taken as a complaint that G I is punishing without end; Hitz. so takes it, and then proposes to delete it as being out of all connection in sense with ver. 3 or ver. 5. It is a complaint because of the continuance ot God's chastisements, drawn down by the wickedness of the apostates, which are bringing the land to utter ruin. The mourning 0f the land and the withering of the herb is a consequence of great drought; and the drought is a divine chastisement: cf. iii. 3, v. 24 if., xiv. 2 ff., etc. ^But this falls not only on the unfaithful, but upon the godly too, and even the beasts, cattle, and birds suffer from it; and so the innocent alon^ with the guilty. There seems to be injustice in this. To put an end to this injustice, to rescue the innocent from the curse brought by the wickedness of the ungodly, the prophet seeks the destruction of the wicked. HDD, to be swept away. The 3d pers. fern. sing, with the plural ni—, as in Joel i. 20 and often; cf. Ew. § 317, a. Gesen. § 146, 3. " They that dwell therein " are inhabitants of the land at large, the ungodly multitude of the people, of whom it is said in the last clause: they say, He will not see our end. The sense of these words is determined by the subject. Many follow the LXX. (ovk oyjreTcu 6 @eo? 68ovs rjfiwv) and refer the seeing to God. God will not see their end, i.e.- will not trouble Himself about it (Schnur., Ros., and others), or will not pay any heed to their future fate, so that they may do all they choose unpunished (Ew.). But to this Graf has justly objected, that ns"), in all the passages that can be cited fortius sense of the word, is used only of that which God sees, regards as already present, never of that which is future. "He sees" is to be referred to the prophet. Of him the ungodly say, he shall not see their end, because they intend to put him out of the way (Hitz.); or better, in a less special sense, they ridicule the idea that his prophecies will be fulfilled, and say: lie shall not see our end, because his threatening* will not come to pass.

In vers. 5 and 6 the Lord so answers the prophet's complaint a- to reprove his impatience, by intimating that he will have to endure still worse. Both parts of ver. 5 are of the nature of proverbs. It' even the race with footmen made him weary, how will lie he able to compete with horses I rnr.n here and xxii. 15, a Tiph., Aramaic form for Hiph.. arising by the hardening of the n mto n — cf. Hoe. xi. 3, and Ew. § 122, a— rival, vie with.

greater difficulty, applied to the prophet's relation to his enemies. What Jeremiah had to suffer from his countrymen at Anathoth NNas but a trifle compared with the malign assaults that vet awaited him in the discharge of his office. The second mparison conveys the same thought, but with a clearer intimation of the dangers the prophet will undergo. If thou puttesl thy trust in a peaceful land, there alone countest on living in peace and safety, how wilt thou bear thyself in the glory of Jordan I The latter phrase does not mean the swelling of Jordan, its high Hood, SO as that we should, with Umbr. and Ew., have here to think of the danger arising from a great and sudden inundation. It is the strip of land along the bank of the Jordan, thickly overgrown v\ith shrubs, trees, and tall reeds, the lower valley, flooded when the river was swollen, where lions had their haunt, as in the reedy thickets of the Euphrates. IT. v. Schubert, Reue, iii. S. 82; Robins. BibL U> searches in Palestine, i. • 1 Pkys, G jr. of the Holy Land, p. 147.

The u pride of the Jordan" is therefore mentioned in xlix. 19, 1. 44, Zech. xi. 3, as the haunt of lions, and comes before us here as a region where men's lives were in danger. The point of the comparison is accordingly this: Thy case up till this time is, in spite of the onsets thou hast borne, to be compared to a sojourn in a peaceful land; but thou shalt come into much sorer case, where thou shalt never for a moment be sure of thy life. To illustrate this, he is told in ver. 6 that his behave unfaithfully towards him. They will cry behind him plena Jerome; cf. tt^D W")j?, jv. 5), They will cry after him, *• as one cries when pursuing a thief or murderer" (Gr.)« Perfectly apposite is therefore Luther's translation: They set up a hue and cry after thee. These words are not meant to be literally taken, but convey the thought, that even his nearest friends will persecute him as a malefactor. It is therefore a perverse design that seeks to find the distinction between the inhabitants of Anathoth and the brethren and housemates, in a contrast between the priests and the bloodrelations. Although Anathoth was a city of the priests, the men of Anathoth need not have been all priests, since these cities were not exclusively occupied by priests. — In this reproof of the prophet there lies not merely the truth that much sorer suffering yet awaits him, but the truth besides, that the people's faithlessness and wiekedness towards God and men will yet grow greater, ere the judgment of destruction fall upon Judah; lor the divine long-suffering is not yet exhausted, nor has ungodliness vet fairly reached its highest point, so that the final destruction must straightway be carried out. But judgment will not tarry long. This thought is carried on in what follows.

\ ers. 7-17. The execution of the judgment on Judah and its enemies. — As to this passage, which falls into two strophes, vers. 7-13 and vers. 14-17, Hitz., Graf, and others pronounce that it stands in no kind of connection with what immediately precedes. The connection of the two strophes with one another is, however, allowed by these commentators; while Eichh. and Dahler hold vers. 14-17 to be a distinct oracle, belonging to the time of Zedekiah, or to the seventh or eighth year of Jehoiakim. These views are bound up with an incorrect conception of the contents of the passage, — to which in the first place we must accordingly direct our attention.

Yer. 7. "I have forsaken mine house, cast out mine heritage, given the beloved of my soul into the hand of its enemies. Yer. 8. Mine heritarje is become unto me as a lion in the forest, it hath lifted up its voice against me; therefore have I hated it. Yer. 9. Is mine heritage to me a speckled vulture, that vultures arc round about it? Come, gather all the beasts of the field, bring them to devour! Ver. 10. Many shepherds have destroyed my vineyard, have trodden down my ground, have made the plot of my pleasure a desolate wilderness. Ver. 11. They have made it a desolation; it mourneth around me desolate; desolated is the whole land, because none laid it to heart. Ver. 12. On all the bare-peaked heights in the wilderness are spoilers come; for a sword <-;' Jahveh's devours from one end of the land unto the other: no peace to all flesh. Ver. 13. They have? sown wheat and reaped thorns; they have worn themselves weary and accomplished nothing. So then ye shall be put to shame for your produce, beeause of the hot anger of Jahveh."

Ver. 11. u Thus saith Jahveh against all mine evil neighbour':, that touch the heritage which 1 have given unto my pie [srael: Behold, I pluck them out of their land, and the house of Judah will I pluck out of their midst. Ver. 1 5. But after I have plucked them out, I will pity them again, and bring them back, each to his heritage, and each into his land. Ver. 16. And it shall be, if they will learn the ways of my people, to swear by mv name: As Jahveh livoth, as they have taught my people to swear by Baal, then they shall be built in the midst of my j >eople. Ver. 17. But if they hear! not, I will pluck up such a nation, utterly destroying it, saith Jahveh.*'

