THEY SAY - Or, That is to say. The prophet has completed his survey of Israel’s conduct, and draws the conclusion that as an adulterous wife could not be taken back by her husband, so Israel has forfeited her part in the covenant with God. Apparently the opening word, which literally means “to say,”... [ Continue Reading ]
These words are not the language of consolation to the conscience-stricken, but of vehement expostulation with hardened sinners. They prove, therefore, the truth of the interpretation put upon the preceding verse. AS THE ARABIAN ... - The freebooting propensities of the Bedouin had passed in ancien... [ Continue Reading ]
Or, Hast thou Not from this time called “me, My Father, thou art the” husband “of my youth?” i. e., from the time of Josiah’s reforms in his eighteenth year, in opposition to “of old time” Jeremiah 2:20.... [ Continue Reading ]
Rather, “Will he, the young husband,” retain, “keep up His anger forever!” These words should be joined to Jeremiah 3:4. BEHOLD ... - Rather, “Behold, thou hast spoken” thus, but thou hast “done evil things” persistently. The King James Version translates as if Judah’s words and deeds were both evi... [ Continue Reading ]
BACKSLIDING ISRAEL - The original is very strong: Hast thou seen Apostasy? i. e., Israel: as though Israel were the very personificatiom of the denial of God. SHE IS GONE UP - Rather, she goes; it is her habitual practice.... [ Continue Reading ]
Or, “And I said (i. e., within myself), After she has done all these things, she will return to me.” But she did not return. TREACHEROUS - literally, “Falsehood,” i. e., false, faithless. The character of the two sisters is plainly marked. Samaria is apostate; she abandons Yahweh’s worship altogeth... [ Continue Reading ]
Rather, “And I saw” that because apostate “Israel” had “committed adultery, I had put her away, and given her” the writing of her divorcement, “yet” false “Judah her sister feared not.”...The expression, “For all the causes whereby,” is probably the actual formula with which writings of divorcement... [ Continue Reading ]
LIGHTNESS - Others render as in the margin. DEFILED - Rather, profaned. The land especially consecrated to Yahweh’s service was treated by Judah as a common land.... [ Continue Reading ]
HER TREACHEROUS SISTER JUDITH - These words are a sort of refrain, thrice Jeremiah 3:7, Jeremiah 3:10 repeated before God finally pronounces Judah more culpable than Israel.... [ Continue Reading ]
HATH JUSTIFIED HERSELF - Judah had had the benefit of the warning given by Israel’s example. Both abandon Yahweh’s service for idolatry, but Israel is simply “apostate,” Judah is also false. The verse is important, (1) as accounting for the destruction of Jerusalem so soon after the pious reign of... [ Continue Reading ]
THE NORTH - The ten tribes, settled by Salmanezer in the north of Assyria. I WILL NOT CAUSE MINE ANGER TO FALL UPON YOU - literally, I will not cause my face “to fall upon you:” i. e., “I will not receive you with averted looks.” The “and” before this clause should be omitted, as also before the ne... [ Continue Reading ]
ACKNOWLEDGE - literally, “know thy iniquity;” know that thy doings are iniquitous. SCATTERED THY WAYS - Wandered in search of those idolatries which foreign nations practice.... [ Continue Reading ]
CHILDREN ... MARRIED - The twofold relationship gives a double certainty of acceptance. As children, they were sure of a father’s love, as a wife they might hope for a revival of past affection from the husband of their youth. ONE OF A CITY, AND TWO OF A FAMILY - The family (in Hebrew) is far large... [ Continue Reading ]
PASTORS - “Kings, rulers” (compare Jeremiah 2:8). Not military usurpers Hosea 8:4, but true servants of God, as David 1 Samuel 13:14.... [ Continue Reading ]
IN THOSE DAYS - This and the phrase “the latter days,” had become under the Messianic teaching of the prophets a regular formula for the time of Christ’s coming, when all the nation’s hopes would be fulfilled. The ark was the center of the Mosaic economy, containing within it the two tables’ of the... [ Continue Reading ]
THE THRONE OF THE LORD - Yahweh’s throne shall not be the ark, but Jerusalem, i. e., the Christian Church Revelation 21:2; Galatians 4:26. TO JERUSALEM - The Septuagint and Syriac are probably right in omitting this word. IMAGINATION ... - Stubbornness (margin). A word always used in a bad sense,... [ Continue Reading ]
WITH - To (margin). The prophet has just described the return of the ten tribes Jeremiah 3:14, etc. Israel is represented as the first to repent, and Judah must go to her, in order that they may come together back to the holy land, divided no longer into Jews and Israelites, but merged into one peop... [ Continue Reading ]
BUT I - (emphatic). “And I.” The emphasis lies in the abundant goodness of God contrasted with Israel’s waywardness. HOW ...? - Rather, How ...! i. e., How gloriously! With what honor will I place thee among the children! GOODLY ... OF THE HOSTS ... - Rather, “a heritage of the chief beauty of nat... [ Continue Reading ]
SURELY AS - Rather: “Just as.”... [ Continue Reading ]
UPON THE HIGH PLACES - Upon those bare table-lands, which previously had been the scene of Israel’s idolatries Jeremiah 3:2. The prophet supposes the offer of mercy to Israel if repentant to have been accepted, and describes Israel’s agony of grief now that she is convinced of her sins. WEEPING AND... [ Continue Reading ]
Yahweh’s answer to their prayer in Jeremiah 3:21 is immediately followed by their acceptance of the offer of divine mercy. FOR - Rather, because ... This profession of faith gives the reason why they return to Yahweh. The whole description is most graphically conceived. The people weeping upon the... [ Continue Reading ]
Rather, Surely “in vain from the hills” is the revelry of the mountains. The penitents contrast in it the uselessness of idol-worship with the salvation which Yahweh gives to His people.... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR ... - And. It is the continuation of the thought in Jeremiah 3:23. Idolatry was there described as unprofitable, here as ruinous and hurtful. SHAME - literally, the shame (Bosheth, personified), that is, “Baal.” The names “Bosheth” and “Baal” are constantly interchanged. Compare Judges 6:31. T... [ Continue Reading ]
WE LIE DOWN ... - Or, We will lie down: we are ready to throw ourselves upon the ground in bitter humiliation. COVERETH - literally, shall cover us. We will hide our face from others.... [ Continue Reading ]