Vers. 13-19. The icoe uttered upon Jehoiakim. — Ver. 13. " Woe unto him that buildeth his house with unrighteousness and his upper chambers with wrong, that maketh his fellow labour for nought, and giveth him not his hire; Ver. 14. That saith: I will build me a wide house and spacious upper chambers, and cutteth him out many windows, ar\d covereth it with cedars, and painteth it with vermilion. Ver. 15. Art thou a king if thou viest in cedar? Did not thy father eat and drink, and do right and justice? Then it went wrell with him. Ver. 16. He did justice to the poor and wretched, then it was well. Is not this to know me? saith Jahveh. Ver. 17. For on nothing are thine eyes and thy heart set but on gain and on the blood of the innocent, to shed it, and on oppression and violence, to do them. Ver. 18. Therefore thus saith Jahveh concerning Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah: They shall not mourn for him, saying: Alas, my brother! and alas, sister! they shall not mourn for him: Alas, lord! and alas for his glory! Ver. 19. An ass's burial shall his burial be, dragged and cast far away from the gates of Jerusalem."
The prediction as to Jehoiakim begins with a woe upon the unjust oppression of the people. The oppression consisted in his building a magnificent palace with the sweat and blood of his subjects, whom he compelled to do forced labour without giving the labourers wages. The people must have felt this burden all the more severely that Jehoiakim, to obtain the throne, had bound himself to pay to Pharaoh a large tribute, the gold and silver for which he raised from the population according to Pharaoh's own valuation, 2 Kings xxiii. 33 ff. With a Woe to him that buildeth," etc., cf. Ilab. ii. 12, Mic. in. 10. "That maketh his fellow labour/' lit. through his neighbour he works,
. he causes the work to be done by his neighbour (fellow-man) for nought, without giving him wages, forces him to unpaid statute-labour. 3 "12V as in Lev. x\v. 39, 46. <jfe, labour, v.«»rk, gain, then wages, cf. Job vii. 2. Jehoiakim sought to increase the splendour of his kingship by palace-building* To this the speech points, put in his mouth at ver. 11:1 will build me nfao n*a, a house of extensions, /.<■. a palace in the grand style, with spacious halls, vast chambers. npD from nyj, to find vent, cheer up, 1 Sain. xvi. 23; not airy, but spacious, for quite a modest house might have airy chambers. jr>pi is a continuation of the participle: literally: and he cuts himself out windows, makes huge openings in the walls for windows. This verb is used in iv. 30 of opening up the eyes with paint. Wfl presents some difficulty, B< eing that the suffix of the first person makes no sense. It lias therefore been held to be a contracted plural form (Gesen. Lehrgeb. S. 523) or for a dual (Ew. § 177. o), but without any proof of the existence of such formation-', since ^13, Amos vii. 1, Nah. iii. 17, is to be otherwise explained (see on Amos vii. 1). Following on the back of.1. L). Mich., Uitz., Graf, and Bottcher (ausf. Gramm. § 414) propose to connect the 1 before pBD with this word and to read v:^n: and tears open for himself his windows; in support of which it is alleged that one cod. so reads. But this one cod. can decide nothing, and the suffix his is superfluous, even unsuitable, seeing that there can be no thought of another person's building; whereas the copula cannot well be omitted before p2D. For the rule adduced for this, that the manner of the principal action is frequently explained by appending infinitives abaoll (Ew, § 280, a), docs not meet the present case; the covering with cedar, etc., does not refer to the windows, and 50 cannot be an explanation of the cutting out for himself. We therefore hold, with Bottcher (Proben, S. 40), that uftn is an adjective formation, with the force of: abundant in windows, since this formation is completely accredited by ^3 and nh {cL Ew. § 164, c)\ and the objection alleged against this by Graf, that then no object is specified for "cutteth out," is not of much weight, it being easy to supply the object from the preceding " house: " and he cuts it out for himself abounding in windows. There needs be no change of frBDl into jiSDl. For although the infin. obsol. would be quite in place as continuation of the verb. fin. (cf. Ew. § 351, c), yet it is not necessary. The word is attached in zeugma to jnjjl or ^n: and he covers with cedar, not: faces or overlays, for this verb does not mean to plank or floor, for which nay is the usual word, but hide, cover, and is used 1 Kings vi. 9, vii. 3, for roofing. The last statement is given in infin. absol.: nira, and besmears it, paints it (the building) with ">W, red ochre, a brilliant colour (LXX. /jliXtos, i.e. ace. to Kimchi, red lead; see Gesen. thes. s.v.). — In ver. 15 Jeremiah pursues the subject: kingship and kingcraft do not consist in the erection of splendid palaces, but in the administration of right and justice. The reproachful question v^nn has not the meaning: wilt thou reign long? or wilt thou consolidate thy dominion? but: dost thou suppose thyself to be a king, to show thyself a king, if thy aim and endeavour is solely fixed on the building of a stately palace? " Viest," as in xii. 5. P83, not: with the cedar, for mnn is construed with the accus. of that with which one vies, but: in cedar, i.e. in the building of cedar palaces. It was not necessary to say with whom he vied, since the thought of Solomon's edifices would surest itself. The LXX. have changed HK3 by a pointless quid pro quo into in&Q, iv ' ' Aya^ for which Cod. Alex, and Arabs have iv ' Ayaafi. The fact that Ahab had built a palace veneered with ivory (1 Kings xxii. 39) is not sufficient to approve this reading, which Ew. prefers. Still less cause is there to delete PK3 as a gloss (Hitz.) in order to obtain the rendering, justified neither by grammar nor in fact, " if thou contendest with thy father." To confirm what he has said, the prophet sets before the worthless king the example of his godly father Josiah. "Thy father, did not he eat and drink," i.e. enjoy life (cf. Eccles. ii. 24, iii. 13) 1 yet at the same time he administered right and justice, like liis forefather David; 2 Sam. viii. 15. Then went it well with him and the kingdom. 3iO TX, vcr. 16, is wider than ft 2Sl2 TN ■ in respect that he did justice to the poor and wretched, things went well, were well managed in the kingdom at large. In so doinix consists "the knowing of me/' The knowledge of Jahveh is the practical recognition of Grod which is displayed in the fear of God and a pious life. The infinitive nomxn. h]ft has the article because a special emphasis lies on the word (cf. Ew. § _' i 7., the true knowledge of (iod required to have stress laid on it. — hut Jehoiakim is the reverse of his father. This thought, lying in \vr. 16, is illustrated in ver. 17. For thine eyes are upon nothing hut gain. JHO, gain with the suggestion of unrighteousness about it, cf. vi. 13, viii. 10. His whole endeavour was after wealth and splendour. The means of attaining this aim was injustice, since he not only withheld their wages from his workers (ver. 13), hut caused the innocent to he condemned in the judgment that he might grasp their goods to himself, as e.g, Ahab had done with Naboth. He also put to death the prophets who rebuked his unrighteousness, xxvi. 23, and used ••very kind of lawless violence. a Oppression" is amplified by rwion (from pn, cf. Dent, x.wiii. 33, 1 Sam. xii..*>), crushing, u what we call flaying people" (Ilitz.); cf. on this subject, Mic. iii. 3. — Ver. 18 f. As punishment for this, his end will he full of horrors; when he dies he will not be bemoaned and mourned for, and will lie unhuried. To have an ass's burial means: to be left unhuried in the open field, or cast into a flaying-ground, inasmuch as they drag out the dead body and cast it far from the gates of Jerusalem. The wrords: Alas, my brother! alas, etc.! are ipsissima verba of the regular mourners who were procured to bewail the deaths of men and women. The LXX. took objection to the "alas, sister," and left it out, applying the words literally to Jehoiakim's death; whereas the words are but a rhetorical individualizing of the general idea: they will make no death-laments for him, and the omission destroys the parallelism. His glory, i.e. the king's. The idea
Is: neither his relatives nor his subjects will lament his death. The itifinn, absolL tf?W\}) airiD, dragging forth and castirg (him), sen e to explain: the burial ut an ass, etc. In xxxvi. 30, where Jeremiah repeats this prediction concerning Jehoiakim, it is said: His dead body shall be east out (exposed) to the heat by day and to the cold by night, i.e. rot unburied under the open sky. As to the fulfilment of this prophecy, we are told, indeed, in 2 Kings xxiv. 6 that Jehoiakim slept with his fathers, and Jehoiachin, his son, was king in his stead. But the phrase " to sleep with his fathers" denotes merely departure from this life, without saying anything as to the manner of the death. It is not used only of kings who died a peaceful death on a sickbed, but of Ahab (1 Kings xxii. 40), wdio, mortally wounded in the battle, died in the war-chariot. There is no record of Jehoiakim's funeral obsequies or burial in 2 Kings xxiv., and in Chron. there is not even mention made of his death. Three years after the first siege of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans, and after he had become tributary to the king of Babylon, Jehoiakim rose in insurrection, and Nebuchadnezzar sent against him the troops of the Chaldeans, Aramaeans, Moabites, and Ammonites. It was not till after the accession of Jehoiachin that Nebuchadnezzar himself appeared before Jerusalem and besieged it (2 Kings xxiv. 1, 2, and 10). So it is in the highest degree probable that Jehoiakim fell in battle against the Chaldean-Syrian armies before Jerusalem was besieged, and while the enemies were advancing against the city; also that he was left to lie unburied outside of Jerusalem; see on 2 Kings xxiv. 6, where other untenable attempts to harmonize are discussed. The absence of direct testimony to the fulfilment of the prophecy before us can be no ground for doubting that it was fulfilled, when we consider the great brevity of the notices of the last kings' reigns given by the authors of the books of Kings and Chronicles. Graf's remark hereon is excellent: " We have a warrant for the fulfilment of this prediction precisely in the fact that it is again expressly recounted in chap, xxxvi., a historical passage written certainly at a later time (xxxvi. 30 seems to contain but a slight reference to the prediction in xxii. 18, 19, 30); or, while xxii. 12, 25 ff. tallies so completely with the history, is xxii. 18 f. to be held as contradicting it? "
Vers. 20-23. The ruin about to fall on Judah.— Ver. 20. "Go up on Lebanon and cry, and lift up thy voice in Bashan and cry from Abarim; for broken are all thy lovers. Ver. 21. I spake to thee in thy prosperity; thou saidst: I will not hear; that was thy way from thy youth up, that thou hearkenedst not to my voice. Ver. 22. All thy shepherds the wind shall sweep away, and thy lovers shall go into captivity; yea, then shalt thou he put to shame and ashamed for all thy wickedness. Ver. 23. Thou that dwellest on Lebanon and makest thy nest on cedars, how shalt thou sigh when pangs come upon thee, pain as of a woman in travail I" — It is the people personified as the daughter of Zion, the collective population of.Jerusalem and Judah, that is addr< \ is in vii. l)1J. She is to lift up her wailing cry upon the highesl mountains, that it may he heard far and near. The peaks of the mountain masses that bordered Palestine are mentioned, from which one could have a view of the land; namely, Lebanon northwards, the mountains of Bashan (Ps. l.wiii. L6) to the north-east, those of Abarim to the.south-cast, amongst which was Mount Nebo, whence Moses viewed the land of Canaan, Num. xxvii. 12, Deut. xxxii. 49. She is to lament because all her lovers are destroyed. The lovers are not the kings (Ros., Ew., Neum., Nag.), nor the idols (Umbr.), but the allied nations (J. I >. Midi.. Niaur., Ilitz.), for whose favour Judah had intrigued (iv. 30) — Egypt (ii. 30) and the little neighbouring states (xxvii. o). All these nations were brought under the yoke by Nebuchadnezzar, and could no longer give Judah help (xxviii. 14, xxx. 14). On the form V>"->\ Ew. 41, c. — Ver. 21. The cause of this calamity: because Judah in its prosperity had not hearkened to the voice of its God. fly~', from,"1^r", security, tranquillity, state of wellbeing free from anxiety; the plur. denotes the peaceful, secure relations. Thus Judah had behaved from youth up, i.e. from the time it had become the people of God and been led out of captivity; see ii. 2, Hos. ii. 17. — In ver. 22 nyin is chosen for the sake of the word-play with T]^jri, and denotes to depasture, as in ii. 16. As the storm-wind, especially the parching east wind, depastures, so to speak, the grass of the field, so will the storm about to break on Judah sweep away the shepherds, carry them off; cf. xiii. 24, Isa. xxvii. 8, Job xxvii. 21. The shepherds of the people are not merely the kings, but all its leaders, the authorities generally, as in \. 21; and " thy shepherds" is not equivalent to "thy lovers," but the thought is this: Neither its allies nor its leaders will be able to help; the storm of calamity will sweep away the former, the latter must go captive. that there is no need to alter Tp.Xft into t|^jn (Hitz.). With the last clause cf. ii. 36. Then surely will the daughter of Zion, feeling secure m her cedar palaces, sigh bitterly. The inhabitants of Jerusalem are said to dwell in Lebanon and to have their nests in cedars in reference to the palaces of cedar belonging to the great and famous, who at the coming destruction will suffer most. As to the forms *J|OB* and ^apo see on x. 17. The explanation of the form ''rum is disputed. Ros., Gvs., and others take it for the Niph. of JJPT, with the force: to be compassionated, thus: how deserving of pity or compassion wilt thou he! But this rendering does not give a very apt sense, even if it were not the case that the sig. to be worthy of pity is not approved by usage, and that it is nowhere taken from the Niph. We therefore prefer the derivation of the word from n:s, Niph. ruNg, contr. ny, a derivative founded on the LXX. rendering: rl KaraaT6vd^€t<;, and Vulg. quomodo conaemuisti. The only question that then remains is, whether the form ^:n: has arisen by transposition from nnw, so as to avoid the coming together of the same letter at the beginning (Ew., Hitz., Gr.); or whether, with Bottch. ausf. Gramm. § 1124, B, it is to be held as a reading corrupted from ViriM. With " pangs," etc., cf. xiii. 21, vi. 24.
