XXXI. (1) THE GOD OF ALL THE FAMILIES OF ISRAEL. — The union of the ten tribes of Israel and the two of Judah is again prominent in the prophet’s mind. He cannot bear to think of that division, with its deep lines of cleavage in the religious and social life of the people, being perpetuated. Israel... [ Continue Reading ]
THE PEOPLE WHICH WERE LEFT OF THE SWORD... — The main thought of this and the next verse is that the past experience of God’s love is a pledge or earnest for the future. Israel of old had “found grace in the wilderness” (comp. Hosea 11:1). But as the prophet has in his thoughts a new manifestation o... [ Continue Reading ]
THE LORD HATH APPEARED OF OLD UNTO ME... — The Hebrew adverb more commonly refers to distance than to time. _From afar the Lord appeared unto me._ The thought is that of a deliverer who hears the cry of his people in the distance, and then draws near to help them. Jehovah enthroned in Zion, or in th... [ Continue Reading ]
THOU SHALT AGAIN BE ADORNED WITH THY TABRETS... — The implied idea is that of a time of rejoicing after triumphant restoration (the “building” of the previous sentence is more than that of material walls and towers), when the daughters of Israel (as in Exodus 15:20; Judges 11:34; 1 Samuel 18:6; Psal... [ Continue Reading ]
THOU SHALT YET PLANT VINES UPON THE MOUNTAINS OF SAMARIA... — The mention of Samaria shows that the prophet is thinking of the restoration of the northern kingdom, as well as of Judah, under the rule of the true King. In the Hebrew words “shall eat them as common things” we have a singular train of... [ Continue Reading ]
THE WATCHMEN UPON THE MOUNT EPHRAIM SHALL CRY... — The special fact is given as the ground of the previous prediction. The two kingdoms should be united, and therefore the possession of the vineyards should be undisturbed. The city of Samaria stood on one of the mountains of Ephraim. The “watchmen”... [ Continue Reading ]
SHOUT AMONG THE CHIEF OF THE NATIONS... — Better, _Shout over the head of the nations, i.e.,_ over Israel. It would seem from Amos 6:1 as if this was a title specially claimed by the kingdom of the Ten Tribes. (Comp. Exodus 19:5; Leviticus 20:24; Leviticus 20:26; Deuteronomy 7:6; Deuteronomy 26:19.)... [ Continue Reading ]
AND WITH THEM THE BLIND AND THE LAME... — The vision of restoration continues, and the prophet sees in the spirit the great company of those that return. Even those who are commonly left behind in such an expedition, as incumbrances hindering its march, the blind, the lame, the women with child or i... [ Continue Reading ]
THEY SHALL COME WITH WEEPING... — The present version agrees with the Hebrew punctuation, but a slight change would give, _They shall come with weeping and with supplications; I will lead them; I will cause them to walk..._ The procession of those whom the prophet sees with his mental eye is that of... [ Continue Reading ]
DECLARE IT IN THE ISLES AFAR OFF... — The “isles” appear here, as in Psalms 72:10; Isaiah 40:15; Isaiah 41:1; Isaiah 49:1; Isaiah 66:19, as the vague representative of the distant lands of the west — sometimes (as in Numbers 24:24; Jeremiah 2:10) with the addition of Chittim. Of the isles so referre... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR THE LORD HATH REDEEMED JACOB... — Of the two verbs “redeem” and _“_ransom” here used, the first expresses the act of setting free, the other that of acting as the _goel,_ or nearest kinsman, who was not only the liberator, but the avenger of those to whom he stood in that relation. (Comp. Number... [ Continue Reading ]
(12-14) THEREFORE THEY SHALL COME AND SING... — The vision of return culminates in a picture of the prosperity of the restored kingdom. The “goodness of the Lord” is, as in Hosea 3:5, the attribute on which the prophets love to dwell, as shown in all forms of outward abundance. The picture, always a... [ Continue Reading ]
A VOICE WAS HEARD IN RAMAH. — The sharp contrast between this and the exulting joy of the previous verse shows that we are entering on a new section which repeats in altered form the substance of the foregoing, presenting in succession the same pictures of present woe and future gladness. The prophe... [ Continue Reading ]
THY WORK SHALL BE REWARDED, SAITH THE LORD. — Literally, _there-shall be a reward for thy work._ The words are a reproduction of the old prophecy of Azariah, the son of Oded (2 Chronicles 15:7). Rachel, personifying the northern kingdom, perhaps even the collective unity of all Israel, is thought of... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THERE IS HOPE IN THINE END... — Better, _There is hope for thy future._ The words are the same as in Jeremiah 29:11, where the English version has “an expected end.” The hope here is defined as that of the return of Rachel’s children to their own border — the return, that is, of the Ten Tribes f... [ Continue Reading ]
1 HAVE SURELY HEARD EPHRAIM BEMOANING HIMSELF. — The prophet’s thoughts still dwell upon the exiles of the northern kingdom. They have been longer under the sharp discipline of suffering. By this time, he thinks, they must have learnt repentance. He hears — or Jehovah, speaking through him. hears —... [ Continue Reading ]
AFTER THAT I WAS TURNED. — The words have been referred by some commentators (Hitzig) to the previous turning away from God — the apostasy of Ephraim; but the repetition of the word that had been used in the previous verse makes it far more natural to connect it with the first movement of repentance... [ Continue Reading ]
IS EPHRAIM MY DEAR SON?_ — _Literally, _a child of delight_ — _i.e.,_ fondled and caressed. IS HE A PLEASANT CHILD? — We have to ask whether an affirmative or negative answer is implied to these questions. On the former view, the words express the yearning of a father’s heart towards the son whom h... [ Continue Reading ]
