{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_42601/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_42601","id":"gutenberg_42601","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/42601","summary":null,"tags":["Bible. Jeremiah -- Commentaries","Category: Biographies","Category: History - Ancient","Category: Religion/Spirituality"],"text":"THE PROPHECIES\n\n                                   OF\n\n                               JEREMIAH.\n\n                 =With a Sketch of His Life and Times.=\n\n\n\n\n\n                              BY THE REV.\n                           C. J. BALL, M.A.,\n                      _Chaplain of Lincoln's Inn_;\n             CONTRIBUTOR TO BISHOP ELLICOTT'S \"COMMENTARY,\"\n                    \"THE SPEAKER'S COMMENTARY,\" ETC.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n                              =New York:=\n                         A. C. ARMSTRONG & SON,\n                             714 BROADWAY.\n                                 1890.\n\n\n\n\n                               CONTENTS.\n                                                                  PAGE\n\n  PRELIMINARY SKETCH OF THE LIFE AND TIMES OF JEREMIAH                 1\n\n                                   I.\n\n  THE CALL AND CONSECRATION                                           58\n\n                                  II.\n\n  THE TRUST IN THE SHADOW OF EGYPT                                    74\n\n                                  III.\n\n  ISRAEL AND JUDAH--A CONTRAST                                       114\n\n                                  IV.\n\n  THE SCYTHIANS AS THE SCOURGE OF GOD                                134\n\n                                   V.\n\n  POPULAR AND TRUE RELIGION                                          149\n\n                                  VI.\n\n  THE IDOLS OF THE HEATHEN AND THE GOD OF ISRAEL                     215\n\n                                  VII.\n\n  THE BROKEN COVENANT                                                248\n\n                                 VIII.\n\n  THE FALL OF PRIDE                                                  280\n\n                                  IX.\n\n  THE DROUGHT AND ITS MORAL IMPLICATIONS                             300\n\n                                   X.\n\n  THE SABBATH--A WARNING                                             364\n\n                                  XI.\n\n  THE DIVINE POTTER                                                  377\n\n                                  XII.\n\n  THE BROKEN VESSEL--A SYMBOL OF JUDGMENT                            398\n\n                                 XIII.\n\n  JEREMIAH UNDER PERSECUTION                                         411\n\n\n\n\n                   PRELIMINARY SKETCH OF THE LIFE AND\n                           TIMES OF JEREMIAH.\n\n\nA priest by birth, Jeremiah became a prophet by the special call\nof God. His priestly origin implies a good literary training, in\ntimes when literature was largely in the hands of the priests. The\npriesthood, indeed, constituted a principal section of the Israelitish\nnobility, as appears both from the history of those times, and from\nthe references in our prophet's writings, where kings and princes and\npriests are often named together as the aristocracy of the land (i.\n18, ii. 26, iv. 9); and this fact would ensure for the young prophet a\nshare in all the best learning of his age. The name of Jeremiah, like\nother prophetic proper names, seems to have special significance in\nconnexion with the most illustrious of the persons recorded to have\nborne it. It means _Iahvah foundeth_, and, as a proper name, The Man\nthat Iahvah foundeth; a designation which finds vivid illustration in\nthe words of Jeremiah's call: \"Before I moulded thee in the belly, I\nknew thee; and before thou camest forth from the womb, I consecrated\nthee: a spokesman to the nations did I make thee\" (i. 5). The not\nuncommon name of Jeremiah--six other persons of the name are numbered\nin the Old Testament--must have appeared to the prophet as invested\nwith new force and meaning, in the light of this revelation. Even\nbefore his birth he had been \"founded\"[1] and predestined by God for\nthe work of his life.\n\nThe Hilkiah named as his father was not the high priest of that\nname,[2] so famous in connexion with the reformation of king Josiah.\nInteresting as such a relationship would be if established, the\nfollowing facts seem decisive against it. The prophet himself has\nomitted to mention it, and no hint of it is to be found elsewhere. The\npriestly family to which Jeremiah belonged was settled at Anathoth\n(i. 1, xi. 21, xxix. 27). But Anathoth in Benjamin (xxxvii. 12), the\npresent _`An\u00e2t\u00e2_, between two and three miles NNE. of Jerusalem,\nbelonged to the deposed line of Ithamar (1 Chron. xxiv. 3; comp.\nwith 1 Kings ii. 26, 35). After this it is needless to insist that\nthe prophet, and presumably his father, resided at Anathoth, whereas\nJerusalem was the usual residence of the high priest. Nor is the\nidentification of Jeremiah's family with that of the ruling high\npriest helped by the observation that the father of the high priest\nwas named Shallum (1 Chron. v. 39), and that the prophet had an\nuncle of this name (Jer. xxxii. 7). The names Hilkiah[3] and Shallum\nare too common to justify any conclusions from such data. If the\nprophet's father was head of one of the twenty-four classes or guilds\nof the priests, that might explain the influence which Jeremiah\ncould exercise with some of the grandees of the court. But we are\nnot told more than that Jeremiah ben Hilkiah was a member of the\npriestly community settled at Anathoth. It is, however, a gratuitous\ndisparagement of one of the greatest names in Israel's history, to\nsuggest that, had Jeremiah belonged to the highest ranks of his caste,\nhe would not have been equal to the self-renunciation involved in the\nassumption of the unhonoured and thankless office of a prophet.[4]\nSuch a suggestion is certainly not warranted by the portraiture of the\nman as delineated by himself, with all the distinctive marks of truth\nand nature. From the moment that he became decisively convinced of his\nmission, Jeremiah's career is marked by struggles and vicissitudes of\nthe most painful and perilous kind; his perseverance in his allotted\npath was met by an ever increasing hardness on the part of the people;\nopposition and ridicule became persecution, and the messenger of\nDivine truth persisted in proclaiming his message at the risk of his\nown life. That life may, in fact, be called a prolonged martyrdom;\nand, if we may judge of the unknown by the known, the tradition that\nthe prophet was stoned to death by the Jewish refugees in Egypt is\nonly too probable an account of its final scene. If \"the natural\nshrinking of a somewhat feminine character\" is traceable in his own\nreport of his conduct at particular junctures, does not the fact\nshed an intenser glory upon the man, who overcame this instinctive\ntimidity, and persisted, in face of the most appalling dangers, in\nthe path of duty? Is not the victory of a constitutionally timid and\nshrinking character a nobler moral triumph than that of the man who\nnever knew fear--who marches to the conflict with others, with a light\nheart, simply because it is his nature to do so--because he has had\nno experience of the agony of a previous conflict with self? It is\neasy to sit in one's library and criticize the heroes of old; but\nthe modern censures of Jeremiah betray at once a want of historic\nimagination, and a defect of sympathy with the sublime fortitude\nof one who struggled on in a battle which he knew to be lost. In a\nprotracted contest such as that which Jeremiah was called upon to\nmaintain, what wonder if courage sometimes flags, and hopelessness\nutters its forsaken cry? The moods of the saints are not always the\nsame; they vary, like those of common men, with the stress of the\nhour. Even our Saviour could cry from the cross, \"My God, My God, why\nhast Thou forsaken Me?\" It is not by passing expressions, wrung from\ntheir torn hearts by the agony of the hour, that men are to be judged.\nIt is the issue of the crisis that is all-important; not the cries of\npain, which indicate its overwhelming pressure.\n\n\"It is sad,\" says a well known writer, with reference to the noble\npassage, xxxi. 31-34, which he justly characterizes as \"one of those\nwhich best deserve to be called the Gospel before Christ,\" \"It is\nsad that Jeremiah could not always keep his spirit under the calming\ninfluence of these high thoughts. No book of the Old Testament, except\nthe book of Job and the Psalms, contains so much which is difficult\nto reconcile with the character of a self-denying servant of Jehovah.\nSuch expressions as those in xi. 20, xv. 15, and especially xviii.\n21-23, contrast powerfully with Luke xxiii. 34, and show that the\ntypical character of Jeremiah is not absolutely complete.\" Probably\nnot. The writer in question is honourably distinguished from a crowd\nof French and German critics, whose attainments are not superior to\nhis own, by his deep sense of the inestimable value to mankind of\nthose beliefs which animated the prophet, and by the sincerity of\nhis manifest endeavours to judge fairly between Jeremiah and his\ndetractors. He has already remarked truly enough that \"the baptism\nof complicated suffering,\" which the prophet was called upon to pass\nthrough in the reign of Jehoiakim, \"has made him, in a very high\nand true sense, a type of One greater than he.\" It is impossible to\navoid such an impression, if we study the records of his life with\nany insight or sympathy. And the impression thus created is deepened,\nwhen we turn to that prophetic page which may be called the most\n_appealing_ in the entire range of the Old Testament. In the 53rd of\nIsaiah the martyrdom of Jeremiah becomes the living image of that\nother martyrdom, which in the fulness of time was to redeem the\nworld. After this, to say that \"the typical character of Jeremiah is\nnot absolutely complete,\" is no more than the assertion of a truism;\nfor what Old Testament character, what character in the annals of\ncollective humanity, can be brought forward as a perfect type of the\nChrist, the Man whom, in His sinlessness and His power, unbiassed\nhuman reason and conscience instinctively suspect to have been also\nGod? To deplore the fact that this illustrious prophet \"could not\nalways keep his spirit under the calming influence of his highest\nthoughts,\" is simply to deplore the infirmity that besets all human\nnature, to regret that natural imperfection which clings to a finite\nand fallen creature, even when endowed with the most splendid gifts\nof the spirit. For the rest, a certain degree of exaggeration is\nnoticeable in founding upon three brief passages of so large a work\nas the collected prophecies of Jeremiah the serious charge that \"no\nbook of the Old Testament, except the book of Job and the Psalms,\ncontains so much which is difficult to reconcile with the character\nof a self-denying servant of Jehovah.\" The charge appears to me both\nill-grounded and misleading. But I reserve the further consideration\nof these obnoxious passages for the time when I come to discuss their\ncontext, as I wish now to complete my sketch of the prophet's life. He\nhas himself recorded the date of his call to the prophetic office. It\nwas in the thirteenth year of the good king Josiah, that the young[5]\npriest was summoned to a higher vocation by an inward Voice whose\nurgency he could not resist.[6] The year has been variously identified\nwith 629, 627, and 626 B.C. The place has been supposed to have been\nJerusalem, the capital, which was so near the prophet's home, and\nwhich, as Hitzig observes, offered the amplest scope and numberless\noccasions for the exercise of prophetic activity. But there appears\nno good reason why Jeremiah should not have become known locally as\none whom God had specially chosen, before he abandoned his native\nplace for the wider sphere of the capital. This, in truth, seems to\nbe the likelier supposition, considering that his reluctance to take\nthe first decisive step in his career excused itself on the ground of\nyouthful inexperience: \"Alas, my Lord Iahvah! behold, I know not (how)\nto speak; for I am but a youth.\"[7] The Hebrew term may imply that\nhe was about eighteen or twenty: an age when it is hardly probable\nthat he would permanently leave his father's house. Moreover, he\nhas mentioned a conspiracy of his fellow-townsmen against himself,\nin terms which have been taken to imply that he had exercised his\nministry among them, before his removal to Jerusalem. In chap. xi.\n21, we read: \"Therefore thus said Iahvah Sabaoth upon the men of\n`Anathoth that were seeking thy life, saying, Prophesy not in the\nname of Iahvah, that thou die not by our hand! Therefore thus said\nIahvah Sabaoth: Behold I am about to visit it upon them: the young\nmen shall die by the sword; their sons and their daughters shall die\nby the famine. And a remnant they shall have none; for I will bring\nevil unto the men of `Anathoth, (in) the year of their visitation.\"\nIt is natural to see in this wicked plot against his life the reason\nfor the prophet's departure from his native place (but cf. p. 265).\nWe are reminded of the violence done to our Lord by the men of \"His\nown country\" (\u1f21 \u03c0\u03ac\u03c4\u03c1\u03b9\u03c2 \u03b1\u1f50\u03c4\u03bf\u1fe6), and of His final and, as it would seem,\ncompulsory departure from Nazareth to Capernaum (St. Luke iv. 16-29;\nSt. Matt. iv. 13). In this, as in other respects, Jeremiah was a true\ntype of the Messias.\n\nThe prophetic discourses, with which the book of Jeremiah opens (ii.\n1-iv. 2), have a general application to all Israel, as is evident not\nonly from the ideas expressed in them, but also from the explicit\naddress, ii. 4: \"Hear ye the word of Iahvah, O house of Jacob, and\nall the clans of the house of Israel!\" It is clear enough, that\nalthough Jeremiah belongs to the southern kingdom, his reflexions\nhere concern the northern tribes as well, who must be included in the\ncomprehensive phrases \"house of Jacob,\" and \"all the clans of the\nhouse of Israel.\" The fact is accounted for by the circumstance that\nthese two discourses are summaries of the prophet's teaching on many\ndistinct occasions, and as such might have been composed anywhere.\nThere can be no doubt, however, that the principal contents of his\nbook have their scene in Jerusalem. In chap. ii. 1, 2, indeed, we\nhave what looks like the prophet's introduction to the scene of his\nfuture activity. \"And there fell a word of Iahvah unto me, saying, Go\nand cry in the ears of Jerusalem.\" But the words are not found in the\nLXX., which begins chap. ii. thus: \"And he said, These things saith\nthe Lord, I remembered the lovingkindness (\u1f14\u03bb\u03b5\u03bf\u03c2) of thy youth, and\nthe love of thine espousals (\u03c4\u03b5\u03bb\u03b5\u03af\u03c9\u03c3\u03b9\u03c2).\" But whether these words\nof the received Hebrew text be genuine or not, it is plain that if,\nas the terms of the prophet's commission affirm, he was to be \"an\nembattled city, and a pillar of iron, and walls of bronze ... to the\nkings of Judah, to her princes, to her priests,\" as well as \"to the\ncountry folk\" (i. 18), Jerusalem, the residence of kings and princes\nand chief priests, and the centre of the land, would be the natural\nsphere of his operations. The same thing is implied in the Divine\nstatement: \"A _nab\u00ee'_ to _the nations_ have I made thee\" (i. 5). The\nprophet of Judea could only reach the _g\u00f4y\u00eem_--the surrounding foreign\npeoples--through the government of his own country, and through his\ninfluence upon Judean policy. The leaving of his native place, sooner\nor later, seems to be involved in the words (i. 7, 8): \"And Iahvah\nsaid unto me, Say not, I am a youth: for upon whatsoever (journey)\nI send thee, thou shalt go (Gen. xxiv. 42); and with whomsoever I\ncharge thee, thou shalt speak (Gen. xxiii. 8). Be not afraid of\nthem!\" The Hebrew is to some extent ambiguous. We might also render:\n\"Unto whomsoever I send thee, thou shalt go; and whatsoever I charge\nthee, thou shalt speak.\" But the difference will not affect my point,\nwhich is that the words seem to imply the contingency of Jeremiah's\nleaving Anathoth. And this implication is certainly strengthened by\nthe twice-given warning: \"Be not afraid of them!\" (i. 8), \"Be not\ndismayed at them, lest I dismay thee (indeed) before them!\" (17). The\nyoung prophet might dread the effect of an unpopular message upon his\nbrethren and his father's house. But his fear would reach a far higher\npitch of intensity, if he were called upon to confront with the same\nmessage of unwelcome truth the king in his palace, or the high priest\nin the courts of the sanctuary, or the fanatical and easily excited\npopulace of the capital. Accordingly, when after his general prologue\nor exordium, the prophet plunges at once \"into the agitated life of\nthe present,\"[8] it is to \"the men of Judah and Jerusalem\" (iv. 3),\nto \"the great men\" (v. 5), and to the throng of worshippers in the\ntemple (vii. 2), that he addresses his burning words. When, however\n(v. 4), he exclaims: \"And for me, I said, They are but poor folk; they\n_do_ foolishly (Num. xii. 11), for they know not the way of Iahvah,\nthe rule (_i.e._, _religion_) of their God (Isa. xlii. 1): I will\nget me unto the great men, and will speak with them; for _they_ know\nthe way of Iahvah, the rule of their God:\" he again seems to suggest\na prior ministry, of however brief duration, upon the smaller stage\nof Anathoth. At all events, there is nothing against the conjecture\nthat the prophet may have passed to and fro between his birthplace\nand Jerusalem, making occasional sojourn in the capital, until at\nlast the machinations of his neighbours (xi. 19 _sqq._), and as\nappears from xii. 6, his own kinsmen, drove him to quit Anathoth for\never. If Hitzig be right in referring Psalms xxiii., xxvi.-xxviii.\nto the prophet's pen, we may find in them evidence of the fact that\nthe temple became his favourite haunt, and indeed his usual abode.\nAs a priest by birth, he would have a claim to live in some one of\nthe cells that surrounded the temple on three sides of it. The 23rd\nPsalm, though written at a later period in the prophet's career--I\nshall refer to it again by-and-by--closes with the words, \"And I will\nreturn unto (Ps. vii. 17; Hos. xii. 7) the house of Iahvah as long\nas I live,\" or perhaps, \"And I will return (and dwell) in\" etc., as\nthough the temple were at once his sanctuary and his home. In like\nmanner, Ps. xxvi. speaks of one who \"washed his hands, in innocency\"\n(_i.e._ in a state of innocency; the symbolical action corresponding\nto the real state of his heart and conscience), and so \"compassed\nthe altar of Iahvah\"; \"to proclaim with the sound of a psalm of\nthanksgiving, and to rehearse all His wondrous works.\" The language\nhere seems even to imply (Ex. XXX. 19-21), that the prophet took\npart, as a priest, in the ritual of the altar. He continues: \"Iahvah,\nI love the abode of thine house, And the place of the dwelling of\nThy glory!\" and concludes, \"My foot, it standeth on a plain; In the\ncongregations I bless Iahvah,\" speaking as one continually present at\nthe temple services. His prayers \"Judge me,\" _i.e._, Do me justice,\n\"Iahvah!\" and \"Take not away my soul among sinners, Nor my life\namong men of bloodshed!\" may point either to the conspiracies of the\nAnathothites, or to subsequent persecutions at Jerusalem. The former\nseem to be intended both here, and in Ps. xxvii., which is certainly\nmost appropriate as an Ode of Thanksgiving for the prophet's escape\nfrom the murderous attempts of the men of Anathoth. Nothing could be\nmore apposite than the allusions to \"evil-doers drawing near against\nhim to eat up his flesh\" (_i.e._, according to the common Aramaic\nmetaphor, to slander him, and destroy him with false accusations); to\nthe \"lying witnesses, and the man (or men) breathing out (or panting\nafter) violence\" (ver. 12); and to having been forsaken even by his\nfather and mother (ver. 10). With the former, we may compare the\nprophet's words, chap. ix. 2 _sqq._, \"O that I were in the wilderness,\nin a lodge of wayfaring men; that I might forsake my people, and\ndepart from among them! For all of them are adulterous, an assembly\nof traitors. And they have bent their tongue, (as it were) their bow\nfor lying; and it is not by sincerity that they have grown strong in\nthe land. Beware ye, every one of his friend, and have no confidence\nin any brother: for every brother will assuredly supplant\" (\u05d9\u05e2\u05e7\u05d1 \u05e2\u05e7\u05d5\u05d1\na reference to Jacob and Esau), \"and every friend will gad about\nfor slander. And each will deceive his friend, and the truth they\nwill not speak: they have taught their tongue to speak lies; with\nperverseness they have wearied themselves. Thy dwelling is in the\nmidst of deceit.... A murderous arrow is their tongue; deceit hath\nit spoken; with his mouth one speaketh peace with his neighbour, and\ninwardly he layeth an ambush for him.\" Such language, whether in the\npsalm or in the prophetic oration, could only be the fruit of bitter\npersonal experience. (Cf. also xi. 19 _sqq._, xx. 2 _sqq._, xxvi. 8,\nxxxvi. 26, xxxvii. 15, xxxviii. 6). The allusion of the psalmist to\nbeing forsaken by father and mother (Ps. xxvii. 10) may be illustrated\nby the prophet's words, chap. xii. 6.\n\nJeremiah came prominently forward at a serious crisis in the history\nof his people. The Scythian invasion of Asia, described by Herodotus\n(i. 103-106), but not mentioned in the biblical histories of the\ntime, was threatening Palestine and Judea. According to the old Greek\nwriter, Cyaxares the Mede, while engaged in besieging Nineveh, was\nattacked by a great horde of Scythians, under their king Madyes, who\nhad entered Asia in pushing their pursuit of the Cimmerians, whom\nthey had expelled from Europe.[9] The Medes lost the battle, and the\nbarbarous victors found themselves masters of Asia. Thereupon they\nmarched for Egypt, and had made their way past Ascalon, when they\nwere met by the envoys of Psammitichus I. the king of Egypt, whose\n\"gifts and prayers,\" induced them to return. On the way back, some\nfew of them lagged behind the main body, and plundered the famous\ntemple of Atergatis-Derceto, or as Herodotus calls the great Syrian\ngoddess, Ourania Afrodite, at Ascalon (the goddess avenged herself by\nsmiting them and their descendants with impotence--\u03b8\u03ae\u03bb\u03b5\u03b9\u03b1\u03bd \u03bd\u03bf\u1fe6\u03c3\u03bf\u03bd,\ncf. 1 Sam. v. 6 _sqq._). For eight and twenty years the Scythians\nremained the tyrants of Asia, and by their exactions and plundering\nraids brought ruin everywhere, until at last Cyaxares and his Medes,\nby help of treachery, recovered their former sway. After this, the\nMedes took Nineveh, and reduced the Assyrians to complete subjection;\nbut Babylonia remained independent. Such is the story as related by\nHerodotus, our sole authority in the matter. It has been supposed[10]\nthat the 59th Psalm was written by king Josiah, while the Scythians\nwere threatening Jerusalem. Their wild hordes, ravenous for plunder,\nlike the Gauls who at a later time struck Rome with panic, are at any\nrate well described in the verse\n\n          \"They return at eventide,\n           They howl like the dogs,\n\nthe famished pariah dogs of an eastern town--\n\n          And surround the city.\"\n\nBut the Old Testament furnishes other indications of the terror which\npreceded the Scythian invasion, and of the merciless havoc which\naccompanied it. The short prophecy of Zephaniah, who prophesied\n\"in the days of Josiah ben Amon king of Judah,\" and was therefore\na contemporary of Jeremiah, is best explained by reference to this\ncrisis in the affairs of Western Asia. Zephaniah's very first word\nis a startling menace. \"I will utterly away with everything from\noff the face of the ground, saith Iahvah.\" \"I will away with man\nand beast, I will away with the birds of the air, and the fishes of\nthe sea, and the stumblingblocks along with the wicked (_i.e._ the\nidols with their worshippers); and I will exterminate man from off\nthe face of the ground, saith Iahvah.\" The imminence of a sweeping\ndestruction is announced. Ruin is to overtake every existing thing;\nnot only the besotted people and their dumb idols, but beasts and\nbirds and even the fish of the sea are to perish in the universal\ncatastrophe. It is exactly what might be expected from the sudden\nappearance of a horde of barbarians of unknown numbers, sweeping over\na civilised country from north to south, like some devastating flood;\nslaying whatever crossed their path, burning towns and temples, and\ndevouring the flocks and herds. The reference to the fishes of the sea\nis explained by the fact that the Scythians marched southward by the\nroad which ran along the coast through Philistia. \"Gaza,\" cries the\nprophet, \"shall be forsaken,\"--there is an inimitable paronomasia in\nhis words[11]--\"And Ascalon a desolation: as for Ashdod, at noonday\nthey shall drive her into exile; and Ekron shall be rooted up. Alas\nfor the dwellers by the shore line, the race of the Cherethites! The\nword of Iahvah is against you, O Canaan, land of the Philistines! And\nI will destroy thee, that there shall be no inhabitant.\" It is true\nthat Herodotus relates that the Scythians, in their retreat, for the\nmost part marched past Ascalon without doing any harm, and that the\nplunder of the temple was the work of a few stragglers. But neither is\nthis very probable in itself, nor does it harmonize with what he tells\nus afterwards about the plunder and rapine that marked the period\nof Scythian domination. We need not suppose that the information of\nthe old historian as to the doings of these barbarians was as exact\nas that of a modern state paper. Nor, on the other hand, would it be\nvery judicious to press every detail in a highly wrought prophetic\ndiscourse, which vividly sets forth the fears of the time, and gives\nimaginative form to the feelings and anticipations of the hour; as\nif it were intended by the writer, not for the moral and spiritual\ngood of his contemporaries, but to furnish posterity with a minutely\naccurate record of the actual course of events in the distant past.\n\nThe public danger, which stimulated the reflexion and lent force to the\ninvective of the lesser prophet, intensified the impression produced\nby the earlier preaching of Jeremiah. The tide of invasion, indeed,\nrolled past Judea, without working much permanent harm to the little\nkingdom, with whose destinies were involved the highest interests of\nmankind at large. But this respite from destruction would be understood\nby the prophet's hearers as proof of the relentings of Iahvah towards\nHis penitent people; and may, for the time at least, have confirmed\nthe impression wrought upon the popular mind by Jeremiah's passionate\ncensures and entreaties. The time was otherwise favourable; for the\nyear of his call was the year immediately subsequent to that in which\nthe young king Josiah \"began to purify Judah and Jerusalem from the\nhigh places and the Asherim, and the carven images and the molten\nimages,\" which he did in the twelfth year of his reign, _i.e._ in the\ntwentieth year of his age, according to the testimony of the Chronicler\n(2 Chron. xxxiv. 3), which there is no good reason for disallowing.\nJeremiah was probably about the same age as the king, as he calls\nhimself a mere youth (na`ar). After the Scythians had retired--if we\nare right in fixing their invasion so early in the reign--the official\nreformation of public worship was taken up again, and completed by the\neighteenth year of Josiah, when the prophet might be about twenty-five.\nThe finding of what is called \"the book of the Law,\" and \"the book of\nthe Covenant,\"[12] by Hilkiah the high priest, while the temple was\nbeing restored by the king's order, is represented by the histories as\nhaving determined the further course of the royal reforms. What this\nbook of the Law was, it is not necessary now to discuss. It is clear\nfrom the language of the book of Kings, and from the references of\nJeremiah, that the substance of it, at any rate, closely corresponded\nwith portions of Deuteronomy. It appears from his own words (chap. xi.\n1-8) that at first, at all events, Jeremiah was an earnest preacher of\nthe positive precepts of this book of the Covenant. It is true that his\nname does not occur in the narrative of Josiah's reformation, as related\nin Kings. There the king and his counsellors inquire of Iahvah through\nthe prophetess Huldah (2 Kings xxii. 14). Supposing the account to be\nboth complete and correct, this only shows that five years after his\ncall, Jeremiah was still unknown or little considered at court. But he\nwas doubtless included among the \"prophets,\" who, with \"the king and\nall the men of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem,\" \"and the\npriests ... and all the people, both small and great,\" after the words\nof the newfound book of the Covenant had been read in their ears, bound\nthemselves by a solemn league and covenant, \"to walk after Iahweh, and\nto keep His commandments, and His laws, and His statutes, with all the\nheart, and with all the soul\" (2 Kings xxiii. 3). It is evident that\nat first the young prophet hoped great things of this national league\nand the associated reforms in the public worship. In his eleventh\nchapter, he writes thus: \"The word that fell to Jeremiah from Iahvah,\nsaying: Hear ye the words of this covenant\"--presumably the words of\nthe newfound book of the Torah--\"And speak ye to the men of Judah, and\nto the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And thou shalt say unto them\"--the\nchange from the second plural \"hear ye,\" \"speak ye,\" is noticeable. In\nthe first instance, no doubt, the message contemplates the leaders of\nthe reforming movement generally; the prophet is specially addressed in\nthe words, \"And _thou_ shalt say unto them, Thus said Iahvah, the God of\nIsrael, Cursed is the man that will not hear the words of this covenant,\nwhich I commanded your fathers, in the day when I brought them forth\nfrom the land of Egypt, from the iron furnace, saying, Hearken to My\nvoice, and do them, according to all that I command you; and ye shall\nbecome to Me a people, and I--I will become to you Elohim: in order to\nmake good the oath that I sware to your fathers, to give them a land\nflowing with milk and honey, as at this day.\n\n\"And I answered and said, So be it, Iahvah!\n\n\"And Iahvah said unto me, Proclaim all these words in the cities of\nJudah and in the streets of Jerusalem, saying, Hear ye the words of\nthis covenant, and do them. For I solemnly adjured your fathers, at the\ntime when I brought them up out of the land of Egypt, (and) unto this\nday, with all earnestness [earnestly and incessantly], saying, Hearken\nye to My voice. And they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear, and\nthey walked individually in the stubbornness of their evil heart. So I\nbrought upon them all the words of this covenant\"--_i.e._, the curses,\nwhich constituted the sanction of it: see Deut. iv. 25 _sqq._, xxviii.\n15 _sqq._--\"(this covenant) which I commanded them to do, and they did\nit not.\" [Or perhaps, \"Because I bade them _do_, and they _did_ not;\"\nimplying a general prescription of conduct, which was not observed. Or,\n\"I who had bidden them do, and they did not\"--justifying, as it were,\nGod's assumption of the function of punishment. _His_ law had been set\nat nought; the national reverses, therefore, were _His_ infliction,\nand not another's.] This, then, was the first preaching of Jeremiah.\n\"Hear ye the words of this covenant!\"--the covenant drawn out with\nsuch precision and legal formality in the newfound book of the Torah.\nUp and down the country, \"in the cities of Judah\" and \"in the streets\nof Jerusalem,\" everywhere within the bounds of the little kingdom that\nacknowledged the house of David, he published this panacea for the\nactual and imminent evils of the time, insisting, we may be sure, with\nall the eloquence of a youthful patriot, upon the impressive warnings\nembodied in the past history of Israel, as set forth in the book of the\nLaw. But his best efforts were fruitless. Eloquence and patriotism and\nenlightened spiritual beliefs and lofty purity of purpose were wasted\nupon a generation blinded by its own vices and reserved for a swiftly\napproaching retribution. Perhaps the plots which drove the prophet\nfinally from his native place were due to the hostility evoked against\nhim by his preaching of the Law. At all events, the account of them\nimmediately follows, in this eleventh chapter (vers. 18 _sqq._). But\nit must be borne in mind that the Law-book was not found until _five_\nyears after his call to the office of prophet. In any case, it is not\ndifficult to understand the popular irritation at what must have seemed\nthe unreasonable attitude of a prophet, who, in spite of the wholesale\ndestruction of the outward symbols of idolatry effected by the king's\norders, still declared that the claims of Iahweh were unsatisfied, and\nthat something more was needed than the purging of Judah and Jerusalem\nfrom the high places and the Asherim, if the Divine favour were to be\nconciliated, and the country restored to permanent prosperity. The\npeople probably supposed that they had sufficiently fulfilled the law\nof their God, when they had not only demolished all sanctuaries but\nHis, but had done away with all those local holy places where Iahvah\nwas indeed worshipped, but with a deplorable admixture of heathenish\nrites. The law of the one legal sanctuary, so much insisted upon in\nDeuteronomy, was formally established by Josiah, and the national\nworship was henceforth centralized in Jerusalem, which from this time\nonward remained in the eyes of all faithful Israelites \"the place where\nmen ought to worship.\" It is entirely in accordance with what we know\nof human nature in general, and not merely of Jewish nature, that the\npopular mind failed to rise to the level of the prophetic teaching,\nand that the reforming zeal of the time should have exhausted itself\nin efforts which effected no more than these external changes. The\ntruth is that the reforming movement began from above, not from below;\nand however earnest the young king may have been, it is probable that\nthe mass of his subjects viewed the abolition of the high-places, and\nthe other sweeping measures, initiated in obedience to the precepts\nof the book of the Covenant, either with apathy and indifference, or\nwith feelings of sullen hostility. The priesthood of Jerusalem were, of\ncourse, benefited by the abolition of all sanctuaries, except the one\nwherein they ministered and received their dues. The writings of our\nprophet amply demonstrate that, whatever zeal for Iahvah, and whatever\ndegree of compunction for the past may have animated the prime movers\nin the reformation of the eighteenth of Josiah, no radical improvement\nwas effected in the ordinary life of the nation. For some twelve years,\nindeed, the well-meaning king continued to occupy the throne; years, it\nmay be presumed, of comparative peace and prosperity for Judah, although\nneither the narrative of Kings and Chronicles nor that of Jeremiah\ngives us any information about them. Doubtless it was generally supposed\nthat the nation was reaping the reward of its obedience to the law\nof Iahvah. But at the end of that period, circ. B.C. 608, an event\noccurred which must have shaken this faith to its foundations. In the\nthirty-first year of his reign, Josiah fell in the battle of Megiddo,\nwhile vainly opposing the small forces at his command to the hosts of\nEgypt. Great indeed must have been the \"searchings of heart\" occasioned\nby this unlooked-for and overwhelming stroke. Strange that it should\nhave fallen at a time when, as the people deemed, the God of Israel\nwas receiving His due at their hands; when the injunctions of the book\nof the Covenant had been minutely carried out, the false and irregular\nworships abolished, and Jerusalem made the centre of the cultus; a\ntime when it seemed as if the Lord had become reconciled to His people\nIsrael, when years of peace and plenty seemed to give demonstration of\nthe fact; and when, as may perhaps be inferred from Josiah's expedition\nagainst Necho, the extension of the border, contemplated in the book of\nthe Law, was considered as likely to be realised in the near future. The\nheight to which the national aspirations had soared only made the fall\nmore disastrous, complete, ruinous.\n\nThe hopes of Judah rested upon a worldly foundation; and it was\nnecessary that a people whose blindness was only intensified by\nprosperity, should be undeceived by the discipline of overthrow. No\nhint is given in the meagre narrative of the reign as to whether the\nprophets had lent their countenance or not to the fatal expedition.\nProbably they did; probably they too had to learn by bitter\nexperience, that no man, not even a zealous and godfearing monarch, is\n_necessary_ to the fulfilment of the Divine counsels. And the agony\nof this irretrievable disaster, this sudden and complete extinction\nof his country's fairest hopes, may have been the means by which\nthe Holy Spirit led Jeremiah to an intenser conviction that illicit\nmodes of worship and coarse idolatries were not the only things in\nJudah offensive to Iahvah; that something more was needed to win\nback His favour than formal obedience, however rigid and exacting,\nto the letter of a written code of sacred law; that the covenant of\nIahvah with His people had an inward and eternal, not an outward and\ntransitory significance; and that not the letter but the spirit of the\nlaw was the thing of essential moment. Thoughts like these must have\nbeen present to the prophet's mind when he wrote (xxxi. 31 _sqq._):\n\"Behold, a time is coming, saith Iahvah, when I will conclude with the\nhouse of Israel and with the house of Judah a fresh treaty, unlike the\ntreaty that I concluded with their forefathers, at the time when I\ntook hold of their hand, to bring them out of the land of Egypt; when\nthey, on their part, disannulled my treaty, and I--I disdained[13]\nthem, saith Iahvah. For this is the treaty that I will conclude with\nthe house of Israel after those days [_i.e._ in due time], saith\nIahvah: I will put my Torah within them and upon their heart will I\ngrave it; and I will become to them a God, and they--they shall become\nto me a people.\"\n\nIt is but a dull eye which cannot see beyond the metaphor of the\ncovenant or treaty between Iahvah and Israel; and it is a strangely\ndark understanding that fails to perceive here and elsewhere a\ntranslucent figure of the eternal relations subsisting between God\nand man. The error is precisely that against which the prophets, at\nthe high watermark of their inspiration, are always protesting--the\nuniversal and inveterate error of narrowing down the requirements of\nthe Infinitely Holy, Just and Good, to the scrupulous observance of\nsome accepted body of canons, enshrined in a book and duly interpreted\nby the laborious application of recognised legal authorities. It is\nso comfortable to be sure of possessing an infallible guide in so\nsmall a compass; to be spared all further consideration, so long\nas we have paid the priestly dues, and kept the annual feasts, and\ncarefully observed the laws of ceremonial purity! From the first, the\nattention of priests and people, including the official prophets,\nwould be attracted by the ritual and ceremonial precepts, rather\nthan by the earnest moral teaching of Deuteronomy. As soon as first\nimpressions had had time to subside, the moral and spiritual element\nin that noble book would begin to be ignored, or confounded with the\npurely external and mundane prescriptions affecting public worship\nand social propriety; and the interests of true religion would\nhardly be subserved by the formal acceptance of this code as the\nlaw of the state. The unregenerate heart of man would fancy that it\nhad at last gotten that for which it is always craving--something\nfinal--something to which it could triumphantly point, when urged by\nthe religious enthusiast, as tangible evidence that it was fulfilling\nthe Divine law, that it was at one with Iahvah, and therefore had a\nright to expect the continuance of His favour and blessing. Spiritual\ndevelopment would be arrested; men would become satisfied with\nhaving effected certain definite changes bringing them into external\nconformity with the written law, and would incline to rest in things\nas they were. Meanwhile, the truth held good that to make a fetish of\na code, a system, a holy book, is not necessarily identical with the\nservice of God. It is, in fact, the surest way to forget God; for it\nis to invest something that is not He, but, at best, a far-off echo of\nHis voice, with His sole attributes of finality and sufficiency.\n\nThe effect of the downfall of the good king was electrical. The nation\ndiscovered that the displeasure of Iahvah had not passed away like\na morning cloud. Out of the shock and the dismay of that terrible\ndisillusion sprang the conviction that the past was not atoned for,\nthat the evil of it was irreparable. The idea is reflected in the\nwords of Jeremiah (xv. 1): \"And Iahvah said unto me, If Moses were to\nstand before Me (as an intercessor), and Samuel, I should not incline\ntowards this people: dismiss them from My presence, and let them go\nforth! And when they say unto thee, Whither are we to go forth? thou\nshalt say unto them, Thus said Iahvah, They that are Death's to death;\nand they that are the Sword's to the sword; and they that are Famine's\nto famine; and they that are Captivity's to captivity. And I will set\nover them four families, saith Iahvah; the sword to slay, and the dogs\nto draw (2 Sam. xvii. 13), and the birds of the air, and the beasts of\nthe earth, to devour and to destroy. And I will give them for worry\n(Deut. xxviii. 25) to all the realms of earth; _because of_ (Deut.\nxv. 10, xviii. 12; \u05d1\u05e0\u05dc\u05dc) _Manasseh ben Hezekiah king of Judah; for\nwhat he did in Jerusalem_.\" In the next verses we have what seems to\nbe a reference to the death of Josiah (ver. 7). \"I fanned them with\na fan\"--the fan by which the husbandman separates wheat from chaff\nin the threshing floor--\"I fanned them with a fan, in the gates of\nthe land\"--at Megiddo, the point where an enemy marching along the\nmaritime route might enter the land of Israel; \"I bereaved, I ruined\nmy people (ver. 9). She that had borne seven, pined away; she breathed\nout her soul; _her sun went down while it was yet day_.\" The national\nmourning over this dire event became proverbial, as we see from Zech.\nxii. 11: \"In that day, great shall be the mourning in Jerusalem; like\nthe mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddo.\"\n\nThe political relations of the period are certainly obscure, if we\nconfine our attention to the biblical data. Happily, we are now able\nto supplement these, by comparison with the newly recovered monuments\nof Assyria. Under Manasseh, the kingdom of Judah became tributary to\nEsarhaddon; and this relation of dependence, we may be sure, was not\ninterrupted during the vigorous reign of the mighty Ashurbanipal,\nB.C. 668-626. But the first symptoms of declining power on the side\nof their oppressors would undoubtedly be the signal for conspiracy\nand rebellion in the distant parts of the loosely amalgamated empire.\nUntil the death of Ashurbanipal, the last great sovereign who reigned\nat Nineveh, it may be assumed that Josiah stood true to his fealty.\nIt appears from certain notices in Kings and Chronicles (2 Kings\nxxiii. 19; 2 Chron. xxxiv. 6) that he was able to exercise authority\neven in the territories of the ruined kingdom of Israel. This may\nhave been due to the fact that he was allowed to do pretty much as\nhe liked, so long as he proved an obedient vassal; or, as is more\nlikely, the attention of the Assyrians was diverted from the West by\ntroubles nearer home in connection with the Scythians or the Medes and\nBabylonians. At all events, it is not to be supposed that when Josiah\nwent out to oppose the Pharaoh at Megiddo, he was facing the forces\nof Egypt alone. The thing is intrinsically improbable. The king of\nJudah must have headed a coalition of the petty Syrian states against\nthe common enemy. It is not necessary to suppose that the Palestinian\nprincipalities resisted Necho's advance, in the interests of their\nnominal suzerain Assyria. From all we can gather, that empire was\nnow tottering to its irretrievable fall, under the feeble successors\nof Ashurbanipal. The ambition of Egypt was doubtless a terror to\nthe combined peoples. The further results of Necho's campaign are\nunknown. For the moment, Judah experienced a change of masters; but\nthe Egyptian tyranny was not destined to last. Some four years after\nthe battle of Megiddo, Pharaoh Necho made a second expedition to the\nNorth, this time against the Babylonians, who had succeeded to the\nempire of Assyria. The Egyptians were utterly defeated in the battle\nof Carchemish, circ. B.C. 606-5, which left Nebuchadrezzar in virtual\npossession of the countries west of the Euphrates (Jer. xlvi. 2).\nIt was the fourth year of Jehoiakim, son of Josiah, king of Judah,\nwhen this crisis arose in the affairs of the Eastern world. The\nprophet Jeremiah did not miss the meaning of events. From the first\nhe recognised in Nebuchadrezzar, or Nabucodrossor, an instrument in\nthe Divine hand for the chastisement of the peoples; from the first,\nhe predicted a judgment of God, not only upon the Jews, but upon all\nnations, far and near. The substance of his oracles is preserved to us\nin chapters xxv. and xlvi.-xlix. of his book. In the former passage,\nwhich is expressly dated from the fourth year of Jehoiakim, and the\nfirst of Nebuchadrezzar, the prophet gives a kind of retrospect of\nhis ministry of three-and-twenty years, affirms that it has failed\nof its end, and that Divine retribution is therefore certain. The\n\"tribes of the north\" will come and desolate the whole country (ver.\n9), and \"these nations\"--the peoples of Palestine--\"shall serve the\nking of Babel seventy years\" (ver. 11). The judgment on the nations\nis depicted by an impressive symbolism (ver. 15). \"Thus said Iahvah,\nthe God of Israel, unto me, Take this cup of wine, the (Divine) wrath,\nfrom My hand, and cause all the nations, unto whom I send thee, to\ndrink it. And let them drink, and reel, and show themselves frenzied,\nbecause of the sword that I am sending amongst them!\" The strange\nmetaphor recalls our own proverb: _Quem Deus vult perdere, prius\ndementat_. \"So I took the cup from the hand of Iahvah, and made all\nthe nations drink, unto whom Iahvah had sent me.\" Then, as in some\nlist of the proscribed, the prophet writes down, one after another,\nthe names of the doomed cities and peoples. The judgment was set for\nthat age, and the eternal books were opened, and the names found in\nthem were these (ver. 18): \"Jerusalem, and the cities of Judah, and\nher kings, and her princes. Pharaoh king of Egypt, and his servants,\nand his princes, and all his people. And all the hired soldiery, and\nall the kings of the land of Uz, and all the kings of the land of\nthe Philistines, and Ashkelon, and Gaza, and Ekron, and the remnant\nof Ashdod. Edom, and Moab, and the ben\u00ea Ammon. And all the kings of\nTyre, and all the kings of Sidon, and the kings of the island (_i.e._\nCyprus) that is beyond the sea. Dedan and Tema and Buz and all the\ntonsured folk. And all the kings of Arabia, and all the kings of the\nhired soldiery, that dwell in the wilderness. And all the kings of\nZimri, and all the kings of Elam, and all the kings of Media. And all\nthe kings of the north, the near and the far, one with another; and\nall the kingdoms of the earth that are upon the surface of the ground.\"\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nWhen the mourning for Josiah was ended (2 Chron. xxxv. 24 _sqq._),\nthe people put Jehoahaz on his father's throne. But this arrangement\nwas not suffered to continue, for Necho, having defeated and slain\nJosiah, naturally asserted his right to dispose of the crown of Judah\nas he thought fit. Accordingly, he put Jehoahaz in bonds at Riblah\nin the land of Hamath, whither he had probably summoned him to swear\nallegiance to Egypt, or whither, perhaps, Jehoahaz had dared to\ngo with an armed force to resist the Egyptian pretensions, which,\nhowever, is an unlikely supposition, as the battle in which Josiah\nhad fallen must have been a severe blow to the military resources of\nJudah. Necho carried the unfortunate but also unworthy king (2 Kings\nxxiii. 32) a prisoner to Egypt, where he died (_ibid._ 34). These\nevents are thus alluded to by Jeremiah (xxii. 10-12): \"Weep ye not for\none dead (_i.e._ Josiah), nor make your moan for him: weep ever for\nhim that is going away; for he will not come back again, and see his\nnative land! For thus hath Iahvah said of Shallum (_i.e._ Jehoahaz, 1\nChron. iii. 15) ben Josiah, king of Judah, that reigned in the place\nof Josiah his father, who is gone forth out of this place (_i.e._\nJerusalem, or the palace, ver. 1), He will not come back thither\nagain. For in the place whither they have led him into exile, there\nhe will die; and this land he will not see again.\" The pathos of this\nlament for one whose dream of greatness was broken for ever within\nthree short months, does not conceal the prophet's condemnation of\nNecho's prisoner. Jeremiah does not condole with the captive king\nas the victim of mere misfortune. In this, as in all the gathering\ncalamities of his country, he sees a retributive meaning. The nine\npreceding verses of the chapter demonstrate the fact.\n\nIn the place of Jehoahaz, Necho had set up his elder brother Eliakim,\nwith the title of Jehoiakim (2 Kings xxiii. 34). This prince also\nis condemned in the narrative of Kings (ver. 37), as having done\n\"the evil thing in the eyes of Iahvah, according to all that his\nforefathers had done;\" an estimate which is thoroughly confirmed\nby what Jeremiah has added to his lament for the deposed king his\nbrother. The pride, the grasping covetousness, the high-handed\nviolence and cruelty of Jehoiakim, and the doom that will overtake\nhim, in the righteousness of God, are thus declared: \"Woe to him that\nbuildeth his house by injustice, and his chambers by iniquity! that\nlayeth on his neighbour work without wages, and giveth him not his\nhire! That saith, I will build me a lofty house, with airy chambers;\nand he cutteth him out the windows thereof, panelling it with cedar,\nand painting it with vermilion. Shalt thou _reign_, that thou art\nhotly intent upon cedar?\" (Or, according to the LXX. Vat., thou viest\nwith Ahaz--LXX. Alex., with Ahab; perhaps a reference to \"the ivory\nhouse\" mentioned in 1 Kings xxii. 39). \"Thy father, did he not eat\nand drink and do judgment and justice? Then it was well with him. He\njudged the cause of the oppressed and the needy: then it was well.\nWas not this to know Me? saith Iahvah. For thine eyes and thine heart\nare set upon nought but thine own lucre [thy plunder], and upon the\nblood of the innocent, to shed it, and upon extortion and oppression\nto do it. Therefore, thus hath Iahvah said of Jehoiakim ben Josiah,\nking of Judah: They shall not lament for him with Ah, my brother! or\nAh, sister! They shall not lament for him with Ah, lord! or Ah, his\nmajesty! With the burial of an ass shall he be buried; with dragging\nand casting forth beyond the gates of Jerusalem!\"\n\nIn the beginning of the reign of this worthless tyrant, the prophet\nwas impelled to address a very definite warning to the throng of\nworshippers in the court of the temple (xxvi. 4 _sqq._). It was to\nthe effect that if they did not amend their ways, their temple should\nbecome like Shiloh, and their city a curse to all the nations of the\nearth. There could be no doubt of the meaning of this reference to the\nruined sanctuary, long since forsaken of God (Ps. lxxviii. 60). It so\nwrought upon that fanatical audience, that priests and prophets and\npeople rose as one man against the daring speaker; and Jeremiah was\nbarely rescued from immediate death by the timely intervention of the\nprinces. The account closes with the relation of the cruel murder of\nanother prophet of the school of Jeremiah, by command of Jehoiakim the\nking; and it is very evident from these narratives that, screened as\nhe was by powerful friends, Jeremiah narrowly escaped a similar fate.\n\nWe have reached the point in our prophet's career when, taking a broad\nsurvey of the entire world of his time, he forecasts the character of\nthe future that awaits its various political divisions. He has left the\nsubstance of his reflexions in the 25th chapter, and in those prophecies\nconcerning the foreign peoples, which the Hebrew text of his works\nrelegates to the very end of the book, as chapters xlvi.-li., but which\nthe Greek recension of the Septuagint inserts immediately after chap.\nxxv. 13. In the decisive battle at Carchemish, which crippled the power\nof Egypt, the only other existing state which could make any pretensions\nto the supremacy of Western Asia, and contend with the trans-Euphratean\nempires for the possession of Syria-Palestine, Jeremiah had recognised\na signal indication of the Divine Will, which he was not slow to\nproclaim to all within reach of his inspired eloquence. In common with\nall the great prophets who had preceded him, he entertained a profound\nconviction that the race was not necessarily to the swift, nor the\nbattle to the strong; that the fortune of war was not determined simply\nand solely by chariots and horsemen and big battalions; that behind all\nmaterial forces lay the spiritual, from whose absolute will they derived\ntheir being and potency, and upon whose sovereign pleasure depended the\nissues of victory and defeat, of life and death. As his successor, the\nsecond Isaiah, saw in the polytheist Cyrus, king of Anzan, a chosen\nservant of Iahvah, whose whole triumphant career was foreordained in\nthe counsels of heaven; so Jeremiah saw in the rise of the Babylonian\ndomination, and the rapid development of the new empire upon the ruins\nof the old, a manifest token of the Divine purpose, a revelation of\na Divine secret. His point of view is strikingly illustrated by the\nwarning which he was directed to send a few years later to the kings\nwho were seeking to draw Judah into the common alliance against Babylon\n(chap. xxvii. 1 _sqq._). \"In the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah[14]\nben Josiah, king of Judah, fell this word to Jeremiah from Iahvah. Thus\nsaid Iahvah unto me, Make thee thongs and poles, and put them upon thy\nneck; and send them to the king of Edom, and to the king of Moab, and to\nthe king of the ben\u00ea Ammon, and to the king of Tyre, and to the king of\nZidon, by the hand of the messengers that are come to Jerusalem, unto\nZedekiah the king of Judah. And give them a charge unto their masters,\nsaying, Thus said Iahvah Sabaoth, the God of Israel, Thus shall ye\nsay to your masters: I it was that made the earth, mankind, and the\ncattle that are on the face of the earth, by My great strength, and\nby Mine outstretched arm; and I give it to whom it seemeth good in My\nsight. And now, I will verily give all these countries into the hand of\nNebuchadrezzar king of Babel, _My servant; and even the wild creatures\nof the field will I give unto him to serve him_.\"\n\nNebuchadrezzar was invincible, and the Jewish prophet clearly\nperceived the fact. But it must not be imagined that the Jewish people\ngenerally, or the neighbouring peoples, enjoyed a similar degree of\ninsight. Had that been so, the battle of Jeremiah's life would never\nhave been fought out under such cruel, such hopeless conditions. The\nprophet saw the truth, and proclaimed it without ceasing in reluctant\nears, and was met with derision, and incredulity, and intrigue, and\nslander, and pitiless persecution. By-and-by, when his word had\ncome to pass, and all the principalities of Canaan were crouching\nabjectly at the feet of the conqueror, and Jerusalem was a heap\nof ruins, the scattered communities of banished Israelites could\nremember that Jeremiah had foreseen and foretold it all. In the light\nof accomplished facts, the significance of his prevision began to\nbe realised; and when the first dreary hours of dumb and desperate\nsuffering were over, the exiles gradually learned to find consolation\nin the few but precious promises that had accompanied the menaces\nwhich were now so visibly fulfilled. While they were yet in their own\nland, two things had been predicted by this prophet in the name of\ntheir God. The first was now accomplished; no cavil could throw doubt\nupon actual experience. Was there not here some warrant, at least for\nreasonable men, some sufficient ground for trusting the prophet at\nlast, for believing in his Divine mission, for striving to follow his\ncounsels, and for looking forward with steadfast hope out of present\naffliction, to the gladness of the future which the same seer had\nforetold, even with the unwonted precision of naming a limit of time?\nSo the exiles were persuaded, and their belief was fully justified\nby the event. Never had they realised the absolute sovereignty of\ntheir God, the universality of Iahvah Sabaoth, the shadowy nature,\nthe blank nothingness of all supposed rivals of His dominion, as now\nthey did, when at length years of painful experience had brought\nhome to their minds the truth that Nebuchadrezzar had demolished the\ntemple and laid Jerusalem in the dust, not, as he himself believed,\nby the favour of Bel-Merodach and Nebo, but by the sentence of the\nGod of Israel; and that the catastrophe, which had swept them out of\npolitical existence, occurred not because Iahvah was weaker than the\ngods of Babylon, but because He was irresistibly strong; stronger than\nall powers of all worlds; stronger therefore than Israel, stronger\nthan Babylon; stronger than the pride and ambition of the earthly\nconqueror, stronger than the self-will, and the stubbornness, and the\nwayward rebellion, and the fanatical blindness, and the frivolous\nunbelief, of his own people. The conception is an easy one for us, who\nhave inherited the treasures both of Jewish and of Gentile thought;\nbut the long struggle of the prophets, and the fierce antagonism of\ntheir fellow-countrymen, and the political extinction of the Davidic\nmonarchy, and the agonies of the Babylonian exile, were necessary to\nthe genesis and germination of this master-conception in the heart of\nIsrael, and so of humanity.\n\nTo return from this hasty glance at the remoter consequences of the\nprophet's ministry, it was in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, and the\nfirst of Nebuchadrezzar (xxv. 1) that, in obedience to a Divine\nintimation, he collected the various discourses which he had so far\ndelivered in the name of God. Some doubt has been raised as to the\nprecise meaning of the record of this matter (xxxvi.). On the one\nhand, it is urged that \"An historically accurate reproduction of the\nprophecies would not have suited Jeremiah's object, which was not\nhistorical but practical: he desired to give a salutary shock to the\npeople, by bringing before them the fatal consequences of their evil\ndeeds:\" and that \"the purport of the roll (ver. 29) which the king\nburned was [only] that the king of Babylon should 'come and destroy\nthis land,' whereas it is clear that Jeremiah had uttered many other\nimportant declarations in the course of his already long ministry.\"\nAnd on the other hand, it is suggested that the roll, of which the\nprophet speaks in chap. xxxvi., contained no more than the prophecy\nconcerning the Babylonian invasion and its consequences, which is\npreserved in chap. xxv., and dated from the fourth year of Jehoiakim.\n\nConsidering the unsatisfactory state of the text of Jeremiah, it is\nperhaps admissible to suppose, for the sake of this hypothesis, that\nthe second verse of chap. xxv., which expressly declares that this\nprophecy was spoken by its author \"to all the people of Judah, and to\nall the inhabitants of Jerusalem,\" is \"a loose inaccurate statement\ndue to a later editor;\" although this inconvenient statement is found\nin the Greek of the LXX. as well as in the Massoretic Hebrew text. But\nlet us examine the alleged objections in the light of the positive\nstatements of chap. xxxvi. It is there written thus: \"In the fourth\nyear of Jehoiakim ben Josiah king of Judah, this word fell to Jeremiah\nfrom Iahvah. Take thee a book-roll, and write on it all the words\nthat I have spoken unto thee, concerning Israel and Judah and all\nthe nations, from the day when I (first) spake unto thee,--from the\ndays of Josiah,--unto this day.\" This certainly seems plain enough.\nThe only possible question is whether the command was to collect\nwithin the compass of a single volume, a sort of author's edition, an\nindefinite number of discourses preserved hitherto in separate MSS.\nand perhaps to a great extent in the prophet's memory; or whether we\nare to understand by \"all the words\" the _substance_ of the various\nprophecies to which reference is made. If the object was merely to\nimpress the people on a particular occasion by placing before them\na sort of historical review of the prophet's warnings in the past,\nit is evident that a formal edition of his utterances, so far as he\nwas able to prepare such a work, would not be the most natural or\nready method of attaining that purpose. Such a review for practical\npurposes might well be comprised within the limits of a single\ncontinuous composition, such as we find in chap. xxv., which opens\nwith a brief retrospect of the prophet's ministry during twenty-three\nyears (vers. 3-7), and then denounces the neglect with which his\nwarnings have been received, and declares the approaching subjugation\nof all the states of Phenicia-Palestine by the king of Babylon. But\nthe narrative itself gives not a single hint that such was the sole\nobject in view. Much rather does it appear from the entire context\nthat, the crisis having at length arrived, which Jeremiah had so long\nforeseen, he was now impelled to gather together, with a view to their\npreservation, all those discourses by which he had laboured in vain to\novercome the indifference, the callousness, and the bitter antagonism\nof his people. These utterances of the past, collected and revised in\nthe light of successive events, and illustrated by their substantial\nagreement with what had actually taken place, and especially by\nthe new danger which seemed to threaten the whole West, the rising\npower of Babylon, might certainly be expected to produce a powerful\nimpression by their coincidence with the national apprehensions; and\nthe prophet might even hope that warnings, hitherto disregarded, but\nnow visibly justified by events in course of development, would at\nlast bring \"the house of Judah\" to consider seriously the evil that,\nin God's Providence, was evidently impending, and \"return every man\nfrom his evil way,\" that even so late the consequences of their guilt\nmight be turned aside. This doubtless was the immediate aim, but it\ndoes not exclude others, such as the vindication of the prophet's own\nclaims, in startling contrast with those of the false prophets, who\nhad opposed him at every step, and misled his countrymen so grievously\nand fatally. Against these and their delusive promises, the volume of\nJeremiah's past discourses would constitute an effective protest, and\na complete justification of his own endeavours. We must also remember\nthat, if the repentance and salvation of his own contemporaries was\nnaturally the first object of the prophet in all his undertakings, in\nthe Divine counsels prophecy has more than a temporary value, and that\nthe writings of this very prophet were destined to become instrumental\nin the conversion of a succeeding generation.\n\nThose twenty-three years of patient thought and earnest labour, of\nhigh converse with God, and of agonised pleading with a reprobate\npeople, were not to be without their fruit, though the prophet himself\nwas not to see it. It is matter of history that the words of Jeremiah\nwrought with such power upon the hearts of the exiles in Babylonia, as\nto become, in the hands of God, a principal means in the regeneration\nof Israel, and of that restoration which was its promised and its\nactual consequence; and from that day to this, not one of all the\ngoodly fellowship of the prophets has enjoyed such credit in the\nJewish Church as he who in his lifetime had to encounter neglect and\nridicule, hatred and persecution, beyond what is recorded of any other.\n\n\"So Jeremiah called Baruch ben Neriah; and Baruch wrote, from the\nmouth of Jeremiah, all the words of Iahvah, that He had spoken unto\nhim, upon a book-roll\" (ver. 4). Nothing is said about time; and there\nis nothing to indicate that what the scribe wrote at the prophet's\ndictation was a single brief discourse. The work probably occupied\na not inconsiderable time, as may be inferred from the datum of\nthe ninth verse (_vid. infr._). Jeremiah would know that haste was\nincompatible with literary finish; he would probably feel that it\nwas equally incompatible with the proper execution of what he had\nrecognised as a Divine command. The prophet hardly had all his past\nutterances lying before him in the form of finished compositions.\n\"And Jeremiah commanded Baruch, saying: I am detained (or confined);\nI cannot enter the house of Iahvah; so enter _thou_, and read in the\nroll, that thou wrotest from my mouth, the words of Iahvah, in the\nears of the people, in the house of Iahvah, upon a day of fasting: and\nalso in the ears of all Judah (the Jews), that come in (to the temple)\nfrom their (several) cities, thou shalt read them. Perchance their\nsupplication will fall before Iahvah, and they will return, every one\nfrom his evil way; for great is the anger and the hot displeasure\nthat Iahvah hath spoken (threatened) unto this people. And Baruch\nben Neriah did according to all that Jeremiah the prophet commanded\nhim, reading in the book the words of Iahvah in Iahvah's house.\" This\nlast sentence might be regarded as a general statement, anticipative\nof the detailed account that follows, as is often the case in Old\nTestament narratives. But I doubt the application of this well-known\nexegetical device in the present instance. The verse is more likely an\ninterpolation; unless we suppose that it refers to divers readings of\nwhich no particulars are given, but which preceded the memorable one\ndescribed in the following verses. The injunction, \"And also in the\nears of all Judah that come out of their cities thou shalt read them!\"\nmight imply successive readings, as the people flocked into Jerusalem\nfrom time to time. But the grand occasion, if not the only one, was\nwithout doubt that which stands recorded in the text. \"And it came to\npass in the _fifth_ year of Jehoiakim ben Josiah king of Judah, in the\n_ninth_ month, they proclaimed a fast before Iahvah,--all the people\nin Jerusalem and all the people that were come out of the cities\nof Judah into Jerusalem. And Baruch read in the book the words of\nJeremiah, in the house of Iahvah, in the cell of Gemariah ben Shaphan\nthe scribe, in the upper (inner) court, at the entry of the new gate\nof Iahvah's house, in the ears of all the people.\" The dates have an\nimportant bearing upon the points we are considering. It was in the\nfourth year of Jehoiakim that the prophet was bidden to commit his\noracles to writing. If, then, the task was not accomplished before\nthe _ninth_ month of the _fifth_ year, it is plain that it involved\na good deal more than penning such a discourse as the twenty-fifth\nchapter. This datum, in fact, strongly favours the supposition that\nit was a record of his principal utterances hitherto, that Jeremiah\nthus undertook and accomplished. It is not at all necessary to assume\nthat on this or any other occasion Baruch read the entire contents\nof the roll to his audience in the temple. We are told that he \"read\n_in_ the book the words of Jeremiah,\" that is, no doubt, some portion\nof the whole. And so, in the famous scene before the king, it is not\nsaid that the entire work was read, but the contrary is expressly\nrelated (ver. 23): \"And when Jehudi had read _three columns or four_,\nhe (the king) began to cut it with the scribe's knife, and to cast it\ninto the fire.\" Three or four columns of an ordinary roll might have\ncontained the whole of the twenty-fifth chapter; and it must have been\nan unusually diminutive document, if the first three or four columns\nof it contained no more than the seven verses of chap. xxv. (3-6),\nwhich declare the sin of Judah, and announce the coming of the king\nof Babylon. And, apart from these objections, there is no ground for\nthe presumption that \"the purport of the roll which the king burnt\nwas [only] that the king of Babylon should 'come and destroy this\nland.'\" As the learned critic, from whom I have quoted these words,\nfurther remarks, with perfect truth, \"Jeremiah had uttered many other\nimportant declarations in the course of his already long ministry.\"\n\nThat, I grant, is true; but then there is absolutely nothing to prove\nthat this roll did not contain them all. Chap. xxxvi. 29, cited by the\nobjector, is certainly not such proof. That verse simply gives the\nangry exclamation with which the king interrupted the reading of the\nroll, \"Why hast thou written upon it, The king of Babylon shall surely\ncome and destroy this land, and cause to cease from it man and beast?\"\n\nThis may have been no more than Jehoiakim's very natural inference\nfrom some one of the many allusions to the enemy \"from the north,\"\nwhich occur in the earlier part of the book of Jeremiah. At all\nevents, it is evident that, whether the king of Babylon was directly\nmentioned or not in the portion of the roll read in his presence, the\nverse in question assigns, not the sole import of the entire work,\nbut only the particular point in it, which, at the existing crisis,\nespecially roused the indignation of Jehoiakim. The 25th chapter may\nof course have been contained in the roll read before the king.\n\nAnd this may suffice to show how precarious are the assertions of the\nlearned critic in the _Encyclop. Brit._ upon the subject of Jeremiah's\nroll. The plain truth seems to be that, perceiving the imminence of\nthe peril that threatened his country, the prophet was impressed with\nthe conviction that now was the time to commit his past utterances to\nwriting; and that towards the end of the year, after he had formed and\ncarried out this project, he found occasion to have his discourses\nread in the temple, to the crowds of rural folk who sought refuge\nin Jerusalem, before the advance of Nebuchadrezzar. So Josephus\nunderstood the matter (_Ant._, x. 6, 2).\n\nOn the approach of the Babylonians, Jehoiakim made his submission;\nbut only to rebel again, after three years of tribute and vassalage\n(2 Kings xxiv. 1). Drought and failure of the crops aggravated the\npolitical troubles of the country; evils in which Jeremiah was not\nslow to discern the hand of an offended and alienated God. \"How long,\"\nhe asks (xii. 4), \"shall the country mourn, and the herbage of the\nwhole field wither? From the wickedness of them that dwell therein\nthe beasts and the birds perish.\" And in chap. xiv. we have a highly\npoetical description of the sufferings of the time.\n\n    \"Judah mourneth, and her gates languish;\n     They sit in black on the ground;\n     And the outcry of Jerusalem hath gone up.\n     And their nobles, they sent their menial folk for water;\n     They came to the pits, they found no water;\n     They returned with their vessels empty;\n     They were ashamed and confounded and covered their head.\n     On account of ye ground that is chapt,\n     For rain hath not fallen in the land,\n     The plowmen are ashamed--they cover their head.\n     For even the hind in the field--\n     She calveth and forsaketh her young;\n     For there is no grass.\n     And the wild asses, they stand on the scaurs;\n     They snuff the wind[15] like jackals;\n     Their eyes fail, for there is no herbage.\"\n\n\nAnd then, after this graphic and almost dramatic portrayal of the\nsufferings of man and beast, in the blinding glare of the towns, and\nin the hot waterless plains, and on the bare hills, under that burning\nsky, whose cloudless splendours seemed to mock their misery, the\nprophet prays to the God of Israel.\n\n    \"If our misdeeds answer against us,\n     O Iahvah, work for Thy name sake!\n     Verily, our fallings away are many;\n     Towards thee we are in fault.\n     Hope of Israel, that savest him in time of trouble!\n     Why shouldst thou be as a sojourner in the land,\n     And as a traveller, that turneth aside to pass the night?\n     Why shouldst thou be as a man stricken dumb,\n     As a champion that cannot save?\n     Yet Thou art in our midst, O Iahvah,\n     And Thy name is called over us:\n     Leave us not!\"\n\nAnd again, at the end of the chapter,\n\n    \"Hast Thou wholly rejected Judah?\n     Hath Thy soul loathed Zion?\n     Why hast Thou smitten us,\n     That there is no healing for us?\n     We looked for welfare, but bootlessly,\n     For a time of healing, and behold terror!\n     We know, Iahvah, our wickedness, the guilt of our fathers:\n     Verily, we are in fault toward Thee!\n     Be not scornful, for Thy name's sake!\n     Dishonour not Thy glorious throne! [_i.e._ Jerusalem.]\n     Remember, break not Thy covenant with us!\n     Among the Vanities of the nations are there indeed raingivers?\n     Or the heavens, can they yield showers?\n     Art not Thou He (that doeth this), Iahvah our God?\n     And we wait for Thee,\n     For 'tis Thou that madest all this world.\"\n\nIn these and the like pathetic outpourings, which meet us in the later\nportions of the Old Testament, we may observe the gradual development\nof the dialect of stated prayer; the beginnings and the growth of\nthat beautiful and appropriate liturgical language in which both the\nsynagogue and the church afterwards found so perfect an instrument for\nthe expression of all the harmonies of worship. Prayer, both public and\nprivate, was destined to assume an increasing importance, and, after the\ndestruction of temple and altar, and the forcible removal of the people\nto a heathen land, to become the principal means of communion with God.\n\nThe evils of drought and dearth appear to have been accompanied\nby inroads of foreign enemies, who took advantage of the existing\ndistress to rob and plunder at will. This serious aggravation of the\nnational troubles is recorded in chap. xii. 7-17. There it is said, in\nthe name of God, \"I have left My house, I have cast off My heritage;\nI have given the Darling of My soul into the hands of her enemies.\"\nThe reason is Judah's fierce hostility to her Divine Master: \"Like a\nlion in the forest she hath uttered a cry against Me.\" The result of\nthis unnatural rebellion is seen in the ravages of lawless invaders,\nprobably nomads of the desert, always watching their opportunity,\nand greedy of the wealth, while disdainful of the pursuits of their\ncivilised neighbours. It is as if all the wild beasts, that roam at\nlarge in the open country, had concerted a united attack upon the\ndevoted land; as if many shepherds with their innumerable flocks had\neaten bare and trodden down the vineyard of the Lord. \"Over all the\nbald crags in the wilderness freebooters (Obad. 5) are come; for a\nsword of Iahweh's is devouring: from land's end to land's end no flesh\nhath security\" (ver. 12). The rapacious and heathenish hordes of the\ndesert, mere human wolves intent on ravage and slaughter, are a sword\nof the Lord's, for the chastisement of His people; just as the king of\nBabylon is His \"servant\" for the same purpose.\n\nOnly ten verses of the book of Kings are occupied with the reign of\nJehoiakim (2 Kings xxiii. 34-xxiv. 6); and when we compare that flying\nsketch with the allusions in Jeremiah, we cannot but keenly regret the\nloss of that \"Book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah,\" to which\nthe compiler of Kings refers as his authority. Had that work survived,\nmany things in the prophets, which are now obscure and baffling,\nwould have been clear and obvious. As it is, we are often obliged to\nbe contented with surmises and probabilities, where certainty would\nbe right welcome. In the present instance, the facts alluded to by\nthe prophet appear to be included in the statement that the Lord sent\nagainst Jehoiakim bands of Chaldeans, and bands of Arameans, and\nbands of Moabites, and bands of ben\u00ea Ammon. The Hebrew term implies\nmarauding or predatory bands, rather than regular armies, and it need\nnot be supposed that they all fell upon the country at the same time\nor in accordance with any preconcerted scheme. In the midst of these\ntroubles, Jehoiakim died in the flower of his age, having reigned\nno more than eleven years, and being only thirty-six years old (2\nKings xxiii. 36). The prophet thus alludes to his untimely end. \"Like\nthe partridge that sitteth on eggs that she hath not laid, so is he\nthat maketh riches, and not by right: in the midst of his days they\nleave him; and in his last end he proveth a fool\" (xvii. 11). We have\nalready considered the detailed condemnation of this evil king in the\n22nd chapter. The prophet Habakkuk, a contemporary of Jeremiah, seems\nto have had Jehoiakim in his mind's eye, when denouncing (ii. 9) woe\nto one that \"getteth an evil gain for his house, that he may set his\nnest on high, that he may escape from the hand of evil!\" The allusion\nis to the forced labour on his new palace, and on the defences of\nJerusalem, as well as to the fines and presents of money, which this\noppressive ruler shamelessly extorted from his unhappy subjects. \"The\nstone out of the wall,\" says the prophet, \"crieth out; and the beam\nout of the woodwork answereth it.\"\n\nThe premature death of the tyrant removed a serious obstacle from the\npath of Jeremiah. No longer forced to exercise a wary vigilance in\navoiding the vengeance of a king whose passions determined his conduct,\nthe prophet could now devote himself heart and soul to the work of his\noffice. The public danger, imminent from the north, and the way to avert\nit, is the subject of the discourses of this period of his ministry.\nHis unquenchable faith appears in the beautiful prayer appended to his\nreflexions upon the death of Jehoiakim (xvii. 12 _sqq._). We cannot\nmistake the tone of quiet exultation, with which he expresses his sense\nof the absolute righteousness of the catastrophe. \"A throne of glory,\na height higher than the first (?), (or, higher than any before) is\nthe place of our sanctuary.\" Never before in the prophet's experience\nhas the God of Israel so clearly vindicated that justice which is the\ninalienable attribute of His dread tribunal.\n\nFor himself, the immediate result of this renewal of an activity that\nhad been more or less suspended, was persecution and even violence.\nThe earnestness with which he besought the people to honestly keep\nthe law of the Sabbath, an obligation which was recognised in theory\nthough disregarded in practice; and his striking illustration of the\ntrue relations between Iahvah and Israel as parallel to those that hold\nbetween the potter and the clay (chap. xvii. 19 _sqq._), only brought\ndown upon him the fierce hostility and organised opposition of the false\nprophets, and the priests, and the credulous and self-willed populace,\nas we read in chap. xviii. 18 _sqq._ \"And they said, Come, and let us\ncontrive plots against Jeremiah.... Come, and let us smite him with the\ntongue, and let us not listen to any of his words. Should evil be repaid\nfor good, that they have digged a pit for my life?\" And after his solemn\ntestimony before the elders in the valley of Ben-Hinnom, and before the\npeople generally, in the court of the Lord's house (chap. xix.), the\nprophet was seized by order of Pashch\u00fbr, the commandant of the temple,\nwho was himself a leading false prophet, and cruelly beaten, and set\nin the stocks for a day and a night. That the spirit of the prophet\nwas not broken by this shameful treatment, is evident from the courage\nwith which he confronted his oppressor on the morrow, and foretold\nhis certain punishment. But the apparent failure of his mission, the\nhopelessness of his life's labour, indicated by the deepening hostility\nof the people, and the readiness to proceed to extremities against him\nthus evinced by their leaders, wrung from Jeremiah that bitter cry of\ndespair, which has proved such a stumbling-block to some of his modern\napologists.\n\nSoon the prophet's fears were realised, and the Divine counsel, of which\nhe alone had been cognisant, was fulfilled. Within three short months\nof his accession to the throne, the boy-king Jeconiah (or Jehoiachin or\nConiah), with the queen-mother, the grandees of the court, and the pick\nof the population of the capital, was carried captive to Babylon by\nNebuchadrezzar (2 Kings xxiv. 8 _sqq._; Jer. xxiv. 1).\n\nJeremiah has appended his forecast of the fate of Jeconiah, and a\nbrief notice of its fulfilment, to his denunciations of that king's\npredecessors (xxii. 24 _sqq._). \"As I live, saith Iahvah, verily,\nthough Coniah ben Jehoiakim king of Judah be a signet ring upon My own\nright hand, verily thence will I pluck thee away! And I will give thee\ninto the hand of them that seek thy life, and into the hand of those\nof whom thou art afraid; and into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of\nBabel, and into the hand of the Chaldeans. And I will cast thee forth,\nand thy mother that bare thee, into the foreign land, wherein ye were\nnot born; and there ye shall die. But unto the land whither they\nlong to return, thither shall they not return. Is this man Coniah a\ndespised broken vase, or a vessel devoid of charm? Why were he and his\noffspring cast forth, and hurled into the land that they knew not? O\nland, land, land, hear thou the word of Iahvah. Thus hath Iahvah said,\nWrite ye down this man childless, a person that shall not prosper in\nhis days: for none of his offspring shall prosper, sitting on the\nthrone of David, and ruling again in Judah.\"\n\nNo better success attended the prophet's ministry under the new king\nZedekiah, whom Nebuchadrezzar had placed on the throne as his vassal\nand tributary. So far as we can judge from the accounts left us,\nZedekiah was a wellmeaning but unstable character, whose weakness and\nirresolution were too often played upon by unscrupulous and scheming\ncourtiers, to the fatal miscarriage of right and justice. Soon the\nold intrigues began again, and in the fourth year of the new reign\n(xxviii. 1) envoys from the neighbour-states arrived at the Jewish\ncourt, with the object of drawing Judah into a coalition against\nthe common suzerain, the king of Babylon. This suicidal policy of\ncombination with heathenish and treacherous allies, most of whom\nwere the heirs of immemorial feuds with Judah, against a sovereign\nwho was at once the most powerful and the most enlightened of his\ntime, called forth the prophet's immediate and strenuous opposition.\nBoldly affirming that Iahvah had conferred universal dominion upon\nNebuchadrezzar, and that consequently all resistance was futile, he\nwarned Zedekiah himself to bow his neck to the yoke, and dismiss all\nthought of rebellion. It would seem that about this time (circ. 596\nB.C.) the empire of Babylon was passing through a serious crisis,\nwhich the subject peoples of the West hoped and expected would result\nin its speedy dissolution. Nebuchadrezzar was, in fact, engaged in a\nlife-and-death struggle with the Medes; and the knowledge that the\nGreat King was thus fully occupied elsewhere, encouraged the petty\nprinces of Phenicia-Palestine in their projects of revolt. If chaps.\nl., li., are genuine, it was at this juncture that Jeremiah foretold\nthe fall of Babylon; for, at the close of the prophecy in question\n(li. 59), it is said that he gave a copy of it to one of the princes\nwho accompanied Zedekiah to Babylon _in the fourth year of his reign_,\n_i.e._ in 596 B.C. But the style and thought of these two chapters,\nand the general posture of things which they presuppose, are decisive\nagainst the view that they belong to Jeremiah. At all events the\nprophet gave the clearest evidence that he did not himself share in\nthe general delusion that the fall of Babylon was near at hand. He\ndeclared that all the nations must be content to serve Nebuchadrezzar,\nand his son, and his son's son (xxvii. 7); and as chap. xxix. shows,\nhe did his best to counteract the evil influence of those fanatical\nvisionaries, who were ever promising a speedy restoration to the\nexiles who had been deported to Babylon with Jeconiah. At last,\nhowever, in spite of all Jeremiah's warnings and entreaties, the\nvacillating king Zedekiah, was persuaded to rebel; and the natural\nconsequence followed--the Chaldeans appeared before Jerusalem. King\nand people had refused salvation, and were now no more to be saved.\n\nDuring the siege, the prophet was more than once anxiously consulted\nby the king as to the issue of the crisis. Although kept in ward\nby Zedekiah's orders, lest he should weaken the defence by his\ndiscouraging addresses, Jeremiah showed that he was far above the\nfeeling of private ill-will, by the answers he returned to his\nsovereign's inquiries. It is true that he did not at all modify the\nburden of his message; to the king as to the people he steadily\ncounselled surrender. But strongly as he denounced further resistance,\nhe did not predict the king's death; and the tone of his prophecy\nconcerning Zedekiah is in striking contrast with that concerning his\npredecessor Jehoiakim. It was in the tenth year of Zedekiah and the\neighteenth of Nebuchadrezzar, that is to say, circ. 589 B.C., when\nJeremiah was imprisoned in the court of the royal guard, within the\nprecincts of the palace (xxxii. 1 _sqq._); when the siege of Jerusalem\nwas being pressed on with vigour, and when of all the strong cities of\nJudah, only two, Lachish and Azekah, were still holding out against\nthe Chaldean blockade; that the prophet thus addressed the king\n(xxxiv. 2 _sqq._): \"Thus hath Iahvah said, Behold, I am about to give\nthis city into the hand of the king of Babel, and he shall burn it\nwith fire. And thou wilt not escape out of his hand; for thou wilt\ncertainly be taken, and into his hand thou wilt be given. And thine\neyes shall see the king of Babel's eyes, and his mouth shall speak\nwith thy mouth, and to Babel wilt thou come. But hear thou Iahvah's\nword, O Zedekiah king of Judah! Thus hath Iahvah said upon thee,\nThou wilt not die by the sword. In peace wilt thou die; and with the\nburnings of thy fathers, the former kings that were before thee, so\nwill men burn (spicery) for thee, and with Ah, Lord! will they wail\nfor thee; for a promise have _I_ given, saith Iahvah.\" Zedekiah was\nto be exempted from the violent death, which then seemed so probable;\nand was to enjoy the funeral honours of a king, unlike his less worthy\nbrother Jehoiakim, whose body was cast out to decay unburied like\nthat of a beast. The failure of Jeremiah's earnest and consistent\nendeavours to bring about the submission of his people to what he\nforesaw to be their inevitable destiny, is explained by the popular\nconfidence in the defences of Jerusalem, which were enormously strong\nfor the time, and were considered impregnable (xxi. 13); and by the\nhopes entertained that Egypt, with whom negotiations had long been in\nprogress, would raise the siege ere it was too late. The low state\nof public morals is vividly illustrated by an incident which the\nprophet has recorded (chap. xxxiv. 7 _sqq._). In the terror inspired\nby the approach of the Chaldeans, the panic-stricken populace of the\ncapital bethought them of that law of their God, which they had so\nlong set at nought; and the king and his princes and the entire people\nbound themselves by a solemn covenant in the temple, to release all\nslaves of Israelitish birth, who had served six years and upwards,\naccording to the law. The enfranchisement was accomplished with all\nthe sanctions of law and of religion; but no sooner had the Chaldeans\nretired from before Jerusalem in order to meet the advancing army\nof Egypt, than the solemn covenant was cynically and shamelessly\nviolated, and the unhappy freedmen were recalled to their bondage.\nAfter this, further warning was evidently out of place; and nothing\nwas left for Jeremiah but to denounce the outrage upon the majesty of\nheaven, and to declare the speedy return of the besiegers, and the\ndesolation of Jerusalem. His own liberty had not yet been restricted\n(xxxvii. 4) when these events happened; but a pretext was soon found\nfor venting upon him the malice of his enemies. After assuring the\nking that the respite was not to be permanent, but that Pharaoh's army\nwould return to Egypt without accomplishing any deliverance, and that\nthe Chaldeans would \"come again, and fight against the city, and take\nit, and burn it with fire\" (xxxvii. 8), Jeremiah availed himself of\nthe temporary absence of the besieging forces, to attempt to leave his\nCity of Destruction; but he was arrested in the gate by which he was\ngoing out, and brought before the princes on a charge of attempted\ndesertion to the enemy. Ridiculous as was this accusation, when thus\nlevelled against one whose whole life was conspicuous for sufferings\nentailed by a lofty and unflinching patriotism and a devotion, at the\ntime almost unique, to the sacred cause of religion and morality; it\nwas at once received and acted upon. Jeremiah was beaten and thrown\ninto a dungeon, where he languished for a long time in subterranean\ndarkness and misery, until the king desired to consult him again. This\nwas the saving of the prophet's life; for after once more declaring\nhis unalterable message, \u05ea\u05b4\u05bc\u05e0\u05b8\u05bc\u05ea\u05b5\u05df \u05d1\u05b8\u05bc\u05d1\u05b6\u05dc \u05de\u05b6\u05dc\u05b6\u05e8\u05bc \u05d1\u05b0\u05bc\u05d9\u05b7\u05e8, \"Into the\nking of Babel's hand thou wilt be given!\" he made indignant protest\nagainst his cruel wrongs, and obtained from Zedekiah some mitigation\nof his sentence. He was not sent back to the loathsome den under the\nhouse of Jonathan the scribe, in whose dark recesses he had well nigh\nperished (xxxvii. 20), but was detained in the court of the guard,\nreceiving a daily dole of bread for his maintenance. Here he appears\nto have still used such opportunity as he had, in dissuading the\npeople from continuing the defence. At all events, four of the princes\ninduced the king to deliver him into their power, on the ground that\nhe \"weakened the hands of the men of war,\" and sought not the welfare\nbut the hurt of the nation (xxxviii. 4). Unwilling for some reason\nor other, probably a superstitious one, to imbrue their hands in the\nprophet's blood, they let him down with cords into a miry cistern\n(\u05d1\u05bc\u05d5\u05b9\u05e8) in the court of the guard, and left him there to die of cold\nand hunger. Timely help sanctioned by the king rescued Jeremiah from\nthis horrible fate; but not before he had undergone sufferings of the\nseverest character, as may easily be understood from his own simple\nnarrative, and from the indelible impression wrought upon others by\nthe record of his sufferings, which led the poet of the Lamentations\nto refer to this time of deadly peril, and torture both mental and\nphysical, in the following terms:\n\n          \"They chased me sore like a bird,\n           They that were my foes without a cause.\n           They silenced my life in the pit,\n           And they cast a stone upon me.\n           Waters overflowed mine head;\n           Methought, I am cut off.\n           I called Thy name, Iahvah,\n           Out of the deepest pit.\n           My voice Thou heardest (saying),\n           'Hide not Thine ear at my breathing, at my cry.'\n           Thou drewest near when I called Thee;\n           Thou saidst, 'Fear not'!\n           Thou pleadedst, O Lord, my souls pleadings;\n           Thou ransomedst my life.\"\n\nAfter this signal escape, Jeremiah's counsel was once more sought by\nthe king, in a secret interview, which was jealously concealed from\nthe princes. But neither entreaties, nor assurances of safety, could\npersuade Zedekiah to surrender the city. Nothing was now left for the\nprophet, but to await, in his milder captivity, the long foreseen\ncatastrophe. The form now taken by his solitary musings was not\nanxious speculation upon the question whether any possible resources\nwere as yet unexhausted, whether by any yet untried means king and\npeople might be convinced, and the end averted. Taking that end for\ngranted, he looks forth beyond his own captivity, beyond the scenes\nof famine and pestilence and bloodshed that surround him, beyond the\nstrife of factions within the city, and the lines of the besiegers\nwithout it, to a fair prospect of happy restoration and smiling peace,\nreserved for his ruined country in the far-off yet ever-approaching\nfuture (xxxii., xxxiii.).\n\nStrong in this inspired confidence, like the Roman who purchased at\nits full market value the ground on which the army of Hannibal lay\nencamped, he did not hesitate to buy, with all due formalities of\ntransfer, a field in his native place, at this supreme moment, when\nthe whole country was wasted with fire and sword, and the artillery\nof the foe was thundering at the walls of Jerusalem. And the event\nproved that he was right. He believed in the depth of his heart that\nGod had not finally cast off His people. He believed that nothing, not\neven human error and revolt, could thwart and turn aside the Eternal\npurposes. He was sure--it was demonstrated to him by the experience of\nan eventful life--that, amid all the vicissitudes of men and things, one\nthing stands immutable, and that is the will of God. He was sure that\nAbraham's family had not become a nation, merely in order to be blotted\nout of existence by a conqueror who knew not Iahvah; that the torch of a\ntrue religion, a spiritual faith, had not been handed on from prophet to\nprophet, burning in its onward course with an ever clearer and intenser\nflame, merely to be swallowed up before its final glory was attained, in\nutter and eternal darkness. The covenant with Israel would no more be\nbroken than the covenant of day and night (xxxiii. 