Vers. 24-30. Against Jehoiachin or Jeclwniah. — Ver. 24. " As I live, saith Jahveh, though Conjahu, the son of Jehoiakim, the king of Judah, were a signet ring on my right hand, yet would I pluck him thence, Ver. 25. And give thee into the hand of them that seek thy life, and into the hand of them of whom thou art afraid, and into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon, and into the hand of the Chaldeans; Ver. 26. And will cast thee and thy mother that bare thee into another land where ye were not born; and there shall ye die. Ver 27. And into the land whither they lift up their soul to return, thither shall they not return. Ver. 28. Is this man Conjahu a vessel despised and to be broken, or an utensil wherein one has no pleasure? Ver. 29. O land, land, land, hear the word of Jahveh! Ver. 30. Thus hath Jahveh said: Write down this man as childless, as a man that hath no prosperity in his life; for no man of his seed shall prosper that sitteth upon the throne of David aud ruleth widely over Judah."
The son and successor of Jehoiakim is called in 2 Kings xxiv. 6 ff., 2 Chron. xxxvi. 8 f., Jer. lii. 31, Jehojachin, and in Ezek. i. 2, Jojachin; here, vers. 21, 28, and xxxvii. 1, Conjahu; in xxiv. 1, Jeconjahu; and in xxvii. 20, xxviii. 4, xxix. 2, Esth. ii. G, 1 Chron* iii. 1G, Jeconjah. The names Jeconjahu and abbreviated Jeconjah are equivalent to Jojachin and Jehojachin, ii will establish. Jeconjah was doubtless his original name, and so stands in the family register, 1 Chron. iii. 1G, but was at his accession to the throne changed into Jehojachin or.Jojachin, to make it like r his father's name. The abbreviation of.Jeconjahu into Conjahn is held by Hgfltb. ChrUioL ii. p. -102, to be a change made by Jeremiah in order by cutting off the * (icill establish) to cut off the hope ex] by the name, to make "a Jeconiah without the J, a 'God will establish' without the will." For two reasons we cannot adopt this as the true view: 1. The general reason, that if.Jeremiah had wi>hed to adumbrate the fate of the three kings (Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, and Jehoiachin) by making changes in their names, he would then have changed the name of Jehoiakim in like manner as he did that of Jehoahaz into Shall um, and that of Jehoiachin into Conjahu. The argument by which Hgstb. seeks to justify the exception in the one case will not hold its own. Had Jeremiah thought it unseemly to practise a kind of conceit, for however solemn a purpose, on the name of the then reiiinincr monarch, then neither could he have ventured on the like in the case of Jehoiachin; for the present prediction was not, as Hgstb. assumed, uttered before his accession, but, as may be seen from the title the king of Judah, ver. 24, after he had ascended the throne, was actually king. Besides, 2. the name Conjahu occurs also at xxxvii. 1, in a historical heading, as of equal dignity with Jeconjahu, xxix. 2, xxviii. 4, etc., where a name proper only to prophetic discourse would not have been in place. The passages in which the prophets express the character and destiny of a person in a name specially formed for the purpose, are of another kind. There we have always: they shall call his name, or: his name shall be; cf. xxxiii. 16 jachin only in 2 Kings xxiv., 2 Chron. xxxvi., Jer. lii. 31, and Ezek. i. 2 is in consequence of the original documents used by the authors of these books, where, so to speak, the official names were made use of; whereas Jeremiah preferred the proper, original name which the man bore as the prince-royal and son of Jehoiakim, and which was therefore the current and best known one.
The utterance concerning Jechoniah is more distinct and decided than that concerning Jehoiakim. With a solemn oath the Lord not only causes to be made known to him that he is to be cast off and taken into exile, but further, that his descendants are debarred from the throne for ever. Nothing is said of his own conduct towards the Lord. In 2 Kin^s xxiv. 9 and 2 Chron. xxxvi. 9 it is said of him that he did that which was displeasing to the Lord, even as his father had done. Ezekiel confirms this sentence when in xix. 5-9 he portrays him as a young lion that devoured men, forced widows, and laid cities waste. The words of Jahveh: Although Conjahu were a signet ring on my right hand, convey no judgment as to his character, but simply mean: Although he were as precious a jewel in the Lord's eyes as a signet ring (cf. Hag. ii. 23), the Lord would nevertheless cast him away. *3 before ES introduces the body of the oath, as in ver. 5, and is for rhetorical effect repeated before the apodosis, as in 2 Sam. iii. 9, ii. 27, etc. Although he were, sc. what he is not; not: although he is (Graf); for there is no proof for the remark: that as being the prince set by Jahveh over His people, he has really as close a connection with Him. Hitz.'s explanation is also erroneous: " even if, seeking help, he were to cling so closely to me as a ring does to the finger." A most unnatural figure, not supported by reference to Cant. viii. 6. As to;I?i?nN, from pnj with J epenth.f cf. Ew. § 250, b. — From ver. 25 on, the discourse is addressed directly to Jechoniah, to make his rejection known to him. God will deliver him into the hand of his enemies, whom he fears, namely, into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar and the Chaldeans, and cast him with his mother into a strange land, where he shall die. The mother was called Nehuskta, 2 Kings xxiv. 8, and is brought forward in xxix. 2 as »TV3a, On the fulfilment of this threatening, see 2 Kings xxiv. 12, 15, Jer. xxiv. 1, xxix. 2. The construction RjnK)tm\xr\ is like that of n*"OJ [Ban, ii. 21; and the absence of the article from rnnx is no sufficient reason for holding it to be a gloss (Hitz.), or for taking the article in PJKTj to be a slip caused by T)$) 'V, ver. 27. To lift up their souls, i.e. to direct their longings, wishes, towards a thing, cf. Dent. xxiv. 15, Hos. iv. 8, etc. — The further sentence on.Jechoniah was not pronounced after he had been carried captive, as Nag. infers from the perfects vOtfl and 0?£*n. The perfects are prophetic. The question: Is this man a vessel despised and to be broken (pWf vas fictile)? is an expression of sympathising regret on the part of the prophet for the unhappy fate of the king; but we may not hence conclude that.Kiemiah regarded him as better than his father. The prophet's sympathy for his fate regarded less the person of the unfortunate king than it did the fortunes of David's royal seed, in that, of Jechoniah's sons, none was to sit on the throne of David (ver. 30). E\v. has excellently paraphrased the sense: " Although there is many a sympathising heart in the land that bitterly laments the hard fate of the dear young king, who along with his infant children has been (1 will be) dragged away, yet it is God's unchangeable decree that neither he. nor any of his sons shall ascend the throne of David." P-J, not: broken, but: that shall be broken (cf. Ew. § 335, b). Wherefore are they — he and his seed — cast out? At his accession Jehoiachin was eighteen years old, not eight, as by an error stands in 2 Chron. xxxvi. 9, see on 2 Kings xxiv. 8; so that when taken captive, he might well enough have children, or at least one son, since his wives are expressly mentioned in the account of the captivity, 2 Kings xxiv. 15. That the sons mentioned in 1 Chron. iii. 16 and 17 were born to him in exile, cannot be inferred from that passage, rightly understood, see on that passage. The fact that no sons are mentioned in connection with the carrying captive is simply explained by the fact that they were still infants. — Ver. 29. The land is to take the king's fate sore to heart. The triple repetition of the summons: Land, gives it a special emphasis, and marks the following sentence as of high importance; cf. vii. 4, Ezek. xxi. 32, Isa. vi. 3. Write him down, record him in the family registers, as childless, i.e. as a man with whom his race becomes extinct. This is more definitely intimated in the parallel member, namely, that he will not have the fortune to have any of his posterity sit on the throne of David. This does not exclude the possibility of his having sons; it merely implies that none of them should obtain the throne. VV"]}> Big. lit. solitary, forsaken. Thus a man might well be called who has lost his children by death. Ace. to 1 Chron. iii. 10 f., Jechoniah had two sons, Zedekiah and Assir, of whom the former died childless, the second had but one daughter; and from her and her husband, of the line of Nathan, was born Shealtiel, who also died childless; seethe expos, of 1 Chron. iii. 16 f. Jechoniah was followed on the throne by his uncle Mattaniah, whom Nebuchadnezzar installed under the name of Zedekiah. He it was that rose in insurrection against the king of Babylon, and after the capture of Jerusalem was taken prisoner while in flight; and being carried before Nebuchadnezzar at Riblah, saw his sons put to death before his eyes, was then made blind, thrown in chains, and carried a prisoner to Babylon, 2 Kings xxv. 4 if.
