Mud judicium exequi statuerit contra Judteos, nempe quoniam mi erant tali mercede (Calv.). — Ver. 17. The words,"and speak unto them this word,"' surprise us, because no word from God follows, as in xiii. 12, but an exposition of the prophet's- feelinns in regard to the dreadful judgment announced. Hence Dahl. and Ew. propose to join the words in question with what goes before, while at the same time Ew. hints a suspicion that an entire sentence has been dropped after the words. But for this suspicion there is no ground, and the joining of the words with the preceding context is contrary to the unfailing usage of this by no means infrequent formula. The true explanation is found in Kimchi and Calvin. The prophet is led to exhibit to the hardened people the grief and pain he feels in contemplating the coming ruin of Judah, ut pavorem illis incuteret, si forte, cum hcec audirent, resipiscerent (Kimchi). If not his words, then surely his tears; for the terrible calamity he has to announce must touch and stagger them, so that they may be persuaded to examine themselves and consider what it is that tends to their peace. To make impression on their hardened consciences, he depicts the appalling ruin, because of which his eyes run with tears day and night. On " run down," etc., cf. ix. 17, xiii. 17, Lam. ii. 18, etc. " Let them not cease" gives emphasis: not be silent, at peace, cf. Lam. iii. 49, i.e. weep incessantly day and night. The appellation of the people:
virgin-daughter of my people, i.e. daughter that is my people, ef. viii. 11, corresponds to the love revealing itself in tears. The depth of sorrow is further shown in the clause: with a blow that is very dangerous, cf. x. 19. In ver. 18 the prophet portrays the condition of things after the fall of Jerusalem: out upon the field are those pierced with the sword; in the city 3y*J ^^D?j lit. suffering of famine, Deut. xxix. 21, here abstr. pro concr. of those pining in famine; and those that remain in life depart into exile. Instead of the people Jeremiah mentions only the prophets and priests as being the flower of God's people. ino, to wander about, in llebr. usually in the way of commerce, here ace. to Aram, usage, possibly too with the idea of begging Bub joined. In the U'T fcftl Graf holds the 1 to be entirely ont of place, while Hitz. pronounces against him. The words are variously taken; r.n. and know nothing, wander rat aimless and helpless. But with this the omission of the article with ]'~N j. incompatible. The omission shows that u ami know not n furnishes an attribute to " into a land." We therefore translate: and know it not = which they know not, since the pronominal suflix is wont to be often omitted where it can without difficulty be supplied from the preceding clause.
Vers. 19 22 and xv. 1—9.!!>/t>>r>J supplication and repeated rejection of the same. — Ver. 1(.). u I last thou then really rejected Judahl or doth thy soul loathe Zion? Why hast Thou smitten us, so that there is no healing for us? We look for ice, and there is no good; for the time of healing, and behold terror! \:. 20, We know, Jahveh, our wickedness, the iniquity of our fathers, for we have sinned against Thee. Ycr. 21. Abhor not, for Thy name's sake; disgrace not the throne of Thy glory; remember, break not Thy covenant with us! Vi p. 22. Are there among the vain gods of the Gentiles givers of rain, or will the heavens give showers? Art not Thou (He), Jahveh our God? and we hope in Thee, for Thou hast made all these."
Chap. xv. 1. u And Jahveh said unto me: If Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet would not my soul incline to this people. Drive them from my face, that they go forth. Ver. 2. And if they say to thee: Whither shall we go forth? then say to them: Thus hath Jahveh said — Such as are for death, to death; and such as are for the sword, to the sword; and such as are for the famine, to the famine; and such as are for the captivity, to the captivity. Ver. 3. And I appoint over them four kinds, saith Jahveh: the sword to slay and the doo-s to tear, the fowls of the heaven and the cattle of the earth, to devour and destroy. Ver. 4. And I give them up to be abused to all kingdoms of the earth, for Manasseh's sake, the son of Hezekiah king of Judah, for what he did in Jerusalem. Ver. 5. For who shall have pity upon thee, Jerusalem? and who shall bemoan thee? and who shall go aside to ask after thy welfare! Ver. 6. Thou hast rejected me, saith Jahveh; thou goest backwards, and so I stretch forth mine hand against thee and destroy thee; I am weary of repenting. Ver. 7. And I fan them with a fan into the gates of the land: bereave, ruin my people; from their ways they turned not. Ver. 8. More in number are his widows become unto me than the sand of the sea; I bring to them, against the mother of the young man, a spoiler at noon-day; I cause to fall upon her suddenly anguish and terrors. Ver. 9. She that hath borne seven languished, she breatheth out her soul, her sun goeth down while yet it is day, she is put to shame and confounded; and their residue I give to the sword before their enemies, saith Jahveh."
The Lord had indeed distinctly refused the favour sought for Judah; yet the command to disclose to the people the sorrow of his own soul at their calamity (vers. 17 and 18) gave the prophet courage to renew his supplication, and to ask of the Lord if He had in very truth cast off Judah and Zion (ver. 19), and to set forth the reasons which made this seem impossible (vers. 20-22). In the question, ver. 19, the emphasis lies on the fi°NO, strengthened as it is by the inf. abs.: hast Thou utterly or really rejected? The form of the question is the same as that in ii. 14; first the double question, dealing with a state of affairs which the questioner is unable to regard as being actually the case, and then a further question, conveying wonder at what has happened. 7W, loathe, cast from one, is synonymous with DNO. The second clause agrees verbally with viii. 15. The reasons why the Lord cannot have wholly rejected Judah are: 1. That they acknowledge their wickedness. Confession of sin is the beginning of return to God; and in case of such return, the Lord, by His compassion, lias vouchsafed to His people forgiveness and the renewal of covenant blessings; cf. Lev. xxvi. 41 ff., Deut. xxx. 2 ff. Along with their own evil doinu, the transgression of their fathers is mentioned, cf. ii. 5 ff., vii. 25 ff., that full confession may be made of the entire weight of wickedness for which Israel has made itself answerable. So that, on its own account, Jodah has no claim upon the help of its God. But the Lord may be moved thereto by regard for His name and the covenant relation. ()n this is founded the prayer of ver. 21: Abhor not, 80. thy people, for Thy name's sake, lest Thou appear powerless to help in the eyes of the nations; see on wr. 7 and on Num. xiv. 1(5. feu, lit. to treat as fools, see on Deut. xxxii. 15, here: make contemptible. The throne of the glory of God is the temple, where.Jahveh sits enthroned over the ark of the covenant in the holy of holies, Ex. xxv. 22,. The destruction of Jerusalem would, by the sack of the iple, dishonour the throne of the Lord. The object to « remember," viz. " Thy covenant," comes after " break not." The remembering or rememberednesa of the covenant is shown in the not breaking maintenance of the same; cf. Lev. xxvi. 44 f. Lastly, we have in ver. 22 the final motive for supplication: that the Lord alone can put an end to trouble. Neither the vain gods of the heathen (Otal, see viii. 19) can procure rain, nor can the heaven, as one of the powers of nature, without power from God. HW HFIK, Thou art (tttl is the copula between subject and predicate). Thou hast made all these. Not: the heaven and the earth, as llitz. and Gr. would make it, after [sa. xxxvii. 16; still less is it, with Calv.: the punishment inflicted on us; but, as rfrs demands, the things mentioned immediately before: erafcm, pluvias et quidquid est in omni rerum natura, Ros. Only when thus taken, does the clause contain any motive for: we wait upon Thee, i.e. expect from Thee help out of our trouble. It further clearly appears from this verse that the supplication was called forth by the calamity depicted in vers. 2-5.
Chap, xv- 1-9. Decisive refusal of the petition. — Ver. 1. Even Moses and Samuel, who stood so far in God's favour that by their supplications they repeatedly rescued their people from overwhelming ruin (cf. Ex. xvii. 11, xxxii. 11 f., Num. xiv. 13 ff., and 1 Sam. vii. 9 U xii. 17 f., Vs. xcix. 6), if they were to come now before the Lord, would not incline His love towards this people.?« indicates the direction of the soul towards any one; in this connection: the inclination of it towards the people, lie has cast off this people and will no longer let them come before His face. In vers. 2-9 this is set forth with terrible earnestness. We must supply the object, " this people," to " drive M from the preceding clause. " From my face " implies the people's standing before the Lord in the temple, where they had appeared bringing sacrifices, and by prayer invoking His help (xiv. 12). To go forth from the temples to go forth from God's face. Yer. 2. But in case they ask where they are to go to, Jeremiah is to give them the sarcastic direction: Each to the destruction allotted to him. He that is appointed to death, shall go forth to death, etc. The clauses: such as are for death, etc., are to be filled up after the analogy of 2 Sam. xv. 20, 2 Kings viii. 1, so that before the second " death," "sword," etc., we supply the verb "shall go." There are mentioned four kinds of punishments that are to befall the people. The " death " mentioned over and above the sword is death by disease, for which we have in xiv. 12 TO, pestilence, disease; cf. xliii. 11, where death, captivity, and sword are mentioned together, with Ezek. xiv. 21, sword, famine, wild beasts, and disease ("TO)? and xxxiii. 27, sword, wild beasts, and disease. This doom is made more terrible in ver. 3. The Lord will appoint over them pi?3 as in xiii. 21) four kinds, i.e. four different destructive powers which shall prepare a miserable end for them. One is the sword already mentioned in ver. 2, which slays them; the three others are to execute judgment on the dead: the dogs which shall tear, mutilate, and partly devour the dead bodies (cf. 2 Kings ix. 35, 37), and birds and beasts of prey, vultures, jackals, and others, which shall make an end of such portions as are left by the dogs. In ver. 4 the whole is summed up in the threatening of Deut. xxviii. 25, that the people shall be delivered over to be abused to all the kingdoms of the earth, and the cause of this terrible judgment is mentioned. The Chet. nyir is not to be read rum, but nyir, and is the contracted form from njJJT, see on Deut. xxviii. 25, from the rati. Wj lit. tossing hither and thither, hence for maltreatment.
