Jeremiah 5:1-31. Jerusalem is ripe for judgement We may summarize the contents as follows: Jeremiah 5:1. Even one righteous man would procure forgiveness. But moral obliquity and obstinacy in sin are universal among the enlightened no less than the ignorant. Retribution cannot but be the result.... [ Continue Reading ]
_Run ye to and fro_ The prophet challenges his hearers to find a single righteous man by a thorough and extensive search. Cp. Genesis 18:23-33. The little good that was left in the land was driven out of sight by the prevailing wickedness, and exercised no appreciable effect upon it. _broad places_... [ Continue Reading ]
Though, as professed servants of Jehovah, they take the most solemn form of oath, yet they use it to give weight to a lie. Cp. Isaiah 48:1. _surely_ This rendering is obtained by the change of one letter in MT., which has "therefore" in defiance of the sense.... [ Continue Reading ]
_do not thine eyes look upon, etc_.] Dost thou not look for faithfulness in men? _they have made their faces harder than a rock_ Cp. Ezekiel 3:7 ff.... [ Continue Reading ]
The prophet thinks, Surely it is poverty and ignorance that mislead them. Cp. Hosea 4:6. _the way of the Lord_ the way prescribed by God to man. _judgement_ primarily a decision given by a judge, and hence an ordinance, or a prescribed system of ordinances (so in Jeremiah 8:7). See Dr. pp. 334 f.... [ Continue Reading ]
_they know_ As experts they have leisure to study the Law, and to learn therefrom the will of God. _broken the yoke, and burst the bands_ of the Law and of obedience. The bands are the fastenings of the yoke upon the neck of the beasts that bear it. For the phrase cp. Jeremiah 2:20. As oxen which... [ Continue Reading ]
For the danger from actual wild beasts in Palestine cp. 1 Samuel 17:34; 1Ki 13:24; 1 Kings 20:36. Here the description "spoiling," "watching over" (i.e. lying in wait) shews that the passage is metaphorical. Cp. Jeremiah 4:7. _evenings_ DESERTS, as mg., thus preserving the parallelism with "forest.... [ Continue Reading ]
If the MT. be right, the transition to Jehovah's words is an abrupt one. Du., however, considers that an abbreviation of the common formula "Thus saith Jehovah" was misunderstood and so brought about a corruption of the text. He would accordingly restore thus: _How can I pardon them, saith the Lord;... [ Continue Reading ]
The Hebrew of the first clause is obscure. The reading "fed horses," which is to be preferred, represents the consonants of MT. (K'thibh), though the verb which they form is found elsewhere only in cognate languages (meaning _to feed_). The mg. of MT. (Ḳ"ri) is of uncertain signification, but probab... [ Continue Reading ]
Judah is likened to a vineyard. So in Jeremiah 12:10; Isaiah 5:1 ff. _her walls_ This sense for the MT. as here vocalised is very questionable. It is best, changing one vowel, to take the meaning to be _vinerows_(as probably in Job 24:11). So Du., though Co. makes it to denote the walls protecting... [ Continue Reading ]
See summary at beginning of section.... [ Continue Reading ]
_It is not he_ lit. _not he!_probably corresponding to our own colloquial expression, and used as a rejoinder by those who refused to credit prophetic warnings of disaster. Cp. Zephaniah 1:12.... [ Continue Reading ]
_and the prophets shall become wind_ the rejoinder continued. As the word is generally used in Jeremiah of the false prophets, Gi. takes it in that sense here, but he is obliged for that purpose to transpose Jeremiah 5:13 and attribute the words to God. _shall it_ rather, _may it_. "The Lord do so t... [ Continue Reading ]
"Ye" (the people) "thy" (Jeremiah's). Cp. Jeremiah 23:39.... [ Continue Reading ]
Although the description suits the Babylonians (cp. Isaiah 5:26 of the Assyrians; also Isaiah 28:11; Isaiah 33:19), we need not suppose that it is altered in phraseology from its original application which was doubtless to the Scythians (see Intr. i. § 3). "Jeremiah may well have thought of the Scyt... [ Continue Reading ]