Chap, xxiii. 1-8. The gathering again of the flock, scattered by the evil shepherds, by means of the righteous branch from the stock of David. — Ver. 1. " Woe to shepherds that destroy and scatter the flock of my pasturing! saith Jahveh. Ver. 2. Therefore thus saith Jahveh, the God of Israel, concerning the shepherds that feed my people: Ye have scattered my flock, and driven them away, and not visited them; behold, I will visit on you the evil of your doings, saith Jahveh. Ver. 3. And I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all lands whither I have driven them, and bring them back to their pasture, that they may be fruitful and increase; Ver. 4. And will raise up over them shepherds that shall feed them, and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, nor be lacking, saith Jahveh. Ver. 5. Behold, days come, saith Jahveh, that I raise up unto David a righteous branch, that shall reign as king, and deal wisely, and do right and justice in the land. Ver. 6. In his davs Judah shall have welfare, and Israel dwell safely; and this is his name whereby he shall be called: Jahveh our Righteousness. Ver. 7. Therefore, behold, days come, saith Jahveh, that they shall no more say: By the life of Jahveh who brought up the sons of Israel out of the land of Egypt, Ver. 8. But: By the life of Jahveh who brought up and led forth the seed of the house of Israel out of the land towards midnight, and out of all the lands whither I had driven them, and they shall dwell in their own land."
This portion is the conclusion of the prophecy concerning the shepherds of Israel, ch. xxii. In vers. 1 and 2 what has been foretold concerning the last kings of Judah is condensed into one general sentence, so as thus to form a point of connection for the declaration of salvation which follows at ver. 3, consisting in the4 gathering again of the people, neglected and scattered by the evil shepherds, by means of the righteous branch of David. The Lord cries woe upon the shepherds. E\p without article, because the matter concerns all evil shepherds, and is not applied till ver« 2 to the evil rulers of Judah. Venema rightly says: G itcralc < toribus malis prasmittitur^ quod mox ad pastures
JudcB applicator. It is so clear from the context as to have been generally admitted by recent comin., that by shepherds are meant not merely the false prophets and priests, nor even these along with the kings; cf. on iii. 15, xxv. 34 ff., and Ezek. xxxiv. The flock of my pasturing, in other words, the flock which I feed; for IVJTID Big. both the feeding (cf. Hos. xiii. 6) and the place where the flock feeds, cf. xxv. 36, Ps. Ixxiv. 1. Israel is called the flock of Jahveh's pasturing inasmuch as He exerts a special care over it. The flock bad shepherds, the ungodly monarchs on the throne of David, have brought to ruin and scattered. The scattering is in ver. 2, cf. with ver. 3, called a driving out into the lands; but the u destroying" must be discovered from the train of thought, for the clause: ye have not visited them (ver. 2), intimates merely their neglect of the sheep committed to their charge. What the " destroying" more especially is, we may gather from the conduct of Kino; Jehoiakim, described in xxii. 13 ff.; it consists in oppression, violence, and the shedding of innocent blood; cf. Ezck. xxxiv. 2, 3. With #b, ver. 2, is made the application of the general sentence, ver. 1, to the shepherds of Israel. Because they are such as have scattered, driven away, and not visited the flock of the Lord, therefore He will punish in them the wickedness of their doings. In the Dnx Snips fc6 is summed up all that the rulers have omitted to do for the flock committed to their care; cf. the specification of what they have not done, Ezek. xxxiv. 4. It was their duty, as Ven. truly says, to see ut vera religio, pabulum populi spirituale, rede et rite exercerelur. Instead of this, they have, by introducing idolatry, directly encouraged ungodliness, and the immorality which flows therefrom. Here in " ye have not visited them" we have the negative moment made prominent, so that in ver. 3 may follow what the Lord will do for His scattered flock. Cf. the further expansion of this promise in Ezek. xxxiv. 12 ff. We must note " I have driven them," since in ver. 2 it was said that the bad shepherds had driven the flock away. The one does not exclude the other. By their corrupting the people, the wicked shepherds had occasioned the driving out; and this God has inflicted on the people as punishment. But the people, too, had their share in the guilt; but to this attention is not here directed, since the question deals only with the shepherds. — Ver. 4. When the Lord shall gather His people out of the dispersion, then will He raise up shepherds over them who will so feed them that they shall no longer need to fear or to be dismayed before enemies who might be strong enough to subjugate, slay, and carry them captive. The figurative expressions are founded on the idea that the sheep, when they are neglected by the shepherds, are torn and devoured by wild beasts; cf. Ezek. xxxiv. 8. They shall not be lacking; cf. for *Jj?M with this force, 1 Sam. xxv. 7; in substance = not be lost. ^1^&[ k? is chosen with a view to DfiK cnipa t& (ver. 2): because the shepherds did not take charge of the sheep, therefore the sheep are scattered and lost. Hereafter this shall- happen no more. The question as to how this promise is to be accomplished is answered by vers. 5 and 6. The substance of these verses is indeed introduced by the phrase: behold, days come, as something new and important, but not as something not to happen till after the things foretold in ver. 4. According to Jeremiah's usage throughout, that phrase does not indicate any progress in time as compared with what precedes, but draws attention to the weightiness of what is to be announced. There is also a suggestion of u the contrast between the hope and the existing condition of affairs, which does not itself justify that hope. However gloomy the present is, yet there is a time coming" (Hgstb.). The promise: I make to arise (raise up) to David a righteous branch, rests upon the promise, 2 Sam. vii. 12, 1 Chron. xvii. 12: I raise up thy seed after thee, which shall be of thy sons — which the Lord will hereafter fulfil to David. Graf tries to show by many, but not tenable arguments, that HttI has here a collective force. That he is wrong, we may see from the passages Zech. iii. 8 and vi. 12, where the same " branch" foretold by Jeremiah is called the man whose name is niMJ; and even without this we may discover the same from the context of the present passage, both from u lie shall reign as king," and still more from: they shall call his Dame Jahveh Tridkenu, Neither of these sayings can be spoken of a series of kings. Besides, we have the passages xxx. (J and Ezek. xxxiv. 23 f., xxxvii. 24, where the servant to be raised up to David by Jahveh is called " my servant David." Although then TOf has a collective force when it means a plant of the lield, it by no means follows that " it lias always a collective force" in its transferred spiritual signification. And the passage, xxxiii. 17, where the promise is explained by: David shall never want a man to sit upon the throne of Israel (cf. xxxiii. 21), does not prove that the branch of David is a collective grouping together of all David's future posterity, but only that this one branch of David shall possess the throne for ever, and not, like mortal men, for a series of years only; 2 Sam. vii. lti. "-V denotes the Messiah, and this title is formed from mrr n?pv? Isa. iv. 2 (see Del. on this passage). Nor does the mention of shepherds in the plural, ver. 4, at all oppose this. An untenable rendering of the sense is: first I will raise up unto you shepherds, then the Messiah; or: better shepherds, inprimis unum, Messiam (Ch. B. Mich.). The two promises are not so to be joined. First we have the raising up of good shepherds, in contrast to the evil shepherds that have destroyed the people; then the promise is further explained to the effect that these good shepherds shall be raised up to David in the
" righteous branch," i.e. in the promised " seed" of his sons. The good shepherds are contrasted with the evil shepherds, but are then summed up in the person of the Messiah, as beincr comprised therein. The relation of the good shepherds to the righteous branch is not so, that the latter is the most pre-eminent of the former, but that in that one branch of David the people should have given to them all the good shepherds needed for their deliverance. The Messiah does not correspond to the series of David's earthly posterity that sit upon his throne, in that He too, as second David, will also have a long series of descendants upon His throne; but in that His kingdom, His dominion, lasts for ever. In the parallel passage, xxxiii. 15, where the contrast to the evil shepherds is omitted, we therefore hear only of the one branch of David; so in Ezek. xxxiv., where only the one good shepherd, the servant of the Lord, David, stands in contrast to the evil shepherds (ver. 23). Hence neither must we seek the fulfilment of our prophecy in the elevation of the Maccabees, who were not even of the race of David, nor understand, as Grot., Zerubbabel to be the righteous branch, but the Messiah, as was rightly understood by the Chald. He is P'^V in contrast to the then reigning members of the house of David, and as He who will do right and justice in His realm; cf. xxii. 15, where the same is said of Josiah as contrasted with his ungodly son Jehoiakim. S|?B is subjoined to ^D to bespeak His rule as kingship in the fullest sense of the word. Eegnabit rex, i.e. magnijice rcgnabit, ut non tantum appareant aliquce reliquice pristince dignitatis, sed ut rex fioreat et vigeat et ohtineat perfectionem, qucilis fait sub Davide et Salomone ac multo prcestantior (Calv.).?*3B>n, deal prudently, rule wisely, as in iii. 15, not: be fortunate, prosperous. Here the context demands the former rendering, the only one justified by usage, since the doing of right and justice is mentioned as the fruit and result of the b*3bn. These words, too, point back to David, of wdiom it is in 2 Sam. viii. 15 said, that he as king did right and justice to all his people. — Ver. 6 exhibits the welfare which the " biaich" will, by His wise and just rule, secure for the people. Judah shall be blessed with welfare Q>W2), and Israel dwell safely; that blessing will come into fulfilment which Moses set before the people's view in Deut; xxxiii. 28 f. rTW as the totality of the inhabitants is construed as feminine, as in iii. 7, xiv. 2, etc. Israel denotes the ten tribes. Under the just sceptre of the Messiah, all Israel will reach the destiny designed for it by the Lord, will, as God's people, attain to full dignity and glory.
This is the name by which they shall call Him, the branch of David: Jahveh our Righteousness. The suffix in ifcpi?1 refers to i( righteous branch." Instead of the 3 pers. sing. ^?\ with the sullix i, some codd. have the plur. Mnj*. This some polemical authors, such as Kaim., Martini, Galatin, hold to be the true reading: and they affirmed the other had proceeded from the Jews, with the design of explaining away the deity of the Messiah. The Jews translated, they said: This is the name whereby Jahveh will call him: Our Righteousness; which is indeed the rendering of R. Saad. Gaon apud Aben Ezra, and of Menasse ben Israel. But this rendering is rejected by most Jewish coinm. as being at variance with the accents, so that the impugned reading could not well have been invented by the Jews for polemical purposes. tonR is attested by most codd., and is rendered by the LXX., so that the sense can be none other than: they will call the righteous branch of David u Jahveh our Righteousness." Most comm., including even Ilitz., admit that the sullix refers to HDV, the principal person in both verses. Only Ew., Graf., and Nag. seek to refer it to Israel, because in xxxiii. 16 the same name is given to Jerusalem. But the passage cited does not prove the case. To call any one by a name universally denotes in the prophetic usage: to set him forth as that which the name expresses; so here: the branch of David will manifest Himself to the people of Israel as Jahve Tsidkenu. This name is variously expounded. The older Christian comm. understand that the Messiah is here called Jehovah, and must therefore be true God, and that He is called our righteousness, inasmuch as He justifies us by His merit.1
1 Thus the Vulg. renders: Bominus Justus noster; and even Calv. says:
Qnicunque sine contentione et amarulentia judicant, facile vident, idem nomen compctere in Christum, quatcnus est Deus, sicuti nomen JiUi Davidis respectu humanas naturae ei tribuitur. — Omnibus aequis et moderatis hoc consjlabit, Christum hie insigniri duplici elogio, ut in eo nobis commendet propheta tarn deitatis gloriam. quam vcritatem liumanse naturae; and by the righteousness
he understands justification by the merits of Christ.