Hitz. and Graf, in opposition to other commentators, will have the stroph<. 7 13, to be taken not as prophecy, but a lament on the devastation which Judah, after Jehoiakim's defection from Nebuchadnezzar in the eighth year of his reign, had suffered through the war of spoliation undertaken against insurgent Judah bv those neighbouring nations that had maintained their allegiance to Chaldean supremacy, 2 Kings xxiv. 2 f. In support of this, Gr. appeals to the use throughout of unconnected perfects, and to the prophecy, ver. 14 ff., joined with this description; which, he says, shows that it is something complete, existing, which is described, a state of affairs on which the prophecy is based. For although the prophet, viewing the future with the eyes of a seer as a thing present, often describes it as if it had already taken place, yet, he says, the context easily enables as in Buch a case to recognise the description as prophetic, which, ace. to Graf, is not the case here. This argument is void of all force. To show that the use of unconnected perfects proves nothing, it is sufficient to note that such perfects are used in ver. 6, where Ilitz. and Gr. take ^3 and **Oj3 as prophetic. So with the perfects in ver. 7. The context demands this. For though no particle attaches ver. 7 to what precedes, yet, as Graf himself alleges against Hitz., it is shown by the lack of any heading that the fragment (vers. 7-13) is " not a special, originally independent oracle;" and just as clearly, that it can by no means be (as Gr. supposes) an appendix, stuck on to the preceding in a purely external and accidental fashion. These assumptions are disproved by the contents of the fragment, which are simply an expansion of the threat of expulsion from their inheritance conveyed to the people already in xi. 14-17; an expansion which not merely points back to xi. 14-17, but which most aptly attaches itself to the reproof given to the prophet for his complaint that judgment on the ungodly was delayed (xii. 1-6); since it discloses to the prophet God's designs in regard to His people, and teaches that the judgment, though it may be delayed, will not be withheld. — Vers. 7 ff. contain sayings of God, not of the prophet, who had left his house in Anathoth, as Zwingli and Bugenhagen thought. The perfects are prophetic, i.e. intimate the divine decree already determined on, whose accomplishment is irrevocably fixed, and will certainly by and by take place. " My house " is neither the temple nor the land inhabited by Israel, in support whereof appeal is unjustly made to passages like Hos. viii. 1, ix. 15, Ezek. viii. 12, ix. 9; but, as is clearly shown by the parallel " mine heritage," taken in connection with what is said of the heritage in ver. 8, and by " the beloved of my soul," ver. 7, means the people of Israel, or Judah as the existing representative of the people of God (house = family); see on Hos. viii. 1. 'rtarj — ni?m Dy, Deut. iv. 20, cf. Isa. xlvii. 6, xix. 25. rmT, object of my soul's love, cf. xi. 15. This appellation, too, cannot apply to the land, but to the people of Israel. — Ver. 8 contains the reason why Jahveh gives up His people for a prey. It has behaved to God like a lion, i.e. has opposed Him fiercely like a furious beast. Therefore He must withdraw His love. To give with the voice = to lift up the voice, as in Ps. xlvi. 7, lxviii. 34. " Hate" is a stronger expression for the withdrawal of love, shown by delivering Israel into the hand of its enemies, as in Mai. i. 3. There is no reason for taking *H«?.^ as inchoative (Ilitz., I learned to hate it). The " hating" is explained fully in the following verses. In ver. 9 the meaning of JA33f DU?n is disputed. In all other places where it occurs B'V means a bird of prey, cf. Isa. xlvi. 11, or collective, birds of prey, Gen. xv. 11, Isa. xviii. 6. V^>', comm., <.</. Gesen. in thes. But with this the asyndeton by way of connection with D$ does not well consist: is a bird of prey, a hyaena, mine heritage 1 On this ground Boch. (Meroz. ii. p. L76, ed. Uos.) sought to make good the claim of D?P to mean u beast of prey," but without proving his case. Nor is there in biblical lb •!>. any sure ease for gOJf in the meaning of hyena; and the Rabbinical usage would appear to be founded on this interpretation of the word in the passage before us. JQ¥,

Ew., Graf, Nag. The prophet alludes to the well-known fact of natural history, that u whenever a strange-looking bird is en amongst the others, whether it be an owl of the night amidst the birds of day, or a bird of gay, variegated plumage amidst those of duskier hue, the others pursue the unfamiliar intruder with loud cries and unite in attacking it." Hitz., with reference to Tacit. Ann. vi. 28, Sueton. Cces. 81, and Plin. Hist N. x. 19. The question is the expression of amazement, and is assertory. *? is dat. etJdc, intimating sympathetic participation (Nag.), and not to be changed, with Gr., into "?. The next clause is also a question: are birds of prey round about it (mine heritage), so. to plunder it? This, too, is meant to convey affirmation. With it is connected the summons to the boasts of prey to gather round Judah to devour it. The words here come from Isa. lvi. 9. The beasts are emblem for enemies. WU1 is not first mode or perfect (Hitz.), but imperat., contracted from l^Wl, as in Isa. xxi. 14. The same thought IS, in ver. 10, carried on under a figure that is more directly expressive of the matter in hand. The perfects in vers. 10-12 are once more prophetic. The shepherds who (along with their Hocks, of course) destroy the vineyard of the Lord are the kings of the heathen, Nebuchadnezzar and the kings subject to him, with their warriors. The " destroying" is expanded in a manner consistent with the figure; and' here we must not fail to note the cumulation of the words and the climax thus produced. They tread down the plot of ground, turn the precious plot into a howling wilderness. With " plot of my pleasure" cf. 'U1."Ron ps, hi. 19.

In ver. 11 the emblematical shepherds are brought forward in the more direct form of enemy, no^, he (the enemy " they" impersonal) has changed it (the plot of ground) into desolation. It mourneth vjf, round about me, desolated. Spoilers are come on all the bare-topped hills of the desert. "i^"P is the name for such parts of the country as wrere suited only for rearing and pasturing cattle, like the so-called wilderness of Judah to the west of the Dead Sea. A sword of the Lord's (i.e. the war sent by Jahveh, cf. xxv. 29, vi. 25) devours the whole land from end to end; cf. xxv. 33. "All flesh " is limited by the context to all flesh in the land of Judah. Tf3 in the sense of Gen. vi. 12, sinful mankind; here: the whole sinful population of Judah. For them there is no Bw? welfare or peace. — Ver. 13. They reap the contrary of what they have sowed. The words: wheat they have sown, thorns they reap, are manifestly of the nature of a saw or proverb; certainly not merely with the force of meliora exspectaverant et venenuit pessima (Jerome); for sowing corresponds not to hoping or expecting, but to doing and undertaking. Their labour brings them the reverse of what they aimed at or sought to attain. To understand the words directly of the failure of the crop, as Yen., Ros., Hitz., Graf, Nag. prefer to do, is fair neither to text nor context. To reap thorns is not — to have a bad harvest by reason of drought, blight, or the ravaging of enemies. The seed: wheat, the noblest grain, produces thorns, the very opposite of available fruit. And the context, too, excludes the thought of agriculture and " literal harvesting." The thought that the crop turned out a failure would be a very lame termination to a description of how the whole land was ravaged from end to end by the sword of the Lord. The verse forms a conclusion which sums up the threatening of vers. 7-12, to the effect that the people's sinful ongoings will bring them sore suffering, instead of the good fortune they hoped for. WD, they have worn themselves out, exhausted their strength, and lured no profit. Thus shall ye be put to shame for your produce, ignotninously disappointed in your hopes for the issue of

