entering in of the gates of Jerusalem, and upon all the walls 16 thereof round about, and over all the cities of Judah. And I will pronounce my judgments against them for all their wickedness; in that they have forsaken me, and have burned incense unto other gods, and worshipped the work of their own 17 hands. And as for thee, thou shalt gird up thy loins, and shalt arise, and shalt speak unto them all that I shall command thee; be not thou afraid of them, lest I should suffer thee to 18 be crushed before them. For I, behold, I have made thee this day like a fortified city, and like a pillar of iron, and like a wall of brass, against all this land, against the kings of Judah, against the princes thereof, against the priests thereof, and against the 19 people of the land: And they shall make war against thee, but they shall not prevail against thee: for I will be with thee, said JEHOVAH, to protect thee.

any place denotes taking full possession of it, and exercising authority and dominion there. See chap. xliii. 10; xlix. 38.

Verse 16. And I will pronounce my judgments against them-Or, “And I'

a phrase ; ודברתי משפטי אותם ",will discourse my judgments with them

that implies all the several steps of a judicial process, in which the rules of law are applied and brought home to the particular case in hand. Thus it is said of Zedekiah, that the king of Babylon " discoursed judgments with him," 17, (chap. xxxix. 5; lii. 9;) that is, he had him arraigned, tried, convicted, and condemned, according to the laws of the empire, for the high treason which he had committed. Compare, also, chapters iv. 12; xii. 1. o may be the singular or plural noun with the affix', "my rule," or, "my rules of judgment;" meaning that system of just laws which God had established for the regulation of his people's conduct, and guarded by suitable sanctions and penalties. In 2 Kings xxv. 6, we read wow in the singular number; in the places above cited, in the plural. The LXX. render, Kai λaλnow прos avтovs μeta κρισεως; but with this variation in Ms. Pachom.: Και λαλήσω μετα κρισεως μου προς αυτους.

Verse 17. Lest I should suffer thee to be crushed before them-There is no threat implied here, as the generality of commentators are inclined to suppose. The particle points out the danger which might possibly alarm the prophet's fears, that of being overborne by the opposition he was likely to meet with. He therefore receives special assurances of God's immediate protection and support. n is in the conjugation Hiphil, which, indeed, commonly imports, " to make "or cause to be broken or dismayed." But God is often said to make or cause to be done what he only permits and suffers.

Verse 18. And like a wall-The LXX., Syriac, Chaldee, and Vulgate, all render in the singular number, "a wall." And fifty-two мss., with twelve

לחומת or לחמת printed editions, read either

1

CHAPTER II.

THE word of Jehovah came also unto me, saying; 2 Go and cry in the ears of Jerusalem, saying;

THUS saith JEHOVAH, I have called to mind in thy behalf The kindness shown thee in thy youth, the love of thy espousals,

When thou wentest under my conduct through the wilder

ness,

Through a land that was not cultivated.

CHAP. II.—THAT some of the following prophecies are in metre, is as obvious as that others are not; there being evidently to be discerned in the one, and not in the other, those characteristic marks of metrical composition, more especially the corresponding or parallel lines or verses, and the relation of the sentences and parts of sentences to each other, which Bishop Lowth has described and treated of at large in his Preliminary Dissertation on Isaiah. It has been already noticed, (page 18,) that the same judicious critic has pronounced nearly one half of the book of Jeremiah to be poetical. And, as the same reasons will hold good for attending to this peculiar form of construction in all parts of the sacred writings where it occurs, I have endeavoured to point it out, after the Bishop's example, to the reader's notice, by distributing the lines according to their due measure, as far as my judgment would carry me; in which I hope to be serviceable on the whole, though I may sometimes, and perhaps not seldom, be mistaken.

The prophecy begun in this chapter is continued to the end of the fifth verse of the next chapter. In it God professeth to retain the same kindness and favourable disposition towards Israel which he had manifested in their earlier days. He expostulateth with them on their ungrateful returns for his past goodness, and showeth that it was not want of affection in him, but their own extreme and unparalleled wickedness and disloyalty, which had already subjected, and would still subject, them to calamities and misery. He concludes with a pathetic address, exhorting them to return to him, with an implied promise of acceptance; and laments the necessity he was under, through their continued obstinacy, of giving them further marks of his displeasure. This prophecy may not improbably have been delivered soon after the beginning of the prophet's mission.