But the rabbinical interpreters, headed by the Cliald., take the name to be an abbreviation of a sentence; so e.g. Kimchi: Isr ■ I ' ibit Messiam hoc nomine, quia ejus temporibus Domini titia nobis firma^ jugis ct non vecedet. They appeal to xxxiii. 17 and to other passages, such as Ex. xvii. 15, where Moses calls the altar " Jahveh my Banner," and Gen. xxxiii. 20, where Jacob gives to the altar built by him the name El elohe ■ I srael. Hgstb. has rightly pronounced for this interpretation. The passages cited show how in such names an entire sentence is conveyed. " Jahveh my Banner " is as much as to say: This altar is dedicated to Jahveh my banner, or to the Almighty, the God of Israel. So all names compounded of Jahveh; e.g. Jehoshua — Jahveh salvation, brief for: he to whom Jahveh vouchsafes salvation. So Tsidkijahu = Jahveh' s righteousness, for: he to whom Jahveh deals righteousness. To this corresponds Jahveh Tsidkenu: he by whom Jahveh deals righteousness. We are bound to take the name thus by the parallel passage, xxxiii. 16, where the same name is given to Jerusalem, to convey the thought, that by the Messiah the Lord will make Jerusalem the city of righteousness, will give His righteousness to it, will adorn and glorify it therewith. — EglJf is not to be referred, as it is by the ancient Church comm., to justification through the forgiveness of sins. With this we have not here to do, but with personal righteousness, which consists in deliverance from all unrighteousness, and which is bound up with blessedness. Actual righteousness has indeed the forgiveness of sins for its foundation, and in this respect justification is not to be wholly excluded; but this latter is here subordinate to actual righteousness, which the Messiah secures for Israel by the righteousness of His reign. The unrighteousness of the former kings has brought Israel and Judah to corruption and ruin; the righteousness of the branch to be hereafter raised up to David will remove all the ruin and mischief from Judah, and procure for them the righteousness and blessedness which is of God. — " What Jeremiah," as is well remarked by Hgstb., 11 sums up in the name Jehovah Tsidkenu, Ezekiel expands at length in the parallel xxxiv. 25-31: the Lord concludes with them a covenant of peace; rich blessings fall to their lot; He breaks their yoke, frees them from bondage; they do not become the heathen's pre}." These divine blessings are also to he conferred upon the people by means of the righteous branch. What the ancient Church comm. found in the name was true as to the sul. For as no man is perfectly righteous, so no mere earthly king can impart to the people the righteousness of Jahveh in the full sense of the term; only He who is endow I with the righteousness of God. In so far the Godhead of this King is contained implicite in the name; only we must not understand that he that bore the name is called Jahveh. Lut that righteous], as the sum of all blessing, is set before the people's view, wo may gather from the context, especially from vers. 7 and 8, whore it is said that the blessings to be conferred will outshine all former manifestations of God's grace. This is the sense of both verses, which, save in the matter of a trifling change in \ r, 8, are verbally repeated from xvi. 1 1 and 15, where they have already been expounded.1
Chap, xxiii. 9-40. AGAINST Tin: FALSE PROPHETS. — Next to the king-, the pseudo-prophets, who flattered the people's
1 The lA'X. have omitted both tin ind have placed them at the end of the chapter, after ver. 10; but by their contents they do not at all belong to that, whereas aft rcry much in place, as even Hitz. admits. Iii the text of the I. XX. handed down, rer. 6 with the words: I \rate\ and 'IvvtZtx may be said to and (Jr. therefore infer that vers. 7 and 8 were wanting also in the Heb. text used by the translator, and that tiny must have been added by way of supplement, most probably from another MS. This inference is thought t<> find support in the assumption that, because the Greek IfSS. have no poiut between and —j nits —.-Zytxi;, therefore the Alexandrian translator must have joined these words together so as to make one — meaning' atence. A thoroughly uncritical conclusion, which could be defended only if the Alex, translators had punctuated their Greek text as we have it punctuated in our printed editions. And if a later reader of the LXX. had added the verses from the Hebrew text, then he would certainly have intercalated them at the spot where they stood in the original, i.e. between ver. Gaud ver. 9. Their displacement to a position after ver. 40 is to be explained from the fact that in chap. xvi. 14 and 15 they immediately follow a threatening; and is manifestly the work of the translator himself, who omitted them after ver. 6, understanding them as of threatening import, because a threatening seemed to biin to be out of place after ver. 6.
carnal longings, have done most to contribute to the fall of the realm. Therefore Jeremiah passes directly from his discourse against the wicked kings to rebuking the false prophets; and if we may presume from the main substance, the latter discourse belongs to the same time as the former. It be<>'ins
Vers. 9-15. With a description of the pernicious practices of these persons* — Ver. 9. u Concerning the prophets. Broken is mine heart within me; all my bones totter. I am become like a drunken man, and like a man whom wine hath overcome, because of Jahveh and because of His holy words. Ver. 10. For of adulterers the land is full, for because of the curse the land withereth, the pastures of the wilderness dry up; and their course is become evil, and their strength not right. Ver. 11. For both prophet and priest are profane; yea, in mine house found I their wickedness, saith Jahveh. Ver. 12. Therefore their way shall be to them as slippery places in darkness, they shall be thrown down and fall therein; for I bring evil upon them, the year of their visitation, saith Jahveh. Ver. 13. In the prophets of Samaria saw I folly; they prophesied in the name of Baal, and led my people Israel astray. Ver. 14. But in the prophets of Jerusalem saw I an horrible thing, committing adultery and walking in falsehood, and they strengthen the hands of the wicked, that none returneth from his wickedness. They are all become to me as Sodom, and the inhabitants thereof as Gomorrah. Ver. 15. Therefore thus saith Jahveh of hosts concerning the prophets: Behold, I feed them with wormwood, and give them to drink water of bitterness; for from the prophets of Jerusalem is profaneness gone forth over all the land."'
"Concerning the prophets" is the heading, as in xlvi. 2, xlviii. 1, xlix. 1, 7, 23, 28; and corresponds to the woe uttered against the wicked shepherds, ver. 1. It refers to the entire portion vers. 9-40, which is thus distinguished from the oracles concerning the kings, chap. xxi. and xxii. It might indeed be joined, according to the accents, with what follows: because of the prophets is my heart broken; but as the cause of Jeremiah's deep agitation is given at the end of the second half-verse: because of Jahveh, etc., it is not likely the seer would in one sentence have given two different and quite separate reasons.
The brokenness of his heart denotes the profoundest inward emotion; yet not despondency by reason of sin and misery, like " a broken heart" in Ps. xxxiv. 19, li. 19, etc., but because of God's wrath at the impious lives of the pseudo-prophets. This has overcome him, and this he must publish. This wrath had broken his heart and seized on all his bones, so that they nervelessly tremble, and he resembles a drunken man who can no longer stand firm on his feet, lie feels himself inwardly quite downcast; he not only feels the horrors of the judgment that is to befall the false prophets and corrupt priests who lead the people astray, but knows well the dreadful sufferings the people I) will have to endure. The verb ^ni occurs only twice in the Piel besides in the present passage; in Gen. i. 2, of the Spirit of God that in the I inning of creation brooded over the waters of the earth, and Deut. xxxii. 11, of the eagle that flutters over her young, — in Arabic \_p^ j} to be soft. The root meaning of the word is doubtless: to be flaccid; here accordingly, to totter, to sway to and fro. "Because of Jahveh " is more fully explained by il 1 m cause of the words of His holiness," i.e. the words which God as holy has made known to him regarding the unholy ongoings of the pseudo-prophets. — From ver. 10 onwards come the sayingsof God which have so terribly agitated the prophet. The land is full of adulterers. Adultery in the literal sense is mentioned by way of example, as a reckless transgression of God's commands, then much in vogue, whereby the moral foundations of the kingdom were broken np. In ver. 14 the prophets are said to commit adultery and walk in lying, cf. xxix. 23 and v. 7. By reason of this vice a curse lies on the land, under which it is withering away. The clause u for because of the curse," etc., is not to be taken as parenthesis (Nag.), but as co-ordinate with the previous clause, giving the second, or rather the chief ground, why Jeremiah is so deeply distressed. The reason of this is not so much the prevailing moral corruption, as the curse lying on the land because of the moral corruption of its inhabitants. n7N is not perjury (Chald., Rashi, Kimchi), but the curse wherewith God punishes the transgression of His covenant laws, cf. xi. 3, 8, Deut. xxviii. 15 ff., xxix. 19 ff. The words are modelled after
Isa. xxiv. i ti.; and ft^H is not the population, but the land itself, which suffers under God's curse, and which is visited with drought; cf. xii. 4. The next words point to drought, "tellp niao as in ix. 9. By WW the further description of the people's depravity is attached to the first clause of the verse. Their course is become evil; their running or racing, i.e. the aim and endeavour of the ungodly. The suffix on this word Dnyno refers not to u adulterers," but ad sensum to the inhabitants of the land. Their strength is not-right, i.e. they are strong, valiant in wrong; cf. ix. 2. For — so goes ver. 11 — both prophets and priests, who should lead the people in the right way, are profane, and desecrate by their wickedness even the house of God, presumably by idolatry; cf. xxxii. 34. There is no reason for thinking here, as Hitz. does, of adultery practised in the temple. — Ver. 12. For this the Lord will punish them. Their way shall be to them as slippery places in darkness. This threatening is after the manner of Ps. xxxv. 6, where TJKTI nippjppni are joined, changed by Jeremiah to the words in the text. The passage cited shows that we may not separate »*1^S2 from rnppi??n, as E\v. does, to join it to the following VHV. Their way shall resemble slippery places in the dark, when one may readily slip and fall. Besides, they are to be thrust, pushed, so that they must fall on the slippery path (WW from nrn = nrn^Ps. xxxv. 5; "therein" to be referred to " their way"). The clause: "for I bring evil," etc., is formed after xi. 23. — Ver. 13 f. To display the vileness of the prophets, these are parallelized with the prophets of Samaria. The latter did foolishly ('"yBfi, prop, of that which is unsalted, insipid, Job vi. 6, hence irrational, i7isidsum), since they prophesied, being inspired by Baal the no-god, and by such prophesying led the people into error; cf. 1 Kings xviii. 19 ff. Much more horrible is the conduct of the prophets of Jerusalem, who commit adultery, walk in lying, and strengthen the wicked in their wickedness, not merely by their delusive pretences (cf. ver. 17, vi. 14, xiv. 13), but also by their immoral lives, so that no one turns from his wickedness, cf. Ezek. xiii. 22. V&» is here and in xxvii. 18, as in Ex. xx. 20, construed, contrary to the usage everywhere else, not with the infin., but with the verb. fin. As the prophets, instead of converting the wicked, only confirmed them in their sins, therefore all the inhabitants of Jiulah or Jerusalem are become as corrupt as Sodom and Gomorrah. "They all" are not the prophets, but the inhabitants of Judah or Jerusalem; and " the inhabitants thereof are those of the capital, cf. Dent, xxxii. 32, Isa. i. 10. On the seducers the Lord will therefore inflict punishment, because impiousness has gone forth from them over the whole land. With the punishment threatened in ver. 15, cf. ix. 14.
