2 6 Jeremiah's earliest discourses, viz. from the time of his call (b.c. 626) to a date shortly after that of Josiah's reforms (b.c. 621). These utterances as a whole describe the condition of things at this period, setting forth the corruption of the nation and the punishment to ensue. As the dis... [ Continue Reading ]
_If thou wilt return, etc_.] The best rendering is perhaps as follows: _If thou wilt return, O Israel, saith the Lord, yea, return unto me_, continuing (with mg.), _and if thou wilt put … and wilt not wander, and wilt swear … then shall the nations, etc_. _abominations_ detestable things, idolatrou... [ Continue Reading ]
Jeremiah 3:6 to Jeremiah 4:4. Conditional offers of restoration We may subdivide thus. (1) Jeremiah 3:6-18. The ten tribes as less guilty than Judah are invited to repent and return. (2) Jeremiah 3:19 to Jeremiah 4:4. The invitation includes the whole nation, on a like condition.... [ Continue Reading ]
Jeremiah 4:1. If Israel will sincerely repent and mend her ways, her prosperity will be the ideal for all nations. Let Judah dedicate herself in heart to Jehovah, otherwise heavy judgement shall be her portion. In Jeremiah 4:1 a severer mode of address is used towards Judah (3, 4) than towards Isra... [ Continue Reading ]
_shall bless themselves in him_ not in Israel, but in God, i.e. they will use Jehovah's name in invoking blessings on themselves.... [ Continue Reading ]
_Break up_ The ground of their heart is hard. It needs as it were the plough and the harrow. Moreover, it is overgrown with thorns. These must be removed.... [ Continue Reading ]
_Circumcise yourselves to the Lord_ Literal circumcision was the condition of admission to the external covenant. "Jeremiah demands an inward circumcision, a cleansing and dedication of the heart. Such a doctrine naturally points the way to his supreme contribution to religious thought, his epoch-ma... [ Continue Reading ]
_in Jerusalem_ But a proclamation that people should take refuge within cities would not be needed there. It is probable that the words should be omitted. Moreover, by a very slight change in the Hebrew, the first "and say" may be read "saith Jehovah." Thus we may with probability emend, _Declare ye... [ Continue Reading ]
Flee without delay, if so be that walls can save you. The foe from the north threatens ruin to town and country alike. Terror shall seize the greatest in the land, and dismay the priests and prophets.... [ Continue Reading ]
Jeremiah 4:5-31. Impending judgements. National disaster This section and the two that follow it (viz. chs. 5 and 6) are somewhat later than the preceding, as presenting a more definite description of the punishment there threatened. They picture the excitement and dismay caused throughout the defe... [ Continue Reading ]
_Set up a standard_ to guide those who were seeking to attain the shelter of the walls of Jerusalem. _flee_ rather, MAKE ( YOUR HOUSEHOLDS) FLEE. Cp. mg. in Isaiah 10:31; and Exodus 9:19 ("hasten in"). _from the north_ See introd. note to the section. _destruction_ For the alarm caused by the Scy... [ Continue Reading ]
_A lion_ See introd. note above. _thy land_ We should perhaps read _the land_, and consider the rest of the _v_. as an insertion suggested by the parallels in Jeremiah 2:15; Jeremiah 9:11. Du. proposes, but on insufficient grounds (viz. the use of the expression "at that day," as though implying v... [ Continue Reading ]
_the priests shall be astonished_ because of the punishment which has followed upon their idolatries. _the prophets shall wonder_ because of the non-fulfilment of their prophecies.... [ Continue Reading ]
_Then said I_ We should doubtless, by a slight change, read, _And they shall say_. The false prophets, who had foretold peace (Jeremiah 6:14; Jeremiah 14:13; Jeremiah 23:17), shall in their dismay charge God with deception. Doubtless an argument in the mouths of those prophets and their supporters h... [ Continue Reading ]
_A hot wind_ The foe comes not as a gentle wind, such as that used (see on Jeremiah 15:7) to separate wheat from chaff, but one that shall whirl away both together. Thomson (_op. cit_. p. 295) describes the sirocco thus: "The air becomes loaded with fine dust, which it whirls in rainless clouds hith... [ Continue Reading ]
As the burning sirocco, the dense clouds accompanied by the whirlwind, or the savage creatures of the air, so shall the enemy prove to be, as they descend on Judah in doom. Let her even now seek to avert it by repentance. See summary at commencement of section.... [ Continue Reading ]
_a full wind from these_ i.e. a violent wind from the bare heights in the wilderness. It is better, however, to render nearly as mg. A WIND TOO STRONG FOR THESE THINGS, too violent for winnowing and cleansing because it blows away the corn as well (see on Jeremiah 15:7). The LXX, it may be noted, om... [ Continue Reading ]
