_THE CALAMITIES OF THE JEWS, BOTH ALIVE AND DEAD: HE UPBRAIDETH THEIR FOOLISH AND SHAMELESS IMPENITENCY; HE SHEWETH THEIR GRIEVOUS JUDGEMENT, AND BEWAILETH THEIR DESPERATE ESTATE._ _Before Christ 600._... [ Continue Reading ]
AT THAT TIME, SAITH THE LORD— "The Chaldeans shall regard neither the living nor the dead. They shall put the living to death without remorse; and shall break open and defile the tombs of the dead, in hopes of finding riches deposited there. They shall cast them out of their sepulchres, and leave th... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THEY SHALL SPREAD THEM— _And they shall leave them exposed,_ &c.... [ Continue Reading ]
JEREMIAH 8:3. _FAMILY_— _Generation._... [ Continue Reading ]
SHALL HE TURN AWAY— _Or he that turneth away, shall he not return?_ Houbigant renders it, _Shall they who are alienated never return?_ The similitude, says he, is taken from a man who falls by neglect, but afterward raises himself; and from one who departs from another in passion, but afterwards is... [ Continue Reading ]
YEA, THE STORK IN THE HEAVEN— "These birds know by natural instinct the seasons when to return to the places of their former abode; whereas this people never think of returning to their former and only true God." The sacred writers often send men to the brute creation for instruction, in order to up... [ Continue Reading ]
I WILL SURELY CONSUME THEN, &C.— _I was about to gather them, saith the Lord, but there are no grapes on the vine, nor figs on the fig-tree; and the leaves themselves have faded: they have dissipated those things which I gave them._ Houb. Instead of, _And the things,_ &c. we may read, _And what stre... [ Continue Reading ]
WHY DO WE SIT STILL?— This seems to be spoken in the person of the people who lived in open towns and villages, exhorting one another to repair to Jerusalem, and other fortified places, to seek for refuge; whereas the prophet had before exhorted the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to flee even thence. He... [ Continue Reading ]
THE SNORTING OF HIS HORSES WAS HEARD FROM DAN— Dan was situated at the northern extremity of Palestine, on the side whence the Chaldeans were to come against Jerusalem. See chap. Jeremiah 4:15. This verse cannot but remind the learned reader of Virgil's famous description of the horse, which has not... [ Continue Reading ]
BEHOLD, I WILL SEND SERPENTS— Under the idea of beasts and venomous creatures are represented inexorable enemies: see chap. Jeremiah 5:6. Psalms 58:4 and Calmet. That some persons possessed the faculty of rendering serpents harmless, is a fact too well attested by historians and travellers to admit... [ Continue Reading ]
WHEN I WOULD COMFORT MYSELF— _Comfort,_ or _mirth flies from me: sorrow hangs over me, my heart is faint._ Houb.... [ Continue Reading ]
BEHOLD, THE VOICE, &C.— The prophet anticipates in his imagination the captivity of his countrymen in Babylon, _a far country;_ and represents them there as asking with a mixture of grief and astonishment, if there was no such a Being as JEHOVAH, who presided in Sion, that he so neglected his people... [ Continue Reading ]
THE HARVEST IS PAST— The people, besieged in Jerusalem, afflicted themselves on account of the length of the siege. "We flattered ourselves," say they, "with a speedy deliverance; the false prophets amused us with their vain predictions: behold, the harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we have... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR THE HURT, &C.— Jeremiah here deplores the misfortunes of Jerusalem, and continues to do so in the subsequent chapter. Houbigant renders this verse, _I am wounded with the wound of the daughter of my people. I am thrown into grief; astonishment hath seized me;_ and so the French, _J'en suis attri... [ Continue Reading ]
IS THERE NO BALM IN GILEAD?— "Whence then comes it that the wound of my people hath not been closed? Is it my fault? Have I not sent you prophets? Have I not given you time, instructions, and means to return to your duty? Have ye wanted physic or physicians? Why then are you not cured? Doubtless it... [ Continue Reading ]