Vers. 16-22. Warning against the lying prophecies of the prophets, — Ver. 1(J. " Thus saith Jahveh of hosts: Hearken not unto the words of the prophets that prophesy unto you! They deceive you: a virion of their heart they speak, not out of the mouth of.Jahveh. Ver. 17. They Bay still unto my despisers: ( Jahveh hath spoken: Peace shall ye have;1 and unto every cue that walketh in the stubbornness of his heart they say: 'There Bhall no evil come upon yon/ Ver, Is. For who hath stood in Jahveh's counsel, that he might have seen and heard His word 1 who hath marked my word and heard it I Ver. 19. B hold a tempest from.Jahveh. fury goeth forth, and eddying whirlwind shad hurl itself upon the head of the wicked. Ver. 20. The anger of God shall not turn till He have done and till lie have performed the thoughts of His heart. At the end of the days shall ye be well aware of this. Ver. 21. I have not sent the prophets, yet they ran: 1 have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied. Ver. 22. But if they had stood in my conn- I, they would publish my words to my people and bring them back from their evil way and from the evil of their doing
'Ihe warning against these prophets is founded in ver. 16 on the fact that they give out the thoughts of their own hearts to be divine revelation, and promise peace and prosperity to all stiff-necked sinners. CTZ" D, lit. they make you vain, i.e. make you to yield yourselves to vain delusion, seduce you to fal^e confidence. This thev do bv their speaking visions, i.e. revelations of their heart, not what God has spoken, revealed to them. As an illustration of this, ver. 17 tells that they prophesy continued peace or well-being to the despisers of God. The infin. abs. "flES after the verb. fin. intimates the duration or repetition of the thing. TtlSV 12'sl are words of the false prophets, with which they give out that their prophesy ings are God's word.
Since we nowhere else find sayings of Jahveh introduced by HUT 131, but usually by '* IDK n3? the LXX. have taken offence at that formula, and, reading "i^, join the words with ^'s:'-: tow airaOovjAevois tov \uyov Kvpiov. To this reading Hit/., and (Jr. give the preference over the Masoretic; but they have not noticed that they thus get an unsuitable sense. For mrv "Q^l in prophetic language never denotes the Mosaic law or the "moral law" (Hit/..), but the word of God published by the prophets. By their view of u word of Jahveh" they would hero obtain the self-inconsistent thought: to the despisers of divine revelation they proclaim as revelation. The Masoretic reading is clearly right; and Jeremiah chose the unusual introductorv formula to distinguish the lan^uao-eof the pseudoprophets from that of the true prophets of the Lord. 3 *^'n"73l is prefixed absolutely: and as concerning every one that walks... they say, for: and to every one... they say. On the "stubbornness of their heart," see on iii. 17. With the speech of the false prophets, cf. xiv. 13 and vi. 14. — In ver. 18 a more comprehensive reason is given to show that these prophets are not publishing God's decrees. The question: Who hath stood? has negative force = None hath stood. By this Jeremiah does not deny the possibility of this universally, but only of the false prophets (Ilitz.). This limitation of the words is suggested by the context. To the true prophets the Lord reveals His 11D, Amos iii. 7. VDBh KT1 are not to be taken jussively: let him see and hear (Hitz.), for the foregoing interrogation is not a conditional clause introducing a command. The imperfects with 1 are clauses of consequence or design, and after a preceding perfect should be rendered in English by the conditional of the pluperfect. Seeing the word of God refers to prophetic vision. The second question is appended without at all conveying any inference from wdiat precedes; and in it the second verb (with 1. consec.) is simply a strengthening of the first: who hath hearkened to my word and heard it? The Masoretes have quite unnecessarily changed the Chet. 131 into ilM. In the graphic representation of the prophets, the transition to the direct speech of God, and conversely, is no unusual thing. The change of V£-,v! into S»B^, unnecessary and even improper as it is, is preferred by Graf and Nag., inasmuch as they take the interrogative 'D in botli clauses in the sense of qwsquia and understand the verse thus: Pie who lias but stood in the counsel of the Lord, let him see and hear His word (i.e. he must see and hear His word); and he that hath marked my word, let him publish it (i.e. he must publish it). This exposition becomes only then necessary, if we leave the context out of view and regard the question as being to the effect that no one has stood in God's counsel — which Jeremiah could not mean. Not to speak of the change of the text necessary for carrying it through, this view does not even give a suitable sense. If the clause: He that has stood in the counsel of the Lord, he must proclaim His word, is to be regarded as having a demonstrative force, then the principal idea must be supplied, thus namely: "and it is impossible that it should he favourable to those who despise it." In ver. 19 Jeremiah publishes a real word of the Lord, which Bounds very differently from the words of the false prophets. A tempest from Jahveh will burst over the heads of the evil-doers, and the wrath of God will not cease until it has accomplished the divine decree. aA tempest from Jahveh" lefined by "fury" in apposition as being a manifestation of God's wrath; and the whole first clause is further expanded in the second part of the verse. The tempest from.Jahveh goes forth, i.e. breaks out, and as whirling tornado or eddying whirlwind bursts over the head of the wicked, ^rp is to be taken in accordance with H~~*: ■ twist, whirl, cf. 2 Sam. iii. 20. kk The thoughts of His heart" must not be limited to what God has decreed de intertill populi (Calv.); it comprehends God's whole redemptive plan in His people's regard — not merely the overthrow of the kingdom of Judah, but also the purification of the people by means of judgments and the final glorification of His kingdom. To this future the next clause points: at the end of the days ye shall have clear knowledge of this. " The end of the days" is not merely the completion of the period in which we now are (Hitz., Gr., Nag., etc.), but, as universally, the end of the times, i.e. the Messianic future, the last period of the world's history which opens at the close of the present aeon; see on Gen. xlix. 1, Num. xxiv. 14, etc. $21)7) is strengthened by nrn; attain to insight, come to clearer knowledge.— Ver. 21 f. From the word of the Lord proclaimed in ver. 19 f. it appears that the prophets who prophesy peace or well-being to the d rs of God are not sent and inspired by
God. It' they had stood in the counsel of God, and so had truly learnt G l's word, they must have published it and turned the people from its evil way. This completely proves the statement of ver. 16, that the preachers of peace deceive the people. Then follows —
Vers. 23 32, in continuation, an intimation that God knows and will punish tin: lying practices of these prophets. — Ver. 23. " Am I thou a Go I near at hand, saith Jahveh, and not a God afar off \ Ver. 24. Or can any hide himself in secret, that I cannot see him 1 saith Jahveh. Do not I fill the heaven and the earth! saith Jahveh. Ver. 25. I have heard what the prophets say, that prophesy falsehood in my name, saying: I have dreamed, I have dreamed. Ver. 26. How lomr? Have they it in their mind, the prophets that prophesy falsehood in my name, and the prophets of the deceit of their heart, Ver. 27. Do they think to make my people forget my name by their dreams which they tell one to the other, as their fathers forgot my name by Baal? Ver. 28. The prophet that hath a dream, let him tell a dream; and he that hath my word, let him speak mv word in truth. What is the straw to the corn? saith Jahveh. Ver. 29. Is not thus my word — as fire, saith Jahveh, and as a hammer that dasheth the rock in pieces? Ver. 30. Therefore, behold, I am against the prophets that steal my words one from the other. Ver. 31. Behold, I am against the prophets, saith Jahveh, that take their tongues and say: God's word. Ver. 32. Behold, I am against the prophets that prophesy lying dreams, saith Jahveh, and tell them, and lead my people astray with their lies and their boasting, whom yet I have not sent nor commanded them, and they bring no good to this people, saith Jahveh:'
The force of the question: Am I a God at hand, not afar off? is seen from what follows. Far and near are here in their local, not their temporal signification. A God near at hand is one whose domain and whose knowledge do not extend far; a God afar off, one who sees and works into the far distance. The question, which has an affirmative force, is explained by the statement of ver. 24: I fill heaven and earth. Hitz. insists on understanding " near at hand" of temporal nearness, after I Kiit. xxxii. 17: a God who is not far hence, a newly appeared God; and he supposes that, since in the east, from of old, knowledge is that which is known by experience, therefore the greatness of one'- knowledge depends on one's advancement in years (Job xv. 7, 10, xii. 12, etc.); and God, he says, is the Ancient of days, Dan. vii. 'J. But this line of thought is wholly foreign to the present passage. It is not wealth of knowledge as the result of long life or old age that God claims for Himself in ver. 24, but the power of seeing into that which is hidden so that none can conceal himself from llun, or omniscience. The design with which God here dwells on Jli- omniscience and omnipresence too (cf. 1 Kings viii. 27, Isa. lxvi. 1) is shown in ver. 25. The false prophets went so far with their lying predictions, that it might appear as if God did not hear or see their words and deeds. The Lord exposes this delusion by calling His omniscience to mind in the words: I have heard how they prophesy falsehood in my name and Bay, I have dreamed, i.e. a dream sent by God, have had a revelation in dreams, whereas according to ver. 26 the dream was the deceit of their heart — "spun out of their own heart" (Hitz.). Ver. 26 is variously interpreted. Hitz. supposes that the interrogative n. (in B^n) is made subordinate in the clause, and that the question is expressed with a double interrogative. He translates: How long still is there anything left in the heart of the prophets! as much as to say: how long have thi y materials for this ] But there is a total want of illustrations in point for this subordination and doubling of the interrogative; and the force given to the B* is quite arbitrary, since we should have had some intimation of what it was that was present in their hearts. Even then the repetition of the interrogative particles is unexplained, and the connecting of B* with a participle, instead of with the infinitive with ^, cannot be defended by means of passages where 7T\\j is joined with an adjective and the idea a to be " has to be supplied. L. de Dieu, followed by Seb. Schmidt, Ch. 13. Mich., Ros., Maur., Umbr., Graf, was right in taking "How long" by itself as an aposiopesis: how long, sc. shall this go on % and in beginning a new question with B^n, a question continued and completed by the further question: "Do they think," etc., ver. 27. Is it in the heart of the prophets, i.e. have the prophets a mind to prophesy falsehood? do they mean to make men forget my name? \ linst holding ver. 27 as a resumption of the question there is no well-founded objection. Nag. affirms that after M^nn we must in that case have here on as recapitulation of the subject; but that is