IV. (1) IF THOU WILT RETURN. — The “if” implies a return from the hopes with which Jeremiah 3 ended to the language of misgiving, and so, inferentially, of earnest exhortation. ABOMINATIONS. — Literally, _things of shame,_ as in Jeremiah 3:24; the idols which Israel had worshipped. THEN SHALT THO... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THOU SHALT SWEAR. — The conditions are continued: _If thou wilt swear by the living Jehovah_ [“the Lord liveth” being the received formula of adjuration], in truth, in judgment, and in righteousness. AND THE NATIONS SHALL BLESS THEMSELVES IN HIM. — This forms the completion of the sentence. If... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR THUS SAITH THE LORD... — The words seem the close of one discourse, the opening of another. The parable of Israel is left behind, and the appeal to Judah and Jerusalem is more direct. TO THE MEN OF JUDAH. — Literally, _to each man_ individually. BREAK UP YOUR FALLOW GROUND. — The Hebrew has th... [ Continue Reading ]
CIRCUMCISE YOURSELVES TO THE LORD. — The words show that the prophet had grasped the meaning of the symbol which to so many Jews was merely an outward sign. He saw that the “foreskin of the heart” was the fleshly, unrenewed nature, the “flesh” as contrasted with the “spirit,” the “old man” which St.... [ Continue Reading ]
DECLARE. — _i.e.,_ proclaim as a herald proclaims. The cry is that of an alarm of war. The prophet sees, as it were, the invading army, and calls the people to leave their villages and to take refuge in the fortified cities.... [ Continue Reading ]
SET UP THE STANDARD TOWARD ZION. — Still the language of alarm. The words are as a command, “Raise the signal which shall point to Zion as a place of refuge from the foe, by whom the rest of the country is laid waste.” RETIRE. — _Withdraw,_ in the transitive sense, “gather, with a view to removing”... [ Continue Reading ]
THE LION IS COME UP... — The “lion” is, of course, the Chaldæan invader, the destroyer, not of men only, but of nations. So in Daniel 7:4 the lion is the symbol of the Assyrian monarchy. The winged lions that are seen in the palaces of Mosul and Nimroud gave a special character to what was in any ca... [ Continue Reading ]
GIRD YOU WITH SACKCLOTH. — From the earliest times the outward sign of mourning, and therefore of repentance (Joel 1:8; Isaiah 22:12).... [ Continue Reading ]
THE HEART OF THE KING SHALL PERISH. — The heart, as representing the mind generally. Judgment and wisdom were to give way to panic and fear.... [ Continue Reading ]
AH, LORD GOD! (literally, _my Lord Jehovah!_) SURELY THOU HAST GREATLY DECEIVED THIS PEOPLE. — The words are startling, but are eminently characteristic. Jeremiah had been led to utter words that told of desolation and destruction. But if these were true, what was he to think of the words of the oth... [ Continue Reading ]
AT THAT TIME. — i.e., when the lion and destroyer of Jeremiah 4:7 should begin his work of destruction. A DRY WIND. — Literally, _a clear wind,_ the simoom, the scorching blast from the desert, coming clear and without clouds. Other winds might be utilised for the threshing-floor, but this made all... [ Continue Reading ]
A FULL WIND FROM THOSE PLACES. — Better, _a wind fuller than those,_ or, _fuller than for this..._ _i.e.,_ more tempestuous than those which serve for the work of the thresher, and blowing away both grain and chaff together. SHALL COME UNTO ME. — Better, _for me, as doing my pleasure._ GIVE SENTEN... [ Continue Reading ]
HE SHALL COME UP AS CLOUDS. — He, the destroyer of nations, with armies that sweep like storm-clouds over the land they are going to destroy. (Comp. Ezekiel 38:16.) SWIFTER THAN EAGLES. — A possible quotation from David’s lament over Saul and Jonathan (2 Samuel 1:23). The fact that another phrase is... [ Continue Reading ]
O JERUSALEM. — The prophet’s answer to the cry that comes from the city. In that “washing of the heart” which had seemed impossible before (Jeremiah 2:22), but is thought of now as “possible with God,” is the one hope of salvation. (Comp. Isaiah 1:16.) VAIN THOUGHTS. — The Hebrew has a force which t... [ Continue Reading ]
DAN... MOUNT EPHRAIM. — The two places are chosen, not like Dan and Beer-sheba, as extreme limits, but as stages in the march of the invader: first Dan (as in Jeremiah 8:16), the northernmost point (Deuteronomy 34:1; Judges 20:1) of the whole land of Israel, then Mount Ephraim, as the northern bound... [ Continue Reading ]
