cies of pipe or flute (tibia). Jerome, in the fourth century, long resident in Palestine, says in his commentary on this passage: "On account of the approaching captivity and destruction of Jerusalem, he directs that the mourning women be called, who, on occasions of sorrow, were accustomed to excite the people to tears with their mournful wails, at the same time beating their arms with their hands. For this custom continues in our day. Women with disheveled hair and naked breasts move all to tears by the nice modulations of their voice."- -The ancient Romans had the same professional class to help in cases of public mourning.- -They are said to be "cunning," not in the trickish sense, but in the sense of being skilled by art and practice in this service. On funeral occasions, it was their custom to extemporize plaintive songs, elegies, extolling the virtues of the departed. In the present case, they would have to bewail the utter ruin of their city, temple, and nation. The divine purpose, in this call for the mourning women, was to make the stronger impression of the reality of their impending calamity. We must bear in mind that the mass of the people were persistently skeptical. They would not believe their nation was doomed to ruin.

19. For a voice of wailing is heard out of Zion, How are we spoiled! we are greatly confounded, because we have forsaken the land, because our dwellings have cast us out.

The prophet sees these mourners just at the point when they are thrust out from their loved homes. Hence their voice of wailing is heard coming forth from Zion.

20. Yet hear the word of the LORD, O ye women, and let your ear receive the word of his mouth, and teach your daughters wailing, and every one her neighbor lam

entation.

There will be so

The Lord accosts these mourning women. much occasion for such service as theirs that he exhorts them all to teach their daughters, and every one her female neighbor or friend, and thus train the entire female population for professional mourners. What an impression such a message from God ought to have made on the heart of the nation-and would have made if they had only believed God!

21. For death is come up into our windows, and is entered into our palaces, to cut off the children from without, and the young men from the streets.

There is sad cause for universal wailing, for death is coming up into their windows-the walls of their houses and even of their goodly palaces being no protection. Death comes, despite of house

or palace walls, despite of bars and bolts; it comes to cut off the children so that none shall appear again abroad and no young men shall be seen any more in their streets. Some suppose that this form of death was the pestilence; but nothing forbids the more natural supposition that it refers to the Chaldean soldiers, the well-known agents in this great destruction.

22. Speak, Thus saith the LORD, Even the carcasses of men shall fall as dung upon the open field, and as the handful after the harvest-man, and none shall gather them.

Still addressing the mourning women, the Lord directs them to say in their mourning elegies, to be sung at once in the ears of the people, that men's bodies shall fall and lie unburied as dung in the open field; and that as the grain is felled by the reaper and left ungathered behind him, so shall there be none to gather and bury their fallen dead!

23. Thus saith the LORD, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches:

24. But let him that glorieth, glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the LORD which exercise loving-kindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the LORD.

These impressive words-good for all time and for all peoplemust of course be considered here in their special reference to the events before the mind-the fearful ruin then impending over the city and nation of the Jews. In view of such perils, in an exigency so fearful, let not the wise statesman glory in his wisdom, as if his skill in diplomacy or his far-sighted policy could save the nation. Let not the mighty chieftain glory in his military science, nor in the prowess and valor of his warriors. Let not the rich man glory in his riches; for what can gold avail toward the salvation of his country in this hour of her peril? but let him who would glory at all glory in this alone, that he understandeth and knoweth God, and of course that he adjusts himself to this knowledge of God as one who exercises loving-kindness indeed, but also judgment and righteousness in all the earth; for these qualities of his character are dear to God, and he will surely reign in harmony with them, and will give them absolute sway in his moral government over nations and over men. Hence, if they would penitently seek his favor, they might rely on his lovingkindness; otherwise they must expect naked judgment and righteousness, for the time had come to visit judgment on all the incorrigibly wicked.—It was the ruin of the Jews of that age that they had reckoned without God. Their plans and hopes had left out the Almighty, and made no account of his great attributes of lov

ing-kindness, justice, and righteousness. They had trusted in their own wisdom, might, and riches, and had made these their glory. Hence nothing could be said to them more appropriate than what is said here, warning them against glorying in themselves, and admonishing them that the only valid foundation for glorying lay in adjusting their spirit and life to the character and government of the great Jehovah with whom they had every thing to do.- -Does the reader need to be reminded that the same great God is also our God; that the same government of loving-kindness and yet of judgment and righteousness bears absolute sway over us also, as truly as over the Jews of old; and hence that it is as true of every one of us as ever of them that it is infinite folly to glory in our wisdom, might, or wealth; and truly wise to glory only in understanding and knowing this ever-blessed God, with whom we too have every thing to do, in whose hand are all our destinies?

25. Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will punish all them which are circumcised with the uncircumcised;

26. Egypt, and Judah, and Edom, and the children of Ammon, and Moab, and all that are in the utmost corners, that dwell in the wilderness: for all these nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in the heart.

