Jeremiah 13:1-11. The acted symbol of the linen girdle This ch. consists of five sections, quite independent of one another. The first two are in poetic prose, and the remaining in Ḳinah metre. Three questions arise in respect to this first section: (i) Does it relate a real transaction or a vision... [ Continue Reading ]
_a linen girdle_ Linen, not woollen, garments were appointed for priestly wear. See e.g. Exodus 28:42. It was thus the fittest material for that which should symbolize the people of God. _put it not in water_ He is not to soften it for greater comfort in wearing, or, with more direct bearing on the... [ Continue Reading ]
_hide it there_ in such a way that moisture should have full access to it. _the rock_ If an actual visit to the Euphrates is meant, the part referred to "cannot be anywhere near Babylon, where there are no -rocks," or rather -crags" but in the upper part of its course, above Carchemish, or even abo... [ Continue Reading ]
See introd. summary to section.... [ Continue Reading ]
These _vv_. have been thought (so Co.) to contain, as they stand, two explanations, mutually exclusive, of the symbol, Jeremiah 13:9 making the marring to denote exile, but Jeremiah 13:10 Judah's disobedience and idolatry, and it has been concluded that the latter is the original application intende... [ Continue Reading ]
_stubbornness_ See ch. Jeremiah 3:17. _shall even be_ Heb. _let it be_.... [ Continue Reading ]
The aptitude of the symbol is pointed out. Probably, according to an indication given by the Syr. Hex."s rendering, the words "the whole house of Israel and" are a gloss.... [ Continue Reading ]
_bottle_ rather, as mg. JAR. As surely as bottles are used for wine, so surely will drunkenness in the above sense enter into the people. _Do we not know_ What need is there of telling us such a truism?... [ Continue Reading ]
The spoken symbol of the bottles A parable to indicate approaching overthrow. For intoxication as expressive of bewildered confusion and helplessness in the presence of calamity, cp. Jeremiah 25:15 f., Jeremiah 48:26; Psalms 60:3; Isaiah 51:17; Isaiah 51:21-23. Through Jehovah's judicial action they... [ Continue Reading ]
_And I will dash them one against another_ Seized with the giddiness which accompanies intoxication, they shall be a source of mutual destruction. _even the fathers and the sons together_ The overthrow shall be of the most harrowing description.... [ Continue Reading ]
Let Judah beware while there is time The prophet bids them acknowledge Jehovah, by submission and obedience, before they are overtaken by the blackness of national overthrow. Otherwise (says Jeremiah) I will in silent grief witness your ruin.... [ Continue Reading ]
_be not proud_ Do not refuse through self-sufficiency to listen.... [ Continue Reading ]
The figure is that of mountain travellers overtaken by darkness. Unable to advance without danger of falling, they at first await hopefully the dawn, but instead of light there supervenes only deeper gloom. _Give glory_ by confession of sin and obedience. Cp. for the expression Joshua 7:19; 1 Samue... [ Continue Reading ]
_the Lord's flock_ As the rulers are called elsewhere (Jeremiah 2:8 mg., Jeremiah 3:15; Jeremiah 6:3) shepherds (pastors), so the ruled are the flock. Cp. Psalms 80:1, and so Psalms 74:1; Psalms 77:20; Psalms 78:52; Psalms 79:13; also... [ Continue Reading ]
_your headtires_ The word in MT. means _the place of the head_(and so the same consonants with rather different vocalisation in Genesis 28:11; 1 Samuel 19:16; 1 Samuel 26:7). We should therefore by a slight shortening of the word (so LXX) render _for come down from your head is your beautiful crown_... [ Continue Reading ]
Address to the king and the queen-mother The highest shall be brought low, and the land with its cities emptied by universal captivity. Graf and Du. make the king to be Jehoiakim and thus the queen-mother Zebidah (2 Kings 23:36). Most however take the utterance as belonging to the three months" re... [ Continue Reading ]
_the South_ Heb. the _Negeb_, a barren region in the S. of Judah (see Genesis 12:9 mg.), whose cities are named Joshua 15:21-32. The sense is: none shall escape, not even those most remote from the point at which the invader from the north (Jeremiah 13:20) enters the land. _it is wholly, etc_.] We... [ Continue Reading ]
_Lift up your eyes, and behold_ The verbs in MT. are fem. and sing., with a variant (Ḳ"ri) mas. and pl. The pronoun, probably by a slip, is pl. It is better to read with LXX, _Lift up thine eyes, O Jerusalem_. _the north_ Cp. Jeremiah 4:6; Jeremiah 6:1; Jeremiah 6:22. _the flock_ See on Jeremiah 1... [ Continue Reading ]
Lament for the calamities brought about by Jerusalem's sin See, O Jerusalem, the northern foe descends on thee. What has become of thy goodly nation? How wilt thou endure those who were erst thy friends, now become thy rulers? What shall be thy pangs? And dost thou ask, Wherefore? It is the penalty... [ Continue Reading ]
The construction and order in MT. are difficult, and the Hebrew words seem to have suffered some dislocation in the course of transmission. The general sense is: Those whom thou considerest to be thy friends (meaning Babylon, and perhaps the lesser neighbouring nations) are now to be thy harsh maste... [ Continue Reading ]
The _v_. need not mean that Judah's sin was innate (see on Jeremiah 6:7), but that habits of evil preclude a return to righteousness. _the Ethiopian_ Through the Jews" intercourse with Egypt the Ethiopians were familiar to them. See Jeremiah 38:7. They were acquainted with the "merchandise of Ethio... [ Continue Reading ]
See on Jeremiah 4:11. _by the wina_ better, with mg. _unto the wind_.... [ Continue Reading ]
_thou wilt not, etc_.] rather, _How long will it be, ere thou be made clean_?... [ Continue Reading ]