\.1117. The spoilers of the Lord's heritage are also to be carried off out of their land; but after they, like Judah, have been punished, the Lord will have pity on them, and will bring them back one and all into their own land. And if the heathen, who now seduce the people of God to idolatry, learn the w.ivs of God's people and be converted to the Lord, they shall receive citizenship amongst God's people and be built up amongst them; but if they will not do so, they shall be extirpated. Thus will the Lord manifest Himself before the whole earth as righteous judge, and through judgment secure the d not only of Lrael, but of the heathen peoples too. By thi» discovery of His world-plan the Lord makes so complete a reply to the prophet's murmuring concerning the prosperity of the ungodly (vert. 1-6), that from it may clearly be seen the justice of <> I's government on earth. Viewed thus, both raphes of the passage before us (vers. 7-17) connect themselves singularly well with vers. 1-6.— Ver. 14. The evil neighbours that lay 'hands on Jahveh's heritage are the neighbouring heathen nations, the Edomites, Moabites, Ammonites, Philistines, and Syrians. It does not, however, follow that this threatening has special reference to the event related in 2 Kinns xxiv. '2, and that it belongs to the time of Jehoiakim. These nations were always endeavouring to assault Israel, and made use of every opportunity that seemed favourable for waging war against them and subjugating them; and not for the first time during the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, at which time it was indeed that they suffered the punishment here pronounced, of being carried away into exile. The neighbours are brought up here simply as representatives of the heathen nations, and what is said of them is true for all the heathen. The transition to the first person in *MB> is like that in xiv. 15. Jahveh is possessor of the land of Israel, and so the adjoining peoples are His neighbours. 3 MJ, to touch as an enemy, to attack, cf. Zech. ii. 12. I pluck the house of Judah out of their midst, i.e. the midst of the evil neighbours. This is understood by most commentators of the carrying of Judah into captivity, since B>ru cannot be taken in two different senses in the two corresponding clauses. For this word used of deportation, cf. 1 Kings xiv. 15. "Them," ver. 15, refers to the heathen peoples. After they have been carried forth of their land and have received their punishment, the Lord will again have compassion upon them, and will bring back each to its inheritance, its land. Here the restoration of Judah, the people of God, is assumed as a thing of course (cf. ver. 1G and xxxii. 37, 44, xxxiii. 26).— Ver. 16. If then the heathen learn the ways of the people of God. What we are to understand by this is clear from the following infinitive clause: to swear in the name of Jahveh, viz. if they adopt the worship of Jahveh (for swearing is mentioned as one of the principal utterances of a religious confession). If they do so, then shall they be built in the midst of God's people, i.e. incorporated with it, and along with it favoured and blessed. — Ver. 17. But they who hearken not, namely, to the invitation to take Jahveh as the true God, these shall be utterly destroyed. 12^ ^nJ, so to pluck them out that they may perish. The promise is Messianic, cf. xvi. 19, Isa. lvi. 6 f., Mic. iv. 1-4, etc., inasmuch as it points to the end of God's way with all nations.

Chap. xiii. The humiliation of Judah's tribe. — The first section of this chapter contains a symbolical action which sets forth the corruptness of Judah (vers. 1-11), and shows in figurative language howT the Lord will bring Judah's haughtiness to nothing (vers. 12-14). Upon the back of this comes the warning to repent, and the threatening addressed to the kino; and queen, that the crown shall fall from their head, that Judah shall be carried captive, and Jerusalem dishonoured, because of their disgraceful idolatry (vers. 15-27).

Vers. 1-11. The spoilt girdle, — Ver. 1. "Thus spake Jahveh unto me: Go and buy thee a linen girdle, and put it upon thy loins, but into the water thou shalt not bring it. Ver. 2. So I bought the girdle, according to the word of Jahveh, and put it upon my loins. Ver. 3. Then came the word of Jahveh to me the second time, saving: Ver. 4. Take the girdle which thou hast bought, which is upon thy loins, and arise, and go to the Euphrates, and hide it there in a cleft of the rock. Ver. 5. So I went and hid it, as Jahveh had commanded me. Ver. 6. And it came to pa<s after many days, that Jahveh said unto me: Arise, go to the Euphrates, and bring thence the girdle which 1 commanded thee to hide there. Ver. 7. And 1 went to the Euphrates, and digged, and took the girdle from the place where I had hid it; and, behold, the girdle was marred, was Lr<>"d for nothing. Ver. 8. And the word of Jahveh came to me, saying: Ver. 9. Thus hath Jahveh said, After this manner will I mar the pride of Judah, the great pride of Jerusalem. Ver. 10. This evil people, which refuse to hear my words, which walk in the stubbornness of their heart, and walk after other gods, to them and to worship them, it shall l)e as this girdle which is good for nothing. Ver. 11. For as the girdle cleaves to the loins of a man, so have 1 caused to cleave unto me the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah, Baith Jahveh; that it might be to me for a people and for a name, for a praise and for an ornament; but they hearkened n<

With regard to the symbolical action imposed on the prophet and performed by him, the question arises, whether the thing took place in outward reality, or was only an occurrence in the spirit, in the inward vision. The first view seems to be supported by the wording of the passage, namely, the twice repeated account of the prophet's journey to the Phrat on the strength of a twice repeated divine command. But on the other hand, it has been found very improbable that " Jeremiah should twice have made a journey to the Euphrates, merely to prove that a linen girdle, if it lie long in the damp, becomes spoilt, a thing lie could have done much nearer home, and which besides everybody knew without experiment" (Graf). On this ground Etos., Graf, etc, hold the matter for a parable or an allegorical tale. Bat this view depends for support on the erroneous assumption that the specification of the Euphrates is of no kind of importance for the matter in hand; whereas the contrary may he gathered from the four times repeated mention of the place. Nor is anything proved against the real performance of God's command by the remark, that the journey thither and back on both occasions is spoken of as if it were a mere matter of crossing a field. The Bible writers are wont to set forth such external matters in no very circumstantial way. And the great distance of the Euphrates — about 250 miles — gives us no sufficient reason for departing from the narrative as we have it before us, pointing as it does to a literal and real carrving out of God's command, and to relegate the matter to the inward region of spiritual vision, or to take the narrative for an allegorical tale. — Still less reason is to be found in arbitrary interpretations of the name, such as, after Bochart's example, have been attempted by Ven., Hitz., and Ew. The assertion that the Euphrates is called rns 1H3 everywhere else, including Jer. xlvi. 2, 6, 10, loses its claim to conclusiveness from the fact that the prefaced "liTj is omitted in Gen. ii. 14, Jer. Ii. 63. And even Ew. observes, that "fifty years later a prophet understood the word of the Euphrates at li. 63." Now even if li. 63 had been written by another prophet, and fifty years later (which is not the case, see on chap. 1. ff.), the authority of this prophet would suffice to prove every other interpretation erroneous; even although the other attempts at interpretation had been more than the merest fancies. Ew. remarks, " It is most amazing that recent scholars (Hitz. with Ven. and Dahl.) could seriously come to adopt the conceit that H"J3 is one and the same with TT&X (Gen. xlviii. 7), and so with Bethlehem;" and what he says is doubly relevant to his own rendering. TT\B, he says, is either to be be understood like c^y, of fresh water in general, or like L^i, a place near the water, a crevice opening from the wrater into the land,— interpretations so far fetched as to require no serious refutation.

More important than the question as to the formal nature of the emblematical action is that regarding its meaning; on which the views of commentators are as much divided. From the interpretation in vers. 9-11 thus much is clear, that the girdle is the emblem of Israel, and that the prophet, in putting on and wearing this girdle, illustrates the relation of God to the folk of His covenant (Israel and Judah). The further significance of the emblem is suggested by the several moments of the action. The girdle does not merely belong to a man's adornment, but is that part of his clothing which he must put on when about to undertake any laborious piece of work. The prophet is to buy and put on a linen girdle. D^B, linen, was the material of the priests' raiment, Ezek. xliv. 17 f., which in Ex. xxviii. 40, xxxix. 27 ft', is called WP, white byssus, or T?, linen. The priest's girdle was not, however, white, but woven parti-coloured, after the four colours of the curtains of the sanctuary, Ex. xxviii. 40, xxxix. 29. Wool (TOT) is in Ezek. xliv. 18 expressly excluded, because it causes the body to sweat. The linen girdle points, the* to the priestly character of

