_JEREMIAH, LAMENTETH FOR THE MANIFOLD SINS OF THE JEWS, AND FOR THEIR JUDGMENT. DISOBEDIENCE IS THE CAUSE OF THEIR BITTER CALAMITY, HE EXHORTETH TO MOURN ON ACCOUNT OF THEIR DESTRUCTION, AND TO TRUST NOT IN THEMSELVES, BUT IN GOD: HE THREATENETH BOTH JEWS AND GENTILES._ _Before Christ 600._... [ Continue Reading ]
OH THAT MY HEAD WERE WATERS— We have here a fine instance of the pathetic, wherein Jeremiah so much excels. He sympathizes with the calamities of his people, in order to excite them to a sense of their own misfortunes, and to prevail upon them to humble themselves under the afflicting hand of the Al... [ Continue Reading ]
A LODGING-PLACE OF WAYFARING MEN— Travellers in the East are not, nor ever were, accommodated at inns on the road, after the manner of the European nations. In some places, indeed, there are large public buildings provided for their reception, which they call _caravanseras:_ but these afford merely... [ Continue Reading ]
TAKE YE HEED, &C.— See Micah 7:5.Matthew 10:35.... [ Continue Reading ]
THINE HABITATION IS IN THE MIDST OF DECEIT— Houbigant follows the LXX, and renders the verse, _They add usury to usury, and deceit to deceit, they refuse,_ &c. The experimental knowledge of God, which is true religion, is incompatible with the practice of any wickedness; and therefore it is natural... [ Continue Reading ]
BEHOLD, I WILL MELT THEM— The prophet uses here the same metaphor as in chap. Jeremiah 6:28, &c. where see the note. Houbigant renders the last clause; _So will I do, for the perversity of the daughter of my people._... [ Continue Reading ]
THEIR TONGUE IS AS AN ARROW SHOT OUT— _Their tongue is the arrow of a murderer._... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR THE MOUNTAINS, &C.— These words, says Houbigant, as they now lie, must belong either to Jeremiah, or the daughter of Zion; and yet it follows in the next verse, _And I will make;_ which are the words of God: therefore this verse should be rendered, _Take ye up a weeping and wailing on the mounta... [ Continue Reading ]
BEHOLD, I WILL FEED, &C.— See Deuteronomy 29:18.... [ Continue Reading ]
CONSIDER YE, &C.— The first lamentations for the dead consisted only in the sudden bursts of insuppressible grief, like that of David over his son Absalom, 2 Samuel 19:4. But, as men grew refined, it was not deemed sufficient for the surviving relation to vent his sorrows in these natural and artles... [ Continue Reading ]
SPEAK, THUS, &C.— _For it shall come to pass, saith the Lord, that the carcases,_ &c. Houb. _AND AS THE HANDFUL AFTER THE HARVEST-MAN_— _Behind the reaper._ This alludes to the manner of reaping corn in the field, where the reaper, as soon as he has cut what he can hold in his hand, lets it fall, a... [ Continue Reading ]
LET NOT THE WISE MAN GLORY, &C.— "Unless this wisdom hath for its object God himself, and teaches us to despise ourselves, to be humbled beneath the mighty hand of God, and to glory in him alone. All other wisdom is vain and dangerous." Phocylides has said excellently, If wisdom, strength, or riche... [ Continue Reading ]
AND ALL THAT ARE IN THE UTMOST CORNERS— _All having the angular tonsure, or, having the corners of their hair polled._ The reader will find a more particular account of these nations, who drank of the cup of the Lord's fury after Jerusalem had drunk it, in ch. Jeremiah 25:17, &c. They used circumcis... [ Continue Reading ]