20). The laws of the\nnatural world are not more stable and secure than those of the spiritual\nrealm; for both have their reason and their ground of prevalence in the\nWill of the One Unchangeable Lord of all. And as the prophet had been\nright in his forecast of the destruction of his country, so did he prove\nto have been right in his joyful anticipation of the future renascence\nof all the best elements in Israel's life. The coming time fulfilled his\nword; a fact which must always remain unaccountable to all but those who\nbelieve as Jeremiah believed.\n\nAfter the fall of the city, special care was taken to ensure the safety\nof Jeremiah, in accordance with the express orders of Nebuchadrezzar,\nwho had become cognisant of the prophet's consistent advocacy of\nsurrender, probably from the exiles previously deported to Babylonia,\nwith whom Jeremiah had maintained communications, advising them to\nsettle down peaceably, accepting Babylon as their country for the time\nbeing, and praying for its welfare and that of its rulers. Nebuzaradan,\nthe commander-in-chief, further allowed the prophet his choice between\nfollowing him to Babylon, or remaining with the wreck of the population\nin the ruined country. Patriotism, which in his case was identified\nwith a burning zeal for the moral and spiritual welfare of his\nfellow-countrymen, prevailed over regard for his own worldly interests;\nand Jeremiah chose to remain with the survivors--disastrously for\nhimself, as the event proved (xxxix. 2, xl. 1).\n\nAn old man, worn out with strife and struggle, and weighed down by\ndisappointment and the sense of failure, he might well have decided\nto avail himself of the favour extended to him by the conqueror, and\nto secure a peaceful end for a life of storm and conflict. But the\ncalamities of his country had not quenched his prophetic ardour; the\nsacred fire still burnt within his aged spirit; and once more he\nsacrificed himself to the work he felt called upon to do, only to\nexperience again the futility of offering wise counsel to headstrong,\nproud, and fanatical natures. Against his earnest protestations, he\nwas forced to accompany the remnant of his people in their hasty\nflight into Egypt (xlii.); and, in the last glimpse afforded us,\nwe see him there among his fellow-exiles making a final, and alas!\nineffectual protest against their stubborn idolatry (xliv.). A\ntradition mentioned by Tertullian and St. Jerome which may be of\nearlier and Jewish origin, states that these apostates in their wicked\nrage against the prophet stoned him to death (cf. Heb. xi. 37).\n\nThe last chapter of his book brings the course of events down to about\n561 B.C. The fact has naturally suggested a conjecture that the same\nyear witnessed the close of the prophet's life. In that case, Jeremiah\nmust have attained to an age of somewhere about ninety years; which,\ntaking all the circumstances into consideration, is hardly credible.\nA celibate life is said to be unfavourable to longevity; but however\nthat may be, the other conditions in this instance make it extremely\nunlikely. Jeremiah's career was a vexed and stormy one; it was his\nfate to be divided from his kindred and his fellow-countrymen by the\nwidest and deepest differences of belief; like St. Athanasius, he was\ncalled upon to maintain the cause of truth against an opposing world.\n\"Woe's me, my mother!\" he cries, in one of his characteristic fits of\ndespondency, which were the natural fruit of a passionate and almost\nfeminine nature, after a period of noble effort ending in the shame of\nutter defeat; \"Woe's me, that thou gavest me birth, a man of strife,\nand a man of contention to all the land! Neither lender nor borrower\nhave I been; yet all are cursing me\" (xv. 10). The persecutions he\nendured, the cruelties of his long imprisonment, the horrors of the\nprotracted siege, upon which he has not dwelt at length, but which\nhave stamped themselves indelibly upon his language (xviii. 21, 22,\nxx. 16), would certainly not tend to prolong his life. In the 71st\nPsalm, which seems to be from his pen, and which wants the usual\nheading \"A Psalm of David,\" he speaks of himself as conscious of\nfailing powers, and as having already reached the extreme limit of\nage. Writing after his narrow escape from death in the miry cistern of\nhis prison, he prays\n\n    \"Cast me not off in the time of old age;\n     Forsake me not, when my strength faileth.\"\n\nAnd again,\n\n    \"Yea, even when I am old and grey-headed,\n     O God forsake me not!\"\n\nAnd, referring to his signal deliverance,\n\n    \"Thou that shewedst me many and sore troubles,\n     Thou makest me live again;\n     And out of the deeps of the earth again Thou bringest me up.\"\n\nThe allusion in the 90th Psalm, as well as the case of Barzillai, who is\ndescribed as extremely old and decrepit at fourscore (2 Sam. xix. 33),\nproves that life in ancient Palestine did not ordinarily transcend the\nlimits of seventy to eighty years. Still, after all that may be urged to\nthe contrary, Jeremiah may have been an exception to his contemporaries\nin this, as in most other respects. Indeed, his protracted labours and\nsufferings seem almost to imply that he was endowed with constitutional\nvigour and powers of endurance above the average of men; and if, as\nsome suppose, he wrote the book of Job in Egypt, to embody the fruits\nof his life's experience and reflexion, as well as arranged and edited\nhis other writings, it is evident that he must have sojourned among the\nexiles in that country for a considerable time.\n\nThe tale is told. In meagre and broken outline I have laid before\nyou the known facts of a life which must always possess permanent\ninterest, not only for the student of religious development, but for\nall men who are stirred by human passion, and stimulated by human\nthought. And fully conscious as I am of failure in the attempt to\nreanimate the dry bones of history, to give form and colour and\nmovement to the shadows of the past; I shall not have spent my pains\nfor nought, if I have awakened in a single heart some spark of living\ninterest in the heroes of old; some enthusiasm for the martyrs of\nfaith; some secret yearning to cast in their own lot with those who\nhave fought the battle of truth and righteousness and to share with\nthe saints departed in the victory that overcometh the world. And\neven if in this also I have fallen short of the mark, these desultory\nand imperfect sketches of a good man's life and work will not have\nbeen wholly barren of result, if they lead any one of my readers to\nrenewed study of that truly sacred text which preserves to all time\nthe living utterances of this last of the greater prophets.\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[1] The same root is used in the Targ. on i. 15 for _setting_ or\nfixing thrones, cf. Dan. vii. 9: (\u05e8\u05b0\u05de\u05b4\u05d9\u05d5)\n\n[2] Clem. Alex., _Strom._, I., \u00a7 120.\n\n[3] At least seven times.\n\n[4] Hitzig.\n\n[5] i. 6.\n\n[6] i. 2, xxv. 3.\n\n[7] \u05e0\u05e2\u05e8 _puer_; (1) Ex. ii. 6, of a three months' babe; (2) of a young\nman up to about the twentieth year, Gen. xxxiv. 19, of Shechem ben\nHamor; 1 Kings iii. 7, of Solomon, as here.\n\n[8] Hitzig, _Vorbemerkungen_.\n\n[9] The Cimmerians are the Gomer of Scripture, the Gimirr\u00e2'a of the\ncuneiform inscriptions.\n\n[10] Ewald, _Die Psalmen_, 165.\n\n[11] Zeph. ii. 4 _sqq._, \u05ea\u05d4\u05d9\u05d4 \u05e2\u05d6\u05d5\u05d1\u05d4 \u05e2\u05d6\u05d4 ... \u05ea\u05e2\u05e7\u05e8 \u05e2\u05e7\u05e8\u05d5\u05df\n\n[12] \u05d4\u05ea\u05d5\u05e8\u05d4 \u05e1\u05e4\u05e8, 2 Kings xxii. 8; \u05d4\u05d1\u05e8\u05d9\u05ea \u05e1\u05e4\u05e8, 2 Kings xxiii. 2.\n\n[13] Comparing the Hebrew verb with the Arabic [Arabic: **] _timuit_,\n_fastidivit_. LXX., \u03ba\u1f00\u03b3\u1f7c \u1f20\u03bc\u03ad\u03bb\u03b7\u03c3\u03b1 \u03b1\u1f50\u03c4\u1ff6\u03bd, Cf. Jer. iii. 14. Gesenius\nrendered _fastidivit_, _rejecit_.\n\n[14] So rightly the Syriac, for Jehoiakim.\n\n[15] _i.e._ To scent food afar off, like beasts of prey. There was no\noccasion to alter A.V.\n\n\n\n\n                                   I.\n\n                      _THE CALL AND CONSECRATION._\n\n\nIn the foregoing pages we have considered the principal events in\nthe life of the prophet Jeremiah, by way of introduction to the more\ndetailed study of his writings. Preparation of this kind seemed to be\nnecessary, if we were to enter upon that study with something more\nthan the vaguest perception of the real personality of the prophet. On\nthe other hand, I hope we shall not fail to find our mental image of\nthe man, and our conception of the times in which he lived, and of the\nconditions under which he laboured as a servant of God, corrected and\nperfected by that closer examination of his works to which I now invite\nyou. And so we shall be better equipped for the attainment of that\nwhich must be the ultimate object of all such studies; the deepening\nand strengthening of the life of faith in ourselves, by which alone we\ncan hope to follow in the steps of the saints of old, and like them to\nrealise the great end of our being, the service of the All-Perfect.\n\nI shall consider the various discourses in what appears to be their\nnatural order, so far as possible, taking those chapters together\nwhich appear to be connected in occasion and subject. Chap. i.\nevidently stands apart, as a self-complete and independent whole.\nIt consists of a chronological superscription (vv. 1-3), assigning\nthe temporal limits of the prophet's activity; and secondly, of an\ninaugural discourse, which sets before us his first call, and the\ngeneral scope of the mission which he was chosen to fulfil. This\ndiscourse, again, in like manner falls into two sections, of which the\nformer (vv. 4-10) relates how the prophet was appointed and qualified\nby Iahvah to be a spokesman for Him; while the latter (vv. 11-19),\nunder the form of two visions, expresses the assurance that Iahvah\nwill accomplish His word, and pictures the mode of fulfilment, closing\nwith a renewed summons to enter upon the work, and with a promise of\neffectual support against all opposition.\n\nIt is plain that we have before us the author's introduction to the\nwhole book; and if we would gain an adequate conception of the meaning\nof the prophet's activity both for his own time and for ours, we must\nweigh well the force of these prefatory words. The career of a true\nprophet, or spokesman for God, undoubtedly implies a special call or\nvocation to the office. In this preface to the summarized account\nof his life's work, Jeremiah represents that call as a single and\ndefinite event in his life's history. Must we take this in its literal\nsense? We are not astonished by such a statement as \"the word of the\nLord came unto me;\" it may be understood in more senses than one, and\nperhaps we are unconsciously prone to understand it in what is called\na natural sense. Perhaps we think of a result of pious reflexion\npondering the moral state of the nation and the needs of the time:\nperhaps of that inward voice which is nothing strange to any soul that\nhas attained to the rudiments of spiritual development. But when we\nread such an assertion as that of ver. 9, \"Then the Lord put forth\nHis hand, and touched my mouth,\" we cannot but pause and ask what it\nwas that the writer meant to convey by words so strange and startling.\nThoughtful readers cannot avoid the question whether such statements\nare consonant with what we otherwise know of the dealings of God\nwith man; whether an outward and visible act of the kind spoken of\nconforms with that whole conception of the Divine Being, which is, so\nfar as it reflects reality, the outcome of His own contact with our\nhuman spirits. The obvious answer is that such corporeal actions are\nincompatible with all our experience and all our reasoned conceptions\nof the Divine Essence, which fills all things and controls all things,\nprecisely because it is not limited by a bodily organism, because its\nactions are not dependent upon such imperfect and restricted media\nas hands and feet. If, then, we are bound to a literal sense, we can\nonly understand that the prophet saw a vision, in which a Divine hand\nseemed to touch his lips, and a Divine voice to sound in his ears.\nBut _are_ we bound to a literal sense? It is noteworthy that Jeremiah\ndoes not say that Iahvah Himself appeared to him. In this respect,\nhe stands in conspicuous contrast with his predecessor Isaiah, who\nwrites (vi. 1), \"In the year that king Uzziah died, I saw the Lord\nsitting upon a throne, high and lifted up;\" and with his successor\nEzekiel, who affirms in his opening verse (i. 1) that on a certain\ndefinite occasion \"the heavens opened,\" and he saw \"visions of God.\"\nNor does Jeremiah use that striking phrase of the younger prophet's,\n\"The hand of Iahvah was upon me,\" or \"was strong upon me.\" But when\nhe says, \"Iahvah put forth His hand and touched my mouth,\" he is\nevidently thinking of the seraph that touched Isaiah's mouth with the\nlive coal from the heavenly altar (vi. 7). The words are identical\n(\u05d5\u05d9\u05d2\u05e2 \u05e4\u05d9 \u05e2\u05dc), and might be regarded as a quotation. It is true that,\nsupposing Jeremiah to be relating the experience of a trance-like\ncondition or ecstasy, we need not assume any conscious imitation of\nhis predecessor. The sights and sounds which affect a man in such a\ncondition may be partly repetitions of former experience, whether\none's own or that of others; and in part wholly new and strange.\nIn a dream one might imagine things happening to oneself, which\none had heard or read of in connexion with others. And Jeremiah's\nwritings generally prove his intimate acquaintance with those of\nIsaiah and the older prophets. But as a trance or ecstasy is itself\nan involuntary state, so the thoughts and feelings of the subject of\nit must be independent of the individual will, and as it were imposed\nfrom without. Is then the prophet describing the experience of such\nan abnormal state--a state like that of St. Peter in his momentous\nvision on the housetop at Joppa, or like that of St. Paul when he was\n\"caught up to the third heaven,\" and saw many wonderful things which\nhe durst not reveal? The question has been answered in the negative\non two principal grounds. It is said that the vision of vv. 11, 12,\nderives its significance not from the visible thing itself, but from\nthe name of it, which is, of course, not an object of sight at all;\nand consequently, the so-called vision is really \"a well-devised and\ningenious product of cool reflexion.\" But is this so? We may translate\nthe original passage thus: _And there fell a word of Iahvah unto me,\nsaying, What seest thou, Jeremiah? And I said, A rod of a wake-tree_\n(_i.e._ an almond) _is what I see. And Iahvah said unto me, Thou_\n_hast well seen; for wakeful am I over My word, to do it_. Doubtless\nthere is here one of those plays on words which are so well known\na feature of the prophetic style; but to admit this is by no means\ntantamount to an admission that the vision derives its force and\nmeaning from the \"invisible name\" rather than from the visible thing.\nSurely it is plain that the significance of the vision depends on the\nfact which the name implies; a fact which would be at once suggested\nby the sight of the tree. It is the well known characteristic of the\nalmond tree that it wakes, as it were, from the long sleep of winter\nbefore all other trees, and displays its beautiful garland of blossom,\nwhile its companions remain leafless and apparently lifeless. This\nquality of early wakefulness is expressed by the Hebrew name of the\nalmond tree; for _sh\u0101q\u1e17d_ means _waking_ or _wakeful_. If this tree,\nin virtue of its remarkable peculiarity, was a proverb of watching and\nwaking, the sight of it, or of a branch of it, in a prophetic vision\nwould be sufficient to suggest that idea, independently of the name.\nThe allusion to the name, therefore, is only a literary device for\nexpressing with inimitable force and neatness the significance of the\nvisible symbol of the \"rod of the almond tree,\" as it was intuitively\napprehended by the prophet in his vision.\n\nAnother and more radical ground is discovered in the substance of the\nDivine communication. It is said that the anticipatory statement of the\ncontents and purpose of the subsequent prophesyings of the seer (ver.\n10), the announcement beforehand of his fortunes (vv. 8, 18, 19), and\nthe warning addressed to the prophet personally (ver. 17), are only\nconceivable as results of a process of abstraction from real experience,\nas prophecies conformed to the event (_ex eventu_). \"The call of the\nprophet,\" says the writer whose arguments we are examining, \"was the\nmoment when, battling down the doubts and scruples of the natural man\n(vv. 7, 8), and full of holy courage, he took the resolution (ver.\n17) to proclaim God's word. Certainly he was animated by the hope of\nDivine assistance (ver. 18), the promise of which he heard inwardly\nin the heart. More than this cannot be affirmed. But in this chapter\n(vv. 17, 18), the measure and direction of the Divine help are already\nclear to the writer; he is aware that opposition awaits him (ver. 19);\nhe knows the content of his prophecies (ver. 10). Such knowledge was\nonly possible for him in the middle or at the end of his career; and\ntherefore the composition of this opening chapter must be referred to\nsuch a later period. As, however, the final catastrophe, after which\nhis language would have taken a wholly different complexion, is still\nhidden from him here; and as the only edition of his prophecies prepared\nby himself, that we know of, belongs to the fourth year of Jehoiakim\n(xxxvi. 45); the section is best referred to that very time, when the\nposture of affairs promised well for the fulfilment of the threatenings\nof many years (cf. xxv. 9 with vv. 15, 10; xxv. 13 with vv. 12-17; xxv.\n6 with ver. 16. And ver. 18 is virtually repeated, chap. xv. 20, which\nbelongs to the same period).\"\n\nThe first part of this is an obvious inference from the narrative\nitself. The prophet's own statement makes it abundantly clear that\nhis conviction of a call was accompanied by doubts and fears, which\nwere only silenced by that faith which moves mountains. That lofty\nconfidence in the purpose and strength of the Unseen, which has\nenabled weak and trembling humanity to endure martyrdom, might well be\nsufficient to nerve a young man to undertake the task of preaching\nunpopular truths, even at the risk of frequent persecution and\noccasional peril. But surely we need not suppose that, when Jeremiah\nstarted on his prophetic career, he was as one who takes a leap in the\ndark. Surely it is not necessary to suppose him profoundly ignorant\nof the subject-matter of prophecy in general, of the kind of success\nhe might look for, of his own shrinking timidity and desponding\ntemperament, of \"the measure and direction of the Divine help.\" Had\nthe son of Hilkiah been the first of the prophets of Israel instead\nof one of the latest; had there been no prophets before him; we might\nrecognise some force in this criticism. As the facts lie, however,\nwe can hardly avoid an obvious answer. With the experience of many\nnotable predecessors before his eyes; with the message of a Hosea,\nan Amos, a Micah, an Isaiah, graven upon his heart; with his minute\nknowledge of their history, their struggles and successes, the fierce\nantagonisms they roused, the cruel persecutions they were called upon\nto face in the discharge of their Divine commission; with his profound\nsense that nothing but the good help of their God had enabled them\nto endure the strain of a lifelong battle; it is not in the least\nwonderful that Jeremiah should have foreseen the like experience for\nhimself. The wonder would have been, if, with such speaking examples\nbefore him, he had not anticipated \"the measure and direction of the\nDivine help\"; if he had been ignorant \"that opposition awaited him\";\nif he had not already possessed a general knowledge of the \"contents\"\nof his own as of all prophecies. For there is a substantial unity\nunderlying all the manifold outpourings of the prophetic spirit.\nIndeed, it would seem that it is to the diversity of personal gifts,\nto differences of training and temperament, to the rich variety of\ncharacter and circumstance, rather than to any essential contrasts\nin the substance and purport of prophecy itself, that the absence of\nmonotony, the impress of individuality and originality is due, which\ncharacterises the utterances of the principal prophets.\n\nApart from the unsatisfactory nature of the reasons alleged, it is\nvery probable that this opening chapter was penned by Jeremiah as an\nintroduction to the first collection of his prophecies, which dates\nfrom the fourth year of Jehoiakim, that is, circ. B.C. 606. In that\ncase, it must not be forgotten that the prophet is relating events\nwhich, as he tells us himself (chap. xxv. 3), had taken place three\nand twenty years ago; and as his description is probably drawn from\nmemory, something may be allowed for unconscious transformation\nof facts in the light of after experience. Still, the peculiar\nevents that attended so marked a crisis in his life as his first\nconsciousness of a Divine call must, in any case, have constituted,\ncannot but have left a deep and abiding impress upon the prophet's\nmemory; and there really seems to be no good reason for refusing\nto believe that that initial experience took the form of a twofold\nvision seen under conditions of trance or ecstasy. At the same time,\nbearing in mind the Oriental passion for metaphor and imagery, we are\nnot perhaps debarred from seeing in the whole chapter a figurative\ndescription, or rather an attempt to describe through the medium of\nfigurative language, that which must always ultimately transcend\ndescription--the communion of the Divine with the human spirit. Real,\nmost real of real facts, as that communion was and is, it can never be\ndirectly communicated in words; it can only be hinted and suggested\nthrough the medium of symbolic and metaphorical phraseology. Language\nitself, being more than half material, breaks down in the attempt to\nexpress things wholly spiritual.\n\nI shall not stop to discuss the importance of the general\nsuperscription or heading of the book, which is given in the first\nthree verses. But before passing on, I will ask you to notice that,\nwhereas the Hebrew text opens with the phrase _Dibr\u00ea Yirmey\u00e1hu_\n(\u05d9\u05b4\u05e8\u05b0\u05de\u05b0\u05d9\u05b8\u05d4\u05d5\u05bc \u05d3\u05b4\u05bc\u05d1\u05b0\u05e8\u05b5\u05d9), \"The words of Jeremiah,\" the oldest\ntranslation we have, viz. the Septuagint, reads: \"The word of God\nwhich came to Jeremiah\" (\u03c4\u1f78 \u03c1\u1fc6\u03bc\u03b1 \u03c4\u03bf\u1fe6 \u0398\u03b5\u03bf\u1fe6 \u1f43 \u1f10\u03b3\u03ad\u03bd\u03b5\u03c4\u03bf \u1f10\u03c0\u1f76 \u1f39\u03b5\u03c1\u03b5\u03bc\u03af\u03b1\u03bd). It\nis possible, therefore, that the old Greek translator had a Hebrew\ntext different from that which has come down to us, and opening\nwith the same formula which we find at the beginning of the older\nprophets Hosea, Joel, and Micah. In fact, Amos is the only prophet,\nbesides Jeremiah, whose book begins with the phrase in question (\u05e2\u05de\u05d5\u05e1\n\u05d3\u05d1\u05e8\u05d9--\u039b\u03cc\u03b3\u03bf\u03b9 \u1f08\u03bc\u03ce\u03c2); and although it is more appropriate there than\nhere, owing to the continuation \"And he said,\" it looks suspicious\neven there, when we compare Isaiah i. 1, and observe how much more\nsuitable the term \"vision\" (\u05d7\u05b2\u05d6\u05d5\u05b9\u05df) would be. It is likely that the\nLXX. has preserved the original reading of Jeremiah, and that some\neditor of the Hebrew text altered it because of the apparent tautology\nwith the opening of ver. 2: \"_To whom the word of the Lord_ (LXX. \u03c4\u03bf\u1fe6\n\u0398\u03b5\u03bf\u1fe6) _came_ in the days of Josiah.\"\n\nSuch changes were freely made by the scribes in the days before\nthe settlement of the O. T. canon; changes which may occasion much\nperplexity to those, if any there be, who hold by the unintelligent\nand obsolete theory of verbal and even literal inspiration, but none\nat all to such as recognise a Divine hand in the facts of history,[16]\nand are content to believe that in holy books, as in holy men, there\nis a Divine treasure in earthen vessels. The textual difference in\nquestion may serve to call our attention to the peculiar way in which\nthe prophets identified their work with the Divine will, and their\nwords with the Divine thoughts; so that the words of an Amos or a\nJeremiah were in all good faith held and believed to be self-attesting\nutterances of the Unseen God. The conviction which wrought in them\nwas, in fact, identical with that which in after times moved St. Paul\nto affirm the high calling and inalienable dignity of the Christian\nministry in those impressive words, \"Let a man so account of us as of\nthe ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God.\"\n\nVv. 5-10, which relate how the prophet became aware that he was in\nfuture to receive revelations from above, constitute in themselves an\nimportant revelation. Under Divine influence he becomes aware of a\nspecial mission. _Ere I began to form_ (mould, fashion, \u05d9\u05e6\u05e8, as the\npotter moulds the clay) _thee in the belly, I knew thee; and ere thou\nbegannest to come forth from the womb,[17] I had dedicated thee, not\n\"regarded_ thee as holy,\" Isa. viii. 13; nor perhaps \"_declared_ thee\nholy,\" as Ges.; but \"_hallowed_ thee,\" _i.e._ dedicated thee to God,\nJudg. xvii. 3; 1 Kings ix. 3; especially Lev. xxvii. 14; of money and\nhouses. The pi. of _consecrating_ priests, Ex. xxviii. 41; altar,\nEx. xxix. 36, temple, mountain, etc.; perhaps also, \"_consecrated_\nthee\" for the discharge of a sacred office. Even soldiers are called\n_consecrated_ (\u05de\u05e7\u05bb\u05d3\u05bc\u05e9\u05d9\u05dd Isa. xiii. 3), as ministers of the Lord of\nHosts, and probably as having been formally devoted to His service\nat the outset of a campaign by special solemnities of lustration and\nsacrifice; while guests bidden to a sacrificial feast had to undergo a\npreliminary form of _consecration_ (1 Sam. xvi. 5; Zeph. i. 7), to fit\nthem for communion with Deity.\n\nWith the certainty of his own Divine calling, it became clear to\nthe prophet that the choice was not an arbitrary caprice; it was\nthe execution of a Divine purpose, conceived long, long before its\nrealisation in time and space. The God whose foreknowledge and will\ndirects the whole course of human history--whose control of events\nand direction of human energies is most signally evident in precisely\nthose instances where men and nations are most regardless of Him, and\nimagine the vain thought that they are independent of Him (Isa. xxii.\n11, xxxvii. 26)--this sovereign Being, in the development of whose\neternal purposes he himself, and every son of man was necessarily\na factor, had from the first \"known him,\"--known the individual\ncharacter and capacities which would constitute his fitness for\nthe special work of his life;--and \"sanctified\" him; devoted and\nconsecrated him to the doing of it when the time of his earthly\nmanifestation should arrive. Like others who have played a notable\npart in the affairs of men, Jeremiah saw with clearest vision that\nhe was himself the embodiment in flesh and blood of a Divine idea;\nhe knew himself to be a deliberately planned and chosen instrument\nof the Divine activity. It was this seeing himself as God saw him,\nwhich constituted his difference from his fellows, who only knew their\nindividual appetites, pleasures and interests, and were blinded, by\ntheir absorption in these, to the perception of any higher reality.\nIt was the coming to this knowledge of _himself_, of the meaning and\npurpose of HIS individual unity of powers and aspirations in the great\nuniverse of being, of his true relation to God and to man, which\nconstituted the first revelation to Jeremiah, and which was the secret\nof his personal greatness.\n\nThis knowledge, however, might have come to him in vain. Moments\nof illumination are not always accompanied by noble resolves and\ncorresponding actions. It does not follow that, because a man sees\nhis calling, he will at once renounce _all_, and pursue it. Jeremiah\nwould not have been human, had he not hesitated a while, when, after\nthe inward light, came the voice, _A spokesman_, or Divine interpreter\n(\u05e0\u05d1\u05d9\u05d0), _to the nations appoint I thee_. To have passing flashes of\nspiritual insight and heavenly inspiration is one thing; to undertake\n_now_, in the actual present, the course of conduct which they\nunquestionably indicate and involve, is quite another. And so, when\nthe hour of spiritual illumination has passed, the darkness may and\noften does become deeper than before.\n\n_And I said, Alas! O Lord Iahvah, behold I know not how to speak;\nfor I am but a youth._ The words express that reluctance to begin\nwhich a sense of unpreparedness, and misgivings about the unknown\nfuture, naturally inspire. To take the first step demands decision and\nconfidence; but confidence and decision do not come of contemplating\noneself and one's own unfitness or unpreparedness, but of steadfastly\nfixing our regards upon God, who will qualify us for all that He\nrequires us to do. Jeremiah does not refuse to obey His call; the\nvery words \"My Lord Iahvah\"--'Adonai, Master, or my Master--imply a\nrecognition of the Divine right to his service; he merely alleges\na natural objection. The cry, \"Who is sufficient for these things?\"\nrises to his lips, when the light and the glory are obscured for a\nmoment, and the reaction and despondency natural to human weakness\nensue. _And Iahvah said unto me, Say not, I am but a youth; for unto\nall that I send thee unto, thou shalt go, and all that I command thee\nthou shalt speak. Be not afraid of them; for with thee am I to rescue\nthee, is the utterance of Iahvah._ \"Unto all that I send thee unto\";\nfor he was to be no local prophet; his messages were to be addressed\nto the surrounding peoples as well as to Judah; his outlook as a seer\nwas to comprise the entire political horizon (ver. 10, xxv. 9, 15,\nxlvi. _sqq._). Like Moses (Ex. iv. 10), Jeremiah objects that he is no\npractised speaker; and this on account of youthful inexperience. The\nanswer is that his speaking will depend not so much upon himself as\nupon God: \"All that I command thee, thou shalt speak.\" The allegation\nof his youth also covers a feeling of timidity, which would naturally\nbe excited at the thought of encountering kings and princes and\npriests, as well as the common people, in the discharge of such a\ncommission. This implication is met by the Divine assurance: \"Unto\nall\"--of whatever rank--\"that I send thee unto, thou shalt go\"; and\nby the encouraging promise of Divine protection against all opposing\npowers: \"Be not afraid of them; for with thee am I to rescue thee.\"[18]\n\n_And Iahvah put forth His hand and touched my mouth: and Iahvah said\nunto me, Behold I have put My words in thy mouth!_ This word of the\nLord, says Hitzig, is represented as a corporeal substance; in\naccordance with the Oriental mode of thought and speech, which invests\neverything with bodily form. He refers to a passage in Samuel (2 Sam.\nxvii. 5) where Absalom says, \"Call now Hushai the Archite, and let us\nhear _that which is in his mouth_ also;\" as if what the old counsellor\nhad to say were something _solid_ in more senses than one. But we\nneed not press the literal force of the language. A prophet who could\nwrite (v. 14): \"Behold I am about to make my words in thy mouth fire\nand this people logs of wood; and it shall devour them;\" or again (xv.\n16), \"Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and Thy word became\nunto me a joy and my heart's delight,\" may also have written, \"Behold\nI have put My words in thy mouth!\" without thereby becoming amenable\nto a charge of confusing fact with figure, metaphor with reality. Nor\ncan I think the prophet means to say that, although, as a matter of\nfact, the Divine word already dwelt in him, it was now \"put in his\nmouth,\" in the sense that he was henceforth to utter it. Stripped of\nthe symbolism of vision, the verse simply asserts that the spiritual\nchange which came over Jeremiah at the turning point in his career was\ndue to the immediate operation of God; and that the chief external\nconsequence of this inward change was that powerful preaching of\nDivine truth, by which he was henceforth known. The great Prophet of\nthe Exile twice uses the phrase, \"I have set My words in thy mouth\"\n(Isa. li. 16, lix. 21) with much the same meaning as that intended by\nJeremiah, but without the preceding metaphor about the Divine hand.\n\n_See I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms,\nto root out and to pull down, and to destroy and to overturn; to\nrebuild and to replant._ Such, following the Hebrew punctuation,\nare the terms of the prophet's commission; and they are well worth\nconsideration, as they set forth with all the force of prophetic idiom\nhis own conception of the nature of that commission. First, there is\nthe implied assertion of his own official dignity: the prophet is made\na _paq\u00eed_ (Gen. xli. 34, \"officers\" set by Pharaoh over Egypt; 2 Kings\nxxv. 19 a military prefect) a prefect or superintendent of the nations\nof the world. It is the Hebrew term corresponding to the \u1f10\u03c0\u03af\u03c3\u03ba\u03bf\u03c0\u03bf\u03c2 of\nthe New Testament and the Christian Church (Judg. ix. 28; Neh. xi. 9).\nAnd secondly, his powers are of the widest scope; he is invested with\nauthority over the destinies of all peoples. If it be asked in what\nsense it could be truly said that the ruin and renascence of nations\nwas subject to the supervision of the prophets, the answer is obvious.\nThe word they were authorised to declare was the word of God. But\nGod's word is not something whose efficacy is exhausted in the human\nutterance of it. God's word is an irreversible command, fulfilling\nitself with all the necessity of a law of nature. The thought is well\nexpressed by a later prophet: \"For as the rain cometh down, and the\nsnow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth,\nand maketh it bring forth and spring; and yieldeth seed to the sower\nand bread to the eater: so shall My word become, that goeth forth out\nof My mouth; it shall not return to Me empty (\u05e8\u05d9\u05e7\u05dd), but shall surely\ndo that which I have willed, and shall carry through that for which I\nsent it\" (or \"shall prosper him whom I have sent,\" Isa. lv. 10, 11).\nAll that happens is merely the selfaccomplishment of this Divine word,\nwhich is only the human aspect of the Divine will. If, therefore, the\nabsolute dependence of the prophets upon God for their knowledge of\nthis word be left out of account, they appear as causes, when they are\nin truth but instruments, as agents when they are only mouthpieces.\nAnd so Ezekiel writes, \"when I came to destroy the city\" (Ezek. xliii.\n3), meaning when I announced the Divine decree of its destruction.\nThe truth upon which this peculiar mode of statement rests--the truth\nthat the will of God must be and always is done in the world that\nGod has made and is making--is a rock upon which the faith of His\nmessengers may always repose. What strength, what staying power may\nthe Christian preacher find in dwelling upon this almost visible fact\nof the self-fulfilling will and word of God, though all around him\nhe hear that will questioned, and that word disowned and denied! He\nknows--it is his supreme comfort to know--that, while his own efforts\nmay be thwarted, that will is invincible; that though _he_ may fail in\nthe conflict, that word will go on conquering and to conquer, until it\nshall have subdued all things unto itself.\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[16] Even in the history of the transmission of ancient writings.\n\n[17] Isa. xliv. 24, \u05de\u05d1\u05b8\u05bc\u05d8\u05df \u05d9\u05d5\u05e6\u05b6\u05e8\u05da, xlix. 5, \u05dc\u05d5 \u05dc\u05b6\u05e2\u05d1\u05d3 \u05de\u05d1\u05bc\u05d8\u05b0\u05df\u05b6 \u05d9\u05e6\u05b0\u05e8\u05b4\u05d9.\n\n[18] For the words of this promise, cf. ver. 19 _infr._, xv. 20, xlii.\n11.\n\n\n\n\n                                  II.\n\n                  _THE TRUST IN THE SHADOW OF EGYPT._\n\n                         JEREMIAH ii. 1-iii. 5.\n\n\nThe first of the prophet's public addresses is, in fact, a sermon\nwhich proceeds from an exposure of national sin to the menace of\ncoming judgment. It falls naturally into three sections, of which\nthe first (ii. 1-13) sets forth Iahvah's tender love to His young\nbride Israel in the old times of nomadic life, when faithfulness\nto Him was rewarded by protection from all external foes; and then\npasses on to denounce the unprecedented apostasy of a people from\ntheir God. The second (14-28) declares that if Israel has fallen a\nprey to her enemies, it is the result of her own infidelity to her\nDivine Spouse; of her early notorious and inveterate falling away to\nthe false gods, who are now her only resource, and that a worthless\none. The third section (ii. 29-iii. 5) points to the failure of\nIahvah's chastisements to reclaim a people hardened in guilt, and\nin a self-righteousness which refused warning and despised reproof;\naffirms the futility of all human aid amid the national reverses; and\ncries woe on a too late repentance. It is not difficult to fix the\ntime of this noble and pathetic address. That which follows it, and is\nintimately connected with it in substance, was composed \"in the days\nof Josiah the king\" (iii. 6), so that the present one must be placed\na little earlier in the same reign; and, considering its position in\nthe book, may very probably be assigned to the thirteenth year of\nJosiah, _i.e._ B.C. 629, in which the prophet received his Divine\ncall. This is the ordinary opinion; but one critic (Knobel) refers\nthe discourse to the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim, on account\nof the connexion with Egypt which is mentioned in vv. 18, 36, and the\nhumiliation suffered at the hands of the Egyptians which is mentioned\nin ver. 16; while another (Graf) maintains that chaps. ii.-vi. were\ncomposed in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, as if the prophet had\ncommitted nothing to writing before that date--an assumption which\nseems to run counter to the implication conveyed by his own statement,\nchap. xxxvi. 2. This latter critic has failed to notice the allusions\nin chaps. iv. 14, vi. 8, to an approaching calamity which may be\naverted by national reformation, to which the people are invited;--an\ninvitation wholly incompatible with the prophet's attitude at that\nhopeless period. The series of prophecies beginning at chap. iv. 3 is\ncertainly later in time than the discourse we are now considering; but\nas certainly belongs to the immediate subsequent years.\n\nIt does not appear that the first two of Jeremiah's addresses were\ncalled forth by any striking event of public importance, such as the\nScythian invasion. His new-born consciousness of the Divine call would\nurge the young prophet to action; and in the present discourse we have\nthe firstfruits of the heavenly impulse. It is a retrospect of Israel's\nentire past and an examination of the state of things growing out of it.\nThe prophet's attention is not yet confined to Judah; he deplores the\nrupture of the ideal relations between Iahvah and His people as a whole\n(ii. 4; cf. iii. 6). As Hitzig has remarked, this opening address, in\nits finished elaboration, leaves the impression of a first outpouring of\nthe heart, which sets forth at once without reserve the long score of\nthe Divine grievances against Israel. At the same time, in its closing\njudgment (iii. 5), in its irony (ii. 28), in its appeals (ii. 21, 31),\nand its exclamations (ii. 12), it breathes an indignation stern and\ndeep to a degree hardly characteristic of the prophet in his other\ndiscourses, but which was natural enough, as Hitzig observes, in a first\nessay at moral criticism, a first outburst of inspired zeal.\n\nIn the Hebrew text the chapter begins with the same formula as chap.\ni. (ver. 4): \"And there fell a word of Iahvah unto me, saying.\" But\nthe LXX. reads: \"And he said, Thus saith the Lord,\" (\u03ba\u03b1\u1f76 \u03b5\u1f36\u03c0\u03b5, \u03c4\u03ac\u03b4\u03b5\n\u03bb\u03ad\u03b3\u03b5\u03b9 \u03ba\u03cd\u03c1\u03b9\u03bf\u03c2); a difference which is not immaterial, as it may be a\ntrace of an older Hebrew recension of the prophet's work, in which\nthis second chapter immediately followed the original superscription\nof the book, as given in chap. i. 1, 2, from which it was afterwards\nseparated by the insertion of the narrative of Jeremiah's call and\nvisions (\u05d5\u05d9\u05d0\u05de\u05bd\u05e8: cf. Amos i. 2). Perhaps we may see another trace of\nthe same thing in the fact that whereas chap. i. sends the prophet to\nthe rulers and people of Judah, this chapter is in part addressed to\ncollective Israel (ver. 4); which constitutes a formal disagreement.\nIf the reference to Israel is not merely retrospective and\nrhetorical,--if it implies, as seems to be assumed, that the prophet\nreally meant his words to affect the remnant of the northern kingdom\nas well as Judah,--we have here a valuable contemporary corroboration\nof the much disputed assertion of the author of Chronicles, that\nking Josiah abolished idolatry \"in the cities of Manasseh and Ephraim\nand Simeon even unto Naphtali, to wit, in their ruins round about\" (2\nChron. xxxiv. 6), as well as in Judah and Jerusalem; and that Manasseh\nand Ephraim and \"the remnant of Israel\" (2 Chron. xxxiv. 9, cf. 21)\ncontributed to his restoration of the temple. These statements of\nthe Chronicler imply that Josiah exercised authority in the ruined\nnorthern kingdom, as well as in the more fortunate south; and so\nfar as this first discourse of Jeremiah was actually addressed to\nIsrael as well as to Judah, those disputed statements find in it an\nundesigned confirmation. However this may be, as a part of the first\ncollection of the author's prophecies, there is little doubt that the\nchapter was read by Baruch to the people of Jerusalem in the fourth\nyear of Jehoiakim (chap. xxxvi. 6).\n\n_Go thou and cry in the ears of Jerusalem: Thus hath Iahvah said_\n(or _thought_: This is the Divine thought concerning thee!) _I have\nremembered for thee the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine\nespousals; thy following Me_ (as a bride follows her husband to his\ntent) _in the wilderness, in a land unsown_. _A dedicated thing_\n(\u05e7\u05b9\u05e8\u05b6\u05e9\u05c1: like the high priest, on whose mitre was graven \u05dc\u05b7\u05d9\u05b0\u05d4\u05d5\u05b8\u05b9\u05d4\n\u05e7\u05b9\u05e8\u05b6\u05e9\u05c1) _was Israel to Iahvah, His firstfruits of increase; all who\ndid eat him were held guilty, ill would come to them, saith Iahvah_\n(vers. 2, 3).--\"I have remembered for thee,\" _i.e._ in thy favour,\nto thy benefit--as when Nehemiah prays, \"Remember in my favour, O\nmy God, for good, all that I have done upon this people,\" (Neh. v.\n19)--\"the kindness\"--\u05d7\u05b6\u05e1\u05b6\u05d3--the warm affection of thy youth, \"the love\nof thine espousals,\" or the charm of thy bridal state (Hos. ii. 15,\nxi. 1); the tender attachment of thine early days, of thy new born\nnational consciousness, when Iahvah had chosen thee as His bride,\nand called thee to follow Him out of Egypt. It is the figure which\nwe find so elaborately developed in the pages of Hosea. The \"bridal\nstate\" is the time from the Exodus to the taking of the covenant at\nSinai (Ezek. xvi. 8), which was, as it were, the formal instrument\nof the marriage; and Israel's young love is explained as consisting\nin turning her back upon \"the flesh-pots of Egypt\" (Ex. xvi. 3), at\nthe call of Iahvah, and following her Divine Lord into the barren\nsteppes. This forsaking of all worldly comfort for the hard life of\nthe desert was proof of the sincerity of Israel's early love. [The\nevidently original words \"in the wilderness, a land unsown,\" are\nomitted by the LXX., which renders: \"I remembered the mercy of thy\nyouth, and the love of thy nuptials (\u03c4\u03b5\u03bb\u03b5\u03af\u03c9\u03c3\u03b9\u03c2, consummation), so\nthat thou followedst the Holy One of Israel, saith Iahvah.\"] Iahvah's\n\"remembrance\" of this devotion, that is to say, the return He made for\nit, is described in the next verse. Israel became not \"holiness\" but\na holy or hallowed thing; a dedicated object, belonging wholly and\nsolely to Iahvah, a thing which it was sacrilege to touch; Iahvah's\n\"firstfruits of increase\" (Heb. \u05ea\u05d1\u05d5\u05d0\u05ea\u05d4 \u05e8\u05d0\u05e9\u05d9\u05ea). This last phrase is to\nbe explained by reference to the well-known law of the firstfruits\n(Ex. xxiii. 19; Deut. xviii. 4, xxvi. 10), according to which the\nfirst specimens of all agricultural produce were given to God. Israel,\nlike the firstlings of cattle and the firstfruits of corn and wine and\noil, was \u05dc\u05d9\u05d4\u05d5\u05d4 \u05e7\u05d3\u05e9 consecrated to Iahweh; and therefore none might eat\nof him without offending. \"To eat\" or devour is a term naturally used\nof vexing and destroying a nation (x. 25, l. 7; Deut. vii. 16, \"And\nthou shalt eat up all the peoples, which Jehovah thy God is about to\ngive thee;\" Isa. i. 7; Ps. xiv. 4, \"Who eat up My people as they eat\nbread\"). The literal translation is, \"All his eaters become guilty\n(or are treated as guilty, punished); evil cometh to them;\" and the\nverbs, being in the imperfect, denote what happened again and again in\nIsrael's history; Iahvah suffered no man to do His people wrong with\nimpunity. This, then, is the first count in the indictment against\nIsrael, that Iahvah had not been unmindful of her early devotion,\nbut had recognised it by throwing the shield of sanctity around her,\nand making her inviolable against all external enemies (vv. 1-3).\nThe prophet's complaint, as developed in the following section (vv.\n4-8), is that, in spite of the goodness of Iahvah, Israel has forsaken\n_Him_ for idols. \"_Hear ye the word of Iahvah, O house of Jacob, and\nall the clans of the house of Israel!_\" All Israel is addressed, and\nnot merely the surviving kingdom of Judah, because the apostasy had\nbeen universal. A special reference apparently made in ver. 8 to the\nprophets of Baal, who flourished only in the northern kingdom. We may\ncompare the word of Amos \"against _the whole clan_,\" which Iahvah\n\"brought up from the land of Egypt\" (Amos iii. 1), spoken at a time\nwhen Ephraim was yet in the heyday of his power.\n\n_Thus hath Iahvah said, What found your fathers in Me, that was\nunjust_, (\u05e2\u05b8\u05d5\u05b6\u05dc a single act of injustice, Ps. vii. 4; not to be found\nin Iahvah, Deut. xxxii. 4) _that they went far from Me and followed\nthe Folly and were befooled_ (or _the Delusion and were deluded_)\n(ver. 5). The phrase is used 2 Kings xvii. 15 in the same sense;\n\u05d4\u05b7\u05d4\u05b6\u05d1\u05b6\u05dc \"the (mere) breath,\" \"the nothingness\" or \"vanity,\" being\na designation of the idols which Israel went after (cf. also chap.\nxxiii. 16; Ps. lxii. 11; Job xxvii. 12); much as St. Paul has written\nthat \"an idol is nothing in the world\" (1 Cor. viii. 4), and that,\nwith all this boasted culture, the nations of classical antiquity\n\"became vain,\" or were befooled \"in their imaginations\" (\u1f10\u03bc\u03b1\u03c4\u03b1\u03b9\u03ce\u03b8\u03b7\u03c3\u03b1\u03bd\n= \u05d5\u05d9\u05d4\u05d1\u05dc\u05d5), \"and their foolish heart was darkened\" (Rom. i. 21). Both\nthe prophet and the apostle refer to that judicial blindness which\nis a consequence of persistently closing the eyes to truth, and\ndeliberately putting darkness for light and light for darkness, bitter\nfor sweet, and sweet for bitter, in compliance with the urgency of the\nflesh. For ancient Israel, the result of yielding to the seductions\nof foreign worship was, that \"They were stultified in their best\nendeavours. They became false in thinking and believing, in doing and\nforbearing, because the fundamental error pervaded the whole life of\nthe nation and of the individual. They supposed that they knew and\nhonoured God, but they were entirely mistaken; they supposed they were\ndoing His will, and securing their own welfare, while they were doing\nand securing the exact contrary\" (Hitzig). And similar consequences\nwill always flow from attempts to serve two masters; to gratify the\nlower nature, while not breaking wholly with the higher. Once the soul\nhas accepted a lower standard than the perfect law of truth, it does\nnot stop there. The subtle corruption goes on extending its ravages\nfarther and farther; while the consciousness that anything is wrong\nbecomes fainter and fainter as the deadly mischief increases, until at\nlast the ruined spirit believes itself in perfect health, when it is,\nin truth, in the last stage of mortal disease. Perversion of the will\nand the affections leads to the perversion of the intellect. There\nis a profound meaning in the old saying that, Men make their gods in\ntheir own likeness. As a man is, so will God appear to him to be.\n\"With the loving, Thou wilt shew Thyself loving; With the perfect,\nThou wilt shew Thyself perfect; With the pure, Thou wilt shew Thyself\npure; And with the perverse, Thou wilt shew Thyself froward\" (Ps.\nxviii. 25 _sq._). Only hearts pure of all worldly taint see God in His\npurity. The rest worship some more or less imperfect semblance of Him,\naccording to the varying degrees of their selfishness and sin.\n\n_And they said not, Where is Iahvah, who brought us up out of the\nland of Egypt, that guided us in the wilderness, in a land of wastes\nand hollows_ (_or desert and defile_), _in a land of drought and\ndarkness_ (dreariness \u05e6\u05dc\u05de\u05d5\u05ea), _in a land that no man passed through,\nand where no mortal dwelt_ (ver. 6). \"They said not, Where is Iahvah,\nwho brought us up out of the land of Egypt.\" It is the old complaint\nof the prophets against Israel's black ingratitude. So, for instance,\nAmos (ii. 10) had written: \"Whereas I--I brought you up from the\nland of Egypt, and guided you in the wilderness forty years;\" and\nMicah (vi. 3 _sq._): \"My people, what have I done unto thee, and how\nhave I wearied thee? Answer against Me. For I brought thee up from\nthe land of Egypt, and from a house of bondmen redeemed I thee.\" In\ncommon gratitude, they were bound to be true to this mighty Saviour;\nto enquire after Iahvah, to call upon Him only, to do His will, and\nto seek His grace (cf. xxix. 12 _sq._). Yet, with characteristic\nfickleness, they soon forgot the fatherly guidance, which had never\ndeserted them in the period of their nomadic wanderings in the wilds\nof Arabia Petr\u00e6a; a land which the prophet poetically describes\nas \"a land of wastes and hollows\"--alluding probably to the rocky\ndefiles through which they had to pass--and \"a land of drought and\ndarkness;\"[19] the latter an epithet of the Grave or Hades (Job x.\n21), fittingly applied to that great lone wilderness of the south,\nwhich Isaiah had called \"a fearsome land\" (xxi. 1), and \"a land of\ntrouble and anguish\" (xxx. 6), whither, according to the poet of Job,\n\"The caravans go up and are lost\" (vi. 18).\n\n_And I brought you into the garden land, to eat its fruits and its\nchoicest things_ (\u05d8\u05d5\u05bc\u05d1\u05b8\u05d4\u05bc Isa. i. 19; Gen. xlv. 18, 20, 23); _and ye\nentered and defiled My land, and My domain ye made a loathsome thing!_\n(ver. 7). With the wilderness of the wanderings is contrasted the\n\"land of the _carmel_,\" the land of fruitful orchards and gardens,\nas in chap. iv. 26.; Isa. x. 18, xvi. 10, xxix. 17. This was Canaan,\nIahvah's own land, which He had chosen out of all countries to be His\nspecial dwelling-place and earthly sanctuary; but which Israel no sooner\npossessed, than they began to pollute this holy land by their sins,\nlike the guilty peoples whom they had displaced, making it thereby an\nabomination to Iahvah (Lev. xviii. 24 _sq._, cf. chap. iii. 2).\n\n_The priests they said not, Where is Iahvah? and they that handle the\nlaw, they knew_ (_i.e._ regarded, heeded) _Me not; and as for the\nshepherds_ (_i.e._ the king and princes, ver. 26), _they rebelled\nagainst Me, and the prophets, they prophesied by_ (through) _the Baal,\nand them that help not_ (_i.e._ the false gods) _they followed_ (ver.\n8). In the form of a climax, this verse justifies the accusation\ncontained in the last, by giving particulars. The three ruling classes\nare successively indicted (cf. ver. 26, ch. xviii. 18). The priests,\npart of whose duty was to \"handle the law,\" _i.e._ explain the\nTorah, to instruct the people in the requirements of Iahvah, by oral\ntradition and out of the sacred law-books, gave no sign of spiritual\naspiration (cf. ver. 6); like the reprobate sons of Eli, \"they knew\nnot\" (1 Sam. ii. 12) \"Iahvah,\" that is to say, paid no heed to Him and\nHis will as revealed in the book of the law; the secular authorities,\nthe king and his counsellors (\"wise men,\" xviii. 18), not only sinned\nthus negatively, but positively revolted against the King of kings,\nand resisted His will; while the prophets went further yet in the\npath of guilt, apostatizing altogether from the God of Israel, and\nseeking inspiration from the Phenician Baal, and following worthless\nidols that could give no help. There seems to be a play on the words\nBaal and Belial, as if Baal meant the same as Belial, \"profitless,\"\n\"worthless\" (cf. 1 Sam. ii. 12: \"Now Eli's sons were sons of Belial;\nthey knew not Iahvah.\" The phrase \u05dc\u05b9\u05d0\u05be\u05d9\u05d5\u05b9\u05e2\u05b4\u05dc\u05d5\u05bc \"they that help not,\"\nor \"cannot help,\" suggests the term \u05d1\u05b0\u05bc\u05dc\u05b4\u05d9\u05b7\u05e2\u05b7\u05dc Belial; which, however,\nmay be derived from \u05d1\u05b0\u05bc\u05dc\u05b4\u05d9 \"not,\" and \u05e2\u05dc \"supreme,\" \"God,\" and so mean\n\"not-God,\" \"idol,\" rather than \"worthlessness,\" \"unprofitableness,\" as\nit is usually explained). The reference may be to the Baal-worship of\nSamaria, the northern capital, which was organised by Ahab, and his\nTyrian queen (chap, xxiii. 13).\n\n_Therefore_--on account of this amazing ingratitude of your\nforefathers,--_I will again plead_ (reason, argue forensically)\n_with you_ (the present generation in whom their guilt repeats\nitself) _saith Iahvah, and with your sons' sons_ (who will inherit\nyour sins) _will I plead_. The nation is conceived as a moral unity,\nthe characteristics of which are exemplified in each successive\ngeneration. To all Israel, past, present, and future, Iahvah will\nvindicate his own righteousness. _For cross_ (the sea) _to the coasts\nof the Citieans_ (the people of Citium in Cyprus) _and see; and to\nKedar_ (the rude tribes of the Syrian desert) _send ye, and mark well,\nand see whether there hath arisen a case like this. Hath a nation\nchanged gods--albeit they are no-gods? Yet My people hath changed\nhis_ (true) _glory for that which helpeth not_ (or is worthless).\n_Upheave, ye heavens_ (\u05e9\u05de\u05d5 \u05e9\u05de\u05d9\u05dd, a fine paronomasia), _at this, and\nshudder_ (_and_) _be petrified_ (\u05de\u05b0\u05d0\u05b9\u05d3 \u05d7\u05b7\u05bd\u05e8\u05b0\u05d1\u05d5\u05bc Ges., \"be sore amazed\"\n= \u05e9\u05de\u05dd; but Hitzig \"be dry\" = stiff and motionless, like syn. \u05d9\u05d1\u05e9 in\n1 Kings xiii. 4), _saith Iahvah; for two evil things hath My people\ndone: Me they have forsaken--a Fountain of living water--to hew them\nout cisterns, broken cisterns, that cannot_ (imperf. = potential)\n_hold water_ (Heb. _the_ waters: generic article) (vv. 9-13). In these\nfive verses, the apostasy of Israel from his own God is held up as\na fact unique in history--unexampled and inexplicable by comparison\nwith the doings of other nations. Whether you look westward or\neastward, across the sea to Cyprus, or beyond Gilead to the barbarous\ntribes of the Cedrei (Ps. cxx. 5), nowhere will you find a heathen\npeople that has changed its native worship for another; and if you\ndid find such, it would be no precedent or palliation of Israel's\nbehaviour. The heathen in adopting a new worship simply exchanges one\nsuperstition for another; the objects of his devotion are \"non-gods\"\n(ver. 11). The heinousness and the eccentricity of Israel's conduct\nlies in the fact that he has bartered truth for falsehood; he has\nexchanged \"his Glory\"--whom Amos (viii. 7) calls the Pride (A.V.\nExcellency) of Jacob--for a useless idol; an object which the prophet\nelsewhere calls \"The Shame\" (iii. 24, xi. 13), because it can only\nbring shame and confusion upon those whose hopes depend upon it.\nThe wonder of the thing might well be supposed to strike the pure\nheavens, the silent witnesses of it, with blank astonishment (cf. a\nsimilar appeal in Deut. iv. 26, xxxi. 28, xxxii. 1, where the earth\nis added). For the evil is not single but twofold. With the rejection\nof truth goes the adoption of error; and both are evils. Not only\nhas Israel turned his back upon \"a fountain of living waters;\" he\nhas also \"hewn him out cisterns, broken cisterns, that cannot hold\nwater.\" The \"broken cisterns\" are, of course, the idols which Israel\nmade to himself. As a cistern full of cracks and fissures disappoints\nthe wayfarer, who has reckoned on finding water in it; so the idols,\nhaving only the semblance and not the reality of life, avail their\nworshippers nothing (vv. 8, 11). In Hebrew the waters of a spring\nare called \"living\" (Gen. xxi. 19), because they are more refreshing\nand, as it were, life-giving, than the stagnant waters of pools and\ntanks fed by the rains. Hence by a natural metaphor, the mouth of\na righteous man, or the teaching of the wise, and the fear of the\nLord, are called a fountain of life (Prov. x. 11, xiii. 14, xiv. 27).\n\"The fountain of life\" is with Iahvah (Ps. xxxvi. 10); nay, He is\nHimself the Fountain of living waters (Jer. xvii. 13); because all\nlife, and all that sustains or quickens life, especially spiritual\nlife, proceeds from Him. Now in Ps. xix. 8 it is said that \"The law\nof the Lord--or, the teaching of Iahvah--is perfect, reviving (or\nrestoring) the soul\" (cf. Lam. i. 11; Ruth iv. 15); and a comparison\nof Micah and Isaiah's statement that \"Out of Zion will go forth the\nlaw, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem\" (Isa. ii. 3; Mic. iv.\n2), with the more figurative language of Joel (iii. 18) and Zechariah\n(xiv. 8), who speak of \"a fountain going forth from the house of the\nLord,\" and \"living waters going forth from Jerusalem,\" suggests the\ninference that \"the living waters,\" of which Iahvah is the perennial\nfountain, are identical with His law as revealed through priests and\nprophets. It is easy to confirm this suggestion by reference to the\nriver \"whose streams make glad the city of God\" (Ps. xlvi. 4); to\nIsaiah's poetic description of the Divine teaching, of which he was\nhimself the exponent, as \"the waters of Shiloah that flow softly\"\n(viii. 6), Shiloah being a spring that issues from the temple rock;\nand to our Lord's conversation with the woman of Samaria, in which He\ncharacterises His own teaching as \"living waters\" (St. John iv. 10),\nand as \"a well of waters, springing up unto eternal Life\" (_ibid._ 14).\n\n_Is Israel a bondman, or a homeborn serf? Why hath he become a prey?\nOver him did young lions roar; they uttered their voice; and they\nmade his land a waste; his cities, they are burnt up_ (or _thrown\ndown_), _so that they are uninhabited. Yea, the sons of Noph and\nTahpan_(_h_)_es, they did bruise thee on the crown. Is not this what_\n(the thing that) _thy forsaking Iahvah thy God brought about for thee,\nat the time He was guiding thee in the way?_ (vv. 14-17). As Iahvah's\nbride, as a people chosen to be His own, Israel had every reason\nto expect a bright and glorious career. Why was this expectation\nfalsified by events? But one answer was possible, in view of the\nimmutable righteousness, the eternal faithfulness of God. _The ruin\nof Israel was Israel's own doing._ It is a truth which applies to\nall nations, and to all individuals capable of moral agency, in all\nperiods and places of their existence. Let no man lay his failure in\nthis world or in the world to come at the door of the Almighty. Let\nnone venture to repeat the thoughtless blasphemy which charges the\nAll-Merciful with sending frail human beings to expiate their offences\nin an everlasting hell! Let none dare to say or think, God might have\nmade it otherwise, but He would not! Oh, no; it is all a monstrous\nmisconception of the true relations of things. You and I are free to\nmake our choice now, whatever may be the case hereafter. We may choose\nto obey God, or to disobey; we may seek His will, or our own. The\none is the way of life; the other, of death, and nothing can alter\nthe facts; they are part of the laws of the universe. Our destiny\nis in our own hands, to make or to mar. If we qualify ourselves for\nnothing better than a hell--if our daily progress leads us farther and\nfarther from God and nearer and nearer to the devil--then hell will\nbe our eternal home. For God is love, and purity, and truth, and glad\nobedience to righteous laws; and these things, realized and rejoiced\nin, are heaven. And the man that lives without these as the sovereign\naims of his existence--the man whose heart's worship is centred upon\nsomething else than God--stands already on the verge of hell, which\nis \"the place of him that knows not (and cares not for) God.\" And\nunless we are prepared to find fault with that natural arrangement\nwhereby like things are aggregated to like, and all physical elements\ngravitate towards their own kind; I do not see how we can disparage\nthe same law in the spiritual sphere, in virtue of which all spiritual\nbeings are drawn to their own place, the heavenly-minded rising to the\nheights above, and the contrary sort sinking to the depths beneath.\n\nThe precise bearing of the question (ver. 14), \"Is Israel a bondman,\nor a homeborn slave?\" is hardly self-evident. One commentator supposes\nthat the implied answer is an affirmative. Israel _is_ a \"servant,\"\nthe servant, that is, the worshipper of the true God. Nay, he is\nmore than a mere bondservant; he occupies the favoured position of\na slave born in his lord's house (cf. Abram's three hundred and\neighteen young men, Gen. xiv. 14), and therefore, according to the\ncustom of antiquity, standing on a different footing from a slave\nacquired by purchase. The \"home\" or house is taken to mean the land\nof Canaan, which the prophet Hosea had designated as Iahvah's \"house\"\n(Hosea ix. 15, cf. 3); and the \"Israel\" intended is supposed to be\nthe existing generation born in the holy land. The double question\nof the prophet then amounts to this: If Israel be, as is generally\nadmitted, the favourite bondservant of Iahvah, how comes it that his\nlord has not protected him against the spoiler? But, although this\ninterpretation is not without force, it is rendered doubtful by the\norder of the words in the Hebrew, where the stress lies on the terms\nfor \"bondman\" and \"homeborn slave\"; and by its bold divergence from\nthe sense conveyed by the same form of question in other passages of\nthe prophet, _e.g._ ver. 31 _infr._, where the answer expected is a\nnegative one (cf. also chap. viii. 4, 5, xiv. 19, xlix. 1. The formula\nis evidently characteristic). The point of the question seems to\nlie in the fact of the helplessness of persons of servile condition\nagainst occasional acts of fraud and oppression, from which neither\nthe purchased nor the homebred slave could at all times be secure.\nThe rights of such persons, however humane the laws affecting their\nordinary status, might at times be cynically disregarded both by their\nmasters and by others (see a notable instance, Jer. xxxiv. 8 _sqq._).\nMoreover, there may be a reference to the fact that slaves were\nalways reckoned in those times as a valuable portion of the booty\nof conquest; and the meaning may be that Israel's lot as a captive\nis as bad as if he had never known the blessings of freedom, and had\nsimply exchanged one servitude for another by the fortune of war. The\nallusion is chiefly to the fallen kingdom of Ephraim. We must remember\nthat Jeremiah is reviewing the whole past, from the outset of Iahvah's\nspecial dealings with Israel. The national sins of the northern and\nmore powerful branch had issued in utter ruin. The \"young lions,\" the\nforeign invaders, had \"roared against\" Israel properly so called, and\nmade havoc of the whole country (cf. iv. 7). The land was dispeopled,\nand became an actual haunt of lions (2 Kings xvii. 25), until\nEsarhaddon colonised it with a motley gathering of foreigners (Ezra\niv. 2). Judah too had suffered greatly from the Assyrian invasion in\nHezekiah's time, although the last calamity had then been mercifully\naverted (Sanherib boasts that he stormed and destroyed forty-six\nstrong cities, and carried off 200,000 captives, and an innumerable\nbooty). The implication is that the evil fate of Ephraim threatens to\novertake Judah; for the same moral causes are operative, and the same\nDivine will, which worked in the past, is working in the present, and\nwill continue to work in the future. The lesson of the past was plain\nfor those who had eyes to read and hearts to understand it. Apart from\nthis prophetic doctrine of a Providence which shapes the destinies of\nnations, in accordance with their moral deserts, history has no value\nexcept for the gratification of mere intellectual curiosity.\n\n_Aye, and the children of Noph and Tahpanhes they bruise_ (_? used to\nbruise; are bruising_: the Heb. \u05d9\u05e8\u05e2\u05d5 may mean either) _thee on the\ncrown_ (ver. 16). This obviously refers to injuries inflicted by Egypt,\nthe two royal cities of Noph or Memphis, and Tahpanhes or Daphn\u00e6, being\nmentioned in place of the country itself. Judah must be the sufferer,\nas no Egyptian attack on Ephraim is anywhere recorded; while we do\nread of Shishak's invasion of the southern kingdom in the reign of\nRehoboam, both in the Bible (1 Kings xiv. 25), and in Shishak's own\ninscriptions on the walls of the temple of Amen at Karnak. But the form\nof the Hebrew verb seems to indicate rather some contemporary trouble;\nperhaps plundering raids by an Egyptian army, which about this time\nwas besieging the Philistine stronghold of Ashdod (_Herod._, ii. 157).\n\"The Egyptians are bruising (or crushing) thee\" seems to be the sense;\nand so it is given by the Jewish commentator Rashi (\u05d9\u05e8\u05e6\u05e6\u05d5 diffringunt).\nOur English marginal rendering (\"fed on\") follows the traditional\npronunciation of the Hebrew term (\u05d9\u05b4\u05e8\u05b0\u05e2\u05d5\u05bc), which is also the case with\nthe Targum and the Syriac versions; but this can hardly be right, unless\nwe suppose that the Egyptians infesting the frontier are scornfully\ncompared to vermin (read \u05d9\u05b0\u05e8\u05b9\u05e2\u05d5\u05bc with J. D. Mich.) of a sort which, as\nHerodotus tells us, the Egyptians particularly disliked (but cf. Mic. v.\n5; Ges., depascunt, \"eating down.\")\n\nThe A.V. of ver. 17 presents a curious mistake, which the Revisers\nhave omitted to correct. The words should run, as I have rendered\nthem, \"Is not _this_\"--thy present ill fortune--\"the thing that thy\nforsaking of Iahvah thy God did for thee--at the time when He was\nguiding thee in the way?\" The Hebrew verb does not admit of the\nrendering in the perf. tense, for it is an impf., nor is it a 2nd\npers. fem. (\u05ea\u05e2\u05e9\u05d4 _not_ \u05ea\u05e2\u05e9\u05d9) but a 3rd. The LXX. has it rightly\n(\u03bf\u1f50\u03c7\u1f76 \u03c4\u03b1\u1fe6\u03c4\u03b1 \u1f10\u03c0\u03bf\u03af\u03b7\u03c3\u03ad \u03c3\u03bf\u03b9 \u03c4\u1f78 \u03ba\u03b1\u03c4\u03b1\u03bb\u03b9\u03c0\u03b5\u1fd6\u03bd \u03c3\u03b5 \u1f10\u03bc\u03ad;), but leaves out\nthe next clause which specifies the time. The words, however, are\nprobably original; for they insist, as vv. 5 and 31 insist, on the\ngroundlessness of Israel's apostasy. Iahvah had given no cause for it;\nHe was fulfilling His part of the covenant by \"guiding them in the\nway.\" Guidance or leading is ascribed to Iahvah as the true \"Shepherd\nof Israel\" (chap. xxxi. 9; Ps. lxxx. 1). It denotes not only the\nspiritual guidance which was given through the priests and prophets;\nbut also that external prosperity, those epochs of established power\nand peace and plenty, which were precisely the times chosen by\ninfatuated Israel for defection from the Divine Giver of her good\nthings. As the prophet Hosea expresses it, ii. 8 _sq._, \"She knew not\nthat it was I who gave her the corn and the new wine and the oil; and\nsilver I multiplied unto her, and gold, which they made into the Baal.\nTherefore will I take back My corn in the time of it, and My new wine\nin its season, and will snatch away My wool and My flax, which were to\ncover her nakedness.\" And (chap. xiii. 6) the same prophet gives this\nplain account of his people's thankless revolt from their God: \"When\nI fed them, they were sated; sated were they, and their heart was\nlifted up: therefore they forgot Me.\" It is the thought so forcibly\nexpressed by the minstrel of the Book of the Law (Deut. xxxii. 15),\nfirst published in the early days of Jeremiah: \"And Jeshurun waxed fat\nand kicked; Thou waxedst fat, and gross and fleshy! And he forsook\nthe God that made him, And made light of his protecting Rock.\" And,\nlastly, the Chronicler has pointed the same moral of human fickleness\nand frailty in the case of an individual, Uzziah or Azariah, the\npowerful king of Judah, whose prosperity seduced him into presumption\nand profanity (2 Chron. xxvi. 16): \"When he grew strong, his heart\nrose high, until he dealt corruptly, and was unfaithful to Iahvah his\nGod.\" I need not enlarge on the perils of prosperity; they are known\nby bitter experience to every Christian man. Not without good reason\ndo we pray to be delivered from evil \"In all time of our wealth;\" nor\nwas that poet least conversant with human nature who wrote that \"Sweet\nare the uses of adversity.\"\n\n_And now_--a common formula in drawing an inference and concluding an\nargument--_what hast thou to do with the way of Egypt, to drink the\nwaters of Shihor_ (the Black River, the Nile); _and what hast thou to\ndo with the way to Assyria, to drink the waters of the River?_ (_par\nexcellence_, _i.e._, the Euphrates). _Thy wickedness correcteth thee,\nand thy revolts it is that chastise thee. Know then, and see that\nevil and bitter is thy forsaking Iahvah thy God, and thine having no\ndread of Me, saith the Lord Iahvah Sabaoth_ (vv. 18, 19). And now--as\nthe cause of all thy misfortunes lies in thyself--what is the use of\nseeking a cure for them abroad? Egypt will prove as powerless to help\nthee now, as Assyria proved in the days of Ahaz (ver. 36 _sq._). The\nJewish people, anticipating the views of certain modern historians,\nmade a wrong diagnosis of their own evil case. They traced all that\nthey had suffered, and were yet to suffer, to the ill will of the two\ngreat Powers of their time; and supposed that their only salvation lay\nin conciliating the one or the other. And as Isaiah found it necessary\nto cry woe on the rebellious children, \"that walk to go down into\nEgypt, and have not asked at My mouth; to strengthen themselves in\nthe strength of Pharaoh, and to trust in the shadow of Egypt!\" (Isa.\nxxx. 1 _sq._), so now, after so much experience of the futility and\npositive harmfulness of these unequal alliances, Jeremiah has to lift\nhis voice against the same national folly.\n\nThe \"young lions\" of ver. 15 must denote the Assyrians, as Egypt is\nexpressly named in ver. 16. The figure is very appropriate, for not\nonly was the lion a favourite subject of Assyrian sculpture; not only\ndo the Assyrian kings boast of their prowess as lion-hunters, while\nthey even tamed these fierce creatures, and trained them to the chase;\nbut the great strength and predatory habits of the king of beasts made\nhim a fitting symbol of that great empire whose irresistible power was\nfounded upon and sustained by wrong and robbery. This reference makes\nit clear that the prophet is contemplating the past; for Assyria was\nat this time already tottering to its fall, and the Israel of his day,\n_i.e._ the surviving kingdom of Judah, had no longer any temptation to\ncourt the countenance of that decaying if not already ruined empire.\nThe sin of Israel is an old one; both it and its consequences belong\nto the past (ver. 20 compared with ver. 14); and the national attempts\nto find a remedy must be referred to the same period. Ver. 36 makes it\nevident that the prophet's contemporaries concerned themselves only\nabout an Egyptian alliance.\n\nIt is an interesting detail that for \"the waters of Shihor,\" the LXX.\ngives \"waters of Gihon\" (\u0393\u03b7\u1ff6\u03bd), which it will be remembered is the\nname of one of the four rivers of Paradise, and which appears to have\nbeen the old Hebrew name of the Nile (Ecclus. xxiv. 27; Jos., _Ant._,\ni. 1, 3). Shihor may be an explanatory substitute. For the rest, it is\nplain that the two rivers symbolize the two empires (cf. Isa. viii.\n7; chap. xlvi. 7); and the expression \"to drink the waters\" of them\nmust imply the receiving and, as it were, absorption of whatever\nadvantage might be supposed to accrue from friendly relations with\ntheir respective countries. At the same time, a contrast seems to be\nintended between these earthly waters, which could only disappoint\nthose who sought refreshment in them, and that \"fountain of living\nwaters\" (ver. 13) which Israel had forsaken. The nation sought in\nEgypt its deliverance from self-caused evil, much as Saul had sought\nguidance from witches when he knew himself deserted by the God whom\nby disobedience he had driven away. In seeking thus to escape the\nconsequences of sin by cementing alliances with heathen powers,\nIsrael added sin to sin. Hence (in ver. 19) the prophet reiterates\nwith increased emphasis what he has already suggested by a question\n(ver. 17): \"Thy wickedness correcteth thee, and thy revolts it is\nthat chastise thee. Know then, and see that evil and bitter is thy\nforsaking of Iahweh thy God, and thine having no dread of Me!\" Learn\nfrom these its bitter fruits that the thing itself is bad (Read \u05d0\u05b5\u05dc\u05b7\u05d9\n\u05e4\u05b8\u05d7\u05b7\u05d3\u05b0\u05ea\u05b0\u05bc\u05d9 as a 2nd pers. instead of \u05e4\u05b7\u05d7\u05b0\u05d3\u05b8\u05bc\u05ea\u05b4\u05d9. Job xxi. 33, quoted\nby Hitzig, is not a real parallel; nor can the sentence, as it stands,\nbe rendered, \"Und dass die Scheu vor mir nicht an dich kam\"); and\nrenounce that which its consequences declare to be an evil course,\ninstead of aggravating the evil of it by a new act of unfaithfulness.\n\n_For long ago didst thou break thy yoke, didst thou burst thy bonds,\nand saidst, I will not serve: for upon every high hill, and under each\nevergreen tree thou wert crouching in fornication_ (vv. 20-24). Such\nseems to be the best way of taking a verse which is far from clear as\nit stands in the Masoretic text. The prophet labours to bring home to\nhis hearers a sense of the reality of the national sin; and he affirms\nonce more (vv. 5, 7) that Israel's apostasy originated long ago, in the\nearly period of its history, and implies that the taint thus contracted\nis a fact which can neither be denied nor obliterated. (The punctuators\nof the Hebrew text, having pointed the first two verbs as in the 1st\npers. instead of the 2nd feminine, were obliged, further, to suggest\nthe reading \u05d0\u05b6\u05e2\u05b6\u05d1\u05b9\u05d5\u05e8 \u05dc\u05b9\u05d0, \"I will not transgress,\" for the original\nphrase \u05d0\u05e2\u05d1\u05d5\u05e8 \u05dc\u05d0 \"I will not serve;\" a variant which is found in the\nTargum, and many MSS. and editions. \"Serving\" and \"bearing the yoke\"\nare equivalent expressions (xxvii. 11, 12); so that, if the first two\nverbs were really in the 1st pers., the sentence ought to be continued\nwith, \"And _I_ said, _Thou_ shalt not serve.\" But the purport of this\nverse is to justify the assertion of the last, as is evident from the\nintroductory particle \"for,\" \u05db\u05b4\u05bc\u05d9. The Syriac supports \u05d0\u05e2\u05d1\u05d5\u05e8; and the\nLXX. and Vulg. have the two leading verbs in the 2nd pers., iv. 19.) The\nmeaning is that Israel, like a stubborn ox, has broken the yoke imposed\non him by Iahvah; a statement which is repeated in v. 5: \"But these have\naltogether broken the yoke, they have burst the bonds\" (cf. ver. 31,\n_infr._; Hos. iv. 16; Acts xxvi. 14).\n\n_Yet I--I planted thee with_ (or, _as_) _noble vines, all of them\ngenuine shoots; and how hast thou turned Me thyself into the wild\noffshoots of a foreign vine?_ (ver. 21). The thought seems to be\nborrowed from Isaiah's Song of the Beloved's Vineyard (Isa. v.\n1 _sqq._). The nation is addressed as a person, endowed with a\ncontinuity of moral existence from the earliest period. \"The days\nof the life of a man may be numbered; but the days of Israel are\ninnumerable\" (Ecclus. xxxvii. 25). It was with the true seed of\nAbraham, the real Israel, that Iahvah had entered into covenant (Ex.\nxviii. 19; Rom. ix. 7); and this genuine offspring of the patriarch\nhad its representatives in every succeeding generation, even in the\nworst of times (1 Kings xix. 18). But the prophet's argument seems\nto imply that the good plants had reverted to a wild state, and that\nthe entire nation had become hopelessly degenerate; which was not far\nfrom the actual condition of things at the close of his career. The\nculmination of Israel's degeneracy, however, was seen in the rejection\nof Him to whom \"gave all the prophets witness.\" The Passion of Christ\nsounded a deeper depth of sacred sorrow than the passion of any of His\nforerunners. \"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem! Thou that killest the prophets,\nand stonest them that are sent unto thee!\"\n\n          \"Then on My head a crown of thorns I wear;\n           For these are all the grapes Sion doth bear,\n           Though I My vine planted and watered there:\n                       Was ever grief like Mine?\"\n\n_For if thou wash with natron, and take thee much soap, spotted_\n(_crimsoned_; Targ. Isa. i. 18: or _written_, _recorded_) _is thy\nguilt before Me, saith My Lord Iahvah._ Comparison with Isa. i. 18,\n\"Though thy sins be as scarlet ... though they be red like crimson,\"\nsuggests that the former rendering of the doubtful word (\u05e0\u05b4\u05db\u05b0\u05ea\u05b8\u05bc\u05dd) is\ncorrect; and this idea is plainly better suited to the context than\na reference to the Books of Heaven, and the Recording Angel; for the\nobject of washing is to get rid of spots and stains.\n\n_How canst thou say, I have not defiled myself; after the Baals I have\nnot gone: See thy way in the valley, know what thou hast done, O swift\nshe-camel, running hither and thither_ (literally _intertwining_ or\n_crossing her ways_) (ver. 23). The prophet anticipates a possible\nattempt at self-justification; just as in ver. 35 he complains of\nIsrael's self-righteousness. Both here and there he is dealing with\nhis own contemporaries in Judah; whereas the idolatry described in\nver. 20 _sqq._ is chiefly that of the ruined kingdom of Ephraim (ch.\niii. 24; 2 Kings xvii. 10). It appears that the worship of Baal proper\nonly existed in Judah for a brief period in the reign of Ahaziah's\nusurping queen Athaliah, side by side with the worship of Iahvah\n(2 Chron. xxiii. 17); while on the high-places and at the local\nsanctuaries the God of Israel was honoured (2 Kings xviii. 22). So far\nas the prophet's complaints refer to old times, Judah could certainly\nboast of a relatively higher purity than the northern kingdom; and the\nmanifold heathenism of Manasseh's reign had been abolished a whole\nyear before this address was delivered (2 Chron. xxxiv. 3 _sqq._).\n\"The valley\" spoken of as the scene of Judah's misdoings is that\nof Ben-Hinnom, south of Jerusalem, where, as the prophet elsewhere\nrelates (vii. 31, xxxii. 35; 2 Kings xxiii. 10), the people sacrificed\nchildren by fire to the god Molech, whom he expressly designates as a\n_Baal_ (xix. 5, xxxii. 35), using the term in its wider significance,\nwhich includes all the aspects of the Canaanite sun-god. And because\nJudah betook herself now to Iahvah, and now to Molech, varying, as\nit were, her capricious course from right to left and from left to\nright, and halting evermore between two opinions (1 Kings xviii. 21),\nthe prophet calls her \"a swift young she-camel,\"--swift, that is,\nfor evil--\"intertwining, or crossing her ways.\" The hot zeal with\nwhich the people wantonly plunged into a sensual idolatry is aptly\nset forth in the figure of the next verse. A _wild ass, used to the\nwilderness_ (Job xxiv. 5), _in the craving of her soul she snuffeth\nup_ (xiv. 6) _the wind_ (_not_ \"l\u00e4sst sie kaum Athem genug finden,\nindem sie denselben vorweg vergeudet,\" as Hitzig; but, as a wild beast\nscenting prey, cf. xiv. 6, or food afar off, she scents companions\nat a distance); _her greedy lust, who can turn it back? None that\nseek her need weary themselves; in her month they find her._ While\npassion rages, animal instinct is too strong to be diverted from its\npurpose; it is idle to argue with blind appetite; it goes straight to\nits mark, like an arrow from a bow. Only when it has had its way, and\nthe reaction of nature follows, does the influence of reason become\npossible. Such was Israel's passion for the false gods. They had no\nneed to seek her (Hos. ii. 7; Ezek. xvi. 34); in the hour of her\ninfatuation, she fell an easy victim to their passive allurements.\n(The \"month\" is the season when the sexual instinct is strong.)\nWarnings fell on deaf ears. _Keep back thy foot from bareness, and thy\nthroat from thirst!_ This cry of the prophets availed nothing: _Thou\nsaidst, It is vain!_ (_sc._ that thou urgest me.) _No, for I love the\nstrangers and after them will I go!_ The meaning of the admonition is\nnot very clear. Some (_e.g._ Rosenm\u00fcller) have understood a reference\nto the shameless doings, and the insatiable cravings of lust. Others\n(as Gesenius) explain the words thus: \"Do not pursue thy lovers in\nsuch hot haste, as to wear thy feet bare in the wild race!\" Others,\nagain, take the prohibition literally, and connect the barefootedness\nand the thirst with the orgies of Baal-worship (Hitz.), in which the\npriests leaped or rather limped with bare feet (what proof?) on the\nblazing \u00e2ltar, as an act of religious mortification, shrieking the\nwhile till their throats were parched and dry (Ps. lxix. 4, \u05e0\u05b0\u05bc\u05e8\u05b9\u05d5\u05e0\u05b4\u05d9\n\u05e0\u05b4\u05d7\u05b7\u05e8), in frenzied appeal to their lifeless god (cf. Ex. iii. 5; 2\nSam. xv. 30; 1 Kings xviii. 26). In this case, the command is, Cease\nthis self-torturing and bootless worship! But the former sense seems\nto agree better with the context.\n\n_Like the shame of a thief, when he is detected, so are the house of\nIsrael ashamed--they, their kings, their princes, and their priests,\nand their prophets; in that they say_ (are ever saying) _to the wood_\n(iii. 9 in Heb. masc.), _Thou art my father!_ (iii. 4) _and to the\nstone_ (in Heb. fem.), _Thou didst bring me forth! For they_ (xxxii.\n33) _have turned towards Me the back and not the face; but in the\ntime of their trouble they say_ (begin to say), _O rise and save us!\nBut where are thy gods that thou madest for thyself? Let them arise,\nif they can save thee in the time of thy trouble; for numerous as\nthy cities are thy gods become, O Judah!_ (vv. 26-28). \"The Shame\"\n(\u05d4\u05d1\u05e9\u05ea) is the well-known title of opprobrium which the prophets apply\nto Baal. Even in the histories, which largely depend on prophetic\nsources, we find such substitutions as Ishbosheth for Eshbaal, the\n\"Man of Shame\" for \"Baal's Man.\" Accordingly, the point of ver. 26\n_sqq._ is, that as Israel has served the Shame, the idol-gods, instead\nof Iahvah, shame has been and will be her reward: in the hour of\nbitter need, when she implores help from the One true God, she is put\nto shame by being referred back to her senseless idols. The \"Israel\"\nintended is the entire nation, as in ver. 3, and not merely the\nfallen kingdom of Ephraim. In ver. 28 the prophet specially addresses\nJudah, the surviving representative of the whole people. In the book\nof Judges (x. 10-14) the same idea of the attitude of Iahvah towards\nHis faithless people finds historical illustration. Oppressed by the\nAmmonites they \"cried unto the Lord, saying, We have sinned against\nThee, in that we have both forsaken our own God, and have served the\nBaals;\" but Iahvah, after reminding them of past deliverances followed\nby fresh apostasies, replies: \"Go, and cry unto the gods which ye have\nchosen; let _them_ save you in the time of your distress!\" Here also\nwe hear the echoes of a prophetic voice. The object of such ironical\nutterances was by no means to deride the self-caused miseries in\nwhich Israel was involved; but, as is evident from the sequel of the\nnarrative in Judges, to deepen penitence and contrition, by making\nthe people realize the full flagrancy of their sin, and the suicidal\nfolly of their desertions of the God whom, in times of national\ndistress, they recognised as the only possible Saviour. In the same\nway and with the same end in view, the prophetic psalmist of Deut.\nxxxii. represents the God of Israel as asking (ver. 37) \"Where are\ntheir gods; the Rock in which they sought refuge? That used to eat\nthe flesh of their sacrifices, that drank the wine of their libation?\nLet them arise and help you; let them be over you a shelter!\" The\npurpose is to bring home to them a conviction of the utter vanity of\nidol-worship; for the poet continues: \"See _now_ that I even I am\nHe\"--the one God--\"and there is no God beside Me\" (with Me, sharing My\nsole attributes); \"'Tis I that kill and save alive; I have crushed,\nand _I_ heal.\" The folly of Israel is made conspicuous, first by\nthe expression \"Saying to the wood, Thou art my father, and to the\nstone, Thou didst bring me forth;\" and secondly, by the statement,\n\"Numerous as thy cities are thy gods become, O Judah!\" In the former,\nwe have a most interesting glimpse of the point of view of the heathen\nworshipper of the seventh century B.C., from which it appears that\nby a _god_ he meant the original, _i.e._, the real author of his own\nexistence. Much has been written in recent years to prove that man's\nelementary notions of deity are of an altogether lower kind than those\nwhich find expression in the worship of a Father in heaven; but when\nwe see that such an idea could subsist even in connexion with the most\nimpure nature-worships, as in Canaan, and when we observe that it was\na familiar conception in the religion of Egypt several thousand years\npreviously, we may well doubt whether this idea of an Unseen Father of\nour race is not as old as humanity itself.\n\nThe sarcastic reference to the number of Judah's idols may remind us\nof what is recorded of classic Athens, in whose streets it was said to\nbe easier to find a god than a man. The irony of the prophet's remark\ndepends on the consideration that there is, or ought to be, safety\nin numbers. The impotence of the false gods could hardly be put in a\nstronger light in words as few as the prophet has used. In chap. xi.\n13 he repeats the statement in an amplified form: \"For numerous as thy\ncities have thy gods become, O Judah; and numerous as the streets of\nJerusalem have ye made altars for The Shame, altars for sacrificing to\nthe Baal.\" From this passage, apparently, the LXX. derived the words\nwhich it adds here: \"And according to the number of the streets of\nJerusalem did they sacrifice to the (image of) Baal\" (\u1f14\u03b8\u03c5\u03bf\u03bd \u03c4\u1fc7 \u0392\u03ac\u03b1\u03bb).\n\n_Why contend ye with Me? All of you have rebelled against Me, saith\nIahvah._ (LXX. \u1f20\u03c3\u03b5\u03b2\u03ae\u03c3\u03b1\u03c4\u03b5, \u03ba\u03b1\u1f76 \u03c0\u03ac\u03bd\u03c4\u03b5\u03c2 \u1f51\u03bc\u03b5\u1fd6\u03c2 \u1f20\u03bd\u03bf\u03bc\u03ae\u03c3\u03b1\u03c4\u03b5 \u03b5\u1f30\u03c2 \u1f10\u03bc\u03ad. \"Ebenfalls\nauthentisch\" says Hitzig). _In vain have I smitten your sons; correction\nthey_ (i.e., the people; but LXX. \u1f10\u03b4\u03ad\u03be\u03b1\u03c3\u03b8\u03b5 may be correct), _received\nnot! your own_ _sword hath eaten up your prophets, like a destroying\nlion. Generation that ye are! See the word of Iahvah! Is it a wilderness\nthat I have been to Israel, or a land of deepest gloom? Why have My\npeople said, We are free; we will come no more unto Thee? Doth a virgin\nforget her ornaments, a bride her bands_ (or _garlands_, Rashi)? _yet\nMy people hath forgotten Me days without number_ (vv. 29-32). The\nquestion, \"Why contend, or dispute ye (\u05ea\u05e8\u05d9\u05d1\u05d5), or, as the LXX. has it,\ntalk ye (\u05ea\u05d3\u05d1\u05e8\u05d5) towards or about Me (\u05d0\u05dc\u05d9)?\" implies that the people\nmurmured at the reproaches and menaces of the prophet (ver. 26 _sqq._).\nHe answers them by denying their right to complain. Their rebellion\nhas been universal; no chastisement has reformed them; Iahvah has done\nnothing which can be alleged in excuse of their unfaithfulness; their\nsin is, therefore, a portentous anomaly, for which it is impossible\nto find a parallel in ordinary human conduct. In vain had \"their\nsons,\" the young men of military age, fallen in battle (Amos iv. 10);\nthe nation had stubbornly refused to see in such disasters a sign of\nIahvah's displeasure, a token of Divine chastisement; or rather, while\nrecognising the wrath of heaven, they had obstinately persisted in\nbelieving in false explanations of its motive, and refused to admit that\nthe purpose of it was their religious and moral amendment. And not only\nhad the nation refused warning, and despised instruction, and defeated\nthe purposes of the Divine discipline. They had slain their spiritual\nmonitors, the prophets, with the sword; the prophets who had founded\nupon the national disasters their rebukes of national sin, and their\nearnest calls to penitence and reform (1 Kings xix. 10; Neh. ix. 26;\nSt. Matt. xxiii. 37). And so when at last the long deferred judgment\narrived, it found a political system ready to go to pieces through the\nfeebleness and corruption of the ruling classes; a religious system, of\nwhich the spirit had long since evaporated, and which simply survived in\nthe interests of a venal priesthood, and its intimate allies, who made a\ntrade of prophecy; and a kingdom and people ripe for destruction.\n\nAt the thought of this crowning outrage, the prophet cannot restrain\nhis indignation. \"Generation that ye are!\" he exclaims, \"behold the\nword of the Lord. Is it a wilderness that I have been to Israel, or a\nland of deepest gloom?\" Have I been a thankless, barren soil, returning\nnothing for your culture? The question is more pointed in Hebrew than in\nEnglish; for the same term (\u05e2\u05d1\u05d3 `abad) means both to till the ground,\nand to serve and worship God. We have thus an emphatic repetition of the\nremonstrance with which the address opens: Iahweh has not been unmindful\nof Israel's service; Israel has been persistently ungrateful for\nIahvah's gracious love. The cry \"We are free!\" (\u05e8\u05d3\u05e0\u05d5) implies that they\nhad broken away from a painful yoke and a burdensome service (cf. ver.\n20); the yoke being that of the Moral Law, and the service that perfect\nfreedom which consists in subjection to Divine Reason. Thus sin always\ntriumphs in casting away man's noblest prerogative; in trampling under\nfoot that loyalty to the higher ideal which is the bridal adornment and\nthe peculiar glory of the soul.\n\n_Why hurriest thou to seek thy love?_ (Lit. _why dost thou make good\nthy way?_ somewhat as we say, \"to make good way with a thing\") (ver.\n33). The key to the meaning here is supplied by ver. 36: _Why art thou\nin such haste to change thy way? In_ (Of) _Egypt also thou shalt be\ndisappointed, as thou wert in Assyria._ The \"way\" is that which leads\nto Egypt; and the \"love\" is that apostasy from Iahvah which invariably\naccompanies an alliance with foreign peoples (ver. 18). If you go to\nAssyria, you \"drink the waters of the Euphrates,\" _i.e._, you are\nexposed to all the malign influences of the heathen land. Elsewhere,\nalso (iv. 30), Jeremiah speaks of the foreign peoples, whose connexion\nIsrael so anxiously courted, as her \"lovers\"; and the metaphor is a\ncommon one in the prophets.\n\nThe words which follow are obscure. _Therefore the evil things also\nhast thou taught thy ways._ What \"evil things\"? Elsewhere the term\ndenotes _misfortunes_, _calamities_ (Lam. iii. 38); and so probably\nhere (cf. iii. 5). The sense seems to be: Thou hast done evil, and in\nso doing hast taught Evil to dog thy steps! The term _evil_ obviously\nsuggests the two meanings of sin and the punishment of sin; as we\nsay, \"Be sure your _sin_ will find you out!\" Ver. 34 explains what\nwas the special sin that followed and clung to Israel: _Also, in thy\nskirts_--the borders of thy garments--_are they_ (the evil things)\n_found_, viz., _the life-blood of innocent helpless ones; not that\nthou didst find them house-breaking_, and so hadst excuse for slaying\nthem (Exod. xxii. 2); _but for all these_ warnings or, because of all\nthese apostasies and dallyings with the heathen, which they denounced\n(cf. iii. 7), _thou slewest them_. The murder of the prophets (ver.\n30) was the unatoned guilt which clung to the skirts of Israel.