[srael, called to be a holy people, a kingdom of priests (Ex. xix. 6). "The purchased white girdle of linen, a man's pride and adornment, is the people bought out of Egypt, yet in its in0 as it was when the Lord bound it to Himself with the bands of love" (Umhr.). The prohibition that follow-;, -into water thou shalt not bring it," is variously interpreted. Chr. B. Mich. te tie madefiat et faeilius dein com- putrescat; to the same effect Dahl., Ew., Umbr., Graf: to keep it safe from the hurtful effects of damp. A view which refutes itself; since washing does no kind of harm to the linen girdle, but rather makes it again as good as new. Thus to the point writes N •• remarking justly at the same time, that the command not to bring the girdle into the water plainly implies that the prophet would have washed it when it had become soiled. This was not to be. The girdle was to remain dirty, and as such to be carried to the Euphrates, in order that, as Ros. and Maur. observed, it might symbolize sordes quas contraxerit populus in dies majores, mores populi manis magisque lapsi, and that the carrying of the soiled girdle to the Euphrates mmht set forth before the eves of the people what awaited it, after it had long been borne by God covered with the filth of its sins. -The just appreciation of this prohibition leads us >ily to the true meaning of the command in ver. 4, to brincr the girdle that was on his loins to the Euphrates, and there to conceal it in a cleft in the rock, where it decays. By it is signified, as Chr. B. Mich., following Jerome, observes, populi I ChaldcBOs citra Euphratem captivitas et exilium. Graf has objected: " The corruptness of Israel was not a consequence of the Babylonish captivity; the latter, indeed, came about in consequence of the existing corruptness." But this objection stands and falls with the'amphibolia of the word corruptness, decay. Israel was, indeed, morally decayed before the exile; but the mouldering of the girdle in the earth by the Euphrates signifies not the moral but the physical decay of the covenant people, which, again, was a result of the moral decay of the period during which God had, in His long-suffering, borne the people notwithstanding their sins. Wholly erroneous is the view adopted by Gr. from Umbr.: the girdle decayed by the water is the sin-stained people which, intriguing with the foreign gods, had in its pride cast itself loose from its God, and had for long imagined itself secure under the protection of the gods of Chaldea. The hiding of the girdle in the crevice of a rock by the banks of the Euphrates would have been the most unsuitable emblem conceivable for representing the moral corruption of the people. Had the girdle, which God makes to decay by the Euphrates, loosed itself from him and imagined it could conceal itself in a foreign land? as Umbr. puts the case. According to the declaration, ver. 9, God will mar the great pride of Judah and Jerusalem, even as the girdle had been marred, which had at His command been carried to the Euphrates and hid there. The carrying of the girdle to the Euphrates is an act proceeding from God, by which Israel is marred; the intriguing of Israel with strange gods in the land of Canaan wras an act of Israel's own, against the will of God. — Ver. 6. After the course of many days — these are the seventy years of the captivity — the prophet is to fetch the girdle again. He went, dirked pan, whence we see that the hiding in the cleft of the rock was a burying in the rocky soil of the Euphrates bank), and found the girdle marred, fit for nothing.

These words correspond to the effect which the exile was designed to have, which it has had, on the wicked, idolatrous race. The ungodly should, as Moses1 law, Lev. xxvi. 36, 39, declared, perish in the land of their enemies; the land of their enemies will devour them, and they that remain shall pine or moulder away in their iniquities and in the iniquities of their fathers. This mouldering (^') is well reproduced in the marring (nnir:) of the girdle. It is no contradiction to this, that a part of the people will be rescued from the captivity and brought back to the land of their fathers. For although the girdle which the prophet had pat on his loins symbolized the people at lame, vet the decay of the same at the Euphrates sets forth only the physical decay of the ungodly part of the people, as ver. 10 intimates in clear words: u This evil people that refuses to hear the word of the Lord, etc., shall he as this girdle." The Lord will mar the |i*3 of,Iudah and Jerusalem. The word means highness in both a good and in an evil sense, glory and Belf-glory. Here it is used with the latter force. This is shown both by the context, and by a comparison of the passage Lev. xxvi. 19, that God will break the ft PN3 of the people by sore judgments, which is the foundation of the present ver. 9. — In ver. 1 1 the meaning of the girdle is given, in order to explain the threatening in vers. 9 and 10. As the girdle lies on the loins of a man, so the Lord hath laid Israel on Himself, that it may be to Him for a people and for a praise, for a glory and an adornment, inasmuch as He designed to set it above all other nations and to make it very glorious; cf. Deut. xxvi. 19, whither these words point back.

Vers. 1 - 17. How tin Lord will destroy His dearnerate people, and hoic they may yet escape the impending ruin. — Ver. 12. " And speak unto them this word: Thus hath Jahveh the God of Israel said, Every jar is filled with wine. And when they say to thee, Know we not that every jar is filled with wine? Ver. 13. Then say to them: Thus hath Jahveh said: Behold, I fill all inhabitants of this land — the kings that sit for David upon his throne, and the priests, and the prophets, and all inhabitants of Jerusalem— with drunkenness, Ver. 14. And dash them one against another, the fathers and the sons together, saith Jahveh; I will not spare, nor pity, nor have mercy, not to destroy them.

-\ er. 1 5, Hear ye and gnre ear! Be not proud, for Jahveh speaketh. \ er. 1 6. Give to Jahveh, your God, honour, ere He bring darkness, and before your feet stumble upon the mountains oi dusk, and ye look for light, but He turn it into the shadow Of death and make it darkness. Ver. 17. But if ye hear it not then in concealment shall my soul weep for the pride, and weep and rundown shall mine eye with tears, because the flock of Jahveh is carried away captive."

To give emphasis to the threatening conveyed in the symbolical action, the kind and manner of the destruction awaiting them is forcibly set before the various ranks in Judah and Jerusalem by the interpretation, in vers. 12-14, of a proverbial saying and the application of it to them. The circumstantial way in which the figurative saying is brought in in ver. 12 is designed to call attention to its import, feu, an earthenware vessel, especially the wine jar (cf. Isa. xxx. 24, Lam. iv. 2), is here the emblem of man; cf. xviii. 6, Isa. xxix. 16. We must not, as Nag. does, suppose the simile to be used because such jars are an excellent emblem of that carnal aristocratic pride which lacked all substantial merit, by reason of their being of bulging shape, hollow within and without solidity, and of fragile material besides. No stress is laid on the bulging form and hollowness of the jars, but only on their fulness with wine and their brittleness. Nor can aristocratic haughtiness be predicated of all the inhabitants of the land. The saying: Every jar is filled with wine, seemed so plain and natural, that those addressed answer: Of that we are well aware. " The answer is that of the psychical man, who dreams of no deeper sense" (Hitz.). Just this very answer gives the prophet occasion to expound the deeper meaning of this word of God's. As one fills all wine jars, so must all inhabitants of the land be filled by God with wine of intoxication. Drunkenness is the effect of the intoxicating wine of God's wrath, Ps. lx. 5. This wine Jahveh will give them (cf. xxv. 15, Isa. li. 17, etc.), so that, filled with drunken frenzy, they shall helplessly destroy one another. This spirit will seize upon all ranks: upon the kings who sit upon the throne of David, not merely him who was reigning at the time; upon the priests and prophets as leaders <>(" the people; and upon all inhabitants of Jerusalem, the metropolis, the spirit and temper of which exercises an unlimited influence upon the temper and destiny of the kingdom at large. I dash them one against the other, as jars are shivered when knocked together. Here Hitz. finds a foreshadowing of civil war, by which they should exterminate one another. Jeremiah was indeed thinking of the staggering against one another of drunken men, but in "dash them," etc., adhered simply to the figure of jars or pots. But what can be meant by the shivering of pots knocked together, other than mutual destruction? The kingdom of Judah did not indeed fall by civil war; but who can deny that the fury of the various factions in Judah and rusalem did really contribute to the fall of the realm? The shattering of the pots does not mean directly civil war; it is given as tiie result of the drunkenness of the inhabitants, under which they, no long ihle of self-control, dash against and reminds us of the stratagem of Gideon and bis 800 warriors, who, by the sound of trumpets and the smashing of jars, threw the v. hole Midianite camp into such panic, that these foes turned their swords again another and iled in wild confusion: Judg. vii. 19 ff., cf. too 1 Sam. xiv. 20. Thus shall Judah be broken without mercy or pity. To inCJ the xv.."), cf. K/ek. v. 11, vii. 1. 9, etc. — Yer. 15 fi\ With this threatening the prophet couples a solemn exhortation not to leave the word of the Lord unheeded in their pride, but to give J the glory, ere judgment fall on them. To give God the glory is, in this connection, to acknowledge His glory by coni of apostasy from Him and by returning to Him in sincere repentance; cf..Josh. vii. 19, Mai. ii. 2. 4v Your (iod," who has attested Himself to you as God. The Iliph. *Jt?rr is not used intransitively, either here or in Ps. exxxix. 12, but transitively: before He brings or makes darkness; cf. Amos viii. '.>. Mountains of dusk, i.e. mountains shrouded in dusk, are the emblem of unseen stumbling-blocks, on which one stumbles and falls. Light and darkness are well-known emblems of prosperity and adversity, welfare and misery. The suffix in rfOW goes with "lis, which is construed feminine here as in Job xxxvi. o'2. Shadow of death — deep darkness; ^iy, cloudy night, i'.e. dark night. The diet, rwh is imperf., and to be read n^; the Ken rvtf is uncalled for and incorrect.— Ver. 17. Knowing their obstinacy, the prophet adds: if ye hear it (what I have declared to you) not, my soul shall weep. In the concealment, dere (ugentes amant, ut impensius flere nt (Chr. B. Mich.). For the pride, sc. in which ye persist. With tears mine eye shall run down because the flock of Jahveh,