rendered unnecessary by the subject's beimx contained in the immediately preceding words. The conjecture propounded by N g., to change B^n into Bfan: how long still is the fire in the heart of the prophets? needs no refutation. To make to forget the name of the Lord is: so to banish the Lord, as - vn in His government and works, from the people's heart, that lie is no longer feared and honoured. By their dreams which they relate one to the other, i.e. not one prophet to the other, but the prophet to his fellow-man amongst the people.,;'ZZ, because of the Baal, whom their fathers made their god, cf. Judg. iii. 7, 1 Sam. xii. 9 f. — These lies the prophets ought to cca<e. Ver. 28. Each is to speak what he has, what is given him. He that has a dream is to tell the dream, and he that has God's word should tell it. Dream as opposed to word of the Lord is an ordinary dream, the fiction of one's own heart; not a dream-revelation given by God, which the pseudo-prophets represented their dreams to be. These dreams are as different from God's word as straw is from corn. This clause is supported, ver. 29, by a statement of the nature of God's word. It is thus (rib), namely, as fire and as a hammer that smashes the rock-. Tiic sense of these words is not this: the word of God is strong enough by itself, needs no human addition, or: it will burn as fire the straw of the man's word mixed with it. There is here no question of the mixing of God's word with man's word. The false prophets did not mingle the two, but gave out their man's word for God's. Nor, by laying stress on the indwelling power of the word of God, does Jeremiah merely give his hearers a characteristic by which they may distinguish genuine prophecy; he seeks besides to make them know that the word of the Lord which lie proclaims will make an end of the lying prophets' work. Thus understood, ver. 29 forms a stepping-stone to the threatenings uttered in vers. 30-32 against the lying prophets. The comparison to fire does not refer to the reflex influence which the word exerts on the speaker, so as that we should with Rashi and Eos. cf. xx. 9; the fire comes before us as that which consumes all man's work that will not stand the test; cf. 1 Cor. iii. 12 ff. The comparison to a hammer which smashes the rock sho^s the power of God, which overcomes all that is earthly, even what is firmest and hardest; cf. Heb. iv. 12. Its effect and accomplishment nothing can hinder. — Vers. 30-32. Threatening of punishment. |2;> does not connect with ver. 29, hut with the main idea of the previous verses, the conduct of the false prophets there exposed.?V *MHj behold, I will he against them, will come upon them as an enemy; cf. Bzek. v. 8. The practice of these prophets is characterized in three ways, vet without marking out three classes of unworthy nun. One habit of theirs is that of stealing the word of God one from another. Not inspired of God themselves, they tried to appropriate words of God from other prophets in order to give their own utterances the character of divine oracles. Another is: they take their tongues and say, Go Ts word, i.r. they use their tongues to speak pretended words from God. The verb?—Nr occurs only here; elsewhere only the participle ^^*, and that almost always joined with rrirp in the Big. effatum Domini; here without it, but in the same sense. The root meaning of DN; is disputed. Connected etymologically with DiU,."%:n, it doubtlessly denotes originally, that which is whispered, Jahveh's secret confidential communication; but it is constantly used, not for the word of God as silently inspired by God, but as softly uttered by the prophet. The meaning is not: their prophesying is ''mere wagging of the tongue, talk according to their own caprice" (Graf); but: they give out their sayings for God's, whereas God speaks neither to nor by them. Finally, their third way of doing consists in feigning revelations by means of dreams, which are but deceptive dreams. At this point the discourse falls back on the description in ver. 26. The words " and lead my people astray" refer to all their three ways of acting before characterized, rwns is their boasting of revelations from God. Then comes
Vers. 33-40. A rebuke of their mockery at Jeremialis threatening predictions. — Ver. 33. " And when this people, or the prophet, or a priest ask thee, saying: What is the burden of
Jahveh? then say to them: What the burden is— now I will cast you off, saith Jahveh. Ver. 34. And the prophet, the priest, and the people that shall say: burden of Jahveh, on that man will I visit it and on his house. Ver. 35. Thus shall ye say each to the other, and each to his brother: What hath Jahveh answered, and what hath Jahveh spoken? Ver. 36. lint burden of Jahveh shall ye mention no more, for a burden to every one shall his own word be; and ye wrest the words of the living God Jahveh of hosts, our God. Ver. 37. Thus shalt thou say to the prophet: What hath Jahveh answered thee, and what hath He spoken? Ver. 38. But if ye say: burden of Jahveh, therefore thus saith Jahveh: Because ye say this word: burden of Jahveh, and yet I have sent unto you, saying, Ye shall not say: burden of Jahveh; Ver. 39. Therefore, behold, I will utterly forget you, and cast away from my face voii and this city that I gave vou and your fathers, Ver. 40. And will lay upon you everlasting reproach, and everlasting, never-to-be-forgotten disgrace."
The word K!PD, from RiW, lift up, bear, sig. burden, and, like the phrase: lift up the voice, means a saying of weighty or dread import. The word has the latter sig. in the headings to the prophecies of threatening character; see on Nah. i. 1, where this mean in «x of the word in the headings is asserted, and the widespread opinion that it means effatum is refuted. Jeremiah's adversaries — as appears from these verses — used the word u burden " of his prophetic sayings by way of mockery, meaning burdensome prophecies, in order to throw ridicule on the prophet's speeches, by them regarded as offensive. Thus if the people, or a prophet, or a priest ask: What is the burden of Jahveh, i.e. how runs it, or what does it contain? he is to answer: The Lord saith: I will cast you off, i.e. disburden myself of you, as it were — the idea of " burden " being kept up in the answer to the question. The article on the word prophet is used to show that the word is used generally of the class of prophets at large. The DN in the answering clause is nota accu?., the following phrase being designedly repeated from the question; and hence the unusual combination nftViX. The sense is: as regards the question what the burden is, I will cast you away. There is no reason to alter the text to fit the
LXX. translation: v/jL€l<; eVre to \i]fifia, or Vulg.: vos estis onus, as Cappell., J. D. Mich., Hitz., Gr., etc., do. The LXX. rendering is based, not on another reading, but on another division of the words, viz. R&DT1 DDK. — In ver. 34 the meaning of this answer is more fully explained. On every one that uses the word M burden"' in this sneering way God will avenge the sneer, and not only on his person, but on his house, his family as well. In ver. 35 they are told how they are to speak of prophecy. Ver. 36. They are no longer to make use of the phrase " burden of Jahveh," "for the burden shall his word be to each one," i.e. the word " burden " will be to each who uses it a burden that crushes him down. "And ye wrest,'' etc.. is part of the reason for what is said: and ye have = for \ have wrested the words of the living God. The clause is properly a corollary which tells what happens when they use the forbidden word. — V >. in case they, in spite of the prohibition, \ in the use of the forbidden word, i.e. do not their mockery of God's word, then the punishment set forth in \ certainly to come on them. In the threat i> Xa/ifiavw, ego tollam vos portans. One cod, gives nj:. and Ew., Hit/., Graf, Nag., etc., hold this reading to be right; but hardly with justice. The Cliald. has expressed the reading of the text in its w-~ - [toTF ^"j?* et inguam vo* relinquendo. And the form WW is explained only by reading WW '"'J':); not by KfcB, for this verb keeps its S everywhere, save with the one exception of **SW, Ps. xxxii. 1, formed after the parallel **D2, The assertion that the reading in the text gives no good sense is unfounded. I will utterly forget you is much more in keeping than: I will utterly lilt you up, carry you forth. — With ver. 40, cf. xx. 11.
Chap. xxiv. The two fig BASKETS — an emblem of the future of Judah's people. — Ver. 1. " Jahveh caused me to see, and behold two baskets of figs set before the temple of Jahveh, after Nebuchadrezzar had carried captive Jechoniah, the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and the princes of Judah, and the work-people and the smiths from Jerusalem, and had brought thorn to Babylon. Ver, 2. One basket had very good figs like the early figs, the other basket very bad figs, which could not be eaten for badness. Ver. 3. And Jahveh said to me: What seestthon, Jeremiah 1 ami I said: Figs; the good figs are very good, and the bad figs very bad, which cannot be eaten for badness. Ver. 4. Then came the word of, Jahveh unto me, sayin^: Ver. 5. Thus saith Jahveh, the God of Israel: Like these {rood fiors, s0 wj]i T look on the captives of Judah, whom I have sent out of this place into the land of the Chaldeans, for good; Ver. 6. And I will set mine eye upon them for good, and will bring them back again to this land, and build them and not pull down, and plant them and not pluck up. Ver. 7. And I give them an heart to know me, that I am Jahveh; and they shall be my people, and I will be their God: for they will return unto me with their whole heart. Ver. 8. And as the bad figs, which cannot be eaten for badness, yea thus saith Jahveh, so will I make Zedekiah the king of Judah, and his princes and the residue of Jerusalem, them that are left remaining in this land and them that dwell in Egypt. Ver. 9. I give them up for ill-usage, for trouble to all kingdoms of the earth, for a reproach and a byword, for a taunt and for a curse in all the places whither I shall drive them. Ver. 10. And I send among them the sword, the famine, and the plague, till they be consumed from off the land that I gave to them and to their fathers."
This vision resembles in form and substance that in Amos viii. 1-3. The words: Jahveh caused me to see^ point to an inward event, a seeing with the eyes of the spirit, not of the body. The time is, ver. 1, precisely given: after Nebuchadnezzar had carried to Babylon King Jechoniah, with the princes and a part of the people; apparently soon after this deportation, at the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah, the king set up by Nebuchadnezzar over Judah. Cf. 2 Kings xxiv. 14-17. — The Lord caused the prophet to see in spirit two baskets of figs (C\sn^n, from Htt, equivalent to "Wi, ver. 2), D^JftD (from ir) in the place appointed therefor (*Wto) before the temple. We are not to regard these figs as an offering brought to Jahveh (Graf); and so neither are we to think here of the place where first-fruits or tithes were offered to the Lord, Ex. xxiii. 19 f., Deut. xxvi. 2. The two baskets of fl^s have nothing to do with first-fruits. They symbolize the people, those who appear before the Lord their God, namely, before the altar of burntoffering; where the Lord desired to appear to, to meet with His people (W3, Ex. xxix. 42 f.), so as to sanctify it by His glory, Ex. xxix. 43. D^O therefore means: placed in the spot appointed by the Lord for His meeting with Israel.— \ r. 2. "The one basket very good figs" is short for: the basket was quite full of ver. cf. Friedr. W. M.