\n\n_And thou saidst, Certainly I am absolved! Surely His wrath is\nturned away from me! Behold I wilt reason with thee, because thou\nsayest, I sinned not!_ (ver. 35). This is what the people said when\nthey murdered the prophets. They, and doubtless their false guides,\nregarded the national disasters as so much atonement for their\nsins. They believed that Iahvah's wrath had exhausted itself in the\ninfliction of what they had already endured, and that they were now\nabsolved from their offences. The prophets looked at the matter\ndifferently. To them, national disasters were warnings of worse to\nfollow, unless the people would take them in that sense, and turn from\ntheir evil ways. The people preferred to think that their account\nwith Iahvah had been balanced and settled by their misfortunes in war\n(ver. 30). Hence they slew those who never wearied of affirming the\ncontrary, and threatening further woe, as false prophets (Deut. xviii.\n20). The saying, \"I sinned not!\" refers to these cruel acts; they\ndeclared themselves guiltless in the matter of slaying the prophets,\nas if their blood was on their own heads. The only practical issue of\nthe national troubles was that instead of reforming, they sought to\nenter into fresh alliances with the heathen, thus, from the point of\nview of the prophets, adding sin to sin. _Why art thou in such haste\nto change thy way?_ (_i.e._ thy course of action, thy foreign policy).\n_Through Egypt also shalt thou be shamed, as thou hast been shamed\nthrough Assyria. Out of this affair also_ (or, _from him_, as the\ncountry is perhaps personified as a lover of Judah;) _shalt thou go\nforth with thine hands upon thine head_ (in token of distress, 2 Sam.\nxiii. 19: Tamar); _for Iahvah hath rejected the objects of thy trust,\nso that thou canst not be successful regarding them_ (vv. 36, 37).\nThe Egyptian alliance, like the former one with Assyria, was destined\nto bring nothing but shame and confusion to the Jewish people. The\nprophet urges past experience of similar undertakings, in the hope of\ndeterring the politicians of the day from their foolish enterprise.\nBut all that they had learnt from the failure and loss entailed by\ntheir intrigues with one foreign power was, that it was expedient to\ntry another. So they made haste to \"change their way,\" to alter the\ndirection of their policy from Assyria to Egypt. King Hezekiah had\nrenounced his vassalage to Assyria, in reliance, as it would seem, on\nthe support of Taharka, king of Egypt and Ethiopia (2 Kings xviii. 7;\ncf. Isa. xxx. 1-5); and now again the nation was coquetting with the\nsame power. As has been stated, an Egyptian force lay at this time on\nthe confines of Judah, and the prophet may be referring to friendly\nadvances of the Jewish princes towards its leaders.\n\nIn the Hebrew, ch. iii. opens with the word \"saying\" (\u05dc\u05b5\u05d0\u05de\u05b9\u05e8). No real\nparallel to this can be found elsewhere, and the Sept. and Syriac\nomit the term. Whether we follow these ancient authorities, and do\nthe same, or whether we prefer to suppose that the prophet originally\nwrote, as usually, \"And the Word of Iahvah came unto me, saying,\"\nwill not make much difference. One thing is clear; the division of\nthe chapters is in this instance erroneous, for the short section,\niii. 1-5, obviously belongs to and completes the argument of ch.\nii. The statement of ver. 37, that Israel will not prosper in the\nnegotiations with Egypt, is justified in iii. 1 by the consideration\nthat prosperity is an outcome of the Divine favour, which Israel\nhas forfeited. The rejection of Israel's \"confidences\" implies the\nrejection of the people themselves (vii. 29). _If a man divorce\nhis wife and she go away from him_ (\u05de\u05b5\u05d0\u05b4\u05ea\u05b9\u05bc\u05d5 _de chez lu\u0131_), _and\nbecome another man's, doth he_ (her former husband) _return unto\nher again? Would not that land be utterly polluted?_ It is the case\ncontemplated in the Book of the Law (Deut. xxiv. 1-4), the supposition\nbeing that the second husband may divorce the woman, or that the bond\nbetween them may be dissolved by his death. In either contingency,\nthe law forbade reunion with the former husband, as \"abomination\nbefore Iahvah;\" and David's treatment of his ten wives, who had been\npublicly wedded by his rebel son Absalom, proves the antiquity of\nthe usage in this respect (2 Sam. xx. 3). The relation of Israel to\nIahvah is the relation to her former husband of the divorced wife who\nhas married another. If anything it is worse. _And thou, thou hast\nplayed the harlot with many paramours; and shalt thou return unto\nMe? saith Iahvah._ The very idea of it is rejected with indignation.\nThe Author of the law will not so flagrantly break the law. (With\nthe Heb. form of the question, cf. the Latin use of the infin. \"Mene\nincepto desistere victam?\") The details of the unfaithfulness of\nIsrael--the proofs that she belongs to others and not to Iahvah--are\nglaringly obvious; contradiction is impossible. _Lift up thine eyes\nupon the bare fells, and see!_ cries the prophet; _where hast thou\nnot been forced? By the roadsides thou satest for them like a Bedawi\nin the wilderness, and thou pollutedst the land with thy whoredom\nand with thine evil_ (Hos. vi. 13). On every hill-top the evidence\nof Judah's sinful dalliance with idols was visible; in her eagerness\nto consort with the false gods, the objects of her infatuation, she\nwas like a courtesan looking out for paramours by the wayside (Gen.\nxxxviii. 14), or an Arab lying in wait for the unwary traveller in\nthe desert. (There may be a reference to the artificial _bamoth_ or\n\"high places\" erected at the top of the streets, on which the wretched\nwomen, consecrated to the shameful rites of the Canaanite goddess\nAshtoreth, were wont to sit plying their trade of temptation: 2 Kings\nxxiii. 8; Ezek. xvi. 25). We must never forget that, repulsive and\nfarfetched as these comparisons of an apostate people to a sinful\nwoman may seem to us, the ideas and customs of the time made them\nperfectly apposite. The worship of the gods of Canaan involved the\npractice of the foulest impurities; and by her revolt from Iahvah,\nher lord and husband, according to the common Semitic conception\nof the relation between a people and their god, Israel became a\nharlot in fact as well as in figure. The land was polluted with her\n\"whoredoms,\" _i.e._, her worship of the false gods, and her practice\nof their vile rites; and with her \"evil,\" as instanced above (ii. 30,\n35) in the murder of those who protested against these things (Num.\nxxxv. 33; Ps. cvi. 38). As a punishment for these grave offences,\n_the showers were withholden, and the spring rains fell not_; but the\nmerciful purpose of this Divine chastisement was not fulfilled; the\npeople were not stirred to penitence, but rather hardened in their\nsins: _but thou hadst a harlot's forehead; thou refusedst to be made\nashamed_! And now the day of grace is past, and repentance comes too\nlate. _Hast thou not but now called unto Me, My Father! Friend of\nmy youth wert Thou? Will He retain His wrath for ever? or keep it\nwithout end?_ (vv. 3, 5). The reference appears to be to the external\nreforms accomplished by the young king Josiah in his twelfth year--the\nyear previous to the utterance of this prophecy; when, as we read in\n2 Chron. xxxiv. 3, \"He began to purge Judah and Jerusalem from the\nhigh places, and the Asherim, and the carven images, and the molten\nimages.\" To all appearance, it was a return of the nation to its old\nallegiance; the return of the rebellious child to its father, of the\nerring wife to the husband of her youth. By those two sacred names\nwhich in her inexcusable fickleness and ingratitude she had lavished\nupon stocks and stones, Israel now seemed to be invoking the relenting\ncompassion of her alienated God (ii. 27, ii. 2). But apart from the\ndoubt attaching to the reality of reformations to order, carried\nout in obedience to a royal decree; apart from the question whether\noutward changes so easily and rapidly accomplished, in accordance\nwith the will of an absolute monarch, were accompanied by any tokens\nof a genuine national repentance; the sin of Israel had gone too\nfar, and been persisted in too long, for its terrible consequences\nto be averted. _Behold_--it is the closing sentence of the address;\na sentence fraught with despair, and the certainty of coming\nruin;--_Behold, thou hast planned and accomplished the evil_ (ii. 33);\n_and thou hast prevailed!_ The approaches of the people are met by the\nassurance that their own plans and doings, rather than Iahvah's wrath,\nare the direct cause of past and prospective adversity; ill doing is\nthe mother of ill fortune. Israel inferred from her troubles that God\nwas angry with her; and she is informed by His prophet that, had she\nbeen bent on bringing those troubles about, she could not have chosen\nany other line of conduct than that which she had actually pursued.\nThe term \"evils\" again suggests both the false and impure worships,\nand their calamitous moral consequences. Against the will of Iahvah,\nHis people _had wrought for its own ruin_, and had prevailed.\n\nAnd now let us take a farewell look at the discourse in its entirety.\nBeginning at the beginning, the dawn of his people's life as a nation,\nthe young prophet declares that in her early days, in the old times of\nsimple piety and the uncorrupted life of the desert, Israel had been\ntrue to her God; and her devotion to her Divine spouse had been rewarded\nby guidance and protection. \"Israel was a thing consecrated to Iahvah;\nwhoever eat of it was held guilty, and evil came upon them\" (ii. 1-3).\nThis happy state of mutual love and trust between the Lord and His\npeople began to change with the great change in outward circumstances\ninvolved in their conquest of Canaan and settlement among the aboriginal\ninhabitants as the ruling race. With the lands and cities of the\nconquered, the conquerors soon learned to adopt also their customs of\nworship, and the licentious merriment of their sacrifices and festivals.\nGradually they lost all sense of any radical distinction between the\nGod of Israel and the local deities at whose ancient sanctuaries they\nnow worshipped Him. Soon they forgot their debt to Iahvah; His gracious\nand long-continued guidance in the Arabian steppes, and the loving\ncare which had established them in the goodly land of orchards and\nvineyards and cornfields. The priests ceased to care about ascertaining\nand declaring His will; the princes openly broke His laws; and the\npopular prophets spoke in the name of the popular Baals (vv. 4-8).\nThere was something peculiarly strange and startling in this general\ndesertion of the national God and Deliverer; it was unparalleled among\nthe surrounding heathen races. _They_ were faithful to gods that were\nno gods; Israel actually exchanged her Glory, the living source of\nall her strength and well-being, for a useless, helpless idol. Her\nbehaviour was as crazy as if she had preferred a cistern, all cracks\nand fissures, that could not possibly hold water, to a never-failing\nfountain of sweet spring water (vv. 9-13). The consequences were only\ntoo plain to such as had eyes to see. Israel, the servant, the favoured\nslave of Iahvah, was robbed and spoiled. The \"lions,\" the fierce and\nrapacious warriors of Assyria had ravaged his land, and ruined his\ncities; while Egypt was proving but a treacherous friend, pilfering\nand plundering on the borders of Judah. It was all Israel's own doing;\nforsaking his God, he had forfeited the Divine protection. It was\nhis own apostasy, his own frequent and flagrant revolts which were\npunishing him thus. Vain, therefore, utterly vain were his endeavours\nto find deliverance from trouble in an alliance with the great heathen\npowers of South or North (vv. 14-19). Rebellion was no new feature in\nthe national history. No; for of old the people had broken the yoke\nof Iahvah, and burst the bonds of His ordinances, and said, I will\nnot serve! and on every high hill, and under every evergreen tree,\nIsrael had bowed down to the Baalim of Canaan, in spiritual adultery\nfrom her Divine Lord and Husband. The change was a portent; the noble\nvine-shoot had degenerated into a worthless wilding (vv. 20-21). The\nsin of Israel was inveterate and ingrained; nothing could wash out the\nstain of it. Denial of her guilt was futile; the dreadful rites in the\nvalley of Hinnom witnessed against her. Her passion for the foreign\nworships was as insatiable and headstrong as the fierce lust of the\ncamel or the wild ass. To protests and warnings her sole reply was: \"It\nis in vain! I love the strangers, and them will I follow!\" The outcome\nof all this wilful apostasy was the shame of defeat and disaster, the\nhumiliation of disappointment, when the helplessness of the stocks\nand stones, which had supplanted her Heavenly Father, was demonstrated\nby the course of events. Then she bethought her of the God she had\nso lightly forsaken, only to hear in His silence a bitterly ironical\nreference to the multitude of her helpers, the gods of her own creation.\nThe national reverses failed of the effect intended in the counsels of\nProvidence. Her sons had fallen in battle; but instead of repenting of\nher evil ways, she slew the faithful prophets who warned her of the\nconsequences of her misdeeds (vv. 20-30). It was the crowning sin; the\ncup of her iniquity was full to overflowing. Indignant at the memory of\nit, the prophet once more insists that the national crimes are what has\nput misfortune on the track of the nation; and chiefly, this heinous\none of killing the messengers of God like housebreakers caught in the\nact; and then aggravating their guilt by self-justification, and by\nresorting to Egypt for that help, which they despaired of obtaining from\nan outraged God. All such negotiations, past or present, were doomed\nto failure beforehand; the Divine sentence had gone forth, and it was\nidle to contend against it (vv. 31-37). Idle also it was to indulge in\nhopes of the restoration of Divine favour. Just as it was not open to a\ndiscarded wife to return to her husband after living with another; so\nmight not Israel be received back into her former position of the Bride\nof Heaven, after she had \"played the harlot with many lovers.\" Doubtless\nof late she had given tokens of remembering her forgotten Lord, calling\nupon the Father who had been the guide of her youth, and deprecating\nthe continuance of His wrath. But the time was long since past, when it\nwas possible to avert the evil consequences of her misdoings. She had,\nas it were, steadily purposed and wrought out her own evils; both her\nsins and her sufferings past and to come: the iron sequence could not\nbe broken; the ruin she had courted lay before her in the near future:\nshe had \"prevailed.\" All efforts such as she was now making to stave it\noff were like a deathbed repentance; in the nature of things, they could\nnot annihilate the past, nor undo what had been done, nor substitute the\nfruit of holiness for the fruit of sin, the reward of faithfulness and\npurity for the wages of worldliness, sensuality, and forgetfulness of\nGod.\n\nThus the discourse starts with impeachment, and ends with irreversible\ndoom. Its tone is comminatory throughout; nowhere do we hear, as in\nother prophecies, the promise of pardon in return for penitence.\nSuch preaching was necessary, if the nation was to be brought to\na due sense of its evil; and the reformation of the eighteenth of\nJosiah, which was undoubtedly accompanied by a considerable amount of\ngenuine repentance among the governing classes, was in all likelihood\nfurthered by this and similar prophetic orations.[20]\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[19] \u05e6\u05b7\u05dc\u05b0\u05de\u05b8\u05d5\u05b6\u05ea, so far as the punctuation suggests that the term is\na compound, meaning \"shadow of death,\" is one of the fictions of the\nMasorets, like \u05dc\u05b4\u05d2\u05b0\u05d0\u05b5\u05d9\u05d5\u05b9\u05e0\u05b4\u05d9\u05dd and \u05d7\u05b5\u05dc\u05b0\u05db\u05b8\u05bc\u05d0\u05b4\u05d9\u05dd and \u05d7\u05b5\u05bd\u05dc\u05b0\u05db\u05b8\u05d4 in the Psalms.\n\n[20] Perhaps, too, the immediate object of the prophet was attained,\nwhich was, as Ewald thinks, to dissuade the people from alliance with\nPsammitichus, the vigorous monarch who was then reviving the power and\nambition of Egypt. Jeremiah dreaded the effects of Egyptian influence\nupon the religion and morals of Judah. Ewald notes the significant\nabsence of all reference to the enemy from the north, who appears in\nall the later pieces.\n\n\n\n\n                                  III.\n\n                    _ISRAEL AND JUDAH: A CONTRAST._\n\n                         JEREMIAH iii. 6-iv. 2.\n\n\nThe first address of our prophet was throughout of a sombre cast, and\nthe darkness of its close was not relieved by a single ray of hope.\nIt was essentially a comminatory discourse, the purpose of it being\nto rouse a sinful nation to the sense of its peril, by a faithful\npicture of its actual condition, which was so different from what\nit was popularly supposed to be. The veil is torn aside; the real\nrelations between Israel and his God are exposed to view; and it is\nseen that the inevitable goal of persistence in the course which has\nbrought partial disasters in the past, is certain destruction in the\nimminent future. It is implied, but not said, that the only thing\nthat can save the nation is a complete reversal of policies hitherto\npursued, in Church and State and private life; and it is apparently\ntaken for granted that the thing implied is no longer possible. The\nlast word of the discourse was: \"Thou hast purposed and performed the\nevils, and thou hast conquered\" (iii. 5). The address before us forms\na striking contrast to this dark picture. It opens a door of hope for\nthe penitent. The heart of the prophet cannot rest in the thought of\nthe utter rejection of his people; the harsh and dreary announcement\nthat his people's woes are self-caused cannot be his last word. \"His\nanger was only love provoked to distraction; here it has come to\nitself again,\" and holds out an offer of grace first to that part of\nthe whole nation which needs it most, the fallen kingdom of Ephraim,\nand then to the entire people. The all Israel of the former discourse\nis here divided into its two sections, which are contrasted with each\nother, and then again considered as a united nation. This feature\ndistinguishes the piece from that which begins chap. iv. 3, and which\nis addressed to \"Judah and Jerusalem\" rather than to Israel and Judah,\nlike the one before us. An outline of the discourse may be given thus.\nIt is shown that Judah has not taken warning by Iahvah's rejection\nof the sister kingdom (6-10); and that Ephraim may be pronounced\nless guilty than Judah, seeing that she had witnessed no such signal\nexample of the Divine vengeance on hardened apostasy. She is,\ntherefore, invited to repent and return to her alienated God, which\nwill involve a return from exile to her own land; and the promise\nis given of the reunion of the two peoples in a restored Theocracy,\nhaving its centre in Mount Zion (11-19). All Israel has rebelled\nagainst God; but the prophet hears the cry of universal penitence and\nsupplication ascending to heaven; and Iahvah's gracious answer of\nacceptance (iii. 20-iv. 2).\n\nThe opening section depicts the sin which had brought ruin on Israel,\nand Judah's readiness in following her example, and refusal to take\nwarning by her fate. This twofold sin is aggravated by an insincere\nrepentance. _And Iahvah said unto me, in the days of Josiah the\nking, Sawest thou what the Turncoat_ or _Recreant Israel did? she\nwould go up every high_ _hill, and under every evergreen tree, and\nplay the harlot there. And methought that after doing all this she\nwould return to Me; but she returned not; and the Traitress, her\nsister Judah saw it. And I[21] saw that when for the very reason\nthat she, the Turncoat Israel, had committed adultery, I had put her\naway, and given her her bill of divorce, the Traitress Judah, her\nsister, was not afraid, but she too went off and played the harlot.\nAnd so, through the cry_ (cf. Gen. iv. 10, xviii. 20 _sq._) _of her\nharlotry_ (or read \u05e8\u05d1 for \u05e7\u05dc, _script. defect._ through her manifold\nor abounding harlotry) _she polluted the land_ (\u05d5\u05b7\u05ea\u05b7\u05bc\u05d7\u05b2\u05e0\u05b5\u05e3 ver. 2),\n_in that she committed adultery with the Stone and with the Stock.\nAnd yet though she was involved in all this guilt_ (lit. _and even in\nall this_. Perhaps the sin and the penalties of it are identified;\nand the meaning is: _And yet for all this liability_: cf. Isa. v.\n25), _the Traitress Judah returned not unto Me with all her heart_\n(with a _whole_ or _undivided_ heart, with entire sincerity[22])\n_but in falsehood saith Iahvah_. The example of the northern kingdom\nis represented as a powerful influence for evil upon Judah. This\nwas only natural; for although from the point of view of religious\ndevelopment Judah is incomparably the more important of the sister\nkingdoms; the exact contrary is the case as regards political power\nand predominance. Under strong kings like Omri and Ahab, or again,\nJeroboam II., Ephraim was able to assert itself as a first-rate power\namong the surrounding principalities; and in the case of Athaliah, we\nhave a conspicuous instance of the manner in which Canaanite idolatry\nmight be propagated from Israel to Judah. The prophet declares that\nthe sin of Judah was aggravated by the fact that she had witnessed\nthe ruin of Israel, and yet persisted in the same evil courses of\nwhich that ruin was the result. She sinned against light. The fall of\nEphraim had verified the predictions of her prophets; yet \"she was\nnot afraid,\" but went on adding to the score of her own offences, and\npolluting the land with her unfaithfulness to her Divine Spouse. The\nidea that the very soil of her country was defiled by Judah's idolatry\nmay be illustrated by reference to the well-known words of Ps. cvi.\n38: \"They shed innocent blood, even the blood of their sons and their\ndaughters whom they sacrificed unto the idols of Canaan; and the land\nwas defiled with the bloodshed.\" We may also remember Elohim's word\nto Cain: \"The voice of thy brother's blood is crying unto Me from the\nground!\" (Gen. iv. 10). As Iahvah's special dwelling-place, moreover,\nthe land of Israel was holy; and foreign rites desecrated and profaned\nit, and made it offensive in His sight. The pollution of it cried to\nheaven for vengeance on those who had caused it. To such a state had\nJudah brought her own land, and the very city of the sanctuary; \"and\nyet in all this\"--amid this accumulation of sins and liabilities--she\nturned not to her Lord with her whole heart. The reforms set on foot\nin the twelfth year of Josiah were but superficial and half-hearted;\nthe people merely acquiesced in them, at the dictation of the court,\nand gave no sign of any inward change or deep-wrought repentance. The\nsemblance without the reality of sorrow for sin is but a mockery of\nheaven, and a heinous aggravation of guilt. Hence the sin of Judah\nwas of a deeper dye than that which had destroyed Israel. _And Iahvah\nsaid unto me, The Turncoat or Recreant Israel hath proven herself more\nrighteous than the Traitress Judah._ Who could doubt it, considering\nthat almost all the prophets had borne their witness in Judah; and\nthat, in imitating her sister's idolatry, she had resolutely closed\nher eyes to the light of truth and reason? On this ground, that Israel\nhas sinned less, and suffered more, the prophet is bidden to hold out\nto her the hope of Divine mercy. The greatness of her ruin, as well as\nthe lapse of years since the fatal catastrophe, might tend to diminish\nin the prophet's mind the impression of her guilt; and his patriotic\nyearning for the restoration of the banished Ten Tribes, who, after\nall, were the near kindred of Judah, as well as the thought that they\nhad borne their punishment, and thus atoned for their sin (Isa. xl.\n2), might cooperate with the desire of kindling in his own countrymen\na noble rivalry of repentance, in moving the prophet to obey the\nimpulse which urged him to address himself to Israel. _Go thou, and\ncry these words northward_ (toward the desolate land of Ephraim),\n_and say: Return, Turncoat or Recreant Israel, saith Iahvah; I will\nnot let My countenance fall at the sight of you_ (lit. _against you_,\ncf. Gen. iv. 5); _for I am loving, saith Iahvah, I keep not anger\nfor ever. Only recognise thy guilt, that thou hast rebelled against\nIahvah thy God, and hast scattered_ (or _lavished_: Ps. cxii. 9) _thy\nways to the strangers_ (hast gone now in this direction, now in that,\nworshipping first one idol and then another; cf. ii. 23; and so, as it\nwere, dividing up and dispersing thy devotion) _under every evergreen\ntree; but My voice ye have not obeyed, saith Iahvah._ The invitation,\n\"Return Apostate Israel!\"--\u05d9\u05e9 \u05de\u05e9\u05d1\u05d4 \u05e9\u05d5\u05d1\u05d4[23]--contains a play on words,\nwhich seems to suggest that the exile of the Ten Tribes was voluntary,\nor self-imposed; as if, when they turned their backs upon their true\nGod, they had deliberately made choice of the inevitable consequence\nof that rebellion, and made up their minds to abandon their native\nland. So close is the connexion, in the prophet's view, between the\nmisfortunes of his people and their sins.\n\n_Return, ye apostate children_ (again there is a play on words--\u05e9\u05d5\u05d1\u05d1\u05d9\u05dd\n\u05d1\u05e0\u05d9\u05dd \u05e9\u05d5\u05d1\u05d5--_Turn back, ye back-turning sons_, or _ye sons that turn the\nback_ to Me) _saith Iahvah; for it was I that wedded you_ (ver. 14), and\nam, therefore, your proper lord. The expression is not stranger than\nthat which the great prophet of the Return addresses to Zion: \"Thy sons\nshall marry thee.\" But perhaps we should rather compare another passage\nof the book of Isaiah, where it is said: \"Iahvah, our God! other lords\nbeside Thee have had dominion over us\" (\u05d1\u05b0\u05bc\u05e2\u05b8\u05dc\u05d5\u05bc\u05e0\u05d5\u05bc Isa. xxvi. 13), and\nrender: _For it is I that will be your lord_; or perhaps, _For it is I\nthat have mastered you_, and put down your rebellion by chastisements;\n_and I will take you, one of a city and two of a clan, and will bring\nyou to Zion_. As a \"city\" is elsewhere spoken of as a \"thousand\" (Mic.\nv. 1), and a \"thousand\" (\u05d0\u05dc\u05e3) is synonymous with a \"clan\" (\u05de\u05e9\u05e4\u05d7\u05d4), as\nproviding a thousand warriors in the national militia; it is clear\nthat the promise is that one or two representatives of each township\nin Israel shall be restored from exile to the land of their fathers.\nIn other words, we have here Isaiah's doctrine of the remnant, which\nhe calls a \"tenth\" (Isa. vi. 13), and of which he declared that \"the\nsurvivors of the house of Judah that remain, shall again take root\ndownwards, and bear fruit upwards\" (Isa. xxxvii. 31). And as Zion is\nthe goal of the returning exiles, we may see, as doubtless the prophets\nsaw, a kind of anticipation and foreshadowing of the future in the\nfew scattered members of the northern tribes of Asher, Manasseh and\nZebulun, who \"humbled themselves,\" and accepted Hezekiah's invitation\nto the passover (2 Chron. xxx. 11, 18); and, again, in the authority\nwhich Josiah is said to have exercised in the land of the Ten Tribes\n(2 Chron. xxxiv. 6; cf. 9). We must bear in mind that the prophets\ndo not contemplate the restoration of every individual of the entire\nnation; but rather the return of a chosen few, a kind of \"firstfruits\"\nof Israel, who are to be a \"holy seed\" (Isa. vi. 13), from which the\npower of the Supreme will again build up the entire people according to\nits ancient divisions. So the holy Apostle in the Revelation hears that\ntwelve thousand of each tribe are sealed as servants of God (Rev. vii.).\n\nThe happy time of restoration will also be a time of reunion. The\nestranged tribes will return to their old allegiance. This is implied\nby the promise, \"I will bring you to Zion,\" and by that of the next\nverse: _And I will give you shepherds after My own heart; and they\nshall shepherd you with knowledge and wisdom_. Obviously, kings of\nthe house of David are meant; the good shepherds of the future are\ncontrasted with the \"rebellious\" ones of the past (ii. 8). It is the\npromise of Isaiah (i. 26): \"And I will restore thy judges as at the\nfirst, and thy counsellors as at the beginning.\" In this connexion, we\nmay recall the fact that the original schism in Israel was brought\nabout by the folly of evil shepherds. The coming King will resemble\nnot Rehoboam but David. Nor is this all; for _It shall come to pass,\nwhen ye multiply and become fruitful in the land, in those days,\nsaith Iahvah, men shall not say any more, The ark of the covenant of\nIahvah_, (or, as LXX., _of the Holy One of Israel); nor shall it_\n(the ark) _come to mind; nor shall men remember it, nor miss it; nor\nshall it be made any more_ (pointing \u05d9\u05b5\u05e2\u05b8\u05e9\u05b6\u05c2\u05d4 although the verb may be\nimpersonal. I do not understand why Hitzig asserts \"_Man wird keine\nandere machen_ (Movers) oder; _sie wird nicht wieder gemacht_ (Ew.,\nGraf) als w\u00e4re nicht von der geschichtlichen Lade die Rede, sondern\nvon ihr begrifflich, k\u00f6nnen die Worte nicht bedeuten.\" But cf. Exod.\nxxv. 10; Gen. vi. 14; where the same verb \u05e2\u05e9\u05d4 is used. Perhaps,\nhowever, the rendering of C. B. Michaelis, which he prefers, is more\nin accordance with what precedes: _nor shall all that be done any\nmore_, Gen. xxix. 26, xli. 34. But \u05e4\u05e7\u05d3 does not mean _nachforschen_:\ncf. 1 Sam. xx. 6, xxv. 15). _In that time men will call Jerusalem the\nthrone of Iahvah; and all the nations will gather into it_ (Gen. i.\n9), _for the name of Iahvah_ [_at Jerusalem_: LXX. om.]; _and they_\n(the heathen) _will no longer follow the stubbornness of their evil\nheart_ (vii. 24; Deut. xxix. 19).\n\nIn the new Theocracy, the true kingdom of God, the ancient symbol\nof the Divine presence will be forgotten in the realization of that\npresence. The institution of the New Covenant will be characterized by\nan immediate and personal knowledge of Iahvah in the hearts of all His\npeople (xxxi. 31 _sq._). The small object in which past generations\nhad loved to recognise the earthly throne of the God of Israel, will\nbe replaced by Jerusalem itself, the Holy City, not merely of Judah,\nnor of Judah and Israel, but of the world. Thither will all the\nnations resort \"to the name of Iahvah;\" ceasing henceforth \"to follow\nthe hardness (or callousness) of their own evil heart.\" That the more\ndegraded kinds of heathenism have a hardening effect upon the heart;\nand that the cruel and impure worships of Canaan especially tended to\nblunt the finer sensibilities, to enfeeble the natural instincts of\nhumanity and justice, and to confuse the sense of right and wrong,\nis beyond question. Only a heart rendered callous by custom, and\nstubbornly deaf to the pleadings of natural pity, could find genuine\npleasure in the merciless rites of the Molech-worship; and they who\nceased to follow these inhuman superstitions, and sought light and\nguidance from the God of Israel, might well be said to have ceased\n\"to walk after the hardness of their own evil heart.\"[24] The more\nrepulsive features of heathenism chime in too well with the worst\nand most savage impulses of our nature; they exhibit too close a\nconformity with the suggestions and demands of selfish appetite;\nthey humour and encourage the darkest passions far too directly and\ndecidedly, to allow us to regard as plausible any theory of their\norigin and permanence which does not recognise in them at once a cause\nand an effect of human depravity (cf. Rom. i.).\n\nThe repulsiveness of much that was associated with the heathenism with\nwhich they were best acquainted, did not hinder the prophets of Israel\nfrom taking a deep spiritual interest in those who practised and were\nenslaved by it. Indeed, what has been called the universalism of the\nHebrew seers--their emancipation in this respect from all local and\nnational limits and prejudices--is one of the clearest proofs of their\ndivine mission. Jeremiah only reiterates what Micah and Isaiah had\npreached before him; that \"in the latter days the mountain of Iahvah's\nHouse shall be established as the chief of mountains, and shall be\nexalted above the hills; and all the nations will flow unto it\" (Isa.\nii. 2). In ch. xvi. 19 _sq._ our prophet thus expresses himself upon\nthe same topic. \"Iahvah, my strength and my stronghold, and my refuge\nin the day of distress! unto Thee shall nations come from the ends\nof the earth, and shall say: Our forefathers inherited nought but a\nlie, vanity, and things among which is no helper. Shall a man make him\ngods, when they are no gods?\" How largely this particular aspiration\nof the prophets of the seventh and eighth centuries B.C. has since\nbeen fulfilled in the course of the ages is a matter of history. The\nreligion which was theirs has, in the new shape given it by our Lord\nand His Apostles, become the religion of one heathen people after\nanother, until at this day it is the faith professed, not only in the\nland of its origin, but by the leading nations of the world. So mighty\na fulfilment of hopes, which at the time of their first conception\nand utterance could only be regarded as the dreams of enthusiastic\nvisionaries, justifies those who behold and realize it in the joyful\nbelief that the progress of true religion has not been maintained for\nsix and twenty centuries to be arrested now; and that these old-world\naspirations are destined to receive a fulness of illustration in the\ntriumphs of the future, in the light of which the brightest glories of\nthe past will pale and fade away.\n\nThe prophet does not say, with a prophet of the New Covenant, that\nall _Israel shall be saved_ (Rom. xi. 26). We may, however, fairly\ninterpret the latter of the true Israel, _the remnant according to the\nelection of grace_, rather than of _Israel according to the flesh_,\nand so both will be at one, and both at variance with the unspiritual\ndoctrine of the Talmud, that _All Israel_, irrespective of moral\nqualifications, will have _a portion in the world to come_, on account\nof the surpassing merits of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and even of\nAbraham alone (cf. St. Matt. iii. 9; St. John viii. 33).\n\nThe reference to the ark of the covenant in the sixteenth verse is\nremarkable upon several grounds. This sacred symbol is not mentioned\namong the spoils which Nebuzaradan (Nab\u00fb-zir-iddin) took from the\ntemple (lii. 17 _sqq._); nor is it specified among the treasures\nappropriated by Nebuchadrezzar at the surrender of Jehoiachin. The\nwords of Jeremiah prove that it cannot be included among \"the vessels\nof gold\" which the Babylonian conqueror \"cut in pieces\" (2 Kings xxiv.\n13). We learn two facts about the ark from the present passage: (1)\nthat it no longer existed in the days of the prophet; (2) that people\nremembered it with regret, though they did not venture to replace the\nlost original by a new substitute. It may well have been destroyed\nby Manasseh, the king who did his utmost to abolish the religion of\nIahvah. However that may be, the point of the prophet's allusion\nconsists in the thought that in the glorious times of Messianic rule\nthe idea of holiness will cease to be attached to things, for it will\nbe realized in persons; the symbol will become obsolete, and its\nname and memory will disappear from the minds and affections of men,\nbecause the fact symbolized will be universally felt and perceived to\nbe a present and self-evident truth. In that great epoch of Israel's\nreconciliation, all nations will recognise in Jerusalem the _throne\nof Iahvah_, the centre of light and source of spiritual truth; the\nHoly City of the world. Is it the earthly or the heavenly Jerusalem\nthat is meant? It would seem, the former only was present to the\nconsciousness of the prophet, for he concludes his beautiful interlude\nof promise with the words: _In those days will the house of Judah walk\nbeside the house of Israel; and they will come together from the land\nof the North_ [_and from all the lands_: LXX add. cf. xvi. 15] _unto\nthe land that I caused your fathers to possess_. Like Isaiah (xi. 12\n_sqq._) and other prophets his predecessors, Jeremiah forecasts for\nthe whole repentant and united nation a reinstatement in their ancient\ntemporal rights, in the pleasant land from which they had been so\ncruelly banished for so many weary years.\n\n\"The letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.\" If, when we look\nat the whole course of subsequent events, when we review the history\nof the Return and of the narrow religious commonwealth which was at\nlast, after many bitter struggles, established on mount Sion; when\nwe consider the form which the religion of Iahvah assumed in the\nhands of the priestly caste, and the half-religious, half-political\nsects, whose intrigues and conflicts for power constitute almost all\nwe know of their period; when we reflect upon the character of the\nentire post-exilic age down to the time of the birth of Christ, with\nits worldly ideals, its fierce fanaticisms, its superstitious trust\nin rites and ceremonies; if, when we look at all this, we hesitate\nto claim that the prophetic visions of a great restoration found\nfulfilment in the erection of this petty state, this paltry edifice,\nupon the ruins of David's capital; shall we lay ourselves open to the\naccusation that we recognise no element of truth in the glorious\naspirations of the prophets? I think not.\n\nAfter all, it is clear from the entire context that these hopes of\na golden time to come are not independent of the attitude of the\npeople towards Iahvah. They will only be realized, if the nation\nshall truly repent of the past, and turn to Him with the whole heart.\nThe expressions \"at that time,\" \"in those days\" (vv. 17, 18), are\nonly conditionally determinate; they mean the happy time of Israel's\nrepentance, _if such a time should ever come_. From this glimpse of\nglorious possibilities, the prophet turns abruptly to the dark page of\nIsrael's actual history. He has, so to speak, portrayed in characters\nof light the development as it might have been; he now depicts the\ncourse it actually followed. He restates Iahvah's original claim upon\nIsrael's grateful devotion (ii. 2), putting these words into the mouth\nof the Divine Speaker: _And I indeed thought, How will I set thee among\nthe sons_ (of the Divine household), _and give thee a lovely land, a\nheritage the fairest among the nations! And methought, thou wouldst call\nMe 'My Father,' and wouldst not turn back from following Me._ Iahvah\nhad at the outset adopted Israel, and called him from the status of a\ngroaning bondsman to the dignity of a son and heir. When Israel was a\nchild, He had loved him, and called His son out of Egypt (Hos. xi. 1),\nto give him a place and a heritage among nations. It was Iahvah, indeed,\nwho originally assigned their holdings to all the nations, and separated\nthe various tribes of mankind, _fixing the territories of peoples,\naccording to the number of the sons of God_ (Deut. xxxii. 8 Sept.).\nIf He had brought up Israel from Egypt, He had also brought up the\nPhilistines from Caphtor, and the Arameans from Kir (Amos ix. 7). But\nHe had adopted Israel in a more special sense, which may be expressed in\nSt. Paul's words, who makes it the chief advantage of Israel above the\nnations that _unto them were committed the oracles of God_. (Rom. iii.\n2). What nobler distinction could have been conferred upon any race of\nmen than that they should have been thus chosen, as Israel actually was\nchosen, not merely in the aspirations of prophets, but as a matter of\nfact in the divinely-directed evolution of human history, to become the\nheralds of a higher truth, the hierophants of spiritual knowledge, the\nuniversally recognised interpreters of God? Such a calling might have\nbeen expected to elicit a response of the warmest gratitude, the most\nenthusiastic loyalty and unswerving devotion. But Israel as a nation did\nnot rise to the level of these lofty prophetic views of its vocation;\nit knew itself to be the people of Iahvah, but it failed to realize\nthe moral significance of that privilege, and the moral and spiritual\nresponsibilities which it involved. It failed to adore Iahvah as the\nFather, in the only proper and acceptable sense of that honourable name,\nthe sense which restricts its application to one sole Being. Heathenism\nis blind and irrational as well as profane and sinful; and so it does\nnot scruple to confer such absolutely individual titles as \"God\" and\n\"Father\" upon a multitude of imaginary powers.\n\n_Methought thou wouldst call Me 'My Father,' and wouldst not turn\nback from following Me. But_ (Zeph. iii. 7) _a woman is false to\nher fere; so were ye false to Me, O house of Israel, saith Iahvah._\nThe Divine intention toward Israel, God's gracious design for her\neverlasting good, God's expectation of a return for His favour, and\nhow that design was thwarted so far as man could thwart it, and\nthat expectation disappointed hitherto; such is the import of the\nlast two verses (19, 20). Speaking in the name of God, Jeremiah\nrepresents Israel's past as it appears to God. He now proceeds to\nshew dramatically, or as in a picture, how the expectation may yet be\nfulfilled, and the design realized. Having exposed the national guilt,\nhe supposes his remonstrance to have done its work, and he overhears\nthe penitent people pouring out its heart before God. Then a kind of\ndialogue ensues between the Deity and His suppliants. _Hark! upon the\nbare hills is heard the weeping of the supplications of the sons of\nIsrael, that they perverted their way, forgot Iahvah their God._ The\ntreeless hill-tops had been the scene of heathen orgies miscalled\nworship. There the rites of Canaan performed by Israelites had\ninsulted the God of heaven (vv. 2 and 6). Now the very places which\nwitnessed the sin, witness the national remorse and confession. The\n'high-places' are not condemned even by Jeremiah as places of worship,\nbut only as places of heathen and illicit worships. The solitude and\nquiet and purer air of the hill-tops, their unobstructed view of\nheaven and suggestive nearness thereto, have always made them natural\nsanctuaries both for public rites and private prayer and meditation:\ncf. 2 Sam. xv. 32; and especially St. Luke vi. 12.\n\nIn this closing section of the piece (iii. 19-iv. 2) 'Israel' means\nnot the entire people, but the northern kingdom only, which is spoken\nof separately also in iii. 6-18, with the object of throwing into\nhigher relief the heinousness of Judah's guilt. Israel--the northern\nkingdom--was less guilty than Judah, for she had no warning example,\nno beacon-light upon her path, such as her own fall afforded to the\nsouthern kingdom; and therefore the Divine compassion is more likely\nto be extended to her, even after a century of ruin and banishment,\nthan to her callous, impenitent sister. Whether at the time Jeremiah\nwas in communication with survivors of the northern Exile, who were\nfaithful to the God of their fathers, and looked wistfully toward\nJerusalem as the centre of the best traditions and the sole hope of\nIsraelite nationality, cannot now be determined. The thing is not\nunlikely, considering the interest which the prophet afterwards took\nin the Judean exiles who were taken to Babylon with Jehoiachin (chap.\nxxix.) and his active correspondence with their leaders. We may also\nremember that \"divers of Asher and Manasseh and Zebulun humbled\nthemselves\" and came to keep passover with king Hezekiah at Jerusalem.\nIt cannot, certainly, be supposed, with any show of reason, that the\nAssyrians either carried away the entire population of the northern\nkingdom, or exterminated all whom they did not carry away. The words\nof the Chronicler who speaks of \"a remnant ... escaped out of the\nhand of the kings of Assyria,\" are themselves perfectly agreeable\nto reason and the nature of the case, apart from the consideration\nthat he had special historical sources at his command (2 Chron.\nxxx. 6, 11). We know that in the Maccabean and Roman wars the rocky\nfastnesses of the country were a refuge to numbers of the people,\nand the history of David shews that this had been the case from time\nimmemorial (cf. Judg. vi. 2). Doubtless in this way not a few survived\nthe Assyrian invasions and the destruction of Samaria (B.C. 721).\nBut to return to the text. After the confession of the nation that\nthey have _perverted their way_ (that is, their mode of worship, by\nadoring visible symbols of Iahvah, and associating with Him as His\ncompeers a multitude of imaginary gods, especially the local Baalim,\nii. 23, and Ashtaroth), the prophet hears another voice, a voice of\nDivine invitation and gracious promise, responsive to penitence and\nprayer: _Return, ye apostate sons, let Me heal your apostasies!_ or\n_If ye return, ye apostate sons, I will heal your apostasies!_ It is\nan echo of the tenderness of an older prophet (Hos. xiv. 1, 4). And\nthe answer of the penitents quickly follows: _Behold us, we are come\nunto Thee, for Thou art Iahvah our God_. The voice that now calls us,\nwe know by its tender tones of entreaty, compassion and love to be\nthe voice of Iahvah our own God; not the voice of sensual Chemosh,\ntempting to guilty pleasures and foul impurities, not the harsh cry of\na cruel Molech, calling for savage rites of pitiless bloodshed. Thou,\nIahvah--not these nor their fellows--art our true and only God.\n\n_Surely, in vain_ (for nought, bootlessly, 1 Sam. xxv. 21; chap. v. 2,\nxvi. 19) _on the hills did we raise a din_ (lit. 'hath one raised';\nreading \u05d1\u05b7\u05bc\u05d2\u05b0\u05bc\u05d1\u05b8\u05e2\u05d5\u05b9\u05ea and \u05d4\u05b5\u05e8\u05b4\u05d9\u05dd); _surely, in Iahvah our God is the\nsafety of Israel!_ The Hebrew cannot be original as it now stands in\nthe Masoretic text, for it is ungrammatical. The changes I have made\nwill be seen to be very slight, and the sense obtained is much the\nsame as Ewald's _Surely in vain from the hills is the noise, from the\nmountains_ (where every reader must feel that _from the mountains_ is a\nforcible-feeble addition which adds nothing to the sense). We might also\nperhaps detach the _mem_ from the term for 'hills,' and connect it with\nthe preceding word, thus getting the meaning: _Surely, for Lies are the\nhills, the uproar of the mountains!_ (\u05d4\u05b8\u05e8\u05b4\u05d9\u05dd \u05d4\u05b2\u05de\u05b9\u05d5\u05df ... \u05dc\u05b4\u05e9\u05b0\u05c1\u05e7\u05b8\u05e8\u05b4\u05d9\u05dd);\nthat is to say, the high-places are devoted to delusive nonentities,\nwho can do nothing in return for the wild orgiastic worship bestowed on\nthem; a thought which contrasts very well with the second half of the\nverse: _Surely, in Iahvah our God is the safety of Israel!_\n\nThe confession continues: _And as for the Shame_--the shameful idol,\nthe Baal whose worship involved shameful rites (chap. xi. 13; Hos. ix.\n10), and who put his worshippers to shame, by disappointing them of\nhelp in the hour of their need (ii. 8, 26, 27)--_as for the Shame_--in\ncontrast with Iahvah, the Safety of Israel, who gives all, and\nrequires little or nothing of this kind in return--_it devoured the\nlabour of our fathers from our youth, their flocks and their herds,\ntheir sons and their daughters_. The allusion is to the insatiable\ngreed of the idol-priests, and the lavish expense of perpetually\nrecurring feasts and sacrifices, which constituted a serious drain\nupon the resources of a pastoral and agricultural community; and to\nthe bloody rites which, not content with animal offerings, demanded\nhuman victims for the altars of an appalling superstition. _Let us\nlie down in our shame, and let our infamy cover us! for toward Iahvah\nour God we trespassed, we and our fathers, from our youth even unto\nthis day, and obeyed not the voice of Iahvah our God._ A more complete\nacknowledgment of sin could hardly be conceived; no palliating\ncircumstances are alleged, no excuses devised, of the kind with\nwhich men usually seek to soothe a disturbed conscience. The strong\nseductions of Canaanite worship, the temptation to join in the joyful\nmerriment of idol-festivals, the invitation of friends and neighbours,\nthe contagion of example,--all these extenuating facts must have been\nat least as well known to the prophet as to modern critics, but he is\nexpressively silent on the point of mitigating circumstances in the\ncase of a nation to whom such light and guidance had come, as came to\nIsrael. No, he could discern no ground of hope for his people except\nin a full and unreserved admission of guilt, an agony of shame and\ncontrition before God, a heartfelt recognition of the truth that from\nthe outset of their national existence to the passing day they had\ncontinually sinned against Iahvah their God and resisted His holy Will.\n\nFinally, to this cry of penitents humbled in the dust, and owning\nthat they have no refuge from the consequences of their sin but in\nthe Divine Mercy, comes the firm yet loving answer: _If thou wilt\nreturn, O Israel, saith Iahvah, unto Me wilt return, and if thou\nwilt put away thine Abominations_ [_out of thy mouth and_, LXX.]\n_out of My Presence, and sway not to and fro_ (1 Kings xiv. 15),\n_but wilt swear 'By the Life of Iahvah!' in good faith, justice, and\nrighteousness; then shall the nations bless themselves by Him, and\nin Him shall they glory_ (iv. 1, 2). Such is the close of this ideal\ndialogue between God and man. It is promised that if the nation's\nrepentance be sincere--not half-hearted like that of Judah (iii. 10;\n2 Chron. xxxiv. 33)--and if the fact be demonstrated by a resolute\nand unwavering rejection of idol-worship, evinced by the disuse of\ntheir names in oaths, and the expulsion of their symbols _from the\nPresence_, that is, out of the sanctuaries and domain of Iahvah, and\nby adhering to the Name of the God of Israel in oaths and compacts of\nall kinds, and by a scrupulous loyalty to such engagements (Ps. xv. 4;\nDeut. x. 20; Isa. xlviii. 1); then the ancient oracle of blessing will\nbe fulfilled, and Israel will become a proverb of felicity, the pride\nand boast of mankind, the glorious ideal of perfect virtue and perfect\nhappiness (Gen. xii. 3; Isa. lxv. 16). Then, _all the nations will\ngather together unto Jerusalem for the Name of Iahvah_ (iii. 17); they\nwill recognise in the religion of Iahvah the answer to their highest\nlongings and spiritual necessities, and will take Israel for what\nIahvah intended him to be, their example and priest and prophet.\n\nJeremiah could hardly have chosen a more extreme instance for pointing\nthe lesson he had to teach than the long-since ruined and depopulated\nkingdom of the Ten Tribes. Hopeless as their actual condition must\nhave seemed at the time, he assures his own countrymen in Judah\nand Jerusalem that even yet, if only the moral requirements of the\ncase were fulfilled, and the heart of the poor remnant and of the\nsurvivors in banishment aroused to a genuine and permanent repentance,\nthe Divine promises would be accomplished in a people whose sun had\napparently set in darkness for ever. And so he passes on to address\nhis own people directly in tones of warning, reproof, and menace of\napproaching wrath (iv. 3-vi. 30.)\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[21] _She_ saw: Pesh. This may be right. And the Traitress, her sister\nJudah, _saw it: yea, saw that even because the Turncoat Israel had\ncommitted adultery, I put her away.... And yet the Traitress Judah,\nher sister, was not afraid, etc._\n\n[22] 1 Kings ii. 4, \u05d1\u05b6\u05bc\u05d0\u05b1\u05de\u05b6\u05ea = \u05d1\u05bc\u05db\u05b8\u05dc\u05be\u05dc\u05b0\u05d1\u05b8\u05d1\u05b8\u05dd\n\n[23] As if \"Turn back, back-turning Israel!\" _i.e._ Thou that turnedst\nthy back upon Iahvah, and, therefore, upon His pleasant land.\n\n[24] Cf. also the Arabic [Arabic: **] _pravus_, [Arabic: **]\n_pravitas_, with the Hebrew term.\n\n\n\n\n                                  IV.\n\n                 _THE SCYTHIANS AS THE SCOURGE OF GOD._\n\n                         JEREMIAH iv. 3-vi. 30.\n\n\nIf we would understand what is written here and elsewhere in the pages\nof prophecy, two things would seem to be requisite. We must prepare\nourselves with some knowledge of the circumstances of the time, and we\nmust form some general conception of the ideas and aims of the inspired\nwriter, both in themselves, and in their relation to passing events. Of\nthe former, a partial and fragmentary knowledge may suffice, provided\nit be true so far as it goes; minuteness of detail is not necessary to\ngeneral accuracy. Of the latter, a very full and complete conception may\nbe gathered from a careful study of the prophetic discourses.\n\nThe chapters before us were obviously composed in the presence of a\ngrave national danger; and what that danger was is not left uncertain,\nas the discourse proceeds. An invasion of the country appeared to be\nimminent; the rumour of approaching war had already made itself heard\nin the capital; and all classes were terror-stricken at the tidings.\n\nAs usual in such times of peril, the country people were already\nabandoning the uncalled towns and villages, to seek refuge in the\nstrong places of the land, and, above all, in Jerusalem, which was at\nonce the capital and the principal fortress of the kingdom. The evil\nnews had spread far and near; the trumpet-signal of alarm was heard\neverywhere; the cry was, _Assemble yourselves, and let us go into the\nfenced cities!_ (iv. 5).\n\nThe ground of this universal terror is thus declared: _The lion is\ngone up from his thicket, and the destroyer of nations is on his way,\nis gone forth from his place; to make thy land a desolation, that thy\ncities be laid waste, without inhabitant_ (ver. 7). _A hot blast over\nthe bare hills in the wilderness, on the road to the daughter of my\npeople, not for winnowing, nor for cleansing; a full blast from those\nhills cometh at My beck_ (ver. 11). _Lo, like clouds he cometh up,\nand, like the whirlwind, his chariots; swifter than vultures are his\nhorses. Woe unto us! We are verily destroyed_ (ver. 13). _Besiegers_\n(lit. _watchmen_, Isa. i. 8) _are coming from the remotest land, and\nthey utter their cry against the cities of Judah. Like keepers of\na field become they against her on every side_ (vv. 16-17). At the\nsame time, the invasion is still only a matter of report; the blow\nhas not yet fallen upon the trembling people. _Behold, I am about to\nbring upon you a nation from afar, O house of Israel, saith Iahvah; an\ninexhaustible nation it is, a nation of old time it is, a nation whose\ntongue thou knowest not, nor understandest_ (lit. _hearest_) _what it\nspeaketh. Its quiver is like an opened grave; they all are heroes.\nAnd it will eat up thine harvest and thy bread, which thy sons and\nthy daughters should eat; it will eat up thy flock and thine herd; it\nwill eat up thy vine and thy figtree; it will shatter thine embattled\ncities, wherein thou art trusting, with the sword_ (v. 15-17). _Thus\nhath Iahvah said: Lo, a people cometh from a northern land, and a\ngreat nation is awaking from the uttermost parts of_ _earth. Bow and\nlance they hold; savage it is, and pitiless; the sound of them is\nlike the sea, when it roareth; and on horses they ride; he is arrayed\nas a man for battle, against thee, O daughter of Zion. We have heard\nthe report of him; our hands droop; anguish hath taken hold of us,\nthroes, like hers that travaileth_ (vi. 22 _sq._). With the graphic\nforce of a keen observer, who is also a poet, the priest of Anathoth\nhas thus depicted for all time the collapse of terror which befel his\ncontemporaries, on the rumoured approach of the Scythians in the reign\nof Josiah. And his lyric fervour carries him beyond this; it enables\nhim to see with the utmost distinctness the havoc wrought by these\nhordes of savages; the surprise of cities, the looting of houses,\nthe flight of citizens to the woods and the hills at the approach of\nthe enemy; the desertion of the country towns, the devastation of\nfields and vineyards, confusion and desolation everywhere, as though\nprimeval chaos had returned; and he tells it all with the passion and\nintensity of one who is relating an actual personal experience. _In\nmy vitals, my vitals, I quake, in the walls of my heart! My heart is\nmurmuring to me; I cannot hold my peace; for my soul is listening to\nthe trumpet-blast, the alarm of war! Ruin on ruin is cried, for all\nthe land is ravaged; suddenly are my tents ravaged, my pavilions in\na moment! How long must I see the standards, must I listen to the\ntrumpet-blast?_ (iv. 19-21). _I look at the earth, and lo, 'tis chaos:\nat the heavens, and their light is no more. I look at the mountains,\nand lo, they rock, and all the hills sway to and fro. I look, and lo,\nman is no more, and the birds of the air are gone, I look, and lo, the\nfruitful soil is wilderness, and all the cities of it are overthrown_\n(iv. 23-26). _At the noise of horseman and_ _archer all the city is\nin flight! They are gone into the thickets, and up the rocks they\nhave clomb: all the city is deserted_ (ver. 29). His eye follows the\ncourse of devastation until it reaches Jerusalem: Jerusalem, the\nproud, luxurious capital, now isolated on her hills, bereft of all\nher daughter cities, abandoned, even betrayed, by her foreign allies.\n_And thou, that art doomed to destruction, what canst thou do? Though\nthou clothe thee in scarlet, though thou deck thee with decking of\ngold, though thou broaden thine eyes with henna, in vain dost thou\nmake thyself fair; the lovers have scorned thee, thy life are they\nseeking._[25] The \"lovers\"--the false foreigners--have turned against\nher in the time of her need; and the strange gods, with whom she\ndallied in the days of prosperity, can bring her no help. And now,\nwhile she witnesses, but cannot avert, the slaughter of her children,\nher shrieks ring in the prophet's ear: _A cry, as of one in travail,\ndo I hear; pangs as of her that beareth her firstborn; the cry of the\ndaughter of Zion, that panteth, that spreadeth out her hands: Woe's\nme! my soul swooneth for the slayers!_ (vv. 30, 31).\n\nEven the strong walls of Jerusalem are no sure defence; there is\nno safety but in flight. _Remove your goods, ye sons of Benjamin,\nfrom within Jerusalem! And in Tekoah_ (as if Blaston or Blowick or\nTrumpington) _blow a trumpet-blast, and upon Beth-hakk\u00e9rem raise\na signal_ (or _beacon_)! _for evil hath looked forth_ _from the\nnorth, and mighty ruin_ (vi. 1, 2). The two towns mark the route\nof the fugitives, making for the wilderness of the south; and the\ntrumpet-call, and the beacon-light, muster the scattered companies\nat these rallying points or haltingplaces. _The beautiful and the\npampered one will I destroy--the daughter of Sion._ (Perhaps: _The\nbeautiful and the pampered woman art thou like, O daughter of Sion!_\n3rd fem. sing. in -_i_.) _To her come the shepherds and their flocks;\nthey pitch the tents upon her round about; they graze each at his own\nside_ (_i.e._ on the ground nearest him). The figure changes, with\nlyric abruptness, from the fair woman, enervated by luxury (ver. 2)\nto the fair pasture-land, on which the nomad shepherds encamp, whose\nflocks soon eat the herbage down, and leave the soil stripped bare\n(ver. 3); and then, again, to an army beleaguering the fated city,\nwhose cries of mutual cheer, and of impatience at all delay, the\npoet-prophet hears and rehearses. _Hallow ye war against her! Arise\nye, let us go up_ (to the assault) _at noontide! Unhappy we! the day\nhath turned; the shadows of eventide begin to lengthen! Arise ye, and\nlet us go up in the night, to destroy her palaces!_ (vv. 4, 5).\n\nAs a fine example of poetical expression, the discourse obviously\nhas its own intrinsic value. The author's power to sketch with a few\nbold strokes the magical effect of a disquieting rumour; the vivid\nforce with which he realizes the possibilities of ravage and ruin\nwhich are wrapped up in those vague, uncertain tidings; the pathos and\npassion of his lament over his stricken country, stricken as yet to\nhis perception only; the tenderness of feeling; the subtle sweetness\nof language; the variety of metaphor; the light of imagination\nilluminating the whole with its indefinable charm; all these\ncharacteristics indicate the presence and power of a master-singer.\nBut with Jeremiah, as with his predecessors, the poetic expression of\nfeeling is far from being an end in itself. He writes with a purpose\nto which all the endowments of his gifted nature are freely and\nresolutely subordinated. He values his powers as a poet and orator\nsolely as instruments which conduce to an efficient utterance of the\nwill of Iahvah. He is hardly conscious of these gifts as such. He\nexists to \"declare in the house of Jacob and to publish in Judah\" the\nword of the Lord.\n\nIt is in this capacity that he now comes forward, and addresses his\nterrified countrymen, in terms not calculated to allay their fears with\nsoothing suggestions of comfort and reassurance, but rather deliberately\nchosen with a view to heightening those fears, and deepening them to a\nsense of approaching judgment. For, after all, it is not the rumoured\ncoming of the Scythian hordes that impels him to break silence. It is\nhis consuming sense of the moral degeneracy, the spiritual degradation\nof his countrymen, which flames forth into burning utterance. _Whom\nshall I address and adjure, that they may hear? Lo, their ear is\nuncircumcised, and they cannot hearken; lo, the word of Iahvah hath\nbecome to them a reproach; they delight not therein. And of the fury of\nIahvah I am full; I am weary of holding it in._ Then the other voice in\nhis heart answers: _Pour thou it forth upon the child in the street,\nand upon the company of young men together!_ (vi. 10, 11). It is the\nrighteous indignation of an offended God that wells up from his heart,\nand overflows at his lips, and cries woe, irremediable woe, upon the\nland he loves better than his own life.\n\nHe begins with encouragement and persuasion, but his tone soon changes\nto denunciation and despair (iv. 3 _sq._). _Thus hath Iahvah said\nto the men of Judah and to Jerusalem, Break you up the fallows, and\nsow not into thorns! Circumcise yourselves to Iahvah, and remove\nthe foreskins of your heart, ye men of Judah, and ye inhabitants of\nJerusalem! lest My fury come forth like fire, and burn with none to\nquench it, because of the evil of your doings._ Clothed with the\nSpirit, as Semitic speech might express it, his whole soul enveloped\nin a garment of heavenly light--a magical garment whose virtues impart\nnew force as well as new light--the prophet sees straight to the heart\nof things, and estimates with God-given certainty the real state of\nhis people, and the moral worth of their seeming repentance. The first\nmeasures of Josiah's reforming zeal have been inaugurated; at least\nwithin the limits of the capital, idolatry in its coarser and more\nrepellent forms has been suppressed; there is a shew of return to\nthe God of Israel. But the popular heart is still wedded to the old\nsanctuaries, and the old sensuous rites of Canaan; and, worse than\nthis, the priests and prophets, whose centre of influence was the\none great sanctuary of the Book of the Law, the temple at Jerusalem,\nhave simply taken advantage of the religious reformation for their\nown purposes of selfish aggrandisement. _From the youngest to the\noldest of them, they all ply the trade of greed; and from prophet to\npriest, they all practice lying. And they have repaired the ruin of_\n[_the daughter_] _of my people in light fashion, saying, It is well,\nit is well! though it be not well_ (vi. 13, 14). The doctrine of the\none legitimate sanctuary, taught with disinterested earnestness by\nthe disciples of Isaiah, and enforced by that logic of events which\nhad demonstrated the feebleness of the local holy places before the\nAssyrian destroyers, had now come to be recognised as a convenient\nbuttress of the private gains of the Jerusalem priesthood and the\nvenal prophets who supported their authority. The strong current of\nnational reform had been utilized for the driving of their private\nmachinery; and the sole outcome of the self-denying efforts and\nsufferings of the past appeared to be the enrichment of these grasping\nand unscrupulous worldlings who sat, like an incubus, upon the heart\nof the national church. So long as money flowed steadily into their\ncoffers, they were eager enough to reassure the doubting, and to\ndispel all misgivings by their deceitful oracle that all was well. So\nlong as the sacrifices, the principal source of the priestly revenue,\nabounded, and the festivals ran their yearly round, they affirmed\nthat Iahweh was satisfied, and that no harm could befal the people\nof His care. This trading in things Divine, to the utter neglect of\nthe higher obligations of the moral law, was simply appalling to the\nsensitive conscience of the true prophet of that degenerate age. _A\nstrange and a startling thing it is, that is come to pass in the land.\nThe prophets, they have prophesied in the Lie, and the priests, they\ntyrannise under their direction; and My people, they love it thus;\nand what will ye do for the issue thereof?_ (v. 30, 31.) For such\nfacts must have an issue; and the present moral and spiritual ruin of\nthe nation points with certainty to impending ruin in the material\nand political sphere. The two things go together; you cannot have a\ndecline of faith, a decay of true religion, and permanent outward\nprosperity; _that_ issue is incompatible with the eternal laws which\nregulate the life and progress of humanity. One sits in the heavens,\nover all things from the beginning, to whom all stated worship is a\nhideous offence when accompanied by hypocrisy and impurity and fraud\nand violence in the ordinary relations of life. _What good to me is\nincense that cometh from Sheba, and the choice calamus from a far\ncountry? your burnt offerings_ (holocausts) _are not acceptable, and\nyour sacrifices are not sweet unto Me._ Instead of purchasing safety,\nthey will ensure perdition: _Therefore thus hath Iahvah said: Lo, I am\nabout to lay for this people stumblingblocks, and they shall stumble\nupon them, fathers and sons together, a neighbour and his friend; and\nthey shall perish_ (vi. 20 _sq._).\n\nIn the early days of reform, indeed, Jeremiah himself appears to have\nshared in the sanguine views associated with a revival of suspended\northodoxy. The tidings of imminent danger were a surprise to him, as\nto the zealous worshippers who thronged the courts of the temple. So\nthen, after all, \"the burning anger of Iahvah was not turned away\"\nby the outward tokens of penitence, by the lavish gifts of devotion;\nthis unexpected and terrifying rumour was a call for the resumption\nof the garb of mourning and for the renewal of those public fasts\nwhich had marked the initial stages of reformation (iv. 8). The\nastonishment and the disappointment of the man assert themselves\nagainst the inspiration of the prophet, when, contemplating the\nhelpless bewilderment of kings and princes, and the stupefaction of\npriests and prophets in face of the national calamities, he breaks out\ninto remonstrance with God. _And I said, Alas, O Lord Iahvah! of a\ntruth, Thou hast utterly beguiled this people and Jerusalem, saying,\nIt shall be well with you; whereas the sword will reach to the life._\nThe allusion is to the promises contained in the Book of the Law,\nthe reading of which had so powerfully conduced to the movement for\nreform. That book had been the text of the prophet-preachers, who were\nmost active in that work; and the influence of its ideas and language\nupon Jeremiah himself is apparent in all his early discourses.\n\nThe prophet's faith, however, was too deeply rooted to be more than\nmomentarily shaken; and it soon told him that the evil tidings were\nevidence not of unfaithfulness or caprice in Iahvah, but of the\nhypocrisy and corruption of Israel. With this conviction upon him, he\nimplores the populace of the capital to substitute an inward and real\nfor an outward and delusive purification. _Break up the fallows!_ Do\nnot dream that any adequate reformation can be superinduced upon the\nmere surface of life: _Sow not among thorns!_ Do not for one moment\nbelieve that the word of God can take root and bear fruit in the hard\nsoil of a heart that desires only to be secured in the possession of\npresent enjoyments, in immunity for self-indulgence, covetousness, and\noppression of the poor. _Wash thine heart from wickedness, O Jerusalem!\nthat thou mayst be saved. How long shall the schemings of thy folly\nlodge within thee? For hark! one declareth from Dan, and proclaimeth\nfolly from the hills of Ephraim_ (iv. 14 _sq._). The \"folly\" (_'awen_)\nis the foolish hankering after the gods which are nothing in the world\nbut a reflexion of the diseased fancy of their worshippers; for it is\nalways true that man makes his god in his own image, when he _does_ make\nhim, and does not receive the knowledge of him by revelation. It was\na folly inveterate and, as it would seem, hereditary in Israel, going\nback to the times of the Judges, and recalling the story of Micah the\nEphraimite and the Danites who stole his images. That ancient sin still\ncried to heaven for vengeance; for the apostatizing tendency, which it\nexemplified, was still active in the heart of Israel.[26] The nation had\n\"rebelled against\" the Lord, for it was foolish and had never really\nknown Him; the people were silly children, and lacked insight; skilled\nonly in doing wrong, and ignorant of the way to do right (iv. 22). Like\nthe things they worshipped, they had eyes, but saw not; they had ears,\nbut heard not. Enslaved to the empty terrors of their own imaginations,\nthey, who cowered before dumb idols, stood untrembling in the awful\npresence of Him whose laws restrained the ocean within due limits, and\nupon whose sovereign will the fall of the rain and increase of the field\ndepended (v. 21-24). The popular blindness to the claims of the true\nreligion, to the inalienable rights of the God of Israel, involved a\ncorresponding and ever-increasing blindness to the claims of universal\nmorality, to the rights of man. Competent observers have often called\nattention to the remarkable influence exercised by the lower forms of\nheathenism in blunting the moral sense; and this influence was fully\nillustrated in the case of Jeremiah's contemporaries. So complete,\nso universal was the national decline that it seemed impossible to\nfind one good man within the bounds of the capital. Every aim in life\nfound illustration in those gay, crowded streets, in the bazaars, in\nthe palaces, in the places by the gate where law was administered,\nexcept the aim of just and righteous and merciful dealing with one's\nneighbour. God was ignored or misconceived of, and therefore man was\nwronged and oppressed. Perjury, even in the Name of the God of Israel,\nwhose eyes regard faithfulness and sincerity, and whose favour is not\nto be won by professions and presents; a self-hardening against both\nDivine chastisement and prophetic admonition; a fatal inclination to\nthe seductions of Canaanite worship and the violations of the moral\nlaw, which that worship permitted and even encouraged as pleasing to\nthe gods; these vices characterized the entire population of Jerusalem\nin that dark period. _Run ye to and fro in the streets of Jerusalem,\nand see now, and know, and seek ye in the broad places thereof, if ye\ncan find a man, if indeed there be one that doeth justice, that seeketh\nsincerity; that I may pardon her. And if they say, By the life of\nIahvah! even so they swear falsely. Iahvah, are not thine eyes toward\nsincerity? Thou smotest them, and they trembled not; Thou consumedst\nthem, they refused to receive instruction; they made their faces harder\nthan a rock, they refused to repent. And for me, I said_ (methought),\n_These are but poor folk; they behave foolishly, because they know not\nthe way of Iahvah, the justice_ (ver. 1) _of their God: let me betake\nmyself to the great, and speak with them; for they at least know the\nway of Iahvah, the justice of their God: but these with one consent had\nbroken the yoke, had burst the bonds in sunder_ (v. 1-5).\n\nThen, as now, the debasement of the standard of life among the\nruling classes was a far more threatening symptom of danger to the\ncommonwealth than laxity of principle among the masses, who had never\nenjoyed the higher knowledge and more thorough training which wealth\nand rank, as a matter of course, confer. If the crew turn drunken and\nmutinous, the ship is in unquestionable peril; but if they who have\nthe guidance of the vessel in their hands, follow the vices of those\nwhom they should command and control, wreck and ruin are assured.\n\nThe profligacy allowed by heathenism, against which the prophets cried\nin vain, is forcibly depicted in the words: _Why should I pardon\nthee? Thy sons have forsaken Me, and have sworn by them that are no\ngods: though I had bound them_ (to Me) _by oath,[27] they committed_\n(spiritual) _adultery, and into the house of the Fornicatress_ (the\nidol's temple, where the harlot priestess sat for hire) _they would\nflock. Stallions roaming at large were they; neighing each to his\nneighbour's wife. Shall I not punish such offences, saith Iahvah;\nand shall not My soul avenge herself on such a nation as this?_ The\ncynical contempt of justice, the fraud and violence of those who were\nin haste to become rich, are set forth in the following: _Among My\npeople are found godless men; one watcheth, as birdcatchers lurk; they\nhave set the trap, they catch men. Like a cage filled with birds, so\nare their houses filled with fraud: therefore they are become great,\nand have amassed wealth. They are become fat, they are sleek; also\nthey pass over_ (Isa. xl. 27) _cases_ (Ex. xxii. 9, xxiv. 14; cf. also\n1 Sam. x. 2) _of wickedness--neglect to judge heinous crimes; the\ncause they judge not, the cause of the fatherless, to make it succeed;\nand the right of the needy they vindicate not_ (v. 26-28).\n\n_She is the city doomed to be punished! she is all oppression\nwithin. As a spring poureth forth its waters, so she poureth forth\nher wickedness; violence and oppression resound in her; before Me\ncontinually is_ _sickness and wounds_ (vi. 6, 7). There would seem\nto be no hope for such a people and such a city. The prophet, indeed,\ncannot forget the claims of kindred, the thousand ties of blood and\nfeeling that bind him to this perverse and sinful nation. Thrice,\neven in this dark forecast of destruction, he mitigates severity with\nthe promise, _yet will I not make a full end_. The door is still left\nopen, on the chance that some at least may be won to penitence. But\nthe chance was small. The difficulty was, and the prophet's yearning\ntenderness towards his people could not blind him to the fact, that\nall the lessons of God's providence were lost upon this reprobate\nrace: _They have belied the Lord, and said, it is not He; neither\nshall evil come upon us; neither shall we see sword and famine._ The\nprophets, they insisted, were wrong both in the significance which\nthey attributed to occasional calamities, and in the disasters, which\nthey announced as imminent: _The prophets will become wind, and the\nWord of God is not in them; so will it turn out with them_. It was,\ntherefore, wholly futile to appeal to their better judgment against\nthemselves: _Thus said Iahvah, Stop on the ways, and consider, and ask\nafter the eternal paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and\nfind rest for your soul: and they said, We will not walk therein. And\nI will set over you watchmen_ (the prophets); _hearken ye to the call\nof the trumpet!_ (the warning note of prophecy) _and they said We will\nnot hearken._ From such wilful hardness and impenitence, disdaining\ncorrection and despising reproof, God appeals to the heathen\nthemselves, and to the dumb earth, to attest the justice of His\nsentence of destruction against this people: _Therefore, hear, O ye\nnations, and know, and testify what is among_ _them! Hear, O earth!\nLo, I am about to bring evil upon this people, the fruit of their own\ndevisings; for unto My words they have not hearkened, and as for Mine\ninstruction, they have rejected it._ Their doom was inevitable, for it\nwas the natural and necessary consequence of their own doings: _Thine\nown way and thine Own deeds have brought about these evils for thee;\nthis is thine own evil; verily, it is bitter, verily, it reacheth unto\nthine heart_. The discourse ends with a despairing glance at the moral\nreprobation of Israel. _An assayer did I make thee among My people,\na refiner_ (reading _mec\u0330\u0101r\u0113f_, Mal. iii. 2, 3), _that thou mightest\nknow and assay their kind_ (lit. _way_). Jeremiah's call had been to\n\"sit as a refiner and purifier of silver\" in the name of his God: in\nother words, to separate the good elements from the bad in Israel,\nand to gather around himself the nucleus of a people \"prepared for\nIahvah.\" But his work had been vain. In vain had the prophetic fire\nburnt within him; in vain had the vehemency of the spirit fanned the\nflame; the Divine word--that solvent of hearts--had been expended\nin vain; no good metal could come of an ore so utterly base. _They\nare all the worst_ (1 Ki. xx. 43) _of rebels_ (or, _deserters to the\nrebels_), _going about with slander; they are brass and iron; they all\ndeal corruptly.[28] The bellows blow; the lead_ (used for fining the\nore) _is consumed by the fire; in vain do they go on refining_ (or,\n_does the refiner refine_[29]); _and the wicked are not separated.\nRefuse silver are they called, for Iahvah hath refused them._\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[25] The modern singer has well caught the echo of this ancient strain.\n\n    \"Wilt thou cover thine hair with gold, and with silver thy feet?\n     Hast thou taken the purple to fold thee, and made thy mouth sweet?\n     Behold, when thy face is made bare, he that loved thee shall hate:\n     Thy face shall be no more fair at the fall of thy fate.\"\n\n                                              _Atalanta in Calydon._\n\n[26] The second _'awen_, however, probably means \"trouble,\" \"calamity,\"\nas in Hab. iii. 7. The Sept. renders \u03c0\u03cc\u03bd\u03bf\u03c2, and this agrees with the\nmention of Dan in viii. 16. As Ewald puts it, \"from the north of\nPalestine the misery that is coming from the further north is already\nbeing proclaimed to all the nations in the south (vi. 18).\"\n\n[27] With a different point: \"When I had fed them to the full\" (cf.\nHos. xiii. 6).\n\n[28] This term--_mashch\u00eeth\u00eem_--is certainly not the plur. of the\n_mashch\u00eeth_, \"pitfall\" or \"trap,\" of v. 26. The meaning is the same as\nin Isa. i. 4. The original force of the root _shachath_ is seen in the\nAssyrian _shach\u00e2tu_, \"to fall down.\"\n\n[29] The form--_c\u0330\u0101r\u014df_--is like _b\u0101ch\u014dn_, \"assayer,\" in ver. 27.\n\n\n\n\n                                   V.\n\n                      _POPULAR AND TRUE RELIGION._\n\n                        JEREMIAH vii.-x., xxvi.\n\n\nIn the four chapters which we are now to consider we have what is\nplainly a finished whole. The only possible exception (x. 1-16)\nshall be considered in its place. The historical occasion of the\nintroductory prophecy (vii. 1-15), and the immediate effect of its\ndelivery, are recorded at length in the twenty-sixth chapter of\nthe book, so that in this instance we are happily not left to the\nuncertainties of conjecture. We are there told that it was _in the\nbeginning of the reign of Jehoiakim son of Josiah, king of Judah_,\nthat Jeremiah received the command to stand in the fore-court of\nIahvah's house, and to declare _to all the cities of Judah that were\ncome to worship_ there, that unless they repented and gave ear to\nIahvah's servants the prophets, He would make the temple like Shiloh,\nand Jerusalem itself a curse to all the nations of the earth. The\nsubstance of the oracle is there given in briefer form than here, as\nwas natural, where the writer's object was principally to relate the\nissue of it as it affected himself. In neither case is it probable\nthat we have a verbatim report of what was actually said, though the\nleading thoughts of his address are, no doubt, faithfully recorded by\nthe prophet in the more elaborate composition (chap. vii.). Trifling\nvariations between the two accounts must not, therefore, be pressed.\n\nInternal evidence suggests that this oracle was delivered at a time\nof grave public anxiety, such as marked the troubled period after\nthe death of Josiah, and the early years of Jehoiakim. _All Judah,\nor all the cities of Judah_ (xxvi. 2), that is to say, the people of\nthe country towns as well as the citizens of Jerusalem, were crowding\ninto the temple to supplicate their God (vii. 2). This indicates an\nextraordinary occasion, a national emergency affecting all alike.\nProbably a public fast and humiliation had been ordered by the\nauthorities, on the reception of some threatening news of invasion. \"The\nopening paragraphs of the address are marked by a tone of controlled\nearnestness, by an unadorned plainness of statement, without passion,\nwithout exclamation, apostrophe, or rhetorical device of any kind;\nwhich betokens the presence of a danger which spoke too audibly to the\ngeneral ear to require artificial heightening in the statement of it.\nThe position of affairs spoke for itself\" (Hitzig). The very words\nwith which the prophet opens his message, _Thus said Iahvah Sabaoth,\nthe God of Israel, Make good your ways and your doings, that I may\ncause you to dwell_ (_permanently_) _in this place!_ (ver. 3, cf. ver.\n7) prove that the anxiety which agitated the popular heart and drove\nit to seek consolation in religious observances, was an anxiety about\ntheir political stability, about the permanence of their possession of\nthe fair land of promise. The use of the expression _Iahvah Sabaoth_\n\"Iahvah (the God) of Hosts\" is also significant, as indicating that\nwar was what the nation feared; while the prophet reminds them thus\nthat all earthly powers, even the armies of heathen invaders, are\ncontrolled and directed by the God of Israel for His own sovereign\npurposes. A particular crisis is further suggested by the warning:\n_Trust ye not to the lying words, 'The Temple of Iahvah, the Temple of\nIahvah, the Temple of Iahvah, is this!'_ The fanatical confidence in the\ninviolability of the temple, which Jeremiah thus deprecates, implies\na time of public danger. A hundred years before this time the temple\nand the city had really come through a period of the gravest peril,\njustifying in the most palpable and unexpected manner the assurances of\nthe prophet Isaiah. This was remembered now, when another crisis seemed\nimminent, another trial of strength between the God of Israel and the\ngods of the heathen. Only part of the prophetic teachings of Isaiah\nhad rooted itself in the popular mind--the part most agreeable to it.\nThe sacrosanct inviolability of the temple, and of Jerusalem for its\nsake, was an idea readily appropriated and eagerly cherished. It was\nforgotten that all depended on the will and purposes of Iahvah himself;\nthat the heathen might be the instruments with which He executed his\ndesigns, and that an invasion of Judah might mean, not an approaching\ntrial of strength between His omnipotence and the impotency of the false\ngods, but the judicial outpouring of His righteous wrath upon His own\nrebellious people.\n\nJeremiah, therefore, affirms that the popular confidence is\nill-founded; that his countrymen are lulled in a false security; and\nhe enforces his point, by a plain exposure of the flagrant offences,\nwhich render their worship a mockery of God.\n\nAgain, it may be supposed that the startling word, _Add your\nburnt-offerings to your_ (ordinary) _offerings, and eat the flesh_ (_of\nthem_) (vii. 21), implies a time of unusual activity in the matter of\nhonouring the God of Israel with the more costly offerings of which\nthe worshippers did not partake, but which were wholly consumed on the\naltar; which fact also might point to a season of special danger.\n\nAnd, lastly, the references to taking refuge behind the walls of\n'defenced cities' (viii. 14; x. 17), as we know that the Rechabites and\ndoubtless most of the rural populace took refuge in Jerusalem on the\napproach of the third and last Chaldean expedition, seem to prove that\nthe occasion of the prophecy was the first Chaldean invasion, which\nended in the submission of Jehoiakim to the yoke of Babylon (2 Kings\nxxiv. 1). Already the northern frontier had experienced the destructive\nonslaught of the invaders, and rumour announced that they might soon be\nexpected to arrive before the walls of Jerusalem (viii. 16, 17).\n\nThe only other historical occasion which can be suggested with any\nplausibility is the Scythian invasion of Syria-Palestine, to which\nthe previous discourse was assigned. This would fix the date of the\nprophecy at some point between the thirteenth and the eighteenth\nyears of Josiah (B.C. 629-624). But the arguments for this view do\nnot seem to be very strong in themselves, and they certainly do not\nexplain the essential identity of the oracle summarized in chap.\nxxvi. 1-6, with that of vii. 1-15. The \"undisguised references to the\nprevalence of idolatry in Jerusalem itself (vii. 17; cf. 30, 31), and\nthe unwillingness of the people to listen to the prophet's teaching,\n(vii. 27),\" are quite as well accounted for by supposing a religious\nor rather an irreligious reaction under Jehoiakim--which is every way\nprobable considering the bad character of that king (2 Kings xxiii.\n37; Jer. xxii. 13 _sqq._), and the serious blow inflicted upon the\nreforming party by the death of Josiah; as by assuming that the\nprophecy belongs to the years before the extirpation of idolatry in\nthe eighteenth year of the latter sovereign.\n\nAnd now let us take a rapid glance at the salient points of this\nremarkable utterance. The people are standing in the outer court,\nwith their faces turned toward the court of the priests, in which\nstood the holy house itself (Ps. v. 7). The prophetic speaker stands\nfacing them, \"in the gate of the Lord's house,\" the entry of the\nupper or inner court, the place whence Baruch was afterwards to read\nanother of his oracles to the people (xxxvi. 10). Standing here, as\nit were between his audience and the throne of Iahvah, Jeremiah acts\nas visible mediator between them and their God. His message to the\nworshippers who throng the courts of Iahvah's sanctuary is not one of\napproval. He does not congratulate them upon their manifest devotion,\nupon the munificence of their offerings, upon their ungrudging and\nunstinted readiness to meet an unceasing drain upon their means. His\nmessage is a surprise, a shock to their self-satisfaction, an alarm\nto their slumbering consciences, a menace of wrath and destruction\nupon them and their holy place. His very first word is calculated to\nstartle their self-righteousness, their misplaced faith in the merit\nof their worship and service. _Amend your ways and your doings!_\nWhere was the need of amendment? they might ask. Were they not at\nthat moment engaged in a function most grateful to Iahvah? Were they\nnot keeping the law of the sacrifices, and were not the Levitical\npriesthood ministering in their order, and receiving their due share\nof the offerings which poured into the temple day by day? Was not all\nthis honour enough to satisfy the most exacting of deities? Perhaps\nit was, had the deity in question been merely as one of the gods of\nCanaan. So much lip-service, so many sacrifices and festivals, so\nmuch joyous revelling in the sanctuary, might be supposed to have\nsufficiently appeased one of the common Baals, those half-womanish\nphantoms of deity whose delight was imagined to be in feasting and\ndebauchery. Nay, so much zeal might have propitiated the savage heart\nof a Molech. But the God of Israel was not as these, nor one of these;\nthough His ancient people were too apt to conceive thus of Him, and\ncertain modern critics have unconsciously followed in their wake.\n\nLet us see what it was that called so loudly for amendment, and then we\nmay become more fully aware of the gulf that divided the God of Israel\nfrom the idols of Canaan, and His service from all other service. It is\nimportant to keep this radical difference steadily before our minds, and\nto deepen the impression of it, in days when the effort is made by every\nmeans to confuse Iahvah with the gods of heathendom, and to rank the\nreligion of Israel with the lower surrounding systems.\n\nJeremiah accuses his countrymen of flagrant transgression of the\nuniversal laws of morality. Theft, murder, adultery, perjury, fraud\nand covetousness, slander and lying and treachery (vii. 9, ix. 3-8),\nare charged upon these zealous worshippers by a man who lived amongst\nthem, and knew them well, and could be contradicted at once if his\ncharges were false.\n\nHe tells them plainly that, in virtue of their frequenting it, the\ntemple is become a den of robbers.\n\nAnd this trampling upon the common rights of man has its counterpart\nand its climax in treason against God, in _burning incense to the\nBaal, and walking after other gods whom they know not_ (vii. 9); in\nan open and shameless attempt to combine the worship of the God who\nhad from the outset revealed Himself to their prophets as a \"jealous,\"\n_i.e._, an exclusive God, with the worship of shadows who had not\nrevealed themselves at all, and could not be \"known,\" because devoid\nof all character and real existence. They thus ignored the ancient\ncovenant which had constituted them a nation (vii. 23).\n\nIn the cities of Judah, in the streets of the very capital, the\ncultus of Asht\u014dreth, the Queen of Heaven, the voluptuous Canaanite\ngoddess of love and dalliance, was busily practised by whole families\ntogether, in deadly provocation of the God of Israel. The first and\ngreat commandment said, Thou shalt love Iahvah thy God, and Him only\nshalt thou serve. And they loved and served and followed and sought\nafter and worshipped the sun and the moon and the host of heaven,\nthe objects adored by the nation that was so soon to enslave them\n(viii. 2). Not only did a worldly, covetous and sensual priesthood\nconnive in the restoration of the old superstitions which associated\nother gods with Iahvah, and set up idol symbols and altars within the\nprecincts of His temple, as Manasseh had done (2 Kings xxi. 4-5);\nthey went further than this in their \"syncretism,\" or rather in their\nperversity, their spiritual blindness, their wilful misconception of\nthe God revealed to their fathers. They actually confounded HIM--the\nLord _who exercised loving kindness, justice, and righteousness, and\ndelighted in_ the exhibition of these qualities by His worshippers\n(ix. 24)--with the dark and cruel sun-god of the Ammonites. They\n_rebuilt the high-places of the Tophet, in the valley of ben\nHinnom_, on the north side of Jerusalem, _to burn their sons and\ntheir daughters in the fire_; if by means so revolting to natural\naffection they might win back the favour of heaven--means which\nIahvah _commanded not, neither came they into His mind_ (vii. 31).\nSuch fearful and desperate expedients were doubtless first suggested\nby the false prophets and priests in the times of national adversity\nunder king Manasseh. They harmonized only too well with the despair\nof a people, who saw in a long succession of political disasters the\ntoken of Iahvah's unforgiving wrath. That these dreadful rites were\nnot a \"survival\" in Israel, seems to follow from the horror which\nthey excited in the allied armies of the two kingdoms, when the king\nof Moab, in the extremity of the siege, offered his eldest son as\na burnt-offering on the wall of his capital before the eyes of the\nbesiegers. So appalled were the Israelite forces by this spectacle\nof a father's despair, that they at once raised the blockade, and\nretreated homeward (2 Kings iii. 27). It is probable, then, that the\ndarker and bloodier aspects of heathen worship were of only recent\nappearance among the Hebrews, and that the rites of Molech had not\nbeen at all frequent or familiar, until the long and harassing\nconflict with Assyria broke the national spirit and inclined the\npeople, in their trouble, to welcome the suggestion that costlier\nsacrifices were demanded, if Iahvah was to be propitiated and His\nwrath appeased. Such things were not done, apparently, in Jeremiah's\ntime; he mentions them as the crown of the nation's past offences; as\nsins that still cried to heaven for vengeance, and would surely entail\nit, because the same spirit of idolatry which had culminated in these\nexcesses, still lived and was active in the popular heart. It is the\npersistence in sins of the same character which involves our drinking\nto the dregs the cup of punishment for the guilty past. The dark\ncatalogue of forgotten offences witnesses against us before the Unseen\nJudge, and is only obliterated by the tears of a true repentance, and\nby the new evidence of a change of heart and life. Then, as in some\npalimpsest, the new record covers and conceals the old; and it is\nonly if we fatally relapse, that the erased writing of our misdeeds\nbecomes visible again before the eye of Heaven. Perhaps also the\nprophet mentions these abominations because at the time he saw around\nhim unequivocal tendencies to the renewal of them. Under the patronage\nor with the connivance of the wicked king Jehoiakim, the reactionary\nparty may have begun to set up again the altars thrown down by Josiah,\nwhile their religious leaders advocated both by speech and writing a\nreturn to the abolished cultus. At all events, this supposition gives\nspecial point to the emphatic assertion of Jeremiah, that Iahvah had\n_not_ commanded nor even thought of such hideous rites. The reference\nto the false labours of the scribes (chap. viii. 8) lends colour to\nthis view. It may be that some of the interpreters of the sacred law\nactually anticipated certain writers of our own day, in putting this\nterrible gloss upon the precept, _The firstborn of thy sons shalt thou\ngive unto Me_ (Ex. xxii. 29).