Or, against city a young ing, &c. me above the sand of the seas: I have brought upon them against the the mother mother of the young men a spoiler at noonday: I have caused him to man spoil fall upon it suddenly, and terrors upor, against on the city. the mother She that hath borne seven lanJand the 9 guisheth: she hath given up the Amos 8. ghost; her sun is gone down while it was yet day: she hath been ashamed and confounded: and the residue of them will I deliver to the sword before their enemies, saith the LORD. young Men 19 this clause in the parallelism shews that it answers to I am weary with repenting in v. 6. Both are introduced sharply without any conjunction, and mutually explain one another. man 8. I have brought upon them...] This clause should be translated, I have brought upon them, even upon the mother of the young man, a spoiler at noonday (so the Vulgate, Kimchi, &c.). The word rendered young means a picked warrior, and as we have in the next verse, the mother who has borne seven, so here it is the mother who has borne a valiant champion. But neither his prowess nor the numerous offspring of the other can avail to save those who gave them birth; war bereaves both alike. Other translations are, upon mother and young man (Syr., &c.); upon the mother folcity a young man spoiling (marg. of A. V., lowing Rashi). at noonday] i.e. unexpectedly, as armies used to rest at noon, see ch. vi. 4. I have caused him...] Rather, I have brought suddenly upon her, the mother of the young warrior, anguish and terrors. (So the LXX. and Syr., i.e. they took y as an Aramaic form (.ציר of 9. she hath been ashamed] Or, is ashamed. To a Hebrew mother children were a glory, and to be childless a disgrace. Many consider that these three verses refer to the battle of Megiddo, and depict the consternation of Jerusalem at that sad event. If so, in the sun going down while it was day, v. 9, there will be a reference to the eclipse on Sept. 30, B.C. 610. 10. Woe is me, my mother] In this verse Jeremiah vents his sorrow at the rejection of his prayer. He would prefer never to have been born than be compelled unceasingly to predict an evil from which there was no escape, and pray for mercy without being heard. In reading these bitter words and similar expostulations in ch. iv. 10, viii. 21, xii. 1, XX. 7, 14-18, we feel that we have to do, not with a man who was playing a part, but with one who was the reluctant minister of a higher power, whence alone he drew strength finally to master his wounded feelings and be content to do and suffer. enemy for a man of strife and a man of contention to the whole earth] Strife here more exactly means a lawsuit, and thus the Syriac gives the right sense in rendering, a man who has to enter into judgment with and reprove the whole earth. I have neither lent on usury, nor men have lent to me on usury] i.e. I have no personal cause of quarrel with the people, that I should thus be perpetually at strife with them. The relations between the money-lender and the debtor were in old time the most fruitful source of lawsuits and quarrelling. every one of them doth curse me] See Note at end of Chapter. 11. The LORD said] This formula is found elsewhere only in ch. xlvi. 25, the usual phrase in all the prophets being, Thus saith Jehovah. Verily it shall be well with thy remnant] The C'tib is, Verily thy loosing shall be for good; the Kri, Verily I have loosed thee for good. The verb is found elsewhere in the Bible only in Job xxxvii. 3, where it may signify the setting the lightning loose: but in the Targ. it occurs in Jer. xl. 4 as the equi valent of the verb I set thee loose from chains. The rendering of the A. V., thy remnant, gives an untrue sense. It would mean all the rest of Jeremiah's days, which were by no means days of happiness. Nor had he even at last a period of tranquillity. But thy loosing means thy being set free, thy deliverance, and this sense is satisfactory. I will cause the enemy to entreat thee well...] Rather, I will cause the enemy to supplicate thee in the time of evil, &c. This was xlii. 2. fulfilled in ch. xxi. 1, 2, xxxvii. 