XXXII. (1) IN THE TENTH YEAR OF ZEDEKIAH... — We are carried over a period of six years from the prophecy of Jeremiah 28:1 to B.C. 589, when the treacherous and intriguing policy of Zedekiah had provoked Nebuchadnezzar to besiege Jerusalem in the ninth year of the king of Judah’s reign, and the king... [ Continue Reading ]
THERE SHALL HE BE UNTIL I VISIT HIM..._ — _The word for “visit” is ambiguous, being used elsewhere both for “punishing” and “delivering.” Its use in Jeremiah 29:10 is in favour of the latter meaning here. The prophet looks forward to a general deliverance, or at least mitigation of suffering, for th... [ Continue Reading ]
BEHOLD, HANAMEEL THE SON OF SHALLUM... — The teaching of the narrative that follows lies almost on the surface, and is brought out distinctly in Jeremiah 32:44. “With all the certainty of desolation, misery, exile in the immediate future, the prophet was to give a practical proof that he was as cert... [ Continue Reading ]
BUY MY FIELD, I PRAY THEE, THAT IS IN ANATHOTH... — We are not told what led Hanameel to make the offer of sale. Probably, as in the Assyrian invasion (Isaiah 10:30), Anathoth was occupied and ravaged by the army of the Chaldæans, and the field seemed to its possessor little more than a _damnosa hœr... [ Continue Reading ]
WEIGHED HIM THE MONEY, EVEN SEVENTEEN SHEKELS OF SILVER. — The Hebrew presents the singular combination, _seven shekels and ten_ [_pieces of_]_ silver,_ and is followed by the LXX. and Vulg. There is no ground for thinking that there is any difference between the coins or bullion so described, and t... [ Continue Reading ]
AND I SUBSCRIBED THE EVIDENCE... — Literally, as in the margin, _I wrote in the book_ — the last word being used for any kind of document, as for an indictment in Job 31:35, and here for a deed of conveyance. The minuteness with which the transaction is recorded is every way remarkable, partly as sh... [ Continue Reading ]
BOTH THAT WHICH WAS SEALED... AND THAT WHICH WAS OPEN. — We are left to conjecture why there were two documents, and why one was sealed and the other open. Possibly, as in modern transactions, one was simply a duplicate copy of the other, the sealed document being the formal evidence of purchase kep... [ Continue Reading ]
BARUCH THE SON OF NERIAH, THE SON OF MAASEIAH. — This is the first mention of a man who played a more or less prominent part in connection with Jeremiah’s later work. Nothing is known of his father or grandfather, but the fact that both are named indicates that he belonged to the nobler families of... [ Continue Reading ]
PUT THEM IN AN EARTHEN VESSEL... — We are reminded of the “earthen vessels” in which men kept their most precious treasures (2 Corinthians 4:7). Such a vessel was obviously a better protection against damp or decay than one of wood, and was, as it were, the “safe” of a Jewish household. (See Note on... [ Continue Reading ]
HOUSES AND FIELDS AND VINEYARDS... — It is a natural, though, of course, not a certain inference, that the land which Jeremiah had purchased included the three items that are thus specified.... [ Continue Reading ]
I PRAYED UNTO THE LORD. — The prophet, it is obvious, records his own prayer. Nowhere, perhaps — the prayer of Ezra (Ezra 9:5), of Hezekiah (Isaiah 37:16), of Daniel (Daniel 9:4), being the nearest parallels — do the writings of the Old Testament present us with so striking an example of the manner... [ Continue Reading ]
THERE IS NOTHING TOO HARD FOR THEE. — The thought of the omnipotence of God was here, as always, the ground of prayer. The occurrence of the self-same phrase in Genesis 18:14 shows that it had been, even from patriarchal times, one of the axioms of the faith of Israel. We note its repetition in Jere... [ Continue Reading ]
THOU SHOWEST LOVINGKINDNESS UNTO THOUSANDS... — The words are, in part, an echo from Exodus 20:6, yet more from the revelation of the Divine glory in Exodus 34:7. They recognise the laws of a righteous retribution, working even through the seeming injustice of that visiting the sins of the fathers u... [ Continue Reading ]