\n\nThe people of Judah were misled, but they were willingly misled. When\nJeremiah declares to them, _Lo, ye are trusting, for your part, upon\nthe words of delusion, so that ye gain no good!_ (vii. 8) it is perhaps\nnot so much the smooth prophecies of the false prophets as the fatal\nattitude of the popular mind, out of which those misleading oracles\ngrew, and which in turn they aggravated, that the speaker deprecates.\nHe warns them that an absolute trust in the _pr\u00e6sentia Numinis_ is\ndelusive; a trust, cherished like theirs independently of the condition\nof its justification, viz., a walk pleasing to God. _What! will ye\nbreak all My laws, and then come and stand with polluted hands before\nMe in this house_ (Isa. i. 15), _which is named after Me 'Iahvah's\nHouse'_, (Isa. iv. 1), _and reassure yourselves with the thought, We\nare absolved from the consequences of all these abominations?_ (vv.\n9-10. Lit. _We are saved, rescued, secured, with regard to having done\nall these abominations_: cf. ii. 35. But perhaps, with Ewald, we should\npoint the Hebrew term differently, and read, \"Save us!\" _to do all these\nabominations_, as if that were the express object of their petition,\nwhich would really ensue, if their prayer were granted: a fine irony.\nFor the form of the verb, cf. Ezek. xiv. 14.) They thought their formal\ndevotions were more than enough to counterbalance any breaches of the\ndecalogue; they laid that flattering unction to their souls. They could\nmake it up with God for setting His moral law at nought. It was merely\na question of compensation. They did not see that the moral law is as\nimmutable as laws physical; and that the consequences of violating or\nkeeping it are as inseparable from it as pain from a blow, or death\nfrom poison. They did not see that the moral law is simply the law of\nman's health and wealth, and that the transgression of it is sorrow and\nsuffering and death.\n\n\"If men like you,\" argues the prophet, \"dare to tread these courts, it\nmust be because you believe it a proper thing to do. But that belief\nimplies that you hold the temple to be something other than what it\nreally is; that you see no incongruity in making the House of Iahvah\na meeting-place of murderers (_spelunca latronum_: Matt. xxi. 13).\nThat you have yourselves made it, in the full view of Iahvah, whose\nseeing does not rest there, but involves results, such as the present\ncrisis of public affairs; the national danger is proof that He has\nseen your heinous misdoings.\" For Iahvah's seeing brings a vindication\nof right, and vengeance upon evil (2 Chron. xxiv. 22; Ex. iii. 7). He\nis the watchman that never slumbers nor sleeps; the eternal Judge,\nWho ever upholds the law of righteousness in the affairs of man, nor\nsuffers the slightest infringement of that law to go unpunished. And\nthis unceasing watchfulness, this perpetual dispensation of justice,\nis really a manifestation of Divine mercy; for the purpose of it is to\nsave the human race from self-destruction, and to raise it ever higher\nin the scale of true well-being, which essentially consists in the\nknowledge of God and obedience to His laws.\n\nJeremiah gives his audience further ground for conviction. He points\nto a striking instance in which conduct like theirs had involved\nresults such as his warning holds before them. He establishes the\nprobability of chastisement by an historical parallel. He offers\nthem, so to speak, ocular demonstration of his doctrine. _I also,\nlo, I have seen, saith Iahvah!_ Your eyes are fixed on the temple;\nso are Mine, but in a different way. You see a national palladium;\n_I_ see a desecrated sanctuary, a shrine polluted and profaned. This\ndistinction between God's view and yours is certain: _for, go ye now\nto My place which was at Shiloh, where I caused My Name to abide at\nthe outset_ (of your settlement in Canaan); _and see the thing that I\nhave done to it, because of the wickedness of My people Israel_ (the\nnorthern kingdom). _There_ is the proof that Iahvah seeth not as man\nseeth; there, in that dismantled ruin, in that historic sanctuary\nof the more powerful kingdom of Ephraim, once visited by thousands\nof worshippers like Jerusalem to-day, now deserted and desolate, a\nmonument of Divine wrath.\n\nThe reference is not to the tabernacle, the sacred Tent of the\nWanderings, which was first set up at Nob (1 Sam. xxi. 22) and then\nremoved to Gibeon (2 Chron. i. 3), but obviously to a building more\nor less like the temple, though less magnificent. The place and its\nsanctuary had doubtless been ruined in the great catastrophe, when the\nkingdom of Samaria fell before the power of Assyria (721 B.C.).\n\nIn the following words (vv. 13-15) the example is applied. _And\nnow_--stating the conclusion--_because of your having done all these\ndeeds_ (_saith Iahvah_, LXX. omits), _and because I spoke unto you_\n(_early and late_, LXX. omits), _and ye hearkened not, and I called\nyou and ye answered not_ (Prov. i. 24): _I will do unto the house upon\nwhich My Name is called, wherein ye are trusting, and unto the place\nwhich I gave to you and to your fathers--as I did unto Shiloh._\n\nSome might think that if the city fell, the holy house would escape,\nas was thought by many like-minded fanatics when Jerusalem was\nbeleaguered by the Roman armies seven centuries later: but Jeremiah\ndeclares that the blow will fall upon both alike; and to give greater\nforce to his words, he makes the judgment begin at the house of God.\n(The Hebrew reader will note the dramatic effect of the disposition of\nthe accents. The principal pause is placed upon the word \"fathers,\"\nand the reader is to halt in momentary suspense upon that word,\nbefore he utters the awful three which close the verse: _as I--did\nto--Shiloh_. The Massorets were masters of this kind of emphasis.)\n\n_And I will cast you away from My Presence, as I cast_ (_all_: LXX.\nomits[30]) _your kinsfolk, all the posterity of Ephraim_ (2 Kings\nxvii. 20). Away from My Presence: far beyond the bounds of that holy\nland where I have revealed Myself to priests and prophets, and where\nMy sanctuary stands; into a land where heathenism reigns, and the\nknowledge of God is not; into the dark places of the earth, that\nlie under the blighting shadow of superstition, and are enveloped\nin the moral midnight of idolatry. _Projiciam vos a facie mea._ The\nknowledge and love of God--heart and mind ruled by the sense of purity\nand tenderness and truth and right united in an Ineffable Person,\nand enthroned upon the summit of the universe--these are light and\nlife for man; where these are, there is His Presence. They who are\nso endowed behold the face of God, in Whom is no darkness at all.\nWhere these spiritual endowments are non-existent; where mere power,\nor superhuman force, is the highest thought of God to which man has\nattained; where there is no clear sense of the essential holiness and\nlove of the Divine Nature; there the world of man lies in darkness\nthat may be felt; there bloody rites prevail; there harsh oppression\nand shameless vices reign: for the dark places of the earth are full\nof the habitations of cruelty.\n\n_And thou, pray thou not for this people_ (xviii. 20), _and lift not\nup for them outcry nor prayer, and urge not Me, for I hear thee not.\nSeest thou not what they do in the cities of Judah and in the streets\nof Jerusalem? The children gather sticks, and the fathers light the\nfire, and the women knead dough, to make sacred buns_ (xliv. 19) _for\nthe Queen of Heaven, and to pour libations to other gods, in order to\ngrieve Me_ (Deut. xxxii. 16, 21). _Is it Me that they grieve? saith\nIahvah; is it not themselves_ (rather), _in regard to the shame of\ntheir own faces_ (16-19).\n\nFrom one point of view, all human conduct may be said to be\n_indifferent_ to God; He is \u03b1\u1f50\u03c4\u03ac\u03c1\u03ba\u03b7\u03c2, self-sufficing, and needs not\nour praises, our love, our obedience, any more than He needed the\ntemple ritual and the sacrifices of bulls and goats. Man can neither\nbenefit nor injure God; he can only affect his own fortunes in this\nworld and the next, by rebellion against the laws upon which his\nwelfare depends, or by a careful observance of them. In this sense,\nit is true that wilful idolatry, that treason against God, does not\n\"provoke\" or \"grieve\" the Immutable One. Men do such things to their\nown sole hurt, to the shame of their own faces: that is, the punishment\nwill be the painful realization of the utter groundlessness of their\nconfidence, of the folly of their false trust; the mortification of\ndisillusion, when it is too late. That Jeremiah should have expressed\nhimself thus is sufficient answer to those who pretend that the habitual\nanthropomorphism of the prophetic discourses is anything more than a\nmere accident of language and an accommodation to ordinary style.\n\nIn another sense, of course, it is profoundly true to say that human\nsin provokes and grieves the Lord. God is Love; and love may be pained\nto its depths by the fault of the beloved, and stirred to holy\nindignation at the disclosure of utter unworthiness and ingratitude.\nSomething corresponding to these emotions of man may be ascribed, with\nall reverence, to the Inscrutable Being who creates man \"in His own\nimage,\" that is, endowed with faculties capable of aspiring towards\n_Him_, and receiving the knowledge of His being and character.\n\n_Pray not thou for this people ... for I hear thee not!_ Jeremiah was\nwont to intercede for his people (xi. 14, xviii. 20, xv. 1; cf. 1\nSam. xii. 23). The deep pathos which marks his style, the minor key\nin which almost all his public utterances are pitched, proves that\nthe fate which he saw impending over his country, grieved him to the\nheart. \"Our sweetest songs are those which tell of saddest thought;\"\nand this is eminently true of Jeremiah. A profound melancholy had\nfallen like a cloud upon his soul; he had seen the future, fraught as\nit was with suffering and sorrow, despair and overthrow, slaughter and\nbitter servitude; a picture in which images of terror crowded one upon\nanother, under a darkened sky, from which no ray of blessed hope shot\nforth, but only the lightnings of wrath and extermination. Doubtless\nhis prayers were frequent, alive with feeling, urgent, imploring,\nfull of the convulsive energy of expiring hope. But in the midst\nof his strong crying and tears, there arose from the depths of his\nconsciousness the conviction that all was in vain. _Pray not thou for\nthis people, for I will not hear thee._ The thought stood before him,\nsharp and clear as a command; the unuttered sound of it rang in his\nears, like the voice of a destroying angel, a messenger of doom, calm\nas despair, sure as fate. He knew it was the voice of God.\n\nIn the history of nations as in the lives of individuals there are\ntimes when repentance, even if possible, would be too late to avert\nthe evils which long periods of misdoing have called from the abyss to\ndo their penal and retributive work. Once the dike is undermined, no\npower on earth can hold back the flood of waters from the defenceless\nlands beneath. And when a nation's sins have penetrated and poisoned\nall social and political relations, and corrupted the very fountains of\nlife, you cannot avert the flood of ruin that must come, to sweep away\nthe tainted mass of spoiled humanity; you cannot avert the storm that\nmust break to purify the air, and make it fit for men to breathe again.\n\n_Therefore_--because of the national unfaithfulness--_thus said the\nLord Iahvah, Lo, Mine anger and My fury are being poured out toward\nthis place--upon the men, and upon the cattle, and upon the trees of\nthe field, and upon the fruit of the ground; and it will burn, and not\nbe quenched!_ (vii. 20). The havoc wrought by war, the harrying and\nslaying of man and beast, the felling of fruit trees and firing of\nthe vineyards, are intended; but not so as to exclude the ravages of\npestilence and droughts (chap. xiv.) and famine. All these evils are\nmanifestations of the wrath of Iahvah. Cattle and trees and \"the fruit\nof the ground,\" _i.e._ of the cornlands and vineyards, are to share in\nthe general destruction (cf. Hos. iv. 3), not, of course, as partakers\nof man's guilt, but only by way of aggravating his punishment. The\nfinal phrase is worthy of consideration, because of its bearing upon\nother passages. _It will burn and not be quenched_, or _it will burn\nunquenchably_. The meaning is not that the Divine wrath once kindled\nwill go on burning for ever; but that once kindled, no human or other\npower will be able to extinguish it, until it has accomplished its\nappointed work of destruction.\n\n_Thus said Iahvah Sabaoth, the God of Israel: Your holocausts add\nye to your common sacrifices, and eat ye flesh!_ that is, Eat flesh\nin abundance, eat your fill of it! Stint not yourselves by devoting\nany portion of your offerings wholly to Me. I am as indifferent to\nyour \"burnt-offerings,\" your more costly and splendid gifts, as to\nthe ordinary sacrifices, over which you feast and make merry with\nyour friends (1 Sam. i. 4, 13). The holocausts which you are now\nburning on the altar before Me will not avail to alter My settled\npurpose. _For I spake not with your fathers, nor commanded them, in\nthe day that I brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, concerning\nmatters of holocaust and sacrifice, but this matter commanded I\nthem, \"Hearken ye unto My voice, so become I God to you, and you--ye\nshall become to Me a people; and walk ye in all the way that I shall\ncommand you, that it may go well with you!\"_ (22-23) cf. Deut. vi.\n3. Those who believe that the entire priestly legislation as we now\nhave it in the Pentateuch is the work of Moses, may be content to\nfind in this passage of Jeremiah no more than an extreme antithetical\nexpression of the truth that to obey is better than sacrifice. There\ncan be no question that from the outset of its history, Israel, in\ncommon with all the Semitic nations, gave outward expression to its\nreligious ideas in the form of animal sacrifice. Moses cannot have\noriginated the institution, he found it already in vogue, though he\nmay have regulated the details of it. Even in the Pentateuch, the\nterm \"sacrifice\" is nowhere explained; the general understanding of\nthe meaning of it is taken for granted (see Ex. xii. 27, xxiii. 18).\nReligious customs are of immemorial use, and it is impossible in most\ncases to specify the period of their origin. But while it is certain\nthat the institution of sacrifice was of extreme antiquity in Israel\nas in other ancient peoples, it is equally certain, from the plain\nevidence of their extant writings, that the prophets before the Exile\nattached no independent value either to it or to any other part of the\nritual of the temple. We have already seen how Jeremiah could speak\nof the most venerable of all the symbols of the popular faith (iii.\n16). Now he affirms that the traditional rules for the burnt-offerings\nand other sacrifices were not matters of special Divine institution,\nas was popularly supposed at the time. The reference to the Exodus\nmay imply that already in his day there were written narratives which\nasserted the contrary; that the first care of the Divine Saviour after\nHe had led His people through the sea was to provide them with an\nelaborate system of ritual and sacrifice, identical with that which\nprevailed in Jeremiah's day. The important verse already quoted (viii.\n8) seems to glance at such pious fictions of the popular religious\nteachers: _How say ye, We are wise, and the instruction_ (A. V. \"law\")\n_of Iahvah is with us? But behold for lies hath it wrought--the lying\npen of the scribes!_\n\nIt is, indeed, difficult to see how Jeremiah or any of his\npredecessors could have done otherwise than take for granted the\nestablished modes of public worship, and the traditional holy places.\nThe prophets do not seek to alter or abolish the externals of religion\nas such; they are not so unreasonable as to demand that stated\nrites and traditional sanctuaries should be disregarded, and that\nmen should worship in the spirit only, without the aid of outward\nsymbolism of any sort, however innocent and appropriate to its object\nit might seem. They knew very well that rites and ceremonies were\nnecessary to public worship; what they protested against was the\nfatal tendency of their time to make these the whole of religion, to\nsuppose that Iahvah's claims could be satisfied by a due performance\nof these, without regard to those higher moral requirements of His\nlaw which the ritual worship might fitly have symbolized but could\nnot rightly supersede. It was not a question with Hosea, Amos, Micah,\nIsaiah, Jeremiah, whether or not Iahvah could be better honoured\nwith or without temples and priests and sacrifices. The question\nwas whether these traditional institutions actually served as an\noutward expression of that devotion to Him and His holy law, of that\nrighteousness and holiness of life, which is the only true worship, or\nwhether they were looked upon as in themselves comprising the whole of\nnecessary religion. Since the people took this latter view, Jeremiah\ndeclares that their system of public worship is futile.\n\n_Hearken unto My voice_: not as giving regulations about the ritual,\nbut as inculcating moral duty by the prophets, as is explained\nimmediately (ver. 25), and as is clear also from the statement that\n_they walked in the schemes of their own evil heart_ [omit: _in the\nstubbornness_, with LXX., and read _m\u00f4` a\u00e7\u00f4th_ stat. constr.], _and\nfell to the rear and not the front_. As they did not advance in the\nknowledge and love of the spiritual God, who was seeking to lead them\nby His prophets, from Moses downwards (Deut. xviii. 15), they steadily\nretrograded and declined in moral worth, until they had become\nhopelessly corrupt and past correction. (Lit. _and they became back\nand not face_, which may mean, they turned their backs upon Iahvah\nand His instruction.) This steady progress in evil is indicated by\nthe words, _and they hardened their neck, they did worse than their\nfathers_ (ver. 26). It is implied that this was the case with each\nsuccessive generation, and the view of Israel's history thus expressed\nis in perfect harmony with common experience. Progress, one way or the\nother, is the law of character; if we do not advance in goodness, we\ngo back, or, what is the same thing, we advance in evil.\n\nFinally, the prophet is warned that his mission also must fail, like\nthat of his predecessors, unless indeed the second clause of ver.\n27, which is omitted by the Septuagint, be really an interpolation.\nAt all events, the failure is implied if not expressed, for he is\nto pronounce a sentence of reprobation upon his people. _And thou\nshalt speak all these words unto them_ [_and they will not hearken\nunto thee, and thou shalt call unto them, and they will not answer\nthee_: LXX. omits]. _And thou shalt say unto them, This is the nation\nthat hearkened not unto the voice of Iahvah its God, and received\nnot correction: Good faith is perished and cut off from their mouth_\n(cf. ix. 3 _sq._). The charge is remarkable. It is one which Jeremiah\nreiterates: see ver. 9, vi. 13, viii. 5, ix. 3 _sqq._, xii. 1. His\nfellow-countrymen are at once deceivers and deceived. They have no\nregard for truth and honour in their mutual dealings; grasping greed\nand lies and trickery stamp their everyday intercourse with each\nother; and covetousness and fraud equally characterise the behaviour\nof their religious leaders. Where truth is not prized for its own\nsake, there debased ideas of God and lax conceptions of morality creep\nin and spread. Only he who loves truth comes to the light; and only he\nwho does God's will sees that truth is divine. False belief and false\nliving in turn beget each other; and as a matter of experience it is\noften impossible to say which was antecedent to the other.\n\nIn the closing section of this first part of his long address (vv.\n29-viii. 3), Jeremiah apostrophizes the country, bidding her bewail\nher imminent ruin. _Shear thy tresses_ (coronal of long hair) _and\ncast them away, and lift upon the bare hills a lamentation!_--sing\na dirge over thy departed glory and thy slain children, upon those\nunhallowed mountain-tops which were the scene of thine apostasies\n(iii. 21); _for Iahvah hath rejected and forsaken the generation of\nHis wrath_. The hopeless tone of this exclamation (cf. also vv. 15,\n16, 20) seems to agree better with the times of Jehoiakim, when it had\nbecome evident to the prophet that amendment was beyond hope, than\nwith the years prior to Josiah's reformation. His own contemporaries\nare 'the generation of Iahvah's wrath,' _i.e._ upon which His wrath is\ndestined to be poured out, for the day of grace is past and gone; and\nthis, because of the desecration of the temple itself by such kings\nas Ahaz and Manasseh, but especially because of the horrors of the\nchild-sacrifices in the valley of ben Hinnom (2 Kings xvi. 3, xxi.\n3-6), which those kings had been the first to introduce in Judah.\n_Therefore behold days are coming, saith Iahvah, and it shall no more\nbe called the Tophet_ (an obscure term, probably meaning something\nlike _Pyre_ or _Burningplace_: cf. the Persian _tab-idan_ \"to burn,\"\nand the Greek \u03b8\u03ac\u03c0\u03c4\u03c9, \u03c4\u03b1\u03c6-\u03b5\u1fd6\u03bd \"to bury,\" strictly \"to burn\" a corpse;\nalso \u03c4\u03cd\u03c6\u03c9, \"to smoke,\" Sanskrit _dh\u00fbp_: to suppose a reproachful\nname like \"Spitting\" = \"Object of loathing,\" is clearly against the\ncontext: the honourable name is to be exchanged for one of dishonour),\n_and the Valley of ben Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter, and people\nshall bury in_ [_the_] _Tophet for want of room_ (_elsewhere_)! A\ngreat battle is contemplated, as is evident also from Deut. xxviii.\n25, 26, the latter verse being immediately quoted by the prophet\n(ver. 33). The Tophet will be defiled for ever by being made a burial\nplace; but many of the fallen will be left unburied, a prey to the\nvulture and the jackal. In that fearful time, all sounds of joyous\nlife will cease in the cities of Judah and in the capital itself, _for\nthe land will become a desolation_. And the scornful enemy will not be\nsatisfied with wreaking his vengeance upon the living; he will insult\nthe dead, by breaking into the sepulchres of the kings and grandees,\nthe priests and prophets and people, and haling their corpses forth\nto lie rotting in face of the sun, moon and stars, which they had so\nsedulously worshipped in their lifetime, but which will be powerless\nto protect their dead bodies from this shameful indignity. And as for\nthe survivors, _death will be preferred to life in the case of all the\nremnant that remain of this evil tribe, in all the places whither I\nshall have driven them, saith Iahvah Sabaoth_ (omit the second _that\nremain_, with LXX. as an accidental repetition from the preceding\nline, and as breaking the construction). The prophet has reached\nthe conviction that Judah will be driven into banishment; but the\ndetails of the destruction which he contemplates are obviously of an\nimaginative and rhetorical character. It is, therefore, superfluous\nto ask whether a great battle was actually fought afterwards in the\nvalley of ben Hinnom, and whether the slain apostates of Judah were\nburied there in heaps, and whether the conquerors violated the tombs.\nHad the Chaldeans or any of their allies done this last, in search of\ntreasure for instance, we should expect to find some notice of it in\nthe historical chapters of Jeremiah. But it was probably known well\nenough to the surrounding peoples that the Jews were not in the habit\nof burying treasure in their tombs. The prophet's threat however,\ncuriously corresponds to what Josiah is related to have done at Bethel\nand elsewhere, by way of irreparably polluting the high places (2\nKings xxiii. 16 _sqq._); and it is probable that his recollection of\nthat event, which he may himself have witnessed, determined the form\nof Jeremiah's language here.[31]\n\nIn the second part of this great discourse (viii. 4-23) we have a fine\ndevelopment of thoughts which have already been advanced in the opening\npiece, after the usual manner of Jeremiah. The first half (or strophe)\nis mainly concerned with the sins of the nation (vv. 4-13), the second\nwith a despairing lament over the punishment (14-23 = ix. 1). _And\nthou shalt say unto them: Thus said Iahvah, Do men fall and not rise\nagain? Doth a man turn back, and not return? Why doth Jerusalem make\nthis people to turn back with an eternal_ (or perfect, utter, absolute)\n_turning back? Why clutch they deceit, refuse to return?_ (The LXX.\nomits \"Jerusalem,\" which is perhaps only a marginal gloss. We should\nthen have to read \u05e9\u05b9\u05c1\u05d5\u05d1\u05b7\u05d1 _shobab_ for \u05e9\u05b9\u05c1\u05d5\u05d1\u05b0\u05d1\u05b8\u05d4 _shobebah_, as \"this\npeople\" is masc. The _He_ has been written twice by inadvertence. The\nverb, however, is transitive in l. 19; Isa. xlvii. 10, etc.; and I\nfind no certain instance of the intrans. form besides Ezek. xxxviii.\n8, participle.) _I listened and heard; they speak not aright_ (Ex. x.\n29; Isa. xvi. 6); _not a man repenteth over his evil, saying_ (_or\nthinking_), _\"What have I done?\" They all_ (lit. _all of him_, _i.e._\nthe people) _turn back into their courses_ (plur. Heb. text; sing. Heb.\nmarg.), _like the rushing horse into the battle_.\n\nThere is something unnatural in this obstinate persistence in evil. If\na man happens to fall he does not remain on the ground, but quickly\nrises to his feet again; and if he turn back on his way for some\nreason or other, he will usually return to that way again. There\nis a play on the word 'turn back' or 'return,' like that in iii.\n12, 14. The term is first used in the sense of turning back or away\nfrom Iahvah, and then in that of returning to Him, according to its\nmetaphorical meaning \"to repent.\" Thus the import of the question is:\nIs it natural to apostatize and never to repent of it? (Perhaps we\nshould rather read, after the analogy of iii. 1, \"Doth a man _go away_\n(\u05d4\u05b2\u05d9\u05b5\u05dc\u05b5\u05da\u05b0) on a journey, and not return?\")\n\nOthers interpret: _Doth a man return, and not return?_ That is, if\nhe return, he does it, and does not stop midway; whereas Judah only\npretends to repent, and does not really do so. This, however, does not\nagree with the parallel member, nor with the following similar questions.\n\nIt is very noticeable how thoroughly the prophets, who, after all,\nwere the greatest of practical moralists, identify religion with\nright aims and right conduct. The beginning of evil courses is\nturning away from Iahvah; the beginning of reform is turning back\nto Iahvah. For Iahvah's character as revealed to the prophets is\nthe ideal and standard of ethical perfection; He does and delights\nin love, justice and equity (ix. 23). If a man look away from that\nideal, if he be content with a lower standard than the Will and Law\nof the All-Perfect, then and thereby he inevitably sinks in the scale\nof morality. The prophets are not troubled by the idle question\nof medieval schoolmen and sceptical moderns. It never occurred to\nthem to ask the question whether God is good because God wills it,\nor whether God wills good because it is good. The dilemma is, in\ntruth, no better than a verbal puzzle, if we allow the existence of\na personal Deity. For the idea of God is the idea of a Being who is\nabsolutely good, the _only_ Being who is such; perfect goodness is\nunderstood to be realized nowhere else but in God. It is part of His\nessence and conception; it is the aspect under which the human mind\napprehends Him. To suppose goodness existing apart from Him, as an\nindependent object which He may choose or refuse, is to deal in empty\nabstractions. We might as well ask whether convex can exist apart\nfrom concave in nature, or motion apart from a certain rate of speed.\nThe human spirit can apprehend God in His moral perfections, because\nit is, at however vast a distance, akin to Him--a _divin\u00e6 particula\naur\u00e6_; and it can strive towards those perfections by help of the\nsame grace which reveals them. The prophets know of no other origin\nor measure of moral endeavour than that which Iahvah makes known to\nthem. In the present instance, the charge which Jeremiah makes against\nhis contemporaries is a radical falsehood, insincerity, faithlessness:\n_they clutch_ or _cling to deceit, they speak what is not right_ or\n_honest, straightforward_ (Gen. xlii. 11, 19). Their treason to God\nand their treachery to their fellows are opposite sides of the same\nfact. Had they been true to Iahvah, that is, to His teachings through\nthe higher prophets and their own consciences, they would have been\ntrue to one another. The forbearing love of God, His tender solicitude\nto hear and save, are illustrated by the words: _I listened_ _and\nheard ... not a man repented over his evil, saying, What have I done?_\n(The feeling of the stricken conscience could hardly be more aptly\nexpressed than by this brief question.) But in vain does the Heavenly\nFather wait for the accents of penitence and contrition: _they all\nreturn_--go back again and again (Ps. xxiii. 6)--_into their own race\nor courses, like a horse rushing_ (lit. _pouring forth_: of rushing\nwaters, Ps. lxxviii. 20) _into the battle_. The eagerness with which\nthey follow their own wicked desires, the recklessness with which they\n\"give their sensual race the rein,\" in set defiance of God, and wilful\noblivion of consequences, is finely expressed by the simile of the\nwarhorse rushing in headlong eagerness into the fray (Job xxxix. 25).\n_Also_ (or _even_) _the stork in the heavens knoweth her appointed\ntimes, and turtledove, swift and crane observe the season of their\ncoming; but My people know not the ordinance of Iahvah_--what He\nhas willed and declared to be right for man (His Law; _jus divinum,\nrelligio divina_). The dullest of wits can hardly fail to appreciate\nthe force of this beautiful contrast between the regularity of\ninstinct and the aberrations of reason. All living creatures are\nsubject to laws upon obedience to which their well-being depends. The\nlife of man is no exception; it too is subject to a law--a law which\nis as much higher than that which regulates mere animal existence,\nas reason and conscience and spiritual aspiration are higher than\ninstinct and sexual impulse. But whereas the lower forms of life are\nobedient to the laws of their being, man rebels against them, and\ndares to disobey what he knows to be for his good; nay, he suffers\nhimself to be so blinded by lust and passion and pride and self-will\nthat at last he does not even recognise the Law--the ordinance of the\nEternal--for what it really is, the organic law of his true being, the\ncondition at once of his excellence and his happiness.\n\nThe prophet next meets an objection. He has just alleged a profound\nmoral ignorance--a culpable ignorance--against the people. He supposes\nthem to deny the accusation, as doubtless they often did in answer to\nhis remonstrances (cf. xvii. 15, xx. 7 _sq._) _How can ye say, \"We\nare wise\"_--morally wise--\"_and the teaching of Iahvah is with us!_\"\n[_but behold_: LXX. omits: either term would be sufficient by itself]\n_for the Lie hath the lying pen of the scribes made it!_ The reference\nclearly is to what Jeremiah's opponents call \"the teaching (or _law:\ntorah_) of Iahvah\"; and it is also clear that the prophet charges the\n\"scribes\" of the opposite party with falsifying or tampering with\nthe teaching of Iahvah in some way or other. Is it meant that they\nmisrepresented the terms of a written document, such as the Book of\nthe Covenant, or Deuteronomy? But they could hardly do this without\ndetection, in the case of a work which was not in their exclusive\npossession. Or does Jeremiah accuse them of misinterpreting the sacred\nlaw, by putting false glosses upon its precepts, as might be done\nin a legal document wherever there seemed room for a difference of\nopinion, or wherever conflicting traditional interpretations existed\nside by side? (Cf. my remarks on vii. 31.) The Hebrew may indicate\nthis, for we may translate: _But lo, into the lie the lying pen of\nthe scribes hath made it!_ which recalls St. Paul's description of\nthe heathen as changing the truth of God into a lie (Rom. i. 26).\nThe construction is the same as in Gen. xii. 2; Isa. xliv. 17. Or,\nfinally, does he boldly charge these abettors of the false prophets\nwith forging supposititious law-books, in the interest of their own\nfaction, and in support of the claims and doctrines of the worldly\npriests and prophets? This last view is quite admissible, so far as\nthe Hebrew goes, which, however, is not free from ambiguity. It might\nbe rendered, _But behold, in vain_, or _bootlessly_ (iii. 23) _hath\nthe lying pen of the scribes laboured_; taking the verb in an absolute\nsense, which is not a common use (Ruth ii. 19). Or we might transpose\nthe terms for \"pen\" and \"lying,\" and render, _But behold, in vain\nhath the pen of the scribes fabricated falsehood_. In any case, the\ngeneral sense is the same: Jeremiah charges not only the speakers, but\nthe writers, of the popular party with uttering their own inventions\nin the name of Iahvah. These scribes were the spiritual ancestors\nof those of our Saviour's time, who \"made the word of God of none\neffect for the sake of their traditions\" (Matt. xv. 6). _For the Lie_\nmeans, to maintain the popular misbelief. (It might also be rendered,\n_for falsehood_, _falsely_, as in the phrase _to swear falsely_,\n_i.e._, for deceit; Lev. v. 24.) It thus appears that conflicting\nand competing versions of the law were current in that age. Has the\nPentateuch preserved elements of both kinds, or is it homogeneous\nthroughout? Of the scribes of the period we, alas! know little beyond\nwhat this passage tells us. But Ezra must have had predecessors, and\nwe may remember that Baruch, the friend and amanuensis of Jeremiah,\nwas also a scribe (xxxvi. 26).\n\n_The \"wise\" will blush, they will be dismayed and caught! Lo, the word\nof Iahvah they rejected, and wisdom of what sort have they?_ (vi. 10).\nThe whole body of Jeremiah's opponents, the populace as well as the\npriests and prophets, are intended by _the wise_, that is, the wise\nin their own conceits (ver. 8); there is an ironical reference to\ntheir own assumption of the title. These self-styled wise ones, who\npreferred their own wisdom to the guidance of the prophet, will be\npunished by the mortification of discovering their folly when it is\ntoo late. Their folly will be the instrument of their ruin, for \"He\ntaketh the wise in their own craftiness\" as in a snare (Prov. v. 22).\n\nThey who reject Iahvah's word, in whatever form it comes to them, have\nno other light to walk by; they must needs walk in darkness, and stumble\nat noonday. For Iahvah's word is the only true wisdom, the only true\nguide of man's footsteps. And this is the kind of wisdom which the\nHoly Scriptures offer us; not a merely speculative wisdom, not what is\ncommonly understood by the terms science and art, but the priceless\nknowledge of God and of His will concerning us; a kind of knowledge\nwhich is beyond all comparison the most important for our well-being\nhere and hereafter. If this Divine wisdom, which relates to the proper\nconduct of life and the right education of the highest faculties of\nour being, seem a small matter to any man, the fact argues spiritual\nblindness on his part; it cannot diminish the glory of heavenly wisdom.\n\nSome well-meaning but mistaken people are fond of maintaining what\nthey call \"the scientific accuracy of the Bible,\" meaning thereby an\nessential harmony with the latest discoveries, or even the newest\nhypotheses, of physical science. But even to raise such a preposterous\nquestion, whether as advocate or as assailant, is to be guilty of a\ncrude anachronism, and to betray an incredible ignorance of the real\nvalue of the Scriptures. That value I believe to be inestimable. But\nto discuss \"the scientific accuracy of the Bible\" appears to me to\nbe as irrelevant to any profitable issue, as it would be to discuss\nthe meteorological precision of the Mahabharata, or the marvellous\nchemistry of the Zendavesta, or the physiological revelations of the\nKoran, or the enlightened anthropology of the Nibelungenlied.\n\nA man may reject the word of Iahvah, he may reject Christ's word,\nbecause he supposes that it is not sufficiently attested. He may urge\nthat the proof that it is of GOD breaks down, and he may flatter\nhimself that he is a person of superior discernment, because he\nperceives a fact to which the multitude of believers are apparently\nblind. But what kind of proof would he have? Does he demand more than\nthe case admits of? Some portent in earth or sky or sea, which in\nreality would be quite foreign to the matter in hand, and could have\nnone but an accidental connexion with it, and would, in fact, be no\nproof at all, but itself a mystery requiring to be explained by the\nordinary laws of physical causation? To demand a kind of proof which\nis irrelevant to the subject is a mark not of superior caution and\njudgment, but of ignorance and confusion of thought. The plain truth\nis, and the fact is abundantly illustrated by the teachings of the\nprophets and, above all, of our Divine Lord, that moral and spiritual\ntruths are self-attesting to minds able to realize them; and they no\nmore need supplementary corroboration than does the ultimate testimony\nof the senses of a sane person.\n\nNow the Bible as a whole is an unique repertory of such truths; this is\nthe secret of its age-long influence in the world. If a man does not\ncare for the Bible, if he has not learned to appreciate this aspect of\nit, if he does not _love_ it precisely on this account, I, in turn, care\nvery little for his opinion about the Bible. There may be much in the\nBible which is otherwise valuable, which is precious as history, as\ntradition, as bearing upon questions of interest to the ethnologist, the\nantiquarian, the man of letters. But these things are the shell, _that_\nis the kernel; these are the accidents, _that_ is the substance; these\nare the bodily vesture, _that_ is the immortal spirit. A man who has not\nfelt this, has yet to learn what the Bible is.\n\nIn his text as we now have it, Jeremiah proceeds to denounce\npunishment on the priests and prophets, whose fraudulent oracles\nand false interpretations of the Law ministered to their own greedy\ncovetousness, and who smoothed over the alarming state of things\nby false assurances that all was well (vv. 10-12). The Septuagint,\nhowever, omits the whole passage after the words, _Therefore I will\ngive their wives to others, their fields to conquerors!_ and as these\nwords are obviously an abridgment of the threat, vi. 12 (cf. Deut.\nxxviii. 30), while the rest of the passage agrees verbatim with vi.\n13-15, it may be supposed that a later editor inserted it in the\nmargin here, as generally apposite (cf. vi. 10 with ver. 9), whence\nit has crept into the text. It is true that Jeremiah himself is\nfond of repetition, but not so as to interrupt the context, as the\n\"therefore\" of ver. 10 seems to do. Besides, the \"wise\" of ver. 8 are\nthe self-confident people; but if this passage be in place here, \"the\nwise\" of ver. 9 will have to be understood of their false guides, the\nprophets and priests. Whereas, if the passage be omitted, there is\nmanifest continuity between the ninth verse and the thirteenth: _\"I\nwill sweep, sweep them away,\" saith Iahvah; no grapes on the vine, and\nno figs on the fig tree, and the foliage is withered, and I have given\nthem destruction_ (or _blasting_).\n\nThe opening threat is apparently quoted from the contemporary prophet\nZephaniah (i. 2, 3). The point of the rest of the verse is not quite\nclear, owing to the fact that the last clause of the Hebrew text is\nundoubtedly corrupt. We might suppose that the term \"laws\" (\u05d7\u05bb\u05e7\u05b4\u05bc\u05d9\u05dd) had\nfallen out, and render, _and I gave them laws which they transgress_\n(cf. v. 22, xxxi. 35). The Vulgate has an almost literal translation,\nwhich gives the same sense: \"et dedi eis qu\u00e6 praetergressa sunt.\"[32]\nThe Septuagint omits the clause, probably on the ground of its\ndifficulty. It may be that bad crops and scarcity are threatened (cf.\nchap. xiv., v. 24, 25). In that case, we may correct the text in the\nmanner suggested above \u05e9\u05c1\u05d1\u05b8\u05e8\u05b4\u05d9\u05dd or \u05d1\u05b8\u05bc\u05e8\u05b9\u05d5\u05e9\u05b4\u05c1\u05df xvii. 18, for \u05d9\u05b7\u05e2\u05b7\u05d1\u05b0\u05e8\u05d5\u05bc\u05dd;\nor \u05e9\u05b4\u05c1\u05d3\u05b8\u05bc\u05e4\u05d5\u05b9\u05df Amos iv. 9, for the \u05d9\u05b7\u05e2\u05b7\u05d1\u05b0\u05d3\u05d5\u05bc\u05dd of other MSS.. Others\nunderstand the verse in a metaphorical sense. The language seems to be\ncoloured by a reminiscence of Micah vii. 1, 2; and the \"grapes\" and\n\"figs\" and \"foliage\" may be the fruits of righteousness, and the nation\nis like Isaiah's unfruitful vineyard (Isa. v.) or our Lord's barren fig\ntree (Matt. xxi. 19), fit only for destruction (cf. also vi. 9 and ver.\n20). Another passage which resembles the present is Hab. iii. 17: \"For\nthe fig tree will not blossom, and there will be no yield on the vines;\nthe produce of the olive will disappoint, and the fields will produce no\nfood.\" It was natural that tillage should be neglected upon the rumour\nof invasion. The country-folk would crowd into the strong places, and\nleave their vineyards, orchards and cornfields to their fate (ver. 14).\nThis would, of course, lead to scarcity and want, and aggravate the\nhorrors of war with those of dearth and famine. I think the passage of\nHabakkuk is a precise parallel to the one before us. Both contemplate\na Chaldean invasion, and both anticipate its disastrous effects upon\nhusbandry.\n\nIt is possible that the original text ran: _And I have given_ (_will\ngive_) _unto them their own work_ (_i.e._, the fruit of it, \u05e2\u05b2\u05d1\u05b9\u05d3\u05b8\u05ea\u05b8\u05dd:\nused of field-work, Ex. i. 14; of the earnings of labour, Isa. xxxii.\n17). This, which is a frequent thought in Jeremiah, forms a very\nsuitable close to the verse. The objection is that the prophet does\nnot use this particular term for \"work\" elsewhere. But the fact of its\nonly once occurring might have caused its corruption. (Another term,\nwhich would closely resemble the actual reading, and give much the\nsame sense as this last, is \u05e2\u05b2\u05d1\u05d5\u05bc\u05e8\u05b8\u05dd \"their produce.\" This, too, as a\nvery rare expression, only known from Josh. v. 11, 12, might have been\nmisunderstood and altered by an editor or copyist. It is akin to the\nAramaic \u05e2\u05b4\u05d1\u05bc\u05d5\u05bc\u05e8, and there are other Aramaisms in our prophet.) One\nthing is certain; Jeremiah cannot have written what now appears in the\nMasoretic text.\n\nIt is now made clear what the threatened evil is, in a fine closing\nstrophe, several expressions of which recall the prophet's magnificent\nalarm upon the coming of the Scythians (cf. iv. 5 with viii. 14; iv.\n15 with viii. 16; iv. 19 with viii. 18). Here, however, the colouring\nis darker, and the prevailing gloom of the picture unrelieved by any\nray of hope. The former piece belongs to the reign of Josiah, this\nto that of the worthless Jehoiakim. In the interval between the two,\nmoral decline and social and political disintegration had advanced\nwith fearfully accelerated speed, and Jeremiah knew that the end could\nnot be far off.\n\nThe fatal news of invasion has come, and he sounds the alarm to his\ncountrymen. _Why are we sitting still_ (in silent stupefaction)?\n_assemble yourselves, that we may go into the defenced cities, and be\nsilent_ (or _amazed_, _stupefied_, with terror) _there! for Iahvah our\nGod hath silenced us_ (with speechless terror) _and given us water of\ngall to drink; for we trespassed toward Iahvah. We looked for peace_\n(or, _weal_, _prosperity_), _and there is no good; for a time of\nhealing, and behold panic fear!_ So the prophet represents the effect\nof the evil tidings upon the rural population. At first they are taken\nby surprise; then they rouse themselves from their stupor to take\nrefuge in the walled cities. They recognise in the trouble a sign of\nIahvah's anger. Their fond hopes of returning prosperity are nipped\nin the bud; the wounds of the past are not to be healed; the country\nhas hardly recovered from one shock, before another and more deadly\nblow falls upon it. The next verse describes more particularly the\nnature of the bad news; the enemy, it would seem, had actually entered\nthe land, and given no uncertain indication of what the Judeans might\nexpect, by his ravages on the northern frontier. _From Dan was heard\nthe snorting of his horses; at the sound of the neighings of his\nchargers all the land did quake: and they came in_ (into the country)\n_and eat up the land and the fulness thereof, a city and them that\ndwelt_ _therein._ This was what the invaders did to city after city,\nonce they had crossed the border; ravaging its domain, and sacking\nthe place itself. Perhaps, however, it is better to take the perfects\nas prophetic, and to render: \"From Dan shall be heard ... shall\nquake: and they shall come and eat up the land,\" etc. This makes the\nconnexion easier with the next verse, which certainly has a future\nreference: _For behold I am about to send_ (or simply, _I send_)\n_against you serpents, basilisks_ (Isa. xi. 8, the _\u00e7if\u00b7oni_ was a\nsmall but very poisonous snake; Aquila \u03b2\u03b1\u03c3\u03b9\u03bb\u03af\u03c3\u03ba\u03bf\u03c2, Vulg. regulus),\n_for whom there is no charm, and they will bite you! saith Iahvah_.\nIf the tenses be supposed to describe what has already happened, then\nthe connexion of thought may be expressed thus: all this evil that you\nhave heard of has happened, not by mere ill fortune, but by the Divine\nwill: Iahvah Himself has done it, and the evil will not stop there,\n_for_ He purposes to send these destroying serpents into your very\nmidst (cf. Num. xxi. 6).\n\nThe eighteenth verse begins in the Hebrew with a highly anomalous\nword, which is generally supposed to mean \"my source of comfort\"\n(\u05de\u05d1\u05dc\u05d9\u05d2\u05d9\u05ea\u05d9). But both the strangeness of the form itself, which can\nhardly be paralleled in the language, and the indifferent sense which\nit yields, and the uncertainty of the Hebrew MSS., and the variations\nof the old versions, indicate that we have here another corruption of\nthe text. Some Hebrew copies divide the word, and this is supported by\nthe Septuagint and the Syro-Hexaplar version, which treat the verse\nas the conclusion of ver. 17, and render \"and they shall bite you\n_incurably, with pain of your perplexed heart_\" (Syro-Hex. \"without\ncure\"). But if the first part of the word is \"without\" (\u05de\u05b4\u05d1\u05b0\u05bc\u05dc\u05b4\u05d9 \"for\nlack of\" ...), what is the second? No such root as the existing\nletters imply is found in Hebrew or the cognate languages. The Targum\ndoes not help us: _Because they were scoffing_ (\u05de\u05dc\u05e2\u05d9\u05d2\u05d9\u05df) _against the\nprophets who prophesied unto them, sorrow and sighing will I bring_\n(\u05d0\u05d9\u05ea\u05d9) _upon them on account of their sins: upon them, saith the\nprophet, my heart is faint._ It is evident that this is no better than\na kind of punning upon the words of the Masoretic text.[33] I incline\nto read \"How shall I cheer myself? Upon me is sorrow; upon me my\nheart is sick.\" (The prophet would write \u05e2\u05b7\u05dc not \u05e2\u05b2\u05dc\u05b5\u05d9 for \"against,\"\nwithout a suffix. Read \u05d9\u05b8\u05d2\u05d5\u05b9\u05df \u05e2\u05b8\u05dc\u05b7\u05d9 \u05d0\u05b7\u05d1\u05b0\u05dc\u05b4\u05d9\u05d2\u05b8\u05d4 \u05de\u05b8\u05d4 Job ix. 27, x. 20;\nPs. xxxix. 14.) The passage is much like iv. 19.\n\nAnother possible emendation is: \"Iahvah causeth sorrow to flash forth\nupon me\" (\u05d9\u05d4\u05d5\u05d4 \u05de\u05d1\u05dc\u05d9\u05d2; after the archetype of Amos v. 9); but I prefer\nthe former.\n\nJeremiah closes the section with an outpouring of his own overwhelming\nsorrow at the heart-rending spectacle of the national calamities.\nNo reader endued with any degree of feeling can doubt the sincerity\nof the prophet's patriotism, or the willingness with which he would\nhave given his own life for the salvation of his country. This one\npassage alone says enough to exonerate its author from the charge of\nindifference, much more of treachery to his fatherland. He imagines\nhimself to hear the cry of the captive people, who have been carried\naway by the victorious invader into a distant land: _Hark! the sound\nof the imploring cry of the daughter of my people from a land far\naway! \"Is Iahvah not in Sion? or is not her King in her?\"_ (cf. Mic.\niv. 9). Such will be the despairing utterance of the exiles of Judah\nand Jerusalem; and the prophet hastens to answer it with another\nquestion, which accounts for their ruin by their disloyalty to that\nheavenly King; _O why did they vex Me with their graven images, with\nalien vanities?_ Compare a similar question and answer in an earlier\ndiscourse (v. 19). It may be doubted whether the pathetic words which\nfollow--_The harvest is past, the fruit-gathering is finished, but as\nfor us, we are not delivered!_--are to be taken as a further complaint\nof the captives, or as a reference by the prophet himself to hopes\nof deliverance which had been cherished in vain, month after month,\nuntil the season of campaigns was over. In Palestine, the grain crops\nare harvested in April and May, the ingathering of the fruit falls in\nAugust. During all the summer months, Jehoiakim, as a vassal of Egypt,\nmay have been eagerly hoping for some decisive interference from that\nquarter. That he was on friendly terms with that power at the time\nappears from the fact that he was allowed to fetch back refugees\nfrom its territory (xxvi. 22 _sq._). A provision for the extradition\nof offenders is found in the far more ancient treaty between Ramses\nII. and the king of the Syrian Chetta (fourteenth cent. B.C.). But\nperhaps the prophet is alluding to one of those frequent failures of\nthe crops, which inflicted so much misery upon his people (cf. vers.\n13, iii. 3, v. 24, 25), and which were a natural incident of times of\npolitical unsettlement and danger. In that case, he says, the harvest\nhas come and gone, and left us unhelped and disappointed. I prefer the\npolitical reference, though our knowledge of the history of the period\nis so scanty, that the particulars cannot be determined.\n\nIt is clear enough from the lyrical utterance which follows (vv.\n21-23), that heavy disasters had already befallen Judah: _For\nthe shattering of the daughter of my people am I shattered; I am\na mourner; astonishment hath seized me!_ This can hardly be pure\nanticipation. The next two verses may be a fragment of one of the\nprophet's elegies (_qinoth_). At all events, they recall the metre of\nLam. iv. and v.:\n\n          _Doth balm in Gilead fail?\n          Fails the healer there?\n          Why is not bound up\n          My people's deadly wound?_\n\n          _O that my head were springs,\n          Mine eye a fount of tears!\n          To weep both day and night\n          Over my people's slain._\n\nIt is not impossible that these two quatrains are cited from the\nprophet's elegy upon the last battle of Megiddo and the death of\nJosiah. Similar fragments seem to occur below (ix. 17, 18, 20) in the\ninstructions to the mourning-women, the professional singers of dirges\nover the dead.\n\nThe beauty of the entire strophe, as an outpouring of inexpressible\ngrief, is too obvious to require much comment. The striking question\n\"Is there no balm in Gilead, is there no physician there?\" has passed\ninto the common dialect of religious aphorism; and the same may be\nsaid of the despairing cry, \"The harvest is past, the summer is ended,\nand we are not saved!\"\n\nThe wounds of the state are past healing; but how, it is asked, can\nthis be? Does nature yield a balm which is sovereign for bodily hurts,\nand is there nowhere a remedy for those of the social organism?\nSurely that were something anomalous, strange and unnatural (cf.\nviii. 7). _Is there no balm in Gilead?_ Yes, it is found nowhere else\n(cf. Plin., _Hist. Nat._, xii. 25 _ad init._ \"Sed omnibus odoribus\npr\u00e6fertur balsamum, _uni terrarum Jud\u00e6\u00e6 concessum_\"). Then has Iahvah\nmocked us, by providing a remedy for the lesser evil, and leaving\nus a hopeless prey to the greater? The question goes deep down to\nthe roots of faith. Not only is there an analogy between the two\nrealms of nature and spirit; in a sense, the whole physical world is\nan adumbration of things unseen, a manifestation of the spiritual.\nIs it conceivable that order should reign everywhere in the lower\nsphere, and chaos be the normal state of the higher? If our baser\nwants are met by provisions adapted in the most wonderful way to their\nsatisfaction, can we suppose that the nobler--those cravings by which\nwe are distinguished from irrational creatures--have not also their\nsatisfactions included in the scheme of the world? To suppose it is\nevidence either of capricious unreason, or of a criminal want of\nconfidence in the Author of our being.\n\n_Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no healer there?_ There is a\npanacea for Israel's woes--the \"law\" or teaching of Iahvah; there\nis a Healer in Israel, Iahvah Himself (iii. 22, xvii. 14), who has\ndeclared of Himself, _I wound and I heal_ (Deut. xxxii. 39; chap. xxx.\n17, xxxiii. 6). _Why then is no bandage applied to the daughter of my\npeople?_ This is like the cry of the captives, _Is Iahvah not in Sion,\nis not her King in her?_ (ver. 19). The answer there is, Yes! it is\nnot that Iahvah is wanting; it is that the national guilt is working\nout its own retribution. He leaves this to be understood here; having\nframed his question so as to compel people, if it might be, to the\nright inference and answer.\n\nThe precious balsam is the distinctive glory of the mountain land of\nGilead, and the knowledge of Iahvah is the distinctive glory of His\npeople Israel. Will no one, then, apply the true remedy to the hurt\nof the state? No, for priests and prophets and people _know not--they\nhave refused to know_ Iahvah (ver. 5). The nation will not look to the\nHealer and live. It is their misfortunes that they hate, not their\nsins. There is nothing left for Jeremiah but to sing the funeral song\nof his fatherland.\n\nWhile weeping over their inevitable doom, the prophet abhors with his\nwhole soul his people's wickedness, and longs to fly from the dreary\nscene of treachery and deceit. _O that I had in the wilderness a\nlodging-place of wayfaring men_--some lonely khan on a caravan track,\nwhose bare, unfurnished walls, and blank almost oppressive stillness,\nwould be a grateful exchange for the luxury and the noisy riot of\nJudah's capital--_that I might leave my people and go away from among\nthem!_ The same feeling finds expression in the sigh of the psalmist,\nwho is perhaps Jeremiah himself: _O for the wings of a dove!_ (Ps.\nlv. 6 _sqq._) The same feeling has often issued in actual withdrawal\nfrom the world. And under certain circumstances, in certain states of\nreligion and society, the solitary life has its peculiar advantages.\nThe life of towns is doubtless busy, practical, intensely real; but\nits business is not always of the ennobling sort, its practice in the\nstrain and struggle of selfish competition is often distinctly hostile\nto the growth and play of the best instincts of human nature; its\nintensity is often the mere result of confining the manifold energies\nof the mind to one narrow channel, of concentrating the whole complex\nof human powers and forces upon the single aim of self-advancement\nand self-glorification; and its reality is consequently an illusion,\nphenomenal and transitory as the unsubstantial prizes which absorb\nall its interest, engross its entire devotion, and exhaust its whole\nactivity. It is not upon the broad sea, nor in the lone wilderness,\nthat men learn to question the goodness, the justice, the very being\nof their Maker. Atheism is born in the populous wastes of cities,\nwhere human beings crowd together, not to bless but to prey upon each\nother; where rich and poor dwell side by side, but are separated by\nthe gulf of cynical indifference and social disdain; where selfishness\nin its ugliest forms is rampant, and is the rule of life with\nmultitudes:--the selfishness which grasps at personal advantage and\nis deaf to the cries of human pain; the selfishness which calls all\nmanner of fraud and trickery lawful means for the achievement of its\nsordid ends; and the selfishness of flagrant vice, whose activity is\nnot only earthly and sensual but also devilish, as directly involving\nthe degradation and ruin of human souls. No wonder that they whose\neyes have been blinded by the god of this world, fail to see evidence\nof any other God; no wonder that they in whose hearts a coarse or a\nsubtle self-worship has dried the springs of pity and love can scoff\nat the very idea of a compassionate God; no wonder that a soul, shaken\nto its depths by the contemplation of this bewildering medley of\nheartlessness and misery, should be tempted to doubt whether there is\nindeed a Judge of all the earth, who doeth right.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThere is no truth, no honour in their dealings with one another;\nfalsehood is the dominant note of their social existence: _They are\nall adulterers, a throng of traitors!_ The charge of adultery is no\nmetaphor (chap. v. 7, 8). Where the sense of religious sanctions is\nweakened or wanting, the marriage tie is no longer respected; and that\nwhich perhaps lust began, is ended by lust, and man and woman are\nfaithless to each other, because they are faithless to God.\n\n_And they bend their tongue, their bow, falsely._[34] The tongue is as\na bow of which words are the arrows. Evildoers \"stretch their arrow,\nthe bitter word, to shoot in ambush at the blameless man\" (Ps. lxiv.\n4; cf. Ps. xi. 2). The metaphor is common in the language of poetry;\nwe have an instance in Longfellow's \"I shot an arrow into the air,\"\nand Homer's familiar \u1f14\u03c0\u03b5\u03b1 \u03c0\u03c4\u03b5\u03c1\u03cc\u03b5\u03bd\u03c4\u03b1, \"winged words,\" is a kindred\nexpression. (Others render, _and they bend their tongue as their bow\nof falsehood_, as though the term _sheqer, mendacium_, were an epithet\nqualifying the term for \"bow.\" I have taken it adverbially, a use\njustified by Pss. xxxviii. 20, lxix. 5, cxix. 78, 86.) In colloquial\nEnglish a man who exaggerates a story is said to \"draw the long bow.\"\n\nTheir tongue is a bow with which they shoot lies at their neighbours,\n_and it is not by truth_--faithfulness, honour, integrity--_that they\nwax mighty in the land_; their riches and power are the fruit of craft\nand fraud and overreaching. As was said in a former discourse, \"their\nhouses are full of deceit, therefore they become great, and amass\nwealth\" (v. 27). _By truth_, or more literally _unto truth, according\nto the rule or standard of truth_ (cf. Isa. xxxii. 1, \"according to\nright;\" Gen. i. 11, \"according to its kind\"). With the idea of the\nverb, we may compare Ps. cxii. 2: \"Mighty in the land shall his\nseed become\" (cf. also Gen. vii. 18, 19). The passage chap. v. 2, 3,\nis essentially similar to the present, and is the only one besides\nwhere we find the term \"by truth\" (\u05dc\u05d0\u05de\u05d5\u05e0\u05d4 _le'emunah_). The idiom\nseems certain, and the parallel passages, especially v. 27, appear to\nestablish the translation above given; otherwise one might be tempted\nto render: _they stretch their tongue, their bow, for lying_ (\u05dc\u05e9\u05e7\u05e8,\nv. 2), _and it is not for truth that they are strong in the land_.\n\"Noblesse oblige\" is no maxim of theirs; they use their rank and\nriches for unworthy ends.\n\n_For out of evil unto evil they go forth_--they go from one wickedness\nto another, adding sin to sin. Apparently, a military metaphor. What\nthey have and are is evil, and they go forth to secure fresh conquests\nof the same kind. Neither good nor evil is stationary; progress is the\nlaw of each--_and Me they know not, saith Iahvah_--they know not that\nI am truth itself, and therefore irreconcilably opposed to all this\nfraud and falsehood.\n\n_Beware ye, every one of his companion, and in no brother confide ye;\nfor every brother will surely play the Jacob,--and every companion\nwill go about slandering. And they deceive each his neighbour,\nand truth they speak not: they have trained their tongue to speak\nfalsehood, to pervert_ (their way, iii. 21) _they toil_ (chap. xx.\n9; cf. Gen. xix. 11). _Thine inhabiting is in the midst of deceit;\nthrough deceit they refuse to know Me, saith Iahvah_ (3-5).[35]\nAs Micah had complained before him (Mic. vii. 5), and as bitter\nexperience had taught our prophet (xi. 18 _sqq._, xii. 6), neither\nfriend nor brother was to be trusted; and that this was not merely\nthe melancholy characteristic of a degenerate age, is suggested by\nthe reference to the unbrotherly intrigues of the far-off ancestor\nof the Jewish people, in the traditional portrait of whom the best\nand the worst features of the national character are reflected with\nwonderful truth and liveliness.[36] _Every brother will not fail\nto play the Jacob_ (Gen. xxv. 29 _sqq._, xxvii. 36; Hos. xii. 4),\nto outwit, defraud, supplant; cunning and trickery will subserve\nacquisitiveness. But though an inordinate love of acquisition may\nstill seem to be specially characteristic of the Jewish race, as in\nancient times it distinguished the Canaanite and Semitic nations in\ngeneral, the tendency to cozen and overreach one's neighbour is so\nfar from being confined to it, that some modern ethical speculators\nhave not hesitated to assume this tendency to be an original and\nnatural instinct of humanity. The fact, however, for which those who\nwould account for human nature upon purely \"natural\" grounds are\nbound to supply some rational explanation, is not so much that aspect\nof it which has been well-known to resemble the instincts of the\nlower animals ever since observation began, but the aspect of revolt\nand protest against those lower impulses which we find reflected so\npowerfully in the documents of the higher religion, and which makes\nthousands of lives a perpetual warfare.\n\nJeremiah presents his picture of the universal deceit and\ndissimulation of his own time as something peculiarly shocking and\nstartling to the common sense of right, and unspeakably revolting in\nthe sight of God, the Judge of all. And yet the difficulty to the\nmodern reader is to detect any essential difference between human\nnature then and human nature now--between those times and these. It\nis still true that avarice and lust destroy natural affection; that\nthe ties of blood and friendship are no protection against a godless\nlove of self. The work of slander and misrepresentation is not left to\navowed enemies; your own acquaintance will gratify their envy, spite,\nor mere ill-will in this unworthy way. A simple child may tell the\ntruth; but tongues have to be trained to expertness in lying, whether\nin commerce or in diplomacy, in politics or in the newspaper press, in\nthe art of the salesman or in that of the agitator and the demagogue.\nMen still make a toil of perverting their way, and spend as much\npains in becoming accomplished villains as honest folk take to excel\nin virtue. Deceit is still the social atmosphere and environment,\nand _through deceit_ men _refuse to know Iahvah_. The knowledge, the\nrecognition, the steady recollection of what Iahvah is, and what His\nlaw requires, does not suit the man of lies; his objects oblige him\nto shut his eyes to the truth. Men _do not will_ and _will not_, to\nknow the moral impediments that lie in the way of self-seeking and\nself-pleasing. Sinning is always a matter of choice, not of nature,\nnor of circumstances alone. To desire to be delivered from moral evil\nis, so far, a desire to know God.\n\n_Thine inhabiting is in the midst of deceit_: who that ever lifts\nan eye above the things of time, has not at times felt thus? \"This\nis a Christian country.\" Why? Because the majority are as bent on\nself-pleasing, as careless of God, as heartlessly and systematically\nforgetful of the rights and claims of others, as they would have\nbeen had Christ never been heard of? A Christian country? Why? Is\nit because we can boast of some two hundred forms or fashions of\nsupposed Christian belief, differentiated from each other by heaven\nknows what obscure shibboleths, which in the lapse of time have become\nmeaningless and obsolete; while the old ill-will survives, and the\nold dividing lines remain, and Christians stand apart from Christians\nin a state of dissension and disunion that does despite and dishonour\nto Christ, and must be very dear to the devil? Some people are bold\nenough to defend this horrible condition of things by raising a cry of\nFree Trade in Religion. But religion is not a trade, not a thing to\nmake a profit of, except with Simon Magus and his numerous followers\nboth inside and outside of the Church.\n\nA Christian country! But the rage of avarice, the worship of Mammon,\nis not less rampant in London than in old Jerusalem. If the more\nviolent forms of oppression and extortion are restrained among us by\nthe more complete organization of public justice, the fact has only\ndeveloped new and more insidious modes of attack upon the weak and\nthe unwary. Deceit and fraud have been put upon their mettle by the\nchallenge of the law, and thousands of people are robbed and plundered\nby devices which the law can hardly reach or restrain. Look where\nthe human spider sits, weaving his web of guile, that he may catch\nand devour men! Look at the wonderful baits which the company-monger\nthrows out day by day to human weakness and cupidity! Do you call\nhim shrewd and clever and enterprising? It is a sorry part to play\nin life, that of Satan's decoy, tempting one's fellow-creatures to\ntheir ruin. Look at the lying advertisements, which meet your eyes\nwherever you turn, and make the streets of this great city almost as\nhideous from the point of view of taste as from that of morality! What\na degrading resource! To get on by the industrious dissemination of\nlies, by false pretences, which one knows to be false! And to trade\nupon human misery--to raise hopes that can never be fulfilled--to add\nto the pangs of disease the smart of disappointment and the woe of a\ndeeper despair, as countless quacks in this Christian country do!\n\nA Christian country: where God is denied on the platform and through\nthe press; where a novel is certain of widespread popularity, if its\naim be to undermine the foundations of the Christian faith; where\natheism is mistaken for intelligence, and an inconsistent Agnosticism\nfor the loftiest outcome of logic and reason; where flagrant lust\nwalks the streets unrebuked, unabashed; where every other person you\nmeet is a gambler in one form or another, and shopmen and labourers\nand loafers and errand boys are all eager about the result of races,\nand all agog to know the forecasts of some wily tipster, some wiseacre\nof the halfpenny press!\n\nA Christian country: where the rich and noble have no better use\nfor profuse wealth than horse-training, and no more elevating mode\nof recreation than hunting and shooting down innumerable birds and\nbeasts; where some must rot in fever-dens, clothed in rags, pining for\nfood, stifling for lack of air and room; while others spend thousands\nof pounds upon a whim, a banquet, a party, a toy for a fair woman. I\nam not a Socialist; I do not deny a man's right to do what he will\nwith his own, and I believe that state interference would be in the\nlast degree disastrous to the country. But I affirm the responsibility\nbefore God of the rich and great; and I deny that they who live and\nspend for themselves alone are worthy of the name of Christian.\n\nA Christian country: where human beings die, year after year, in the\nunspeakable, unimaginable agonies of canine madness, and dogs are\nkept by the thousand in crowded cities, that the sacrifice to the\nfiend of selfishness and the mocking devil of vanity may never lack\nits victims! There is a more than Egyptian worship of Anubis, in the\nsilly infatuation which lavishes tenderness upon an unclean brute, and\ncredulously invests instinct with the highest attributes of reason; and\nthere is a worse than heathenish besottedness in the heart that can\npamper a dog, and be utterly indifferent to the helplessness and the\nsufferings of the children of the poor. And people will go to church,\nand hear what the preacher has to say, and \"think he said what he ought\nto have said,\" or not, as the case may be, and return to their own\nsettled habits of worldly living, as a matter of course. Oh yes! it is a\nChristian country--the name of Christ has been named in it for fifteen\ncenturies past; and for that reason Christ will judge it.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n_Therefore, thus said Iahvah Sabaoth: Lo, I am about to melt them and\nput them to proof_ (Job xii. 11; Judg. xvii. 4; ch. vi. 25.); _for how\nam I to deal in face of_ [_the wickedness of_, LXX: the term has fallen\nout of the Heb. text: cf. iv. 4, vii. 12] _the daughter of My people?_\nThis is the meaning of the disasters that have fallen and are even\nnow falling upon the country. Iahvah will melt and assay this rough,\nintractable human ore, in the fiery furnace of affliction; the strain\nof insincerity that runs through it, the base earthy nature, can only\nthus be separated and purged away (Isa. xlviii. 10). _A deadly arrow_\n[LXX. a _wounding_ one, _i.e._, one which does not miss, but hits and\nkills] _is their tongue; deceit it spake: with his mouth peace with his\ncompanion he speaketh, and inwardly he layeth his ambush_ (Ps. lv. 22).\nThe verse again specifies the wickedness complained of, and justifies\nour restoration of that word in the previous verse.\n\nPerhaps, with the Peshito Syriac and the Targum, we ought rather to\nrender: _a sharp arrow is their tongue_. There is an Arabic saying\nquoted by Lane, \"Thou didst sharpen thy tongue against us,\" which\nseems to present a kindred root[37] (cf. Ps. lii. 3, lvii. 4; Prov.\nxxv. 18). The Septuagint may be right, with its probable reading:\n_deceit are the words of his mouth_. This certainly improves the\nsymmetry of the verse.\n\n_For such things_ (emphatic) _shall I not_--or _should I not_, with an\nimplied _ought_--_shall I not punish them, saith Iahvah, or on such a\nnation shall not My soul avenge herself?_ (v. 9, 29, after which the\nLXX. omits _them_ here.) These questions, like the previous one, _How\nam I to deal_--or, _how could I act--in face of the wickedness of the\ndaughter of My people?_ imply the moral necessity of the threatened\nevils. If Iahweh be what He has taught man's conscience that He is,\nnational sin must involve national suffering, and national persistence\nin sin must involve national ruin. Therefore He will _melt and try_\nthis people, both for their punishment and their reformation, if it\nmay be so. For punishment is properly retributive, whatever may be\nalleged to the contrary. Conscience tells us that we _deserve_ to\nsuffer for ill-doing, and conscience is a better guide than ethical\nor sociological speculators who have lost faith in God. But God's\nchastisements as known to our experience, that is to say, in the\npresent life, are reformatory as well as retributive; they compel us\nto recollect, they bring us, like the Prodigal, back to ourselves,\nout of the distractions of a sinful career, they humble us with the\ndiscovery that we have a Master, that there is a Power above ourselves\nand our apparently unlimited capacity to choose evil and to do it: and\nso by Divine grace we may become contrite and be healed and restored.\n\nThe prophet thus, perhaps, discerns a faint glimmer of hope, but his\nsky darkens again immediately. The land is already to a great extent\ndesolate, through the ravages of the invaders, or through severe\ndroughts (cf. iv. 25, viii. 20(?), xii. 4). _Upon the mountains will\nI lift up weeping and wailing, and upon the pastures of the prairie\na lamentation, for they have been burnt up_ (ii. 15; 2 Kings xxii.\n13), _so that no man passeth over them, and they have not heard the\ncry of the cattle: from the birds of the air to the beasts, they are\nfled, are gone_ (iv. 25). The perfects may be prophetic and announce\nwhat is certain to happen hereafter. The next verse, at all events, is\nunambiguous in this respect: _And I will make Jerusalem into heaps,\na haunt of jackals; and the cities of Judah will I make a desolation\nwithout inhabitant_. Not only the country districts, but the fortified\ntowns, and Jerusalem itself, the heart and centre of the nation, will\nbe desolated. Sennacherib boasts that he took forty-six strong cities,\nand \"little towns without number,\" and carried off 200,150 male and\nfemale captives, and an immense booty in cattle, before proceeding\nto invest Jerusalem itself; a state which shews how severe the\nsufferings of Judah might be, before the enemy struck at its vitals.\n\nIn the words _I will make Jerusalem heaps_, there is not necessarily a\nchange of subject. Jeremiah was authorized to \"root up and pull down\nand destroy\" in the name of Iahvah.\n\nHe now challenges the popular wise men (viii. 8, 9) to account for\nwhat, on their principles, must appear an inexplicable phenomenon.\n_Who is the_ (_true_) _wise man, so that he understands this_ (Hos.\nxiv. 9), _and who is he to whom the mouth of Iahvah hath spoken, so\nthat he can explain it_ [_unto you?_ LXX.]. _Why is the land undone,\nburnt up like the prairie, without a passer by?_ Both to Jeremiah and\nto his adversaries the land was Iahvah's land; what befel it must\nhave happened by His will, or at least with His consent. Why had He\nsuffered the repeated ravages of foreign invaders to desolate His own\nportion, where, if anywhere on earth, He must display His power and\nthe proof of His deity? Not for lack of sacrifices, for these were\nnot neglected. Only one answer was possible, to those who recognised\nthe validity of the Book of the Law, and the binding character of\nthe covenant which it embodied. The people and their wise men cannot\naccount for the national calamities; Jeremiah himself can only do\nso, because he is inwardly taught by Iahvah himself (ver. 12): _And\nIahvah said_. It may be supposed that ver. 11 states the popular\ndilemma, the anxious question which they put to the official prophets,\nwhose guidance they accepted. The prophets could give no reasonable\nor satisfying answer, because their teaching hitherto had been that\nIahvah could be appeased \"with thousands of rams, and ten thousand\ntorrents of oil\" (Mic. vi. 7). On such conditions they had promised\npeace, and their teaching had been falsified by events. Therefore\nJeremiah gives the true answer for Iahvah. But why did not the people\ncease to believe those whose word was thus falsified? Perhaps the\nfalse prophets would reply to objectors, as the refugees in Egypt\nanswered Jeremiah's reproof of their renewed worship of the Queen\nof Heaven: \"It was in the years that followed the abolition of this\nworship that our national disasters began\" (xliv. 18). It is never\ndifficult to delude those whose evil and corrupt hearts make them\ndesire nothing so much as to be deluded.\n\n_And Iahvah said: Because they forsook_ (lit. _upon_ = on account\nof _their forsaking_) \"_My Law which I set before them_\" (Deut. iv.\n18), _and they hearkened not unto My voice_ (Deut. xxviii. 15), _and\nwalked not therein_ (in My Law; LXX. omits the clause); _and walked\nafter the obstinacy of their own_ (_evil_: LXX.) _heart, and after the\nBaals_ (Deut. iv. 3) _which their fathers taught them_--instead of\nteaching them the laws of Iahvah (Deut. xi. 19). Such were, and had\nalways been, the terms of the answer of Iahvah's true prophets. Do you\nask _upon what ground_ (_`al mah_) misfortune has overtaken you? Upon\nthe ground of your having forsaken Iahvah's \"law\" or instruction, His\ndoctrine concerning Himself and your consequent obligations towards\nHim. They had this teaching in the Book of the Law, and had solemnly\nundertaken to observe it, in that great national assembly of the\neighteenth year of Josiah. And they had had it from the first in the\nliving utterances of the prophets.\n\nThis, then, is the reason why the land is waste and deserted. And\n_therefore_--because past and present experience is an index of the\nfuture, for Iahvah's character and purpose are constant--therefore the\ndesolation of the cities of Judah and of Jerusalem itself, will ere\nlong be accomplished. _Therefore thus said Iahvah Sabaoth_, the God\nof Armies and _the God of Israel; Lo, I am about to feed them_--or,\n_I continue to feed them_--to wit, _this people_ (an epexegetical\ngloss omitted by the LXX.) _with wormwood, and I will give them to\ndrink waters of gall_ (Deut. xxix. 17. An Israelite inclining to\nforeign gods is \"a root bearing wormwood and gall\"--bearing a bitter\nharvest of defeat, a cup of deadly disaster for his people; cf. Am.\nvi. 12), _and I will \"scatter them among the nations,\" \"whom they and\ntheir fathers knew not\"_ (Deut. xxviii. 36, 64). The last phrase is\nremarkable as evidence of the isolation of Israel, whose country lay\noff the beaten track between the Trans-Euphratean empires and Egypt,\nwhich ran along the sea-coast. They knew not Assyria, until Tiglath\nPileser's intervention (circ. 734), nor Babylon till the times of\nthe New Empire. In Hezekiah's day, Babylon is still \"a far country\"\n(2 Kings xx. 14). Israel was in fact an agricultural people, trading\ndirectly with Phenicia and Egypt, but not with the lands beyond\nthe Great River. The prophets heighten the horror of exile by the\nstrangeness of the land whither Israel is to be banished.\n\n_And I will send after them the sword, until I have consumed them._\nThe survivors are to be cut off (cf. viii. 3); there is no reserve,\nas in iv. 27, v. 10, 18; a \"full end\" is announced; which, again,\ncorresponds to the aggravation of social and private evils in the time\nof Jehoiakim, and the prophet's despair of reform.\n\nThe judgment of Judah is the ruin of her cities, the dispersion of\nher people in foreign lands, and extermination by the sword. Nothing\nis left for this doomed nation but to sing its funeral song; to send\nfor the professional wailing women, that they may come and chant\ntheir dirges, not over the dead but over the living who are condemned\nto die: _Thus said Iahvah Sabaoth_ (here as in ver. 6, LXX. omits\nthe expressive _Sabaoth_), _Mark ye well_ the present crisis, and\nwhat it implies (cf. ii. 10; LXX. wrongly omits this emphatic term),\n_and summon the women that sing dirges, that they come, and unto the\nskilful women send ye, that they come_ [LXX. omits], _and hasten_\n[LXX. _and speak and_] _to lift up the death-wail over us, that our\neyes may run down with tears, and our eyelids pour down waters_.\nThe \"singing women\" of 2 Chron. xxxv. 25, or the \"minstrels\" of St.\nMatt. ix. 23, are intended. The reason assigned for thus inviting\nthem assumes that the prophet's forecast is already fulfilled.\nAlready, as in viii. 19, Jeremiah hears the loud wailing of the\ncaptives as they are driven away from their ruined homes: _For the\nsound of the death-wail is heard from Sion, \"How are we undone! We\nare sore ashamed\"_--of our false confidence and foolish security and\ndeceitful hopes--\"_for_, after all, _we have left the land, for our\ndwellings have cast_ (_us_) _out_!\" The last two lines appear to be\nparallels, which is against the rendering, _For men have cast down\nour dwellings_. Cf. Lev. xviii. 25; chap. xxii. 28. From the wailing\nwomen, the address now seems to turn to the Judean women generally;\nbut perhaps the former are still intended, as their peculiar calling\nwas probably hereditary and passed on from mother to daughter: _For\nhear, ye women, the word of Iahvah, and let your ear take in the word\nof His mouth! and teach ye your daughters the death-wail, and each her\ncompanion the lamentation; for_\n\n          \"_Death scales our lattices,\n           Enters our palaces,\n           To cut off boy without,\n           The young men from the streets._\"\n\n_And the corpses of men will fall_--the tense certifies the future\nreference of the others--_like dung_ (viii. 2) _on the face of the\nfield_ (2 Kings ix. 37, of Jezebel's corpse)--left without burial rites\nto rot and fatten the soil--_and like the corn-swath behind the reaper,\nand none shall gather_ (_them_). The quatrain (ver. 20) is possibly\nquoted from some familiar elegy; and the allusion seems to be to a\nmysterious visitation like the plague, which used to be known in Europe\nas \"the Black Death\" (cf. xv. 2, xviii. 21, xliii. 11). In this time\nof closed gates and barred doors, death is represented as entering the\nhouse, not by the door, but \"climbing up some other way\" like a thief\n(Joel ii. 9; St. John x. 1). Bars and bolts will be futile against\nsuch an invader. The figure is not continued in the second half of the\nstanza.[38] The point of the closing comparison seems to be that whereas\nthe corn-swaths are gathered up in sheaves and taken home, the bodies\nwill lie where the reaper Death cuts them down.\n\n_Thus said Iahvah: Let not a wise man glory in his wisdom, and let\nnot the mighty man glory in his might! Let not a rich man glory\nin his riches, but in this let him glory that glorieth, in being\nprudent and knowing Me_ (LXX. omits pronoun, cf. Gen. i. 4), _that I,\nIahvah, do lovingkindness_ (_and_: LXX. and Orientals), _justice and\nrighteousness upon the earth; for in these I delight, saith Iahvah._\n\nIt is not easy, at first sight, to see the connexion of this, one of\nthe finest and deepest of Jeremiah's oracles, with the sentence of\ndestruction which precedes it. It is not satisfactory to regard it\nas stating \"the only means of escape and the reason why it is not\nused\" (the latter being set forth in vv. 24, 25); for the leading\nidea of the whole composition, from vii. 13 to ix. 22, is that\nretribution is coming, and no escape, not even that of a remnant,\nis contemplated. The passage looks like an appendix to the previous\npieces, such as the prophet might have added at a later period when\nthe crisis was over, and the country had begun to breathe again,\nafter the shock of invasion had rolled away. And this impression\nis confirmed by its contents. We have no details about the first\ninterference of the new Chaldean power in Judah; we only read that\nin Jehoiakim's days _Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon came up,\nand Jehoiakim became his servant three years: then he turned and\nrebelled against him_ (2 Kings xxiv. 1). But before this, for some\ntwo or three years, Jehoiakim was the vassal of the king of Egypt\nto whom he owed his crown, and Nebuchadrezzar had to reduce Necho\nbefore he could attend to Jehoiakim. It may be, therefore, that the\nworst apprehensions of the time not having been realized, in the\nyear or two of lull which followed, the politicians of Judah began\nto boast of their foresight and the caution and sagacity of their\nmeasures for the public safety, instead of ascribing the respite to\nGod; the warrior class might vaunt the bravery which it had exhibited\nor intended to exhibit in the service of the country; and the rich\nnobles might exult in the apparent security of their treasures and\nthe new lease of enjoyment accorded to themselves. To these various\nclasses, who would not be slow to ridicule his dark forebodings as\nthose of a moody and unpatriotic pessimist (xx. 7, xxvi. 11, xxix. 26,\nxxxvii. 13), Jeremiah now speaks, to remind them that if the danger\nis over for the present, it is the lovingkindness and the righteous\ngovernment of Iahvah which has removed it, and to declare that it\nis only suspended and postponed, not abolished for ever: _Behold,\ndays are coming, saith Iahvah, when I will visit_ (his guilt) _upon\nevery one that is circumcised in foreskin_ (only, and not _in heart_\nalso): _upon Egypt and upon Judah, and upon Edom and upon the ben\u00ea\nAmmon and upon Moab, and upon all the tonsured folk that dwell in the\nwilderness: For all the nations are uncircumcised, and all the house\nof Israel are uncircumcised in heart._ Egypt is mentioned first, as\nthe leading nation, to which at the time the petty states of the west\nlooked for help in their struggle against Babylon (cf. xxvii. 3). The\nprophet numbers Judah with the rest, not only as a member of the same\npolitical group, but as standing upon the same level of unspiritual\nlife. Like Israel, Egypt also practised circumcision, and both the\ncontext here requires and their kinship with the Hebrews makes it\nprobable that the other peoples mentioned observed the same custom\n(Herod., ii. 36, 104), which is actually portrayed in a wall-painting\nat Karnak. The \"tonsured folk\" or \"cropt-heads\" of the wilderness\nare north Arabian nomads like the Kedarenes (xlix. 28, 32), and the\ntribes of Dedan, Tema and Buz (xxv. 23), whose ancestor was the\ncircumcised Ishmael (Gen. xxv. 13 _sqq._, xvii. 23). Herodotus records\ntheir custom of shaving the temples all round, and leaving a tuft of\nhair on the top of the head (Herod., iii. 8), which practice, like\ncircumcision, had a religious significance, and was forbidden to the\nIsraelites (Lev. xix. 27, xxi. 5).\n\nNow why does Jeremiah mention circumcision at all? The case is, I\nthink, parallel to his mention of another external distinction of\nthe popular religion, the Ark of the Covenant (iii. 15). Just as\nin that place God promises _shepherds according to Mine heart which\nshall shepherd_ the restored Israel _with knowledge and prudence_,\nand then directly adds that, in the light and truth of those days,\nthe ark will be forgotten (iii. 15, 16); so here, he bids the ruling\nclasses, the actual shepherds of the nation, not to trust in their\nown wisdom or valour or wealth (cf. xvii. 5 _sqq._), but in _being\nprudent and knowing Iahvah_, and then adds that the outward sign of\ncircumcision, upon which the people prided themselves as the mark of\ntheir dedication to Iahvah, was in itself of no value, apart from a\n\"circumcised heart,\" _i.e._, a heart purified of selfish aims and\ndevoted to the will and glory of God (iv. 4). So far as Iahvah is\nconcerned, all Judah's heathen neighbours are uncircumcised, in spite\nof their observance of the outward rite. The Jews themselves would\nhardly admit the validity of heathen circumcision, because the manner\nof it was different, just as at this day the Muhammadan method differs\nfrom the Jewish. But Jeremiah puts \"all the house of Israel,\" who were\ncircumcised in the orthodox manner, on a level with the imperfectly\ncircumcised heathen peoples around them. All alike are uncircumcised\nbefore God; those who have the orthodox rite, and those who have but\nan inferior semblance of it; and all alike will in the day of judgment\nbe visited for their sins (cf. Amos i.).\n\nWith the increasing carelessness of moral obligations, an increasing\nimportance would be attached to the observance of such a rite as\ncircumcision, which was popularly supposed to devote a man to Iahvah\nin such sense that the tie was indissoluble. Jeremiah says plainly\nthat this is a mistaken view. The outward sign must have an inward\nand spiritual grace corresponding thereto; else the Judeans are no\nbetter than those whose circumcision they despise as defective. His\nmeaning is that of the Apostle, \"Circumcision verily profiteth, _if\nthou keep the law_; but if thou be a breaker of law, thy circumcision\nhath become uncircumcision\" (Rom. ii. 25). \"Circumcision is nothing,\nand uncircumcision is nothing, _but the keeping of the commandments\nof God,\" scil._ is everything (1 Cor. vii. 19). It is \"faith working\nby love,\" it is the \"new creature\" that is essential in spiritual\nreligion (Gal. v. 6, vi. 15).\n\n_H\u00e6c dicit Dominus: Non glorietur sapiens in sapientia sua._ Glancing\nback over the whole passage, we discern an inward relation between\nthese verses and the preceding discourse. It is not the outward props\nof state-craft, and strong battalions, and inexhaustible wealth, that\nreally and permanently uphold a nation; not these, but the knowledge of\nIahvah, a just insight into the true nature of God, and a national life\nregulated in all its departments by that insight. At the outset of this\nthird section of his discourse (ix. 3-6), Jeremiah declared that corrupt\nIsrael _knew not_ and _refused to know_ its God. At the beginning of the\nentire piece (vii. 3 _sq._), he urged his countrymen to _amend their\nways and their doings_, and not go on trusting in _lying words_ and\ndoing the opposite of _lovingkindness and justice and righteousness_,\nwhich alone are pleasing to Iahvah (Mic. vi. 8), Who _delighteth in\nlovingkindness and not sacrifice, and in the knowledge of God more than\nin burnt-offerings_ (Hos. vi. 6). And just as in the opening section the\nsacrificial worship was disparaged, taken as an \"opus operatum,\" so here\nat the close circumcision is declared to have no independent value as\na means of securing Divine favour (ix. 25). Thus the entire discourse\nis rounded off by the return of the end to the beginning; and the main\nthought of the whole, which Jeremiah has developed and enforced with so\nmuch variety of feeling and oratorical and poetical ornament, is the\neternally true thought that a service of God which is purely external\nis no service at all, and that rites without a loving obedience are an\ninsult to the Majesty of Heaven.\n\nx. 17-25. The latter part of chap. x. resumes the subject suspended at\nix. 22. It evidently contemplates the speedy departure of the people\ninto banishment. _Away out of the land with thy pack_ (or _thy goods_;\nLXX. \u1f51\u03c0\u03cc\u03c3\u03c4\u03b1\u03c3\u03b9\u03c2, \"property,\" Targ. \"merchandise,\" the Heb. term, which\nis related to \"Canaan,\" occurs here only), _O thou that sittest in\ndistress!_ (or _abidest in the siege_: lii. 5; 2 Kings xxiv. 10).\nSion is addressed, and bidden to prepare her scanty bundle of bare\nnecessaries for the march into exile. So Egypt is bidden to \"make for\nherself vessels of exile,\" xlvi. 19. Some think that Sion is warned\nto withdraw her goods from the open country to the protection of her\nstrong walls, before the siege begins, as in viii. 14; but we have\npassed that stage in the development of the piece, and the next verse\nseems to shew the meaning: _For thus hath Iahvah said, Lo, I am about\nto sling forth the inhabitants of the land this time_--as opposed to\nformer occasions, when the enemy retired unsuccessful (2 Kings xvi.\n5, xix. 36), or went off satisfied with plunder or an indemnity, like\nthe Scythians (see also 2 Kings xiv. 14)--_and I will distress them\nthat they may find out_ the truth, which now they refuse to see. The\naposiopesis _that they may find out!_ is very striking. The Vulgate\nrenders the verb in the passive: \"Tribulabo eos ita ut inveniantur.\"\nThis, however, does not give so good a sense as the Masoretic\npointing, and Ewald's reference of the term to the goods of the\npanic-stricken fugitives seems flat and tasteless (\"the inhabitants\nof the land will this time ... not be able to hide their goods from\nthe enemy!\"). The best comment on the phrase is supplied by a later\noracle: _Lo, I am about to make them know this time--I will make them\nknow My hand and My might; that they may know that My name is Iahvah_\n(xvi. 21). Cf. also xvii. 9; Eccles. viii. 17.\n\nThe last verse (17) resembles a poetical quotation; and this one looks\nlike the explication of it. There the population is personified as a\nwoman; here we have instead the plain prose expression, \"inhabitants\nof the land.\" The figurative, \"I will sling them forth\" or \"cast\nthem out,\" explains the bidding of Sion to _pack up her bundle_ or\n_belongings_--there seems to be a touch of contempt in this isolated\nword, as much as to signify that the people must go forth into exile\nwith no more of their possessions than they can carry like a beggar in\na bundle. The expression, \"I will distress them,\" seems to shew that\n\"thou that sittest in the distress\" is proleptic, or to be rendered\n\"thou that art to sit in distress,\" which comes to the same thing.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nAnd now the prophet imagines the distress and the remorse of this\nforlorn mother, as it will manifest itself when her house is ruined\nand her children are gone and she realizes the folly of the past (cf.\niv. 31):--\n\n          \"_Woe's me for my wound!\n           Fatal is my stroke!_\"\n\n(perhaps quoted from a familiar elegy). _And yet I--I thought_\n(chap. xxii. 21; Ps. xxx. 7), _Only this_--no more than this--_is my\nsickness: I can bear it!_ (\u05d5\u05d4 \u05d0\u05da \u05d0\u05e9\u05d0\u05e0 \u05d7\u05dc\u05d9\u05d9; LXX. \u03c3\u03bf\u03c5, Vulg. _mea_).\nThe people had never fully realized the threatenings of the prophets,\nuntil they began to be accomplished. When they heard them, they had\nsaid, half-incredulously, half-mockingly, Is that all? Their false\nguides, too, had treated apparent danger as a thing of little moment,\nassuring them that their half reforms, and zealous outward worship,\nwere sufficient to turn away the Divine displeasure (vi. 14). And so\nthey said to themselves, as sinners are still in the habit of saying,\n\"If the worst come to the worst, I can bear it. Besides, God is\nmerciful, and things may turn out better for frail humanity than your\npreachers of wrath and woe predict. Meanwhile--I shall do as I please,\nand take my chance of the issue.