Jeremiah 1:11-19

The Two Visions of Judgment. These form a separate experience, and imply some change of standpoint, since it is now the judgment of Judah through the instrumentality of the nations which is presented to the prophet's eye. The first vision (Jeremiah 1:11 f.) is preparatory; he sees the branch (rod) of an almond tree, and the interpretation of his vision is that this shâ kç d stands for the Divine shô kç d, the watcher God (who slumbers not nor sleeps, Psalms 121:4), ever wakeful unto judgment. The almond tree is here called the waker, because of its early (February) blossoming; see Thomson, The Land and the Book, p. 318. Such play on words is characteristic of Hebrew thought; it finds a parallel, e.g. in Amos 8:2, where the prophet's vision of a basket of summer fruit (kaitz) suggests that the end (kç tz) of Israel is near. Such visions as these, at least in pre-exilic times, are not merely a rhetorical device; they imply some abnormal psychical experience. The second and principal vision (Jeremiah 1:13 ff.) is of a boiling caldron. The phrase the face thereof is from the north is obscure, and might mean either that the caldron was seen north of the prophet, in which case its contents, as they boil over, represent the northern nations as they descend upon Judah, or, more probably (with Duhm, repointing one word) that the fireplace on which the caldron stands is open on the northern side, from which the fire is kindled. On this latter view, the caldron becomes Judah itself, whose inhabitants suffer from the flames kindled beneath them by the enemy. On either interpretation of the object seen, the emphasis falls on the quarter from which the enemy comes, i.e. the north. These kingdoms of the north are doubtless the Scythians (p. 60), who came as far as Syria, intending to invade Egypt (Herod, i. 103- 6), about this time, though they did not do what the prophet here expects of them. When he reissued these and similar prophecies in 604 (see Introduction), he transferred his expectations to the Babylonians. The hostile kings set up their thrones (Jeremiah 1:15) to judge the vanquished after the city is taken. Through their agency, Yahweh proceeds to judgment upon Judah (Jeremiah 1:16 mg.), because of the heathen worship appropriated by, or practised along with, the worship of Yahweh in the reign of Manasseh (heathenism which the Assyrian supremacy naturally encouraged). This is the judgment Jeremiah is to declare fearlessly, with a Divinely given strength comparable with that of a fortified city and a bronze wall.

Jeremiah 1:14. shall break forth: read, with LXX, shall be kindled, i.e. blown upon, with a play on the Hebrew word for seething.

Jeremiah 1:15. Omit, with LXX, families of the.

Jeremiah 1:16. burned incense: sacrificed.

Jeremiah 1:18. Omit iron pillar, and read wall for walls, both with LXX.