MAKE YE MENTION. — Better, _Proclaim ye to the nations; behold._ Call them to gaze on the ruin of Jerusalem, then, _Cry aloud as for Jerusalem, that watchers_ (_i.e.,_ the besieging armies) _are coming from a far country, and that they will give out their voice_ (_i.e._ raise the cry of war) _agains... [ Continue Reading ]
FIELD. — With the meaning, as in all early English, of “open,” not “enclosed,” country (Leviticus 14:7; Leviticus 17:5). The image is that of a nomadic tribe encamped in the open country, or of men watching their flocks (Luke 2:8) or crops (Job 27:18). So shall be the tents of the invaders round Jer... [ Continue Reading ]
THIS IS THY WICKEDNESS. — Better, _this is thy evil._ She was reaping the fruit of her own doing, and this gave her sorrows a fresh bitterness. The Hebrew word, like the English “evil,” includes both guilt and its punishment.... [ Continue Reading ]
MY BOWELS, MY BOWELS! — As with Jeremiah 4:13, the words may be Jeremiah’s own cry of anguish, or that of the despairing people with whom he identifies himself. The latter gives more dramatic vividness, as we thus have the utterances of three of the great actors in the tragedy: here of the people, i... [ Continue Reading ]
DESTRUCTION UPON DESTRUCTION IS CRIED. — Literally, _Breaking upon breaking,_ or _crash upon crash, is reported._ SUDDENLY ARE MY TENTS SPOILED. — The tent dwelling retained its position even amid the cities and villages of Israel (2 Samuel 18:17; 1 Kings 8:66). The “curtains” are, of course, those... [ Continue Reading ]
HOW LONG SHALL I SEE... — The “standard,” as in Jeremiah 4:6, is the alarm signal given to the fugitives. The “trumpet” sounds to give the alarm, and quicken their flight to the defenced city. The prophet sees no end to the miseries of the coming war.... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR MY PEOPLE IS FOOLISH. — Jehovah answers the prophet’s question. The misery comes to punish the folly and sottishness of the people. It shall last as long as they last, or till it has accomplished its work of chastisement.... [ Continue Reading ]
I BEHELD THE EARTH. — In words of terrible grandeur the prophet speaks, as if he had already seen the consummated destruction; and repeating the words “I beheld,” as if he had passed through four distinct visions, describes its completeness. WITHOUT FORM, AND VOID. — An obvious quotation from the _... [ Continue Reading ]
THE MOUNTAINS, AND, LO, THEY TREMBLED. — The great earthquake in the days of Uzziah (Amos 1:1), of which we find traces in Isaiah (Isaiah 24:19), had probably made imagery of this kind familiar.... [ Continue Reading ]
THERE WAS NO MAN. — To chaos and darkness and the earthquake was added the horrible sense of solitude. Not man only, but the creatures that seemed least open to man’s attack, were fled. (Comp. Jeremiah 2:6.) The same thought re-appears in Jeremiah 9:10.... [ Continue Reading ]
THE FRUITFUL PLACE. — The Carmel, or vine-land, became as _“the_ wilderness.” The Hebrew article points probably to the well-known desert of the wanderings. AT THE PRESENCE OF THE LORD. — Literally, _from before Jehovah, from before the heat of his anger._ The original has the emphasis of repeating... [ Continue Reading ]
YET WILL I NOT MAKE A FULL END. — The thought is echoed from Amos 9:8; Isaiah 6:13; Isaiah 10:21, and repeated in Jeremiah 5:18. There was then hope in the distance. The destruction, terrible as it seemed, was not final. The penalty was a discipline. (Comp. Leviticus 26:44.)... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR THIS SHALL THE EARTH MOURN... — As with all true poets, the face of nature seems to the prophet to sympathise with human suffering. (Comp. Amos 8:9; Matthew 24:29.)... [ Continue Reading ]
THE HORSEMEN AND BOWMEN. — A specially characteristic picture, as we see from the Nineveh sculptures, of Assyrian and Chaldæan armies. THICKETS... ROCKS. — Both words are Aramaic in the original. The former, elsewhere rendered “clouds,” is here used for the dark shadowy coverts in which men sought... [ Continue Reading ]
AND WHEN THOU ART SPOILED... — The sentence is clearer without the insertion of the words in italics: _Thou spoiled one, what dost thou work, that thou clothest..._ _that thou deckest..._ _that thou rentest_...? _In vain dost thou beautify thyself._ The “clothing with crimson “and “ornaments of gold... [ Continue Reading ]
A WOMAN IN TRAVAIL. — Literally, _writhing in pain,_ as in Jeremiah 4:19. BEWAILETH HERSELF. — Literally, _pants for breath._ The prophet draws his pictures with a terrible intensity. On the one side is Zion as the harlot, in her gold and crimson and cosmetics; on the other we see the forlorn and d... [ Continue Reading ]