had filled up the measure of the people's sins, so that the Lord must cast Judah away from His face, and give it up to the exposition of these passages; and as to what Manasseh did, see
In vers. 5-9 we have a still further account of this appalling judgment and its causes. The grounding *3 in ver. 5 attaches to the central thought of ver. 4. The sinful people will be given up to all the kingdoms of the earth to be ill used, for no one will or can have compassion on Jerusalem, since its rejection by God is pity w and "bemoan'' denote loving sympathy for the fall of the unfortunate. - - 7, to feci sympathy: TO, to lament and bemoan. W, to swerve from the straight way, and turn aside xviii. 1"), and often. Not only will none show sympathy for Jerusalem, none will even ask how it goes with her welfare. — V r. G. The reason of this treatment: because Jerusalem has dishonoured and rejected its G^d. therefore lie now stretches out His hand to destroy it. To go backwards, instead of following the Lord, cf. vii. 2 1. This determination the Lord will not change, for He is weary of repenting. cron frequently of the withdrawal, in grace and pity, of a divine decree to punish, cf. iv. 28, Gen. vi. i5 f., Joel ii. 14, etc.— Ver. 7. Cnis; is a continuation of uS), ver. G, and, like the latter, is to be understood prophetically of what God has irrevocably determined to do. It is not a description of what is past, an allusion to the battle lost at Megiddo, as Ilitz., carrying out his a priori system of slighting prophecy, supposes. To take the verbs of this verse as proper preterites, as J. D. Mich, and Ew. also do, is not in keeping with the contents of the clauses. In the first clause Ew. and Gr. translate Hy1? *38P gates, i.e. exits, boundaries of the earth, and thereby understand the remotest lands of the earth, the four corners or extremities of the earth, Isa. xi. 12 (Ew.). But "gates" cannot be looked on as corners or extremities, nor are they ends or borders, but the inlets and outlets of cities. For how can a man construe to himself the ends of the earth as the outlets of it? where could one go to from then Hence it is impossible to take "isn of the earth in this case; it is the land of Judah. The gates of the land are either mentioned by synecdoche for the cities, cf. Mic. v. 5, or are the approaches to the land (cf. Xah. hi. 13), its outlets and inlets. Here the context demands the latter sense, m?, to fan, c, - loci, to scatter into a place, cf. Ezek. xii. 15, xxx. 26: fan into the outlets of the land, i.e. east out of the land,?3K>, make the people childless, by the fall in battle of the sons, the young men, cf. Ezek. v. 17. The threat is intensified by W2K, added as asyndeton. The last clause: from their ways, etc., subjoins the reason. — Yer. 8. By the death of the sons, the women lose their husbands, and become willows, v is the dative of sympathetic interest. " Sand of the sea" is the figure for a countless number. 2M^ is poetic plural; cf. Ps. Ixxviii. 27, Job vi. 3. On these defenceless women come suddenly spoilers, and these mothers who had perhaps borne seven sons give up the ghost and perish without succour, because then' sons have fallen in war. Thus proceeds the portrayal as Hitz. has well exhibited it. "wna W?JJ is variously interpreted. We must reject the view taken bv Ch. B. Mich, from the Syr. and Arab, versions: upon mother and young man; as also the view of Rashi, Cler., Eichh., Dahl., etc., that DK means the mother-city, i.e. Jerusalem. The true rendering is that of Jerome and Kimchi, who have been followed by J. D. Mich., Hitz., Ew., Graf, and Nag.: upon the mother of the youth or young warrior. This view is favoured by the correspondence of the woman mentioned in ver. 9 who had borne seven sons. Both are individualized as women of full bodily vigour, to lend vividness to the thought that no age and no sex will escape destruction. D?1pJ[«?, at clear noontide, when one least looks for an attack. Thus the word corresponds with the " suddenly " of the next clause. TV, Aramaic form for W, Isa. xiii. 8, pangs. The bearer of seven, i.e. the mother of many sons. Seven as the perfect number of children given in blessing by God, cf. 1 Sam. ii. 5, Ruth iv. 15. i; She breathes out her life," cf. Job xxxi. 39. Graf wrongly: she sighs. The sun of her life sets (HK3) while it is still day, before the evening of her life has been reached, cf. Am. viii. 9.
"Is put to shame and confounded'1 is not to be referred to the son, but the mother, who, bereaved of her children, goes covered with shame to the grave. The Ken N3 for nxa is an unnecessary change, since BPDP is also construed as fern., Gen. xv. 17. The description closes with a glance cast on those left in life after the overthrow of Jerusalem. These are to be civen to the sword when in flight before their enemies, cf. Mic. vi. 14.
ANBWEB OF THE LiORD. — His sorrow at the rejection by God of his petition so overcomes the prophet, that he gives utterance to the wish: he had rather not have been born than live on in the calling in which he must ever foretell misery and ruin to his people, thereby provoking hatred and attacks, while his heart is like I I break for grief and fellow-feeling; whereupon the Lord reprovingly replies as in vers. 11-1 1.
Ver. 10. "Woe i^ me, my mother, that thou hast born me, a man of strife and contention to all the earth! I have not hut out, n<>r have men lent to me; all curse me. Ver. 11..lahveh saith, Verily 1 (then thee to thy good; verily I cause the enemy to entreat thee in the time of evil and of trouble. Ver. 12. Does iron break, iron from the north and brass.' Ver. L3. Thy substance and thy treasures give I for a prey without a price, and that for all thy sins, and in all thy borders, Ver. 1 1. And cause thine enemies bring it into a land which thou knowest not; for fire burnetii in mine anger, against yon it is kindled.'1
Woe is me, exclaims.Jeremiah in ver. 10, that my mother brought me forth! Th trophe to his mother is significant of the depth of his, and is not to be understood as if he were casting any reproach on his mother; it is an appeal to his mother to share with him his sorrow at his lot. This lament is consequently very different from Job's cursing of the day of his birth, Job iii. 1. The apposition to the suffix u me," the man of strife and contention, conveys the meaning of the lament in this wise: me, who must yet be a man, with whom the whole world strives and contends. Ew. wrongly renders it: " to be a man of strife," etc.; for it was not his mother's fault that he became such an one. The second clause intimates that he has not provoked the strife and contention. hbo, \eni\9 ^ gjve on loan, and with 3, to Lend to a person, lend out; hence TWh debtor, and fa n^, creditor, [sa. xxiv. 2. These words are not an individualizing of the thought: all interchange of friendly services between me and human society is broken off (Hitz.). 1 or intercourse with one's fellow-men does not chiefly, or in the foremost place, consist in lending and borrowing of gold and other articles. Borrowing and lending is rather the frequent occasion of strife and ill-will;l and it is in this reference that it is here brought up. Jeremiah says he has neither as had debtor or disobliging creditor given occasion to hatred and quarrelling, and yet all curse him. This is the meaning of the last words, in which the form *}$>i?0 is hard to explain. The rabbinical attempts to clear it up by means of a commingling of the verbs >?p and nhp are now, and reasonably, given up. Ew. {Gram. § 350, c) wants to make it ^3^j3D; but probably the form has arisen merely out of the wrong dividing of a word, and ought to be read TO9j? Dn^3. So read most recent scholars, after the example of J. D. Mich.; cf. also Bottcher, Grammat. ii. S. 322, note. It is true that we nowhere else find D??3; but we find an analogy in the archaic E^fe. In its favour we have, besides, the circumstance, that the heavy form Dn is by preference appended "to short words; see Bottcher, as above, S. 21. — To this complaint the Lord makes answer in vers. 11-14, first giving the prophet the prospect of complete vindication against those that oppose him (ver. 11), and then (vers. 12-14) pointing to the circumstances that shall compel the people to this result. The introduction of God's answer by rvi.T "ien without nb is found also in xlvi. 25, where Graf erroneously seeks to join the formula with what precedes. In the present 11th verse the want of the nb is the less felt, since the word from the Lord that follows bears in the first place upon the prophet himself, and is not addressed to the people. N? DK is a particle of asseveration, introducing the answer which follows with a solemn assurance. The vowel-points of 1HW require TOT^, 1 pers. perf., from rnB> = the Aram. *W, loose, solve (Dan. v. 12): I loose (free) thee to thy good. The CIu t.
1 Calvin aptly remarks: Unde enim inter homines et lites et juryia, nisi quia male inter ijjsos convenit, dam ultro et citro negotiantur?
is variously read and rendered. By reason of the preceding fe6 DN\ the view is improbable that we have here an infinitive; either' 1™^ /„/. Pi. of T& in the Big. inflict Buffering: " thy affliction becomes welfare" (Hitz.); or WYW, inf. Kal of mtf, set ir e: thy release tails out to thy good (Ros., etc.). The context su the 1 ] rf. of "ntf, Bgainst which the defective written form is no argument, since this occurs frequently elsewhi!flip, Nah. i. 12. The question remains: whether we are to take "-• according to the Hebrew usage: i afflict thee to thy -nod, harass thee to thine advantage (Gesen. in the tftes. p. 1 182, and Nag.), or according to the Aramaic (._»)■ in the sig. fit Hliam: 1 strengthen thee or support thee to thy good. Ew., Maur.). We prefer the latter rendering, because the saying: I afflict thee, i- not true of God; since the proph troubles earn From God, nor is Jeremiah complaining ol affliction at the hand of God, but only that he was treated as all enemy by all the world. -■-. tor good, as in Pa cxix. L22, bo that it shall fall out well for thee, had to a happy issue, for which we ha —•— »v. 11, Ps. Ixxxvi. 17, Neh.
bring it about that the enemy shall in time of trouble turn himself in supplication to th.! ause he shall recognise in the prophet's prayers the only way of Bafety; cf. the fulfilment of this promise, xxi. 1 f., axxvii. 3, xxxviii. 11 ft'., alii. 2. PI??, here causative, elsewhere only with the sig. of the Kal, e.g. XXXvi. 25, Esa. liii. L2. -The enemy/' in unlimited generality: each of thine adversaries. That the case will turn out is intimated by vers. L2 14, the exposition of which is, how- Br, difficult and much debated. Ver. 12 is rendered either: can ii rdinary iron) break northern iron and brass (the first kk iron'' being taken as subject, the second as object)? or: can one break iron, (namely) iron of the north, and brass ("iron" being taken both times as object, and " break" having its subject indefinite) I or: can iron... break ($V intrans. as in xi. 16)? Of these three translations the first has little probability, inasmuch as the simile of one kind of iron breaking another is unnatural. But Ilitz.'s view is wholly unnatural: that the first " iron" and u brass" are the object, and that " iron from the north" is subject, standing as it does between the two objects, as in Cant. v. 6, where, however, the construction alleged is still very doubtful. Nor does the sense, which would in this way be expressed, go far to commend this rendering By iron an.l brass we would then have to understand, accordinoto vi. 28, the stiff-necked Jewish people; and by iron from the north, the calamity that was to come from the north. Thus the sense would be: will this calamity break the sullen obstinacy of the prophet's enemies! will it make them pliable? The verso would thus contain an objection on the part of the prophet against the concession vouchsafed by God in ver. 11. With this idea, however, vers. 11-14 are emphatically not in harmony. The other two translations take each a different view of the sense. The one party understand by iron and brass the prophet; the other, either the Jewish people or the northern might of the Chaldean empire. Holding that the prophet is so symbolized, L. de Dieu and Umbr. give the sense thus: "Let him hut bethink him of his immoveable firmness against the onsets ^( the world; in spite of all, he is iron, northern iron and brass, that cannot be broken." Thus God would here be speaking to the prophet. Dahl., again, holds the verse to be spoken by the prophet, and gives the sense: Can I, a frail and feeble man, break the determination of a numerous and stiffnecked nation? Against the latter view the objection already alleged against Ilitz. is decisive, showing as it did that the verse cannot be the prophet's speech or complaint; against the former, the improbability that God would call the prophet iron, northern iron and brass, when the very complaint he was making showed how little of the firmness of iron he had about him. If by the northern iron we understand the Jewish people, then God would here say to the prophet, that he should always contend in vain against the stiff-neckedness of the people (Eichh.). This would have been but small comfort for him. But the appellation of northern iron does not at all fit the Jewish people. For the observation that the hardest iron, the steel made by the Chalybes in Pontus, was imported from the north, does not serve the turn; since a distinction between ordinary iron and very hard iron nowhere else appears in the Old Testament. The attribute "from the north" points manifestly to the iron sway of the Chaldean empire (Ros., E •-, Maur., and many others); and the meaning of the vers s can only be this: As little as a man can break iron, will the Jewish people be able to break the hostile power of the north (xiii. 20). Taken thus, the pictorial style of the verse contains ingestion that the adversaries of the prophet will, by the crushing power of the Chaldeans, be reduced to the condition of turning themselves in supplication to the prophet. — With this vers. L3 and 11 are thus connected: This time of evil and tribulation (ver. 10) will not last long. Their enemies will carry off the peopl Stance and treasures as their booty
The immediate trai from the address to the prophet to that to the people is to be explained by the fact, that both the have a full bearing on the people; the prophet's complaint at the attacks on the part of the people serving to force them to a of their obstinacy against the Lord, and God's answer to mplaint, that the prophet's announcement will come true, and that he will then 1 lied, serving to crush their sullen
The connection of thought in vers. 13 and 1-1 is thus: The people that so assaults thee, by reason of thy threatening judgment, will not break the iron might of the Chaldeans, but wid by them bo overwhelmed. It will come about as thou hast declared to them in my name; their substance and their treasures wid I give as booty to the Chaldeans. WIM *& = Trio n~i. [aa. lv. 1, not for purchase-money, i.e. freely. As God sells His people for nought, i.e. gives them up to their enemies (cf. Isa. lii. 3, Ps. xliv. 13), so here He threatens to deliver up their treasures to the enemy as a booty, and for nought When Graf says that this last thought has no sufficient meaning, his reasons therefor do not appear. Nor is there anything u peculiar," or such as could throw suspicion on the passage, in the juxtaposition of the two qualifying phrases: and that for all thy sins, and in all thy borders. The latter phrase bears unmistakeably on the treasures, not on the sins. " Cause... to bring it," lit. I cause them (the treasures)
10 pass with thine enemies into a land which thou knowest not,. I cause the enemies to bring them, etc. Hitz. and Graf erroneously: I cany thine enemies away into a land; which affords do suitable sense. The grounding clause: for hire, etc., is taken from Dent, xxxii. 22, to show that that threatening of judgment contained in Mn.es' song is ahout to come upon degenerate Judah. Lgainst you it is kindled" apply the words to Jeremiah's contemporaries.1
\ its. 15-18. Jeremiah continues his complaint. — Ver. 15. "Thou knowest it, Jahveh; remember me, and visit me, and revenge me on my persecutors! Do not, in Thy long-suffering, take me away; know that for Thy sake I bear reproach. Ver. 16*. Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and Thy words were to me a delight and the joy of my heart: for Thy name was named upon me, Jahveh, God of hosts. Ver. 17. I sat not in the assembly of the laughers, nor was merry; because of Thy hand I sat solitary; for with indignation Thou hast filled me. Ver. IS. Why is my pain perpetual, and my wound malignant? will not heal. Wilt Thou really be to me as a deceiving brook, a water that doth not endure?"