\"\n\nThe lament of the mourning mother continues: _My tent is laid waste\nand all my cords are broken; My sons went forth of me_ (to battle)\n_and are not; There is none to spread my tent any more, And to\nset up my curtains_ (cf. Amos ix. 11). Overhearing, as it were,\nthis sorrowful lamentation (_qinah_), the prophet interposes with\nthe reason of the calamity: _For the shepherds became brutish_ or\n_behaved foolishly_, stulte egerunt (Vulg.)--the leaders of the nation\nshewed themselves as insensate and silly as cattle--_and Iahvah they\nsought not_ (ii. 8); _Therefore_--as they had no regard for Divine\ncounsel--_they dealt not wisely_ (iii. 15, ix. 23, xx. 11), _and all\ntheir flock was scattered abroad_.\n\nOnce more, and for the last time, the prophet sounds the alarm: _Hark!\na rumour! lo, it cometh! and a great uproar from the land of the north;\nto make the_ _cities of Judah a desolation, a haunt of jackals!_ It is\nnot likely that the verse is to be regarded as spoken by the mourning\ncountry; she contemplates the evil as already done, whereas here it is\nonly imminent (cf. iv. 6, vi. 22, i. 15). The piece concludes with a\nprayer (vv. 23-25), which may be considered either as an intercession\nby the prophet on behalf of the nation (cf. xviii. 20), or as a form of\nsupplication which he suggests as suitable to the existing crisis. _I\nknow, Iahvah, that man's way is not his own; That it pertaineth not to\na man to walk and direct his own steps: Correct me, Iahvah, but with\njustice; Not in Thine anger, lest Thou make me small!_ (Partly quoted,\nPs. vi. 1, xxxviii. 1.) _Pour out Thy fury upon the nations that know\nThee not, And upon tribes that have not called upon Thy name; For they\nhave devoured Jacob_ [_and will devour him_], [_and consumed him_], _and\nhis pasture they have desolated!_ (Ps. lxxix. 6, 7, quoted from this\nplace. In Jer. the LXX. omits \"and will devour him;\" while the psalm\nomits both of the bracketed expressions.)\n\nThe Vulgate renders ver. 23: \"Scio, Domine, quia non est hominis via\nejus; nec viri est ut ambulet, et dirigat gressus suos.\" I think this\nindicates the correct reading of the Hebrew text (\u05d5\u05b0\u05d4\u05b8\u05db\u05b5\u05d9\u05df \u05d4\u05b8\u05dc\u05da\u05b0; cf.\nix. 23, where two infinitives absolute are used in a similar way). The\nSeptuagint also must have had the same text, for it translates, \"nor\nwill (= can) a man walk and direct his own walking.\" The Masoretic\npunctuation is certainly incorrect; and the best that can be made of it\nis Hitzig's version, which, however, disregards the accents, although\ntheir authority is the same as that of the vowel points: _I know Iahvah\nthat not to man belongeth his way, not to a perishing_ (lit. \"going,\"\n\"departing\") _man--and_ _to direct his steps_. Any reader of Hebrew may\nsee at once that this is a very unusual form of expression. (For the\nthought, cf. Prov. xvi. 9, xix. 21; Ps. xxxvii. 23.)\n\nThe words express humble submission to the impending chastisement. The\npenitent people does not deprecate the penalty of its sins, but only\nprays that the measure of it may be determined by right rather than by\nwrath (cf. xlvi. 27, 28). The very idea of right and justice implies a\nlimit, whereas wrath, like all passions, is without limit, blind and\ninsatiable. \"In the Old Testament, justice is opposed, not to mercy,\nbut to high-handed violence and oppression, which recognise no law but\nsubjective appetite and desire. The just man owns the claims of an\nobjective law of right.\"\n\n_Non est hominis via ejus._ Neither individuals nor nations are\nmasters of their own fortunes in this world. Man has not his fate\nin his own hands; it is controlled and directed by a higher Power.\nBy sincere submission, by a glad, unswerving loyalty, which honours\nhimself as well as its Object, man may co-operate with that Power, to\nthe furtherance of ends which are of all possible ends the wisest, the\nloftiest, the most beneficial to his kind. Self-will may oppose those\nends, it cannot thwart them; at the most it can but momentarily retard\ntheir accomplishment, and exclude itself from a share in the universal\nblessing.\n\nIsrael now confesses, by the mouth of his best and truest\nrepresentative, that he has hitherto loved to choose his own path, and\nto walk in his own strength, without reference to the will and way of\nGod. Now, the overwhelming shock of irresistible calamity has brought\nhim to his senses, has revealed to him his powerlessness in the hands\nof the Unseen Arbiter of events, has made him see, as he never saw,\nthat mortal man can determine neither the vicissitudes nor the goal of\nhis journey. Now he sees the folly of the mighty man glorying in his\nmight, and the rich man glorying in his riches; now he sees that the\n_how_ and the _whither_ of his earthly course are not matters within\nhis own control; that all human resources are nothing _against_ God,\nand are only helpful when used _for_ and _with_ God. Now he sees that\nthe path of life is not one which we enter upon and traverse of our\nown motion, but a path along which we are led; and so, resigning his\nformer pride of independent choice, he humbly prays, \"Lead Thou me\non!\" Lead me whither Thou wilt, in the way of trouble and disaster and\nchastisement for my sins; but remember my human frailty and weakness,\nand let not Thy wrath destroy me! Finally, the suppliant ventures to\nremind God that others are guilty as well as he, and that the ruthless\ndestroyers of Israel are themselves fitted to be objects as well as\ninstruments of Divine justice. They are such (i) because they have not\n\"known\" nor \"called upon\" Iahvah; and (ii) because they have \"devoured\nJacob\" who was a thing consecrated to Iahvah (ii. 3), and therefore\nare guilty of sacrilege (cf. l. 28, 29).\n\nIt has never been our lot to see our own land overrun by a barbarous\ninvader, our villages burnt, our peasantry slaughtered, our towns\ntaken and sacked with all the horrors permitted or enjoined by a\nnon-Christian religion. We read of but hardly realize the atrocities\nof ancient warfare. If we did realize them, we might even think a\nsaint justified in praying for vengeance upon the merciless destroyers\nof his country. But apart from this, I see a deeper meaning in this\nprayer. The justice of this terrible visitation upon Judah is admitted\nby the prophet. Yet in Judah many righteous were involved in the\ngeneral calamity. On the other hand, Jeremiah knew something of the\nvices of the Babylonians, against which his contemporary Habakkuk\ninveighs so bitterly. They \"knew not\" nor \"called upon\" Iahvah; but\na base polytheism reflected and sanctioned the corruption of their\nlives. A kind of moral dilemma, therefore, is proposed here. If the\npurpose of this outpouring of Divine wrath be to bring Israel to\n\"find out\" (ver. 18) and to acknowledge the truth of God and his own\nguiltiness, can wrath persist, when that result is attained? Does not\njustice demand that the torrent of destruction be diverted upon the\nproud oppressor? So prayer, the forlorn hope of poor humanity, strives\nto overcome and compel and prevail with God, and to wrest a blessing\neven from the hand of Eternal Justice.\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[30] The omissions of the Septuagint are not always intelligent. The\nrepetition of the \"all\" here intensifies the idea of the _totality_ of\nthe ruin of the northern kingdom. The two clauses balance each other:\n_all your brethren--all the seed of Ephraim_. The objection that Edom\nwas also a \"brother\" of Israel (Deut. xxiii. 8; Amos i. 11) shews a\nwant of rhetorical sense.\n\nIn vii. 4 the Septuagint tastelessly omits the third \"The Temple of\nIahvah!\" upon which the rhetorical effect largely depends: cf. chap.\nxxii. 29; Isa. vi. 3.\n\n[31] NOTE ON vii. 25.--The word answering to \"daily\" in the Heb. simply\nmeans \"day,\" and ought to be omitted, as an accidental repetition either\nfrom the previous line, or of the last two letters of the preceding\nword \"prophets.\" Cf. ver. 13, where a similar phrase, \"rising early and\nspeaking,\" occurs in a similar context, but without \"daily.\"\n\n[32] _Wa'etten lahem_ can only mean \"and I gave (in prophetic idiom\n'and I will give') unto them,\" and this, of course, requires an\nobject. \"I will give them to those who shall pass over them\" is the\nrendering proposed by several scholars. But _lahem_ does not mean\n\"to those,\" and the thought does not harmonize with what precedes,\nand this use of \u05e2\u05d1\u05e8 is doubtful, and the verb \"to give\" absolutely\nrequires an object. The Vulgate rendering is really more in accordance\nwith Hebrew syntax, as the masc. suffix of the verb might be used\nin less accurate writing. Targum: \"because I gave them My law from\nSinai, and they transgressed against it;\" Peshito: \"and I gave unto\nthem, and they transgressed them.\" So also the Syro-Hexaplar of Milan\n(participle: \"were transgressing\") between asterisks.\n\n[33] It seems to take the \u05e2\u05dc\u05bc\u05d9 each time as \u05e2\u05dc\u05bc\u05d9\u05d4\u05d5\u05df\u05be\u05e2\u05dc\u05bc\u05d9 and to read\n\u05d0\u05d9\u05ea\u05d9 \u05de\u05dc\u05e2\u05d9\u05d2\u05d9\u05dd for \u05de\u05d1\u05dc\u05d9\u05d2\u05d9\u05ea\u05d9: thus getting \"Scoffers! I will bring upon\nthem sorrow; upon them my heart is faint.\"\n\n[34] The irregular _Hiphil_ form of the verb--cf. 1 Sam. xiv. 22; Job\nxix. 4--may be justified by Job xxviii. 8; we are not, therefore,\nbound to render the Masoretic text: _and they make their tongue bend\ntheir lying bow_. Probably, however, _Qal_ is right, the _Hiphil_\nbeing due to a misunderstanding, like that of the Targum, \"And they\ntaught their tongue words of lying.\"\n\n[35] Ewald prefers the reading of the LXX., which divides the words\ndifferently. If we suppose their version correct, they must have read:\n\"They have trained their tongue to speak falsehood, to distort. They\nare weary of returning. Oppression in oppression, deceit in deceit!\nThey refuse to know Me, saith Iahvah.\" But I do not think this an\nimprovement on the present Masoretic text.\n\n[36] If Jeremiah wrote Ps. lv., as Hitzig supposes, he may be alluding\nto the treachery of a particular friend; cf. Ps. lv. 13, 14.\n\n[37] _Shahadhta lis\u00e2naka `alaina._ In this case, we should follow the\nHeb. margin or _Q'r\u00ea_.\n\n[38] _Speak thou, Thus saith Iahweh_, is undoubtedly a spurious\naddition, and does not appear in the LXX. Jeremiah never says _Koh\nne'um Iahvah_, and never uses the imperative _dabber_!\n\n\n\n\n                                  VI.\n\n                 _THE IDOLS OF THE HEATHEN AND THE GOD\n                              OF ISRAEL._\n\n                           JEREMIAH x. 1-16.\n\n\nThis fine piece is altogether isolated from the surrounding context,\nwhich it interrupts in a very surprising manner. Neither the style nor\nthe subject, neither the idioms nor the thoughts expressed in them,\nagree with what we easily recognise as Jeremiah's work. A stronger\ncontrast can hardly be imagined than that which exists between the\nleading motive of this oracle as it stands, and that of the long\ndiscourse in which it is embedded with as little regard for continuity\nas an aerolite exhibits when it buries itself in a plain. In what\nprecedes, the prophet's fellow-countrymen have been accused of flagrant\nand defiant idolatry (vii. 17 _sqq._, 30 _sqq._); the opening words\nof this piece imply a totally different situation. _To the way of the\nnations become not accustomed, and of the signs of heaven be not afraid;\nfor the nations are afraid of them._[39] Jeremiah would not be likely\nto warn inveterate apostates not to \"accustom themselves\" to idolatry.\nThe words presuppose, not a nation whose idolatry was notorious, and\nhad just been the subject of unsparing rebuke and threats of imminent\ndestruction; they presuppose a nation free from idolatry, but exposed\nto temptation from surrounding heathenism. The entire piece contains\nno syllable of reference to past or present unfaithfulness on the part\nof Israel. Here at the outset, and throughout, Israel is implicitly\ncontrasted with \"the nations\" (\u03c4\u1f70 \u1f14\u03b8\u03bd\u03b7) as the servant of Iahvah with\nthe foolish worshippers of lifeless gods. There is a tone of contempt\nin the use of the term _goyim_--\"To the way of the _goyim_ accustom\nnot yourselves ... for the _goyim_ are afraid of them\" (of the signs\nof heaven); or as the Septuagint puts it yet more strongly, \"for\n_they_ (the besotted _goyim_) are afraid (_i.e._, worship) before\nthem;\" as though that alone--the sense of Israel's superiority--should\nbe sufficient to deter Israelites from any bowings in the house\nof Rimmon.[40] Neither this contemptuous use of the term _goyim_,\n\"Gentiles,\" nor the scathing ridicule of the false gods and their\ndevotees, is in the manner of Jeremiah. Both are characteristic of a\nlater period. The biting scorn of image-worship, the intensely vivid\nperception of the utter incommensurableness of Iahvah, the Creator of\nall things, with the handiwork of the carpenter and the silversmith,\nare well-known and distinctive features of the great prophets of the\nExile (see especially Isa. xl.-lxvi.). There are plenty of allusions\nto idolatry in Jeremiah; but they are expressed in a tone of fervid\nindignation, not of ridicule. It was the initial offence, which issued\nin a hopeless degradation of public and private morality, and would\nhave for its certain consequence the rejection and ruin of the nation\n(ii. 5-13, 20-28, iii. 1-9, 23 _sqq._). All the disasters, past and\npresent, which had befallen the country, were due to it (vii. 9, 17\n_sqq._, 30 _sqq._, viii. 2 etc.). The people are urged to repent and\nreturn to Iahvah with their whole heart (iii. 12 _sqq._, iv. 3 _sqq._,\nv. 21 _sqq._, vi. 8), as the only means of escape from deadly peril. The\nBaals are things that cannot help or save (ii. 8, 11); but the prophet\ndoes not say, as here (x. 5), \"Fear them not; they cannot harm you!\"\nThe piece before us breathes not one word about Israel's apostasy, the\nurgent need of repentance, the impending ruin. Taken as a whole, it\nneither harmonizes with Jeremiah's usual method of argument, nor does it\nsuit the juncture of affairs implied by the language which precedes and\nfollows (vii. 1-ix. 26, x. 17-25). For let us suppose that this oracle\noccupies its proper place here, and was actually written by Jeremiah at\nthe crisis which called forth the preceding and following utterances.\nThen the warning cry, \"Be not afraid of the signs of heaven!\" can only\nmean \"Be not afraid of the Powers under whose auspices the Chaldeans are\ninvading your country; Iahvah, the true and living God, will protect\nyou!\" But consolation of this kind would be diametrically opposed to the\ndoctrine which Jeremiah shares with all his predecessors; the doctrine\nthat Iahvah Himself is the prime cause of the coming trouble, and that\nthe heathen invaders are His instruments of wrath (v. 9 _sq._, vi. 6);\nit would imply assent to that fallacious confidence in Iahvah, which the\nprophet has already done his utmost to dissipate (vi. 14, vii. 4 _sq._).\n\nThe details of the idolatry satirized in the piece before us point\nto Chaldea rather than to Canaan. We have here a zealous worship of\nwooden images overlaid and otherwise adorned with silver and gold,\nand robed in rich garments of violet and purple (cf. Josh. vii.\n21). This does not agree with what we know of Judean practice in\nJeremiah's time, when, besides the worship of the Queen of Heaven, the\npeople adored \"stocks and stones;\" probably the wooden symbols of the\ngoddess Asherah and rude sun-pillars, but hardly works of the costly\nkind described in the text, which indicate a wealthy people whose\nreligion reflected an advanced condition of the arts and commerce.\nThe designation of the objects of heathen worship as \"the signs of\nheaven,\" and the gibe at the custom of carrying the idol-statues in\nprocession (Isa. xlvi. 1, 7), also point us to Babylon, \"the land of\ngraven images\" (l. 38), and the home of star-worship and astrological\nsuperstition (Isa. xlvii. 13).\n\nFrom all these considerations, it would appear that not Israel in\nCanaan but Israel in Chaldea is addressed in this piece by some\nunknown prophet, whose leaflet has been inserted among the works of\nJeremiah. In that case, the much disputed eleventh verse, written in\nAramaic, and as such unique in the volume of the prophets proper, may\nreally have belonged to the original piece. Aramaic was the common\nlanguage of intercourse between East and West both before and during\nthe captivity (cf. 2 Kings xviii. 26); and the suggestion that the\ntempted exiles should answer in this dialect the heathen who pressed\nthem to join in their worship, seems suitable enough. The verse\nbecomes very suspicious, if we suppose that the whole piece is really\npart and parcel of Jeremiah's discourse, and as such addressed to the\nJudeans in the reign of Jehoiakim. Ewald, who maintains this view upon\ngrounds that cannot be called convincing, thinks the Aramaic verse was\noriginally a marginal annotation on verse 15, and suggests that it is\na quotation from some early book similar to the book of Daniel. At\nall events, it is improbable that the verse proceeded from the pen of\nJeremiah, who writes Aramaic nowhere else, not even in the letter to\nthe exiles of the first Judean captivity (chap. xxix.).\n\nBut might not the piece be an address which Jeremiah sent to the\nexiles of the Ten Tribes, who were settled in Assyria, and with whom\nit is otherwise probable that he cultivated some intercourse? The\nexpression \"House of _Israel_\" (ver. 1) has been supposed to indicate\nthis. That expression, however, occurs in the immediately preceding\ncontext (ix. 26), as does also that of \"the nations\"; facts which\nmay partially explain why the passage we are discussing occupies its\npresent position. The unknown author of the Apocryphal Letter of\nJeremiah and the Chaldee Targumist appear to have held the opinion\nthat Jeremiah wrote the piece for the benefit of the exiles carried\naway with Jehoiachin in the first Judean captivity. The Targum\nintroduces the eleventh verse thus: \"This is a copy of the letter\nwhich Jeremiah the prophet sent to the remnant of the elders of the\ncaptivity which was in Babylon. And if the peoples among whom ye are\nshall say unto you, Fear the Errors, O house of Israel! thus shall\nye answer and thus shall ye say unto them: The Errors whom ye fear\nare (but) errors, in which there is no profit: they from the heavens\nare not able to bring down rain, and from the earth they cannot make\nfruits to spring: they and those who fear them will perish from the\nearth, and will be brought to an end from under these heavens. And\nthus shall ye say unto them: We fear Him that maketh the earth by His\npower,\" etc. (ver. 12). The phrase \"the _remnant of the elders of the\ncaptivity which was_ (or _who were_) _in Babylon_\" is derived from\nJer. xxix. 1. But how utterly different are the tone and substance\nof that message from those of the one before us! Far from warning\nhis captive countrymen against the state-worship of Babylon, far\nfrom satirizing its absurdity, Jeremiah bids the exiles be contented\nin their new home, and to pray for the peace of the city. The false\nprophets who appear at Babylon prophesy in Iahvah's name (vv. 15, 21),\nand in denouncing them Jeremiah says not a word about idolatry. It is\nevident from the whole context that he did not fear it in the case of\nthe exiles of Jehoiachin's captivity. (See also the simile of the Good\nand Bad Figs, chap. xxiv., which further illustrates the prophet's\nestimation of the earlier body of exiles.)\n\nThe Greek Epistle of Jeremiah, which in MSS. is sometimes appended to\nBaruch, and which Fritzsche refers to the Maccabean times, appear to\nbe partially based upon the passage we are considering. Its heading\nis: \"Copy of a letter which Jeremiah sent unto those who were about to\nbe carried away captives to Babylon, by the king of the Babylonians;\nto announce to them as was enjoined him by God.\" It then begins thus:\n\"On account of your sins which ye have sinned before God ye will be\ncarried away to Babylon as captives by Nabuchodonosor king of the\nBabylonians. Having come, then, into Babylon, ye will be there many\nyears, and a long time, until seven generations; but after this I\nwill bring you forth from thence in peace. But now ye will see in\nBabylon gods, silvern and golden and wooden, borne upon shoulders,\nshewing fear (an object of fear) to the nations. Beware then, lest ye\nalso become like unto the nations, and fear take you at them, when\nye see a multitude before and behind them worshipping them. But say\nye in the mind: Thee it behoveth us to worship, O Lord! For Mine\nangel is with you, and He is requiring your lives.\" The whole epistle\nis well worth reading as a kind of paraphrase of our passage. \"For\ntheir tongue is carven (or polished) by a carpenter, and themselves\nare overlaid with gold and silver, but lies they are and they cannot\nspeak.\" \"They _being cast about with purple apparel_ have their face\nwiped on account of the dust from the house, which is plentiful upon\nthem\" (13). \"But he holds a dagger with right hand and an axe, but\n_himself from war and robbers he will not_ (= cannot) _deliver_\" (15),\ncf. Jer. x. 15. \"_He is like one of the house-beams_\" (20, cf. Jer. x.\n8, and perhaps 5). \"Upon their body and upon their head alight bats,\nswallows, and the birds, likewise also the cats; whence ye will know\nthat they are not gods; therefore fear them not\" (cf. Jer. x. 5).\n\"At all cost are they purchased, in which there is no spirit\" (25;\ncf. Jer. x. 9, 14). \"_Footless, upon shoulders they are carried_,\ndisplaying their own dishonour to men\" (26). \"Neither if they suffer\nevil from any one, nor if good, will they be able to recompense\"\n(34; cf. ver. 5). \"But they that serve them will be ashamed\" (39;\ncf. ver. 14). \"By carpenters and goldsmiths are they prepared; they\nbecome nothing but what the craftsmen wish them to become. And the\nvery men that prepare them cannot last long; how then are the things\nprepared by them likely to do so? for they left lies and a reproach\nto them that come after. For whenever war and evils come upon them,\nthe priests consult together where to hide with them. How then is it\npossible not to perceive that they are not gods, who neither save\nthemselves from war nor from evils? For being of wood and overlaid\nwith gold and silver they will be known hereafter, that they are lies.\nTo all the nations and to the kings it will be manifest that they are\nnot gods but works of men's hands, and no work of God is in them\"\n(45-51; cf. Jer. x. 14-15). \"_A wooden pillar in a palace_ is more\nuseful than the false gods\" (59). \"_Signs_ among nations they will not\nshew _in heaven_, nor yet will they shine like the sun, nor give light\nas the moon\" (67). \"_For as a scarecrow in a cucumber-bed guarding\nnothing, so their gods are wooden and overlaid with gold and with\nsilver_\" (70; cf. Jer. x. 5). The mention of the sun, moon and stars,\nthe lightning, the wind, the clouds, and fire \"sent forth from above,\"\nas totally unlike the idols in \"forms and powers,\" seems to shew that\nthe author had verses 12, 13 before him.\n\nWhen we turn to the Septuagint, we are immediately struck by its\nremarkable omissions. The four verses 6-8 and 10 do not appear at all\nin this oldest of the versions; while the ninth is inserted between\nthe first clause and the remainder of the fifth verse. Now, on the one\nhand, it is just the verses which the LXX. translates, which both in\nstyle and matter contrast so strongly with Jeremiah's authentic work,\nand are plainly incongruous with the context and occasion; while,\non the other hand, the omitted verses contain nothing which points\npositively to another author than Jeremiah, and, taken by themselves,\nharmonise very well with what may be supposed to have been the\nprophet's feeling at the actual juncture of affairs.\n\n    \"There is none at all like Thee, O Iahvah!\n     Great art Thou, and great is Thy Name in might!\n     Who should not fear Thee, O King of the nations? for 'tis Thy due\n     For among all the wise of the nations and in all their kingdom\n          there is none at all like Thee.\n     And in one thing they are brute-like and dull;\n     In the doctrine of Vanities, which are wood!\n     But Iahvah Elohim is truth;\n     He is a living God, and an eternal King:\n     At His wrath the earth quaketh,\n     And nations abide not His indignation.\"\n\nAs Hitzig has observed, it is natural that now, as the terrible\ndecision approaches, the prophet should seek and find comfort in the\nthought of the all-overshadowing greatness of the God of Israel. If,\nhowever, we suppose these verses to be Jeremiah's, we can hardly\nextend the same assumption to verses 12-16, in spite of one or two\nexpressions of his which occur in them; and, upon the whole, the\nlinguistic argument seems to weigh decisively against Jeremiah's\nauthorship of this piece (see Naegelsbach).\n\nIt may be true enough that \"the basis and possibility of the true\nprosperity and the hope of the genuine community are unfolded in these\nstrophes\" (Ewald); but that does not prove that they belong to Jeremiah.\nNor can I see much force in the remark that \"didactic language is of\nanother kind than that of pure prophecy.\" But when the same critic\naffirms that \"the description of the folly of idolatry ... is also quite\nnew, and clearly serves as a model for the much more elaborate ones,\nIsa. xl. 19-24 (20), xli. 7, xliv. 8-20, xlvi. 5-7;\" he is really giving\nup the point in dispute. Verses 12-16 are repeated in the prophecy\nagainst Babylon (li. 15-19); but this hardly proves that \"the later\nprophet, chap. l.-li., found _all these words_ in our piece;\" it is only\nevidence, so far as it goes, for those verses themselves.\n\nThe internal connexion which Ewald assumes, is not self-evident.\nThere is no proof that \"the thought that the gods of the heathen might\nagain rule\" occurred for one moment to Jeremiah on this occasion; nor\nthe thought that \"the maintenance of the ancient true religion in\nconflict with the heathen must produce the regeneration of Israel.\"\nThere is no reference throughout the disputed passage to the spiritual\ncondition of the people, which is, in fact, presupposed to be good;\nand the return in verses 17-25 \"to the main subject of the discourse\"\nis inexplicable on Ewald's theory that the whole chapter, omitting\nverse 11, is one homogeneous structure.\n\n_Hear ye the word that Iahvah spake upon you, O house of Israel! Thus\nsaid Iahvah._ The terms imply a particular crisis in the history of\nIsrael, when a Divine pronouncement was necessary to the guidance of\nthe people. Iahvah speaks indeed in all existence and in all events,\nbut His voice becomes audible, is recognised as His, only when human\nneed asserts itself in some particular juncture of affairs. Then,\nin view of the actual emergency, the mind of Iahweh declares itself\nby the mouth of His proper spokesmen; and the prophetic _Thus said\nIahvah_ contrasts the higher point of view with the lower, the\nheavenly and spiritual with the earthly and the carnal; it sets forth\nthe aspect of things as they appear to God, in the sharpest antithesis\nto the aspect of things as they appear to the natural unilluminated\nman. _Thus said Iahvah_: This is the thought of the Eternal, this is\nHis judgment upon present conditions and passing events, whatever\n_your_ thought and your judgment may happen or incline to be! Such, I\nthink, is the essential import of this _vox solennis_, this customary\nformula of the dialect of prophecy.\n\nOn the present occasion, the crisis in view of which a prophet declares\nthe mind of Iahvah is not a political emergency but a religious\ntemptation. The day for the former has long since passed away, and the\ndepressed and scattered communities of exiled Israelites are exposed\namong other trials to the constant temptation to sacrifice to present\nexpediency the only treasure which they have saved from the wreck of\ntheir country, the faith of their fathers, the religion of the prophets.\nThe uncompromising tone of this isolated oracle, the abruptness with\nwhich the writer at once enters _in medias res_, the solemn emphasis of\nhis opening imperatives, proves that this danger pressed at the time\nwith peculiar intensity. _Thus said Iahvah: Unto the way of the nations\nuse not yourselves, And of the signs of heaven stand not in awe, for\nthat the nations stand in awe of them!_ (cf. Lev. xviii. 3; Ezek. xx.\n18). The \"way\" of the nations is their religion, the mode and manner\nof their worship (v. 4, 5); and the exiles are warned not to suffer\nthemselves to be led astray by example, as they had been in the land of\nCanaan; they are not to adore the signs of heaven, simply because they\nsee their conquerors adoring them. The \"signs of heaven\" would seem\nto be the sun, moon and stars, which were the objects of Babylonian\nworship; although the passage is unhappily not free from ambiguity.\nSome expositors have preferred to think of celestial phenomena such\nas eclipses and particular conjunctions of the heavenly bodies, which\nin those days were looked upon as portents, foreshadowing the course\nof national and individual fortunes. That there is really a reference\nto the astrological observation of the stars, is a view which finds\nconsiderable support in the words addressed to Babylon on the eve of\nher fall, by a prophet, who, if not identical was at least contemporary\nwith him whose message we are discussing. In the forty-seventh chapter\nof the book of Isaiah, it is said to Babylon: \"Let now them that\nparcel out the heavens, that gaze at the stars, arise and save thee,\nprognosticating month by month the things that will come upon thee\"\n(Isa. xlvii. 13). The _signs of heaven_ are, in this case, the supposed\nindications of coming events furnished by the varying appearances of\nthe heavenly bodies; and one might even suppose that the immediate\noccasion of our prophecy was some eclipse of the sun or moon, or some\nremarkable conjunction of the planets which at the time was exciting\ngeneral anxiety among the motley populations of Babylonia. The prophecy\nthen becomes a remarkable instance of the manner in which an elevated\nspiritual faith, free from all the contaminating and blinding influences\nof selfish motives and desires, may rise superior to universal\nsuperstition, and boldly contradict the suggestions of what is accounted\nthe highest wisdom of the time, anticipating the results though not the\nmethods nor the evidence of science, at an epoch when science is as yet\nin the mythological stage. And the prophet might well exclaim in a tone\nof triumph, _Among all the wise of the nations none at all is like unto\nthee_, O Lord, as a source of true wisdom and understanding for the\nguidance of life (ver. 7).\n\nThe inclusion of eclipses and comets among the signs of heaven here\nspoken of has been thought to be barred by the considerations that\nthese are sometimes alleged by the prophets themselves as signs of\ncoming judgment exhibited by the God of Israel; that, as a matter\nof fact, they were as mysterious and awful to the Jews as to their\nheathen neighbours; and that what is here contemplated is not the\nterror inspired by rare occasional phenomena of this kind, but an\nhabitual superstition in relation to some ever-present causes. It\nis certain that in another prophecy against Babylon, preserved in\nthe book of Isaiah, it is declared that, as a token of the impending\ndestruction, \"the stars of heaven and the Orions thereof shall not\ngive their light: the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and\nthe moon shall not cause his light to shine\" (Isa. xiii. 10); and the\nsimilar language of the prophet Joel is well known (Joel ii. 2, 10,\n30, 31, iii. 15). But these objections are not conclusive, for what\nour author is denouncing is the heathen association of \"the signs of\nthe heavens,\" whatever may be intended by that expression, with a\nfalse system of religious belief. It is a special kind of idolatry\nthat he contemplates, as is clear from the immediate context. Not\nonly does the parallel clause \"Unto the way of the nations use not\nyourselves\" imply a gradual conformity to a heathen religion; not\nonly is it the fact that the Hebrew phrase rendered in our versions\n\"Be not dismayed!\" may imply religious awe or worship (Mal. ii.\n5), as indeed terms denoting fear or dread are used by the Semitic\nlanguages in general; but the prophet at once proceeds to an exposure\nof the absurdity of image-worship: _For the ordinances_ (established\nmodes of worship; 2 Kings xvii. 8; here, established objects of\nworship) _of the peoples are a mere breath_ (_i.e._, nought)! _for\nit_ (the idol) _is a tree, which out of the forest one felled_ (so\nthe accents); _the handiwork of the carpenter with the bill. With\nsilver and with gold one adorneth it_ (or, _maketh it bright_); _with\nnails and with hammers they make them fast, that one sway not_ (or,\n_that there be no shaking_). _Like the scarecrow of a garden of gourds\nare they, and they cannot_ _speak; they are carried and carried,\nfor they cannot take a step_ (or, _march_): _be not afraid of them,\nfor they cannot hurt, neither is it in their power to benefit!_ \"Be\nnot afraid of them!\" returns to the opening charge: \"Of the signs of\nheaven stand not in awe!\" (cf. Gen. xxxi. 42, 53; Isa. viii. 12, 13).\nClearly, then, the _signa c\u0153li_ are the idols against whose worship\nthe prophet warns his people; and they denote \"the sun, the moon,\nthe constellations (of the Zodiac), and all the host of heaven\" (2\nKings xxiii. 5). We know that the kings of Judah, from Ahaz onwards,\nderived this worship from Assyria, and that its original home was\nBabylon, where in every temple the exiles would see images of the\ndeities presiding over the heavenly bodies, such as Samas (the sun)\nand his consort Aa (the moon) at Sippara, Merodach (Jupiter) and his\nson Nebo (Mercurius) at Babylon and Borsippa, Nergal (Mars) at Cutha,\ndaily served with a splendid and attractive ritual, and honoured\nwith festivals and processions on the most costly and magnificent\nscale. The prophet looks through all this outward display to the void\nwithin, he draws no subtle distinction between the symbol and the\nthing symbolized; he accepts the popular confusion of the god with\nhis image, and identifies all the deities of the heathen with the\nmaterials out of which their statues are made by the hands of men. And\nhe is justified in doing this, because there can be but one god in his\nsense of the word; a multitude of _gods_ is a contradiction in terms.\nFrom this point of view, he exposes the absurdity of the splendid\nidolatry which his captive countrymen see all around them. Behold\nthat thing, he cries, which they call a god, and before which they\ntremble with religious fear! It is nothing but a tree trunk hewn in\nthe forest, and trimmed into shape by the carpenter, and plated with\nsilver and gold, and fixed on its pedestal with hammer and nails, for\nfear it should fall! Its terrors are empty terrors, like those of the\npalm-trunk, rough-hewn into human shape, and set up among the melons\nto frighten the birds away.\n\n          \"Olim truncus eram ficulnus, inutile lignum,\n           Cum faber, incertus scamnum faceretne Priapum,\n           Maluit esse deum. Deus inde ego, furum ariumque\n           Maxima formido.\" (Hor., _Sat._ i. 8, 1, _sqq._)\n\nThough the idol has the outward semblance of a man, it lacks his\ndistinguishing faculty of speech; it is as dumb as the scarecrow,\nand as powerless to move from its place; so it has to be borne about\non men's shoulders (a mocking allusion to the grand processions of\nthe gods, which distinguished the Babylonian festivals). Will you\nthen be afraid of things that can do neither good nor harm? asks the\nprophet; in terms that recall the challenge of another, or perchance\nof himself, to the idols of Babylon: _Do good or do evil, that we may\nlook at each other and see it together_ (Isa. xli. 23).\n\nIn utter contrast with the impotence, the nothingness of all the gods\nof the nations, whether Israel's neighbours or his invaders, stands\nfor ever the God of Israel. _There is none at all like Thee, O Iahweh!\ngreat art Thou, and great is Thy Name in might!_ With different vowel\npoints, we might render, _Whence_ (cometh) _Thy like, O Iahvah?_ This\nhas been supported by reference to chap. xxx. 7: _Alas! for great is\nthat day. Whence_ (is one) _like it?_ (_me`ayin?_); but there too,\nas here, we may equally well translate, _there is none like it_. The\ninterrogative, in fact, presupposes a negative answer; and the Hebrew\nparticle usually rendered _there is not, are not_ (_`ayin, `\u00ean_) has\nbeen explained as originally identical with the interrogative _where?_\n(_`ayin_, implied in _me`ayin_, \"from where?\" \"whence?\" cf. Job. xiv.\n10: _where is he?_ = _he is not_). The idiom of the text expresses a\nmore emphatic negation than the ordinary form would do; and though\nrare, is by no means altogether unparalleled (see Isa. xl. 17, xli.\n24; and other references in Gesenius). _Great art Thou and great is\nThy Name in might_; that is to say, Thou art great in Thyself, and\ngreat in repute or manifestation among men, in respect of _might_,\nvirile strength or prowess (Ps. xxi. 14). Unlike the do-nothing\nidols, Iahvah reveals His strength in deeds of strength (cf. Exod.\nxv. 3 _sqq._). _Who should not fear Thee, Thou King of the nations?_\n(cf. v. 22) _for Thee it beseemeth_ (= it is Thy due, and Thine\nonly): _for among all the wise of the nations and in all their realm,\nthere is none at all_ (as in ver. 6) _like Thee_. Religious fear is\ninstinctive in man; but, whereas the various nations lavish reverence\nupon innumerable objects utterly unworthy of the name of deity,\nrational religion sees clearly that there can be but One God, working\nHis supreme will in heaven and earth; and that this Almighty being is\nthe true \"King of the nations,\" and disposes their destinies as well\nas that of His people Israel, although they know Him not, but call\nother imaginary beings their _kings_ (a common Semitic designation of\na national god: Ps. xx. 9; Isa. vi. 5, viii. 21). He, then, is the\nproper object of the instinct of religious awe; all the peoples of\nthe earth owe Him adoration, even though they be ignorant of their\nobligation; worship is His unshared prerogative.\n\n_Among all the wise of the nations and in all their realm, not one\nis like Thee!_ Who are the wise thus contrasted with the Supreme\nGod? Are the false gods the reputed wise ones, giving pretended\ncounsel to their deluded worshippers through the priestly oracle?\nThe term \"kingdom\" seems to indicate this view, if we take \"their\nkingdom\" to mean the kingdom of the wise ones of the nations, that\nis, the countries whose \"kings\" they are, where they are worshipped\nas such. The heathen in general, and the Babylonians in particular,\nascribed wisdom to their gods. But there is no impropriety from an\nOld Testament point of view in comparing Iahvah's wisdom with the\nwisdom of man. The meaning of the prophet may be simply this, that\nno earthly wisdom, craft or political sagacity, not even in the most\npowerful empires such as Babylon, can be a match for Iahvah the\nAll-wise, or avail to thwart His purposes (Isa. xxxi. 1, 2). \"Wise\"\nand \"sagacious\" are titles which the kings of Babylon continually\nassert for themselves in their extant inscriptions; and the wisdom and\nlearning of the Chaldeans was famous in the ancient world. Either view\nwill agree with what follows: _But in one thing they_--the nations,\nor their wise men--_will turn out brutish and besotted_: (in) _the\nteaching of Vanities which are wood_. The verse is difficult; but the\nexpression \"the teaching (or doctrine) of Vanities\" may perhaps be\nregarded as equivalent to _the idols taught of_; and then the second\nhalf of the verse is constructed like the first member of ver. 3:\n_The ordinances of the peoples are Vanity_, and may be rendered, _the\nidols taught of are mere wood_ (cf. ver. 3 _b_, ii. 27, iii. 9). It\nis possible also that the right reading is \"foundation\" (_m\u00fbsad_) not\n\"doctrine\" (_m\u00fbsar_): _the foundation_ (basis, substratum, substance)\n_of idols is wood_. (The term \"Vanities\"--_habalim_--is used for\n\"idols,\" viii. 19, xiv. 22; Ps. xxxi. 7). And, lastly, I think, the\nclause might be rendered: _a doctrine of Vanities, of mere wood,\nit_--their religion--_is_![41] This supreme folly is the \"one thing\"\nthat discredits all the boasted wisdom of the Chaldeans; and their\nfolly will hereafter be demonstrated by events (ver. 14).\n\nThe body of the idol is wood, and outwardly it is decorated with silver\nand gold and costly apparel; but the whole and every part of it is the\nwork of man. _Silver plate_ (lit. _beaten out_) _from Tarshish_--from\nfar away Tartessus in Spain--_is brought, and gold from Uphaz_ (Dan.\nx. 5), _the work of the smith, and of the hands of the founder_--who\nhave beaten out the silver and smelted the gold: _blue and purple is\ntheir clothing_ (Ex. xxvi. 31, xxviii. 8): _the work of the wise_--of\nskilled artists (Isa. xl. 20)--_is every part of them_. Possibly the\nverse might better be translated: _Silver to be beaten out_--argentum\nmalleo diducendum--_which is brought from Tarshish, and gold_ which is\nbrought _from Uphaz_, are _the work of the smith and of the hands of the\nsmelter; the blue and purple_ which are _their clothing_, are _the work\nof the wise all of them_. At all events, the point of the verse seems to\nbe that, whether you look at the inside or the outside of the idol, his\nheart of wood or his casing of gold and silver and his gorgeous robes,\nthe whole and every bit of him as he stands before you is a manufactured\narticle, the work of men's hands. The supernatural comes in nowhere. In\nsharpest contrast with this lifeless fetish, _Iahvah is a God that is\ntruth_, _i.e._, a true God (cf. Prov. xxii. 21), or _Iahvah is God in\ntruth_--is really God--_He is a_ _living God, and an eternal King_; the\nsovereign whose rule is independent of the vicissitudes of time, and the\ncaprices of temporal creatures: _at His wrath the earth quaketh, and\nnations cannot abide His indignation_: the world of nature and the world\nof man are alike dependent upon His Will, and He exhibits His power and\nhis righteous anger in the disturbances of the one and the disasters of\nthe other.\n\nAccording to the Hebrew punctuation, we should rather translate:\n_But Iahvah Elohim_ (the designation of God in the second account of\ncreation, Gen. ii. 4-iii. 24) _is truth_, _i.e._, reality; as opposed to\nthe falsity and nothingness of the idols; or _permanence, lastingness_\n(Ps. xix. 10), as opposed to their transitoriness (vv. 11-15).\n\nThe statement of the tenth verse respecting the eternal power and\ngodhead of Iahvah is confirmed in the twelfth and thirteenth by\ninstances of His creative energy and continual activity as exhibited\nin the world of nature. _The Maker of the earth by His power,\nEstablishing the habitable world by His wisdom, And by His insight He\ndid stretch out the heavens: At the sound of His giving voice_ (Ps.\nlxxvii. 18; _i.e._, thundering) _there is an uproar of waters in the\nheavens, And He causeth the vapours to rise from the end of the earth;\nLightnings for the rain He maketh, And causeth the wind to go forth\nout of His treasuries._ There is no break in the sense between these\nsentences and the tenth verse. The construction resembles that of Amos\nv. 8, ix. 5, 6, and is interrupted by the eleventh verse, which in all\nprobability was, to begin with, a marginal annotation.\n\nThe solid earth is itself a natural symbol of strength and stability.\nThe original creation of this mighty and enduring structure argues\nthe omnipotence of the Creator; while the \"establishing\" or \"founding\"\nof it upon the waters of the great deep is a proof of supreme wisdom\n(Ps. xxiv. 2; cxxxvi. 6), and the \"spreading out\" of the visible\nheavens or atmosphere like a vast canopy or tent over the earth (Ps.\nciv. 2; Isa. xl. 22), is evidence of a perfect insight into the\nconditions essential to the existence and wellbeing of man.\n\nIt is, of course, clear enough that physical facts and phenomena are\nhere described in popular language as they appear to the eye, and\nby no means with the severe precision of a scientific treatise. It\nis not to be supposed that this prophet knew more about the actual\nconstitution of the physical universe than the wise men of his time\ncould impart. But such knowledge was not necessary to the enforcement\nof the spiritual truths which it was his mission to proclaim; and\nthe fact that his brief oracle presents those truths in a garb which\nwe can only regard as poetical, and which it would argue a want of\njudgment to treat as scientific prose, does not affect their eternal\nvalidity, nor at all impair their universal importance. The passage\nrefers us to God as the ultimate source of the world of nature.\nIt teaches us that the stability of things is a reflexion of His\neternal being; that the persistence of matter is an embodiment of His\nstrength; that the indestructibility which science ascribes to the\nmaterials of the physical universe is the seal which authenticates\ntheir Divine original. Persistence, permanence, indestructibleness,\nare properly sole attributes of the eternal Creator, which He\ncommunicates to His creation. Things are indestructible as regards\nman, not as regards the Author of their being.\n\nThus the wisdom enshrined in the laws of the visible world, all its\nstrength and all its stability, is a manifestation of the Unseen God.\nInvisible in themselves, the eternal power and godhead of Iahvah\nbecome visible in His creation. And, as the Hebrew mode of expression\nindicates, His activity is never suspended, nor His presence\nwithdrawn. The conflict of the elements, the roar of the thunder,\nthe flash of the lightning, the downpour of waters, the rush of the\nstormwind, are His work; and not less His work, because we have found\nout the \"natural\" causes, that is, the established conditions of\ntheir occurrence; not less His work, because we have, in the exercise\nof faculties really though remotely akin to the Divine Nature,\ndiscovered how to imitate, or rather mimic, even the more awful of\nthese marvellous phenomena. Mimicry it cannot but appear, when we\ncompare the overwhelming forces that rage in a tropical storm with\nour electric toys. The lightnings in their glory and terror are still\nGod's arrows, and man cannot rob His quiver.\n\nNowadays more is known about the machinery of the world, but hardly\nmore of the Intelligence that contrived it, and keeps it continually\nin working order, nay, lends it its very existence. More is known\nabout means and methods, but hardly more about aims and purposes. The\nreflexion, how few are the master-conceptions which modern speculation\nhas added to the treasury of thought, should suggest humility to the\nvainest and most self-confident of physical inquirers. In the very\ndawn of philosophy the human mind appears to have anticipated as it\nwere by sudden flashes of insight some of the boldest hypotheses of\nmodern science, including that of Evolution itself.\n\nThe unchangeable or invariable laws of nature, that is to say, the\nuniformity of sequence which we observe in physical phenomena, is not\nto be regarded as a thing that explains itself. It is only intelligible\nas the expression of the unchanging will of God. The prophet's word\nis still true. It is God who \"causes the vapours to rise from the end\nof the earth,\" drawing them up into the air from oceans and lakes by\nthe simple yet beautiful and efficient action of the solar heat; it is\nGod who \"makes lightnings for the rain,\" charging the clouds with the\nelectric fluid, to burst forth in blinding flashes when the opposing\ncurrents meet. It is God who \"brings the wind out of His treasuries.\"\nIn the prophet's time the winds were as great a mystery as the thunder\nand lightning; it was not known whence they came nor whither they went.\nBut the knowledge that they are but currents of air due to variations of\ntemperature does not really deprive them of their wonder. Not only is it\nimpossible, in the last resort, to comprehend what heat is, what motion\nis, what the thing moved is. A far greater marvel remains, which cries\naloud of God's wisdom and presence and sovereignty over all; and that\nis the wonderful consilience of all the various powers and forces of\nthe natural world in making a home for man, and enabling so apparently\nfeeble a creature as he to live and thrive amidst the perpetual\ninteraction and collision of the manifold and mighty elements of the\nuniverse.\n\nThe true author of all this magnificent system of objects and forces,\nto the wonder and the glory of which only custom can blind us, is the\nGod of the prophet. This sublime, this just conception of God was\npossible, for it was actually realized, altogether apart from the\ninfluence of Hellenic philosophy and modern European science. But it\nwas by no means as common to the Semitic peoples. In Babylon, which\nwas at the time the focus of all earthly wisdom and power, in Babylon\nthe ancient mother of sciences and arts, a crude polytheism stultified\nall the wisdom of the wise, and lent its sanction to a profound moral\ncorruption. Rapid and universal conquests, enormous wealth accruing\nfrom the spoils and tributes of all nations, only subserved the luxury\nand riotous living which issued in a general effeminacy and social\nenervation; until the great fabric of empire, which Nabopalassar and\nNebuchadrezzar had reared by their military and political genius, sank\nunder the weight of its own vices.\n\nLooking round upon this spectacle of superstitious folly, the prophet\ndeclares that _all men are become too brute-like for knowledge_; too\ndegraded to appreciate the truth, the simplicity of a higher faith;\ntoo besotted with the worship of a hundred vain idols, which were the\noutward reflexion of their own diseased imaginations, to receive the\nwisdom of the true religion, and to perceive especially the truth\njust enunciated, that it is Iahvah who gives the rain and upon whom\nall atmospheric changes depend (cf. xiv. 22): and thus, in the hour\nof need, _every founder blushes for the image, because his molten\nfigure is a lie, and there is no breath in them_; because the lifeless\nidol, the work of his hands, can lend no help. Perhaps both clauses\nof the verse rather express a prophecy: _All men will be proven\nbrutish, destitute of knowledge; every founder will blush for the\ngraven image._ Wise and strong as the Babylonians supposed themselves\nto be, the logic of events would undeceive them. They were doomed to\na rude awakening; to discover in the hour of defeat and surrender\nthat the molten idol was a delusion, that the work of their hands was\nan embodied lie, void of life, powerless to save. _Vanity_--a mere\nbreath, nought--_are they, a work of knaveries_ (a term recurring\nonly in li. 18; the root seems to mean \"to stammer,\" \"to imitate\");\n_in the time of their visitation they will perish!_ or simply _they\nperish!_--in the burning temples, in the crash of falling shrines.\n\nIt has happened so. At this day the temples of cedar and marble, with\ntheir woodwork overlaid with bronze and silver and gold, of whose\nglories the Babylonian sovereigns so proudly boast in their still\nexisting records, as \"shining like the sun, and like the stars of\nheaven,\" are shapeless heaps or rather mountains of rubbish, where\nArabs dig for building materials and treasure trove, and European\nexplorers for the relics of a civilisation and a superstition which\nhave passed away for ever. \"Vana sunt, et opus risu dignum.\" In the\nrevolutions of time, which are the outward measures of the eternally\nself-unfolding purposes of God, the word of the Judean prophets has\nbeen amply fulfilled. Babylon and her idols are no more.\n\nAll other idols, too, must perish in like manner. _Thus shall ye say\nof them: The gods who the_ heavens _and earth did not make, perish\nfrom the earth and from under the heavens shall these!_ The assertion\nthat the idols of Babylon were doomed to destruction, was not the\nwhole of the prophetic message. It is connected with and founded upon\nthe antithetic assertion of the eternity of Iahvah. They will perish,\nbut He endures. The one eternal is El Elyon, the Most High God, the\nMaker of heaven and earth. But heaven and earth and whatever partakes\nonly of their material nature are also doomed to pass away. And in\nthat day of the Lord, when the elements melt with fervent heat, and\nthe earth and the works that are therein shall be burnt up (2 Pet.\niii. 10), not only will the idols of the heathen world, and the tawdry\ndolls which a degenerate church suffers to be adored as a kind of\nmagical embodiment of the Mother of God, but all other idols which\nthe sensebound heart of man makes to itself, vanish into nothingness\nbefore that overwhelming revelation of the supremacy of God.\n\nThere is something amazing in the folly of worshipping man, whether\nin the abstract form of the cultus of \"Humanity,\" or in any of the\nvarious forms of what is called \"Hero-worship,\" or in the vulgar form\nof self-worship, which is the religion of the selfish and the worldly.\nTo ascribe infallibility to any mortal, whether Pope or politician,\nis to sin in the spirit of idolatry. The Maker of heaven and earth,\nand He alone, is worthy of worship. \"Where wast thou when I laid the\nfoundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding\" (Job\nxxxviii. 4). No human wisdom nor power presided there; and to produce\nthe smallest of asteroids is still a task which lies infinitely beyond\nthe combined resources of modern science. Man and all that man has\ncreated is nought in the scale of God's creation. He and all the\nmighty works with which he amazes, overshadows, enslaves his little\nworld, will perish and pass away; only that will survive which he\nbuilds of materials which are imperishable, fabrics of spiritual worth\nand excellence and glory (1 Cor. iii. 13). A Nineveh, a Babylon, a\nLondon, a Paris, may disappear; _but he that doeth the will of God\nabideth for ever_ (1 John ii. 17). _Not like these_ (cf. verse 11 _ad\nfin._) _is Jacob's Portion, but the Maker and Moulder of the All--He\nis his heritage; Iahvah Sabaoth is His_ _name!_ (Both here and at li.\n19 = xxviii. 19 the LXX. omits: _and Israel is the tribe_, which seems\nto have been derived from Deut. xxxii. 9. Israel is elsewhere called\n_Iahvah's heritage_, Ps. xxxiii. 12, and _portion_, Deut. xxxii. 9;\nbut that thought hardly suits the connexion here.)\n\n_Not like these_: for He is the Divine Potter who moulded all things,\nincluding the signs of heaven, and the idols of wood and metal, and\ntheir foolish worshippers. And he is _Jacob's portion_; for the\nknowledge and worship of Him was, in the Divine counsels, originally\nassigned to Israel (cf. Deut. iv. 19; and xxxii. 8, according to the\ntrue reading, preserved in the LXX.); and therefore Israel alone knows\nHim and His glorious attributes. _Iahvah Sabaoth is His name_: the\nEternal, the Maker and Master of the hosts of heaven and earth, is the\naspect under which He has revealed Himself to the true representatives\nof Israel, His servants the prophets.\n\nThe portion of Israel is his God--his abiding portion; of which\nneither the changes of time nor the misconceptions of man can avail\nto rob him. When all that is accidental and transitory is taken away,\nthis distinction remains: Israel's portion is his God. Iahvah was\nindeed the national God of the Jews, argue some of our modern wise\nones; and therefore He cannot be identified with the universal Deity.\nHe has been developed, expanded, into this vast conception; but\noriginally He was but the private god of a petty tribe, the Lar of a\nwandering household. Now herein is a marvellous thing. How was it that\nthis particular household god thus grew to infinite proportions, like\nthe genius emerging from the unsealed jar of Arab fable, until, from\nHis prime foothold on the tent-floor of a nomad family, He towered\nabove the stars and His form overshadowed the universe? How did it\ncome to pass that His prophet could ask in a tone of indisputable\ntruth, recognised alike by friend and foe, \"Do not I fill heaven and\nearth, saith Iahvah\"? (Jer. xxiii. 24). How, that this immense, this\nimmeasurable expansion took place in this instance, and not in that of\nany one of the thousand rival deities of surrounding and more powerful\ntribes and nations? How comes it that we to-day are met to adore\nIahvah, and not rather one of the forgotten gods of Canaan or Egypt or\nBabylon? Merodach and Nebo have vanished, but Iahvah is the Father of\nour Lord Jesus Christ. It certainly looks very much as if the Hebrew\nprophets were right; as if Iahvah were really the God of the creation\nas well as the Portion of Jacob.\n\n_The portion of Jacob._ Is His relation to that one people a\nstumbling-block? Can we see no eternal truth in the statement of the\nPsalmist that _the Lord's portion is His people_? Who can find fault\nwith the enthusiastic faith of holy men thus exulting in the knowledge\nand love of God? It is a characteristic of all genuine religion,\nthis sweet, this elevating consciousness that God is _our_ God; this\nprofound sense that He has revealed Himself to us in a special and\npeculiar and individual manner. But the actual historical results, as\nwell as the sacred books, prove that the sense of possessing God and\nbeing possessed by Him was purer, stronger, deeper, more effectual,\nmore abiding, in Israel than in any other race of the ancient world.\n\nOne must tread warily upon slippery ground; but I cannot help\nthinking that many of the arguments alleged against the probability\nof God revealing Himself to man at all or to a single nation in\nparticular, are sufficiently met by the simple consideration that He\nhas actually done so. Any event whatever may be very improbable until\nit has happened; and assuming that God has _not_ revealed Himself,\nit may perhaps be shewn to be highly improbable that He would reveal\nHimself. But, meanwhile, all religions and all faith and the phenomena\nof conscience and the highest intuitions of reason presuppose this\nimprobable event as the fact apart from which they are insoluble\nriddles. This is not to say that the precise manner of revelation--the\ncontact of the Infinite with the Finite Spirit--is definable. There\nare many less lofty experiences of man which also are indefinable\nand mysterious, but none the less actual and certain. Facts are\nnot explained by denial, which is about the most barren and feeble\nattitude a man can take up in the presence of a baffling mystery. Nor\nis it for man to prescribe conditions to God. He who made us and knows\nus far better than we know ourselves, knows also how best to reveal\nHimself to His creatures.\n\nThe special illumination of Israel, however, does not imply that no\nlight was vouchsafed elsewhere. The religious systems of other nations\nfurnish abundant evidence to the contrary. God \"left not Himself\nwithout witness,\" the silent witness of that beneficent order of the\nnatural world, which makes it possible for man to live, and to live\nhappily. St. Paul did not scruple to compliment even the degenerate\nAthenians of his own day on the ground of their attention to religious\nmatters, and he could cite a Greek poet in support of his doctrine\nthat man is the offspring of the one God and Father of all.\n\nWe may see in the fact a sufficient indication of what St. Paul\nwould have said, had the nobler non-Christian systems fallen under\nhis cognisance; had heathenism become known to him not in the\nheterogeneous polytheism of Hellas, which in his time had long since\nlost what little moral influence it had ever possessed, nor in the\nwild orgiastic nature worships of the Lesser Asia, which in their\nthoroughly sensuous basis did dishonour alike to God and to man; but\nin the sublime tenets of Zarathustra, with their noble morality and\ndeep reverence for the One God, the Spirit of all goodness and truth,\nor in the reformed Brahmanism of Gautama the Buddha, with its grand\nprinciple of self-renunciation and universal charity.\n\nThe peculiar glories of Bible religion are not dimmed in presence\nof these other lights. Allowing for whatever is valuable in these\nsystems of belief, we may still allege that Bible religion comprises\nall that is good in them, and has, besides, many precious features\npeculiar to itself; we may still maintain that their excellences are\nrather testimonies to the truth of the biblical teachings about God,\nthan difficulties in the way of a rational faith; that it would be\nfar more difficult to a thoughtful mind to accept the revelation of\nGod conveyed in the Bible, if it were the fact that no rays of Divine\nlight had cheered the darkness of the millions of struggling mortals\nbeyond the pale of Judaism, than it is under the actual circumstances\nof the case: in short, that the truths implicated in imperfect\nreligions, isolated from all contact with Hebrew or Christian belief,\nare a witness to and a foreshadowing of the truths of the gospel.\n\nOur prophet declares that Jacob's portion--the God of Israel--is not\nlike the gods of contemporary peoples. How, then, does he conceive of\nHim? Not as a metaphysical entity--a naked, perhaps empty abstraction\nof the understanding. Not as the Absolute and Infinite Being, who is\nout of all relation to space and time. His language--the language\nof the Old Testament--possesses no adjectives like \"Infinite,\"\n\"Absolute,\" \"Eternal,\" \"Omniscient,\" \"Omnipresent,\" nor even\n\"Almighty,\" although that word so often appears in our venerable\nAuthorized Version. It is difficult for us, who are the heirs of ages\nof thought and intellectual toil, and whose thinking is almost wholly\ncarried on by means of abstract ideas, to realize a state of mind and\na habit of thought so largely different from our own as that of the\nHebrew people and even of the Hebrew prophets. Yet unless we make an\neffort to realize it, however inadequately, unless we exert ourselves,\nand strive manfully to enter through the gate of an instructed\nimagination into that far-off stage of life and thought which presents\nso many problems to the historical student, and hides in its obscurity\nso many precious truths; we must inevitably fail to appreciate the\nfull significance, and consequently fail of appropriating the full\nblessing of those wonderful prophecies of ancient Israel, which are\nnot for an age but for all time.\n\nLet us, then, try to apprehend the actual point of view from which\nthe inspired Israelite regarded his God. In the first place, that\npoint of view was eminently practical. As a recent writer has forcibly\nremarked, \"The primitive mind does not occupy itself with things of no\npractical importance, and it is only in the later stages of society\nthat we meet with traditional beliefs nominally accepted by every one\nbut practically regarded by none; or with theological speculations\nwhich have an interest for the curious, but are not felt to have a\ndirect bearing on the concerns of life.\"\n\nThe pious Israelite could not indulge a morbidly acute and restlessly\nspeculative intellect with philosophical or scientific theories\nabout the Deity, His nature in Himself, His essential and accidental\nattributes, His relation to the visible world. Neither did such theories\nthen exist ready made to his hand, nor did his inward impulses and the\nnatural course of thought urge him to pry into such abstruse matters,\nand with cold irreverence to subject his idea of God to critical\nanalysis. Could he have been made to understand the attitude and the\ndemands of some modern disputants, he would have been apt to exclaim,\n\"Canst thou by searching find out God? Canst thou find out Shaddai\nunto perfection? It is as high as heaven, what canst thou do? deeper\nthan hell, what canst thou know?\" To find out and to know God as the\nunderstanding finds out and knows, how can that ever become possible\nto man? Such knowledge depends entirely upon processes of comparison;\nupon the perception of similarity between the object investigated and\nother known objects; upon accurate naming and classification. But who\ncan dream of successfully referring the Deity to a class? \"To what\nwill ye liken God, or what likeness will ye compare unto Him?\" In the\nbrief prophecy before us, as in the fortieth chapter of Isaiah, with\nwhich it presents so many points of contact, we have a splendid protest\nagainst all attempts at bringing the Most High within the limitations of\nhuman cognition, and reducing God to the category of things known and\nunderstood. Directed in the first instance against idolatry--against\nvain efforts to find an adequate likeness of the Supreme in some one of\nthe numberless creations of His hand, and so to compare and gauge and\ncomprehend Himself,--that protest is still applicable, and with even\ngreater force, against the idolatrous tendencies of the present age:\nwhen one school of devotees loudly declares,\n\n          \"Thou, Nature, art our goddess; to thy law\n           Our services are bound: wherefore should we\n           Stand in the plague of custom?\"\n\nand another is equally loud in asserting that it has found the true\ngod in man himself; and another proclaims the divinity of brute\nforce, and feels no shame in advocating the sovereignty of those\ngross instincts and passions which man shares with the beasts that\nperish. It is an unworthy and an inadequate conception of God, which\nidentifies Him with Nature; it is a deplorably impoverished idea,\nthe mere outcome of philosophic despair, which identifies him with\nHumanity; but what language can describe the grovelling baseness of\nthat habit of thought which knows of nothing higher than the sensual\nappetite, and seeks nothing better than its continual indulgence;\nwhich sees the native impress of sovereignty on the brow of passing\npleasure, and recognises the image and likeness of God in a temporary\nassociation of depraved instincts?\n\nIt is to this last form of idolatry, this utter heathenism in the\nmoral life, that all other forms really converge, as St. Paul has\nshewn in the introduction of his Epistle to the Romans, where, in\nview of the unutterable iniquities which were familiar occurrences\nin the world of his contemporaries, he affirms that moral decadence\nof the most appalling character is ultimately traceable to a\nvoluntary indulgence of those idolatrous tendencies which ignore\nGod's revelation of Himself to the heart and reason, and prefer to\nfind their deity in something less awful in purity and holiness,\nless averse to the defilements of sin, less conversant with the\nsecrets of the soul; and so, not liking to retain the true and only\nGod in knowledge, change His truth into a lie, and worship and\nserve the creature more than the Creator: changing the glory of the\nincorruptible God into an image made like unto corruptible man, or\neven to birds and fourfooted beasts and creeping things.\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[39] LXX. \"for _they_ are afraid before them,\" \u05dc\u05e4\u05e0\u05d9\u05d4\u05dd \u05d4\u05de\u05d4 \u05d9\u05d7\u05ea\u05d5 \u05db\u05d9.\n\n[40] This is the most natural interpretation of the passage according\nto the Hebrew punctuation. Another is given below.\n\n[41] It is against usage to divide the clause as Naegelsbach does,\n\"Vain instruction! It is wood!\" or to render with Ewald \"Simply vain\ndoctrine is the wood!\" which would require the article (_ha'e\u00e7_).\n\n\n\n\n                                  VII.\n\n                         _THE BROKEN COVENANT._\n\n                           JEREMIAH xi., xii.\n\n\nThere is no visible break between these two chapters. They seem to\nsummarize the history of a particular episode in the prophet's career.\nAt the same time, the style is so peculiar, that it is not so easy,\nas it might appear at a first glance, to determine exactly what it is\nthat the section has to tell us. When we come to take a closer look at\nit, we find a thoroughly characteristic mixture of direct narrative\nand soliloquy, of statement of facts and reflexion upon those facts,\nof aspiration and prayer and prophecy, of self-communing and communing\nwith God. Careful analysis may perhaps furnish us with a clue to the\ndisentanglement of the general sense and drift of this characteristic\nmedley. We may thus hope to get a clearer insight into the bearing of\nthis old-world oracle upon our own needs and perplexities, our sins\nand the fruit of our sins, what we have done and what we may expect\nas the consequence of our doings. For the Word of God is \"quick and\npowerful.\" Its outward form and vesture may change with the passing\nof time; but its substance never changes. The old interpreters die,\nbut the Word lives, and its life is a life of power. By that Word\nmen live in their successive generations; it is at once creative\nand regulative; it is the seed of life in man, and it is the law of\nthat life. Apart from the Divine Word, man would be no more than a\nbrute gifted with understanding, but denied all answer to the higher\ncravings of soul and spirit; a being whose conscious life was a mere\nmockery; a self-tormentor, tantalized with vain surmises, tortured\nwith ever-recurring problems; longing for light, and beset with\nnever-lifting clouds of impenetrable darkness; the one sole instance,\namong the myriads of sentient beings, of a creature whose wants Nature\nrefuses to satisfy, and whose lot it is to consume for ever in the\nfires of hopeless desire.\n\nThe sovran Lord, who is the Eternal Wisdom, has not made such a mistake.\nHe provides satisfaction for all His creatures, according to the varying\ndegrees of their capacity, according to their rank in the scale of\nbeing, so that all may rejoice in the fulness and the freedom of a happy\nlife for their allotted time. Man is no exception to the universal rule.\nHis whole constitution as God has fashioned it is such that he can find\nhis perfect satisfaction in the Word of the Lord. And the depth of his\ndissatisfaction, the poignancy and the bitterness of his disappointment\nand disgust at himself and at the world in which he finds himself, are\nthe strongest evidence that he has sought satisfaction in things that\ncannot satisfy; that he has foolishly endeavoured to feed his soul upon\nashes, to still the cravings of his spirit with something other than\nthat Word of God which is the Bread of Life.\n\nYou will observe that the discourse we are to consider, is headed:\n\"_The word that fell to Jeremiah from Iahvah_ (lit. _from with_,\nthat is, _from the presence of_ the Eternal), _saying_.\" I think\nthat expression \"saying\" covers all that follows, to the end of the\ndiscourse. The prophet's preaching the Law, and the consequences of\nthat preaching as regarded himself; his experience of the stubbornness\nand treachery of the people; the varying moods of his own mind under\nthat bitter experience; his reflexions upon the condition of Judah,\nand the condition of Judah's ill-minded neighbours; his forecasts of\nthe after-course of events as determined by the unchanging will of a\nrighteous God; all these things seem to be included in the scope of that\n\"Word from the presence of Iahvah,\" which the prophet is about to put\non record. You will see that it is not a single utterance of a precise\nand definite message, which he might have delivered in a few moments of\ntime before a single audience of his countrymen. The Word of the Lord is\nprogressively revealed; it begins with a thought in the prophet's mind,\nbut its entire content is unfolded gradually, as he proceeds to act\nupon that thought or Divine impulse; it is, as it were, evolved as the\nresult of collision between the prophet and his hearers; it emerges into\nclear light out of the darkness of storm and conflict; a conflict both\ninternal and external; a conflict within, between his own contending\nemotions and impulses and sympathies; and a conflict without, between an\nunpopular teacher, and a wayward and corrupt and incorrigible people.\n_From with Iahvah._ There may be strife and tumult and the darkness of\nignorance and passion upon earth; but the star of truth shines in the\nfirmament of heaven, and the eye of the inspired man sees it. This is\nhis difference from his fellows.\n\n_Hear ye the words of this covenant, and speak ye unto the men of\nJudah, and upon the dwellers in Jerusalem! And say thou unto them,\nThus saith Iahvah, the God_ _of Israel, Accursed are the men that\nhear not the words of this covenant, which I lay on your fathers, in\nthe day that I brought them forth from the land of Egypt, from the\nfurnace of iron, saying, Hearken unto My voice, and do these things,\naccording to all that I shall charge you: that ye may become for Me a\npeople, and that I Myself may become for you a God. That I may make\ngood_ (\u05dc\u05d4\u05e7\u05d9\u05dd vid. infr.) _the oath which I sware to your forefathers,\nthat I would give them a land flowing with milk and honey, as it now\nis_ (or simply, _to-day_). _And I answered and said, Amen, Iahvah!_\n(xi. 1-5). \"Hear ye ... speak ye unto the men of Judah!\" The occasion\nreferred to is that memorable crisis in the eighteenth year of king\nJosiah, when Hilkiah the high priest had \"found the book of the law\nin the house of the Lord\" (2 Kings xxii. 8 _sqq._), and the pious\nking had read in the hearing of the assembled people those fervid\nexhortations to obedience, those promises fraught with all manner of\nblessing, those terrible denunciations of wrath and ruin reserved\nfor rebellion and apostasy, which we may still read in the closing\nchapters of the book of Deuteronomy (Deut. xxvii. _sq._). Jeremiah\nis recalling the events of his own ministry, and passes in rapid\nreview from the time of his preaching upon the Book of the Law, to the\nChaldean invasion in the reign of Jehoiachin (xiii. 18 _sqq._). He\nrecalls the solemn occasion when king and people bound themselves by\noath to observe the law of their God; when \"the king stood upon the\nplatform, and made the covenant before Iahvah, that he would follow\nIahvah, and keep his commandments, and his laws and his statutes,\nwith whole heart and with whole soul; to make good (\u05dc\u05d4\u05e7\u05d9\u05dd) the words\nof this covenant, that were written upon this roll; and all the\npeople stood to the covenant\" (2 Kings xxiii. 3). At or soon after\nthis great meeting, the prophet gives, in the name of Iahvah, an\nemphatic approval to the public undertaking; and bids the leaders\nin the movement not to rest contented with this good beginning,\nbut to impress the obligation more deeply upon the community at\nlarge, by sending a mission of properly qualified persons, including\nhimself, which should at once enforce the reforms necessitated by\nthe covenant of strict obedience to the Law, and reconcile the\npeople both of the capital and of the rural towns and hamlets to\nthe sudden and sweeping changes demanded of them, by shewing their\nentire consonance with the Divine precepts. \"Hear _ye_\"--princes and\npriests--\"the words of this covenant; and speak _ye_ unto the men of\nJudah!\" Then follows, in brief, the prophet's own commission, which\nis to reiterate, with all the force of his impassioned rhetoric, the\nawful menaces of the Sacred Book: _Cursed be the men that hear not\nthe words of this covenant!_ Now again, in these last years of their\nnational existence, the chosen people are to hear an authoritative\nproclamation of that Divine Law upon which all their weal depends;\nthe Law given them at the outset of their history, when the memory\nof the great deliverance was yet fresh in their minds; the Law which\nwas the condition of their peculiar relation to the Universal God. At\nSinai they had solemnly undertaken to observe that Law; and Iahweh\nhad fulfilled His promise to their \"fathers\"--to Abraham, Isaac, and\nJacob--and had given them a goodly land, in which they had now been\nestablished for at least six hundred years. The Divine truth and\nrighteousness were manifest upon a retrospect of this long period of\neventful history; and Jeremiah could not withhold his inward assent,\nin the formula prescribed by the Book of the Law (Deut. xxvii. 15\n_sqq._), to the perfect justice of the sentence: \"Cursed be the men\nthat hear not the words of this covenant.\" _And I answered and said,\nAmen, Iahvah!_[42] So to this true Israelite, thus deeply communing\nwith his own spirit, two things had become clear as day. The one\nwas the absolute righteousness of God's entire dealing with Israel,\nfrom first to last; the righteousness of disaster and overthrow as\nwell as of victory and prosperity: the other was his own present\nduty to bring this truth home to the hearts and consciences of his\nfellow-countrymen. This is how he states the fact: _And Iahvah said\nunto me, Proclaim thou all these words in the cities of Judah and in\nthe streets of Jerusalem, saying, Hear ye the words of this covenant\nand do them. For I earnestly adjured your fathers, when I brought them\nup from the land of Egypt_ (_and I have done so continually_) _even\nunto this very day, saying, Obey ye My voice! And they obeyed not, nor\ninclined their ear; and they walked, each and all, in the hardness\nof their wicked heart. So I brought upon them all the threats_ (lit.\n_words_) _of this covenant, which I had charged them to keep, and they\nkept it not._ (xi. 6-8). God is always self-consistent; man is often\ninconsistent with himself; God is eternally true, man is ever giving\nfresh proofs of his natural faithlessness. God is not only just in\nkeeping His promises; He is also merciful, in labouring ever to induce\nman to be self-consistent, and true to moral obligations. And Divine\nmercy is revealed alike in the pleadings of the Holy Spirit by the\nmouth of prophets, by the voice of conscience, and in the retribution\nthat overtakes persistence in evil. The Divine Law is life and health\nto them that keep it; it is death to them that break it. \"Thou, Lord,\nart merciful; for thou rewardest every man according to his works.\"\n\nThe relation of the One God to this one people was neither accidental\nnor arbitrary. It is sometimes spoken of as a thing glaringly unjust to\nthe other nations of the ancient world, that the Father of all should\nhave chosen Israel only to be the recipient of His special favours.\nSometimes it is demanded, as an unanswerable dilemma, How _could_ the\nUniversal God be the God of the Jews, in the restricted sense implied\nby the Old Testament histories? But difficulties of this kind rest upon\nmisunderstanding, due to a slavishly literal interpretation of certain\npassages, and inability to take a comprehensive view of the general\ndrift and tenor of the Old Testament writings as they bear upon this\nsubject. God's choice of Israel was proof of His love for mankind. He\ndid not select one people, because He was indifferent or hostile to\nall other peoples; but because He wished to bring all the nations of\nthe earth to the knowledge of Himself, and the observance of His law.\nThe words of our prophet shew that he was profoundly convinced that\nthe favour of Iahvah had from the outset depended upon the obedience\nof Israel: _Hearken unto My voice, and do these things ... that ye may\nbecome for Me a people, and that I Myself may become for you a God._\nHow strangely must such words have sounded in the ears of people who\nbelieved, as the masses both in town and country appear for the most\npart to have done, that Iahvah as the ancestral god was bound by an\nindissoluble tie to Israel, and that He could not suffer the nation\nto perish without incurring irreparable loss, if not extinction, for\nHimself! It is as if the prophet had said: You call yourselves the\npeople of God; but it is not so much that you _are_ His people, as\nthat you may become such by doing His will. You suppose that Iahvah,\nthe Eternal, the Creator, is to you what Chemosh is to Moah, or Molech\nto Ammon, or Baal to Tyre; but that is just what He is not. If you\nentertain such ideas of Iahvah, you are worshipping a figment of your\nown carnal imaginations; your god is not the Universal God but a gross\nunspiritual idol. It is only upon your fulfilment of His conditions,\nonly upon your yielding an inward assent to His law, a hearty acceptance\nto His rule of life, that He Himself--the One only God--can truly\nbecome your God. In accepting His law, you accept Him, and in rejecting\nHis law, you reject Him; for His law is a reflexion of Himself; a\nrevelation, so far as such can be made to a creature like man, of His\nessential being and character. Therefore think not that you can worship\nHim by mere external rites; for the true worship is \"righteousness, and\nholiness of life.\"\n\nThe progress of the reforming movement, which was doubtless powerfully\nstimulated by the preaching of Jeremiah, is briefly sketched in the\nchapter of the book of Kings, to which I have already referred (2\nKings xxiii.). That summary of the good deeds of king Josiah records\napparently a very complete extirpation of the various forms of\nidolatry, and even a slaughter of the idol-priests upon their own\naltars. Heathenism, it would seem, could hardly have been practised\nagain, at least openly, during the twelve remaining years of Josiah.\nBut although a zealous king might enforce outward conformity to the\nLaw, and although the earnest preaching of prophets like Zephaniah and\nJeremiah might have considerable effect with the better part of the\npeople, the fact remained that those whose hearts were really open to\nthe word of the Lord were still, as always, a small minority; and the\ntendency to apostasy, though checked, was far from being rooted up.\nHere and there the forbidden rites were secretly observed; and the\nharsh measures which had accompanied their public suppression may very\nprobably have intensified the attachment of many to the local forms\nof worship. Sincere conversions are not effected by violence; and the\nmartyrdom of devotees may give new life even to degraded and utterly\nimmoral superstitions. The transient nature of Josiah's reformation,\nradical as it may have appeared at the time to the principal agents\nengaged in it, is evident from the testimony of Jeremiah himself. _And\nIahvah said unto me, There exists a conspiracy among the men of Judah,\nand among the inhabitants of Jerusalem. They have returned to the old\nsins of their fathers, who refused to hear My words; and they too have\ngone away after other gods, to serve them: the house of Israel and\nthe house of Judah have broken My covenant, which I made with their\nforefathers. Therefore thus saith Iahvah, Behold I am about to bring\nunto them an evil from which they cannot get forth; and they will cry\nunto Me, and I will not listen unto them. And the cities of Judah and\nthe inhabitants of Jerusalem will go and cry unto the gods to whom\nthey burn incense_ (i.e., now; ptcp.); _and they will yield them no\nhelp at all in the time of their evil. For many as thy cities are thy\ngods become, O Judah! and many as the streets of Jerusalem have ye\nappointed altars to the_ _Shame, altars for burning incense to the\nBaal. And as for thee, intercede thou not for this people, nor lift up\nfor them outcry_ (i.e., mourning) _and intercession; for I intend not\nto hearken, in the time when they call unto Me, in the time of their\nevil_ (so read: cf. vers. 12, \u05d1\u05e2\u05ea instead of \u05d1\u05e2\u05d3) (vv. 9-14). All this\nappears to indicate the course of the prophet's reflexion, after it\nhad become clear to him that the reformation was illusory, and that\nhis own labours had failed of their purpose. He calls the relapse of\nthe people a plot or conspiracy; thereby suggesting, perhaps, the\nsecrecy with which the prohibited worships were at first revived, and\nthe intrigues of the unfaithful nobles and priests and prophets, in\norder to bring about a reversal of the policy of reform, and a return\nto the old system; and certainly suggesting that the heart of the\nnation, as a whole, was disloyal to its Heavenly King, and that its\nrenewed apostasy was a wicked disavowal of lawful allegiance, and an\nact of unpardonable treason against God.\n\nBut the word further signifies that a BOND has been entered into, a\nbond which is the exact antithesis of the covenant with Iahvah; and it\nimplies that this bond has about it a fatal strength and permanence,\ninvolving as its necessary consequence the ruin of the nation.\nBreaking covenant with Iahvah meant making a covenant with other gods;\nit was impossible to do the one thing without the other. And that is\nas true now, under totally different conditions, as it was in the land\nof Judah, twenty-four centuries ago. If you have broken faith with\nGod in Christ, it is because you have entered into an agreement with\nanother; it is because you have foolishly taken the tempter at his\nword, and accepted his conditions, and surrendered to his proposals,\nand preferred his promises to the promises of God. It is because,\nagainst all reason, against conscience, against the Holy Spirit,\nagainst the witness of God's Word, against the witness of His Saints\nand Confessors in all ages, you have believed that a Being less than\nthe Eternal God could ensure your weal and make you happy. And now\nyour heart is no longer at unity in itself, and your allegiance is no\nlonger single and undivided. _Many as thy cities are thy gods become,\nO Judah!_ The soul that is not unified and harmonized by the fear of\nthe One God, is torn and distracted by a thousand contending passions:\nand vainly seeks peace and deliverance by worship at a thousand unholy\nshrines. But Mammon and Belial and Ashtaroth and the whole rout of\nunclean spirits, whose seductions have lured you astray, will fail you\nat last; and in the hour of bitter need, you will learn too late that\nthere is no god but God, and no peace nor safety nor joy but in Him.\n\nIt is futile to pray for those who have deliberately cast off the\ncovenant of Iahvah, and made a covenant with His adversary. _Intercede\nnot for this people, nor lift up outcry and intercession for them!_\nPrayer cannot save, nothing can save, the impenitent; and there is a\nstate of mind, in which one's own prayer is turned into sin; the state\nof mind in which a man prays, merely to appease God, and escape the\nfire, but without a thought of forsaking sin, without the faintest\naspiration after holiness. There is a degree of guilt upon which\nsentence is already passed, which is \"unto death,\" and for which\nintercession is interdicted alike by the Apostle of the New as to the\nprophet of the Old Covenant.\n\n_What availeth it My beloved, that she fulfilleth her_ _intent in\nMine house? Can vows and hallowed flesh make thine evil to pass from\nthee? Then mightest thou indeed rejoice_[43] (ver. 15). Such appears\nto be the true sense of this verse, the only difficult one in the\nchapter. The prophet had evidently the same thought in his mind as in\nver. 11: _I will bring unto them an evil, from which they cannot get\nforth; and they will cry unto Me, and I will not hearken unto them._\nThe words also recall those of Isaiah (Isa. i. 11 _sqq._): \"For what\nto Me are your many sacrifices, saith Iahvah? When ye enter in to see\nMy face, who hath sought this at your hand, to trample My courts?\nBring no more a vain oblation; loathly incense it is to Me!\" The term\nwhich I have rendered \"intent,\" usually denotes an evil intention; so\nthat, like Isaiah, our prophet implies that the popular worship is not\nonly futile but sinful. So true it is that \"He that turneth away his\near from hearing the law, even his prayer is an abomination\" (Prov.\nxxviii. 9); or, as the Psalmist puts the same truth, \"If I incline\nunto wickedness with my heart, the Lord will not hear me.\"\n\n_\"A flourishing olive, fair with shapely fruit, did Iahvah call thy\nname. To the sound of a great uproar will He set her on fire; and his\nhanging boughs will crackle_ (_in the flames_). _And Iahvah Sabaoth,\nthat planted thee, Himself hath pronounced evil upon thee; because\nof the evil of the house of Israel and the house of Judah, which\nthey have done to themselves_ (iv. 18, vii. 19) _in provoking Me, in\nburning incense to the Baal\"_ (vers. 16-17). The figure of the olive\nseems a very natural one (cf. Rom. xi. 17), when we remember the\nbeauty and the utility for which that tree is famous in Eastern lands.\n_Iahvah called thy name_; that is, called thee into determinate being;\nendowed thee at thine origin with certain characteristic qualities.\nThine original constitution, as thou didst leave thy Maker's hand, was\nfair and good. Israel among the nations was as beautiful to the eye\nas the olive among trees; and his \"fruit,\" his doings, were a glory\nto God and a blessing to men, like that precious oil, for \"which God\nand man honour\" the olive (Judg. ix. 9). (Zech. iv. 3; Hos. xiv. 7;\nPs. lii. 10.) But now the noble stock had degenerated; the \"green\nolive tree,\" planted in the very court of Iahvah's house, had become\nno better than a barren wilding, fit only for the fire. The thought is\nessentially similar to that of an earlier discourse: \"I planted thee\na noble vine, wholly a right seed; how then hast thou turned into the\ndegenerate plant of a strange vine unto Me?\" (ii. 21). Here, there is\nan abrupt transition, which forcibly expresses the _suddenness_ of the\ndestruction that must devour this degenerate people: _To the sound of\na great uproar_--the din of invading armies--_he will set her_ (the\nbeloved, symbolized by the tree) _on fire; and his_ (the olive's)\n_hanging boughs will crackle in the flames._ And this fierce work of\na barbarous soldiery is no chance calamity; it is the execution of a\nDivine judgment: _Iahvah Sabaoth ... Himself hath pronounced evil upon\nthee._ And yet further, it is the nation's own doing; the two houses\nof Israel have persistently laboured for their own ruin; they have\nbrought it upon themselves. Man is himself the author of his own weal\nand woe; and they who are not \"working out their own salvation,\" are\nworking out their own destruction.\n\n_And it was Iahvah that gave Me knowledge, so that I well knew; at\nthat time, Thou didst shew me their doings. But, for myself, like a\nfavourite_ (lit. tame, friendly, gentle: iii. 4) _lamb that is led\nto the slaughter, I wist not that against me they had laid a plot.\n'Let us fell the tree in its prime,[44] and let us cut him off out of\nthe land of the living, that his name be remembered no more.' 'Yea,\nbut Iahvah[45] Sabaoth judgeth righteously, trieth reins and heart.\nI shall see Thy vengeance on them; for unto Thee have I laid bare my\ncause.' Therefore thus said Iahvah; Upon the men of Anathoth that\nwere seeking thy life, saying, Thou shalt not prophesy in the name of\nIahvah, that thou die not by our hand:--therefore thus said Iahvah\nSabaoth, Behold I am about to visit it upon them: the young men will\ndie by the sword; their sons and their daughters will die by the\nfamine. And a remnant they shall not have: for I will bring an evil\nunto the men of Anathoth, the year of their visitation_ (vv. 18-23).\n\nThe prophet, it would seem, had made the round of the country places,\nand come to Anathoth, on his return journey to Jerusalem. Here, in\nhis native town, he proclaimed to his own people that same solemn\nmessage which he had delivered to the country at large. It is very\nprobable that the preceding verses (9-17) contain the substance of his\naddress to his kinsfolk and acquaintance; an address which stirred\nthem, not to repentance towards God but to murderous wrath against His\nprophet. A plot was laid for Jeremiah's life by his own neighbours\nand even his own family (xii. 6); and he owed his escape to some\nprovidential circumstance, some \"lucky accident,\" as men might say,\nwhich revealed to him their unsuspected perfidy. What the event was\nwhich thus suddenly disclosed the hidden danger, is not recorded;\nand the whole episode is rather alluded to than described. But it is\nclear that the prophet knew nothing about the plot, until it was ripe\nfor execution. He was as wholly unconscious of the death prepared for\nhim, as a petted lamb on the way to the altar. \"Then\"--when his fate\nseemed sure--then it was that something happened by which \"Iahvah\ngave him knowledge,\" and \"shewed him their doings.\" The thought or\nsaying attributed to his enemies, \"Let us fell the tree(s) in the\nprime thereof!\" may contain a sarcastic allusion really made to the\nprophet's own warning (ver. 16): \"A flourishing olive, fair with\nshapely fruit, did Iahvah call thy name: to the noise of a great\nuproar will He set it on fire, and the branches thereof shall crackle\nin the flames.\" The words that follow (ver. 20), \"yea, but (or, and\nyet) Iahvah Sabaoth judgeth righteously; trieth reins and heart\"\n(cf. xx. 12), is the prophet's reply, in the form of an unexpressed\nthought, or a hurried ejaculation upon discovering their deadly\nmalice. The timely warning which he had received, was fresh proof to\nhim of the truth that human designs are, after all that their authors\ncan do, dependent on the will of an Unseen Arbiter of events; and the\nDivine justice, thus manifested towards himself, inspired a conviction\nthat those hardened and bloodthirsty sinners would, sooner or later,\nexperience in their own destruction that display of the same Divine\nattribute which was necessary to its complete manifestation. It was\nthis conviction, rather than personal resentment, however excusable\nunder the circumstances that feeling would have been, which led\nJeremiah to exclaim: \"I shall see Thy vengeance on them, for unto Thee\nhave I laid bare my cause.