23 They shall lay hold on bow and spear; they are cruel, and have no mercy; their voice roareth like the sea; and they ride upon horses, set in array as men for war against thee, O daughter of Zion.

24 We have heard the fame thereof our hands wax feeble: anguish hath taken hold of us, and pain, as of a woman in travail.

their minds, and urge them to distant expeditions.

the sides of the earth] Or ends, the most distant regions, see ch. xxv. 32; Ps. xlviii. 2; Isai. xiv. 13.

23. spear] Properly, a javelin for hurling at the enemy. Goliath carried one made of brass slung behind his back between his shoulders (1 S. xvii. 6, where see Note). Jeremiah again mentions it in ch. 1. 42 as the ordinary weapon of the Babylonians, and we find it in Layard's 'Mon. of Nin.' Series II. Plates 19, 20, 21, 22, &c. For the bow, see iv. 29, v. 16, Bonomi, Nin. and its Pal.'

P. 321.

cruel] The word means ruthless, inhuman. In the Assyrian monuments we constantly see warriors putting the vanquished to death; in others, rows of impaled victims hang round the walls of the besieged towns; and in others, men are collecting in heaps hands cut from the vanquished (Layard, Series II. Pl. 23, 37, 47, Bonomi, pp. 190, 276). Sennacherib even boasts that he salted the heads of slaughtered Elamites, and sent them in wicker baskets to Nineveh. Records of the Past,' I. 49.

their voice roareth] (See Isai, xvii. 12, 13.) they ride upon horses] See iv. 13, and Layard, Nin. and its Remains,' II. 356: also Job xxxix. 24; Hab. i. 8. A colon, or even a full stop should be put after horses.

set in array] This is sing., and shews that a new clause has begun. It the whole army, and not the cavalry only-is set in array.

as men for war against thee] Rather, as a warrior for battle against thee. The word milhâmâh, of war, is to be supplied after man, having been omitted because it occurs immediately again.

24. We have heard the fame thereof] Lit. We have heard its hearing. The prophet speaking in the name of the Jewish people describes the effect upon them of the news of Nebuchadnezzar's approach.

our hands wax feeble] Are relaxed. It is the opposite of what is said in v. 23 of the enemy, They have laid hold on bow and javelin, as the verb there used means to hold firmly. Here terror makes the hands of the Jews hold their weapons with nerveless grasp.

25. Go not forth...] The daughter of Zion, i.e. the inhabitants of Jerusalem, is warned not to stray outside the fortifications.

for the sword of the enemy] The Hebr. lit. is for to the enemy a sword, i.e. for the enemy is armed, he has a commission from God to execute judgment. See ch. xii. 12; Isai. x. 5, and note on Ps. xvii. 13.

fear is on every side] Mâgôr-Missâbib, Jeremiah's watchword, cp. xx. 3, 10; Ps. xxxi. 13, where see note. The and inserted before it in the A. V. should be omitted.

26. wallow thyself in ashes] Rashi is the authority for this rendering, now generally adopted (see also ch. xxv. 34; Ezek. xxvii. 30; Micah i. 10). The LXX. and Vulg. render it merely sprinkle thyself with ashes, the symbol of great grief (2 S. xiii. 19; Job ii. 8). But violent distress is wont to find relief in eccentric actions, and thus the wallowing in ashes shews that Jerusalem's grief is unbearable.

as for an only son] See Amos viii. 10; Zech. xii. 10.

most bitter...] Lit. a lamentation of bitternesses, in which the plural is both intensive, and also shews that there is more than one cause for grief.

the spoiler] Nebuchadnezzar,

27. I have set thee] As the last four perhaps advisable to give their exact rendering verses of this chapter are all difficult, it is

together:

NOTES on CHAP. VI.

2. The extraordinary rendering comely is due to the Masorites, who read == beautiful, and on their authority Ges. and Fürst admit the word into their lexicons, though never found elsewhere. The full form extant here in a few MSS. has no weight, as their tendency is to substitute the Kri for the C'tib. The meaning thus given to the passage is most unsatisfactory. The shepherds drive their flocks to Jerusalem, because she is a comely (woman, as the A. V. adds). On the other hand is a word of constant occurrence in the Scriptures, the meaning of which is exactly given only in the Syriac. The A. V. renders it fold in Isai. lxv. 10, folds, Jer. xxiii. 3, but more frequently babitation (Exod. xv. 13; 2 S. xv. 25, &c.). It is what the Arabs call a douar, a pasture, on which the shepherds with their flocks have made a temporary encampment for mutual protection. Naturally to such a pasture the shepherds, i.e. kings (ii. 3), drive their flocks, their armies, and Jeremiah describes their eagerness for the assault in the most spirited terms (vv. 4, 5).