The Lord's answer, vers. 11-14, has not yet restored tranquillity to the prophet's mind; since in it his vindication by
1 Vers. 11-11 are pronounced spurious by Hitz., Graf, and Nag., on the ground that vers. 13 and 14 are a mere quotation, corrupted in the text, from xvii. 3, 4, and that all the three verses destroy the connection, containing an address to the people that does not at all fit into the context. But the interruption of the continuity could at most prove that the verses had got into a wrong place, as is supposed by E\v., who transposes them, and puts them next to ver. 9. But for this change in place there are no sufficient grounds, since, as our exposition of them shows, the verses in question can be very well understood in the place which they at present occupy. The other allegation, that vers. 13 and 14 are a quotation, corrupted in text, from xvii. 3, 4, is totally without proof. In xvii. 3, 4 we have simply the central thoughts of the present passage repeated, but modified to suit their new context, after the manner characteristic of Jeremiah. The genuineness of the verses is supported by the testimony of the LXX., which has them here, while it omits them in xvii. 3, 4; and by the fact, that it is inconceivable they should have been interpolated as a gloss in a wholly unsuitable place. For those who impugn the genuineness have not even made the attempt to show the possibility or probability of such a gloss arising.
means of the abasement of his adversaries had been kept at an indefinite distance. And so he now, ver. 15, prays the Lord to revenge him on his adversaries, and not to let him perish, since fur His sake he bears reproach. The object to " Thou know Lord," appears from the context, — namely: " the attacks which I endure,"' or more generally: Thou knowest my case, my distress. At the same time he clearly means the harassment detailed in ver. 10, so that "Thou knowest" i>, as to its sense, directly connected with ver. 10. But it by no means follows from this that vers. 1 i— 14 are not original; only that.Jeremiah did not feel his anxiety put at rest by the divine answer conveyed in tl In the climax: Remember me, visit me, /.-. turn Thy care on me, and revenue me, we have the utterance of the importunity of his prayer, and therein, too, the extremity of his di! >rding to Thy long-suffering,. the long-suffering Thou showest towards my persecutors, take me not away, t.r. do not deliver mo up to final ruin. This prayer he supports by the reminder, that for the Lore he bears reproach: ci\ Ps, lxix. 8. Further, the imperative: know, recogo think thee of, is the utterance of urgent pra\ In ver. 1») he exhibits how he suffers for the Lord's sake. The words of the Lord which came to him he has received with eagerness, as it had been the choicest dainties. "Thy words were found" intimates that he had come into possession of them a- something actual, without particularizing how they were revealed. With the figurative expression: I ate them, cf. the symbolical embodiment of the figure, Ezek. ii. '.*, iii. 3, Apoc. x. 9 f. The Keri T"1-"1 is an uncalled for correction, suggested by. the preceding w, and the Chet. is perfectly correct. Thy words turned out to me a joy and delight, because Thy name was named upon me, i.e. because Thou hast revealed Thyself to me, hast chosen me to be the proclaimer of Thy word. — Ver. 17. To this calling he has devoted his whole life: has not sat in the embly of the laughers, nor made merry with them; but sat alone, i.e. avoided all cheerful company. Because of Thy hand, i.e. because Thy hand had laid hold on me. The hand of Jahveh is the divine power which took possession of the prophets, transported their spirit to the ecstatic domain of inner vision, and impelled to prophesy; cf. xx. 7, Isa. viii. 11, Ezek. i. 3, etc.
Alone I sat, because Thou hast filled me with indignation, err is the wrath o! Go 1 against the moral corruptness and infatuation oi J udah, with which the Spirit of God has fdled Jeremiah in order that he may publish it abroad, cf. vi. 11. The sadness of what he had to publish filled his heart with the deepest grief, and constrained him to keep far from all cheery good fellowship! — ^ er. is. Why is my pain become perpetual? "My pain" is the pain or grief he feels at the judgment he has to announce to the people; not his pain at the hostility he has on that account to endure, rro adverbial = rwj^ as in Am. i. 11 Ps. xiii. L\ ete. "My wound," the blow that has fallen on him. —:n, malignant, is explained by "(that) will not heal," cf. xxx. 12, Mie. i. 9. The clause 'Ul flWi Vn still depends on roS, and the infin. gives emphasis: Wilt Thou really be? np«, fit. lying, deception, means here, and in Mic. i. 16, a deceptive torrent that dries up in the season of drought, and so disappoints the hope of finding water, cf. Job vi. 15 ff. "A water," etc., is epexegesis: water that doth not endure. To this the Lord answers —
Vers. 19-21. By reprimanding Ms impatience, and by again ntring Mm of His prote< ti m and of rescue from the power of his opi s. — Ver. 19. "Therefore thus saith Jahveh: If thou return, then will I bring thee again to serve me; and if thou separate the precious from the vile, thou shalt be as my mouth. They will return to thee, but thou shalt not return unto them. Ver. 20. And I make thee unto this people a strong wall of brass, so that they fight against thee, but prevail not against thee; for I am with thee, to help thee and to save thee, saith Jahveh. Ver. 21. And I save thee out of the hand of the wicked, and deliver thee out of the clutch of the violent." In the words: if thou return, lies the reproach that in his complaint, in which his indignation had hurried him on to doubt God's faithfulness, Jeremiah had sinned and must repent. ~i-,,J'^. is by many commentators taken adverbially and joined with the following words: then will I ai^ain cause thee to stand before me. But this adverbial use has been proved oidy for the Kal of 2Wj not for the Hiphil, which must here be taken by itself: then will I bring thee again, sc. into proper relations with me — namely, to stand before me, i.e. to be my servant. "i->
*?at», of the standing of the servant before his lord, to receive his commands, and so also of prophets, cf. 1 Kings xvii. 1, xviii. 15. 2 Kin<*s i i i - 14, etc. In the words: if thou make to go forth, i.e. separate the precious from the vile, we have the figure of metal-refining, in course of which the pure metal is by fusion parted from the earthy and other ingredients mixed with it. The meaning of the figure is, however, variously understood. Some think lure, unfittingly, of good and bad men; so Chald. and Rashi: if thou cause the good to come forth of the bad, turn the good into bad: or, if out of the evil mass thou cause to come forth at least a few as good, i.e. if thou convert them (Cli. B. Mich., Ro ». For we cannot here have to do with the issue of his labours, as Graf well remarks, since this did not lie in his own power. Just as little is the case itrast between God's word and man's word, the view adopted by Wn., Bichh., Dahl., Hit/.., Ew. The idea that Jeremiah presented man's word for God's word, or God's word mixed with spurious human additions, is utterly foreign to the context; nay, rather it was just because he declared only what God imposed on him that he was so hard bested. Further, that idea is wholly inconsistent with the nature of true prophecy. Maurer has hit upon the truth: si qua sa in (•■ tuntj admixtU the so-called 3 tv?-<7.), as my mouth shalt thou be, i.e. as the instrument by which I speak, cf. Ex. iv. lb'. Then shall his labours be crowned with success. They (the adversaries) will turn themselves to thee, in the mariner shown in ver. 11, but thou shalt not turn thyself to them, i.e. not yield to their wishes or permit thyself to be moved by them from the right way. Ver. 20 f. After this reprimand, the Lord renews to him the promise of His most active support, such as He had promised him at his call, i. 18 f.; "to save thee" being amplified in ver. 21.
THE PROPHET IN REFERENCE TO THE APPROACHING OVER- THROW of the kingdom of judah. — The ruin of Jerusalem and of Judah will inevitably come. This the prophet must proclaim by word and deed. To this end he is shown in xvi. l-i» what relation he is to maintain towards the people, now grown ripe for judgment, and next in vers. 10-15 he is told the cause of this terrible judgment; then comes an account of its fulfilment (vers. L6 21); then again, finally, we have the cause of it explained once more (xvii. 1-4).
\ era..1 9. The course to be pursued by the prophet with reference to Hie approaching judgment. — Ver. 1. "And the word of Jahveh came to me, Baying: Ver. 2. Thou shalt not take thee a wife, neither shalt thou have sons or daughters in this place. Ver..">. For thus hath Jahveh said concerning the sons and the daughters that are born in this place, and concerning their mothers that hear them, and concerning their fathers that begot thorn in this land: Ver. 4. By deadly suffering shall they die, be neither lamented or buried; dung upon the field shall they become; and by sword and by famine shall they be consumed, and their carcases shall be meat for the fowls of the heavens and the beasts of the field. Ver. 5. For thus hath Jahveh said: Come not into the house of mourning, and go not to lament, and bemoan them not; for I have taken away my peace from this people, saith Jahveh, grace and mercies. Ver. 6. And great and small shall die in this land, not be buried; they shall not lament them, nor cut themselves, nor make themselves bald for them. Ver. 7. And they shall not break bread for them in their mourning, to comfort one for the dead; nor shall they give to any the cup of comfort for his father and his mother. Ver. 8. And into the house of feasting go not, to sit by them, to eat and to drink. Ver. 9. For thus hath spoken Jahveh of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I cause to cease out of this place before your eyes, and in your days, the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride."