\"\n\nHe had appealed to the Judge of all the earth, that doeth right; and\nhe knew the innocency of his own heart in the quarrel. He was certain,\ntherefore, that his cause would one day be vindicated, when that ruin\novertook his enemies, of which he had warned them in vain. Looked\nat in this light, his words are a confident assertion of the Divine\njustice, not a cry for vengeance. They reveal what we may perhaps\ncall the _human_ basis of the formal prophecy which follows; they\nshew by what steps the prophet's mind was led on to the utterance of\na sentence of destruction upon the men of Anathoth. That Jeremiah's\ninvectives and threatenings of wrath and ruin should provoke hatred\nand opposition was perhaps not wonderful. Men in general are slow\nto recognise their own moral shortcomings, to believe evil of\nthemselves; and they are apt to prefer advisers, whose optimism,\nthough ill-founded and misleading, is pleasant and reassuring and\nconfirmatory of their own prejudices. But it does seem strange that\nit should have been reserved for the men of his own birthplace, his\nown \"brethren and his father's house,\" to carry opposition to the\npoint of meditated murder. Once more Jeremiah stands before us, a\nvisible type of Him whose Divine wisdom declared that a prophet finds\nno honour in his own country, and whose life was attempted on that\nSabbath day at Nazareth (St. Luke iv. 24 _sqq._).\n\nThe sentence was pronounced, but the cloud of dejection was not at\nonce lifted from the soul of the seer. He knew that justice must\nin the end overtake the guilty; but, in the meantime, \"his enemies\nlived and were mighty,\" and their criminal designs against himself\nremained unnoticed and unpunished. The more he brooded over it, the\nmore difficult it seemed to reconcile their prosperous immunity with\nthe justice of God. He has given us the course of his reflections\nupon this painful question, ever suggested anew by the facts of life,\nnever sufficiently answered by toiling reason. _Too righteous art\nThou, Iahvah, for me to contend with Thee: I will but lay arguments\nbefore Thee_ (i.e., argue the case forensically). _Wherefore doth the\nway of the wicked prosper? Wherefore are they undisturbed, all that\ndeal very treacherously? Thou plantest them, yea, they take root;\nthey grow ever, yea, they bear fruit: Thou art nigh in their mouth,\nand far from their reins. And Thou, Iahvah, knowest me; Thou seest\nme, and triest mine heart in Thy mind. Separate them like sheep for\nthe slaughter, and consecrate them for the day of killing! How long\nshall the land mourn, and the herbage of all the country wither? From\nthe evil of the dwellers therein, beasts and birds perish: for they\nhave said_ (or, _thought_), _He cannot see our end_ (xii. 1-4). It is\nnot merely that his would-be murderers thrive; it is that they take\nthe holy Name upon their unclean lips; it is that they are hypocrites\ncombining a pretended respect for God, with an inward and thorough\nindifference to God. He is nigh in their mouth and far from their\nreins. They \"honour Him with their lips, but have removed their heart\nfar from Him; and their worship of Him is a mere human commandment,\nlearned by rote\" (Isa. xxix. 13). They swear by His Name, when they\nare bent on deception (ch. v. 2). It is all this which especially\nrouses the prophet's indignation; and contrasting therewith his own\nconscious integrity and faithfulness to the Divine law, he calls upon\nDivine Justice to judge between himself and them: _Pull them out like\nsheep for slaughter, and consecrate them_ (_set them apart_--from the\nrest of the flock) _for the day of killing_! It has been said that\nJeremiah throughout this whole paragraph speaks not as a prophet but\nas a private individual; and that in this verse especially he \"gives\nway to the natural man, and asks the life of his enemies\" (1 Kings\niii. 11; Job xxxi. 30). This is perhaps a tenable opinion. We have\nto bear in mind the difference of standpoint between the writers of\nthe Old Covenant and those of the New. Not much is said by the former\nabout the forgiveness of injuries, about withholding the hand from\nvengeance. The most ancient law, indeed, contained a noble precept,\nwhich pointed in this direction: \"If thou meet thine enemy's ox or\nhis ass going astray, thou shalt surely bring it back to him again.\nIf thou see the ass of him that hateth thee lying under his burden,\nand wouldest forbear to help him, thou shalt surely help with him\"\n(Ex. xxiii. 4, 5). And in the book of Proverbs we read: \"Rejoice not\nwhen thine enemy falleth, And let not thine heart be glad when he\nis overthrown.\" But the impression of magnanimity thus produced is\nsomewhat diminished by the reason which is added immediately: \"Lest\nthe Lord see it and it displease Him, _And He turn away His wrath\nfrom him_:\" a motive of which the best that can be said is that it is\ncharacteristic of the imperfect morality of the time (Prov. xxiv. 17\n_sq._). The same objection may be taken to that other famous passage\nof the same book: \"If thine enemy be hungry, give him bread to eat;\nAnd if he be thirsty, give him water to drink: _For thou shalt heap\ncoals of fire upon his head_, And the Lord shall reward thee\" (Prov.\nxxv. 21 _sq._). The reflexion that the relief of his necessities will\nmortify and humiliate an enemy to the utmost, which is what seems\nto have been originally meant by \"heaping coals of fire upon his\nhead,\" however practically useful in checking the wild impulses of a\nhot-blooded and vindictive race, such as the Hebrews were, and such\nas their kindred the Bedawi Arabs have remained to this day under\na system of faith which has _not_ said, \"Love your enemies\"; and\nhowever capable of a new application in the more enlightened spirit\nof Christianity (Rom. xii. 19 _sqq._); is undoubtedly a motive marked\nby the limitations of Old Testament ethical thought. And edifying as\nthey may prove to be, when understood in that purely spiritual and\nuniversal sense, to which the Church has lent her authority, how many\nof the psalms were, in their primary intention, agonizing cries for\nvengeance; prayers that the human victim of oppression and wrong might\n\"see his desire upon his enemies\"? All this must be borne in mind; but\nthere are other considerations also which must not be omitted, if we\nwould get at the exact sense of our prophet in the passage before us.\n\nWe must remember that he is laying a case before God. He has admitted\nat the outset that God is absolutely just, in spite of and in view of\nthe fact that his murderous enemies are prosperous and unpunished.\nWhen he pleads his own sincerity and purity of heart, in contrast\nwith the lip-service of his adversaries, it is perhaps that God\nmay grant, not so much _their_ perdition, as the salvation of the\ncountry from the evils they have brought and are bringing upon it.\nAscribing the troubles already present and those which are yet to\ncome, the desolations which he sees and those which he foresees, to\ntheir steady persistence in wickedness, he asks, How long must this\ncontinue? Would it not be better, would it not be more consonant with\nDivine wisdom and righteousness to purify the land of its fatal taint\nby the sudden destruction of those heinous and hardened offenders,\nwho scoff at the very idea of a true forecast of their \"end\" (ver.\n4)? But this is not all. There would be more apparent force in the\nallegation we are discussing if it were. The cry to heaven for an\nimmediate act of retributive justice is not the last thing recorded of\nthe prophet's experience on this occasion. He goes on to relate, for\nour satisfaction, the Divine answer to his questionings, which seems\nto have satisfied his own troubled mind. _If thou hast run but with\nfootracers, and they have wearied thee, how then wilt thou compete\nwith the coursers? And if thy confidence be in a land of peace_ (or,\n_a quiet land_), _how then wilt thou do in the thickets_ (_jungles_)\n_of Jordan?[46] For even thine own brethren and thy_ _father's\nhouse, even they will deal treacherously with thee; even they will\ncry aloud after thee: trust thou not in them, though they speak thee\nfair!_ (xii. 5, 6). The metaphors convey a rebuke of impatience and\npremature discouragement. Hitzig aptly quotes Demosthenes: \"If they\ncannot face the candle, what will they do when they see the sun?\"\n(_Plut. de vitioso pudore_, c. 5.) It is \"the voice of the prophet's\nbetter feeling, and of victorious self-possession,\" adds the critic;\nand we, who earnestly believe that, of the two voices which plead\nagainst each other in the heart of man, the voice that whispers good\nis the voice of God, find it not hard to accept his statement in that\nsense. The prophet is giving us the upshot of his reflexion upon the\nterrible danger from which he had been mercifully preserved; and we\nsee that his thoughts were guided to the conclusion that, having once\naccepted the Divine Call, it would be unworthy to abdicate his mission\non the first signal of danger. Great as that danger had been, he\nnow, in his calmer hour, perceives that, if he is to fulfil his high\nvocation, he must be prepared to face even worse things. With serious\nirony he asks himself, if a runner who is overcome in a footrace\ncan hope to outstrip horses? or how a man, who is only bold where\nno danger is, will face the perils that lurk in the jungles of the\nJordan? He remembers that he has to fight a more arduous battle and\non a greater scene. Jerusalem is more than Anathoth; and \"the kings\nof Judah and the princes thereof\" are mightier adversaries than the\nconspirators of a country town. And his present escape is an earnest\nof deliverance on the wider field: _They shall fight against thee,\nbut they shall not prevail against thee: for I am with thee, said\nIahvah, to deliver thee_ (see i. 17-19). But to a deeply affectionate\nand sensitive nature like Jeremiah's, the thought of being forsaken\nby his own kindred might well appear as a trial worse than death.\nThis is the \"contending with horses,\" the struggle that is almost\nbeyond the powers of man to endure; this is the deadly peril, like\nthat of venturing into the lion-haunted thickets of Jordan, which he\nclearly foresees as awaiting him: _For even thine own brethren and thy\nfather's house, even they will deal treacherously with thee_.[47] It\nwould seem that the prophet, with whose \"timidity\" some critics have\nnot hesitated to find fault, had to renounce all that man holds dear,\nas a condition of faithfulness to his call. Again we are reminded of\nOne, of whom it is recorded that \"Neither did His brethren believe in\nHim\" (St. John vii. 5), and that \"His friends went out to lay hold\non Him, for they said, He is beside Himself\" (St. Mark iii. 21). The\ncloseness of the parallel between type and antitype, between the\nsorrowful prophet and the Man of Sorrows, is seen yet further in the\nwords, \"Even they will cry aloud after thee\" (lit. _with full cry_).\nThe meaning may be: They will join in the hue and cry of thy pursuers,\nthe mad shouts of \"Stop him!\" or \"Strike him down!\" such as may\nperhaps have rung in the prophet's ears as he fled from Anathoth.\nBut we may also understand a metaphorical description of the efforts\nof his family to recall him from the unpopular path on which he had\nentered; and this perhaps agrees better with the warning: \"Trust them\nnot, though they speak thee fair.\" And understood in this sense, the\nwords coincide with what is told us in the Gospel of the attempt of\nour Lord's nearest kin to arrest the progress of His Divine mission,\nwhen His mother and His brethren \"standing without, sent unto Him,\ncalling Him\" (St. Mark iii. 31).\n\nThe lesson for ourselves is plain. The man who listens to the Divine\ncall, and makes God his portion, must be prepared to surrender\neverything else. He must be prepared, not only to renounce much\nwhich the world accounts good; he must be prepared for all kinds of\nopposition, passive and active, tacit and avowed; he may even find,\nlike Jeremiah, that his foes are the members of his own household (St.\nMatt. x. 36). And, like the prophet, his acceptance of the Divine\ncall binds him to close his ears against entreaties and flatteries,\nagainst mockery and menace; and to act upon his Master's word: \"If any\nman would come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross,\nand follow Me. For whosoever would save his life shall lose it; and\nwhosoever shall lose his life for My sake and the gospel's shall save\nit\" (St. Mark viii. 34 _sq._). \"If any man come unto Me, and hate not\nhis father and mother and wife and children and brethren and sisters,\nyea and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple\" (St. Luke xiv.\n26). A great prize is worth a great risk; and eternal life is a prize\ninfinitely great. It is therefore worth the hazard and the sacrifice\nof all (St. Luke xviii. 29 _sq._).\n\nThe section which follows (vv. 7-17) has been supposed to belong to the\ntime of Jehoiakim, and consequently to be out of place here, having\nbeen transposed from its original context, because the peculiar Hebrew\nterm which is rendered \"dearly beloved\" (ver. 7), is akin to the term\nrendered \"My beloved,\" chap. xi. 15. But this supposition depends on the\nassumption that the \"historical basis of the section\" is to be found in\nthe passage 2 Kings xxiv. 2, which relates briefly that in Jehoiakim's\ntime plundering bands of Chaldeans, Syrians, Moabites and Ammonites\noverran the country. The prophecy concerning Iahvah's \"evil neighbours\"\nis understood to refer to these marauding inroads, and is accordingly\nsupposed to have been uttered between the eighth and the eleventh years\nof Jehoiakim (Hitzig). It has, however, been pointed out (Naegelsbach)\nthat the prophet does not once name the Chaldeans in the present\ndiscourse; which \"he invariably does in all discourses subsequent to the\ndecisive battle of Carchemish in the fourth year of Jehoiakim,\" which\ngave the Chaldeans the sovereignty of Western Asia. This discourse must,\ntherefore, be of earlier date, and belong either to the first years\nof Jehoiakim, or to the time immediately subsequent to the eighteenth\nof Josiah. The history as preserved in Kings and Chronicles is so\nincomplete, that we are not bound to connect the reference to \"evil\nneighbours\" with what is so summarily told in 2 Kings xxiv. 2. There\nmay have been other occasions when Judah's jealous and watchful enemies\nprofited by her internal weakness and dissensions to invade and ravage\nthe land; and throughout the whole period the country was exposed to\nthe danger of plundering raids by the wild nomads of the eastern and\nsouthern borders. It is possible, however, that vv. 14-17 are a later\npostscript, added by the prophet when he wrote his book in the fifth or\nsixth year of Jehoiakim (xxxvi. 9, 32).\n\nThere is, in reality, a close connexion of thought between ver. 7 _sqq._\nand what precedes. The relations of the prophet to his own family are\nmade to symbolise the relations of Iahvah to His rebellious people; just\nas a former prophet finds in his own merciful treatment of a faithless\nwife a parable of Iahvah's dealings with faithless Israel. _I have\nforsaken My house, I have cast away My domain; I have given My soul's\nlove into the grasp of her foes. My domain hath become to Me like the\nlion in the wood; she hath given utterance with her voice against Me;\ntherefore I hate her._ It is Iahvah who still speaks, as in ver. 6; the\n\"house\" is His holy house,[48] the temple; the domain is His domain,\nthe land of Judah; His \"soul's love,\" is the Jewish people. Yet the\nexpressions, \"my house,\" \"my domain,\" \"my soul's love,\" equally suit\nthe prophet's own family and their estate; the mention of the \"lion in\nthe wood\" and its threatening roar, and the enmity provoked thereby,\nrecalls what was said about the \"wilds of the Jordan\" in ver. 5, and the\nfull outcry of his kindred after the prophet in ver. 6; and the solemn\nwords \"I have forsaken Mine house, I have cast away My domain\" ... \"I\nhate her,\" clearly correspond with the sentence of destruction upon\nAnathoth, ch. xi. 21 _sqq._ The double reference of the language becomes\nintelligible when we remember that in rejecting His messengers, Israel,\nnay mankind, rejects God; and that words and deeds done and uttered by\nDivine authority may be ascribed directly to God Himself. And regarded\nin the light of the prophet's commission \"to pluck up and to break down,\nand to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant\" nations and\nkingdoms (i. 10), all that is here said may be taken to be the prophet's\nown deliverance concerning his country. This, at all events, is the case\nwith verses 12, 13.\n\n_What! do I see my domain_ (_all_) _vultures_ (_and_) _hyenas?[49] Are\nvultures all around her? Go ye, assemble all the beasts of the field!\nBring them to devour_ (ver. 9). The questions express astonishment at\nan unlooked-for and unwelcome spectacle. The loss of Divine favour\nhas exposed Judah to the active hostility of man; and her neighbours\neagerly fall upon her, like birds and beasts of prey, swarming over\na helpless quarry. It is--so the prophet puts it--it is as if a\nproclamation had gone forth to the wolves and jackals of the desert,\nbidding them come and devour the fallen carcase.[50] In another oracle\nhe speaks of the heathen as \"devouring Jacob\" (x. 25). The people of\nIahvah are their natural prey (Ps. xiv. 4: \"who eat up My people as\nthey eat bread\"); but they are not suffered to devour them, until they\nhave forfeited His protection.\n\nThe image is now exchanged for another, which approximates more nearly\nto the fact pourtrayed. _Many shepherds have marred My vineyard; they\nhave trodden down My portion; they have turned My pleasant portion into\na desolate wilderness. He_ (the foe, the instrument of this ruin) _hath\nmade it a desolation; it mourneth against Me, being desolate; desolated\nis all the land, for there is no man that giveth heed_ (vv. 10, 11).\nAs in an earlier discourse, ch. vi. 3, the invaders are now compared\nto hordes of nomad shepherds, who enter the land with their flocks and\nherds, and make havoc of the crops and pastures. From time immemorial\nthe wandering Bedawis have been a terror to the settled peasantry of the\nEast, whose way of life they despise as ignoble and unworthy of free\nmen. Of this traditional enmity we perhaps hear a far-off echo in the\nstory of Cain the tiller of the ground and Abel the keeper of sheep; and\ncertainly in the statement that \"every shepherd was an abomination unto\nthe Egyptians\" (Gen. xlvi. 34). The picture of utter desolateness, which\nthe prophet suggests by a fourfold repetition, is probably sketched\nfrom a scene which he had himself witnessed; if it be not rather a\nrepresentation of the actual condition of the country at the time of his\nwriting. That the latter is the case might naturally be inferred from a\nconsideration of the whole passage; and the twelfth verse seems to lend\nmuch support to this view: _Over all bare hills in the wilderness have\ncome ravagers; for Iahvah hath a devouring sword: from land's end to\nland's end no flesh hath peace_.[51] The language indeed recalls that\nof ch. iv. 10, 11; and the entire description might be taken as an ideal\npicture of the ruin that must ensue upon Iahvah's rejection of the land\nand people, especially if the closing verses (14-17) be considered as a\nlater addition to the prophecy, made in the light of accomplished facts.\nBut, upon the whole, it would seem to be more probable that the prophet\nis here reading the moral of present or recent experience. He affirms\n(ver. 11) that the affliction of the country is really a punishment for\nthe religious blindness of the nation: _there is no man that layeth to\nheart_ the Divine teaching of events as interpreted by himself (cf.\nver. 4). The fact that we are unable, in the scantiness of the records\nof the time, to specify the particular troubles to which allusion is\nmade, is no great objection to this view, which is at least effectively\nillustrated by the brief statement of 2 Kings xxiv. 2. The reflexion\nappended in ver. 13 points in the same direction: _They have sown\nwheat, and have reaped thorns; they have put themselves to pain_ (or,\n_exhausted themselves_) _without profit_, (or, _made themselves sick\nwith unprofitable toil_); _and they are ashamed of their[52] produce_\n(_ingatherings_), _through the heat of the wrath of Iahvah._ When the\nenemy had ravaged the crops, thorns would naturally spring up on the\nwasted lands; and \"the heat of the wrath of Iahvah\" appears to have been\nfurther manifested in a parching drought, which ruined what the enemy\nhad left untouched (ver. 4, ch. xiv.).\n\nThus, then, Jeremiah receives the answer to his doubts in a painfully\nvisible demonstration of what the wrath of Iahvah means. It means\ndrought and famine; it means the exposure of the country, naked and\ndefenceless, to the will of rapacious and vindictive enemies. For\nIahvah's wrongs are far deeper and more bitter than the prophet's. The\nmisdeeds of individuals are lighter in the balance than the sins of\na nation; the treachery of a few persons on a particular occasion is\nas nothing beside the faithlessness of many generations. The partial\nevils, therefore, under which the country groans, can only be taken as\nindications of a far more complete and terrible destruction reserved\nfor final impenitence. The perception of this truth, we may suppose,\nsufficed for the time to silence the prophet's complaints; and in the\nrevulsion of feeling inspired by the awful vision of the unimpeded\noutbreak of Divine wrath, he utters an oracle concerning his country's\ndestroyers, in which retributive justice is tempered by compassion and\nmercy. _Thus hath Jehovah said, Upon all Mine evil neighbours, who\ntouch the heritage which I caused My people Israel to inherit: Lo I am\nabout to uproot_ (i. 10) _them from off their own land, and the house\nof Judah will I uproot from their midst. And after I have uprooted\nthem, I will have compassion on them again, and will restore them each\nto their own heritage and their own land. And if they truly learn the\nways of My people, to swear by My name, 'as Iahvah liveth!' even as\nthey taught My people to swear by the Baal; they shall be rebuilt in\nthe midst of My people. And if they will not hear, I will uproot that\nnation, utterly and fatally; it is an oracle of Iahvah_ (14-17). The\npreceding section (vv. 7-14), as we have seen, rapidly yet vividly\nsketches the calamities which have ensued and must further ensue upon\nthe Divine desertion of the country. Iahvah has forsaken the land, left\nher naked to her enemies, for her causeless, capricious, thankless\nrevolt against her Divine Lord. In this forlorn, defenceless condition,\nall manner of evils befall her; the vineyards and cornfields are\nravaged, the goodly land is desolated, by hordes of savage freebooters\npouring in from the eastern deserts. These invaders are called Iahvah's\n\"evil neighbours;\" an expression which implies, not individuals banded\ntogether for purposes of brigandage, but hostile nations.[53] Upon these\nnations also will the justice of God be vindicated; for that justice\nis universal in its operation, and cannot therefore be restricted to\nIsrael. Judgment must \"begin at the house of God;\" but it will not\nend there. The \"evil neighbours,\" the surrounding heathen kingdoms,\nhave been Iahvah's instruments for the chastisement of His rebellious\npeople; but they are not on that account exempted from recompense.\nThey too must reap what they have sown. They have insulted Iahvah, by\nviolating His territory; they have indulged their malice and treachery\nand rapacity, in utter disregard of the rights of neighbours, and the\nmoral claims of kindred peoples. As they have done, so shall it be done\nunto them: \u0394\u03c1\u03ac\u03c3\u03b1\u03bd\u03c4\u03b9 \u03c0\u03b1\u03b8\u03b5\u1fd6\u03bd. They have laid hands on the possessions of\ntheir neighbour, and their own shall be taken from them; _I am about\nto uproot them from off their own land_ (cf. Amos i. 3-ii. 3). And not\nonly so, but _the house of Judah will I pluck up from their midst_. The\nLord's people shall be no more exposed to their unneighbourly ill-will;\nthe butt of their ridicule, the victim of their malice, will be removed\nto a foreign soil as well as they; but oppressed and oppressors will no\nlonger be together; their new settlements will lie far apart; under the\naltered state of things, under the shadow of the great conqueror of the\nfuture, there will be no opportunity for the old injurious dealings.\nAll alike, Judah and the enemies of Judah, will be subject to the will\nof the foreign lord. But that is not the end. The Judge of all the\nearth is merciful as well as just. He is loth to blot whole peoples out\nof existence, even though they have merited destruction by grievous\nand prolonged transgression of His laws. Therefore banishment will be\nfollowed by restoration, not in the case of Judah only, but of all the\nexpatriated peoples. After enduring the Divine probation of adversity,\nthey will be brought again, by the Divine compassion, \"each to their\nown heritage and their own land.\" And then, if they will profit by\nthe teaching of Iahvah's prophets, and \"learn the ways,\" that is, the\nreligion of His people, making their supreme appeal to Iahvah, as the\nfountain of all truth and the sovran vindicator of right and justice, as\nhitherto they have appealed to the Baal, and misled Israel into the same\nprofane and futile course; then \"they shall be built up,\" or rebuilt,\nor brought to great and ever-growing prosperity, \"in the midst of My\npeople.\" Such is to be the blessing of the Gentiles; they shall share in\nthe glorious future that awaits repentant Israel. The present condition\nof things is to be completely reversed: now Judah sojourns in _their_\nmidst; then _they_ will be surrounded on every side by the emancipated\nand triumphant people of God: now _they_ beset Judah with jealousies,\nsuspicions, enmities; then Judah will embrace them all with the arms\nof an unselfish and protecting love. A last word of warning is added.\nThe doom of the nation that will not accept the Divine teaching will be\nutter and absolute extermination.\n\nThe forecast is plainly of a Messianic nature; it recognises in\nIahvah the Saviour, not of a nation, but of the world. It perceives\nthat the disunion and mutual hatred of peoples, as of individuals,\nis a breach of Divine law; and it proclaims a general return to God,\nand submission to His guidance in all political as well as private\naffairs, as the sole cure for the numberless evils that flow from that\nhatred and disunion. It is only when men have learnt that God is their\ncommon Father and Lord, that they come to see with the clearness and\nforce of practical conviction that they themselves are all members of\none family, bound as such to mutual offices of kindness and charity;\nit is only when there is a conscious identity of interest with all our\nfellows, based upon the recognition that all alike are children of God\nand heirs of eternal life, that true freedom and universal brotherhood\nbecome possible for man.\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[42] But perhaps it is rather the prophet's love for his people, which\nfervently prays that the oath of blessing may be observed, and Judah\nmaintained in the goodly land.\n\n[43] Hitzig supposed that the \"vows\" and \"hallowed flesh\" were\nthank-offerings for the departure of the Scythians. \"It is plain that\nthe people are really present in the temple; they bring, presumably\nafter the retreat of the Scythians, the offerings vowed at that time.\"\nBut, considering the context, the reference appears to be more general.\nI have partly followed the LXX. in emending an obviously corrupt verse;\nthe only one in the chap. which presents any textual difficulty. Read:\n\u05d9\u05b7\u05e2\u05b0\u05bd\u05d1\u05b7\u05e8\u05d5\u05bc \u05e7\u05d3\u05e9 \u05d5\u05d1\u05e9\u05e8 \u05d4\u05b7\u05e0\u05b0\u05bc\u05d3\u05b8\u05e8\u05b4\u05d9\u05dd \u05d4\u05b7\u05bd\u05de\u05b0\u05d6\u05b4\u05de\u05b8\u05bc\u05ea\u05b8\u05d4\u05bc \u05e2\u05b2\u05e9\u05c2\u05d5\u05b9\u05ea\u05b8\u05d4\u05bc \u05d1\u05d1\u05d9\u05ea\u05d9 \u05dc\u05d9\u05d3\u05d9\u05d3\u05d9\n\u05de\u05d4 \u05c3 \u05d6\u05b4\u05d9 \u05ea\u05b7\u05bc\u05bd\u05e2\u05b2\u05dc\u05b0\u05b9 \u05d0\u05b8\u05d6 \u05e8\u05b8\u05e2\u05b8\u05ea\u05b5\u05db\u05b4\u05d9 \u05de\u05b5\u05e2\u05b8\u05dc\u05b7\u05d9\u05b0\u05db\u05b4\u05d9. The article with a noun\nwith suffix, and the peculiar form of the 2 pers. pron. f., are found\nelsewhere in Jer. But I incline to correct further thus: \"What avail to\nMy beloved is her dealing (or sacrificing: \u05e2\u05e9\u05d4 2 Kings xvii. 32) in My\nhouse?\" \u05d5\u05d2\u05d5 \u05e7\u05d3\u05e9 \u05d5\u05d1\u05e9\u05e8 \u05d4\u05b8\u05e8\u05b7\u05d1\u05b4\u05bc\u05d9\u05dd \u05d4\u05b2\u05de\u05b4\u05d6\u05b0\u05d1\u05b0\u05bc\u05d7\u05d5\u05b9\u05ea. \"Can the many altars (ver.\n13) and hallowed flesh cause thine evil to pass away from thee (or pass\nthee by)?\" This seems very apposite to what precedes. The Hebrew, as it\nstands, cannot possibly mean what we read both in the A. V. and R. V.,\nnor indeed anything else.\n\n[44] Reading \u05d1\u05b0\u05bc\u05dc\u05b5\u05d7\u05d5\u05b9, with Hitzig, instead of \u05d1\u05b0\u05bc\u05dc\u05b7\u05d7\u05b0\u05de\u05d5\u05b9, which is\nmeaningless. Deut. xxxiv. 7; Ezek. xxi. 3. Perhaps it would be better\nto keep _all_ the letters, and point \u05d1\u05b0\u05bc\u05dc\u05b5\u05d7\u05b8\u05de\u05d5\u05b9, understanding \u05e2\u05b5\u05e5 as\ncollective, \"the trees.\"\n\n[45] Not a vocative: xx. 12, xvii. 10.\n\n[46] That \"the swelling\" or \"the pride of Jordan\" should rather be\nread \"the wilds\" or \"jungles of Jordan,\" is clear from xlix. 19; Zech.\nxi. 3; quoted by Hitzig. \u05d2\u05d0\u05d5\u05df means \"growth,\" \"overgrowth,\" among\nother things; and the Heb. phrase coincides with the \u1f38\u03ac\u03c1\u03b4\u03b7\u03bd \u03b4\u03c1\u03c5\u03bc\u1f78\u03c2 of\nJosephus (_Bell. Jud._, vii. 6, 5).\n\n[47] The form of the Heb. verbs implies the _certainty_ of the event.\nHitzig supposes that ver. 6 simply explains the expression \"land\nof peace\" in ver. 5. At Anathoth the prophet was at home; if he\n\"ran away\" (reading \u05d1\u05d5\u05e8\u05d7 \"fleest\" for \u05d1\u05d5\u05d8\u05d7 \"art confident\") there,\nwhat would he do, when he had gone forth as a \"sheep among wolves\"\n(St. Luke x. 3)? But I think it is much better to regard ver. 6 as\nexplaining the _whole_ of ver. 5 in the manner suggested above.\n\n[48] Or perhaps rather the holy land itself, as Hitzig suggested: Hos.\nix. 15.\n\n[49] Lit. \"Is my domain vultures, hyenas, to me?\" The dative expresses\nthe interest of the speaker in the fact (dat. ethic.). The Heb.\nterm \u05e6\u05d1\u05d5\u05e2 only occurs here. It is the Arabic _dhabu`_, \"hyena\" (so\nSept.). St. Jerome renders _avis discolor_. So the Targum: \"a strewn\"\n\"sprinkled,\" or \"spotted fowl\".\n\n[50] The references to \"birds of prey,\" \"beasts of the field,\" and\n\"spoilers\" (ver. 12), are interpreted by the phrase \"mine evil\nneighbours\" (ver. 14); and this constitutes a link between vv. 7-14\nand 14-17.\n\n[51] Such seems to be the best punctuation of the sentence. It\ninvolves the transfer of Athnach to \u05d0\u05db\u05dc\u05d4.\n\n[52] So the LXX. This agrees better with the context than \"So be ye\nashamed of _your_ fruits.\"\n\n[53] As Hitzig has observed, only a people, or a king, or a national\ngod, could be spoken of as a \"neighbour\" to the God of Israel.\n\n\n\n\n                                 VIII.\n\n                          _THE FALL OF PRIDE._\n\n                             JEREMIAH xiii.\n\n\nThis discourse is a sort of appendix to the preceding; as is indicated\nby its abrupt and brief beginning with the words \"Thus said Iahvah unto\nme,\" without the addition of any mark of time, or other determining\ncircumstance. It predicts captivity, in retribution for the pride and\ningratitude of the people; and thus suitably follows the closing section\nof the last address, which announces the coming deportation of Judah\nand her evil neighbours. The recurrence here (ver. 9) of the peculiar\nterm rendered \"swelling\" or \"pride\" in our English versions (ch. xii.\n5), points to the same conclusion. We may subdivide it thus: It presents\nus with (i) a symbolical action, or acted parable, with its moral and\napplication (vv. 1-11); (ii) a parabolic saying and its interpretation,\nwhich leads up to a pathetic appeal for penitence (vv. 12-17); (iii) a\nmessage to the sovereigns (vv. 18, 19); and (iv) a closing apostrophe to\nJerusalem--the gay and guilty capital, so soon to be made desolate for\nher abounding sins (vv. 20-27).\n\nIn the first of these four sections, we are told how the prophet was\nbidden of God to buy a linen girdle, and after wearing it for a time,\nto bury it in a cleft of the rock at a place whose very name might\nbe taken to symbolize the doom awaiting his people. A long while\nafterwards he was ordered to go and dig it up again, and found it\naltogether spoiled and useless. The significance of these proceedings\nis clearly enough explained. The relation between Israel and the God\nof Israel had been of the closest kind. Iahvah had chosen this people,\nand bound it to Himself by a covenant, as a man might bind a girdle\nabout his body; and as the girdle is an ornament of dress, so had the\nLord intended Israel to display His glory among men (ver. 11). But now\nthe girdle is rotten; and like that rotten girdle will He cause the\npride of Judah to rot and perish (vv. 9, 10).\n\nIt is natural to ask, whether Jeremiah really did as he relates;\nor whether the narrative about the girdle be simply a literary\ndevice intended to carry a lesson home to the dullest apprehension.\nIf the prophet's activity had been confined to the pen; if he had\nnot been wont to labour by word and deed for the attainment of his\npurposes; the latter alternative might be accepted. For mere readers,\na parabolic narrative might suffice to enforce his meaning. But\nJeremiah, who was all his life a man of action, probably did the\nthing he professes to have done, not in thought nor in word only,\nbut in deed and to the knowledge of certain competent witnesses.\nThere was nothing novel in this method of attracting attention, and\ngiving greater force and impressiveness to his prediction. The older\nprophets had often done the same kind of things, on the principle\nthat deeds may be more effective than words. What could have conveyed\na more vivid sense of the Divine intention, than the simple act of\nAhijah the Shilonite, when he suddenly caught away the new mantle of\nSolomon's officer, and rent it into twelve pieces, and said to the\nastonished courtier, \"Take thee ten pieces! for thus said Iahvah, the\nGod of Israel, Behold I am about to rend the kingdom out of the hand\nof Solomon, and will give the ten tribes to thee\"? (1 Kings xi. 29\n_sqq._) In like manner, when Ahab and Jehoshaphat, dressed in their\nrobes of state, sat enthroned in the gateway of Samaria, and \"all the\nprophets were prophesying before them\" about the issue of their joint\nexpedition to Ramoth-gilead, Zedekiah, the son of a Canaanitess--as\nthe writer is careful to add of this false prophet--\"made him horns\nof iron and said, Thus said Iahvah, With these shalt thou butt the\nArameans, until thou make an end of them\" (1 Kings xxii. 11). Isaiah,\nHosea, and Ezekiel, record similar actions of symbolical import.\nIsaiah for a time walked half-clad and barefoot, as a sign that the\nEgyptians and Ethiopians, upon whom Judah was inclined to lean,\nwould be led away captive, in this comfortless guise, by the king\nof Assyria (Isa. xx.). Such actions may be regarded as a further\ndevelopment of those significant gestures, with which men in what is\ncalled a state of nature are wont to give emphasis and precision to\ntheir spoken ideas. They may also be compared with the symbolism of\nancient law. \"An ancient conveyance,\" we are told, \"was not written\nbut acted. Gestures and words took the place of written technical\nphraseology, and any formula mispronounced, or symbolical act\nomitted, would have vitiated the proceeding as fatally as a material\nmistake in stating the uses or setting out the remainders would, two\nhundred years ago, have vitiated an English deed.\" (Maine, _Ancient\nLaw_, p. 276.) Actions of a purely symbolical nature surprise us,\nwhen we first encounter them in Religion or Law, but that is only\nbecause they are survivals. In the ages when they originated, they\nwere familiar occurrences in all transactions between man and man.\nAnd this general consideration tends to prove that those expositors\nare wrong who maintain that the prophets did not really perform the\nsymbolical actions of which they speak. Just as it is argued that the\nvisions which they describe, are merely a literary device; so the\nreality of these symbolical actions has needlessly enough been called\nin question. The learned Jews Abenezra and Maimonides in the twelfth\ncentury, and David Kimchi in the thirteenth, were the first to affirm\nthis opinion. Maimonides held that all such actions passed in vision\nbefore the prophets; a view which has found a modern advocate in\nHengstenberg: and St\u00e4udlin, in the last century, affirmed that they\nhad neither an objective nor a subjective reality, but were simply a\n\"literary device.\" This, however, is only true, if true at all, of the\ndeclining period of prophecy, as in the case of the visions. In the\nearlier period, while the prophets were still accustomed to an oral\ndelivery of their discourses, we may be quite sure that they suited\nthe action to the word in the way that they have themselves recorded;\nin order to stir the popular imagination, and to create a more vivid\nand lasting impression. The narratives of the historical books leave\nno doubt about the matter. But in later times, when spoken addresses\nhad for the most part become a thing of the past, and when prophets\npublished their convictions in manuscript, it is possible that they\nwere content with the description of symbolical doings, as a sort of\nparable, without any actual performance of them. Jeremiah's hiding\nhis girdle in a cleft of the rock at \"Euphrates\" has been regarded\nby some writers as an instance of such purely ideal symbolism. And\ncertainly it is difficult to suppose that the prophet made the long\nand arduous journey from Jerusalem to the Great River for such a\npurpose. It is, however, a highly probable conjecture that the place\nwhither he was directed to repair was much nearer home; the addition\nof a single letter to the name rendered \"Euphrates\" gives the far\npreferable reading \"Ephrath,\" that is to say, Bethlehem in Judah\n(Gen. xlviii. 7). Jeremiah may very well have buried his girdle at\nBethlehem, a place only five miles or so to the south of Jerusalem; a\nplace, moreover, where he would have no trouble in finding a \"cleft\nof the rock,\" which would hardly be the case upon the alluvial banks\nof the Euphrates. If not accidental, the difference may be due to\nthe intentional employment of an unusual form of the name, by way of\nhinting at the source whence the ruin of Judah was to flow. The enemy\n\"from the north\" (ver. 20) is of course the Chaldeans.\n\nThe mention of the queen-mother (ver. 18) along with the king appears to\npoint unmistakably to the reign of Jehoiachin or Jechoniah. The allusion\nis compared with the threat of ch. xxii. 26: \"I will cast thee out, and\nthy mother that bare thee into another country.\" Like Josiah, this king\nwas but eight years old when he began to reign (2 Chron. xxxvi. 9, after\nwhich 2 Kings xxiv. 8 must be corrected); and he had enjoyed the name\nof king only for the brief period of three months, when the thunderbolt\nfell, and Nebuchadrezzar began his first siege of Jerusalem. The\nboy-king can hardly have had much to do with the issue of affairs, when\n\"he and his mother and his servants and his princes and his eunuchs\"\nsurrendered the city, and were deported to Babylon, with ten thousand\nof the principal inhabitants (2 Kings xxiv. 12 _sqq._). The date of our\ndiscourse will thus be the beginning of the year B.C. 599, which was the\neighth year of Nebuchadrezzar (2 Kings xxiv. 12).\n\nIt is asserted, indeed, that the difficult verse 21 refers to the\nrevolt from Babylon as an accomplished fact; but this is by no means\nclear from the verse itself. _What wilt thou say_, demands the\nprophet, _when He shall appoint over thee--albeit, thou thyself hast\ninstructed them against thyself;--lovers to be thy head?_ The term\n\"lovers\" or \"lemans\" applies best to the foreign idols, who will one\nday repay the foolish attachment of Iahvah's people by enslaving it\n(cf. ch. iii. 4, where Iahvah himself is called the \"lover\" of Judah's\nyouthful days); and this question might as well have been asked in\nthe days of Josiah, as at any later period. At various times in the\npast Israel and Judah had courted the favour of foreign deities. Ahaz\nhad introduced Aramean and Assyrian novelties; Manasseh and Amon had\nrevived and aggravated his apostasy. Even Hezekiah had had friendly\ndealings with Babylon, and we must remember that in those times\nfriendly intercourse with a foreign people implied some recognition of\ntheir gods, which is probably the true account of Solomon's chapels\nfor Tyrian and other deities.\n\nThe queen of ver. 18 might conceivably be Jedidah, the mother of\nJosiah, for that king was only eight at his accession, and only\nthirty-nine at his death (2 Kings xxii. 1). And the message to the\nsovereigns (ver. 18) is not couched in terms of disrespect nor of\nreproach: it simply declares the imminence of overwhelming disaster,\nand bids them lay aside their royal pomp, and behave as mourners\nfor the coming woe. Such words might perhaps have been addressed to\nJosiah and his mother, by way of deepening the impression produced\nby the Book of the Law, and the rumoured invasion of the Scythians.\nBut the threat against \"the kings that sit on David's throne\" (ver.\n13) is hardly suitable on this supposition; and the ruthless tone of\nthis part of the address-_-I will dash them in pieces, one against\nanother, both the fathers and the sons together: I will not pity,\nnor spare, nor relent from destroying them_--considered along with\nthe emphatic prediction of an utter and entire captivity (ver. 19),\nseems to indicate a later period of the prophet's ministry, when the\nobduracy of the people had revealed more fully the hopelessness of his\nenterprise for their salvation. The mention of the enemy \"from the\nnorth\" will then be a reference to present circumstances of peril, as\ntriumphantly vindicating the prophet's former menaces of destruction\nfrom that quarter. The carnage of conquest and the certainty of\nexile are here threatened in the plainest and most direct style; but\nnothing is said by way of heightening the popular terror of the coming\ndestroyer. The prophet seems to take it for granted that the nature of\nthe evil which hangs over their heads, is well known to the people,\nand does not need to be dwelt upon or amplified with the lyric fervour\nof former utterances (see ch. iv., v. 15 _sqq._, vi. 22 _sqq._).\nThis appears quite natural, if we suppose that the first invasion of\nthe Chaldeans was now a thing of the past; and that the nation was\nawaiting in trembling uncertainty the consequences of Jehoiakim's\nbreach of faith with his Babylonian suzerain (2 Kings xxiv. i. 10).\nThe prophecy may therefore be assigned with some confidence to the\nshort reign of Jehoiachin, to which perhaps the short section, ch.\nx. 17-25, also belongs; a date which harmonizes better than any other\nwith the play on the name Euphrates in the opening of the chapter. It\nagrees, too, with the emphatic _Iahvah hath spoken!_ (ver. 15), which\nseems to be more than a mere assertion of the speaker's veracity, and\nto point rather to the fact that the course of events had reached a\ncrisis; that something had occurred in the political world, which\nsuggested imminent danger; that a black cloud was looming up on the\nnational horizon, and signalling unmistakably to the prophet's eye\nthe intention of Iahvah. What other view so well explains the solemn\ntone of warning, the vivid apprehension of danger, the beseeching\ntenderness, that give so peculiar a stamp to the three verses in which\nthe address passes from narrative and parable, to direct appeal?\n_Hear ye and give ear: be not proud: for Iahvah hath spoken! Give\nglory to Iahvah your God_--the glory of confession, of avowing your\nown guilt and His perfect righteousness (Josh. vii. 19; St. John ix.\n24); of recognising the due reward of your deeds in the destruction\nthat threatens you; the glory involved in the cry, \"God be merciful\nto me a sinner!\"--_Give glory to Iahvah your God, before the darkness\nfall, and before your feet stumble upon the twilight mountains; and\nye wait for dawn, and He make it deepest gloom, He turn it to utter\ndarkness._ The day was declining; the evening shadows were descending\nand deepening; soon the hapless people would be wandering bewildered\nin the twilight, and lost in the darkness, unless, ere it had become\ntoo late, they would yield their pride, and throw themselves upon the\npity of Him who \"maketh the seven stars and Orion, and turneth the\ndeepest gloom into the morning\" (Amos v. 8).\n\nThe verbal allusiveness of the opening section does not, according to\nOriental taste, diminish the solemnity of the speaker; on the contrary,\nit tends to deepen the impression produced by his words. And perhaps\nthere is a psychological reason for the fact, beyond the peculiar\npartiality of Oriental peoples for such displays of ingenuity. It is,\nat all events, remarkable that the greatest of all masters of human\nfeeling has not hesitated to make a dying prince express his bitter and\ndesponding thoughts in what may seem an artificial toying and trifling\nwith the suggestiveness of his own familiar name; and when the king\nasks: \"Can sick men play so nicely with their names?\" the answer is:\n\"No, misery makes sport to mock itself.\" (Rich. II., Act 2, Sc. i., 72\n_sqq._) The Greek tragedian, too, in the earnestness of bitter sport,\ncan find a prophecy in a name. \"_Who_ was for naming her thus, with\ntruth so entire? (Was it One whom we see not, wielding tongue happily\nwith full foresight of what was to be?) the Bride of Battles, fiercely\ncontested _Helen_: seeing that, in full accord with her name, _haler_ of\nships, _haler_ of men, _haler_ of cities, forth of the soft and precious\ntapestries away she sailed, under the gale of the giant West\" (\u00c6sch.,\n_Ag._, 681 _sqq._). And so, to Jeremiah's ear, Ephrath is prophetic\nof Euphrates, upon whose distant banks the glory of his people is to\nlanguish and decay. \"I to Ephrath, and you to Phrath!\" is his melancholy\ncry. Their doom is as certain as if it were the mere fulfilment of an\nold-world prophecy, crystallized long ages ago in a familiar name; a\nword of destiny fixed in this strange form, and bearing its solemn\nwitness from the outset of their history until now concerning the\ninevitable goal.\n\nThere is nothing so very surprising, as Ewald seems to have thought,\nin the suggestion that the _Perath_ of the Hebrew text may be the\nsame as Ephrath. But perhaps the valley and spring now called _Fur\u0101h_\n(or _Fur\u0101t_) which lies at about the same distance N.E. of Jerusalem,\nis the place intended by the prophet. The name, which means _fresh_\nor _sweet water_ is identical with the Arabic name of the Euphrates\n(_Fur\u0101t_, [Arabic: **]), which again is philologically identical\nwith the Hebrew Perath. It is obvious that this place would suit\nthe requirements of the text quite as well as the other, while the\ncoincidence of name enables us to dispense with the supposition of\nan unusual form or even a corruption of the original; but _Fur\u0101t_\nor _For\u0101h_ is not mentioned elsewhere in the Old Testament. The old\nversions send the prophet to the river Euphrates, which Jeremiah calls\nsimply \"The River\" in one place (ii. 18), and \"_The river_ of Perath\"\nin three others (xlvi. 2, 6, 10); while the rare \"Perath,\" without any\naddition, is only found in the second account of the Creation (Gen.\nii. 14), in 2 Chron. xxxv. 20, and in a passage of this book which\ndoes not belong, nor profess to belong, to Jeremiah (li. 63). We may,\ntherefore, conclude that \"Perath\" in the present passage means not the\ngreat river of that name, but a place near Jerusalem, although that\nplace was probably chosen with the intention, as above explained, of\nalluding to the Euphrates.\n\nI cannot assent to the opinion which regards this narrative of the\nspoiled girdle as founded upon some accidental experience of the\nprophet's life, in which he afterwards recognised a Divine lesson. The\nprecision of statement, and the nice adaptation of the details of the\nstory to the moral which the prophet wished to convey, rather indicate a\nsymbolical course of action, or what may be called an acted parable. The\nwhole proceeding appears to have been carefully thought out beforehand.\nThe intimate connexion between Iahvah and Israel is well symbolized by a\ngirdle--that part of an Eastern dress which \"cleaves to the loins of a\nman,\" that is, fits closest to the body, and is most securely attached\nthereto. And if the nations be represented by the rest of the apparel,\nas the girdle secures and keeps that in its place, we may see an\nimplication that Israel was intended to be the chain that bound mankind\nto God. The girdle was of _linen_, the material of the priestly dress,\nnot only because Jeremiah was a priest, but because Israel was called to\nbe \"a kingdom of priests,\" or the Priest among nations (Ex. xix. 6). The\nsignificance of the command to wear the girdle, but not to put it into\nwater, seems to be clear enough. The unwashed garment which the prophet\ncontinues to wear for a time represents the foulness of Israel; just as\nthe order to bury it at Perath indicates what Iahvah is about to do with\nHis polluted people.\n\nThe exposition begins with the words, _Thus will I mar the great pride\nof Judah and of Jerusalem_! The spiritual uncleanness of the nation\nconsisted in the proud self-will which turned a deaf ear to the warnings\nof Iahvah's prophets, and obstinately persisted in idolatry (ver. 10).\nIt continues: _For as the girdle cleaveth to the loins of a man, so made\nI the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah to cleave unto\nMe, saith Iahvah; that they might become to Me for a people, and for a\nname, and for a praise, and for an ornament_ (Ex. xxviii. 2). Then their\nbecoming morally unclean, through the defilements of sin, is briefly\nimplied in the words, _And they obeyed not_ (ver. 11).\n\nIt is not the pride of the tyrant king Jehoiakim that is here\nthreatened with destruction. It is the _national_ pride which had all\nalong evinced itself in rebellion against its heavenly King--_the\ngreat pride of Judah and Jerusalem_; and this pride, inasmuch as it\n\"trusted in man and made flesh its arm\" (xvii. 5), and boasted in a\ncarnal wisdom, and material strength and riches (ix. 23, xxi. 13), was\nto be brought low by the complete extinction of the national autonomy,\nand the reduction of a high-spirited and haughty race to the status of\nhumble dependents upon a heathen power.\n\n2. A parabolic saying follows, with its interpretation. _And say thou\nunto them this word: Thus said Iahvah, the God of Israel: Every jar\nis wont to be filled_ (or _shall be filled_) _with wine. And if they\nsay unto thee, Are we really not aware that every jar is wont to be\nfilled with wine? say thou unto them, Thus said Iahvah, Lo, I am about\nto fill all the inhabitants of this land, and the kings that sit for\nDavid upon his throne, and the priests and the prophets, and all the\ninhabitants of Jerusalem, with drunkenness; and I will dash them in\npieces against one another, and the fathers and the sons together,\nsaith Iahvah: I will not forbear nor spare nor pity, so as not to mar\nthem_ (cf. vv. 7, 9).\n\nThe individual members of the nation, of all ranks and classes, are\ncompared to earthenware jars, not \"skins,\" as the LXX. gives it, for\nthey are to be _dashed in pieces_, \"like a potter's vessel\" (Ps. ii. 9;\ncf. ver. 14).[54] Regarding them all as ripe for destruction, Jeremiah\nexclaims, \"Every jar is filled with wine,\" in the ordinary course\nof things; that is its destiny. His hearers answer with the mocking\nquestion, \"Do you suppose that we don't know that?\" They would, of\ncourse, be aware that a prophet's figure, however homely, covered an\ninner meaning of serious import; but derision was their favourite retort\nagainst unpopular truths (xvii. 15, xx. 7, 8). They would take it for\ngranted that the thing suggested was unfavourable, from their past\nexperience of Jeremiah. Their ill-timed banter is met by the instant\napplication of the figure. They, and _the kings_ then sitting on David's\nthrone, _i.e._, the young Jehoiachin and the queen-mother Nehushta (who\nprobably had all the authority if not the title of a regent), and the\npriests and prophets who fatally misled them by false teachings and\nfalse counsels, are the wine-jars intended, and the wine that is to fill\nthem is the wine of the wrath of God (Ps. lxxv. 8; Jer. xxv. 15; cf.\nli. 7; Rev. xvi. 19; Isa. xix. 14, 15). The effect is intoxication--a\nfatal bewilderment, a helpless lack of decision, an utter confusion\nand stupefaction of the faculties of wisdom and foresight, in the very\nmoment of supreme peril (cf. Isa. xxviii. 7; Ps. lx. 5). Like drunkards,\nthey will reel against and overthrow each other. The strong term _I will\ndash them in pieces_ is used, to indicate the deadly nature of their\nfall, and because the prophet has still in his mind the figure of the\nwine-jars, which were probably amphor\u00e6, pointed at the end, like those\ndepicted in Egyptian mural paintings, so that they could not stand\nupright without support. By their fall they are to be utterly \"marred\"\n(the term used of the girdle, ver. 9).\n\nBut even yet one way of escape lies open. It is to sacrifice their\npride, and yield to the will of Iahvah. _Hear ye, and give ear, be\nnot haughty! for Iahvah hath spoken: give ye to Iahvah your God the\nglory, before it grow dark_ (or _He cause darkness_), _and before your\nfeet stumble upon mountains of twilight; and_ _ye wait for the dawn,\nand He make it gloom, turning it to cloudiness!_ (Isa. v. 30, viii.\n20, 22; Amos viii. 9). It is very remarkable, that even now, when\nthe Chaldeans are actually in the country, and blockading the strong\nplaces of southern Judah (ver. 19), which was the usual preliminary\nto an advance upon Jerusalem itself (2 Chron. xii. 4, xxxii. 9;\nIsa. xxxvi. 1, 2), Jeremiah should still speak thus; assuring his\nfellow-citizens that confession and self-humiliation before their\noffended God might yet deliver them from the bitterest consequences\nof past misdoing. Iahvah had indeed spoken audibly enough, as it\nseemed to the prophet, in the calamities that had already befallen the\ncountry; these were an indication of more and worse to follow, unless\nthey should prove efficacious in leading the people to repentance. If\nthey failed, nothing would be left for the prophet but to mourn in\nsolitude over his country's ruin (ver. 17). But Jeremiah was fully\npersuaded that the Hand that had stricken could heal; the Power that\nhad brought the invaders into Judah, could cause them to \"return\nby the way that they had come\" (Isa. xxxvii. 34). Of course such a\nview is unintelligible from the standpoint of unbelief; but then the\nstandpoint of the prophets is faith.\n\n3. After this general appeal for penitence, the discourse turns\nto the two exalted persons whose position and interest in the\ncountry were the highest of all, the youthful king, and the empress\nor queen-mother. They are addressed in a tone which, though not\ndisrespectful, is certainly despairing. They are called upon, not so\nmuch to set the example of penitence (cf. Jonah iii. 6), as to take\nup the attitude of mourners (Job ii. 13; Isa. iii. 26; Lam. ii. 10;\nEzek. xxvi. 16) in presence of the public disasters. _Say thou to\nthe_ _king and to the empress, Sit ye low on the ground_! (lit. _make\nlow your seat_! cf. Isa. vii. for the construction) _for it is fallen\nfrom your heads[55]--your beautiful crown_! (Lam. v. 16). _The cities\nof the south are shut fast, and there is none that openeth_ (Josh. vi.\n1): _Judah is carried away captive all of her, she is wholly carried\naway_. There is no hope; it is vain to expect help; nothing is left\nbut to bemoan the irreparable. The siege of the great fortresses of\nthe south country and the sweeping away of the rural population were\nsure signs of what was coming upon Jerusalem. The embattled cities\nthemselves may be suggested by the fallen crown of beauty; Isaiah\ncalls Samaria \"the proud crown of the drunkards of Ephraim\" (Isa.\nxxviii. 1), and cities are commonly represented in ancient art by\nfemale figures wearing mural crowns. In that case, both verses are\naddressed to the sovereigns, and the second is exegetical of the first.\n\nAs already observed, there is here no censure, but only sorrowful\ndespair over the dark outlook. In the same way, Jeremiah's utterance\n(xxii. 20 _sqq._) about the fate of Jehoiachin is less a malediction\nthan a lament. And when we further consider his favourable judgment of\nthe first body of exiles, who were carried away with this monarch soon\nafter the time of the present oracle (chap. xxiv.), we may perhaps see\nreason to conclude that the surrender of Jerusalem to the Chaldeans on\nthis occasion was partly due to his advice. The narrative of Kings,\nhowever, is too brief to enable us to come to any certain decision about\nthe circumstances of Jehoiachin's submission (2 Kings xxiv. 10-12).\n\n4. From the sovereigns, the prophet turns to Jerusalem. _Lift up thine\neyes_ (_O Jerusalem_[56]), _and behold them that came from the north!\nWhere is the flock that was given to thee, thy beautiful sheep? What\nwilt thou say when He shall appoint over thee--nay, thou thyself hast\nspurred them against thyself!--lovers_ (iii. 4, xi. 19) _for head?\nWill not pangs take thee, as a woman in travail?_ Jerusalem sits upon\nher hills, as a beautiful shepherdess. The country towns and unwalled\nvillages lay about her, like a fair flock of sheep and goats entrusted\nto her care and keeping. But now these have been destroyed and their\npastures are made a silent solitude, and the destroyer is advancing\nagainst herself. What pangs of shame and terror will be hers, when\nshe recognises in the enemy triumphing over her grievous downfall the\nheathen \"friends\" whose love she had courted so long! Her sin is to be\nher scourge. She shall be made the thrall of her foreign lovers. Iahvah\nwill \"appoint them over her\" (xv. 3, li. 27); they will become the\n\"head,\" and she the \"tail\" (Lam. i. 5; Deut. xxviii. 44). Yet this will,\nin truth, be her own doing, not Iahvah's; she has herself \"accustomed\nthem to herself\" (x. 2), or \"instructed\" or \"spurred them on\" against\nherself (ii. 33, iv. 18). The revolt of Jehoiakim, his wicked breach\nof faith with Nebuchadrezzar, had turned friends to enemies (iv. 30).\nBut the chief reference seems to be more general--the continual craving\nof Judah for foreign alliances and foreign worships. _And if thou say\nin thine heart, \"Wherefore did these things befall me?\" through the\ngreatness of thy guilt were thy skirts uncovered, thine heels violated_\n(Nah. iii. 5) or _exposed. Will a Cushite change his skin, or a leopard\nhis spots? ye, too, are ye able to do good, O ye that are wont to do\nevil?_ If amid the sharp throes of suffering Jerusalem should still\nfail to recognise the moral cause of them (v. 19), she may be assured\nbeforehand that her unspeakable dishonour is the reward of her sins;\n_that_ is why \"the virgin daughter of Sion\" is surprised and ravished by\nthe foe (a common figure: Isa. xlvii. 1-3). Sin has become so ingrained\nin her, that it can no more be eradicated than the blackness of an\nAfrican skin, or the spots of a leopard's hide. The habit of sinning has\nbecome \"a second nature,\" and, like nature, is not to be expelled (cf.\nviii. 4-7).\n\nThe effect of use and wont in the moral sphere could hardly be expressed\nmore forcibly, and Jeremiah's comparison has become a proverb. Custom\nbinds us all in every department of life; it is only by enlisting this\nstrange influence upon the side of virtue, that we become virtuous.\nNeither virtue nor vice can be pronounced perfect, until the habit of\neither has become fixed and invariable. It is the tendency of habitual\naction of any kind to become automatic; and it is certain that sin\nmay attain such a mastery over the active powers of a man that its\nindulgence may become almost an unconscious exercise of his will, and\nquite a matter of course. But this fearful result of evil habits does\nnot excuse them at the bar of common sense, much less at the tribunal\nof God. The inveterate sinner, the man totally devoid of scruple,\nwhose conscience is, as it were, \"seared with a hot iron,\" is not on\nthat account excused by the common judgment of his kind; the feeling\nhe excites is not forbearance, but abhorrence; he is regarded not as\na poor victim of circumstances over which he has no control, but as\na monster of iniquity. And justly so; for if he has lost control of\nhis passions, if he is no longer master of himself, but the slave of\nvice, he is responsible for the long course of self-indulgence which\nhas made him what he is. The prophet's comparison cannot be applied in\nsupport of a doctrine of immoral fatalism. The very fact that he makes\nuse of it, implies that he did not intend it to be understood in such\na sense. \"_Will a Cushite change his skin, or a leopard his spots? Ye\nalso_--supposing such a change as that--_will be able to do good, O\nye that are taught_--trained, accustomed--_to do evil_!\" (perhaps the\npreferable rendering).\n\nNot only must we abstain from treating a rhetorical figure as a\ncolourless and rigorous proposition of mathematical science; not only\nmust we allow for the irony and the exaggeration of the preacher: we\nmust also remember his object, which is, if possible, to shock his\nhearers into a sense of their condition, and to awaken remorse and\nrepentance even at the eleventh hour. His last words (ver. 27) prove\nthat he did not believe this result, improbable as it was, to be\naltogether impossible. Unless some sense of sin had survived in their\nhearts, unless the terms, \"good\" and \"evil,\" had still retained a\nmeaning for his countrymen, Jeremiah would hardly have laboured still\nso strenuously to convince them of their sin.\n\nFor the present, when retribution is already at the doors, when already\nthe Divine wrath has visibly broken forth, his prevailing purpose is\nnot so much to suggest a way of escape, as to bring home to the heart\nand conscience of the nation the true meaning of the public calamities.\nThey are the consequence of habitual rebellion against God. _And I will\nscatter them like stubble passing away to_ (= before: cf. xix. 10) _the\nwind of the wilderness. This is thy lot_ (_fem._ thine, O Jerusalem),\n_the portion of thy measures_ (others: _lap_) _from Me, saith Iahvah;\nbecause thou forgattest Me, and didst trust in the Lie. And I also--I\nwill surely strip thy skirts to thy face, and thy shame shall be seen!_\n(Nah. iii. 5). _Thine adulteries and thy neighings, the foulness of thy\nfornications upon the hills in the field_ (iii. 2-6)--_I have seen thine\nabominations!_ (For the construction, compare Isa. i. 13.) _Woe unto\nthee, O Jerusalem! After how long yet wilt thou not become clean?_ (2\nKings v. 12, 13). That which lies before the citizens in the near future\nis not deliverance, but dispersion in foreign lands. The onset of the\nfoe will sweep them away, as the blast from the desert drives before it\nthe dry stubble of the corn-fields (cf. iv. 11, 12). This is no chance\ncalamity, but a recompense allotted and meted out by Iahvah to the\ncity that forgot Him and \"trusted in the Lie\" of Baal-worship and the\nassociated superstitions. The city that dealt shamefully in departing\nfrom her God, and dallying with foul idols, shall be put to shame by Him\nbefore all the world (ver. 26 recurring to the thought of ver. 22, but\nascribing the exposure directly to Iahvah). Woe--certain woe--awaits\nJerusalem; and it is but a faint and far-off glimmer of hope that is\nreflected in the final question, which is like a weary sigh: _After how\nlong yet wilt thou not become clean?_ How long must the fiery process\nof cleansing go on, ere thou be purged of thine inveterate sins? It is\na recognition that the punishment will not be exterminative; that God's\nchastisements of His people can no more fail at last than His promises;\nthat the triumph of a heathen power and the disappearance of Iahvah's\nIsrael from under His heaven cannot be the final phase of that long\neventful history which began with the call of Abraham.\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[54] Also xlviii. 12; Lam. iv. 2; Isa. xxx. 14.\n\n[55] LXX. \u1f00\u03c0\u1f78 \u03ba\u03b5\u03c6\u03b1\u03bb\u1fc6\u03c2 \u1f51\u03bc\u1ff6\u03bd.. Read \u05de\u05b5\u05e8\u05b8\u05d0\u05e9\u05b9\u05c1\u05ea\u05b5\u05d9\u05db\u05b6\u05dd = \u05de\u05b5\u05e8\u05b8\u05d0\u05e9\u05c1\u05d9\u05db\u05b6\u05dd; and\ncf. Assyrian _re\u0161u_, plur. _re\u0161\u00eatu_ (= \u05e8\u05d0\u05e9\u05d5\u05ea).\n\n[56] For \u05e2\u05d9\u05e0\u05d9\u05db\u05dd we might read, with LXX., Vat., \u05dd(\u05d9\u05e8\u05d5\u05e9\u05dc) \u05e2\u05d9\u05e0\u05d9\u05da. The\nArabic has Israel. But Vulg. and Targ. agree with the Q'r\u00ea, and take the\nverbs as plur.: \"Lift ye up your eyes and see who are coming from the\nnorth.\" The sing. fem. is to be preferred as the more difficult reading,\nand on account of ver. 21, where it recurs. Jerusalem is addressed\n(ver. 27), and \"_your_ eyes,\" plur. masc. pron., may be justified as\nindicating the _collective_ sense of the fem. sing. The population of\nthe capital is meant. Cf. Mic. i. 11; Jer. xxi. 13, 14. In ver. 23, the\nmasc. plur. appears again, the figure for a moment being dropped.\n\n\n\n\n                                  IX.\n\n               _THE DROUGHT AND ITS MORAL IMPLICATIONS._\n\n                      JEREMIAH xiv., xv. (xvii.?).\n\n\nVarious opinions have been expressed about the division of these\nchapters. They have been cut up into short sections, supposed to\nbe more or less independent of each other;[57] and they have been\nregarded as constituting a well-organized whole, at least so far as\nthe eighteenth verse of chap. xvii. The truth may lie between these\nextremes. Chapters xiv., xv. certainly hang together; for in them\nthe prophet represents himself as twice interceding with Iahvah on\nbehalf of the people, and twice receiving a refusal of his petition\n(xiv. 1-xv. 4), the latter reply being sterner and more decisive than\nthe first. The occasion was a long period of drought, involving much\nprivation for man and beast. The connexion between the parts of this\nfirst portion of the discourse is clear enough. The prophet prays\nfor his people, and God answers that He has rejected them, and that\nintercession is futile. Thereupon, Jeremiah throws the blame of the\nnational sins upon the false prophets; and the answer is that both\nthe people and their false guides will perish. The prophet then\nsoliloquises upon his own hard fate as a herald of evil tidings, and\nreceives directions for his own personal guidance in this crisis of\naffairs (xv. 10-xvi. 9). There is a pause but no real break at the\nend of chap. xv. The next chapter resumes the subject of directions\npersonally affecting the prophet himself; and the discourse is then\ncontinuous so far as xvii. 18, although, naturally enough, it is\nbroken here and there by pauses of considerable duration, marking\ntransitions of thought, and progress in the argument.\n\nThe heading of the entire piece is marked in the original by a\npeculiar inversion of terms, which meets us again, chap. xlvi. 1,\nxlvii. 1, xlix. 34, but which, in spite of this recurrence, wears a\nrather suspicious look. We might render it thus: \"What fell as a word\nof Iahvah to Jeremiah, on account of the droughts\" (the plural is\nintensive, or it signifies the long continuance of the trouble--as\nif one rainless period followed upon another). Whether or not the\nsingular order of the words be authentic, the recurrence at chap.\nxvii. 8 of the remarkable term for \"drought\" (Heb. _bacc\u0330\u00f3reth_ of\nwhich _bac\u0330c\u0330ar\u00f3th_ here is plur.) favours the view that that chapter\nis an integral portion of the present discourse. The exordium (xiv.\n1-9) is a poetical sketch of the miseries of man and beast, closing\nwith a beautiful prayer. It has been said that this is not \"a word\nof Iahvah to Jeremiah,\" but rather the reverse. If we stick to the\nletter, this no doubt is the case; but, as we have seen in former\ndiscourses, the phrase \"Iahvah's word\" meant in prophetic use very\nmuch more than a direct message from God, or a prediction uttered at\nthe Divine instigation. Here, as elsewhere, the prophet evidently\nregards the course of his own religious reflexion as guided by Him\nwho \"fashioneth the hearts of men,\" and \"knoweth their thoughts long\nbefore;\" and if the question had suggested itself, he would certainly\nhave referred his own poetic powers--the tenderness of his pity, the\nvividness of his apprehension, the force of his passion,--to the\ninspiration of the Lord who had called and consecrated him from the\nbirth, to speak in His Name.\n\nThere lies at the heart of many of us a feeling, which has lurked\nthere, more or less without our cognisance, ever since the childish\ndays when the Old Testament was read at the mother's knee, and\nexplained and understood in a manner proportioned to the faculties of\nchildhood. When we hear the phrase \"The Lord spake,\" we instinctively\nthink, if we think at all, of an actual voice knocking sensibly at the\ndoor of the outward ear. It was not so; nor did the sacred writer mean\nit so. A knowledge of Hebrew idiom--the modes of expression usual and\npossible in that ancient speech--assures us that this statement, so\nstartlingly direct in its unadorned simplicity, was the accepted mode\nof conveying a meaning which we, in our more complex and artificial\nidioms, would convey by the use of a multitude of words, in terms\nfar more abstract, in language destitute of all that colour of life\nand reality which stamps the idiom of the Bible. It is as though the\nDivine lay farther off from us moderns; as though the marvellous\nprogress of all that new knowledge of the measureless magnitude of the\nworld, of the power and complexity of its machinery, of the surpassing\nsubtlety and the matchless perfection of its laws and processes,\nhad become an impassable barrier, at least an impenetrable veil,\nbetween our minds and God. We have lost the sense of His nearness,\nof His immediacy, so to speak; because we have gained, and are ever\nintensifying, a sense of the nearness of the world with which He\nenvirons us. Hence, when we speak of Him, we naturally cast about\neither for poetical phrases and figures, which must always be more\nor less vague and undefined, or for highly abstract expressions,\nwhich may suggest scientific exactness, but are, in truth, scholastic\nformul\u00e6, dry as the dust of the desert, untouched by the breath of\nlife; and even if they affirm a Person, destitute of all those living\ncharacters by which we instinctively and without effort recognise\nPersonality. We make only a conventional use of the language of the\nsacred writers, of the prophets and prophetic historians, of the\npsalmists, and the legalists of the Old Testament; the language which\nis the native expression of a peculiar intensity of religious faith,\nrealizing the Unseen as the Actual and, in truth, the only Real.\n\n    \"Judah mourneth and the gates thereof languish,\n     They are clad in black down to the ground;\n     And the cry of Jerusalem hath gone up.\n     And their nobles have sent their lesser folk for water;\n     They have been to the pits, and found no water:\n     Their vessels have come back empty;\n     Ashamed and confounded, they have covered their heads.\n\n    \"Because the ground is chapt, for there hath not been rain in the\n          land,\n     The plowmen are ashamed, they have covered their heads.\n\n    \"For even the hind in the field hath yeaned and forsaken her fawn,\n     For there is no grass.\n     And the wild asses stand on the bare fells;\n     They snuff the wind like jackals;\n     Their eyes fail, for there is no pasturage.\n\n    \"If our sins have answered against us,\n     Iahweh, act for Thine own Name sake;\n     For our relapses are many;\n     Against Thee have we trespassed.\n\n    \"Hope of Israel, that savest him in time of trouble,\n     Wherefore wilt Thou be as a stranger in the land,\n     And as a traveller that leaveth the road but for the night?\n     Wherefore wilt Thou be as a man o'erpowered with sleep,\n     As a warrior that cannot rescue?\n\n    \"Sith Thou art in our midst, O Iahvah,\n     And Thy Name upon us hath been called;\n     Cast us not down!\"\n\nHow beautiful both plaint and prayer! The simple description of the\neffects of the drought is as lifelike and impressive as a good picture.\nThe whole country is stricken; the city-gates, the place of common\nresort, where the citizens meet for business and for conversation, are\ngloomy with knots of mourners robed in black from head to foot, or,\nas the Hebrew may also imply, sitting on the ground, in the garb and\nposture of desolation (Lam. ii. 10, iii. 28). The magnates of Jerusalem\nsend out their retainers to find water; and we see them returning with\nempty vessels, their heads muffled in their cloaks, in sign of grief\nat the failure of their errand (cf. 1 Kings xviii. 5, 6). The parched\nground everywhere gapes with fissures;[58] the yeomen go about with\ncovered heads in deepest dejection. The distress is universal, and\naffects not man only, but the brute creation. Even the gentle hind, that\nproverb of maternal tenderness, is driven by sorest need to forsake the\nfruit of her hard travail; her starved dugs are dry, and she flies from\nher helpless offspring. The wild asses of the desert, fleet, beautiful\nand keen-eyed creatures, scan the withered landscape from the naked\ncliffs, and snuff the wind, like jackals scenting prey; but neither\nsight nor smell suggests relief. There is no moisture in the air, no\nglimpse of pasture in the wide sultry land.\n\nThe prayer is a humble confession of sin, an unreserved admission that\nthe woes of man evince the righteousness of God. Unlike certain modern\npoets, who bewail the sorrows of the world as the mere infliction of\na harsh and arbitrary and inevitable Destiny, Jeremiah makes no doubt\nthat human sufferings are due to the working of Divine justice.\n\"Our sins have answered against our pleas at Thy judgment seat; our\nrelapses are many; against Thee have we trespassed,\" against Thee,\nthe sovereign Disposer of events, the Source of all that happens and\nall that is. If this be so, what plea is left? None, but that appeal\nto the NAME of Iahvah, with which the prayer begins and ends. \"Act\nfor Thine own Name sake.\"... \"Thy Name upon us hath been called.\" Act\nfor Thine own honour, that is, for the honour of Mercy, Compassion,\nTruth, Goodness; which Thou hast revealed Thyself to be, and which\nare parts of Thy glorious Name (Ex. xxxiv. 6). Pity the wretched, and\npardon the guilty; for so will Thy glory increase amongst men; so will\nman learn that the relentings of love are diviner affections than the\nruthlessness of wrath and the cravings of vengeance.\n\nThere is also a touching appeal to the past. The very name by which\nIsrael was sometimes designated as \"the people of Iahvah,\" just as\nMoab was known by the name of its god as \"the people of Chemosh\" (Num.\nxxi. 29), is alleged as proof that the nation has an interest in the\ncompassion of Him whose name it bears; and it is implied that, since\nthe world knows Israel as Iahvah's people, it will not be for Iahvah's\nhonour that this people should be suffered to perish in their sins.\nIsrael had thus, from the outset of its history, been associated and\nidentified with Iahvah; however ill the true nature of the tie has been\nunderstood, however unworthily the relation has been conceived by the\npopular mind, however little the obligations involved in the call of\ntheir fathers have been recognised and appreciated. God must be true,\nthough man be false. There is no weakness, no caprice, no vacillation\nin God. In bygone \"times of trouble\" the \"Hope of Israel\" had saved\nIsrael over and over again; it was a truth admitted by all--even by the\nprophet's enemies. Surely then He will save His people once again, and\nvindicate His Name of Saviour. Surely He who has dwelt in their midst\nso many changeful centuries, will not now behold their trouble with\nthe lukewarm feeling of an alien dwelling amongst them for a time, but\nunconnected with them by ties of blood and kin and common country; or\nwith the indifference of the traveller who is but coldly affected by the\ncalamities of a place where he has only lodged one night. Surely the\nentire past shews that it would be utterly inconsistent for Iahvah to\nappear now as a man so buried in sleep that He cannot be roused to save\nHis friends from imminent destruction (cf. 1 Kings xviii. 27) (St. Mark\niv. 38). He who had borne Israel and carried him as a tender nurseling\nall the days of old (Isa. lxiii. 9) could hardly without changing His\nown unchangeable Name, His character and purposes, cast down His people\nand forsake them at last.\n\nSuch is the drift of the prophet's first prayer. To this apparently\nunanswerable argument his religious meditation upon the present\ndistress has brought him. But presently the thought returns with added\nforce, with a sense of utmost certitude, with a conviction that it is\nIahvah's Word, that the people have wrought out their own affliction,\nthat misery is the hire of sin.\n\n    \"Thus hath Iahvah said of this people:\n     Even so have they loved to wander,\n     Their feet they have not refrained;\n     And as for Iahvah, He accepteth them not;\n\n    \"He now remembereth their guilt,\n     And visiteth their trespasses.\n     And Iahvah said unto me,\n     Intercede thou not for this people for good!\n     If they fast, I will not hearken unto their cry;\n     And if they offer whole-offering and oblation,\n     I will not accept their persons;\n     But by the sword, the famine, and the plague, will I consume them.\n\n    \"And I said, Ah, Lord Iahvah!\n     Behold the prophets say to them, Ye shall not see sword,\n     And famine shall not befall you;\n     For peace and permanence will I give you in this place.\n\n    \"And Iahvah said unto me:\n     Falsehood it is that the prophets prophesy in My Name.\n     I sent them not, and I charged them not, and I spake not unto them.\n     A vision of falsehood and jugglery and nothingness, and the guile\n          of their own heart,\n     They, for their part, prophesy you.\n\n    \"Therefore thus said Iahvah:\n     Concerning the prophets who prophesy in My Name, albeit I sent\n          them not,\n     And of themselves say, Sword and famine there shall not be in\n          this land;\n     By the sword and by the famine shall those prophets be fordone.\n     And the people to whom they prophesy shall lie thrown out in the\n          streets of Jerusalem,\n     Because of the famine and the sword,\n     With none to bury them,--\n     Themselves, their wives, and their sons and their daughters:\n     And I will pour upon them their own evil.\n     And thou shalt say unto them this word:\n     Let mine eyes run down with tears, night and day,\n     And let them not tire;\n     For with mighty breach is broken\n     The virgin daughter of my people--\n     With a very grievous blow.\n     If I go forth into the field,\n     Then behold! the slain of the sword;\n     And if I enter the city,\n     Then behold! the pinings of famine:\n     For both prophet and priest go trafficking about the land,\n     And understand not.\"[59]\n\nIt has been supposed that this whole section is misplaced, and that\nit would properly follow the close of chap. xiii. The supposition is\ndue to a misapprehension of the force of the pregnant particle which\nintroduces the reply of Iahvah to the prophet's intercession. \"_Even\nso_ have they loved to wander;\" _even so_, as is naturally implied by\nthe severity of the punishment of which thou complainest. The dearth\nis prolonged; the distress is widespread and grievous. _So_ prolonged,\n_so_ grievous, _so_ universal, has been their rebellion against Me.\nThe penalty corresponds to the offence. It is really \"their own evil\"\nthat is being poured out upon their guilty heads (ver. 16; cf. iv.\n18). Iahvah cannot accept them in their sin; the long drought is a\ntoken that their guilt is before His mind, unrepented, unatoned.\nNeither the supplications of another, nor their own fasts and\nsacrifices, avail to avert the visitation. So long as the disposition\nof the heart remains unaltered; so long as man hates, not his darling\nsins, but the penalties they entail, it is idle to seek to propitiate\nHeaven by such means as these. And not only so. The droughts are but\na foretaste of worse evils to come; _by the sword, the famine, and\nthe plague will I consume them_. The condition is understood, If they\nrepent and amend not. This is implied by the prophet's seeking to\npalliate the national guilt, as he proceeds to do, by the suggestion\nthat the people are more sinned against than sinning, deluded as they\nare by false prophets; as also by the renewal of his intercession\n(ver. 19). Had he been aware in his inmost heart that an irreversible\nsentence had gone forth against his people, would he have been likely\nto think either excuses or intercessions availing? Indeed, however\nabsolute the threats of the prophetic preachers may sound, they must,\nas a rule, be qualified by this limitation, which, whether expressed\nor not, is inseparable from the object of their discourses, which was\nthe moral amendment of those who heard them.\n\nOf the \"false,\" that is, the common run of prophets, who were in\nleague with the venal priesthood of the time, and no less worldly and\nself-seeking than their allies, we note that, as usual, they foretell\nwhat the people wishes to hear; \"Peace (Prosperity), and Permanence,\"\nis the burden of their oracles. They knew that invectives against\nprevailing vices, and denunciations of national follies, and forecasts\nof approaching ruin, were unlikely means of winning popularity and\na substantial harvest of offerings. At the same time, like other\nfalse teachers, they knew how to veil their errors under the mask of\ntruth; or rather, they were themselves deluded by their own greed, and\nblinded by their covetousness to the plain teaching of events. They\nmight base their doctrine of \"Peace and Permanence in this place!\"\nupon those utterances of the great Isaiah, which had been so signally\nverified in the lifetime of the seer himself; but their keen pursuit\nof selfish ends, their moral degradation, caused them to shut their\neyes to everything else in his teachings, and, like his contemporaries,\nthey \"regarded not the work of Iahvah, nor the operation of His hand.\"\nJeremiah accuses them of \"lying visions;\" visions, as he explains,\nwhich were the outcome of magical ceremonies, by aid of which, perhaps,\nthey partially deluded themselves, before deluding others, but which\nwere, none the less, \"things of nought,\" devoid of all substance, and\nmere fictions of a deceitful and self-deceiving mind (ver. 14). He\nexpressly declares that they have no mission; in other words, their\naction is not due to the overpowering sense of a higher call, but is\ninspired by purely ulterior considerations of worldly gain and policy.\nThey prophesy to order; to the order of man, not of God. If they visit\nthe country districts, it is with no spiritual end in view; priest and\nprophet alike make a trade of their sacred profession, and, immersed in\ntheir sordid pursuits, have no eye for truth, and no perception of the\ndangers hovering over their country. Their misconduct and misdirection\nof affairs are certain to bring destruction upon themselves and upon\nthose whom they mislead. War and its attendant famine will devour them\nall.\n\nBut the day of grace being past, nothing is left for the prophet\nhimself but to bewail the ruin of his people (ver. 17). He will betake\nhimself to weeping, since praying and preaching are vain. The words\nwhich announce this resolve may portray a sorrowful experience, or\nthey may depict the future as though it were already present (vv. 17,\n18). The latter interpretation would suit ver. 17, but hardly the\nfollowing verse, with its references to \"going forth into the field,\"\nand \"entering into the city.\" The way in which these specific actions\nare mentioned seems to imply some present or recent calamity; and there\nis apparently no reason why we may not suppose that the passage was\nwritten at the disastrous close of the reign of Josiah, in the troublous\ninterval of three months, when Jehoahaz was nominal king in Jerusalem,\nbut the Egyptian arms were probably ravaging the country, and striking\nterror into the hearts of the people. In such a time of confusion and\nbloodshed, tillage would be neglected, and famine would naturally\nfollow; and these evils would be greatly aggravated by drought. The only\nother period which suits is the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim;[60]\nbut the former seems rather to be indicated by chap. xv. 6-9.\n\nHeartbroken at the sight of the miseries of his country, the prophet\nonce more approaches the eternal throne. His despairing mood is not so\ndeep and dark as to drown his faith in God. He refuses to believe the\nutter rejection of Judah, the revocation of the covenant. (The measure\nis Pentameter).\n\n    \"Hast Thou indeed cast off Judah?\n     Hath Thy soul revolted from Sion?\n     Why hast Thou smitten us, past healing?\n     Waiting for peace, and no good came,\n     For a time of healing, and behold terror!\n\n    \"We know, Iahvah, our wickedness, our fathers' guilt;\n     For we have trespassed toward Thee.\n     Scorn Thou not, for Thy Name sake,\n     Disgrace not Thy glorious throne!\n     Remember, break not, Thy covenant with us!\n\n    \"Are there, in sooth, among the Nothings of the nations senders of\n          rain?\n     And is it the heavens that bestow the showers?\n     Is it not Thou, Iahvah our God?\n     And we wait for Thee,\n     For Thou it was that madest the world.\"[61]\n\nTo all this the Divine answer is stern and decisive. _And Iahvah said\nunto me: If Moses and Samuel were to stand_ (pleading) _before Me, My\nmind would not be towards this people: send them away from before Me_\n(dismiss them from My Presence), _that they may go forth_! After ages\nremembered Jeremiah as a mighty intercessor, and the brave Maccabeus\ncould see him in his dream as a grey-haired man \"exceeding glorious\"\nand \"of a wonderful and excellent majesty,\" who \"prayed much for the\npeople and for the holy city\" (2 Macc. xv. 14). And the beauty of\nthe prayers which lie like scattered pearls of faith and love among\nthe prophet's soliloquies is evident at a glance. But here Jeremiah\nhimself is conscious that his prayers are unavailing; and that the\noffice to which God has called him is rather that of pronouncing\njudgment than of interceding for mercy. Even a Moses or a Samuel,\nthe mighty intercessors of the old heroic times, whose pleadings had\nbeen irresistible with God, would now plead in vain (Ex. xvii. 11\n_sqq._, xxxii. 11 _sqq._; Num. xiv. 13 _sqq._ for Moses; 1 Sam. vii.\n9 _sqq._, xii. 16 _sqq._; Ps. xcix. 6; Ecclus. xlvi. 16 _sqq._ for\nSamuel). The day of grace has gone, and the day of doom is come. His\nsad function is to \"send them away\" or \"let them go\" from Iahvah's\nPresence; to pronounce the decree of their banishment from the holy\nland where His temple is, and where they have been wont to \"see His\nface.\" The main part of his commission was \"to root out, and to pull\ndown, and to destroy, and to overthrow\" (i. 10). _And if they say unto\nthee, Whither are we to go forth? Thou shalt say unto them, thus hath\nIahvah said: They that belong to the Death_ (_i.e._ the Plague; as\nthe Black Death was spoken of in medieval Europe) _to death; and they\nthat belong to_ _the Sword, to the sword; and they that belong to the\nFamine, to famine; and they that belong to Captivity, to captivity!_\nThe people were to \"go forth\" out of their own land, which was, as it\nwere, the Presence-chamber of Iahvah, just as they had at the outset\nof their history gone forth out of Egypt, to take possession of it.\nThe words convey a sentence of exile, though they do not indicate the\nplace of banishment. The menace of woe is as general in its terms as\nthat lurid passage of the Book of the Law upon which it appears to\nbe founded (Deut. xxviii. 21-26). The time for the accomplishment of\nthose terrible threatenings \"is nigh, even at the doors.\" On the other\nhand, Ezekiel's \"four sore judgments\" (Ezek. xiv. 21) were suggested\nby this passage of Jeremiah.\n\nThe prophet avoids naming the actual destination of the captive\npeople, because captivity is only one element in their punishment. The\nhorrors of war--sieges and slaughters and pestilence and famine--must\ncome first. In what follows, the intensity of these horrors is\nrealized in a single touch. The slain are left unburied, a prey to\nthe birds and beasts. The elaborate care of the ancients in the\nprovision of honourable resting places for the dead is a measure of\nthe extremity thus indicated. In accordance with the feeling of his\nage, the prophet ranks the dogs and vultures and hyenas that drag and\ndisfigure and devour the corpses of the slain, as three \"kinds\" of\nevil equally appalling with the sword that slays. The same feeling led\nour Spenser to write:\n\n                           \"To spoil the dead of weed\n          Is sacrilege, and doth all sins exceed.\"\n\nAnd the destruction of Moab is decreed by the earlier prophet Amos,\n\"because he burned the bones of the king of Edom into lime,\" thus\nviolating a law universally recognised as binding upon the conscience\nof nations (Amos ii. 1). Cf. also Gen. xxiii.\n\nThus death itself was not to be a sufficient expiation for the\ninveterate guilt of the nation. Judgment was to pursue them even after\ndeath. But the prophet's vision does not penetrate beyond this present\nscene. With the visible world, so far as he is aware, the punishment\nterminates. He gives no hint here, nor elsewhere, of any further\npenalties awaiting individual sinners in the unseen world. The scope\nof his prophecy indeed is almost purely national, and limited to the\npresent life. It is one of the recognised conditions of Old Testament\nreligious thought.\n\nAnd the ruin of the people is the retribution reserved for what Manasseh\ndid in Jerusalem. To the prophet, as to the author of the book of\nKings, who wrote doubtless under the influence of his words, the guilt\ncontracted by Judah under that wicked king was unpardonable. But it\nwould convey a false impression if we left the matter here; for the\nwhole course of his after-preaching--his exhortations and promises,\nas well as his threats--prove that Jeremiah did not suppose that the\nnation could not be saved by genuine repentance and permanent amendment.\nWhat he intends rather to affirm is that the sins of the fathers will\nbe visited upon children, who are partakers of their sins. It is the\ndoctrine of St. Matt. xxiii. 29 _sqq._; a doctrine which is not merely a\ntheological opinion, but a matter of historical observation.\n\n_And I will set over them four kinds--It is an oracle of Iahvah--the\nsword to slay, and the dogs to hale, and the fowls of the air, and the\nbeasts of the earth, to devour and to destroy. And I will make them\na sport_ _for all the realms of earth; on account of Manasseh ben\nHezekiah king of Judah, for what he did in Jerusalem._\n\nJerusalem!--the mention of that magical name touches another chord in\nthe prophet's soul; and the fierce tones of his oracle of doom change\ninto a dirge-like strain of pity without hope.\n\n    \"For who will have compassion on Thee, O Jerusalem?\n     And who will yield thee comfort?\n     And who will turn aside to ask of thy welfare?\n     'Twas thou that rejectedst Me (it is Iahvah's word);\n     Backward wouldst thou wend:\n     So I stretched forth My hand against thee and destroyed thee;\n     I wearied of relenting.\n     And I winnowed them with a fan in the gates of the land;\n     I bereaved, I undid My people:\n     Yet they returned not from their own ways.\n     His widows outnumbered before Me the sand of seas:\n     I brought them against the Mother of Warriors a harrier at high\n          noon;\n     I threw upon her suddenly anguish and horrors.\n     She that had borne seven sons did pine away;\n     She breath\u00e8d out her soul.\n     Her sun did set, while it yet was day;\n     He blushed and paled.\n     But their remnant will I give to the sword\n     Before their foes: (It is Iahvah's word).\"\n\nThe fate of Jerusalem would strike the nations dumb with horror; it\nwould not inspire pity, for man would recognise that it was absolutely\njust. Or perhaps the thought rather is, In proving false to Me,\nthou wert false to thine only friend: Me thou hast estranged by thy\nfaithlessness; and from the envious rivals, who beset thee on every\nside, thou canst expect nothing but rejoicing at thy downfall (Ps.\ncxxxvi.; Lam. ii. 15-17; Obad. 10 _sqq._). The peculiar solitariness\nof Israel among the nations (Num. xxiii. 9) aggravated the anguish of\nher overthrow.\n\nIn what follows, the dreadful past appears as a prophecy of the yet\nmore terrible future. The poet-seer's pathetic monody moralizes the\nlost battle of Megiddo--that fatal day when the sun of Judah set in\nwhat seemed the high day of her prosperity, and all the glory and the\npromise of good king Josiah vanished like a dream in sudden darkness.