7. The words rendered As a fountain casteth out her waters are very difficult. For the C'tib bor, a cistern, the Masorites have written bair, but we must not assume that

2,

the lead is consumed of the fire] See Note at end of Chapter.

plucked away] Separated. The smelter's object is to separate the gold and silver from the dross.

30. Reprobate] i.e. refuse-silver (marg.), not really silver, but the dross.

the LORD bath rejected them] This then is the end. The smelter is God's prophet: the bellows the breath of inspiration: the flux his earnestness in preaching. But in vain does the fervour of prophecy essay to melt the hearts of the people. They are so utterly corrupt, that no particle even of pure metal can be found in them. All the refiner's art is in vain. They have rejected all God's gifts and motives for their repentance, and therefore Jehovah has rejected them as an alloy too utterly adulterate to repay the refiner's toil.

7, 9, 15, 27, 28, 29.

they meant to give it a different signification. The versions and Jerome nearly unanimously render it cistern, and probably the change of spelling was dictated by the same fancy which made them write Naid for Nod in Gen. iv. 16. In the Moabite stone the word twice occurs in lines 24 and 25, There was no cistern inside Kir in its citadel (?), and I said to all the people Make you each one a cistern in his house. So at Jerusalem each house had its cistern capable of storing up rain-water sufficient for the supply of many months. But it means be made to dig, the verb only occurthe other word is really uncertain. Literally ring elsewhere in 2 K. xix. 24=Isai. xxxvii. 25, of digging for water. The rendering of Nägelsb., &c., cannot be obtained by any fair the A. V., though adopted by Gesenius, Keil, philological process from the root-meaning as given above. From the same root the Syriac renders As a cistern gathers, and the Targ. As a cistern sustains its waters, i.e. they give it a general signification drawn from the ordinary use of a makor, or reservoir (ch. ii. 13). Equally grammatical is the formation of the verb from p to be cool adopted by the LXX. and Vulg., and as the meaning of cistern is certain, there seems no alternative but to adopt it. Coolness suggests only pleasant ideas in the East, and a cistern keeping its

waters cool would signify the preserving of them fresh and fit for use.

9. The word nobo occurs only in this place, and the translation baskets rests upon its resemblance to DD in Gen. xl. 16, 18, but has the support of the LXX. and Vulg. It more probably belongs to the same class of words as

vine-twigs, Isai. xviii. 5, and

vine-tendrils, to which the Shulamite in Cant. V. II compares the curling ringlets of her beloved. The meaning of the root D to twine confirms the rendering in the footnote

tendrils.

15. The form D'AP is irregular: elsewhere it is D; cp. with ny ch. x. 15, xlvi. 21, 1. 27, li. 18; and with nech. xi. 23, xxiii. 12, xlviii. 44.

27. The versions all translate jing a tester of metals, a meaning it undoubtedly possesses, but our translators, having made up their minds that the next word 2 was a fortress, translated in a tower on the analogy of a watch-tower (Isai. xxxii. 14), or possibly of the Krin in Isai. xxiii. 13. These words are both grammatically formed from the root ing to look closely, but jina is an active form, which alone ought to settle the question. The word can only signify one who looks closely at, and examines anything. The word for fortress is not so easy. The Syr. and Vulg. seem to have taken it in its ordinary sense of a fortress, but attach it as an epithet to jina, rendering a mighty metal-tester-a prover of metals firm like a fortress. More probably a signifies gold and silver ore. The root

CHAPTER VII.

means

1 Jeremiah is sent to call for true repentance, to prevent the Jews' captivity. 8 He rejecteth their vain confidence, 12 by the example of

to cut, and (Job xxii. 24) is said by the great lexicographer Jonah ben Gannach to mean ore. He renders in the same way ya in Job xxxvi. 19: and would be the concrete subs. from the same root, and would literally signify that which is cut from the mine, ore. Ewald reads a cutter of ores, to see if they contain gold or silver. Henderson and Graf adopt the same reading, but have recourse to the Arabic, a language which has done much for the corruption of Hebrew etymology. Comparing it with they

translate a seer=a tester.

مبصر

28. Grievous revolters. The Syr., Targ, and Vulg. read ", or take as equivalent to it (as do the Masorites). Thus understood the meaning is All of them are princes of rebels. The A. V. is far best.