3, 12. Shall iron break the northern iron anȧ the steel?] The last word is an oversight; it should be brass, i.e. bronze. By the iron is meant Jeremiah's intercession; but this cannot alter the divine purpose to send Judah into exile, which is firm as steel and brass. The other interpretations given to the metaphor are so numerous, that a few only can be mentioned. Umbreit following Rashi explains it of Jeremiah; "Can trouble and affliction, though hard as iron, break one who, like Jeremiah, is firm as steel and brass?" Ewald of the "northern colossus of the Chaldæan empire," which not even iron, much less the Jews, could resist. Others, by northern iron, i.e. the steel made by the Chalybes on the Pontus, understand the obduracy of the Jews, which not even iron could break. Henderson translates, Can one break iron, the iron of the north and brass? explaining it like Ewald of the Chaldees. But his argument, that brass is softer than iron, is a mistake. The ancients applied the term to any alloy of copper, but especially to a mixture of copper and tin, of which they made their cutting implements, and which is far harder than ordinary iron, and is thus used in Scripture as a metaphor for extreme hardness. Graf rejects v. II as a gloss, and renders, "Can I, Jeremiah, even if I be iron, break the obduracy of the people hard as steel or brass?" Lastly the Targum takes the iron as meaning Pharaoh-Necho, while Nebuchadnezzar is the steel and brass. But the only interpretation which harmonizes with the context is that given above. For brass see note on Exod. xxv. 3. The alloy of copper and zinc now called brass was entirely unknown to the ancients. 13. Thy substance...] This and the following verse appear again in ch. xvii. 3, 4, with several slight, and one or two important, differences, as for instance, the substitution of without price in this verse for thy high places; but it is a mistaken criticism that would reduce the two passages to exact agreement, as it was neither obligatory upon Jeremiah, nor was it his practice, to quote himself verbatim. Jeremiah is personally addressed in the verse-thy substance &c.-because he stood before God as the intercessor, representing the people. As such, three things are said to him, (1) that God would give Judah's treasures away for nothing. It is an act of contempt, implying that He did not value them. (2) The cause of this contempt is Judah's sins. (3) This is justified by the extent of those sins. Judah has committed them everywhere, throughout her whole land. 15 ¶ O LORD, thou knowest: remember me, and visit me, and revenge me of my persecutors; take me not away in thy longsuffering: know that for thy sake I have suffered rebuke. 16 Thy words were found, and I did "eat them; and thy word was TM Ezek. 3 unto me the joy and rejoicing of Rev. 14. And I will make thee to pass with thine enemies into a land...] Render, And I will make thee serve thine enemies in a land thou knewest not. See Note at end of Chapter. for a fire is kindled in mine anger] This clause is quoted from Deut. xxxii. 22. The added words shew that the punishment then predicted is about to be fulfilled. 15. O LORD...] In this strophe, vv. 15— 18, the prophet, though recognizing that the fall of Judah is inevitable, as shewn in vv. 12-14, and that he cannot escape the hard lot of having to predict the ruin of his country as a purpose absolutely determined, yet offers unto God a last expostulation, and that in a tone of reproach, as if the promises made in ch. i. 18 had not been fulfilled. He contrasts the joy with which he had accepted his office, v. 16, with the present revulsion of his feelings, v. 17, and prays for more evident help, v. 18. It is the prayer of a man in bitter grief, whose human nature cannot at present submit to the divine will. thou knowest...] The prophet's words are full of intense meaning. He appeals to God, the all-knowing (who was acquainted therefore with the manner of his call, the promises made him, the hopes with which he had accepted his office, his disappointment, his dangers, the opposition he had met with, and his perseverance even when in despair) to shew that He remembered him by visiting him, i.e. by interfering in some marked manner in his behalf, and punishing his persecutors. God's the prophet to be the abandonment of himself long-suffering towards the wicked seemed to to death, and justice itself required that one who was suffering contumely for God's sake should be delivered. rebuke] i.e. reproach, contumely. 