. the people of God (cf. Zech. x. 3), is carried away into captivity (perfe 7. proph.).

Vers, is i>7. The fall of the kingdom, the captivity of Judah, with upbraiding* against Jerusalem for her grievous guilt in the matter of idolatry.— Ver. 18. " Say unto the king and to the sovereign lady: Sit you low down, for from your heads falls the crown of your glory. Ver. 19. The cities of the south are shut and no man openeth; Judah is carried away captive all of it, wholly carried away captive. Ver. 20. Lift up your eyes and behold them that come from midnight! Where is the flock that was given thee, thy glorious flock? Ver. 21. What wilt thou say, if lie set over thee those whom thou hast accustomed to thee as familiar friends, for a head? Shall not sorrows take thee, as a woman in travail? 22. And if thou say in thine heart, Wherefore cometh this upon me? for the plenty of thine iniquity are thy skirts uncovered, thy heels abused. Ver. 23. Can an Ethiopian change his skin, and a leopard his spots? Then may ye also do good that are accustomed to doing evil. Ver. 24. Therefore will I scatter them like chaff that flies before the wind of the wilderness. Ver. 25. This is thy lot, thine apportioned inheritance from me, because thou hast forgotten me and trustedst in falsehood. Ver. 26. Therefore will I turn thy skirts over thy face, that thy shame be seen. Ver. 27. Thine adultery and thy neighing, the crime of thy whoredom upon the hills, in the fields, I have seen thine abominations. Woe unto thee, Jerusalem! thou shalt not be made clean after how long a time yet! "

From ver. 18 on the prophet's discourse is addressed to the king and the queen-mother. The latter as such exercised great influence on the government, and is in the Books of Kings mentioned alongside of almost all the reigning kings (cf. 1 Kings xv. 13, 2 Kings x. 13, etc.); so that we are not necessarily led to think of Jechoniah and his mother in especial. To them he proclaims the loss of the crown and the captivity of Judah. Set yourselves low down (cf. Gesen. § 142, 3, b), i.e. descend from the throne; not in order to turn aside the threatening danger by humiliation, but, as the reason that follows shows, because the kingdom is passing from you. For fallen is DD*I}JW"|0, your head-near, lit. what is about or on your head (elsewhere pointed IWtOD, 1 Sam. xix. 13, xwi. 7), namely, your splendid crown. The perf. here is prophetic. The crown falls when the king loses country and kingship. This is put expressly in ver. li). The meaning of the iirst half of the verse, which is variously taken, may be gathered from the second. In the latter the complete deportation of Judah is spoken of as an accomplished fact, because it is as sure to happen as if it had taken place already. Accordingly the first clause cannot bespeak expectation merely, or be understood, as it is by Grotius, meaning that Judah need hope for no help from Egypt. This interpretation is irreconcilable with " the cities of the south." "The Booth" is the south country of Judah, cf. Josh, x. 40, Gen. xiii. 1, etc., and is not to be taken according to the prophetic use of u king of the south," Dan. xi. 5, (J. The shutting of the cities is not to be taken, with Jerome, of siege by the enemy, as in Josh. vi. J. There the closedness is otherwise illustrated: No man was going out or in; here, on the other hand, it is: No man opeiieth. ''Shut" is to be explained according to Lsa. xxiv. 10: the cities are shut up by reason of ruins which block up the entrances to them; and in them is none that can open, because all Judah is utterly carried away. The cities of the south are mentioned, not because the enemy, avoiding the capital, had first brought the southern part of the land under his power, as Sennacherib had once advanced against Jerusalem from the south, 2 Kings xviii. 13 f., xix. 8 (Graf, Nag., etc.), but because they were the part of the kingdom most remote for an enemy approaching from the north; so that when they were taken, the land was reduced and the captivity of all Judah accomplished. For the form TOn see Ew. § 194, a, Ges. § 75, Rem. 1. l?c\?v is adverbial accusative: in entirety, like trig*?, Ps. lviii. 2, etc. For this cf. n^9 HDT^j xVmos i. 6, 9.

The announcement of captivity is carried on in ver. 20 where we haw first an account of the impression which the carrying away captive will produce upon Jerusalem (vers. 20 and 21), and next a statement of the cause of that judgment In Hfo and W a feminine is addressed, and, as appears from the suffix in DOTty one which is collective! The same holds good of the following verses on to ver. 27 where Jerusalem is named, doubtless the inhabitants of it, personified as the daughter of Zion— a frequent case. Nag. is wrong in supposing that the feminines in ver. 20 are called for by the previously mentioned queen-mother, that vers. 20-22 are still addressed to her, and that not till ver. 23 is there a transition from her in the address to the nation taken collectively and regarded as the mother of the country. The contents of ver. 20 do not tally with Nag.'s view; for the queen-mother was not the reigning sovereign, so that the inhabitants of the land could have been called her flock, however great was the influence she might exercise upon the king. The mention of foes coming from the north, and the question coupled therewith: Where is the flock % convey the thought that the flock is carried off by these enemies. The flock is the flock of Jahveh (ver. 17), and, in virtue of God's choice of it, a herd of glorionsness. The relative clause: " that was given thee," implies that the person addressed is to be regarded as the shepherd or owner of the flock. This will not apply to the capital and its citizens; for the influence exerted by the capital in the country is not so great as to make it appear the shepherd or lord of the people. But the relative clause is in good keeping with the idea of the daughter of Zion, with which is readily associated that of ruler of land and people. It intimates the suffering that will be endured by the daughter of Zion when those who have been hitherto her paramours are set up as head over her. The verse is variously explained. The old transll. and comm. take?5? 1j?3 in the sense of visit, chastise; so too Chr. B. Mich, and Ros.; and Ew. besides, who alters the text ace. to the LXX., changing ^Pf. into the plural HpSP. For this change there is no sufficient reason; and without such change, the signif. visit, punish, gives us no suitable sense. The phrase means also: to appoint or set over anybody; cf. e.g. xv. 3. The subject can only be Jahveh. The words from RW onwards form an adversative circumstantial clause: and yet thou hast accustomed them SJvJf, for $7N, to thee (cf. for TB? c. **, x. 2). The connection of the words WVrh D*B;W depends upon the Big. assigned to DwK, Gesen. (flies.) and Bos. still adhere to the meaning taken by Luther, Vat., and many others, viz. principes, princes, taking for the sense of the whole: whom thou hast accustomed (trained) to be princes over thee. This word is indeed the technical term for the old Edomitish chieftains of clans, Gen. xxxvi. 15 ff., and is applied as an archaic term by Zech. ix. 7 to the tribal princes of Judah; but it does not. as a general rule, mean prince, but familiar, friend, Ps. lv. 11. PrOY. wi. 28, Mic. vii. 5; cf. Jer. xi. 19. This being the well-attested signification, it is, in the first place, not competent to render!Jvlf over or against thee [adversus to, Jerome); and HitZ.'s exposition: thou hast instructed them to thy hurt, hast taught them a disposition hostile to thee, cannot be justified by usage. In the second place, D*d5>H cannot be attached to the principal clause, " set over thee," and joined with:' for a head:" if He set over thee — as princes for a head; but it belongs to " hast accustomed,'' while only - for a head" goes with " if lie set" (as de Wet., Uinbr., Nag., etc., construe). The prophet means the heathen kings, for whose favour. Judah had hitherto been intriguing, the Babylonians and Egyptians. There is no cogent reason for referring the words, as many coinin. do, to the Babylonians alone. For the statement is quite general throughout; and, on the one hand, Judah had, from the days of Ahaz on, courted the alliance not of the Babylonians alone, but of the Egyptians too (cf. ii. 18); and, on the other hand, after the death of Josiah, Judah had become subject to Egypt, and had had to endure the grievous domination of the Pharaohs, as Jeremiah had threatened, ii. 16. If God deliver the daughter of Zion into the power of these her paramours, i.e. if she be subjected to their rule, then will grief and pain seize on her as on a woman in childbirth; cf. vi. 24, xxii. 23, etc. n*f? nrs, woman of bearing; so here only, elsewhere TTjh^ (cf. the passages cited); nr> is in/in., as in Isa. xxxvii. 3. 2 Kings xix. 3, Hos. ix. 11. — Ver. 22. This will befall the daughter of Zion for her sore transgressions.