Philippi, on Hit Nature and Origin of the Status constr. in Hebreio (1871), p. 93. The comparison to early figs serves simply to heighten the idea of very good; for the first figs, those ripened at the end of dune, before the fruit season in August, were highly p lainties. Cf. ba. xxviii. 4, Hos.
to give the object Been greater prominence, and does not imply the possibilitj ing wrong (Nag.)-— Ver. 1 n. The int pretation of the symbol. Ver. 5. Like the good figs, the Lord will look on the captives in Chaldea for good (" for good" belongs to the verb "look on them"). The point of resemls: as one looks with pleasure on good figs, takes them and keeps them, so will 1 • my favour on Judah's captives. Looking on them for good is explained, ver. 6: the Lord will set His eye on them, bring them back into their land and build them up again. With "build them," etc., cf. L 10. The building and planting of the captives is not to consist solely in the: tion of their former civil well-being, but will be a spiritual regeneration of the people. God will give them a heart to know Him as their God, so that they may be in truth His people, and He their God. " For they will return," not: when they return (Ew., Hitz.). The turning to the Lord cannot be regarded as the condition of their receiving favour, because God will give them a heart to know Him; it is the working of the knowledge of the Lord put in their hearts. And this is adduced to certify the idea that they will then be really the Lord's people.— Vers. 8-10. And as one deals with the bad uneatable fins, i.e. throws them away, so will the Lord deliver up to ignominious ruin Zedekiah with his princes and the remainder of the people, both those still staying in the land and those living in Egypt. This, the fate awaiting them, is more fully described in vers. 9 and 10. In ver. 8 the "yea, thus saith," is inserted into the sentence by way of repetition of the "thus saith," ver. 5. pN [3 is resumed and expanded by DWW in ver. 9. The "princes" are Zedekiah's courtiers. Those in Egypt are they who during the war had fled thither to hide themselves from judgment. From the beginning of ver. 9 to F?sn is verbally the same as xv. 4, save that njri is added to make more marked the contrast to Hlto^ ver. 5 — the evil, namely, that is done to them. Hitz., Ew.j Umbr., Gr., following the LXX., delete this word, but without due cause. The further description of the ill-usage in " f or a reproach," etc., is based on Deut. xxviii. 37; and is intensified by the addition of u and for an object of cursing," to show that in their case the curse there recorded will be fulfilled. From the last words, according to which disgrace will light on them in all the lands they are driven into, it appears that captivity will fall to the lot of such as are yet to be found in the land. But captivity involves new hostile invasions, and a repeated siege and capture of Jerusalem; during which many will perish by sword, famine, and plague. Thus and by deportation they shall be utterly rooted out of the land of their fathers. Cf. xxix. 17 ff., where Jeremiah repeats the main idea of this threatening.
The prediction of this chapter is introduced by a<full heading, which details with sufficient precision the time of its composition. Ver. 1. " The word that came (befell) to (by for f>«) Jeremiah concerning the whole people of Judah, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah, that is, the first year of Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon; Ver. 2. Which Jeremiah the prophet spake to the whole people of Judah and to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying." — All the discourses of Jeremiah delivered before this time contain either no dates at all, or only very general ones, such as iii. 6: In the days of Josiah, or: at the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim (xxvi. 1). And it is only some of those of the following period that are so completely dated, as xxviii. 1, xxxii. 1, xxxvi. 1, xxxix. 1, etc. The present heading is in this further respect peculiar, that besides the year of the king of Judah's reign, we are also told that of the king of Babylon. This is suggested by the contents of this prediction, in which the people are told of the near approach of the judgment which Nebuchadnezzar is to execute on Judah and on all the surrounding nations far and near, until after seventy years judgment fall on Babylon itself. The fourth year of Jehoiakim is accordingly a notable turning-point for the kingdom of Judah. It is called the first year of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, because then, at the command of his old and decrepit father Nabopolassar, N buchadnezzar had undertaken the conduct of the war against Pharaoh Necho of Egypt, who had penetrated as far as the Euphrates. At Carchemish ho defeated Necho (xlvi. 2), and in the same year he came in pursuit of the fleeing Egyptians to Judah, took Jerusalem, and mad'' King Jehoiakim tributary. With the first taking of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, >.•:. in 606 B.O., begins the seventy rs1 Babylonian bondage or exile of Judah, foretold by Jeremiah in wr. 11 of the present chapter. Nebuchadnezzar was then only commander of his father's armies; but he is here, and in '2 Kings xxiv. 1, Dan. i. 1, called king of Babylon, because, equipped with kingly authority, he dictated to the.Jews, anl treated them as if he had been really king. Not till the following year, when he was at the head of his army in Farther Asia, did his father Nabopolassar die; whereupon he hastened to Babylon to mount the throne; see on Dan. i. 1 and 1 Kings xxiv. 1. — In ver. 2 it is again specified that Jeremiah spoke the word of that Lord that came to him to the whole people and to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem pv for ^X again). There is no cogent reason for doubting, as Graf does, the correctness of these dates. Chap, xxxvi. 5 tells us that Jeremiah in the same year caused Baruch to write down the prophecies he had hitherto delivered, in order to read them to the people assembled in the temple, and this because he himself was imprisoned; but it does not follow from this, that at the time of receiving this prophecy he was prevented from going into the temple. The occurrence of chap, xxxvi. falls in any case into a later time of Jehoiakim's fourth year than the present chapter. Ew., too, finds it very probable that the discourse of this chapter was, in
Bdbshtnce at least, publicly delivered. The contents of it tell strongly in favour of this view.
It fulls into three parts. In the first, vers. 3-11, the people of Judali are told that he (Jeremiah) has for twenty-three years long unceasingly preached the word of the Lord to the people with a view to their repentance, without Judah's having paid any heed to his sayings, or to the exhortations of the other prophets, so that now all the kings of the north, headed by Nebuchadnezzar, will come against Judah and the surrounding nations, will plunder everything, and make these lands tributary to the kin^ 0f Babylon; and then, vers. 12-14, that after seventy years judgment will come on the king of Babylon and his land. In the second part, vers. 15-29, Jeremiah receives the cup of the Lord's wrath, to give it to all the people to drink, beginning with Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, proceeding to the Egyptians and the nationalities in the west and east as far as Elam and Media, and concluding with the king of Babylon. Then in the third part, vers. 30-38, judgment to come upon all peoples is set forth in plain statement. — The first part of this discourse would have failed of its effect if Jeremiah had only composed it in writing, and had not delivered it publicly before the people, in its main substance at least. And the two other parts are so closely bound up with the first, that they cannot be separated from it. The judgment made to pass on Judah by Nebuchadnezzar is only the beginning of the judgment which is to pass on one nation after another, until it culminates in judgment upon the whole world. As to the import of the judgment of the Babylonian exile, cf. the remm. in the Comm. on Daniel, Introd. § 2. The announcement of the judgment, whose beginning was now at hand, was of the highest importance for Judah. Even the proclamations concerning the other peoples were designed to take effect in the first instance on the covenant people, that so they might learn to fear the Lord their God as the Lord of the whole world and as the Kuler of all the peoples, who by judgment is preparing the way for and advancing the salvation of the whole world. The ungodly were, by the warning of what was to come on all flesh, to be terrified out of their security and led to turn to God; while by a knowledge beforehand of the coming affliction and the time it was appointed to endure, the God-fearing would be strengthened with confidence in the power and grace of the Lord, so that they might bear calamity with patience and self-devotion as a chastisement necessary to their well-being, without taking false views of God's covenant promises or being overwhelmed by their distresses.
son of Anion king of Judah, unto this day, these three and twenty years, came the word of Jahveh to me, and I spake to you, from early morn onwards speaking, but ye hearkened not.. 4. And Jahveh sent to you all His servants, the prophets, from early morning on sending them, but ye hearkened not, and inclined not your ear to hear. Ver. 5. They said: Turn ye now each from his evil way and from the evil of v<»nr doings, so shall ye abide in the land which Jahveh hath given to your fathers from everlasting (lasting. Ver. 6. And no not after other gods, to them and to worship them, that ve provoke me not with the work of your hands, and that I do you no evil. Ver. 7. But ye hearkened not to me, to provoke me by the work of your hands, to your own hurt. Ver. 8. Therefore thus hath said Jahveh of hosts: Because ye have not heard my words Vi r. 9. Behold, I send and take all the families of the north, saith « Jahveh, and to Nebuchadrezzar my servant (I send), and bring them upon this land, and upon its inhabitants, and upon all these peoples round about, and ban them, and make them an astonishment and a derision and everlasting desolations, Ver. 10. And destroy from among them the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the sound of the mill and the light of the lamp. Ver. 11. And this land shall become a desert, a desolation, and these peoples shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years."
The very beginning of this discourse points to the great crisis in the fortunes of Judah. Jeremiah recalls into the memory of the people not merely the whole time of his own labours hitherto, but also the labours of many other prophets, who, like himself, have unremittingly preached repentance to the people, called on them to forsake idolatry and their evil ways, and to return to the God of their fathers — but in vain (vers. 3-7).
The 23 years, from the 13th of Josiah till the 4th of Jehoiakim, are thus made up: 19 yean of Josiah and 4 years of Jehoiakim, including the 3 months' reign of Jehoahaz. The form MBfa might he an Aramaism; hut it is more probably a clerical error, since we haw D3S>n everywhere else; cf. ver. 4, vii. 13, xxxv. 14, etc., and Olsh. Gramm. § 191, g. For syntactical reasons it cannot be 1st pera, I. as llitz. thinks it is. On the significance of this in/in. abs. sec on vii. 13. As to the thought of ver. 4 cf, vii. 2 5 f. and xi. 7 ft. "HMO introduces the contents of the discourses of Jeremiah and the other prophets, though formally it is connected with Iwl, ver. 4. As to the fact, cf. xxxv. 15. *:-"!, so shall ye dwell, cf. vii. 7.— With ver. 6 cf. vii. 6, i. 16, etc. (JHR, imperf, Hiph. from yjn). *^DJDn cannot be the reading of its CI ft., for the 3d person will not do. The i seems to have found its way in by an error in writing and the Keri to be the proper reading, since |£D? is construed with the infinitive.— Ver. 8. For this obstinate resistance the Lord will cause the nations of the north, under Nebuchadrezzar's leadership, to come and lay Judah waste. " All the families of the north" points back to all the tribes of the kingdoms of the north, i. 14. -U: 7X1 cannot be joined with " and take," but must depend from ipti in such a way that that verb is again repeated in thought. Ew. proposes to read HK1 according to some codd., especially as Syr., Chald., Vulg. have rendered by an accusative. Against this Graf has justly objected, that then Nebuchadnezzar would be merely mentioned by the way as in addition to the various races, whereas it is he that brings these races and is the instrument of destruction in God's hand. Ew.'s reading is therefore to be unhesitatingly rejected. No valid reason appears for pronouncing the wrords: and to Nebuchadrezzar... my servant, to be a later interpolation (Hitz., Gr.) because they are not in the LXX. There is prominence given to Nebuchadnezzar by the very change of the construction, another " send" requiring to be repeated before " to Nebuchadrezzar." God calls Nebuchadnezzar His servant, as the executor of His will on Judah, cf. xxvii. 6 and xliii. 10. The " them" in " and bring them " refers to Nebuchadnezzar and the races of the north. " This land" is Judah, the n*ftn being SeiKTiKws; so too the corresponding nbxr\} " all these peoples round about;" so that we need have no doubt of the genuineness of the demonstrative. The peoples meant are those round about Judah, that are specified in vers. 19-25. tTflEnnrij used frequently in Deuteronomy and Joshua for the extirpation of the Canaanites, is used by Jeremiah, besides here, only in the prophecy against Babylon, 1. 21, 26, li. 3. With njntj&l mdb cf. xix. 8, xviii. 16; the words cannot be used of the peoples, but of the countries, which have been comprehended in the mention of the peoples. With " everlasting desolations," cf. xlix. 13, Isa. lviii. 12, lxi. 4.— With ver. 10 cf. xvi. 9, vii. 34. But here the thought is strengthened by the addition: the sound of the mill and the light of the lamp. Not merely every sound of joy fulness shall vanish, but even every sign of life, such as could make known the presence of inhabitants. — Ver. 11. The land of Judah shall he made waste and desolate, and these peoples shall serve the king of Babylon for seventy years. The time indicated appertains to both clauses. "This land*' is not, with Nag., to be referred to the countries inhabited by all the peoples mentioned in ver. 9, but, as in ver. '.♦. to be understood of the land of Judah: and M all th< pies" are those who dwelt around
Judah* The meaning is unquestionably, that Judah and the countries of the adjoining peoples shall lie waste, and that Judah and these peoples shall serve the king of Babylon; but the thought is so distributed amongst the parallel members of the. that the desolation is predicated of Judah only, the serving only of the peoples — it being necessary to complete each of the parallel menihers from the other.