16. Thy words were found] In Hebr. the verb to find is used in a very general sense for anything obtained without labour, or offered without being sought for on the receiver's part, cp. Ezek. iii. 1. It thus signifies that Jeremiah's summons to the prophetic office had not been expected or sought for by him. I did eat them] i.e. I received them with joy, cp. Ezek. ii. 8, iii. 1-3. This eating of the divine words expresses also the close union between that which came from God and the prophet's own being, and accounts for the 10.9. manner in which often, when he has begun I am called by thy name] Lit. for thy name only of thy duty, then will I bring thee again, I see note on ch. vi. 11), says that from the time God's words came to him he abstained from things innocent, and that a gravity came over him beyond his years. Cp. ch. xvi. 2. I sat alone because of thy hand] As a person consecrated to God he would also be separated; see on this connection of ideas ch. i. 5, and cp. Acts xiii. 2; Gal. i. 15. for thou hast filled me with indignation] The prophet thus taught of God sees the sins of the people in a more heinous light, as offences against God, and as involving the ruin of His Church. 18. Why is my pain perpetual] i.e. Are all my labours to be in vain? Will the delivery of Thy message avail nothing towards changing this miserable state of things? as a liar...] Really, as a deceitful brook, a brook which flows only in the winter, the opposite of the perennial stream of Amos v. 24. See note on Job vi. 15. Jeremiah had expected that, called to so high an office, there would be a perpetual interference of providence in his behalf, instead whereof things seemed to take only their natural course. 19. If thou return...] There is in God's answer a mingling of comfort and reproof. Jeremiah as in ch. xii, had questioned God's righteousness; he is told If thou return, if thou repent thee of thy doubts, and think does not deal righteously with him, and then let them return unto thee; but return not thou 20. And I will] This verse repeats and confirms the promises given in ch. i. 18, 19. In the last clause of v. 18 Jeremiah had thrown doubts upon them. 21. out of the hand of the terrible] In this second clause the word for hand is the palm, or hollow of the hand, on which see ch. xii. 7. The terrible means men who act with open violence, see Job xv. 20; Ps. xxxvii. 35; Isai. xiii. 11, xxv. 4, xxix. 5, in all which places the Hebr. word is the same. chap. 1. chap. 20. 10. The Hebr. NOTES on CHAP. XV. 10, 11, 14. n, which the Rabbins endeavour to explain by supposing a con fusion of the verbs rally regarded as a wrong division of the letters. It should be. The form D for Dis unusual, but cp. D?, Deut. i. 22; Do, 2 S. xxiii. 6. 1st pers. Kal of the same verb, which Ewald and others take in the sense of strength = and np, is now gene-ening, Syr. 1 strengthen thee for good. Both these last expositions are drawn from the cognate dialects, and need confirmation from interpretation the Masorites substituted as the the Hebrew. Probably from this difficulty of Kri, I have loosed thee; but St Jerome and some of the Jews mistook this for Ewald's emendation , though grammatically possible, is yet contrary to analogy. 11. The C'tib is capable of several renderings according to the vowels supplied. It may be (1) inf. Pa. of , which Ges. renders thy beginning; but there is no proof of this meaning in Hebr., it rather means thy loosing. In Chaldee and Syriac however in Pa. is both to unloose and to begin. Or (2) ni inf. Kal of the same verb, and which would also mean thy loosing. Or (3) T: i inf. Pi. of thy fighting, thy struggle with the Jews, shall be for good. Or (4) JEREMIAH'S NINTH PROPHECY. Chaps. xvi., xvii. 1—18. Punishment of Judah by Pestilence and Exile. CHAP. XVI. In this prophecy the punishment of the people is set forth in even sterner terms than in the last. The whole land is likened to a desert covered with the bodies of the dead, who lie unbemoaned and uncared for; and the prophet himself is commanded to abstain from the common usages of mankind that his mode of life, as well as his words, may warn the people of the greatness of the approaching calamity. There is, however, finally to be a return from exile, but only after the idolatry of the nation has been severely punished. In