What the prophet is here bidden to do and to forbear is closely bound up with the proclamation enjoined on him of judgment to come on sinful Judah. This connection is brought prominently forward in the reasons given for these commands. He is neither to take a wife nor to beget children, because all the inhabitants of the land, sons and daughters, mothers and fathers, are to perish by sickness, the sword, and famine (vers.
3 and 4). He is both to abstain from the customary usages of mourning for the dead, and to keep away from mirthful feasts, in order to give the people to understand that, by reason of the multitude of the dead, customary mourning will haw to be given up. and that all opportunity for merry-making will disappear (vers. 5-9). Adapting thus his actions to help to conhis m. he will approve himself to be the mouth of the Lord, and then the promised divine protection will not fail. Tim- closely is this passage connected with the preceding complaint and reproof of the prophet (w. 1<> 21), while it at the tame time further continues the threatening of judgment jn XVf i_o.. — With the prohibition to take a wife, cf. the apostl counsel, 1 I • «rii. 26. "This place" alternates with "this land,*' and so miht DOl bo limited to Jerusalem, but bears on
Bine D*H^nn is not to be confined to di. but in xiv. 18 is of pining awaj by famine. With "they shall not be lamented," cL xw. 33, viii. 2, sriv. L6, vii. 33.— Ver. 5 i'i. The command not to go intoa houseof mourning ("*"-, loud crying, crv of lament for one dea on Am. vi. 7), not to show mpathy with the survivors, is explained by the Lord in the irfully solemn Baying: 1 withdraw from this people my peace, grace. and mercy. ^"~"-";^ n< I "the inviolat of the relation between me and my people" (Graf), but the i i God which rested on Judah, the source of its well-being, of its life and prosperity, and which showed itself to the sinful race in the extension to them of grace and mercy. The consequence of the withdrawal of this peace is the death of greal and small in such multitudes that they can neither be buried nor mourned for (ver. 6). T^™?, cut one's self, is used in Deut. xiv. 1 for EH® [TO, to make cuts in the body, Lev. xix. 28; and rnp, iVtp/i., to crop one's self bald, ace. to Deut. xiv. 1, to shave a bare place on the front part of the head above the eyes. These are two modes of expressing passionate mourning for the dead which were forbidden to the Israelites in the law, yet which remained in use among the people, see on Lev. xix.
28 in 1 D ut, xiv. 1. D$, for them, in honour of the dead. — Ver, 7. D^B, as in [sa. Iviii, 7, for fcns, Lam. iv. 4, break, sc. the bread (cf. [sa. /.<•.) for mourning, and to give to drink the cup of comfort, does not refer to the meals which were held in the house of mourning upon occasion of a death after the interment, for this custom cannot be proved of the Israelites in Old Testament times, and is not strictly demanded by the words of the verse. To break bread to any one does not mean to hold a feast with him, but to bestow a gift of bread upon him; cf. [sa. Iviii. 7. Correspondingly, to give to drink, does not here mean to drink to one's health at a feast, but only to present with wine to drink. The words refer to the custom of sending bread and wine for refreshment into the house of the surviving relatives of one dead, to comfort them in their sorrow; cf. 2 Sam. iii. 35, \ii. L6 ft*., and the remarks on Ezek. xxiv. 17. The singular suffixes on V2H;S vns and teK, alongside of the plurals c~s an(l DniS, are to be taken distributively of everyone who is to be comforted upon occasion of a death in his house; and EH7 is not to be changed, as by J. D. Mich, and Hitz., into Dn?. — Ver. 8 f. The prophet is to withdraw from all participation in mirthful meals and feasts, in token that God will take away all joy from the people. nn^p"7V2, house in which a feast is given. EniX? for DAN, refers, taken ad sensitm, to the others who take part in the feast. On ver. 9, cf. yii. 34. Vers. 10-15. " And when thou showest this people all these things, and they say unto thee, Wherefore hath Jahveh pronounced all this great evil against us, and what is our transgression, and what our sin that we have committed against Jahveh our God? Ver. 11. Then say thou to them, Because your fathers have forsaken me, saith Jahveh, and have walked after other gods, and served them, and worshipped them, and have forsaken me, and not kept my law; Ver. 12. And ye did yet worse than your fathers; and behold, ye walk each after the stubbornness of his evil heart, hearkening not unto me. Ver. 13. Therefore I cast you out of this land into the land which ye know not, neither ye nor your fathers, and there may ye serve other gods day and night, because I will show you no favour. Ver. 14. Therefore, behold, the days come, saith Jahveh, that it shall no more be said, By the life of Jahveh, that brought up the sons of Israel out. of the land of Egypt, Ver. 15. But, By the life of Jahveh, that brought the sons of Israel out of the land of the north, and out of all the lands whither 1 had driven them, and 1 bring them again into their land that I gave to their father
The turn of the discourse in vers. 10 and 1 1 is like that in v. 19. With ver. 11 cf. xi.8, 10, vii. '2 \: with "ye did yet worse," etc., cf. 1 Kings xiv. ',>; and on "after the stubbornness," cf. on iii. IT. The apodosia begins with "therefore I cast you out" On this head cf. vii. 15, ix. 15, and xxii. 26. The article in innrr^, Graf quite unnecessarily insists on having cancelled, as out of place. It is explained sufficiently by the fact, that the land, of which mention hs often been made, is looked on pecific one. and is characterized by the following relativ i one unknown to the people. Besid< i,the"ye know not" ifl not meant of geographical ignorance, but, as is often the case with VTri the knowledge is that obtained bv direct tei "id: there \c may serve, BS long as ye will, the i:<>ds whom ye have bo longed after. The irony is ecially marked in the -day and night." I h re Jeremiah has in mind Dent. iv. 28, IXviii.:»'•. 64. "«* ifl causal, giving the grounds of the threat, u I cast you oat." The form wan (fl, —In vers. 1 1 and 1"> the prophet opens to the people a view of ultimate redemption from the affliction amidst the heathen, into which, for their sin, they will be cast. P>y and by men will swear no more by Jahveh who redeemed them out of Egypt, but by Jahveh who has brought them again from the land of the north.and the other lands into which they have been thrust forth. In this is implied that this second deliverance will be a blessing which shall outshine the former blessing of redemption from Egypt. But just as this deliverance will excel the earlier one, so much the greater will the affliction of Israel in the northern land be than the Egyptian bondage had been. On this point Ros. throws especial weight, remarking that the aim of these verses is not so much to give promise of coming salvation, as to announce instare illis atrocius malum, quam Mud jEayptiacum) eamque quam max sint subituri servitutem inulto duriorem, quam olim.hy:n/j>iiaca fuerit. But though this idea does lie implicite in the words, yet we must not fail to be sure that the prospect held out of a future deliverance of Israel from the lands into which it. is soon to be scattered, and of its restoration again to the land of its fathers, has, in the first and foremost place, a comforting import, and that it is intended to erve the godly from despair under the catastrophe which is now awaiting them.1 |?J is not m vertheless, but, as universally, then and the train of thought is as follows: Because the
Lord will, for their idolatry, cast forth His people into the lands of the heathen, just for that very reason will their redemption from exile not fail to follow, and this deliverance surpass in gloriousness the greatest of all former deeds of blessing, the rescue of Israel from Egypt. The prospect of future redemption given amidst announcements of judgment cannot be surprising in Jeremiah, who elsewhere also interweaves the like happy forecastings with his most solemn threatenings; cf. iv. 27, v. 10, IS. with iii. 14 f., xxiii. 3 if., etc. " This ray of light, falling suddenly into the darkness, does not take us more by surprise than ' I will not make a full end,' iv. 27. There is therefore no reason for regarding these two verses as interpolations from xxiii. 7, 8" (Graf).
Vers. L6— 21. Further account of the punishment foretold, tvith the reasons for the same. — Ver. 16. " Behold, I send for many fishers, saith Jahveh, who shall fish them, and after will I send for many hunters, who shall hunt them from every mountain and every hill, and out of the clefts of the rock. Ver. 17. For mine eyes are upon all their ways, they are not hidden from me, neither is their iniquity concealed from mine eyes. Ver. 18. And first, I requite double their iniquity and their sin, because they defiled my land with the carcases of their detestables, and with their abominations they have filled mine inheritance.
1 Calvin has excellently brought out both moments, and has thus ex-
pounded the thought of the passage: " Scitis unde patres vestri exierint, nempe e fornace amea, quemadmodum alibi loquitur (xi. 4) et quasi ex profunda morte; itaque redemptio ilia debuit esse memorabilis usque ad finem mundi. Sed jam Deus conjiciet vos in abyssum, quce longe profundior erit ilia yEgypti tyrannide, e qua erepti sunt patres vestri; nam si inde redimat, erit miraculum longe excellentius ad posterns, ut fere exstinguat vel saltern obscuret memoriam prions illius redemptionis."
Vcr. 19. Jahveh, my strength and my fortress, and my refuge in the day of trouble! Unto Thee shall the peoples come from the ends of the earth and say: But lies have our fathers inherited, vanity, and amidst them none profiteth at all. Ver. 20. Shall a man make gods to himself, which are yet no gods? Ver. 21. Therefore, behold, I make them to know this once, I make them to know my hand and my might, ami they shall know that my name is Jahveh."
Vers, 1 »J— 18 are a continuation of the threatening in ver. 13, that Judah is to be cast out. but are directly connected with ver. lo//, and elucidate the expulsion into many lands there foretold. The figures of the fishers and hunters do not bespeak the gathering again and restoration of the scattered people, as \ en. would make out, but the carrying <»f Judah captive out of his land. This is clear from the second of the figures, for the hunter ih>v* not gather the animals together, but kills them; ami the reference of the verses is put beyond a doubt by vers.