Therefore will she bo covered with scorn and shame. The manner of her dishonour, discovery of the skirts (here and ^P- in Vl'r: 26), recalls Nah. iii. 5, cf. Isa. xlvii. 3, Hos. ii. 5. Chr. B. Mich, and others understand the violent treatment of the heels to be the loading of the feet with chains; but the mention of heels is not in keeping with this. Still less can the exposure of the heels by the upturning 0f the skirts be called maltreatment of the heels; nor can it be that, as Hitz. holds, the affront is simply specialized by the mention of the heels instead of the person. The thing can only mean, that the person will be driven forth into exile barefoot and with violence, perhaps under the rod; cf. Ps. lxxxix. 52.— Ver. 23. Judah will not escape this ignominious lot, since wickedness has so grown to be its nature, that it can as little cease therefrom and do good, as an Ethiopian can wash out the blackness of his skin, or a panther change its spots. The consequential clause introduced by Cnx D3 connects with the possibility suggested in, but denied by, the preceding question: if that could happen, then might even ye do good. The one thing is as impossible as the other. And so the Lord must scatter Judah among the heathen, like stubble swept away by the desert wind, lit. passing by with the desert wind. The desert wind is the strong east wind that blows from the Arabian Desert; see on iv. 11.

In ver. 25 the discourse draws to a conclusion in such a wTay that, after a repetition of the manner in which Jerusalem prepares for herself the doom announced, we have again, in brief and condensed shape, the disgrace that is to befall her. This shall be thy lot. Hitz. renders "tf/U? ri:D: portion of thy garment, that is allotted for the swelling folds of thy garment (cf. Ruth iii. 15, 2 Kings iv. 39), on the ground that TD never means mensura, but garment only. This is, however, no conclusive argument; since so many words admit of two plural forms, so that D^D might be formed from fTO; and since so many are found in the singular in the forms of both genders, so that, alongside of rro, ID might also be used in the sense of mensura; especially as both the signiff. measure and garment are derived from the same root meaning of TlD. We therefore adhere to the usual rendering, portio mensura? tuce, the share portioned out to thee. 18W, causal, because. Trusted in falsehood, i.e. both in delusive promises (vii. 4, 8) and in the help of beingless gods (xvi. 19). — In the ^N'DJ"! lies the force of reciprocation: because thou hast forgotten me, etc., I too have taken means to make retribution on your unthankfulness (Calv.). The threatening of this verse is word for word from Kah. iii. 5. — For her lewd idolatry Jerusalem shall be carried off like a harlot amid mockery and disgrace. In ver. 27 the language is cumulative, to lay as great stress as possible on Jerusalem's idolatrous ongoings. Thy lewd neighing, i.e. thy ardent longing for and running after strange gods; cf. v. 8, ii. 24 f. n^r, as in Ezek. xvi. 27, xxii. \\ etc., of the crime of uncleanness, see on Lev. xviii. 17. The three words are accusatives dependent on Win, though separated from it by the specification of place, and therefore summed up again ID u thine abominations." The addition: in the field, after " upon the hills," ifl meant to make more prominent the publicity of the idolatrous work. The concluding sentence: thou shalt not become clean for how long a time yet, is not to be regard. contradictory of ver. 23. which affirms that the pond the reach of reformation; \vr. 23 is not a hyperbolical.statement, reduced within its true limits here. What is said in ver. '2',) is true of the present generation, which cleaves immoveablj to wickedness. It does not exclude the possibility of a future reform on the part of the people, a purification of it from idolatry. Only this cannot be attained for a long time, until after sore and long-lasting, purifying judgments. Cf. xii. 14 f., iii. 18 ff.

The distress arising from a lengthened drought (xiv. 2-6) gives the prophet occasion for urgent prayer on behalf of his people (xiv. 7-9 and 19-22); but the Lord rejects all intercession, and gives the people notice, for their apostasy from Him, of their coming destruction by sword, famine, and pestilence (xiv. 10-18 and xv. 1-9). Next, the prophet complains of the persecution he has to endure, and is corrected by the Lord and comforted (xv. 10-21). Then he has his course of conduct for the future prescribed to him, since Judah is, for its sins, to be cast forth into banishment, but is again to be restored (xv.. 1-xvii. -1). And the discourse concludes with general considerations upon the roots of the mischief, together with prayers for the prophet's safety, and statements as to the way by which judgment may be turned aside.

This prophetic word, though it had its origin in a special period of distress, does not contain any single discourse such as may have been delivered by Jeremiah before the people upon occasion of this calamity, but is, like the former sections, a summary of addresses and utterances concerning the corruption of the people, and the bitter experiences to which his office exposes the proplut. For these matters the special event above mentioned serves as a starting-point, inasmuch as the deep moral degradation of Judah, which must draw after it yet sorer judgments, is displayed in the relation assumed by the people to the judgment sent on them at that time.— The various attempts of recent commentators to dissect the passage into single portions, and to assign these to special points of time and to refer them to particular historical occurrences, have proved an entire failure, as Graf himself admits. The whole discourse moves in the same region of thought and adheres to the same aspect of affairs as the preceding ones, without suggesting special historical relations. And there is an advance made in the prophetic declaration, only in so far as here the whole substance of the discourse culminates in the thought that, because of Judah's being bardened in sin, the judgment of rejection can now in no way be turned aside, not even by the intercession of those whose prayers would have the greatest weight.

Chap. xiv. 1-xv. 9. The uselessness of prayer on behalf of the people. — The title in ver. 1 specifies the occasion for the following discourse: What came as word of Jahveh to Jeremiah concerning the drought. — Besides here, ^ IIWjj is made to precede the TVISV 1T\ in xlvi. 1, xlvii. 1, xlix. 34; and so, by a kind of attraction, the prophecy which follows receives an outward connection with that which precedes. Concerning the matters of the droughts. rti"ia?3? plur. of nnjQ, Ps. ix. 10, x. 1, might mean harassments, troubles in general. But the description of a great drought, with which the prophecy begin-.

taken along with xvii. 8, where FHta occurs, meaning drought, lit. cutting off, restraint of rain, shows that the plural here is to be referred to the sing, mta (cf. nnniM'y from n"irCT), and that it means the withholding of rain or drought (as freq. in Chald.). We must note the plur., which is not to be taken as intensive of a great drought, but points to repeated droughts. Withdrawal of rain was threatened as a judgment against the despisers of God's word (Lev. xxvi. 1(.* f.; Dent. xi. 17, xxviii. 23); and this chastisement has at various times been inflicted on the sinful people; cf. iii. 3, xii. 1, wiii. 10, Hag. i. 10 f. As the occasion of the present prophecy, we have therefore to regard not a single great drought, hut a succession of droughts. Hence we cannot ii.x the -time at which the discourse was composed, since we have no historical notices as to the particular times at which God was then punishing His people by withdrawing the rain.

