XI. (1) THE WORD THAT CAME TO JEREMIAH. — The words indicate that we are entering on a distinct message or discourse, which goes on probably to the end of Jeremiah 12. No date is given, and we are driven to infer it from the internal evidence of the message itself. This points to an early period of... [ Continue Reading ]
THE WORDS OF THIS COVENANT. — The phrase had obviously acquired a definite and special sense in consequence of the discovery of the lost book of the Law under Josiah, and the covenant into which the people had then entered (comp. 2 Kings 23:3). The “curse” under which the people had fallen was pract... [ Continue Reading ]
CURSED BE THE MAN... — The verse is, as it were, a mosaic, so _to_ speak, of phrases, with slight verbal changes, from the recently discovered book of Deuteronomy — the “iron furnace” from Deuteronomy 4:20; 1 Kings 8:51, “Hear my voice and do them” from Deuteronomy 28:1, “Ye shall be my people” from... [ Continue Reading ]
A LAND FLOWING WITH MILK AND HONEY. — The description appears for the first time in Exodus 3:8; Exodus 3:17. It rapidly became proverbial, and is prominent in Deuteronomy 6:3 and Joshua 5:6. It points primarily, it may be noticed, to the plenty of a pastoral rather than an agricultural people (see N... [ Continue Reading ]
IN THE CITIES OF JUDAH... — It is, at least, probable that the words are to be taken literally, and that the prophet went from city to city, doing his work as a preacher of repentance, and taking the new-found book of Deuteronomy as his text. The narrative of 2 Kings 23:13 indicates an iconoclastic... [ Continue Reading ]
RISING EARLY. — The phrase in its spiritual meaning, as applied to Jehovah, is almost peculiar to Jeremiah, and is used by him twelve times. In its literal sense, or as denoting only ordinary activity, it is found often, _e.g.,_ Genesis 20:8; Proverbs 27:14. (See Note on Jeremiah 7:13.)... [ Continue Reading ]
IMAGINATION. — Better, as before (Jeremiah 3:17), _stubbornness._ THEREFORE I WILL BRING UPON THEM. — Better, _I have brought upon them._ The words contain not a direct prediction, but an appeal to the experience of the past as in itself foreshadowing the future.... [ Continue Reading ]
A CONSPIRACY. — The words explain the rapid apostasy that followed on the death of Josiah. There had been all along, even while he was urging his reforms, an organised though secret resistance to the policy of which he was the representative.... [ Continue Reading ]
THEIR FOREFATHERS. — The Hebrew is more specific — _their first fathers_ (as in Isaiah 43:27), with special reference to the idolatries of the forty years’ wandering and the first settlement in Canaan. THEY WENT AFTER OTHER GODS. — The Hebrew pronoun is emphatically repeated, as pointing back to th... [ Continue Reading ]
I WILL BRING EVIL. — The Hebrew expresses immediate action, _I am bringing. _... [ Continue Reading ]
ACCORDING TO THE NUMBER OF THY CITIES... — This and Jeremiah 11:12 reproduce what we have heard already in Jeremiah 2:27; Jeremiah 7:17. The “shameful thing” is, as in Jeremiah 3:24, the image of Baal, which would seem to have been set up openly in some prominent place in every city of Judan, every... [ Continue Reading ]
THEREFORE PRAY NOT. — The words imply, as in Jeremiah 7:16, that the prophet’s human feelings had led him to pour his soul in passionate intercession that the penalty might be averted. He is told that it is at once too early and too late for that prayer. The people have not yet been moved to repenta... [ Continue Reading ]
MY BELOVED. — _sc.,_ Judah — or, perhaps, Israel collectively — as the betrothed of Jehovah. What has she to do, what part or lot has she in that house of Jehovah which she pollutes? SEEING SHE HATH WROUGHT LEWDNESS WITH MANY. — The Hebrew is difficult, and probably corrupt. The most probable render... [ Continue Reading ]
A GREEN OLIVE TREE. — The parable is essentially the same, though a different symbol is chosen, as that of the vine of Isaiah 5:1; Jeremiah 2:21, or the fig-tree of Luke 13:6. The olive also was naturally a symbol of fertility and goodness, as in Psalms 52:8; Hosea 14:6; Zechariah 4:3; Zechariah 4:1... [ Continue Reading ]
THE LORD OF HOSTS, THAT PLANTED THEE. — As in Jeremiah 2:21, stress is laid on the fact that Jehovah had planted the tree and bestowed on it all the conditions of fruitfulness, and that it was He who now passed the sentence of condemnation.... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THE LORD HATH GIVEN ME KNOWLEDGE. — A new section opens abruptly, and the prophet speaks no longer of the sins of Israel and Judah at large, but of the “doings” of his own townsmen, of their plots against his life. Unless this is altogether a distinct fragment, connected, possibly, with Jeremiah... [ Continue Reading ]
LIKE A LAMB OR AN OX. — Better, _as a tame lamb, i.e.,_ one, like the ewe-lamb of Nathan’s parable (2 Samuel 12:3), brought up in the home of its master. There is no “or” in the Hebrew, and the translators seem to have mistaken the adjective (tame) for a noun. The LXX., Vulg., and Luther agree in th... [ Continue Reading ]
LET ME SEE THY VENGEANCE ON THEM. — The prayer, like that of the so-called vindictive Psalms (69, 109), belongs to the earlier stage of the religious life when righteous indignation against evil is not yet tempered by the higher law of forgiveness. As such it is not to be imitated by Christians, but... [ Continue Reading ]
THUS SAITH THE LORD. — The “men of Anathoth,” it would seem, had at first tried to stop the preaching of Jeremiah by threats, as Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, had tried to stop that of Amos (Amos 7:12). Failing in this, after the manner of the men of Nazareth in their attack on the Christ (Luke 4:2... [ Continue Reading ]
THE YOUNG MEN. — As the context shows, these are the men of military age who would die fighting, while their children should perish from famine within the walls of the besieged cities.... [ Continue Reading ]
THERE SHALL BE NO REMNANT OF THEM. — In Ezra 2:23; Nehemiah 7:27 we find that 128 of Anathoth returned from exile. The words must therefore be limited either to the men who had conspired against the prophet, or to the complete deportation of its inhabitants. The situation of Anathoth, about three or... [ Continue Reading ]