29. The A.V. accepts the correction of the Masorites DN ND from fire is consumed, but the Kri reads this as one word DnD from their fire. Both readings have their difficulties. If with the Syriac we take the C'tib, it requires the invention of a new word for fire (esbáb instead of êsh): if with the LXX. and Vulg. we adopt the Kri, we have the verb masc. and the noun fem. As regards the sense, lead was used by the antients as a flux to assist the silver in melting. If we take the C'tib, the meaning will be, that when the smelter after all his labours comes to examine the lead, he will find that it contains no particle of silver: while the Kri will mean, that though the smelter continue his labours till the lead is entirely oxydised, he will still fail in extracting any silver from the ore. Upon the whole the C'tib is best.

Shiloh. 17 He threateneth them for their idolatry. 21 He rejecteth the sacrifices of the disobedient. 29 He exhorteth to mourn for their abominations in Tophet, 32 and the judgments for the same.

GROUP OF PROPHECIES.

CHAPS. VII.-X.

Sermon in the temple upon the fast-day. There can be little doubt that we have in these four chapters the very words addressed by Jeremiah to the people as they flocked into Jerusalem from the country, to attend the solemn services in the temple upon a fast-day. As we learn from ch. xxvi, Jehoiakim had just ascended the throne, and was so incensed at this sermon that he would have put Jeremiah to death but for the influence of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, one of the most powerful princes of the time. With the accession of

country had passed away. He represented the reverse of his father's policy, and possibly for this reason had been passed over by the people of the land at his father's death, in order to place his younger brother Jehoahaz upon the throne. As the king of Egypt upon his arrival at Jerusalem immediately deposed Jehoahaz, and made Jehoiakim king, we may reasonably conclude that he belonged to that faction, who placed their sole hope of deliverance in a close alliance with Pharaoh-Necho. As this party rejected the distinctive principles of the theocracy, and the king was personally an irreligious man, the maintenance of the worship of Jehovah was no longer an object of the public care; though "the high places

of Tophet" were probably not so much erected by the king's command, as simply connived at. Times of trouble, like those which followed upon Josiah's defeat, and the reduction of Judæa to a state of vassalage (2 K. xxiii. 33), were ever those in which men sought relief from their miseries by these bloodstained rites. At this time, then, upon a public fast-day, appointed probably because of the calamities under which the nation was labouring, Jeremiah was commanded by Jehovah to take his stand at the gate of the temple, and address to the people as they entered words of solemn warning. In vain do they trust in Josiah's splendid restoration of the temple services, vii. 4, 14, viii. 8, 9, as long as heathen abominations exist within it, vii. 30, and moral corruption spreads ever deeper and wider throughout all ranks of the people, vii. 9, viii. 6, &c., ix. 1—8. As many of his hearers were previously unknown to Jeremiah, he farther repeats in his address several of the warnings he had already urged upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and finally points out that there is a way of escape, and that God's judgments may yet be averted. The whole sermon therefore divides itself into three parts; (1) beginning with the temple it points out the folly of the superstitious confidence placed by the people in it, while they neglect the sole sure foundation of a nation's hope. A sanctuary long polluted by immorality must inevitably be destroyed, and sanctuaries older than Jerusalem had thus perished by God's righteous judgment, vii. 2-viii. 3. (2) There next follow complaints of a more general character, in which the growing wickedness of the nation is pointed out, and especially of that portion of it who by their position were the leaders and teachers of the people, viii. 4ix. 24. (3) Lastly the prophet shews the possibility of averting the evils impending upon the nation, and the grounds which alone could inspire them with trustworthy hopes, ix 25X. 25.

CHAP. VII. 1, 2. Stand in the gate] The temple had several entrances, 2 Chro. iv. 9, and one, at which subsequently we find Jeremiah commanded to deliver a prophecy, is described as that by which the kings entered, ch. xvii. 19. The gate or door here mentioned is probably that of the inner court, where Baruch VOL. V.

read Jeremiah's roll, ch. xxxvi. 10, incorrectly translated there the higher court. In ch. xxvi. 2 it is simply called the court. To set the scene then clearly before us we must bear in mind that it was an inner doorway at which the prophet stood, and that the people whom he addressed were assembled in the outer court.

all ye of Judah] Better, literally, all Judah. In ch. xxvi. 2 the words are all the cities of Judah; it was evidently a great national solemnity, and therefore well fitted for a more than ordinarily earnest appeal to the national conscience.