_as clouds_ a further simile for the invader. Cp. Ezekiel 38:16, and Joel 2:2. _his chariots_shall be _as the whirlwind_ Cp. Isaiah 5:28; Isaiah 66:15. _eagles_ rather, _griffons_(_gypsi fulvus_), a species of vulture. Cp. ch. Jeremiah 48:40; Jeremiah 49:22; 2 Samuel 1:23;... [ Continue Reading ]
_How long_, etc.] Cp. Hosea 8:5.... [ Continue Reading ]
The connexion is, It is high time to amend, for, etc. _a voice_ better, _Hark! one declareth_. _Dan_ on the northern border of Palestine. See Deuteronomy 34:1. _the hills of Ephraim_ or, Mount Ephraim, the range dividing Ephraim from Judah, eight or ten miles at most from Jerusalem itself. The la... [ Continue Reading ]
_make ye mention to the nations_ They are bidden to witness the impending judgement. Cp. Micah 1:2, and the appeal to heaven and earth in Isaiah 1:2; Micah 6:1 f. _watchers_ besiegers, the Chaldaeans. But to obtain this sense we must omit the first consonant of the Hebrew word. By a change of one c... [ Continue Reading ]
_As keepers of a field_ If the MT. stands, the point of comparison will lie in the improvised shelters put up by guardians of cattle in the open country and those put up now by the besiegers round the city. Cp. Job 27:18; 2 Samuel 11:11. But by an inconsiderable change we can translate, _they_(the e... [ Continue Reading ]
_Thy way and thy doings_ See on Jeremiah 7:3. _wickedness_ i.e. its result, viz. _calamity_.... [ Continue Reading ]
_My bowels_ considered as the seat of profound emotion. Cp. Jeremiah 31:20; Isaiah 16:11; Isaiah 63:15; Ca. Jeremiah 5:4 (R.V. mg.). _I am pained_ decidedly to be preferred to mg. _I will wait patiently_. _at my very heart_ O THE WALLS OF MY HEART! a separate exclamation. The "walls" are the sides... [ Continue Reading ]
The prophet is racked with grief at the noise of war and the thought of its horrors and all through the mad folly of his people. See summary at commencement of section.... [ Continue Reading ]
_is cried_ better, _one destruction_(lit. _breach) meeteth_(followeth upon) _another_. The Hebrew verb is ambiguous. _curtains_ tent-hangings. Cp. Jeremiah 10:20; Ca. Jeremiah 1:5; Isaiah 54:2.... [ Continue Reading ]
_know_ have regard to. Cp. Isaiah 1:3.... [ Continue Reading ]
_waste_ formless, unsubstantial. Cp. Genesis 1:2. "And void" is not rendered by LXX either here or in Is., and is therefore probably a gloss from Genesis. _no light_ as though a return to chaos before the creation of light. Cp. Gen. _l.c_.... [ Continue Reading ]
In vision he beholds the earth a void waste, the hills reeling at the blast of God's anger, the heavens black, all bird life fled, cities in ruins. Jehovah's resolve is an abiding one. See summary at commencement of section. In these _vv_. the Ḳinah rhythm changes to another of a more diffuse kind.... [ Continue Reading ]
_moved to and fro_ mg. _moved lightly_.... [ Continue Reading ]
In spite of their vast size earth and heaven alike are bereft of the denizens which give them their aspect of life. For the disappearance of birds before God's judgements cp. Hosea 4:3; Zephaniah 1:3.... [ Continue Reading ]
_the fruitful field_ mg. Heb. _Carmel_(see Jeremiah 2:7), but meaning here the most fruitful portions of the land in general.... [ Continue Reading ]
_yet will I not make a full end_ This clause is probably added by a later hand (so perhaps in Jeremiah 5:10), for not only does it interrupt the metre in the original, but it also breaks the connexion between the pronouncements of Jeremiah 4:27.... [ Continue Reading ]
_be black_ be in mourning from sympathy. The following clauses should read I HAVE SPOKEN IT AND HAVE NOT REPENTED; I HAVE PURPOSED IT, AND WILL NOT TURN BACK FROM IT. So LXX. The verbs in the Hebrew were accidentally disarranged.... [ Continue Reading ]
_The whole city the whole_ LAND. So LXX, supported by Targ. The word "city" was introduced by mistake from the latter part of the _v_. _bowmen_ Cp. Jeremiah 5:16. The Scythians were noted for skill in archery. See Herod. IV. 46. _they go … rocks_ The original words for "thickets" and "rocks" have b... [ Continue Reading ]
Embellishments of the person are of no avail. Zion cries out in vain before an implacable foe. See summary at commencement of section.... [ Continue Reading ]
Thy harsh captors will scorn thy feminine arts to make thyself attractive in their eyes. But the anomalous gender (masc.) of the Hebrew participle suggests that it is a gloss. _And thou, when thou art spoiled_ AND THOU, PLUNDERED ONE. The fem. indicates, as often, a collective sense; so in Jeremiah... [ Continue Reading ]
Thy wiles shall have no effect; for already I hear thy cries of agony and dismay. _daughter of Zion_ denoting the inhabitants as a whole. Cp. Jeremiah 6:2, etc.... [ Continue Reading ]