X. (1) HOUSE OF ISRAEL. — This forms the link that connects what follows with what precedes. The _“_house of Israel” had been told that it was “uncircumcised in heart,” on a level with the heathen; now the special sin of the heathen, which it was disposed to follow, is set forth in words of scorn a... [ Continue Reading ]
BE NOT DISMAYED AT THE SIGNS OF HEAVEN. — The special reference is to the “astrologers, the stargazers, the monthly prognosticators” of the Chaldæans (Isaiah 47:13), finding portents either in the conjuncture of planets and constellations, or in eclipses, comets, and other like phenomena. In singula... [ Continue Reading ]
THE CUSTOMS OF THE PEOPLE. — Better, _ordinances of the peoples._ The prophet is speaking, not of common customs, but of religious institutions, and of these as belonging, not to “the people,” _i.e.,_ Israel, but to the nations round them. The verses that follow are so closely parallel to Isaiah 41:... [ Continue Reading ]
UPRIGHT AS THE PALM TREE. — Better, perhaps, _A pillar in a garden of gourds are they._ The Hebrew word translated “upright” has two very different, though not entirely unconnected, meanings — (1) “twisted, rounded, carved,” and in this sense it is translated commonly as “beaten work” (Exodus 25:18;... [ Continue Reading ]
FORASMUCH AS. — A somewhat flat addition to the Hebrew text, which opens with a vigorous abruptness, _None is there like unto thee..._ Great in might. — The latter is an almost technical word (as in Isaiah 33:13; Psalms 21:13; Psalms 145:11) for the Divine Omnipotence. (Compare “the Mighty God” of... [ Continue Reading ]
KING OF NATIONS. — Emphatically, “King of _the heathen”_ expressing the universal sovereignty of Jehovah in contrast with the thought that He was the God of the Jews only. (Compare Romans 3:29.) TO THEE DOTH IT APPERTAIN. — Better, _for it is thine, i.e.,_ the kingdom over the heathen implied in th... [ Continue Reading ]
ALTOGETHER. — Literally, _in one,_ probably in the sense _in one word, in one fact, sc.,_ that which follows in the next clause. THE STOCK IS A DOCTRINE OF VANITIES. — Better, inverting the subject and predicate, _the teaching of vanities_ (_i.e.,_ of idols) _is a word,_ or _is a log._ That is all... [ Continue Reading ]
TARSHISH. — As elsewhere in the Old Testament, Spain, the Tartessus of the Greeks (Genesis 10:4; Jonah 1:3; Ezekiel 27:12), from whence Palestine, through the Phoenicians, was chiefly supplied with silver, tin, and other metals. UPHAZ. — Possibly an error of transcription, or dialectical variation,... [ Continue Reading ]
THE LORD IS THE TRUE GOD. — Literally, _Jehovah is the God that is Truth._ The thought expressed is that for which St. John, as indeed the LXX. does here, uses the word _alçthinos_ (John 17:3; 1 John 5:20), Truth in its highest and most perfect form. So “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (John... [ Continue Reading ]
THUS SHALL YE SAY UNTO THEM. — The verse presents an almost unique phenomenon. It is not, like the rest of the book, in Hebrew, but in Chaldee or Aramaic, the language of the enemies of Israel. Two explanations have been offered — (1) that a marginal note, added by one of the exiles in Babylon, foun... [ Continue Reading ]
HE HATH MADE... HE HATH ESTABLISHED. — The words are participial in form, _making..._ _establishing,_ and complete the list of divine attributes in Jeremiah 10:10, contrasting the creative might of Jehovah with the impotence of the gods of the heathen. THE WORLD. — As contrasted with the material e... [ Continue Reading ]
A MULTITUDE OF WATERS. — Better, _a rush of waters,_ following on the thunder, which is thought of as the voice of God (comp. Psalms 29:3). The prophet finds the tokens of Almighty Power alike in the fixed order of the Cosmos and its most catastrophic perturbations. The strict construction of the He... [ Continue Reading ]
