of the Hebrew words is thus: "Truly for a lie is it from the hills, and the multitude of the mountains: truly in the Lord alone is the salvation of Israel." 24. For shame hath devoured the labor of our fathers from our youth; their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters. 25. We lie down in our shame, and our confusion covereth us: for we have sinned against the LORD our God, we and our fathers, from our youth even unto this day, and have not obeyed the voice of the LORD our God. Trust in idols lies over against trust in the living God. Apostatizing from their true God, the Jews went over to idols, so that this looking to idols is implied and denounced in v. 23. The idol god is brought out in v. 24 under a new and special name, viz., Shame, or rather with the article, That Shamel That shameful thing, alike our burning disgrace and our utter ruin, has brought the blight of famine and desolation upon us and upon our fathers. We lie down under the shame and reproach of having given our trust and our worship to that shameful idol. This common word for shame is used for an idol god in Jer. 11: 13, and in Hos. 9: 10.-Verily the people have come to see their sins in their true light, as both most disgraceful and most ruinous.This course of thought really includes the first two verses of the next chapter, and may best be considered as addressed to the whole ancient Israel, without distinction between Israel and Judah.As already said, there is a beautiful pertinence in this sequel to those great promises in vs. 14-18. The problem is to make the revelation of such promises effective on the hearts of the people. What could be better adapted to this result than to adduce the case of Israel, and show how the grace of God availed to bring them to genuine repentance and to right views of their past sins and present duty, interspersing withal the rich promises of God's loving-kindness, that he would receive them with a freely forgiving heart? CHAPTER IV. This chapter is connected closely with the preceding, the first two verses, like the preceding context (3: 19-25), addressing Israel as a whole, without distinguishing Judah from the other tribes; while from v. 3 onward, the prophet specially addresses Judah and Jerusalem, solemnly threatening the invasion by the terrible Chaldeans, and blending with this threatening repeated admonitions to deep searchings of heart and radical repentance. 1. If thou wilt return, O Israel, saith the LORD, return unto me: and if thou wilt put away thine abominations out of my sight, then shalt thou not remove. 2. And thou shalt swear, The LORD liveth, in truth, in judgment, and in righteousness; and the nations shall bless themselves in him, and in him shall they glory. The word "return" may be used in two senses-the moral one of repentance, and the physical one of coming back to their own land. Here is a play upon these two senses: "If thou wouldst return, O Israel (to thine own land), then return unto me in penitence: if thou wilt put away thine abominations (idolatries) out of my sight, then thou shalt not wander, i. e., be a wanderer and a vagabond-the same verb which is used of Cain, and which led him to name his city Nod.In v. 2, the word "if" may properly be brought forward from the beginning of v. 1, making the first clause the condition and the last the corresponding promise, thus: If thou shalt swear, "The Lord liveth, in truth,' etc., then this promise as to the conversion of the nations shall be fulfilled. The Gentile nations shall bless themselves through him (the true God), and glory in him as their own God. When Israel shall reverence her own God heartily and truly, other nations will be induced to believe in him, and to count it their blessedness and their glory to have him their God. Truly this is a word for God's people in every age, testifying that when they walk closely and humbly with God, their example and influence will be a power through God to the salvation of the wicked round about them. 3. For thus saith the LORD to the men of Judah and Jerusalem, Break up your fallow ground, and sow not among thorns. Here the Lord turns his address from Israel in general to Judah and Jerusalem in particular.- "Fallow ground" is that which requires plowing, and is set apart to be plowed, and not here (as in our modern phrase), what has been plowed. The exhortation, "Prepare your ground for seed-sowing by putting in the plow and rooting out the thorns," means; in the moral sense, exterminate the evils of your hearts; break off your evil practices; make a thorough, radical change in your heart and life. 4. Circumcise yourselves to the LORD, and take away the foreskins of your heart, ye men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem; lest my fury come forth like fire, and burn that none can quench it, because of the evil of your doings.. The moral significance of circumcision is, putting away every thing impure and unclean. To this the Lord exhorts the people; else will his fury break forth like fire. 5. Declare ye in Judah, and publish in Jerusalem; and say, Blow ye the trumpet in the land: cry, Gather together, and say, Assemble yourselves, and let us go into the defensed cities. 