Verse 2. I have called to mind in thy behalf the kindness, &c.—Our English version, now in use, and most of the ancient interpreters, seem to have

as the regard and affection which חסד נעוריך אהבת כלולתיך considered

the Israelites bore to God in the infancy of their constitution, when they first became his covenanted people, and followed his guidance in the wilderness of Sinai. But that they had very little merit of this kind to boast of, is evident from their history at this period, as recorded by Moses, and alluded to by other sacred writers. See Deut. ix. 5, &c.; Psalm lxxviii. 8, &c.; Ezek. xx. 5-26. The kindness was all shown on the part of God, and

3

4

5

6

Israel is a hallowed thing unto JEHOVAI,

The first-fruits of his increase :

All that devour him shall be guilty of a trespass,
Evil shall come unto them, said JEHOVAH.

Hear ye the word of JEHOVAH, O house of Jacob,
And all the families of the house of Israel.

Thus saith JEHOVAH;

What wrongdealing did your fathers find in me,
That they went far from me,

And walked after vanity, and became vain?
And they said not, Where is JEHOVAH,

Who brought us up out of the land of Egypt,
Who led us through the wilderness,

Through a land of wide waste, and a pit,

was perfectly gratuitous, as the word on properly signifies; and it was his affection for them, and not theirs for him, that led him to espouse them, that is, to engage in a special contract with them to be their God, and to take them for his peculiar people. And thus the words are explained in the margin of our ancient English Bible (1583, folio) to be “that grace and favour which I shewed thee from the beginning, when I did first choose thee to be my people, and married thee to myself." And by God's remembering for them, or calling to mind in their behalf, this lovingkindness and affection, is implied, that he still continued to retain the same cordial regard for them, whenever they were disposed to turn to him, and to avail themselves of his good-will. So it is said, Psalm cvi. 45: 2 O 7, "And he remembered for them his covenant." See also Isaiah lxiii. 11; Ezek. xvi. 60.

Verse 3. Israel is a hallowed thing unto Jehovah-These words I consider as spoken in those ancient times when God, out of his special favour to Israel, appropriated them unto himself as the first-fruits of mankind, and forbade any to molest them, under pain of being considered and treated as sacrilegious invaders of sacred property. And therefore N is rendered, “said Jehovah," and not saith."

His increase-Fourteen Mss. and two editions read

an for ann,

in the text, and seven мss. give it as a marginal keri; but is in use for the masculine affix as well as, and seems often to be purposely introduced for the sake of distinguishing between two masculine pronouns in the same period which refer to different antecedents; as in the present instance the

ישראל to,,אכליו and the 1, in ,,יהוה refers to ה

Verse 6. Through a land of wide waste, and a pit-By the words

ance.

it was undoubtedly meant to characterize the wilderness by some of its most unfavourable circumstances in point of nature and appearBut to call it simply, "a land of deserts," seems not to help forward our idea of it. The proper sense of y seems to be derived from the verb y, "to mix or mingle together;" and to be that of an extensive plain or open country, in which no one had an exclusive right

7

Through a land of drought, and of the shadow of death,
Through a land which no man passed through,
And where no human being dwelt?