17 and IS, and is consequently admitted by all other coram. The two figures signify various kinds of treatment at the hands of enemies. The fishers represent the enemies that gather the inhabitants of the land as in a net, and carry them wholesale into captivity (cf. Am. iv. 2, I lab. i. 15). rJ no hunters, again, are those who drive out from their hiding-places, and slay or carry captive such as have escaped from the cities, and have taken refuge in the mountains and ravines; cf. iv. 29, Judg. vi. 2, 1 Sam. xhi. 6, In this the idea i> visibly set forth that none shall escape the enemy. ""-' c*? p< r*., send for one, cause him to come, as in xiv. 3 (send for water), so that there is no call to take S> according to the Aram, usage as sirm of the accusative, for which we can cite in Jeremiah only the case in xl. 2. The form DW (diet.) agrees with Ezek. xlvii. 10, while the Keri. D^-l is a formation similar to D^TV. In the second clause D*3"l is, like the numerals, made to precede the noun; cf. Prov. xxxi. 29, Ps. Ixxxix. 51. — For the Lord knows their doings and dealings, and their transgressions are not hid from Him; cf. xxiii. 24, xxxii. 19. ^V for ^N*, indicating the direction. Their ways are not the ways of flight, but their course of action. — Ver. 18. The punishment foretold is but retribution for their sins. Because they have defiled the land by idolatry, they shall be driven out of it. njiB^n, first, is by Jerome Hit/.., Ew., Umbr. made to refer to the salvation promised in \or. 15: first, i.e. before the restoration of my favour spoken of in ver. L5, I requite double. Against this Graf has objected, that on this view " first" would appear somewhat superfluous; and Nag., that the manifestly intended antithesis to fUBto is left out of account. There is little force in either objection. Even Nag.'s paraphrase does not do full justice to the presumed antithesis; for if we render: " For the first time the double shall be requited, in the event of repetition a severer standard shall be used," then the antithesis to " first" would not be " double," but the supplied repetition of the offence. There is not the slightest hint in the context to lead us to supply this idea; nor is there any antithesis between " first" and " double." It is a mere assumption of the comm., which Rashi, Kimchi, Eos., Maur., etc., have brought into the text by the interpolation of a 1 cop. before nyS'D: I requite the first of their transgressions and the repetition of them, i.e. their earlier and their repeated sins, or the sins committed by their fathers and by themselves, on a greater scale. We therefore hold the reference to ver. 15 to be the only true one, and regard it as corresponding both to the words before us and the context. " The double of their iniquity," i.e. ample measure for their sins (cf. Isa. xl. 2, Job xi. 6) by way of the horrors of war and the sufferings of the exile. The sins are more exactly defined by: because they defiled my land by the carcases of their detestables, i.e. their dead detestable idols. D*ttlj3B> n?:u is formed according to ^a B"w3, Lev. xxvi. 30, and it belongs to " they defiled," not to " they filled," as the Masoretic accentuation puts it; for N70 is construed, not with 3 of the thing, but with double accus.; cf. Ezek. viii. 17, xxx. 11, etc. So it is construed in the last clause: With their abominations they have filled the inheritance of Jahveh, i.e. the land of the Lord (cf. ii. 7). The infin. D&n is continued by *K?o in verbo fin., as usual.
In vers. 19-21 we have more as to the necessity of the threatened punishment. The prophet turns to the Lord as his defence and fortress in time of need, and utters the hope that even the heathen may some time turn to the Lord and confess the vanity of idolatry, since the gods which men make are no gods. To this the Lord answers in ver. 21, that just therefore He must punish His idolatrous people, so that they shall feel His power and learn to know His name. — Ver. 19. In his cry to the Lord: My strength... in the day of trouble, which agrees closely with Ps. xxviii. 8, lix. 17, xviii. 3, Jeremiah utters not merely his own feelings, but those which should animate every member of his people. In the time of need the powerlessness of the idols to help, and so their vanity, becomes apparent. Trouble therefore drives to God, the Almighty Lord and Baler of the world, and forces to bend under His power. The coming tribulation is to have this fruit not only in the case of the Israelites, but also in that of the heathen nations, so that they shall see the vanity of the idolatry they have inherited from their fathers, and be converted to the Lord, the only true (. id. How this knowledge is to be awakened in the heathen, Jeremiah does not disclose; but it may be gathered from ver. 1"), from the deliverance of I Marl, there announced, out of the heathen lands into which they had been cast forth. By this deliverance the heathen will be made aware both of the almighty power of the God of Israel and of the nothingness of their own la, On tan cf. ii. 5: and with " none that profiteth," cf. ii. 8, xiv. 22. In ver. 20 the prophet confirms what the heathen have been saying. The question has a negative force, as is clear from the second clause. In ver. 21 we have the Lord's answer to the prophet's confession in ver. 19. Since the Jews are so blinded that they prefer vain idols to the living God, He will this time so show them His hand and His strength in that foretold chastisement, that they shall know His name, i.e. know that He alone is God in deed and in truth. Cf. Ezek. xii. 15, Ex. iii. 11.
Chap. xvii. 1-4. Judah's sin is ineffaceably stamped upon the hearts of the people and on their altars. These four verses are closely connected with the preceding, and show why it is necessary that Judah be cast forth amidst the heathen, by reason of its being perfectly steeped in idolatry. Ver. 1. "The sin of Judah is written with an iron pen, with the point of a diamond graven on the table of their hearts and on the horns of your altars. Ver. 2. As they remember their children, so do they their altars and their Astartes by the green tree upon the high hills. Ver. 3. My mountain in the field, thy substance all thy treasures give I for a prey, thy high places for sin in all thy borders. Ver. 1. And thou shalt discontinue, and that of thine own self, from thine inheritance that I gave thee, and I cause thee to serve thine enemies in a land which thou knowest not; for a fire have ye kindled in mine anger, for ever it burnetii. "
The sin of Judah (ver. 1) is not their sinfulness, their proneness to sin, but their sinful practices, idolatry. This is written upon the tables of the hearts of them of Judah, i.e. stamped on them (cf. for this figure Prov. Hi. 3, vii. 3), and that deep and firmly. This is intimated by the writing with an iron pen and graving with a diamond. p3>', from ")?¥, scratch, used in Deut. xxi. 12 for the nail of the finger, hereof the point of the style or graving-iron, the diamond pencil which gravers use for carving in iron, steel, and stone.1 TW, diamond, not emery as Boch. and Ros. supposed; cf. Ezek. iii. 9, Zech. vii. 12. The things last mentioned are so to be distributed that uon the table of their heart " shall belong to " written with a pen of iron," and "on the horns of their altars" to "with the point of a diamond graven." The iron style was used only for writing or carving letters in a hard material, Job xix. 24. If with it one wrote on tables, it was for the purpose of impressing the writing very deeply, so that it could not easily be effaced. The having of sin engraved upon the tables of the heart does nob mean that a sense of unatoned sin could not be got rid of (Graf); for with a sense of sin wTe have here nothing to do, but with the deep and firm root sin has taken in the heart. To the tables of the heart as the inward seat of sin are opposed the horns of their altars (at " altars " the discourse is directly addressed to the Jews). By altars are generally understood idolatrous altars, partly because of the plural, " since the altar of Jahveh was but one," partly because of ver. 2, where the altars in question are certainly those of the idols. But the first reason proves nothing, since the temple of the Lord itself contained two altars, on whose horns the blood of the sacrifice was sprinkled. The blood of the sin-offering was put not merely
1 Cf. Plinii hist. n. xxxvii. 15: crustx adamanlis expetuntur a sculptvribits Jlrruque includuntur, nullum non duritiem ex facili ezcavantes.
on the altar of burnt-offering, but also on the horns of the altar of incense, Lev. iv. 7, 18, xvi. lf>. Nor is the second reason conclusive, since there is no difficulty in taking it to be the altars of Jahveli as defiled by idolatry. This, indeed, we must do, since Josiah had destroyed the altars of the false gods, whereas here the altars are spoken of as existing monuments of idolatry. The question, in how far the sin of Judah is ineffaceahly engraven upon the horns of her altars, is variously answered by comm., and the answer depends on the view taken of \vr. 2, which is itself disputed. It is certainly wrong to join ver. 2 as protasis with \, for it is incompatible with tlic beginning <»1 ver..">. *7J5. Ew. therefore proposes to attach umy mountain in the field" tover. 2, and to change *7jn into *Tjn: upon the high hills, the mountains in the held — a manifest makeshift. Umbr. translates: As their children remember their altars.... BO will I my mountain in the field, thy po n... give tor a prey; and makes out the sense to be: "in proportion to the strength and ineff aceableness of the impressions, Buch u are to he found in the children of idolatrous fathers, must bo t' f the consequent punishment from (■ But if this were the force, then f2 could not possibly bo omitted before the ap j apart altogether from the suddenness of such a transition from the sins of the people (ver. 1) to the sins of the children. — Ver. 2 ifl plainly meant to be a fuller an 1 clearer disclosure of the sins written on the tables of Judah'fl heart, finding therein its point of connection with ver. 1. The verse 1; verbum jinit., and besides it is a question whether " their children?' is subject or object to meiiil The rule, that in calm discourse the subject follows the verb, does not decide for us; for the object very frequently follows d nd in the case of the infinitive the subject is often not mentioned, but must be supplied from the context. Here we may either translate: as their sons remember (Chald. and Jerome), or: as they remember their sons. As already said, the first translation gives no sense in keeping with the context. Rashi, Kimchi, J. D. Mich., Maur., Hitz. follow the other rendering: as they remember their children, so do they their altars. On this view, the verb. fin. D3P is supplied from the infin. "bt, and the two accusatives are placed alongside,
18 in [sa. Ixvi. 3 after the participle, without the particle of con ii- demanded by the sense; cf. also Ps. xcii. 8, Job
.w.ii. 1 1. Na. calls this construction very harsh; but it has analogues in the \ m cited, and gives the very suitable
Bense: Their altars, Astartes, are as dear to them as their children. 1 lit/., takes the force t<- lie this: u Whenever they think of their children, they remember, ami cannot but remember, the altars to whose hmns the blood of their sacrificed children adheres. And so in the ease of a green tree upon the heights; i.e. when they light upon such an one, they cannot help calling to mind the Asherahs, which were such trees." But this interpretation dearly wrong; for it takes the second clause YV.?V as object to TbT, which is grammatically quite indefensible, and which is besides incompatible with the order of the words. Besides, the idea that they remember the altars because the blood of their children stuck to the horns of them, is put into the words; and the putting of it in is made possible only by Hitz.'s arbitrarily separating "their Astartes" from "their altars," and from the specification of place in the next clause: "by the green tree." The words mean: As they remember their children, so do they their altars and Asherahs by every green tree. The co-ordination of Asherahs and altars makes it clear that it is not sacrifices to Moloch that are meant by altars; for the Asherahs have no connection with the worship of Moloch. Nag.'s assertions, that E'TJ'X is the name for male images of Baal, and that there can be no doubt of their connection with child-slaughtering Molochworship, are unfounded and erroneous. The word means images of Asherah; see on 1 Kings xiv. 23 and Deut. xvi. 21. Graf says that 'n YV'fy does not belong to " altars and Asherahs," because in that case it would need to be '"> YV nnn, as in ii. 20, iii. 6, 13, Isa. lvii. 5, Deut. xii. 2, 2 Kings xvi. 4, xvii. 10, but that it depends on "DT. This remark is not correctly expressed, and Graf himself gives h? a local force, thus: by every green tree and on every high hill they think of the altars and Asherahs. This local relation cannot be spoken of as a " dependence" upon the verb; nor does it necessarily exclude the connection with " altars and Asherahs," since we can quite well think of the altars and Asherahs as being by or beside every green tree and on the hills. At the same time, we hold it better to connect the local reference with the verb, because it gives the stronger sense, — namely, that the Jews jiot merely think of the altars and Asherahs which are by every green tree and upon the high hills, but that by every green tree and on the high hills they think of their altars and Asherahs, even when there are no such things to be seen there. Thus we can now answer the question before thrown out, in what respects the sin was ineffaceably engraven on the horns of the altar: It was because the altars and images of the false gods had entwined themselves as closely about their hearts as their children, so that they brought the sin of their Idolatry along with their sacril! to the altars of Jahveh. The offerings which they bring, in this Btate of mind, to the Lord are defiled by idolatry and carry their sins to the altar, so that, in the blood which is sprinkled on its horns, the miis of the rs are poured out on the altar. Hence it appears unmistakeably that ver. 1 does not deal with the consciousness of >u\ as not yet cancelled or forgiven, but with the Bin of idolatry, which, inera dicably implanted in the hearts of the people and indelibly recorded before God on the horns of the altar, calls down God's wrath in punishment.is announced in vers. 3 and 1.