Literally, Make good your ways, your habits, 3. Amend your ways and your doings] modes of life, and your doings, the separate actions upon which the formation of habits depends. For a similar connection of ways and doings see Zech. i. 6.

and I will cause you to davell...] Or, I will let you dwell. The literal rendering gives as usual the more appropriate sense. If the people repented, instead of being led into captivity God would maintain their national existence. It is a promise, not of anything new, but of the continuance of an old blessing.' Jeremiah plainly had in view the words of Deut. vii. 12-15, but shews that the promises there given belong, not to a ceremonial observance of the law, but to the hearty keeping of God's commandments.

4. The temple of the LORD] This is thrice repeated, to emphasize the rejection of the cry which was ever upon the lips of the false prophets. In their view the maintenance of the temple service was a talisman or charm sufficient to avert all evil. Jewish interpreters however delight in finding some occult reason for the repetition. Abravanel thinks it was because of the three main doors of the temple: J. Kimchi because of its three courts: Rashi because of the three great festivals, at which all must appear at the temple: while the Targum explains it of the three great acts of worship, service, sacrifice, and prayer. Galatinus (de Arc.' v. 10) mentions also Rabbins who saw in these words that the hope of a third temple was in vain.

are these] This has been explained both of the buildings of the temple, to which Jeremiah is supposed to point; and also, as it is

A A

masc., of the men there present. The former is the right interpretation. God does require men to be His temple (r Cor. iii. 16; Isaï. lvii. 15, lxvi. 1, 2); but the Jews put their trust in the material buildings.

5. For if ye throughly amend...] See v. 3. In this and the two following verses we have a summary of the conditions indispensable on man's part, before he can plead the terms of the covenant in his favour.

between a man and his neighbour] According to the Jewish idiom this simply means between one another. The question Who is my neighbour? Luke x. 29, is thus the more remarkable as the Jews habitually used the word as equivalent to any one.

6. the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow] Compare ch. v. 28; Deut. xiv. 29, xxiv. 19-21, &c.

in this place] i.e. in Jerusalem. The prophet refers to innocent blood shed there judicially. Of one such judicial murder Jehoiakim had already been guilty (xxvi. 23); — and of all murders that is the worst which is committed by unjust law. See Note at end of Chapter.

7. Then will I cause you to dwell] Rather, I will let you dwell, as in v. 3.

in the land that I gave to your fathers, for ever and ever] The A. V. puts a comma after fathers, but possibly only to indicate a pause in reading, or from mistaking the power of the Hebr. accent. The Holy Land had been bestowed upon Israel "to from ever and unto ever," the strongest formula for a perpetual gift. Why then do not the Jews still possess a land thus eternally given them? Because God never bestows anything unconditionally. The land was bestowed upon them by virtue of a covenant, itself called a covenant of eternity, Gen. xvii. 7;-the conditions of this covenant, as recited in vv. 5, 6, the Jews had broken, and the gift reverted to the original donor.

8. lying words] Either the words of false

prophets, or it may be used generally for false, unfounded arguments,

9, 10. Will ye steal...] In opposition to their words we have now their deeds, and these are described in a most forcible manner by a succession of infinitives:

10.

What! to steal, to murder, and to commit adultery,

And to swear falsely, and burn incense to Baal,

And to walk after strange gods that ye

knew not;

And then have ye come, and stood before

me in this house on which my name is called,

And said, We are delivered to do all these abominations?

We are delivered] Ewald points this so as to make it signify Deliver us; and the Syriac must have read the same, as it renders And ye say, Deliver us! though ye are doing all these evil deeds. But this alteration spoils the argument. Jeremiah accuses them of trusting in the ceremonial of the temple instead of leading holy lives. You break, he says, the ten commandments, and then you go to the temple; and when the service is over you say, We are delivered. We have atoned for our past actions, and may start afresh with easy minds upon a new course of wickedness. Religion thus becomes the means merely of quieting the conscience for the past, whereas its proper office is to enable men to repent of the past and lead holy lives for the future.

11. a den] The limestone ranges of Palestine are full of caverns suited to be the dwellings of outcasts, such as those in which David found refuge.

of robbers] Lit. tearers, those who rob with violence. In Isai. xxxv. 9, it is applied to ravenous wild beasts. The temple, then, by the superstitious value attached to its services, actually encouraged evil-doers; for observe, a den of robbers is not the scene of their crimes,