_Their quiver is an open sepulchre_ Their arrows are deadly. Cp. Psalms 5:9. _Their quiver_ Cp. Jeremiah 4:29 ("bowmen").... [ Continue Reading ]
which _thy sons and thy daughters should eat_ This is the rendering which the Heb. on the whole suggests, though the meaning _may_be, _they shall eat thy sons and thy daughters_. Seeing, however, that cannibalism is not to be attributed to the Scythians, it is probable that the clause is either meta... [ Continue Reading ]
Du. for metre and style excludes the whole remainder of the ch. from Jeremiah's authorship. Without such drastic treatment of the text, we may yet hesitate to accept this _v_. as it seems an unwarranted interruption of the sequence of thought. See on Jeremiah 4:27.... [ Continue Reading ]
The punishment was to be severe, because the wickedness which had called it forth was gross. _in a land that is not yours_ Referring to the approach of exile, and therefore belonging to the time of the Roll (b.c. 604). Cp. Jeremiah 16:10-13; Jeremiah 22:8 f.; Deu 29:24 ff.; 1 Kings 9:8 f.... [ Continue Reading ]
These _vv_. are in whole or in part rejected as a later addition by Stade, Du., Co., Gi., because (i) "declare" and "publish" are in the plural, which is unusual (but see Jeremiah 4:16); (ii) the illustration of Jehovah's greatness by the phenomena of nature belongs to the later period, cp. Job 38:8... [ Continue Reading ]
See summary at beginning of section.... [ Continue Reading ]
_understanding_ mg. Heb. _heart_, which was considered as the seat of intelligence. See Jeremiah 24:7 ("an heart to know me"); Hosea 7:11 (mg.).... [ Continue Reading ]
In MT. "the waves" belongs to the next clause. No subject is supplied to "toss themselves," but Jeremiah 46:7 f. suggests that _the waters thereof_(which form one word in Hebrew) should be supplied as accidentally omitted.... [ Continue Reading ]
The people are rebellious, even as inanimate nature sometimes is. But Jehovah can control both.... [ Continue Reading ]
God's _grace_as shewn in nature illustrated. As the people refused to fear Him in consideration of His power (Jeremiah 5:22), so neither does His bounty prevail with them. _rain, both the former and the latter_ Cp. Jeremiah 3:3. The former (early) rain was between October and December, the latter f... [ Continue Reading ]
_these things_ the blessings mentioned. For the thought cp. Amos 4:6 ff.... [ Continue Reading ]
_are found wicked men_ men of such great wickedness as to infect all. _set a trap_ lit. _a destroyer_. For an illustration of a bird-trap see on Amos 3:5 (C.B.). These men stealthily attack the poor and honest. Cp. Isaiah 29:21; Micah 7:2. _they catch men_ They by their wiles do as Nimrod is suppo... [ Continue Reading ]
_cage_ The Hebrew word occurs elsewhere only in Amos (Jeremiah 8:1), "a _basket_of summer fruit." Here, however, Cheyne (_Pulpit Comm., ad loc_.), quoting Hitzig, thinks that "the cage was at the same time a trap." He quotes Sir 11:30 (see note in C.B.), "As a decoy partridge in a cage," where the G... [ Continue Reading ]
_waxen fat_ Fatness was looked on as a mark of prosperity. Cp. Deuteronomy 32:15; Psalms 92:14; Proverbs 28:25. _shine_ referring to their sleekness of skin. _that they should prosper_ i.e. that the orphans by their help may receive succour.... [ Continue Reading ]
The refrain taken up again from Jeremiah 5:9.... [ Continue Reading ]
_wonderful_ APPALLING. The word properly means desolation, destruction.... [ Continue Reading ]
See introd. summary to section. Leaders and people unite in disaffection.... [ Continue Reading ]
"When Amos and Isaiah attacked the priesthood of Judah, they still felt that there remained the Prophets on whom the nation could fall back. But when Jeremiah mourned for Israel, he felt that there was no reserve in Judah. And when the Priesthood closed in hostile array around him, he felt that, as... [ Continue Reading ]