Jeremiah 20 - Introduction
_PASHUR, SMITING JEREMIAH, RECEIVETH A NEW NAME, AND A FEARFUL DOOM. JEREMIAH COMPLAINETH OF CONTEMPT, OF TREACHERY, AND OF HIS BIRTH._ _Before Christ 605._... [ Continue Reading ]
_PASHUR, SMITING JEREMIAH, RECEIVETH A NEW NAME, AND A FEARFUL DOOM. JEREMIAH COMPLAINETH OF CONTEMPT, OF TREACHERY, AND OF HIS BIRTH._ _Before Christ 605._... [ Continue Reading ]
NOW PASHUR, THE SON OF IMMER— Pashur was not the immediate son of Immer, but of Melchiah, as it is expressly mentioned in 1 Chronicles 9:12 and hereafter, chap. Jeremiah 21:1. _Immer_ was one of his predecessors, and head of the sixteenth sacerdotal class; 1 Chronicles 24:14. Pashur was not high-pri... [ Continue Reading ]
AND PUT HIM IN THE STOCKS— Houbigant renders the whole verse, _This Pashur apprehended Jeremiah the prophet, and put him into the prison which lieth near the upper gate of Benjamin, which is near,_ &c. Our translators have rendered המהפכת _hammahpeketh, the stocks;_ but I think without sufficient gr... [ Continue Reading ]
MAGOR-MISSABIB— That is, _Terror to all around,_ as the name is explained, according to the usual method in the next verse.... [ Continue Reading ]
MOREOVER, I WILL DELIVER, &C.— It will, I think, tend much to illustrate this passage, and the corresponding conduct of the Babylonian monarch, related Exodus 24:12 if I here cite the words of a celebrated modern historian, who describes the similar behaviour of those Barbarians, the Moguls or Tarta... [ Continue Reading ]
O LORD, THOU HAST DECEIVED ME, &C.— _Over-persuaded me, and I was over-persuaded._ Our translation here is harsh and faulty. The occasion of the words was this: The prophet had met with a large share of ill-usage from an ungrateful people, in return for the faithful discharge of his prophetic office... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR SINCE I SPAKE— _For as often as I speak, whether I cry out against injustice, or proclaim devastation, the word of_ JEHOVAH _is turned against me into matter of reproach and derision continually._ Houbigant renders it, _For since I spoke, and cried against iniquity, and denounced desolation, the... [ Continue Reading ]
THEN I SAID, I WILL NOT MAKE MENTION OF HIM— _But when I say, I will not make mention of it—then it becomes in my heart,_ &c. So it is said of St. Paul, that _his spirit was stirred in him;_ and again, that _a necessity was laid upon him to preach the Gospel._ See Acts 17:16. 1 Corinthians 9:16. Eli... [ Continue Reading ]
FEAR ON EVERY SIDE, &C.— The Hebrew is, מסביב מגור _Magor-missabib,_ the name which Jeremiah gave to Pashur; and if it were here read as a proper name, as in Jeremiah 20:3 it would appear more plainly to point at the persecutions which the prophet endured from him. Houbigant renders the remainder of... [ Continue Reading ]
AS A MIGHTY TERRIBLE ONE— _As a warlike hero._... [ Continue Reading ]
CURSED BE THE DAY, &C.— See the note on Jeremiah 20:7. These verses are so like those in Job 3:3 that they seem to have been borrowed thence. The sentiments are the same, and the expressions not greatly dissimilar. The prophet, indeed, has filled up the ellipses, smoothed the abrupt style of Job, an... [ Continue Reading ]
LET HIM HEAR THE CRY.—AND THE SHOUTING— _An outcry—and the alarm of war,_ &c. Houbigant reads, _Let him hear a cry in the morning, and vociferations_ or _howlings at mid-day._... [ Continue Reading ]
BECAUSE— _Because I was not slain in the womb, so that my mother might have been my grave, even the womb of her that conceived me, for ever._ REFLECTIONS.—1st, They who will be zealous for God, and faithful to men's souls, must expect to be abused and insulted. We have here, 1. The prophet smitten... [ Continue Reading ]