SET THEE UP WAY MARKS... — It will be noted that the figure is changed, and that instead of “Ephraim, the dear son,” we have Israel, the “back-sliding daughter.” The idea of the return of the exiles is still prominent, and she, as represented by the first group of those who came back, is called on t... [ Continue Reading ]
HOW LONG WILT THOU GO ABOUT...? — The word describes the restless pacing to and fro of impatient, unsatisfied desire. The backsliding daughter — _i.e.,_ the adulterous yet now penitent wife — is described, like Gomer in the parable or history of Hosea 2:7, as hesitating between her lovers and her hu... [ Continue Reading ]
AS YET THEY SHALL USE THIS SPEECH IN THE LAND OF JUDAH... — Better, _Once more,_ or _yet again._ The phrase is the same as in Jeremiah 31:5. The eye of the prophet turns from the northern kingdom to that of Judah, and sees it also as a sharer in the restoration. Jerusalem should be blest, and be wor... [ Continue Reading ]
HUSBANDMEN, AND THEY THAT GO FORTH WITH FLOCKS. — The prophet’s ideal of the restored life of Israel is that it should combine the best features of the patriarchal and the kingly life. A people pastoral, yet not nomadic — agricultural, yet sharing in the culture and safety of cities — this was the p... [ Continue Reading ]
I HAVE SATIATED THE WEARY SOUL... — Here again we note an instance of an anticipation of the thought, almost of the very language, of the Gospel, “The hungry and the thirsty” shall be “filled” (Matthew 5:6), the weary shall be refreshed (Matthew 11:28).... [ Continue Reading ]
UPON THIS I AWAKED... — The words that follow have been very differently interpreted. By some writers (Rosenmüller) they have been referred to Jehovah under the figure of the husband who has dreamt of his wife’s return. Others (Ewald) have seen in them a quotation from some well-known psalm or hymn,... [ Continue Reading ]
I WILL SOW THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL... — The same image of a fertile and happy population appears in Hosea 2:23; Zechariah 10:9; Ezekiel 36:9. It will be noted that it embraces both Israel and Judah, which had once been rivals, each watching the increase of the other with jealousy and suspicion.... [ Continue Reading ]
LIKE AS I HAVE WATCHED OVER THEM... — Some twenty-three years had passed since the prophet’s call to his office, but the words that called him to it are living still. The very symbolism of the “almond,” with the play upon its meaning, as the “wakeful” or “watching” tree (see Notes on Jeremiah 1:10),... [ Continue Reading ]
THE FATHERS HAVE EATEN A SOUR GRAPE... — The proverb was one which, as we find from Ezekiel 18:2, had at this time come into common use. Men found in it an explanation of their sufferings which relieved their consciences. They were suffering, they said, for the sins of their fathers, not for their o... [ Continue Reading ]
I WILL MAKE A NEW COVENANT... — Both in itself, and as the germ of the future of the spiritual history of mankind, the words are of immense significance. It was to this that the Lord Jesus directed the thoughts of His disciples, as the prophecy which, above all other prophecies, He had come to fulfi... [ Continue Reading ]
NOT ACCORDING TO THE COVENANT... — Our familiarity with the words hinders us, for the most part, from recognising what must have seemed their exceeding boldness. That the Covenant with Israel, given with all conceivable sanctions as coming directly from Jehovah (Exodus 24:7), should thus be set asid... [ Continue Reading ]
THIS SHALL BE THE COVENANT... — The prophet felt that nothing less than this would meet the wants of the time, or, indeed, of any time. The experiment, so to speak, of a law requiring righteousness had been tried and had failed. There remained the hope — now, by the Divine word that came to him, tur... [ Continue Reading ]
THEY SHALL TEACH NO MORE EVERY MAN HIS NEIGHBOUR... — We trace in that hope for the future the profound sense of failure which oppressed the mind of the prophet, as it has oppressed the minds of many true teachers since. What good had come of all the machinery of ritual and of teaching which the Law... [ Continue Reading ]
WHICH GIVETH THE SUN FOR A LIGHT BY DAY... — The leading thought in the lofty language of this passage is that the reign of law which we recognise in God’s creative work has its counterpart in His spiritual kingdom. The stability and permanence of natural order is a pledge and earnest of the fulfilm... [ Continue Reading ]
IF HEAVEN ABOVE CAN BE MEASURED... — The thought of the preceding verse is reproduced with a slight modification of meaning. Over and above the idea, as stated above, that the stability of nature is a parable of the steadfastness of God’s laws and purposes in the spiritual world, there is implied a... [ Continue Reading ]
FROM THE TOWER OF HANANEEL UNTO THE GATE OF THE CORNER. — There seems to us something almost like an anti-climax in this sudden transition from the loftiest Gospel promises to the obscure localities of the ancient Jerusalem. With Jeremiah, however, as before with Isaiah (Isaiah 65:17), and on a much... [ Continue Reading ]
THE HILL GAREB... — Neither of the two localities named is mentioned elsewhere, and their position is accordingly simply matter for conjecture. The name of the first, as signifying “the leper’s hill” (the term being one that includes leprosy as well as other skin-diseases, Leviticus 21:20; Leviticus... [ Continue Reading ]
THE WHOLE VALLEY OF THE DEAD BODIES... — We have to think of this city as Jeremiah saw it during the horrors of the siege — the lower part, the “plain” or “valley” of the city, the valley of Hinnom (comp. Jeremiah 19:11), filled with corpses lying unburied in the streets (Lamentations 2:21; Lamentat... [ Continue Reading ]