"I

The fearful sweep of Chaldean invasion and conquest which ruined Judea and Jerusalem, was destined also to overthrow the adjacent nations as well. This is predicted here. A more full prediction of the same great fact appears in chap. 25: 15-25. -"Days come," means that the events are near at hand. will visit" (so the original) "upon all the circumcised" yet in their uncleanness, i. e., who are circumcised in the flesh only, and not in the heart. This applied both to Jews still in their pollutions and to other nations also. It is noticeable that here, as also in chap. 25: 19, Egypt comes first of the uncircumcised nations. Her influence had led the rest into opposition to the Chaldeans; now she is first named in the prediction of judgments.

-The phrase rendered "all that are in the utmost corners," should rather be read as in the margin, "those who round off the corners of their beard;" literally, "shorn as to the corners" a somewhat contemptuous appellation given to the Arabs of the desert. It would seem that they alone of all the nations of the East shaved their beards at all, and they only the corners.

All the house of Israel were so entirely uncircumcised in heart. that they might well take their doom with the uncircumcised Gentiles. This must have been humilitating to the self-righteous, bigoted Jews. Yet it was sadly, fearfully true, and the time was coming which must develop that truth in its practical bearings and fearful results. They must take their doom among the pol

luted, unclean nations of their immediate neighborhood, those nations whose idol-gods they had imported, and in whose ruin they must now share.

CHAPTER X.

This chapter is manifestly not connected with the preceding, and appears to be distinct from the following one. Maurer makes two parts of it; the first comprising vs. 1-16; the second vs. 17–25. He supposes the first to have been occasioned by the appearance of some extraordinary portents in the heavens; e. g., eclipses, falling stars, meteors, or comets. The latter he dates in the reign of Jehoiakim.- -His date of the latter portion I accept as the best sustained theory, but I am by no means clear that the chapter needs to be divided into two parts of distinct date. The allusion to portents in the heavens is brief (v. 2), and is very closely connected with the system of idol-making and idol-worship which forms the basis of the passage vs. 2-16. The reason for this allusion to portents may lie in the fact that those ancient systems of idolatry were built upon the doctrine that these heavenly bodies ruled the destinies of men. Hence, those systems found their ostensible support mainly in those extraordinary portents. There was no other visible proof that men have any thing to fear from the power or the wrath of the heavenly bodies, except what appeared in eclipses, dark days, shooting stars, and meteoric phenomena. Hence, those phenomena filled the ancient world with intense alarm and even horror, and laid the foundation for great systems of reverential worship of the sun, moon, planets, and stars. The close connection indicated here between v. 2 and vs. 3-16, certainly favors the view that portents in the heavens are referred to here only because they are so fundamentally connected with the ancient systems of idolatry. In this view we need not suppose this passage to have been occasioned by the occurrence of any extraordinary portents at that time. It may or may not have been. There is ample reason for the allusion to portents, apart from the supposition of their recent occurrence. This message

seems to have been sent in anticipation of the residence of the people among idolaters in their captivity. There they would come into the closest contact with the whole system. Hence the propriety of exposing it to their view as ineffably foolish, false, and baseless-as is done here.

1. Hear ye the word which the LORD speaketh unto you, O house of Israel:

2. Thus saith the LORD, Learn not the way of the

heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them.

"Learn not," etc., warns them not to be inquisitive about the deep things of that system, not to practice those rites, not to come within the magic charm which it might have over some minds, but to keep themselves entirely aloof. Moreover, be not afraid of extraordinary portents, or of any unusual appearances in the heavens, e. g., eclipses, comets, meteoric phenomena, etc. There is nothing in them that you need to fear. Be not moved by sympathy to fear them because the heathen do. Or, more probably the logical connection ("for the heathen are dismayed at them ") is this. The fact that the heathen are dismayed by these portents, so far from being a reason why you should be, is precisely the reason why you should not be. Even as our Lord (Matt. 6: 32) exhorts his disciples not to be anxious for earthly good things, giving as one reason, "for after all these things do the Gentiles seek," their course being precisely what you should not imitate, since they have no Father in heaven to trust in, and you have.-Let us pause here to note that the doctrine of this verse ought to expel from all Christian lands and utterly explode a host of senseless, ridiculous superstitions, e. g., about unlucky days, bad Fridays, evil omens, spilling salt, seeing the new moon over the left, and a troop of like notions too silly to be named. Let it be enough that the heathen are afraid of such things. What have we to do with those ridiculous, atheistic superstitions if we believe the universe to be ruled by the one all-wise God? If we recognize, adore, and love him as our own great Father; if we believe that his providence reaches every falling sparrow and counts every hair of the head, why should we be afraid as if some Malign Power had the control of each Friday, purposed to blast every enterprise begun on his day? Away with such atheism and such

unutterable nonsense!

3. For the customs of the people are vain: for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the ax:

4. They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not.

5. They are upright as the palm-tree, but speak not: they must needs be borne, because they can not go. Be not afraid of them; for they can not do evil, neither also is it in them to do good.

The word rendered "customs," is somewhat more fundamental than a merely external act, or even an established usage. It reaches the fixed opinions, notions, doctrines of the popular mind. Hence this passage affirms that in the case of the heathen these are radically false, a mere breath, a vanity. "The people" are