" My mountain in the field*' is taken by most coinni. as a name for Jerusalem or Zion. But it is a question whether the words are vocative, or whether they are accusative; and so with the rest of the objects, "thy substance," etc., dependent on I~X. \i we take them to be vocative, so that Jerusalem is addressed, then we must hold "thy substance" and " thy treasures" to be the goods and gear of.Jerusalem, while the city will be regarded as representative of the kingdom, or rather of the population of Judah. But the second clause, "thy high ] »laces in all thy borders," does not seem to be quite in keeping with this, and still less ver. 4: thou shalt discontinue from thine inheritance, which is clearly spoken of the people of Judah. Furthermore, if Jerusalem were the party addressed, we should expect feminine suffixes, since Jerusalem is everywhere else personified as a woman, as the daughter of Zion. We therefore hold "my mountain" to be accusative, and, under "the mountain of Jahveh in the field," understand, not the city of Jerusalem, but Mount Zion as the site of the temple, the
\\i\.;>. The addition rntfa may not be translated: with the field (Ges., de W., Nag.); for n denotes the means or instrument, or an accessory accompanying the principal thing or action and subservient to it (Ew. § 217, f. 3), but not the mere external surroundings or belongings. Nag.'s assertion, that 3, amidst — together with, is due to an extreme position in an empirical mode of treating language. nnfra means "in the field, " and " mountain in the field" is like the "rock of the plain,".wi. 13. But whether it denotes "the clear outstanding loftiness of the mountain, so that for it we might say: My mountain commanding a wide prospect" (Umbr., Graf), is a question. HT^ field, denotes not the fruitful fields lying round Mount Zion, but, like "field of the Amalekites," Gen. xiv. 7, "field of Edom" (Gen. xxxii. 4), the land or country; see on Ezek. xxi. 2; and so here: my mountain in the land (of Judah or Israel). The land is spoken of as a field, as a level or plain (xxi. 13), in reference to the spiritual height of the temple mountain or mountain of God above the whole land; not in reference to the physical pre-eminence of Zion, which cannot be meant, since Zion is considerably exceeded in height by the Mount of Olives on the east, and by the southern heights of the highlands of Judah. By its choice to be the site of the Lord's throne amid His people, Mount Zion was exalted above the whole land as is a mountain in the field; and it is hereafter to be exalted above all mountains (Isa. ii. 2; Mic. iv.<l), while the whole land is to be lowered to the level of a plain (Zech. xiv. 10). The following objects are ranged alongside as asyndetons: the Mount Zion as His peculiar possession and the substance of the people, all their treasures will the Lord give for a prey to the enemy. "Thy high places" is also introduced, with rhetorical effect, without copula. "Thy high places," i.e. the heights on which Judah had practised idolatry, will He give up, for their sins' sake, throughout the whole land. The whole clause, from " thy high places " to " thy borders," is an apposition to the first half of the verse, setting forth the reason why the whole land, the mountain of the Lord, and all the substance of the people, are to be delivered to the enemy; because, viz., the whole land has been defiled by idolatry. Hitz. wrongly translates riNDnzi for sin, i.e. for a sin-offering. — Ver. 4. And thou shalt discontinue from thine inheritance. There is in rWDDP an allusion to the law in Ex. xxiii. 11, to let the ground lie untitled in the seventh year, and in Deut. xv. 2, to let loans go, not to exact from one's neighbour what has been lent to him. Because Judah has transgressed this law, the Lord will compel the people to let go their hold of their inheritance, i.e. He will cast them out of it. 13* seems strange, interposed between the verb and the "from thine inheritance" dependent on it. The later Greek translators (for the entire passage vers. 1-4 is wanting in the LXX.) render it fiovrj, and Jerome sola. Ew. therefore conjectures TJ37, but without due reason, since the translation is only a free ring of: and that by thyself. J.
D. Mich., Gr., and Nag. propose to read 1*1;, on the ground of the connection wrongly made between DQV and hj, to let go his hand, Deut. xv. 2, given ii.. s.u. For iT in this case is not object to DO0, but belongs to Wte, hand-lending; and in Dent xv. 3 T£ is subject to BOBta, the hand shall quit hold. ""-" ig. and that by thee, i.e. by thine own fault; cf. Ezek. xxii. 16. Meaning: by thine own fault thou must needs leave behind thee thine inheritance, thy land, and serve thine enemies in a foreign land. On the last clause, " for a fire," etc., cf. xv. 14, where is also discussed the relation of the present vers. 3 and 1 to xv. 13, 14. For ever burns the fire, i.e. until the sin is blotted out by the punishment, and for ever inasmuch as the wicked are to be punished for ever.
Vers. 5-27. FURTHEB CONFIRMATION OF THIS ANNOUNCE- MENT [N GENERAL REFLECTIONS CONCERNING THE SOURCES OF RUIN AND OF WELL-BEING.— Thii portion falls into two halves: a. On the sources of ruin and of well-being (vers. 5-18); h. On the way to life (vers. 18-27). The reflections of the first half show the curse of confidence in man and the blessings of confidence in God the Lord, vers. 5-13; to which is joined, vers. 14-18, a prayer of the prophet for deliverance from his enemies.
Ver. 5. "Thus saith Jahveh: Cursed is the man that trusteth in man and maketh flesh his arm, while his heart departeth from Jahveh. Ver. 6. He shall be as a destitute man in the wilderness, and shall not see that good cometh; he shall inhabit parched places m the desert, a salt land and uninhabited. Ver. 7. Blessed is the man that trusteth in Jahveh, and whose trust Jahveh is. Ver. 8. He si, -ill be as a tree planted by the water, and shall by the river spread out his roots, and shall not fear when heat cometh; his leaves shall be green, and in the year of drought he shall not haw care, neither cease from yielding fruit. Ver.:». Deceitful is the heart above all, and corrupt it is who can know it? Ver. 10. I Jahveh search the heart and try the reins, ewn to give every one according to his way, according to the fruit of his doings. Ver. 11. The partridge hatcheth the egg which it laid not; there is that getteth riches and not by right. In the midst of his days they forsake him, and at his end he shall be a fool. Ver. 12. Thou throne of glory, loftiness from the beginning, thou place of our sanctuary. Ver. 13. Thou hope of Israel, Jahveh, all that forsake Thee come to shame. They that depart from me shall be written in the earth, for they have forsaken the fountain of living water, Jahveh."
Trust in man and departure from God brings only mischief (vers. 5 and 6); trust in the Lord brings blessing only (vers. 7, 8). These truths are substantiated in vers. 9-13, and elucidated by illustrations. — Ver. 5. Trust in man is described according to the nature of it in the second clause: he that maketh flesh his arm, i.e. his strength. Flesh, the antithesis to spirit (cf. Isa. xxxi. 3), sets forth the vanity and perishableness of man and of all other earthly beings; cf. besides Isa. xxxi. 3, also Job x. 4, Ps. lvi. 5. In ver. 6 we are shown the curse of this trusting in man. One who so does is as "ljny in the steppe. This word, which is found beside only in Ps. cii. 18, and in the form "tifVtJ! Jer. xlviii. 6, is rendered by the old translators by means of words which mean desert plants or thorny growths (LXX. dypiofivpUr); Jerome, myrice; similarly in Chald. and Syr.); so Ew.j arid shrub; Umbr., a bare tree. All these renderings are merely guesses from the context; and the latter, indeed, tells rather against than for a bush or tree, since the following clause, a he shall not see," can be said only of a man. So in Ps. cii. 18, where we hear of the prayer of the "BT®. The word is from "ny, to be naked, made bare, and denotes the destitute man, who lacks all the means of subsistence. It is not the homeless or outcast (Graf, Hitz.). He shall not see, experience that good comes, i.e. he shall have no prosperity, but shall inhabit u burnt places," tracts in the desert parched by the sun's heat. Salt-land, i.e. quite unfruitful land: cf. Dent. xxix. 22. ~n.Ns is a relative clause: and which is not inhabited = uninhabitable. Dwelling in parched tracts and salt regions is a 6gure for the total want of the means of life (equivalent to the German: aufkeinen grihxen Zweig kommen). —Vers. 7 and 8 shew the companion picture, tin4 blessings of trusting in the Lord. "That trusteth in Jahveh" is lengthened bv the synonymous -whose trust Jahveh is: Pt, xl. 5. * The portrayal of the prosperity of him that tru8tS in the Lord is an extension of the picture in Ps. i. 3, 1, of the man that hath his delight in the law of the Lord. The form &W is aw. \ty- equivalent to faj, water-brook, which, moreover, occurs only in the plural $*), Isa. xxx. -J.'), xliv. 4. 1 I la forth his roots by the brook, to gain more and more ing to the HKV in ver. 8. The Chit is unqualifiedly right, and res*] onds to >** l6. As to rnta, see on xiv. 1. He has no fear for the heat in the year of drought, because the brook by which he grows docs not dry up.
bring this truth home to the people, the prophet in ve; the nature of the human heart, and then shows in ver. 10 how God, as the Searcher of hearts, requites man according to his conduct. Trust in man has its seat in the heart, which seeks thereby to secure to itself success and prosperity. But the heart of man is more deceitful, cunning than all « -" ■■ from the denom. 2?\\ to deal treacherously). *J-:s, lit. dangerously sick, incurable, cf. xv. 18; here, sore wounded by sin, corrupt or depraved. Who can know it? i.e. fathom its nature and corruptness. Therefore a man must not trust the suggestions and illusions of his own heart.— Ver. 10. Only God searches the heart and tries the reins, the seat of the most hidden emotions and feelings, cf. xi. 20, xii. 3, and deals accordingly, requiting each according to his life and his doings. The"! before nr6, which is wanting in many M8S. and is not expressed by the old translators, is not to be objected to. It iparate the aim in view from the rest, and to give it the prominence duo to an independent thought; cf. E\v. J 3 10, A. As to the truth itself, cf. xxxii. 19. With this is joined the common Baying as to the partridge, ver. 11. The aim is not to specify greed as another root of the corruption of the heart, or to give another ease of false confidence in the earthly (Nag., Graf); bat to corroborate by a common saying, whose truth should be obvious to the people, the greater truth, that God, as Searcher of hearts, requites each according to his works. The proverb ran: He that gains riches, and that by wrong, i.e. in an unjust, dishonourable manner, is like a partridge which hatches eggs it has not laid. In the Proverbs we often find comparisons, as here, without the 3 similit.: a gainer of riches is a partridge; cf. Prov. xxv. 14, xxvi. 28, xxviii. 15. top, the crier, denotes here and 1 Sam. xxvi. 20 the partridge (Rephuhn, properly Rophuhn from rOpenz^rufen, to call or er\); a bird yet found in plenty in the tribe of Juclah; cf. Robinson, Palestine* All other interpretations are arbitrary. It is true that natural history has not proved the fact oi this peculiarity of the partridge, on which the proverb was founded; testimonies as to this habit of the creature are found only in certain Church fathers, and these were probably deduced from this passage (cf. Winer, bibl. R. IF., art. Rebhuhn). But the proverb assumes only tliefact that such was the widespread popular belief amongst the Israelites, without saying anvthing as to the correctness of it. " Hatcheth and layeth not" are to be taken relatively. W, the Targum word in Job xxxix. 14 for 2^n, fovere, sig. hatch, lit. to hold eggs close together, cover eggs; see on Isa. xxxiv. 15. "P\ to bring forth, here of laying eggs. As to the Kametz in both words, see Ew. § 100, c. The point of the comparison, that the young hatched out of another bird's eggs forsake the mother, is brought out in the application of the proverb. Hence is to be explained " forsake him: " the riches forsake him, instead of: are lost to him, vanish, in the half of his days, i.e. in the midst of life; and at the end of his life he shall be a fool, i.e. the folly of his conduct shall fully appear.