GREAT IN COUNSEL... — So far as this is more than the continuance of the adoring ecstasy of the previous verse, it gives a fresh prominence to the law of direct, equitable, individual retribution. No law of the transmission of the inheritance of good or evil will be found, in the long-run, to clash... [ Continue Reading ]
EVEN UNTO THIS DAY... — The reference to the signs and wonders in Egypt seems natural enough, but in what sense, we ask, could those wonders have been said to have been wrought “unto this day”? It is conceivable that what he had heard of the frogs, and the lice, and the boils of Egypt might seem to... [ Continue Reading ]
(21-23) AND HAST BROUGHT FORTH THY PEOPLE ISRAEL... — The verses travel over ground so familiar as to require no comment, but the parallelism with Deuteronomy 26:8, with the other prophetic prayers above referred to, and with Psalms 136:11, is significant. The thoughts of all true worshippers moved... [ Continue Reading ]
BEHOLD THE MOUNTS... — The mounts (better, _mounds_) are (as in Jeremiah 6:6, where see Note) the banks or towers of wood which formed the chief part of ancient siege operations. What the prophet had then predicted had now come to pass, and Jerusalem was now exposed to the sword, the famine, and the... [ Continue Reading ]
IS THERE ANY THING TOO HARD FOR ME? — The answer to the prayer is an echo of the prayer itself (Jeremiah 32:17). The prophet is assured that he was not wrong when he cast himself, in the full confidence of faith, on the loving omnipotence of God. The words which he had used were more than a liturgic... [ Continue Reading ]
UPON WHOSE ROOFS THEY HAVE OFFERED INCENSE UNTO BAAL... — On the mode of worship to which the words refer, see Note on Jeremiah 19:13. Here the leading thought is that of the righteous judgment which is to fall on the very spots that had thus been turned from the worship of Jehovah to that of the fa... [ Continue Reading ]
THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL HAVE ONLY PROVOKED ME TO ANGER... — The words “the children of Israel” are apparently taken with a different range of extension in the two clauses — (1) for the northern kingdom, as contrasted with Judah; and (2) for the collective unity of Israel before, and perhaps also afte... [ Continue Reading ]
FROM THE DAY THAT THEY BUILT IT... — The words confirm the inference already drawn in the preceding note, that the thoughts of the prophet turn to the time when Israel was yet one people under David and Solomon. Even then, he seems to say, the city had fallen far short of the holiness which it ought... [ Continue Reading ]
THEY HAVE TURNED UNTO ME THE BACK... — It will be remembered that this image was more or less a favourite one with the prophet. (See Notes on Jeremiah 2:27; Jeremiah 7:24.) The same holds good of the “rising up early.” (See Notes on Jeremiah 7:13; Jeremiah 7:25.)... [ Continue Reading ]
THEY SET THEIR ABOMINATIONS IN MY HOUSE... — On the sins thus referred to, see Notes on Jeremiah 7:30, which are here almost verbally reproduced.... [ Continue Reading ]
I WILL GIVE THEM ONE HEART, AND ONE WAY. — The previous verse has described the restoration of Israel in the old familiar all-inclusive terms — “They shall be my people, and I will be their God” (Exodus 6:7; Deuteronomy 14:2; Hosea 2:23). Here a new feature is added. The prophet, in his vision of th... [ Continue Reading ]
I WILL MAKE AN EVERLASTING COVENANT... — The “covenant” thus promised is, it must be remembered, identical with that of Jeremiah 31:31 — the “new covenant,” which shall never wax old and decay, but shall abide for ever. “My fear” is identical with “the fear of the Lord,” which is “the beginning of w... [ Continue Reading ]
I WILL PLANT THEM IN THIS LAND ASSUREDLY. — Literally, _in truth,_ as in 1 Samuel 12:24, and elsewhere. By some interpreters the words have been referred to the stability of possession implied in the promise, but it is better to see in them an attestation of the faithfulness of the Promiser. In mean... [ Continue Reading ]
AND FIELDS SHALL BE BOUGHT IN THIS LAND... — The significance of the whole transaction of the purchase of the field in Anathoth is again solemnly confirmed. Men were desponding, as though the land were to belong to the Chaldæans for ever. They are told that the very region which was now covered with... [ Continue Reading ]