I. (1-3) The first three verses contain the title prefixed to the collection of prophecies by some later editor. This title would seem, from its unusual fulness, to have received one or more additions — Jeremiah 1:1 giving the general title, Jeremiah 1:2 the commencement of Jeremiah’s prophetic wor... [ Continue Reading ]
IN THE THIRTEENTH YEAR OF HIS REIGN. — If we take the _data_ of 2 Kings 22, Josiah was at that time in his twentieth or twenty-first year, having grown up under the training of Hilkiah. His active work of reformation began five years later. The images of Baal and Asherah (the groves) were thrown dow... [ Continue Reading ]
IT CAME ALSO... — The short reigns of Jehoahaz (three months) and Jehoiachin or Jeconiah (three months also) are passed over, and mention made of the more conspicuous reigns of Jehoiakim (eleven years) and Zedekiah (also eleven). Assuming Jeremiah to have been about twenty when the prophetic call ca... [ Continue Reading ]
THE WORD OF THE LORD CAME UNTO ME. — The words imply obviously a revelation, the introduction of a new element into the human consciousness. In many cases such a revelation implied also the spiritual tension of an ecstatic or trance-like state, a dream, or an open vision. It almost presupposed a pre... [ Continue Reading ]
I KNEW THEE. — With the force which the word often has in Hebrew, as implying. not foreknowledge only, but choice and approval (Psalms 1:6; Psalms 37:18; Amos 3:2). I SANCTIFIED THEE. — _i.e., consecrated thee, set thee apart as hallowed for this special use._ ORDAINED. — Better, _I have appointed... [ Continue Reading ]
AH, LORD GOD! — Better, _Alas, O Lord Jehovah!_ as answering to the Hebrew Adonai Jehovah. I CANNOT SPEAK. — In the same sense as the “I am not eloquent” of Moses (Exodus 4:10), literally, “a man of words,” _i.e.,_ have no gifts of utterance. I AM A CHILD. — Later Jewish writers fix the age of four... [ Continue Reading ]
THE LORD SAID UNTO ME. — The misgiving, which was not reluctance, is met by words of encouragement. God gave the work; He would also give the power.... [ Continue Reading ]
BE NOT AFRAID. — The words imply, as in those spoken to Ezekiel (Ezekiel 2:6), to St. Peter (Luke 5:10), and St. Paul (Acts 18:9), the fear that sprang from the sense of personal weakness and unfitness to cope with the dangers to which his work exposed him. The “faces” of his adversaries would be a... [ Continue Reading ]
THE LORD PUT FORTH HIS HAND... — The symbolic act seems to imply something like a waking vision, like that of Isaiah (Isaiah 6:6), and the act itself reminds us of the “live coal” laid upon the prophet’s mouth, as there recorded. The “hand of the Lord,” as in Ezekiel 3:14; Ezekiel 8:1., and elsewher... [ Continue Reading ]
I HAVE THIS DAY SET THEE... — With the gift, and therefore the consciousness, of a new power, there comes what would at first have been too much for the mortal vessel of the truth to bear — a prospective view of the greatness of the work before him. He is at once set (literally, made the “deputy,” o... [ Continue Reading ]
THE WORD OF THE LORD... — As before, we have the element of ecstasy and vision, symbols not selected by the prophet, and yet, we may believe, adapted to his previous training, and to the bent and, as it were, genius of his character. The poetry of the symbols is of exquisite beauty. In contrast to... [ Continue Reading ]
I WILL HASTEN. — The Hebrew, by using a participle formed from the same root (_shôkêd_)_,_ PRESENTS A PLAY UPON the name of the “almond,” as the _watcher,_ which it is impossible to reproduce; literally, _I, too, am watching over my word to perform it._... [ Continue Reading ]
A SEETHING POT; AND THE FACE THEREOF IS TOWARD THE NORTH. — More correctly, _from the north._ The next symbol was one that set forth the darker side of the prophet’s work: a large cauldron (probably of metal) placed (as in Ezekiel’s vision, Ezekiel 24:3) on a great pile of burning wood, boiling and... [ Continue Reading ]
OUT OF THE NORTH AN EVIL. — Literally, _the evil,_ long foretold, as in Micah 3:12, and elsewhere, and long expected.... [ Continue Reading ]
I WILL CALL. — Literally, _I am calling._ The evil is not merely future, but is actually begun. ALL THE FAMILIES OF THE KINGDOMS OF THE NORTH. — In the Hebrew the words are in apposition, _all the families, even the kingdoms of the north._ The words point chiefly to the Chaldæans and other inhabita... [ Continue Reading ]
I WILL UTTER MY JUDGMENTS AGAINST THEM. — Here, again, we get a literal correspondence in the words of Jeremiah 39:5, “he gave [or uttered] judgment upon him,” of Nebuchadnezzar’s sentence on Zedekiah. And yet the invaders in their sentence are to be but the ministers of a higher judgment than their... [ Continue Reading ]
GIRD UP THY LOINS. — Be as the messenger who prepares to be swift on his errand, and to go whithersoever he is sent (1 Kings 18:46; 2 Kings 4:29; 2 Kings 9:1). The vivid image of intense activity re-appears in the New Testament (Luke 12:35; 1 Peter 1:13), and has become proverbial in the speech of C... [ Continue Reading ]
I HAVE MADE THEE... A DEFENCED CITY... — Images of strength are heaped one upon another. The prophet is represented as attacked by kings, princes, priests, and people, as the cities of Judah are by the invading armies. But the issue is different. They fall: he will hold out. The iron pillar is that... [ Continue Reading ]
I AM WITH THEE. — That thought was in itself enough. The presence, and therefore the protection, of the All-wise and the Almighty was the one condition of safety. Even in its lower sense, “Immanuel,” God with us (Isaiah 7:14), was the watchword of every true combatant in God’s great army.... [ Continue Reading ]