XLIV. (1) AT MIGDOL, AND AT TAHPANHES... — We find from Jeremiah 44:15 that the discourse that follows was delivered at a large gathering of the Jews at Pathros. The number of places named (the three appear in the same combination in Jeremiah 46:14) indicates the extent of the emigration. Migdol (he... [ Continue Reading ]
YE HAVE SEEN... — The prophet begins, naturally enough, with an appeal to the personal experience of his hearers. Was not that enough to show them that the source of all their evils had been their falling away from the faith or worship of their fathers?... [ Continue Reading ]
RISING EARLY AND SENDING THEM... — The prophet uses the same anthropomorphic language as of old (Jeremiah 7:25; Jeremiah 25:4; Jeremiah 26:5; Jeremiah 29:19). The term “abominable thing,” or “abomination,” though common in many of the books of the Old Testament, as in the Proverbs, where it is appli... [ Continue Reading ]
BURNING INCENSE UNTO OTHER GODS IN THE LAND OF EGYPT. — The words imply that the exiles were not only carrying on the old idolatrous practices with which they had been familiar in their own lands, but had adopted those of the Egyptians. This was the evil which the prophet had all along dreaded, and... [ Continue Reading ]
THE WICKEDNESS OF THEIR WIVES. — As in the first introduction of idolatry under Solomon (1 Kings 11:4) so in the reigns of his successors, as in the case of Asa (1 Kings 15:13) and Ahaziah (2 Chronicles 22:2), the queens for the time being, often of alien birth, seem to have been the chief patrons o... [ Continue Reading ]
I WILL PUNISH THEM THAT DWELL IN THE LAND OF EGYPT. — The words point, like those of Jeremiah 43:11, to a punishment which should fall on the whole of Egypt, and from which the Jews who dwelt in it should find no exemption.... [ Continue Reading ]
TO THE WHICH THEY HAVE A DESIRE TO RETURN. — Literally, _unto which they lift up their souls to return._ The words are significant as showing that the exiles still cherished the hope of getting back to the land of their fathers. NONE SHALL RETURN BUT SUCH AS SHALL ESCAPE. — The words seem at first a... [ Continue Reading ]
ALL THE MEN WHICH KNEW THAT THEIR WIVES HAD BURNED INCENSE. — The fact thus mentioned incidentally shows that the prophet’s words in Jeremiah 44:9 had not missed their mark. As of old — as, we may add, in the Rome of the Empire (Juvenal, Sat. vi. 526–534) — the women practised a _cultus_ in which th... [ Continue Reading ]
TO BURN INCENSE TO THE QUEEN OF HEAVEN. — This form of worship, characterised specially by its offerings of crescent-shaped cakes, would seem to have been the dominant fashion of the idolatry of the time. (See Note on Jeremiah 7:18.) The men who felt themselves condemned by the prophet’s words vindi... [ Continue Reading ]
WITHOUT OUR MEN. — Better, as in the margin, _without our husbands._ We have here, it is obvious, the very words of the women who were stung by what they looked on as Jeremiah’s intimation that the chief guilt lay on them. They disclaim any special responsibility. Their husbands had joined in the wo... [ Continue Reading ]
(20-23) THEN JEREMIAH SAID... — The prophet makes an effective rejoinder to the assertion that the prosperity of past years had coincided with the idolatrous worship which he condemned. That prosperity had not been lasting, and though the long-suffering of God had borne with them, the judgments had... [ Continue Reading ]
(24-28) HEAR THE WORD OF THE LORD... — The appeal to the experience of the past is followed by a prediction of the future, addressed to the wives as well as to the husbands. The new sin would lead to a new punishment. A tone of irony is perceptible in the words, “Ye will surely accomplish your vows.... [ Continue Reading ]
BEHOLD, I WILL GIVE PHARAOH-HOPHRA... — The fate of the Egyptian king is announced, coming, as it did, before that of the fugitives, as a “sign” that the prediction of their doom also would in due course be accomplished. The king thus named — the Apries of Herod. II., 161, 163, 169 — was the son of... [ Continue Reading ]