Jeremiah 7:33

And the carcases of this people shall be meat for the fowls of the heaven, and for the beasts of the earth; and none shall fray them away. FRAY - scare or frighten (this verse is quoted from ). Typical of the last great battle between the Lord's host and the apostasy, wherein "the fowls of the air" are represented as about to feast and be "filled with the flesh of captains ... mighty men ... horses ... and all men, both free and bond, both small and great" (Revelation 19:17; )....

Jeremiah threatens them with something more grievous than death itself, — that God would impress the marks of his wrath even on their dead bodies. It is indeed true what a heathen poet says, _“That the loss of a grave is not great,” ( _Virgil, _aeneid;) _ but we must on the other hand remember that burying has been held as a sacred custom in all ages; for it was a symbol of the last resurrection. Barbarous then were the words, “Give me a stick, if you fear that birds will eat my dead body;” as the cynic, who had ordered his body to be cast into the field, derided what was said in answer to him, “The wild beasts and birds will devour thee:” “Oh,” said he, “let me have a stick, and I will drive them away;” intimating by such a saying, that he would then be without any feeling; but he shewed that he entertained no hope of immortality. But it was God’s will that the custom of burying should...

29-34 In token both of sorrow and of slavery, Jerusalem must be degraded, and separated from God, as she had been separated to him. The heart is the place in which God has chosen to put his name; but if sin has the innermost and uppermost place there, we pollute the temple of the Lord. The destruction of Jerusalem appears here very terrible. The slain shall be many; they having made it the place of their sin. Evil pursues sinners, even after death. Those who will not, by the grace of God, be cured of vain mirth, shall, by the justice of God, be deprived of all mirth. How many ruin their health and property without complaining, when engaged in Satan's service! May we learn to relish holy joys, and to sit loose to all others though lawful....

Jeremiah summons the people to lament over the miserable consequences of their rejection of God. In the valley of Hinnom, where lately they offered their innocents, they shall themselves fall before the enemy in such multitudes that burial shall be impossible, and the beasts of the field unmolested shall prey upon their remains. Jeremiah 7:29 The daughter of Zion, defiled by the presence of enemies in her sanctuary, and rejected of God, must shear off the diadem of her hair, the symbol of her consecration to God, just as the Nazarite, when defiled by contact with a corpse, was to shave his crowned head. TAKE UP A LAMENTATION ... - Or, lift up a “lamentation on the bare hill-sides” Jeremiah 3:2....

EXPOSITION Ch. 7-10.—Severe rebukes of idolatry alternating with announcements of the impending judgment. The circumstances connected with this discourse, or part thereof, appear to be detailed in Jeremiah 26:1. Among the parallelisms between the two sections, notice especially the reference to the fate of the temple of Shiloh (comp. Jeremiah 26:14 with Jeremiah 26:6). The date of the original utterance of the prophecy is thus fixed for one of the early years of the reign of Jehoiakim. Jeremiah 10:1, however, requires separate consideration....

AND THE CARCASSES OF THIS PEOPLE SHALL BE MEAT FOR THE FOWLS OF THE HEAVEN, AND FOR THE BEASTS OF THE EARTH,.... That is, those which remain unburied, for which there will be found no place to bury them in; all places, particularly Tophet, being so full of dead bodies; not to have a burial, which is here threatened, was accounted a great judgment: AND NONE SHALL FRAY THEM AWAY; or frighten them away; that is, drive away the fowls and the beasts from the carcasses. The sense is, either that there should be such a vast consumption of men, that there would be none left to do this, and so the fowls and beasts might prey upon the carcasses without any disturbance; or else that those that were left would be so devoid of humanity, as not to do this office for the dead....

CARCASES See (Jeremiah 19:11); (2 Kings 23:10); (Ezekiel 6:5). Fulfilled in part in all the destructions of Jerusalem, but with a final look toward (Revelation 19:17)....

THE PROPHET'S TEMPLE ADDRESS (7-9) CHAPTER 7 _ 1. Amend your ways and your doings (Jeremiah 7:1) _ 2. No prayer-answer to be expected (Jeremiah 7:16) 3. Sacrifices rejected; Obedience demanded (Jeremiah 7:21) 4. Jerusalem's rejection (Jeremiah 7:29) Jeremiah 7:1. We call this next address of the prophet “the temple address,” because he was commanded to stand in the gate of the LORD's house. There he stood, a solitary figure, and said: “Hear the Word of the LORD, all ye of Judah, that enter in a

JEREMIAH 7:29 TO JEREMIAH 8:3. MOURNING FOR JUDAH'S DEAD. Let Jerusalem mourn, and raise a dirge on the heights (where she sinned by her idolatry), because of the near approach of the punishment for the desecration of Yahweh's house, and for the offering of human sacrifice, which Yahweh never ordered. The land shall be full of corpses (Jeremiah 7:32 _mg.),_ and all joy shall cease. The valley of Hinnom shall be renamed Slaughter, and burials will have to be made even in the (unclean) Topheth. Even those who have died previously shall be dishonoured by exposure to the sun, moon, and stars, which they have worshipped, whilst the living shall wish themselves dead....

THE CARCASES, &C. Reference to Pentateuch (Deuteronomy 28:26). FRAY. frighten: from Fr. _effrayer._...