\nMen might think--doubtless Jeremiah thought, in the first moments of\ndespair, when the news of that overwhelming disaster was brought to\nJerusalem, with the corpse of the good king, the dead hope of the\nnation--that this crushing blow was proof that Iahvah had rejected His\npeople, in the exercise of a sovereign caprice, and without reference\nto their own attitude towards Him. But, says or chants the prophet, in\nsolemn rhythmic utterance,\n\n    \"'Twas thou that rejectedst Me;\n     Backward wouldst thou wend:\n     So I stretched forth My hand against thee, and wrought thee hurt;\n     I wearied of relenting.\"\n\nThe cup of national iniquity was full, and its baleful contents\noverflowed in a devastating flood. \"In the gates of the land\"--the\npoint on the north-west frontier where the armies met--Iahvah\n\"winnowed His people with a fan,\" separating those who were doomed to\nfall from those who were to survive, as the winnowing fan separates\nthe chaff from the wheat in the threshing-floor. There He \"bereaved\"\nthe nation of their dearest hope, \"the breath of their nostrils, the\nLord's Anointed\" (Lam. iv. 20); there He multiplied their widows. And\nafter the lost battle He brought the victor in hot haste against\nthe \"Mother\" of the fallen warriors, the ill-fated city, Jerusalem,\nto wreak vengeance upon her for her ill-timed opposition. But, for\nall this bitter fruit of their evil doings, the people \"turned not\nback from their own ways\"; and therefore the strophe of lamentation\ncloses with a threat of utter extermination: \"Their remnant\"--the poor\nsurvival of these fierce storms--\"Their remnant will I give to the\nsword before their foes.\"[62]\n\nIf the thirteenth and fourteenth verses be not a mere interpolation\nin this chapter (see xvii. 3, 4), their proper place would seem to be\nhere, as continuing and amplifying the sentence upon the residue of\nthe people. The text is unquestionably corrupt, and must be amended by\nhelp of the other passage, where it is partially repeated. The twelfth\nverse may be read thus:\n\n    \"Thy wealth and thy treasures will I make a prey,\n     For the sin of thine high places in all thy borders.\"[63]\n\nThen the fourteenth verse follows, naturally enough, with an\nannouncement of the Exile:\n\n    \"And I will enthral thee to thy foes\n     In a land thou knowest not:\n     'For a fire is kindled in Mine anger,'\n     That shall burn for evermore!\"[64]\n\nThe prophet has now fulfilled his function of judge by pronouncing\nupon his people the extreme penalty of the law. His strong perception\nof the national guilt and of the righteousness of God has left him\nno choice in the matter. But how little this duty of condemnation\naccorded with his own individual feeling as a man and a citizen is\nclear from the passionate outbreak of the succeeding strophe.\n\n    \"Woe's me, my mother,\" he exclaims, \"that thou barest me,\n     A man of strife and a man of contention to all the country!\n     Neither lender nor borrower have I been;\n     Yet all of them do curse me.\"\n\nA desperately bitter tone, evincing the anguish of a man wounded to\nthe heart by the sense of fruitless endeavour and unjust hatred. He\nhad done his utmost to save his country, and his reward was universal\ndetestation. His innocence and integrity were requited with the\nodium of the pitiless creditor who enslaves his helpless victim, and\nappropriates his all; or the fraudulent borrower who repays a too\nready confidence with ruin.[65]\n\nThe next two verses answer this burst of grief and despair:\n\n    \"Said Iahvah, Thine oppression shall be for good;\n     I will make the foe thy suppliant in time of evil and in time of\n          distress.\n     Can one break iron,\n     Iron from the north, and brass?\"\n\nIn other words, faith counsels patience, and assures the prophet\nthat all things work together for good to them that love God. The\nwrongs and bitter treatment which he now endures will only enchance\nhis triumph, when the truth of his testimony is at last confirmed\nby events, and they who now scoff at his message, come humbly to\nbeseech his prayers. The closing lines refer, with grave irony, to\nthat unflinching firmness, that inflexible resolution, which, as a\nmessenger of God, he was called upon to maintain. He is reminded of\nwhat he had undertaken at the outset of his career, and of the Divine\nWord which made him \"a pillar of iron and walls of brass against all\nthe land\" (i. 18). Is it possible that the pillar of iron can be\nbroken, and the walls of brass beaten down by the present assault?\n\nThere is a pause, and then the prophet vehemently pleads his own cause\nwith Iahvah. Smarting with the sense of personal wrong, he urges\nthat his suffering is for the Lord's own sake; that consciousness\nof the Divine calling has dominated his entire life, ever since his\ndedication to the prophetic office; and that the honour of Iahvah\nrequires his vindication upon his heartless and hardened adversaries.\n\n    \"_Thou_ knowest, Iahvah!\n     Remember me, and visit me, and avenge me on my persecutors.\n     Take me not away in thy longsuffering;\n     Regard my bearing of reproach for Thee.\n\n    \"Thy words were found, and I did eat them,\n     And it became to me a joy and mine heart's gladness;\n     For I was called by Thy Name, O Iahvah, God of Sabaoth!\n\n    \"I sate not in the gathering of the mirthful, nor rejoiced;\n     Because of Thine hand I sate solitary,\n     For with indignation Thou didst fill me.\n\n    \"Why hath my pain become perpetual,\n     And my stroke malignant, incurable?\n     Wilt Thou indeed become to me like a delusive stream,\n     Like waters which are not lasting?\"\n\nThe pregnant expression, \"_Thou_ knowest, Iahvah!\" does not refer\nspecially to anything that has been already said; but rather lays the\nwhole case before God in a single word. The _Thou_ is emphatic; Thou,\nWho knowest all things, knowest my heinous wrongs: Thou knowest and\nseest it all, though the whole world beside be blind with passion and\nself-regard and sin (Ps. x. 11-14). Thou knowest how pressing is my\nneed; therefore _Take me not away in Thy longsuffering_: sacrifice not\nthe life of Thy servant to the claims of forbearance with his enemies\nand Thine. The petition shews how great was the peril in which the\nprophet perceived himself to stand: he believes that if God delay to\nstrike down his adversaries, that longsuffering will be fatal to his\nown life.\n\nThe strength of his case is that he is persecuted, because he is\nfaithful; he bears reproach for God. He has not abused his high\ncalling for the sake of worldly advantage; he has not prostituted\nthe name of prophet to the vile ends of pleasing the people,\nand satisfying personal covetousness. He has not feigned smooth\nprophecies, misleading his hearers with flattering falsehood; but he\nhas considered the privilege of being called a prophet of Iahvah as in\nitself an all-sufficient reward; and when the Divine Word came to him,\nhe has eagerly received, and fed his inmost soul upon that spiritual\naliment, which was at once his sustenance and his deepest joy. Other\njoys, for the Lord's sake, he has abjured. He has withdrawn himself\neven from harmless mirth, that in silence and solitude he might listen\nintently to the inward Voice, and reflect with indignant sorrow\nupon the revelation of his people's corruption. _Because of Thine\nHand_--under Thy influence; conscious of the impulse and operation of\nThy informing Spirit;--_I sate solitary; for with indignation Thou\ndidst fill me_. The man whose eye has caught a glimpse of eternal\nTruth, is apt to be dissatisfied with the shows of things; and the\nlighthearted merriment of the world rings hollow upon the ear that\nlistens for the Voice of God. And the revelation of sin--the discovery\nof all that ghastly evil which lurks beneath the surface of smooth\nsociety--the appalling vision of the grim skeleton hiding its noisome\ndecay behind the mask of smiles and gaiety; the perception of the\nhideous incongruity of revelling over a grave; has driven others,\nbesides Jeremiah, to retire into themselves, and to avoid a world from\nwhose evil they revolted, and whose foreseen destruction they deplored.\n\nThe whole passage is an assertion of the prophet's integrity and\nconsistency, with which, it is suggested, that the failure which has\nattended his efforts, and the serious peril in which he stands, are\nmorally inconsistent, and paradoxical in view of the Divine disposal\nof events. Here, in fact, as elsewhere, Jeremiah has freely opened\nhis heart, and allowed us to see the whole process of his spiritual\nconflict in the agony of his moments of doubt and despair. It is an\nargument of his own perfect sincerity; and, at the same time, it\nenables us to assimilate the lesson of his experience, and to profit\nby the heavenly guidance he received, far more effectually, than if\nhe had left us ignorant of the painful struggles at the cost of which\nthat guidance was won.\n\nThe seeming injustice or indifference of Providence is a problem which\nrecurs to thoughtful minds in all generations of men.\n\n                  \"O, goddes cruel, that gov\u00e9rne\n          This world with byndyng of youre word eterne ...\n          What governance is in youre prescience\n          That gilteles tormenteth innocence?...\n          Alas! I see a serpent or a theif,\n          That many a trew\u00e9 man hath doon mescheit,\n          Gon at his large, and wher him luste may turne;\n          But I moste be in prisoun.\"\n\nThat such apparent anomalies are but a passing trial, from which\npersistent faith will emerge victorious in the present life, is the\ngeneral answer of the Old Testament to the doubts which they suggest.\nThe only sufficient explanation was reserved, to be revealed by Him,\nwho, in the fulness of time, \"brought life and immortality to light.\"\n\nThe thought which restored the failing confidence and courage of\nJeremiah was the reflexion that such complaints were unworthy of one\ncalled to be a spokesman for the Highest; that the supposition of the\npossibility of the Fountain of Living Waters failing like a winter\ntorrent, that runs dry in the summer heats, was an act of unfaithfulness\nthat merited reproof; and that the true God could not fail to protect\nHis messenger, and to secure the triumph of truth in the end.\n\n    \"_To this Iahvah said thus_:\n     If thou come again,\n     I will make thee again to stand before Me;\n     And if thou utter that is precious rather than that is vile,\n     As My mouth shalt thou become:\n     They shall return unto thee,\n     But Thou shalt not return unto them.\n\n    \"And I will make thee to this people an embattled wall of brass;\n     And they shall fight against thee, but not overcome thee,\n     For I will be with thee to help thee and to save thee;\n     It is Iahvah's word.\n     And I will save thee out of the grasp of the wicked,\n     And will ransom thee out of the hand of the terrible.\"\n\nIn the former strophe, the inspired poet set forth the claims of the\npsychic man, and poured out his heart before God. Now he recognises a\nWord of God in the protest of his better feeling. He sees that where\nhe remains true to himself, he will also stand near to his God. Hence\nsprings the hope, which he cannot renounce, that God will protect His\naccepted servant in the execution of the Divine commands. Thus the\ndiscords are resolved; and the prophet's spirit attains to peace,\nafter struggling through the storm.\n\nIt was an outcome of earnest prayer, of an unreserved exposure of\nhis inmost heart before God. What a marvel it is--that instinct of\nprayer! To think that a being whose visible life has its beginning\nand its end, a being who manifestly shares possession of this earth\nwith the brute creation, and breathes the same air, and partakes of\nthe same elements with them for the sustenance of his body; who is\norganized upon the same general plan as they, has the same principal\nmembers discharging the same essential functions in the economy of\nhis bodily system; a being who is born and eats and drinks and sleeps\nand dies like all other animals;--that this being and this being only\nof all the multitudinous kinds of animated creatures, should have and\nexercise a faculty of looking off and above the visible which appears\nto be the sole realm of actual existence, and of holding communion\nwith the Unseen! That, following what seems to be an original impulse\nof his nature, he should stand in greater awe of this Invisible\nthan of any power that is palpable to sense; should seek to win its\nfavour, crave its help in times of pain and conflict and peril; should\nprofessedly live, not according to the bent of common nature and\nthe appetites inseparable from his bodily structure, but according\nto the will and guidance of that Unseen Power! Surely there is here\na consummate marvel. And the wonder of it does not diminish, when\nit is remembered that this instinct of turning to an unseen Guide\nand Arbiter of events, is not peculiar to any particular section\nof the human race. Wide and manifold as are the differences which\ncharacterize and divide the families of man, all races possess in\ncommon the apprehension of the Unseen and the instinct of prayer. The\noldest records of humanity bear witness to its primitive activity, and\nwhatever is known of human history combines with what is known of the\ncharacter and workings of the human mind to teach us that as prayer\nhas never been unknown, so it is never likely to become obsolete.\n\nMay we not recognise in this great fact of human nature a sure index\nof a great corresponding truth? Can we avoid taking it as a clear\ntoken of the reality of revelation; as a kind of immediate and\nspontaneous evidence on the part of nature that there is and always\nhas been in this lower world some positive knowledge of that which far\ntranscends it, some real apprehension of the mystery that enfolds the\nuniverse? a knowledge and an apprehension which, however imperfect\nand fragmentary, however fitful and fluctuating, however blurred in\noutline and lost in infinite shadow, is yet incomparably more and\nbetter than none at all. Are we not, in short, morally driven upon the\nconviction that this powerful instinct of our nature is neither blind\nnor aimless; that its Object is a true, substantive Being; and that\nthis Being has discovered, and yet discovers, some precious glimpses\nof Himself and His essential character to the spirit of mortal man?\nIt must be so, unless we admit that the soul's dearest desires are a\nmocking illusion, that her aspirations towards a truth and a goodness\nof superhuman perfection are moonshine and madness. It cannot be\nnothingness that avails to evoke the deepest and purest emotions of\nour nature; not mere vacuity and chaos, wearing the semblance of an\nazure heaven. It is not into a measureless waste of outer darkness\nthat we reach forth trembling hands.\n\nSurely the spirit of denial is the spirit that fell from heaven, and the\nbest and highest of man's thoughts aim at and affirm something positive,\nsomething that is, and the soul thirsts after God, the Living God.\n\nWe hear much in these days of our physical nature. The microscopic\ninvestigations of science leave nothing unexamined, nothing\nunexplored, so far as the visible organism is concerned. Rays from\nmany distinct sources converge to throw an ever-increasing light\nupon the mysteries of our bodily constitution. In all this, science\npresents to the devout mind a valuable subsidiary revelation of\nthe power and goodness of the Creator. But science cannot advance\nalone one step beyond the things of time and sense; her facts belong\nexclusively to the material order of existence; her cognition is\nlimited to the various modes and conditions of force that constitute\nthe realm of sight and touch; she cannot climb above these to a higher\nplane of being. And small blame it is to science, that she thus lacks\nthe power of overstepping her natural boundaries. The evil begins\nwhen the men of science venture, in her much-abused name, to ignore\nand deny realities not amenable to scientific tests, and immeasurably\ntranscending all merely physical standards and methods.\n\nNeither the natural history nor the physiology of man, nor both\ntogether, are competent to give a complete account of his marvellous\nand many-sided being. Yet some thinkers appear to imagine that\nwhen a place has been assigned him in the animal kingdom, and his\nclose relationship to forms below him in the scale of life has been\ndemonstrated; when every tissue and structure has been analysed,\nand every organ described and its function ascertained; then the\nlast word has been spoken, and the subject exhausted. Those unique\nand distinguishing faculties by which all this amazing work of\nobservation, comparison, reasoning, has been accomplished, appear\neither to be left out of the account altogether, or to be handled\nwith a meagre inadequacy of treatment that contrasts in the strongest\nmanner with the fulness and the elaboration which mark the other\ndiscussion. And the more this physical aspect of our composite nature\nis emphasized; the more urgently it is insisted that, somehow or\nother, all that is in man and all that comes of man may be explained\non the assumption that he is the natural climax of the animal\ncreation, a kind of educated and glorified brute--that and nothing\nmore;--the harder it becomes to give any rational account of those\nfacts of his nature which are commonly recognised as spiritual, and\namong them of this instinct of prayer and its Object.\n\nUnder these discouraging circumstances, men are fatally prone to\nseek escape from their self-involved dilemma, by a hardy denial\nof what their methods have failed to discover and their favourite\ntheories to explain. The soul and God are treated as mere metaphysical\nexpressions, or as popular designations of the unknown causes of\nphenomena; and prayer is declared to be an act of foolish superstition\nwhich persons of culture have long since outgrown. Sad and strange\nthis result is; but it is also the natural outcome of an initial\nerror, which is none the less real because unperceived. Men \"seek the\nliving among the dead\"; they expect to find the soul by _post mortem_\nexamination, or to see God by help of an improved telescope. They fail\nand are disappointed, though they have little right to be so, for\n\"spiritual things are discerned spiritually,\" and not otherwise.\n\nIn speculating on the reasons of this lamentable issue, we must not\nforget that there is such a thing as an unpurified intellect as\nwell as a corrupt and unregenerate heart. Sin is not restricted to\nthe affections of the lower nature; it has also invaded the realm\nof thought and reason. The very pursuit of knowledge, noble and\nelevating as it is commonly esteemed, is not without its dangers\nof self-delusion and sin. Wherever the love of self is paramount,\nwherever the object really sought is the delight, the satisfaction,\nthe indulgence of self, no matter in which of the many departments\nof human life and action, there is sin. It is certain that the\nintellectual consciousness has its own peculiar pleasures, and those\nof the keenest and most transporting character; certain that the\nincessant pursuit of such pleasures may come to absorb the entire\nenergies of a man, so that no room is left for the culture of humility\nor love or worship. Everything is sacrificed to what is called the\npursuit of truth, but is in sober fact a passionate prosecution\nof private pleasure. It is not truth that is so highly valued; it\nis the keen excitement of the race, and not seldom the plaudits\nof the spectators when the goal is won. Such a career may be as\nthoroughly selfish and sinful and alienated from God as a career of\ncommon wickedness. And thus employed or enthralled, no intellectual\ngifts, however splendid, can bring a man to the discernment of\nspiritual truth. Not self-pleasing and foolish vanity and arrogant\nself-assertion, but a self-renouncing humility, an inward purity from\nidols of every kind, a reverence of truth as divine, are indispensable\nconditions of the perception of things spiritual.\n\nThe representation which is often given is a mere travesty. Believers\nin God do _not_ want to alter His laws by their prayers--neither His\nlaws physical, nor His laws moral and spiritual. It is their chief\ndesire to be brought into submission or perfect obedience to the sum\nof His laws. They ask their Father in heaven to lead and teach them,\nto supply their wants in His own way, because He _is_ their Father;\nbecause \"It is He that made us, and His we are.\" Surely, a reasonable\nrequest, and grounded in reason.\n\nTo a plain man, seeking for arguments to justify prayer may well seem\nlike seeking a justification of breathing, or eating and drinking and\nsleeping, or any other natural function. Our Lord never does anything\nof the kind, because His teaching takes for granted the ultimate\nprevalence of common sense, in spite of all the subtleties and airspun\nperplexities, in which a speculative mind delights to lose itself. So\nlong as man has other wants than those which he can himself supply,\nprayer will be their natural expression.\n\nIf there be a spiritual as distinct from a material world, the\ndifficulty to the ordinary mind is not to conceive of their contact\nbut of their absolute isolation from each other. This is surely the\ninevitable result of our own individual experience, of the intimate\nthough not indissoluble union of body and spirit in every living person.\n\nHow, it may be asked, can we really think of his Maker being cut off\nfrom man, or man from his Maker? God were not God, if He left man to\nhimself. But not only are His wisdom, justice and love manifested forth\nin the beneficent arrangements of the world in which we find ourselves;\nnot only is He \"kind to the unjust and the unthankful.\" In pain and\nloss He quickens our sense of Himself (cf. xiv. 19-22). Even in the\nfirst moments of angry surprise and revolt, that sense is quickened; we\nrebel, not against an inanimate world or an impersonal law, but against\na Living and Personal Being, whom we acknowledge as the Arbiter of our\ndestinies, and whose wisdom and love and power we affect for the time to\nquestion, but cannot really gainsay. The whole of our experience tends\nto this end--to the continual rousing of our spiritual consciousness.\nThere is no interference, no isolated and capricious interposition or\ninterruption of order within or without us. Within and without us,\nHis Will is always energizing, always manifesting forth His Being,\nencouraging our confidence, demanding our obedience and homage.\n\nThus prayer has its Divine as well as its human side; it is the Holy\nSpirit drawing the soul, as well as the soul drawing nigh unto God.\nThe case is like the action and reaction of the magnet and the steel.\nAnd so prayer is not a foolish act of unauthorised presumption, not\na rash effort to approach unapproachable and absolutely isolated\nMajesty. Whenever man truly prays, his Divine King has already\nextended the sceptre of His mercy, and bidden him speak.\n\nxvi.-xvii. After the renewal of the promise there is a natural pause,\nmarked by the formula with which the present section opens. When the\nprophet had recovered his firmness, through the inspired and inspiring\nreflexions which took possession of his soul after he had laid bare\nhis inmost heart before God (xv. 20, 21), he was in a position to\nreceive further guidance from above. What now lies before us is the\ndirection, which came to him as certainly Divine, for the regulation\nof his own future behaviour as the chosen minister of Iahvah at this\ncrisis in the history of his people. \"And there fell a word of Iahvah\nunto me, saying: Thou shalt not take thee a wife; that thou get\nnot sons and daughters in this place.\" Such a prohibition reveals,\nwith the utmost possible clearness and emphasis, the gravity of the\nexisting situation. It implies that the \"peace and permanence,\" so\nglibly predicted by Jeremiah's opponents, will never more be known\nby that sinful generation. \"This place,\" the holy place which Iahvah\nhad \"chosen, to establish His name there,\" as the Book of the Law\nso often describes it; \"this place,\" which had been inviolable to\nthe fierce hosts of the Assyrian in the time of Isaiah (Isa. xxxvii.\n33), was now no more a sure refuge, but doomed to utter and speedy\ndestruction. To beget sons and daughters there was to prepare more\nvictims for the tooth of famine, and the pangs of pestilence, and the\ndevouring sword of a merciless conqueror. It was to fatten the soil\nwith unburied carcases, and to spread a hideous banquet for birds and\nbeasts of prey. Children and parents were doomed to perish together;\nand Iahvah's witness was to keep himself unencumbered by the sweet\ncares of husband and father, that he might be wholly free for his\nsolemn duties of menace and warning, and be ready for every emergency.\n\n    \"For thus hath Iahvah said:\n     Concerning the sons and concerning the daughters that are born in\n          this place,\n     And concerning their mothers that bear them,\n     And concerning their fathers that beget them, in this land:\n     By deaths of agony shall they die;\n     They shall not be mourned nor buried;\n     For dung on the face of the ground shall they serve;\n     And by the sword and by the famine shall they be fordone:\n     And their carcase shall serve for food\n     To the fowls of the air and to the beasts of the earth\" (xvi. 3-4).\n\nThe \"deaths of agony\" seem to indicate the pestilence, which always\nensued upon the scarcity and vile quality of food, and the confinement\nof multitudes within the narrow bounds of a besieged city (see\nJosephus' well-known account of the last siege of Jerusalem).\n\nThe attitude of solitary watchfulness and strict separation, which the\nprophet thus perceived to be required by circumstances, was calculated\nto be a warning of the utmost significance, among a people who attached\nthe highest importance to marriage, and the permanence of the family.\n\nIt proclaimed more loudly than words could do, the prophet's absolute\nconviction that offspring was no pledge of permanence; that universal\ndeath was hanging over a condemned nation. But not only this. It marks\na point of progress in the prophet's spiritual life. The crisis,\nthrough which we have seen him pass, has purged his mental vision. He\nno longer repines at his dark lot; no longer half envies the false\nprophets, who may win the popular love by pleasing oracles of peace\nand well-being; no longer complains of the Divine Will, which has\nlaid such a burden upon him. He sees now that his part is to refuse\neven natural and innocent pleasures for the Lord's sake; to foresee\ncalamity and ruin; to denounce unceasingly the sin he sees around\nhim; to sacrifice a tender and affectionate heart to a life of rigid\nasceticism; and he manfully accepts his part. He knows that he stands\nalone--the last fortress of truth in a world of falsehood; and that\nfor truth it becomes a man to surrender his all.\n\nThat which follows tends to complete the prophet's social isolation.\nHe is to give no sign of sympathy in the common joys and sorrows of\nhis kind.\n\n    \"For thus hath Iahvah said:\n     Enter thou not into the house of mourning,\n     Nor go to lament, nor comfort thou them:\n     For I have taken away My friendship from this people ('Tis\n          Iahvah's utterance!)\n     The lovingkindness and the compassion;\n     And old and young shall die in this land,\n     They shall not be buried, and men shall not wail for them;\n     Nor shall a man cut himself, nor make himself bald, for them:\n     Neither shall men deal out bread to them in mourning,\n     To comfort a man over the dead;\n     Nor shall they give them to drink the cup of consolation,\n     Over a man's father and over his mother.\n\n    \"And the house of feasting thou shalt not enter,\n     To sit with them to eat and to drink.\n     For thus hath Iahvah Sabaoth, the God of Israel, said:\n     Lo, I am about to make to cease from this place,\n     Before your own eyes and in your own days,\n     Voice of mirth and voice of gladness,\n     The voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride.\"\n\nActing as prophet, that is, as one whose public actions were\nsymbolical of a Divine intent, Jeremiah is henceforth to stand\naloof, on occasions when natural feeling would suggest participation\nin the outward life of his friends and acquaintance. He is to quell\nthe inward stirrings of affection and sympathy, and to abstain from\nplaying his part in those demonstrative lamentations over the dead,\nwhich the immemorial custom and sentiment of his country regarded\nas obligatory; and this, in order to signify unmistakably that what\nthus appeared to be the state of his own feelings, was really the\naspect under which God would shortly appear to a nation perishing\nin its guilt. \"Enter not into the house of mourning ... _for_ I\nhave taken away My friendship from this people, the lovingkindness\nand the compassion.\" An estranged and alienated God would view the\ncoming catastrophe with the cold indifference of exact justice.\nAnd the consequence of the Divine aversion would be a calamity so\noverwhelming, that the dead would be left without those rites of\nburial, which the feeling and conscience of all races of mankind have\nalways been careful to perform. There should be no burial, much less\nceremonial lamentation, and those more serious modes of evincing grief\nby disfigurement of the person,[66] which, like tearing the hair and\nrending the garments, are natural tokens of the first distraction of\nbereavement. Not for wife or child (\u05de\u05b5\u05ea: see Gen. xxiii. 3), nor for\nfather or mother should the funeral feast be held; for men's hearts\nwould grow hard at the daily spectacle of death, and at last there\nwould be no survivors.\n\nIn like manner, the prophet is forbidden to enter as guest \"the\nhouse of feasting.\" He is not to be seen at the marriage-feast,--that\noccasion of highest rejoicing, the very type and example of innocent\nand holy mirth; to testify by his abstention that the day of judgment\nwas swiftly approaching, which would desolate all homes, and silence\nfor evermore all sounds of joy and gladness in the ruined city. And it\nis expressly added that the blow will fall \"before your own eyes and\nin your own days;\" shewing that the hour of doom was very near, and\nwould no more be delayed.\n\nIn all this, it is noticeable that the Divine answer appears to bear\nspecial reference to the peculiar terms of the prophet's complaint.\nIn despairing tones he had cried (xv. 10), \"Woe's me, my mother, that\nthou didst bear me!\" and now he is himself warned not to take a wife,\nand seek the blessing of children. The outward connexion here may be:\n\"Let it not be that thy children speak of thee, as thou hast spoken\nof thy mother!\"[67] But the inner link of thought may rather be this,\nthat the prophet's temporary unfaithfulness evinced in his outcry\nagainst God and his lament that ever he was born is punished by the\ndenial to him of the joys of fatherhood--a penalty which would be\nsevere to a loving, yearning nature like his, but which was doubtless\nnecessary to the purification of his spirit from all worldly taint,\nand to the discipline of his natural impatience and tendency to repine\nunder the hand of God. His punishment, like that of Moses, may appear\ndisproportionate to his offence; but God's dealings with man are not\nregulated by any mechanical calculation of less and more, but by His\nperfect knowledge of the needs of the case; and it is often in truest\nmercy that His hand strikes hard. \"As gold in the furnace doth He try\nthem\"; and the purest metal comes out of the hottest fire.\n\nFurther, it is not the least prominent but the leading part of a man's\nnature that most requires this heavenly discipline, if the best is\nto be made of it that can be made. The strongest element, that which\nis most characteristic of the person, that which constitutes his\nindividuality, is the chosen field of Divine influence and operation;\nfor here lies the greatest need. In Jeremiah this master element was\nan almost feminine tenderness; a warmly affectionate disposition,\ncraving the love and sympathy of his fellows, and recoiling almost\nin agony from the spectacle of pain and suffering. And therefore it\nwas that the Divine discipline was specially applied to this element\nin the prophet's personality. In him, as in all other men, the good\nwas mingled with evil, which, if not purged away, might spread until\nit spoiled his whole nature. It is not virtue to indulge our own\nbent, merely because it pleases us to do so; nor is the exercise of\naffection any great matter to an affectionate nature. The involved\nstrain of selfishness must be separated, if any naturally good gift\nis to be elevated to moral worth, to become acceptable in the sight\nof God. And so it was precisely here, in his most susceptible point,\nthat the sword of trial pierced the prophet through. He was saved from\nall hazard of becoming satisfied with the love of wife and children,\nand forgetting in that earthly satisfaction the love of his God. He\nwas saved from absorption in the pleasures of friendly intercourse\nwith neighbours, from passing his days in an agreeable round of\nsocial amenities; at a time when ruin was impending over his country,\nand well nigh ready to fall. And the means which God chose for the\naccomplishment of this result were precisely those of which the\nprophet had complained (xv. 17); his social isolation, which though in\npart a matter of choice, was partly forced upon him by the irritation\nand ill-will of his acquaintance. It is now declared that this trial\nis to continue. The Lord does not necessarily remove a trouble, when\nentreated to do it. He manifests His love by giving strength to bear\nit, until the work of chastening be perfected.\n\nAn interruption is now supposed, such as may often have occurred in\nthe course of Jeremiah's public utterances. The audience demands to\nknow why all this evil is ordained to fall upon them. _What is our\nguilt and what our trespass, that we have trespassed against Iahvah\nour God?_ The answer is a twofold accusation. Their fathers were\nfaithless to Iahvah, and they have outdone their fathers' sin; and the\npenalty will be expulsion and a foreign servitude.\n\n    \"Because your fathers forsook Me (It is Iahvah's word!)\n     And went after other gods, and served them, and bowed down to them,\n     And Me they forsook, and My teaching they observed not:\n     And ye yourselves (or, as for you) have done worse than your\n          fathers;\n     And lo, ye walk each after the stubbornness of his evil heart,\n     So as not to hearken unto Me.\n     Therefore will I hurl you from off this land,\n     On to the land that ye and your fathers knew not;\n     And ye may serve there other gods, day and night,\n     Since I will not grant you grace.\"\n\nThe damning sin laid to Israel's charge is idolatry, with all the\nmoral consequences involved in that prime transgression. That is to\nsay, the offence consisted not barely in recognising and honouring the\ngods of the nations along with their own God, though that were fault\nenough, as an act of treason against the sole majesty of Heaven; but\nit was aggravated enormously by the moral declension and depravity,\nwhich accompanied this apostasy. They and their fathers forsook Iahvah\n\"_and kept not His teaching_;\" a reference to the Book of the Law,\nconsidered not only as a collection of ritual and ceremonial precepts\nfor the regulation of external religion, but as a guide of life and\nconduct. And there had been a progress in evil; the nation had gone\nfrom bad to worse with fearful rapidity: so that now it could be\nsaid of the existing generation that it paid no heed at all to the\nmonitions which Iahvah uttered by the mouth of His prophet, but walked\nsimply in stubborn self-will and the indulgence of every corrupt\ninclination. And here too, as in so many other cases, the sin is to be\nits own punishment. The Book of the Law had declared that revolt from\nIahvah should be punished by enforced service of strange gods in a\nstrange land (Deut. iv. 28, xxviii. 36, 64); and Jeremiah repeats this\nthreat, with the addition of a tone of ironical concession: there, in\nyour bitter banishment, you may have your wish to the full; you may\nserve the foreign gods, and that without intermission (implying that\nthe service would be a slavery).\n\nThe whole theory of Divine punishment is implicit in these few words\nof the prophet. They who sin persistently against light and knowledge\nare at last given over to their own hearts' lust, to do as they\nplease, without the gracious check of God's inward voice. And then\nthere comes a strong delusion, so that they believe a lie, and take\nevil for good and good for evil, and hold themselves innocent before\nGod, when their guilt has reached its climax; so that, like Jeremiah's\nhearers, if their evil be denounced, they can ask in astonishment:\n\"What is our iniquity? or what is our trespass?\"\n\nThey are so ripe in sin that they retain no knowledge of it as sin,\nbut hold it virtue.\n\n    \"And they, so perfect is their misery,\n     Not once perceive their foul disfigurement,\n     But boast themselves more comely than before.\"\n\nAnd not only do we find in this passage a striking instance of\njudicial blindness as the penalty of sin. We may see also in the\npenalty predicted for the Jews a plain analogy to the doctrine that\nthe permanence of the sinful state in a life to come is the penalty of\nsin in the present life. \"He that is unjust, let him be unjust still;\nand he that is filthy, let him be filthy still!\" and know himself to\nbe what he is.\n\nThe prophet's dark horizon is here apparently lit up for a moment by\na gleam of hope. The fourteenth and fifteenth verses, however, with\ntheir beautiful promise of restoration, really belong to another\noracle, whose prevailing tones are quite different from the present\ngloomy forecast of retribution (xxiii. 7 _sqq._). Here they interrupt\nthe sense, and make a cleavage in the connexion of thought, which can\nonly be bridged over artificially, by the suggestion that the import\nof the two verses is primarily not consolatory but minatory; that is\nto say, that they threaten Exile rather than promise Return; a mode\nof understanding the two verses which does manifest violence to the\nwhole form of expression, and, above all, to their obvious force in\nthe original passage from which they have been transferred hither.\nProbably some transcriber of the text wrote them in the margin of his\ncopy, by way of palliating the otherwise unbroken gloom of this oracle\nof coming woe. Then, at some later time, another copyist, supposing\nthe marginal note indicated an omission, incorporated the two verses\nin his transcription of the text, where they have remained ever since.\n(See on xxiii. 7, 8.)\n\nAfter plainly announcing in the language of Deuteronomy the expulsion\nof Judah from the land which they had desecrated by idolatry, the\nprophet develops the idea in his own poetic fashion; representing the\npunishment as universal, and insisting that it _is_ a punishment, and\nnot an unmerited misfortune.\n\n    \"Lo, I am about to send many fishers (It is Iahvah's word!)\n     And they shall fish them;\n     And afterwards will I send many hunters,\n     And they shall hunt them,\n     From off every mountain,\n     And from off every hill,\n     And out of the clefts of the rocks.\"\n\nLike silly fish, crowding helplessly one over another into the\nnet,[68] when the fated moment arrives, Judah will fall an easy prey\nto the destroyer. And \"afterwards,\" to ensure completeness, those who\nhave survived this first disaster will be hunted like wild beasts, out\nof all the dens and caves in the mountains, the Adullams and Engedis,\nwhere they have found a refuge from the invader.\n\nThere is clearly reference to two distinct visitations of wrath, the\nlatter more deadly than the former; else why the use of the emphatic\nnote of time \"afterwards\"? If we understand by the \"fishing\" of the\ncountry the so-called first captivity, the carrying away of the boy-king\nJehoiachin and his mother and his nobles and ten thousand principal\ncitizens, by Nebuchadrezzar to Babylon (2 Kings xxiv. 10 _sqq._); and\nby the \"hunting\" the final catastrophe in the time of Zedekiah; we get,\nas we shall see, a probable explanation of a difficult expression in the\neighteenth verse, which cannot otherwise be satisfactorily accounted\nfor. The next words (ver. 17) refute an assumption, implied in the\npopular demand to know wherein the guilt of the nation consists, that\nIahvah is not really cognisant of their acts of apostasy.\n\n    \"For Mine eyes are upon all their ways,\n     They are not hidden away from before My face;\n     Nor is their guilt kept secret from before Mine eyes.\"\n\nThe verse is thus an indirect reply to the questions of verse 10;\nquestions which in some mouths might indicate that unconsciousness of\nguilt, which is the token of sin finished and perfected; in others,\nthe presence of that unbelief which doubts whether God can, or at\nleast whether He does regard human conduct. But \"He that planted the\near, can He not hear? He that formed the eye, can He not see?\" (Ps.\nxciv. 9). It is really an utterly irrational thought, that sight, and\nhearing, and the higher faculties of reflexion and consciousness, had\ntheir origin in a blind and deaf, a senseless and unconscious source\nsuch as inorganic matter, whether we consider it in the atom or in the\nenormous mass of an embryo system of stars.\n\nThe measure of the penalty is now assigned.\n\n    \"And I will repay first the double of their guilt and their\n          trespass\n     For that they profaned My land with the carcases of their loathly\n          offerings,\n     And their abominations filled Mine heritage.\"[69]\n\n\n\"I will repay _first_.\" The term \"first,\" which has occasioned much\nperplexity to expositors, means \"the first time\" (Gen. xxxviii. 28;\nDan. xi. 29), and refers, if I am not mistaken, to the first great\nblow, the captivity of Jehoiachin, of which I spoke just now; an\noccasion which is designated again (ver. 21), by the expression \"this\nonce\" or rather \"at this time.\" And when it is said \"I will repay the\ndouble of their guilt and of their trespass,\" we are to understand\nthat the Divine justice is not satisfied with half measures; the\npunishment of sin is proportioned to the offence, and the cup of\nself-entailed misery has to be drained to the dregs. Even penitence\ndoes not abolish the physical and temporal consequences of sin; in\nourselves and in others whom we have influenced they continue--a\nterrible and ineffaceable record of the past. The ancient law required\nthat the man who had wronged his neighbour by theft or fraud should\nrestore double (Ex. xxii. 4, 7, 9); and thus this expression would\nappear to denote that the impending chastisement would be in strict\naccordance with the recognised rule of law and justice, and that Judah\nmust repay to the Lord in suffering the legal equivalent for her\noffence. In a like strain, towards the end of the Exile, the great\nprophet of the captivity comforts Jerusalem with the announcement that\n\"her hard service is accomplished, her punishment is held sufficient;\nfor she hath received of Iahvah's hand twofold for all her trespasses\"\n(Isa. xl. 2). The Divine severity is, in fact, truest mercy. Only thus\ndoes mankind learn to realize \"the exceeding sinfulness of sin,\" only\nas Judah learned the heinousness of desecrating the Holy Land with\n\"loathly offerings\" to the vile Nature-gods, and with the symbols\nin wood and stone of the cruel and obscene deities of Canaan; viz.\nby the fearful issue of transgression, the lesson of a calamitous\nexperience, confirming the forecasts of its inspired prophets.\n\n    \"Iahvah my strength and my stronghold and my refuge in the day of\n          distress!\n     Unto Thee the very heathen will come from the ends of the earth,\n          and will say:\n     'Mere fraud did our fathers receive as their own,\n     Mere breath, and beings among whom is no helper.\n     Should man make him gods,\n     When such things are not gods?'\n\n    \"Therefore, behold I am about to let them know--\n     At this time will I let them know My hand and My might,\n     And they shall know that My name is Iahvah!\"\n\nIn the opening words Jeremiah passionately recoils from the very\nmention of the hateful idols, the loathly creations, the lifeless\n\"carcases,\" which his people have put in the place of the Living God.\nAn overmastering access of faith lifts him off the low ground where\nthese dead things lie in their helplessness, and bears him in spirit\nto Iahvah, the really and eternally existing, Who is his \"strength and\nstronghold and refuge in the day of distress.\" From this height he\ntakes an eagle glance into the dim future, and discerns--O marvel of\nvictorious faith!--that the very heathen, who have never so much as\nknown the Name of Iahvah, must one day be brought to acknowledge the\nimpotence of their hereditary gods, and the sole deity of the Mighty One\nof Jacob. He enjoys a glimpse of Isaiah's and Micah's glorious vision of\nthe latter days, when \"the mountain of the Lord's House shall be exalted\nas chief of mountains, and all nations shall flow unto it.\"\n\nIn the light of this revelation, the sin and folly of Israel in\ndishonouring the One only God, by associating Him with idols and\ntheir symbols, becomes glaringly visible. The very heathen (the\nterm is emphatic by position), will at last grope their way out of\nthe night of traditional ignorance, and will own the absurdity of\nmanufactured gods. Israel, on the other hand, has for centuries sinned\nagainst knowledge and reason. They had \"Moses and the prophets\"; yet\nthey hated warning and despised reproof. They resisted the Divine\nteachings, because they loved to walk in their own ways, after the\nimaginings of their own evil hearts. And so they soon fell into\nthat strange blindness, which suffered them to see no sin in giving\ncompanions to Iahvah, and neglecting His severer worship for the\nsensuous rites of Canaan.\n\nA rude awakening awaits them. Once more will Iahvah interpose to save\nthem from their infatuation. \"This time\" they shall be taught to know\nthe nothingness of idols, not by the voice of prophetic pleadings, not\nby the fervid teachings of the Book of the Law, but by the sword of\nthe enemy, by the rapine and ruin, in which the resistless might of\nIahvah will be manifested against His rebellious people. Then, when the\nwarnings which they have ridiculed find fearful accomplishment, then\nwill they know that the name of the One God is IAHVAH--He Who alone was\nand is and shall be for evermore. In the shock of overthrow, in the\nsorrows of captivity, they will realize the enormity of assimilating the\nSupreme Source of events, the Fountain of all being and power, to the\nmiserable phantoms of a darkened and perverted imagination.\n\nxvii. 1-18. Jeremiah, speaking for God, returns to the affirmation of\nJudah's guiltiness. He has answered the popular question (xvi. 10), so\nfar as it implied that it was no mortal sin to associate the worship\nof alien gods with the worship of Iahvah. He now proceeds to answer it\nwith an indignant contradiction, so far as it suggested that Judah was\nno longer guilty of the grossest forms of idolatry.\n\n    1 \"The trespass of Judah,\" he affirms, \"is written with pen of iron,\n            with point of adamant;\n       Graven upon the tablet of their heart,\n       And upon the horns of their altars:\n       Even as their sons remember their altars,\n       And their sacred poles by the evergreen trees,\n       Upon the high hills.\n\n    2 \"O My mountain in the field!\n       Thy wealth and all thy treasures will I give for a spoil,\n       For the trespass of thine high-places in all thy borders.\n\n       And thou shalt drop thine hand[70] from thy demesne which I gave\n            thee;\n       And I will enslave thee to thine enemies,\n       In the land that thou knowest not;\n\n      \"For a fire have ye kindled in Mine anger;\n       It shall burn for evermore.\"\n\nIt is clear from the first strophe that the outward forms of idolatry\nwere no longer openly practised in the country. Where otherwise would be\nthe point of affirming that the national sin was \"written with pen of\niron, and point of adamant\"--that it was \"graven upon the tablet of the\npeople's heart?\" Where would be the point of alluding to the children's\n_memory_ of the altars and sacred poles, which were the visible adjuncts\nof idolatry? Plainly it is implied that the hideous rites, which\nsometimes involved the sacrifice of children, are a thing of the past;\nyet not of the distant past, for the young of the present generation\nremember them; those terrible scenes are burnt in upon their memories,\nas a haunting recollection which can no more be effaced, than the guilt\ncontracted by their parents as agents in those abhorrent rites can be\ndone away. The indelible characters of sin are graven deeply upon their\nhearts; no need for a prophet to remind them of facts to which their\nown consciences, their own inward sense of outraged affections, and of\nnature sacrificed to a dark and bloody superstition, bears irrefragable\nwitness. Rivers of water cannot cleanse the stain of innocent blood from\ntheir polluted altars. The crimes of the past are unatoned for, and\nbeyond reach of atonement; they cry to heaven for vengeance, and the\nvengeance will surely fall (xv. 4).\n\nHitzig rather prosaically remarks that Josiah had destroyed the\naltars. But the stains of which the poet-seer speaks are not palpable\nto sense; he contemplates unseen realities.\n\n          \"Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood\n           Clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather\n           The multitudinous seas incarnadine,\n           Making the green one red.\"\n\nThe second strophe declares the nature of the punishment. The tender,\nyearning, hopeless love of the cry with which Iahvah resigns His\nearthly seat to profanation and plunder and red-handed ruin, enhances\nthe awful impression wrought by the slow, deliberate enunciation\nof the details of the sentence--the utter spoliation of temple and\npalaces; the accumulated hoards of generations--all that represented\nthe wealth and culture and glory of the time--carried away for ever;\nthe enforced surrender of home and country; the harsh servitude to\nstrangers in a far-off land.\n\nIt is difficult to fix the date of this short lyrical outpouring,\nif it be assumed, with Hitzig, that it is an independent whole. He\nrefers it to the year B.C. 602, after Jehoiakim had revolted from\nBabylon--\"a proceeding which made a future captivity well-nigh\ncertain, and made it plain that the sin of Judah remained still to be\npunished.\" Moreover, the preceding year (B.C. 603) was what was known\nto the Law as a Year of Release or Remission (_shenath shemittah_);\nand the phrase \"thou shalt drop thine hand,\" _i.e._ \"loose thine hold\nof\" the land (xvii. 4), appears to allude to the peculiar usages of\nthat year, in which the debtor was released from his obligations, and\nthe corn-lands and vineyards were allowed to lie fallow. The Year of\nRelease was also called the Year of Rest (_shenath shabbathon_, Lev.\nxxv. 5); and both in the present passage of Jeremiah, and in the book\nof Leviticus, the time to be spent by the Jews in exile is regarded as\na period of rest for the desolate land, which would then \"make good\nher sabbaths\" (Lev. xxvi. 34, 35, 43). The Chronicler indeed seems to\nrefer to this very phrase of Jeremiah; at all events, nothing else is\nto be found in the extant works of the prophet with which his language\ncorresponds (2 Chron. xxxvi. 21).\n\nIf the rendering of the second verse, which we find in both our\nEnglish versions, and which I have adopted above, be correct, there\narises an obvious objection to the date assigned by Hitzig; and the\nsame objection lies against the view of Naegelsbach, who translates:\n\n    \"As their children remember their altars,\n     And their images of Baal _by_ (_i.e._ at the sight of) the green\n          trees, by the high hills.\"\n\nFor in what sense could this have been written \"not long before\nthe fourth year of Jehoiakim,\" which is the date suggested by this\ncommentator for the whole group of chapters, xiv.-xvii. 18? The entire\nreign of Josiah had intervened between the atrocities of Manasseh\nand this period; and it is not easy to suppose that any sacrifice\nof children had occurred in the three months' reign of Jehoahaz,\nor in the early years of Jehoiakim. Had it been so, Jeremiah, who\ndenounces the latter king severely enough, would certainly have placed\nthe horrible fact in the forefront of his invective; and instead\nof specifying Manasseh as the king whose offences Iahvah would not\npardon, would have thus branded Jehoiakim, his own contemporary. This\ndifficulty appears to be avoided by Hitzig, who explains the passage\nthus: \"When they (the Jews) think of their children, they remember,\nand cannot but remember, the altars to whose horns the blood of their\nimmolated children cleaves. In the same way, by a green tree on the\nhills, _i.e._, when they come upon any such, their Asherim are brought\nto mind, which were trees of that sort.\" And since it is perhaps\npossible to translate the Hebrew as this suggests, \"When they remember\ntheir sons, their altars, and their sacred poles, by (_i.e._ by means\nof) the evergreen trees (collective term) upon the high hills,\" and\nthis translation agrees well with the statement that the sin of Judah\nis \"graven upon the tablet of their heart,\" his view deserves further\nconsideration. The same objection, however, presses again, though with\nsomewhat diminished force. For if the date of the section be 602, the\neighth year of Jehoiakim, more than forty years must have elapsed\nbetween the time of Manasseh's bloody rites and the utterance of this\noracle. Would many who were parents then, and surrendered their\nchildren for sacrifice, be still living at the supposed date? And if\nnot, where is the appropriateness of the words \"When they remember\ntheir sons, their altars, and their Asherim?\"\n\nThere seems no way out of the difficulty, but either to date the\npiece much earlier, assigning it, _e.g._, to the time of the\nprophet's earnest preaching in connexion with the reforming movement\nof Josiah, when the living generation would certainly remember the\nhuman sacrifices under Manasseh; or else to construe the passage in a\nvery different sense, as follows. The first verse declares that the\nsin of _Judah_ is graven upon the tablet of _their heart_, and upon\nthe horns of _their_ altars. The pronouns evidently shew that it is\nthe guilt of _the nation_, not of a particular generation, that is\nasserted. The subsequent words agree with this view. The expression,\n\"_Their_ sons\" is to be understood in the same way as the expressions\n\"_their_ heart,\" \"_their_ altars.\" It is equivalent to the \"sons of\nJudah\" (_ben\u00ea Jehudah_), and means simply the people of Judah, as\nnow existing, the present generation. Now it does not appear that\nimage-worship and the cultus of the high-places revived after their\nabolition by Josiah. Accordingly, the symbols of impure worship\nmentioned in this passage are not high-places and images but altars\nand Asherim, _i.e._, the wooden poles which were the emblems of the\nreproductive principle of Nature. What the passage therefore intends\nto say would seem to be this: \"The guilt of the nation remains, so\nlong as its children are mindful of their altars and Asherim erected\nbeside[71] the evergreen trees on the high hills\"; _i.e._, so long as\nthey remain attached to the modified idolatry of the day.\n\nThe general force of the words remains the same, whether they accuse\nthe existing generation of serving sun-pillars (_ma\u00e7\u00e7eboth_) and\nsacred poles (_asherim_), or merely of hankering after the old\nforbidden rites. For so long as the popular heart was wedded to the\nformer superstitions, it could not be said that any external abolition\nof idolatry was a sufficient proof of national repentance. The longing\nto indulge in sin is sin; and sinful it is not to hate sin. The guilt\nof the nation remained, therefore, and would remain, until blotted out\nby the tears of a genuine repentance towards Iahvah.\n\nBut understood thus, the passage suits the time of Jehoiachin, as well\nas any other period.\n\n\"Why,\" asks Naegelsbach, \"should not Moloch have been the terror of\nthe Israelitish children, when there was such real and sad ground for\nit, as in wanting in other bugbears which terrify the children of the\npresent day?\" To this we may reply, (1) Moloch is not mentioned at\nall, but simply altars and _asherim_; (2) would the word \"remember\" be\nappropriate in this case?\n\nThe beautiful strophes which follow (5-13) are not obviously connected\nwith the preceding text. They wear a look of self-completeness, which\nsuggests that here and in many other places Jeremiah has left us, not\nwhole discourses, written down substantially in the form in which\nthey were delivered, but rather his more finished fragments; pieces\nwhich being more rhythmical in form, and more striking in thought, had\nimprinted themselves more deeply upon his memory.\n\n    \"Thus hath Iahvah said:\n     Cursed is the man that trusteth in human kind,\n     And maketh flesh his arm,\n     And whose heart swerveth from Iahvah!\n     And he shall become like a leafless tree in the desert,\n     And shalt not see when good cometh;\n     And shall dwell in parched places in the steppe,\n     A salt land and uninhabited.\n\n    \"Blessed is the man that trusteth in Iahvah,\n     And whose trust Iahvah becometh!\n     And he shall become like a tree planted by water,\n     That spreadeth its roots by a stream,\n     And is not afraid when heat cometh,\n     And its leaf is evergreen;\n     And in the year of drought it feareth not,\n     Nor leaveth off from making fruit.\"\n\nThe form of the thought expressed in these two octostichs, the curse\nand the blessing, may have been suggested by the curses and blessings\nof that Book of the Law of which Jeremiah had been so faithful an\ninterpreter (Deut. xxvii. 15-xxviii. 20); while both the thought\nand the form of the second stanza are imitated by the anonymous\npoet of the first psalm. The mention of \"the year of drought\" in\nthe penultimate line may be taken, perhaps, as a link of connexion\nbetween this brief section and the whole of what precedes it so far as\nchap. xiv., which is headed \"Concerning the droughts.\" If, however,\nthe group of chapters thus marked out really constitute a single\ndiscourse, as Naegelsbach assumes, one can only say that the style is\nepisodical rather than continuous; that the prophet has often recorded\ndetached thoughts, worked up to a certain degree of literary form, but\nhanging together as loosely as pearls on a string. Indeed, unless we\nsuppose that he had kept full notes of his discourses and soliloquies,\nor that, like certain professional lecturers of our own day, he had\nbeen in the habit of indefinitely repeating to different audiences the\nsame carefully elaborated compositions, it is difficult to understand\nhow he would be able without the aid of a special miracle, to write\ndown in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the numerous utterances of the\nprevious three and twenty years. Neither of these suppositions appears\nprobable. But if the prophet wrote from memory, so long after the\noriginal delivery of many of his utterances, the looseness of internal\nconnexion, which marks so much of his book, is readily understood.\n\nThe internal evidence of the fragment before us, so far as any such\nis traceable, appears to point to the same period as what precedes,\nthe time immediately subsequent to the death of Jehoiakim. The curse\npronounced upon trusting in man may be an allusion to that king's\nconfidence in the Egyptian alliance, which probably induced him to\nrevolt from Nebuchadrezzar, and so precipitate the final catastrophe of\nhis country. He owed his throne to the Pharaoh's appointment (2 Kings\nxxiii. 34), and may perhaps have regarded this as an additional reason\nfor defection from Babylon. But the chastisement of Egypt preceded that\nof Judah; and when the day came for the latter, the king of Egypt durst\nno longer go to the help of his too trustful allies (2 Kings xxiv. 7).\nJehoiakim had died, but his son and successor was carried captive to\nBabylon. In the brief interval between those two events, the prophet may\nhave penned these two stanzas, contrasting the issues of confidence in\nman and confidence in God. On the other hand, they may also be referred\nto some time not long before the fourth year of Jehoiakim, when that\nking, egged on by Egypt, was meditating rebellion against his suzerain;\nan act of which the fatal consequences might easily be foreseen by\nany thoughtful observer, who was not blinded by fanatical passion\nand prejudice, and which might itself be regarded as an index of the\nkindling of Divine wrath against the country.\n\n    \"Deep is the heart above all things else;\n     And sore-diseased it is: who can know it?\n     I, Iahvah, search the heart, I try the reins,\n     And that, to give to a man according to his own ways,\n     According to the fruit of his own doings.\n\n    \"A partridge that gathereth young which are not hers,\n     Is he that maketh wealth not by right.\n     In the middle of his days it will leave him,\n     And in his end he shall prove a fool.\n\n    \"A throne of glory, a high seat from of old,\n     Is the place of our sanctuary.\n     Hope of Israel, Iahvah!\n     All that leave Thee shall be ashamed;\n     Mine apostates shall be written in earth;\n     For they left the Well of Living Waters, even Iahvah.\n\n    \"Heal Thou me, Iahvah, and I shall be healed,\n     Save Thou me, and I shall be saved,\n     For Thou art my praise.\n\n    \"Lo, _they_ say unto me,\n     Where is the Word of Iahvah? Prithee, let it come!\n     Yet I, I hasted not from being a shepherd after Thee,\n     And woeful day I desired not--_Thou_ knowest;\n     The issue of my lips, before Thy face it fell.\n\n    \"Become not a terror to me!\n     Thou art my refuge in the day of evil.\n     Let my pursuers be ashamed, and let not me be ashamed!\n     Let _them_ be dismayed, and let not me be dismayed;\n     Let Thou come upon them a day of evil,\n     And doubly with breaking break Thou them!\"\n\nIn the first of these stanzas, the word \"heart\" is the connecting\nlink with the previous reflexions. The curse and the blessing had\nthere been pronounced not upon any outward and visible distinctions,\nbut upon a certain inward bent and spirit. He is called accursed,\nwhose confidence is placed in changeable, perishable man, and \"whose\n_heart_ swerveth from Iahvah.\" And he is blessed, who pins his faith\nto nothing visible; who looks for help and stay not to the seen, which\nis temporal, but to the Unseen, which is eternal.\n\nThe thought now occurs that this matter of inward trust, being a\nmatter of the heart, and not merely of the outward bearing, is a\nhidden matter, a secret which baffles all ordinary judgment. Who\nshall take upon him to say whether this or that man, this or that\nprince confided or not confided in Iahvah? The human heart is a sea,\nwhose depths are beyond human search; or it is a shifty Proteus,\ntransforming itself from moment to moment under the pressure of\nchanging circumstances, at the magic touch of impulse, under the spell\nof new perceptions and new phases of its world. And besides, its very\nlife is tainted with a subtle disease, whose hereditary influence\nis ever interfering with the will and affections, ever tampering\nwith the conscience and the judgment, and making difficult a clear\nperception, much more a wise decision. Nay, where so many motives\npress, so many plausible suggestions of good, so many palliations of\nevil, present themselves upon the eve of action; when the colours of\ngood and evil mingle and gleam together in such rich profusion before\nthe dazzled sight, that the mind is bewildered by the confused medley\nof appearances, and wholly at a loss to discern and disentangle them\none from another; is it wonderful, if in such a case the heart should\ntake refuge in the comfortable illusion of self-deceit, and seek, with\ntoo great success, to persuade itself into contentment with something\nwhich it calls not positive evil but merely a less sublime good?\n\nIt is not for man, who cannot see the heart, to pronounce upon\nthe degree of his fellow's guilt. All sins, all crimes, are in\nthis respect relative to the intensity of passion, the force of\ncircumstances, the nature of surroundings, the comparative stress of\ntemptation. Murder and adultery are absolute crimes in the eye of\nhuman law, and subject as such to fixed penalties; but the Unseen\nJudge takes cognizance of a thousand considerations, which though\nthey abolish not the exceeding sinfulness of these hideous results of\na depraved nature, yet modify to a vast extent the degree of guilt\nevinced in particular cases by the same outward acts. In the sight of\nGod, a life socially correct may be stained with a deeper dye than\nthat of profligacy or bloodshed; and nothing so glaringly shows the\nfolly of inquiring what is the unpardonable sin, as the reflexion that\nany sin whatever may become such in an individual case.\n\nBefore God, human justice is often the liveliest injustice. And\nhow many flagrant wrongs, how many monstrous acts of cruelty and\noppression, how many wicked frauds and perjuries, how many of those\nvile deeds of seduction and corruption, which are, in truth, the\nmurder of immortal souls; how many of those fearful sins, which make a\nsorrow-laden hell beneath the smiling surface of this pleasure-wooing\nworld, are left unheeded, unavenged by any earthly tribunal! But all\nthese things are noted in the eternal record of Him who searches the\nheart, and penetrates man's inmost being, not from a motive of mere\ncuriosity, but with fixed intent to award a righteous recompense for\nall choice and all conduct.\n\nThe calamities which marked the last years of Jehoiakim, and his\nignominious end, were a signal instance of Divine retribution. Here\nthat king's lawless avarice is branded as not only wicked but foolish.\nHe is compared to the partridge, which gathers and hatches the eggs of\nother birds, only to be deserted at once by her stolen brood.[72] \"In\nthe middle of his days, it shall leave him\" (or \"it may leave him,\"\nfor in Hebrew one form has to do duty for both shades of meaning). The\nuncertainty of possession, the certainty of absolute surrender within\na few short years, this is the point which demonstrates the unreason\nof making riches the chief end of one's earthly activity. \"Truly man\nwalketh in a vain shadow, and disquieteth himself in vain: he heapeth\nup riches, and cannot tell who shall gather them.\" It is the point\nwhich is put with such terrible force in the parable of the Rich Fool.\n\"Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for thyself for many years; take\nthine ease, eat, drink, and be merry.\" \"And the Lord said unto him,\nThou fool! this night shall thy soul be required of thee.\"\n\nThe covetousness, oppression, and bloodthirstiness of Jehoiakim are\ncondemned in a striking prophecy (xxii. 13-19), which we shall have to\nconsider hereafter. A vivid light is thrown upon the words, \"In the\nmiddle of his days it shall leave him,\" by the fact recorded in Kings\n(2 Kings xxiii. 36), that he died in the thirty-sixth year of his\nage; when, that is, he had fulfilled but half of the threescore years\nand ten allotted to the ordinary life of man. We are reminded of that\nother psalm which declares that \"bloody and deceitful men shall not\nlive out half their days\" (lv. 23).\n\nApart indeed from all consideration of the future, and apart from\nall reference to that loyalty to the Unseen Ruler which is man's\ninevitable duty, a life devoted to Mammon is essentially irrational.\nThe man is most truly a \"fool\"--that is, one who fails to understand\nhis own nature, one who has not attained to even a tolerable working\nhypothesis as to the needs of life, and the way to win a due share of\nhappiness;--who has not discovered that\n\n                 \"riches have their proper stint\n          In the contented mind, not mint;\"\n\nand that\n\n              \"those who have the itch\n          Of craving more, are never rich;\"\n\nand who has missed all apprehension of the grand secret that\n\n          \"Wealth cannot make a _life_, but love.\"\n\nFrom the vanity of earthly thrones, whether of Egypt or of Judah,\nthrones whose glory is transitory, and whose power to help and succour\nis so ill-assured, the prophet lifts his eyes to the one throne whose\nglory is everlasting, and whose power and permanence are an eternal\nrefuge.\n\n    \"Thou Throne of Glory, High Seat from of old,\n     Place of our Sanctuary, Hope of Israel, Iahvah!\n     All who leave Thee blush for shame;\n     Mine apostates are written in earth;\n     For they have forsaken the Well of Living Water, even Iahvah!\"\n\nIt is his concluding reflexion upon the unblest, unhonoured end of the\napostate Jehoiakim. If Isaiah could speak of Shebna as a \"throne of\nglory,\"[73] _i.e._, the honoured support and mainstay of his family,\nthere seems no reason why Iahvah might not be so addressed, as the\nsupporting power and sovereign of the world.\n\nThe terms \"Throne of Glory\" ... \"Place of our Sanctuary\" seem to be used\nmuch as we use the expressions, \"the Crown,\" \"the Court,\" \"the Throne,\"\nwhen we mean the actual ruler with whom these things are associated. And\nwhen the prophet declares \"Mine[74] apostates are written in earth,\" he\nasserts that oblivion is the portion of those of his people, high or\nlow, who forsake Iahvah for another god. Their names are not written in\nthe Book of Life (Ex. xxxii. 32; Ps. lxix. 28), but in the sand whence\nthey are soon effaced. The prophets do not attempt to expose\n\n          \"The sweet strange mystery\n           Of what beyond these things may lie.\"\n\nThey do not in express terms promise eternal life to the individual\nbeliever.\n\nBut how often do their words imply that comfortable doctrine! They\nwho forsake Iahvah must perish, for there is neither permanence nor\nstay apart from IAHVAH, whose very Name denotes _He who Is_, the\nsole Principle of Being and Fountain of Life. If they--nations and\npersons--who revolt from Him must die, the implication, the truth\nnecessary to complete this affirmation, is that they who trust in Him,\nand make Him their arm, will live; for union with Him is eternal life.\n\nIn this Fountain of Living Water Jeremiah now seeks healing for\nhimself. The malady that afflicts him is the apparent failure of\nhis oracles. He suffers as a prophet whose word seems idle to the\nmultitude. He is hurt with their scorn, and wounded to the heart with\ntheir scoffing. On all sides men press the mocking question, \"Where\nis the word of Iahvah? Prithee, let it come to pass!\" His threats of\nnational overthrow had not been speedily realized; and men made a mock\nof the delays of Divine mercy. Conscious of his own integrity, and\nkeenly sensitive to the ridicule of his triumphant adversaries, and\nscarcely able to endure longer his intolerable position, he pours out\na prayer for healing and help. _Heal me_, he cries, _and I shall be\nhealed, Save me and I shall be saved_--really and truly saved, as the\nform of the Hebrew term implies; _for Thou art my praise_, my boast\nand my glory, as the Book of the Law affirms (Deut. x. 21). I have not\ntrusted in man, but in God; and if this my sole glory be taken away,\nif events prove me a false prophet, as my friends allege, applying\nthe very test of the sacred Law (Deut. xviii. 21 _sq._), then shall\nI be of all men most forsaken and forlorn. The bitterness of his woe\nis intensified by the consciousness that he has not thrust himself\nwithout call into the prophetic office, like the false prophets whose\naim was to traffic in sacred things (xiv. 14, 15); for then the\nconsciousness of guilt might have made the punishment more tolerable,\nand the facts would have justified the jeers of his persecutors. But\nthe case was far otherwise. He had been most unwilling to assume the\nfunction of prophet; and it was only in obedience to the stress of\nrepeated calls that he had yielded. \"But as for me,\" he protests, \"I\nhasted not from being a shepherd to follow Thee.\" It would seem, if\nthis be the correct, as it certainly is the simplest rendering of\nhis words, that, at the time when he first became aware of his true\nvocation, the young prophet was engaged in tending the flocks that\ngrazed in the priestly pasture-grounds of Anathoth. In that case, we\nare reminded of David, who was summoned from the sheepfold to camp\nand court, and of Amos the prophet-herdsman of Tekoa. But the Hebrew\nterm translated \"from being a shepherd\" is probably a disguise of some\nother original expression; and it would involve no very violent change\nto read \"I made no haste to follow after Thee fully\" or \"entirely\"[75]\n(Deut. i. 36); a reading which is partially supported by the oldest\nversion. Or it may be even better, as involving a mere change in the\npunctuation,[76] to amend the text thus: \"But as for me, I made no\nhaste, in following thee,\" more literally, \"in accompanying thee\"\n(Judg. xiv. 20). This, however, is a point of textual criticism, which\nleaves the general sense the same in any case.\n\nWhen the prophet adds: \"and the ill day I desired not,\" some think\nthat he means the day when he surrendered to the Divine calling,\nand accepted his mission. But it seems to suit the context better,\nif we understand by the \"ill day\" the day of wrath whose coming was\nthe burden of his preaching; the day referred to in the taunts of\nhis enemies, when they asked \"Where is the word of Iahvah?\" adding\nwith biting sarcasm: \"Prithee, let it come to pass.\" They sneered at\nJeremiah as one who seized every occasion to predict evil, as one who\nlonged to witness the ruin of his country. The utter injustice of\nthe charge, in view of the frequent cries of anguish which interrupt\nhis melancholy forecasts, is no proof that it was not made. In all\nages, God's representatives have been called upon to endure false\naccusations. Hence the prophet appeals from man's unrighteous judgment\nto God the Searcher of hearts. \"_Thou_ knowest; the utterance of my\nlips (Deut. xxiii. 24) before Thy face it fell\": as if to say, No word\nof mine, spoken in Thy name, was a figment of my own fancy, uttered\nfor my own purposes, without regard of Thee. I have always spoken as\nin Thy presence, or rather, in Thy presence. Thou, who hearest all,\ndidst hear each utterance of mine; and therefore knowest that all I\nsaid was truthful and honest and in perfect accord with my commission.\n\nIf only we who, like Jeremiah, are called upon to speak for God, could\nalways remember that every word we say is uttered in that Presence,\nwhat a sense of responsibility would lie upon us; with what labour and\nprayers should we not make our preparation! Too often alas! it is to be\nfeared that our perception of the presence of man banishes all sense of\nany higher presence; and the anticipation of a fallible and frivolous\ncriticism makes us forget for the time the judgment of God. And yet \"by\nour words we shall be justified, and by our words we shall be condemned.\"\n\nIn continuing his prayer, Jeremiah adds the remarkable petition,\n\"Become not Thou to me a cause of dismay!\" He prays to be delivered\nfrom that overwhelming perplexity, which threatens to swallow him\nup, unless God should verify by events that which His own Spirit\nhas prompted him to utter. He prays that Iahvah, his only \"refuge\nin the day of evil,\" will not bemock him with vain expectations;\nwill not falsify His own guidance; will not suffer His messenger to\nbe \"ashamed,\" disappointed and put to the blush by the failure of\nhis predictions. And then once again, in the spirit of his time, he\nimplores vengeance upon his unbelieving and cruel persecutors: \"Let\nthem be ashamed,\" disappointed in their expectation of immunity, \"let\n_them_ be dismayed,\" crushed in spirit and utterly overcome by the\nfulfilment of his dark presages of evil. \"Let Thou come upon them a\nday of evil, And doubly with breaking break Thou them!\" This indeed\nasks no more than that what has been spoken before in the way of\nprophecy--\"I will repay the double of their guilt and their trespass\"\n(xvi. 18)--may be forthwith accomplished. And the provocation was,\nbeyond all question, immense. The hatred that burned in the taunt\n\"Where is the word of Iahvah? Prithee, let it come to pass!\" was\ndoubtless of like kind with that which at a later stage of Jewish\nhistory expressed itself in the words \"He trusted in God, let Him\ndeliver Him!\" \"If He be the Son of God, let Him now come down from the\ncross, and we will believe on Him!\"\n\nAnd how much fierce hostility that one term \"my pursuers\" may cover,\nit is easy to infer from the narratives of the prophet's evil\nexperience in chaps. xx., xxvi. and xxxviii. But allowing for all\nthis, we can at best only affirm that the prophet's imprecations\non his foes are natural and human; we cannot pretend that they are\nevangelical and Christ-like.[77] Besides, the latter would be a\ngratuitous anachronism, which no intelligent interpreter of Scripture\nis called upon to perpetrate. It is neither necessary to the proper\nvindication of the prophet's writings as truly inspired of God, nor\nhelpful to a right conception of the method of revelation.\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[57] HITZIG: (1) xiv. 1-9, 19-22: \"Lament and Prayer on occasion of\na Drought.\" (2) xiv. 10-18. \"Oracle against the false Prophets and\nthe misguided People\" (Hitzig mistakes the import of the phrase \u05dc\u05e0\u05d5\u05e2\n\u05d0\u05d4\u05d1\u05d5 \u05db\u05df, \"_Thus_ have they loved to wander,\" ver. 10; supposing that\nthe \"thus\" refers to xiii. 27, and that xiv. 1-9 is misplaced). (3)\nxv. 1-9. \"The incorrigible People will be punished mercilessly.\"\nHitzig thinks C. B. Michaelis wrong in asserting close connexion with\nthe end of the preceding chapter, because the intercession, vv. 2-9,\ndoes not agree with the prohibition, xiv. 11; and because xiv. 19-22,\nmerely prays for cessation of the Drought; while the rejection of \"the\nhypothetical intercession,\" xv. 1, delivers the people over to all\nthe horrors which follow in the train of war. xv. 1-9 may originally\nhave followed xiv. 18. But this is far from cogent reasoning. There\nis nothing surprising in the renewal of the prophet's intercession,\nexcept on a theory of strictly verbal inspiration; and xv. 1 _sqq._\nin refusing deliverance from the Drought, or rather in answer to the\nprayer imploring it, announces further and worse evils to follow.\n(4) \"Complaint of the Seer against Iahvah, and Soothing of his\nDejection,\" xv. 10-21. Hitzig thinks internal evidence here points to\nthe fourth year of Jehoiakim; and that xvii. 1-4 originally preceded\nthis section, especially as ch. xvi. connects closely with xv. 9. (5)\nxvi. 1-20. \"Prediction of an imminent general Judgment by Plague and\nCaptivity.\" Written immediately after xv. 1-9, and falls with that in\nthe short reign of Jehoiachin. (6) xvii. 1-4. \"Judah's unforgotten\nGuilt will be punished by Captivity.\" Wanting in LXX. (as early as\nJerome), but contains original of xv. 13, 14, and must therefore be\ngenuine. Belongs 602 B.C., year of Jehoiakim's revolt. (7) xvii. 5-18.\n\"The Vindication of Trust in God on Despisers and Believers. Prayer\nfor its Vindication.\" Date immediately after death of Jehoiakim. (8)\n19-27. \"Warning to keep the Sabbath.\" Time of Jehoiachin.\n\n[58] The Heb. verb \u05d7\u05b7\u05ea\u05b8\u05bc\u05d4 \"is broken\" may probably have this meaning.\n\"Dismayed\" is not nearly so suitable, though it is the usual meaning\nof the term. Cf. Isa. vii. 8.\n\n[59] Cf. viii. 9. \"And no wisdom is in them.\"\n\n[60] So Dathe, Naegelsbach.\n\n[61] Lit. \"all these things,\" _i.e._, this visible world. There is no\nHeb. special term for the \"universe\" or \"world.\" \"The all\" or \"heaven\nand earth,\" or the phrase in the text, are used in this sense.\n\n[62] The reference to an eclipse of the sun in the words\n\n    \"Her sun went down, while it yet was day;\n     He blushed and paled.\"\n\nappears fairly certain. Such an event is said to have occurred in that\npart of the world, Sept. 30, B.C. 610.\n\n[63] 13. Read \u05d1\u05de\u05ea\u05d9\u05da \"Thine high places\" for \u05d1\u05de\u05d7\u05d9\u05e8 \u05dc\u05d0 \"without price\";\nand transpose \u05d1\u05d7\u05d8\u05d0\u05ea (xvii. 3).\n\n[64] 14. Read \u05d5\u05d4\u05e2\u05d1\u05e8\u05ea\u05d9\u05da \"and I will make thee serve\" (xvii. 4) for\n\u05d5\u05d4\u05e2\u05d1\u05e8\u05ea\u05d9 \"and I will make to pass through....\"\n\nThe third member is a quotation from Deut. xxxii. 22. In the fourth,\nread \u05e2\u05dc\u05be\u05e2\u05d5\u05dc\u05dd \"for ever\" (xvii. 4) instead of \u05e2\u05dc\u05d9\u05db\u05dd \"upon you.\"\n\n[65] The tone of all this indicates that the prophet was no novice in\nhis office. It does not suit the time of Josiah; but agrees very well\nwith the time of confusion and popular dismay which followed his death.\nThat event must have brought great discredit upon Jeremiah and upon all\nwho had been instrumental in the religious changes of his reign.\n\n[66] Practices forbidden, Lev. xxi. 5; Deut. xiv. 1. Jeremiah mentions\nthem as ordinary signs of mourning, and doubtless they were general in\nhis time. An ancient usage, having its root in natural feeling, is not\neasily extirpated.\n\n[67] Naegelsbach.\n\n[68] The figure recalls the Persian custom of sweeping off the whole\npopulation of an island, by forming a line and marching over it, a\nprocess of extermination called by the Greek writers \u03c3\u03b1\u03b3\u03b7\u03bd\u03b5\u03cd\u03b5\u03b9\u03bd,\n\"fishing with a seine or drag-net\" (Herod. iii. 149, iv. 9, vi. 31).\n\n[69] For the construction, cf. Gen. i. 22; Jer. li. 11. Or \"With their\nabominations they filled, etc.,\" a double accusative.\n\n[70] _i.e._, Loose thine hold of ... let go ... release. Read \u05d9\u05d3\u05da for\n\u05d5\u05d1\u05da. The uses of \u05e9\u05b4\u05de\u05d8 \"to throw down,\" \"let fall,\" resemble those of\nthe Greek \u1f35\u03b7\u03bc\u03b9 and its compounds. I corrected the passage thus, to\nfind afterwards that I had been anticipated by J. D. Michaelis, Graf,\nand others.\n\n[71] There is something strange about the phrase \"by (upon, _`al_) the\nevergreen tree.\" Twenty-five Heb. MSS., the Targ., and the Syriac,\nread \"every\" (_kol_) for \"upon\" (_`al_). We still feel the want of a\npreposition, and may confidently restore \"under\" (_ta\u1e2bath_), from the\nnine other passages in which \"evergreen tree\" (`_ec\u0330 ra`anan_) occurs\nin connexion with idolatrous worship. In all these instances the\nexpression is \"under every evergreen tree\" (_ta\u1e2bath kol `ec\u0330 ra`anan_);\nfrom the Book of the Law (Deut. xii. 2), whence Jeremiah probably\ndrew the phrase, to 2 Chron. xxviii. 4. Jeremiah has already used the\nphrase thrice (ii. 20, iii. 6, 13), in exactly the same form. The other\npassages are Ezek. vi. 13; Isa. lvii. 5; 2 Kings xvi. 4, xvii. 10. The\ncorruption of _kol_ into _`al_ is found elsewhere. Probably _ta\u1e2bath_ had\ndropt out of the text, before the change took place here.\n\n[72] A popular opinion of the time.\n\n[73] Isa. xxii. 23.\n\n[74] The Heb. term is probably written with omission of the final\n_mem_, a common abbreviation; and the right reading may be \u05d5\u05e1\u05d5\u05e8\u05d9\u05dd \"and\napostates.\"\n\n[75] \u05de\u05dc\u05d0 for \u05de\u05e8\u05e2\u05d4.\n\n[76] \u05de\u05b4\u05e8\u05b0\u05e2\u05b5\u05d4 for \u05de\u05b5\u05e8\u05b9\u05e2\u05b4\u05d4.\n\n[77] I have left this paragraph as I wrote it, although I feel great\ndoubts upon the subject. What I have remarked elsewhere on similar\npassages, should be considered along with the present suggestions. We\nhave especially to remember, (i) the peculiar status of the speaker as\na true prophet; and (ii) the terrible invectives of Christ Himself on\ncertain occasions (St. Matt. xxiii. 33-35; St. Luke x. 15; St. John\nviii. 44).\n\n\n\n\n                                   X.\n\n                       _THE SABBATH--A WARNING._\n\n                         JEREMIAH xvii. 19-27.\n\n\n_\"Thus said Iahvah unto me: Go and stand in the gate of Benjamin,\nwhereby the kings of Judah come in, and whereby they go out; and\nin all the gates of Jerusalem. And say unto them, Hear ye the word\nof Iahvah, O kings of Judah, and all Judah, and all inhabitants of\nJerusalem, who come in by these gates!\n\n\"Thus said Iahvah: Beware, on your lives, and bear ye not a burden\non the Day of Rest, nor bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem! Nor\nshall ye bring a burden forth out of your houses on the Day of Rest,\nnor shall ye do any work; but ye shall hallow the Day of Rest, as I\ncommanded your fathers. (Albeit, they hearkened not, nor inclined\ntheir ear, but stiffened their neck against hearkening, and against\nreceiving instruction.)\n\n\"And it shall come to pass, if ye will indeed hearken unto Me, saith\nIahvah, not to bring a burden in by the gates of this city on the\nDay of Rest, but to hallow the Day of Rest, not to do therein any\nwork; then there shall come in by the gates of this city kings_\n[_and princes_] _sitting upon the throne of David, riding on the\nchariots and on the horses, they and their princes, O men of Judah\nand inhabitants of Jerusalem! and this city shall be inhabited for\never. And people shall come in from_ _the cities of Judah and from\nthe places round Jerusalem, and from the land of Benjamin, and from\nthe lowlands, and from the hill-country, and from the south, bringing\nin burnt-offering and thank-offering, and oblation and incense; and\nbringing a thanksgiving into the house of Iahvah.\n\n\"And if ye hearken not unto Me to hallow the Day of Rest, and not\nto bear a burden and come in by the gates of Jerusalem on the Day\nof Rest: I will kindle a fire in her gates, and it shall devour the\npalaces of Jerusalem, and shall not be quenched.\"_\n\nThe matter and manner of this brief oracle mark it off from those\nwhich precede it as an independent utterance, and a whole complete\nin itself. Its position may be accounted for by its probable date,\nwhich may be fixed a little after the previous chapters, in the\nthree months' reign of the ill-starred Jehoiachin; and by the\nwriter's or his editor's desire to break the monotony of commination\nby an occasional gleam of hope and promise. At the same time, the\nintroductory formula with which it opens is so similar to that of the\ntwo following oracles (chaps. xviii., xix.), as to suggest the idea of\na connexion in time between the members of the group. Further, there\nis an obvious connexion of thought between chaps. xviii., xix. In the\nformer, the house of Israel is represented as clay in the hand of the\nDivine Potter; in the latter, Judah is a potter's vessel destined\nto be broken in pieces. And if we assume the priority of the piece\nbefore us, a logical progress is observable, from the alternative here\npresented for the people's choice, to their decision for the worse\npart (xviii. 12 _sqq._), and then to the corresponding decision on the\npart of Iahvah (xix.). Or, as Hitzig puts it otherwise, in the piece\nbefore us the scales are still in equipoise; in chap. xviii. one goes\ndown; Iahvah intends mischief (ver. 11), and the people are invited\nto appease His anger. But the warning is fruitless; and therefore\nthe prophet announces their destruction, depicting it in the darkest\ncolours (chap. xix.). The immediate consequence to Jeremiah himself is\nrelated in chap. xx. 1-6; and it is highly probable that the section,\nchap. xxi. 11-xxii. 9, is the continuation of the oracle addressed\nto Pashchur: so that we have before us a whole group of prophecies\nbelonging to the same eventful period of the prophet's activity (xvii.\n20 agrees closely with xxii. 2, and xvii. 25 with xxii. 4).\n\nThe circumstances of the present oracle are these. Jeremiah is\ninwardly bidden to station himself first in \"the gate of the sons of\nthe people\"--a gate of Jerusalem which we cannot further determine,\nas it is not mentioned elsewhere under this designation, but which\nappears to have been a special resort of the masses of the population,\nbecause it was the one by which the kings were wont to enter and leave\nthe city, and where they doubtless were accustomed to hear petitions\nand to administer justice; and afterwards, he is to take his stand in\nall the gates in turn, so as not to miss the chance of delivering his\nmessage to any of his countrymen. He is there to address the \"kings\nof Judah\" (ver. 20); an expression which may denote the young king\nJehoiachin and his mother (xiii. 18), or the king and the princes of\nthe blood, the \"House of David\" of chap. xxi. 12. The promise \"kings\nshall come in by the gates of this city ... and this city shall be\ninhabited for ever,\" and the threat \"I will kindle a fire in her\ngates, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem,\" may be taken\nto imply a time when the public danger was generally recognised. The\nfirst part of the promise may be intended to meet an apprehension,\nsuch as might naturally be felt after the death of Jehoiakim, that\nthe incensed Chaldeans would come and take away the Jewish place and\nnation. In raising the boy Jehoiachin to the throne of his fathers,\nmen may have sorrowfully foreboded that, as the event proved, he would\nnever keep his crown till manhood, nor beget a race of future kings.\n\nThe matter of the charge to rulers and people is the due observance of\nthe fourth commandment: \"ye shall hallow the Day of Rest, as I commanded\nyour fathers\" (see Ex. xx. 8, \"Remember the Day of Rest, to hallow\nit\"--which is probably the original form of the precept. Jeremiah,\nhowever, probably had in mind the form of the precept as it appears in\nDeuteronomy: \"Observe the Day of Rest to hallow it, as Iahvah thy God\ncommanded thee:\" Deut. v. 12). The Hebrew term for \"hallow\" means _to\nseparate_ a thing from common things, and devote it to God.\n\nTo hallow the Day of Rest, therefore, is to make a marked distinction\nbetween it and ordinary days, and to connect it in some way with\nreligion. What is here commanded is to abstain from \"bearing burdens,\"\nand doing any kind of work (_melakah_, Gen. ii. 2, 3; Ex. xx. 9, 10,\nxxxi. 14, 15; Gen. xxxix. 11, \"appointed task,\" \"duty,\" \"business\").\nThe bearing of burdens into the gates and out of the houses clearly\ndescribes the ordinary commerce between town and country. The country\nfolk are forbidden to bring their farm produce to the market in\nthe city gates, and the townspeople to convey thither from their\nhouses and shops the manufactured goods which they were accustomed\nto barter for these. Nehemiah's memoirs furnish a good illustration\nof the general sense of the passage (Neh. xiii. 15), relating how he\nsuppressed this Sabbath traffic between town and country. Dr. Kuenen\nhas observed that \"Jeremiah is the first of the prophets who stands\nup for a stricter sanctification of the seventh day, treating it,\nhowever, merely as a day of rest.... What was traditional appears\nto have been only abstinence from field-work, and perhaps also from\nprofessional pursuits.\" In like manner, he had before stated that\n\"tendencies to such an exaggeration of the Sabbath rest as would\nmake it absolute, are found from the Chaldean period. Isaiah (i. 13)\nregards the Sabbath purely as a sacrificial day.\" The last statement\nhere is hardly a fair inference. In the passage referred to Isaiah\nis inveighing against the futile worship of his contemporaries; and\nhe only mentions the Sabbath in this connexion. And that \"tradition\"\nrequired more than \"abstinence from field-work\" is evident from words\nof the prophet Amos, written at least a century and a half before the\npresent oracle, and implying that very abstinence from trading which\nJeremiah prescribes. Amos makes the grasping dealers of his time cry\nimpatiently, \"When will the new moon be gone, that we may sell corn?\nand the sabbath, that we may set out wheat for sale?\" (Amos viii. 5);\na clear proof that buying and selling were suspended on the sabbath\nfestival in the eighth century B.C.\n\nIt is hardly likely that, when law or custom compelled covetous dealers\nto cease operations on the Sabbath, and buying and selling, the\nprincipal business of the time, was suspended, the artisans of town or\ncountry would be allowed by public opinion to ply their everyday tasks.\nAccordingly, when Jeremiah adds to his prohibition of Sabbath trading,\na veto upon any kind of \"work\"--a term which includes this trafficking,\nbut also covers the labour of handicraftsmen (cf. 1 Kings v. 30; 2 Kings\nxii. 12; Ex. xxxv. 35)--he is not really increasing the stringency of\nthe traditional rule about Sabbath observance.\n\nFurther, it is difficult to understand how Dr. Kuenen could gather\nfrom this passage that Jeremiah treats the Sabbath \"merely as a\nday of rest.\" This negative character of mere cessation from work,\nof enforced idleness, is far from being the sole feature of the\nSabbath, either in Jeremiah's view of it, or as other more ancient\nauthorities represent it. The testimony of the passage before us\nproves, if proof were needed, that the Sabbath was a day of worship.\nThis is implied both by the phrase \"ye shall hallow the Day of Rest,\"\nthat is, consecrate it to Iahvah; and by the promise that if the\nprecept be observed faithfully, abundant offerings shall flow into\nthe temple from all parts of the country, that is, as the context\nseems to require, for the due celebration of the Sabbath festival.