In vers. 12 and 13 Jeremiah concludes this meditation with an address to the Lord, which the Lord corroborates by Ilisown word. Ver. 12 is taken by many ancient coram, as a simple
Btatement: a throne of glory, loftiness from the beginning, is the place of our sanctuary. This is grammatically defensible; but the view preferred by almost all moderns, that it is an apostrophe, is more in keeping with the ten-ion of feeling in the discourse. The k* place of oar sanctuary" is the temple the spot where God sits throned amidst His people, not the heaven as God's throne: Isa. lwi. 1. This the pronoun cur dees not befit, since heaven i> never spoken of as the sanctuary of [srael. Hence we must refer both the preceding phrases to ab.lahveh, inasmuch at it had 1 apart thereto by the sacrifice I Isaac; lee the expos, of Ex. xv. 17. Nor does WhO always mean the beginning of the world, but in Isa.
amongst Hia p ople, ver. 13, the discourse passes to Him who is there enthroned: Thou hope of Israel,.lahveh (cf. xiv. 8), eminence. The praise of God's throne prepares only the transition to praise of the Lord, who there makes known His glory. The address to Jahveh: Thou hope of Israel, is not a prayer directed to Him, so as to justify the objection against the'vocative acceptation of ver. 12, that it were unseemly to address words of prayer to the temple. The juxtaposition of the sanctuary as the throne of God and of Jahveh, the hope of
Zion is a forsaking of Jahveh, the hope of Israel. It needs hardly be observed that this adverting to the temple as the it ot Jahveh's throne, whence help may come, is not in contradiction to the warning given in vii. 4, 9 f. against false confidence in the temple as;i power present to protect. That warning is aimed against the idolaters, who believed that (. fa presence was bo bound up with the temple, that the latter was beyond the risk of harm. The Lord is really present in the temple on Zion only to those who draw near' Him in the confidence of true faith. All who forsake the Lord come to shame. This word the Lord confirms through the mouth of the prophet in the second part of the verse. *W[, according to the diet., is a substantive from "no, formed like yy fr0m y~\. Ew. § 162, a); the Keri ^D1 is partic. from "ttD with 1 cop. — an uncalled-for conjecture. My departers = those that depart from me, shall be written in the earth, in the loose earth, where writing speedily disappears. ps%, synonymous with IBy, cf. Job xiv. 8, suggesting death. The antithesis to this is not the graving in rock, Job xix. 24, but beino; written in the book of life; cf. Dan. xii. 1 with Ex. xxxii. 32. In this direction the grounding clause points: they have forsaken the fountain of living water (ii. 13); for without water one must pine and perish. — On "this follows directly,
Vers. 1 4—1 8. The prophet's prayer for rescue from his enemies. — Ver. 14. " Heal me, Jahveh, that I may be healed; help me, that I may be holpen, for Thou art my praise. Ver. 15. Behold, they say to me, Where is the word of Jahveh? let it come, now. Ver. 16. I have not withdrawn myself from being a shepherd after Thee, neither wished for the day of trouble, Thou knowest; that which went forth of my lips was open before Thy face. Ver. 17. Be not to me a confusion, my refuge art Thou in the day of evil. Ver. 18. Let my persecutors be put to shame, but let not me be put to shame; let them be confounded, but let not me be confounded-; bring upon them the day of evil, and break them with a double breach."
The experience Jeremiah had had in his calling seemed to contradict the truth, that trust in the Lord brings blessing (ver. 7 ff.); for his preaching of God's word had brought him nothing but persecution and suffering. Therefore he prays the
Lord to remove this contradiction and to verify that truth in his case also. The prayer of ver. 14, « heal me," reminds one of Ps. vi. 3, xxx. 3. Thou art TOTO, the object of my praises; cf. Ps. lxxi. G, Deut. x. 21.— The occasion for this prayer is furnished by the attacks of his enemies, who ask in scorn what then lias become of that which he proclaims as the word of the Lord, why it does not come to pass. Hence we see that the discourse, of which this complaint is the conclusion, was delivered before the first invasion of Judah by the Chaldeans. So long as his announcements were not fulfilled, the unbelieving were free to persecute him as a false prophet (cf. Deut. xvm. 22) and to give out that his prophecies were inspired by his own spite against his people. He explains, on the contrary, that in his calling he ha, neither acted of his own accord, nor wished for misfortune to the people, but that he has spoken by the inspiration of God alone. 'W WW * cannot mean: i have 11(>t pressed myself forward to follow Thee as shepherd, i.e. pressed myself forward into Thy service in vain and overweening self-conceit (Umbr.). For although this sense would fall very well in with the train of thought, yet it cannot be grammatically justified, px, press, press oneself on to any- Thin-, is construed with b, cf. Josh. x. 13; with |0 it can only mean: press oneself away from a thin-, nine may stand for njftrrtviD, cf. xlviii. 2, 1 Sam, xv. 23, 1 Kings xv. 13: from heing a shepherd after Thee, U I have not withdrawn myself from following after Thee as a shepherd. Against this rendering the fact seems to weigh, that usually it is not the prophets, but only the kings and princes, that are entitled the shepherds of the people; cf. xxiii. 1. Fur this reason, it would appear, Hitz. and Graf have taken Wl in the sig. to seek after a person or thing, and have translated: I have not pressed myself away from keeping after Thee, or from being one that followed Thee faithfully. For this appeal is made to places like Prov. xiii. 20. xxviii. 7, Ps. xxxvii. 3, where W does mean to seek after a thin-, to take pleasure in it. But in this srg. nm is always construed with the accus. of the thing or person, not with nna, as here. Nor does it by any means follow, from the fact of shepherds meaning usually kings or rulers, that the idea of "shepherd" is exhausted in ruling and governing people. According to Pa. xxiii. 1, Jahveh is the shepherd of the godly, who feeda them in green pastures and leads them to the refreshing water, who revives their soul, etc. In this sense prophets, too, feed the people, if they, following the Lord as chief shepherd, declare God's word to the people. We cannot in any case abide by Nag.'s rendering, who, taking nyi in its literal sense, puts the meaning thus: I have not pressecfmyself away from bring a shepherd, in order to go after Thee. For the assumption that Jeremiah had, before his call, been, like Amos, a herd of cattle, contradicts ch. i. 1; nor from the fact, that the cities of the priests and of the Levites were provided with grazing fields (MhM), does it at all follow that the priests themselves tended their Hocks. " The day of trouble," the ill, disastrous day, is made out by Nag. to be the day of his entering upon the office of prophet— a view that needs no refutation. It is the day of destruction for Jerusalem and Judah, which Jeremiah had foretold. When Nag. says: " He need not have gone out of his way to affirm that he did not desire the day of disaster for the whole people," he has neglected to notice that Jeremiah is here defending himself against the charges of his enemies, who inferred from his prophecies of evil that he found a pleasure in his people's calamity, and wished for it to come. Tor the truth of his defence, Jeremiah appeals to the omniscience of God: " Thou knowest it." That which goes from my lips, i.e. the word that came from my lips, was TJS n^, before or over against Thy face, i.e. manifest to Thee. — Ver. 17. On this he founds his entreaty that the Lord will not bring him to confusion and shame by leaving his prophecies as to Judah unfulfilled, and gives his encouragement to pray in the clause: Thou art my refuge in the day of evil, in evil times; cf. xv. 11. May God rather put his persecutors to shame and confusion by the accomplishment of the calamity foretold, ver. 18. nyifi pointed with Tsere instead of the abbreviation *nn, cf. Ew. § 224, c. N'3n is imperat. instead of N2n? as in 1 Sam. xx. 40, where the Masoretes have thus pointed even the fcOnn. But in the Hiph. the i has in many cases maintained itself against the e, so that we are neither justified in regarding the form before us as sciiptio plena, nor yet in reading HN^n. — Break them with a double breach, i.e. let the disaster fall on them doubly. " A double breach,'1 pr. something doubled in the way of breaking or demolition. fr\2p is not subordinated to PlStre m stat. constr., but is added as accus. of kind; cf. E\v.