the latter part of the prophecy, many commentators find allusions to the tyrannical conduct of Jehoiakim (ch. xvii. 5), his alliance with Egypt, v. 7, his avarice, and his premature death, v. II. They are all, however, too general and uncertain to entitle us to say that the date of the prophecy is subsequent to the death of that king, though thy remnant, whence the שְׁאֵרִיתְךָ = שְׁרִיתְךָ rendering of the A. V. that of Keil, I cause thy enemies to bring it, thy 14. Neither the rendering of the A.V., nor treasure, into a land..., is a legitimate translation of the Hebr., which is, I will cause thy not: but the LXX., Syr., and Targ., with enemies to pass through in a land thou knowest many MSS., have the same reading (72) as in ch. xvii. 4, and the grammar requires this, as to pass into a land is not , but 78 אל 2 Thou shalt not take thee a wife, neither shalt thou have sons or daughters in this place. 3 For thus saith the LORD concerning the sons and concerning the daughters that are born in this place, and concerning their mothers that bare them, and concerning their fathers that begat them in this land; probably it was written about the close of his reign. But see note on ch. xvii. 15. 2. Thou shalt not take thee a wife] As marriage was obligatory upon the Jews, the prohibition of it to Jeremiah was a sign that override all ordinary duties, and justify him the impending calamity was so great as to in foregoing those hopes which in the mind of every Jew were connected with the possession of children. in this place] whole of Judæa. Not Jerusalem only, but the 3. concerning the sons...] This reason extends to the whole of the people. The times were such that for "the present distress" it was wise for all to abstain from marriage, I Cor. vii. 26; Matt. xxiv. 19. It is extraordinary that this passage should ever have been dragged into the controversy respecting the enforced celibacy of the clergy, but such has been the case; and it was evidently thought a matter of importance by the translators of the A. V. to represent that Jeremiah really 2. 33. a mother. 8 Thou shalt not also go into the house of feasting, to sit with them to eat and to drink. chap. 15. 4 They shall die of grievous to drink for their father or for their 2. 5 For thus saith the LORD, Enter Or, not into the house of mourning, feast. neither go to lament nor bemoan them: for I have taken away my peace from this people, saith the LORD, even lovingkindness and mercies. 6 Both the great and the small shall die in this land: they shall not be buried, neither shall men lament Lev. 19. for them, nor cut themselves, nor Deut. 14. 1. make themselves bald for them: :3. 10r, break 7 Neither shall men 'tear thembread for selves for them in mourning, to comfort them for the dead; neither shall men give them the cup of consolation them, as Ezek. 24. 17. was married. For in the heading of the chapter we read, "The prophet under the types of abstaining from marriage, &c." There can be little doubt that Jeremiah actually was unmarried, but the very force of the sign lay in its being an exception to the ordinary practice of the prophets. 4. grievous deaths] Lit. deaths of diseases, deaths by those many maladies which follow in the track of war and famine; cp. ch. xiv. 18. they shall not be lamented] Similarly in the plagues of Athens and London, the greatness of the general misery crushed out the gentler sympathies of human nature. Cp. Thuc. 11. 52. It 5. the house of mourning] In the only other place in which the word rendered mourning occurs, Amos vi. 7, it is translated banquet, and so St Jerome here, domus convivii. means, however, any loud cry, and the Syr. understands it of the piercing wail raised over the dead. With this most modern interpreters agree. my peace..., even lovingkindness and mercies] The cause of Judah's utter ruin is the withdrawal of that peace which used to rest upon her as Jehovah's covenant-people, and which on His side used to shew itself in lovingkind ness and mercies. 6. nor cut themselves, nor make themselves bald for them] Both these practices were strictly forbidden in the law, Lev. xix. 28, 7. Neither shall men tear themselves] The the cup of consolation] See note on Prov. xxxi. 6. 8. bouse of feasting] Lit. house of drinking. hardened in their sins as to expostulate with |