\nThere is an intentional contrast between the bringing of innumerable\nvictims, and \"bearing burdens\" of flour and oil and incense on the\nSabbath, for the joyful service of the temple, including the festal\nmeal of the worshippers, and that other carriage of goods for merely\nsecular objects. And as the wealth of the Jerusalem priesthood chiefly\ndepended upon the abundance of the sacrifices, it may be supposed\nthat Jeremiah thus gives them a hint that it is really their interest\nto encourage the observance of the law of the Sabbath. For if men\nwere busy with their buying and selling, their making and mending,\nupon the seventh as on other days, they would have no more time or\ninclination for religious duties, than the Sunday traders of our large\ntowns have under the vastly changed conditions of the present day.\nMoreover, the teaching of our prophet in this matter takes for granted\nthat of his predecessors, with whose writings he was thoroughly\nacquainted. If in this passage he does not expressly designate the\nSabbath as a religious festival, it is because it seemed needless to\nstate a thing so obvious, so generally recognised in theory, however\nloosely observed in practice. The elder prophets Hosea, Amos, Isaiah,\nassociate Sabbath and new moon together as days of festal rejoicing,\nwhen men appeared before Iahvah, that is, repaired to the sanctuary\nfor worship and sacrifice (Hos. ii. 11; Isa. i. 11-14), and when all\nordinary business was consequently suspended (Amos viii. 5).\n\nIt is clear, then, from this important passage of Jeremiah that in his\ntime and by himself the Sabbath was still regarded under the double\naspect of a religious feast and a day of cessation from labour, the\nlatter being, as in the ancient world generally, a natural consequence\nof the former characteristic. Whether the abolition of the local\nsanctuaries in the eighteenth year of Josiah resulted in any practical\nmodification of the conception of the Sabbath, so that, in the words\nof Professor Robertson Smith, \"it became for most Israelites an\ninstitution of humanity divorced from ritual,\" is rendered doubtful by\nthe following considerations. The period between the reform of Josiah\nand the fall of Jerusalem was very brief, including not more than\nabout thirty-five years (621-586, according to Wellhausen). But that\na reaction followed the disastrous end of the royal Reformer, is both\nlikely under the circumstances, and implied by the express assertions\nof the author of Kings, who declares of the succeeding monarchs that\nthey \"did evil in the sight of the Lord according to all that their\nfathers had done.\" As Wellhausen writes: \"the battle of Megiddo had\nshown that in spite of the covenant with Jehovah the possibilities\nof non-success in war remained the same as before\": so at least it\nwould appear to the unspiritual mind of a populace, still hankering\nafter the old forms of local worship, with their careless connivance\nat riot and disorder. It is not probable that a rapacious and bloody\ntyrant, like Jehoiakim, would evince more tenderness for the ritual\nlaws than for the moral precepts of Deuteronomy. It is likely, then,\nthat the worship at the local high places revived during this and\nthe following reigns, just as it had revived after its temporary\nabolition by Hezekiah (2 Kings xviii. 22). Moreover, it is with Judah,\nnot ruined and depopulated Israel, that we have to deal; and even in\nJudah the people must by this time have been greatly reduced by war\nand its attendant evils, so that Jerusalem itself and its immediate\nneighbourhood probably comprised the main part of the population\nto which Jeremiah addressed his discourses during this period. The\nbulk of the little nation would, in fact, naturally concentrate upon\nJerusalem, in the troublous times that followed the death of Josiah.\nIf so, it is superfluous to assume that \"most men could only visit\nthe central altar at rare intervals\" during these last decades of the\nnational existence.[79] The change of view belongs rather to the\nsixth than the seventh century, to Babylonia rather than to Judea.\n\nThe Sabbath observance prescribed by the old Law, and recommended by\nJeremiah, was indeed a very different thing from the pedantic and\nburdensome obligation which it afterwards became in the hands of\nscribes and Pharisees. These, with their long catalogue of prohibited\nworks, and their grotesque methods of evading the rigour of their\nown rules, had succeeded in making what was originally a joyous\nfestival and day of rest for the weary, into an intolerable interlude\nof joyless restraint; when our Lord reminded them that the Sabbath\nwas made for man, and not man for the Sabbath (St. Mark ii. 27).\nTreating the strict observance of the day as an end in itself, they\nforgot or ignored the fact that the oldest forms of the sacred Law\nagreed in justifying the institution by religious and humanitarian\nconsiderations (Ex. xx. 8, 10; Deut. v. 12). The difference in the\ngrounds assigned by the different legislations--Deuteronomy alleging\nneither the Divine Rest of Exodus xx., nor the sign of Exodus xxxi.\n13, but the enlightened and enduring motive \"that thy bondman and\nthine handmaid may rest as well as thou,\" coupled with the feeling\ninjunction, \"Remember that thou wast a bondman in the land of Egypt\"\n(Deut. v. 14, 15)--need not here be discussed; for in any case, the\ndifferent motives thus suggested were enough to make it clear to those\nwho had eyes to see, that the Sabbath was not anciently conceived\nas an arbitrary institution established purely for its own sake,\nand without reference to ulterior considerations of public benefit.\nThe Book of the Covenant affirmed the principle of Sabbath rest in\nthese unmistakable terms: \"Six days thou mayst do thy works, and on\nthe seventh day thou shalt leave off, that thine ox and thine ass\nmay rest, and the son of thine handmaid\"--the home-born slave--\"and\nthe alien may be refreshed\" (Ex. xxiii. 12), lit. recover breath,\nhave respite. The humane care of the lawgiver for the dumb toilers\nand slaves requires no comment; and we have already noticed the same\nspirit of humanity in the later precept of the Book of the Law (Deut.\nv. 14, 15). These older rules, it will be observed, are perfectly\ngeneral in their scope, and forbid not particular actions (Ex. xvi.\n23, xxxv. 3; Num. xv. 32), but the continuance of ordinary labour;\nprescribing a merciful intermission alike for the cattle employed in\nhusbandry and as beasts of burden, and for all classes of dependents.\n\nThe origin of the Sabbath festival is lost in obscurity. When the\nunknown writer of Gen. i. so beautifully connects it with the creation\nof the world, he betrays not only the belief of his contemporaries in\nits immemorial antiquity, but also a true perception of the utility\nof the institution, its perfect adaptation to the wants of humanity.\nHe expresses his sense of the fact in the most emphatic way possible,\nby affirming the Divine origin of an institution whose value to man\nis divinely great; and by carrying back that origin to the very\nbeginning, he implies that the Sabbath was made for mankind and not\nmerely for Israel. To whom indeed could an ancient Jewish writer refer\nas the original source of this unique blessing of a Day of Rest and\ndrawing near to God, if not to Iahvah, the fountain of all things good?\n\nThat Moses, the founder of the nation, gave Israel the Sabbath,\nis as likely as anything can be. Whether, in doing so, he simply\nsanctioned an ancient and salutary custom (investing it perhaps with\nnew and better associations), dating from the tribal existence of the\nfathers in Chaldea, or ordered the matter so in purposeful contrast\nto the Egyptian week of ten days, cannot at present be determined.\nThe Sabbath of Israel, both that of the prophets and that of the\nscribes, was an institution which distinguished the nation from all\nothers in the period open to historical scrutiny; and with this\nknowledge we may rest content. That which made Israel what it was, and\nwhat it became to the world; the total of the good which this people\nrealized, and left as a priceless heritage to mankind for ever, was\nthe outcome, not of what it had in common with heathen antiquity,\nbut of what was peculiar to itself in ideas and institutions. We\ncannot be too strongly on our guard against assuming external,\nsuperficial, and often accidental resemblances, to be an index of\ninward and essential likeness and unity. Whatever approximations\nmay be established by modern arch\u00e6ology between Israel and kindred\npeoples, it will still be true that those points of contact do not\nexplain, though to the apprehension of individuals they may obscure\nwhat is truly characteristic of Israel, and what alone gives that\nnation its imperishable significance in the history of the world.\nAfter all deductions made upon such grounds, nothing can abolish the\nforce of the fact that Moses and the prophets do not belong to Moab,\nAmmon, or Edom; that the Old Testament, though written in the language\nof Canaan, is not a monument of Canaanite but of Israelite faith;\nthat the Christ did not spring out of Babylon or Egypt, and that\nChristianity is not explicable as the last development of Accadian\nmagic or Egyptian animal worship.\n\nTo those who believe that the prophets enjoyed a higher and less\nfallible guidance than human fancy, reflexion, experience; who\nrecognise in the general aim and effect of their teaching, as\ncontrasted with that of other teachers, the best proof that their\nminds were subject to an influence and a spirit transcending the\ncommon limits of humanity; the prominence given by Jeremiah to the law\nof the Sabbath will be sufficient evidence of the importance of that\nlaw to the welfare of his contemporaries, if not of all subsequent\ngenerations. If we have rightly assigned the piece to the reign of\nJehoiachin, we may suppose that among the contrary currents which\nagitated the national life at that crisis, there were indications\nof repentance and remorse at the misdoings of the late reign. The\npresent utterance of the prophet might then be regarded as a test of\nthe degree and worth of the revulsion of popular feeling towards the\nGod of the Fathers. The nation was trembling for its existence; and\nJeremiah met its fears, by pointing out the path of safety. Here was\none special precept hitherto but little observed. Would they keep it\nnow and henceforth, in token of a genuine obedience? Repentance in\ngeneral terms is never difficult. The rub is _conduct_. Recognition\nof the Divine Law is easy, so long as life is not submitted to its\ncontrol. The prophet thus proposes, in a single familiar instance, a\nplain test of sincerity, which is perhaps not less applicable in our\nown day than it was then.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThe wording of the final threat suggests a thought of solemn\nconsequence for ourselves. \"I will kindle a fire in her gates, and it\nshall devour the castles of Jerusalem--and shall not be quenched!\"\nThe gates were the scene of Judah's sinful breach of the Sabbath\nlaw, and in them her punishment is to begin. So in the after life of\nthe lost those parts of the physical and mental organism which have\nbeen the principal seats of sin, the means and instruments of man's\nmisdoing, will also be the seat of keenest suffering, the source\nand abode of the most poignant misery. \"The fire that never shall\nbe quenched\"--Jesus has spoken of that awful mystery, as well as\nJeremiah. It is the ever-kindling, never-dying fire of hopeless and\ninsatiable desire; it is the withering flame of hatred of self, when\nthe castaway sees with open eyes what that self has become; it is the\nburning pain of a sleepless memory of the unalterable past; it is the\npiercing sense of a life flung recklessly to ruin; it is the scorching\nshame, the scathing self-contempt, the quenchless, raging thirst\nfor deliverance from ourselves; it is the fearful consciousness of\nself-destruction, branded upon the soul for ever and ever!\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[78] The context is against supposing, with Graf, that the prophet's\ncall \"hear ye!\" extends also to princes yet unborn (cf. xiii. 13;\nxxv. 18 is different). If, however, it be thought that Jeremiah\naddressed not the sovereigns personally, but only the people passing\nin and out of the gates; then the expression becomes intelligible as\na generalised plural, like the parallels in 2 Chron. xxviii. 3 (\"his\nchildren\"), _ibid._ 16 (\"the kings of Assyria\" = Tiglath-pileser II.).\nThe prophet might naturally avoid the singular as too personal, in\naffirming an obligation which lay upon the Judean kings in general.\n\n[79] _Encycl. Britann._, _s.v._ Sabbath, p. 125.\n\n\n\n\n                                  XI.\n\n                          _THE DIVINE POTTER._\n\n                            JEREMIAH xviii.\n\n\nJeremiah goes down into the Lower Town, or the valley between the\nupper and lower city; and there his attention is arrested by a potter\nsitting at work before his wheel. As the prophet watches, a vessel\nis spoiled in the making under the craftsman's hand; so the process\nbegins afresh, and out of the same lump of clay another vessel is\nmoulded, according to the potter's fancy.\n\nReflecting upon what he had seen, Jeremiah recognised a Divine Word\nalike in the impulse which led him thither, and in the familiar\nactions of the potter. Perhaps as he sat meditating at home, or\npraying in the court of the temple, the thought had crossed his mind\nthat Iahvah was the Potter, and mankind the clay in His hands; a\nthought which recurs so often in the eloquent pages of the second\nIsaiah, who was doubtless indebted to the present oracle for the\nsuggestion of it. Musing upon this thought, Jeremiah wandered\nhalf-unconsciously down to the workshop of the potter; and there,\nunder the influence of the Divine Spirit, his thought developed itself\ninto a lesson for his people and for us.\n\n_Cannot I do unto you like this potter, O house of_ _Israel? saith\nIahvah; Behold, as the clay in the potter's hand, so are ye in My\nhand, O house of Israel._ Iahvah has an absolute control over His\npeople and over all peoples, to shape their condition and to alter\ntheir destiny; a control as absolute as that of the potter over the\nclay between his hands, which he moulds and remoulds at will. Men\nare wholly malleable in the hands of their Maker; incapable, by the\nnature of things, of any real resistance to His purpose. If the\nfirst intention of the potter fail in the execution, he does not\nfail to realize his plan on a second trial. And if man's nature and\ncircumstances appear for a time to thwart the Maker's design; if the\nunyielding pride and intractable temper of a nation mar its beauty and\nworth in the eyes of its Creator, and render it unfit for its destined\nuses and functions; He can take away the form He has given, and reduce\nHis work to shapelessness, and remodel the ruined mass into accordance\nwith His sovereign design. Iahvah, the supreme Author of all\nexistence, can do this. It is evident that the Creator can do as He\nwill with His creature. But all His dealings with man are conditioned\nby moral considerations. He meddles with no nation capriciously,\nand irrespective of its attitude towards His laws. _At one moment I\nthreaten a nation and a kingdom that I will uproot and pull down and\ndestroy. And that nation which I threatened returneth from its evil,\nand I repent of the evil that I purposed to do it. And at another\nmoment, I promise a nation and a kingdom that I will build and plant.\nAnd it doeth the Evil in Mine eyes, in not hearkening unto My voice;\nand I repent of the good that I said I would do it_ (vv. 7-10).\n\nThis is a bold affirmation, impressive in its naked simplicity and\ndirectness of statement, of a truth which in all ages has taken\npossession of minds at all capable of a comprehensive survey of national\nexperience; the truth that there is a power revealing itself in the\nchanges and chances of human history, shaping its course, and giving\nit a certain definite direction, not without regard to the eternal\nprinciples of morality. When in some unexpected calamity which strikes\ndown an individual sinner, men recognise a \"judgment\" or an instance of\n\"the visitation of God,\" they infringe the rule of Christian charity,\nwhich forbids us to judge our brethren. Yet such judgment, liable as it\nis to be too readily suggested by private ill-will, envy and other evil\npassions, which warp the even justice that should guide our decisions,\nand blind the mind to its own lack of impartiality, is in general the\nperversion of a true instinct which persists in spite of all scientific\nsophistries and philosophic fallacies. For it is an irrepressible\ninstinct rather than a reasoned opinion which makes us all believe,\nhowever inconsistently and vaguely, that God rules; that Providence\nasserts itself in the stream of circumstance, in the current of human\naffairs. The native strength of this instinctive belief is shewn by its\nsurvival in minds that have long since cast off allegiance to religious\ncreeds. It only needs a sudden sense of personal danger, the sharp shock\nof a serious accident, the foreboding of bitter loss, the unexpected but\nutter overthrow of some well-laid scheme that seemed assured of success,\nto stir the faith that is latent in the depths of the most callous and\nworldly heart, and to force the acknowledgment of a righteous Judge\nenthroned above.\n\nCompared with the mysterious Power which evinces itself continuously\nin the apparent chaos of conflicting events, man's free will is like\nthe eddy whirling round upon the bosom of a majestic river as it\nfloats irresistibly onward to its goal, bearing the tiny vortex along\nwith it. Man's power of self-determination no more interferes with the\ncounsels of Providence than the diurnal revolution of the earth on its\naxis interferes with its annual revolution round the sun. The greater\ncomprises the less; and God includes the world.\n\nThe Creator has implanted in the creature a power of choice between\ngood and evil, which is a pale reflexion of His own tremendous Being.\nBut how can we even imagine the dependent, the limited, the finite,\nacting independently of the will of the Absolute and Infinite? The\nfish may swim against the ocean current; but can it swim at all out\nof the ocean? Its entire activity depends upon the medium in which it\nlives and moves and has its being.\n\nBut Jeremiah exposes the secret of Providence to the eyes of his\nfellow-countrymen for a particular purpose. His aim is to eradicate\ncertain prevalent misconceptions, so as to enable them to rightly\napprehend the meaning of God's present dealings with themselves.\nThe popular belief was that Zion was an inviolable sanctuary; that\nwhatever disasters might have befallen the nation in the past, or\nmight be imminent in the future, Iahvah could not, for His own sake,\npermit the extinction of Judah as a nation. For then His worship,\nthe worship of the temple, the sacrifices of the one altar, would be\nabolished; and His honour and His Name would be forgotten among men.\nThese were the thoughts which comforted them in the trying time when\na thousand rumours of the coming of the Chaldeans to punish their\nrevolt were flying about the land; and from day to day men lived in\ntrembling expectation of impending siege and slaughter. These were\nthe beliefs which the popular prophets, themselves probably in most\ncases fanatical believers in their own doctrine, vehemently maintained\nin opposition to Jeremiah. Above all, there was the covenant between\nIahvah and His people, admitted as a fact both by Jeremiah and his\nopponents. Was it conceivable that the God of the Fathers, who had\nchosen them and their posterity to be His people for ever, would turn\nfrom His purpose, and reject His chosen utterly?\n\nJeremiah meets these popular illusions by applying his analogy of the\npotter. The potter fashions a mass of clay into a vessel; and Iahvah had\nfashioned Israel into a nation. But as though the mass of inert matter\nhad proven unwieldy or stubborn to the touches of his plastic hands;\nas the wheel revolved, a misshapen product resulted, which the artist\nbroke up again, and moulded afresh on his wheel, till it emerged a fair\ncopy of his ideal. And so, in the revolutions of time, Israel had failed\nof realizing the design of his Maker, and had become a vessel of wrath\nfitted to destruction. But as the rebellious lump was fashioned again by\nthe deft hand of the master, so might this refractory people be broken\nand built up anew by the Divine master hand.\n\nIn the light of this analogy, the prophet interprets the existing\ncomplications of the political world. The serious dangers impending\nover the nation are a sure symptom that the Divine Potter is at work,\n\"moulding\" an evil fate for Judah and Jerusalem. \"And now prithee say\nunto the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem:\n\n    \"Thus hath Iahvah said,\n     Behold I am moulding evil against you,\n     And devising a device against you!\"\n\nBut Iahvah's menaces are not the mere vent of a tyrant's caprice or\ncauseless anger: they are a deliberate effort to break the hard heart,\nto reduce it to contrition, to prepare it for a new creation in a more\nglorious likeness. Therefore the threat closes with an entreaty:\n\n    \"Return ye, I pray you, each from his evil way,\n     And make good your ways and your doings!\"\n\nIf the prophetic warning fulfil its purpose, and the nation repent,\nthen as in the case of Nineveh, which repented at the preaching of\nJonah, the sentence of destruction is revoked, and the doomed nation\nis granted a new lease of life. The same truth holds good reversely.\nGod's promises are as conditional as His threats. If a nation lapse\nfrom original righteousness, the sure consequence is the withdrawal\nof Divine favour, and all of blessing and permanence that it confers.\nIt is evident that the prophet directly contradicts the popular\npersuasion, which was also the current teaching of his professional\nopponents, that Iahvah's promises to Israel are absolute, that is,\nirrespective of moral considerations. Jeremiah is revealing, in terms\nsuited to the intelligence of his time, the true law of the Divine\ndealings with Israel and with man. And what he has here written, it\nis important to bear in mind, when we are studying other passages of\nhis writings and those of his predecessors, which foreshow judgments\nand mercies to individual peoples. However absolute the language\nof prediction, the qualification here supplied must usually be\nunderstood; so that it is not too much to say that this remarkable\nutterance is one of the keys to the comprehension of Hebrew prophecy.\n\nBut now, allowing for antique phraseology, and for the immense\ndifference between ancient and modern modes of thought and expression;\nallowing also for the new light shed upon the problems of life and\nhistory by the teaching of Him who has supplemented all that was\nincomplete in the doctrine of the prophets and the revelation granted\nto the men of the elder dispensation; must we pronounce this oracle\nof Jeremiah's substantially true or the contrary? Is the view thus\nformulated an obsolete opinion, excusable in days when scientific\nthinking was unknown; useful indeed for the furtherance of the immediate\naims of its authors, but now to be rejected wholly as a profound\nmistake, which modern enlightenment has at once exposed and rendered\nsuperfluous to an intelligent faith in the God of the prophets?\n\nHere and everywhere else, Jeremiah's language is in form highly\nanthropomorphic. If it was to arrest the attention of the multitude,\nit could not well have been otherwise. He seems to say that God\nchanges His intentions, according as a nation changes its behaviour.\nSomething must be allowed for style, in a writer whose very prose is\nmore than half poetry, and whose utterances are so often lyrical in\nform as well as matter. The Israelite thinkers, however, were also\nwell aware that the Eternal is superior to change; as is clear from\nthat striking word of Samuel: \"The Glory of Israel lieth not nor\nrepenteth; for He is not man, that He should repent\" (1 Sam. xv. 29).\nAnd prophetic passages like that in Kings, which so nobly declares\nthat the heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain God (cf. Jer.\nxxiii. 24), or that of the second Isaiah which affirms that the Divine\nways and purposes are as much higher than those of His people, as the\nheavens are higher than the earth (Isa. lv. 9), prove that the vivid\nanthropomorphic expressions of the popular teaching of the prophets\nought in mere justice to be limited by these wider conceptions of the\nDivine Nature and attributes. These passages are quite enough to clear\nthe prophets of the accusation of entertaining such gross and crude\nideas of Deity as those which Xenophanes ridiculed, and which find\ntheir embodiment in most mythologies.\n\nThere is indeed a sense in which all thinking, not only thought about\nGod, but about the natural world, must be anthropomorphic. Man is\nunquestionably \"the measure of all things,\" and he measures by a\nhuman standard. He interprets the world without in terms of his own\nconsciousness; he imposes the forms and moulds of his own mind upon\nthe universal mass of things. Time, space, matter, motion, number,\nweight, organ, function,--what are all these but inward conceptions\nby which the mind reduces a chaos of conflicting impressions to order\nand harmony? What the external world may be, apart from our ideas of\nit, no philosopher pretends to be able to say; and an equal difficulty\nembarrasses those who would define what the Deity is, apart from His\nrelations to man. But then it is only those relations that really\nconcern us; everything else is idle speculation, little becoming to\ncreatures so frail and ephemeral as we.\n\nFrom this point of view, we may fairly ask, what difference it makes\nwhether the prophet affirm that Iahvah repents of retributive designs,\nwhen a nation repents of its sins, or that a nation's repentance will\nbe followed by the restoration of temporal prosperity. It is a mere\nmatter of statement; and the former way of putting the truth was the\nmore intelligible way to his contemporaries, and has, besides, the\nadvantage of implying the further truth that the fortunes of nations\ndo not depend upon a blind and inexorable fate, but upon the Will\nand Law of a holy God. It affirms a Lawmaker as well as a Law, a\nProvidence as well as an uniform sequence of events.\n\nThe prophet asserts, then, that nations reap what they have sown;\nthat their history is, in general, a record of God's judgments upon\ntheir ways and doings. This is, of course, a matter of faith, as are\nall beliefs about the Unseen; but it is a faith which has its root\nin an apparently ineradicable instinct of humanity. \u0394\u03c1\u03ac\u03c3\u03b1\u03bd\u03c4\u03b9 \u03c0\u03b1\u03b8\u03b5\u1fd6\u03bd,\n\"The doer must suffer,\" is not a conviction of Hebrew religion only;\nit belongs to the universal religious consciousness. Some critics are\nfond of pronouncing the \"policy\" of the prophets a mistaken one. They\ncommend the high tone of their moral teachings, but consider their\nforecasts of the future and interpretations of passing events, as\nerroneous deductions from their general views of the Divine nature.\nWe are not well acquainted with the times and circumstances under\nwhich the prophets wrote and spoke. This is true even in the case of\nJeremiah; the history of the time exists only in the barest outline.\nBut the writings of an Isaiah or an Amos make it difficult to suppose\nthat their authors would not have occupied a leading position in any\nage and nation; their thought is the highest product of the Hebrew\nmind; and the policy of Isaiah at least, during the Assyrian crisis,\nwas gloriously justified by the event.\n\nWe need not, however, stop here in attempting to vindicate the\nattitude and aims of the prophets. Without claiming infallibility for\nevery individual utterance of theirs--without displaying the bad taste\nand entire lack of literary tact which would be implied by insisting\nupon the minute accuracy and close correspondence to fact, of all\nthat the prophets foreboded, all that they suggested as possible or\nprobable, and by turning all their poetical figures and similes into\nbald assertions of literal fact; we may, I think, steadfastly affirm\nthat the great principles of revealed religion, which it was their\nmission to enunciate and impress by all the resources of a fervid\noratory and a high-wrought poetical imagination, are absolutely and\neternally true. Man does reap as he sows; all history records it. The\npresent welfare and future permanence of a nation do depend, and have\nalways depended, upon the strength of its adhesion to religious and\nmoral convictions. What was it that enabled Israel to gain a footing\nin Canaan, and to reduce, one after another, nations and communities\nfar more advanced in the arts of civilization than they? What but the\nphysical and moral force generated by the hardy and simple life of\nthe desert, and disciplined by wise obedience to the laws of their\nInvisible King? What but a burning faith in the Lord of Hosts, Iahvah\nSabaoth, the true Leader of the armies of Israel? Had they only\nremained uncontaminated by the luxuries and vices of the conquered\nraces; had they not yielded to the soft seduction of sensuous forms of\nworship; had they continued faithful to the God who had brought them\nout of Egypt, and lived, on the whole, by the teaching of the true\nprophets; who can say that they might not have successfully withstood\nthe brunt of Assyrian or Chaldean invasion?\n\nThe disruption of the kingdom, the internecine conflicts, the\ndynastic revolutions, the entanglements with foreign powers which\nmark the progressive decline of the empire of David and Solomon,\nwould hardly have found place in a nation that steadily lived by the\nrule of the prophets, clinging to Iahvah and Iahvah only, and \"doing\njustice and loving mercy\" in all the relations of life. The gradual\ndifferentiation of the idea of Iahvah into a multitude of Baals at\nthe local sanctuaries must have powerfully tended to disintegrate the\nnational unity. Solomon's temple and the recognition of the one God\nof all the tribes of Israel as supreme, which that religious centre\nimplied, was, on the other hand, a real bond of union for the nation.\nWe cannot forget that, at the outset of the whole history, Moses\ncreated or resuscitated the sense of national unity in the hearts of\nthe Egyptian serfs, by proclaiming to them Iahvah, the God of their\nfathers. It is a one-sided representation which treats the policy\nof the prophets as purely negative; as confined to the prohibition\nof leagues with the foreigner, and the condemnation of walls and\nbattlements, chariots and horses, and all the elements of social\nstrength and display. The prophets condemn these things, regarded\nas substitutes for trust in the One God, and faithful obedience to\nHis laws. They condemn the man who puts his confidence in man, and\nmakes flesh his arm, and forgets the only true source of strength and\nprotection. To those who allege that the policy of the prophets was a\nfailure, we may reply that it never had a full and fair trial.\n\n    And they will say, Hopeless! for we will follow after our own\n    devices, and will each practise the stubbornness of his own evil\n    heart. Therefore thus hath Iahvah said:\n\n    1. \"Ask ye now among the heathen,\n        Who hath heard the like?\n        The virgin (daughter) of Israel\n        Hath done a very horrible thing.\n\n    2. \"Doth the snow of Lebanon cease\n        From overflowing the field?\n        Do the running waters dry up,\n        The icy streams?[80]\n\n    3. \"For My people have forgotten me,\n        To vain things they burn incense;\n        And they have made them stumble in their ways, the ancient\n             paths,\n        To walk in bypaths, a way not cast up:\n\n    4. \"To make their land a desolation,\n        Perpetual hissings;\n        Every one that passeth her by shall be amazed,\n        And shall shake his head.\n\n    5. \"Like an east wind will I scatter them\n        In the face of the foe;\n        The back and not the face will I shew them,\n        In the day of their overthrow.\"\n\nGod foresees that His gracious warning will be rejected as heretofore;\nthe prophet's hearers will cry \"It is hopeless!\" thy appeal is in vain,\nthine enterprise desperate; \"for after our own devices\" or thoughts\n\"will we walk,\" not after thine, though thou urge them as Iahvah's; \"and\nwe will each practise the stubbornness of his own evil heart\"--this last\nin a tone of irony, as if to say, Very well; we accept thy description\nof us; our ways are stubborn, and our hearts evil: we will abide by our\ncharacter, and stand true to your unflattering portrait. Otherwise, the\nwords may be regarded as giving the substance of the popular reply, in\nterms which at the same time convey the Divine condemnation of it; but\nthe former view seems preferable.\n\nGod foresees the obstinacy of the people, and yet the prophet does not\ncease his preaching. A cynical assent to his invective only provokes\nhim to more strenuous endeavours to convince them that they are in the\nwrong; that their behaviour is against reason and nature. Once more\n(ii. 10 _sqq._) he strives to shame them into remorse by contrasting\ntheir conduct with that of other nations. These were faithful to their\nown gods; among _them_ such a crime as national apostasy was unheard\nof and unknown. It was reserved for Israel to give the first example\nof this abnormal offence; a fact as strange and fearful in the moral\nworld, as some unnatural revolution in the physical sphere. That\nIsrael should forget his duty to Iahvah was as great and inexplicable\na portent, as if the perennial snows of the Lebanon should cease to\nsupply the rivers of the land; or as if the ice-cold streams of its\nglens and gorges should suddenly cease to flow. And certainly, when we\nlook at the matter with the eye of calm reason, the prophet cannot be\nsaid to have here exaggerated the mystery of sin. For, however strong\nthe temptation that lures man from the path of duty, however occasion\nmay suggest, and passion urge, and desire yearn, these influences\ncannot of themselves silence conscience, and obliterate experience,\nand overpower judgment, and defeat reason. As surely as it is possible\nto know anything, man knows that his vital interests coincide with\nduty; and that it is not only weak but absolutely irrational to\nsacrifice duty to the importunities of appetite.\n\nWhen man forsakes the true God, it is to \"burn incense to vain gods\"\nor things of nought. He who worships what is less than God, worships\nnothing. No being below God can yield any true satisfaction to that\nhuman nature which was made for God. The man who fixes his hope upon\nthings that perish in the using, the man who seeks happiness in things\nmaterial, the man whose affections have sole regard to the joys of\nsense, and whose devotion is given wholly to worldly objects, is the man\nwho will at the last cry out, in hopeless disappointment and bitterness\nof spirit, Vanity of vanities! all is vanity! \"For what shall it profit\na man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or\nwhat shall a man give in exchange for his soul?\" The soul's salvation\nconsists in devotion to its Lord and Maker; its eternal loss and ruin,\nin alienation from Him who is its true and only life. The false gods are\nnought as regards help and profit; they are powerless to bless, but they\nare potent to hurt and betray. They \"make men stumble out of their ways,\nout of the ancient paths, to walk in bypaths, in a way not cast up.\"\nSo it was of old; so it is now. When the heart is estranged from God,\nand devoted to some meaner pursuit than the advancement of His glory,\nit soon deserts the straight road of virtue, the highway of honour,\nand falls into the crooked and uneven paths of fraud and hypocrisy,\nof oppression and vice. The end appears to sanctify the means, or at\nleast to make them tolerable; and, once the ancient path of the Law\nis forsaken, men will follow the most tortuous, and often thorny and\npainful courses, to the goal of their choice. The path which leads away\nfrom God, leads both individuals and nations to final ruin. Degraded\nideas of the Deity, false ideas of happiness, a criminal indifference to\nthe welfare of others, a base devotion to private and wholly selfish\nends, must in the long run sap the vigour of a nation, and render it\nincapable of any effectual resistance to its enemies. Moral declension\nis a sure symptom of approaching political dissolution; so sure, that if\na nation chooses and persists in evil, in the face of all dissuasion, it\nmay be assumed to be bent on suicide. Like Israel, it may be said to do\nthus, \"in order to make its land an astonishment, perpetual hissings.\"\nMen will be surprised at the greatness of its fall, and at the same time\nwill acknowledge by voice and gesture that its doom is absolutely just.\n\nSo far as his immediate hearers were concerned, the effect of the\nprophet's words was exactly what had been anticipated (ver. 18; cf.\nver. 12). Jeremiah's preaching was a ministry of hardening, in a far\nmore complete sense than Isaiah's had been. On the present occasion,\nthe popular obduracy and unbelief evinced itself in a conspiracy\nto destroy the prophet by false accusation. They would doubtless\nfind it not difficult to construe his words as blasphemy against\nIahvah, and treason against the state. And they said: _Come and let\nus devise devices_--lay a plot--_against Jeremiah_. Dispassionate\nwisdom, mere worldly prudence, would have said, Let us weigh well\nthe probability or even possibility of the truth of his message.\nMoral earnestness, a sincere love of God and goodness, would have\nrecognised in the prophet's fearful earnest a proof of good faith,\na claim to consideration. Unbiassed common sense would have asked,\nWhat has Jeremiah to gain by persistence in unpopular teaching?\nWhat will be his reward, supposing his words come true? Is it to\nbe supposed that a man whose woeful tidings are uttered in a voice\nbroken with sobs, and interrupted by bursts of wild lamentation,\nwill look with glad eyes upon destruction when it comes, if it come\nafter all? But habitual sin blinds as well as pollutes the soul. And\nwhen admonition is unacceptable, it breeds hatred. The heart that is\nnot touched by appeal becomes harder than it was before. The ice of\nindifference becomes the adamant of malignant opposition. The populace\nof Jerusalem, like that of more modern capitals, was enervated by\nease and luxury, altogether given over to the pursuit of wealth and\npleasure as the end of life. They hated the man who rebuked in the\ngate, and abhorred him that spoke uprightly (Amos v. 10). They could\nnot abide one whose life and labours were a continual protest against\ntheir own. And now he had done his best to rob them of their pleasant\nconfidence, to destroy the delusion of their fool's paradise. He had\nburst into the heathenish sanctuary where they offered a worship\ncongenial to their hearts, and done his best to wreck their idols, and\ndash their altars to the ground. He had affirmed that the accredited\noracles were all a lie, that the guides whom they blindly followed\nwere leading them to ruin. So the passive dislike of good blazes out\ninto murderous fury against the good man who dares to be good alone in\nthe face of a sinful multitude. That they are made thoroughly uneasy\nby his message of judgment, that they are more than half convinced\nthat he is right, is plain from the frantic passion with which they\nrepeat and deny his words. _Law shall not perish from the priest, nor\ncounsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet_: these things\ncannot, _shall not_ be. When people have pinned their faith to a false\nsystem--a system which accords with their worldly prejudices, and\nflatters their ungodly pride, and winks at or even sanctions their\nvices; when they have anchored their entire confidence upon certain\nmen and certain teachings which are in perfect harmony with their own\naims in life and their own selfish predilections, they are not only\ndisturbed and distressed but often enraged by a demonstration that\nthey are lulled in a false security. And anger of this kind is apt to\nbe so irrational, that they may think to escape from the threatened\nevil by silencing its prophet. _Come and let us smite him with the\ntongue, and let us not hearken to any of his words!_ They will first\nget rid of him, and then forget his words of warning. Their policy is\nno better than that of the bird which buries its head in the sand,\nwhen its pursuers have run it down; an infatuated Out of sight, out of\nmind. And Jeremiah's recompense for his disinterested zeal is another\nconspiracy against his life.\n\nOnce more he lays his cause before the one impartial Judge; the one\nBeing who is exalted above all passion, and therefore sees the truth\nas it is.\n\n    \"Hearken Thou, O Iahvah, unto me,\n     And hear Thou the voice of mine adversaries.\n     Should evil be recompensed for good?\n     For they have digged a pit for my life.\n     Remember my standing before Thee to speak good about them,\n     To turn back Thy wrath from them.\"\n\nHearken Thou, since _they_ refuse to hearken; hear both sides, and\npronounce for the right. Behold the glaring contrast between my\ninnocence of all hurtful intent, and their clamorous injustice,\nbetween my truth and their falsehood, my prayers for their salvation\nand their outcry for my blood.\n\nAs we read this prayer of Jeremiah's, we are reminded of the very\nsimilar language of the thirty-fifth and hundred and ninth psalms,\nof which he was himself perhaps the author (see especially Ps. xxxv.\n1, 4, 5, 7, 11, 12; cix. 2, 5). We have already partially considered\nthe moral aspect of such petitions. It is necessary to bear in\nmind that the prophet is speaking of persons who have persistently\nrejected warning, and ridiculed reproof; and now, in return for his\nintercessions on their behalf, are attempting his life, not in a\nsudden outbreak of uncontrollable fury, but with craft and deliberate\nmalice, after seeking, apparently, like their spiritual successors in\na later age, to entrap him into admissions that might be construed as\ntreason or blasphemy (Ps. xxxv. 19-21).\n\n    \"Therefore give their sons to the famine,\n     And pour them into the hands of the sword;\n     And let their wives be bereaved and widows,\n     And let their husbands be slain of Death;\n     Let their young men be stricken down of the sword in the battle!\n\n    \"Let a cry be heard from their houses,\n     When Thou bringest a troop upon them suddenly!\n     For they digged a pit to catch me,\n     And snares they hid for my feet.\n\n    \"But of Thyself, Iahvah, Thou knowest all their plan against me for\n          death;\n     Pardon Thou not their iniquity,\n     And blot not out their trespass from before Thee;\n     But let them be made to stumble before Thee,\n     In the time of Thine anger deal Thou with them!\"\n\nThe passage is lyrical in form and expression, and something must be\nallowed for the fact in estimating its precise significance. Jeremiah\nhad entreated God and man that all these things might not come to pass.\nNow, when the attitude of the people towards his message and himself at\nlast leaves no doubt that their obduracy is invincible, in his despair\nand distraction he cries, Be it so, then! They are bent on destruction;\nlet them have their will! Let the doom overtake them, that I have\nlaboured in vain to avert! With a weary sigh, and a profound sense of\nthe ripeness of his country for ruin, he gives up the struggle to save\nit. The passage thus becomes a rhetorical or poetical expression of the\nprophet's despairing recognition of the inevitable.\n\nHow vivid are the touches with which he brings out upon his canvas the\nhorrors of war! In language lurid with all the colours of destruction,\nhe sets before us the city taken by storm, he makes us hear the\ncry of the victims, as house after house is visited by pillage and\nslaughter. But stripped of its poetical form, all this is no more\nthan a concentrated repetition of the sentence which he has over and\nover again pronounced against Jerusalem in the name of Iahvah. The\nimprecatory manner of it may be considered to be simply a solemn\nsignification of the speaker's own assent and approval. He recalls the\nsentence, and he affirms its perfect consonance with his own sense\nof justice. Moreover all these terrible things actually happened in\nthe sequel. The prophet's imprecations received the Divine seal of\naccomplishment. This fact alone seems to me to distinguish his prayer\nfrom a merely human cry for vengeance. So far as his feelings as a\nman and a patriot were concerned, we cannot doubt that he would have\naverted the catastrophe, had that been possible, by the sacrifice of\nhis own life. That indeed was the object of his entire ministry. We\nmay call the passage an emotional prediction; and it was probably the\npredictive character of it which led the prophet to put it on record.\n\nWhile we admit that no Christian may ordinarily pray for the\nannihilation of any but spiritual enemies, we must remember that no\nChristian can possibly occupy the same peculiar position as a prophet\nof the Old Covenant; and we may fairly ask whether any who may incline\nto judge harshly of Jeremiah on the ground of passages like this, have\nfully realized the appalling circumstances which wrung these prayers\nfrom his cruelly tortured heart? _We_ find it hard to forgive small\npersonal slights, often less real than imaginary; how should we comport\nourselves to persons whose shameless ingratitude rewarded evil for good\nto the extent of seeking our lives? Few would be content, as Jeremiah\nwas, with putting the cause in the hand of God, and abstaining from all\nattempts at personal vindication of wrongs. It surely betrays a failure\nof imaginative power to realize the terrible difficulties which beset\nthe path of one who, in a far truer sense than Elijah, was left alone\nto uphold the cause of true religion in Israel, and not less, a very\ninadequate knowledge of our own spiritual weakness, when we are bold to\ncensure or even to apologise for the utterances of Jeremiah.\n\nThe whole question assumes a different aspect, when it is noticed that\nthe brief \"Thus said Iahvah!\" of the next chapter (xix.) virtually\nintroduces the Divine reply to the prophet's prayer. He is now bidden\nto foreshow the utter destruction of the Jewish polity by a symbolic\nact which is even more unambiguous than the language of the prayer. He\nis to take a common earthenware bottle (_baqb\u00fbq_, as if \"pour-pour\";\nfrom _baqaq_, \"to pour out\"), and, accompanied by some of the leading\npersonages of the capital, heads of families and priests, to go out\nof the city to the valley of ben Hinnom, and there, after a solemn\nrehearsal of the crimes perpetrated on that very spot in the name of\nreligion, and after predicting the consequent retribution which will\nshortly overtake the nation, he is to dash the vessel in pieces before\nhis companions' eyes, in token of the utter and irreparable ruin which\nawaits their city and people.\n\nHaving enacted his part in this striking scene, Jeremiah returns to the\ncourt of the temple, and there repeats the same terrible message in\nbriefer terms before all the people; adding expressly that it is the\nreward of their stubborn obstinacy and deafness to the Divine voice.\n\nThe prophet's imprecations of evil thus appear to have been ratified\nat the time of their conception by the Divine voice, which spoke in\nthe stillness of his after reflexion.\n\nFOOTNOTE:\n\n[80] Instead of \u05e9\u05d3\u05d9 \u05de\u05e6\u05d5\u05e8 \"from the rock of the field,\" I have ventured\nto read \u05e9\u05d3\u05d9 \u05de\u05e6\u05d5\u05e3 (Lam. iii. 54; Deut. xi. 4; 2 Kings vi. 6). For \u05d9\u05e0\u05ea\u05e9\u05d5\n\"plucked up\" \"uprooted,\" which is inappropriate in connexion with\nwater, Schnurrer's \u05d9\u05e0\u05ea\u05e9\u05d5 \"dried up\" (Isa. xix. 5; Jer. li. 30), is\nprobably right. In the second couplet, I read \u05d6\u05d1\u05d9\u05dd for \u05d6\u05e8\u05d9\u05dd, which is\nmeaningless, and transpose \u05e7\u05e8\u05d9\u05dd with \u05e0\u05d5\u05d6\u05dc\u05d9\u05dd.\n\n\n\n\n                                  XII.\n\n               _THE BROKEN VESSEL--A SYMBOL OF JUDGMENT._\n\n                             JEREMIAH xix.\n\n\nThe result of his former address, founded upon the procedure of the\npotter, had only been to bring out into clearer distinctness the\nappalling extent of the national corruption. It was evident that Judah\nwas incorrigible, and the Potter's vessel must be broken in pieces by\nits Maker.\n\n_Thus said Iahvah: Go and buy a bottle_ (_baqb\u00fbq_, as if \"a\npour-pour\"; the meaning is alluded to in the first word of ver. 7:\n_ubaqqothi_, \"and I will pour out\") _of a moulder of pottery_ (so\nthe accents; but perhaps the Vulgate is right: \"lagunculam figuli\ntesteam,\" \"a potter's earthen vessel,\" A.V.; lit. _a potter's bottle_,\nviz., _earthenware_), _and_ (_take_: LXX. rightly adds) _some of the\nelders of the people and of the elders of the priests, and go out\ninto the valley of ben Hinnom at the entry of the Pottery Gate_ (a\npostern, where broken earthenware and rubbish were shot forth into the\nvalley: the term is connected with that for \"pottery,\" ver. 1, which\nis the same as that in Job ii. 8), _and cry there the words that I\nshall speak unto thee_,--Jeremiah does not pause here, to relate how\nhe followed the Divine impulse, but goes on at once to communicate the\ntenor of the Divine \"words\"; a circumstance which points to the fact\nthat this narrative was only written some time after the symbolical\naction which it records;--_and say thou, Hear ye Iahvah's word, O\nkings of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem! Thus said Iahvah Sabaoth,\nthe God of Israel: Lo, I am about to bring an evil upon this place,\nsuch that, whoever heareth it, his ears shall tingle!_ If we suppose,\nas seems likely, that this series of oracles (xviii.-xx.) belongs to\nthe reign of Jehoiachin, the expression \"kings of Judah\" may denote\nthat king and the queen-mother. Another view is that the kings of\nJudah in general are addressed \"as an indefinite class of persons,\"\nhere and elsewhere (xvii. 20, xxii. 4), because the prophet did not\nwrite the main portion of his book until after the siege of Jerusalem\n(Ewald). The announcement of this verse is quoted by the compiler of\nKings in relation to the crimes of king Manasseh (2 Kings xxi. 12).\n\n_Because that they forsook Me, and made this place strange_--alienated\nit from Iahvah by consecrating it to \"strange gods\"; or as the Targum\nand Syriac, \"polluted\" it--_and burnt incense therein to other gods,\nwhom neither they nor their fathers knew_ (xvi. 13); _and the kings\nof Judah did fill this place with blood of innocents_ (so the LXX.\n\"Nor the kings of Judah\" gives a poor sense; they are included in the\npreceding phrase), _and built the bamoth Baal_ (High-places of Baal; a\nproper name, Josh. xiii. 17), _to burn their sons in the fire_, [_as\nburnt-offerings to the Baal_: LXX. omits, and it is wanting, vii. 31,\nxxxii. 35. It may be a gloss, but is probably genuine, as there are\nslight variations in each passage], _which I commanded not_, [_nor\nspake_: LXX. omits], _neither came it into My mind: therefore, behold\ndays are coming, saith Iahvah, when this place will no more be called\nthe Tophet and valley of ben Hinnom but the Valley_ _of Slaughter!_\n[_and in Tophet shall they bury, so that there be_--remain--_no room\nto bury!_ This clause, preserved at the end of ver. 11, but omitted\nthere by the LXX., probably belongs here: see vii. 42]. _And I will\npour out_ (ver. 1; Isa. xix. 3) _the counsel of Judah and Jerusalem\nin this place_--that is, I will _empty_ the land of all wisdom and\nresourcefulness, as one empties a bottle of its water, so that the\nheads of the state shall be powerless to devise any effectual scheme\nof defence in the face of calamity (cf. xiii. 13)--_and I will cause\nthem to fall by the sword \"before their enemies\"_ (Deut. xxviii. 25),\n_and by the hand of them that seek their life; and I will make \"their\ncarcases food unto the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth\"_\n(Deut. xxviii. 26; chap. vii. 33, xvi. 4). _And I will set this city\n\"for an astonishment\"_ (Deut. xxviii. 37) _and a hissing_ (xviii. 16);\n_every one that passeth by her shall be astonished and hiss at all her\n\"strokes\"_ (xlix. 17, l. 13) or \"_plagues_\" (Deut. xxviii. 59). _And\nI will cause them to \"eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of\ntheir daughters,\" and each the flesh of his fellow shall they eat--\"in\nthe stress and the straitness wherewith their enemies\" and they that\nseek their life \"shall straiten them.\"_ It will be seen from the\nreferences that the Deuteronomic colouring of these closing threats\n(vv. 7-9) is very strong, the last verse being practically a quotation\n(Deut. xxviii. 53). The effect of the whole oracle would thus be to\nsuggest that the terrible sanctions of the sacred Law would not remain\ninoperative; but that the shameless violation of the solemn covenant\nunder Josiah, by which the nation undertook to observe the code of\nDeuteronomy, would soon be visited with the retributive calamities so\nvividly foreshadowed in that book.\n\n_And break thou the bottle, to the eyes of the men that_ _go with\nthee, and say unto them: Thus said Iahvah Sabaoth; So will I break\nthis people and this city, as one breaketh the potter's vessel so\nthat it cannot be mended again! Thus will I do to this place, saith\nIahvah, and to the inhabitants thereof and make_ (infin. constr. as\nin xvii. 10, continuing the mood and person of the preceding verb;\nwhich is properly a function of the infin. absol., as in ver. 13)\n_this city like a Tophet_--make it one huge altar of human sacrifice,\na burning-place for thousands of human victims. _And the houses of\nJerusalem, and the houses of the kings of Judah_--the palace of David\nand Solomon, in which king after king had reigned, and \"done the\nevil in Iahvah's eyes,\"--_shall become like the place of the Tophet,\nthe defiled ones! even all the houses upon the roofs of which they\nburnt incense unto all the host of heaven, and poured outpourings_\n(libations of wine and honey) _unto other gods_. (So the Heb.\npunctuation, which seems to give a very good sense. The principal\nhouses, those of the kings and grandees, are called \"the defiled,\"\nbecause their roofs especially have been polluted with idolatrous\nrites. The last clause of the verse explains the epithet, which might\nhave been referred to \"the kings of Judah,\" had it preceded \"like the\nplace of the Tophet.\" The houses were not to become \"defiled\"; they\nwere already so, past all cleansing; they were to be destroyed with\nfire, and in their destruction to become the Tophet or sacrificial\npyre of their inhabitants. We need not, therefore, read _Tophteh_,\nafter Isa. xxx. 33, as I at first thought of doing, to find afterwards\nthat Ewald had already suggested it. The term rendered \"even all,\" is\nlit. \"unto all,\" that is, \"including all\"; cf. Ezek. xliv. 9).[81]\n\nThe command _and break thou the bottle_ ... _and say unto them_ ...\ncompared with that of ver. 2, _and cry there the words that I shall\nspeak unto thee!_ seems to indicate the proper point of view from\nwhich the whole piece is to be regarded. Jeremiah is recalling and\ndescribing a particular episode in his past ministry; and he includes\nthe whole of it, with the attendant circumstances and all that he\nsaid; first to the elders in the vale of ben Hinnom, and then to\nthe people assembled in the temple, under the comprehensive _Thus\nsaid Iahvah!_ with which he begins his narrative. In other words, he\naffirms that he was throughout the entire occurrence guided by the\nimpulses of the Spirit of God. It is very possible that the longer\nfirst address (vv. 2-9) really gives the substance of what he said\nto the people in the temple on his return from the valley, which is\nmerely summarized in verse 15.\n\n_And Jeremiah came in_--into the temple--_from the Tophet, whither\nIahvah had sent him to prophesy, and took his stand in the court of\nIahvah's House, and said unto all the people: Thus said Iahvah Sabaoth\nIsraels God; Lo, I am about to bring upon_ (ver. 3) _this city and\nupon all her cities_ [_and upon her villages_: LXX. adds] _all the\nevil that I have spoken concerning her; because they stiffened their\nneck_ (vii. 26), _not to hear My words!_ In this apparent epitome of\nHis discourse to the people in the temple, the prophet seems to sum\nup all his past labours, in view of an impending crisis. \"All the\nevil\" spoken hitherto concerning Jerusalem is upon the point of being\naccomplished (cf. xxv. 3).\n\nIn reviewing the entire oracle, we may note as in former instances,\nthe care with which all the circumstances of the symbolical action\nare chosen, in order to enhance the effect of it upon the minds\nof the witnesses. The Oriental mind delights in everything that\npartakes of the nature of an enigma; it loves to be called upon to\nunravel the meaning of dark sentences, and to disentangle the wisdom\nwrapped up in riddling words and significant actions. It would have\nfound eloquence in Tarquin's unspoken answer to his son's messenger.\n\"Rex velut deliberabundus in hortum \u00e6dium transit, sequente nuncio\nfilii: ibi inambulans tacitus summa papaverum capita dicitur baculo\ndecussisse\" (Liv. i. 54). No doubt Jeremiah's companions would watch\nhis every step, and would not miss the fact that he carried his\nearthenware vessel out of the city by the \"Sherd Gate.\" Here was a\nvessel yet whole, treated as though it were already a shattered heap\nof fragments! They would be prepared for the oracle in the valley.\n\nIt is worth while, by the way, to notice who those companions were.\nThey were certain of \"the elders of the people\" and of the \"the\nelders of the priests.\" Jeremiah, it seems, was no wild revolutionary\ndreamer and schemer, whose hand and voice were against all established\nauthority in Church and State. This was not the character of the\nHebrew prophets in general, though some writers have conceived thus of\nthem. There is no evidence that Jeremiah ever sought to divest himself\nof the duties and privileges of his hereditary priesthood; or that\nhe looked upon the monarchy and the priestly guilds and the entire\nsocial organisation of Israel, as other than institutions divinely\noriginated and divinely preserved through all the ages of the national\nhistory. He did not believe that man created these institutions\nthough experience taught him that man might abuse and pervert them\nfrom their lawful uses. His aim was always to reform, to restore, to\nlead the people back to \"the old paths\" of primitive simplicity and\nrectitude; not to abolish hereditary institutions, and substitute for\nthe order which had become an integral part of the national life, some\nbrand-new constitution which had never been tried, and would be no\nmore likely to fit the body corporate than the armour of Saul fitted\nthe free limbs of the young shepherd who was to slay Goliath.\n\nThe prophets never called for the abolition of those laws and customs,\ncivil and ecclesiastical, which were the very framework of the state,\nand the pillars of the social edifice. They did not cry, \"Down with\nkings and priests!\" but to both kings and priests they cried, \"Hear ye\nIahvah's word!\" And all experience proves that they were right. Paper\nconstitutions have never yet redeemed a nation from its vices, nor\ndelivered a community from the impotence and the decay which are the\ninevitable fruits of moral corruption. Arbitrary legislative changes\nwill not alter the inward condition of a people; covetousness and\nhypocrisy, pride and selfishness, intemperance and uncleanness and\ncruelty, may be as rampant in a commonwealth as in a kingdom.\n\nThe contents of the oracle are much what we have had many times\nalready. The chief difference lies in a calm definiteness of\nassurance, a tone of distinct certitude, as though the end were so\nnear at hand, as to leave no room for doubt or hesitation. And this\ndifference is fittingly and impressively suggested by the particular\nsymbol chosen--the shattering of an earthenware vessel, beyond the\npossibility of repair. The direct mention of the king of Babylon and\nthe Babylonian captivity, in the sequel (chap. xx.), points to the\npresence of a Babylonian invasion, probably that which ended with the\nexile of Jeconiah and the chief citizens of Jerusalem.\n\nThe fatal sin, from which the oracle starts and to which it returns,\nis forsaking Iahvah, and making the city of His choice \"strange\" to\nHim, that is, hateful and unclean, by contact with foreign and bloody\nsuperstitions, which were even falsely declared by their promoters to\nbe pleasing to Iahvah, the Avenger of innocent blood! (chap. vii. 31).\nThe punishment corresponds to the offence. The sacrifices of blood\nwill be requited with blood, shed in torrents on the very spot which\nhad been so foully polluted; they who had not scrupled to slay their\nchildren for the sacrifice, were to slay them again for food under the\nstress of siege and famine; the city and its houses, defiled with the\nforeign worships, will become one vast Molech-fire (xxxii. 35), in\nwhich all will perish together.\n\nIt may strike a modern reader that there is something repulsive and\ncold-blooded in this detailed enumeration of appalling horrors.\nBut not only is it the case that Jeremiah is quoting from the Book\nof the Law, at a time when, to an unprejudiced eye, there was\nevery likelihood that the course of events would verify his dark\nforebodings; in the dreadful experience of those times such incidents\nas those mentioned (ver. 9) were familiar occurrences in the obstinate\ndefence and protracted sufferings of beleaguered cities. The prophet,\ntherefore, simply affirms that obstinate persistence in following\ntheir own counsels and rejecting the higher guidance will bring upon\nthe nation its irretrievable ruin. We know that in the last siege he\ndid his utmost to prevent the occurrence of these unnatural horrors by\nurging surrender; but then, as always, the people \"stiffened their\nneck, not to hear Iahvah's words.\"\n\nJeremiah knew his countrymen well. No phrase could have better\ndescribed the resolute obstinacy of the national character. How\nwere the headstrong self-will, the inveterate sensuality, the blind\ntenacity of fanatical and non-moral conceptions which characterized\nthis people, to be purified and made serviceable in the interests\nof true religion, except by means of the fiery ordeal which all the\nprophets foresaw and foretold? As we have seen, polytheism exercised\nupon the popular mind a spell which we can hardly comprehend from\nour modern point of view; a polytheism foul and murderous, which\nviolated the tenderest affections of our nature by demanding of the\nfather the sacrifice of his child, and violated the very instinct of\nnatural purity by the shameless indulgence of its worship. It was a\nconsecration of lust and cruelty,--that worship of Molech, those rites\nof the Baals and Asheras. Meagre and monotonous as the sacred records\nmay on these heads appear to be, their witness is supplemented by\nother sources, by the monuments of Babylon and Phenicia.\n\nIt is hard to see how the religious instinct of men in this peculiar\nstage of belief and practice was to be enlightened and purified in\nany other way than the actual course of Providence. What arguments\ncan be imagined that would have appealed to minds which found a fatal\nfascination, nay, we must suppose an intense satisfaction, in rites so\nhideous that one durst not even describe them; minds to which the lofty\nmonotheism of Amos, the splendid eloquence of an Isaiah, the plaintive\nlyrical strain of a Jeremiah, appealed in vain? Appeals to the order of\nthe world, to the wonders of organic life, were lost upon minds which\nmade gods of the most obvious subjects of that order, the sun, moon, and\nstars; which even personified and adored the physical principle whereby\nthe succession of life after life is perpetuated.\n\nNothing short of the perception _that the word of the prophets had\ncome to pass_, the recognition, therefore, that the prophetic idea of\nGod was the true idea, could have succeeded in keeping the remnant of\nJudah safe from the contagion of surrounding heathenism in the land of\ntheir exile, and in radically transforming once for all the religious\ntendencies of the Jewish race.\n\nIn Jeremiah's view, the heinousness of Judah's idolatry is heightened by\nthe consideration that the gods of their choice are gods \"whom neither\nthey nor their fathers knew\" (ver. 4). The kings Ahaz, Manasseh, Amon,\nhad introduced novel rites, and departed from \"the old paths\" more\ndecidedly than any of their predecessors. In this connexion, we may\nremember that, while modern Romish controversialists do not scruple\nto accuse the Church of this country of having unlawfully innovated\nat the Reformation, the Anglican appeal has always been to Scripture\nand primitive antiquity. Such, too, was the appeal of the prophets\n(Hos. vi. 1, 7, xi. 1; Jer. ii. 2, vi. 16, xi. 3). It is the glory of\nour Church, a glory of which neither the lies of Jesuits nor the envy\nof the sectaries can rob her, that she returned to \"the old paths,\"\nboldly overleaping the dark ages of medieval ignorance, imposture, and\ncorruption, and planting her foot firmly upon the rock of apostolic\npractice and the consent of the undivided Church.\n\nDisunion among Christians is a sore evil, but union in the maintenance\nand propaganda of falsehood is a worse; and the guilt of disunion lies\nat the door of that system which abused its authority to crush out\nlegitimate freedom of thought, to retard the advancement of learning,\nand to establish those monstrous innovations in doctrine and worship,\nwhich subtle dialecticians may prove to their own satisfaction to be\ninnocent and non-idolatrous in essence and intention, though all the\nworld can see that in practice they are grossly idolatrous. God preserve\nEngland from that toleration of serious error, which is so easy to\nsceptical indifference! God preserve her from lending an ear to the\nsiren voices that would seduce her to yield her hard-won independence,\nher noble freedom, her manly rational piety, to the unhistorical and\nunscriptural claims of the Papacy!\n\nIf we reverence those Scriptures of the Old Testament to which our Lord\nand His Apostles made their constant appeal, we shall keep steadily\nbefore our minds the fact that, in the estimation of a prophet like\nJeremiah, the sin of sins, the sin that involved the ruin of Israel and\nJudah, was the sin of associating other objects of worship with the\nOne Only God. The temptation is peculiarly strong to some natures. The\ncontinual relapse of ancient Israel is not so great a wonder to those\nof us who have any knowledge of mankind, and who can observe what is\npassing around them at the present day. It is the severe demand of God's\nholy law, which makes men cast about for some plausible compromise--it\nis that demand which also makes them yearn after some intermediary\npower, whose compassion will be less subject to considerations of\njustice, whom prayers and entreaties and presents may overcome, and\ninduce to wink at unrepented sin. In an age of unsettlement, the more\ndaring spirits will be prone to silence their inconvenient scruples by\nrushing into atheism, while the more timid may take refuge in Popery.\n\"For to disown a Moral Governour, or to admit that any observances of\nsuperstition can release men from the duty of obeying Him, equally\nserves the purpose of those, who resolve to be as wicked as they dare,\nor as little virtuous as they can\" (Bp. Hurd).\n\nThen, too, there is the glory of the saints and angels of God. How\ncan frail man refuse to bow before the vision of their power and\nsplendour, as they stand, the royal children of the King of kings,\naround the heavenly throne, deathless, radiant with love and joy and\npurity, exalted far above all human weakness and human sorrows? If the\nholy angels are \"ministering spirits,\" why not the entire community\nof the Blessed? And what is to hinder us from casting ourselves at\nthe feet of saint or angel, one's own appointed guardian, or chosen\nhelper? Let good George Herbert answer for us all.\n\n    \"Oh glorious spirits, who after all your bands\n     See the smooth face of God, without a frown,\n                   Or strict commands;\n     Where every one is king, and hath his crown,\n     If not upon his head, yet in his hands:\n\n    \"Not out of envy or maliciousness\n     Do I forbear to crave your special aid.\n                   I would address\n     My vows to thee most gladly, blessed Maid,\n     And Mother of my God, in my distress:\n\n           *       *       *       *       *\n\n    \"But now, (alas!) I dare not; for our King,\n     Whom we do all jointly adore and praise,\n                   Bids no such thing:\n     And where His pleasure no injunction lays,\n     ('Tis your own case) ye never move a wing.\n\n    \"All worship is prerogative, and a flower\n     Of His rich crown, from whom lies no appeal\n                   At the last hour:\n     Therefore we dare not from His garland steal,\n     To make a posy for inferior power.\"\n\nIn this sense also, as in many others, the warning of St. John applies:\n\n              LITTLE CHILDREN, KEEP YOURSELVES FROM IDOLS!\n\nFOOTNOTE:\n\n[81] LXX. \u1f00\u03c0\u1f78 \u03c4\u1ff6\u03bd \u1f00\u03ba\u03b1\u03b8\u03b1\u03c1\u03c3\u03b9\u1ff6\u03bd \u03b1\u1f50\u03c4\u1ff6\u03bd makes it possible that they read\n\u05de\u05d8\u05de\u05d0\u05d9\u05dd which would represent \u05de\u05b0\u05d8\u05bb\u05de\u05b6\u05bc\u05d0\u05b4\u05d9\u05dd \"defiled.\"\n\n\n\n\n                                 XIII.\n\n                     _JEREMIAH UNDER PERSECUTION._\n\n                              JEREMIAH xx.\n\n\nThe prophet has now to endure something more than a scornful rejection\nof his message. _And Pashchur ben Immer the priest_ (_he was chief\nofficer in the house of Iahvah_) _heard Jeremiah prophesying these\nwords. And Pashchur smote Jeremiah the prophet and put him in the\nstocks, which were in the upper gate of Benjamin in the house of\nIahvah._ Like the priest of Bethel, who abruptly put an end to\nthe preaching of Amos in the royal sanctuary, Pashchur suddenly\ninterferes, apparently before Jeremiah has finished his address\nto the people; and enraged at the tenour of his words, he causes\nhim--\"Jeremiah _the prophet_,\" as it is significantly added, to\nindicate the sacrilege of the act--to be beaten in the cruel Eastern\nmanner on the soles of the feet, inflicting probably the full number\nof forty blows permitted by the Law (Deut.), and then leaving him,\nin his agony of mind and body, fast bound in \"the stocks.\" For the\nremainder of that day and all night long the prophet sat there in the\ngate, at first exposed to the taunts and jeers of his adversaries and\nthe rabble of their followers, and as the weary hours slowly crept on,\nbecoming painfully cramped in his limbs by the barbarous machine which\nheld his hands and feet near together, and bent his body double. This\ncruel punishment seems to have been the customary mode of dealing\nwith such as were accounted false prophets by the authorities. It was\nthe treatment which Hanani endured in return for his warning to king\nAsa (2 Chron. xvi. 10), some three centuries earlier than Jeremiah's\ntime; and a few years later in our prophet's history, an attempt was\nmade to enforce it again in his case (Jer. xxix. 26). Thus, like the\nholy apostles of our Lord, was Jeremiah \"counted worthy to suffer\nshame\" for the Name in which he spoke (Acts v. 40, 41); and like Paul\nand Silas at Philippi, after enduring \"many stripes\" his feet were\n\"made fast in the stocks\" (Acts xvi. 23, 24). The message of Jeremiah\nwas a message of judgment, that of the apostles was a message of\nforgiveness; and both met with the same response from a world whose\nheart was estranged from God. The heart that loves its own way, is\nonly at ease when it can forget God. Any reminder of His Presence, of\nHis perpetual activity in mercy and judgment, is unwelcome, and makes\nits authors odious. From the outset, transgressors of the Divine law\nhave sought to hide _among the trees of the garden_--in the engrossing\npursuits and pleasures of life--from the Presence of God.\n\nPashchur's object was not to destroy Jeremiah, but to break his spirit,\nand discredit him with the multitude, and so silence him for ever. But\nin this expectation he was as signally disappointed as his successor\nwas in the case of St. Peter (Acts v. 24, 29). Now as then, God's\nmessenger could not be turned from his conviction that _we ought to obey\nGod rather than men_. And as he sat alone in his intolerable anguish,\nbrooding over his shameful wrongs, and despairing of redress, a Divine\nWord came in the stillness of night to this victim of human tyranny.\nFor it _came to pass on the morrow that Pashchur brought Jeremiah forth\nout of the stocks; and Jeremiah said unto him, Not Pashchur_[82]--as\nif \"Glad and free\"--_but Magor-missabib_--\"Fear on every side\"--_hath\nIahvah called thy name_! Sharpened with misery, the seer's eye pierces\nthrough the shows of life, and discerns the grim contrast of truth\nand appearance. Before him stands this great man, clothed with all\nthe dignity of high office, and able to destroy him with a word; but\nIahvah's prophet does not quail before abused authority. He sees the\nsword suspended by a hair over the head of this haughty and supercilious\nofficial; and he realizes the solemn irony of circumstance, which has\nconnected a name suggestive of gladness and freedom with a man destined\nto become the thrall of perpetual terrors. _For thus hath Iahvah said:\nLo, I am about to make thee a Fear to thyself and to all thy lovers;\nand they will fall by the sword of their foes, while thine eyes look\non!_ This \"glad and free\" persecutor, wantoning in the abuse of power,\nblindly fearless of the future, is not doomed to be slain out of hand;\na heavier fate is in store for him, a fate prefigured and foreshadowed\nby his present sins. His proud confidence is to give place to a haunting\nsense of danger and insecurity; he is to see his followers perish one\nafter another, and evermore to be expecting the same end for himself:\nwhile the freedom which he has enjoyed and abused so long, is to be\nexchanged for a lifelong captivity in a foreign land. _And all Judah\nwill I give into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he will transport\nthem to Babylon, and smite them with the sword. And I will give all the\nstore of this city_--the hoarded wealth of all sorts, which constitutes\nits strength and reserve force--_and all the gain thereof_--the produce\nof labour--_and all the value thereof_--things rare and precious of\nevery kind, works of the carver's and the goldsmith's and the potter's\nand the weaver's art;--_and all the treasures of the kings of Judah will\nI give into the hand of their foes, that they may spoil them and take\nthem and bring them to Babylon_.\n\n_And for thyself, Pashchur, and all that dwell in thine house, ye\nshall depart among the captives; and to Babylon thou shall come, and\nthere thou shalt die, and there be buried, thyself and all thy lovers,\nto whom thou hast prophesied with untruth_, or rather _by the Lie_,\ni.e., _by the Baal_ (ii. 8, xxiii. 13, cf. xii. 16).\n\nThe play on the name of Pashchur is like that on Perath (ch. xiii.), and\nthe change to Magor-missabib is like the change of Tophet into \"Valley\nof Slaughter\" (ch. xix.). Like Amos (vii. 16), Jeremiah repeats his\nobnoxious prophecy, with a special application to his cruel persecutor,\nand with the added detail that all the wealth of Jerusalem will be\ncarried as spoil to Babylon; a detail in which there may lie an oblique\nreference to the covetous worldliness and the interested opposition of\nsuch men as Pashchur. Riches and ease and popularity were the things\nfor which he and those like him had bargained away their integrity,\nprophesying with conscious falsehood to the deluded people. His \"lovers\"\nare his partisans, who eagerly welcomed his presages of peace and\nprosperity, and doubtless actively opposed Jeremiah with ridicule and\nthreats. The last detail is remarkable, for we do not otherwise know\nthat Pashchur affected to prophesy. If it be not meant simply that\nPashchur accepted and lent the weight of his official sanction to the\nfalse prophets, and especially those who uttered their divinations in\nthe name of \"the Baal,\" that is to say, either Molech, or the popular\nand delusive conception of the God of Israel, we see in this man one\nwho combined a steady professional opposition to Jeremiah with power\nto enforce his hostility by legalized acts of violence. The conduct\nof Hananiah on a later occasion (xxviii. 10), clearly proves that,\nwhere the power was present, the will for such acts was not wanting in\nJeremiah's professional adversaries.\n\nIt is generally taken for granted that the name of \"Pashchur\" has\nbeen substituted for that of \"Malchijah\" in the list of the priestly\nfamilies which returned with Zerubbabel from the Babylonian captivity\n(Ezra ii. 38; Neh. vii. 41; cf. 1 Chron. xxiv. 9); but it seems quite\npossible that \"the sons of Pashchur\" were a subdivision of the family\nof Immer, which had increased largely during the Exile. In that case,\nthe list affords evidence of the fulfilment of Jeremiah's prediction\nto Pashchur. The prophet elsewhere mentions another Pashchur, who was\nalso a priest, of the course or guild of Malchijah (xxi. 1, xxxviii.\n1), which was the designation of the fifth class of the priests, as\n\"Immer\" was that of the sixteenth (1 Chron. xxiv. 9, 14). The prince\nGedaliah, who was hostile to Jeremiah, was apparently a son of the\npresent Pashchur (Jer. xxxviii. 1).\n\nIt is not easy to determine the relation of the lyrical section which\nimmediately follows the doom of Pashchur, to the preceding account\n(vv. 7-8). If the seventh verse be in its original place, it would\nseem that the prophet's word had failed of accomplishment, with\nthe result of intensifying the unbelief and the ridicule which his\nteachings encountered. There is also something very strange in the\nsequence of the thirteenth and fourteenth verses, where, as the text\nnow stands, the prophet passes at once, in the most abrupt fashion\nimaginable, from a fervid ascription of praise, a heartfelt cry of\nthanksgiving for deliverance either actual or contemplated as such,\nto utterances of unrelieved despair. I do not think that this is in\nthe manner of Jeremiah; nor do I see how the violent contrast of the\ntwo sections (7-13 and 14-18) can fairly be accounted for, except by\nsupposing either that we have here two unconnected fragments, placed\nin juxtaposition with each other because they belong to the same\ngeneral period of the prophet's ministry; or that the two passages\nhave by some accident of transcription been transposed, which is by\nno means an uncommon occurrence in the MSS. of the Biblical writers.\nAssuming this latter as the more probable alternative, we see in the\nentire passage a powerful representation of the mental conflict into\nwhich Jeremiah was thrown by Pashchur's high-handed violence and the\nseeming triumph of his enemies. Smarting with the sense of utter\ninjustice, humiliated in his inmost soul by shameful indignities,\ncrushed to the earth with the bitter consciousness of defeat and\nfailure, the prophet like Job opens his mouth and curses his day.\n\n    1. \"Cursed be the day wherein I was born!\n       The day that my mother bare me,\n       Let it not be blest!\n\n    2. Cursed be the man who told the glad tidings to my father,\n       'There is born to thee a male child;'\n       Who made him rejoice greatly.\n\n    3. And let that man become like the cities that Iahweh overthrew,\n            without relenting,\n       And let him hear a cry in the morning,\n       And an alarm at the hour of noon!\n\n    4. For that he slew me not in the womb,\n       That my mother might have become my grave,\n       And her womb have been laden evermore!\n\n    5. O why from the womb came I forth\n       To see labour and sorrow,\n       And my days fordone with shame?\"\n\nThese five triplets afford a glimpse of the lively grief, the\npassionate despair, which agitated the prophet's heart as the first\neffect of the shame and the torture to which he had been so wickedly\nand wantonly subjected. The elegy, of which they constitute the proem,\nor opening strophe, is not introduced by any formula ascribing it to\nDivine inspiration; it is simply written down as a faithful record\nof Jeremiah's own feelings and reflexions and self-communings, at\nthis painful crisis in his career. The poet of the book of Job has\napparently taken the hint supplied by these opening verses, and has\nelaborated the idea of cursing the day of birth through seven highly\nwrought and imaginative stanzas. The higher finish and somewhat\nartificial expansion of that passage leave little doubt that it was\nmodelled upon the one before us. But the point to remember here is\nthat both are lyrical effusions, expressed in language conditioned by\nOriental rather than European standards of taste and usage. As the\nprophets were not inspired to express their thoughts and feelings in\na modern English dress, it is superfluous to inquire whether Jeremiah\nwas morally justified in using these poetic formulas of imprecation.\nTo insist on applying the doctrine of verbal inspiration to such a\npassage is to evince an utter want of literary tact and insight, as\nwell as adhesion to an exploded and pernicious relic of sectarian\ntheology. The prophet's curses are simply a highly effective form of\npoetical rhetoric, and are in perfect harmony with the immemorial\nmodes of Oriental expression; and the underlying thought, so\nequivocally expressed, according to our ways of looking at things, is\nsimply that his life has been a failure, and therefore it would have\nbeen better not to have been born. Who that is at all earnest for\nGod's truth, nay, for far lower objects of human interest and pursuit,\nhas not in moments of despondency and discouragement been overwhelmed\nfor a time by the like feeling? Can we blame Jeremiah for allowing us\nto see in this faithful transcript of his inner life how intensely\nhuman, how entirely natural the spiritual experience of the prophets\nreally was? Besides, the revelation does not end with this initial\noutburst of instinctive astonishment, indignation and despair. The\nproem is succeeded by a psalm in seven stanzas of regular poetical\nform--six quatrains rounded off with a final couplet--in which the\nprophet's thought rises above the level of nature, and finds in an\noverruling Providence both the source and the justification of the\nenigma of his life.\n\n    1. \"Thou enticedst me, Iahvah, and I was enticed,\n       Thou urgedst[83] me, and didst prevail!\n       I am become a derision all the day long.\n       Every one mocketh at me.\n\n    2. \"For as oft as I speak, I cry alarm,\n       Violence and havoc do I proclaim;\n       For Iahvah's word is become to me a reproach,\n       And a scoff all the day long.\n\n    3. \"And if I say, I will not mind it,\n       Nor speak any more in His Name;\n       Then it becometh in my heart like a burning fire prisoned in my\n            bones.\n       And I weary of holding it in[84] and am not able.\n\n    4. \"For I have heard the defaming of many, the terror on every\n            side;[85]\n       All the men of my friendship are watching for my fall;\n       'Perchance he will be enticed, and we shall prevail over him,\n       And take our revenge of him.'\n\n    5. \"Yet Iahvah is with me as a dread warrior,\n       Therefore my pursuers shall stumble and not prevail;\n       They shall be greatly ashamed, for that they have not prospered,\n       With eternal dishonour that shall not be forgotten.\n\n    6. \"And Iahvah Sabaoth trieth the righteous,\n       Seeth the reins and the heart;\n       I shall see Thy revenge of them,\n       For unto Thee have I committed my quarrel.\n\n    7. Sing ye to Iahvah, acclaim ye Iahvah!\n       For He hath snatched the poor man's life out of the hand of\n            evildoers.\"\n\nThe cause was of God. _Thou didst lure me, Iahvah, and I let myself\nbe lured; Thou urgedst me and wert victorious._ He had not rashly\nand presumptuously taken upon himself this office of prophet; he had\nbeen called, and had resisted the call, until his scruples and his\npleadings were overcome, as was only natural, by a Will more powerful\nthan his own (chap. i. 6). In speaking of the inward persuasions which\ndetermined the course of his life, he uses the very terms which are\nused by the author of Kings in connexion with the spirit that misled\nthe prophets of Arab before the fatal expedition to Ramoth Gilead.\n_And he said, Thou shalt entice, and also be victorious_ (1 Kings\nxxii. 22). Iahvah, therefore, has treated him as an enemy rather\nthan a friend, for He has lured him to his own destruction. Half in\nirony, half in bitter complaint, the prophet declares that Iahvah has\nsucceeded only too well in His malign purpose: _I am become a derision\nall the day long; Every one mocketh at me_.\n\nIn the second stanza, the thought appears to be continued thus:\n_Thou overcamest me; for as often as I speak_, I am a prophet of\nevil, _I cry alarm_ (_`ez'aq_; cf. _z\u0115`aqah_, vers. 16); I proclaim\nthe imminence of invasion, the _violence and havoc_ of a ruthless\nconqueror. _Thou overcamest me_ also, in Thy purpose of making me a\nlaughing-stock to my adversaries; _for Iahvah's word is become to me a\nreproach, and a scoff all the day long_ (the relation between the two\nhalves of the stanza is that of coordination; each gives the reason of\nthe corresponding couplet in the first stanza). His continual threats\nof a judgment that was still delayed, brought upon him the merciless\nridicule of his opponents.\n\nOr the prophet may mean to complain that the monotony of his message,\nhis ever-recurring denunciation of prevalent injustice, is made a\nreproach against him. _For as often as I speak I make an outcry_ of\nindignation at foul wrongdoing (Gen. iv. 10, xviii. 21, xix. 13); _wrong\nand robbery do I proclaim_ (Hab. i. 2, 3)--the oppression of the poor\nby the covetous and luxurious ruling classes. A third view is that\nJeremiah complains of the frequent attacks upon himself: _For_ _as\noften as I speak I have to exclaim; Of assault and violence do I cry_;\nbut the first suggestion appears to suit best, as giving a reason for\nthe ridicule which the prophet finds so intolerable (cf. xvii. 15).\n\nThe third stanza carries this plea for justice a step further. Not\nonly was the prophet's overwhelming trouble due to his having yielded\nto the persuasions and promises of Iahvah; not only has he been\nrewarded with scorn and the scourge and the stocks for his compliance\nwith a Divine call. He has been in a manner forced and driven into his\nintolerable position by the coercive power of Iahvah, which left him\nno choice but to utter the word that burnt like a fire within him.\nSometimes his fears of perfidy and betrayal suggested the thought\nof succumbing to the insuperable obstacles which seemed to block\nhis path; of giving up once for all a thankless and fruitless and\ndangerous enterprise: but then the inward flame burnt so fiercely,\nthat he could find no relief for his anguish but by giving it vent in\nwords (cf. Ps. xxxix. 1-3).\n\nThe verse finely illustrates that vivid sense of a Divine constraint\nwhich distinguishes the true prophet from pretenders to the office.\nJeremiah does not protest the purity of his motives; indirectly and\nunconsciously he expresses it with a simplicity and a strength which\nleave no room for suspicion. He has himself no doubt at all that what\nhe speaks is \"Iahvah's word.\" The inward impulse is overpowering; he\nhas striven in vain against its urgency; like Jacob at Peniel, he\nhas wrestled with One stronger than himself. He is no vulgar fanatic\nor enthusiast, in whom rooted prejudices and irrational frenzies\noverbalance the judgment, making him incapable of estimating the\nhazards and the chances of his enterprise; he is as well aware of\nthe perils that beset his path as the coolest and craftiest of his\nworldly adversaries. Thanks to his natural quickness of perception,\nhis developed faculty of reflexion, he is fully alive to the probable\nconsequences of perpetually thwarting the popular will, of taking up\na position of permanent resistance to the policy and the aims and the\ninterests of the ruling classes. But while he has his mortal hopes\nand fears, his human capacity for anxiety and pain; while his heart\nbleeds at the sight of suffering, and aches for the woes that thickly\ncrowd the field of his prophetic vision; his speech and his behaviour\nare dominated, upon the whole, by an altogether higher consciousness.\nHis emotions may have their moments of mastery; at times they may\noverpower his fortitude, and lay him prostrate in an agony of\nlamentation and mourning and woe; at times they may even interpose\nclouds and darkness between the prophet and his vision of the Eternal;\nbut these effects of mortality do not last: they shake but cannot\nloosen his grasp of spiritual realities; they cannot free him from the\nconstraining influence of the Word of Iahvah. That word possesses,\nleads him captive, \"triumphs over him,\" over all the natural\nresistance of flesh and blood; for he is \"not as the many\"--the false\nprophets--\"who corrupt the Word of God; but as of sincerity, but as of\nGod, in the sight of God, he speaks\" (2 Cor. ii. 14, 17).\n\nAnd still, unless a man be thus impelled by the Spirit; unless he have\ncounted the cost and is prepared to risk all for God; unless he be\nready to face unpopularity and social contempt and persecution; unless\nhe knows what it is to suffer for and with Jesus Christ; I doubt if\nhe has any moral right to speak in that most holy Name. For if the\nall-mastering motive be absent, if the love of Christ constrain him\nnot, how can his desires and his doings be such as the Unseen Judge\nwill either approve or bless?\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThe fourth stanza explains why the prophet laboured, though vainly, to\nkeep silence. It was because of the malicious reports of his utterances,\nwhich were carefully circulated by his watchful antagonists. They beset\nhim on every side; like Pashchur, they were to him a \"magor-missabib,\"\nan environing terror (cf. vi. 25), as they listened to his harangues,\nand eagerly invited each other to inform against him as a traitor (The\nwords \"Inform ye, and let us inform against him!\" or \"Denounce ye, and\nlet us denounce him!\" may be an ancient gloss upon the term _dibbah_,\n\"ill report,\" \"calumny;\" Gen. xxxvii. 2; Num. xiii. 32; Job xvii. 5. For\nthe construction, cf. Job xxxi. 37. They spoil the symmetry of the line.\nThat _dibbah_ really means \"defaming,\" or \"slander,\" appears not only\nfrom the passages in which it occurs, but also from the Arabic _dab\u00fbb_;\n\"one who creeps about with slander,\" from _dabba_, \"to move gently or\nslowly about.\" The Heb. _ragal_, _riggel_, \"to go about slandering,\" and\n_rak\u00eel_, \"slander,\" are analogous).\n\nAnd not only open enemies thus conspired for the prophet's\ndestruction. Even professed friends (for the phrase, cf. xxxviii. 22;\nPs. xli. 10) were treacherously watchful to catch him tripping (cf.\nix. 2, xii. 6). Those on whom he had a natural claim for sympathy\nand protection, bore a secret and determined grudge against him. His\nunpopularity was complete, and his position full of peril. We have\nin the thirty-first and several of the following psalms outpourings\nof feeling under circumstances very similar to those of Jeremiah on\nthe present occasion, even if they were not actually written by him\nat the same crisis in his career, as certain striking coincidences\nof expression seem to suggest (ver. 10; cf. Ps. xxxi. 13, xxxv. 15,\nxxxviii. 17, xli. 9; ver. 13 with Ps. xxxv. 9, 10).\n\nThe prophet closes his psalm-like monologue with an act of faith.\nHe remembers that he has a Champion who is mightier than a thousand\nenemies. Iahvah is with him, not with them (cf. 2 Kings vi. 16); their\nplots, therefore, are foredoomed to failure, and themselves to the\nvengeance of a righteous God (xi. 20). The last words are an exultant\nanticipation of deliverance.\n\nWe thus see that the whole piece, like a previous one (xv. 10-21),\nbegins with cursing and ends with an assurance of blessing.\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[82] The name is probably a quadriliteral from \u05e4\u05e9\u05d7, [Arabic: **]\nEthiopic \u1270\u134b\u1225\u1210 \"to be glad,\" Assyrian [Assyrian: **] _pash\u00e2chu_ \"to\nbe at ease,\" \"to rest,\" (which comes nearest to the Hebrew root).\nThe Arabic verb means \"The place was roomy, wide, ample\"; whence\n[Arabic: **] \"free from distress or narrowness of mind.\" Thus Pashchur\n= \"case,\" \"tranquillity,\" and is formed like Achbor, _kaphtor_, \"a\ncapital,\" (LXX. Pashchor). But the name might remind a Hebrew of the\nroot \u05e4\u05d5\u05e9 \"to leap,\" \"prance,\" Jer. l. 11, and \u05d7\u05e8 \"free\" (plur. only),\nas if it were a compound of _p\u0101sh_ and _ch\u014dr_. \"Glad and free:\" cf.\nthe LXX. vocalisation \u03a0\u03b1\u03c3\u03c7\u03ce\u03c1. I think this popular etymology pash +\nchor is probably what Jeremiah thought of.\n\n[83] Ex. xii. 33; Isa. viii. 11; Ezek. iii. 14; Jer. xv. 17.\n\n[84] vi. 11 (or, of enduring, Mal. iii. 2).\n\n[85] 'Denounce ye, and we will denounce him!'\n\n\n\n\nTranscriber's Notes:\n\n\nObvious punctuation and spelling errors have been fixed throughout.\n\nInconsistent hyphenation left as in the original text.\n\nFootnote 31: This footnote was originally an author's note. Converted\nto a footnote for ease of reference.\n\nFootnote 78: There is no anchor for this in the original text, left as\nin the original.","title":"The Expositor's Bible: The Prophecies of Jeremiah: With a Sketch of His Life and Times","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":128211}