Vera, 1(.> 27. Of the fallowing of the ^il>!»<th. — \rcv. 19. • [ i, us said Jahveh unto me: Go and stand in the irate of the sons of the people, by which the kings of Judah come in and by which they go out, and in all gates of Jerusalem, Ver. 20. And say unto them: Hear the word of Jahveh, ye kings of Judah, and all Judah, and all inhabitants of Jerusalem, that m by these: Ver. 21. Thus hath Jahveh said: Take heed for your souls, and bear no burden on the Sabbath-day, forth no burden ou1 nr houses on the Sabbath-day, and do no work, and hallow the Sabbath-day, a. I commanded your fathers. Ve But they hearkened not, neither inclined their oar. and made their i tiff, that they might not hear nor t. -ruction. Ver. 24. But if ye will really hearken unto me, Baith Jahveh, to bring in no burden by the gates of tne C|ty on t and to hallow the Sabbath-day, to do no wu,k there n, V< r. 25. Then shall there go through the the City kings and princes, who sit mi the throne of ling in chariots and on horses they and their princ the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and this city shall bo inhabited for ever. Ver. 26. And they shall come from the cities of Judah and the outskirts of Jerusalem, from the land of Benjamin and from the lowland, from the lnllcountry and from the south, that bring burntroffering and slainoffering, meat-offering and incense, and that bring praise into the house of Jahveh. Ver. 27. But if ye hearken not to me, to hallow the Sabbath-day, and not to bear a burden, and to come into the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath-day, then will I kindle fire in her gates, so that it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem, and not be quenched/'
The introduction, ver. 19, shows that this passage has, in point of form, but a loose connection with what precedes. It is, however, not a distinct and independent prophecy; ^ for it wants the heading, " The word of Jahveh which came," etc., proper to all the" greater discourses. Besides, in point of subject-matter, it may very well be joined with the preceding general reflections as to the springs of mischief and of wellngi inasmuch as it Bhows how the way of safety appointed to the people lies in keeping the decalogue, as exemplified in • of its fundamental precepts.— The whole passage contains only God's command to the prophet; but the execution of it,
. the proclamation to the people of what was commanded, is involved in the nature of the ease. Jeremiah is to procla'im this word of the Lord in all the gates of Jerusalem, that it may be obeyed in them all. The locality of the gate of the
DS of the people is obscure and difficult to determine, that by which the kings of Judah go and come. Dy \J3 seems to stand for Dyn \:z, as the Keri would have it. In xxvi. 23 and 2 Kings xxiii. 6j "sons of the people*" means the common people as opposed to the rich and the notables; in 2 Chron. xxxv. 5, 7 ff., the people as opposed to the priests and Levites, that is, the laity. The first sig. of the phrase seems here to be excluded by the fact, that the kings come and go by this gate; for there is not the smallest probability that a gate so used could have borne the name of " gate of the common people." But we might well pause to weigh the second sig. of the word, if we could but assume that it was a gate of the temple that was meant. Nag. concludes that it was so, on the ground that we know of no city gate through which only the kings and the dregs of the people were free to go, or the kings and the mass of their subjects, to the exclusion of the priests. But this does not prove his point; for we are not informed as to the temple, that the kings and the laity were permitted to go and come by one gate only, while the others were reserved for priests and Levites. Still it is much more likely that the principal entrance to the outer court of the temple should have obtained the name of " people's gate," or " laymen's gate," than that a city gate should have been so called; and that by that " people's gate" the kings also entered into the court of the temple, while the priests and Levites came and went by side gates which were more at hand for the court of the priests. Certainly Nag. is right when he further remarks, that the name was not one in general use, but must have been used by the priests only. On the other hand, there is nothing to support clearly the surmise that the gate Tto, 2 Chron. xxiii. 5, was so called; the east gate of the outer court is much more likely. We need not be surprised at the mention of this chief gate of the temple along with the city gates; for certainly there would be always a great multitude of people to be found at this gate, even if what Nag. assumes were not the case, that by the sale and purchase of things used in the temple, this gate was the scene of a Sabbathbreaking trade. But if. with the majority of comm., we are to hold that by "people's gate" a city gate was meant, then we cannot determine which it was. Of the suppositions that it or the gate of the midst which led through the northern wall of Zion from the upper city into the lower city (Hitz.), or the wai •. Neh. iii. 26 (Graf), each is as unfounded as another. Prom the plural: the kings of Judah (ver. 20), Hitz. Infers that more kings than on tip n existing alongside one another, and that thus the name nuM denote the members of the royal family. Bat his idea ha- been arbitrarily forced into the text. The gates of the city, a< Well as of the temple, did not last over the reign of hut one king, \vr. 21. rrtt^WS TDtfTI, take heed for the souls i.e. take care of the souls so as not to lose life (cf. Mai. ii. 15), is a more pregnant construction than that with ^ Dent. iv. 15, although it yields the same i rroneonaly to explain the phrase according to 2 Sam. xx. 10 (-""- '*— - take care against the sword) and Dent xxiv. S, where ~>:-'~ ought not to be joined at all with Pl)3. The bearing of burdens on the Sabbath, both into the city and out of one's house, seems to point most directly at market trade and business, cf. Neh. xiii. 15 ff., but is used only as one instance of the citizens1 occupations; hence are appended the very words of the law: to do no work, Ex. xii. 10, xx. 10, Dent v. 14, and: to hallow the Sabbath, namely, by cessation from all labour, cf. ver. 24. The remark in ver. 23, that the fathers have already transgressed God's law, is neither contrary to the aim in view, as Ilitz. fancies, nor superfluous, but serves to characterize the transgression censured as an old and deeplyrooted sin, which God must at length punish unless the people cease therefrom. The description of the fathers' disobedience is a verbal repetition of vii. 26. The Chet. ysitf> cannot be a participle, but Is a clerical error for $tof (infin. constr. with teriptio plena)} as in xi. 10 and xix. 15. See a similar error in ii. 25 and \iii. 6. On " nor take instruction," cf. ii. 30.— In the next verses the observance of this commandment is enforced by a representation of the blessings which the hallowing of the Sabbath will bring to the people (vers. 24-26), and the curse upon its profanation (ver. 27). If they keep the Sabbath holy, the glory of the dynasty of David and the prosperity of the people will acquire permanence, and Jerusalem remain continually inhabited, and the people at large will bring thankofferings to the Lord in His temple. Hitz., Graf, and Nag. take objection to the collocation: kings and princes (ver. 25), because princes do not sit on the throne of David, nor can they have other -k princes" dependent on them, as we must assume from the " they and their princes." But although the D^l be awanting in the parallel, xxii. 4, yet this passage cannot be regarded as the standard; for whereas the discourse in chap. xxii. is addressed to the king, the present is to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, or rather the people of Judah. The &*&) is subordinate to the kings, so that the sitting on the throne of David is to be referred only to the kings, the following E^l?"! helping further to define them. " Riding" is to be joined both with " in chariots" and " on horses " since 331 means either driving or riding. The driving and riding of the kings and their princes through the gates of Jerusalem" is a sign of the undiminished splendour of the rule of David's race. — Ver. 26. Besides the blessing of the continuance of the Davidic monarchy, Jerusalem will also have to rejoice in the continued spiritual privilege of public worship in the house of the Lord. From the ends of the kingdom the people will come with offerings to the temple, to present thank-offerings for benefits received. The rhetorical enumeration of the various parts of the country appears again in xxxii. 44. The cities of Judah and the outskirts of Jerusalem denote the part of the country which bordered on Jerusalem; then we have the land of Benjamin, the northern province of the kingdom, and three districts into which the tribal domain of Judah was divided: the Shephelah in the west on the Mediterranean Sea, the hill-country, and the southland; see on Josh. xv. 21, 33, and 48. The desert of
Judah (Josh. xv. 61) is not mentioned, as being comprehended under the hill-country. The offerings are divided into two classes: bloody, burnt and slain offerings, and unbloody, meatofferings and frankincense, which was strewed upon the meatoffering (Lev. ii. 1). The latter is not the incense-offering (Graf), which is not called TlfiA, but n^::?, cf. Ex. xxx. 7 ff., although frankincense was one of the ingredients of the incense prepared for burning (Ex. xxx.:\\). These offerings they will bring as u praise-offering" into the house of the Lord, nnin is not here used for nnin n;r, praise-offering, as one species of sla in-offering, but is, as we see from xxxiii. 11, a general designation for the praise and thanks which they desire to expr by means of the offerings specified. — Ver. 27. In the event of the continuance of this desecration of the Sabbath, Jerusalem i- to he burnt up with fire, cf. xxi. 14, and, as regards the expressions used, Amoa i. 1 1, 11 OS. viii. 14.
These three chapters have the title common to all Jeremiah's discourses of the earlier period: The word which came to Jeremiah from.Jahveh (xviii. 1). In them, bodied forth in two symbolical actions, are two discourses which are very closely related to one another in form and substance, and which may be regarded as one single prophecy set forth in words and OS. In them we find discussed Judah's ripeness for the judgment, the destruction of the kingdom, and the speediness with which that judgment was to befall. The subject-matter of this discourse-compilation falls into two parts: chap, xviii. and chap. xix. and xx.; that is, into the accounts of two symbolical actions, together with the interpretation of them and their application to the people (chap, xviii. 1-17 and chap. xix. 1-13), followed immediately by notices as to the reception which these announcements met on the part of the people and their rulers (chap, xviii. 18-23, and chap. xix. 14-xx. 18). In the first discourse, that illustrated by the figure of a potter who remodels a misshapen vessel, chap, xviii., the prophet inculcates on the people the truth that the Lord has power to do according to His good-will, seeking in this to make another appeal to them to turn from their evil ways; and the people replies to this appeal by scheming against the life of the austere preacher of repentance. As the consequence of this obdurate impenitency, he, in chap, xix., by breaking an earthen pitcher bought of the potter, predicts to the elders of the people and the priests, in the valley oi Benhinnom, the breaking up of the kingdom and the demolition of Jerusalem (vers. 1-13). For this he is put in the stocks by Pashur, the warden of the temple; and when freed from this imprisonment, he tells him that he and allJudah shall be carried off to Babylon and be put to death by the sword (xix. 14- xx. G). As a conclusion we have, as in chap, xviii., complaint at the sufferings that attend his calling (xx. 7-18).
As to the time of these two symbolical actions and announcements, we can determine only thus much with certainty, that they both belong to the period before the fourth year of the reign of Jehoiakim, and that they were not far separated in time from one another. The first assumes still the possibility of the people's repentance, whence we may safely conclude that the first chastisement at the hands of the Chaldeans was not yet ready to be inflicted; in the second, that judgment is threatened as inevitably on the approach, while still there is nothing here either to show that the catastrophe was immediately at hand. Nag. tries to make out that chap, xviii. falls before the critical epoch of the battle at Carchemish, chap. xix. and xx. after it; but his arguments are worthless. For there is no ground whatever for the assertion that Jeremiah did not, until after that decisive battle, give warning of the deliverance of all Judah into the hand of the king of Babylon, and that not till the prophecies after that time do we find the phrase: Jeremiah the prophet, as in xx, 2. The contents of the three chapters do not even point us assuredly to the first year of Jehoiakim's reign. There is no hint that Judah had become tributary to Egypt; so that we might even assign both prophecies to the last year of Josiah. For it might have happened even under Josiah that the upper warden of the temple should have kept the prophet in custody for one night.
AND THE COMPLAINT OF THE PROPTIET AGAINST niS ADVER- SARIES.— The figure of the potter who remodels a misshapen vessel (vers. 2-4). The interpretation of this (vers. 5-10), and its application to degenerate Israel (vers. 11-17). The reception of the discourse by the people, and Jeremiah's cry to the Lord (vers. 18-23).
Vers. 2-10. The emblem and its interpretation. — Ver. 2. u Arise and go down into the potter's house; there will I cause thee to hear my words. Ver. 3. And I went down into the potter's house; and, behold, he wrought on the wheels. Ver, 4. And the vessel was marred, that he wrought in clay, in the hand of the potter; then he made Again another vessel of it, as seemed good to the putter to make. Ver. 5. Then came the word of Jahveh to me, saying: Ver. G. Cannot I do with you as this potter, house "t Israel I saith Jahveh. Behold, as the clay in the hand of the potter, so are ye in mine hand, house el Israel. Ver. 7. Now 1 speak concerning a people and kingdom, to root it out and pluck up and destroy it. Ver. 8. lint it' that people turns from its wickedness, against which I spake, then it repents meof the evil which I thought to do it. Ver. 9. And now 1 speak concerning a people and a kingdom, to build and to plant it. Ver. 10. If it do that which is evil in mine s, so that it hearkens not unto my voice, then it repents me of the good which 1 said 1 would do unto it."
By God's command Jeremiah is to go and see the potter's treatment of the clay, and to receive thereafter God's interpretation of the same. Here he has set before his eyes that which suggests a comparison of man to the clay and of God to the potter, a comparison that frequently occurred to the Hebrews, and which had been made to appear in the first formation of man (cf. Job x. 9, xxxiii. 6, Isa. xxix. 16, xlv. 9, lxiv. 7). This is done that he may forcibly represent to the people, by means of the emblem, the power of the Lord to do according to His will with all nations, and so with Israel too. From the " go down," we gather that the potteries of Jerusalem lay in a valley near the city. E^nNH are the round frames by means of which the potter moulded his vessels. This sig. of the word is well approved here; but in Ex. i. 16, where too it is found, the meaning is doubtful, and it is a question whether the derivation