The term of seventy years mentioned is not a so-called round number, but a chronologically exact prediction of the duration of Chaldean supremacy over Judah. So the number is understood in 2 Chron. xxxvi. 21, 22; so too by the prophet Daniel, when, Dan. ix. 2, in the first year of the Median king Darius, he took note of the seventy years which God, according to the prophecy of Jeremiah, would accomplish for the desolation of Jerusalem. The seventy years may be reckoned chronologically. From the 4th year of Jehoiakim, i.e. 606 B.C., till the 1st year of the sole supremacy of Cyrus over Babylon, i.e. 536 B.C., gives a period of 70 years.' This number is arrived at by means of the dates given by profane authors as well as those of the historians of Scripture, Nebuchadnezzar reigned 43 years his son Evil-Merodach 2 years, Neriglissor 4 years, Labrosoarchad (according to Berosus) 9 months, and Naboned 17 years (43-J-2 + 4 + 17 years and 9 mouths are 66 years and 9 months). Add to this 1 year,— that namely which elapsed between the time when Jerusalem was first taken by Nebuchadnezzar, and the death of Nabopolassar and Nebuchadnezzar's accession, — add further the 2 years of the reign of Darius the Mede (see on Dan. vi. 1), and we have 69| years. With this the biblical accounts also agree. Of Jehoiakim's reign these give 7 years (from his 4th till his 11th year), for Jehoiachin's 3 months, for the captivity of Jehoiachin in Babylon until the accession of Evil-Merodach 37 years (see 2 Kings xxv. 27, according to which Evil-Merodach, when he became king, set Jehoiachin at liberty on the 27th day of the 12th month, in the 37th year after he had been carried away). Thus, till the beginning of Evil- Merodach's reign, we would have 44 years and 3 months to reckon, thence till the fall of the Babylonian empire 23 years and 9 months, and 2 years of Darius the Mede, i.e. in all 70 years complete. — But although this number corresponds so exactly with history, it is less its arithmetical value that is of account in Jeremiah; it is rather its symbolical significance as the number of perfection for God's works. This significance lies in the contrast of seven, as the characteristic number for works of God, with ten, the number that marks earthly completeness; and hereby prophecy makes good its distinguishing character as contrasted with soothsaying, or the prediction of contingent matters. The symbolical value of the number comes clearly out in the following verses, where the fall of Babylon is announced to come in seventy years, although it took place two years earlier.
Vers. 12-14. The overthrow of the king of Babylon' s sovereignty. — Ver. 12. "But when seventy years are accomplished, I will visit their iniquity upon the king of Babylon and upon that people, saith Jahveh, and upon the land of the Chaldeans, and will make it everlasting desolations. Ver. 13. And I bring upon that land all my words which I have spoken concerning it, all that is written in this book, that Jeremiah hath prophesied concerning all peoples. Ver. 14. For of them also shall many nations and great kings serve themselves, and I will requite them according to their doing and according to the work of
The punishment or visitation of its iniquity upon Babylon was executed when the city was taken, after a long and difficult siege, by the allied Medes and Persians under Cyrus' command. This was in B.C. 538, just 68 years after Jerusalem was taken by Nebuchadnezzar for the first time. From the time of the fall of Babylon the sovereignty passed to the Medes and Persians; so that the dominion of Babylon over Judah and the surrounding nations, taken exactly, lasted 68 years, for which the symbolically significant number 70 is used. The Masoretes have changed the ('Int. 'fifOn into ^HfcOn (A'm), because the latter is the usual form and is that which alone elsewhere occurs in Jeremiah, cf. hi. 11, xxxvi. 31, xlix. 36 f.; whereas in ver. 9 they have pointed D^Jltol, because this form is found in I lvi. 7, Bzek. x.wiv. 13, and Neh. i. {.). — The second half of the 13th verse, from ''all that is written" onwards, was not, of course, spoken by Jeremiah to the people, but was first added to explain "all my words," etc., when his prophecies were written down and published. Ver. 14. The perfect V"l2y is to be regarded as a prophetic present. 3 'TO, impose labour, servitude on one, cf. xxii. 13, Le, reduce one to servitude. CD Hon is an emphatic repetition of the pronoun D3, cf. Gesen. § 121, 3. Upon them, too (the Chaldeans), shall many peoples and great kings impose service, i.e. they shall make the Chaldeans bondsmen, reduce them to subjection. With "I will requite them," cf. 1. 29, li. 2\, where this idea is repeatedly expressed.1
1 Vers. 117/— 14 are pronounced by Hitz., E\v., Graf to be spurious and interpolated; but Hitz. excepts the second half of ver. 14, and proposes to set it immediately after the first half of ver. 11. Their main aigument is the dogmatic prejudice, that in the fourth year of Jehoiakim Jeremiah could not have foretold the fall of Babylon after seventy years' domination. The years foretold, says Hitz., M would coincide by all but two years, or, if Darius the Mede be a historical person, perhaps quite entirely. Such correspondence between history and prophecy would be a surprising accident, or else Jeremiah must have known beforehand the number of years during which the subjection to Babylon would last." Now the seventy years of Babylon's sovereignty are mentioned again in xxix. 10, where Jeremiah
Vers. 15-29. The cup of God's fury.— Yew 15. "For thus hath Jahveh, the (Joel of Israel, said to me: Take this cup of the wine of fury at my hand, and give it to drink to all the peoples to whom I send thee, Ver. 16. That they may drink, and reel, and be mad, because of the sword that I send amongst them. Ver. 17. And I took the cup at the hand of Jahveh, and made all the peoples drink it to whom Jahveh had sent me: Ver. 18..Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, and her kings, her princes, to make them a desolation and an astonishment, an hissing and a curse, as it is this day; Ver. 19. Pharaoh the promise? the exiles that after seventy years they shall return to their native land, and no doubt is thrown by the above-mentioned critics on this statement; but there the seventy years are said to be a so-called round number, because that prophecy was composed nine years later than the present one. Bat on the other hand, almost all comra. have remarked that the utterance of xxix. 10: "when;i> for Babylon seventy years are accomplished, will I visit you," points directly back to the prophecy before us (xxv.), and so gives a testimony to the genuineness of our 11th verse. And thus at the same time the assertion is disposed of, that in xxix. 10 the years given are a round number; for it is not there said that seventy years will be accomplished from the time of that letter addressed by the prophet to those in Babylon, but the terminus a quo of the seventy years is assumed as known already from the present twenty-fifth chap. — The other arguments brought forward by Hitz. against the genuineness of the verse have already been pronounced inconclusive by Nag. Nevertheless Nag. himself asserts the spuriousness, not indeed of ver. 11& (the seventy years' duration of Judah's Babylonian bondage), but of vers. 12-14, and on the following grounds: — 1. Although in ver. 11, and below in ver. 26, it is indicated that Babylon itself will not be left untouched by the judgment of the Lord, yet (he says) it is incredible that in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the prophet could have spoken of the fall of Babylon in such a full and emphatic manner as is the case in vers. 12-14. But no obvious reason can be discovered why this should be incredible. For though in ver. 26 Jeremiah makes use of the name Sheshach for Babylon, it does not hence follow that at that moment he desired to speak of it only in a disguised manner. In the statement that the Jews should serve the king of Babylon seventy years, it was surely clearly enough implied that after the seventy years Babylon's sovereignty should come to an end. Still less had Jeremiah occasion to fear that the announcement of the fall of Babylon after seventy years would confirm the Jews in their defiant determination not to be tributary to Babylon. The prophets of the Lord did not suffer themselves to be regulated in their prophesyings by such reasons of human expediency. — 2. Of more weight are his other two arguments. Vers. 12 and 13 presume the existence of the prophecy against Babylon, chap. 1. and li., which was not composed till the fourth year of king of Egypt, and his servants, and his princes, and all his people; Ver. 20. And all the mixed races and all the kings of the land of Uz, and all the kings of the land of the Philistines, Aslikelon, Gaza, Ekron, and the remnant of Ashdod; Ver. 21. Edom, and Moab, and the sons of Amnion; Ver. 22. All the kings of Tyre, all the kings of Sidon, and the kings of the islands beyond the sea; Ver. 23. Dedan, and Tenia, and Buz, and all with the corners of their hair polled; Ver. 24. And all the kinizs of Arabia, and all the kinrrs of the mixed races that dwell in the wilderness; Ver. 25. All the kings of Zimri, and all the kings of Elam, and all the kings of Media; Ver. 26.
I kiah: and tlio second half of ver. 13 presumes the existence of the other prophecies against the nations, and that too as a ~\zd. And although
•i>t tin is meant in which the prophecy against Babylon was already contained. But from all this nothing further follows than that the
Is: "all that is written in this book and that Jeremiah prophesii 1 iakim, hut ware first appended at the editing <>f the prophecies or the writing <»f them down in the ho k which has come down to us. The demonstrative — loes bj that he who wrote it regarded the pn chap. xxv.. as belonging to the S/ih<r
1 in immediate connection with chap. xxv. It only shows that the prophecies against the peoples too i d in the book which coutai chap. xxv. Again, it is true that the first half of ver. 1 1 occurs again evidence that Jeremiah could not have written ver. 1 1. Nag. founds this conclusion mainly on the allegation that the per/. H2V is wrong, whereas in xxvii. 7 it is joined regularly by 1 consee. to the indication of time which marking the future as already accomplished in the divine counsel; just as in xxvii. 6 the categorical *nro represents as accomplished that which in reality yet awaited its fulfilment. Accordingly we regard none of these arguments as conclusive. On the ether hand, the fact that the Alexandrian translators have rendered vers. 12 and 13, and have made the last clause of ver. 13 the heading to the oracles against the peoples, furnishes an unexceptionable testimony to the genuineness of all three verses. Nor is this testimony weakened by the omission in that translation of ver. 14; for this verse could not but be omitted when the last clause of ver. 13 had been taken as a heading, since the contents of ver. 14 were incompatible with that view.
And all the kings of the north, near and far, one with another ami all the kingdoms of the world, which are upon the face of the earth; and the king of Sheshach shall drink after them. Ver. 27. And say to them: Thus hath Jahveh, the God of Israel, said: Drink and be drunken, and spue, and fall and rise not up again, because of the sword which I send among you. Ver. 28. And if it be that they refuse to take the cup out of thine hand to drink, then say to them: Thus hath Jahveh of hosts said: Drink ye shall. Ver. 29. For, behold, on the city upon which my name is named I begin to bring evil, and ye think to go unpunished? Ye shall not go unpunished; for I call the sword against all inhabitants of the earth, saith Jahveh of hosts."