Jeremiah 13:9-11

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 intended and that the supposed inconsistency has come about through the introduction of some modification of the text. Thus Co. omits the whole passage except from "as the girdle" to "house of Israel" (Jeremiah 13:11). The omission, however, seems scarcely warranted. We should notice that it is in consequence of the prophet'saction that the girdle is spoiled, and that Jeremiah, as wearing the girdle, represents Jehovah, the action by which the girdle's beauty is destroyed corresponding thus to exile (to which the mention of Euphrates as the place of hiding further alludes), but not to apostasy. Accordingly it is the pride of Judah and Jerusalem that shall be humbled by transportation, and it is this humbling that the symbol represents, and not moral corruption, although it is of course the latter (Jeremiah 13:10) which is the cause of the humiliation.