I brought you also unto a land of fruitful field,

of property, but the pasturage and sheepwalks were all promiscuous, and in common. Hence I apprehend the whole country of Arabia to have Such also I been denominated, being mostly occupied in that manner. suppose to be the plains mentioned in Scripture, and called from their adjacency, "the plains of Mamre," of Moab, of Jordan, of Jericho, &c., as being unappropriated, and of course uncultivated, lands in the neighbourhood of those places. Accordingly, to such land we usually give the name of "the waste." Now the wilderness, through which the Israelites passed in their way out of Egypt, was to a vast extent a land of waste of this kind, totally unoccupied and unfit for the purpose of cultivation, and therefore absolutely incapable of subsisting without a miracle such a numerous people, as for many years took up their abode in it. To this is alded, which our translators have rendered, "and of pits;" but why they supposed the wilderness to be called "a land of pits," I do not well conceive. The LXX. have rendered the whole passage in so lax a manner, that nothing can be collected from thence. The Chaldee and desolation," or to have considered whatever word they found as having that import. But if n be the true reading, as all the collated mss. agree in representing it, it undoubtedly signifies "a pit," and may perhaps allude to the enclosure of the wilderness within craggy and high mountains, in respect of which Pharaoh is introduced as saying of the Israelites, "The wilderness hath shut them in," (Exod. xiv. 3,) or, "closed upon them." So that if we render the words in question, "through a land of wide waste and a pit," we may understand by it a country incapable of providing for the people's subsistence from being a wide uncultivated waste; but into which when they were once entered, they were fairly shut up as in a pit, where they and their families must have inevitably perished, if they had not had the assistance of providence to support them by the way, and finally to extricate them out of it.

,שואה Syriac seem to have read

And the shadow of death-This image was undoubtedly borrowed from those dusky caverns and holes among the rocks, which the Jews ordinarily chose for their burying places; where death seemed to hover continually, casting over them his broad shadow. Sometimes, indeed, I believe nothing more is intended by it, than to denote a dreariness and gloom like that which reigns in those dismal mansions. But in other places it respects the perils and dangers of the situation. Thus-" Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil;" (Psalm xxiii. 4 ;) and again, Psalm xliv. 19. But over and above the foregoing allusions, "the land of the shadow of death" here seems to intend "the grave itself, which the wilderness actually proved to all the individuals of the children of Israel that entered into it, Caleb and Joshua only excepted, whose lives were preserved by a special providence.

Verse 7. A land of fruitful field—The article shows born to be designed

8

9

10

11

12

To eat the fruit thereof, and the good thereof;
But when ye were come in, ye defiled
my land,
And mine heritage ye made an abomination.

The priests said not, Where is JEHOVAH ?
And they that were versed in the law knew me not;
The pastors also rebelled against me;

And the prophets prophesied in the name of Baal,
And walked after things that could not profit.

Therefore I will yet plead with you, saith JEHOVAH,
And with your children's children will I plead.

For pass over unto the countries of Chittim, and see ;
And send ye to Kedar, and inform yourselves well;
And take notice, if there hath been such a thing as this.
Hath a nation changed Gods, even those that were no Gods?
But my people hath changed their glory for that which can-
not profit.

The heavens are astonished at this, and horribly afraid,
They are shocked exceedingly, saith JEHOVAH.

for an appellative; and a land of fruitful field" is well contrasted with "a land of waste."

"-Rectè se habet. Alioqui legi posset, cum sequatur. Confer Num. xvi. 14."-SECKER.

Verse 9. I will yet plead with you-That is, "I will maintain by arguments the equity of my proceedings, and the injustice of yours."

Verse 10. The countries of Chittim-By □" it is certain that the Hebrews did not mean the same as we do by "islands;" that is, lands encompassed with water all around; and therefore we ought not so to render this Hebrew word. It sometimes signifies only "a country" or region, as Isaiah xx. 6; but usually perhaps distant ones, and such as had a line of sea coast. See chapter xlvii. 4. BOCHART (Phaleg, lib. iii. cap. 5) has made it appear with much probability, that the countries peopled by Chittim, the grandson of Japhet, are Italy and the adjacent provinces of Europe, which lie along the Mediterranean sea. And as these were to the west of Judea, and Kedar in Arabia to the east, the plain purport of this passage is, "Look about you to the west and to the east."

Chittim, Kedar-West, East."-SECKER.

Verse 11.-Hath a nation changed Gods?—Fifty-five мss. and ten edi

.its gods אלהיו reads אלהים One MS., for .ההמיר read ההימיר tions for

The LXX., Syriac, and Vulgate, all agree in joining the affix; but the two former express the subject and verb in the plural number, as if they But the present reading is unex

.ההמירו גויס אלהיהם,had read

ceptionable.

Verse 12. The heavens are astonished, &c.-The verbs here may be either the third person plural of the preter tense, or the second person plural of the imperative. The LXX. prefer the former.

"-, Syr.; videtur legisse 1777, nec malè."-SECKER.

The