6. Set up the standard toward Zion: retire, stay not; for I will bring evil from the north, and a great destruction. These verses solemnly announce the near impending invasion by the Chaldeans. The people are summoned to assemble for protection in their strongly-fortified cities, and especially in Jerusalem. This is the sense of "setting up a standard toward Zion," as a rallying point toward which the people should flee for safety. The word rendered "retire" (v. 6), means "hasten with your effects; take what you value most, and fly in haste.-"Evil from the north," in the usage of Jeremiah, means the Chaldean armies. (See 1: 14, 15, and 24: 9.) 7. The lion is come up from his thicket, and the destroyer of the Gentiles is on his way; he is gone forth from his place to make thy land desolate; and thy cities shall be laid waste, without an inhabitant. This lion, roused from his lair in the forest thickets, is Nebuchadnezzar. He has already laid waste nations; is coming here. 8. For this gird you with sackcloth, lament and howl: for the fierce anger of the LORD is not turned back from us. 9. And it shall come to pass at that day, saith the LORD, that the heart of the king shall perish, and the heart of the princes; and the priest shall be astonished, and the prophets shall wonder. In their usual manifestations of deep grief, the orientals put on the coarsest garments, and then gave themselves up to doleful wailings. In that day the heart of the king would sink within him. He would lose all courage, would look upon his case as hopeless, and his country as lost. The priests and prophets-false prophets, and priests apostate from God-will stand amazed and confounded, it is so utterly unlike what they had expected, and even promised the people as from the Lord. 10. Then said I, Ah, Lord GOD! surely thou hast greatly deceived this people and Jerusalem, saying, Ye shall have peace; whereas the sword reacheth unto the soul. In what way does the prophet assume that the Lord had deceived the people?- -Some critics answer, By suffering false prophets to mislead them. Others say, By the general encouragement he had given their fathers that they should have peace and prosperity indefinitely long continued in their land. This encouragement, however, was by no means unqualified, but was conditioned on their obedience; for disobedience was threatened with the most terrible expulsion from their land; e. g., Lev. 26, and Deut. 28. -The former view, moreover, has in its favor the fact that the next preceding verse refers to ungodly priests and false prophets. Through them the people had been greatly deceived, and the Lord had, in a sense, permitted these wicked agencies and their sad results. We need not assume that the prophet finds fault with God for what he had done. 11. At that time shall it be said to this people and to Jerusalem, A dry wind of the high places in the wilderness toward the daughter of my people, not to fan, nor to cleanse, 12. Even a full wind from those places shall come unto me: now also will I give sentence against them. This dry, fierce wind from the barren hills of the southern wilderness represents the Chaldean hosts. This wind came not for good purposes-to fan and to cleanse their grain-but was a fuller, stronger wind than is adapted for those purposes (not, as in our translation, "from those places"), but a fiercer wind than could be used for cleaning grain. It "shall come," not "unto me," but for me, i. e., to do my work.- "My judgments," rather than "sentence," the English margin being better here than the English text, for plainly this refers to the varied judgments God was about to bring on the land, rather than to any one judicial sentence. The Hebrew word is plural. 13. Behold, he shall come up as clouds, and his chariots shall be as a whirlwind: his horses are swifter than eagles. Woe unto us! for we are spoiled. These figures are plain; they are also magnificent and appalling. In numbers that appeared as a cloud-his chariots dashing like the whirlwind-his horses swifter than the eagle; the one thought that sinks into the heart is, We are lost! Alas! the nation is gone; wasted, sacked, spoiled! 14. O Jerusalem, wash thy heart from wickedness, that thou mayest be saved. How long shall thy vain thoughts lodge within thee? Reverting suddenly to their only source of hope and help the thorough repentance of the people, the putting away of all their heart-sins he pertinently appends to his description of coming ruin this call to moral cleansing as their only salvation."How long shall vain thoughts, deceitful, delusive hopes, find a quiet 5. Declare ye in Judah, an say, Blow ye the trumpet in and say, Assemble yourselv fensed cities. 6. Set up the standard t I will bring evil from the These verses solemnly an by the Chaldeans. The p protection in their strongly salem. This is the sense as a rallying point toward The word rendered "ret effects;" take what you from the north," in the armies. (See 1: 14, 15 7. The lion is co stroyer of the Gent from his place to shall be laid waste, This lion, roused buchadnezzar. He here. 8. For this gir for the fierce ange 9. And it shal LORD, that the h heart of the princ and the prophets s In their usual man the coarsest garment wailings. In that da him. He would lose hopeless, and his coun prophets, and priests confounded, it is so u even promised the peo 10. Then said I, greatly deceived the shall have peace; w soul. In what way does the the people? |