BRUTISH IN HIS KNOWLEDGE. — Literally, _from knowing,_ i.e., _too brutish to know,_ or, as some take it, _brutish without knowledge,_ overwhelmed and astounded, so that the power of knowing fails. EVERY FOUNDER. — The smelter, or worker in molten metal.... [ Continue Reading ]
THE WORK OF ERRORS. — Better, _a work of mockery,_ i.e., _worthy of that and of that only,_ the word being apparently substituted, after Jeremiah’s manner, for the technical word, not unlike in sound, which is translated “image work” in 2 Chronicles 3:10. IN THE TIME OF THEIR VISITATION. — i.e., in... [ Continue Reading ]
THE PORTION OF JACOB. — As in Psalms 16:5; Psalms 119:57, God is described as the “portion,” _i.e.,_ as the treasure and inheritance of His people. He is no powerless idol, but the former, _i.e.,_ the creator, of all things, or more literally _of the all, i.e.,_ of the universe. THE ROD OF HIS INHER... [ Continue Reading ]
GATHER UP THY WARES. — The section from Jeremiah 10:1 inclusive had been as a long parenthesis, reproving Israel for the sin which placed it among the “uncircumcised in the heart” (Jeremiah 9:26). Now the prophet returns to his main theme, the devastation of the land of Israel as the penalty of that... [ Continue Reading ]
I WILL SLING OUT. — The same bold metaphor, though not the same word, for violent expulsion, is found in the prophecy of the fate of Shebna (Isaiah 22:18). THAT THEY MAY FIND IT SO. — In the Hebrew, the verb, though transitive, stands by itself, without an object. The ellipsis has been filled up eit... [ Continue Reading ]
WOE IS ME... — From this verse to the end of the chapter we have, with the prophet’s characteristic dramatic vividness, the lamentation of the daughter of Israel in her captivity, bewailing the transgressions that had led to it. That this follows immediately on Jeremiah 10:18 gives some support to t... [ Continue Reading ]
MY TABERNACLE... — The tent which had been the home of Israel is destroyed, the cords that fastened it to the ground are broken, the children that used to help their mother in arranging the tent and its curtains “are not,” _i.e._ (as in Genesis 42:36; Jeremiah 31:15; Matthew 2:18), they are either d... [ Continue Reading ]
THE PASTORS. — The “shepherds,” used, as in Jeremiah 2:8; Jeremiah 3:15, and elsewhere, of rulers generally, rather than of priests as such. THEREFORE THEY SHALL NOT PROSPER. — Better, _therefore they have not done wisely._ This is the primary meaning of the word (that of prosperity, as the result... [ Continue Reading ]
BEHOLD, THE NOISE OF THE BRUIT IS COME. — Better, _A cry is heard, Behold, it cometh._ The cry of terror is heard and it utters the tidings, terrible in their brevity, that the army of the invader is come, and with it the “great commotion,” the stir and rush of the army, coming from the north countr... [ Continue Reading ]
O LORD, I KNOW... — The confession is made not by the prophet for himself, but as by and for Israel. THE WAY OF MAN. — The path which a man takes for good or evil, for failure or success. His conduct in life depends, the prophet says, on something more than his own choice : — “There’s a divinity t... [ Continue Reading ]
WITH JUDGMENT. — The rendering is accurate, but the idea is, perhaps, better expressed by the translation of the same word in Jeremiah 30:11; Jeremiah 46:28 as “in measure.” In either case the discipline that comes from God as the righteous Judge, at once retributive and reformative, is contrasted w... [ Continue Reading ]
POUR OUT THY FURY. — The words are identical with those of Psalms 79:6, but it is more probable that the Psalmist borrowed from the Prophet. By many critics the Psalm is referred to the time of the Maccabees, and it would seem, from the language of Jeremiah 10:1, that it must at any rate have been a... [ Continue Reading ]