\ re. 2 6, I ' tcription of the distress arising from the drouaht. — Ver. -. u Jndafa mourneth, and the gates thereof languish, lie mourning on the ground, ami the cry of Jerusalem goeth up. \ i t. 3. Their nobles send their moan ones for water: they no to the wells, find no water, return with empty pitchers, are ashamed and confounded and cover their head. Ver. 4. For the ground, which is confounded, because no rain is fallen upon the earth, the husbandmen are ashamed, cover their head. Ver. 5. Xea, the hind also in the field, she beareth and forsaketh it, because there i> no crass. Ver. (5. And the wild asses Btand on the bare-topped heights, gasp for air like the jackals; their tail because there is no herb."'

The country and the city, the distinguished and the mean, the field and the husbandmen, are thrown into deep mourning, and the beasts of the field pine away because neither grass nor herb grows. This description gives a touching picture of the distress into which the land and its inhabitants have fallen for lack of rain. Judah is the kingdom or the country with its inhabitants; the gates as used poetically for the cities with the citizens. Not mankind only, but the land itself mourns and pines away, with all the creatures that live on it; cf. ver. 4, where the ground is said to be dismayed along with the tillers of it. The gates of the cities are mentioned as being the places where the citizens congregate. &»K, fade away, pine is strengthened by: are black, U, mourn, down to "the earth; pregnant for: Bet themselves mourning on the ground. As frequently, Jerusalem Is mentioned alongside of Judah as being capital. Their cry of anguish rises up to heaven. This universal mourning Is specialize 1 from ver. 3 on. Their nobles i.e. the distinguished men of Judah and Jerusalem, send their mean ones,, their retainers or servants and maids, for water to the wells (Z'i:. pits, 2 Kings iii. 16, here cisterns). The Chet, Tto$ Ikiv and in xlviii. 4, is an unusual form for 17'f Km, Finding no water, they return, their vessels empty,. with empty pitchers, ashamed of their disappointed hope. —2 is strengthened by the synonym vAn*). Covering the head is a token of deep grief turned inwards upon itself; cf. 2 Sam. xv. 30, xix. 5. n?7^? is tne ground generally. nnn is a relative clause: qua consternata est. " Because no rain," etc., literally as in 1 Kings xvii. 7. — Even the beasts droop and perish. *3 is intensive: yea, even. The hind brings forth and forsakes, sc, the new-born offspring, because for want of grass she cannot sustain herself and her young. SiTJJ, infin. abs. set with empha>is for the temp, fin., as Gen. xli. 43, Ex. viii. 11, and often; cf. Gesen. § 131, 4, a, Ew. § 351, c. The hind was regarded by the ancients as tenderly caring for her young, cf. Boch. Hieroz. i. lib. 3, c. 17 (ii. p. 254, ed. Eos.). The^wild asses upon the bleak mountain-tops, where these animals choose to dwell, gasp for air, because, by reason of the dreadful drought, it is not possible to get a breath of air even on the hills. Like the B':n, jackals, cf. ix. 10, x. 22, etc. Valg. has dracones, with the Aram, versions; and Hitz. and Graf are of opinion that the mention of jackals is not here in point, and that, since D*3fl does not mean dracones, the word stands here, as in Ex. xxix. 3, xxxii. 2, for i*3fl, the monster inhabiting the water, a crocodile or some kind of whale that stretches its head out of the water to draw breath with gaping jaws. On this Nag. has well remarked: he cannot see why the gaping, panting jaws of the jackal should not serve as a figure in such a case as the present. Their eyes fail away — from exhaustion due to want of water. 3b'y, bushes and under-shrubs, as distinguished from KB*J, green grass.

Vers. 7-0. The prayer.— Ver. 7. "If our iniquities testify against us, 0 Jahveh, deal Thou for Thy name's sake, for many are our backslidings; against Thee have we sinned. Ver. 8. Thou hope of Israel, his Saviour in time of need, why wilt Thou be as a stranger in the land, like a wayfarer that hath put up to tarry for a night 1 Ver. 9. Why wilt Thou be as a man astonied, as a mighty man that cannot help, and yet Thou art in the midst of US, Jahveh, and Thy name is named upon us

The prophet utters this prayer in the name of his people (cf. ver. 11). It begins with confession of sore transgression. Thus the chastisement which has befallen them they have deserved as a jost punishment; bat the Lord is besought to help for His name's sake. i.«.not: "for the sake of Thy honour, with which it is not consistent that contempt of Thy will should go unpunished" I 11 ta.). This interpretation suits neither the, 0f ^ Dame of God nor the context. The name of God is the manifestati< d 'sbeing. From M » j' timeon,God, isJahvehjht Jed Himself as the Redeemer and Saviour of the children of [srael, whom He had adopted to be His people, and a ■ who is merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and of great goodness and faithfuhu i Ex. xxxiv. 6). As BUch He is besought to reveal Himself now that they confess their backsliding and sin, and seek His grace. Not for the sake of His honour in the eyes of the world, lest the heathen believe He bas no power to help, as Graf holds, for all reference to the heathen nations is foreign to this connection; but lie is entreated to help, not to belie the hope of His people, because 1. tts hope in Him as Saviour in time of need (ver. 9).

It by withholding rain He makes His land and people to pine, then He does not reveal Himself as the lord and owner of Judah, not as the God that dwells amidst His people; but He seems a stranger passing through the land, who sets up His tent there only to spend the night, who " feels no share in the weal and woe of the dwellers therein" (Hitz.). This is the meaning of the question in ver. Sb. The ancient expositors take nS elliptically, as in Gen. xii. 8: that stretches out His tent to pass the night. Hitz., again, objects that the wayfarer does not drag a tent about with him, and, like E\v., takes this verb in the sense of swerve from the direct route, cf. 2 Sam. ii. 19, 21, etc But the reason alleged is not tenable; since travellers did often carry their tents with them, and ntpj, to turn oneself, is not used absolutely in the sig. to turn aside from the way, without the qualification: to the right or to the left. ■WD is in use for to turn aside to tarry, to turn in, Jer. xv. 5. Wo therefore abide by the old interpretation, since "swerve from the way" has here no suitable meaning. — Ver. 9. The pleader makes further appeal to God's almighty power. It is impossible that Jahveh can let Himself look like a man at his wit's end or a nerveless warrior, as He would seem to be if He should not give help to His people in their present need. Since the time of A. Schultens the air. \ey. sr\l) is rendered, after the Arab, ^j, to make an unforeseen attack, by stupefactus, attonitus, one who, by reason of a sudden mischance, has lost his presence of mind and is helpless. This is in keeping with the next comparison, that with a warrior who has no strength to help. The passage closes with an appeal to the relation of grace which Jahveh sustains towards His people. nn&O comes in adversatively: yet art Thou in our midst, i.e. present to Thy people. Thy name is named upon us, i.e. Thou hast revealed Thyself to us in Thy being as God of salvation; see on vii. 10. onan-?^ lit. lay us not down, i.e. let us not sink.

Vers. 10-18. The Lord's ansiver.—Ver. 10. " Thus saith Jahveh unto this people: Thus they loved to wander, their feet they kept not back; and Jahveh hath no pleasure in them, now will He remember their iniquities and visit their sins. Ver. 11. And Jahveh hath said unto me: Pray not for this people for their good. Ver. 12. When they fast, I hear not their cry; and when they bring burnt-offering and meat-offering, I have no pleasure in them; but by sword, and famine, and pestilence will I consume them. Ver. 13. Then said I: Ah Lord Jahveh, behold, the prophets say to them, Ye shall see no sword, and famine shall not befall you, but assured peace give I in this place. Ver. 14. And Jahveh said unto me: Lies do the prophets prophesy in my name: I have not sent them, nor commanded them, nor spoken to them; lying vision, and divination, and a thing of nought, and deceit of their heart they prophesy to yon. Ver. 15. Therefore thus saith Jahveh concerning the prophets that prophesy in my name, when I have not sent them, who yet say, Sword and famine shall not be in this land: By sword and famine shall these prophets perish. Ver. 16. And the people to whom they prophesy shall lie cast out upon the streets of Jerusalem, by reason of the famine and of the sword, and none will bury them, them and their wives, their sons and their daughters; and I pour their wickedness upon them. Ver. 17. And thou shalt say to them this word: Let mine eyes run down with tears day and night and let them not cease; for with a great breach is broken the virgin-daughter of my people, with a very grievous blow. Ver. 18. It I go forth into the 6 eld, behold the slain with the sword: and if I come into the city, b hold thorn that pine with famine; for prophet and priest pass into a land and know it not."

To the prophet's prayer the Lord answers in the first place, ver. 1<>. by pointing to the backsliding of the people, for which IK- is now punishing them. In the u tllUS they love," etc., lies a backward reference to what precedes. The reference is certainly not to the vain going for water (ver. 3), a- Oh. B. Mich, and U. Salomo llaecohen thought it was; nor is it to the description of the animals afflicted by thirst, vers. 5 and 6, in which Nag. finds a description of the mate, unbridled lust after idolatry, the real and final cause of the ruin that has befallen Israel. Where could be the likeness between the wild ass's panting for breath and the wandering of the Jews { That to which the k* thus" refers must be sought for in the body of the prayer to which Jahveh makes answer, as Ros. rightly saw. Not by any means in the fact that in ver. (J the Jews prided themselves on being the people of God and yet went after false gods, so that God answered: ita amant vacillare, as good as to say: ita instabiles illos esse, ut 7iu?ic ab ipso, nunc ah aliis auxilium quasrant (Ros.); for 5^3 cannot here mean the waving and swaying of reeds, but only the wandering after other gods, cf. ii. 23, 31. This is shown by the addition: they kept not back their feet, cf. with ii. 25, where in the same reference the withholding of the feet is enjoined. Graf is right in referring thus to the preceding prayer: u Thus, in the same degree as Jahveh has estranged Himself from His people (cf. vers. 8 and 9), have they estranged themselves from their God." They loved to wander after strange gods, and so have brought on themselves God's displeasure. Therefore punishment comes on them. The second clause of the verse is a reminiscence of Hos. viii, 13.— After mentioning the reason why He punishes Judah, the Lord in ver. 11 f. rejects the prayer of the prophet, because He will not hear the people's cry to Him. Neither bv means of fasts nor sacrifice will they secure God's pleasure. The prophet's prayer implies that the people will humble themselves and turn to the Lord. Hence God explains His rejection of the prayer by saying that He will give no heed to the people's fasting and sacrifices. The reason of this appears from the context, — namely, because they turn to Him onlv in their need, while their heart still cleaves to the idols, so that their prayers are but lip-service, and their sacrifices a soulless formality. The suffix in Mft refers not to the sacrifices, but, like that in DJ13"}, to the Jews who, by bringing sacrifices, seek to win God's love. *3, but, introducing the antithesis to " have no pleasure in them." The sword in battle, famine, and pestilence, at the siege of the cities, are the three means by which God designs to destroy the backsliding people; cf. Lev. xxvi. 25 f.

In spite of the rejection of his prayer, the prophet endeavours yet again to entreat God's favour for the people, laying stress, ver. 13, on the fact that they had been deceived and confirmed in their infatuation by the delusive forecastings of the false prophets wdio promised peace. Peace of truth, i.e. peace that rests on God's faithfulness, and so: assured peace will I give you. Thus spoke these prophets in the name of Jahveh; cf. on this iv. 10, v. 12. Hitz. and Graf propose to change cfe DDK into riENI DvtP, ace. to xxxiii. 6 and Isa. xxxix. 8, because the LXX. have akr\Quav koX elpr)vr)v. But none of the passages cited furnishes sufficient ground for this. In xxxiii. G the LXX. have rendered elpr)vr)v ical ttigtiv, in Isa. xxxix. 8, elprjvr) teal hiKcuocrvvr]; giving thereby a clear proof that we cannot draw from their rendering any certain inferences as to the precise words of the original text. Nor do the parallels prove anything, since in them the expression often varies in detail. But there can be no doubt that in the mouth of the pseudo-prophets " assured peace" is more natural than " peace and truth." But the Lord does not allow this excuse. He lias not sent the prophets that so prophesy: they prophesy lying vision, divination, falsehood, and deceit, and shall themselves be destroyed by sword and famine. The cumulation of the words, u lying vision," etc., shows God's wrath and indignation at the wicked practices of these men. Graf wants to delete *> before /v*, and to couple W\X with Cpp, so as to make one idea: prophecy of nought. For this he can allege none other than the erroneous reason that CDp, taken by itself, does not efficiently correspond to ''lying vision," inasmuch as, he says, it lias not always a bad sense attached to it; whereas the tact is that it is nowhere used for genuine prophecv. The Chet, wi* ind IW1H are unusual formations, for which the usual formfl are substituted in the Km. Deceit of their heart is not Belf-deceit, but deceit which their heart has devised; cf. xxiii. 26. lint the people to whom these prophets prophesied are to perish by sword and famine, and to lie unburied in the streets of Jerusalem; cf. viii. 2, xvi. 4. They are not therefore held i i because false prophets told them lies, for they have given credit to these 1; that flattered their sinful -ions, and have not been willing to hear or take to heart the word of the true prophets, who preached repentance and return to God.1 To Ilitz. it seems surprising that, in describing the punishment which is to fall on seducers and seduced, there should not be - judgment, in words at least, levelled Against the sedu being those involved in the deeper guilt: whereas the very contrary is the case in the Hebrew text. Ilitz. further propoi rid of this discrepancy by conjectures founded on the L\ X.. yet without clearly informing us how we are to read. But the difficulty solves itself as soon as

1 The Berleburg Bible says:;' They wish to hare such teachers, aii<l even to bring it about that there shall be so many deceiving workers, because they can hardly even endure or listen to the upright ones. That is the reason why it is to go no better with them than we see it is." Calvin too has suggested the doubt: posset tamen videri parum humaniter arjere Devs. quod tarn duras pauas infiitjit miscris hnminibus, qui aliunde decepti sunt, and has then given the true solution: cirtum est, nisi ultro mundus appeteret m< hducia, non tamtam fore efficaciam diaboli ad fallcndum. Quod igitur ita rapiuntur homines ad imposturas, hoc Jit eorum culpa, quoniam may is jnopeusi sunt ad vanitatem, quam ut se Deo et vtrbo ejus subjiciant.

we pay attention to the connection. The portion of the discourse before as deals with the judgment which is to burst on the godless p (ople, in the courseof which those who had seduced the people are only casually mentioned. For the purpose in hand, it was sufficient to say briefly of the seducers that they too should perish by sword and famine who affirmed that these punishments should not befall the people, whereas it was necessary to set before the people the terrors of this judgment in all their horror, in order not to fail of effect. With the reckoning of the various classes of persons: they, their wives, etc., cf. the account of their participation in idolatry, vii. 18. Hitz. rightly paraphrases T — ri: and in this wise will I pour out. DTIjn, not: the calamity destined for them, but: their wickedness which falls on them with its consequences, cf. ii. 19, Hos. ix. lo, for propheta r causam reddere, cur Deus horribile